It seems like the faerie must always request this process. That is, it cannot happen just because someone is sitting by a fire and telling a story about the creature (while it opens its glamour to the process.)
What're some good examples of this process occuring for incognizant faeries? Would a dwarf ask a man to make a statue representing him as a dwarf king? Would an orge kidnap a woman and demand she sing about how he's as tall as a mountain?
From the examples given in the book, I believe an incognizant Faerie would subconsciously alter it's behaviour to conform to the qualities associated with it's new role.
By way of example, the dwarf might draw an unwitting human into a quest to help him "reclaim" his throne as opposed to stealing a bride or making magic shoes.
That's an interesting way to go about it. Not strictly by the book, I think, but I like it.
No, it has to -allow- the process, but that can be subconscious. There is some question as to if faeries even have sufficent free will to allow or disallow things. In the negative case, it has to accord with the faerie's glamor.
No, I don't see either as good example, because in either the faerie is acting as a protagonist.
That makes this a very specific process, then. (Though I'm not sure I'd say that the dwarf is the protagonist there. After all, Bilbo Baggins was the protagonist of the Hobbit.)
Now, to make sure I got this right...
Basically, the faerie must subconsciously or consciously open its glamour (a curious expression I don't quite understand, but I'll interpret it as 'allowing itself to be changed, even if it doesn't realize it or even feel the difference.')
The performance must involve the faerie, but not talk about the faerie directly, basically have it as a character in a story and describe its attributes thusly.
Does the faerie have to be physically present for this?
How might the request go about? Aside from the obvious Highly Cognizant one where they simply ask.
I think you are getting caught up in the idea of "performance" here. Performance needs to occur to fuel and direct the change, but its not necessarily as overt as a faerie going "Do X for me!". A highly cognizant one can, as you say, ask for this to occur, but lesser faeries are also involved in this process, and they, by definition, do not know what to ask for, or know only one thing to ask for. They lack range: they lack the capaicty for self-definition, and they even possibly lack the internal life that gives human volition.
Some of its glamor would need to be present, but the physical body of a faerie is a convenience for interacting with humans. Faerie Auras, we now know, are the embodiments of faeries, and as such I think if you were just in the aura a faerie generates, that would count as physical presence.
For narrowly cognizant faeries, they play out their one, and only one, story. If a human comes by and tries to change them in a way unreleated to their story, then the player says if the change is possible or not (as a basic fairness issue). Notice this means the character cannot seek a change outside his role? That's what I meant by "protagonists" above: only highly cognizant faeries are capable of wide choices a s protagonist. Faeries cognizant within role are capable of really only one direction in their protagonisation, and incognizant faeries aren't able to conciously attempt change at all. So, in the examples, where the faerie seems to be driving the story, it is demonstrating that either its highly cognizant, or that for that particular role, this is the perfect endgame for that faerie.
So yes, the examples are workable, but not in incognizant faeries, which are what you were asking about, I believe. Incognizants can't "request" or "ask" or even "want", on a concious level. They can, subconciously, create stories that lead them to change, but many of them just keep doing the same thing forever (in so far as is observable). That is, if you want, say, a gnome warrior as a character, and you are sure that what you pretty much will always want out of this character is gnomish warriorness, then incognizant's a good choice for you.
Role change, to a roleplayer, looks desirable, because you assume that it will be an "upgrade", dwarf to dwarf king and so on. I Note, thought that its an upgrade by abandoning your initial concept. Some people are quite comfy with their intitial concept and seek to advance in other ways. It's really fine to just say "My character's a centaur. I like him being a centaur. I have no particular desire for him to become something else. He is therefore incognizant. Thank you for the free Virtue slot." Similarly, a lot of incognizant faeries simply don't change. Ever. They lack the capacity to desire to. If you want your faerie to be playing the game of redefinition, then Incognizant isn't the road you should start on.
Try not to get ahead of things, here, you seem to be assuming a lot about me that isn't true.
Anyway, the point of this is I'm uncertain how an incognizant would EVER change, not why. Would it kill to put in an example scenario of how an incognizant or narrowly cognizant faerie would go about this?
I'm not assuming anything about you...there's no need to personalise this general statement.
At the direction of an outside force, or though a subconscious act.
There are examples in the bestiary, as I distantly recall, remembering that I wrote this just before Linda and I got our cats, and they are 18 months old now.
And yes, it would kill, because you seem to want a atement that implies the faerie willing and planning, which gives faeries certain volition, and I don't want to state that. The lack of definite states of cognitive awareness for faeries is part of the point.