Latest revision as of 23:00, 24 February 2010

Do you want to hear a secret?

Hey there, Wake. Do you want to hear a secret?

It's about your dreams. Did you realize you're having a dream right now? Yes I mean right now, as you're reading these words on the internet. You thought somebody had linked you to a game of some sort, but this is all a part of a dream. Look around - for real, stop reading for a second and take a good look at where you are. I know it all looks very familiar. It seems real. And that's because it is real, in a sense. But you're not in the waking world right now, you're in the Dreaming.

You'll spend a third of your life wandering the misty cities of the Dreaming. Lots of stuff happens here - stuff you won't remember when you wake up. You'll just have a vague impression of where you've been, a jumble of images and emotions. That's why I'm going to tell you the secret. You're not going to remember it later. So enjoy it while it lasts. Ready?

All the people you see in dreams, they're real people too, others that are wandering the Dreaming. Some of them are having a dream, just like you. But some of them - they are the Dreams. They go on existing even after you awaken. You didn't just dream them up. They have their own lives. They live in a society you visit every night but cannot remember.

You're a vehicle

The Dreaming is full of spirits: living beings who lack a body. Sometimes, while you're asleep, one of these dream spirits will inhabit your body. It might be the spirit of a Vision, one of the people native to the Dreaming. But Visions aren't the only people who live there. There are a lot of creatures which people in the waking world think are imaginary. Like faeries, ghosts, and gods. They weave an awful lot of your dreams. One of these people might spend a few hours every week hanging out inside your head.

These days, a lot of the spirits are actually monsters. If they inhabit your body, and on a long enough timeline they certainly will, they will try to slay the other Dreams. As the years go by, if the monsters win, they will gradually replace our dream world with theirs. And in that nightmare, there shall be no rest, no inspiration, and no hope. If those that dream don't feel rested when they awaken, the Waking World will become a nightmare as well.

Morality

In the Waking World, life is fragile and short. But in dreams, one may die many times and live to tell about it. Those killed today return tomorrow. Is it wrong to kill someone in a Dream? Many would say it is not.

The Visions say that the Dreaming is actually healthier when it is filled with stories and emotion. Murder, if it becomes a good story, might be good for the Dreaming.

Those that came to the Dreaming from other worlds are not used to this idea. Many humans are accustomed to moral codes being handed down from heaven - when they arrive in the Dreaming, they find out that those divine forces are regular people just like you and me. And what does that say about right and wrong? There are no objective answers to these questions.

Cosmology

We know of five realms, separated by great veils of mystery.

The Waking World is the material world, the realm of form and action. It is also known as Assiah. The people living there only know of their realm. Unlike the people who live in other realms, they eat, reproduce, sleep, and die. When people from the Waking World go to sleep, their minds travel to the Dreaming. Sometimes they receive emanations from the higher realms, where Gods dwell. When they die, their spirits travel through the labyrinth to one of the Afterlives.

The Dreaming is a mirror of the Waking World. Those who live there are called Dreams. Those who only visit are called Wakes. In the Dreaming, one feels no need to eat or sleep, but may do so if it pleases them. One will only die if it is their will to do so. Wakes absorb some of the emotions and narratives present in the Dreaming. Though they have trouble remembering it, the Wakes will carry the energy back to Assiah where it becomes an emotion or a new idea. Without this continual stream of energy from the Dreaming, the Waking World will become a very gray place.

The realm of Faerie is a land much like the Waking World, except more magical. Colors are brighter, water flows uphill, and the wind sounds like a song. Promises and oaths have a supernatural power. The people who live in Faerie are called Fae. They have a magic called, glamour, a magical force which influences perception. Wrapped in glamour, one can appear sexy, inconspicuous, or terrifying. The Fae have no gods, do not die of age, and are only born rarely. When they sleep, they do not dream. Faerie is currently overrun, occupied by monstrous forces.

The Celestial Spheres are a divine realm which exists above the Waking World. It is also called Atziluth. It is the final resting place of human spirits who have passed through the Labyrinth. Godforms worshipped in the Waking World appear in the celestial spheres, from where they appear to be able to influence the Waking World. When a Godform is no longer worshipped in the waking world, it fades from the Celestial Spheres and appears (some time later) in the Dreaming. In a way, the Dreaming is the afterlife for the divine.

The Labyrinth is the cosmic knot, the great mystery at the center of all existence. It connects all the realms and binds them together. Little is known about the Labyrinth.

All of these realms appear connected in certain ways. Events which occur on one plane often have correspondence on other planes. Great destruction within the Dreaming has ramifications in the Waking World. The exodus of the Fae from Faeire coincides with the appearance of Lost Souls and monsters in the Dreaming. Many worry that the influx of people to the Dreaming will have unpredictable repercussions on the Waking World.