Dream Phantoms

Clans living near the Pallar Icy Fields on the northernmost island of the Frozen Isles celebrate the coming of the warm season, but there is only one reason they sometimes prefer the winter months. When the snow starts to melt, dream phantoms become active.

Dream Feeders

Dream phantoms are incorporeal creatures that feed on happy dreams. Moreover, they give their prey happy dreams, creating a positive feedback loop, for them to feed on. Most often, dream phantoms feed on shamans and other practitioners of hedge-witchery, especially the ones consuming perpetual ice for its divinatory properties.
It is believed dream phantoms initially, before the Frozen Isles were settled by humans, fed on perpetual ice. The colonisation by humans gave them a new source of food, one more tasty and especially more exciting, for dream phantoms can't dream themselves. The perpetual ice only gives them an ecstatic feeling, while people's dreams gives them a world to live in.

Phantom Wards

Protecting oneself against dream phantoms is relatively easy. As long as the dreamer is aware of their existence, the dreamer can protect themselves against phantoms. Since phantoms attack and conjure in the dreamworld, knowledge of one's own dreams is of utmost importance. Many shamans and hedge-witches practise lucid dreaming to stay in control. Tricks that can be used are for example colour or odour cues that remind the dreamer what is fabricated by their own mind and what is a conjuring from a dream phantom. Moreover, dreams conjured by phantoms are often silent and flawless.
Common folk not practised in lucid dreaming often hang phantom wards next to their beds. Wards often consist of clear crystals and glass dangling from strings. It is said that the sparkly refraction and reflection of light by the wards confuses the phantoms, making them unable to find their target.