Patrick-Leigh
Inkling
I recently had some big ideas for how the Astral Plane works in my flintlock fantasy story setting. I was hoping to get some feedback on them to see how well they work.
Without getting too much into it, there are two Astral Realms called Dreamland and Nightmareland. (I'm iffy on the name for the latter.) Before and during the Divine War, there were two Faeries, husband and wife, who had immense Psionic Power. They created an enormous Dreamscape to enjoy together but later invited others to join them. This Dreamscape came to be known as Dreamland. Eventually, some of the Archons of Light offered to make the husband and wife conditionally immortal. They would enter a deep sleep and so long as they never woke from it, their bodies would not age nor die. However, if they ever did wake, their bodies would rapidly age and they would perish. They were tasked with maintaining Dreamland to provide a refuge for people from the nightmares that the minions of Hethetex, Dark Lord of Dread and Despair, were using to torment people. Dreamland would be a place the minions of Hethetex could not enter.
To keep their bodies safe, the husband and wife created two separate palaces in which they would each slumber under the protection of a loyal group of guards. These Dream Palaces, as they were called, were then moved into their own Pocket Dimensions. While their bodies would remain separate, the husband and wife would be with each other in Dreamland. So long as the mind of one of them remained in Dreamland, it would be sustained, allowing the other to go out into the Deep Astral to bring sleeping people to Dreamland where they would be safe from the minions of Hethetex.
As the wife was the faster of the two, this task usually fell to her while the husband, who had more strength to sustain and defend Dreamland, remained there to keep it both safe and stable. However, as the centuries passed, the wife began to grow, well, bored. The thrill of evading the minions of Hethetex was gone, as was the challenge, and few of the people she took to Dreamland remembered her when they awakened, though they did seem to retain a vague memory of her husband, the "King of Dreams" as he'd come to be known.
Resentment began to fill the heart of the wife and she soon began to converse with the minions of Hethetex rather than simply drive them away. She also took to studying the nightmares they gave people. In so doing, she found that nightmares provided her with more excitement than dreams. Eventually, she would make a small, secret Dreamscape where she could take people's minds and subject them to nightmares of her own creation. This pleased Hethetex greatly, so he visited the Queen of Dreams and made her an offer. He would sustain her immortality and empower help her to expand the Dreamscape of terror she had created so that it was as great as Dreamland. She would become the Nightmare Queen and the memory of her would remain in the minds of people far more than the memory of her husband, the King of Dreams.
The wife initially refused the offer Hethetex had made, but as the Divine War worsened, and people's nightmares increased, the Queen of Dreams could not put the offer out of her mind. Eventually, she lost all desire to resist the temptation, even though she could have overcome it in time had she been patient and endured. Instead, her jealousy and resentment of her husband got the better of her. She abandoned him and Dreamland and accepted the deal with Hethetex. With the power he granted her, she expanded her Dreamscape, transforming it into what is now called Nightmareland. Those who protected her body in what was now the Palace of Nightmares sided with her, as they had been corrupted by the Dark Lord of Dread and Despair alongside the queen.
So, that's the origins of Dreamland and Nightmareland. I'm still figuring out how they work, exactly. I do know that not all dreams and nightmares take place in these Astral Realms. Some obviously do, but not all. The key thing about both is that you are not alone in them, so you can meet people in either one and later find them in real life, provided you can remember them when you wake up. Another detail is that some people can have their bodies taken to either the Palace of Dreams of the Palace of Nightmares, where they will spend the rest of the life in slumber while their minds join the ranks of either the King of Dreams or Nightmare Queen. They will still age and die, physically, but never become sick or suffer physical harm in their permanent hibernation. A big drawback to doing this is that your memories of your waking life tend to fade quickly, though not entirely, so that remembering what life was like when you were awake can be very difficult. This is why most people who do this are those who are dying and want to continue their life in another way. They aren't cheating death, exactly, since they still age and die, but this does grant them more time to live and a way to help (or harm) people while doing so through dreams and nightmares.
One other thing I'm thinking is that, due to the way the Astral Plane works, while Dreamland and NIghtmareland are technically on opposite ends of the Psionic Universe, there are places where their borders "touch." This is where the servants of the two rulers will battle each other or launch raids into the opposing realms to either save or abduct the minds of sleepers visiting them. The dynamics of these battles are a bit strange, since the soldiers of the King of Dreams are all "happy warriors" who tend to use cheerfulness, kindness, and humor as their primary weapons to counteract the fear, anguish, and misery their counterparts wield. Also, due to the nature of dreams, things can get quite... imaginative, like someone launching puppies from their arms to pin down a Nightmare Soldier and lick them into submission.
A final idea I have involves Dream Dust and Nightmare Dust. Not only are these how servants of the two monarchs can bring people directly to Dreamland or Nightmare Land, they are also what allows the King of Dreams and Nightmare Queen to generate projections of themselves. Both have to remain in their castles at the center of each Astral Realm in order to maintain their stability, so using the Dust to create simulated bodies is the only way they can interact with anyone outside of them. (And, yes, this means they're Astral Projecting their minds from their physical bodies AND sending out Dust Projections of their minds from their Astral Projections. Stuff gets weird on the Astral Plane.) These Dust Projections can manifest both on the Astral Plane and in the physical world, which is how both rulers recruit people to work in their physical palaces and bring more Dreamers to take up residence in them.
