songerein_ooc | { dream notes #36

DREAM NOTES #36: AUGUST 1, 2024

We are one month away from our third year anniversary and official endgame! As a reminder, the game is completely open for anyone to join and tag in whatever and whoever, no applications required. This month's event will be especially conducive for guests and old players to drop in as the game gear's up for next month's finale and how it will affect everyone's connections to their home worlds…

CALENDAR

The Official Calendar has been updated. Here is our current schedule for the month:

08/01: Plot With Me Meme

08/14: World Hopping

09/01: New Mod Notes, Anniversary

09/06: Finale Log

09/30: Game Closes

Joshua's player plot should be considered wrapped by the end of the first week!

FINAL AC

Thanks to everyone who checked in last month! Since it's the month before the final, we will not have an Activity Check-In and the taken list will remain as-is.

WORLD HOPPING

The Nightmarians in Nightmare City are slowly recovering thanks to everyone's help so far, but it will still be a work in progress as the tethers are still malfunctioning and nostilium is still so pervasive around the world. However, due to the efforts in trying to clear out those world fragments, tapirs have reported that some of the tethers are starting to return to balance…

…But unfortunately that's going to get thrown into utter chaos as someone has unleashed nightmare terrors not into Songerein—but into other worlds. To what end, no one knows, but they seem to have been inspired by the Story Eater's past endeavors. However, unlike before, everyone must now travel to different worlds and enlist and work together with either friends, enemies, or strangers to eliminate the threat.

Worldscapes. The waking world is so far safe, but those who fall asleep in them will find themselves thrust into a strange dreamscape that parallels the original world. Those who are currently in Songerein will be able to meet in real time their friends, families, enemies, and other inhabitants of that world—regardless of the timeline. It's a dreamscape, after all, time has no meaning when dreaming, and that includes alternate timelines and multiple versions. Players will be allowed to NPC other characters as needed, but should refrain from doing anything questionable or out of character. Instead it would be encouraged to try and invite outside players to join in on the fun! Guest characters will need to learn how to dreamwalk and use abilities real quick if they want to help.

Dreamwalking to other worlds. Everyone will be able to dreamwalk to their home worlds freely, but other characters will be able to "world hop," too—so long as they have someone to tag along with. There may be other important things on the line, but it's still a chance for someone to visit a friend's world. Guest characters can also worldscape hop.

Destroy the nightmare crystals. Nightmare crystals are scattered throughout the worldscapes and while not all of them need to be destroyed, many of them do. If left unchecked, these crystals will transform into vicious noctaere that will wreak havoc on the dreams of everyone in that world. Already some will have "hatched" into powerful noctaere. The tapirs of Songerein and the two dream goddesses, Sylvani and Nitiri, are preparing for their own countermeasures to help clean up this mess, but they need time, so it's up to everyone to deal with these crystals. Just be careful that the nightmare crystal doesn't take over a character instead…

Purification. It is possible to purify and transform the nightmare crystals into dreamotion ones, but it requires a large amount of dreamotion and chipping it down. The same is true for the noctaeres that are spawning in these worldscapes.

Nightmare forms. The nightmare forms learned from Nightmare City will be especially useful in these worldscapes as these forms will allow dreamwalkers to interact with these crystals with more resistance and immunity. They will also allow dreamwalkers to absorb crystals safely for increased power boosts, though only one or two is recommended.

World Tethers. While in the worldscapes, everyone will be able to see large ribbons of light that pass through the skies. Some are iridescent with light, shimmering colors, and some are darker—not necessarily black, but in the darker spectrum. These are the tethers connecting worlds to the dream realm. Most are just visible in the distance, but some are crashing right through the ground, and these impact zones have cracks that are creating holes where uncontrolled amounts of either dreamotion or nostilum is pouring into the world. Which one it is depends on which type is smashing through the ground. To correct the tether's path and "pull it out" from the ground, the opposite type is needed. So if a tether is made of dreamotion (shiny rainbow), nostilium is required to balance it out and push it away. If a tether is made of nostilium (darker colors), then it needs dreamotion.

Using the nightmare crystals and noctaere to push them into the tethers (original for dreamotion tethers, purified versions for nostilium tethers) is a valid tactic, just be careful as too much could change the tether completely. Doing so will make it even more unbalanced and cause the worldscape to become unstable and risk pushing everyone out.

Trapped in the Dream. Due to the influx of dreamotion and nostilium now leaking out from the dream realms into the real world, there is a high chance that people may become trapped in their dreams, especially really good dreams. Dreams of better days, of being with lost long loved ones, hopes and futures unrealized. Both dreamwalkers and guests are at risk and despite these being good dreams, it will make the dreamer vulnerable to nightmare crystals and noctaere. Protect the dreamer and wake them out of the dream.

Awakened. Those who visit their home world may be tested as they will also have a chance to wake up briefly with all their memories intact. This will essentially serve as an opportunity for canon updating for those who may wish to do so, or it can just be a brief window for a character to see home again after however long they've been in Songerein. Others may also be able to very briefly exist in the world, but only if they remain in contact with the native character and cannot be seen by anyone else. It would be as if they are a ghost following along and can only interact with the character. They will be eventually pulled back into the dream.

Memento of Home. Upon returning to the dream realm, characters will bring back with them something symbolic of their home world. It could be personal to them, or it could be representative of the world in general, and it will be related to the tether between them and their original world. What they will be able to do with it… Well, that's for next month. But perhaps this will be their way of returning home…or perhaps this will be their last memento of their old life before "living the dream."

Berot Sau. The one behind all this is an entity called "Berot Sau." It's unclear if he's a human or not, but he is the one behind all this…as well as everything else. From all the way back when Orkili first had its reactor meltdown to experimenting on the Ice Queen, Joshua and other people and creatures, Berot Sau has been experimenting and manipulating nostilium, with finally sending it all out to other worlds. What the purpose is is unclear, but he needs to be found and stopped. Effectively a final boss fight, anyone is free to participate in to punch.

And that's roughly it! The focus of the event will be on the world hopping, so there won't be much else outside of this focus. In the meantime, Nightmare City will still be open for characters to travel to so those who still wish to utilize the setting and prompts from last month are free to do so for the entirety of August!

(Side note, the event was originally called "Tether Me" in the previous outline, but while the event is still related to the tethers, the name was changed to better reflect the actual content of the event.)

END NOTES

And that should be it! If you have any questions, just comment here

{ dream notes #36 - august 1, 2024 }

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