Windwing is one of the sub-types of the Beast seeming. They are Changelings who are confined to the earth, with their hearts in the skies, drawing affinity with birds, butterflies and bats. Their blessing is Gift of the Sky.
Overview[]
To return to their human minds, the Windwings had to deliberately ground themselves. It wasn’t easy. For all the perils of the Faerie skies, the Windwings had brief moments of what felt like pure freedom in flight.
Some Windwings miss the ability of unfettered flight they enjoyed in Arcadia, but it’s harder to miss the loss of human reason that came with it. The Contracts of Fang and Talon mean all the more to Windwings, providing as the Contracts do the chance for true flight with full intelligence behind it. A Windwing is often in love with the shifting weather of the mortal world, reveling in the shifting of warm and cool winds or the passage of clouds, far safer than the skies of Faerie.
All Windwings are notable for the wings that are their namesake. In some cases, the wings are a separate pair of limbs, too small to be really useful if physics alone were at play. Just as frequently, their wings unfold from the forearms of the Windwing as if supported by extra fingers. Avian Windwings frequently have feathers in place of hair, and some have the dark and quickly darting eyes of a bird. A chiropteran may have bat-like ears or an odd nose, while mothlike Windwings display elegant, feathery antennae and skin marked with their wing-patterns.
Durance[]
Among the Beasts, the Windwings are the most likely to have been changed through the direct intervention of a True Fae. The gift of flight is not quickly achieved through simple exposure to Arcadia, and it’s rare that a changeling who changed so gradually that they could develop the gift of flight could also manage to revert later. Spells and surgeries are the most typical source of their wings.
Some were kept in cages, Beasts in nature but with a role similar to that of a Fairest. Others were hooded and placed in a dark mews, brought out only to hunt. A cloud castle may have kept only Windwings and Steepscramblers for servants, as all others displayed an unfortunate tendency to tumble to the ground far below.
Folklore[]
Birds alone provide a multitude of superstitions and potential models of personality. The sparrow is mistrusted in the British Isles, but is the core of a folktale where sparrows assist a kindly woodcutter in Japan. The swallow brings storms. Cranes are a sign of wisdom. Owls are sometimes considered wise, but are also messengers of death or the familiars of witches in Native American cultures. Ravens can be an ill omen, but are also one of the more famous and powerful trickster animals. Even bats inspire a number of different stories. They’re considered unlucky in Europe and associated with the underworld, but in Asia, bats are signs of good luck. Birds are also common as subjects of transformation myths. In some, the bird (such as a crane or swan) becomes a human, and may be forced to marry the person who steals the bird’s feather cloak. Birds are also a common transition form for a cursed human. A group of brothers becomes a murder of crows or seven swans.
Frailties[]
Fear of being bound, cannot cross a line of salt, must arise at daybreak, cannot wear wool, may not call a friend by name, repelled by bronze.
References[]
- CTL: Changeling: The Lost, p. 102
- CTL: Winter Masques, p. 66
