Family
From Changeling Venue
- Note: This is a proposed IC group that is not in any way shape or form an Entitlement. It is also not yet approved by my storyteller and the details contained within this article may change at any time. Please contact me if you wish to have stayed at The Haven whether or not your character decided to join the Family. Also, please be sure to contact my VST, Jake Tessendorf, if your character has ever come to Los Angeles for any reason. Thanks.
Contents |
Overview
"The family is a haven in a heartless world." ~Attributed to Christopher Lasch
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." ~Jane Howard
"If someone were to harm my family or a friend or somebody I love, I would eat them. I might end up in jail for 500 years, but I would eat them." ~Johnny Depp
Theme
People have many groups for support and social interaction. They have friends, they have co-workers, they have love interests or significant others, they have their pets, and then they have their families. Above all the other groups, a person's family might be counted on to provide aid in emergencies, support in bad times or sickness, or bail him out of jail if things went poorly. Ideally, family sticks by you, no matter what. But for the most part, Changelings have no families. Their parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, husbands, wives, and children have been duped to think someone, or something else is their true relative, and the Changeling then becomes the imposter. These changelings feel Lost, and rightly so, in a world that no longer seems to be theirs.
But the Lost are all Lost themselves, and so they know some of the pain and hardship of their fellows, more than any mortal could ever understand. And all Lost have some skill that could be used for the benefit of others. If they cling together, support each other, protect one another, then even though their birth family is inaccessible to them now, they can still experience the solidarity and support of a new family.
Neither a true Freehold nor a Motley, Mother Rowan's Family seeks to form a network of support and aid among Changelings so that all may live in a community that understands and provides help in times of unique needs. More personal than the Freehold, help and services are available at all times from trustworthy sources, and larger than a Motley, more services and types of assistance can be offered to the group.
Information about the Family
Mother Rowan opened The Haven, a Bed and Breakfast and Changeling Safehouse, in the Fall of 2000. She, having experienced horrors at the hands of her Fae Keeper and survived, is extremely compassionate towards the newly escaped Changelings who have found their way back through the thorny Hedge to a world they remembered vividly, but which has changed and left them Lost. Hoping to provide a safe environment for these Lost, Rowan created The Haven to give them shelter and understanding while these new members of the Changeling society acclimated themselves to Reality once more.
Wanting to defend those Changelings who come to her for help does not end when they find themselves a bit better equipped to live in the outside world. Rowan often offers her temporary wards the option to join her Family, which will give them a home if they want/need it, and will provide other necessities as needed in return for the changeling's agreement that they in turn will find a niche within the group, some talent or service that will benefit the group and provide assistance to others in the same manner it was provided to them when needed.
All Changelings who have stayed at The Haven are welcome to join the Family as long as they agree to and abide the terms of membership, and can provide a myriad of services, whether they are financiers, information gatherers, handy people who can repair and build things or magical items, social people with connections in the mortal world to assist with legal trouble, doctors, psychiatrists, whathaveyou. As long as they are willing to put their skills to use for the other changelings in the Family, they are welcome.
Not all members of the Family live at the safehouse, but almost all would have stayed there at one time. Members can live anywhere as long as they are able to offer aid and assistance when necessary.
There is no limit to the amount of members allowed in the Family, but there is limited bedspace. Only a maximum of 19 changelings in addition to Rowan can live at the safehouse at any one given time as it is currently, but changelings with skills at building tunnels may be able to help expand the small network of underground caves and chambers which connect to the Bed and Breakfast's basement and serve as additional living space for the Lost, as well as a bolt hole in times of danger above. In the mean time, if space is not available at the inn, members of the Family will attempt to provide other members with safe places to live until a spot in the safehouse opens up.
Rowan is also affiliated and allied with the Innkeepers' Guild, and may be able to find temporary lodgings for her Family members at other safehouses across the country should the need arise.
The Agreement
Prospective Family members are offered a place within the family which may include but are not limited to the following services should they be required: Money, food, lodgings, assistance finding goods, medical care, Fetch disposal, protection, legal help, information, etc., if they agree to offer some type of help or assistance, depending on the prospective member's resources or skillset, when needed by another member of the Family. Membership in the Family is generally permanent once accepted, but a Changeling can part ways with the group as long as they have no outstanding debts to the group as a whole. If they have received more help from the group than they have given, they must first fairly pay off their debt to the group before they may peacefully part ways.
This agreement is in place to ensure that all members of the Family may receive the aid and support they need without taxing any one member or any certain parties too much and to ensure the burden of supporting and aiding the others is evenly spread among the entire group.
Members
Please add your name here if you are a member of the Family, and note when you joined. This is for OOC information only, to aid in characters making ties with others in the group. This group is intended to be a mostly-local group that may be branching out to other areas as members spread out and move to different locations. However, all members at this time must have at one time stayed at The Haven, a Changeling Safehouse located in Pasadena, California, a city located within Los Angeles County. If you add your name here, please be sure you have contacted at least the player of Rowan to work out the specifics of your character's ties to her and to the group.
Mother Rowan - Founded the Family in November 2000, after opening The Haven.
Aretas - Family member that was added within the last year, seemingly from ties directly with Rowan
Amber Clinton - First stayed at The Haven in 2004, joined the family around that time.
Anika - Long time friend of Rowan's, lives and works at The Haven. Family member since 2004.
Jimmy Quick - Family member who came in 2002, and continues to do errands even when he out of town.
Pawn - Family member that works out of the Midwest but frequents Rowan and The Haven having visited around 2000. Often brings abused Lost to Rowan for assistance. Offers all aid and possible resources to his fellows.
Affiliates
Lost Boys - This support network shares many similarities with The Family, and as of about '04 or '05 the two groups work together to find help and support for changelings. The Family serves as a mostly Western US extention of the Lost Boys and the Lost Boys serves as a mostly Eastern US affiliate of The Family. The two groups share information and some of their membership, as necessary.
Contact Info
If you would like to join the Family, or to find out more, please email Kelly Phillips
If you are a member of the Family, please join our IC mailing list: Family Mailing List
If you are interested in joining the Lost Boys, please email Rachel St. with "Lost Boys" in the subject line.
