Thoughts on "The Lost"
"Changeling is a game of beauty and cruelty, of passion and loss, of dreams and madness. You have struggled your way back through the thorns only to find your life had been stolen from you. Now you make your way the best you can, attempting to piece together the fragments of your lost life or to forge a new one, chasing your ambition through the intrigues of the changeling courts and freeholds, and always looking over your shoulder lest the Others, the true Fae, return for you." - Ethan Skemp, Line Developer
One of the most important things I'm getting from the above and the little that has trickled out from the various forums, demos and sneak peaks is that depending on how one particular aspect is taken the game can be wildly different.
In Requiem the characters greatest foes and threats are spawned from older more powerful vampires or those vampires that are deviant and different. Even VII the mysterious enemy in the dark is depicted as being psuedo-vampiric in nature.
In Forsaken the characters greatest foes and threats are spawned from enemies that are similiar in blood but different in mindset, they fear the loss to a great foe but it's foe that they can understand, that they can find surmountable on a case by case basis. Even the Spirit world is something that they are challenged by but that is very much a part of their world and understanding.
In Awakening the characters are near godlike in potential and in fact outside a portion of the game that delves into the "mysteries" of the abyssal aspect of the spirit plain, the greatest foes to the Awakened are entities that were at one point in time considered to be fellow awakened. The fear they have is something that is grounded in an enemy that they believe they can one day equal and see as peers.
In Lost... I'm not sure if I'm right, or if I have those that agree with me (from viewing the other character ideas out there) but I think that unlike in Dreaming where the characters were diluted versions of the fae of the older purer world and therefore avatars of the gods and goddesses, the creatures of power and grace and terror in nights past, the characters that we will be playing are more escapees from these creatures. It's an important difference, and one that I think will either make people love the game or hate it.
We aren't going to be playing Puck, we aren't going to be Titania, Oberon, Eshu, Kitsune, Avatars of Thunderbird and Coyote, I have a sneaking feeling that we will be mortals that these characters have used as lovers, tools, minions, slaves, and experiements.
We will be True Thomas, Rip Van Winkle, Nick Bottom, Lady Isabel, Tam Lin, Sir Orfeo (Orpheus), King Herla and more.
In the former game we played the shadow of the gods of yore, and I've got a feeling that in this new game we're going to be playing mortals IN the ever present shadow of things so grant and terrible that fear and terror will be very much a part of our character's lives.
When considering what our characters are fleeing from and living in fear of two quotes spring to mind:
"He's travelled so far beyond right and wrong he couldn't see them with a telescope on a clear night."
(Neverwhere - Gaimen)
"Elves are wonderful. They bring wonder.
Elves are awesome. They inspire awe.
Elves are marvellous. They create marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They fulfil fantasies.
Elves are terrific. They cause terror.
Elves are beautiful and terrible, but after
a while we forget that they were terrible,
and only remember the beauty.
If you want to find the true face of the elves,
look for them behind words that have changed
their meanings, hiding like snakes in the grass.
Nobody says elves are nice.
Elves are bad."
(Lords and Ladies - Pratchett)
Now if I'm wrong then I'll have to fundamentally make a change of my PC as the unapproachable and undefinable power and enormity of near godlike power and the fear of falling under it's hold and enslavement is something that is very much a part of my PC concept. But if I'm right... if I'm right then it's going to be interesting to see how people interpret the concept that we are lost mortals that have been forever scarred by our time imprisoned in a place that was both heaven and hell to our minds, released back into the world living in the fear of the creatures that captured us that first time. We stand so far greater than the mortals we left behind, and yet always... in the shadows... in that lonely meadow... in the sound of birdsong or silence the terror of the Other's finding us and the horrors and grandeur that awaits their return.
We'll just have to see.
Anyway, anyone who wants to be on my CtL filter just drop me a comment.
One of the most important things I'm getting from the above and the little that has trickled out from the various forums, demos and sneak peaks is that depending on how one particular aspect is taken the game can be wildly different.
In Requiem the characters greatest foes and threats are spawned from older more powerful vampires or those vampires that are deviant and different. Even VII the mysterious enemy in the dark is depicted as being psuedo-vampiric in nature.
In Forsaken the characters greatest foes and threats are spawned from enemies that are similiar in blood but different in mindset, they fear the loss to a great foe but it's foe that they can understand, that they can find surmountable on a case by case basis. Even the Spirit world is something that they are challenged by but that is very much a part of their world and understanding.
In Awakening the characters are near godlike in potential and in fact outside a portion of the game that delves into the "mysteries" of the abyssal aspect of the spirit plain, the greatest foes to the Awakened are entities that were at one point in time considered to be fellow awakened. The fear they have is something that is grounded in an enemy that they believe they can one day equal and see as peers.
In Lost... I'm not sure if I'm right, or if I have those that agree with me (from viewing the other character ideas out there) but I think that unlike in Dreaming where the characters were diluted versions of the fae of the older purer world and therefore avatars of the gods and goddesses, the creatures of power and grace and terror in nights past, the characters that we will be playing are more escapees from these creatures. It's an important difference, and one that I think will either make people love the game or hate it.
We aren't going to be playing Puck, we aren't going to be Titania, Oberon, Eshu, Kitsune, Avatars of Thunderbird and Coyote, I have a sneaking feeling that we will be mortals that these characters have used as lovers, tools, minions, slaves, and experiements.
We will be True Thomas, Rip Van Winkle, Nick Bottom, Lady Isabel, Tam Lin, Sir Orfeo (Orpheus), King Herla and more.
In the former game we played the shadow of the gods of yore, and I've got a feeling that in this new game we're going to be playing mortals IN the ever present shadow of things so grant and terrible that fear and terror will be very much a part of our character's lives.
When considering what our characters are fleeing from and living in fear of two quotes spring to mind:
"He's travelled so far beyond right and wrong he couldn't see them with a telescope on a clear night."
(Neverwhere - Gaimen)
"Elves are wonderful. They bring wonder.
Elves are awesome. They inspire awe.
Elves are marvellous. They create marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They fulfil fantasies.
Elves are terrific. They cause terror.
Elves are beautiful and terrible, but after
a while we forget that they were terrible,
and only remember the beauty.
If you want to find the true face of the elves,
look for them behind words that have changed
their meanings, hiding like snakes in the grass.
Nobody says elves are nice.
Elves are bad."
(Lords and Ladies - Pratchett)
Now if I'm wrong then I'll have to fundamentally make a change of my PC as the unapproachable and undefinable power and enormity of near godlike power and the fear of falling under it's hold and enslavement is something that is very much a part of my PC concept. But if I'm right... if I'm right then it's going to be interesting to see how people interpret the concept that we are lost mortals that have been forever scarred by our time imprisoned in a place that was both heaven and hell to our minds, released back into the world living in the fear of the creatures that captured us that first time. We stand so far greater than the mortals we left behind, and yet always... in the shadows... in that lonely meadow... in the sound of birdsong or silence the terror of the Other's finding us and the horrors and grandeur that awaits their return.
We'll just have to see.
Anyway, anyone who wants to be on my CtL filter just drop me a comment.