A Byzantine web of words: Pledges and the Tower

Following on from the statting session you are probably all starting to come up with your motley pledges, and eyeing up that free blag :p , so for this post I thought I would talk about the importance of pledges and the local social conventions surrounding pledge making.
Pledges 101
Pledges are broken down into three different types

Vows: The most common pledges, these are simply a formal agreement to accomplish a task. A changeling can have their Wyrd+3 vows active at any time.
Oaths: More formalised pledges sworn on the name of an individual. Changelings can have up to three oaths (one on their own name, one on the name of their keeper and one invested in a higher power)
Corporeal: Similar to Oaths except they are investing an aspect of the Changeling. Changelings can up to five corporeal pledges (One attached to their seeming, one attached to their court, one attached to their entitlement [if they are in one], one on a mortal association they are a member of and one sworn on another who will act as their punisher should they break that pledge).

All pledges which your character has sworn must be submitted to me at norwich.lost.lst@islesofdarkness.com including the pledge wording and a mechanical breakdown for you to gain the mechanical benefits.


Oaths of allegiance
Although the ruling monarch has de jure absolute power, the size and complexity of administering a freehold (not to mention the reservations changelings naturally have towards people having power over them) has created a byzantine bureaucracy or various offices and titles that mark the various levels of power and status within the city. Upon entering office, including the lowliest of ranks- simple citizenship of the city, a Changeling is expected to make a formal oath of allegiance which outlines their duties and responsibilities. This always takes the form of an Oath or corporeal pledge as this limits the concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals, especially as not all offices expire alongside the changing of the crown.


Moreover all oaths of allegiance are sworn in Old English. This is because Changelings would rather used tried and tested pledges to hold their officials to account and fear that updating an oath into the modern tongue might inadvertently create loopholes: Received wisdom states that anyone who seeks power over their fellows is only a matter of steps removed from the Gentry and with the evolution of language words can take on different meanings in the eyes of the Wyrd to those intended by the signatories.
For those unable to speak the old tongue younger changelings have created the 'Speakers Pledge' to get round an archaic formality...


The Speakers Pledge
Okay, lets do this
no lies: we use the true tongue this day
Deal...
Vow
Task: Forbiddance (Medial)- do not tell a lie; the speakers pledge is used for deal making so its just common courtesy (-2)
Boon: Blessing- Language: Old English (+1)
Duration: Day- pledge should not last longer than is necessary (+1)

Freehold Pledge: The Citizens Pledge

Upon broken chains I swear this oath. ‘Till (rains of summer/ frost of winter) abide in both; I pledge my service to the Watchtower-Over-the Water. Within its walls shall I be stayed from slaughter and before the monarchs decrees shall I not falter. To its defence I swear my arm upon Sigil and on its walls I maintain my vigil. Upon these tasks may my clear eyes see and upon failure retribution seek for me.

Oath: The Name of the Keeper- increased risk of being taken back if pledge broken
Task: Forbiddance (Lesser) - do not kill another changeling within the city walls; though this is generally only assumed to apply within the walls of the hedge city a cautious fae would steer clear of doing their murdering within the walls of the mortal city as well (-1)
Task: Alliance (greater) - be vigilant, report or deal with threats to your city and your fellow citizens and obey the city bye laws   (-3)
Boon: Vassalage- the freehold is more than bricks and mortar, the freehold is more than a vow, it is a community. Members of the Freehold pledge receive a +1 to all clarity checks they are required to make (+3)
Boon: Adroitness- Signatories gain a greater insight into the use of weaponry for defending the city walls. (+1)
Sanction: Violence - though not explicit the penalty for betrayal is exile into the mortal world, enforced by the glare of their former peers and the knives at their backs. Those who choose to stay within the city walls may only use mundane armour to defend against attacks by members of the freehold. (-2)
Duration: Season- Though the ‘season’ is derived from the two conflicting seasons of the local hedge. The nature of the wyrd means that the pledge must be re-sworn every 89 days- ironically along the lines of the traditional four season of the mundane world (+2)

