The Vision of Dread Feeds on Your Terror

It's perfectly natural to be anxious or uncertain about a thing to do, or a course of action. To hesitate is the body's way to pull you back from an action, let you think it through just one more time, then to make certain. There are many times that this feeling gets the best of a person. I know that feeling all to well.

The feeling of unwelcome uncertainty is present in many living things. When a feeling or way of thinking unites thinking people, it creates one of The Keepers. Beings both immense and ancient, and perfect embodiments of the concepts that birthed them. The Conversing Titan knows every word said in the tracts of history and The Bearer of Disintegration watches the passage of time, uncaring. Keepers are usually immense beings, but not all.

Vision of Dread

It slinks silent behind your senses, ready to strike - Dream Eater by Daarken

It is terror. That uneasy feeling that most people get in a moment of danger or an uncomfortable social encounter is the fuel that feeds the Vision of Dread.

Many of the other Keepers have immense humanoid shapes. There is a small number, the ones descended from older concepts, who take on the shapes akin to animals we would know. The Aspect of Determination is the great illuminated wolf, while the Vision of Dread is shrouded, winged cat. It's bigger than a house cat, with a surprising strength and immense will. Its wings are a great shroud over its back that grant it immense lift and speed as it goes.

One of the first Keepers in existence, operating as a guide for mortals to avoid an undesirable fate. At first. As civilisations grew more and more complex, so did the things that people feared. Tribes, and the earliest gatherings of people hunted and felt the uncertainty of food and shelter. In modern times, and the times that Dungeons and Dragons games are set, fears about making ends meet and keeping up appearances can become very real. It's these fears that the Vision feed on.

The surprisingly small size of this Keeper is its greatest boon in how it hunts. While most Keepers silently watch as mortals come to grips with the various things that they oversee, the Vision of Dread actively seeks to cause fear and unease, and feeds on the excess of that feeling. As a person becomes more scared, they have to consciously will themselves through it. In the meantime, the Vision hangs from the person's back and takes the excess fear and uncertainty for its own.

Creeping Chill

The existence of this Keeper sets many people on edge. The spreading and bringing of anxious feelings at best, and immense, unshakeable fear at worst, this Keeper is a creature to be avoided, and has made it in the bad light of many culture's myths.

Vision of Dread Stats generated with Homebrewery

The age and expertise of this Keeper is also extremely valuable. It has fed on the fears and unease of every thinking being across history. It knows what everyone hates and mistrusts. In the right circumstances, it can weasel and extort anything out of anyone, using their fears to blackmail or torture.

Players may be under the thumb of the Vision of Dread without their knowledge, slowly feeling the effects of the fear aura. Ideal for a game with high realism and heavy grit themes. They may also find themselves pitted against the Keeper, who has installed themselves in a position of power, with those gripped by fear to do its bidding.

Now we want to hear from you. How will you include a creature this understandably terrifying creature in games you GM? What fears do your characters have that the Vision would find irresistible? Let us know in the comments below or on our discord server.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.