~DREAMYST~
Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes: The Dream, 1883
This world started as a thread called, “Your Votes Will Create This World”. The link to it is below:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
The results were very interesting. It really took my ideas into directions I never would have even considered. Here are the results from each round:
~Round I~
It is a world where dreams really do come true. Dreams, Fantasies, and Nightmares roam the lands and take physical form. The souls of Men go to the Realm of Dreams when they sleep, and sometimes their souls don't come back.
~Round II~
The world has no gods, but it has forces that resemble gods.
~Round III~
What is the current year? 5,000 or more…
What event caused the start of the calendar? A death…
~Round IV~
Who died? A Goddess…
What caused her death? A murder…
How long ago was it? 5,010 years ago…
~Round V~
The world was originally a what? An eye…
How many moons does the world have? Three…
How many other worlds in this solar system? None…
~Round VI~
The campaign name is Dreamyst; the name of the world is Reverie; the world orbits the Sun 420 days a year, and there are 12 months in a year, and each month has 35 days with 5, seven day weeks.
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) The Persistence of Memory (1931)
As I pondered how to present this world, I thought about my dreams, and they don’t follow a set pattern or linear order. For that reason, I don’t think the world of Reverie should be presented linearly or even logically. Since it is based on dreams, I want it to be dreamlike in most respects. For that reason, most of the stuff you will see on here is subject to change. The reason being that some of this could just be a dream, and some of it could be real…I will let you decide which is which.
However, there are some basics I should throw out there first, based on the voting from the previous thread:
*5,010 years ago the Deicide occurred. The goddess known to many as the Mother was murdered. Like the other gods She lived on a higher plane than the mortals, and the other gods. Her murder wasn’t seen, even by the other gods, but it was certainly felt. A god had never been killed before. Her murderer was unknown, but the other gods told their worshippers through their dreams that it was the Destroyer who killed her, and He would kill them too. As a result, the gods fled to other worlds, and it left Reverie truly godless.
*The creators of the Seven Elder Gods remain shrouded in mystery. One myth holds that came from the Trinity of the Father, the Mother, and the Spirit. They were Three who acted as One.
*The calendar and the days of the week are based on the gods who were worshipped prior to the Deicide. They are very similar to Earth’s calendar, and one may have influenced the other. It is based on the seven elder gods who created the world. The days of the week are:
Monaday: she created the 3 Moons to mark the passing of time and to reflect the light of the Sun.
Tusenday: he created seas that surrounded the lands, and the first ships.
Wedonday: he took out his left eye to create the world, and the created the first lands.
Tharday: he created the skies, the clouds, the rain, and the storms.
Fryaday: she created the fires below the lands, and she taught the Races how to make fire.
Saturaday: she created the stars in the sky to bring light the night.
Sunisday: he created the star that the world orbits, and he named it the Sun.
*The names of the months are based on the Twelve Great Gods who were the children of the Seven Elder Gods. They ruled over Reverie after the seven elders passed on. They had arguments with each other, but they never warred against each other. After the Deicide they fled to other worlds, and it may have influenced the Gregorian calendar that is used today on Earth.
Jania: she was the goddess of birth and beginnings.
Febra: she was the goddess of agriculture and nature.
Maris: he was the god of war and competition.
Aprilla: she was the goddess of love, beauty, and marriage.
Maya: she was the goddess of magic and dreams.
Juna: she was the goddess of luck and travel.
Julius: he was the god of commerce and heralds.
Augustine: he was the god of rulers and oaths.
Sephar: he was the god of artisans.
Octos: he was the god of wine and festivals.
Novema: she was the goddess of song and music.
Decharon: he was the god of death and endings.
*After the Deicide there was a time of great turmoil. The civilizations of the world were destroyed. The people were driven mad by nightmares. Reverie itself went mad, and the world was wrecked by storms, earthquakes, floods, and plagues. The Races were sent back, quite literally, to a nomadic lifestyle. They had to start over. Civilization didn’t truly recover for 1,000 years.
It was during this time that the Scions arrived. They were powerful beings that were like gods, but not in any traditional sense. One of the most powerful of these Scions was Morpheus, because he lived in the Domain of Dreams. He claimed to come from another world, and the name of this world (Earth) was only known to a select few. Most still believe it is just a dream.
Morpheus, Phantasos and Iris, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1811
At this point I want to close, for now, because I don’t want to throw all of my ideas out there all at once. I want Reverie to grow on its own time, and I want feedback. Remember, Reverie is a world of dreams, so what you see may not be real, and it could change on you. I may even throw in some chances for you to vote. I want to add that the pictures I will show here are all from Wikipedia, so they are in the public domain. No need to worry about some angry artist, since the three artists whose dreamlike work was shown have all passed on.
