The Dreamroad

Not entirely understood, the Dreamroad is a mysterious place thought to run the length of the planes. It appears to touch all places simultaneously, with only a few fixed entrances, and usually appears and vanishes depending on the will of the the Hidewalker. The Dreamroad is a place that's probably far more visited than anyone truly realizes, stumbled into by mortals while travelling the wilderness or visited in their dreams as its name suggests. Few people seek it out due to its unpredictable nature... and the unpredictable nature of the god who rules it.

Physical Qualities

Though its exact nature is unknown, the Dreamroad takes the form of a mist-filled canyon that mortals will occasionally access by complete accident, most often while dreaming but at times physically. It has high, sheer walls of gray stone and seems to be approximately a hundred yards across and infinitely long; the ground is slightly uneven and bare dirt mixed with loose rocks and occasional outcrops of stone. There are trees scattered sparsely through the canyon, but they're long-since dead and are bare-branched and pale. The ever-present mists are the canyon's most prominent feature, keeping the place in perpetual half-light that's neither day or night, sometimes thick and sometimes thin but always obscuring a traveler from seeing too far ahead or behind. Almost all properties of the Dreamroad itself are unknown, but it's understood to be powerfully magical. Partially from its otherworldly atmosphere and partially because the canyon seems to affect time itself in strange ways, it's often impossible for a visitor to measure the passage of time or distance. It’s entirely unknown how deep in the Otherlands the place exists, or if it runs the length of reality from the spindle to the furthest reaches, or if it shifts locations according the Hidewalker’s whims; generally it’s thought to be a liminal space that connects all places and planes simultaneously. The Dreamroad is the only way for a mortal to access the realms of the other gods without being directly called there, since it bypasses the usual rules of travelling deep into the Evernight, and is a common thread in many myths and legends involving mortals and the gods.

Access

Accessing the Dreamroad isn't something that can be done deliberately by mortals; the strange canyon seems to exist when and where it pleases, and can't be forced to appear in any given place except by at the will of the Hidewalker. While there are places that are rumored to be permanent entrances or passages through the Dreamroad (most notably the mists surrounding the sacred isle of Avalon or the shapeshifter stronghold of Coronis), they're hardly a straightforward gateway and the truth of these claims is unknown. However, the Dreamroad can be accessed by chance in any number of ways. Mortals often seem to access the place in their dreams, seemingly walking through endless mist with no real purpose or direction and waking uneventfully as often as not... but sometimes coming across other wayward travellers or even the Hidewalker himself, much to their surprise. Similarly, due to the Dreamroad's habit of touching the other planes at random it's entirely possible to accidentally enter it while travelling the wilds of the Old World or Genesis, with the natural landscape transitioning smoothly into the mist-filled canyon. Entering the place physically is a far riskier endeavor than in dreams, and unintentional visitors are lucky to be returned to where they came from; they can find themselves somewhere in another place or another plane of reality just as easily. Even more troubling is the Dreamroad's strange relationship with time, which seems to have similar qualities to that of the Worldshadow for those wandering through its mists. It’s a likely culprit for ancient stories of mortals who visited otherworlds and returned to find that far more time had passed than seemed possible.

Rulers and Inhabitants

Though it's more speculation than fact, like anything else involving the wild god, the Hidewalker is considered to be the ruler of the Dreamroad. If nothing else he seems to spend a great deal of time in the place and it's often the location where he chooses to meet with mortals who have the dubious distinction of catching his interest; the Dreamroad itself also seems to open onto the other planes at his direction when and where he pleases. Aside from the Hidewalker and his ever-faithful companion Khamet, the Dreamroad isn't known to have any other permanent inhabitants. The cawing of crows is sometimes heard, but if animals call the place home they're not generally seen by visitors; visitors, in fact, may be the only sort of population that the place can be said to have. It's unknown how many individuals may exist wandering through the mists, unaware of where they even are.