Fate

The nature of Fate confounds many fae scholars.  It pushes and prods on the lives of changelings and all fae creatures to live their lives according to it's strange patterns. It can almost be reached and touched, and it seems to hang particularly on the actions of those who've been touched by the Wyrd.  But it's an intangible, and hard to define in crystalline form.

Fate is a Force
The simple presence of the Wyrd draws changelings together, and many Contracts that the Fae have sworn through the years cause many of those forces to come into alignment with one another.  Actions prompt reactions.  Fate is a force like gravity.  It draws beings together with it's power, binding them into it's designs in a strange narrative, moral, and often ironic structure.

Fate is the Manifestation of the Wyrd
Fate is an oath sworn to the Wyrd itself, trading the certainty of future events for control over the present.  All changelings have to deal with Fate's influences over their lives; it's power echoes over everything they do.  It affects more powerful fae because they are more attuned to the Wyrd than mere mortals or even lessor fae, and thus a larger part of the oath sworn by the Gentry in time before time.

Fate is Alive
Fate seems at times an active, sentient force that is more than capable of sending minions, omens and whatever it feels is necessary in order for events to go according to "plan," though what that plan might be is anyone's guess.

Fate Hates Unfinished Business
If a changeling's father walks out on her as a child, that changeling may be liable to meet him again one day -- and in the context of whatever events she is currently trying to deal with.  If one of the Lost swears revenge against a compatriot for his actions in Faerie, Fate will conspire to move the two of them together somehow.  If a changeling meets someone on the street, there is always a fair chance that someone will be connected to something that the changeling is working on.  Whenever a dramatic event occurs without an "appropriate" ending, Fate will take the steps needed for a conclusion to take place.  While this is not an absolute rule, and not everyone the changeling meets will be someone from her past, nor will she see every person she meets again, things happen, and more often than they technically should.

Fate Likes Patterns
Three siblings are born: the eldest is proud or even stupid, the second child is quiet and lazy, and the third seems foolish, but is brave and compassionate at heart.  Twins find they are different as the sun and the moon, sons echo their father's actions.  When walking in the woods, a girl encounters a monster who tricks her into leading him to her family.  Over and over, fate likes to use the same patterns, themes and formulas, and a changeling can see them playing out again and again in old stories and whispered tales.

Though dangerous to assume a pattern will present itself, the Lost often become aware when certain histories are repeating themselves.  When a pattern begins to surface, many fae will suspect the hand of Fate at work.  Those who give random help to strangers usually find it returned, while those who spurn them will find luck turning against them.  Foolish promises and oaths have a way of turning on the promise-maker, and weaknesses that should remain hidden have a knack for finding their way into the hands of those most able to take advantage.

Fate Can be Manipulated, but Hates Opposition
Defying Fate is possible, but rarely ends well.  Stories abound of those who defied a prophecy, only to have their actions be the very cause that brings the prophecy about.  A changeling might successfully avoid a terrible fate, only to have their actions lead to a worse fate than the one they tried to avoid.

On the other hand, manipulating prophecies so they can be explained to have passed without actually fulfilling their presumed intentions is a much safer and simpler approach.  As long as the wording and symbolism is fulfilled, Fate does not react angrily, and changelings can escape the usual consequences.  As is common, finesse and cunning serve the fae where brute force fails.

Fate is Not Inevitable
Some like to argue that everything that happens was meant to happen.  That doesn't seem to be the case with Fate.  Sometimes a pattern is oddly broken.  A changeling averts a prophecy and does not reap a terrible doom.  Fate can be defied...just not often.

Fate is a narrative theme, but is not playing out in some organized, predetermined way.  History is not written before it occurs.  The actions of the fae influence and alter fate, though there seems no means to escape it's influence altogether.