Post by Xander on Apr 27, 2009 0:02:36 GMT -5
Dream-Hunters (also known as the Oneroi) are the cursed children of the Greek gods of Sleep (Morpheus, Hypnos, Phobetor, Icelus, Phantasos, and Thanatos). Some are born of human mothers, but many are born of the Greek goddess Mist.
As long as one of a child's parents is an Oneroi, that child can inherit their powers and duties. They also inherit some residual emotions, emotions that are stripped from them very early on, usually by beating. More about that when we get to the curse.
Once a child has been embraced by its Dream-Hunter brethren, the distinction between branches of the family tree, however distant, becomes obsolete. All Oneroi consider one another brothers or sisters whether they actually share the same parents or not. They are taught by their siblings how to enter dreams, and the rules of what to do and what is forbidden. They learn how lo fight the Skoti, and how to fight the war of raging emotions inside themselves after a visit with a vivid dreamer so that they don't become the next monster with a price on its head.
Dream-Hunters can be either male or female. Most have black hair and pale blue, almost colorless (and land of glowy) eyes. They feel a bit like static electricity when touched, and transport from one place to another in a golden flash of light.
The Oneroi possess the power to create dreams, and control them. They direct the dream host to reveal his or her deepest desires, or to find solutions to the nagging little problems of the dreamer's everyday life. Without the Oneroi to steer dreams and inspire people, humans (and other such dreamers) would lose their minds.
It takes many years for a Dream-Hunter to master his powers. If the training of an Oneroi fails, and it cannot be beaten into him, then he is executed by order of the leaders of the Dream-Hunters.
It's not that the leaders are evil (they are not), or because they are cold (which they are). It's because they don't want to incur the wrath of the gods... again.
The curse of the Oneroi all started with a joke. Zeus though the Dream-Hunters too powerful and arrogant, and not being known for his tact he said as much. But even gods have to sleep sometime. Gods, like everyone else on the planet, are vulnerable to the Oneroi when they are resting. And since Oneroi can travel carte blanche through the dreamworld, they know a lot of tricks the old gods don't.
The Fates enjoy being tempted, you know. Spices up the long days of eternity for them. And they can be vengeful bitches.
One of these mischievous Oneroi thought Zeus's statement more than a bit hypocritical, so he played a joke on old Thunderbutt (it's said that Hades, Hypnos, and Wink had a hand in this too... but what roles they played exactly has never been made clear). This Dream-Hunter monkeyed with the god's mind and made him lust after a goat.
Which, you have to admit, is pretty darned amusing.
No harm, no foul. At least, that's what the Oneroi thought.
As you have learned by now, gods don't exactly have the best senses of humor. By simply performing that one not-so-innocent act, he Dream-Hunter had cursed himself and his brethren until the end of time.
Zeus—once he regained his composure—ordered his assassins, the Dolophoni, to round up all the Dream-Hunters. A small group was immediately killed outright, including the one who had played the trick. Another group was summarily tortured to a point just before death. Among that group were M'Ordant, M'Adoc, and D'Alerian.
The rest of the Oneroi's torture was a bit more subtle. Any non-Oneroi members of their families were killed. They were cursed to never again have emotions of any kind. Without humor in pride or jealousy, none would be tempted to try the same trick on any other god again. But with those emotions also went fear, hate, ambition, envy, compassion, and love.
Yes, it's all fun and games until someone loses their emotions.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)
Since the inherent nature of the Oneroi had changed after the curse, their duties summarily changed as well. Instead of caus¬ing, creating, and playing in dreams willy-nilly, the Dream-Hunters became siphons.
The empty emotional containers that are the Dream-Hunters' bodies help humans (and others) by absorbing the excess emotions during sleep so that they might feel less stressed and more rested in the morning.
What's it like for them? Arikos once said that being in a dream was "like bathing in Jell-O. It feels kind of thick and at times can be overwhelming. You never know what you're going lo find". A heady and sensual description indeed, but one limited to the external senses. They cannot love or hate or fear or care, hey just are.
The only times the Oneroi can feel anything emotionally are those moments when they are helping in the dreams of humans. All that fear and love and passion are all-too-brief visitors in the cold vessel that is a Dream-Hunter's consciousness, like stolen souls in a Daimon. Emotions are like a drug for them; they crave what they cannot have.
Because of that, the Oneroi are sworn to never participate in the dreams, and to never visit the same human more than once. They are also sworn to never seduce a human during sleep to jump-start these passionate, heady emotions.
