Fairy

A phantasm born from natural coalescence, the collective thoughts of surrounding life forming impressions which act in accordance with the thoughts which birthed them. Much like nightspawn, fairies tend to originate during the night, as the result of the unconscious mind being given fuller control during a dream.

Sprites

The common term for lesser fairies, most of which are formed around nature. Sprites will thus tend to stimulate plant growth, dew miscellany surfaces, create small gusts of wind, and perform other such actions in alignment with their environment. Those formed in a canyon generally thought to be windy will often habitually produce wind, those in a lake rumored to have treasure might occasionally sparkle like gold, etc.

Although the lack of a soul makes sprites unable to generate their own soulfire, this does not imply weakness, merely animalistic behavior. For example, sprites have been known to take the form of mythical beasts, with all the powers thereof. The only factor which influences a sprite's power is the volume of its impression, whereas the quantity that would birth a soul is its density.

Fey

Greater fairies, which typically embody mythological persons or emergent personifications of natural phenomena. For example, many fey will take after local heroes or religious figures, or give personality to a vital river or waterfall.

As fey possess souls, they are universally capable of speech, higher reasoning, and all the cognitive faculties of an embodied person. However, given the complexities of their formation, they are often treated as animals or "non-persons" in general by governing bodies, unless or until they indicate a desire to the contrary.

Notably, fey do not possess a brain or similar embodied structure, leading them to have a fairly alien cognitive process when compared to most embodied sentients. This includes a lack of hormone-induced emotional fluxes, traditional sensory paradigms, and short-term memory, all of which are instead replaced by the unpredictable fluctuations of their impression. This leads to interactions with fey being distinctly alien, oft feeling mostly correct but slightly off, and they largely act and think based upon their ideal, which forms the core of their long-term memory and thus ego.

Archfey

Ideal fairies, almost exclusively existent as an evolved form of fey. Freeing themselves from an impression, archfey are functionally identical to any other dragon, necessarily being able to relegate the entirety of their own cognitive processes to within their soul plane.

Given how they come about, archfey, like greater nightspawn and automatons, are exceedingly rare. Most come about from the formation of a fey around some hero or guardian beast, whose deeds then inspire further stories that increase the power of their impression, leading to a self-sustaining process that culminates in the creation of a being that most will go their entire lives without seeing.