Manido

The Fate of my Tribe

I was a hunter.

In the long season and in the short, I hunted food for my family and for my tribe. We lived free on the land, taxed only by the wind and sometimes the bitter cold. My wife was a skinner who often accompanied our hunting party, and my brothers had taken over our father’s farm since his death. It was the winter of death, but we didn’t know it yet.

When the Barbarians came we were asleep in our beds. How could any force of men creep up on our village in such bitter cold? They stormed through on foot, killing the sentries and trapping the rest of us in their archer’s sites before we could arm ourselves or defend our families. Neither I nor my brothers were given the opportunity to fight for our freedom, and one of us died begging for that right.

It has been two years. We are fortunate that we are permitted to remain as families in our homes, but that is all that’s left of our former lives. And even this companionship is subject to the Barbarians’ whim, if we so displease them. They command us through brute savagery and utter diligence, never easing their watch over our activities or giving us any edge with which to claim our freedom. The duties we perform for them are menial, and it has been 28 moons since I have hunted since.

My Experiences: Though the Barbarians keep us on a strict work regimen, we are given no room to run and no freedom to hunt. My skills and fortitude have waned over time, under the grueling lack of sleep and life of tedious toil. I do not know how the Barbarians have changed the out lands beyond our village’s walls, except I know they have all the firewood they need and they complain the hunting in this area has gone poor.

The Barbarians are not led by one of their own, but by an outsider who has led them to victory time and again. He is a man of underhanded means and keen intellect who I believe comes from another time. Of course, what I know matters little as I have never seen him in the waking world. Such is his power that my village became his with the power of a simple nod to his horde. I have never before had the need to hunt another person, but I would hunt this man, if I could.

My Dreams: Perhaps because my body longed for the physical rush of the hunt, perhaps over my despair from being unable to help my people, I awoke. Not from a dream, mind you, but into one.

I was skeptical as well! But as I became used to the unlikely appearance of this bizarre realm, I slowly accepted what had happened to me. I know it sounds like long-shore babble, but I had developed the... sentience to awaken within my dreams, and that was the least of it. Across the span of all that is, beings from many different places and even worlds are awakening... into the same dream! I tell you true: there is a place that’s made up of the stuff dreams are made of! It is the City of Dreams, and the Dreamwrights have constructed it as a safe haven for the Awakened, such as myself, to take refuge in.

Refuge. Oh yes, there are things to take refuge from. They are the stuff of Nightmares, though the Awakened call them simply “Mares”. They are viscous creatures which inflict great pain through their foul attacks. But they are far more than that. They must be, though others say they are not.

Some say the Mares are nothing but vile pockets of Chaos taken shape within the dreamstuff to form a monster. When the Mare is slain, it’s essence is to be captured and destroyed, released back into the dreamstuff as nothingness. Others say the Mare is a sentience taken shape within the Dreamstate much the way Dreamers are, and that it lords control over some innocent Dreamer who is entrapped by it’s presence. Destroying the Mare, say the followers of this latter belief, also destroys the Dreamer the Mare was possessing. Therefor, it is unethical to dispose of the Mares, and instead these beasts must be defeated and their essence stored. Those who believe this refer to themselves as “the Illuminated”, and have labeled those who believe in the former theory as “the Freesoul”.

My Beliefs: This is where my own beliefs diverge to form something between the worlds of the Illuminated and the FreeSoul. You see, early in my visits to the Dreamstate, I slew a Bogrom, which is nothing in particular for a seasoned Dreamer to brag about, but I was sorely pressed to find the victory. Upon returning to the Waking World, and the reality of my enslavement there, I found that one of our taskmasters had died in his sleep while having a fitful dream! I came to believe that I had coincidentally pitted myself against his evil essence in the Dreamstate and had killed him in the effort.

It is from this experience that I’ve gained new hope. I intend to search out the Dreamstate for the Nightmare essence of the Barbarians’ supreme commander and destroy it. I shall take revenge for what they have done to my people and I shall destroy every Mare between myself and him in the process if I have to do it!

Manido hunts again.

Here are my powers and abilities within the Dreamstate as I understand them: I am a SoulMaster. My weapon is a SoulReaper, which I can summon at will. I can drain off the essences of Mares I slay and use it to heal my injuries. These abilities of mine are piddling when compared to the Arts mastered by more seasoned Dreamers. I have passed my ninth Orbit in the Dreamstate, and now am at the peak of my abilities for my Sphere. If I may be granted Ascension by the Guardians, I shall pass to the Second Sphere and begin learning it’s expanded number of Arts.

I am of House Calenture, called a “FreeSoul” house. We are a gathering of Dreamers devoted to each other’s protection and also stopping the destruction the Mares are causing in the Dreamstate. The Illuminates have a House as well, called Dreamers of Light. The Houses work together for the good of the City of Dreams, but rarely agree on how to do it. When a Mare is banished and the question of how to dispose of it’s essence arises, true colors are often shown. Each of the Houses occupy a sprawling physical space within the City of Dreams, and each is glorious to behold. There are ceremonies and celebrations, which I greatly enjoy, for they are denied in me in my waking life.

