Editing Nightmare (section)

==Variants & Relatives==
[[File:Dread nightmare DoD.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The Dread Nightmare, a more powerful version native to Ravenloft.]]
It seems that there are creatures very similar to nightmares, but which are not evil. In Setting Saintly Standards in Dragon #79, St. Bane the Scourger (a good saint, not to be confused with other D&D Banes) rides a white beast sharing the characteristics of a nightmare, but which is neutral good in alignment.

There is a similar white nightmare in The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, which glows "brilliant white like the sun". This is the steed of Light, one of the personifications of primal energy that Baba Yaga has captured as part of her plan to permanently evade death. When mounted by Light, the nightmare becomes insubstantial. Darkness (Light's counterpart) also has a nightmare which becomes insubstantial when ridden. This steed is the traditional inky black, but its coat is so dark that it seems to absorb all light. Both of these nightmares are neutral evil.

In Countdown to the Forgotten Realms in Dragon #277, the new champion of Zhentil Keep, Scyllua Darkhope, also rides a white nightmare. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting reveals the nightmare's name to be Targaraene. Although this seems to be an otherwise ordinary evil nightmare, its coat is not the only strangely coloured part of it. Both its eyes and hooves are imbued with blue flames. Unfortunately, by the time Darkhope and Targaraene make their final stand in the adventure Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land, this detail has been forgotten, and the illustration shows a white nightmare with yellow flames.

The black unicorn (detailed in Unique Unicorns in Dragon #190) is also sometimes called a nightmare, but isn't a direct relative of the true nightmare. Similarly, the article Destriers of the Planes in Dragon #243 details nine magical steeds with planar origins, one associated with each alignment. Although none of them are noted as related to nightmares, the charnalbalk is an emaciated, coal-black equine with smouldering eyes, native to the Abyss, and some sort of common ancestry with the nightmare seems quite plausible.

The Planar Handbook details a lesser nightmare. This isn't the undead Mystaran creature we'll get to a little later, but simply a slightly less powerful version of a normal nightmare. The ability to travel the planes has been removed and replaced with the ability to always know where true north is. This has to rank near the top of a list of monster abilities least likely to ever to be relevant during a D&D game. The entry for the lesser nightmare includes a section on using it as a mount/servant for a blackguard. It's hard to view this uninspiring variation as anything other than an excuse to water down an ordinary nightmare to make it more balanced for use as player character's mount.

The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos mentions flame steeds, which are nightmares originating in the elemental plane of fire instead of the Shadowfell. These steeds serve efreets and fire giants.