The Dreamers

This entire page is marked as [Conceptual]. This means that anything described here is an idea for a plot within the Face of God story that is not in canon.
Back at the beginning of time, 
There were only humans
One race, but they were gods
Or so as we think of gods:
each law, of time of space, reality was there's to change
They lived in one city
but many planets
and were free...
but unwise. 
A group of them gathered together, for not all had to gather as they spoke with the mind
And thought of a plan to learn the knowledge
What they lost or never had
It was close but not in their grasp--
They made a plan 
Send a few 
But not all for the lot may perish or stay in limbo, lost in the universe.
But if they sent only a few, or one,
The one could become great
And be their ruler.
So they decided, once for all, until further notice, to never try to attain the knowledge, because this was the wise thing
But
A group of them didn't follow law, and broke away
They were called the dreamers as the songs say
They walked through astral paths, both fantasies and nightmares
Making a world on the other side,
Hidden from the world of all gods:
This was our world,
And they traveled two and from these worlds by portals
By Transcendence, 
The skill that the dreamers perfected.
And then, in their craftiness, created the human experiement,
The route to the secret knowledge
The knowledge of abstinence and lust
And they learned what it meant to be lost,
And then they were found, the other gods saw them
Pulled them from their separate world, and judged them before the rest.
And they were signed guilty of separation from pure law
And for the fear that they might be better with their knowledge gained
The people told the dreamers:
"You sought the last wisdom through your separate world, and we will now give you two choices.
Be gone from us and stay in your world, and see if you can become greater than us in your wisdom
Or let your new wisdom be consumed and join the civilization again.
One of the Dreamers said,
"What more can we gain that we already have?"
"There is more to know but it's not worth knowing true law," said another Dreamer, and left the group to stay home.
But most of them chose their original path,
And a judgement was declared that, "They shall be trapped in their second world, until the last wisdom is whole,
And until then, they shall not know what it means to be one of us.
They were cut off, the Dreamers, and put through their portals
The portals we call dreams
Back to the second world, the realm of our galaxy, and the home of earth,
And here they stay until the present time...
== Disambiguation ==
The Dreamers are the arch nemeses in the Face of God Saga, and are revealed in-narrative after the discovery of the Cycle within the God Saga.
== Background ==
During Stacey's dreams in Heart, she runs into small crinkly skinned people that are mostly friendly. The "one with the dunce cap" at the castle shows her other creatures in the distance that worship a statue. These are more of the same species.
The initial idea for Stacey's dreams were to serve as an allegory of the current world order and how it was being upended by the Silent (but really the Dreamers); however, the dreams may serve as a looking glass into future evens when Stacey and the other 16 are rulers in the God Saga. Basically, these creatures are real, so is the nymph, but they're just playing a role as dream actors now.
If that's the case, then the crinkly skinned men are the Dreamers. The nymphs are a race that live in the 16th city overseen by Stacey--as are Ellelalondis, the other creature, etc. However, the crinkly skinned things may just be some other race in time--regardless they are antagonistic.￼
The idea further continues to the prospect that the Dreamers will be involved in creating conflict within the God saga--a challenging narrative concept in itself due to the fact that the God Saga starts with the 16 and all humanity eliminating all the Silent and thus creating a utopia. Regardless if they create conflict before the end of the God Saga or near the end, they are the ultimate threat of existence to humans.
== History ==
The Dreamers were a race of beings that made a contract with humanity, offering them godhood in exchange for their connection to a higher being, and they accepted. This was previously stated to be the Silent who did this, but now it's stated that the Silent were just the 16 in god form, stuck in a cycle created by the Dreamers.
At the end of the God Saga when the 16 discover they're in a cycle, they work with the Silent rather than against them. This is when the Dreamers reveal themselves.
