[Angelus]

We have all heard of changelings. I have seen a few posts of people on this site and others claiming to be changelings. So it is time to discuss. What do people accept as the general description of a changeling?

[Muerte]

  Lycantropy

  The child switched upon birth

  Homuculus

  One who is able to assume the form of anouther

  Or one who is changed by magics

  Which type are we to discuss?

[Countess]

I was raised in the belief that a changeling was a Fae race baby, usually one of the Unseelie Fae, that was switched with a human child either as a prank, revenge for a slight, or in rare instances as a sort of mole or spy. Usually the child was covered with a glamour that made it appear totally normal  & at some point that glamour was broken the child's true identity being revealed. Some however never seem to appear as anything other than human but most likely have unusual abilities & may seem to "sparkle" or "shimmer" & their eyes are usually more brilliant than normal.  Deals could sometimes be struck for the return of the human child but as with most unseelie deals this never works out for the humans.

[chaoticpsyche]

I was raised in the belief that a changeling was a Fae race baby, usually one of the Unseelie Fae, that was switched with a human child either as a prank, revenge for a slight, or in rare instances as a sort of mole or spy. Usually the child was covered with a glamour that made it appear totally normal  & at some point that glamour was broken the child's true identity being revealed. Some however never seem to appear as anything other than human but most likely have unusual abilities & may seem to "sparkle" or "shimmer" & their eyes are usually more brilliant than normal.  Deals could sometimes be struck for the return of the human child but as with most unseelie deals this never works out for the humans.

I wouldn't say I was raised to believe this, but that's how it's been told to me, so I must agree with Countess.

However, there are different types of changelings, as Muerte has brought up. Some of which you'd never even suspect of being a changeling.

[whatami]

this is probably a stupid question but do changelings always know they arechangelings??

[Angelus]

  Lycantropy

  The child switched upon birth

  Homuculus

  One who is able to assume the form of anouther

  Or one who is changed by magics

  Which type are we to discuss?

Since this is the fay boards we are talking about the fairy babies switched with human babies.

this is probably a stupid question but do changelings always know they arechangelings??

If a changeling reached full maturity without being killed then no. They probably aren't aware. The likelyness is slim since changelings are easily spotted by either deformities, the parent recognising that the child is not theirs, and their severe skin alergy to iron.

Changelings were also a good excuse for women with post natal depression who would insist that the child was not theirs because it just screams and cries and it doesn't stop or because a child is born with a physical deformity. These poor children were then burned with red hot iron and if found to be a changeling, were burned or drowned. Much like witches.

[Levinthross]

I've been taught there are as many as three types of changelings when looking at changelings from a fae/human perspective. Number one is a old or verybyoung fae who is exchanged with a human child so that there human counterpart may either grow up as a servant,concubine, wife or husband for the fae. Number two is a child who is part fae or has some fae heritage that is often "triggered or spiked" by magical activity around the mother during her gestation. Number three being a malignant spirit that feeds off of the mother parasitically or often dies in infancy only to be reborn by the mother over and over again. All changelings fulfill some or all of these descriptions either being sickly, frail weak or thin, dispraportioned, malformed, beautiful, extremely diallated eyes, hypnotizing eyes, demonic features.

I relegate myself as a member of the 2nd category while not half fae I am quite sure that i do have some in my heritage, and from observing myself and other family members ive come to these conclusions. Changelings excel at glamour magic, if strong enough and used on a young enough cangeling glamour magic can become permanent physical features. Likewise since some parts of therre physical body are made up of a mixture of flesh and condensed glamoury many pictures seem to depict them completely wrong.
Sometime after puberty the full moon makes more of their fae nature appear. Lastly they are incredibly intelligent and wise for there age but tend to be emotionally unstable, they tnd to be able to wish things upon themselves such as certain physical features and in there very early childhood certain abilities.

[Countess]

I would say I am probably the second catagory. I know I am not half fae but it is in there somewhere. Glamour magic has always been one of my specialties. The first spell I ever did turned my very green eyes a spring blue for 3 days as opposed to the 20 minutes or so that was expected. I mentioned before that my mother has always asserted that there is something just not totally human about me.  My eyes naturally change color depending on how angry I am, from just a slightly lighter green than normal all the way to yellow in rare instances which is quite startling when it is directed at someone for the first time. Most people close to me have learned to look at my eyes & know when to simply bow out & leave.

[Levinthross]

lucky lol my eyes just go from there normal very deep brownish to pitch black and varying on the circumstances my iris's and pupils grow in size.
To help determine what type of fae your descended from i suggest just writing out a list of favorite things like numbers food times of day seasons and see how many of tose matchup with a specific fairy and dthere ancestry. For a even further in depth look few people realize that the nymphs and satyrs of greek lore are all a certain species of fae and there genealogies are all very well documented.

[Angelus]

The Fay were always known to breed with humans. The offspring is not a changeling. The children are always just refered to as fay, even with their half human physiology.

