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Welcome Back: A Guide for Returning Dreamers

Lore, history and other content by the citizens of Underlight preserved for posterity.
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Arnaya
Dreamer
Posts: 831
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2015 2:25 am
Character Name(s): Arnaya

Welcome Back: A Guide for Returning Dreamers

Post by Arnaya »

The Beacon:
The catastrophe that struck your city, wiped it out. Casting you from the dream and leaving you adrift though the chaos when you could find your way to the dreamscape at all. Finally... a beacon has reached your awareness when you sleep one night. Familiar, but different... following its call, you find yourself once more in a place oh so well known. The Courtyard of the Awakening rises around you, sheltering your dreaming mind once more. Your Home...

...Or are you?

Welcome to the city that rose from the Ashes. Built again by those of several cities, sister cities, from the bones of those same cities. It looks like home... mostly.... but it doesn't feel like home anymore. So many faces, long missed, are still absent. The strongholds and beliefs that you once cherished and defended... have either vanished, or become something that you only vaguely recognize. It's your home... but its not your home. How is it that you still feel so adrift, despite finding what was so large of a part of your life before?

The Challenges:
The single biggest challenge that most returning dreamers have, is that things look SO familiar... but Feel so foreign. People you don't know and have never heard of before are standing there, higher in sphere, wearing a crest that to you means "x"... but saying words and behaving in ways that are nearly blasphemous to hear coming from one bearing that crest.

The talisman are generally the same, but even they have changed a little... and your having to relearn what to you, were the fundamental basics. It's like being a newly again... but you arn't one. The arts that you relied on for years, are also different. New ones are available... which is great, but the old ones don't always work quite like they should.

It feels much like your trying on a pair of shoes that once fit perfectly, but now pinch at the heels and crimp your toes. Nothing is quite as it should be.

The Answers:
Time has moved on, without you. What you once were, and the city you once knew, are gone. This is both a sorrow, and an opportunity. Though some memory will likely remain of you... some faces you knew will still here... you are Reborn. No longer are you bound by only what you were... but instead have the opportunity to completely redefine yourself.

Who you are... what you stand for...who you stand beside... and what you strive for. All are again new, to be recreated... and redefined. The opportunity is here, for you to be reborn. To bring what was best, forward. To learn and rediscover what it is to Dream.

What was, is regrettably gone... but that is the way of time and life in general. It happens back on all of our shards.. and it happens here just the same.

Even if you have dreamed in This city before, but have been away for a while... things will have changed. Some dreamers gone, new ones arising. Strongholds and beliefs shifting and evolving. This is, in many ways, Life. The City breathing and changing as time drifts onward. And just as at home on our shards... we have to change and grow to find our place again... or make a new one for ourselves.

The past cannot be changed, and is always so wondrous in our memories. Nostalgia dulling the sharp edges of the things that cut us then. It is a part of you, and should Not be forsaken. But it also may not have a place in this home of refugees and newborns.

To succeed here, to BE here... means taking a good look at the past, giving it a kiss, and letting it fall behind you to where it truly lies. And stepping into a city that, just as you have been, has been reborn in a new age. Shaped by new hands. And finding or creating for yourself, a place and a dream for the future.

Your story is Not done. Not by a very long shot. But it has entered a new chapter. Embrace that chapter, step into it. Learn again what has transpired in the break between... and walk forward to shape what is yet to be.

No one controls your destiny, and none of us can truly know our destinies. All we can do, is strive to make them ones worth living and remembering. Ones that we can be proud of in the days and years yet to come.

Here, more than anywhere else, our mindsets and perspectives dictate how our dreams will go. Don't be afraid to look into new ones. Who knows what wonders, horrors, and discoveries will await you. Most of the rest of the city, will be more than happy to help you as you take the first steps of your new dreams.

The Houses:
For many of you, your dreams revolved around the great houses of your time... and though the crests and symbols remain.. the houses themselves have changed. As in your first dreams, the only way to know where to go... is to seek out and speak with the people who are in those houses. Even the ones that you used to know as foes. You may be surprised to find others that share your values, in houses that were traditional enemies of your past stronghold. Conviction and Flexibility are both going to be needed in different measures in order to find a home.

Or, you may find that the houses do not offer what you need anymore. So, the option remains to found or join a Guild. Smaller groupings of dreamers with their own bases of operation, that may actually be what your looking for. There are many around, and most can be found with just a few inquiries.

Or, maybe you'd prefer to walk a path on your own... and you'll find that path also, easier than it was in the past. With various people and groups willing to support your efforts. Some for their own purposes... some simply to help bring your visions into reality.

I am not going to list a comprehensive set of the houses here, because honestly... they change too much. As older dreamers step down and different ones rise to take the lead. Or one house collapses, and is re-opened by a completely different group.

The Dreamers:
In all of our pasts, we built connections with others. Friendships, Marriages, Rivalries, and Hatreds. People did us wrong, we did wrong to them. Seek out those past connections, as they will help provide us some anchor and shared links while we all navigate the uncertain realm we've found. Don't be surprised when even those that were sworn foes, greet you fondly... or with caution, but still seek you out when they once avoided you. The strength of the shared pasts, and difficulties finding new places for ourselves, makes it easy to look past conflicts that no longer seem so relevant in the face of this foreign yet familiar realm.

Let those connections, even the past rivalries, help anchor you while you build New connections that will help you forge your new path. Just also be aware, that your stepping into peoples lives again, when they've had to carry on without you. So be understanding that those relationships will have changed. Fond times grown dimmer... hard times or harsh words having faded for them. The keen edges that you hold, are likely to have become distant and dulled for others. Regrets for past actions are frequently heard.

In closing:
Much will have changed for you, and what you knew lies in the past. Despite the appearances, the city is Not the one that you once knew. It is instead a new city, rife with opportunities, for new stories and new friendships. New foes, new goals. Fresh chances. The city welcomes you, wants to feel your steps in her halls, your voice echoing from her walls with your laughter, rage, passion, and sorrow. Explore her fields and caves, seek out the congregations of people... step into these new dreams. We look forward to seeing you, hearing of your past dreams... and walking alongside you into the dreams yet to come.

Join us.

~ Arnaya, Soulmistress. On behalf of the City of Underlight.
The most important lesson I've learned over this past year, is not to let anyone make you cruel. No matter how badly you want to give the world a taste of it's own bitter medicine, it is never worth losing yourself.
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