History Main / DreamPeople

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]": Several of the people in Adam Grant's DeathRow nightmare are drawn from his real life. For instance, the priest who visits him before his execution is Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when he was ten years old, and the newspaper editor Paul Carson is the younger priest who replaced him. Adam is uncertain where he got the District Attorney Henry Ritchie, speculating that he may have been a teacher or a friend of his father's. Outside of his own life, he got his [[CaptivityHarmonica harmonica playing fellow prisoner]] Coley from a bad movie that he once saw.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]": {{Discussed|Trope}}. The bagpiper speculates that they are nothing more than characters in someone else's dream.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': The ethereal spirits of the Marches consist in large part of Dream People. As a rule, every single dream creates an accompanying cast of ethereals, but these are essentially mindless puppets with no self-awareness; they simple act out their roles and vanish when the dream ends. Occasionally, usually by pure chance, one remains behind when the dream ends; these don't gain any particular intelligence, willpower or lucidity just by this action, and consequently end up repeating whatever very specific role they were made for until something stronger scoops them up and eats for their Essence. The few exceptions, usually born from very vivid or lucid dreams, possess just enough awareness to scurry away to cover and try to find a way to sustain themselves. The most successful either become roving predators of other dreams or manage to tap into whatever cultural image spawned them to sustain themselves off of humanity's collective desires and beliefs. Especially clever, tenacious or lucky members of this last group can endure for a very long time and amass quite a lot of power, eventually maturing into avatars of major cultural concepts -- some reached the status of full pagan gods, back in the day.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': The ethereal spirits of the Marches consist in large part of Dream People. As a rule, every single dream creates an accompanying cast of ethereals, but these are essentially mindless puppets with no self-awareness; they simple act out their roles and vanish when the dream ends. Occasionally, usually by pure chance, one remains behind in the Marches, the dimension that dreams exist in, when the dream ends; these don't gain any particular intelligence, willpower or lucidity just by this action, and consequently end up repeating whatever very specific role they were made for until something stronger scoops them up and eats for their Essence. The few exceptions, usually born from very vivid or lucid dreams, possess just enough awareness to scurry away to cover and try to find a way to sustain themselves. The most successful either become roving predators of other dreams or manage to tap into whatever cultural image spawned them to sustain themselves off of humanity's collective desires and beliefs. Especially clever, tenacious or lucky members of this last group can endure for a very long time and amass quite a lot of power, eventually maturing into avatars of major cultural concepts -- some reached the status of full pagan gods, back in the day.

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* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[spoiler:the entire Cait Shelter guild]] ends up being an illusion caused by Robaul.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Most of the [[spoiler:inhabitants of Mars]]. Revealed when they start getting erased.
* ''Literature/{{Paprika}}'': The inhabitants of the DreamLand.
* ''Anime/ReadOrDie'': Possibly the Ijin. Either that or they're clones.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Princess Adina, as well as the other inhabitants of Simlow.

* In ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'', [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]] falls in love with a woman named Taylor Madison. It is eventually revealed to be an illusionary construct created by Zeus as part of a BatmanGambit to expose his wife Hera's plans to harm his son, knowing that she would [[StuffedInTheFridge target the person Hercules holds most dear]]. Despite his son's pleas, Zeus erases Madison from existence once she has served her purpose, leading to a [[IHaveNoSon violent falling out]] between Hercules and Zeus and the latter revoking his son's immortality.

* In ComicBook/{{Rogue}}'s miniseries she meets a mysterious man immune to her draining touch who claims to be a "mutant dream". According to him one day a woman who wanted a baby had a dream about giving birth and woke to a real child crying in her house, raising it in spite of her confusion. He's capable of crossing in between reality and a DreamLand and he seeks Rogue's help in stopping her mother from corrupting it and thus corrupting the waking minds of everyone. When Rogue stops her mother it turns out she was just a dream of her after the real one died.

* In ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut,'' the main characters are {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of a girl's emotions who live in her MentalWorld. Others also exist there, most notably Bing-Bong, her old ImaginaryFriend. ([[spoiler:He gets a {{Tear Jerker}}y death]].)

* Tommy Hazzard in ''The Boyfriend List''.
* In the ''Literature/{{Chrestomanci}}'' story "Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream", an author who creates bestselling works based on her dreams gets writer's block when her DreamPeople go on strike for better working conditions, and has to go into {{Dreamland}} to negotiate with them.
* In the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' novel ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', the inhabitants of Lothar are able to mentally create illusions of the ancient warriors of the city. One of the warriors is created so often that he becomes real.
* ''Literature/TheRavenCycle'' has the Orphan Girl and [[spoiler: Aurora Lynch.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', the mysterious "visitors" that appear on the ship are [[{{Doppelganger}} doppelgangers]] of the crew members' loved ones.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]", several of the people in Adam Grant's DeathRow nightmare are drawn from his real life. For instance, the priest who visits him before his execution is Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when he was ten years old, and the newspaper editor Paul Carson is the younger priest who replaced him. Adam is uncertain where he got the District Attorney Henry Ritchie, speculating that he may have been a teacher or a friend of his father's. Outside of his own life, he got his [[CaptivityHarmonica harmonica playing fellow prisoner]] Coley from a bad movie that he once saw.
** {{Discussed|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]". The bagpiper speculates that they are nothing more than characters in someone else's dream.

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' likewise features Incubi, ranging from simple "background players" to more aggressive concepts, such as Succubi, Night Hags, and a sentient play that convinces the actors to kill each other in a fit of jealousy.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'', the inhabitants of the DreamLand.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': [[spoiler:Tidus and the other inhabitants of Zanarkand]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', it turns out that [[spoiler:everyone except]] Link is just a dream of the Wind Fish.

* ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': Everyone in HEADSPACE. Revealed when SUNNY wakes up for the first time.
* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'': This trope is EVERYWHERE. The whole game takes place in the dreams of a young girl, so you should expect some interesting characters. Things like walking clocks, faceless technicolor people, walking whistles, deformed bird witches, pixel sculptures, mouths in wigs, ghosts, candle people, and even some unique characters in between, all haunt the regions of the game.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', during the "Parable" storyline, Arthur [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-209 turns out]] to be one of these while Mr. Tensaided is [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-217 real]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/PoetAndersonTheDreamWalker'' short film, the coal shovelers on the train are the only characters who show up that aren't defined in some way as Dreamers.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut,'' the main characters are {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of a girl's emotions who live in her MentalWorld. Others also exist there, most notably Bing-Bong, her old ImaginaryFriend. ([[spoiler:He gets a {{Tear Jerker}}y death]].)

* In the Literature/{{Chrestomanci}} story "Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream", an author who creates bestselling works based on her dreams gets writer's block when her DreamPeople go on strike for better working conditions, and has to go into {{Dreamland}} to negotiate with them.
* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' Barsoom novel ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'': The inhabitants of Lothar are able to mentally create illusions of the ancient warriors of the city. One of the warriors is created so often that he becomes real.

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** This is a key element of the origin of American Chibi, dreamed into existence by video game designer Marguerite Li. [[spoiler:Chibi is dreamed up by Marguerite after a group of eldritch abominations haunt her with dreams of monsters, and becomes manifest in the real world. This causes the walls between the dream-world and reality to weaken, allowing them to appear in the material world as the monsters from Marguerite's dreams.]]
** The same is true of [[spoiler:the Gentleman]]. His "daughter" created him from idealized memories of her real father, with his KidSidekick being her idea of an ideal older brother.
** There's also Loony Leo, a cartoon lion brought to life by a MadScientist, whose existence was initially maintained by [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve people's belief in him]].

* ''Anime/ReadOrDie'': Possibly the Ijin. Either that or they're [[CloningBlues clones]].

** The same is true of [[spoiler:the Gentleman]]. His "daughter" created him from idealized memories of her real father, with his KidSidekick being her idea of an ideal older brother. There's also Loony Leo, a cartoon lion brought to life by a MadScientist, whose existence was initially maintained by [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve people's belief in him]].

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* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[spoiler:the entire Cait Shelter guild]] ends up being an illusion caused by Robaul.

