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It was always believed that our world was impervious. We knew of the Void and what it did - what it had been doing for billions of years. When we drenched our mind in science, and looked out into the stars, we learned... that we had been born in the end times, at the end of a far out galaxy, surrounded by nothing but blackness in every direction we sought. We knew that as the galaxies had all been pushed farther apart, ours had been pressed into the furthest outer reaches, the last to be consumed when the soul of our universe went dark.

But how could we possibly die? We had the Living Gods . . . Gweddyn, Arborea, Phokalos, Druskain, Nymantea, Tyrnac, Somnus and Sobrovas. They all spoke of plans, and protections, great wards they had prepared for the coming of the Void: the seemingly malignant force that represented the spread of universal death; the great decay. They surrounded our system in thick veils of magic, and even science, mining our star for an endless array of energy.

It meant nothing. The moment the blackness pierced the core of our galaxy, everything faded. Our star wilted in its light, and the beauty surrounding us began to fade. The glamour of our false Gods was eroded, and a hopeless sorrow twisted us all into willing submission. We laid dormant, upon the ground, and wept . . . all of us, as our Gods one by one were twisted by the blackness and the surface of the world was consumed by the hollow.

But the last God, least beloved and least known, lived. Perhaps he'd always known of this future, and this fate.

Somnus. When all life on Ekon faded, He was our rapture; the God of sleep, the dream, the peaceful solitude. As the void seemingly consumed all life, we were compelled into the endless dream, our world submerged with the veil of night and protected from devastation. In the dream, so many woes vanished, and our people prospered within the seclusion from the iron laws of the galaxy. Hunger waned, and so did illness, and often even grief. A free spirited people arose, seeking the wisdom left to them, and the fulfillment of the barest desires of their soul.

But the Void would have its toll. Of course it would.

Like a virus, it learned, and discovered a way to pierce the hull of our dream. It became 'the Nightmare', or so we call it, a spectral and amorphous abomination that derided all of our expectations into nigh. And so it came, with terror and doubt in our minds, as we watched its dark corrosion leak in . . . fields going black, storm clouds gathering, trees withering, bark frayed. Death comes for everyone - we always knew.

Index
1. The Lore of Nations
2. The World of Ekon
3. The Lineages
4. The Abstract Realm
5. Where We'll Begin

• This is a literate roleplay. In order to join you must feel that you are able to consistently write detailed posts. However, we won't require a specific word count or anything; just write well-written and respectable posts.
• Additionally, anyone RPing in Somnus will be asked to stay focused on the main plot. While one can go off and do side things for their own character development and to occupy their time, doing this in excess will result in the player being asked to leave the RP. As this is an intense story and plot driven RP, I can't allow it to be hijacked.
• Anyone posting here is expected to post often. If you take too long you will be skipped; there won't be any warning, any nudge asking you to post, you'll just be skipped.
• This is just an index and information thread, not the actual RP. Do not post here. I will be setting up a separate RP thread and will link it here, as well as the relevant character profiles of the involved RPCs.

The Empire of Rust has not always been known as such. It was once known as Escania - a city that still stands somewhat today, but in ruins, with the impoverished squatting within the rubble and taking cover behind the small semblance of government that remains. Once the thriving capital of human affairs, it has since been nearly vaporized in a war of mutually assured destruction with the Ashbrigain. Clouded in the fallout of nuclear warheads, the land lies now shriveled, and wilted.

The Empire of Rust is a land of anarchy, and ideology, divided between four factions. The Cult of Iron, the Escanian Federation, the Bloodless Sacrament and the Justicars of Rust. A wasteland of violence and ever-shifting factional borders, Escania now lies in ruin, deprived of any national identity or common goal.

Foundation
Escania is known as the birthplace of humanity, and all fossil records give credence to this fact. As such, it has been occupied by humans for untold years - though scientific research estimates nearly a million years of continuous occupation by mankind. As a result, Escania was never truly one nation until near its end. It was always different lands; duchies, Kingdoms, Empires, and federations, before they all finally confederated into the Empire. Their early history was tenuous at best, and was quickly thereafter ended at the head of nuclear weaponry from the south.

As a result, many believe Escania to be preconditioned for failure; conquest, division, the decimation of their national identity. The Empire of Rust was a conclusion many foresaw, though perhaps not quite to the current extreme.

