SunnyRei
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Dreaming of a new layout
4 min read
I have all but one picked out, now, I'm mostly just trying to find a good muse for the last member and then all nine of the Nine Tales will be done. I should include some substantive material so this isn't just a skin test on Free Premium Day though! So what substantive stuff can I talk about?Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
One last dream for now
6 min read
Hrm, the last one! That makes me sad. Anything beyond this would be going into kind of spoiler territory, so I'm reluctant to reveal any more in case I ever do anything with this. That's a very big "if", because I don't know that I will, but you never know, maybe someone actually enjoyed reading these. 
I even toyed with the idea of a title, though I'm having trouble with that. Right now my most promising idea is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_tan_…. I think it sounds pleasantly title-like, but what do you think? If you have any other ideas, hypothetical viewer, I'm open to them.
Assuming viewers do exist, I decided the thing I would end my last entry with was a teaser of how Tamamo actually serves as the antagonist/villain when she's locked away in exile and all of the other Dream Eaters are mostly simple animals who are only rarely supposed to grow beyond the level of a Hollow in Bleach or a Grimm in RWBY. I don't want to spoil the details, but suffice it to say, Tamamo does have a force working on the outside - nine Dream Eaters who actually managed to reach the level where they become "humanoid" instead of "creature."
Since she's a nine tailed fox, and they are based on fairy tale stock archetypes, there was really only one name I could pick for them, and I'm hoping Nintendo wouldn't sue.
Well, for now, barring any signs of interest, this is the last open entry in my little project. It's been a lot of fun coming up with, so I hope it was entertaining to read! I'll be shyly developing more ideas in private from here on, even if I don't have the talent/initiative to do anything with them.
Biggs
Gender: Male
Age: ???
History:
Where Tamamo's newly revealed lieutenants came from is something of a mystery. Due to the successful work of dream shepherds eliminating their nests and protecting dreams from their predation, very few Baku have accumulated enough Rest and intelligence to give them a human form. Despite this, Tamamo somehow cultivated the loyalty of nine such Dream Eaters, each based on a stock character archetype in fairy tales, and thus appropriately nicknamed the fox queen's "Nine Tales".
Beyond recent rumors and discoveries of their existence during the course of the story, which is not believed to be credible by the sheeple populace in any case, not much about them is known. The Nine Tales serve to carry out Tamamo's will during her exile, and are ranked in a loose hierarchy from least to most influential - even the lowest ranked Tale is exceptionally powerful, but may nevertheless be less trustworthy or reliable than his or her peers.
For various reasons, chief among them that he is still more in touch with his animal nature than his "humanity" and not as smart as his kin, Biggs is the lowest of the Nine Tales.
Description:
Slouching and lanky despite a muscular build, as though uncomfortable in his own skin, Biggs dresses the part of a two-bit gangster and thug. He wears brown shoes, black slacks, a grey button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up over hairy forearms, and a crisp black vest. It would look quite dashing actually if the shirt was properly tucked in or the vest was properly buttoned. His hair is mostly short, but spiked in the front, and slightly longer in the back, with a lock hanging over yellowish eyes. He also has an unkempt goatee and a lazy, toothy grin.
On the whole, he would be based more than slightly in demeanor on the weasels in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".
...Of course, as his name suggests, the stock character he took his identity from is the Big Bad Wolf, so his human form is just for convenience and blending in among dreamers and sheeple. He can change into an immense black and grey pure wolf should he choose, or a smaller in-between humanoid werewolf as well. Since he is a Dream Eater, he doesn't tear his clothes or anything when he transforms, but instead they shift into fur that is the same color as the clothes he was only pretending to wear.
He can also shift his clothes into other outfits when he wishes to disguise himself, but this is typically dreadfully ineffective and obvious, since he never bother changes the color scheme of his fur, and a grandma in all black is an unconvincing grandma indeed.
Personality:
Dim-witted but ambitious, Biggs is the lowest ranking of the Nine Tales, but considers himself to be a rising star in the making. He likes to fashion himself as a mafioso when he's really more of a thug; he is normally assigned to supporting other Tales unless the task is simple enough that he can be trusted to accomplish it. Even when on his own, he is fond of taking time off duty to extort or threaten unprotected dreamers for a cheap, easy source of dreams to feed on and can be gluttonous even for a Dream Eater.
Despite his failings, it would be wrong to underestimate him too much; he may not be very intelligent, but he is very violent and temperamental, and he is not actually weak by any stretch of the imagination. He has a good nose for weakness and won't shy from asserting his dominance and control over those who can't fight back.
Abilities:
As the Big Bad Wolf, Biggs generally relies on the physical might of his wolf and werewolf forms in combat, shifting between them as needed. He is also able to channel his stock of Rest into generating wind, which he can control in various different ways.
Among the ideas for applications of this skill are wind blast roars, high pressure wind blades, wind "platforms" that allow him to jump or springboard off of in combat, or use of wind bursts/slipstreams to increase his own speed. He would be very agile, bouncing around with a speed that belies how strong he is, and would fight very much like Valkenhayn in Blazblue.
