Webcomic / Dreamkeepers

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"All Dreamkeepers have a power… But in the city of Anduruna, powers have been outlawed. 'Infractors' face the regulatory force of the shock troopers. Because in a perfect city, there is no place for violence, and the nightmares of legend can be safely dismissed as ancient fiction.
…Until now".

— Dreamkeepers intro page

Dreamkeepers is an independent comic series produced by David and Liz Lillie. It tells the tale of a small group of young Dreamkeepers, beings who live in a dream world parallel to ours and only glimpsed in dreams. Each one is tied to a human on earth, yet they are as ignorant of us as we are of them. Even so, their mere existence protects our dreaming minds from the Nightmares, villainous creatures who despise all life and wish for nothing more than its destruction. And if a Dreamkeeper is killed in the dream world, the Nightmares can attack their human counterpart unhindered.

To prevent this, the Dreamkeepers all have a unique power to protect themselves and their friends. For many years, they have used these powers to fight back against the Nightmares and finally managed to defeat them in a great battle long ago. However, Nightmares never die, and generations of peace have bred complacency among the Dreamkeepers, even going so far as to outlaw the use of their powers. And it's only a matter of time before the Nightmares return.

Dreamkeepers also has a Webcomic, called Prelude. It depicts the childhoods of the main characters and is much more light-hearted than Dreamkeepers itself. Even though everyone apparently had a rotten childhood. Mace and Whip live in a run-down orphanage run by a cantankerous old sailor, while the sisters Namah and Lilith deal with their own problems of life as the daughters of the Viscount, elected leader of their city. And then there's Bast, who apparently has it worse than anyone (though it's yet to be shown in Prelude).

The series has also garnered enough of a cult following to spawn its own miniature franchise, including the following media:

• Skirmish: Shadow Wars of Anduruna, a tabletop card-battle-game.
• Ascension: The Lost Sun, a tabletop role-playing game.
• The Wayward Astronomer, a licenced spinoff novel by Geoffrey Thomas set in the same universe but before the events of the comic.
• Skirmish: Shadow Wars of Anduruna: A forthcoming video game adaptation of the aforementioned card game.
• Two entire soundtrack albums.
• One or two short animations.

The comic doesn't exactly have a set genre. The author himself admits on the Intro page that "[Dreamkeepers] has been described as fantasy, as sci-fi, horror, humor, action, anime, Disney, etc." though he does not nail it down as any of these. On top of the print and digital versions of the books, the entirety of Volumes 1 and 2 are available to read for free on the official site, with Volume 3 being made available as soon as Volume 4 goes to print. They intend to keep this release schedule for future volumes.

This has a character page now. Please contribute.

Dreamkeepers provides examples of:

• A-Cup Angst: Vi in Prelude, specifically with being taken for a male and insulting her own lack of endowment.
• Abusive Parents: Grunn and Viscount Calah, though in vastly different ways; Grunn is physically abusive, while Calah shuts Namah in and isolates her from the outside world.
• Action Girl: Lilith, Namah, Tinsel, the Indigo Twins...the list goes on.
  • In Prelude, Vi is quite possibly the most qualified. At least, if her ability to knock out a boy close to twice her size by doublefisting pillows is anything to go by. Apparently it isn't a very uncommon thing for her to go "Vi-Zerk", either...
  • One must also remember, however, that once she gets her powers (and even before) Namah is able to fight head-to-head with an experienced power user like Tinsel. She also easily took out three Tower guards in Volume 3.
• Adults Are Useless: Mostly played straight as an arrow in Prelude, especially when Mace and Whip are the focus. Averted in the graphic novels, with several competent adults in the story.
  • Mr. Nibbs in the Novels.
• Aerith and Bob: Namah, Mace, Whip, Bast, Igrath, Scinter, Grunn, Indi, Digo, Viriathus, Woods, Tinsel, Ravat, Wisp, Nabonidus... and Bobby, Lilith, Paige, Bill, Damon, and Randy.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Namah is quite fond of this trope, although Mace and Whip have used it from time to time.
