Pooka
From World Of Darkness Wiki
Pooka... ah. Pooka. There is a saying on Pooka - "You can always trust a Pooka, but no one in their right mind would ever believe one." Tricksters and compulsive liars, but their personalities are almost child-like in innocence. Their appearances are always somewhat indicative of their animal affinity, which they can change into when no one is watching. Even the hardest heart can be melted with appropriately applied Pooka pressure, and one tends to spill their closest-kept secrets to a prying Pooka. The greatest Pooka flaw? They always lie. This may be blatant, to encourage the appropriate interpretation, or subtle, to confuse the hell out of everyone present.
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Origins
Writer: Cym (For more information, read the Pooka Kithbook, from the Old World of Darkness system, which was used as a base for this information)
Like all Changelings, the Pooka have quested for thier origins and come up with a viable theory of Where they sprang from and Why.
In the early days of the world, when time wasn't all that important, the youngest humans dreamed of part-human, part-animal creatures that went bump in the night. These dreams were potent, and whether the Tuatha de Danaan made them in the likeness of these dreams or humans first made them themselves is a moot point at present. What is known, though, is that the first pooka were blessed by providence or luck to keep both an intact human and intact animal figure, able to shift between both as they wished, when no-one was looking.
History
Pooka are, today at any rate, the commonest of commoner kith. Historically, though, they were worshipped as deities in thier own right. Back in the day, pooka quite enjoyed passig for gods. The most famous example is Horus, the falcon-headed egyptian deity of the sky, sun, and kingship. As such, the pooka are generally disdainful of the sidhe claim to power, having been worshipped as gods.
The rocky periods of war and peace, time spent away from the material world and time spent on it, saw the pooka divided as a whole, folling whatever lord or lady they felt was rallied to thier cause.
The Shattering saw two main routes of the pooka's escape from banality. One, of course, was the Changeling Way, where a pooka would bind itself to a human's form and thus hide from banality using banality. The other was to burrow into the dreaming. By making a private hide-hole out of dreamstuff, the pooka were able to keep away from the tide of banality that overcame the world. Pooka burrows still exist to this day -- not everyone has woken up, and it is possible to run across one of these pocket realms in the dreaming.
The Resurgence that came when man landed on the moon woke most of the hiding pooka up, who then poked thier noses out in a chimerical type of groundhog day, and underwent the changeling way.
Politics
The Pooka are often viewed as being one big, happy family. However, the Pooka club comes with it's own problems and infighting, like any other kith.
Inter-Pooka Relations
In the animal kingdom, there are hunters and the hunted. This is to an extent reflected in pooka society. A falcon pooka and a sparrow pooka might get along, but they both know the natural order of things, and are wary of it. As such, domesticated animals usually party with domesticated animals, wild animals with wild animals of like tipe. This is also, however, warped by the dreaming's twisted backlashes -- aesop's fables mean that lions are overly fond of mice pooka, and white rabbits named Alice are always viewed as trouble.
Also of note is the number of pooka around who are in the "cute and fuzzy catagory" as compared to the "not-so-cute-and-fuzzy" catagory. Most fall into the first, but of late (post-Resurgence) there has been a sort of pooka revival in recent years, with bugs, bats, birds, and all manner of critters crawling out of hiding. The cute/fuzzy phase, many think, was just a ploy on the pooka's part to lure everyone into a false sense of security.
Pooka and Other Kith
- Sidhe: are never on a level plane with pooka, and in general don't get along.
- Nockers: Pooka like Nockers, because it's so easy to prank them. Nockers don't particularly like pooka, as they don't like anything that would break their machines. However, Nockers like pooka in that .. special way. Pooka understandably don't quite share the feeling.
- Trolls: despise pooka, while pooka admire the achievements and honor that the trolls voluntarily bear.
- Boggans: always want to protect children, and see pooka as an extension of this protection, though they are exasperated with the pooka's inability to "grow up" like any other human. The pooka, instead will simply take advantage of the hospitality while it lasts.
- Redcaps: are a pooka antithesis, and avoided, except by those pooka who are either in line with the redcap way of thinking or share the ravenous nature of their kith.
- Eshu: are a travelling companion par excellance for any migrating pooka. Pooka in general like to chat with Eshu.