The Kingdom of Insanis, also known as the Kingdom of Man, is an independent nation run by a millennial old monarchy, the House of Insanis. Though the Kingdom holds a very large territory - the whole of the northwestern continent - the vast majority of the population, over sixty million people, live within the supercity of Despondus - a gritty but modern paradise for independent innovation and all youthful aspirations. Despondus is often known as the city of desire; the young and old often intermingle, with few maturing beyond their wild adolescence. It's a city of spunk and vigor, of holographic night shows and laser-lit alleyways.

But at the heart of Despondus is a deeply cynical government, ruled by a family known to all by their madness; a lineage cursed to spite their own brethren, lined with generations of kinslayers and mad men. The population of Insanis has a deep and unsettling fear of their government, believing that the King - whoever may sit upon the throne - is an embodiment of humanity's madness, eager to flail against those who would utter poorly the name 'Insanis'.

Insanis is the home of the world's greatest wonder, the Despondent Throne, a set of glowing ivory towers spiraling nearly twelve thousand feet into the sky, with a great orb of light within the core. Though the city is virtually always darkened by clouds, the core of the Despondent Throne forever shines on the populous, and some say that from it the King may see all beneath.

Foundation
Insanis was founded originally by tribal human settlers, but was shortly afterwards conquered by the Adhlain. Thereafter, for hundreds of years it was ruled by those nautical overlords, the population forced to produce great masses of lumber and ore to fuel the Adhlain war-machine, their efforts directed against the Ashbrigain.

When the war between Rienne and the Archons of the south came to a head, the human subjects to the Bluefolk revolted at their opportunity, at the behest of a man known then as Kieran Insanis, and known now as the dead God, Gweddyn. Kieran was - ironically - not a pure blooded human, the child of a Kyrian father and a human mother. As a result, he was offered higher privileges within Adhlain society than his human peers, and was even let into their military. It did not take long for him to become a highly valued naval captain, and before long he was tasked with overseeing the production of his human kin to the northwest.

But there, he was struck with the horrific revelation of how his own people had been treated; worse than the Kyrians, with an undying malice that permeated thicker and thicker through generations. Before long, he rallied the people of the north to revolt against the wills of their masters, and eventually his ideology came to fruition. He handed the reins of the land to his youngest brother, and went on his own path -- returning one day as something else entirely.

Since then, Insanis has been a powerful nation and the core of endless human nationalism. The Kingdom eventually phased the Insanis' Kyrian ancestry completely out of the annals of history, harboring a romanticized version of their own founding.

The Coalition of Accords is a loose term, for a loose set of city-states, with a central diplomatic chamber headed in the city of Rienne. There are nearly six hundred city states in the 'Riennese' chain of islands, as well as many more hundreds of Adhlain vessels that rival cities in size. Rienne is a precarious place with a loathsome history, occupied by the descendants of colonials from both humans and Kyrians alike, lain upon the tattered remnants of the old Adhlain dominion. A mess of border gore and ineffective centralized unions, Rienne is a land of politics, trade and regulation, set upon the foundation of historical resentment and colonial tensions.

At the heart of Rienne is what is known as the Vortex, from within the inland ocean core to the islands. The Vortex is the void-corrupted corpse of the God Phokalos, and many believe it to be an unsteady collision between Ekon and the Nightmare. It appears as a massive, several mile wide spinning black-blue typhoon at the very center of the ocean, drawing ships into its clutches to die. Only the great vessels of the Adhlain seem able to cross it, and as a result, many of them have retreated to these depths to avoid the persecution of their slaves-turned-overlords.

It is a certain factor to many that Rienne is imminently on the verge of civil strife, with their political landscape rife with corruption and collusion, and a land etched with old tensions running back thousands of years.

The Crown of the Lilac, also known as 'the Lilac', or Kyriac to those who live there, is a large nation to the east. It is populated by a mixture of human and Adhlain minorities, and the dominant and wealthy Kyrian majority, in a plethora of coastal cities - most central to them being Kyriac Bay, the most technologically advanced city in the world. The Lilac is renowned for its beauty, peace and scientific development, with a people fond of the utmost leisure and privilege. Wealth means everything to the Crilacs - or the people of the Lilac - and so does reputation. It is a society of show, of the perpetual pristine exterior, never going against the grain of the world around.

To this end, the Lilac is known as a land of secrets and shame. Escanians and Insanics often speculate on the horrific nature of Crilac repression, though if one were to move through the cities along the coast, you would see little repression in the open streets, and little of anything at all. Much of the people of the Lilac, beneath the pressure of perfection, have escaped beyond closed doors, assailing their own minds as they attempt to preserve their dignities from the public eye. Dream addiction - a severe problem on Ekon - is particularly horrific in its damage to Crilac society, with nearly a third of the population suffering from severe dream addiction, taking endless in-home medication to send themselves deep into the Abstract Realm.

