The Vale of Mists is the mystic barrier separating the Near Dreaming from the Far Dreaming and the Deep Dreaming, where the Mists of Forgetfulness are strongest.
What to Look For[]
The Vale completely surrounds the Far Dreaming. It exists as a sphere around the entire realm, flowing across the sky and beneath the ground. There is no way to bypass it. In some places, the Vale is a noticeable thing; a wall of heavy clouds that is visible to the naked eye. In other places, there's no indication that it exists, save when the Augmen takes a hold on Kithain and mortal alike.
Overview[]
Just out of sight of the Near Dreaming, as one moves toward the deeper horizons, the first realms of the Far Dreaming appear. These lowingward dominions, perched on the edge of the known world, form a frontier region between the earthly geography and trivial epiphanies of the Near Dreaming and the Mythic Realms of the Far Dreaming proper. Here, in the transitional territories, the weight and crowded emptiness of the grey world dissolve, melting away like snow in the sun. This place, the Vale of Mists, is the boundary between the world that is and the world that should have been.
Because the realms adjoining the Vale of Mists are so heartbreakingly close to the Near Dreaming, they are, by far, the most popular destinations for changeling refugees fleeing Banality. It is easy to follow the rearward trods down into the lowingward fields and dales, and the characteristic dangers of these realms are small and relatively unthreatening to brave travelers. When Kithain brave or wise enough to travel into the Dreaming found their way here, they believed they had found a place that was not Arcadia, but was deep enough a paradise for comfort. The result is obvious: since the Opening, early changelings are retreating to the Far Dreaming in increasing numbers and taking their leave of the cruel Earth. Here, they build their chimerical outposts and villages, their wayfarers' shelters, and lonely inns.
Even Kithain who fled into the Dreaming in the early years after the Resurgence have grown strange and insular since abandoning the Earth. In each of the frontier holdings of tame Dream they've carved out the rough wilds, the refugees have gone their own ways, isolating themselves from Earth and one another. Many have withdrawn into their own eternal games and habits and fallen into unique Bedlam states. Others, sadder because they are more desperate, struggle to impose their own order into the wilderness, which opens the way for Banality to follow them back into the Dreaming.
The Doom of the Vale of Mists[]
The weight of the refugee colonies is causing the lowingward realms to crumble, to rot away due to the newcomers' combined desperation and regret. Starting at the nearward edges of the Fields Behind and snaking along the trods into the Bullydales and the Low Dukedoms, Banality is deadening these regions of the Far Dreaming, forcing them to become increasingly indistinguishable from the Near Dreaming. The invisible spaces drop away or are lost in the process, and manifestations of Glamour are "flattened," becoming more mundane and less exciting. In response, whole regions of the Nearward Realms have vanished from existence and left empty, aching spaces on the face of the Far Dreaming. Whether they have been unmade by Banality or simply forced to flee deeper into the Dreaming for survival is unclear.
Although truly banal regions are still exceptions and not yet the rule, it is increasingly difficult for changelings to feel entirely at home in these realms. Something always seems to be missing, even in the rustic comfort of the Fields or the frenzied chaos of Quox and Mux. Chimera and older colonists feel that something has been irretrievably lost or destroyed, that some quality of Glamour once indigenous to these dominions is gone forever. They tend to blame the more recent refugees for bringing the weight of Banality into their formerly safe havens.
The latecomers themselves simply feel a sense of vague loss, mingled with the bitter realization that, in this bleak century, not even the Far Dreaming is distant enough from the Earth to make them happy. The dream-countries fail to provide them satisfaction, and so, disappointed (or cast out by the chimera), they must retreat even deeper into the Dreaming.
Meanwhile, the chimerical inhabitants often make things worse by their attempts to minimize the damage. Rules, regulations, and immigration quotas are contrary to the will of Glamour, and so Glamour withdraws from those colonies that seek to enforce such restrictions. Unfortunately, this diminishment only hardens the resolve of the rule-makers even further, provoking more rules, even greater isolation from Glamour, and so forth.
Other changelings, in reaction to such restrictions, squander Glamour on an increasingly narrow range of pursuits. They become indistinguishable from true chimera themselves. These selfish, restrictive games are not as satisfying as they once were, and have instead grown tiresome, even (though no one would admit it) boring.
Local Realms[]
- The Fields Behind
- The Bullydale Wastes
- The Low Dukedoms
References[]
- CTD. Dreams and Nightmares, pp. 18, 46, 63-65.