Setting
Cosmology
To reach the Dreamlands, a sleeper must find an unusual stairway in a conventional dream and walk down the Seventy Steps of Light Slumber to face the judgment of powerful gatekeepers named Nasht and Kaman-Tha. If judged worthy (i.e., able to survive the dangers of the Dreamlands), the dreamer is allowed to descend the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber and emerges in the Enchanted Wood. When a person enters the Dreamlands in this way, he leaves his physical body safely in the waking world. Should he be killed during his travels, his corporeal body will only suffer a shock. Sometimes, however, this can be fatal; "dream death" of this kind makes return to the Dreamlands impossible. Waking up causes a person's "dream self" to disappear, and the individual may have difficulty recalling anything learned or experienced during his time asleep (similar to conventional dreaming).
The Dreamlands can be entered in other ways, including physically. This usually requires passing through very dangerous areas of both the waking world and the Dreamlands. Consequently, "real" death becomes a risk. However, the visitor does receive the prolonged lifespan of a native of the Dreamlands, and the traveller's time there is no longer limited to the duration of a night's sleep on earth.
Though the term "Dreamlands" typically refers to the dimension accessible by human dreamers, other inhabited planets apparently have their own dreamlands. Reaching these other realms from the terrestrial Dreamlands is possible, but difficult.
Time flows at a different rate in the Dreamlands; each hour on earth represents a week or more there. Consequently, a traveller can spend months in the Dreamlands during a single night's sleep on earth. Fortunately for dreamers, inhabitants of the Dreamlands are either long-lived or immortal, provided they avoid injury or disease.
Despite its accelerated time, the Dreamlands rarely experiences change. Its geography, politics, and population remain fairly static. Dreamers, however, can exert great change over the topography, such as by creating entire cities with accompanying populations.
The Dreamlands has its own pantheon known as the Great Ones, but they resemble powerful immortals rather than true gods because ordinary humans can wound, deceive, and seduce them. Their dominion is protected, however, from mortal challengers by the dread Other Gods and their messenger Nyarlathotep (who treats the Other Gods and the Great Ones alike with evident contempt). Otherwise, the rest of the deities of the mythos, who figure prominently in Lovecraft's other writings (such as the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods), have little interest in or influence over the Dreamlands.
Geography
The Dreamlands is divided into four continental regions, each named for its cardinal direction.
The West is the most well-known region of the Dreamlands and is probably the most peopled as well. It is where dreamers emerge from the Steps of Deeper Slumber. The port of Dylath-Leen, the largest city of the Dreamlands, lies on its coast. The town of Ulthar, where no man may kill a cat, is also located here. Other important cities are Hlanith (a coastal jungle city) and Ilarnek (a desert trade capital). The land of Mnar and the ruins of Sarnath are found at the southern border. The Enchanted Wood of the Zoogs is also found here. It joins the South.
The South is the southern coastal region of the continent shared by the West along with the islands of the Southern Sea, including the isle of Oriab, the largest. The South's land-locked regions and its coastal areas are known as the Fantastic Realms, because they contain nightmarish and sometimes incomprehensible zones. Otherwise, the islands of the Southern Sea are fairly normal.
The East is a continent that is largely uninhabited, except for Ooth-Nargai. The city of Celephaïs is the capital of Ooth-Nargai and was created from whole cloth by its monarch King Kuranes, the greatest of all recorded dreamers. Beyond Ooth-Nargai are The Forbidden Lands, dangerous realms into which travel is interdicted.
The North is a cold, mountainous continent notorious for its Plateau of Leng, a violent region shared by man-eating spiders and satyr-like beings known as the "Men of Leng". The North also has a number of friendlier places, such as the city of Inganok, famous for its onyx quarries. The deepest reaches of the North are said to hold Unknown Kadath, the home of the Great Ones.
In addition to these regions, the Dreamlands has a few other locales that defy conventional description.
The Underworld is a subterranean region that runs beneath the whole of the Dreamlands. Its principle inhabitants are ghouls, who can physically enter the waking world through crypts. The Underworld is also home to the Gugs, monstrous giants banished from the surface for untold blasphemies. The Underworld's deepest realm is the Vale of Pnath, a dangerous lightless chasm inhabited by enormous unseen beasts called bholes. Bholes are likely the ancestors of the dholes of Yaddith.
The Moon has a parallel in the Dreamlands and is inhabited by the dreaded moon-beasts, amorphous frog-like creatures allied with Nyarlathotep. Interestingly, it is possible for a ship to sail off the edge of the Dreamlands and travel through space to the moon.
The Dreamlands
It is a vast, alternate dimension that can be entered through dreams, similar to astral projection. Experienced dreamers are among the most powerful inhabitants of the Dreamlands and may become its permanent residents after their physical death.
Minimap
northwest |
north |
northeast |
west |
You are here. |
east |
southwest |
south |
southeast |
The Dreamlands is a part of 
Ætherius; Realm of the Spirit.
1 Characters Here
Time ran slow here the gears trundled hard in the endless pale grey world Borealis had always known. An endless horizon pocked by close-looking bronze gears set by a sky shedding a an even light laying everything devoid of shadow. His soft footfalls of burnished matte metal of some stripe walked toward the horizon occasionally only looking up to see the swirling black thunderhead that was always overhead.
Until it wasn't anymore. A small difference where the sky was blue. Hints of green where his careful sight looked for difference. It had the reflection of some new place on the horizon now. Everything in a mind starved for any sign of change ran for the first time in years uncountable.
Borealis carefully moved his gloves of slowly moving facets to a time in Loross on his breastplate while running. The only evidence of former individuality that remained in this place. Somewhere in this place was what remained of of anything recognizable. Practice did not suffer in the uncountable years though attention certainly suffered by desperation.
That of course led the softly shifting armor to lack any awareness of the curious stone stairwell wreathed by hard bronze hooks as if hauled to this place by force. Reluctance marked a gloved hand reaching for that blue sky instead of breaking momentum. Clattering down the stairwell a hollow voice could only laugh with glee even through the pain of smashing helmet to marble. Even continuing to clatter down the stairs no attempt to stop is made though neither any obvious injury even while picking up speed.
Until it wasn't anymore. A small difference where the sky was blue. Hints of green where his careful sight looked for difference. It had the reflection of some new place on the horizon now. Everything in a mind starved for any sign of change ran for the first time in years uncountable.
Borealis carefully moved his gloves of slowly moving facets to a time in Loross on his breastplate while running. The only evidence of former individuality that remained in this place. Somewhere in this place was what remained of of anything recognizable. Practice did not suffer in the uncountable years though attention certainly suffered by desperation.
That of course led the softly shifting armor to lack any awareness of the curious stone stairwell wreathed by hard bronze hooks as if hauled to this place by force. Reluctance marked a gloved hand reaching for that blue sky instead of breaking momentum. Clattering down the stairwell a hollow voice could only laugh with glee even through the pain of smashing helmet to marble. Even continuing to clatter down the stairs no attempt to stop is made though neither any obvious injury even while picking up speed.
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