Equestrian Dreamscape History Write-Up

Mostly for the benefit of my guildies who are interested in reading this, I'm posting it here so that it doesn't bury the Discord chat.

"Like all great stories, this one starts at the beginning. The very beginning, before the Princesses, before Discord, before the founding of Equestria or the Windigos or the Three Tribes. This story begins at the dawn of time. Way back then, there was only one being, a single god known as Eternus. Eternus created the cosmos, and filled it with stars and planets and all kinds of things. And he liked what he had done, but he found that he was lonely with nopony to share it. So Eternus created three children, one son, and two daughters. Eternus' son was named Solaris, the Firstborn, the god of Order and Light, Bestower of Wisdom and Law. Eternus' first daughter was named Lillia, the Secondborn, goddess of Life and Nature, She Who Gave Life to the World. Eternus' second daughter was named Lumaria, the Thirdborn, goddess of Dreams, Bestower of Creativity and Imagination. Eternus' children explored the cosmos their father had created, and eventually found a little world. Lillia arrived their first, and began to fill that world with life. Solaris came next, and bestowed upon some of Lillia's creations the blessings of Wisdom and Law. Finally, Lumaria arrived, and gave those creations the blessings of Creativity and Imagination. That world, the only one to receive their gifts, is our world. Solaris and Lillia lived among their creations then, guiding them as they saw fit, while Eternus watched over them from above. Lumaria, however, was different. As the Goddess of Dreams, she was overcome with wanderlust, and craved to see more of the world her family had created. This was when she discovered the Slumbering Realm.

You should know this already, but as a reminder, the Waking Realm is the physical realm, where things are real, and obey natural laws. The Slumbering Realm is the immaterial place which ponies' minds touch when they sleep. As a general rule, ponies cannot affect the Slumbering Realm, except for Princess Luna, and us. We have Lumaria to thank for that.

Eternus, Solaris, and Lillia were all of the Waking Realm, but Lumaria was different. Being the Goddess of Dreams, she was intimately connected to the Slumbering Realm, and it was this connection that drew her to that place. When she gave her gifts to the world, she inadvertently linked ponies, gryphons, dragons, all sapient species to the Slumbering Realm. She herself was able to slip between the Slumbering and Waking Realms at will, and delighted in exploring the Slumbering Realm. She first explored the Dreamtide, the outermost edge of the Slumbering Realm. Here, ponies' dreams can be seen, each in their own shell. Lumaria sometimes watched from a distance, observing the symphony of dreams playing out each night, and other times she touched individual dreams, granting peace during nightmares, or turning boring dreams into exciting adventures. Occasionally, she would even link several ponies' dreams together. This was how she interacted with her children, for a time. Sometimes she would not interact with her children, but would instead follow the waves of thoughts, emotions, and ideas into the Astral, where only she can go. She would watch them crash against one another, change into new forms, and eventually dissipate. On one of these journeys, she discovered the Dreamscape, the very heart of the Slumbering Realm. Lumaria explored the Dreamscape, and she found it marvelous. Wondrous landscapes, impossible vistas, something that could only exist in a realm of dreams. However, the Dreamscape was not perfect. As Lumaria explored, she found areas that had been darkened, corrupted and blighted ground, plants and animals withered and twisted. She tracked this corruption to its source, and found the first Nightmare. Disgusted by what she had seen, she smote the creature and healed the corruption, before continuing her explorations. But soon she discovered more corruption, more blight, more Nightmares. She smote them where she could, purified and healed the land, but it was not enough. Though she was a goddess, she was still only one, and the Nightmares were many. She realized she would need help. She reached out to her family, but they could do nothing for her. They were bound to the Waking Realm, and could not affect the Slumbering Realm. Lumaria then turned to her children, those she had blessed with her gifts.

Lumaria prepared the Dreamscape as best she could. As Nightmares ravaged it, she found the very center. There, she built a great walled city, the very city where we now sit, and in the center, a tall watchtower. Above all of this, she built a floating garden, showcasing the wonders of the Dreamscape. Then, she sent out the call. Her plea for help, the enchanting song echoed through the Astral and into the Dreamtide. It touched the dreams of ponies, and some responded. They answered the call, and followed the song. It protected them as they traveled through the Astral, until they found themselves in the floating garden. Lumaria greeted them there, and showed them the wonders of the Dreamscape. She offered it all to them, said they would be scions to its throne, rulers of that place, if they agreed to protect it. "Protect it from what?" They asked in turn. Lumaria showed them the devastation that the Nightmares had wrought, before showing them a Nightmare. Many backed down, overcome with fear of the monstrosity before them. Some stepped forward to face the beast. Those ponies who stepped up found themselves unable to harm the creature, however, as nothing they did seemed to have any effect. Lumaria showed them how to fight the creatures, but discovered, to her dismay, that those ponies she had gathered to her side were, one and all, unable to learn her mystic arts. All, that is, save one. A unicorn foal, still without her cutie mark, had heard Lumaria's call, and stepped forward. She focused her magic, still wild, untamed, and full of potential, and was able to use Lumaria's arts. She smote the Nightmare, merely a figment produced by Lumaria for this purpose, and earned her mark in doing so. Lumaria understood, then, and refined her song. Soon, more foals, unicorns one and all, flanks all blank, began to arrive. Lumaria and her First taught them, and helped them to Awaken. They were the first Watchers, the founders of our order, under the guidance and tutellage of Lumaria herself.

