Changeling: The Exile Fey

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The Exile Fey - Part I

Ex Libris Nocturnis - http://www.nocturnis.net By: Gavin Bennett (email: araquael@nocturnis.net) Summary: An alternative view to Changeling: The Dreaming Somewhere between the closing of the day, and the rising of the moon, they live. Somewhere between the first glimmers of nights end and the dawning of the day, they dance. They are the wild ones, the beautiful ones, the mad children of some forgotten time. Their time is long past, but echoes still linger. They are the fey, the faerie Changelings. Introduction Welcome to the "the Fey" an alternate view of Changeling: The Dreaming. This will be a series of optional revisions for Changeling, to add a modicum of darkness to your Changeling game. Why another alternate, you ask? There is already an excellent revision, Changeling: the Celtic Cycle. This is a very good question. However, to define the faerie folk is like trying to catch starlight. They do not make excuses, and they do not fit under nice comfortable labels. What is true for one, is not true for all. There is of course, a second, and far more valid reason, which may benefit your game. Players can, just as you, the Storyteller can, read this website, and read Changeling: The Celtic Cycle and read all of the published White Wolf sourcebooks. But, the more options you have, of background, of rules, of magic, of setting, the less they know, and in truth, the less they know, the stronger the game will be. The game lines of the World of Darkness are awash with mystery. For the third reason, as the Changeling Developer here at Ex Libris Nocturnis, I want a view of the Fey that I am comfortable with. This shall be a three part series. Part one, which you are now reading, will discuss an alternate set of Kiths for Changeling. It will include details of setting, as well as adding to the storyline, The Northern Lights, you will see developing on ELN over the coming months. Part two, which will follow next month, will detail an alternate, and more detailed magic system for Changeling, as well as notes on how to integrate magic from Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming, Changeling: The Celtic Cycle, and the system detailed here. Part Three will take up the rear, detailing new rules for "chimerical" creatures, as well as a short view of such other familiar Changeling: The Dreaming groups as the Hsien, and the Inanimae. A Lexicon, full "Splat" write-ups and a more complete guide to the (slightly) altered society of the Changelings will also appear. And yes, we will find a better name for the Satyrs. Elucenes will do for now. Empusae, or Seleni maybe? Argument Banality & Glamour The baseline Changeling setting describes a conflict between the power of dreams, what is possible, what is magical, what is beautiful, with the Banal, which is the force of reality. This variant offers a somewhat different view. The Faerie folk are inherently magical and otherworldly. They are forever young, forever beautiful. However, Banality still exists, but now "Banality" is merely a catchall name for that which can harm and indeed, destroy, the Fey. "Banality" or "Anathema" includes cold iron, the powers of the church, the powers of demonic evil, and the slow fading of magic, as the world grows old. Fae Mien & The Wyrd The base Changeling game speaks of dual-souled creatures, which are, at once, both human and otherworldly. They are symbioses of the two disparate natures, and the conflict between the two natures drives much of the philosophical base. In this variant, the Changelings are not human at all. They are fey from the day they are born, and may never die, because they are immortal. But they are born from mortal flesh, into human flesh and blood. That means they can be hurt, and they can be killed. They do not have a "Faerie form" they are distant
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scions of those monstrous and beautiful predecessors. They look, for all the world, human. But they have subtle differences, differences that can be seen by those of the blood, or other Awakened, or under the revealing light of the full moon. Their shadows also reveal their secret. Magic In the original Changeling game, Fae magic tended, mostly, to act on other Fae, or those Enchanted. Yes, it could affect mortals, but sometimes it didnt. The new magic system under development will be universally applicable. The Fey will suddenly become very dangerous foes indeed. Kiths In the standard Changeling game, the Kiths, the base character groups describe races of Fae who live in mortal shells whose Fae form can only be seen by other Fae, or those enchanted. There are some differences described here. The first is that the Kiths themselves are now familial groups. They are born, like humans, from parents of Fae blood, and from these bloodlines come the Kiths. The second difference is that the fey changelings do not have an alternate form. They are born inhuman, but they look human. Their fae nature is a much more subtle manifestation. The Fey are born from one of the "hosts" described below. Elucenes One change that has been made is replacing the Satyrs with the Elucenes. The Elucenes are kin to the Satyrs, Naiads and Nymphs of old, and are now, like the other fey described here, completely anthropomorphic. They are, however, marked by a deep and intoxicating sensuality, and all who see them can be trapped by their fatal fascination. "Elucenes" is the name given to them by scholars of House Merinita, linking them to the old traditions of Bacchus and Dionysus. The Moonshadows: The Nine Hosts of the Seelie Court In 1347, at the height of the Shattering, a Magus of House Merinita of the Order of Hermes, Ziva Vucinovic, compiled the "Book of Hosts," a guide to the politics and passions of Fae-Rie. She was a Magus of the Transylvania Tribunal, born in what is now modern day Croatia. She realised that there were too many aspects of the Fey to summarise, or to categorise, and while his fairy kin were helpful, he knew that they prized their secrets. In the end, he compromised, and divided the fey into "hosts" along the lines used by the Seelie court in some parts of Europe. He categorised the fey by their associations, by their habits and by their magics. A small fragment of his text was discovered in 1996. Some scholars of the "Circle of the Merinita" have compiled this short list, working from the fragment. The Host of the Shadows: The Host of the Shadows are the faeries of the Seelie court who practice dark magic and have powers over shadows and darkness. They are the fewest of the Hosts, and the least trusted. They are typically of Nightgaunt and Dwarrow stock, and dwell in the deep places. The Changeling group, the Sluagh are kin to these. Also called Umbrae. The Host of the Stones: The Host of the Stones are the dwellers in the deep places of the World and Arcadia. They are the workers of masonry and metal. They are the Dwarves and the Trolls, the Nockers and the Boggans of Arcadia. Their home is a beautiful and cold place, deep beneath the sunlit fields. Also called the Nidavellim, for that is one of the names for their world. The Host of the Waves: The Host of the Waves are the water dwellers and the mermen and the merrows, the spirit of rain and ponds and rivers. They dwell in the realm called Atlantium, the watery paradise of Faerie, and in the deeps of the Oceans of the World, where magic and dreams still dwell. They are also called the Aquae, the people of the waters. The Host of the Skies: The host of the skies dwell in the winds and the starry vault beneath Heaven. They are the spirits of starlight and gusts and storms. They are amongst the strangest and most beautiful of the fay, and it is said that the blood of the Angels still flows through them. They are also called the Celestials, for they are like the stars in mystery and glamour. The Host of Dreams: These are the fae of dreams and fire. They are the dragons and the Nightmares of legend; they are spirits of fire, like the Salamander, and they are kin to Gods. To mortals eyes their hair is flame-coloured and subtle strength shines from them. They walk through the Dreaming and the fairylands and the oneiras, where they may speak with dreamers
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and changelings. Sometimes they seem as Chimeras, or monsters from the world of dreams, but they are true, and number amongst themselves many things extinct from the world. They are also called Oneiriae, for they have power over dreams. They are the rarest of the fay, in these Autumnal days. The Dreaming once had a king, and they served him, but he has long ago departed, and the Oneirae have faded since then. The Hosts of the Wilds: They dwell in the wildwoods and the Wilderness where mortals fear to thread. They are the Satyrs and the Unicorns, the Redcaps, the Clurachauns, the Leshii, and, perhaps, the Nunnehi. They dwell in the few last woods in the World and in the vast wilderness of Arcadia. It is said that the Garou and the others of the Changing Breed are of their blood, and many Garou, Gurahl, Bastet and Corax dwell amongst this host. Their masters call them the Arboreals, but they claim no name for themselves. The Host of Destiny: The Hosts of Destiny are the farseers and those who can see the futures. They are the Eshu and the Fates, the Norns and the doomsayers; they dwell apart from the others, even in Arcadia, either wandering or living in their distant homes. They are valued as advisors in the Court of the Sun, but their truths are dangerous things. Only rarely have they kin in the mortal lands, save the Eshu Changelings, but their eyes have the depths of centuries in them, and they can see secrets that the future holds. Some call them Fatae, and these strange fairies were the first people of Arcadia to walk amongst mortals. The Host of Beauty: The Beautiful ones, with their seductive eyes and their lovely forms, are spirits of love and lust, and they dwell in the wilderness, and the seas, and sometimes in the world amongst the models and actors and fashionable people. It was of these that Keats spoke of in the poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." Sometimes they steal souls, and sometimes they lead mortals to their doom, not knowing, not caring. Tragedy is their only constant bedmate, but they know many things that are secret. Their children are mostly female, but male children have been known; they are darkly beautiful, catching the eyes and the hearts of male and female. Classical mythology called these spirits Nymphae. The Noble Host: These are the rulers of the fay of Arcadia, who serve the King and Queen of the Seelie. They are the Knights and Princes and Dukes of the once proud lands of Arcadia. They are named High Sidhe, Manitou and Alvar. They plot and counterplot and indulge in foolish games, playing their fiddles while the world burns, but some are true, and they are leaders. It is these that the scholar named Tolkien called Elves. They are powerful and graceful, kin to gods and Angels. The Wild Elves are common faeries, and they belong to all the Hosts, but it is from their numbers that the rulers of the fay are drawn. The Book of Hosts ends with the following message. "Into these Nine Hosts, all the Seelie Faeries of Arcadia belong. It must be remembered, though, that Faeries are wild and divergent and numerous. They are called the Moonshadows, but they are also called the Wild Ones, and that describes them well. Faeries are so called because they are touched with the light of Arcadia, and Dreams. If a mortal were to find his way to the Perilous Land, he would be most likely changed, and touched by faerie powers for ever after. If a mortal is but to read of them, he is equally imperilled." The Worlds of the Fey: A World of Darkness The world is getting old. Once, when the world was in its Spring, newly made, everything was new, and magic flickered across the sunrise, and across the night sky. But Summer came, and then it too, passed, and age chilled the bones of the Earth. Winter is coming, soon, blown in on hard bitter winds, and broken promises. Here comes the night. Here comes the flood. Alone, in the inky void, sits a small doomed world, spinning in infinity around a dying sun. It wont be long now. The end is coming. You can feel it in the sudden chill of the winter night, in pallor of the moon, in the deep, unreal, shadows of the night. You can feel it in the wind, whispering through the trees, and in the violence of the fall storms. It was never like this before, you think, and then correct yourself for your foolishness. But it is not foolishness. You are right. It was never like this before. The end is coming, and all the signs are there, whispering to us, and disturbing our sleep. Night is coming. But this night is different. No dawn will break after it. The sun will die, never to rise again. In the darkness, things are stirring. In the dank, humid, starless night, old things move, and plan. In the scattershot amber
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strobe of the city streetlights, you can catch the sudden moments of violence and pain and blood. These are mere skirmishes, skirmishes before the battle begins, before the war starts. As the world draws to a close, forces from out of dream and memory prepare to do battle. In a few scattered warm places within the cities, on lonely haunted crags in the mountains, on rocky grottos by the oceans, the Fae gather, and prepare for war. They have few allies, now, few remember them, but they do not care. They are descendants of a beautiful and fell race. When they die, music and dream and magic will die with them. They cannot hope to win. But ah, it will be a glorious fight, and bards would sing of that battle, were there any left to sing of it. In the darkness, things stir. Beneath the earth, the sleepers are wakening, and when they wake, the very earth and sky will be rent apart. In the dark corrupt places beneath the world, ancient evils turn their eyes to the distant light of the blood red moon, with hunger in their eyes. Terrible storms tear across the lands of the dead. Ghosts walk the living streets. Their time is coming, soon. They are unopposed, save by a scattered few. Time is running out. Night is falling. Shadows pour down through the streets like rainwater, and the dank air gets colder. The streetlights stain the sky now, coughing into flickering existence, casting light the colour of rotting fruit down the street. Its late autumn, and its getting cold; you can feel the hard breath of winter on the damp November air. You hurry home through the gathering twilight, your Metro stop a few minutes walk away. Its not a good area of town, but its a shortcut. You hear it, there, for less than a heartbeat, yes, there. Its a sound, a sound you have known since childhood when your uncle, with the wild eyes told you about hell, where bad children go to scream in fire and agony for eternity. That sound. Its the sound of the damned crying out. Somewhere inside, you know what that means. You never believed in God before, or magic, or angels, or the supernatural, but you know. You know that the gates of hell just opened. The smell catches you next; first a gentle kiss of incense, and then the acrid, sweet aroma of napalmed children. Your stomach turns. You walk faster, down past the cathedral-shells of the empty office buildings. The street children, dirty and pathetic, look at you with knowing heroin eyes. Then, they too catch the scent. They do not show fear; they calmly, so calmly walk away. They know. Its the secret that everyone pretends to forget. Hell is real; it is close, and Heaven. Heaven is not for the likes of us. Fear makes you forget the time; everything exists in the now, the opium-clouded moment of horror. You dare not look back, walking down to the strip, down to where its light and there is people, and you are hoping that there, surely there you will be safe. But even as you bask in the glow of the fake lights, you know, you know, that there is nowhere safe. Here, out of the darkness, amidst the noise and the press of humanity, the clubs and the bars, here the smell is worse. They are not behind you. They are everywhere. And then Behind you. You look, against all sense, all reason, you look. He looks so normal. Just some young guy, dressed like a student. So normal, so banal, just some guy. The devil wears many guises. He smiles, reaches out towards you. Instinct drives you back, shrinking away. His kind laid claim to the world before even the Dinosaurs. He is smiling now, drinking your fear, your horror. There is a terrible, terrible light, and your skin burns. You close your eyes, but you cannot stop seeing. Something happens to him. Something made of fire and terror and anger. Oh god, oh god, you gasp, kneeling down, entranced by the light burning in front of you. The light hears you; it turns and speaks with a voice made of music, you look again, its a young man, not much older than your self,
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with old, old, wise eyes. You cannot remember what he says. It is something old, and sad and lonely, it sounds like a lament for a world about to die. You touch your face, and it is wet with tears. You look up at him, he waves. And then he is gone. You know what you just saw. You saw a Devil of Hell or some other place, and something else. He was beautiful and terrible, with a wild, mad laughter. You do not know which scares you more. You have never been the same since. You know what the world is truly like now. They think you are mad. Perhaps you are. Not that it changes anything. The world of Changeling is not our own. It is a dark, old, warped, cracked mirror being held up to our own, a caricature, and a falsehood where truths might hide. It is a fiction, a satire, and a horror. It is a world where the ravings of the paranoid, and the broken voices of childrens nightmares are true, all true. It is a world where the worst excesses of the millenialist fundamentalists are justified. It is a world broken every morning by an endless futureshock, a howl down the winds of eternity, break the fake sheen of reality each morning. The end draws nigh. Welcome to the World of Darkness. Think of a world where much of sub-Saharan Africa will be depopulated by AIDS and famine by 2020. Think of a world where a ten-thousand mile "ethnic faultline" runs through Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, a faultline marked by dozens of forgotten wars, genocide, and internecine hatred. Think of a world where the ozone hole has opened over both poles, and the icecap is melting, steadily, steadily. Think of a world where wars started 1000 years ago still rage, even though all the participants have long forgotten why. Think of a world where money can buy anything, silence, honesty, innocence and the fate of nations. Think of a world where toy companies decide what children will play. Think of a world where soldiers who fought in the Persian Gulf are dying of a mysterious illness, and their government calls them liars and cowards, and denies all evidence to the contrary. Think of a world where, in the last century alone, a quarter of a billion people were murdered in the name of politics. That is not the World of Darkness. That is not the fiction. That is the real world. The world of darkness is worse, and it is worse for one reason. In the world of darkness, our nightmares are real. In the World of Darkness, a brooding, angry god cursed all creation, and doomed it to destruction and war. In the World of Darkness, a man named Caine defied God and was cursed to become a terrible monster, whose children still roam the world. In the world of darkness, forgotten angels were the form of animals and give way to terrible rage, to kill and destroy an enemy they cannot reach. In the world of darkness, foolish mortals control the fate of nations, and the destiny of creation as a philosophical exercise, and know not what price they must pay. In the world of Darkness, the dead roam, forgotten shades, denied Heaven, or even the sanctity of Hell, living in an empire built on slaved souls, awaiting the touch of oblivion and darkness. "There are 6 Billion people on the planet right now. By the time that this sentence is finished, 6 more people will have been born, and 2 will have died of hunger. 6 Billion human lives, being born, growing up, playing or working or hurting, procreating, getting old, dying, and on and on, endlessly. Six billion ignorant human lives. Six billion living, breathing mortal souls. But how many of them are different, how many of them are no longer quite mortal? This question is more important than you can possibly imagine. Some say the figure is 10 million. 10 million pretenders, masked ones, inhuman, unnatural, touched by powers beyond knowledge, waiting. Waiting until the red star flickered into life in the sky. Waiting for the black sun to rise. Waiting for the blood red moon to bleed into creation." -The Fey scholar, Chretienne Anouille.
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The World of Darkness and Changeling This Chapter outlines the setting of Changeling. It is the stage on which this terrible passion play is performed. It is the cinematic, noir-thriller chiaroscuro place inside our heads where we make this game, this story come to life. It is but a reflection. But it is a reflection of many things indeed. The greatest, most obvious difference between our world and this one, the game world, is that angels and devils and werewolves and vampires and other things are real. They play out their wars, their horrors against a background of an ultraviolent, sadistic, post-modern environment. It is a painful juxtaposition of post-millenialist fear, of Old Testament vengeance, and casual inhumanity. But this game, or those games like it, is not about evil. They are about finding goodness within yourself and others, even when everything is at its bleakest, at its most banal, and most evil. Do not forget. Evil is banal, pointless, boring, petty. It appears sexy, powerful, alive, but that is all surface. Good is too small a word for the opposite of evil, but it will suffice. And this world is at its most banal, its bleakest and most evil. You have to look even harder. Thats the essential challenge of these games. Arcadias warriors have been fighting this war since the beginning of time. They are trapped between the light of Heaven, and the darkness of the eternal night. They are forever young, forever beautiful echoes of the youth of the world, which they ruled once. They have not forgotten. But, time and death have taken their toll. The elders amongst them have grown cold and, indeed, monstrous. They play out their ancient schemes, which reach across worlds, playing games of war and death whose stakes seem infinitesimal. But still they play. The ancients grow old, but it is the young, the newborn Changelings, who must bear the brunt of their manipulations and intrigues. While the elders play their fiddles while the world burns, young Fae are dying. They have unearthly power, and the fire of ancient days in their veins, but they are weak, mere footsoldiers. Their unearthly power is fading away now, so very, very fast. Like the terrified boys at the Battles of the Somme and Ypres, they are expected to follow the dictates of distant rulers, whose decadent intrigues leave the way clear for the final destruction of all things, and charge heedlessly into certain death. And death does await them. The enemy grows strong. The demons rule the night now, they simply have not announced the fact yet. They too recruit mortals, because they can, because it amuses them to do so. The demons claim to be rebels, fighting the dominion of Heaven. Perhaps they are. But it is undeniable that the demons are just that devils of the Pit, monsters of the shadow, seducing, corrupting, and evil. They feed on innocence and trade in souls. They are creatures of dark, uncaring, sadism, of random violence, and sick, depraved, destruction. Some say they are creatures of ultimate freedom, other that they are creatures who seek only to enslave and control. Only they, themselves, know. They tempt and corrupt and enslave. New souls, they claim, remaking the chosen into creatures of nightmare and pain, soldiers and agents and terrorists of their great rebellion. These are the players of the epic struggle of Changeling. This is their world, their stage. This is the Gothic Punk world. Where the story goes now is ultimately up to you, the Storyteller, and your troupe of players. Experiencing this world is a shared experience. It will be as deep, or as shallow an experience as you can make it. Gothic Punk & the Fey The term gothic punk means many, many things. It means more than those who coined the term ever intended. It has many resonances, connections, and twists. It invites you to think of many things. Gothic makes us think of 80s music, of Heavy metal, of black clothes and white, white face. It makes us think of the claustrophobic drama of the novels by Bronte, Shelley, Lovecraft, LeFanu and Stoker. It makes us think of the great architecture of medieval Europe. Punk invites us to think of the sheer energy of the music of the late 70s, the aggressive stance, the disharmonious patterns. We think of Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobains inglorious ends. We think of the philosophy of tear down and destroy, of anarchy and violence. We think of the science-fiction literature and attitude of writers like Gibson and Sterling and Cadigan. Somewhere between all these disparate concepts lies the essence of the World of Darkness. Somewhere between all these ideas lies the essence of your
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World of Darkness. These games merely provide raw material. We give you an empty canvas and some paints. Gothic, in these games, refers to the atmosphere, the surface of this world. In this world, the Bauhaus buildings of the 1920s and the art-deco skyscrapers of the 1930s did not give way to glass polygons of todays cities. The ancient tenements and poorhouses were not torn down. These things lingered, and indeed, infected the growth of the cities. Huge buttressed buildings loom on the skyline, like blasphemous cathedrals. Gargoyles sneer from each corner. Rainclouds loom angrily overhead, showering the cities in a light, endless drizzle, even in the grey daylight, and pours down endlessly during the dank, greasy nights. The state is controlled by vast, labyrinthine, almost Kafkaesque beauracracies, corrupt and endless. They dance citizens to a tune of bribery, red tape and corruption. The streets are clogged with the homeless, with criminal gangs, with the destitute. You cannot see the stars. The clouds, and the colour of the streetlights, and the pollution ensures that. The buildings loom over you, black with pollution, bigger than imagination, bigger than nightmare. The cities are haunted, haunted by madness and broken dreams, and vile miasmas. The church is powerful here. There never was a "Vatican 2." They never made their new churches from warehouses, or made friendly, modern buildings, with folk masses, and picture made by the good children. No these Churches are serious houses, on serious earth, deep, shadowy buildings where the pale sunlight shows but little, flickering through stained glass portrayals of the tortures of the martyrs, the sufferings of Christ and the war in Heaven. Services are in Latin. The priests preach a dictatorial lesson of purity, denial, suffering and acceptance, while altar boys hope that tonight; the priest will not be as cruel. It is a baroque, medievalist, and ritualistic world. Punk, in these games, is about the attitude, the balance to the looming baroque shade. It is about pointless, futile rebellion that all too often burns itself into frustration and violence. It is about the mood of the shadowed streets below. It is about the lives and dreams of the petty criminals, the Mafioso, the illegal immigrants, the street kids who never learned to read; trapped in a cycle of violence and loss. The police are utterly corrupt, or draconian. Pollution pours into the rivers, and when the sun comes out in the hot, choking summer, the cities reek of death, or excrement, and of chemical sickness. In an endless series of underground clubs, drug fuelled dancers and musicians scream that it is better to burn out than to fade away. Their currency is hard electronic music, punk rock and the stirrings of a second coming of grunge. Others sing of decadence and the romance of the doomed. Still others embrace nihilistic indulgence. Forget tomorrow, their songs whisper. Live for yourself, and live for today, no one else matters. There is no hope here, but chemical escape. There are no dreams here, save that of survival. Death, sudden, random, violent death, is ever present. The murder rates in cities like New York never went down. In this world we are food for the gods. But, as they say, it is better to burn out than to fade away. Amidst all the pain and suffering, amongst the filth and the squalor of the cities, and amongst the vast wastelands of the wilderness, the Fae, the Wild Ones walk again. They come, not as wild tricksters, but brittle echoes of what was before. They are wrong things, memories of a time long faded, some that has lain sleeping in the blood of humanity for centuries. But something happened, and an ancient prophecy was fulfilled, and slowly, that which was sleeping has woken up. And although the world is old, although everything is fading, although doom seems nigh, they will not go gentle into that good night. Never again. Never, ever again. The Faeries, The Changelings of Ireland, and the Celtic Lands Once, the island was covered in the wildwoods, huge swathes of oak, ash, rowan and beach forest, as far as the eye could see, and as deep as the human heart. It was only over the granite mounds of the coastal hills that the forests let go of their dominion. It was here the first people came to Ireland, and made their homes. These first people were mortals, a megalithic people from the Iberian Peninsula, or Continental Europe. They came to the warm, temperate country, and made their homes. They made small settlements, rarely venturing into the forests. They had good reason not to.
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The forest, and the island belonged to the old ones. They were not human; they were not mortal. They had been there for a very long time indeed. And, at night, when the wind blew in from the west; they could hear voices and songs drifting down, unsettling their sleep, touching their dreams. Who were they? Were they once angels, fallen from grace onto the earth, or were they old, old ghosts walking again on the world, or were they children of the goddess of the night and the dark and blood and violence and beauty? None knew. What mattered was the lord of the wildwoods, children of the moon and the stars, ruled the night, ruled the distant places, and ruled the land. The people knew that they were merely guests on the ancients lands. It was an unspoken compact, as true as a childs love, as immortal as the heart. The old ones ruled the lands of the dead, they knew; they were kin to stars, and sleeping dreams. It was unwise to offend them. But things changed. The old ones became colder, crueller. Little slights by the people magnified by inhuman patience and malignancy, led to death, fire, and warfare. Then the Tuatha DeDannan came. They came fleeing far off flood and peril. They landed on Irelands western shores, in the cold, stony lands beyond the forest. There came a time of fire and war to the wildwoods, and rumours of terrible battles in the west. When the battles were done, the Tuatha DeDannan ruled Ireland. There is no need to recount the tales of those times; they are recounted elsewhere. Night draws in, and time grows short, there may be time for such tales later, when all that lies before us is done. Their rule did not last. In the end, they gave way to the coming of the FirBolgs. The Danu made castles and mansions and hidden glens in the hills, and in the forests, claiming kingdoms away from the sight of mankind. The Children of Dana, as they were called; children of the Goddess (for they were but children of Gods, not Gods themselves), still ruled over the night and the stars and the hearts of those who loved them. But already they had withdrawn. There was no real violence, not after the initial battles with the FirBolgs, the Danu were not defeated. But their time had passed, and many fell into endless sleep, drifting away from the world itself. Others, tired of their burdens of rule, slipped away, into the night, to wander the vastness of the world, and the land of shadows. In time, the lordship of these hidden glens and secret fortresses passed on, to those we now know as the Sidhe. The Sidhe of the line of the Danu, but they were something of a lesser breed; they were petty, flighty, and dishonourable at time. They had the nobility of their grandsires, but none of the puissance, or the grace, or the godlike features. The fairy queens and kings were smaller, somehow, diminished. It was this gentle fading that gave way to conflict, as lords fought others for control, for dominance, for mastery; as if being named "king" or "prince" could somehow reverse the passing of years. In the fields and valleys of Ireland, forest gave way to tillage, as the Celts came, and absorbed the older peoples. The Celts told the forgotten stories of the Tuatha DeDannan, now long past their time of the world, as songs and poems, and tales told around the fire. The Druidic priesthood did not worship gods, and they did not worship the Tuatha DeDannan, but they paid homage to the former masters of this island, nonetheless. The remaining Danu lords influenced the Celts, revealed certain secrets to them, and helped them in their wars. It was then that the seeds of the ultimate tragedy were sown. Certain of the Children of the Danu, and the people of the land fell in love. The consequences of this can still be felt today. It is from these matings that those we call Changelings were born. It is also from these lineages that such heroes as Fionn MacCumhail, Cuchulain, and Oscar, son of Uisin, were born. But the roots were there, for the ultimate undoing of the Fae, of the coming of the dying days and the Shattering. Cuchulain, grandchild of the DeDannan, suffered his heritage with geasa and doom. He was marked by the Morrigan, the dark lady of warfare and seduction. He died, some say, faerie maddened, fighting the very waves of the sea; others that he died, alone, broken, by a standing stone, using his spilled entrails to tie himself upright. His terrible visage, even in death forced his enemies to retreat, until at last, one of the Morrigans ravens alighted on his shoulder, to proclaim that the man was dead. It was a family of these children, who were of both the earth and sky, who were placed under a curse by their evil Stepmother, and made live out their lives as swans on the tides, in the wind and the rain for eternity.
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The beginnings of the shattering came a long way before the Black Plague. Rather, the days of the Fae dominion of Ireland, and indeed, the world ended on the night Christ was born. On that night, no demon, no devil, no witch, no spirit, no warlock, no vampire, who was not protected, survived the terrible onslaught of the divine. Those who saw it first hand, did not live to tell the tale. Others do not speak of it, save in euphemism: the Quietening. That night, the Fae were no longer rulers of the world, and the wildwoods. They withdrew still further, crossing the oceans on the shimmering reflections of moonlight; building their fortresses and hidden places further from mortal eyes. Their time was passing, they knew. As the years passed, the Druids gave way to the Culdees, and the St. Patrick, with his harsh Roman laws. The Anathema had other faces; church bells and the sound of prayer. The people turned their backs on the Fae, and the Fae turned their backs on the people. The Fae had old enmities with the Divine, after all. The Divine brooked no competition. At first, the missionaries and monks actively sought out the lords of the sunset and sky, taking their lives and souls into peril to glimpse the wonder of the Children of Dana in their glory. But time passed, and even that, rare as it was, practice stopped. There are stories of some of the Wild Ones entering monasteries and convents, but these tales are few, and typically exaggerated. The Celtic Church was a breath of cold wind, however, compared to what was to come. The Pope gave dominion of Ireland to the British crown, and forces loyal to the British crown invaded. Forget any patriotic notions you may have; this was a land grab, a geopolitical manipulation by the Crown of England and the Roman Church. The Celtic Church was swept away. The 13th Century saw the remnants of the Faerie powers pushed further and further into the shadows, until they were not on earth any more. Little by little, the Sidhe took ship and sailed across the moon to distant ports, little by little, the wars amongst the wizards destroyed Fae realms, little by little, and Ireland gave way utterly, to the power of the Church. Then the Shattering came. The plague spread but little to Ireland. The main port cities were affected and hideously so, but once outside the cities, the disease faltered, until at last, it died. The disease reached its high water mark, and fell away, in Ireland. In its wake, though, the world had changed. Empires had fallen, millions were dead. The bindings between Earth and the Fairylands twisted and broke. It was over. A few scattered, wandering fae, broken princes of kingdoms long dead, walked the world as minstrels and knights errant, merchants and pirates. They captained ships of exploration; they fought and died in the wars of England and France. Some died, some lived, and others married mortals, and had families, and then, faded out of view.
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The Exile Fey - Part II

