Reverie

From Great Library of Greyhawk
Jump to navigation Jump to search
An elf in a state of reverie. Art by Terry Dkystra (1992).

Reverie,[1][2][3] or trance,[2][3][4][5][6] is the elven state of meditation, which has certain sleep-like benefits.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Description

[edit | edit source]

During this state of meditation, elves conduct a series of mental exercises[4][8][5][9] which refresh their bodies and minds. During the reverie, elves "vividly relive past memories,"[1][7] including "those both pleasant and painful.[1] They cannot control or predict "which memory will surface" in their reverie.[1][3][10] Though they are similar to dreams, these memories are their real-life experiences, relived with clarity and full awareness.

While they are meditating, elves are aware of the outside world,[1][3][5][7] though breaking meditation in response to external events has an effect similar to disturbing the sleep of any other humanoid.[1][7]

Elves can use any comfortable surface to sit or lie down on to undergo reverie.[11]

"Elves rarely close their eyes when they “sleep” unless there is a bright light present; thus, some have a “faraway” look in the evenings, and their companions are misled into thinking elves don’t sleep or rest at all."[7]

"They relax their bodies entirely, each muscle losing its rigidity, until they are absolutely calm. Their faces relax into a dazed and distant look as if they were seeing another land or another time."[1]

Some elves experience memories of past lives in reverie.[3] Children's first reveries don't come from their own memories; they come from the "past adventures of the elf's immortal soul." The first time a child relives an experience of their own is called the First Reflection, and it marks their transition into adolescence. As an elf ages into adulthood, they have increasingly fewer past life memories; this is called the Drawing of the Veil. When an elf becomes aged, they go through the Remembrance (also called the Revelation), which is more other-life memories outside their own than it is past-life memories, and most often marks the time in an elf's life when they withdraw and begin to feel a call to retreat from the world.[12]

The ability of elves to go into reverie, instead of sleep, is the explanation of why they can shrug off magical sleep-like effects.[1][7] In 2024, this is made explicit in the Player's Handbook, and the elven species' trait of sleep-immunity is specifically not something in addition to their trance, it is part of their trance.[9][note 1]

Other types of trance

[edit | edit source]

Astral elves can draw on a larger, broader shared memory from other elves, using their memories to allow them to choose to use skills or talents from those memories they wouldn't otherwise have.[13]

A rare few elves take on the unpleasant memories of their fellows, sacrificing themselves so that they relive those memories instead. They bear this burden for the greater good of other elves.[1] It is a task they perform intentionally, and they "draw into themselves the suffering of their people".[1]

In fourth edition, elves don't have a trance feature, though eladrin do.[14]

Sleep

[edit | edit source]

"Elves do not sleep as humans, dwarves, and other races do."[1][4] "Though they can enter that state if they desire."[1]

Though elves are highly resistant[15][16] or even immune[5][6][8] to magical sleep effects and spells, this does not mean that they are physically unable to sleep.[1][17] Elves are sometimes able to sleep if they desire, though they almost always rest in a state of reverie, which takes half the time for the same benefits of sleep.[4][5][5][6][18] As such, elves very rarely sleep, and usually only do so when they are severely ill, wounded, or exhausted.[17]

Among the races of surface elves, true sleep is most commonly entered by priests and followers of Sehanine Moonbow, the Elven goddess of mysticism, dreams, death, and the moons. Worshipers of Sehanine enter the sleep state specifically to dream, hoping to receive visions from the deity, and consult her priests to help them understand and interpret these dreams.[19] When elves do dream instead of entering reverie, their dreams are often considered peophetic[1]

References

[edit | edit source]

Notes

[edit | edit source]
  1. ↑ In the Player's Handbook 2014, elves have both "Fey Ancestry" (which includes effects relating to both sleep and charm) and "Trance", but in the Player's Handbook 2024, "Fey Ancestry" still covers charm-resistance, while the species trait describing their immunity to sleep is moved to "Trance", combining them saying, "You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep."

Citations

[edit | edit source]
  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o PHBR8 The Complete Book of Elves (1992), p.34.
  2. ↑ a b c Races of the Wild (2005), p.5.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018), p.37.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Player's Handbook (2000), p.16.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Player's Handbook (2014), p.23.
  6. ↑ a b c d Player's Handbook (2024), p.190.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f "The Elven Point of View".  Dragon #60 (Apr 1982), p.7.
  8. ↑ a b Player's Handbook v3.5 (2003), p.16.
  9. ↑ a b Player's Handbook (2024), p.189.
  10. ↑ Races of the Wild (2005), p.7.
  11. ↑ Forsaken House (novel) (2004) , 7.
  12. ↑ Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018), p.37, 38.
  13. ↑ Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (2022), p.10, Astral Adventurer's Guide.
  14. ↑ Player's Handbook (2008), p.38, 40.
  15. ↑ Player's Handbook (1978), p.16.
  16. ↑ Player's Handbook (1989), p.29.
  17. ↑ a b Forsaken House, p.322.
  18. ↑ Races of Faerun, p.26-27.
  19. ↑ Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018), p.38, 47.

Bibliography

[edit | edit source]
This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Reverie on the Forgotten Realms Wiki (view authors.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic Type Description Product Page/Card/Image

Quill of Bleak Reverie Item Dragon magazine #249 42-43
Retrieved from "https://www.greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/index.php?title=Reverie&oldid=102143"