Changelings

Wait, where am I and who are you? What the fuck is going on?

— Recently abducted Changeling-to-be

The favorite plaything of the Fae, Changelings are mortals snatched from the Prime and brought to the alien Faelands as entertainment for the immortal lords and ladies who rule there. Once in the tender care of the Fae, Changelings become something else than just mortal, remade to suit the need and whim of their new masters.
The land itself changes them, its essence seeping into its core to make them part of its glories and horrors. Where there was once a mortal, there is soon a Changeling.

Abductees

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

Changelings come from all walks of life, with the only thing they have in common being something that caught a Fae's attention... Even if it is just how well they scream. Most Fae like Changelings with particular characteristics or personality traits, and often seem drawn to mortals with untapped potential. Others look for a certain type of servant to amuse themselves with and search accordingly. Every now and then, there seems to be no particular reason for a Fae to obsess over a mortal, with nothing special about them at all.
Once the Fae have set their sights on a mortal, the hunt begins.

Some Fae care for nothing other than the squelch of flesh breaking apart beneath their hands, abducting whoever is unfortunate enough to come across them.

by Unsplash (Sammy Williams)

Through dreams and omens, the Fae lure prospective changelings to Gates that lead either to the Shadow, where the Fae then waits to sweep them away, or right into the Beyond. The process can be lengthy, depending on the temperament of the Fae, with most enjoying toying and testing their would-be Changeling. Lies, temptations, offers of fantasies fulfilled are all tools used by Fae to sway mortals to step through that gate and be theirs.

For some Fae, the hunt is better than the catch, and once they have a mortal in their clutches, they quickly lose interest.

The most powerful Fae have no need for trickery, able to create their own Gates through sheer will in a way that makes every Walker furiously jealous.

These Gates take the form of a thick fae-mist that seeps through cracks in the wall between worlds and blooms briefly with reality-warping power. From there, it is a simple matter for a Fae Archlord or Lady to emerge, however briefly, in the mortal world to take their prize.

Such powerful creatures are thankfully rare, with their attention usually focused on the beyond.

The truly unfortunate mortals are those who come to the attention of several Fae at once. All it really takes is a couple, and other Fae smell a delectable drama like a shark smells blood, and they pile in until the poor have a dozen Fae all courting them. No matter who they go with, they lose. The envy generated by the affair is a feast for bored Fae, who might duel over the Changeling's love or ownership long after the Changeling ceased to matter or even died.

Changed

I look at the mirror, and I see someone else. This isn't me; this is someone else, someone they made me into.

Once in the Faelands, every heartbeat makes a mortal less so. The Beyond is suffused with magical power, and it seeps into the abductee, turning them slowly from mortal to Changeling. They begin to take on traits of their Fae masters, small at first and eventually starkly obvious. As their physical form changes, so does their mind, warped by horrors seen and experienced. Exactly how they adapt depends on the Changeling and their treatment, but no one escapes unscathed and unchanged.

Changelings of the Midnight Lord all become pale like cavefish, with big blinking eyes and soft, crystalline voices so they can join his chorus of caged changelings.

The Fae themselves frequently alter Changelings to their whim, changing them into a greater servant. These transformations are less subtle by those wrought by the Faeland itself, as the Fae give their favored Changelings skin of gold, the shape of an animal, or inhuman strength and fury.
Such changes can also be a punishment for those who displease the Fae - and often enough, the Fae will forget about the change, never returning the Changeling to the way they were.

by Unsplash (Scott Umstattd)

One Fae lord is said to have a garden of crystal statues, locked in agony - changelings transformed then forgotten, while the Fae complains that he cannot find his playthings.

At the far end of the process, the Changeling has turned from flesh and blood into a creature of wonder. After decades or centuries in the Faelands, they become part of it - no longer mortal, but something else. These Changelings can never again return to the Prime, its magic-poor mundanity now unable to sustain them, leaving them gasping like fish on land.

Favorite Playthings

Even now, I can hear her voice in my head, calling me to go back. I don't know if I can face another dream like that.

