Changeling questions from a Newbie

[Crowley]

I got quite anumber of questions about the game.
i been dming Demon the Fallen and i learned how to handle both the Demon and The Human host within. which is fairly easy..but what happens when that creature has "Aged."
What im trying to say is.
Is there a strict relation between the age of the "Host" and the Changeling? will a little kid always be a Childing? or can a little kid be a grump?

If so, when the human host dies, the changeling reencarnates or he continues with his same current age on a new body?.

are the Human Host always related to the fae somehow? changeling blood or being replaced on a previous life?

How does the Experience works out. i dont mean experience points, but rather.. A Changeling is walking on the street, heading to buy some groceries and he suddenly sees a Dragon on the street. people wont see it, but if he fights it (and yes i know that banality would technically kill that dragon), but if the changeling were to fight it.. people would see a normal guy waving his arms with a stick and shouting to the emptiness..right?.

I noticed that many of the Changelings have certain..Faults or Drawbacks.. must a Pooka ALWAYS Lie (even when he is surrounded by humans and working ?)

i been dming Mage for a while and i noticed a lot of real mythos between the magicians and the Fae. How does this would work from the point of view of the changelings?.

Do faes have other realms other than Arcadia that they may arrive to? by the way. i got first edition changeling. so i have no idea if they expanded upon on the second edition.

also, how doe a changeling feed of Glamour? do they inspire a writter and they tap him on the forehead? do they breath the same air as the person in the room? do they turn his dreams (literally) into liquid or solid foods?

[PookaKnight]

I got quite anumber of questions about the game.
i been dming Demon the Fallen and i learned how to handle both the Demon and The Human host within. which is fairly easy..but what happens when that creature has "Aged."
What im trying to say is.
Is there a strict relation between the age of the "Host" and the Changeling? will a little kid always be a Childing? or can a little kid be a grump?

If so, when the human host dies, the changeling reencarnates or he continues with his same current age on a new body?.

The vast majority of player characters are going to be characters that have undergone the Changeling Way. The Changeling Way isn't body snatching or a faerie wearing a human suit; it's a merging between a faerie soul and a human soul. It results in a unique individual that is neither fully human nor faerie. When the changeling dies, the human half goes on to whatever awaits human souls after death while the fearie half reincarnates by merging with a new unborn human soul. Once that new person's faerie half awakens during her chrysalis, she is new, unique changeling. She might retain some of the memories from her faerie half's previous lives, but she is not a previous changeling reborn. A changeling's life is short, fragile, and incredibly precious.

The typical exceptions here are the Arcadian sidhe. They take over a human host by displacing the original human soul. However, even for these changelings, their borrowed humanity alters the faerie fundamentally giving them all of their human memories and a more human perspective. Once these changelings die, the faerie within does not reincarnate. No one knows what fate ultimately awaits these faerie souls.

are the Human Host always related to the fae somehow? changeling blood or being replaced on a previous life?

There is some evidence that faerie souls tend to be drawn more to families that have fae blood within them, but there are plenty of examples of changelings arising in completely mundane families.

How does the Experience works out. i dont mean experience points, but rather.. A Changeling is walking on the street, heading to buy some groceries and he suddenly sees a Dragon on the street. people wont see it, but if he fights it (and yes i know that banality would technically kill that dragon), but if the changeling were to fight it.. people would see a normal guy waving his arms with a stick and shouting to the emptiness..right?.

The Mists exist to protect the Dreaming from the withering gaze of Banality. For most things that don't directly affect people, the Mists simply hide them. As long as the dragon walking down the street isn't bothering anyone, mundane people will ignore it and subconsciously side step it. For things that are unavoidable, the Mists will alter the person's memories to a mundane explanation.

The common example is childlings sword fighting with each other look like children playing with sticks to observers. This often gets extrapolated to apply to adult changelings — adults sword fighting look like they're playing with sticks too, but that's not quite right. The Mists go for a plausible mundane explanation, often piggybacking off the observer's expectations. A group of changelings in a pitched battle on the street corner would more likely be rationalized away as gang violence or rioting after a sports game.

Edit to add: For some truly outrageous things that can't be rationalized, the Mists just wipe away the memories of ever witnessing them. They'll fade like a poorly remembered dream.

I noticed that many of the Changelings have certain..Faults or Drawbacks.. must a Pooka ALWAYS Lie (even when he is surrounded by humans and working ?)

Unless a changeling wants to Invoke the Autumn and invite Banality, she is always bound by her frailties. On the bright side, she always has the benefit of her birthrights as well.

i been dming Mage for a while and i noticed a lot of real mythos between the magicians and the Fae. How does this would work from the point of view of the changelings?.

What would work best for your chronicle? Go with that.

Do faes have other realms other than Arcadia that they may arrive to? by the way. i got first edition changeling. so i have no idea if they expanded upon on the second edition.

I'm not sure what you're asking here.

also, how doe a changeling feed of Glamour? do they inspire a writter and they tap him on the forehead? do they breath the same air as the person in the room? do they turn his dreams (literally) into liquid or solid foods?

