Guardian of Dreams

By Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@void.nada.kth.se)

Description

This being has guarded the barrier between the dreaming and the waking worlds since time immemorial. It prevents the beings of nightmares from escaping into the material world, and sleepers from entering the wrong parts of the dreamworlds.

The Guardian is extremely powerful, but subtle; most people who encounter it never realise the extent of its influence over the land of dreams. Most beings in the dreamworlds understand how powerful the Guardian is, and fear its powers: it could sever all ties between the waking world and dreamworlds, or banish dreambeings into the harsh banality of reality. If a dreamer has the Guardian's favour the word will quickly spread among the dreams and he will be well treated. Even the Dreamlords fear the Guardian, and often seek to placate him (especially since they occasionally transgress his rules by entering into the waking world).

It is said that the Wonderwhats (see Book of Worlds) occasionally serve it, to run errands, guide favoured dreamers or scare away disfavoured dreamers. It is also believed by the Order of Hermes to be a sub-aspect of the greater and feared being called the Dweller on the Threshold, which guards the higher planes from the unworthy.

Manifestation

The Guardian often manifests in a dual form, reflecting that it guards the threshold between worlds. In ancient Rome it was Janus, the two faced god of doors and beginnings. Today it often manifests as a human half white, half black, half male, half female, half angel, half demon. In its hands it holds a staff that can both open the way and bar it, strike down any being or heal it. It moves and speaks in a dignified but friendly way to everybody who pays it respect, and ignores those who don't pay proper respect.

Powers

Bar entrance: The Guardian can bar a being from entering or leaving the dreaming. This is most commonly used to prevent nightmares from escaping, but the Guardian can also prevent people who have displeased it severely from dreaming; creativity is drained in the daytime and sleep no longer gives true rest. An even rarer use is to trap a dreamer in the dreamworlds: it is said that mages who go to sleep with enough Paradox will be trapped in the dreamworlds until they have atoned for their actions.

Open gate: The Guardian can open gates into the dreamworlds or waking world with its staff. These gates allow beings and objects to pass between the worlds under its watchful eyes. If attacked it often throws the attacker physically into one of the deepest nightmares possible.

Two Story Ideas

Death Dreams: An Etherite researching sleep and dreaming has been experimenting with the myoclonic spasm, the sudden jerk which often occurs just before falling asleep. Using his DYnamical COrtico-POntine MOtor Neutralizer (DYCOPOMON) he has found a way to inhibit the jerk when falling asleep, and started to study if it has any effect on his sleep.

What the Etherite didn't know was that the jerk is one of the manifestations of the Guardian, a spirit-oriented mage would say it is his gentle nudge with the staff to prevent a sleeper from falling into the darker regions of dreaming. From a more Etherite perspective it is an evolved defence against having nightmares manifest: during the Palaeolithic era few individuals and tribes whose dreams came real survived for long, while individuals who in some way could prevent nightmares from manifesting prospered. The myoclonic jerk is simply a favourable mutation in this view that prevents nightmares from becoming real.

Unfortunately the Etherite doesn't know this, and Terror sneaks out through his unguarded mind. Soon it will start to spread in the waking world, turning it into a nightmare.

Breakthrough: A powerful mage once committed a crime in the dreamworlds so great that the Guardian banished him from dreaming forever; today the mage is a respected master but secretly longs to return to the dreams she lost. So she has devised a clever plan to break through to the dreamworlds and get her revenge on the Guardian. She has made contact with one of the dreamlords, the Seriph of the Ten Monoliths. The Seriph seeks to enter the physical world, so she suggested an exchange: his kingdom for hers. She has used her significant powers to summon and bind a huge number of paradox spirits into a fetish; once the fetish is broken these spirits will hasten to bring their delayed revenge upon many mages. She plans to send the fetish to the Seriph, who will send back another fetish filled with dreams. At a given time they will destroy the fetishes, letting loose the spirits and dreams, both unable to get home to their worlds. The Guardian will be forced to open a portal to let them through, and the Seriph and mage will switch places in accordance to ancient tradition in the dreamlands.

The PCs are sent to give the paradox fetish to the Seriph and bring back the dream fetish, since the mage cannot enter the dreamworlds. Since they do not know anything about the plan they can safely pass the scrutiny of the Guardian and will think it is just an exchange of gifts between two powerful beings. However, a small group of spirits and dream-beings know about the plan and want to stop it for various reasons (one of the most important is to give a service to the Guardian). They will try to steal the fetishes, and possibly convince the PCs that great ill will come to happen if the plan succeeds.