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  1. Notes

Character Guidelines

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As a changeling, you are forever changed and irreparably part fae; body, mind, and soul. Your true inhuman nature is hidden from mortal eyes by faerie magic. You stand among humankind but forever apart. Worse, something was left behind, and lived your own life in your place. Very few Changelings reclaim their old lives, instead making new ones to distance themselves from faerie.

As an actor, you are expected to make a character that has a reason to participate in the politics of the Emerald City.

Seeming

The world of faerie is strongly governed by the logic of story and dreams. Your time there and your means of escape forever changed you, in body and in mind.

Beast

Beasts were used or treated as animals during their captivity. Theirs were tales of abandon and wildness. They take animalistic features, being more print to bestial sensation and instinct.

Darkling

Darklings embody the darkness and intrigue of Faerie, veiled shadow and stealth, fear and deception. Theirs is a tale of mystery, finding themselves as much at home in the gloom of night as the thick of conspiracy.

Elemental

Elementals were forged into inanimate objects or forces of nature during their captivity. Theirs are stories of transformation and metamorphosis, being at once contained with their new form but also freed by it.

Fairest

The Fairest are driven by their tales of perfection and in this, they embody the ideas of grace and beauty. Often kept as treasured delights by their faerie masters they have come to radiate that grandeur. 

Ogre

Ogres endured tales of brutality in their time in faerie. Their taskmasters forged and shaped them with cruel and unusual punishments and torture, but in this they imparted upon them terrible strength and prowess.

Wizened

The Wizened are masters of craftsmanship, having worked themselves thin. Theirs were tales of cunning, learning all manner of cunning works and artistry. They are withered, adroit, and spry even in their harrowed nature. 

Kith

A Seeming defines a broad experience that changed you, a Kith is refinement of that change. Your Kith represents a specific function or role you had in Arcadia.

Twelve Kiths are defined in the core book, but other Kiths will be added as they are published.

You can find a list of Kith abilities here:

http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Kiths

Court

Changeling society moves and flows with the march of the seasons. Long ago, changelings sought out and entered into bargains with the seasons themselves. Each season offers a unique arrangement that in one form or another protects changelings from the faerie. Changelings who offer allegiance to no season are regarded as untrustworthy.

The Emerald City conforms to the Seasonal Courts, which reflects the psyche of the vast residents of Sydney. The freehold shares leadership, with each season holding court temporarily before ceding power. 

Spring Court

The Spring Court exults in life and harnesses desire to make life worth living. They hide from the Fae by living amongst the mortals. Their twin refrains are Desire and Denial.

Summer Court

The Summer Court gathers strength and power to turn their wrath upon their enemies. They seek to strike out against the Fae directly. They thrive on Wrath and Pride.

Autumn Court

The Autumn Court utilises a healthy fear to help them prepare for attack. They explore the powers of faerie magic and the enigmas of the unknown to use against the Others. They alternate between Fear and Bargaining.

Winter Court

The Winter Court uses the pain of their sorrow to strengthen themselves against further losses. These masters of deception and keepers of mysteries choose to go to ground. They live on Sorrow but slip into Depression.

Anchors

Your Anchors form major keys to fleshing out a character’s identity. Changelings have a Needle, a Thread, and Touchstones. All three are means by which you can regain willpower.

Your Needle represents your true inner self. A point of inner steel you honed against the ever-changing strangeness of Arcadia.

Your Thread represents the ties that bind you to Earth, and helped drive you to escape from Arcadia and resist the Gentry.

Your Touchstones are people, places, things that matter to you. They are things you trust, and help ground you.

For a list of available Needles and Threads: Unknown

Merits

Merits represent backgrounds and talents. You can find a list here:

http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Merits,_Changeling_(2nd_Edition)

Wyrd

A changeling’s Wyrd is the strength of their faerie power. The greater their Wyrd the more closely attuned to the eldritch nature of faerie and the farther from humanity they drift.

Contracts

Contracts are powers changelings can invoke, drawing upon ancient agreements forged with the very component of reality itself. By calling upon contracts, changelings can bend reality in unnatural ways.

Arcadian contracts represent those agreements forged by the faerie themselves. They fall under six broad Regalia, each with common contracts (those taught to their servants) and royal contracts (those they kept for themselves). Each Seeming has a favoured Regalia.

A list of contracts can be found here:

http://wodcodex.com/wiki/Contracts

Crown: Contracts of command, control, and direction (favoured by Fairest)

Jewels: Contracts of perfection, lies, and artifice (favoured by Wizened)

Mirror: Contracts of perception, and transformations (favoured by Darklings)

Shield: Contracts of protection, durability, and healing (favoured by Ogres)

Steed: Contracts of movements and the animal world (favoured by Beasts)

Sword: Contracts of violence, directness, and prowess (favoured by Elementals)

Court contracts represent powers gained through ties to the seasonal courts.

Spring: Contracts of desire, growth, and rejuvenation.

Summer: Contracts of wrath, and powers to produce heat and vigour.

Autumn: Contracts of fear, and the life and death of growing things.

Winter: Contracts of sorrow, and the power to control snow and ice.

Finally, Goblin Contracts learned from the Hobgoblins. They are all unique and incredibly specialised. But they come with a cost. 

Names

In Changeling, most tend to use a name other than their once human name, and they tend to select names with a low-mythic quantity, or ones vaguely folklorish. Things like:

  • Jack-of-the-Sun
  • Red Sally
  • Randall the Great
  • Granny Apple
  • Widow Vespers
  • Zephyr
  • Aida Vice
  • Black Sparrow
  • Grim Malkin
  • Job the Lucky
  • Bandersnatch
  • Brother Tuck
  • Puss-in-Boots
  • Dandy Lion