[Ryobi]

The things they used to do to suspected changelings is absolutely insane. Remedies ranging from making the child laugh (by boiling water in eggshells) to leaving them out on a hill to throwing scalding and being thrown into the fire. Then again one Scandinavian fairy tale I remember talks of a woman who refuses to harm a changeling baby. When her husband demands she abandon the changeling, she refuses, and he leaves her. Then he goes out walking in the forest and sees their real son wandering. He tells his father that when the troll mother had heard that his mother hadn't harmed the troll child she hadn't been cruel to him. When the human mother sacrificed the most important thing to her, the love of her husband, they had realised they had no power over the woman and released the boy. Doesn't really make all that much sense to me but hey, not my cultural capital.

How they were usually described, I think, were as children who never stopped eating, drinking or crying. There also accounts of children with terrible tempers, difficulty moving normally, speech impediments or other disabilities. However then there's other descriptions of changelings who were abnormally intelligent and possessing vast vocabularies. Even kids with greenish tints or where born with a caul across their face it seems could be denounced as having fae heritage.

It's said that looking at a baby with envy puts them in danger of being taken by the fae. I've also heard that unbaptized children were taken by trolls. Apparently being raised by humans was considered very classy by them which personally I think is a load. Generally fae seem to not be all that bothered by the ways of human kind. Could be wrong though.

It's interesting what you say about a fae child seeming to sparkle as in many of my astrology books list that as a good sign that someone has a major gemini influence in there chart. Not really being serious, just thought it was a funny coincidence.

I'm interested in what could be seen as glamour magic? Does it always deal with just what you see or could it also deal with the other senses, including the 6th (or psychic) sense? Could someone with fey heritage also be identified as a person with abnormally good natural shielding?

[Levinthross]

The Fay were always known to breed with humans. The offspring is not a changeling. The children are always just refered to as fay, even with their half human physiology.

Interesting.. mostly of everyone i've associated with would regard them as such but then again some tales only indicate that those with fae heritage are merely abnormally smart and lucky. However in my research into some records of djinni and and humans maing if the male was a human and the female a djinni, then the offspring is a weak djinni with no definitive spiritual powers. However the other way around creates a witch or human with abnormal spiritual abilities.

and Ryobi glamour magic is usually seen as any form of magic incorporating illusions and wigth the purpose to deceive or mask what is real. So essentially any spell that creates a illusion or results in others perceiving something that isn't real could be considered glamour. In so far as shielding what type of shielding are we talking about? shielding from psychic things magic things spirit things e.t.c seeing through others glamours? i havent seen it extensively in the people ive interviewed but it probably could happen again depending on the heritage of the person i.e someone who would be considered a changeling would most likely have a predisposition to creating shields. if one of there ancestors was a guardian like fairie such as a cu sith, or a brownie, something usually oriented guarding and shielding. Would be very easy for them and also probably slightly influence there personality like tending to like domestic matters, being veery protective over things, being really paternal or maternal.

[Ryobi]

Sorry, wasn't very clear about that. What I meant by shielding was the kind used to protect yourself from human psychic prying.

For instance, my area of the house is 'shielded' (for some strange reason). I've noticed that you can't get phone signal down there and wireless internet connection constantly drops out (the guy who fixes the internet says it's the bane of his life). Also, a member of this board and I were conducting a bit of research regarding an experiment and he couldn't pick up any life sign within the area. When I went outside he apparently immediately picked up that I was there.

I've never actively set up a shield around the area and no one else in my family probably even knows what shielding is. Yet the more time I spend down there and the more my family uses the area, the more I notice the effects of this natural shield. Just trying to work out the reason why it could exist.

Also I thought that what defined a changeling generally was a fae child switched with a human child, hence the name changeling. This is not to suggest that all children possessing fae heritage is a changeling.

[Levinthross]

nope not all part fae are changelings i would say after a few generations unhuman parts of your bloodline fade in and out and pop up at odd times sorta like red heads in some african american families. And what i refer to as the human fairy descendant type changeling doesnt really have to be called a changeling per say but is the most convenient name, happens to be the name i was taught they should be called and when there young do fulfill alot of the failure to thrive pretexts of the horrible changelings, That are thought to ruin a families lives.

hmmm as so far as thou shielding i dont think it's a result of fae ancestry not doubting it's there, but keep in mind the more you impart your energies into a place. the more the place becomes intune with you it could be (amongst other possibilities) that the actual space could be becoming a extension of you and your family and as such would have a natural shield to what it would perceive as threats and e.t.c and the strength of the barrier could be because your not the only person who contributes energy to the house do you have any other odd things in other pars of the house?

[Ryobi]

I've described some other things that have happened in the house, in another thread. Apart from hearing footsteps upstairs, it's just my part of the house which is unusual.

http://www.monstrous.com/forum/ghostly-encounters/worried/

Getting back to topic it seems that if someone has any kind of advantage or disadvantage (if they are in nearly any way different) then they could be seen as having fae heritage...

Maybe it would be more logical to define a changeling as a child who's character suddenly seems to change dramatically as a result of being swapped with a fae child. It's said that the first stage in a child's development is self acknowledgement. Changes in behaviour could be as a result of a child realising, for the first time, that they aren't a continuation of their mother but their own person. That is the single most significant change in a person's life. That development and the transition from noises to words explain nearly every case where a child was suspected of being a changeling that I know of.

Does anyone have any accounts that aren't based in human behaviour? Maybe actually physiological changes or magic. Might help with accurately defining what is a changeling and nothing else.

Sadly I don't think one exists though.