Felarya's Dreamscape

We need to go deeper...

Felarya's Dreamscape
Danger: Minimal (for unaware dreamers) to Very Low (for aware dreamers)
Inhabitants: All races, varies

Dreamscapes can be considered a blurred line between magic and psionics. They are reflections of senses, memories and perceptions woven together by a patchwork of unconscious minds. The more creatures dreaming in a world, the more “real” a dreamscape becomes. Felarya's abundance of sentient creatures combined with its great amount of magic means it has a very vivid dreamscape.

In Felarya all beings that dream have a presence in the dreamscape, though because they are not naturally aware of this are asynchronous to it. They would normally appear to be in their own little islands of reality and any interaction within this “island” will be ruled by their subconcious mind. If you were to impose on their dream, you would become trapped in it, with little control over your own actions if you aren't a very experienced dreamer, or have some special dream-manipulating power. In some cases, a dream or nightmare may grow until it pours into the dream world around it, rewriting the rules of reality as it continues.

The only way to access the Dreamscape as an aware- or "wandering"- dreamer is through lucid dreaming, looking for a specific passage. Very precise techniques and countless nights may be necessary to have regular results. Once you've followed all the proper steps you would enter a bizarre “warped mirror” Felarya made up of experiences and memories from its inhabitants of all races and sizes, and even from various points in history. Immortality makes for some very long memories. Geography, physics and time mean little in the Dreamscape, so you might climb the Giant Tree to find your favorite shop in Negav on one of its branches or complete an entire quest before waking up from a full night's rest. Sorbalier tea may be useful in reaching the desired level of sleep to access the dreamscape.

Trying to “snap” unaware dreamers out of their dream won't get you anywhere. You're a figment of their imagination as far as they're concerned. At most you might get them to ramble on vaguely about a subject, or influence the general direction their dream takes. It is a bad idea to approach giant predators in their dreams, even if they're your friends in the waking world.

For some unknown reason, fairies can freely leave their “island” dreams to roam in the dreamscape as if they were at home there. They are the most common dreamscape wanderers and love playing in the dreams of others. Due to their comfort with the strange place, fairies can be considered the natives. Their knowledge is immensely useful if you intend to navigate the distorted world.

When unaware dreamers have nightmares, these tend to draw in anyone who gets too close, trapping them within the dreamer's horror. When certain conditions are met, a synchronization of pleasant dream and nightmare occurs. For example, Crisis dreams of chasing nekos. A neko is having a nightmare about barely escaping Crisis. Their dreams reinforce each other's and its combined “gravity” tries to draw nearby wandering dreamers into it.

Dying in the dreamscape almost always results in waking up in the real Felarya with the memories gained there trying to slip away. The only danger posed to your physical body is drawing the attention of something that can use your mind as a gateway, like a Nemesis. It is hypothesized that a nemesis must go through all the training that a typical non-fairy aware dreamer must in order to master their sleep-eating technique, making prey of someone in the real world by targeting them inside the dreamscape as well. It may be possible for aware dreamers to confront a nemesis here instead of falling victim defenselessly if that were true. It would be more practical to use a dreamcatcher though, since killing a nemesis here would probably only wake her up... And you'd still be asleep.

Sometimes the dreamscape is used to deliver information from one trained dreamer to another. The problems with this are that, for one, waking usually erases most of what dreamers have experienced before they think to write it down, and two: finding a specific self-aware dreamer may be all but impossible with shifting senses of size and scope. If you were to succeed in this task, however, it would mean that you could communicate with anyone, anywhere in Felarya, with no danger of being overheard or detected at all. Only veteran dreamers, those who have been following all the correct steps for decades, may begin to wake with clear memories of the dreamscape each night. The main concentration of non-fairy dream wanderers are Negavians, who don't have to sleep lightly and have access to documented techniques on entering the dreamscape.

Some odd creatures able to forcibly enter dimensions pop into the dreamscape from time to time, but usually not for long. For instance, planar moles find that there is no substantial reality to eat here, so they much prefer chunks of the real Felarya.

There are certainly secrets in the dreamscape, as it has existed since the first dreaming creatures appeared in Felarya. It is theorized that the dreamscape is currently the domain of Déméchrelle's mind, that her cult the Sleeping Darkness often quests for her here, and that meeting her in the dreamscape would mean disaster, causing wandering nightmares to suddenly find you in the real world! There may be portals to heaven and hell's dreamscapes hidden somewhere in Felarya's, due to the close alignment of those planes. A veteran dreamer once claimed he had even found a back door to Nemyra's Palace, though couldn't recall what had made him wake up, and he never located it again.

