Editing Plane of Dreams (section)

==World Axis==
In the [[World Axis]], the Plane of Dreams is mentioned in passing in the [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]] Manual of the Planes, which describes it in brief as an anomalous plane that is the center of all mortal dreaming. The entry reads as follows:

When a creature sleeps, the theory goes, its mind engages in the same sort of work deities performed when the world was new—an act of imaginative creation. Without the raw material of the Elemental Chaos to shape, though, these dreams exist only as thought-stuff, ideas given only the shadow of substance. To those few visitors who find their way to the Plane of Dreams, though, the environment is as real as any other world.

The Plane of Dreams (sometimes just called Dream) is a vast repository where dreams go when they are dreamt, a realm formed by millions of creative minds over the past ages of the world. The outer  edges of the plane are where the newest dreams take shape, and the plane’s deepest heart holds the dreams of ancient beings. Some claim that visitors to the outer edges of the plane can influence the dreams of creatures who are sleeping at that moment.

The exact nature of the plane is a matter of some debate. Some claim that it’s a demiplane, standing outside the fabric of the cosmos and yet somehow connected to it all. Others argue that it’s an astral dominion, long abandoned by whatever ancient deity created it—and it seems true that most travelers who stumble into Dream reach it through the Astral Sea.

Because it is formed of dreams, much of the Plane of Dreams seems familiar and normal to visitors. Its natural laws display the whimsy of the sleeping mind, though, and both landscapes and creatures can change suddenly from one thing to another. Disparate terrain features lie in a jumble together, and a house might suddenly become an open desert—or a completely different house—without warning or reason.

Nightmare is a constant undercurrent in the Plane of Dreams. As often as not, a sudden transformation in the plane is a turn for the worse—a gentle rain turns to searing acid, an innocent child becomes a vampire or a tentacled monster. Events and creatures in Dream often induce fear out of proportion to their actual threat, imposing powers or effects with the fear keyword on visitors. Powers might also work in unexpected ways, and affinities for different power keywords might manifest randomly and change frequently in Dream.

Most creatures in the Plane of Dreams are formed from dreams, just like the terrain and environment are. However, many visitors are drawn to the plane because of the knowledge contained in its echoes of dreams. Servants of [[Vecna]] comb the plane for secrets, and spies from the information-brokers of [[Sigil]] sift through the most recent dreamscapes for information useful to their employers. Minions of [[Orcus]] search the ruins of ancient dreams for a hint of [[the Raven Queen]]’s long-forgotten name, and the [[githyanki]] particularly enjoy preying on visitors to the plane. Adventurers might seek a portal to Dream either to aid or to hinder such individuals.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Planes]]