Origins
Since the days of Eden, virtue or the lack thereof has determined the landscape in which humans live. Human spirit nourishes the earth. The complexity of human emotion is reflected in the flora. Hedonistic pleasure begets ostentatious beauty, the rarest and most bewitching of blooms. But one cannot eat a ghost orchid. Puritanical industry reaps hearty provisions. But tubers do not bring joy. Humans alone cannot achieve the necessary balance to ensure longevity. Thus came along the changeling.
According to myth, the fae would exchange their sickly young with a healthy human child in the middle of the night. The fae child would waste away, but the parents could take comfort that their real child lived just beyond their realm. In reality, changelings are born to humans—a genetic aberration. However, the stories are not wholly wrong. The changelings collect their own. Oftentimes, leaving behind a human child in need of a home. This is a pragmatic choice to maintain emotional equilibrium. Good and Evil are irrelevant concepts to Changelings. There is a certain irony that moral judgment should fall to such a nihilistic bunch. What Changelings do care about is power. Power that is inextricably alloyed to their land.