I look forward to your comments. Let the dreams begin…
~The Dream War~
It started shortly after the year 5,000. Dreams have always been powerful on Reverie, but in the year 5,000 (and the year 1,000 in the New Era Calendar) the tone of the dreams took a great change. Dreamortis is what happens when a dreamer doesn’t return from their dream. Their souls leave their bodies and do not return. It typically happens to the very old or the very sick, whose natural defenses against Dreamortis are down. However, when it started happening to perfectly normal people, an alarm was raised.
In the Domain of Dreams, two very powerful Scions went to war against each other, and they needed armies to fight for them. On one side was Morpheus, who was once a God of Dreams worshipped on Earth. On the other side was Incubus, a demonic being native to Reverie who has preyed on the nightmares of mortals for thousands of years, and now he has become powerful enough to challenge Morpheus for right to rule the Land of Dreams.
The Dream War has directly affected Reverie, and the results have been catastrophic. Various nations decided to use the chaos caused by the Dreamortis to increase their power. They falsely blamed each other, and used that to declare war. As the years passed so too did the wars. Magical items that can protect a sleeping person from the dreaming death have became highly valuable. Some people began to blame the Dreamless, who do not sleep, for the deaths. Others sought them out for help, because they were immune to the effects of the Dreamortis.
It is now 5,010 (or 1,010 in the New Era), and the situation is only getting worse. There is no end in sight to the Dream War. Morpheus and Incubus will not give up their war with each other, and there is no chance for peace. Living dreams, or Dreamlings, have escaped the Domain of Dreams in greater and are causing chaos all through Reverie. Some prophets, who still worship the Old Gods, are proclaiming that these are the End Times. They say that the true gods are returning soon, but Reverie must be destroyed first…
Odilon Redon, The Crying Spider, 1881.
So far Dreamyst is like any other D&D setting except for a thematic focus on dreams. We even almost have gods by any other name: scions. We should instead go out of our way to betray convention! Think about what is unique to dreams and not the standard way of making a D&D setting.
No gods exist, yet we also say a goddess was murdered. Perhaps she was a "being like a god," or she was the last of her kind. I like the idea that the rest of her kind fled because she was killed, but we shouldn't linger on all the rest of the gods; they shouldn't be important to the setting.
Those who fled? Forget their names. It makes things more curious. It is better to have many monuments and machines left over from then that have no name or known purpose. This gives the idea that a world very different existed before now, and leaves a mystery that DMs and players can chew on at their pleasure. A godless land should have no lists of gods; the goddess's kind have been forgotten without being fully known in the first place.
Days
Because our theme is dreams, days of the week should be named after ebb and tide of the dreamworld:
- 1. Time of Fortune. Anything done on this day has a high chance of success or even of developing into something even better than as what it started. It is a day of marriages and other new ventures
- 2. Time of Nightmares. Bad thoughts had on that day have great chance of bounding into reality and coming true.
- 3. Time of Normalcy. Nothing too unusual happens on this day. Dramatic things are not likely to happen, and that could be good or bad.
- 4. Time of the Riders. In the hinterlands especially, large processions of riders and torchbearers can be seen just out of view, accompanied by human cries and the barking of dogs, always riding in from the West. Many close their Westward windows at dusk on this day, for legend says those who watch or are caught up in this procession join it and never return.
- 5. Time Reordered. Sometimes things happen out of order on this day. Ever want to brush your teeth ahead of time so they were clean before bed, even before you had supper? What if you wanted to use the spare time now to paint a picture even tho' you haven't yet thought of what to draw? This day is a boon for time management.
- 6. Time's Long Tail. This day seems to drag on for 2 days or more.
- 7. Time of Endings. It ends well if it ends today, but many a thing has seen a bad end by cutting things short to end now. Some say compulsiveness dreamed up this day, and no one's been able to get rid of it thus far.
Months
I would link these to moods that prevail these months, similar to a zodiac, having a desirable, neutral, and undesirable trait associated with each month, and name it accordingly, or after an animal seen to personify it. It could start in Spring or fall, like other Earth cultures; no need to parallel contemporary Gregorian/Roman calendars.
Ages
It is fine if a few new orders measure by dynasty or founding calendars, but the universal and most-referenced calendar should be our voted "New Age Calendar": the death of the goddess beginning the year 1.
