Kiths M-Z

ST NOTE: The Dual Kith merit no longer exists in 2^nd Ed.

Mirrorskin

Officer, I'm so glad to see you, but how did you get in here? I just called the police station after I locked the burglar in this room. Wait, where is she? Sir, the door was open when I got here, she must have escaped, I should check outside for her. For your safety, I need to ask you to wait here. 

Mirrorskins are premier disguise artists and Gentry make full use of this ability. Some Keepers use Mirrorskins as spies and infiltrators, but at least as many use them for entertainment, including a few Keepers who only have a single changeling who they order to take on the appearance of dozens of different individuals, providing them with the illusion of a vast retinue. Most Mirrorskins were natural mimics before their Durance. Some were actors other con artists but all had at least some understanding of stepping into another's skin. 

• Darkling: When not disguised, the changeling looks partially formed, with inhumanly indistinct features and pale grey skin. 

• Fairest: When not disguised, his appearance becomes a generally attractive melding of the features of everyone around him. If he is with a single person, he appears pleasantly similar to that person.

• Elemental: No one has ever seen her “real face” but you can tell who she is by the shrill voice. When she gets excited her skin ripples like quicksilver and her eyes glimmer like mirrors.

Blessing: When using Stealth while in disguise, the Mirrorskin achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. A Mirrorskin may mould and shape herself like putty, making an entirely new face out of composites seen in people she has met or photos. Spend a point of Glamour and make a reflexive Wits+Subterfuge+Wyrd. The Changeling does not suffer penalties for lacking equipment, and the power changes both her Mask and Mein, so that anyone trying to penetrate her disguise will see another layer of disguise underneath. Supernatural abilities that would pierce her deception force a Clash of Wills.

Moonborn

Lunacy is not an affliction so much as a state. Think of it like water in a bottle that has too much pressure, its cold enough to freeze, but it doesn’t have the space to expand. Open that bottle up, or even mix the molecules and you initiate the change. Potential my friend, everyone has the potential for lunacy, you just need to know how to mix the molecules properly.

The Moonborn shift mood and personality with the waxing and waning of the moon. She is often described as mad due to these cyclic moods and the erratic behavior that accompanies them. The Moonborn is crafted of the moon, set into the sky to mimic the night for the Gentry. Her Durance was simple, yet not at all peaceful, as she was forced to act out scenes witnessed by the night sky for her fickle master.

• Elemental: Moonlight exudes from the character, making it hard to distinguish where she beings and where the light ends.

• Fairest: The changeling is surrounded by moonbeams that glisten and trick the eye.

Blessing: When using Occult to understand an Ephemeral entity, the Moonborn gains an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Spend a Glamour, the Moonborn can touch another person and inflict her with one of the following Conditions: Atavism, Awestruck, Delusion or Madness. If the person he is touching does not want the contact, he must succeed on a touch attack to affect his victim. This Condition lasts for a single lunar cycle, or until resolved.

Nightsinger

You sir, in the back, I believe you yelled "rap sucks". I didn't come here to perform vapid pop music and tonight is an open mike night. I'm going to be up here for the next 10 minutes, whether you like it or not. However, in honour of you I'll change up my style a bit and play something that may teach you a thing or two…

 Some nightsingers spent their Durance playing frightful melodies in haunted realms. Others accompanied bands of warriors, using their music to distract, weaken, or ensorcel enemies. Before their Durance, nightsingers loved music, and most preferred disturbing songs about despair or happy pop songs about mass murder. 

• Beast: He resembles a humanoid songbird, but the colour of his feathers is black and his eyes are blood red.

• Fairest: With his strong arms, exquisite voice and long fingers he's a living archetypes of what an attractive musician should look like, except for his black featureless eyes and pointed teeth.

Blessing: When the Nightsinger uses Expression to sing or compose a piece of music, she achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Spend a point of Glamour and roll Presence+Expression+Wyrd as an instant action to perform, contested by anyone who hears the Nightsingers unearthly song with Composure+ Supernatural Tolerance. Anyone who fails gains the Swooned condition and is rooted on the spot for as long as the Nightsinger continues to sing. Any attempt to jar the victim out of it, short of an opposing power, attacking them or physically removing them will fail.

