The Dreamer's Cult
Trust in dreams, for in them is the hidden gate to eternity.
—Kahill Gibran
The Dreamers, as they are called, are a small religious group that worships a primal force greater than the gods themselves. Often called a demon cult, they are hunted by the more devout followers of the false gods, persecuted for trying to restore the natural order to this broken world, hunted for preaching the truth of dreams, or so they would have you believe.
Little is truly known about the cult, with conflicting information coming from the more accepted religions and the cultists themselves, it hard to piece together the truth of the matter. But some of the more 'accepted' facts are that they view the gods as the foulest beings, the bringers of injustice, the jealous beings who had the gale to claim godhood. Their religious texts make vague references to the ideas that if Aahr had not rebelled then the demons never would have escaped to torment the very foundations of reality, and also that the gods have the angles locked and bound away, little more than shadows of what they once were. Of course, it would take months of studying the texts to find anything more definitive than veiled references, but when you're sleeping you have all the time in the world.
The reasons the Dreamers sell the Dreamer's Tears is twofold. The baser of the two is to get money for food and drink, which is hard to get in the dark places that many of their temples are. The second one is this, sleep is the holiest of holies, and in sleep a dreamers dream the same dream. It is a dream of rebirth they say, a dream of rebuilding. And if you ask why the dreamers cry they will tell you this, "They cry because they know something better is coming, but that it is taking too long. They cry because they feel a piece of the despair that the Heavenly Pillar feels over its betrayal."
The temples of the Dreamer are often built in out of the way places, places that have been abandoned by all but the dregs of civilization. Their temples are inside of abandoned warehouses, old catacombs, blocked of sections of the sewer, and the like. The insides of the temples are dark and dreary, with candles providing only shadowy illumination, the floors are covered by the sleeping bodies of the worshippers, and in the corners there are tables with scrolls lying scattered all over the place. The scrolls often contain little things rumors, prophecies, gibberish, lost pieces of arcane lore, all are given the same treatment, for they are the rantings of a sleeping one. On these tables on may also find pages from the Tome of Midnight, the supposed holy book of the group, scattered around.
The city temples are usually populated by 10-15 faithful, any more and it poses as too good of a target for the zealots to pass up, and any less and they can't defend themselves. They often have one High Priest for every three or four disciples, with another ten or so coming in from around the city to worship on a semi-daily basis. But, outside the city walls it is a different story entirely. There are rumors that some of the temples can grow to as many as fifty disciples. Of course, the only reason for this is that those who manage to escape a raid by the authorities generally flee the city entirely, so as to not risk exposing others by going to them. The monasteries outside of the city are usually caves, with small entrances, that have been enlarged inside. The disciples here have some form of martial training, and generally have the support of the local rangers in expelling any invasion by the Order of the Vigilant.
They are a simple order, with a small hierarchy. The High Priests will hold council when they need, and other than that they spend their time teaching their sleeping disciples the truths of dreams, and praying for the return of their sleeping lord.
Behind the Scenes:
Beliefs - In reality they view the gods as little better than the demons, things to be hated rather than worshipped. Their religious texts, at least the ones in the "real" world, only make vague references to this, but the ones in the Dreamscape often contain recounts of the beginning of the Universe, when the gods betrayed their creator.
Needless to say this has caused a bit of stir among the aforementioned gods, and while they wont comment on whether or not the accusations are true, seem to be encouraging swift and fatal repercussions where ever this craftily hidden cult dwells. This seems to be the main reason that the Order of the Vigilant has grown so big so fast. Unfortunately, even with the help of he gods it can take months or even years of searching to find one of the temples, so whether or not the gods even have a grip on the matter has been called to question as well.
The Tears - seem to be regular tears, but they have extraordinary powers. The powers of restoring that which the gods have taken away. Mages often find that they can cast more spells with this, and there are even cases of blind men gaining back some sight. Yet again they seem to be undermining the standing of the gods, for isn't it true that the only healing come from those Holy Ones?
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? Responses (5)
I must say! The Dreamer Cult has surely inspired a lot of Strolenites! I love what all of you guys come up with, but I feel somewhat partial and thus I won't vote for what you and Roack and all them others create in this vein.
You should really team up with Roack though. I bet you guys could forge some wonderful stuff together, like Cheka Man and Maggot used to.
It has inspired Strolenites, but not to vote it seems. Sixtyseven views, one comment, and no votes before mine?
Still a solid piece of work, with people building upon people's work. This is the best kind of thing we can do.
The posts come clear when you read the suggested submissions with it, but as a stand alone post things mentioned in the other need clarification in this post as well. I hadn't read the two others so the following things came up.
-If little is truly known about this cult, then why are they such a high target of violence? From their description the only thing against them is their cryptic beliefs that nobody really understands. They don't do anything but sleep so why are they so 'evil' that they can never escape prosecution.
-The tears need to be expanded on too. A) Why would anybody want to buy their tears in the first place? B) If they are always having to hide and any group is quickly destroyed by those that hate them then how would they sell their tears and who would buy them?
Now, following the links I begin to understand the power of the tears so you should lightly explain the tears a little bit and link to them inside your post so we know there is more. Same with the reason they are hated. Since this is THE submission for the Dreamer's Cult these things should definately be at least mentioned with links providing the in depth explanation.
If you don't know how to link inside submissions, see this link http://www.strolen.com/level.php#i6
All together they make perfect sense, but this one as is leaves too many questions untouched expecting that we will go through and read all the suggested without hints in the submission. Once fixed it will get a solid 4 from me!
Neat, and agree pretty much with all of Strolen and Moons comments. Has some odd characters to be cleaned up.
It is a fine group, especially with the larger connections. Odd characters cleared.
