A Variety of Changelings

A Variety of Changelings

So, as promised, I've decided to share the ideas for some of the less standard changelings I have come up with in my world-building. They won't be featured directly in my stories for a while, but I've put a fair amount of thought into them thus far and figured it might be interesting to share them with everyone. I'll only be covering four different groups of changelings, two to each of the blog posts after this initial one. I'll be putting links for each set of two at the bottom of this post. I'm sure that I'll have forgotten to add some things here and there to each group that I've nonetheless thought through, so feel free to ask any questions that come to mind about them. Worst case, you'll ask me a question that I've never got around to addressing myself and we can fill in some gaps.

So, without further ado, we'll do a brief overview of changelings as a whole to set the stage first. And directly after that will be links to the blog posts detailing some of the other changelings I have in mind for my take on this setting.

Changelings:

Changelings, as a whole, have traveled as wide and far as their equine counterparts, seeking out secluded regions to shelter away in and acquire the energies they need to survive. Because of their especially adaptive natures, the magical energies that they utilize, and their tendency to isolate themselves from their fellow changelings, this has all lead to an exceptional degree of diversity between different changeling swarms. While they are all united in their need to feed upon the energies of others and their ability to alter their bodies, the changelings of two different swarms can seem so different at times as to be mistaken for separate species.

At one point there were enough divergent to changeling swarms as to warrant entire books cataloging the different brands of changelings. But over the ages the numbers of different changeling swarms has dwindled, as swarms collapsed, migrated beyond the known lands, or disappeared wholesale. And with the tendency of Changeling Queens to experience fatal of over-exertion in the process of creating new Queen, there has been very little chance to recuperate their numbers. As such, there's a mere handful of distinct changeling swarms maintaining contact with one another and Queen Chrysalis' own swarm left in the world now.

A Brief Overview of Chrysalis' Swarm:

For this purpose, Chrysalis' changelings are considered to sit in the middle-of-the-road when it comes to most changeling traits and abilities. They are fairly tough, skilled in magic, and capable when it comes to disguising themselves, though they aren't usually considered the masters in any one of those fields. Like other changelings they are well-adapted to life in the Badlands, though their adaptations are less apparent than others, having tougher hooves for digging and being more comfortable in heat and living with relatively little water. Interestingly, among modern swarms they are known as being the most capable flyers, with the other swarms having adapted to the point that their ability to fly has atrophied. Chrysalis' swarm is also considered to be the one with the most ideal feeding grounds, holding dominance over the breadth of Equestria and its mild-tempered, magically-gifted ponies.

The other changeling swarms are as follows... (Hyperlink should be up shortly for the first one)

The Changelings of Zebrica
The Sea Changelings and the Morphlings

Comments

[Razzy]

Interesting. I always love good changeling world building. :3

I wonder what proto-changelings ages ago looked like.

[ForSpite]

So, sometimes it takes me a week or two to check my feed.

Either I forgot or it wasn't mentioned that there are multiple changeling swarms coexisting in your setting.