Notary

"You do understand that when you agreed to bind your children and your children’s children to that Other unto the seventh generation that they were being savagely literal, yes? There's no exaggeration with the Gentry. No, stop crying, I'll help you figure this out."

Not all pledges are signed on paper or carved into stone. Some are literally living documents. Notaries are changelings who were taken to solidify pledges between two or more True Fae. The agreement is written in their blood, etched across their skin, and imprinted on their soul. They are both witness and pledge, and they are kept under close supervision by their Keeper lest their pledge vanish into the thorns.

• Elemental: Covered in tattoos, these are actually tiny vines spelling out complex legal terms and burrowing into the skin with Arcadian thorns.

• Wizened: Their skin is cracked and yellow like old parchment. Smelling of dust and ink, when she speaks it is always in a soft pedantic correction for some ill-thought out point of legal minutiae.

Blessing: when using Politics to negotiate, reed or interpret a Faerie pledge, the Notary achieves an exceptional success on three successes. Once per chapter a Notary can completely negate the need for Glamour in a pledge as long as she is involved in the creation, without a roll. Thereafter, the Notary can perfectly recite a pledge so long as it lasts.

Playmate

I wouldn’t call him selfless or altruistic. Sure, he’s there to help, but he gets a certain satisfaction out of being the one to always help, the one to always make the difference between success and failure. Don’t think he’s doing it for you, because he’s not, he doesn’t help unless he also has something to gain from your success.

The concept of friendship, boredom, and entertainment are completely lost on the True Fae. One may feel these emotions on some basic level, but never for long. If ever a Gentry desires a companion, she simply makes one, and if ever she gets bored of said companion, she casts him aside. A playmate lives such a life, created to fulfill a desire for base entertainment for a short time, forced to interact with his master until she grew bored.

• Ogre: The changeling is big and green, like an oversized army figure.

• Wizened: He is made up of parts of toy dolls. His skin is made of plastic and his hair is woven yarn. 

• Beast: Plush skin hidden under a fleece like fur. Heart-meltingly cute.

Blessing: When the Playmate uses Persuasion to cause someone to like her, an exceptional success is achieved on three successes. The Playmate may touch an ally and spend a Glamour to heal any number of Bashing or Lethal damage as an instant action. The Playmate suffers a number of mild clarity damage equal to the number of Bashing healed and a number of Severe Clarity damage equal to the number of Lethal healed, resolve mild damage first. The Playmate cannot heal more damage than they have clean Clarity Health boxes.

Razorhand

You made me; you gave me my shiny claws and forced me to kill. Now these same claws are going to taste your perfect blood.

A Keeper creates a razorhand to be a killer. Some Gentry wanted a bodyguard who could swiftly dispatch any threat, others desired an assassin able to slay his victims with a single blow but all wished to create exceptionally deadly changelings. Their Keeper made the changeling's body into a living weapon. While some embrace pacifism after their escape, in Arcadia, their Keepers forced razorhands to murder dozens of changelings and to also eliminate their enemies among the Gentry. Regardless of their Seeming, all razorhands look deadly and have blades, claws, or perhaps shards of crimson glass attached to their hands or fingers.

• Beast: A sleek and predatory carnivore with short fur, sharp fangs, and exceptionally long claws.

• Darkling: A sharp-faced furtive-looking individual with pointed teeth, exaggerated features, and long fingers. Each hand has a sixth finger normally kept folded against the palm. This finger is a shining blade of pale bone. 

Blessing: When using Weaponry to inflict a Tilt with a knife, the Razorhand achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Spend a point of Glamour, for the turn the Razorhands unarmed attacks cause Lethal damage (or an additional level of damage if they already cause Lethal damage), even to creatures which normally take bashing from lethal wounds (like Vampires). The Razorhand can also cause her next successful attack in this turn to automatically inflict one of the following Tilts: Arm Wrack, Blinded, Deafened, or Leg Wrack. 

Render

One time I saw her cut through a steel door like it was warm butter, with just her hands. This stuff wasn’t aluminium like you see on houses either, it was that high grade military stuff.

