Setting the Scene While every Chapter will have a different feel to it, the following are a few books and films that can serve as useful "homework" for any Changeling game, and especially this one. Recommended Films: Labyrinth - A teenage girl must traverse the maze of the Goblin King to rescue her baby brother, stolen by the King of the Goblins (evidently a local Unseelie sidhe, played by David Bowie). The Dark Crystal - The first collaboration between Jim Henson and Brian Froud, with an atmosphere completely alien to Earth, and a very Changeling way of looking at rituals. Hook - Captain Hook sails out of the past for revenge against a Banality-ridden Peter Pan, and Peter has to rediscover his Glamour to save himself and his children. The Secret of Roan Inish - A film of the people who still believe in the fae and the old ways on the rocky coast of Ireland. Selkies, take note! The Fisher King - Robin Williams plays a fae of sorts on the edge of madness, who drags a Banality-laden mortal into the local Dreaming on a quest for the Holy Grail, all the while pursued by the Chimerical Red Knight. One of many recommended Terry Gilliam Films. The Neverending Story - A young boy discovers a book describing the dying of a mystic world and the adventures of its young saviour, which are unusually parallel to the boy's own life. Willow - A classic quest-story of sorcery, warriors and Good versus Evil in a Celtic myth-based world. Legend - Tom Cruise's acting aside, this Ridley Scott film offers a world that might be our own, in which magic is vanishing through evil intent or human carelessness and the forces of good must rally to save it. And that is Tim Curry under the giant horns.

Novels and Comics: Bull, Emma - War for the Oaks. A mix of the gritty World of Darkness streets with fantasy elements for a marvellous good read. Carroll, Lewis - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Classics. If you didn't read them during your childhood, it's never too late to do so. Lewis, C.S. - Narnia Chronicles. Read this stuff. If you have to ask why, you probably haven't read them. de Lint, Charles - Jack the Giant Killer. The Unseelie are rampaging in Ottawa, the power of the Seelie is waning, and a young woman named Jackie must step into the role of the foretold hero. A rollicking retelling of the old folk tale for the Adult Fairy Tale Series edited by Terry Wildling. de Lint, Charles - Forests of the Heart, an excerpt. This is a novel set in Newford, the fictional Great Lakes city which is seen also in such works as Dreams Underfoot, The Ivory and the Horn, Memory and Dream, and Moonlight and Vines, collections of slightly interwoven short-stories set in the fictional city of Newford. Brushes with the magic that lives on the edges of our perceived world, even in the modern day. Lovecraft, H.P. - assorted works. The world we know is not as we know it. Strange beings older than mankind share the world with us, remaining just out of sight. Many of these are very powerful, and many don't particularly care for Humanity.

In the matter of literature, consider going back to some original source material for ideas. The Eddas of Scandinavia, Finland's Kalevala and the Mabinogion of Wales are great tales and chock full of mythic threads for a Changeling chronicle. Probably most players and storytellers have read Tolkien, but if you have time to take another glance at The Hobbit, consider it in the light of a commoner boggan caught up in events beyond his reckoning. Charles de Lint has also written a number of excellent and inspiring tales. From the big screen, options are endless, from the rich nobles versus the poor farmers in Rob Roy to David Bowie as a thrilling Goblin King in Labyrinth. Revolution and Hidden Fortress, the Akira Kurosawa classic that was an inspiration for George Lucas' Star Wars, both show warfare and politics from the perspective of common folks. Another Asian production, Bride With White Hair shows an epic, fairy-tale story replete with powerful sorceries and high adventure.