A Year & A Day: Hounds

Changeling: the Dreaming

Homebrew Rules

Character Creation Guide Download: Hounds.pdf

Quoth the Hounds:

“The Master’s Horn…do you hear it? He calls for us… And we must obey.”

Kith Excerpt:

From the Call of Wotan in the Teutonic Lands, to the Christian Devil’s own full-moon raids – the Wild Hunt has been a staple of the European Dreaming since time immemorial. What few truths survive all contain assured cues: a horned rider who serves as Master of the Hunt, a trumpet blast under light of the full-moon, and a pack of frenzied hounds that serve their Dark Lord on these fateful raids.

The Hounds themselves are a special Kith, strong, fast, and most important of all, loyal to the Master of the Hunt. The Oddest truth of the Matter is that the Hounds aren’t a specific Kith at all. They were once Fae of other Houses, Kiths, or some other creature that got caught up in the Wild Hunt (sometimes an unwitting human). Sometimes the purpose of the Hunt is simply recruitment, other times it’s just for sport. All that matters is that few quarries have ever escaped.

Most prey are given a choice once caught. Serve the Hunt as a hound, or be torn apart. Most choose to serve. This choice serves as a sort of second Chrysalis, complete with a new saining, a new true-name, and a new oath-circle. If a new hound tries to grasp his old life again, he finds that he just isn’t welcome. Old lovers have moved on, new family has arisen to take his place. He is a pariah, doomed to leave behind all that he knew. All because he said YES. Once this oath is avowed, the old life and Kith doesn’t exist. Their new purpose and Kith is that of one of the Huntsman’s Hounds. But with this, comes family, purpose, and all the blessings of the Hunt.

Flavor

“If travel is searching, And home has been found, I’m not stopping,
I’m going hunting, I’m the hunter, I’ll bring back the goods.”
– Björk, “The Hunter”