The Nightmare is a force of fear and all the horrors that come of fear, enfleshed in thousands and millions of nightmare creatures, some more ghost than physical flesh. It is the one true villain of the Anidril System/Areaer Setting. There may be other antagonists, but the Nightmare is the Enemy.

Here are a few of the nightmare monsters. I will be adding more as I get more art. This page is still very much under construction.

Another note on the Nightmare that I wish to make, since this is (validly) an issue for some people is that the nightmare monsters are not races or species of their own. There may even be real races or species, with the nuance and good and evil implied by that, that are similar or partially inspired by the same mythological creatures as some of these nightmare monsters somewhere out in the universe (I already know of one, but I have not shown it in any of my stories yet). There are basically two philosophies as to what a nightmare creature is, though these may be blended in any way, and there are a number of other schools of thought which are rather more boring – such as simply considering them as denizens of hell or the netherhells – and there are probably some obscure schools of thought which might come to light sometime, too.

One philosophy is that the nightmare monsters are not properly entities or creatures at all, but the fears and bitterness and rage of sentient beings (which, in this universe, includes almost anything) taken form and wrecking havoc.

The other philosophy is that the nightmare monsters are such sentient beings who have gone so far down the road of embracing evil, or letting themselves be overcome by and submerged by fear and the things that come of fear, that there is essentially no personality or ability to choose left to them, and often very little mind.

Also, be aware that, in this context, ‘fear’ has a specific meaning and does not include everything that is sometimes referred to by that word.