A monastery built atop Neolithic structures clearly points to the mostly-forgotten invasion of the pixies’ domain by human settlers. They didn’t always live in the barrows and the standing stones, you know. Those are simply their last retreat into holdfasts that humans do not know how to enter. As with most territory wars, it was far from bloodless. I agree that calling it a genocide is a stretch.
But the pixies remember. That’s why they sometimes lead unwary travelers astray. The humans who live there now, some of them anyway, are aware of the pixies’ presence if not the full history, and try to keep relations friendly by offering gifts. An uneasy truce has been maintained this way for millennia.
Personally, I think they’re biding their time until the humans go virtual, uploading our minds into our own rune-carved megaliths; running on silicon and freeing up space. At that point the situation will be poetically reversed: the pixies will re-inhabit their ancient lands, this time without any bloodshed or battles. We will retreat of our own free will. There are, however, whispers of rumors that the clever, headlong rush towards the singularity is not driven by human minds alone…
But the pixies remember. That’s why they sometimes lead unwary travelers astray. The humans who live there now, some of them anyway, are aware of the pixies’ presence if not the full history, and try to keep relations friendly by offering gifts. An uneasy truce has been maintained this way for millennia.
Personally, I think they’re biding their time until the humans go virtual, uploading our minds into our own rune-carved megaliths; running on silicon and freeing up space. At that point the situation will be poetically reversed: the pixies will re-inhabit their ancient lands, this time without any bloodshed or battles. We will retreat of our own free will. There are, however, whispers of rumors that the clever, headlong rush towards the singularity is not driven by human minds alone…