Introdução (CtL - SoD)

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# INTRODUCTION

> Come what come may,
> Time and the hour run s through the roughest day.
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> —William Shakespeare, Macbeth
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Dawn. It’s two things at once. It’s the beginning the day — and the end of the night. When the sun rises, the world transitions from darkness and rest, or at least rest for those who aren’t nocturnal, to light and movement.

Some point to dawn as a poetic symbol of hope and renewal. As the new day begins, a symbolic wealth of possibilities opens up. Everything can be done afresh. It’s a time for new beginnings. But again, everything has two edges to it.

**Swords at Dawn** is a book about both sides of these beginnings. When night changes to day, many possibilities stretch out ahead — some optimistic, some dangerous. Dawn may stand for renewal, but it’s also when armies may make their first attack. When two people who cannot abide one another for one more day agree to a duel, dawn is the traditional hour. The brand new day a sunrise heralds may hold the possibility of being the last day of a person’s life.

Similarly, renewal and change can be frightening. Consider the changes that sweep across a nation in rebellion, when one faction in power is on the brink of being cast down. This is doubly so for the Lost, whose tentative grasp on reality can be imperiled by sweeping changes. Too much alteration, too soon, and a breaking point is reached. The mad, ever-mercurial shifting of Faerie comes pouring through locked doors in the memory.

Yet sometimes, things just cannot remain the same. Each night must end, no matter what the next day might bring. The sun must rise, even if the darkness was comforting and cool.

## Like Shifting Quicksilver

Change is an interesting subject when dealing with the fae. It both describes them perfectly and not at all. In most fairy tales, the Good Folk are creatures that are far more whimsical and treacherous than even humans. They levy terrible curses at the least slight, play heartless games for the fun of it all, and change their moods as rapidly as they change their faces. They’re creatures of illusion, not bound to any one face or identity the way poor mortals are.

But at the same time, there’s a certain predictability to fairies. Part of this is likely due to the format of the fairy tale itself: certain conventions simply explain themselves well to the audience. Three is a potent narrative number because the first object (say, the eldest sister) establishes a premise, the second object (the middle sister) reinforces the first premise and makes it a pattern, and the third is then able to break the pattern. But much of it is also due to the fact that fairy tales attempt to explain a world where not all rules are made by humans. Fairies are bound by rules that no human would labor under, and it’s the wise mortal able to perceive and exploit those rules who triumphs.

In the context of **Changeling**, of course change is a worthy subject of exploration. Never mind the obvious nod in the very word “changeling” — every last one of the Lost has had their old lives torn away, remade, and potentially discarded forever. And that’s just the prelude. How much further can a character go? What if her identity changes again, or her world is split apart in a new fashion? Will she change again with it, flowing mercurially into a new mold, or will she successfully stand against the shifting tides and retain the core of who she is?

It’s certainly an interesting question. Here we’re interested in exploring it.

## How To Use This Book

Swords of Dawn is a companion volume to Dancers in the Dusk in some ways. Though the two books aren’t a direct parallel, both address similar topics of dreams and fate. But where Dancers in the Dusk addressed these from the perspective of a Storyteller and forces beyond a changeling’s control, Swords at Dawn is about a more hands-on approach.

As previously stated, dawn can herald conflict. **Chapter One: Duels at Dawn** addresses this conflict, and how it might affect the lives of those Lost caught up in the bloody birth of a new day. Here you’ll find information on large-scale conflict and Hedgefire wars, on the many traditions of dueling that exist among changeling society, and even of the magic that’s used to survive such things.

**Chapter Two: The Loom of Fate** addresses the patterns of destiny, narrative or otherwise. Changeling is a game about modern fairy tales in some fashion, and here we present ways for the Lost to perceive the threads of fate that run through their stories, perhaps even altering them to change the outcome of their tales.

**Chapter Three: Things of Legend** brings relics of high Faerie and of dream into the chronicle. Here you’ll find tokens so powerful they can alter the tales of those around them, and tools and magic for the aspiring oneiromancer.

And finally, **Chapter Four: The Coming Dawn** addresses dawn and change as themes in the most direct fashion. Advice and scenarios are provided for Storytellers who are interested in wreaking dangerous vicissitudes on a chronicle, from simple freehold conflicts to fundamental shifts in the world of the Lost. Of course, even changelings can prepare for these events to some extent. The Dawn Court stands at the forefront of these changes, even instigating them. Four Entitlements are also found here, each one preparing in some way for the inevitable truth that things simply won’t be the same forever.

## Happily Ever After?

It’s a common refrain: “there are no happy endings, because nothing ever ends.” And to some extent it’s true, if a bit simplistically stated. Within the span of a changeling’s life, few things will really and truly end. Even death may not be the end of a character’s story. If he influenced other people, set things in motion, then perhaps his story goes on — or another story that would have died stillborn if not for his actions.

So it is for the changelings. They’re inhabitants of fairy tales, but they aren’t bound to have their stories end when Hans Christian Andersen would have chosen a stopping point. Their mortal nature gives them the freedom to keep going, for better or for worse. Maybe things will end — maybe they’ll just change.

And isn’t that what Storytelling is all about?

It felt like High Summer — the unseasonal heat hanging in the night air, the exhaust pouring up still hot from the dark asphalt and, of course, the anger. The city was full of it, and the city’s Lost had been eating that wrath, digesting it.

Cassia felt it still churning in her belly as they sped through the streets. It was making her giddy. Goddamn, I’m fucking sick of running, she thought. I’m sick of being afraid. I’m sick of being the rabbit to the Wild Hunt. It was a litany she’d repeated to herself several times over the last few days. She saw it in the rest of the Winter Court, too, and she hadn’t even thought anything unusual about it. Everyone was angry. Everyone wanted to fight.

She thumbed back the hammer on her sprightlock pistol, whispered a word to it, and fired another rounded ball of elfshot at the hungry car lapping at their fumes.

Eat this, you fucks, she hissed inside her head. I’ll make you work to chase me, and then I’ll shoot out your damn eyes. That’s the kind of fucking rabbit you’re after.

Some part of her, maybe, recognized that she’d changed. That everything had changed. That the Indian summer was more than just a fluctuation of weather.

But what use was it thinking about it? If there had been a change, it had already happened. The anger was now. The hunt was now. The war was now. And nothing felt more real.

Próximo: Capítulo 1