Changeling primer

Changeling the Dreaming

The Fae

A brief history of the Fae

Changeling history is divided into five great ages spanning the length of the Dreaming's history.

The Mythic Age

In the beginning, the world was a Dark and Terrible Place, ruled-over by primordial, godlike beings called Fomorians. These dark gods ruled through terror and despair, offering nothing but death and sorrow in exchange for the worship demanded of humanity. Seeking refuge from the terrors of the waking world, the humans began to dream of something better. And the Dreaming heard them. When the concepts of Hope, Honor, and Destiny became part of the collective dreams of the peoples of the world, the Dreaming breathed those concepts into life. The Tuatha de Danaan were formed and did battle with the Fomorians in a great war called "The War of the Trees" or the Tessarakonta.

It was during this war that both sides created champions and soldiers from within the minds of humanity. The Fomorians called upon the base fears and cruelty of humanity to bring the Thallain to life, while the wisest of the Tuatha, a woman by the name of Daana, crafted the Fae from the minds of mankind.

The War of the Trees was won by the Tuatha and they banished their enemies, the Fomorians, and their Thallain servants from the Dreaming, into Nightmare Realms. The Tuatha forged three Sacred Oaths to guide the fae before they retreated into the Dreaming to ensure the Fomorians never returned.

The Sundering

As the events of the War of Trees faded from history into legend, mankind and the fae continued to evolve and grown. For centuries, the Fae lived along-side mankind, but even as humanity began building greater cities and wonders, so too did the fae. Instead of watching over humanity, they assumed the humans would simply follow the guidelines that had been laid out for them, and the faeries turned their focus inward, on one another. The darkness that had birthed the Fomorians still existed in mankind and conflict and wars became more common. As the Faeries were reflections of man, those things became more common among the faeries as well. Without the guardianship of the faeries, mankind began experimenting with fire and metalcraft and when the first Cold Iron was forged, the world was irrevocably changed. The world which had been one, became two, as the Dreaming was faced with its ultimate weakness

A rift formed between the Dreaming and the Autumn World, as a means for the Dreaming to protect itself. From the space between the worlds rose the Mists, it was not long before only Trods would lead from one world to the other.

The initial blast of the Sundering ripped Magic from the world, but the ripples of it continued for a thousand years. During that time, with the absence of magic and with how insular and self-focused the Fae had become, Mortals stopped believing in them, their eyes turned by new religions that told them to forget the old ways. The fear that this tide of Banality was the signal of the end of days, the Fae began seeking out new lands, away from the Banality infusing its way through Europe and Mesopotamia. The more the Fae retreated, the more humanity forgot them. The Fae began using the original Changelings (children of mixed heritage between Fae and Human, or Human children stolen by the Fae and raised within the Dreaming) as spies to keep an eye on their wayward charges. But the rift between the worlds continued to grow.

The Shattering

As the world began to grow increasingly hostile to the Fae, Balefires began to die out and the Fae began to panic. Many fled to take refuge in their domains, glens and strongholds only to be trapped within them, stuck in never-changing realms, they went mad and became Lost Ones. A mass exodus began as Fae swarmed the last remaining trod that led back to Arcadia. It was not an orderly retreat. Battles erupted as the nobility prioritized its own over various commoners. While by and large most nobility escaped through the trod before it closed, there were some outliers. Several members of House Fiona, including Fiona herself chose to remain behind in the Autumn World, out of love for humanity. House Daireann were some of the last few, shepherding their people through the gates before retreating behind them. Houses Scathach and Liam were the only houses in which the majority of the Houses chose to stay.

As the last trod to Arcadia closed, those left behind embraced The Changeling Way. Each Fae soul was bound to the life cycle of humanity. To live, die and be reborn again. Their fae souls protected from banality by the armor of human flesh.

The Interregnum

The period between the 17th Century and the latter half of the 20th were grim for those Fae that remained. Their fae souls seldom remembered who they had once been and those that did survived in small enclaves huddled around the dying embers of the last Balefires, or made do with Dreamers and hoarding their glamour lest they find themselves Undone.

