Dreamwalk Journal/Characters

Art by Ed Kline, used by permission

= CHARACTERS APPEARING IN DREAMWALK JOURNAL AND NIGHTSHADE THE MERRY WIDOW =

Humans
Humans are called "oomans" by Cyeateans. Ancient legends suggest that their race may have had a hand in the creation of Cyeatea.

Danny
A female human from Earth who finds herself in Cyeatea via "dreamwalking". Of the two humans she seems the more responsible and level-headed. It's later revealed that a honeybee named Damiana is her avatar. (Damiana doesn't actually appear until the separate Laceweb storyline, and it's not clear where she is while the events of the original story are taking place.) In the original story Danny and Fleur take a journey of discovery across Cyeatea. In Nightshade's "Bahoogie and Beans" arc she and Fleur are rediscovered in the Redlip ants' captivity; negotiations for their release are beset with complications (to say the least).
 * Author Avatar: Danny and Damiana are based on Kishma Danielle.
 * Naked on Arrival: Doesn't matter, though, since (apart from waistbelts) everyone on Cyeatea goes naked.
 * Narrator

Fleur
Human female, Danny's traveling companion and lover. Somewhat impulsive and accident-prone.
 * The Klutz: somewhat.
 * Naked on Arrival
 * Nice Hat: Fleur's baseball cap, one of a number of small items the women are able to bring with them while dreamwalking.

Lord Bael
The god of Cyeatea. Often invoked but seldom seen, Bael usually manifests in the form of a gigantic spider. He is extremely powerful, possibly omniscient, and appears to have a good sense of humor. For the most part, Lord Bael does not intervene in mortal affairs unless mortals are in serious danger. He does not demand worship, but seems content to keep a watchful, benign eye on Cyeatean affairs.
 * God Is Good

Honeybees
The most desirable prey on Cyeatea because everybody loves honey, but also unsurprisingly the hardest to catch. Honeybees occupy and maintain the great hive-cities located high up on the trunks of the immense sentinel trees.

Theta
Male honeybee, one of Danny and Fleur's guides on their journeys. Behind-the-scenes material on the original (deleted) website reveals him to be an avatar of Danny's male human lover Johnathon. In The Laceweb story he gets captured by Cleome and Ammie while Damiana watches with resignation and amusement. In Nightshade the Merry Widow's "Beewolf" arc we discover that he's not a morning person, while in "Bahoogie and Beans" he is revealed to be one of the few Cyeateans who (because of his human soul) could actually kill if sufficiently provoked. Word of God says he (and presumably also Damiana) is much stronger than most Cyeateans, and one of the few who could beat Danny at arm-wrestling.
 * Author Avatar: Theta and Johnathon are based on Ed Kline.
 * Must Have Caffeine: He's incredibly grumpy when he doesn't get his morning coffee. Even to the Queen.

Damiana
Female honeybee, Theta's mate. When Theta gets himself captured by Ammie and Cleome, Damiana resignedly sits and watches. In Nightshade the Merry Widow she joins Theta on an expedition to rescue captives from the Beewolves, and later on Leonurus's mission to save the Redlip queen.
 * Author Avatar: Based on Kishma Danielle.
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Damiana finds the spiders' sexual predation on Theta quite stimulating, so she pleasures herself while watching.
 * Narrator: The captions in The Laceweb are all from Damaiana's point of view.

Queen Leonurus
Female honeybee, Queen of Helianthus Hive. A wise, dedicated and responsible leader, but that doesn't mean she can't let her hair down and have fun from time to time. In Nightshade the Merry Widow she leads the expedition to save the Redlip ant queen, along with the title character who is her best friend and lover.
 * Buxom Is Better: Many Cyeatean females have big breasts, but Leonurus takes the prize. Whether that had any influence on her becoming queen is unknown.
 * Nice Hat: She has several ornate ceremonial headdresses. They look heavy, but Word of God says they're made of "virtual matter" and therefore weightless.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: She can be very hands-on when she wants to be, in more ways than one.

