Changeling the Podcast

*90s intensifies* as we do an exploration of the brief-lived but fairly-beloved Changeling tie-in CCG, Arcadia: the Wyld Hunt. With a base set released in August 1996, and a single expansion (King Ironheart's Madness) in November of that year, the game was canceled before its third set (The Lion's Den) could follow in 1997. But given the collapse of the market at that time, it's not really something we can hold the company entirely to blame for... This is technically not a Changeling game, per se. It's set in Arcadia, has its own metaplot, and offers a fairly distinctive kind of experience: one part modular board game, one part competitive treasure hunt, one part deckbuilding, one part exercise in frustration. There's a six-sided die somewhere in there. Overall, it has a similar mood and some shared concepts, and lots of the same artists, but it's really its own thing. To help us navigate the particulars, we've enlisted Charlie Cantrell of Radio Free Arcadia as Grand High Explanator. (Aside from being a credentialed collector and player of the card game, Charlie also adapted some of those unique features from the CCG into Kiths of Arcadia, a supplement available on the Storytellers' Vault.) So, give a listen as we explore—but do not (yet) attempt to actually play—this semi-forgotten piece of the Changeling universe... links and things! The usual assortment of links for the podcast: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast And then, some places where you can find Charlie and his work: Twitter: @PookaKnightFacebook: Radio Free Arcadia for more info about the latest projects from Charlie and his teamKiths of Arcadia on the Storytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/299635?affiliate_id=3063731Harbingers of Winter, a supplement on Thallain and Dauntain and Fomorians (oh my!): https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/388455?affiliate_id=3063731Charlie's homebrew conversion guide to 5th Edition for Changeling can be found here Lastly, we can't stress enough the helpfulness of the In Arcadia WordPress site, https://arcadiaccg.wordpress.com/, where there's much information about the rules, the cards, the history of the game, and thoughts from fans. Check it out, why don'tcha? ... unboxing! After getting their hands on some packs of cards, Pooka decided to have a small "unboxing" session (which was really an "unboostering," with no actual box involved). This image gallery feature probably won't work anywhere except on the website proper, but... let's give it a whirl and see what happens. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun/Garou) prefers the Rage CCG variant where players have to eat the cards they destroy, also while screaming. Pooka G (any pronoun/Platoon) would truthfully rather be a colony of good-natured tardigrades than something as pedestrian as ants. And see not ye that bonny road, Which winds about the fernie brae? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where you and I this night maun gae. —Traditional, "Thomas the Rhymer"

In this *bonus!* episode for Samhain—not Halloween—Josh interviews Pooka G about their latest homebrew release for the Storytellers' Vault, Book of Days. This is a compendium of things chronological for your Changeling chronicle: a day-by-day yearlong calendar of events with story hooks attached, essays on seemings, options for including Seasonal Courts or additional temporal weirdness in your games, chimera, Lycians, Treasures... it was a labor of love, then spite, then madness, then love again. And, much like the wheel of the year and reincarnation for the Kithain, if that's not a metaphor for life, what is? Note: Pooka is terrible at speaking plainly (go figure) or self-promoting, so treat this more as "an informational excursion" rather than "inspired salespersonship." where to find pooka g online Well, you're here, aren't you? To that end, here's our usual assortment of media links: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast But otherwise, here's the Book of Days product page: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/412055?affiliate_id=3063731. Pooka's other STV projects will be listed under their author page on the Vault; otherwise, you might spot them on their own Twitter (which is pretty meh, honestly) at https://twitter.com/pookagar. your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) -- WATCH THIS SPACE. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) -- SEE ABOVE. "You see, science has overcome time and space. Well, Harvey has overcome not only time and space — but any objections." —Elwood P. Dowd

Happy Halloween! In accordance with the spoopy traditions of the day, we're talking this time about Wraith: the Oblivion, the World of Darkness game that came out just before Changeling in the original lineup (and similarly underappreciated). Although the fae and ghosts might not seem to have too much in common, thematically or metaphysically, in truth... there's a bunch. Since neither of us are experts in the game, we've called in fellow podcaster Victor Kinzer for a wide-ranging discussion about the two games, some detailed history and lore (warning: a couple spoilers about the Wraith metaplot are contained herein!) and their potential for crossover. Whether you want to do Freddy Krueger-style nightmare-infesting evil ghost monster things, or simply give your sluagh PC something to do while everyone else goes around romancing and swashing buckles or whatever, listen on... If you'd like to get in touch, send us feedback, or join our community, some options include: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast ... where to find victor online Check out Victor's work at: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kinzer_VWalking Away from Arcadia, a Changeling podcast: https://walkingawayfromarcadia.podbean.com/Shadowbound, a Wraith podcast: https://anchor.fm/shadowboundpodcast/Victor's work on the Storytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/browse.php?author=Victor%20Kinzer Victor also mentioned the YouTube channel "Ask A Mortician", which is surely a good spot to check out answers to a variety of death-related questions you may have, either for your game, or just your own edification. Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/c/AskAMortician. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) saw a ghost one time, but it turned out to just be an ill-tempered stork wearing a sheet with holes cut out for eyes. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) is in favor of that afterlife where you get infinite pastries and talk about X-Men for eternity. "I see dead people... Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other; they only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead..." —Cole Sear, The Sixth Sense

This week we're talking generally about horror as a genre for tabletop, and in particular how to make it work for Changeling. As a game, it has a reputation for being too light and fluffy for the World of Darkness; we beg to differ. Given that its purview is literally anything imaginable, all manner of horror can be worked into its fabric, even if it's not necessarily "meant" to be all about that. We take the opportunity in this episode to share opinions and ideas on that subject. It's kind of a wide-ranging discussion that we half-improvised, touching on (among other things) the importance of safety tools; differences between film and RPGs when creating a horror atmosphere; body horror vs. Gothic horror vs. psychological and cosmic horror; Bedlam, Banality, and nightmare; some media inspirations; and more! Hopefully it will help you generate some ideas for your chronicle if you're thinking of going in an eerier, more uncanny direction... Some places where you can send feedback and/or support include: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast Otherwise, not much to report! But only one more week until Samhain/Halloween... ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) is unsettled by the over-abundance of geese in the neighborhood. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) feels discomfited by the rather limited coffee selection in your kitchen. "Give [the audience] pleasure—the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare." —Alfred Hitchcock

We're hopping momentarily into the 20th Anniversary Edition of Changeling: the Dreaming to talk about a hefty new offering on the Storytellers' Vault, Kithbook: Dullahan. Ordinarily, we'd probably wait a bit to discuss a new homebrew release, but since this book covers headless horsemen and their ilk, it was too good a fit for our monthly theme to pass over. This episode, we're fortunate to have the author and illustrator responsible, Andrew Goodman, to chat about his motivations, process, and logic behind the book. You can purchase the book here, and otherwise, here's the usual assortment of links to our podcast's presences elsewhere online: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5jEmail: podcast@changelingthepodcast.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast ... where to find andrew Andrew, meanwhile, can be found online at: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.goodman.illustrates/Paved with Good Intentions on the Storytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/389315?affiliate_id=3063731Roots of Legend on the Storytellers' Vault: https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/354523?affiliate_id=3063731 And possibly also just around Discord, though that might be more rumor than fact...! ... more on the dullahan Andrew mentioned the YouTube show Monstrum as a source of inspiration for this project, in particular their episode on those very same dullahan of Irish lore. Herewith is the video of that episode, in case you'd like to watch for yourself, as a prelude to tumbling down the mythological rabbit hole yourself: ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) would like to point out that there's an obvious headless horseman connection we could have drawn to a certain modern fantasy media figure, but since we're contractually forbidden to do so, we'll just call them "Schnozzgül" and let you figure it out. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) has only been on a motorcycle (really more of a dirtbike) once, and it (might have) involved some illegal/sketchy border crossing, and let's leave it (along with the whole being-on-a-motorcycle thing) at that. "Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue." —Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow

Another week, another episode in our series of Octobrish delights... this time, we are returning to our bookshelves to pull some inspirational fiction for the more uncanny, eerie, and unsettling side of Changeling: the Dreaming. We're going through 10(-ish) books and story collections that keep us up at night, and seeing how we can translate that into the themes and moods of the game. (This was also kind of an unexpected topic, so we had very little time to prepare, and it shows—apologies!) Some links to our presences elsewhere in the digital realm: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast ... the list (this time) Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber — One of the earlier collections that adapt and modernize fairy tales, Carter's work takes a decidedly feminist approach. Her work was influential on many of the fantasy authors who followed her, and being a literary theorist, she knew what she was about when it came to crafting a darkly fantastic story.Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves — It's a piecemeal text drawing on numerous traditions and formats and histories. It's a retelling of the myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. It's an experiment in surrealist writing. It's a horror story about a house and the family whose children disappear within it. Danielewski's work is always challenging, but the elegant precision of this novel is matched only by the madness lurking under the surface. There is a whole community of die-hard fans who discuss every little connection, hint, and reference (and there are thousands), if you feel like vanishing into an abyss of your own. Neil Gaiman, Coraline — We could have easily gone with The Ocean at the End of the Lane or Mr. Punch or any number of other Gaiman yarns, but this one seemed the Right One to talk about at the intersection of Changeling and creepy-style horror. It's a bit more Lost than Dreaming, maybe, but a pitch-perfect dark faerie tale for modern times. Check out the publisher's page for more information (or go watch the trailer for the film) (or find more about the musical, or the opera, or...)E.T.A. Hoffmann, "The Sandman" and other stories — Hoffmann is a landmark figure in the history of the German Romantic movement, known for his creepy and unsettling literary fairy tales. Freud discussed this tale at length in his essay on the "uncanny," which opens our episode; the text of that essay is freely available here from MIT.Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf — The most recent entry on this list is also the most epic, perhaps. It's set against the backdrop of African folklore, features a party of misfits in search of a missing boy, and has some of the most nightmarish tableaux ever set to paper in a fantasy novel. It's delightfully queer, shamelessly vulgar, and occasionally shockingly gory... so it fits our brief perfectly for this episode. Read Gautam Bhatia's excellent review in Strange Horizons for more.Stephen King, Misery — This novel fits more into the Autumn People and/or Ravaging and/or Autumn Sidhe Frailty realm of horror, since there are few overt supernatural elements in it. But it's definitely a good example of how even the mundane can become horrific without warning. Again, we could have chosen any number of King writings... except that neither of us has read enough to really make a thorough study of his bibliography, so this one will have to do.China Miéville, King Rat — One part Neverwhere, one part American Gods (though before it was written); one part Changeling, one part Ratkin. Miéville's debut novel explores the gritty underground of London and what one finds there, through the lens of a protagonist that discovers his connection to a pantheon of vermin-gods. It's very 90s with its aesthetics, and centers on solving a murder, and what could be more classic White Wolf than that?Edgar Allen Poe, "The Telltale Heart" and other stories — Not long after Hoffmann's heyday, Poe "invented" the American horror story with his elaborate Gothic treatments of madness, crimes of passion, guilt, and uncertain realities. His work is public domain at this point, so you can read any and all of it through Wikisource, if you've a mind to.William Shakespeare, Macbeth — Who doesn't know a thing or two at this point about the Scottish play? Besides being an epic story that combines political intrigue, high drama, and classical tragedy, the supernatural lurks on the fringes of the narrative as a force of chaos. The tale's mutability is demonstrated by the wide range of adaptations out there—including the recent one starring Denzel Washington—but Pooka would officially like to recommend the clunky madcap offering that is Scotland, PA, where the action is transposed to a suburban fast food joint in the 70s.Patrick Süskind, Perfume — A modern classic that doesn't get much attention on this side of the Atlantic, this "story of a murderer" begins with a simple conceit: a protagonist with a superhuman sense of smell, yet no scent of his own. He becomes a master perfumer, and cultivates an obsession with creating the perfect perfume for himself out of the most beautiful aroma he's encountered—that of teenage virgins. It's a lurid and gruesome work, more clinical than gratuitous, set against the backdrop of pre-revolutionary France. Check out the trailer of the so-so film for an idea of that adaptation; apparently there was a Netflix adaptation recently too? Either way, it's good material for a particularly nasty bogie. Honorable mentions go to Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft, but we didn't really have the space to get deeply into them. Another time, perhaps...! ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) has never danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, but once patty-caked with a psychopomp in the murky dusk, which is almost the same thing? Pooka G (any pronoun/they) doesn't miss nightmares about velociraptors and whatnot, but by the same token could do without these anxiety dreams about being awkward at garden parties. 'I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud." —Stephen King

