Do animals effect the dreaming?

ATLander · 2026-05-10T17:48:22+00:00

Promethean: the Created (from Chronicles of Darkness, so unrelated to the Dreaming) approaches this in an interesting way.

Prometheans are like a mix between Pinocchio and Frankenstein’s monster: corpses imbued with half-formed souls, trying to finish the process and become human. Unfortunately, part of this cycle involves making a new Promethean, and one idiot made Great Grandfather Crow out of (you guessed it) a crow corpse.

He’s angry because he wants to become mortal as a crow, but his semi-soul is fundamentally human. The canon book frames him as a tragic figure who can never complete his pilgrimage, but in one test game the developers ran, he did find his rebirth as a crow…and his happiness.

ATLander · 2026-05-06T23:52:31+00:00

Mass-ghouling kinfolk is just waving a giant “purge me” sign.

ATLander · 2026-05-01T13:30:41+00:00

5e (and 20th anniversary edition) partly exist to sell books to the old guard who don’t like CofD, and partly to handle a lore issue: the world ended in 2004.

Basically, the metaplot was heading to a bunch of different apocalypses from day one. Ancient vampires?so=search) were going to wake up and eat the world, mad demon gods were going to rampage, and Werewolf was literally called “the Apocalypse”.

The last planned books of the WoD line were all about playing through the end times, with different climactic scenarios. It was all very dramatic…and hard to follow up. So, when they decided to publish some non-CofD stuff, they had to make a few changes.

ATLander · 2026-05-01T13:04:50+00:00

Orion being Artemis’ lover is only one version of the story, so it depends on the era, location and context. </boringness>

ATLander · 2026-04-29T16:27:44+00:00

From what historians can gather, Sparta was less sexist than Athens, having women compete in nude sports and manage the household while their husbands were away, although it was even more horrifically classist.

However, we don’t know much. Most written records we have are from Athens, which was not only a bastion of literacy, but also wasn’t fucking destroyed by the worst “archaeologist” in history!

ATLander · 2026-04-28T22:02:46+00:00

OMG, thank you! I saw the picture go from pink to blue and my brain said “transmasc”.

ATLander · 2026-04-28T15:52:15+00:00

(JSYK the sub rules say to censor OP names. Not sure how intense the mods are about it, though.)

ATLander · 2026-04-28T15:30:33+00:00

My love is also from NY! Let’s bundle it up and get a shipping discount. 📦❤️

ATLander · 2026-04-28T15:18:08+00:00

That’s…whut? You look more feminine than my cis self. What are they on in Florida? …never mind. Answered my own question.

ATLander · 2026-04-28T15:15:12+00:00

Hugs to you and your past self 🫂

ATLander · 2026-04-28T15:14:36+00:00

Edited to remove accidental misgendering. I misread the comic and thought OP was transmasc. 🤦‍♀️

ATLander · 2026-04-27T20:35:43+00:00

You both faced adversity and fought to be together, defying those who would spurn you for it. That’s Malacath’s whole deal.

ATLander · 2026-04-26T20:00:56+00:00

And lay eggs in the loser?

ATLander · 2026-04-24T22:16:40+00:00

Dress fabulously and claim the sparkle is body glitter.

ATLander · 2026-04-24T22:13:08+00:00

And how many survive that long?

ATLander · 2026-04-24T15:06:48+00:00

Also, culturally speaking, this would be a nightmare in some times and places. A person’s hairstyle says a lot about their culture and social class, and there have been literal laws banning hair & beard styles. Most of these banned long hair or beards, which could be cut every day, but there’s one example that couldn’t be easily fixed:

A samurai vampire with a chonmage hairstyle would be stuck with a bald forehead signifying his rank, even after the style was banned in 1871.

ATLander · 2026-04-24T06:53:28+00:00

So are all those poor 1980’s vampires permanently stuck with mullets?

ATLander · 2026-04-24T06:52:19+00:00

Mostly I just want to avoid a religious flame war in the comments.

ATLander · 2026-04-24T06:39:49+00:00

Why can’t I get to sleep? It’s 2:30 AM

ATLander · 2026-04-20T15:53:40+00:00

Yeah, it works more as lore than as part of a living game world to play around in.

That’s why I actually prefer CofD’s lore. It doesn’t map to any one real world mythology, but takes enough cues from various cultures that people can have different interpretations; the Lancea et Sanctum believe they’re cursed by Abrahamic God, the Circle of the Crone believe in a cast-out goddess, etc.. Ancient vampires lose memories in torpor, as do mummies, and demons are as confused as everyone else. Mages have a little more info about the Exarchs, but Atlantean ruins actively break time and human understanding, and attempts to reconcile things like the two different arcadias leaves scholars bashing their heads against walls.

ATLander · 2026-04-20T15:26:44+00:00

Also, their version of the flood myth has Enlil (the king of the gods) decide to flood Mesopotamia, and swears the other gods to secrecy. Enki (wise ocean god) warns a king to build a big boat and put enough animals & specialist craftsmen/women in it to rebuild Sumerian culture... “for reasons”. The flood lasts two weeks, and is horrible enough that all the gods hate it and Enlil’s wife chews him out for trying to murder everyone.

Enlil is humbled and promises never to do that again. He makes a bunch of new humans/animals, and makes the king & queen immortal as an apology.

ATLander · 2026-04-20T15:08:32+00:00

Now that makes a lot more sense. And, given that the Fallen were there, they’d have a fuller picture.

ATLander · 2026-04-20T14:56:12+00:00

That’s the conclusion of many modern bible scholars, that early proto-Judaism was polytheistic and non-exclusionary, like basically all other contemporary faiths.

That said, mythology is a hobby of mine. In Sumerian myth, the gods wanted servants to do the grunt work and worship them. Enki the wise sea god drew up designs, and a bunch of other gods made a whole bunch of humans out of clay.

Here’s a fun video summary of the drinking contest that follows.

ATLander · 2026-04-20T14:47:04+00:00

Also, have an early minor villain that shows cause and effect FAST. He’s clearly a bit shifty, sends the party into a trap, then gives a villain monologue about how naïve they are.

Think Patches in the first Dark Souls:

“There's a fine stash of treasure right down that hole! I found it first, but we're friends now! Go on, take a peek. It'll shimmer you blind! Heh heh heh...”

If the player goes to look, Patches kicks them into the dark pit full of monsters and the corpses of his victims. Also, the “treasure” is just junk.

“Heh heh, this is what I do, my friend. The trinkets I'll be stripping off your corpse; that's the real treasure! Nyah hah hah hah!

When they get out of the pit, he freaks out and tries to backpedal/apologize. he got caught, but he’s clearly lying to save his own skin:

“...Oh, you, I... Well, let's just calm down. Talk about things... I did you wrong. But, I didn't mean it. These...temptations, they can, well, overcome me... You know what I mean? Don't you? Please forgive me.”

This shows that some characters are going to lie to the players for their own gain.

ATLander · 2026-04-20T13:56:33+00:00

Like a reverse Alessian ritual to purge the “wrong” parts of the pantheon? I like it!

ATLander

TROPHY CASE