He also has a bottomless appetite and can hold a much larger amount in his stomach than his appearance and dimensions would suggest; his stomach is truly larger on the inside, a pocket space he refers to as "the Eye of his Storm", trapping what he takes inside in the center of a deadly, lacerating storm like a prison cell.
I even toyed with the idea of a title, though I'm having trouble with that. Right now my most promising idea is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_tan_…. I think it sounds pleasantly title-like, but what do you think? If you have any other ideas, hypothetical viewer, I'm open to them.
Assuming viewers do exist, I decided the thing I would end my last entry with was a teaser of how Tamamo actually serves as the antagonist/villain when she's locked away in exile and all of the other Dream Eaters are mostly simple animals who are only rarely supposed to grow beyond the level of a Hollow in Bleach or a Grimm in RWBY. I don't want to spoil the details, but suffice it to say, Tamamo does have a force working on the outside - nine Dream Eaters who actually managed to reach the level where they become "humanoid" instead of "creature."
Since she's a nine tailed fox, and they are based on fairy tale stock archetypes, there was really only one name I could pick for them, and I'm hoping Nintendo wouldn't sue.
Well, for now, barring any signs of interest, this is the last open entry in my little project. It's been a lot of fun coming up with, so I hope it was entertaining to read! I'll be shyly developing more ideas in private from here on, even if I don't have the talent/initiative to do anything with them.
Biggs
Gender: Male
Age: ???
History:
Where Tamamo's newly revealed lieutenants came from is something of a mystery. Due to the successful work of dream shepherds eliminating their nests and protecting dreams from their predation, very few Baku have accumulated enough Rest and intelligence to give them a human form. Despite this, Tamamo somehow cultivated the loyalty of nine such Dream Eaters, each based on a stock character archetype in fairy tales, and thus appropriately nicknamed the fox queen's "Nine Tales".
Beyond recent rumors and discoveries of their existence during the course of the story, which is not believed to be credible by the sheeple populace in any case, not much about them is known. The Nine Tales serve to carry out Tamamo's will during her exile, and are ranked in a loose hierarchy from least to most influential - even the lowest ranked Tale is exceptionally powerful, but may nevertheless be less trustworthy or reliable than his or her peers.
For various reasons, chief among them that he is still more in touch with his animal nature than his "humanity" and not as smart as his kin, Biggs is the lowest of the Nine Tales.
Description:
Slouching and lanky despite a muscular build, as though uncomfortable in his own skin, Biggs dresses the part of a two-bit gangster and thug. He wears brown shoes, black slacks, a grey button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up over hairy forearms, and a crisp black vest. It would look quite dashing actually if the shirt was properly tucked in or the vest was properly buttoned. His hair is mostly short, but spiked in the front, and slightly longer in the back, with a lock hanging over yellowish eyes. He also has an unkempt goatee and a lazy, toothy grin.
On the whole, he would be based more than slightly in demeanor on the weasels in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".
...Of course, as his name suggests, the stock character he took his identity from is the Big Bad Wolf, so his human form is just for convenience and blending in among dreamers and sheeple. He can change into an immense black and grey pure wolf should he choose, or a smaller in-between humanoid werewolf as well. Since he is a Dream Eater, he doesn't tear his clothes or anything when he transforms, but instead they shift into fur that is the same color as the clothes he was only pretending to wear.
He can also shift his clothes into other outfits when he wishes to disguise himself, but this is typically dreadfully ineffective and obvious, since he never bother changes the color scheme of his fur, and a grandma in all black is an unconvincing grandma indeed.
Personality:
Dim-witted but ambitious, Biggs is the lowest ranking of the Nine Tales, but considers himself to be a rising star in the making. He likes to fashion himself as a mafioso when he's really more of a thug; he is normally assigned to supporting other Tales unless the task is simple enough that he can be trusted to accomplish it. Even when on his own, he is fond of taking time off duty to extort or threaten unprotected dreamers for a cheap, easy source of dreams to feed on and can be gluttonous even for a Dream Eater.
Despite his failings, it would be wrong to underestimate him too much; he may not be very intelligent, but he is very violent and temperamental, and he is not actually weak by any stretch of the imagination. He has a good nose for weakness and won't shy from asserting his dominance and control over those who can't fight back.
Abilities:
As the Big Bad Wolf, Biggs generally relies on the physical might of his wolf and werewolf forms in combat, shifting between them as needed. He is also able to channel his stock of Rest into generating wind, which he can control in various different ways.
Among the ideas for applications of this skill are wind blast roars, high pressure wind blades, wind "platforms" that allow him to jump or springboard off of in combat, or use of wind bursts/slipstreams to increase his own speed. He would be very agile, bouncing around with a speed that belies how strong he is, and would fight very much like Valkenhayn in Blazblue.
He also has a bottomless appetite and can hold a much larger amount in his stomach than his appearance and dimensions would suggest; his stomach is truly larger on the inside, a pocket space he refers to as "the Eye of his Storm", trapping what he takes inside in the center of a deadly, lacerating storm like a prison cell.
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Dreaming an updated main character
9 min read
Hrm, second to last entry. That's a little bittersweet, since I've been enjoying coming up with stuff for this. This time is an updated Sanja bio in line with the other ones I've been doing, and a first draft of her rival.
This time is an updated Sanja bio in line with the other ones I've been doing, and a first draft of her rival.Next time will be a teaser about certain things in the story - notably, Tamamo's scheme and what villains/dangers the series would have besides her.
Overall, I imagine this something like a Rumiko Takahashi series, where most of the adventures are more about adventure and individual incidents, but I want to have a bigger danger/story that intrudes sometimes too, and that's where Tamamo and her underlings come in. How does she get underlings when her Dream Eaters are exterminated while they're still weak and she can't leave her mountain prison? Well....
That's next time.
-----
Gender: Female
Age: Early 20s
History:
The dream shepherd in charge of the city/patch of the Dreaming where this story takes place, Sanja has the task of ferrying dreams to dreamers and protecting those dreams (and their dreamers) from Dream Eaters and nightmares that try to attack them. She enters the Dreaming each night to ensure that the dreams of its occupants reach the people in need of them.
Sanja's family has been dream shepherds for as long as any of them can remember - not by choice, but by decree. A family secret resulted in King Nemo sentencing her family to work as dream shepherds until they have served their time for some transgression Sanja doesn't speak to anyone about. The sand in her hair is shared by her entire family, in different patterns, and represents a mark of their criminal status - it is dream sand that will not go away until their sentence is complete. Each generation of Sanja's family have been gradually depleting the dream sand one grain at a time, but there is still much left to go, implying the crime was quite serious.
Sanja actually wasn't even supposed to be the shepherd of her generation - instead, the job originally belonged to her sister, who was more talented and experienced than Sanja in almost every way. Her sister had already singlehandedly depleted over 5 grains from their hair while most only managed one grain over their entire career. But she disappeared while on a mission, and the job fell to Sanja instead to carry in her sister's footsteps.
She was soon joined by Rem, a lost dream, whose dreamer couldn't be found. Dream shepherd protocol is to return lost dreams after a period of time, so that they can be recycled back into dreamstuff for new dreams to be made. But for certain reasons, Sanja refused to do that to Rem. Instead, she took him in, and Rem adopted the form of a black Basque Shepherd sheep dog, becoming Sanja's partner until he can be delivered to his dreamer.
While she works extremely hard, until the story begins, she had little to show for it and even less love for the job. Unknown to her at the start, her city has begun to suffer a rash of lost dreams and sleeping disorders over the past few years, small in numbers at first, but quickly growing...
Description:
A young woman who looks something like a Romani, Sanja has a tan complexion and short to medium length, wavy black hair, dusted with a sandy pattern on the left side as if one of her bangs have highlights. Her eyes are a light color I haven't decided on yet - probably a light or yellowish brown. Initially, she has a somewhat melancholic expression due to the lack of people in her life; she doesn't look angry or cold, just sort of resigned and lonely. While this changes when she meets Whitney, who actually remembers her, she is still somewhat slow to open up and show her emotions.
Her clothes are practical and mostly somewhat plain - she has a dark purple blouse underneath a dark green vest, a matching dark green skirt, and black leggings. The strange things about her outfit are her slippers, which are tattered and look like bedwear, and a strange hooded cloak that is heavily patched with a variety of different fabrics and patterns. The cloak looks more like a grandmother's patched together quilt than anything.
She also carries a heavy, wooden shepherd's crook as tall as she is. At the end of the crook, where normal shepherds hang a bell or lantern, she has a dreamcatcher hanging instead.
Personality:
As hinted at above, initially, Sanja comes across as a somewhat sad young woman. She tries her best to be friendly and make friends, but has little hope of success when every dreamer she meets forgets her once they wake up. She has the resigned attitude of someone who has made friends with people dozens of times and never had them last more than a night. Despite this, she still tried each night, but with little hope until she met Whitney.
Sanja is extremely hard-working, though she doesn't actually seem to like her job all that much. After all, she works all night in the Dreaming, and sleeps most of the day in the waking world. It's a thankless job that gives her no social life, poor sleeping habits, and constantly puts her in danger. But she never even imagines being lax in her work. She treats it as the important job it is and can even be a workaholic about it; she just doesn't enjoy it.
Family is extremely important to her, especially after the "disappearance" (she hates to say "loss") of her sister. She tries hard to serve her family's sentence, and insulting her family is one of her few berserk buttons. She's also very fond of telling extremely strange stories about her family or their home country - yet strangely, if asked where she's actually from, she refuses to answer.
She has a somewhat severe addiction to coffee, for obvious reasons, and considers herself something of an expert on the topic. She has favorite stores, blends, and methods of preparation and an encyclopedic knowledge of every coffee place in her city. Should she not have enough (or heavens forbid, no) coffee, she is a much more irritable, scary individual.
Abilities:
Sanja herself has no unusual abilities. Unlike most humans in the Dreaming, she isn't a dreamer, so she has no Rest to supply her with any unusual abilities. Instead, she physically enters the Dreaming as part of her job, putting herself at risk instead of a dream self. She relies mostly on Rem's support and her dreamcatcher to protect her.
Dreamcatchers are the tools of the trade for dream shepherds, though no shepherd uses theirs in exactly the same way. Dreamcatchers absorb the ambient dreamstuff in the air of the Dreaming, converting it into whatever the shepherd needs it to become, akin to transmutation alchemy in FMA. By hanging hers on her crook, Sanja can use the crook like a Celestial Brush in Okami, transmuting things when she sweeps the staff and altering her surroundings.
While useful, it leaves her somewhat vulnerable, so she needs to work with Rem for it to be particularly useful in a fight.
Bellwether
Gender: Male
Age: Mid to late 20s
History:
Bellwether is a dream shepherd whose assignment is the patch adjacent to Sanja's - a nearby suburban hamlet that hasn't experienced the same amount of unrest and sleep disorders as Sanja's. Extremely on top of his beat, he frequently has time to cross over into Sanja's. While you would think she would appreciate the help, that isn't why he does it - he frequently criticizes her work or even steals her assignments for himself. They have a very antagonistic relationship, even though it's entirely one-sided, and Sanja regards him as just another obstacle to chase away, but it never stops him for long.
Description:
A tall, dashing man, Bellwether dresses in black slacks and a white button-up tunic, half-tucked in, with a green cloak like Sanja's (but in much better condition) and a green cowl wrapped around his jaw. He also has a green headband/wrap at an angle around his messy white hair, revealing one and a half of his dark green eyes. He usually has a relaxed grin or smirk. A pair of old-fashioned antique flintlock pistols hang at his belt.
Personality:
While extremely cocky, he also has good reason to be. Bellwether is a seasoned professional at his job, held in high regard by other shepherds, a fact that makes his assignment to such a quiet area somewhat puzzling. He isn't content with the small amount of work in his own patch, crossing over to Sanja's whenever he is done.
He holds Sanja in extremely low regard for certain reasons; only he knows why, exactly, but she assumes it is because of her family's status as dream criminals. He suggests frequently that a shepherd like her could never understand or perform at the level of a voluntary professional like him.
Abilities:
As a dream shepherd, Bellwether has his own dreamcatcher(s). Unlike Sanja's one large one, he has two small ones, hung on tassels attached to the grips of a pair of old-fashioned flintlock pistols. While small and unable to collect as much dreamstuff as Sanja's, they are smaller precisely so that they can process a smaller amount very quickly. He uses them to transmute bullets into his guns out of raw dreamstuff.
This has two effects: first, his guns never run out of ammo as long as there is dreamstuff in the air, which is a given in the Dreaming. Second, he can fire objects other than bullets, or give them unusual effects or properties instead of ordinary shells. It isn't uncommon for him to fire absurd things like cannonballs or rail spikes ignoring the size of his guns, or to give his bullets "magic" effects convenient for the situation.
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Dreaming of the Dreaming
9 min read
Eheh, as promised, next entry in this little idea I'm developing. There's two more to go before I run out of stuff I can describe without spoilers. Then I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll ever do with all this - but I hope it's interesting in the meantime. Next time will be a proper bio for Sanja and a new one for her shepherd rival, then one last entry teasing at antagonists besides Tamamo. In the meantime, I wanted to expand on what the Dreaming looks like, who rules it, and what kind of a villain Tamamo is.
Gender: Varies
Age: Varies
Almost certainly not their actual title, this is the name Whitney gave to the natural inhabitants of the Dreaming when she first saw them, and it seems to have stuck. Save for dream shepherds and dreamers, the Dreaming seems to be populated by strange, whimsical sheep-like creatures that walk on two legs and dress partially in human clothes. To humans, all sheeple look exactly alike aside from their clothes and accessories, but they are quite offended if you suggest that to them. To help with this, they have a very diverse wardrobe, spanning many countries and even time periods.
The Dreaming
The Dreaming is the world of dreams - the collective unconsciousness of all humans sleeping each night - and it is as vast as can be imagined, if not moreso. The landscape of the Dreaming is incredibly variable, because it is influenced by the presence of the dreamers inside of it. Where no dreamers are influencing it, it often appears as an endless landscape of idyllic plains and pleasant skies, punctuated by villages and hamlets of sheeple who tend to the lands. Elsewhere, it may suddenly transition into the entrance of an Arabian city, or a dark forest in water color, or a Renaissance village.
No matter what the Dreaming looks like, on closer examination, the world is not natural - almost everything about it is artificial, often artfully so, with carpet grass and cottonball clouds as convincing as the real thing as long as you do not inspect them too critically.
Once a dreamer is united with his or her dream, they actually enter their own personal dream instead of the larger landscape. It uses their Rest to create a pocket space in which they can enter their own inner world, dreaming safe from harm and interference. Once their Rest has been consumed, the dreamer is sent back to the waking world, rested and rejuvenated.
