There is power in dreams --there is a magic in fantasy, in hopes, in fears. There is a world that we as humanity create when we dream, when a child fantasizes of dragons and talking animals, a place from where an artist draws the new ideas of her creation. That dream-world, born of and existing side-by-side with our physical world, is a place real to the denizens of the Dreaming --the Kithain.
For the unfamiliar, Kithain (Changelings, and the system Changeling: The Dreaming) in the Storyteller universe are magical people who lead dual lives; one in our mortal world just like you and me, and one within the world of humanity's dreams and nightmares --dream-riders, dream-weavers, people for which the world of our imaginations is something that can be touched, felt, and forged. The elves who helped the Good Shoemaker, the Satyrs of Greek Myth, the fairy godmothers of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, the good and evil trolls of Norse mythology, the storytelling spirits of African, Mid-Eastern, and Native American lore, the monsters that chase us through our nightmares--these and many others are the Kithain.
For thousands of years, the fire of human creativity, hope, and desire --called Glamour, with a capital G-- has been the lifeblood of the Kithain. The magic that happens when someone dreams of a better world, a more beautiful world, of that which is not but could or might be--that is Glamour, the source of a Kithain's magic: the fuel of a Troll's legendary strength, a satyr's mighty speed, a fairy godmother's enchantments. Glamour is the flame of hope and dreams of activists trying to fight the system --of slaves struggling to be free from their chains-- of the poor student working triple jobs and going to night school so she can be a doctor. It is the flame that encourages a scientist to dare to explore the unknown, that pushes on the athlete to work towards Olympic Gold, that guides the instruments of an artist, be it chisel, brush, pen or flute. And it is a flame that is dying.
Our world has become one where people have stopped dreaming. We no longer dare to strive for great things, settling instead for second best and the easiest road. We no longer dare to hope, instead snidely hiding in cynicism; we no longer dare to love, we no longer dare to dream. We have become a society that lives afraid of it's own shadow, unwilling to imagine a better future for ourselves and our fellow men and to be willing to work and fight for it; unwilling to dedicate ourselves to anything at all, existing via the path of least resistance from day to day in dead-end jobs, too fearful, too lazy, too spiteful to try for anything better. We have become a society where people prefer to mutter and complain about the miseries of the darkness, rather than trying to create a little light.
The petty, the repetitive, the dull and spiteful, the spirit which drives the humorless administrator to insist that even the simplest tasks must be triple-signed, quadruple stamped and filed not one minute later than the deadline --this is the opposite of Glamour; this is called Banality. The spirit that convinces a man that market penetration is more important than the love of his family or service to his fellow men --this is Banality. And it is choking humanity to death, for what will life be in a world without dreams or hope?
The Kithain fight a last stand to keep hope and dreams alive in our world.
Kithain once existed independently; now, dreams are so scare, and Banality so strong, that Kithain now are forced to live anchored in mortal human lives. Dual mortal and magical, that is the origin of the name 'Changeling'. Kithain life after life in succession, struggling from lifetime to lifetime to keep dreams alive. Kithain work, through their magic and their actions to inspire mortals, to encourage their creativity, to keep their hope alive. The kind elementary-school teacher who always had time to listen to your problems? The coach who inspired you to do your best? The professor or supervisor who believed in your talents and gave you the chance to prove yourself? The friend who stood behind you in your darkest days when nobody else would, who encouraged you to finish the Great American Novel? Chances are they were Kithain --half human, half warrior of the Dream. To bring light into a World of Darkness --this is the goal of the Kithain.
At least some of them, anyway. There are many who have betrayed the Dreaming and/or Humanity. A Kithain can survive just as well by encouraging horror and nightmares instead of hope and dreams...can grow powerful by stealing the creative spark instead of encouraging and fueling it...can feed off other mortals --even destroy their creative spark or even their sanity-- for the sake of harvesting their Glamour.
There are those Kithain who seek to defend mortal humanity; others who seek to feed off it. War now comes between the two sides. At stake is the future of humanity's hopes and dreams...and it is from this malestrom my two characters come...
