Changeling, Urban Fantasy and Laurell K. Hamilton's Orgies

[varjohaltia]

For the second year now, I kept hearing references to Changeling at DragonCon. This time I actually had Firefox in front of me, though, and so typed it into the little Google hole on a whim and hit enter. Wowser.


Ever since I ran across the concept of RPGs (role playing games), the kind where kids or grown-ups sit around a table with silly figures, all kinds of dice, pens, and paper and pretend to be something else, I've been an avid gamer. It can be freely argued that it's a geeky, nerdy preoccupation. On the other hand, it's harmless, doesn't have to cost much, and is a lot more engaging than movies, TV or pretty much any pre-packaged entertainment. At its best it is interactive storytelling, eliciting any range of emotions, helping you see things from the viewpoints of others, and giving you new insights into life outside of your own little box.


RPGs can be in any kind of setting. Many are in a fantasy world, many are in a science-fiction world, some are in horror-settings and some are in cyberpunk settings. I've always been partial, or rather solely dedicated, to fantasy settings with low technology, simple life and elves. Sort of an intellectual SCA without the annoying people, funk and mosquitoes. I've yet to figure out why this is, but no other settings I've tried really never grabbed me (with the possible exception of one Cyberpunk game.)


RPGs can also be run in any of several ways. There are rules, to give the story a framework to develop in. Any number of game systems can be used to figure out whether a knight hits the dragon or whether the dragon defeats the knight. To some people this is important. The challenge is to survive a game, to win battles, to gain power and wealth against tight odds and a high chance of failure, that is, the death of your character. I want a story that gives hope. I want a story where good prevails, where heroism is rewarded, where one can get the princess. If the hero were to die, it would be for a reason, and would be worthwhile, not because the hero's player rolled badly.


I've never really cared about the odds, or the mechanics. Like so many other things, your childhood and first experiences shape you. My first dungeon master / game master / storyteller believed in telling stories, rather than letting the randomness of dice get in the way. Or, perhaps this is what I am like, and I was just lucky to have met him, instead of another kind of dungeon master. He was also a remarkably astute observer of people, incredibly intelligent, and masterful manipulator. As a result, the years I gamed with him were unforgottable. Every so often (and it was never often enough!) I and my friends would lock ourselves into a too-tiny room, escape the lightless gloom of the Finnish winter, and wander in elven woods, or cross great plains in search of ancient treasure, in order to save the princess, or in order to save the world. All the while, these adventures were personal. My characters encountered other people to interact with and entered settings in which their past would matter, in which their hopes and dreams would be forged, in which their very being would be challenged.


One of the cardinal sins, I was always told, was to make a character that is the player. Yet, I believe that it is always inevitable. You cannot enter the head of someone or something completely alien. You can, however, explore different aspects of yourself. You can play with "what if" scenarios. You can highlight emotional or moral issues you are wrestling with in your everyday real life. Perhaps because of this, because of the me in every character I have ever played, these imaginary journeys had such an incredibly strong effect.


My mother was an artist; one of the lessons she repeatedly kept teaching me was to always cherish imagination. I feel I have failed her in that respect. I cannot tell a story myself to save my life. I think I am not half bad at documenting the world around me; either the real me, in way of too many photographs, or any of my characters, in way of writing down their thoughts, dreams, and life. But to actually break out of those blinders that restrict my vision I have always needed help.


During my formative years I also made full use of the excellent public libraries available in Scandinavia. One of the books I checked out was nearly falling apart, a collection of short stories of the faerie trying to survive in early 20th century UK. Yet again, there was something in the stories that gripped my imagination, and I had to go back and read some of them again and again. Alas, I have since lost my notes, and have not been able to find the book again.


