A Sourcebook for
Changeling: The Lost
Second Edition
Credits
Developers: Meghan Fitzgerald and Rose Bailey
Writers: Chris Allen, Jacqueline Bryk, Meghan
Fitzgerald, Chris Handforth, Danielle Lauzon, Marianne
Pease, Spider B. Perry, Lauren Roy, Chloe Sobel, Audrey
Whitman
Editor: Spider B. Perry
Art: Brian Leblanc, Alex Sheikman, Luis Sanz, Drew
Tucker
Art Director: Mike Chaney
Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Special Thanks
Dixie Cochran, for her endless support and encouragement.
Our consulting developers, Michael Pietrelli and
Vanessa Uphoff, who accompanied us on the journey.
And all of our Changeling: The Lost 2e Kickstarter
backers, who made this companion book possible!
Requires the use of the
Changeling: The Lost Second Edition Rulebook
© 2022 Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission
of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character
sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire, Chronicles of
Darkness, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Mage: The Ascension are registered trademarks of
Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved. Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Apocalypse,
Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening, Promethean: The Created, Changeling: The
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Storytelling System are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB
All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by Paradox Interactive AB.
This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and
intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
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2
Kith and Kin
Introduction
Theme:
Identity and Choice
Mood:
No Easy Answers
What’s in This Book?
6
6
6
6
Touchstones
Alternate Systems
Clarity
Roleplaying the Dream
New Clarity Conditions
Optional System: Condition-Based Kenning
24
25
25
26
27
27
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
11
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
29
Fish Out of Water
Goodbye, Kansas
Guardians of the BriarNet
Over the Firewall
Handles and Usernames
Surfing the Web
Virtual Meetup
Once and Future
Shadows of the Past
Bright Thorns of the Future
Heirlooms
Walking Timeless Roads
The Wishing Roads
Lost in Space
Wishing Road Systems
Wishing Bastions
Soliloquies
Moon Faeries: The Lunar Freehold
Courts
Faces
Story Hooks
11
11
12
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13
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15
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19
The Forms of Things Unknown
What Lies Forgotten
Lost and Found
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
A Change of Heart
Designing Regalia
Symbol First
Themes First
Bringing It to Life
29
30
31
32
32
32
33
33
33
To Be Lost
Survival Instincts
Surviving
Fresh Out of the Hedge
On Learning to Live
Thriving
19
19
20
21
21
22
Spinning the Self
Needle and Thread
Prick of the Finger
Woven Tapestries
Rethreading the Needle
23
23
23
24
24
New Contracts
Chalice
Filling the Cup (Common)
Frail as the Dying Word (Common)
Sleep’s Sweet Embrace (Common)
Curse’s Cure (Common)
Dreamer’s Phalanx (Common)
Closing Death’s Door (Royal)
Feast of Plenty (Royal)
Still Waters Run Deep (Royal)
Poison the Well (Royal)
Shared Cup (Royal)
Coin
Book of Black and Red (Common)
Give and Take (Common)
Beggar Knight (Common)
Coin Mark (Common)
Grease the Wheels (Common)
Blood Debt (Royal)
Exchange of Gilded Contracts (Royal)
Golden Promise (Royal)
Grand Revel of the Harvest (Royal)
Thirty Pieces (Royal)
34
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34
35
35
36
36
36
37
38
38
38
39
39
40
40
41
41
42
42
42
43
44
Table of Contents
3
Scepter
Burning Ambition (Common)
Jealous Vengeance (Common)
Litany of Rivals (Common)
Knight’s Oath (Common)
Unmask the Dark Horse (Common)
A Benevolent Hand (Royal)
Fake It ‘Til You Make It (Royal)
Tempter’s Quest (Royal)
Curse of Hidden Strings (Royal)
Spare Not the Rod (Royal)
Stars
Pole Star (Common)
Straight On ‘Til Morning (Common)
Cynosure (Common)
Shooting Star (Common)
Retrograde (Common)
Frozen Star (Royal)
Light of Ancient Stars (Royal)
Star Light, Star Bright (Royal)
Pinch of Stardust (Royal)
Thorn
Briar’s Herald (Common)
By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Common)
Thistle’s Rebuke (Common)
The Gouging Curse (Common)
Embrace of Nettles (Common)
Acantha’s Fury (Royal)
Awaken Portal (Royal)
Crown of Thorns (Royal)
Shrike’s Larder (Royal)
Witch’s Brambles (Royal)
Independent Contracts
Coming Darkness (Common)
Pomp and Circumstance (Common)
Shadow Puppet (Common)
Dread Companion (Royal)
Cracked Mirror (Royal)
Listen with the Wind’s Ears (Royal)
Momentary Respite (Royal)
Steal Influence (Common)
Earth’s Gentle Movements (Common)
Earth’s Impenetrable Walls (Royal)
44
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57
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60
60
61
61
62
63
64
Regalia Manifestation
64
Creating Regalia
Manifestations
65
New Merit: Regalia Manifestation (• to •••••) 65
Alternative Regalia Manifestations
65
Manifestation Systems
65
Manifestation Powers
66
Drawbacks
67
Nothing Without Risk
67
Systems
67
Dramaturgy
68
Flower Chains and Masquerades
68
4
Kith and Kin
New Changeling Merit: Dramaturge (•••)
New Changeling Merit: Understudy (•••)
Trade and Favor
Systems
Galoshins
Systems
Galoshin Circumstantial Modifiers
69
69
69
69
70
70
71
Expanded Pledgecraft
Example Oaths
Oath of Friendship
Oath of True Love
Oath of Nemesis
Oath of Exile
Touchstones as Pledges
New Pledge Types
Curses and Hexes
Feuds
Rules of Engagement
Enchanted Bargains
Deed Vows
Icons
72
72
72
72
73
73
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74
74
75
76
77
78
79
Chapter Three: Kiths
83
Those Without Kith
Kithless
Scissors
Unraveled
83
83
84
84
Acquiring a Kith
Icons
Ordeals
Bartering
85
85
85
86
Fashioning Kiths
Kith Themes
Repurposing
Approaches
86
87
87
87
Example Kiths
Crown
Absinthial
Climacteric
Concubus
Draconic
Flowering
Ghostheart
Moonborn
Uttervoice
Jewels
Delver
Glimmerwisp
Gremlin
Manikin
Oculus
Polychromatic
Veneficus
Witchtooth
88
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88
89
90
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97
Mirror
Bricoleur
Cloakskin
Doppelganger
Lethipomp
Lullescent
Riddleseeker
Sideromancer
Spiegelbild
Shield
Asclepian
Bridgeguard
Librorum
Liminal
Reborn
Stoneflesh
Wisewitch
Steed
Airtouched
Chalomot
Chevalier
Farwalker
Flickerflash
Levinquick
Swarmflight
Swimmerskin
Sword
Bearskin
Beastcaller
Cyclopean
Plaguesmith
Razorhand
Sandharrowed
Valkyrie
Venombite
Additional Kiths
Apoptosome
Becquerel
Blightbent
Enkrateia
Gravewight
Shadowsoul
Telluric
Whisperwisp
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112
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113
114
115
115
116
116
116
117
117
118
119
119
120
120
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
123
Motleys in Lost Chronicles
Making a Motley
123
123
Pledged Together
Oath-Sworn Terms
Roses and Thorns
Roses
Thorns
Weaving the Tapestry
Sworn Fellowships
Children of the Stone
The Tail-Tied Rats
The Hunters
The Fair and Honorable Merchants
Harlequins
Systems
Thorns Within and Without
Knives In, Knives Out
Staged Struggle
Social Currency
Negotiation
Investment
124
125
125
125
126
126
126
126
127
127
127
128
129
129
129
129
130
130
131
Unconventional Motleys
Motley Pledges
Freehold Politics
Court Politics
Fae Creatures
Huntsmen
Mortals
Fae-Touched
131
131
132
132
132
134
134
134
Found Family and Desperate Alliances
Motleys, Monsters, and Mystics
Vampires
Werewolves
Awakened
Prometheans
Sin-Eaters
Demons
Beasts
Mummies
135
136
136
136
136
136
137
137
137
137
Safe and Sound
Saying No
Saying Yes
Saying Anything
The Door Is Still Open
New Safety Option: Player Profiles
Sample Player Profile: Big Ben Clifftop
138
138
138
138
138
139
139
Appendix: New Conditions
140
Table of Contents
5
“Rain fell upon him and he grew thin as rain. Rain washed away thought, washed away memory, all the good
and the bad. He no longer knew his name. Everything was washed away like mud from a stone. Rain filled him up
with thoughts and memories of its own. Silver lines of water covered the hillside, like intricate lace, like the veins of
an arm. Forgetting that he was, or ever had been, a man, he became the lines of water. He fell into the earth with
the rain.”
— Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
You risked everything — your life, your individuality, even
your soul — to escape your Keeper’s clutches. Every changeling
shares that much, and though it brings them together, the details set them apart. You wanted desperately to return to the
human world, but why? You’ll stop at nothing to take your life
back and make of it what you wish, but what drives you to do
it? Did you emerge into the familiar or the inexplicably alien,
and what are you going to do about it either way?
All Lost take on a Herculean task as soon as they
emerge from the Hedge for the first time: claim an identity.
It’s harder than it sounds.
Kith and Kin is a book about making sense of yourself
in a world where nothing is as it seems, including you. It’s
about personal transformations, personal relationships, and
learning to trust yourself and others all over again. It’s about
personal power — the power to define who you are and who
you strive to be, a power you braved the fire to take back
despite the way it burned your hands and left its scars.
Theme:
Identity and Choice
Who am I? What have I become? These questions plague
you as one of the Lost. In trying to answer them, you’ll discover that both the wonder and the horror of Faerie are in
you now, too. You’ll decide what kind of magic you wish to
wield and how — and why — you wish to wield it. Will you
be the charming troubadour or the tyrannical queen? The
6
Introduction
trickster at the crossroads or the dancer in the wild? Will you
wrest the reins of your old life back from your fetch, or leave
that life behind to find a new family, new friends, and a new
purpose? Will you surround yourself with companions you
trust or rivals who challenge you?
Mood:
No Easy Answers
Despite having literal magic at your fingertips, you have
no magical solution to your problems. Your life and relationships are messy and complicated; your questions about
identity, purpose, and trust can only be answered over time,
through trial by fire and under constant pressure from the
ever-present Wild Hunt.
Nothing is ever cut and dry where Faerie is concerned.
Even if you do find answers, you might reject them, or
change your mind over time. The uncertainty you felt when
you took that first step back into the mortal world never fully
goes away. You’ll always struggle to know yourself.
The perfect, ideal life you find at the end of a fairy tale
doesn’t exist; it’s just a Fae lie. But that’s okay. That’s human,
that’s real, and that’s what separates you from the Gentry.
What’s in This Book?
Kith and Kin is a player’s guide for Changeling: The
Lost Second Edition, offering options and insights for char-
acters as individuals and looking at the way changelings bind
themselves to each other on a personal scale.
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange is about the return
from Faerie. It presents options for characters who escaped
into unfamiliar times or places, including details about the
digital Hedge, the Hedge in space, and a freehold on the
moon. It also explores the way changelings think and their
daily experiences, as well as offering additional, optional
rules for Anchors and Clarity.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors is about powers.
It presents five new Regalia and a selection of independent
Contracts, as well as advice on how to design Regalia from
a thematic perspective. It also contains systems for manifesting Regalia as physical objects and for the fae sympathetic
magic which changelings call dramaturgy. Finally, it details a
few full oath examples and seven new types of pledges.
Chapter Three: Kiths is about the kith as both identity
and connection. It discusses playing three different kinds of
kithless characters and the process of acquiring new kiths in
play. Along with explaining how to design new kiths from
a thematic perspective, it also presents 56 new kiths for use
in any chronicle.
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather is about motleys. It
walks through the process of forming a motley from both
in-character and out-of-character perspectives, including an
optional motley-building exercise called Roses and Thorns.
This chapter also presents four sample motley oaths, a new
type of Hedge ghost that feeds on the bonds between motley-mates, and several optional methods for adjudicating
conflict between characters, intended to enhance the play
experience. It discusses unconventional motleys with nonchangeling members, including additional fae beings, mortals, and other supernatural creatures. Finally, it expands
upon the advice in the core book about ensuring safety at
the table by offering further options intended specifically for
player use.
What's In This Book?
7
“Would you…happen to have a match?” She’s
laughing a little, lips pulled back against a sharp
smile. “In all the excitement, I seem to have lost
my lighter.”
I try to wrench myself upright and our vision
swaps again. I look awful — all gray and limp
with a thin iridescent sheen on my skin, my eyes
bloody with her ghost. But who knows how long
I’ll have control of the working body, so I run to
the broken desk and start turning over the loose
papers trying to find it. I’m sure I kicked it this
way. I must have. She’s hissing something at me,
a deep gurgling something I was not aware my
voice could do thank you very much. With all the
writhing and low-key demonic noises coming out
of my mouth, it’s like she’s giving up any pretense
of being me while having the indecency to keep
wearing my body while she’s doing it.
And then I’m laughing because I suddenly
can’t stop thinking about how peculiar this would
look to someone else. Two identical women, oily
with gasoline, trying to tear one another apart in
the pile of kindling and nostalgia that used to be
my (our?) bedroom. But I’m starting to feel her
prickling under my skin again, so I quickly grab
the lighter and mime flinging it through the broken pane of the bolted window. She seethes at me,
but from the way she’s craning my neck trying to
see where it landed, I’m pretty sure she can’t tell I
palmed it. Risky, when she might get control back
at any moment.
•••
The tremors were subtle at first, the pain rippling through my skin so lightly and so suddenly
that it was gone almost before I dropped the
glass. As I was sweeping up the glass, my vision
still swimming a little from fatigue, the edges of
my hands started to…blur. I looked down in mute
horror to see one pair of translucent hands releasing the broom, then two pulling it back, then one
again, each pushing so hard I could almost feel it.
I caught the broom as it fell, but I couldn’t shake
that phantom feeling, like my hand had passed
through the handle instead of around it.
It comes and goes. Sometimes I feel almost
myself, sometimes like my body isn’t my own
anymore, like it’s reaching elsewhere, like it hears
an echo I can’t. I wake up from dreams of deep
rhythmic chanting and the sound of hammers on
metal and find myself standing at the window. I
went to doctors with pages of notes they didn’t
read. Asked informed questions. Carefully didn’t
scream when no one knew what was wrong. (Everything, or maybe nothing. No two tests came
back the same. My body seemed to be destroying
itself, but no one could tell why.) I wonder what it
would even mean to feel like myself again. Have
you ever been painfully angry, so angry that it
chokes you, clots in your throat like you’ll never
breathe again? I used to be a fairly calm person,
but these last few months it’s been bursting out at
the strangest moments. When I look at the horizon. When I close my bedroom window. When I
hear the wind rise. Right now.
I sighed and stepped out of the shower. The
nauseating, unclean sensation felt as stuck into
my skin after the third shower as it had before
the first. I drew a sad face in the condensation
on the bathroom mirror, and the rivulet of water
that dripped down the glass glowed. Unnerved, I
quickly wiped the rest of the steam off the mirror with a towel, trying not to make eye contact. I
hate looking at myself in the mirror. I’m not sure
why exactly — some kind of aversion. Even before
all this started it never quite looked like my skin
fit right. But now, well, it’s complicated, and it’s
too late. I’ve already caught my own eyes and it
feels like I’m pinned in place. The resentment on
my face is hard to look at directly. I feel myself
blink. I don’t see myself blink. I keep blinking,
waiting to see my eyelids move. Instead, the shadows under the reflection’s eyes deepen. She tenses
like she’s waiting for something, and then just…
walks out of the frame. I look into my bathroom
mirror and see only my bathroom reflected there.
My brain cracks slightly to protect me. I think
something along the lines of “guess my mirror must be broken” and mechanically sort the
laundry pile (clean, I think, but folding has been
beyond me for a couple of months) for enough
clothing to constitute a change from daytime
pajamas to nighttime pajamas. And then, with
half my bra on and hair still dripping and askew,
someone slides through a gap in my closed door
frame like I had left it wide open. She looks like
me, if you replaced half my skin with shadow and
the other half with lead, and when she opens her
mouth, the anger just pours out of me and into
her voice. I know, but also don’t, the language
she’s speaking. I understand the names she’s calling me, but I couldn’t say where I learned it, or
how I knew the right curses to fling back. Like
so many things lately, it’s at the tip of my tongue.
Something I know I know but my body seems to
have forgotten how it knows. Through that fog it
stirs defensively, and deep in my memory a scroll
unfolds which tells me how to deny her access to
the bargains she’s made.
Then I notice the gasoline canister. She’s
holding it from the base. Lightly. Upside down.
Her hands glow with the same light I saw in my
bathroom mirror. And then things start to go really wrong.
•••
She’s twitching under my skin again. In a minute, at most, she’s going to have the lighter and I’m
going to be trapped. But I hesitate. I keep getting
caught up trying to make sense of it. I couldn’t get
a clear answer out of her before. She was here for
revenge, or justice. To take something from me, or
take it back. She wants something I have, wants
it badly enough that she would kill me and burn
down a house to get it back. But why? My life is
pretty sedate. I’m not a collector of anything more
valuable than river rocks and bits of glass. And
even if my body wasn’t busted before, it’s definitely not in particularly good shape right now.
Little by little, a picture paints itself in my
mind. The laptop open when I thought I closed it.
The phone unlocked by fingerprint. The missing
mail. The haircut very like mine from a few years
ago, right around when I got in that car accident.
I spent a week in and out of consciousness, and
when I was awake, no one could understand what
I was saying. People change, though. If I’m a little
different now than I was then, well — I almost
died, and that makes you reconsider what you
want out of life. Is that why she’s trying to kill
me? Because I dropped out of grad school and
moved away? Maybe there’s something we could
do? My mind goes blank at what exactly “doing
something” might entail. Grasping at any possibility of non-murderous reconciliation, I push
that thought away and take a breath to speak.
But when I look at her, her eyes are white and
livid and the only answer I get is the screech of
her trying to pull me back into the other body by
my metaphorical hair. It chills the blood to see
yourself in one body claw at yourself in another,
mostly identical body. If I live through this, I’m
never looking into a mirror again.
Wildly, I think about starting the fire she
prepared and trying to run before she can abandon me in it. How close do we need to be for it to
work? If I could get out of her line of sight, or put
enough distance between us, would I stick in her
body the way she’s stuck in mine? Would all the
phantom limbs and maddening dreams stop if…
if she was dead? Maybe if she was, I’d feel like I
owned my own body again.
And it is my body.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul
— William Henley, “Invictus”
Me.
to not only rebuild their selves, but redefine “home.”
So many take that word for granted, as though the self
This section presents the various ways in which changewere a simple concept. Asked who are you? most would say lings may return to a place that isn’t the home they rememthey know the answer well. But the Lost know how truly ber or traverse a part of the Hedge stranger than most. Of
delicate the self can be.
them, only the first two — arriving in a different location on
Even in the mortal realm, the self is fluid — shaped and Earth than where the Fair Folk abducted them and escaping
defined by experience, shifting under the weight of each word through the BriarNet — occur frequently. The others most
exchanged with another person. Selves push and pull each often serve as tales of wonder and terror for newly escaped
Lost, happening only rarely.
other naturally into shapes better suited to fitting together.
But when the Gentry pull, the mortal self becomes mere
putty in their hands. Arcadia shatters the image in the mirCulture shock is a palpable phenomenon even for morror and makes it anew into something unwanted and untals.
Experience it by turning down the wrong street into
recognizable. Upon escaping, a changeling takes back her
Paris’
Quartier Pigalle without warning, walking through
ability to define that mirror image for herself, but it’s never
the
door
of an Abu Dhabi mall where women clad in fullas easy as it might seem.
body
veils
shop at Victoria’s Secret, or sitting in a sports bar
This chapter explores the experience of returning from
in
Kentucky
listening to the deafening shouts of enthusiastic
Faerie. How do the Lost come to terms with the changes
basketball
fans.
Culture shock comes from the juxtaposition
wrought upon themselves and their lives? How do they figof
lifestyles
simultaneously
familiar and strange. Vacationure out what the word “me” means after everything they’ve
ers
can
read
about
it
and
brace
themselves, but changelings
been through? What happens when they return to a time or
emerging
from
the
Hedge
on
the
world’s far side don’t have
place just as unknown to them as their durance once was?
that such luxury.
Two changelings from opposite sides of the planet still
ish
ut of
ater
have at least one thing in common: They both escaped ArAll changelings left home behind when the Kindly cadia. Even lacking a common tongue and culture, strong
Ones stole them away. Those who return must find their way bonds can form from this shared experience. In her first
back through the Hedge, and some never find the path that days of freedom as a stranger in a strange land, a changeling
leads to a familiar hearth. Changelings escaping to the mor- can still rely on the Lost who find and orient her in her new
tal world can find themselves flung through space or time, home to help ground her, forging strong ties of fellowship
forced to make new homes in unfamiliar locations, eras, or and loyalty to freehold, court, and motley.
even worlds. Stranded in such distant places, they must work
Goodbye, Kansas
F
O
W
Fish Out of Water
11
Local Lost are usually willing to help stranded changelings with the mundane yet essential details of their new
lives. For example, Dubai requires foreign visitors to either
have a visitor’s visa or a sponsoring employer. A changeling
arriving from Peru via Arcadia is unlikely to have either,
creating major complications with law enforcement, which
disguised Huntsmen are all too happy to exploit. Dubai’s
changeling courts consider it a point of pride to support displaced changelings. The Tower Court arranges employment,
the Pearl Court supplies financial aid and living accommodations, and the Falcon Court uses its connections to ensure
the appropriate paperwork exists and gets filed — one way or
another.
Internationally relocated Lost who return to their original homes exist as a distinct minority among changelings.
It’s not difficult to do — they can seek out globe-spanning
trods, travel through a mirror to their childhood abode, or
just get on a plane — but the connections they make in the
changeling community when they first arrive often outweigh
their desire to make that trek. Many are glad for the change
of scenery, relieved to leave their old lives (and fetches) behind and make a fresh start. Lost from all over the world
extending their hands in empathy to each other sends a powerful message to other changelings and the Wild Hunt alike.
Guardians of
the BriarNet
The internet’s birthdate is up for debate, but starting in
the early 1990s, changelings discovered the Hedge creeping
into cyberspace — or perhaps the other way around. The liminal realm known as the BriarNet reflects the digital world
within the Hedge, allowing changelings to journey into —
and sometimes lose themselves in — the Web. Becoming a
literal cybernaut is a common flight of fancy among mortals,
whom the BriarNet’s hobgoblin denizens call Ops, but these
fantasies only partially inform the digital Hedge. The BriarNet also reflects the actual use of the internet and other networks, spinning itself in real-time to the rhythm of mortal
telecommunications.
Over the Firewall
The BriarNet resembles an endless mortal cityscape with
distinct cyber aesthetics and layouts reminiscent of database
schemas. Some neighborhoods boast soaring high-rises shining under a silver sun and vehicles traveling at the fastest of
bitrates; others resemble cyberpunk dystopias with flickering
neon signs and ill-lit Goblin Markets selling secondhand or
cursed Contracts on tiny optical disks. Network connections
become trods that bridge milestones representing bits of hardware in the mortal world, often called “nodes,” and appearing as buildings, structures, and landmarks. Algorithms are
special kinds of digital pledges imposing certain rules and
schedules wherever they run; they may manifest as systems
such as traffic lights, subways, and sewers, or they may spit out
minions of a local Goblin Queen who enforce her decrees.
12
The Information Superhighway is the largest trod in the
BriarNet and possibly in all the Hedge: a vast, many-laned
expressway on which anyone can drive, though travelers
should take great care with their secrets. Software may incarnate as powerful corporations, periodic public events or
broadcasts, places of business, or entertainment venues. For
instance, a dating app might manifest as a weekly gathering
of speed-dating Hedge denizens, an upscale bordello, or a
matchmaking radio show.
Even amid the dazzle of gleaming silicon plazas and fiber optic freeways, the Lost still recognize the Hedge. The
urban Hedgescape rearranges itself on the fly as Ops open,
install, or upgrade software, run processes, and input data.
Cloud-chamber Hollows float across the sky overhead, each
one keyed to a specific web address; changelings and goblins
who claim them store anything from tokens to dreams to
captured enemies there. Depending on a Cloud’s design and
function, it may require decryption codes or the right credentials to enter, exit, or access anything inside.
The BriarNet isn’t merely a technological wonderland.
Its darknet Thorns host hidden lairs of sinister binary goblins and privateer Hollows where arachnid hackers abuse
their mastery of “webspinning” — BriarNet slang for Hedgespinning — to steal whatever they can, be it another changeling’s liberty or a freehold’s most crucial intel. They spout an
ideology of freedom, privacy, and self-determination from
their hidden, VPN-locked Hollows, but others see it as cynical justification for their atrocities. Still, their skill is peerless, leading foolish or desperate Lost to seek out these anonymous loyalists when faced with firewalls they can’t cross or
encrypted Clouds they must crack open.
Hobgoblins dwell in the BriarNet as well, the embodiments of individual files, computer programs, and other assorted digital entities. Temporary files and cookies manifest
as Hedge ghosts, while Goblin Queens rule from motherboard palaces and wretched, childlike goblins born from
orphaned or overwritten data lurk in alleys and abandoned
warehouses.
The most dangerous BriarNet hobgoblins are the computer viruses and malware gremlins who corrupt everything
in their path. They can infect changelings, too, warping
their bodies or causing mental glitches. The White Hat freehold believes these viral interlopers serve a sinister fusion of
Gentry and circuitry that seeks dominance over the mortal
internet. The free company known as the Crystal Web (Oak,
Ash, and Thorn, p. 23) quickly dismisses this conjecture
as fearmongering, even as they check the shadows for new
incursions.
Systems: The BriarNet’s viruses are corrupted hobgoblins who either started out that way or fell victim to infection. The list of the always-virulent includes the Trojan
horse, which looks like an ordinary fae mount but whose
hoofprints leave behind an oozing, black sludge; the briarworm, a massive, squirming worm covered in thorns and a
thick layer of mucous that confuses anyone who can smell
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
it, which splits into two fully-grown briarworms when killed
without proper precautions; and the spyware moth, a tiny insect that swarms with its fellows wherever Glamour is spent
and memorizes its taste, gleaning secrets and allowing it to
mimic another fae being’s abilities. The Storyteller can create these and others as they would any hobgoblin, using the
rules starting on p. 252 of Changeling: The Lost Second
Edition.
Uncorrupted hobgoblins can be turned virulent by contracting the infection. Any fae resource, such as Glamour
and goblin fruits, and any fae being with a weakness to iron
can be corrupted this way. All corrupted beings gain the
Dread Power Cyberplague.
CYBERPLAGUE
The hobgoblin carries a fae computer virus and spreads
it wherever it goes. All electronics it touches glitch out or
malfunction somehow, imposing a −3 penalty on all rolls
to use them, or −5 within the BriarNet; this includes Hedgespun equipment. All ill effects the goblin would normally
suffer in the mortal world occur when they leave the BriarNet instead, even if they remain within the Hedge. Any
Hedgespinning it performs within the BriarNet results in
unsettling or dangerous side effects.
Whenever the hobgoblin spends Glamour and succeeds
at its task, roll Resolve + Wyrd; failure means the victim of
whatever power in question gains this Dread Power, if the
target is capable of doing so. The victim may forfeit this roll
and fail automatically. Anyone who learns a Goblin Contract from a virulent hobgoblin gains Cyberplague automatically.
This power can be shed by repaying all debts, either
through decreasing Goblin Debt to 0 or otherwise making
payment in full. Any being with Cyberplague who becomes
a Hedge Denizen or Goblin Queen is automatically virulent.
Choose one deleterious Persistent Condition; the hobgoblin suffers that Condition until it sheds this Dread Power, while its usual resolution only grants a Beat.
Handles and Usernames
As potent as entitlements are in the mortal world, they
wield even more influence in the BriarNet. Many entitled
changelings become lieges to entire servers, with protectors such as the Crimson Admin, the Cryptoknight, and
the Glitch defending against the encroaching viral scourge.
Other entitlements, like the Deepest Dataminer and Dread
Web Pirates Legion, prefer to remain neutral in these conflicts so they can roam the vast depths of cyberspace without
responsibilities.
Not all BriarNet entitlements are so benign. The Phisher King cuts deals with the worst of the BriarNet in pursuit
of power and wealth. Viruses infected the original Ashen
Coder while she bought time for innocents to escape their
clutches; now the title’s bearer transmits infected data to unsuspecting databases, destroying the lives of those she once
protected. Huntsman.exe slips into cities disguised as a web
surfer and tears everything down from within. Entitlements
like these threaten to destabilize the BriarNet’s delicate balance, sabotaging the increasingly digitized mortal world and
the Hedge proper in the process.
Surfing the Web
Like the mortal internet, fae cyberspace is pervasive
but invisible to travelers in the analog Hedge. Traveling between the mortal world and the BriarNet requires entering
the Hedge as normal and then Hedgespinning a means of
transport capable of linking up to the goblin web. Some hobgoblins sell token “routers” that make this journey easier or
more reliable in some way, but their drawbacks always persist
into the BriarNet and sometimes attract viruses.
Hedgeways inside the BriarNet cannot open into OpSpace, and the Lost have yet to find or create a stable trod
that can connect the analog Hedge to the digital side. Doing
so would be monumental, potentially birthing new Courts
and entitlements, earning the loyalty or enmity of large hobgoblin factions, or even leading some of the Gentry to treat
the intrepid changelings as peers.
Systems: Reaching the BriarNet requires Hedgespinning a symbolically digital route appropriate to the character’s current location with a paradigm shift costing 6 successes. Changelings in a parking lot or on a city street might
weave a straightforward highway to drive on, while those under a starry sky might spin fiber optic cables between those
points of light and climb them. Changelings near an ocean
could even literally surf there.
Virtual Meetup
The BriarNet doesn’t connect directly to the mortal world
physically but contacting it from inside is possible, as the digital
Hedge is built entirely upon systems for communication. Instead of meeting the Summer King at the local café to deliver
her report, a courtier sings into the microphone at the local BriarNet nightclub; her words become a text message in the mortal
world, and the monarch’s reply appears written on every drink
menu at the bar. A changeling intending to venture into the
deepest, darkest Thorns types a farewell message on a display
tablet in an electronics store that plays through the speakers of
her wife’s laptop; the heartfelt response comes in the form of
her wife’s voice blaring from a passing ice cream truck.
Systems: Hedgespinning contact with the mortal world
is straightforward in the appropriate location, as long as a
device meant for communication of some kind would logically appear there. It’s much easier to call a smartphone or
plant new entries in a database from a BriarNet phone booth
than from an abandoned sewer tunnel.
Connecting to a specific networked device for the scene
in these symbolic locations requires a subtle shift costing
Fish Out of Water
13
three successes. Opting to connect to a random device in- stead only costs
one success. Connecting to any such device from an inappropriate location is more difficult, requiring a paradigm
shift that costs four successes to rig the appropriate equipment out of an unsuitable environment.
The changeling only receives replies that come within
the same scene and from the same device with which she
made contact. By default, anyone nearby can read or hear
the messages, which appear through easily accessible means.
Add two successes to all of the above Hedgespinning costs
to force the response into a more private form, such as a text
message on the changeling’s phone. Add four successes instead to encrypt the response such that only the changeling
and those she allows can hear or see it at all.
fers to turn back the hands of time, to give the soldier back
his vitality in exchange for an oath of fealty. The world has
changed so much; the past’s science fiction is now reality. He
has grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom he wants
to see grow up. He longs for that future even if it means
dealing with the devil, so he accepts the Gentry’s offer. He
thinks it will be worth it, but it isn’t. Trapped in Arcadia,
his durance is an eternal battlefield utterly divorced from
humanity’s bright tomorrow. He flees through the Hedge,
back toward his family and his hopeful dream.
He doesn’t emerge in the 1990s. He doesn’t even appear
in the 2010s. When the soldier returns home, it is the summer of 1914 — the day after Gavrilo Princip assassinated
Franz Ferdinand. In the coming months, World War I unleashes its full wrath, and the soldier relives the nightmare
all over again.
Once and Future
Shadows of the Past
Imagine a soldier who fought in World War I as a teenager. He survives the front’s bombs, wire, and gas, outliving his comrades before finally going home. Then history
repeats itself as Hitler rises to power and slaughters millions.
Even as the dust settles, the Cold War and nuclear Armageddon’s twin specters rise. The horrors of human folly and
brutality recur again and again.
Now imagine that same soldier, who lived through so
much, sitting in a nursing home in the early 1990s when
a stranger without a face approaches him. The stranger of-
Everything is too damn familiar when a changeling escapes from Arcadia into their own past. Events repeat themselves, but not as she remembers them. She finds her fetch
reliving the same events but making all the wrong choices.
He watches his mortal self from the shadows, trying to subtly steer him away from the Fair Folk’s grasping hands. She
emerges during her durance and ends up fighting her stillcaptive self while attempting to rescue other changelings. He
gets a do-over, reliving his life as it was before, but this time he
is a changeling and his Keeper’s hounds are hot on his heels.
14
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
Changelings flung into the past don’t always exit the
Hedge within their own lifetimes. A Pakistani Muslim flees
through a Hedgeway and the Greco-Indian Kingdoms’ Buddhist Eightfold Courts greet her on the other side, stranding her centuries before the establishment of Islam, let alone
Pakistan and India. A just-war pacifist who has never left
Oslo returns home 900 years early and the Crusader Courts
beholden to Sigurd Magnusson sweep him into their march
across Europe to the Holy Land. A tech-savvy teenager finds
herself trapped amid the chaos of the Spanish-American
Wars of Independence, when the Bolivarian Courts tried to
free the Huntsmen from the Gentry.
Changelings trapped in the past learn that historians
write history by agreeing on a set of lies. While the broad
strokes of history are consistent with accepted narratives,
the details don’t play out the exact same way. A changeling
with knowledge from a future time can predict broad trends
and iconic events, but they cannot foresee history’s entire
course. Antiquated attitudes and social customs frustrate
many such changelings, who gravitate toward radical social
groups such as the French Revolution’s sans-culottes. Changelings find their Touchstones within these communities,
vindicating their values in the face of society’s disdain and
discrimination.
Bright Thorns of the Future
Changelings forced into the future face entirely different challenges. Missing a few decades means society is recognizable, but the subtle changes make the world feel uncanny
and unnerving, like a sculpture that looks mostly human
but is somehow off. When a changeling vanishes for centuries, they may emerge into a wholly bizarre world. Civilization itself is unfamiliar, filled with magical technologies
and strange fashions. After spending so long in Arcadia, the
Thorns may look more comforting than the mortal world
through familiarity alone.
Lost from the past may emerge from the Hedge in the
present, anachronistic relics of bygone eras. Some True Fae
seem to do this on purpose. The Honorable Commander,
a Keeper haunting Washington D.C., uses American presidents as its preferred medium. Changelings who look and
act like Taft, Truman, Monroe, or Polk have joined various
freeholds over the years, as have multiple versions each of
Washington, Lincoln, and Kennedy. Some of these changelings claim to be the president in question, while others say
the Honorable Commander forced them into their role, but
all avow the Commander intentionally released and displaced them through time for its amusement, a thought that
sickens the entire freehold.
Heirlooms
Lucky changelings find solace in the strange and alien
future from an unexpected source: the fae-touched. Those
who encounter the Avowed assume it would be impossible
for a changeling tossed centuries or even decades into the
Period Pieces
Context is vital when playing changelings
who emerge from their durance outside
their own time. Specific information about
historical events can be useful, but don’t get
bogged down in the details. Instead, use
society and culture as a backdrop to tell a
unique story. Storytellers and players can use
Dark Eras, the Dark Eras Companion,
Dark Eras 2, and other period Chronicles
of Darkness settings as starting points
when building historical chronicles or characters from other time periods. The Hedge
often reshapes itself to reflect such changelings’ homesickness, creating anachronistic
regions based on bygone eras.
Even published eras not featuring changelings directly can still provide invaluable
perspective. They may lack the supernatural
details and mechanics, but they provide an
excellent contextual base on which to build.
future to face the person with whom they made a promise
before their durance. While correct, this underestimates the
strength of commitment that created the fae-touched. Refusing to break their promise, the Avowed creates an Heirloom by taking another person into the Hedge, then having
them swear to find the changeling and fulfill the original
oath. The Heirloom becomes fae-touched themselves as they
return to the mortal world. She might be a child, trusted
student, or younger partner, but no matter what, she understands the profound emotional importance of keeping the
promise to the original Avowed. She knows the changeling
is still out there somewhere, scared and alone.
Some Heirloom fae-touched spend their entire lives
searching for their changeling and pass the promise on to
another successor. When a fae-touched Heirloom finds their
changeling counterpart, it is a sublime moment. The Heirloom has fulfilled not only their promise but the promises
of those who came before them. The changeling finds comfort in the knowledge that the world never forgot them even
while Arcadia’s beautiful hell confined them.
Systems: The process for creating an Heirloom is simple, although the knowledge is difficult to come by and faetouched are loathe to use it. The Avowed and the potential
Heirloom make a blood oath to keep searching for their
changeling companion, a promise the fae-touched seals. She
must spend a Willpower dot to transfer her Wyrd into the
newly anointed Heirloom.
Once the transfer is complete, the Heirloom becomes
fae-touched and the Avowed loses her Wyrd, Contracts,
Fish Out of Water
15
and capacity to store Glamour. She still benefits from her
Promises and retains any Merits she can use without Wyrd
or Glamour. Any Merits she can no longer use are subject
to the Sanctity of Merits, and she gains the Lucid Dreamer
merit for free if she does not already possess it. Many faetouched who haven’t passed on their promises feel creating
an Heirloom tantamount to admitting defeat and abandoning their loved ones. Even those who know the ritual may
refuse to do so until they lie on their deathbeds.
Heirlooms modify the regular Avowed rules. Because
they gained their Wyrd through a direct pledge, their souls
resonate more strongly with such promises, allowing them
to use sealings on changelings and other fae, and to initiate
oaths with other fae-touched. Pledges also bind them more
completely; it costs one additional Glamour to rebuff a sealing, and it costs a Willpower point to both violate an oath
and resolve the Oathbreaker Condition. Finally, an Heirloom Avowed may start play with one Royal Contract from
her favored Regalia instead of two Common ones. Her favored Regalia is the same as that of the Avowed who initially
made the promise she inherited. Fae-touched characters may
begin play as Heirlooms with Storyteller permission.
Should an Heirloom find the changeling whose promise
they inherited, both the Lost and the Avowed gain the same
additional Thread. It represents the fulfilled promise, anchoring changeling and fae-touched to one another through
time and space, connecting the past and the future through
bonds of loyalty and trust.
Walking Timeless Roads
Changelings who understand the nature of Faerie’s
timelessness often wonder whether it’s possible to sail on
time’s river to another point in history deliberately. It is, but
it’s not a task undertaken lightly. It’s never predictable, nor
is it safe, for it involves returning to the one place a changeling abhors above all others — Arcadia. Even from there,
the outcome is little better than guesswork. Folktales admit
the possibility of returning to a specific point in the mortal
world if a changeling allows their Keeper to see them, then
flees into the Thorns. Other rumors claim freeing another
changeling from the same period and riding their escape is
the best chance of a return home.
Truthfully, short of making a deal with Time herself,
jumping between moments in history is an entirely uncontrolled process that leaves changelings at the Wyrd’s mercy.
Storytellers may reward characters who try creative methods
by depositing them in, or close to, their intended time period,
but should always introduce side effects and complications.
As for Time, some say she was among the first forces the
Gentry bargained with, now hidden deep in Arcadia’s heart,
yet in plain sight. These tales warn that finding her isn’t easy,
nor is convincing her to break her oath not to interfere in
the Good Cousins’ affairs.
16
The Wishing Roads
Some Lost see poetry woven in starshine and moonlight
when they gaze at the night sky. Others feel the void’s ineffable
emptiness and their lives’ crushing insignificance compared to
the cosmos. A few find themselves lucky enough — or cursed
enough — to walk the Outer Hedge’s paths between the stars.
Modern narratives involving alien abductors bear an
uncanny resemblance to the True Fae, and Earth’s biosphere
confines neither the Hedge nor Arcadia. Beyond it wind the
Wishing Roads, the Dreaming Roads’ extraterrestrial extensions that act as the Hedge’s repository for humanity’s hopes
and fantasies. When teenagers let go of childhood imaginary friends and adults set aside their ideal futures to accept
life’s grim necessities, those wishes fade from those mortals’
dreams, but they aren’t destroyed. They find themselves orphaned, gathering in patchwork Bastions on the outskirts of
the Dreaming Roads — leftovers and misfits without homes.
Occasionally, when strong nostalgia sends ripples through
humanity or seismic shifts in mortal society (such as the attacks
of 9/11 or the advent of manned spaceflight) shift their collective dreams along with them, the Dreaming Roads uproot these
abandoned half-Bastions and fling them into space to dance
among the stars. These dream-havens — floating across Pluto’s
icy plains or trailing in a comet’s wake — are invaluable resources for changelings, providing them with a quick way to return to
Earth if they can navigate the near-infinite dead ends and brave
a journey that begins as little more than a wish.
A changeling emerging from their durance in space steps
from the frying pan into the fire. Touchstones are incredibly rare so far from Earth; even changelings lucky enough
to emerge on the moon must use robotic probes or satellites (or the blue marble itself) as Touchstones linking them
unsteadily to humanity. Clarity disintegrates quickly unless
they find their way home. Beyond the moon, no known freeholds inhabit outer space. Changelings who escaped Arcadia
together form the only motleys beyond Earth’s biosphere,
undertaking a shared mad dash back to Earth’s sustaining
embrace.
Lost in Space
Some unfortunate changelings escape their Keeper’s
clutches only to discover how far away their captors took
them. Rather than appearing in a back alley or a farmer’s
field, they emerge from the Hedge to stare at the pale blue
marble hanging over the moon’s surface. Others journey
deeper into the solar system and escape their durances to
confront the hellscape of Venus or the icy subsurface oceans
of Europa.
The Outer Hedge exists in pockets cut off from each
other and the rest of the Hedge, connected only as milestones along the Wishing Roads. Without humanity’s nightly
fantasies, the Dreaming Roads cannot exist as Earth-bound
changelings know them. Contrary to popular belief, the
space between these milestones isn’t empty — the Wishing
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
Roads sustain a population of hobgoblins like anywhere else
in the Hedge, although the kinds of goblins found there are
often more alien and live in tighter-knit communities than
those on Earth. A changeling might barter for a ride with
a meteor herder, learn Goblin Contracts from the sylphids
that drift between stars, or earn the wrath of the lacuna
moths — dark silhouettes of moth-winged sprites that exist
as shapes of negative space, drawn inexorably to the nearest
source of sunlight.
It can be difficult to distinguish parts of the earthly
Hedge influenced by human dreams of space from the actual
Outer Hedge. The most obvious differences are the types
of denizens found there and the types of Hedgeways that
manifest.
Every wish has a cost, which a changeling must pay at a
lychgate: a special kind of Hedgeway spawned by and leading to the Wishing Roads, one which hungers for hopes and
private longings. On Earth, lychgates appear deep in the
Thorns, where the Dreaming Roads drop off into an eternal chasm empty of anything but distant, twinkling stars.
In space, lychgates appear on the mortal side instead, standing or floating in awe-inspiring places humanity would call
natural wonders if they could reach them; their Masks make
them invisible to mortal eyes and telescopes.
Fantastical but foreboding in appearance, they invoke a
sense of wonder or wanderlust even as they call to mind ancient stories of sacrifices to wrathful gods, elaborate Gothic
grave markers, or unreachable “happily ever afters” that exist
nowhere but on the final pages of storybooks. The Neverland Courts of Normandy believe that each wish paid to a lychgate takes on new life along the Wishing Roads, extending
them into infinity and building lavish dream-palaces where
no one has yet dared to tread.
Wishing Road Systems
Lychgates in space allow changelings to enter the Outer
Hedge despite the lack of closeable portals, but they differ
from normal Hedgeways in that even changelings need Keys
to open them. Every lychgate requires the same Key: the sacrifice of a precious memory representing a wish, hope, or
dream. Unlike most Keys, this one is apparent to anyone attempting to cross the threshold; a whispered voice or distant
song reaches out to coax the changeling into willingly giving
the memory up, appealing to the childlike part of them that
lives deep in their heart and yearns.
Accepting the Key and paying the price permits the
Lost to step onto the Wishing Roads. She may then pass
through any lychgate without further sacrifice for the rest
of the chapter by paying 1 Willpower point per additional
passage but reduces her maximum Clarity by one; if a character has no Willpower to spend, they must make another
sacrifice to pass through instead as normal. Each Clarity box
sacrificed this way becomes an Icon, which descends into the
earthly Hedge as a shooting star.
The Wishing Roads themselves are 5-dot trods and
function as Dreaming Roads, except players must always
participate in chases to reach milestones — the temptation
to step off the path into the great unknown and chase one’s
dreams is a palpable force. As on the Dreaming Roads, anything that doesn’t lie on the trod itself and isn’t part of a Bastion’s territory counts as Thorns; spending more than a few
seconds upon the lines of gleaming starlight that web across
this sparkling vista inflicts the Persistent Madness Condition (Changeling, p. 343).
Following the Wishing Roads long enough can lead
travelers back to the Dreaming ones — and thus, indirectly,
to Earth. Characters must navigate the entire length of the
trod as normal, and must pass through a lychgate when they
reach the terrestrial endpoint. Its milestones are Bastions,
but no two journeys along the Wishing Roads encounter the
same five milestones.
Unlike most trod milestones, travelers must enter these
Bastions and then exit them the usual way to proceed past
them on the Roads.
Wishing Bastions
The Wishing Roads contain Bastions like those on the
Dreaming Roads, but none of them connect to dreamers
and they’re much fewer and farther between. The Fortification of a Wishing Bastion is 5 + the number of milestones
traversed from the farthest endpoint of the trod. Thus, the
closest Bastion to Earth has Fortification 6, while the one
closest to the far endpoint has Fortification 1. Where that
final endpoint leads is up to the Storyteller, but exiting the
trod there requires passing through a lychgate.
Any Wishing Bastion can function as a shortcut back
to the Dreaming Roads if characters are willing to utterly
destroy it, using the rules on p. 220 of Changeling. Wishing
eidolons belong to no dreamer, but are instead exiles from
human dreams of the past, cast out and isolated in a timeless
state, and much changed from the experience. They act to
stop their Bastion from destruction by any means necessary.
If changelings are inside a Wishing Bastion when they successfully destroy it, they are subject to the usual effects of a
crumbling Bastion (Changeling, p. 222); the effective Willpower of the “dreamer” equals (11 – Fortification), and the
effective Composure equals half the Bastion’s Fortification.
Soliloquies
The Wishing Roads are still part of the Hedge, if a remote and obscure one. Walking them with her head in the
clouds is a good way for a changeling to get hopelessly lost
out there, or perhaps hunted by something that hasn’t had
human contact in a millennium. Eidolons spawned from
forgotten nightmares stalk broken Bastions, while Goblin Market spaceships roam the skies seeking unsuspecting travelers willing to trade more wishes for otherworldly
wonders.
Fish Out of Water
17
Perhaps the most disturbing entities the Lost find out
among the stars are the soliloquies — the Hedge ghosts of
the Outer Hedge. Some are emotions that have migrated
along the Dreaming Roads into space ever since the first
primates stared at the stars in wonder. Dead effigies of the
Cassini probe and Opportunity rover haunt the Hedge on
Saturn and Mars, tangible manifestations of humanity’s empathy for these dead and soulless robots animated by the
Wyrd’s psychoactivity. Half-remembered dreams that once
broke free of ruined Bastions drift through space seeking
new frontiers. But perhaps the most painfully simple soliloquies are the remnants of changelings who never found their
way back. They died far from Earth, alone and afraid, and
now the echoes of their despair and loneliness plague living
Lost, begging those who survive to take them home.
Systems: Soliloquies treat the Wishing Roads as ordinary trods, with none of the drawbacks changelings suffer.
Create them as any other Hedge ghost using the rules starting on p. 246 of Changeling, with the following changes:
A soliloquy can use its Reach power to affect anything
on the other side of a lychgate rather than a normal Hedgeway, including those that connect to Earth’s Thorns. However, they’re incapable of passing through a lychgate without
destroying themselves, as all they have left to sacrifice is their
entire being.
In addition to the four powers all Hedge ghosts possess and
their Numina, every soliloquy knows the Dread Power Wish.
WISH
The soliloquy is capable of granting impossible wishes
at the request of changelings and humans. Wishes include,
but aren’t necessarily limited to:
• Removing (or applying) any applicable Condition or
Tilt (or similar affliction not modeled by these mechanics), including Hedge Denizen or Goblin Queen.
• Granting any applicable Merit, Skill, or Attribute at 5
dots.
• Causing someone to die in a way appropriate to the
soliloquy’s nature.
• Fulfilling an Aspiration of the petitioner, though not
always in straightforward ways.
• Increasing or decreasing someone’s Goblin Debt by
up to five points.
• Summoning one of the petitioner’s Icons.
The soliloquy cannot do any of these things unless explicitly asked to by a living changeling or human; changelings
who have become Hedge Denizens don’t count. Some soliloquies can grant virtually any wish imaginable; others might
only be able to grant one very specific request or a certain
18
Changelings
in Space
By default, sending changelings into space
doesn’t change the genre of the game. Many
of the examples in this section draw upon
real phenomena, but don’t feel beholden to
science; extraterrestrial fae are still fae, and
you can fill outer space with any kind of horrific and fantastical elements you want.
Can changelings breathe on the moon? If the
chronicle is set on the moon, why not? When
chronicles feature exotic locations containing
hazards lethal to humans, changelings living in the region should be immune to those
threats. This ensures the chronicle’s focus remains squarely on telling a story rather than
surviving for longer than five minutes.
On the other hand, players may want to explore the survivalist angle of such impossible
places for dramatic purposes. If the story is
about changelings journeying to an exotic locale and overcoming those perils, they should
not have blanket protection from environmental hazards. In this case, if a player wants to
build a character with those immunities, she
and the Storyteller should work together to
create or adapt a kith to reflect her character’s origins. The Storyteller can then run her
escape from the Outer Hedge as a prologue
scene, during which the player can describe
her character’s struggles with the environment
without having to worry about mechanics.
category of them. Sometimes it’s not the soliloquy itself that
grants the wish, but the completion of a quest it gives. Most soliloquies can only grant one to three wishes to a given person,
and wishing for more wishes is, of course, verboten.
All Wyrd magic, of course, comes with a price. When
the soliloquy grants a petitioner’s wish, the process destroys
one of the petitioner’s Aspirations utterly. The character will
never be able to fulfill it or replace it with another Aspiration.
This Dread Power is also available for hobgoblins originating in the Outer Hedge.
Moon Faeries:
The Lunar Freehold
The moon plays host to the one small freehold that
manages to survive in the harsh environment of space. Before 1966, changelings who emerged on the moon had little
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
choice but to brave the Wishing Roads. After the Soviets
landed Luna 9, some Lost took inspiration from it and remained on the moon rather than risking the journey. By
the time Neil Armstrong took his one small step, courts began to emerge that have flourished since — at least, by Outer
Hedge standards.
The Lunar Freehold embodies for changelings the most
fundamental human dichotomy: the impulse to explore versus the desire to return home. An entitlement, the Second
Star to the Right, arose from this dichotomy, which is dedicated to extending the freehold’s territory into the wilder
and more remote places beyond the moon. It is used to establish waystations to help newly escaped Lost come in from the
cold that can double as bases for further trodblazing.
Courts
Filled with joy and boundless energy, Aiken Drum’s
Court welcomes new changelings into the freehold. They
take any opportunity to lift their fellow Lost’s spirits and
stave off the endless loneliness of space with song and festival. Amid their repertoire lurk Jacobite war songs, and
anyone who mistakes their joy for inattention is in for an
unpleasant surprise.
Cain’s Court takes its oaths seriously, if for no other
reason than the scent of betrayal following them everywhere.
Rumor claims their patron is a powerful Hunstman who
once took the form of the original Cain and wears it even
now, stalking the lunar Hedge wrapped in shining brambles
and serving as the Wyrd’s vengeance. His court acts as judges and legislators, using oaths to maintain order, but they
are also penitents, atoning for the oathbreakers among them
and helping outside petitioners do the same.
Many cultures speak of monsters devouring the sun, imagery that the Eclipse Court uses to evoke dreadful wonder
in the freehold’s enemies. They claim Sköll, Ītzpāpālōtl, and
Rahu as their patrons, and are at their most potent when the
moon blots out the sun. This court seeks out and devours
anything threating the freehold, be it hobgoblin, Huntsman,
or loyalist.
Citing legends of Chang’e and the Jade Rabbit, Yutu’s
Court insists this is not the first Lunar Freehold. Like the
moon goddess, they are unafraid of making difficult choices,
even if their peers scorn them for it. They serve as the freehold’s chroniclers and alchemists, seeking to uncover the
Moon’s secrets, lest the unknown become the changelings’
undoing.
Faces
Apollo has been on the moon for a couple of years, but
he’s still the youngest in the freehold. The Kindly Ones took
inspiration from this brash and headstrong Elemental’s aptitude for science, transforming him into living radiation.
Ever-curious, Apollo is always the first to investigate any object arriving from Earth or its Hedge, a behavior his elders
believe will get him killed or captured. They don’t discourage him, though; he’ll have to learn on his own.
Providence is a fungal Goblin Queen who claims to
hail from distant Pluto’s icy Hedge and tolerates no doubt
about her origins. She plucks one courtier’s brain from its
skull on the last day of each lunar month as payment for her
continued aid in fending off fae intruders.
Story Hooks
• It’s the final day of the lunar month. Providence has
fought alongside the motley in the past, but the Lunar
Courts are under no illusions that she won’t sell them
out to the Gentry if they skimp on her grim toll. It
falls to the characters to find a loophole before the
freehold must choose a sacrifice.
• A lunar lander’s arrival on the moon’s surface is normally a cause for celebration, but this time, it brings
only dread. A probe is about to land on the moon’s
dark side that bears the unfortunate name of Eye in
the Night — a well-known Keeper’s Title. The freehold
doesn’t believe in coincidence. They send a motley to
brave all that lurks in the darkness and sabotage the
lander — and whatever it might carry inside it — before the Fair Folk steal them all back to Arcadia.
• Humanity has at long last begun building its first
moon base. The lunar changelings keep a close eye on
its progress, but it all goes awry when Apollo portals
within the base and a mortal engineer stumbles into
the Hedge. Now he needs the motley’s help finding
her among the Thorns and escorting her home before
the Gentry claim her.
To Be Lost
No matter who you are or where you’re from, your durance changes you. It may not be as noticeable as your new
horns, wings, or scales, but your thoughts and emotions
blossom into spring flowers or shrivel up like autumn leaves.
The way you interact with the world is fundamentally different. It has to be. You wouldn’t have survived your time in
Arcadia otherwise.
Survival Instincts
Do you know that old song by Heart, “These Dreams?” One
line talks about walking through a stained glass wall without a
cut. It’s kind of like that, except you never know when the wall
will actually cut you. If my Keeper was always cruel, I think I
might have dealt with it better — but she wasn’t, you know? She
kept me there with tastes of honeycomb that melted on my tongue,
with glittering presents made of sugar and children’s dreams, with
private conversations and “Well done, my faithful servant.” I felt
privileged, like I understood some part of her no one else did. The
imprisonments and periods of abandonment were just punishments for my mistakes. It was always my mistake. Never hers. I
To Be Lost
19
could never tell what would be a mistake. I don’t think she knew
either, until she was in the middle of my punishment.
— Mariah Glimmerglass, Fairest Helldiver
Some of us feel like it’s a betrayal to acknowledge the “good”
parts of our durances. It can feel like that, of course — these are
our enemies, the creatures who took us as playthings and punching
bags. They’re also the creatures who clothed us in butterflies and
whispers, the perfect lovers, the careful gardeners, the wounded
hearts we were empowered to soothe at times. It’s almost impossible to reconcile the two, and that’s before you add in the unreal
nature of what we all went through. Know this though — you’re
not alone. We don’t think your durance is lesser because your
Keeper showed you kindness sometimes. None of us survived this
without scars. You escaped. That’s important.
— Hallie of the Hunt, Elemental Shadowsoul
NO! I CAN’T GO BACK THERE! YOU DON’T
UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’LL DO TO ME! LET ME
CLOSE THE DOOR! LET ME—
— a Bridge-Burner’s last words
Humans require stability to function properly. From
our earliest days, we need to achieve homeostasis — a feeling of being safe and stable enough to live our lives without
fear of losing our home, food, money, and other essentials.
Getting fired, moving, breaking up, or any number of other
perfectly human things can disrupt or destroy homeostasis.
Long-term events such as imprisonment, abuse, hospital
stays, or the durance can even corrupt homeostasis, causing
one to believe that this is just how things are now.
As with any unfamiliar situation, the best thing to do
in Arcadia is adapt. Survival is only possible through adaptation, and many changelings come to see their new reality as,
well, reality. Butterflies made of glass? Completely normal,
just don’t let them drink your tears. Keeper throwing knives
and icicles in a rage? Stay quiet, keep your head down, and
maybe you won’t get cut. Make yourself invisible or convenient, or throw other people in the way of your Keeper’s violence, and you will survive.
Sadly, many changelings did something they regret during their durance. Martyrs die, idealists are obliterated, but
those who adapt survive. The Lost carry fragmented memories
of tearing out another prisoner’s heart to satisfy their Keeper,
throwing other changelings under the bus to avoid terrifying
punishments, or burying the bodies of those who weren’t pretty
enough for the vain True Fae that held them. Few changelings
escape complicity in some form of atrocity; as the property of
their Keeper, they must do as commanded or perish.
Whether or not her Keeper made her complicit, a
changeling’s durance is an erratic cycle of pleasure and punishment. A Telluric may be admired by a party of Gentry one
day and shot at with flaming arrows for not shining brightly
enough the next. A Helldiver serves her mistress the heart
of a Huntsman she was given freedom to chase down, only
20
Content Note
This section covers, among other things, what
it’s like to be one of the Lost and how they
deal with the confusion and pain of their situation. While it’s unlikely Fae came out of your
mirror to kidnap you at any point in your
past, you, or someone you know, may have
dealt with abuse and trauma. This section
covers both topics in some detail, albeit from
behind the veil of fantastical horror fiction.
Please be kind to yourself when reading. You
know your own limits.
to be told it’s not the right Huntsman; the Keeper hangs her
over a cliffside by her silver thread to think about what she’s
done. A Playmate’s Keeper throws her around like a ragdoll,
only to pick her up and rock her to sleep like a child, whispering apologies for the outburst. A changeling in durance
rarely knows what to expect; some can learn their Keeper’s
patterns and carefully time their escape, but many just get
lucky. How should you behave when your captor’s reaction
is a crapshoot — and they’re a 12-foot-tall pillar of smoke and
eyes and the scent of lavender?
Adapt.
Obey.
Accept.
Survive.
Surviving
It’s not your fault. No matter what else you hear from anyone, know that it’s not your fault.
— Velvet Lauren, Darkling Playmate of the Spring Court
You will wake up with nightmares. Your sweat is your armor.
Your screams are your shield and sword. This is normal. A blessing, even. The nightmares are nothing compared to the horrors
you went through. They are a gentle reminder of what awaits you
when your guard is down.
— Jane, Fairest Telluric, Autumn Monarch of the Freehold of the Endless Sky
A changeling ripping their way out of the Hedge and
back into the mortal world for the first time brings with her
a whole host of questions. What happened? Where am I?
Who can I talk to? How was any of that real? And, most
importantly, why me?
The last question has no good answers. Some Winter
Courtiers dedicate whole lifetimes to deciphering the riddle
of why the Fae take who they take, with no clear answer.
Some people shine brighter in spirit than any given Bright
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
One — why were they left alone? Why are Helldivers allowed
to roam free with nothing but a thin leash? What can we
learn about the True Fae, so we can prevent them from taking more people or taking us back?
It’s a personal struggle for every single one of the Lost,
the constant nagging of why me?
Fresh Out of the Hedge
When a changeling of any stripe first tumbles out of the
Hedge, her thoughts first turn to those closest to her. She has
to reassure her family she’s safe, tell her spouse she didn’t leave,
and a whole host of other damage control attempts. This often
ends in confusion and tragedy — the fetch has already taken
her place, and no one noticed she was gone, her past has been
erased and no one remembered her well enough to miss her,
or she’s simply been gone for too long or short of a time for
her story to be believable. Changelings all react differently to
rejection and disbelief, but no one takes the experience well.
This is where other Lost find them. Larger freeholds
may have entire welcome wagons dedicated to bringing in
new changelings, whereas smaller freeholds and motleys
do the best they can. New changelings can be skittish and
violent, and it’s best to send someone who can clearly and
calmly deliver the invitation to the freehold — and then get
the hell out of there.
Some changelings never accept those invitations, either
wandering off into the wider mundane world or taking up
residence in the Hedge. Memories of home, once a balm in
Arcadia, are now too painful to confront. A changeling may
eventually join another freehold or create a new one. She
may live almost exclusively in a Hollow to grow goblin fruits
and avoid mortal interaction — though this does mean taking constant attacks on her Clarity, as she never sees a single
Touchstone. They’re all ways to shut out the anguish of being
forgotten and abandoned by the people she held in her heart.
A few believe their first interaction with changelings in
the mortal world is a Keeper trick. This type of Lost may
isolate herself to avoid being targeted again, hiding behind
locked doors and long stretches of desolate highway. If she’s
really desperate, she may even flee back to Arcadia and beg
her Keeper’s forgiveness or become a Hedge Ghost while trying. Others become loyalists or Bridge-Burners, depending
on how they handle the shock.
On Learning to Live
The first time I tasted Glamour, it was a rush. Not like a
drug high — I mean, of course I’ve never done drugs, what are
you, a cop? Nah, it felt like jumping out of an airplane, except the
airplane is busy mooning over her ex-girlfriend. I felt suspended,
glistening and sharp, in the middle of that feeling. Whoo! I can’t
explain it much better than that, but I felt that Glamour rush
through my body, filling me with power. I knew I was gonna land
Destroying a
Freehold
Freeholds are not perfect. Sometimes a privateer wants to score a big hit. Sometimes the
Wild Hunt makes a single, concerted attack,
putting the freehold under siege. Sometimes,
the Lost’s passions just get the better of them.
For whatever reason, sometimes a freehold
breaks apart into its constituent courts and
motleys.
Breaking a freehold is not simple. It usually
involves weeks or months of rumors and accusations; of fights, Bedlam, and mandatory
meetings to determine the freehold’s future.
Faction lines become clearer. Misunderstandings grow into emotional wars. Finally, the
oath of community itself falls apart as Lost
declare, in the heat of things, that they would
rather be anywhere but here. All changelings
of the former freehold feel this pain deeply
and some never recover from the betrayal.
As a consequence, many Bridge-Burners
and privateers come from broken freeholds
— often joining the ones who broke it in the
first place.
All former members of a shattered freehold
suffer the Oathbreaker Condition, whether
they were a catalyst or not, until they join another existing freehold or create a new one
out of the ashes of the old. For more information on freehold conflicts, see p. 9 of Oak,
Ash, and Thorn.
on the ground safely from that metaphorical skydive, but better — I
was gonna land on the ground and be able to do ANYTHING.
— Kyle Threecups, Wizened Absinthial of the Spring Court
The first time I saw another changeling, he terrified me. He
was huge and covered in scales. His muscles bulged out of that
tank tee, and I thought for sure he was coming for me. There was
no other reason! I ran. He followed. That didn’t help, I admitted
to him later over tea. I was surprised Big Ben Clifftop liked tea,
he seemed more like a beer kinda guy.
Anyway, he chased me down and as I started begging him
not to take me back, he laughed. Said he’d thought I was smarter
than that, that he wasn’t going to hurt me, and he had a safe
place to take me to meet others like us.
The fact that there is an US still delights and terrifies me.
Of course, I joined the Liberty Bell Freehold; I’m not stupid. I
just … I don’t know. I hoped it had just been me. I thought I was
To Be Lost
21
unique, chosen to suffer for the sins of the world. But there’s a lot of
us here, not to mention the other freeholds. How many people have
they taken? How many are still in Arcadia?
— Harker, Fairest Climacteric of the Spring Court
[joyful hissing at a freehold fête]
— Marshmallow, Darkling Bequerel of the Winter Court
Freeholds? Are you joking? They’re just a bunch of scared
children kidding themselves. We were all kidnapped, my friend.
Our kidnappers are still out there, and they’re still looking for more
people to enslave. That’s what they do. They take, and they keep
taking until the well’s dry and they have to go digging for another. I
don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on being there when they dig
a new well.
I’m smart, though. I joined the winning side. I work with the
Kindly Ones, because then I get some choice in who they take. You
can stand there and be offended all you please, but at the end of the
day, your family isn’t protected by the same oaths mine is.
— Tilly Whitmore, Sandharrowed Beast and privateer
Thriving
I thought I could never sing again. I thought my voice belonged
to the Countess of Silk and Steel, that using it was glorifying her.
That’s a lie. Everything she told me about my voice is a lie. I sing
in my church choir again, just as a different person. I get more solos
too. I only turn on “the voice” when I need to. I could be famous,
everyone tells me so, but I don’t want to be, not right now. Maybe
someday. I’m learning that I have time.
— Rhiannon Strongsong, Wizened Nightsinger
I don’t believe in any god. How could I, after what I’ve gone
through? I keep telling Rhiannon she should get a record deal, but she
doesn’t want to. Religious singing and ritual comfort her, and I respect
that. What comforts me is seeing how much I’ve changed from who
I once was. I was an asteroid hurtling through my Keeper’s skies. I
thought all I could be was an agent of destruction. Now I’m one of
the Winter Court’s recruiters. I have soothed sobbing changelings in the
dead of night. I’ve set them up with jobs in the city, places where they
feel they can do some good. I work with a women’s shelter, teaching
self-defense. I can do more. I can be more than what they made me. I
don’t believe in any god, but I do believe in myself.
— Kiri Lia Bianca, Ogre Telluric and wife of Rhiannon
Strongsong
At some point, the Lost do have to interact with the
mortal world. They need to live somewhere, feed and clothe
themselves, and do something to make money — not to mention preserving what little Clarity they have left. Their powers may give them an edge, but how do you go to the office day
in and day out knowing a creature made of nightmares and
promises wants you back in its domain more than anything
else?
One of the first things a changeling learns, through practice and advice, is that she is in control of her own boundaries.
