Changeling Lore

This Changeling Lore is considered IC Knowledge by Changelings.

Pre-Colonization
The Nunnehi had always existed with the Native Americans before the Europeans had arrived. Twin Souls were common, and many of the spirits represented the concepts of nature, built into the shell of men. They had roles within their communities, shying away from the sense of European Nobilities. Even the sidhe there were different, not exactly lords and ladies, but respected elders and war chiefs.

This is not to say the Nunnehi were always kind to each other, or 'noble savages'. They fought for territory and places of power, and created small points where the dreaming, the surging wyld, broke into the New World. In fact, many of the places of power that the Magi and Werewolves use today were created by these spirits. Many more had been lost; built over and destroyed, never to return to what they once used to be.

The Nunnehi had another role in the old world, tasked by the dreaming itself. Whereas there more wild brethren dealt with the corruption that had manifested in the land, the Nunnehi dealt with sprits. Many evil beasts were banished back to the deep dreaming where they belonged, and if they couldn't, were sealed in objects, places, and even animals. Oral tradition is filled with the righteous hunt, or the banishing and locking of those demonic spirits that had found its place within the mortal world.

Near Extinction
Among their own tribes, the Nunnehi thrived. Yet, it was the moment that the European Colonizers came that made their world ruined. With the removal of following the old ways, many of these twin souls had found themselves unable to deal with their world. Their spirits dying, the vast majority went extinct well before their European cousins ever had a chance to return.

Only thanks to modern conservation efforts, the Nunnehi had slowly begun to return to a world that they barely understood and knew. Their tribes merely a fragment of what their souls remembered, and a world that seems far more interested into the value of 'who is the queen', then 'what is our place in this world'.

The Return
While it is true that many of the commoners had remained behind, struggling and scraping out a meagre existence during the times when the dreaming was locked. Of course, that changed, like with many others, during the Apollo Moon launch; a moment that caused almost every human to dream and wonder about what else was possible for humanity.

This brought the ancient powers of the dreaming front and forward, back to the world and awakening ancient hearths and areas of power. This of course, also brought back the sidhe that decided, either intelligently, or fearfully to remain behind.

In Hamilton, this was much the same, although many of the places that the changelings had found were ancient areas that held powers to the Nunnehi. Hearths and Fortresses were built over Native Glades and totems, channeling the same energy, but from spirits that weren't there's. Many of the changelings aren't aware of it, as they create another tavern or marketplace.

But with how little of the Nunnehi that exist, and how badly it would harm changeling society to return it all, many of them see it as an unfortunate truth and just the end result of time.

But, for the better part of 200 years, Hamilton was a spot of Liberty and freedom. It was free from the bindings of the old world Europe, and the faction wars that existed there. People in the New World were free to be themselves and do what they wished, even if it came at the cost of a blood of a people many of them never even realized existed.

For the commoner, Hamilton wasn't just home, but it was an escape. It was time for them to make a name for themselves by their actions, and not by the winds of the dreaming.

The Night of Knives
Of course, originally, the Commoners had assumed with the dreaming opening up it was time for them to take claim of a world the nobility abandoned. That did not turn out to be true.

The Sidhe were back, at least the ones that had locked themselves away to run and hide. And with them, the rites of nobility that the Dreaming itself enforced. Many of these commoners did not like this, which started the infamous Night of Knives.

Hamilton was no Exception. Many of the returning Nobles were murdered, but rather than working out a treaty for the good of all of them; they took the nuclear action. Many changeling scholars say this was inspired by the Cuban Missile Crisis, and with their way of ending the 'War', the Sidhe followed a similar route.

The Iron Deal
House Balor, which has been formally 'banned' and 'exiled' (at least officially) from Hamilton, was contracted with a very bloody task. Acting as strikebreakers and assassins, the Sidhe Council had paid them, as the stories go, '30 pieces of Silver' to take care of any of the dissidents and the leaders.

Balor was more than happy to oblige.

The commoners, their union leaders and warriors were systematically killed off. While many of them had used Cold Iron, Balor perfected it. Noone knows how long the Night of Knives lasted, but for the commoners, it ended in one night.

They were back to being yokeled by the nobles.

Nobles Rise and Fall
The Sidhe council were tyrannical at best, and downright draconian at worst. They were rulers of the Fae, and they acted like it. Their were 5 on the council, oldest of the old that the Dreaming bent for and worshipped. For many of the Commoners it meant tithes. Glamour, people, property was seized in the name of the 'greater good'. A good that very few of the lesser class was part of.

But like any Tyrants, they too were killed. House Balor, again, were contracted, but this time by the commoners. They were given an official pardon and asked to take out the nobles.

This bloody back and forth was sufficient, and the nobles had been slaughtered. But, with the rules of the Dreaming, another Sidhe had to take their place.

Ten Years ago, Queen Viktoriya was crowned.

At July 2019, she was 'chimerically' killed with a true iron ring.

Modernity
With the traumatic back and forth of the Nobility, and the time long past, it finally came to be. Another pause of rulership and another murder. But a different story comes to mind;

Now what?

The laws of the Dreaming have proved to be false before. Will Hamilton fall under the reigns of another noble, this one pure -- or another Tyrant. Or can it be in the hands of the commoners to create a workers utopia; or at least one that's fair to all. And what of the Nunnehi, and the lands they called home?

And what of the demons and monsters they sealed away, locked aside in magic that's long faded.