-Very few chlaenas are encountered here. Any that would be are from the Temple of Dreams, most of them self-aware dreamers. There's no telling what they might be up to.

-The giant naga Masumi has mastered sleeping to such an extent that she is a major force of nature here.

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Got inspired by the "Felarya seen from a dream" pic, thought I'd give expanding on dream-interacting entities a try and wrap together some common themes we have so far.

Sorry for it being so long. I figured it was all worth thinking about though.

Hmm... Interesting. I can certainly see this being used in stories.

But the part about fairies being the most common dreamscape wanderers seems a bit arbitrary to me. Why fairies?

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Sorry for it being so long. I figured it was all worth thinking about though.

That was not long. it would need to be about double the length to be considered thus.

I think fairies with their intense magical abilities would be closest to the more "ethereal" or "paranormal" (as it pertained to in felarya. everything's relative after all) than most other creatures. Their wings and antennae do make them highly sensitive to a lot of things after all.

Other than nemesi of course. (In regards to psionics) I mean, theoretically speaking, anything with an affinity for magic and/or psionics can work for dream wanderer right?

We could always go out on a limb and say that Nekos are the natives instead of fairies. What, with how often they get picked off by everyone, you'd think they'd have some secret place to hide, regroup, and prepare for the next furry invasion.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

But the part about fairies being the most common dreamscape wanderers seems a bit arbitrary to me. Why fairies?

Of all the races, fairies simply seemed the most likely to do something different from everyone else, but I can see how that can come off looking pretty odd and out of the blue. I'm actually pretty sure something else should be the wacky locals than the visiting fairies in any case.

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I mean, theoretically speaking, anything with an affinity for magic and/or psionics can work for dream wanderer right?

I'm not so sure on the magic/psionic relationship myself, but I would think any sentient creature that has the time and patience could become a wanderer.

Now that I think about it, fairies are well-learned enough to not need special license for the dream world. They'd probably have as easy a time finding instructions as Negavians, should their attention spans hold to learn how.

It's an interesting idea, though I do have one issue.

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It would be more practical to use a dreamcatcher though, since killing a nemesis here would probably only wake her up... And you'd still be asleep.

If you kill a Nemesis in the dreamscape, it should do more than wake her up. I mean, their whole shtick is that they can control dreams. They need some kind of safeguard to keep them from being literal gods in this dimension.

Pendragon wrote:

If you kill a Nemesis in the dreamscape, it should do more than wake her up. I mean, their whole shtick is that they can control dreams. They need some kind of safeguard to keep them from being literal gods in this dimension.

Given that anyone who dies in the Dreamscape simply wakes up, it would be odd if the consequences were more severe for nemises (who are, after all, in their element) than for everyone else.

The Dreamscape is an intriguing idea, in any case.

Dreamscape presence.
Basic idea; The strength of someone's dreamscape presence dictates how much the dreamscape affects them and how much the dreamscape is affected by them.

In order to control something, you must be connected to it. To give a real world example; I'm connected to my computer via screen, mouse, keyboard and headset.
If I were to take my headset off, my connection would be lessened. I wouldn't be able to hear sounds from my computer nor use my mic, but neither would those sounds be able to affect me (ie; a really loud sound deafening me).
So, the strength of level of control is directly linked to the dreamscape presence and vice versa.

On one end of the spectrum, we have the unaware. An unaware dreamer has a weak presence in the dreamscape and therefore they have minimal influence in the dreamscape and it has minimal affect on them. If they die in the dreamscape, a weak connection is severed. Since the unaware dreamer wasn't paying much mind to the dreamscape, they don't lose any mind.

On the far, strong end of the spectrum we have the Nemesis. Since a nemesis has a great deal of control over the dream world, they have a strong connection, a strong presence. But this connection works both ways, if they are killed in the dreamscape, they'd get a serious mental shock. A connection that they were seriously investing their mental power into is severed, this would hurt their mind. Temporarily of course. I'm not sure how long the recovery would take, maybe a day or two of not being able to think straight.

