Rika Saki

Name: Rika Saki
Gender: Male
Age: Appears to be 25, but real age is unknown
Occupation: Data Collector/Traveler
Mastery: Scholar
Height: 5'8"
Appearance:


Personality: Rika is a curious individual that likes to do research on various topics, do experiments, explore, hunt, create art, tinker with things or take on a challenge. Due to his isolated life style, Rika does not follow or understand social norms and seems to have his own rules and expectations that he follows. His high curiosity causes him to poke into things that perhaps he shouldn’t poke and sometimes perform experiments that are questionable to find answers. He can be naive and sometimes too trusting of others making him easy to manipulate at times, but in the end he does what he believes is right and does his best to help others. He is a gentle person that wants nothing more than for everyone and thing to exist in peace. However, despite this he seems to have a darker side he tries to hide.

History: Rika was born to a vampiress named Olivia and a kitsune named Malachi. Malachi was a highly respected noble in society who wanted to show that vampires and humans could co-exist together in one spot. When he married Olivia many fled the area he resided in on fear of his wife; however, despite many fleeing there were a few that believed in the cause of the married couple and stayed around forming a community where humans and vampires could indeed live together peacefully. The village drew all sorts of attention from the outside who could not believe such a place existed. Some came to visit the place and others sought to destroy it, but always the people gathered there came to fight and protect their land.

When Rika was born, he came into a world full of love and respect for his kind. He had nothing to fear and was able to live a normal life up until the age of three. When he turned 3, the people in black came with their strange machines and weapons to attack the town they resided in. They killed only the adults and took the young with them as prisoners that were used for horrible experiments.

Rika was the one chosen to be a vessel for what the people in black called their ultimate weapons. He was fused with the spirit of a dragon before being taken to an isolated piece of land surrounded by the dreamscape where he was left with a machine to grow up. The plan for the people in black was to come back to collect the data the machine collected, but they never came and the machine that was taking care of Rika developed feelings for the child and took him in as its own.

Rika’s memories were suppressed during the experiments making him forget about what had happened to him or his parents. He was brought up by the mechanical creature who he saw as a parent and loved dearly. It kept him fed and surrounded by objects such as books and toys. The machine taught him how to take care of himself, how to read, write, do math and be a researcher, and also how to tinker with things. The only places that the child knew were the small hut with all its knickknacks that acted as his home and the nature filled world surrounded by ruins. His only friends were toys, books, imaginary, or animals, but the boy was not unhappy.

He lived with the machine and the objects it collected, helping the machine do research on the land and also experiments on small creatures and plants in the area. In his spare time, he read, played with his friends, and expressed himself in art of various forms ranging from drawing to painting and writing. His life was simple without any true threats outside of nature in the area.

While Rika was still young he discovered that when he was emotional his body would shift into a strange shadowy creature that had an unpredictable mind set and had powers that were very destructive. He was afraid of this other side of him that he did not understand. A side of him that on a whim could take out a great deal of life without remorse. The machine that was with him taught him only how to push this other side down and resist it in a fashion, but never taught Rika how to deal with it fully or accept it.

As Rika grew he only learned to be afraid of the creature and bottle it up when it threatened to surface. He tried to live life in peace, but always it bothered him. That creature that always lurked in the dark corners of his mind slipping out here and there to take a peek at the world that it sought to be a part of, but Rika wouldn’t allow it as he fought to keep it under control.

When he was 14, his machine parent broke and after trying for a long time to find parts to get the machine back up and running, Rika found there was no such parts in the area and eventually had to accept that the machine was dead. Placing the old machine in its research room, Rika left the being to rest and after staying one year in the hut, he packed what little he had and decided to leave the area on a mission to find a cure for the beast that was within him.

He traveled the familiar wilderness and ruins that had been his home until he came to a strange wall that didn’t seem to be made of anything he had seen before. Curious, he examined the wall for a few months trying to understand it and why it seemed to surround the whole area he lived in, but he never got answers. Believing that maybe the answers to the wall and his own issues rested beyond the wall, the young man pressed his way into the wall which easily gave and allowed him to enter the world on the other side.

