Changeling - Players Guide.pdf

can be scared so silly by a nocker, that simply growling at an
engine block has been known to start it up.
Nockers are creative frenzy personified and sharpened to
a fine point. When they decide to do something, come what
may, they will achieve their goals. This single-minded determination
can sometimes slip into a full-blown obsession,
coloring everything the nocker does. However, the same
devotion to an ideal or person makes a nocker who promised
to help one of the most loyal and truly devoted friends
possible. The only drawback to a nocker's friendship are the
nicknames.
There are nockers who enjoy the social whirl of the
courts and oathcircles. They attack the social dynamic with
the fervor their brethren use on machinery. They are often
extremely perceptive, and although their tongues are scathing,
the criticism is usually right on the mark. These few are
highly prized advisors to some nobles, but others whisper that
a nocker knocking on the door of the nobility may be a
dangerous thing. The boggans are well-known opponents of
the nockers in court, and the boggans' ability to manipulate
social strings has thus far left most nockers without a voice.
Organization
Nockers tend to live alone in the midst of others. Many
lords have a nocker on call to create chimerical weapons and
armor, and perform other such tasks. Such nockers are usually
given a room or shop in a secluded part of a freehold, where
they may tinker and create (or explode) their contraptions to
their heart's content. Nockers are also found in small basement
labs or weekend machine or wood shops.
Many nockers live nomadic existences, alone in the
company of others, taking jobs as roadies for a band, or
working in the boiler rooms of ships. Other professions
include architects, engineers or handymen. It is here where
they come into conflict with boggans, who see the home as
their purview.
The Dreamers nockers prefer to associate with include
those who can see the Glamour and beauty in science and
engineering, as well as those who love fine, detailed work and
making sure that every aspect of something is correct before
finishing it. Computer programmers, architects, carpenters,
blacksmiths and engineers of any stripe are all good choices
by a nocker's criterion.
Nockers live seldom together, but the results are usually
spectacular, like the infamous Goblin Town in New York
(detailed in Freeholds and Hidden Glens.) Another large
freehold of nockers lives in California, near Silicon Valley,
where they work on the Glamourous possibilities of the
microprocessor. A recent contract for the largest chip manufacturer
in the U.S. resulted in embarrassment for both the
nockers and the company when the chip would occasionally
forget how to do arithmetic.
When nockers do congregate and live together, their
dwellings are usually filled with clutter both chimerical and
real. These range from the '50s weird science contraptions
(combination prune-pitter and yogurt-squirter) to the subtly
beautiful (a carved wooden figure of someone's true love). All
manner of devices are worked into the constructions, from
the automated door-openers to the adjust-o-matic breakfastmakers.
The dwelling itself needs constant upgrade and
repair; of course a nocker wouldn't have it any other way.
Every established nocker craftsman has a trademark. The
trademark is a symbol that can be scaled up or down but usually
is no more than a l/16th inch square. Trademarks can denote
house, title or oathcircle, but more often are simply personal
symbols of the nocker's pride in her work. The cataloging of
trademarks began around C.E. 800 as a way of stemming the tide
of inferior (to the nockers) boggan and eshu crafts and items. In
time, trademarks became the symbol of a nocker's reputation.
A nocker feels that if something substandard was designed with
her trademark, it is a stain on her personal honor. More than
one duel has been fought due to a trademark dispute. Trademarks
and their owners are the purview of the master council.
The "master council" is made up of six nockers, three
Seelie, three Unseelie. They are the final arbiters and recorders
of all trademarks. For many years, a nocker had to travel
to the council to present her work to gain her trademark. Now
the aspiring craftsperson simply must send a photo or blueprints
with a design for a trademark. If there is no conflict with
an existing trademark, it is entered. A group of nockers, most
often a family or oathcircle, may share a trademark if they so
wish. If a nocker presents someone with a piece lacking a
trademark, it is certain to be substandard in some way.
An interesting note is that it is possible for other Kithain
to gain a nocker trademark. The process is much more
rigorous and slanted quite unfairly, but there have been those
who succeeded. Without exception, they rose to be some of
the greatest craftspeople of their generation.
Courts
Nockers began their existence as the goblins of the
Unseelie, and those of the Unseelie today still call themselves
such. As the Unseelie lords in the past would pour most of
their resources into war, and as the goblins tired of making
nothing but weapons, many began to see a brighter way of life
with the Seelie Court. They were welcomed, being master
craftspeople, but a tinge of that dark past remained in their
brusque manners and sharp tongues. Soon after the mass
defections, the kith started to become known as nockers, due
to their habit of rapping on objects to test their worthiness.
Seelie Nockers
Seelie nockers tend to dress in workclothes and a toolbelt
with funky gadgets while tinkering, and choose leathers and a
peaked cap for court. Nockers are fierce about their indepen-