- Satyrs: the pooka's best friend, to an extent. Of all the standard kith, the pooka get along with them the most. Satyrs love laughter and a good prank, even if they don't like the lying, and the pooka are always happy to see a real party animal in action.
- Sluagh: are secretly jealous of the pooka's ability to gather information. Pooka generally don't like sluagh, but exceptions do exist (namely for spider pooka, of course).
Pooka and other Supernaturals
- Shapeshifters and pooka go together like tea and crumpets. They share views on most of the world, and in general a pooka is welcome in Garou circles, or at the least tolerated, especially by Ragabash Garou. Pooka like to congregate with fera of the same species, if they can find them (i.e. tiger pooka with Khan Bastet, or a crocodile pooka with a Mokolé).
- Mages will either love or hate a pooka, depending on their own view of magic. The less banal mages, or ones who love the earth overly-much such as Dreamspeakers or Verbena, are quite loving of pooka, likewise for the Cult of Ecstasy. Marauders are always treated with extreme caution. The Technocracy is avoided like the plague, as the mere presence of a technocrat in the vicinity with send any fae, much less a pooka, running for their lives.
- Vampires are avoided outright, unless the pooka in question is also a blood-drinker (i.e. a vampire bat).
- Demons, as far as is known, do not and will never find a changeling, much less be on friendly terms with one.
- Hunters are on tricky relations with the pooka, as with all fae, and pooka in general avoid any human who voluntarily hunts another without understanding it's nature.
Quirks
Filthy Commie Lies
Pooka are notorius liars. Everyone knows this. Pooka need to work quite hard to tell the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as it's completely against thier nature to do so. The lies come in a particular form of conversation, usually called "pooka-ese," which is either too cryptic, jumbled, indecipherable, or unintelligable to be considered a real form of language. Some examples of prime pooka-ese in action are:
- engrish (mispronouced and ungrammatical english)
- sthpeech impethiments or st-t-t-t-t-uttering
- talkingwaytoofast... or... slow...
- yoda talking like they are
- bark, woof, yip! (using thier animal speech to communicate)
- non-standardized sign language, blank stares, or complete silence
Or any combination of the above, made worse by interspersed lies and miscommunication.
Conversely, if it's REALLY important, and they know it, a pooka is perfectly capable of telling the true story. That doesn't mean they like it, and it doesn't mean they'll volunteer answers.
Loves Kids
It's only natural that the kids are where pookas get most of thier glamour. Kids are the ones least likely to question how you change into a rabbit, and most likely to turn thier stuffed teddy bears into living companions. Hobbes, from Calvin and Hobbes, is a good example. Pooka are most at home with children, and will come to thier aid whenever possible.
Confidants
There is no being more safe with a secret than a Pooka (except maybe a Bastet). Pooka cen charm the pants off any person talking, and the confider generally feels safe talking to a pooka because even if the pooka does spread it around, she'll either lie about it or won't be believed, probably both. As such, pooka are natural listeners.
Endangered Species and Extinction
Many ask how pooka, running around laughing and pranking until the cows turn out to be fake, can possibly be sad, but there is one cause at the heart of it all. While banality wrecks the human world, humans in turn are wrecking the natural world. A pooka is intimately tied to the fate of her species, to the point that if a species ceases to exist, so does the pooka. There have not been passenger pidgeon pookas since 1914, nor carolina parakeet pooka since 1918. The great auk pooka all disappeared in the mid-1800s, hunted to extinction. The chinese river dolphin may be extinct, and any species down to less than a hundred living members live in fear of thier demise. The bunyip were pooka, too, while the garou would not readily admit it, and many other species are dying every day due to habitat loss and human intervention.
As such, environmentalism runs in the heart of every pooka, both for fear for thier own lives and a need to protect thier friends. If the last remnants of your great uncle mike were stuffed in a museum, you would be a little bitter, too.
See Also
- Nuwisha, a shifter of not insignificant likeness to the Pooka
- Garou, and thier politics, especially the Fianna, who have the closest ties to the Fae
- Read the Pooka Kithbook.
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boggans · clurichauns · eshu · ghille dhu · merfolk · nockers · oba · piskies · pooka · redcaps · river hags · satyrs · selkies · sidhe · sluagh · trolls |
