The Planes: Plane of Dreams
What is the Plane of Dreams?
Manual of the Planes, 2001 WotC
The Plane of Dreams, also known just as Dream, is a plane unlike any other. It is visited every night by the denizens of the planes, their mind creating a Portal of Sleep as they fall asleep, and entering into this plane. Dream is a plane of existence, but what resides within is anything but existence. It is a plane of imagination and figments, of strange monsters, strange realities, and worlds conjured by those who sleep.
This strange plane exists within the Ethereal Plane, but it isn’t a place one can simply travel to. Entering Dream is done when one falls asleep, and is extraordinarily difficult to do it while you are awake. Some have trained for years to become Dreamwalkers, others find themselves plummeted into its chaotic depths from a freak dream storm on the Astral Plane.
History
Scant little is known about this mysterious plane, though some of its secrets are first revealed in The Nightmare Lands (1995) and later in A Guide to the Ethereal Plane (1998). While the 3e Manual of the Planes (2001) and the 4e Manual of the Planes (2008) provide a look at Dream, they don’t add on much compared to the previous books.
In 2nd edition, Dream takes place on the Ethereal Plane inside of the color curtains that separate the Border Ethereal and the Deep Ethereal. In 3rd and 4th edition, Dream is a plane unto itself and can be anywhere in the multiverse, or exist solely inside the head of someone sleeping.
An Outsider’s Perspective
A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, 1998 WotC
The Plane of Dreams is a place for dreams, for those chaotic moments where everything makes sense, even when all rules of reality are destroyed. Every time a creature goes to sleep, its mind enters into the Ethereal Plane and heads for the shimmering color curtain that divides the Border Ethereal and the Deep Ethereal. Entering this curtain, they enter into the Plane of Dream where they reflect on the events of their day and experience a strange reality of imagination. Sometimes these dreams can be prophetic, other times a power might enter a dream to deliver a message, but the majority of the time, dreams come and then they go.
For outsiders, most dreams are forgotten as soon as they wake up. For every 10 minutes that pass in Dream, only a single moment passes on the Material Plane. This means lifetimes are spent within Dream, separated into small chunks, but only faint memories and jumbled thoughts are all that remains.
Visitors to the dreamscapes of dreamers will often encounter normal-seeming scenes. It could be someone is dreaming of a childhood home, and so to the casual observer, they could be on the Material Plane at a small farm. There are discrepancies, the gravity might be slightly off, the edges of the world may feel faded or drab, and the inhabitant may appear as a past version of themselves or a more idealized version. Most outsiders who stumble into a dream are soon ejected out of the dream, either because the inhabitant threw them out when they began a new dream or because of the mysterious workings of the plane. Some, who are known as dreamwalkers, have mastered the art of flitting from one dream to the next, but for everyone else, it’s just luck when you are tossed out of a dream and where you will end up. Some may end up on the Material Plane near whoever was dreaming, or they might get tossed into the darkest corners of the Deep Ethereal and must spend months to make their way back.
A Native’s Perspective
Every creature that dreams is, at one point or another, an inhabitant of this plane. When a creature is actively dreaming, they are an inhabitant and dictate the rules that affect their dreamscapes. When they go to sleep, their mind becomes like the gods, creating acts of imagination. They create and destroy, though, unlike the gods, the stuff they make is from the dream-stuff that makes up Dream, which continually breaks down after being formed.
Dreamers can be anything that dreams, from a bear hibernating through winter to a halfling napping on their warm hill. Every time a creature dreams, they enter the Dream and begin creating their dreamscapes. Dreamscapes often cluster in groups of similar creatures, like a kobold’s dreamscape will drift into a cluster of other kobolds or dragons, and a beholder’s dreamscape may rub against other beholder-kin dreamscapes. When a dreamwalker flits from dreamscape to dreamscape, they often only do so within these clusters, making it so that they move from gnome to gnome easily, but it is more difficult to move from gnome to squirrel.
Dreamscapes are exactly as the inhabitant dreams them to be, which is what makes dreaming so appealing.
Atmosphere
Dreamers are responsible for every aspect of the dream they are in, they dictate gravity, the environment, and more. Whatever they dream about it, it is usually located in a familiar space to them, following the same rules as the Material World that they are sleeping on. Some dreamscapes may act strangely, sometimes this is because a dream has turned dark, falling out of control by the subconscious of whoever is dreaming, or it could change by those who can lucid dream.
Traits
Travel to the Plane
Dream might be one of the easiest planes to travel to unconsciously, but one of the hardest to travel to consciously. Everyone who dreams travels to this plane by opening a Portal of Sleep with their mind. Once they arrive here, they then create their dreamscape out of the dream-stuff that forms the Plane of Dreams. There are other ways of reaching Dream, like traveling into the Ethereal Plane or casting certain spells like dream.
There are other ways, and some Dreamwalkers have been able to open a Portal of Sleep while they are awake, or in a trance-like state, where they can enter other people’s dreams. In addition, there are also rare physical portals into Dream that one can use, but due to dreamers waking up and new dreamers being added to the plane, there is no guarantee on whose dream you will be intruding on.