Our past events are fairly evocative; let's involve them more actively in the present than, say, a world that has already rebuilt itself and has almost cut off the past. Examples:
1. A more immediate post-apocalyptic world (if the ensuing wars reshaped the landscape)
2. A world that is steadily declining with many ruins from the past abandoned and even forgotten in the slow encroachment of oblivion while the new order dawns in the hinterlands
War
Any force stable enough (or responsible enough, if gods made it) to support a world for as long as they have would take time for the system's inertia to wear down, so I'd place the wars closer to the murder, when the nations hadn't time to figure what was going on.
Dreams can be handled as stories, scenarios, even dungeons, but they may find themselves entering in the middle of things, or awaking before the ending, and (like the movie Groundhog's Day), dreams may repeat themselves, but the dreamer may act differently to it each time.
~
What passes in Dreams...
Those left in an abnormal (good or bad) state when waking have a percentage chance of retaining such a state upon awaking. If the dreamer falls just short of waking, they may find themselves awaking into another dream without knowing it.
~
Dreamortis
Anyone in dream, regardless of their health or age, may not make it out of their dreams alive. Those dying in a dream have an increased chance of waking before they die, but the chance of being in a similar state upon awaking makes it nonetheless dangerous.
~
Crossing Dreams
Inside dreams, one may find a door that leads to others' dreams, making the two dreams their own, but they do not automatically know they have traveled so, nor can they automatically tell who is a figment of their dreams and who is a dreamer visiting. A visitor awakening will, to those remaining, leave, melding into the surroundings, vanishing the moment they look away, or anything at all up to the players depending on the context of the dream.
~
Imprisoning Dreams
Those who are kidnapped by otherworldly visitors in their dreams may still wake to escape, unless their physical body is drugged to hinder their ability to wake. If one is in a risky state inside a dream, one may not want to awake. Dying in a dream without awaking is very possible, but it may only mean the dreamer haunts the dreams of others as a ghost, looking for a way to live before waking themselves.
~
Those Who Do Not Dream
This is an intriguing idea. Some people just don't dream. Are they otherwise the same as us or a different species? Some people don't remember their dreams. They do not enter dream scenarios and often awake with a random effect or object lifted from a dream they do not recall.
No gods exist, yet we also say a goddess was murdered. In one round the winning vote was, "The world has no gods, but it has forces that resemble gods." My thoughts were that Scions would be those forces that resemble gods, but I can see how they just replace them. I still want to have characters that draw their power from divine sources, so we can still have clerics, paladins, druids, etc. I also wanted to include Morpheus, because I think he is so cool.
I am going to stick to the voting, and say there are forces that resemble gods. By force, they could be the vestiges of the dead goddess and/or the gods that fled. A vestige is like a force. In that way it could resemble the Endless from the Sandman series. A cleric, or whatever they are called, wouldn't worship a god, but would instead draw on the vestige of dream, desire, destruction, death, delusion, etc. You see the point.
Those who fled? Forget their names. It makes things more curious. OK. That is a good idea. I thought there should be the names of the lost gods, but you are right. It does make things more curious. However, I do want to ask about Morpheus and the other "Earth" gods that might be part of the Domain of Dreams. How should they be included? On Reverie they wouldn't be gods, so what should we call them? They are vistors to this world....
Days
Then what should I call the days of the week? I can easily let go of naming the seven days after Earth's, but what to call them? There should be a something day. Like today is Fortune Day or End Day, etc. Our days of the week are named after gods, but it doesn't have to be on Reverie.
Ages
My thoughts were that there would be other calendars out there on Reverie. On Earth, there is the Gregorian one, but also a Muslim and Jewish calendar used by a lot of other people. However, the vote was for 5,010, so that would be the prime one used.
War
In the 5,010 since the Goddess was murdered, there must have been a lot of wars. Right after She died, and all of the chaos that came as a result, there would had to have been wars. However, I like the concept of a Dream War, and I can see it being a great campaign arc.
Those are my thoughts, and as I said I am very open to change. I would love to hear more of your thoughts, Dreamstryder. I want to make this something unique...
Dreams are Labyrinths
Dreams can be handled as stories, scenarios, even dungeons, but they may find themselves entering in the middle of things, or awaking before the ending, and (like the movie Groundhog's Day), dreams may repeat themselves, but the dreamer may act differently to it each time.
~
What passes in Dreams...
Those left in an abnormal (good or bad) state when waking have a percentage chance of retaining such a state upon awaking. If the dreamer falls just short of waking, they may find themselves awaking into another dream without knowing it.