* In ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'', [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]] falls in love with a woman named Taylor Madison. It is eventually revealed to be an illusionary construct created by Zeus as part of a BatmanGambit to expose his wife Hera's plans to harm his son, knowing that she would [[StuffedInTheFridge target the person Hercules holds most dear]]. Despite his son's pleas, Zeus erases Madison from existence once she has served her purpose, leading to a [[IHaveNoSon violent falling out]] between Hercules and Zeus and the latter revoking his son's immortality.
* ''ComicBook/PoetAndersonTheDreamWalker'' has many in the dream city of Genesis, including Ayo who serves as a guide for the Anderson brothers.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' Barsoom novel ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'': The inhabitants of Lothar are able to mentally create illusions of the ancient warriors of the city. One of the warriors is created so often that he becomes real.
* In ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', the mysterious "visitors" that appear on the ship are [[{{Doppelganger}} doppelgangers]] of the crew members' loved ones.

* ''Literature/TheRavenCycle'' has the Orphan Girl and [[spoiler: Aurora Lynch.]]

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' likewise features Incubi, ranging from simple "background players" to more aggressive concepts, such as Succubi, Night Hags, and a sentient play that convinces the actors to kill each other in a fit of jealousy.

* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'': This trope is EVERYWHERE. The whole game takes place in the dreams of a young girl, so you should expect some interesting characters. Things like walking clocks, faceless technicolor people, walking whistles, deformed bird witches, pixel sculptures, mouths in wigs, ghosts, candle people, and even some unique characters in between, all haunt the regions of the game.
* ''VideoGame/LSDDreamEmulator'': The strange beings of the game, especially the mysterious Grey Man who [[ParanoiaFuel intermittently appears from thin air and drifts toward the screen]], waking you up if it catches you.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': [[spoiler:Tidus and the other inhabitants of Zanarkand]].

* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'': Agent Francis York Morgan has an invisible friend named Zach. Zach acts as a stand-in for the player; whenever York addresses Zach, York is speaking through the FourthWall. The in-game explanation is a bit more [[MindScrew complicated]].
* ''VideoGame/TheDreamMachine'': Part of the game takes place inside dreams. The only people you can interact with for the majority of these sequences are examples of these.
* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'': Depending on the [[OrWasItADream interpretation]], practically everyone is one of these. The entire world as well as its inhabitants exist in a world based almost solely around music, which presumably only exists as Chopin's DyingDream. Though as time goes on, even he begins to question that conclusion.

Ghosts are [[OurGhostsAreDifferent a separate trope]], while virtual entities are covered by InsideAComputerSystem, ProjectedMan and DigitalAvatar. Compare ImaginaryFriend, IntangibleMan. When a character like this manifests in the "real" world, that's LivingDream. See also DreamLand and DreamApocalypse. Compare to the {{Tulpa}}, another type of mentally created entity.

Ghosts are [[OurGhostsAreDifferent a separate trope]], while virtual entities are covered by InsideAComputerSystem, ProjectedMan and DigitalAvatar. Compare ImaginaryFriend, IntangibleMan. When a character like this manifests in the "real" world, that's LivingDream. See also DreamLand and DreamApocalypse.

* In ComicBook/{{Rogue}}'s miniseries she meets a mysterious man immune to her draining touch who claims to be a "mutant dream". According to him one day a woman who wanted a baby had a dream about giving birth and woke to a real child crying in her house, raising it in spite of her confusion. He's capable of crossing in between reality and a DreamWorld and he seeks Rogue's help in stopping her mother from corrupting it and thus corrupting the waking minds of everyone. When Rogue stops her mother it turns out she was just a dream of her after the real one died.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': Most of the [[spoiler:inhabitants of Mars]]. Revealed when they start getting erased.

* In [[{{ComicBook/Rogue}} Rogue's]] miniseries she meets a mysterious man immune to her draining touch who claims to be a "mutant dream". According to him one day a woman who wanted a baby had a dream about giving birth and woke to a real child crying in her house, raising it in spite of her confusion. He's capable of crossing in between reality and a DreamWorld and he seeks Rogue's help in stopping her mother from corrupting it and thus corrupting the waking minds of everyone. When Rogue stops her mother it turns out she was just a dream of her after the real one died.

* ''Film/ABeautifulMind''" [[spoiler:Parcher, Charles and Marcee]].