As October dawns, it's only fitting that we should get into it with a deep dive into the guide to that creepiest of kiths, Kithbook: Sluagh. We actually... don't really have many notes this time! Both of us agreed that it was probably our favorite kithbook, that there was very little we'd do to change it (except maybe axe that THEORY), and we didn't really have many asides to dump in the show notes. As mentioned last time, the show notes will from now on feature links to our social sites above the fold: Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j Email: podcast@changelingthepodcast.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/changelingcast But in the interest of having something to drop in the main portion, perhaps this little meditation on that THEORY... end of the cycle So, even more irksome than their continued positioning as the true baddies in Changeling's 1st edition, certain sluagh have a theory that each time a Kithain reincarnates, they "diminish" a bit, losing some of their fae energy. They start out as sidhe, and then come back in their next life as a commoner, working their way through the kiths until they end as sluagh (after which they might become wraiths, which is supposedly why the sluagh can talk to them). This is presented in an in-character letter from one sluagh researcher to another, but then backed up with a 5(!) point Flaw where you know this "truth" about sluagh existence. It's kind of like Dark Fate, but its in-game effect is to just make you really nihilistic and morose. To put it politely, we are less than fond of this idea. For starters, there are holes large enough to pilot a nocker airship through. While sidhe incarnating as commoners has been established elsewhere, what is the "order" of kiths that one moves through otherwise? What about all the kiths that have been introduced in the meantime—are clurichaun and ghille dhu in the mix? There are references to sluagh reincarnating as sluagh, and large swathes of the fae population as a whole have Remembrance as an actual Trait, so you'd think they'd surely have noticed this progression by now. And if the Shattering peaked in the 14th century, necessitating the Changeling Way, that's going to be longer than eight lifetimes, barring some unusual circumstances. So there must be a time delay between incarnations or there must have been large numbers of new fae souls entering the world, else the sluagh would certainly outnumber the rest of the kiths. But what matters most is that it just changes the fundamental nature of the game. Wraith: the Oblivion is the game for teetering on the edge of nonexistence; it's right there in the name. (And yet even that game has a measure of hope.) Changeling is not about that; it's built instead on epic quests and adventures, sweeping emotion and dastardly villains, intrigue and madness and camaraderie and horror. To fold in an idea that invites characters to... sit around and do nothing because they know this is their last lifetime... doesn't really seem like a good fit for most RPGs, and Changeling among the least of all. It's certainly possible for a character to be a nihilist and have this theory, but we reject the notion that it is somehow the truth of the matter—and thankfully, it seems to have slipped quietly out of the canon. Anyway, it's a footnote in the history of the game, and you are welcome to use it if you want. (You just won't see us doing so.) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) ain't afraid of no ghost! Pooka G (any pronoun/they) fears no man, no beast, neither prophet nor priest, but trembles and balks at a pinch of fine salt. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." —Bene Gesserit litany

Episode 20! It's pretty amazing that we've made it this far, given how hectic life has been over the last few months. But as autumn (just regular, lowercase-a autumn) sets in, and we have time to center ourselves a bit, we're trying to get things in order to keep bringing you Changeling content into the coming seasons. To that end, this week we're talking about Court of All Kings, the third supplement in the Immortal Eyes trilogy of setting/chronicle books, which focuses on Ireland and the fae one finds there. (A note from Pooka: I feel a bit of a fool, because I didn't realize that the lengthier show notes were getting cut off on certain podcasting platforms. Hopefully folks who were interested went on to the website in order to see the rest of what they were after, but in the interest of making everything visible to everyone, we'll try to keep things trim, or at least put the important stuff "above the fold" from now on... so for example, here's the link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j) videos in gaeilge In the episode, we referenced an example of a monolingual Irish speaker interviewed for a documentary a number of years ago... and behold, the video. It's from In Search of the Trojan War, from 1985; the connection they make is that Irish storytelling in the oral tradition has a number of features that link it with other forms of Indo-European epic. The storyteller, Seán Ó hEinrí, passed away in 1998 and is thought to have been (possibly) the last monolingual speaker of the language. (There are plenty of other videos on YouTube if you're interested in the language and its contemporary usage. Several series of the soap Ros na Rún are on there in their entirety, and the documentary No Béarla is a pretty stark demonstration of how few people in Ireland speak Irish.) ... salmon of knowledge The sculpture known