The Land of Nod
Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2022 12:22 pm
There exists a place that skirts the realm of reason and the abstract. A place of dreams and nightmares, created by a god of such power that his thoughts become manifest when he sleeps. It is a place wholly separate and apart from the lands of ransera, yet is so intimately connected that all who dream travel there every night. The Land of Nod was given its name by an ancient religion that thought it the just the place where dreams resided, but it so much more and less. Wonders and terrors exist intertwined in this realm, and though it was created to protect the mortals from the chaotic energies of the Aetherial Sea those very energies are what allow for the Land of Nod to exist.
The Land of Nod
Vast, endless, and infinite, that is what the land of dreams is. Many have tried to describe it, but for every person who enters and remembers what they see, the stories they tell are always different. Some describe an endless desert and rolling dunes of purple sand, still, others say it is a sea of mist so thick that one skim across its surface like a bone on an open ocean. The most common description is a mix of the two, with rolling deserts spilling away into waterfalls of purple mist that flow up and down and sideways in a confusing cascade of incomprehensible patterns. Directions such as north and south do not exist in this realm, only near and far, and even that is subject to change at a moment's notice. The only landmark that is always present is a beautiful column of light that extends up and down through the sands and glowing mist.
Across the realm are floating spheres of light, mesmerizing to behold but to a touch feel like glass yet give off strange electricity. Creatures of the Land of Nod tend to congregate around these spheres, dream bubbles, which house the vulnerable spirits of sleeping mortals and protect them from the chaos and dangers of the Aetherial Sea.
Though the landscape seems barren and empty, it is teeming with life both odd and frightening. Great leviathans that breach the sands to consume the spheres of light on the surface, flights of gem dragons that move and perform works to their father’s will, small creatures like spiders that crawl and weave webs to capture errant nightmares. The Land of Nod is a place where all things exist, and nothing exists all at the same time.
The Spire
The Great Pillar, the Crystal Tower, the column of light has many names. The Spire exists as the single focal point in the Land of Nod, the only landmark that is always visible and what those who travel this realm use to guide and direct themselves like sailors use stars in the physical realms. The Spire is home to the seat of Thiovan himself and is the entrance to the Abstract Realm which connects the layers of the Upside and Downside of the Aetherial Sea. It is said that if one can create the Spire they can travel to any of the connected realms, including those of the divine. It also serves as a ladder for other things to enter into the Land of Nod and thus is closely guarded by the Gem Dragons who also call this place home.
The Athereal Sea
The Athereal Sea is less a place than a force of creation and destruction. It was from here that all things came, and still many things reside both good and evil. When Ransera was first created Mortals would slip into the Aethereal Sea whenever they would sleep. In their astral forms fully exposed in the Aethereal Sea, many mortals would become lost, taken, or eaten by things that lived and thrived in that vastness. So Thiovan created the Veil and the Land of Nod, a place that sleeping souls would go and would be protected by their own individual dreamscapes from the energies and dangers that lurked at the edges of reality.
The Land of Nod is a forced structure on the chaotic Aetherial Sea. It creates a boundary between the Upside, layers above where the more benevolent, and ordered powers reside, and the Downside where the chaotic and malevolent exist. The further and further one expands into the Upside or Downside the closer one gets to the Aetherial Sea and the raw power of the Aether that is there. It is said that the most powerful of the Dragon Gods reside at the very top and bottom of the Upside and Downside, the last stop before the endless expanse of power that is always pressing in to consume the Land of Nod and everything within.
Though wise and powerful, Thioven’s work was not perfect. Even in the Land of Nod holes appear, cracks in the sands or great whirlpools in the swirling sea of dreams that let things pass from the Upside and Downside and further. The Gem Dragon’s work to banish or kill things that pose harm to the stability of the land or to the dreaming mortals within, but sometimes they are unable to prevent things from slipping in and influencing the minds and dreams of their charges. From time to time a person’s own dream bubble may descend into or ascend through these holes as well, leading to interactions with forces of unknown virtue. It is even possible to pass fully through the Land of Nod to ender into the Shrouded Realms, the domain of the Mistlords.
Dream Bubbles
Whenever a person sleeps their astral form slips into the Land of Nod, and thereby by the will and power of Thiovan a Dream Bubble is created for them. These appear as spheres of light on the surface of the Lod of Nod, multi-colored and giving off electric energy that some creatures feed on. Within each Dream Bubble is a person’s individual DreamScape, or Dream Realm however one wishes to call it. This realm is wholly and completely built upon the mind and desires of the person it is made around, and is as small or as infinite as they wish it unconsciously. Inside these DreamScapes are where people’s dreams occur, the emotions and thoughts of each dreamer coming to life and generating power through the Dream Bubbles that is used to stabilize the Land of Nod itself.
The average mortal cannot control their dreams fully or consciously, but rather are pulled along by unconscious thoughts and desires that need to be expressed but cannot be in the waking world. In rare events of Lucid Dreaming, a person can perceive that they are in a dream, but are unable to perceive the outside Land of Nod and can only interact with things within their DreamScapes. When two Dream Bubbles grow close, the two sleepers can share dreams with one another, and this occurs more often with individuals that the dream is close to or in proximity, or hold strong bonds with.
Some dreamers have an affinity for different layers of the Land of Nod, either the Upside or the Downside. These individuals are in especially dangerous positions, for their dream bubbles can sometimes ascend or descend through the layers without passing through the Spire or through fractures in the Land of Nod itself. If someone is prone to night terrors, for instance, it is possible their dream bubble travels often to the Downside, and beings of those lower layers invade their dreams more often than the average person. The opposite is also true, and saints that are devoted to specific deities often report visions or messages in dreams likely because their dreamscapes can travel up to the layer where their divine resides, making them more easily accessible for their deities.
It is not possible for the average person to consciously move their dream bubble through the Land of Nod, however, some cultures are known to practice forms of meditation and wakeful dreaming that does let them gain greater control over their dreams and dreams of others. Ancient shamans of Ecith are known for being able to reach into people’s dreams to pass along messages, and some of the most devout followers of the gods are able to use special prayers to seek wisdom in their sleep. The more conscious and aware one becomes in their dreams, however, the more dangerous dreaming itself is. Those who can control their dreams even in a limited fashion become noticeable by things in the Land of Nod that normally would ignore them, and so practitioners of these skills are taught to be wary and to use their powers only when necessary.
Dream Sailing
Long ago when the Rift Gates were still active there was a form of now lost magic that could let someone slip into the Land of Nod physically, and not just when they slept. After the Rift War the practice of Dream Sailing, along with Archmagic, faded into obscurity, with even the name of the old magic lost in ancient texts that were destroyed in the Sundering. It might be that some dredges of this old magic still exist in scattered forms, perhaps in those old shamanic practices or teachings that seek wisdom and advice from dreams. In any case, to physically go to the Land of Nod is to risk not just the Dream Sailor’s soul, but to potentially create a doorway that those things from the deepest nightmare realms to crawl into the world of the waking.