It’s incredibly easy to forget after a durance that she can say no,
that she can change her mind, that saying the wrong thing won’t
22
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
result in heinous punishments. Learning how to take control of how she interacts with people is key for a changeling,
both in fae and mortal spaces.
Boundaries are crucial, but they don’t keep the anguish
in her head entirely at bay. This is important for the changeling (and her player) to remember. Being held captive by an
otherworldly being that sees you as a precious child and a
disobedient thrall leaves lasting scars on the mind. The survival skills a changeling learned in Arcadia almost invariably
hurt her in daily human life. She can’t just throw around
dazzling and deadly fae magics every time she feels threatened. Working with other changelings, as well as mortal or
supernatural counselors, helps her learn new coping skills,
but it never erases the experience completely, even if she
doesn’t remember all of it.
The Wyrd still governs a changeling’s life, even as she
goes to and from the aforementioned office. She feels its
pull, and sometimes it’s too strong to ignore. She may take
her lunch break in the Hedge or find herself in the middle
of office politics more often than she’d like. A canny changeling doesn’t promise anything she cannot immediately fulfill
even among mortal friends and coworkers, for she knows
the Wyrd will require something she hasn’t thought of if
she makes promises she hasn’t carefully considered. Some
changelings appear flaky or noncommittal, when in truth
they’re trying to protect their mortal associates.
Many changelings fear the simple act of telling mortals
about their durance and nature puts those mortals at risk for
abduction. This is not automatically true, though mortals
may try to seek out Hedgeways on their own initiative, and
some fae beings do have an easier time finding people who
know their names or secrets. Another fear many changelings
share, though few admit it, is the fear of mockery. How do
you tell someone the faeries kidnapped you and expect them
to respond with a straight face? Most changelings keep their
stories to themselves or their own kind, though some become comfortable enough to seek counseling. A few changelings even become therapists themselves, specializing in
treating victims of the fae.
A changeling must eventually take all these disparate
pieces of her broken life and find a way to fit them together
into something resembling a daily routine. She might tend
bar, work for a nonprofit organization, or deal with emergencies as an EMT. While not all changelings need to work
— Wizened can spin straw into gold, after all, and their motleys never need to work a day in their lives — many find the
rhythm of a day job soothing, or even necessary. Some go
into high-stress public positions, while others eschew the
limelight. Hobbyist changelings derive the same joy and purpose from knitting, growing goblin fruits, or thrift shopping
for odds and ends at both human and Goblin flea markets.
Working among mortals is also the perfect cover for
making bargains (Changeling, p. 214). Agreeing to fashion
shoes every night for a shoemaker is a lot less conspicuous
for a changeling who’s literally on the payroll.
After a while, such changelings find — perhaps to their
surprise — that they fit in somewhere once more. It’s a new
life, but a life they can call their own. They may never fully
achieve homeostasis again, but they have a routine, goals,
and a future. It’s more than they had before.
Spinning the Self
Arcadia changes people, but it doesn’t make changelings
monsters. Their wants, needs, and struggles refract through
an Arcadian prism, subtly altering them, but they remain
human. To thrive, the Lost need purpose, motivation, and
connections.
Remember that changelings themselves don’t use the
mechanical terms discussed here; they are abstractions,
representations of complex motivations, psychologies, and
histories. Changelings do not identify Needles and Threads
within themselves, nor do they call their closest confidantes
Touchstones. Instead, a joyful bon vivant says she lives her
life to the fullest, the promise of a happy tomorrow is what
keeps her going, and she knows texting her ex helps settle
her when she doesn’t quite feel right.
Needle and Thread
Mortals ground their identities through their Virtues and Vices; their best and worst impulses define them.
Changelings have uplifting qualities and weaknesses, too,
but they distinguish themselves through deliberate reinvention. When a changeling escapes Arcadia, her Needle and
Thread help her determine what to do with her newly won
freedom.
Prick of the Finger
Throughout a changeling’s durance, the Gentry imposes a role upon them. Some True Fae claim their captives have
free will but manipulate their every action; others simply
bludgeon their slaves into submission. Either way, they prevent changelings from making their own decisions. Upon
winning their freedom, changelings also win back their right
to determine who they wish to be. This is their Needle, the
changeling’s chosen self with which they make their mark on
the world and impose their will.
A Needle represents the Lost’s ability to pierce her confused memories and muddled identity, and to defy the unwanted expectations others place on her. While searching
for a job, she meets a modeling agent who insists she can win
both fame and fortune as long as she becomes the “perfect”
feminine princess. She had a similar contract before the
Kindly Ones took her, but she found it stifling. Instead of
allowing the agent to lock her in another ivory tower, she
affirms her Needle as a commander by setting up her own
competing agency, helping her colleagues express their true
selves.
When a changeling first returns from Arcadia, her
Needle simply drives her to act upon her newfound indeSpinning the Self
23
pendence. With time, it evolves into something more, a real
purpose that gives her life context and meaning. With persistence, community, and a little luck, she one day wakes
up to find that her past — while forever an indelible part of
her — no longer defines her. Her needs and desires eclipse
her history as she shines a light on the future she wants to
create for herself.
Woven Tapestries
People are complicated, like a wall hanging’s myriad colors. In context, the many strings tell a story and evoke powerful emotions, but if the threads binding them break, the
colors fray and dissolve into an unrecognizable mess. This
metaphor describes the Lost as much as a tapestry.
If a changeling’s Needle represents who he chooses to
be, his Thread represents the throughline binding his past
and current selves together. It gives context to his life, keeping him from feeling unmoored. It is the motivation for him
to crawl out of bed in the morning, even when he would
rather ignore the world and let time pass him by. It is a familiar feeling, reminding him that no matter how much he
changes, he remains himself. By reflecting on his Thread,
a changeling knows he can face the unknown and handle
whatever the future brings.
A changeling’s Thread also helps him make sense of
his conflicting memories and the competing expectations
placed upon him. Arcadia does a real number on recollection, jumbling thoughts and memories with unreality; other
people — fae and mortals alike — try to define him with their
own perceptions of him. The changeling’s Thread helps him
push those hands away from the loom and weave a new life
for himself without outside interference in the tapestry’s pattern.
Rethreading the Needle
People reinvent themselves all the time. A painter drops
out of art school to become an economist, while a scientist
discovers a passion for history. Changelings retaking their
lives don’t have to succeed perfectly right away — their first,
second, and seventh tries are all equally valid. Freeing themselves from the specters of Arcadia is full of dead ends and
false starts, like any life. Those kinks in the path don’t mean
the changeling was wrong or made a mistake; they just took
a longer route to get where they needed to be.
Fortunately, dead ends don’t always mean ending up
in a Huntsman’s shackles. It’s uncommon for changelings
to change their Needle or Thread, but it does happen.
The change corresponds with major life milestones for the
changeling, such as joining a new court, gaining a dot of
Wyrd, or fulfilling a long-term Aspiration. These milestones
don’t have to be positive; betrayal by a Loyalist, resolving
a persistent Clarity Condition, or encountering the True
Fae could prompt a changeling to reexamine his approach
to life. Generally, anchor changes should occur at a story’s
end, but with Storyteller permission they may change mid-
24
chapter or even mid-scene if such an event creates a dramatically appropriate moment.
While no mechanics govern changing a character’s
Needle or Thread, consider what it means to them. Are they
proud of how they acted previously or do they hide it away
in shame? Are they even aware a of change taking place? It’s
possible for the character to remain oblivious to the difference, since in most cases it’s the player’s decision to focus
more strongly on another aspect of the character’s personality.
Touchstones
A man hears a song on the radio as he’s driving home
from work. Tears well in his eyes as it conjures memories of
his childhood, a more carefree time spent with his aunt who
passed away last year. It seems impossible to him that he’s
the same person as that child, impossible that his days hunting bugs and playing pretend ever became the nine-to-five
grind. He lost himself somewhere along the way and this life
isn’t — it can’t be — his. By the time he gets home, he feels like
a stranger watching his own life from afar, but the feeling
dissolves the second his kids wrap their arms around him
and cheer their father’s arrival home. Without even meaning to, their love tells him it’s okay. People change and life
keeps throwing curveballs at him, but it doesn’t need to be
an albatross around his neck. Moments like this are worth
simply enjoying as-is.
Not every changeling shares this exact experience, but
they all relate to it. The Lost struggle to maintain their sense
of self and certainty in their reality under the constant pressure of evading Faerie’s greedy eyes. The pressure is always
on and if they let it build too long, they can end up feeling
distant from themselves, unsure whether they truly understand who “they” even are. Touchstones are a release valve,
taking the pressure off and allowing changelings to reconnect with themselves.
A changeling can’t simply go through the motions with
a Touchstone; they force him to engage fully with the world
around him. Even if a Touchstone is ignorant of the changeling’s supernatural life, she cuts through all the courtly drama and Hedge bullshit, bringing the changeling back down
to earth. With a Touchstone, he can breathe and take in
the way life is instead of the way it could have been. Even a
Touchstone with whom the changeling shares a fierce rivalry
or always gets into vicious arguments serves this purpose.
Confrontations are stressful, but he always feels more like
himself afterward.
Most Touchstones are people, but they don’t all have
to be. Treasured locations, passion projects, and beloved
pets can serve as Touchstones if they carry enough meaning.
While they cannot hold a conversation with the changeling,
they remind her that it’s okay to be herself exactly as she is,
prompting an internal recalibration as valuable as speaking
with another person.
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
A few changelings possess even stranger Touchstones,
such as the ghost of their best friend or their vampire landlord. These supernatural Touchstones function identically
to mortal ones, but they all share two key characteristics:
achieve the necessary focus in order to reap the benefits and
may only do so once per chapter. No supernatural effect can
modify this roll.
• They always relate to the mortal world, even if the
connection is as tenuous as reminding a changeling
of someone she knew before her durance or her favorite childhood television show. This connection to
humanity is what grounds her.
While changelings interact with all Touchstones in
some manner, the interaction isn’t always a two-way street.
Companion Touchstones are living things with their own
personalities, quirks, and agendas, but for whatever reason,
they act as a receptacle for the changeling’s worries and anxieties rather than providing a dialogue. Beloved pets provide
a soothing presence and unconditional love regardless of
who the changeling was or who they’re becoming. Closely
following an admired celebrity’s life and works allows him to
just exist in comfortable anonymity, exactly as he is.
Systems: By their nature, Companion Touchstones are
slightly shallower connections to the mortal world, but in exchange they’re simpler to derive comfort from. A Companion
Touchstone detaches from the character’s Clarity track when
severe or mild damage fills its associated box, but spending a
scene interacting meaningfully with it heals all mild Clarity
damage and one point of severe rather than one or the other.
• Supernatural Touchstones also cannot relate to the
Wyrd or anything fae in nature. Even if they would
otherwise be excellent Touchstones, these things represent that which is unknowable and ever-changing
— exactly the opposite of what a Touchstone should
be.
Alternate Systems
The following section presents several optional systems
for certain kinds of Touchstones, altering the default benefits. Players may choose to use either the default system or
an optional one for a type of Touchstone that qualifies, although keep in mind that it may make the system more complex to do so. A player can change which system they use for
any given Touchstone between chapters and are not required
to use the same system for all their Touchstones.
The traditional Touchstone system presented in
Changeling is robust and broad, allowing any potential
Touchstone to fit within its framework. The alternative
Touchstone systems offered here invoke more specific kinds
of connections, but they are flexible. Focus less on whether
the system fits a particular Touchstone’s exact description
and more on whether the combination of Touchstone and
system reinforces the character’s themes.
Activity Touchstones
For some changelings, performing or participating in
a familiar activity can serve to make them feel like themselves just as spending time with a friend. The activity can
be menial, creative, or social: Chopping wood could remind
a character of family vacations in the mountains, painting
could keep her hands busy and mind inspired after a durance of unbearable stasis and conformity, while attending
or organizing peaceful protests could put her back in touch
with her lifelong outrage that ordinary humans who never
see a single goblin are still oppressed, too.
Systems: Activity Touchstones require actively doing
something, rather than simply interacting with someone;
conversely, they don’t require the presence of anyone specific
and are thus easier to find opportunities to engage with. As
long as the changeling has access to whatever she needs to
perform the activity, spending a scene doing it may count as
both defending the Touchstone for Willpower and interacting meaningfully with it to heal Clarity damage. However,
the player must succeed on a Resolve + Composure roll to
Companion Touchstones
Legacy Touchstones
Whether it’s a first edition copy of his first novel, a
recording of the press release that announced his groundbreaking research, or the child he raised, a Legacy Touchstone reminds the changeling of what he is capable of without
fae magic, and it remains as a tangible sign that he made
his mark on the mortal world. Even if the Touchstone itself
fades or dies, knowing he made a difference is one thing his
Keeper can never, ever take away from him.
Systems: Legacy Touchstones are stabler and more reliable than other Touchstones but can be harder to engage
with or defend. If the character’s only remaining attached
Touchstone is a Legacy Touchstone, whenever he takes severe damage to its associated Clarity box, his player may roll
Resolve + Composure to keep the Touchstone attached for
the rest of the chapter. If he doesn’t heal that Clarity damage
before the next chapter begins, the Touchstone detaches as
normal. If a changeling loses a Legacy Touchstone entirely,
whether or not it’s the only one the changeling has attached,
it detaches from its associated Clarity box whenever it takes
severe or mild damage from then on. Only finding and attaching a new Legacy Touchstone as a replacement allows
the changeling to deliberately abandon it. If the player shifts
this Touchstone back to the default system, it’s automatically
lost the first time it would detach.
Clarity
Clarity is not a barometer for a changeling’s sanity or
morality. Instead, it measures their self-actualization and
emotional resilience. The boundary between mundane and
magical is razor-thin; it takes a clear mind and a strong heart
to maintain it within oneself.
Spinning the Self
25
Mortals doubt a changeling’s sanity when she insists
that she travels to worlds beyond mundane ken. Likewise,
her attachment to the mortal world baffles hobgoblins and
the Gentry; to them, Wyrd marks the Lost as denizens of the
Hedge and Arcadia, not humans. Mortals and faeries alike
fail to acknowledge that changelings are creatures of both
worlds. With full Clarity, a changeling recognizes the subjectivity of truth, helping him contextualize his experiences
when compared to those of others. He trusts his senses and
has confidence in his understanding of his personal truth.
Being low on Clarity feels like putting down your house
keys and being unable to find them when you need to leave
— while your roommate swears he never touched them after,
in fact, hanging them by the door while cleaning. In this
self-doubting state, a changeling can distinguish truth from
fiction, but he has difficulty taking mundane or magical realities at face value. He second guesses his own memory and
doesn’t trust his intuition, and thus tends to prioritize other
people’s word over his own experiences. Confusion blurs
the lines between reality, memory, and dreams. At its worst,
Clarity loss leaves the changeling doubting he ever left Arcadia in the first place, where only the Gentry’s truth matters.
The most terrifying part of all is that it’s not an irrational
fear. The Kindly Ones have been known to let changelings
think they’ve escaped through elaborate illusions, only to
bring the entire facade crashing down when they find it convenient or amusing.
Clarity loss muddles everything. What the changeling’s
senses tell him doesn’t change, but he can no longer interpret it with certainty. Hesitance and anxiety overcome him,
whether he’s asserting his will, resisting mind-affecting magic, or recalling simple facts.
As Clarity damage heals, his confidence returns. It’s
not that he no longer has doubts — everyone does — but he
can set them aside and get on with life. His faith in himself
emboldens his actions. He picks up the shattered glass that
shows him his own reflection and rearranges it in the mirror frame. The cracks smooth over and heal themselves with
nary a scar before the mirror proclaims he is the fairest of
them all and should never doubt it again. Some call the Lost
“mad,” but they simply can’t understand the kind of resilience the changeling psyche possesses. No matter how many
times a changeling pulls himself back together after breaking, he feels the same relief and self-assurance each time.
Roleplaying the Dream
The Comatose Condition allows players and Storytellers to explore the changeling’s hopes, fears, and relationships. When portraying a Comatose changeling’s dreams,
other players can take on the roles of important eidolons
while the Storyteller sets the scene. This form of narrative
troupe play ensures engagement in the scene for everyone
and offers players a unique roleplaying experience. If a player
is uncomfortable challenging their friend’s character, they
26
could instead be present in the dream as a supportive Storyteller character, such as a Touchstone or their own character’s eidolon.
Bear in mind that when Touchstones appear in a character’s dream while she’s subject to the Comatose Condition,
they aren’t the real thing. A changeling can’t regain Clarity
by spending time with eidolons. The Storyteller can, however, involve these Touchstone eidolons in the drama of the
dream, allowing her to resolve a Clarity Condition by interacting with them as normal.
If a changeling drops to Clarity 0 with Comatose as her
only Clarity Condition, Storytellers should allow her to resolve another Condition that could be a Clarity Condition
instead; for instance, if she became Spooked due to a power
rather than Clarity damage, she may still heal a point of that
damage when resolving Spooked. If she doesn’t possess any
other appropriate Conditions either, an eidolon can easily
inflict one as the scene progresses.
Since the dreamer’s own actions can be inconsistent in
dreams, players can share the responsibility of portraying
the Comatose changeling if the group agrees. This simulates
the loss of narrative control often present in dreams, which
is particularly disturbing for changelings since they are natural lucid dreamers and dreamweavers.
When troupe-playing a single changeling, each player
chooses a single emotion or facet of the character that their
actions in the dream represent. If the group wants to really
dig into the motley’s relationships, they can even assign the
other characters in the motley to parts of the Comatose character’s personality instead, exploring the push and pull of a
close-knit group of changelings on each other’s selves.
The goal is to explore aspects of the changeling’s mind
and the conflicting drives within her, not to hijack a character and behave outlandishly; thus, the Storyteller should
return full control of the Comatose character back to her
original player at any time if the latter occurs.
Feel free to allow consistency and plausibility to fall
by the wayside when portraying eidolons, especially those
who represent existing Storyteller characters in the dream.
People act wildly out of character in dreams and the dreamer is none the wiser. This may create an impossible or outright comical scene; that’s fine within the dream’s context!
It’s only after the Comatose changeling wakes up that the
dream’s incongruities are unnerving. On the surface, a character playing dodgeball with her Keeper in dreams may seem
too lighthearted for a Changeling chronicle. Dig a little
deeper, though, and the absence of the changeling’s survival
instincts becomes terrifying. In the dream, she accepted her
Keeper’s presence in a mundane activity without question.
If she’s willing to accept the Gentry in her dreams, is there
even the smallest chance she would allow them to put her
back in chains?
That dream is fucking terrifying in the light of day.
Chapter One: Familiar and Strange
Such incongruities can work to the motley’s advantage
if a changeling becomes Comatose and they must rescue her
from her own Bastion. Creating unusual circumstances and
convincing eidolons to act out of character are tried-and-true
methods to help a Comatose changeling awaken. The motley must interact with the changeling’s eidolons and perform
oneiromancy to maneuver them like pieces on a chessboard
to create scenarios so unlikely that the dreamer can no longer accept them.
Some changelings try using Contracts and other magic
to directly restore the Comatose changeling’s Clarity. This
isn’t effective, since it lacks the emotional catharsis of resolving a Condition, but it can enact a paradigm shift without
a roll; the instigator gains dreamweaving successes equal to
his Composure.
New Clarity Conditions
ers and displays qualities she subconsciously learned from
her Keeper, leading her to fulfill her own desires at everyone
else’s expense.
Any Social roll your character fails automatically becomes a dramatic failure that does not grant a Beat. As well,
Joy replaces her current Needle and one of her Keeper’s Aspirations replaces one of her current Aspirations until the
Condition resolves.
Possible Sources: Reaching Clarity 0
Resolution: The character regains Clarity or her actions
cause serious harm (physical, mental, or emotional) to her
allies, regaining a point of Clarity as usual. In the case of severe damage, the only way to resolve this Condition is for the
changeling’s actions to harm her allies. Any other Clarity
Conditions she resolves during this time increase her Clarity
as usual, but they do not resolve this Condition.
Optionally, changelings may suffer one of the following
Conditions in place of Comatose when they reach Clarity 0.
Optional System:
Condition-Based Kenning
BEHIND YOUR EYES
Clarity disintegration renders a changeling easily manipulable, leaving them wide open to subversion. A Hedge
ghost, hobgoblin, or — worst of all — one of the Gentry
invades the changeling’s mind. The invader can’t read the
changeling’s thoughts, but it shares her senses whenever it
likes. She’s aware of a mental itch deep down, but she can’t
place it until the Condition resolves, and she realizes how
much she gave away.
If this Condition came about through mild Clarity damage, resolving another Clarity Condition forces the visitor to
retreat from the changeling’s mind. If it came about through
severe Clarity damage, only the shock of accidentally betraying herself and her motley ends the Condition.
Possible Sources: Reaching Clarity 0
Resolution: The character regains Clarity or takes an
action that reveals an important secret to the visitor, recovering a point of Clarity as usual. In the case of severe damage,
the only way to resolve this Condition is for the changeling
to reveal a secret. Any other Clarity Conditions she resolves
during this time increase her Clarity as usual, but they do
not resolve Behind Your Eyes.
EGOMANIAC
Without Clarity, the changeling acts as though she resides in Arcadia, mimicking the True Fae’s boundless egotism. She fails to comprehend the needs and desires of oth-
By default, as long as a changeling maintains her Clarity and Willpower, she can use kenning to pick up the taste
of magic in the air. Condition-based kenning is an optional
system for players who want to give their characters less control over their magical acumen. In exchange, the kenning
is more potent, allowing a changeling to penetrate supernatural concealment; can occur even with low Clarity; and
doesn’t drain her will.
If the Storyteller and players agree, they may use both
kenning systems in the same chronicle, allowing both deliberate and mysterious intuition when the situation warrants.
Systems: Condition-based kenning costs no Willpower
and triggers automatically when a changeling resolves a Clarity Condition; she can’t voluntarily use it. Roll her current
Clarity. On success, she gains the Deep Kenning Condition.
DEEP KENNING
Your character’s newly bolstered Clarity grants abrupt
flashes of insight, allowing her to discover nearby magic. You
may shed this Condition at any time to gain information
about nearby supernatural phenomena as if you had rolled
kenning with successes equal to half her maximum Clarity.
Unlike normal kenning, resolving this Condition permits a
Clash of Wills against active magical concealment.
This Condition fades without resolving if the character
drops to Clarity 0.
Possible Sources: Heal Clarity damage by resolving a
Clarity Condition or spending time with a Touchstone.
Resolution: As noted above.
Spinning the Self
27
“Promises bind our kind as surely as iron chains or ropes of human hair. The fae never swear by anything we
don’t believe in. We don’t ask for thanks and we don’t offer them; no promises, no regrets, no chains. No lies.”
— Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue
You fled your Keeper’s impossible kingdom but echoes Though lesser known, many of these agreements remain in
of her cling to you long after you escaped the Hedge. The effect today. Changelings and hobgoblin servants call upon
smell of smoke from her ever-burning fires lingering in your powers of judgement and sovereignty, light and shadow, life
hair, the chime of his laughter still ringing in your ears, the and death — abilities that don’t comfortably fit the purview
wonders you wielded in Arcadia follow you home. Though of any of the principal Regalia. Some of the oldest pacts fade
they’re much diminished from the world-shaping miracles into obscurity as the Titles of their True Fae creators fall
you performed at your Keeper’s command, memories of dormant or cease to be, but extraordinary deeds or grave
them have seeped into your skin and settled deep within disasters can sometimes bring them back into the light.
your bones.
Regalia themselves are symbols, esoteric concepts disThis chapter delves into the powers available to the tilled into ideas the Gentry’s servants can understand. They
Lost, including new Regalia and Contracts, the fae sympa- rarely ever embody just one thing. Jewels represent perfecthetic magic called dramaturgy, and expanded rules and ex- tion, but also the temptation a person feels when gazing
amples for pledgecraft and oaths.
upon something flawless — the need to possess it, the willingness to go to war for it. Jewels exemplify fortune and deceit
as well, all facets of a greater whole. Contracts are Regalia
he orms of
passed through a prism, broken down into their component
hings
nknown
parts for the True Fae’s servants to observe and command.
A Darkling holds a lightning-charred oak branch in her
Some Contracts stand alone or in independent pairs.
hand and presides over two motleys in dispute. Her judg- They fit no known Regalia, and each performs one extremely
ment binds them to a course of reconciliation. A Hunter- specific task. Leaden Mirror librarians keep careful notes on
heart clutches his compass tight; its needle whirls and spins, such Contracts when they encounter them, tracing their oribut he knows the way home. The Becquerel offers her enemy gins and the names of those Lost who learned them. Many
a sip from a dented cup — its contents will heal him, for a of these derive from now-defunct Regalia whose pacts were
while. A penny for your thoughts? the Wizened asks the Goblin forgotten over the millennia, or whose original manifestaQueen, sliding an ancient coin across the table and bracing tions were destroyed. Sometimes, the Gentry create indifor brutal truth.
vidual Contracts out of necessity, granting their servants the
All Lost are familiar with the traditional Regalia (Crown tools required to fill a particular need in their realm, or to
and Mirror, Sword and Shield, Jewels and Steed), but change- use as a weapon that might pierce one specific enemy’s heart.
ling scholars have long suspected the True Fae forged pacts In some cases, the Good Cousins failed in their negotiations
with an even broader array of cosmic entities and concepts. with an entity — perhaps their own cleverness tripped them
T
T
F
U
The Forms of Things Unknown
29
The Ursine Duchess takes only three servants every 100 years, setting them to tend to her during
her long hibernation. They become the blankets spreading over her, so thick they muffle out any sound;
or the shutters over her windows, blocking out moonlight and sunshine alike; or the stories in the books
her attendants read to her while she pretends to dream. Long ago, she brokered a deal with Night and
Rest and Silence, but that Regalia’s been forgotten; the last changeling escaped her maze-like tower over
200 years ago.
•••
Victoria’s long gone, but the Wizened Uttervoice left snatches of the songs she composed for her
Keeper snagged on the Thorns. The Icons took the form of guitar picks and capos, and strings for the
Stratocaster she so loved. Lost who’ve come into possession of such Icons and made music with them not
only gain Victoria’s memories, but also an understanding of her Regalia. Her Contracts describe the
intersection of music and battles: the power in a protest song, or the beat of a war drum.
•••
About a decade back, the Lonesome Highway freehold nearly died out. The Hammer Regalia that its
Spring Queen, Allison Free, had used so carefully to build a safe place for the motleys under her protection became instead a bludgeon. Two members of Free’s court went missing and had her sergeant-at-arms
— a Beast Valkyrie — not noticed the change that came over the Queen, it might have been many
more. The courts banded together. They coaxed the Queen away from her hammer, shattered its handle
and melted down its head. That was the easy part. Prying out Free’s memories? That proved harder.
up, or they didn’t manage to fully assert their will — leaving
their Regalia incomplete.
Some independent Contracts are stolen, the product of
one of the True Fae encountering an entity whose power
she coveted and claiming it as her own. These Contracts are
subject to the Keeper’s interpretation of the entity, rather
than its original self. A lighthouse that stood on the rocky
shore of the Prince of Glad Tidings’ domain signaled home
and safety to sailors on its choppy seas, until The Sighing
Lass captured the headland, twined her brambles into the
lighthouse’s walls, and filled its beacon with her sorrows.
Lost who tended its light thereafter escaped their durances
knowing how to draw out their companions’ most bittersweet memories.
Just as with regular Contracts, those without a reigning
Regalia can be Common or Royal. Some of these orphan
Contracts pair together, joined by a similar theme without
being part of a larger whole.
30
What Lies Forgotten
What happens to a story when its last talespinner dies?
What happens to a bargain when no one remains to fulfill
its terms? Without changelings to pass along knowledge of a
concept or embody its essence in their Contracts, an unused
Regalia fades out of memory. This alone doesn’t nullify or
destroy it as long as the original pact that created it isn’t
broken; the ideas and themes that comprise Regalia are difficult to kill. They merely lie dormant, waiting for someone
to come along and remember or rediscover their ancient
agreement.
For Lost who have time to secure their secrets before
they die, the Hedge makes a splendid hiding place for their
treasures. Some leave cryptic missives with their motleys for
other changelings to decipher. The fae-touched may even
play a part: Tamsyn and James swore they’d reunite after
the war ended, but that was 90 years ago, and a Huntsman
pulled Tamsyn back to the Timekeeper’s eternal tower before
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
she could see James again. Today, James’ great-grandchildren
dream of cogs and pocket watches, the symbols of Tamsyn’s
Timepiece Regalia.
Changelings who claim entitlements (Oak, Ash, and
Thorn, p. 31) may also inherit knowledge of their predecessor’s lesser-known Regalia. The Dauphines of Wayward
Children’s new Chaperone grows more and more insightful
about his charges’ needs and relies on the Star to guide them
safely on their way. The Master of Keys is a Thorn in the side
of those whose secrets she’s unlocked.
Even Lost who die suddenly may still leave echoes of
their Regalia behind, waiting for whoever finds their remnants and pieces them back together. A silver box lies buried
beneath the rubble in a half-faded Bastion that found a new
home on the Wishing Roads (p. 16). The changeling’s Icon
— and the memories embedded within — sit among the hobgoblin Rattlebones’ wares at the Goblin Market.
Not all lost Regalia dwindle quietly out of common
memory. They can be banned, locked away, or intentionally
hidden — and not always by Bridge-Burners or vast cosmic
forces. Changelings root out these Regalia while their fellows still know how to invoke their Contracts, still wear
their symbols stitched onto sleeves, hems, cuffs, and collars.
Sometimes, the freeholds themselves destroy these powers
for what they deem the greater good.
Losing access to Regalia and Contracts removes part of
a Crimson Courtier’s arsenal. It diminishes the knowledge
the Leaden Mirror hoards. Even Winter Courtiers — who
may benefit from keeping secret the methods of destruction
and the fact anything was destroyed — exhaust alternate solutions before voting in favor of such a drastic action. Usually,
excised Regalia present an immediate danger to the freehold. Perhaps invoking it attracts Huntsmen, or sows seeds
of deadly discord among the motleys.
Backed into a corner, the freehold may sacrifice their
connection to a Regalia to seal an oath with a similar but
more powerful entity, or because giving up the power it
grants them satisfies some other desperate need. The terms
of such oaths dictate how the Lost sever the tie, and wily
changelings look for loopholes that may let the freehold’s
future members recover the knowledge.
Lastly, the Lost may discover that the entity who originally held the pact has died or passed it on, sending ripples
throughout the fae realms and disturbing Contracts’ effects.
This may be a cosmic shift well beyond changeling understanding, or the sign of a Regalia’s corruption at the hands
of another force. It’s risky to keep drawing upon an altered
Regalia, so cautious changelings brick off the avenues to its
manifestations and punish those who refuse to cease invoking related Contracts.
Lost and Found
To learn Contracts in a lost Regalia, the changeling must
first learn of its existence and then find someone — or some-
thing — to teach them. They may seek out a changeling who
served the same Keeper as the last person to know those Contracts, hoping for precious insights. Perhaps their memories can
lead to new clues, or maybe they’ve kept one of their friend’s
Icons safe all these years. Due to Arcadia’s unreliable flow
of time, this often proves more difficult than expected. Two
changelings who spent their durances together in the Year of
Plague’s disease-ridden environs, who kept pace with one another as they fled home through the Thorns, might not have
exited the Hedge in the same decade, let alone the same town.
Lost who suspect they might be the last ones to ken a
particular type of Contract sometimes attempt to pass the
knowledge on, though they rarely leave detailed grimoires
behind with their local court scholars. Instead, they bury
cryptic messages in fortified Bastions, or hide the secrets in
a soda can and add it to a hobgoblin’s junkpile. After all, better the Regalia and its power fades into obscurity than fall
into loyalist or Bridge-Burner hands.
When a changeling finds no mentors among his freehold or other local Lost, the Hedge is the next most likely
place to search. The Hedge forms itself around its travelers
— their desires, keenest emotions, and deeply-held philosophies. Lost seeking a forgotten Regalia set foot on the trods
hoping the path carries them somewhere still ringing with
its memory. For a changeling searching for the Regalia of
Stars, their journey may lead them into skies speckled with
ever-changing constellations, or they may follow one single,
brightly shining point until its image burns into their vision
and their pupils twinkle with its light. Trods can lead to a
hobgoblin with knowledge to barter, the last remaining servants of a vanquished Title, or any other lingering clue.
Oneiromancers turn their searches inward, confronting
eidolons in their own dreams to uncover buried truths. Perhaps during her durance, she noted the chalice her Keeper always drank from at court but dismissed it as a mere cup rather
than a symbol of life and death. Now, in dreams, she stands
before a table of brimming vessels. When she peers into each,
she sees not her own reflection but the fates of her motley.
Changelings who step through the Gate of Ivory can
only learn Common Contracts for these Regalia. They possessed the knowledge during their durances, but forgot when
they fled, or dismissed the details as unimportant. However,
deeper understanding requires greater risk: To discover the
secrets of Royal Contracts, they must travel through the
Gate of Horn, and occasionally venture into stranger places
— mirror space, the Dreaming Roads, the BriarNet, or even
beyond.
At their most daring (or perhaps desperate), the Lost
may venture back into Arcadia to steal knowledge of a lost
Regalia from the Gentry. Few changelings find this worth
the risk; what good does it do a Darkling to learn the secrets
of the Cloak if it puts her back within her Keeper’s grasp? Yet
some, driven to protect an endangered loved one, or as part
of a Summer Queen’s bold plan, do venture back into the
land of their captivity for the promise of secret knowledge.
The Forms of Things Unknown
31
No Good Deed
Goes Unpunished
The Storyteller should declare which (if any) of the Regalia presented below players may select during character
creation as a second favored Regalia, either because their
backstory warrants having discovered a lost one or because
in your chronicle, it was never lost to begin with.
The Storyteller decides the difficulty of the deeds required to uncover lost, forgotten, or forbidden Regalia, and
can adjust them according to the Regalia’s significance in
the chronicle. Is the search a personal one, as an Ogre recalls parts of her durance or a Fairest Flickerflash comes to
terms with what changed while he was in Arcadia? If the
changeling pursues this information on his own time, the
Storyteller may represent the search as an extended action,
with short scenes over the course of several sessions describing his progress. If his motley gets involved, the rolls become
teamwork actions.
When fully playing out the pursuit of a lost Regalia,
the Storyteller may use the investigation rules beginning on
p. 194 of Changeling to shape the mystery. What obstacles
stand in the way of discovering the Regalia? Are there items
like Icons or riddles etched into mossy stones that might
reveal Common Contracts to those who find them? Who
might share the tale — willingly or not — of the last person to
use the Regalia, and is that person still alive somewhere? If
so, might they need rescuing from a Huntsman’s iron cage,
or dissuading from their loyalist sympathies?
Consider the narrative consequences of dredging up a
lost Regalia. If it faded out of memory because its last practitioner died, who might come out of the woodwork seeking
hidden wisdom or planning to collect on debts that practitioner racked up? What favors do hobgoblins ask from a
changeling with an affinity for this Regalia? What bribes do
they want to ensure their silence about what the motley did
to uncover it? All of these make great story hooks.
The Regalia’s return may attract a Huntsman’s notice.
His loyal hound picks up a scent it hasn’t caught for decades,
and now it strains at the leash to follow this fresh trail. Sure,
the original quarry eluded the verderer, but his Keeper will
be pleased to meet someone else with similar affinities. Perhaps the Huntsman can’t tell the difference between that
prior prey and this new one — how can the motley convince
him it’s a case of mistaken identity? The Gentry themselves
may take an interest and come calling. This may be out of
curiosity, a twisted kind of nostalgia, or even an effort for
the Fae to protect themselves if they lost a Title to a rival.
Others might be furious: How dare anyone try to take the
place of the servant upon whom they bestowed those gifts?
Uncovering a forbidden Regalia may also cause friction
with other Lost, especially those who would prefer it stay
forgotten. The Six Sisters’ Freehold destroyed the Regalia
of the Chain for a reason. When they hear hidden shackles
rattling, their Fifth Oracle Courtiers sharpen their swords.
32
The Bridge-Burner Catriona went to great pains to erase the
Ring from memory. She’s an old woman now, but she’s still
strong enough to put it to rest one more time.
Keep in mind that Regalia represent grand cosmic bargains the True Fae negotiated. Strange entities stir when
Contracts that haven’t been invoked for centuries — or longer — call on them once more. Do they present themselves
to the changeling in overt ways, appearing in her dreams to
size her up? Or is their influence more felt than seen, as her
motley runs across their symbolism everywhere? What do
they want from their new adherents?
Lastly, the Wyrd governs all. While it might not prevent a changeling from drawing a lost Regalia back into the
world, it certainly notices the act. It tallies the deeds the Lost
performed in pursuit of forbidden knowledge and weighs
them on its own ineffable scale. Sometimes those deeds
themselves are a sufficient trade for the power the changeling gains. Other times, the Wyrd finds the changeling wanting; perhaps she skirted too close to the edge of her oaths or
left someone else to pick up the pieces after her own reckless
actions caused chaos.
A Change of Heart
The Lost don’t stop changing after emerging from the
Hedge. For many, the ability to remake oneself and declare
“This is who I am now,” is an essential part of their new lives.
Sometimes, a changeling feels her affinity for a newly
discovered Regalia eclipsing one of her others. This denotes
a fundamental shift in the Lost’s worldview. Where once she
needed a Steed’s freedom of movement, now she has set her
sights on her court’s Crown, and she feels the calling of the
Scepter. She still retains her Steed Contracts — this change
is about folding who you were into who you are now, not
abandoning those aspects of yourself.
System: At the end of a chapter, with Storyteller permission, the player may sacrifice one dot of Willpower to disfavor one of her character’s two current favored Regalia and
replace it with a new one. He keeps all Contracts he learned
under the old one.
If the character doesn’t have any Contracts from the
new Regalia at the time of the change, the player must switch
one of her current Contracts in her old Regalia for another
of the same type (Common or Royal) from the new one.
Designing Regalia
When creating a new Regalia for your chronicle, decide
first whether you want to start with a theme and assign a
symbol to it, or start with the symbol and extrapolate themes
from there. It’s usually better to start with the symbol, even
if you get there through an idea of what it represents; for instance, you may want to create a Torch Regalia, because you
already know torches are both literal and figurative lights
in the darkness that illuminate the way for a traveler. From
there, think about the various angles from which you can
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
approach that metaphor and additional meanings it might
suggest, thus rounding out your Regalia into a robust, multifaceted concept from which to produce Contracts.
Starting with only a theme is possible but be careful you
don’t focus so much on that lone idea that you have trouble
expanding it beyond one narrow theme. Additionally, starting with a theme may give you a concept too broad to guide
the choice of symbol and specificity of its powers.
Symbol First
Every Regalia is based on an item that serves as a metaphor to express its themes. In Arcadia, these items are both
metaphors and actual, tangible objects that are part of the
Good Cousins’ personal panoplies, which they flaunt to
assert their dominance as rulers. Fairy tales and myths are
excellent sources of inspiration, as things are rarely all they
seem at first glance; an apple can be poisonous, a rose is lovely but bears thorns, and a bean can become a giant beanstalk
reaching into the clouds. Real-world status symbols make
another good place to look for ideas, particularly those denoting the position of a ruler or other important or unique
figure, such as the Three Sacred Treasures of the Japanese
emperor or the skull, book, and hourglass of ornamental
hermits.
Regalia symbols can be ordinary objects with no greater
significance, such as a pen or a shoe, but remember that they
all began as ways for the Gentry to brandish their power; the
Fae tend to gravitate toward items that clearly signify what
they believe is special about them as leaders. The pen might
be a good choice for a scholarly Kindly One who thinks of
themselves as a brainy mastermind (and would resonate better as a Regalia if you called it “Quill” instead), while a shoe
might work for one who prides themself on their godlike
athleticism (one famous brand of sneakers is named for the
Greek goddess of victory, after all).
Once you’ve chosen an object, define the Regalia’s purviews based on its uses and qualities. The best Regalia symbols can mean multiple, related things. An anchor holds a
ship in place, symbolizing stability and security, but also that
which holds one back. Consider the object’s alternate forms
and uses; ordinary hammers are tools for building and crafting, while a war hammer is a weapon. A Regalia symbolized
by a hammer, then, might represent both creation and destruction.
Consider the additional meanings with which legends
and pop culture imbue things, as well. When we see an apple, we might think of sleep, poison, and witches thanks to
Snow White, or knowledge, temptation, and a loss of innocence thanks to the story of Adam and Eve. Greek mythology links apples with desirability and beauty. You can be the
apple of someone’s eye or get called an apple polisher. Apples
and faeries even have a mythical history together in the form
of Avalon, the Isle of Apples. The intersection of any or all
of these associations can play a role in what a Regalia stands
for and how its Contracts manifest.
A Regalia may explore contradictory aspects within
its purview. For example, the Crown embodies rulership
whether it rests on the head of a benevolent monarch or a
ruthless tyrant. Think about the positive and negative aspects of your concept, how its users might both help others
and cause harm with it. Perhaps the Regalia’s symbol represents two opposing concepts, like light and darkness, motion and stillness, or life and death. Upon what fulcrum do
these opposites pivot? How does one inform the other?
Themes First
If you don’t have a symbol in mind up front, consider the
basic theme you want the Regalia to cover. It should be broad
enough to contain multiple facets but narrow enough to express
a clear and cohesive set of related themes to inform the magic’s
purpose. To this end, you may need to first narrow your initial
idea down to give you enough specificity and then expand it outward to find strong associations and alternate angles. For example, a Regalia about “peace” that embodies themes of diplomacy
and prosperity looks very different from one that embodies the
more individual ideas of contentment and tranquility.
Perhaps, for the latter, you narrow down your theme
to “serenity” and then extrapolate. With what other specific
ideas do you associate it? Stories, places, objects, articles of
clothing? What other concepts are closely tied to it that might
provide more options for potential symbols? Feel free to think
outside the box; the more linked associations you come up
with, the more inspiration you’ll have for creating Contracts.
Storytellers can also look to character backstories, goals,
and personalities for inspiration. Have the motley’s adventures followed a particular theme? What aspects of their
Keepers and durances could provide the foundation for a
new Regalia? If you or your players have already created custom Contracts, see if you can spot a recurring theme among
them. If you can group three or more together, consider
making them part of a full Regalia.
Over the course of several sessions, keep notes on the
characters’ roles within their motley and how they relate to
others. What words describe them and their methods? What
sorts of actions do they often fall back on that aren’t yet covered by their Contracts? Perhaps the Ogre’s keen focus in
a fight and his ability to cut right to the heart of a matter
inspire the Arrow Regalia, or the Darkling’s ability to twist
opponents into tongue-tied knots and control the flow of a
conversation translates into the Spindle. Changeling pairs the
six most well-known Regalia with seemings already, but others
can resonate as well if you want. Does the Throne favor the
Fairest as charismatic leaders, or Darklings as the true power
behind the sovereign? The Hammer suits the Wizened when
it’s used to build, but as a symbol of war, Ogres wield it best.
Bringing It to Life
When writing the Regalia’s description, consider how
changelings attuned to that particular symbol act—after all, they’ll
be using the Contracts you create, so they’ll want to wield powers
The Forms of Things Unknown
33
that fit their modus operandi. Those who favor the Shield are
protectors. Those inclined toward the Scepter pass judgment.
A changeling embodying the Star might focus on guiding her
motley down a particular path, or she might be the person to
whom they go when they need insight into past events. Everyone
the Wyrd touches knows the importance of balancing the magical books, but those bearing the Coin define themselves by trade
and what they can do with material possessions.
Finally, consider what you want a Regalia’s Contracts
to do. (Rules for designing Contracts appear in Changeling, p. 308.) Think about the types of pacts the True Fae
made when they first negotiated with the cosmic entity in
question. How did those pacts shape their Titles? True Fae
are beholden to a Regalia’s themes and symbolism even
more than the Lost who served them, but the pacts also
grant them vast power to shape their realms. On a grand
scale, how do the Gentry use this Regalia’s powers? What
wondrous feats did a changeling in their entourage perform
with it? Though the Lost only wield a fraction of that influence after they escape, the symbols remain. How do you
shrink the sweeping changes they caused in Arcadia down
to mundane-world levels? Keep in mind the variations and
contradictions built into the Regalia. Even though two powers might have totally different effects, they should still feel
like facets of the same prism.
New Contracts
This section presents five new Regalia in full, as well as
a selection of single or paired independent Contracts that
fall under no Regalia.
Chalice
Chalice represents the mercurial nature of emotions,
the fluidity of relationships, and the ebb and flow of life.
The goblet can contain a wellspring of hope or the dregs
of despair. It’s a toast and a promise: Drink and be merry,
for tomorrow, we die. As a symbol of feasting and revelry, it
represents close bonds forged in celebration or mourning; a
ceremonial chalice finds its way to the lips of everyone present to tie them together in oath, ritual, or faith. Its depths
might hold a healing potion, a sleeping draught, or a dose
of poison, and it cares not which the drinker consumes.
Changelings find both solace and misery at the bottom of
a cup.
Filling the Cup (Common)
By filling a glass or cup to the brim with any liquid and following the ripples in its surface, the changeling attunes himself
to the flow of strong emotions, acting as a dowsing rod.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One scene or until the changeling regains
any Glamour, whichever comes first
34
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Effects: The changeling can sense people experiencing
powerful emotions within a radius of (her Wyrd x 40) yards/
meters. He knows the direction and general distance of the
emotion at the time of the Contract’s use, but those people
may move by the time he gets there. He gains a vague sense
for whether any emotion he detects is positive or negative,
but otherwise can’t identify it without seeking those people
out or using additional magic.
If anyone incites Bedlam within range while this Contract is in effect, the changeling can automatically identify it
as such, though without additional detail.
Beast: If the Grim has already used this Contract or another relevant power, such as the Spring Court’s Cupid’s Arrow
(Changeling, p. 151), to identify or locate a specific, known person’s emotions at any point, he can recognize the scent of that
specific person’s feelings whenever he senses them again with
this Contract.
Fairest: The Muse can pick out those within range experiencing an intense emotion related to him. That person
doesn’t necessarily have to recognize their own feelings —
such as being jealous of the changeling’s lover without having acknowledged it even to herself. He only learns the information, not the person’s identity.
Loophole: As he invokes the Contract, the changeling
speaks out loud her current strongest emotion and its cause
or the person at whom it’s directed for all nearby to hear.
Frail as the Dying Word (Common)
All Lost suffer the sting of iron and the shackles of unknowable fae laws. With a touch, the changeling writes his
victim into the fine print, fooling the Wyrd into applying
those laws to them, too, for a time.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Roll Results
Success: The changeling inflicts one of his own minor
frailties on the target. If they already possess it, that frailty
becomes major instead for the duration. If they already possess a major version of the same frailty, this Contract doesn’t
function. The changeling doesn’t lose the frailty he inflicts.
Exceptional Success: The changeling inflicts either one
of his major frailties or two of his minor frailties with one
invocation instead. Iron counts as a major frailty.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The Wyrd catches the changeling in
the act of forgery and inflicts a new major frailty on him in
addition to those he already possesses for the scene.
Fairest: The Muse may inflict a frailty belonging to any
fae being present in the scene rather than his own.
Darkling: The Wisp may pay an additional Glamour
when invoking this Contract to transfer his frailty to the target rather than simply sharing it, losing that frailty himself
for the Contract’s duration. This cannot apply to his iron
bane.
Loophole: The changeling has already suffered from
the frailty he wishes to inflict within the same scene. He may
seek it out deliberately for this purpose.
Sleep’s Sweet Embrace
(Common)
The gentle graze of the changeling’s hand upon a shoulder or rosy cheek and whispered promises of peace and rest
turn another’s worst nightmares or most wondrous dreams
into a healing slumber. The changeling must touch the intended sleeper to use this Contract.
Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Wyrd − Resolve
Action: Instant or resisted (see below)
Duration: Varies (see below)
Roll Results
Success: Once the changeling invokes this Contract,
whenever the target sleeps for a number of days equal to
successes on the invocation roll, they don’t dream. Instead,
they heal one lethal damage per hour they’re asleep, but they
can’t regain Willpower from rest for the Contract’s duration. While dreamless, they have no Bastion and cannot be
the target of oneiromancy or other magic that works upon
dreams or dreamers. If this Contract lasts more than two
days, the target suffers the Dissociation Condition (Changeling, p. 336), which can’t resolve until they regain full Willpower after the Contract ends.
This Contract is only resisted if the target is unwilling.
The changeling may target himself, but if he does, he cannot
end the effects early.
Exceptional Success: In addition to the longer duration, the target suffers Dissociation if the effects last more
than three days instead of two.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling cannot meditate, enter the Gate of Ivory, or dream the next time he sleeps; he
suffers the drawbacks of this Contract’s effects for one night,
but gains no healing benefits.
Beast: The Gargoyle sends his target into a deeper hibernation, always adding two additional days to its duration.
Darkling: The Mountebank’s target appears recently
dead to all mundane forms of detection whenever they’re
asleep. They don’t appear to breathe or have a pulse, their
skin seems cold, and their limbs are stiff. Magical ways to
detect whether someone is living or dead prompt a Clash of
Wills with the Darkling.
New Contracts
35
Loophole: The changeling prepares a sleeping draught,
warm milk, soothing tea, or any other sleep aid that involves
drinking liquid, and he persuades or forces the target to
drink it all in the same scene in which he invokes the Contract.
Curse’s Cure (Common)
The changeling concocts an antidote for any venom or
poison that afflicts another from a sample of their blood,
which he mixes with herbs picked from the Hedge and a bit
of his own spit in a cup of wine.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: Anyone who drinks a full cup of the changeling’s draught either heals from a poison in half the normal
time, or, if the poison was deadly, the character will now survive. Conditions resulting from the poison fade without resolving. Attempting to cure a supernatural poison prompts
a Clash of Wills.
Each invocation of this Contract produces enough antidote for a single poisoned victim, no matter the amount of
liquid in the cup.
Exceptional Success: The poison is entirely and instantly cured.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling botches the mixing
and poisons himself. He suffers the Fatigued Condition,
which becomes the moderate Poisoned Tilt during action
scenes.
Beast: The Beast can make the toxin his own and inflict the moderate Poisoned Tilt on a grappled opponent as a
unique grappling option that requires biting the opponent,
as long as he does so during the chapter in which he invoked
this Contract.
Wizened: The Hatter may use this Contract to reduce
the severity of a disease, or to end the effects of a drug in
the target’s system; Conditions related to these effects fade
without resolving.
Loophole: The changeling tastes a bit of the same toxin that afflicts the one he intends to cure within the same
scene; this Contract doesn’t protect him from its effects if
even a small taste would poison him.
Dreamer’s Phalanx (Common)
By physically touching each other as they fall asleep, a
group of changelings connects each of their Bastions to that
of the one who invokes the phalanx, reinforcing their collective walls and enabling feats no dreamweaver could achieve
on his own.
36
Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 per additional dreamer beyond
the second
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter or until all dreamers wake,
whichever comes first
Effects: The changeling connects the Bastions of all
participating dreamers, thus drawing them all into a shared
dream. He himself must be a participant, and all dreamers
must be willing. Each dreamer retains their own distinct
Bastion with a separate entrance and exit, but the dreamers
treat them as a single Bastion for purposes of oneiromancy
and navigating the shared lucid dream. Increase each Bastion’s Fortification by 1 per dreamer, to a maximum of +5,
against any oneiropomp outside the linked group. Whenever one dreamer takes an action that benefits from teamwork with at least one of the others as an oneiropomp within
any of their Bastions, that action gains the 8-again quality.
Shifts that cause location changes can transport anyone affected from one Bastion to another in addition to changing
their physical location. This Contract counts as an invitation from each dreamer to each other to enter their Bastions
from the outside.
If any of the dreamers suffers the Comatose Condition or
has otherwise lost the ability to dream lucidly, paradigm shifts
can inflict Shift Conditions in any of their Bastions even if
that Bastion’s oneiropomp is still lucid dreaming. If any participant wakes naturally, their Bastion simply ceases to exist with
no impact on the others other than to reduce the number of
connected dreamers (and thus potentially their Fortification
bonuses). However, if one dreamer is forcibly and magically
awoken, whether by an oneiropomp with the Dream Assailant Condition or by some other power, all of their shared Bastions are destroyed, forcing those still asleep to contend with
their Bastion’s end per the rules on p. 222 of Changeling.
Beast: All participating dreamers gain +2 to any action
they take that’s contested by an external oneiropomp intruding on any of their Bastions.
Wizened: The Shrewd builds stronger, steadier connections. In addition to gaining the 8-again quality, teamwork actions between dreamers within the shared Bastions
achieve exceptional success on three successes.
Loophole: All participating dreamers are part of the
same sworn oath when this Contract is invoked. The oath
need not be exclusive to them; for instance, if all are in the
same motley but not all motley-mates participate, it still
counts. Swearing an oath specifically for the purpose of this
Contract within the same scene also counts.
Closing Death’s Door (Royal)
Even mortals know the cup may usher in doom or stave
it off, but the Lost know it can even reverse it under the right
circumstances. With a tender kiss on the lips, the touch of
her tears to the corpse’s face, or another gesture of intimacy
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
and longing, the changeling cheats death on another’s behalf, allowing them to step back over the dread threshold
they’ve already crossed.
Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: This Contract targets the corpse of any previously living character who has died within one chapter of
the scene in which the changeling invokes it. That character
comes back to life with all Health boxes filled with aggravated damage except the rightmost one, which is undamaged.
In exchange for this fae miracle, the changeling gains a number of Goblin Debt points equal to the number of hours the
revived character has been dead. He gains a minimum of 1
point and can’t gain more than his usual maximum; he can
turn himself into a Hedge Denizen if his total Debt from
this Contract is greater than 9 points.
Exceptional Success: The Contract can revive someone
who has died anytime within the current story rather than
chapter; this means if the changeling invokes it and doesn’t
achieve an exceptional success, the Contract fails.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The corpse reanimates instead of
reviving, becoming a mindless creature that moves like a
marionette. Such a creature has only one Health box and
no Willpower trait, and all its dice pools are equal to the
changeling’s Wyrd.
Fairest: The revived character also gains the Swooned
Condition regarding the Unicorn.
Darkling: The Wisp also gains a brief vision of the revived character’s last moments before death from their point
of view when he invokes this Contract.
Loophole: The character the changeling tries to revive
is one of his Touchstones, a fae-touched promised to him, or
someone with whom he shares a personal oath of any kind.
Feast of Plenty (Royal)
The chalice never runs dry, and the changeling always
has something to spare for those in need. He makes a toast
or other grand speech as though presiding over a feast, loud
enough to be audible to everyone nearby. Those who accept
his freely given largesse find their suffering immediately
eased but partaking of fae hospitality always comes with a
price.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Socialize + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling summons something nourishing or medicinal out of thin air: food guaranteed to be
someone in the scene’s favorite, fresh water, wine to soothe
troubles, aspirin to take away a headache, healing salves to
ease the pain of an injury, or anything else appropriate to
whatever ailments those nearby may have. The summoned
quantity is always plenty for everyone present when the Contract takes effect. Anyone who chooses to partake in these
comforts may remove one physical, non-Persistent Condition they currently suffer, which fades without resolution,
or remove one physical, personal Tilt. They also regain Willpower equal to half the invocation successes rolled, round
up. The changeling himself gains no benefits from partaking
in his feast.
Everyone who benefits from this Contract also suffers
the Indebted Condition (below) regarding the changeling.
Forcing them to ingest the feast fails automatically.
Exceptional Success: The Indebted Condition becomes
Persistent.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The Wyrd exposes the catch behind
the changeling’s generosity; he suffers the Notoriety Condition.
Elemental: The Unbound’s cornucopia is unnaturally
enticing; anyone who perceives it must contest the invocation roll with Composure + Wyrd or partake, whether
they’re willing or not.
Ogre: Those who partake in the Terrible’s feast gain +1
to Defense for the rest of the chapter.
Loophole: The changeling greets everyone present in the
scene by name with a gesture, such as a handshake or a hug,
within the same scene; if he doesn’t know someone’s name,
he must learn it and use it in order to invoke the Loophole.
INDEBTED
A fae being performed a service for your character and
he owes them something in return. Mundane tasks aren’t
enough; the Wyrd enforces this debt. The character can repay it by accepting damage, a detrimental Condition, or a
detrimental Personal Tilt intended for the being to whom the
character is indebted. The character’s player chooses which
of these he suffers; if he chooses damage, the character must
take all damage from a source, not part of it. He cannot take
on Clarity Conditions or Conditions he couldn’t normally
suffer this way. The Wyrd alerts him to all his creditor’s perils until this Condition resolves, and he doesn’t have to be in
their vicinity to resolve it.
This Condition can also be Persistent. If so, your character owes a debt he can’t repay as easily. In addition to the
usual effects, he earns a Beat whenever his creditor makes a
request or demand of him, and he fulfills it without attempting to resist. The Persistent version of Indebted can only reNew Contracts
37
solve when the character performs a major service for his
creditor, such as saving their life or risking danger to bring
them something they desire.
Resolution: Repay the debt, as above.
Beat (Persistent only): Fulfill a request or demand the
creditor makes without attempting to resist.
Still Waters Run Deep
(Royal)
The changeling takes a series of slow, deep breaths while
his target can see his serene expression, allowing them to neither suffer emotional turmoil nor experience joy for a time.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Wyrd − Resolve
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The target suppresses a number of emotional
Conditions currently affecting them equal to successes
rolled on this Contract’s invocation roll; the changeling may
target himself if he can see his own face, such as in a mirror.
Eligible Conditions include Clarity Conditions and Conditions resulting from Bedlam. The Contract nullifies the effects of suppressed Conditions for the scene; the target can’t
resolve or gain Beats from them. They can’t take on any new
emotional Conditions for the duration; powers which inflict
or bestow them simply fail.
While this Contract is in effect, the target can’t perform
Hedgespinning or dreamweaving, incite Bedlam, or harvest
Glamour from living beings (but they can reap it).
Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their
own reward.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling takes on his target’s
emotional burdens instead of suppressing them, gaining the
Storyteller’s choice of either one of the target’s detrimental
Conditions or the Demoralized Condition; these must be resolved normally and don’t vanish when this Contract ends.
Wizened: The Hatter may choose either emotional
Conditions or purely mental Conditions to suppress, and
can mix and match them.
Ogre: For the Contract’s duration, the Terrible can resolve one of the target’s suppressed temporary Conditions by
meeting its usual resolution criteria; he gains the Beat from
resolution rather than the target.
Loophole: Within the same scene, the changeling writes
out at least a paragraph detailing his current emotional state,
stuffs the paper into a bottle, and closes the bottle.
Poison the Well (Royal)
Emotional connections can grow stronger with time,
but so too may they diminish. With a few well-placed words
in the right ear, the changeling poisons the bonds between
people, causing discord and hard feelings where once was
harmony.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: The changeling corrupts his target’s connections to one of her mundane Social Merits, removing her
access to it for the Contract’s duration. The subject of the
Merit, such as the target’s Allies, Contacts, or Mentor, turns
against her, actively attempting to hinder her. These connections may believe she betrayed them, became involved in
something unsavory, or gravely insulted them — or perhaps
they simply decided they don’t like the cut of her jib.
If the changeling is in the Hedge, he may also target
any changeling-specific Merit representing connections to a
fae beings, Hedge locations, or other resources. If he does,
use of this Contract counts as a Hedgespinning action, but
doesn’t suffer the usual penalties to the invocation roll. Example eligible Merits include Fae Mount, Goblin Bounty,
Hob Kin, Hollow, and Stable Trod; others may qualify at
the Storyteller’s discretion. These Merits are affected differently from mundane ones: the target can still use them, but
she accumulates Goblin Debt points equal to the Merit’s dot
rating per use.
Exceptional Success: In addition to the usual effects,
the target suffers the Notoriety Condition.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling poisons his own
most important connections instead; one of his Touchstones
detaches from his Clarity track for the rest of the chapter.
Fairest: The Muse gains access to the Merit he soured
for the Contract’s duration, turning the connections to his
own benefit.
Elemental: The Torrent’s meddling results in extensive
collateral damage; once this Contract ends, the target’s Merit
returns at a rate of one dot per scene rather than all at once.
Loophole: The changeling interacts with the target
Merit’s subject within the same scene, sowing conflict or
sabotaging a resource personally.
Shared Cup (Royal)
Sharing a cup or breaking bread brings people together.
The changeling fills a drinking vessel or prepares a meal and
shares its contents equally between all members of a group,
forming a bond that defies boundaries.
38
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 per additional participant beyond
the second
Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Wyrd vs. Composure
+ Wyrd
Action: Instant or contested; see below
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: The changeling binds all participants up to
a maximum equal to successes on the invocation roll; the
changeling himself must participate. Unwilling participants
still must partake in the shared beverage or meal but need
not necessarily know about the consequences and may contest the invocation roll as above.
This Contract heightens participants’ emotional states
and links them together. Their impressions of each other for
purposes of Social Maneuvering improve by one step, and
each participant suffers a −3 to rolls to contest Social actions
taken against them by other participants. Each participant
capable of Hedgespinning and inciting Bedlam achieves exceptional success on three successes for those actions.
While bound, all participants sense each other’s emotional states, and react to emotional stimuli as though they
all experience them simultaneously. If one participant gains
an emotional Condition or personal Tilt, all do; each participant must resolve these Conditions separately. If one regains
Willpower, they all regain the same amount; if one regains
Glamour, all participants with a Wyrd trait regain the full
amount. Participants without Wyrd gain the Inspired Condition instead of Glamour; this Condition is not shared.
Exceptional Success: Additional successes increase the
maximum number of participants.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling cannot control the
bond and immediately incites Bedlam involuntarily in all
participants without a roll per the rules on p.110 of Changeling.
Darkling: The Bewitched may pay 1 Glamour whenever he would cause or receive one of the bond’s effects to
cut himself off from the others, failing to trigger the shared
effect and excluding him from all passive effects for a few
seconds (one turn in action scenes). Other participants can
sense this omission with a successful Wits + Composure roll
contested by the Darkling’s Wits + Wyrd.
Fairest: The Unicorn’s beneficence fills the other participants with gratitude; they all suffer the Swooned Condition
regarding the changeling upon the Contract’s invocation.
Loophole: The changeling must collect blood, a hair, a
fingernail clipping, or some other part of the body from each
participant during the scene in which they all consume the
drink or meal.
Coin
Money makes the world go ‘round. The material gain of
the greedy always comes at the expense of the less fortunate.
A coin represents an exchange of one thing for another, debts
owed and repaid. It’s a symbol of naming and then paying a
cost. Through the Wyrd, every changeling knows well that
nothing comes for free and everyone has their price; whether
it’s the piper, the devil, or the hobgoblin who did the motley
a favor, all must be paid their due somehow. Every coin is a
gleaming little lever on the will of another. Gather enough,
and you can move kingdoms — but is it worth the cost?
Book of Black and Red
(Common)
The changeling peers at the tangle of debts and obligations binding her target, clearly seeing the ledger of heavy
burdens that tax their existence.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Academics + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling learns the five most significant
debts and sworn obligations of a target she can see. These
bonds may be mundane or magical; she may learn of the
shopkeeper’s heavy loans from the bank, or the motley oath
that one of the Lost has sworn. She also learns how many
points of Goblin Debt the target has, if any.
What counts as significant depends somewhat on the
target. A man who is overdrawn by $50 from the bank but
knows he can repay it swiftly does not consider it significant.
If, on the other hand, he owes that $50 to Big Jim, notorious for getting very upset over even relatively small sums of
unpaid debt and prone to taking payment from reluctant
sorts in the form of their broken kneecaps, it’s probably a
rather pressing issue for him even though it is not very much
money in the grand scheme of things. The larger the mundane sum and/or the more personal value the commodity
paid for has, the more likely it is to count as significant even
if the target has a handle on repayment; this Contract detects most mortgages, for example. Debts of a fae kind are
always significant.
If the changeling exploits the knowledge of these debts or
obligations to influence the target or settle those debts during
the same chapter, she gains +2 to her dice pool and the target
gains the Leveraged Condition regarding the changeling.
Exceptional Success: The changeling also gleans the details of significant debts, such as to whom they’re owed, why
the target took them on in the first place, and what prevents
repayment.
Failure: The Contract fails.
New Contracts
39
Dramatic Failure: Some of the debt scrapes off onto the
changeling herself; she gains a point of Goblin Debt.
Darkling: The Bewitched can choose one of the debts
the target owes (apart from Goblin Debt or pledge obligations)
and make herself a middleman; the target now owes her the
debt, and she owes the same or equivalent to the original
creditor. Paperwork and records shift automatically to adjust
to this new reality, but because the Wyrd exerts itself to render
this change, it watches the outcome more closely. Should the
changeling default on her own new debt or otherwise break
her agreement, she gains the Oathbreaker Condition.
Wizened: The Domovoi needs only three successes to
achieve exceptional success when exploiting her knowledge
of the obligations to influence the target or settle their debts.
Loophole: The target has allowed the changeling to examine their records or accounts during the same scene.
Give and Take (Common)
The changeling promises an exchange of intangible
power, adjusting the ledgers of soul and will to satisfy all
parties.
Cost: 1 Glamour, or 2 Glamour for Merit exchange
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant, or one scene for Merits
Effects: The changeling’s player chooses a number of
points up to half the changeling’s Wyrd from one category
of Glamour, Willpower, social currency (see p. 130), or dots
in a specific, personal-scale Merit, and offers to exchange
them with a target for an equal amount of another category
they possess. For example, the changeling might trade three
points of her own Glamour for three points of the target’s
Willpower or their three-dot Common Sense Merit. If the
recipient is willing, the exchange immediately takes place.
Traded Merits last until the end of the scene, during
which time the original owner cannot access their benefits;
the recipient must meet all prerequisites for the Merit. This
Contract has no effect if the target doesn’t consent to the
transaction, although a bit of haggling to get there is fine.
Neither party can exchange Merits affecting the wider
world beyond them; the changeling cannot trade for Resources or Allies, for example, but she could trade for Fast Reflexes.
Since the Contract does not allow an exchange within the
same category, she also cannot trade one Merit for another.
Ogre: The Bruiser can also trade away or trade for
points of mild Clarity damage.
Wizened: The Hatter’s exchange need not be equal, but
each partner must still trade at least one point in a category,
and the target must still consent.
Loophole: The changeling and the target permanently
exchange physical gifts of equal value or meaning that they
have not given each other before.
40
Beggar Knight (Common)
The changeling spins a tale of unearned wealth and
curses her victim to possess only what he makes himself. She
slices away the threads connecting him to the world’s tapestry of exchange and denies him the fruits of others’ labor.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Academics + Wyrd – Composure
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter per success
Roll Results
Success: The changeling curses a victim who can hear
and understand her words. The victim suffers several effects:
• He gains no equipment bonus, damage bonus, or armor rating from any piece of physical equipment he
did not make himself, and failures with such items automatically become dramatic failures without awarding a Beat.