• All There in the Manual: The main comic website contains a library's worth of information detailing many subjects in the fantasy world, from technological advancements to Dreamworld marriage traditions. Stuff that probably won't show up in the books.
• Alpha Bitch: In Prelude, Stacephanie and her Girl Posse Triffany, Ashleybelle, and Leslieanna. They focus on belittling Lilith, but will turn on each other if necessary.
• Always Chaotic Evil: the Nightmares exist to destroy humanity and the Dreamkeepers.
• And Man Grew Proud: The beginning of Volume Two has an excerpt from the historical volumes of one Nainso Ziska II, esq., giving a brief summary of the events of the last novel.
• Another Dimension: The comic takes place in the Dreamworld, which exists as a sort of shield for the human mind.
• Anti-Magic: Nabonidus's prison prevents any power usage within.
• Art Evolution: Over time, the artwork for the background became brighter and more vivid, and the characters became smoother and more segmented in their designs.
• Attention Whore: Mace, Whip and Namah, especially in Prelude.
  • The setting is Lilith and Namah's Prelude. Tinsel is walking through a very large room, with several bickering politicians a little to the side of her path. She detours right into the center of the crowd, only to lament that she's "busy", and walks off. And considering her usual wardrobe choices, the latter word in this phrase is decidedly appropriate.
  • Tendril is as well, siding with Nabonidus because he wants living Dreamkeepers to terrorize. He and Tinsel even bond a little over it.
• The Baby Trap: Tinsel conceived Namah to do this for the Viscount, on orders from Nabonidus.
• Badass Bookworm: Lilith is turning into one pretty quickly.
• Badass Longcoat: Namah's signature article of clothing, for all appearances.
• Badass Normal: Without using his powers, Mace is able to survive several monster attacks and an encounter with Ravat.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Varies between characters, but the majority are examples of this.
  • As stated in Prelude, shoes are optional (in school).
• Beautiful All Along: Lilith is called ugly by her more popular peers in the webcomic, but eventually grows into a girl pretty enough to cause a rivalry between two of the main characters. See Love at First Sight.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: If Tinsel doesn't qualify, with her deceptive nature, manipulation games, inner cruelty and absolutely evil personality, then it's hard to imagine who does.
• Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Spring-loaded rifles.
• Blank White Eyes: Nabonidus, Even in Dreamkeeper form.
• Blob Monster: Tendril. Although he's apparently not slimy, he is amorphous.
• Bluff the Imposter: O'naicul tests whether Bast is telling the truth about Nabonidus, by referring to a handshake with "that pipsqueak." While Nabonidus may actually be kinda short under that cloak, he's usually floating so as to look tall. More to the point, Nabonidus doesn't have hands.
  • While it is revealed in Volume 4 that Nabonidus does have a set of arms underneath his cloak, he rarely uses them, especially not to shake hands with a lowly lackey.
• Butt-Monkey: Narp.
  • Poor Mace has wavered back and forth between having it better or worse than Narp. For one thing, while he's apparently never had any luck with the fairer sex, Whip is a literal chick magnet. Literal, because he's so cute that it's rare for him to be able to go into town without getting a great… Big… Hug. Not that he seems to mind.
• Big Bad: Void is the biggest and most powerful Nightmare seen so far.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Prelude: Essentially. To condense what leads to it, a drunken, enraged Grunn, after losing most if not ALL of his fishing boats, finally gets so angry that he just snaps and starts throwing the orphans several meters out to sea so that they'd be forced to bring them back. (Admittedly, he had few choices left to get his boats back, his only viable means of making money was selling the catch brought in by those boats, and he had just been repeatedly hit in the face with an oar...) Vi, who somehow avoided Grunn, swims all by herself out to the other orphans (Who are just hanging out on an overturned boat, apparently forgetting that Grunn is waiting for them on land...), putting herself in danger. Why would she do something so reckless? To tell the others that the tide is going out and that the boat is riding lower. If she had shown up much later, the roughly six or seven guys just chillin' out would have been stranded at sea and, eventually, drowned.
