The Archaeologists of Dreams

By Professor Ernest Ancelet, 2E 583

This is how we do Archaeology here. We do not risk our lives in forgotten ruins, trying to avoid bandits, undead, giant spiders and ancient traps. Many esteemed colleagues have died for nothing, and the current state of the world, with the Empire no more and the alliances waging war, makes our job more dangerous than ever. That is why we carry out our research from the safety of our university, sleeping under the sign of the Mask and the Serpent.

The ever-changing Dreamstride is the Great Storage of Memories. All mortals visit it while they sleep and leave something behind for the Keeper of Histories. With Vaermina's blessing, we can make potions that allow us to experience those dreams as if they were our own. We can see what people from other countries and other ages saw, what they loved, what they hated, what they feared. No ruin can offer this kind of knowledge.

The Gifter is generous indeed. I have fought with and against Reman, sailed with Topal the Pilot and witness the construction of White-Gold Tower, among other things.

Sometimes, the youngest in our circle consider our dream expeditions the end of Archaeology.

“We only need to record what we see. Let the dreams speak and history writes itself!”, they say.

They are wrong, of course. Dreams can lie too. They are deformed by imagination, bias and emotion as much as any other source. The Alessia that brings justice and freedom in the dreams of a human slave is also the Alessia that brings destruction and barbarism in the dreams of an Ayleid peasant. We have to interpret what we see and compare it to what we know and what other dreams tell us. That is our job as archaeologists.

It is sad that we must do it in secret. The Lady of Nightmares is the closest god to all mortals, yet most do not appreciate her generosity. Perhaps one day we will be able to share our methods with the rest of the world, and the Mask and the Serpent will be as respected as the Triangle of Julianos. Until that day comes, we will keep working so the dreams of the past are not forgotten.