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One of the most flexible kinds of magic Changelings possess is their ability to bind oaths and vows in the Wyrd, giving mystical weight to their word. Almost all Lost dabble in this simple yet powerful magic, even coming back to it if they should burn themselves in the process. It's simply too useful a tool to ignore! Many Changelings experiment with wording, attempting to finagle never before seen Tasks, Boons, and Sanctions out of the Wyrd (particularly Boons). The Autumn Court are among the most experienced pledgesmiths, but each of the Courts have their Masters, whose mastery of Oath & Vow is particularly prodigious. Many of these Lost offer their services and expertise to other, less skilled, Changelings for either increased renown or a small fee.
The essential bones of Pledges are aspects- Task, Boon, Sanction, even Duration.
Favor, negligible: A negligible favor is something owed to one of the parties in a pledge that doesn't even meet the requirements for a lesser favor, and is often something that would be given freely without the need for a pledge - but is spelled here here explicitly for the purposes of the Wyrd. The most common example of this level of favor is common courtesy and simple respect, usually freely given, but in this case explicitly owed from one party to another. As a general rule, if not doing something is an insult, then doing it is a negligible favor. If a favor of this level is denied, the Wyrd looks on this as especially egregious, and inflicts a lesser sanction on the offender. (+0).
Most blessings are simply Merits, but some are more complicated than that. This special category of Boon is, really, just a custom merit that can only be gained through a pledge. Some of these boons are given dot ratings, which is their 'effective merit rating', in which case mortals find it easier to gain the boon than changelings. Others are more obviously supernatural, and Mortals gain such boons no more easily than Changelings. The cost of the boon itself is given in these cases. In no case may you purchase these boons without a pledge; they are not available as normal merits.
True Love (•••••)
This boon is something of a misnomer, as it doesn't actually grant True Love. Rather, when granted to a mortal, this boon helps him find someone with whom he is roughly compatible and twists probability and emotion in such a way as to ensure that a relationship gets started and lasts for the duration of the Pledge. Rather or not the love can endure beyond that depends entirely on the actions of the mortal in question. This boon can be aimed at a specific compatible partner, or left to the vagaries of the Wyrd. It is possible to trick a human into agreeing to a True Love pledge directed at you, but this boon cannot create a relationship if there is not the potential for one. If Poisoned, this relationship becomes truly toxic - even murderous - and quite often ends in a death. Granting this boon to anyone is a Clarity 6 breaking point, and death of the party not directly involved in the pledge (the one who had no choice in the matter) as a part of the Sanction counts as killing a human.
Doom: The doom sanction bends the world against the oathbreaker, dooming him with misfortune and calamity. While a curse sanction might represent a thousand little things culminating in a slowly building disaster, the Doom sanction is considerably more likely to represent a single event - either great or small - that settles the debt in full and is then over. Some Dooms are more distributed, but none the less the sanction tends to run its course quickly.
Many consider the Death Sanction to be a variant of a Greater Doom. There is much debate about which is more merciful.
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