Fairies

Fairies exist primarily as small orbs of light about the size of a Hylian’s palm. However, when visiting their homeworld - accessible through the Cantara realm - they can move about in what is referred to as their “full form”. In this form they appear much like Hylians, only considerably blanched of colour and quite a bit smaller in stature. It is possible for them to utilize their full form on the surface world, but this does exhaust their energy stores quickly. Their compact forms are much more suitable for travelling about Hyrule.

History
Long ago, the fairies were regarded as mythical creatures and were well received as beings worthy of respect for their good deeds. As time went on however, it became increasingly popular to capture fairies and submit them to cruel and demeaning punishments. Fairies were caught and tested in experiments, with wings removed and magic drained in the name of “science” on occasion, though more often for the sake of entertainment. Eventually the fairy queen Aletarial approached the Hylians and demanded the mistreatment of the fairy folk be ended immediately. The church of questionable morals of New Hyrule saw this as a direct attack, and a battle broke out. The fairies had their “magical” abilities to use in combat, but the use of of their full forms was particularly draining to them. The battle resulted in the loss of many fairies. Aletarial was furious with the Hylians, and she swore that under her reign New Hyrule would never see the help of the fairies in their time of need. To this day, her oath has stood true.

Characteristics
Fairy blood is toxic to most other species, and it burns with a light brighter than the sun. Many have seen this incorrectly as a potential source of energy, but efforts to harvest it have proven fruitless. Fairy technology relies primarily on their “magical abilities” - in reality, their magic is simply the manifestation of the energy that they thrive upon - and thus without magic they are left very vulnerable.

Fairies are capable of mating with any member of any species, as their method of reproduction involves using their own DNA for both sets of the required parent genetics, resulting in purely fairy offspring regardless of the race of the non-fairy partner. There have been some attempts to create a fairy-human hybrid, but scientists suspect that if they were to ever succeed, a hybrid would likely be sicky, sterile, and unlikely to live beyond the age of thirty.