The only constant in each division is the presence of the dream king's kingdom, Slumberland, a great city which can be seen and reached from anywhere in the Dreaming, and vice versa; the gate of Slumberland opens upon all patches of the Dreaming at once, no matter how impossible that may be.
King Nemo
Gender: Male
Age: ???
History:
For as long as any of its inhabitants can recall, Nemo has been the undisputed King of Dreams. A child king with the voice of a mature man, Nemo is something of a mystery. He rules over the Dreaming with a relatively light touch, rarely acting directly if he can manipulate another into solving a problem for him.
The most famous instance where he acted directly was during Tamamo's uprising, which threatened the Dreaming itself, and the sheeple still speak in awe and terror over the power he brought to bear in that fight. The very landscape of the Dreaming changed as they fought. Yet for all the power he used against her, in the end, he sealed her rather than actually killing her. Whether that was all he could do or if he had a reason for sparing her is a matter of dispute among sheeple historians. After Tamamo was put down, he instituted the system of employing dream shepherds, whose job are equal parts defending dreams and exterminating Baku to keep them in check.
Some sheeple gossip that he was once a dreamer himself, the same as any other, but if that were true (or possible), he has long since left his previous existence behind.
Description:
A young child who looks to be 8-9, the King of Dreams hardly looks the part. He has tousled, bedheaded blue-black hair and grey eyes, and his cheeks have a healthy, cherubic glow. Even his royal attire is actually one-piece baby blue sleepwear, but made of very fine silks, with a red cloak that has luxurious white fur.
Despite having the body and appearance of a young child, Nemo's voice and attitude are the opposite - they are the adult, measured tones of a thoughtful, cultured ruler who has been a child for a very, very, very long time. He sounds like Jareth from Labyrinth, yet looks like the child hero his name evokes.
Personality:
Despite his adorable appearance, Nemo does not feign cuteness or pretend to be other than what he is. He is curt when he must be, diplomatic or charming when it serves him, and always several dozen steps ahead of whoever he is speaking to. Very few people underestimate him based on his looks - but if they do, their error is corrected very quickly. Despite this, he does have the Dreaming's best interests at heart.
Abilities:
It would be easier to list abilities that Nemo does not possess within the Dreaming. The contours of the dreamscape are child's play for him to manipulate at will - he can twist almost anything he wishes in any way he wishes. The only limitation on his power is that he cannot - or will not - affect humans directly.
Tamamo no Mae
Gender: Female
Age: ???
History:
Tamamo is thought to be the original, or at least the oldest surviving, of the Baku who went on to become Dream Eaters. That would make her ancient beyond reckoning, with countless dreams absorbed and added to her powers over time. She is infamous as one of the greatest dangers to the Dreaming, having become strong enough to rival King Nemo himself. Though no one knows what she intended to gain from victory, having accumulated so much power, she turned her fangs on the Dreaming itself, and Nemo stood against her. Whatever she sought, it was worth challenging him.
Their battle lasted days - or months - or even years. The fight twisted even space and time within the Dreaming. But in the end, the Queen of the Dream Eaters was defeated. Rather than kill her, Tamamo was confined within a portion of the Dreaming. Nemo fashioned a great mountain, Mt. Hoji, and sealed her within it using a powerful spell. Tamamo is bound to the mountain, such that she may move and act within the mountain, but may not leave it or affect the outside in any way.
Her only contact with the outside is through the remaining Dream Eaters, who regard Tamamo as the absolute alpha of their "pack" and instinctively follow her commands. However, no other Dream Eater compared to Tamamo herself. They are mostly simple, brutish beasts, turned away or exterminated by dream shepherds and the forces of Slumberland itself. No Dream Eater has been allowed to accumulate even a fraction of the dreams she consumed since her defeat. In this way, a balance has been maintained for centuries.
But that balance may have already been broken...
Description:
Tamamo is a beautiful, elegant and mature woman with long black hair, two long bangs hanging on either side of her face down to her stomach, and otherwise in a princess cut over her forehead. Her lips are made up in an alluring wine-red and her eyeliner is a soft pink over dark red, fox-like eyes.
She wears a slinky, elegant black and red strapless gown, with long red opera gloves that have furred cuffs and end in sharp claws. The design I imagine for the gown is similar to Maou from Maoyuu mixed with Cordelia from Cucumber Quest. Which is a very weird fusion when I think about it, but it works!
Despite being a nine-tailed fox, none of her tails are actually visible, though her fox ears are on full display.
Personality:
Crafty beyond measure, Tamamo is an arrogant, spoiled empress in exile. She feels she has been denied her birthright and has spent centuries scheming her escape and trying to marshal new Dream Eaters to free her. Not for one moment in a thousand years was her ambition deterred. Her only regret is that she failed to accomplish her goal, whatever it was.
