A Year and A Day: Leshiyes
Changeling: the Dreaming
Homebrew Rules
Character Creation Guide Download: Leshiye.pdf
Quoth the Leshiye:
“What the hell are you doing here? This is my forest; these are my trees. I swear to the Old Gods that I will rip out your tongue, wipe my ass with it, then shove it down your throat far enough to be pushed out your own ass. What? You have Vodka? Why didn’t you say so? Come on in.”
Kith Excerpt:
Always Zima (Unseelie), if not quite Chert (Thallain), the Leshy (plural Leshiye) have been harassing mortals and stealing babies for Millenia. As long as the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom has had the wild places, the Leshiye have been there to haunt those wild places. Perhaps the oldest of the varied Plemya (Kith), the Leshiye hold a special place in the Empire. They are the last gatekeepers of the wild places. Too many of the Karlik (Changelings) have been modernized and urbanized or lost that wild part of themselves. The Leshiye refuse to let that happen to their own.
Of course, their surly personalities have little to do with such refusal. No, the Leshiye are assholes because they are assholes, and always will be. Yet they are proud assholes and cling to their wild existence with a fervor as deeply powerful as their own wild domain. Their own domain is that stretch of wild forested land that each of their number claims as their very own. No two Leshy could stand living close to each other, let alone other Plemya. Even if they are a married couple (of which there are plenty of Leshy couples), the partnership is rife with arguments, bitch-fests, and lengthy periods of sullen ignoring of each other.
But of course, there is also a deep love and respect there, not just for each other, but for the domain itself. It should be stated that if someone, mortal, fae, or otherwise, can show a deep respectful reverence for the Leshy’s forest domain, and can put up with the lengthy string of ugly expletives spewing out of the Leshy’s gullet, or even hope to match it, then that person has a friend for life. (It also hopes if that person has brought some liquor, but that is neither here nor there…)
Flavor
“We Russians have no system of social upbringing. We are not mustered or drilled to become champions of ‘social principles’ or other principles, but simply left to grow wild, like nettles by the fence. That is why there are few hypocrites among us, but many liars, empty-headed bigots, and babblers. We have no need of playing the hypocrite for the sake of social principles, for we know of no such thing as social principles. We exist in perfect liberty, that is, we vegetate, lie, chatter quite naturally, without regard for principle.”
– Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
