Redcap
- Nicknames: Powrie, dunter, bulldogs
- Thallain: None
Contents |
History
Background
Attitude
Appearance
Organization
Though they scorn the protocol of the sidhe's courts, redcaps are far more organized and hierarchical than an outside observer might suspect. While not the spit-and polish equals of the trolls' legions, redcap bands observe a degree of orderliness surprising in such destructive beings. Even redcaps' most anarchic, violent orgies are often carefully orchestrated — redcaps construct carnage with clockwork meticulousness. Such efficiency is a necessary survival trait for these most despised of Kithain. Then, too, redcaps enjoy inflicting discipline for its own sake.
Redcap warbands are called "corbies" (perhaps a corruption of "coterie," perhaps a reference to the flocks of crows that follow ravenous redcap hordes). Within a corby, discipline is tight; most corbies have their own personalized military maneuvers, which are executed with impressive precision. Rivalry among corbies is fierce, as each corby seeks to inspire grislier ballads and garner ghastlier mementos. Some corbies have existed for centuries, through dozens of incarnations; these corbies have their own legends, banners, trophies, heroes and other historical dross.
Status among redcaps is garnered by a host of accomplishments. First and foremost is the ability to instill terror. Redcaps— at least the Unseelie ones — gain most of their Glamour through nightmares, and the ability to induce dread is a vital component of redcap logistics. Redcaps also earn points among their peers by displaying the ability to endure and inflict excruciating pain. In general, the more a redcap is talked about and the less a redcap is talked to, the greater her status. Like all fae, redcaps enjoy stories and honor peers elevated in tales or songs. The only difference is in the types of tales and songs redcaps prefer to feature in.
As a rule, redcaps are indifferent to freeholds, preferring to Ravage mortals or "Reverie" Glamour from mortals' nightmares. However, certain redcaps — those who have proved their toughness and savagery many times over—declare themselves "lairds." Redcaps often become lairds by forcibly occupying a sidhe freehold. Redcap lairds comprise some of the most odious tyrants in mortal or fae history, but redcaps often follow strong lairds, preferring the brutal rule of a fellow kith to the aegis of the sidhe.
Of course, any laird, no matter how tyrannical, can be usurped. Lairds must periodically reaffirm their right to rule by taking on meritorious challengers in single combat. (A challenger must be deemed worthy; uppity whelps who sass their betters may be summarily beaten by the laird's guards, with no loss of face accruing to the challenged party.) The battle is, naturally, to death or incapacitation. The winner is crowned (or recrowned) laird; the loser gives up his flesh for the ruler's coronation feast.
Even more dreaded than the lairds, however, are the fimmrach, redcaps who specialize in the Arts and Realms. Few redcaps have the aptitude or brains to become fimmrach, but those who do often become fiendishly powerful, able to exert terror in ways unimaginable to their warrior kin. Even the most battle-hardened redcap quails at the thought of a centurieslong fimmrach curse. The most powerful fimmrach, the witch-kings or hag-queens, often rival the sidhe's mightiest sorcerers and rule over vast demesnes of blighted, miasmal land.
- Social Dynamics
Not only do most redcaps belong to the Shadow Court, but (according to their legends) redcaps are responsible for the Unseelie Court's existence. The fact that few redcaps actually hold positions of great rank within the Unseelie seems to make little difference to them (though pointing it out to a redcap is a sure way to incite a brawl).
Redcaps carry the Unseelie Court's agenda one step further. Born as they are from nightmares, many redcaps view the infamous Nightmare Realms not as a hell, but as a savage, primal paradise — a place where their way of life is not only tolerated but lauded. These redcaps actively seek to twist humanity's dreams to vistas of dread, thereby increasing the Nightmare Realms' incursion into the material sphere.
Seelie redcaps (and there are a few) have a tough time of it. Not only are they distrusted by those fae with whom they have chosen to ally, but they are virtual pariahs within their own :category:Kiths|kith]]. To redcaps, the Seelie are mawkish usurpers and corrupters of the world's natural state, and redcaps who ally with them are no better. Seelie redcaps fanatically, almost frantically, uphold the Escheat and the Seelie codes.
- Hurt Couture
Weaponry for redcaps is more ornamental than utilitarian. After all, when one can devour anything living, dead or in between, one has little need of killing tools.
This is not to say that redcap weaponry is not destructive; on the contrary, redcaps are infamous for the carnage they spread. It's just that, for redcaps, the fear a weapon induces and the gore it produces are more important than the actual lethality of the tool. (Indeed, redcaps like their prey to linger a bit....) A stiletto in the kidneys, while certainly practical, does not provide nearly the same visceral pleasure as a carpet-cutter in the face — or, better yet, a chainsaw through each of the prey's limbs, one by one. A clean shot through the heart with a .22 is not nearly as terrifying, or satisfying, as blowing off a foe's arm with a hollowpoint .45 shell. As the grump warrior Dirk the Eviscerator says: "If ye kin tell yer foes apart when yer done — ye ain't done yet."
For this reason, redcaps often prefer to modify the tools of industry and domesticity. Redcaps consider it a delicious irony to take a boggan chefs favorite cheese grater and scrape off his face with it. Chains, nails, buzzsaws, rivet guns, razors, icepicks, power sanders, shock prods and the like replace swords, knives and other conventional arms. Furthermore, in the mode'm technological age, such weapons assume a symbolism conducive to the spread of nightmares.
Such tools even play a part in redcap fashion. Younger redcaps, dissatisfied with wimpy practices like tattooing and piercing, bore screws, nails, drill bits and the like straight into their bones. Epidermal razors, knuckle-implanted fishhooks, and bodysuits of barbed wire, while only marginally practical, scare the shit out of foes.
Culture
- Beliefs
- Redcaps and the Escheat
- • The Right of Demesne — I love ta serve nobles. Sometimes I serves 'em in a pie; sometimes I serves 'em medium rare; sometimes I serves 'em
- Redcaps and the Escheat
with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Yeah, the joke's an oldie, but a goodie, eh?
- • The Right to Dream—I like it when mortals dream. I done inspired creativity in this one mortal's mind real good. This suit, he's a stodgy, boring old middle management type — real Autumn Person, right? So me an' his wife, we played a fun prank on 'im. He comes home from work one day, he finds his wife in the kitchen. And in the den. And in the garage. And in the washer/dryer. And in the microwave. And so on. That was three years ago, and he's been dreamin' real nice about it ever since. Whenever I need a Glamour fix, I just go by his sanitarium cell and yum, yum, yum!
- • The Right of Ignorance — Don't much see this as a problem, eh? I reveal meself to humanity all the time, it's just that they don't so much live ta tell about it.
- • The Right of Rescue — Glamour helps those wot helps 'emselves, eh?
- • The Right of Safe Haven—Noproblem—any Kithain in danger is free ta step inta me pantr— er, haven.
- • The Right of Life — "No Kithain shall spill the lifeblood of another Kithain. No Kithain shall bring salt tears unto the earth." Fair enough — no lifeblood gits spilt when I'm a-huntin'. I catch it all in me cap first! An' what I don't catch, I drink up right on the spot. Lettin' yummy blood splatter on the ground's a waste o' good eatin'!
Referrenced
- Changeling Players Guide pg.77
