Since the Faerie(now Changeling) rules will not be released for at least a year (since the current plan is to release it in 1995 Summer), I am making my own rules for Faerie in the world of Darkness to use while waiting for Changeling. Currently, the project is titled "Changeling: the Game Eternal". Reasoning: The Faerie live forever. Eternity can get pretty boring unless you find something to do. They don't even have a good excuse to mope around, like vampires do. Therefore, the Faerie play the Game Eternal. They understand the rules, well some of the rules, well sometimes they think they know what they are doing. The objective is to be the faerie with the most victories in the Game under his belt when the Universe ends. Assuming it does. Otherwise they're going to have a hard time determining a winner. There's also the problem that they can't agree anymore on what constitutes a victory or what the winner gets at the end. This doesn't bother them, though.
The fay are divided into what are known as courts. Essentially this is a group of faerie who are all playing by the same rules. A faerie also has a breed which is his bloodline-Phooka, gremlin, alfar, brownie, etc. Breeds within a court tend to stick together, but members of the same breeds from different courts often don't get along, especially because they usually think the other court is cheating.
The Fay are the children of the Wyld. This can lead to radical personality and behavioral changes over time. All Faerie fear the coming of Chaos, the state in which the Faerie loses all state of rational purpose and engages in random behavior. Eventually, all Faerie slip permanently into Chaos, and then gradually dissolve as chaos destroys their body. Faerie are often random, but it is consciously chosen randomness. Chaos is total unpredictability.
The Faerie have realized over time that allowing a faerie to spend his early years in a more static environment such as the earth helps them to become more stable and stave off the final death by chaos for a much longer time. The faerie will swap children with a human couple, then come for the child when he reaches the age of 16 and return the original child and take theirs. While many Changelings then stay in Arcadia, many others return to Earth, for it was the home of their childhood. Player characters come from this group.
From Haarck's History of the Tellurian. Published Seeker Year 6028, at the Court of Princess Tharriol of the Seeker Court.
"One of the most frequently misunderstood elements of the story of Adam and Lillith was the nature of Lillith. Lillith has been remembered by the humans as Adam's first wife. Some legends say she was a demon, others that she was created from the mud like Adam. However, the oldest faerie records assert that she was not human or demon, but the avatar of an Incarna, spawned by Luna or possibly Gaia herself. She mated with Adam and produced the first faeries. She had a second brood by Adam which became some of the first shapechangers. It is also speculated that she may have bred with selected humans later, introducing the race of Immortals into the world.
When Eve was created, Lillith left the garden and took her first brood of children with her to Arcadia, on the moon. There they grew and frolicked and prospered. Lillith taught them the secret of the great game. The game would keep them busy and happy for all of eternity, but something went wrong. When Humanity fell, the fae were spared the direct effects of that fate. They did not lose their immortality, but the curse that came upon the universe effected them too. It was at this time that the final madness became a threat to the fae. Humans live under the shadow of death, the ultimate form of stasis. Fae live under the shadow of instability, a loss of form, purpose and mind. At the same time, Arcadia itself became unstable, threatening to dissolve back into primal chaos. Space and time themselves became warped.
For a time, the fae struggled on. They discovered that the great game gave them a sense of purpose and by playing the game they could stave off the instability that threatened to consume them. But then the humans further wrecked the universe. The curse of Babel struck at all sentient creatures. The fae were plunged into utter chaos by the curse. Many panicked and turned on each other. The true knowlege of the great game, its goals, and its rules were lost and distorted. Where once the faerie had been one people though many breeds, now the faeries divided into courts, each playing the great game by different rules and for a different prize."
From a conversation with Allisande, a Respected Selkie Romany Entertainer:
"So you want to know where we all came from? I'll tell you all about it. In the beginning, there was chaos. It was burbling along happily until one day it discovered that in its random changes, it had made something stable. Ever shuffled a deck of cards? Most of the time you just get disorder, but sometimes, you may get some cards to just randomly appear in a pattern. Well, that's what happened. And this stable thing didn't want to just dissolve away. It started changing more of the chaos into something stable. Planets, stars, birds, wombats, people, etc. Well, the chaos didn't really care. It had no mind after all. But it instinctively reacted to all this making by trying to change things. But the Maker didn't like that. It wanted its creations to not change, just like it. It didn't understand that by taking action, it was causing change itself. It tried to make something that would prevent the Chaos from unmaking and altering its stuff. At the same time, the Chaos tried making something that would be better at unmaking things that were too stable. And lo and behold, they accidentally made the same thing. This thing became the Mediator. It sought to keep the Maker from freezing everything into one big pretty picture and the Chaos from just wrecking everything into one big confused mass again."
