Personality
The essential Faerie values are: freedom, bravery, and honor. Fae are proud of their individual cultures and while accepting of others, are fierce defenders of their ways. Outsiders often regard them as mercurial, and that is part of Faerie, but most fae are bound by cultural conventions. Fae operate under various principles, some borne out of personal pride, others guided by codes of conduct laid down centuries ago.
Fae principles of honor often lead to quarrels, especially between the nobles, but the Druids teach that conflict is natural and to be expected. Battles of champions are common ways to resolve such questions, but sometimes, small skirmishes lead to wars. Once this occurs, representatives from the high King and the Druids work to resolve the situation and ensure the fighting does not spread - ties of kin and clan are tight among many of the cultures.
Seelie and Unseelie
Fae believe that all sentient peoples have a dual nature and that neither can be denied - both have their place. In fact, choosing one without the other invites disaster. The Alfar refer to this as Light and Dark, but most fae have grown to use the sidhe terms: seelie and unseelie. Most humans see them as equating to Good and Evil, respectively, and there is truth to this. But most humans miss a fundamental difference in this ethos. Humans believe that good should always win, that it must win in the end. The fae believe that the complete victory of Seelie over Unseelie occur, they would be just as damned. The best course is a middle road, or a road the winds between the two - otherwise you are fated to ruin.
Seelie and unseelie have grown in Faerie lore to embrace many concepts and symbols:
Seelie attributes: constructive, light, youth, honesty, summer, altruism, love, action, hope, romance, and birth
Unseelie attributes: destructive, darkness, old age, deception, winter, selfish, lust, reflection, fear, seduction and death
Perhaps the best way to think of this dual nature is to envision a long tunnel. One end is light and the other is dark. Individual cultures of Faeries run the gambit of seelie to unseelie. Dwarves, gnomes, minotaurs, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres tend to be unseelie. Elves, sidhe, centaur, and halflings tend to be seelie.
It is very important to remember that any individual fae can be either unseelie or unseelie - race and culture do not rule an individual's nature, but certainly one nature dominates some races and cultures. Examples of seelie-dominated cultures would be the Sidhe and Cimbri, while Rolgulka and the dwarven kings have societies ruled mostly by unseelie fey. Remember though, faeries do not see the unseelie as "evil" in the human sense of the word. (Although, to humans, this aptly describes them.) Seelie leaders do not seek to eradicate unseelie lords. They may have battles, but it's usually over land, not because one or the other is unseelie.
Any fae who understands this will look at the current state of Faerie and realize that there is a problem. Fae society was once divided between two, Seelie and Unseelie. During the light half of the year the seelie were in power, during the dark half of the year, power reverted to the unseelie. Generations ago the Unseelie tried to take over all of Faerie, and their power was destroyed. The Unseelie crept into caves and dark places. Even now they plot to return to power. There are members of both sides would like to see a return to the old way of power sharing.
Finally, remember that there are always exceptions to rules in faerie. Inconsistency, change and whimsy crop up in the everyday character of Faerie - of both its people and the land itself. Strange surprises and wonders wait around the bend.
Names
Part of creating a character is naming him. In Palaestra, names parrallel human societies -- so each culture within Faerie has their own naming practices. In the rules section under the particular races/cultures you will find lists of appropriate names.
If none of those are inspiring, here is a link to some generic fae names. Please stay away from cutsy, faux American Indian names like "Star Sunnybottom."
