Fairest is the seeming or character type, the kith is a more in depth type of the seeming, it grants an extra blessing
This story concerns a young man, who dreamed of the
love of a beautiful girl in his village. One night, he made a special
cake from a recipe he learned from his grandmother, and
he waited in the dark for a faerie to come and take it. The door
opened; a dark, tall faerie came in. He said to the faerie, “Not for
you,” but he sinned in this: he shouldn’t have spoken to her. So
he sat and waited a little longer, and the door opened; a loathly
hag stepped in. The hag reached out her hand for the cake, but
the young man tapped her on the wrist and said, “Not for you.”
He sinned in this: he shouldn’t have touched her. So he sat and
he waited a little longer, and the door opened; a lady
of unearthly beauty and grace stepped in, and
he could say nothing, so stunned was he,
and the lady said, “For me,” and took the
cake. She stayed with him after that,
this lady. She granted his wishes, but
somehow they were always twisted.
He wished for money, and soon
he married an ugly old woman, in
the hopes that she would die and
leave him nothing. The old woman
proved healthier than he could
have imagined, and was cruel and
mean. The youth turned to his Fae
lady again and wished the old woman
dead. True to her word, the Fae lady
brought the plague to the town, and the
old woman died, but so did the young man’s
sweetheart. He gained the mean old woman’s
riches, but his love was dead, and he wished himself
dead, and he fell into a deep sleep. He awoke in his coffin, buried
six feet under the ground, and as he began to beat upon
the wood, he heard a sweet, sweet voice say, “For me.” And if
anyone were to dig up his coffin, they would find nothing there
but dried leaves and stones.
This is the way of the Fae, and it’s the way of the Fairest:
they take what and whom they will take, and they will have
their fun first. It is their prerogative to be loved and admired,
and their right to treat that love any way they will. Sure,
they’ll try to rise above it, but there’s always the fact that they
really are the fairest of them all. They won their beauty fairly.
They deserve to be beautiful.
The Fairest consider their own flight through the Hedge
the hardest to have effected. The world they were part of — or
as much of it as they remember — was beautiful, a world of
sweet pain and pleasant cruelty, a bittersweet paradise. Surrounded
by beauty as they were, thralls to creatures a thousand
times lovelier than anything on Earth, they had to focus
all their thoughts on remembering what it was to be plain, to
walk among the ordinary.
Those who do leave, then, are those who had enough of
a sense of self to be able to abandon ecstasy, and they know
it. They brought back their seeming from the Fae realm, and
with it, they brought back cruelty, and this cruelty is sometimes
amplified by the arrogance that comes from knowing
that they were pure enough of heart and strong enough of
will to escape.
Often, the Fairest believe that they should
be far more influential and powerful in their
Courts than they actually are, mistaking
social prowess and ruthlessness for the
qualities of leadership. Some manage,
by sheer force of personality and
charm alone, to rise to the top, but
there are more Fairest in positions
of authority than there are Fairest
who know what they’re doing.
But they have their place
in changeling society. A Dancer
works her magic around a pole in
a gentleman’s bar. The Court sometimes
needs a patsy, or something done
by someone disposable, and the patrons,
ensorcelled by the pole dancer’s routines,
often serve the changelings’ purpose. A Draconic
Prince works for the People’s Government in
Beijing; although a stickler for social niceties, he’s known to
some of the people on the streets as a man who can bend the
rules for the right price and the right reason. Many people in
the city owe their homes, their health and the survival of their
families to him, and the gratuities he receives aid the changeling
Court. Most of all, he always seems to get away with it.
Another Draconic changeling leads a coven of bored housewives
by force of will, practicing the blackest of magic, keeping
her followers divided but devoted to her. The Courts don’t trust
her all that much, but they need her resources and contacts at
times, and they are inclined to overlook if she is too inclined
to follow the lead of the old stories and pay a tithe to Hell. A
Muse runs an art school in a bohemian corner of a provincial
city. His students always seem to do much better work before
they graduate. A Flowering Demon Lover strides through the
club scene, manipulating its social politics and alliances, leaving
relationships wrecked and friendships torn with suspicion.
