For several months, individuals claimed to have experienced lucid dreams
of bizarre content. Some spoke of green hills, others of snowy peaks,
and still others of experiences too strange to accurately describe. The
curious spent days in a sleeping state, hoping to see visions of their
own.

Soon after, all minds in Aetolia were touched with a vision of gold
sovereigns heaped in a pile. They saw an elderly Atavian man crawling
atop the glittering mound, beckoning warily. A great crowd gathered in
the Prophet Orechnai's cabin. Though his nephew tried to obstruct
passage, eventually Orechnai emerged and spoke an enigma of cats and
squares, crocodiles and people of the trees.

Many tried to solve the puzzle, but only a few triumphed. Caboose, Lua
Runae, and Wedric Vespertine followed Orechnai's foretelling
successfully and found a crude map buried in the Aalen. The map led them
and a handful of others to the Rajamalan village of Saluria.

After questioning the residents, it became obvious that the map was long
outdated. When the warrior-priestess Klaana heard of the mysterious
dreams witnessed by outsiders, she told them the story of a God they
worshipped long before Ati. She spoke of their Lord Guardian, Tecpatl,
in such a way:

The soul was governed in sleeping visions and waking sanity by Tecpatl,
the cat. Tecpatl was a fierce warrior that would pounce on and eat the
greater demons that plagued sleeping minds, leaving only the smaller
fears, so that his people might by example learn how to hunt their
dreams. The dog god, Kuetz, once became very hungry and she wanted to
eat the Rajamalan people.

The ruler of the Gods (the lizard Pactli) had forbidden fighting among
the Divine. However, Tecpatl bravely defended the Rajamalans in defiance
of Divine law and defeated Kuetz. For His disobedience, Pactli condemned
Tecpatl to never again see the light of the sun, and cursed Him, so that
the eating of demons was harmful to His own essence. But Tecpatl would
not abandon His people so readily, and He still watches mortals from the
night sky. The brightness of His curled-up feline body indicates His
diminishing or growing health as He protects us from the nightmares,
though it brings Him pain.

With Klaana's urging for the creation of a new ritual with which to
honor and perhaps placate Tecpatl, a ceremony was soon decided upon. Cat
trinkets were purchased for all participants and at the hour of
midnight, Osai Duses and Lua Runae provided a dramatic re-enactment of
the battle of Tecpatl and Kuetz. All soon slept and awoke at the end of
a dark tunnel before a garden pool.

Though Klaana lingered at the tunnel entrance in fear, across the pool
lay a shape-shifting figure shrouded in layers of gauze. With each layer
removed, a new form was chosen until finally a blind Rajamalan woman was
revealed. Speaking first in mental images, then in ancient tongues, She
finally learned Aetolian from those present and demanded their loyalty.

The Dreamer has been awakened and walks among us in our sleep. Many are
the voices that speak of the sanctity of Passion and the holiness of
Prophecy. Little has been revealed regarding the Dreamer's doctrine and
intention as of yet.


Penned by my hand on the 20th of Severin, in the year 162 MA.