Category:Kiths

Revision as of 09:24, 9 November 2013

Kiths are groups of Kithain differentiated along phylogenic lines similar to species. While all are vaguely humanoid in appearance each Kith has a distinctive appearance as well as specific Birthright and Frailties wich set it apart from other Kiths.

Kiths

The standard kiths

• Boggan - workers and busybodies, house fairies, gnomes; The dream of the home and the hearth and the people who tend it.
• Eshu - African or Indian spirits; travellers, storytellers, adventurers. The dream of foreign and exotic people and places, and the freedom of travel.
• Nocker - technological beings, like dwarves and gremlins. The dream of technological creativity and creation of your dreams, but also the frustration which people feel when their dreams fail to meet up with reality.
• Pooka - tricksters, shapechangers, animal spirits. The dream of a carefree and less controlled life, similar to that of animals which the pooka have affinities with.
• Redcap - murderers and cannibals, monsters, hobgoblins; Formed from the bottomless hunger which people felt in the depth of winter and the desperation which people felt to fight their hunger.
• Satyr - lovers and revellers, horned god, Pan. Formed from the deep passions and lusts of mortals
• Sidhe - the nobility, Lords and Ladies, elves, the Shining Host. The dream of all that is noble and honourable in leaders, but also the arrogance of many leaders
• Sluagh - keepers of secrets, bogeymen, shadows. The dream of all creepy-crawly which crawl about in the dark of the night, tap on the windows and can never be seen in the clear light
• Troll - honour-bound warriors, titans, giants. The dream of the honorable and chivalric warrior.

The Gallain - Kiths not from the corebook

• The Nunnehi - This comprises 13 individual kiths, based on Native American geographies, tribes, lore, and archetypes; include the May-may-gway-shi, Rock Giants, Water Babies, Nanehi and Kachina among others.
• The Thallain - Introduced in the Shadow Court book, these were dark reflections of the standard kith who had their origins in nightmares and were bent on malice and destruction. They had escaped into the mortal world along with the other members of the Shadow Court, and often pretended to be "normal" Changelings; include the Beasties (resembling Pookas), Boggarts (resembling Boggans), Bogies (resembling Sluagh), Ogres (resembling Trolls) and Goblins (resembling Nockers).
• The Menehune - Similar to the Nunnehi, the Menehune are a race of their own existing only in Hawaii; they have their own Kiths which reflect their social roles.
• The Inanimae - a series of 6 kiths, five of which are based on the classical elements (with earth split into rock and wood) and one based on human creations; their equivalent of the Court system is based on whether they are occur naturally or have been crafted somehow by humans.
• Clurichaun - From the Immortal Eyes: Court of All Kings Sourcebook; leprechauns.
• Piskies - childish tricksters, imps, pixies.
• Selkies - Sea and seal spirits, skin changers.
• Gillhe Dhu - tree spirits of Britain, dryads, the Green Man. (See also dryad.)
• Kinain - technically not a fae kith themselves, these are humans with enough fae blood to work with glamour in the way changelings do.
• Adhene - the Dark-kin that were released from their confines in the Dreaming after the destruction of the Ravnos Antediluvian. Many are allied with the Fomorians.
• Spriggan - child thieves
• River Hags - Closely related to Redcaps, but able to breathe water. Connected to some sort of river; cannot leave area of said river for more than a week without starting to die.
• Oba - The little known nobility of the Eshu. Bound to land they rule over. Have perfect, regal features and glowing orbs for eyes.

Hsien

Found in the book Land of Eight Million Dreams (by James A. Moore) these are the closest equivalent to kithain native to the realms of central and western Asia. More so than any other of the gallain, the hsien are not like standard changelings. They use an entirely different system of magic much closer to that of Mage: The Ascension. The closest analogue mythologically are the Hsien or Shinma, small gods who were once the servants of greater spirits and who now must secretly answer the prayers of the faithful. Rather than their souls being born into human bodies, Hsien appropriate the bodies and mortal personalities of the recently deceased, usually hiding the fact that they died at all. They are organised into ten "kwannon-jin", kith-like divisions which include the noble Kamuii and the commoner Hirayanu.

• Each of the Kamuii are aligned with one of the five Chinese elements: Suijen (Water), Chu-ih-yu (Metal), Komuko (Earth), Hou-chi (Wood) and Chu Jung (Fire).
• The Hirayanu are equivalent to the commoner kith; each can transform into a certain type of animal. There are five: the Nyan (cats), Tanuki (badgers), Hanumen (monkeys), Heng Po (usually fish, particularly carp or catfish, or sometimes dolphins) and Fu Hsi (snakes).

The Mer

Introduced in the Blood-Dimmed Tides World of Darkness sourcebook: Merfolk (Tritons, mermaids, mermen, the ocean's nobles and seducers) and Murdhuacha (pronounced me-ROO-cha; nucks, merrow, sea monsters). These two Kiths both begin life as Nereids (Mer children, or the "larval" stage) yet attain maturity by merging with an Apsara, a sea creature ritually bonded with the Nereid to form roughly half of the changeling's new body (usually the body's lower half and the extremities). Nereids whose Apsarae are bony fishes, sharks, cetaceans or even oceanic reptiles evolve into merfolk; Nereids who bond with crustaceans, jellyfish, squids, octopuses, worms or other oceanic invertebrates become murdhuacha. The two Kiths are traditionally mortal enemies, but the rising tides of Banality and the human defilement of the oceans have forced merfolk and murduacha into an unsteady truce.