Although a minor player in his Court, here he’s on top of his
game, trusted and admired in the bars and clubs, every guy’s
best friend… to their faces. Another Muse, an Indian Deva,
works in Mumbai, an assistant choreographer for a half a dozen
Bollywood studios. He’s never at the top of the credits and
never receives much recognition, but the films he works on are
among the brightest, most exciting and most cheerful of them
all. And hidden within the sumptuous song and dance routines
are messages for those who know. A Bright One, an African
American orisha, works as a recruiting sergeant for the Army.
In the office, he’s as bright as a button, and as optimistic as a
Boy Scout, telling stories of heroism and organizing training
exercises and tours of the local base. Sometimes there’s a recruit
who doesn’t shape up, but the recruiting sergeant always seems
to be there with the offer of work. Sure, it might not be with the
Army, but there’s always a place for a willing soldier.
Wherever the Fairest find themselves, they’re prominent.
They push themselves into everything they do. Sometimes
their undoubted charisma is enough to carry an enterprise on
its own. Sometimes it isn’t. But then, of all the changelings,
the Fairest are the least suited to being alone. Although sometimes
haughty, and sometimes cruel, they are social beings,
and when they rise above their shortcomings, they work surpassingly
well as part of a team. The cruelty that made them
can be redeemed, if only they’ll let someone else close enough
to make a difference.
Appearance: The Fairest are often tall, often slim and
always good-looking, however they appear. They’re never really
conventionally attractive. They’re striking, and memorable
with it. They’re also the changelings who as humans
look the most like their fae miens. The pole dancer has full,
sensual features and a knockout figure. Her eyes are an amazing
shade of violet. Most people think she’s wearing contact
lenses. In her fae seeming, her hair is even longer than it is
already, her ears are pointed and the fullness of her lips, the
curve of her chin and the size and color of her eyes are exaggerated
to an almost painful degree. The Draconic Prince
has flaming red skin and sharp teeth, but they only serve
to show what a striking man he is. As a human, he has a
broad smile and perfect teeth in an angular face. The Demon
Lover is always immaculately groomed, and he always smells
good without ever using product. Again, in his fae seeming,
his cruel beauty is emphasized to the extreme. His ears are
pointed, and he has the look of a Victorian stage devil to him.
The Draconic Witch resembles nothing more than a perfect,
affluent suburban housewife; in her fae seeming, her perfect
dress and jewelry become the accouterments of a dark, cruelly
beautiful lady, with a cold satanic grace that freezes the soul.
The Deva looks like a smiling Hindu god, all blue-green skin
and liquid, heavy-lashed eyes. Those eyes appear much the
same in his human seeming. The gung-ho orisha is a big African
American man with a shaved head and a warm smile. In
his fae seeming, he is taller and slimmer, his features angular,
elongated and clear, like a Nigerian carving.
Background: The Fairest were not always those whom the
Fae thought to take for lovers. Although most were pleasing to
the eye, all had some talent beyond simple good looks. Some
could dance, some had beautiful voices, some were artists or poets.
The few who have made it back have often found that this
one talent has consumed them. It’s almost all they have, in a
way. The arrogance that comes from having the strength of self
to be able to freely return from bleak, beautiful Faerie is perhaps
bolstered by insecurity. What if the talents they have are not
enough to make them truly the most talented, the brightest, the
most beautiful? After all, in the stories, the Fae sorceress is very
rarely, if the mirror is to be believed, the Fairest of them all.
Durance: The Fairest find that the memories of their
time in Faerie are brief, fragmentary. The Fairest have dreams
of self-annihilating ecstasy, of perfect pleasure, intercut with
moments of horror and fear. Romantic interludes segue into
hellish agonies. A bed covered with radiant blossoms is suddenly
drenched in blood, the flowers becoming hooks and
chains that rend and tear. The perfect body, only glimpsed
in fragments, becomes as cold as crushing stone. Threads of
fragrant hair that cover the dreamer’s face become strands
of razor-sharp wire that slice his face away. And when the
changeling wakes up, he screams and he doesn’t know if he’s
screaming in agony or in bliss.