~
Dreamortis
Anyone in dream, regardless of their health or age, may not make it out of their dreams alive. Those dying in a dream have an increased chance of waking before they die, but the chance of being in a similar state upon awaking makes it nonetheless dangerous.
~
Crossing Dreams
Inside dreams, one may find a door that leads to others' dreams, making the two dreams their own, but they do not automatically know they have traveled so, nor can they automatically tell who is a figment of their dreams and who is a dreamer visiting. A visitor awakening will, to those remaining, leave, melding into the surroundings, vanishing the moment they look away, or anything at all up to the players depending on the context of the dream.
~
Imprisoning Dreams
Those who are kidnapped by otherworldly visitors in their dreams may still wake to escape, unless their physical body is drugged to hinder their ability to wake. If one is in a risky state inside a dream, one may not want to awake. Dying in a dream without awaking is very possible, but it may only mean the dreamer haunts the dreams of others as a ghost, looking for a way to live before waking themselves.
~
Those Who Do Not Dream
This is an intriguing idea. Some people just don't dream. Are they otherwise the same as us or a different species? Some people don't remember their dreams. They do not enter dream scenarios and often awake with a random effect or object lifted from a dream they do not recall.
I love all of these dream ideas, and I will use them.
Those Who Do Not Dream
Eladrin do not sleep. They medicate every day for 4 hours. Therefore, they do not dream. That is why I wanted to call them Dreamless. However, now I may not. Being Dreamless could also be just a condition. There are people who sleep, but do not dream. On Reverie it is considered a curse or a blessing, since Dreamless would be immune to Dreamortis.
Also, Warforged don't sleep, since they are like robots.
William BlakeThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun (1805)
~Vestiges~
I think I should talk some more about Vestiges. These are not gods, but rather forces that clerics, druids, and other divinely powered characters can draw their powers & spells from. Because of this they don't have names. Here are my thoughts on some of them:
Dream: yes, this is a world based on dreams, so it stands to reason that many clerics would draw their power from the vestiges of dreams. Perhaps there was a dream deity before the Deicide, but who he or she was has been long forgotten. A dream could be a fantasy or a nightmare.
Light: anything related to goodness. I can image Paladins (and they should be called something else) fighting for the Light and against the Darkness.
Darkness: the stuff of nightmares, horror, and evil. There would be those who want power and use the Darkness to attain that.
Chaos: those who seek chaos just want to see the world messed up, and don't care about the rules. Their dreams would be chaotic, and both good and evil could come from it.
Order: they want to bring order to the chaos, and since dreams are so powerful here that would suggest that chaos has the upper hand.
Destruction: those who seek power from this vestige just want to see the world destroyed. It could be for a good or evil purpose.
Creation: as I think of it creation can be a good thing, or a bad thing. It depends on what you want to create.
~Morpheus~
I was trying to think how to incorporate Morpheus, who was a god from Earth, into the world of Reverie, but the easiest way to do it is to make him sort of like an angel, spirit or demon. He is no longer a god, but he has great influence over the domain of dreams. He, and his family, visit mortals in their dreams. I would leave his motivations to be unknown...
Regarding vestiges - You could think of them as entities the dying goddess knew before the Deicide. If you're going by the thought that "life flashes before one's eyes as he dies" then the same goes for the goddess. So, there aren't deities per se, just some remembrance of aspects/ forces they represented. You could give these vestiges a vague shape, like a glowing spheres with some symbols inscribed that float in the stratosphere. Or they could just appear at random in dreams for guidance. For example, clerics then wouldn't worship any deity but search their dreams for these sources of power which inspire them to do... spells.
With some more thought it occurred to me that the dreams could actually define the Cleric/ Paladin alignment (if they're included) or domain selection (of course, this is a player's choice) which means the Cleric leaning towards destruction would have "world ending" dreams and the like. If such dreams don't happen then, perhaps, he cannot use spells that day (of the selected domain).
Regarding vestiges - You could think of them as entities the dying goddess knew before the Deicide. If you're going by the thought that "life flashes before one's eyes as he dies" then the same goes for the goddess. So, there aren't deities per se, just some remembrance of aspects/ forces they represented. You could give these vestiges a vague shape, like a glowing spheres with some symbols inscribed that float in the stratosphere. Or they could just appear at random in dreams for guidance. For example, clerics then wouldn't worship any deity but search their dreams for these sources of power which inspire them to do... spells.
With some more thought it occurred to me that the dreams could actually define the Cleric/ Paladin alignment (if they're included) or domain selection (of course, this is a player's choice) which means the Cleric leaning towards destruction would have "world ending" dreams and the like. If such dreams don't happen then, perhaps, he cannot use spells that day (of the selected domain).