A render is capable of ripping a tree apart with her bare hands, or just as easily pulling down a building or shattering a retaining wall. She is not just brute strength, but employs wicked talons to aid her in her destruction. The render is created to destroy, usually by Gentry who can’t be bothered to create actual devices such as a wrecking ball or battering ram. She functions as a dispensable shock troop and was rarely expected to survive first contact with a mission, and if she did, she had the reward of being employed in new and dangerous ways.

• Beast: She looks like a large gorilla with overly developed muscular arms and legs and long sharp nails protruding from her fingers.

• Elemental: The changeling is made of stone with large metal blades at the ends of her fingers.

Blessing: When using Crafts to break an object, an exceptional success requires only three successes instead of five. Spend a Glamour, for the duration of the scene the Render ignores durability of an object and she ignores armour in any unarmed or Weaponry attacks she makes, up to half her Wyrd.

 Shadowsoul

It was like I’d forgotten that Nathalie was in the room. I remember the lights flicking off and feeling very alone, even with her hand in mine. It wasn’t long before I started thinking of the room as empty: empty of Natalie, empty of me.

The Shadowsoul is the almost-familiar figure in a photograph’s negative. She’s after-images that remain when the light goes out in a crowded room. She was created by luminous Others whose brilliance peeled the shadow from her body, or tenebrous Others who wove wriggling shades between the living fibers of muscle. Shadowsouls are a kith of nighttime greyscales, whispered names, and secretive eyes. 

• Darkling: Bright, yellow eyes set in silhouettes with indistinct edges and proportions just askew from human.

• Fairest: Stark black and white figures cast in cinema-perfect chiaroscuro. Film noir come to life.

• Ogre: Narrow and lanky-limbed creatures with monstrous shadows that rarely behave. 

Blessing: When using stealth to remain hidden, the Shadowsoul achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Once per turn, Spend a Glamour while unseen to step from one shadow into another. Both the entry and exit shadow must be visible, match or exceed the Shadowsoul’s Size and be no farther away than she can run in a turn. Travel is instantaneous and reflexive. The Shadowsoul can bring anyone she is touching through the shadow step with her by spending an additional Glamour per person, the exit shadow must be larger than the combined size of all travellers.

Skitterskulk

“We got the creep cornered in the alley around… How the hell did he get up there? You telling me he somehow climbed that wall?”

The Wild Hunts are always in need of fresh quarry and many Lost spent their Durance trying to stay one step ahead of terrible, inhuman trackers. Those changelings who used the erratic, alien terrain to their advantage were made into Skitterskulks. Scaling mountains of jagged crystal shards, crawling through thickets of twisted plastic tubing, scrambling up towers of gnarled rusted girders, these changelings forced themselves to navigate obstacles and hazards even the True Fae avoid.

• Beast: Glittering multifaceted eyes, fingers that bend in too many places, and flesh that has edges at the joints.

• Wizened: Shriveled limbs barely visible beneath a skirt composed of millions of spindly silver legs.

Blessing: When fleeing in a Chase using Athletics, the Skitterskulk achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Spend a Glamour, the Skitterskulk triples her Defense when dodging (instead of doubling it), and adds her Wyrd to any reflexive Wits + Composure rolls to avoid being ambushed for the scene. While this ability is active she can climb any surface, no matter how sheer.

Smith

I know it looks bad, but there's really not much wrong with it. I'll have your delivery van working in a couple of minutes; you'll definitely be able to deliver all those holiday meals on time.

The Gentry create smiths to work. Many spent their entire Durance within a dozen meters of their forges. Some Gentry look for people who enjoy making things and working with their hands and fashion these people into smiths who exist to create for beings devoid of creativity. Some smiths spend their Durance forging weapons and armour, others create exotic wonders like wings that allow the wearer to fly or chariots that can travel across any terrain, including water, or even clouds. 

• Fairest: This strong and muscular changeling has clearly been shaped by her craft, but in ways that make her appear both powerful and wise. Her bronze fingernails and shining metal hair give further evidence of her past. 

• Ogre: His flesh bears marks that make it appear to have been forged and hammered into shape, and his hair is permanently singed and smells of smoke and metal.

Blessing: When using Crafts to build or repair objects, this does not include fine art or anything that does not serve a practical function, the Smith achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. By spending a point of Glamour, he can repair, modify, or sabotage any object with inhuman speed. If the repair or alteration would require an extended action, he makes rolls on the extended task once a turn. 