Character Creation: The Fairest often concentrate on
Social Attributes and Skills, although they do not neglect
their bodies, having reasonable levels in Physical Traits. Many
have high ratings in Expression and Socialize. The Striking
Looks Merit is particularly common among them. They’re stereotyped
by some of the other changelings as not being overly
clever. While this isn’t always fair, many of the Fairest do put
Mental Traits on the back burner.
Blessing: These changelings really are the Fairest of
Them All, and their magic only emphasizes this. The player
can spend Glamour to improve dice pools that include Presence,
Manipulation and Persuasion. Each point spent increases
one dice pool by one point.
A changeling counted among the Fairest also suffers no untrained
penalty for using Social skills in which she has no dots.
Curse: The Fairest, similar to the creatures who stole
them, can be callous and unfeeling, vicious and prone to toy
with others, even people who love them. Their inner balance
suffers for this. One of the Fairest suffers a –1 die penalty on
dice pools to avoid losing Clarity (for example, the player of a
Fairest with Clarity 5 who kills another changeling rolls two
dice to avoid losing Clarity, rather than three).
Seeming Contracts: Vainglory
Concepts: Charismatic but incompetent executive, professional
athlete, lead singer in a band, amiable politician, catalog
model, aging heartthrob, too-glamorous gangbanger, out-ofwork
actor waiting tables, high school beauty queen, low-table
professional footballer, late night torch singer.
Kiths
Bright One — Changelings who came from light; willo’-
the-wisps, bright elves, White Ladies and other beings of light and fire and ice from all over the world. Their blessing is
Goblin Illumination: The player can, at will, illuminate an
area the size of a smallish room (about 15’ x 15’ x 10’ high)
with a soft, pale light for the rest of the scene. Although the
light centers on the changeling’s left hand, it doesn’t have the
changeling as its source, seemingly coming from the air itself.
The light doesn’t move. If the changeling leaves the radius
of the light, he leaves it behind. With the expenditure of a
Glamour point, the light becomes painfully intense; anyone
trying to target the Bright One treats him as partially concealed
and suffers a –2 dice penalty (–1 die if the attacker is
wearing sunglasses).
Dancer — Those among the Fairest blessed of particular
agility and grace, for whom motion is itself beauty and
art. Whether entertainer, courtesan, artist or murderer, the
Dancer is happiest when moving to the sound of her inner
rhythm. The Dancer’s blessing is Fae Grace: she benefits from
the 9 again rule on any Expression or Socialize rolls involving
agility (such as juggling or dancing in a performance or social
setting), and always adds one to her Dodge total when dodging
attacks.
Draconic — Changelings who bear within them the
blood of dragons or other Great Beasts of Faerie, including
celestial bureaucrats and tithe-payers to Satan alike. Haughty
and possessing a robust physicality, the Draconic Fairest have
the secret of the Dragon’s Talon: a Draconic changeling
gains an extra die on Brawl rolls, striking with the power of a
chimera’s claw or manticore’s sting. His player can also spend
one point of Glamour to re-take one failed Brawl roll, once
per scene.
Flowering — Flowers blossom on bare earth where these
changelings have stood (although they take months to appear
in the human world rather than seconds, as they did in Faerie).
Their skin is soft like the petal of a rose or a chrysanthemum
and bright with a bloom of health. The Flowering Fairest has
a Seductive Fragrance: her skin, hair and breath carries the
aroma of unknown blossoms from places unseen, the promise
of pleasures unknown. Her bouquet seduces and lulls in equal
measure. She gains the benefit of the 9 again rule on dice
pools including Persuasion, Socialize and Subterfuge.
Muse — Their beauty inspires the arts. Whether a Rubenesque
beauty, a sedate and delicate daughter of the Heavenly
Ministry, a grotesquely beautiful masquer garbed in yellow
tatters, or a Dark Lady who drives her beloved to destruction,
the Muse inspires the creation of things of beauty and horror
and love and hate and fear. The growth of confidence can
precipitate a headlong rush to doom, and the Muse knows
how to make it happen. The Muse’s talent is The Tyranny
of Ideas: the changeling’s presence can give a human the
confidence and talent to do things that he otherwise would
not be able to do. For every point of Glamour the changeling
spends, the human subject (and it must be human; it can’t be
another changeling or another supernatural being) gains +2
on one dice pool involving Expression, Persuasion, Socialize
or Subterfuge.