The issues of the Lilac are many, with a suppressed populous opportunistically owned by strong-arm corporations. Yet, in advance of all other civilizations, the fabric and grain of Crilac society stands strong - even in the face of the encroaching Nightmare, which has already come to bray.

Ekon is a world of great wonder - and was so even before the Convergence with the Dream. Covered in both the mystique of arcane, and great technological marvel, the world is set between the idolization of magic and the practicality of machines.

The world of Ekon boasts a population of around eight hundred million - a number far lower than at its prime of around three billion, during the thriving of Escania and before the initial hysteria of the Void. The population of the world is nearly fully distributed to two races: humans and Kyrians, with Kyrians slightly higher than man in population, due to the relative peace of their societies and their notably longer lifespans. Archons of the Ashbrigain and the Adhlain are a small remainder of the population, with Ashbrigain Peons not factored into any census, but numbering in the low hundreds of millions.

Though much of the world will be explored in RP, it is important to note that much of Ekon is now covered in void corruption, which typically has the effect of driving things living within it mad and eventually decaying their forms. Too much corruption can draw in Nightmares from the Abstract Realm, each entirely different, and a great existential threat to the surrounding world.

Races
There are four major races of sentient creatures on Ekon. Though for the purpose of this RP, only humans and Kyrians can be played, the other three are inherently highly important to the lore and setting of the world. I will detail them below.

Humans
Humans are... humans. But they are particularly different on Ekon - typically renowned for their lawlessness, their splintered forms of government and their strong leanings towards anarchy and ignorance. They are the most bigoted of all of the major races - typically their societies integrate few of the other humanoid species, with Insanis completely excluding all other races of intelligent life - giving it the name "the Kingdom of Man, and Man Alone".

Adhlain
The Adhlain are an ancient and powerful race, one that - before the rise of Gweddyn and the Human and Kyrian rebellions - ruled the whole of Ekon. These years are typically referred to as 'the Dark Days' by the other races, with the Adhlain enacting the will of their Dark Lord, Phokalos. As one of the Living Gods, and for a long time the most entrenched in the everyday affairs of the mortal races, Phokalos demanded fulfillment of his vile dreams; blood sacrifices, incursions upon lands akin to genocide. Horrific deeds - the flooding of cities, the destruction of habitats, pulling all natural beauty beneath the sea. When the other races rose to rebel in unison, the destruction of the Adhlain was still yet a long dream, and Ekon was thrown into war for over a century as their Empire - once based in Rienne - collapsed.

Now, they are bound to the oceans, no longer a solid naval hegemon but instead a band of roving privateers, disjointed and set awry. The Adhlain are the progenitors of the Kyrians, alongside Humans, and feed into them their sea-bound tendencies. They are typically blue or teal skinned with fin-like ears, with the majority of them capable of breathing underwater and above ground. As a warrior race, they are generally very large and robust creatures, with a sturdiness rivaled by few.

Additionally, the Adhlain are all capable of channeling some of Phokalos' powers, drawing from the Vortex. From his husk, they gain the ability to bring death to life, washing tides over corpses and raising them with the ills of the sea; cysts of water, tumors of the bog, festering algae and coral rising from their deathly forms. Additionally, through great mortal sacrifice they can call spectral ships from the Vortex, that can host tens of thousands of Adhlain on vessels akin to cities of war. Even now, they are a great plague upon the other races, roaming the oceans around Rienne and laying waste to poorly defended coastal enclaves.

Kyrians
Kyrians are the union between man and Adhlain, and were at first - of course - produced by a mass rape of the human colonials living in what is today the Crown of the Lilac. Originally utilized as slaves for centuries by the overseers known as Mothers, and Fathers, the Kyrians formed their identity around the slave city in which they lived - Kyriac Bay. A city of untold beauty, with the slaves forging monuments and crafting architecture never seen before. As the city was ruled by a small oligarchy of Adhlain, it was not long before the slaves discovered their numerical advantage, and culled their oligarchs.

Since then, the Kyrians and Humans fought the Adhlain together, and the tan-skinned, fin-eared half-men came to rule over all of the Lilac, and much of Rienne, pushing their former masters to the fringes of their societies. Since then, they have been the race of Ekon - sophisticated, technological, productive. They are renowned for their penchant for nature and natural beauty, with great reserves of wildlife within their lands, and an array of botanical gardens that often merge with parks. Kyrians live in the highest standards, and contrary to their parentage, know great peace.

However, there appears to be much the downside to this pathological peacefulness of Kyrian society. Their cities are incredibly regulated, with neural scanners detecting the mental wellness of the civilians. Those who waver from a high standard of passive compliance are quietly phased out - many are sent to southern Kyriac as laborers and colonials, contracted and subjugated by large corporations, typically headed in Kyriac Bay. Kyrian society is highly corporate, and corporate conglomerates - often called Syndicates - rule whole districts of the city, and essentially own those employed by them. For this reason, Kyrians are typically regarded as sheep, brainwashed by their encumbering corporate overlords; the nation is perhaps more of an oligarchy now than it ever was.

Ashbrigain
The Ashbrigain are a race of killers - and more. More than the Adhlain, they are hated by all, and feared universally. Many believe the Ashbrigain conspire with the Void to leave their world barren - that they betrayed the Gods, for they have no God of their own. What is known is that they were born of Nymantea's wroth, only to be abandoned and scorned by their creator.

The Ashbrigain are a technological race, but in technologies of war and subversion. Their cities are much as they are; tattered, with hastily scrawled buildings smashed together and rising hundreds of feet through a collection of poorly standing pieces. They live in towers of rust and oversee as much desert as they do arctic waste, and tundra.

It is important to mention that the Ashbrigain are divided by two subraces - the Archons and the Peons. The Archons are the Lords of Ashbrigain society, and are what people think of when they imagine the race. They are born biologically between Archons, though as all Archons appear to have male defining characteristics, it is unknown if they reproduce asexually or otherwise. The Archons are much stronger, larger, more intelligent and generally more powerful than the Peons, who are naturally weak. Peons are born from . . . any biological fluid; one of the Archon's inherent abilities is that they can construct Peons with truly anything. They have been made from blood, fungus, mucus, algae, urine, even fecal matter. Typically they are given their contents by the many troves of fungus that seem to grow in the southern continent, where the Ashbrigain live, and given form by the will of an ambitious Archon.

Archons are subdivided, seemingly based on Nymantea's domains; Archons of Strength, of Blood, and War. Few know the difference, but these subdivisions greatly impact the personalities and ambitions of each Archon - to varying degrees. Equally, the appearance may be impacted, though generally they are incredibly large and burly figures with ash pale skin. They are renowned for their harsh wit and cruel humor, and are universally condemned as a race of evil, and spite. It is the Ashbrigain that have made Escania what it is today: an Empire of Rust.

A Lineage is - to put it in simple terms - a bloodline blessed by one of Ekon's Living Gods, typically with some sort of divine providence over certain aspects of reality. To give an example, the Insanis have great domain over matter and density, the Mnemos over cognition, the Alderset over heat and fire... and so on. As a result, in order to cover the Lineages, the Gods themselves must be written. There were - in total - eight Gods of Ekon: Gweddyn, Arborea, Phokalos, Druskain, Nymantea, Tyrnac, Somnus and Sobrovas. They will all be fleshed out below, with their Lineages detailed.

Gweddyn
Humankind, Order, the Law
x

Arborea
Kyrians, Nature, Peace
x

Phokalos
Adhlain, Death, the Sea
x

Druskain
Darkness, Shadows, Thievery
x

Nymantea
War, Blood and Strength
x

Tyrnac
Light, Retribution, Justice

Somnus
Sleep, the Dream, Solitude
x

Sobrovas
Physics, Reality, Laws of Nature
x

The Blood
The First Lineage: Alderset
x

The Blood Lineage: Ridhain
x

The Unborn Lineage: Jeddoth
x

The Mad Lineage: Insanis
"Death lingers for weakness. Mask it always."

Though those words belonged to an ancestor far preceding the nobility of the family he was born to, they have stuck by his descendants for time beyond reason. They are spoken in moments of failure, beneath one's breath, to guide one's mind back to a place of focus. They are spoken to vassals and courtiers, and dissidents given purpose as spies; and all those who fall to the Insanis, enemies of great power who -- for but a moment -- revealed their greatest vulnerabilities.

The Insanis are, and have been for some time, a house of ruthless abandon . . . given the justification and means to do anything that they desire to their enemies, including their own brothers and sisters. All this because of the ancestor that spoke those few words -- Gweddyn Insanis, a great ancestor to the family who one day became the God of Humanity, one of the greatest of all of his deified peers.

