Sandmen Guild

"When you close your eyes, they're waiting for you. As soon as you start to dream, you belong to them. Patiently they wait to take your soul on gossamer wings, to show it splendors you can scarcely imagine and terrors you can barely comprehend. And when your entertainment is over, theirs begins. Sweet dreams..."

If the Chantures are the musicians of the underworld, then the Sandmen are the actors. As theater, drama, and the arts have been throughout history so have the sandmen used their passion and gifts to preserve stories and tales in the form of performance. The Sandmans guild often referred to as the dream union, practice the arconai of Phantasm. This art deals with the dreaming minds of both wraith and mortal alike and can be used to perform a show by conjuring up images and items of pure dreamstuff. All things possible in a dream and this freedom allows a wraith to be truly free in their artistic expression. Deathlords and common wraith alike will flock to the performances of a well known troupe of Sandmen. This fame and notoriety provide the guild with a fair bit of prestige and wealth, yet for many of its members these are but secondary to the love of the art. The typical sandman is larger than life, with a flair for the dramatic and a tendency to pay more attention to the fantastic than the practicalities of every day existence.

Phantasam is an excellent way to involve mortals in the realm of the dead, as a sandman can not only fill their dreams with whatever they wish, but also with proper training, pull a mortals soul into the shadowlands to experience it firsthand. Such crossings are uncommon and complicated, but allow a mortal to exist in the shadowlands for a brief jaunt to experience what it is like to be amongst the dead. Because dreaming is a large portion of their power, the sandmen have also mastered the arts of lulling others into dream states. It is said that when one goes to a sandmans performance, you can sleep through the whole thing and still enjoy the show!

The Arconai of Phantasm contains the powers of Insight, Dreamshape, and Merciful Sleep. While many of the powers that make the sandmen performers are impossible to portray in a LARP setting, the ability dreamshape lets you write out extensive scenes (and commands) that can be shared with sleeping players. These stories and visions can be used to replicate anything you can imagine, as anything is possible in a dream.

Some examples of Sandmen

Paphians

These Sandmen are paid to help wraith and mortal alike fulfill their fondest (or darkest) fantasies.

Dream Menders

Some Sandmen seek to help heal using dreams as a tool. These wraith will also pull a dying mortal into the Shadowlands for a time until their bodies can be healed.

Playwrights

Playwrights are Sandmen that write and perform the elaborate dream shows that constitute much of the popular entertainment in Stygia.