IN> Okay, Humanity's Damned. Now what?

[James Walker]

The many advantages available to Beleth mean that
Nightmares will take a few decades to control
humanity's dreams, tops.
Then what?

Humans are the most valuable supply of forces and
essence, but hardly the only one. Once they're safely
corralled by Beleth, up and coming demons will need
new targets. 

As creatures without Ethereal Forces don't have Mind
hits, it isn't possible to ethereally 'kill' a simple
creature. However, while humans only dream for an
evening at a time, other species may sleep for months
or years – up to seventeen years for some insects.
This makes then susceptible to other demonic
techniques. 

The most important advantage the demons have are those
Domains with the Intrusive(Discord) Feature. Sleeping
for months, an animal (or tree!) will pick up a
Disadvantage/6 – and one chosen from the Domains known
by Nightmares. As Habbalah of Fate can determine which
emotion will draw a target closer to their fate, 
hibernating animals can be drawn into Domains that
will inflict the most Fateful emotion – Fear, Anger,
etc.
This is small fry of course, but opens the door for
more devastating options. 

Intrusive Domains are rare. Intrusive Domains that are
also Mobile are rarer still. But Nightmares has been
creating Domains for 22,000 years – they'll have a
few. A Domain like this can be piloted to the edge of
a racial Domain (such as the spider Domain YAH p114)
and then the two Domains merged (EPG p105). The
resulting Domain will inflict Discord on *every*
member of that species. Jordi may have to obliterate
the species to prevent members turning up in large
numbers at the gates of Hell! And the destruction of
the species may make the Domain once more Mobile –
assuming it even lost the Feature on merging. 
If there are species that have both racial Domains and
Ethereal forces, then demons could merge the racial
Domain with one that is both Mobile and possesses the
Acidic Feature – ethereally killing every member of
the species. Rather than permanently conjoining them,
the demons could link them with the Dream Joining
attunement (TM 34&12) allowing them to reuse the
Domain to repeatedly ram-raid every appropriate racial
Domain.

Even if the species cannot be twisted enough to allow
them to be Damned, creating Fears within the Domain
will eventually draw it across the border into
Beleth's March. Also, the racial Domains of migratory
species may have the Mobile feature themselves; if
control of the Domain can be wrested from the angels,
then it can be piloted into Beleth's Domain. 

Here, they can be administered by ethereals with the
Animals Affinity, and the inhabitants stripped of
essence. Since the animals dreaming here can never
return to Blandine's realm, the Nightmare Trigger
attunement will affect them *permanently*.

Hibernation also allows efficient use of the +charm
animal Power (EPG p53). Thus a bear may spend weeks
charmed for a cost of 1 or 2 essence; a cheap servant
for a weak (as low as 3 Forces!) ethereal. Supplied
with essence by Impudites, these ethereals can provide
units of cheap cannon fodder to help defend Beleth's
realm.  Animals can eventually either be taught
Dreaming or loaned a talisman, allowing them to become
Dreamshades – and so be charmed for their entire
ethereal afterlife. These animals (and their
dreamshades) would be kennelled in Domains with
Intrusive (Berserk) to make them more reliable
combatants.

Cheers, James.


      
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