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Story
Prologue:
The Dreamscape: a land existing in multiple realities of time and space, a vast
collection of parallel realms created and visited by the minds of the
Enlightened. These Dreamers have come for millenia, meeting and merging in the
Dreamscape. So it is, and so it has been since the Beginning.
However, a destabilizing force has recently come to the Dreamscape. Entire
variations of the Dreamscape are being consumed by it, their lands rent and
their inhabitants driven to madness. Only one final incarnation of the
Dreamscape exists still whole, but even it begins to show symptoms of the
approaching chaos.
The halls are dank, empty, crumbling. The planes scream to be rebuilt. Timelines
fold in upon each other here in the aftermath of the Great Convergence--the
dimensions of past, present, and future mixing, throwing time itself out of
joint. Most chillingly, the minds of the dreamers themselves begin to be touched
by the insanity that destroyed the other realms.
Will the dreamers of this last bastion of this Dreamscape be able to unite to
turn back the tide of darkness and rebuild the lands their minds share, or will
they too be swallowed in chaos?
It Begins:
Imagine the Dreamstate as it was before the first Dreamers manipulated its
essence into the halls and strongholds that exist today: chaos, raw and
swirling. Several versions of the Dreamstate existed in this fashion, many never
to be discovered and shaped by Dreamers. The first variation of the Dreamscape
to be discovered and manipulated by the Enlightened became known as the Inchoate
Realm, a place of unformed energies.
The first Dreamer to discover the Inchoate Realm was Dynroth, a druid and royal
advisor to the king. Fascinated with the worlds beyond the Mists, the
power-hungry Dynroth spent years buried in books and ancient meditations as he
attempted to breach the Boundary Mists. It was purely by accident that he
discovered the Dreamstate: his attempt to astrally project himself through the
Mists by means of an ancient ritual called the Ash'tonu flung him into the
Dreamstate, and he was mystified by the swirling and untapped energies found in
the realm of Dreams.
Upon his return to his home realm, he shared his new discovery with his coven.
The six of them, obsessed with learning more of the new realm formed a sacred
pact to dedicate their lives to understanding this untapped power. Dynroth and
his Ash'tonu Compact met nightly to enter the newly discovered Dreamstate, their
collective will amplifying their mental prowess and skill as they unearthed its
mysteries and tapped into its unlimited sources of energy. The Compact made an
oath of blood to keep the knowledge of this new world from the people of their
waking lands, and most specifically from the King. The King could not be allowed
to learn of their nightly rituals, for he wished them to use their druidic
capabilities for his ends alone.
With the secrecy of the Compact's nightly rituals came extreme paranoia, and
this ultimately damaged their clarity within the Dreamstate. As dreamers from
other shards were soon capable of reaching the Inchoate Realm, the paranoia of
the Compact increased. They feared that any one of these new arrivals could be
from their waking kingdom--spies who would bring knowledge of their activities
to the King. This paranoia drove the compact to intensify their studies of the
nature of the dreamstate, their experiments conducted in secret, hidden from the
eyes and minds of the other dreamers.
The Compact looked down upon the others within their newly found Dreamstate,
feeling their motives for achieving the metaphysical plane were inferior to
their own. Nevertheless, the Ash'tonu Compact, due to its superior knowledge,
extended its influence over the new Dreamers, and before long was the sole
authority and governing body of the Inchoate Realm. Soon, the new dreamers began
to fear that the secretive methods the Ruler of the Compact would be detrimental
to the very dreamstate they shared. This, however, did not stop the druid
Dynroth's greed for understanding. The Compact disclosed their philosophies,
practices and thoughts to no one. Relentless study of the dreamscape was their
sole priority. Their shardic kingdom was one of enslavement, and free of the
bonds of their waking home, the Compact sought to maintain their position as
supreme rulers and manipulators within the Dreamstate.
Because the Compact had maintained a solemn vow that the Dreamstate would
forever remain in its purest form, never to be hampered by sensory experiences
that restricted true spiritual understanding, the Inchoate Realm remained a
place of swirling energy and chaos. It's citizens were unsheltered souls, fully
exposed to the forces around them.
As Dynroth’s studies in the nature of the Dreamstate became more intense, so too
did his obsession and his paranoia. Convinced that the Ash'tonu would carry them
far beyond the Inchoate Realm, the Ruler of the Compact delved deeper into the
energies of the dreamscape.
One fateful night, as Dynroth consumed the uncontrolled energies of Insight in
an experiment that changed all of reality forever: a doorway opened to him in
the swirling chaos. He stepped through eagerly, amazed to discover a silent
Courtyard, and beyond, a fully realized Dreamscape. As he explored this new
Dreamscape, the nature of his discovery became quite clear: he had stumbled into
another realm of the Dreamstate beyond his own Inchoate Realm.
The Ash'tonu Compact became obsessed with this concept of multiple planes of
existence and time, and their focus shifted towards manipulating the still
mysterious Dreamstate to unearth as many breaches in history as possible.
Countless Dreamscapes were discovered, and soon the Inchoate Realm was riddled
with doorways leading to a seemingly unlimited number of Courtyards. These
doorways opened onto dreamscapes filled with nothing but air and sand, lush
tropical dreamscapes populated by murderous or peaceful tribes, dreamscapes of
toxicity so high, one lost his form upon drawing first breath. There were
dreamscapes so densely populated that space was scarce, and dreamscapes so large
that one could wander for days without meeting another dreamer. There were
dreamstates composed entirely of substances resembling earth, air, water, and
the firmament itself.
But with the Compact's greed for understanding came destruction, for the
Dreamstate too has its breaking point. On the fatal day, they opened a door upon
the realm of fire. This door, the final door, opened onto an area completely
engulfed by an abyss of flame, the swirling essence of chaos. The energies from
that hellish timeline tore through the Inchoate Realm, and through many of the
realms it opened onto.
Dreamers were obliterated by forces of Chaos as Dynroth fought desperately to
repair the damage he had caused. But the doors could not be closed. As the
Inchoate Realm began to crumble around them, the Compact made one last effort to
save the incarnations of Underlight that their experiments, their open doorways,
had endangered: the realms must be consolidated. In an incredible ritual of
focal energies so powerful that it rattled the foundation of all existence, the
Compact collapsed the Inchoate Realm in on itself, and with it, the linchpin
keeping all variations and periods of the Dreamscape separate crumbled. A Great
Convergence occured as the Inchoate Realm was destroyed and the other variations
began to collapse upon one another. Dreamers who were not destroyed by the
Convergence were cast from their variations of the dreamscape by the destructive
force. The destruction shattered every variation, save one--but even sparing
this single variation had its cost.
--I saw the beast with my own eyes. An abomination so powerful, so terrifying,
so malevolent, that I cannot begin to describe it in words. I watched it slip
free from that hellish City that caused all this destruction. And as I slipped
through a remaining Doorway, I too saw it slither towards a portal just before
the Convergence destroyed the Inchoate Realm and unleash a monstrous cry of
victory before slipping out of sight.
Now we find ourselves in this single remaining variation of the dreamscape, a
world where Houses stand empty, and false gods have been crushed under the heels
of the Free. Dreamers thought dead emerge from the Mists to discover a world
they do not remember or understand, and once again Newly Enlightened arrive in
our Courtyard for the very first time. I can only hope those that remain can
learn from the sacrifice made by the Compact. I can only hope that this
Dreamscape can endure what is to come.
~ Nyjiman Cha'elm, Dreamseer Teacher and sole survivor of the Inchoate Realm. |
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