Nightmare

'The beating heart'

The first of the experimented dragons, Nightmare was a recently deceased young imperial ready to be buried in the Tangled Woods; although with some interference from a passing Stolas and a couple of his demons they saught to try something truly wicked-

After many weeks of patchwork and careful transplants Nightmare awoke suddenly in a blind fury; completely out of their mind not ready to be brought back; using their wildly out of control plague powers to rot everything around them and disintegrate anything that stood in their path.
Although after some time passed from the rampaging imperial and their stitching gave way; Stolas approached the now exhausted immortal and spoke with them.

As time passed and the night drew on, Stolas in his unwavering nonchalant attitude relayed to Nightmare that they were brought back as a demon; lying through his teeth to say they sinned and caused themselves this fate on their own- and it was only a matter of fate that he was the one to bring them back.
Not given a choice in the matter of their.. 'aliveness' they were assigned to their new fake purgatory of staying with the clan to help create more undead puppets; using themselves as the 'heart' of the operation- by quite literally stuffing the hearts of all the puppet dragons inside them to act as a protector and a source of the power until such time the hearts can be distributed and transplanted safely.
-
Plus in an interesting turn of the experiment it was revealed that despite being full of stuffing and mostly dead organs, Nightmare themselves needs three cursed imperial hearts to function- much akin to an emperor in a way. Although they do not have any of the extra effects outside of a small... lingering feeling to dig up the corpses of fallen brethren...
-


With the eyes of other demons appearing from the darkness after this long talk, appearing to gaze over the creature born anew yet laying in shambles; they snickered and sneered at their new demon friend in an almost mean welcoming party, later sharing similar stories of their births/rebirths into this new life and causing the same havoc Nightmare once had. Considered a right of passage of sorts.

Patched up and now many, many hundreds of years after the event Nightmare is a jaded, sadistic shell of the dragon they were once when they were alive- taking on somewhat of a divine complex only out to preserve their hearts; happily feasting with the other demons in their occasional circus raids in a bid to aid towards their upkeep.

What is most interesting about this dragon however, is the fact they can traverse nightmares, inflict them and even trap those around them in a deep slumber until they see fit. It's rumored among the demons that these powers are also seen in the likes of Grimm and Vincent...

They have also seen very notable interest and observation from the fallen archangel Kalik, and likewise Nightmare to the wildclaw in return, why this is seems to be anyone's guess. But suffice to say it doesn't seem to be a healthy interest..