Biography
Modern society has lived with the Disneyfied version of fairies for so long – the Fairy Godmothers of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Tinker Bell in Peter Pan – that it seems hard to imagine that some would consider fairies evil. And yet, some of them were.
The fairies of old weren't cute little bewinged pixies who fluttered happily around humans. Elves didn't make children toys or live deep in forests with no interaction with mortals. Often, they would interact with humans with no thought to the consequences of their actions, or they would be tricksters that deliberately delighted in the utter mess they made of mortal lives (such as the classic character Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream). At worst, they're like serial killers with magic: otherworldly horrors who kidnap humans for explicit use as playthings to torment, assault, rape, maim, or eat — or sometimes to find even worse, very abstract things to do to them (some stories in folklore get dark). The Fair Folk almost always live in the Land of Faerie, often have Faerie Courts and even full-scale Wainscot Societies, and may be depicted as an Inhumanly Beautiful Race. They are usually vulnerable to Cold Iron, though not always (the Irish "Dullahan" are weak to gold).
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In a manner of speaking, the old tales of fairies have been replaced with aliens. In both cases, you have creatures who are ineffable and don't understand humanity, who randomly abduct humans, play with them, and return them with Time Loss and occasionally strange powers/afflictions. Periodically, there are tales of those who have dealt with them and benefited, but for the most part, mundane people are merely their playthings. For more on this interpretation of this trope, see Alien Fair Folk.
Frequently found in concert with Grimmification, as the original folklore of the darker breeds of fairies needs little exaggeration. Compare and contrast Fairy Companion, Fairy Devilmother (essentially the Evil Counterpart to the Fairy Godmother), Mage Species, Our Elves Are Different, Our Fairies Are Different, Our Goblins Are Different, Our Pixies Are Different, Our Mermaids Are Different, Nature Spirit and All Trolls Are Different. See also Changeling Tale, a specific subtrope having to do with fairy abduction, doppelgangers, and the like. Not to be confused with Changeling Fantasy, which is a type of Cinderella Plot.
All of the above aside, it's entirely possible for the fairies to be as diverse in their beliefs and actions as humans. There actually were plenty of myths and folklore about fairies who helped humans, though they were still believed to be dangerous if angered— but then again, the belief that supernatural beings are helpful to humans that show them kindness and angry if neglected is ubiquitous in many traditional religions and folk beliefs, including Greek Mythology. Some fairies may be malevolent, but others may be friendly to humans, or at least willing to leave humans alone as long as the humans do the same for them. In some cases, the fairies may be more in conflict with each other than humans, and act accordingly. Indeed, the trope of entirely malevolent fairies can be just as divorced from traditional folklore as the bowdlerised 19th century fairies of Romantic literature, as both overlook the realities of a very complex series of beliefs and practices that ultimately date back before the arrival of Christianity in Britain and Ireland.
Whatever the case, no matter how aloof, curious, silly, chaotic, flippant, ignorant, and/or light-hearted any may appear, they'll switch to their Game Faces if fundamental rules are broken near them — or even by them. Which will not go well for somebody.
The Wild Hunt is an often-overlapping trope. Youkai are a rough Japanese equivalent while in the Middle East, the Djinn carry many of the qualities associated with the Fair Folk. The Greys is a more modern trope with many similarities. Demons — when not The Legions of Hell — are often also portrayed this way (and sometimes there is rather little distinction). An extreme example may be a Humanoid Abomination.
