Editing Changeling: The Dreaming (section)

==Of Banality, Bedlam, and Balance==
Banality is to Changelings what Paradox is to Mages and Humanity loss is to Vampires. The game does a pretty lousy job explaining it, but it consists of having too normal a life. A better way to envision it is like Clarity in Lost, except that most Changelings fear getting it too high due to the corresponding loss of power.

However, having too *low* a banality rating is also a bad thing. For one thing, it makes it easier to affect you with hostile magic (And one can actually opt to gain banality points to do counterspells), and if Banality gets too low, you gradually start going insane, become a True Fae, and must depart the world.

To lower permanent Banality, one must rake a quest to help a "mundane" regain the ability to dream again. Examples can include The Angel from "It's a Wonderful Life" convincing George Bailey not to jump, or Tyler Durden taking the convenience store clerk outside back and threatening to shoot him if he doesn't treat life with more reverence.

Eventually, though, even the Changelings get more worn down, and grumpy, and doubtful, and succumb to growing up. Few Changelings are able to hold on to their innocence and open-mindedness past their early twenties, and eventually turn Mundane. For them, it's getting on with their lives, growing up, getting serious about life, but they close the door on their fae natures and deny it was anything more than fantasy if they remember it at all. For their friends who can still live the dream, it's another lost friend to Banality.