The Butcherbird
From Changeling Venue
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Description:
The enigmatic Fae known as The Butcherbird bears many similarities to the mundane creature that shares its name. Both sing songs of surprising beauty and subtlety. Both enjoy impaling their victims upon thorns to save them for later consumption.
Whether this Fae somehow based its form on the small Australian magpie, or whether the name was given to the bird by mortals familiar with the depredations of this Fae is as useful an argument as debating the primacy of the chicken or the egg. The Butcherbird is what he is, and does what he does without reason or remorse. Like the bird that bears his name, he enjoys capturing, impaling, and later devouring his prey.
Changelings who have escaped from this creature describe him in varied terms. Some remember a "Thoth-like" creature, a man with the head of a bird, whose beak is long, curved and deadly. Others describe a rotund chef, with rosy cheeks and a deceptively cheerful countenance, brandishing a massive meat cleaver and pronged fork. Some speak of a corpulant tenor whose voracious appetite interrupts arias that make mortals weep at their beauty. Still others have described him as a literal bird, small and dainty, yet still too powerful to resist.
Nature:
How he chooses his victims is a mystery. He is as likely to choose a talented musician as an expert swordsman, or as likely to select an unskilled laborer as a nuclear physicist. Male and female, young and old, large and small, all have fallen prey to his voracious appetite.
Those captured are divided into two groups: ingredients and workers. How The Butcherbird decides upon this division is as much a mystery as anything else about the Fae. A select few are allowed to work in the Butcherbird's kitchens, known by those who work there as The Larders or as entertainers in his ornately furnished dining room. Workers in The Larders, calling themselves Sou Chefs, work day and night stoking the fires, and preparing and serving the grisly meals The Butcherbird demands, based on the macabre recipes in his massive cookbook. Those chosen as entertainment dance and play music while the Butcherbird eats his meals and hosts his lavish parties.
Those not chosen as Sou Chefs or entertainers become The Butcherbird's food.
The Butcherbird’s Larders are built right along the border of the Butcherbird's demesne, along the very outskirts of the Hedge, so that thorny bushes run along the very walls of The Larders. Those unfortunates who are not selected as Sou Chefs or entertainers are impaled upon the thorny walls of The Larders, where they hang, still alive, for as long as needed until the appetite of the Butcherbird stirs for a particular flavor of human. He rarely visits the kitchens himself, leaving all of the culinary preparation, and even the impaling and storage of future victims, to his unfortunate Sou Chefs. Those Sou Chefs who cannot stomach the grisly work, or who make the slightest mistake in the preparation of The Butcherbird's intricate recipes, find themselves doomed to hang from the thorns themselves, to be consumed at his next meal. Likewise, an entertainer who makes the slightest error in a dance step, or plays the wrong note quickly finds herself the main course at the Butcherbird's next gala event.
The Butcherbird himself sits, awaiting his meals in his ornately decorated dining room, singing to himself or to guests in tones of subtle beauty while his entertainers accompany him and dance in the background. He only stops singing long enough to eat - or does he only stop eating long enough to sing? All of his speech is as musical, and every order he gives is delivered in song so beautiful that few mortals can resist breaking down in tears.
One of The Butcherbird's favorite meals is "Four and Twenty Humans, baked in a Pie," a dish notable in that twentyfour hapless mortals are placed into a massive piecrust, but rather than being killed and cooked, these mortals are kept alive. In order to keep them "Fresh," the meal is served raw, so that the living humans can be chased down and consumed by the Butcherbird and his guests once the pie is opened. This dish, and the macabre sport that follows, always consists of those who have failed him in some way, for his favorite form of punishment seems to be playing with his food.
The Butcherbird has never been known to venture beyond the Hedge into the "real world." He sometimes ventures deep into the depths of The Hedge, to drag back a struggling mortal or two who have somehow become lost there, or to send agents out in his stead, but he mainly acquires his servants and victims through trade with other Fae. It is not uncommon for a mortal to offend a Fae Keeper, only to find the Butcherbird suddenly there, offering to take the flawed creature off of the Keeper's hands. His ability to take advantage of other Keeper's whims (and his strange power to be at just the right place and right time to do so) is one of his most mysterious attributes. Many Changelings find themselves suddenly in the service of The Butcherbird after committing some error they do not quite understand, and this is perhaps the first time they realize that the world of the Fae is not all beauty and light.
These Changelings often find themselves consumed, for they are ill-suited to the brutal world of The Butcherbird's Larders, or the physically exhausting demands of constant dancing and playing music. Changelings who have been especially hardened by their time in service to cruel Fae Keepers often find themselves brought into his service as Sou Chefs. Those Changelings who have already been instructed in musical arts by unforgiving Fae instructors find that they fit in well as one of the Butcherbird's entertainers. Either fate is perilous, for that unfortunate Changeling knows that he or she is only one mistake away from becoming a culinary delicacy.