"Things burbled on like this merrily for quite a while, when the Maker had a clever idea. It could make lesser creatures that would desire to Make things like it did. These things could go out and help lock down the universe into stability. So it waited for the Chaos to produce some suitable creatures, and it shaped them into humans. Only problem was, the Mediator intervened to keep it from getting too powerful that way. It hid some of the new creatures before the Maker was done fixing them to work his way. Instead, they became us, the Faeries. Luna took a liking to us, and made part of her realm into a paradise and a refuge. She saw that the humans would get out of control one day, and we would need somewhere they couldn't get us. Because the Maker never finished reshaping us, we come in all shapes and sizes, but because we come from the same stock as humans, we all look kinda human and we can breed with them. Also, they've given us some lessons in getting things done... "
From a conversation with Champion Yrynido, a doppleganger of the Dryadic court:
"We are the children of Luna. Luna once lived alone in Arcadia with only the animals to keep her company. She was a little jealous of her sister Gaia who had humans, and shapechangers, and all the other thinking animals to keep her company. So she went to her sister and asked her for the secret of teaching animals to think that she might have company."
"Gaia said to her sister, 'How about if I give you some of my children to keep you company on the moon? I can see how you must get lonely there.'"
"Luna replied, 'I would like to have children of my own. Your children would grow lonely and yearn for you, for I am not their mother.'"
"And Gaia replied, 'Perhaps some of the shifter kin should come to dwell with you. They regard you as their second mother, for you are always in their sight when Helios leaves the sky."
"Luna said, 'Can you not teach me the secret of making thinking animals?"
"Gaia sighed. 'I am not sure how it was done. The Maker, the Breaker, and the Changer helped me birth them. I do not know exactly how to do it. But if you ask them, I am sure they will help you gain the children you desire.'"
"So Luna reached into the sky, and grabbed the loom of the Maker, and pulled herself upon it. She crossed the loom, dodging the Maker's zealous servants, who mistook her for a thread out of place, and sought the workshop of the Maker. And the Maker heard her pleas, and took some of her essence and made nine statues of it. And Luna was dismayed."
"Luna said to the Maker, 'These have no life within them. And none of them look like each other. How can they be one kind, my children.'"
"The Maker replied, 'I make things, not life. If it is life you seek, go to the Changer, for he makes things that change, not I.' So Luna parted the threads of the great loom and fell between them to the ocean of change, where dwelt the Changer."
"Luna sailed the seas of change for many months, seeking the Changer, but she could not find him, for the stars moved in the sky, islands rose and sank without warning, and her maps were never the same from one minute to the next. But she saved the nine statues, hoping that the Changer could bring them to life. Finally, she cried out in despair, lost and alone"
"'Changer, where are you? I have sought long for you? Have you died and departed leaving only this ocean behind? Has my quest been futile?' And Luna cried."
"And a voice spoke from beyond her sight. 'Throw your children into the sea.' And Luna was confused. They were only statues. If she threw them overboard, they would sink to the bottom, and all of her efforts would be for naught."
"'I cannot throw my children into the sea. They cannot swim. They are only statues.' Luna did not understand."
"'Safety precludes change, for change is never safe and always risks loss. They must enter me if they are to ever become more than what they are.' Though Luna feared the undoing of all her efforts, she took the Changer's words to heart and threw the statues overboard. And they changed. They lost their unliving semblance and moved and breathed and swam. One took naturally to the water. Another became a fish. The third grew wings and flew up out of the water. The fourth called down fire from the sun and boiled away the water around him dancing in the steam. The fifth was blown back up on the deck by a wave that happened to pass by. The sixth sank to the bottom, then part of the bottom floated to the top with him riding on it. The seventh hid from the water so she wouldn't get wet. The eighth drew off a little of the Changers power and made his own little Island. And the ninth started fighting with the eighth to stand on the new little island. Luna smiled and drew her children up onto her boat and prepared to leave. She set a course for the Moon and prepared to have a nice talk with her new children. But they didn't understand anything she said, just ran around making a mess and experimenting with things. Luna was confused again. Now what was wrong?"
"As she began to sail into the sky towards home, she called out to the Changer, 'Why do my children not understand me?'"
"And the Changer replied, "I give the gift of life, not of thought. Ask someone else for that.'"
"As Luna sailed her boat into the sky, she turned it to seek the chambers of the Breaker. She remembered that all three had helped Gaia, so perhaps the Breaker had the secret of mind."
"Soon she sailed to a great castle in the sky, where dwelt the Breaker. It was his duty to patrol the border between the ocean of change and the loom of the maker, keeping either kingdom from destroying the other. She soon stood before the Breaker and said, 'Oh mighty Breaker, can you teach my children to think? For I wish to be alone no more.' As she spoke, her children ran amuck, trashing the Breaker's castle, reshaping it, breaking parts of it, setting things on fire, attacking the guards, using them as climbing toys, and so on."