Ex Libris Nocturnis - http://www.nocturnis.net By: Gavin Bennett (email: araquael@nocturnis.net) Summary: The Exile Fey continues... The Wild Ones: Being Fae "They are the universal myth. They are older than we are. They ruled this earth when we were young, and now they are old, and fading. We have many names for them: the fae, the fairies, the Kindly Ones, the Elves, the hidden people, Patupairehe, Kitsune, and many, many more names. They are lost gods, or fallen angels, or old, semi-forgotten people. They are dispossessed, alien, resentful, beautiful, charming, and demonic. You cannot forget them, and you cannot define them. Are they angels? Demons? Witches? Something else? Their blood is in your veins, child, and a rogue gene lying sleeping for half an eternity. Its awake now." - Magus Fagen of the Order of Hermes To describe the Fae as "good" or "moral," would be quite wrong. They are neither. To describe them as being creatures of complete randomness, or unbridled creativity, so much so that they have no concept of reality is also wrong. They are a fallen race, a people of starlight, and storm and wind and sunlight. They are not elementals, but they control the elements. They are not spirits, but they have power over spirit. They are not wizards, but they have power over magic. They are wild and beautiful and fey; sometimes mad, other times cruel, but always, always alive. The old folk learned to fear them. There is a reason that a horseshoe over a door brings good luck it prevents the Wild Ones interfering in your affairs, or your life, or your family. They are a territorial people, and only the brave or the foolish trespass. And even though we no longer hold such things as truths, since the Sidhe have returned, this has become hundreds of times more important. Make no mistake, the Fae are dangerous. Never forget that. They are as cruel as a winter storm, as cold as a blizzard, as vicious as any wolf. Other than that, there are few generalisations that can be applied to them. What is true however is that each Fae "Changeling" is born as any other human. But something breeds true in them, and some recessive, sleeping "gene" comes to the fore, and the child is somewhat different. The World of Darkness plays host to other immortal powers, such as the servants of Horus and the Vampires. The Fae, too, are immortal. Technically. A Changeling child born today can theoretically live forever. But this is a rare event. Indeed, it is so rare, that most Changelings are less than 50 years old, be they noble or Commoner. The perils of the world, the Antipathy, and that which the Changelings sometimes call Banality, the corruption and aging of the world, all take their huge, huge toll. Eventually, almost every Fae will grow tired, and that tiredness will give way to aging, and then will fade away. Some live out these broken, twilight years as mortals, tired grandparents hoping to give one last thing to the world. Others retain their youth, and their beauty, and their intelligence, but something snaps inside them, and they become utterly, utterly evil. The main difference between the Fae and the other immortal powers is the fact that the Vampire (and others), are a perversion, a death-warped existence, touched by utter darkness. They become progressively more inhuman, alien, monstrous, even. The Fae, though, the fae are alive. The fae can be forever young, for eternity. They can be. It just doesnt happen that often. The Fae are all sensual, fascinating, beautiful creatures. They are all possessed of an innate glimmering energy that attracts the attentions of even the hardest hearted mortal. This applies to the most dazzling of the Sidhe to the most homely of the Boggans. They are sexually active, and not bound by any constraints of human morality, or normal sexual mores. They eschew terms such as "heterosexual" or "homosexual." They just "are." They take many lovers and leave broken hearts and enchantments in their wake.
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On the other hand, there is something inherently violent in them. It is a strange irony that the forever young, the embodiment of life itself would also be the bringers of so much death. Born of centuries' worth of survival in a hostile world, they are quick to anger. A great many serve in the worlds militaries, especially navies and airforces. Some say it was a Fae captain that led Wellingtons British Cavalry at Waterloo. Others point to the many, many fae blooded RAF pilots who flew Spitfires and Hurricanes over Britain in the Second World War. This is just one of the many reasons why mortals fear to trespass against the Wild Ones. Deeper still, the Fae are innately magical. With power over the elements, over dreams, over illusion, over prophecy, the Fae are a puissant force in the world, and although everything is dying around them, they are slowly growing stronger. The magic of the Changelings is but a pale shadow of the magics of their ancestors, but it is a powerful magic, nonetheless. One more thing: to be Fae, to be a Changeling, is to be trapped between worlds, between lives, between joy and sorrow, life and death, heaven and hell. Somewhere in that divide, lies their nature. You just have to look hard, and you might find it. Appearances The Fairy children are almost universally marked by small "tell tales." They have a strange clarity in their eyes. They are precocious. They are dreamers, and see things, which should not be there. Anyone familiar with the Fae can spot these traits. There is a wrongness to the child that is immediately distinguishable from other childrens manner. Many have odd coloured eyes, with colours that are distinctly odd: purple, indigo, black, silver, amber, or eyes that change colour with the sky. As they grow older, these differences become more pronounced. Those born of Troll heritage grow very tall and very strong indeed, and sometimes, close friends or parents may notice just a glimpse, a figment of imagination, a flicker of horns, perhaps, on the developing childs head! But this little glimmer will be seen but rarely. But the day may come that the child realises who she is, and then she changes. This moment is called by many, as simply, the Awakening, others by The Passage. Some call it the Chrysalis, but not many. For some, this change will be subtle, other a traumatic moment of overwhelming confusion. But the change comes when they see the truth; see the world with fae eyes. Then, they look at the familiar, the mundane city streets, and see. They see the ghosts of the match factory girls, the memories of old buildings, see the glimmer light around certain people, revealing them to be something other. They look into a mirror, and see themselves as Fae. The tiny imperfections of humanity burn away, and the youngster will be forever after marked as one of the Fey, one of the exile scions of a race that once ruled the earth itself. Kiths The Kith represent the family bloodlines of the changelings. It is from these, and other lineages, that the Changeling child is born from. They are not really races, not anymore. Rather, the similarities between them are akin to the resemblances between brothers or cousins. Two Trolls may be related by Kith, but one may merely be a tall, strong young man who is training to be a policeman, while another may be a true giant, whose skin is blue under the moonlight, with white whiskers and hands that could crush stone. Two Boggans may look worlds apart, one a slight, waif-like young woman with a talent for cooking; another may be the stereotypical chubby dwarf who delights in nothing more than cleaning up. Under Fae sight, members of the same Kith can identify one another; see the vitality in their blood, in their eyes that marks them as one of the family. Members of other Kiths may suspect, but they cannot really be sure. The basic Kiths are: Boggans - Domestic fey, small and industrious. They are cooks, builders, protectors, and given to the remembrance of much that is forgotten. Eshu - The catchall name for the many fey powers of the Arabian nights and the sands of Africa. Nockers - Sometimes called "Gnomes" or "Svartalfar," these strange fey are master builders, and creators of many things, both beautiful and deadly. Both artists and artisans, they are the makers of much that is blessed and much that is cursed. Pooka - or Pwca. These tricksters and wild spirits are thieves and liars, actors and politicians. They are not to be trusted. They are as dangerous as any devil. Some work with others for want of amusement. Others use their friends,
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to the ultimate end, perhaps a joke whose punchline will end in destruction for others. Redcaps - Wild and savage, these creatures of utter violence, pain and death, are known for their bright red hair and hard bones and clawed hands. Elucenes - The children of the Host of Beauty on this world, they are beautiful and wild and seductive. They steal hearts, and steal lives, and leave broken hearts and broken souls in their wake. But as their name suggests, they are seekers of wisdom, also. Sidhe - The lords amongst the Fae. Reviled and loved in equal measure, haughty and cruel, yet honourable and courteous, their seeming contradictions drive Changeling society. They are the "Elves" of story, and the "Gentry" of the old folklore. Sluagh - Kin to the dark spirits of the dead, and the Wraiths of the Underworld, these practitioners of dark magics are compliers of secrets, blackmailers and deadly assassins. Trolls - Giants, warrior-poets, knights and monsters, these tall, strong figures of battle can be honourable allies, or deadly foes. The Sidhe: Then and Now In 1969, the Sidhe lords returned to Earth. An ancient prophecy had been fulfilled, some say, and the gates to Faerie opened once more. They came back, and what they found nearly destroyed them. The world was old. The Anathema was everywhere. There was a dark, demonic, corruption slowly squeezing the world in its endless coils. As one later reported: it was as if you came from the warmth of Spain to a land of Arctic ice, naked. It nearly destroyed them. The shock killed many. Others were corrupted by that very demonic influence. Others fell to suicidal despair when their feet touched the aging earth, as Oisin son of Fionn had once fell to age. Only the strongest survived intact. Others worked a terrible magic, and tore human souls from human bodies, and they possessed those empty shells. It is said that the souls were sent to Faerie, to Arcadia to live out eternity in bliss. No one investigates this claim to deeply, for fear that there is an unpalatable truth there. In this manner, the Sidhe survived. But those mortal shells are growing old, and when those shells grow too old, what then? But the returned Sidhe, as they had done often before, married and mingled with mortals, and now, as the new century is born, a new generation of sidhe halflings is growing to maturity. These half-breeds, as some name them, are no different from Changelings, possessed of the same potential, and the same features. It is just that in many cases, the child knows, from birth, who they are, because their fae father or mother remains close, if not as a parent then as a kindly "friend of the family," teacher, local shopkeeper, or "uncle." Some still cross over, on occasion, and they too, steal human souls, but this is getting rarer and rarer. The Prodigals Sometimes, a Garou will cross the gulf of Worlds to their ancestral home, where they will be welcomed as Garou and Faerie. They usually become Arboreals, because the Wilderness is the true home of the Changing Breed. But some, especially among the Fianna will be made Knights of the Noble Host; The Shadow Lords too, join the Noble Host, but they also know the Umbrae. The Silver Fangs always become lords. Sometimes the Stargazers seek out the Celestials, and the Get of Fenris join with the Nidavellim (where lies the path to Heimdalls Bridge, it is said...). The Black Furies sometimes wait amongst the Fatae or the Nymphae. A Garou who has dwelt in Arcadia is forever changed: their scars fall away, and their years fade. They become young and immortal, touched by magic and anger. They become beautiful and wild. They are terrible foes. Often though, the Black Spiral Dancers will travel to the Unseelie lands, and there, they too will undergo a dark metamorphoses. They are touched by demonical beauty, and icy lusts for pain and desecration. These terrifying knights are amongst the most feared of all the minions of the Wyrm.A few kindred have also travelled to the Fair Land. Usually they are from clans Malkavian, Ravnos and Gangrel. Some are cured of their Curse, and live amongst the Noble host or the Nymphae. Others simply come away with their powers and their madness changed subtly. Many though, enter the Tower of Winter, and come away with the wild demonic fires burning within them, for the Tower of Winter is that place where the king of the Unseelie made the Compact with Hell, and demons wait there to see that the bargain is fulfilled. There they see visions of the horrors that the demons plan for Earth and Faerie, and they are utterly corrupted by them. They lose all their humanity, becoming truly evil. The Kiasyd bloodline are Faeries and are considered to be amongst the Host of the Shadows. But, Vampires are few in Arcadia, but many dark faeries lust after the blood of mortals.Mages too dwell in Arcadia. The land is dotted by the Covenants of House Merinita, where the fay blooded magi fled before the Inquisition and the Death of magic. Others have travelled across since, in both directions, and maintain the libraries of the Merinita Society on Earth and
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in Arcadia. They are considered to be amongst the Noble Host. Some remnants of House Diedne dwell here too, with the Druids of the Tuatha DeDannan. The Verbena cross sometimes, and it is they who maintain the Bindings. There is a tale told, too, of a love between a Hollow One witch and a Nymph, and of how they travelled at last to Arcadia. The Dreaming borders on the Dark Umbra, so many spirits travel between Arcadia and the Underworld. The Unseelie court claims many of them, and most are considered Umbrae, but a few, with the Fatalism Arcanos have become Fatae. Wraiths in Arcadia are like other faeries, but with a chill air of darkness. Few can tolerate them much, but they are sometimes employed as storytellers or messengers between the worlds.In the World, beings dwell named Changelings, and they are Faeries; some humans are born of both human and faerie, and they too are called Faerie. The Tuatha De Dannan They were the wild and beautiful ones, the untainted lords and knights of a sunken civilisation. They came to ancient Ireland and drove the Foamwr and the Fomori from it, and built for a small age, a realm there. They carried secret knowledge, science and magic and mastery over the elements. They were the Immortals, touched by the light of the Hidden World. They were Gods and fighting men, and at their passing, they were worshipped for centuries after in the land they had redeemed. Their bloodlines remained amongst mortals; the greatest knights of the Western Isles were of their kin.In this dying world in its fading days, there dwell yet those who are of their blood. The Fianna Garou, the Sidhe changelings, the Verbena mages, and a handful of immortals who still dwell on this earth. They came from Hy-Brasail, to ancient Celtica and travelled thence to Tir-na-nog, in a realm of stars and dreams, where they rule the Island Valley of Avilion to the West of Fay-Rie, and will dwell thus until the closing of time. It is said that they still watch over their scattered flock, and grant favours to those that despair in the face of a terrible enemy. It is said that the Gods of Asgard and Olympus and the Floating Bridge dwell still, sleeping in the Dreaming. To the Garou they are Totem spirits. Mages sometimes call them Celestines. Some even hope that in the last days, they will ride out once more to face the dark powers, and do great deeds before the world is remade, and a last endless age will begin. Arcadia According to one tradition, The Dreaming, of which Faerie is a part, was ruled by two spirits. One was Luna, the spirit of the Moon, and the other, the King was, it was said, an Angel, set over the World of Dreams. For a long time, they loved and quarrelled and warred with each other, striving for mastery.During one of the Wars in Heaven, and there were many, many angels, sometimes known as the Third host of the Fallen were exiled from Heaven. They were not cast into Hell, since they were not Evil, but they had betrayed their virtue, and their neutrality was unforgivable. They wandered for an eternity, until they strayed into The Dreaming. The King ignored them, and they settled down to live in this wild, beautiful land. Other spirits lived there, made of dreams and magic, but the Angels were their masters. The most powerful amongst them became Kings and Queens. Here there is doubt and speculation. Some say that Auberon and Titania were actually a god and goddess who subdued the Fallen to their will, others say that the King and Queen of the Dreaming, bore twins, one of whom was Titania, and the other, the Queen of the Unseelie. It matters little. Both courts are ruled by beings, which are powerful Gods. For a long while there were two factions, the Summer Court and the Winter Court who warred and gamed and strove for domination, as the seasons waned and grew on Earth. Arcadia and Earth were close; indeed the nobility of Arcadia ruled the Earth, in the Wild Times before the Corruption and the Flood.The Arcadian dominion gave way to demonic dominion as mankind spread outwards across the world, and many faeries became corrupted. The fae simply hid, fading away, allowing the demons and the vampires to walk across the land. Once again they were punished for their neutrality. The Faeries on Earth were sundered, and many of the Binding washed away. Wrathful angels slew their once brethren indiscriminately, and still the fae looked on. The survivors were cast far and wide across the Earth. Some travelled North to the land of Ice and Fjords, where they stole magic from one of the Elder Powers, where they built a city in the sky, bound to the Earth with a Rainbow bridge. Others travelled towards the Human homelands of Africa and became gods, for a time. The most powerful were those named the Tuatha DeDannan, who dwelt among the magicians and immortals of an ancient civilisation. In the time of Corruption, they fought against evil, and fled before the coming of the flood. They came to Ireland (after some time, possibly thousands of years) and made their capital beside a mighty fae river, and made war against the FirBolgs (whom it is said, were either mortals; tall, beautiful "giants", huge, hideous monsters or demons.) the tainted Fomori and their hideous demonic allies. In their wars, they were allied to the Garou of the land, who centuries later would become the Fianna.Eventually, though, mortals drove them out. They created the "fairylands", illusory realms in which they could remain on Earth, but also in the Dreaming. It is in the remnants of the fairylands that the Exiles and the Changelings dwell, nowadays.Between the terrible years of the Flood and the Nativity, the Faeries were rulers of the Earth again, as gods and divine spirits. On the night Christ was born, though, more of the Bindings were broken and demons and fae spirits were hunted down and destroyed. The fairylands were shattered, and more faeries withdrew to Arcadia and to the Homes of Exile. On the Night of the Nativity, magic was dealt a killing blow. It has been dying ever since, although some say that it has
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been fading since the Flood. The Teind It was in this context that the Compact was made. It is said that the king of the Unseelie court used his magic to call one of the Lords of Hell to him, and offered it the sacrifice of nine souls of the brightest and most beautiful of the Fay, and in return he wanted the Infernal powers to destroy the Seelie court. The Seelie court, again according to dubious sources, learned of this, though and made the offer themselves, thus foiling the Unseelie Lords plans, and saving themselves. Now, the sacrifice must be made, or Arcadia will be given up to the powers of Hell, so every seven years, the Seelie court must sacrifice nine of their brightest and most beautiful to Hell to allow them to survive and to save Arcadia. It is a big ceremony, at which a truce is offered, and the nine fae are killed in whichever manner the infernal messenger specifies. Darkness Visible Arcadia is at war, in these dark times. The Seelie court is grossly outnumbered by their corrupt enemies. Demons wander Arcadia freely, destroying all they find, and faerie Knights are lost by the day, striving with some terrible creature from the Infernal Wastes. Spectres surge through from the Underworld, Banes and Fomori pour through moonbridges from Malfeas. The Seelie court is wracked by intrigue and corruption. The High fay have become decadent and neglectful, locking themselves up in their realms and indulging themselves in whatever dark vice they can find. Other dwell away from the violence in the areas where the wonder and beauty of Old Arcadia still linger.The Unseelie court has reached out to the Changelings of Earth and the Exiles and drawn them slowly into their web. They have created the Shadow Court, by which to make the innocent, ignorant Changelings their pawns. They have allies in Pentex, and the Black Spiral Dancers. Their hunters stalk the Earth seeking any faeries with the power or knowledge to stand against them. They hunt down any who try to warn the courts of the Earth. They wipe out the Palaces of the Exiles, one by one and slay their allies. They find mortals with faerie blood and slay them, lest they breed true. They murder the half fay, those rare offspring of mortal and fay unions. The paradise all Changeling dream of is dying, and still they play their games, unaware. Foul winds of rotten spirit blow from the Infernal Wastes and the Thousands Hells, across the twilight realm. It cuts through Annwn, the lands of the Unseelie court and blights the Summerlands with its foulness. It is said to be the very breath of the Wyrm and the domains of the Demon hordes. Night is falling and the apocalypse is coming, and the fair land is dying. The Wall of Sleep and the Gauntlet grow harder by the year, and the lands on either side are sick with horror and evil. The fay are enemies of Heaven and Hell; they are marked for extinction by the servants of the Weaver, (the Archons and their servants the Dauntain and the Technocracy); and they are threatened from within by their own failings. Where the Fae Gather: Freeholds and Grottos There are places that linger still, on this earth, where the other world is close. Deep cave systems, haunted houses, and "fairy rings," deep forest glades, standing stones, burial mounds and high mountain aeries. These are rare places, but they can be found. Many are gone, many are claimed by unfriendly hands, but some still lie sleeping, under old houses, or forgotten churches, or deep beneath the earth, in caves where no one would ever dare go. It is here, on these places, that the Fae make their homes, their places of power and their strongholds. The essence of these places is the Balefire, which is the magical igniting of the power, which dwells in the place. This "Bealtaine Fire" was lit, of old, on May Day, by a messenger from ones lord; it served as a sign of allegiance, and a rite older than memory which underlined the Faes connection to the past, the present and the future yet to come. To have a freehold, to have a lit Balefire means that you have a position in Fae society. Do not underestimate its symbolism. Even to the most ardent and militant commoner, the possession of a Balefire is a powerful thing to have. The Balefire is lit from a central fire which is always concentrated on what a Mage would call a "Node" and a Werewolf Shaman would call a "Caern." These are places of power, where the power of the earth is such that the way to the Otherworld is shorter, and the energies of the Otherworld sneak through to the dying earth. It is said, that given sufficient time, even the lowliest balefire in the lowliest Freehold can burn a way through to the Other Side. No one knows the truth of this. What is true however, is the stuff of magic, which the ancient Merinita Magi called "Vis," and which the Fey sometimes call simply, the Source, bleed through into our world at these places, and it is here that the Fey may bask in the glow of magic itself, and heal their wounds and awaken their souls. Full rules for this will be included in Part Two.
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A Wild Magic: Revised Rules for Changeling: The Dreaming Note: With the release of Revised Editions of Mage: The Ascension, and Vampire: The Masquerade, there have been many questions asked about any future development of games such as Changeling. It is unknown, at this time, whether is possible to further develop Changeling: The Dreaming, to create "Changeling Revised." Such a task would be a big undertaking, and with the reduced output of Changeling books, it would be a long time before White Wolf would be in a logical position to do so. Until then, Ex Libris Nocturnis, and other sites will attempt to fill the gap somewhat. To this end, presented here is a short addition to the 2nd Edition Changeling rules, to be compatible with the Revised Edition of Mage: The Ascension. Basic Rule Changes Attributes and Abilities take the same distribution. All Changelings receive 5 Background points, not a variable number. Kith, legacy and Seeming determine Glamour, Willpower and Banality as usual. Starting Birthrights and freebie points rules remain unchanged. Be aware that although ones still subtract successes under Revised dice-rolling rules, you botch only if none of the dice show successes before you take ones into account. The new initiative system of rolling one die and adding it to the initiative rating [Dexterity + Wits] needs little explanation. Wound penalties subtract from the initiative rating. In Vampire Revised, additional successes on attack rolls translate into additional dice on damage dice pools. This applies to both Chimerical and "real" damage. Changelings may soak bashing or lethal damage with their Stamina (save for wounds caused by Cold Iron, Holly Strike, Fire, or indeed, magical weapons. (See Below.). Healing takes place as per the chart below. Various cantrips, such as Heather Balm can aid the healing process. For aggravated damage, one extra point of Glamour, per Health Level lost, must be spent. If a Changeling is reduced below Incapacitated by Chimerical wounds, he or she doesn't immediately revert her "human" self. The Changeling remains in whatever form she fell in for a number of turns equal to her Gramarye. She can use a Wits + Gramarye roll, against a difficulty of 8 to "hold on" to her fading Fae shell. With more than two successes, she can remain Fae, and, if she can make a Glamour roll, then she may be able to drag back her Fae power. Healing Bashing Damage Health Level Bruised to Wounded Mauled Crippled Incapacitated Not a lot there is there? "Exiles" Rules Changes: Appearance Every Fey Changeling, no matter what Kith, are somewhat unearthly, and therefore, compelling. Each character starts with a base Appearance of two. Seemings and Aging As mentioned before, (several times, actually!!) the Fey now look, well, human. They are particularly outstanding and enchanting and scary varieties of human, but human nonetheless. Now, instead of dividing their life cycles into the familiar "Childling," "Wilder," and "Grump," we are going for something slightly different; we are using the same system as Recovery Time One Hour Three Hours Six Hours 12 Hours
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Changeling: The Celtic Cycle. This divides the lifespan into the 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. As the Changeling ages towards winter, he is touched by aging, on the outside, or the heavy weight of time, on the inside. For more details of the rule systems used, go look at Changeling: The Celtic Cycle. If a fey changeling remains "unawakened" throughout her life, she ages normally, and will die, normally. If a fey changeling is wounded mortally, something of their fey spirit fades, and the die, as mortals die. Seemings and Kith Boggans: The common factor uniting the appearance of the Boggans is that they are small. They are always shorter than average, and this makes them almost universally "cute." The very tallest Boggans are roughly 5ft 2 inches, at most, while some are much smaller indeed. Like all fae they have bright, unearthly eyes. They are forever busy, always moving. Some are thin and waifish, some are plump, and others are everything in between. Eshu: The Eshu are not a singular Kith or familial line. The term is a catchall, for many disparate groups of wandering fae from the Middle East and Africa. Some are said to be of the Rroma. They are all possessed by a sort of "Fallen Nobility." Their skin, be it the night-dark of Africa, or the olive-green of Lebanon, is uniformly beautiful and smooth. They are storytellers voices, with a range to match that of any Shakespearean actor. Their eyes are endlessly dark, but inside, worlds can be seen. Nockers: Again, the "Nockers" are not a singular group. They have a look of deep intelligence, and endless concentration. One always feels that even in a social conversation, they are reckoning the engineering mathematics needed for their latest project. They have strange eyes, even as the Fey count such matters, pupil-less and inhuman, from the deepest blood red to the palest topaz. Their hair is always marked by a shock of white. Their skin is pale, pasty pale, and it is said that they are allergic to sunlight. Pooka: Roguish. No matter what their appearance, the Pooka always look dishonest, and strangely, charming. As the Pooka gets older, and her life drifts closer to Winter, their animal nature comes closer to the fore. Redcaps: Born in pain, their hair forever marked red by their dying mothers blood, the Redcaps are creatures of rage and violence, and it shows. Their teeth are sharp and feral, their eyes wild with pain and anger, they are a fearsome sight. This is not to say that they are repulsive, far from it, but rather, they are marked by their natures. Their bones are made of something harder than stone, and long, sharp claws lie concealed in their hands. They cover their bodies in tattoos and they delight in painful piercings. Many tend to wear revealing clothing, the better to show their body modifications. Elucenes: Wild, erotic and beautiful, the "Elucenes" are uniformly lean and toned, with long, long hair and gorgeous eyes. They are utterly entrancing and beautiful, but their beauty is not that of pristine perfection, but rather it is touched by a deep and captivating sensuality. They are not the "goat-humans" of the standard Changeling setting, but they are as shamelessly forward, in all their ways. Sidhe: Angelic, elfin, demonic, mere words cannot do justice to the beauty of the Sidhe. Always tall, always lean, always regal, the least amongst them could match any super model. But it all pales before their eyes. In their eyes, you see memory, memory of old things, and the sight can break hearts. The Sidhe, even the noblest amongst them, are possessed of a wild passion, but all strive to maintain decorum. They wear only the finest clothes. Their voices inspire loyalty. And yet, they are the least human of all the fey Changelings. There is something terrible and alien about them too. Sluagh: The Sluagh are pale and ghostly, with long, lank black hair, and dark, dark eyes. There is something translucent about them; indeed, they say they are as much of the Underworld as they are of the living earth. Their whispery voices, though soft, can be heard a long way away. Often androgynous, and with their bone cold touch, the Sluagh are terrifying. Trolls: Tall, muscular, and warlike, the Trolls are literal giants. None are less than 6ft tall, and all are well built, with toned bodies, worked by long exercise with the weaponry of war. They have the silence of the professional soldier, never boastful, always with an air of utter professionalism, and complete honour. Rules Changes by Kith Redcaps: Redcap teeth and claws do aggravated damage. The Base damage for a bite is Strength + 2 (Diff 5). The Base damage for claws is Strength + 1 (Diff 6). Redcaps also get an extra dot in stamina. Elucenes: Elucenes always get an extra 2 dots in appearance, (meaning they start character generation with a minimum of 3
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in that trait). They cannot botch seduction rolls. Sidhe: Sidhe always get an extra 2 dots in Appearance and 1 extra dot in Charisma. Sluagh: Sluagh are natural mediums, and can see through the Shroud in such a manor. See Wraith the Oblivion for more information on Mediums. Glamour & Banality In this variant, Banality is not the crushing weight of reality. It is rather evidence of the long list of the Anathema, the things that can harm the fey. This can be the ongoing corruption of the earth, the aging of the world, the influence of the Church and the Dominion. Standard rules apply, except in the following cases: Vampires. Vampires with a humanity of less then 6 use the standard Banality rating, as described in Changeling: The Dreaming. The exception to this is Vampires of Clan Toreador, Tremere, Gangrel, Ravnos and Lasombra, no matter what their Humanity rating is. Churches have a basic Banality of 7. Anywhere Churchbells can be heard has a Base Banality of 6. The church has to be Sanctified, though. This basically means, that in the presence of a church, no fey magic really works. This addition is cumulative. The basic banality of a wraith is 4. Therefore, a Changeling cannot cast a spell on a Wraith, in a Church, whatsoever, (7+4=11 difficulty on a roll) and would be at 10 difficulty to do so when Church bells are ringing. The inverse is also true. In regions said to be corrupt and Infernal, or Wyrm tainted, Fey magic will not work. These places have a basic banality of 6. The exception, of course, is when the fey in question has given themselves to the darkness. Then these areas are akin to a Freehold or Fey Glen. Banality is gained and lost in the same way, as the main game. Glamour, or the Source, or Anam (soul), depending on whom you ask, is the same stuff as the Quintessence of Mage, and the Gnosis of Werewolf. They are interchangeable. Chimerical Things "Chimera" in this iteration of the game are not dreams. They have no commonality, save that they are things "Of Fay-Rie." And what is more, they are real. Chimerical creatures such as Dragons and Black Dogs and other things are creatures, which followed the fey, back from Arcadia, during the Resurgence, or never left Earth, and lay sleeping beneath the earth. Others are spirits, changed by the light of Arcadia into something different. They are not birthed by dreams, but they can be created by certain Fey magicians, from the dreams of others. "Chimerical" artefacts, such as fey swords, are also real, and can affect anyone, like a real weapon; it is just that they remain invisible until they are used. The usual rules apply, though. Voile and weaponry. These things do still exist, but in these dark times, subtlety is the key. Fey magic can change mortal clothing, from cotton and nylon to the finest silk, but you would not know, save by touching or wearing the clothes. Weapons exist in invisible, weightless scabbards, waiting the flare into life. This also applies to the armour of the Sidhe. The "Chimera" details in Werewolf: Storytellers Guide do exist, but these are closer to the dream-born creatures previously described. No one knows what they are, and many suspect that they are nothing to do with the fey, whatsoever. Not that this wont stop some fey using them, though. Nocker made things, such as a "Chimerical" car, are also real. But again, the Nockers know enough to be subtle. No, kiddies, this means, you cant have a Picachu chimera. Because I am a meany, and I said so. Conclusion And here ends part one of this discussion of an Alternate Changeling. This is, obviously, a work in progress, and that means I need feedback. Lots of it. Rants, raves, drools, whatever, I do very much wish to know what you think, what you like, what you hate, but remember, I am a grumpy, stubborn old git, so be persuasive. "It Sucks" is not quite the answer I am looking for. If it sucks, I want to know why. Next Month will see the debut of the new magic system, and that will be rather far reaching. As for the Metaplot, which also starts next month, its about a big war in the North, and the intrigues and politics that the war generates, as well as an examination of who the Fae are and what is their deeper relationship with the Prodigals, in particularly, the Garou.
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In the long-term, with your help, ELN will be exploring a side of Changeling, which is darker, more horrific, more adult and more violent. However, rather than throw away all the dreams of wonder and magic that make Changeling, the idea is to make these things even more precious, and even more worth fighting and dying for. Night is drawing in, and the fae are one of the few candles left flickering in the darkness.
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The Exile Fey - Part III