• He loses access to any Resources dots he did not literally create himself — a trove of coins he personally
minted, for example. He discovers his bank accounts
suspended and credit cards maxed out. People refuse
to accept his checks, fearing forgery, or the Wyrd
otherwise conspires to render his wealth worthless.
Resources dots return once the curse ends.
• His dice pools cannot benefit from the teamwork of
others (though he may still lend teamwork to another
primary actor).
Exceptional Success: The changeling’s player may also
roll her successes on this Contract’s invocation roll as an immediate Clarity attack against the victim. If he doesn’t have
Clarity, his player rolls a breaking point with a dice penalty
equal to invocation successes instead.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: Rather than cutting the threads away,
the changeling entangles herself in them. Until the end of the
current chapter, the changeling loses access to her own Resources
dots while the target gains access to them, and if the target carries
any Goblin Debt, one point transfers over to the changeling.
Elemental: Anything mundane the victim owns and
did not make himself begins to degrade. His clothes turn
to tatters in days; his house starts to collapse in months;
his treasures tarnish or rot. This degradation stops affecting
anything he permanently sells or gives away, but if such
items ever come back under his ownership, they immediately
disintegrate.
Wizened: Any normally constructive interaction the
victim has with the wealth of others — such as accounting
the books for a client, choosing how to assign the corporation’s assets, or even just taking a few dollars to buy some-
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
one a coffee — falls under the curse’s effect as well, denying
anyone else access to any Resources dots derived from that
wealth until the victim’s involvement ceases. A CFO suddenly becomes a legal liability to his company; the money
launderer renders the cartel’s fortunes worthless; the coffee
recipient loses their wallet.
Loophole: The victim has directly benefited from others’ hard work rather than her own during the scene; the
changeling can trigger this by performing work for the target
and giving the benefits freely.
Coin Mark (Common)
A coin, bill, or gift might travel through many hands,
briefly touching a life each time it passes across another palm.
The changeling holds such a bartered object in her hand and
feels the weight of its history in its scuffs and notches. It
becomes her dutiful servant, giving her a handhold upon the
tide of transaction and greed carrying it onward.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Action: Instant
Duration: One story
Effects: The changeling enchants the target object.
Thereafter, she knows its location respective to her own and
senses whenever its ownership changes hands, voluntarily or
not; she learns the identity of the new owner and what price
the transaction involved (if any).
If she interacts with the object’s current owner in a
scene — not necessarily in person; a phone call or online chat
will do — she may spend an additional point of Glamour to
stir the materialistic power of the chain of transaction and
inflict the Avarice Condition on them.
Beast: The Grim can stir deeper, instinctive
possessiveness; she may impose the Apprehensive Condition
pertaining to the enchanted item on its owner, rather than
Avarice.
Wizened: The changeling may snap her fingers
as a reflexive action and cause the enchanted object to
immediately return to her person.
Loophole: The changeling carves or otherwise permanently marks her name on the object.
AVARICE
Enough is never enough. Your character’s lust for worldly power and material wealth knows no bounds. Composure
rolls to resist temptation suffer a −2 penalty, and anyone offering opportunities for material advancement gains an exceptional success on three successes for Social rolls influencing the character.
Resolution: Resist an opportunity for significant material gain or give generously to the needy, suffering significant
financial loss without hope of reward.
APPREHENSIVE
The loss of someone or something seems imminent,
and your character is anxious about it. She loses the 10-again
quality on rolls unrelated to safeguarding the subject, and
suffers a −1 penalty to all non-reflexive actions if she believes
the subject is actively endangered. Anyone plausibly threatening to wrest the subject from the character or otherwise
harm it gains a +2 bonus on Intimidation rolls using that
leverage.
Resolution: Definitively ensure the safety of the subject
for the foreseeable future, by any means necessary.
Grease the Wheels (Common)
Bribery and corruption are such gauche terms for the
purchase and sale of the line someone draws around their
moral principles. The changeling knows so well the wonders
worked by the right coin in the right place that she no longer
needs the gross physicality of money to achieve such ends.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling interacts directly with a member of an organization or bureaucracy for an administrative
purpose, resolving swiftly in her favor with no difficulties.
The process takes one-tenth of the usual time to complete,
even if this should be physically impossible. Excessive scrutiny and troublesome bureaucrats offer no hindrance, as
if paid to look the other way. She doesn’t need to interact
in person, only directly: a phone call or an email suffices, if
the call or email goes directly to the right official. The Contract only helps with interactions where the organization
can normally provide the desired result — it simply greases
the wheels so the changeling’s dealings with administration
move smooth as butter.
Exceptional Success: The process resolves immediately and positively, regardless of sheer improbability. The
changeling’s new passport sits right there on the clerk’s desk
waiting to be picked up even though she hasn’t even filled
out the forms yet. Schedules clear, bureaucrats have already
prepared the desired legal paperwork, or City Hall decides
they don’t really need to wait on the health and safety reports
to give the go-ahead.
Failure: The Contract fails; the process takes its usual
time with any normal risk of bureaucratic scrutiny or red tape.
Dramatic Failure: The gears grind to a halt. The
changeling’s request or issue becomes mired in miserable
paperwork, legal complexities, or Kafkaesque bureaucratic
misfortune and goes nowhere for at least the rest of the story.
New Contracts
41
Darkling: The Mountebank’s interactions with the organization are completely traceless except where convenient
for her.
Fairest: The Muse gains the Connected Condition regarding the organization she interacts with.
Loophole: The organization member accepts a bribe or
gift the changeling offers him during the same scene.
Blood Debt (Royal)
The changeling guards her life jealously. She proclaims
her ownership of self and soul, and demands a hefty toll be
paid for any blood another dares take from her, or pain they
dare inflict.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Action: Instant
Effects: Whenever another character inflicts one or
more points of lethal or aggravated damage on the changeling, or one or more points of mild or severe Clarity damage, the offender suffers a single point of lethal damage in
response. This damage does not interact with armor; it simply appears upon the victim. Rips open in their flesh, blood
oozes from their orifices, or convulsions spasm through
them.
The amount of lethal damage inflicted increases by one
point for each of the following:
• The attack also caused the changeling to lose (not
spend) one or more points of Willpower.
• The attack also caused the changeling to lose (not
spend) one or more points of Glamour.
• The attack also inflicted a Condition or Tilt on the
changeling.
Elemental: Offenders suffer a baseline of two points of
lethal damage, rather than one.
Ogre: The Gargoyle may instead extend her protection
to her friends, imposing the toll on any damage done to her
allies in the scene instead of herself as long as she remains
conscious.
Loophole: The changeling wears jewelry or another
adornment that freshly cuts or pierces her flesh during this
scene; healed piercings don’t qualify.
Exchange of
Gilded Contracts (Royal)
The changeling pronounces her offer, placing down a
part of who she is in return for the same from her counterpart. Those precious little slivers of self are more than
just identity, though; they’re what make each of the Lost
party to the fae power of a Contract. It’s just a brief loan,
an exchange of contractual rights — but both feel that lack
gnawing at them until the business concludes.
Cost: 3 Glamour
42
Action: Instant
Duration: Up to one chapter
Effects: The changeling agrees to an exchange with
another of the Lost, wherein she borrows one of the
common Contracts they know. If the target consents, the
changeling gains access to the Contract as if she learned
it herself, although she only gains any seeming bonus she
naturally has access to and doesn’t gain any additional ones
the target learned from Pupil’s Devotion. She also cannot
access the Contract’s Loophole; Loopholes work by briefly
convincing the Wyrd the changeling inherently has the right
to wield that power, but such a guise is impossible to pull off
with only third-hand access to the Contract.
The target loses access to the exchanged Contract
in the meantime. Exchange of Gilded Contracts passes
to the target, although they cannot use it to create a new
Contract exchange. Instead, the target chooses when to
end the exchange; this reflexive action immediately returns
their original Contract to them and passes the ability to
use Exchange of Gilded Contracts back to the original
changeling in turn.
Darkling: The Wisp can exploit the Loophole on the
traded Contract.
Ogre: The Terrible does not lose access to the borrowed
Contract until the end of the chapter even if the original
owner calls it back earlier for their own use, although she
still cannot exploit its Loophole until the target changeling
chooses to end Exchange of Gilded Contracts.
Loophole: The changeling and the target each don a
relatively convincing mask of the other during the scene.
Golden Promise (Royal)
The changeling speaks of her fabulous riches, girding
herself in the raw symbolism of wealth. She becomes a gilded
goddess of obvious privilege, her every word a golden promise;
she makes it unfathomable to conceive of her inability to pay
for whatever she desires, and those offering to sell become
enamored with the idea of providing for her whims.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Socialize + Wyrd – current Availability
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling reduces the Availability of a
single service she wishes to procure by activation successes
rolled. The service must still be feasibly available in the
current situation and she doesn’t need to provide any further recompense beyond the reduced Availability for the
transaction. The Wyrd surrounds her with such an aura of
affluence that sellers feel compensated by merely standing
in the penumbra of her riches. Golden Promise may re-
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
duce an item’s effective Availability to 0,
and the changeling may repeatedly lower
the Availability via multiple activations of
Golden Promise on the same item or service within the
same scene.
Exceptional Success: As well as reducing the Availability rating further, the changeling gains the Connected Condition linked to the service provider.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: Something exposes changeling’s posturing as mere pretense; she gains the Notoriety Condition.
Fairest: The Unicorn can split her successes between
multiple services within the scene.
Wizened: The Shrewd gains a +1 bonus to the acquired
service’s equipment bonus.
Loophole: The changeling arrives on the scene with
a display of ostentatious wealth, such as emerging from a
limousine dressed to the nines or bedecked with diamond
jewelry and blatantly showing it off.
Grand Revel of the Harvest
(Royal)
What is the worth of a coin unspent? What is the purpose
of a life of hard work, if one never enjoys the fruits of one’s
labor? Transactions till the field of the future, sprouting the
harvest’s rewards of prosperity. The changeling opens up her
power and pours it forth for all to enjoy.
Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Effects: The changeling’s presence enhances all worldly
delights and sensations in the scene. The blandest food seems
ripe with intriguing flavors; song and companionship fill the
heart; payment or gifts feel all the more rewarding; the intensity of touch and texture thrill the nerves and the mind. For
the remainder of the scene, anyone other than the changeling
who deliberately engages in revelry or celebration of any kind
that this Contract would affect requires only three successes on
Social rolls to achieve an exceptional success, and their attitude
improves by one step for purposes of Social maneuvering.
Affected characters reap greater rewards from their
gains and prosperity until the Contract ends. Whenever
they would regain Willpower, they gain an additional point,
to their usual maximum. Whenever they would heal health
or Clarity damage, they heal an additional point of the same
damage type. If they gain a windfall of cash or wealth, they
gain a +1 bonus to its equipment bonus for acquiring it.
Beast: The revelers also gain a +2 bonus to all Physical
rolls involving competing with each other, sparring, dancing, lovemaking, and other pursuits of physical entertainment for the scene.
Fairest: Attitudes for Social maneuvering improve by
two steps rather than one.
Loophole: The changeling supplies a feast or banquet
large enough for all the revelers present, and partakes of all
revels herself in obvious fashion.
New Contracts
43
Thirty Pieces (Royal)
The changeling flips a coin across her knuckles, back
and forth. In its dance, she sees the price treachery demands.
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling plants a seed of treachery
within the mind of a single target she can see. She chooses a
single action that constitutes a betrayal of the target’s allies,
friends, or cause, such as revealing damning information
or attacking them directly. This may happen immediately
or rely on a specific trigger occurring before the end of the
current story (such as ‘shoot my ally when they pick up this
box’). The target takes the specified action when appropriate,
gaining the Guilty Condition thereafter. This power cannot
compel non-treacherous acts, nor can it cause the target to
directly harm herself. A character can only be under the
effects of one invocation of Thirty Pieces at a time; using the
Contract on a target who has yet to meet the trigger of an
existing instance overwrites it.
Exceptional Success: The target also gains the Fugue
Condition after committing the betrayal.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling calls treachery to
herself instead. The Storyteller chooses a moment before
the end of the chapter to reveal the betrayal of someone the
motley knows, whether deliberately or inadvertently; the
changeling herself gains a detrimental Condition reflecting
the betrayal’s nature, such as Embarrassing Secret, Notoriety, or Demoralized.
Darkling: The Contract’s target becomes isolated from
those they betrayed after committing the chosen act; they
gain the Notoriety Condition.
Elemental: Any safeguards or defenses that could
prevent the target’s treachery fail; a treacherous attack always
benefits from surprise, for example, or a camera set up to
detect intruders conveniently goes on the fritz.
Loophole: The target accepted payment from the
changeling to betray their fellows during the current story,
even if they had no intention of actually carrying it out.
Scepter
While the better-known Crown represents leadership
and rulership in all its forms, the Scepter represents the path
to power. It dictates that how one reaches the top of the food
chain matters as much as what she does when she gets there.
It takes unbridled ambition, strength of will, and the determination to judge others unworthy so she may take their place.
The Scepter is a symbol of authority and gravity, but also one
of force; a changeling who wields it accepts the responsibility
44
of making decisions for everyone else — or usurps it, guiding
people’s lives whether they want her to or not — and understands sometimes a Scepter is just a bludgeon.
Burning Ambition (Common)
The wanton ambition and desire of the Gentry sweeps
through everything they touch like wildfire. Changelings of
the Scepter fan the flames of their own ambitions by taking
something from someone else when invoking this Contract;
it could be legitimate theft, or it could be something she intends to give back or something taken as a jest, as long as it
isn’t freely given and she receives no permission.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Until fulfillment of the Aspiration
Effects: The changeling gains an additional Aspiration that
acts as a True Fae’s craving (Changeling, p. 269). It must reflect
whatever — or whoever — the changeling wants most not already
covered by one of her current Aspirations. When she fulfills the
craving, she replenishes points of Willpower equal to half her
Wyrd as well as a Beat but gains the Competitive Condition.
Beast: If the Courser consumes the object of the craving, whether it’s food, drink, or flesh, she regains all Willpower instead when she fulfills the Aspiration.
Fairest: If the object of the Muse’s craving is another
character, that character suffers the Swooned Condition regarding the changeling when she fulfills the Aspiration.
Loophole: Within the same scene, the changeling completely burns a symbol of an obligation she has to someone
else until it’s destroyed.
Jealous Vengeance (Common)
The changeling’s enemies include those who stand between her and something she wants, regardless of whether
they obstruct her purposefully or unknowingly. By clearly
speaking the name of the one she wishes to remove from her
path and issuing an ultimatum to them, she forces a terrible
choice.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Wyrd vs. Resolve
+ Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: The changeling presents her target with a
choice: definitively step away from whatever position or situation puts them in the changeling’s way, such as quitting a
job or breaking up with a partner, or suffer the consequences. If the target doesn’t do everything in their power to obey
within the next chapter, they suffer one of the following
Conditions of the changeling’s choice: Blind (temporary),
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Bestial, Embarrassing Secret, Guilty, Leveraged, Lethargic,
Paranoid, Ravaged, Reckless, or Spooked. The target can’t
resolve this Condition until they’ve bested the changeling in
a contested action.
Exceptional Success: The changeling inflicts two Conditions instead.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s attempts fall flat
and word spreads, inflicting the Notoriety Condition on her.
Elemental: The Torrent’s wrath overwhelms her victim,
making her curse last; she adds the Mute Condition to the
list of available options, and if she chooses Blind, it’s Persistent.
Ogre: The Gargoyle’s player achieves exceptional success on three successes for this Contract’s invocation roll.
Loophole: You have caused this Contract’s target to
gain the Oathbreaker Condition within the current scene,
whether directly or indirectly.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling receives no information, but whoever she would have seen if she’d succeeded
learns of her attempt and that she sees them as a rival or
opponent, though not for what or why.
Beast: The Beast may spend an additional Glamour
when learning a rival’s current location to track their location for the rest of the chapter.
Ogre: The Ogre may roll Manipulation + Intimidation
when learning a rival’s name or face, or that of their closest ally, to inflict the Paranoid Condition on that character.
The target contests this roll with their Resolve + Empathy,
though they don’t know about the attempt without supernatural abilities revealing it.
Loophole: The changeling throws a temper tantrum in
front of at least one other person who isn’t in her motley
within the same scene.
Litany of Rivals (Common)
Every aspiring leader needs people to lead. A knight
must, by duty, protect and serve; their commander must likewise follow her duty to recognize their loyalty and bestow
favor upon them for following her orders. The changeling
bestows knighthood upon another by performing a suitably symbolic gesture, such as kissing them on both cheeks,
exchanging solemn vows, or touching her weapon to their
shoulders.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Effects: The changeling chooses one non-changeling
character upon whom to bestow knighthood. That character
gains a bonus to their Initiative and Defense equal to half
her Wyrd as long as they can perceive her, and the same
bonus to all Social actions they undertake in her name. If
they disobey or betray her, they suffer the Cowed Condition,
and the changeling immediately knows what happened, although not what circumstances led to the event or any details. The Wyrd itself adjudicates what counts as disobedience or betrayal, adhering to the spirit of the bestowment.
The target must be willing for this Contract to work,
but they needn’t fully understand the parameters or consequences, and the changeling may coerce or deceive them.
Darkling: If the knight disobeys or betrays the Darkling, she knows not only what happened but exactly when
and where, as well as what emotions the knight felt at the
time.
Fairest: The Fairest can bestow knighthood upon a
number of targets equal to her Wyrd with one invocation,
as long as she can perform the ceremonial gesture on each
of them separately.
Assessing those who stand in the changeling’s way requires names and faces; she must identify those who await
her judgment. She consults a basin or pool of still water and
speaks a rhyme or sings a verse and coaxes truth from its
depths.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling names one of her own Aspirations as she invokes this Contract. Each success on the
invocation roll grants the changeling one of the following
pieces of information about the most immediate or threatening person who could, intends to, or already does stand in
her way to fulfilling that Aspiration that she hasn’t already
gleaned this way:
• Their name
• An image of their face
• Their current location
• One of their frailties or other weaknesses, whether
physical, mental, social, or circumstantial
• The name or face of one of their closest allies
The changeling’s player may ask each question one at a time
so she can decide whether to ask for additional information about
that person or ask a question about a different person.
Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their
own reward.
Knight’s Oath (Common)
New Contracts
45
Loophole: The changeling anoints her knight with her
own blood as the required knighting ceremony; she must
shed this blood by inflicting at least one point of lethal damage on herself within the same scene. Blood from injuries
she didn’t cause herself doesn’t count.
Unmask the Dark Horse
(Common)
All those who aspire to power have rivals, but some
don’t make themselves known until the last minute, seizing
victory from the jaws of defeat. The changeling may reveal —
or create — such a rival to display her capability to all, issuing
a challenge her rival cannot refuse.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling calls someone out, learning
one of their short-term Aspirations and inflicting the Competitive Condition on them. They can’t resolve the Condition until after they win a contested roll, fight, or other competition against the changeling.
By spending an additional Glamour point, the changeling may immediately change one of her own Aspirations to
one directly opposing the target’s.
Exceptional Success: The changeling learns all her target’s Aspirations.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s challenge backfires,
humiliating her and stoking the fires of her jealous rage; she
suffers the Berserk Condition.
Fairest: The Unicorn’s challenge and any competition or rumble with her target that follows while this
Contract is in effect is automatically viewable in real time
by anyone within five miles. They may happen to catch
it on television, run across a video online with no upload data, listen to a play-by-play on a radio frequency
that shouldn’t be broadcasting anything, read a report on
it in the newspaper, or even watch it shimmering on the
horizon like a mirage.
Beast: Whenever the Grim wins a competition or fight
against her target while this Contract is in effect, she inflicts
the Notoriety Condition upon him, ostracizing him from
his closest social group like a lion who failed to find a mate.
Loophole: The changeling invokes the Contract and
issues her challenge in front of a large crowd of people including at least one of the target’s loved ones, friends, or
colleagues.
46
A Benevolent Hand (Royal)
Regardless of whether the changeling intends to wield
power responsibly or not, she knows it’s much easier to
achieve her goals with the people’s favor. She wins popularity with generosity and hearts with kindness, even if both are
false — if no one’s the wiser, what difference does it make?
She still gets the power she craves.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Effects: The changeling performs some gesture that
benefits someone else without benefiting her directly or
indirectly, such as giving money to an unhoused person or
returning a lost wallet to its owner. This improves her impression (up to perfect) for purposes of Social maneuvering
with anyone she meets for the first time during the chapter,
including those she benefitted, if applicable. If she succeeds
on any Social action against an affected person during the
Contract’s duration, she may gain a temporary dot of the Allies Merit (Changeling, p. 120) representing that character
and one organization or group to which they belong, to a
maximum of five Allies dots gained this way. This dot vanishes when the Contract ends.
Elemental: Word of the Torrent’s magnanimous deeds
spreads further and has more of an impact; she gains two
dots of Allies instead of one from every successful Social action affected by this Contract.
Wizened: The Domovoi’s intuition and research allow
her to pinpoint particularly useful targets, gaining an additional dot of Resources instead of Allies. This counts as
a separate 1-dot Resources Merit from any she may already
possess, and she may gain up to five Resources dots this way.
Loophole: The changeling gives up something significant when she invokes this Contract.
Fake It ‘Til You Make It (Royal)
When a ruler lays down the law, everyone follows.
When the Gentry speak their desires, the world changes to
oblige them. The changeling can’t rely on true authority to
impose her will the same way, but when she carries herself
with a regal presence and makes a grand proclamation to all
present, she fools the Wyrd into letting her appropriate that
power by brute force.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd − Resolve
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling makes her proclamation,
which becomes automatically loud enough for everyone
within 10 yards/meters to hear. In the process, she can
make changes to the mundane world as though she were
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Hedgespinning, as long as the emotional tenor of the proclamation matches the kinds of changes she wants to make.
These changes are temporary, reverting to normal when
the Contract ends. She spends successes on her invocation
roll to make subtle shifts in reality using the chart on p.
204 of Changeling; all shifts cost +2 successes. Shifts that
would interact with Hedge navigation can apply to ordinary chases.
If the changeling uses shifts to change the landscape,
structures, or objects not held or on someone’s person,
the invocation roll isn’t resisted. Other characters resist as
above; even willing targets instinctively resist such gross manipulation of reality. This Contract can’t result in the instant annihilation of a character — for instance, turning a
plush armchair into a chair made entirely of knives won’t
kill whoever’s sitting in it, but they may take some damage as
they’re displaced by a foot or two. Likewise, causing a building to collapse may bury anyone inside under a conveniently
nonlethal heap of rubble from which they must escape.
Using this Contract constitutes a breaking point with
a pool of four dice, as such blatant lies made real echo the
Kindly Ones’ atrocities too directly for comfort.
Exceptional Success: More successes are their own
reward; the changeling may spend 1 additional Glamour
and 1 Willpower to spend invocation successes on subtle
or paradigm shifts.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: As with Hedgespinning, the failure
incites Bedlam (Changeling, p. 110) in everyone present,
including the changeling.
Fairest: Witnesses and victims of the Fairest’s imposed
want to believe in the reality of her creation and the falsity
of their own memories. She may choose one character who
can perceive the shifts she makes and inflict a temporary
version of the Delusional Condition (Changeling, p. 335)
that resolves when that character would ordinarily gain a
Beat. Non-changelings instead resolve it by choosing to automatically fail a roll to contest any Persuasion or Subterfuge action enacted by the Fairest, including supernatural
powers.
Wizened: The Shrewd reduces the cost of any shift
that changes a human-made inanimate object or structure
by 2.
Loophole: The changeling uses an actual scepter to
point and pontificate as she makes her proclamation.
Tempter’s Quest (Royal)
The changeling wins her subject’s loyalty by promising
to grant their heart’s desire in exchange for embarking upon
a quest for her. This quest becomes their driving purpose
until its completion. She displays any kind of obviously supernatural power and makes her offer as she invokes this
Contract to secure her new henchman’s cooperation.
Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One story
Roll Results
Success: The changeling describes a single task, as complex or simple as she wants. The subject makes that task their
quest and must accomplish it. The quest must have a clear
end goal, both close-ended and reasonably possible for that
person to accomplish within one story; “secure a treaty with
the Tin Gang Motley” works, but “protect the Freehold of
Laden Sorrows” does not.
She also learns the most personally important Aspiration her subject possesses, chosen by the subject’s player. She
must describe a prize she’s capable of providing that clearly
leads to the fulfillment of that Aspiration and promise to
grant this reward.
The subject gains the Persistent Obsession Condition
regarding fulfilling the changeling’s wishes and replaces one
of their Aspirations with completing the quest. In addition,
if the subject doesn’t take a meaningful action toward completing the quest at least once per chapter, they cannot replenish Willpower through their Anchors again until they
do so.
If the subject completes the quest before this Contract
ends and the changeling fails to hold up her end of the deal
before the story ends, she gains the Leveraged Condition,
and any relevant powers read her as an oathbreaker until
Leveraged resolves.
Exceptional Success: If the subject does not make
strides toward his goal at least once per session, he also suffers the Lethargic Condition.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling suffers the effects of
having reneged on the subject’s reward despite no quest being given.
Darkling: If the Darkling fails to provide the agreedupon reward in time once the quest is completed, she may
spend 1 Willpower and roll Manipulation + Larceny + Wyrd
vs. Resolve + Wyrd to shunt the consequences onto someone
else who was present when the quest was given and understood the agreement taking place.
Fairest: The Fairest can issue the same quest to a number of subjects up to half her Wyrd with one invocation;
however, the offered rewards must be commensurate with
the additional questers.
Loophole: The changeling provides the quester with a
provision of significant use and value to aid in the quest,
such as a weapon, a token, access to a private facility, etc.
New Contracts
47
Curse of Hidden Strings
(Royal)
Sometimes, those who stand in the changeling’s way
do it because they must, not because they want to. From
mundane employment contracts to Wyrd-bound oaths, obligation ties the hands of many who might otherwise care
little for her ambitions. By crumpling, tearing, or otherwise
destroying something with the target’s signature, such as a
paper contract, an autographed photo, or even a bar napkin,
she eases their burden by erasing their obligation from their
mind, easing her own way in the process.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Larceny + Wyrd vs. Resolve
+ Wyrd
Action: Contested
Roll Results
Success: The changeling chooses one pledge, debt,
agreement, or other obligation of the target’s she already
knows about. Some evidence or proof of its existence must
exist, whether a contract, email, IOU, or a pledge the Wyrd
enforces; a simple verbal agreement does not suffice. The
victim loses all memory of her involvement in the obligation—she believes she’s unemployed, forgets she needs to pay
back a loan, or forgets she’s part of a motley. She remembers
the other parties exist, but assumes she has no obligation to
them even if shown physical proof. This does not free them
from the obligation, and failure to meet it just because she
forgets it exists carries the same consequences as it usually
would.
The changeling must choose a feasible action the target
can take that benefits them and is somehow related to the
forgotten obligation, which will permit them to break the
curse early. If they do, the Contract ends, and they both immediately remember the obligation and know who caused
their memory loss. The target should accomplish something
concrete when taking the action, such as resolving a Condition, gaining a new Touchstone or regaining Willpower from
an existing one, upholding or breaking a pledge (including
the forgotten one), or suffering a breaking point. For example, a curse that breaks via true love’s kiss might lift when
the target gains a new Touchstone by kissing that Touchstone’s subject; a curse that breaks via defying someone with
power over them might lift when they stand up to the bully
tormenting them and resolve the Cowed Condition. The
Storyteller may rule a sufficiently dramatic action enough to
break the curse without any concrete mechanics.
If the Contract ends on its own rather than breaking as
above, the target remains none the wiser about who caused
their memory loss.
Exceptional Success: The duration becomes one chapter instead.
Failure: The Contract fails.
48
Dramatic Failure: The changeling suffers the Leveraged Condition regarding her target.
Fairest: The Muse may target a number of characters up
to her Wyrd as long as they’re all bound by the same obligation, such as an entire motley or multiple employees of the
same company.
Wizened: Rather than erasing the target’s memory of
the obligation, the Wizened transfers it to herself in the
target’s mind. They may think they’re her motley-mate, employee, or debtor, for instance.
Loophole: The changeling knowingly and deliberately
breaks a pledge or agreement of her own within the same
scene.
Spare Not the Rod (Royal)
The changeling unleashes her envy and wrath upon
those who possess what she desires, judging them unworthy.
The Scepter itself manifests from her jealous rage and covetous heart to grace her with the power to cow her pathetic
rivals and take what she deserves.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling crafts a literal scepter or staff
out of pure Glamour. It counts as a melee weapon with a
damage rating of 0B and no Initiative penalty. It can also be
a ranged weapon at the cost of 1 Glamour per attack, with
a damage rating of 0L, a range of 30 yards/meters with no
ability to attack at medium or long range, and no Initiative
penalty. She may give it any size or appearance she likes, and
may regardless of its size always wield it one-handed with no
minimum Strength requirements.
She can wield the scepter to either physically attack a
target or take an Intimidate action against them. If either
action is successful, whether or not the target actually takes
damage, she also inflicts the Demoralized Condition on
them.
The scepter is a solid object, and if the changeling is disarmed or sets the scepter down, it remains for the Contract’s
duration. Anyone else who picks up the scepter can use it as
described, although those who have no Wyrd rating can’t
use its ranged attack.
Fairest: The Muse may spend 2 additional Glamour
while attacking or intimidating with the scepter to inflict
the Persistent Awestruck Condition instead of Demoralized
upon a successful roll.
Wizened: Once the Wizened creates the scepter, she
can always summon it directly to her hand no matter where
it is as long as she has a hand free with which to hold it.
If someone else is already holding it, she must successfully
wrest it from them with a Presence + Intimidation roll contested by their Strength + Stamina.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Loophole: The changeling crafts a tiny representation
of her scepter from precious metals and gems, which she
breaks in half when invoking the Contract.
Stars
Stars have long served as navigational tools, guiding explorers to new lands and bringing sailors home after long
journeys. Prophets and soothsayers read fortunes in their
movements, while scientists discover truths about the universe’s past in starlight that’s traveled billions of years to
reach our eyes. When someone achieves fame, we say they’ve
become a star. Lost who wield the Stars become trailblazers
who see to the heart of matters.
Pole Star (Common)
The changeling has an unerring sense of direction and
can get his bearings anywhere.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling states aloud the person or place
toward which he wants to travel. His body acts like a compass,
turning him in his target’s direction. He may use this to orient
himself in an unfamiliar place, find true north in the middle of
a forest or know the direction of a recognizable landmark while
in an unfamiliar part of town. Alternatively, this Contract can
point him to a specific item or person of presently unknown
whereabouts. He doesn’t know the exact location or the distance to his destination, only the direction in which it lies.
If the person or object is hidden by supernatural means,
this Contract prompts a Clash of Wills.
This Contract only works in the mundane realm.
Beast: The Grim scents his prey on the air. The Beast’s
player gains +2 dice on a Clash of Wills to uncover a hidden
target.
Wizened: The Hatter’s drawn this map before; he
knows where there be dragons and other dangers. His player
may ask the Storyteller one question about an opponent or
obstacle he’ll encounter along the path.
Loophole: The changeling holds a piece of his target in
his hand when he invokes this Contract. This may be a cog
from the grandfather clock in his target’s hall, or a scrap of
fabric from his enemy’s coat.
Straight On ‘Til Morning
(Common)
Journeys in the Hedge can exhaust changelings owing
to the malleable nature of time and distance. Pausing to
sleep or wolf down a quick meal often proves dangerous, as
Hedge denizens take advantage of weary, distracted travelers. The changeling sets his sights on a single star in the sky.
It remains overhead for the entire journey, invigorating and
inspiring him, burning away his hunger and fatigue.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Until the changeling reaches his destination
Effects: The changeling becomes tireless, able to push
on without having to rest or eat until he reaches his destination. He suffers no ill effects from Environmental Tilts along
the way. This doesn’t prevent other encounters from getting
in his way; a trod troll in the path doesn’t much care about
the sparkly thing in the sky. If he travels the Wishing Roads,
his navigation rolls gain the 8-again quality.
Fairest: The changeling may extend this Contract to a
number of fellow travelers up to his Wyrd rating.
Ogre: The surety he’ll reach his destination grants the
Bruiser the Steadfast Condition.
Loophole: When he invokes the Contract, the changeling promises he’ll sleep when his task is done, and has an
ally seal the statement; he may not spend Glamour to refute
the sealing. After the Contract ends, he immediately gains
the Fatigued Condition.
Cynosure (Common)
The changeling gains insight into his target’s personal
goals. He speaks wistfully about one of his own dreams,
whether one already accomplished or one he still pursues.
Moved by his candor, his target shares ambitions of their
own.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Effects: The changeling’s sincerity inspires the target
to reveal one of their own Aspirations, chosen by the target. The stars show the Lost opportunities during the next
chapter (for short-term Aspirations) or story (for long-term
ones) that could help the target achieve those goals. He may
choose to nudge them toward these opportunities, spoil
them, or do nothing with the information.
Roll Results
Success: The changeling understands one of the target’s
Aspirations and learns of an event or opportunity that will
help them fulfill it. For short-term Aspirations, the event
may resolve the Aspiration completely. For long-term ones,
the event marks the next step in a longer process, such as
securing funding for an expedition or finding a mentor’s lost
diary.
Exceptional Success: The changeling also learns the
name of someone to whom he himself has an established
connection who would be immensely helpful to the target’s
goals. He may choose to make a favorable introduction, warn
that person about her target’s shortcomings or do nothing
with the information.
New Contracts
49
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The target suffers a setback in the
pursuit of their goal and blames the changeling for it. Alternatively, they succeed despite the changeling’s attempts and
know he tried to sabotage them.
Darkling: The Mountebank manipulates events from
the shadows, gaining the Informed Condition about his subject’s Aspiration.
Ogre: The Bruiser isn’t interested in being coy. He encourages his target to be bold, suggesting actions they might
otherwise be reluctant or too timid to take. His player adds
+2 dice to his roll to convince them.
Loophole: The changeling lets an opportunity toward
fulfilling one of his own Aspirations slip by within the same
scene.
Shooting Star (Common)
Fame is a fickle thing. For just a moment, the target’s
star burns bright, then fades away. Whether their song captivates the coffeehouse audience, their painting makes waves
in a small-town art gallery, or the popular kids at school all
post their new dance move to social media, the creator’s art
resonates deeply whenever encountered by anyone.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Effects: The changeling targets someone who brings
creative works to fruition, regardless of the quality of their
work. They gain 1 dot of the Fame Merit (Changeling, p.
122) for the Contract’s duration; if this would increase their
Fame beyond 3 dots, they simply gain +1 die to the Merit’s
Social bonus instead. All changelings harvesting Glamour
from those affected by the target’s Fame gain +1 to the harvesting roll.
Beast: Displays of physical excellence inspire crowds,
too. The Courser may instead target someone who performs
feats of physical excellence, such as a local baseball player,
the neighborhood gym rat who runs every morning, or the
aspiring figure skater who practices on the nearby pond every winter.
Fairest: The Muse’s player gains +2 to rolls to harvest
Glamour instead.
Loophole: The changeling completes his own Build
Equipment action to make a creative work within the same
scene. Beasts may instead succeed at an impressive feat using
Athletics.
Retrograde (Common)
The changeling tells a story about a person in his presence. When he describes actions taken by the person within
the story, he makes a counterclockwise gesture. Chaos descends on the target’s life: they miss their train, they lock
50
their keys in their car, they overdraw their bank account,
they say the wrong thing at the worst possible time.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + Wyrd vs. Resolve
+ Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: Routine matters that normally go smoothly for
the target go wrong; a routine matter is any action the target
takes that doesn’t require a roll. For example, their signal
cuts out whenever they try to make a phone call, or they can’t
find a parking space at their destination. While most often
affecting matters of communication, finance, and travel, the
Contract’s effects reach beyond those arenas.
Exceptional Success: In addition to their minor misfortunes, the target must roll every roll twice and take the worse
result.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s own luck sours instead. His player suffers –2 to all actions for the chapter.
Darkling: The Mountebank names a number of specific
communication-related or technological routine matters up
to her Wyrd rating to go wrong for the target. When the
chosen mishaps occur, they do so in a way that just so happens to give the Darkling information about the target that
he didn’t already know. For instance, he might accidentally
receive an important email meant for someone else or find
the target’s dropped credit card.
Elemental: Inclement weather thwarts the target at every
turn. The Torrent’s player declares an environmental or personal weather-based Tilt to affect the target for the Contract’s
duration whenever most inconvenient, at the Storyteller’s discretion. For instance, torrential rains pour down after their
tire goes flat, or a snowstorm slows their commute to a crawl.
Loophole: The changeling spins around widdershins
while he tells the story.
Frozen Star (Royal)
The changeling traces a likeness in the stars of a person,
place, or object of which he knows the current location as
though drawing a constellation with his finger and speaks a
person’s name aloud. The Wyrd temporarily imbues the new
constellation with vast importance to the target.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + (Empathy or Persuasion) +
Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: Until the next sunrise or subject touches target
Effects: The Contract pulls the subject toward the
traced target, even from long distances; he cannot name
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
himself as the subject, but he can trace himself as the target.
For example, if the changeling traces the outline of a car
headed in the opposite direction and speaks a Huntsman’s
name, the Huntsman follows the car and the changeling can
get away; likewise, if he draws the café where he met his wife
and says her name, she stops in for a cup of coffee later the
same day, a powerful bout of nostalgia guiding her steps.
The changeling must be able to perceive the subject he
names, and the traced target must be somewhere they could
reasonably reach before the next sunrise. The changeling
cannot trace anyplace impossible for the subject to reach or
objects expressly intended to cause harm to the target.
Roll Results
Success: The named subject immediately drops whatever they’re doing and travels toward the traced target. When
the Contract expires or they come into physical contact with
the target, whichever happens first, the effect ends. The subject suffers the Shaken Condition, as they have no recollection of why they pursued the traced target.
Exceptional Success: The Contract doesn’t end when
the subject touches the target; the effect persists past that
first touch, addicting the subject to the target’s presence and
inflicting the Persistent Addicted Condition. The subject
may resolve the Condition normally, but otherwise it fades
without resolving at the next sunrise, granting no Beats.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The Wyrd misinterprets the changeling’s tracing; the nearest agent of the True Fae knows his
exact location at the time he failed to invoke the Contract
and becomes drawn to him as per the Contract’s effects. The
changeling suffers the Hunted Condition.
Darkling: The Mountebank’s Contract inflicts the
Spooked Condition, filling the target with a sense of impending doom and driving him to reach the subject as soon
as possible.
Fairest: If the Sovereign traces himself as the target, he
becomes entitled to the subject’s attention; the target also
gains a point of Goblin Debt for every scene they aren’t in
the changeling’s presence.
Loophole: The changeling is in physical contact with
a piece of the target or the target itself when he traces the
subject in the stars.
Light of Ancient Stars
(Royal)
Looking at the stars is looking deep into the past. By the
time their light reaches Earth, it’s traveled anywhere from a
handful to billions of years. The changeling lets that ancient
light shine on her and listens to the music of the spheres.
From it, she gleans wisdom and insight — about the world,
the Kindly Ones, or strange and ancient events.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Effects: If the changeling has a personal connection to a
past event, she may ask questions about it equal to her Wyrd
rating; the Storyteller must answer truthfully. The Wyrd
defines personal connection as knowing someone involved
more closely than as an acquaintance: her Keeper, a sibling,
or a member of her motley. Alternately, she may ask about
a known event that occurred in a location she previously
physically visited (a True Fae’s court, the tavern where her
freehold’s first Court formed.)
Darkling: Nothing escapes the Bewitched’s notice. The
character gains the Informed Condition about the event. If
this Condition doesn’t resolve before the end of the chapter,
it fades without resolution, granting no Beats.
Wizened: The Shrewd receives a clear image of an item
(up to Size 3) present during the event. His player gains +2
on any roll to create a facsimile of that item. He may only see
simple objects without moving parts with this benefit, and
regardless of the original’s supernatural qualities or abilities,
he crafts a fully mundane facsimile. He can accurately reproduce any writing or simple diagrams present in the image he receives, but he gains no insight into translating or
interpreting it.
Loophole: The Lost sings the names of the stars in a
constellation currently in the sky.
Star Light, Star Bright
(Royal)
The night sky is full of wished-upon stars. The changeling plucks a wish from the heavens and acts as the star’s
intermediary, granting his target’s desire. How the Lost interprets and grants the wish is up to him. He may be a kindly
benefactor, returning runaway puppies and putting winning
lottery tickets in his target’s hands; or he may wield wishes
like weapons, showing his target the downside of getting exactly what they wished for.
Cost: 1-2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Effects: Spend 1 Glamour point to invoke this Contract.
The changeling learns a wish his target has made within the
last month. If he doesn’t specify a target, he learns the wish
a random person made within a mile of his current location. The changeling determines how he fulfills that wish,
but he must fulfill it; failure to do so by the end of the story
inflicts the Persistent Oathbreaker Condition upon him. If
he does fulfill the wish, he regains a spent Willpower point
and earns a Beat.
Though the changeling’s own abilities constrain him,
he may take artistic license within those bounds. He can’t
bring the dead back to life, but if his target wishes to talk
New Contracts
51
with their deceased brother and ask his advice, the changeling may create an eidolon in the brother’s image, bringing
the two together in dreams.
If the changeling has an existing enchanted bargain (p.
77) with the wisher or makes one within the same scene that
he uses this Contract to learn their wish, he may thenceforth
teleport instantly to the mortal’s side whenever he hears
them call for his aid via Enchanted Obligation, and he may
spend 1 Glamour to bring along anyone who is touching him
at the time. Doing so immediately resolves the Enchanted
Obligation Condition, though only the changeling’s player
earns the Beat in that case.
Ogre: If the target is non-fae, the Bruiser’s player gains
+2 to one attempt to harvest Glamour from them.
Wizened: In addition to learning the wish, the Shrewd
gleans the driving force behind it, such as the target’s fears,
financial difficulty, regret, etc.
Loophole: The changeling coaxes the target into making the wish in her presence within the same scene.
Pinch of Stardust (Royal)
The Lost understand how their Keepers fashioned their
fetches from discarded ribbons, twigs, fishing line, and whatever else laid at hand. They set these constructs loose in the
changelings’ lives with no one the wiser. The act likely filled
the changeling with horror when first uncovered, but he also
learned from it.
He creates his own entity out of star stuff and scraps,
and when his target lays eyes on it, she feels as if she’s known
it for years. She remembers good times spent in the creature’s company, holds warm feelings toward it and trusts it
with their secrets. The simulacrum becomes one of her guiding light — her North Star, her Touchstone — and she suffers
when its brief existence snuffs out like a shooting star fallen.
Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts + Wyrd vs. Resolve +
Wyrd
Action: Instant (willing) or Contested (hostile)
Duration: One chapter or when Delusional resolves
When the chapter ends, the Touchstone crumbles into
its component parts. Changeling targets risk Clarity damage
as though they’ve lost a Touchstone. Non-changeling supernatural beings follow rules for Touchstone loss according to
their supernatural type; all others suffer a breaking point
with a –1 modifier.
Roll Results
Success: The creature acts like a fetch, gaining Echoes
(Changeling, p. 236) equal to the changeling’s Wyrd rating.
Attach the creature as one of the target’s Touchstones. If
the target isn’t a changeling but may have Touchstones, follow the usual rules for their supernatural type. For a target
who has no access to Touchstones, the creature becomes a
52
Wandering Stars
Changelings whose durances and explorations take them to the Outer Hedge may discover different themes and Contracts within
the Star Regalia. The night sky changes the
farther from Earth you get. Familiar constellations hang slightly off-kilter or don’t exist at
all, setting portents and fortunes askew. How
do you find home when the star that always
guided you there moves or disappears?
Work with your Storyteller to determine
how your changeling’s travels through the
Outer Hedge and beyond affect the Stars.
What insights do they gain by seeing the
world from an entirely different perspective?
What Contracts might they discover along
the winding paths of the Wishing Roads?
The player may replace one or more of their
character’s existing Stars Contracts with the
new ones if they travel to the Outer Hedge in
play. These adjustments should complement
the other Contracts in the Regalia, rather than
diminishing them or penalizing the Lost who
uses them. Changelings excel at adaptation.
mentor, close friend, or other important part of the target’s
life. The target suffers the Persistent Delusional Condition
regarding the entity; the Condition fades without resolution
or granting Beats if not resolved before the end of the chapter.
The changeling may target himself with this Contract,
but for its duration he doesn’t remember invoking it, believing the simulacrum real.
Invoking this Contract constitutes a breaking point
with three dice, or four if targeting a changeling (including
himself).
Exceptional Success: The exceptionally well-constructed creature becomes difficult for suspicious and well-meaning friends to remember as not real. It becomes embedded
in the memories of the target’s closest real friends and loved
ones, although they don’t become Delusional and evidence
of the creature’s falsity makes them suspicious.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling puts too much of
himself into his creation, which becomes his ill-intentioned
double, acting as a second fetch that knows it’s a fetch.
Darkling: The Bewitched made the creature’s right ear
out of a tin can and string, and kept the can attached to the
other end. When the target whispers a secret to the creature,
the Darkling hears it.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Wizened: The Domovoi knows how to make perfect
clockwork automatons and flawless mannequins; by spending an additional point of Glamour, her creation lasts until
the end of the story.
Loophole: The changeling adds something of himself
to the creature’s hodgepodge of parts: a lock of hair, three
drops of blood, fingernail clippings, etc.
Thorn
Thorn hides under a changeling’s Mask. Like a stunning rose, it pricks those who come too close. Thorns pierce
and irritate, punishing fools who transgress. It cares not
for Sword’s aggression or Shield’s protection; Thorn evokes
weapon and bulwark both, the unseen barb putting out the
eye of a trespasser from either direction. Legends say Contracts like Thorns and Brambles, Hedgewall, and Prince of
Ivy once fell within the purview of Thorn. The pacts that
formed other Regalia stole them away, however, and Thorn
hungers for their return.
Briar’s Herald (Common)
The changeling taunts the target to their face, promising to become the thorn in their side. The Thorn enforces
her promise, but failure is tantamount to breaking it.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Larceny + Wyrd vs. Composure +Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: Whenever the target comes into the changeling’s presence, nothing goes right for them, and they know
somehow it’s her doing even with no reasonable evidence. If
the changeling is within 100 yards/meters of them, her target loses the 10-again quality on any roll their player makes,
and every failure becomes dramatic without granting Beats.
The changeling knows every time the target fails a roll regardless of whether the target is currently within range of
the Contract’s effects, though she doesn’t automatically
know the details.
Exceptional Success: Whenever the victim’s player fails
a roll while in range of the Contract’s effects, the victim suffers one point of lethal damage in addition to the dramatic
failure consequences.
Failure: The Contract fails; the changeling suffers one
of the minor effects of a broken seal (Changeling, p. 210),
chosen by the Storyteller.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling suffers one of the
major effects of a broken seal instead.
Darkling: Each time the victim fails a roll, no matter the
distance between them, the changeling may whisper one mes-
New Contracts
53
sage to them no longer than 37 words, and the victim may
reply once in kind. Only these two hear each other’s messages,
even if someone is close to them when they whisper.
Wizened: The changeling may specify a clause that ends
the Contract prematurely. The conditions may be simple (“stay
home from work tomorrow”) or elaborate (“help me bust the
Goblin Queen peddling Arcadian cocaine on 1st Street”) but
must be expressed in a single short phrase. The victim has no
obligation to comply, but becomes subconsciously both aware
of the terms and that fulfilling them would end their suffering.
Loophole: Directly or indirectly, the changeling causes
a thorn, needle, or similar small, pointed object to prick the
target, drawing at least a drop of blood.
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
(Common)
The changeling pricks her thumb on a plant’s thorn, an
offering of blood repaid by the surrounding vegetation with
kinship, at least for a time. Living plants allow her to use
them as her eyes and ears for the Contract’s duration.
Most Lost assume this Contract borrows its name from
Shakespeare’s Scottish play, but the phrase and the superstition represented predates the Bard, as does the Contract
itself. Freeholds all over the United Kingdom take it as
evidence the Weird (or Wyrd?) Sisters were a real group of
changelings who inspired the playwright — three court monarchs, perhaps, or a legion entitlement, whose further secrets
may still lie buried somewhere beneath the moors.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling extends her senses of hearing,
sight, smell, and touch into any living plant she can perceive.
She can only occupy one plant at a time. She can shift her
senses from one plant to another, from a plant back to herself, or from herself back out to a plant again as an instant
action.
The changeling still perceives her body’s surroundings
and can take actions while extending her senses but doing
so is confusing; her player suffers a –3 to all actions she takes
unrelated to perceiving through the plant while her senses
ride one, as well as to her Defense and Initiative.
Beast: A cousin to the wild, the Grim may use the plant
she inhabits as a natural melee weapon. These attacks utilize
the Beast’s Strength + (Brawl or Weaponry) and deal bashing
damage. If the plant bears thorns or needles, upgrade the
damage to lethal. These attacks don’t take the penalty for
perceiving in two places at once, but the changeling may still
only take one instant action per turn.
Darkling: The Bewitched may occupy a number of
plants up to her Resolve simultaneously; an instant action
used to switch from one plant to another only shifts one of
these simultaneous extensions at a time. Thus, it takes mul-
54
tiple actions to fully return her senses to herself unless she
ends the Contract early.
Loophole: The changeling brews a potion of poison ivy,
newt, and thistles within the same scene; she peers into the
potion, extending her senses into nearby flora.
Thistle’s Rebuke (Common)
The changeling refuses to allow others to get close to
her, sprouting thorns to keep them at bay.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: Thorns grow from the changeling’s clothing or armor, increasing its general armor rating by two. They also tear
the flesh of anyone who gets too close to the changeling, inflicting one point of lethal damage on anyone who touches her or
engages her in melee. If grappled, her opponent takes two points
of lethal damage per turn for the grapple’s duration, in addition
to any other damage done by maneuvers within the grapple.
Additionally, the changeling can fire the thorns from her
armor at a foe within 50 yards/meters, although doing so negates the Contract’s other bonuses for the turn as the thorns
grow back. They’re ranged weapons with a damage rating of 2L.
Elemental: Forces of nature bow to the Torrent’s whims;
she may take a reflexive action to retract the thorns or extend them again. Anyone touching her when she reflexively
extends them takes two points of lethal damage.
Fairest: Presenting herself as the rose rather than the
thorns, the Unicorn can make the effects of this Contract
invisible even to those who can see through the Mask.
Loophole: The changeling drinks an entire glass of water just before invoking this Contract.
The Gouging Curse (Common)
The changeling issues a dire warning to her victim,
whether as an explicit curse (“If you violate my privacy, you
will suffer grave misfortune”) or a veiled warning (“It would be
unwise to participate in tomorrow’s rap battle”). If her warning goes unheeded, the Thorn follows through on her threat.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: The changeling chooses an action she wants
to forbid her target from taking. It should be specific and
something they could do within one instant action, such as
visit a particular location, use a specific object, or play a certain song over the store’s retail radio. If the target performs
the act before the chapter ends, they become cursed with
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
one of the following Tilts of the changeling’s choice: Arm
Wrack (one arm), Blinded (one eye), Deafened (one ear), or
Leg Wrack (one leg). Barbs and splinters pierce the chosen
limb or organ until the Contract ends and the Tilt fades;
even if the afflicted removes them all, more take their place.
Exceptional Success: Triggering the curse also inflicts
the Guilty Condition upon the victim.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling falls to his own curse
instead, unable to consider the consequences of his actions
and suffering the Reckless Condition.
Fairest: The Fairest may specify another action within
the same parameters as the forbidden one; the victim may
take this action to end the curse early. If they do so, they
suffer the Persistent Awestruck Condition regarding the
changeling, amazed at her magnanimity.
Ogre: If the action the Terrible forbids would cause
harm to one of her allies, this Contract’s duration becomes
one story instead.
Loophole: The changeling makes an agreement with the
victim, allowing them to specify an action she cannot take. If
she violates these terms, she must immediately pay the Glamour
cost and take a point of lethal damage, or the Contract ends.
Embrace of Nettles
(Common)
The Hedge’s perilous Thorns await those who wander
off the beaten path, but often, the Thorns hide the Hedge’s
greatest treasures. The changeling embraces the pain and everything it promises, allowing the Thorns to gain purchase
in exchange for greater power over the Hedge.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
The changeling invokes this Contract while in the
Hedge’s Thorns in response to the Hedge shifting itself.
Choose one of the following:
• If the changeling deflects, she changes the target of a single Hedgespinning shift she observes. This permits her
to steal a beneficial effect or shunt a harmful one onto
someone else. She only gains a Beat from an adverse
paradigm shift if she actually suffers the adverse effect.
• If the changeling defers, she negates up to half her
Wyrd, rounded down, of the Hedge’s shift successes.
These successes don’t disappear; instead, add them
to the Hedge’s next successful Hedgespinning roll,
which becomes immune to this Contract. If the Storyteller rolled an exceptional success, the Hedge’s
shift remains an exceptional success if even one success remains after deferral.
• If the changeling doubles down, she adds Hedgespinning successes to the Hedge’s roll, up to half her
Wyrd rounded down. In exchange, she gains the
same number of additional successes on her next
successful Hedgespinning roll within the scene. The
additional successes do not count when determining
whether she achieves an exceptional success.
No matter which option she chooses, the changeling
cannot choose it again within the same scene until she has
also used both other options.
Darkling: When the changeling defers, she may negate successes up to either her Manipulation rating or half her Wyrd.
Fairest: When the Unicorn doubles-down, she may apply
the additional successes to an ally’s next Hedgespinning roll
within the scene instead of her own.
Loophole: The changeling leaves behind a meaningful
personal effect for the Hedge to consume as she invokes this
Contract. She can never personally recover the object: if it
returns to her by some other means, she accumulates 2 Goblin Debt points.
Acantha’s Fury (Royal)
Mortals know the story of how Apollo pursued Acantha
and changed her into a plant as punishment for rejecting his
advances. The Lost tell a different tale: once, a Keeper with
a green thumb stole Acantha from her home. After years of
servitude in its garden, she bargained with her fellow captive
greenery; they rose up, unleashing their collective fury upon
their jailor. Changelings who knew of her heroism named
this Contract in her memory, enacting it in the hope every
changeling finds freedom one day.
Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Survival + Wyrd vs. Stamina + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Success: With a wordless cry of rage, the changeling
points at her target, who begins to transform into a thorny
or prickly plant of the changeling’s choice between Size 4
and 12. The metamorphosis takes place in stages over several minutes once she invokes the Contract.
The target progresses through transformative stages at
a rate of one per minute for a total of eight minutes after
invocation. As each stage occurs, the changeling must offer
her target a choice between allowing the transmutation to
continue and promising to complete a task as delineated
by the changeling. The target must be able to complete the
named action within a single scene and can’t be asked to
complete an impossible task or one harmful to them. It also
must be something the target can complete with the resources and information they currently possess. At each stage, the
changeling may repeat the same offer or choose a new one.
If at any point the target agrees to the promise, they
regress one stage per minute until they return to normal.
New Contracts
55
However, the promise binds them; if they fail to accomplish
it before the chapter ends, the transformation begins anew.
If they can’t contact the changeling before they’re incapable
of doing so, they’re out of luck for the scene.
The stages progress as follows:
• Anytime the target is not in direct sunlight, they become sluggish, taking a − 2 penalty to all non-reflexive
actions, Speed, Defense, and Initiative.
• Target’s flesh turns to plant matter; they decrease
their Stamina by 2, to a minimum of 1, decreasing
their Health accordingly.
• Over the next four stages, the target’s limbs become
stems or branches one by one, inflicting the Arm
Wrack or Leg Wrack Tilt on one limb per stage.
• Roots grow from the target and dig down where they stand,
inflicting the Immobilized Tilt. These roots grow into any
surface as burrowing into fertile earth. The target can’t roll
to break free until their progress has receded back to this
stage. Treat them as though they’re held by an item.
• Target’s transformation completes; they become the
chosen plant, and cannot take any actions, speak, or
move in any way. They still perceive their surroundings as normal and take purely Mental actions not
requiring movement.
Once the transformation completes, the target must
wait out the Contract’s duration; they return to normal once
the Contract expires. Any damage done to the plant, such as
plucking off leaves or slicing a vine in half, has no effect on
the victim when they are no longer fully transformed; any
removed pieces of the plant vanish once the Contract ends.
Invoking this Contract constitutes a breaking point
with a pool of four dice.
Exceptional Success: When the target successfully carries out a promise, the changeling regains a Willpower point.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s hubris spells disaster, her declaration of fury attracting the eyes of her enemies.
She suffers the Hunted Condition.
Elemental: The Unbound may target a number of characters
up to her Wyrd with a single invocation of this Contract. Handle
each target’s progression or regression separately, although the
changeling may offer the same promise to all of them at once.
Wizened: Without paying Glamour, the Wizened may
seal (Changeling, p. 210) the target’s statement of intent
when they accept the promise. Increasing the seal’s severity
costs 1 Glamour instead of 1 Willpower.
Loophole: The changeling holds in her hand a fresh
clipping, no more than one day old, from an actual plant of
the same type as the transformation she intends to inflict.
56
Awaken Portal (Royal)
Any unguarded entrance invites trouble through its
gate, from the obvious front door to the most elusive hidden
passage. The changeling gives such an entrance the means
to protect itself, just as roses guard their beauty with thorns.
By smearing her own blood upon the portal or arch for a
dormant Hedgeway, or upon any entrance to a Bastion or
Hollow, she uplifts it into a goblin who serves as her eyes and
ears while she’s away.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Effects: The portal gains temporary sapience. While it
cannot move or take either physical actions or those requiring
speech, it perceives its surroundings as the changeling would;
blocking the entrance inhibits its vision, and a complete seal
also inhibits its hearing. The hobgoblin portal can mentally
communicate with her over any distance, so many changelings
use this Contract to gather intelligence and blackmail material.
The changeling may use her kenning (Changeling, p. 107) from
the portal’s point of view rather than her own, but she loses the
ability to see her own environment while she does so.
Beast: The portal goblin also becomes a great, toothy
maw capable of reflexively extending its many fangs to bite
intruders before retracting them afterward. It may attack
anyone passing through. The attack has a damage rating of
2L and uses a pool equal to the changeling’s Presence + Intimidation. If the portal successfully bites a target, it spits
them out forcefully, shoving them back 5 yards/meters. If
more than one character attempts to pass through simultaneously, the changeling’s player makes a separate attack roll
for each of them, but the attacks all happen at once.
Elemental: The portal goblin possesses an additional
two-dot Influence in the Sprite’s chosen element.
Loophole: The changeling takes at least 15 minutes
within the scene where she activates the Contract to clean,
repair, or spruce up the entrance and its surrounding structure prior to awakening the portal.
Crown of Thorns (Royal)
The changeling writes down an act she wishes to forbid her
target from performing, then delivers it to them anonymously
via any indirect means — by mail, pigeon, text message, a messenger, etc. Should they defy her wishes, they feel the thorn’s
prick in their heart and endure the punishment of the defiant.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One story
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Awakened Portal
Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve
5; Presence 2, Manipulation 1, Composure 2
Skills: Occult 2 (Hedgeways); Intimidation 3
Merits: None
Wyrd: 2
Glamour/per Turn: 7/2
Willpower: 7
Virtue: Protective
Vice: Stubborn
Aspiration: Defend the portal
Initiative: 3
Defense: 0
winning a Clash of Wills with the changeling. Victims who
can normally dream lucidly may take a −2 penalty to any roll
they make to resist being convinced they’re in a dream.
If the target remains Comatose at the story’s end, this
Contract ends and they wake up on their own; the Condition fades without resolving, granting no Beats.
Exceptional Success: The Condition must resolve properly and does not fade at the end of the story.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling becomes Comatose
instead.
Beast: The Beast sends nightmares to torment the target’s slumber; they lose one Willpower point each night they
remain asleep, and cannot regain Willpower through rest
until the Condition resolves or fades.
Darkling: While disguised or unnoticed, the Darkling
achieves an exceptional success on three successes for rolls
to manipulate the target into taking the forbidden action.
Loophole: The changeling weaves an actual crown of
thorns out of prickly vines and branches and sets it upon the
target’s head within the same scene.
Armor: 3/3
Shrike’s Larder (Royal)
Size: Varies
Butcherbirds famously immobilize their prey upon
thorns so they can easily tear up their meal. The changeling
scatters thorns, needles, barbs, or similar small, prickly items
in mimicry of the bird. The spines grow beneath the victim’s
feet, slowing her enemy to a crawl.
Cost: 1-3 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: This Contract grants three different effects a
character can stack upon a single target for one point of
Glamour each.
Speed: 0
Health: 10
Frailties: Only cold iron
Contracts: Overpowering Dread, Thorns
and Brambles
Dread Powers: Influence (Brambles) 2,
Know Soul
Notes: The portal goblin appears as a mundane entrance unless identified as a magical
entity by an appropriate type of supernatural perception. When invoking Thorns and
Brambles, the portal never need contend
with its own Contract’s effects.
Roll Results
Success: The changeling chooses a specific instant action — such as speak to or attack a particular person, enter a
particular building, or take a bite of the changeling’s lunch
currently in the employee lounge fridge — she wants to forbid her target from taking. If the target performs the act before the end of the current story, they suffer the Comatose
Condition and one point of lethal damage from invisible
thorns. Non-changeling targets can’t resolve the Condition
unless someone enters their dreams to convince them they’re
dreaming, or another supernatural power wakes them after
• The spines trip up the victim, making them stumble
at the worst possible moments. While in a chase, they
suffer a –2 penalty to all movement-related rolls and
cannot possess the Edge. They may spend 1 Willpower to power through the pain and ignore these effects
for one turn.
• The spines dig themselves deeper every time the victim moves, painfully distracting her from matters at
hand. She suffers a –3 penalty to Initiative.
• Spines pierce the victim’s joints, immobilizing them
and making all their movements rigid. Halve the victim’s Speed (rounded down). They may voluntarily
take one point of bashing damage ignore this effect
for one turn and force themselves to move faster.
Beast: The Coursers gave this contract its name when
they first imitated the shrike’s hunting techniques. When
New Contracts
57
the changeling harvests Glamour from the victim during the
Contract’s duration, he regains 2 Glamour points for each
success he rolls instead of 1.
Wizened: The Hatter may target a vehicle instead, inflicting the chosen effects upon anyone operating it or riding
as a passenger and flattening its tires, if any.
Loophole: The changeling impales an effigy representing the target upon a thorn. While brambles are traditional,
any small piercing object works, such as barbed wire, sewing
needles, or a live porcupine’s erect quills.
Witch’s Brambles (Royal)
The witch knows the secret to turning illusions real
and sees the magic in the mundane. Mortal echoes of the
Thorns — clumsy and unsubtle — become much closer to
their fae counterparts in the changeling’s hands. Traditional
invocation of this Contract utilizes roses and brambles, but
artificial objects — shards of glass and barbed wire — work
just as well.
Cost: 2-3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Effects: By spending 2 Glamour, the changeling can
perform limited manipulations of the mundane world as
though Hedgespinning, so long as she calls upon the fear
and fascination of the Thorns. She invokes this Contract
while performing any mundane action utilizing a Size 1 or
smaller object capable of piercing flesh in a precise fashion.
A dagger, its blade broad and indiscriminate, cannot elicit
the strange allure of staring at a pricked finger and watching the tiniest drop of blood emerge, but a safety pin, small
cactus, or a cat’s (or vampire’s) fang would work.
The action the changeling performs suffers a –3 penalty
as the mortal world resists such wanton change. The player
can spend any excess successes on subtle shifts, following
the Hedgespinning rules (Changeling, p. 204). None of the
other usual effects or consequences of Hedgespinning occur.
If the changeling achieves an exceptional success on the
action this Contract enhances, she may pay an additional
Glamour to enact a paradigm shift instead.
Using this Contract in the Hedge or any other otherworldly realm has no effect.
Beast: The Beast may count a bite attack as a valid action for this Contract’s enhancement as long as it would deal
lethal or aggravated damage.
Darkling: If the Darkling achieves exceptional success
on the action’s roll, she may add one success to the total if
she chooses to enact only subtle shifts.
Loophole: The changeling pierces her own flesh with
the pointy object she uses while invoking this Contract.
58
Independent
Contracts
The following Contracts exist independent of any Regalia. Some once belonged to Regalia long lost to memory
while the Gentry made others as-is for a singular purpose.
The Good Cousins stole powers from other entities, filling
those powers up with their fae essences until they became
unrecognizable. The deals the Fae made to create them still
give them potency even after the destruction of their Regalia. However, the full scope of their origin (and original
context) now exists only as forgotten knowledge found on
far-flung Wishing Roads in a ruined Bastion, deep in the
Hedge with the last hobgoblin of its kind, or as part of an
entitlement whose token sank to the bottom of the sea.
Those who learn these Contracts — without knowing the
attendant history — sometimes stumble into age-old baggage. Using Contracts from forbidden or destroyed Regalia might bring
assassins to a changeling’s doorstep or put him in contact with
a secret organization seeking knowledge of the old Regalia. He
may attract attention from those wishing to learn — or steal — the
Contract from him or find out the hard way its central role in
an oath binding its wielder, and thus binding him. These situations should serve as interesting story hooks rather than ways to
dissuade players from seeking independent Contracts for their
characters, so the Storyteller should work with the troupe and
decide whether such complications fit the troupe’s story.
Coming Darkness (Common)
Contracts calling upon darkness and shadow flourish
among the Gentry. Each one seems separately created rather than
part of one coherent Regalia as far as the Lost have determined
to date. Some scholars think the negotiations for these Contracts
were never finished, leading to an incomplete set scattered across
Arcadia. Others believe these Contracts all belong to different
Regalia, related in concept but independent of each other and
rising from competing deals made by rival Fae. Others contend
that the Kindly Ones who barter for them deliberately do so as
one-offs, jealously guarding them from each other.
The changeling reaches down to his feet and yanks his
shadow away from himself, casting it out and blanketing the
world in darkness.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: The changeling creates an area of complete darkness centered on himself with a radius equal to (his Wyrd x 5)
yards/meters. The darkness falls so abruptly, everyone in the
area suffers the Stunned Tilt unless they make a successful
Wits + Composure roll or can see clearly in the dark. Characters within the darkness or who enter it during the Contract’s
duration suffer the Blinded Tilt (both eyes) until they leave the
area or the Contract ends, whichever comes first. The changeling is unaffected by his own darkness.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Mundane light sources in the area are not extinguished
but simply obscured; turning on additional mundane lights
within the affected area does not penetrate the darkness. Attempts to create light via any magical means provoke a Clash
of Wills.