From that moment, his mortal descendants became revered among their people, and a history of nobility followed. They were blessed by Gweddyn, and tasked with leading a Kingdom meant to live as a medium for peace and prosperity between his people, regardless of the anguishes of the lands from which they came. The Insanis therefore built a Kingdom of the same name, with the capital city known to all as Despondus; a place of sorrowful duty, its residents and lords designated with the task of defending and uniting all of mankind.

Though the task was seen as a burden, the King and his people were given great honor in doing so, uniting people from all across the world and making great progress through each step. Hundreds became thousands, thousands became millions, and millions became tens of millions. Despondus became the largest -- and certainly the greatest -- city that the world had ever seen, and would ever see. The borders of the Kingdom were filled from ear to ear with skyscrapers and residential buildings, a sprawling population following.

But always, within the Insanis, there was vice and villainy. The desire to overcome one's station, to meet the heights of their ancestor, Gweddyn. Somehow, with the ascension of their former patriarch, the family line was stricken with a madness that permeated their thoughts and dislodged them from their own peers. Though they have been blessed eternally with prudence, wisdom and intellect, the curse upon their blood was the ability to bear the presence of no other kin.

Fathers and mothers would separate themselves from their children to spare their familial bloodlust. Sisters and brothers would conspire against one another until none remained but one. Cousins would be culled from the line -- their descendants hunted throughout the stretches of Despondus. No two Insanis could ever collide, or intersect.

And so their reputation came. The heralds and guides to all humanity, supposedly, constantly warring with one another; a precedent set poorly, frowned upon by their subjects. And then -- right before everything was to be stripped from them by the will of Gweddyn himself, ashamed of his forlorn kin -- the Void came to the world they lived in, and darkness swallowed the Lost Gods.

Somnus brought Insanis, and Despondus, into the Dream. And they were chosen to rule their Kingdom with ever greater vigilance, their power and glory returned to them through the presence of fear. And so now, they remain. Kings of Insanis, Regents of Despondus, and supposedly the uniting factor behind all of mankind. Long may they reign.

The Insanis are the direct descendants of Gweddyn, and remain his legacy. Given preeminence by the fallen God, they are capable of matter manipulation far more easily than any other. The Insanis can become completely or partially intangible. They will appear entirely as normal, and may be seen and heard, but will phase through attacks and other physical contact, slipping through their form. They can make parts of their body physically tangible, and parts intangible, interchangeably. Any part of the body that is intangible cannot be used to damage an enemy, or channel spells. If the Insanis does not attack at all during a post, this can be used to phase through any and all attacks. If the Insanis does make an attack, they can only phase through one of their opponent's leveled spells, depending either on the order of actions or their choice, varying on the situation.

Additionally, the Insanis can change the density of their body -- even while intangible. What this means for them is, essentially, that they can dramatically increase or decrease their own density. On one hand, they can increase their speed exponentially, to the point where -- during a sprint -- they appear almost as flashes of movement. However, they can barely wield a weapon in this state, and can certainly not exhibit strength. On the inverse, with high density their defense and offense are increased, but they move very slowly.

Along with these abilities, a developed Insanis can delve further and further into the manipulation of matter, varying on the individual.

The Arcane Lineage: Maghyr
x

The Purist Lineage: Morann
x

The Shadow Lineage: Durand
x

The Mind Lineage: Rhalic
x

The Traitor Lineage: Stelle
x

The Shapecrafter Lineage: Trillium
x

The Memoir Lineage: Mnemos
This lineage is hard to track. There have always been those who have the ability to retain memories in such depth and detail, even if those memories did not belong to them. Perhaps they were story tellers, working to log their societies history and recollections in to one place where it may live far beyond the years of mortals. Those descended from this bloodline do not adhere to a single belief or societal standard. They do not have a kingdom of their own. Theirs is to remember whilst all else fades.

In high society they became archivists, recording events and occurrences no matter how mundane. It seemed no matter where and when the happening took place there was always at least one to record. Those descended from this bloodline were treasured for their ability to recall any memory they had ever bore witness to with immense detail. They were used in trials, in retellings, in clarifications and more.

Enough of them finally came together and created the Anamnesis, an immense library consisting of knowledges and writings from every culture. The Anamnesis only exists in the dream world within the world of dreams. It is accessible to every Mnemos once they fall asleep. Its ethereal nature makes it a nigh on impenetrable fortress of knowledge. Allying oneself with a member of this family can be powerful, for they see all and can use the information they store for good, evil, or profit.

