Agenda (CTD)

An Agenda is a Banality-fueled power of the Dauntain.

The Arts of Banality

When confronted with such a vile concept as banal Arts, most Kithain will ask, "How in this world could anyone make an Art of Banality?" That's a very good question, and one I hope to satisfactorily answer.

In the first place, they are not truly Arts. I would be more inclined to call them affinities, if even that. The most dangerous Dauntain I have encountered have managed to draw some power from Banality. More accurately, I would speculate they draw power form the destruction of Glamour, but what's the difference really? Many do not even realize what they are doing or the damage they are causing. This, as well as what they do, is directly related to the means by which they betrayed their heritage.

A typical Dauntain is born of disbelief in their own true nature. They can dispel anything which doesn't fit into their belief system. It would be damnably difficult to do anything with Glamour around such a fearsome creature. How is this different from the average Autumn Person? An extremely banal human can definitely make it more difficult to work with Glamour, but the Dauntain can actively suppress it.

A Dauntain's capabilities are distinguished from their Kithain siblings by their ability to use Banality for their own purposes, to draw strength and power from their connection to it. They strengthen the grip Banality has over their life in exchange for the ability to work it.

These come in two forms. The first type consists of several gifts which are unique unto themselves, which work under their own rules. The second is a twisting of the Arts and Realms to serve Banality. These altered versions of the Kithain's normal abilities serve only to subvert, twist, and destroy Glamour, Kithain, and chimera. They are not so much defined by what they do as what they twist or negate.

The use of these abilities is not always a conscious choice. The Dauntain often finds themself simply using them unconsciously in their servitude to Banality. In most cases, the Dauntain does not even understand how their abilities have changed.

Lest some of you worry needlessly, only the most dangerous of the Dauntain seem to develop more than one of these abilities.

The Power

Autumn Fae and Dauntain do not require Glamour to "empower" themselves. They are an integral part of the mundane world around them, and so they don't need to find true power within themselves. There's no shortage of dullness in the world. For the enlightened and imaginative, finding magical power involves recognizing the eminence within yourself, exploring your identity, and searching for a paradigm of reality. For these beings, empowerment is a matter of following an artificial structure that denies your internal processes and immersing yourself in a dull, dreary environment. using these powers takes effort, though: a successful use of an autumn power results in the character losing a temporary point of Banality or Willpower (Storyteller's choice). Through force of will, or by leaking their taint of infection into the world around them, the world become a duller place in which to live.

Just as changelings draw upon the power of cantrips, Autumn Fae and Dauntain reaffirm their rejection of the unlimited worlds of the imagination by meditating on the soul-numbingly dull. Living a life without the vestige of a clue can become so painful for the people around these individuals that observers can become temporarily incapable of creative thought. Soldiers of autumn wish the rest of the world was as banal as they are, and they can have that effect on everyone around them.

References

1. CTD. The Autumn People, pp. 27-28, 79, 83.