Changeling: Encyclopedia II - Changeling - Replacement people in modern literature film and gaming

Changeling - Replacement people in modern literature film and gaming

Replacement people, also known as substituted people, shapeshifters, and/or changelings, appear in a number of modern works of fiction - books, films, television, games, and elsewhere.

Literature:

• Refer to Brothers Grimm numerous fairy tales.
• Uther Pendragon took on the appearance of Gorlois Duke of Cornwall in the Arthur stories.

Movies and television:

• Roger Zelazny, Changeling (1980). Movie depicting the adventures of both changelings, maladapted in their respective new worlds.
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 - directed by Don Siegel, 1978 - directed by Philip Kaufman, and 1994 - directed by Abel Ferrara).
• An episode of Blake's 7 (Star One).
• The Slitheen in the 2005 series of Doctor Who.
• Labyrinth (film), a 1986 movie.

Gaming:

• Changeling: The Dreaming. A game in White Wolf Game Studio's "World of Darkness" role playing game line that focuses on a struggle between glamor and banality. Based on traditional tales from various world cultures. Character types include, but are not limited to; Sdhe, Redcaps, Phooka, Trolls, Knockers, Boggans, Eshu, Selkies, Piskies, and chulrchaun. Antoganists represent or are pawns of banality, such as Autum People, Duantain, Nightmares, Nurvosa, other Fae, mortals, Mages, Vampires, and Werewolves.
• In the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, changelings are a separate race, who are capable of assuming a variety of forms, even duplicating and replacing other people.

Other:

• There are also the reptile people posited by David Icke.
• It has been hypothesized that the changeling legend may have developed, or at least been used to, explain the peculiarities of children who did not develop normally, probably including all sorts of developmental delays and abnormalities. In particular, it has been suggested that children with autism would be likely to labeled as changelings or elf-children due to their strange, sometimes inexplicable behavior. This has found a place in Autistic culture. Some high-functioning autistic adults have come to identify with changelings (or other replacements, such as aliens) for this reason and their own feeling of being in a world where they don’t belong and of practically not being the same species as the "normal" people around them.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Replacement people in modern literature film and gaming", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki