Glamour

Glamour is a Faerie magic that work as an illusion-made so real that reality itself is fooled. It can change one object from another, grant certain properties, or even bestow death onto the ageless by dressing a weapon up with the illusion of true death. A glamour is most effective if it can insinuate itself into your subconscious and it thrives on attention, as the more it draws and the more beings it fools the more it asserts itself as what it is. Glamour can be used innately by fae, or by humans who have taken or been given it.

Uses

As a tool of a practitioner glamour can bring whatever image you have into reality.

This makes it ideal for Shapeshifting as you can change your form with it alone so well that even the Connections are disguised.<ref name=":0">“Yes, you can use it to power the shaping, but you shouldn’t.”

“Why not?” I asked, momentarily concerned.

“If you want to change your form, using the glamour itself is enough.  More flexible.  More fragile, but I don’t see you fighting each and every member of Laird’s family, and if you’re in a position to have a glamour broken, you’re also in a position to have your shape stolen from you, leaving you in your ordinary form, helpless and naked.  I would use glamour by itself, in your shoes. [...] Use all you can.  Layer it on thick.  Render it into a form you can handle, dilute it, powder or paint yourself with it, mold yourself, and avoid letting that mold break. It’ll wear over time, as it’s challenged.  Every doubt is a crack, and you can repair the cracks with power.  Good illusionists can wear the same glamour for years, if they attach it to some power source.  Some never change their clothes, only changing the glamour.”
[...]
“I want to ask a question, before I answer that.  What are the limitations?”

“There are few.  My teacher told me many Faerie take refuge in audacity.  Keep the rules of the change simple, without too many twists and turns, and you can paint any sort of picture.  Your power and the glamour’s power is only truly expended if the glamour breaks.  Cracks, frays, fades, peels, or breaks entirely.  You’re deceiving reality, and reality can only make you pay for the sheer difference in forms when it finds out.”

“Okay,” I said.  “That sounds far more workable.  Can someone look at the connections, break it that way?”

“Not if you’re careful to mold those as well.”

“Okay.  Opposite question, then.  What if I deceive reality too well?”

“You don’t.  You leave a tell.  A key, if you will.  Something deliberately wrong, often something that calls back to you, specifically.  Anyone who notices it will see through the glamour, but you can notice it to do the same.”

“Like?”

“Eyes the wrong color, or you’re flipped left to right, like an image in a mirror, or you keep an old scar.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.2</ref>

Objects infused with glamour carry a kind of charge, an influence. Say a coin that was dressed in glamour to become lucky would be lucky, or an earring that grants enchanted hearing. However, getting used to the glamour makes it seem unimportant and the glamour itself will register this and act accordingly so the item itself is lost as a mere part of the scenery. If the object grants you an ability or boon is lost then Karma reasserts itself and balances things, taking away what was given by the item and possibly more.^{[citation needed]}

Weaknesses

Glamour's power is expended and it wears away whenever the glamour is challenged - when people notice or call attention to the flaws. If it breaks entirely, reality will reassert itself violently.<ref name=":0" /> A degree of faith or self-delusion is key to using glamour.<ref>I ran my hand along my arm, so the skin that stretched between thumb and index finger dragged along the surface.

I willed it to change.

The effect was minimal at best.

What had Ms. Lewis told me about the Faerie?

Self delusion.

I did it again.  This time, I relaxed and let myself believe it would change.  A leap of faith.  I visualized my hand peeling away the paler skin, revealing my normal skin tone beneath.

It was eerie, seeing it take hold.  My tattoos as they’d been before, less beautiful, but still gorgeous and entirely mine. - Excerpt from Breach 3.2</ref>

Glamour is so fragile and personal that it cannot generally be taken by force without breaking it, although it might be taken fairly in a duel.<ref>She frowned a little.  “Glamour isn’t the province of humans.  It must be freely given.  It is too fragile to handle otherwise.  Too personal to each Faerie.”

[...]

“Who gave it to you?”

“It was fairly taken, after a duel.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.2</ref> Eating the flesh and blood of a Fae can grant you glamour, but only at the cost of giving that Faerie power over you.<ref>He adjusted his grip, no longer holding the hook properly, and instead held her hand that held the hook. He leaned in, and her wings intervened, patterns peeling away and swaying like cobras before the bite.

And he didn’t care. He bit into her arm, fended off the first cobras, and savaged her.

“Stop!” Lucy shouted. She didn’t have hook, knife, or gun. So she drew a weapon with the weapon ring, turning a pen into a rapier blade.

[...]

“Stop,” Maricica said, calm, as her arm was torn down to bone. “You know this only gives me power over you.”

“I don’t,” he started, mouth bloody and partially full. He swallowed and finished, “care.”. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.1</ref>

It's possible to decieve reality and yourself too well and lose track of your true identity. To avoid this, glamour users will often leave a deliberate "tell" in their assumed shape to remind themselves of their real identity - although others can catch on to the tell as well.<ref name=":0" />

Glamour qualities and capabilities usually derive fron the fae it originates from.<ref name=":2">Maricica said. “They smell like Glamour and sunlight. Did you use my glamour for something related to sun?”

“Ahhh,” Verona said.

“I’m a Faerie of the court below. Rain, darkness, cold water…”

“Got it, got it. Also, ow.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7</ref>

References

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