Yes, that is very good concept, Tenkazu. These vestiges or aspects could have been part of the Goddess. They would communicate with these vestiges through their dreams, which would then become very important on Reverie. My other question would be, do clerics and worshippers go somewhere to worship? What would temples be like on Reverie?
I was thinking that the Goddess is dying at a different time frame than the people of Reverie. Anyone who saw the great movie Inception this summer knows what I am talking about. For the mortals of Reverie, over 5,000 years have passed. However, for the Goddess, it may be far less. Perhaps it was 500 years for her or 50 years or even 5 years...
A dream is the recall of mental activity that has occurred during sleep. Using polysomnography, sleep can be divided into stage 1 (sleep onset), stage 2 (light sleep) and stages 3 and 4 (deep sleep)--the nonrapid-eye-movement (REM) stages. REM sleep occurs cyclically every 90 minutes during the night in association with high brain activity, rapid spontaneous eye movements and suppressed voluntary motor activity. Dreaming occurs in all stages of sleep. It is reported by 80 percent of persons who are awakened during REM sleep and sleep onset (stages 1 and 2), and 40 percent of persons who are awakened from a deep sleep.
Patient reports about the content of their dreams vary based on the sleep stage from which they are awakened. Patient reports of dreams experienced during REM sleep tend to be bizarre and detailed, with storyline plot associations. In contrast, dreams experienced in deep sleep are more diffuse (e.g., dreams about a color or an emotion). The dreams of stages 1 and 2 are simpler, shorter and have fewer associations than the dreams of REM sleep. The ability to recall dreams may reflect the dream's accessibility or distance from awake thought; the highest recall seems to occur during sleep stages with electroencephalographic patterns that are most like those in the waking state.1
Some researchers believe that dreams have no function. Others think that dreams are the nocturnal continuation of conscious thought processing during the day or a reprogramming of the central nervous system for the next day's conscious functioning.2 Evidence suggests that dreaming, like most other physiologic events, is important for learning and memory processing, gives cognitive feedback about a person's mental functioning and helps a person adapt to emotional and physical stress.3
Frightening Dreams: The Nightmare
Nightmares are vivid and terrifying nocturnal episodes in which the dreamer is abruptly awakened from sleep. Typically, the dreamer wakes from REM sleep and is able to describe a detailed, associative, often bizarre dream plot. Usually, the dreamer has difficulty returning to sleep. Nightmares are also common. In a two-week prospective study of college students, 47 percent described having at least one nightmare.4 Results of a general population study of 1,049 persons with insomnia revealed that 18.3 percent had nightmares.5 In this study, nightmares were more common in women and were associated with increases in nocturnal awakenings, sleep onset insomnia, and daytime memory impairment and anxiety following poor nocturnal sleep.5 Studies of the general population reveal that 5 to 8 percent of the adult population report a current problem with nightmares (Table 1).6,7
Nightmares affect 20 to 39 percent of children between five and 12 years of age.8 Contrary to popular belief, frequent nightmares in children do not suggest underlying psychopathology. Nightmares are often described by creative persons who demonstrate "thin boundaries" on psychologic tests.9 Persons with thin boundaries are less likely than others to define the world around them in concrete terms. They rarely define issues as being black and white, but instead see themselves and the world in shades of gray.10
Nightmares are also associated with the use of medication, primarily those medications that affect neurotransmitter levels of the central nervous system, such as antidepressants, narcotics or barbiturates. Intense, frightening dreams may occur during the withdrawal of drugs that cause REM sleep rebound, such as ethanol, barbiturates and benzodiazepines (Table 2).11
John Henry Fuseli The Nightmare (1781)
Henry Fuseli, Titania and Bottom, circa 1790
~Living Dreams, Nightmares, and Fantasies~
My thoughts about living dreams are varied. On Reverie it is very common for dreams to be so intense that they become real, and start to wander the world. These dreams take physical form, and some examples are shown above. It is not uncommon for a lost traveler in the woods to wander into one of their parties. The traveler will revel in a wild night of revelry until the dawn, and then he will discover that many years have passed. Time has far less meaning for living dreams.
In game terms, Living Dreams could be from level 1 to 30. A Dreamling or Dreamkin (not sure what to call them) can take the form of a lowly level 1 goblin, or it could be a nightmarish, demonic, level 30 horror. When I write them up I see them as a sort of Changeling, because they can take whatever form they want. A good level 1 adventure would be for a party of adventurers to track down and capture a runaway Dreamkin that has been causing lots of chaos. There would be a series of dreamlike encounters until the final showdown with the nightmarish Dreamkin, who would be strong enough to fight a party of 4-6 level 1 characters.