I've always imagined it as an energy that changelings absorb making them feel refreshed and vital when they're in the presence of Glamour and worn out and sluggish when Glamour is scarce. There's some cool imagery you've got there though! I could see an unseelie scaring people speechless because she literally eats their words. I'll have to play with that some in future chronicles.

[White Oak Dragon]

In the dragon example, if the dragon is attacking, the Mists will help to cover it up. Instead of remembering "a dragon attacked that guy, then his friends drew their swords and tried to slay it," a mortal might remember "that guy got hit by a garbage truck, then his friends grabbed some crowbars and began bashing it all to hell. This was a weird day."

[Crowley]

The arcadia question: Are there other realms to which the Changeling can access to, besides arcadia and the Dreams?.
Can the Changeling "Teleport" by walking through the dreaming. like entering the dreaming in NY and step out of it on Russia?.

Is there a correlation between the "Human Host" age and the Changeling age?

Must the "Changeling self" always co-relate with the body of the host? i mean, Do all Troll's Host's must be Tall and Huge? or can they be a weak looking person ?

[White Oak Dragon]

The arcadia question: Are there other realms to which the Changeling can access to, besides arcadia and the Dreams?.
Can the Changeling "Teleport" by walking through the dreaming. like entering the dreaming in NY and step out of it on Russia?.

Is there a correlation between the "Human Host" age and the Changeling age?

Must the "Changeling self" always co-relate with the body of the host? i mean, Do all Troll's Host's must be Tall and Huge? or can they be a weak looking person ?

Arcadia question: The Dreaming is filled with interesting locations. I can't recall whether they can cross vast distances quickly through it, though.

I believe that Seemings have been uncoupled from mortal age for C20, but I think that they were pretty closely related in earlier editions.

I don't think that the chimerical form needs to perfectly match the physical one, although I do believe that there is some similarity. A troll probably wouldn't look like a pathetic weakling, but an eight-foot tall troll might look like a 6.5 foot tall person to mortals, and seem to duck under things that he shouldn't have needed to in their eyes. Of course, it's easy enough to rule otherwise there, and let the pathetic weakling to shock people with great strength. A satyr would seem to have hairy legs even if they couldn't tell that he was a goat from the waist down. I know that there had been a Wings Merit that required the changeling to be careful with them, even though they were invisible to mortal eyes.

[glamourweaver]

The arcadia question: Are there other realms to which the Changeling can access to, besides arcadia and the Dreams?.
Can the Changeling "Teleport" by walking through the dreaming. like entering the dreaming in NY and step out of it on Russia?.

The Dreaming is vast and diverse filled with many strange realms. The Near Dreaming roughly parallels the Earth (ala the Penumbra or the Shadowlands) but with manifest dreams and fantasies everywhere; the Far Dreaming is filled with archetypical fantasy realms arranged conceptually; and the Deep Dreaming defies communication.

Originally the Kithain had no specific access to other realms, though some Gallain that drew Glamour from nature (such as the Nunnehi) accessed the Middle Umbra rather than the Dreaming. Later though, it is a point in the metaplot when the Adhene/Denizens arrive that new Trods appear with them. The "Green Paths" lead into the Middle Umbra. The "Black Paths" lead into the Shadowlands.


You can travel through the Dreaming to different locations on earth via Trods connecting Freeholds, but it would hardly be "teleportation" given the journey involved.

[PookaKnight]

Can the Changeling "Teleport" by walking through the dreaming. like entering the dreaming in NY and step out of it on Russia?.

Heh, I sort of answered this one in a recent first draft I wrote for an upcoming C20 project. I haven't gotten the redlines back yet, so I don't know if my answer is correct or not

I will say though, that it seems to me that the Dreaming's geography would follow dream logic much more than real world physics.

Is there a correlation between the "Human Host" age and the Changeling age?

This is a hard one for me to answer right now. As White Oak Dragon says above, the Seemings are being revised a bit in C20, and I don't want to accidentally spoil anything that hasn't already been spoiled.

Previous to C20, yes, Seeming was tied closely to the changeling's age (as I said above, "human host" doesn't make much sense when talking about changelings). Childlings were any changeling younger than teenagers. Wilders were teens to about 25 years old. Grumps were any changeling in their late twenties or older.

Must the "Changeling self" always co-relate with the body of the host? i mean, Do all Troll's Host's must be Tall and Huge? or can they be a weak looking person ?

Don't think of it as a host. A changeling is a union of a human and faerie soul. It's a single, unique individual that is neither fully human nor completely fae. The Mists obscure the changeling's actual form to mortal eyes, but what mundane sight sees is a plausible rationalization of the changeling's true form. So yeah, a giant towering troll is probably going to appear as a big, imposing due, but within normal human limits.

That's not to say having a changeling's mortal seeming and fae mein appear totally different is completely out of the question. If it makes for a better story, I'm sure the Dreaming would be all for it.

[PookaKnight]

Forgot this one:

The arcadia question: Are there other realms to which the Changeling can access to, besides arcadia and the Dreams?

