SONGEREIN

Late in the month, the blizzard has reached its peak and the skies seem strangely dark and ominous, a soft jingling of bells followed by deep, baritone voice echoes through the skies.



With a mighty bellow the gusting winds clear and for a moment the morning skies seem beautiful and bright, as if the strange blizzard storm had never appeared at all. And then, in perhaps questionably late fashion, a large man dressed in red and astride a giant reindeer descends down to the central plaza.

"Ho ho ho! So this is where that bastard's been trying to hide, eh? I'll give it some credit—it chose a powerful world for its mischief…even if it could still use some work. And it's still just a baby—miracle it's lasted this long." The man, many of which will recognize as the fabled Santa Claus turns to look at the still run down buildings. For a man who is known to being "jolly" and full of holiday spirit, he looks as if he's about to head into war with the large axe at its his side and hardened expression. Just as he's about to say more, he clicks his tongue as a loud SCREEEEEECH is heard in the distance.

"But it won't be around much longer if you kids don't do anything about what's coming."

In the next moment, a large fiery owl large enough to overshadow half the town hovers in the air, the flames dangerously drifting from her feathers.

WHERE ARE THEY…

WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN!!

Her voice shakes the ground, the fire expanding outward as she gives one last heartrending cry filled with anger and agony.

✵ SAVING CHRISTMAS ✵

As the sun sets and the moon rises on Christmas Eve, a strange sound of jingling bells is heard high in the sky as the snow suddenly begins to fall heavily upon the town. A heavy weight of sleep slowly overcomes everyone, and just as their eyes close they'll hear a loud, raging bellow—

That damn bastard!! I won't let you ruin—!

Before the words are finished, everyone will suddenly jolt awake and find themselves scattered in a strange looking town called Whoville. Although it looks as if it's supposed to be festive, none of that holiday cheer is evident. The town is completely ransacked with torn up decorations, broken gift boxes and toys. Even its colors seem faded, music distorted and muted.

All through the town the Whos stare listlessly at their hard work now ruined, some crying openly while others remain indoors in their grief. A brave few young souls try to help clean and bolster some cheer, chanting, "It's not too late, we can fix this! We can't let that Grinch get us down!" But many just shake their heads, their eyes dim. No one seems to have noticed the sudden arrival of new faces.

In the meanwhile, the tapirs appear to inform the Dreamwalkers that they are inside another large dreamscape similar to the one during Halloween. This time, however, an entity called "The Grinch" had suddenly appeared and attacked it, stealing all the presents and leaving everything to ruin as they see now. The tapirs point to a meter floating high in the sky, and although it's not rock bottom, it keeps wavering and lowering as time passes. The Dreamwalkers must help raise the meter to save the dreamscape from turning into a nightmare.

"But the big guy is really angry now," the tapirs chatter among themselves. "If they help fix things, maybe they'll gain a powerful ally!"

Dressed in Christmas themed attire, it will be up to the Dreamwalkers to try and restore the Christmas spirit before the day is ruined forever.

✵ HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE: PART II ✵

When the full moon is at its zenith and supposed to be at its brightest, the moon's toothy grin opens wide and seems to laugh before it suddenly turns black, casting everything into pitch darkness. Screams and howls fill the air as the natives cheer, as if this event is an expected occurrence. Then there's a loud CRUNCH from somewhere and in the next moment the light, but it's now dyed as red as the moon looming above, its size larger than before. Everyone looks around in some confusion, a sign that something isn't right.

Fears are confirmed when those from the graveyard suddenly rush in yelling that a large chunk of the land had disappeared and parts continue to crumble away. Terrified, everyone starts to panic wondering what could have caused it while others rush out to investigate. Those who can fly will exclaim that the giant hole looks as if something has taken a large bite out of it. Many already look to the moon and its eerie grin, but yell that it's impossible. Others blame "that witch" Baba Yaga and claim it must be her doing!

As the panic continues to grow, the ground and even the skies seem to tremble in response. The tapirs warn that the dreamscape may be coming to an end, but the dreamwalkers should try and figure out what happened to help stabilize it so it doesn't turn into a nightmare.

✵ HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE: PART I ✵

It comes without warning. A few nights before Halloween, when the moon is supposed to be full and bright, it suddenly blinks out and turns pitch black. Even the stars seem to be covered, casting a strange darkness all over Songerein. While the fae sense something unusual, the newly arrived people—the dreamwalkers—all suddenly fall over asleep as if struck by a curse. Thick, black fog covers the town and one by one their bodies glow bright before converting into dream energy and disappearing into their crystals.