• Children Are Innocent: Played straight with Paige and Lilith. Averted with Namah, especially in Prelude where the guards call her a monster and her father calls her evil.
  • Slightly justified, because in the course of one arc Namah breaks into the ventilation system, steals knives, and pours hot sauce into one of the guard's eyes.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • In Prelude, Bobby is apparently just an orphan seeking to find a better future for himself; he actually tends to vanish from the mind due to his long absences from the orphanage. However, when he gets a suspicious mention by the Indigos during a meeting with Igrath and Scinter, and he's later revealed to be a member of the Troika.
  • Before Volume 3 was released, Bast could qualify. His only appearance in the first Volume is starting a fight with Mace. Things start to change in Volume Two, though.
  • To many, the girl that was sacrificed at the beginning of Volume One is simply a nameless mystery-girl. However, those who don't recognize her at all are advised to take a look at the Cast Page for Namah and Lilith's part of the Prelude webcomic, and scroll down to the section for students. Yes — Jeneviv. Mind not blown yet? Go to page twenty-eight of Volume One and look behind Mace. There's a startled-looking girl about to duck into an alley, who is none other than Kalei. And she shows up again in Grunn's basement in Volume Three. When you piece all of this together, you can tell that something is up.
  • On the exact same page we find Kalei, we also find Ravat, one of the Indigos and Mr Peaks, the Tower Librarian.
  • First panel of page 85 in the second volume, Nainso Ziska (Director of Executive Relations, introduced in strip 123 of the prelude) can be seen a little to the left of the overturned cart - and he's sporting a faint blue halo.
    • Volume two opens with the historical writings of one Nainso Ziska II, esq. (see And Man Grew Proud above). Theories abound on whether this is the same Nainso Ziska from Prelude or his son from the future.
• The Chosen One: Volume Four heavily implies that Mace is this.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Wisp. Well, about half of the time. Otherwise…
  • Namah during the Prelude
• The Conspiracy: The Nightmares have been working inside the Andurunian government to make the Dreamkeepers easier to conquer.
• Constructed World: The Dreamworld, and it is done beautifully.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Mace and Whip.
• Crash-Into Hello: How Mace met Lilith.
  • How Lilith meets any love interest. Not just the first meeting, either.
• Dark Lord: Void and Nabonidus.
• Deadpan Snarkers: The guards.
  Woods: Huh… I think that's the first time I've actually seen under her tail…
  Damon: Underwear today.
  • Namah as well.
    Namah: So does the falling off a cliff routine work a lot?
• Deliberately Monochrome: The last page of Volume 1, somberly reflecting on the death of Paige.
• Double-Meaning Title: The fifth volume is Assassin's Flaw, which can refer to several key moments that happen; the Troika's Guillotine project, where they kill all confirmed Dark Dreamkeepers, only for Nabonidus to frame them for other unrelated killings and bolster his political power by promising to remove the powers "responsible"; Scinter's attempted killing of Kalei, to prevent the risk of more Nightmares arriving but would also cost them the Troika the chance to summon an army of spirits and which causes infighting in the Troika; and the Mokoi, an assassin Nightmare, is sent after Mace, the potential Chosen One, though its method of marking its targets gives Mace vital time to start travelling to where he needs to.
• Easy Amnesia: Grunn invokes it here, smacking Bobby in attempt to make him forget what Grunn just said. It doesn't work.
• Elective Monarchy: In Andurana the position of Viscount is popularly elected rather than hereditary or appointed like in real life. The history also notes a period in the city-state's history where it was ruled by a king whose title was passed among the "High Houses" prior to the democratic revolution. Prelude comic mentions that Viscount Calah seeks to enact laws that would do away with democratic elections and make him the ruler for life. Given that he's still in charge by the events of main comic, one can safely assume that he succeeded, at least temporarily.