The Night Watch was founded then. The Watchers helped Lumaria to smite Nightmares wherever she found them. However, they discovered that ponies, even Awakened ponies, are not strong enough to purify Nightmares on their own. To counteract this, the Watchers were organized into teams of three ponies. These teams were difficult at first, however. Nightmares would lash out at one during the purification process, and it would fail. Lumaria blessed the teams with the Link, which allowed them to act as one and share the strain of a Nightmare's attacks while purifying it.

Time went on, and more ponies joined the Night Watch. As the founding members grew, they took over the duties of tutoring and training the new recruits, becoming the first Guardians and eventually creating the Guardian Council. Time passed, as it does, and the the original Watchers began to grow old. Lumaria, saddened to see her friends go, offered them a choice. They could shed their mortal bodies, moving mind and soul to the Dreamscape. They would be immortal there, but it would cost them their afterlives. The First and some others agreed; the rest did not. Those who agreed put their mortal affairs in order, said farewell to their families, and then slept. Lumaria guided them through the ritual that would sever their minds from their bodies, drawing their souls to the Dreamscape, and remaking them into the first Archetypals, embodiments of concepts that each held dear in life. The Guardian Council, concerned about losing the accumulated knowledge of the older Watchers, created the tower archive. Each Watcher was linked to a book, and all their knowledge of the Dreamscape, the Mystic Arts, the Nightmares, etc. was recorded there. Things seemed to be good, but it was not to last.

While Solaris, Lillia, and Lumaria watched over their children and the world they had made, Eternus fell into slumber. Solaris and Lillia checked on their father's physical form, while Lumaria watched over his dreams. For a time, all was well. Eventually, however, Eternus' dreams became clouded with fear. The dreams of a god are powerful things, and they echoed through the Astral. Solaris, Lillia, and Lumaria tried to wake their father, to save him from these dreams, but they could not. Eventually, a new entity arose from Eternus troubled dreams. Eclipse, the Lastborn, Son of the Father, God of Darkness and Fear. Eclipse walked among his siblings, and they knew he was different from them. Where they held love for their father and the world they had made, Eclipse knew only hatred. Eclipse fed upon his father's terror-filled dreams, draining strength from the dwindling god, until he was strong enough to slay his father and absorb his power completely. Eclipse was changed, and became known only as the Aberration.

With the rise of the Aberration came new horrors. The Nightmares that manifested in the Dreamscape began to manifest tear their way free of the Slumbering Realm, entering the Waking Realm to spread madness, fear, and death. The Aberration corruped living beings, creating his own twisted children, the Darken, by infusing them with Nightmare energies. A cult arose, insane ponies who pledged themselves to the Aberration in return for power.

From this, came war. Lumaria, Lillia, and Solaris raised armies, each in their own way, to fight against the forces of the Aberration. The battles were vicious, neither side seeming able to gain ground. Solaris, Lillia, and Lumaria clashed again and again with the Aberration, but he was too powerful for even their combined might. Eventually, Lumaria hatched a desperate plan. Though the Aberration had been born in the Slumbering Realm, he was not attuned to it as she was. Only she was safe from the Astral's effects; anyone or anything else that tried to cross the Astral would find their very sense of self assaulted and eventually eroded by the endless stream of thoughts, feelings, ideas, and memories that were carried upon the waves of the Astral, while those same waves carried away any bits of self that became loose. Lumaria knew that she could use this.

Lumaria's plan was simple, if dangerous: she would lead the Aberration into the Astral, and then trap it there. The Aberration ultimately sought the destruction of all things, including herself and her siblings. Lumaria prepared her trap as best she could, and then challenged the Aberration. Smiting his most powerful Elder Darken, Lumaria gained his ire. She fled through a shrinking portal into the Slumbering Realm; the Aberration gave chase. Blinded with rage, he did not realize her trap until it was too late. Lumaria lured the Aberration far from the now-closed portal, until they were lost deep within the Astral. There, she turned to imprison him, only to find herself under attack. The Aberration sought to destroy and consume her, as well, thereby gaining her affinity for the Slumbering Realm. Lumaria knew she could not allow this; she sacrificed herself, using all of her power to imprison the Aberration within a deep sleep from which it would, hopefully, never awaken. Lumaria herself, however, was destroyed by her own actions. All that remains of her now is a but a mere wisp, unknowing of its true nature, which lives in the floating garden above the walled city in the Dreamscape, and sings Lumaria's song to draw young ponies to the Dreamscape.

With the Aberration sealed, it was easy for the remaining forces of Solaris and Lillia to end the war. The world was saved, but at great cost. Solaris decreed that the war must ultimately be forgotten, that the Aberration and its deeds must not be recorded. Records were altered, mentions of the Aberration, Darken, and the cult expunged. Even the tower archive in the Dreamscape was altered. The Archetypals, lost without their friend, withdrew from the Dreamscape, and were eventually forgotten. Without Lumaria, no new Archetypals could be made, and so all those who remembered them, and the war, eventually died off, their sanitized record books all that remain. Solaris and Lillia withdrew from the world as well, and a new age dawned.

In the modern day, some remnants from the war still remain. The Night Watch continue to guard the Dreamscape, while Darken that occasionally pop up are dealt with by the Saber Clan, descendants of a group of earth ponies whom Lumaria blessed during the war. The Solar Knights, a group of immortal ponies working directly for Princess Celestia, investigate reports of the Cult of the Nightmare, as well as other threats to the throne. The Cult of the Nightmare has retained some knowledge of the Aberration, including the process to create Darken. They are led by Solar Eclipse, an incredibly powerful unicorn wielding light-based magic."

So yeah, that's the basic history. I've got more information available on the various factions; just ask. Any information I don't have I can get.