Dream-Eater

"Now make certain those nose plugs are in tight - you breathe in even a whiff of the flower's perfume and you'll be sleepwalking straight into your grave." - instructions to a first-time Dream-Eater harvester

Most creatures gain their sustenance from only one of the three Realms, even though they are a part of all of them. Physical creatures eat food, Dream creatures are sustained by thoughts, and Spirit creatures consume the esoteric energies of connection and significance. But there are always exceptions, and creatures who have found a way to access and thrive on the food of another realm.

One such creature is the Dream-Eater blossom. It is a gigantic floating flower found in the Middlesea which has learned how to harvest the power of the Dream realm as an additional food source, sustaining itself in the same way as the Numina.

An Intoxicating Perfume

One of the most notable aspects of the Dream-Eater is the fragrance that surrounds it. It is intensely soporific, and anyone who breathes it in finds will struggle to stay awake. If they do fall asleep, they enter into a trance that resembles sleepwalking, and start to make their way towards the blossom. The wind can carry the plant's perfume for miles across the open water, and there are tales of ships that suddenly change course to sail directly into the Middlesea to follow the scent.

Once they find the blossom, the entranced people will climb onto the colossal flower and make their way to the center. The blossom can be half a mile from edge to edge, and it is not easy to navigate as it shifts underfoot. But they will eventually make their way to the center, where the fragrance is overwhelmingly powerful. There, they will lie down for the last time and slip into a deep and perpetual sleep.

Deathless Slumber

Once they are asleep, their attention shifts entirely to the Dream. There, they experience an endless series of dreams, all with the Dream-Eater itself at the center. It becomes the world they live in, and each Dream-Eater blossom is a Dreamland of its own. Since the dreamers are always aware of and thinking about the flower, their dreams sustain and nurture the Dreamland, which the physical body of the plant derives sustenance from.

Meanwhile, the Dream-Eater absorbs their physical bodies into itself. In order for the creatures it has lured in to continue feeding it, they must remain alive, and the plant takes great care to sustain them as well. However, it does not need most of their body - only the brain. Over the course of a few months, the plant insinuates itself into the body of the dreamer, taking over all the functions of supporting the brain and digesting the dreamer's original organs and limbs. In the end, only the head remains, kept alive and dreaming by the Dream-Eater. As far as anyone knows, there is no limit to how long a person might be kept alive in this state.

No Escape

Those who become a part of the Dream-Eater's collective Dream never leave it. They cannot wander the Dreamlands, or return to their physcial body, or die and move on the afterlife of their culture. The Dreamland created to hold them is pleasant enough, but never changes and is entirely focused on the flower. If the dreamer attempts to escape, they find themselves wandering an endless forest of giant petals that never ends. They can talk with the other dreamers trapped by the flower, and there are whole communities that have formed in these places, with ever stranger customs and rituals as they adapt to a world created by the dream of a flower. Boredom and lack of purpose are their primary challenges, and the people in these dreams get strange quickly. Occasionally dreamwalkers will wander into one of these lands and observe what has developed there. These visitors are able to leave the Dream-Eater's domain because it does not have their physical body, but may be captured and imprisoned by the inhabitants. It is generally considered a dangerous place to visit, for the inhabitants are frequently mad.

Realms? What are those?

The Universe is made up of three realms, which intersect to create all the worlds that exist. The nature of those worlds depends on how the various realms came together to make them, and different combinations can have vastly different results. Creatures can contain aspects of all three realms, or they can have only one or two in their makeup. You can read more about the realms and how they work here.

Sleep Aid

The perfume of the Dream-Eater is dangerous - but it is also valuable. With the correct processing, it can be turned into a potent sleep aid, capable of curing almost any case of Insomnia. Additionally, it can fetch a high price with the alchemists who run the Sleep Market of Tarshish, where one can purchase the benefits of other people's sleep in a bottle. Use of the Dream-Eater perfume to fall asleep is addictive - those who do so regularly may lose the ability to fall asleep naturally - but it is still in high demand.

Harvesting the perfume is no easy task. Those who wish to acquire follow the rumors of missing ships, with tight nose-plugs in place at all times. If they are lucky, they find the track of a ship lost to one of the titanic blossoms, and can sail up to the flower without ever smelling the scent themselves. Then they must travel to the heart of the blossom, where the organs that create the scent are located, and harvest them into tight-fitting vessels that can be carried away. This is the most dangerous part of the mission, as the scent is so intense at the center that nose plugs are not sufficient protection. The harvesters must hold their breath the entire time they are in the center of the blossom, or risk falling asleep and becoming plant food. They dash in, quickly chop off what they need, and sprint away from the center. If they misjudge their distance and take a breath too soon, they will become entranced. If only one harvester is affected, the others may try to haul them away - but the entranced person will fight this, and if they break loose and sprint for the center, it may prove impossible to retrieve them without losing more people to the plant.