The Nightmare King

Original Article: here

- Formatting got got and this is a very important NPC

Names: The Nightmare King, The Last Child of Nightmares

Status: Banished by the Grimm after a Vorpal Blade shard cut off his hand and with it, the Ourobracelet.

Relationships

• Wisps: Was raised by either two (his memory) or three (the Grimm’s memory) Wisps. According to Nemiriel’s shell, he told her that they raised him to be like this, although the Grimm had originally asked them to “cut the threads of fate” so that the Last Child of Nightmares would not grow up to be what we see today. In the Grimm’s memory, one of the Wisps promised that they would protect him and that what the Grimm feared for the child would not come to pass. Evidently something went terribly wrong.
• The Grimm: The Grimm promised the Last Child of Nightmare’s father to protect him. He delivered the Child past the Ash Gate into the Void into the care of Wisps under the impression that they would save him from his fate and that he would grow up in peace. Now leads the Reapers in their fight against the Nightmare King’s forces. Cut off the Nightmare King’s hand (and the Ourobracelet) with a shard of the Vorpal Blade.
• The Ouroboros: Defeated during the fall of Lorehold and forged into a bracelet by the Nightmare King that gave him limited control over time.
• Melinoë: While they aren’t currently acquainted, Melinoë is prophesied to become his “greatest ally.”

The Nightmare King’s victims are countless. It would be impossible to list them all, but here follows an accounting of his crimes against figures listed elsewhere in the Archives:

• Corrupted: Kara, Harmony (formerly); The Prince, The Collector (current); Koroloth (current; in Chaos’s custody)
• Captured/Tortured: Ouroboros (freed); Nemiriel’s shell (deceased)
• Killed: Many of our shells, Kasila’s squad
• ???: It is currently unknown what he did to Shane and Aristocleities, but according to Melinoë, their souls are no longer in this universe and she is unable to find them.

• Make Nightmare Creatures by destroying memory gems/crystals and using that power to make Nightmares.
• Create Nightwalkers – Nightmare versions of Dreamwalkers. Currently unknown how he does this but we suspect it might involve the Dread Crystal.
• Pact with willing Dreamwalkers. Pacted individuals cannot harm him but can still be harmed.
• Master of illusions – was able to convince Kara that she had killed Zates’s shell when it was really the Nightmare King all along
• Skilled manipulator; seems to have some sort of code but will follow deals to the letter and no further.
• Consume live soul to heal himself.
• Crush realm shards to make a specific impact on that realm.
• Able to set ritualistic traps. Seen at Fort Shadow Bane when he left a sigil that, upon coming into physical contact with, made whoever touched it make a summons that made the Nightmare King appear from the Unformed Dreaming.
• Ability to traverse the Unformed Dreaming? Appeared from the Unformed Dreaming after sigil was touched and was summoned.
• Able to corrupt even Ashir, as seen with Harmony.
• Capable of forging Primordials into weapons or objects. Alluded to from the Ouroboros during the Soulforge vision we saw when we came back into the dream, “Are you here to turn me into a weapon as well?
• Formerly capable of briefly stopping time for everyone else on a battlefield or indefinitely holding someone in a timeless prison. Also capable of sustaining a shell through Time Magic but without an active pact. He lost these capabilities when he lost the Ourobracelet.

For more information regarding his combat abilities, please see his ATT&CK Thread. on Discord

Notable Possessions

• The Dread Crystal: Not much is known about this mysterious item, but it’s said to be the remnants of a dead universe.
• The Nightmare Triptych: These three tablets were sealed beyond a barrier that only a Dreamwalker could retrieve. They appear to depict a universe eventually dying or falling to dread and the creation of what might be a Dread Crystal. He threatened to take the field against us if we did not surrender them. on Discord
• Potentially: a shard of the Vorpal Blade? It is prophesied to become his weapon, and the location of the shard that cut off his hand is currently unknown.

Primary Relevant Conflict(s) The Nightmare Wars - on Google Docs The Nightmare Wars: 2 - stub on Google Docs