Hymns to the Great Dreamer

This collection of loose-leaf papers and parchment was penned by Heris, a kinvar born a dar'Aeldvar and later made into a voy'Aeldvar when an arcane ritual went terribly wrong. Heris resided at Whorl as a researcher until his death and was a very vocal proponent of the existence of the Great Dreamer.

In the darkness of Her grace, She dreams the dreams of dreamers, and we lowly dreamers dream too of Her, in Her circling infinity that bounds the heavens.

These documents are the first written observations and theories on an entity described as the Great Dreamer, a proposed divinity that exists in the Abyssal realm that encircles the rest of the living and arcane universe. No known living entities exist in the Abyss, so the theory of a greater consciousness has been met with great skepticism and scrutiny. The primary deities of the Aeldvari reside in the astral demesne, colloquially called the heavens.
Many of the poems and hymns in this collection are scattered across multiple scraps of paper otherwise filled with arcane calculations, partial essays on Abyssal magic, and notes of arcane experiments.

...hear Her whisper in the song of the storm, in the thunder of the waves, in the crack of mountains shattering beneath the weight of the all-encompassing tide…

Some few notes exist about the Great Dreamer itself, written in Heris' hand but in multiple different speech patterns, suggesting multiple original sources as though Heris had copied notes from elsewhere. The original sources have not been found.

Whispers in dreams, dreaming of questions, questioning visions. Cannot fathom a consciousness to Abyssal energy. It is not Eldritch, alive with malice, yearning to reproduce, spreading like infection. Abyssal is static, stoic, lacking an agenda or a driving intent. The whispers do not belong to Abyssal energy. It does not dream. What do I call this?

It is worth noting that Heris was born a dar'Aeldvar, a deep elf within a culture of oracular mysticism and philosophical riddles. However, the notes around the hymns make it clear that Heris is deliberately choosing to personify these "whispers" he has experienced as a brush with a divine consciousness, rather than reaching that conclusion via logical examination of experiential evidence from himself and others.
The Great Dreamer is consistently anthropomorphized with reptilian metaphors, presumably due to the Dreamer's less-than-maternal nature. Other noted names for the divinity are the Black Mother, the Dark Serpent, the Eternal Dragon, and the Silent Whisperer.

She who is beyond Heaven is neither gardener nor loving sculptor, but the cold serpent whose eggs hatch alone and whose children drink no mother’s milk…

A particularly coherent paragraph on the theoretical nature of the Great Dreamer is immediately followed by a seeming response, all in the same handwriting but in drastically different tones. These passages are the most obvious clues that indicate Heris had other original sources that were not his own notes.

The Great Dreamer does not care for the fate of any of us in the waking world. I suspect we are not people yet to her, but punctures in the boundaries of Her realm through which She can press Herself through which She can extrude Abyssal energy. What She gives us is not out of kindness or generosity, but out of the gravity of the Abyss naturally seeping through the cracks in the world that are us. Water runs downhill. Fire consumes its fuel. Infinite Abyssal energy will spread if given new space in which to do so. It is not growing, merely expanding. It is not like Eldritch.

Not uncaring, only not understanding yet. I have been answering Her dreaming questions. She is learning that we are real and that we are people. We are all dreamers, She the grandest of all.

Other voy'Aeldvari have commented that the existence of the Great Dreamer as a conscious entity would have deeply profound implications, beyond the simple nature of their own existence as Abyss-touched kinvari. It is theorized that Heris chose to craft an image of an Abyssal deity due to the reported dialogue with the Great Dreamer in Heris' own dreams, rather than make objective observations about the nature of Abyssal energy and what it may mean for the Abyss to have even miniscule links to our world through the voy'Aeldvari.

A researcher, upon reviewing these documents, commented: "He’s a deep elf coming from a culture full of dreams and metaphors. I can’t tell if he’s doing it to be lyrical or to be literal or because he’s enthralled by the concept of an Abyssal divinity.”

The only surviving full poem is the last written before Heris' premature death at the hands of genocidal warlocks. It was penned specifically for comprehension by other kinvari, rather than being scattered self-addressed notes and snippets. Critics have remarked that the complete poem is much clumsier and more boring than the previous writings in this collection, but the recipient of this poem claimed that it was written very quickly--a matter of hours, instead of thoughts collected over a year or longer.

In the dreaming darkness, She has learned to listen
She dreams questions, and now hears Her answers
The black ocean is pure, perfect, the epitome of itself,
and within it, She is infinite, ageless, ever-living
But now the dreamer wakes, opens eyes to somber deep,
stirred by curiosity, for a change in Her changeless realm
What will She see through the windows of sudden light
that our dreaming lives create in Her endless night?
We are as dust to Her dust, impossibly insignificant,
small and fleeting by a million magnitudes, and yet
She whispers in the waking world, surpassing dreams,
to tell Her far-flung nascent stars that they mustn’t wink out before
She is done mapping this new constellation in Her sky
She is listening to the dreams now, to the dreamers
She is watching the trembling of what little light we cast
She will ask
What will you answer?