Changeling - Players Guide.pdf

Canotili (sometimes known as canotina) are native changelings of
the Midwest. They feel most at home in the grasslands and forests
prevalent there and have little tolerance for cities. Traditionalists by
nature, the canotili love the time-honored customs and trappings of their
tribes. In a time when the native tribes depended upon their hunting
skills for survival, canotili were honored as spirits who could bring luck
to the hunt and steady a bowman's aim. In return for their help, skilled
fletchers and bowmakers among the tribe spent long hours crafting small
bows and arrows for their "spirit friends." Canotili cherished these gifts
and used them in contests
where both the accuracy and
distance power of the bows and the
straightness of the arrows were tested.
Those whose gifts found favor usually
discovered that they had been
"blessed" by the
canotili.
T h e
canotili
were also
cred-
ited with helping to har- vest
tree-grown fruits and nuts. Many
tribes believed that the canotili used
their agility and strength to climb to
the tops of trees and shake down the
choicest food for their tribespeople
to gather.
These diminutive
wilderness
dwellers still test
hunters today. Hiding
among the
greenery of tree or
prairie grass, they
stealthily follow (and
sometimes precede) lone
hunters and test their
worthiness by setting deadfall
traps, scaring off game
(Tree Dwellers)
and making mysterious noises in the underbrush. Hunters who
avoid the traps, find the trail again and bravely investigate the
ominous sounds are rewarded by the canotili's gifts of good luck.
Those of the canotili's human tribe who prove worthy will be
granted both good luck and the canotili's offer of assistance with
spiritual matters.
Not all aspects of the canotili are so positive, however.
Being rather solitary, canotili like their privacy. Humans (and
European changelings who knew no better) would often stray
into a section of woods that a canotili had claimed for her own.
If the canotili discovered the interlopers first, she would use her
guile and magics to lead the hapless intruders astray and dump
nuts, branches and old squirrels' nests down on them as they
moved through the ever-deepening woods.
Should the intruders surprise the canotili, however, truly
bad things would happen. A person coming face-to-face with an
unprepared canotili disturbs her and causes her to automatically
react with fright. Most people usually aren't quiet or clever
enough to sneak up on them! When a canotili is startled, her body
reacts by releasing a potent pheromone that causes those exposed
to it (except for the canotili) to flee in terror. Because many older
people died from this chemically-induced fright, legends arose
that seeing a canotili face-to-face meant that someone in the
person's family was doomed to die. This has had the effect of
making the canotili even less sociable than they once were.
Appearance:
Canotili look much like slightly smaller versions of the
Plains or Great Lakes Indians. Each group favors the traditional
garb and styles of their respective tribes, whether Sioux, Crow
and Cheyenne, or Ojibwa, Winnebago or Blackfoot. Their
features are somewhat more elongated than those of their
human kin, with their fingers and toes seeming too long and
almost prehensile. Unless they take care to shield them, all
canotili have eyes that glow in the dark. Most canotili take great
pride in maintaining their traditions, and their clothes, accessories
and weapons are always well-made and highly decorated.
Despite this sartorial splendor, canotili are able to blend into the
background, changing themselves and their clothing in a
chameleonlike fashion and becoming all but invisible when
they remain still.
Seemings:
• Younglings are so small and thin, and their fingers and
toes so long that they seem almost ratlike. These pixie gamins