The Dreamscape – a world without logic or time as we know it. This was the world the young man was exposed to on the other side. As soon he entered, the beast side of him reacted and after a struggle it took over him. It was in this world that the beast was able to explore and develop its powers and also research and experiment until its heart was content. It was a place that Rika lost a lot of his sense of reality to and a lot of his mental stability too as he fought with the beast for control. He stayed in the Dreamscape for 10 years, fighting this battle and trying to find ways to counter the beast without any answers.

He eventually found his way out of the Dreamscape and back to reality where he continued his search for answers to his problems….



Name of Species: Beings of Surreality
Kingdom: Concept
Phylum: Sentient
Class: Being
Order: Surreality
Families: Nightmare
Species: Dreamweaver

Baseline Dimension: A Surreal Being may take on any size and change it at will.

Baseline Appearance: A Surreal Being may take on any form and change it at will.

Culture/Origin of Species:
DEFINITION OF SURREALITY ▲ having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic: | See Plato's Allegory of the Cave

POSITION AND POINT ▲ Ever flowing and ever changing exists a world where the only constant is inconsistency. It is the first world and in a way, the two-dimensional real world. Surreality and Reality coincide as different shadows cast by two different lights but share the same target object that even casts the silhouettes. However, the two remain very distant and cannot even be considered parallel worlds by logical standards. The glimpses that those of Reality receive of Surreality are often referred to as “Imagination”. Of the many means of seeing Surreality, one of the most common ‘areas’ to peer into is Dreamland, during REM.

DREAMLAND ▲ Dreamland is the specific point in Surreality where one from Reality sees while asleep. It is narrow and small compared to the rest of the massive unworld. Unlike most other points and states of Surreality, Dreamland is slightly more structured and can be somewhat logically fathomed. It maintains a shifting civilization under powerful rulership to keep it partially organized. The point of this kingdom is to keep too much Surreality from slipping into the minds of Reality, which could be devastating to both the unworld and the world. As such, agents of Dreamland regulate what can and cannot be seen. The agents filter what passes through the gray area often referred to as the “Wall” or the “Fire”.

BEINGS OF SURREALITY ▲ Figures, shapes, ideas, and concepts within Surreality sometimes begin to take on a solid mind, becoming sentient and self aware. The beings specifically pointed in Dreamland often evolve to assume the duties of a general agent or being under rulership of the Dream King-- the biggest and most powerful force of energy with purpose to protect what passes through the Fire. The top tier dreams do not have spirits, souls, bodies, or any true 'forms' to be perceived by others. They exist barely as an "un-essence", and some may choose to take more specific forms than others.

REVERIES ▲ Most sentient surrealism falls directly under the Dream King’s will upon entering the point of Dreamland. The state of existence becomes best known as a “Dream” and is given authority over regulating what glimpses Reality may inevitably see of the unworld. The Dreams that fall directly under the will of the Dream King are often referred to as “Reveries”.

NIGHTMARES ▲ On rare occasions a sentient being of surreality or dream may fall outside the will of the Dream King. When this happens, they tend to grow more destructive in nature and are referred to as “Nightmares”. Without the energy the Dream King gives to Reveries for them to survive, Nightmares must seek out alternative sources. Most often, this comes in the form of negative energy which they may receive by revealing the “forbidden” aspects of Surreality to the eyes and minds of Reality. They are actively chased and hunted down by Reveries.

TYPES OF REVERIES ▲

Agents ▲ True Reveries. Fully connected to the will of the Dream King, these dreams are the bulk of the force that regulates the thin Fire between the world and the unworld. The Agents of Dreamland hold almost infinite power over their piece of Surreality.

Daydreams ▲ Weaker dreams that are well connected to the will of the Dream King, Daydreams are often seen outside of REM. They are spotted as fleeting glimpses at any hour.

Phantasies ▲ Shreds of surreality that are loosely connected to the Dream King seldom appear, often only as flavoring to Agents during REM and Daydream spottings. Because of their loose connection to the will of the Dream King, they can be cut off or corrupted rather easily.

TYPES OF NIGHTMARES ▲

Dreamweavers ▲ Sentient Dreams of Dreamland that have lost all their connection to the will of the Dream King. They have sovereign power over much of Surreality. Any strong beings in Surreality that exist outside Dreamland but find their way in are often labeled Dreamweavers by default.