Those who are born of the Mnemos family have what is referred to as the Power of Association. In this dream world created by Somnus they are able to bring forth aspects of memories based off of specific triggers. The smell of gunpowder may elicit the memory of war, the texture of manacles binding wrists can conjure this to reality, the sound of explosions may bring to mind a field of explosives. This power is expansive, and thus treated carefully.

The Mnemos' influence stretches across the entirety of the world. Because they are able to bear witness to any event or act not performed in direct secrecy their abilities are highly coveted. With their knowledge they can extort anyone by threatening to unveil their histories, topple great houses by revealing some well buried past. Uncovering a truth is something a Mnemos does best. What they do with that truth is entirely up to the individual.

It is important to mention the Abstract Realm, a distinguishing feature within the world of Somnus, and something that will be referenced in the lore and metaplot of the roleplay.

The Abstract Realm is the dream within a dream. It is where people dwell, knowingly or unknowingly, when they sleep... and it is a deep, longing compulsion by Somnus; when one feels an incredible burden upon their body and cognition, and the desire to lay against soft cloths and imagine a different world, it is his influence at work.

The Abstract Realm is the bed of Somnus. It is where he dwells among his sleep -- now remaining there in perpetuity, after being so greatly drained by his convergence of Ekon and the Dream. In the Abstract Realm, all living races lay their minds in a bed of millions, gathered around the shimmering, gradient blue cocoon of their God.

All feel at warmth. All feel inter-connected, to each other and the divine. For those who sleep, and are aware of their 'dreams', to feel the presence of the Abstract Realm is to experience euphoria for hours and more. It is to know true content.

Because of this, the Abstract Realm is a constant source of issues within the societies of the Dream, plunging millions into addiction. Sleep addiction is the most common form of addiction, by far, among intelligent life... compelling nearly twenty percent of the population.

And there are many more things to be drawn from the Abstract Realm. Wonders, horrors, and more. Once considered Somnus' greatest strength, the ability to protect himself in utter seclusion as he recovers from the actions of the past, the Abstract Realm now hinges on a source of cataclysm for all life.

Facts., on the Abstract Realm
• Only the leaders of each Lineage can be fully aware while within the Abstract Realm. In truth, the Abstract Realm is not some hidden dimension of Somnus, but the land where Gods once dwelt when they parted with humanity. This realm was also, like the mortal world, plunged into the Dream. As the heirs to the legacy of each God, the leaders of the Lineages -- known here as the Salient -- are given access to the domain of the Gods.

What they find, however, is not a place of great splendor . . . but of terrors beyond imagination; a darkness that cannot be lifted, bleeding through the veins of the earth and corrupting all. The Salient know the one truth that others don't, a truth that would disrupt society irreparably: the Void -- the Nightmare -- has broken into not only the mortal realm, but even the Abstract. They encroach upon Somnus' final slumber, and seek to corrupt his wilting form.

• Somnus employs millions of spirits and dream apparitions within the Abstract Realm, in order to protect himself and fend off the Void, as well as manage and direct any Salient who wander into dangers or secrets they are not capable of understanding. Sadly, the war against the encroaching Nightmare is a losing one, and each day more of these spirits become tainted with the blackness of the Void, becoming nightmare apparitions of great power. Many of these even leak into Ekon, and are the source of inexplicable horrors.

• The reason everyone is compelled to sleep is unknown. Though there are many theories, and few of them bade well for the apparent benevolence of the Living God of Dreams.

So, before I say anything, the characters. Everyone is required to make a Somnus specific character, with a Somnus lineage. All of the characters made here will be central to the story; no one but NPCs are side characters. As a result, each character that joins will require something of an agreement between the players to ensure that everything is run cohesively. We will definitely work on any characters, no outright 'no's', but I just need to be clear that they need to fit with the lore of the world -- this is a highly literate RP with, hopefully, a more immersive setting.

That being said, here are the currently finished and approved characters of Somnus.

1. Latham Insanis, played by Shemlock
2. Marceline Mnemos, played by JustJuli
3.

We will begin in the Empire of Rust, in the Vanaghast Wastes, ruled by a cult of Iron; technological supremacists who have abandoned the power of magic and the Gods, believing mankind was foiled in believing that the Living Gods could save them. Everyone is free to figure out why and how their character came upon this desert wasteland, and why they're beneath the thumb of this rogue faction. Either way, things will begin mired in technology in an almost post-apocalyptic setting. From there, we'll be following a dynamic plot based on the actions of the players, with the eventual goal of unraveling some way to stop Ekon from its eventual death.