The changeling does not have a shadow for the Contract’s duration. If he leaves the area or the Contract ends
prematurely, his shadow remains missing. Observers may
notice lack this by rolling Wits + Composure, contested by
the changeling’s Manipulation + Stealth. If he remains without a shadow and outside the darkness when the Contract
ends, he must hunt down his wayward shadow, take it into
the Hedge, and reattach it via a subtle Hedgespinning shift
requiring four successes. The shadow has no traits and takes
no rolled actions but may cause mischief simply by existing
independently and visibly.
Beast: The Beast may selectively bestow clear night vision
upon a number of characters up to half his Wyrd (rounded
down) within the area when he invokes the Contract.
Darkling: The Darkling may create an area of darkness
with a radius up to his Wyrd x 10 yards/meters.
Loophole: The changeling extinguishes a flame as he
invokes this Contract.
Pomp and Circumstance (Common)
A Good Cousin called Nightmare Spinner stole this
power from the concept of Hospitality after seeing how respectful mortals were to gracious hosts. They wanted that respect for themselves, but wrapped the pilfered power tightly
into a cocoon for safekeeping, hiding it from sight so they
would be the only good host in the land.
A changeling can use this Contract to hide his gatherings from prying eyes by delimiting a perimeter and walking
around it widdershins three times.
Cost: 1 Glamour, or 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Effects: For 1 Glamour, the changeling chooses an area
with a radius of up to (his Wyrd x 10) yards/meters. It must
have visible, clear physical demarcations of some sort: perhaps existing walls or fence, or perhaps chalk or a line of
stones or salt created by the changeling. Uninvited guests
cannot enter the area, although anyone within the defined
area may allow someone access by inviting her in. Attempts
at mundane spying on the area or tracking any characters
within fail automatically. Supernatural attempts to circumvent any of these effects provoke a Clash of Wills.
If the changeling spends a Willpower as well, no Huntsman or True Fae can find the area, even if they track someone directly to the location. It simply doesn’t exist to their
senses, whether mundane or magical.
The changeling and everyone inside the area must uphold a set of individual, specific guidelines numbering up to
his Wyrd. He clearly specifies these rules when invoking the
Contract. From that point on, anyone entering the area automatically understands the guidelines whether they heard them
explained. The guidelines often describe the gathering’s etiquette, such as refraining from violence, insulting others deliberately, or eating; they may also require specific behaviors, such
as speaking only in coded whispers or keeping one’s eyes closed.
If anyone breaks the guidelines, the Contract ends immediately
and everyone in the area suffers the Demoralized Condition as
the Wyrd punishes all for the transgressions of one.
Beast: The Grim’s awareness of her refuge extends beyond the marked boundary; he can detect anyone who passes by or intrudes close to the hidden area from up to (his
Wyrd x 20) yard/meters away.
Wizened: The Hatter may apply any dots he possesses
in the Safe Place Merit (if the location is in the mortal world)
or Hollow Merit (if it’s in the Hedge) to the location during
the gathering, even if the space is nowhere near the place to
which the Merit applies. Applying Safe Place simply grants
the changeling the Merit’s usual Initiative bonus. Applying
Hollow grants both the Merit’s base benefits and all enhancements specific to the Wizened’s Hollow. This works even if
multiple motley-mates share the Merit in question, but the
Hatter must be one of them. This works even if multiple
motley-mates share the Merit in question, but the changeling
must be one of them.
Loophole: The changeling lays out an unbroken ring
of poppies around the area earlier in the same scene as the
Contract’s invocation.
Shadow Puppet (Common)
The Oaken Warrior motley first uncovered this Contract in a Goblin Market when they encountered a seller
made of nothing but a hobgoblin’s shadow. That hobgoblin
soon returned, claiming they stole the Contract from their
Keeper when they were a changeling. The motley doubts the
tale, but happily accepted the Contract in trade anyway.
The changeling uses his fingers or any part of his body
— up to and including the entire thing — to create a crisp
shadow puppet on a wall under a bright light. That shadow
comes to life and acts on its own, under his command.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One scene
Effects: The shadow puppet the changeling creates
takes substantial form, appearing as a fully realized version
of whatever shape the puppet takes, but made of shadow. For
instance, if the changeling makes the head of a stag with his
fingers, this Contract creates an actual stag colored entirely
in shades of gray and black, fuzzing at the edges. If he uses
his entire body to create the shadow, the puppet becomes an
identical shadow twin.
New Contracts
59
This puppet functions as a Retainer (Changeling, p.
125) with a dot rating equal to half the changeling’s Wyrd
and a basic intelligence. It follows the changeling’s instructions and may act in an action scene, taking the character’s
turn and acting on his Initiative. For purposes of the Retainer Merit, the changeling chooses a Specialty he possesses
as the shadow’s area of expertise. The player assigns one goblin Dread Power (Changeling, p. 253) to the puppet. The
shadow being possesses Wyrd 1, a maximum Glamour pool
of 6 and has one Health box; it perishes immediately if that
box fills with lethal or aggravated damage.
A destroyed shadow puppet takes its part of the changeling’s shadow with it; the stag head represents a small fraction of her shadow, but a full double takes the whole thing.
A changeling without a shadow must go to the Hedge to
reattach it as a subtle Hedgespinning shift requiring four
successes.
Beast: If the Beast gives the shadow puppet an animal
form, it also gains either +3 to perception-based rolls, the
ability to fly, or an unarmed attack with a damage rating of
+1L.
Darkling: The Darkling’s shadow puppet also gains the
ability to spend 1 Glamour to vanish into a shadow and step
out from another shadow it can perceive as an Instant action; this ability doesn’t work in complete darkness or when
the lighting casts no shadows.
Loophole: The changeling performs a shadow puppet
show for the entertainment of an audience of at least three
people lasting at least five minutes within the same scene.
Dread Companion (Royal)
The Rider Through Dawn once haggled with Dominion itself to gain power over all Hedge denizens, but another
of that Gentry’s Titles — the Countess in Repose of Bonestadt — wanted to usurp its power and intervened in the
negotiations. The Contract resulting from their feud grants
only dominion over Hedge ghosts.
The changeling offers a bounty in return for a Hedge
ghost’s service, and if it agrees, he makes a bracelet for himself out of Hedge brambles, tethering it to himself in a mutually beneficial symbiosis.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Wyrd vs. Resistance + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One chapter
Roll Results
Success: The changeling becomes an additional Thread
for the Hedge ghost. When he asks it to perform an action for him, doing so counts as affirming its Thread. The
changeling can ask the Hedge ghost to use any of its powers,
Numina, or Influences on his behalf, though it may pay 1
Glamour to refuse.
60
The two entities remain bound for the Contract’s duration, unable to stray more than (the changeling’s Wyrd x 10)
yards/meters from each other. The Hedge ghost may take
Glamour from the character without touching him to fuel powers it uses on his behalf. Likewise, he may use the Hedge ghost’s
Glamour pool as his own on actions benefitting them both.
In the mundane world, the Hedge ghost suffers no deleterious
effects while tethered, and the changeling may extend his Mask
to his ethereal companion and make it appear human.
Exceptional Success: The Hedge ghost cannot refuse the
changeling’s requests unless doing so would put it in danger.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The failed negotiation angers the
Hedge ghost; it immediately attacks the changeling.
Darkling: While the Wisp is bound to a Hedge ghost, she
gains access to the Dematerialize Numen (Changeling, p. 250).
Fairest: This Contract’s duration becomes “Until the
Unicorn leaves the Hedge” instead.
Loophole: The changeling has caused the Hedge ghost
to affirm its own Thread within the same scene.
Cracked Mirror (Royal)
Once, long ago, this Contract belonged to the Mirror
Regalia. When a desperate changeling fled to mirror space to
escape a band of privateers, she broke a promise to the mirror
people, and they in turn cursed her: the next Mirror Contract she invoked would shatter, ruining her magic and giving her seven years of ill fortune. The Contract she invoked
cracked and broke, falling away from its Regalia but persisting
in pieces littered throughout mirror space. If someone hunted
down the shards and cobbled them back together, perhaps
they could restore the magic to its original state.
The changeling fogs up a mirror and writes his own name
in the condensation. When he wipes the moisture away, he
finds his fetch looking back at him rather than his reflection.
Cost: 1 Glamour, or 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Larceny + Wyrd vs. Stamina
+ Wyrd
Action: Contested
Duration: One scene or until the changeling enacts a
switch
Roll Results
Success: For 1 Glamour, the changeling attunes the
mirror to spy on his fetch as though he stood a few feet
from them and followed them around. For the rest of the
scene, he can see their surroundings clearly and listen to any
sound they can hear, but the fetch automatically knows their
changeling counterpart tried to watch them and eavesdrop
even if the changeling fails her roll.
By paying an additional 1 Willpower, the changeling may
switch places with his fetch, tricking the mirror into mistaking
one identity for the other. It draws them both briefly into mir-
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
ror space before spitting them back out in opposite locations.
If the changeling does so, the Contract immediately ends; if he
wants to come back the way he came, he must invoke it again.
A willing fetch who cooperates with the changeling
need not contest the invocation roll.
Exceptional Success: The process disorients the fetch,
inflicting the Confused Condition.
Failure: The Contract fails, but the fetch knows the
changeling made the attempt.
Dramatic Failure: The fetch knows about the attempt and
may pay 1 Glamour to immediately invoke this Contract on the
changeling without a roll, including the option to spend a Willpower to switch their places. The fetch need not possess the Mimic Contract Echo to do so. Cracked Mirror doesn’t count as faceto-face contact for purposes of that Echo if the fetch possesses it.
Darkling: If the Mountebank’s player achieves exceptional
success on the invocation roll, he may conceal his spying from
his fetch.
Fairest: If the fetch doesn’t contest the invocation roll the
first time in a scene that the Unicorn invokes this Contract and
they switch places, he may switch places with them again without
spending Willpower whenever he invokes Cracked Mirror again
for the rest of the scene, although it still costs Glamour to invoke
and the fetch may contest subsequent attempts.
Loophole: The changeling puts a significant crack in the
mirror when he invokes this Contract; but if it shatters entirely,
the Contract automatically fails.
or eavesdropping, it provokes a Clash of Wills. The Contract
only activates when the wind hears the changeling’s real name,
not a nickname, deadname, or alias of any kind.
If the changeling achieves an exceptional success on the
contested roll, he may listen in to the conversation for turns
equal to excess successes rolled instead.
While the changeling successfully eavesdrops on a conversation, he may pay 1 additional Glamour and 1 Willpower to teleport to that location as an instant action. He does
not portal, simply steps from one location to the other as
the Wyrd uses the sound of his name to summon him. He
doesn’t know where he’ll arrive until he gets there, nor does
he know who spoke his name unless he recognizes the voice
himself. Once active, this Contract lasts for the scene or until he uses it to teleport somewhere, whichever comes first.
Beast: The Courser doubles his Speed for the scene after arriving at the speaker’s location.
Fairest: The Fairest may drag the one who spoke his
name to his location instead.
Loophole: The changeling has introduced himself by his real
name to someone he’s never met before within the same scene.
Momentary Respite (Royal)
No one knows where this Contract originally came
from. The first time anyone saw it in recorded Lost history
was when Detroit’s Chrome Court Queen stepped out of
thin air and smote a motley speaking ill of her.
The changeling makes a sacrifice to the wind, allowing
it to carry something into the air — a piece of paper, a leaf,
dandelion seeds, or anything else light enough to blow away.
In return, the wind whispers to him whenever it hears someone speak his name.
Cost: 1 Glamour, or 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: One scene, or until used to teleport
Legends among the Lost tell of the very first pact the
Gentry made after they conquered Arcadia and made it their
own: an agreement with Time to vacate their realm and never return. During this negotiation, one of the True Fae tried
to cheat, introducing a loophole allowing it to wield a Time
Regalia in violation of the spirit of the pact. But Time was
too powerful an entity to fall for such a ploy and destroyed
the latent Regalia — and the cheater’s Title with it. All that
remains of that Title and the power it attempted to build is
this Contract. No one knows whether this tale is true, but
most changelings are superstitious about it and recite a traditional rhyme when invoking Momentary Respite to ward off
Time’s retribution.
The changeling smashes a timekeeping device, such as a
wristwatch, hourglass, or LED clock display. This symbolic
act allows him to temporarily exist within the liminal space
between moments, pausing the progression of time on his
body and mind.
Cost: 1 Glamour or 1 Glamour, 1+ Willpower
Dice Pool: Stamina + Survival + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Roll Results
Effects: For 1 Glamour, if the changeling’s name is spoken
within a radius of (his Wyrd x 2) miles, he immediately senses
it and may eavesdrop on the conversation from a distance for a
single turn with a successful Wits + Investigation + Wyrd roll
contested by the speaker’s Composure + Wyrd. While he listens in on that conversation, he becomes deaf to all speech in
his vicinity (but not other sounds). If a power (such as Pomp and
Circumstance, p. 59) protects any of the speakers from scrying
Success: For 1 Glamour, the character may choose one
option per success rolled:
Listen with the Wind’s Ears
(Royal)
• End one personal Tilt currently affecting him (can be
chosen more than once)
• Ignore all wound penalties without healing the damage
New Contracts
61
• Ward his rightmost unwarded health box from any
aggravated damage (can be chosen a number of times
up to the changeling’s total Health)
• Ignore the effects of one toxin or disease currently
affecting him (can be chosen more than once)
• Ignore the effects of one Persistent Condition currently affecting him; he can’t resolve it or earn Beats
for the duration (can be chosen more than once)
If he wards a health box after it has already filled with
aggravated damage, he simply ignores that damage’s effects
for the duration, although it doesn’t heal.
For the duration of this Contract, the changeling cannot heal damage naturally, regain Willpower via rest, regain
Clarity via spending time with Touchstones, or spend Experiences. He also doesn’t age.
At the end of each consecutive scene after the first in
which the changeling invokes or benefits from this Contract, he suffers a breaking point with a pool of one die + the
number of consecutive scenes the Contract has been active.
Because this Contract pauses time for the changeling’s body
and mind, he may pay 1 Willpower at the end of the scene to extend the Contract’s duration for another scene without invoking
it again or having to suffer the return of the inflictions he chose
to ignore. He may do so indefinitely as long as he has Willpower
to spend, but if it’s active for longer than a year and a day, Time
takes notice of the abuse of stolen power and takes retribution in
a way chosen by the Storyteller. Scholars who know of Momentary Respite whisper cautionary rumors about the monarch of
the Wreath’s Encircling Arms freehold who kept it active for an
entire decade and ended up enslaved to the Wyrd itself.
Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their
own reward.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: Time pauses for the changeling, but
not in the way he wanted; he suffers the Immobile Tilt indefinitely, until he or someone else can break Time’s curse
with a successful Clash of Wills against the changeling’s own
pool for Clashes.
Elemental: The Elemental adds the option to ignore
the effects of one Environmental Tilt currently affecting
him to the list of available options; it can be chosen more
than once.
Ogre: The Brute may invoke this Contract for another
consenting character. He still pays all costs to invoke and extend the Contract and suffers the consequences of extending
it himself. He may only have one instance of this Contract
active at a time; if he invokes it again while it’s already active
on someone else, the first instance immediately ends.
Loophole: The changeling hugs or wraps himself up in
an item of comfort that represents rest or sleep, such as a
blanket, a pillow, a live sheep, or a favorite stuffed animal.
62
Steal Influence (Common)
Once upon a time, a hobgoblin warlock wandered into the
Sorcerer Duke’s court hoping to impress the Arcadian Lord.
The Sorcerer Duke marveled at how a mere goblin commanded
fire, joy, and death with such delicate finesse, and demanded
the hobgoblin reveal its secrets. The hobgoblin stood confused
and silent, for its magic came to it innately rather than as a
teachable Contract. The Duke offered to show the goblin his
magic instead and swallowed one of its hairs. In an instant, the
Duke learned everything and left the hobgoblin with nothing.
Since then, the Keeper’s captives learn this Contract in his service, spreading it from court to court upon their return.
Cost: 1 Glamour per Influence dot
Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny + Wyrd vs Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Contested
Roll Results
Success: The changeling touches a creature possessing
an Influence and, for the Contract’s duration, steals one dot
of it per Glamour spent. If the target possesses multiple Influences, the changeling steals one of his choosing; he may
not split the spent Glamour to steal some dots of one Influence and some of another. The victim cannot use the stolen
Influence dots while the changeling possesses them, and the
changeling can activate the Influence at the dot rating he
paid for by spending the appropriate amount of Glamour,
even if it would normally require another resource to use.
Exceptional Success: The changeling can purchase the
stolen Influence for 2 Experiences per dot, up to the number
of dots he took. If he does so, he retains use of the purchased
dots even after they return to the victim. Changelings may
possess a maximum of half their Wyrd in dots of a single
Influence, just like Hedge ghosts.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The target may use the Influence the
changeling tried to steal as a reflexive action, with a cost discount equal to the Glamour points the changeling spent to
invoke this Contract. For instance, if the changeling spent 2
Glamour to steal two dots, the target may reflexively use the
Influence to strengthen or manipulate at no cost, or to use
effects of a higher dot rating at a discount of −2 Glamour.
Darkling: The Wisp may split the Glamour he spends
to invoke this Contract on as many different Influences as
he chooses.
Elemental: The Unbound may transform as many
dots of the Influences he steals as he likes into another,
thematically similar one when invoking the Contract. For
example, an Elemental who takes three dots of Influence
(water) may transmute any number of those dots into Influence (rain), Influence (ice), or Influence (ocean). If the
changeling spends Experiences to keep the Influence after
the Contract ends, all transformed dots revert back to their
original type.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Loophole: The target has dealt at least one point of lethal or aggravated damage to the changeling within the same
scene.
Earth’s Gentle Movements
(Common)
A motley in the Heart’s Home Freehold in Warsaw, Poland discovered a pair of Contracts allowing control over
earth and soil. They refused to say where or how they learned
the Contracts, leading their fellows to believe they stole the
pair directly from a True Fae. The freehold argued for days
about allowing the motley to stay, lest the Contracts’ original owner came looking for them. The monarch eventually
evicted the motley when a huge earthquake nearly destroyed
the freehold’s headquarters.
The changeling rubs a handful of dirt or soil between
his hands, allowing him to move and shape the earth at his
whim.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Strength + Crafts + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Roll Results
Success: The changeling reshapes an area of open land
centered on himself with a radius of 1 square yard/meter
per success rolled. He may not affect any area upon which
structures, paving, or other artificial constructs stand, but
may create a sinkhole, build flat land up to create an earthen
wall or small hill, or send a pillar of earth reaching into the
air as long as the total area remains the same. He may even
reshape it into more specific forms, such as a pillar shaped
like himself or a flat expanse with ruts that form words when
viewed from above and can change the consistency of the
earth. For instance, loose soil could become packed earth,
sand, or mud, but never stone. He can eject any additional
materials in the earth if he likes, such as minerals added to
soil for planting or bones and insect carcasses.
Anyone in the area of the shaping when it happens must
succeed on a Dexterity + Athletics roll or suffer the Knocked
Down Tilt. Once the changeling invokes the Contract, his
changes are permanent, barring any later reshaping.
Exception Success: The changeling’s player may split
the successes on the invocation roll for the changeling to create two different effects within the designated area.
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The earth below the changeling’s feet
resents his attempts to control it and swallows him up, shallowly burying him and inflicting the Immobilized Tilt; treat
it as though he’s restrained by an item to represent the need
to fight his way out (or be rescued).
Elemental: The Elemental may target an area of up to 2
yards/meters per success instead.
New Contracts
63
Wizened: The Wizened may target an area of natural,
unshaped stone instead. He can craft it into a useful form
such as stairs, create hand- and footholds in a sheer rock wall,
or whip up an artful sculpture. The Domovoi’s shaping must
be constructive, not destructive. Change the Contract’s roll
to Dexterity + Crafts instead if he invokes this clause.
Loophole: The changeling places a pebble under her
tongue.
Earth’s Impenetrable Walls
(Royal)
The second in the pair of Contracts discovered in Warsaw, Earth’s Impenetrable Walls allows the changeling to
raise a fortress of stone from the earth at his feet. He places
his hands flat upon the ground and calls it to arms, declaring himself its commander and building a stronghold.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Strength + Crafts + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Duration: One chapter
Success: The changeling chooses an area of open land
centered on himself containing no structures, paving, or other
artificial constructs. With an instant action taking five turns to
complete (or 30 seconds outside action scenes), the changeling
channels his will into the earth to build a fortress of stone centered around him with a Size of (his Wyrd x 10). During this
time, the Contract inflicts the Earthquake Environmental Tilt
on the area; the changeling himself is immune to its effects.
The design of this fortress is up to him; he may create a
simple, square bunker with battlements, a single tall tower, a
pyramid, etc. and may include as many or as few rooms as he
likes within the allowed area. The fortress counts as a Safe
Place (Changeling, p. 125) with a dot rating of half the changeling’s Wyrd, rounded down, and its walls have Durability 2.
The player chooses an additional benefit per success beyond the first rolled to invoke this Contract; available benefits include:
• +1 Durability; can apply multiple times
• +10 Size; can apply multiple times
• Immunity to all natural Environmental Tilts for walls
and interior; supernatural ones provoke a Clash of
Wills
• Stocked with enough provisions to provide adequate
sustenance to everyone inside
• If invoked in the Hedge, the structure created by
this Contract also counts as a Hollow (Changeling,
p. 116) with dot rating of half changeling’s Wyrd,
rounded down
Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their
own reward.
64
Failure: The Contract fails.
Dramatic Failure: The changeling inflicts the Earthquake Environmental Tilt, to which he is not immune, on
the area for five turns (or 30 seconds outside action scenes)
without building anything.
Fairest: If the Fairest invokes this Contract within the
Hedge, the fortress also comes with a temporary Staff Merit
(Changeling, p. 125) with a dot rating of half his Wyrd representing hobgoblin followers; their types and Skills must
make sense in the context of a fortress, such as soldiers with
Weaponry, scouts with Stealth, or doctors with Medicine.
Ogre: Subtract successes equal to half the Ogre’s Wyrd
from any Hedgespinning action another character takes to
enact shifts on the fortress or any part of its interior.
Loophole: The changeling has successfully defended
himself or someone else from an attack within the same
scene.
Regalia
Manifestation
The bargains the True Fae struck with the central concepts of their Regalia came with a caveat. The Gentry must
keep physical representations of those pacts, called manifestations, as reminders of the promises they made. A manifestation’s form takes its inspiration both from the concept
itself (leadership, luck, protection), and the individual Title
calling upon it. The Warrior with a Thousand Scars carries
a buckler made from a massive oak tree, for example, while
a towering glacier acts as the bulwark before the Hailstone
Prince’s icy keep. Both Shields protect the True Fae and their
servants. Sometimes, the manifestations the Gentry carry
act like tokens, not only representing their power but also
behaving as magical tools.
The Lost have learned how to manifest their Arcadian
Contracts this way as well, as a way of externalizing their
power. She imbues tokens or other significant items with the
themes of one of the Regalia whose Contracts she knows,
reinforcing her connection to it: an Arrow always flies true
or makes those whose hearts it pierces betray their true love;
a Ring tightens on an oathbreaker’s finger; a Throne shows
the changeling those places in her domain in need of her
help when she sits upon it.
Wielding a Regalia manifestation brings with it additional benefits beyond the original token’s effects. As a representation of her will and the themes defining her power, the
changeling may use it to guarantee her safety or survival. A
Darkling fills a Chalice with bitter wine and locks it away in
a golden cabinet. For the next week, any wounds she suffers
seep wine instead of blood, insulating her from harm. Such
manifestations can bolster her Clarity, grant her authority
over matters involving the Regalia’s themes, and alter how
its Contracts work for her.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Manifestations also constitute a point of weakness for
the Gentry. The items aren’t simply status symbols — the
Good Cousins invest a significant part of themselves in
these objects. This shores up their identities and Titles but
simultaneously makes them vulnerable. Likewise, while getting one’s hands on a changeling’s manifestation can’t destroy her, it gives the possessor power over her in other ways,
such as turning her hidden protection into a vulnerability
or making her susceptible to dramaturgic magic (see p. 68).
Wise changelings go to great lengths to prevent their manifestations from falling into enemy hands.
Once she’s created a manifestation, the Regalia’s themes
seep into the character’s mien. Her mirror-like eyes reflect the
world around her. Hoofbeats sound when she walks. The
metallic scent of old coins clings to her. These features don’t
break through the Mask, though some changelings choose to
adorn themselves in the manifested Regalia’s symbols as well.
New Merit: Regalia
Manifestation (• to •••••)
Creating Regalia
Manifestations
Less commonly, a changeling invests a Regalia manifestation in another character or an Icon rather than a token.
A changeling may make one from a Touchstone or her fetch
if they embody the chosen Regalia’s themes. Her best friend
acts like a Mirror, reflecting the changeling’s best qualities back at her when self-doubt drags her down. Her fetch
embodies the Shield, protecting her family ever since her
Keeper stole her away. Doing so not only grants the changeling the benefits of a Regalia manifestation, but also confers
some power upon the character in whom she invests part of
her power.
If the Lost has sworn a pledge on an Icon (see p. 79),
thus giving it a physical presence outside the Hedge, it can
become a Regalia manifestation. Any pledge she’s sworn on
it remains intact; breaking it risks losing both the Icon and
the manifestation.
Finally, a changeling may temporarily invest her power
in a mundane object or an important eidolon or prop from
a dream. Changelings often do this as an act of desperation,
such as a last-ditch effort to save herself from a deadly situation or a hasty show of power in a rival’s Bastion. Chased
by briarwolves, a changeling clutches the pendant she wears
and makes of it a symbol, burying it and marking it with a
rune. The briarwolf catches her in the end, but can’t kill her
unless it first digs up and destroys the pendant. Manifestations made this way are short-lived, rendered forever mundane when they lose their potency.
Manifesting a Regalia only happens as a conscious, deliberate choice. The Lost imposes her will on the world and
creates a tangible symbol of her magic and conviction. She
creates these items by investing her power in a token holding
symbolic or emotional significance related to the Regalia’s
themes. She may even imbue a Touchstone or her fetch with
this power or conjure a manifestation token from an important eidolon or prop in a dream.
The item must represent the chosen Regalia’s theme
somehow and must contain a certain threshold of power.
She might create an actual object of that type, such as a coin,
sword, or mirror. Perhaps she opts for a more abstract representation: a compass for the Star, a garland of spring flowers for the Crown, a horseshoe for the Steed, or a spindle
for the Thorns. The changeling may create a manifestation
from a token she already owns via the Token Merit or choose
a mundane object with particular emotional or symbolic significance and turn it into a token using any of the available
methods (Changeling, p. 222).
To create the manifestation once she possesses an appropriate token, the changeling spends time with it, keeps it
on her person, and makes it part of her identity by affirming
her Needle while using it. A Gargoyle affixes the arrowhead
to its shaft as he convinces the Summer Queen to pursue
his agenda instead of her court’s. The Fairest Helldiver grins
at her reflection in her compact’s mirror before following
the Loyalist down the alley; she approaches her revenge with
eyeliner as perfect and sharp as her teeth.
Though its Mask doesn’t change, the manifestation’s
mien transforms to reflect its elevated status. A glass bauble
takes on the finely-cut facets of a precious gem. A mirror’s
plain wooden frame transforms into one covered in silver
filigree. A simple ring becomes a royal seal.
Prerequisite: Token (•••+), minimum two Contracts
from one Regalia (at least one must be Royal)
Your character has invested the power of one Regalia
from which she possesses Contracts into a token. It’s both a
symbol and an item conferring extra benefits upon its wielder. This Merit must be tied to a Token Merit not shared by
a motley. A character may possess a maximum of one dot in
this Merit per two Contracts known in that Regalia.
You may purchase this Merit multiple times to reflect
different Regalia, but you may only have one manifestation
for any given Regalia.
Alternative Regalia
Manifestations
Manifestation Systems
A character may only manifest a Regalia from which he
knows two or more Contracts, at least one of which must be
Royal. To turn a token or oathbound Icon into a permanent
Regalia manifestation, it must be thematically appropriate
for the intended Regalia, and the character must first use
the object in an action allowing her to regain Willpower
through her Needle a number of times equal to (11 – her
Wyrd) and spend 1 Glamour each time. Finally, she must
Regalia Manifestation
65
sacrifice a dot of Willpower to complete the transformation
of the object into an effigy linked to her Contracts. It retains
whatever powers or memories it already possessed.
To create a temporary manifestation, the changeling
chooses a Regalia meeting the above requirements and performs a ritual evoking the Regalia’s themes. This takes one
turn (six seconds outside action scenes). For example, a Beast
cuts his hand and coats the blade with his blood to evoke the
Sword, or a Wizened collects her own tears in a plastic cup
to call upon the Chalice. The player rolls Presence + Wyrd
+ the number of Contracts the changeling possesses in the
chosen Regalia beyond two.
Roll Results
Success: The item becomes a temporary manifestation.
It possesses one manifestation power (below) and disintegrates at the end of the scene. When it does, the changeling
gains 2 Goblin Debt points.
Exceptional Success: The item possesses two manifestation powers instead.
Failure: The attempt fails.
Dramatic Failure: The item disintegrates immediately
and the changeling gains 2 Goblin Debt points, but no manifestation benefits.
A changeling may only have one permanent and one
temporary manifestation at a time per Regalia.
Manifestation Powers
Following are example benefits a Regalia manifestation
can possess; players and Storytellers may also work together
to create new ones. A permanent manifestation has a number of powers equal to its Merit dot rating, and gains another
each time the player increases its rating.
While most of the benefits work with any Regalia, the
way they work should reflect the chosen Regalia’s themes and
motifs just as its Contracts do. For instance, a manifestation
of the Shield might absorb damage by literally drawing attacks to itself, while a manifestation of the Coin might cause
the absorbed wounds to bleed nickels rather than blood.
A manifestation’s powers function only when the character has it on her person, unless otherwise indicated. The
Storyteller is the final arbiter of whether a given action
aligns with the manifested Regalia’s themes. Tokens that become Regalia manifestations also retain their original powers, catches, and drawbacks.
• Choose one Contract the changeling knows from the
manifested Regalia normally requiring an invocation
roll. If the changeling pays an additional Glamour to
invoke it, the player’s roll for that Contract gains the
9-again quality; 8-again if he pays two additional Glamour; or the rote quality if he pays three. The changeling
may change the chosen Contract once per story.
66
• Once per story, spend Glamour up to the character’s
Wyrd rating. For each point spent, the manifestation
absorbs one point of bashing damage the changeling
would otherwise suffer or converts one point of lethal damage to bashing. The effect wears off when the
item absorbs or converts its maximum allowance of
damage or at the end of the story, whichever comes
first.
• Once per story, spend 2 Glamour and 1 Willpower.
The changeling hides his Regalia manifestation and
performs a short, thematically appropriate ritual over
the spot where he hides it; this takes an instant action. Though he can still suffer injury or become incapacitated, he cannot die unless the item is destroyed.
The effect wears off at the end of the scene in which
he activates it. (Doesn’t require having the manifestation on hand.)
• The changeling may attempt a kenning roll with any
amount of Clarity damage as long as he currently suffers no Clarity Conditions, but if half or more of his
Clarity boxes contain damage he can only see results
strongly related to the manifested Regalia.
• The changeling regains a Glamour point whenever he
puts himself at personal risk in a manner befitting the
manifested Regalia’s themes.
• Whenever the changeling hits a target with a physical
attack, he may spend 1 Glamour to impose a personal
Tilt on them matching the Regalia’s themes in lieu of
dealing damage, without taking a dice penalty for a
specified target.
• The player gains one additional success to spend on
shifts when making a Hedgespinning roll for an action
that thematically aligns with the manifested Regalia.
• (Touchstone manifestation only) Once per story,
heal mild Clarity damage up to the Merit’s rating by
targeting the Touchstone with a beneficial Contract
of the manifested Regalia or using one for their benefit or on their behalf.
• (Touchstone manifestation only) The changeling always knows when the Touchstone is in danger, and
his player adds the manifestation Merit’s rating in bonus dice to rolls defending the Touchstone.
• (Fetch manifestation only) The changeling invests
more than just his Contracts’ power in his fetch, who
gains one additional Echo that aligns with the manifested Regalia as long as it remains a manifestation.
(The fetch doesn’t need to be nearby.)
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
• (Fetch manifestation only) The changeling can spend
1 Glamour and share its senses for minutes equal to
the manifestation’s Merit rating, perceiving everything the fetch can as well as his own surroundings;
he can’t end this effect early. Any action requiring focus or undivided attention suffers a −2 dice penalty
while doing so. (The fetch doesn’t need to be nearby.)
Drawbacks
A changeling displaying his power so boldly draws attention from those in the know. Choose one of the drawbacks below when creating a manifestation. Whenever the
character uses one of its powers, she suffers the drawback.
• Anyone searching for the character enjoys a +2 on
rolls to find him for the scene.
• The character gains an additional minor frailty for
the chapter.
• The changeling suffers a Condition appropriate to
their Regalia’s themes, chosen by the Storyteller
• One of the player’s rolls of the Storyteller’s choice becomes a dramatic failure within the next full chapter.
• Whenever the changeling participates in a Hedge
navigation chase for the next scene, the Hedge itself
always has the Edge.
Nothing Without Risk
Possessing a Regalia manifestation comes with its share
of risks in addition to their individual drawbacks. Some
manifestations act as beacons to Huntsmen in the Hedge
whose liege’s Title resonates with the manifested Regalia.
Privateers or goblins may steal the items and sell them for
profit or use them as tools to capture their owners. BridgeBurners or overly cautious freeholds set on destroying a Regalia want to eliminate every last trace of its power, and may
not care who they harm in the process.
Changelings don’t need to keep a physical representation of their Regalia the way the Gentry must; they may
choose to do so. The Wyrd views the effort the Lost puts into
physically manifesting her Regalia as a pact-in-miniature,
binding her more tightly to its concept.
When a True Fae made its ancient bargain with a powerful entity, the promises and powers attached themselves to —
or possibly became — one of the Kindly One’s myriad Titles.
Destroying a Title’s Regalia manifestation weakens the Title,
and controlling one might help force the Fae to break its
word. This may destroy the Title, but not the Name behind
it; though the loss still constitutes a devastating blow, the
Gentry loses only a portion of itself.
Those Lost who similarly invest deeply in their Regalia
only have a single self to risk. Thus, controlling a change-
Proceed With Care
Though some aspect of the Keepers’ power
over the Lost is always at the heart of the
characters’ stories, please keep in mind
that abusers in the real world often threaten
people or objects meaningful to their victims
to control them. Be mindful of the way pursuing a storyline like this might affect players
at your table and communicate with them
before doing so. Refer to p. 138 of this book
and p. 302-304 of Changeling for advice
on keeping your game a safe experience for
your players.
ling’s manifestation gives the bearer power over her, and
harming it may hurt or weaken her.
Systems
Anyone who gets their hands on a changeling’s manifestation may attempt to steal control of it, whether to gain its
benefits, weaken its creator, or both. With the token in their
possession, the usurper swears an oath upon it, prompting a
Clash of Wills. (See p. 72 for expanded oath types.)
If the oath succeeds, the Wyrd witnesses the change in
the manifestation’s ownership. It symbolism acts oddly: reflections in the mirror move a heartbeat behind reality, flaws appear in the heart of a jewel, a porcelain cup develops cracks.
Even so, the Wyrd remembers. The Lost maintains her
connection to the token for the rest of the story and can
regain control over it if she proves her dedication via a series
of difficult, thematic tasks equal to the manifestation’s Merit
rating, chosen by the Storyteller. Example feats include chasing her enemy through a mirror-maze in their dreams and
catching them, correctly guessing the names of 100 stars
along the Wishing Roads, or usurping control of an organization or hierarchy to which she doesn’t belong. She has
until the end of the current story to perform the deeds.
The original creator loses the manifestation’s benefits
while someone else possesses it, but its drawback remains
in effect for the rest of the story or until she wins her token
back, whichever comes first. Sanctity of Merits applies as
usual to the manifestation’s Merit.
If the changeling manifested her Regalia in an Icon and
loses it to a rival, he also suffers the Icon Shard Condition (p.
80). Additionally, his enemy gains the Informed Condition
about him.
By their nature, other fae creatures can’t make oaths
with a Touchstone. However, a rival Lost who swears an
oath with a character’s detached Touchstone can engage in
a Clash of Wills to win them away. If the changeling loses,
his relationship with the Touchstone sours. He can’t heal
Regalia Manifestation
67
Clarity damage by spending time with the person, nor can
he reattach them as his Touchstone until he performs the
deeds. Upon losing the Clash of Wills, the changeling suffers the Demoralized Condition.
Investing Regalia into one’s fetch essentially replaces
your name in a binding contract with your fae-fashioned
twin’s. When a rival swears an oath with the fetch and wins
the Clash of Wills, the character suffers an immediate breaking point with a +3 modifier. The changeling also suffers the
Oathbreaker Condition.
Losing control of her Regalia manifestation also opens
the changeling up to dramaturgical attacks (see p. 68).
While contact with iron obliterates regular tokens, hardier Regalia manifestations require prolonged contact to destroy — a story for one- and two-dot manifestations, a chapter
for all others. Additionally, at 3+ dots, the changeling who
created the item must also act against his Regalia in some
way, either by breaking an oath or going significantly against
his Needle.
Dramaturgy
A Huntsman peers into the iridescent glass of an Icon,
and in it sees brief flashes of his Lost prey. A changeling
drapes herself in magnificent golden jewelry as she calls down
the wrath of Helios, using the guise of the sun to convince
the Wyrd woman and star are one and the same. A hobgoblin peddler weaves the lock of hair for which they bartered
into a new promise, forging a crude Contract that thrums
with hirsute potential. The magic of the fae often rests upon
such binding threads and subtle connections, deals sealed
with statements of identity that anchor the Wyrd’s balance.
The Lost call this sympathetic power dramaturgy.
Dramaturgy is the magic of transference and correspondence. It’s in the warp and weft of the Wyrd, tracing
the threads of pledges and bargains back to their root or
tampering with the tapestry’s bigger picture. It’s the force
that keeps account of identity and qualities. Through dramaturgy, Brianna’s fingernail clippings are more than just
discarded bodily waste. They’re Brianna, and they’re sharp
and claws and scrabbling for purchase and clinging so tight the
skin breaks and blood flows and she’ll never let go of Maggie no
matter what. They’ve absorbed the changeling’s identity, her
desperation, and her perceptions of both. And that? That
has a power all its own.
To mortals, dramaturgy is the examination of dramatic
composition, the means by which a play turns from mere words
into a profound experience acted out upon the stage. Changelings see it similarly, but with magic as the performance, sympathetic threads as the props the actors use, and the Wyrd itself
as the audience the changeling must convince to suspend its
disbelief, if just for a little while. The magical arts drawing on
dramaturgy lean heavily into trickery, mimicry, and false faces.
Through dramaturgy, a changeling might convince the Wyrd
that she is, in fact, her hated enemy. A hobgoblin might draw
68
out the violent symbolism in a bloodied weapon, soaked into
its steel through so many cruel performances. Those Lost who
delve most deeply into this art for its own sake are dramaturges, particularly talented in exploiting it.
Such exploitation comes with risks. Clarity suffers when
a changeling dramaturgically cowls himself as others so often that he loses track of his own self, or begins to see objects
only in terms of the meanings and connections they have
acquired. Worse still, when a dramaturge pushes the Wyrd
too far, it punishes such duplicity, levying a harsh tax on the
one arrogant enough to try to deceive it.
Flower Chains
and Masquerades
All changelings are familiar with several basic forms of dramaturgy, although they don’t necessarily conceive of them as
such. Most of the Lost rarely distinguish between dramaturgy
and the Wyrd’s greater balance, and dramaturges are loathe to
divulge their secrets for fear of such tricks being used against
them in turn. Nonetheless, sympathetic magic plays an important part in Contract Loopholes, Icons, and the creation of
fetches. All three manifest through the usurpation of identity
and the pretense of a particular role, preparing the stage just
right to convince the Wyrd one thing is, in fact, another.
Loopholes, the collection of tricks and knacks used to
pull off Contracts without paying their dues, appease the
Contract’s patron through dramaturgical mimicry. Presenting the props or acting out the role associated with the Loophole briefly aligns the changeling with the force at work on
the Wyrd’s scales, and for that moment, the Wyrd sees the
changeling as indistinguishable from the effects she invokes.
Thus, she needs pay no toll of Glamour, for the persona she
dons inherently holds the right to wield such power.
This form of dramaturgy is limited because the changeling must work through props or actions sharing a general
quality with the Contract but lacking a true connection to
the patron’s identity. Some stories persist, though, of Lost
who manage to get their hands on treasures belonging to the
great powers behind these Contracts, maintaining the lie to
draw on nearly limitless magic or opening surprising new
Loopholes with unpredictable effects.
An Icon — literally a piece of a changeling’s identity torn
away from her body — makes a potent example of dramaturgy. The Icon expresses a dramaturgical manifestation of
this lost bit of soul via its sympathetic form, and it presents
a terrible vulnerability through the lingering connection. As
well as pursuers who might use an Icon to track a changeling down, dramaturges prize these scraps of selfhood as
the most powerful kind of prop for working their mimicry
magic. Icons also pose a temptation for kithless Lost (p. 83)
desperate to mend the hole in their own identities.
Only the Gentry practice the dramaturgical art of creating fetches, but those terrible masters do so with casual ease
belying the sheer power involved in the act. A fetch represents
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
perhaps the purest manifestation of such sympathetic magic,
not merely establishing a role in the play but creating the actor
performing it from whole cloth, a shadow woven into personhood through the sympathy of the victim’s memories.
Another piece of dramaturgy wielded by the True Fae via
innate talent is the creation of baubles (Oak, Ash, and Thorn,
p. 51). Each bauble forms from a little piece of a dream a Gentry
stole from a sleeping mind, valuable for the way it blurs the lines
between reality and oneiromancy. That potential comes from
the dramaturgical threads still connecting the dream-stuff to
the victim; the lingering sympathy leaves the dreamer particularly sensitive and vulnerable to its effects.
New Changeling Merit:
Dramaturge (•••)
Prerequisites: Wits •••, Expression •••, Subterfuge
•••
Effects: Your character is a practiced dramaturge and
mistress of loopholes. When she fulfills the Loophole of a
Contract while in possession of an object with strong dramaturgy thematic to that Contract’s specific purpose (Brianna’s
fingernails for Thorns and Brambles, for example), she can
either apply one additional seeming benefit she does not already possess or change the Contract’s invocation to reflexive without spending additional Glamour. One can only pull
the wool over the Wyrd’s eyes so many times; an item loses
all dramaturgical connections to any Contract after three
uses for a Common Contract, or one use for a Royal one.
An Icon used this way allows the changeling to apply both
additional effects at once, but after a single use, the Icon is
destroyed.
You also gain 9-again on rolls to perform a galoshin (p.
70).
New Changeling Merit:
Understudy (•••)
Prerequisites: Dramaturge Merit, Expression ••••
Effects: Your character weaves dramaturgical threads
between herself and another, allowing the two to symbolically switch places. As an instant action, she can don or
brandish an item dramaturgically representative of a changeling present in the scene or whose Icon she possesses. For
the remainder of the scene, if she or her counterpart would
meet the Loophole criteria of a particular Contract, the other character also meets them, even if the first does not invoke
or even possess the Contract in question. If her counterpart
uses a Contract via Loophole, the dramaturge may copy any
effects only targeting the Contract’s user onto herself as well.
The link lasts until the end of the scene, or until the dramaturge chooses a new counterpart.
Trade and Favor
The principle of dramaturgy underpins goblin magic,
encompassing the witchcraft and conjurations through
which hobgoblins weave new Contracts, fashion Hedge
knick-knacks, and follow through on their deals with wondrous acts of service. The Wyrd shuffles the beads of Goblin
Debt back and forth upon its occult abacus, but the means
by which hobgoblins accrue debt in the first place derives
from the dramaturgy inherent to their liminal state.
While changelings practice dramaturgical arts of trickery and deception, hobgoblins possess an innate capacity to
draw upon the transference of qualities enabled by sympathetic magic. A cackling trader, all hair and gnarled joints,
values the loose tooth he just bought from a mortal as much
because of what it represents — the pain and discontent of
deep-set toothache, the crack and crunch of things breaking
between jaws, or the envy behind the punch that knocked
the tooth loose — in addition to the link it holds to the fleshand-blood person who sealed the deal. He can use those
qualities as their own currency when he makes the miraculous happen.
With such a tooth, a hobgoblin might scrape together
enough dramaturgy to trade perfect dental health to another
mortal, plant the tooth in the Hedge and hurry its transformation into a nasty little trinket or use it to pay his debts for
the time he had nothing at all to eat and had to barter for
sustenance. A wedding ring traded to an elegant grotesque
might serve to create a Goblin Contract or token dealing
with matters of love or romance. The Hedge merchant who
buys old clocks and watches possesses the necessary elements
to forge a Contract manipulating time, or to give a desperate
petitioner the stolen hours they need to do a week’s work in
but a day.
Even the way the hobgoblin acquires such a prop influences its potential uses. A gift given freely could well be used
to escape some binding pledge or fetters, while a trinket stolen
overflows with the symbolism of larceny and cunning. Shrewd
bargaining over a petty trinket etches that negotiation’s intensity into the prop, and thus a hobgoblin easily accrues the
little treasures needed to fuel deals for fortune and wealth.
Anything given to a hobgoblin to pay off Goblin Debt holds
all the more worth for him when he pays to pay his own debts.
Systems
Much of how hobgoblins use dramaturgy lies below the
abstraction layer of game mechanics. There’s no hard list of
exactly how many well-worn soles and hammers a hobgoblin
must gather to fill a cobbler’s shop with fine new shoes overnight, or just how potent a Goblin Contract of perception
one could create with a dripping, fresh eyeball donated voluntarily by a desperate customer. These are narrative decisions for the Storyteller to make.
A hobgoblin can use an acquisition with dramaturgical
significance to hasten and control the creation of a token.
Rather than needing to leave the item in the Hedge, the
hobgoblin can keep the token-in-the-making with him and
turn it into a token of any rating he chooses. The process
this requires varies from goblin to goblin. One may drop
Dramaturgy
69
the token into a bubbling cauldron and work an incantation
over it, while another stabs a stolen tooth in among his own
gnarled fangs and ‘feeds’ it the taste of strange delicacies.
This takes at least one full chapter, but some hobgoblins
(and some tokens) need more time depending on the nature
of the process.
Furthermore, the hobgoblin can directly determine
the main power of the resulting token, although not the
catch or drawback. However, this enhanced form of token
creation only results in powers directly relating to the dramaturgical qualities of the prop. A hobgoblin could turn a
bartered wedding ring into a token of love or loyalty — or, if
the changeling who handed it over had a broken marriage,
of jealousy or betrayal — but he couldn’t turn it into a tool of
battle or elemental energy.
Likewise, hobgoblins need dramaturgy to create new
Goblin Contracts. A hobgoblin cannot spin a new Contract
out of nothing; he requires the latent symbolism imbued in
something via sympathy. This is unlikely to be the cost the
hobgoblin attaches to the Contract itself. More probably, he
draws upon whatever trove of meaningful treasures he already possesses and adds whatever the changeling pays to
his cache for future use. A hobgoblin bereft of all possessions and debts due has no capacity to create new Goblin
Contracts and little ability to perform marvels beyond his
Dread Powers.
Galoshins
A panicked changeling, desperate to throw a Huntsman
off her trail, performs a charivari in a motley-mate’s coat,
betraying her friend to save her own skin. A clever infiltrator hunches his shoulders and ostentatiously jangles the keys
he’s stolen from a True Fae’s goblin jailer; the action forces
the Wyrd to see him as that loyal hobgoblin and he successfully crosses a warded boundary. A conman switches stolen
masks in a mimicry of bian lian, working a scheme to shift
his onerous Goblin Debt onto an unwitting victim. The Lost
know these feats as galoshins, stealing another’s identity in
the most notorious form of dramaturgy.
A galoshin is a dramaturgical performance to deceive the
Wyrd, but that’s all it does. It doesn’t alter the changeling’s
appearance or convince a hobgoblin who can see her that she
is, in fact, someone else entirely. Nothing stops a changeling
from supplementing a galoshin with costumes, props, or other
magic, but the crucial effect of a galoshin rests in befuddling
fae sorcery and the magic of pledges. As far as the Wyrd can
tell, the changeling performing a galoshin becomes, ever so
briefly, the person she pretends to be.
Undertaking a galoshin first demands a sympathetic
link to the intended dupe. The changeling needs a prop
with dramaturgical symbolism, whether a vial of blood, used
handkerchief, or the lingering touch immediately following
a kiss on her own lips. Garments make highly effective tools
for this ritual mummery, the more concealing the better.
70
A galoshin’s performance must take place in the liminal
space of the Hedge. A galoshin always has one specific purpose,
and the changeling must weave her purpose into the persona
she dons like a mask during the portrayal. Trying to create a
galoshin allowing her to both toy with her Goblin Debts and
break her oaths pushes the facade too far, and it falls apart.
A dramaturge always needs fae accomplices to perform
a galoshin. Those touched by the Wyrd serve as the audience
stand-ins and the larger the audience, the more powerful the
dramaturgy. These witnessing fae become complicit in the
falsehood, playing their own role by firmly pronouncing
they see the truth. This forms a flaw in every galoshin; if
pulled, that thread unravels everything. If any of the audience at any point admit they saw a galoshin, not reality, it
immediately comes undone.
Many changelings view the practice of galoshins with
suspicion at best, if not outright hostility. This magical identity theft often scapegoats a victim. Too many stories tell of
one of the Lost who stole the Icon of another to mislead a
harrying Huntsman, leading to tragic consequences for the
hapless mark. Changelings can also perform this kind of
dramaturgy with more altruistic aims, placing themselves in
harm’s way when the Wyrd’s debts come due by donning the
mantle of the one they wish to protect and becoming them
just long enough to suffer the displaced consequences.
Systems
To perform a galoshin, a changeling needs a dramaturgical link to the target via a personally significant possession, bodily material, or recent meaningful contact in either
the current scene or the immediately preceding one. The
changeling chooses a Persona from the list below, and must
gather at least three fae beings — i.e., any creature who possesses a Wyrd trait other than fae-touched — to witness the
portrayal. This audience doesn’t necessarily need to know
they’re enabling a galoshin specifically as long as they never
acknowledge the falsity of the guise the changeling assumes,
but the nature of activating it makes it obvious to anyone
who knows what a galoshin is in the first place.
The changeling weaves and performs a scene, placing
herself in the target’s role and acting out what she intends to
do in either literal or exaggerated fashion. Galoshins commonly appear caricatured or parodying, performed as a dramatic tale of the results the Lost wishes to achieve rather
than a realistic rendition of what is to come.
Attempts to interfere with the galoshin via Contracts or
other magic prompt a Clash of Wills. Should a dramaturge
utilize a galoshin in an effort to steal the identity of the same
character more than once in a chapter, the target gains the
8-again quality on subsequent Clash rolls.
The dramaturge’s player may accept caveats that cause
the Persona to drop if breached to add dice to the roll. The
player and Storyteller can work together to come up with others if the example caveats below do not fit the current story.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Galoshin Circumstantial Modifiers
CIRCUMSTANCE
Prop is the target’s Icon
Prop is a cloak, coat, mask, or other deliberately concealing garment
Audience of 15 or more
Audience includes a True Fae or one of their agents
Prop is particularly symbolic for the intended Persona
Audience of five or more
Prop is fleeting, such as a recent kiss
Changeling does not have a proper stage
Audience of only three
Changeling suffers the Oathbreaker Condition
• +1 die: changeling cannot enter the target’s presence
while the Persona is active
• +1 die: changeling must loudly recite a catchphrase
the target uses often at least once per scene while the
Persona is active
• +2 dice: changeling must remain in-character while
the Persona is active
• +3 dice: changeling cannot leave the target’s presence
while the Persona is active
The changeling may also subtract five dice from the roll
to extend the galoshin’s duration to one chapter.
Any changeling can perform a galoshin, but those who
possess the Dramaturge Merit (p. 69) enjoy the 9-again quality on rolls to do so.
Attempting a galoshin is always a breaking point against
Clarity with a pool of three dice.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd.
Cost: 5 Glamour
Action: Instant (takes half an hour)
Duration: One scene or one chapter
Roll Result
Success: The changeling successfully takes on the chosen Persona for the galoshin’s duration. The changeling suffers the Notoriety Condition when the effect ends; even the
finest dramaturge cannot entirely dupe the Wyrd, and it
strains to find some way of balancing the books even if it’s
not quite certain what she’s done wrong.
Exceptional Success: The changeling’s performance
convinces each witness so deeply, they must each spend a
Willpower point if wishing to acknowledge the ruse’s falsity.
MODIFIER
+3
+2
+2
+2
+1
+1
−2
−2
−2
−3
Failure: The galoshin fails, and the changeling suffers
the Dissociation Condition.
Dramatic Failure: As failure, and the changeling gains
four Goblin Debt points for trying to cheat the Wyrd, which
will likely spend the points immediately for a punishing
Condition or Tilt.
Once a Persona sits firmly in place, the changeling relies on the audience to maintain the facade. If any audience
member admits out loud to witnessing deception anytime
during the galoshin’s duration, or anything even implying
in any way the changeling isn’t the target, the Persona immediately drops even if the speaker stands on another continent or in another realm from the dramaturge. A galoshin’s
target never counts as a witness, even if present during the
performance.
If the Persona drops for any reason other than reaching
the end of the galoshin’s duration, the dramaturge suffers
the Dissociation Condition, and the player rolls the changeling’s Resolve + Composure. Failure causes her personality’s
fracturing splinters to catch in the Hedge, where they form
a Wyrd 1 hedge ghost out of her memory’s shreds and tatters; dramatic failure creates a Wyrd 3 Hedge Ghost instead.
This patchwork specter believes it is (or needs to be) the dramaturge, eagerly spilling any secrets inherited by its tattered
memory to anyone willing to listen.
Galoshin Personas
The changeling chooses one of the following Personas
when she activates a galoshin:
False-Swear: The dramaturge can break an oath to
which she and the target are both parties, and the target
suffers the consequences instead for as long as the Persona
remains. As soon as it ends, the consequences snap back
afresh on the dramaturge. Alternatively, if the target was
present during the galoshin’s performance, the dramaturge
may swear a new oath in the target’s name while the Persona
Dramaturgy
71
is active. If she does the latter, her actions do not count as
the target’s for breaking that oath; instead, the oath immediately applies to the target from the moment she swears it.
The target doesn’t immediately know all the terms of this
oath, but witnessing the performance clues them in to at
least the basics, since it describes the intent. If this Persona
drops for any reason other than completion of its purpose,
the new oath becomes null and void.
Prey-Me-Not: This Persona can only be invoked if the
changeling uses the target’s Icon as a dramaturgical prop.
The Wyrd directs any attempts to supernaturally track or
hunt down the changeling onto the target instead — even
if the pursuer has the changeling’s own Icon. A Huntsman
using Kindred Spirits to gain insight into the dramaturge
receives information on the galoshin target instead, and if
he attempts to steal Glamour from the changeling via Hungry Heart, it instead drains power from the galoshin target.
The target immediately becomes aware of the changeling’s
identity and the Persona’s effect upon activation, and that
the perpetrator used their Icon to do it.
Scapegoat: Any penalties or effects the target would suffer due to breaking pledges, or the Storyteller spending Goblin Debt, instead applies to the dramaturge. For all intents
and purposes relating to such matters, the dramaturge is the
target, and so a True Fae coming to claim servitude from her
victim due to him having transgressed against an agreement
must take the Scapegoat instead. Even when this galoshin
benefits the target, they must still contest the activation roll,
as they instinctively resist surrendering their identity.
Swindle-Tongue: Whenever the dramaturge acquires
any Goblin Debt, it shunts onto the target instead. This can
never raise the target’s Goblin Debt above 9. If it raises their
Debt to 9, the next time the target interacts with any of their
hobgoblin creditors, both indebted and creditor immediately become aware of the target’s precarious position.
Watch-Me-Not: For the duration of the galoshin, the
dramaturge becomes the target for the purposes of fae magic
intended to detect intruders or present obstacles. A door
ensorcelled to open only for the target unseals for the dramaturge. Targeting the master of the grounds with WatchMe-Not permits a dramaturge to pass through the master’s
gate without incident, never tripping the bell intended to
rouse his briarwolf guards. If the dramaturge trips a Hollow’s magical defenses that whisper the names of intruders
to its owner, the magic whispers the target’s name instead.
Expanded
Pledgecraft
While changelings most commonly enact sealings,
oaths, and bargains to enforce their societal bonds, the Wyrd
is capable of enforcing any kind of agreement or declaration.
Sometimes pledges even take more concrete forms. This section provides more information and options for pledgecraft.
72
Example Oaths
These examples demonstrate the kinds of personal and
hostile oaths changelings make with one another and systems to go along with them; for examples of motley oaths,
see p. 126. The example names here serve simply as indications of the oath’s purpose, rather than codified terms
the changelings themselves necessarily use (although some
might). Oaths based on one of these may vary in terms and
mechanics depending on the changelings involved and circumstances surrounding its swearing. Use these examples
as basic starting points to create your own, specific to your
game and its characters.
Any oath can involve any number of participants unless
otherwise indicated.
When designing oaths, keep in mind: exact verbiage
matters less than the intention behind the words. The Wyrd
recognizes and enforces the spirit of the oath as understood
by its participants.
Oath of Friendship
Changelings swear this personal promise to support
each other regardless of circumstance.
Terms: Your concerns are my concerns. Your needs are
my needs. You are my true friend, and I will be there for you
from now until the end of my days.
Beat: The changeling abandons a task important to her
in order to fulfill an obligation to her friend.
Willpower: The changeling sacrifices her own safety or
wellbeing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of her friend.
Benefit: Once per scene, when a participant invokes a
Contract targeting herself, she can extend its benefits to her
oathsworn friend at no additional cost.
Consequences: A changeling who breaks this oath suffers a −2 when invoking Contracts affecting only herself for
the rest of the chronicle. Breaking this oath often leads to
friends becoming hated enemies, and might lead to an Oath
of Nemesis or Exile. At minimum, the friendship ends and
the changeling gains the Oathbreaker Condition as normal.
Oath of True Love
Lovers often swear this oath as a formal proclamation
of marriage, though multitudinous other uses exist, and
even declared marriages take all forms.
Terms: You are my sun, my stars, and my moon. My love
for you overflows and I could not bear a life without you. I
would rather die than see you harmed and would rather suffer torture than betray our love.
Beat: The changeling confesses a secret to her lover
which endangers someone else she cares about.
Willpower: The changeling acts in her lover’s best interests regardless of the harm this inflicts on her or someone
who depends on her.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
Benefit: Participants can always find each other, regardless
of the distance between them or whether they’re even in the
same realm. This doesn’t affect the time or ordeals required to
get there, but they can perfectly track one another without a roll.
Consequences: All participants present suffer a −3 to
all Social rolls when the oathbreaker is in the same room or
general vicinity as any other participant, regardless of who
broke the oath. Such heartbreak inevitably leads to bitterness or sorrow. Ex-lovers may do everything in their power
to spite the other, causing unending setbacks and upset, or
may sink into deep melancholy and express their shattered
feelings dramatically.
Oath of Nemesis
The changelings agree they cannot settle their vast differences with words alone, and instead choose to fight to the
death under the specific terms of this hostile oath.
Terms: Your life is forfeit, and I will do everything in
my power to end it as soon as possible, or die trying.
Beat: The changeling’s enemy wounds him or inflicts a
Tilt in combat.
Willpower: The changeling inflicts aggravated damage
greater than his enemy’s Stamina on them in one hit, or
delivers a killing blow to them.
Consequences: Breaking this oath means abandoning
the attempt to kill the other participants for more than one
full chapter, or taking actions rendering the killing much
more difficult (such as swearing another oath not to harm
them, or traveling to another country). When a participant
breaks an Oath of Nemesis, she suffers the Cowed Condition whenever she perceives, interacts with or is in the presence of any other participant.
These changes of heart usually only affect only one nemesis, who usually lays down her life when she breaks this
oath. Occasionally, all participants accept the title of oathbreaker to prevent a needless loss of life.
Oath of Exile
Changelings swear this oath as a lesser form of hostility.
They agree on their mutual hatred but do not wish to fight
to the death, choosing instead to exile one another from
their lives.
Terms: You are no more to me than a mote of dust or a
bothersome insect to brush away with ill regard and disdain.
I promise not to seek you out, and if our paths cross, to
immediately flee or make it so unbearable as to force disengagement.
Beat: The changeling crosses path with her enemy, who
causes a setback for her.
Willpower: The changeling causes a major setback for
her enemy.
Consequences: Should one or both parties break the
oath, at least once per scene thereafter spent by the partici-
pants in each other’s company, some mild but alarming, humiliating, or highly inconvenient misfortune befalls them
all, no matter how improbable. Perhaps they all drop their
mobile phones into the sewer or end up obliged to dress up
as clowns for a child’s birthday party and suffer pies to the
face.
Changelings often break this oath when a situation
forces them to work together, like protecting the freehold or
some other greater good. Sometimes they find the reasons
for their enmity no longer valid and break the oath deliberately. Rarely does only one participant break this oath; usually, all parties break it simultaneously, or one pesters the
others until all break the oath in quick succession.
Touchstones
as Pledges
A changeling shares a special bond with his Touchstone, his island in the rocky waters of fae life. This level of
reliance and vulnerability creates a type of pledge between
the changeling and his Touchstone, albeit one the Touchstone may have no idea they’re part of and can never fully
understand. The Wyrd recognizes the give and take of a
Touchstone relationship and encourages each party to honor
their role in it.
Bargains between a changeling and his mortal Touchstone reinforce their importance to each other. When the
changeling makes a bargain with his Touchstone, the Touchstone’s attachment on his Clarity track moves rightward up
to two steps until the Obliged Condition resolves, at which
point it returns to its original spot. If another Touchstone
takes up the original spot, this shifts the second Touchstone
one box to the left, which also pushes any other Touchstones
beyond it leftward. An enchanted (p. 77) Touchstone gains
+2 to resist breaking points resulting from exposure to the
supernatural.
A changeling’s bond with her Touchstone grants a
modicum of protection against fae meddling. No other fae
creature can enter a bargain with a changeling’s attached
Touchstone. If another fae creature swears a bargain with a
changeling’s Touchstone while it’s detached, reattaching the
Touchstone does nothing to negate that bargain.
The importance of a Touchstone in the changeling’s
emotional life permits her to swear a vow (p. 78) upon them.
She takes a risk when doing so, as if she breaks the vow,
she loses the Touchstone completely. The Wyrd conspires
to take them out of her life one way or another, and if they
remain alive, she can’t make them a Touchstone ever again.
Swearing a vow upon a Touchstone makes them count as
an oath-forged token as well, granting an additional benefit: Once per chapter, when the changeling takes a risky or
dangerous action in service to fulfilling her vow, she clears
one point of damage from Clarity track as though she spent
meaningful time with her Touchstone in addition to gaining
a Beat.
Expanded Pledgecraft
73
New Pledge Types
A changeling’s life revolves around promises, pledges,
and deals. While Changeling starting on p. 209 presents
the most common types of pledges, the Lost swear many
varieties of oath. Pledges take different forms: in some circumstances, choosing the agreement type poses merely a
semantical matter, in others, it determines the cost those
involved pay.
Changelings may make all these additional types of
pledges.
Curses and Hexes
These pledges fall into their own category of antagonism separate from hostile oaths. When a changeling wishes
to create inconvenience, pain, and suffering for her enemy,
she curses or hexes them. While a hex or curse may lead to a
declaration of war between two parties, a this alone doesn’t
constitute such, merely a willful act by one changeling to
make the other’s a living hell.
The Wyrd recognizes curses and hexes as two similar
yet separate types of pledges, but changelings often use the
words interchangeably. Few consider the difference when
calling down consequences in a moment of rage, but hexes
cause brief, minor inconveniences, while curses create major
burdens sometimes lasting a lifetime.
Benefits
The changeling herself gains no supernatural benefit
from curses or hexes, only the reward of making her enemies
suffer.
Consequences
All hexes contain an action the hexed character can
take that triggers the hex’s effects and ends it: either an action the changeling wishes to forbid that activates the hex
when undertaken, or a loophole in the pledge the victim
exploits to free themselves from the hex. For instance, the
changeling may forbid the victim from visiting a certain
place or talking to a certain person; doing so anyway triggers
the hex’s effects. Conversely, the victim may suffer the effects
until they perform a relevant action.
Curses come with similar stipulations, but the changeling herself must sustain its effects by either maintaining a
certain circumstance or avoiding a particular action. The
Wyrd keeps the books balanced by providing a loophole
here, as well; the victim can always bring about the curse’s
end by some clever action. If the changeling really screws up,
she sometimes ends up cursing herself instead.
Systems
A hex inflicts the Hexed Condition upon the victim.
When the changeling makes the pledge, she must spend 1
Glamour and state the terms, which the victim must be able
to perceive and understand. They need not necessarily know
exactly how to interpret them, though; the changeling can
74
play with wording to mislead them and hope they miss her
misdirection and can’t call her out.
The Hexed Condition cannot become Persistent; the
action which resolves it must be possible for the victim to
accomplish within a single story. For example, a changeling
hexes one victim with blindness until he returns something
he stole from the changeling, while another victim suffers no
ill effects until he speaks to the Monarch of Morning.
Conversely, the Cursed Condition is always Persistent.
Its Beat criteria revolve around making the victim’s life hell;
its resolution requires the changeling to keep up a particular
routine or situation the victim could disrupt. For example,
a victim cursed to suffer terrible nightmares whenever they
sleep grants their player a Beat whenever the fears or disturbed sleep cause setbacks for them. The curse ends when
the changeling stops sacrificing one child per day to a greedy
hobgoblin — the victim can rescue one of the children or stop
the changeling and goblin from meeting on just one day. A
curse always ends immediately upon the changeling’s death,
even if the required circumstance persists posthumously.
Examples of effects the changeling can inflict via hex or
curse include:
• The victim must spend an additional Glamour when
invoking any fae power.
• The victim can’t regain Willpower by sleeping.
• All failed rolls the victim’s player makes for a specific
type of action become dramatic failures; the changeling’s player declares the cursed action at the time
of the pledge, it must be narrower than a Specialty.
Examples include making melee attacks against mortals, attempting to open Doors in Social maneuvering
against a specific person, or investigating a particular
kind of crime.
• The victim suffers a minor (hex) or major (curse) frailty currently also suffered by the changeling; if they
already suffer one or more frailties, this simply adds
another.