Ex Libris Nocturnis - http://www.nocturnis.net By: Gavin Bennett (email: araquael@nocturnis.net) Summary: Part Three of The Exile Fey, an alternate set of rules and setting information for Changeling: The Dreaming.
Systems
The Hosting Of The Sidhe The host is riding from Knocknarea And over the grave of Clooth-na-Bare; Caoilte tossing his burning hair, And Niamh calling Away, come away: Empty your heart of its mortal dream. The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round, Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound, Our breasts are heaving our eyes are agleam, Our arms are waving our lips are apart; And if any gaze on our rushing band, We come between him and the deed of his hand, We come between him and the hope of his heart. The host is rushing 'twixt night and day, And where is there hope or deed as fair? Caoilte tossing his burning hair, And Niamh calling Away, come away. -- WB Yeats. By: J. Edward Tremlett, Bjorn T. Boe, and Gavin Bennett. In keeping with the spirit of Revised Editions, the process of creating a Changeling has changed a bit. The changes are mostly in what's available for Abilities, and the freebie points costs for some matters. In order to use this article, you will need access to Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd Ed (the core rules for creation), and any other WOD book with the Academics and Survival Abilities defined within them (such as Vampire: The Masquerade Rev. Ed). The Changeling Players' Guide may come in handy if you wish to use Secondary Abilities, or Merits and Flaws while creating your character. The Storyteller may also wish for the players to have access to The Changeling Player's Guide, for further developing characters, with Secondary Abilities and Merits & Flaws.
Remember that these rules in no way are meant to replace currently published works from White Wolf and Arthaus; it is merely a supplement, and an unofficial one, at that.
Step One This hasn't changed much at all. Players should be encouraged to go beyond the Natures and Demeanors listed in either Werewolf Revised, Vampire Revised or Mage Revised; if they don't see anything in there that fits the character. If all else fails, the Storyteller can help them make up new ones to fit their characters more closely. Be careful when determining when they might gain back Temporary Willpower, though. If there's nothing in Changeling: The Dreaming, or Mage: The Ascension that fits, invite the player to come up with one on her own.
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Step Two As usual, this means that you will fill in the dots on your character sheet, to explain, in game mechanics, how apt your character. Attributes define your physical, social and mental characteristics; Abilities tell you how able your character is at different tasks, and Advantages are additional tools to help the character with clarify Backgrounds and magics. The points spread of 7/5/3 has not changed at all. Encourage players to avoid taking Attribute Specialties that would conflict with Ability Specialties. Step Three The points spread of 13/9/5 has not changed, either. Abilities may not be raised over 3 at this time. Some of the Primary Abilities have changed. Changelings may now choose from: Skills: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Streetwise, and Subterfuge Talents: Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Leadership, Melee, Performance, Repair, Stealth, and Survival Knowledges: Academics, Computer, Enigmas, Investigation, Law, Medicine, Occult, Other Languages, Politics, and Science
New Abilities:
Academics is a catchall for "liberal arts" education: history, art, literature and the like. Storytellers who do not wish to use Lores may also say that Academics covers Changeling matters, while those who do may keep Academics limited to mortal matters, and have Changeling Lore be taken to reflect knowledge of the Fairylands' history, literature and matters of import. Academics means that the character has had some formal higher education, for instance at a university or a college, in what is known as the "humanities". These are the areas of study that are not science per se, but generally cover philosophy, history, art, literature, etc. Expression is the ability to explain your intent; to voice what you mean in such a way that you cannot be ignored or misinterpreted. It is a decent tool for actors, politicians, poets, writers, etc., to make sure that they are conveying mood and emotion the way they intended to. Survival covers an understanding of its namesake. Those who do may have their players choose Changeling Lore to handle survival in the fairylands. In either case, while sneaking about in such areas, no one can roll more Stealth dice than they have dice in Survival. Other Languages is a new way to refer to what was formerly known as "Linguistics." Use the description of the Linguistics Knowledge given in Vampire: The Masquerade Revised edition, where each dot doubles the languages spoken (one additional for 1 dot, two additional for 2 dots, four additional for 3 dots and so on). From this point on, Linguistics should be treated as what it really is -- the study of languages -- and available as a Secondary Knowledge. Secondary Abilities may be bought with the points given at this time. They are 1/2 a point per dot. Step Four: Advantages Dweomer Birthrights: 5 dots, as always. Players are encouraged to take Arts that suit their character's interests and concepts. The main preference should go the character's host affinities, though. (It would be a poor Elucene who was lost once out of the city). Backgrounds: 7 dots. Anam (Glamour): 4 dots. Anam: Anam is initially the same as Glamour it is the power that fuels the magic of the Fae. However, Anam is more than just Glamour: It is more powerful; wilder. However, Anam is of the Otherworld, and not this mortal one. It needs to be channelled through. It is not in all the things around us, save for those places well connected to the spirit world. It is akin to the Gnosis of the Werewolves, for they, too, are imbued by Anam. Their Freeholds are full of it, and sometimes they mistake Fae for prowling Mages out to steal their power. However, unlike the Mages, the Fae do not use and consume Anam. It is recycled, as their souls exist from it.
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In addition, since their souls consist of Anam, a Fae may use Health Levels to fuel Dweomer should she be out of Anam. This ability is unique to the Fae. Generally speaking, a Dweomer demands one point of Anam to be used, unless otherwise specified. Anam is regained through meditation and reaching out for the power of the spirit world at a Cray. Dweomer: This is the alternate form of magic deployed by the Fae, in the place of Arts. Dweomer are more loose and wild than Arts, and therefore can be bent and manipulated. In many ways Dweomer appear like the Spheres of Mage, especially in that several realms of Dweomer can be joined together to form a grander effect. The trait listing below is more for explaining how powerful the Fae is at what level of the trait, and is meant to serve as an example of capabilities. Use the listing as a basis for your usage, but remember that the Storyteller has final say in what you can achieve, and she should make good use of her judgement. Anam fuels Dweomer, but to deploy it the character also needs to understand it. This she does through her Tuigse rating.
Backgrounds:
Allies Confederates and confidants; your friends and family Arcane This is the ability to hide and cloak yourself. See Mage: The Ascension Revised Edition for more information. Contacts The number of sources of information that the character has access to Cray A source of power; of magic and of Anam. Virtually the same as Cray in Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade. Use this write-up and replace Quintessence with Anam. Destiny The character is destined to do great things or die in great ways. Holdings Faerie Freeholds the character claims as her own Influence The character's political power in the human world Heritage The character's innate special abilities based on her Host and heritage. See below. Resources Wealth, belongings and monthly income Retinue The mortal followers the Fae holds as her servants or companions. Initially the same as a Vampire's Retainers; the Fae may extract Anam from them as a Vampire extracts power through the blood. Title The character's rank within the nobility of the Hosts Treasure Anam-imbued Artifacts the character possesses.
Heritage:
The Heritage is an innate ability that comes naturally to the character. Heritages will be dealt with in part three. Step Five: Finishing touches. Willpower: Starts at 5, and may be increased with Freebies. The Freebie Point cost for Willpower is now 1 point per dot. Tuigse: Starts at 5 + the Changeling's rating in Memoriam Background, if any. In addition, starting Pathos need no longer be purchased with Freebies: players roll the Changeling's highest Passion rating at a difficulty of 6, and each success gives one point of Pathos to add into here. '1's rolled on this roll do not negate successes. Merits and Flaws: Players may pick Merits and Flaws. Flaws give Freebie Points, but a Changeling may gain no more than 7 points from Flaws. The Storyteller should carefully consider each Merit and Flaw before allowing it. Remember that not all Merits and Flaws are appropriate! From purchasing Merit costs and Flaws allow Freebie Points. There is an optional rule the Storyteller may wish to use, to more greatly balance the game: Only seven points total can be spent on Flaws. Another optional rule is that every point of Flaw over seven points must be spent on a Merit. Storyteller's discretion is advised, of course. Freebie Points: As in Changeling: The Dreaming, 2nd Edition the character receives 15 Freebie Points upon creation. However, the costs of these have changed. This table should replace the table on p. 120 of Changeling: The Dreaming, 2nd Edition:
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Trait Affinity Dweomer Other Dweomer Attribute Ability Backgrounds Willpower Tuigse Anam Tuigse:
Cost 5 points per dot 7 points per dot 5 points per dot 2 points per dot 1 point per dot 1 point per dot 4 points per dot (max. 3) 3 points per dot
This is the character's understanding of the magical, of the spiritual. It is vital for the Fae to comprehend what sort of power she is weaving. Not only does the power come channelled through the Otherworld, it is also channelled from the Fae's soul. Tuigse is the key that lets the Fae unlock that power and tap into it. Tuigse is no elemental force, nor a force of any kind; it is merely enlightenment about the forces of spirit and dream, of Dweomer and Anam. Therefore, Tuigse is only a mechanical listing of how well the character understands what she is doing. If she does not understand, she cannot perform (at least not without risk. It has occurred that Fae have tapped into power beyond their understanding, with dramatic consequences; so dire, in fact, that we shall not discuss them here today). Step Six: Spark of Life After completing all the points above, you should be in possession of a ready-made character, in the mechanical sense. Now is the time for making sure that you are finished; maybe you don't even have a name yet. Anyway, this thing, this piece of paper with dots and numbers on it, that's not your character. Your character is that being, that person, that personality that you assume in the game. Therefore, we urge you to take a close look at what you've written up, and visualize that character in your mind. Traits are only aid in the mechanics; it is up to you what the character really is like. Experience Changes The Experience Chart on page 275 of Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd edition is replaced by this one: Trait New Ability New Dweomer Attribute Ability Affinity Dweomer Other Dweomer Willpower Tuigse Anam Revised Combat: The rules presented this month are a synthesis of what's been said in Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition, and what was laid out for Changelings in Changeling: The Dreaming Second Edition. In most cases, what's in V: TM Rev Ed takes precedence, but, due to space constraints and copyright restrictions, we can't write out the new, revised rules in their entirety. We can only paint a wide outline and give notes for special concern to Changelings. The best thing for Changeling Storytellers to do, then, is to pick up a copy of Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition and the Storyteller's Screen that came with the Vampire Storyteller's Companion. Study the combat section in the core book. Then, make photocopies of the Close Combat Manoeuvres Table, Melee Weapons Chart and Combat Summary Chart from the Vampire Storyteller's Screen, and put them over the old, relevant tables in your Changeling Storyteller's Screen. Cost 3 10 Current Rating x 4 Current Rating x 2 Current Rating x 5 Current Rating x 7 Current Rating Current Rating x 5 Current Rating x 5
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Also keep what we have listed here handy. Mechanics Note: Split Dice and Botches The rules for splitting dice and botching have changed, and should be noted. A roll only botches if the player has no successes at all in a roll, and there is at least one "1" rolled. If Bob rolls 7,7,1,1,1at a Difficulty of 7, it's just a failure, but if he had rolled 2,3,4,5,1 on the same roll, or 3,4,1,1,1, those are botches. To split dice, the player takes the whole pool, and then reduces the first action by a number of dice equal to the total number of actions she plans to take this turn. The second action is reduced by that same number, plus one, the third by that number plus two, and so on. The first action happens during the normal part of the turn sequence (see below in Basic Combat Rules, under "Initiative"), and any actions after that happen after everyone has had a chance to take one action, in the same order that was determined by Initiative. For example: Say Anna-Lena's character, Evelina, is in combat and he wants her to fire her gun twice in this round. Jenny has a Firearms of 3 and a Dexterity of 3. So the first shot will be 4 dice (3+3-2) and the second shot will be 3 dice (3+3-2-1). The first shot will happen on Anna-Lena's first turn, and the second shot will go at the end of the round, so long as nothing else happens to Evelina. Note that, if dodging or attacking multiple opponents, the difficulty for each roll will go up. See "Multiple Opponents" under Combat Permutations, below. Basic Combat Rules Step One: Initiative The way to determine Initiative has become a more streamlined. Players add their characters' Wits to their Dexterity to get their character's Initiative Rating. Each player then rolls a single die and adds the result total to her character's Initiative Rating, resulting in a number usually between 3 and 20. The Storyteller goes around the table, from the lowest score to the highest, and asks for actions. Any and all things to be done should be said at this time, including using of Affinities, multiple actions and any expenditures of Temporary Willpower. Players can opt to hold their characters' action, and react rather than act. So Anna-Lena could have Evelina hold off to see if she needs to dodge before using her relic firearm with a full dice pool. Also remember that a player may abort her planned action in favour of a defensive action. Doing that requires either a successful Willpower roll at Difficulty 6, or spending a point of Willpower, so long as that character has not already acted with her full dice pool. A player can also opt to have her character do nothing but dodge the entire turn. If so each dodge after the first removes one die from the total pool. So if Bjorn wanted Kieran to dodge the fomori all turn long, and Kieran had a Dexterity of 3 and a Dodge of 4, Bjorn rolls 7 dice when fomor #1 tries to hit Kieran, 6 dice when fomor #2 tries it, 5 when #3 takes his shot, and so on. However, note that the difficulty will go up with each dodge if multiple opponents are being faced. After actions have been declared, the character with the highest result will act first, and then the second highest, down the line. If there's a tie, the one with the highest Initiative Rating will go first, and in case these are tied the Storyteller should have the players roll off. Any wound penalties taken normally subtract from the initiative rating. All actions after the first, such as those gained by splitting dice pools, magic or other means, happen at the end of the turn, in the same order that the characters went before. This is with the exception of any defensive manoeuvres a player may left open by splitting her character's dice pool: these happen when they need to. Step Two: Attack When it comes time to attack, the players roll their dice pool against the Difficulty, as modified by the Storyteller. Most attacks are made at a difficulty of 6. Attacks now do three types of damage. They are:
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Bashing - Bashing is brawl, blunt weapon and most martial arts damage. Basically it's any damage that is unlikely to kill a mortal without a lot of effort. Faeries can soak Bashing damage at a Difficulty of 6 using their Stamina rating and armour. Lethal - Lethal is bladed combat, or anything done or used to seriously maim or lethally incapacitate the target. This includes gunshots, stabbing, and so on. Changelings can only soak this by using certain Affinities, or through armour. Aggravated - Aggravated damage comes from things like fire, Barrow flame, Soulfire, damage from weapons made of magical steel (be it Arcadian, stygian, infernal, divine, or otherwise) the claws and teeth of some Spectres, Vampires, Garou and other, certain Affinity powers, some kinds of Sphere Magick, some Disciplines and Gifts and so on. This can only be soaked by using certain Affinities or through armour. The target does not have to sit still for this, of course. As stated earlier under "Initiative," your character has the option of aborting to a defensive action. These are. Block - Dexterity + Brawl, Difficulty 6. This blocks Bashing damage only unless the character is wearing armour on the parts used to block. Dodge - Dexterity + Dodge, Difficulty 6 with brawl and melee attacks. For dodging firearm attacks, refer to the chart on page 237 of Changeling: The Dreaming. Parry - Dexterity + Melee, Difficulty 6. This may cause damage to the attacker. If the attacker is making a brawl attack, and the defender is using a weapon that does Lethal damage, add any extra successes that the defender rolls to the BASE damage the weapon does and apply it to the attacker. With the change in Botching rules, Storytellers are encouraged to make Botching an attack roll to be as spectacular a failure as possible. Step Three: Resolution If the fey's player successfully rolled to hit a target, and the target didn't completely defend against the attack, then a damage roll is called for. Rolls to damage cannot Botch: they can only fail. This does not mean that "1"s does not cancel successes they do. It only means that, if no successes are scored and there is at least one "1" rolled, the attack has failed to hurt the target. Calculating the damage done has changed: any success on the damage roll that goes above the first adds another die of damage to the pool. So if Fred's faerie sword does Strength + 2, Fred's Strength is 3, Fred's player rolled 3 successes to hit and the target can't dodge, then the target has just taken 7 dice of damage (2+3+3(-1 for the first success) = 7) The target can roll to soak, provided she can soak the type of damage done. Soak rolls, like damage rolls, cannot be botched. However, "1"s rolled still cancel successes. If there are no successes, and at least one "1", then the attempt to soak has merely failed. Armour works against most types of Bashing and Lethal damage, and some types of Aggravated. It usually doesn't help against fire, Barrowflame and Soulfire. It won't help against falling damage either: sometimes it just makes it worse. Also, remember that some kinds of armour are useless against some kinds of damage. Armour made to withstand a gladius' edge is not going to be much help against bullets. Conversely, Kevlar vests may be great against bullets, but a gladius will turn it to scraps of tissue. If the damage rolled in a single attack is equal to twice the armour's rating, it is destroyed. In the case of armour that covers more than one part of the body, the armour in the area affected might be destroyed but the rest might be all right, depending on what it was. This is at the Storyteller's discretion. The soak + armour is roll is made once; right after the damage roll is made. The player cannot try to soak the damage gained in one turn after that turn is over. If a Changeling loses all health levels, she dies. A sudden wind will kick up and her soul fades away, to nothing. Combat Permutations
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Multiple Opponents - If a character is attacking, or defending herself against multiple opponents, the difficulty for each attack/defensive manoeuvre after the first goes up by one to a maximum of +4 difficulty. Dazed - The old rules for "Stunning" on page 246 of C: tD 2nd ed. have been replaced with being "Dazed" on page 213 of V: TM Rev Ed. If a Changeling takes damage greater than her Stamina, she is "dazed" for the rest of this turn, and the next, and can neither dodge nor attack during that time. V: TM says that a supernatural is "Dazed" at Stamina + 2: for Changelings, it is only Stamina, as Changelings aren't that tough. Brawling and Close Combat - The changes are minute, and mostly in name. There are new manoeuvres, such as "Sweep" and "Weapon Length." Of particular interest to Exile Storytellers are the "Bite" and "Claw" attacks, which are useful for Fomori who have fanged maws or long talons. Biting is Dexterity + Brawl at Difficulty 6, doing Strength + 1 Lethal or Aggravated damage, depending on the source. Claw attacks are also Dexterity + Brawl at Difficulty 6, doing Strength + 1 Lethal or Aggravated damage, depending on the source. Firearms - The Firearms Chart found on page 251 of Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd ed, and reproduced on the Changeling Storyteller's Screen, is still valid in terms of Damage, Range, Rate, Clip, and Concealment. However: note that the Difficulty for all firearm attacks is now 6. More information on various firearms can be found in the Vampire Storyteller's Companion, on pp. 45 - 55. Rules for Archery can also be found there, on pages 58 - 59. July's instalment will have more on weapons. Melee Weapons - All Difficulties are now at 6, and the damage done by some Melee weapons has gone down. For example: a Broadsword, listed in Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd Ed as doing Strength + 5, now only does Strength + 3 -- a two-handed sword is now Strength + 5. More information on Melee Weapons, both blunt and edged, can be found in the Vampire Storyteller's Companion, pp. 56 - 58. Information on Relic and Artefact Melee weapons will be in July's instalment. Healing Damage Changelings can heal Bashing and Lethal damage by spending Anam. Each point spent heals one level. Bashing damage can be healed while the Changeling is engaged in other things, such as combat. Lethal damage must be healed while resting or relatively inactive. Only one point of Pathos per turn may be used to heal. Changelings can also heal Bashing or Lethal damage by fading into 8 hours of uninterrupted slumber. This is the magical, meditative sleep of the fey. At the end of that, the player rolls her character's Stamina at Difficulty 6. Each success on that roll heals one level of Bashing or Lethal damage. Also see the Meditation ability in reference to this. Aggravated damage can be healed by Slumbering for 8 hours and spending 3 points of Anam. Every 8 hours and trio of Anam spent brings back one level lost to Aggravated damage. Aggravated damage can also be healed using magic.
Weapons & Armour

