Dal Quor is both impossibly distant and remarkably close. Tens of thousands of years ago, the giants of Vrigan shattered the ties between Dal Quor and the Material Plane. Since then, it’s been permanently remote, and no naturally occurring manifest zone to Dal Quor has been discovered. Not even plane shift or astral travel can allow direct contact with the Region of Dreams. And yet, it’s also the closest of the planes—to visit, just close your eyes. Dreaming is a form of spiritual travel, as your mortal consciousness is drawn to Dal Quor. Dal Quor is the realm of dreams, a place of imagination where memory and emotion can shape reality. The stories of Thelanis bring people together in a shared tale; by contrast, the dreams of Dal Quor are unique, individual, and fleeting. They’re defined by our experiences and desires, and we rarely remember them when they’re over. Dreams allows us to sift through our subconscious, and they are ours alone—or at least, they should be...
Denizens
Dreamers
At any given moment, there are millions of dreaming minds creating islands in Dal Quor. Humans, orcs, giants, dragons— any creature that dreams can be found in this plane.
A rare few dreamers are lucid and in full control of their actions, due to either training or magic; these are capable of leaving their own dreams and moving between the plane"s dream islands and layers. However, the vast majority of dreamers aren’t lucid. They’re driven by their subconscious, and react based on instinct and deep desires; they likely won’t remember the events of a dream clearly. Either way, when a dreamer dies in their dream, they wake up.
Figments and Drifters
When you have a dream and you meet your old drill sergeant, it"s not actually your old drill sergeant. It’s simply a figment, manifested from the void by Dal Quor. When you wake up—or even just leave the scene—this manifestation vanishes, absorbed back into the essence of the plane. A figment can be anything—a friend of yours, a zombie version of that friend, a demon, a dragon—but the catch is that it’s drawn from the mind of the local dreamer. When you dream about your old drill sergeant, they can’t tell you a secret you don’t already know, because they’re part of you. On the other hand, if you’re in someone else’s dream, then the figments can surprise you, because their capabilities and knowledge are drawn from someone else’s mind.
Occasionally, a remarkable figment develops the ability to persist beyond the dream that created it—becoming a truly sentient spirit instead of a simple manifestation. Such figments might be useful guides or allies for mortal dreamers, or become predators that travel from dream to dream and prey on mortal fears. Such free-willed figments are called drifters.
Interlopers
Some creatures in Dal Quor are neither figments nor mortal dreamers. Night hags freely come and go, collecting nightmares for their own purposes. There is said to be many other interlopers, but this text notes only one.
The Fey of the Fading Dream. Taer Lian Doresh is a feyspire, one of the eladrin cities of Thelanis. Long ago, the tyrant empyrean Cul'sir cursed the feyspire and cast it into Dal Quor. Caught in the transformation of the Quor Tarai, these eladrin became embodiments of classic nightmares, and ease their pain by spreading fear among mortals.
Taer Lian Doresh now exists between Dal Quor and the Material Plane. The eladrin of this feyspire can freely pass to both planes, but other creatures can only enter Taer Lian Doresh and return to their plane of origin; they can’t use it as a portal from to the other plane. Thus, adventurers can walk the halls of the Fading Dream together, but the denizens of the Material Plane (including eladrin of other feyspires, humans, and all other creatures of Eberron) cannot enter Dal Quor.
Layers
Dal Quor doesn't have layers like other planes. Instead, it can be seen as a vast ocean. When a mortal dreams, they fall into that ocean and create an "island": a dream pocket, shaped by their memories and desires. When they wake, this island disappears. So at any given moment, Dal Quor contains millions of islands, but none last for long. A passive dreamer can’t leave their own island, but a lucid dreamer can find ways to travel between them. Typically this involves portals, doors within a dream that have a psychic connection to the destination—but it’s also possible to break through the psychic border of an island, to fly to another island on a ship of dreams or an imaginary winged beast.
These flickering islands orbit the stable core of the realm, the dark heart of the Quor Tarai. In addition to the regions discussed below, there may be other permanent islands in the Ocean of Dreams. Who created the island, and what sustains it?
The Ocean of Dreams
A vast expanse of psychic space fills Dal Quor, home to millions of mortal dreams. The islands in the Ocean of Dreams range from the complex dreamscapes of sentient creatures, humans and dragons alike, to the simple dream of a dog that's imagining chasing a ball. From the outside, these islands appear as glittering bubbles, each with an image of its dreamer within it. They’re loosely arranged based on the physical location of the dreamer, so there’s a stretch of the ocean that contains dreamers near Breland, another for Thrane, and so on—including regions for any dreamers currently on other planes.
The Uul Dhakaan
Jhazaal Dhakaan united the dar through an act of epic bardic magic. When the dar dream, they don’t create their own islands in the Ocean. Instead, they are drawn to a vast, ongoing dream—the Uul Dhakaan. This is a vision of what the Dhakaani Empire could and should be, and it encompasses many cities and fortresses. In addition to the spirits of dreaming dar, this enormous dream is filled with countless figments—both background soldiers, artisans, and facsimiles of legendary champions whose memories have been preserved. Most dar aren’t lucid dreamers and they don’t fully remember the time they spend in the Uul Dhakaan, but it reinforces Dhakaani values and traditions. Chot’uul guardians maintain outposts throughout the dream, along with a great monastery in the capital city. The magic woven into the dream ensures that the throne in the imperial palace remains empty—for now. But when a new emperor is chosen and has the support of the majority of the dar, they’ll hold the throne in the Uul Dhakaan as well as in the Material Plane.
Planar Manifestations
Ever since the Age of Giants, it’s been nearly impossible to physically interact with Dal Quor from the Material Plane. The metaphysical damage caused in the conflict between Dal Quor and the giants of Vrigan broke the ties between Eberron and Dal Quor. There are no naturally occurring manifest zones to Dal Quor, and even plane shift won’t allow travel there. However, though natural manifest zones don’t exist, it is said that anything is possible with an eldritch machine.
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