Dreamkin do not die in a traditional sense. Once their physical bodies are reduced to zero hit points, they return to their real form, which looks like a formless mist. Depending on their nature, the mist is either light, gray, dark, red, blue, green, etc. Once they are in their true form a Dreamkin can be caught by a Dreamcatcher (which looks like a sort of net), and then placed in special Dreamspheres (which resemble small, crystal balls).
These are all just dreams, so it is all open to interpretation, but you get the general idea. I can see the world of Reverie being completely different depending on where you happen to live. The rest of the issues of the world are also open to interpretation too. After all, this is all about dreams coming true...
Will there be good aligned dreamkin as wel as evil? will there be dreamkins accepted in society as members to a civilization or maybe even protectors of places (maybe important places to the dreamworshipping classes like paladin and cleric?) like temple guards or local patron or something?
How does a dreamkin come to existence and of what use is a captured dreamkin?
Maybe you can start exposing some ideas for the campaign setting?
Or maybe I just missed the part where you did... but anyways as soon as the setting is even a tiny bit clear lots of things will become of immediate need to think of and some other things might become irrelevant making it easier to see what comes next, so much brainstorm gives my brain a cold
more comments after work is done in 3 hours, great stuff man!
Will there be good aligned Dreamkin as well as evil?
Yes, Dreamkin can be of any alignment. I can see them even being a player race.
Will there be Dreamkin accepted in society as members to a civilization or maybe even protectors of places (maybe important places to the dreamworshipping classes like paladin and cleric?) like temple guards or local patron or something?
Yes, I can see Dreamkin being accepted and even admired in some civilizations of Reverie. I can also see them being hated, feared, and treated like slaves in other part of the world.
How does a Dreamkin come to existence and of what use is a captured Dreamkin?
They are born from very intense and powerful dreams. There are certain days where the boundary between dreams and reality is very thin, and they can break into Reverie. I see them as being very much like Changelings, but when they take a physical form they keep it. Their real forms are like a shapeless mist, or a Dreamyst.
Dreamkin, in their real forms, are very valuable and can be bought and sold like a commodity. The Dreamspheres contain the dream, and then through the use of devices (like a Dreamchamber) or certain spells, and person can experience that dream. I can imagine a very secretive black market that buys and sells dreams. A person could sell their own dreams, if they are valuable enough.
Maybe you can start exposing some ideas for the campaign setting?
Of course, that is what I am doing now, but I can see that it will require a lot of work to do it. Feedback is very important, so feel free to throw in any ideas you would like. Stuff like the Days of the Week, the calendar, the names of cities, kingdoms, empire, and important people. This is all for fun, so it doesn't have to be perfect or even reasonable. Because this is all the stuff of dreams, some of this may not actually be "real" and we could say it was all a dream.
I'm still not satisfied with my question of how Dreamkin is created, if I would look at a dreamkin comming into this world: How would it look/feel/smell?
also, will there be more illusionlike wizards using dreamish magic comparable to genjutsu? :D
...sorry I just miss Itachi, he should've pwned that mofo sasuke in his face >__<
but on with the story, you mentioned thoughts about how the dreamwars would commence, can you maybe clear out some general info about the empires present on Reverie? I'd love to hear more about them.
dream on!
ps: can you help out with gizuria, I'm having trouble comming up with a main arc that gets me enthousiastic... :p
www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/3057/1/C...
~Stealing Dreams~
On Reverie it is possible to capture and steal dreams, and then place them in Dreamspheres. When a person holds a Dreamsphere, they can actually see and feel the dream. They can also be placed in special Dream Chambers where groups of people can experience the dream. Certain dreams are more valuable than others. Fantasies are very popular, and there are even dream chambers than look very similar to the movie theaters on Earth.
Nightmares have their audience too. In many dark places people pay large amounts of money to see the nightmares of twisted minds. People are also forced to see and experience nightmares as a form of torture. Many people have been driven hopelessly mad from being forced to experience horrific nightmares.
Dream thieves use special Dream Catchers to steal dreams from unsuspecting dreamers. They come in different forms, but most involve some sort of device as seen below. The stolen or captured dream is then placed into a dream sphere. Most dream thieves work with a partner; one holds the Dreamcatcher, and another holds a Dreamsphere. In most places stealing dreams is illegal, but penalties vary. The penalty could be a small fine or it could be death.