This story concerns a young man, who dreamed of the
love of a beautiful girl in his village. One night, he made a special
cake from a recipe he learned from his grandmother, and
he waited in the dark for a faerie to come and take it. The door
opened; a dark, tall faerie came in. He said to the faerie, “Not for
you,” but he sinned in this: he shouldn’t have spoken to her. So
he sat and waited a little longer, and the door opened; a loathly
hag stepped in. The hag reached out her hand for the cake, but
the young man tapped her on the wrist and said, “Not for you.”
He sinned in this: he shouldn’t have touched her. So he sat and
he waited a little longer, and the door opened; a lady
of unearthly beauty and grace stepped in, and
he could say nothing, so stunned was he,
and the lady said, “For me,” and took the
cake. She stayed with him after that,
this lady. She granted his wishes, but
somehow they were always twisted.
He wished for money, and soon
he married an ugly old woman, in
the hopes that she would die and
leave him nothing. The old woman
proved healthier than he could
have imagined, and was cruel and
mean. The youth turned to his Fae
lady again and wished the old woman
dead. True to her word, the Fae lady
brought the plague to the town, and the
old woman died, but so did the young man’s
sweetheart. He gained the mean old woman’s
riches, but his love was dead, and he wished himself
dead, and he fell into a deep sleep. He awoke in his coffin, buried
six feet under the ground, and as he began to beat upon
the wood, he heard a sweet, sweet voice say, “For me.” And if
anyone were to dig up his coffin, they would find nothing there
but dried leaves and stones.
This is the way of the Fae, and it’s the way of the Fairest:
they take what and whom they will take, and they will have
their fun first. It is their prerogative to be loved and admired,
and their right to treat that love any way they will. Sure,
they’ll try to rise above it, but there’s always the fact that they
really are the fairest of them all. They won their beauty fairly.
They deserve to be beautiful.
The Fairest consider their own flight through the Hedge
the hardest to have effected. The world they were part of — or
as much of it as they remember — was beautiful, a world of
sweet pain and pleasant cruelty, a bittersweet paradise. Surrounded
by beauty as they were, thralls to creatures a thousand
times lovelier than anything on Earth, they had to focus
all their thoughts on remembering what it was to be plain, to
walk among the ordinary.
Those who do leave, then, are those who had enough of
a sense of self to be able to abandon ecstasy, and they know
it. They brought back their seeming from the Fae realm, and
with it, they brought back cruelty, and this cruelty is sometimes
amplified by the arrogance that comes from knowing
that they were pure enough of heart and strong enough of
will to escape.
Often, the Fairest believe that they should
be far more influential and powerful in their
Courts than they actually are, mistaking
social prowess and ruthlessness for the
qualities of leadership. Some manage,
by sheer force of personality and
charm alone, to rise to the top, but
there are more Fairest in positions
of authority than there are Fairest
who know what they’re doing.
But they have their place
in changeling society. A Dancer
works her magic around a pole in
a gentleman’s bar. The Court sometimes
needs a patsy, or something done
by someone disposable, and the patrons,
ensorcelled by the pole dancer’s routines,
often serve the changelings’ purpose. A Draconic
Prince works for the People’s Government in
Beijing; although a stickler for social niceties, he’s known to
some of the people on the streets as a man who can bend the
rules for the right price and the right reason. Many people in
the city owe their homes, their health and the survival of their
families to him, and the gratuities he receives aid the changeling
Court. Most of all, he always seems to get away with it.
Another Draconic changeling leads a coven of bored housewives
by force of will, practicing the blackest of magic, keeping
her followers divided but devoted to her. The Courts don’t trust
her all that much, but they need her resources and contacts at
times, and they are inclined to overlook if she is too inclined
to follow the lead of the old stories and pay a tithe to Hell. A
Muse runs an art school in a bohemian corner of a provincial
city. His students always seem to do much better work before
they graduate. A Flowering Demon Lover strides through the
club scene, manipulating its social politics and alliances, leaving
relationships wrecked and friendships torn with suspicion.
