Editing Nightmare

{{lifeform
|type={{tag+|Cognitive Shadow}}
|sapient=Some
|world=Komashi
|universe=[[Cosmere]]
|books=[[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]
}}
{{spoilers|yumi}}
{{update|yumi}}

'''Nightmares''' are a type of Cognitive Shadow native to [[Komashi]] which emerge from the [[shroud]] to feed on the minds of people while they sleep. They are formed by the souls of dead Komashi people killed by the [[father machine]], and made into its servants. 

== History ==
The Nightmares did not originally exist, they were created by a disaster wherein the father machine killed the vast majority of the inhabitants of Komashi, creating the nightmares as Cognitive Shadows held captive by the machine.{{book ref|yumi|23}}{{book ref|yumi|39}}

Following this disaster, they were kept in a replica of different towns in Torio, to repeat the same day disguised as the people they once were. At night, they were left to travel through the shroud and feed upon the people of various surviving nations, most notably [[Nagadan]]. In response to this, the profession of [[Painter|painters]] developed, in order to turn them into a more harmless shape, and banish them back into the shroud. 

After the father machine was destroyed and the shroud was dispelled, all of the Nightmares, freed from the tyranny of the machine, dissolved into nothingness.  

== Appearance and Behavior ==
Nightmares are inky black creatures that can take on many forms.{{book ref|yumi|3}} They begin as amorphous blobs, but over time, as they feed upon the thoughts and ideas of people, they start to take on more recognizable forms, gradually gaining more and more form as they pick up on more thoughts.{{book ref|yumi|3}} They rarely have faces, the face usually taking on the form of an even deeper blackness, which drips a dark liquid.{{book ref|yumi|3}} They constantly let of a gaseous blackness as they move around outside of the shroud, and if they fail to return to the shroud, they can evaporate away completely.{{book ref|yumi|3}} 

They have to go on multiple trips to a city in order to gain enough substance to be truly dangerous, usually around ten or so trips.{{book ref|yumi|3}} If a nightmare has enough form, it would become something known as a '''stable nightmare''', which are particularly dangerous, and require elite painters in order to neutralize them, known as the Dreamwatch.{{book ref|yumi|7}} Stable enough nightmares have pinprick white eyes dotting their face, and bone-white teeth.{{book ref|yumi|7}}{{book ref|yumi|25}}{{book ref|yumi|40}} 

The shape of a nightmare can be forcibly changed by trying to think of it as a certain form through the focus of painting. This causes them to take on the shape of the painting. The closer the painting is to something they resemble, the more power one has over them.{{book ref|yumi|3}} One can return them back to their human form by making a painting of who they used to be, but this doesn't change them back into a flesh and blood human, and they will still fade away without the shroud.{{book ref|yumi|40}}

Nightmares spend most of their time in the yoki-hijo prisons, hidden away in the shroud. But, when the hold of the machine becomes looser, they are able to wander and travel towards population centres, attracted to the cognitive activity focused at such centres. The reason for their attraction to human cognitive activity, and for feeding upon it to take on form and substance, is due to lusting for the life they lost upon the activation of the father machine.{{book ref|yumi|39}}

== Nature and Abilities ==
Nightmares are usually almost entirely incorporeal, and are able to pass through solid substances such as walls.{{book ref|yumi|3}} Their forms are also unstable, and they constantly let off an inky black gas, if they fail to return to the shroud in order to re-Invest themselves, they will evaporate away completely.{{book ref|yumi|3}} There are stories of nightmares so stable that they begin to take on the colour of flesh,  but the truth of these stories are unknown.{{book ref|yumi|8}}

They are capable of detecting thoughts, most notably fear, and to hide from one, one should think calm and placid thoughts. Fear is also capable of giving it more form and substance, as it feeds on them.{{book ref|yumi|3}}{{book ref|yumi|7}} 

Nightmares are able to feed upon Investiture.{{book ref|yumi|25}}

It is theoretically possible to form a bond with a nightmare,{{wob ref|15528}} although exactly how such a bond would function is unknown.

== Notable Nightmares==
{{for|:Category:Nightmares|a complete list of Nightmares|Category:Nightmares}}
{{columns|
* [[Liyun]]
* [[Gyundok]]
* [[Honam]]
* [[Sunjun]]
* [[Fourth Torish scholar]]
* [[Hwanji]]
* [[Chaeyung]]
}}

== Trivia ==
* Their similarities to the [[Midnight Essence]] are intentional.{{wob ref|15529}}

==Notes==
<references/>
{{partial}}
{{yumi}}
[[category: Nightmares| ]]

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3 doesn't reflect light like ink
3 usually take direct path into the city
3 leave behind black whisps, footprint steaming black vapors (less common), handprint
3 "ink and shadow", seven feet tall is considered tall, legs and arms with too many bends, elongated, (long) fingers
5 legend says they came from sky originally
7 tall enough that she has to bend over inside room. Sinuous, boneless neck. Lupine features, legs bent wrong way and face with snout. Virtually no smoke rising from her. Has eyes�bone white, deep as sockets in a skull. Barely drips darkness from face. ALMOST fully stable. Not formless, not aimless, not harmless. Around ten feedings to coalesce to this level. Only a few more to be fully solid. Thigns like this could slaughter hundreds. Can cause physical harm at this stage. (claws child's face and draws blood). Knife fingers. Bone white teeth. Smiling. Eyes "pull through to some other eternity". Difficulty going through walls, especially claws.
7 Futinoro destroyed by stable nightmares 30 years ago.
25? "wisps of lackness rising and vanishing [...from] something black. Like blood. That evaporated."
25? not understood why they don't leave footprints
25? one that appears arachnoid, 15 feet across with legs stretched out, pin needle eyes
25? can be startled and run from scream
28? Liyun: 11 ft tall, claws that can gouge walls, mouth of actual teeth
29? Liyun: two lupine hind legs, nails on feet tear gouges into pavement, clawed paw
29? they hesitate at seeing ink, and avoid getting near it
29? they fuzz when they want to drain someone instead of just kill?
29? stable nightmare can kill normal person in one swipe
29? stone stacking makes them freeze up
29? fully stable ones are able to make noise (speak, howl)
32? sounds be afraid of Yumi, vulnerable to her
33? Liyun: spiked sides (also mentioned in 29 I think)
36? come to cities when released by the machine, trying to restore their memories
39? town and people continued to play their roles for several days before machine/scholars realized what happened
39? stable ones bigger, more terrible. Always described with claws? Don't transform as easily / vanish when painted. They just shrink back and smolder "like embers" until attention is no longer on them.
39? every strike doesn't instantly kill apparently because many are just wounded
39? Liyun: now fifteen feet tall? Smoky shape like jagged edges of glass
39? they want to be a person again
40? maybe something at the very end here about white inside of the darkness that was Yumi

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/493/#e15524
https://wob.coppermind.net/events/493/#e15528
https://wob.coppermind.net/events/493/#e15529
https://wob.coppermind.net/events/493/#e15533
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