Fading

Quentriandal is a vast world filled with multitude. A thousand stories are told every day and a thousand more when the sun sets. With such abundance, it is only natural that on occasion some things are forgotten by the Dreamer. This is called the Fading and it strikes places and living beings both, a fate of gradual oblivion.

To Be Forgotten

The Fading strikes when someone or something is forgotten by the Dreamer and the Dreaming-World. People and places that lack anchors or ties with others are the most common victims of Fading. As they begin to Fade, the world begins to forget them. Sleepers don't acknowledge the Fading thing or creature, a little at first but then more and more. Eventually, there is nothing left to bind them to the world and they Fade away.

Fading Masques
The discarded Masques of the Awakened are particularly prone to Fading. When the Sleeper breaks their masque to become an awakened, the Masque has no ties left to the dreaming-world, no purpose at all. Its end is just a matter of time.
Read more about Masques

Places can be forgotten, too. When all whose stories were bound to a place are dead and gone, the place itself is at risk of Fading if it cannot be anchored in some other way. Many ancient ruins remain because they maintain strong stories of Dangerous Ruins or Buried Treasures, and through that remain in the consciousness of Sleepers and the Dreaming-World. Others simply vanish to be replaced as if they never were.

Fading Away

Fading takes time. The process begins with the colors fading away, taking on a sort of mute bleached tone. Sleepers see their masques shrink and begin to grow featureless and smooth, eventually becoming a blank white masks. After all color is gone, the Fading begins to fray at the edges and become indistinct and fuzzy. Sleepers will fail to acknowledge the Fading thing at this point, even at swordpoint - to them, it is too far gone already.
The Awakened can perceive the Fading, but they're not privy to the exact causes or the effect. Something terrible is happening and no one seem to be noticing at all. Rare for something in Quentriandal, the Fading is never part of any narrative or any story - it is the absence of either, absolute loneliness.

Sleepers

The most common victims of the Fading are Sleepers, the many different creatures and people who make Quentriandal their home. Bound by the dream, they are whims to its many moods and attentions: the Fading being the most tragic. Sleepers who are so cut away from all other beings and all other stories are lonely figures, unable to change their fate and unable to comprehend it even as they Fade away.
Read about Sleepers

Reversing Course

The Fading can be halted relatively easily. A Fading sword will begin to solidify again if picked up and used, a Sleeper can rejoin the world if only someone were to speak and know them. Reconnecting these anchors to the world, however, is almost entirely in the domain of the Awakened as only they can see past the fog of forgetfulness that shroud the Fading. For every hundred fading Sleepers, there might be a single Awakened - and not all of them know, understand or even care.
Things that return from Fading will with time resume full solidity, though Sleepers are never quite the same and they tend to make other Sleepers vaguely.. Uneasy.