[Cybercat]

Has anyone played a Selkie either as a PC or NPC? If so would you mind sharing your character and anything fun that you ran them in? Selkies seem like a fun character concept but I have not seen much posted about them in this forum.

[Panda-moan-ium]

Where do they appear as playable kiths?
I remember them being mentioned in, (I think) the Freeholds book, but, I don't recall any specifics.

I would think that they'd only appear in areas, that you'd find seals.

I did read part of a "Gothic Novel" (aka bodice ripper) called "The Selkie" I know that these novels are typically for chics, but, I thought that because of the mythology involved it might be cool. It takes place in the Scottish hinterlands.
The selkies have three forms;

1. Attractive human male.
2. Sort of human male: Very buff, completely hairless, green tinged skin, covered in some pheromone rich sweat/slime.
3. Seal

[Cybercat]

Immortal Eyes the Toybox page 127 is where the Selkies appear.

[Panda-moan-ium]

Immortal Eyes the Toybox page 127 is where the Selkies appear.

Oh...OK...don't think I own that one.

[Spikey]

We need AlecR for this one, he's always been a big Selkie fan.

[Cybercat]

Okay, I'm not sure which (if either) are the canon entry of Selkies. These are just two files I picked up somewhere years ago. However, it gives a lot of information on Selkies so I thought I would post this for Panda.

Selkies

Background:
Even in the World of Darkness, selkies are creatures of legend. Since the sundering, the most common legends had it that all of the selkie folk had passed on to Arcadia and each rare appearance of a selkie changeling over the ages since has raised more than a few eyebrows. Questions beget speculation and speculation often begets rumour. Recent stories have circulated among those few Changelings who are aware of their existence in the modern world. Rumours among the Unseelie courts have it that perhaps the selkie folk still have an entrance to Arcadia on a trod locked away from the other kith at the bottom of the sea. This rumour, coupled perhaps with jealousy for one of the few modern Kith that come even close to the beauty of their kind, has led more than a few Unseelie Sidhe to work against the selkie folk in a gamble to wrest this secret from them.
Awakening to the Dreaming for a selkie changeling is most often spurred by the discovery of their seal skin. All selkies have a skin although the manner in which that skin comes to them can be as different as the sources of the four winds. Some, born into the Sliocha nan Ron, may actually be birthed with the skin which their parents hide and care for until their child is ready for the wonders of their Chrysalis. For others, the skin may be part of a legacy stretching back centuries, having come into the family through some great magic for the day this child would be born. Selkie skins are individual; the discovery of a skin is not like the discovery of a treasured book or chimerical item, magically transforming any mortal who finds it into a changeling. Each skin is intended for a single changeling, no matter how that skin was found or what its origins are, and it is part of the magic of Glamour that each skin eventually finds its owner. Perhaps it is the failure of this process that accounts for the scarcity of selkie folk in the modern age.

Appearance:
As mentioned above, selkies tend to be lithe and enticing. They are often born with thinly webbed fingers and toes although, through the joy of what we call modern science, this webbing is often surgically removed and many are never aware that they ever had it -- in the same way that many children born with six fingers are not aware of that fact when they are older. To other changelings selkies who have shed their skin and appear in their mortal form appear essentially unchanged from their human seeming except for a faint glimmer of enchantment that surrounds them. This appearance of normality may also have contributed to the common misconception that there are no more selkies in the world as selkies are much less visible to their fae brethren than other Kith are.

Seemings:
• Childlings are closest to the animal within themselves, tending not to need a lot of words, substituting laughter for prose. They are at home in the water in either human or seal form.
• Wilders tend to be pleasure-seeking although they fall far short of the Satyr's ways. In old tales they are the ones most often caught sunning on the rocks or dancing on the beaches on Midsummer's Eve. They are the ones who steal ashore for a tryst with a human man or maid in spite of the danger.
• Grumps tend to withdraw further and further from the banality that is humanity, spending more and more of their time in the sea in the company of their true seal cousins. Such groups tend to congregate in colonies on lonely isles and skerrys far from mortal cities.

Lifestyles:
Selkies rarely stray far from the sea, favouring coastal towns or cities. The sea is more home to them than the land is. Selkies are often gifted with beautiful voices but they tend to be shy. They often make their living off the sea as fishermen, sailors, or divers; a few of the more modern ones perhaps as marine biologists or naturalists.

