Underlight | City of Dreams

Since the Lowborn and Highborn made their presence known in our City, I have been studying their behavior and attempting to research their origin. Below I will be keeping a detailed account of what I have learned so far, as well as compare their traits to the likes of a Wraith or Divine Being.

What is a Wraith?
Wraiths or Divines are beings like Bashir, the Shadow, and Amaranthine. They exist within and outside of the Dream City. Wraiths are extra-planar beings that gain power in the Dreamscape through the recognition and servitude of dreamers. Wraiths can exist intangibly and can also take avatar form. They are more powerful while in avatar form, but are also vulnerable to imprisonment and Dreamstrike. A great number of them are currently imprisoned in The Palisades under the Barrows.

Are Wraiths evil?
Just like Dreamers, Wraiths all have their own uniquely different personalities. Evil is subjective and highly based on ones perception.

Highborn traits:
1. They can move around at abnormal speeds and travel through shadows and walls.
2. They feed off of Dreamer essences.
3. They offer gifts for servitude (to the Lowborn) or trade (to Dreamers).

Highborns: Rubedo Morvant, Lilith Morvant, Athenodora, and Ascheron
Lowborns: Idjut, Merp, Olga, Jerm, and Argul (and possibly more).

This is an exact quote from Ascheron regarding the transformation of the Hollow:

When your two cities crashed into each other, it was in view above our city. Then as your cities began to reforge into this place, it drew the energy from my city, like sucking the juice from a ripe fruit. Then this city formed, over the ashes of my friends and family, and left us lifeless, and lightless.

However, when Athenodora was asked what the Lightless Hollow was like and was called before we eclipsed over it, she claimed she did not remember it ever being any different.

In Idoaclesia, a history of how Bashir and Amaranthine came to be was discovered in the walls of Edgeward Barrow’s Stronghold. Bashir and Amaranthine, along with a group of others discovered and touched the Heart of the City. They were dreamers just like you and me, before they were granted great powers beyond our imagination.

My theory is that the eclipse we caused not only drained the Hollow and the Lowborn of their energy, but redirected it into the Highborn and turned them into the beings they are now.

Journey to the Lightless

A few months ago, the Lowborn Argul visited Frey, Magnum, and I at the Emergence Academy. I offered him a trade of three dreamer essences for him to show us the Lightless Hollow. He altered a tunnel in the wall to accept us. We first arrived in The Lowborne Pens. He showed us around – each Lowborn had their own cubicle pen with the items they had collected from our City.

Afterward, he took us to The Coffin Hall, where he explained that the Highborn sometimes use to talk to the “Dark Bringers” aka dreamers of our City. The room had four thrones in a layout of a semicircle – which he instructed us not to sit on. Argul reminded us that to use our energy sparingly, because natural regeneration is not possible in the Hollow.

The next room he showed us was the Narthex of Sacrament. Argul’s demeanor immediately shifted to terror, as he shied away from the center of the room. I questioned him on what the room was for and he replied with “It’s where they do things.” When pressed on who “they” were and what they did, he explained that he wasn’t allowed to say names. He wasn’t sure what they did, but he knew it was bad and it hurts him. He said it wasn’t a safe room for the Lowborn, and it was good that “they” weren’t there now. “They” didn’t go high in the Lightless often.

We offered him assistance and he directed us to seek out the “BEST lud”; apparently he knows all the things and doesn’t ever take Argul there. As I understand it, he was referencing Lord Ascheron.

He told us that it wasn’t good to stay there, then took us to The Inky Black. It was a dark hall of tunnels that led to various planes throughout our City. I made a list of each plane, in case this information proves to be useful: Chasm of Souls, Ossuary of Dread, Evernight Plateau, Threshold Caves, and Lower Umbric Plains.

He said they weren’t all of the tunnels, but they were the ones near the surface. He also said they were only used to get to our City, not for us to get to theirs. We would need to move through rock to get to the Lightless.