Description
To attempt to provide any kind of complete, physical description of The Dreaming is to invite madness; it is a world of thoughts, of imagination, of hopes and fears. The ground one walks is no more "real" than ones belief that it exists in that moment, controlled by the formless
Oneiroi who take the shape of all things in this not-quite-real place.
The Dreaming is thought to be the bridge between Life and Death, home to ghosts and illusions both, capable of bending to the will of powerful minds and souls passing through.
The Realms of Dream
The ever-changing World of Dreams is rarely thought of as having specific landscapes or domains, though one theory posits that it is made up of millions of tiny fields connected by divine fibres - one domain for every creature in the world with the ability to sleep and dream. Below are two potential "locations" thought to exist somewhere within this world.
Halls of Arkadia
The land of Elven spirits, of verdant hills and eternal music, to which all elves go when they die, and from which all elves return, reincarnating anew. Where the Halls are actually located on the cosmic charts has been a matter of debate for as long as civilisation has existed. With it existing as some sort of (somewhat temporary) afterlife, the natural inclination for many is to place it in
The Underworld.
But elves can return from this realm born again, and visit their memories of it during Reverie, their sleepless dreaming. When elves are questioned about this place, the answers they give often lend credit to the idea that this is has never been a realm of Death, but instead is a realm of Dream.
Lair of the Nightmare King
The most powerful of all Oneiroi is also the cruelist, and the only one with a sense of self that separates him from the realm itself. Kýeri and his children are responsible for all nightmares and terrible visions throughout the world, though whether he does this out of duty to his purpose or in an act of rebellion against greater Gods is debated fiercely.
Regardless of his role, he is said to have a true domain of his own carved out between the not-real lands of his fellow oneiroi, where demons can come to visit and delight in watching the terrors visited upon the waking world.
Comments