When humans go to sleep, they unknowingly enter into the realm of the Dreaming, controlled and run by a very powerful de facto god of dreams (Dream of the Endless).
Dream rules his domain with an iron fist, regulating the rules of the dream world and maintaining a balance between dreams and reality. He creates living dreams and nightmares which populate the Dreaming and help to administer humanity’s fantasies.
Dream creates a monster called the Corinthian, a living nightmare who looks human except for his eyes which are replaced with open mouths filled with sharp teeth. Dream says that the purpose of the Corinthian is to be:
A dark mirror that would reflect humanity’s darkest desires and dreams that they were too afraid to confront. The Corinthian, in short, was the manifestation of all those dark desires. The desire to bring chaos and anarchy was deep-rooted inside him. His purpose was to reflect those horrors so that humanity would keep a check on its sanity and would never cross the boundaries.
Try your best to interpret what that is supposed to mean (or if it even makes sense).
After existing in the dream world for centuries, the Corinthian enters the real world and begins operating as a serial murderer. Dream attempts to uncreate him but by random chance is himself trapped away for over a century.
During roughly 100 year period, the Corinthian becomes a prolific serial killer and uses his nightmare powers to influence others to become killers as well. There is a massive upsurge in the number of serial killers across the world. In the USA, a “cereal convention” is held throughout the 1980s attended by a large group consisting of America’s most vicious serial killers every year to promote and celebrate their hobbies as “collectors.” The killers do not know that the Corinthian is a living nightmare but they revere him as a legend among killers. He appears as a keynote speaker from time to time.
Who’s fault is all of this?
Clearly, the Corinthian killed people but does he really have free will? How much blame can we assign to his creator Dream?
1. It is 100 percent the fault of Dream the Creator.
2. It is overwhelmingly Dream’s fault (above 75 percent), some blame goes to the Corinthian.
3. It is Dream’s fault a bit more (higher than 50, less than 75), some blame goes to the Corinthian.
4. It is 50-50 Dream and the Coronthian’s fault.
5. It is Corinthian’s fault a bit more (higher than 50, less than 75), some blame goes to Dream.
6. It is overwhelmingly Corinthian’s fault (above 75 percent), some blame goes to Dream.
7. It is 100 percent the fault of the Corinthian.
8. It is nobody’s fault. Everyone is just a slave to their programming.
I’m going with option 2. You can’t exactly create someone to be a “dark mirror,” focus all of humanity’s dark impulses and then expect that to turn out okay. It sounds like a very irresponsible thing to do. A tiger is going to try and eat other animals if that’s how it’s programmed.
