Revision as of 18:26, 28 January 2016

Mien Guidelines

For those of you who are less familiar with the effects of the Wyrd on Changelings' forms, here's a quick reference guide. For those of you who ARE familiar with the changes, take it as read that this is the set of guidelines staff will use during CharGen to gauge whether your description of a giant teddybear-like man with full-body fur is crazily inappropriate for someone at Wyrd 2 (hint: it is).

In terms of extra body parts, staff's stance toward tails and wings tries to preserve the realism of the game. As is said elsewhere, Fate's Harvest (and Changeling in general) is not High Fantasy.

The Mask can only cover so much.

Tails may be short and fluffy lapine/caprine stubs, feline, feathered, devil-like, scaled, but even at High Wyrd, their length and thickness can't exceed what could reasonably be covered by your clothes. If you strip naked in front of mortals, be prepared for fully staff-supported Mask-breaking and OH MY GOD what's on your BUTT?!? moments.

For bird tails longer than stubs, expect to wear a lot of skirts/jackets, or expect have people mistaking you for having a coat tied around your waist a lot. Sorry. Peacocks are a bit too blatantly Mask-breaking. There ARE rules in the book against characters who are just too inhuman to escape.

Wings are a sticky wicket. As a general guideline, for people who are bird-like, staff prefers that 'wings' be feathers on the arms and back; birds' arms ARE their wings. They don't have separate limbs.

Staff is not going to poop on your concept or deny you approval for having more traditional fantasy wings at the appropriate Wyrd level, but please bear in mind that the preference is there. For more abstract concepts, mechanical characters, insectile characters, characters who are specifically supposed to look like the traditional Judeo-Christian angels of the world, yes, wings sticking out of your back are totally fine. This goes for ephemeral wings as well, should there be anyone inclined toward creepy shadowy mantles or Bright Ones with feathers of gleaming light.

Your wingspan may not exceed your armspan. This means the wingshoulders will not be rising high above your head; your feathers will not be touching the ground, because that would mean your wings were longer than your arms when spread; you can't wrap someone in your wings any better than you could with your arms, and worse, overall, really. Your arms are still there, and in the way.

Wyrd 1

You're essentially human. The Wyrd doesn't have much pull on you. A Fireheart's hair may have flickers of flame at its tips, a cat Beast may have slit-pupiled eyes, an ogre's skin may be subtly blue-tinged, but it typically takes effort to see that you are something else.

Tails/Wings: No.

Wyrd 2

You're still mostly human, but the Fireheart's skin is always a bit too warm now, the cat Beast's ears are getting tufts of fur, and the Ogre's skin is unmistakably a dull sky blue. The Wyrd still doesn't influence you much.

Tails/Wings: No.

Wyrd 3

You're a little less human than before, but you look like a great cosplayer. The Wyrd is getting more influence, but you're still more human than not. The Fireheart's eye colour may have changed to a glowing ember gold, the cat Beast's nose may have subtly flattened, face angles more feline, and the Ogre's hands grown larger and stronger, but you're still not too inhuman.

Tails/Wings: No. You may feel the occasional ache where one will grow, however.

Wyrd 4

You're starting to get closer to the tipping point, here. It's easy to see that you're a fae, but you still have enough visible humanity not to make people nervous. Glamour is a lovely rush, but the Wyrd hasn't threaded its fingers deeply enough into your fate to make it more than that: a pleasant feeling. The Fireheart's veins may be beginning to glow through his flesh, the cat Beast may wake up to find patches of soft fur along her arms, and the Ogre may notice her canines are starting to protrude farther than they should.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They will be very stubby at this point, barely in existence.

Wyrd 5

You're at the tipping point. You're half fae, now, and half human. The Wyrd's allure is starting to catch you, but you aren't an addict. Yet. Still... it's getting harder to _want_ to resist harvesting Glamour for no good reason. The Fireheart's skin may grow ever more translucent, like fine porcelain, the cat Beast's palms and soles may thicken into pads as fur spreads over more of her body, the Ogre's teeth may keep growing, ever more tusk-like. It is at this point that your Wyrd may "evolve" into an extra kith. Wyrd evolution is explained in more detail at the bottom of this page.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are still small, still not at the maximum allowable size.

Wyrd 6

You're officially more fae than human, now, and your body shows it. You NEED Glamour. You need it like a plant needs sunlight, and whether or not you feel shame for this need, it does exist. You can't help it. You'll die without it, withering from within, and worse, the Wyrd is starting to have more influence on your story. You find that crossing streams without a bridge suddenly burns your feet, or that you can't walk past spilled milk without cleaning it up. The Fireheart's hair may burst into a rippling conflagration of bright flames over his flesh, the cat Beast's nails may harden into wicked claws, the Ogre's features may grow ever more brutish.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are fully formed.

