Nightmares

General Lore & Info

Nightmares are a rare type of phantoms that do not actually leave behind any physical harm upon their victims, but rather psychological terror. A nightmare is a creature manifested from collective belief, reliving, imagining, retelling, etc. of humanoids and even demi-humans across the entirety of the globe, or in other words, beings from the darkest depths of our nightmares come to life. As such it's usually only the typical type of nightmares that manifest, though there have been extra rare cases for unique nightmares to come around. Nonetheless it appears the only goal of these creatures isn't to harm, maim or kill people, but rather scare them, possibly to feed off of them. Thus even if a nightmare phantom chooses it's victim and stays with them for life, while they will likely become paranoid very quickly, they are not actually in any true peril.

Unseen Pursuer

This type of nightmare often manifests in the form of some large and horrifying demi-human, beast, or monstrosity, but there really is no way to prove this. These creatures are never truly seen, only noticed at the edge of one's vision, it's vague outline noticed in the darkest shadows, it's breathing, growling, cries or howls heard but never clearly. This creature is a constant hunter. It is a true master at scaring targets into running away from it, and keeping them on edge and nervous/paranoid even when there is no chase by merely making it's presence known during resting periods or during their sleep.

This horrifying and eternal companion of the chase has been known to accidentally cause deaths by making people either too paranoid and end up hurting themselves, or just assuming that EVERYTHING is their unseen pursuer, resulting in monster attacks more likely to catch them off guard.

Paralysis Demon

This type of nightmare can manifest itself as anything it's victim genuinely finds truly terrifying/horrifying, but interestingly enough doesn't always show itself. At any given point whenever it's target is drowsy, dizzy, confused, or otherwise not in clear mind, they can find their body locks up suddenly. Paralyzed and unable to move, not even their eyes. During an undetermined period of time while paralyzed, they will experience the presence of the Paralysis demon, which does not always sit still. Sometimes it watches motionlessly from a corner. Sometimes it moves in and out of view. Sometimes it gets very close to the victim, even touching them. Other times the victim can hear it moving around and interacting with things behind them, even feel it's breath, but never see it.

While the results of their victims becoming terrified of being paralyzed is always an avoidable goal, they very rarely take place during times of actual danger. For example, it's been noted that the paralysis effects very rarely trigger during times of drowsiness, dizziness and confusion in combat, or when there is an impending ambush waiting for them in camp. Thus the most risk of this effect is lack of sleep, and how that can cause mishaps during moments of actual danger.

Twisted Men

The twisted men are humanoids, sometimes demi-humans, that never look or sound right. Their grins too wide, their eyes or ears too large, they stand too tall and are too slender, their fingers or heads elongated, and so forth. These creatures also tend to exhibit rather creepy and unsettling activities and motions too, almost as if they're trying to mimic humanoid-kind but can't seem to get a grasp of how it's supposed to be. Oftentimes when they move, they do so in ways that the humanoid body just can't do, sometimes resulting in 'popping' noise of bones, or the twisting of flesh. They often appear to victims when alone, vanishing before they are seen by others, and can cause paranoia by moving things around when the victim isn't (or is) looking, even hiding things like keys, often making a jump scare when they least expect it.

These creatures often cause paranoia and distrust with others, or cause others to distrust them if something is misplaced and they blame it on the nightmare. However there really is not much threat from them, just mischief and unease. It is mostly potential jump scares in the middle of battle that can be a danger to the victim.

Invaders

The Invaders are a very unsettling type of nightmare as they've never actually been seen with any given form before. An invader is a creature which can sneak into, or break into the home of the victim no matter what sort of defenses they have put up, and often do so in a way that the victim knows that something is in the house. Many reports say that they've heard sounds of: locks being opened on both doors and windows from the outside, objects moved out of the way, doors creaking open, windows sliding open, the creaking of footsteps, heavy breathing, soft knocks on the door, harsh knocks on the door, objects being moved in the house, even stating that they felt breathing on the back of their neck while lying in bed. Yet every time they turned to look, nothing was there.

The consistency of this is just as inconsistent, making it hard to form a pattern, and thus making it difficult to sleep or be at peace in anywhere you might think is safe, causing a state of paranoia. Especially when, even though nothing was there, the victims have shown that anything unlocked, anything opened, anything moved, has STAYED that way when they awoke the next morning.

The Swarms

This nightmare is a horrific manifestation that does not use indirect methods of terror, but rather is the most physical and direct of any and all of the nightmares. It's form is a hive-mind collective of insects and arachnids, such as fleas, roaches, beetles, spiders, wasps, locust, scorpions, etc. which shift between three stages. The first stage, which never leaves the victim, is merely having three or five of these creatures littered around the room, belongings, or even on their person whey they look that way every hour, which flee just before you can reach or hit them. The second stage is once every 1-10 days where the entire floor, bed, belongings, etc. is covered in them before they scatter. The third stage is when the creatures completely and utterly swarm, and cover the victim, crawling all over them and even giving little nibbles or pokes with their mouths or stingers, leaving visible marks (but no poisons or diseases) when they leave.