Dreamkeepers

This article contains PROMOTIONS! Don't say we didn't warn you.

"The furry community is devolving into one defined by anxiety, insecurity, and fear." -David Lillie, Author of Dreamkeepers

"Huh? Huh!? Oh, come on, you gotta admit this is cool!"

Dreamkeepers, to put it lightly, is one of the best Furry Webcomics out there. (Not that thats saying much) Unlike most Furry comics who just focus on sex, this one focuses on stunning environmental art, story and characters....and occasional softcore suggestiveness, because of course. Its author literally thought up the idea for Dreamkeepers when his friend in College said that he had "The worst Nightmare ever" and he thought "Well, what if there was someone who protected you from that?" He did consider turning it into a kids show on a network once, but come on, doing that would make you completely loose control of the project, causing it to slowly progressively bogged down in badassery and quality until its more spayed and neutered than a Furry on a Planet with a Black Templar Invasion. No, the author chose something different, he chose to remain independent and create every page of the comic from scratch.

About the Author

"Sometimes, the Furry community really screws the pooch." -David Lillie

Typical nerd look. Looks can be decieving.

Written by a guy named "David Lillie" who has been working on the Comic for the last 20 years, and being a bit of an attention whore by making an account on every art website imaginable, David has suffered through his house burning down, getting flooded, getting hit by a truck hard enough to dent it, and contracting Multiple Scelrosis, has worked as a Security Guard in the past, and despite all of this, he still works every day to continue drawing and writing this comic. The guy might be an early Space Marine, especially since he loves to Simp for the Right-Wing all the time, much to the dismay of other Furrys. He can best be classified as one of those "No steppy on Snek!" types.

He is currently trying to make a 'Rapture-esc' comic website where nobody is constrained by gatekeeping comic distributor companies called "Vivid" Where the great will not be constrained by the small. He also has a great sense of humor, he and his friends found 'those Flashgitz' animations very funny. He once tried to make a petition against convicted sex offenders, banning their entry to any all-ages major Furry Conventions...this petition did not gain enough support, in fact, some think it was actively ignored, because of course.

The Plot

Apparently, according to David, within a parallel Universe known as the Dreamworld (totally not the Warp or anything) there exists Furrys who are all tied to a Human in the real world. Everyone has a Dreamworld counterpart, yes, even the people who hate Furries. These Dreamkeepers used to have widespread Psyker populations, who defended against Nightmares who intend to invade realspace and kill everyone on Terra, but thats not gonna happen so long as one Dreamkeeper is alive. Over time they used their powers less and less because of Fake News spreading lies about the glory of powers. The story mainly takes place in a City called "Anduruna" a district-seperated walled City that is slowly becoming more and more authoriatarian, controlled by an evil socialist government who are secretly controlled by these guys called "Dark Dreamkeepers" who are basically Dreamkeepers who have permanently pledged their souls to the service of the Nightmares in exchange for power. Who is to stop these shitheads? Well, a group of wandering teenagers and an underground Resistance group, thats who!

These are Nightmares. Totally not Chaos Daemons or anything.

Factions

There are 4 of them, currently.

CCA (Central City Authority): Totally-not-Communist SWAT-esc soldiers who are basically the 'Civil Protection Teams' of Anduruna. You guilty or innocent? Doesnt matter. If they wanna fuck you up, they will. Secretly being controlled by the Dark Dreamkeepers, heretical traitors who have pledged their souls and service to the vile Nightmares.

HIERARCHY:

CCA Platoon: 18 members

2 Squads of 8 men each.

2 Fireteams of 4 men each form each squad.

One member of each fire team is a Fire Team Leader, and one member of each squad is also the Squad leader.

1 Platoon Commander

1 Transportation officer to handle the Gnossus & troop carrier.

If multiple platoons are deployed their sergeants are commanded in the field by a Lieutenant. District lieutenants are commanded by a district Major who generally does not deploy. District Majors are under the command of the office of Guard Captain of Anduruna.

District Major offices have administrative staff, some of which may carry the rank of lieutenant even though they are not combat personnel. These include liasons with local police forces, CCA detective units (distinct from local law enforcement), internal affairs, and various necessary bureaucratic positions.

