Pledges

Pledges

Unlike Contracts, Pledges are simple agreements between two or more parties. All pledges require at least one Changeling to be involved, to seal the agreement with the Wyrd's power and one point of Willpower.

The information below is derived from CtL p.175 onward. As House Rules may apply, where the details below differ from those in the book, follow these, not those.

Please use +req/pledge to send in your pledge request to staff.

Check '+help pledge' in game for how to view/prove your pledges.

For a list of simple sample pledges, please see Pledges/Sample Pledges. These may be copied and altered at will for your convenience.

Anatomy of a Pledge

All pledges have certain characteristics. Please work the details of these out with the other player(s) you are pledging with BEFORE sending up your +req/pledge.

All aspects of a pledge have either a positive or negative number value (+/-) associated with them. These must balance out to 0 for all parties.

NOTE: For sanity, staff is limiting pledge values to +15/-15.

Task: What are you agreeing to do?

Boon: What do you get out of it?

Sanction: What happens if you break your word?

Duration: How long does this agreement hold?

Each of these four building blocks is called an "aspect" of a pledge. They are rated in three levels of power: lesser (1), medial (2) & greater (3).

There is nothing higher than a greater aspect (3).

• A lesser (1) + a lesser (1) = a medial (2)
• A lesser (1) + a medial (2) = a greater (3)
• A medial (2) + a medial (2) = a greater (3)

Tasks

The following tasks are allowed.

Alliance

• Lesser (+0) - A simple agreement not to hinder one another.
• Medial (-2) - You're willing to be hurt/hurt people for each other, but death is too much to expect.
• Greater (-3) - A pledge to aid each other even unto torture/death. Treat each other as closer than kin.

Dreaming

• (-2) - You pledge to guard the other's dreams. This does not go both ways unless both people swear to this task.

Endeavor

• Lesser (-1) - Things like carrying a package for someone or keeping a patch of flowers clean. Minimal effort. No danger.
• Medial (-2) - Keeping something safely hidden, carrying a package to another city/state. Moderate effort. Minor danger.
• Greater (-3) - Regular guard duty, epic/potentially deadly tasks, going to another country. Significant effort. Possibly significant danger.

Ensorcellment

• (-2) - Infuses a mortal with Glamour, allowing them to see fae miens. It is both a task for the changeling and a boon for the mortal.

The changeling must spend 1 point of Glamour when using this type of pledge, to seal it to the mortal's soul.

See CtL p.179 for more details. There are plenty.

Fealty

• Greater (-3) - This can only be sworn between an acknowledged Freehold leader and those who follow them. It always includes both the Vassalage boon and the Banishment sanction. Fealty is a task for both liege and vassal.

The lord invests a dot of Willpower (8xp to buy it back). Dot, not point. That is how large numbers of people can pledge to the lord in question; they are investing their pledges in that dot, not the lord's Wyrd.

See CtL p.180 for more details. These are important.

Forbiddance

• Lesser (-1) - Don't eat something, don't say a certain name/phrase, don't go into X building. Easy stuff to avoid doing.
• Medial (-2) - Don't use the subway, never eat a category of food (beef, citrus), don't speak with a type of person (policemen). Harder to avoid doing.
• Greater (-3) - These are life-changing. Never touching fruit, an oath of silence, being banished from a city, etc.

Boons

These are uniformly positive bonuses. As with the lessers/medials/greaters above, remember the way they add up.

Adroitness

• (+1) - A bonus to a single Skill.

You may have only a single Adroitness per Skill, no matter how many pledges you have made.

Blessing

• Lesser (+1) - Mortals: A 1-2 dot merit or, if you already have the merit, increases an existing merit by 1 dot. Supernaturals: A 1-dot merit, or increases an existing merit by 1 dot.
• Medial (+2) - Mortals: A 3-4 dot merit or, if you already have the merit, increases an existing merit by 2 dots. Supernaturals: A 2-dot merit, or increases an existing merit by 2 dots.
• Greater (+3) - Mortals: A 5-dot merit or, if you already have the merit, increases an existing merit by 3 dots. Supernaturals: A 3-dot merit, or increases an existing merit by 3 dots.

NOTE: You do NOT need to meet the prerequisites of Blessing merits. Merits gained through pledges may ONLY be non-supernatural in nature, however.