Snowskin

He gave the man an impassive look. Though he stood a good three inches shorter, he held himself with an air of authority. “I’d leave now before things get rough for you here.” The power of cold assurance resonated within his words..

With pallid skin and an aura of cold that seems to follow her everywhere, a snowskin finds it hard to relate with other changelings. While a snowskin is adept at projecting a cool and uncaring mask when necessary, she still has enough humanity to feel all manner of emotions. A snowskins is made of ice or snow, crafted to serve within the coldest places in Arcadia. She was a servant in an ice palace in which even the warmth of human breath might destabilize the structure. She might have simply been an icy ornament created simply to serve an aesthetic purpose.

• Darkling: Her skin is dark and covered in a sheet of black ice, her hair and nails are long icicles.

• Fairest: She is made of glittering ice, translucent and beautiful as it catches the light.

Blessing: When a Snowskin uses Subterfuge to hide her feelings from others, she gains an exceptional success on three successes. When a Snowskin attempts to shut down another in public, spend a Glamour and roll Presence+Intimidation+Wyrd contested by the targets Composure+Supernatural Tolerance. If the Snowskin succeeds her target gains the Shaken Condition and suffers a -2 to all rolls involving other Changelings until the condition is resolved, as the Snowskins contempt freezes them out of society.

Soldier

Maybe they thought Iris would be less dangerous without her gun. Maybe they thought the knife was for show, or they didn’t notice how bruised her knuckles were. Anyway, that’s three goons that’ll have a story to tell when the doctors unwire their jaws.

To the Others, war is a pastime. They wage terrible games on themselves or imaginary foes, but the Keepers are armchair players, at best. It’s the pieces on the board that stand knee-deep in bloody mud and fire gossamer bullets into their fellow captives. These deadly mock-battlefields make soldiers out of drafted changelings. The horrors of war are the rules by which these changelings are forced to play, and they are forced to play many parts if they want to keep their own intact.

• Elemental: Toy soldiers made up of the flotsam of war: barbed wire, shrapnel and blood. It’s hard to tell where weapon ends and changeling begins.

• Fairest: Colourful anachronisms with gaudy, beautiful uniforms and weapons that gleam like gold.

Blessing: In “Down and Dirty” Combat using Weaponry, the Soldier achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Once per Chapter Spend a Point of Glamour as an instant action, the Soldier may exchange a number of dots in a Fighting Style merit for another equal to his Wyrd. The Soldier does not need to meet the prerequisites for the new Fighting style and the ability to use this new Fighting style lasts for the remainder of the scene. If the Soldeir is capable of spending more than one Glamour per round he may exchange additional dots of a Fighting Style Merit on a one for one basis.

Tunnelgrub

Getting through is the easy part. It’s holding my breath until I pop out of the toilet on the other end that’s going to be tricky.

Locked away from the light and warmth of the sun, Tunnelgrubs were those changelings who spent their durance beneath the surface of the earth. Slinking along through echoing caverns, silent crypts, or slimy sewer tunnels, they pulled, pushed, and slid their bodies through the dank Arcadian underground. The vast weight of earth pressing down on them stretched them out, crushed them flat, and made them malleable enough to wriggle and squirm through the tiniest of spaces.

• Ogre: A vast bulk of rubbery flesh that bends and contorts, flowing through cracks like black ooze.

• Wizened: A shrunken, coal dust covered figure, with long, dragging arms and grasping fingers.

Blessing: When wrestling for control of a Grapple with Brawl, the Tunnelgrub achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five, one of her chosen manoeuvres must be to break free of the Grapple if this ability is used. Spend a point of Glamour to reduce her effective Size by his Wyrd until the end of the scene for purposes of squeezing through narrow gaps or tight spaces.

Weisse Frau

Shhh. You must be calm Adlai. There are those who would harm you rather than see you in my master’s care. We just need to wait a little bit. Close your eyes and remember the song we practiced. I’ll make sure no one follows. 

The Weisse Frau are special among the captives of Faerie in that they often serve their Keepers' interests on Earth. Their leashes are short, but when an Other needs to assure the safety of a captive, there is no better choice than the Weisse Frau. These are compassionate changelings whose desire to protect is twisted into a tool of the Gentry. It’s when their Keepers push that empathy too hard that they risk a Weisse Frau turning their considerable will against the masters of the Hedge. And their wrath is fearsome to behold.