Traversing the Plane
Most dreamers within the plane never travel from the dreamscape they formed from the dream-stuff, content to spend hours and hours within their dreams before waking up with only faint memories of what they did in their dreams. Lucid dreamers can more reliably control their dreams, but it doesn’t give them any power over other dreams or the ability to enter other dreamscapes. Dreamwalkers, on the other hand, don’t have power over dreams without fighting the dreamer, but have a sense of how to enter a dreamscape and leave it at the thin edges and move into another dreamscape.
Outsiders to a dream may be surprised by how small a dreamscape is, most only the size of a small house. The only thing that is ‘real’ in the dream is whatever the dreamer is currently dreaming of, and they don’t bother to fill in the rest of the details in their dream. This could be a piece of memory that the dreamer is replaying over and over, and trying to deviate from this memory will be fruitless as there is nothing of substance in the dream to interact with or talk to.
For more information on traveling this plane, check out Exploring the Dream.
Nightmares
One danger that dreamers must be careful of is invaders who are looking to harm the dream. This is often thanks to a powerful spell, but night hags can also affect and morph dreams, turning them into cruel nightmares. Even when a dreamer is not being targeted by magic or monsters, their dream might still turn into a nightmare. There is a constant undercurrent of nightmares within the plane, though no one is entirely sure how it first manifested or how it continues to survive.
Manual of the Planes, 2008 WotC
There are a few ideas of where nightmares come from, with some thinking they originate from the original inhabitants of the plane who survive off of the emotions of dreamers. Who those inhabitants are is anyone’s guess. Others think that nightmares are created by dark gods who enjoy the suffering of others, and since ten minutes in a dream is a minute in real life, those who suffer from nightmares suffer for a lot longer than they would if they were awake.
Locations
There are very few concrete locations within Dream, largely because dreamers come and go as they slumber and wake. Some dreams have become constants, well worn by whoever has dreamed of them that they remain for days, weeks, or months before they dissipate. Other dreams may last lifetimes, or in some rare cases, the dreamer is stuck forever in the dream, only able to leave if their physical body is destroyed.
These dreamscapes cluster together, and at the very center of Dream is the Dreamheart, a place of untold dangers.
Anavaree
This permanent dreamscape is formed from the mind of Ana. She has created an idyllic playground with a golden sun, lakes, a small forest, and more within this large dreamscape. Monkies hide in the trees, playing games of catch with the strange fruit from the trees, and mermaids sing and relax along the lakeshore. In the center of this dream is a large hill with a massive bronze dragon circled around it, sleeping happily in the warm sun. On top of the hill are Ana and her monkey friends, playing on a small playground and making up games as years pass outside this dream.
Ana is protected by the dragon, who she has named “Grumpy” and any who try to wake her up or threaten her are immediately targeted by the dragon who protects the little girl at all costs. Because this is a dreamscape, those who do ‘die’ to Grumpy simply wake up in their physical bodies.
The reason that this dreamscape has been here for so long is that because Ana's physical body is trapped in stasis on the face of a red, dead world. There was a colonization attempt on the world, but something happened and the colonization ship was destroyed upon trying to enter the world and only her pod was able to escape unharmed. Ana, as an adult, suffered severe mental trauma from being the only survivor in the wreckage and now possesses the mind of a young girl playing within the dreamscape. Ana, the girl in the dream, does not know what she has gone through and will live out her dreams until her stasis pod eventually turns off hundreds of years from now unless something happens to change her situation. Any who tries to talk to Ana in the dream about her past experiences soon finds Grumpy waking up.
A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, 1998 WotC
Dreamscapes
These are the dreams of dreamers, forming into small pockets of matter within Dream, clustering together of like-minded individuals. Where they are thinnest, a dreamwalker can move from one dream to the next, interacting with the dreamers and searching for secrets or knowledge. Most dreamwalkers are quite apt at finding these weak spots, allowing them to travel from dream to dream with just a few steps and a thought.
Dreamscapes are often quite small, though some can be quite expansive depending on how powerful the dreamer is. Those who can actively manipulate their dreams, lucid dreamers, can create more permanent realities and their dreamscapes may linger for hours or days after they wake up, allowing them to return to it in a future dream. These lingering dreamscapes could hide important information or secrets that the dreamer doesn’t realize they have left behind or allowed to develop in their dream.
The Dreamheart
At the center of the clusters of dreamscapes is the Dreamheart, it is the very center of Dream and is as dangerous as it is strange. It is a physical location with the Dream that is far harder to wake up from, and if a dreamer and their dreamscape somehow breach into this heart, they could become permanently stuck here until their physical body withers away and they die. If someone dies within the Dreamheart, their physical body dies as well, making it quite dangerous compared to the dreams that cluster around it.
