Changeling

A changeling can shift its face and form with a thought. Many changelings use this gift as a form of artistic and emotional expression, but it is an invaluable tool for grifters, spies, and others who wish to deceive. This leads many people to treat known changelings with fear and suspicion.

Basic Information

Anatomy

In their natural form, changelings are slender and pale with colorless eyes and silver-white hair. A changeling can alter its physical appearance with a thought. While this can be used to deceive others, it is a natural form of expression for the changeling. A changeling shifts shapes the way others might change clothes. A casual shape—one created on the spur of the moment, with no depth or history—is called a mask. A changeling mask can be used to express a mood or to serve a specific purpose and then never used again. However, many changelings develop identities that have more depth. They build an identity over time, crafting a persona, with history and beliefs. This focused identity helps a changeling pinpoint a particular skill or emotion. A changeling adventurer might have personas for many situations, including negotiation, investigation, and combat. Personas can be shared by multiple changelings; there might be three healers in a community, but whoever is on duty will adopt the persona of Tek, the kindly old medic. Personas can even be passed down through a family, allowing a younger changeling to take advantage of contacts established by previous users of the persona.

Growth Rate & Stages

Changelings mature slightly faster than humans but share a similar lifespan—typically a century or less. While a changeling can shapeshift to conceal their age, the effects of aging still catch up to them.

Ecology and Habitats

Wherever humans can be found, there are changelings; the question is whether their presence is known.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Changelings are able to shapeshift.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

A changeling might use a different name for each mask and persona, adopting new names as easily as they develop new faces. The true name of a changeling tends to be monosyllabic; however, there are often accents to a changeling’s name that are expressed through shapeshifting, something single-skins will likely miss. For instance, two changelings might have the name Jin, but one is Jin-with-vivid-blue-eyes and one is Jin-with-golden-cheeks.

Gender Ideals

Changelings have a fluid relationship with gender, seeing it as one characteristic to change among many others.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Changelings are born to one of three paths. A few are born and raised in stable communities, where changelings are true to their nature and deal openly with the people around them. Some are orphans, raised by other races, who find their way in the world without ever knowing another like themselves. Still others are part of the nomadic changeling clans spread across the Brexeamar, who keep their true nature hidden from the single-skins. Some of these clans maintain safe havens in major cities and communities, but most prefer to wander, following the unpredictable path of the Traveler.