Dreams and Nightmares

The Emerald Dream is under attack once again, corrupted by the nightmare. Where does this nightmare come from, and why is led by a demon?

The dream has always existed as part of Azeroth, it is the nascent titan’s way of connecting to the creatures living on her surface. The dream responded to the early life and the elementals that called primordial Azeroth home. All was fine until the old gods came.

The old gods are minions of the void, travelling through the great dark to find living worlds. Their main aim is to find a growing titan to corrupt and consume, but the great dark is vast and the void doesn’t know where the life is. The majority of old ones never even find a world: they simply hurtle through the dark until they hit something.

Four of these beings managed to find Azeroth and set about fulfilling their purpose. As the gods embedded themselves in the world they began to sink their tendrils down into the world, to reach the world soul inside and corrupt her body. By the time the pantheon of the titans discovered Azeroth, the parasites were too deeply entwined with the world soul to safely remove them. The death of one old god, Y’Shaarj caused a terrible wound in the infant and the makers dared not risk another.

When the titans set about ordering and shaping Azeroth, they made use of her dream to establish the emerald dream. This was both a blueprint of the natural world as they made it and a firm link between the titan and her people. The experiences and lives of the mortals and eternals on her surface will help shape the titan she will become.

The dream would be guarded and used to protect life on Azeroth by the wild gods. These gods in animal forms, such as the stag Malorne and his son Cenarius, were connected eternally to the dream. This means that while their physical forms can be destroyed, their spirits live on in the dream and can reawaken in time. The green dragon aspect Ysera was made queen of the dream.

This went well for millennia; even the first invasion of the burning legion didn’t have an effect on the dream. Even though the sundering as the well of eternity exploded changed the waking world, the dream was able to stay connected to what was left. This means the dream is a lot bigger than the land masses that exist today.

Sometime after this, the arch druid Fandral Staghelm decided the world needed more world trees to help spread the druidy goodness around the world. Deposits of a corrupting material called saronite were appearing in northrend, and he was convinced the life giving powers of nature could counter this deathly threat. The new world tree Vordrassil’s roots went deep into the earth, and straight into the source of saronite: Yogg-saron’s prison.

The tree gave the old god a direct link to his ultimate target, the young titan. He slowly set about creating a nightmare in the dream, this constantly moving corruption consumed the life energies of the dream wherever it went. The druids later cut down vordrassil, but it was too late.

The nightmare is currently being led and controlled by the Satyr Xavius, while he was originally a minion of the burning legion, he had been discarded. Much like the naga who serve N’zoth, Xavius and his satyr’s were hired by yogg-saron to do his dirty work in the dream.

After many long wars with the wild gods and their druid allies, the satyrs have finally hit on a surefire way to corrupt them all; the dream’s going to need outside help this time.

#LorewalkerMo