History Main / NightmareWeaver

* In ''WebAnimation/DontWalkHomeAloneAfterDark'' ''WebAnimation/TheWorm'', the Worm can manipulate its victims' dreams, psychologically torturing them with their worst fears and hunting them down to feed off their terror.

* In ''WebAnimation/DontWalkHomeAloneAfterDark'', the Worm can manipulate its victims' dreams, psychologically torturing them with their worst fears and hunting them down to feed off their terror.

* From the ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' "The Grimm Troupe" DLC we get Grimm. As the resident [[spoiler:counterpart of [[LightIsNotGood The Radiance]], who rules the world of dreams, he is a SatanicArchetype otherwise known as The Nightmare King and he acts as a vessel for The Nightmare Heart]].
* Nightmare from ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' is, as the name implies, a demon who exists to cause nightmares. [[spoiler:King Dedede trapped him inside the Fountain of Dreams and destroyed its key, the Star Rod, to stop him from terrorizing Dream Land]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'', the evil Ghadius in ''[[VideoGame/KlonoaDoorToPhantomile Door to Phantomile]]'' plots to destroy the titular land by summoning Nahatomb, an EldritchAbomination [[MadeOfEvil literally made from nightmares]].

* Darkrai fills this role in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, capable of trapping anyone in a neverending nightmare, [[DarkIsNotEvil not that it really]] [[PowerIncontinence wants to]]. For this reason, it usually hides itself away from other living beings and/or stays relatively close to its counterpart [[DreamWeaver Cresselia]], whose feathers can free its victims. In addition, any Pokémon that can learn the move Nightmare can become this, which aside from Darkrai includes the Gengar line and the DreamStealer mons Hypno & Munna.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Nightmares fall under the domain of the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] Vaermina, who not only causes them to happen to mortals by merit of her mere existence, she utterly delights in tormenting mortals with them. It is also thought that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality she genuinely believes the nightmares are gifts,]] despite the fact that they can and sometimes do end up MindRape -ing the poor mortals she chooses to torment. Not that she would care, of course.
** A more specific example would be her Daedric Quest in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', where the Dragonborn teams up with a priest of Mara, [[spoiler: who also happens to be a former servant of Vaermina]], to destroy her Daedric Artifact the Skull of Corruption, which had been stealing the dreams and memories of the nearby townsfolk and tormenting them with horrific nightmares.
* One of the lesser antagonists of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is Xavius, a saytr who created a world called the Emerald Nightmare and is fittingly known as "The Nightmare Lord".
* Althea the Nightmare, from ''VideoGame/FarnhamFables'', is a very {{downplayed}} example, despite her scary title: she's a DreamWalker who enjoys tormenting people in their sleep, but her idea of "torment" is closer to [[PokeThePoodle mild mischief]] than actual nightmares: in Episode 4, all she really does is hide Rainbow Keys around Theresa's dream and make her find them.
* ''[[VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet Sackboy: A Big Adventure]]'': Vex is the Lord of Nightmares. He spends the game trying to build the Topsy Turver, a machine that will let him spread fear and chaos.
* In [[CastingAShadow Blackout's]] backstory from ''{{VideoGame/Skylanders}}'', he was born in the [[DreamLand Realm of Dreams]] and recruited into a clan called the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dark Stygian]]. They combined this trope with ScareEmStraight, as they would use their powers to dishearten evildoers by tormenting them with nightmares. However, they eventually fell DrunkOnTheDarkSide, and began to abuse their powers and spread bad dreams far and wide ForTheEvulz. Blackout, however, was having none of it and defected, leading to [[BigGood Master Eon]] eventually recruiting him into the Skylanders when he was threatened by said nightmares and saw Blackout fight them.

* ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': Hypnoron gives Daryl & Skye nightmares in story #4, and in [[DreamEpisode story #6, ]]''[[DreamEpisode “Sweet dre - NIGHTMARE”]]'', pulls Karla, and the rest of the group out of their own dreams [[AdventuresInComaland into his nightmare dreamscape]], where he quickly [[PartyScattering splits them up]], putting Daryl, Skye, and Flamel in personalized nightmares that Karla has to help them out of, with an additional [[ImplacableMan nightmare monster]] chasing them down as they try to leave.

* ''WesternAnimation/PoetAndersonTheDreamwalker'' has the villainous REM, known as the bringer of nightmares for the people in dreamland.
* Zordrak from ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' is the EvilOverlord of Viltheed, the {{Mordor}} of the Land of Dreams. The show revolves around his attempts to obtain [[MacGuffin the Dreamstone]], which spreads dreams around the world, so he can send out nightmares (although later episodes add in that getting the Dreamstone will also let him TakeOverTheWorld, to raise the stakes.)
* Him does this to WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}} in "Power-noia," invoking each's worst fears in nightmare form. Blossom's is failing in school, Buttercup's is her fear of spiders, and Bubbles' is being attacked by her stuffed toys. When Blossom suddenly realizes Him is behind it, she puts on her game face and proceeds to make things right again.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'' has The Marra, a group of AmbiguouslyHuman teenage girls that can give people nightmares, which they later share with other Marra and feed on the negative energy caused by said nightmares.

->''"The Stillborn King now exists only within his own tormented dreams. Still, the echoes of those nightmares seep into creation, infecting others with his demented fantasies. He has been granted no one demense over which to lord, for such concept of physical space and corporeal existence have ceased to have value to him. Instead, his nightmares roil across the Earth like a storm, raining down deranged hallucinations that cross the boundaries between illusion and reality, eroding the value of the walls between sleep and wakefulness, sanity and madness."''

