Beautiful Dreamer: On the Ancient Cult of Igtryx

Orlando of Greenmere

According to ancient texts, Igtryx is an ancient and reclusive Prenumbrian God.¹ Yet, despite being one of the oldest of gods, he is known only to the most esoteric historians, academic priests, or those afflicted by persistent chronic insomnia, or born with iconoclastic or eccentric dispositions. Perhaps his reclusive nature is to blame.

Igtryx is most often described in modern texts as the nightmare god. Among his followers, he is known as “the Dreamer." However, experts who have studied ancient texts believe a more accurate description of his domain to be the subconscious mind, perhaps even all of sentience (conscious or subconscious). Among other things, Igtryx is said to send dreams and nightmares to mortals and immortals alike—many of which are meant to be warnings or messages. Adherents of his cult claim that all inception, thought, and other aspects of the mind are his creation through his dreaming. Some discovered scriptures claim that our reality is nothing but Igtryx’s dream.

The Great Dreamer’s worshipers are believed to be very few in number. However, the cult is incredibly secretive, which makes any definitive statement about them shaky. Igtryx has no known extant public temples dedicated to him, and it is believed that there is little to no central organizing structure.² Adherents to Igtryx’s cult are collectively known as, dreamwakers. It is the duty of dreamwalkers and their clergy to ensure, through their rites and devotions, that the god’s rest is not disturbed. They are to follow his commands which he sends directly through nightmares or dreams, or through his holy messengers, which are primarily demonic and angelic. Dreamwalkers believe that the god experiences the waking life of his priests (incepts), clerics (rousers), paladins’ (mares), and laity (dreamwalkers) as part of his dream. When dreaming, incepts, rousers, mare, and (rarely) dreamwalkers are expected (when called) to surrender their bodies to celestial, demonic, undead, or otherworldly servants so they may possess them and carry out the edicts and missions of Igtryx. The exceptionally favored and powerful among these are possessed by the god himself as they sleep. Weaker or less experienced adherents often are not strong enough to recall the deeds or words of their less powerful possessors. However, as a dreamwalker gains experience and power, they recall more of their possession and may even retain some shared agency. The minds of all that are possessed by Igtryx are shattered regardless of the depth of their experience or strength of their mental fortitude.

As with all religions, including cults of dubious aims, dreamwalkers do not agree wholly on the specifics of their beliefs. However, it seems (from the limited number of texts that have been discovered) that dreamwalkers share three primary beliefs.

1. Igtryx shall slumber so long as the corruption of Forsia does not overwhelm the righteous. The God sends his faithful to maintain this balance, and preserve his rest.


2. Igtryx shall rise from his rest when the corruption of Forsia becomes so odious that it disturbs the sleep of the Great Dreamer. Oracles of Igtryx say that once roused the god shall become insomniac until he has dispelled the nightmarishness that the Forsian races, in their selfish actions or feckless inaction, have wrought upon their world, and established a new order that shall be maintained by the dreamwalkers, who will rule even over the gods of the nine-fold. Once he has accomplished all of this, Igtryx shall resume his benevolent slumber.


3. Igtryx’s cult believe that the ancient god preserves all who have trod upon his somnial path from the judgement of the nine-fold and their paltry afterlife. Instead, on their death, dreamwalker’s abide in Igtryx’s idyllic dream in which all delights shall be given to them. When the Great Dream is roused by the perfidy of Forsia, the dreamwalkers shall be roused too. In contrast, those who actively oppose Igtryx, shall be punished with psychic torment. On their death, Igtryx shall interdict his enemies’ souls without the knowledge or consent of the nine-fold. The poor wretches’ minds shall be assaulted continuously with their worst fears until their minds break, and their souls shatter, and then the god shall feast upon their remains.

There are areas in which the two branches of the Igtryxite cult vehemently disagree. First, the nature of the corruption that would cause Igtryx to rise from his sleep. Second, the extent to which dreamwalkers should attempt to precipitate the god’s consciousness. One branch believes that dreamwalkers’ duty are to passively and patiently wait for Igtryx to become aware of the corruption that pervades this world, to carry out his subliminal commands, and, at best, beseech him to act on their behalf through prayer, ritual, or sacrifice. Attempting to manipulate Igtryx to wakefulness is an sacrilegious affront worthy of the faithful’s wroth. A more apocalyptical branch believes that the ripeness of Forsia’s corruption is at hand. Therefore, it is the dreamwalker’s duty to actively rouse the god by increasing his perception of the world from which he currently deeply slumbers. Faith requires action, which may be seen by outsiders not as "good". However, like a mother giving birth, pain may be require to bring the new order into fruition. Therefore, intervening to rouse Igtryx is a righteous and holy duty the results of which shall be rewarded greatly by the god.

¹The Penumbra are the mysterious gods that composed a primitive pantheon which predated the Nine-fold. that few Forsians are aware. They are viewed by historians and theologians as representing the subconscious, feared, or base aspects of sentient life forms. It is currently unknown how many of the elder ones existed before their disappearance. However, it is rumored that among these deities were gods and goddesses whose domains include oblivion, entropy, varying forms of consciousness, insanity, and time

2

In 989, archeologists discovered remains of a large temple dedicated to Igtryx on the northern side of Illythia’s Drakeneresh mountains. Largely consumed by the dense jungle that had grown around it, the temple had been abandoned 5,000 years previously. Were it not for ancient and powerful wards, the temple would have not survived intact.