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]", several of the people in Adam Grant's DeathRow nightmare are drawn from his real life. For instance, the priest who visits him before his execution is Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when he was ten years old, and the newspaper editor Paul Carson is the younger priest who replaed him. Adam is uncertain where he got the District Attorney Henry Ritchie, speculating that he may have been a teacher or a friend of his father's. Outside of his own life, he got his [[CaptivityHarmonica harmonica playing fellow prisoner]] Coley from a bad movie that he once saw.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E62ShadowPlay Shadow Play]]", several of the people in Adam Grant's DeathRow nightmare are drawn from his real life. For instance, the priest who visits him before his execution is Father Beaman, an actual priest who died when he was ten years old, and the newspaper editor Paul Carson is the younger priest who replaed him. Adam is uncertain where he got the District Attorney Henry Ritchie, speculating that he may have been a teacher or a friend of his father's. Outside of his own life, he got his [[CaptivityHarmonica harmonica playing fellow prisoner]] Coley from a bad movie that he once saw.

* 'Film/ABeautifulMind''" [[spoiler:Parcher, Charles and Marcee]].

* ''[[http://www.thisman.org/ This Man]]'' is about a mysterious man who, since January 2006, has purportedly appeared in the dreams of over 2,000 people around the world. None of them are connected in any meaningful way and no living people resembling this man have ever been found. There have been many theories about who he is or why they dream about him, but nothing has been definitive.

* Most of the [[spoiler:inhabitants of Mars]] in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''. Revealed when they start getting erased.
* The inhabitants of the DreamLand in ''Literature/{{Paprika}}''.
* Possibly the Ijin in ''Anime/ReadOrDie''. Either that or they are [[CloningBlues clones]].
* Princess Adina from ''Anime/YuGiOh'', as well as the other inhabitants of Simlow.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity,'' this is a key element of the origin of American Chibi, dreamed into existence by video game designer Marguerite Li. [[spoiler:Chibi is dreamed up by Marguerite after a group of eldritch abominations haunt her with dreams of monsters, and becomes manifest in the real world. This causes the walls between the dream-world and reality to weaken, allowing them to appear in the material world as the monsters from Marguerite's dreams.]]

* [[spoiler:Parcher, Charles and Marcee]] from ''Film/ABeautifulMind''.

* Harry Morgan [[spoiler:and Brian Moser]] in later seasons of ''{{Series/Dexter}}'', since the resulting {{Dead Person Conversation}}s are more to different aspects of his subconscious than the actual people themselves.

* Manes in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' are the inhabitants of pocket realities called [[DreamLand Bardos]]. They're rather fragile outside Bardos.

* This trope is EVERYWHERE in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki''. The whole game takes place in the dreams of a young girl, so you should expect some interesting characters. Things like walking clocks, faceless technicolor people, walking whistles, deformed bird witches, pixel sculptures, mouths in wigs, ghosts, candle people, and even some unique characters in between, all haunt the regions of the game.
* The strange beings of ''VideoGame/LSDDreamEmulator'' (naturally), especially the mysterious Grey Man who [[ParanoiaFuel intermittently appears from thin air and drifts toward the screen]], waking you up if it catches you.

* [[spoiler:Tidus and the other inhabitants of Zanarkand]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.
* [[spoiler:The inhabitants of Magicant, excluding Queen Mary]] from ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings''.

* Agent Francis York Morgan from ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'' has an invisible friend named Zach. Zach acts as a stand-in for the player; whenever York addresses Zach, York is speaking through the FourthWall. The in-game explanation is a bit more [[MindScrew complicated]].
* Part of VideoGame/TheDreamMachine takes place inside dreams. The only people you can interact with for the majority of these sequences are examples of these.
* Depending on the [[OrWasItADream interpretation]], practically everyone in ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' is one of these. The entire world as well as its inhabitants exist in a world based almost solely around music, which presumably only exists as Chopin's DyingDream. Though as time goes on, even he begins to question that conclusion.
* ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam]]'': Practically everybody has a dream equivalent to them, many enemies are only ''in'' the dream world, and certain characters such as the Dream Stone's Spirit only appear in dreams. That's not even getting into the [[LivingDream Pi'illos]] themselves!

* Zimmy's mental constructs in ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt''. Disconcertingly, they're ''not quite'' people; their faces are scribbles that vaguely resemble QR codes, [[{{Dissimile}} except not]].