History TabletopGame / ChangelingTheLost

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Oh so very many. But the sheer number of instances of the word "Catch" being used incorrectly is impressive.
** This has been addressed somewhat in Second Edition, where contracts no longer have Catches but Loopholes that allow them to be used without Glamour. It still applies for Tokens though.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt / AFeteWorseThanDeath: Any gathering of the True Fae. Many Freeholds descend into this, as well.

*** Clarity is also far less forgiving than some of the other Morality scales of the [=NWoD=] because it doesn't know the meaning of "extenuating circumstances", unless you're acting in accordance with your Virtue, which will usually give you bonuses to degeneration rolls but not avoid the need to roll at all.

Even if it isn't the bleakest thing White Wolf has included in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' (that honor goes to ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion''), it is almost certainly among the most melancholic and a stark contrast to its idealistic predecessor. There is no redemption, no way to go back to what you once were. The True Fae are infinite, their sorcery unstoppable, and their appetites impossible to slake. The Changelings can either resume their old lives knowing that they could be helping but aren't, or they can take on their new lives, safe in the knowledge that their endeavors will be at best a moist towelette on the raging bonfire of the Fae. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters If, by some miracle,]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope they do become powerful enough to]] [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie truly take on the True Fae, the results aren't pretty.]] On the other hand, there is a deep emphasis on relationships, interconnection, and ''wonder'' that isn't there in other ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' games. Being only slightly better than humans, Changelings must rely on others--their Motley, their Freehold, their Entitlement--to help them take on most threats and maintain their hold on what sanity remains to them. In addition, several sourcebooks note that for all the horrors of the Changeling existence, they also experience incredible beauty and fantastic marvels that most mortals can never see.

* ''Autumn Court'' - The best way to beat the Gentry is to understand how they work. The Leaden Mirror consists of occultists, Hedge wanderers, and sorcerers. They learn and develop powerful Contracts, catalogue the weaknesses of the True Fae, and even study the other strange denizens of the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness''. Their court emotion is Fear.

** Another way to look at it? Yes, you've gone through hell like none of the other [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness denizens]] can understand, but you were strong enough to escape it.

*** No True Fae understands this greater than Dzarûmazh the Deathless, a giant dragon of immense power who after a fight with a changeling went badly ended up with the tip of a cold iron spear inside his body, which is slowly worming it's way towards his heart, which will kill him. He is searching for a way to make a pact with cold iron, and if he succeeds now only will he save his owm life, but he will end up immune to the True Fae's greatest weakness.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The True Fae are, by their very nature, utterly sociopathic, incapable of seeing other people as anything other than toys or pets, at best. Their inability to understand humans is vital to the True Fae's power. If one ''does'' grow to understand humanity, its power is drastically reduced, and it may very well lose its memories and find itself permanently exiled to the Mortal world. Changelings base their government on sharing power to take advantage of this, because the idea of voluntarily choosing ''not'' to possess all the power throws the True Fae off. (Unfortunately for Miama, however, the local Summer King decided to throw that particular idea out the window. Oops.)

* OurLichesAreDifferent: ''Oak, Ash and Thorn'', the Player's Guide for 2E, reveals the Empty, changelings who have used the Hedge to pull a [[UsefulNotes/RussianMythologyAndTales Koschei]] and [[BeatStillMyHeart removed their heart]] to replace with a Token. So long as they have the Token replacement, they don't age, can draw upon the Token's own Glamour for extra power, and more importantly, death is only a major hassle for them, as their minds flee into their own dreams, from which they can gradually [[RessurectiveImmortality build a new one]]; it [[ContinuingIsPainful takes a while]], but the fact this takes place in the depths of the Hedge means the Empty always has an escape route when the Keepers are coming for them. The downside is that someone who finds the heart can force the Empty to abide by any oaths sworn on it and [[KidWithTheLeash force them to obey the new owner's orders]], and once they realize their quarry can come back from major injury, Huntsmen tend to [[ImmortalLifeIsCheap stop holding back]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: So much compared to [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming the predecessor]], where changelings were beings made of dreams fighting the death of imagination and fantasy. Here they`re the {{Mind rape}}d runaway slaves of [[MadGod mad]] [[EldritchAbomination alien]] [[TheFairFolk gods]] and are slowly going insane. However, it is LighterAndSofter than ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming''. Whereas [=PCs=] in ''Dreaming'' are canonically doomed to die or turn evil at the age of 30 or sooner, ''Lost'' provides the opportunity to EarnYourHappyEnding and live a more-or-less normal life.

* DarkerAndEdgier: So much compared to [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming the predecessor]], where changelings were beings made of dreams fighting the death of imagination and fantasy. Here they`re the {{Mind rape}}d runaway slaves of [[MadGod mad]] [[EldritchAbomination alien]] [[TheFairFolk gods]] and are slowly going insane.
** However, some fans argue that, despite appearances, ''Changeling: The Lost'' is the '''more''' idealistic game. The player characters of ''Changeling: The Dreaming'' are canonically destined to turn evil or die at age 30 or earlier, whereas ''Lost'' presents the very real possibility of leading a more-or-less normal life.

