Fairies are a magical race of tiny humanoids native to Earth. Small and fragile, they are nonetheless capable of defending themselves from threats through use of powerful wind and mind-affecting magic, as well as their natural talent for trickery and guile. Human "fairy tales" full of elaborate fairy plots are not too far-fetched.
Not much is known of fairy society. Most fairies are members of either the Seelie or Unseelie Courts, two rival powers that take very different stances on interaction with the outside world. The Seelie take a favorable view of humanity, while the Unseelie are much less agreeable. Avalon for example was once a great cultural center for fairies and humans alike, but nowadays it is a shadow of its former self, "the Detroit of the Fairy World," according to Nele. A subtype of both Seelie and Unseelie fairies, yet culturally divorced from both, are the Youkai. Youkai may look similar to fairies or humans, or radically different, and possess similar powers and various types of magic.
Regardless, for as long as humans and fairies have interacted, they have made contracts with each other: fairies would grant female humans magical power in exchange for the human's service. While the specifics of these contracts have varied widely over the course of history, fairies play a very specific role in modern times: each Magical Girl must be contacted by and contracted with a fairy in order to receive her magic and officially become a Magical Girl.
Fairies do not hold a monopoly on magic, however. Some worlds, such as the homeworlds of Phyre and Skudis, are inherently magic-rich, allowing their inhabitants to develop a variety of magical schools. Other species have inherent magical powers: the vir, for example, can magically drain the lifeforce of their foes, while rumours of terrifying psionic creatures from other dimensions are not unheard of. Even Earth occasionally produces humans with magic through some fluke coincidence. Contract-based fairy magic takes the guesswork out of the process, however - any girl, no matter how mundane and untalented they may be, can sign a contract and become a Magical Girl.
Whether they survive the training, however, is another matter entirely.
The following characters are fairies: