Profile

Character: Reala
Series: NiGHTS Into Dreams, Journey of Dreams
Version: From the Journey of Dreams game, somewhere between manipulating Helen and being defeated for the last time by NiGHTS at the end of the game.
Age: Unknown. If we assume that Wizeman created them promptly after he'd started creating the rest of his realm, then they're probably not quite as old as how long fear itself has existed.
Gender: Male. Don't let the flamboyant clown look fool you.
Sexuality: Heaven only knows if he even knows what sex is, much less has (or has any interest in) engaged in it, even if he does look like a flamboyant gay clown.

Appearance: Unsurprisingly, given their origins, Reala looks much like NiGHTS in terms of body shape and facial features. Despite this, though, they're as different as can be when one gets down to the details, Reala providing a brash, fiery solar theme to contrast NiGHTS' cool lunar touch. If he has hair at all, or anything else on his head, it's covered by a large jester-esque hat with two curved horn-like extensions, striped in alternating shades of bright and dark red. Over this, he wears a a gold Persona mask, kept almost constantly on as a symbol of loyalty to his lord and master. The mask is wide and flared with large eye-holes, sweeping up into vicious peaks decorated with black feathers at either temple, with a stylized flame at the middle of his forehead, and a large, pink oval gem centered within it. The entire thing has intricate flame patterns in raised relief lining it. Behind it lie two large, brilliant blue eyes framed with luscious lashes, perhaps the only aspect of him that can really be recommended. These are set against stark white skin, with a vertical black slash mark running over each eye; it's uncertain whether this is mime-like makeup or a natural complexion.

He wears a skintight white bodysuit--spandex, perhaps?--with blue-grey flame designs on it; were it not for those designs, it would be almost impossible to tell that he was wearing anything at all over most of him. Over this he wears a hot pink, ruffly Elizabethan-style collar fringed by black feathers, and a gold necklace with a spiked oval gold pendant, with another large, pink oval gem in its center. A black sleeveless shirt and red vest comes next, with black panelling on the front parts and back, and red stylized flame designs within them. His fingerless, (all the better to show off long claw-nails of a metallic pink shade) elbow-length black gloves are similar, with broad panels on the back of his hands and covering the tops of his forearms; they're black and bordered in gold, with the same red flame patterns on them. The same guards are attached to a gold belt, and work protecting the sides of his legs from hip to knee. His boots are much like his hat--the base is a lighter red with a large cuff at the top, and a band around the foot; the rest is darker red and covers nearly the entire boot, creating a stylized flame engulfing it from toe to ankle.

Personality:For being a nightmare personified, Reala's brand of evil is as chillingly, recognizably human as it is terribly alien. He is not a sociopath. Far from it--Reala can and does feel the emotions any normal human being would, from love and devotion to pain, grief, and hatred. He is, in fact, stunningly empathic and aware of human emotions, all the better to twist, break, and manipulate them as he sees fit. He can and does form meaningful connections with other people, most notably his his master and almost-sibling, Wizeman and NiGHTS. He can even feel regret and remorse, though seldom does anything provoke such things for him. What makes him so terrifying, perhaps, is how cleanly inverted his emotions seem to be to those of a normal human's, yet also so similar. He can take a fierce joy in tearing the very soul from a Visitor, feel pleasure and satisfaction at a job well done to see them break down sobbing in fear and pain, savor screams like a connoiseur savors beautiful music or fine wine. All things dark, dreadful, chaotic, horrific, and frightening are his domain and where he seems to feel most at home. And yet.... he can still feel pain at a betrayal, grief at a loss, and anger at being insulted. As a person, Reala is human enough to be sympathized with, but as a creature in the broader sense, he's nothing but nightmarish, a demonic jester with almost no code of honor or sense of morality to speak of.

As a first-level Nightmaren, Reala is not only one of the oldest, but one of the most complex and sophisticated creations that Wizeman made. He possesses all the intelligence and free will that any human does, which lends itself to a cold, crafty, insidious intelligence which lends itself well to patience and deception; many never suspect him of having such a mind, considering how well he normally keeps it hidden beneath a veneer of direct, brutal cruelty and fanatical devotion. Unlike most other Nightmaren, Reala has complete free will, though one would hardly expect such from him; he is completely, uncompromisingly loyal to Wizeman, his creator and master--though whether from fear, love, duty, or something else entirely, he would be hesitant to even consider and absolutely refuse to say. There is only room for loyalty to his master and father, whatever the source, and though he is capable of questioning that, he chooses not to.

