Murkenhart

ENTITY FILE: MURKENHART

Overview
Murkenharts are massive, aquatic dream-predators native to the sunken groves and forgotten pools of the Briar Reaches. Their appearance—part seal, part leviathan—is only partially visible through the veils of dream and memory in which they swim. Murkenharts do not simply feed on dreamers: they coil through dreams, dragging warmth and joy from the psyche like mist from water.

They are not monsters. They are melancholy, made tidal.

Appearance

• Size: Length unknown; estimates range from 15 to 40 ft.
• Skin: Translucent and glistening. Beneath the surface, moving shapes resemble scenes from dreams.
• Eyes: Luminous and sunken. Resemble moons reflected in deep water.
• Mouth: Wide and lipless, lined with baleen-like fronds that hum softly in dreamspace.
• Sound: Subaudible pulses, like distant whale-song played backward.

Behaviour and Abilities

• Dream Submersion: Enters dreams through water imagery—lakes, baths, flooded corridors—and pulls the dreamer into deeper layers.
• Mood Manipulation: Induces hopelessness, nostalgia, and emotional lethargy.
• Emotional Blight: Replaces positive memories with feelings of loss or drowning.

Signs of Presence

• Dreams of sinking, salt air, or flood.
• Bedclothes damp upon waking; unexplained water damage in sealed rooms.
• Seaweed-like strands clinging to walls or windows.

Folklore and Signs

• “The Drowned Smile”: A phrase describing the blank, weeping expression left on long-term dream victims.
• Saltglass Eyes: Superstition that Murkenhart victims have moonlight permanently trapped behind their irises.

Effect on Earth and Human Minds

• Mild Exposure: Restless sleep, recurring water imagery, emotional flatness.
• Prolonged Exposure: Sleep paralysis, inability to recall positive memories, depressive episodes.
• Long-Term Contact: Permanent emotional disassociation, identity blur, catatonia. Some victims walk into lakes, rivers, or oceans and vanish.

Summary for Field Operatives

Trait	Detail
Threat Level	High psychological. Physical risk during crossings or mass dreams.
Signs of Presence	Drowning imagery, dream fatigue, sea-scented rooms.
Containment Risk	Low. Rarely manifests physically outside dreamspace.
Engagement Advice	Use lucid dreaming protocols and tethered sleep companions.
	Salt rings and sleepwatch totems may repel influence temporarily.

Quote from Field Report #247:

“The water was warm. It knew my name. I almost wanted to stay under. Then I saw my daughter’s face in its skin—dissolving—and I screamed myself awake.”
—FDG Dreamlog, Operative N., Gloommere Station