episode 11 – nobles: the shining host

Settle in, because this is a long one... the raw audio for this recording was the longest we've had by far. But that's because Nobles: the Shining Host, the first Changeling book to delve into Kithain nobility, covers a lot of bases. It's not quite "Kithbook: Sidhe," but there's enough about them in there to satisfy most players and STs who want to know more about the kith; on top of that, you have plenty about the social structure and cultural dynamics of nobles from any background. We get bits of history, an epic tale, political parties and secret societies, information about Concordia's monarchs, some new Traits (including two new Arts), a new House, character templates... the book really packs it in. We cover it in this episode as briskly, yet thoroughly, as possible—but even so, this is almost our longest episode thus far. (This is also the reason why it's going out a bit late this week. Nostra maxima culpa.)

how to play a sidhe

Just kidding—we're not going to tell you the exact answer to that, because there really isn't one. Ultimately, you do what you want to do. But, since the book focuses heavily (not entirely!) on this kith, we are going to point out a couple things about trends and possibilities. See, the traditional roles for sidhe in CtD games have tended towards: 1. pretty Mary Sues who are (or demand to be) able to do anything (especially when people just want to play a sidhe for that extra Boon), 2. uptight patricians who treat egoism and sucking all the oxygen out of a room (or gaming session) as a virtue, 3. as Josh put it, the real-life protagonists of soap operas (for the viewing pleasure of the commoners), or 4. all of the above, which is doable because the first three are stat-, personality-, and narrative-based, respectively. The exact shape of these things has waxed and waned over the years—"mysterious warrior-sorcerer with Appearance 7 and/or an ethereal presence" seems to be a common expression of (1) these days—but the common threads are quite visible.

The unfortunate thing is that the early books, at least, set up a lot of alternatives to these archetypes, even as they also provide examples of them. And yet somehow, the alternatives seem to have faded more and more into the background. Maybe this is due to real-world ideals working their way into the game: commoners are moving front and center with progressive, anti-aristocratic ideas, and the sidhe have flattened more and more into these Tolkien-elf types with little variation. The sidhe are a kith; Title is a Background; nobility is a quality; and while the three may overlap more than most other kith-Trait-characteristic combinations, it is not a necessity. (Remember, those in the back: your sidhe does not have to have a Title/be part of a House.)

We mention this because the sidhe fall into the trap most often, maybe, of becoming one-dimensional characters, with the only variation being the specific Trait build that represents their particular snottiness. It's true that kiths tend to shape characters; it's also true that more and more, especially with C20, there is pushback against such determinism. (Old fogies' note: it was always there, e.g., you could play soft-hearted Seelie redcap who liked macrame, but the game's willingness to foreground that varied.) So why would you not make a sidhe who is more interesting than the typical [insert Title here] [insert elaborate faux-Sindarin name here] [insert House here] [insert optional florid moniker here], knight and/or wizard and/or courtier par excellence? One of the first canon sidhe in fiction is Leigh from the Immortal Eyes trilogy, who is a teenage redhead knight struggling to reconcile her newly-discovered nature, princess memories, and swelling sense of honor with her upbringing as a working-class cop's daughter, as well as her fervent desire to be a chef. She has a soft spot for protecting childlings (though she's also a firm babysitter), she has a crush on the bad-boy Unseelie eshu, and she worries about making ends meet with her line-cook salary in her crummy one-bedroom (but she's also thrilled to be living away from her mortal family for the first time). She is far from perfect, but aspires to be better, and she has the capabilities of a beautiful warrior, but is far from defined by them.

This book gives a lot of material to work with to navigate that level of complexity, as do many of the others—if you're willing to look for it. We encourage you, therefore, to think outside the box and make being a sidhe (or being a noble) not the most important thing about your character. It may not be the least important either, but give your character a little depth before working that piece in. Obviously, this advice can be applied to any kith—it's just that sidhe tend to suffer for it most than the others.

