The Dreamkin

The dreamkin are capable of reproducing in two ways: sexually and through dreams. Within one subspecies, individuals can reproduce sexually (the dreamtouched lost the capability to interbreed with any race that full and hybrid humans possess) and between subspecies individuals can reproduce using a shared dream. When this happens, the result is the dreamborn, who exist halfway between the material plane and the dream realm.

While the dreamtouched share a lifespan with humans, the dreamers live for about 2 centuries. The lifespan of a dreamborn is unknown, as none have ever been seen to die of natural causes.

Long ago, as Ohn's Bane ravaged the human population, a miracle happened in the Silent Mountains region of the Empire of Man. As humans suffered from the delusions brought about by the disease, they also began to have very vivid dreams, dreams which felt too real to be delusions or hallucinations. These visions showed them ruins filled with slumbering humanoids of a species none could recognize. Eventually, imperial mages were able to trace these visions to a source deep within the mountains. Recruiting the aid of local dwarven clans, an excavation project started, with many believing this would be their salvation to cure the Blight and save the empire. As the excavation wore on, the visions within dreams grew stronger, and some of the infected were brought nearer to the excavation site to help guide the miners. Eventually, it seemed as though these people were consumed by the visions, becoming like voices for some greater power speaking through them. The excavations ended with the discovery of a "vault" full of a strange, previously unseen race of people. When the excavation team first arrived, they thought these people were dead, only to discover that they were actually in a deep sleep. These 'Dreamers', as they would come to be called, woke up from their slumber (see The Waking Nightmare) and as they did many of the humans in the region became closely tied to the realm of Orasil, God of Dreams. Those on the brink of death vanished, disappearing into the realm, while others who were more healthy became hosts for the servants of Orasil, known as Quori, or dream spirits.   These humans became immune to Ohn's Bane and as such came to call themselves the Dreamtouched, considering themselves a new race despite the lack of an Ancestor god's appearance. Working alongside the Dreamers, the Dreamtouched took up the goals of Orasil and started working to rid the world of nightmare spirits. Over time, the people in the region known as Lagrast turned into a theocracy, following the tenets of Orasil and seeking to rid the world of anything spawned by the nightmare spirits. Those taken to the realm of dreams also began to return, though they were rarely the same. Often referred to as the Disembodied, these people struggle to maintain a hold on either the material plane or Orasil's realm.