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| “ | Nightmares are fluid terror. Once you get the briefest handle on one, it will change. Filling the nooks of the floor like spilled water filling the cracks on the floor. Nightmares are a seeping chill, created by the mind to punish itself. In this, a nightmare is the very definition of masochism. Most are modest enough to keep that sort of thing tucked away, hidden. On Painter's world, those dark bits were strikingly prone to coming alive. | „ |
| ~ Hoid on Nightmares. |
| “ | The machine is lord now. I'm sorry. | „ |
| ~ A Nightmare to Painter. |
The Nightmares are the secondary antagonists of the Brandon Sanderson novel Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Once the people of the kingdom of Torio on the planet of Komashi, they were killed by the Father Machine, who imprisoned their souls. Making them its servants, it forced them to relive the same day over and over in order to keep the Yoki-Hijo, powerfully invested individuals the machine felt threatened by, from understanding the truth of their situation. At night, the machine would allow the souls to leave without their memories. Becoming formless, mindless monsters, they wandered the kingdom of Nagadan, searching for sleeping people to feed on to grow stronger.
Description[]
Under the Father Machine's influence, Nightmares resembled the regular humans they had in life. However, at night they revert to their true forms, which were amorphous black blobs. As they feed, they gain more shape, usually starting to take the form of monstrous humans or animals. Although they can never have faces, a stable enough nightmare will have pinprick white eyes and white teeth.
When in the Father Machine's artificial Torio, the Nightmares behave as humans according to their master's will. However, once its grip slackens, they lose their memories and personalities and wander the outside world. They are drawn to life and cognitive ability, having lost theirs to the machine. Because of this, they will feed on the souls of any humans they find, which will allow them to grow more powerful and solid. In this form, they are still under the control of the Father Machine if it needs them to perform a specific task.
History[]
The people of Torio became Nightmares with the creation of the Father Machine. The machine was designed to summon the primal spirits of the world to use them to keep Torio running. However, the machine saw the souls of the humans as spirits as well and killed most of the humans on the planet to use their souls to power itself, turning the souls into Nightmares.
By day, the Father Machine turned reverted the Nightmares to their former human selves and put them in an illusionary world it used to trick the Yoki-Hijo, highly invested individuals it could not contain, into believing they were living their normal lives. However, at night, the machine allowed them to revert to their true forms, and they wandered the world without memories searching for some sort of meaning. Over time, the refugees who survived the machine set up a nation called Nagadan. The Nightmares began to wander to more populated sections and ate the souls of people while they slept. Sometimes, they would grow strong enough to murder waking people, leading to the creation of the Nightmare Painters; an organization of people with the ability to neutralize Nightmares by shifting them into something harmless.
One day, several spirits escaped into the city of Futinoro, and in order to prevent the truth from being revealed, the Father Machine unleashed the Nightmares on the city, killing every inhabitant. Sometime later, the spirits were able to get a Yoki-Hijo named Yumi contact with the outside world by linking her to a painter from the city of Kilahito. Although the Father Machine was eventually able to get her back under control, the painter knew too much, so it released the Nightmares on Kilahito. While the Painters tried to fight them off, Yumi regained her memories and managed to get the spirits away from the machine, leading to it running out of power and shutting down. With the machine, the Nightmares were finally able to die.
Powers and Abilities[]
Before becoming stable, Nightmares are almost entirely incorporeal and have the ability to go through walls. As they grow in stability, they become powerful, monstrous creatures that are extremely difficult to stop and can kill large amounts of people. Nightmares can allegedly get flesh if they grow powerful enough, but this is unconfirmed.
Nightmares have the ability to feed and grow more powerful of off strong emotions, particularly fear. They have the ability to draw these out of people, kill them and absorbing their souls. They are physically invincible, but painter have found a way to change their forms into harmless things as a way to neutralize them.
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Shards of Adonalsium Canticle Komashi Lumarians Scadrial Roshar Threnody Others |
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