It is unknown how the Dreamers will battle the 16 (then 17). One idea is that the Dreamers have been instrumental in every conflict up until this point, and that their revelation is simply a final understanding of sorts, and at this point they're already erased from existence. That all of humanity has conquered all at this point.￼
=== Stacey's Dreams in Heart ===
As stated above, the "crinkly-skinned creatures" (see Heart) that appear in Stacey's dreams after Rose's death were originally planned to be allegories for the Silent, and their perpetuation into the universe, thus destroying the earth as we know it. However, the creatures may be the Dreamers themselves, the race that made a covenant with humanity ages ago--a covenant that exchanged the human race's connection with a higher power for the ability to be god themselves, the highest power. 
The Dreamers have a deeper history than this however; the Dreamers themselves were humans, living in what the cannon calls The God Saga; in fact they were just a group of god humans that existed before the cycle was commenced. Their story is described in the following section
=== Possible Plot for Who the Dreamers Are ===
Author note: One idea I had for a while is making the human race the antagonist of the entire FoG series rather than the hero. As they permeate into the galaxies, they would cause the destruction of other races. Over time, humans have become the only race in the story so we'll see.
A similar idea is the history of the Dreamers. My original idea was that the Dreamers were the rebel group, went into a pocket reality, and became human gods, and that they'd come back to war with the original gods that stayed in their utopia. If this is the case, obviously the Dreamers are presented as the good guys. I could take another route that sees the Dreamers coming back to the original gods, and the Dreamers are the ones who gave the original gods an option: to submit or else or something like that.
== The 16 Utopias and the Godless Issue ==
Before the Silent and any humans as we know them today, humanity was paramount to God; they could change the laws of nature, space, and time, similarly or exactly as the humans can after the transcendence in All Is Silent. They gathered into 16 cities, also similar to the God Saga, and had peace, willful peace, until an issue became apparent. A group of the god humans became aware of a piece of knowledge that was unknown to them.
As described above, this knowledge is the type that only be acquired by a lack of complete wholeness. Basically, the only way to know was to experience something, and that "something" was what we know as the human experience. The pain of life, the gap between pain and pleasure, the discovery of knowledge, and the reactions to lack of anything, led to knowledge that the god humans didn't have.
To make the plot simple, most everyone was okay with this idea. The problem was, there was a possibility that which ever gods went through this process may never get back to complete wholeness, i.e. life as they knew it, and not everyone wanted to do this. The option for some to go through this process would be possible, however if those few did obtain the knowledge acquired by the human experience and make it back to godhood, they would have a leg up on the other god humans. Thus, they'd be wiser, smarter, etc., and this idea worried most of them. 
=== Idea Concerning the God-Humans ===
Author note: This is a slight diversion before getting into the deeper issue outlined above. I have an idea to make the pre-humanity humans similar to the Greek gods. Basically, they are romantic and non-empathetic--in fact, almost non human like due to their lack of humanity. My point is, if I write any narrative for this pre-human era, the dialogue and actions of the story will point to the fact that these beings are not quite like humans as we know them today. 
Another note concerning the God-humans is how their government works. Similar to the post transcendency, there really isn't a government, but a utopia: everyone congregates in one of 16 cities by choice, and there are no leaders. This peace is a result of knowledge, but will be interrupted narratively later in the God Saga when things start to happen; regardless, there is open communication between every being in this utopia. They can communicate telepathically. Thus, there isn't really a need for a council or representative government, due to this ability to be able to communicate with everyone. 
So with the incident above where some of the god-humans meet to discuss matters of humanity; I suppose this doesn't make sense until I come up with a reason as to why only a certain part of the population would discuss this. 
One last idea about these pre-human gods. My thinking is that they'd be firstly logical, perhaps 100% logical, in their decision making.
Aaand one last note in regard to the history of humans in the Face Of God Saga. This isn't entirely related to the topic at hand, but I have an idea to make the world of FoG to have magical realism that slowly undevelops to the world as we know today. For example, in Arm, it might be totally normal for Nat to have a special fighting ability or a special sword. The idea is to have the human race slowly separate from their metaphysical roots. This isn't a novel idea, but I forgot where I first heard it--it may have been a Song of Ice and Fire thing. 
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