A Home Realm is one of several realms in the Deep Dreaming made for a particular kith.
Overview[]
Most Dreamers are unaware of the realms they create, or the power they possess. The mundane world tells them that their visions are not real and that their imaginary friends don't exist at all.
Of course, this wasn't always so. Before the Age of Reason, and notably in the Middle Ages, dreamers actually believed that their dreams and visions were real. The Europeans believed that these dreams were sent by divine or infernal providence. It was a fine time for fae; mortals and Prodigals paid Kithain the respect changelings feel they deserve.
Of course, all that changed with the Shattering. The Age of Reason at the end of this cataclysm was nearly a death-knell for fae in Europe and the Mediterranean. The cold, crushing blow of Banality was more than many could take in those times, and whole communities of kith who could neither escape to Arcadia nor find refuge in a freehold were Undone. The remaining changelings who lacked an escape route must have felt as if the ship were sinking, and all they could do was climb up the masts.
A group of desperate Kithain in the 17th century attempted a dangerous experiment to find a way back to Arcadia. These reckless (and powerful) fae thought of themselves as visionaries and set to work. They invited the greatest poets, scholars, and creative minds of Europe and locked themselves away in a fancy parlor room, talking about philosophy for hours. This device was later called the salon, and it was the first ever. Unlike other salons, though, this one was not a mere bantering of ideas. The fae who organized the occasion had an agenda: to create a Rapture that would open a nearby defunct trod back to their home. They subtly wove into the topic of conversation the image of a doorway; then, a path; next, a long series of twists and turns; and finally... Arcadia.
Obviously, the Dreamers never realized what was really happening. They merely thought that they were all engaging in witty and exhausting repartee. At the end of the salon, the Dreamers, more weary than they ought to be, dragged themselves off to bed. The changelings excitedly rushed to the trod to see whether the were successful. What they saw in the gale that concealed the trod was a solid doorway made of sticks and leaves, rapidly disintegrating from the bottom upward. Without even considering the consequences, they all rushed through the door as it crumbled into a pile of kindling. Desperation makes changelings do stupid things. Anyway, these Kithain were lucky, but not in the way they hoped. They never found the way back to Arcadia, for the makeshift trod was beginning to disintegrate even as they raced through it. They rode their fastest chimera and used Wayfare until they literally were Undone from lack of Glamour, but all of that effort was a waste. Indeed, the found the end of the rainbow, but the pot of gold that all wished for wasn't Arcadia.
Because they were all changelings and not true fae, their connection to Arcadia was not as strong. The memory was distant, and the Shattering did not make it any better. As often happens when Kithain try to control the flow of Glamour, the result was something unexpected. The trod led not to Arcadia but to a newly created realm that was a collage of the assembled changelings' notions of home. The overall realm, somewhat smaller then than it is now, was a meshing of each one's idea of a perfect world. The lands bordering the regions resembled a giant's poor first attempt at puzzle-making. The landforms alternately interlocked and jutted out in jagged blocks and sections. The chimerical animals and buildings were all faint and quivering, the raw Dreamstuff was crackling electrically in the air. Even as they watched, some of the chimera faded into nothingness. A decision had to be made: should they stay and craft the realm some more, see if they could reach Arcadia from where they were, or return to the mundane world and possibly try again? All agreed that they were too far away from Arcadia even to try and reach it. Some thought the new realm a waste of time, while most of the rest stayed there and tried to make it more stable. A few wandered off into the Dreaming and were never heard from again.
Ultimately, the story ends in tragedy for all. The participating Dreamers burned out, creatively speaking, and slipped into obscurity. Kithain society in the mundane world was scandalized by the news of this heinous use of Dreamers, and the commoner nobles banished the returning changelings from their lands.
The fae who stayed with the realm fed and nurtured the chimerical lands with their Glamour (and through occasional raids into the mundane world to Ravage dreamers) and created a version more fully realized than when they began. Bedlam caught up with these fae, which added more, and wilder, elements to the realm (the Funhouse appeared in Balloon when the realm's creator slipped into Bedlam).
Nearly all the Kithain are gone now, slipped away totally into Bedlam, or killed in the internecine wars upon one another. What they left behind were three provinces, each favoring a given kith.
The Provinces[]
References[]
- CTD. Dreams and Nightmares, pp. 87-88.