The Secret Craft of Dream Magic

History of the Craft

The Secret Craft of Dream Magic and its disciples, the Dream Masters, are the stuff of nightmares to most Glantrians. The flavor of Dream Magic is unfamiliar and exotic with a distinct oriental mystique. Its origins are shrouded in the mystery of foreign land of Ethengar. And if the hushed whispers of the sleeping are to be believed, the very nature of Dream Magic is connected to a strange and terrifying place of fantasy, phantasms, dreams, and nightmares!

Ethengarian Origins

The Ethengar have inhabited the Steppes east of the Highlands long before the arrival of the Flaems, but the Flaems have always considered these people barbaric and primitive. Even after facing the powerful sorceries of the Ethengarian hakomons and the terrifying spirit magic of their shamans in their many raids at the Colossus Mounts, the Flaemish wizards scoff at their inferior forms of magic—"parlor tricks for goblings and orcs"—as one famous Flaemish archmage put it.

Beginning the late AC 500s, the Ethengar staged steady raids into Flaemish territories from the Colossus Mounts, and even one major invasion in AC 645. While most of these attacks were repelled, the Flaems could never expel the Ethengar beyond Skullhorn Pass for over two hundred years.

In AC 802, the Ethengar living west of the Colossus Mounts, lead by the Virayana clan, joined the rebellion against the Flaems in the Forty Years War

Jherek the Dream Walker

Of the many brave and brilliant leaders of the Virayana clan, the most legendary was Jherek Virayana, who was later to be called Jherek the Dream Walker. He was a younger brother of the the founder of Krondahar, Prince Birkai Virayana, but had little concern with worldly and political concerns of the Virayana clan. In AC 835, he left his clan to live as a hakomon in the Steppes. He was a brilliant and gifted hakomon, and in his thirty years of solitude, he discovered and mastered magic that allowed him to enter the Spirit World, the Ethereal Plane, and other planes of existence, which the hakomon of Ethengar could only imagine.

In AC 870, Jherek returned to his clan, now securely established in the Principality of Krondahar, ruled by his nephew, Prince Toktai Virayana. He was recognized as a great philosopher and teacher and hailed as a master of Ethengarian magic. Many aspiring apprentices asked to become his follower, but he chose only three: his nephew and a promising battlemage, Nayan Virayana; a brilliant scholar, Yamun Krinagar; and his grandnephew Kublai Virayana, the eldest son and heir apparent of Prince Toktai (much to the disappointment of the Prince of Krondahar).

Jherek once more returns to the Colossus Mounts and the Steppes, taking his three apprentices to teach them the mysteries of his magic. Fearing for his son, Prince Toktai sent many scouts and rangers to watch out for the self-exiled scholars, but few were able to track them. The few who did lost them quickly, when Jherek and his disciples would suddenly disappear into other planes.

Around AC 890, when exploring the borders of the Ethereal Plane and the Spirit World, Jherek Virayana and his apprentices discovered the existence of the Demiplane of Nightmares. They soon discovered that their magic did not work there, and Yamun Krinagar was killed by a malfera. Over the next decade, Jherek attempted another journey to this Nightmare Dimension. They finally succeeded in AC 908, but Jherek mysteriously and abruptly died upon his return to the Prime Plane.

The Succession of Jherek

Upon the sudden death of Jherek, Kublai Virayana and Nayan Virayana squabbled at who should inherit their master's belongings—veritable treasures of supreme magical power. The two cousins dueled to the death, with Kublai as the survivor in an empty victory, for he found Jherek's items and spells beyond his comprehension.

Greatly disheartened by his inadequacy and his sudden loneliness, Kublai decided to give up his magical career to live among the Ethengar. He even took for himself a wife from one of the nomadic tribes, a humble yet talented hakomon named Qemur. However, the people of the Steppes began to recognize him and refer to him as "Jherek, son of Jherek the Dream Walker" and his dreams were haunted by visions of his master urging him to continue the study of the Demiplane of Nightmares. Thus, Kublai continued his explorations with new vigor. He renamed himself Jherek Virayana II and named his son, born in AC 910, Jherek as well. After another decade of exploring the Nightmare Dimension, Jherek II felt he had accomplished enough in this mysterious new craft of Dream Magic, and that it was time for him to return home.

In AC 920, Jherek II confidently returned to Glantri, but he found his younger brother Momai had become the Prince of Krondahar. Jherek asked his brother to step down, but the Khan of Singhabad refused, as he was at the top of his power. Not wishing to challenge his brother, Jherek left Krondahar once more, and shared with his wife and son the life of a wandering mage.

In AC 929, Jherek III, in his own wanderings in the Highlands, in search of enlightenment and knowledge, met an adventuring elven noblewoman named Bethys Erewan. He joined her adventuring party, though his true identity remained unknown to all but the elven seer. The two fell in love, but their romance was short-lived, as Bethys was recalled to Ellerovyn to become the Clan Oracle of Erewan, and Jherek returned to Krondahar to support his father's claim to the throne.

The Return of Jherek

In AC 930, Jherek II asked Momai Khan to once more return his heirloom. Prince Momai—who had already began delving into the Radiance—denied his claim again, and Jherek exiled himself to the Colossus Mountains, where he lived as a hermit for another 10 years.

