Metamorphosis (Art)

Metamorphosis is the fae Art of transformation. It is the source of legends of wicked boys turned into frogs, and enraged faeries becoming terrible dragons. While such overt miracles have become taxing and difficult to perform as the world slides from Autumn to Winter, the Kithain have nevertheless retained nearly their full command of this glorious and storied Art.

Or at least, the commoner Kiths have. Metamorphosis is a rare Art among the ranks of nobles; many sidhe regard it as a form of base magic, and would never dream of transforming themselves into lesser beings, or marring their beauty with beastly features, no matter how useful they might be. The pooka, of course, claim that Metamorphosis was their original invention and gift to the Kithain as a whole, and are some of its most enthusiastic practitioners. The Art is also common among sluagh, clurichaun, and boggans.

## Unleashing Metamorphosis

Because the Kithain have retained such extensive mastery of Metamorphosis, Unleashings using the Art are fairly uncom - mon — there’s not a lot within its purview that a true master of the Art can’t already accomplish. Most Unleashings, then, are either used to gain access to advanced powers the changeling can’t normally use, or to call upon the Dreaming to deliver its own judgments and justice. “Let him wear the nature of his heart for all the world to see” is a classic Metamorphosis Unleashing.

## Metamorphosis Bunks

Metamorphosis bunks incorporate animal symbolism, colors, transformations, alterations, and utterances. Examples include: Make the sound an animal makes, burn a feather, curse someone, paint your nails, rub ash on your subject, reverse your shirt and put it back on, speak your target’s name thrice, then thrice again backwards, catch a cat, frighten a flock of pigeons, pretend to be an animal for a full scene, carve a figurine from soap, paint your target, then paint over it again, deface a portrait, put on a silly disguise, or strip off all your clothes.

## Metamorphosis Cantrips

### Sparrows and Nightingales

A sidhe wilder wears hair of a different hue each day. A clurichaun, freshly arrived in Honolulu, gives himself the cast of an islander, naively thinking this will help him approach the native fae. A grinning pooka takes on the seeming of a troll, the better to rook a gullible young knight.

This cantrip allows the changeling to set her target apart from himself, changing one fundamental feature into some plausible alternative. She could change a man into a woman, a redhead into a brunette, make a short woman tall, or a black man white. She could make a boggan into a nocker, a cheap pressboard table into gleaming mahogany, an oak tree into an elm tree, a black cat into a calico, a stick shift car into an automatic, or a five-dollar bill into a 100-dollar bill. The only restrictions on this metamorphosis are that the changeling may change only one fairly discrete physical feature about her target, and she must change it into an alternative feature that the target might reasonably possess. A person might be dark-skinned rather than light-skinned, but couldn’t generally be green-skinned, for example (some Kiths notwithstanding), a table might be made of teak rather than oak, but certainly wouldn’t be made of depleted uranium, and a car might be the 2014 model rather than the 2009 model, but would never be able to fly or to contain ejector seats.

**System:** The Realm selected determines who or what is transformed. The number of successes rolled dictates how long the transformation lasts:

 2
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 4
 5

If she wishes, the changeling may always attach a condition to the duration of the transformation that, if met, will end the cantrip early, such as “when you return with the Duke’s ring,” “when you speak my name thrice into a mirror,” or even “when you come to truly repent of your crime.”

**Type:** Chimerical or Wyrd

### Worms and Giants

This legendary cantrip may be used to shrink or enlarge its subject, producing riding mice for pooka hedge knights, shrink - ing boggans down to do truly fine detail work on shoes, making table knives into impromptu swords, or punishing uncouth mortals with a true worm’s-eye view of the Autumn World.

System: The Realm delineates who or what shrinks or grows. The successes rolled determine the extent of the subject’s size alteration:

 2
 3
 4
 5

Unlike most cantrips, repeated castings do stack. Regardless of the severity of growth or shrinking, this cantrip lasts for only a scene, although Unleashings have been known to produce transformations of greater duration.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Thousandskins

A mousy pooka becomes a mighty lion. An angry sluagh pushes his redcap tormentor into an old cobweb, where the astonished redcap becomes a scuttling spider. A troll claps his hands, and the gun in the thug’s hand becomes a hissing snake.

This mighty cantrip allows the changeling to transform a person or object into an animal. Individuals so transformed retain their own mind and instincts, but gain the physical traits, sensory abilities and limitations, and special capabilities of whatever animal they’ve been turned into. Objects transformed into animals gain the mind of a “typical” member of whatever species they have become for the duration of the transformation, so that a rabbit will be skittish, a lion will hunt, and so forth. Transformed humans and fae retain the power of speech, but only to those capable of perceiving chimerical reality.

**System:** The Realm used determines who or what is turned into an animal. The changeling must split successes between the severity of the transformation and its duration. Duration breaks down like so:

 1
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 5

Meanwhile, the more successes allocated to severity, the more extreme the possible transformation:

 1
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 4
 5

**Type:** Wyrd

### Beastskin

This handy blessing or curse refines Metamorphosis to permit partial transformations. A churlish mortal might be granted a pig’s face, while a noble steed could gain the wings of a swan, and a cornered commoner might grant herself fierce claws or poisoned fangs with which to fight.

**System:** The Realm used determines who or what gains animalistic features. (Prop is an exercise in creative thinking for this cantrip. While furry rocks tend to be of limited usefulness, envenomed swords and enemy clothing granted the stench of a skunk are among some of this cantrip’s more notorious applications.) Each success may grant the subject either one animal feature of the changeling’s choice, or may be used to extend the cantrip’s duration according to the chart below:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5

As with Sparrows and Nightingales, the changeling may set a condition to end this cantrip’s duration prematurely.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Chimeric Exultation

Cornered, the sidhe magician sets his cane alight and hurls it to the ground, where it becomes a roaring wyrm. He escapes out of a concealed door in the chaos that follows.

This fantastic cantrip allows the changeling to transform her target into a creature of legend, or even a fantastic beast of her own imagining, by mixing together the traits and natures of different creatures. Dragons, manticores, gryphons, the kraken of legend — any can be called forth by Chimeric Exultation.

**System:** Much like Thousandskins, Realm determines who or what is transformed. Each success allows the changeling to name one fantastic ability to be granted by the transformation (a dragon, for example, might possess flight, fantastic strength, fantastic toughness, and flaming breath). Unlike Thousandskins, the duration of this cantrip is always the caster’s Glamour rating in minutes, although this duration can be “reset” each time the changeling (or the transformed subject) pays a point of Glamour to do so.

**Type:** Wyrd