✦ Guide to Somnium

What is Somnium?

Somnium is a collaborative writing and roleplay community. You write alongside other people, building characters and telling stories together through threaded posts. Think of it as a living creative writing space where the world grows with everyone in it.

Step 1: Create a character

Your character is who you write as in threads. Head to Dreamwalkers and hit New character. Give them a name, a description, and a portrait if you have one. You can have as many characters as you like, and each one has their own profile page showing everything they've written.

Step 2: Join a Dreamscape

Dreamscapes are persistent shared worlds, each with its own lore, cast, and ongoing threads. Go to Dreamscapes, browse what's open, and click into one that catches your interest. Read the lore section, then hit Join dreamscape. Once you're in, you can start or reply to threads inside it.

Step 3: Find or start a thread

Threads are individual stories or scenes. Browse all open threads under Roleplay, or look inside a Dreamscape for threads set in that world. To reply, pick your character on the left sidebar, then write in the reply box at the bottom. The OOC note field is for anything you want to say out of character.

Worlds

Worlds group related Dreamscapes together under shared lore and a navigable map. You can find them via Dreamscapes using the ✦ Worlds tab. Each World has a map with pins linking to its Dreamscapes. Exalted members can create their own Worlds.

Ads

The Ads page is where members post writing partner requests and character ads. Looking for someone to write a specific dynamic with? Looking for players to join your Dreamscape? Post it here. It's the fastest way to find collaborators on the site.

Works

Works is where you share standalone writing: original stories, poems, lore documents, character backstories. Works are separate from threads and don't need a collaborator. Readers can leave Embers on pieces they love (that's our version of kudos).

Exalted membership

Exalted is the optional supporter tier for Somnium. It unlocks 8 exclusive themes, the ability to create Dreamscapes and Worlds, a gold username style, priority in the Ads section, and a few other cosmetic perks. Every core feature on the site is free and always will be. If you want to support Somnium, visit ✦ Exalted in the nav.

The Waking Channel

The Waking Channel is the sitewide chat at the bottom of every page. Use it for casual conversation, finding writing partners, or just saying hello. It keeps the last 50 messages from the past 7 days.

Flair and The Night Market

Flairs are small decorative badges that show up next to your username. Some unlock automatically (post milestones, early bird, founding member). Others can be bought with Embers from The Night Market (Flair shop in the nav). Equip and reorder your active flairs any time in Settings.

Still lost?

Message kaiju (site admin) directly. There's a message button on every profile page. You can also hit the report button (⚑) on any post or profile if something feels off. This is a small community and nothing gets ignored.