Jorge Barrios, 4 June 2007
Phantasmagoria: a sequence of real or imaginary images like that seen in a dream
Vestiges as memories and imaginings that flit by the goddess's dying eyes is a delicious idea. I would stay away from Good and Evil; they're less fun than role-playing from a memory or habit. I figured they would grant an extra effect to the phantasmagorian based on the wishes of their vestige's emotion... in exchange for a role-playing condition (similar to 3e Binders). I'm trying to remain edition-generic. Here are 3 ideas:
Nostalgia (dust handlers): They continuously return to certain moment or age, trying to sift the emotional jewels from the dusts of memory, and will continue to squint at the dust in their hands until they realize the dust did not make the jewels, and that which makes jewels may also be found in the present, cloaked in different dust.
Effect: Daily, they can revive one ongoing effect that affected them that day
Regret (rewinders): Their experience is a cyclical one; continuously returning to certain moments to relive them, slightly differently each time, in order to "correct" it. They may speak to people who are only memories, and act as if the past were present. They become uneasy when encountering current situations they feel resemble past mistakes.
Effect: Daily, they may exchange a number of charge/ability/item usage for an equivalent usage of another charge/ability/item. A mixed 1charge/1ability usage to restore a 2item usage is possible.
Denial (blindfolded): They will not admit truths that are inconvenient as such; they will reason exceptions are possible that exclude them from things that are unpleasant. They may not realize things right in front of them.
Effect: Daily, they may deny all effects (good and ill) that occur to them for the entire round.
Figments
I might call the dreamkin/ling figments; it emphasizes their nature without falling into the whole "dragonborn, dragonspawn, foulspawn, warforged" formulaics. I wouldn't necessarily make them player races, because D&D player races tend to be humanized to the point of monotony. Figments could be combinations of objects and animals, a pair of legs with a voice and personality but no body, a creature that sits in its enormous snail-shell all day and on rare occasions when it is glimpsed peeping out it is a different thing each time. Something so phantasmagorical would have trouble being "coded" into a PC race (but if you think you can, try!).
Morpheus
It wanders as a lurking visitor at the edges of dreams sometimes, but flees if examined, often in a cloud of figments (dangerous or otherwise) kicked up from the host's dreams. In fact, the closer one approaches, the more figments one encounters, born of whatever dream it currently inhabits, but Morpheus remains the same distance away or as indistinct as before. It is never encountered in a dream by itself (only entering others' dreams and sharing no dream of its own, seemingly hiding there in a corner or behind a fringe).
Some say Morpheus encounters are a phenomena created by a person fragmentizing oneself in one's own dream and, basically, chasing one's own tail. These encounters may appear as a double of oneself, an object, creature, plant, or merely a distinct presence.
Phantasmagorians: Those Who Cling to Her Heart
Phantasmagoria: a sequence of real or imaginary images like that seen in a dream
Vestiges as memories and imaginings that flit by the goddess's dying eyes is a delicious idea. I would stay away from Good and Evil; they're less fun than role-playing from a memory or habit. I figured they would grant an extra effect to the phantasmagorian based on the wishes of their vestige's emotion... in exchange for a role-playing condition (similar to 3e Binders). I'm trying to remain edition-generic. Here are 3 ideas:
Nostalgia (dust handlers): They continuously return to certain moment or age, trying to sift the emotional jewels from the dusts of memory, and will continue to squint at the dust in their hands until they realize the dust did not make the jewels, and that which makes jewels may also be found in the present, cloaked in different dust.
Effect: Daily, they can revive one ongoing effect that affected them that day
Regret (rewinders): Their experience is a cyclical one; continuously returning to certain moments to relive them, slightly differently each time, in order to "correct" it. They may speak to people who are only memories, and act as if the past were present. They become uneasy when encountering current situations they feel resemble past mistakes.
Effect: Daily, they may exchange a number of charge/ability/item usage for an equivalent usage of another charge/ability/item. A mixed 1charge/1ability usage to restore a 2item usage is possible.
Denial (blindfolded): They will not admit truths that are inconvenient as such; they will reason exceptions are possible that exclude them from things that are unpleasant. They may not realize things right in front of them.
Effect: Daily, they may deny all effects (good and ill) that occur to them for the entire round.
Figments
I might call the dreamkin/ling figments; it emphasizes their nature without falling into the whole "dragonborn, dragonspawn, foulspawn, warforged" formulaics. I wouldn't necessarily make them player races, because D&D player races tend to be humanized to the point of monotony. Figments could be combinations of objects and animals, a pair of legs with a voice and personality but no body, a creature that sits in its enormous snail-shell all day and on rare occasions when it is glimpsed peeping out it is a different thing each time. Something so phantasmagorical would have trouble being "coded" into a PC race (but if you think you can, try!).
