Changeling The Lost Freehold

[Ottavia Delamar]

Althoughchangelings may not always like or even respect one another, the majority of changelings recognize their common bond of slavery and escape. Except for the few twisted wretches who work for the Gentry, one of the few goals all changelings can agree upon is maintaining their freedom from the Fae. As a result, changelings naturally band together for mutual defense and support, to prevent any of their number from being dragged back to Arcadia or enslaved in the mortal world.

Local changeling communities are called freeholds, a name that reflects their focus on self-determination and mutual aid. Changelings who have recently escaped from Faerie are always offered the hospitality of the local freehold. These refugees are treated as guests for as much as a month, or perhaps even longer if they suffered mental or physical harm during their escape. After this initial period of open hospitality, changelings are usually offered a chance to join the freehold.

This focus on mutual aid and defense has forged two stereotypes for changelings who choose to have little to do with their freehold. Some have little contact with their freehold and do their best to avoid contact when calls for aid go out, but come asking for aid of their own if the Wild Hunt or privateers come seeking them. Despite any and all previous times they failed to aid their fellow changelings, unless they are known to be traitors or otherwise forsworn, the rest of the freehold aids them, but usually asks them to leave the freehold immediately afterwards. In contrast, some isolated changelings rarely or never seek out their own kind for companionship or for any other non-essential purpose, but always make certain they are easy to contact and arrive swiftly if called upon to aid the freehold or its members. These stoic and isolated knights and ronin are widely regarded as eccentric, but command no small amount of respect.

No two freeholds govern themselves in precisely the same fashion. In areas such as Europe and North America where the seasonal Great Courts hold sway, a freehold seems to run smoothest when governed by a rotating seasonal king or queen. A Summer King or Queen holds on to power until an agreed-upon sign of autumn arrives, at which point the ruler relinquishes power to a new Autumn King or Queen.

While the Spring Queen of Montral holds court, she appoints several changelings to her Council of Graces to oversee celebrations, collect tribute in the form of art and diplomatically smooth out many feuds and rivalries within the freehold. When she cedes the throne to the Summer King, the Council of Graces steps down with her. For his part, the Summer King then organizes a cadre of Knight-Defenders, Knight-Hospitalers and Knight-Champions to carry out the tasks needed for a Summer-held freehold. Some freeholds find it advisable to have certain offices that remain unchanged through all four seasons, with the same Minister of Doors serving year-round. Others accept certain cabinet offices that remain constant, but the appointee changes with the ruler.

Some freeholds are less tolerant, and for practical reasons. For one, they argue that such practices encourage troubled changelings to wallow in their problems rather than solving them. More troublesome is the tendency to permit unacceptable and disruptive behavior under the guise of tolerating emotional problems. A changeling who attempts to disrupt a freehold under the pretense of dementia may quickly find that her fellow changelings have experience in discerning feigned mental illness from the real thing, and no sympathy for the former. Worse, a changeling who cannot distinguish between the real and unreal is like a beacon to any minions of the Gentry who hunt the rogue Lost.

One of the most significant tensions in the changeling community is between the idyllic and fully accepting image that most freeholds attempt to cultivate and the fact that, just as all small insular communities, freeholds are prone to vicious gossip, petty rivalries and lingering grudges. When combined with the exotic and stressful nature of life as a changeling, betrayals and attempts to seek advantage can easily result in truly horrific things happening to anyone getting in the way of a particular ambitious, skilled and amoral changeling.

Some feel utterly lost in the mortal world and seek out others of their kind for aid, advice or simple company. Some wish to have nothing to do with other changelings, changeling society or any other reminders of the Fae and want to resume their previous lives as swiftly as possible. Unfortunately, because of such daunting obstacles as the length of their absence and the likely presence of their fetches, these attempts prove either difficult or impossible. However, most changelings who seek mortal lives first prefer to test these problems for themselves and then come to their local freehold seeking advice later. The stark necessity of interacting with other changelings frequently banishes the resentment many feel at having to deal with people whose appearance and very existence reminds them of their half-remembered years of slavery.