Much later, someone recommended I read Emma Bull's "War of the Oaks," a book of urban fantasy. Urban fantasy, as a genre, was new to me. Essentially it is our current day, everyday urban setting, but overlaid with the mythical, mostly of the celtic origin. There are pooka, sidhe, werewolves, or perhaps vampires living amongst us, in our cities, unseen. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is another good example of this genre, but once you start looking, you will find more and more books about this very idea. Another example is Laurell Hamilton's Merry Gentry series of orgies among the sidhe and other celtic mythical creatures. While utter (and utterly enjoyable) fluff, they also feed this same fire. To me, it seemed entertaininly analogous to the setting itself--there is plenty to see right in front of your eyes, if you can only learn how to see it.


Instead of a completely new world with no connection to ours, this is fiction of the world around us. Fiction and fantasy that suggests there is still magic in the world, in the very world we live in. Books that cherish imagination, and warn against getting bogged down in the everyday, books that remind us to nurture the childlike curiosity within us. And so, childhood memories of listening to Momo the radioplay, or reading the Neverending story rush back to me.

People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming even poorer, bleaker and more monotonous.


The ones who felt this most keenly were the children, because no one had time for them any more.


But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had.

And so I sit here, in front of a computer, writing up a long, rambling narrative that is going to be read by people most of whom are practical strangers to me. But perhaps there is a point to this, and perhaps I will find it together with those of you who care to read it.


Changeling, then, seems to be an RPG that is set in our everyday world, but deals with the danger of banality, with the danger of refusing to see the magical. With the danger of taking things at immediate face value, at a purely materialistic level. It immediately speaks to all those things my mother warned me against; it deals with the very same issues as so many of my most important childhood books. It seems like a very poor setting for those who would like to prove their worth by clever tactics, ingenious ways to bend the rules and good luck of dice. It seems like a very good setting to awaken one's imagination and tell wonderful stories.


And so, I also wonder once again where I am. What have I done with my life? How do I see the world? What brings me joy? What do I do to the world around me, and people around me? Where should I go? I know that there is a clear, simple, tempting path in front of me, and I know now, stronger than ever, that it is not the path I should take. It is just a matter of waking up, seeing the world without the blinders, and picking a time to step off that path into something else. Into a world where things other than time and money matters once again.


It is time to don the mask and go rob the Timesaving Bank.

Comments

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

In what may be a truly precious bit of irony, my childhood and adolescence were probably the most miserable 18 years of my life. I have very few good memories of my youth. Seemingly every time I was involved in a WoD game that involved Changelings, I happened to be playing a Greyface, a hated Technocrat.

And I made a rather horrible name for myself among them.

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear both of those things. I hope things have become better, now?

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

For me? Sure. I'm not defined by my past anymore.

For the Changelings that ran into Dr. Axel the Technocrat? Probably not :)

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

True wonder is like true happiness: not sustainable for long periods. I would not live my life seeking to always seek with those eyes.

True wonder, like true happiness, is a moment, more precious for its ephemeral stay: the gasp at the sight of a bright butterfly, the warm feeling you have being inside when rain drums out a pattern that humans have heard for thousands of years, the sudden pleasure that your body can move with some grace.

A single course of action will not bring you joy. How you live your life through the mundane bits, the dull bits, the tense bits, the exultant bits only opens opportunities for joy. It's always in reach, no matter what you're doing... you simply have to be willing to admit that even a mundane life can make you happy.

Would that it was an easier course. It's easier to think simply choosing some other way of life will make things brighter. Rarely seems to work that way, though.

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

I thank you for your words--just the kind I was hoping to hear. In fact, I spent the last hour or two downing some Laphroig and chatting with Vince over all of this.
In all reality, a lot of this is a mood swing talking. But there are also valid issues of quality of life, lack of time, lack of direction and lack of purpose. And, as you pointed out, the ability to enjoy everyday life, to find joy and purpose and magic in the everyday.

[silentbottlecap.livejournal.com]

I wanted to write something moving and profound but words escape me at the moment.
I think it's nice that we live in so scientific an age. We can do some amazing things with medicine and computers and stuff.
I guess I'm kind of old-fashioned, though.
In some cultures, farmers used to leave the first loaf of bread made from a harvest out in the filed to appease whatever god that ruled over good harvests. Miners would leave out part of their lunch so the tommyknockers would be more inclined to be friendly...I think practices like that gave those people a certain respect for just where they were and what they were doing...a deeper connection. More respect, perhaps, for each other and things around them. More thankful.
Maybe that's part of the problem also. Our society is expectant, not thankful. When we're grateful for things that happen to us, we tend to get more intimately involved...see things we might not otherwise...

