Teeth?

Alright, some deity up there has had a few too many to drink.

— baffled scholar

Teeth, in most instances, are hard little calcified shapes (often pointy, sometimes squareish) that sit within jaws and mouths. They're generally used for biting, chewing, masticating, and other mouthy activities. They resemble bone, but aren't boney, they're very close friends with gums, and they hate sugar. Plaque and cavities, you know.

Naturally Floating Teeth? by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

This is not an article about those kinds of teeth, though you might wish it was by the end of it.
First found in Reverie, teeth? are creatures of a sort that seem to have heard of animate dreams and decided to imitate the concept in what can only be described as a most bizarre fashion. Though they hail originally from dreams, some manner of deific mistake - one has to hope it was a mistake, at least - has caused teeth? to escape from the Dimension of Dreams to run amok not only through the Astral Plane, but all planes of the Outer Sphere.
There are even rumours that the little bastards have found their way into the Inner Sphere and to the great expanse of the Material Plane itself. We can only hope that these rumours are foolish lies, and not a twisted truth.
They are generally cheerful, upbeat entities with an intelligence higher than most humans and an utter lack of understanding of anything realistic.

They are surreal, dreamlike beings, and their understanding of reality is quite different to most mortals. Worse: reality seems to agree with the damn teeth? by adhering to what they believe, rather than what is true. If one approaches, it is best to flee calmly, lest you be swept up in its walking dream. Not many can escape a dream once caught in its blissful grasp, and why would the teeth? ever think to set you free?

Basic Information

Anatomy

To so thoroughly resemble mortal teeth does imply some strong familiarity with them, doesn't it?

— scholar

Regrettably, teeth? are somewhat complex in their anatomy, and vary greatly between one another. If the study of teeth? was not quite as dangerous and horrifying as it is, it's very likely that the species would be broken out into numerous sub-species reflecting the different morphologies each teeth? can take. Alas, here we are.

Like most actual teeth (the growing-in-mouths kinds), teeth? are primarily made of collagen in hard and soft layers. Enamel protects each set of teeth? from top to toe on the outside, and dentine, cementum, and pulp fill the inside.
This is one of the first places teeth? differ from teeth, though, for teeth? have an additional substance within them. There's no formal name for it yet, because nobody's been able to properly study it. Suffice it to say that when teeth? are damaged significantly, they leak a viscous teal gel that sparkles faintly in the light. This odd material smells disturbingly of mint, and is noted to repair teeth? when emitted.
Yes, they can heal themselves.
Unlike most actual teeth, teeth? can also have teeth. In fact, a worrying number have developed teeth and teeth? of their own, giving them strangely animated structures capable of biting onlookers. And bite they will, if they so choose.

Well Goodbye To That Kid I Guess by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

These mouthlike structures are more akin to hands in their use; teeth? do not need to use these to speak. Instead, they emit sound from within themselves, or they utilise local telepathy. Their voices are ringing and accented with artificial joy, with lightning-crackle sounds emanating from them when they get angry.
They theoretically do not need to walk, as they can levitate and fly, and these are their preferred modes of transport. Sadly, they can, in fact, walk. What would usually be a tooth's roots become legs for teeth?, meaning they're fully capable of chasing you down with their pointy little toothpick legs. Their 'legs' grant them speeds of up to 40ft at walking pace; flying, this is doubled.

Genetics and Reproduction

Cute Teeth? by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Which god decided to do this? I'm going to fight them. All of them!

— adventurer

Teeth? reproduce by growing more of one another. When a teeth? has grown large enough on its parent, other teeth? perform surgery to remove it if it does not naturally detach.
Some teeth? have multiple parents and siblings from their parents welding each other together; others spawn from nothingness, newly freed from dreams.
Or, more likely, from nightmares. We'll talk more on that later. Perhaps use this as a moment to go and brush your teeth; you might want them feeling clean for this next part.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Oh no.

— you, probably

Teeth? don't feed in any normal way. They're teeth?, that would be entirely too ordinary. No, no. They feed by one of two methods: piercing a living being with their roots and sucking the calcium from their very bones, or simply by absorbing positive energy passively from those they're around.
They resort to the former method only when deprived of positivity for some time, so it's generally possible to avoid seeing the more horrifying form of their desperate need for food by just being positive.
Unfortunately, this reliance on emotions goes both ways. Strong negative emotions will agitate teeth?, and can send them into a frenzy determined to force the bad emotions to cease. If exposed to strong negative emotions for too long, teeth? will begin to corrode - and when they corrode, they begin to evolve.
No longer left as 'cute' little tooth-shaped constructs, they become hollow things of rot and blood, layers of plaque hardening into calculus spikes.

