Nightmare Pathway/Abilities

## Sequence 9: Sleeper

**New Abilities**

* **Sleeping**: They will sleep most of the time, but always more than 18 hours a day. Because they sleep so much, they only need a minimum amount of food and water to stay alive.
	+ They will be completely defenceless when they are asleep.
	+ Once they fall asleep, it will be hard to wake them up.
	+ During their sleep, they have low body temperature, slow breathing and heart rate, and low metabolic rate.
* **Divination**: They can perform **Dream Divination**.
* They have strong **Spirituality**.
* **Dream Vision**: They can briefly see the future through dreams while they sleep.
	+ The future will be very vague and could change at any moment.
	+ They will need Beyonders with strong deciphering skills in order to be able to find out the true meaning of their dreams.

## Sequence 8: Observer

**New Abilities**

* **Observer State**: They will be able to project an invisible phantom into reality while they sleep.
	+ Even higher sequence Beyonders find them difficult to detect.
	+ They can be fended off by using concealment. In this case, the concealed area will appear like a blank page in the landscape.
	+ Even Demigods find it easier to find and kill their true body than to get rid of their phantom projection.
* **Body Language Analysis**: Observers possess keen powers of observation. They look at people strictly from a bystander's perspective, discovering people's true thoughts from their expressions, their manners, their oral habits, and their subconscious actions. They can figure out connections and draw accurate conclusions from the details they gathered from a person.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Divination**: Their Dream Divination will be enhanced, providing them with more accurate information.
* **Dream Vision**: The visions can not only be from the future but also from the past.
* **Sleeping**: Instead of sleeping for 18 hours a day, they will now sleep for at least 20 hours a day.
	+ They are able to slow the metabolism to the point of effective death, making them indistinguishable from corpses.

## Sequence 7: Dreamweaver

**New Abilities**

* **Dream Invasion**: They can enter the dreams of others by using the body created by **Observer State**.
	+ **Dream Manipulation**: They can manipulate the dreams of other people according to their own wishes. They can decide whether the dreamer remembers their interference or forgets the dream altogether.
		- This is a very effective way of extracting information.
	+ **Sleep**/**Dream Inducement**: They can cause any organisms to fall asleep, whether instantaneously or more naturally, is entirely up to them.
		- This works by touching their victims in their **Observer State**. The more 'contact' they have during the touch, the faster they fall asleep.
	+ **Dream Attack**: They can kill their opponents in their dreams. Those who die in the dreams they create will die for real.
		- This works mainly through erasing their **Body of Heart and Mind** in the dream.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Divination**: They can use the dreams of others to make accurate predictions about the dreamer.
* **Dream Vision**: They gain an affinity for revelations and fate, providing them with more accurate visions.
* **Sleeping**: Instead of sleeping for 20 hours a day, they will now sleep for at least 22 hours a day.

## Sequence 6: Dreamer

As they digest their portion, their true body integrates into the **Mind World**, or as they call it, the **Dream World**.

**New Abilities**

* **Dream Form**: **Sleeping** and **Observer State** combine to form **Dream Form**. Their body in reality is nothing but an avatar that they dream into existence through their real body.
	+ As they digest their potion, this avatar will be able to interact more and more with reality.
		- After first drinking the potion, this avatar is an illusory, permeable body that can neither touch nor be touched.
		- Once the potion has been fully digested, this avatar will be indistinguishable from a real body.
		- The state of their body and the state of their avatar are directly correlated with each other; the more the former is integrated into the **Dream World**, the more the latter can interact with reality.
	+ Even if this Avatar is killed, they won't die. At most, they will suffer a severe headache, which will feel like death to them, and they will be in danger of losing control. On the other hand, if their real body is killed in the **Dream World**, their Avatar dies with them.
		- Your avatar can be used to track your real body through means such as **Divination**.
	+ Their avatar will have all of the abilities and weaknesses of their real body, but it will be neither stronger nor weaker than their real body.
	+ They can only create one avatar at a time.
	+ They can only interact with reality through their avatar.
	+ They can only use an avatar while asleep.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Dream Invasion**: Dream Invasion will no longer use their Observer State, but their real body.
	+ Once the potion has been consumed, Dream Invasion becomes almost impossible, because it uses their real body, which still exists in reality and has no way of interacting with the **Mind World**.
	+ Once the potion is fully digested, Dream Invasion is much easier and no longer requires Spirituality.
* **Sleeping**: Once the potion has been consumed, they will enter an eternal slumber from which they can only awaken when the potion has been fully digested.
	+ They must use their **Dream Form** to digest the potion.
	+ Once the potion has been fully digested, this ability will no longer exist and they will be able to enter and exit sleep at will.

## Sequence 5: Dream Bomber

**New Abilities**

* **Explode**: They can detonate their avatar in reality. This will not cause any physical damage, but will send anyone near the explosion into the **Dream World** while their body falls asleep.
	+ They can then kill the now dreaming Beyonders by entering their Sea of Collective Subconscious and killing their minds there. This will leave their bodies intact in reality, but once their minds are dead, their bodies will also be dead.
		- They will have a much easier time fighting in dreams than in the real world.
	+ They can also condense another avatar to kill the bodies of those who dream.
	+ This explosion is difficult to protect against, unless they have methods of preventing them from falling asleep, or methods of waking them once they have fallen asleep.
		- Conventional methods won't work because it's their soul that's being pulled into the dream.
		- When facing a Dream Bomber, it is essential to have companions stationed outside the blast radius, as they can wake one up if one has fallen asleep.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Dream Vision**: They can sense what will happen in the next few seconds.
* **Dream Form**: They are able to perceive the world from a different perspective. As long as they have the mental capacity to withstand the flood of input, the connection could be established with multiple mediums at the same time. The medium does not have to agree to the connection, or even be aware of it. Although, maintaining a connection with a willing recipient required far less spirituality.
	+ They can use someone or something else to substitute their senses.
	+ They can smell someone else's nose, feel someone else's touch, and see someone else's eyes.

## Sequence 4: Dreamcaller

**New Abilities**

* **Dream Manifestation**: They can manifest the **Dream World** into reality by stepping into reality with their true body. When this happens, the environment is drawn into the Dream World and temporarily becomes one. While the two worlds are one, both worlds adopt the laws of the Dream World.
	+ In truth, the Dream World is another dimension which is everywhere while nowhere to be seen, it is where the dreams of every living being resides and is constantly changing to adapt to current environment. This ability creates only a temporary connection to the real world, making this undetectable world detectable.
	+ Time and Space are intangible and does not operate as how it does in the other worlds.
		- Due to the instabilities of the Dream World, weak creatures can become instantly powerful, and creatures at the peak can become nothing but dust in a moment.
		- Sometimes only a moment passes in reality, while centuries or more pass in the Dream World, and sometimes it is the exact opposite.
		- Space-time is severely disrupted, so that a moment in one place in the dream world can be an age in another. This can go as far as one part of the body ageing rapidly while another part does not seem to age at all, because one part of the body is in an area where time moves much faster.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Dream Vision**: They can sense the present and future changes of the Dream World.
	+ They can sense where, when and how much space-time will be distorted.
		- Sunless could actively lead "his" enemies into traps, relying on changes in space-time while "he" was a Dreamcaller. "He" mentioned that most of his battles during the time "he" was a Dreamcaller ended with "his" opponents either being torn apart by a space-time distortion of the Dream World, or being aged to death by being led by "him" into a region where space-time was severely distorted.
		- Sunless mentioned that in the past there was a Dreamcaller who died as a result of the unstable nature of the Dream World. This Dreamcaller was ridiculed by all other Dreamcallers for centuries, and was called the shame of all Beyonders. According to Sunless, this was akin to dying because one forgot to breathe.

**Mythical Creature Form**

* As a Sequence 4 Demigod they receive a some level of **Godhood**, and with it comes an incomplete **Mythical Creature Form**. In this incomplete Mythical Creature Form they get enveloped in ethereal shadow like mist.
	+ In their incomplete Mythic Creature Form, they look like humanoids wearing full-body armour that emits smoke. Their eye sockets and mouths are unaffected, so they appear normal. While it may look like full body armour with special effects, it is actually part of their body that has been transformed into an incomplete mythical creature form.
	+ They gain a kind of permeability as long as they are surrounded by enough of the shadowy smoke they emit.
	+ In their incomplete **Mythical Creature Form** their affinity to dreams is enhanced significantly.

## Sequence 3: Dreamscribe

**New Abilities**

* **Dream Cognition**: They can discern and instantly understand the dreams of other beings. They can truly understand the deeper meaning behind the dreams of others and determine the anxieties behind nightmares.
* **Dream Ubiquity**: They are present in every dream at the same time, making them an unbounded or universal Dream Walking presence.
* **Derivation**: They can use the Dream World and all its knowledge as a basis for deriving knowledge.
	+ One constant within its usage was the ability to derive certain outputs based on certain inputs, which can range from forcefully recovering from madness, creation of new Beyonder Weapons, and even potentially deriving the answer on how to become a **Pillar** without suffering any side effects.
		- Sunless, after reaching the status of an Outer Deity, derived a method by which he could become a Pillar with the Nightmare Pathway as the foundation without suffering any side effects. After millions of years of derivation, he succeeded.
			* Not much is known about the actual results of the derivation, other than that it would require "him" to usurp the authority of the Sun of Chaos and destroy Inevitability.
		- Sunless mentioned that "he" is currently deriving a method of killing the Original Creator, and has already had some initial success.
	+ Derivation cannot derive anything from outside the source without first putting otherworldly knowledge into it.
		- Since the current universe was created by the Original Creator, Sunless cannot derive anything the previous Cosmos, or anything from before the existence of the Original Creator. However, there are loopholes in this rule, because as long as "he" has information to input into the derivation, "he" can still derive those things, albeit at a particularly slow speed.
			* Sunless, who has memories from before the Original Creator awakened in modern times, is able to derive things from the modern world.
	+ At this level, they can only derive knowledge below the level of Authorities.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Dream Vision**: They gain all the knowledge available in the Dream World.
	+ They know all that the Dream World has to offer.
	+ Nothing in the Dream World can be hidden from their prying eyes.

**Mythical Creature Form**

* Their Incomplete Mythical Creature Form becomes much more complex, granting it patterns all over the body.

## Sequence 2: Dreamwright

**New Abilities**

* "They" can use the smoke "they" emit from "their" Mythic Creature form to influence the Dream World. Anything "they" write with this smoke will be fulfilled by the Dream World, as long as it does not exceed the maximum power "they" have in the Dream World.
	+ This allows "them" to change the laws of the Dream World.
		- "They" can distort time and space.
		- "They" can alter and distort the emotions of those who are dreaming.
		- "They" can force change upon reality by using the Dream World.

**Strengthened Abilities**

* **Derivation**: "They" can use the dreams of the sleeping to help with their derivations.

**Mythical Creature Form**

* "Their" **Mythical Creature Form** is that of a dark, shadowy construct.
	+ "Their" **Mythical Creature Form** has no fixed shape, "they" can change the Mythical Creature Form into anything.

## Sequence 1: Dream

**Authorities**

* **Dream**: "They" represents all dreams in the past, present and future.
	+ "They" can manifest dreams into reality.
		- This is similar to **Miracles** of the Fool Pathway and **Envisioning** of the Visionary Pathway.
		- To manifest a dream into reality, the dream must exist.
		- They can materialize the sequences of dreams, nightmares, or visions they or others experienced into reality.
		- "They" can create anything (whether organic or inorganic) they want via "their" dreams: if "they" dream of a massive amount of cash, money will be around them. Any organism and object in the dream will appear in the real world.
		- "They" doesn't need to be unconscious to dream. "They" can upload their previous dreams or daydreams while conscious of reality.
	+ "They" can absorb/eat/steal dreams/nightmares of others. The effects of having one's dreams stolen vary greatly. Victims of dream theft may become unable to sleep properly, lose their creativity or even go completely insane. At the same time, "they" will gain all the knowledge of the dream they stole.
		- "They" are always one dream away from becoming a master in a particular field. After all, absorbing a specific dream will instantly grant "them" all the relevant knowledge to become a master in that particular field.
	+ "They" have access to the source of the Dream World.
* **Inevitability** / **Fate & Time** (**Realm of Dreams**): Everything "they" dream of will happen, but when and under what circumstances is out of "their" domain. This is the embryonic state of "their" **Divine Kingdom**.
* **Derivation**: They can derive any knowledge, even authorities, but they require certain inputs.
	+ Derivation is A=x, B=x, A=B, which means that they still can't derive otherworldly knowledge without possessing it themselves.

## Sequence 0: Nightmare

* **Nightmare**: They hold authority over all dreams in the past, present and future, and the **Dream World** itself.
	+ **Dream** (**The Living Fantasy**): "He" has the power and authority to be the embodiment of dreams and has complete control of "his" dreams and the dreams of others. "He" can attack or protect others in dreams as well as affecting the real world to some degree via dreams or daydreams. "He" can affect the dreams of others even if they themselves are not asleep. "He" gains power from dreams and can live on and ressurect through dreams if "he" is killed in the real world.
		- As long as a single person dreams about "him," he cannot die permanently.
		- It is unlikely that "he" will resurrect through dreams, as it is more likely that **Regression** & **Transmission** will have already been activated by the time "he" is supposed to resurrect.
	+ **Regression** & **Transmission** (**Realm of Dreams**): "He" is able to send "his" consciousness back in time to the beginning of a scenarios, regaining "his" original body while retaining all the memories of "his" previous rounds. "He" temporarily loses his abilities, although they can be regained through **Transmission**. **Regression** generally activates automatically when "he" is close to death, although it can also be activated at will.
		- Unlike automatic activation, where "he" regresses to the point where he became a Beyonder, when "he" consciously activates this, "he" can choose a fixed point in time to regress to.
			* In this case, "he" only loses the abilities "he" did not have at that time and keeps the ones "he" already had.
		- **Transmission** makes "his" rise to power an inevitable point in time. "He" will always regain any power "he" had before "his" regressions, becoming stronger and stronger with each regression.
		- Sunless described **Regression** as declaring the future a Nightmare and waking up from that Nightmare.
		- According to Sunless, this is the complete form of his **Divine Kingdom**, the **Realm of Dreams**.
		- Sunless believes that **Regression** has a intricate connection to the Epilogue.
		- True Gods have almost no chance of stopping "his" **Regression**, but Outer Deities will be able to do so with relative ease. If "he" were to become an Outer Deity, it would require a Pillar to stop "his" **Regression**.
			* If there is no karmic connection, they will not be able to stop him.
		- **Group Regression**: This allows "him" to carry multiple other individuals with "him" when "he" **Regresses**. It costs an extremely high amount of power to use, and therefore can only ever be used with the help of Outer Deities.
			* When "he" regresses, those above his power will be able to remember the future past, provided there is a strong enough karmic connection. If this karmic connection does not already exist before the designated point, then this connection will be erased after the regression. This is a form of unwanted **Group Regression**.
			* Those in his group who are **Regressing** will be affected by the transmission in a similar way.
	+ **Derivation**: "He" can use the **Dream World** itself to make derivations, so "he" no longer has to do it himself, but if "he" does massive derivations, the Dream World will become weaker over time.
		- When Sunless used the **Dream World** to derive a method to become a **Pillar**, the **Dream World** almost collapsed. If it had lasted just one million years longer, this world might have ceased to exist.
		- The instability of the dream world has a lot to do with its derivations. The more intense the derivations are, the more unstable it becomes. However, this is not the only reason for instability; the nature of dreams also plays an equally important role.