It's never easy to resist. Ever. A Dream-Hunter faces these temptations every single night, and every single night he must somehow force himself to resist them. It takes tremendous strength, unbelievable control, and a willpower I'm not sure even I possess.
As long as one of a child's parents is an Oneroi, that child can inherit their powers and duties. They also inherit some residual emotions, emotions that are stripped from them very early on, usually by beating. More about that when we get to the curse.
Once a child has been embraced by its Dream-Hunter brethren, the distinction between branches of the family tree, however distant, becomes obsolete. All Oneroi consider one another brothers or sisters whether they actually share the same parents or not. They are taught by their siblings how to enter dreams, and the rules of what to do and what is forbidden. They learn how lo fight the Skoti, and how to fight the war of raging emotions inside themselves after a visit with a vivid dreamer so that they don't become the next monster with a price on its head.
Dream-Hunters can be either male or female. Most have black hair and pale blue, almost colorless (and land of glowy) eyes. They feel a bit like static electricity when touched, and transport from one place to another in a golden flash of light.
The Oneroi possess the power to create dreams, and control them. They direct the dream host to reveal his or her deepest desires, or to find solutions to the nagging little problems of the dreamer's everyday life. Without the Oneroi to steer dreams and inspire people, humans (and other such dreamers) would lose their minds.
It takes many years for a Dream-Hunter to master his powers. If the training of an Oneroi fails, and it cannot be beaten into him, then he is executed by order of the leaders of the Dream-Hunters.
It's not that the leaders are evil (they are not), or because they are cold (which they are). It's because they don't want to incur the wrath of the gods... again.
The curse of the Oneroi all started with a joke. Zeus though the Dream-Hunters too powerful and arrogant, and not being known for his tact he said as much. But even gods have to sleep sometime. Gods, like everyone else on the planet, are vulnerable to the Oneroi when they are resting. And since Oneroi can travel carte blanche through the dreamworld, they know a lot of tricks the old gods don't.
The Fates enjoy being tempted, you know. Spices up the long days of eternity for them. And they can be vengeful bitches.
One of these mischievous Oneroi thought Zeus's statement more than a bit hypocritical, so he played a joke on old Thunderbutt (it's said that Hades, Hypnos, and Wink had a hand in this too... but what roles they played exactly has never been made clear). This Dream-Hunter monkeyed with the god's mind and made him lust after a goat.
Which, you have to admit, is pretty darned amusing.
No harm, no foul. At least, that's what the Oneroi thought.
As you have learned by now, gods don't exactly have the best senses of humor. By simply performing that one not-so-innocent act, he Dream-Hunter had cursed himself and his brethren until the end of time.
Zeus—once he regained his composure—ordered his assassins, the Dolophoni, to round up all the Dream-Hunters. A small group was immediately killed outright, including the one who had played the trick. Another group was summarily tortured to a point just before death. Among that group were M'Ordant, M'Adoc, and D'Alerian.
The rest of the Oneroi's torture was a bit more subtle. Any non-Oneroi members of their families were killed. They were cursed to never again have emotions of any kind. Without humor in pride or jealousy, none would be tempted to try the same trick on any other god again. But with those emotions also went fear, hate, ambition, envy, compassion, and love.
Yes, it's all fun and games until someone loses their emotions.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)
Since the inherent nature of the Oneroi had changed after the curse, their duties summarily changed as well. Instead of caus¬ing, creating, and playing in dreams willy-nilly, the Dream-Hunters became siphons.
The empty emotional containers that are the Dream-Hunters' bodies help humans (and others) by absorbing the excess emotions during sleep so that they might feel less stressed and more rested in the morning.
What's it like for them? Arikos once said that being in a dream was "like bathing in Jell-O. It feels kind of thick and at times can be overwhelming. You never know what you're going lo find". A heady and sensual description indeed, but one limited to the external senses. They cannot love or hate or fear or care, hey just are.
The only times the Oneroi can feel anything emotionally are those moments when they are helping in the dreams of humans. All that fear and love and passion are all-too-brief visitors in the cold vessel that is a Dream-Hunter's consciousness, like stolen souls in a Daimon. Emotions are like a drug for them; they crave what they cannot have.
Because of that, the Oneroi are sworn to never participate in the dreams, and to never visit the same human more than once. They are also sworn to never seduce a human during sleep to jump-start these passionate, heady emotions.
It's never easy to resist. Ever. A Dream-Hunter faces these temptations every single night, and every single night he must somehow force himself to resist them. It takes tremendous strength, unbelievable control, and a willpower I'm not sure even I possess.