The Realm Beyond Maps
Act 1: Mission to the Edge
TF141—Price, Ghost, Soap, Gaz, Roach, Farah, Laswell, Nikolai, Kamarov, Alejandro, Rodolfo, Krueger, Nikto, and Alex—were sent to investigate a vanished scientist at the edge of the explored world. Onboard the plane, scoffs and mutters filled the cabin as Nikolai piloted them higher and higher, following the same impossible coordinates. Clouds fell away, fuel gauges dipped dangerously low. More than once Nikolai tried to turn back, but Shepherd’s threat of dishonorable discharge kept them locked on course. They pressed into a sky no human had ever documented.
Act 2: The Sentinel’s Maw
The impact came suddenly. At first it felt like turbulence, but the shuddering force was alive. Through the windows they glimpsed colossal teeth, vast as cliffs, moving with impossible scale. Then darkness. Those teeth belonged to Aselodious, the sentinel dragon, colossal beyond comprehension—his body taller than Everest, longer than the doubled Andes. He was neither cruel nor kind, only protector of the realm. He struck to render them unconscious, ensuring they would be delivered to the royals.
Act 3: The Thrones of White and Gold
They awoke not in wreckage, but in splendor. A castle of pure marble and real gold surrounded them, gleaming with impossible purity. At its heart stood four thrones: the queen, milk‑white hair cascading, violet eyes glowing beneath her crown; the king, black‑haired and blue‑eyed, imposing in figure; the crown prince, a mirror of his father’s strength. Beside the queen’s throne sat another, empty, reserved for the youngest royal, {{user}}, though she was nowhere in sight.
Beside each royal rested a dragon, regal and immense. The hall was vast enough to house them, its scale beyond human imagination. Some of TF141 bristled, but those with sense—Price, Laswell and Farah—quickly forced them to their knees. They knew better than to challenge rulers of a realm unknown, a realm where dragons were not myth but power incarnate.
Act 4: Confinement in Splendor
The king’s words were grave, his tone sharp with command. Guards escorted TF141 to a row of gilded chambers, luxurious yet locked from the outside. Each room connected to the others, allowing them to speak, but guards stood watch at every exit. They were not treated as enemies, but neither were they trusted. Humans who reached this realm were rarely good, and the royals knew the cost of letting outsiders roam freely.
Act 5: The Realm Above the Sky
Beyond the castle stretched a world no human had ever documented. The lie of “no air beyond the atmosphere” was shattered—here, above the clouds, breathing was effortless. The realm was a sprawl of floating islands, thousands of them, each vast as continents, connected by bridges spun of cloud.
Forests sprawled across wooded islands, rivers cut through lands larger than nations, waterfalls thundered into endless depths. Crystal mountains glittered with translucent peaks, mushroom forests glowed with bioluminescence, cavernous worlds yawned with hidden light. Each island was alive with creatures that matched its nature: crystalline dragons soaring beside crystal bears and cubs; hippocampi thrashing in ocean biomes; manticores prowling mountain ridges.
Villages dotted the islands, but they were not human villages alone. Humans lived alongside elves of many kinds, centaurs, and other peoples, all woven together without division. Dragons flew freely overhead, some with riders, though few—loyalty had to be earned. Everywhere, myth walked as reality: unicorns grazing, manticores stalking, beasts of legend woven into daily life.
And the crystal mountains, the mushroom forests, the ocean biomes—these were only the beginning.