• Eldritch Abomination: Lord Void. His servants are not much better. The Dreamworld page on Nightmares uses the words "Thirsting from beyond time to undo the tapestry of creation," basically confirming that all Nightmares are these.
• Evil Overlord: Nabonidus wants to become this to the Dreamkeepers, and was apparently this in the past.
• Evil Versus Evil: Lord Void and Nabonidus fight over leadership of the Nightmares. They come to a temporary stalemate when neither is capable of overpowering the other.
• Executive Suite Fight: Namah and Tinsel duke it out in the gigantic tower in the middle of Anduruna. Unlike most examples, this is not the Final Battle with the Big Bad. In fact, it's one of the very first fights shown.
• Eyes Always Shut: Igrath. Justified, as he is blind. However, he can do pretty much anything (run through corridors, pick up other characters, bandage wounds, etc.) as if he could see thanks to his keen hearing and by memorizing the layouts of rooms he's been in. A poster at the end of Volume 3 shows his eyes before he was blinded. The reveal of how the Mokoi marks its targets and what one must do to free themselves may be the explaination.
• Eye Scream: Lilith escapes Tendril by ripping his eyes out.
• Face Stealer: Tendril uses the skin of Mr. Peaks as a tactic to horrify Lilith.
• Fake Boobs: If you thought Vi would eventually escape her A-Cup Angst from Prelude, then you had better not be Tendril pinning her down to the ground or you can expect some explosive surprises from her bra.
• Fanservice: This is a furry comic after all. With strippers and a strip club as reoccurring elements. In general there's a lot of focus on the female form in the series and supplementary artwork features semi or complete nudity from both genders.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Some of the Andurunian districts take their stylings from real-life cultures.
  • Kojiki sports "pagoda-littered architecture" and a cultural emphasis on inner balance, reflective of East Asian cultures such as Japan and China.
  • Theophanese has Greco-Roman architecture and is the center of the setting's equivalent of Catholicism.
  • Norvondire contains castles, battlements, and moats, and its people are competitive and chivalrous, a la medieval Europe.
  • Ruskol is the frigid northern district, home to a stoic populous, similar to stereotypes about Russia.
  • Sabbaton is the melting pot of the city, where the cultures of all seven districts mesh and collide. It is also the hub of commercialism and consumerism in the city. This district could possibly be compared to modern-day North America.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Gunpowder was never invented, rather the shock troopers use spring-powered projectile weapons. And said "Springers" are very tightly controlled.
• Fictional Sport: Fallguard, which evidently involves giant foam karate gloves.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted with Paige who is mentioned multiple times in Volume 2 after their death in Volume 1. This remains the case in Volume 3, as Mace angrily calls Randy out for not caring about their death.
• Funetik Aksent: Grunn. Whip might also fit this trope, though that is more a case of him talking utter gibberish only Mace can understand.
• Gentle Giant: Igrath Winters, Lilith and Namah's uncle. Although, he has shown a few times that one shouldn't underestimate him at anytime. The whole ripping-a-teleportation-system-out-of-the-floor thing, and the whole throwing-said-teleportation-system-over-his-shoulder-and-out-the-door-to-clobber-some-Shock-Troopers thing, should be enough evidence to make this case.
• Girl Posse: The girls at Lilith's school in Prelude
• Gorn: Volume 3 shows us exactly what happens when Dreamkeepers who can use their Powers really get rolling. Then we have what Tendril does to his victims.
• Grave Clouds: In the Prelude, Namah's mood.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Averted with everybody. A few female characters are Stripperific, and some male characters don't wear shirts, but almost every character is dressed in a way that would be fairly reasonable in real life. It's clear both genders definitely have naughty bits they need to cover up.
• Holy Halo: When a Dreamkeeper uses their powers, a halo appears over their head, becoming brighter and more distinct the closer the power is to its maximum potential.