The office of the Guard captain has administrative staff, some of which carry the rank of lieutenant or even colonel- placing colonels higher in rank than the Majors who command districts. Various roles include those within the local district offices, and additional unnecessary bureaucratic positions due to constantly increasing annual budgets.

The shock troopers do not answer to local law enforcement or local civic bodies, and take their orders directly from the Central City Authority offices of the Guard Captain. This said, district shock troopers work closely with local law enforcement by necessity- most local branches are prohibited from deploying lethal force or possessing lethal weaponry, with rare exceptions licensed after much paperwork- so the shock troopers are a necessary but unaccountable component of law enforcement at the local level.

Local law enforcement tends to be comprised of 'officers,' and the term 'officer' is often used colloquially for anyone in uniform / CCA combat roles.

Formal Titles:

Shock trooper: Private

Fire Team Leader: Corporal

Squad Leader: Corporal

Platoon Commander: Sergeant (Colloquially: Commander)

Transportation officer: Officer.

Field Commander: Lieutenant

District Commander: Major

Head of the CCA troopers: Guard Captain.

Gnossus are numbered, and naming them is prohibited- although this rule is often ignored, and not strictly enforced.

"I DIDNT BREAK THE LAW, THE LAW BROKE ME!!!!" - Joker-esc Neon Knives member

Neon Knives: Hilariously over-the-top anarchists. Secretly protected by the CCA, because David Lillie thinks Anarchists are protected by the American Government or something. Not much to say about them. I guess you could call them the 'Suicide Squad' of Anduruna.

Terrorists or Resistance members? Your choice.

Troika: The semi-terrorist Resistance movement breeding (or should I say yiffing?) right under the CCA's snouts. A secret movement training its member in unlocking their psychic abilites to battle the CCA and the Nightmares.

Their structure is currently dispersed. Prior to the start of Prelude, they had a more cohesive structure- but they were compromised, and the organization suffered catastrophic damage.

The survivors have rebuilt it- but in a different manner. There are very few central characters with access to relevant information about local leaders- Scinter, Igrath. They could be designated as generals.

Directly below them are lieutenants. Characters like Vi, Bobby, Tia... Local leaders. After an initial training period, the lieutenants occasionally meet up at the remote bases for training exercises. But never all the lieutenants at the same meeting- only Scinter and Igrath could list everyone.

The lieutenants then recruit more Troika members from their respective communities, and seed independent cells of operatives, trained by the lieutenants. In addition to these cells are a number of direct operatives and sleeper agents recruited, one way or another, by Scinter, Nainso, and Igrath, riddling the CCA power structure.

The general Troika strategy is to train in secret and gather intel on Dark Dreamkeepers that have infiltrated the CCA- so, when the time arrives, they can execute simultaneous strikes to kill their antagonists, and take the Troika public to serve as a defense force against the oncoming Nightmares.

Once public, their plan is to implement a loose hierarchy of responsibilities among the lieutenants- one of the primary ones being to train citizens, en masse in the use of their powers, to create an army capable of repelling a large-scale nightmare assault.

Dark Dreamkeepers:

Traitors to Dreamkeeper kind, they made a deal with the Nightmares to gain more power, in exchange for service to them. Its the usual Chaos thing.

Lore Example

To get an idea of how much effort David has put into this comic, here is an excerpt from the Lore on his Website:

"Although modern Anduruna culture is far advanced compared to its ancient iterations, it has not proven impervious to instability and conflict.

One of the unfortunate hallmarks of modern Anduruna is the instatement of ideological rather than pragmatic Central City policy. Progressively more ambitious Sabbaton administrations began earnestly legislating to solve the perceived injustice of inequality.

The realm of charity slowly morphed into the realm of government mandated management. Feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, improving the housing of the only moderately appointed, equalizing educational achievement regardless of students’ respective motivation, passing laws to prevent accidental injury... Efforts to make Anduruna perfect proved to be both difficult, labor intensive, and colossally expensive.

Many would point the finger to overreaching social engineering as the source of the resulting strain. Whatever the true cause, it cannot be denied that strain and tension began to increase in Anduruna. With mass media amplifying the volatility, it was only a matter of time until blood was shed. The result was the first official military mobilization of Anduruna in generations - the results of which remain classified to this day."