Do Chimera dream?

[princeofcincinnati]

And if they do, can they be used by cantrips like traveling through dreams.

[zenten]

I imagine most sentient chimera do, but I don't recall anything canonical about the subject.

[PookaKnight]

I don't think it's a question that's ever been answered in a book. If I were GMing a game that it came up in, I'd probably say they don't dream. They are the manifestation of mortal dreams and don't have free will the way Kithain and Gallain do. I don't think they'd be able to create dreams themselves.

[Davesknd]

I'd say it like this: Sentient ones can but it doesn't amount to anything. They have a personality, they have hopes, ideas and therefore they see things when they sleep. But it's not "dreams" in the sense that it does what moral dreams do. Their subconscious doesn't shape the world around them. They are (to be a bit pretentious) the shadows that mortal and changeling minds throw and as such, they can't throw shadows themselves.

[PookaKnight]

They are (to be a bit pretentious) the shadows that mortal and changeling minds throw and as such, they can't throw shadows themselves.

Oh, that’s a really good way to put it!

[zenten]

I don't think it's a question that's ever been answered in a book. If I were GMing a game that it came up in, I'd probably say they don't dream. They are the manifestation of mortal dreams and don't have free will the way Kithain and Gallain do. I don't think they'd be able to create dreams themselves.

So does that mean the Kithain could only dream after adopting the Changeling Way?

[PookaKnight]

That’s a good question. It seems pretty thematic to the game to say that’s the case, but the Kithain and Gallain are so much more than chimera, metaphysically speaking. I’d say it probably ought to be an ST’s call based on the needs of whatever’s going on in the chronicle that would raise the question.

[zenten]

I just thought now that we have an example in C20 of a type of chimera becoming a changeling it sort of settled that issue with "yes, changelings are just chimera who went through the Changeling Way"

[PookaKnight]

It was a much more involved process than "a chimera undergoes the changeling way." The chimera had to actually become Kithain first.

There's a reason the wolpertinger quote is so melancholy. They have an awareness now they couldn't even conceive of when they were still chimera. Using Davesknd's analogy above, it's like a shadow managing to step off the wall into the third dimension. Making that transition wasn't easy or painless. The Mists obscure what they had to do to make it happen, but they feel the loss from it keenly.

[Davesknd]

I think you can imagine it a bit like this: A chimera is a being of endless fragility but also endless potential. Banality ends their existence, but at the same time, through dreams, they are always growing, changing and evolving as their story gets told and re-told again and again. As changelings they become "fixated". More certain and resilient to banality due to their shells, but they lose an endless amount of potential.
To give the example of the Wolpertinger: Did you know that in Austrian folklore, the Wolpertinger could only be seen if a pretty, young lady accompanied the hunter? (Yes, hunters could get really desperate) Or with a candle, during a full moon by putting salt on their tail... Now suddenly, EVERYONE can see them! Talk about a shock!