Dreamkeepers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The entire cast of main characters so far[when?] seen in the graphic novel.

All Dreamkeepers have a power… But in the city of Anduruna, powers have been outlawed. 'Infractors' face the regulatory force of the shock troopers. Because in a perfect city, there is no place for violence, and the nightmares of legend can be safely dismissed as ancient fiction.
…Until now.

—Dreamkeepers intro page

Dreamkeepers is an independent comic series produced by David and Liz Lillie. It tells the tale of a small group of young Dreamkeepers, beings who live in a dream world parallel to ours and only glimpsed in dreams. Each one is tied to a human on earth, yet they are as ignorant of us as we are of them. Even so, their mere existence protects our dreaming minds from the Nightmares, villainous creatures who despise all life and wish for nothing more than its destruction. And if a Dreamkeeper is killed in the dream world, the Nightmares can attack their human counterpart unhindered.

To prevent this, the Dreamkeepers all have a unique power to protect themselves and their friends. For many years, they have used these powers to fight back against the Nightmares and finally managed to defeat them in a great battle long ago. However, Nightmares never die, and generations of peace have bred complacency among the Dreamkeepers, even going so far as to outlaw the use of their powers. And it's only a matter of time before the Nightmares return.

Dreamkeepers also has a Web Comic, called Prelude. It depicts the childhoods of the main characters (save for Bast who's yet to show up) and is much more light-hearted than Dreamkeepers itself. Even though everyone apparently had a rotten childhood. Mace and Whip live in a run-down orphanage run by a cantankerous old sailor, while the sisters Namah and Lilith deal with their own problems of life as the daughters of the Viscount, elected leader of their city. And then there's Bast, who apparently has it worse than anyone (though it's yet to be shown in Prelude).

The comic doesn't exactly have a set genre. The author himself admits on the Intro page that "[Dreamkeepers] has been described as fantasy, as sci-fi, horror, humor, action, anime, Disney, etc." though he does not nail it down as any of these. Suffice to say, it's been well-received by many and the art itself is phenomenal. Give it a look.

This has a character page now. Please contribute.