Lucid dreamers fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. They wouldn't experience the debilitating mind shock that a nemesis would at being killed in the dreamscape, but they might awake with sleep paralysis and/or have a strange, displaced feel for a while.

I see fairies - why? - and nemesises - obviously - mentioned, but I think we could add succubi to the lot. The have some sort of mastery in dimmensional magic, and they also can appear in other people's dreams. Of course, they wouldn't be at the same level as nemesises, but I'm guessing that, in order to appear in a dream that isn't theirs, they should have some sort of training in visiting and being aware at Dreamscape.

And I like this idea a lot. It is the perfect piece for the puzzle in one of my characters. xD Also, I agree with AJ in the way someone is connected to the Dreamscape: the more powerful your connection to that realm is - a.k.a. the more aware you are -, the stronger and more vulnerable - sounds contradictory, but with some sense - you are.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Dreamscape presence.
Basic idea; The strength of someone's dreamscape presence dictates how much the dreamscape affects them and how much the dreamscape is affected by them.

And the grammar police have arrived.

I think this is a fantastic idea. Pretty amusing that not even when you sleep you're completely safe in Felarya

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Dreamscape presence

I like how you described that scale of immersion. It lines up pretty well to how we currently have Psionics described. I think magic can have a minimal presence here, actually.

On nemesises, the wiki states that "It's theoretically possible to fight against the nemesis in the dream, but that would require a mastery over dreams that very few beings possess."

Even if you could rattle their brain with your best Cthulhu impression, they'd be forces in the dreamscape you just wouldn't want to tango with in the first place right?

Well that's a very interesting and neat idea ^^
It's a really detailed explanation and obviously well though out, with many references to various aspect of the world. It integrates itself really well, while in the same time remaining pretty open. I like it, really great job

French snack wrote:

Pendragon wrote:

If you kill a Nemesis in the dreamscape, it should do more than wake her up. I mean, their whole shtick is that they can control dreams. They need some kind of safeguard to keep them from being literal gods in this dimension.

Given that anyone who dies in the Dreamscape simply wakes up, it would be odd if the consequences were more severe for nemises (who are, after all, in their element) than for everyone else.

The Dreamscape is an intriguing idea, in any case.

I was thinking it would affect them more, since they can do things in dreams nobody else can.

Perhaps that would take a toll on them.

Well that's what Dreamscape presence does. If somehow a Nemesis is defeated in the dream world, probably by another nemesis, it would have consequences.

This also is related to how Nemesis dream eat people. They strengthen the presence of their target to abnormal levels, so what happens to them in the dream world...

Karbo wrote:

Well that's a very interesting and neat idea ^^
It's a really detailed explanation and obviously well though out, with many references to various aspect of the world. It integrates itself really well, while in the same time remaining pretty open. I like it, really great job

Thanks Karbo.

Here are a few ideas for native inhabitants.

Nulliflies: Weak insect-like creatures that intensely dislike dream wanderers, gathering around them in annoying swarms. They can't harm, but the buzzing of a group can hypnotize a wanderer into unaware sleep, effectively ending their dream quest.

Dreamoeba: Free-floating slime that feeds off of strong psionic energy sources. Contrary to nulliflies, dreamoebas love aware dreamers. If you let them touch you, your mind will begin racing as they feed on your psionic energy. Dreamoebas are bothersome as their feeding makes it difficult to concentrate. Not dealing with them quickly will open your mind to psionic intrusion.

Fearmongrel: A devious race native to the dreamscape that favor forms “reversed” from Felarya's races in direct parody of them. If you see a tailless cat with human ears or a snake writhing atop a human waist, you've met a fearmongrel. The name doesn't come from how they appear, as they usually just look ridiculous. They're named so because they often feed by catalyzing the dreams of unaware dreamers with seeds from nearby nightmares; when similar nightmares begin to occur in the same area, they would coalesce. Fearmongrels would then bask in the resulting psionic turmoil. Sometimes this escalates into a much larger event, depending on the scale of the nightmare. Say, if one man is having a nightmare about Negav's walls suddenly turning into swallower walls, a seed from it might cause a chain reaction when the nearby nightmares combine, where ultimately the dreamscape's reflection of Negav is defined by the nightmare's presence as the bizarre hybrids laugh and dance and feed.

