 The Dreaming wraps around and through the world unseen and uuntouchable by most. It is not, unlike the Umbrae, a spirit realm which shows the true nature of the world around it. It is not, unlike the Shadowlands, a spirit world which holds the memories of dead and forgotten things. It is a world in itself which hosts the Dreams of all those who live and die in the world around us. Kithain often distinguish their twin worlds as the Autumn World and the Dreaming.
 Autumn World
- The Autumn World is that world in which both mortals and the Kithain live from day to day. A cold, grey, sterile world in which hopes and dreams are rare. Most here live their lives by going through the motions of the daily experience, uncaring and unwanting. There is no time for dreaming of better things: there are bills to be paid and work to be done.
- Kithain live in this world with the humans that surround them. Occasional chimerae can be found here too, surviving the cold and uncaring bitterness that is Banality, by scavenging what Glamour they can against the Winter. Most chimerae and kithain stave off inevetable undoing by clutching hard and fast to the bastions against the Real World which can be found at freeholds. While freeholds exist in the Autumn World, they also touch directly into the Near Dreaming. Time is muted there, Banality cannot reach there. They are special and magical places, forgotten by mortals on the edge of their world. Freeholds are generally places unnoticed by mortals; abandoned parks, ignored pubs, seedy houses, dark alleys. There is no reason to attend to them, they are beneath notice. The Mists too, help to clot that memory which might drag notice of freeholds to the surface.
- Yet bear in mind, chimerae, freeholds, and faeries are not Real. The other inhabitants of the World of Darkness, be they human or monster, neither see nor care about these imaginary magics. The Chimerae of the Autumn World are a shared madness, and like madness Reason can kill them. Chasing a fire-drake through the local shopping mall will only get you escorted out by Mall Security or, worse, arrested.
- And kithain must consider their human lives as well. Vampires may do well and good by convincing the world of their own demise and living wholly in the shadows, but a Changeling who ignores the life of her Seeming, her human half, risks Bedlam and worse. Even the kithain need to pay the rent, to eat, to pay the bills. Ignore work too often to "attend the Duke" and you swiftly find yourself fired, and then out on the street. The crazy, smelly old bum simply won't be allowed into the fine Restaurant, even if "the villain is having a secret assignation here tonight." A child living on the streets for a month will be collected by the police and childrens' services, and moved into a "caring" foster home.
- Yet in the cracks of this world, in the cracks of this life, these Beings From Another World can find signs and remnants of their lost home.
- Some kithain might never get closer to the Dreaming than the hearths of their local freeholds, but there are others who go farther.
- While there are chimerae in the Autumn World, if few enough and far between, and while kithain can see the wellspring of Glamour by tracing their way to a freehold or glade, these are not the Heart of the Dream. A dingy bar which bears a hold within may appear a magnificent castle to the kithain. The troll knight's volvo may seem an aged warhorse, scarred with many battles. Yet even these things pale when compared with the Near Dreaming itself. Yet how to reach the Near Dream? By Trod or Rath.
- Trods are known by most, the Silver Road which stretches through the Dreaming leading kithain safe from one part of the tapestry to another. Some trods lead from hold to hold within the Autumn World, while others lead into the Near Dream itself. Raths are less familiar, though far more common. Every freehold hosts a Rath, a magical gateway or doorway into the Near Dreaming. As the Wardrobe door led into Narnia, so too the Rath leads directly into the Near Dreaming. There is no Silver Path here to make the road safe, but here is suddenly opened a world of wonder and magnificence, leaving the cold winds of Banality far behind.
 The Near Dreaming
- The Near Dreaming is not a secret spirit world which shows the "true nature of the world" in which we live. The truth and the Dreaming have little if nothing to do with each other. Instead, the Near Dreaming holds what is dreamined or imagined or might be, for the world around us. Cities in the Autumn World often exist in mirror in the Near Dream as well, though it is a distorted sideshow mirror at best. These cities hold "might bes" and "could have beens" and "only ifs" rather than hidden realities. Great cities might be gentle thorpes, a tiny village might be rambling metrropolis. All is bound up in the Dreams of mortals about that place.
- Those that populate these cities are rarely kithain, but most usually chimerae of all sorts. Some may appear to be kithain, but truly it is the chimerae who make the Near Dreaming most their home, for so long as their fickle life may allow. Dreams are forgotten or born anew, and the Firchlis Winds of change sometimes sweep through, recreating all in their path in new and wonderful forms. Yet some dreams are Dreamed enough to remain constant and true. Some names might remain the same for years, some shapes and identities holding fast through belief and memory. In truth however, only the Freeholds, anchored in the Autumn World, can hold fast against change.
- Even Freeholds can find themselves altered. Their outer forms may change in the Dreaming over time, 'though their Raths are always recognizeable as such. What was once a sylvan glade with a stream running through and an ancient faerie circle leading to the Hold, is now a pleasant cottage inn, whose front door will take you into the Baron's Keep. Dreams change, and the Near Dreaming changes with them.
- Some things in the Near Dreaming do, however, remain largely constant and consistent. There is always snow either on the ground or in the air or both, in the Kingdom of Northern Ice. Electronics and chemistry are largely useless here - the Near Dreaming holds closer to "fantasy" physics than to any textbook. What machines there are, are mechanical. Perhaps this helps to explain the nocker fetish for steampunk; the desire to ensure that whatever they build will also work in the Dreaming. On the other hand, the only computers you could build here would be mechanical (like Charles Babbage's Engine), and if you bring your laptop with you, you'll find it useless (or if your storyteller is kind, temporarily transformed into an abacus).
- On the other hand, Glamour here runs rampant. Cantrtips do not have to fight against the Banality of the Autummn World - in fact there is no differencec here between Wyrd Cantrip effects and Chimerical. You don't need to use your own Glamour to force a Wyrd Cantrtip down the world's choking throat here, although you can still make your cantrips more powerful. Similarly, combat is more dangerous, because here there is no difference between Chimerical and the Real - Kithain leaving the Near Dream by Trod or Rath will carry any wounds with them on their Seeming as well. Death in the Near Dreaming is death, no matter how it is dealt. It may be difficult to explain those stab wounds at work the next day.
- At the same time, while in the Near Dreaming, kithain have no seeming, so from a sorcerous point of view, healing becomes easier. Heather Balm can be a most powerful Art in the dream. A fair trade for guns and computers, perhaps.
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[here the imaginary is real. Also, while in the near dreaming you
start remembering things. Nothing major, nothing important. Maybe just that in your previous
existence as a True Fae you enjoyed eating black berries, or babies, or something.]
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