Tropes used in Dreamkeepers include:
  • Abusive Parents: Grunn and Viscount Calah, though in vastly different ways; Grunn is physically abusive, while Calah shuts Namah in and isolates her from the outside world.
  • Action Girl: Lilith, Namah, Tinsel.
    • While only appearing in Prelude, Vi is quite possibly the most qualified. At least, if her ability to knock out a boy close to twice her size by doublefisting pillows is anything to go by. Apparently it isn't a very uncommon thing for her to go "Vi-Zerk", either...
    • One must also remember, however, that once she gets her powers (and even before) Namah is able to fight head-to-head with an experienced power user like Tinsel.
  • Adults Are Useless: Mostly played straight as an arrow in Prelude, especially when Mace and Whip are the focus. Averted in the graphic novels, with several competent adults in the story.
    • Well, there is Mr. Nibbs in the Novels. And that other Teacher who blamed Mace for the fight, despite the fact it was Bast who threw Mace into a locker.
      • With the latter, he still didn't look very happy at all with Bast. Bast probably just needed his bloody nose treated before he got punished too -- And of course, the teacher who broke up the fight only entered just in time to see Mace punch Bast. That teacher wasn't there for the full fight. However, Nibbs is still, for all intents and purposes, useless. (Then again, on that note, it was hardly a fair matchup -- He only had nonlethal guns. Mace and Whip had cunning and the agility of youth; as well as a very convenient ceiling vent.)
  • Air Vent Passageway: Namah is quite fond of this trope, although Mace and Whip have used it from time to time.
  • All There in the Manual: The main comic website contains a library's worth of information detailing many subjects in the fantasy world, from technological advancements to Dreamworld marriage traditions. Stuff that probably won't show up in the books.
  • Alpha Bitch: In Prelude, Stacephanie and her Girl Posse Triffany, Ashleybelle, and Leslieanna. They focus on belittling Lilith, but will turn on each other if necessary.
  • Exclusively Evil: the Nightmares exist to destroy humanity and the Dreamkeepers.
  • And Man Grew Proud: The beginning of Volume Two has an excerpt from the historical volumes of one Nainso Ziska II, esq., giving a brief summary of the events of the last novel.
  • Attention Whore: Mace, Whip and Namah, especially in Prelude.
    • The setting is Lilith and Namah's Prelude. Tinsel is walking through a very large room, with several bickering politicians a little to the side of her path. She detours right into the center of the crowd, only to lament that she's "busy", and walks off. And considering her usual wardrobe choices, the latter word in this phrase is decidedly appropriate.
  • Badass Bookworm: Lilith
  • Badass Crew: See Five-Man Band below.
  • Badass Longcoat: Namah's signature article of clothing, for all appearances.
  • Badass Normal: Without using his powers, Mace is able to survive several monster attacks and collapse a temple with his bare hands.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Varies between characters, but the majority are examples of this.
  • Beautiful All Along: Lilith is called ugly by her more popular peers in the webcomic, but eventually grows into a girl pretty enough to cause a rivalry between two of the main characters. See Love At First Sight.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: If Tinsel doesn't qualify, with her deceptive nature, manipulation games, inner cruelty and absolutely evil personality, then it's hard to imagine who does.
  • Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Spring-loaded rifles.
  • Butt Monkey: Narp.
    • Poor Mace has wavered back and forth between having it better or worse than Narp. For one thing, while he's apparently never had any luck with the fairer sex, Whip is a literal chick magnet. Literal, because he's so cute that it's rare for him to be able to go into town without getting a great… Big… Hug. Not that he seems to mind.
  • Big Bad: Void
  • Big Damn Heroes: In Prelude: Essentially. To condense what leads to it, a drunken, enraged Grunn, after losing most if not ALL of his fishing boats, finally gets so angry that he just snaps and starts throwing the orphans several meters out to sea so that they'd be forced to bring them back. (Admittedly, he had few choices left to get his boats back, his only viable means of making money was selling the catch brought in by those boats, and he had just been repeatedly hit in the face with an oar...) Vi, who somehow avoided Grunn, swims all by herself out to the other orphans (Who are just hanging out on an overturned boat, apparently forgetting that Grunn is waiting for them on land...), putting herself in danger. Why would she do something so reckless? To tell the others that the tide is going out and that the boat is riding lower. If she had shown up much later, the roughly six or seven guys just chillin' out would have been stranded at sea and, eventually, drowned.
  • Celestial Deadline
  • Children Are Innocent: Played straight with Paige and Lilith. Averted with Namah, especially in Prelude where the guards call her a monster and her father calls her evil.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Small, though bound to make a bigger bang in due time. In Prelude, Bobby is apparently just an orphan seeking to find a better future for himself; he actually tends to vanish from the mind due to his long absences from the orphanage. However, when he gets a suspicious mention by the Indigos during a meeting with Igrath and Scinter, one really starts to wonder...
    • The fact that he was seen in Prelude using his Power doesn't help alleviate suspicions. Even if it was on such a small scale that it's impossible to tell what his Power actually is, this is something that would probably get Bobby exiled if he was caught. (Which he almost was.)
    • Actually, at the point the series is actually in, Bast could qualify. His only appearance in the first Volume is starting a fight with Mace. Things start to change in Volume Two, though. (It comes off as more of an example of this trope when you look at things purely from the perspective of someone who's only read the graphic novels.)
    • To many, the girl that was sacrificed at the beginning of Volume One is simply a nameless mystery-girl. However, those who don't recognize her at all are advised to take a look at the Cast Page for Namah and Lilith's part of the Prelude webcomic, and scroll down to the section for students. Yes -- Jeneviv. Mind not blown yet? Go to page twenty-eight of Volume One. Focus on Mace. Then, look around behind him. There's a startled-looking girl about to duck into an alley. And here, we've found Kalei. When you piece all of this together, you can tell that something is up.
      • As if there weren't enough Gunmen, we find a fellow that we thought we knew about right on time, but whose early appearance we actually missed. On the exact same page we find Kalei, we find Ravat, of all people. The Conspiracy indeed.
      • Not to mention one of the Indigos.
    • First panel of page 85 in the second volume, Nainso Ziska (Director of Executive Relations, introduced in strip 123 of the prelude) can be seen a little to the left of the overturned cart - and he's sporting a faint blue halo.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Wisp. Well, about half of the time. Otherwise…
  • Constructed World: The Dreamworld, and it is done beautifully.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: Mace and Whip.
  • Crash Into Hello: How Mace met Lilith.
    • How Lilith meets any love interest.
      • Not just the first meeting, either.
  • Crazy Awesome: Spring-action rifles that can pierce stone walls, teleporting squid that are used in a public transit system, and if old exploration reports mentioned once or twice on the site are to be believed, possbily still out there somewhere, in the coastal seas to the south, is an all-female, entirely nude crew.
  • Dark Lord: Void
  • Dead Little Sister: Paige, Best friend to Mace and Whip, is horribly, gruesomely murdered. Mace swears to find the one responsible.

