Difference between revisions of "Nightmare"
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The shape of a nightmare can be forcibly changed by trying to think of it as a certain form through the focus of painting. This causes them to take on the shape of the painting. The closer the painting is to something they resemble, the more power one has over them.{{book ref|yumi|3}} One can return them back to their human form by making a painting of who they used to be, but this doesn't change them back into a flesh and blood human, and they will still fade away without the shroud.{{book ref|yumi|40}} |
The shape of a nightmare can be forcibly changed by trying to think of it as a certain form through the focus of painting. This causes them to take on the shape of the painting. The closer the painting is to something they resemble, the more power one has over them.{{book ref|yumi|3}} One can return them back to their human form by making a painting of who they used to be, but this doesn't change them back into a flesh and blood human, and they will still fade away without the shroud.{{book ref|yumi|40}} |
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| − | Nightmares spend most of their time in the yoki-hijo prisons, hidden away in the shroud. But, when the hold of the machine becomes looser, they are able to wander and travel towards population centres, attracted to the cognitive activity focused at such centres. |
+ | Nightmares spend most of their time in the yoki-hijo prisons, hidden away in the shroud. But, when the hold of the machine becomes looser, they are able to wander and travel towards population centres, attracted to the cognitive activity focused at such centres. The reason for their attraction to human cognitive activity, and for feeding upon it to take on form and substance, is due to lusting for the life they lost upon the activation of the father machine.{{book ref|yumi|39}} |
== Nature and Abilities == |
== Nature and Abilities == |
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| − | Nightmares are usually almost entirely incorporeal, and are able to pass through solid substances such as walls.{{book ref|yumi|3}} Their forms are also unstable, and they constantly let off an inky black gas, if they fail to return to the shroud in order to re-Invest themselves, they will evaporate away completely.{{book ref|yumi|3}} |
+ | Nightmares are usually almost entirely incorporeal, and are able to pass through solid substances such as walls.{{book ref|yumi|3}} Their forms are also unstable, and they constantly let off an inky black gas, if they fail to return to the shroud in order to re-Invest themselves, they will evaporate away completely.{{book ref|yumi|3}} There are stories of nightmares so stable that they begin to take on the colour of flesh, but the truth of these stories are unknown.{{book ref|yumi|8}} |
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| + | They are capable of detecting thoughts, most notably fear, and to hide from one, one should think calm and placid thoughts. Fear is also capable of giving it more form and substance, as it feeds on them.{{book ref|yumi|3}}{{book ref|yumi|7}} |
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Nightmares are able to feed upon Investiture.{{book ref|yumi|25}} |
Nightmares are able to feed upon Investiture.{{book ref|yumi|25}} |
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==Notes== |
==Notes== |
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<references/> |
<references/> |
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+ | {{partial}} |
{{yumi}} |
{{yumi}} |
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[[category: Nightmares| ]] |
[[category: Nightmares| ]] |
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| − | 3 see shroud notes for description where one comes out |
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| − | 3 must return to shroud to renew or they will evaporate |
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3 doesn't reflect light like ink |
3 doesn't reflect light like ink |
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3 usually take direct path into the city |
3 usually take direct path into the city |
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3 leave behind black whisps, footprint steaming black vapors (less common), handprint |
3 leave behind black whisps, footprint steaming black vapors (less common), handprint |
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3 "ink and shadow", seven feet tall is considered tall, legs and arms with too many bends, elongated, (long) fingers |
3 "ink and shadow", seven feet tall is considered tall, legs and arms with too many bends, elongated, (long) fingers |
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| − | 3 can go through physical objects |
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| − | 3 wisps of blackness rising from it like ash from a fire |
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| − | 3 they never have faces (unless close to stable). Deeper blackness in front of head. Drips dark liquid from "face" like tears or wax |
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| − | 3 calm thoughts, placid mind uninteresting to them. They sense thoughts. |
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| − | 3 feed on minds |
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| − | 3 senses emotions and thoughts, calm minds aren't interesting |
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| − | 3 10 times to be stable |
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| − | 3 as they're being painted they take the form of what's painted, can even take on sounds of the thing |
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| − | 3 after painted, dissipates with the sound of a sigh. disperses/evaporates. |
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5 legend says they came from sky originally |
5 legend says they came from sky originally |
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7 tall enough that she has to bend over inside room. Sinuous, boneless neck. Lupine features, legs bent wrong way and face with snout. Virtually no smoke rising from her. Has eyes�bone white, deep as sockets in a skull. Barely drips darkness from face. ALMOST fully stable. Not formless, not aimless, not harmless. Around ten feedings to coalesce to this level. Only a few more to be fully solid. Thigns like this could slaughter hundreds. Can cause physical harm at this stage. (claws child's face and draws blood). Knife fingers. Bone white teeth. Smiling. Eyes "pull through to some other eternity". Difficulty going through walls, especially claws. |
