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.

You can read Dreamkeepers for free online. Probably because of the Authors Libertarian beliefs.

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.

Nightmares:

The nightmares are most highly feared among all creatures which stalk the Dreamworld, and rightly so: for they are utterly unnatural. They do not fill an ecological niche, do not procreate and spread life, do not have any ancestry or native origin: they simply do not belong. Intruding from abstruse planes of existence, they impose their aberrant corporeal forms to one end: Destruction.

Specifically, the destruction of the dreamkeepers. Thirsting from beyond time to undo the tapestry of creation, they level their nihilistic vendetta against sentience wherever it may be found - and desire exceptionally to wipe humanity from existence. As long as their dreamkeeper lives... A condition which the nightmares are only too eager to alter. Capable of unlocking human vulnerability with the premature murder of a dreamkeeper, their ultimate ends are far more ambitious in scope. Absolute eradication of every last dreamkeeper would leave all of humanity exposed, victim to the whims of the nightmares' nonexistant mercy.

Successfully seeding their presence in the Dreamworld aeons ago, they continually manifest there to fulfill this purpose. They can enter the Dreamworld at only one location - the fabled desolation of Bralgu, where they incubate within the twisted nest of evil, Malangi. Nightmares do not know childhood - they coalesce within Malangi until they attain their completed physical form. Though supernatural, their manifestations have certain limits. As individual entities, some nightmares possess more power than others, and that power can be developed in different ways as they gestate.

"The Citizens are a bunch of useful idiots." -CCA Guard Capitan

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 them. I guess you could call them the 'Suicide Squad' of Anduruna.

The Neon Knives are a band of delinquents and troubled individuals who act out against the law and take part in illegal activities. Many of its members seem to be Dark Dreamkeepers and are affiliated with Nabonidus, the closest thing the Nightmares have to a Leader. Established within a city as massive as Anduruna, with strict laws and conditions that may not always benefit everyone, naturally a gang like the Neon Knives would develop to accommodate those who hate the system and wish to do as they please. Whether it be graffiti on old abandoned buildings and outlets, vandalism in general, drug and fermentae abuse, participating in illegal Ryuu-Neko fighting, and of course the use of Powers. What makes this particular group more dangerous is their ties to Nabonidus as their leader, O'Naicul, is a Dark Dreamkeeper. As such most of their members can be considered Dark Dreamkeepers as well. While at first glance the Neon Knives are mostly just random punks who only hang with each other to share in their similar desire to cause trouble and rise up against the system. However as many of them are well past adolescence, most are likely to have awoken their Powers, making them even more dangerous than usual. Many have Powers that are easily lethal to any they use it on, such as a Power that can cut through steel and flesh, or a Power that can spawn large solid objects that can puncture people. In addition to having many Power-users, they appear to have a large stockpile of weapons, similar to what the CCA Shocktroopers use.

Terrorists or Resistance members? You choose.

"No step" -Snake-like Troika General

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:

"Violence will come to those who deserve it." -A Dark Dreamkeeper

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. Far worse than being aligned against one another is when a dreamkeeper chooses to do the unthinkable... And align themselves with the nightmares.

The rare, feared 'dark dreamkeeper' can make this choice for any number of twisted reasons or convoluted rationales, but the result is always the same. Nightmares are all too eager to use any tool at their disposal in their ceaseless campaign against life, and a traitor is a prized weapon. There is no way to detect which dreamkeeper may be a conspiring malefactor, no telltale signature... Until it is too late.

In contemporary Anduruna, however, conflict with the nightmares is a mere memory - and the idea of a dark dreamkeeper fiction from bygone times.

This makes it easier for the chosen few to accomplish their tasks and slowly, surely prepare the city for the nightmare's long savored return to bloodshed.

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.

1203 A.D.: The shock troopers return from the Toll Wars - historically, one of the shortest wars of Anduruna. The details surrounding its engagements are immediately classified, and the returning soldiers are forbidden from revealing details. Although casualties, kills, battle sites, and skirmish details remain cloaked, victory is publicly declared. Victory or not, however, conflict continues. Domestic powers attacks and murders continue to periodically shock and terrify the public, requiring increased shock trooper and policing activity to keep the peace.

Late 1203 A.D.: Igrath Winters, an ex-fallguard player and recent veteran of the Toll Wars, is elected Captain of the City Guard, and begins investigating power-related violence in Anduruna.

1204 A.D.: ‘Scinter's Mark’ untaxed black market fermentae is exploding in popularity. Not only is ‘Scinter's Mark’ sold illegally - and therefore half the price of Anduruna-approved fermentae - but its unregulated diony content and micro-brewed flavors far exceed the domesticated competition in quality. The ‘Marks’ become synonymous for black market and anti-government. Some elements of the population seem entertained by this rebellious, dashing connotation, and an emergency media campaign is launched condemning ‘Scinter’s Mark‘. Igrath and the City Guard are ordered to crack down, and put an end to the dangerous ‘Scinter’s Mark’ trend at all costs.

It proves difficult, as the ‘Marks’ seem to have ties to the bandits - and the bandits controlling the flo-wood seed trade are based in the northern dunes, selling their merchandise through illicit channels: further enriching black market elements. Although conflict between law enforcement and delinquents continues, the Toll Wars themselves are concluded. The city of Anduruna moves forward under its new heavily centralized socially controlling power structure, as ‘The City of Sharing’."

This is totally not David trying to mock Socialism or anything.