Dreams

Writing

Silver Sponsored Dream Items

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Wisteria Swing
(Note: It requires excellent DS skills to implement this swing.) .FOX Wisteria Swing items    

Tipis

Zips

Zips of Walkabouts (the non-portrait art for an 'avatar')

Zips of Whole Dreams With Patches

MISCELLANEOUS

Inspired by Relief Efforts for Katrina Evacuees

I've been to drop sites to donate goods, and it inspired me to create these items for urban survival: supplies You can stack flats of cans to stock a grocery store.

Creepy Fun for Darker Dreams: Spiderfurres & Nightmares

Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005

Got two new Walkabouts (no Portraits to go with them, though). While I was out RPing in random Dreams, I came across one called "Bi'Lathe: City of the Drow". For those who don't happen to know, Drow are dark-skinned white-haired "night elves" from AD&D. There's a quite good series of novels by R.A. Salvatore about a Drow hero named Drizzt Do'Urden. One of the features of the Drow cities is their Driders, who are elves with spider bodies from the waist down.

Driders are outcasts of Drow society because they are the ones who failed the "Tests of the Spider", administered by priestesses of Lolth. They are androgynous and sterile. Drow don't care about their offspring personally; they lack that instinct, and kids are raised in a communal creche. Being unable to bear young would not make them unhappy. I would have thought that coming to resemble their mad spider goddess and being able to climb up to the vaulted cave ceilings would be an honor. Not being part of the worst echelons of a dog-eat-dog society would be a relief. Here, I've made them not-very-large because if they were bigger, they would be harder to bully.

(About AD&D's Drow)

I've created these spiderfurres, usable as driders if that's your wish. They do not occur in the Dragonlands; they aren't "canon" Furcadia. They could have been larger but their modest size also helps keep patch size down.

Spiderfurres

And, here's a Nightmare, a skeletal horse with bat wings.

The Nightmare is ancient Celtic archetype, a shapeshifter appearing as the fire-breathing dark steed "Pooka" (Welsh Pwcca), and the evil child-drowning water horse Kelpie ("shak" "shag" or "shock"). Despite their fiery image nowadays, nightmares have always been associated with death by drowning. Its hellish stench and burning eyes also come from its association with the bogs, with the characteristic sulphur smell, and foxfire, an eerie glow caused by rotting vegetation. The bat wings come from the Pooka's ability to also transform into a bat.

The name is thought to be connected to "Mara", an ancient god whose attributes include lightning, blindness, death, sensuality, and darkness. Mara is said to have attempted to lure Siddhartha away from an ascetic life. When his three daughters Lust, Thirst, and Delight, couldn't manage the trick, he turned to dumping rocks and weapons on the Buddha. The rocks turned into bouquets and the weapons became celestial flowers.

The French Cauchemar and Slavic Kikimora are also Nightmares. The Kikimora is a witch's familiar, appearing as a butterfly from its mistress's lips. It is created by drowning an unbaptized child. It steals blood, and causes horrible dreams.

It is said that a man once left his house to get away from his nightmares. He traveled far and still they would not stop plaguing him. At an inn, the innkeeper overheard the man tossing and turning in bed, groaning and gasping for breath. Breaking into the room, he saw a single strand of hair laying across his guest's face, so he cut it in half with scissors. The guest instantly fell into a more peaceful sleep. In the morning, they were startled to discover the man's horse in the stable, laying cut into two halves. Nightmares

Summer Silliness: Chinchillas & Penguins

Why? Well, why not. Little "feral" (realistic/not-bipedal) chinchilla walkabouts... Make them your Local Species and watch everybody die of insulin shock from the cuteness. See them turn into balls of thick-furred rage at being called 'mice'. Give them slabs of marble to cool their little tiny hands and feet.
Chinchillas
Penguins