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the Trod Background

Just because the headache that is this Background deserved to be reproduced in its entirety, here it is in table format. Pick the Background level you want in the first column, then choose one row within that level to determine which destinations the trod has access to across the world/Dreaming, and (in the last column) how often it's available:

Destinations:localregionalnationalNear DreamingFar DreamingDeep DreamingAccessible...At Level 111/4 of the yearLevel 2 (choose one row)1 2-3 11/2 of the year 1/4 of the year all the timeLevel 3 (choose one row)2-3 2-3 2-31 1 00 1 01/2 of the year 1/4 of the year all the timeLevel 4 (choose one row)4-5 4-5 2-3 2-32 2 1 11 1 0 02 1 0 10 1 0 01/2 of the year 1/4 of the year all the time 1/2 of the yearLevel 5 (choose one row)4-5 4-5 2-33-4 4-5 12 4 02 2 10 2 01 1 01/2 of the year 1/4 of the year all the time

Yes, we're aware that the first and third options for Level 2 are directly contradictory. The book also suggests that the accessibility be tied to natural cycles, e.g., a trod that's only open 1/4 of the year might be available during a certain season, and a trod open 1/2 of the year might only be available every other day or only at night. Surely there was some mathematical formula to figure out the balance of all this, but no idea what that might have been; heaven help you if you decide to have a single Background represent multiple trods, e.g., taking four dots in the Background allows you to choose two options from Level 2.

Are we having fun yet?

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clancy brown

We're not saying the sidhe on page 49 isn't noted actor and voice actor (including, ironically, in Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia) Clancy Brown, but it's totally Clancy Brown. Publicity photo provided for comparison!

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parliamentary breakdown (but not the fun kind)

In case you needed some statistics for who's in the Parliament circa this book's publication in late 1995/early 1996... all percentages are relative to the entire Parliament, not the specific group being described:

• Sidhe nobles make up 42% of the Parliament, even though they only make up 5% of the Kithain in Concordia (though that number may have increased a bit as more Houses have returned, and the Autumn Sidhe have become a thing in C20). The Traditionalists make up 20%, Reformers 15%, and Modernists 7%
• Commoner nobles make up 20% of the Parliament: Traditionalists 8%, Reformers 4%, Modernists 8%. Meanwhile, non-Titled commoners make up the remaining 38%, with Traditionalists 15%, Reformers 7%, and Modernists 16%, suggesting that commoner political affiliation is roughly the same, regardless of whether they're noble or not—and with a surprisingly high number of Traditionalists. Overall, when you see that the nobles have a majority, and the Traditionalists have a plurality, the feudal system sticking around as long as it has begins to make a bit more sense (as does the more reform-minded fae's frustration).
• Within the Parliament, sidhe make up 42%—therefore, all sidhe in the Parliament are nobles. The remaining breakdown is boggans at 14%, trolls at 9%, nockers at 8%, pooka and satyrs at 6% each, sluagh, redcaps, and eshu at 5% each. We don't have breakdowns by kith for nobles and political inclinations, but presumably the boggans and trolls have higher rates of both nobility and Traditionalism.
• Similarly, we don't get political inclination breakdown by House, but we're told that Gwydion makes up 12% of Parliament, Eiluned and Fiona 10% each, Dougal 6%, Liam 3%, and Scathach a pitiful 1%. We also have the note that 95% of the Parliament is Seelie—estimated, of course.

Obviously, as new kiths have been made standard in C20, Unseelie power has become more openly displayed, and the Autumn World's political landscape has evolved, all of these are subject to change. But as a baseline for how things work, it's still a useful tool to start with... in the episode, we sort of poke fun at the voting system of Concordia. Nevertheless, there is undeniable nerdy pleasure to be had from a story centered around the electoral campaigns and machinations of the fae, if you want to work that into your chronicle. (Yes, one of us might be a fan of both Borgen on TV night and Die Mächer on board game night.)

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your hosts

Josh Hillerup (he/him) flew into battle on a song and a prayer. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) strolled into Hell with some flowers in the hair.

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"I had been too long away from the nobility; I had forgotten how silly even the best of them could be." —Laurell K. Hamilton, "Geese"

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