In conjunction with the Changeling: The Dreaming "Revised Edition" rules for combat, we've followed the changes made to various weapons and applied it to Changeling. What this means, overall, is that most melee weapons now have the same Difficulty number, and don't do as much damage as they used to. We're also choosing to go with the armour system shown in the Vampire Storytellers' Companion (VSC), where different kinds of armour now provide different numbers of soak dice for different types of damage. The VSC comes with the Storyteller's Screen. It's also a good, common sense book in its own right, and the information in it on weapons and the like could be beneficial for any system. The Screen is also a real timesaver if you're going to play Vampire: The Masquerade.
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Magic.
The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers THE Powers whose name and shape no living creature knows Have pulled the Immortal Rose; And though the Seven Lights bowed in their dance and wept, The Polar Dragon slept, His heavy rings uncoiled from glimmering deep to deep: When will he wake from sleep? Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire, With your harmonious choir Encircle her I love and sing her into peace, That my old care may cease; Unfold your flaming wings and cover out of sight The nets of day and night. Dim powers of drowsy thought, let her no longer be Like the pale cup of the sea, When winds have gathered and sun and moon burned dim Above its cloudy rim; But let a gentle silence wrought with music flow Whither her footsteps go. -- WB Yeats All the Hosts have an elemental affinity; a Dweomer (path of magic) related to an element, such as stone, water, dream, shadow or glamour. Though no two Hosts retain the same affinity, many learn other Dweomers in addition to the one they are connected with. It is even possible to weave several Dweomers together to create greater, more complex spells. Some Storytellers may be familiar with the Arete rating system of Mage: The Ascension. Each Mage has an Arete-rating that limits the level of a Sphere the magician can utilise. This rating reflects the Mage's Enlightenment towards Magick. The Fae have likewise a measure of their forces; a Dweomer-rating that determines how high a level of the element the caster can use. In addition, it is not possible to master more than one Dweomer. This rating is called Tuigse (lit. "Understanding"). A fae can never learn an additional Dweomer to more than level four (talking strictly mechanical, of course; the Fae have obviously no knowledge of levels of the one nor the other!). This is because the Master is deeply marked by his element; the Shadowmancer is dark and prowling, the Geomancer is hard and craggy, the Glamourist is beautiful and lofty. The aquamancer also has a tendency to grow larger during full moon... In addition to measure the level of power, temporary points of Tuigse can be used to strengthen a power or effect, or even making it more efficient. To ease the use of Dweomer powers versus Tuigse, here is a basic listing of what kind of feat a fae can accomplish at what level Tuigse: X Touch the caster may touch, and to a limited sense move and manipulate the element. XX Bend the caster can bend the element, because of their innate knowledge of how it is wrought XXX Change the caster may change the element into a different form, yet it must still consist of that same element. On this level the caster can also Summon Element from nothing XXXX Meld the caster may meld with element, literally becoming it. This also means the caster can erupt from any surface of given element within the area XXXXX Mastery the caster has full control of the element; not only has he become similar to his affinity element in substance and mind, he can also change other elements to become his affinity element. Note that a practitioner of Dweomer can only ever master one element. While it is possible to learn lesser levels of other elements, one can never master any other than ones affinity element Evidently, several elements can be combined to create more powerful Dweomer; for instance if two different casters
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combine forces to create one particular effect. Though there are no specific cantrips, rotes or spells. The Fae don't classify or catalogue their magical effects. They aren't wizards. Their magic is wild and unpredictable, flowing freely through their bodies and affecting everything around them. Therefore players are encouraged to weave magic in much the same way that Mage: The Ascension uses it syntactic sphere system to construct more or less uncategorized spells, as opposed to for instance AD&D or Rolemaster, where all possible spells are catalogued and documented. Below is a list of what sort of possible powers the Fae can use at what level of Tuigse, and some vague suggestions for possible effects. Ultimately, its up to the players how they do it, and for what purpose. Still, the Storyteller should carefully judge each separate situation and decide the end result. The listings below can help the Storyteller decide how powerful a feat the character can perform, but ultimately she should be very wary of not overpowering player characters, so as not to upset game balance. Remember to use the list of ratings above to determine how potent a feat the character actually can perform. After a while the troupe will find a routine that works for all parts, perhaps even by modifying this system, adding and subtracting as you see fit, and then using Dweomer will flow naturally for the players. Below is said list of possible feats, including a short explanation of each of the Hosts' affinity with their Dweomer. The Host of the Shadows The Host of the Shadows are Fae of the Seelie court who practice dark magics and hold power over shadows and darkness. They are the fewest of the Hosts, and the least trusted. They are typically of Nightgaunt and Dwarrow stock, and dwell in the deep places. The Sluagh are kin to these. Also called Adumbrae or Sc ilean. Dweomer: Adumbration Shadowmancy, or Adumbration is the Adumbrae's power to manipulate and control the stuff that Darkness is made form; the absence of Light. A dark and horrifying power, its origin is unknown, yet some claim that one particularly dread night, a young Fae girl named Sc ila was caught in a storm and through it travelled to the Dark Realm. In the storm, she lost all her clothes, and was stranded cold and naked in a dismal and foreign land. Suddenly she heard a voice cry out, and she walked carefully up a hill that looked out across a river pass and a field beyond it. Here, she beheld a strange, shadowy being caught beneath a fallen bridge. Sc ila helped the creature out from beneath it, and in return the creature crafted her garments out of shadow, so she would not remain uncovered. Amazed at this ability (for, indeed, not many Fae could manipulate shadow, a force of Darkness, generally thought of as malign), she was quick to steal it from the creature, and run away as fast as she could. Enraged by this deed, the spirit cursed her from a distance, calling out that she would from now on ever fear the light and live with the coldness of shadow. For this reason, Adumbrae can only use the power of Adumbration during sunlight; their other powers are rendered useless when touched upon by the Sun. X Shadowtouch The Fae may summon up indistinct and blurry shadows around her, to for instance protecting her from the sun, or blinding others with it. XX Shadowbend The Adumbrae can not only manipulate flowing shadows to arise around her, but also form and shape objects as large as a horse, made from pure shadow (only two-dimensional, as the shadow has no substance on this level). XXX Shadowchange The Scilean can cause shadow to take on a solid form, manipulating it to become articles such as clothing, armour, weaponry and the likes. This is limited to inanimate objects that are straightforward, not mechanisms (requires XXXX) or intricate structures. Example: club, sword, tunic, an apple (not edible! It consists of pure shadow), a wheel, etc. Bear in mind that the caster cannot summon this at will, but has to make use of already existing shadows. The stamina of anything created with these powers equals the casters, but can be strengthened at one dot per spent temporary point of Tuigse. XXXX Shadowmeld The Scilean may literally merge with shadow, becoming one with it, and subsequently erupting from any shadowed location in the area (as long as it is big enough. However, the magician may project an arm through a shadow even though his body is too large to erupt from it). In addition, this power allows the Sorcerer to infuse objects (or himself) with shadow, creating horrifying visages and monstrosities. XXXXX Shadowmastery The caster can create objects of pure shadow from nothing. He can also change other objects into shadow, rendering them either useless or controllable by him alone. In addition, the Shadowmaster can "step sideways" into the Realm of Shadows by entering any shadow at any location whatsoever. The caster may also summon forth beings of pure shadow that must carry out his commands. These entities are vaguely similar to Night Shades (see Dark Ages Companion pages 87-88), and Storytellers may wish to use those stats there covered in their games. Bear in mind that where
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Obteneration XXXXX XXX can create three Night Shades, Shadowmastery XXXXX can only create one at a time. Remember that it is not the same power.
The Host of the Stones

The Host of the Stones are the dwellers in the deep places of the World and Arcadia. They are the workers of masonry and metal. They are the Dwarves and the Trolls, the Nockers and the Boggans of Arcadia. Their home is a beautiful and cold place, deep beneath the sunlit fields. Also called the Nidavellim, for that is one of the names for their world. Dweomer: Geomancy The powers of Geomancy are one of the earliest manifestations of Dweomer; perhaps, some might say, the first magic in the world. According to Norse lore, the Dwarven folk came into being as maggots in the Giant Ymir's dead corpse, and used an early form of Geomancy to forge their way out of it. As the Gods created the world from Ymir's remains, the Dwarves remained close to the stone of which Ymir consisted of. Their affinity with the Element of Stone has remained to this day. X Stonetouch The Fae may instinctively realise the build, texture, type and strength of any stone surface. XX Cause Fracture: The geomancer may induce any cracks or flaws in stone material the size of a housecat to succumb, causing the material to split or fracture, for instance creating an opening to a cave, splitting a rock, causing landslides or, indeed, releasing a sword from a stone... XX Stonebend The geomancer can now manipulate stone to move and flow, as if it was a thick, liquid material. With a series of groans and creaks, the stone can bend to give way, form crude stairs, make very slow, yet potent attacks (Str 5 Dex 1 Sta 5), or the likes XX Recall Fracture The geomancer may now call back a crack or rift, closing it with tremendous force. Note that size is limited to housecat-size XX Cause Rupture At this level, the caster may cause cracks up to the size of a man XXX Stonechange This power allows the geomancer to shape stone into objects at will, creating mimics of living beings or usable items. This power cannot be used to sculpt statues, as the objects formed are crude and craggy. These mockeries may attack, through caster's concentration (he may not do anything else while controlling the figure(s)), with the same stats as Stonebend XXX Recall Rupture As Recall Fracture but encompasses cracks as large as the size of a man XXX Cause Cleft As Cause Fracture, but encompasses cracks the size of a car XXXX Stonemeld The geomancer may now merge with stone, becoming literally one with it. He may erupt from any stone surface within the area (Storyteller's discretion, yet consider an area of 60'x60'x60' to be ample) XXXX Sculpting The Solid The Geomancer may now create life-like creations made from stone. The caster literally sculpts stone as if it was clay. At this level, the creations move more fluidly than earlier powers allow, yet still slower than any human. Stats as above XXXX Recall Cleft As Recall Rupture, but encompasses cracks the size of a car XXXX Render The Earth By splitting the earth in cracks the sizes of a large house the geomancer brings forth terrible earthquakes and landslides in the process. This is very dangerous, and might cause the caster's demise in the process. XXXXX Stonemastery The caster can create objects of pure stone from nothing. He can also change other objects into stone, rendering them either useless or controllable by him alone. In addition, the geomancer has near-absolute control of the element of stone, and may call and recall cracks in the earth the size of a building block. Within stone surfaces, the caster may create his own halls and havens, with no concern of the size of the stone surface he is within; he is now within the element of stone itself.
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The Host of the Waves

