Artume

Artume, God of Nightmares, also known as The Nightmare’s Heart, was a god of the Dark Pantheon, and ruler of the Nightmare Realm.

Appearance & Location
Artume manifested itself as the Nightmare’s Heart, a creature resembling a heart, with a skin that looks and feels like patchwork of various shades of red. The heart had several oval openings which are its eyes, which glowed bright red.

The Heart was located at the Nightmare Palace in the Nightmare Realm. The Palace was filled with what seemed like patchwork veins, which ultimately were connected to the Heart. Within the palace, the beating of the Nightmare’s Heart could be heard coming from the walls and veins. The Heart itself hanged in the celling of Atrume’s throne room.

If it wished to, the Heart could assume a humanoid form, known as the Nightmare King, and travel within the realm or outside of it. This humanoid form appeared as a floating crimson cloak, which had no face but a white mask with red eyes. When in this form, the Heart would remain in the throne room, however its eyes would be closed.

Strength
Artume was considered one of the weaker gods, since its normal form, the Heart, was not particularly mobile or capable of inflicting harm, nor its humanoid form.Artume’s true strength came through its influence of mortal and lesser beings, through the nightmare realm. Whenever a being had a “bad dream”, Artume was able to absorb the energy of this dream as “Nightmare Essence”, which it could then use to empower his army of spawns, known as the Nightmare Kin. These beings could then enter the dreams of lesser beings to influence them and gain more Nightmare Essence, which strengthened the Heart.

However, this process was not enough to place Artume amongst the powerful gods of its pantheon, however it did give it enough power to prolong the existence of the Nightmare Realm.

The Cult of Artume
Artume’s followers organized themselves as the Cult of Artume, or the Church of the Nightmare. It existed for as long as nightmares have, however it was a small organization and not very well-known.