* Nightmare in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse (originally and most commonly an enemy of ComicBook/DoctorStrange, but he's encountered a lot of other Marvel heroes) is the evil nightmare-creating ruler of a "Dream Dimension".
* Morpheus from ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' is a rare heroic example; as the lord of ''all'' dreams, he also creates nightmares, usually as a way to reflect mankind's darker aspects.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jingaroo}}'' comic series in ''Beckett Pokemon Collector'', the villain Croco-Vile had power over dreams and nightmares and was known as the Nightmare King.
* Dr. Destiny, an enemy of the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, has this has his shtick. Early on, he used a machine called the Materioptikon, which was powered by Morpheus's dreamstone. When he and a weakened Morpheus fought over the Dreamstone, they used nightmares (though Morpheus was rather better at it, forcing Destiny to resort to less subtle measures).

* [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Nightmare Moon]] from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is often given this power in fanworks, in canon she almost definitely had it but was too busy to use it in the brief periods she was active.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'', Pitch Black is the evil counterpart of [[TheSandman Sandy]], who gives bad dreams to children with his [[DarkIsEvil black sand]] and has a legion of horse-like monsters at his disposal.
* Freddy Krueger from ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', who was inspired by the Gary Wright song "Dream Weaver." The dreams Freddy creates are nightmares that can kill you, with any damage done in the dream crossing over into the real world. The only way to escape the nightmare is to wake up. However, Freddy often traps his victims in a DreamWithinADream, so even if you ''think'' you escaped him, you might not have. After Freddy gains enough power from trapping the souls of his victims, he even starts to [[RealityWarper influence the real world]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has Zelin and Rakaya from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E7CanYouHearMe Can You Hear Me?]]", a pair of Eternals who can harvest nightmares and trap people in them.

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E12WakingMoments Waking Moments]]" features aliens who exist in a dream state and can trap "waking species" in nightmares.

Meet the [[TitleDrop Nightmare Weaver]], a SubTrope of DreamWeaver who exists for the sole purpose of making people wear [[BringMyBrownPants brown pants]] in their beds with his [[NightmareSequence bad dreams]], and he most likely enjoys doing it. Chances are, he may [[IKnowWhatYouFear know just about every fear]] or guilt he can use to psychologically torture you, and when he's feeling particularly nosy, he'll walk up to you in your sleep and corrupt whatever happy dream you were having at the moment with a simple touch of the finger. If he's [[OrcusOnHisThrone feeling lazy]], he can send stab-happy dolls, teleporting maggot-vomiting clowns, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs teleporting doll clowns that vomit maggots with knives]], and a plethora of other foul apparitions to do the dirty work for him. More often than not, he'll be not just any [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight boogeyman]], but '' the'' Boogeyman, maybe even the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification very incarnation of nightmares]] with his own personal {{Mordor}} of night terrors, and he's nearly always present in settings revolving around DreamsVsNightmares, clashing with the do-gooders trying to keep it all sugary sweet. Expect it to aspire to TakeOverTheWorld with its nightmares, and lay a claim on the SatanicArchetype if it isn't the [[Satan real thing]] [[GodOfEvil to begin with]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'', the evil Ghadius in ''Door to Phantomile'' plots to destroy the titular land by summoning Nahatomb, an EldritchAbomination [[MadeOfEvil literally made from nightmares]].

In FantasyKitchenSink type settings, this entity will usually be portrayed as among the evilest and most dangerous entities out there, despite the fact that nightmares, by their nature as ''dreams'', have almost no capability of causing any real or lasting harm to a person. If they normally inhabit DreamLand, they may find themselves WeakerInTheRealWorld.

Meet the [[TitleDrop Nightmare Weaver]], a SubTrope of DreamWeaver who exists for the sole purpose of making people wear [[BringMyBrownPants brown pants]] in their beds with his [[NightmareSequence bad dreams]], and he most likely enjoys doing it. Chances are, he may [[IKnowWhatYouFear know just about every fear]] or guilt he can use to psychologically torture you, and when he's feeling particularly nosy, he'll walk up to you in your sleep and corrupt whatever happy dream you were having at the moment with a simple touch of the finger. If he's [[OrcusOnHisThrone feeling lazy]], he can send stab-happy dolls, teleporting maggot-vomiting clowns, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs teleporting doll clowns that vomit maggots with knives]], and a plethora of other foul apparitions to do the dirty work for him. More often than not, he'll be not just any [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight boogeyman]], but '' the'' Boogeyman, maybe even the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification very incarnation of nightmares]] with his own personal {{Mordor}} of night terrors, and he's nearly always present in settings revolving around DreamsVsNightmares, clashing with the do-gooders trying to keep it all sugary sweet. Expect him to aspire to TakeOverTheWorld with his nightmares, and be portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has Zelin and Rakaya, a pair of Eternals that can harvest nightmares and trap people in it.

* [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Nightmare Moon]] from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is often given this power in fanworks, in canon she almost definitely had it but was too busy to use it in the brief periods she was active.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', they have Zelin and Rakaya, a pair of Eternals that can harvest nightmares and trap people in it.
* The titular character of the story "The Nightmare Man" in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' is an entity of unknown origin who traps people in endless nightmares.
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Waking Moments" features aliens who exist in a dream state and can trap "waking species" in nightmares.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

In short, this kind of character is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin; a DecompositeCharacter deriving from TheSandman who embodies the latter's negative aspects in some portrayals. Particularly cruel ones like to pull you into YourWorstNightmare, as well as alcohol poisoning to those who take a shot every time the word "nightmare" is mentioned in this article.

Compare/contrast with DreamWalker, SleepParalysisCreature and YourWorstNightmare.