Although a minor player in his Court, here he’s on top of his
game, trusted and admired in the bars and clubs, every guy’s
best friend… to their faces. Another Muse, an Indian Deva,
works in Mumbai, an assistant choreographer for a half a dozen
Bollywood studios. He’s never at the top of the credits and
never receives much recognition, but the films he works on are
among the brightest, most exciting and most cheerful of them
all. And hidden within the sumptuous song and dance routines
are messages for those who know. A Bright One, an African
American orisha, works as a recruiting sergeant for the Army.
In the office, he’s as bright as a button, and as optimistic as a
Boy Scout, telling stories of heroism and organizing training
exercises and tours of the local base. Sometimes there’s a recruit
who doesn’t shape up, but the recruiting sergeant always seems
to be there with the offer of work. Sure, it might not be with the
Army, but there’s always a place for a willing soldier.
Wherever the Fairest find themselves, they’re prominent.
They push themselves into everything they do. Sometimes
their undoubted charisma is enough to carry an enterprise on
its own. Sometimes it isn’t. But then, of all the changelings,
the Fairest are the least suited to being alone. Although sometimes
haughty, and sometimes cruel, they are social beings,
and when they rise above their shortcomings, they work surpassingly
well as part of a team. The cruelty that made them
can be redeemed, if only they’ll let someone else close enough
to make a difference.
Appearance: The Fairest are often tall, often slim and
always good-looking, however they appear. They’re never really
conventionally attractive. They’re striking, and memorable
with it. They’re also the changelings who as humans
look the most like their fae miens. The pole dancer has full,
sensual features and a knockout figure. Her eyes are an amazing
shade of violet. Most people think she’s wearing contact
lenses. In her fae seeming, her hair is even longer than it is
already, her ears are pointed and the fullness of her lips, the
curve of her chin and the size and color of her eyes are exaggerated
to an almost painful degree. The Draconic Prince
has flaming red skin and sharp teeth, but they only serve
to show what a striking man he is. As a human, he has a
broad smile and perfect teeth in an angular face. The Demon
Lover is always immaculately groomed, and he always smells
good without ever using product. Again, in his fae seeming,
his cruel beauty is emphasized to the extreme. His ears are
pointed, and he has the look of a Victorian stage devil to him.
The Draconic Witch resembles nothing more than a perfect,
affluent suburban housewife; in her fae seeming, her perfect
dress and jewelry become the accouterments of a dark, cruelly
beautiful lady, with a cold satanic grace that freezes the soul.
The Deva looks like a smiling Hindu god, all blue-green skin
and liquid, heavy-lashed eyes. Those eyes appear much the
same in his human seeming. The gung-ho orisha is a big African
American man with a shaved head and a warm smile. In
his fae seeming, he is taller and slimmer, his features angular,
elongated and clear, like a Nigerian carving.
Background: The Fairest were not always those whom the
Fae thought to take for lovers. Although most were pleasing to
the eye, all had some talent beyond simple good looks. Some
could dance, some had beautiful voices, some were artists or poets.
The few who have made it back have often found that this
one talent has consumed them. It’s almost all they have, in a
way. The arrogance that comes from having the strength of self
to be able to freely return from bleak, beautiful Faerie is perhaps
bolstered by insecurity. What if the talents they have are not
enough to make them truly the most talented, the brightest, the
most beautiful? After all, in the stories, the Fae sorceress is very
rarely, if the mirror is to be believed, the Fairest of them all.
Durance: The Fairest find that the memories of their
time in Faerie are brief, fragmentary. The Fairest have dreams
of self-annihilating ecstasy, of perfect pleasure, intercut with
moments of horror and fear. Romantic interludes segue into
hellish agonies. A bed covered with radiant blossoms is suddenly
drenched in blood, the flowers becoming hooks and
chains that rend and tear. The perfect body, only glimpsed
in fragments, becomes as cold as crushing stone. Threads of
fragrant hair that cover the dreamer’s face become strands
of razor-sharp wire that slice his face away. And when the
changeling wakes up, he screams and he doesn’t know if he’s
screaming in agony or in bliss.
Character Creation: The Fairest often concentrate on
Social Attributes and Skills, although they do not neglect
their bodies, having reasonable levels in Physical Traits. Many
have high ratings in Expression and Socialize. The Striking
Looks Merit is particularly common among them. They’re stereotyped
by some of the other changelings as not being overly
clever. While this isn’t always fair, many of the Fairest do put
Mental Traits on the back burner.