Errant dreams, nightmares given life, and more appear in the Dreamheart creating the Dreamheart Tempest. Sparks of electricity, sudden flare-ups, and more are the natural dangers of this realm, making it risky to venture too deep within it. Most dreamwalkers will avoid this location within the Dream, for once they enter it, true danger could be unseen in the vast clouds of roiling matter that make up the Dreamheart Tempest. This storm is never-ending and constantly being added to by dreamscapes that have portions of their dream-matter drift into it. At the very center of this tempest is the eye of the storm where it is calm, much like a tornado or other storm.
This calm spot, known as the Eye of the Dreamheart Tempest, is a place of inconsistencies. Everyone who visits it claims to have seen something different, some claim they meet deities, others found long-dead loved ones, while others claim to have found knowledge that they had been searching for for years. No one is quite sure what the Eye is exactly, who resides there, but those who can brave the dangers of the Tempest may find what they searching for at the center. Of course, they then have to make it out alive with their new knowledge.
Factions & People
Dreamers make up the bulk of the population of Dream, with figments of their imagination forming and deforming as they dream. Those who reside here permanently are often creatures who have been given life from a strong dream, granting them a type of sentience and mortality that keeps them linked to the dreamscapes. Their forms are often strange and otherworldly, and what they desire is completely dependent on the dream that birthed them.
Other creatures who prowl the Dream may be nightmares who were so terrifying that they became reality, that a dreamer found whatever they were to be so real that they became real. They hunt and prowl through dreamscapes, turning pleasant views into horrific nightmares where they feed off of dreams. Some creatures who hunt these dreamscapes may decide they prefer a single creature’s fears to anything else and will stick to those dreamscapes, haunting them night after night until the creature dies of exhaustion or a dreamwalker comes to destroy or banish them.
Dreamwalker
Dreamwalkers are those rare few who have spent their life studying dreams and learning how to summon a Portal of Sleep so that they can visit the Dream. They flit from dream to dream, interacting with the dreamers and spending time trying to understand the Tempest or what exactly the Dream is.
Sometimes dreamwalkers are called on when a creature is suffering from constant nightmares, they descend upon the dreamscape and attempt to morph and change it. To create a pleasant dream for the dreamer, trying to banish whatever foul creature is trying to corrupt the dream. This might end up with them slaying a night hag on the Ethereal Plane, or dissolving a creature of nightmares that was birthed within the Dream.
Monster Manual, 2008 WotC
Other dreamwalkers are not nearly as kind, but rather are the agents of evil beings. Vecna is especially known for sending in his followers to seek secrets hidden with dreams, or to interrogate dreamers as they dream, confident that they won’t remember these interrogations when they wake up. Orcus is another who scours these dreams, searching for the hidden name of the Raven Queen and trying to secure the Shadowfell from her. Other foul creatures scour these dreams, hoping to find any information they can to sell to interested parties, some acting wholly mercenary and others being sent by their masters seeking specific information.
Gk’lok
These odd creatures are thought to have been formed by a ruptured dreamscape and have the vague form of humanoid. Their arms, legs, and torse appear as thin strips of metal, similar to a stick man drawing, though the ends of their arms and legs curl into strange patterns. Their neck splits into two, ending in two massive, glowing eyeballs with a red flame halo around it. Tribes of gk’lok-lok hunt through the dreamscapes, and sometimes into the Ethereal Plane itself. They form off of a great green crystal tree with the tree known as the gk’lok-lok. No one is entirely sure what the gk’lok do, but it seems as if they like to collect lost souls, study them, and then release them so that they can find their way to their final resting spot. The gk’lok are strange creatures who rarely cause any problems, but if they or their tree is threatened, they will defend it by shooting out metallic slivers from their arms or ignite creatures with their burning eyes.
Encounters
Dream Storm - While dreaming that night, all in the party were given the same dream and found themselves in the same dreamscape. They might be approached by a mysterious individual asking them for help, or by the gods themselves who are sending them instructions to find hidden artifacts scattered across the world.
Eye Spy - At the center of the Dreamheart is the Eye of the Tempest, and maybe the secrets of the multiverse can finally be unlocked. A dreamwalker is looking for a team to help them make it to the center, past the monsters that prowl through the Dreamheart.
Nightly Haunts - A night hag has taken an interest in a creature’s dreams, twisting them into nightmares as the individual slowly fades from this world.
Secret Hunt - Every night, the dreams of a creature are invaded by outside forces. They only remember pain and torture, being asked over and over for information they have been sworn to secrecy on. They are looking for adventurers to walk into their dream and protect them from whoever is attacking them.
Resources & Further Reading
A Guide to the Ethereal Plane (2nd edition)
For more information at the Plane of Dreams that reside within the color curtains of the Ethereal Plane.
The Nightmare Lands (2nd edition)
For an intense look into the Nightmare Lands of the Plane of Dreams and how they interact with the Domains of Dread that reside in the Ethereal Plane.
Manual of the Planes (3rd edition)
For more information on Dream.
Dragon #247 (3rd edition)
For different ways of creating a Plane of Dreams to best fit your cosmology.
Manual of the Planes (4th edition)
For brief information on Dream and creatures who hunt it for secrets.
The Planes: Ethereal Plane
For more information on the Ethereal Plane.
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