The Slumbering Prince

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[[size 150%]] **The Slumbering Prince** [[/size]]

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**He Who Sleeps, The Waking Lord, scary dream boss[[footnote]] It should be noted that The Slumbering Prince has a great many pseudonyms that incorrectly characterise it as being asleep. It is, in fact, very much awake. //~C//  [[/footnote]]**
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**Conspectus**
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The Slumbering Prince is a being that exists in the spaces between the various realities that make up the multiverse.[[footnote]] Though some people incorrectly believe it to be a reality unto itself. - V.K [[/footnote]] The sole driving force behind its existence is to find its way out of the void it currently occupies and into some small piece of reality. 

It is currently hindered by the fact that its doorway into other realities is the human mind, and that this doorway is blocked when humans are awake and conscious. Were it to try an enter a reality in which even a single person was awake, it would be much the same as a human trying to pass through a mesh grate; it might get through but it wouldn't survive the effort intact.  

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**Illustration**
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//While the exact form and nature of the Slumbering Prince is unknown, its adherents frequently find themselves in possession of stones which they claim are fragments of some part of its being.// 

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**Knowledge**
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**Traits:** While it is accepted that the Slumbering Prince does have form, no one has been able to accurately say what that form is. In the dreams it visits upon its followers, it has been described as a large but indistinct shadowy figure. Fragments supposedly of its body take the form of colourful stone that glows faintly from within. 

It is able to talk to those willing to listen through their dreams. It communicates through thoughts and feelings rather than words, but is very articulate in its application and is therefore able to be very precise with its meaning. [[footnote]] Despite the fact that it does not use conventional language, the Prince is a skilled orator and rhetorician; those people it chooses to commune with frequently find themselves revering it. //~C// [[/footnote]]

It is able to manifest parts of its body in a given reality seemingly at will, by extending part of itself and then cutting it off.[[footnote]] It can be theorised that should it choose to enter a reality while people are still awake within, that reality would become flooded with these fragments, effectively destroying that reality and the Prince itself. - RJ.[[/footnote]][[footnote]] What kind of weird dream logic is that? That makes zero sense. - V.K [[/footnote]][[footnote]] When pieces of its body enter reality, they are cut off from the rest of its being and become these stones, right? Imagine it like a big spinning fan; if you stick your arm into it, it will get sliced off and land on the other side. If you ran bodily into the fan, you're going to get hacked to bits and those bits will land on the other side. If we assume the Prince has a reality-scale size, which I don't think is unreasonable considering its ability to communicate with vast numbers of different realities, if it chooses to run bodily into a reality the spinning fans that are the human mind are going to make a real big mess. - RJ. [[/footnote]][[footnote]] You're making a whole lot of weird assumptions there, starting with the fact that these stones **are** actually pieces of its body and it's not just some metaphor. Jesus didn't literally turn into bread, you know. - V.K [[/footnote]] In addition to having a pleasing aesthetic quality, these fragments are able to put nearby people into a deep sleep. While so affected, communication with the Slumbering Prince becomes easier and clearer. Thus, they are frequently used in ritual practices.

**Nature:** The singular desire of The Slumbering Prince is to escape the void between worlds and enter reality. To that end, its focus and that of its followers is  devising a way to put all humans on a given Earth to sleep or to otherwise render them unconscious. Curiously, whole-sale extermination of human life is not one of the methods it attempts to adopt.[[footnote]] The implications of this, combined with the fact that it hasn't simply entered an uninhabited universe, suggest that it actually uses humans as its method of travel. - RJ.[[/footnote]][[footnote]] Which is a nice way to say that it will probably erupt out of the heads of all sleeping humans, should it manage to do so. - V.K [[/footnote]][[footnote]] There's no reason to believe this process would be fatal, or even damaging. It's never appeared actively hostile towards humans, after all. //~C//[[/footnote]]

**History & Associated Parties:** There are two theories regarding the origin of The Slumbering Prince. The first is that it has always existed in some form, unaware of anything beyond the void it inhabits until humans began appearing throughout the multiverse, where their minds began glowing like beacons to it. The second is that it was created by humans themselves, perhaps as some echo or reflection of human thought broadcasting out through the spaces between realities, until it coalesced into a singular being. Which, if either, of these is true is unknown, and the Prince itself has not been forthcoming on the matter.

The Prince's influence is usually spread through small religious groups. These groups all give themselves different names[[footnote]] Some examples include Eyes of the Watcher, The Sleepers Keepers and Velum Somnus. [[/footnote]], have different names for the Slumbering Prince and very rarely interact with one another.[[footnote]] This is due to their relative obscurity and difficulty finding one another, especially considering their multi-universal spread, rather than any particular impetus towards non-cooperation. - V.K [[/footnote]] These groups are usually harmless, practising various forms of meditation and drug-induced altered states of consciousness as methods to try and get closer to The Slumbering Prince.[[footnote]] Ironically failing to realise that the simplest method is just to go to sleep in most cases. - V.K [[/footnote]] In some cases though, especially if a group has managed to get their hands on a fragment of its body, they become more extreme.

These extremist groups often attempt to actually bring the Prince into their reality. Given that this requires every human on their world to be asleep, these methods tend towards the grandiose. A great many methods have been attempted to achieve this, but they have universally failed. In situations where they have gotten close they have been actively denied by some group or another, usually the Global Occult Coalition or the SCP Foundation.[[footnote]] Or whatever analogue for those institutions exists on their world. [[/footnote]]

**Approach:** Contacting the Slumbering Prince is simply a case of falling asleep with a knowledge of its existence and a willingness to communicate with it. Once this is achieved, it will usually make itself known in a dream. 

As mentioned previously, the Slumbering Prince is very good at convincing people to enter into its service, using a combination of projected emotions and imagery. As such, adequate mental preparation should be undertaken to sufficiently resist its seductions.[[footnote]] Unless, of course, entering into its service is your goal. //~C// [[/footnote]] 
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**Observations & Stories**
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//Sleep, my child,//
//So I might awaken,//
//And return to the world,//
//That paradise might begin.//
 - Excerpt from //The Tome of the Sleepless//, written by the //Sons of the Dream.//
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A number of cultures throughout history have had folklore and mythology surrounding dreams. While it would be a leap to assign all of these belief systems to the Slumbering Prince, a few of them may well have originated from its affecting of dreams. For example, a number of cultures have charms designed to ward evil spirits away from their dreams. Especially in older, more superstitious times, a person raving about the wonderful new god they saw in their dreams could very conceivably cause people to seek a defence against such intrusions.  In a more specific case, the succubus is a seductive entity that appears in dreams and spurs the dreamer into horrible acts in exchange for pleasurable rewards. The entire myth of the succubus may have started with the Prince reaching into peoples dreams, and getting warped over time as these things tend to do. While this is mere speculation, the number of commonalities between a lot of dream-related folklore does lend credence to the idea of a common source. - RJ.[[footnote]] We shouldn't be assigning every single piece of history even vaguely related to dreams to this thing. There are plenty of other entities out there that communicate through dreams after all, and some of them are a great deal more dangerous than the Slumbering Prince. - V.K [[/footnote]][[footnote]] I'm not saying we should, I'm just saying there's an awful lot of coincidences out there to discount its influence entirely. -RJ. [[/footnote]]

"The Great Dreamer exists in the minds of all the people of the world. When they sleep, He reaches out to them and gives them dreams. Hopes and aspirations. But when they are awake, he is trapped, unable to touch humanity. If everyone was asleep at the same time, He would be able to enter the world in full. He would usher in an age of paradise, fulfilling the wishes of everyone on Earth and bringing peace to all humanity. This is why we worship Him. He has guided mankind through our dreams since we were living in caves, and will continue to do so until we are as Gods ourselves."
- Description of the Slumbering Prince from an interview with one of its worshippers. - V.K[[footnote]] Feel free to message me if you want the whole thing, but it's a lot of flowery speech and rambling and very little actual substance. - V.K [[/footnote]]

A great number of realities, especially those on the baseline arc, have a number of works of fiction in their pop culture that may well be inspired by The Slumbering Prince in some way. While it is impossible to prove at this point considering many of them are long dead, the works of authors such as William Penderghast, H.P Lovecraft and Arquilius Anatos III all feature entities of great power that are sleeping or dreaming, or interact with dreams in some way. The similarities between these fictional entities and what we know of the Slumbering Prince are large enough that we must consider the possibility that its reach is greater than immediately apparent. //~C//

I have seen a place where worship of the Slumbering Prince has become an organised religion. They have churches and rituals and an 8m tall piece of that body stone stuff that people make pilgrimages to. Their entire religion is based around praying while asleep, and not getting at least 9 hours of sleep every day is considered a sin.[[footnote]] Finally, a religion I can get behind. - V.K [[/footnote]] Their holy book says that if everyone was asleep the Prince would emerge, the world would become like a dream and no one would ever sleep again. - **S**11.

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**Doubt**
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Almost all the information available on the Slumbering Prince comes from its worshippers and people who have themselves made brief contact with it. As such, its true motives for wanting to enter physical reality are unknown. What will happen if it does, and what effect that will have on the broader multiverse, are mysteries that may never be answered. 

Indeed, it is entirely possible that its very nature has been completely misunderstood, given that the only real contact with it is performed through dreams. We cannot discount the possibility that some other force or entity is masquerading as a greater power, perhaps using these supposed fragments of its body as tools to manipulate people into worshipping it. Though again, to what end we can only speculate. 

//It would be quite the charade if it was some other being posing as the Slumbering Prince, given that evidence of its religious sects goes back hundreds or maybe thousands of years across countless realities. If this supposed being was this powerful and organised, why not just represent themselves accordingly? - RJ.//

//The part that makes no sense to me is why are the fragments of its body made of this stone? Is this entire thing made of stone? If it did make it through into reality, would it just be a giant statue? - **S**11.//

//Perhaps some kind of cross-reality contextualisation? Reality as we know it has no context for whatever makes up the Prince's "body", so when it manifests parts of it the closest thing we have to it is this stone material. Wouldn't be the first time we've seen things like that happen. Remember the Threads of Antares? - RJ.//

//The Threads were completely different, that was something that crossed out of reality and back again, this is something that has never fully existed within established reality. Let's face it, this thing may well be as old as time itself and we have no fucking clue what it is, what it wants and what will happen if it gets it. You can choose to believe what it tells people or not, but we're never going to find out either way. Most worlds have way too many people now. If it was going to happen, it would have been while we were still running around sacrificing each other to the sun or some crap. - V.K//

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