as The Big Fish in Belfast is reminiscent of the mythological salmon of knowledge: a fish who ate the hazelnuts of wisdom that fell into its pool, and was then eaten in turn (most myths say by Fionn MacCumhaill/Finn MacCool, first leader of the Fianna). Its tiles are printed with old photographs, children's drawings, snippets of maps and newspapers, and other fragments of Belfast culture: They say that kissing the fish grants one a bit of wisdom, much as kissing the Blarney Stone gives you the gift of the gab. (We can neither confirm nor deny these rumors, but please do rinse your lips carefully if you try.) In Changeling terms, this does seem like it would be some kind of powerful chimerical entity... a poll shall be posted in the Discord (link below) to decide! ... ciarán's playlist In a recent play-by-post game, Pooka had a character who was a Daireann sidhe named Ciarán that kept a "cauldronhouse" (freehold) in trust for the House, disguised as a pub in Dublin. As a character-building exercise, they created a sample playlist of songs to help set the mood. While this barely scratches the surface of the enormous variety of Irish- or Celtic-inflected music out there, it's presented here for your enjoyment, perhaps to listen to while you skim Court of All Kings—just hopefully not while you're also listening to the episode. No idea if a Spotify embed will even work on some platforms, but let's find out...! (Feel free to put this on shuffle as well, the order is pretty flexible.) ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) found an eighteen-leaf clover the other day, and it turns out, there is such a thing as too much luck. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) once climbed a statue of the púca goat in Killorglin, and the very earth shook with unbridled delight. ... Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste, ná Béarla cliste. (Broken Irish is better than clever English.) —Irish proverb (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)

Just because we're having a chaotic summer doesn't mean we can't occasionally find time to generate some scraps of content. While we search for time to catch up on chonkier recordings, herewith is a short minisode of something that nobody asked for: a set of poems that are (arguably) Changeling-y in themes. Pooka threw this episode together solo, and recorded it very late at night, so please forgive them for the quality. And if you think you hate poetry, well, hopefully this will at least not make you think you hate it more. The poems featured in this episode: - Emily Dickinson, "To Make a Prairie" - Peter Campion, "Dandelions" - Dylan Thomas, "Fern Hill" - Natalie Diaz, "My Brother at 3 A.M." - Randall Jarrell, "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" - Tony Gloeggler, "2B" - Langston Hughes, "Dreams" and "Harlem" - Sandy Gingras, "The Light Factory" ... your host Pooka G (any pronoun/they) thinks the ellipsis is the most air-headed of punctuation marks, while the em-dash is the sassiest. ... (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon! it's now live at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast)

Sooner or later, the most sinister of the Unseelie were bound to rear their greasy and/or misshapen heads, no? While Banality is an ever-present threat that changelings must struggle against, and nobles-versus-commoners is an important piece of the metaplot, it's important to remember that the balance of light and darkness is another critical conflict for the Kithain. The Shadow Court is the first supplement in the canon to really go in-depth into the Unseelie ethos, the structure and motivations of their court, and what it means to be a baddie (or a beastie, or a bogie). This week, we're taking a deep look at that tome, which is one of the densest with material in the entire line. Bear with us for the wild ride... the nature of evil This is a Big Topic that will probably get its own episode at some point, but a few things need to be said about the relationship of the Unseelie, and the Shadow Court, to eeeeviiilll. The WoD games overall trade in shades of grey, making it difficult to say that the Seelie are overtly "good" and the Unseelie overtly "bad". One could claim that the traits, actions, and outlooks that do fall into the "good" camp tend to crop up more regularly, in sum, among the Seelie, and vice versa among the Unseelie. But there are Seelie who are bloodthirsty, haughty, tyrannical, inflexible, and manipulative, following codes for their own sake and believing that they are Right about everything. And there are Unseelie who are empathetic, joyful, egalitarian, and honest. To draw a parallel with Dungeons and Dragons (yeah, yeah), the better analogy for the Courts might be "Lawful" (with a tendency towards good) for Seelie vs. "Chaotic" (with more wiggle room for evil) for the Unseelie, and where an individual falls within them is on the Good–Evil spectrum is their own thing. The Shadow Court, as a book, just kind of stirs the already-murky waters. There are Unseelie in the book who, despite their contempt for the Seelie, seem to simply be passionate freedom-lovers with the occasional bad temper. But then there are amoral jerks who engage in human sacrifice and make a career out of emotionally abusing Dreamers to get their Glamour fix. Introducing the Thallain as kiths who can never become Seelie and operate as the right hand of nightmare doesn't exactly help the reputation of the "dark side." Importantly, the Shadow Court is not the Unseelie Court; just as importantly, the former is often