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cameoflage(Originally posted September 2014; based on CtL 1e, I haven't read or played 2e)
In which Cameo uses their (admittedly patchy) knowledge of Changeling jargon to explain what the hell the sourcebooks are talking about to other n00bs! If I think of more terms to explain I'll add them to this list. If I'm talking out of my ass about something please let me know and I'll fix that too.
Catch: Two meanings, but they're similar. One is in the context of Contracts: special circumstances under which you can activate the Contract without paying Glamour. The other is for tokens: it waives the need to spend Glamour or roll Wyrd (which allows even mortals and non-changeling supernaturals to use them) but there's still a cost for using them: instead of using your magic supply you suffer a penalty in some other area. (Like, by taking damage or having dice rolls for certain skills temporarily penalized, for instance.)
Clarity: Measures your sanity and your ability to tell reality apart from unreality (both the 'magic stuff' type of unreality and the 'dreams and hallucinations' type). Replaces the Morality meter humans have. By default you start with 7.
Contract: Fae magic; it's called a Contract because it draws upon deals struck between the Fae and aspects of reality. You activate it and Magic Stuff Happens. Some Contracts are equally accessible to everyone (so long as you have enough Glamour to cast it and experience points to buy it OOCly), some are Court-based, and some are seeming-based. Goblin Contracts have inherent tradeoffs where something equally bad or nearly as bad will happen when you use it, to offset the benefits received.
Court: "Half political party, a third support group, 5/7ths ruling body, and .75 masonic lodge", to quote TV Tropes. The closest they've got to a government for changelings. Western society has the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Courts; large portions of Asia prefer the North, West, South, and East Courts; and parts of Eastern Europe use the Day Court and the Night Court. (The Dawn Court and the Dusk Court also exist, but aren't popular enough in any large area to have a designated region.)
Durance: Time spent in Arcadia getting kicked around by jerk ass fairies, in beween being kidnapped and escaping.
Ensorcelling: An ability that allows a changeling to let a mortal of their choice see fae things. It's a type of pledge; since it requires you to stick together for the rest of your life or be cursed, it's generally only done with close confidantes. However, there are a couple of rare, oddball ways for a mortal to end up permanently ensorcelled without a pledge.
Entitlement: The perks you get from joining a club with a particular purpose (they also have prerequisites ranging from 'you just need to not be a wet-behind-the-ears n00b' to actually fairly demanding). Sort of like a prestige class.
Fae: If it's just "fae" it refers to not just the True Fae but all creatures of Arcadia and the Hedge; mainly the True Fae and changelings, but also everything else that lives there.
Fetch: The facsimile of you left in your place while you were in fairy town. Self-aware, but missing something (they tend to be a boring version of you), and instinctively afraid of you. Made from a piece of your shadow and a hodgepodge of random junk, but this only becomes apparent in the event that they die and don't leave a human corpse behind. They're usually enemies (since a changeling and their fetch are unlikely to react well to meeting each other), but they can be sympathetic characters. They're capable of manifesting superpowers of their own called Echoes. (Merits exist for changelings who've killed their fetches and changelings who've merged with them.)
Frailty: A supernatural weakness or behavioural compulsion that comes with high Wyrd; both high-Wyrd changelings and True Fae have them.
Freehold: A changeling society. Not COMPLETELY synonymous with 'the changeling population of the city', but it seems fairly common for a city to just have one all-enveloping freehold (and a handful of exiles from it).
Glamour: What changelings use to power their magical abilities. How much you can store at a time and how much you can use in one shot is determined by your Wyrd. You can obtain it by soaking up other people's emotions (they don't lose the emotion when you do this), going into their dreams, or eating certain goblin fruit or fulfilling certain pledges.
Goblin Fruit: Fruit that grows in the Hedge and has magical effects when eaten. The term also includes other harvestable plants that aren’t edible, but do cool magic stuff when you break parts off of them or smear them on stuff or so forth. They can have both good and bad effects.
The Hedge: The borderlands between Arcadia and Earth. Full of sharp thorns. Hazardous to travel through and distances behave weirdly in there. Changelings are dragged violently through it when they're initially kidnapped, which tears up their soul as well as their body; you lose your soul on the way to Arcadia, and it's presumed that it makes its way back to you when you get out (certainly you're not required to go find it).
Hedgespun: Impossibly cool clothes made of magical material. It doesn't do anything supernatural other than be preternaturally awesome-looking (and sometimes also incredibly comfortable and well-fitting, though when worn by non-fae it has the opposite effect), although you can have Hedgespun armour as well as regular clothes. Hedgespun clothes are also affected by the Mask and mortals see them as something similar but more mundane. Doesn't get along with cold iron.
Hobgoblin: A fae creature that lives in Arcadia or the Hedge and is neither a changeling nor a True Fae.
Hollow: A dwelling in the Hedge, which can have magical properties. If you have one it's a pretty good place to hide from your enemies.
Keeper: The particular True Fae who kidnapped you.
Kith: Narrower type of changeling; each seeming has several kiths and they're a bit more flexible than seemings. You get a minor special ability or two from your kith. (If you feel so inclined you can either have a character with no kith, or take the Dual Kith merit and, er, have two kiths. But most people have one, not 0 or 2.)
Loyalist: A changeling who's in league with the True Fae, as inadvisable as that is.
Mask/Mien: The Mask is how you look to non-fae (humans and at least most other WoD supernaturals). To them you appear human and are recognisable as the same person you were before your Durance, though your appearance might have changed somewhat. Your mien is how you actually look, which other fae - other changelings being the ones you'll interact with the most - see automatically when you're on Earth; there are a couple of ways to show it to other people, and everyone can see it if you're in the Hedge, even if they're on the other side of a gateway.
Motley: A party; a group of changeling bros.
Pledge: An agreement or promise between a changeling and another party (so it at least partly means what it sounds like it means), which carries magical power and has unpleasant consequences if broken by either party. Contains a boon (the reward for taking part in it), a task (what you're expected to do to uphold or fulfill it) and a sanction (the punishment for breaking it).
Privateer: A changeling who hunts down other changelings and sells them back to the True Fae or to hobgoblins. Usually mercenaries driven by greed, although Loyalists can also be privateers, and both can be still trapped in the service of their Keepers.
Seeming: Broad type of changeling: Beast, Darkling, Elemental, Fairest, Ogre, and Wizened. Pretty much everyone has one, although the No Seeming merit exists because there are a few rare exceptions to that rule. (You can't have two.)
Token: Magical item from Arcadia or the Hedge. Comes in five levels of potency; the more powerful they are, the harder they are to get ahold of.
Trod: A road through the Hedge, either from a place in the mortal world to another, or from the mortal world to Arcadia. The term can also refer to the entrance to such a road.
True Fae: Also known as the Gentry, the Others, and various other nicknames (there's a superstition that referring to them too directly draws their attention). They're usually-humanoid eldritch abominations incapable of anything that could so much as pass for empathy or compassion in a poor light, as well as being incapable of original thought. They like to steal people (that's you) and force them into servitude and/or use them as playthings or decorations. They do not make good dinner guests.
Wyrd: A measure of how magical you are, basically. It goes from 1 to 10. Higher Wyrd means you're more powerful but it also makes you more of a target for the True Fae, you begin to develop Frailties, you can no longer go entirely without Glamour without experiencing an unpleasant withdrawal, and involuntary magical effects start popping up around you. It's a bit of a double-edged sword that way. (Having Wyrd 10 seems like more trouble than it's worth, since for one thing you start hemorrhaging Clarity. And other fairly alarming things.)
