The Dream

"Everything you have ever imagined, thought of, speculated on, or even perceived exists in the Dream, along with the thoughts, memories, and fantasies of every being that can think in all the worlds that exist. It's all there, connected together by how we think about it. If you think a rock is a little creepy, the idea of creepiness attaches itself to the rock. If other people think the same thing, that association grows stronger. The stronger it is, the more that association will influence how other people see that rock, because they can sense the idea of creepiness on it. That's the beginning - it gets a lot more complicated from there." - Kailo Moana, explaining the Dream to children.

The Dream Realm is the domain of thought, imagination, and belief. Everything that thinks is interacting with the Dream, and it spans the entire universe, connecting all the worlds together. Ideas and concepts echo between worlds across the Dream, linked together in and by the minds that participate in it.

The Egregoric Force

Thoughts, beliefs, and stories have immense power, and this can extend beyond the Dream itself. We call this power the Egregroric Force, from the the esoteric concept of egregore, and it is the power of collective belief. In some worlds, this force only impacts the Physical Realm indirectly through the actions of the people who live there. In others, it is so attenuated that the power of belief has little or no influence on the Physical Realm at all. But in the world of the Great Ring, it is one of the most powerful elements of existence. You can read more about this force here.

Dreamwalkers

While all thinking creatures participate in the Dream, relatively few ever enter it physically. Dreamwalking is a difficult and dangerous process that requires immense discipline. Any stray thought the dreamwalker may have could suddenly manifest, which can trigger a cascade of changes to the area immediately around the dreamwalker. Careful use of this can permit rapid travel across the world, passage to other worlds, or can allow the dreamwalker to find and retrieve things that only exist in legends and stories.

Accessing the Dream can be achieved via the Wild Places of the world, where the realms are pressed so tightly together that one can step across the borders. Among the Mu'o'a there are specially trained shamans known as a Fai Tala who make a practice of retrieving certain objects from the Dream. But they warn that this is a dangerous activity that must be done with great care. Bringing things out of the Dream and into the physical realm does not remove them from their stories - instead, if the bonds are strong, you can summon a story into the Physical realm and create an Invasive Narrative.

The Dream Body

All of us who think and imagine are a part of the Dream. Because of this, we have a body within the Dream, which we call a person's Eidolon. While they live, this body echoes the person, made up of the mass of ideas about who they are, from themselves and others. Sometimes an Eidolon will have exaggerated features, or show the truth about how a person is seen by the world. Most of the time, it is dominated by the person's own idea of themself.

When someone dies, their Eidolon is the component of them that retains their identity and memories, and will persist for a while within the Dream, in one of the Dreamlands. The details of which land and how long they persist can get complicated, and can be explored in more detail here.

For those who want to know more about the Eidolon itself, you can find a full description of the dream body here.

Dreamlands

The Dream is an endless tapestry of ideas and thoughts, bound to one another by the associations people draw between them. When enough of these ideas come together, they can form a Dreamland - a pocket realm within the Dream that looks and feels almost like a part of the Physical realm.

There are many kinds of Dreamlands out there, with as many variations as imagination permits. But there are a few types that cover the vast majority of what a traveler from our world might encounter. These are Memories, Fantasies, and Underworlds. Memories are the echoes of the physical world, as seen and recalled by the people who experience them. Fantasies, on the other hand, are imaginary places that have come to have a life of their own, and exist without direct reference to any physical location. Underworlds are a special category - they can be Memories or Fantasies, but they have one important difference - they are where the eidolons of the dead migrate to when they are no longer connected to a physical body.

You can read more about the Dreamlands here.

Type

Dimensional plane

Included Locations

• Baille Mel

The Dreamwalker's Salvation

Dreamwalkers are more common in the world of the Million Islands than they are in other worlds, where the Dream and its forces are less powerful. People can slip accidentally through one of the Wild Places where the realms are pressed together and find themselves lost in an ever-shifting landscape of ideas and memories, filled with gods and monsters. It was because of this that the Fáros Óneiro was built.

The Fáros Óneiro, or Dreaming Lighthouse, is the oldest and largest lighthouse in the Great Ring. It was constructed to exist as much in the Dream as in the physical realm, and to serve as a guide to those lost in the Dreamlands. According to dreamwalkers, anyone who seeks the Fáros Óneiro with hope in their heart will find it on the horizon, and any who travel towards it will eventually make their way there, if they can overcome whatever dangers lie between them and lighthouse. The Fáros Óneiro is the beacon that guides lost people home, and is one of the most sacred buildings in the Great Ring. You can read more about it here.

Where Worlds Collide

Scattered throughout the Great Ring are places where the three realms are pressed so close together that they become entangled, and things from one realm can cross over to another. These are the Wild Places, and they are some of the most wonderful and dangerous locations in the world. They are filled with magic and monsters and can be portals from one world to another. Wise people usually avoid them, but there are always some adventurous or desperate souls who would dare seek their destiny in these strange locales. You can read more about the Wild Places here.

Becoming a Wild Place

Sleep is important, and when you don't get enough of it strange things can happen. In the world of the Million Islands, a person who doesn't get enough sleep will begin to perceive the Dream and the Physical Realm overlapped, in ways that can be both helpful and terrifying. You can read more about sleeplessness and the Dream here.

Beyond the Dreams We Know

At the far edges of the Dream, there is a region known as The Silence, where worlds without minds create a vast empty waste. It's terrifying, and it seems to be growing, and there may be something on the other side that is beyond our comprehension. You can read more about this phenomenon here.