A non-human child that has been left in the place of a stolen human child. The changeling or "replacement child" is usually a troll, but many races related to fairies, some races of aliens, and several types of demons have also been known to make such exchanges.

There is powerful magic in place that protects most human children from being stolen outright, unfortunately abductors can easily neutralize this magic by simply substituting the stolen child with their own child. Occasionally an abductor will steal a child of its own kind and then attempt to make it a changeling but this type of transaction is invalid and usually self corrects.

The children are stolen for a wide variety of reasons. They are sold into slavery, used for experimentation, reproduction, and the more beautiful ones are sometimes kept as trophies or pets. The latter are considered a most prized possession in the troll community and are treated quite well.

It is virtually impossible for the average person to positively identify a changeling. The child may possess one or more of the following traits: knowledge beyond his years, very unusual facial features, pointed ears, a tail, deformed hands or feet, wings or wing buds (markings on the back where wings have been surgically removed or wizened with a growth stunting spell), or other atypical characteristics.

It is important to note that not all intelligent or unusual looking children are changelings. DNA testing is the only way to prove that a child is human or not human and these tests can be easily falsified using sorcery.

One popular belief states that abusing a changeling will cause the abductors to return the original child. This is a myth and should not be practiced under any circumstances.

Abusing a changeling will not bring the original child back. Also, some abductors are known to observe their changelings and are more likely to treat the abducted children well if they see that their changelings are being treated well. Even more important, as stated above, there is almost no way to know for sure if the child is in fact an actual changeling.

If you suspect that your child is a changeling, and you do not have access to a knowledgeable sorcerer, the best thing to do is to care for it as if it were your own.

See Also: Creatures by Type: Fairies, Shapeshifters