  • Nabonidus displays one prominently in volume 4, after the much more subtle ones he sometimes had beforehand and is a big indicator of his origin.
• Honey Trap: Tinsel to the Viscount, apparently at Nabonidus's behest.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The girl at the beginning of Volume 1 is sacrificed in the following manner: a 15-foot-long blade falls, slices straight through her chest, and drags an indeterminate length of chain through the wound after it.
• Innocent Prodigy: Lilith, at least during Prelude.
• Instant Sedation: Tinsel is apprehended with a tranquilizer dart. We get one panel of her being hit, the next panel has the shooter saying she's down, and then next time we see her she's already unconscious.
• Insubstantial Ingredients: In the Prelude. Stacephanie and her crew's makeup is made of depressed rainbows serving out their humiliating punishment for cloud-related offenses.
• I Want Them Alive!: Nabonidus wants Mace alive and with his power awakened. Not all of his minions care.
• Kill the Cutie: Poor Paige and Jeneviv.
• Killed Off for Real: Safe to say that death in this comic is not to be taken lightly. Word of God states that Deus ex Machina is not going to happen for anybody and that death is not cheap for any Dreamkeeper. Nightmares on the other hand...
  • Jeneviv is one of Lilith's best friends in the Prelude comic. She dies via nightmarish ritual sacrifice in the opening of Volume 1.
  • Paige looks to be rather important right up until she turns into Scenery Gorn and relegated to dead little sister.
• Life Drain: Lilith's power drains life energy from her surrounds, which she can use to heal herself and others.
• Love at First Sight: Mace and Bast for Lilith.
• Magic from Technology: The various exotic technological advances available to Dreamkeepers. May be Technology From Magic.
• Missing Mom: The identity of Namah and Lilith's mother(s) is completely unknown, and, of course, there's everyone in the orphanage. It's eventually shown that Tinsel gave birth to Namah and chased off, possibly killed, Lilith's mother.
• Mood Whiplash: It's a story about the antics of brightly colored cartoon animals before the Nightmares entered the scene.
  • A specific example could come from the Prelude, where the comedic banter and chase scene of Namah is followed by her accidentally injuring Bill and seeming rather traumatized by it.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Despite an effective opening attack, the street gang of power-using criminals is still taken down fairly easily by the professional task force with guns.
• Noir Episode: In the Prelude during one of Namah's Imagine Spots.
• The Nondescript: Nainso has the power to make himself this.
• Noodle Incident: The mysterious Magenta Incident, perpetrated by Mace and Whip a year before the story starts in the graphic novels. Apparently bad enough to have made the local news, and prime suspect for the reason the Social Learning Center installed non-lethal automated guns.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Namah implies to Lilith in the Prelude that she intentionally fell off a wall and let herself get caught.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The government of Anduruna has outlawed the use of the special Powers that all Dreamkeepers have in order to keep the peace. Unfortunately, this also leaves them defenseless against the Nightmares, who just so happen to be quite forgotten by the populace and quite ready for their vengeance… Given that it's eventually revealed that some of the key government figures are Dark Dreamkeepers (Dreamkeepers who allied themselves with the Nightmares), this appears to be on purpose in order to make sure there's as little resistance as possible for Nightmares' eventual takeover.
• Odd-Shaped Panel: Both the graphic novels and the prelude webcomic contain several of these.
• One Degree of Separation: Lilith and Namah are daughters of the Viscount, and their uncle Igrath is a key member of the resistance fighting the Nightmares. Mace and Whip are orphans at Grunn's orphanage, who is also a key member of the resistance. Bast is a former member of the Neon Knives street gang, who work for the Nightmares. The five children meet on the first day of school completely independently of these connections.
• One Head Taller: Mace's peers.
• Orcus on His Throne: Void and Nabonidus both after their battle, as they need to recover and are forced to act through their minions to conserve energy. Nabonidus is more active that Void though.
