Primer

Discover the basics of Changeling: The Dreaming here!


What is the Dreaming

contributed by Krister M. Michl, writer for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition

Glamour is essential to the survival of unmuted emotions and creativity in the World of Darkness, and the Dreaming is the source of this lifeblood. Simultaneously, it’s more than the cradle of metaphysical energies; the Dreaming is also an endless world – juxtaposed against the Autumn Realm – where all things are possible.

In the ages before Banality clenched its cold grasp over humanity, the Dreaming and the mundane world was one and the same. However, following the apocalyptic event that the Kithain call the Sundering, the world split into to two, leaving the Dreaming only accessible through trods (magical pathways).

The Dreaming: The Three Layers

The Dreaming divided into three realms of existence: the Near, Far, and Deep Dreaming. In the Near Dreaming adventurers find manifested dreams of urban legends and modern myths, while the Near and Deep Dreaming acts as home to creatures and tales long forgotten by mortals. More importantly, changelings know that their long-lost homeland, Arcadia, is hidden at the very core of the Deep Dreaming, and this knowledge provides them with the very hope and dreams that’s needed to survive these dark days.

The Dreaming: Glamour

Everyone that has not permanently succumbed to Banality touches the Dreaming upon sleeping. Whatever nature dreams have – be it nightmares or joyful experiences – they manifest briefly in the Near Dreaming before transmuting into Glamour. Glamour fuels changelings’ Arts and maintains their Chimerical Quality in the Autumn Realm. Without the Dreaming, there’s nothing but a muted, robot-like, existence of repetitiveness – an age known as the Long Winter.

Changelings undergoing Chrysalis in the modern nights instinctively knows that this is the final age before the loss of Glamour. They know that unless they find a way to change the world, the Dreaming and all its powers ends with them. Yet, it’s this very source desperation that keeps them going, and in turn, prevents humanity from falling to Banality.

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