Ensorcellment

• (+2) - per the Tasks section above. See CtL p.179.

Favor

• Lesser (+1)
• Medial (+2)
• Greater (+3)

The book isn't specific with examples, but use your imagination, based on the general description of the lesser/medial/greater tasks. You are bound to perform an unspecified favor of equivalent importance to the task you ask of your pledgemate, within the duration of the pledge.

Special to Favors, if you refuse to perform the Favor, you suffer a Curse sanction of the same degree of power. I.e. a +1 Favor results in a +1 Curse.

Glamour

• (+2) - See CtL p.181 for thematic details.

Mechanically:

• Immediate Transfers: You may transfer an amount of Glamour no higher than the lowest Wyrd rating involved in the pledge.

i.e. A Wyrd 1 changeling pledges to a Wyrd 7 changeling, which means the boon only grants 1 point of Glamour.

• Timed Transfers: You may specify an interval of time, no more than once a week, for Glamour to be 'delivered' to its recipient. Over the duration of the pledge, the sum total of delivered Glamour cannot exceed the highest Wyrd rating involved in the pledge.

i.e. In the example above with Wyrd 1 + Wyrd 7, if they make a Glamour pledge for a year and a day, with the Wyrd 1 changeling donating 1 Glamour a month, that will only cover 7 months of the year. Not really worth it.

Mortals:

• The mortal grants Glamour to the changeling, up to 1 Glamour per day, depending on the pledge involved.

Vassalage

• If you are granted vassalage, you are considered a full member of a freehold, with access to (if applicable) the unique blessing associated with that freehold while you are within its borders. This cannot be used in any pledges except those containing the fealty task.

Sanctions

In most cases, a sanction must be included on a pledge.

If a pledge is made with a mortal, a specific sanction is unnecessary; the changeling making the pledge may say there will be Bad Stuff, and at the time the mortal breaks the pledge, the changeling may THEN announce what they decide the Bad Stuff is.

Additionally, while changelings are (typically) only going to suffer from a broken pledge's sanction for the duration of the pledge itself, when a mortal breaks a pledge, the changeling involved may choose to spend 1 Willpower at the end of the duration to continue the empowerment of the punishment. Which sucks. A lot.

While the book does not specify a cap on how long this punishment can be maintained, staff is HRing this to to three (3) times the duration of the pledge. Yes. Breaking a year pledge may mean you are cursed for up to three years, real time. Broken pledges are bad business.

Doing this counts as a Vow, for purposes of investing pledges in your Wyrd.

Pledges which do NOT require Sanctions

• Oaths
• Corporals

The pledge types above come with built-in sanctions.

Banishment

• Greater (-3) - Only appropriate as a sanction on freehold pledges. It is also dangerous, because you don't need to break the pledge for it to be called down upon you.

The freehold leader announces, before 1/4th of his vassals, that you are being sanctioned with banishment.

The one sanctioned immediately feels the weight settle on his shoulders.

NO ONE ELSE KNOWS. If you are in the room to hear it, yes, you know, but there is no mystical freehold-wide announcement that this has occurred.

Yes, this means that someone could be secretly banished by a coterie of people close to the Crown. Yes, staff will quite wholeheartedly support such a thematic act.

This does, also, mean that even if you break your pledge, the freehold's Crown may choose NOT to reveal that to the rest of the freehold, whether out of compassion or a desire to blackmail you into compliance for the <duration> it is in effect.

Mind you, that is if the Crown KNOWS you have broken your pledge. Unless you are caught, not even the Crown is aware of it. Fealty is NOT a nemesis pledge, and mechanically, it can never be one. Nemesis pledges are corporals, which is a different pledge type.

Anyone who acts to harm the banished member within the freehold's borders gains 1 Glamour.

Anyone who kills the banished member within the borders gains an amount of Glamour equal to the oathbreaker's Wyrd.

Curse

• Lesser (-1) - Use the /weak switch when +rolling. You no longer receive 10-agains for the duration of the sanction.
• Medial (-2) - You only succeed on 9 or 10. 8 is no longer counted as a success.
• Greater (-3) - You only succeed on 10. All failures are dramatic failures, unless you spend a point of Willpower to make it a simple failure instead.