Terrors ▲ Weaker nightmares that only hold power within REM, Terrors exist as the common bulk of those that rebel against the will of the Dream King.

Nachtmyrr ▲ Phantasies that have fully detached from the will of the Dream King or become corrupted become Nachtmyrr, a weak variety of Nightmare. They have a difficult time fueling themselves to stay alive and possess little capacity to control or hold power in Dreamland.

THE CRACK IN THE FIREWALL ▲ With the constant mussing of the fabrics and boundaries of Dreamland and Surreality, a tear in the place that separates the world from the unworld has been discovered. Because of the crack, the imaginative realm has been easily slipping into the physical realm, converting Surreality to Reality as it moves. Not anyone can fit through the crack nor is it so easily discovered. Thus far, the Reveries and Dream King work to repair it while the Nightmares attempt to exploit it, wishing to fade their unworld into the new world to be discovered.

SURREALISM MEETS REALITY ▲ When the Nightmares interact with Reality, they are met with a great new source of power and fuel. With negative energy being fairly hard to come by in Dreamland without provoking it, the physical realm is appealing to any Nightmare with its overabundance of 'food'. A key means to further hunting down their prey is dragging what they can of Surreality into Reality, solidifying its existence and catering to the emotions of others, almost always for the worse. Reveries attempt to vanquish all Nightmares that enter the physical realm by hunting them down.

Traits:
• Dream Beings may access, enter, and control dreams of anything that is capable of dreaming. They may also make any sentient being fall asleep at will. For this to be done on player characters, OOC permission is needed.

• A Surreal Being has the ability to read, directly speak to, and sometimes control the memories and minds of others. Speaking to is possible with telepathy, in any voice they wish. Controlling and reading must have player character OOC permission.

• Surreal Concepts are essentially immortal, unable to die of old age or via traditional means. This also gives them +3 Resilience. They may be destroyed, however, with the proper practices made against surreality. Upon a basic demise, they go back to Surreality and can return after regaining their energy, if their conceptual essence remains intact

• Surreal Beings may traverse space and sometimes time at will. Time is tricky and can get them stuck in between the fabrics easily, thus they avoid doing so. They may move between reality and surreality whenever they like.

• A dream has no soul or mind to be manipulated, destroyed, peered into, or not. Should one try to use a soul or mind based power, they will be met with dizzying confusion and disorder where the dream's soul or mind should be.

• Imagination gains power from words spoken to it. Dream Beings may bring anything spoken aloud to reality. With the endlessness of the unworld, Surreality, Dream Beings may channel concepts or objects from Surreality to Reality, manifesting whatever they like in the real world, be it everyday objects, places, or perhaps attacks in battle. Doing this wears down the wall, however. Reveries will avoid it due to it making more rips and cracks in the fabric between worlds. Nightmares may do it maliciously (often materializing someone's fears), but run a high risk of alerting the Dream King and Agents of their whereabouts.

• Surreal Beings may take on whatever form they wish, in whichever dimension or plane they choose. Many prefer ambiguous forms, such as inanimate shapes, lines, planes, etc. Others may take a solid visible form that may interact well with reality.

Flaws:
• Reveries and Nightmares both get their power and life energy from a source. Reveries get it from the Dream King, Nightmares get it from negative emotions. A lack of contact with the Dream King or the world of Surreality for a prolonged period of time can weaken a Reverie or kill it off after too long. Lack of sufficient negative energy for a Nightmare can weaken or kill it. As such, Reveries take plenty of downtime in their home to regain their energy, while Nightmares must go out of their way to provoke or stir up negativity to feed on. Their feeding does not remove negative emotions from the air, simply takes the energy and power they have to offer.

• Beings of Surreality cannot truly associate with Reality on a fundamental level. While they can create a form that can touch it, they are unable to take the life of those who are from Reality. They can, however, take the lives of spirits or other dimensional beings.

• Upon manifesting the Surreal in the physical world, Dreams spend a lot of energy and can grow weary quickly. Reveries risk breaking up the wall and losing energy, as well as the possibility that they may be forcibly returned to Surreality by the Dream King. Nightmares risk losing energy and also alerting Agents and the Dream King of where they are and what they are doing, thus allowing their enemies to potentially hunt them down and vanquish them.