It is rumored that The Butcherbird sometimes buys his Changelings servants from other Fae by trading them for the strange and terrible delicacies from his kitchens. It is not known if these other Fae enjoy eating such meals themselves, or if they feed them to their own mortal servants. Both prospects are equally disturbing for the Changeling slaves of these Keepers...
The World of the Larders:
New Sou Chefs find themselves thrust into a brutal and cutthroat world of shocking hedonism and callous backstabbing. All Sou Chefs know that they are a mere hairsbredth away from becoming the next meal, and so they will often intentionally sabotage a fellow Chef's contribution to the day's meal - "After all," many Changling's will rationalize, "better him than me."
The best Chefs, those who have been there longest and whose culinary skills are almost magical in and of themselves, rule over The Larders like Fae themselves. Newer Chefs often align themselves with various cabals of Chefs, headed by the two or three eldest Chefs, and the conflict between these groups, while never openly violent, is no less deadly.
The Larders seem to sprawl for miles and miles, with multiple ovens, stoves, strange gardens and pantries all along the thorny wall and its suspended victims. Each cabal of Chefs stakes out a particular portion of The Larders, claiming the ovens and resources there. Raids into a competing cabal's territory to steal or destroy valuable ingredients is a common tactic, and the knowledge that they are likely condemning their fellow Changelings to death (when the Butcherbird's meal is ruined) does not seem to trouble anyone's concience. They are all at risk of consumption, and directing the Butcherbird's appetite away from oneself can buy at least another day of relative safety, though at the expense of another mortal soul.
The distinctions between Cabals go away, however, during the few "free" hours of the day when the fires die down and the house lights grow dark. Changelings wander The Larders, looking for a willing partner sharing the same need, and bitter enemies will forget all about the internicene struggle for a few hours of mutual fulfillment. Sometimes Changelings will forge a bond lasting more than a mere moment, but such relationships are always tragic and short. Any distractions in The Larders can lead to a mistake, and the hungry attention of The Butcherbird. And since anyone could be consumed at any moment, many choose to avoid attachments that will almost inevitably end when one (or both) are consumed.
Escape:
Many who have escaped from The Butcherbird remember doing so directly from The Larders. Since one of the walls of The Larders is literally The Hedge itself, some Changelings simply realize that they can escape by running right through the wall - and in fact so many do so that a faint but visible path has actually been trampled down over time, leading from The Larders to some fairly well traveled Trods.
Some Changelings remember the turnover rate being extremely high in The Larders, with mortals arriving, escaping, being traded away and being replaced all of the time. Most remember their way being unhindered by The Butcherbird, though the perils of The Hedge - and of other marauding Fae - are certainly enough to have made their escapes harrowing at best.
A great many mortals flee this way, and on a regular basis, and while most likely succumb to the perils of The Hedge during the journey, there must be some who make it through. Those who flee are replaced so quickly, however, that The Butcherbird does not seem to notice mortals slipping away right under his nose - or perhaps he simply does not care. There are times, however when The Butcherbird himself has brought back a mortal who fled recently, and has physically impaled him the thorns to be eaten later. His whims, like most things about The True Fae, are unpredictable.
Playing a former Sou Chef of The Butcherbird:
Changelings who have escaped from The Butcherbird are almost always former Sou Chefs - it is exceedingly rare for a human to be able to work himself free from the walls of thorns in The Larder, and then crawl, already wounded, back through The Hedge. Rarely, a Sou Chef that balks at his tasks will attempt to free some impaled victims and flee with them. The Butcherbird has always pursued those who attempt to escape with "his food". He will not brook such a theft, even if he seems mostly unconcerned with the almost constant escaping of various Sou Chefs. Those who escape always escape alone.
Changelings who once served The Butcherbird will have had to perform terrible tasks - impaling fellow humans upon walls of thorns, slaughtering and butchering victims, and preparing them in dishes to be served to their avian Keeper. Often, Changelings he has taken into his service from other Fae will be traded back to their original Fae Keepers (from whom they then later escape), or on to other masters, in return for a particular mortal he finds more "tasty" looking. Knowing that one has been ransomed for the price of one of The Butcherbird's terrible meals can be hard for a Changeling to take. Survivor Guilt is common among his former Sou Chefs.
Former Sou Chefs are often Beasts, having taken on avian qualities. Some others become Muses, the song of The Butcherbird somehow having affected them to the very core. Many find that they can apply the culinary techniques they learned under his tutelage to restaurant jobs back in the "real world", though for some the memories of the horrors they witnessed cause them to avoid such jobs entirely.
Those who stayed long in his service will be greatly affected by what they have done and seen, while those who escaped quickly may try to forget and suppress what they have done. None, however, leave the service of The Butcherbird completely unscathed.
Former Sou Chefs:
Contact Info:
Contact: Daniel Lustig for more info and/or to affiliate your character with this Keeper.
