Family of Silent Nights

Brother or Sister

Dancers in the Dusk pps.145-148
Preqs	Wyrd ●●●● Contract of Dreams ●● Empathy ●●
This box: view · talk

When freeholds struggle against the Fae, they often focus on the physical threats they face. Gateways to the Hedge are warded, Hollows are barricaded, and changelings set in, expecting a siege. But the first path that the Gentry often tread in their assaults are within the very minds of changelings and mortals, spreading nightmares and horrors, pulling out their memories and twisting their thoughts until nothing but confusion remains. Dreams are overlooked by many, and mortals fail to even recognize a threat from the mind, but if you can’t trust even your dreams, all that remains is madness.

The Family claims to recognize this threat, and to move forever to fight it. They are an ancient order, known throughout history by a hundred names. Everywhere they travel, they are known in legends as guardians against nightmares and protectors of sleep, but this is only part of the story. The Family holds the terrifying power to trap dreams, only to release them later against their enemies.

Mien

The Family prefer to create an aura of mystery about themselves, the better to reinforce their natures. They tend towards several layers of clothing, designed to suggest the form rather than to reveal it. Even in the depths of summer, many of them will wear coats or heavy shawls, along with dark hats or hoods. Their ensemble is often coordinated to be just slightly off-setting — colors that almost match but are just a hair off, sleeves that are a quarter-inch longer on the left than on the right, or shoes that have slightly different patterns in their heels. The net effect is a collection of tricks of the eye that many can’t quite place, leaving people faintly uncomfortable without really understanding why.

The one sign that always tells of the Family, however, is the eyes. The eyes of those who would hold dreams are dark and shadowed, even in the brightest lights, as though the changeling were wearing a dark hood. Faint sparkles of light in a dozen colors can sometimes be seen, and as the Family member’s Wyrd rating increases, these sparkles come and go more quickly, and in shades that never exist outside of the strange mindscapes that the Family frequents.

Dream-Prison (Privilege)

Joining the Family gives access to a single trick, but it is one that many oneiromancers would give their souls to possess. The Family has the ability to craft empty vessels with Dreamweaving, creating a void that they can lurk inside. In doing so, they can trap dreams or even, with sufficient luck and effort, dream-creatures.

Dream-Prison: Crafting a dream-prison uses the normal rules for Dreamweaving, with the exception that the character does not craft a dream, but a hole into which a dream can fall. When crafting a dream-prison, a changeling specifies what sort of dream she wishes to trap: this could be as vague as “any nightmare,” or as specific as “any dream infested by an Incubus with a Wyrd rating of 3.”