• The victim suffers a Personal Tilt constantly for the
duration which doesn’t become a Condition in nonaction scenes, only affecting them when relevant.
HEXED
A spiteful changeling has temporarily inconvenienced
your character.
If the changeling forbids the action required to end the
hex, this Condition does nothing until your character takes
that action and resolves it. The consequences last for one
chapter thereafter.
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
If the changeling sets a quest as the required action
which breaks the hex, your character suffers its effects until
the quest’s completion.
As a pledge, the Wyrd itself negotiates the hex, not with
the victim. If the changeling sabotages her own hex, for example by accidentally or deliberately enabling your character
to break it, they suffer a detrimental temporary Condition of
the Storyteller’s choice.
A character may only have one instance of Hexed at a
time.
Resolution: Your character takes the action the changeling specified when she placed the hex.
CURSED (PERSISTENT)
A vengeful changeling has burdened your character
with a curse, which only resolves when the changeling either stops maintaining a particular routine or performs a
particular action.
If your character brings about the changeling’s failure
to maintain the curse, directly or indirectly, gain an additional Beat when this Condition resolves. If the changeling’s
player dramatically fails on a roll directly related to attempts
to maintain the curse, the changeling suffers this Condition
with all the criteria and caveats of the original, where they
make sense. If they don’t — for instance, if the ill effects don’t
apply to changelings — then the Storyteller assigns applicable
consequences as close as possible to the curse’s original intent.
A character may only have one instance of Cursed at a
time.
Beat: Your character suffers a significant setback directly due to the curse.
Resolution: The changeling fails to maintain the required state of affairs or perform the specific action as defined when she places the curse.
Feuds
When two changelings cannot get along with one another to the point of enmity, they swear a hostile oath to
settle their conflict. Hostilities which spread beyond two
individuals with irrevocable differences escalate into a
feud.
Like any other hostile oath, a feud oath declares enmity between two or more sides of the disagreement. A
hostile oath which expands to encompass a group — a motley, freehold, or court, for example — becomes a feud and
must be sworn anew. Often, one changeling speaking for
each side swears the oath, though sometimes all members
of two feuding motleys swear it in unison.
A feuding group doesn’t need to be previously oathsworn; a feud oath counts as both hostile and societal
oath at once. When one member speaks for a group, they
Expanded Pledgecraft
75
don’t need the group’s permission if a societal oath binds
that changeling to the group; by default, that oath grants
them the right to swear more on the group’s behalf. Acting
against the oath in protest after the fact without having
agreed to its terms still constitutes a breach. If no previous oath binds the group, such as a ragtag bunch of Lost
working together to revolt against a band of privateers, the
feud oath binds both sides into a collective, all oathsworn
to each other.
Feuds occur between two groups of any size. If the
feud involves more than two groups, each group swears the
feud oath to every other party independently. A court can
declare a feud with a motley, a motley can declare one with
a freehold, or a freehold can declare one with a privateer
crew of much smaller size. It doesn’t matter as long as each
side consists of more than one changeling. Courts and
freeholds engage in feuds rarely, only declaring them in extreme circumstances or when they can find no other path
to resolution. The Freehold of Milk Roses declared a feud
against their own Autumn Court for harboring loyalists
who endangered the whole freehold and left many dead.
The freehold denied access to all local trods for three weeks
before the court surrendered the changelings responsible.
Any type of conflict between groups can result in a
feud, including rivalries, cultural conflicts, and Hedgefire
wars, as described on pp. 9-10 of Oak, Ash, and Thorn.
Systems
Feuds work like other hostile oaths, except that the
oath lasts either until one side gives in to the demands of
the other, or the last surviving member of either group
dies. When new members of a feuding group swear the
relevant societal oath, the Wyrd automatically extends the
feud oath to them. A court could recruit like mad to replenish their numbers before their enemies kill them all,
for instance, or a very stubborn freehold might pass a feud
down through the ages. Once per chapter when a member
of the opposing group harms or significantly inconveniences her character, the player gains a Beat.
If one member of a feud breaks the oath by defecting
to the other side or violating another societal oath binding
them to the group, she becomes an oathbreaker, but the
feud oath doesn’t break for the other members. However, if
more than half the members in one feuding group violate
the oath, it breaks completely, marking everyone on their
side with the Oathbreaker Condition, regardless of their
involvement (or lack thereof) in the violation.
Unlike other hostile oaths, feuds rarely lead to immediate bloodshed. Changeling society constructs common
ceremony around the feud with only minor differences between freeholds, wherein all members of both groups or
their representatives come together in neutrality to agree
upon the terms, and this neutrality lasts until both sides
retreat from each other for at least a scene. In the rare in-
76
stance when someone violates this traditional neutrality,
the oath doesn’t break, but they find few allies thereafter.
The well-known tale of the Giantsbane motley passes between freeholds: the motley declared a feud against the
Hedgeskippers, besetting the other motley the moment
the two groups finalized the swearing. While they won the
feud by ambushing and killing the entire opposed motley,
their freehold exiled them for their perceived betrayal of
necessary custom.
Not all feuds erupt into bloodshed, but brutal Hedgefire wars often explode when they do. Whether waged
between large groups or motleys, some Feud oaths fuel
shadow wars lasting for years, decades, or centuries as the
members continually redraw battle lines and strategies.
Rules of Engagement
Most people abide unspoken social contracts dictating
how they interact with one another. Society shames anyone
who refuses to get along and breaks them, but nothing binds
anyone to these contracts; only the desire for acceptance
motivates individuals and groups to behave themselves.
Sometimes, the Lost must define rules of engagement not
by unspoken social norms, but by clear etiquette sealed with
Glamour.
Changelings make pledges for rules of engagement under specific circumstances. Their terms delineate how individuals and groups interact, the responsibilities of all parties, as well as permissible and forbidden actions, setting up
concrete expectations for gatherings or confrontations. The
rules stay in place for the event’s duration, although freeholds and courts often make such pledges recur for repeating events. For instance, one city’s Summer Court may establish standard rules of engagement for duels or tournaments,
while its Spring counterpart does the same for the required
etiquette when attending court with its monarch.
Benefits
Rules of engagement ensure everyone at the event
knows their role and keeps proceedings on their rails. Terms
usually include a list of dos and don’ts for participants, a rundown of the expectations levied on various roles, and general accepted behaviors under various common circumstances.
Rules of engagement also outline the conditions necessary
to declare one side the winner or loser of any competitions
taking place at the event.
Conscientious changelings who wish to refrain from angering attendees make the rules available ahead of time. Those
who would rather entrap someone or sow chaos may keep the
pledge’s terms to themselves. Changeling society generally
considers doing so a serious breach of trust; if anyone breaks
the rules out of ignorance, those who created the pledge
(whether they concealed the rules or not) may find themselves
losing Clarity. The intimate familiarity of most changelings,
springing from their durances, with the experience of violat-
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
ing unspoken or incomprehensible rules makes inflicting such
a thing on one’s fellows a major transgression. Changelings
innately understand making the participants feel safe and secure as the primary purpose of rules of engagement.
Consequences
Rules of engagement define how participants should act
and how participants mean for events to play out in each
situation. Violating them constitutes almost as much of a
breach as setting others up to fail; if just one person defies
expectations, it shatters everyone’s trust. The pledge’s terms
lay out the consequences, always punitive and designed to
match the breach’s severity. If the Wyrd deems the pledge’s
agreed-upon consequence too mild or too damning for the
violator’s actions, it may take matters into its own hands.
Systems
The Lost make rules of engagement pledges for any discrete event intended to involve more than two individuals,
from battles and duels, to court meetings and parties, to
contests and informal gatherings. At least two changelings
carrying responsibility for running or initiating the event
must collaborate, agreeing on rules and writing them down.
Each spends a point of Glamour to seal the deal thereafter.
No party may add additional terms after the fact, so the Lost
generally evidence meticulousness in these very thorough
discussions. When more changelings sharing this responsibility spend Glamour, the rules gain a stronger hold over
participants; in return, all of them must follow through on
their part in holding the event. Any who fail to do so suffer
the consequences as though they’d violated the rules themselves.
Rules of engagement may dictate anything from prescribed or forbidden actions to clauses applying special
privileges or limitations to one or more participants, to the
requisite criteria for participants wishing to end the event.
All such pledges must include the location within which the
rules hold sway, when they should go into effect, and — if no
terms specifically define the engagement’s end — its intended
duration. Once the rules take hold, they continue to apply
until the specified duration or end criteria transpire, regardless of the desires of those who made the agreement.
Such pledges require a clear and concrete location and
duration, no matter the subjectivity of the remaining terms.
“Within the Freehold of Fallen Ash’s territory” works just
fine, but “wherever a member of the Court of Stars walks”
doesn’t. Specific locations work, whether as simple as “this
circle we just drew on the ground” or as elaborate as “the first
20 square feet of the British Museum’s entry hall, excluding
the space between this specific statue and that bench.” A
duration such as “three hours” works, as does “until we finish building this house.” The duration may also recur, such
as “for the first three days of June each year.” A vague duration like “until the sun no longer rises” rests upon too distant and unknowable a conditional future time to serve as a
proper duration.
A rules of engagement pledge is largely a punitive one,
not a beneficial one. Whenever acting in line with the rules
causes a character within its purview harm or a major setback, her player earns a Beat. Breaking the rules levies consequences consistent with breaking a formal agreement she
made with the Wyrd, even if she didn’t know the boundaries
of her behavior or even that any existed in the first place.
Make the punishment for violating rules of engagement
commensurate with the event’s gravity and the attendees’
investment level. The Wyrd enforces even punishments the
hosts themselves could easily mete out themselves; for instance, disqualification from a foot race might remove a runner’s ability to spend Glamour, lower her Speed, or ensnare
her in a bramble cage until the event ends. After the pledge’s
effects expire, the hosts may not retaliate against the offender further; doing so constitutes a four-die breaking point.
Other participants or those not in attendance may retaliate
however they like.
The penalties for violating the terms of a sporting or
entertainment event, such as a charity race or Spring Court
fete, apply only for the duration of the pledge’s effects. Examples include disqualification from a contest, getting kicked
out of the event, or losing the ability to speak.
The penalty for violating the terms of a serious — but
not dire — event, such as a business meeting or heist, should
remain relevant beyond the bounds of the event but terminate naturally or be easily reversible by the end of the story
at the latest. Examples include public humiliation, confiscation of valuable belongings, loss of an ability until the
violator makes amends, or short-term indentured servitude
or imprisonment. Keep in mind that imprisoning someone
constitutes a 4-die breaking point (Changeling, p. 106)
Make the penalty for violating terms with lives on the
line, such as an important peace negotiation with another
freehold or a duel to the death, much steeper and have permanent (or at least chronicle-long) consequences. Examples
include irrevocable exile from a court or freehold, the loss of
a hand or eye, or erasure of important memories.
A violation serious enough to directly put other people
in great danger or cause them significant harm could cause
the Wyrd to decide upon a penalty of death no matter the
original terms. However, the Storyteller should check with
the players to positively affirm this as an acceptable outcome
to the entire table; if not, choose something else.
Enchanted Bargains
Changelings make ordinary bargains to help them feel
like they belong in the mortal world and keep them safe
from Faerie. Making a bargain with a human grants the
target knowledge of the changeling’s true nature, but their
engagement centers in comfortable mundanity; he fits better into their world, not the other way around.
A changeling can instead make an enchanted bargain,
one blessing the mortal with impossible favors or allowing
Expanded Pledgecraft
77
them to accomplish something unachievable without his
assistance.
Most Lost do this to protect or aid someone important
to them or a valuable ally. The changeling acts as a guardian
and enabler rather than a servant and undertakes magical tasks
rather than mundane ones, like using Contracts for the mortal’s benefit or bestowing tokens upon them. Some changelings
make enchanted bargains to subtly bribe or inspire a mortal to
do something for them with the magic they grant. Others do
it to help the downtrodden out of bad situations or encourage
someone with potential but no opportunities. An enchanted
bargain contains more danger for both parties than an ordinary
one, but it can also accomplish more for them.
Systems
A changeling enchants any bargain by spending an additional Glamour, either when enacting it or at any time
while the pledge remains in effect; the process remains otherwise identical. The enchanted bargain bestows the usual
benefits of shielding him from fae discovery, but replaces
the Obliged Condition with the Enchanted Obligation
Condition (below).
Once Enchanted Obligation resolves and the enchantment ends, the changeling may repeat the bargain with the
same mortal again. If he wishes to continue playing faerie
godparent for them, he must strike a new bargain with different terms. Each subsequent enchanted bargain struck
with the same mortal within the same story costs +1 Glamour and requires the mortal to follow increasingly more
strenuous rules or limitations to keep it going.
ENCHANTED OBLIGATION
Your character has made an enchanted bargain with a
mortal, providing fae miracles in exchange for safety and
peace of mind. This Condition duplicates the effects of the
Obliged Condition (Changeling, p. 343), but is not Persistent. In addition, while the enchantment lasts, the mortal
can automatically see through the Mask of all fae beings
and objects unless strengthened with Glamour. Your character gains the ability to hear the mortal whenever they call
him by name and ask or wish for aid, no matter the distance between them; the changeling has no obligation to
respond to the call. His player gains a +3 to rolls to harvest
Glamour from the mortal.
The changeling’s half of the bargain requires using
fae magic to aid the mortal in some dire task or in escaping a dire situation the target couldn’t otherwise handle
themself. He can invoke Contracts or use his seeming or
kith blessings on the mortal’s behalf, give them tokens and
clearly explain their catches, or any other type of fae magic
he possesses; however, he may not simply perform the task
or rescue the mortal themselves. They must utilize the magic on their own and rescue themself.
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The mortal’s half requires following a specific and
strict rule or willingly laboring under a particular limitation. For instance, they may accept a curfew by which they
must be inside their home and stay there until sunrise, or a
rule forbidding them to deliberately tell any lies.
If the changeling solves the mortal’s problem himself,
this Condition ends without resolution or granting a Beat.
It likewise ends if either party takes on another enchanted
bargain while this one remains in effect; enchanted bargains accept no competition. If the mortal doesn’t achieve
the task or escape they bargained to accomplish by the end
of one full chapter, it also fades without resolution.
The enchantment’s effects are obvious to those who
know how to look for them. Anyone who can see through
Masks simply perceives the supernatural obligation the
mortal carries without a roll or other contest. The player
of any character who previously noticed the enchantment
gains +4 to locate or track the mortal by any means. This
magical trail carries distinct tells revealing the changeling’s
identity to anyone who has previously seen his Mien; if
they see it afterwards, they recognize it instantly.
Resolution: The mortal accomplishes the task or escapes the situation they made the bargain to achieve, or
either party fails to uphold their end of the bargain, triggering consequences for one or both. When this Condition
resolves, the changeling’s player and the mortal’s each earn
a Beat.
Deed Vows
Unlike most pledges, enacted between two or more
characters, a changeling makes a deed vow to himself: this
personal pledge declares a changeling’s promised course of
action. Someone must witness his vow for him to seal it,
and the path he chooses may pertain to others, but the
pledge binds only him. Changelings liken it to a stronger
version of a sealing they inflict upon themselves.
The changeling pledges to fulfill a particular goal in
a specified way. For instance, he might vow to rescue his
motley from privateer captivity without killing, or to claim
his court’s crown by exposing the current monarch’s dirty
secrets. He swears his deed vow on a possession of great
personal value, offering it up as collateral should he fail to
keep his word.
Benefits
A changeling makes a deed vow to prove his dedication to his goal in a defining moment, affirming his freedom to forge his own path. With such singular purpose, he
sheds his uncertainty and finds his conviction. The Wyrd
recognizes his deed vow and rewards him for sticking to his
word; all other Lost who see him know he acts with resolve.
Freeholds traditionally grant respect and leniency to those
under the auspices of a deed vow, even if the vow’s purpose
opposes the freehold’s interests. Most changelings consider
getting in the way of a changeling driven enough to invite
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
the Wyrd to keep him accountable a self-destructive transgression in no one’s best interests.
Consequences
A changeling who breaks his word to himself doesn’t
become an oathbreaker in the same sense as one who fundamentally changes his relationship with another. Instead,
he risks losing whatever he swore his deed vow upon. He
may offer even an intangible possession such as his own
life or a loved one’s memory, though these more esoteric
possessions entail equally strange circumstances around
their loss.
Systems
The changeling spends 1 Glamour and chooses one of
his current Aspirations, making it his dedicated goal. He
declares this goal and the method by which he promises
to achieve it or a method he forbids himself to use in its
pursuit aloud to at least one witness who understands the
supernatural significance of the pledge.
The changeling must make his vow upon a possession
of his choosing with great personal significance to him;
pledging on a newly purchased car or a weapon he uses
for purely practical purposes don’t do the trick. Common
deed vow possessions include tokens, irreplaceable keepsakes, the changeling’s own life or that of a beloved pet, the
memory of a deceased loved one, an Icon, or a Touchstone.
He can’t vow upon someone else’s life unless he ‘possesses’
them in some way, such as someone under his legal guardianship, someone who swore an oath of absolute servitude
to him. The possession in question must be present; however, not even living possessions count as witnesses.
The significance of the collateral determines the vow’s
benefits, as follows:
• A replaceable, tangible item, such as a token with a
1-3 dot rating or purchasable wedding gift: once per
chapter, when the changeling puts himself and/or his
motley in danger in service to fulfilling his deed vow,
he regains a Willpower point.
• An irreplaceable, tangible item, such as token with
a four or five dot rating or photo album containing
photographs he cannot later reprint: as above, and
the changeling regains two Glamour points as well as
Willpower.
• An intangible possession, such as a deceased loved
one’s memory or grave, or a Touchstone or other personal relationship: as above, and once per chapter,
the changeling may gain a bonus to any one action
in service to fulfilling his deed vow equal to half his
Wyrd rating.
• An irreplaceable possession of unique significance,
such as an Icon or the changeling’s life: as above, and
once per chapter the changeling may reduce the dice
pool of a Clarity damage roll suffered in service to
fulfilling her deed vow by one.
Breaking a deed vow destroys the possession. If the
changeling named a Touchstone, he loses that Touchstone
permanently as though the person died; the relationship
sours or becomes distant. If he swore upon an intangible
item, the Wyrd inflicts the loss in stranger ways. A broken
deed vow sworn on his dead mother’s memory may erase his
most important memories of her, while one sworn on her
grave might raise her ghost to haunt him. A deed vow sworn
on the changeling’s own life may require him to atone in a
way the Wyrd (and the Storyteller) chooses or swear an oath
dedicating his life wholly to someone else (such that they
now ‘possess’ him, for purposes of their deed vows) within a
fortnight, or he dies.
The character fulfills the vow when he achieves the chosen Aspiration in the specified manner, granting a Beat as
normal. The Wyrd considers him to have broken it when he
violates the method he swore to use, fails to achieve the Aspiration before the end of the story, or definitively fails in a
way rendering the Aspiration either impossible or irrelevant.
A broken vow also grants a Beat, but the player must replace
the Aspiration at the end of the chapter.
If the changeling fulfills his vow, he retains the possession and may swear further vows upon it. Doing so with a
mundane object counts as swearing an oath upon it for the
purposes of creating oath-forged tokens.
Icons
Swearing an oath or deed vow upon a changeling’s own
Icon is dangerous. Pledging on a scrap of his own soul is
akin to offering himself up as a sacrifice to the Wyrd if he
fails to uphold it, but until then, he’s its favored child.
Swearing a pledge on an Icon requires first recovering it
and must be done while the Icon remains in material form
— that is, before the changeling leaves the Hedge with it.
A changeling can only swear a pledge on a particular Icon
once. Once an Icon becomes the symbol of a pledge’s integrity, it remains in material form even if the changeling leaves
the Hedge with it. She still regains the memories and Clarity it contains upon initial recovery, as usual, and retains
them even if the Icon leaves her possession, as long as it isn’t
destroyed.
Systems
Using an Icon to seal a pledge confers quite a few benefits. Even if she doesn’t swear a deed vow, she regains a
Willpower when working towards the pledge in a dangerous
fashion. While under the effects of a pledge on her Icon,
the changeling rolls one fewer die on Clarity damage rolls
resulting from actions taken in service to the pledge. While
actively working towards this pledge, either to accomplish a
goal or uphold one of its stated agreements, the changeling
ignores wound penalties during the scene she receives the
wounds in question. After the action concludes, the charExpanded Pledgecraft
79
Goblin Variations
Any Contract can be fashioned into a Goblin
Contract with a little bit of trickiness. Goblin
Contracts tend to focus on being sneaky or
deceptive. Here are a few examples.
Contracts of Chalice become illusory. The
goblin version of Filling the Cup allows the
changeling to convince the people around
her that someone within its radius feels a
certain way, even going so far as to deceive
supernatural powers. Frail as the Dying Word
convinces the target that they have a major
frailty. On the more benevolent side, Curse’s
Cure can heal the patient from a Mental Condition instead of poison.
Contracts of Coin already focus on exchanging one object or situation from another. Book of Black and Red reveals the debts
other people believe (possibly ambiguously
or erroneously) that the target owes them.
Give and Take’s Loophole expands to work
with only one of the parties giving a gift. Coin
Mark encourages owners of an object to
fight over it by imposing the Avarice Condition without spending a point of Glamour.
Blood Debt makes the target feel as if they’re
suffering aggravated damage, even though
they physically suffer lethal damage.
Contracts of Scepter grease the grinding
wheels of power with manipulation and deception. Burning Ambition allows the changeling
to give another character, rather than herself,
the Competitive Condition. Jealous Vengeance
persuades the target that complying with the
ultimatum is actually in their best interests, allowing the changeling to inflict the Swooned Condition. Knight’s Oath leverages paranoia about
threats to the knight’s status to the changeling’s
advantage; the knight gains a bonus to Mental
actions that reveal or seek jealousy.
Contracts of Star replace weird insight with
false guidance. Cynosure allows the changeling to give the target a desire rather than the
changeling listening to what they really want.
Shooting Star gives the artist false confidence
in their own importance; they gain the Delusional or Competitive Conditions. Light of
Ancient Stars allows the changeling to trace
a parasocial relationship, finding truth about
someone they don’t really know.
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acter suffers the highest wound penalty she would have suffered for the next scene, even if the damage has been healed.
A changeling can never truly break a pledge she
swore on her Icon. This doesn’t mean she can’t forsake
the pledge or break her word, only that she can always reconcile and fix her mistake. A pledge upon an Icon binds
the changeling’s soul to the Wyrd, and just as if she broke
a deed vow, she loses the Icon if she breaks her pledge.
However, she can win the Icon back and reinstate her
pledge. Therefore, a changeling does not gain the Oathbreaker Condition when she breaks a pledge made upon
her Icon, instead gaining the Icon Shard Condition. She
also loses the Icon, meaning she loses the Clarity box and
memories gained from recovering the Icon until she reconciles her broken pledge.
ICON SHARD
(PERSISTENT)
Your character broke her word sworn on her Icon. Doing so has infused the Icon with the Wyrd’s wrath, giving it a
semblance of life and transforming it before the changeling’s
eyes into an identical double of herself. A changeling’s Icon
is a part of her soul; as such, the Icon shard becomes a rough
imitation of her darkest and most sinister thoughts and urges. The Icon shard acts as a semi-sapient doppelganger with
the sole purpose of tormenting the changeling for breaking
her word.
Icon shards count as hobgoblins (Changeling: The
Lost, p. 252) with a Wyrd rating equal to the changeling’s;
use the rules given for creating goblins to give the shard
traits and powers, all of which should in some way reflect its
origins. Instead of a Virtue or Vice, the shard has a Needle
and Thread, chosen as dark mirrors of the changeling’s. It
gains Aspirations in direct opposition to the changeling’s
Needle and Thread and uses them to disrupt the changeling’s life. For example, a changeling with a Protector Needle
finds her doppelganger attacking the people she loves; her
Friendship Thread causes the shard to focus on ruining all
her relationships.
The Icon shard targets only the changeling and those
connected to the changeling (if doing so serves the purpose
of tormenting her). If she kills the shard rather than reintegrating it, she destroys it forever, losing access to the memories and Clarity it once brought, constituting a Clarity attack
with a dice pool of four.
Beat: The Icon shard’s actions impair or hurt the
changeling or someone she cares about, or actively prevent
her from gaining Willpower through her Needle or Thread.
Resolution: The changeling must kill the Icon shard or
make up for breaking her word. If she made a vow, she must
complete it or fulfill its terms. If she made an oath, she must
reconcile with the others involved to their collective satis-
Chapter Two: Wonders and Terrors
faction. The others involved in the pledge may exonerate
her wrongdoing by resealing the pledge in blood. Everyone
involved must suffer one lethal damage and spend a single
Glamour to reinstate the pledge’s bond. If she cannot reconcile the oath — perhaps the other parties died, for example —
then the changeling must reconcile with the Wyrd instead;
this should be the focus of a story, and the particulars are up
to the Storyteller. When this Condition resolves, the Icon
integrates with her immediately, unless she destroyed it.
Expanded Pledgecraft
81
“Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself — and thus make yourself indispensable.”
— André Gide
Arcadia changes people.
The Thorns of the Hedge tear away the fragile veneer
Many kithless never gained a kith in the first place.
protecting psyche and soul and lay bare the tender truths beThe Keeper had no particular purpose in mind, promptly
neath. Most changelings hold on to the core of their identity,
forgot about her, or discarded her and left her to her own
but all the rest — flesh and bone, thought and dream — are
devices in Arcadia’s wide wonderland. She never obsessively
the malleable materials upon which metamorphosis imposes
swaddled herself in a single, transformative means of coping,
itself. Sometimes, the dire will of a True Fae sculpts a changenever turned the tools of her durance onto herself out of
ling to match its bizarre desires. Other times, the changeling
desperation or inspiration, and thus avoided Faerie’s strangorchestrates her own transformation, whether through conest phenomena.
scious intent to become the tool of her own escape, or via
A changeling might also lose her kith or part with it
instinctive urges to find or claim a role. These changes are
willingly.
A sharp, sweet dream drifting in from the stars
kiths, connecting the Lost through shared experience and
hungrily
laps
at her mind and magic, drinking down the
purpose, mutually understood traumas and terrible prowess.
power that underpins her kith. She drives a hard bargain
This chapter presents a broad selection of kiths that
with a wily goblin, trading away a part of herself to be free
exist among the Lost, expanding upon those offered in
from the reminder of her durance. Amid the Thorns, she
Changeling: The Lost Second Edition. It also examines
scrapes her kith out of her soul in a painful metamorphothe process behind creating new kiths and gives options for
sis, gaining an altogether different kind of power. She knows
those changelings who leave Arcadia without any kith at all.
what it is to have a kith, but now that aspect of her is gone.
Lack of kith does not make the Lost any less of a changehose
ithout
ith ling than
her peers. Without a kith’s guiding purpose, howFrom time to time, a changeling escapes Arcadia with- ever, her seeming remains broad and conceptual. Rather
out her body or mind conforming to a kith’s template. Per- than being Fairest because she possesses the majesty of a
haps her Keeper abandoned her to wallow in captivity with- dragon or a wondrous luminescence, she is simply Fair — the
out purpose, or she escaped too swiftly for her soul to adapt. undiluted idea of glorifying the self and leading others. She
Perhaps she embodied the platonic ideal of her seeming so becomes an exemplar of what her seeming represents. An
thoroughly that no kith suffices. Some changelings who do Elemental personifies the sheer drive to shape the world not
have kiths end up losing them or shedding them deliberately. easily defined by a single natural force. A Beast demonstrates
Those without a kith fall into one of three categories: the instincts and fierce tenacity of all animals striving for
the broad, varied kithless; the disruptive and isolated scis- survival without the specifics of predator or prey. A kithless
sors; or the unraveled, caught in a countdown to dissolu- changeling’s mien reflects her seeming’s generalities — sometimes melding all its various facets, sometimes presenting
tion.
her seeming’s core as an abstract avatar.
Kithless
T
W
K
Those Without Kith
83
Systems: A kithless changeling chooses one Attribute
from the same category as her seeming’s bonus Attribute
dot; for example, an Ogre may choose any Power Attribute.
Whenever she rolls a dice pool with that Attribute, she may
spend a Glamour point before rolling to achieve an exceptional success on three successes rather than five. Once per
scene when using a Contract from her seeming’s favored Regalia, she may count the Contract’s Loophole as if she fulfills
it even if she does not actually meet its requirements; doing so does qualify her to then spend Glamour to render the
Contract reflexive if she desires.
No single mechanical way to shed a kith exists; doing so
is a matter of narrative events, and should require significant
effort or paying a steep price, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Scissors
Once, folklore claimed iron scissors warded newborn
children from the fae. Maybe there’s something to that;
maybe the bulwark of iron and the metaphorical weight of
a shearing edge to cut the Wyrd’s threads really do hold the
Gentry back from snatching such infants. Some humans stolen away into Arcadia sit uneasily within that realm’s gullet,
a disruptive presence sharp and cutting at a conceptual level
rather than physical. Faerie ulcerates around them, treating
them as invasive entities who shear through the fabric of Fae
Titles wherever they go. The Lost call these changelings scissors: prickly, destructive, and frightening, like the iron tools
of old. Just being near a scissor makes another changeling’s
skin itch with phantom cuts and the sense her very presence
cuts them to pieces, snip, snip, snip.
It’s unclear what sets someone at odds with the Wyrd’s warp
and weft. Some claim rival supernatural forces protect scissors,
perhaps even Iron itself. Others spin wild notions of humanity
evolving to match the Fae threat, of a new kind of human mind
honed to cut through Glamour’s tantalizing marvels.
Scissors suffer terrible isolation. The Wyrd’s magic
frays around them. Their metaphysically barbed nature
keeps friends distant and pushes other changelings away.
It’s a cold, lonely life, but some embrace their fate. Scissors
are made to cut, so that’s what they do. As outsiders to the
freeholds, scissors sometimes make names for themselves as
bounty hunters or troubleshooters capable of really hurting
the Gentry’s agents, thus maintaining a mutually beneficial
— if tense — equilibrium with other Lost that never quite
resolves into trust.
A scissor is still a changeling, though, whether she likes
it or not. Instead of bristling with sharp edges to ward off
the Kindly Ones, she can let her guard down and embrace
a reconciliation of her conflicting natures. By seeking and
taking on a kith, a scissor weaves herself into the Wyrd’s
tapestry until those sharp edges blunt. This voluntary selfshaping offers control over who she becomes, granting her
acceptance in exchange for the dagger she holds at the
Wyrd’s throat.
84
Chapter Three: Kiths
Systems: A scissor’s cutting presence causes havoc for
fae power. Whenever any character suffers a failure on an
action that would affect the scissor with fae-born magic,
whether helpful or harmful, it becomes a dramatic failure
instead. A scissor may reflexively spend a Glamour point to
be treated as iron for the purposes of fae defenses and magic
(but not the cold iron bane) for six seconds, or in action
scenes until the beginning of her next turn.
While a scissor can take on a Mantle and use pledgecraft, her nature chafes at these bonds over time. By default,
she cuts herself free of all oaths she’s sworn — including societal oaths binding her to court, freehold, and motley —
of her player’s choice after one full story, suffering all the
usual consequences for breaking it. If the oath enabled a
Merit such as Mantle, it’s subject to the Sanctity of Merits
(Changeling, p. 111). She can postpone this inevitability by
turning her blade upon herself, suffering one point of mild
Clarity damage at the beginning of the new story for each
oath she wishes to maintain. Doing so does not prevent her
from breaking oaths in other ways during the story.
Unraveled
Tales abound of mortals caught by Fae trickery, whisked
away to unearthly banquets and delights only to perish once
they return to the human world. Perhaps the fae food they
ate gave no true sustenance, or years passed in what seemed
to them but an afternoon, and once freed from the otherworld’s magic, all that time and hunger comes due at once.
Any changeling can see her durance reflected in these
stories but unraveled live them. An unraveled Lost doesn’t
merely leave something of herself behind amid the Thorns;
a thread of herself snags on the edges of Arcadia itself, and
each exertion of her independence pulls loose a little more
of what makes her her. Unravel enough, and she’ll come
apart completely.
No single snarl of Thread or burr of Needle serves as
unraveling’s singular cause. Various circumstances sink
cruel hooks into the spun fabric of a changeling’s soul,
snagging helpless Lost upon them. One held back her
Keeper’s influence with constant, unwise promises of her
time. Once the feasts came to an end, those promised years
started to peel away from her skin as crackling, crisp leaves.
Another thought to avoid the Thorns’ vicious price as she
fled her Durance and willingly paid a wounding of herself to
the grasping claws of some Hedge denizen for safe passage.
She didn’t realize the creature who dug her Icon out of her
would demand such visceral interest on her payment. Yet
another simply suffers from addiction, body and soul caught
by lethal cravings for some substance or concept of Arcadia
never intended for human indulgence.
Most unraveled, though, unwittingly tie themselves to
Arcadia by coveting something of that place and its wonders
which they cannot bring themselves to give up. Perhaps they
crave ownership of a certain beautiful place, fiercely want one
of their Keeper’s treasures, or need a lost lover desperately.
Their genuine and powerful longing or avarice kept a part of
them entangled when the time came to flee their durance.
Other changelings don’t cause this unraveling, only the
impossible desires of Arcadia itself.
As the unraveled slowly comes apart, her collapsing state
cannot maintain the shape or identity of any kith she may
have once possessed. She can patch the damage through acquiring a new kith, which she uses to mend the fabric of her
wounded self, knitting her identity back together. A clever
unraveled can also stitch herself up with swatches of Goblin
Debt, continually bartering to repair the damage, although
she can’t create a lasting solution from these pawned pieces
of power. Others undertake a graver choice: unable to give
up on their desires or desperate for the pain to stop, they
seek a permanent return to Arcadia.
Systems: The unraveled is metaphysically stuck in the
Hedge. An unraveled takes a point of aggravated damage at the
beginning of each chapter. She may unravel herself further as a
reflexive action whenever she would regain a point of Willpower from her Needle or Thread, suffering a point of aggravated
damage but regaining all expended Willpower instead. She may
also accept a point of aggravated damage to automatically win
a Clash of Wills against a source of fae magic. Her tether to
Arcadia draws her easily back; her player adds half her Wyrd
to dice pools to navigate the Thorns, and she automatically
recognizes dormant Hedgeways without kenning.
Nothing can heal or remove damage from unraveling
except goblin magic. The changeling may convert her rightmost aggravated damage point suffered through unraveling
to lethal damage that heals normally by accepting three
points of Goblin Debt. This requires spending at least one
scene in the Hedge interacting with hobgoblins, but she can
accept up to nine Goblin Debt points at once to convert
up to three points of aggravated damage to lethal, as long
as doing so wouldn’t increase her total Debt beyond nine.
Becoming a Hedge Denizen through Debt incurred another
way puts the unraveling on hold, but it resumes as soon as
that Condition resolves.
If the unraveled gains a new kith, she’s entirely safe from
unraveling and any damage she suffered from it heals naturally. If she ever loses that kith, she begins to unravel again.
If her rightmost health box fills with aggravated damage
from unraveling, her body evanesces in a manner appropriate to her mien. She might come apart in a flurry of snowflakes, unspool as if made of spun yarn, or disintegrate into
dust as lost time catches up with her all at once.
Acquiring a Kith
Changelings who lack a kith may desire one, whether
for the power it offers, the sense of belonging it grants, or
simple survival. The Lost know of three paths to gain a kith,
each within the mercurial realm of the Hedge. Upon gaining a kith, a changeling loses any benefits and disadvantages
associated with kithlessness.
Icons
The cruelest way to gain a kith is to acquire and absorb
another changeling’s Icon. The kithless one must take something personal from the Icon’s owner, something allowing
her to mold the Icon’s raw edges to match the wound in her
Thorn-ripped sense of self. While physical items sometimes
suffice, a lock of hair only works if that hair forms a key part
of the victim’s self-identity; more likely theft targets for this
purpose include precious treasures or beloved mementos.
Abstractions also work, such as a catchphrase learned and
spoken, a mannerism copied, a friendship stolen, or a dream
broken by the perpetrator.
The changeling obviously needs to track the Icon down
as well. With the personal key from the owner and the Icon
itself, she can now leech its power — which could involve
eating the Icon, pressing it into a literal wound, meditating
upon it, or performing some other symbolic act appropriate
to its form. This vulture mysticism leaves the changeling sick
and giddy with a rush of stolen memories and mannerisms
from her mark. While she suffers under a sense of dislocation from this hijacked spiritual completion, that temporary
agony cannot compare to the consequences of Lost society
discovering her transgression.
System: Absorbing the Icon is a subtle Hedgespinning
action requiring five successes. Once the changeling succeeds, her body and mind shift and morph over the course
of about a minute to take on her victim’s kith, although it
need not manifest in exactly the same way; for instance, a
Playmate Beast’s mien might resemble a golden retriever, but
the Fairest who steals their Icon and becomes a Playmate
herself may look like a round-cheeked cherub or painted
porcelain doll. The changeling’s player should decide the effects on her mien as if she’d taken the same kith at character
creation.
Absorbing another changeling’s Icon always counts as a
breaking point with a pool of five dice, which achieves exceptional success on three successes instead of five. The process
destroys the Icon, and the Icon’s original owner thereafter
gains the rote quality on Empathy rolls against the changeling, although they don’t necessarily understand why they
feel so in tune with the emotions of the Icon thief.
Ordeals
More benignly, many kithless undertake an ordeal, a kind
of psychodrama personalized to the changeling in question.
She concentrates on the desire for a particular shared identity
or personal purpose and enters the Hedge with her mind focused on finding a kith. She needn’t know ahead of time which
kith she seeks, and even if she has a specific kith in mind, she
may not find exactly what she’s looking for. Her player, however,
chooses the kith that comes to her unless they want the Storyteller to decide for them or randomize the choice.
The changeling’s journey toward further definition
forces her to face down the unvarnished, raw truths behind
Acquiring a Kith
85
her desire — an honesty of self that can be deeply painful but
also a revelation. She may not consciously know what kith
she wants or needs at first, but the ordeal shows her.
The ordeal’s nature depends on her personality, seeming, and the kith in question. A Beast on the path to become a Hunterheart ends up on the trail of strange, previously unseen breeds of briarwolf. She must navigate their
bramble-tangled tracks, tussle with ferocious beasts, and
perhaps show compassion for a wounded wolf — or maybe
crack its jaws open, tear out its heart, and gulp the bloody
organ down. A changeling ready to become a Bright One
finds her road snaking through smoking, fume-filled places
in the Hedge where the blackened branches scratch the sky
over rumbling earth, eventually coming to a place of lambent light where she catches aflame and must stand firm until it sears her soul. Each kith-seeking changeling undergoes
a different and unique process.
As well as an arduous and extensive journey, wherein
the changeling faces various threats and situations not as
they seem, the ordeal always includes one scene related directly to her Thread and one related to her Needle. These
moments of respite between trials permit the changeling to
affirm the core of her identity and strengthen her will to
face what lies ahead. Such danger present during these moments suits the changeling’s nature. The Bon Vivant stumbles upon some hobgoblins sharing a feast who invite him
to participate — as long as he doesn’t overstay his welcome.
The changeling motivated by Honor faces a temptation, the
Hedge and Wyrd engineering a chance to demonstrate his
steadfastness.
A changeling undergoing an ordeal gains the Kithseeker
Persistent Condition (below). The Storyteller should create
trials to match the character undertaking them and be mindful of the player’s own desires and Aspirations, giving her
opportunities to let her show off how the trials change the
character while shining a light upon her unchanging core.
Upon successfully resolving the Condition, the changeling
gains a new kith.
KITHSEEKER
(PERSISTENT)
Your character undertakes an ordeal in the Hedge
to seek a kith that matches her soul’s calling. During the
ordeal, she must face five trials, each of which comprises
roughly one scene. Her motley and others can help her, but
if someone else resolves a trial for her, she refuses to engage
with a trial, or she leaves the Hedge, the Condition ends
without resolution.
Resolution: The character overcomes five trials and
gains a new kith.
Beat: The character endures significant adversity or
learns something new about herself as part of a trial.
86
Chapter Three: Kiths
Bartering
Finally, a changeling might gain a kith through
bartering with one of the few and far between hobgoblin
merchants who possess such prizes. A changeling might get
lucky and find one at a Goblin Market, but more often she
must undergo an arduous journey through the Hedge to find
whatever remote fastness a reclusive collector dwells within.
A kith never comes cheap. Hobgoblins know the value
of these scraps of purpose and potential and always demand
high prices. The kith’s appearance reflects its nature; the
Snowskin’s snowglobe stirs itself to flurries in a changeling’s
presence, or the Notary’s bundle of curling parchments requires signatures and seals. Such kiths-for-trade come from
somewhere, of course. Some changelings willingly sell a portion of their selfhood out of desperation or because they
want to shuck some transfiguration the Gentry forced upon
them. Others fall victim to some ghastly Hedge horror or a
brutal balance of debt and Wyrd that rips away their kith.
Kiths bought by barter come with one final caveat emptor. Sometimes, a portion of the former owner’s Goblin Debt
remains attached — indeed, that’s precisely what drives some
Lost to part with them in the first place. The new owner
inherits the Debts. While rarely too onerous an obligation,
these Goblin Debts come from utterly unknown creditors.
Fashioning Kiths
When building a chronicle, kiths provide players and
Storytellers the opportunity to make characters unique. Not
merely professions that define a changeling’s daily grind,
the connective thread of a kith binds a changeling’s history,
personality, and theme together. One of the Lost isn’t just
a hunter or a doctor; she’s the predator whose eyes gleam
between the trees in the dark forest, or an untouchable beekeeper mystic whose bees make honey capable of curing the
deadliest illnesses.
When choosing or creating a kith, remember they always represent the mythic and iconic. Even if the changeling
herself remains unaware of this fact, by escaping Arcadia’s
clutches, she became nothing short of exceptional, and her
struggle to rebuild her life cultivates her individual uniqueness. Kith selection communicates or foreshadows a changeling’s strengths and flaws as well as the kind of story she
might experience. Mechanically, it defines the powers she
develops as she adapts to an old reality made new again. On
a personal note, it expresses why her peers should treasure
her — and why she should treasure herself.
Most importantly, picking a kith should be fun. Kiths
should inspire and energize players and Storytellers alike!
One of the joys of playing Changeling: the Lost comes from
finding ways to sculpt kiths into character concepts and vice
versa: a player might begin with Airtouched (p. 106) and create a winged unicorn Fairest, turn a conceptual satyr into
an Absinthial (p. 88), or design a Doppelgänger (p. 99) into
a kitsune. Changeling gives players and Storytellers the op-
portunity to tap into deep, rich wells of folklore from across
the world, becoming the iconic, powerful creatures dwelling
within those tales. The same advice applies when designing
new kiths. A kith most importantly inspires great stories, enabling players to create exactly the character they want to play.
The Changeling core rulebook presents guidelines for
kith design starting on page 304. This section accompanies
rather than replaces that one, discussing the thematic and
narrative aspects of kith creation, and considerations for
choosing or crafting a kith for a character.
Kith Themes
A kith reflects how a changeling views herself alongside
her fellows and in the context of Lost history. Two Venombites (p. 116) of different seemings may have little else in
common, but their kith binds them together though shared
instincts and worldviews.
Kiths also connect changelings to fairytales and folklore, which represent their relationship to the Hedge, the
freehold and its courts, and the mortal world. They contextualize metaphors and symbols in the changeling’s life,
helping her secure her identity. This makes folklore the best
place to start when creating a new kith.
Consider the themes and stories with which the kith
is associated, along with how those can influence a changeling’s place in the world. One Helldiver (Changeling, p.
53) may mirror Orpheus’ journey to Hades in a chronicle
focused on tragic love, while another reflects Hanuman’s
search for Rama’s missing ring in a story about loyalty.
When creating a new kith with a specific character in
mind, consider also the changeling’s durance. Why did a
Kindly One abduct this changeling in the first place? What
did the Gentry do with her, and how does she feel about the
role foisted upon her? A kith should capably encompass a
multitude of character concepts beneath the same thematic
umbrella: a Beast transformed into a rabid dog and an Ogre
serving as a medic in a warped World War I reenactment
can both end up Plaguesmiths (p. 113), for instance, despite
their disparate experiences.
Changelings are nothing if not diverse, and the ways
they take on their kiths reflect that diversity. How does a
changeling tricked into becoming a Valkyrie (p. 115) differ
from the one who sought out that identity? How does one
who stole a Cloakskin’s (p. 98) Icon react when the Selkie
Queen, the original Cloakskin’s Keeper, decides to claim
both as her runaway property? These kiths make a changeling’s history stand out, forcing them to confront their past
triumphs and mistakes by virtue of their present identity.
Kiths also reflect humanity viewed through a dark,
cracked mirror. Passion becomes a burning flame, sorrow
chills a frozen heart, and tragedy weaves into a gossamer
cloak. Kiths express mortal highs and lows in more vivid
and iconic terms, isolating bits and pieces of the human experience and viewing them through a fae lens.
Finally, a kith forces a changeling to wear her heart on
the outside. Others may have no context for her appearance
and role, but her kith displays her inner turmoil and personal growth to the world for those who know how to look.
Indeed, some changelings rid themselves of their kiths to
avoid the mortifying ordeal of being known.
Repurposing
Not every kith needs brand new mechanics or themes.
One may choose to simply mix and match two existing
kiths. For example, a Darkwhisper kith may combine the
Hunterheart’s exceptional success blessing (Changeling, p.
55) with the Uttervoice’s unique power (p. 93). Thematically,
this gives voice to unspoken fears, paralyzing anyone who
hears a Darkwhisper’s insidious promises — a role fitting under either original kith, but captured by neither perfectly.
Another easy way to create a new kith comes from reskinning an existing one. A reskinned kith uses all the same
mechanics as the original but tweaks details and context to
fill a niche or express a character concept in a more personal
way. Changelings of a Spiritsoul kith, for instance, may have
served their durances as the Kindly Ones’ envoys to Shadow.
The kith’s mechanics remain identical to those of the Ghostheart (p. 91), but all references to ghosts change to spirits
instead, and the presence of a Spiritsoul in the chronicle
clearly adds a different dynamic and different narrative opportunities than a Ghostheart.
Approaches
Consider whether your new kith represents a broader
archetype or a particular mythical creature, or whether that
question has no clear-cut answer. The Bright One (Changeling, p. 52) can represent a changeling emulating a will-o’the-wisp among many other concepts, but a new kith focusing more specifically on leading victims away and leaving
them lost and confused can represent the same. Both approaches are valid ways to turn the concept into a character,
and which to choose is simply a matter of player preference.
Changeling rulebooks provide kiths flexible enough
to appeal to a wide range of players and encompass legends
from many cultures, so every chronicle contains a broad base
of appropriate kith choices. However, this shouldn’t discourage anyone from making kiths with tighter niches.
When narrowing a generalized kith into a more specific
form for stronger ties to a particular place, culture, or mythology, reskinning myths becomes a valuable tool. Instead of
playing a Draconic changeling (p. 90), Nadia wants her character’s kith to represent a Persian Azi. The mechanics don’t need
to change, but the narrower focus distinguishes Nadia’s character from other dragon-based changelings. They experience
greater kinship with other Azi, which extends to changelings
whose (non-Draconic) kiths also draw on Persian mythology,
such as peris and manticores. Apply the same considerations
to newly created kiths; each one comes with its own unique
Fashioning Kiths
87
relationships and perspectives, and leaning into those makes
each character feel more unique and real.
Not every changeling has or needs a more refined kith.
Sticking with the more general Draconic kith doesn’t make
a character generic, just connected to a wider spectrum
of diverse changelings. Through their shared kiths, these
changelings support each other through hard times, act as
diplomatic back channels between courts and seemings, and
celebrate the myriad one-of-a-kind ways their shared story
manifests.
The kiths presented in this section hew thematically to
the Crown, representing archetypes excelling at diplomacy,
command, and imposing their will upon others.
Fairest: Her blond hair, green eyes and mischievous
smile remind you of nothing so much as a pixie from the
Lang color fairy books. The bar she runs overflows with the
best gossip — and when someone gets too far out of line, why,
she just leaves them out back until they wake up in the dirt
the next morning. No harm, no foul.
Wizened: Some say his brews force the speaker to tell
the truth. Others say he’s just really good at getting people
drunk. His favorite saying is “In vino veritas” and he never
passes up a chance to prove it.
Kith Blessing: When crafting anything consumable —
beverages, meals, potions, etc. — with fae ingredients using
Crafts, an Absinthial’s player achieves exceptional success
with three successes instead of five.
Green Fairy’s Curse: Once per scene, an Absinthial may
spend a Glamour point and touch her target, inflicting her
intoxicating visions upon them. Her player rolls Presence +
Crafts + Wyrd contested by the target’s Composure + Wyrd;
success inflicts the Insensate Tilt (Changeling, p. 330) on the
target, as they’re paralyzed by beautiful dreams or brain-freezing
nightmares. Once the Insensate effect ends, the target suffers
the Confused Condition (Changeling, p. 335) as they slowly
come back to themselves. The curse does not work on True Fae
or Huntsmen.
Absinthial
Climacteric
“Drink it up. Drink it all up. What, you don’t like the taste
of your own medicine?”
Arcadian brews share the strangeness and wondrousness of the True Fae who consume them: Wines so dry they
leave a mortal gasping for water, smoky whiskies setting the
tongue aflame — and of course, absinthe, the green fairy. As
with all things fae, the green fairy encompasses both greater
simplicity and complication than first apparent.
Absinthials brewed fae absinthe for the Gentry. Taken
for their imaginations and the places their dreams wandered, their Keepers forced them to brew these dreams into
the most potent beverage on either side of the Hedge. After
their escape, they report seeing their captors in the throes of
visions caused by the bright green liquid.
Most Absinthials escape during these fits of fae ecstasy.
They might have sacrificed dreams for those brews, but they
retain memories as intact as any changeling’s. Some continue to brew draughts in the mortal world, whether craft beer,
bathtub gin, or goblin fruit draughts: these Absinthials constantly try to recreate the potent absinthe only brewable in
Arcadia. Others find a thin contentment in rendering others
paralyzed by their presence alone.
Fickle, perfectionistic, and creative, Absinthials generally insist on doing things their way. They convince themselves
of their greater wisdom and don’t take criticism lying down.
The Absinthials may have brewed the green fairy, but they
also are the green fairies, and those who forget that often
wind up on the wrong end of an Absinthial’s wrath.
“It’s your move. I’m sorry, were you not prepared?”
Time flows strangely in Arcadia. The hour a changeling
spends there might last 10 years back on Earth, or perhaps
the day and a half her family lived through during her absence amounted to a hundred thousand years of torture at
Faerie hands. No one really knows the metrics between the
mundane world and the unearthly, hellish paradise of the
True Fae — just as well, for there aren’t any, until there are.
Climacterics served as environmental stewards, stage
managers, and ersatz calendars back in Faerie, living timepieces wound to their Keepers’ specifications. She held
the responsibility to pull down the night for a beautiful
candlelit ball while he raised whatever sun his Keeper’s demesne boasted for a dramatic dawn duel between two Gentry. Much of the performance in each realm springs from a
mix of a Keeper’s whims and her Climacteric’s memories of
weather and time, producing fantastic, dramatic, and sometimes deadly results. For example, the changeling’s recollections of Florida summer deluge and her Keeper’s opinions of
an ideal thunderstorm blur together in a vivid dance.
Escaped Climacterics represent both immense value
and incredible danger for any given freehold. Their blessing
allows for near-complete battlefield control, but use of said
blessing serves as a glaring beacon to Huntsmen searching
for escaped changelings. Some freeholds believe any Climacteric is a lure, a Loyalist sent to collect escapees, and so do
not even allow them access, let alone citizenship.
For their part, Climacterics often quietly keep to them-
Example Kiths
The plethora of additional example kiths below expand
upon those given in Changeling. Their division into sections
based on the six most common Regalia (followed by miscellaneous example kiths at the end) exists as only a thematic
grouping for ease of organization and access; a changeling
need not belong to the Regalia’s associated seeming nor possess any of its Contracts to be a member of any of these kiths.
Crown
88
Chapter Three: Kiths
Arcadian Absinthe
Changelings of the Absinthial kith brew true
Arcadian absinthe: a mix of wormwood,
fennel, peaches from the groves of Arcadia,
and the Absinthial’s own dreams. It tastes
much sweeter than mortal absinthe, suffused
with a bright green glow. When consumed,
it renders True Fae Insensate and all others
both Insensate and Poisoned, per the Tilts
(Changeling, p. 331). Arcadian Absinthe
is impossible to brew in the mundane world.
Brewing it in the Hedge requires a fivesuccess paradigm shift on a Build Equipment
Hedgespinning action (Changeling, p.
196). Dramatic failures induce Bedlam as
usual.
selves. Many take great joy in planning for the long run and
games of strategy. Few ever freely admit that having control
over the time and weather of a Faerie demesne intoxicated
them, and they struggle to replace that heady sensation.
Some become oneiromancers, trying to recapture that feeling of power without the soul-crushing abuse.
Beast: Tall and proud, his mane resembles that of the
lion in the clock of Messina. Only his blinking gives away his
kith: one-two, one-two, thirty times per minute.
Wizened: Short and pale, they wind their long dark hair
up into an elegant bun. They only dress in neat black coats
and pants, and the pocket watch around their neck attaches
to the base of their skull with a simple gold chain.
Kith Blessing: When attempting to identify patterns
(behavior, aesthetic, writing, timing, etc.) with Investigation,
the Climacteric’s player achieves exceptional success with
three successes instead of five.
En Prise: Climacterics retain a sliver of their original
power, even if they cannot control as much as they’d like.
Whenever a Climacteric is present when anyone rolls for Initiative, she may spend a Glamour point to choose one character to automatically act at the top of the Initiative order
without a roll; she can’t choose herself.
Concubus
“May I put my arms around you? Thank you. Try to relax.
Listen to the rain. Your nightmares will be gone before you know it.”
She couldn’t quite call it a dream — do Fae dream? — but
being in the mind of a True Fae taught her all she needed
to know about the dangers of oneiromancy. Here, in this
strange realm, she organized her Keeper’s mind, fended off
assailants, and spun beautiful mirages. Her childlike Keeper
crafted her into a rufous stuffed bear and wails for her at
bedtime, hungry for the cotton-candy dreams she weaves.
A rival Gentry immerses himself nightly in a still, clear
pond distilled from a blue-eyed young man; freshly bathed,
he slumbers with one hand trailing in its calming waters,
beneath the arching branches of a sighing willow. Yet another commands a faux therapist to hypnotize her to sleep
at night, beneath the swinging brass dish of a censer twisted
out of a middle-aged mother, spilling thick frankincense to
sweeten her Keeper’s dreams.
The word “concubus” means “to lie with,” and whether
they literally lie down next to their Keepers, they spend their
nights with their captors. The Fae take Concubi as companions, whether for the sparkle of their eyes, the softness of
their skin, or the smell of their hair. During the daylight
of her durance, her Keeper left the Concubus to her own
devices, alone in her Keeper’s realm and isolated from other
changelings. Whether chained to the bed or the hearth, put
away in a cupboard at daylight, or simply swaddled in bandages until the next night’s lightning-storm, the next experimentation session, all Concubi share deeply intimate nocturnal exchanges with wildly alien minds followed by desperate
stretches of diurnal loneliness. She might have shared this
duty — this codependent cycle — with other Concubi, who
became her only companions save her Keeper, or she might
have defended a True Fae who chose to sleep by herself. At
night, whether she wrapped her arms around her Keeper’s
form — no matter how squamous or awful — climbed up on
the experimentation table of her own accord or curled up at
the foot of the bed like a good, faithful hound, together she
and her captor plunged once again into a shared madness.
Few changelings other than Concubi ever experience
what pass for the dreams of the Gentry, and few Concubi speak
about their experiences. A superstitious fear passes through
the kith that chronicling a Gentry’s dreams brings the Wild
Hunt down on freeholds. Being let into the inner workings of
a Faerie mind is terrifying and alien but also something of a
privilege, to be allowed somewhere so vulnerable.
Some hardline changelings consider Concubi little better than privateers or other loyalists. Indeed, some miss their
former role so much that they return. Many, however, decide their own Bastions more worthy of defense than their
Keepers’, and find work as therapists, courtesans, and oneiropomps for their fellow Lost.
Beast: She stuns with dark eyes, dark hair, and — when
you get past her Mask — dark wings that trail behind her like
a feathered cloak. Don’t let her get too close; you might be
overwhelmed by the scent of lavender and jasmine.
Darkling: Scars cover his emerald skin, mixing in with
tattoos trailing up his strong arms. While louder than most
Darklings — and larger, too — sometimes he’ll sing you a lullaby, soothing you to sleep — for a price, of course.
Kith Blessing: When breaking into a dreamer’s Bastion (Changeling, p. 221) with Empathy, a Concubus’ player
achieves exceptional success with three successes instead of
five.
Example Kiths
89
Valerian and Violence: When a Concubus gains the
Dream Infiltrator Condition by sleeping next to the target
for six hours and interacting with his dreams, the Concubus can remove one non-persistent Condition affecting the
dreamer mentally or psychosomatically (Confused, Cowed,
Deprived, Fatigued, etc.) as a paradigm shift costing three
successes.
Resolving one Persistent Condition (Amnesia, Broken,
Delusional, etc.) requires three consecutive six-hour shifts of
sleeping next to the target, the Dream Intruder Condition,
and performing both subtle and paradigm shifts inside her
Bastion.
Draconic
“How many times have I told you, don’t touch other people’s
shit without asking? You’re going to get hurt someday.”
Once upon a time, a dragon guarded a princess in a
tower. No knight dared to rescue her for fear of being torn
to shreds. The princess liked it that way, for she loved her
dragon, and the fear that dragon instilled in their enemies.
One day, the dragon flew away. No one ever asked her
how she felt about her princess.
The Gentry model Draconic changelings on the mythic
beasts of Faerie, making them fearsome to behold in full
mien. Thick horns blossom from her brow, scales line her
sharp cheekbones, and her back bears heavy, leathery wings.
While she can no longer breathe fire or crush buildings with
a single whip of her tail, a Draconic still makes for a breathtaking sight. Perhaps she guarded a princess’s tower from
smitten fae knights, haunted a deep and dark forest, or protected her Keeper’s hoard of treasures, but all yield the same
result — a grand, scaled, avaricious beast of Arcadia.
Draconic changelings find themselves too big for the
world: too loud, too present, too much for those around
them. They do not fit into soft spaces, have little volume
control, and can accidentally intimidate even the most experienced Summer soldier. New Draconics struggle not to
see everything as either a threat or part of their collection;
some build hoards and collect things that make them feel
safe. Others join motleys and protect people they care about,
though this sometimes requires patience from other changelings as the Draconic fusses over their well-being. Once she
settles in and learns to relax with a motley, though, Draconics make wonderful friends. They guard their people and
hoards with unparalleled ferocity; her people and things provide her love and stability, and woe betide those who would
disturb her sense of home.
Fairest: She never needs highlighter, for her cheekbones
are lined with scales the size of glitter flecks. Her mirrorbright horns need no care. The only thing unpleasant about
her is her temper, which explodes over everyone in the room
like wildfire at a single misplaced word.
Ogre: Her legs bend backward and end in wicked claws.
Her massive, cracked horns mark her hard durance. With fear-
90
Chapter Three: Kiths
some might, she protects her Hollow and anyone under her
hospitality from the cruelty of knights and princesses alike.
Kith Blessing: Choose either Brawl or Weaponry.
When the Draconic defends a person, place, or thing she
cares about with that Skill, achieving three successes counts
as an exceptional success.
None Dare Resist: The Draconic may spend an extra
point of Glamour while scouring her Mask and roar, flex,
or perform some other clear demonstration of dominance
and force to inflict the Frightened Condition (Changeling,
p. 339) on all opponents who can perceive her. If she’s in the
Hedge or another place where she has no Mask to scour, she
simply needs to spend one point of Glamour as an instant
action and make the display.
Additionally, she may spend a Glamour point as a reflexive action to take to the air and fly freely for a number
of turns equal to her Wyrd, with a flight Speed of 60; if she
charges (Changeling, p. 184) from the air, her player gains +2
to the attack roll. If she’s still in the air when this effect ends,
she glides harmlessly down to the nearest surface.
Flowering
“Oh, it’s so nice of you to say that! I didn’t even know you’d
noticed me…”
Famous for its gardens and woodlands, Arcadia bursts
with strange and beautiful flora found nowhere else. The air
hangs heavy with the scent of blue lilies and beating hearts
strung on glowing vines all wrapped around the pillars of
some True Fae’s portico. The Flowering blossom among
these flowers, the changelings from whose pain new flowers
grow.
Some changelings believe the common misconception
that the Gentry crafted all Flowering into actual flowerbeds.
While true of some, others fled a life of gardening, flowerarranging, or perfuming their Fae masters. Trained by their
durances to make others look good, many Flowerings find it
difficult to readjust to a life where they are their own masters.
Because of this feeling of depersonalization, a new Flowering tends to find others to serve after escaping their durance. While some become Loyalists, others work to become
the trusted confidantes and viziers of court monarchs. Many
simply dote on motley-mates or attach themselves to courtiers they find particularly alluring. Flowering come in many
varieties and temperaments, each more bizarre and beautiful
than the last.
While often perceived as soft and sweet, the hypnotic
scent of a Flowering poses a danger to those who spend time
in her company as their well-being becomes reliant upon her.
Some abuse this power, steering their courts toward ruin.
Others try to keep the freehold’s best interests in mind, even
if they slip up sometimes. Still others seclude themselves,
perceiving their power’s poisonous potential and worrying
about unduly influencing others.
Elemental: Her long, graceful arms and dark neck, covered with bark-like scars remind you of a willow tree. She
lingers quietly in the corner of meetings, always weeping,
weeping, weeping…
Fairest: Do they lace flowers into their hair or do those
locks sprout blossoms at whim? Their constant presence at
the Spring Court monarch’s side causes rumors to blossom,
too: lovers, or merely the best of friends?
Kith Blessing: When convincing someone they need
her with Socialize, a Flowering’s player achieves an exceptional success at three instead of five.
Seductive Fragrance: Every Flowering emits a different
perfume, something akin to a Faerie garden at midnight.
The changeling’s player spends a Glamour point and rolls
Presence + Empathy. For the scene, any character in her
presence or who enters her presence must roll Composure +
Wyrd to contest the result. Those who fail suffer the Leveraged Condition (Changeling, p. 342) regarding the Flowering. She cannot end this effect early. If she spends another
Glamour point at any time during the scene, she may also
inflict one of the following Conditions on a Leveraged target: Frightened, Reckless, or Swooned.
Ghostheart
“You can’t see them because you’re not looking.”
An oddity among the Lost, Ghosthearts fulfilled deeply
unpleasant tasks during their durance: preparing and dis-
posing of the dead of Faerie. Changelings don’t like remembering that those left behind might actually die under the
Gentry’s tender mercies; Ghosthearts serve as painful reminders of the human bodies buried beneath the seas and
forests of their Arcadian nightmares. Wishes are not enough
to bring them back.
Before their durance, Ghosthearts truly saw the world
around them: perhaps they simply possessed uncanny situational awareness, or maybe they encountered the supernatural. The True Fae delight in sweeping up Avowed and turning them into Ghosthearts, too. Their observational ability
meant the Gentry, those masters of illusion, saw the danger
from these changelings and did not keep them in their glimmering, gilded courts. Instead, they gave Ghosthearts the
truest of tasks — burying, burning, sinking, or cooking the
dead. The Fae might lie, but the dead never do.
Through their contact with the dead, the Ghosthearts
began to see what they became: ghosts who wandered the
Hedge and Arcadia, never resting. Shunned by other changelings, enslaved by an inhuman Keeper, the Ghostheart found
companionship among the echoes of the unquiet dead. It
was these dead that led her out, that found her the keys or
distracted her Keeper or led her to the great gates of Arcadia.
She brought these ghosts with her.
Other changelings often find Ghosthearts creepy at
best. At worst, their peers actively exclude Ghosthearts from
freehold functions — but this never goes well for them. A
Ghostheart has many ephemeral friends who are happy
Example Kiths
91
to harass and make life difficult for people who hurt her.
Ghosthearts gravitate strongly toward the Autumn and Winter courts and sometimes assist in freehold defense, so long
as the freehold isn’t shunning her.
Ghosthearts cling tightly to memories of times past, and
to the memories of those around them. They have seen what
awaits people who die in Arcadia. Most do not wish this
fate on anyone — though some lead unsuspecting mortals
into the Hedge to create more ghosts for their service. Ghosthearts make excellent record-keepers, spies, and couriers.
Some few have become diplomats, treating with creatures
beyond the warmth of changeling society. Their unusual perceptive abilities have only been heightened by their time in
Faerie, and a clever monarch knows just how to use a loyal
Ghostheart.
Darkling: If you look at her out of the corner of your eye,
she looks translucent, a person-shaped wall of smoke. Looking at her straight on, you see her dark eyes, darker than any
eyes should be, and her sharp fingernails caked with blood
and dirt.
Ogre: He’s rarely ever out of the Hedge, but when he
does come to freehold gatherings, he bears boxes of oddments and the bones of long-dead fae creatures. His veins
bulge from his neck and his hands are as large as shovels.
Kith Blessing: Whenever a Ghostheart makes a perception-based roll with Wits + Composure to see manifest
ghosts or other ghostly Twilight entities (including Helldivers), her player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Friends in Strange Places: Every Ghostheart starts play
with an extra three dots of Retainers. These dots represent
ghosts she controls or with whom she’s close. These can be
three one-dot ghosts, one two-dot ghost and one one-dot
ghost, or one three-dot ghost. Each ghost starts with one Numen of the player’s choice (Changeling, p. 249) other than
Clarity Drain, Entrap, and Keeper’s Calling. A Ghostheart
may buy more Allies dots to represent more ghosts, but she
may only choose the Numina for the ghost Allies granted by
this kith.
Moonborn
“‘Crazy’ is an insult. It’s used to lock people in institutions
and dismiss survivors of abuse. The word you’re looking for is
‘mad.’ And if you’re not mad, you’re not paying attention.”
Sometimes, the Fae don’t want to get caught up in
their own passions. Sometimes, a feeling is just inconvenient. Sometimes it’s fun to inflict changelings with a certain feeling and see what they do next. Moonborn are the
changelings who were the favorite targets of their Keepers’
emotional games. Kept in a constant state of Bedlam with
their feelings at fever pitch, the Moonborn who come back
through the Hedge are easily set off by the smallest things.
They tend to form attachments extremely quickly and break
them with just as much ease.