Blessing: These changelings really are the Fairest of
Them All, and their magic only emphasizes this. The player
can spend Glamour to improve dice pools that include Presence,
Manipulation and Persuasion. Each point spent increases
one dice pool by one point.
A changeling counted among the Fairest also suffers no untrained
penalty for using Social skills in which she has no dots.
Curse: The Fairest, similar to the creatures who stole
them, can be callous and unfeeling, vicious and prone to toy
with others, even people who love them. Their inner balance
suffers for this. One of the Fairest suffers a –1 die penalty on
dice pools to avoid losing Clarity (for example, the player of a
Fairest with Clarity 5 who kills another changeling rolls two
dice to avoid losing Clarity, rather than three).
Seeming Contracts: Vainglory
Concepts: Charismatic but incompetent executive, professional
athlete, lead singer in a band, amiable politician, catalog
model, aging heartthrob, too-glamorous gangbanger, out-ofwork
actor waiting tables, high school beauty queen, low-table
professional footballer, late night torch singer.
Kiths
Bright One — Changelings who came from light; willo’-
the-wisps, bright elves, White Ladies and other beings of light and fire and ice from all over the world. Their blessing is
Goblin Illumination: The player can, at will, illuminate an
area the size of a smallish room (about 15’ x 15’ x 10’ high)
with a soft, pale light for the rest of the scene. Although the
light centers on the changeling’s left hand, it doesn’t have the
changeling as its source, seemingly coming from the air itself.
The light doesn’t move. If the changeling leaves the radius
of the light, he leaves it behind. With the expenditure of a
Glamour point, the light becomes painfully intense; anyone
trying to target the Bright One treats him as partially concealed
and suffers a –2 dice penalty (–1 die if the attacker is
wearing sunglasses).
Dancer — Those among the Fairest blessed of particular
agility and grace, for whom motion is itself beauty and
art. Whether entertainer, courtesan, artist or murderer, the
Dancer is happiest when moving to the sound of her inner
rhythm. The Dancer’s blessing is Fae Grace: she benefits from
the 9 again rule on any Expression or Socialize rolls involving
agility (such as juggling or dancing in a performance or social
setting), and always adds one to her Dodge total when dodging
attacks.
Draconic — Changelings who bear within them the
blood of dragons or other Great Beasts of Faerie, including
celestial bureaucrats and tithe-payers to Satan alike. Haughty
and possessing a robust physicality, the Draconic Fairest have
the secret of the Dragon’s Talon: a Draconic changeling
gains an extra die on Brawl rolls, striking with the power of a
chimera’s claw or manticore’s sting. His player can also spend
one point of Glamour to re-take one failed Brawl roll, once
per scene.
Flowering — Flowers blossom on bare earth where these
changelings have stood (although they take months to appear
in the human world rather than seconds, as they did in Faerie).
Their skin is soft like the petal of a rose or a chrysanthemum
and bright with a bloom of health. The Flowering Fairest has
a Seductive Fragrance: her skin, hair and breath carries the
aroma of unknown blossoms from places unseen, the promise
of pleasures unknown. Her bouquet seduces and lulls in equal
measure. She gains the benefit of the 9 again rule on dice
pools including Persuasion, Socialize and Subterfuge.
Muse — Their beauty inspires the arts. Whether a Rubenesque
beauty, a sedate and delicate daughter of the Heavenly
Ministry, a grotesquely beautiful masquer garbed in yellow
tatters, or a Dark Lady who drives her beloved to destruction,
the Muse inspires the creation of things of beauty and horror
and love and hate and fear. The growth of confidence can
precipitate a headlong rush to doom, and the Muse knows
how to make it happen. The Muse’s talent is The Tyranny
of Ideas: the changeling’s presence can give a human the
confidence and talent to do things that he otherwise would
not be able to do. For every point of Glamour the changeling
spends, the human subject (and it must be human; it can’t be
another changeling or another supernatural being) gains +2
on one dice pool involving Expression, Persuasion, Socialize
or Subterfuge.