In the cosmology of Changeling: The Dreaming, there are two major worlds the Kithain deal with — Earth and the Dreaming. Certain changeling scholars have heard of various other realms that their prodigal cousins interact with, but they tend to view those realms as subsets within one of these two worlds.

Earth is pretty much the same as the real word, only a little darker, colder, and more hopeless. On the other side of the Mists, the Dreaming is comprised of a nearly infinite number of realms and kingdoms. Some of these realms are merely a passing flight of fancy lasting no more than a single night. Others are permanent fixtures upon the dreamscape that predate the Kithain and their progenitors, the Tuatha de Dannan. The deeper one travels into the Dreaming and farther away one gets from the Banality of Earth, the more fantastic and closer to the old myths the realms of the Dreaming become. At the center of the Dreaming stands Arcadia, the pillar that supports the entirety of the Dreaming and the realm the Kithain claim as their homeland. The gates to Arcadia are lost, obscured by the Mists. None outside Arcadia may enter lest they poison it by their taint of Banality.

[Crowley]

ok, kind of a silly question: is there a Sandman sort of being, and what other shoutouts can i find to Gaiman on the previous books ? (No C20 to avoid spoilers). any advices when it comes to first edition cantrips?

is there a way to adapt or evolve cantrips from first, to second, to C20 in an organic way? i mean, im still waiting for second edition to arrive with the mail. but in the mean time my players really want to try out first edition changeling

[PookaKnight]

ok, kind of a silly question: is there a Sandman sort of being, and what other shoutouts can i find to Gaiman on the previous books ? (No C20 to avoid spoilers).

Changeling: The Dreaming has a Gaiman-esque vibe throughout it. It draws pretty heavily on Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, and Stardust for inspiration. Even Ocean at the End of the Lane, while written a number of years after Dreaming got canceled, feels like the perfect kinain story. That being said, Changeling doesn't have a Morpheus analog. The closest thing Changeling has to the Endless are the Tuatha de Daanan. They're not a perfect match though. The Tuatha were much more numerous than the Endless. The Tuatha also departed the Dreaming many years ago, leaving their children, the Kithain, as stewards over humanity and the Dreaming in their place.

any advices when it comes to first edition cantrips?

is there a way to adapt or evolve cantrips from first, to second, to C20 in an organic way? i mean, im still waiting for second edition to arrive with the mail. but in the mean time my players really want to try out first edition changeling

The basic structure of cantrips never changed. An Art combines with a Realm while focused through a Bunk to produce an effect. The individual levels of the various Arts changed a bit between editions, as did the levels of the Realms. Bunks were static things you had a list to choose from in first edition while in second edition you were encouraged to make up your own unquie bunks on the fly. First edition cantrips are difficult to use without access to the old cantrip cards. However, if you have access to the Players Guide, it has alternate dice rules for cantrips that should hold you over until you can get ahold of second edition or C20.

[Crowley]

In Mage and Demon there's very important laws about "The Naming." (at least on my Mage game, no PC uses his 'birth name' to protect themselves from Sympathetic Magick. and Demons don't go around revealing their Names so they dont become Slaves). is there anything similar in changeling? or they are Safe if everyone knows that the changeling is "Joe Torien" AKA "Jokah of Roaring Engine Freehold" ?

[Crowley]

Also, How married are the changeling's to belief based weaknesses? For example. if i trick a Changeling and force him to make an Oath. he cant break it or use Legal Voids, right?.

Here in chile we have some fae mythos, for example we have a rapist ogre know as El Trauco. His weakness is that, if you see it and escape from his grasp, he will loose his strenght's and die...

what im going to is, If people believe in a certain Weakness for the Changeling. does he adopts it?

also, where can i find more information on the Dreaming as a Realm

[Crowley]

next question: how would an average joe (a lawyer perhaps or a computer IT) suddenly comes to the realization that He is a Changeling? any examples on the "awakening" of a changeling to his/her reality?

or must all characters be creative or eccentric people?

[White Oak Dragon]

next question: how would an average joe (a lawyer perhaps or a computer IT) suddenly comes to the realization that He is a Changeling? any examples on the "awakening" of a changeling to his/her reality?

or must all characters be creative or eccentric people?

Now Crowley, whatever makes you think that a lawyer or computer IT can't be creative or eccentric?
In seriousness, it really depends on the individual. Generally, I'd say that they'd need to be low in Banality if they're going to be awakening to a fae nature for the first time. They'd probably be especially creative within their fields, if not in their life outside of work.

[Aya Tari]

next question: how would an average joe (a lawyer perhaps or a computer IT) suddenly comes to the realization that He is a Changeling? any examples on the "awakening" of a changeling to his/her reality?

or must all characters be creative or eccentric people?

I do not think that they suddenly realize anything, they are born Changelings, they just slowly enter into the realization that they are not normal over time. A person who becomes a Grump in their thirties probably already lived a life surrounded by the fantastic and, regardless of their profession, would have likely owned thousands of fantasy books, been into tabletop gaming, etc as their Changeling self unconsciously manipulated them into the more comfortable world of fantasy. Unless they have become one of the Autumn People, Changelings will never be considered normal by the people close to then, even before they realized that they were Changelings.