Changeling - Players Guide.pdf

Perhaps strong arms and sharp blades will not hold back the coming
Winter, but all honorable fae must try.
— Sir Athelred, Mendicant Knight
Dana, mother ofDagda, ruler of all the Gods peered into the Well of
Eternity and beheld her dream works. The world stretched out, silent and still,
waiting for the breath of life. There were her blessed children, the Tuatha de
Danaan. And beyond them, through the veils of time, were the eight peoples of
the fae, the children of her children. And even further through the mists did she
peer, witnessing the turnings of the celestial seasons. A time of tribulation
would arrive, and with it, perhaps, a time affinal Winter when world and
Dreaming would wither under an eternal blanket of frozen Banality.
And she was troubled, saying: "Who will stand guard and protect these,
my beloved children?"
She gazed again through the well, and saw that though each of the eight
were vouchsafed great and wondrous gifts, they were small and their strength
would break like fragile twigs beneath the weight of the great snow.
"A protector 1 will build for them. I shall hew him from the very mountains,
and their strength shall be his strength. The surging rivers shall be his
life's blood, and his wisdom shall be that of the good earth."
And so saying she did forge a champion from the mightiest mountain.
Lightning was her hammer, and thunder rang out across the still and silent
world. And when her work was done she did breathe life into this, her creation,
and his eyes did open. His long hair and beard were mighty forests, and his
brow was wreathed in clouds.
And seeing him, she did say: "Behold the world. Before even my firstborn
do I wake thee, that I may charge thee with thy sacred task. Thou art the
protector of all my children, and in so doing, thou shall be always first in my
heart." So saying did she enshroud him once more in the mist of dreams, that
he might wake again amongst the other Kithain.
— from The Tapestry of Slumber