Nightmare Demon Overview
General information.
nightmare demons are a species of unnatural freaks of nature who feed on peoples fear by giving them nightmares. Nightmare demons are the cause of many myths and folklore, like how in medieval times they believed witches to be interacting with demons, when in reality they were interacting with a nightmare demon. (which aren't actually demons just like how bearded dragons are not actual dragons.) this species was originally made when the author (Thoth) was like 8 and then refurbished into what it is now. Thoth refuses to change the name because the name is much too dear to its heart. nightmare demons live in small village communities away from human civilization. During the times when they are awake and not hunting, many nightmare demons will sell things like furniture, tools, and jewelry.
Creation.
There once was an ancient civilization that worshiped fear. they eventually sought to harvest fear as a valuable resource, but this ended up causing their entire civilization to crumble. The lone survivor of the civilizations collapse, Ech'er, brought the bones of the dead citizens to life. their skulls morphed and twisted into that of beast of myth, and the nightmare demon elders were brought about. In what were presumed to be his last moments he told them that they were to one day bring the fears together to bring the end of the world, and put the world into one of ever lasting terror. he then collapsed to the ground and the elders flew away to take upon this task. Ech'er is still alive, just presumed dead by the nightmare demons since he looked very much dead when he collapsed.
Reproduction
Nightmare demons don't have reproductive organs, this fact eventually proved to be a problem for the elders. They terrorized people uncontested until someone found a way too kill them and one of the elders fell. This sudden loss caused them to retreat and regroup to try to recreate the method used by Ech'er to create them. they tried many things with little success, until they eventually found a way to make more through a ritual. They put an animal Skull in a rune circle, and slit their necks, bleeding on the circle, causing the skull to grow a body attached to it. It was small and weak so the elders were very confused but took care of it anyway. It eventually grew up, but was still much smaller than the elders, and looked quite different. The elders figured only Ech'er was strong enough to make an elder, and so this new weaker version of the elders is now custom. The ritual to make another nightmare demon only needs one nightmare demon and there can optionally be more involved. The more nightmare demons that are involved, the stronger the offspring will be. There are rumors that if enough nightmare demons were to take part in one of these rituals then another elder could be created, however no one has been successful in proving or disproving this rumor. you can also tell whether or not a nightmare demon has had a child based on weather or not they have a scar on the underbelly of their neck.
Eating Habits
When the sun falls from the sky nightmare demons head out to feed. They will find a human settlement and find a person who's sleeping. They are adept at getting into homes undetected. When they get inside they will go up to the sleeping person and sting them with their stinger, giving the person vivid nightmares. They will then sit somewhere around the room, feeding on the fear caused by the nightmares. Often times they will sit on the persons chest, causing sleep paralysis. They may find someone that has a very strong fear of something, weather that be because they have a big phobia, or they experienced a traumatic event, and they will feed on that person specifically, giving them recurring nightmares. Variants do this more commonly than most nightmare demons as being a variants thrive more if their food has specific fears that coincide with their variant.
Phobias
Phobias are nightmare demons who were born with a specific phobia that they primarily feed on. Their appearance will be affected by the phobia and they will have abilities akin to the phobia. Like Thalassophobia might have fins and be extremely adept at swimming. Maybe they live in the ocean and feed on people in ships. They also don’t have to be specific phobias, but can be based on a more broad fear. Like maybe one is the fear of insignificance. That’s a very broad category that can be taken in lots of different ways.
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Elders
Elders are the oldest nightmare demons, at the center of almost every nightmare demon village there is an Elder leading it. Elders are extremely large and their skulls are that of mythical creatures like dragons. scars cover their skin from ancient turmoils, but now, they have settled down more or less, passing down their knowledge to future generations. Elders are not open and you need and MYO to make one. you can get an MYO as a reward for helping out with the species.
you can help out by:
(Note that these only apply once the elders have actually been finished and are not viable as of now)
- contributing informational art for the species. (please inform me if you do this one first)
- making at least 3 nightmare demon adopts. (amount required will eventually raise to scale with how many members we have.)
- being a moderator or admin (have to ask me to first obv)
- offer to code part of the world (If you do this one I will also draw a full scene with any of your characters together)
- make a bulletin
- ping 3 friends who might be interested in the comments.