Magic, People: Weaving, Weavers
Weavers are infamously unlucky women with long black hair (very rarely a boy will be born with weaving magic and all that comes with it). They do not dream themselves and are thereby immune to their own magic. As weavers grow older they tend to cause more and more nightmares (a result of their own bad luck, sometimes it is unintentional, more often than not it is on purpose). Their hair will grow long every morning, no matter how often they cut it; most weavers just leave it long.

Many weavers have what they call a life match, a bond between a weaver and a particular dreamer that they weave for. Once formed they will weave the majority of dreams for this one mage (or being), though not necessarily all of their dreams. Some weavers have more than one life match. Many weavers don't discover their matches until later in life, usually after they turn 50. Most weavers make attempts to meet their life matches and usually this leads to friendships or romances. Life matches are very important to weavers because they are usually the most positive thing in their lives and rarely fall prone to the bad luck in the rest of their lives.

The politics of weaving are complicated as weavers share the general population of dreamers among themselves. Physical location plays a part, as a weaver cannot be too far from their dreamers when weaving. Relationships and family ties also play into this (the more a weaver knows their dreamer the better the connection and clearer the dreams, though on the inverse the worse the nightmares). Most weavers will not bother with someone who has been identified as a life match.

Part of weaving magic is that a weaver will instantly know who has been casting dreams for the dreamer once they enter the weaving state. They can see how many and how often, and can often tell how old a mage is simply by the amount of dreams they've had.

Weaving itself is rather complicated. It is like suggestive magic strung together with specific images. For example a weaver suggests that the dreamer hum a tune, the dreamer then substitutes a tune they know. In this way the weaver and dreamer build a relationship that the dreamer may never be aware of.

When a Weaver is working her magic she can look into the mind of the person she is weaving for. She can see secrets past and present, deep truths that even the dreamer may not be aware of.

This can be a dangerous thing depending on the Weaver. While most Weavers follow a strict code of honor (keeping the secrets of those they weave for, not even sharing them among themselves), some will use these secrets for personal gain or profit (selling them to the highest bidder, using them for blackmail).

There are preventative measures that one can take to prevent dreaming (a potion, a spell, a clever magical working) though they are not recommended for long term use. Just the same some secrets will fight to stay hidden while others will leap to the forefront.

Sometimes, and weavers do not particularly like to do it, they can weave daydreams, though this means that they have to enter the waking mind of a mage (or being) and for weavers it is usually an unpleasant sensation. They can become overwhelmed with the wide awake thoughts of the dreamer and have difficulty accessing the subconscious mind (from which they usually pull their ideas for dreams). Some very odd weavers specialize in daydreams and do not cast normal, nighttime dreams. There are only a handful of these in Aylasia.

Another part of weaving magic is that they can tell when a familiar and a mage have been well matched. Perhaps because they can enter the minds of both and make dreams for either, they can tell how they will interact and if they are suited for each other. It's not entirely clear how this part of their magic works, but most weavers don't bother with the mechanics as their magic is complicated enough. They don't feel the need to explain it.