• Order Versus Chaos: This is the philosophical basis of Void and Nabonidus' conflict. Void wants the Dreamkeepers annihilated and everything brought to ruin. Nabonidus wants to rule the Dreamworld instead.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Paige gives Mace a trinket pendant that bears her image. As of yet, it serves no purpose aside from giving Mace something to look at as he remembers and mourns his dead friend.
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • When thought about, Dreamkeepers - a sprawling variety of different humanoid mix-and-match animals - are essentially guardian angels, as their very lives unknowingly prevent Nightmares from terrorizing humans in their sleep. Their Powers are indicated by them generating halos after all, and avian-like Dreamkeepers further parallel winged angels. This would make Dark Dreamkeepers, those working with the Nightmares, in essence fallen angels and is especially true of Nabonidus, a former Dreamkeeper who became a Nightmare and is essentially the setting's version of Lucifer.
  • From the Dreamkeeper's perspective, what they would call angels are the Spirits, said to represent all the aspects of the world and guide Dreamkeepers on pilgrimages to unlock their powers. The one which appeared to Mace even said "Do not be afraid", just like the phrase "Be not afraid", said by angels in the bible.
• Paranoia Gambit: Kalei vows revenge on Stacephanie after the latter tampered with a boy's love letter to Lilith.
  Kalei: You were right Jen... Not only is psychological warfare insidious, it's easy!
• Prehensile Hair: Tinsel's power
• The Quisling: Dark Dreamkeepers like Ravat and Tinsel, who work with the Nightmares for their own gain.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Mace, Whip, Lilith, Bast and Namah.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: All the members of The Team are under eighteen.
• Refuge in Audacity: Multiple:
  • The Shock Troopers, after the "incident" goes down; their leader is trying to mobilize his men to find the culprits:
  Commander: How hard can it be!? They're a couple of bright pink, half-naked stripping twins!! Grab any topless girl who remotely matches that description, now!!
  Soldier: ...Yes, sir.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Tendril speaks in creepy, gore-ridden rhyme. Lilith manages to distract him by offering some constructive criticism, which gets her close enough to pluck out his eyes.
• R-Rated Opening: Just in case you saw the cover of volume one and thought this was going to be child-friendly, the first few pages feature the summoning of an Eldritch Abomination through the death of some poor, poor girl. Fun for the whole family!
• Scenery Censor:
  • When the Indigo sisters are “distracting” the shock troopers Mardi Gras-style in Volume 2.
  • Also, the Prelude arc where Grunn gives up on "pants."
• Scenery Porn: Good gosh yes! David and Liz color the comic in all vivid colours imaginable, giving breathtaking life and detail to every single background, from the mundane to the utterly fantastic.
• Schizo Tech: The presence of powers and flora or fauna with strange abilities has resulted in an odd mix of technologies. Flexible touch-screens exist alongside beast-pulled carts and telepads.
• Secret Circle of Secrets: The Nightmares and the Dark Dreamkeepers.
• Secret Relationship: Lilith's father, Viscount Calah, had one of these. It resulted in Namah, so he can be forgiven. On the other hand, it was apparently with Tinsel.
• Ship Tease: Despite their more blatant attractions to other people, the comic hints at Mace and Namah, with several indications the latter at least has an unaddressed crush on the former. For starters, both are Birds of a Feather with a love for pranks and trouble, Namah takes an immediate interest in him when they first meet at school and she tends to snark at Mace whenever he focuses on Lilith. Volume 5 shows Namah has gained a strong degree of protectiveness towards Mace; despite her skepticism and condensation regarding the situation, Namah is very concerned for Mace's mental health when he claims to be the Chosen One and is determined to make sure he doesn't dangerously strike out on his own. After a Nightmare fight sees Mace end up underwater, Namah jumps in after him out of fear he won't be able to swim (with even the OP's comments implying unspoken chemistry and including a love letter emoji). She later listens in to Grunn telling Mace about the Mokoi, implicitly eavesdropping to understand the danger he's in.