The Host of the Waves are the water dwellers and the mermen and the merrows, the spirit of rain and ponds and rivers. They dwell in the realm called Atlantium, the watery paradise of Faerie, and in the deeps of the Oceans of the World, where magic and dreams still dwell. They are also called the Aquae, the people of the waters. Dweomer: Aquamancy ("Wetwork") This Dweomer is also one of the more primal forces in the universe. Water is infused with the magic of creation and strength in itself, and this is reflected in Aquamancy. Its origin is unknown; the Aquae have always possessed it. X Waterscry The Fae may find water on any non-aquatic surface. X Watertouch The Fae may create waves in the water that can throw small boats off course, deflect underwater attacks, or lift small objects out of the water This power also allows the caster to condense small quantities (a small bowlful) of water from the surrounding air. XX Obfuscate: The caster causes water to rise up and create a thick fog, big enough to cover a boat (or a car). Though it is simply fog, it is impossible for pure light to penetrate it, and anyone caught within it is completely blinded, as it is hopeless to see through it. Even those with magical sight of sorts find themselves lost in this haze XX Waterbend The Aquamancer is able to shape the flowing water in beautiful water arches and fountainous sprays, usable both for show and attack. Treat attack as Str 3, Dex 1. Since it is only water, it's not possible to harm it. Caster may also part small quantities of water, such as the area around him, to allow dry passage XXX Waterchange The aquamancer may manipulate shapes and objects from water. The shapes are still liquid the surface is akin to that of a still water and the shapes can be broken through, but as long as the caster concentrates, they remain shaped (a dagger or, indeed, a being, can pass straight through it, and yet it remains). However, the shapes are able to attack (if the caster wishes), with the same stats as Waterbend. Should the access between the Water Shapes and the liquid they erupt from be severed (if they move out of the liquid, for instance) they immediately dissolve into liquid again. This power can also create a wall of water. This wall only exists as long as the caster concentrates (let's make this absolutely clear: By concentration we mean concentration. Walking around thinking about it does not count. This effect is more of an immediate defensive produce than anything else, and is used purely to deflect attacks. Higher levels of this Dweomer can create permanent walls, but this deflective wall is as strong as ice, and only exists for a brief time to protect against an attack. It's unique and immediate.), and immediately dissolves. In this temporary, potent stage, it receives a Sta 3. Of course, the wall can be maintained after its use, but it will not retain its Stamina rating. XXX Call Rain The aquamancer may call small quantities of precipitation from the surrounding air XXX Call Waves: The caster can create waves on command. Though this doesn't mean a still water becomes turbulent, it can at least create waves to bring caster ashore. Surf's up! XXXX Watermeld The caster simply dissolves into liquid, and can arise anywhere in the area from any source of liquid. Note that the caster can be confined! XXXX Current Control The caster may control sea currents, steering a vessel wherever he wishes XXXX Part Water The aquamancer may part a large body of water, such as a lake, whereupon he may walk through it. Think Moses... XXXXX Watermastery The caster can create objects of water from nothing. He can also change other objects into water, rendering them either useless or controllable by him alone. In addition, the watermaster can summon forth spirits of pure water that must carry out his commands. The Watermaster may also rise or lessen the sea at his command, creating towering tidal waves, or maelstroms, or drawing the water out of a flooded city, for instance. Note: the faces of the moon affect the watermaster. His size will vary (though not extremely; Storyteller's discretion) depending on whether it is high tide or ebb. Calls for interesting roleplaying experiences...
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The Host of the Skies

The host of the skies dwell in the winds and the starry vault beneath Heaven. They are the spirits of starlight and gusts and storms. They are amongst the strangest and most beautiful of the Fae, and it is said that the blood of the Angels still flows through them. They are also called the Cuilegan, and even Celestials, for they are like the stars in mystery and glamour. Note that Cuilegan generally possesses the ability of flying on account of their huge wings, and doesn't necessarily need to use Windmastery to accomplish this. Dweomer: Windmastery Windmastery comes naturally to the Celestials, as they roam the high skies from morrow to dawn. It is said they learned the gift from an eagle that one Cuilegan saved from a wolf; it had broken its wing. The Cuilegan mended his wing, and bore him to the top of a mountain, whereupon the eagle leapt from and soared across the skies, using wind to keep it up despite the wounded wing. The Cuilegan cried out for it, but when he saw that it did not fall, he was perplexed. He called out for the eagle, asking to learn the gift, and from high above he heard the eagle call out to him that he should rather throw himself from the cliffs. Angered by this mockery, the Cuilegan went home and got his bow. Then he went back and shot the eagle, and took his wings as his own. Before he cut the wings from the eagle, he also devoured its heart. Though he had the knowledge and also the means, he could not manage to fly. However, many smaller birds then approached him. A whole flock of them, who had been pestered by the nasty eagle. Since he had killed their great enemy, they offered to help him learn how to fly. It was a falcon that took the obligation of teaching him, and therefore many Cuilegan still hold falcons as their affinity. X Windfall The Fae may summon and control small breezes at will. These may be warm or cool, whatever the caster wishes. This is possible through the caster's limited mystical knowledge of how wind works and how temperamental differences causes it. This effect can be used to cool off foods, call on a pleasantly warm breeze on a cold day, or steer a toy boat on the water. It may not steer actual boats, nor is this power strong enough to tip over objects heavier than five pounds. It is very basic, and reflects the caster's brewing knowledge, yet not complete understanding, of the power. In sheer mechanics, the velocity of this wind can be up to six knots. X Quiver: This power allows the caster to will objects to quiver as if physically shook. The power is limited to objects up to five pounds mass. Fragile objects may fracture from this effect XX Zephyr: This effect is similar to Windfall, though the caster may create and control gusts of wind instead of just breezes. Zephyr is merely stronger in effect. In sheer mechanics, this means velocity up to 16 knots. Now a caster may for instance move objects of up to one kilogram (roughly two pounds) through the air in series of gusts. The force may send heavier objects through the air, but cannot control objects larger in mass than this. This effect is known as Windbearing. At this level, the caster may actually inflict small sunburns on people, as he can control the intensity of temperature used to fuel the wind. XX Tremble: As Quiver but may rock objects up to fifty points in mass, or several (no more than ten) smaller objects at once. This effect can for instance be used to fake minor earthquakes, though the more ingenious players may device even more cunning uses for this power XXX Windchange: The ventomancer may manipulate wind in such a manner that it can actually take shape, in a sense. Gusts of wind form as invisible shapes in the air; shapes that are almost constant, but requires the concentration of the caster to remain. For example, a table created with this power could hold items for the caster, but would drop them at once should he let go of his concentration. Likewise, figures created for combat could inflict damage (Str 4, Dex 3), and would be quick and agile, but could only exist as long as the caster concentrated on their existence and their moves. A hard task indeed. The higher Tuigse score of the caster, the easier it is to use. For attack purposes this power holds no stamina; it is only air, and cannot be hit. But this power can also be used to raise a temporary wall of air to for example deflect missile attacks. In game terms, this wall is akin to that of Waterchange, with a Sta of 3. XXX Call Waves: The caster can create waves on command. This power is virtually identical to Call Waves for Watermastery. The only difference is that where the aquamancer calls the waves though manipulating the actual water, the ventomancer does it "naturally". XXX Windmill At this level the caster can control winds up to 33 knots, lift and move objects up to his own weight through the air (including himself), and even create small whirlwinds, up to six feet tall
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XXXX Windlaw: The caster can now control and create winds at great forces, with velocity of up to 55 knots, or 10 on the Beaufort scale, signifying a whole gale. This is an extremely powerful force, and the ventomancer can lift and control objects as large as a truck XXXX Vacuum: The caster can create a vacuum that he can confine within a sphere. The sphere may vary in size, but the smaller the more compressed and also powerful. The caster may release this formidable force for example by throwing it at an opponent. This will cause the opponent a total of ten dice of damage, at difficulty of eight. If the roll is botched ten new dice of damage is rolled, this time against the caster herself, also difficulty eight. If this roll is botched as well the vacuum caves in on itself XXXX Windparting: This is a magnificent power indeed. The caster literally dissolves into seemingly nothing, actually becoming wind. The caster appears to be some sort of gas in high motion, as her features meld with the air and create coloured wind as they rush by. This effect is, however, very dangerous, as the caster risks being blown apart if she cannot control the winds she uses. Wind is extremely hard to classify, as it merely consists of air in motion, and this power allows the caster to break into a series of gusts of wind to materialize at a different location. Travelling as wind is almost impossible, because it requires the caster to control as many as ten different gusts of wind at a time, and to hold them together so they won't "spread in the wind", so to speak. An unexpected gust of wind is enough to send part of the caster far adrift, and without every part of herself, the caster may not materialize, instead becoming a wind spirit unable to remain corporeal. Without so many words, this power works best under controlled and limited environments. XXXX Windblast The Cuilegan sends forth a magnificent blast of wind from the palm of her hand, delivering ten die of damage to a target, difficulty eight. XXXXX Windmastery The Cuilegan has now near-absolute control of the element of wind. She may create elementals of wind to do her bidding (Str3, Dex 2). She may also summon up and control hurricanes and tornados at will, making her immensely powerful (however, controlling such winds require a massive ten successes to conjure, and then additional seven successes, difficulty nine a round to maintain control over! Just imagine the crisis of losing that control...). Otherwise this power is much the same as other masteries. Note: The Windmaster has difficulties restraining his affinity with the element of wind, and therefore generally tends to both have a "windy" personality as well as a windy being. In other words, as he strides into the room, he is followed (or perhaps preceded!) by gusts of wind, in the same way as a violent draught.
The Host of Dreams

These are the Fae of dreams and fire. They are the dragons and the Nightmares of legend; they are spirits of fire, like the Salamander, and they are kin to Gods. To mortals eyes their hair is flame-coloured and subtle strength shines from them. They walk through the Dreaming and the fairylands and the oneiras, where they may speak with dreamers and changelings. Sometimes they seem as Chimeras, or monsters from the world of dreams, but they are true, and number amongst themselves many things extinct from the world. They are also called Oneiriae, or Morpheans, for they have power over dreams. They are the rarest of the Fae, in these Autumnal days. The Dreaming once had a king, and they served him, but he has long ago departed, and the Oneiriae have faded since then. The Oneiriae travel into a world of concepts and dreams of the past and the future called the Dreamtime, a place to where no other being than they can go. Here they see everything that has happened and that will be, and they can touch every dreaming being in the universe. Dweomer: Dreammastery (Oneiromancy) Perhaps the strangest and most uncontrollable power possessed by the Fae, this Dweomer grants the power to manipulate dreams and nightmares, and to summon the power and intensity of it. Few can explain how this power works, but the Oneiromancers of the Host of Dreams have mastered the ability of delving into the subconscious and bring back memories, dreams and nightmares and weave wondrous creations and enchantments from them. For thousands of years the Morpheans have monitored humans and influenced their dreams, with many a marvellous or gruesome dream, and some have even taught some of their powers to mortals. These Hermetic mages handed these secrets down through the ages, and gradually they served as the foundation for the Vampiric Thaumaturgical Paths of Morpheus and Oneiromancy. X Silverthread This power allows the Oneiromancer to access her own dreams and subconscious self during trances or sleep. In this state the Oneiromancer receives visions of what is to come. The Fae brings the essence of the Dreaming into her own body, as all Fae are connected to it in spirit.
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X Sense Dream The Fae can sense any dreams or dream-creatures nearby. XX Bend Dream The Fae may shape her own dreams and influence the surroundings while she is in this way dormant. She can create beings of Dream that she can use with other powers. She can also access other, dormant, beings' dreams, and read them, though she is not able to weave these yet XX Dreamwalk The Fae may travel to any place she has before, simply by going to sleep and accessing her dreams. However, her body does not follow, and only an astral form, incapable of physical action, actually performs the journey. The Dreamwalk is automatic, and is not dependant on time to be performed. XX Enter Dreamtime The Australian Aborigines believe that the Dreaming flows through every living soul in the universe. The Dreamtime is the collective forewarning awareness of all sleeping souls, and all they dream are here represented. Unlike the Dreaming, the Dreamtime is a place of omens and prophecies, and though it is near impossible to discern the future from the infinite amount of signs represented, the Oneiromancer may or may not find ways to utilize these portents. The Dreamtime is a bewildering place; if it really is a place. Some scholars claim it to be not a place, but a state, and that the feeling of being in a physical location is merely emotional. At this level, the Dreamweaver may not move within the Dreamtime XXX Shape Dream The Oneiromancer is now capable of shaping not only her own dreams, but of those whose dreams she accesses. In addition, the Dreamweaver is able to conjure forth items or creatures of Dream for a limited time. These may not possess any physical quality, but are still perfectly visible by anyone XXX Dreamweaving The Oneiromancer can intertwine dreams, connect them, and create greater dreams with up to four subjects. By doing thus, the Dreamweaver is able to create powerful visions of the future, or maybe just deliver a very powerful message. Omens have always been revered pretty powerfully, even more so if several people have received the same one XXX Walk The Dreamtime The Dreamweaver may now undertake mental journeys through the Dreamtime XXXX Conjure Chimerical Dream The Dreamweaver is able to afflict Dream in conscious condition, meaning that she may allow subjects to dream and be affected as if they were dreaming. The dreams become real, as they are the actual stuff of the Dreaming. These are not ordinary Changeling Chimera; they are not beings and items shaped from imagination; they are beings and items shaped from the Dreaming. XXXX Dreamwalking The Dreamweaver may now physically enter the Dreamtime and exit anywhere he likes. It has to be done by entering the dreams of a dreaming subject (only sleeping does not count, nor does the casters own dreams; she has to be conscious). The Dreamweaver has to locate a dreaming subject through the Dreamtime, and exit there; she cannot re-emerge at any location; simply where there is a dreaming subject. Still, this is a very powerful ability. XXXX Become Dream To Dreamwalk, the Dreamweaver has to become one with Dream. Legends say that many centuries ago the Dreamtime and the Dreaming were one. Sometimes one could travel from the physical realm to the Dreaming, the Spirit World, and the Dreamtime; a place where concepts and ideas are real. But at some point, the four were blocked off from each other. Because of that, only that which is dream may enter the Dreamtime, because the concepts that shape the future and the past are dreams. There is no present in the Dreamtime; only past and future. Unlike the High Umbra of the Mages, the Dreamtime is the place of scrying and divination, not facts and physics. It is a place where everything that will happen and has happened is already happening, at once. There are no real beings in the Dreamtime, just concepts of things that have and will be. Thus, it is a terribly treacherous place, and it is very easy to become lost. The Dreamweaver might even meet herself, ages past, or long into the future. Because the future is a very unstable concept like a dream, all the different futures overlap each other, which makes it very difficult to decipher. Ventures into the Dreamtime are like dreams reality might suddenly shift, but you don't notice it, because it seems completely natural. If this happens, the Dreamweaver is on the first step towards being lost. A being lost to the Dreamtime will eventually dissolve and change with it, unless she is conjured back by another Dreamweaver XXXXX Dreammastery It is difficult to describe a Dreammaster. She is constantly seeing the Dreamtime as well as the real world, which makes it obstinate to interact with her. In game terms, it is pretty darn difficult to play a Dreammaster. This power basically renders the character unplayable, because she sees everything, but is too mentally lost in the Dreamtime to actually interact with others. This may seem like a stupid power. You might say "Oy! Whaddahell dis crap?! Where my kewl powerz?!". But the point is that not all powers lead to something good. Dreammastery rends a person insane for all purposes, except for making one hell of an Oracle. She speaks in constant riddles, so enigmatic that even a Qualmi werecat would have
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difficulty interpreting what she says. The Dreammasters were the Oracles of Ancient Greece, and many other ancient civilizations, most prominently the Australian Aboriginal. To the Dreamweaver, Dreammastery is still a goal, because to her, this is a pretty wonderful state. She understands everything, and can read and interpret the past and future perfectly. However, most Dreamweavers also possess a second Dweomer (generally Conflagration, Ignomancy) in which they receive no penalty in developing, and most never achieve Dreammastery, a state that not only requires the amount of experience points to purchase, but an extensive journey into the Dreamtime; a voyage that may take several years. Needless to say, not many promising Dreammasters return, as spending several years in the Dreamtime without being lost is about as hard a task as anyone can perform. Conflagration (Ignomancy) X Fire Affinity This is a special power reserved only for those who have Conflagration as their affinity Dweomer. This power grants the Ignomancer a certain relief from fire; it increases her tolerance to its scorching heat. In game terms, damage that is a direct result of her own Ignomancy does not afflict the Flameworker. All other fire, including attacks from other Ignomancers still delivers normal damage. Again, this ability is only available for those Ignomancers whose specialty Dweomer (or "affinity", if you will) is Conflagration. This includes Oneiromancers with two affinities. An Ignomancer with this ability can only become a master in Conflagration, no other Dweomer. X Call Heat The Fae may heat up the palms of his hand by calling on the force of fire. By doing thus she may use this force to, for instance, boil liquid (at a rate of one cubic foot per turn), or make an elemental attack against someone. X Sense Heat Pretty basic; the character has the ability to sense heat. And no, we don't mean that he can sense there's a fire three feet away from him, this power implies that the character can, for instance, sense body heat in a person (as in the equivalent to "see infrared" for instance), or a lesser heat source in the proximity. In short, it allows a greater sensitivity (though it does not entail any greater vulnerability) towards heat. XX Flameworking: Flameworking allows the Ignomancer control over fire. He may bend, sway and steer lesser flames and fires at command. This power easily gets out of control, however... XXX Create Flame The Flameworker may now conjure forth bursts of fire from nothing. Though only simple fireballs may be conjured, it can be considered a starting point for further actions XXXX Summon Flame Beasts The Ignomancer may now summon fire elementals. These dangerous beings have to remain in contact with a source of fire; when that source is broken, they vanish (but may be re-summoned). These elementals have no physical stats treat as Dexterity 2 for the purposes of moving and can therefore not be harmed by physical attacks. They are, however, beings of fire, and may therefore be fought like any other fire. XXXX Firewalking The Flameworker may leap through fire and emerge at another fiery location. This power is not without peril, though; the Ignomancer risks burns. The number of successes required to pull this stunt is 4, at difficulty 8. For every number of successes lesser than four, treat as one health level of damage (i.e. three successes grants success but with one HL damage, two successes grants two HL damage, grants three HL damage, and finally, one success entitles the hap hazardous character to a stunning (no pun intended) three Health Levels of damage. A botch results in catastrophe; either the manoeuvre simply fails, or the caster is caught within the flames. However, if the caster possesses Fire Affinity, she does gain its benefits when using this power, hence avoiding its damage. Hey, didn't your mother teach you not to play around with fire? XXXXX Firemastery Now the Flameworker has complete control over fire. She can now meld with fire, becoming one with it, and summon gigantic firestorms at will. The Firemaster is quite dangerous to her environs; not only is her physical form warm, and can even cause ignition on its own, but the Firemaster is quite hot tempered, and enrages easily. It's just one of the perils of playing with fire.
The Hosts of the Wilds

They dwell in the wildwoods and the Wilderness where mortals fear to thread. They are the Satyrs and the Unicorns, the Redcaps, the Clurachauns, the Walking tree men, and, perhaps, the Nunnehi. They dwell in the few last woods in the World and in the vast wilderness of Arcadia. It is said that the Garou and the others of the Changing Breed are of their blood, and many Garou, Gurahl, Bastet and Corax dwell amongst this host. Their masters call them the Arboreals, but they claim no name for themselves.
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The Host of the Wild have several affinity Dweomer. Animism Animism was the way of the old druids and of the shamans of non-western cultures. It allows for a greater understanding of the vegetative life, and of nature as a whole. Note that these powers do not affect fungi, as they are not plants. X Sense Vegetation As its name implies, this power grants the Animist the power to sense vegetative presence in the environs. X Skin of the Chameleon The Fae may change the hue of her skin (not her clothing) to that of any given surface. XX Touch Vegetation: This power grants the ability to summon forth vegetation from the surrounding environs, causing them to grow at an alarming rate. The Animist may cause the vegetation to sprout forth towards a general area, but not control its exact movement. However, it may cause objects in its way to become entangled. XX Guise of the Wild The Animist may blend with the environs, rendering her visually invisible to the naked eye. Some non-mundane powers may see through the effect. XXX Bend Vegetation The Animist may bend and shape vegetation in any desirable form. The amount of vegetation affected is determined by number of successes, as per ordinary rules. The higher Tuigse, the higher area of effect, naturally. XXX Summon Vegetation The caster causes vegetation to sprout from any fertile area (not barren ground). The vegetation summoned is random, usually pertaining to what is natural for the area in effect. XXX Vegetative Form The Animist may assume the vegetative form of any plant within the immediate area. When in this state, the caster is, for all thoughts and purposes, a plant. However, the Animist may use her powers to move and act as if human, as far as it is possible in her shape. She may also expand (i.e. grow) at will, at a rate of three feet per turn. XXXX Plant Meld The caster may meld with vegetative life to emerge from any plant
The Host of Beauty:

The Host of Beauty are often dismissed as foolish, idle, decadent parasites. They amuse themselves by breaking the hearts of the unwary, be they mortal or immortal. But the Host has another role, too. They are enchantresses par excellence. They create some of the greatest of faerie treasures, imbuing even the most mundane jewellery and weaponry with the shining power of faerie's magic. For this the Host are treasured, and indeed, feared. Enchantment. This power seems, at first, to be a random, scattered thing. But one delicious, horrific secret unites the Enchantresses ways. The Enchantresses use people to further their ends, and use people to create the mightiest faerie treasures X Charm Charm is the Host of Beauty's nature, it is their curse, and it is their favoured weapon. To look upon one of the host is to be ensnared. A mortal looking upon one of the host is always distracted, always enchanted. Even in the midst of distraction, even before death, the mortal's head will always turn to the daughter of the Host, and be ensnared. System: The enchantress's presence distracts the victim. To avoid this distraction, one must make willpower check (roll one dice for every point of willpower) and get more than 3 successes to not be distracted. In combat, the enchantress always gets the initiative. The other party will always make a "double-take" to look upon the vision they are beholding. XX Seduce: The power of magical seduction is the first real magic enchantresses of the host learn. It is the power to literally seduce
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mortals, and make them suggestible, the power to make victims allow the enchantress to make them do things. And these things are not merely sexual. They can be anything. System: Use the seduction rules in the main Changeling rulebook. But add extra dice for the level of the Enchantress's power. If she has 2 points in her birthright, then she adds 2 dice to her dice pool. If successful, however, then things get interesting. The victim in her power is now completely intoxicated by the attentions of the enchantress. The victim will do anything anything to maintain the enchantress's favour. However, the spell fades, the longer the victim spends away from the enchantress. Each day, the victim can roll a willpower check. If he gets more than three successes, he can roll his wits + survival, in a resisted roll against the enchantresses appearance + leadership. This goes on, until he is free, or the enchantress returns. XXX Awaken: This is perhaps the enchantresses most valued and feared power. It is, at its worst, a most blatant manipulation, and at best, the salvation of the fey race. The enchantress reaches inside the subject's soul, and sees what lies within. It can awaken a mage's "avatar" or open an exile's eyes to her inner nature. It can reveal secrets of sexuality, madness, and hidden pain. It can reveal what is hidden. However, there are dark tales, of mortals kidnapped by the enchantresses, and awakened, over and over and over again, until they are creatures of pure passion, beyond all rules of morality, or human sensibility. These unfortunates are said to burn with shivering passionate energy. None know what becomes of them. System: The moment of awakening is a traumatic one. The enchantress reaches inside the subject's soul, and caresses something within. The avatar, or hidden fey self awakens. A Garou's hidden form emerges. But in a mortal, the mortal's hidden nature comes to the fore. It comes to the fore as an irrepressible, passionate force. A man hiding his homosexuality will try to kiss any man nearby. A woman hiding her feelings of loss cries out, and does not stop until the pain is gone. Such people were once said to be "faerie touched" and it is true, sometimes. Note: This is a pure storytelling tool. There is no defence against it. Once the fey touches the subject, and the fey wills it so, it happens. XXXX Chimera: Chimera are creatures of the Oneiras, the dream realms. They are echoes of faerie creatures that once were, or dreams of mortals. And the enchantresses can create them. They can conjure them out of dreams, and set them loose in the world. It is the subject of a brewing war between the Host of Dreams and the Host of Beauty, who see these things as their domain. And well they should, because, these things are a blasphemy. Using the "awaken" power, the enchantresses create a mortal "offering" one awakened, over and over and over again, over the course of a human month, till they are little but pure emotion, passion, and magic. Every drop of magic within the mortal is brought to the fore; the mortal is remade, utterly, to an immortal spirit, and then, imbued with the power of the dreaming. And then transformed into a chimerical creature; a pet to serve the enchantresses. System: use the rules for Chimera from Changeling the Dreaming, or the Werewolf storyteller's guide to create suitable Chimera. Imbue This last is the reason the enchantresses are so treasured; they can create immortal faerie treasures, from the most mundane of objects. Other sorcerers can create magical treasures, but none so fine, so beautiful, or as powerful, outside of Arcadia, as the enchantresses. They do not forge these things; they merely take them and transmute them from the base metal of their original form to a thing of faerie. A cheap, junk shop replica katana becomes something endlessly sharp and beautiful, at the enchantresses'
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hands. All it takes is a mortal's precious soul. System: This power creates magical artefacts. It takes a mortal soul and magic, and turns it into something sublime. The victim is awakened and awakened and awakened again, until she is utterly gone beyond her mortality. Then the mortal is sacrificed, and her bloody, and soul is poured onto the item to be made magical. The Enchantress then works n the item, cleaning it, decorating it, spending Anam on the thing. The thing burns with the fire of Arcadia, and then after a cycle of the moon is passed, it is ready. The item's power level depends on how much extra Anam has been spent on the item, by the enchantress. 1 point of Anam equals one level of enchantment. The Noble Host. Be they the descendants of the Norse Vanir, or the Celtic sidhe, or the North American children of the Manitou, the Noble Host claim one bond; they are kin to the Seraphim of Heaven. It may be true, it may not but the noble host, are majestic, fiery, lordly, and mighty warriors. Theirs is command of the secret fire of the world, the command of the human spirit, and the fire of arcadia. To see a noble fey in her moment of wrath, is to see a vision of the world before There are two major powers used by the Nobles. War: This birthright reflects the noble's passionate, violent, warlike nature. Like all birthrights, it is something the character is born with, part of his faerie nature, but like all birthrights it must be honed. The system is simple. Add 1 dice to your combat dice pool. Add 2 dice. Add 3 dice. Add 4 Dice Add 5 dice. 3 points of Anam must be spent each time the character enters combat. If the combat lasts more than 10 rounds, a point of willpower must be spent on each round to continue fighting. Example: Irene's Nobel character is in combat. The character, Chantal, has a dexterity score of 4, and a melee score of 3. Her dice pool is therefore 7. But she has 3 points in her birthright of warfare. So her dice pool is 10. Ass is kicked. But in the aftermath, her character is weakened, due to the expenditure of Anam. Inspiration: This is the birthright of the rulers of the fey, its princes, its lordlings, its captains and its kings. This is not a magic, this is the power of ancestry and blood, burning in the Wild One's veins. This is the legacy of Auberon and Titania, the inheritance to all the exiled children of the noble host. This is why the fey prevail, and this is why the fey will be destroyed. The word of the noble is law. X Protocol: enforces noble protocol, etiquette and custom on everyone within its influence. Each success indicates the number of successes that must be gained on a WP roll (vs. 7) to break protocol. The effects last until sunup or sundown, or until the caster or reigning noble cancels it, whichever is appropriate. XX Dictum: allows the caster to command others. The caster need only phrase the command in the form of a direct request and expect it to be carried out. The command cannot be longer than an hour's duration, and a person cannot be commanded to put herself in danger, although the caster can command her to guard a place or a person. Successes indicate the number of successes that must be gained on a WP roll (vs. 7) to avoid instantly complying with the request. This cantrip expires in one hour. XXX Grandeur: imbues the caster with unearthly grace and supernatural beauty. So awe-inspiring is he that no one can
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strike him or take any violent action against him without first overcoming the Grandeur. The effect lasts for an entire scene, or until it is voluntarily abandoned. Successes indicate how many successes must be gained on a WP roll (vs. 7) to make any motion at all in the presence of the noble using Grandeur. XXXX Command: This power gives the aristocrat the power to command all around who hear his call. It is the general's voice, the warlord's voice. All who hear the word of the noble will follow him wherever he goes. System: The aristocrat makes a Charisma + leadership roll, against a difficulty of 6. With more than 2 successes, listeners will down tools and pick up arms. With more than 4 successes, they will die, rather than to disobey. To resist needs a willpower roll, difficulty 9. XXXXX Geasa: allows the caster to place a Geas (a quest) or Ban (a prohibition) upon a person. If the Geasa is not fulfilled to the letter, the person affected by it will suffer some kind of curse, usually named at the casting. Once the Geasa is laid, it is virtually impossible to break; the safest way is to fulfil the task, though if the task proves impossible (killing a person who is already dead), the Geasa is nullified. Banality may be used to counter the effects of this cantrip, or the victim may try to avoid its effects by spending a permanent WP point and succeeding in a WP roll (Difficulty equal to 4 plus the number of successes gained by the caster). Successes indicate the difficulty of the Geasa and the severity of the curse: 1 success Simple Geasa/minor curse 2 successes More complicated Geasa/moderate curse 3 successes Very difficult Geasa/Major curse 4 successes Nearly impossible task/far-reaching curse 5 successes Legendary Geasa/deadly curse
The society of the fey.

The fey blooded, the exiles, lost ones, call them what you will, gather in a loose confederation, joined together less by bonds of law and dominion, but rather by friendships, correspondences and lately, the Internet. They are few; amongst mortals, they are barely noticeable. Yes they are possessed with a certain glimmer, a fascination, a light, but they are hardly noticeable as a social group. The centre of any fey grouping is the Freehold. These freeholds are places where the fey gather. In a manner similar to medieval lords the protector of the freehold is the one with the strength to enforce it. The local lord is therefore the one most skilled in politics and battle, and that, typically means a Sidhe knight. But the similarity ends there. The Sidhe use a method of rule, of politics and law with more in common with the ancient Gaelic Brehon laws. The Brehon laws were a system of law in Ireland until the coming of Norman rule. These laws retain a fascination to scholars of legal history, as they offered rights to citizens that would not reappear until modern times. In the fey freeholds, these laws are maintained as a convenience; a tradition, a short hand governing behaviour. Auberon's Call. In truth, Sidhe legitimacy comes from tradition; those of the noble host are those blessed by Auberon and Titania, and even the king of the fey in a land rules as a mere viceroy to Mab and Auberon. The laws of the Escheat, and the Laws of the Moon are laws rooted in immortal tradition. Hence the simmering resentment of commoners. These laws are laws of the blood, to transgress against their very nature. The Sidhe like it this way.
The lawmakers and the lawkeepers.