Monarchical Decrees of the Freehold:

1. Those who forsake their oaths shall not be afforded citizenship of the city.
2. Scouring for glamour with the city or otherwise defacing the city walls is forbidden.
3. Those who knowingly bargain with the enemies of the city will be withdrawn the city’s protection.
4. The following are listed as enemies of the city:
   1. The Gentry
   2. Loyalists
   3. Privateers
   4. Bridge burners
5. Those whose minds are deemed irrevocably unsound by the committee of freedom and stability, appointed from amongst the Bishopric of the city, will be withdrawn the city’s protection.
6. It is an offence to influence an official of the city in the enacting of their duties through means of violent or magical coercion.

A Maze of Thorns part 3: The Winter of Discontent

As the Unseelie assume power the abundance of life within the hedge beats a hasty retreat. The luscious canopy of thorns withers into short shrubs  and tall grasses. Lakes and rivers turn to peaty bogs or frozen sheets as a bitter wind beckons the arrival of snow. Water drains from the landscape, firming the ground into permafrost that reveals a vast subterranean landscape below. Hedge bounty and provisions are few and far between, found in isolated groves deep into the expanse or in grottos far below the surface. Hedge beasts can be found but fatality is most likely to come from starvation and the elements.
Winter Begins in the hedge during the witching hours of All Hallows Eve (31st October). The temperature suddenly drops as the rains of summer turn fist to sleet then hail then a blizzard of snow. Vision becomes near zero and the very earth below an observers feet begins to shift...All this is based on speculation as none have lived to give a personal account of how the hedge topography changes.


Environmental Hazards
The cold is a constant threat for anyone traversing the hedge in winter. Howling winds and regular snowstorms severely increase the wind-chill one experiences, forcing changelings to see shelter off the paths. Sources of nourishment are few and far between meaning that someone planning on entering the hedge must pack provisions in case they have to hunker down for the night. Though the ground is generally permafrost there are large stretches of peat bogs which can prove fatal if one falls in. Finally due to the seemingly less dense nature of the hedge in winter, it has often been speculated that hedge beasts and other creatures find it easier to track and hunt their prey.


In the subterranean 'underworld' hazards come in the form of cave-in's and underwater lakes. This can be especially dangerous as viable hedge gates out of the catacombs are hard to come by, leaving changelings stranded to an unknown fate on more than one occasion.


Local Flora and Fauna
Blindbirds
Small avian hedge beasts resembling a black feathered Merlin with heavily sunken eyes. The Blindbirds are said to be an omen of death, appearing only when a changeling is at their most vulnerable. It is said they can offer aid in return for a pound of flesh...
Briar Wolves
Bestial humanoid wolves with long forearms. Briar wolves always hunt in packs, appearing from nowhere across the expanse of the hedge they circle their pray looking for signs of weakness...


Etaynes
Standing almost forty feet in height, with four muscular gangrel arms, the Etaynes are giants pulled straight from Anglo-Saxon myth. Wandering the vast tundra always in search of their next meal the Etaynes more than live up to their 'devourer' moniker. With the power to tear apart a poorly hidden hollow or, speculatively, able to tear down the city walls: when one emerges from the deep hedge it is a matter of priority that it is taken down quickly.
Rumours:

1. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the Etaynes are becoming more frequent. For some reason they seem to be attracted to the walls: is anyone even looking into them, where they come from or like? If you ask me if nothing's done about it then there might come a time when you cant even venture out into the hedge without one of them coming after you.
2. Sometimes when you're out in  the Hedge you see giant standing stones: well that's an Etayne slumbering...yeah many of them have the ability to turn to stone and sleep for a long time...so you ever spot a nice inviting cave to shelter in you just might be doing the giants work for him...

Gloom Drake
Bioluminescent and petit Wyverns that live in the catacombs that seem to be made from smoke and shadow: Gloom Drakes are an inherent contradiction between the monster in the dark and the fear of the unknown. They are obsessed with riddles, a hallmark of the quick-witted delicacies amongst the minds that it feasts upon.