Affinity:
Nature

Birthrights:
• Shapechanging - Each selkie has the ability to don her skin and take the form of a seal; the form that her true Fae ancestors once wore. It costs one Glamour point for a selkie to achieve this transformation although it is free for her to wriggle out of her skin and slip back into her human seeming.
• Fatal Attraction - Selkies tend to be quite attractive and charming with magical seductive powers over mortals. A selkie gains an additional die on rolls involving manipulation; not because they are especially glib of tongue or make good liars like pooka but because of this attraction that tends to draw mortals to them in a subconscious fashion. This ability works best in one-on-one situations; selkies tend to be too shy to be able to exert this direct influence over crowds with any success.
Frailties:
• The Tie that Binds -- Selkies are magically connected to their skins. If a Selkie's skin is stolen, she is unable to return to her magical form. The Selkie gains two points of banality that cannot be lost until the skin is returned. Selkies do not have to give up their skins willingly, either. Legends tell of seal hunters skinning their prey to find the seals within transformed into human forms who then bargain for the return of their skins.

Quote:
"Fare thee well. Goodman o' Wastness. Farewell tae thee. I liked thee well enough fur thoo war geud tae me bit I love better me man o' the sea."

___________________________________________________________________

Selkies

Selkies are fae neither fo the Overwater ( boggans, redcaps, sidhe, etc. ) nor the Undersea ( merfolk, merrows, etc. ) but of the continually shifting shoreline. They are also caught between two forms, seal and human, never precisely one or the other. Selkies are creatures of contradiction, at once playful and practical, shy and outspoken. They are also highly sexual, but practice neither the lusty promiscuousness of the satyrs nor the courtly love of the sidhe. A selkie's appeal is both sensual and romantic, and once one chooses a mate, he will stay with her only until called away, by his other love and other nature. A selkie is at once both seal and human, and if taken too far from the shoreline, he will pine away and his faerie portion will die. Unlike pookas, or even shapechangers like garou, selkies are skinchangers. When one takes human shape, he physically puts aside his sealskin. Selkie skins, like all fae things, have mortal seemings, appearing as everything from sealskin belts or stoles to greatcoats or even wetsuits. A selkie's skin contains his Glamour, as well as his fae essence. If a selkie's skin is lost, stolen or taken by force, he can use no fae magics until he regains it. If someone destroys a selkie's skin, the selkie's fae self will die - and the mortal may as well ( see below ). Luckily, selkie skins are resilient things and the life and glamour within may only be destroyed by cold iron or fire. Cold iron does no damage to a selkie's fae aspect unless it damages his sealskin, though cold iron can still do considerable damage to his mortal form. When a selkie dies, her Glamour - and her skin - are passed on to another human with selkie blood running in his veins. Selkies give favor to kinain and those with the love of the sea, who then become Kithain. The new selkie soon learns the trick of changing his skin as well as how to pass on the Glamour to a skin of his own choosing. On rare occasions, one of a selkie's seal descendants learns the trick of loosing her skin. These selkies are greeted with great joy, not only because of their rarity, but because their coming ashore creates another sealskin to keep the Glamour of the kith alive. In human form, selkies are sleek and attractive, their only telling marks their large liqiud eyes and the slight webbing betwen fingers and toes. To fae Kenning, these traits are somewhat more exaggerated, and selkies also tend to drip chimeric water wherever they go. The seeming of their seal form appears as a normal harbor or harp seal, though those wiht Fae sight might see through the guise with a Wits + Kenning roll, difficulty 6. Selkies are only found on the coastlines. In the older days, they tended to take jobs as sailors or fishermen, but modern times have made surfing, sunbathing and beachcombing far more popular. This, of curse, is when they're not spending their lives as seals.

Childlings are happy and playful, sunning themselves on the beaches and playing around the shoreline. Older selkies keep an eye on these pups and usually encourage them to stay at home, so long as home is appropriate ( near the ocean with easy access to the beach. )
Wilder selkies travel the coastlines, both with their seal and human kin. Romances of the "girl on every port" variety are also common, though these are generally extended relatoinships, not satyrish one-night-stands.
Grumps are very rare among the selkies. When a selkie finds himself growing too Banal, he will usually pass on his sealskin ( and Glamour ) to a younger, more vital heir.

