The Dream Cycle refers to a series of stories by author H. P. Lovecraft.^[1] These stories concern themselves with "The Dreamlands": a vast, alternate dimension that can be entered via dreams.

The Dreamlands is apparently divided into four regions:

• The "West" contains -in addition to the Steps of Deeper Slumberand Enchanted Woodby which many enter the Dreamlands- many other sites of interest. These include the Dreamlands' largest city, the port of of Dylath-Leen, the town of Ulthar "where no man may kill a cat,"^[2] the coastal jungle city of Hlanith, and the desert trading capital Ilarnek. Here too, the land of Mnar with its gray stones marked by signs of protection against the Old Ones, whereupon lies the lake upon which rest the ruins ofSarnath.
• The "South," home of the isle of Oriab and the Fantastic Realms;
• The "East," home of Celephaïs, a city dreamt into being by its monarch Kuranes], greatest of all recorded dreamers, and The Forbidden Lands);
• "The North," location of the feared Plateau of Leng, home of man-eating spiders and satyr-like beings known as the "Men of Leng"^[3]).

Other locales include "The Underworld", a subterranean region underneath the Dreamlands and inhabited by monsters, the "Moon," accessible via a ship and inhabited by "moon-beasts" allied with Nyarlathotep, and Kadath, a huge castle atop a mountain and the domain of the "Great Ones".

The third novel in the Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard, Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute takes place primarily in The Dreamlands. Cabal, a scientist and necromancer, is hired by a group (the Fear Institute) to go on an expedition into the Dreamlands to capture the embodiment of fear (the Phobic Animus). The group travels to Arkham and using the Silver Key enter the Dreamlands where they travel through The Enchanted Forest, Hlanith, Oriab, etc., and encounter Nyarlahotep.

• Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. Del Rey, 1985.^[4][5]

Contents:

• "Polaris" (1918)
• "The White Ship" (1919)
• "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1919)
• "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920)
• "Celephaïs" (1920)
• "Ex Oblivione" (1920)
• "From Beyond" (1920)
• "Nyarlathotep" (1920)
• "The Quest of Iranon" (1921)
• "The Nameless City" (reference only) (1921)
• "The Other Gods" (1921)
• "Azathoth" (1922)
• "The Hound" (reference only) (1922)
• "Hypnos" (1922)
• "What the Moon Brings" (1922)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926)
• "The Outsider" (1926)
• "The Silver Key" (1926)
• "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
• "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (1927)
• "The Thing in the Moonlight" (Based on a letter written to Donald Wandrei. Written by J. Chapman Miske) (1927. Published 1941)
• "At the Mountains of Madness" (reference only) (1931)
• "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932)
• "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (with E. Hoffmann Price) (1932)

• Harms, Daniel (1998). "Dreamlands". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 89–91. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
• Brian Lumley wrote his own Dreamlands books as well, beginning with "Hero of Dreams".