Dill
Female honeybee, chief scientist of Helianthus. Rather short as honeybees go, she takes great delight in scientific discovery. Danny and Fleur are amused when she examines their bodies as if they were under a microscope. In Nightshade she travels to the deep realms of Cyeatea with Leonurus's expedition to save the queen of the Redlip ants, and makes an amazing find.
 * Nerd
 * Nerd Glasses: She is the only Cyeatean character to date seen wearing spectacles. A Q&A strip explains that after being blinded in an accident Dill needed artificial eyes, but later designed the glasses which allow her to see in a wide range of spectra and any desired degree of magnification, among other things. This of course means that she is literally Blind Without'Em.

Spiders
Web-weaving spiders are among the top predators on Cyeatea, but they don't have things all their own way because wasps can prey upon them for purposes of surrogacy.

Nightshade
The title character of Nightshade the Merry Widow. A highly feared and respected female black widow, possibly the top predator on Cyeatea. Nightshade appears to have a personal relationship with Lord Bael, and is said to be one of the very few Cyeateans capable of dealing death in punishment. As the title suggests, however, she also has a strong sense of humor and plays the Game enthusiastically. She is a close friend and lover of Queen Leonurus, Damiana and Amianthium, as well as her fly assistant Peppers.

Amianthium (Ammie)
Female green orbweaver spider, mother and hunting partner of Cleome. The two accompany Danny and Fleur for part of their journey. In The Laceweb they capture and "harvest" Theta, much to Damiana's amusement. The story of their first meeting with Theta and Damiana is due to be told in an upcoming storyline (in which they will get a fairly radical design makeover).
 * Art Shift: Their original design has arachnoid-style cheek palps in front of their mouths. The new design (pictured) gives them more human-like mouths, for the simple reason that it makes their expressions much more readable.

Cleome
Female green orbweaver spider. See above.

Wasps
Wasps are generally treated with extreme suspicion by other Cyeateans due to their habit of implanting their eggs into other species. It's not that wasps can't bring their own young to term - it's just that they'd prefer to let somebody else handle the inconvenience.

SueMac
Female fire wasp. Joins Danny and Fleur's group after saving Danny's life, and explains how wasps can forcibly introduce their prey to the joys of surrogate motherhood.

Dusk
A red wasp who agrees to join Peppers' rescue party in the Beewolves storyline.

Hilda
Leader of the Beewolves, a group of raiders who cheat at the Great Game by using artificial shields that are hard enough to break honeybees' stings. Hilda has long braids and, like the rest of her gang, wears a horned helmet, having apparently seen an ancient picture of a Valkyrie. This is meant to inspire fear but in fact looks rather silly.


 * Funetik Aksent: Hilda speaks in a kind of stereotyped German accent. Clearly a Translation Convention; Rule of Funny applies.

Dragonflies
Gentle leviathans with rotor blade wings, about the size of a football field on Cyeatean scale, who are happy to provide long-distance transport and carry heavy loads. They are often plagued by parasites which only smaller species are able to remove. Just occasionally they get caught in spiders' webs and need disentangling. Given their size, that says a lot about the strength of the webs.

Canubis
A male giant dragonfly. he gives Danny, Fleur, SueMac and Theta a lift to Helianthus Hive inside his head.
 * Heli Critter

Sourroot
A female spider paralyzed by SueMac in order to incubate SueMac's egg. (This won't harm her - just give her more pleasure than she can handle.)
 * And I Must Scream: A variation. While paralyzed she experiences intense orgasms as the baby wasp grows inside her and feeds on her internal juices. Once the baby emerges the paralysis will wear off, and she will care for the baby while foraging for both of them.

Zavoody
Unnamed in the original story, but confirmed by Word of God. A female Redlip ant who would have been Sourroot's "guest" if SueMac hadn't intervened. Rebellious daughter of the king and queen of the Redlips.