DoLSymbol.page

Dreamers of Light Symbol

As told by: Dr. Carl G. Jung

As you view the DoL Emblem, in its full representation (as shown on the staircase), you'll note it basically has two distinct parts.
The first, deepest image is the oldest.
And what you'll see there, essentially, is a stylized representation of a head ... two faces in profile, one looking to the left, one to the right.
This dates back in time to the founding of the House, during the first debates between the Illuminated faction and the Freesoul faction.
And you'll recall from your histories, of course, that this debate long preceded the Great Loss, or the opening of the Rifts.
Dreamers of Light was the first Illuminated House. It was founded, initially, as a bulwark in the Chaos, where the Illuminated Dreamers could meet, band together.
The happy, smiling face that looks to the left was devised to portray the Illuminated philosophy. The smile represents the inner joy, the tranquility, of one who is at peace with himself, one who has accepted responsibility for his actions, for good or evil, in the Dream. Because he realizes that the good works we do here, illuminate and glorify our souls. And those good works carry over, have effects, in the waking world of Cloudsbreak.
The face looking to the right, by contrast, is distorted, confused -- at odds with itself. It is the face of one who cannot come to grips with the connection between Underlight and Cloudsbreak. One who hasn't yet realized that our actions here affect the waking world, and so is troubled, confused.
Both faces are portrayed in a single image, a sphere (no accident there!) Because both the Illuminated and FreeSoul philosophies exist among Dreamers who, at bottom, are brothers and sisters, sharing this Dream as they share Cloudsbreak.
The newer part of the Emblem, set out in sharper relief from the older background sphere shape and the faces, represents the House's views on saving souls. That philosophy is a newer one, that was developed as the House, along with the rest of the City, tried to cope with the Nightmare Wars, before the Great Loss.
As the Nightmares first began to attack the City, in force and in great numbers, the debate arose as to how best to fight them. Clearly, the key lay not just in battling the mares' avatars. But rather, in trying to find out WHY the mares were attacking, where they came from, what they truly represent.
As the early Master Dreamwrights studied and debated that topic, two camps quickly developed. I say two. Actually there are three: Imprisoners, Banishers, and Drainers. But the last category every sensible Dreamer shuns as being barbaric, selfish, and cruel.
The scholars-warriors of Dreamers of Light concluded, after studying the question for a time, that there is only one sound explanation for the attacks of the mares. They represent Chaos, Evil Incarnate. Not evil in a vacuum, but the evil for which there is a potential in all of us. Our "dark side," if you will. And it is this capacity for evil and chaos in us, which the mares use to trap innocent Dreamer souls that float adrift in the Chaos. Those souls have yet to find their way into the Dream. They have yet to achieve the level of enlightment and skill necessary to find their way to the Courtyard of Awakening, and thence to the City. And drawing upon the bits of evil within those souls (for every soul has both the capacity for good and for evil), the mares wrap themselves around those innocent souls. They entrap them. Then they come here, to the City, where -- continuing to draw on the evil portion of the trapped Dreamer soul within them -- they do battle with us here. Thus, our fight against the mares is indeed a continuing, never-ending struggle for good and evil.
When we succeed, temporarily, in each such battle, the forces of good have triumphed. The mare avatar is collapsed. What is left behind is the mare essence, filled with energies of the sort that we Dreamers recognize as our own. (That of course is what the barbarians who drain essences are extracting, selfishlly, for their own temporary benefit -- those Dreamer soul energies.)
Our scholars developed the art of Imprison Mare. And later, each House developed their Prime Artifacts, to expedite the Imprisonment process. We separate the innocent, trapped dreamer soul from the corrupted residue of the mare avatar that's been collapsed. We imprison that mare essence. And the innocent, unawakened Dreamer soul is freed to return to where it belongs. There, we hope, it will eventually find its way here to the City. To become a productive citizen, to aid us in rebuilding the City, and to help in the struggle of good against evil.

This is what explains the second part of our House Emblem. For what you see there, in those two sharply defined, slashing curves, represents that moment of glory, of triumph, when the mare essence is imprisoned. The lower curve, with its opening pointing down, represents the mare essence being imprisoned. The upper one, with its open side pointing to the heavens, represents the Dreamer soul being freed. And the fact that both are open represents the ongoing, continual nature of this struggle between good and evil.