Brief periods of massive creativity create minor patches of the Dreaming, especially during the Rennaisance and literary movements

The Resurgence and Evanescence

The Resurgence

The current age. After the Moon Landing in 1969, Mankind began to Dream again. Glamour flowed and burst open the Trods leading into the Near Dreaming, reviving it nearly fully; pushing through to the Far and Deep Dreaming and out of Arcadia, the first wave of the Shining Host returned. They expected to return to their positions as rulers over the Dreaming which did not, as one might imagine, go down well. Wars broke out between Fae all over the world.

In America, the war for the Dreaming began after skirmishes had broken out between the Nobles and Commoners. The Nobility called for a Truce and invited the Commoner leadership to a summit on Bealtaine, one of the High Holy festivals. A night on which all violence is forbidden. Once the Commoner leaders showed up, the doors were barred and they were killed with cold iron. Their souls outright snuffed out.

Open violence erupted between the Commoners and Nobles, The Accordance War, which lasted for three years. Thousands on both sides were slain and it came to an end when a High King, David Ardry, arose from the Sidhe and called for a true peace. From this true peace, the Parliament of Dreams was born.

The Evanescence

The destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11th sent ripples of Dark Glamour through the Dreaming. A second wave of Sidhe were exiled from Arcadia but other things stirred. A rarity before the Evanescence, Thallain rode out of the prisons that the Tuatha had stuck them in for millenia, the servants of the Fomorians were returning to presage the Final Winter.

Seeming

Over the course of their life, a fae's mortal shell will age. Young to Old. This is just a function of time passing and while certain Fae Magics can slow this down; the arrow has only one direction.

Not so for their Fae half, this is nigh-eternal and has existed for millenia. Though it does display some of the symptoms of age, these are called the Seemings: Childing, Wilder and Grump. They are less immuatble than age and while the tendency is to age from Childing to Widler to Grump, this is not nearly so one directional as the mortal shell.

Kiths

Kiths typically refer to the type of faerie that has either bonded with the human soul, in the case of those undertaking the Changeling Way, or has replaced the human soul in the case of Arcadian Fae.

The Kithain

The Kithain are broken down into the following types:

• Boggans - Smallish fae, known to be house spirits. Extremely socially adept and perceptive and capable of extremely quick crafting.
  
• Clurichauns - Templates for the legends of leprechauns, these fae are full of laughter and revelry and prone to collecting items. They also have fierce tempers.
  
• Eshu - Storytellers who originated in the Middle East and Africa, these fae are dashing, reckless and always arrive in the perfect moment.
  
• Nockers - Fantastical inventors, mechanics and fixers of all things (always with a singular flaw), these foul-mouthed fae are known for their irascible tempers and exquisite fashion.
  
• Piskies - Innocent and wide eyed wanderers are excellent messengers and guides that easily blend into any group and are prone to sticky fingers for shiny trinkets.
  
• Pooka - Animalistic tricksters who can never tell the whole truth (without expending great willpower). These fae are incredible listeners with charm enough to nearly get away with most everything.
  
• Redcaps - Brutal nightmare fae with teeth that can bite through anything, and stomachs that can digest whatever goes into it. These guys have notoriously bad attitudes.
  
• Satyrs - Fae born of passions of all types, satyrs are goat-legged and horned and often have great musical talent. Prone to fits of extreme emotions.
  
• Selkies - Skin-changing fae who live between the land and sea. These changelings wear seal-skins to change into seals and must keep them close lest they are destroyed and stolen.
  
• Sidhe (Arcadian) - The embodiment of leadership and rule, these ethereal beings have not undergone the Changeling Way and instead have stolen mortal bodies, expelling the human soul within it.
  
• Sidhe (Autumn) - Sidhe that chose to remain after the Shattering, undergoing the Changeling Way. They have a tendency to become objects of fixation by mortals.
  
• Sluagh - Dark and creepy fae originating in Russia. These nearly boneless fae are not able to speak above a whisper and have extremely sensitive hearing.
  
• Trolls - Massive fae that embody strength, loyalty and honor of the fae. Defenders and guardians, once they give their word they will not or cannot break it without terrible consequences.

The Gallain

Gallain is the umbrella term for most non-European changelings. These include:

• The Nunnehi, Native American Fae
  
• The Hsien, Changelings from the far East.
  
