Dreamless

Most beings in the Delirium need oxygen, food, and water to survive. The Passionate are born with these needs, and anyone from the First Fold arrives with their normal metabolism (of course). Sentient beings can meet some basic needs from Vapor, like oxygen and heat, just by thinking.

However, with unusually intense or prolonged use of passion crystals, a being risks becoming one of the Dreamless. A Dreamless evolves a new metabolism, becoming less and less dependent on oxygen, food, or water. Eventually, a Dreamless needs nothing but passions to survive. Any being can become Dreamless: a native-born Passionate, a First Fold human, a wildling, or a being from another fold.

There are significant drawbacks to being Dreamless. They eventually become wholly dependent on passions. They can still enjoy food and drink for their smells and tastes, even intoxications, but they gain no sustenance. Without passions, the Dreamless fall into poor health. Their decline can have involuntary metamorphic symptoms, like a complete fading of color in their hair, eyes, and skin, or even physical deformities. These symptoms are quickly reversible with passions or passion crystals, so Dreamless require a new, steady diet of passions to maintain the health they once enjoyed naturally.

Dreamless often struggle to generate passions themselves. Most have become strongly addicted to others' passions: the high of alien feelings and sensations rushing in. Dreamless experience an autumn in their own passions: they start to lose interest in their own lives, they no longer enjoy things that once delighted them, and they stop dreaming when they sleep. Dreamless develop a vampire-like fascination with very passionate beings and very unusual passions, sometimes becoming desperate for the high and necessity of new, rich tastes. At the extreme, Dreamless can become Passion Eaters.

No being is born Dreamless. However, some Passionate and wildlings view Dreamlessness as a desirable state: a more "natural" way to live in the Delirium. Some Dreamless raise their offspring to be Dreamless, too, changing their metabolism as they grow up. Several aristocratic houses in the Conclave are rumored to have Dreamlessness in their bloodlines.

In some cases, Dreamlessness can reversed, and the being can return to a normal metabolism. The onset and reversal of Dreamlessness is a fascinating area of study for some arcanists and engineers.