7 tall enough that she has to bend over inside room. Sinuous, boneless neck. Lupine features, legs bent wrong way and face with snout. Virtually no smoke rising from her. Has eyes�bone white, deep as sockets in a skull. Barely drips darkness from face. ALMOST fully stable. Not formless, not aimless, not harmless. Around ten feedings to coalesce to this level. Only a few more to be fully solid. Thigns like this could slaughter hundreds. Can cause physical harm at this stage. (claws child's face and draws blood). Knife fingers. Bone white teeth. Smiling. Eyes "pull through to some other eternity". Difficulty going through walls, especially claws. |
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7 Futinoro destroyed by stable nightmares 30 years ago. |
7 Futinoro destroyed by stable nightmares 30 years ago. |
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| − | 8 "beyond stable" nightmares in "the last days" which had begun to change color (flesh tones) |
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25? "wisps of lackness rising and vanishing [...from] something black. Like blood. That evaporated." |
25? "wisps of lackness rising and vanishing [...from] something black. Like blood. That evaporated." |
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25? not understood why they don't leave footprints |
25? not understood why they don't leave footprints |
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Revision as of 22:08, 5 July 2023
| Nightmare | |
|---|---|
| Type | Cognitive Shadow |
| Sapient | Some |
| World of Origin | Komashi |
| Universe | Cosmere |
Nightmares are a type of Cognitive Shadow native to Komashi which emerge from the shroud to feed on the minds of people while they sleep. They are formed by the souls of dead Komashi people killed by the father machine, and made into its servants.
History
The Nightmares did not originally exist, they were created by a disaster wherein the father machine killed the vast majority of the inhabitants of Komashi, creating the nightmares as Cognitive Shadows held captive by the machine.[1][2]
Following this disaster, they were kept in a replica of different towns in Torio, to repeat the same day disguised as the people they once were. At night, they were left to travel through the shroud and feed upon the people of various surviving nations, most notably Nagadan. In response to this, the profession of painters developed, in order to turn them into a more harmless shape, and banish them back into the shroud.
After the father machine was destroyed and the shroud was dispelled, all of the Nightmares, freed from the tyranny of the machine, dissolved into nothingness.
Appearance and Behavior
Nightmares are inky black creatures that can take on many forms.[3] They begin as amorphous blobs, but over time, as they feed upon the thoughts and ideas of people, they start to take on more recognizable forms, gradually gaining more and more form as they pick up on more thoughts.[3] They rarely have faces, the face usually taking on the form of an even deeper blackness, which drips a dark liquid.[3] They constantly let of a gaseous blackness as they move around outside of the shroud, and if they fail to return to the shroud, they can evaporate away completely.[3]
They have to go on multiple trips to a city in order to gain enough substance to be truly dangerous, usually around ten or so trips.[3] If a nightmare has enough form, it would become something known as a stable nightmare, which are particularly dangerous, and require elite painters in order to neutralize them, known as the Dreamwatch.[4] Stable enough nightmares have pinprick white eyes dotting their face, and bone-white teeth.[4][5][6]
The shape of a nightmare can be forcibly changed by trying to think of it as a certain form through the focus of painting. This causes them to take on the shape of the painting. The closer the painting is to something they resemble, the more power one has over them.[3] One can return them back to their human form by making a painting of who they used to be, but this doesn't change them back into a flesh and blood human, and they will still fade away without the shroud.[6]
Nightmares spend most of their time in the yoki-hijo prisons, hidden away in the shroud. But, when the hold of the machine becomes looser, they are able to wander and travel towards population centres, attracted to the cognitive activity focused at such centres. The reason for their attraction to human cognitive activity, and for feeding upon it to take on form and substance, is due to lusting for the life they lost upon the activation of the father machine.[2]
Nature and Abilities
Nightmares are usually almost entirely incorporeal, and are able to pass through solid substances such as walls.[3] Their forms are also unstable, and they constantly let off an inky black gas, if they fail to return to the shroud in order to re-Invest themselves, they will evaporate away completely.[3] There are stories of nightmares so stable that they begin to take on the colour of flesh, but the truth of these stories are unknown.[7]
They are capable of detecting thoughts, most notably fear, and to hide from one, one should think calm and placid thoughts. Fear is also capable of giving it more form and substance, as it feeds on them.[3][4]
Nightmares are able to feed upon Investiture.[5]
It is theoretically possible to form a bond with a nightmare,[8] although exactly how such a bond would function is unknown.
Notable Nightmares
Trivia
- Their similarities to the Midnight Essence are intentional.[9]
Notes
- ↑ Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 23#
- ↑ a b Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 39#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 3#
- ↑ a b c Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 7#
- ↑ a b Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 25#
- ↑ a b Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 40#
- ↑ Yumi and the Nightmare Painter chapter 8#
- ↑ Secret Project #3 Reveal and Livestream
— Arcanum - 2022-03-22# - ↑ Secret Project #3 Reveal and Livestream
— Arcanum - 2022-03-22#