Fae are fascinated by mortals; some hate them, some love them, all desire something from the mortals who fall into their clutches. In the Faelands, the Changelings are expensive luxuries or fancy novelties for the Fae to use and abuse as social currency, concubines, victims, and everything in between. Depending on the Fae, a changeling's life can be an endless hellish trial, or that of a bird in a gilded cage.

Even pleasant or friendly Fae as still inhuman, immortal beings of alien hungers and the careless forget that at their peril.

by http://www.tribalartasia.com/

Unlike Hobgoblins, who toil away at the Fae's whim in legions, Changelings are relatively few. Abducting mortals from the Prime is a considerable expense, and there's always some pesky Walkers around looking to stop it.

Some mortals are abducted only briefly - taken for a ride through the Faelands by the Fae, then returned.

A few Fae loathe Changelings, but it is another expression of the same immortal lust that drives others to catch them. Such hatred means conflict, and such conflicts are like wine to the Fae involved. Changelings can become centerpieces of stories they have no control over, entire wars waged in the Faeland over who will own, or slay, them.

When the spark of humanity goes out and a Changeling is truly a creature of the Faelands, interest in them wanes. Some Changelings are forgotten - even left to wander the Faelands with no way out, and no way to survive even if they did. Others find the Fae's attention reignited with hateful jealousy should they try to leave or should another Fae try to claim them.

by Unsplash (Jaroslav Devia)

Faelands

Fae lives in the part of the Beyond called the Faelands, a kingdom of wonder and nightmare they've carved from magic and dying gods.
It is a realm of horror and magic, of majestic wonder and terrors not found anywhere else. Within primordial would and industrial nightmares of pipes and choking gas, the Fae hold court and drown their boredom. Changelings are their favorite playthings, still rare enough to be novelty among the jaded Fae.

The Beyond

The Beyond is a realm of monsters and magic, of wonder and horror, far from the mortal world. Here, spirits, gods, and demons dwell among impossible, myth-shrouded lands. Getting there is difficult, and getting out can be even worse.
The Faelands are a particularly dangerous part of the Beyond, and that should be a warning to all would-be visitors. Not only are its inhabitants wicked, but the land itself shares their all-consuming lust.
Mortals were never meant to stay here long, and those who do are forever changed into something else.

Changelings who somehow escape often find themselves in some other part of the Beyond - out of the fire, and into a thousand different hells.

Hobgoblins

The Fae share their lands with a thousand kinds of slaves, collectively known as hobgoblins. Every Fae has their own cadre of Hobgoblins at their beck and call, able to create them with a passing thought and thinking just as little about destroying them again.
The greatest among the Fae have entire legions of Hobgoblins bound to their will, using them for anything from waging war to erecting monuments to entertainment and experimentation.
These lesser spirits have all the malice and whimsy of their lords, but only a fraction of their power.

by Pixabay

Wild Hunt

When the fae-mists shroud the world and the wall that shields the Prime weakens, the Wild Hunt ride among mortals. A rare occurrence of Fae organized for a singular purpose, the Wild Hunt selects prey and hounds them to their death, either for sport, avenging some slight, or extinguishing something deemed unworthy of life.
Some Wild Hunts are little more than slaving expedition, seeking to capture as many prospective Changelings as they can before the way to the world closes for them again.
Fae being Fae, they are thankfully distracted from their mission with some frequency.

No matter if their lives are measured in minutes or centuries, Changelings are victims to mad impulse and whim by the unpredictable Fae, masters who lavish them with gifts and favor one day and punishment the next. They are pawns in great theater plays of the Fae, and to survive it, they have to figure out what part they are to play, and in a hurry.

A few magi even think Changeling who survive their ordeal eventually become Fae, and so the cycle continues. The wildest story of such is that the current Archlady of the Faelands, the Countess of Cages and Chains, was once a changeling who ascended to impossible heights of power after rebelling. She cast her captors down and devoured their hearts to steal their glory, or so the story goes.... And it is the kind of story the Fae love.

by Pixabay (Stephan Keller)