The most basic service every freehold offers to newly escaped changelings is an explanation of the realities of their existence, including the past or present existence of their fetches, the specific dangers the changelings might face and the inability of most mortals to notice anything unusual about them. Most freeholds can provide newcomers a place to stay for a few days and often a small amount of money to help them start to make their way in the world again. To obtain more than these minimal services, changelings are expected to join the freehold.

Membership in a freehold gains a changeling access to such services, but taking advantage of the more extensive or difficult services, such as obtaining larger sums of money or asking for the disposal of a fetch, incurs obligations to either the freehold as a whole or (more commonly) to an individual member. These debts range from loans, which must be repaid, to more nebulous obligations to other members of the freehold. Such services are naturally available to all members, and not just the newly escaped. In this way, a freehold serves as a social and financial safety net for changelings, where a badly injured changeling can obtain goblin fruit, a changeling who has incurred some trouble can obtain a loan or even a new ID and all members can find allies to defend themselves against recapture.

Payment for most such services is typically made in kind rather than in money. Every changeling is expected to be able to provide, or at least help with, some sort of service useful to other changelings. These services can range from something as simple as free food or a spare room, but every changeling who asks for a significant service is expected to contribute something in return. This arrangement is the cornerstone of changeling society, and those who favor the courtly intrigue of a freehold often sit at the center of a web of favors, promises and allegiances. The most basic and central service freeholds offer is dealing with threats from the Fae and their allies. Victims of attacks by privateers or Fae are expected to recompense the members of the freehold who aid them, just as all members of the freehold are expected to help out when the Fae threatens a member or one of their mortal loved ones. Unfortunately, the Fae and their agents are well aware of these pacts of mutual aid and often attempt to isolate a member of a freehold from her fellow changelings before attempting to go after her or her family. Occasionally, privateers or Fae arrange for a changeling or even an entire motley to look as if they have been shirking their responsibilities to their freehold, or perhaps even betrayed their freehold, causing aid to be cut off until the situation is sorted out.

In addition to the obvious advantages of safety in numbers and mutual aid, convincing a newly arrived changeling to join the local freehold is also considered to be a good idea because it allows other Lost to better keep track of her actions and, if necessary, to place limits on her behavior. Once a changeling has grown used to the advantages offered by life in a freehold, the threat of limiting these benefits can easily be used to help restrain unacceptable behavior. One of the difficulties in changeling society is the problem of what to do with changelings who refuse to follow the rules. Privateers and others who pose an immediate and deliberate threat to the lives of the Lost as a whole are the worst sort of enemy. Killing them is widely considered to be the most pragmatic solution. However, many problematic changelings are not so obviously villainous.

Some simply have hair-trigger tempers and are prone to violence when some person or situation inadvertently reminds them of their captivity with the Fae. Others may be completely non-violent but are pathological liars, petty thieves or simply completely self-centered and amoral. All such changelings can be exceedingly difficult to deal with. The situation is naturally made worse by the fact that many Lost are willing to ignore serious eccentricities in their fellow changelings. This dismissal means that problems only tend to be raised once they have become so severe that no one can ignore them anymore.

Not all criminally inclined changelings confine their attacks to other Lost. Some strictly avoid harming other changelings or their loved ones, and instead rob or assault mortals. Many such criminals then come to their freehold for protection when mortal justice takes notice of their actions. Because they have avoided any direct offense against the members of their freehold, these changelings make appeals similar to those made by or for insane changelings who wish to avoid asylums or involuntary medical treatment. Many freeholds are exceedingly reluctant to turn over one of their own to mortal justice, especially if this changeling either displays stark terror at the idea of imprisonment or hints that he may end up revealing some of the secrets of the freehold if he is brought to justice. This situation becomes even more complex if, as is very common, the members of the freehold have previously sheltered this changeling from the consequences of more minor legal infractions.

3a8082e126