Onirarch

An onirarch (pronounced /ˈoʊnərɑrk/; also spelled oneirarch), or "dreamlord", is a member of the elite caste of the onirarchies who benefit from the dream energy gathered from the masses of the citizens. The term is somewhat ambiguous: sometimes it refers to only the actual leaders of the nations, at other times it refers to those who work magic fueled by the stolen dream energy (who may or may not be the political leaders), while at other times it is used to refer to any of those who, with the leaders' sanction, knowingly benefit from the dream drain, which may include categories as diverse as local leaders, friends and family of the leaders and spellcasters, and on rare occasion even people who discovered the onirarchs' plans and were allowed to share in their lifestyle to keep them silent. (It is not, however, generally used to refer to agents and employees of these people—the servants and spies that the onirarchs have working for them—even though they do also benefit indirectly from the stolen dream energy and also know of the onirarchs' plans.)

Compared to the common people whose dreams they despoil, the onirarchs (whichever definition one uses) generally live lives of luxury. Sometimes the onirarchs live in completely different ways than their victims, as notably in Risinien, when the onirarchs and their servants are the only inhabitants of the nation to retain human form. At the other extreme is Xolia, where the onirarchs and the other citizens share the same hedonistic lifestyle, largely indistinguishably... except that the onirarchs are not killed on reaching adulthood to harvest their ghosts as undead dream engines. Most onirarchies fall somewhere in between; the dreamlords are a privileged class, living apart in rich dwellings, attended by servants, and enjoying comforts and exotica unavailable to the common man (except perhaps on the black market). They do occasionally pass among the people, but they live on a different level.

Becoming an Onirarch

The first onirarchs became onirarchs by being the first onirarchs—that is, by founding an onirarchy, by skimming off the dream energy of an area's people and using that to gain power and get themselves declared leaders. It's still possible for new onirarchies to be formed that way today; there is still some area not claimed by developed nations, and it's possible in principle for someone in that nation to follow the path forged by the dreamlords of the past. In fact, this has actually happened recently, in the formation of the "savage onirarchy" of Rronga.

In an existing onirarchy, however, the most common way that one becomes an onirarch is by being related to the existing onirarchs. The onirarchs form something of a closed community, and generally court and marry among themselves—it has sometimes happened that an onirarch falls in love with a "commoner" and introduces him or her into the ranks of the onirarchs, but this isn't at all common. It also sometimes occurs that an onirarch can befriend a commoner and decide to bring him into the elite, but this, too, is rare—the onirarchs just don't typically mix with the hoi polloi enough to form such relationships with them. Still, this is more likely in some onirarchies than others—it's far more probable in a nation like Ivinii or Drithidiach or the aforementioned Xolia where the onirarchs actually do interact with the people than in one like Plakhán or Risinien where the onirarchs live completely apart.

There are other ways of becoming an onirarch, but they are, if anything, even less frequent. Sometimes an onirarch might decide to elevate a particularly favored servant into the life of the privileged. As mentioned above, it has also happened that some individuals who somehow learned of the onirarchs' nature were inducted into their ranks themselves to buy their cooperation, but this isn't normal—more often such people are likely to be quietly disposed of or turned into zombies, unless an onirarch is for some reason particularly fond of them.

Law Among the Onirarchs

In general, the laws of the common people do not apply to the onirarchs—even if the dreamlords may pretend they do in order to give the commoners an illusion of safety and control and keep them docile. Though there are exceptions, in most onirarchies a dreamlord who decided to torture or otherwise mistreat a common person would not be disciplined or even chided for it. As far as most onirarchs are concerned, the commoners exist only for their power and amusement.

Though they can ignore the commoners' laws, however, that doesn't mean the onirarchs are above any laws. Other onirarchs may not care if commoners are hurt or inconvenienced—but they do if they themselves are. Depending on the nation, there may or may not be explicit laws governing punishments for onirarchs who damage other onirarchs; sometimes the ranks of the onirarchs may be too few for such rigor to be necessary. It's certain, though, that an onirarch who goes against the interests of his superiors will be punished, and that includes going against the interests of the onirarchs as a group—an onirarch who tries to champion the common man against his fellow dreamlords is unlikely to last very long.