[PTTG]

Dreamworlds:

Dreams are a mental rehearsal of the day's events, a processing of memory with little meaning aside from as a reflection of hopes, dreams, and preoccupations. They aren't real places. Or so was once believed.

While those phantom thoughts are indeed necessary, certain hypnotic practices push these processes into the subconscious and unleash true dreams; vivid, lucid experiences that are not merely illusions but an entire other world. The techniques required to reach it were once closely guarded secrets, but they are escaping. More and more people are becoming Dreamwalkers.

The dreamworld, while clearly a real place, is just as clearly very different from our own world. Like a dream, things that happen there can only hurt your mind, not your body. It is somewhat responsive to acts of will and state of mind. Most notably, physical location is nearly irrelevant in the Dreamworld. And, most significantly, time does not flow evenly or consistently there. Subjective experience varies widely. Some visits pass in moments, others take years. Generally, time passes more quickly there.*

The geography of the Dreamworld shifts slowly from week to week, perhaps reflecting some great collective unconscious. There are mountains, forests, cities, seas, but they move. There are also many stranger landscapes. Planes of ocean surface that intersect the ground at odd tangents, defying gravity. Bookcases with neither top nor bottom, navigated by rolling ladders. Impossible houses and telescoping spaces. Realms where time is as easily navigated as a dimension of space.

Most importantly of all, the Dreamworld has its own hazards. Aside from physical torment, some psychological torments are loosed onto the realm, preying on unwary Dreamwalkers.

You are a Walker. Maybe new, maybe old. You may know others, either on the material plane or solely within the Dream. Either way, you must work together to understand the Dreamworld, to face its threats, and at the same time, not lose connection to the "real world" out there.

* For example, it's been shown that information cannot be transported faster than the speed of light in the real world, but dreamwalkers report zero perceived communication lag, even between walkers on opposite sides of the planet. This is hardly the most serious conflict with the rules of science as we know them.