Birthrights

• Seal's Beauty - All selkie's have a natural animal magnetism, increasing their Charisma by +2, but only with regards to the opposite sex ( or those who are attracted to their sex ) and only in those situatoins where animal magnetism applies. Seal's Beauty aids Seduction and Leadership, but has few uses for Intimidatoin or Subterfuge.
• Ocean's Grace - A selkie may lower the difficulty for all Dexterity rolls by two when in the water, and moreover can never botch a Swimming roll, even in human form. However, the difficulty for all Dexterity rolls is raised by one when on dry land.
Frailties
• Longing of the Ocean Shore - Selkies are creatures of the shoreline. For every day a selkie remains away from the ocean shore, she gains an extra point of temporary Banality until her Banality exceedss her glamour and she forgets her selkie nature. A selkie may erase this banality ( even permanent Banality ) by spending a day in her altershape for each point gained, but selkies lost to their fae natures due to separation from the shoreline can only be reawakened by forcibly placing them in their skins and dropping them in the sea. This abrupt change runs the risk of Bedlam, though it is often the only therapy that works. Sadly, even this is often not enough...
• Seal Coat - If a selkie's sealskin is destroyed, her fae self is destroyed forever. In addition, the mortal that remains must make a Stamina roll, difficulty 8. Failure means that the character enters a coma; a botch indicates that the character dies.

Peculiarities - Selkies are skinchangers. A selkie will change from human seeming to seal whenever he puts his skin on and immerses himself in sea water. This change is automatic and reqiures no roll or expenditure of glamour. If a selkie wishes to regain human form, he must loose the corner of his skin ( undo a button, unzip a wetsuit collar, etc. ) and break the ocean's surface. Without his skin, a selkie cannot take his seal form or perform any other changeling magic apart from Kenning and his Birthrights. However, the connection a selkie and his skin is so strong that he can sense its location with a Wits + Kenning roll, difficulty 7. As a selkie's sealskin is his skin, he can also feel it any time it is touched or damaged.

[Spikey]

Before the Changeling game presented its version of Selkies, Valkyrie magazine did a quite good version of the Selkie as a Changing breed. Were seals I guess. They also had a bit about the sea in the WoD that predates Blood dimmed tide by a long shot and had several ideas and concepts that would be of use even the a C:tD Seliie chronicle or story.

[Panda-moan-ium]

Okay, I'm not sure which (if either) are the canon entry of Selkies. These are just two files I picked up somewhere years ago. However, it gives a lot of information on Selkies so I thought I would post this for Panda.

Thank you my mentor!

[Cybercat]

You're welcome, they are a cool Kith.

[gatharion]

Unfortunately, their frailty makes them a bit tricky to play. Even the Mer aren't that limited.

I've used them as npcs a few times, but I don't usually let people play them because I don't want them to get screwed over because the story went away from the sea side.
The last time I used them was for a C:tD/W:tA crossover game where a baddie was collecting things like werewolf pelts and selkie skins in an attempt to become some sort of powerful skin changer.
The game ended up dying because one of the players had a bit of a freakout.



The Secret of Roan Inish is a good movie about selkies.

[Cybercat]

I always thought that a game that was set in the Fief of Bright Paradise would be an ideal setting for a Selkie to play in. The ST could move the players around as much as they wanted to but that would mean they would merely move from one island to another so the Selkie would never have any issues.

[gatharion]

I always thought that a game that was set in the Fief of Bright Paradise would be an ideal setting for a Selkie to play in. The ST could move the players around as much as they wanted to but that would mean they would merely move from one island to another so the Selkie would never have any issues.

Except that's not really seal territory.

[Cybercat]

Islands have plenty of coasts and seasides though.

[Spikey]

The problem with the Selkie is that there are very very few locations that Seals prosper and where humans live even close enough to provide the needed dreamers. Selkie get screwed when they travel too far inland (read, towards Dreamers) so that limits the places on earth that really work for a Selkiie chronicle.

And I do believe that as player characters I'd only really explore it in an all Selkie or a Selkie with one or two mer/Kyros wielding Trolls/aquatic Pooka!

Or them House Dylan / House thingy sea elves we were all working on ages back.

[Panda-moan-ium]

Or them House Dylan / House thingy sea elves we were all working on ages back.

Ooo like the Wavedancers from Elfquest?

[Spikey]

We had a house we sort of all worked on ages back, based on sea faring Sidhe. can't rememebr the name (named for the Welsh Dea God, just can't be arsed to look it up) or what the thread was titled.