A Thallain Corinthian

I'm going to start moving my structured #CtD threads over from Twitter. This is a Twitter thread, that's been lightly copy edited for readability, but otherwise left in its original format.

Let's talk about some Changeling: The Dreaming media fodder. I want to talk about the Corinthian and the Thallain. The thread will contain light spoilers from The Kindly Ones for those who care. I'm thinking of doing a series of threads on media inspiration for Dreaming. #faemily

So first let's start of with the obvious. The Corinthian is absolutely perfect Thallain inspiration at the beginning of Sandman, both the comic and the Netflix series. He's pure distilled predator, but he's also a brilliant example of how nightmares can very easily be Seelie.

Before you @ me hear me out. The Corinthian is a vicious killer, but he's also legitimately affectionate towards those he cares for, even passingly. He wields a predatory charm, but looks to inspire and create, and build something enduring in the world.

He is a creature who "gives" to the world to use the old definitions. He gifts horrors to the depraved, but we still never see him Ravage. Only Reverie the worst of humanity.

I don't mean to imply that he's in any way a good guy. I only want to point out how meaningful C20's introduction of Seelie legacies to the Thallain can truly be. Mixing a deeply predatory Nightmare legacy with a deeply romantic Seelie legacy has profound horror potential.

Contrast this with the reborn Corinthian from the Kindly Ones. Still predatory, but fiercely loyal to Morpheus. We see his devotion to children in acute focus (which highlights how meaningful the expansion of his story is in Netflix Sandman). He wishes to fulfill his roll.

If you stop and think about the real difference between these two Corinthians one is nightmare in service to freedom and the other is nightmare in service to order and control. Think about how you react to that elevator pitch as opposed to how you react to those characters.

How does this help in CtD? I think the most obvious way it helps is it shows how we need to slow our roll on edgy Thallain. I'll admit I've mostly used full on fair tale villain Thallain, but the more I think about the Corinthian the more I think that's a waste of potential.

It also opens up some fun potential around reincarnation. What if instead of Seelie vs Unseelie Thallain we thought of original Corinthian as Thallain and Kindly Ones Corinthian as Nightmare Kithain. The way our "Redcap" Corinthian connects with his Thallain past is telling.

I could easily see this being a PCs "Dark Secret", and having huge fallout for a Redcap or Sluagh if it's discovered. It would also deeply challenge the Sidhe line on how to deal with the Thallain. What if the whole "They're of the Fomorians!!!" is propaganda.

If you pull in the First Edition LARP Bright Path material you open up major reshaping of a fae soul between lives. A whole chronicle could easily be built around parting the mists that surround such a secret, and who would want a secret like that leaked.

My whole goal here was just to post a story idea that goes outside the normal canon, along with some media inspiration to help part some of the narrative abstraction. Would anyone be interested in more of these?

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