• The Menehune, Fae of the Pacific Islands.
  
• The Inanimae, the elemental Fae.
  
• The Ghille Dhu, a verdant dryad-like kith.
  
• The Korred, short, and stocky with long hairy ears, these fae are known as being the keepers of knowledge.
  
• The Merfolk are a collection of mermaid-like kiths that dwell within the oceans.
  
• The Oba, the royalty of the Eshu, who cannot leave their ancestral homelands.
  
• The River Hags, which are cousins to redcaps who live in rivers and other waterways and are fiercely territorial.
  
• The Witchel are often laborers of the blue-collar sort who tend to be gruff and quick-tempered, but who are profoundly hard working and community-oriented.
  
• The Wolpertingers are recently acknowledged in Fae Society. They used to be considered sentient chimera, but have recently been strengthened by the Dreaming and have undergone the Changeling Way.
  

The Thallain

The Thallain are the dark mirror of Changelings. Older than the Fae, they were created by the Fomorians to be foot soldiers during the War of Trees. Thallain kiths often mirror those of the Kithain and Gallain and include:

• Aithu - Irresponsible storytellers with hypnotic voices, the Aithu are mirrors of the Eshu.
  
• Beasties - Nightmarish cousins to the Pooka, unlike their Kithain cousins, Thallain aren't limited to Autumn animals, but can have affinities to Dreaming creatures as well.
  
• Bodachs - Twisted versions of the Clurichaun, these creatures are the infamous monster under the bed, particularly adept at terrorizing children and share a few traits with the Sluagh as well, namely a rather boneless dexterity.
  
• Boggarts - Greedy and mercenary, Boggarts care only for money and the members of its warren unlike their Kithain opposite, the Boggans.
  
• Bogies - These filthy and typically unhygienic creatures are often found within large homeless populations due to their appetite for human bodily fluids or organs. They could not be more different than their overly formal cousins, the Sluagh.
  
• Ghasts - Terrifying twists on redcaps, Ghasts are typically tall, thin and have pale skin and razor-sharp nails. Natural surgeons, these creatures often have the black market in organ dealing cornered.
  
• Goblins - Much like their tech-savvy cousins, the Nockers, Goblins are mechanically inclined, though usually more interested in scavenging and destruction rather than any art or creation.
  
• Huaka'i Po - Also known as Night Marchers, these Polynesian nightmares are the epitome of violence and mayhem, warriors dedicated to carnage in the hopes of winning the favor of their Fomorian masters.
  
• Kelpies - The Thallain version of Selkies with a penchant for drowning their victims, these creatures can also take on an animal form, that of a normal horse on land, though once they touch water, they become hippocampi.
  
• Lurks - Unique to the Thallain, lurks are not very common and almost always stick to the wilderness, in the Pacific Northwest they are known as Big Foot, in Tibet they are Yeti.
  
• Mandragoras -
  
• Merrow -
  
• Nasties -
  
• Night Hags -
  
• Ogres -
  
• Servatal -
  
• Skinwalkers -
  
• Spriggan -
  
• Weeping Wights -
  

The Dauntain

These tragic figures were once like any other Kithain soul. But then the unthinkable happened. Born of terror and trauma *something* happened to these poor souls that have twisted them in some horrific way, branding them and changing them into a monster that should not be. They are broken souls with no way to repair the damage. And yet they try. Driven by a need to dominate the Dreaming in order to fix what has happened to them, many Dauntain are simply mad. Utterly dangerous and often reviled by their fellow Changelings.

Magic

Fae Magic comes in two forms. Unleasing and Cantrips.

Cantrips

All Cantrips have two components. The Art and the Realm. They start at difficulty 8.

The Art defines the effect. Pyretics will let you shape fire, Dragon's Ire will let you increase your Strength or make you harder to hit and harder to damage.

The Primary Realms define the target (Nature, Prop, Actor, Fae) while the Secondary Realms define the scope and size of the cantrip (Scene), and when the Cantrip will take place (Time). When determining dice pool, you use the lowest rated Primary Realm and increase the difficulty of the cantrip by 1 for every Secondary Realm used.