In AC 940, Jherek sent word to Prince Momai again to abdicate in his favor. The Prince refused him again, and this time, sent assassins to kill him in the night as he slept. However, Jherek was always protected by a powerful magical item, Jherek's Willful Sleepsash, which caused the would-be assassins to fall helplessly asleep as they approached their sleeping target. After several failed attempts, one of Momai's agents finally discovered Jherek's secret. Momai devised a countermove by sending a Radiance-powered golem to kill Jherek. The construct was immune to the Sleepsash, but Jherek was saved by his son, Jherek III. Together, father and son were able to destroy the powerful golem, but not before it murdered Jherek's sleeping wife, Qemur.

At the first light of the following day, Jherek II appeared before Momai vowing vengeance. Momai however was prepared for a confrontation. The result was one of the most spectacular duels recorded in Glantrian history. Pulsating with a bright blue light, Prince Momai used a spell of enormous power taken from the Flaemish wife of his father, Toktai Virayana. He hurled a giant fireball across and incredibly long range. Jherek, surprised by the oncoming fireball, could only transform into a stone statue to withstand the strike, but the Prince's fireball disintegrated him with ease.

Jherek in Exile

After the death of his father, Jherek III fled Glantri. He reached as far as Ylaruam where he disguised himself as a Makistani scholar. He exiled himself in the Alasiyan desert, and would have lived the rest of his life in peace there, were it not for the haunting dreams of a master wizard who called himself "Jherek the Walker of Dreams." This Dream Master urged Jherek III to reclaim his rightful seat of power, and prophesized that it was essential for Jherek to become the Prince of Krondahar for a certain "Convergence of Power" to come to pass.

Placing his faith in the disturbing dreams, Jherek III returned to Glantri in AC 942, where he stayed in the Great School of Magic, careful to hide his powerful magic from the attentions of his uncle. Over the next seven years, Jherek traveled to the Ethereal Plane and into the Demiplane of Nightmares countless times, where he developed the full powers of a Dream Master.

The High Master and the Prince

In AC 950, Jherek Virayana III presented himself to Momai Khan, challenging him to a duel for the throne of Krondahar. At the dueling court of the Great School of Magic where noblemen's duels were held, the gathered crowd was surprised to witness a haggard-looking Prince Momai, too exhausted from lack of sleep to complete his famous long-ranged fireball spell. Jherek did not even move, as Momai began trembling and collapsed to the ground. When the dueling shield is dispelled, Prince Momai was dead on the ground, his face locked in a mask of abject terror.

Jherek Virayana III was confirmed as the Prince of Krondahar.

The Foundation of the Craft

In AC 965, Prince Jherek III began training a few select Krondaharan wizards in the Secret Craft of Dream Magic. Prince Jherek III found that wizards highly skilled with illusions and phantasms displayed more imaginative powers and a deeper comprehension of the art of dream mastery, and thus preferred specialists from that magical school. Among his first students was his own son, the young Jherek IV.

Twenty years later, Prince Jherek Virayana III died while adventuring in the Colossus Mounts.  His place as Prince of Krondahar and High Master of Dream Magic was taken by his son Jherek Virayana IV. It is said that on the nights before the Prince's death, many Krondaharans, including Jherek IV, received disturbing omens in their dreams, given by a certain "Jherek the Dream Walker."

Many years later, in AC 1015, during the nights of the Ethengarian invasion, the sleeping citizens of Krondahar were to be disturbed again by dreams of "Jherek the Dream Walker." Though many wished the prophetic dreams would not come true,  Prince Jherek Virayana IV died while defending his realm from the Ethengar hordes.

None of Jherek's sons were nearly as powerful as he was in the Craft, so his place as High Master went to the next most powerful Dream Master, his wife Lady Lan-Syn Virayana. Greatly affected by the loss of her beloved husband and the dreams that foretold his death, High Mistress Lan-Syn has devoted herself to uncover the mystery behind Jherek the Walker of Dreams, whom many believe was Jherek Virayana I, the the founder of the Secret Craft. 

Members of the Craft

High Masters of Dream Magic

Famous Dream Masters of the Past

Morkatal Virayana, Royal Interpreter of Dreams of the Court of Singhabad. One of first initiates in the Secret Craft by High Master Jherek Virayana III, Lord Morkatal was not only a capable Dream Master, but he was gifted with the singular talent of interpreting the meanings and symbolism of dreams. In AC 991, he displeased Lady Aleah Virayana, the tempestuous second wife of Prince Jherek Virayana IV, by declaring that her dream meant she would soon fall into disfavor with her husband. Greatly upset, Lady Aleah trumped up charges against the sage and demanded he be punished. The Dream Master died during the terrible flogging, but within the year, Prince Jherek found himself a third wife—as Lord Morkatal predicted.

Mihneu Kviepoly, Baron of Palatinsk. One of the few of the Secret Craft not of Ethengar descent, Lord Mihneu was a Boldavian necromancer and nosferatu. When he foiled an attempt at his life by vampire hunters, one of his would-be assassins, a Krondaharan Dream Master, begged to be freed in exchange for initiation into the Craft. In the end, however, the dreaded nightmares of his vampire sleep drove him to insanity, and ultimately, suicide.

Recent and Present Members