"The Breaker smiled. 'You have rambunctious children. The changer has touched them heavily. It will be hard to keep them under control. Harder still if I give them minds with which to plan and take action beyond their instincts. Often they will disobey and go wrong. Do you still wish me to enable them to think like you and I?'"
"Luna said, 'Yes. For if I had only wished for ordinary animals, I have plenty of those already. I want children who can love me and understand my love for them. And they are beautiful to me.' She looked at her children and smiled."
"The Breaker stood and said, 'Then it shall be done. As Gaia's children have blessed her, so shall these children be a blessing on you. As the humans have more of the Maker's essence, so your children the Faeries have more of the Changer's essence. Now they shall have my essence too. I break their instincts and insensibility and open them to knowing themselves and you. He touched each of the rampaging children, who stopped, blinked, and turned to stare at Luna, the Breaker, and his guards."
"Luna smiled, "Hello, children. Are you ready to go home?" They stared at her and tried to speak. A wide range of garbled language came out. Then they all ran over to her and tried to cling to her, staring at the Breaker and his guards. Luna turned to go."
"The Breaker spoke one last time before Luna and the Faeries left. "Your children will always be a fractious lot. Teach them your wisdom that they might understand that they need both order and change, though change will always come more easily to them. Teach them to treat Gaia's children well, for hers may be more numerous, but yours will be stronger, but often not know to use that strength wisely. I fear there may one day be war between yours and Gaia's children, and much misunderstanding. Go with my peace."
"And so Luna brought her children to the moon, and together they made it a great wilderness of surpassing beauty. And some of her children traveled to meet Gaia's children and vice versa. Together they protected the lands, until the Breaker and the Maker fell into madness and brought corruption upon us all..."
Excerpt from the Writings of Saulot:
"In my quest for wisdom, I sought out the faeries, for it was said that there were those among them who had witnessed the creation of mankind and the fall of man. And my journeys lead me by roads often untraveled into a great mountain range. And atop a mountain was a stone house, within which dwelt a man clad in brown. He was only two foot tall, and wore clothing the likes of which I had never seen. He had a shelf of scrolls and was writing another as I arrived. His apprentices were busily copying scrolls and writing new ones. He looked at me and I felt his gaze pierce me to my very essence. I was an open book to him. He looked at me for a long moment, then said,
"You are Saulot. You seek the wisdom of the Faeries, for you believe we were at the creation of man. You seek to know why humanity fell and how this fall can be undone." He continued to stare through me.
I was amazed. Surely one who knew this much could aid me in my quest for redemption. Then he spoke and shattered my hopes. "We are not that old a people. Do you know what an angel is?"
I was confused. "Are you saying that Faeries are angels? I have heard the Sethites speak of them, but..."
He laughed. "Angels predate the creation of the world. But some of them looked upon the world many years ago and saw that it was good, and desired the daughters of Seth. And they were punished for that, but not before the daughters of Seth gave birth to us, the Faeries. We are part angel, part man. Thus we have power beyond your ken, but forms like those of men."
I was crestfallen. "Then you know not the secret of redemption..."
He laughed again. "I didn't say that. What knowledge can you give me for the knowledge you seek.."
Erin O'Connell/NightSong, a Fianna Homid Galliard speaks of the origins of the Fae:
"Long ago, the Weaver decided to adopt one of the species of animals that dwelt in Gaia's bosom as her special children. To them, she would teach her secrets of making and creating order. She looked down and saw the humans, and decided they would be the ones to be blessed. But when the Weaver sent her servants to teach her children these secrets, some of them were not interested in them. They wandered off after learning only a few of the Weaver's secrets. They followed another call. They walked by strange paths and came to the land of Luna, who had called them. For she too wished to have special children. She gave them power over earth, and air, water, and fire. She taught them to draw upon her magic to hide, to fight, to change form like her. She made them lucky, and tied them strongly to their grandfather the Wyld that they might draw strength from him and not easily be forced into the molds made for them by the Weaver. And she named them the Faerie. Long has our tribe and theirs been friends, and long may we frolic together..."
From A Theory of Faerie Origins and Powers:
It is my theory that the Fair Folk, or Faeries were created by the division between the physical and spirit worlds that happened at some point in the distant past. Some humans were trapped on the Umbral side of the Gauntlet and subjected to the increased influence of the magical energies prevalent there. They became increasingly magical creatures, finally becoming permeated with magical energies. They seem especially proficient in the manipulation of Matter, Forces, Mind, Entropy and Life. They dwell in a realm of unstable Time and Correspondence. Some have learned to manipulate Mana, which seems to correspond roughly to Prime. A few can manipulate Spirit enough to enable them to open Faerie rings/Trods/Faerie Circles which enable them to visit the physical plane.
The erratic nature of the faerie folk and the behavior of the Marauders somehow seems to be linked...