Suicide Trees
Standing solitary by the intersection of two Trods or growing above the ruins of a long departed hollow, the willowy and drooping branches of a Suicide Tree are both a warm comfort and an ill omen. Suicide trees take the appearance of  a large yew tree with its thick branches tapering off into long gnarled tendrils. Apart from small blister like buds the tree looks dead and gives off the musty smell of decay. Despite this, a Suicide Tree is the best natural shelter one can find when a storm or nightfall hits the hedge.
Rumours:

1.  If you cut open a suicide tree blood will pour out, useful to know cause I heard that when some of the hedge experts get wounded they ingest it, though I hear transfusions better,  and their wounds nit back together. It even slows down poisons and diseases to a near standstill...Well if its that good why hasn't anyone tried to harvest it I wonder.
2. Suicide trees only grow in a place where death occurred, now before you say no shit its the fucking hedge, I mean significant tragedy like a motley being killed trying to prevent one of them from taking a friend back to faerie...those trees give me the creeps, there always feels like there is some dark oppressive weight hanging over them; a sense of dread that is all the more acute if you're Unseelie like me...

Wodwos

The descendants of Cain and his ilk, Grendel, Krampus, Wildmen: there are many names that have been attributed to the Wodwos. Standing over six feet tall, with ram horns and cloven hooves for feet, their hair covered bodies cut the silhouette of the devil. Though they wear fur and leather hides like a man they are covered in shaggy hair which protects them from the worst of the elements. Their faces bulge with a vicious muzzle that opens to reveal an array of sharp fangs. Wodwos are particularly interesting not just because of their sentience, having some sort of nomadic hob society, but for the fact each shows noticeable variations in both appearance and abilities.

Rumours:

1. 'The Church of Lost Salvation' says that only those chosen by god can escape faerie...so what about all those sick buggers that somehow manage to get out...well the way I heard it the Wodwos are actually changelings who have spent too much time in the hedge: either they somehow escaped their keepers without divine intervention or they are those who turned their back on god...
2. Though the Wodwos are little more than barbarian hobs they aren't completely stupid: if you can earn their respect then you can negotiate with them and in the time of want that can mean the difference between life and death for a hedge traveller. but don't go getting all naïve, they are a bunch of heathen lowlifes and are just as happy to sell you out to loyalists as help you out...

Yow-Yow's
There was once a story of an old sea captain whose ship was wrecked in a storm off the Norfolk coast. Despite the wailing cries of him and his crew the fishermen of the local village would not launch their boats, for their greed to acquire salvage was greater than the compassion for their fellow man. It is said that with his dying breath the captain cursed a vengeance upon those unwilling to act...its a lovely story but to changelings who take heed to the legend of the Yow-Yows one should not be so rash in the making of pledges. Nobody exactly knows what the Yow-Yow's are: beyond the local folkore they are the ravings of the mad and despirate. Those fully given over to the emotions of the Unseelie courts...
Rumours:

1. You remember Di, the winter courtier fresh out the hedge last year...Yeah the one whose mantle flared up all of a sudden...well I went down to the catacombs a couple of months back to search for hedge fruit and I saw her...well I say her but it was her bloated rotting drowned corpse...stared right at me and tried to drown me in and underground lake...look I'm NOT making this up, anyone who tells you death is a way out they're bullshitting...
2. Yow-Yow's are kind of half banshee, half siren...they're ephemeral beings from beyond the grave that try to drown you...but even if you 'escape' you just defer the suffering...They're an omen of death and if you don't pay the price someone close to you gets drawn into the bargin...how do I know this? Ms Crowley confided it to someone at a function...well she's always saying don't go down into the catacombs...