Fearmongrels are sentient, but they just don't care about how much of a problem they might be for those from the waking world and would only be interested in talking to you so they could mock you. It is unknown if they have an original form. They cannot invasively feed off of psionic energy like dreamoebas can, nor can they manipulate what happens in a dream or nightmare beyond planting seeds from others, but as shapeshifters they could be tricky opponents. Their method of “growing” nightmare events can be considered an equivalent to humans growing crops. They would otherwise scavenge either naturally occuring events or those caused by more powerful beings.

It seems like we're turning this into a sort of "new land" that could almost be a part of felarya. I like the dreamscape idea as it was originally posted, but I'm against creating a slew of creatures that feed off anything that dreams. Pretty much everything dreams right? It almost seems too much for me. No offense. I love Felarya, but not a Felarya where even the DREAMS can eat you. Or suck out your energies all the time.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

It seems like we're turning this into a sort of "new land" that could almost be a part of felarya. I like the dreamscape idea as it was originally posted, but I'm against creating a slew of creatures that feed off anything that dreams. Pretty much everything dreams right? It almost seems too much for me. No offense. I love Felarya, but not a Felarya where even the DREAMS can eat you. Or suck out your energies all the time.

I get that. This is why I didn't propose three new races of nemesises. Instead these are just things that stress a mind-ruled theme for the dream world, over a magical one which defines the waking world.

The bugs are pests unless you're a newbie, then your fellow dream-wanderers get to laugh at you for falling asleep while you're asleep.

The slime is again a psionic-specific inconvenience for wandering dreamers. Not unaware dreamers. I shall make that clear now.

The third, the parodying shapeshifters, are meant to mirror Felarya's creatures in another way: They're just beings that do what they do to survive, even if they might seem evil for it. They "prey" on the unsuspecting non-aware dreamers, but they don't jump into the dream and gobble them up, if that's what it seemed like they do. That's still nemesis territory 100%. The biggest result of their actions (at least, in the waking world) is "Hey, I think I had that same nightmare last night. Weird..."

If everything in the dream world tried to kill you (especially if you had no knowledge of it) that would be sort of hammy. I figured, however, that there should be something to expect if you wanted to write about it, even if it's as boring as the first goomba in super mario bros. in difficulty. or just wacky local jerks.

I think it would be far more interesting if those "natives" of the dreamscape are really nothing but part of the dream world itself, projections that take motifs from the dreamer's subconscious memories and just walk around aimlessly. None of them would harm you in any way, just make you feel uncomfortable depending on what exactly they're reflecting.

Slimetoad, you're in luck as I just finished typing up an explanation that supports what you want.

Anyway; I was thinking the same as Bael, let's not make this Felarya II: Dream edition. (I do however like the nulliflies, for the simple reason that they can make you fall asleep while you're asleep.)

Anyway, this is the way I see it:
In the dreamscape, the mind is the paramount, the dreamscape is made from dreams.
Therefore, if something exists there, it must be either something a dreamer has dreamed, or a dreamer itself.

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Dream Persistence
Dream persistence is the phenomenon of dreams lingering in the dreamscape after the dreamer has woken up. "Dreams" in this context include dreamed locations, plants, animals and people.
This is the way that the dreamscape is built up; The dreamscape is an every changing world of lingering dreams.

The most noticeable and obvious aspect of this particular feature of the dreamscape is the situation wherein a dreamer wakes up, then quickly falls asleep again, continuing their dream. Thin this case, the dream had lingered for the amount of time it took for them to fall asleep.

But not all dreams linger for the same amount of time. There are various factors that affect the time a dream will remain. The foremost factor is the emotional intensity of the dream. If a dream is boring, then the mind that dreamed it will be bored by it and a bored mind doesn't leave much of an imprint on the dreamscape, thus a boring dream will have a very short lifespan after the dreamer has woken up.
But a dream that invokes a strong emotional response will last. The type of response doesn't matter, negative or positive, terror or happiness, if the strength of the emotions are the same, the dreams will linger for approximately the same amount of time.

As one might expect, dream presence plays a role in dream persistence, but it is not one-to-one.
A lucid dreamer's boring dream isn't going to linger for much longer than the boring dream of an unaware dreamer.
However, if a lucid dreamer were to dream something so absolutely terrifying that even their lucidity could not get them out of it, then that dream would linger for a very long time.