* AlienAbduction: Some of the True Fae are said to be the source of modern-day abduction myths, bearing the grey skin, bulbous heads, and almond-shaped eyes of the mythical extraterrestrial Greys.
** In a way, those who believe folks are being abducted by aliens are ''right,'' except that rather than being extraterrestrial, they're extradimensional. And magic.
*** And to confuse the issue, it's ''also'' stated that the True Fae are idea thieves, meaning that they didn't come up with the TheGreys image themselves (hell, there's a TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening version that has them as mortal cryptids, completely unrelated to Fae)... and that some disappearances have nothing to do with the Gentry.

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: Changeling: the Lost is full of this trope, most explicitly in the ability for Changelings (and Gentry) to bind ANYTHING you say as a magically enforced Pledge as long as it's phrased in a way that can be taken as a statement of intent. Most of the subtropes end up being used by players and storytellers, too. Some Changelings are leery about making and breaking *any* sort of promise, whether bound by a Pledge or not, out of concern that the Wyrd might take an interest.

* BodyHorror: Most of a changeling's fae-induced transformations are undone when they escape from Arcadia. ''Most''. Under their Mask, though, a changeling is still recognizably inhuman. Imagine being, for example, a Blightbent, and having skin that constantly seeps oil, or toxic chemicals, or who exhales clouds of chemical smog, or whose body is covered in glowing, pus-seeping tumors. Or a Mekanin who has had the flesh flayed from their ribcage, which now unhinges to reveal the clicking clockwork organs that fill their innards.

* DarkerAndEdgier: So much compared to [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming the predecessor]], where changelings were beings made of dreams fighting the death of imagination and fantasy. Here they`re the runaway slaves of [[MadGod mad]] [[EldritchAbomination alien]] [[TheFairFolk gods]] suffering from supernatural PTSD.

The successor to ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' and fifth of the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness games, following ''[[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampire]]'', ''[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Werewolf]]'', ''[[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mage]]'' and ''[[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Promethean]]''. Player characters are Changelings, humans who were stolen from their lives by the [[TheFairFolk True Fae]] of [[LandOfFaerie Arcadia]] and kept as slaves or servants. Changelings are no longer entirely human, having been tormented in positively [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] ways until they were broken in either body, mind, soul, or all of the above, and then rebuilt according to the True Fae's whims. The player characters, and many non-player character Changelings, are those who managed to fight, sneak, run, or trick their way back to freedom and the mortal world, but even when they return they bear the scars of their experience. Their very bodies have been changed into inhuman shapes. Their eyes have been opened so that they can see the truth of things, but they are also beset by hallucinations and tricks of perception. Worst of all is the constant, nagging worry: ''what if I never escaped? What if this is all a trick... or if I was '''allowed''' to leave?''

* EnfantTerrible: Fetchspawn. If a Fetch ever manages to have a child with a human, the result might be one of these monstrosities. They have no KarmaMeter. They have no empathy. Most people just assume they're autistic because of their total inability to relate to other human beings on an emotional or social level. They tend to kill things... just because. This is all exacerbated by the fact that their touch automatically opens all doors and springs all locks, they cannot be bound or imprisoned, and people tend to ignore them, so they're able to slip around without notice. They are immune to Changeling powers, and their touch drains the Lost of magical energies. Oh... and did we mention that at the age of 21 they get sucked back into the Hedge, likely to become Gentry themselves?
** [[SubvertedTrope On the other hand]], the other kind of fetch-child, supposedly created when a Fetch who still thinks he's human has biblical study of a person he truly loves is almost always psychologically healthy. They're a little [[CreepyChild weird]], to be sure, but no more weird then a high-functioning autistic, and they [[TheCharmer get better]] as they near puberty. Unfortunately, they're also a little BlessedWithSuck-their very existence is a key to the [[EldritchLocation Hedge]], and their blood is supposedly toxic to Fae, meaning they're likely to draw the attention of [[WellIntentionedExtremist militants]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: So much compared to the predecessor.

* BeastAndBeauty: It's even a stereotype that Ogres ''really'' like the Fairest. The Fairest usually don't reciprocate these feelings, but it happens. Generally though the Ogre will merely be strung along and serve as dumb muscle. ''Autumn Nightmares'' provides a pair of NPCs who exemplify this dynamic, a mercurial Fairest named Damiana and a violently loyal Ogre named Bert (although Bert knows the score, and Damiana, for her part, does care for him, just not enough to not screw with his emotions to make herself feel better).

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The True Fae are, by their very nature, utterly sociopathic, incapable of seeing other people as anything other than toys or pets, at best. Their inability to understand humans is vital to the True Fae's power. If one ''does'' grow to understand humanity, its power is drastically reduced, and it may very well lose its memories and find itself permanently exiled to the Mortal world. Changelings base their government on sharing power to take advantage of this, because the idea of voluntarily choosing ''not'' to possess all the power throws the True Fae off.

* BeastAndBeauty: It's even a stereotype that Ogres ''really'' like the Fairest. The Fairest usually don't reciprocate these feelings, but it happens. Generally though the Ogre will merely be strung along and serve as dumb muscle.

** "[[SummonBiggerFish Call the Hunt]]," a four-dot Goblin Contract that simply brings the Wild Hunt - an aggressive group of True Fae slave-takers - into the world. You're a dead Changeling if you aren't ready to run as soon as the Contract is invoked. Most Goblin Contracts have drawbacks (one that unlocks any door for you has the drawback that the next person to break into your home gets the same benefit, and sends out a subtle beacon to that kind of person just to make sure it happens). "Call the Hunt" doesn't - it's already its own drawback.