Dreamwalkers

## Common Knowledge

Historians studying a period of time roughly five thousand years ago might know that for millennia people experienced dreadful nightmares constantly, and some people began falling into comatose states around the same time. Both stopped very suddenly.

## Further Description

The Dreamwalkers are a group of old, former mortals who contain within them stolen fragments of the power of Morpheus, the Elder God of Dreams. Five millennia ago, when that same god became a tyrant over the dreams of all creatures, the six mortals stood against him, stealing his power and using it to destroy him by sheer force of will. Each Dreamwalker qualifies as a demigod in some degree, but their power by and large only manifests through extreme manipulation of the Dream World.

Foreseeing a potential return of Morpheus, the Dreamwalkers entered a magical hibernation, under the guard of the Order of the Wakeful Sleepers. In modern times, the Dreamwalkers were awoken to battle Morpheus once again, and with the help of the Binturian Party they cured him of his madness and restored balance to the Dream World. As a result of the Binturians’ actions, however, two of their number did not survive the fight.

## Members

The Dreamwalkers began as a group of seven mortals, but two were killed by the Morpheus in his madness.

### Meredith Fenn

A high elf wizard born in Aldenlied (maybe Kadr’scor proper?), to a loving family into an enjoyable life. Her sister Allia was trapped within her dreams by Morpheus, and that sent her on a years-long journey for answers. Bookish, knowledgeable in many fields of study (read: a huge nerd), but a strong wizard nonetheless. Kind, but with a strong backbone.

### Salvadore Richter

A human soldier born in Aiur. Disillusioned with Aiur’s fanatic obsession with symmetry, he offered services as a freelance soldier elsewhere. His fellow soldiers were trapped within their dreams by Morpheus, and he set out looking for answers as a result. Cold, but a dangerously effective ranger and a brilliant military strategist. Has a sort of soldier mentality.

### Mias’maux Di Kristal (Deceased)

A dark elf born in Aoelia who travelled the Underdark, surface, and even the Overbright, fantasizing about building a tower to connect the three. He lived a reclusive life, and never personally lost anyone to the dreams, but saw the suffering of the poor and broken and set out looking for answers. He and Karis constructed the devices keeping their bodies preserved for millennia. He died in battle in 10,017 A.B., due to a failure by the Binturian Party.

### Karis Redwood (Deceased)

A hobbit inventor and mystic born in Haelwyd. After a premonition, and her father was trapped in a dream, she set out looking for answers. She and Mias’maux constructed the devices keeping their bodies preserved for millennia. She died in battle in 10,017 A.B., due to a failure by the Binturian Party.

### Avos Buteo

A red-tailed hawk-folk wannabe-pirate born in N’Ras. He lost his personal trainer and master to the dreams, and that set him on the journey for answers. He’s brash, hot-headed, and impulsive, but an incredible fighter with all the abilities of one of the swashbucklers he longs to be. Fun at parties.

### Dionaea Muscipula

A venus-flytrap dryad born in the depths of Binturia. Three of her lovers fell to the dreams, and the villagers of their town blamed Dionaea and ran her out. She took this as an opportunity to find some answers. She is seductive and devious, and her phantasmal abilities are only the icing on that cake. All in all, she’s very good at getting people to like her, and extremely good at getting information. Very sociable, despite everything.

## History

### Meeting and Founding the Wakeful Sleepers (5,885 A.B. - 5,887 A.B.)

The details of how the Dreamwalkers found each other is lost to time. Each began wandering the world in search of answers to their burning questions, and eventually they found each other. When asked, the story always changes, and they even consider it an inside joke. Regardless of the method, they found each other and formed a unit. With Meredith’s book smarts and wizardry, Salvatore’s brilliant strategies and combat training, Karis’s tech and mysticism, Mias’maux’s unconventional designs and visions and healing power, Avos’s skill with a sword and swashbuckling, and Dionaea’s pretty face and the ability to use it to its fullest with a pinch of mind magic, they made for an unstoppable team.

As they traveled, they amassed a following, that named itself Wakeful Sleepers, to aid them. Altogether, they learned of Morpheus, the Dream World, how to access it, and even how to fight back. Atop a snowy mountain peak in 5,887 A.B., they found their answer in a long-abandoned monastery: a fragment of a ritual. This ritual, the Rite of Divine Transfer, was constructed by the brightest and strongest mages who ever lived with the sole purpose of sapping a deity’s power and granting it to mortals.

### Rite of Divine Transfer (5,887 A.B. - 5,888 A.B.)

Through grueling study, the team reconstructed the ritual. All that remained was to perform it. After starving themselves, losing themselves, and torturing themselves, they had finally created enough space within themselves to house the power of a god. One year later, after months of preparation, they summoned and bound Morpheus. Through a brutal fight, they succeeded in sapping Morpheus’s power and became Dreamwalkers, gifted with the power to command the Dream World and fight against Morpheus.