Tamamo is proud of all of her cunning and her greed. After all, she is quick to point out, Baku are pure and simple creatures originally. All of their intelligence is an accumulation of human knowledge and desires they have feasted on and added to their own. As cruel and capricious as Tamamo is, therefore, she can point to human nature for every bit of it. Knowing that she can blame others for all of her vices, her guiding principle is very simple:
Nothing is her fault and everything is permitted.
Abilities:
As the oldest Dream Eater, Tamamo's full power is as mysterious as that of the King of Dreams; she has consumed so many dreams that her stock of Rest and powers are frightful. She is only slightly weaker than Nemo himself - after all, she was defeated by him a millenia ago - but her power is curbed by the curse that binds her to Mt. Hoji. She is forbidden from leaving or exercising her power outside of the mountain, making her kingdom of influence small indeed. Inside of the mountain, however, she remains Queen.
Additionally, she can freely command other Dream Eaters to do her bidding, because they instinctively recognize her as their leader and superior. Her orders are gospel to her underlings and she is not above feeding on those Dream Eaters who fail her too often.
Once a dreamer is united with his or her dream, they actually enter their own personal dream instead of the larger landscape. It uses their Rest to create a pocket space in which they can enter their own inner world, dreaming safe from harm and interference. Once their Rest has been consumed, the dreamer is sent back to the waking world, rested and rejuvenated.
Rather than one immense landscape, the Dreaming is divided into countless "patches" of space like an enormous quilt, roughly corresponding to territories within the waking world. For example, the one "patch" of dreamscape that Sanja works in is the one that represents the city she lives in and all of its dreamers.
The only constant in each division is the presence of the dream king's kingdom, Slumberland, a great city which can be seen and reached from anywhere in the Dreaming, and vice versa; the gate of Slumberland opens upon all patches of the Dreaming at once, no matter how impossible that may be.
King Nemo
Gender: Male
Age: ???
History:
For as long as any of its inhabitants can recall, Nemo has been the undisputed King of Dreams. A child king with the voice of a mature man, Nemo is something of a mystery. He rules over the Dreaming with a relatively light touch, rarely acting directly if he can manipulate another into solving a problem for him.
The most famous instance where he acted directly was during Tamamo's uprising, which threatened the Dreaming itself, and the sheeple still speak in awe and terror over the power he brought to bear in that fight. The very landscape of the Dreaming changed as they fought. Yet for all the power he used against her, in the end, he sealed her rather than actually killing her. Whether that was all he could do or if he had a reason for sparing her is a matter of dispute among sheeple historians. After Tamamo was put down, he instituted the system of employing dream shepherds, whose job are equal parts defending dreams and exterminating Baku to keep them in check.
Some sheeple gossip that he was once a dreamer himself, the same as any other, but if that were true (or possible), he has long since left his previous existence behind.
Description:
A young child who looks to be 8-9, the King of Dreams hardly looks the part. He has tousled, bedheaded blue-black hair and grey eyes, and his cheeks have a healthy, cherubic glow. Even his royal attire is actually one-piece baby blue sleepwear, but made of very fine silks, with a red cloak that has luxurious white fur.
Despite having the body and appearance of a young child, Nemo's voice and attitude are the opposite - they are the adult, measured tones of a thoughtful, cultured ruler who has been a child for a very, very, very long time. He sounds like Jareth from Labyrinth, yet looks like the child hero his name evokes.
Personality:
Despite his adorable appearance, Nemo does not feign cuteness or pretend to be other than what he is. He is curt when he must be, diplomatic or charming when it serves him, and always several dozen steps ahead of whoever he is speaking to. Very few people underestimate him based on his looks - but if they do, their error is corrected very quickly. Despite this, he does have the Dreaming's best interests at heart.
Abilities:
It would be easier to list abilities that Nemo does not possess within the Dreaming. The contours of the dreamscape are child's play for him to manipulate at will - he can twist almost anything he wishes in any way he wishes. The only limitation on his power is that he cannot - or will not - affect humans directly.
Tamamo no Mae
Gender: Female
Age: ???
History:
Tamamo is thought to be the original, or at least the oldest surviving, of the Baku who went on to become Dream Eaters. That would make her ancient beyond reckoning, with countless dreams absorbed and added to her powers over time. She is infamous as one of the greatest dangers to the Dreaming, having become strong enough to rival King Nemo himself. Though no one knows what she intended to gain from victory, having accumulated so much power, she turned her fangs on the Dreaming itself, and Nemo stood against her. Whatever she sought, it was worth challenging him.
Their battle lasted days - or months - or even years. The fight twisted even space and time within the Dreaming. But in the end, the Queen of the Dream Eaters was defeated. Rather than kill her, Tamamo was confined within a portion of the Dreaming. Nemo fashioned a great mountain, Mt. Hoji, and sealed her within it using a powerful spell. Tamamo is bound to the mountain, such that she may move and act within the mountain, but may not leave it or affect the outside in any way.
Her only contact with the outside is through the remaining Dream Eaters, who regard Tamamo as the absolute alpha of their "pack" and instinctively follow her commands. However, no other Dream Eater compared to Tamamo herself. They are mostly simple, brutish beasts, turned away or exterminated by dream shepherds and the forces of Slumberland itself. No Dream Eater has been allowed to accumulate even a fraction of the dreams she consumed since her defeat. In this way, a balance has been maintained for centuries.
