Nothing but recipes and worthless junk; greasy old records of paid and due; but down in the depths of a battered trunk, a queer, quaint valentine torn in two. — Ruth Comfort Mitchell, "The Vinegar Man"
When imbued with Glamour, changelings experience the world as a magical, mystical place filled with amazing and exciting things. They see things from a fae perspective that colors everything around them. Trees are not merely a collection of wood and leaves, but glowing green-topped pillars shot through with golden, life-sustaining sap. Moreover, should a changeling use her faerie sight to look deeply within the essence of the tree in search of its faerie nature, she might find the tree to be a resting dream-being, arms thrust skyward, feet planted within the warm earth. Butter knives might be silver daggers, and an old stuffed animal a prancing faerie steed, while an old raincoat becomes ornate armor. As most people cannot perceive such things, they dismiss changelings' reactions to their chimerical environment as playacting, miming or just plain craziness. There are those who argue that chimerical reality is really a greater or more expanded reality. Neither compartmentalized nor tightly tucked into a common consensus of what is "real," this altered state of sensibility welcomes stories, tall tales, legends, myths, childhood playthings, imaginary companions, hopes and dreams. It also incorporates fears, monstrous horrors and the darkest imaginings of humankind. All exist within chimerical reality, and all are as real as any objects found within the boundaries of the mundane world. This "reality" is all that remains of the age of legends — the fragment of Arcadia still on Earth. As a faerie king once said, "Anything is possible within the Dreaming."
Interacting with the Real WorldChangelings may live in a chimerical world of their own, but this is not to say that they don't realize that they also exist within a more constrained reality. If this were so, they wouldn't even be able to drive a car without running off the road. Kithain respond to stimuli that more mundane people cannot see, but this does not mean that they are unaware of real-world objects, people or dangers. They don't ride their faerie-steeds along airport runways oblivious to the aircraft taking off and landing all around them, or ignore a mugger with a gun. This is not meant to say that they have some sort of double vision that lets them see mundane and magical at the same time.
Rather, the magical aspect becomes paramount, superseding the mundane reality of the objects and people with whom changelings interact, but not eradicating its presence. It is almost as if changelings' bodies remember the worldly details while their minds see beyond the ordinary to the essence within. A car is still a vehicle to be driven along streets, even if it appears to changelings that the car is glowing orange and fitted with spreading antlers on the hood. Solid objects exist in the mundane world and must be accounted for. This often causes problems for changelings whose faerie bodies encompass more mass than their mortal selves. This is especially true for kith such as trolls, whose chimerical bodies may take up far more space than their mortal shells. In such instances, a changeling who is imbued with Glamour will always defer to his faerie mien and will make every attempt to compensate for the larger mass; to do otherwise would be an act on par with disbelieving the existence of chimera. It is therefore possible for a seven-foot tall troll to climb into the back of a Volkswagen Bug, but in doing so he denies his faerie existence, thus giving in to mundane reality. Such acts can be dangerous for any changeling, for falling back on the mundane brings with it the inherent Banality of such an act.
The Enchanted WorldThe World of DarknessBrightly hued wrappers and balloons dance in the wind, tumbling and rolling along the street. Pale and dark dolls march in time to music unheard as they enter their many-windowed homes. Vibrant metal bugs maneuver through elaborate rituals, their breath puffing merrily. An old satyr peers around the corner, laughing at the twinkling snowflakes that softly fall around him. Dreams take shape, born of hopes and fears. Greedy-eyed dragons soar aloft on the brisk winter breeze, alert for shiny coins dropped in the darkness below. An artist, inspired by the freshly fallen snow, begins to paint a scene of ancient snow-capped towers set amid a land of fantastic beauty. Pushed to the wall by terror, a child creates an imaginary fanged horror that stalks and frightens, always on the verge of pouncing. Children dance merrily in the snow, sharing rides on sleds as they whisk down steep hills, their screams of joy echoing throughout the park. Changeling cityscape in winter. Like, yet unlike, the rest of the World of Darkness, it is a little brighter, a little more colorful, but sometimes no less frightening.
Fast food debris and crumpled newspapers skitter along the street, pushed along by the gray day s chill wind. Sales clerks and secretaries, released by the late hour from their cubicles, scurry out into the streets, navy and slate coats pulled tightly around them as they make their way to their high-rise boxes. Traffic stalls each light, fuming clouds of exhaust half-hiding the plodding pedestrians. A vagrant skulks near a dumpster, his thinning hair plastered to his scalp by dirty snow. Meanwhile, high above the city, secure in glass and metal fortresses, captains of industry count their coins, greedy eyes shining in their sterile boardrooms. Arms dealers chuckle, waving fistfuls of money, little caring for the slaughter brought about by their sales. Goth children, swathed in black, pale faces searching for something to believe in, gyrate desperately to the music pounding away the emptiness. Gliding through concealing shadows, vampires smile sardonically at these wannabe dark souls, awaiting the feast that is to come. A beaten, abandoned child moans in her nightmares, pulling her cardboard box closer around her as she cries. Cityscape in early winter, the World of Darkness. Like our mundane world, but made a little darker, a little more terrifying.