So, that's all I've worked out for now. What do you guys think? Does this work? Do you have any suggestions? Let me know!
Without getting too much into it, there are two Astral Realms called Dreamland and Nightmareland. (I'm iffy on the name for the latter.) Before and during the Divine War, there were two Faeries, husband and wife, who had immense Psionic Power. They created an enormous Dreamscape to enjoy together but later invited others to join them. This Dreamscape came to be known as Dreamland. Eventually, some of the Archons of Light offered to make the husband and wife conditionally immortal. They would enter a deep sleep and so long as they never woke from it, their bodies would not age nor die. However, if they ever did wake, their bodies would rapidly age and they would perish. They were tasked with maintaining Dreamland to provide a refuge for people from the nightmares that the minions of Hethetex, Dark Lord of Dread and Despair, were using to torment people. Dreamland would be a place the minions of Hethetex could not enter.
To keep their bodies safe, the husband and wife created two separate palaces in which they would each slumber under the protection of a loyal group of guards. These Dream Palaces, as they were called, were then moved into their own Pocket Dimensions. While their bodies would remain separate, the husband and wife would be with each other in Dreamland. So long as the mind of one of them remained in Dreamland, it would be sustained, allowing the other to go out into the Deep Astral to bring sleeping people to Dreamland where they would be safe from the minions of Hethetex.
As the wife was the faster of the two, this task usually fell to her while the husband, who had more strength to sustain and defend Dreamland, remained there to keep it both safe and stable. However, as the centuries passed, the wife began to grow, well, bored. The thrill of evading the minions of Hethetex was gone, as was the challenge, and few of the people she took to Dreamland remembered her when they awakened, though they did seem to retain a vague memory of her husband, the "King of Dreams" as he'd come to be known.
Resentment began to fill the heart of the wife and she soon began to converse with the minions of Hethetex rather than simply drive them away. She also took to studying the nightmares they gave people. In so doing, she found that nightmares provided her with more excitement than dreams. Eventually, she would make a small, secret Dreamscape where she could take people's minds and subject them to nightmares of her own creation. This pleased Hethetex greatly, so he visited the Queen of Dreams and made her an offer. He would sustain her immortality and empower help her to expand the Dreamscape of terror she had created so that it was as great as Dreamland. She would become the Nightmare Queen and the memory of her would remain in the minds of people far more than the memory of her husband, the King of Dreams.
The wife initially refused the offer Hethetex had made, but as the Divine War worsened, and people's nightmares increased, the Queen of Dreams could not put the offer out of her mind. Eventually, she lost all desire to resist the temptation, even though she could have overcome it in time had she been patient and endured. Instead, her jealousy and resentment of her husband got the better of her. She abandoned him and Dreamland and accepted the deal with Hethetex. With the power he granted her, she expanded her Dreamscape, transforming it into what is now called Nightmareland. Those who protected her body in what was now the Palace of Nightmares sided with her, as they had been corrupted by the Dark Lord of Dread and Despair alongside the queen.
So, that's the origins of Dreamland and Nightmareland. I'm still figuring out how they work, exactly. I do know that not all dreams and nightmares take place in these Astral Realms. Some obviously do, but not all. The key thing about both is that you are not alone in them, so you can meet people in either one and later find them in real life, provided you can remember them when you wake up. Another detail is that some people can have their bodies taken to either the Palace of Dreams of the Palace of Nightmares, where they will spend the rest of the life in slumber while their minds join the ranks of either the King of Dreams or Nightmare Queen. They will still age and die, physically, but never become sick or suffer physical harm in their permanent hibernation. A big drawback to doing this is that your memories of your waking life tend to fade quickly, though not entirely, so that remembering what life was like when you were awake can be very difficult. This is why most people who do this are those who are dying and want to continue their life in another way. They aren't cheating death, exactly, since they still age and die, but this does grant them more time to live and a way to help (or harm) people while doing so through dreams and nightmares.
One other thing I'm thinking is that, due to the way the Astral Plane works, while Dreamland and NIghtmareland are technically on opposite ends of the Psionic Universe, there are places where their borders "touch." This is where the servants of the two rulers will battle each other or launch raids into the opposing realms to either save or abduct the minds of sleepers visiting them. The dynamics of these battles are a bit strange, since the soldiers of the King of Dreams are all "happy warriors" who tend to use cheerfulness, kindness, and humor as their primary weapons to counteract the fear, anguish, and misery their counterparts wield. Also, due to the nature of dreams, things can get quite... imaginative, like someone launching puppies from their arms to pin down a Nightmare Soldier and lick them into submission.
A final idea I have involves Dream Dust and Nightmare Dust. Not only are these how servants of the two monarchs can bring people directly to Dreamland or Nightmare Land, they are also what allows the King of Dreams and Nightmare Queen to generate projections of themselves. Both have to remain in their castles at the center of each Astral Realm in order to maintain their stability, so using the Dust to create simulated bodies is the only way they can interact with anyone outside of them. (And, yes, this means they're Astral Projecting their minds from their physical bodies AND sending out Dust Projections of their minds from their Astral Projections. Stuff gets weird on the Astral Plane.) These Dust Projections can manifest both on the Astral Plane and in the physical world, which is how both rulers recruit people to work in their physical palaces and bring more Dreamers to take up residence in them.
So, that's all I've worked out for now. What do you guys think? Does this work? Do you have any suggestions? Let me know!