Wyrd 7

You are losing your humanity, in more than one sense. You're very nearly at the steps of no (okay, okay, very difficult) return, but not quite there. On the bright side, you're finding that your closeness to the Wyrd is granting you graces you never felt before, your Seeming/Kith bonuses for High Wyrd now coming into play. Isn't that nice? Why would you want to lose that..? Oh, people are starting to get nervous about you. They might be putting you on lists, but you can still control yourself. Mostly. There are niggling downsides to having those Seeming benefits, but they're worth it. The Fireheart's flesh splits here and there, its porcelain thinness flaking away when he moves, floating into the air as pale grey ash. The cat Beast's body is more fully furred, face increasingly inhuman. The Ogre's jaw may broaden as more fangs begin to grow, her daily workouts bulking out her muscles more than they should.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are fully formed.

Wyrd 8

So close.. so so close. It's calling to you. The Wyrd, Arcadia. Clarity is ever harder to maintain. You're losing who you were, finding it more trouble to keep track of those pesky mortal moralities than they are worth. So what if you terrified that woman at the grocery store with fear Contracts? She was going to take the apple you wanted, the apple you needed, and she should have known better. The Fireheart's warmth is almost too much to touch, feverishly hot, flesh splitting further to reveal the flaming core within. The cat Beast's claws are stronger, eyes reflecting any light, sinuously sybaritic grace alternating with irrational angers. The Ogre's flesh dulls further, greying into the rocky semblances of stones, voice harsh and rough, and horns begin to grow over her ears.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are fully formed.

Wyrd 9

Changelings seldom stay at this level for long. You're barely human anymore, and it's a constant struggle to maintain an understanding of why you used to care. Your emotions are wildly powerful, your needs and wishes of paramount importance. The Fireheart can no longer sleep on fabric, or wear most clothes above the waist, his Sublime flames scorching and burning all that they touch. The cat Beast would make anthro-kinkers very happy people. The Ogre looks like a storybook monster, bulky and inhuman, rocky horns curling around her ears.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are fully formed.

Wyrd 10

You aren't human. Really, you aren't. Whatever you are, your body is changed out of all recognition. You simply don't understand, now, why they had been resisting the calls of Arcadia whispering in your oh so vivid dreams. Changelings at this point will only be allowed if A) the player's preference is to have others wean them away from the brink or B) if they want a really cool way to lose their character into NPC-dom when they fall prey to their desires and DO become True Fae. More to the point, option C) is equally common: being killed as a threat by their friends, or mistaken by strangers for True Fae.

If you do choose to become True Fae, you are welcome to decide on a Title you might eventually acquire, and welcome to submit a +req/fae to staff for inclusion in the list of possible Keepers.

Tails/Wings: Yes. They are fully formed.

Wyrd Evolution

When you hit Wyrd 5 and, later, Wyrd 9, you have the option to gain another kith.

For an example showing the absolute maximum number of kiths you could possibly have:

1. You start out as a Fireheart.
2. You decide to purchase the Dual Kith merit after you've been playing for a while, since you've decided your character was used as an ornament by your Keeper, and add the Treasured kith.
3. At Wyrd 5, you evolve to Bright One, because you reason that your character's flames have been getting stronger, so it makes sense that you would have evolved to be able to illuminate your surroundings at will.
4. Then you join the Pilgrims of the Endless Road, and while you have a Wits advantage from Fireheart, you're better at resisting things from Treasured and you can glow from Bright One, you don't really have any social bonuses. You decide to take Flamesiren as the benefit for that Entitlement, since it helps fill in an area your other kiths don't cover yet.
5. Lastly, you've been playing for a while, and you'd like to try another character. You decide to go for Wyrd 9, and take the evo there. After giving it some thought, you decide to take the Darkling kith Mirrorskin, to reflect how mutable and fickle your character's grasp on his appearance has become.

As you can see, the Wyrd evolution did not happen at random. The kiths chosen reflect CURRENT character traits, but the player wants to bring them out and get mechanical benefits for them. If you are constantly doing grunt work, you are likely to evolve into kiths which help you do grunt work better, but you are not likely to become a glass ballerina.

Once you decide you want to go for Wyrd evolution, start playing it up. You're changing in minor ways before the PRP happens and finalizes everything. If you're already an Ogre and you're going for a Beast kith to be more boar-like, maybe you start noticing that your beard keeps growing back faster, that your hair is getting bristlier on your arms, stiffer, in the months leading up to the change.