For example, if you are trying to cast Dragon's Ire to buff everyone in your party which is made up of Two Fae Nobles and a Werewolf you would need at least Fae 2 and Actor 2. If you only have Actor 1 and Fae 1, you need to spend 1 glamour for each missing Realm level. And you roll with the levels you have, buying realms with Glamour lets you skip prerequisites but does not increase your pool size.

Bunks are actions which you can take to prepare reality for the magic, a little grease for the chimerical wheels so to speak, and reduce the difficulty of the Cantrip from -1 for something simple to -5 for something involved.

Once the difficulty is determined, add the lowest rated Realm that you need for the Cantrip to your rating in the governing Art and roll that many dice against the difficulty.

Beyond the Art and Realm, to reduce the Cantrip difficulty on the fly; you have the option to bunk. IC, bunks are explained as actions which pave the way for the Dreaming to effect the real world. A simple level 1 bunk might not require an action, at ST discretion, or it might require losing a die or two from the pool to pull off during the same action as the Cantrip (representing a Split Action). Any bunk that reduces your difficulty by more than -1 requires an action and, in combat, may well require a roll.

Cantrip Difficulty Modfiers

Difficulty modifiers

High banality target (8+)	+1
High banality area (8+)	+1
Using Scene	+1
Using Time	+1
Targeting a Noble with higher Title, without their consent	+1
Voluntarily replace three dice with Nightmare Dice	-1
Cast in a freehold	-1
Cast on an enchanted Mortal or Kinain	-1
Cast with a bunk	-1 to -5
Using Affinity Realm	-1
Cast in the Near Dreaming	-1
Cast in the Far Dreaming	-2

When all is good to go, you can run the +cantrip[/nightmare|night|n] <Art> + <Realm>[ vs <diff>] command and it will do all the heavy lifting for you wrt nightmare dice.

Unleashing

Where Cantrips are structured, formalised Faerie Magic, each doing a specific thing; Unleashing is raw and primal magic. The Dreaming barely shaped by the Changeling's intent. Unleashing always reflects the Changeling's True Nature, "A Redcap Unleashing Wayfare yanks the target violently through the air or sends him hurtling through a nightmare world of blood and pain before emerging blocks away."

When Unleashing, state your character's intent in a short simple statement ("hurt that man", "save my friend", "restore the grove").
No realms are required.
Spend two points of glamour and add one to your character's Nightmare Rating.
Roll a number of dice equalt to your character's Glamour Rating and your Nightmare Rating and check the results.

If you botch: your character gains an Imbalance without reducing their Nightmare dice pool and the Unleashed Art causes havoc around them for one turn. At the beginning of the next turn, your character suffers a banality trigger and cannot spend Glamour or use Arts for the remainder of the scene.
If you fail: your character is unable to Unleash. This triggers Banality and you cannot use the Unleashed Art for the remainder of the scene.
If you succeed and score fewer successes than your rating in the Art: The unleashing works as intended. You invoke the Wyrd for a number of turns equal to your Glamour Rating (you can spend a point of Willpower to make it last the remainder of the scene). You narrate the effect of the Unleashed Art.
If you succeed and score more successes than your Rating in the Art: the intent is fulfilled but you lose control. Complications arise and everyone nearbly is at risk. Your character gains a one Nightmare and the ST narrates the effect, including the character's intent. Your character automatically invokes the Wyrd for the remainder of the scene.

Unleashing is risky, but powerful.

Similarly to Cantrip casting, +unleash <Art> will do the heavy lifting

The Dreaming

The Dreaming is the reflection of humanity's best aspirations and darkest fears. It is both a series of realms and a metaphysical quasi-sapient force. It can be invoked to solemnize Oaths and if those Oaths are broken, the Dreaming will turn against the Oathbreaker. It was once the home of all of the Fae but, since the Shattering, the Dreaming has become too unpredictable for those who used to reside there.

While the Dreaming protects the Fae from the unending Banality of the Autumn World, overstaying comes with its own risk, Bedlam.

The Near Dreaming

The Near Dreaming is the realm closes to the Autumn world. Almost all Trods in the Autumn World lead to the Near Dreaming. For the most part, it looks similar to the Autumn World it lies atop, mirroring the physical places it touches though always with a distortion (a small cops of trees becomes an imposing forest, the bar that you frequent remembers that it used to be a carriage tavern). The Near Dreaming responds to the influence of mortals in the area, spawning chimerical locations created by the thoughts and feelings of those that live there.