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To be a Moonborn is to struggle for companionship. Being run through thousands of emotions in quick succession
means that she has no basis for comparison. How should
she feel when she’s acknowledged by her Court monarch:
embarrassed, proud, angry? Does her lover actually love her,
or is this another Fae trick? Every piece of stable emotional
footing a Moonborn has, she’s fought for and won with her
own blood and brain.
Moonborn do not usually gravitate toward leadership
positions in freeholds, but if they do, it’s to help new Lost
find their own feet in this strange new existence. Many assist
in Hedge expeditions, freehold defense, and other important Lost business. Some Moonborn are Bridge-Burners, and
it pains their fellows to punish them for starving everyone
else. A scant few exist outside of freeholds entirely, stirring
up the Bedlam among unsuspecting victims that was stirred
up in them in Faerie. After all, according to these particular Bridge-Burners, if they were tortured like that, shouldn’t
others be forced to suffer the same fate?
Darkling: She looks like a normal thirty-something human: straight black hair, freckled skin, glasses. Behind those
glasses, though, her blank silver-white eyes stare without
irises or pupils.
Wizened: Never still, he is well-known throughout the
freehold for his kind voice, his gentle hands, and his overwhelming empathy. Those who have seen him in peacetime
have a hard time reconciling that with the absolute terror he
projects onto enemies in battle.
Kith Blessing: Choose Empathy or Intimidation at
character generation. When changing someone’s emotional
state via the chosen Skill, a Moonborn’s player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Full Moon Catharsis: A Moonborn carries the passions
the Fae inflicted on her within her soul, and sometimes it’s
too much. Once per chapter, a Moonborn can Incite Bedlam in a number of targets equal to her Wyrd by spending a Glamour and rolling Manipulation + Expression, as
she screams, sings, or simply recites the story of her worst
memory yet again in excruciating detail. Her targets contest
with Composure + Wyrd. She may inflict one of the following Conditions on all targets who fail the roll: Competitive,
Frightened, Reckless, Lethargic, or Wanton.
Uttervoice
“You really don’t want to hear about that…”
Old stories and newer urban legends are rife with tales
of people following a voice only they could hear into dangerous and impossible situations. Most changelings attribute
this to True Fae. The Gentry find this terribly amusing, and
so they have created the Uttervoice kith.
Uttervoices come from the same sort of people as Nightsingers (see pp. 56-57 of the Changeling: The Lost): artists or
those with a creative will. The difference is that the Uttervoices let their frustration get the better of them. When they
were taken, they were at a stalemate with themselves, feeling
unable to make anything, let alone a masterpiece.
An Uttervoice’s Keeper takes that frustration and
shapes it into a weapon to point at her enemies. Instead of a
masterpiece painting, her voice is a claymore, cutting swaths
through the armies of other Gentry.
Once free of their durance, Uttervoices have wildly
varying reactions to their power. Some refuse to speak above
a whisper, or at all unless it’s particularly important. Others
speak normally but take care to remind others what weight
their voice carries.
Uttervoices struggle with fitting in and feeling at ease,
especially right after their escape. Fear and anger come naturally to them. When her primary mode of communication
contains an act of violence, how else should an Uttervoice
relate to those around her?
Beast: She has colorful feathers speckled throughout her
brown hair, resembling a peahen. You know her for her ability to drive like a Formula 500 champ, but others say she cut
down a True Fae simply by screaming at him until he broke
in half.
Elemental: Their hair swirls around them like a sunbeam. and their mouth is a little too big for their face. When
they open it their hair crackles like a lightning bolt.
Kith Blessing: When using their voice to Intimidate
someone, an Uttervoice’s player achieves exceptional success
at three successes instead of five.
Scream of Agony: The Uttervoice spends a point of Glamour and screams — whether an incantation, a threat, or just
wordless howling — and makes a contested Presence + Wyrd
roll. Everyone who hears the scream makes a Composure +
Wyrd roll; her agony does not differentiate between friend
and foe. Failure inflicts one point of bashing damage; an
exceptional success on the part of the Uttervoice upgrades
this damage to lethal. An Uttervoice can scream continually
(utilizing her instant action every turn) until she runs out
of Glamour; her scream also ignores any Durability score
(p. 191 of Changeling: The Lost) lower than 2, and shatters
glass instantly. Uttervoices find this power difficult to control, though — any time the Uttervoice makes a Presence roll
using or affecting a supernatural phenomenon, her power
accidentally activates if she benefits from the 8-again rule.
Jewels
The Jewel kiths embody physical perfection, or at least
the impression of it. A changeling of these kiths may not
always appear lovely or gloriously terrible but their power is
that of creation, temptation, and avarice.
Delver
“How about I take a lump of coal and shove it someplace
uncomfortable for you, and then I can look for diamonds with my
boot?”
The wealthy hide their precious things in hard-to-reach
places, oceans swallow ships whole, and the earth holds
deeply buried riches in her embrace. The True Fae seek out
clever individuals, luring them into Arcadia with hints of
power, wealth, and opportunity. In Arcadia, the Fae constantly push their Delvers to mine out the next sparkling
bit of gemstone or raise lost treasures from the ocean. Eventually, Delvers literally lose themselves in their work: their
transformation into Delvers centers on leaving behind unnecessary pieces. Most lose their voices in some lonely tunnel, leaving them unable to speak.
Delvers operate with a surprising degree of apparent freedom from their keepers in Arcadia. Their pursuits
are often solitary but occasionally they can hear a tap-taptapping in the depths that isn’t an echo of their own work.
Sometimes it is another Delver working a vein in the same
mine, hoping to reach out and connect with another soul,
but stranger things exist in the hidden pits of Arcadia too.
A Delver fiercely guards her precious sources, whether
a valuable vein of gold in the mine or a backdoor hacked
into the BriarNet, are fiercely guarded secrets. Their keepers
may take the lion’s share of the treasure but scraps an enterprising Delver gleans are carefully bargained and traded.
The common myth, secretly tapped out in coded messages
among members of this kith in Arcadia, is that the only way
to escape is to find the pieces they lost in becoming a Delver,
or perhaps to find what they’d come to Arcadia looking for
to begin with. Most rediscover their voices before coming
home but one silent Beast dug for bones in his keeper’s back
yard. He eventually dug up his wife’s old wedding ring that
he’d been looking for when the Fae took him.
After returning to the mortal world, Delvers form a
natural community achieved by few other kiths. After all,
while a Delver may communicate with anyone via Tappingspeak, only another Delver — or someone with appropriate
supernatural means to answer her — can carry on a full conversation. Many achieve considerable success in the mortal
world; their durances taught patience, persistence, and an
instinct for qualities and skills valued by employers in highlevel employees.
Darkling: Her skin shines like the point of a fresh drill.
Her back is twisted and hunched into a compact form when
she sits still. Most in the freehold never give her much
thought, but her queen keeps her close and knows the value
of her advice.
Elemental: The changeling’s skin appears pebbled, but
his fingers are thin and muddy water flows over the rocks of
his knuckles. He doesn’t speak aloud but runs an enormously successful business as an antiques vendor and research
consultant.
Kith Blessing: Delvers have a sixth sense for uncovering hidden things. When making Investigation rolls to find
what was lost or hidden, a Delver’s player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Example Kiths
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Tappingspeak: A Delver may encrypt and decode messages tapped out against a surface connected to the earth. She
spends a point of Glamour and declares her recipients, sending a message travelling to them as vibrations through the
ground within (the Delver’s Wyrd) miles. She may direct this
message to any number of people at once within range, and
the Glamour’s encryption allows them innate and reflexive
understanding. Other Delvers and even exceptionally sensitive seismographs or other means of detection may intercept
messages not intended for them, though non-Delvers require
supernatural means to decode them. Delvers may spend a
point of Glamour and make an Investigation roll to decode
any message conveyed through the earth.
Glimmerwisp
“Won’t you spend a little bit of time with me? It’s so cold
tonight...”
Horror fandom popularized the mist which suddenly
spreads through towns, carrying silence and monsters.
Sometimes, the townsfolk themselves become the monsters,
acting on their worst impulses. After all, a mist can serve to
hide any creature’s worst excesses.
Glimmerwisps took the place of these storied fogs and
mists in Faerie. The Fae crafted many of them from mortals who, for whatever reason, feared getting into trouble.
The teenager with the overly strict mother, the wife whose
spouse’s “love” depends upon how closely she hews to impossible and ever-changing rules, the first responder with skeletons in his closet: all could easily become Glimmerwisps.
They threw protective gauzes and glimmers over the Gentry’s atrocities, traveling with them and enabling their worst
excesses; some Glimmerwisps even came to have a taste for
the work. After all, it helps other changelings not to see what
their Keepers are really doing, right?
It’s not that the True Fae can’t behave themselves or hide
their own actions. The Glimmerwisps who escape come to see
this quite clearly. The Gentry are essentially the small gods of
their own domains — as far as any Glimmerwisp can tell, the
only reason they take changelings to cover up their own actions
is because they want to. It brings a Keeper a perverse sense of joy
to know that one of their changelings has the sole job of covering up their cruelty. It’s good to have a loyal servant like that.
Many Glimmerwisps who escape do so because of the
careless brutality of their masters. Some, however, figure
that they could be more powerful outside of the grasp of the
True Fae, where the only cruelties they’re hiding are their
own. It’s easy enough to escape as a Glimmerwisp — simply breeze through the Hedge. She’s already committed the
unforgivable sin of escape, and she’s covered up a thousand
graver sins than that in her Durance.
Elemental: Her ash-blond hair always blows around her
dark face in a nonexistent breeze. You’ve never seen her open
a door for herself; she always just seems to be there, especially if there’s shouting or blood. She likes blood.
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Wizened: She’s the fastest ambulance driver in the city,
and always seems to be present just as someone goes into
shock from sepsis or blood loss. Her colorless eyes never focus on any one thing. She always seems to be assessing whatever room she’s in.
Kith Blessing: When using Persuasion to direct another character’s attention away from something horrible or
wonderful, the Glimmerwisp’s player achieves exceptional
success at three successes instead of five.
Concealing Mist: The Glimmerwisp spends a Glamour to
fill the room (or an open space up to 10 yards/meters) with
a perfumed mist that hides characters taking actions which
they would be ashamed of, or which cause them to hit breaking points. The Glimmerwisp’s player rolls Manipulation +
Persuasion + Wyrd, which each character within the mist
contests with Resolve + Composure. Characters who lose
the contest can’t see the wrongdoing of anyone else within
the mist. The mist lasts until the end of the scene.
Gremlin
“Gentry damn you, can’t you get anything right?”
Though the name “gremlin” didn’t emerge until the
1920s, Gremlins have always been part of the elaborate tapestry that makes up the Lost. Aviators thought wicked little
creatures were sabotaging their planes. They weren’t wrong,
exactly, but it was never just planes, or even machines. Anything with even the tiniest flaw was subject to a Gremlin’s
dismantling.
Gremlins feel the push and pull of perfection and obsession, twin impulses with the same outlet: destruction. A
Gremlin sees no point in doing something unless they get
it right the first time, and if they don’t, time to wreck and
rebuild. Miss a stitch? Rip the nearly perfect thread out.
One wrong line of code? Delete the entire file. This doesn’t
just apply to their own work; someone else’s error prompts
identical outcomes. More than one Gremlin gets to remain
in their motley only because of their identically quick hands
and minds. Many changelings only weather Gremlin meltdowns by remembering her promise of a perfect machine.
Before their durance, Gremlins were brilliant minds in
fields that could appreciate their perfectionism: engineers,
newspaper editors, sculptors, chefs. They shared workaholic
tendencies, and spent hours caught in their own narrow
foci, sacrificing work-life balance and personal relationships
so that they could feel the fleeting joy of perfection. Gremlins usually didn’t need the Gentry to violently abduct them;
they just had to be promised a workshop, and glory, and
appreciation for their brilliance. Of course, the Gentry then
tore their work apart with far more gusto than the Gremlin
ever did.
Ogre: He should be clumsy, with his huge hands and
hulking frame; he should knock over every table he squeezes
past, crush the piping bags he uses to decorate wedding cakes
to pulp. But his stature belies his delicacy. No one has ever
seen cakes as elaborate and beautiful as his. Even the ones
he throws away in anger every time he so much as jolts the
piping bag in the wrong direction are lovely beyond belief.
Wizened: The woodworker’s studio doubles as living
space and workshop and is so cluttered it’s hard to tell
whether any given tool is for her craft or for her life. Is there
a difference? She doesn’t seem to think so. Now get out,
you’re ruining her focus.
Kith Blessing: When making a Crafts roll to fix a broken or flawed item, the Gremlin’s player achieves exceptional success with three successes instead of five.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: When pressed for time, a Gremlin can spend a point of Glamour to turn what would otherwise be an extended action into an instant action, as long
as, at some point in that action, something needs to be torn
down or destroyed. This ability can be used once per scene.
Manikin
“Yes, I know I have hooves. They are still more in this year
than those hot pants…”
Every grand painting has a canvas and Manikins fulfill
that role for their Keepers. They are the graceful but faceless models who walk the runway to display the latest fashions, the animatronic creatures entertaining at an endless
birthday party filled with the delighted laughter of the Gentry’s children, and old straw filled scarecrows left to rot in a
field. Manikins are strange beings. Some are painstakingly
selected and adored according to obscure and arcane criteria
while other Gentry shape dozens of Manikins into identical
caryatids supporting a roof.
In their durance, Manikins are often relegated to the
bottom of the pecking order among the Gentry’s servants.
After all, a Manikin is little more than a tool and canvas
for others’ ideas. Successful Manikins are elegant, poised,
and focused on their purpose. One model turns to catch the
light with a crystal ball just so while their razor-sharp platform shoes overflow with blood. Another stands as a training dummy for their keeper’s soldiers and is knocked down
only to stand up to do it again without complaint.
Many Gentry keep a wide variety of Manikins, making
them quite a common kith. When they move on to their
next great work, these Fae dump some into Arcadia’s dark
corners and forget them with the rest of the trash, while others escape from dusty storage areas. A few manage to steal
themselves away, taking with them prized art, other changelings, or valuable artifacts their Keepers wish returned.
Wizened: Her skin is smooth canvas marred with narrow
black ribbon stitched into her that mark the design lines of a
dress. Countless tiny rust-colored flecks stain her where pins
jabbed into her again and again.
Fairest: The thin man has golden hands and an auctioneer’s compelling voice. He’s always perfectly dressed and
handsome without being flashy enough to distract from others around him.
Kith Blessing: Manikins know how to present themselves advantageously and inoffensively. When using Socialize to fit into any situation, a Manikin’s player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Gold From Straw: Spend a Glamour point and roll Presence + Crafts to hide an object’s flaws for a scene. The Manikin gains the successes rolled up to a +5 bonus on social rolls.
When this ability is used on an object to help adjust an impression in a Social maneuvering situation, the impression
level is raised an extra step. In terms of fashion, no matter
how cheaply made or inappropriate an outfit is, a Manikin
can pull it off to rave reviews on the red carpet. When used
on a chef’s sinking souffle or a rusted gun, it doesn’t actually
improve the quality of the bake or firearm — but social rolls
associated with their appearance benefit.
Oculus
“One more hand. Seriously, I mean it this time. I’m good for
it.”
Pyrite and gold look the same from afar. The wrong prescription lenses can show you a different world entirely. A
crystal ball can blur the future. So can the Oculi, who are very
much non-clairvoyant but have a gift for persuading people to
see things their way. Many seasonal monarchs keep an Oculus
by their side, though who’s influencing who is a valid question.
Oculi made good diplomats in Arcadia, mediating
negotiations between different Gentry, but they also made
good traitors to their own kind. A Keeper sensing an uprising on the horizon sent Oculi out to staunch rebellion
so they wouldn’t lose all their good little servants. The first
thing Oculi learn during their durance is that everyone has
a price, even the people who think they don’t. If you find it,
you win.
Expert bargainers, Oculi rarely abandon negotiations
no matter how poorly they fare. They bet on anything they
can influence, and even some things they can’t. Doesn’t matter that the Wyrd binds them to all their bargains, nor that
that they see more luck than misfortune: an Oculus’ rare
misstep can send ruling Courts to ruin.
Fairest: He wears quite a lot of diamond and gold jewelry
for someone who has never once bought gold or a diamond
for his own use. Ask him, and he’ll say he gets a great deal,
killer even, thanks to his work down in the Diamond District. But if you follow him out of town, you’ll spot him at
one of those tourist-trap mines, picking up crystal and fool’s
gold by the pound.
Wizened: She doesn’t speak much, so when she does,
it tends to carry greater weight. It doesn’t actually matter
how wise her words are. Because she seems so thoughtful, the
court thinks she is. It’s a very Emperor’s new clothes situation, except that so far no one has seen through her.
Kith Blessing: When an Oculus uses Persuasion to
get someone to consider her own point of view, her player
achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Example Kiths
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Amaurosis fugax: By spending a point of Glamour and
making a Presence + Persuasion + Wyrd roll contested by
Resolve + Wyrd, an Oculus obscures all physical paths save
hers. Whether via literal clouded vision, magically obscuring everything else in the target’s field of vision, or a mental
block when the target considers options, the Oculus guides
her target’s destination.
Polychromatic
“Come back tonight, folx, it’s a new show every time!”
Creatures as fickle as the True Fae need constant entertainment. They thrive on conflict, but they also thrive
on flash and beauty and the way one shade of blue fades
into another. The Polychromatic kith was born of this constant need for stimulation. Whether the Gentry find them
soothing, peaceful, or something else, many Keepers have
one around, just for show. Some, however, brought them to
large unknowable events as a sort of emotional modulator,
making sure the party didn’t get too riotous and no fights
broke out.
Before they were taken by their eldritch masters, Polychromatics were the sort of people who looked to care for
the emotional well-being of a room. They might have intervened in fights or tried to play the role of a neutral, mothering wise figure to mediate heated discussion. Their ability
to work with the shades of emotions displayed in around
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them turns into a wondrous physical display of colors on
their miens. Other changelings might refer to them as “living mood rings” or “Arcadian lava lamps.”
The Polychromatic kith’s wonder lies in their incredible
inoffensiveness. Even as beautiful, brilliant rainbow colors
flash and course throughout their skin and hair, that safe
beauty demands little of others. Some Polychromatics just
walked out of the front gates of Arcadia, flashing their signals of safety, while others convinced hobgoblins to spirit
them out. Even in the mortal realm, they make excellent
negotiators, mediators, and crisis counselors. Whenever a
freehold or motley needs a soothing voice to restore order,
sooner or later, a Polychromatic shows up, ready to help.
Beast: He looks a bit like one of those stuffed collectible
toys from the 80s. You can’t quite place which one. His voice
puts you in mind of Saturday morning pancake breakfasts
and nostalgic cartoons from your youth.
Fairest: When she’s not helping new escapees from Arcadia, she works downtown as a singer at one of those overpriced bougie jazz clubs. Her sonorous voice pulls in patrons
from all age groups, and she knows how to rake in the tips.
Old men say that her voice makes them feel young again, and
perhaps that’s true.
Kith Blessing: When using Empathy to soothe someone’s nerves or temper, the Polychromatic’s player achieves
exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Prismatic Heart: Once per chapter, a Polychromatic may
spend a Glamour, causing her mien’s colors to swirl in a
bright, beautiful display of light and hue. All other characters in the scene must spend a point of Willpower or suffer the Swooned Condition (Changeling, p. 345). Swooned
characters become emotionally overwhelmed by her display
and for the remainder of the scene take an additional −2
penalty on all rolls made to resist the Polychromatic’s use of
the Empathy Skill.
Veneficus
“Do try a bite of my famous casserole! I made it with a secret
ingredient…no, it wasn’t love. Or blood, thank you very much.”
Cooking is a miraculous alchemy. Fire and salt transform inedible roots into something delicious; puddles of oil
soften and soothe bitter buds into sweet. Tales are told of
glamoured faerie feasts, but one doesn’t need magic to engineer one of the worst betrayals: when one bites into something that looks delectable but tastes like dirt, or consumes
a dish meant to heal that poisons the body instead. Magic
certainly helps, though.
Venefici might have toiled in the kitchens of the Gentry
or struck out into the woods to gather ingredients for feasts
the likes of which mortals have never seen. A Veneficus who
sees two identical plants knows which is toxic and which
will heal an ulcer, and they can use either one to imbue a
dish with special properties. One might make the most comforting chicken noodle soup you’ve ever eaten thanks to a
sprinkle of chopped amaranthine; another’s specialty is tea
she brews with Mab’s mugwort, which she claims is just a
special blend of herbs...that happens to make you tell the
plainest truth for the next six hours.
In their mortal lives, Venefici believed in the healing
power of food, though they didn’t necessarily work in any
related industries. A Veneficus just as likely worked as an engineer as a cook or barista. But they all used food as a balm
for themselves and for others: instead of saying sorry, they
bought coffee; instead of telling a friend they loved them,
they baked a cake. Venefici still want to take care of the
people they love. They can just have more of an effect now.
Elemental: They founded their farm-to-table restaurant
barely a year ago and have already built it into one of the
most beloved businesses on this side of town. The herb garden out back especially impresses the staff, not only with its
hardiness but with the raw taste of the parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme. Whenever someone compliments the owner’s
green thumb, they just say, “I know.”
Wizened: She’s always in the community garden, plucking and pulling at her plants, and she brings a green salad
to every neighborhood potluck. Most people come away
full and happy. The one time a teenager who had recently
thrown a ball through her window complained of stomach
cramps, no one took him seriously. When he ended up in
the hospital, they still didn’t know it was the salad.
Kith Blessing: When the Veneficus makes a Survival
roll to identify Goblin fruits, her player achieves exceptional
success at three successes instead of five.
Waste Not, Want Not: By spending a point of Glamour,
a Veneficus can reflexively make a toxic plant edible, or vice
versa.
Witchtooth
“Don’t you just love a nature walk? I can hear it all now: the
rush of the wind through gnarled branches, the twigs that snap
under your feet, the quiet footsteps that dog your path… Isn’t it so
restorative?”
Witchtooths don’t eat mortals, but you’d be forgiven for
thinking they do. The most famous of their ilk are said to
have a taste for mortal flesh: Baba Yaga, Black Annis, Muma
Pădurii. The stories and translations got it wrong as mortals
passed them down over the years, twisting until the truth
of the Witchtooth was lost, and the one-dimensional horror
remained. What Witchtooths know that mortals no longer
do is the power of wild land. Many live in ancient forests,
but you can find Witchtooths in windy coves, salt flats, abandoned housing projects, and shrublands, too, though you
may wish you hadn’t crossed their paths. Witchtooths make
their homes in any abandoned places, and some move into
populated places with the intent of spooking everyone away.
They couch it in a concern for the environment, but in reality, most just enjoy scaring travelers and passersby. It’s a
simple way to harvest Glamour, and they delight in knowing they have the power to uproot others as they themselves
once were.
Before their durance, the mortals who became Witchtooths shared a sense of constraint. Overwhelmed by their
powerful, enormous, and devouring emotions, they tamped
themselves down and built a shell to contain their true feelings. Inside, their emotions ran wild; outside, they showed
deference and overt generosity, trying to make themselves
smaller, to go unseen. Durance teaches a Witchtooth she
need not restrain herself, that solitude fulfills her, and fear
can sustain her as well as love. The barrens make as good a
home for their wild hearts as any.
Despite stereotypes, Witchtooths form strong attachments to their motleys and to freeholds; they just don’t want
to be beholden to anyone. They prize freedom above all, but
what use is their knowledge without an apprentice? Witchtooths have a great deal to offer in their role as teachers to
the worthy, helping the Vasilisas and Ivans in their lives understand that all chains break, and the ancient woods always
wait for them.
Fairest: So beautiful it’s scary, that’s what he hears all the
time. His hair might have been black once, but now it’s saltwhite, and all that does is highlight the terrifying perfection
of his face. When he comes to freehold gatherings, conversations stutter and stop as the smell of briny air stings noses
and the roaring of wild water crashes down.
Example Kiths
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Wizened: She looks every bit the classical hag, a real Baba
Yaga type, and she takes full advantage. She makes sure to
smile real big at the children she hobbles past in the market, showing them her pointed, yellowing teeth; she touches
helpful cashiers’ hands, knowing her callused fingers bite
like a thornbush; and she gathers her harvest without purchasing a thing.
Kith Blessing: When a Witchtooth targets a mortal
with Intimidation, her player achieves exceptional success at
three successes instead of five.
Nibble, Nibble, Little Mouse: The Witchtooth knows her
land so well that she can transform its appearance at will, all
the better to terrify lonely stragglers. By spending a point of
Glamour and making a successful Resolve + Intimidation
roll, she can reshape the land within one square mile to look
how she wants it to. The effect lasts for a number of turns
equal to her Wyrd and deals a −1 die penalty to any Survival
rolls.
Mirror
Kiths of mirror reflect truths not wholly their own.
They reveal, they conceal, and when you least want them to,
they unveil.
Bricoleur
“You’ve heard that old joke, haven’t you? A girl asks the wrong
person to make her a sandwich, and she gets turned into a witch
made of sand. Clever, isn’t it? That’s what I did to my fetch.”
Bricoleurs trade in symbolism. The kith has existed for
as long as the Gentry have kidnapped mortals, but the name
is more recent, deriving from the concept of mythmaking as
bricolage. Bricoleurs have a gift for seeing the potential links
between disparate, unrelated elements; by drawing these
connections, they can create a unifying whole. Bricoleurs
are the fairy tale heroes who block their pursuer’s way by
throwing combs behind them that become mountains built
of teeth or spitting on the ground to create an ocean. Their
durance was transmutative: these changelings realized that
language is not a rule, and they used it to escape.
While not necessarily a writer or an artist before
the Gentry took them, a Bricoleur reveled in creative
thought, avoiding literalism in favor of something fresh
and new. Once through their durance, they find it difficult to think in straight lines, which sometimes makes
them difficult to befriend. Many Bricoleurs become overly
enamored of their own cleverness; even the quieter ones
often give off the impression of not taking other perspectives as seriously as their own. This favoritism extends
to their fellow Bricoleurs, making it not uncommon for
these changelings to compete, each showing off her transformative prowess.
Though sometimes irritating, Bricoleurs are valuable allies. They’re good at thinking on their feet, and most spend a
lot of time studying, preparing for competition or for danger.
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Some can get obsessive, spending days buried in a dictionary
to feel like they’re ready for anything — as if they don’t know
that the very nature of their lives means anything can, and
will, happen.
Darkling: This clever Wisp spends her days sifting
through dump sites and thrift shop collections, looking for
trash to turn into treasure. She always seems a bit distracted;
if something or someone isn’t useful to her now or later, she
isn’t interested.
Wizened: Odd tools dangle from the tiny hag’s belt: a
comb, a vial of salt, a bouquet of forget-me-nots and wormwood. She’s a good listener, although it’s probably so she can
always be prepared to use your words against you.
Kith Blessing: At character creation, choose a specialty
in either Crafts or Expression. When rolling the designated
skill and specialty, a Bricoleur’s player achieves exceptional
success at three successes instead of five.
Creatio Ex Nihilo: By spending a Glamour point and
making a Wits + Persuasion roll, the Bricoleur can change a
core truth about herself. It might be minor, like hair color; it
might be major, like her age. Everyone else will believe this
too, for a number of days equal to the Bricoleur’s Wyrd. She
must have an item that relates in some way to the myth she
is making and is appropriate to its power.
Most Bricoleurs will be unaware that the same change
happens to their fetch — only that transformation is for
keeps.
Cloakskin
“When I was a kid, I always said if I had a superpower, I’d
want invisibility. If I knew that I’d actually end up with a superpower, I’d have picked something else.”
Have you ever seen something out of the corner of your
eye, only to turn and realize nothing was there — just shadows? Perhaps that was a Cloakskin. These changelings are
shadow people, visible to fae eyes but not to mortal ones.
Perhaps their visage offended their Keeper, or the Gentry
wanted to experiment with invisibility. Whatever the inspiration, the end result is the same. Cloakskins vary in their
mien just as any other Lost do, but their Masks share one
important trait: someone who cannot see through the Mask
cannot look upon a Cloakskin. Even in brightest sunlight,
they see nothing but the changeling’s shadow. This never
changes, though there are rumors that if a Cloakskin kills
his fetch, his Mask will once again be visible. Those same
rumors say the only mortal who can see through the invisible Mask is the changeling’s own fetch. Wherever you go,
there you are.
Many Cloakskins were wallflowers before their abduction, avoiding any and all attention, unwanted or otherwise.
The Gentry taught them the lesson that sometimes you get
exactly what you wish for. Upon their return, being invisible to mortals gets old quick, and for most it’s impossible to
return to their old lives. As a result, they tend to be more no-
madic than other changelings, traveling between freeholds
and sometimes striking off entirely on their own.
Cloakskins crave mortal interaction more than most
Lost thanks to their invisible Masks. Those who don’t want
to socialize solely with other changelings turn to the internet, where no one has to see your face. A Cloakskin making
her way through the modern world could be a freelance essayist or an Instagram poet, even an activist engaged in letter
campaigns and prison correspondence. It’s both easier and
harder than ever to create a false online identity. What does
she do when the moment inevitably comes when her friend
wants to see her face?
Beast: She regrows long, twisting caribou antlers every
year, and when the velvet falls off, they’re carved with moving art. With a smile, she says they represent the secrets she’s
learned this past year. Is that your face there, on that nub?
Darkling: Even his mien seems invisible, the boundaries
of his body defined by ever-shifting, slippery shadows that
climb up his frame and only sink back long enough to reveal
his dark eyes and darker mouth. He’s friendly but shy, like
he’s afraid to speak without express permission.
Kith Blessing: The Cloakskin receives a +1 bonus die
to all Social rolls.
Now You See Me: By spending a Glamour point and making a Presence + Stealth + Wyrd roll, the Cloakskin’s mien
disappears from sight for one scene. Others nearby can hear,
touch, and smell them, but not see them; cameras will not
record them. In mechanical terms, Perception rolls to detect
the Cloakskin based in sight fail and those reliant upon all
other senses suffer a -3 penalty.
Doppelganger
“No, dear, I’m not your mother. Come sit with me, and we’ll
wait for her to come back.”
The annals of human fear teem with stories of doubles,
people who look exactly like you but are not you. How can
your true love, your brilliant child, even your loving parents
pick you out of a crowd of faces that don’t just look exactly
like yours — that are yours? A Changeling with a fetch lives
this nightmare when she escapes Arcadia for the mortal
world. If her Mask still looks like her old self when she fights
to get her life back, she drags the people around her into
the battle. Changelings often despise their fetches, viewing
them as lowly parasites, but Doppelgängers have more in
common with fetches than anyone’s comfortable admitting.
When they escape Arcadia, Doppelgängers come back with
a new trick. They don’t look exactly like someone, but they
can look just enough like them to keep everyone off-kilter.
Ephemeral sensations evoke powerful recognition: you
couldn’t name your grandmother’s favorite perfume for the
life of you, but when you catch a passing whiff, you think of
her. You meet a new neighbor who really looks nothing like
your best friend, but he has the same crooked smile, so you
trust him implicitly. Doppelgängers use these subtle char-
acteristics to their advantage. It’s often a twist on how the
Doppelgänger wound up in Arcadia. He heard his mother’s
voice calling him. She thought she saw her missing brother
and chased after him. They didn’t know the truth until it
was too late, and then they became the Keeper’s pawn.
Before their durance, Doppelgängers believed that if
they just changed one thing someone would finally love
them. If she had that movie star’s violet eyes, if they had that
singer’s gravelly voice. Keepers take advantage of that, only
for both Gentry and Lost to learn the hard way that every
person is an individual.
Darkling: He’s unassuming, keeps to himself, and you
couldn’t say what he looks like because you’ve never had a
good enough look to say. It’s like your gaze just slides right
off his face.
Ogre: She looks normal, but you feel off around her, like
she reminds you of someone. Maybe a convicted murderer
you saw on the evening news, or the mean cafeteria worker
at your school? You can’t put your finger on it, but every time
she smiles at you, you’re chilled to your core.
Kith Blessing: When the Doppelgänger uses Empathy
to gain someone’s confidence, her player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Sea-Witch’s Bargain: The Doppelgänger may steal a target’s physical or auditory trait as a temporary part of her
Mask. The Doppelgänger’s player spends a point of Glamour
and makes a Presence + Empathy + Wyrd roll contested by
Resolve + Wyrd. If the roll is successful, the Doppelgänger’s
target loses a trait for a number of days equal to the Doppelgänger’s Wyrd. Stolen traits can include hair (color and
style), eye shape and color, voice, height, a limp, or a stutter.
The Doppelgänger must assign a task that returns the
stolen trait early. Examples include disrupting a Court’s annual ball or stealing a treasure from another motley.
Lethipomp
“Tell me again about the first time you kissed me. Don’t leave
anything out.”
Once upon a time, a Keeper wondered what it would
be like to have an abductee who did not fear him, who did
not tremble when he approached, who did not howl in pain
when cut. The Keeper went to a river nearby and spoke his
thoughts aloud, then collected water. He gave it to his captive; she eyed him with suspicion at anything resembling
kindness, but drank deep. Then he struck her. She did not
flinch, she did not cry, she did nothing but gaze at him with
calm, unworried eyes. The next morning, she was gone.
Lethipomps do not suffer pain or anxiety — they don’t
feel much of anything at all. Whether that’s a side effect of
being walking oblivion or something they’ve schooled themselves to is unclear even to them. The end result is the same:
They’re voids in spirit if not form, absorbing emotion and reflecting nothing back. Those who become Lethipomps used
to feel too much: a buttoned-up banker went to scream rooms
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after work; an artist’s brushstrokes couldn’t relieve the pain.
When they come back, they can’t recapture that. Revisiting
the worst of Arcadia is like looking into the sea through a
glass-bottomed boat. That’s how many escape: unable to remember fear, they simply walked out of Arcadia, knowing if
they didn’t make it at least they wouldn’t die afraid.
Lethipomps can remove emotions associated with a particular memory and draw it into themselves to feel one gorgeous, shattering moment of pain. A Lethipomp could make a
splendid therapist, but most focus their energies on collecting
horrible secrets, promising forgetfulness and making no mention of its cost. Even those who know oblivion’s price still find
themselves drawn to a Lethipomp’s promises; sometimes, being
free of guilt and sorrow is worth letting memories fade away.
Darkling: Sometimes when they talk to you, it’s not clear
that it’s really you they’re speaking to. They bring up old
quarrels you never took part in, secrets locked with a key you
don’t have. They’ve got the upper hand always. Sometimes
you wonder if these memories were ever yours at all, or if the
Lethipomp just wants you to spin, chasing the memory of
the memory.
Elemental: Her eyes are dark pools, rivers snaking
through a forest of dead trees. Her voice is watery too, a well
so deep you’ll never swim out. Her voice scares you, but her
eyes — you could drown in those cold waters and never feel
an ounce of regret.
Kith Blessing: When a Lethipomp uses Empathy to
guess a secret, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Waters of Lethe: By spending a Glamour point and
making a contested Composure + Empathy + Wyrd roll,
the Lethipomp may absorb the emotions associated with a
target’s memory. This doesn’t transfer or resolve any Conditions. They must already have an idea of what that memory
is, and even if their target tries to keep part of it from them,
the Lethipomp will still find out. The target suffers the Lethargic Condition (see p. 342 of Changeling: The Lost) for
24 hours. The Lethipomp suffers a Condition appropriate to
the memory for 12 hours. During this time, they may Incite
Bedlam (see p.110 in Changeling: The Lost), causing anyone
within range to re-enact the absorbed memory.
Lullescent
“Can you hear me?”
In one of the quiet, rugged valleys of Arcadia, nestled
between two massive stone mountains, no living souls pass. A
single stream trickles through the vivid green grass, interrupted only in the exact center of the valley, where it circles around
a massive concrete block. One of its sides is flat. The other
looks like an open mouth. Speaking into it, you’ll expect an
echo, but there won’t be one. Instead, you’ll realize you haven’t
heard the burbling of the stream or the gentle blowing of the
grass since the moment you set foot in the valley.
Lullescents are the inverse of the old adage that chil-
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dren should be seen and not heard. In Arcadia, that was
often the case. The Keeper removes their ability to speak,
then puts them to work as the ears of the Gentry. A Keeper
with knowledge of human myth and a sense of irony might
have transformed a Lullescent into a single lonely narcissus
flower and hidden her in an enemy’s garden or made her
into an acoustic mirror at which visitors might announce
themselves. Lullescents spent their durance shouting to be
heard before realizing there were more interesting things
to listen to than themselves. Eavesdropping gave them the
power to slip past their captors: when the Keeper wanted a
report and gave back her voice, the Lullescent could use her
knowledge to get out before her voice was gone again.
Lullescents have sharp hearing that dips in and out of
the ultrasonic and infrasonic ranges, and if one is in the freehold, it pays to be careful with your words. More than a few
courtiers have been brought down by a Lullescent seeking to
better his own position, or one with a grudge the courtier
didn’t know they held.
Beast: If you crossed a dog and a monkey, you’d get him:
a light coating of gray fur covers him, with peach climbing
up his throat; his ears are floppy, like a dog’s, and he always
seems to be mid-shrug. His odd appearance wouldn’t draw
the eye if he’d only stop smiling, like he’s just heard a really
good joke at your expense.
Darkling: The waif earns her place at the Winter Queen’s
side as a lady’s maid. She’s been there throughout the
Queen’s rise to power, a wispy little naif with dark eyes and a
quiet tread. She follows the Queen like a shadow, and never
makes a sound — except in private, humming the freehold’s
secrets like a beloved lullaby.
Kith Blessing: When the Lullescent uses Stealth to
eavesdrop on a target, achieving three successes counts as an
exceptional success.
Song of Silence: A Lullescent can use echolocation by
spending a Glamour point. This allows them to measure
distance, navigate, or find objects hidden from sight. A successful Wits + Occult + Wyrd roll also unveils objects and
beings hidden by magic but requires a Clash of Wills if the
concealer is still alive.
Riddleseeker
“Why did the chicken cross the Hedge? That wasn’t rhetorical. Pilar the Unlit, Infanta of the Salamander Court, reports
that in 1815, Chickenfoot Charlie went into the Hedge…”
Mortals have always sought to understand the world
they can see in addition to the world they can’t. In thousands
of years of human existence, this quest has never wavered,
and when changelings fall into Arcadia, a land that whim reshapes and governs, the search for meaning takes new forms.
Some Lost don’t ask too many questions when they come
home, scared of the possibility, but Riddleseekers demand
every answer — even to questions they haven’t yet asked. By
some accounts, Riddleseekers are the original mythmakers.
How did the Hunterheart get its spots? How did the briarwolves get those eerily human eyes? A Riddleseeker can tell
you. It’s up to you whether you believe her or not.
Riddleseekers share a tendency to hold knowledge hostage with the True Fae, thanks to their close relationships
with their Keepers. One soothed her Keeper to sleep every
night with a new riddle to puzzle over; another stood watch
over treasure, posing would-be plunderers a riddle that only
two beings knew the answer to. But eventually, in a land
like Arcadia, questions run out of answers. In a place where
novelty is currency, the promise that ignorance is death motivates many escapes, although some Riddleseekers must return to the mortal world when they can no longer capture
their captor’s curiosity.
Expelled Riddleseekers rarely tell the truth about how
they came back, and the ones who escaped but are dying
to go back won’t admit it either. In fact, most Riddleseekers want to return to Arcadia, if only briefly. Many steeped
themselves in academics before their durance, and when they
come back to the mortal world, dusty tomes in neglected libraries no longer scratch the same itch. Despite its horrors,
despite the risk of recapture, Arcadia overflows with hidden
meaning and answers to riddles not yet even formulated.
They didn’t have enough time, enough freedom…
Beast: Huge, feathered wings droop from her shoulders.
While her head is human, her limbs end in paws, which
themselves end in sharp gleaming claws. When she’s feeling
friendly, she reminds you of a housecat, but cross her and
you’ll realize she’s a lioness on the hunt.
Darkling: He’s always muttering to himself, scratching
at his arm. Red bumps rise and shift as he speaks, a Rosetta
Stone of eerie hieroglyphs he claims to have seen in a book
of his Keeper’s that had his own name on the cover.
Kith Blessing: When the Riddleseeker uses Investigation to solve a riddle or a puzzle, achieving three successes
counts as an exceptional success.
Neck Riddle: By spending a point of Glamour and making a successful Wits + Expression + Wyrd roll, the Riddleseeker persuades a target to resolve an argument, physical
altercation, or other conflict with a riddle instead. If she
poses a riddle that the target doesn’t know the answer to
and cannot guess within three attempts, the target must let
them go without pursuing the conflict again until after the
scene ends. If players and the Storyteller wish to use dice to
resolve whether or not the target can guess the answer, make
the above roll contested by the target’s Wits + Investigation.
Sideromancer
“I can’t tell you when you’re going to die, but I can tell you
that if you take that fork in the Hedge, it’s going to be much
sooner than you imagined.”
The stars rest for one bright moment, pausing in the
shape of a cup. Yellowed teeth clatter out of a mouth and to
the floor, dancing into a bad augury. Water sizzles gently as
molten lead drips into it, twisting back and forth into shapes
that only make sense to the expert eye.
In Arcadia, the debate over divination becomes a moot
point. The Wyrd governs it all: present, future, past. Even in
the Hedge, time mangles itself, and changelings wise enough
to pay attention become attuned to the ripples and shifts of
the Wyrd. Sideromancers pay closer attention than the rest,
and return to the mortal world having cast aside the caul
over their eyes. Seeing the echoes of the Wyrd around them
can become overwhelming fast, so each member of this kith
chooses one specific method of divination to help them focus their newfound gifts.
Many Sideromancers were interested in divination before their durance, but others were hardline skeptics who
thought newspaper horoscopes were a scam. What they all
shared was fear of an unknown future. The mortician had to
talk herself out of a panic attack every time she thought about
what comes after death. The pastor refused to acknowledge
his own skepticism of Heaven. When Sideromancers cross
out of Arcadia, they’ve found out there’s more possibility
than they ever dared imagine. Still scared of making promises they’ll come to regret, now they can peek ahead and get
a glimpse of certainty in a uncertain world — although they
try not to think about the fact that neither the Wyrd nor the
future are fixed. Seeing the road ahead by a little is better
than seeing nothing at all. Isn’t it?
Darkling: When they need comfort, they break into
the local synagogue, open the Torah ark, and stand at the
bimah, doing silent additions in their head. They ask a question, trace out a phrase with the yad. If it adds up to 18,
they’re doing the right thing. If it adds up to 18, they’re going
to stay one step ahead.
Ogre: She reeks of meat, of flesh and innards, and her
sharp nails are always stained a dark, rusty red. She stuffs
her refrigerator with entrails: she’s got a standing deal with
the local butcher. Others like her draw a crowd; watching
the haruspex, though, turns stomachs inside-out. The worst
part? She’s never wrong.
Kith Blessing: When the Sideromancer uses a Specialty
for divination with Occult, achieving three successes counts
as an exceptional success.
Panomancy: Every Sideromancer cleaves to their own
method of divination that mortals already believe works, such
as rolling dice or fingerbones, laying out cards, or automatic
writing. Using her chosen method, the Sideromancer predicts the outcome of making a promise or pledge, incurring
a debt, or paying what she owes someone; she can’t predict
outcomes to anything for which she is not a primary party.
After spending a Glamour point, her player makes a Wits +
Occult + Wyrd roll as an instant action taking at least five
minutes. The Sideromancer’s player may ask the Storyteller
yes/no questions equal to successes rolled pertaining to one of
the above situations during the same scene as the promise, obligation or payment, but before it happens. If the changeling
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attempts to use it to predict events further into the future, her
player’s roll counts as an automatic dramatic failure.
Spiegelbild
“I’m sick of this ‘fairest of them all’ crap! Go find an Artist
and get them to paint your portrait if you’re that self-absorbed,
don’t waste my time!”
Mirrors should be flawless, perfect reflections, but
they’re usually not. A mirror tells truths, often ones a viewer
doesn’t want to see, showing you your swollen pimple, the
poppyseed between your teeth that’s been there all day, the
dark stain cheating on your wife left in your eyes. The mirror knows your secrets, and your reflection has no interest in
hiding them from you — or from anybody else. Particularly
not a Spiegelbild.
Spiegelbilder are not mirror people, but they’re close
cousins. They’re not Mirrorskins either, but the two kiths are
like refractions of each other. A Keeper may have trapped a
Spiegelbild in a mirror to serve as an advisor. While she was
there, she made friends: with the creatures peeking in, with
others stuck in the liminal space between Arcadian mirrors,
with light itself. A Spiegelbild’s new friends might help her
escape — though in Arcadia, everything has a cost. For many
Spiegelbilder, that cost is telling a truth that may make their
new friends feel much less generous. Spiegelbilder are bound
by the twin pillars of reflection and refraction: telling the
truth doesn’t mean you can’t emphasize some things and
minimize others. Still, even the chattiest knows that some
truths are better left untold.
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Before her durance, a Spiegelbild was likely in the business of truth and appearances, though this can range from
investigative journalism to a nail technician gig. She was
someone people spoke to in confidence, someone who had
just the kind of face that made it seem okay to tell her anything — off-the-record, of course. The kind of person who
becomes a Spiegelbild doesn’t keep secrets forever, though.
She never did, and she probably never will.
Darkling: She always seems to sneak up on you — even
when you’re walking toward her, it’s impossible to make a
good estimate of just how far away she is. And she stands
too close, her grin too sunny as she leans down to your ear,
sing-songing a lullaby of the violent secrets you’ve kept from
everyone else.
Fairest: Their ebony hair glitters like light reflecting off
the sea, and their lips gleam as red as the ripest apple, the
freshest blood. You see yourself reflected in the flat, knowing obsidian of their eyes. Your reflection changes, and your
goosebumps rise, and those red, red lips smile, as if they can
smell your sweat.
Kith Blessing: When a Spiegelbild uses Persuasion to
talk their way out of making a promise, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: By spending a point of Glamour and making a successful Wits + Composure roll, the
Spiegelbild uses a reflective surface to enter mirror space.
She can look through mirrors and hear what’s on the other
side. Her face appears in the reflection, and the Wyrd binds
her to tell the truth to anyone who asks the mirror a question. She can prevent her face from appearing with a successful Manipulation + Stealth + Wyrd roll, contested by Wits
+ Composure, but if someone senses her presence by other
means or has other knowledge of her presence, they can still
ask her questions. Breaking the mirror won’t force her out
before the end of the scene, but she can no longer see out
of it.
Shield
Kiths of the Shield contain those whose hearts resonate
with ideals of protection and guarding. Not always physically
imposing or deadly fighters, members of Shield kiths also
pick up the pieces physically and mentally after conflict ends.
Asclepian
“The bad news is, I think I voided the warranty on your
smartphone. Good news is, it was perfect for patching your skull
fracture.”
Arcadia can be a terrible, brutal place. Injuries happen and those who want to survive them learn to make
do. Asclepians are clever healers, menders, and mad scientists. Some True Fae set out to make capable lab assistants
for bizarre experiments on other changelings. Others need
someone to tend favored servants and toys whenever they
break. One of the newly Lost may become an Asclepian
when she taps into a desperate need to heal someone, even
herself. Trained mortal medical professionals are far less
likely to make the transition into an Asclepian than those
who aren’t bound by mundane ideas of standard medical
practices, ethics, or even basic biology. It doesn’t matter
what works or doesn’t work in the mortal world; an Asclepian might use a crown of flowers as a tourniquet. A
battlefield transplant of a camera lens for an eye can save
someone’s vision, and mystical chants or potions can heal
the gravest of wounds.
Even in Arcadia, Asclepians are rare and valued servants who are closely watched and constantly in demand.
In changeling society, they are even more in demand. Freeholds, courts, and even powerful individuals frequently offer significant benefits in exchange for an oath of service.
Wizened: The changeling has smooth green skin, a reed
thin body, and androgynous features with inhumanly large
eyes. Nictitating membranes flicker with every blink and
their preferred grafts are tiny LEDs and other small electronics.
Elemental: The broad-shouldered Elemental is as
brightly colored as a rainbow eucalyptus tree with leafy
hair. He keeps a pouch of various seed pods and buds to
graft onto and plant inside his patients.
Kith Blessing: An Asclepian’s player achieves an exceptional success on first aid Medicine rolls with three successes instead of five.
Grafting: A simple touch from an Asclepian stabilizes a character’s injuries and prevents them from getting
worse. By expending a point of Glamour and making a
successful Intelligence + Medicine roll, she may perform
field surgery with whatever tools she cobbles together. This
process can heal injuries normally beyond healing, even if
the patient technically died within the last scene. Scraps
used for grafts should have some thematic connection to
their purpose. A ribbon bound around the neck holds a
severed head in place while the water pump ripped from
the engine replaces a lung. A spark plug helps to repair
someone’s damaged nervous system but serves less usefully
for mending a broken wrist.
Asclepians also find Grafting useful for resolving persistent physical Conditions. All grafts become permanent
additions to the character’s physiology. While grafts made to
changelings are simply hidden by the Mask, grafts made to
mortals and other supernatural patients may garner considerable unwelcome attention. A patient may remove this type
of graft by suffering lethal damage equal to the Asclepian’s
Grafting roll; the persistent Condition immediately returns.
Bridgeguard
“You say I am surrounded; I say it is a target-rich environment.”
Horatius defending the bridge, Samwise climbing
Mount Doom, and Leonidas with his 300 at Thermopylae
all built legends around their battles. True Fae love the heroic figure fighting against overwhelming odds. A Fae general
crafts a Bridgeguard to serve as the rearguard of his army,
sending him on seemingly hopeless quests to sow dragon’s
teeth, or sending him deep into enemy territory as a lone
assassin.
The True Fae lure some of the Bridgeguard to Arcadia
by promising to make them legends while others willingly
volunteer themselves as a tribute to protect another. Their
Keepers invariably choose Bridgeguards from mortals who
faced perpetual challenge without breaking — prize fighters
refusing to stay down or a parent protecting their children
at all cost shine with a spark of determination, rational or
otherwise. It burns brightly enough to attract the attention
of the Fae.
The Fae hone and forge that spark through twisted and
unfair challenges. Where a soldier might duel in an arena, the
Keeper forces a nascent Bridgeguard to survive a gauntlet of
grueling, repetitive, and overwhelming conflicts. The changeling reaches her physical and mental breaking points and then
surpasses them. Regardless of the task, the odds are always
stacked against the changeling until they revel in and overcome the challenge, becoming Bridgeguards in the process.
Always outnumbered but never outmaneuvered, Bridgeguards compensate against unfavorable odds through preparation and planning. They have learned, painfully, how to
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pick their hill to die on and where to plant their feet and
scream defiance at their enemies. They find every possible
edge in circumstances, strategy, and planning. They control
Clausewitz’s center of gravity, forcing confrontations to happen at the time and place of their choosing.
Elemental: A generally affable woman, she gets along
with just about everyone until someone stands in her way or
threatens those she cares about. Then her pitted sandstone
skin begins to crack as her molten core of lava spills forth.
Fairest: His durance removed his rough edges, leaving
only a smooth and polished exterior and an unflappable attitude. His skin gleams like polished gold armor and his ponytail waves like a bright plume of feathers.
Kith Blessing: When the Bridgeguard uses Intimidation against multiple targets, her player achieves exceptional
success with three successes instead of five.
Against the Odds: When outnumbered by the enemy, the
Bridgeguard can make a stand by spending a point of Glamour and rolling Composure + Intimidation. On a successful
roll she gains a bonus to her Defense equal to the successes
rolled and her Defense is no longer reduced when applied
against multiple attacks. This effect lasts for one scene and
does not require an action.
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Chapter Three: Kiths
Librorum
“You’ve got five seconds to find your library card before I
chuck you out into the Thorns.”
The True Fae love knowledge and secrets, choosing
Librorum protectors and collectors of that valuable power.
As guardians, they watch over libraries packed with books,
whether free to roam the room or chained to the shelves.
They stand outside a seer’s temple, preventing others from
hearing her prophetic insight. Others serve as the True Fae’s
acquisition, restoration, and preservation experts. If a piece
of priceless knowledge goes missing or someone whispers a
secret in her halls, the Librorum’s Keeper tasks him with ferreting it out and returning it to its rightful place.
Mortals chosen specifically to become Librorum have
distinctly mercenary and incurious natures. They did their
jobs in the mortal world with no questions asked, even
when it crossed a line. Others become Librorums of their
own accord by protecting other changelings’ secrets or diligently guarding a motley’s escape plans from detection.
Librorum most often find their path home to freedom
amidst the very stacks and archives their Keeper assigned them
to protect. They guarded the means of escape the entire time,
and took other precious knowledge and secrets with them too.
A Librorum’s escape constitutes a bitter loss for the True
Fae, who tend to vigorously
pursue them.
Beast: The lion’s deep
rich golden blond hair and
mane-like beard contrast
with the dark green patina
staining his neck, a thick
ring marking where a collar once chained him. He’s
quiet and watchful but
hunger glitters in his eyes
as he waits for an opportunity to pounce.
Elemental: Fire set to
guard the entrance of her
keeper’s library but banned
from entering, she went
anyway. Now curling and
smoldering pages form
her skin; letters and words
drift off her like smoke.
Kith Blessing: When
a Librorum’s player rolls
Intimidation in the pursuit
or protection of knowledge, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Stolen Knowledge: Once per chapter, a Librorum may
spend a point of Glamour; her player rolls Intelligence + Occult + Wyrd as she meditates for a few moments — a round in
an action sequence — to access the knowledge she stole from
her keeper’s library. Any successes may be divided between
the Library or Language Merits, or applied as a Repository, as
she unlocks purloined knowledge from deep within her mind.
Liminal
“To be or not to be is the question, but would you please just
leave the cat in the box alone?”
Liminals are creatures of duality and transition, bound
to the thresholds of Arcadia. These changelings are selected
from mortals who cross cultural, gender and sexual, or physical boundaries only for one of the Fae to whisk them away
between one step and the next. In their durance, Liminals act
as guardians and advisers. Thresholds are places of power and
the ways in and out of the realm are only one threshold. Many
others exist. A Liminal is placed in a dark woods to test and
advise heroes on their journey, fashioned into a complicated
lock on a vault to keep everyone out, or simply placed at the
front desk before a maze of nightmarish corporate corridors.
Whatever their specific duties, Liminals all have a great deal
of insider knowledge thanks to their position, and with it
comes the power to help or hinder other changelings.
Most changelings pass at least one Liminal when they
make their escape, whether they recognize it or not. While
some Liminals take their duties seriously, many more treat
their duties with malicious compliance. Their status as creatures of thresholds means they see things a bit more clearly
than most and even if they haven’t managed to escape themselves, they often twist their mandate to help others do so. A
riddle-telling sphinx tells the simplest one it knows while the
green man tending the realm’s border intentionally neglects
to fill in a rabbit hole until he completes every other duty, giving others the chance to slip out. All crossroads are one, and
Liminals use this knowledge to map the way out for others.
In spite of being able to ease the way out for others, most
Liminals are watched closely by their keepers and have little
chance to escape while the threshold they guard still exists.
Most who manage to escape are aided by other changelings who
help pull them out of their in-between state and back to reality
though their mien still marks their duality in some fashion.
Elemental: The ends of their hair — that perfectly managed bundle of cables — occasionally spark and flicker with
electricity where others cut them free from their Keeper’s
system. The blue cyborg eyes of the former Realm firewall
still burn brightly.
Ogre: He once lived under a bridge and ate whomever
crossed it but now the troll haunts the paths of the Dreaming
Roads to protect his allies and family when danger threatens.
Kith Blessing: When a Liminal uses Survival or Streetwise to navigate, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Line in the Sand: While standing upon a threshold, a Liminal makes a conditional declaration such as ‘No one may cross
unless they answer this riddle,’ ‘No one with ill intent may enter,’ or ‘Pay the door fee if you want to come in.’ She spends a
point of Glamour and makes a Resolve + Intimidation + Wyrd
roll, contested by Composure + Wyrd. The Line in the Sand
doesn’t physically prevent anyone from crossing, but those who
fail their resistance suffer the Lost Condition (Changeling the
Lost p. 342) if they cross it without meeting the conditions.
Reborn
“Remade, reduced, reused, and recycled. How about just
being repaired instead?”
Perhaps originally a Playmate or Gristlegrinder, she
became Reborn when her Keeper broke her. Whether intentionally, accidentally, or self-inflicted, the Gentry strip
down broken changelings and rebuild their favorites into
something new. Each forced reconstruction burned out everything unnecessary and weak. Often remade again and
again, only individuals who find, seize, and hold fast to their
core memories and sense of self survive the process with any
humanity left in them.
Even after falling from favor, being set aside, or getting
killed and dumped at the Realm’s border, a Reborn lives
again. After escaping Arcadia, the Reborn no longer returns
from death, but she still carries a spark of creative power in
her blood, capable of dredging up slivers of disjointed knowledge from her long durance. Reborn tend toward more measured reactions than other kiths; knowing the value of their
blood, they attempt to avoid casual sacrifice of it or anyone
else’s. The rare changelings who survive becoming Reborn
come from any walk of life. They remain confident in themselves and their power even while facing the struggles of returning to the mortal world. Huntsmen eagerly seek Reborn,
sent by True Fae who intentionally discard their servant but
covet them again once the Reborn remakes her life.
Beast: The tom’s favorite barber shapes his soft black
fur into a precise haircut. His eyes glow bright yellow, but
his raggedly torn ear and broken tail indicate he’s used up at
least a couple of his nine lives.
Wizened: Only tufts of hair remain upon her dirty grey
skin. Tiny, neat stitches bind up old wounds; her newer scars
don’t seem to bother her, but the stuffing seems to escape from
around the duct tape holding her most recent wounds closed.
Kith Blessing: The Reborn can still dredge up slivers of
disjointed knowledge from her long durance in Arcadia. When
she uses Occult to try and separate fact from fake, her player
gains an exceptional success on three successes instead of five.
Retune: The Reborn tap into the transformative power
of their creation. When she spends a Glamour after taking
a point of lethal damage — including self-inflicted wounds —
the Reborn’s player may make an Intelligence + Occult roll
and redistribute dots equal to her successes from one Skill
to another for the scene. This may not raise a Skill above the
Example Kiths
105
maximum for her Wyrd. Once per chapter she may spend a
dot of Willpower and choose to redistribute the dots from
one Skill to another permanently.
Stoneflesh
“Wow, I’m sorry, did you just break your own hand trying to
punch me? Here, let me show you how it’s done. “
A common kith, Stoneflesh come in infinite variety, from
stone skinned trolls, bronze hounds, to armored knights on
a bloody chess board, each one blessed with Arcadian toughness. The True Fae shape each one for durability and endurance, taking humans with a strong stubborn streak to forge
into Stoneflesh. The sliver of hope dangled just out of their
reach keeps most Stoneflesh going through the bleakest of Arcadian realms as their Keepers toughen them up.
Once completely transformed, Stoneflesh in Arcadia
make some of the most loyal guards and servants of the Gentry, who completely snuff out that tiny ray of hope in many.
Others hold that spark close, nurturing it. When opportunity presents itself, the Stoneflesh becomes a juggernaut
hurling herself towards freedom.
Back in the mortal world, Stoneflesh often become pillars of their communities. They often evidence confidence
and stubbornness, willing to plow through any obstacle between them and their goals. They saw horrors and atrocities and survived them: whatever the mortal world throws
at them, they’re tough enough to weather it. Others become
deeply calm and introspective leaders who strive for peace
but back up the carrot they first offer their opponents with
a really big stick.
Elemental: Perfect and solid, granite made flesh: her every patient movement creates the impression of inevitability
and purpose, like a solid stone rolling down the mountain,
crushing anything careless enough to stand in its path.
Beast: At first glance the old terrapin looks like a frail,
easy mark, but he stands with relaxed confidence. The hexagonal keratinous plates, scarred and pitted by past battles,
armor his wrinkled skin, each one still intact.
Kith Blessing: When a Stoneflesh uses her physical
presence for Intimidation, achieving three successes counts
as an exceptional success.
Obdurate Skin: By spending a point of Glamour, Stoneflesh hardens her skin and steels her Resolve. Her player rolls
Stamina + Athletics + Wyrd, dividing successes between Armor, Resolve, and Composure for the scene.
Wisewitch
“Don’t worry, I know just the thing to help with that problem
you’re trying not to tell me about. It won’t cost you much at all. “
Little enrages the True Fae like a mortal thwarting their
grand plans. Guessing the answer to one of their riddles correctly or slipping through a loophole is a challenge to their ego.
Sometimes the Gentry will steal the mortal away anyway, intent
on punishing them for their temerity. The Gentry only rarely
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Chapter Three: Kiths
shapes one of these clever souls into a Wisewitch. All it takes is
for the changeling to have the Fae impress one of its Titles into
her like a seal into wax. It doesn’t reduce the power of the Title
itself, but the Wisewitch is indelibly marked as its own. More
often a changeling learns to read the lines of power in the realm
for herself and touches the influence of the Title to shape himself into the kith on his own without her keeper ever realizing it.
Other changelings often have difficulty visually identifying a Wisewitch. Their appearance varies wildly but always
contains some sort of physical mark left by their brush with
the Title. They often gain great expertise in rare Contracts
and powers; Merits such as Arcadian Metabolism and Gentrified Bearing commonly occur within Wisewitches. In the
past, mortals either revered Wisewitches as goddesses, or
burned them as witches and shunned them as madmen. Today they commonly practice their magic openly as psychics,
herbalists, shamans, or priests.
Fairest: Still active in her local community, the ancient
midwife looks out for her people. She delivered and served
as godmother to nearly a dozen children on her block, and
each one grew up happy, healthy, and successful.
Ogre: His ears draw to a delicate point, poking out of
long silk hair that grows supernaturally quickly, and a gentle
stream of diffused sunshine always seems to find him. Beneath the grime of living rough, his only physical flaw is a
burn scar directly over his heart shaped like a beetle. He
spends his time tending a small patch of garden and telling
tourist fortunes beneath a bridge for a few dollars.
Kith Blessing: When a Wisewitch uses Persuasion to
warn someone away from supernatural danger, three successes counts as an exceptional success
Keen Bargains: The Wisewitch can form pledges with
spirits and angels not of fae kind.
Steed
Kiths of Steed prize movement, travel, and the clarity
which viewing things from a distance brings. Some also
bond with creatures of motion, blurring distinctions between steed and rider.
Airtouched
“Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.”
She lived in the wind and the rain, and while freedom
makes her no longer subject to the whims of her Keeper’s
stormfronts — the twisting, cursing face in the cumulonimbus clouds of his making — she often feels one step removed
from her motley, like she can’t actually touch them. The wind
brushes a thousand faces but if it settles, it dies. The wind
doesn’t touch anyone, not really.
Some people live their lives one step removed from
others. Acquaintances, never friends. Bridesmaids, never
brides. Quiet, unruffled existences. The Gentry find these
individuals easy pickings, and a great number of them become Airtouched; drained of the rest of their immediate
attachments, their Keepers craft them into fluffy clouds
or distant, circling birds. The ache in the breast remains,
however, an endless human need for connection, and those
Airtouched who escape prove to the Fae that they cannot
consistently sever even the most detached of humanity from
their need for others.
Conversely, some Gentry take a perverse pleasure in
taking those individuals deeply rooted in their communities
and cutting, one after another, the connections that made
them human. Perhaps the most popular girl in class, or maybe the pastor’s wife who brought her famous hotdish to ailing parishioners: the glee of the Fae who make this variety of
Airtouched comes from watching their new toys suffer and
starve, adrift in Their skies and gasping for connection as a
drowning man gasps for air.
Beast: Summer’s heat boils off him when he cocks his
head to the side sharply, and he hisses when angry, spreading his feathered arms wide in an eagle’s threat posture. His
talon-sharp nails bite into his motley-mate’s arm when he
clings to her, anchoring himself so he doesn’t drift away.
Elemental: She spent a small eternity as the top of a
mountain, battered by the wind with its thousand voices,
a hundred people who lost their last vestiges of humanity
and faded away into echoes upon echoes. Tall and solid, she
doesn’t look like someone who can balance on a thread but
living as a mountaintop means the experience of distance
and teeth-rattling gusts as much as stone and snow.
Kith Blessing: When the changeling’s player rolls Athletics to climb, jump, or move vertically in any other fashion,
achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
The Drift: By spending a Glamour, an Airtouched may
invoke once more the distance bestowed on him by his
Keeper: an infinitesimal distance exists between his feet and
the ground beneath him. He may move across snow without
breaking through the surface, scurry across the surface of
water, or balance on other surfaces far too fragile to hold
his full weight. Treat the Airtouched as though he weighed
only a few ounces and penalize attempts to track him by
his footprints by Wyrd divided by 2, rounded down to a
minimum of 1.
Chalomot
“No — that way leads to the mirrors. You don’t want to get
trapped between them. We go this way.”
Chalomot move through the waking world perpetually distracted, their eyes distant and unfocused. Once
their Gentry’s scouts on the Dreaming Roads, finding
cracks in the Bastions of the strongest dreamers, they
dug out information about the mortal world and crafted
lures within the minds of sleepers. Helldivers may be the
unparalleled generalists at moving between realms and
realities, but Chalomot have fished more than one disoriented Helldiver out of the thorny morass that grows
between Bastions.
Fae don’t just traverse the waking realms; they sometimes require specialists for the highly particular task of
luring in or manipulating dreamers. Many Chalomot were
themselves once drawn in by another of their kith, their Bastions twisted and deformed by subtle degrees over a period
of nights until the dreamer accepted a proffered bargain.
The next morning, a fetch came down to coffee instead.
Others stumble into the clutches of the Gentry through
their own experimentation with lucid dreaming or attempts
to gain psychic powers; some find themselves opened up to
Their ministrations when a benevolent changeling assisted
with untangling a problem in the mortal’s dreamscape.
Once in Arcadia, the Fae slowly strip away the Chalomot’s sense of reality, subjecting her to repetitive dreams
with subtle tweaks, something like repetitively running a
video game’s first level until only pixelated logic makes sense.
Kept captive by her Keeper with a chain of ivory and horn
anchored to the bones of her wrist, the nascent Chalomot
invades her first Bastion. Another, and then another, until
she tears the chain free and flees through one of the Gates.
Darkling: The monster under the bed, the shadow standing in the corner when sleep paralysis takes hold, he moves
like a dark smear of ink on the world, a suggestion of a face
rippling across an indistinct form. His Autumn Mantle
smells of leaf must and cold petrichor; his voice carries a
subtle half-second echo as though he speaks from the bottom of a deep well.
Wizened: The strange never-written languages of a thousand dreams slide like living tattoos across their papery skin,
unpublished scores of music chasing half-dreamed manuscripts. Their long, narrow fingers grip the ebony-headed
cane they lean on in the real world, but in dreams use like
a baton, conducting the sleeping landscape like a symphony
only they hear.