### Killing a God and Lying in Wait (5,888 A.B. - 10,017 A.B.)

For two years, the Dreamwalkers battled against Morpheus on various grounds. Morpheus, having built the Dream World itself, had intimate knowledge of its inner workings and how to abuse them. The Dreamwalkers, backed by a militarized Order of Wakeful Sleepers, had each other, mortal creativity, ingenuity, and versatility. In 5,890 A.B., as both sides grew desperate, the Dreamwalkers found Morpheus in the minds of villagers deep in Oraefin. They came to blows, first in the mindscape and then in the real world as they managed to coax each other out. Their battle brought the strongest of powers from both sides to the surface, but in the end the Dreamwalkers felled the Elder God of Dreams. His heart pierced, Morpheus ceased to be.

Their purpose fulfilled, the Dreamwalkers destroyed the remains of Morpheus and returned to their lives as they had lived before with their loved ones saved. Eventually, Karis had a premonition that sometime in the future the god of dreams’ power would be used for evil once again, and that the Dreamwalkers needed to be there to stop it. Her companions agreed.

Each Dreamwalker would be placed into a preservation device, dropped into a deep slumber, and entombed in secret hideaways throughout Orelisle. Their bodies would be frozen and kept barely alive, maintained by their Order of Wakeful sleepers, and awoken when they were needed again. Karis and Mias’maux built the devices, fueled by magic formulated by Meredith, which would contain them in their slumber.

Meredith was entombed in the Order’s headquarters. She had designed the headquarters and had always felt at home in her library in Marujai. In time, the headquarters would grow to a small village, made of the Order’s descendants. Mias’maux was placed near his home city, in a labyrinthine cavern system East of Aoelia. Karis was buried in Haelwyd, also near the town where she was born. The humble setting inspired her, she had said. Dionaea placed herself under Taphran. She wanted to be somewhere inconspicuous, close enough to the wilds, and somewhere she could sense the changing lives of mortals. Salvatore would be buried under Binturia. He believed that proximity to the source of all magic would strengthen his dreams and make him all the more ready for next time. Avos returned to his homeland a hero, and was enshrined and entombed below it.

And then, they waited.

### Revival (10,016 A.B. - 10,017 A.B.)

In the intervening years, Morpheus resurrected himself through a failsafe: a Reality Crystal necklace that housed a disconnected part of his being. After a long time lying in wait, it called out to a passing Selkie named Vela Daré. As she donned the necklace, she was possessed by the revived god of dreams, who quickly made changes to her mind as he saw fit and set about preparing his revenge. He quickly jumped metaphorical ship to the mind of Oniero Trógon, a powerful wizard and member of the Order of Wakeful Sleepers’ reconnaissance team.

Now with a serviceable body, the secrets of his enemies, and a right hand woman, Morpheus (in the guise of Lord Nocturne) trapped people in nightmares and used their sleepwalking bodies to build a castle in Binturia and trained them for war. Expecting that the Binturian Party would be his number two biggest obstacle, right behind the Dreamwalkers and their Sleepers, Lord Nocturne ambushed the Binturians and sent them to the Dream World. The Binturians escaped, though, and sent Nocturne away with violence and extreme prejudice.

Using a piece of torn cloth accidentally left behind by Nocturne, the Binturians tracked down the headquarters of the Order of Wakeful Sleepers and brought them up to speed. They then entered the mind of Meredith and awoke her, ignoring the temptations of Vela as she offered them. They then travelled into Salvadore’s mind, awakening him and freeing him of the corruption Morpheus had begun to seed within him.

Karis and Mias’maux were also awoken, and with the Dreamwalkers’ help the Binturians stormed Nocturne’s castle to recover the remaining Dreamwalkers whose bodies Nocturne had imprisoned. Jumping from dream to reality and back, the Binturians fought and defeated Vela, and spent an uncomfortably long amount of time torturing her. So devoted to their torture were the Binturians, that both Mias’maux and Karis overexerted themselves in keeping the imprisoned Dreamwalkers alive and safe. Though both Dreamwalkers were reached and awakened eventually, Mias’maux and Karis were grievously wounded and died.

The Dreamwalkers all freed, the Binturians confronted Nocturne in physical combat, but before the killing blow was struck the Reality Crystal necklace encased his body in an impenetrable barrier. The Dreamwalkers temporarily granted the Binturians some of their power, and they dove into the mind of Nocturne, then the mind of Oneiro within the mind of Nocturne, then the mind of Morpheus within the mind of Oneiro within the mind of Nocturne, and finally the seed of madness within the mind of Morpheus  within the mind of Oneiro within the mind of Nocturne. With the Dreamwalkers’ aid, Morpheus was cured of his madness and balance was restored to the Dream World at last.

### Current Residence

The remaining Dreamwalkers all presently reside on the Material Plane, each living their own lives. Dionaea travels the world to reacquaint herself with it, while Salvatore travels to find a new purpose and seek out remaining dream magic. Avos travels the world aboard a pirate ship, and Meredith stays close to the Order of the Wakeful Sleepers to decode Morpheus’s failsafe pendant and track down dream magic.

## Further Information

* Aiur
* Aldenlied
* Aoelia
* Binturia
* The Binturian Party
* Dark Elf
* Dream World
* Dryads
* Haelwyd
* Hawk-folk
* High Elf
* Hobbits
* Humans
* Morpheus
* N’Ras
* Old Binturia
* Order of the Wakeful Sleepers
* Selkie