The fact that there is so much discussion of Nicodemus and his motives illustrates what a fine job you’ve done in creating this character, Scott. Well done.

“Close air support and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart.”
- Rule #5 from Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
(Relevant to the current situation in Dreamland … )

Not much of an invader, really. A nuisance? Maybe. A threat the Dreamlanders couldn’t handle? Definitely not. Not with their King watching these newcomers closely and having some serious air support.

Oh right. Why tell the whole story and reason it all out when the best part of creating storylines is leaving a little freedom for imagination and creativity.

It seems to me that it’d be a Lot more likely for the bunch of humans to corrupt Dreamland than for a bunch of aggressive humans to be magically reformed through Dreamland’s display of peaceful coexistence. Much more likely, they’d try to do what everybody else did at that point in History: try to colonize it and exploit it for everything it’s worth. It doesn’t help that Arthur was Purposely trying to bring the Worst of humans into Dreamland, not the friendly harmless old sages. Humans have found plenty of peaceful communities all around the world, and their response was usually to reduce it into slavery.

There is also the context of Dreamland’s “One human king” rule. Until now, Dreamland was united under 1 principle, and it was that there was only 1 adult human around, and that 1 adult human and no other is King. If a hundred more suddenly showed up, it would be at the very least confusing. What if other adult humans went for a power grab and tried to install himself as King in place of Arthur? What if he used the fact that he’s a human as an excuse to order other Dreamlanders around? What if some of the Dreamlanders decide to support another, perhaps more sweet-talking human than Arthur? The risks are non-existent for the humans, but very high for Dreamlanders.