Boggan (CTD)

Name:	Boggan
Plural:	Boggans
Pronunciation:	BOG-gun
Nicknames:
Thallain:	Boggart

Boggans are born of dreams of hearth and home. If roads go ever on, the goal is always the return. They derive their greatest pleasures from work and a job well done. Honest work, good company, and a regular routine are all they need. Of all the Kithain they are known for their honesty and integrity. It is said they are as honest as the dirt under their fingernails.

History

The origin of the Boggans is unknown. Some believe that they first appeared when the Tuatha de Dannan were defeated by the Milesians and the fae had to live underground back in Ireland. The Boggans formed from those fae that assisted the mortals in bringing the correct offerings to maintain the pact between the fae and humanity. They themselves acknowledge to have been formed from the dreams of stability, charity, homeliness, service, and vengeance. Boggans define themselves as the antithesis of the Fomorians, who embody dark and destructive urges that threaten all the things they were dreamed from. During the War of Trees, the Boggans did not fight at the front with the other servants of the Tuatha de Dannan, but instead focused on infrastructure and ensuring that each army was well-rested and fed.

Boggans were the fae that interacted most often with humanity. When the Sundering began, most Boggans clustered around settlements, while others focused more on Courts and their faerie side. Many adopted the Changeling Way as means to stay in contact with humanity.

Dark Ages

As humanity's faith in faeries waned, the Boggans took it upon themselves to watch over any Changelings born to mortal parents, shield them from Banality and introduce them into faerie society when the time was right. Treasuring the growing interconnectedness of humanity, many Boggans came into contact with far away cultures, spreading themselves to include them under their protection.

When the Shattering tore the Dreaming from the Autumn World, the Boggans tried to help as many fae as possible. They were the most vocal proponents of the Changeling Way as a mean of survival. As the Sidhe fled, many Boggans found themselves in positions of leadership over the other kiths. Their diplomacy proved vital for the truce between the Seelie and Unseelie. Many Boggans came the believe that the bubonic plague, rather than being of natural causes, was the punishment of the Dreaming for the Sidhe for having broken the Right of Rescue of the Escheat worldwide when they fled into Arcadia instead of aiding their subjects.

Renaissance

Without the Sidhe, the Commoners had to organize themselves and fend off the growing rise of Banality. Despite the art created during the period, the Renaissance proved soon be saturated with Banality that stemmed from the religious influences behind it. The Boggans hoped to subvert this by focusing on the works, instead of the ideology behind it. Many found a place in the growing sciences or the fashion popular in noble courts. Many simple Boggans found their way into mortal high society during this time by proving their worth as reliable craftsmen. Others closely associated with Nockers in hopes of using mortal science to find a way to transmute Banality into something substainable.

Victorian Age

The following timeperiod was bad for all Changelings, but especially for the homely Boggans. The industrialization saw a weaponising of science for Banality. Imperialism led to widespread use of slavery, something the Boggans abhorred with the very core of their being. Large factories exploited the workers, robbing them of the individual labor that had previously strengthened the Boggans. To survive, the kith focused on strengthening worker's unions and soon found other cases they could support, like the women's right movement.

Modern Era

During the chaos of two World Wars and the upsurge in Banality world-wide, Boggans refocused on the nuclear family unit and used it to foster a sense of togetherness and safety against the growing spectre of nuclear annihilation.

When the Sidhe returned, they expected the Boggans to step aside and allow their rightful masters to reassume their positions. The kith was torn; some supported the old nobility, others insisted that they had revoked any authority when they had left their fellow to die in the Shattering. In the following conflicts between commoners and nobles, Boggans often acted as spokespersons for the Commoner communities, while at the same time defending the old nobility against more radical notions that called for a complete abolishment of noble titles.

Boggans are one of the kiths that most profitted from the rise of the Internet. Using social media as a means of connecting communities, crowdsourcing to fund large projects of passion, organizing do-it-yourself events or tutorials, Boggans find ways of bringing their talents into action to far away places.

Organization

Boggans can be found on nearly all levels of Kithain community. While they are rarely titled, many Boggans are highly valued in their court and have supportive roles, such as the seneschall, the steward or similar roles. Most refrain from higher titles, being contend with the work they do on a ground level. Most Boggans lean towards the Seelie Court, with only few choosing to become Unseelie.

Among themselves, most Boggans regularly meet via "Knitting circles", in which they meet for manual labor while sharing gossip. For group projects, they form tightly hierarchical groups consisting of a "chef" and his staff, with more specialized groups being called "squads".

Culture

Highly social, Boggans focus on gossip as a kind of currency among their ranks. Rumors are exchanged for services. Most Boggans use their jobs in the background to gather personal information on others. Most do not really care of the veracity of the claims they spread, instead focusing on the aspect that is had been said. Unseelie Boggans often weaponize their information as punishment if the person should act in a manner that the Boggan does not like.

The focus on labor does not merely extend to physical labor. Many Boggans become counselors, psychologists and anthropologists that seek to learn why people act as they do and seek to aid them to avoid self-destructive behaviour. A person with a Boggan friend will always have a helping hand and an open ear at their side. If they, however, make the mistake of taking them for granted, most Boggans will act vindictive. Also, many suffer from their empathic natures and yearn for appreciation of their deeds.

Despite their focus on work, Boggans focus equally on recreation. Many love to eat, several area avid smokers and readers and rumors are that Boggans inspired mortals to establish free weekends. Others search for work that can be done as a hobby, like knitting or painting. Such work, however, has to be done deliberatly. If force or necessity causes the work, it becomes slavery in Boggan eyes.

The Boggan focus on safety and social activties can become obsessive. Some Boggans are known to lose themselves in their work, abandoning everything else and referring to themselves in third person, eventually becoming so dependent on others that they fade away when their works are taken for granted. Others lock people up in homes they have made for them, to keep them safe from the dangerous world outside.

Despite being seen as conservative and restrictive by several other kiths, Boggans are and always have been, large supporters of feminism. Strict gender roles are seen as banal and they firmly believe in legal and cultural equality so that everyone could pursue the kind of work that they were truly born to undertake.

Strength and Weakness

The Boggans have two birthrights: The first, Craftwork, allows them to never ruin their works. The second, Social Dynamics, allows them to roughly assess the social networks between persons that they meet.

Their frailty is a compulsion to aid those in need, regardless how inconvenient it might be at the time.

Notable Boggans

• Brian and Margaret Murphy
• Charles Fizzlewig
• Chucky D
• Densloe Maddingsley
• Dermit
• Douglas Bender
• Elgin
• Flora Sinclair
• Frankie James
• Garvey
• Gilda Hazlitt
• Gwilym Pugh
• Heather
• Herbie
• Lady Legre
• Lairdie Cordwell
• Megan
• Miranda
• Mr. Quigley
• Myrtle
• Ragger
• Seumas of Clann Wrath and his sons, Hugh and Rory

Gallery

References

• CTD: Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition , p. 88-89.
• CTD: Changeling Players Guide , p. 60-63.
• CTD: Kithbook: Boggans