Mace: I'll find that thing… And I'll kill it. I promise.

Woods: Huh… I think that's the first time I've actually seen under her tail…
Damon: Underwear today.

    • Namah as well.

Namah: So does the falling off a cliff routine work a lot?

  • Deliberately Monochrome
  • Eldritch Abomination: Lord Void. His servants are not much better.
  • Executive Suite Fight: Namah and Tinsel duke it out in the gigantic tower in the middle of Anduruna.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Igrath. Justified, in that he is blind. However, he can do pretty much anything (run through corridors, pick up other characters, bandage wounds, etc.) as if he could see.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Tinsel usually just walks around the Sabbaton Towers in her underwear. Strangely, when meeting with an associate she puts on a small robe to cover herself… But by the next day, she apparently didn't have the time to find another robe before walking through the middle of a construction zone, filled with workers, while wearing only lingeree.
    • Indi and Digo Marrallang, more commonly known as The Indigos, are a bit more...Active, in this particular department.
  • Fictional Sport: Fallguard
  • Five-Man Band:
    • The Hero: Mace
    • The Lancer: Whip
    • The Smart Guy: Lilith
    • The Big Guy: Bast
    • The Chick: Namah
    • The roles of said Five-Man Band are arguable at this stage in the story. Not perfectly defined as of yet, but one thing is certain - Namah is definitely not The Chick.
      • Lilith is more suited for the duties associated with The Chick, Namah seems to be alternating between the roles of other characters depending on the plot points
  • Funetik Aksent: Grunn. Whip might also fit this trope, though that is more a case of him talking utter gibberish only Mace can understand.
  • Gentle Giant: Igrath Winters, Lilith and Namah's uncle. Although, he has shown a few times that one shouldn't underestimate him at anytime. The whole ripping-a-teleportation-system-out-of-the-floor thing, and the whole throwing-said-teleportation-system-over-his-shoulder-and-out-the-door-to-clobber-some-Shock-Troopers thing, should be enough evidence to make this case.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Lots, actually.
      • Don't know if this counts, since there is no radar to sneak crap past.
      • It could probably count, since their used to be a radar before David went into business for himself.
    • "I'm invited to one of Dad and Tinsel's pool parties?!!" "Err...no. Not ever."
    • Counselor Tinsel is able to push through any initiative she wants.
    • "Dude! Hot chicks want beads!"
    • The fantasies of Woods and Miss Muliebral in Prelude's garden story arc. Robust companionship indeed!
      • "Surely there must be some way I can repay you!" "Yeah hold on, I've got a list".
    • Word of God says that Volume 3 will feature a strip joint as a setting.
  • Girl Posse
  • Grave Clouds
  • Innocent Prodigy: Lilith, at least during Prelude.
  • Insubstantial Ingredients
  • Kill the Cutie: Poor Paige.
  • Killed Off for Real: Safe to say that death in this comic is not to be taken lightly. Word of God states that Deus Ex Machina is not going to happen for anybody. Death is not cheap for any dreamkeeper. Nightmares on the other hand...
    • Jenevive is one Lilith's best friends in prelude comic. She dies via sacrifice in the opening of Volume 1.
    • Paige looks to be rather important right up until she turns into Scenery Gorn and is relegated to Forgotten Fallen Friend.
  • Little Miss Badass: Namah most definitely qualifies, as she got right back up after being hit by Tinsel's hair tendrils, and almost got close enough to lay down some smack (After dodging a rampage of hair attacks right up until a kick). And when she awakened her Power, she very nearly took Tinsel down.
    • However, there are some who probably need more convincing. Powers are identified by halos; when fully activated, the halo is bright, colored, and clear. When, say, being used at minimum potential, it's basically just a ripple above the user's head. When Lilith first tapped into her Power, she needed so much energy to take down a Nightmare that the halo was fully-formed. Namah, however, had her halo at near-complete transparency -- And deflected the experienced Tinsel's attack with one move. And then, almost curbstomped Tinsel, had the latter not dodged. By this logic, Namah's already dangerous Power will be in a whole 'nother league when her halo is fully formed. A haunting thing to realize.
  • Little Miss Snarker: Also Namah.