Morpheus
It wanders as a lurking visitor at the edges of dreams sometimes, but flees if examined, often in a cloud of figments (dangerous or otherwise) kicked up from the host's dreams. In fact, the closer one approaches, the more figments one encounters, born of whatever dream it currently inhabits, but Morpheus remains the same distance away or as indistinct as before. It is never encountered in a dream by itself (only entering others' dreams and sharing no dream of its own, seemingly hiding there in a corner or behind a fringe).
Some say Morpheus encounters are a phenomena created by a person fragmentizing oneself in one's own dream and, basically, chasing one's own tail. These encounters may appear as a double of oneself, an object, creature, plant, or merely a distinct presence.
Dreamstryder I wanted to do a quick reply that I love what you have here! Actually, I think Reverie has room for lots of ideas. It doesn't matter what you call Living Dreams. Figments is good, but I also like Dreamkin and Dreamlings. Really, since this is a dreamlike setting there is room for more. I was also toying around with a Living Dream being a template. It could be applied to any monster, since I envision living dreams taking a physical form and sticking to it until they are reduced to zero hit points.
I like the Phantasmagorians: Those Who Cling to Her Heart. I am really liking that the Goddess is dying on a higher plane of existance. I also like what you write about Morpheus. Since there are no gods, just vestiges, it doesn't mean there aren't religions. Most people are spiritual and need to believe in something more; also, something has to happen to them when they die. I will come up with something and see how the dreamers on here like it. The religions may look more like philosophies...
www.touchmusic.org.uk/.../GrassyPlain.JPG
~The First Millennia~
I was trying to come up with kingdoms, empires, nations, and all that, but in keeping with the way Dreamyst was thought up, I decided to take it one step at a time from the beginning. This is what we know so far…
5,010 years ago the Goddess was murdered, and it caused the event known as The Deicide. All of the gods that the people of Reverie once worshipped either died or fled to other worlds. Without the gods to guide them, the people of the world went mad. Plagued by nightmares, the people destroyed the civilizations of the world. Reverie itself went mad. The world was plagued by horrific storms, earthquakes, fires, and famine. After a generation of chaos, the world of Reverie lay in ruins.
This is the first millennia. I am not envisioning the whole world, but this part of it that will be known as the cradle of the new civilization. It is a temperate, grassy grand plain with lots of rivers, access to fresh water, lots of fertile soil, lots of game to hunt, and it is bordered on the eastern side with a vast sea. I see lots of nomadic tribes either hunting, looking for food, or attacking other tribes for their food. Eventually, these tribes will either die out, be conquered by other tribes, or they will eventually settle down near a water source and start creating a permanent city.
My first idea is that by the end of the first thousand years there will be 12 (or 13) city-states in the grand plain, but maybe there are more or less. The races living in the grand plains will be guided by their dreams (or nightmares) and by the vestiges of the gods. I have a rough outline for a few of these nomadic tribes that could work, so I ask all of the Dreamers out there to send in your ideas. Once we have enough, we can move on to the 2nd thousand years and so on. I think that is the best way to create some history for Reverie. Of course, some of these tribes can be wiped out or absorbed by other tribes.
The Nevarians: they are a dark tribe of mostly Humans who attack other smaller tribes for their food and possessions. Their shamans listen to the dreams (and nightmares) of dark vestiges and spirits. For this reason they are shunned by most of the other tribes. They believe that greed and selfishness are “good”, and a person should look out for themselves only.
The Laromites: they are a light tribe of good aligned people of a variety of races, but the majority of them are Human. They hunt for their food, and only attack other tribes in defense. If they have enough food, they will give it to other smaller, weaker tribes. Their shamans listen to light vestiges and spirits. They believe that the law should be followed, but it also must be fair to everyone.
The Candorians: they believe in freedom for everyone. They are a tribe with very few rules. They hunt for game, they gather food, and they attack other tribes if they have no other choice. They are the most nomadic of the tribes, and they are constantly moving.
The Middites: they are a tribe of short people (who are called Halflings on other worlds) who wander the lands looking for food. Due to their small stature, they never attack other larger and stronger tribes. However, they have become very good at taking what they need.
The Arkoneans: they are all about power. They are the largest and most powerful tribe. They believe that might equal the right to rule the other tribes. They attack weaker and stronger tribes, because their shamans will guide them by their dreams.