pulling the latter's strings. Even among the Shadow Court, though, true evil is not a given, especially because the book seems to highlight the fluidity of Court identity: changelings come and go from its ranks, rising and falling in prestige. (That being said, many Shadow Courtiers certainly seem willing to hang out with some truly twisted types...) Ultimately, the game is more interesting when the nature of good and evil isn't predetermined, and the movement between the two becomes the focus of a story, with the Court conflict as a metaphor. Why shouldn't a Thallain have a redemption arc? Why shouldn't the most prim and proper Seelie countess have a long slide into decadence? Changelings rebel against stagnation and stasis, so shifting attitudes, identities, and allegiances are perhaps more in line with this game than the others. As we mention in this episode, Changeling has a reputation for being "not dark enough" (for whom? what does that even mean?), but as this book demonstrates, there is a whole buffet of options that range from the purest of the pure to the dankest of the dank. A word of caution, though—the book's wishy-washiness extends to its use of gaming tools to protect the sensibilities of gamers when needed. It doesn't really offer a stance on how to use or not use violence, sexuality, depravity, etc., so remember: talk. to. your. players. and find out everyone's mileage for different dishes at that buffet. ... responding to hot takes We solicit comments for recordings on our Discord (and here's the link! woooo), but for this episode, we totally forgot to respond to two hot takes from one of our listeners. So, here's some brief responses: Hot Take 1: "The Thallain were never meant to interact with the Kithain. They aren't another splat, they're the main characters from a fundamentally darker game." From an in-game point of view, this certainly seems true. The Thallain came into the Autumn World at the behest of the Fomorians (or so the story goes), their goals and wishes are quite different from Kithain's, and in some cases (see: beasties), Kithain actively try to attack them. But what they were meant to be like doesn't negate the possibility of figuring out stories that accommodate both Thallain and Kithain as protagonists. You need a particularly agreeable one or more of the former, and a particularly tolerant one or more of the latter, but somewhere between the feverish kaleidoscope of Changeling: the Dreaming and the blood-soaked pandemonium of... erm, Thallain: the Horrifying?, there is potential for some interesting plotlines. Thallain who incarnate in human flesh have the same tension between their human origins and their fae natures as other kinds of changeling, and putting the two groups together towards a common goal (e.g., a common enemy that neither can stop alone) is the Extreme level of "seeing past our differences" for the sake of teamwork. Hot Take 2: "House Ailil is the only good house in the entire gameline. Ennobled Boggans of House Ailil will utterly wreck your political machinations." Debatable, and dependent on the kind of game you want to run. For direct political intrigue, Ailil are indeed hard to beat (though depending on the type of intrigue, Leanhaun can give them a run for their money). Having a boggan, or pooka, or other kith with a social benefit in the House can certainly increase the benefit, and it can be great fun to watch an Ailil go toe-to-toe with a Ventrue. But as soon as you get out of the throne room, Elysium, or wherever, how useful are they for slaying a dragon, working great magic, or simply keeping the community happy? All else being equal, Ailil nobles are good at ruling by fear and blackmail, running criminal enterprises (or running their realms as though they were criminal enterprises), and getting themselves ahead. Your mileage may vary on whether you consider that the best, the most well-rounded, the most interesting, etc. ... shout-out to harbingers of winter We mentioned this book a couple times this episode, and here we are mentioning it again...! Charlie Cantrell and Radio Free Arcadia put out Harbingers of Winter back in the spring, updating much of the content of this book (and then some) for C20. You can purchase it from the Storyteller's Vault, and you can listen to our episode #12, wherein we discuss the book with Charlie. It's definitely recommended reading for anyone looking to run a Shadow Court (or otherwise deeply Unseelie-flavored) game, so check out and help support other folks in the community. ... your hosts Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) thinks that Unseelie tastes like chocolate raspberry ice cream laced with codeine and bits of stained glass. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) thinks that Seelie tastes like a raw egg yolk suspended inside a solid shell of candied violet petals. ... The Neighbor: "A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, he caused a reflection. Evil was born. Evil was born, and followed the boy." Nikki: "...I'm sorry, what is that?" The Neighbor: "An old tale... And, the variation: a little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace, as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace—you see that, don't you?—but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace." —Grace Zabriskie & Laura Dern in David Lynch's Inland Empire (psst! email us at podcast@changelingthepodcast.com if you want) (and join our Discord at https://discord.gg/SAryjXGm5j !) (support us on Patreon for additional treats at https://www.patreon.com/changelingthepodcast!)