Another odd aspect of dream persistence is the fact that not everything in a dream lingers for the same amount of time. The more attention a dreamer pays to a particular aspect of their dream, the longer that aspect will linger, while the rest of the dream fades away.
To use the previous example again, if a lucid dreamer had a nightmare of a monstrous Tonorion attacking them in their backyard, the Tonorion would linger for much much longer than the mundane backyard.
It is in this way that roaming dream creatures are formed; They are dreams who's original dream has faded away, leaving them to intrude on the dreams of others, or gatecrash other dreams by the same dreamer.

Semi-permanent buildings and locations can also be formed in this way; if a builder had a lucid dream where he built a masterful house, that dream house might linger for a while, even appearing in other people's dreams. If that person payed attention to the masterbuild house, then it would linger a while longer, since another mind has payed attention to it.

This is how nightmare creatures are formed and survive. One dreamer has a powerful nightmare, that terrifies them enough that the focus of that nightmare lingers long enough for another dreamer to have a nightmare similar enough to the first one that they occur in the same place in the dreamscape, reinforcing that location or creature.

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They're named so because they often feed by catalyzing the dreams of unaware dreamers with seeds from nearby nightmares;

The thing that you describe fearmongrels doing is something I would think is a part of the dreamscape itself. If two people were dreaming very similar versions of Negav, they would be in the same Negav in the dreamscape.
If one of them started having a truly terrifying nightmare in that Negav, it might creep into the dreams of the other person.

Thanks, I wasn't sure how people would respond to my objection ^^; I mean its clear that those creatures weren't just there for the noms, but I wanted to get that out when I had the chance...

That's a really good idea AJ, I think it ties in perfectly. I'd love the dreamscape to be a really trippy sub-realm of Felarya. I'm trying to come up with some rules and creatures too - but none that will eat you. I believe the only creature that should ever be able to eat through dreams (or however they do it) are the nemesis. That IS what makes them so fearful and unique after all.

On the other hand. I'm wondering if there's some kind of rule we can make up to reinforce a nemesis' ability to do what they do, but not being noticeable enough for people to figure out how they do it. Like an idea or a hint.

edit: maybe there should only be a few creatures, I don't want this place to sound like the fade from dragonage.

I agree with you guys. Since I hadn't yet worked out what Anime-Junkie has put together so well, I believe I had accidentally fallen back on the framework of other similar settings which didn't even mesh up right to what I was originally going for. Therefore Felarya II: Dream Boogaloo.

Speaking of your idea involving Fairies earlier, that gave me a little idea.


Dreamscape Sprites

Dubbed as "fairies" by adventurers who remember their travels through the dreamscape. Dreamscape Sprites are small - closer to the fairies that adventurers know rather than the unique Felaryan Fairies.

They glow in colors to represent their mood, but their colors that represent are dependant on their favorite color. (example: a sprites favorite color is green, and will glow green when happy, and blue when angry, because they hate the color blue) to this extent, trying to find out a dreamscape sprite's emotions are rather difficult.

They absorb the negative emotions of people and reconvert them into energy for wishes trapped adventurers (within dreamscape only)
may use to get free. If they find a fairy, and said fairy has energy to grant a wish. The sprites are many in number, but rarely seen by a lot of people, however, to some they appear almost always in dreams. Clues suggest it depends on the psionic strength of the dreamer. There's no definite explanation for this.

Dreamscape Sprites are humanoid, with some scales on their body that glow and refract, aiding in the glowing color representation of their mood. They are weird looking for sure, and their wings don't even seem to be attached to their bodies!


I know it's not very long, but there's lots of info still, yes? ^_^ Lemme know what you think. I just want to state again, the reason they are called "fairies" is because that was the name given to them by those who enter the dreamscape and are more used to fairies being smaller, glowing things than gigantic man-eating creatures.

So... I assume that dreamscape sprites are a dreamed creature that has been dreamed enough times by adventurers from other words to be semi-permanent.

Fish : I'd like to create an entry on the wiki for the dreamscape. This is a great and in depth idea and it opens new avenues of explorations, while in the same time merging very well with the rest ^^
I must just ask if you agree with the disclaimer ( https://felarya.forumotion.com/t1452-disclaimer-updated )

Karbo wrote:

Fish : I'd like to create an entry on the wiki for the dreamscape. This is a great and in depth idea and it opens new avenues of explorations, while in the same time merging very well with the rest ^^
I must just ask if you agree with the disclaimer ( https://felarya.forumotion.com/t1452-disclaimer-updated )

I agree with the disclaimer.