Namah: Figures…

  • Love At First Sight: Mace and Bast for Lilith.
  • Magic From Technology: The various exotic technological advances available to Dreamkeepers. May be Technology From Magic.
  • Me's a Crowd: Wisp's power.
  • Missing Mom
  • Ms. Fanservice: Tinsel walks around in nothing but lingerie most of the time.
  • Noir Episode
  • Noodle Incident: The mysterious Magenta Incident, perpetrated by Mace and Whip a year before the story starts in the graphic novels. Apparently bad enough to have made the local news, and prime suspect for the reason the Social Learning Center installed non-lethal automated guns.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: The government of Anduruna has outlawed the use of the special Powers that all dreamkeepers have in order to keep the peace. Unfortunately, this also leaves them defenseless against the Nightmares, who just so happen to be quite forgotten by the populace and quite ready for their vengeance…
  • Odd-Shaped Panel
  • One Head Taller: Lilith to Mace.
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Paige gives Mace a trinket pendant that bears her image. As of yet, it serves no purpose aside from giving Mace something to look at as he mourns his dead friend.
  • Prehensile Hair: Tinsel's power
  • Princess Classic: Lilith fits this trope to a 'T' in the books (but not so much in the Prelude). She's effectively royalty, due to her being the daughter of the head of state. So far, all virtue, no vice. She (actually!) sparkled after getting coated with the "snow". She's good and kind -- even to Mace, when he's knocked her down and gooped her (unintentionally) with fish slime… she is nice to him, and even apologizes!
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Mace, Whip, Lilith, Bast and Namah.
  • Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: All the members of the Five-Man Band are under eighteen.
  • Refuge in Audacity: See Crowning Moment of Awesome above.
    • The Shock Troopers, after the "incident" goes down; their leader is trying to mobilize his men to find the culprits:

Commander: How hard can it be!? They're a couple of bright pink, half-naked stripping twins!! Grab any girl who remotely matches that description, now!!
Soldier: ...Yes, sir.

  • The Rival: Bast is this to Mace.
  • Scenery Porn: Good gosh yes! David Lillie draws his comic in all vivid colours imaginable, giving breathtaking life and detail to every single background, from the mundane to the utterly fantastic.
  • Secret Circle of Secrets: The Nightmares and the Dark Dreamkeepers.
  • Secret Relationship: Lilith's father, Viscount Calah, had one of these. It resulted in Namah, so he can be forgiven.
  • Shout-Out: Literally too many to name. From time to time the author does commissioned pieces of characters, which he then often bakes into crowd scenes in the comic. Also quite a few to various other works, such as this particularly hilarious strip from the webcomic.
  • Slasher Smile: Ravat, who apparently cannot form any expressions other than varying degrees of this. Namah also has her moments. (See Shout-Out above.)
  • Small Reference Pools: Center left of page 79; A black cat guy is throwing an empty bottle into a trashcan but the overfilled can spills some trash on ... FONE BONE!
  • Speech Bubbles
  • Split Personality: Wisp, and how!
  • Stripperiffic: The Indigos -- By profession. And rest assured, they won't let anyone soon forget. Tinsel as well, as she tends to walk around in her underwear.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: One of the Indigos. The jury's still out on the likelihood for the other sister to also display this trope.
  • Virgin Sacrifice: This is done in the beginning to summon Void.
  • Wall of Text
  • We Have Become Complacent: Using their powers, the only true defense against nightmares, is grounds for exile.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Don't let the bright colors and cartoon animals fool you. This comic contains violence, blood, suggestive material and swearing.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback: Prelude, though it's technically a Whole Webcomic Flashback.
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