Curses of lesser power do stack if you have them on multiple pledges. Use the same math as usual. 1+1=2, 1+1+1=3, 1+2=3, etc.

Seeming/Kith/Merit blessings can mitigate curses' effects on rolls where they would normally apply.

• If you have 9-again, drop the curse's effects down one level.
• If you have 8-again, drop the curse's effects down two levels.

In such cases, you do NOT get 9-again/8-again on the roll, because that blessing is considered to be expended on mitigating the curse's effects.

Death

• Greater (-3) - the oathbreaker invokes his death by violating the oath.

Upon breaking this oath, the OFFENDED party immediately loses one permanent dot of Willpower (which may be purchased baack with 8xp), and the oathbreaker feels a sense of doom.

Date with Death:

A) A week, if you were pledged to a mortal.

B) A number of days equal to the Wyrd score of the person you pledged with.

If you can't get them to forgive you before that time, you die in a mysteriously appropriate accident.

If you CAN get them to forgive you, genuinely and uncoerced, they immediately recover the lost Willpower dot.

Flaw

• Medial (-2) - breaking the pledge gives you a flaw of some kind.

This curse is either decided on beforehand or left to the Wyrd (i.e. ST) to inflict. If the Wyrd inflicts it, the Flaw is appropriate to the pledge broken. i.e. breaking a secret pledge may render you Mute.

This occurs within a week of your betrayal.

This Flaw is permanent!

Pishogue

• Lesser (-1) - a 1-2 dot Contract; a minor inconvenience and a slap on the wrist.
• Medial (-2) - a 3-4 dot Contract, or, two lesser pishogue sanctions. This is getting more serious.
• Greater (-3) - a 5-dot Contract, or: three lesser, one lesser and one medial, two medial.

You may NOT use the catch for any of the Contracts you are using as pishogue.

You MUST involve at LEAST 1 Glamour in each Contract. If you combine two Lesser Pishogues into a Medial Pishogue, you still have to pay for both individually.

Poisoning of the Boon

This not only strips the benefits of the pledge, but also reverses them per the guidelines below.

Adroitness

• Lesser (-1) - The +1 granted by the pledge turns into a -1 for the duration of the sanction.

Blessing

• Lesser (-1)
• Medial (-2)
• Greater (-3)

Based on the original blessing, not only do the bonus merit dots go away, but your real merit dots drop by a similar amount for the sanction's duration. i.e. if you had Resources 3, got a pledge that gave you Resources 2, and broke that pledge, your Resources would drop to 1 for the duration of the sanction.

If you did not originally have the merit, you should be creative/work something out with your ST to represent a penalty equal to the lost pledge-merit's bonus. See CtL p.183 for suggestions.

Ensorcellment

• Medial (-2) - Your perceptions are skewed, and all things fae are now sanity-shattering horrors.

Everything you see is skewed by your own fears and insecurities until even the most innocent miens seem like sinister monsters.

• Every week you suffer a poisoned ensorcellment, roll Resolve + Composure at a -1 penalty per week you have already suffered this sanction. If you fail, you gain an appropriate derangement. You cannot avoid this.
• Roll Resolve + Composure every time you see anything fae, at the same penalty as above. If you fail, you are immediately filled with terror and react accordingly. Collapse and gibber, flee blindly, whichever strikes your fancy/suits your character.

Favor

• Lesser (-1)
• Medial (-2)
• Greater (-3)

Reverses the position of debtor and owed. If you were owed a favor, now you owe THEM a favor. This unspecified favor is collectible at any time they choose.

Glamour

• Medial (-2) - Between fae, the deal is reversed: if your pledgemate was giving YOU Glamour, now you give THEM that amount. If the pledge was between you and a mortal, you instead lose a point of Glamour any time the pledge would ordinarily have given you one.

Vassalage

This boon may not be poisoned. See CtL p.181 for examples of how the freehold's blessing can be poisoned, however, by rulers gone awry.

Vulnerability

This is important: if you break a pledge with the Vulnerability sanction, traditionally, Freehold oaths DO NOT prevent the betrayed party from harming you. The Wyrd is a jerk like that.

There are two types: Glamour and Violence.

Glamour

• Medial (-2) - You may not defend yourself against the other changeling's supernatural powers.