Most Freeholds have a pocket of Near Dreaming within them, and this pocket will; react to the needs of the residents, changing the landscape of the Near Dreaming around them. This relationship between Freeholder and Freehold helps keep the locations stable.

Mechanics

• The Base difficulty of Cantrips is reduced from 8 to 7
• Anything chimerical (companions, voile, fae miens) becomes solid
• Chimerical Death and Phsyical Death are the same thing. If you die in your dream, you die in real life.
• Kithain entering bedlam while travelling on Trods become one of the Onus, fae intent on defending the pathway against future travellers.
• Autumn Corpses in the Dreaming are deposited at the destination of the nearest Path of Balor.

The Far Dreaming

The Silver Path here is treachorous and difficult to navigage to all bar the Scions of House Danaan. The Far Dreaming is a place of danger and risk, where the creatures of the Old Magic fled to avoid being undone by a world increasingly hostile to them. No Changeling blithely travels here, forays into the Far Dreaming are always intentful and requrie planning and caution for event the hardiest of the Seven League Knights, but the Far Dreaming has rich rewards for the brave.

Distant from the Autumn World, the laws of nature of the Far Dreaming are unfamiliar to most. Time and distance are only tentatively related to the real world, so a week in the Far can equate to no recordable time in the Autumn World, which means that you can move from one end of the plane to the other in record time, assuming you survive.

Mechanics

• All of the general mechanics from the Near Dreaming are in effect
• The base difficulty of all Cantrips is reduced to 6, all Cantrips become become Wyld, any base Glamour cost of Cantrips is removed
• Add one die to your Unleashing pool
• You respire one temporary Glamour per hour. The Dreaming begins Banality Purification

Birthrights

(I recommend recording your Birthright effects in a note for ST ease)

• Acuity
  • Add an additional roll that you can't botch,
  • Lower the difficulty of specified aspects of an Ability by an additional 2
  • Lower the difficulty of circumstantial applications of an Ability by 3
• Magic
  • Magic Birthrights no longer require Glamour
  • Lower the difficulty to any dice rolls by 3
  • You can now use the Birthright in front of witnesses if doing so would have caused failure
• Advantage
  • Plus two to any Attribute, Willpower, health levels the Birthright Grants
  • Any other Advantage needs to be discussed with the ST

The Deep Dreaming

Very few Trods to the Deep remain open. It is largely cut off from the Autumn Wolrd, and so it is accordingly untouched by Banality. Dream logic rules the Deep Dreaming completely and so travellers there must set aside all preconceptions of reality and rules. Any ideas, dreams, fears or idle thoughts can manifest in the Deep, as it is pure expression and, more terrifyingly still, those chimerical manifestations can take on lives of their own.

The Deep seldom reflects what the Changeling consciously wants, rather their deepest desires and innermost thoughts.

Mechanics

• All of the general mechanics from the Near and Far Dreaming are in effect
• All chimerical beings have Remembrance 5 while in the Deep Dreaming
• No unenchanted mortals or Prodigals can enter the Deep Dreaming
• No creature with an effective banality of 6 or higher can nenter the Dreaming without the Dreaming itself attacking them.
• Normal Cantrips turn chaotic. Apply the Unleashing rules but check the resuilts against Art + Realm. Bunks lower the successes on the final result.
• Add three dice to performing regular unleashing
• Add one dot to your Glamour while in the Deep Dreaming

Birthrights

• Acuity
  • Add an addditional Trait that the character can't botch
  • Lower the use of specifid aspects of an ability by 4
  • Circumstantial aspects of said ability automatically succeed with your Ability Rating in successes
• Magic
  • Birthrights require no Willpower or Glamour to activate
  • All dice rolls are reduced to a third of the usual difficulty.
  • If there is a an ability effect (such as Sluagh seeing through Illusion) it no longer requires a roll
• Advantage
  • Increase the Attribute, Willpower, or number of health leves by 4
  • If no increase is appropriate, discuss with your ST