The Dreamers is the title of a fantasy book series by American writer David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings. The story revolves around four beings known as The Elder Gods residing in the land of Dhrall: Dahlaine of the North, Veltan of the South, Zelana of the West and Aracia of the East. They must recruit the help of outlanders to destroy the fiendish Vlagh and prevent its attempt at world conquest. The Vlagh is a creature whose more remarkable power is the ability to consciously direct the evolution of its minions, adapting them to the situation as required (the evolution is not instantaneous, but it takes months or even just days, as it is seen in the second book, The Treasured One). Most of Vlagh's creations are vaguely insect-like, venomous and violent, although some creatures have been bred human-like enough to pass as humans (and are used as spies). The creatures also share an Overmind, through which each of them knows and sees what the others do. Despite these major advantages, the Vlagh and the creatures of the Vlagh are not intelligent. They can't even understand the meaning of death which causes many defeats early on but as they fight more they begin to avoid simple traps like arrows and poisoned spikes that the protagonists use. As the Vlagh realizes this, the heroes have already designed new traps and strategies to confuse their enemy. However, the Elder Gods are not permitted to use their powers to kill, but the young Dreamers, infant forms of the Younger Gods: Eleria (originally Balacenia), Yaltar (originally Vash), Lillabeth (originally Enalla) and Ashad (originally Dakas), can use the powers of their dreams to foresee visions of the future as a warning to an attack and cause great natural disasters capable of mass destruction and killing.
The books are written in sections each with about 4-6 chapters and each time a new one is started, it usually gives background information on a specific character and then tells the story from their perspective. On occasions, it will have a new character in every chapter, such as in the section titled "Many Voices" in The Treasured One.
The series includes four titles: The Elder Gods (2003) The Treasured One (2004) Crystal Gorge (2005) The Younger Gods (2006)
Plot summary
The Elder Gods
The first volume of the series, The Elder Gods, is about the invasion of the unsuspecting Zelana's Domain by the hordes of the Vlagh inhabiting the Wasteland center of the Land of Dhrall.
The Elder Gods are each given an infant told to be a Dreamer and are supposed to save the world and defeat the Vlagh. When Eleria, Zelana's child, has the first dream, the Elder Gods go out in search of mercenaries to hire with gold (found useless and common in the land of Dhrall).
Zelana takes to the west of Dhrall to the land of Maag where she forces a storm to bring the ship and crew of Sorgan Hook-Beak to her domain. Hook-Beak is shown that she will pay a large quantity of gold to hire an army from Maag and fight a war. He takes the native archers Longbow and Red-Beard as well as Zelana with her child Eleria to Maag in search of more crews. They find much success but when the Vlagh sends an agent out to convince a crew to destroy Sorgan Hook-Beak and steal the gold, they are stopped thanks to a vision of Eleria. The night they came to attack, Longbow and the small Maag smith of Hook-Beak's crew, Rabbit, destroy the enemy fleet and the Vlagh agent responsible. A tight friendship is made by Rabbit and Longbow.
Meanwhile, in the Trogite Empire, south of Dhrall, Veltan has managed to hire a retired army general, Narasan, and his companions Padan, Gunda, Keselo and Jalkan.
The two armies meet in the western domain in surprise due to their extreme dislike for one another but Hook-Beak and Narasan become friends quickly as they plan to stop the foreseen attack in the Ravine above the Dhrall village of Lattash, the home of Red-Beard. Yaltar, the Dreamer of Veltan, foresees that the Vlagh would attack there and that there would be much killing on both sides. As the armies of Maag and the Trogite Empire build their barricades and planned their assault after the warm ocean air, created by Eleria, melts the snow where the Vlagh's servants are waiting, thus creating flooding and winning most of the war then. While Eleria dreams up the flood, Rabbit and Kesselo are informed about the true nature of the gods, and what they really are, and told to keep it a secret from the other outlanders.