Lose your ability to resist (i.e. no opposed rolls) suffering the effects of any Contracts/other Wyrd-based powers the offended party uses on you. Additionally, your Defense is considered 0 for purposes of being targeted by Contracts/Wyrd-based abilities, but not against normal physical attacks.

This penalty only applies to the person you betrayed.

Violence

• Medial (-2) - You have no defense against the other party's physical attacks.

You have a Defense of 0 for the duration of the sanction. In addition, any Contracts/other Wyrd-based powers you might use to grant yourself more armour/Defense are ignored by the offended party when attacking. Only pure, mundane physical armor grants any kind of bonus.

Durations

• Day - Lesser (+1) - 24 hours
• Week - Lesser (+1) - 7 days to the hour
• Moon - Medial (+2) - 28 days (a single lunar month)
• Season - Medial (+2) - 89 days, typically performed at a solstice/equinox. In Freeholds with seasonal rulers, oaths of fealty are typically made per season.
• Year and a Day - Greater (+3) - 366 days
• Decade - Greater (+3) - 10 years and 10 days
• Lifelong - Greater (+3) - Until the death of one of the oathbound
• Generational - Greater (+3) - Until the death of the oathbound. The responsibility passes on to the next generation, with any children of the oathtakers required to fulfill it themselves. The 'children' may be designated heirs acknowledged before the ruler of the freehold. Requires the expenditure of a DOT of Willpower in addition to any other invocation expenditures. Both parties must be in agreement. Lasts a number of generations equal to the Wyrd of the oathtaker who spend the Willpower.

True Fae may bind pledges for all eternity, but this is not an ability changelings possess.

Types of Pledges

Pledges are divided into three categories: vows, oaths and corporals. The pledge's type determines how/where its power is invested.

Vows

These are the simplest and most basic pledges. You promise to do something, agree on what is expected of each other, on what will happen if you do/don't keep your word, and how long it will last.

Vows are invested into the changeling's Wyrd.

A changeling may have a MAXIMUM number of vows equal to his Wyrd + 3.

Oaths

Oaths are similar to vows, but rather than simply being a declaration of intent, they are sworn by one's true name, the name of one's former Keeper, one's Court, etc.

Failure to adhere to an Oath includes an additional penalty levied by the Wyrd. If you are not a changeling, you do not suffer this additional penalty for breaking one. You just get socked with the regular sanctions.

True Name, Obscured

This oath assumes that the changeling still has a living fetch that also answers to his name. If the changeling breaks his pledge, HE becomes unworthy of that name in the eyes of the Wyrd, which slaps the following penalties on him the next time he encounters his fetch:

• He loses any and all resistance to the fetch's Echoes
• His Defense drops to 0
• He receives a dice pool penalty equal to his Wyrd for all rolls

These penalties last for one scene, and the fetch automatically senses that the changeling is weakened.

True Name, Unsullied

This oath assumes the changeling has no fetch. A changeling's true name is tightly bound up in his ties to Wyrd and, socially, his honour. If the changeling breaks an oath on his True Name, all pledges bound to his Wyrd (i.e. Vows) are immediately broken, and he suffers every single sanction as if he had voluntarily broken each and every pledge. For the full duration.

Plus, everybody he was pledged with wordlessly knows he broke an oath on his true name, which means he's a pretty faithless and untrustworthy guy.

Don't do it. It's not fun. Unless you're a masochist with a death wish, which, in that case, may mean that it's extremely fun. Go at it!

The Name of the Keeper

This is veeeeerry dangerous. It is one way to learn the name of your Keeper, though; they are known to force you to swear pledges with them by it in Arcadia. Violating this oath immediately alerts the changeling's former Keeper to his precise whereabouts, along with:

• A die bonus equal to the oathbreaker's Wyrd rating to all rolls related to finding and recovering the changeling.

This lasts one scene. This bonus may be activated at any time of the True Fae's choosing, within the next year and a day.

Additionally, all parties in the pledge must be changelings for this type of oath to be accepted by the Wyrd. After all, humans don't have Keepers. Yet.

The Name of a Higher Power

This is greyer. Whatever your changeling believes in, it's the belief which matters. It could be a god, it could be a concept/virtue he considers important. If you break an oath sworn by this, you:

• are immediately filled with a tremendous despair,
• lose all Willpower points, and
• have a -1 penalty next time you roll to avoid losing Clarity.