Kith Blessing: When gauging the strength of a Bastion,
a Chalomot’s player counts three successes on Empathy rolls
as an exceptional success.
Dreamtread: By spending a point of Glamour, a Chalomot gains a bonus to her dreamweaving rolls equal to her
Wyrd/2, rounded down to a minimum of 1, for the remainder of the scene. Chalomot may spend one additional Glamour point to share this blessing with another oneiromancer
within the same Bastion, to a maximum of five fellow dreamweavers.
Chevalier
“Bucephalus, to me!”
The relationship between human and steed goes back
thousands of years: the Fae study the deep and abiding bond
between a horse and his rider with fascination. Modern updates don’t diminish that bond in the least: a girl may love
her motorcycle just as much as she adored the pony she rode
one summer at camp. One Keeper lures in young people who
obsess over horses by sending kelpies and each-uisge to lure
Example Kiths
107
them to Hedgeways near the water, creating a small army
of valiant champions on aquatic steeds; when one of them
breaks free, she remembers nothing but her beloved mount,
irreplaceable and lost in the Thorns. Another of the Gentry places discreet ads in Autoweek and Car & Driver for the
discerning gentleman who wishes to restore antique automobiles in the most refined of settings; respondents spend
small eternities hammering their blood and tears into the
steel roll cage of the Fae’s newest racecar. When one of the
pair chained to the anvil accidentally crushes his own chest
with the hammer press, the other swears on his comrade’s
dying breath to steal the car and break free.
Elemental: Wide chrome eyes without iris or pupil reflect streetlights as she prowls the bar district on her favorite
hog, its body painted red as blood. Her hydraulic joints hiss
when she moves and her heart pumps with a diesel engine’s
two-stroke pound.
Wizened: His weather-beaten skin smells and looks
like his well-worn riding leathers, and the diminutive, silverhaired man doesn’t cut much of a figure on his own. Astride
his Fae Mount, a panther with skin the color of spilled oil,
he commands the attention of entire freeholds; many have
followed him to war over the last two decades.
Kith Blessing: Choose either Persuasion or Intimidation. When the Chevalier rides, drives, or pilots their steed
— either one already belonging to them, or one they appropriated via Rider’s Call (see below) — achieving three successes when rolling the chosen Skill counts as an exceptional
success.
Rider’s Call: By spending a Glamour point, the Chevalier may touch a vehicle or mount and name it their Noble
Steed. Any type of steed works, from a unicycle to a camel
to a tank, as long as it’s a single mobile steed the changeling
can ride or operate themselves. A Noble Steed can be the
character’s own Fae Mount (Changeling, p. 113), though it
still can’t persist outside the Hedge without the Actormask
ability. It can also be a sapient steed as long as that character
still qualifies as a vehicle or mount, such as a changeling
transformed into a bicycle or a briarwolf on all fours; a motley-mate giving them a piggyback ride doesn’t count.
Once the Chevalier has designated a Noble Steed, they
may reflexively call that steed by spending another Glamour
point. The steed hears the call no matter where it is, even in
the Hedge or another realm, and rushes at its fastest natural
speed to the changeling’s side if possible. It receives no special
powers to do anything it normally couldn’t; a helicopter can’t
dive beneath the ocean, nor can a mortal transformed into a
mammoth open a Hedge Gate without its Key, and a horse tied
to a post remains there. Sapient steeds may choose whether or
not to respond, but they still hear the call no matter what.
The Chevalier may only have one Noble Steed at a time,
and can’t switch steeds until the end of the scene. Another
Chevalier attempting to claim the same vehicle or mount as
a Noble Steed prompts a Clash of Wills.
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Chapter Three: Kiths
Finally, whenever the Chevalier drops to 0 Willpower,
gains a Clarity Condition, or suffers any wound penalties,
the Noble Steed becomes immediately aware of its rider’s
peril and the call takes effect as normal without any spent
Glamour.
Farwalker
“Should only take us a day to get there if the trods run how I
remember. They change a lot though, so plan on sleeping outside.”
She walked the borders of her Keeper’s realm, forever
on patrol, looking for breaks in the defenses. The illusion of
freedom became freedom itself on the day when, on one of
her endless loops, she found a crack in the painted-on horizon wide enough for her to fit through. These days, she leads
her motley on long, ranging treks through the Hedge as they
search for escapees to aid.
Gentry usually select those with a predisposition to the
outdoors to craft into Farwalkers, though this doesn’t hold universally true. Some Farwalkers simply come from backgrounds
where they’re used to spending a lot of time alone; this can
spring from a job as a night security guard, endlessly walking
the same halls in a mostly abandoned mall, from a childhood as
a latchkey kid, or from the mother to such a child, commuting
hours every day to the job that keeps her family fed. The lure of
the outdoors draws a devout hiker promised the trek of a lifetime
by a tattered flyer plastered at the rock-climbing gym, but a job
offer advancing the proposition of a huge raise with a slightly
longer commute pulls in the career-minded executive.
Beast: They carry their entire life on their sturdy back,
pack and pans and tent all lashed against the shell they stole
from their Keeper. Beady black crustacean eyes peer out
from under beetled brows, and the hermit’s stringy black
hair, forever damp, smells of the sea at low tide.
Ogre: Six and a half feet tall with shoulders as broad
as her easy, sharp-toothed smile, she patiently explains the
difference — once again — between Yeti and Sasquatch while
leading her motley along the winding trod. Her shaggy
brown hair rustles like the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest, and her Winter Mantle smells like Portland’s December rains.
Kith Blessing: When the Farwalker uses Survival to
find or create temporary shelter or forage for food or water
in any realm, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Home Away from Home: Farwalkers can make themselves
at home literally anywhere they are. By spending a Glamour while in a wild place anywhere in the mundane world
— desert, forest, tundra: the type of open, wild land doesn’t
matter — the Farwalker may create a one-dot Safe Place for
a day, large enough to comfortably sleep individuals equal
to her Wyrd/2, rounded down to a minimum of 1. She may
expand this by spending one Glamour for each additional
person. If she has an existing Safe Place, substitute the rating
of that Safe Place instead.
While in the Hedge, use of this ability decreases the rating of the Hedge by one for an area of the same size as above
— Thorns become the Hedge, the Hedge becomes a trod,
and a trod behaves as a Hollow — and the character may confer one feature of his existing Hollow on the temporary shelter. A temporary shelter in what used to be the Thorns might
not provide the greatest comfort, but a Farwalker whose
home Hollow contains a Phantom Phone Booth could call
for help. Of course, she might find herself the recipient of a
few unwanted calls before the night runs its course.
Flickerflash
“They can’t take us back if they can’t catch us.”
A swift-footed fox disappears back into the brambles,
just a red blur at the corner of the eye. She rolls into her
motley’s movie night with the scent of ozone roiling off her
skin, laughing brilliantly as she screeches to a stop, the soles
of her cheap sneakers literally melting under her feet from
the friction between rubber and asphalt.
The runaway child. The college student who burned her
way from one project, one party, one girlfriend to the next,
never able to settle. The young man who joined the Navy for
the sole purpose of getting out of his hometown and seeing
something, anything, more interesting than his Midwestern
hometown’s dusty roads. Every Flickerflash carried in her heart
a deep restlessness long before the Fae lured her through the
Thorns or dragged her in screaming. The Gentry simply twisted that deep and endless longing for open vistas and the speed
to cross them into an unquenchable need for movement. Gristlegrinders hunger for flesh; Flickerflashes hunger for speed.
Flickerflashes often ran messages for the Gentry. Who,
including the Flickerflash herself, can say with absolute certainty she won’t eventually return to Them with the messages
she carries now? Many therefore get caught in obsessive and
endless loops, proving themselves again and again to their
motleys, their freeholds, and themselves. He keeps careful
track of how many of his diplomatic parcels averted wars, comparing them to how many lives her early warnings have saved.
These numbers become statistical talismans, verifiable proof
positive against loyalties not the Flickerflash’s own.
Elemental: He spent his entire durance inside a video
game, running level after level in a frantic effort to beat his
last speedrun time. Now he carries messages for Summer and
always runs first into danger. Dark eyes shudder and shift with
glowing green ones and zeroes; his skin crackles with static
and his face derezzes, glitching out whenever he laughs.
Beast: She’ll admit before anyone that Autumn’s cold
winds drive her ever faster, lupine claws digging into the earth
when she races her motley-mates. Only those oathbound to
her know that she dreads the day she’s not quick enough to
save them, and that her dogged pursuit of ever-greater speeds
springs from a desperate attempt to outrun her fear.
Example Kiths
109
Kith Blessing: When the Flickerflash uses Athletics during a chase in any realm, achieving three successes
counts as an exceptional success.
Instantaneous Velocity: Flickerflash personify speed,
achieving truly absurd and inhuman velocities. By reflexively
spending a point of Glamour, a Flickerflash may triple her
Speed. Apply Instantaneous Velocity before any other Speed
modifiers.
Levinquick
“Take my hand. I’ll get us out. But you’ll have to trust me.”
With the rise of the modern world, Gentry have accordingly adapted their toys; few kiths typify this as completely
as the Levinquick. Electricity flows everywhere now, and so
do they. They come, they go, they’re back, as distracted as a
buzzing bolt of electricity. Levinquicks serve as scouts and
couriers, especially in the hustle of the modern world that
can be overwhelming to Lost who were taken in previous
decades.
Often, they served the same purposes during their durances, not that most Levinquick ever talk about the past:
this moment and the future are all that matter. Constantly
looking to the horizon, a Levinquick rarely stops moving;
she knows that sitting still makes her vulnerable to recapture. Manic motion runs through their bodies even at rest; a
sleeping Levinquick’s fingers and toes often twitch as if tapping keys or working a remote even while dreaming.
The digital world’s restless children make perfect fodder for Levinquicks. Gentry pluck them from all walks of
life; almost anyone raised with modern technology makes
a good Levinquick. The best — and thus most likely to escape — carry an ineffable hunger for motion in their heart,
never satisfied. They forever chase the next hit of dopamine
from another like, another share, another conquest, another
rescue.
Fairest: Flickering cathode-ray dots define his face, and
when angry, the color leaches from his cheeks, leaving him
in all his true black-and-white glory. Summer’s scout pops in
and out of danger, running himself dry until he collapses,
now dependent on his motley-mates to drag him out for
Glamour harvesting.
Elemental: The edges of her hair crackle, and static electricity follows her everywhere. She doesn’t bother carrying a
cell phone; they never last long in her pockets. Her mannerisms are as static as her touch isn’t, and the rest of her body
buzzes with the energy hiding behind her unchanging face.
Kith Blessing: When engaging in chase rolls within the
BriarNet (the digital Hedge; see p. 12), a Levinquick’s player
counts three successes on Computer rolls as an exceptional
success.
Lightning Walk: A Levinquick may touch a land-connected telecommunications device — a television, landline phone,
or PA system works, and a cellphone will if it’s plugged into a
wall to charge — spend 3 Glamour and roll Wits + Athletics +
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Chapter Three: Kiths
Wyrd. Upon success, the changeling dissolves into the electrical grid and, as an instant action, reconstitutes himself at
another land-connected telecommunications device already
known to him within (his Wyrd) miles: he could jump to
the television in his apartment, but not the television in an
enemy’s home that he’s never visited.
A Levinquick may carry with him through the wires
only that which fits inside his pockets and his closed hands.
He may also bring companions with him for an expenditure
of an extra Glamour per individual; attempting to drag an
unwilling person with him triggers a Clash of Wills.
Like any other form of kidnapping, Lost who drag an
unwilling rider along on their electronic escapades may face
not only a breaking point as they behave like one of the Gentry, but social and possibly formal consequences. The severity of the breaking point depends upon the context of the
action, at the Storyteller’s discretion; a vast difference exists
between pulling along a near-dead but unconsenting motleymate and a captured privateer.
Swarmflight
skitter. skitter. skitter.
She tips her head back and honeybees pour from her
mouth as she dissolves into a dark, twisting swarm that
wisps away like a cloud borne aloft. A hundred jumping spiders skitter through the empty warehouse, perching on high
beams to watch the meeting below, unseen and unheeded.
Their lanky, androgynous body dissolves into pyreflies and
drifts through the forest, casually mapping the path their
motley will soon follow.
Swarmflight defy easy cataloguing, the kith unified
solely by the swarm itself. She comes out of the Thorns able
to disassemble her body into a drift of pyreflies; he tumbles
downward into a mischief of mice, scattering across the
floor and hiding himself behind the refrigerator. Not every
Swarmflight startles easily, but it can seem that way, since
they often respond to stress by literally falling apart until the
danger, perceived or real, passes.
Beast: His fingernails shimmer like a beetle’s shell, an
opalescent black and green but bright yellow where they
crack. A handful of erratic gestures in humanoid skin, he
tries his hardest not to buzz when he speaks.
Darkling: She drifts through the world, appearing out
of shadows just as easily as she dissolves into a handful of
will-o-wisps. Her motley-mates know her happiest when she
drifts along with and around them, watching the edges of
their traveling party, and when she collapses into her slender, dark self in the Hedge, something’s invariably wrong.
Kith Blessing: When the Swarmflight uses Stealth
while in swarm form, achieving three successes counts as an
exceptional success.
Swarm Form: By spending a Glamour, the Swarmflight
may dissolve her body into a swarm. A Swarmflight chooses
a single swarm type appropriate to her seeming at character
creation, composed of Size 0 or Size 1 objects or animals.
An appropriate object for a swarm both has some sort of
independent motion and is easily visible to the unaided eye.
Bubbles and will-o-wisps drift through the air and can be
easily individually seen, while smoke or sand cannot.
The Swarmflight perceives fully through the senses of
any individual creature in the swarm, but the swarm acts as
a single entity. The swarm may only spread over five yards
or meters per dot of Wyrd the changeling possesses. Beyond
that range, bubbles pop and spiders die. The swarm may
move in any direction at the changeling’s Speed, modified
for the creatures’ Size.
The swarm limits visibility and hearing and causes panic in all those present. Everyone in the swarm’s area suffers
the persistent Distracted Condition (Changeling, p. 336)
until they get away. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a swarm
may have other abilities or features suited to the swarm type.
For example, will-o-wisps may provide faint light or lizards
may have extra Speed for their Size.
The swarm resists most harm. All damage from a single
personal-scale attack is reduced to one point of the appropriate type, or two if the attack achieved exceptional success, unless the attack is made with an iron implement. Fire,
explosions, and other large-scale or environmental threats
cause normal harm to the swarm.
A Swarmflight with an appropriate swarm form — rats,
bats, spiders, etc. — may attack anyone within the area of her
swarm with a single attack that deals lethal damage. Roll
Strength + Brawl, ignoring Defense. Divide the damage
however you wish between those within the swarm. Apply
each victim’s armor normally.
While in swarm form, a Swarmflight may use no Contracts that require speech, eye contact, or specific gestures.
Swimmerskin
“My sister and I, we are of the same water. It doesn’t matter
which one of Them made us. We are the same.”
Kuliltu. Rusalka. Jiaoren. Ningyo. Kelpie. Njuzu. Aycayia. Merrow. From the first known stories telling of Atargatis in Mesopotamia, who loved a mortal and accidentally
drowned him, to the 11th-century carvings of women with
fish tails on the pillars of Durham Castle, through the shark
people mentioned in the Bowuzhi of the third century CE
and Suvannamaccha the daughter of Ravana, mermaids and
their aquatic kin have fascinated human storytellers through
human history. The Fae make note of such stories and twist
them to their own ends.
Those who love the water always face peril for their adoration of the deep; whether dragged into cold Siberian rivers through cracked ice or lured into a riptide off the New
Jersey coast, mermaids make more mermaids by enticing the
unwary into the depths. Sometimes, a mere unfortunate becomes a Swimmerskin — someone who hates the water and
always gets seasick, talked into a whale-watching trip and
swept off the deck by an unexpected gale. When combining
the caprices of Gentry and the sea, who knows what might
happen?
Beast: The kelpie’s ears swivel, always on guard, and his
stringy, pale mane tangles at the sides of his face. His Winter Mantle carries the crash of the Irish Sea against massive
boulders, and he smells like wet silt. Mottled, deep blue skin
looks as though everyone views him as if looking up from
the bottom of the River Liffey.
Fairest: Dark curls forever salt-specked tumble around
her shoulders; water lilies blossom in her hair. Her wide eyes
without iris or pupil shift color with her mood, from Caribbean blue to brackish-dark, as changeable as the sea. When
she laughs, her piranha-sharp teeth catch the light.
Kith Blessing: When the Swimmerskin’s player rolls
Brawl to grapple someone in the water or ambush someone
from the water, achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
The Selkie’s Skin: A Swimmerskin may always breathe
both air and water, switching between them seamlessly. By
spending a Glamour, she may fuse her legs into a tail, tentacles, or other aquatically appropriate lower appendages
that allow her to move freely and swiftly in the water. She
can swim at double speed and suffers no penalties for using
weapons or performing complicated tasks underwater. This
blessing may be invoked and dismissed reflexively.
Sword
Kiths of the Sword are sharp and keen. They have the
frightful majesty of naked blades ready to be soaked in
blood, or the deadliness of poison upon those same blades.
Bearskin
“You don’t know what loyalty is until you die for it so many
times you lose track. True loyalty is giving up your self and surrendering to survival. No fleeting monarch will ever deserve my
sword.”
The Lost soldiers known as Bearskins share little common ground with mortal militaries. For one, the Gentry fill
their standing armies exclusively with conscripts, pushed
into service by forces they can’t fight back against. Their
Keepers send Bearskins into endless war, breaking them
down until they want to live, fight, and die for their Keeper.
That emotional attachment is necessary, because the causes
they fight for rarely warrant their deaths. For all the pointlessness of human wars, Arcadian objectives are worse: a single flower in a neighbor’s garden, maybe, or a golden apple
on a tree that otherwise bears silver.
Many Bearskins don’t realize they can escape until their
Keeper rejects their loyalty or pushes them over a line they
didn’t know existed. When they come home to find that
it’s not home anymore, some wish they’d never left Arca-
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111
dia, feeling like outcasts among outcasts. It’s the collateral
damage of faerie wars: one changeling bound into service
killed another’s dearest friend. Even knowing that the Fae
left a Bearskin no choice, the mental scars linger, deeper and
darker than the physical.
A Bearskin with a cause fashions their whole self into
its sword. The Fae didn’t intend them as defenders, crafting them to fight mindlessly, brutally, until they win or die.
Sometimes they pick metaphorical battlefields: Bearskins
make fierce criminal prosecutors willing to die on the hill
of the accused’s guilt, or journalists obsessed with uncovering the truth even at the cost of their career. The listlessness they all share upon returning to the mortal world drives
most to find an object of undying loyalty, for better or worse.
A Bearskin’s liege needs not prove herself worthy of his service — she just needs to ask him to die for her cause.
Elemental: A quiet, massive man made of clay, his taciturn nature drives people to try to get under his skin. He
doesn’t respond — until someone questions his loyalty to the
Summer King. The sun burns bright; his honor burns hotter; his fists burn fiercest of all.
Wizened: They’re the definition of workaholic: the second they file their investigative piece on corruption within
the local waste disposal company, they take off to interview
a tipster about bribery at City Hall. They won’t stop until
they scrub their city clean — and when that’s done, they just
move on to another.
Kith Blessing: Choose Intimidation or Weaponry at
character creation. When the Bearskin uses the chosen Skill
to defend a motley-mate’s Aspiration (not her own), achieving three successes counts as an exceptional success.
Dulce et Decorum est: A Bearskin can rally other people to
her chosen cause. Whenever her opponent surrenders in a violent conflict or she successfully intimidates or coerces someone into doing something, she may spend a Glamour point to
replace one of the defeated opponent’s Aspirations with one
of her own for the rest of the story. If the target hasn’t fulfilled
it by story’s end, their original Aspiration replaces it again.
Beastcaller
“Come...sit...stay. There’s a good little goblin.”
Mortal militaries have special relationships with animals, whether the horses of a cavalry, homing pigeons that
carry messages across battlefields, or even domesticated animals serving as mascots. In Arcadia, armies field beastly hobgoblins, such as briarwolves and birds of omen, and those
beasts are corralled by Beastcallers. These beasts are more
intelligent and difficult to tame than their earthly counterparts, but Beastcallers possess a preternatural ability to win
their obedience and loyalty.
Before their abduction, Beastcallers might have worked
jobs involving specialized animal training, working as zookeepers, lion tamers or military animal trainers. It’s just as
likely that they had a strong bond with an exotic pet, or were
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Chapter Three: Kiths
involved in dog fighting. In Arcadia, this translated into
their unusual connection with goblin beasts, and the Gentry
took advantage. One of the hardest parts of escape was leaving behind a bonded beast, and sometimes the beast even
followed their Beastcaller, loyal to the very last.
Working with animals both mortal and fae helps soothe
Arcadia’s trauma, but the closer the bond to a goblin beast,
the harder it becomes for a Beastcaller to distinguish between
one mind and another. To delineate self from beast, many
Beastcallers come to view their beasts as disposable, knowing the goblin creatures can go into battle with abandon because the Beastcaller doesn’t die even if the beast does. The
darkest side of this dynamic involves fighting rings, wherein
two Beastcallers possess goblin beasts and fight to the death
— of those bodies, not their own. The Beastcallers who engage in this unsavory practice try to hide their involvement,
but these rings remain open secrets, bet on by hobgoblins
and seedy Lost alike.
Beast: A large, fluffy cat always tails her. They share some
features: matted brown hair, wide pink eyes, a nick in the right
ear. Courtiers learned the hard way to shut up when they see
the cat, even when her bonded friend doesn’t accompany her:
secrets told in front of the cat tend to make their way back.
Elemental: At the front lines of every insurgency into
Arcadia, they throw themselves into the battle with wild
abandon — in the body of any goblin beast they can find, of
course. The Gentry will never douse this flame, no matter
how many beasts die in the line of fire.
Kith Blessing: When making an Animal Ken roll to
tame a goblin beast, three successes count as an exceptional
success.
Night Rider: By spending a point of Glamour and succeeding on a Presence + Animal Ken + Wyrd roll, the changeling’s
mind flows into a goblin beast’s body, overtaking its will. This
possession lasts for a number of turns equal to the changeling’s Wyrd. The Beastcaller sustains one point of bashing
damage for every point of lethal damage dealt to the beast,
and one point of lethal damage for every point of aggravated damage. If the beast falls unconscious or dies while the
changeling possesses it, the changeling returns to their own
body with an additional point of aggravated damage.
Cyclopean
“C’mon, little ones. This way. I can smell their fear.”
Fee, fi, fo, fum. Towering nightmare giants made flesh,
Cyclopeans stomp and smash their way through daily life.
Before the Gentry took them, members of this kith often felt
like “too much” for those around them — too loud, too large,
too opinionated. She may not have fit in with her peers, who
saw her as unable to control herself. Alternately, she may
have led a clique or other group too cowed by her muchness
to do anything but trail along in her wake.
Whatever her pre-Arcadian life, her Durance made her
into something truly grand and terrifying. Cyclopeans in
their mien often stand well over six feet tall, physically looking down upon even the most intimidating Draconics. Their
Keepers fashioned some into caryatids holding up living temples, others became giant shepherds of golden-fleeced sheep.
Armies of huge red-skinned oni clashed with gaggles of onelegged fachan for the Gentry’s amusement. A few Cyclopeans
even remember, faintly, time spent as living cathedral-spires,
though describing the sensation of beings moving inside them
usually distresses those Cyclopeans greatly.
No matter how massive and awe-inspiring the Cyclopean,
however, she carries her own pains. Almost every Cyclopean
suffers some Persistent Condition affecting her mind or mobility. One of the aforementioned oni lost an arm, while the fachan
sacrificed a leg for her incredible height. Scars crisscross Cyclopean skin, reminding her she must always be the biggest and
strongest. Her muchness, once a problem, became the solution.
In freeholds and motleys alike, the Cyclopean usually
takes on the role of combatant or protector. Only a fool
would cross a court monarch with an eight-foot-tall monolith
of a bodyguard, after all. Some choose to take on the softer
parts of their role — the shepherd, the builder, the tracker
— but even so, freeholds often call upon Cyclopeans as frontline soldiers in any war their allies and loved ones fight.
Beast: A huge Nemean lion of a woman, with shaggy,
dirty blonde hair, one bright blue eye, and a lopsided smile,
leads your motley onward. Occasionally, she pauses to sniff
the air and reorient herself. She never fails to find who she’s
looking for.
Ogre: The freehold’s fastest messenger, no one remembers seeing him raise a hand in anger, but if he did, everyone knows he’d leave nothing of the assailant, stomping and
kicking on his one good leg.
Kith Blessing: When using Investigation to track down
any fae creature other than a Huntsman, a Cyclopean’s player achieves exceptional success at three successes instead of
five.
Smell The Blood: Once per scene, a Cyclopean may spend
a point of Glamour to learn their target’s weakest points, reducing all penalties for attacks to specified targets (Changeling, p. 184) by 2, to a minimum of −1. If such an attack
would deal bashing damage, it deals lethal instead.
Plaguesmith
“Wash your hands, darling. You wouldn’t want to catch what
I’ve got.”
The True Fae could hardly resist taking lessons from
plagues: not just how the Black Death slashed populations,
but how humanity adapted disease as a weapon, contaminating water, tossing infected corpses into cities, risking their own
lives to take others’. The first True Fae to deliberately kidnap an
infected human never regretted it; the abduction of that dying
soul introduced a new, fascinating dimension to the wars of the
Gentry. The True Fae do not treat their living biological weapons as carefully as humans now do, cavalierly sending them into
war to mow down their fellow abductees.
Example Kiths
113
Not every Lost fashioned into a bioweapon knew what
the Fae did to them. Sometimes the Gentry took them before they even had a fever, and their knowledge of their illness
came by watching oily black boils rise on some poor test subject’s skin. A Plaguesmith returns to the mortal world acutely
aware of her poisoned touch, and while she doesn’t necessarily
withdraw from society because of it, she becomes extraordinarily choosy about who she interacts with, and how.
A Plaguesmith does not spread disease if they do not
so choose, but no matter their relative actual health, many
become hypochondriacs upon their return to the mortal
world. They share a fear that the diseases incubated by their
bodies could turn on them, eating away their own insides or
those of their loved ones. They remember the Gentry using
them as unwilling weapons, and the trauma of destruction
lingers like a cough.
Elemental: Moist, warm air always hangs around the
nurse — not like a sweet summer’s day, but like the cloying
air of a windowless room packed with the sick and dying.
She stretches a lot, complaining of stiffness. She complains
about everything, in fact, and when called out on it, she
blames her “sanguine temperament.” No one at the clinic
advocates for patients better, though.
Fairest: She always looks near death in that way everyone
finds utterly gorgeous. Her musical cough, pallor and rosy
cheeks might have come right out of a Victorian portrait.
People take pity on her, though she shares nothing with that
era’s listless, fashionably sick girls. She doesn’t mind when
people underestimate her strength — that’s how you win.
Kith Blessing: When a Plaguesmith uses Medicine to
treat an infectious disease, achieving three successes counts
as an exceptional success.
Plague of Arcadia: When the Plaguesmith touches a
target, she may infect them with the Arcadian Plague by
spending a Glamour point and making an instant Strength
+ Medicine + Wyrd roll, contested by the target’s Stamina +
Wyrd. In mechanical terms, the target suffers from a grave
disease (Changeling, p. 188), inflicting her with one point
of aggravated damage every 12 hours. Stopping the disease’s
progress requires successful resistance rolls equal to the
Plaguesmith’s Wyrd, and successful recovery follows the
rules for healing from aggravated damage. The symptoms
are up to the Storyteller’s discretion, but should reflect something about the Plaguesmith’s Keeper’s Title, and may be
more fantastical than any mortal disease. Examples include:
• Rashes that look like oil slicks, and move, pop and
change dimension on their own
• Small “boils” that on closer examination appear to be
tiny replicas of the target’s head
• Tinnitus wherein the noise being perceived is the
Plaguesmith’s voice, whispering cruelties
• A chill that slowly turns the target to ice
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Chapter Three: Kiths
Mass Trauma
Events
In March 2020, the entire world began a
mass trauma event centered on a highly
communicable deadly plague whose effects will continue to resonate for the next
several years if not decades. The original
Plaguesmith writeup predates the beginning
of the COVID-19 pandemic; the context for
a kith whose touch transmits an extremely
lethal disease shifted with the real circumstances in which everyone now finds themselves. Changeling’s framework explicitly
deals with trauma and trauma responses, so
Plaguesmith remains in Kith and Kin, with
the following gentle reminder.
Have an open and honest discussion with
your table about whether including Plaguesmiths in your chronicle will permit both players and Storyteller to deal with this trauma
productively or whether the group prefers to
skip this kith entirely. No one owes anyone
else at the table any further information if
they don’t want to engage these themes.
Razorhand
“Don’t make me hurt you.”
Once, a gardener in her Keeper’s realm, she assisted
in shaping her Flowering fellows and cutting back Thorns
encroaching upon her master’s perfect paradise. Eventually,
she cut her way free, but even now when she stitches closed
her beloved’s wounds, she tries to forget the feel of sap so
much like blood on her fingers. She fought so hard to leave
that all behind and become a healer.
Every Razorhand begins as an overt continuation of the cycle
of violence: not a one of them started this part of their life gently. The process of installing blades where there were once fingers
invariably causes intense pain. Some react to the violence they
suffered by embracing the brutality inherent in their new state;
some eschew it and struggle with all their might against the thing
the Fae did to them. Whether he slides into the pale gleam of a
streetlight before cutting down a miscreant or deliberately eschews
violence and instead carves elaborate and beautiful sculptures, a
Razorhand never escapes the bloodshed built into his body.
Often, Fae craft their Razorhands from the gentlest of
souls; they find something perversely delightful in setting the
most delicate of hearts with hands that cut those that get close
to them and watching them first wail with fear and sadness,
then grow calluses over their hearts, increasingly immune to
their victims’ pleas. Others seek to capture the most vicious
and mean-spirited of humanity and twist them even further.
Fairest: She gilds her stiletto fingertips with gems and
glitter, painting them with elaborate sigils. She’s an artist,
darling, didn’t you know? Lounging across Summer’s throne,
she flicks her right hand and her deadly, gorgeous nails extend in absent threat, every gesture fabulously sharp.
Darkling: As Winter’s best assassin, the freehold sends
him only when violence is the last remaining answer. He
tries not to revel in the destruction he causes, holding his
motley at arm’s length when he’d rather pull them close; he
lives in secret terror of the damage he might accidentally
cause.
Kith Blessing: When attacking using her bladed hands,
a Razorhand’s player counts three successes as an exceptional success.
Sakin: By spending 1 point of Glamour, a Razorhand
may transform one of her hands into a 1L knife for the
scene; a second point of Glamour allows the Razorhand to
transform her other hand as well, although she suffers the
usual penalties for offhand attacks with her non-dominant
blade-hand (Changeling, p. 184). This blessing may manifest
as a single dagger, a pair of hedge clippers or giant scissors
replacing her hand, or a long, thin blade extending from
each of her fingertips in place of fingernails, but it functions
as a single 1L knife regardless of cosmetics. Her strikes use
Brawl and unarmed fighting styles. Unless someone literally
removes her limbs, a Razorhand may never be disarmed.
Sandharrowed
“Sand is so lovely. Gets into everything, you know, and it
sticks around. You’ll be pouring me out of your shoes for weeks.”
The lands beyond the Hedge come in a great many
forms. Faerie is not home to just enchanted forests and
haunted castles, but to vast stretches of howling desert
among other things. While many deserts in the mortal
world are mostly rock, Faerie deserts hew more closely to the
popular image of vast sandy plains with mountainous dunes
and rare oases dotted throughout. Dust storms thrash their
way through realms like this, chasing down beings who are
unlucky enough to be caught outside without shelter. Like
anywhere else in Arcadia, the deserts are filled with wonder
and terror, and it is here that the Sandharrowed spent their
durances.
Before their time in Arcadia, the Sandharrowed usually
existed as mortals who lived private lives but who people
missed when they vanished. Not in big ways. No manhunts
or national news coverage, but in terms of workflow and
comforting presences. The administrator who sends out all
the mail merges for the office, the head of the street-sweeping crew, the substitute teacher who always arrives on time,
or the middle child who picks up the slack in family chores
could all make excellent Sandharrowed. Their fetches, made
of bits of shadow and fine-grain quartz, try to fill these roles,
but cannot do so with the sand-blasted polish of their predecessors.
In the vicious environment of Arcadia’s deserts, turned
loose as nomads or dust devils, the Sandharrowed learned
how to survive. They could run through windstorms without
a scratch and needed very little water to remain hydrated and
cool. Sandharrowed can thrive in almost any mortal environment, even those that kill other changelings. The sand they
carry with them serves as a potent weapon, making them ideal
scouts and warriors for their freeholds and motleys.
Beast: He puts you in mind of a desert mouse, all earth
tones and big round ears. On the surface, he seems harmless, scuttling from place to place on errands for the Autumn
Court — but when he gets angry, his blistering wrath fills the
room like a sandstorm.
Elemental: Sand drips from everywhere on her person.
Her hair, her pockets, and her shoes all trail thin lines of
fine golden sand. Her hair forever ripples as if caught in a
rough breeze, and her laugh washes over others, warm as a
desert morning.
Kith Blessing: When using Survival to get through an
area affected by an environmental Tilt, the Sandharrowed’s
player enjoys exceptional success at three successes instead
of five.
Enveloping Sands: A Sandharrowed can call the howling
sands of the deserts of Faerie — from which the Fae crafted
her — to her aid. Once per scene, when attacking an opponent with either Brawl or Weaponry, the Sandharrowed
may spend one Glamour point before her player rolls the
attack. If she succeeds, the target suffers the Immobilized
Tilt (Changeling, p. 330) as a pillar of sand swirls out of the
ground to trap them entirely. The pillar has Durability 2 and
the target enjoys cover (Changeling, p. 186) while trapped
inside.
Valkyrie
“I chose who lived and who died in the Aldaföðr’s battles
because he forced me to pick victims and victors. Whether you
live or die today is my choice.”
Call them Valkyries or Morrígu, the Crows or Angels of
the Battlefield. When Gentry play war games and set their
toys against one another within their own realms, when
those Fae caught in life-or-death struggles with others of
their kind clash, they often employ choosers of the slain.
Valkyries walk the battlefield, sword in hand or wings spread
black against the sky, selecting those who rise again and
those committed to the earth. Or, perhaps, those blessed to
ascend to sit at the right hand of the gilded figure on the hill
and those condemned to return to the blood-stained city.
Valkyries tend to accumulate sigils and symbols of
whatever mythos their Keeper adhered to, as much as they
adhered to one at all; just as many Fae adopt a mishmash
of symbols or make up their own tortured symbology. A
Valkyrie trapped in eternal Ragnarök spits in the eye of the
idea that her Keeper had anything to do with the runes and
knotwork she now tattoos on her skin.
Example Kiths
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The Fae tend to favor those with a deep and unshakeable sense of right and wrong when choosing Valkyries.
They delight in perverting that sense of justice or watching
a mortal with unimpeachable morals forced to choose between her survival and someone else’s over and over until
she loses all sense of herself and takes up her sword willingly.
Beast: Crow-dark eyes scan the horizon endlessly, always
looking for threats. She tilts her head from one side to the
other when she’s nervous, shedding black feathers when she
tugs at her hair. Always one step behind and one to the left
of her motley’s putative leader, she whispers encouragement
into his ear.
Fairest: Six feet tall and blue-eyed, the wide vowels and
earnest words of her Minnesota accent disarm opponents
as well as her motley-mate’s parrying. An ardent follower of
Freya, she sets herself against both her Keeper’s twisting of
her faith and the men who appropriated it while she was
gone.
Kith Blessing: Choose either Persuasion or Intimidation at character generation. When inspiring an ally (Persuasion) or intimidating a foe (Intimidation) on the battlefield,
the Valkyrie’s player counts three successes on the chosen
skill as an exceptional success.
Chooser of the Slain: A Valkyrie may grant luck to her allies or levy misfortune upon her foes a number of times per
scene equal to her Wyrd/2, rounded down to a minimum of
1. Spending 1 Glamour, the Valkyrie declares the recipient
of her blessing or curse in a clear voice and rolls Wits + Occult + Wyrd, contested by Resolve + Wyrd; anyone she can
perceive directly is fair game. Allies don’t have to contest if
their players don’t want them to. A successful blessing grants
the Valkyrie’s choice of Inspired or Steadfast; a successful
curse inflicts her choice of Frightened or Reckless.
Venombite
“Step into my parlor — or, well, my apartment, anyway. I love
that old poem, but who can afford a parlor in this economy?”
Whether skittering in the shadows or strutting in full
view and covered in bright colors, the sheer amount of toxin
coursing through their blood binds all Venombites together.
Biting a Venombite will not, in itself, lead to death, though
that invasion of personal space does tend to annoy them.
Not poisonous but venomous, Venombites take their name
from their eponymous and incredibly dangerous bites.
The Gentry show little discrimination when choosing
humans to craft into Venombites. Everyone carries little
resentments, words they never say to the people who hurt
them, petty hatreds boiling in their stomachs like so much
acid. A Venombite’s durance takes these vicious, hidden feelings and distills them, turning them into Arcadian toxin.
The changeling might spend her durance as a pitohui, eating
glittering poisonous beetles — harmless to her, but turning
her feathers into deadly knives — or as a serpent with a long
tail rattling ominously behind her. Kept as pets, sources of
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poison, or assassins, the Venombite’s Arcadian history winds
down a long path of destruction and sabotage.
That path often continues into the mortal world. Some
have other roles within their freeholds and motleys, but
many fulfill the same roles they did in Faerie: unleashing
their purified and distilled inner toxicity on others, sometimes without provocation.
Elemental: She smiles sharply, like jagged glass. Her hair
always appears oiled with a dark, henna-like substance, and
she rarely speaks above a whisper. When someone makes
her smile fade, it almost guarantees no one will ever see that
poor soul again.
Wizened: He looks normal — far too normal, except for
the dark eyes, the color of pokeberries and forest scorpions,
and his small, sharp teeth, filed to razor points.
Kith Blessing: When using Brawl to grapple a target, a
Venombite’s player enjoys exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Deadly Bite: The True Fae take small hurts, pet peeves,
and burning resentments inside a changeling and distill
them into an odorless, colorless, and tasteless fluid meant
to kill anything it targets. Once per scene, a Venombite may
spend a point of Glamour before rolling a Brawl attack. If
the attack succeeds, she injects her victim with her toxin in
addition to the attack’s damage. The attack does lethal damage. In addition, the target suffers the Poisoned Tilt; consider Venombite toxin a grave poison.
Additional Kiths
Not all kiths reflect the influence of Regalia. They dwell
in the cracks and between the faults of our classifications, yet
their fractured splendor is no less than their cousins.
Apoptosome
“We’re all untidy heaps of scars and consequences, it’s just
that I wear my memories on the outside.”
They never saw their Keeper in full. Instead, they were
trapped in empty fortresses, alone but for their own accumulated corpses. They drifted through endless halls, waging a
solitary war against the trespassers who slipped in through
tiny cracks in the walls. But each time an Apoptosome
died, they rose anew. In a new body, but one identical to
the corpse that they left. Misshapen by the blow that killed
them, but stronger. Wise to the tricks of the next dead-eyed
invader. And as they were killed over and over again, their
body accumulated the memories of every cold and savage
thing that struck them down.
Apoptosomes often leave their durance feeling incomplete. Their Keepers left them fully to their own thoughts, with
only the barest control over their actions. The Fae never obviously surveilled them, giving little sign of even acknowledging
their presence. Apoptosomes often don’t escape their Keeper’s
domain, instead expelled from that vast and unknowable body
through cracks or mazes of wet caverns. No comprehensible Fae
creature to hate and flee, no one to pursue you.
And yet they survived not one, but thousands of reshaping attempts. Clearly something held them hostage, but what?
The constant shifting impermanence of their bodies in
Arcadia means that Apoptosomes tend to reach the other
side with questionable boundaries. Some become confrontational; inclined to treat perceived disagreements as a prelude to new attacks, they go on the offensive before that attack has a chance to occur. Some become fragile; unable to
identify their own boundaries, they fold themselves up into
someone else’s and defend those instead.
Darkling: Long tendrils of gauzy white film drift off a
body taut with muscle and marked with cobwebs of silver
scars. She vividly remembers the injuries that caused each of
those scars, and a weakness of the one who struck the blow.
Ogre: They look like they fight every day of their life.
Permanently swollen eyes. Bones set slightly off-kilter. Skin
the mottled purple-green-yellow of bruises both old and new,
belying the solemn clarity of their voice when they describe
the precise strengths of their hunters.
Kith Blessing: An Apoptosome perfectly remembers
progressions of fights they lose and gains an extra die on one
roll per scene in subsequent physical or mental contests with
that creature or person.
Sparagmos: In a fight with a character who’s previously
hurt them, the Apoptosome may spend a point of Glamour
to deal one point of aggravated damage to that character.
She may do this to more than one character. For the rest of
that scene, both the changeling and those foes take an additional point of aggravated damage every time the returning
enemies deal further damage to the Apoptosome.
Becquerel
[quiet, hissing footsteps down an empty hallway]
When America dropped the first nuclear bombs at the
end of World War II, the world fixated on a new kind of nightmare. The horrors of nuclear war permeated the dreams of
everyone even peripherally involved with the Cold War, and
beyond to the present day. Hundreds of movies, books, and
television shows focus on the incredible destruction wrought
by Fat Man, Little Boy, and their aftermath. The Doomsday
Clock ticks ever closer to midnight, and politicians negotiate
and re-negotiate treaties for nuclear weapons research and
non-proliferation.
Don’t think the Fae haven’t noticed.
Beginning in 1944, nuclear energy rocketed down the
trods and Dreaming Roads near Trinity, Lop Nur, and the
Chagai Hills. Radiation poses no particular danger to the Gentry, moreso than any other blast of great force, but the arrival
fascinated them. This fascination resulted in the Becquerels.
A relatively new kith, Becquerels rise from the idea of
nuclear radiation’s destructive power. Used as art pieces,
poisoners, and assassins in Faerie, their shadowy forms suit
their tasks, lending them stealth in low-light areas and making quite striking shadows on bare walls. Sometimes the Fae
cut out their tongues or vocal cords to better showcase the
Becquerels’ deathly shadow effect.
Becquerels often utilize their blessing to burn their
way out of captivity in a spectacular burst. Infused with
the dreams of nuclear bursts and radioactive fallout, they
tear through the Hedge, setting Thorns and denizens alike
aflame with their rage and pain. Once out, they tend to settle
down somewhat, but their touch remains poisonous. They
make warm friends or blazing enemies, always glowing with
passion.
Darkling: Head-on, she looks like a person made of shadowy flesh, with two dark eyes glimmering in her head. Her
voice is hoarse, like a burn victim’s. When you look at her
out of the corner of your eye, you could swear she’s a twodimensional shadow.
Ogre: Her skin is all cracked stone. She gives off the
scent of burnt flesh and chlorine. Even though she’s huge,
you cannot hear her coming until she’s right beside you.
Kith Blessing: When using Stealth in low-light areas,
a Becquerel’s player achieves an exceptional success at three
instead of five.
Nuclear Shadow: When she successfully grapples someone, a Becquerel may spend a point of Glamour to burn
them as if she set them on fire. The Becquerel’s grapple
burns an area on the target the size of a torch (Changeling,
p. 191) with the heat of a candle. Her touch has no burning effect on inert objects and the burned area appears to
all mundane medical scans like radiation burns rather than
those inflicted by flame.
Every turn she continues to maintain the grapple, she
may inflict her choice of the Stunned or Poisoned Tilts.
Blightbent
“No, no, it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to touch me either.”
Shoulder-deep in cauldrons of ammonia every night.
Creeping through the narrow furnace towers to clear microscopic defects. Sifting strange hot metals from the air with a
net made of fine lead string. Trudging through eternal sour
bogs to collect rotten buried treasures. Raking the calderas
of smoking volcanoes for choice fragments of glass. The
Blightbent toiled in the foulest smells and at the most noxious jobs Arcadia could offer. When made to perform tasks
poison humans, they became poison to survive them.
Their durance marks Blightbent changelings in a way
causing great challenges for those wishing to reintegrate with
mundane life. They spent years of their lives accumulating
poison into their bodies, and after sleeping on the embers of
a beehive coke oven every night, the smell of tar feels more
natural and grounded than wildflowers. It doesn’t help that
Blightbent so rarely achieve the satisfaction of an intentional
escape. More commonly, they wake up abandoned some disExample Kiths
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tance into the Hedge amid a pile of bodies and grass burnt
away by lye. A sponge only absorbs so much mercury, and
the Fae find throwing something stained or battered away
much easier than repairing it for further use. Without making the choice to leave, many Blightbent stumble back across
the Thorns, unprepared to return to the mortal world. The
hair still wet with oily water, the poisonous dust of a munitions factory permanently glazing their skin, the lingering
scent of gasoline on their breath; all signs of a durance they
never fully escaped.
While commonly thought of as a kith created by the
industrial age, the history of the Blightbent runs as far back
into history as the poisonous earth they handle. The technology they remember hitches a ride into Arcadia in their
heads, influencing successive generations of monstrous Fae
designs. Occasionally, innovations hitch their way back out.
A Blightbent engineer who spent their days and nights in the
hearts of strange machines applies that intimate understanding to their own creations.
Wizened: No matter how hard she scrubs, the coal dust
never washes off her skin. Embedded in every pore and surface imperfection, constantly drifting loose from her eyelashes and the skin beneath her fingernails. Everything she
owns is dirty now.
Fairest: From a distance, his skin is dazzling — delicately
cut golden crystal, faintly glowing in the sunlight. But when
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he moves, a wave of stench roils around him: rotten eggs and
insecticide and skunks. Stand around in the heat and he’s
liable to make bystanders vomit.
Kith Blessing: When a Blightbent makes a Stamina +
Resolve roll to mitigate damage from diseases and poisons,
they automatically downgrade aggravated damage to lethal,
lethal damage to bashing, or ignore bashing damage.
Brimstone: The Blightbent’s touch scalds and scars.
Whenever they successfully grapple someone, their player
may spend one Glamour point to inflict the Poisoned Tilt.
Enkrateia
“Comtesse, please reconsider that sentiment. The Seventh
Cinder Forest Daughter describes a very equitable bargain and
refusing a truce this generous following a victory so resounding
would display… great imprudence.”
Most Keepers lack the interest or motivation to provide
their own neutral analysis of the events they steer around
themselves. Some choose to create a “better angel” to offer
them advice. Captured for their quick wits and practical
minds, Enkrateia served as advisors, mediators, and judges
in liminal places. The literal voice of reason in the ear of
their Keeper, the Gentry acknowledged the voices of Enkrateia at their whim. Delicately formed silver statues stood
rooted in an empty glen, eternally brokering peace between
warring siblings. A fang-toothed giant pronounced Fae jus-
tice to an inky Notary for crimes like failing to interest her
Keeper. A captive glass songbird chirped subtle advice from
within a gilded cage.
The Gentry prize Enkrateia too greatly for the changelings to escape imprisonment easily, but quixotic Fae attend
too little to these pets for them to remain a constant presence in Arcadia. An unlucky advisor finds herself so disregarded that she begins to grow as invisible as she feels. The
heightened emotions of freeholds often override people’s
better natures, and here the Enkrateia excel upon their return to the mortal world.
Fairest: A sleek, winged boy with timepieces for eyes
and nimble fingers; his voice soft and placating, which once
promised blood by morning.
Elemental: Once the lightning crown resting heavy on a
wounded king’s brow, they echoed the memories he recited
to them.
Kith Blessing: When attempting to calm a conflict, roll
the highest of: Empathy, Persuasion, or Subterfuge.
Eloquent Analysis: When the Enkrateia takes an extended action to Investigate, her player only begins to lose dice
after the 3rd successive roll.
Gravewight
“The air is always thick with ghosts. Lonely ghosts who want
a friendly ear, hungry ghosts who want to plug a gap in themselves, newborn ghosts still fresh from the traumas of death. But
just because you can hear them doesn’t mean you can help them.”
The Gravewights know that Death patiently walks in
our footsteps and take that knowledge bodily into themselves. Each experienced death as a constant companion,
stolen away to perform executions, funerary rites, or other
services in chthonic places. No two are quite alike, their
circumstances born out of individual experiences with the
harrowing and capricious nature of death in Arcadia. Some
sickened, and rather than allow them to die their Keepers
placed upon them the mask of red death. Some wasted
away as completely as the dry bones they exhumed and prepared for display in vast catacombs. A man-shaped pile of
rotten meat guarded an abattoir. A grim-faced ghostly angel
dredged battlefields for those fragments of souls that were
still clinging to their swords.
Not necessarily morbid nor universally sepulchral in
temperament, Gravewights hope just as well as any other
changeling, finding new resolve in their return to mundane
life. They easily become cavalier about deaths, however, including their own. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, or
maybe Gravewights long to complete a death arriving in slow
motion ever since they walked into Arcadia. More often than
any other servant class of changeling, therefore, they simply
throw down their shovels and walk out into old woods filled
with the threat of Huntsmen. One might not look closely for
the corpse-like gravedigger, once nested amid the grave dirt,
until bodies begin to stack up like corded wood. Hearing the
Huntsman’s horn means that Gravewights lay close enough
to their Keeper’s hearts to really hurt them.
Wizened: Her desiccated and brittle skin cracks when
she moves, her dry touch gentle when she eases the spine of
a man nearly as old as herself into place in her meticulously
designed mosaic. She can’t bring a lantern here lest someone
see her, but her eyes glow with lambent blue flame and she
walks in the night easily as day.
Beast: They walked the wild trods in the skin of a shaggy
black hound, running down such goblins and changelings
as had the misfortune to be out alone late at night, dragging
captives into their endless underground dens.
Kith Blessing: Choose Empathy or Intimidation at
character generation. When attempting to influence someone with her mien, physical presence, or knowledge of the
mechanics of death, the Gravewight’s player achieves an exceptional success at three successes instead of five.
Charnel Sight: The Gravewight’s presence serves a beacon to ghosts and other creatures caught between life and
death. Whether the fulfillment of some destiny, an intellectual affinity, or her Wyrd simply calling out to them, ghosts
appear more frequently near her, manifesting more normally and more completely. Spend one Glamour to see and hear
ghosts lingering in Twilight.
Shadowsoul
“Mine is never again the rosy dawn, or heat of summer’s day.
Instead, I must creep around with the other night animals, hunting one another in the dewy chill. He took the light from me and
expected me to thank him for it.”
Cousins to both Bright One and Gravewight, the Fae
crafted Shadowsouls into beautiful or decorative creatures,
intertwined with (and styled to the aesthetic preferences of)
chthonic or celestial Keepers. These evening stars, distant
and cloaked in silence, forsake the sun. Torn asunder and
recreated as their own dark doppelganger or barricaded into
a damp cave for a thousand years to grow a new and pliable crystal body, they survive, their clarity marred by a faint
pink tint at the gem’s heart. A black doe queen flees, hunted
nightly by her fox king and his many brothers. A living shadow, soft and barely substantial, lies pressed to any surface
that supports him, falling away from the light.
Not inherently more or less dangerous than any other
Keeper, nocturnal Gentry embrace more fully the inherent
cold disinterest of Fae emotional expression. They keep their
changelings tightly bound, heavily guarded, and struck with
frailties tied to the daylight hours. A Shadowsoul escapee
took a long, dangerous road out of Arcadia — never able to
move faster than the traversal of the moon, their Keeper
stalking their footsteps, threatening to blot out the night
and bake them in the perpetual sunlight.
Elemental: Wrapped in midnight blue and speckled
white as the starry sky, you can see constellations and distant
nebulae move across her skin with the rotation of the earth.
Example Kiths
119
Fairest: His skin and eyes are bleached so luminous and
pale that he cannot bear the sun, but in moonlight he glows
as though lit from within.
Kith Blessing: Shadowsouls gain a bonus to mundane
Subterfuge rolls equal to her Wyrd and the 8-again rule on
those rolls.
Nightblind: Shadowsouls have a natural affinity with the
Mirror Regalia in addition to any other affinities.
Once per scene, on an exceptional attack success, the
Shadowsoul may inflict a temporary Blindness Condition on
someone she touches. The Condition resolves at the end of
the scene.
Telluric
“No, not that way, this way! It’s like you’ve never read a map
before!”
Not all changelings live among the True Fae, walking
the same paths they do, drinking their wine, and eating their
bread. Some are set above them in orbit, dancing strange
paths throughout the even stranger skies of Faerie. Isolated from everyone but each other, the Tellurics become the
stars of Arcadia, drifting through different demesnes, always
changing.
Some other Lost begrudge the Tellurics, saying that they
had the easy road out. After all, they were so lofty and far
above everyone else, they could have just walked out. No one
would have stopped them. To a certain extent this is true;
the Tellurics knew the silver-and-gold paths better than anyone else. There was no gate keeping them in, no chains on
their ankles. Why did they stay long enough to become Lost?
Tellurics were all lonely, orphaned planets to some extent before they were taken. Black sheep of their families,
agoraphobics, chronically-ill people, people dealing with
grief — anyone who was isolated in some way makes a good
Telluric. The Gentry take them in their dreams, or lure them
into Arcadia with the promise of beauty and attention. It’s
not a lie, not at all. The Tellurics are set in the heavens and
shine with the glow of a thousand different stars and planets.
Some burn with the fire of Mars, others with the blue-white
radiance of Sirius, and a few with the multicolored tails of
comets. Everyone in Faerie sees the Tellurics as they tread
their pathways — but no one speaks to them save other Tellurics, and even then, rarely.
Some Tellurics accept this. Escaped Tellurics tell sad
stories about their fellows whose bodies were entirely consumed by the fires of their own perfection and fell to the forests of Arcadia as shooting stars. Perhaps they died, perhaps
they became True Fae in their own right, perhaps something
stranger happened. No one really knows, but every Telluric
has a story about a friend they saw fall.
Those who do escape find themselves both craving attention and avoiding it as much as possible. Tellurics are
used to being seen as perfect and unattainable, and genuine
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Chapter Three: Kiths
connection is extremely difficult for them. They constantly
apologize and castigate themselves for anything they perceive as a flaw and occasionally break off relationships of any
kind to avoid hurting others. However, they make excellent
couriers, spies, getaway drivers, and anything that involves a
great deal of travel.
Elemental: Her veins shine in her skin, shot through
with glimmering quicksilver. The freehold’s best driver, she
always plays classical music as she drives. She rarely smiles,
but her teeth shine like pearlescent moons when she does.
Fairest: Known for his tempestuous relationships and
the fact that his hair seems to move without any wind, this
Spring courtier always dresses to show off his red features to
their best advantage — red eyes, red hair, red freckles sparkling across the bridge of his nose.
Kith Blessing: When the Telluric chases someone with
Drive or Streetwise, on a clear night when she can see the
stars above her, her player achieves an exceptional success
with three successes instead of five.
Burn Bright: Tellurics can wield the power of falling
stars. For one Glamour point, the Telluric may throw a ball
of starflame as a ranged attack using Dexterity + Athletics. The fire is torch-sized and has the heat of a candle (see
Changeling 2e, p.190).
Whisperwisp
“Why no, I hadn’t heard at all! And so many people involved
in covering it up. Why don’t we go somewhere a little more out of
the way and you can tell me everything?”
Whisperwisps were built to be spies and saboteurs.
Constantly cataloging the habits of others, listening for their
most intimate secrets, punctuated by grueling interrogations
and mock trials. It’s no wonder most are cold and a little
amoral; even this side of the Hedge they can’t quite shake off
the desire to lie reflexively, concealing even what might be
better to share. As all Lost, of course, they might take nearly any seeming: small creatures that creep along the walls
and through the grasses; willowy and androgynous honey
traps, flattering and flirting; or quick, tense locksmiths tearing through layer after layer of physical security, listening to
the radio chatter and bathroom gossip of a dozen carefully
placed bugs.
Some Whisperwisps choose to spy for a court or other
individual changelings, but nearly all Whisperwisps stay
apart on some level, ready to break away and fade back into
the shadows at the first sign of personal danger.
Darkling: He’s as long and slender as the shadow cast by
a cracked door, fingernails as jagged as lockpicks, but with a
face that eyes slide off of.
Fairest: Once a stern reporter, a certain clinical quality
entered her voice when she returned. Remote as a mountain,
her lips twitch slightly in disgust with every new falsehood
she uncovers.
Kith Blessing: When attempting to influence someone
with a known falsehood, achieving three successes counts as
an exceptional success. When attempting to influence someone with the truth, five successes counts as an exceptional
success.
Forked Tongue: Choose one of Stealth or Persuasion at
character generation. Mundane rolls made with the chosen
skill gain both the 9-again rule and a bonus to equal to the
Whisperwisp’s Wyrd.
Example Kiths
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There are not more than five musical notes,
yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.
There are not more than five primary colors,
yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.
There are not more than five cardinal tastes,
yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Suspicion comes easily to changelings, that state of constant vigilance justified because the Gentry really are out to
get them. Many changelings struggle with the urge to keep
others at arm’s length, to surround themselves with thorns
lest others betray their faith.
Self-imposed insularity poses dangers, though. One set
of eyes can’t watch all the approaches. One mind can’t cover
all of a plan’s potential flaws. One frame of reference too easily slips away from lucidity and into the blurring of imagination and reality. One heart struggles to comfort itself, when
unrelenting nightmares and painful isolation play partners.
So changelings turn to one another for help, finding
strength through community. They overcome mistrust
through carefully woven threads of pledge and honor. They
reinforce camaraderie through shared experiences and mutual gain. Some go a step further, drawing mortals or other
creatures of the shadows into their circles of trust.
The suspicion never entirely ebbs. The tension never
quite fades. But through working together, the Lost might
find sanctuary and find themselves.
Motleys in
Lost Chronicles
The building blocks of changeling society, motleys and
their attendant pledgecrafting create threads binding the
Lost together. The Wyrd’s power tames some of the capri-
ciousness and fear of changeling existence, giving the Lost
an opportunity to work together in shared trust or purpose.
Motleys also perform an important role in the game for
players and Storytellers. The motley usually serves as characters’ justification for gathering in a group without collapsing
into infighting or going their separate ways. A tool of convenience at the storytelling level, motleys permit the narrative
to focus on the sort of story the group wants to experience
together.
Changeling: The Lost Second Edition briefly touches
on motleys, establishing the notion that the players’ changelings likely all belong to one. This section goes into motley
creation in greater depth, provides several sample motley
oaths, and presents a new system for handling internal conflict within a motley in a constructive way.
Making a Motley
For some chronicles, motleys remain a background element. The glue that binds groups of changelings together,
motleys require no further attention, permitting other narrative or game elements to take the limelight. This sort of
play assumes the changelings in the motley are friends, or
at least have each other’s backs when the chips are down. If
the Storyteller and players don’t wish to delve into the background or implications of motley ties or interactions, this
lets the whole group get right on with play.
Motleys in Lost Chronicles
123
Focusing on the background and origins of this shared
pledge, however, turns the motley itself into a compelling
story element. More than just an excuse to keep the characters together, a fleshed-out motley helps shape the aims
and actions of the member changelings. Mutual history and
detail build the motley into something like a character in its
own right, a shared experience that might outlive individual
motley-mates when Huntsmen come calling.
Pledged Together
The work of pledgecraft, Motleys spring from the power
of the Wyrd tying a ragged band of changelings together
in accordance with a sworn oath. Often, the Lost use this
power to create motleys as a replacement for the family and
friendships lost through their durance. Motleys can serve as
any sort of close network or alliance where trust in a mutual
cause is key, but an underlying level of genuine closeness
separates a motley from another form of societal oath.
A changeling swearing into a motley gains no immediate knowledge of her new motley-mates from the Wyrd.
She might also belong to more than one motley simultaneously, although oath wording may make maintaining this a
tricky juggling act. However, oaths are lifelong things, not
acts of passing fancy. Motleys don’t gather lightly; they form
around strong bonds of hard-won trust with no backing out
a few years down the line when a changeling decides that
she doesn’t much care for a clause forbidding her to harm a
motley-mate she came to despise. As such, scrupulous attention behooves any of the Lost when knowing exactly who she
embraces as a close ally in such an oath.
For Storytellers and players, giving the motley a pledge that
provides strong, shared purpose and agenda from the start gives
an immediate drive to action. This avoids having Storyteller
characters cajoling or inducing the changelings to take part in
the story and strengthens the bonds between the characters
within the narrative. Instead of being some friends who hang
out and happen to have made a promise, the changelings swear
to survive together, or become a revolutionary cell, or a band of misfits desperate to hide the awful crime they accidentally committed.
This lets the group focus on a particular aspect of the
setting and gives the Storyteller clear direction to create lean,
dynamic chapters around. If the motley pledges to watch
each other’s backs and survive together, the Storyteller can
weave threats that require the changelings to protect each
other, perhaps focusing on the specific flaws and weaknesses
of any given motley-mate that she needs her allies to help
her with. If the threats begin to form an all-encompassing
web that threatens to entrap the whole motley, the individual characters then face the internal challenge of deciding
whether to hold fast in trust and loyalty, or to cut their losses
and break an oath in the name of their own survival.
If, instead, the players are really interested in Huntsmen
and the concept of guarding against Arcadia, they could
create a motley with the pledged purpose of safeguarding
changelings from Huntsmen, regardless of the prey’s alle-
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giances or crimes. The Storyteller might then prepare each
story arc around a particular victim and Huntsman, exploring both the thrill of the action and the consequences of
saving — or failing — the prey.
Alternatively, if the group is absolutely enthused about
pledgecraft and fae magic, they might decide on a motley
that pledges to drop into mortals’ lives and fix their problems, fairy tale style, as an attempt to live their own lives in a
positive way with each day their freedom from Arcadia lasts.
Motley Aspirations: If the Storyteller and players want
to bring a sworn purpose from a motley oath to the forefront
as a story focus, the group might agree to include a motley
Aspiration. This is an additional Aspiration based on the
pledge the motley swears, and so could be anything from
“Be there for each other when times are tough,” to “Battle
the huntsmen who come for my allies,” to “Watch the most
common Hedge portals for recently freed changelings and
influence the new arrivals to our agenda.”
Motley Aspirations work best when the characters need
to take a proactive stance to meet their goal or when the Storyteller agrees to challenge the Aspiration directly in play. A
strong, compelling purpose drives drama and action, especially when it aligns to individual changelings’ Threads, but
it doesn’t require grandiose or far-reaching goals. “Be there
for each other when times are tough” is a powerful Aspiration for a Storyteller intending to focus on the motley-mates’
personal challenges and the players are interested in really
exploring the struggles of their changelings as they try to
just claw back some semblance of a life after their durance.
The motley Aspiration is added to each character’s sheet
as an additional Aspiration, and it is fixed for as long as the
changeling is a member of the motley and has not broken
the motley oath.
If a character belongs to multiple motleys, she only gains
the Aspiration of the motley most important to her, which
should usually be whatever motley she shares with the other
player characters. After all, that’s where the driving focus of
the chronicle will likely be.
Much like a normal Aspiration, the character earns a
single Beat when fulfilling the stated goal but does not replace the Aspiration at the end of the game session. Each
character can gain only a single Beat for a motley Aspiration
per game session.
Adding a motley Aspiration gives the characters strong
additional incentive to focus on the motley’s pledged goal
and also offers a slightly faster rate of advancement. If the
group doesn’t want the increased rate of earned Beats, the
motley Aspiration can simply replace one of the usual three
character Aspirations. Alternatively, the Storyteller and players might agree that the Beats can go toward Experiences
spent on advancements that make narrative sense within
the motley’s accomplishments, such as new Motley Merits,
or dots in Skills in which a talented motley-mate instructs
her close friends.
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
Oath-Sworn Terms
Roses and Thorns
The oath serves as the motley’s heart, and its wording is
important. It reflects the nature of whoever drafted it. An inexperienced motley may have a loose or simple oath, possibly
sworn in the heat of the moment and not thought through.
A motley protecting the mutual interests of older changelings is likely to be ironclad. The oath may reflect outside
pressures on the members, such as a freehold forcing the
changelings to swear not to cause trouble, or even include
clauses for which none living quite remember the origins.
However, the precise wording of an oath is rarely a matter of sophistry or hidden meanings made to ensnare the
unwary in a trap of words. The Wyrd weaves itself through
a motley oath upon the boughs of the participants’ intent,
the collective understanding among the changelings of the
oath’s true meaning.
That intended purpose bears the oath’s power upon its
shoulders; the spirit of the oath is what matters, rather than
the specific wording, because in this case the spirit is the
Wyrd, and it cares little for the tangled innuendos and sly
maneuvers of whatever human language the Lost happen to
have wrapped their desire inside.
A changeling who thinks she’s cleverly entrapped her
fellows is likely to sorely regret her machinations when not
only does the Wyrd disagree, but she’s still stuck in a close,
personal oath with a gang of people who no longer feel they
can fully trust her.
If, for example, the motley swears to guard each other
from their Keeper’s pursuing beasts, they remain bound to
that mutual aid if the Keeper sends a clattering mechanical monster of sparks and silver instead of a flesh-and-blood
hunting horror. No amount of well actually it’s not a beast
is it is going to convince the Wyrd the motley intended to
only protect one another from a narrow category of pursuing animals.
Equally, a sworn commitment to help each other with
matters of the Hedge that mentions “debts” isn’t going to
compel a changeling to pay off her motley-mate’s mundane
mortgage, since the intent is clearly in the context of goblin
bargains and fae magic.
Ideally, the pledge’s wording has real teeth, directly
mandating or condemning particular behaviors. Elements
the group knows some characters will struggle to honor can
help generate drama and draw a narrative focus to those
changelings and the potential consequences of their failure.
Crucially, however, the players should never be the ones
struggling. The oath isn’t a storytelling tool for punishing
players who want to see the narrative move outside of the
oath’s remit, nor is it a means for the Storyteller or a group
majority to force compliance to a particular theme some
players don’t want to engage with. The oath requires buy-in
from everyone at the table, especially the parts that will create
conflict and drama.
Your group may prefer to work through the creation
of the motley in an organic fashion during a Session Zero,
bouncing ideas off one another that eventually coalesce into
an understanding of the motley’s origins, purpose, and oath.
If you prefer a more structured approach, you can use the
following method of Roses and Thorns to weave connecting
threads between the motley-mates and establish its role for
the beginning of the chronicle.
This approach uses a short series of steps to build the relationships and conflicts that drive the motley. This process
works best when run concurrently with character creation —
particularly Merits, as it offers an incentive of bonus Motley
Merit dots for playing along. Everyone can then adjust elements of their characters to as they go along to take account
of the resulting relationships.
