@Mnemosyne
You're addressing a different person's post! I only made the ones about the Fairest.
Yeah, I do that a lot. Sorry. >_>
I like giving them some more agency. I don't like that -- and this is based on the Kith document, where Wizened are always patchwork people and Beasts are always animalistic and Fairest are always beautiful and Ogres are always big hulking brutes, et cetera, no matter which Kith you choose -- these very specific types of agency now define how your character looks.
This time I got the right quote with the right person. I think. Right? It was you? Pretty sure.
You're wrong, though. Or rather, you're reading specific examples in the Kith document too much as if they're the only way to fly. The kith document even calls out the fact that the examples are just a tiny sampling, and any given Keeper will have its own twist on things. The examples used were the most stereotypical for the Kith/Seeming combination, not meant to imply the limitations you're reading into it.
The physical description of each Kith by seeming is 100% in alignment with 1E Seemings.
So maybe they're lazy, and only working with stereotypes they already had on the shelf?
The only actual limitations of appearance are specifically noted as such: All palewraiths have transparent skin, all razorhands always have some sort of natural or artificial weapon attached to their hands, etc. But even then they flat out say that:
Also, players are free to change the listed appearance of a kith belonging to a particular seeming as long as their Storytellers agree that the new description fits with the meaning and feel of the kith and the changeling's seeming.
So unless your Storyteller is actually a full on asshole, your particular manifestation of a given Kith can look like whatever the fuck you want within the scope of your Seeming and your ST's discretion regarding your Keeper. Obviously if your Keeper was some super high tech space alien fucker you probably don't look like a fantasy troll, but beyond that even the Kith document makes it clear: Here are a bunch of suggestions, but make up your own wherever you want.
As to Seeming appearance, from the Seeming documents:
Ogres may seem to take up more space than they should, but they are not always big, nor hulking, nor brutes. The appearance section even mentions that an ogre may be small, or conduct their violence through verbal or emotionally and without any physical thuggery involved. In fact, outside of impressions other Changelings get of the space you occupy, the only physical characteristic specific to ogre is that they don't show off any skin as they're covered in 'something harder'. You could be a slender as fuck runway model to regular humans, gorgeous as anybody could be, and to Changelings be covered head to toe in diamonds and platinum or whatever. Sparkle on, you emotionally vicious mean girl.
The Fairest 'appearance' writeup is almost laughably vague, with the only specific indication of actual appearance being that there'll be some symbol of leadership to Changeling eyes, and some kind of glow, sparkle, reflection, or light about them. There is actually nothing at all in the Fairest description about even being physically attractive, which is kind of lulz.
Darklings also mention virtually nothng about your actual appearance under appearance. Posture, disguises and masks worn, sure. But nothing about what you actually look like (or can't look like).
@Sammi
An Ogre could regret replacing his heart, but unless he has a death wish, he would do it again if he were in the same situation.
And... so? You're unlikely to ever be in the same situation. Changelings taken by a Keeper aren't just fighting for survival, they're fighting to not be completely obliterated and overwritten by something Other.
Your Seeming represents who you were in a transformative, supernaturally charged moment that represents the most extreme of extremes. In most cases that is likely very reflective of who a person is, but people are not wholly defined by a single moment or even a single choice in their lives. They are not represented by a story, and that story is who they are and who they must be, because they are Changelings and not truly Fae.
There's a lot of reading of the Seemings like they must absolutely represent True And Immutable Facts about how your character will act or think or be, but there are virtually no True And Immutable Facts about how people will act, or think, or be.
Perhaps that's some emphasis that needs to be placed there in Changeling, because the alternative that seems to be how people are reading it makes no goddamn sense to me. Your Seeming is what it is because at a time when the very essence of your existence was being made malleable and shaped to the liking of something Other, you (the character, obviously) made a choice, took agency and acted. That choice, those actions, acted as a supernatural mold to finish you off and your Seeming is the shape you hold because of that choice.
Maybe, back in the world of humans, where the very fundamental essence of your being isn't in immediate danger with every breath you take, that mold doesn't fit very well. Maybe it doesn't fit because absent that extreme of extremes that's not how you believe you will or would act. Maybe it doesn't fit because it's not what you want for yourself, and you try and deny it.
Is that going to be the case for the vast majority of Changelings? Probably not. But to say that you can't be at odds/in conflict with the shape of the supernatural mold you cooked yourself into when the alternative was worse than death if that's the kind of character you want to play, seems utterly unreasonable to me.