• Beast: Luminous antlers beaded with silver dew drops. The build -- and teeth -- of a ferocious mother bear.

• Fairest: Gowns of icicle-gossamer with veils over faces that, like the La Llorona, can never stop weeping.

Blessing: When using Empathy to console or reassure an individual, the Weisse Frau achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. The Weisse Frau gains three dots in the Telekinesis Merit and pays Glamour instead of Willpower to activate it, when using Telekinesis the Weisse Frau adds her Wyrd to her effective strength or dice pool. The cost is waved when Telekinesis is used to defend a child. Weisse Frau can benefit from the all-out attack option when using Telekinesis.

Waterborn

It’s not safe to play around the water’s edge, kid. Next time I might not be around to grab you. It might be… something else.

Pitch black oceans that have never known light. Broad, swift rivers that have no end. Wide, placid lakes covering green fields of water weeds. Faerie has its bodies of water, strange and fantastic like the rest of Arcadia. The changelings that became waterborn spent their durance in these aquatic realms, serving strange, waterlogged Keepers.

• Elemental: Bones of driftwood and river stones, thick braids of kelp slapping wetly against sea foam flesh.

• Ogre: Scaly green skin, catfish whiskers, and long, webbed fingers for snatching children who venture too close to the river’s edge.

Blessing: When using Athletics to wade or swim through a body of water, the Waterborn achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. The Waterborn can breathe freely underwater. She gains the Psychometry Merit, treating any body of water (or a kilometre in diameter per dot of Wyrd for bigger bodies of water) as if it were a single item. Spend Glamour instead of Willpower to activate it. 

Windwing

They gave me a new freedom just to take it away. Nothing will take it from me again. I will never be so close to the ground that jealous hands can take it.

Windwings are most often found in the habitats of Keepers that don’t bother dividing the land and sky, or in realms with immeasurably tall features. These changelings are hollowed out by their Keepers and stretched thin. A painful process, but nothing compared to being earthbound by the transition through the Hedge. Some Windwings regret escaping their masters, but few who return find the skies of Arcadian as freeing as they remember.

• Beast: Agile, feathered and narrow, with scaled feet and long noses or beaks. Graceful in a way few things will ever manage to be.

• Darkling: Leaf-nosed with red eyes and bat-like ears. They have teeth too large and claws at the end of their wings.

• Elemental: Transparent except for the clouds beneath their skin. Puffy and white when they’re pleased, but grey and stormy when they’re not.

Blessing: When using Athletics to maintain her balance, the Windwing achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Spend a Glamour, the Windwing can fly at twice his Speed for as many turns as she has dots in Stamina, but must spend a turn without a movement action before she can fly again. During flight, she can use his Defence against Firearms and add half her Wyrd to Defence. During the time of this Flight, the Windwing can land and perch on anything capable of holding a small child, regardless of her real weight.

Witchtooth

Young man, if you don't stop trying to break into that shop, you will soon regret your actions...  My, isn't that a loud alarm...  Officer, the young man ran, or rather stumbled that way, I doubt you'll have much trouble catching him. 

Gentry seeking to create a Witchtooth typically find people who are filled with anger at the injustice of their lives and an interest in the occult. Most of these Gentry use the changeling as a tool against their rivals. Other Gentry amuse themselves by ordering the Witchtooth to curse other changelings. In Arcadia, a Witchtooth is feared by other changelings and sometimes by other Gentry except her Keeper.

• Fairest: A beautiful and terrifying figure who would appear utterly gorgeous, except for a few small features like featureless black eyes or subtly pointed teeth.

• Ogre: A gnarled witch, who has horns, cloven hooves, bird feet, or some other obvious animal feature.

Blessing: When using Occult to understand Fae Magic, the Witchtooth achieves an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. If he looks someone in the eye or points at her and curses her, the Witchtooth can curse a person. Spend a Glamour and name a specific action or Skill. Roll Wits + Occult, resisted by the opponent’s Resolve. If successful, the next time the victim uses that action or Skill, she loses dice equal to his Wyrd. If the action fails, the Witchtooth replenishes a point of lost Willpower.