But that balance may have already been broken...
Description:
Tamamo is a beautiful, elegant and mature woman with long black hair, two long bangs hanging on either side of her face down to her stomach, and otherwise in a princess cut over her forehead. Her lips are made up in an alluring wine-red and her eyeliner is a soft pink over dark red, fox-like eyes.
She wears a slinky, elegant black and red strapless gown, with long red opera gloves that have furred cuffs and end in sharp claws. The design I imagine for the gown is similar to Maou from Maoyuu mixed with Cordelia from Cucumber Quest. Which is a very weird fusion when I think about it, but it works!
Despite being a nine-tailed fox, none of her tails are actually visible, though her fox ears are on full display.
Personality:
Crafty beyond measure, Tamamo is an arrogant, spoiled empress in exile. She feels she has been denied her birthright and has spent centuries scheming her escape and trying to marshal new Dream Eaters to free her. Not for one moment in a thousand years was her ambition deterred. Her only regret is that she failed to accomplish her goal, whatever it was.
Tamamo is proud of all of her cunning and her greed. After all, she is quick to point out, Baku are pure and simple creatures originally. All of their intelligence is an accumulation of human knowledge and desires they have feasted on and added to their own. As cruel and capricious as Tamamo is, therefore, she can point to human nature for every bit of it. Knowing that she can blame others for all of her vices, her guiding principle is very simple:
Nothing is her fault and everything is permitted.
Abilities:
As the oldest Dream Eater, Tamamo's full power is as mysterious as that of the King of Dreams; she has consumed so many dreams that her stock of Rest and powers are frightful. She is only slightly weaker than Nemo himself - after all, she was defeated by him a millenia ago - but her power is curbed by the curse that binds her to Mt. Hoji. She is forbidden from leaving or exercising her power outside of the mountain, making her kingdom of influence small indeed. Inside of the mountain, however, she remains Queen.
Additionally, she can freely command other Dream Eaters to do her bidding, because they instinctively recognize her as their leader and superior. Her orders are gospel to her underlings and she is not above feeding on those Dream Eaters who fail her too often.
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Updated side characters
9 min read
Hi! This isn't a new entry, exactly, but an update of an earlier one. I wanted to go into more detail about Sanja's supporting cast. Later this week I'm going to be thinking more about the Dreaming - what it looks like, who rules it, and what populates it besides Dream Eaters and dreamers. Hopefully it will be interesting - assuming people follow this, which would make me nervous if true, eheh - but I'm looking forward to it either way!
Gender: Female
Age: 12
History:
A young girl afflicted with a severe form of narcolepsy. Sleep disorders had become more common recently in the city that Sanja works, but she had been unaware just how much so until she met Whitney. The girl had spent more time asleep than waking. She was so attuned to the Dreaming that she even retained her memories of Sanja after their first encounter - something completely unheard of in the dream shepherd's experience and a sign of something unnatural at work.
Following their first meeting, Whitney was no longer content to play with her dreams, but began following Sanja whenever she was in the Dreaming. Sanja attempted to discourage her, but when the dreamer in question is superhumanly strong, there is not much you can really do to get her out of your hair.
...Besides which, though she would be reluctant to admit it, Sanja appreciates the company more than she knows.
Description:
Unlike most dreamers, who appear in the Dreaming in a fantastic, exaggerated take on themselves or what they dream of being, Whitney looks just like she does in real life. She simply hasn't spent enough time awake to draw a distinction between her real self and her dream self.
She wears a two-piece set of striped pink two-piece pajamas along with a red jacket over it, and a pair of white socks. Originally she didn't wear the jacket, but she was told to dress more sensibly after she met Sanja, and the first thing she imagined was her favorite jacket from the waking world. Her only other accessory is her favorite pillow from her room, which she carries in one hand, sometimes held over one shoulder like a weapon.
She has burnt orange/red hair, freckles, and a slightly gap-toothed smile. Her hair is originally in a state of eternal bedhead, but may later change to braided, low-hanging pigtails.
Personality:
For someone who hasn't been allowed to spend much time in the waking world, Whitney is remarkably sunny in disposition. She is enthusiastic and somewhat reckless, often to her and Sanja's detriment, but often learns from her mistakes and doesn't typically make the same mistake twice (though this doesn't stop her from finding countless new ones to make).
She attaches to Sanja very quickly upon their first meeting - a sentiment that Sanja reluctantly and clumsily reciprocates because she is so unused to being remembered by dreamers - and treats her as something of a big sister. If pressed, Whitney actually has a big sister, but has rarely spent any time with her compared to the dream shepherd she met in her sleep, and considers Sanja more of one.
Though she doesn't talk about it much, the impression she gives is that things are better for her in the Dreaming than in the waking world.
