The Lands of Ancient Tales, also known as the Land of Ancient Dreams,[Note 1] is the name given to Africa by the Kithain. What name the local changelings use for their own region is unclear.
Overview[]
Little is known of the changelings of Africa except for those who dwell in the Kingdom of Nubia. Rumors exist of strange beasts and dark dreams that come from the jungles of Africa, and even stranger stories circulate about the changelings of “the Empire of the Sphinx,” which most fae believe refers to Egypt and perhaps Northern Africa in general. Few changelings have traveled there to confirm any of the stories. Many eshu claim knowledge of those lands but will say little as a certainty.
The Kithain that may dwell in those hidden places have not yet made their presence known to the outside world. Tales of a revival of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe tell of fabulous palaces of gold and exotic woods, while other stories hint of new kiths. Some also believe that the Thallain have havens in parts of Africa. Another, sinister rumor, says the conflicts that will bring about the Endless Winter will begin in the Lands of Ancient Tales.
To experience the Dreaming in a continent with thousands of different cultures and ways of living is beyond what even most changelings can easily imagine. The places of Glamour in the African Dreaming are some of the brightest and most powerful in the entire world, supported by the millennia of dreams soaked into the soil as well as the vibrant hopes and fears of those currently still dreaming. From the most isolated tribes to the residents of the busiest cities, mortals celebrate these innumerable ways of living even as they constantly reinvent themselves and their traditions in long twilight of the Evanescence.
Geography[]
In cities from Cairo to Cape Town, the nightclubs, dancehalls, skyscrapers, and apartment complexes appear similar in the Near Dreaming… but to changeling eyes strobe lights shine brighter and flare more intensely, music sounds sweeter, drinks taste finer, and casino jackpots fly sky-high. Living in the city offers a chance to gather in larger numbers than many rural communities can sustain, giving the fae more of a social network and support structure as well as a ready source of human dreams, but also can give rise to politicking and rivalries sharper and quicker to explode than those in the suburbs and the wild. Some fae flee to those very suburbs to escape the faster pace, only to find the Banality of suburban life a threat in its own right.
Away from the cities, out past the suburbs, in places where the stars shine as clear and bright as the moon above, the Near Dreaming reflects the flavor of the cultural and religious celebrations of local native people. The sky above may take on a hallucinogenic tint, or the natural world might seem to breathe deeply and peacefully all around. Some witness explosions of sound or catch the scent of unnamed and unnamable flowers, while wanderers’ pains, joys, and pleasures make their hearts beat exhilarating rhythms against their ribs. Old myths not only hold sway in many of these places, they hold court, with young chimera paying fealty to the legends of ages past. This is not to say that the reassuring rhythms of modern life are not present – contrary to the way global media often depicts Africa, for many of its people life is much the same as it is anywhere else in the 21st century.
People work and play, pray and curse, know love and loss, wake from nightmares and dream big dreams. They cherish their friends and family, post selfies and retweet cat videos, and hope the days ahead will always be brighter than the ones behind them. And where mortals live and dream, there are always changelings to foster that Glamour.
Dreaming Structure[]
As one can imagine in a land so vast and varied, there is no “standard” way to experience the Dreaming. Because of its chimerical and reflective connection with the physical world, the Near Dreaming varies just as much as a suburban town would vary from tribal dwellings. Thanks to Africa’s many trods and freeholds, it is fairly easy to enter the Near Dreaming, even for changelings living in remote places. However, since the trods are so long and winding, it is difficult to maintain them well. This makes it easy for even the most careful and experienced to lose their way.
Although the Land of Ancient Dreams holds many marvels – and more than a few terrors – one thing it is known for is the sheer abundance of trods. From the Empire of the Sphinx down to the Realm of Seasons and beyond, countless fae paths wind their way across the Land of Ancient Dreams, linking freeholds and glens as well as offering routes to distant lands or even the deepest depths of the Dreaming itself. Although some of these trods are cyclical in nature, appearing according to arcane and sometimes as yet undiscovered calendars, most are stable, or at least as stable as the Dreaming gets.
The role all of these fae roads have played in the history of the Land of Ancient Dreams is a complex one, not the least due to many of them being a millennia old or more and thus have been subject to changing cultures and kingdoms in their time. It hasn’t always been a peaceful history, of course – magical pathways that bypass sentries and borders can make even open-minded societies nervous, after all, and like the cultures that sustain them the fae kingdoms of this land have crossed blades with their neighbors many times throughout history.
Many trods have thus been hotly contested routes in the past, coveted for trade or military purposes, and sometimes even artificially sealed off by means of great and terrible magic. Not to mention that traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles would often find a changeling exiting a trod only to be immersed in an unfamiliar land full of unfamiliar people speaking unfamiliar languages, which tended to limit their utility a bit. Even if the eshu and the paro found it irresistible.
Another essential gift of the trods is that the Far and in some cases even the Deep Dreaming are more accessible here than almost anywhere else on earth. Just as humanity’s oldest stories trace their roots to these lands, so too do the roads of the Dreaming go deeper more often here than anywhere else. Such far-reaching trods are not always found whereone might expect, either. While ancient structures and legendary vistas certainly can contain these gateways, quite a few hide in places that would scarcely merit a second glance. Obambo in particular enjoy ferreting out these lost gateways and figuring out why they might be attached to a specific place.
This is not to say all the fae of the Land of Ancient Dreams are expert trodwalkers or seasoned Dreaming explorers – like a lot of changelings, they tend to find balancing their mortal and fae lives challenge enough in this world, let alone adding strange other realities on top of it! Most simply make use of the so-called “Autumn trods” that link two or more mundane locations together, allowing them to step between freeholds in the blink of an eye or cross borders while remaining unseen by mortal eyes. Even in an age of high speed travel, this can be invaluable in terms of reaching more remote locations, or sometimes just saving some money on plane tickets.
Bloom[]
Over the course of the 2000s and 2010s, fae scholars and seers have noticed a pronounced “bloom” among the trods of the Land of Ancient Dreams. Not only are many old trods re-opening, but it appears that many of the long range intercontinental trods – most of which appeared to have closed between the 14th and 16th centuries – are reappearing as well. Whether this is a last flare of Glamour during the Evanescence or a sign of a true fundamental resurgence is hard to say at this point, but as these old routes are found and mapped again it’s not a stretch to say that they may very well change the balance of power not just in the Land of Ancient Dreams, but far beyond its borders as well. Deciphering this mystery has attracted changelings from all over the continent as well as trodwalkers and way-scholars from around the world – the race is on!
Kingdoms[]
- Cradle of Empires
- Empire of the Sphinx
- Kingdom of Aghlabib
- Kingdom of Nubia
- Realm of Seasons
Gallery[]
References[]
- CTD: Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 80
- CTD: Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Player's Guide, p. 73-90
- ↑ The Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition core book gives Africa the Changeling name 'the Lands of Ancient Tales', while that edition's Player's Guide, released 2 years later, instead consistently calls it 'the Land of Ancient Dreams'. Neither book acknowledges any alternate name at any point, and it is unclear if both names are used in-universe or if this is a consequence of faulty memory among the writers that was not corrected during editing.