Plaque's Attack by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

These forms are as far from the dreams they once were as could possibly be. These forms are the nightmare.

Teeth? In Nightmare by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Nightmare teeth? are a plague, and quickly form together in an orgy of nightmarish teeth? that rapidly spawns new teeth? to corrode and corrupt. Some newborn teeth? escape the nightmare when used as weapons or bait, often sent out to tempt wayward travellers. If they're lucky, these rare occasions can see them healed by wanderers' happiness. If unlucky - well, the traveller certainly won't be travelling any longer.
Though technically possible to heal nightmare teeth? with the odd viscous paste inside ordinary teeth?, or with more standard dental practices, most are too dangerous. It's better to fight them before they get worse.
Teeth? are weak to all standard tooth weaknesses, and develop decay just as quickly as mortal teeth do when exposed to substances like sugar. If baited with a calcium-filled sugary beverage, such as hot chocolate, then nightmarish or starving teeth? may destroy themselves before they become a problem.

It's for the best, really.

— unnamed deity

Additional Information

Social Structure

Don't tell me these things actually have a social structure.

— worried cleric

Don't worry! Teeth? are creatures with a need for communication, but they have no standard social structure, and typically meander thoughtlessly across planes until they come across sapient creatures to whom they can attach themselves.
They will often use their magical dream abilities (did we forget to mention those?) to follow sapient beings around and passively benefit from their emotions for a long time - up to years - before finally revealing themselves.
This approach, naturally, doesn't play well with most forms of social structure. Groups of teeth? regularly coexist, but they have no leaders nor any reason to develop, say, governments.

Aww by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

It would be preferable if it would stay that way.

Facial characteristics

Faces? They can have faces?

— aghast traveller

Yes, dear quote-writer, they can. Bizarrely, some teeth? develop faces. These typically form after long exposure to positive emotions and/or dreams, and pair with the teeth? developing teeth. Most typically, the strange little-to-not-so-little things develop big beady black eyes, and occasionally also little arms alongside them. Opposable thumbs are a terror to behold on any teeth?.
Their faces are almost permanently affixed in smiles, often achingly so. Does this affect them in any way? They don't say.

A Flight Of Teeth? by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Animate Dream

Scientific Name

Teethus teethus

Origin/Ancestry

Dreams

Lifespan

Immortal?

Conservation Status

Don't even think about it.

Average Height

20cm - 7m (or bigger!)

Average Length

Varies proportional to height

Geographic Distribution

• Dimension of Dreams

Tooth?

By all rights, teeth? should be known as tooth? in the singular, or tooth if we're being sensible and stripping confused punctuation out of where it doesn't belong.
Unfortunately for linguists, teeth? are a product of dreams, and dreams are often brought about by the counting of sheep.
Sheep are never known as shoop, and thus teeth? have decided as a whole to never be known as tooth?.
Who let these things make their own decisions on species naming, again?

No. There's no way. These are a damn myth.

— stubborn king

History of Teeth?

Though there's much uncertainty around the origin of teeth?, owing to their status as dream creations and denizens of Reverie, there are at least concrete tales tracking their emergence in other planes.
The courts of Heaven recall well the appearance of pearly white creatures at their pearly white gates, some of whom immediately insisted on building walls adjacent to said pearly white gates until angels intervened.
Demons of the endless Abyss, meanwhile, chuckle with glee over the blackened, rotting behemoth of teeth? they saw rampaging through the endless isles, consuming all who stood in their path. They would enjoy the horror. Creepy fuckers.
It's generally estimated that they've been out of the Dimension of Dreams for around a century now - enough time to populate various Outer Sphere areas with entire civilisations of teeth? to the utter bafflement of presiding deities.
If rumours are true, that will have also been enough time for them to reach the Inner Sphere. The Material Plane is not actually the more worrying of the planes they may arrive upon - the fey are already wicked, terrifying creatures with myths aplenty about teeth.
If teeth? reach the First World, the tale of the tooth fairy will truly become a nightmare!

Sweet Dreams? by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Abilities

As solid and sturdy as they are, teeth? are capable of warping reality around themselves, and frequently do without even realising it. They spread their dreamlike surreality around them like a cape, capturing those nearby in it.
When attacked, even as a supposedly-peaceful non-corrupted teeth?, this dreamlike cape becomes a shield of nightmares. It spawns their attacker's worst nightmare, drawn straight from their psyche.
They have no dreams of their own, and cannot be countered in kind; the only ways to properly fight back are to fight through the fear, or to use what even normal teeth are weak to.

Teething Problems by Hanhula (via Midjourney)