Alarmed, the tapirs investigate, some plunging deep into the realm of dreams to try and find wherever they went. What they discover is something they had never seen before—a massive dreamscape rippling through the dimensions, one full of life, color, and sound. It's as if its own little world, unaware that a giant group has dropped in uninvited. Before the dreamwalkers can be too confused, the tapirs send out a message via their crystals:

Careful, Dreamwalkers! We don't understand what's happening, but you have entered an unusual dreamscape, one where everyone here believes this to be their own world. It feels unstable, to the point where if too much disturbance happens it could turn this entire place into a nightmare! One that could affect Songerein!

Good news is it looks like they're throwing a huge party, so maybe if you just have fun and help out, it will pass quickly and you can return. There's a strange barrier that prevents anyone from coming out of the dream normally...but, we'll figure it out! Just try and have fun, okay?

That might be a tall order for some, but there's little choice. Already everyone has been outfitted in appropriate costumes that serve as "disguises"—some more realistic than others—allowing them to blend in. So long as they follow along and don't cause any disruptions, the locals won't bat an eye. However, the moment someone behaves oddly, such as speaking of other worlds or not behaving in a "frightfully ghoulish" manner when expected, the locals will start eying them with suspicion and small cracks will start to form in various places, most notably the sky where are a large grinning moon watches over everything. Fortunately it will take quite a lot before things get dangerous, but care is needed.

Now, what kind of "dream" have they been pulled into?

✵ GAME OPENING LOG ✵
Normally our TDMs serve as intro logs, but we have prepared a special character intro log for game opening! It is a massive, chaotic feast that can only be found in a dreamworld like Songerein. You can also use this to continue ongoing TDM threads, especially as it nears captcha. Reminder that any thread from the TDM can be carried over. Players are also welcome to make their own logs for things if they would rather skip this part. Be sure to read the Mod Announcement for other information and you can ask any questions regarding the log here.

Songerein—

A dream world born from the clash of three different universes. One world produced emotion energy, a byproduct created when one's emotions manifested into a more tangible force. Another produced dream energy, a byproduct of one's dreams that allowed one to view and traverse through them. Both worlds produced so much excess energy they were diverted into an empty universe and happened to collide, producing a new, strange world made up of a new source, dreamotion energy. It remained a barren wasteland until a tear through the dimensions appeared and the concepts of fairy tales poured through. Magic, creatures, environments—they were all dumped in a central location and life began to form. But were they real? Or just figments of what they used to be? Regardless, this giant clash has created a unique world filled with unlimited possibilities.

But of course, a clash of this size would have some side effects. The dream energy in particular remains volatile and continues to seep out with its innate ability to connect to any dream in any world. If there is a strong enough resonance between the dreamer and dream energy, a version of the dreamer, a dream self, is formed and pulled into Songerein while the original body remains in their world safe, unharmed, and unaware of what's going on. Only after accumulating enough dreamotion energy can the dream self "wake up" and leave Songerein to return to its original body, all its experiences felt like a strange, long dream.

Fortunately, Songerein is relatively...peaceful. It's a brand new world after all with only the fairy tale creatures and the dream selves, or dreamwalkers as they are officially called, pulled from other worlds as its denizens. There may be times the different energies become unstable, but it only creates a slight disturbance that eventually settles. Still, the constant connecting and reconnecting through the dream energy means that different things are randomly pulled in and disappear from the world. Those who have decided to make Songerein their home want to build onto it by using the ability to traverse through dreams to their advantage. By creating dreamshifts, they can create giant dreamscapes based on other worlds that large groups of dreamwalkers can enter and bring back concepts to be used in Songerein. Beginning with fairy tales, dreamwalkers could also form dreamshifts based on their own home worlds to bring in something from there. As a bonus, this uses the excess dreamotion energy within the world, helping stabilize it.

So, what kind of world will Songerein become? Just remember…

Where there are dreams, there are also nightmares.

Songerein is a panfandom game based on the following three former games: Somarium, Empatheias, and Forgotten Tales. At its core it is a worldbuilding game with adventure and character development. Player and character action will be what decides what is brought into Songerein, be it for good or ill. Although it's expected for players to be able to create their own fun and not rely solely on the mods, Songerein is billed to be more of a relaxed game for everyone to have fun in.