Though he is a complete person in and of himself, he will live and die for Wizeman, no matter how it might pain him to do as he's asked. making his appearance in Paixao all.the worse for him. If your life is merely the vessel by which another's wishes are fulfilled, how exactly are you supposed to live when you find yourself completely cut off from the purpose and meaning of your existence? In that regard, Reala has perhaps never quite grown up despite his long life; he can sometimes seem to be a child at heart, (perhaps even younger than NiGHTS acts) though he would never admit it, idolizing his father despite any faults he might notice, dependent on him for love and approval, hiding (and ruthlessly smothering) any vulnerability he may have within but remaining mature without, all to please him. His relationship with NiGHTS too is somewhat childish in nature; the pair are sometimes almost friendly, sometimes at each others' throats in vicious combat, yet at its heart their conflict seems to retain the essential trappings of a sibling rivalry. And beneath even that, the sibling bond continues--in spite of the constant attacks and imprisonments, Reala mourns the loss of his sibling and only real friend, still feels all the pain of his/her betrayal and abandonment, and wants him/her back so things can be as they once were. Really, Reala is one who can't quite let go of the past and move on, who has been twisted and tainted by the circumstances of his existence and environment. Had he been born into the waking world or Nightopia, who knows what sort of person he might have become?

Abilities/Weaponry: Being a Nightmaren, Reala has a fair array of abilities at his disposal to do his Master's bidding. Reala is a swift and acrobatic flier, rivalled only by NiGHTS in his aerial abilities. He is capable of Paralooping with these abilities, which entails flying a solid loop around someone or something to either cause them damage or transport them to another Dream--here in Paixao, this would only function to send them to another part of the city. He can produce a floating disc of light in a variety of shapes, with each corner capable of producing a number of floating bombs that ignite if someone passes too close to them; they can be thrown, if one is quick enough to avoid being caught in the explosion themselves. He can produce an "Ideya Palace"-cage around someone, which is virtually inpenetrable unless someone with Ideya--translated perhaps as human virtue or spiritual energy--can breach it. In game terms, this would probably only work on NiGHTS, and possibly any Heartless/Lumens/Nobodies he happens to use it on, as all "normal" people in the game have been shown as having at least some type of Ideya of their own.

He is capable of stealing someone's Ideya when they are off-guard or vulnerable, and causing a corresponding effect based on what type was stolen. (White Ideya represents Purity and Integrity, and its loss would cause a loss of innocence, feeling jaded, and possibly a skewing or loss of conventional morality. Yellow is Hope, and its loss would cause hopelessness and despair. Blue is Intelligence, and its loss would cause things such as confusion, reduction of knowledge and intellect, and reduced mental acuity. Green is Growth and Wisdom, and its loss would reduce maturity, wisdom, and common sense, as well as the ability to learn from experience, and grow and develop as a person. Red is Courage, and its loss causes mortal terror. Red Ideya is the rarest of all, and extremely difficult to steal.) In Paixao, the theft would only be temporary; Reala can't deliver the Ideya to Wizeman here, after all, or release it into the dream world. With nowhere else to go, released Ideya would return to the person it had been stolen from.

He is also quite strong, capable of easily holding a struggling teenager off the ground in each hand, and has the entire population of Nightmaren (save NiGHTS and Wizeman, of course) under his command--or he would, at least, if any of them had come with him. He also has no need to eat or sleep, though breathing is apparently a necessity.

Weaknesses: Reala, though physically quite strong, also happens to be a bit slower than NiGHTS, and incapable of dualizing or shapeshifting. He is unshakeably loyal to Wizeman, his master and creator, and would do absolutely anything for him; not only does this leave him boxed in and helpless to follow his own desires, but it also leaves him confused, directionless, and without a purpose once he finds himself alone in Paixao. He is also used to having a few lower-level Nightmarens around to do his dirty work if need be, which he won't have in Paixao. Reala can be painfully arrogant and melodramatic at times, both of which can easily be used against him to gain the upper hand in a situation, as could possibly be his ignorance--being a creature of nightmares, Reala is unfamiliar with many aspects of the waking world, having little (if any) knowledge in it.