• Shout-Out: Literally too many to name. From time to time the author does commissioned pieces of characters, which he then often bakes into crowd scenes in the comic. Also quite a few to various other works, such as this particularly hilarious strip from the webcomic.
• Slasher Smile: Ravat, who apparently cannot form any expressions, other than varying degrees of this. Namah also has her moments. (See Shout-Out above.)
  • Also Whip, in his Axe-Crazy mode.
• Sleazy Politician: Most of them, it seems, and doubly-so when it turns out some are servants of Nabonidus. Some politicians in the Prelude comment that the Viscount's policies will make it so no one else will be able to be elected in his place, and the only way they'll be able to retain power is by sucking up to him. He's still Viscount by the time of the graphic novels, so it seems he was successful, but it does appear there are new elections being held, and that the Viscount needs to run if he wants to stay in charge.
• Small Reference Pools: Center left of page 79; a black cat guy is throwing an empty bottle into a trashcan, but the overfilled can spills some trash on Fone Bone.
• Spirit Advisor: When by his lonesome in a tunnel, Mace is suddenly approached by an ethereal being, heavily implied to be one of the Spirits other characters bring up, and tells him his power is the key to saving the world and where to find the means to unlock it. According to extra information at the ends of each Dreamkeepers book, this is something the Spirits were said to have done before in the time where powers weren't outlawed, directing Dreamkeepers to go on a "pilgrimage" - it would seem that Mace is one such Dreamkeeper.
• Split Personality: Wisp. It could be argued that she just fluctuates between two extremes, like Freckle from Lackadaisy. Only that it would be way more than just two extremes.
• Squishy Wizard: Nabonidus has some major mystic mojo, but little apparent physical power.
• Stealth Pun: The guard working the reception desk in Volume 3 is based on a secretarybird.
• Stripperiffic:
  • The Indigos — By profession. And rest assured, they won't let anyone soon forget.
  • Tinsel as well, as she tends to walk around in her underwear.
• Swallowed Whole: A giant Nightmare does this to Lilith in Volume 2, fortunately her life transfer power activates and not only kills it from the inside, but weakens its flesh enough that she simply falls out through its stomach.
• Teleportation: The city has a system of telepads that connect the different districts and the central tower. They actually use a floating squid species with the natural ability to teleport though, and were invented by Scinter, which got him arrested so the city could seize the technology. So naturally he built his own network for the resistance.
• Time Stands Still: Randy's power is apparently a time stop ability.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: According to Ravat in Volume 3, a Dreamkeeper will instinctively tap into their power if in danger, as Namah did when fighting Tinsel.
• Trophy Child: Tinsel conceived Namah in order to blackmail the Viscount with an illegitimate child, whom she left on his doorstep.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: One of the Indigos. The jury's still out on the likelihood for the other sister to also display this trope.
• Virgin Sacrifice: This is done in the beginning to summon Void.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Nabonidus uses this to pass himself off as a Dreamkeeper, Candidate Naresh.
• Was Once a Man: Volume 4 reveals that Nabonidus is the result of a Fusion Dance between a Nightmare and a Dramkeeper.
• Webcomic Time: The series began in 2006. As of Volume 3, released in 2013, less than four days have passed.
• We Have Become Complacent: Using their powers, the only true defense against nightmares, is grounds for exile.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Prelude, though it's technically a Whole Webcomic Flashback.
• Worf Had the Flu: Void has not yet fully regained his power. Otherwise he'd crush Nabonidus easily.
• Would Hurt a Child: Considering the main protagonists are teenagers, the Nightmares and their followers have no bones trying to off them. In an effort to force Mace to use his Power in Volume 3, Ravat admits to being the one who murdered and mutilated Paige in cheerful recollection. While there is no conclusive evidence to suggest this whatsoever, Ravat is also believed to have slit Bast's throat when he was a child, who happens to also be his son, along with fatally torturing his own wife.