The Dark Between Stars

"There is an elder god who slumbers. Thousands or more years at a time. What does a sleeping god dream of? What if you could interact with these dreams? What if you could be killed by them?"   ---   Generations ago a man named Marwin Avelade began dreaming the same dream every night. Eventually, the dream began to consume his waking life and he felt compelled to seek answers. He discovered that this dream had been incepted in his mind by a truly ancient god, or some kind of entity. It was unclear why this entity was reaching out, or what they wanted. Were they imprisoned, or could they not enter our realm/dimension? Whatever it was, he felt it was his righteous duty to make contact, gain this god’s blessing and power, and fulfill his destiny, whatever that destiny may be.   The closer he got to discovering the meaning of his dreams, the more powerful he became. The more powerful he got, the closer he felt he was to achieving his destiny. Each attempt that got him closer was like tiny stress fractures in the walls of this reality, and each fracture yielded more power for him.   He thought if he could make contact with whatever god this was, he could make a pact, to get the power he needed to fulfill his perceived destiny. He enlisted a group of wizards, and other Warlocks to cast a powerful ritual to make contact. Why the Warlocks were willing to help, he didn’t know. Perhaps their patrons wanted answers too, or had some higher calling of their own.   The ritual opened a small rip in reality. He stepped out into the void, but was met with maddening chaos, impossible geometry, and a darkness so black it completely envelops you like it wants to devour. Marwin’s compulsion to achieve his destiny fueled him through a battle of wills, and somehow was able to reach this entity who had been reaching out to him every night for all these years. He found the Elder God in a deep sleep, and from what he could tell it had been sleeping for millennia. It is believed that the Sleeping God was somehow able to penetrate our reality with it's dreams. Marwin persevered and made psionic contact with the Sleeping God to make a pact for more power. However, his experience in the void, and entering the dream space of the Sleeping God shattered his mind in the process.   Many stories are told about Marwin, but no one can agree on what happened to him after, or how he died. Some use him as a cautionary tale for other people seeking power. Some tell stories of Marwin the Mad roaming the lands, and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Others say he lived in constant fear of invisible things that he couldn’t explain because the words he needed to describe them simply didn’t exist.  

Storyteller telling the tale of Marwin the Mad