One girl I know trains with weights quite a bit. She bows to the stack of iron before she even begins trying to move it. To her, it changes the barbell/whatever into an opponent rather than a pile of metal.

Jumping the topic completely again, there's an old movie..."The Great Dictator." It has charlie Chaplin...it was made just after silent movies became obsolete...
Mr.Chaplin wrote a speech which he recited at the end of the movie...I can't begin to quote it for fear of garbling his message. It's not quite along the lines of magic and fantasy improving life, but it's on a similar tangent....using all this wonderful technology we have at our disposal to improve our lives. Excellent film. Beautiful speech.
I'll stop rambling, now.

Thank you for this opportunity to spew forth my nonsensical opinion on the matter.
Thank you for reading it.

Chaplin

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

That's one aspect that is also gratifying about Aikido, or likely most other Oriental arts, martial or otherwise. There can be a lot of consideration for spirit, for distance, for shape, for harmony. I'm having a hard time explaining it, but a lot of it involves letting go of the rational through process, and using a feel instead, an aesthetic sense.

And yes, the speech was pretty neat. I could fit most of it here.
Here is:
I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written "the kingdom of God is within man" - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

Re: Chaplin

[silentbottlecap.livejournal.com]

I love that speech. Thank you.
But yes, you're right about the Oriental martial arts teaching people to slow down and all that goes along with slowing down. The Taoists seem to have (in my opinion) the best method of doing so.
Unfortunately, people who just take things in stride and let go of society-induced fears tend to be shunned.
It's sad.

[obsidiangryphon.livejournal.com]

It is difficult to balance living in the real world as an adult, and yet trying to see it with the innocent wonder of a child. Perhaps that is why people like Spielburg movies... or any films such as The Dark Crystal, Neverending Story or even Princess Bride. People who don't game, have movies like this to escape with.

The child in us believes in good conquering evil, in continuing to try until you succeed, that bravery is nothing more than doing what needs to be done despite fear.

I think you would enjoy Charles de Lint, who also write urban fantasy. I have a couple you can borrow, if you like. There may be excerpts at http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

I'll have to put him on my list! Another one that I omitted semi-intentionally is Tanya Huff, who has an Anita Blakesque series of a PI that joins forces with a vampire to fight various magical and mythical menaces to Toronto. Actually I think that she has more claim to literary credit than Ms. Hamilton by virtue of less sex, but they're not that far apart in other aspects.

[playfuleye.livejournal.com]

I wonder, do you do any online roleplaying? I know a place where the old Changeling is still played, weaving stories out of text with others around the states and the world. I have the corebook, the player's guide, and the kithbook to my personal favorite kith: Pooka. These are all open to you, if you'd like to borrow them.

Perhaps (though I'm not much of a storyteller and have very little experience) I'll try and run a Changeling game at Necronomicon, or find one to join in. I'd love to play with you! I'd love to teach you more about the game and it's world, and help bring more wonder into your life. (:

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

Well... Time permitting is the proper answer. I used to be quite active on some mucks and muxes and such, but haven't lately found too much time for them. And a bunch run by friends as RP environments have rather stagnated or just withered away. I'm almost tempted to mention the most notorious one, since I believe at least two people from your friends list were on it :-) (Sure, what the heck. Genesis. I hope Micah won't lynch me for bringing it up again.)

Since that likely made precious little sense, I'll try to answer the question again with less rambling: Yes. If you know of a Changeling game being run in the area, at a con or otherwise, I might be tempted to see if I can sit in and observe. The setting is quite different from any I've actually ever played (or watched people play) before. And, well, I looked up the sourcebooks a while back and got palpitations. $100+ for a used paperback! *Yoink* On the other hand, I guess that says something about the game.