Ariana, Manido and Tehthu

Prelude:

During The Nightmare Wars there was an order named the Seekers of Knowledge whose purpose was to preserve knowledge. To do this they decided to send some of their members out of the dream. They accomplished this by taking awakened and unknowing unawakened souls and swapping their positions. This left the unawakened with no bodies in Cloudsbreak. Not surprising, there were problems and the swaps were unsuccessful. None could achieve consciousness and many wakened bodies were dead or in comas from shock.

So many of the trapped Seekers began to share consciousness with their dreaming counterparts. Many of those dreamers had memories that weren't their own. They knew things and were as driven for knowledge as the Seekers were. This is how many came to be dreaming, but their waking is a gray and formless void.

Ariana: Ariana was one of these unawakened. Her counterpart and joined Seeker was the Gatekeeper, Apirilic, who shared her consciousness for a very long time..

Manido: One day Ariana was walking the Valley near Manido's lodge with Boggen, who got stuck in a hole when she met Manido. (Fayd later fixed this hole, but that's another story.) This was the day Kelrith found the Corrupter of Souls, a vital item needed to cast Tehthu forever from the dream. It was discovered Tehthu had escaped when Kelrith uncovered the Corruptor.

Tehthu: One day Ariana was hunting in the Basins when she was attacked by a marelike creature--Tehthu. Ariana raced to sanctuary just as any newly awakened dreamer would. Before she could reach safety she was bitten by the creature and the bite rapidly became infected. She slipped into a fever and lost herself to the Seeker, Apirilic. She started spouting riddles which in time led the dreamers to attempt to kill Tehthu.

The RItual: The dreamers gathered at the Rings of Passage. Tehthu was summoned. Manido's mentor, Draigon, refused to hand the Corruptor to Kelrith so the ritual could be performed. Manido, already in love with the girl, Ariana, was unable to bear the thought that she would be lost. So he attacked Draigon and was collapsed quickly since he was unsphered.

Some say Smoke replaced the essence of Tehthu with a fake, driven to madness by the tainted essence. (Yes, legend says just carrying the essence of Tehthu will drive the bearer mad!)

Some say Draigon or perhaps Kelrith were driven mad by the Corruptor. (Yes, the Corruptor too can drive a dreamer mad just by contact.)

Some say the Corruptor itself tricked them Be as it may, everyone thought Tehthu was being banished into the Corruptor, when in fact it was Apirilic who was banished.

Ariana was soon cured, but at the loss of Apirilic, who to this day remains trapped in the Corruptor, as the essence used in the ritual was not that of Tehthu. Over the next months, many sought to fend off the effects of Tehthu and thought they had won the battle. Dena: The young dreamer Dena, a respected teacher, was suffering from derangement after being lost in chaos for a time. After she jumped into the Rifts the whispering began. Legend gave that if any dreamer sacrificed him/herself into the chaos, Dena would be saved. Ariana made this sacrifice but it was a trick. Dena had already been returned to safety when Ariana jumped!

Ariana later recalled being lost in the Chaos, seeing Apirilic, possessed by Tehthu and his eyes torn from his head. The sight nearly drove her mad. She was alone again, as she had been for so long in her grayness without waking.

Manido was distraught, unable to accept her loss. So he sought out the dreamer, Tiger. Tiger gave him a relic called Incarna Stone. Many tried to stop Manido, but he lept into the chaos in an attempt to save his love, Ariana.

Account from Manido of this time:

"My time in the chaos was... confusing. I remember no up nor down, no north nor south, only endless swirling blackness and sparatic flashes of color. I knew I had one chance though, for I loved Ariana, and possessed an item close to her heart, a gift I once gave her. as well as the Incarna Stone which fortified my soul and my senses. In this way, I believed, I could somehow find Ariana in the chaos. I was very wrong. I found myself in a great struggle with mares outside the city walls. As they began to overwhelm me, I was caught up in a tide of chaos wreathed in hatred and anger... In the last moments, I was crushed into the city walls, collapsed, and thrown back to the city. The Incarna Stone being lost in the struggle, I was unprotected in the last moments. And this it seems is why my memories are incomplete."

When Manido returned, he was irate and out of his mind. In time he again returned to the Rifts to seek Ariana, finding her in the Temple of Insanity in Dorsal Rift. She thought she was a Nightmare, and acted like one. Manido sat with her for days to tame her and restore her memories. He and LMBE led her into the light with a trail of dried fruit, beef jerky and heady ale. Her friends showed her familiar things but she still couldn't speak the dreamer tongue.

Finally, Manido gave her the Alteror of Aprilic, which allowed her to hold her shape as a dreamer. Though to this day her eyes remain useless, as she sees for another--Tehthu.