History: Once upon a dream, long, long ago in a time shrouded in mystery, the first Visitor had his Ideya stolen. Nobody knows how this occured, nor why they could not be retrieved, but it meant that this Visitor, the first person to ever feel fear, was trapped forever in the Night Dimension. Because of this, he became the being today known as Wizeman, though the hows and whys (and even whats) are again unknown, and it's not likely at all that Wizeman would deign to share his origins with anyone. What is known, however, and what is most important, is that he created a place for himself in this realm, and in so doing created the land and phenomenon known as Nightmare. To populate it, he made creatures like himself, minions and servants, an army of creatures known as Nightmaren. Thus was Reala born--or created, as it were--along with his not-quite-twin, NiGHTS. They were the first and best of his creations, arguably the most powerful and intelligent, and certainly the nearest to humanity, and were given dominion over those lower-ranked Nightmaren created after them. The basic task they were given, as a whole, was simply to bring Nightmare to life for those poor Visitors who happened to stumble into it--they were to cause panic, chaos, terror, horror, and despair for all who they met. They were to steal any Visitor's Ideya that they could as well, and either scatter it across the dreamscape or bring it to Wizeman himself. They were to take all of the Night Dimension for themselves, overrun Nightopia, the realm of good dreams, and even possibly surge into the waking world itself for further conquest. For a long, long time, far longer than Reala could ever have hoped to keep track of, they did exactly that. They were as close as two siblings could be, and worked well together; Reala was as happy as a Nightmaren could hope to be, considering the circumstances of his existence.

All of this changed, of course, when one day.... NiGHTS got bored. That wasn't the entire reason, to be certain; NiGHTS also had a distinct dislike of being restrained and commanded, as Wizeman so liked to do, but the two combined to push NiGHTS over the edge of dissatisfaction into treason. S/he left Nightmare, left Wizeman, went rogue--and left Reala. In so doing, s/he dealt Reala the most terrible blow he ever has or likely ever will experience in his long life, one he's still privately reeling from to this day; sometimes, time isn't enough to heal all wounds. After all, he and NiGHTS were the only two Nightmaren aside from Wizeman that showed human levels of intelligence and free will, and Wizeman was hardly one to treat any of his minions as even close to an equal, leaving Reala essentially alone. He begins capturing NiGHTS periodically, (once per level of the first game, NiGHTS Into Dreams) though never actually taking the cage he's in back to Nightmare, as Wizeman is still presumably preparing for NiGHTS return, and possibly reintegration and/or punishment. Unfortunately for him, one of the human Visitors NiGHTS has made friends with frees him each time. Finally, the two meet in an actual battle, a vicious clash that leaves both of them wounded and exhausted to the point of near helplessness. Though the battle was close, NiGHTS defeated Reala, who faked more serious injuries than he really had. NiGHTS was forced to drop Elliot, one of his/her human friends, due to being so battle-weary; once he was out of the picture, Reala seized NiGHTS and dragged him/her away through brute strength, adrenaline, and raw determination, though NiGHTS struggled tooth and nail the entire way. Reala brought NiGHTS back to Wizeman in triumph, and was dismissed; from there, he returned to his lair in Nightmare to sleep off the effects of the fight. When he woke up, he discovered, much to his dismay, that the human Visitors had defeated Wizeman and allowed NiGHTS to escape.

11 years after this, (at the beginning of the second game, Journey into Dreams) Reala approached NiGHTS again, now with a new Visitor friend named Helen. Well.... it wasn't so much "approached" as "did a flying body slam into the nearest solid surface and got into a choke hold", but same difference. After a bit of banter and much unhappiness from NiGHTS' companions, Helen and Owl, Reala spirited NiGHTS away and once again imprisoned him/her in an Ideya Cage. Once again, NiGHTS was freed, though Reala was nowhere to be found, having presumably left to help prepare for bringing him/her back, again. In his next appearance, Reala met with NiGHTS and taunted him while Will (another Visitor friend) and Owl looked on, and caused several lower-level Nightmarens to seize and drag him/her away, though s/he was soon rescued again. In Lost Park, Reala encountered Will and Owl again, attacking Owl and imprisoning NiGHTS in an Ideya Cage (again) so he can Paraloop Will to send him to another dream. Apparently, his plan doesn't work; instead of sending Will straight to Wizeman, it instead drops him elsewhere, in one of Helen's dreams. In Delight City, Will and Owl hid as Reala confronted NiGHTS alone, revealing that s/he is a fellow Nightmaren. The pair fought, and Reala pretended to sustain more severe injuries than he actually had, in order to trick NiGHTS into coming close enough to imprison him in an Ideya Cage (again). He then explained that Cerberus, a ravenous three-headed dog, is coming, so NiGHTS would be better off staying in the cage, before leaving once again, presumably to avoid being eaten himself. Finally in Memory Forest, Reala met NiGHTS and Helen once again, congratulating NiGHTS on how well their plan is working, and proceeding to lie about NiGHTS only being friends with Helen to try and steal her Ideya. Helen denied this, only to have Reala reveal that NiGHTS is a Nightmaren and has worn a Persona mask, an object signalling loyalty to Wizeman. While Helen was still mentally reeling from this news and the apparent betrayal it meant, Reala slowly Paralooped her, seperating her from NiGHTS as he did Will. It was shortly after this that he stumbled into Paixao while heading back to Nightmare, making him a very confused Nightmaren indeed.