Because I'm not sure how this works, I'd like to ask some people from Glomdoring how the shadowfaeling card is played.

I mean, do Faelings arrive in the commune (or are born there) as regular, but then they undergo some ritual that turns them demonic only when they specialize in Crow or Night? Is there some way the initial regular appearance is explained away and they are considered to be born as shadowfaelings? If so, are they linked by bloodline to Rowena's babies? Or are they children of undead elfen and captured fae that still remain in the Glomdoring?

I'm just curious because I don't know how the commune has decided to play them.

You never give up do you?

Thanks for the contribution, Thorgal.

I'm asking because I don't understand and its something that I would like to.

Actually, its an honest question, which I too would like answered.

Well, considering that you start as an unspecialized race and then gain the specialization when you specialize, I'd imagine that they turn into Shadowcaster/Shadowlord when they take Wicca/Druidry/BM/BC.

No different than any other specialization race, they all transform like that.

So if its a ritual that changes them only when they take on a totem, what did the Rowena babies have to do with them?

The babies were the messiah that was fortold to be borne into the world of the faeling, if the dead suddenly became fertile again. No other faeling would experience transformation until the coming. Upon increasing their skills in wicca/druidry/crow/etc., those faelings learn to engage into a spiritual bond a complete affinity with those spirits of their born messiah, thusly causing in them their physical/psychological transformation become themselves representations of the messiah of the dark faeling.

Your getting ahead of yourself. No one else said it might be a ritual, only you did.

If you wanna tell me why the other races specialize, then I might look into an answer. However, I'm content just to accept the fact that they do and leave it at that.

The way I've been playing it is that the spirits of the Forest, its shadows, entered Xen and changed him, binding him to the forest.

I don't think we have a commune-wide belief system. According to the help file, it seems that since the first two were born, the spirits of Glomdoring turn the rest of us faelings into copies of them... I suppose once the way was paved, or they learned how to warp faelings, they were able to do it on their own without requiring the faelings to be born as shadow faelings.

There are many ways to understand it.

Viravain said that the children of Rowena have been very prolific creating many offspring, so all future faeling are just children of the original two twins.

The question becomes odd dealing with people who are too old for that to be the case of. It would appear that once you become bound to Night or Crow you change, just as once a elf becomes bound to Moon or Stag they change.

So it is being mostly treated as a mid-life change, rather than a result of new unions?

(And Daganev, please don't compare Elfen specializations. I don't want to argue about this.)

Where did you get the first bit from? And the Elfen specialisations are basically the same I imagine. Come to think of it, the Elfen and Faeling specialisations share the common theme of the totem bonds, the way I see it, whereas Imperian Merian and Master Viscanti etc. seem a bit weirder.

For Xen, it's definitely a mid-life change, though a lot of his pre-faeling memories are somewhat hazy/blurred/modified.

(It sorta has to be a mid-life change... he was warped from an elfen straight to a shadowfaeling).

Its really not all that strange.

Merians and Viscanti change when they have a closer connection to thier spiritual side, Elfen and Faeling change when they get a closer connection to thier spiritual side.

Spiritual side = non prime plane.

I just assumed that meant the accepted norm was a midlife change, rather than something that one can be born as.

So thankyou for clarifying.

And Elfen, Merian and Viscanti specializations are totally different. They are empowering certain inherent aspects of the race. A Merian Aquamancer is filled with the nobility and ancestral heritage in his duty. An Elfen Wiccan becomes enlightened as she achieves closer attunement with the forests. A Viscanti Ur'guard excels in improving his physical prowess to serve the dark legion that is his birthright.

A Faeling that specializes becomes totally different to what it was before. It drastically changes in appearance and temperament, becoming almost unrecognizable from what it was. But you're all sick of hearing about this, and it is irrelevent to the topic at hand.

I don't know how it is for the new faelings, Elryn... but they are born "clean", and as they grow closer to the totems they change and become darker. So it would seem to be a mid-life thing for all faelings, though I can't speak for them (and I have seen "normal" faelings that already had the shadowfaeling description, so they're obviously playing having been born that way).

Ever since open beta when I asked what viscanti would look like and someone told me to pick a different race and make it look demonic, I've played a tainted faeling. For me, the change came after Viravain did her whole "I can't see the Taint" thing. I had one of her followers "baptize" me in the portal and I came out again in my true form. But that's just the way I did it, and obvoiusly doesn't work for most people.

If you asked me how I'd explain it I'd explain it similar to how we bind Fae into shadow. Some sort of ritual where we sacrificed our normal mortal coil into darkness and become transformed, or bound into shadow, by the Avatars or by Mother Night or whoever you wanna say and are reborn.

Nobody said they had to have a change in temperament.

Bau's just grumpy cause people are pushier than they used to be

I imagine someone whom knows the situation could just RP being a shadow faeling until they gain their totems.

I'd honestly rather see it as a race of it's own, but whatev.