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Glamour

Expression: Glamour

AX.GHW.08.03.03

If you can see through illusion, you understand exactly how to build one.

Glamour is the Glamourist's active expression, not perception, but creation. A practitioner who has developed True Sight understands how glamours work at the fae-layer level: the difference between a convincing illusion and a detectable one, the way attention slides off a well-constructed misdirection, the specific frequency that the fae layer uses to mark something as "look away." Building glamours is applying that understanding in reverse.

The irony is not lost on Faeborn practitioners: the tradition that makes them difficult to deceive also teaches them to deceive extraordinarily well. Most treat this as a professional tool rather than a philosophical problem. The ones who do treat it as a philosophical problem tend to develop the strongest Glamour expression.

Glamour- Applications

Misdirection (Primary Action, Threshold 2)

The practitioner creates a perceptual overlay on themselves or another willing subject within Touch range, a glamour that causes observers to see something slightly different from what is actually present. Not a full disguise replacement, but a softening: height seems a few inches different, hair color is off, the supernatural quality of a Haunt or Skinchanger reads as unremarkable. The effect lasts for the scene or until the subject acts in a way that breaks the misdirection's consistency.

Observers who actively examine the subject may attempt to pierce the glamour with a Wit + Notice vs the practitioner's original roll (contested; the practitioner's successes set the Threshold).

Scaling: Excess successes allow the glamour to cover more substantial differences (full appearance change at 3 excess) or extend duration beyond the scene (to a Long Rest's worth of time, at 2 excess).

Full Glamour (Extended Work, Threshold 3–4)

The practitioner creates a complete perceptual replacement for a subject, a full illusion that presents the subject as a specific other person, object, or environment. This is not a disguise kit; it is a fae-layer construction that operates on the level where perception begins.

  • Single-person, simple appearance change: Threshold 3. The subject looks, sounds, and smells like the glamoured identity.
  • Small group or complex environment: Threshold 4. A room appears to be a different room; a group of people appears to be a different group.

Full Glamour is not indefinite; it requires the practitioner to have constructed it deliberately (10 minutes of concentrated work) and lasts until a Long Rest or until something breaks its perceptual consistency (significant violence in the area, the subject acting completely contrary to the glamoured identity).

The Veil (Primary Action, Threshold 2)

The practitioner extends a misdirection effect outward rather than onto a subject, creating a zone at a specific location within Near range that causes observers to look elsewhere. The area registers as uninteresting, unoccupied, or not worth approaching. Duration: scene. The effect does not make the area truly invisible, an observer with True Sight, or one who has a specific reason to look for something there, pierces it on a Threshold 2 Notice roll.

Scaling: Excess successes extend the area (Close → Near → Far), extend duration (1 excess = until next Long Rest), or increase the Threshold to pierce it (1 excess per additional Threshold point, maximum 4).

Backlash:

  • Minor: The glamour turns inward. The practitioner is subject to their own misdirection; they look to others (and possibly to themselves in reflective surfaces) the way the glamour was designed to make its subject appear. The effect is cosmetic and lasts until Strain clears, but it is noticeable and may complicate social interactions.
  • Moderate: The glamour extends involuntarily to every creature within Near range of the practitioner. Each creature sees the others through a fae-layer distortion, not necessarily harmful, but deeply disorienting. Each creature must pass a Wit Save vs Threshold 2 or treat all other creatures in range as though they might not be who they appear to be, with Disadvantage on coordinated actions for the remainder of the scene.
  • Severe: The practitioner's own perception is glamoured. Until their next Long Rest, they cannot distinguish the true nature of anything they look at, True Sight no longer functions reliably; everything shows the practitioner what it wants to show rather than what it is. Effectively: all True Sight and Nature Reading applications fail automatically until Long Rest. Probability Reading still works, which is cold comfort.