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Anyone who has spent any time at my house knows that there are a million books. My husband and I don't see the point in letting go of perfectly readable books and we read like bunnies procreate so the collection grows constantly. There's even a special shelf for gaming books at our house. There resides two systems- D&D 3rd- and "World of Darkness". We have vampires in modern times, vampires in ancient times, mages with techno gadgets and mages who worship evil. There are werewolves who howl at the moon and the sacred shelf of Changeling. World of Darkness was always my baby- it's where I learned to role-play and several hundred dollars of my hard earned money resides on that shelf because some were so hard to come by. But the game that was closest to my heart was Changeling: the Dreaming.
Changeling proposes the theory that the faeries of the ancient world were forced out by the industrial revolution and instead of going peacefully- they took the bodies of humans and were born and lived human lives until they became aware of their dual nature. Yeah, it's far fetched. It's a very deep concept (much deeper than I go into here) that's not quite as plug and play as others. You have to actually read the start book before you could get into it. That's probably why their publishing company had issues selling the series. Then they decided not to update the series when they updated the rest of the World of Darkness. Then they let Changeling... slowly... die.
It was ironic, in a way. The entire basis of Changeling is that most of humanity has walked too far from the land of imagination and dreams but the fae live in dreams, nightmares and figments of imagination. Madness is assumed in Changeling, although it's a peaceful madness that transforms the world around you to a world full of bright sunshine and day dreams, or dark corners and nightmares. When the fae turn their back on the world of imagination, and purposefully set out to be normal, mundane, creatures of habit- the fairytales fade. Eventually they fade so far that there doesn't even remain a memory of the dragons they once saw in the park, or of the princess saved from the darkness. The darkness fades, but so does the light. It's considered a fate worse than death to a changeling to face the fading. Imagine it- would you want the dream to end? Knowing what we know of the harsh real world- would anyone choose to give up?
And yet it has. White Wolf pushed the series off on a smaller publisher and although there was a fiercely loyal (although small) following for Changeling- the books slowly stopped coming out. The last few books sold out as soon as they hit the shelves. Those who loved the fae and the fairytales knew that the end was near. They reached to grab supplements for a world that was fading and never fully explained. They wrote protest letters and begged for the updates that would enable them to continue playing Changeling with the rest of the World of Darkness series. And now it's over. White Wolf announced the death of Changeling in 2003. In March of 2004 the last of the story of Changelings will be published as a footnote with the other small press series in World of Darkness.
The dreams are at an end. The fading has happened, the forgetting is near.
I never really had a group of local friends interested in playing Changeling. I played online, and even then there were only a handful of players. So the question comes- when to let a series die?
The Changeling system online I played with has collapsed, and there isn't anyone left to play with. But the memories of a fairy duchess, her knight, and their child are written down so that I hopefully never forget. The mechanics of the game were clunky, and role-playing was more of a flying by the seat of your pants and making-things-up-as-you-go experience for the storyteller and players. But it's not the mechanics the people remember in their daydreams. It's not the dice or the rules. It's the dreams and nightmares that came out of a free running imagination.
It's hard to let go. It's even harder when you know that with the end, some of the sparkle of dreams and nightmares will fade. Dungeons and Dragons just doesn't have the same kind of sparkle, and I have no interest in what happens to the vampires after their Gehenna. Give me a fairytale and a dream.
So long, and thanks for all the dreams. Those who really knew Changeling will never forget, and my books will keep their quiet place on the shelf until I find a new group- or until my kids pull them off the shelf and have the chance to dream thing that I once dreamed with their friends. Changeling may have faded, but it isn't forgotten.
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