Enforcement of laws comes from those appointed to do so under the Laws of the Moon. But the interpretation, and execution of those laws comes from the Draiocht, and perhaps it was their return, not the Sidhe, which sparked the bloodshed in the early 70s. The Draiocht magicians, lawmakers, lawyers and, indeed, executioners are those appointed to remember; they remember stories, laws, truths, lies, histories, and secrets of magic. Princes defer to them. Commoners tremble in their presence. The Sidhe may speak for Auberon, but the Draiocht speak for the Moon, and the Moon is Auberon's grandmother. The other problem is that the Laws of the Moon are purely an oral tradition, and it is forbidden to the uninitiated to learn them.
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The Draiocht can pronounce sentence of death, or banishment, or ordeal on any transgressor. Death: this is the rarest of sentences, but those of the Unseelie Court are under permanent sentence of Death. While the modern, liberal, forgetful fey may see the Unseelie Court as an amusing diversion, a small decadence, a bit of dark fun, the Draiocht well remember the coming of the Tithe and the wars which proceeded it. They also know that the Unseelie court of Arcadia is coming close to exterminating the Seelie court there. Anyone who would murder a noble can face the sentence of death, and that is no small thing amongst a race of exiled immortals. Transgressions: Treason, Infernalism, the murder of a noble, the rape of a noble, or continued violation of the Laws of the Moon. Banishment: This is a lesser sentence, and in modern times, a common one. Banishment can be permanent "until the world ends and the sky falls" or for a certain time "for a lunar year." Nowadays, with cheap, easy travel across the world, a temporary banishment is no real punishment. There are a very great number of the fey blooded living in Goa, under marks of banishment from many places, such as Canada, Australia, the US, Great Britain and Europe. Transgressions: Cowardice in war, theft, dealing with enemies (such as vampires or certain mages), speaking against a noble, insulting a noble. Ordeal: This is the most common of all sentences. A fey that transgresses in some non-treasonous way, can expect to face an ordeal. These ordeals can amount to an unofficial sentence of death; or a severe lesson. If the fey does something particularly terrible, such as murdering a commoner, the murderer usually must face an appointed champion of the next of kin. This appointed champion is always a Sidhe knight. The murderer is stripped naked, and given a knife. The knight is allowed his armour, and his sword. Rape is one crime, which goes against every instinct of the fey. A rapist who is not automatically sentenced to death is either sent naked out into the ocean in a small boat, with no provisions, no water and no compass, or must face his or her victim, or the victim's champion in single combat. The Draiocht have been known to devise particularly vile punishments for rapists, and officially calling them "ordeals." Lesser offences include learning Unseelie magics and/or using them; or speaking against the Draiocht in some minor matter. Fey society does not commonly hand out such sentences; there are no real courts of law, there are no real political offices. There are few enough Draiocht, and few nobles see themselves as having the authority enough to constantly enforce his laws. The fey leave well enough alone. But sometimes, the laws have got to be enforced. The exile fey are being hunted to extinction, they are beset on all sides. The very world they love so much is growing old and dying under their feet, and the chill winds of that aging, that banality, are killing them. In that context, someone who threatens what order the Sidhe lords have, must be struck down. However, such liberal, laissez faire attitudes do not apply everywhere; in certain places, such as the fey strongholds of New York State, Ottawa, Helsinki, London, Paris, Milan and San Francisco. In places with a large fey population, Dukes, duchies and freeholds are the order of the day, and a different set of laws and responsibilities for the fey citizens of those places. Politics: The Noble Host rule the Seelie Court. The Noble Host is divided into titled and untitled fey. The Titled Fey are fey whose ancestry grants them such privileges. The untitled are noble sidhe who belong to no house, who are orphans from the Resurgence, or simply ones whose ancestry has been forgotten. The Noble Host all claim descendancy from the First amongst the Fallen, the archangels Araquael and Tzaphiel, and those who swore the fey race to the Moon. Their names may be forgotten, but their blood has not. Fierce in battle, and wise and intelligent, the Noble Host, named the Sidhe in the West, are natural rulers. The Laws of the Moon name them so. But things are not all sweetness and light. The Seelie lords of Fay-rye are fallen to decadence, and those who yet stand against the Spiral Tower are being slowly engulfed, surrounded and massacred. As above, so below. The returned Sidhe were nearly destroyed by the hard, cold reality of the earth in its age. Those who survived were those who took mortal bodies and expelled their souls. A paltry few managed to survive as flesh-and-blood fey, but most who did not take mortal bodies died. But the act of taking a human host is an unnatural thing, forbidden by the Laws of the Moon (although the Draiocht remain silent on the issue), and for good reason. The experience is warping the mind of many (if not most) of the returnees; they are been driven slowly insane, or becoming so decadent and twisted to commit such atrocities that would make an Unseelie knight look away. It has been a thirty-year struggle for these fey, and they are losing the fight.
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But the Noble's children are growing to adulthood, even now. When the nobles returned in a moment, a mad time of magic and music and light and ecstasy, they lay with many humans, and many of these unions bore fruit. Some were born as normal humans, beautiful yes, long lived, yes but ordinary humans nonetheless. Others were born possessed of certain insights; they live as sorcerers or mages, or just inspired artists and dreamers. But many were born as immortal fey, the heirs to the thrones of the undying. They were born with the stars of the northern skies in their eyes, with hair of silver, blood and gold, and they are the princes of the twilight, of the dawning and the moment of music. In their hands lies the fate of the fey. Not tainted by madness, born of occupying a body that is not theirs, nor driven to depths of depravity to retain their identity, these children, adolescent, barely adult, born broken and confused, are the only hope for the fey of two worlds, and indeed Creation itself. In their blood is the blood of angels, the blood of men, and the dreams of a world long dead. They must fight to survive against their elders; against the Unseelie court, against the Dominion, against Banality, and against all the threats the world has to offer them. Worse they have to discover who they are, in an uncertain world. The elders have legitimacy, power, and strength. The third part of the struggle, the hidden part, is the struggle in the halls of fey nobility, between the Draiocht and the nobles. The Draiocht hold the secrets of the Laws of the Moon; they hold magics that rival the strength of the Nobility; they are powerful, and they are politically astute. They see the dangers that reach out for the faerie Diaspora clearly, and they know what must be done. They are slowly intriguing against the Nobility, becoming the power behind the thrones of many a Sidhe duke. But in other places the intrigue and conflict is more open, with Draiocht openly reaching for authority. The Sidhe Draiocht are loyal to their Drai brothers first, the Nobility second. The Draiocht are also in control of their mortal hosts, where applicable; many Draiocht retain their original fey forms. They are far more powerful and knowledgeable than the Nobility. But there are eight other hosts. Although no one would really, in polite circles, name them so, they are the commoners, and they are subservient, under the Laws of the Moon, to the Nobility. The hosts are ancient designations, apparently related to which order of angels the fallen came from. The nobles are either descended from the Archangels or the Seraphim, according to some scholars, which makes them naturally more powerful, and superior to their fellows. "We are merely first amongst equals," some Noble apologists say; but truly, the other 8 hosts are inferior, in status and power, to the Nobles. This of course makes the political situation even more volatile. The commoners elected their own leaders, under the Laws of the Moon, and had their own Draiocht when the Nobles were "lost" in Arcadia. The Resurgence stripped the commoners of these rights and authorities. While the "commoners" have many rights, returned to them graciously (some would say condescendingly) by the Sidhe, many want more. Indeed some secretly desire to kill off the sidhe, and their heirs on earth, and return things to status quo ante bellum. This makes them perfect targets for recruitment by agents of the Unseelie court. Even those seeking, by peaceful means, to return many rights and privileges lost to the commoners, would do well to wonder whom their allies, supporters and benefactors are. Not all fey are political; many just live their lives, trying to survive. But some are. And the members of that minority are vocal. These souls are intellectuals, thinkers, revolutionaries and politicians. It defines their lives, while others exist as writers or artists or knights or occultists. There are three major commoner factions. The first, and most vocal of these factions is the "Democrats", who are reasonably moderate, but they demand their rights, lost when the Nobility returned, restored to them. They do not advocate a massacre of the sidhe, or anything similar, but they want to be allowed elect their lawmakers. The second, and largest of the commoner factions claim no name or title. These people, if not happy about the sidhe resurgence, are not terribly discontent, either. They tolerate the Sidhe presence, as long as the sidhe do not step out of bounds. They are rarely heard, except in times of sidhe atrocities, and when their voice is heard, it is a powerful political motivation. If this group were to become politically active, then the Sidhe would most likely be defeated. The third faction are the revolutionaries. This faction wants to make war on the Sidhe, and this faction is quiet, and growing. Of course their are shades of opinions within each of the factions, and different political flavours. Some groups have benefactors, such as the Seelie sidhe who do their utmost to ensure the middle, moderate, silent faction of commoners remains content, or the Draiocht who sometimes support the "democrat" faction, as they hope it will undermine much sidhe power, returning it to the lawmakers... in other words, the Draiocht.
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Afterword:
There's a song playing through another wall All we see and believe is the D.J. and debts dissolve And it's a shame the plane is leaving on this sunny day Cos on you my tattoo will be bleeding and the name will stain But oh if you stay we'll ride from disguised suburban graves We'll go from the bungalows where the debts still grow every day And oh if you stay I'll chase the rainblown fears away We'll shine like the morning and sin in the sun oh if you stay. -- Suede The Wild Ones. OK, its been, what? Eight months since I promised this? Yes, it was, and yes, I suck. And why was it late? Because number crunching makes my ears bleed. I am one of those cussed storytellers who doesn't like lots of die rolling. And lists of Kewl Powerz are tedious. Especially to write. And lists of kewl abilities are even more so, so the real heroes of the hour are the wonderful J. Edward Tremlett, and Bjorn T. Boe, who bailed me out, and came up with all this number crunching stuff. So what now? Well, now I can finally start work on the fourth part of the trilogy, which includes splat write-ups and some art, and how you play a Druid, and just what is going on in the world of the Exiled Fey. And it's all about to be renamed the Wild Ones. And when that's done, the second edition of this mess will be released in PDF format, with art, and kewl fonts, backgrounds and stuff, and and and Stay tuned. Special Thanks to: Everyone at ELN. Anna Lena Yvnge Sarah Ouellet Meetu (no I can't spell your second name). Samar Khatab. Don Campbell Christopher Braak Bart Fieviez
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Articles
Th e Wild Ones
Game: Changeling: The Dreaming by Gavin Bennett The Exile Fey, Part Four The first snows had come to Toronto, torn across the Great Lakes like some white wave. The temperatures had fallen so fast you could actually watch the thermometer fall. The snow wouldnt stay, not just yet. This was winters herald, but it was not winter. But that would come soon. The temperature was six below freezing, and with the wind kicking in out of the Northwest; the wind chill was something far colder. Kieran closed his eyes and drank in deeply of the bitter, bitter air. His breath exploded out of his mouth, blue and silver. Central railway station was nearly empty. On a long train ride from Montreal, there had been precious few other passengers. A ghetto blaster at someones feet played Redemption Songs. Kieran smiled, and grasped his guitar case tightly, and shrugged to make his knapsack more comfortable. There would be no one here to meet him, he complained to himself. Of course he should have called ahead. He could also have walked the secrets ways, under that other sky, but such things have a price, and he had done it far too often recently. But he had always loved trains, loved the sense of occasion, the lulling rhythm of the wheels bumping on the tracks, the romance. And the journey, down the St. Laurence River, is especially beautiful, especially as winter chills the world white and the sky to palest blue and grey, and the trees sleep naked and old. But there, beyond, at the convenience store, he recognised someone. Someone, a vague distant shape, but someone he recognised anyway. He closed his eyes, and then looked again with fey eyes. There.
Any fey with a Tuigse of more than 4 can Someone, whose aura glowed a walk the ways of the moon. This allows little brighter; who glistened like the faerie traveller between places to frost under starlight; someone walk from one place to another, so long who was born of immortal blood. as the moon is shining over both places, and casting a shadow, or a reflection. One of the People. Even as he This costs 3 points of Anam to watched, the other turned to look accomplish, and thus is rarely done as a
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"Kieran Ap Liam," he heard, from trivial exercise. The traveller must walk far off, in a whispered, ghostly towards the moon, knowing where they voice. "Yes?" he said. "We must speak." A woman waited for him by the store. A small woman, in her twenties, of Vietnamese origin; she was delicate and childlike, but her eyes betrayed far more than age. "I am sorry," Kieran said. "But have we met?" "Yes, once, long ago, in Vancouver." Kieran smiled, a sudden, cold smile. "Ah. Then." "Yes. We shall speak no more of those things. Not now."
Kieran paused for a moment, remember that time, two years ago, when he was younger and stupid and hed met Stephen and Marya and Alice, and Rachel, the crazy Australian girl. They were all dead now. He thinks of flame and sword and blood, and then, he forced himself back to reality. It was past, it was done, and nothing more could be done about it, not yet, not now. "No, we shall speak no more of such things," Kieran agreed, his manner cold and sudden. He would not cry. Little things; Alices face when he lay with her, Rachels laugh and her tattoos; he thought of duelling Stephen by the docks, and the wind was cold coming down out of the mountains, their swords of unearthly steel ringing out in the evening air. Marya singing "Rainy Night in Soho" in some bar downtown, and everyone, everyone, the bouncers and the drunks and the lovers, and the college boys, all crying; she lured them all to tears. He looked away, staring at the advertisement posters on the grey walls of the concourse. "What is your name," he said, at last. "Amaya," she replied. "I am pleased to meet you, Amaya." They walked, in silence, out of the station. "I have a car waiting," she said, once out into the bitter wind. Icy shrapnel of snow whipped down the wind, stinging his face. It did not seem to bother the woman. She wore her parka loosely, unbuttoned, a cotton shirt and jeans underneath. She led him to a small, second hand blue Ford, that sat untouched, amongst a lot filled with snow covered cars. She opened the trunk and helped him put his case, knapsack and guitar inside. He sat in the passenger seat, and while she sat into the car, and started the engine, he
must go. This can also mean travelling to a person. The person in question must be a friend, and the traveller must know generally where they are (this means, they must know that their friend is in a specific place; so no using this to rescue a trapped friend from the villain. But once they find where the villain is, and where he is holding their friend, then they can arrive to the rescue.). To the traveller, it seems as if the moon swells and grows brighter, so that they are dazzled by the silver light; to an observer, it seems as if the traveller has simply passed from view. It is not a showy effect; rather a subtle, gentle thing. To open observing the arrival, it just seems like the traveller has arrived on foot. Again, no flashes of light, no noise; the character just arrives. If the character does not know specifically where they are going, and have no knowledge of where they are going, the character must roll intelligence + enigmas, and get 3 successes against a difficulty of 9.
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permitted himself to be afraid. What now? There was always something. Always. She turned the radio to some forgettable daytime radio show. She in silence, for a time. Then, surprisingly, she spoke.
All Conte nt and Art is c opy right 1 9 9 9 , 2 0 0 3 , 2 0 0 4 , 2 0 0 6 Kathe rine Burre s s and Chris tophe r Sim m ons unles s otherwis e Spec if ie d. Applic able inf orm ation, books and produc ts are drove, 1 9 9 7 White Wolf Publis hing, I nc . All right s res e rv ed, any re produc e d art work or t ex t are f or rev iew purpos e s only.
"So where have you been?" Her accent was pure Toronto, he noted. Her ancestry was just that, ancestry. The notion disturbed him, somehow. "Oh, everywhere. Europe, mostly."
"That sounds cool. I was in France last year, visiting friends. No toilet roll. I had a great time, though. I was able to practice my lousy school French." Kieran laughed, surprising himself. "This radio station is crap." "I know. Ancient Vietnamese torture method: The Spice Girls cause exquisite agony," she said in an exaggerated Oriental accent. She switched the channel. "Better." "Whered you go?" "France; well Paris mostly. Norway, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Ireland..." he began, listing off the countries, counting them off on his fingers. "We all heard about your time in Ireland. Hard not to." They drove on. Her apartment was an old, battered loft. The sort of things students dream of, she said, and yes, before you ask, I cheated; it belonged to...others. "I need your help," she said, at last. "We need your help." Kieran said nothing, sat down on a couch, closed his eyes; he was cold, cold from the wind outside, and cold inside too. He smiled at her, then, sadly, perhaps, a brief, wintry smile. He wrapped his arms around himself, hugging himself. He bit his lip, bowed his head. "Whats wrong?" he whispered, and then, louder, "what do you want?" She winced at his tone. "No," he said, gently, "it is not my way, to hold grudges. I am honoured that you would come to me for assistance in whatever matter that troubles you. Its just that... I am very tired indeed." She sat down beside him. He smiled again, closed his eyes. She was making him nervous. He refused to show it. She took a deep breath, looked away, and then took his hand. "I know," she said, simply. "My people have a story; a secret story, about
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where we come from. Some say the Wan Xian, and the Hsien, and the Hengeyokai, were made along with others, to defend against the Yama Kings and their evil. We say it a little differently. We say that there were only the Wan Xian, the Immortals of Fire and Flame and Fury, and all of us disappointed our creator, like spoiled children. Some say we loved too much of this Earth, loved the touch of flesh and the breath of wind and the sound of the sky above our heads, and thus we looked away from Him, and angered the Celestial Courts. I tell you this story, because in Vancouver, a man named Gibreel died in my arms. He was a storyteller. I stayed up all night with him, as he faded from life. We immortals do not die easily. We know what it is we are losing. He told me the stories you of the people of Fayrie tell, amongst yourselves, how you are kin to angels, who would neither fight with God, nor be damned like Satan; or the stories of his people, who were of the Sons of Fire who would not bow to the newborn mankind. I say this, because it is strange that enemies should tell the same stories of how they came to be." Kieran, for the longest time, said nothing, and then whispered: "We should not be enemies, but we have all, always, fought. We may be kin to angels or demons, or the immortals of Heaven, or however you tell it, but we are too much human to live in peace. And we have all eternity to hold grudges." "They tell me, Kieran... I hear you have a future ahead of you." "Assuming the world doesnt end first." He laughed. The joke wasnt funny, but she laughed along with him. "Now, whats up?" ***** "Your people would call her Morgan Le Fay. We have another name for her. She came to China in 680, or thereabouts. The secret histories are not my thing. Id sooner watch Maury send 14 year old skanks to boot camp than listen to them. But I have a job to pass this on. She came to China, and walked amongst the Hsien; at first they accepted her. She had things they wanted to learn. They were in the middle of a war with someone anyway, so a western stranger with kewl magical powers was always useful. Morgan is what you would call..." "A Draiocht," Kieran interrupted. "A magician, a sorceress." "Yes. Draiocht means Druid, doesnt it?" "Druid is the gallic term for the Draiocht, yes. Asterix and all that." "Yes, well, she thought us how to steal the magics the Taoists were using. She thought us to steal their magics. It didnt always work the same way, and it was incredibly dangerous, but it worked. We won our little war. Morgan stayed for a few decades, a century at most. She slept around, dropped a few kids, and had a few soap operas. By the time she left, the lords of our people were very, very tired of her. They tried to imprison her. She destroyed whomever the lords sent after her. She got away. The lords tried to stamp out any legacies she may have left; children with her blood were killed; magicians who learned from her, or admitted to knowing her were executed, after a few years of torture; and any treasures she made, or helped make were rounded up, and destroyed. It didnt work. Not really. It polarised us, a little...." "It made an Unseelie court, didnt it?" "Yes, what you would call an Unseelie Court. We called them the Forlorn People. They stay out of the way, but in winter, they hold rites, and
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ceremonies, and they collaborate on certain things. They deal with the Yellow Springs..." "Yellow Springs?" "The Underworld," she said, and continued. "They were not evil, they werent dealing with the Infernal, they were not really a threat to us; they were a secret society, and it was good to have them on your side. But since the Eye of the Demon King has lit up in the Heavens, the Forlorn People have become more... aggressive. The Forlorn People were a big supporter of our war on your people, needless to remark. I am not blaming them. I am not absolving us of responsibility; but I am trying to explain. But they do things. Things happen that has their stink about it. And the world is getting older, and our people are dying, and they, they dont want to die. I dont want to die. None of us do. Some if my people, they think that the Forlorn People will save them. That the Forlorn People will find some way, some exchange for our survival. We know, but we dont say it, that they will perpetrate some horror that will allow some of us to survive. Their favourites, of course; and many of us will curry that favour to live." She was silent, and she said, her eyes, red and tearing: "We are immortals, and we know what it is we stand to lose." ***** They walked along the cold, windswept lakeshore. The citys light danced behind them, obscured by the oncoming rush of wind and snow. Their breath steamed, caught by the North-westerly wind that arced across the lake. The lake surface was soupy and grey from the early, dirty ice. Slush crunched on the pavement below them. She thought she heard him sing. She turned to look at him, saw his lips moving, his eyes on some faraway place. She listened more intently. "Little wing, dont fly away, When summer turns to fall, Dont you know, some people say, That Winters the best time of them all... winter is the best of all." "Thats sweet," she whispered. She thought the wind had carried her words away, but eventually, he looked down at her, and grinned. "I know. Bit before your time, though." "Neil Young, isnt it? From Hawks and Doves? 1980?" He laughed then, made a gesture of defeat. "OK, ok. I give in." "Bit before your time, my ass." "So," he said. "Tell me whats going on." "Last winter, a woman came from England, to Toronto. Other things were happening, so we hardly noticed." "Other things?" "India."
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"Ah. Go on." "She was one of your people, a Draiocht, as you would say, of House Eiluned. She immediately telephoned one of the Forlorn People. She has been here since, staying in one of the Forlorn Peoples houses in Guelph. We believe she is planning something untoward. Fuck, I dont know, but some of my friends are all riled up about it. We need someone who knows her, knows what she is capable of, and we need that someone to make her stop." ***** Winter had deepened, and was close to passing. On a day when it was close to freezing, maybe 1 or 2 out, Kieran went to Guelph. Amaya was there, as was Justine and Jessica. They wore heavy winter coats, sensible winter pants and gloves and mufflers. The mufflers were bright, pink and orange, bright in the pale, snowy, winter afternoon. Justine, slight and dark, and beautiful and French shivered, involuntarily. Flurries of snow flickered past, falling calmly on the quiet suburban street. Jessicas eyes burned red. But Kieran, Kieran was the focus, tall and pale and terrifying, standing on the driveway. Kieran walked to the door where the Forlorn People were said to be staying. "My name is Kieran Ap Liam, I am a Filiocht of the Seelie Court. I wish you to leave this place, now." "No," came the voice from inside. "If you want us to leave, you come in and get us!" A small impeccably dressed man, Asian, apparently in his late 30s opened the door. He wore a long kimono over his bare shoulders, and ragged blue jeans. His golden skin was perfect and muscled, and the shimmering fire of beyond haloed about him. He smiled, calmly. And everything went straight to hell from there. The Fae in these, the dying days. Who are the Wild Ones? To call one of the immortals a "faerie" or an "elf" or even a "changeling" is considered a mortal insult. They do not claim any especial name for themselves. Some might refer to themselves as "fey" or even "sithi" or "shee," but what follows for one of the People living in London may not follow for one of the People living in Stockholm. The People know one another by sight, they recognise their immortal auras, and so they have no need for an identifier. Some of the People refer to themselves as the "Exiles" but that is considered a very "proper" very haughty word. Worse, most mortal terminologies, the one which are not offensive are euphemisms: the kindly ones, the lords and ladies, the gentry. With this in mind, making generalisations about a people who do not even claim a singular title for themselves is difficult. But one thing is clear. The People are not human. In these, the dying days, they are born, these forgotten exiles, from mortal flesh, born human, born to mortal flesh, but as they get older, as the traumas of their adolescence as something not human, and their young adulthood knowing they are not like their peers, this humanity falls away. Slowly,
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but surely, human concerns, work ethics, honesty, morality, and faith, give away. Remember your concern for your toys as a child? Remember how you cared about so many things about them? Now how much do you care about a ripped dolls dress, or a broken wheel on a toy car. Those concerns were petty, silly things now, compared to the concerns of your real life. Now imagine if your adult concerns, if your adult taboos were as petty. That is how the older fey view your little, silly, mortal concerns about faithfulness, about not stealing, about not hurting people for no reason. Yes, there is a Seelie and an Unseelie court. The Seelie court plays at chivalry, but it is just that, a game. The Seelie court is terrifying, dangerous, violent, orgiastic, and amoral. It is just that the Unseelie court deliberately aligns itself with the Night. The Seelie court plays at being something else. It mouths the words, makes the gestures of being "good" and "moral." They are not. It was the Seelie court that led the Accordance War. The Unseelie court was destabilised, weakened. The Seelie Court led the Resurgence. The Seelie Court led the campaigns against the commoners. The Unseelie court may have revelled in the chaos, but they took orders from Seelie lords. Those Seelie leaders are slowly being destroyed as the hard cold reality of the world destroys their minds. The Unseelie leaders, protected by their black magics, and by the indulgences of their infernal allies, remain strong. Their power is in the ascension. In defence of the Seelie court however, it must be argued that they work, and think, and dream, and plan, on an immortal scale. The Accordance War was fought, not for the short-term benefit of subduing the commoners, but for the long-term prize of securing the earth for the People. Arguably, the Second Accordance war is not the Second war at all, but a mere continuance of the first. To the Seelie Nobles, a mere 30 years is a mayfly span of time, a blink of an eye, a lovers passion, and a small thing. They have been fighting the war since they arrived. Perhaps the violence was less, but the passion, the intent, and the intrigues continued. To one of the young Exiles, in their twenties, dabbling in the dark waters of their natures, exploring their passions, their power, their immortality, their rampaging emotions, this is their tragedy. Their humanity is a flickering warm fire, one that will eventually give way to the roaring inferno of the immortal faerie nature. A day will come when the simple taboos of not killing, or not stealing, or the amusing trivialities of the so-called Seven Deadly sins, become vague, amusing, silly, mortal things. Things that will be forgotten, and eventually will be ignored. This is not to say that the Seelie Court are evil. They are not. They do not stoop to the deliberate cruelty of humanity, or the cosmic horror of the Infernal forces. They simply do not acknowledge any mortal taboos. They think in the long term, and that long term is far long than any human life. Minor sacrifices such as that of a lover or a friend are acceptable in the long term. It is but a moments pain for a centurys victory. This game is about that short decade in a fey blooded creatures life, when she knows, at last, what she is, and still holds a little humanity, and the distant, immortal, amorality of their nature is held at bay, for a little time. Argument: Faerie magic is real. It is not illusory; it is however subtle, clever and
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unpredictable. Faeries may, or may not, be kin to angels. There are those amongst the Fey called Draiocht who are a terrifying presence even amongst a deadly, terrifying race. Character Creation; Hosts and Choirs. "It was at Enoch, where everything began, that events were truly set in motion. Enochs city. Enoch who became Metatron, Enoch who was cursed and damned and everything all at once, the man and the city. It was such a beautiful place, they say, built as a reflection of the great city in Heaven. It was so beautiful in the beginning, and then his son, changed, became cursed, and the others, and the darkness came and the sins. The angels. According to certain legends, the fey are descended from the angelic hosts and choirs of Heaven. The ancestors of the "faerie race" were the angels who neither sided with Michael, nor fell with Lucifer. Others say that these angels had walked the earth when it was newborn, and fell in love with it, and pledged loyalty to the new made earth, and not to the factions of Heavens Wars. Some suggest that the Hosts themselves, the nine hosts delineated by the Seelie Court in times gone by, are memories of the ancient Choirs of Heavens angels. Note: This is a purely optional rule, background information for Storytellers who want to play around with the notion that they fey are indeed descended from angels. They may not be. It is not a "true" thing, but rather it is quiet, comfortable legends, which most fey enjoy telling. If you are uncomfortable with the liberties taken with Hebraic myth, or uncomfortable with the notion of the fey being descended from angels, DO NOT USE IT! There are nine Orders, or Choirs of Angels: Seraphim, Cherubim, Malachim, Kuriotetes, Elohim, Ophanim Hashmaillim. Elim Ischim The Seraphim: The Children of the Dragon. They were considered the highest order of the Hierarchy of Angels. They are the Angels of Love, Light and Fire. Seraphim are the closest to God. Isaiah 6 in the Old Testament speaks of the Seraphim as "having six wings; two covering the face, two covering the feet, and two were used for flying." They are associated with the colour white.
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The Seraphim are the greatest of the Angels. They are beings of pure holy fire. They are beautiful and terrible. Their visage is ineffably bright. They are the least human of the Choirs, the closest to the divine. They are the original Sons of Fire. The literal sons of the dragon. Which Dragon, however, is in question, but some have speculated that they are the children of the Dragon of Life and Death, the dark shadow of creation, who it is said, is now bound at the centre of Hell. Whatever the case may be, they are old, old beyond words. That strange agelessness touches their distant descendants even now, marking the newborn scion of the faerie race as one of the Noble Host. But this distance, this separation from the ways of mortality is not without cost. The influence of this ancestry creates a disconnection, a way of viewing the world more attuned to the long term, to the immortal ways of the universe. The lives of petty mortals are small, mayfly things, to be ignored at will. When the Sidhe returned from Arcadia, the looked at the world with Seraphic eyes, seeing not the concerns of the misplaced lesser fey, but rather the work needed to be done, the plans that needed to be advanced. Perhaps this contributed to the violence of the First Accordance War. The Cherubim: The second highest Order of Angels. Their names stands for "Wisdom" or "one who prays." In the Throne Room, they were said to stand next to the Throne of God. They are also depicted on the Ark of the Covenant as its Guardians. The second highest Order of Angels. Their name stands for "Wisdom" or "one who prays." In the Throne Room they were said to stand next to the Throne of God. They are also depicted on the Ark of the Covenant as its Guardians. Cherubs are the first Angels mentioned in the Bible when two Cherubs are placed by God to guard the gates to Eden with Flaming Swords. "He drove out the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the Cherubim, and a Flaming Sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life." Genesis 3:24. The Cherubim were also known as the record keepers of Heaven. They were not described as the cute little "cupid like" angels depicted by painters, but instead as having four wings. There is, however, according to report, something childlike about the Cherubim. There is a sense of innocence about them, they appear slighter, especially beside their Seraphic kin. Some say that the Cherubim, the guardians of the gates of Eden, are kin to the fey of the Host of the Wilds. There is something primal about these angelic figures, a legacy their fey descendants also claim. Ophanim or Thrones. The third ranking Order of Angels. They were also known as "Wheels" and "the Many-eyed Ones". They were considered Angels of Justice as they were said to carry out God's decisions. These Angels were often believed to be deployed like charioteers around the Throne of God. They were described in Ezekiel 1:13-19 as having four wings and four faces. They sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. They had the hands of a man under their wings. Their wings were joined one to the other and they did not turn when they travelled - they all went straight forward. They had four faces. They had the face of a man as well as three other faces on their helmets - that of a lion, an ox, and an eagle. They moved on wheels in the middle of wheels, blue-green in colour. Above their heads "the likeness of the firmament," which was the colour of crystal, and under this
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were their wings, two on each side of their bodies. The noise of their wings was "like the noise of great waters." These angels descendants formed the Host of Dreams; the rarest of the fey. Of all the Choirs, the Ophanim kept the faith. Few of their numbers fell with Lucifer or were cast out as traitorous neutrals after the war in Heaven. Hashmaillim or Dominations. The fourth ranking Order of Angels. According to Jewish traditions, the success or failure of nations was decided by this Order of Guardian Angels. Dionysius claims that this realm "regulates the Angels." Dominations have been described as wearing long albs, or gowns reaching to their feet, hitched with a golden belt and adorned with a green sole. They carry golden staffs in the right hand and the Seal of God in the left. At other times, they are said to hold an orb or a spectre. Malachim or Virtues. The fifth ranking Order of Angels. They have been called "The Brilliant or Shining Ones." They were called the Angels of miracles, encouragement, and blessings, and were particularly involved with people struggling with their faith. Virtues have been said to be the chief bestowers of grace and valour. The two Angels at the Ascension of Jesus were traditionally believed to be from the Order of Virtues. Virtues were usually represented in a group. These angels were set over writing, and learning. The angelic text "Malachim" is their creation, and mortal magicians use a variant of this writing even today. Elohim, or Powers. The sixth ranking Order of Angels. Powers have been credited as being the first Order of Angels created by God. In Romans 13:1 it is written, "The Soul is subject to the Powers." It is their duty to protect the world from the infiltration of demons. They protect our souls from these evil beings and act as ministers of God who avenge evil in the world. It was also believed that at death, the Powers guided our transition to Heaven. The Powers are the watchmen on the way to Heaven. Their lord, Camael, is the commander of the mightiest, and direst Host of angels. He lays claim to the service of 144,000 angels of Destruction, and Vengeance, and Death. It was from this dark, and terrible, host, that Samael Lucifer drew most of his armies. Few remained neutral, and few, therefore, were cast out with the other betrayers. Kuriotetes or Principalities. The seventh ranking Order of Angels. The Principalities were described as the Angels who protect religions. They were also considered to be the guardians over the nations and the leaders of the world. It was from this Order that the Angel who aided David in his task of slaying Goliath was thought to have come. Principalities have been described as being dressed in soldier's uniforms with golden girdles. Elim: The eighth ranking Order of Angels. These were considered to be the Angels in command of ministering to humans. There is no agreed upon name for this order, and there is a reason for this. This order does not
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merely minister. They also serve as Heavens assassins, the feared Nimrodim. Also called Bene-Elohim, on occasion, and also mistakenly. Ischim: Sometimes mistakenly called "Angels," these figures are the messengers of Heaven to humanity. The most human of the angelic choirs, it is sometimes said that these angels are "translated" mortals, righteous souls who have transcended to Heaven, and are reborn as angels. The truth of the issue is unknown. The ninth ranking Order of Angels. (The word angel derives from the Greek "angelos" meaning "messenger.") These are the least amongst the Choirs. Those from this Choir are said to be forefathers of the Host of Beauty, although there is little evidence for this. ***** Hosts: There are nine Hosts of the Seelie Court. These nine Hosts may, or may not, be kin to the Choirs of the angels. These Hosts are not "species" nor are they "bloodlines" or "clans." Rather they are joined together by their powers, influences and responsibilities. The Host of the Stones are the delvers and sculptors and spirits of the deep earth, and have little in common with each other. Amongst their number are Dwarves and Trolls and Nockers and other things. But when they come to sup at the High Table in Arcadia, they sit under the banners of their Host. Everything said here is a rank generalisation. But certain currents of politics and effect do circulate amongst the hosts. The Host of the Shadows: The Host of the Shadows are the faeries of the Seelie court who practice dark magic and have powers over shadows and darkness. They are the fewest of the Hosts, and the least trusted. They dwell in the deep places. The Scots crofter in an age gone by, frozen in their tiny hovels on a winters night, their ears reaching out to the whispering musics below the wind, the chill, deathly whispers of the dead and the immortals walking across the moonlit hills, called these folk the Sluagh. Also called Umbrae. Amongst this Host, kin to the Ailva, are those who claim kinship to the Will o the wisps, to the fleeting shades fled from the lands of the Death. This Host are not merely the host of the night. They are not merely masters of the magic of shadows. They are kin to the dead. They can travel deep into the Underworld, and interact with the worst amongst the Ghosts. While the other Hosts, can, with magics, touch across the veil of life and death, the Host of the Shadows can walk the Underworld as any ghost, can touch any ghost, and can even, with knowledge and power, bring things back across the veil. Fey of this Host are marked in strange ways. Their voices are whispery; their skin is cold and pale. Their eyes are black pools in which strange futures can be seen. Thin, gaunt, the bones beneath their skin is more visible, more obvious. Mortals in their presence are terrified, and rightly so, because the Sluagh are drawn to death. And the dead are drawn to them. The Wraiths of the Underworld have long sought out these perilous, tenebrous immortals, calling to them from across the veil. The Sluagh may collect souls in caskets, but they also offer services to the Restless Dead, for a price. That price is service.
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When the Sluagh march to war, the dead follow them. The Hierarchy of Stygia, the leaders amongst the dead oftentimes forbade dealings with these creatures, naming them demons or worse, but now that Stygia has fallen, the Sluagh once more walk amongst the Restless, plying their trade. The Sluagh buy Haunts, and dwell there. But they also favour graveyards and the dead places of modern cities; also places close to the Host of Shadows ghostly kin. Moreover many of the Host of the Shadows were once mortal men, who died and passed into the Underworld, until they crossed the dark mountains, and came at last to Arcadia, where they were reborn. This Host is obsessed by secrets; it is a cultural obsession, a birthright. Secrets are a currency, and the strange games of bluff and barter remain this Hosts way of establishing status. Appearance: Like all the fey, these creatures, who fall under the banner of the Host of the Shadows, are strangely beautiful, strangely compelling. But they are a pale, cold people. There is a chill when they are in the room. Shadows fall where they should not. Strange voices are heard when there should be silence. Their eyes are pure black. But if you look deep into them, they become mirrors. These mirrors show your face for a few seconds, and then show your face at death. Fey or other immortals looking into those eyes see other things. Lifestyle: This Host, as few they are, live in Wraith haunts, if at all possible. Some ask permission of the places ghostly inhabitants, others merely take control. Birthrights: Shade: This allows the faerie to cast his or her shadow, and move through the darkness of the shadow to its far end. Some can move under doors, or through windows. Brollochain: The strange shadowy creatures are the servants of this host. The Host of the Stones: The Host of the Stones are the dwellers in the deep places of the World and Arcadia. They are the workers of masonry and metal. They are the Dwarves and the Trolls, the Nockers and the Boggans of Arcadia. Their home is a beautiful and cold place, deep beneath the sunlit fields. Also called the Nidavellim, for that is one of the names for their world. The Host of the Stones are, unbeknownst to many, the kin of the Svartalfar of the Northlands. The Svartalfar have infiltrated and taken control of this host, and are preparing to lead their armies to war. But most of the fey-kin of this Host are, as yet, ignorant of this. The movements of the Svartalfar are in the deep places, where magic still lingers, and are closed to the half mortal Exiles. But when war does come, it is likely that the fey of this host will be cast out of the Seelie Court. Appearance: These fey are solidly built, sometimes stocky, sometimes tall, and always
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have a touch of the stone to them. They are strong. They are flinty. Their hair greys early. Their eyes glow a deep red, when they are angry. These people are kin to Dwarves and Trolls and other things of the deep earth and the high mountains. Born to mortals, they retain hints of this lineage. Lifestyle: Architects, miners, builders, pot hollers, mountaineers... the fey of this Host love the feel of stone, and the cold, solid sense of security it brings. Birthrights: The ways of the earth: Fey of this Host never get lost underground. Ever. (unless someone uses magics on them) The Host of the Waves: The Host of the Waves are the water dwellers and the mermen and the merrows, the spirit of rain and ponds and rivers. They dwell in the realm some call Atlantium, the watery paradise of Faerie, and in the deeps of the Oceans of the World, where magic and dreams still dwell. They are also called the Aquae, the people of the waters. Some fey call them the "Mer." Deep beneath the worlds oceans, they have built strange luminous cities of coral and magic, close to the earth, where the world is still warm with magic, where ancient things sleep and dream. They are a strange, mercurial folk, at turns gentle and kind and sweet, by turns vicious, cruel, and capricious. They are like the ocean, in many ways. Some say they are so influenced by the ocean, influenced by its vast power, and unpredictable ways. Others wonder if the ocean is not perhaps influenced by the Mer, and their kin, and that the oceans deadly ways are not the doing of these fey. In recent times, the Host have been at war. Mortal magicians, working for a mortal corporation called Pentex created a vast fortress beneath the waves. These mortals believed that they controlled this thing, but in fact the thing, once made, controlled them. The Mer, in many ways akin to the Host of the Shadows, are quick to explore the darkness, and the night claims them easily. Many, many of this Host have turned their backs on the Seelie Court, and many of those have sworn service to Annwn. Others serve Annwn, without really knowing it. The influence of this thing beneath the waves, called Project: Deepwater, lured many fey into the darkness, but even Annwn did not trust this thing. The lords there called it a blasphemy, and a strange, and brief alliance arose between those who served Annwn, and those who did not. Little has been heard since, and it is assumed that Deepwater was destroyed. The truth is unknown, and few Seelie fey returned from that battle. Those few who emerged from the depths were shell-shocked, pallid, terrified things. The lords of the Host do protect these survivors, barely sane, barely coherent, in the hope that they might tell what happened. But so far they have been silent. Fey of this Host, are born as mortals, mortals with the call of the sea in their veins. They grow up obsessed with the sea. They become mariners, sailors, fishermen, naval personnel, and then give themselves to the sea. Their eyes reflect the colours of the sea, and their tempers reflect the moods of the ocean.
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Amongst this host are many elemental servants, and creatures of ponds and fenlands. They have magical power and authority over water, in all its forms. Appearance: the sea haunts this host. Their eyes are large and liquid; typically of colours of the ocean. They are beautiful, like all fey, and all have a wiry, muscular look to them. Their skin is cool to the touch. Their hair turns to the deepest of silver as they grow to maturity the burnished silver of a dawn over the ocean. Lifestyle: Sailors, divers, naval officers, boatmen, swimmers, marine biologists... they grow up obsessed by the ocean, and that obsession shapes them. Few ever stray far from the sea, and mostly they live in clusters in communities in New England, Maritime Canada, and Scotland. They prefer seaports, but they are withdrawing from these places, as they become more and more polluted. As they age further, they seek out the few remaining cities in the deep, and dwell there. Birthright: Breathe Underwater: Fey of this Host can "breathe" underwater. In fact they are not breathing. They exist in the water, and no longer need air once they are below the waves. Swim: Fey of this host are, obviously, excellent swimmers. Some even have webbed feet feet that, on occasion turn into tails, or so the story goes. Again, the Fey do not swim, as mortals would understand it. Rather they flow through the waves, with as much comfort as a mortal walking on dry land. Fey of this Host are at no disadvantage underwater. The Host of the Skies: The host of the skies dwell in the winds and the starry vault beneath Heaven. They are the spirits of starlight and gusts and storms. They are amongst the strangest and most beautiful of the fay, and it is said that the blood of the Angels still flows through them. They are also called the Celestials, for they are like the stars in mystery and glamour. The host of the skies are perhaps the most "fey" or alien of the Hosts. They are wild, unpredictable, voracious, and they burn with the brittle light of the stars. They ride the winds, and whisper their songs across the stars. The eldest amongst them can touch the very sky itself. They walk amongst the stars, it is said, and know much of prophecy prophecies hidden even from the Host of Fate. The stars remember much; they also have things written amongst them. It is said that some amongst them are diplomats into the True Empyrean, the place on the other side of the sky, which some may call Heaven. But this may be unlikely, because of all the Hosts; these are the fey that truly enjoy everything about their magic, their immortality, their beauty and their freedom. Perhaps older fey of this Host quieten down a little... This Host comprises wind elementals, air spirits, and those fey once called Vente. There is however a suspicion that those creatures that medieval mystics called "Astral demons" may have belonged to this host. Lifestyle: Pilots. Very, very lucky pilots. Pilots who can get a plane through a massive thunderhead, and come out smiling. These fey love mountaintops, love starry skies, love wide open windy spaces.
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Appearance: These fey shimmer. Even when they are born mortal, they carry with them a barely visible aura that everyone is aware of. Under starlight they positive glow. As they age, these fey become less and less "solid" becoming almost translucent. Birthrights: Flight: These fey have an authority over flight, whether it manifests itself as exceptional pilotage skills, or physically drifting along with the breeze. This flight, for young fey, cannot exceed walking speed. Of the elders, however, there are stories of them screaming across the world at supersonic speeds. ("Ill wrap a girdle around the world in 40 minutes") The Host of Dreams: These are the fae of dreams and fire. They are the dragons and the Nightmares of legend; they are spirits of fire, like the Salamander, and they are kin to Gods. To mortals eyes their hair is flame-coloured and subtle strength shines from them. They walk through the Dreaming and the fairylands and the oneiras, where they may speak with dreamers and changelings. Sometimes they seem as Chimeras, or monsters from the world of dreams, but they are true, and number amongst themselves many things extinct from the world. They are also called Oneiriae, for they have power over dreams. They are the rarest of the fay, in these Autumnal days. The Dreaming once had a king, and they served him, but he has long ago departed, and the Oneiriae have faded since then. These fey once betrayed trust, and taught their magical skills to vampires, resulting in the Thaumaturgical Discipline "Oneiromancy." See Path of Morpheus Revised on Ex Libris Nocturnis. The host sees themselves of guardians of the forgotten, and often walk amongst the dreams of mortals, as spies, lovers and, indeed, muses. Their lord, apparently, is said to be the Russian giant Svyatogor, who lies in a death trance in a stone coffin deep in Russias interior. The giant is dead. But he lives on, in his dreams, and some say that one-day, the last peaceful day before the Great War erupts, the giant will awake and march to war. Others have wondered just what the members of this Host know about the Red Star in the night sky. The Hosts scholars claim to know little, but no one believes them. Lifestyles: mortals born to this Host are taken away early in their life, to a fortress close to the sky. Appearance: Wild, shifting, beautiful; these fey appear as you want them to appear, or perhaps as they want you to believe them to be. They are the ultimate masters of illusions. Birthrights: Dreamwalking. The fey is born with a power akin to the aforementioned Path of Morpheus. The Hosts of the Wilds: They dwell in the wildwoods and the Wilderness where mortals fear to thread. They are the Satyrs and the Unicorns, the Redcaps, the Clurachauns, the Leshiis, and, perhaps, the Nunnehi. They dwell in the few last woods in the World and in the vast wilderness of Arcadia. It is said that the Garou and the others of the Changing Breed are of their blood, and many Garou, Gurahl, Bastet and Corax dwell amongst this
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host. Their masters call them the Arboreals, but they claim no name for themselves. This host are silent warriors, red in tooth and claw. Little more general can be said about them, but mortals born to this lineage are strong, stoic, and dangerous. They have enhanced senses and are attuned to the wilds. Appearance: The mortals born to this Host appear rough, unkempt, but strangely compelling. They have no bodily odour no hound can find them, and their passing never disrupts the wilderness. No twigs break, no animal is startled, no birds will fly away. Lifestyles: The Arboreals are drawn to the outdoors, sometimes working as soldiers or forest fire fighters, or wilderness guides. Birthrights: Shapechanging: Some, though not all, of this host can change shape. Orienteering: Members of this Host do not get lost in the Wilderness, ever. The Host of Destiny: The Hosts of Destiny are the farseers and those who can see the futures. They are the Eshu and the Fates, the Norns and the doomsayers; they dwell apart from the others, even in Arcadia, either wandering or living in their distant homes. They are valued as advisors in the Court of the Sun, but their truths are dangerous things. Only rarely have they kin in the mortal lands, save the Eshu Changelings, but their eyes have the depths of centuries in them, and they can see secrets that the future holds. Some call them Fatae, and these strange fairies were the first people of Arcadia to walk amongst mortals. The Host are few, and secretive. Those born of this Hosts lineage are cursed with visions of the future. Like Cassandra, they are threatened constantly by their visions, and many are driven mad by their knowledge. Birthrights: Fortune Telling. This Host are afflicted with visions of the future. To make sense of these visions requires a wits + enigmas roll against a difficulty of 8. What sense these visions make is up to the Storyteller. The Host of Beauty: The Beautiful Ones, with their seductive eyes and their lovely forms, are spirits of love and lust, and they dwell in the wilderness, and the seas, and sometimes in the world amongst the models and actors and fashionable people. It was of these that Keats spoke of in the poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." Sometimes they steal souls, and sometimes they lead mortals to their doom, not knowing, not caring. Tragedy is their only constant bedmate, but they know many things that are secret. Their children are mostly female, but male children have been known; they are darkly beautiful, catching the eyes and the hearts of male and female.
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Classical mythology called these spirits Nymphae. This host are obsessed with humanity, and their ways. They are obsessed with experience, and they are, strangely enough, obsessed with learning. Some might say that their sexual promiscuity allows them a certain leeway in discovering bedroom secrets. But the Host is most famous as enchantresses. They create magical items. They do not forge such things the Host of the Stones do that. However, they are skilled with imbuing things with special magics. Appearance: Drop. Dead. Gorgeous. All of them. Lifestyles: Oh, anything they like. Birthrights: Seduction. The Noble Host: "You and I are not snobs. We can never be born enough. We are human beings; for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery, the mystery of growing: which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves. You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming. Life, for eternal us, is now and now is much to busy being a little more than everything to seem anything, catastrophic included." --e.e. cummings These are the rulers of the fay of Arcadia, who serve the King and Queen of the Seelie. They are the Knights and Princes and Dukes of the once proud lands of Arcadia. They are named High Sidhe, Manitou and Alvar. They plot and counterplot and indulge in foolish games, playing their fiddles while the world burns, but some are true, and they are leaders. It is these that Tolkien called Elves. They are powerful and graceful, kin to gods and Angels. The "sidhe," as exiled nobility, remember a time when they ruled proudly in a living dream, and ruled over a better age than this one. Or so they choose to remember it. Others point to the terrible wars, wars that shook the very earth and sky, over minor, piffling things. Known and feared as the Good Folk, their whims enchanted and terrified mortals for millennia. Kin to Seraphim, kings amongst kings, warriors amongst heroes, dread and terrible foes, passionate lovers, and faithful friends. Now that tale has ended. The gates to Arcadia have closed, the song has ended, and their new kingdom grows cold. For the Nobility, the age of magic has died, and they mourn its passing. This mourning, however, has not ended their lives. Though they fear death like few faeries ever could, they face their fate with regal bearing. While others consider them distant and arrogant, The sidhe refuse to lie down and die. For them, the dream is still alive, and they strive to awaken the world from its slumber. The very presence of a Noble inspires supernatural awe. The sight of a
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Sidhe in her true form captures the hearts of mortals and the essence of Fayrie itself. Faerie passions run deep love and hatred are never forgotten. Such passion has its price, though. Seelie would rather destroy themselves in a blaze of glory than fade away. Their less energetic brethren lose hope and become self-indulgent, letting their freeholds fall into despair as easily as the listless nobles fall into melancholy. Others become Unseelie tyrants, ruling through cruelty and intrigue. Though exotic in their beauty and obsessed with their ideals, a few sidhe travel among commoners. No matter what paths they choose, sidhe are far from human and always stand out among those with whom they associate. Do not go gentle into that good night, the nobles whisper. War is coming. The nobility know that they cannot win. They know that the game is up. They know that darkness falls around them. They know that their elders are driven insane by the Anathema. They know that preparations are being made in Heaven and Hell for a war of extinction, a war that will steal their beloved earth from them. They know. They do not care. It will be a glorious sight, they say, the last Hosting of the sidhe, the last charge of the light brigade, as it were. The heavens will shake at their passing. Birthrights: Awe and Beauty. Players of sidhe characters add one point to their Social Traits during character creation, even if this increases scores above 5. Whether theyre heroes or villains, all sidhe are dignified. Any cantrip that would directly make them look foolish fails immediately. ***** Faerie Regios, and magical places. Regios Where supernatural forces claim dominion, or even, in these dying day, claim some influence, auras arise. These may exist within larger domains or by themselves, and may be of any type of aura, but we are most concerned with the Arcadian, or Faerie Regios. They are called regiones (singular regio, "realm"), or Regio (as plural) or "Regios" (a less "proper" term). Scholars have called these areas other things over time, such as Shallowings, Drays, Warm Places, or even "portals" or "gates." They are not gates. There is rarely such a blatant thing as a big shining golden dimensional gate. But there is always a point of passage. There is always something, a river to cross, a copse of trees to enter which mark the true end of this mortal world and the world beyond. Regiones consist of several levels of aura, layered one on top of another in order of increasing power; the lowest level is connected to the mundane world. To picture this phenomenon, imagine the contour lines of a hill on a map. Each line, from the bottom to the top, is like an aura rating within the regio. The mundane world is like the flat land surrounding the hill. And, just as contour lines encompass smaller areas towards the top, so levels of higher aura rating tend to occupy less space than those beneath. There's nothing to distinguish regiones from other auras, until one
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realizes that varying levels of reality exist on the same spot. A regio level that is more attuned to its realm has a higher aura rating, and so looks different from the rest. Lower levels appear only slightly changed from the mundane world, while higher levels tend to acquire many of the characteristics of their native realms. Regiones have inhabitants, just like other areas of supernatural aura. These beings tend to cluster on specific levels, though they can cross level boundaries freely. The higher one travels in the regio, the stranger and more supernaturally aligned its inhabitants become. Entering and Leaving Regios When physically crossing the boundary of a regio, travellers disappear from the ordinary world and enter supernatural realms. There are three methods of entering regiones: being lead, voluntarily entering, and getting lost. Any being directly connected to the realm associated with a regio can automatically lead up to a dozen mortals or magi into that regio. Faeries can lead mortals into faerie regiones, angels and people with True Faith can lead people into divine regiones, demons and people who have sold their souls can lead people into infernal regiones, and magical beasts can lead mortals into magic regiones. Voluntarily entering regiones involves seeing the next level of the regio and then entering it. Once a level has been seen it may automatically be entered. So much for theory. Describing the steps into the regio as levels is very misleading. It is rather a more subtle experience. The further one progresses into a faerie "regio" the more aware one becomes. Senses sharpen; the light falls in such a new way. Each time one moves further into a regio, it is as if the character sees the world as if she was newly born. It is little wonder that even small, low level regios are havens for poets. It is said that Shelley found a regio at age 12, and what he saw there inspired him. Beings who become lost near a regio boundary may enter (or leave) accidentally, even if they cannot normally see in. Many fairy tales are accounts of such experiences. ***** The Magicians amongst the Fey. "They have been waiting all this time; hidden, secret and patient. They remember, when we forgot. The Order destroyed their sacred groves, hunted them down, fought alongside the Legions, and put them to sword and fire. They were betrayed from within, and their brother magicians killed them. We killed them all, we thought. Then we recruited others who claimed they had their knowledge. House Diedne was corrupted, lost to the darkness. We thought the Verbena tradition was their final legacy. "We were wrong. They hid from us so well, when we would have destroyed them. They hid from us so well, when we would have learned from them. "And now I see. I know now what the Order saw on Mona. I know what the "sacred" groves are. And they are still alive, just waiting, waiting till we are weak, until we are distracted; and then, and then......" Adept Simone Jacoby, of the Order of Hermes, deceased.
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The mortal Druids fought their last stand on the Island of Anglesey, on the coast of Wales a millennia and a half ago. Stripped of their magic, they fought a last and desperate battle against the Roman legions. That much is historical fact. Their traditions were primarily oral, save for coded messages in Ogham script, little of which survives. With the druids in Britain dead, and the survivors in Ireland meeting a similar fate, absorbed into the Culdees or converted to Christianity, little documented facts about them survive, save a few paragraphs in classical texts and what little of Celtic myth survived the editing of Christian monks. And they like it that way. Separate from the Traditions, the Druids are scattered throughout the world, keepers of the most secret knowledges of the World of Darkness, keepers of stories and magic unmatched by any other occult force. The Druidic order has secrets, of their terrible rites on those cold nights of so long ago, learn why they were so brutally suppressed by the Romans, and learn of the dark powers they trafficked with, in return for knowledge and power. They were the scholars, the judges, the executioners, the priests, the healers and the destroyers who kept the Celtic culture together for so long. With their magic and their secret traditions, and their ruthless suppression of treachery, they oversaw the conduct of wars and the conduct of daily life in times of peace. Worshipping the horned king of the wild, and the triple goddess of winter and war and life, and serving the mighty and terrible lords of Arcadia, they were powerful once. They would be again. They never forget. Their enemies, though, have long forgotten. The Order of Hermes who once allied with the Roman Legions against them; the Verbena who stole and shared some of their most precious secrets, and the very Technocracy itself, who may, one day soon, be powerless against them. With magical knowledge that could challenge some of the greatest powers of the World of Darkness, these magicians are designed to be storyteller characters, but could also be played as player characters, if the storyteller so desired. With rules of how they use magic, and examples of their magic, as well as their many other skills, Druid will reveal another aspect of the workings of the occult in the World of Darkness. These are not the Druids of the New Age Californians; nor are they the bespectacled accountants in robes who dance at Stonehenge for the Cameras. These are something older and infinitely more interesting, magicians who once burned cattle and people alive at highsummer and they have never forgotten who it was betrayed them. The Verbena, the strange modern echoes of the Druidic order claim that the ancient Druids learned from the fey. The Order of Hermes whispers that their fallen House, Diedne, were spirited away to Arcadia by the fey. These legends are true, after a fashion. Amongst the Fey, the Druids are as feared, as their mortal students were once feared. They are delvers, seekers after things that are hidden, and they are the keepers of many a secret. The magicians of the fey were the antecedents of the druids of the mortal Celts.
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"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Copyright White Wolf Publishing, I nc .
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Path of Morpheus Revised

