Changelings are among the rarest of supernatural beings, half-human, half-fairy creatures with one foot in the world of mortals and the other in the faraway realms of fancy and glamour. Changelings are less strange and foreign than true fairies (which do not visit the mortal world anymore, and indeed in many cases cannot), but they still retain some of the shine of their fairy origins, and few who encounter them can shake off the feeling of their strangeness. Changelings appear to be regular mortals in any casual inspection, but they have powers no human has ever had, and vampires with appropriate powers in the Auspex or Thaumaturgy disciplines may be able to tell that there is something just subtly wrong about them with a little effort.

Changeling Varieties

Changelings come in various different forms and have easily as complicated a system of organization as do the vampires themselves. Like their true fairy kin, Changelings are roughly divided into the fair folk of the Seelie Court and the frightening spirits of the Unseelie Court, although there are considerable shades of grey in both courts. Different types of Changelings have different folkloric connections and powers:

• Barbegazi are loners and sportspeople, always looking for a new challenge.
• Bean-Sidhe are heralds of impending doom with impressive (but terrible) voices.
• Boggans are earthy homesteaders with a dedication to comfort and safety.
• Clurichauns are joyful, rambunctious bards, too quick to talk without thinking it through first.
• Dryads are forest-aligned Changelings on a desperate question to save the world's forests.
• Duergar are unfriendly, focused creatures, always interested only in their own prowess and goals.
• Eshu are adventurous travelers and storytellers seeking new and exciting tales.
• Ghille Dhu are nature spirits, concerned with the growth and health of the earth.
• Grimalkin are cat-aligned beings, often acting as familiars to mages and other supernatural beings.
• Gwyllion are unsettling watchers-in-the-dark, their eyes always following everyone who passes them.
• Leanan-Sidhe are blood-drinking seductive creatures, seeking sustenance in others.
  
• Leshiye are capricious hermits willing to do almost anything for a wager or to win a game.
• Merfolk are ancient remnants of the seafaring fairies of the oceans and streams.
• Nockers are artists, creators, and artisans without peer, with little interest in anything else.
• Piskies are compulsive thieves, stealing for their own amusement (and, at least according to them, others' too).
• Pooka are liars and pranksters, but mostly out of a sense of fun and innocence.
  
• Redcaps are hideous and ravenous creatures who seek to destroy and consume things around them.
• Satyrs are passionate hedonists who can't resist anything that strikes them as wonderful.
• Sidhe are nobles and rulers among the Changelings who seek a return to better times.
• Sluagh are the things that go bump in the night, frightening and usually hidden in the shadows.
• Trolls are warrior monsters that defend those in need and prize loyalty above all else.
• Vily are vengeful and jealous punishers of anyone they believe has transgressed (which is honestly most everyone).

Obviously, Changelings are much more human-seeming than their fairy kinfolk, but they can't help showing their true colors in small ways or when stressed a little bit more than they would like.

Changeling Powers

Changeling powers are poorly understood by vampires, who seldom see them in action and wouldn't know how to identify them even if they did. The most common types of Changeling powers include the following:

• Chicanery, which involves fooling and controlling the mind, usually through use of illusions, glamour, and seductive emotional manipulation.
• Legerdemain, which the ability to remotely manipulate items and use telekinesis-like powers on them.
• Metamorphosis, which involves substantially changing a Changeling's size and shape at will.
• Primal, which involves manipulating the forces of nature (such as weather) and the Changeling's own body (such as healing).
• Soothsaying, which involves predicting events in the future and seeking knowledge from beyond the veil.
• Wayfaring, which involves travel and increasing the capabilities of the body to new heights.

There are other, more specialized Changeling powers in existence, many of them practiced only by a specific type of fairy, but if the odds against a vampire ever knowingly encountering a Changeling are already very high, the odds against also encountering one with such rare powers are stratospheric.

Changelings and Vampires

effect of vampires embrace/ghoul auspex ravnos