Oaths are invested into the name they are sworn by.

A changeling may have ONE oath sworn on each Name at any given time.

Corporals

These pledges involve at least one party swearing upon a physical symbol of a group/association he is a member of. This can be a Court, a business, a club, a motley, etc. They come in five flavours:

Mortal Emblems

Mortal corporal emblems are things like a wedding ring, a holy text (representing membership in a church), the lease for your flat, a membership card, etc. Your character must frequent the group it represents often, out of entirely mortal interest.

If a mortal corporal pledge is broken, the Wyrd works to separate you from what you swore upon (ejecting you from groups, accounts mysteriously being closed, etc.) within a few days of the break.

In addition, this is a break of Clarity.

• No matter how high your Resolve is, this roll is always made with 4 dice.
• You suffer a -2 penalty if you broke your oath as part of FAE life, sacrificing mortal concerns.
• If you broke the oath while fulfilling a Virtue, you gain +2.
• If you broke the oath while fulfilling a Vice, you gain -2.

Only one mortal corporal may be sworn at a time, unless you have merits such as Allies, Contacts, Resources or Status to reflect your investment. In that case, you may swear as many oaths as you have appropriate merits (or once per dot, in Contacts).

If you break the oath, you not only roll for Clarity loss, but also lose the merit (or dot) entirely.

Seeming Emblems

You swear on some aspect of yourself. Generally, both parties swear on some aspect of their own seeming, if they are both fae.

Changelings with Wyrd 1 may not use this corporal.

If you break your pledge:

• You immediately lose 1 Wyrd dot.

You may only swear one Seeming pledge at a time.

Courtly Emblems

You swear on some symbol of your Court, or on your Mantle/Goodwill.

If you break your pledge:

• Your Mantle rating is cut in half (round up).
• You immediately lose all dots in that particular Court's Goodwill.

For the next moon, all members of that specific Court immediately know, upon meeting you, that you have broken faith with them.

You may only swear one pledge with a particular Court at a time.

e.g. If you are Spring, and have Summer Goodwill, you may swear two such pledges: one on your Spring Mantle and one on your Summer Goodwill.

Title Emblems

You swear on your Entitlement itself.

If you break your pledge:

• You immediately lose all benefits of your entitlement.
• All members of your entitlement are mystically informed that you are an oathbreaker and betrayer.

The mechanical benefits return if you gain a dot of Wyrd, but the social penalty remains. Please +req/fae to staff if this occurs, and you would like to appeal to your Entitlement to grant you a task to regain their good graces.

Only one title corporal may be sworn at a time. You only have one Entitlement!

Nemesis Emblems

You swear on an emblem of another changeling, binding them as a punisher, your "nemesis" for purposes of this pledge. The would-be nemesis MUST agree to assume this role.

Upon swearing the pledge, the nemesis uses a Contract or other ability, linking it to the pledge itself.

If you break your pledge:

• You suffer the effect of that linked-in power, immediately and without resistance, per the pishogue sanction, of a power equal to your task.
• The nemesis immediately knows exactly which party has broken their oath. Other members of the pledge do NOT know who broke it.

There is no limit on the number of nemesis pledges a changeling may swear with others, but YOU may only be the nemesis for one pledge at a time.

Creating a Pledge

So, you want to build a pledge together. Here's what you have to do.

      Step One:

Determine the tasks involved.

      Step Two:

Determine the boons involved.

      Step Three:

Determine the sanctions involved.

      Step Four:

Determine the duration involved.

      Step Five:

Check the math involved. While it is simplest to give everyone the same tasks/boons/sanctions, as long as everybody's math comes to the same total, it is a valid pledge.

      Step Six:

Determine the invocation cost for the pledge. ALL pledges require one member to spend a point of Willpower on sealing them into the Wyrd. Double-check the lists above to make sure you don't need to spend Glamour or Willpower dots, too.

      Step Seven:

Verify that the type of pledge you plan to make is something all members can do (e.g. non-changelings may not make mortal corporals, etc.).

      Step Eight:

Write up the spoken terms of the pledge itself. These can be as formal or informal as you want. Check the book for examples of both types. The section starts on CtL p.185.

Pledge +Requests

For sanity's sake, staff prefers to receive pledges in the format below: