Gwendolen

* Lunar Pokémon
* Lunar Beast

**Gwendolen** is the modern alias of **Cresselia**, the Legendary Pokémon with the power to dispel nightmares and instill sweet dreams. She is a cryptic figure who appears in times of mental anguish to alleviate the distress of sleeping Pokémon. Although she may appear altruistic at first glance, her true motives are strictly rooted in her own comfort. In ancient times, she was known as **Queen Guinevere**.

## History

The greater part of Gwendolen's history is unknown to any Pokémon but herself. She has a counterpart in Ikelos the Darkrai, whom she considers a glutton and a wastrel for the havoc his nightmares wreak upon the Dream World. Similarly, she detests other individuals who torment Pokémon with nightmares for nourishment or other benefit. Being a creature of the Dream World in her own right, Gwendolen subsists by "nibbling" at the edges of pleasant dreams. According to her, turning dreams into nightmares is much like drinking milk straight from the bottle and spoiling it for anyone else who may be thirsty, not to mention the dreamer himself. Thus Gwendolen claims moral superiority in her nightly travels and her extreme contempt for nightmare-sowers. She has been known to banish ghosts and the like for contaminating her pleasant dreams.

In the ancient past, a young Cresselia (then calling herself Guinevere) fell in love with a king amid her cosmic travels. She charmed her way into his court, entered wedlock and queenship, and gave her protection to his realm of Caerlleot. It was in this time that she crafted the silver Slumbering Helm so that she might share her powers with her king. However, Guinevere's mercurial nature eventually got the best of her—for the king's knights, too, pulled at her heartstrings. She bore a bastard child with the captain in secrecy, tragically emboldening him to challenge the king even as she conceived a legitimate prince. In shame and regret, Guinevere sequestered her children on a primitive jungle world while she sought to reverse the tides of civil war. Meanwhile, Ikelos incurred her wrath for the first time by absconding with her precious helm.

When Guinevere returned for her sons—Eridanar, Prince of the Blue Moon, and Sygnus, Prince of the Blood Moon—she failed to notice they had become twisted in exile. She escorted them to a new home, Avalon Island, and showed them all she knew in the ways of magic, culture, and dream science. The young princes abused this knowledge to sow discord and plunder civilizations behind their mother's back, ever grasping at even greater power over the minds of Pokémon. Upon discovering the extent of the damage, Guinevere eschewed their lessons in disgust and held Ikelos responsible for their corruption. The princes then conspired against their mother. They brainwashed a team of thugs to wring Guinevere's forbidden secrets from her broken body. Luckily, in their greed and hubris, the evil princes prematurely trespassed in her hidden laboratory and marooned themselves behind her private interplanar experiments. Guinevere escaped the conspirators when they received no word from their leaders. Disappointed in her sons' final betrayal, she abandoned them to their prison and took up a different name.

Many years later, the Crusade would establish contact with Gwendolen after Lucius won her stolen helm at one of Ali Buga's auctions. A team consisting of Soir, Piper, Bellatrix, and Doctor Achromium retrieved the helm from the evil pyromancer and established a tentative friendship with the lunar being. Gwendolen would prove instrumental in the Crusaders' quest to save their world from Morrigan when she exorcised Soir's dreams and lent her helm to Piper, the latter of whom entered the Dream World to outmaneuver a horrific fusion of Dialga and Palkia.

## Personality

"*I'll gladly release you if you won't stay a while. Why would I want you in my perfect world? You ruin everything.*"
— Gwendolen to Ikelos in 'Gwendo-Land'
"*I don't care much for chasing things. In a dream, all the objects of one's innermost desires are simply... within reach.*"
— Gwendolen to Lumaccord
Outwardly, Gwendolen is typically cool and dignified in her bearing, gliding smoothly and elegantly with her chin held high. She speaks with authority and eloquence. However, her gentle and reserved appearance belies her true character. Gwendolen is slow to forgive and harsh upon those who slight her. Where Ikelos is concerned, she is quick to violence. She is not easily angered by the follies of the common person, but she holds a grudge when the matter is personal, including whenever her Dream World should be soiled by nightmares.

Gwendolen harbors some measure of self-pity born out of her type disadvantage against the ghosts that thrive on nightmares. She also believes the universe has treated her unfairly inasmuch as her rival Ikelos holds a type advantage of his own. Although they are said to be counterparts, the extent of Gwendolen's power is cleaning up after his nightmares. Ikelos has had no shortage of grounds to call Gwendolen his "maid"—to her deepest chagrin.

Since her power is supreme in the Dream World, Gwendolen chooses to make her home there. In her own dreamscape at a nexus of the realm, she comforts herself with carnivals, practical jokes, haunted houses, and mind-boggling optical illusions. Were it not for her need to find sustenance in mortals' dreams, she might never leave her paradise of "Gwendo-Land." Because she inhabits a world where one's every wish may be fulfilled instantaneously, she sometimes struggles to understand why Pokémon would rather seek love and belonging in the physical world than settle for the instant-gratification found in dreams.

## Legendary powers

It is unclear whether Gwendolen is an angelic being or a deity in her own right. She does not keep an organized church in spite of her great and restorative powers. Her truest followers spend most of their time asleep.

* Perpetual dreamscape
	+ Gwendolen is an anomalous being born from the Dream World. As such, she does not sleep in the same manner as other Pokémon. When she does fall asleep, she can disappear into the Dream World. Her dreams are constant and unending, even during her waking hours.
* Passage to and from the Dream World
* Passage between others' dreams
* Masterful dream manipulation
* Lifting of nightmares
* Banishment of psychic invaders
* Lunar Beast form
	+ Through either extensive travel in deep space or an unspoken blood connection to a powerful celestial beast, Gwendolen is able to alter her appearance to a more bestial form at will. This form is well-suited to conditions of extreme pressure and/or low oxygen content. Her ability in this form is Beast Boost.
* Speedy travel by dissolution into light
* Agelessness
* Fluency in many languages

It is implied that Gwendolen is skilled at enchanting artifacts to share her powers with others.