True Names

## Common Knowledge

People will sometimes hear fairy tales that giving someone your name gives power. Powerful adventurers and scholars of Phantasmal magic know that there is a great deal of truth in that.

## Affected Regions

Everything has a True Name. Every creature, living and dead, every spell and gate, every object, animate and inanimate, has a True Name. Even gods have True Names. If something exists in reality, it has a True Name.

### The Faewilds

The Faewilds, a lush forest region in the Phantasmal Plane that houses Fae, Archfae, and dangerous Changelings, has a unique property. Through a blessing bestowed upon it by its creator, the Elder God of Madness, it has a sort of “consciousness” that can deduce the True Name of any creature that dwells within it given sufficient time. Each decision a creature makes and each thought that bubbles to the surface of its mind slowly teaches the Faewilds more and more about that creature, until eventually it can take its True Name by deduction alone. This process is not gradual, rather it happens slowly over the course of a period of time before ramping up during the last few hours.

The Faewilds possess those names it takes, but its relation to Madness ensures that he could make any changes should he so desire. Since Madness tends to play far greater games than toying with the fools of the Faewilds, the Wilds themselves mix and match the names it holds at random.  Once the Faewilds takes a true name, that creature can never leave the Faewilds.

The process of the Wilds taking a True Name depends largely upon the “complexity” upon the creature in question. For example, a dog in the Faewilds might lose its name after a few weeks, a human might lose it after a month or so, and a dragon might lose it after half a year or so. A creature that owns more names can also use them to resist this affect for longer.

## Related Groups and People

Superstitious people may be hesitant to give someone their name, in fear that they might be a fairy trying to steal them away.

Archfae, Fae, and Pixies are those fairies, they want to take True Names, and stealing away their owners is among the nicest things that can happen.

When someone’s True Name is taken, that person becomes a creature known as a Changeling. Sometimes if a Fae or Pixie is involved, a Changeling can be replaced in their community by a magical lookalike called a Fetch.

The Hawk-Folk inhabitants of the island nation N’Ras have a spiritual ceremony in which they see their true name through communing with their god, and they do so many times throughout their lives.

## Importance

A True Name is the manifestation of perfect knowledge for the system it describes, in effect the True Name of a person named Jim describes all of Jim’s, including but not limited to, bodily functions, capabilities, memories, thoughts, aspirations, personality, soul, essence, and being. While a person retains their own True Name, they possess full control of their destiny and their body remains intact. Inanimate objects also have True Names, but since they lack autonomy they cannot be given up willingly. Through meditation and active knowledge of True Names as a concept, a creature can briefly glimpse their own True Name (though they cannot actually do anything with it).

Under various circumstances, a person can lose their True Name. When this happens, their being becomes in some sense malleable. Without perfect knowledge of the way their being works, it becomes a projection of what it once was, and they become an Echo, though may be unchanged in any other meaningful way. When a True Name is changed in any way, either deliberately through magic or by accident, the being of the person who first owned that Name changes to match the new Name, and is thus a Changeling. Echos that are not Changelings are functionally identical in all respects to their original being. If one creature holds the purest form of another creature’s True Name, they can access the knowledge and abilities of that creature, but if they hold it for too long then the holder’s own Name will be warped and deteriorate and they will become a Changeling. Most Changelings are Echos.

Archfae, Fae, and Pixies have the unique abilities to resist the effects of holding a True Name, to take the True Name of a “willing” creature, and to change True Names they own as they see fit. While these creatures possess their own limitations as to the kind of changes they can make to a creature using their True Name (for example, none can grant them agelessness as they have), a creature’s True Name imposes limitations on its biology, capabilities, potential, and scale.

For example, say that a Fae has taken the True Name of poor Jim, and that Fae now wishes to transform Jim into a singing ball of slime. On his own, Jim could never be a singing ball of slime, so that would normally be outside the realm of Jim’s capabilities. The Fae, however, could use its magic (via a ritual of some sort) to transform Jim into an oozy baritone, so it can use its own power to change Jim’s True Name such that he is a singing slimeball.

As another example, that same Fae wants to turn Jim into a dragon. Unfortunately, neither Jim nor his Fae Keeper has that kind of power, so this is impossible.

A True Name cannot be taken without the consent of its owner, which becomes problematic if its owner lacks a consciousness. Rocks, trees, streams, and other things that are not considered “alive” all have True Names. Only a select few creatures have the power to steal something’s True Name without their permission, and those powers are reserved for the Elder Gods whose powers are without limit. That said, all but Madness and slumbering Life would have the desire to steal a name.

## Social and Cultural Impact

Those foolish enough, or desperate enough, to give away their True Names in exchange for some boon from a fae creature, often sow chaos and havoc in their communities for the amusement of their Keeper.

## Origin and History

True Names have always existed, and everything that exists has a True Name.

## Further Information

* Changeling
* Elder Gods
* Fae
* Hawk-Folk
* Magic
* N'Ras
* Pixie
* Reality