Ex Libris Nocturnis - http://www.nocturnis.net By: Brendan Mathis (email: mourn@nocturnis.net) Summary: A re-working of the Thaumaturgical Path of Morpheus.
(UPDATE 10-11-1999: Re placed Level Four)
Path of Morpheus Revised

Once thought to be the forte of the Tremere antitribu, this power has made its way home to the Tremere. Used to induce and monitor sleep, it delves deeply into the realms of the subconscious. All powers of Path of Morpheus have a time limit, based on the number of successes rolled. 1 success 2 successes 3 successes 4 successes 5 successes One turn One minute 10 minutes One hour One night
Daydream By controlling the images that swirl around the mind, a thaumaturge may cause some of these images to take hold of the victim's attention. The victim becomes distracted and focuses on what is in her mind rather than the outside world. System: The thaumaturge makes the Willpower roll, and the subject becomes distracted for the amount of time determined by the number of successes. All Perception-based rolls by the victim are at a +2 difficulty for the duration of this power. Sandman's Touch With a simple touch, the thaumaturge may now send his target into a peaceful, restful slumber. This is not an instantaneous effect, as the target slowly drifts off the sleep over the course of several minutes. They become increasingly lethargic and dull-witted until they are in the realm of Morpheus. System: The thaumaturge must touch his target for this power to work. The victim then slowly falls asleep, and remains asleep for the time period determined by the amount of successes. However, the victim may be awakened by loud noises, violence and other things that may wake up a sleeping person. If the person sleeps for the rest of the night, they gain back a temporary point of Willpower and feel fully refreshed. Cainites are unaffected by this power. Mass Hypnosis The thaumaturge may now affect a larger number of targets. With a wave of his hand, a skilled thaumaturge can send a room full of people into a gentle slumber. System: The thaumaturge may now use Daydream or Sandman's Touch on a number of targets. The amount of successes achieve on the roll for Mass Hypnosis determines how many people may be affected by Daydream or Sandman's Touch. Again, Cainites are not affected by this power. Enchanted Slumber By recalling the tales of Sleeping Beauty and other such folklore, the thaumaturge now possesses the ability to place a type of geas upon the victim. Only a specific event, such as the touch of a black rose or the kiss of a prince, may awaken the victim. System: The victim must make a Humanity roll (difficulty 8) to resist this power. Failure means that the person falls into a deep sleep, from which only one event will wake her. Humans remain in this sleep indefinitely, the aging process stopped. Cainites are forced into torpor, and will awake from it eventually. Master of Dreams The thaumaturge now holds the power of the sleeper's mind in his hands. He may enter any dream she may have and influence it as if it were a type of reality. Full control is impossible for both parties, but vast changes can be made. System: The number of successes on the Willpower roll determine how long the thaumaturge may enter the victim's
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dreaming mind, his body sinking into a dreamless sleep. Both act in the dream realm as if they were in reality. Disciplines, Numina and other powers may be used at will. Death caused in the dream realm holds true in reality.
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Changeling: The Exile Fey

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The Exile Fey - Part I

The Exile Fey - Part II

The Exile Fey - Part III

Weapons & Armour

The Host of the Stones

The Host of the Waves

The Host of the Skies

The Host of Dreams

The Hosts of the Wilds

The Host of Beauty:

The society of the fey.

The lawmakers and the lawkeepers.

Join our Ma iling L ist

Copyright White Wolf Publishing, I nc .

Path of Morpheus Revised

Path of Morpheus Revised

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