All the players participate in fleshing out the motley’s
background; the Storyteller doesn’t hold absolute authority
over giving the yay or nay on a specific idea or relationship,
although she may have advice or suggestions that help shape
the outcome.
The first step is to create a map of the motley, laying out
the name of each character on a large sheet of paper, set of
index cards, whiteboard, or virtual project map. Leave plenty of room around each character; the aim here is to produce
a tapestry of threads among them, and to add new entries
on the map representing outside pressures or characters who
have played a key part in bringing the motley together.
Each step involves linking a character to one or more
others on the map. This might involve just drawing a line
between the relevant characters, but it might be fun to use
actual threads on a physical representation. The end result
could be anything from an artistic arrangement of spun
yarn to a conspiracy theorist’s fever-dream of pinned string,
but regardless, giving it a tactile element with which participants can engage and to which they may contribute specific
symbolism helps get everyone involved. Does the Ogre use
rough string for all his connections? Does the Fairest use
gold thread? Does the motley use red wire for all the Roses
and green wire for all the Thorns?
The crucial rule for Roses and Thorns is that connections among characters must always be agreed by any players
involved. For example, if one player thinks it’d be cool for
her changeling to nurse an unrequited love for her motleymate, but the player of the latter doesn’t feel comfortable
tackling that idea in play for any reason, it’s his right to say
no — and there’s no need for a player who turns down a
connection to justify themselves unless they want to. This
is a collaborative storytelling exercise and it’s important for
everyone at the table to feel relaxed and safe.
Roses
In this step, each player looks at what positive forces have
led to her character becoming a part of the motley. These driv-
Motleys in Lost Chronicles
125
ing ambitions drew the changeling into that circle of trust,
and those who welcomed her into it. The ambitions form the
attraction that serves as a foundation of the motley. That’s not
to say they necessarily all need to be healthy or pure of heart
and motive, but they’re fundamentally constructive.
Firstly, choose (at least) one other player, and suggest
a thread between your changeling and theirs. This thread
should be something that draws the changeling to them,
whether admiration born of their specific talents, a personal
debt because they helped the changeling get back on her feet,
love, enduring friendship, or even a shared ideal linked to
the motley’s purpose. Discuss the potential thread with the
other player and the group and, if the other player approves,
tell the group how the thread gives the changeling a sense of
surety or stability in her new life.
Then, choose or create a new entry on the growing tapestry that lies outside of the motley and suggest a thread between your changeling and it. This entry should be a person
or group, a situation, an event, or some other form of external context. The thread between changeling and context is
something that helped bring the changeling into the motley because it inspired or encouraged them, or perhaps gave
them positive reasons to trust and buy into the spirit of the
oath. It might be a friend or ally who pointed her to her new
motley-mates, or the encouragement of a key member of one
of the courts, or the desire to help other people evade the
Gentry. If the group concurs, tell them about how the thread
gave the changeling the impetus she needed to believe in the
motley and her new fellows.
Thorns
This step explores negative influences that push at the
changeling. They may have pushed her into the motley or
stir conflict between her and her motley-mates. Thorns are
often needs, whether the need for safety from a threat or the
need for that bastard motley-mate to finally acknowledge her
superior talent. They’re still threads, because hate and fear
can tie people together as closely as love and courage. Thorns
may hurt but they catch and snare; pulling completely free of
them can be even more agonizing, so the changeling prefers
to accept the dull ache of their presence in her mind.
First, choose another player and suggest a new thread
between your character and theirs that derives from this
more destructive aspect — perhaps a rivalry, a grudge she’s
never forgotten, something she needs from the character, or
something she envies. It should bind them together rather
than force them apart; a debt she intends to collect, a suspicion that makes her watch them to keep the rest of the
motley safe, a flaw she sees in them and wants to fix, or a role
she needs them to play in her life that they do not yet fulfill.
The new thread is friction, but strong friction keeps
things stuck together even as it generates heat. If the other
player concurs, tell the group how the thread entangles her
in the motley, how it pisses her off but also keeps her there.
126
Next, choose or create an external force or context and
suggest a thread that links your changeling to it in a negative way. Perhaps it’s her Keeper, and fear drives her to need
safety with the motley. Perhaps it’s a clash of personality with
the same character who another motley-mate was inspired
by, and which drove her into the motley’s arms in search of
allies. Perhaps it’s something as abstract as loneliness, the
need to have someone, anyone, who understands what life
is like for her now. If the group concurs with the idea, tell
them a way that she drowns out or indulges those negative
emotions via her interactions with the rest of the motley.
Weaving the Tapestry
By this point, the group should have a mess of threads
connecting motley-mates to one another and to external
forces — a visual explanation of the pressures that have
brought the motley together and have kept them together.
For each of the two steps completed, a character gains one
bonus Experience to spend on Motley Merits.
Keep the tapestry on hand as the chronicle unfolds; it
can serve as a useful reminder for the players of roleplaying
hooks and interaction prompts. The group may even want
to go further, adjusting and rethreading the map as relationships between the changelings alter and new pressures appear on their periphery.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, the tapestry may provide
further benefits during play. Add dice equal to the number
of threads between two changelings to rolls resisting Occult
or Social influence attempting to pry them apart. A changeling may be able to cash in a link once per chapter for a
bonus die on a roll to help the other character (for a Rose)
or to outdo or impress them (for a Thorn). Links could even
refresh additional Willpower points when a changeling’s
Needle or Thread coincides with them.
Sworn Fellowships
Motleys come in all manner of shape, purpose, and origin. What follows is a selection of motley oaths, illustrating
how changelings implement such societal pledgecraft among
themselves.
Children of the Stone
Terms: Whosoever does spill their blood upon this stone does
declare themselves to the rest of us as a sibling. The bonds of blood
now tie us in loyalty forever. All siblings of this stone are family,
and family never spills each other’s blood in anger; family never
betrays each other. To wrong one of the family is to wrong all of us.
Any sibling who wrongs another of the family owes blood, shed in
balance to the ill action taken but once that blood is shed, it washes
away all shame.
Motley: The motley carved this oath onto the brow and
temples of a rather lifelike stone head — originally part of a
fetch. The bust serves as their lynchpin, a visual reminder of
the motley’s family bonds. Over the years, like a birth family,
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
various motley members have moved on or even travelled to
entirely different freeholds, where they act as an informal
network of trustworthy relatives across the region.
Benefit: Once per chapter, a motley member can reflexively shift a single point of any kind of damage from her
health track to that of a willing motley-mate she has touched
in the last day.
Consequences: A member of the Children of the Stone
who breaks her pledge suffers the Notoriety Condition with
other siblings of the motley. She can lift this consequence by
either inflicting as many points of lethal damage on herself
as she inflicted on a sibling in one bloodletting, inflicting
that amount of lethal damage on the Children of the Stone’s
enemies, or — as the motley recently discovered — donating
five pints of blood to a hospital or other good cause; the donation does not need to happen all in one go. If the betrayal
involved no actual bloodshed, it requires five points of damage to balance.
The Tail-Tied Rats
Terms: I promise I’ve got your back. When the Gentry come
for you, I’ll be there at your side. When everything gets too confused, too fucked up, I’ll be there to listen to you. When you don’t
know what to do, when you’re lost, I’ll come find you. We’re all in
this together, and I promise I’ll stick by you.
Motley: The Tail-Tied Rats is a small motley of changelings who escaped their durances together and swore an oath
shortly after emerging from the Hedge. It’s a simple pledge of
protection and fellowship, made in the spirit of being anchors
for each other in a world gone mad. Artlessly worded and
phrased, it reflects the intensity of fellowship the motley felt.
Benefits: Once per chapter, one member of the motley
can reduce the dice pool of a Clarity breaking point or attack
affecting another motley-mate by 2. She must be present in
person and providing her friend with words of comfort and
reassurance.
Consequences: A changeling who fails to provide the
support this pledge demands adds her 2 dice to all Clarity
breaking point and attack rolls she suffers, as well as a gnawing sensation that she had a tail once, but something cut it
off. This lasts until she makes good on her promises and
provides help or comfort to a motley-mate in a time of need.
The Hunters
Terms: My strong arm is yours. I’ll have your back against
prey and foe, no matter how fierce their aspect or terrible their
claws. If you fall, I’ll protect you while there’s still breath on your
lips. I’ll trust each of you as an extension of myself, and I’ll be your
spear in turn. I will speak only the truth of your prowess and glory,
and never claim false pride from accomplishments that were not my
own. This I swear.
Motley: A motley that spends much of its time in the
Hedge and whose members fancy themselves hunters of that
place’s terrible denizens swore this particular oath. They
need to trust each other in the face of potentially lethal
danger and share a desire for fair recognition of accomplishments and prowess — a reflection of vanity among the motley-mates, perhaps, but a means of resolving it without conflict. A new initiate to the motley sounds the group’s hunting
horn to seal the pledge.
Benefit: Once per chapter during an action scene,
when a motley-mate sounds the motley’s hunting horn as
an instant action, all members of the motley may change
their current Initiative to match the highest Initiative among
them. This becomes each character’s new Initiative score for
the remainder of the scene.
Consequence: As noted in the first line, a changeling
who joins this motley swears her strong arm. Should she
break the pledge, whenever she faces a hobgoblin or other
hedge creature in physical conflict, she immediately suffers
the Arm Wrack Tilt as her dominant arm weakens and
hangs useless; the effect ends at the end of the scene. Since
the oath does not include specific terms to make up for the
oath-breaking, this may keep happening until the Wyrd is
satisfied that recompense has been made to the injured parties.
The Fair and
Honorable Merchants
Terms: I solemnly and sincerely promise I shall be a fair trading partner and friend to those of this motley, and that I will act
to maintain the good reputation of this motley in matters of business and trade through my own upright actions. When my fellows
labor under debt to the beings of the Hedge, I will make fair and
honest effort to help them lift those debts, to a maximum of five
goblinsweight in a year, without any profit on my part. I swear that
if I break this contract with my fellows for any reason, I will make
recompense through alleviating the debt burdens of my fellows by
one goblinsweight each such that they are satisfied in my goodwill.
Motley: This rather formal oath is read from a scroll,
which the changeling signs. The motley in question is a collection of changelings who specialize in trade and barter,
particularly relating to hobgoblins and Goblin Debt. The
Fair and Honorable Merchants prize their carefully built
reputation as honest dealers in both freehold and Hedge and
wrote the pledge as a pact of mutual protection and co-operation to cement their position. A “goblinsweight” roughly
corresponds to a single point of Goblin Debt.
Benefit: Once per chapter, a member of the motley can
shift a single point of her Goblin Debt to another willing
motley-mate.
Consequences: Violating the agreement inflicts the Notoriety Condition on the changeling, pertaining to both the
freehold and local Hedge denizens. The changeling can lift
the Condition by agreeing to take on a single point of Goblin Debt from each other motley member.
Motleys in Lost Chronicles
127
Harlequins
The deftly woven threads of the Wyrd bind a motley
together in a tapestry of dramaturgy, thrumming with the
power of all that shared identity, that emotion, and those
memories forged strong in the crucible of motley-mates’
overlapping perspectives. The motley is more than just the
changelings who make up its ranks; it’s the heady broth of
their mutual experience and sympathetic magic. Out there
in the Hedge, things without faces hunger for this feast of
identity, longing to clothe themselves in the fabric of such
shared experience to make up for their own lack.
Changelings have come to call these things harlequins;
they seek to steal into a motley’s close bonds and feed off the
Glamour of its fellowship, garb themselves in the personae
of its members, and remake themselves in its image. They’re
a kind of Hedge ghost, and they crave the power of the Wyrd
that flows within the motley as a means of stitching together
their Thorn-shredded natures into sham mockeries of real
people. Each harlequin seeks to literally become a motley
— first individual members, then any or all of them — in an
attempt to sate the hollow void of identity within itself.
In most cases, harlequins are a menace. They slip into
a motley’s ranks, follow the threads of the Wyrd-bound oath
binding the changelings together, and sow havoc by stealing appearances and stirring discord. As a harlequin consumes more
128
and more fabric of the motley’s shared identity, it seeks to usurp
the changelings themselves. It might try to drive off or isolate
motley-mates so they can’t interfere with its charade, or it may
simply start killing them. If no one manages to stop it, it will
core a motley out until the whole thing collapses, usually leaving the wretched creature to starve of Glamour as a maddened
nightmare utterly convinced it is all the people whose identities
it stole. It’s dramaturgy turned poisonous, a toxic thief of trust.
A rare few harlequins are relatively benign. The motley might detect a minor Hedge ghost infiltrator that lacks
enough drive to be particularly vicious in its feeding, and
finds it suits them to keep the poor thing. Feed it just
enough of their nature to let it take a motley member’s form,
achieve some basic mimicry of mannerisms and voice, and it
could even prove a useful stand-in or body double at critical
moments. This is a dangerous game, should the harlequin’s
hunger ever slip the leash.
From whence do harlequins hail? Few Hedge ghosts
express this sinister capability; there’s something distinctly
different between a harlequin and other spectres. Many
changelings believe harlequins are the wretched spawn of
fetches who somehow ended up in the Hedge and had their
fabricated personalities torn apart by the Thorns. Others
claim they’re the last embers of a fetch’s animating magic
driven to one last attempt at seizing the identity a changeling
took back from them.
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
Systems
Harlequins are Hedge ghosts but possess several unusual capabilities relating to motleys:
• A harlequin’s To Market, To Market ability can sense
the nearest changeling in the Hedge who is a member
of a motley, instead of a goblin market.
• A harlequin can replace a motley member’s connection to their oath if it is present when any motley
member breaks the oath. Harlequins usually possess
enough innate cunning to hide themselves near their
prey in the hope of such an event coming to pass.
• An infiltrated harlequin harvests a single point of
Glamour whenever a member of the motley uses their
motley benefit or inducts another member into the
motley in its presence, or when they affirm their Needle or Thread in a way that involves the motley or a
specific motley-mate in its presence, or when it steals
an item belonging to them that holds particularly
strong significance to their sense of self-identity.
• Once infiltrated into the motley, the harlequin can
sense the rough direction of and distance to any of
the motley’s members.
• Each time the harlequin harvests Glamour in this
way, it gains the ability to copy something about that
motley-mate: their face; their height, weight, and general body shape; their voice; their mannerisms; or
their shallow memories. The order is not set, and the
harlequin may choose what it copies each time. It can
express any number of copied aspects for 1 point of
Glamour as an Instant action, shedding its normal
features in place of the mimicry. Each copied aspect
also grants it one additional die on Empathy, Subterfuge, and attack rolls against that motley-mate.
• Once a harlequin has copied all five aspects of a target, it can replace its own Needle and Thread with
theirs by spending a point of Glamour; this lasts for
a story, or until it uses this ability again to copy the
Anchors of a different motley-mate. It does not need
to spend Glamour to copy the Anchors of a motleymate who has the Oathbreaker Condition or who is
dead.
• A harlequin must spend a point of Glamour each
story to sustain its pretense within the Wyrd’s bond;
it also loses a point of Glamour in any scene in which
a motley-mate successfully calls it out as not being the
motley-mate it pretends at. While infiltrated into a
motley, should the harlequin ever fully deplete, the
Wyrd’s retributive force immediately tears its fundamental essence apart.
Thorns Within
and Without
Changelings can be prickly and, even within the pledgereinforced trust of a motley, come into conflict with those
close to them. Most of these clashes are the small, irrelevant
kind that society conditions people to smooth over and
move on from, but sometimes the friction grows too great,
or something that really matters to the Lost leaves them at
loggerheads. Passions flare. Fears run rampant. Voices rise,
changelings refuse to back down, and discord results.
This kind of conflict in the game can create exciting
drama, as long as the players are all on board with it. When
everyone isn’t on the same page, it can instead result in frustration or irritation bleeding out from the narrative to affect
the players directly. Some groups would rather not deal with
inter-character conflict at all, while others revel in it and can
engage in intense competition without any ill-feeling away
from the game. As such, it’s key to nail down preferences before play, and make sure the whole group understands what
is and isn’t okay for the chronicle at hand.
Knives In, Knives Out
A simple approach to how the group handles conflict is
to choose whether the motley will be knives in or knives out. In
a knives in group, the group assumes the chronicle’s drama
and excitement stem from the motley’s internal clashes. The
players explicitly expect the motley’s knives are all pointed
inward, at each other, and that a certain level of friction is
the norm. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the motley are
all scheming conspirators looking to get a little extra height
by stepping on their supposed friends; the characters may
all be genuinely close. However, the players actively expect
the narrative to focus on the ways in which the characters
conflict personally.
By comparison, a knives out group is the motley versus the world. Tensions and arguments might happen, but
the players can safely assume that no matter how upset a
changeling gets with her motley-mates, she’ll still back them
up when trouble comes. The motley always comes first. It’d
take something very significant in the narrative to pry any of
the player characters apart from their loyalty to their fellows,
and the players can expect this to be signaled clearly even if
their characters are not aware.
Lots of potential nuance exists in the space between
knives out and knives in, but it can be valuable to have a
clear, open declaration before the chronicle begins that the
players can expect internal conflict to be actively encouraged, or that they can expect the motley to be fundamentally
on the same side and betrayal or infighting to be sidelined.
Staged Struggle
Where conflict does occur between motley-mates, a
good-faith approach to handling it helps deliver drama and
excitement for the players while also keeping the strife inside
Motleys in Lost Chronicles
129
the chronicle’s narrative. Rather than a broad ban or embrace of such, the following optional system for adjudicating
in-character conflict encourages both teamwork and interpersonal drama, which enriches the story.
Social Currency
Staged struggle relies on the exchange of social currency.
Characters accumulate points of social currency through
acts of support and trust, and building their reputations
among the Lost, as follows:
• Once per scene, a character can earn one point by
putting herself at risk or giving something up to
meaningfully aid a motley-mate.
Agonism and the
Contagion Chronicles
The social conflict system here derives from
the agonism rules in The Contagion
Chronicle, which focuses on characters
from different Chronicles of Darkness
games coming together in the face of a
greater threat — and the frictions that may
arise between them as they do so.
See The Contagion Chronicle, p. 134,
for a version of these rules not specific to
Changeling.
• Once per scene, a character can earn one point by
putting herself at risk to do something that slows,
hinders, or harms the True Fae or their servants, or
significantly alleviates the burden of the Wyrd upon
anyone in her motley by paying off Goblin Debt or
helping them uphold their end of a pledge.
• Whenever a character resolves the Trusting Condition, she or the trusted character gains an extra point
(see below).
• Once per scene, a character can earn one point by
actively taking steps to uphold or keep to the motley
oath she has sworn in a way that other characters can
clearly perceive.
• At the end of each chapter, each character loses one
social currency point; a character needs to put effort
into being a team player to stay in the motley’s good
graces.
• Once per scene, each character who participated in a
successful teamwork action with other player characters gains one point. If a character has any points of
social currency, whenever she’s a secondary actor in
such a teamwork action, she always adds at least one
die to the primary actor’s roll even if her roll fails; if
she dramatically fails, reduce the penalty she imposes
on the primary actor’s roll to −3.
• Whenever a character gains the Oathbreaker Condition, she loses three social currency points.
• At the end of each chapter, each player awards one
social currency point to someone else’s character for
something she did in that chapter, whether it was
healing his wounds, talking him through a hard time,
or just providing good banter; a character can’t earn
two points for the same action, however. These are
usually smaller gestures than those that earn a character points from the Storyteller.
• Whenever a character (or group of characters who
agree to compromise) wins a negotiation (see below),
distribute all the social currency she bid evenly among
the losing participants. A character who voluntarily
capitulates gains one extra point, and a Beat. If all
negotiating characters reach an acceptable compromise, each participant gains one point; if the players
are using the group Beats option, the group earns a
single Beat, otherwise the players must choose one
character to gain the Beat. Acceptable compromises
only award the motley one such Beat per chapter.
130
Negotiation
Whenever two or more player characters come into conflict and the players wish to resolve it using a staged struggle,
they enter a negotiation. The character with the most social
currency at the moment goes first; in case of a tie, go with
the character with the higher Composure. The first character bids a number of social currency points he’s willing to
part with to assert his will. Then, each character in order
of current social currency total (or Composure where necessary) has a chance to outbid the previous offer. Go around
the circle as many times as it takes before the highest bid
stands unchallenged. With each bid, the player must offer a
new argument, a bribe, a threat, or something else to bring
his opponents around, sweeten the pot, or break down convictions.
The last bid standing wins the negotiation; everyone
else takes back their bid points, and the winner (or winners,
in case of a partial compromise, below) distributes the social currency he bid evenly among all the losing characters.
Any leftover points simply vanish. Any character may, on
his turn, voluntarily capitulate; if so, he withdraws from the
negotiation, keeping all his social currency and gaining the
benefits in the list above.
Only one character per side of a conflict may participate
in a negotiation. If several characters agree on a course of
action, they choose one among them to negotiate for their
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
position. A character who wants to put forward a new position halfway through can jump in at any time.
On his turn, a player may offer a compromise instead
of a new bid. If all participants accept the compromise, the
negotiation ends; everyone keeps all their bid currency, and
each participant gains the benefits in the list above. If only
some accept it, the negotiation continues, but now all characters who accepted the compromise may pool their social
currency to outbid the remainder, drawing points evenly
from each character’s total.
A character who has social currency invested in another
participant (see below) may never spend his last point to outbid that participant. If it comes down to that, he must capitulate; however, he gains the same benefits for doing so as if he
voluntarily gave in.
As Storyteller, you’re within your rights to deny the players use of this system if they abuse it by negotiating and then
deliberately “compromising” or “capitulating” to do what
the whole group wanted to do in the first place. The point of
staged struggle is to settle real conflicts between characters
and reward those who take one for the team.
Don’t force the use of this system in situations where
the players are content to just hash things out in character
through roleplay. As the Storyteller, you can suggest a negotiation, but everyone involved must agree before moving
forward with it in any given scene.
Investment
A player may invest between one and three social currency points into another protagonist. Doing so indicates
a significant level of trust. A character with points invested
gains the Trusting Condition with respect to the trusted
character and may have this Condition multiple times to
represent trust in multiple companions.
TRUSTING
(Persistent)
Your character has invested a great deal of trust in one
of her motley-mates, cementing their bond even more deeply
than usual. Gain bonus dice equal to the number of invested social currency points to any teamwork action you take
with that character, whether you’re the primary or secondary
actor. Gain the same to rolls you make to help him overcome emotional trials, remove negative mental influences,
or regain Clarity, including activation rolls for supernatural
powers. That character’s player gains the same bonus on all
Social rolls he makes against yours, if you allow such rolls.
In a negotiation, you must capitulate to the trusted character
if you would spend your last social currency point to outbid
him.
Possible Sources: Investing social currency in another
character.
Resolution: The trusted character affirms the trust by
making a significant personal sacrifice on your character’s
behalf, gaining one bonus success on the sacrificial action
and a Willpower point. Alternatively, the trusted character
meaningfully betrays the trust or performs an action that
costs your character something significant, gaining one bonus success on the betraying action and a Willpower point.
Beat: A significant action or event that proves the trust
was well-placed.
Unconventional
Motleys
Changelings were once mortals, and no matter what
they think they are now, they are still social creatures. Mutual protection, companionship, or a common cause or belief
could all fuel changelings to come together in a motley. They
seal their motley with a mutually beneficial pledge, giving
assurances that even if their friendships fail, members of the
group are unlikely to betray the others. The motley serves
a purpose, and usually that purpose is no deeper than the
yearning to be with others — even if you aren’t their friends,
even if you don’t trust them. Socialization is its own reward.
While a motley doesn’t have to form around true friendship, it is representative of the meaning of friendship. Friendship is a fraught word for the Lost. They do not trust easily,
and they do not open themselves readily to others. When a
changeling gains a friend, she holds on tight, and often wants
to formalize the relationship somehow. Hence, motleys form.
Some changelings find their friends in unlikely places:
not among the Lost, but among the mortal population, hobgoblins, fae-touched, and other supernatural creatures. The
following sections explain how changelings might form motleys with these unconventional friends.
Motley Pledges
Trust among the Lost is a fabrication built on promises
and kept words. The Lost are supernaturally compelled to
follow their pledge or suffer the consequences, and this allows other changelings to extend a modicum of trust. Lost
can build trust beyond that supernatural binding. It may
not come easily as they have been burned in the past, but
they are not completely devoid of hope.
But when a motley wishes to include a non-changeling —
someone for whom pledges are not supernaturally binding —
they must trust this person without supernatural assurances.
How can the group ensure that their new motley-mate will
keep his word and that they can trust him? What power will
label him oathbreaker and punish him if he steps out of line
or betrays the motley? How will other changelings know that
this mortal or hobgoblin is not only not good for their word,
but a danger to changeling society?
The short answer is that they can’t make a supernaturally
binding contract, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hold the
Unconventional Motleys
131
member accountable. For mortals and non-fae creatures, it is
relatively easy. The member makes a promise to the motley,
and a changeling seals the promise, as often as necessary. Fae
creatures are trickier, but the premise is the same. Just because
a fae creature can unseal her oath, it doesn’t mean she should
or will, as the changeling doing the sealing knows immediately that it happened. In a way, allowing the changeling to seal
her promise brings a modicum more trust to a fae creature
than a mortal who couldn’t shake the compulsion if she tried.
Changelings who induct fae-touched into their motleys
have a better time of it. Not only can the changeling initiate
an oath with their fae-touched as normal, but the Avowed
have their name for a reason.
Freehold Politics
When deciding to create a motley with mixed character
types, the players and Storyteller should consider how that
affects the freehold and their place within it. Just because a
motley accepts a hobgoblin, mortal, or other supernatural
creature into their circle of trust doesn’t mean the rest of the
freehold will react well to the idea.
How the freehold reacts to a non-standard motley member is not universal. Some freeholds welcome non-changeling members, giving them a place within the freehold and
accepting them as one of their own once the newcomers
demonstrate trustworthiness. Well-established or older freeholds have likely come across the situation before and have
rules covering such situations. More secure freeholds are
more likely to be welcoming of non-changeling members,
though some may view outsiders as a threat to that security.
Players should discuss with the Storyteller what kind of
stories they want to tell by including a non-changeling motley member. If they want to dive into the politics of allowing
in an outsider, then presenting a resistant freehold allows
them to delve into how to win their motley member a place
in Lost society. A resistant freehold may allow the characters
chances to play at politics, fight duels for their motley-mate’s
honor, or go on wild quests to prove the member’s worth.
If the players prefer a less political and more adventurous
game, then a resistant freehold might make less sense. While
the freehold might not fully welcome the non-changeling,
forcing the players to deal with their characters being drawn
into politics doesn’t create fun for anyone. Instead, they may
continuously find reasons to avoid the freehold proper.
Even freeholds with open membership policies are likely
to have rules and stipulations about how to join if you aren’t
a changeling. The freehold may hold the non-changeling to a
higher standard or require her to prove herself. Players may
choose to skirt danger by actively breaking those rules or attempt
to follow them to the best of their ability. The non-changeling
member — unless she is fae-touched — cannot enter into an oath
with the freehold, so the freehold might restrict her actions or
make the rest of the motley take new, more detailed, oaths covering their member who cannot swear for herself.
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Court Politics
Normally, non-changeling characters care little about
changeling courts, as the True Fae do not hunt them. However,
when they enter a motley agreement, the changelings’ concerns
become more immediate for that motley member. Even though
she may not be able to use Contracts, having a built-in social
network may appeal to the character. Some courts are more
open to non-changeling admission than others, though anyone
incapable of swearing an oath can’t truly become a member.
The character can still participate in the court’s functions or
provide support for the court, but she will always be adjacent.
Members do not treat her as a full member, and she won’t have
access to all available resources and secrets.
Again, players should determine what kind of story they
want when deciding if the non-changeling character will become embroiled in court politics. Maybe being beholden to
a specific court is a requirement the freehold has placed on
the member, or the motley-mates all share a court, so the
member wants to support them there.
Keep in mind how the court might feel about a nonchangeling member, and what kind of threat that might pose
to the court. The changelings can strike up bargains with
a mortal, for example, to gain greater shielding from the
Fae, but a hobgoblin provides no such benefit. The changelings may find themselves at odds with court members
disgruntled about them bringing in an outsider, while the
non-changeling faces discrimination from them. The nonchangeling may prove invaluable as a court member, giving
her an extra avenue of support and assistance when dealing
with the freehold. The motley may blaze a path to welcoming all sorts of non-changelings into the court, or conversely
find themselves constantly cleaning up messes as the lowest
ranking members.
Fae Creatures
Hobgoblins present an interesting quandary to a motley. They live in the Hedge going about their daily lives, but
their interactions with the Lost leave much to be desired.
Hobgoblins can also be allies, hiding changelings in Hollows or turning Huntsmen away from their quarry. A series
of mutually beneficial exchanges could turn a neutral hobgoblin into a friend for life, that friend therefore earning
his place within a motley based on mutual trust. While rare
between changelings and hobgoblins, this sort of friendship
is not unheard of.
Motleys built around specific goals or prescribed actions
are more likely to induct a hobgoblin than one based solely
around friendship or loyalty. Hobgoblins can’t swear oaths,
so when the motley needs a short-term agreement, including
him into the motley might make the most sense. The motley
becomes more of a business transaction than a friendship,
and even in a motley with close-knit changeling members,
they almost invariably keep their hobgoblin counterpart at
arm’s length.
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
Hobgoblins, just like people, come in all types. Their society falls somewhere on the edges of the dichotomy between
the True Fae and Lost, often indifferent to changelings’ concerns. That isn’t to say they don’t get involved every now and
then, acting as a patsy for a True Fae or helping a changeling
with an issue. It’s just that most barely even register that conflict in their daily lives. If a hobgoblin joins the motley, it is
for good reason. It means that he needs something only the
changelings can give him, and he’s willing to work by their
rules, at least for a time.
A changeling might have access to something the hobgoblin needs, or the hobgoblin has important information
or items the motley can use for a specific mission. They enter
into a verbal agreement; a pact of mutual protection or nonaggression that benefits both sides is of utmost importance.
The hobgoblin can’t partake in a changeling oath, but that
doesn’t mean she won’t want their agreement’s verbiage to
cover all motley members, including herself. Changeling
members only accept such terms with a sealed promise, unbroken, to follow the oath. Sometimes the hobgoblin is a
source of Goblin Contracts and favors, or gives them intel
on other hobgoblins, ensuring they make better-informed
decisions about who has Goblin Debt over them.
While most of the time changelings don’t know when or
where they’ll have to work off their Debt, having a hobgoblin
in the motley means they can negotiate from a more advanta-
geous position. Storytellers should be sure that when spending Goblin Debt incurred from a motley-mate, the characters
have a chance to offer to spend their Debt for the hobgoblin.
When a character would gain Debt points from a Contract
negotiated with a hobgoblin motley-mate, the player can choose
to instead perform an action or deed for the hobgoblin immediately. This translates to accepting a −1 penalty to her dice pool for
her very next action. This still requires negotiation; Storytellers
should feel free to refuse any offer which doesn’t fully suit the
needs of the Contract or the hobgoblin’s desires.
Sometimes, changelings end up with hobgoblins in their
motleys by chance. A member too greedy with Goblin Contracts racked up enough Debt to change her into a Hedge
denizen. She does her motley-mates no favors by splitting
her time between them and her new hobgoblin obligations,
and her new obligations might fall in direct opposition to
the motley’s goals.
If she becomes a Goblin Queen, the situation worsens.
The character is now in charge of a piece of Hedge territory and lesser hobgoblins who all look to her for guidance.
While this can mean the motley has easier access to Hedge
fruit, tokens, and goblins with which to gain Contracts, it
also means that they are going to certainly get embroiled
in goblin politics. Other hobgoblins may start targeting
the changelings as allies to the Queen to bring her low, the
Queen may have to deal with territory disputes, the change-
Unconventional Motleys
133
lings may find themselves with weird Hedge-borne anomalies invading their personal lives, or they may have to deal
with the Queen’s old changeling court looking for them.
Huntsmen
Huntsmen make the most unlikely of motley-mates. A
Huntsman whose heart is in a Bastion is likely to make an
oath with a changeling who has given him only the briefest
of respites from the driving urges bestowed by the Fae. His
own desires present for just a moment, he agrees to an oath,
he binds it with his heart, and it is a lifelong pledge to some
action or another. A desperate motley may make a motley
oath with a Huntsman, hoping to stave off his hunt with
an oath of non-aggression and mutual benefit. It is just wild
enough to work, and if he breaks it, then what hope remains
for them, anyway?
Storytellers should be careful about letting the characters
make this kind of oath with a Huntsman. It certainly makes
for an interesting story of desperation and danger, but it could
also spell the motley’s doom. It’s one thing for a single changeling to voluntarily endanger herself with an oath to a Huntsman; it’s entirely different for the whole motley to do it, so if
one or more of the players plans to do such a thing, make sure
everyone is on board and understands the risks.
Mortals
Mortals present a terrifying conundrum to the motley.
On one hand, they embody everything a changeling has lost
and a world that feels alien to her, but on the other hand
they are the people who keep the changeling grounded. She
needs to be around mortals, she needs them to help remind
her of her identity, but she is so very different from them that
sometimes they seem alien.
A motley might incorporate a mortal into their ranks
for plenty of reasons. The motley may believe this is the only
way to truly protect the person. A changeling’s Touchstone
is certainly important enough to warrant protection, and if
this person serves as Touchstone to multiple motley members, it could motivate them to include her. Such protection
can prove to be a double-edged sword if they aren’t careful.
Having a mortal motley-mate can complicate the
changelings’ lives. It’s dangerous for mortals to enter the
Hedge alone, but in the presence of a motley, the changelings can attempt to assure her safety. Freeholds are likely to
try to forbid her from their business, but this just gives the
changelings an avenue to include her in non-standard ways.
She may act as an information source to multiple freehold
members who are unaware that she is a motley-mate to their
friends. Courts do not let mortals join their ranks — they
barely let fae-touched join. The motley might pose more risk
to the human than the protection they offer, though that
doesn’t mean they won’t try their hardest to keep her safe.
Players should consider why they want their changelings
to include a mortal in their motley. He could be one of their
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Touchstones, or an important informant that they need to
protect. Maybe she has one foot in the supernatural already
and the characters worry she will get hurt without their protection. In general, players choose mortal motley members
who are player characters, but they may also adopt a particularly persistent Storyteller character too valuable to let roam
unprotected.
Storytellers should think about what kinds of stories
make having a mortal motley member fun. The motley can
drag the mortal nearly anywhere they go, from the Hedge to
dreamscapes. In some cases, the mortal can prove an asset,
while in others, she may provide a source of tension or story.
Just remember that the mortal member of a motley might be
less powerful than her allies, but she isn’t useless. Getting
her into the action may take more steps and preparation, but
she likely brings surprising talents and a little perspective.
A mortal member of the motley is bound to get into
dangerous situations where the motley needs to save or protect him. This can drive interesting character development
and story. But be careful to not overuse this, as having to
constantly save a character’s life, time after time, can get repetitive fast.
Mortal characters don’t have frailties and can navigate
through the world a bit easier than the Lost. This gives a
mortal member a leg up, allowing her to shine in social
situations dealing with other mortals. Additionally, mortals
have access to supernatural Merits which can make her more
than equal when dealing with lesser hobgoblins as well as
other supernatural threats the motley might encounter outside the Hedge.
Fae-Touched
The relationship between fae-touched and changelings
can be strange. Some changelings see fae-touched as no different from other mortals, viewing them as valuable assets,
but overall weak outsiders. Some view them as changeling
adjacent, knowledgeable about their lives and devoted to
their cause. Others resent them for having avoided unspeakable torture at the hands of the True Fae.
Motleys are more likely to include a fae-touched mortal
than someone who is completely ignorant of Arcadia and
the supernatural. Her time in the Hedge changed her, and
while she doesn’t bear the same scars as the Lost, she knows
a lot more about what the changeling has been through than
other mortals. The Lost gain the dual benefit of spending
time with a human who grounds them and a confidant who
understands them. She isn’t as much of a liability as a normal mortal is, as she has some access to Arcadian Contracts.
The fae-touched are also renowned for their dedication to
promises, making them trustworthy allies.
Unfortunately, fae-touched can be a liability in other
ways. She is addicted to the Hedge, trying to enter it at any
chance, and the prospects of entering drive her to erratic
action and fixation. Characters invariably find themselves
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
drawn to the Hedge as their motley-mate does everything in
her power to go there. This could lead to fun stories as she
gets the group into trouble through her impulsive actions.
A motley with a fae-touched member might find the
freehold is less open to them. Some changelings feel the faetouched shouldn’t get exposed to any more of Arcadia than
they already have been and shun fae-touched members. The
motley may have problems working with specific Lost who
feel this way and might have to deal with interesting politics
as they try to change their opinions on the matter.
Storytellers should think about what role the faetouched character plays for the motley. They have a unique
skill set that can make them valuable to a motley, allowing
them to oversee and enforce oaths for it. Because they can
use Contracts, they are more capable than a normal mortal,
but have a limited capacity compared to a changeling. A faetouched character is likely to have to navigate freehold and
court politics, attempting to find her place in the motley’s
world, which will inevitably embroil the motley as well. Her
Hedge addiction is likely to get them all into trouble from
time to time, though it means she’s always up for a romp
when the motley has cause to go there.
Found Family
and Desperate
Alliances
Wonders and terrors beyond even the reckoning of the
Lost lie in the forgotten, dark corners of the world. Strange
creatures slink through the night, driven by hungers unfamiliar to changelings. Eldritch other-realms press against reality’s trembling skin, occasionally spilling forth their alien
denizens. Some of these beings are utterly inhuman; others,
like changelings, have had their humanity torn or sculpted
into something horrifying and new. Among such monsters
and nightmares, though, some find common ground or even
welcome with the Lost and their motleys.
Motleys rarely invite another creature of the night into
the circle of trust, making it nearly unheard of them to invest such faith in several such entities at once. Changelings
have a lot to lose by making a mistake in judgment, after
all. A shapeshifter or sorcerer wielding unfamiliar magic is
a potential threat and conspirator with the Gentry, all the
more so once welcomed into one’s hearth and home. Even
the binding power of the Wyrd does not always suffice when
confronting irreconcilable and potent occult forces. The enduring presence of an outsider within a motley marks either
the deepest of loyalties or the greatest of desperation.
The particular attitudes of changelings toward any
given kind of supernatural being vary widely depending on
the context and culture within which the two meet. In one
city, changelings think vampires are fetch magic turned hungry and parasitic, a false person stealing life from others to
maintain their own existence. In another region, the Lost
Twilight and
the Fae
A mere whisper away from the existence mortals perceive lie myriad invisible frequencies
of reality where ghosts and spirits abound.
Called Twilight, these ephemeral states are
simply out of phase with the mundane world.
The denizens of Twilight are usually invisible
and intangible to anyone not attuned to their
specific frequency. Ghosts in the deathly frequency of Twilight cannot normally perceive
the alien entities in the spiritual frequency of
Twilight, and vice versa. Like turning the dial
on a radio receiver, some beings can move
between these frequencies or tune themselves
into physical existence for periods of time.
Twilight has no frequency attuned to the fae
or the Wyrd. Dreamlike intangibility and
impermanence mark the spectral magic of
the Lost rather than the phantasmal horror of
ephemeral entities. Changeling therefore
does not include the full ephemeral entity or
manifestation rules of some other Chronicles of Darkness lines. A dematerialized
Hedge ghost in the mortal world is not considered to be in any phase of Twilight, and
few supernatural powers that affect ghosts
apply to a Hedge ghost anyway. Helldivers
(Changeling, p. 53) using their kith-granted power to become incorporeal, however,
are considered to be in all frequencies of
Twilight at once, so they can perceive and
interact with ghosts, spirits, Goetia, angels,
and any other oddities of ephemeral nature.
Furthermore, incorporeal Helldivers can also
interact with any other immaterial things in
the mortal world that are not in Twilight, such
as dematerialized Hedge ghosts or other fae
magics.
The Whispers of Morning Contract
(Changeling, p. 143) renders a changeling incorporeal but does not put her in any
phase of Twilight, and she gains no ability to
perceive or interact with Twilight beings, nor
vice versa. The same is true for the supernatural effects of any other Contract, token, or
other fae magic that renders a changeling
incorporeal, unless it specifies otherwise.
scarcely know vampires exist at all. However, while the interpretations and attitudes change from place to place, certain
underlying interactions between the Wyrd and these other
supernatural forces do not.
Found Family and Desperate Alliances
135
Motleys, Monsters,
and Mystics
The horrors hiding in humanity’s shadow come in all
manner of shapes and sizes, and their strange gifts sometimes interweave with the Wyrd’s power in unexpected ways.
Vampires
Vampires sit uneasily with changelings. Similarities draw
the two together, particularly to Darklings and Leechfingers,
but while plenty of vampires are victims, they’re also innately
parasites who feed on people. Too many vampires hurt others as their modus operandi, even welcoming it with bestial eagerness. Still, a motley might welcome a troubled or recently
turned vampire for precisely this reason, hoping to offer protection and aid and stop her from falling to such monstrous
depths. For others, the terrible frailties of the vampire state
serve as strong enough collateral to guarantee any pact; the
changelings can wield fire and sunlight against their motleymate with trivial ease, should treachery or predation come
to the fore.
Vampires possess their own blood magic, a form of
crimson sorcery that forges red bonds of lust and desire.
The notaries of the Invictus harness these bonds to seal the
swearing of sanguine oaths. While a vampire cannot swear
into a normal Wyrd-bound motley oath, she can shed a
point of Vitae to affirm it in her own way, as a form of submission. Her Beast and blood recognize something in the
Wyrd’s power, forming a crude blood oath in the same pattern as an Invictus Oath (Vampire: The Requiem Second
Edition, p.116). The vampire is the vassal, the whole motley
her liege. The Oath costs the same number of Experiences
as described in Vampire. Any terms included in the motley oath become the terms of the blood oath and violating
them ends its effects immediately. For the duration the oath
lasts, the vampire treats her motley-mates as if she has TwiceRemoved Blood Sympathy towards them. The changelings,
for their part, feel nothing of this bond.
Werewolves
Werewolves are dangerous and violent beings but give
weight to notions of honor and the swearing of oaths — somewhat putting the lie to fairytale fears of the Big Bad Wolf.
Because of this, the Lost often find they can work with the
Uratha for at least short periods of time, but it is exceedingly
rare for a motley to bring a werewolf into their number. This
isn’t due to any particular antipathy, but because werewolves
feel strong, instinctive urges to form their own packs — and
while these packs can be inclusive, with humans and even
changelings in their ranks, a motley just doesn’t feel the same
to an Uratha. When it does happen, inviting a wolf into the
ranks is often because the werewolf is an outcast or exile
from her people, or because there aren’t surviving packs in
the area due to conflict or disaster.
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The Wyrd will not recognize a werewolf who takes a
motley’s oath, meaning the fae pledgecraft has no hold on
her, nor offers any mystical benefit. However, a werewolf
can have her oath recognized through an Elodoth’s Binding Oath instead (Werewolf: The Forsaken Second Edition,
p.119), albeit with its limited duration. The symbolic power
of the Great Predator that boils within Uratha craves to separate this from that, to define those with the werewolf and
those not of her pack, and it recognizes something in the
mutual purpose of a motley into which it can sink its teeth.
As well as the usual effects of Binding Oath, it allows the
werewolf to consider the motley as her pack for its duration.
Awakened
The obsessions and magic of the Awakened make it
hard for changelings to ever trust a mage. The sheer power of Supernal magic allures Lost willing to entertain any
means of reaching their ambitions or to fight the Gentry,
but few mages find belonging to a motley interesting as anything other than a learning experience, slumming it with
the fae in the hopes of gaining some eldritch insight. Those
who do find a trusted place with the Lost often seek escape
from the tension and intricacies of Awakened society. In rare
cases, mages lost friends to the Gentry while still Sleepers,
and seek to find and reunite with them after Awakening to
power.
Mages can’t usually partake in the oathsworn power of
a motley pledge, but they can use a combination of Fate and
Mind magic to overcome this and interact with the fae sorcery at work. Such mages can forge and sever bonds with
relative ease. Awakened who want to skip out on the consequences of breaking oaths find the Wyrd itself unforgiving.
Using Arcana to remove the Oathbreaker Condition spares
the mage immediate retaliation — but the Wyrd does not
forget. It conspires to bring about the balance through other
means, thrumming through the threads of hobgoblins’ pacts
and the oaths of other Lost. A mage can see this conspiring
tapestry of connections in the world around her with her
Mage Sight. No matter how quickly she severs the new bonds
that spring up and tie Hedge denizens or other fae forces
into destinies set to cause her misery, those ties continue to
proliferate until she pays her dues to the Wyrd.
Prometheans
Prometheans face often-contradictory reactions from
changelings. A Lost can sympathize with much in the Created condition, but also a disturbing similarity to the false
seeming of fetches and other such fae simulacra, which can
be painful for a motley to contemplate. Their own rambling
nature and the rigors of Disquiet push Prometheans to find
only brief solace among even a welcoming motley before
moving on, but it can serve as an excellent opportunity for a
Created to explore and observe the strange, altered humanity of the Lost up close and, perhaps, come to understand
themselves a little better in the process.
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
Prometheans cannot usually swear to a motley pledge.
Rumors of rare exceptions suggest a Created whose body includes parts taken from a dead changeling might be able to
swear into the motley to which that Lost belonged, an utterly macabre but lingering connection that the Wyrd might
deem just genuine enough.
Sin-Eaters
Reborn from Bargains with their deathly patrons, SinEaters find a certain affinity with the pledges and oaths of
the Lost. A surprising number fall in with changeling motleys, seeing a sort of kinship in their common experiences and
newfound power. While some Sin-Eaters are surprised to find
Hedge ghosts are not the same as the unquiet shades with
whom they usually concern themselves, it’s in these phantasmal tatters of personality and memory that some Bound learn
how to join themselves more fully with a motley.
Normally, a motley oath would not affect a Sin-Eater
swearing it. However, one of the Bound may conduct an altered version of the Krewe Binding Ceremony by including
a changeling’s Icon as the working’s target while drawing on
the memories and passions within that Icon to shape her own
performance as the actor. She folds the swearing of the oath
into the ceremony; if successful, it allows her to swear into the
motley under the Wyrd’s auspices, with all the resulting benefits and consequences, rather than its usual effect.
Demons
Changelings sometimes welcome demons into a motley
without realizing it. The Unchained are experts at blending
in behind stolen or fabricated Covers, after all. It’s extremely
rare for a demon to join a motley whose members know what
she actually is, both because her bizarre nature and powers
are ready fuel for Lost paranoia, and because doing so represents a likely unacceptable risk to her own concealment from
the prying eyes of the God-Machine. As such, an Unchained
in a motley is likely a cuckoo, using the Lost and the Wyrd as
temporary protection before moving on once more. Only a
few remain for the long term and forge real friendships with
the Lost — and even then, the day will inevitably come when
they have to sever those connections and move on, leaving
no word nor clue as to where they have gone.
If the Cover the Unchained uses should be able to swear
a motley’s pledge, the demon can spoof the capability and
seal the oath with a point of Aether. The immense demonic
knack for concealment causes the Wyrd to weigh the pledge
against the Cover; if the Unchained breaks the pledge, the
consequences fall on her only until she discards or changes
Cover, though they reassert themselves if she returns to that
Cover later.
Beasts
Changelings who understand the association between
Beasts and nightmares can find the Begotten deeply disturbing, but these creatures are talented at insinuating them-
Dark Histories
and Contagious
Futures
The historical settings in Dark Eras and
Dark Eras 2 provide several examples for
mixing the Lost with the denizens of other
game lines in the Chronicles of Darkness.
Dark Eras covers changelings and SinEaters in Three Kingdoms of Darkness, and
changelings and vampires in Requiem for
Regina. Dark Eras 2 covers changelings,
vampires, and hunters in Arthur’s Britannia,
changelings and Prometheans in The Seven
Wonders, and changelings and mages
in Mysterious Frontiers. The Contagion
Chronicle, meanwhile, offers the resurgence of a modern-day threat in the form of
the Contagion, a metaphysical corruption
against which the denizens of the Chronicles
of Darkness must band together to survive.
Notably, Mysterious Frontiers details the
specific spell a mage can use to participate
in Wyrd-bound oaths — although the Awakened cannot initiate a pledge — and covers
the deleterious consequences for the use of
Fate magic that accompanies the Oathbreaker Condition. Arthur’s Britannia includes the
Blood Liege and Contracts of Night and Day
Merits, a fusion of Invictus Oaths and Lost
pledgecraft.
selves into the societies of others, and the Lost are no exception. A Begotten might come into a motley because the
changelings believe her to be a fusion of human and dream
who needs help and protection, or simply because her raw
power makes her an appealing ally against the fae.
Beasts possess a wide variety of capabilities to let them
interact with and pass as changelings but cannot pledge to a
motley oath. While perhaps kindred to the dreaming magic
of the fae, the powers of nightmares do not conform to its
strictures, and the Wyrd remains beyond a Begotten’s grasp.
Mummies
Mummies never pledge themselves to changeling motleys. Rarely, a motley belongs to an Arisen’s cult, but the
chasm between the Lost and the jealous shackles of the Judges binding these beings is too great for the Wyrd to bridge.
Even attempting to speak a motley’s pledge invites a clash
of dangerous and volatile powers, for the eldritch words the
Arisen recite to wield their utterances are antithetical to the
Wyrd’s force of reciprocity — the Judges are never willing to
give up something to gain something else.
Found Family and Desperate Alliances
137
Safe and Sound
Changeling: The Lost Second Edition contains tools
for keeping a table safe, with the intention that the Storyteller enforces those rules. With or without them, however,
players can practice personal safety at the table as well.
Saying No
One of the hardest things for a changeling to do is say
“no.” Learning and practicing refusal is excruciatingly difficult; the Lost were berated, coerced, and lured into their
roles as servants of otherworldly powers. Learning that saying “no” to someone doesn’t automatically result in punishment or unintended consequences is a long, hard road.
The same can be said for players. Most players want to
assist in developing a story, and sometimes do so to their
own detriment. Commonly, players clam up in situations
where characters experience sexual coercion, mind control,
or other events that make them uncomfortable, as they don’t
want to rock the boat for the Storyteller or the other players.
Inattentive Storytellers might take this as a sign she is open
to her character going through similar exploitation in future
games, and this can spiral out of control until tempers flare
and feelings get hurt.
Saying “no, I’m not interested in that plot” or “no, that
makes me uncomfortable” can be as difficult — but just as
necessary — as leaving a Keeper’s domain. While Changeling
explores themes of trauma and abuse, it’s still just a game;
that exploration is meant to be safe, accomplished through a
veil of fiction and fantasy. Playing a game should be fun for
everyone involved, and saying no is a critical part of making
sure everyone has fun.
If a player character doesn’t fit the story, it’s also okay
to steer the story toward writing them out and replacing the
character, so long as the player is all right with that. Changeling: The Lost is a dangerous game, and a character could
die or be snatched at any moment. Of course, she could just
as easily go off to become the monarch of a new freehold, far
away. Whatever works best for the troupe.
If you are uncomfortable with something, say “no.” If
your fellow players also have the safety of the table in mind,
they’ll thank you.
Saying Yes
Saying yes can be challenging as well. Changelings and
their players are sometimes loath to engage fully, for fear of
reprisals. If I say “yes” to someone, does that mean he will push
me? Am I allowed to change my mind? What if she thinks I’m
desperate?
The truth is that hearing someone say “yes” to an offer is
a gift. “Yes” means you like what she’s doing, that you want her
to continue. Saying “yes” to plots you like means both your
Storyteller and other players know what you enjoy and may
create or invite you to interact with similar plots in the future.
138
Saying “yes” also opens up play options for other people.
Going on a Hedge jaunt that involves stealing Hedge fruit
from a hobgoblin? Let your Helldiver buddy tag along. Including other people in your scenes makes for a happier table.
Saying “yes” also makes building characters who gel
with each other a whole lot easier. Ask your fellow players to
build connections. Do you frequent the bar another player
character owns? Is her fetch married to your sister? Come up
with reasons for your changelings to be in a motley, the more
dramatic the better. You might just discover a story together
that neither of you would have created alone.
Saying Anything
Volunteering to be a Storyteller takes a lot of time and
effort. Your Storyteller cannot read your mind and needs to
be able to manage a full table of players. It’s unlikely she can
consider your preferences in her plans unless you tell her
how you want to be included.
Work with your Storyteller to establish boundaries (see
“Safe Hearth, Safe Table,” pp. 302-304 of Changeling), but
also let them know what you want to see. Don’t keep your
sheet, Aspirations, or backstory ideas a secret from your
Storyteller! While it might seem like a good idea to avoid
getting them targeted by plot shenanigans or to surprise the
table with something dramatic at the right time, no one can
craft a story for a character with whom they’re unfamiliar or
a player whose expectations they don’t know. Horror games,
especially Chronicles of Darkness games, shine in a collaborative framework, and working together means more devilishly personal plots for everyone.
Note that while players should work together as much as
possible, characters don’t have to. Negotiate antagonistic relationships between the players’ characters as much as possible
so a player caught unawares doesn’t wind up with feelings
of hurt or exclusion. See p. 130 for an optional system you
can use to adjudicate these relationships between individual
characters. For an optional system for structured inter-motley conflict, see Oak, Ash, and Thorn starting on p. 9.
The Door Is Still Open
As discussed in Chapter Seven of Changeling, the door
is always open. It can be hard to leave a session or a game for
any number of social reasons. Players (and yes, this includes
the Storyteller!) don’t need to justify themselves if they feel
the need to stop playing. Here’s a list of some possible reasons:
• Your Storyteller or other players deliberately ignore
the safety techniques you all agreed to use
• You have a family or other emergency
• You feel ill or panicky
• Your Storyteller or other players use name-calling,
threats, or extended arguments to force you into situ-
Chapter Four: Birds of a Feather
ations you don’t want to be in, either out of character
or in an in-character way you’re uncomfortable with
• You’re not feeling it
• Your schedule or stress levels make the game more
difficult to attend or less fun for you
• You have a prior engagement or need to leave early
• You are uncomfortable with anything, in or out of
character
• The kinds of experiences I want my character to avoid
• How to make me feel included as a player
Sample Player Profile:
Big Ben Clifftop
• Name: Alex Steacy
• Pronouns: He/him
• Character name: Big Ben Clifftop
• You don’t feel this is the experience you signed up for
• Character pronouns: He/him
New Safety Option:
Player Profiles
• Personal triggers or necessary content warnings:
Trypophobic imagery, animal death
It may seem like an odd choice to make character sheets
for players, but when everyone at the table has different preferences, why not make a quick reference? M. Lee and J. Harrison created a series of systematized player profiles for the
LARPs they run. These easily translate to tabletop and can
be kept in a file-share system or on the back of character
sheets. A good player profile should contain the following:
• Name
• Pronouns
• Character name
• Character pronouns
• Personal triggers or necessary content warnings
• The kinds of experiences I want my character to have
• The kinds of experiences I want my character to
have: Being a big softy, being in a slow-burn romance
with someone he struggles to communicate with,
protecting other members of the Spring Court from
outside threats, bringing new changelings into the
Liberty Bell Freehold
• The kinds of experiences I want my character to
avoid: Being a villain because he’s a big scary dragon,
having to kill innocents to get at a True Fae, selling
his soul at a goblin market (though I’m okay with him
incurring other Conditions!)
• How to make me feel included as a player: Ask my
character for help! Big Ben Clifftop is very strong and
well-trained in a lot of Physical Skills, so being a wellmeaning meatsack would be fun for me. Also, try to
convince Big Ben to flirt with his crush (TBD, depends on negotiation with other players).
Safe and Sound
139
BEHIND YOUR EYES
Clarity disintegration renders a changeling easily manipulable, leaving them wide open to subversion. A Hedge
ghost, hobgoblin, or — worst of all — one of the Gentry
invades the changeling’s mind. The invader can’t read the
changeling’s thoughts, but it shares her senses whenever it
likes. She’s aware of a mental itch deep down, but she can’t
place it until the Condition resolves, and she realizes how
much she gave away.
If this Condition came about through mild Clarity damage, resolving another Clarity Condition forces the visitor to
retreat from the changeling’s mind. If it came about through
severe Clarity damage, only the shock of accidentally betraying herself and her motley ends the Condition.
Possible Sources: Reaching Clarity 0
Resolution: The character regains Clarity or takes an
action that reveals an important secret to the visitor, recovering a point of Clarity as usual. In the case of severe damage,
the only way to resolve this Condition is for the changeling
to reveal a secret. Any other Clarity Conditions she resolves
during this time increase her Clarity as usual, but they do
not resolve Behind Your Eyes.
CURSED (PERSISTENT)
A vengeful changeling has burdened your character
with a curse, which only resolves when the changeling either stops maintaining a particular routine or performs a
particular action.
If your character brings about the changeling’s failure
to maintain the curse, directly or indirectly, gain an additional Beat when this Condition resolves. If the changeling’s
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Appendix: New Conditions
player dramatically fails on a roll directly related to attempts
to maintain the curse, the changeling suffers this Condition
with all the criteria and caveats of the original, where they
make sense. If they don’t — for instance, if the ill effects don’t
apply to changelings — then the Storyteller assigns applicable
consequences as close as possible to the curse’s original intent.
A character may only have one instance of Cursed at a
time.
Beat: Your character suffers a significant setback directly due to the curse.
Resolution: The changeling fails to maintain the required state of affairs or perform the specific action as defined when she places the curse.
DEEP KENNING
Your character’s newly bolstered Clarity grants abrupt
flashes of insight, allowing her to discover nearby magic. You
may shed this Condition at any time to gain information
about nearby supernatural phenomena as if you had rolled
kenning with successes equal to half her maximum Clarity.
Unlike normal kenning, resolving this Condition permits a
Clash of Wills against active magical concealment.
This Condition fades without resolving if the character
drops to Clarity 0.
Possible Sources: Heal Clarity damage by resolving a
Clarity Condition or spending time with a Touchstone.
Resolution: As noted above.
EGOMANIAC
Without Clarity, the changeling acts as though she resides in Arcadia, mimicking the True Fae’s boundless egotism. She fails to comprehend the needs and desires of others and displays qualities she subconsciously learned from
her Keeper, leading her to fulfill her own desires at everyone
else’s expense.
Any Social roll your character fails automatically becomes a dramatic failure that does not grant a Beat. As well,
Joy replaces her current Needle and one of her Keeper’s Aspirations replaces one of her current Aspirations until the
Condition resolves.
Possible Sources: Reaching Clarity 0
Resolution: The character regains Clarity or her actions
cause serious harm (physical, mental, or emotional) to her
allies, regaining a point of Clarity as usual. In the case of severe damage, the only way to resolve this Condition is for the
changeling’s actions to harm her allies. Any other Clarity
Conditions she resolves during this time increase her Clarity
as usual, but they do not resolve this Condition.
It likewise ends if either party takes on another enchanted
bargain while this one remains in effect; enchanted bargains
accept no competition. If the mortal doesn’t achieve the task
or escape they bargained to accomplish by the end of one
full chapter, it also fades without resolution.
The enchantment’s effects are obvious to those who
know how to look for them. Anyone who can see through
Masks simply perceives the supernatural obligation the mortal carries without a roll or other contest. The player of any
character who previously noticed the enchantment gains +4
to locate or track the mortal by any means. This magical
trail carries distinct tells revealing the changeling’s identity
to anyone who has previously seen his Mien; if they see it
afterwards, they recognize it instantly.
Resolution: The mortal accomplishes the task or escapes the situation they made the bargain to achieve, or
either party fails to uphold their end of the bargain, triggering consequences for one or both. When this Condition
resolves, the changeling’s player and the mortal’s each earn
a Beat.
HEXED
A spiteful changeling has temporarily inconvenienced
ENCHANTED OBLIGATION your character.
Your character has made an enchanted bargain with a
mortal, providing fae miracles in exchange for safety and
peace of mind. This Condition duplicates the effects of the
Obliged Condition (Changeling, p. 343), but is not Persistent. In addition, while the enchantment lasts, the mortal
can automatically see through the Mask of all fae beings and
objects unless strengthened with Glamour. Your character
gains the ability to hear the mortal whenever they call him
by name and ask or wish for aid, no matter the distance
between them; the changeling has no obligation to respond
to the call. His player gains a +3 to rolls to harvest Glamour
from the mortal.
The changeling’s half of the bargain requires using fae
magic to aid the mortal in some dire task or in escaping a
dire situation the target couldn’t otherwise handle themself.
He can invoke Contracts or use his seeming or kith blessings
on the mortal’s behalf, give them tokens and clearly explain
their catches, or any other type of fae magic he possesses;
however, he may not simply perform the task or rescue the
mortal themselves. They must utilize the magic on their own
and rescue themself.
The mortal’s half requires following a specific and strict
rule or willingly laboring under a particular limitation. For
instance, they may accept a curfew by which they must be
inside their home and stay there until sunrise, or a rule forbidding them to deliberately tell any lies.
If the changeling solves the mortal’s problem himself,
this Condition ends without resolution or granting a Beat.
If the changeling forbids the action required to end the
hex, this Condition does nothing until your character takes
that action and resolves it. The consequences last for one
chapter thereafter.
If the changeling sets a quest as the required action
which breaks the hex, your character suffers its effects until
the quest’s completion.
As a pledge, the Wyrd itself negotiates the hex, not with
the victim. If the changeling sabotages her own hex, for example by accidentally or deliberately enabling your character
to break it, they suffer a detrimental temporary Condition of
the Storyteller’s choice.
A character may only have one instance of Hexed at a
time.
Resolution: Your character takes the action the changeling specified when she placed the hex.
ICON SHARD
(Persistent)
Your character broke her word sworn on her Icon. Doing so has infused the Icon with the Wyrd’s wrath, giving it a
semblance of life. A changeling’s Icon is a part of her soul; as
such, the Icon shard becomes a rough imitation of her darkest and most sinister thoughts and urges. The Icon shard
acts as a semi-sapient doppelganger with the sole purpose of
tormenting the changeling for breaking her word.
Behind Your Eyes - Icon Shard
141
Icon shards count as hobgoblins (Changeling: The
Lost, p. 252) with a Wyrd rating equal to the changeling’s;
use the rules given for creating goblins to give the shard
traits and powers, all of which should in some way reflect its
origins. Instead of a Virtue or Vice, the shard has a Needle
and Thread, chosen as dark mirrors of the changeling’s. It
gains Aspirations in direct opposition to the changeling’s
Needle and Thread and uses them to disrupt the changeling’s life. For example, a changeling with a Protector Needle
finds her doppelganger attacking the people she loves; her
Friendship Thread causes the shard to focus on ruining all
her relationships.
The Icon shard targets only the changeling and those
connected to the changeling (if doing so serves the purpose
of tormenting her). If she kills the shard rather than reintegrating it, she destroys it forever, losing access to the memories and Clarity it once brought, constituting a Clarity attack
with a dice pool of four.
Beat: The Icon shard’s actions impair or hurt the
changeling or someone she cares about, or actively prevent
her from gaining Willpower through her Needle or Thread.
Resolution: The changeling must kill the Icon shard or
make up for breaking her word. If she made a vow, she must
complete it or fulfill its terms. If she made an oath, she must
reconcile with the others involved to their collective satisfaction. The others involved in the pledge may exonerate
her wrongdoing by resealing the pledge in blood. Everyone
involved must suffer one lethal damage and spend a single
Glamour to reinstate the pledge’s bond. If she cannot reconcile the oath — perhaps the other parties died, for example —
then the changeling must reconcile with the Wyrd instead;
this should be the focus of a story, and the particulars are up
to the Storyteller. When this Condition resolves, the Icon
integrates with her immediately, unless she destroyed it.
INDEBTED
A fae being performed a service for your character and
he owes them something in return. Mundane tasks aren’t
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Appendix: New Conditions
enough; the Wyrd enforces this debt. The character can repay it by accepting damage, a detrimental Condition, or a
detrimental Personal Tilt intended for the being to whom the
character is indebted. The character’s player chooses which
of these he suffers; if he chooses damage, the character must
take all damage from a source, not part of it. He cannot take
on Clarity Conditions or Conditions he couldn’t normally
suffer this way. The Wyrd alerts him to all his creditor’s perils until this Condition resolves, and he doesn’t have to be in
their vicinity to resolve it.
This Condition can also be Persistent. If so, your character owes a debt he can’t repay as easily. In addition to the
usual effects, he earns a Beat whenever his creditor makes a
request or demand of him, and he fulfills it without attempting to resist. The Persistent version of Indebted can only resolve when the character performs a major service for his
creditor, such as saving their life or risking danger to bring
them something they desire.
Resolution: Repay the debt, as above.
Beat (Persistent only): Fulfill a request or demand the
creditor makes without attempting to resist.
KITHSEEKER
(Persistent)
Your character undertakes an ordeal in the Hedge
to seek a kith that matches her soul’s calling. During the
ordeal, she must face five trials, each of which comprises
roughly one scene. Her motley and others can help her, but
if someone else resolves a trial for her, she refuses to engage
with a trial, or she leaves the Hedge, the Condition ends
without resolution.
Resolution: The character overcomes five trials and
gains a new kith.
Beat: The character endures significant adversity or
learns something new about herself as part of a trial.
You can’t predict a changeling by their kith. We’re not so
easily defined.
But we are connected to others who fashioned themselves the
same way. You meet another Playmate’s eye and know you
share something no one else can understand. In a way, you’re
kin.
This is the Lost struggle. Did They take me apart so
thoroughly that putting me back together rearranged the
pieces entirely? Am I what they made me to be, or can I
decide my own shape?
The bad news is you’ll never find an answer you’re satisfied
with.
The good news is you don’t have to wrestle with this stuff
alone.
They wanted to fit you into a mold, but people aren’t like
that. This struggle is what separates us from Them.
— Red, Darkling Playmate
Kith and Kin is a companion book to Changeling: The Lost Second
Edition,, expanding on the core book. It contains:
Edition
• A deep dive into the return from Arcadia, including details about
the BriarNet, the Wishing Roads, and the Lunar Freehold, as well as
additional options for Touchstones and Clarity
• Expanded changeling powers, including new Regalia and Contracts,
Regalia manifestations, expanded pledgecraft, and rules for the fae
sympathetic magic known as dramaturgy
• A vast selection of new kiths, as well as options for playing kithless
characters and acquiring a kith in play
• Advice and options for motleys: example motley oaths, a new type of
Hedge ghost which feeds on those oaths, and structured motley conflict,
as well as a discussion of forming motleys with non-changelings — other
fae creatures, mortals, and other supernatural creatures as presented in
other Chronicles of Darkness games