The Sleeping Lands
Realm of Untamo
Location: Outlands / the Ringlands
In the Outlands, nestled near Tvashtri’s workshop, lies a realm both enigmatic and elusive: the Sleeping Lands, the domain of Untamo, the power of dreams. Here, the veil between reality and dream is as thin as spider silk, and the landscape itself is a reflection of the subconscious mind.
Upon entering the Sleeping Lands, one is immediately enveloped in a sense of profound tranquility. The air is thick with a soporific haze, and the very atmosphere pulses with the rhythm of a thousand dreams. The sky above shifts in hues of twilight and dawn, never fully committing to night or day.
Tall trees with leaves of iridescent colours dominate the landscape, their branches swaying gently, not to the wind, but to the unseen currents of dream-essence. The trunks of these trees are gnarled and twisted, forming shapes and faces that seem to whisper secrets of ancient slumbers. Between the trees, mists swirl, forming and re-forming into scenes from forgotten dreams.
The shimmering River of Reverie flows through the heart of the realm, its waters a liquid tapestry of dreamsilk. Gazing into it, a body might see their deepest desires and fears reflected, or catch glimpses of otherworldly vistas. Drinking from the river is an invitation to a journey of the subconscious mind, where the drinker’s dreams become as real as the ground underfoot.
Within the realm lies the city of Somnolence, translucent and ever-changing. Buildings rise and fall like the chest of a sleeping giant, streets shift and twist like the plot of a half-remembered dream. The inhabitants of this city are dream-figures, the shades of people who are sleeping in the waking world. They go about their phantom lives, enacting stories born from the collective unconscious of myriad dreamers.
At the centre of the Sleeping Lands stands the Palace of Repose, a structure of impossible architecture, its towers spiralling into the sky like tendrils of smoke. The palace is both there and not there, a place that can only be found by those who have truly surrendered to sleep.
In the Sleeping Lands, the impossible happens with the frequency of the mundane. Here, a traveller might walk through their own memories as if they were physical places of the mind, encounter embodiments of their emotions, or witness the birth of ideas in raw, unfiltered form. Time and space have little meaning; a step could span seconds or eons, a journey across the realm might end at its beginning.
In the Sleeping Lands, all cutters are creators, shaping the fabric of their inner realities with the power of thoughts and desires. In this realm, the only boundary is the imagination itself.
Adventure Hooks:
- The Dream Thief: Rumours tell of a rogue dreamwalker stealing precious memories and ideas from the sleeping minds of powerful individuals. The party is hired to enter the Sleeping Lands to track down this thief and restore the stolen dreams before they’re lost forever.
- The Nightmare Infestation: Nightmares are seeping out of the Sleeping Lands, invading the dreams of people in the waking world and causing widespread panic. The party must venture into Untamo’s realm to find the source of this disturbance and put an end to the nightmare plague.
- The Fragmented Reality: Parts of the Sleeping Lands are fracturing, causing chaos in the dream world and affecting the waking world in strange ways. The adventurers must solve the mystery behind this fragmentation and restore the balance.
Canonical Source: On Hallowed Ground [2e] p102,105,173
See Also: Secrets of Tvashtri’s Vault, by Jotjotiota (adventure using Untamo’s realm as an encounter)
Source: Jon Winter-Holt