Changeling the Dreaming Lore: The History of the Fae

This video is an overview of the history of the Fae/Changelings from Changeling: The Dreaming, White Wolf's least dark and angsty setting...
That is, if you don't look at it too closely.
Other types of Fae, such as the Inanimae, Nunnehi, Gallain, and Hsien are subjects for other videos.

[@dylanchouinard6141]

So the banality is basically the Peter Pan concept of ‘every time someone says ‘I don’t believe in fairies’ a fairy drops dead’?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Perhaps not with that level of immediacy but more or less, yes.

[@Dinker27]

I hear that some mages have the ability to do that.

[@eccoeco3454]

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I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! I love the smell of genocide in the morning...

[@dylanchouinard6141]

@@eccoeco3454 *vigorous clapping*

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

I always saw it as The Neverending Story's "The Nothing" crossed with the Science vs Magic from Flight of Dragons. It's less about words and more about that slow, inexorable feeling of ennui that we all feel as we crash into the real world of work, bills, 24 hour news, and small talk. It's the thousand small cuts that kill the child within over the space of years and decades. Finding out that the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Father Christmas were actually your parents. It's double geography followed by English language. And today you're covering contractions. It's promises made, but not kept. Love that neither hits the height of passion or the depths of longing. Dusting, washing up, bleeding the radiators. Each one by itself is banal, but can't do more than just make you feel a little bit down. But all together the sheer volume wears away at the spark within, slowly extinguishing it until eventually it's gone. And that's why dreamers and fantasists, sci-fi fans and LARPers, Vampire wannabes (like the ones in our world, not WoD ! 😁) and horoscope believers are beacons of light. They show a glimmer of a world that's been moving away for so long, but that small glimmer is enough to raise the head of the child and to encourage them to stand up and fight. Because, despite the despair, Arcadia and the Dreaming is still there... 😉 Edit: Sorry, I got a bit carried away! 😁

[@fignewton0000]

"Wrapping themselves in the substance produced from dreams" was incredibly beautiful

[@alwynwatson6119]

It also shows a solution. A changeling in which the human part does not see even normal things as banal. Logically that should give them the ability to convert banality into glamour. The only problem is this probably would not be allowed because it would break the game due to being too OP.

[@fastgav]

While I love the whimsical theme of this history I think this one of the few settings I actually like better in the chronicles of darkness with humans, or what were once humans escaping Arcadia to try and reclaim their lives.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Dreaming was more Peter Pan & Chronicles of Narnia vs. Lost, which was more Pan's Labyrinth and The Shadow Out of Time.

[@fastgav]

@@lazarofstygia2241 i think it feels more horrific than whimsical.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

@@fastgav CtL is horrific because it raises unanswerable questions: Why did the Fae choose you in the first place? What exactly did the do to you in Arcadia that was so horrible that you don't want to remember it? If they got you once what's to keep them from doing it again? What if they wanted you to escape and it's just another phase of their eternal game?

[@fastgav]

@@lazarofstygia2241 sorry I wasn't very clear. I meant that changling the lost felt more horrific.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

@@fastgav It's fine. I agree with you!

[@nocturnesurlalune3342]

Excellent video, Changeling: The Dreaming is such an underappreciated little gem, thank you so much for doing this. I couldn't help but to go through all the material I had on the Gallain, and other fae kingdoms that went unmentioned (such as Iberia and the middle eastern and african kingdoms) again after watching.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Changeling is a setting that had a lot of good writing put into it. Kithain, Gallain, Inanimae, all good stuff and worth reading.

[@stephenwilliams203]

You'd think the 13 Traditions Mages and Changelings would have a common cause.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Nobody trusts Changelings. The Order of Hermes even has a law proscribing its mages, (with the exception of House Merinita) from having any dealings with the fae. Mages can be as easily enslaved by Glamour as they can by Vitae.

[@stephenwilliams203]

@@lazarofstygia2241 Good point.

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

The other thing to remember is that Changelings need to balance fantasy with banality. Only the True Fae could live with pure glamour. Kith need the balance to avoid going mad or giving in to Banality. But the glamour they need is based on fairy tales and imagination. Fantastic beasts, noble creatures, and horrendous monsters. It's a different world to the one that mages inhabit, which is based on structure and boundaries. The Order of Hermes for example don't just wiggle their fingers and firebolt their way out of danger. They need to complete rituals at specific times with specific ingredients - much of their time is spent reading and researching. Not very entertaining for the Sidhe warrior Baron. Or the Virtual Adepts, with their coding and firewalls. They need a world in which the amazing powers of the computer are all powerful, antithetical to the mythic world of the Fae. It's something that I was looking forward to seeing in Mage, the fall of the Traditions when they realise that they can't all have the world fit the paradigm they need and break into civil war between them all! 😁

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Mages are basically the ultimate source of banality. Their magic works by imposing their will upon reality and exterminating any deviance to make themselves more powerful. Fae NEED that deviance to survive

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

@@thomastakesatollforthedark2231 That's a much more succinct way of putting it! 😁👍

[@Jamhael1]

The nordic practical attitute apllies even to their Changellings, like: Sidhe appears anywhere: *war and strife* Sidhe appears in North Europe: Commoner looks at them: "What the f*ck took you so long?"