A Maze of Throns part 2: The Summer of All Dead Souls

During the time in which the Seelie Courts are ascendant the local hedge transforms with a deluge into a thick mist filled swamp that washes away or severely warps all but the most well maintained Trods. Through it is still possible to navigate by foot, those who seek to travers the hedge in this season are wise to invest in a Wherry. However, for one daring to enter its many misty bayous and dark enveloped broads the multitude of groves containing hedge bounty offer an enticing reward.


Summertime in the hedge begins during the witching hours of Walpurgis Night (30th April). Those who have become temporarily trapped in the hedge during this transformation have claimed that as the crown shifts from Winter to Summer the hedge begins to heat up. The snow and ice thaws into a thick mist the blinds the viewer from the terraforming that takes place. Anybody caught out during the transformation will find the heavy rains wash away this mist to revel an unfamiliar part of the deep hedge.


Environmental Hazards
The Hedge in summer is bathed in a putrid humidity. Steam and fog rises over the oily waters or from the 'coast' making navigation difficult at the best of times and can occasionally render visibility to near zero. Out in the marshes willow-the-wisps dance to attract the unwary to watery graves. This presents a dilemma for the Lost of recent times as received wisdom says an exit can be found around the 'shadows' of the Mortal realm: in a time where Street lighting is been an ever present feature of the Mortal realm one can never be sure if the light in the fog invites salvation or death.


Local Flora and Fauna


Briar Wolves
Nimble pack animals that resemble wolves with long front limbs used for combat or fishing along the riverbanks. Although they both appear and display animalistic traits, their eyes are all too human albeit one with atavistic tendencies. Unlike in other regions, the common Briar wolf is relatively low down the food chain.

Heracleum Mantegazzianum Rex (A.K.A. Regal Hogweed)
Introduced into Britain as an ornamental plant in 1893, the invasive phototoxic weed known as 'Giant Hogweed' soon escaped domestication to find a new home in the hedge. Its wyrd mutated 'hob' counterpart, the Regal Hogweed, has evolved to become top of the local food chain. Standing up to eight feet tall on three squat growths, the Regal Hogweed digs its toe like roots into the silt of the marshland to walk along the banks of the many hedge rivers and gullies. It is a slow and lumbering creature which hunts via a ring of bud like sensors around its mid torso, a collection of fine hair like thorns on its lower body and along its roots (though it is still hotly debated by members of the autumn court what exactly these appendages detect. Its distinctive floral 'crown', similar to other species in the Hogweed family,  emits a sweet smell that entices other creatures to climb upon its Green and red speckled stalk 'neck' either to taste its nectar or the hedge fruit that sometimes grows from it. Its bulb like head contains a long vine like tongue which it uses to deliver its venom which first weakens and then paralyses its prey for consumption, often displaying symptoms of Phytophotodermatitis in the victim.
Rumours:

1. I'm sure you've noticed it too; but where there's one hogweed a few more are certain to be around. I have a friend see who said he saw a group of them surround and pin down a swamp dragon...husked it in a matter of minutes he said...Can't be true right: I mean how would they even coordinate a thing like that...dumb plants...
2. You know Annabel Lee gets anyone who's encountered the Hogweed to go into quarantine right: taking liberties I say...literally. However, I heard once this autumn courtier went to study them and ended up breathing in too many of their spores so that one of those things grew inside him... used his corpse as a puppet until it decayed to collapse and the weed was at full maturity...horrible way to go if you ask me...

Lantern Men
Traveling at night in the hedge can be even more dangerous than travelling by day: the arching branches of the thorns form a thick canopy blocking the pale moon light and many a fool has been led to a watery demise following the light of spontaneously combusting swamp gas. Except not all the lights on the marshes are that banal. Once the sun begins to set beneath the horizon the Lantern men go on the prowl. No accurate description beyond a spectral figure with long raking claws and a lantern on its right middle digit exists but a Changeling knows one is near by from the deep seated sense of unease they feel. Their ambiguous nature has made some to speculate that they might be some sort of 'double take' caused by prolonged stay in the hedge, the Clarity of the witness or the weight of a guilty conscience.
Rumours:

1. I have a friend who is a darkling, proper goth child but she's pretty on the level...anyway she says she can understand what the Lantern Men are saying...it's like you have to listen carefully to the voice in the breeze or some shit like that. Apparently she also does 'favours' for them, weird things like collecting the heads of dolls and leaving them under a certain tree near a hedge gate...
2. I heard the reason nobody knows exactly what the lantern men look like is because your brain actively tries to shut their image out...I've heard people say they are attracted to noise but I reckon its concentrating on them that draws them in...why you ask? Well I heard from a friend of a friend about this kid who kept seeing shadow monsters in their room at night and whenever they talked about it to someone more seemed to turn up that evening...I bet they harvest peoples dreams but they need a way in and cause we can lucid dream we have some sort of natural defence mechanism.

Nicor
Anglo-Saxon and pan-Germanic folklore tells of serpentine creatures dwelled in river and mere. Though many surviving  tales depict such creatures as ambivalent water sprites such as the Nix of the Rhine and the Danube, the Nicor are brutal, ugly and cunning. Nicor can grow up to 20 feet long from the tip of their long Gavialidae snout to the tip of their tail and are noted for having a scaly 'humanoid' torso which they propel with webbed talons on the end of muscular arms. Beyond their pelvis is a long reptilious tail with two vestigial legs which it uses to balance upon the river bed when it rears up to attack. Nicor are solitary and territorial creatures which predate using the murky waters and the element of surprise.
Rumours:

1. Its pretty stupid to think of the Nicor as simple beasts, like all 'wyrm's they are dangerously intelligent and have an insatiable greed...it is possible to negotiate 'safe' passage through a Nicor's territory if you can offer the right price...and catch one in a good mood...
2. Many tales tell of the Nicor luring dupes into peril with music but that's not strictly true. Sure they are known to 'sing' a deep throaty baritone but its not to lure prey so much as to herd them by attracting other creatures: it just triggers some primal instinct in hedge beasts and draws them closer...

Spencer's Nepenthe

A giant and colourful plant that appears on the banks and amongst the trees on small islands. Spencer's Nepenthe is a carnivorous plant resembling the 'pitcher plants' of more tropical regions. However, it has a unique method of luring prey by emitting a mixture of pheromones and sound mimicry that gives the unwary the belief one of their kind is in grave danger.

Swamp Dragons
Truly the rarest but most dangerous creatures during summer. Swamp dragons are seldom seen outside the deeper hedge in areas containing large bodies of water. They are fierce two legged creatures, similar in appearance to the sea Wyvern, that can grow in excess of 60 feet yet in their wetland homes can easily hide below the waters due to the purply-black hide. They breath out concentrated methane gas which they can either ignite as a flame weapon or use to poison would be attackers. Swamp dragons are one of the few 'wild' creatures that can pose a significant threat to 'The Tower' and if one strays too close it will become the subject of a hunt.
Rumours:

1. Look, if you don't believe me I wouldn't blame you but from what I heard the Dragons actually have a 'society' of sorts...full of intrigue and wot not, but then what would you expect from something that's only a few steps away from one of them. so how do I know? Well 'Big Al' sends some of his boys out in the first few days of Summer, all draconics right, carrying some bundles of paper like their lives depend upon it...from what I've heard the dragons send any of there's who've caused too much trouble our way and anyone who the monarch needs to disappear fast gets sent off to them...every body wins then except the poor buggers that get stickked...
2. So all hedge beasts can enter the mortal realm right...well what could a full on dragon hide itself as I wonder? Well, I was hanging around the mortal realm a few years back when there was that massive oil tanker spill and the PR guy doing the rounds with smug insincerity looked just like one of those fucker's...you don't think they were behind it???

Wyrd-Mites
Wyrd-Mites are small insectoid creatures similar to ticks in that they lay their eggs in the skin of their prey. These parasitic creatures are little more than a minor annoyance  in most circumstances but as they live through siphoning glamour from their host one should always be weary.