episode 54 — land of eight million dreams

White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" initiative was an attempt to explore the World of Darkness' various game lines through the context of "the East" with... uneven results. Changeling was not spared, and the last book of the Year was Land of Eight Million Dreams, covering the hsien of China, Japan, and environs. There's a lot of interesting material in this book; there is also a lot of cringey, baffling, and/or confusing stuff. We're joined by special guest LewCid for a wide-ranging discussion on Orientalism in Changeling, the ways in which the fae of Asia are presented, and whether we can redeem anything from this book. The hsien in C20 core are handled quite differently, but much more shallowly, so for anyone who wants a deeper game involving them, we do our best to tease out the helpful options here.

(It is also the case that our podcast gets marked "Explicit" by default because of one error way back in the day. But we certainly have a few swears in this episode, because this book can be, to put it as mildly as possible, the occasional exercise in frustration.)

You can purchase the book at https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/180?affiliate_id=3063731 if you're so inclined. Furthermore, as of this writing, it and all other Changeling books are 25% off on the Storytellers' Vault! As mentioned at the start of the episode, if you do stop by the STV to round out your collection, please consider supporting our show by adding our affiliate code (?affiliate_id=3063731) to the end of any URL on the site.

We welcome discussion and feedback on this and other sundry Changeling topics at any of the several points of social contact we espouse:

• Discord (where you can also find LewCid!): https://discord.me/ctp
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082973960699
• Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@ChangelingPod
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your hosts

Josh Hillerup (any pronoun) gathers strength from the prayers of functionaries sobbing over their virus-ridden machines. Pooka G (any pronoun/they) folds paper charms and writes haiku for the elemental alchemy of Camp.

不知周之梦为蝴蝶与, 蝴蝶之梦为周与? Bùzhī zhōuzhīmèng wèi húdié yǔ, húdié zhī mèng wèi zhōu yǔ? [Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.] —Zhuangzi, tr. Lin Yutang