Almost two centuries ago a mysterious meteor crashed down to earth. It wasn’t large enough to cause any panic, and most people considered it a rather mundane astronomical event. Well, that was before the vast majority of people on the planet vanished. The ensuing chaos destroyed the majority of what remained of society as survivors panicked, planes and other vehicles crashed, unattended appliances caught fire, etc. The apocalyptic event was thought by many to be the Rapture, but it seemed to pick its victims without any obvious criteria. Saints, sinners, and anything in between…Humanity was essentially wiped from the majority of the planet all at once. In reality the meteor, a massive crystalline structure, had absorbed those billions of lives and incorporated them into a permanent dream-like state. Once it hit the earth, much of it shattered and scattered to the winds along with the souls that had been sucked into it.
Centuries later, still slowly picking up the pieces in the new and terrifying world, many humans have stumbled upon shards of that strange meteor from forever ago. Those that make contact with the shards find them fusing to their flesh before eventually vanishing altogether. These humans go through a harrowing process as the souls, still in their unending dream, begin to use them as a host. This horrific process is not wholly without its benefits though, as the hosts gain abnormal powers tied to the specific shared dream of the souls they hold. Many of those unaffected by these shards call these hosts possessed, demons, monsters, or any other manner of insult. By themselves and the more open minded, however, they are called Dreamers.
These Dreamers, depending on the number of souls within them, often feel a pull towards somewhere distant. Rumor is, their shards are trying to drag them towards the master crystal. What would happen if they made it there is anyone’s guess, but it’s spawned quite a few stories. Promises of powers untold, maybe the ability to ask for a wish, or perhaps free the billions trapped within it. People talk, rumors are passed around as if they were fact or just passed up as baseless stories. The fact remains that every dreamer can occasionally feel that tug. Though, naturally the closer they venture to the Master Crystal the more dangerous things are. As a result many Dreamers have settled down as far as they feel comfortable venturing, creating settlements and camps.
Of course, as usual with humanity, civilization has begun to re-emerge. The Nova Republic has founded multiple new cities and slowly expanded along the fringes. To maintain order they have fully disallowed all Dreamers, aside from those that are government sanctioned and trained to keep the peace. The Republic doesn’t hunt Dreamers down, but they do keep an open bounty system for Shards.
Naturally the Republic isn’t the only game in town, but they are certainly the largest and most recognized. Other settlements, especially due to the Republic’s intolerance of ‘unlicensed Dreamers’, crop up often. Of course, due to infighting and the instability of the powers of some Dreamers these settlements deal with their share of hard times.
Purplish objects of varying shape and size that house anywhere between one and a few million unconscious souls. Each shard contains a unique dream as it’s splintered from the whole. These days it’s quite rare to find one that hasn’t been claimed by a person or…something else. One can be traded at any Republic outpost for a pretty generous amount of supplies. So long as one doesn’t make direct skin contact, it cannot assimilate to their being. As a result, whole groups of Shardhunters have cropped up throughout the lands to support themselves.
Wielders of the souls found within the Old World Shards, Dreamers run the gauntlet between godlike power and perhaps being able to manifest a rubber duck. These abilities all depend on the souls within them as well as their own willpower and creativity. At minimum, each Dreamer has enhanced durability and strength, able to take blows that would kill normal humans and shake them off with some minor bruising. Of course this isn’t without its drawbacks as every Dreamer runs the risk of losing themselves to the Dream within and becoming a horrific abomination known as a Nightmare.
Each dream is unique and unending. One may contain a thousand souls dreaming about rubber ducks, or a hundred about nuclear armageddon. Each of them is essentially an entire realm that, with proper preparation, a Dreamer may explore while they sleep. Take caution though, if a Dreamer were to lose control of the collective unconscious they could very well become a Nightmare.
Each Host can take aspects of their Dream and manifest it into reality within their own predetermined range. Of course, it’s rather hard to steer a dream of that size to specifically give you exactly what you want. As a result, many Dreamers just kind of ask for something and try to make due with what they get…Though thankfully, Dreams can be a bit repetitive so they often get the same thing each time and eventually just learn to work with it. Of course one can go deeper and take the reigns to manifest something more specific or coherent, but if that’s done recklessly it will most certainly end in disaster.
Horrible abominations that are created once Dreamers lose control. The shared consciousness leaks into the world and transforms the host into a warped manifestation of their dream. They tend to be powerful chaotic beings with unpredictable powers and temperaments. More often than not they are hostile and are drawn to the Master Crystal as well as places that used to be densely populated.
These horrific monstrosities are why non dreamers are so afraid of Dreamers and typically oust them from society due to them almost constantly being at risk of transforming into these beasts. Depending on the original dream they can vary from being feral predators to sadistic monsters. Very, very few have been passive as most fight amongst themselves and anyone else for territory. And unfortunately they don’t seem to pass from age so unless they are actively killed the stronger ones will last for quite awhile and pose major threats.
There are very few cases of a Dreamer regaining control once they become a Nightmare and there is no known guaranteed method of doing so. And it is almost entirely unheard of for someone to gain control of this transformation since the very nature of becoming one breaks one’s sanity and individuality.
An entity which could only be described as a cobbled-together form of government, consisting of descendants of survivors of the calamity (the "old guard") and some new faces that emerged after other politicians disappeared to fill the power vacuum. The so-called old guard tends to harbor hostile attitudes toward dreamers, believing them to pose a threat to their power and legacy, while the newer members seek to use dreamers to their advantage. Neither party is particularly benevolent or trustworthy, and even the extremely anti-dreamer church considers them to be collectively fragile and unreliable, describing them as "iron mixed with clay" and other such derisive scriptural references. While Nova does allow some dreamers to live within their established territories, requirements for these dreamers are stringent, and those whose powers are not useful for any kind of labor or are "too dangerous" are unlikely to ever earn their stamp of approval, unless they are easily controlled or could manipulate the public perception in their favor. It's sadly not uncommon for dreamers to be granted citizenship as children only to be quietly ushered out of the country once they become a bit too capable for Nova's liking.
"The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter." Rev. 8:10-11 Believing themselves to be living in the end times, Nova's URC cites the above references as proof, claiming that a multitude of peoples and nations are often symbolically represented by "waters." Indeed, the process of absorbing crystals and attempting to become a dreamer often results in the death of many, when dreamers mutate into corrupt nightmares and slaughter innocents in their rampage. Those who survive are left in an altered mental state that the religious may describe as a "Great Delusion," which is also referenced in the increasingly popular Book of Revelation. Naturally, the church believes dreamers and their powers to be demonic in nature. Aside from those sanctified by the church of course. A few believe it is the church's duty to capture and attempt exorcisms on dreamers, but such activities are hidden from the public and most have given them up for damned. Different groups within the church debate about the great disappearing, some saying it was the Rapture, others saying it was the gathering of the wicked to be burned. Overall, however, the church is more united than in the past, as the name would suggest.
Government officials seeking to exploit the potential for cheap and effective enforcers of Nova's will are more than willing to exploit the sympathies of open-minded citizens to gain support for their agenda. As in every group, there are both true believers and grifters seeking undeserved trust and favors from dreamers simply trying to fit into "normal" society, making the organization as a whole unreliable. Experienced dreamers quickly learn to avoid this group if they really need help from a human within the Republic. True supporters are underground, unorganized, and unequipped to do much.
Most of dreamer society remains scattered into various small settlements outside Nova's reach. Might makes right in many of these places, and the names of rulers and their factions are quickly forgotten as blood is spilled and heads roll one after another. The Nova Republic is known to do what they can behind the scenes to keep these conflicts going and maintain the disorganized status quo, as a united nation of dreamers could easily topple the outwardly impressive but equally fragile human government. Because of these efforts, many dreamers are wary of non-dreamers, and they even more commonly treat Nova's dreamers like traitors. While there are some moves toward unity among dreamers, they necessarily take place underground, as those who support it too loudly tend to disappear, dying even younger than most, or, as some rumors suggest, being quietly ‘recruited’ by Nova.
While there do exist dreamers who seek salvation from their current state, a new spiritual movement has emerged and gained some appeal outside the Nova Republic. They see the meteor event as part of a new Turning, and dreamers as the next stage in human evolution. To them, it is only logical that the living would one day reconnect with the dead, and from there, both will someday connect to the gods. While not all of dreamer society spiritualizes the concept to the same degree, the fact remains that their ideas have gained traction, and DNA's recruitment efforts are often responsible for the creation of new dreamers. Those unfortunate dreamers who become nightmares are seen as unprepared or unworthy to ascend toward enlightenment and treated as unclean, rejected by the gods—perhaps for coveting too much power, as the transformation is often a result of absorbing too many crystals, and failing to adjust to the psychological chaos created by conflicting dreams. DNA's ultimate stated goal is to locate the original master crystal and return the shards. They see non-dreamers not as enemies, but baggage to be left behind. However, dreamers who seek shards for Nova are treated as thieves and fools that need reeducation.
A word that’s essentially lost its original meaning over the years, often shortened to Oneir, it is used to describe legendarily strong Dreamers. They aren’t unified, in fact plenty of them are naturally at odds with each other or have never crossed paths. Some of the most well known are the Nova Republic’s self proclaimed superhero Skeleton Man, and a woman codenamed Starweaver, her space Dream leaving destruction and misfortune in her wake.
