Foreword on Creatures
From the original edition of Petersen’s Field Guide to the Creatures of the Dreamlands. While dreaming, you or I might notice a huge staircase leading enticingly down, out of ordinary dream, down the seventy stairs of light slumber, down into the Cavern of Flame. In this flickering chamber dwell Nasht and Kaman-Thah, hoary priests who have the power to accept the most worthy as initiate dreamers and to send them on, down seven hundred steps more to the Gates of Deeper Slumber and thence through to the Enchanted Woods, a realm of the central Dreamlands. Other places have their own Dreamlands. Earths shadow-land is more linked to us by poetry, beauty, and peril than by time and the shape of continents. On Earth our fancies may seem chimeras of lust and greed; in the Dreamlands, our best dreams create beauty—a golden bowl, new life, a marvelous city, a hidden land. Best of all, our dreams can meet the dreams of others. Nothing could more benefit amateur dreamers and student preternaturalists than a collection of the most important Dreamlands creatures, intelligences, and powers, for that plane is the most accessible to us and (some hold) was made for us. Though we cannot take physical objects with us in our dreams, we can take memories. Therefore, dreamers, study well these pages. They discuss a range of Dreamlands entities, those of most benefit or concern to humans. The entries are identical in approach: a general discussion, notes on habitat, distribution, and life and habits, and hints for distinguishing the creatures and beings in this book. An accurate illustration portrays each (videotapes of dreams are yet to be released, despite promises from the Windthrope Institute). Included are perspectives of the Underworld and of the Dreamlands surface. A scientific key helps distinguish the lifeforms, as do height comparisons and secondary illustrations. A bibliography and recommended reading list complete the text.
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