Kinain character creation works in much the same way as creating a Kithain character. They have the same Attributes, Abilities, Backgrounds (with some restrictions), Willpower, Glamour, and Banality. They both use the same Arts and Realms.
The children of changelings lucky enough to inherit a bit of their parents’ magic are known as Kinain. With magic suffusing her very soul, a Kinain need never fear the Mists taking away her scrap of Glamour or the memories of friends and family in the Dreaming. They possess a slight proficiency in a particular Art, and minor traits of a changeling parent’s kith make themselves known. The following are rules for playing and creating Kinain characters.
Kinain Creation Mechanics
Glamour Regeneration
- Kinain are, body and soul, a fusion of faerie and human. This grants them no harvesting capabilities, but instead the remarkable power to regenerate a small supply of Glamour from their own emotions.
- All Kinain can store up to 2 points of Glamour (Glamour stat is capped at 2), and regenerate 1 point per chapter up to that maximum.
Heritage
Rather than kith, Kinain have a heritage. This is the kith of her faerie parent, from which she draws her fae power. In the case of both parents being changelings, which heritage she displays varies, but one always comes to the fore. Any signs of the other parent’s magic are limited to cosmetic attributes. Sometimes the dominant heritage is quickly made obvious through the Kinain’s physical traits, subdued as they may be. It might instead be that the child doesn’t show any obvious traits from her heritage, and it manifests in personality, instead. A completely average-looking boy or girl winds up fascinated with taking things apart or breaking them, or ordering her peers (and elders) around, and then her heritage is clear.
Birthrights
When creating a Kinain, her player selects one Birthright from the two that are granted by her heritage’s kith counterpart. Kinain are not normally able to make use of the more overt Magic Birthrights; a pooka’s child is much more likely to evince the Confidante Birthright than the Shapechanging one. With that said, the ultimate decision as to how magical a Kinain should be rests with the Storyteller, and has a degree of latitude.
Legacy
Kinain have Legacies, but don’t sort them into Seelie or Unseelie, as their participation in the courts is a token membership at best. She might only fit one Legacy her entire life, the second slipping through under intense pressure, or the two might flip back and forth. Both Quests are active no matter what, but only the Ban for the Legacy she is expressing at the time applies. Kinain can also choose to have two Seelie or two Unseelie Legacies, as the distinction for them is negligible.
Arts and Realms
- A child of the Fae can freely use the Arts and Realms of any Kithain willing to teach her, though her potential in such fields is limited by how much Faerie runs through her.
- The number of Arts she can learn is limited by how strongly she is tied to the Dreaming (per Faerie Blood Background). Further limiting her use of Fae magic is her substantially-limited Glamour pool.
- At character creation, Kinain get 1 dot to be spent on an Art.
- Learning Realms has no restriction other than those that changelings face. At character creation, Kinain characters receive one dot of their parent’s affinity Realm, and one dot in a Realm of the player’s choice (the player can choose to take a second dot of the affinity Realm).
Banality
- A Kinain cannot be affected by Banality. She still has a Banality trait, but it only represents how she interacts with changelings, and has no effect on the Kinain herself. A Kinain with high or low Banality is treated exactly the same as a mortal with high or low Banality.
- Kinain begin with a Banality of 3.
Backgrounds
Kinain characters may not take the Dreamers, Holdings, Remembrance, Retinue, or Title Backgrounds.
Kinain characters also have one Background specific to them: Faerie Blood.
Faerie Blood (All Kinain have this Background, if only at 0 dots.)
This determines how strongly the character is connected to the fae, and how much fae magic she is capable of using. In other words, this determines how many Arts a Kinain can learn. This does not grant her additional Arts; she must learn them with experience points. Note that this Background does not restrict the rating a Kinain can achieve in an art; a Kinain character with no dots in Faerie Blood can only learn one Art, but she can learn all 5 dots of it.
- 0 – Able to use only one Art.
- 1 – Able to learn two Arts.
- 2 – Able to learn three Arts.
- 3 – Able to learn four Arts.
- 4 – Able to learn five Arts.
- 5 – Able to learn six Arts.
Experience Point Costs
- Attribute current rating x 4
- Ability current rating x 2
- New Ability 3
- Art current rating x 4
- New Art 7
- Realm current rating x 3
- New Realm 5
- Willpower 10 per new level
- Backgrounds and Merits are 5 per new level