The Servitors of Nightmares are known for being innovative when it comes
to crafting horrific visions for their victims to suffer nightly, and
some are known for invading the dreamscapes of the technophobic to visit
scientific horrors upon them. However, the demons of Nightmares aren't
really techno-savvy themselves, and this is to be expected given the
hostility between their Dread Princess and Prince Vapula of Technology.
However, there have always been free thinkers, even among the demons
(indeed, some would claim that the demons were the original free
thinkers), and Carchemish is one of them. This demon has been around for
several centuries, having fledged as a Calabite during the Purity
Crusades. He saw the mass demolition of dreamscapes and Ethereals in that
conflict, and he saw it as a waste. Oh, the destruction wasn't the
problem. The problem was that people's lives were not being destroyed.
Uriel was good at slaughtering, but he lacked perspective. Carchemish
decided that there had to be a better way to ruin people's lives.
Frustrated, Carchemish turned his attention to dreamscapes.
Mortal dreamscapes were the best target, of course. The problem with them
(besides nosy Servitors of Blandine) is that mortals wake up eventually
and the dreamscapes fade. There had to be some way to drag out the
dreamscapes, but Carchemish didn't know how. He puzzled over this until
the ninth century, until the answer finally came to him. It wasn't the
dreamscape that should be focused on, but the dreamer! Forget modifying
the dream, instead follow the nebulous link between the dreamscape and
the mind of the mortal dreamer. The key lay in finding that elusive link.
That's where rank came into play.
Carchemish spent the next five centuries currying favor with his Dread
Princess, doing the jobs no one else would do. He fought cautiously,
ambushing angels of Dreams (he picked on the recruits and
trainees-especially Malakim) and built up a reputation as a powerful
warrior. He earned Songs and attunements. Eventually, he made for himself
by invading and warping one of the protected dreamscapes of Dreams, the
ones that Blandine considers to be her personal space. For his work, he
earned the wrath of Blandine but the favor of Beleth and his Distinction
as a Knight of Restlessness. It is said that Carchemish attempted to
seize control of the back door of Heaven, but in reality, he bullied a
fledgling Shedite into scouting the path for him. The Corruptor had a
little run-in with Blandine's Malakim and got soul-killed, so Carchemish
never made the attempt.
From then on, Carchemish spent all his spare time trying to find the link
between dreamers and their dreamscapes. He consorted with the remaining
pagan deities and Ethereals, especially with the Unseelie Court and the
Furies. It took him a while, but then he hit upon an idea. He used his
rank to start using members of the other Bands in Beleth's service as
test-subjects, using their Resonances to see how far mortals can be
pushed. His experiments were not always looked kindly upon once Vapula
came to power. It reminded some demons of his work and Beleth seemed
poised to stamp down hard on the ambitious Destroyer...until success
occured!
Carchemish discovered that the key to prolonged nightmares lay in the
Impudite of Nightmares attunement. The Calabite Knight convinced Beleth
that just by tweaking the resonance so that the Impudite's resonance
increased the duration of the nightmare instead of granting a bonus to
the Impudite's resonance use against the victim. He presented fourteen
centuries of research and Beleth, intrigued, selected a fledgling
Impudite for the task. During the experiment, the nightmare of the victim
not only was more intense, but also lasted longer. That's when step two
was employed. Carchemish used the Song of Forbidding to hold the Impudite
in place, then gave it a relic containing the Song of Forbidding (an
amulet). The amulet requires the Impudite to continue to apply its
resonance whenever the dreamscape starts to fade and maintains the
earlier Forbidding against any movement. In effect, this has created an
eternal nightmare, locking the dreamer into an unconscious state on
Earth. Beleth was so pleased that she made Carchemish a Captain of
Headhaunters and ordered him to find ways to mass-produce this
experiment. Word has not reached Vapula yet, but when it does, anger
might be expected.
Back to the INC Mainpage.
Back to the Demons page.
Send mail to the Curator