Abilities:
Due to her prolonged stay in the Dreaming due to her narcolepsy, Whitney is very comfortable inside of it. She retains her memories even after (briefly) awakening in the real world, and is aware that she is actually in a dreamscape instead of real life. As inconvenient as her condition is in reality, it has several advantages for Whitney in the Dreaming.
The first advantage is that she has an astronomical supply of Rest compared to a typical Dreamer. It is very hard for her to burn through her supply and return to the waking world, even when she tries, and it regenerates at an unnatural pace, pulling her back into the Dreaming faster than most humans. As a result, if Rest is considered to be a finite power resource, Whitney essentially plays with a cheat code unlocked.
The second advantage is that she knows she is dreaming and has become an extremely natural lucid dreamer. Lucid dreamers are rare in the Dreaming; they are free to create and shape their dreams to a much larger extent than other dreamers, who are limited by their subconscious and may not even knowingly control their abilities. Whitney, by contrast, has both an immense stock of power and the ability to control it.
She does this by powering up her body to superhuman degrees; by manipulating her stock of Rest and converting it into physical enhancement, Whitney is capable of amazing feats of strength, speed, and durability that belie her appearance as a little girl in pajamas. She can also reinforce the pillow she carries, converting it from a fluffy accessory into a fearsomely powerful flail.
In theory, she should be able to use her lucid dreaming in many other ways, but for certain reasons, she is uncomfortable with (or unable to) purposefully imagine other uses of her powers beyond physical enhancement.
Don Giorno
Gender: Male
Age: 67
Note:
His name, in the waking, probably isn't actually a corruption of "good morning!" Instead, it is the name he projects onto his dream self. Most dreamers imagine themselves as someone different or bigger than their waking self - they dream what they want to be, not what they are. Whitney is an exception to the rule because she has spent so much time in the Dreaming that she simply recognizes her dream self as herself. She's awake so rarely there isn't much of a difference.
History:
Don is first introduced as one of the dreamers that Sanja encounters/meets early in her adventures. She was assigned to deliver a series of dreams to him as part of her work as a dream shepherd. They were dreams of heroic adventure - saving the princess, fighting the monster, etc. But they discover that the dreams are actually becoming violent, attacking him more seriously each night, and becoming a more dangerous beast each time.
This troubles Sanja, but she is forbidden to intervene - upon investigation, he is not being attacked by Dream Eaters or nightmares, but is actually causing the harm to himself. Something happened to him in the real world where he was unable to help someone important to him, and his guilt is twisting his own dreams subconsciously. Because he is doing it himself, Sanja has no right to interfere.
...But when the last dream she delivers to him becomes a huge dragon sure to kill him, she breaks the rules and intervenes. Whitney helps fight the dragon while Sanja crafts a custom-made dream out of dreamstuff - a dream that helps Don get over his guilt and slay the dragon himself.
Afterwards, with the shackles on his abilities and dreams broken, Don becomes a much more powerful dreamer, who begins to help Sanja in future adventures.
Description:
The first impression Don gives is that of a crazy old man. The second impression is that you underestimated how crazy.
His gray hair is wild, his goatee and mustache is unkempt, and his usual expression is an unflappably cheerful grin. He dresses in battered, mismatched pieces of armor; a Spanish breastplate with Arthurian greaves and French mail.
He is not impressively built, more wirey than muscular, and the weapons he carries are a similarly unimpressive jousting lance and short sword. A badly battered round shield hangs on his back as well.
Surprisingly, when Sanja visits or encounters him in the waking world, he is exactly the opposite - a well-groomed, dashing businessman who is both charming and dapper.
Personality:
Don is in love with chivalry and knighthood and it shows in everything that he does. He will always lend a hand, rarely question motives, and try his hardest to help anyone in need. Almost obsessively so, in fact. He will always choose to help out another, even if it costs him his own goals or well-being, without the slightest moment of regard for himself.
He is loud and boisterous, fond of ranting or long speeches, and is greatly non-plussed when none of the threats they encounter will let him finish and spoil his moment. Despite this, he is a truly loyal friend. After Sanja helps him, he accompanies her every night, without fail - even despite the fact that as a normal dreamer, he has no memory of what she did for him or even who she is.
He simply unconsciously recognizes her as a friend and makes the decision each evening to do what comes naturally - help someone kind and in need, however he can.
Abilities:
Don's ability as a dreamer is imagining himself as various mythological heroes and knights. He is obsessed with chivalry and knows everything there is to know about all sorts of knightly legends. He knows them so well he can imagine them down to the last detail - and when he does, he imagines himself as the star.
El Cid, Siegfried, Roland, even King Arthur himself. All of them are knights he can become and whose weapons he can equip. They receive all the powers of their legendary abilities as well. The catch is that Don is only a normal Dreamer - he has an ordinary human's supply of Rest, and the stronger the knight he becomes, the more Rest he consumes and the sooner he will be ejected from the Dreaming.
King Arthur and his Excalibur, for example, may be incredibly powerful - for less than a minute. El Cid would be capable of a longer transformation. As a result, Don's dream is not as powerful or sustained as Whitney's, but much more flexible.
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