[@AndusDominae]

"The ancient land of Simroo, or Wales". For a moment I thought "how interesting, I wonder what ancient people called Wales Simroo"... then it hit me. Simroo = Cymru. Pronounced kum-ree, modern Welsh for Wales. 🤣

[@lazarofstygia2241]

On further view, this correct. Will amend in future references.

[@BR4IN1N4J4R]

Then again, Welsh is a language of 15 consents then a single vowel and sounds nothing like it reads. Lovely language, but confusing as hell for those of us plebs who haven't learned it

[@Mortablunt]

Cum-ree: when a chick gets mad at you for jizzing in her.

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Ah what a beautiful, complex story. I love changeling so much

[@Vermbraunt]

There doesn't seem to be many CtD lore videos out there. I think I like it more than CtL. CtL seems more depressing

[@WanderingCoyoteXVII]

Love the Fable music on this.

[@timothyburwell1948]

Can you please do a top ten of each changeling kith? They are very interesting

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Perhaps. The Werewolf vids are less viewed than the vampire vids. Changeling top 10 vids would be a lot of work for an even smaller audience.

[@jeffbrownstain]

Mana. Glamour. Tass. Sekhem. Vitae. Pathos... I can't keep track of all these different names for Aether. I mean Quintessence.

[@jonathankilby6636]

Don't forget faith!

[@jeffbrownstain]

@@jonathankilby6636 Ah yes, Hunter Faith. That thing which definitely we all know about because of how useful and relevant it is.

[@DozyDruid]

The music ..is it from fable? .. It's eeringly familiar 🤔

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

I'm afraid that I'm stuck in the VtDA/Sorcerer's Crusade era. I did grab a copy of Changeling the Dreaming to help make my Fae NPCs more realistic but I don't know a lot about the modern setting. (I'm also still stating clearly that my second edition library can be dragged from my cold dead hands! 😁 But I was wondering, does this mean that the red star, week of nighrmares, Ravnos rising etc... didn't have any effect on the Changelings at all?

[@krispalermo8133]

Pick up a copy of Changeling the Lost, it is full of great & wonderful ideals. Just remember, everything is up for trade or invested .. even your Wryd.

[@jonathankilby6636]

Great video. Been watching since i found all my old wod books in the loft. Got to do a demon campaign soon, one i never got round to running. Although that along with wraith are really intimidating to run

[@ThexVaultxTech]

Fable 1 music?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Maybe.

[@derrabbit7289]

What of the Yokai? Are they not a form of the Fey? What of the legends of Africa? With as many who still believe in magic there, it should be a bastion for Fey beings.

[@derekfortner4008]

WoD is not the best at considering a larger picture of the world. It mostly takes an intellectual snobbery of Western view, while trying to balance it with Romanticism (hence everything, even fucking Garou being divided by continental barrier, although the ones in the Americas and Australia make sense). It's ironic because WoD has the setting specifically state that no one believes in anything anymore, but Wiccanism and other beliefs akin have never been more prolific.

[@williamchristensen7354]

Yeah, I've noticed that White Wolf is terribly Eurocentric with its lore. It's a really big weakness and honestly a huge loss for its worldbuilding.

[@jenkemprovides6531]

Well there have been eastern changelings for a while now. WW wrote a book in 1998 for the Asian equivalent for changelings. As for africa, the eshu are from there as well as India and a few other places I think.

[@setsunatenma9467]

Youkai are were creatures, africa beings are spirits like the loa

[@yetipotato8567]

That is the elephant in the room Well, is it relevant to assume that a man who wears perfume is automatically matically fay?

[@rcdt6653]

I distinctly remember the soudntrack you used in this video but I forgot. Please add the soundtracks in the description

[@finnfraser2228]

It is from the Fable videogame series, I believe this is the main theme song for the first game if I am not mistaken. Hope this helped :)

[@TheKagar]

Thank you for Upload :)

[@djnrrd]

Cymru is not pronounced Sim-roo, it's pronounced Kum-Ree :)

[@simpleroleplay2136]

Cool I’d they any more

[@asturias0267]

The night of iron knives? White Wolf is really subtle and classy in their naming conventions. That's almost as tasteless as the Romani splat they made. 🙄

[@xenithsanguine]

The more I learn about CtD, the more glad I am that I am playing CtL instead.