What Dreams May Come

Stephon (age 10) has a recurring nightmare in which he descends into hell and enters a “temple” to steal something. After he does, he sees a dream version of New City destroyed and streaks of light leaping from Earth to the stars. The dreams disrupt his life and his parents take him to a psychiatrist who in turn refers the family to Prof Mag who brings him to a neurology center for dream engineering and helps him to interpret the dream.

Type: Chapter

Position: STF | 1.1

Setting: 2092 | location

Teaching Points

I was thinking about the role of dreams in the spiritual life and thinking about introducing the mystery of the story that way. Exploration of dreams from a psychological and theological perspective.

Psychology:

• Why Do We Dream? What do they mean?
• Neuro-anatomy of dreams.
• Dealing with traumatic dreams.
• Methods to wipe out traumatic memories (recent research).
• Mental health is a continuum. (De-stigmatizing mental health issues.)
• Conspiracy theories – why we like them. What to do if someone believes one. Has there ever been one exposed?

Theology:

• Dreams in faith traditions.
• The origin of dreams.
• Dream interpretation and symbology.

Table Of Contents

1. Teaching Points
2. Proposed Gameplay
3. Story Outline
4. Meta

Proposed Gameplay

• Player begins in the Nether / SlipSpace and has to find their way or follow an NPC to Azazel’s Fortress.
• Player visits empty version of Azazel’s Fortress in Steve’s dream and has to find their way in to inner chamber (+ voices, “don’t do it”, “turn back”).
• When they activate the nexus in the inner chamber (+ scream) they are teleported to the ruined E-land city in the End.
• They meet an NPC of Steve and have to follow him home (destroyed), then follow him to the school (empty), where they then see the Automaton Hunter and then wake up.

Related Builds

Matheson Elementary School

Azazel’s Fortress

Dream E-land City

Related Stories

Related Projects

Matheson Elementary School

Azazel’s Fortress

Dream E-land City

Story Outline

Story outlines use [7] The Seven Questions and [7] The Shape of Stories frames for their structure.

Why | Theme / Plot Potential

Joel 2:28-32 (fulfilled in Acts 2:16-21).

Alpha | Imperative

Beta | Situation & Setting

The Apartment: 40 85 122 (Sandstone Building just the other side of Central Library [Diamond Building])

Matheson Elementary

Azazel’s Fortress

What (Internal) | Characters

What (External) | Challenge

Can’t talk to dad. He’s a conspiracy theorist and thinks everyone in a closet satanist plotting to take over the world.

Who | Meetings

How | Events

Dream Scene 1: Steve finds himself wandering in Hell (Nether / SlipSpace). Something (sprites or some NPC) leads him towards a huge fortress in a lake of lava. He jumps (teleports across lava sea) into the fortress and finds his way into the inner chamber. A voices he can’t see begin to warn him he should leave. He feels he should go on. In the center of the fortress there’s a nexus. Within is something Steve feels he should take. As he reaches for it, a voice screams shrilly and he’s abruptly ripped away to the next scene.

Dream Scene 2: Now he’s in E-land City, but the city is completely destroyed. He panics and heads home, only to find nothing left of his home. The school is the local shelter, so he decides to check there, but when he arrives its deserted. As he goes to leave, he encounters a Automaton Hunter staring at him. As he goes to scream, he wakes up.

Late for School Scene:

School Daze Scene:

Crux | Climax

Where | Character Review

To What Extent | Connections

Link to Prof Mag’s own vision of a similar thing.

Omega | Moral / Plot Realization

Meta

Research Ideas?

Small Items: Post in the comments section.

Large Items: Create a post and link to in the comments section.

Suggested Keywords:

psychology of dreams, psychology dreams TED, dreams and the brain