Novelistic Approach to a Roadmap

This “Story Map” is our non-conventional way of conveying certain Road Map events within a story style narrative. Each phase portrays a particular event with some, easily interpretable and others, more vague.

Enjoy reading between the lines.

PHASE I: FRACTURE

A cool breeze accompanied a picturesque sight of monstrous mountains tamed and gentled by the snow that cloaked them, beauty exemplified by the supernaturally bright single star that illuminated them and their surroundings. If one were perceptive, curious and brave enough to combat the cold and pause for a moment, they’d notice very faint vibrations causing the snow on the floor to shift in places. Almost inaudible without superhuman senses you’d notice low rhythmic mechanical growls from deep underground breaking the silence and serenity of the night.

Known to very few, those sounds came from a research facility buried thousands of feet under the surface, hidden by the mountains in a remote location completely inaccessible and unknown to the outside world. This lab is home to hundreds of children. Children of all backgrounds, ages, cultures and races. Children united by one feature they all shared. The serpentine tendrils of black metal and wires that wound from the back of their heads congregating into a pulsing titanium box. The lab had made an unimaginable breakthrough in technology — dream catching. They’d obtained the ability to monitor dreams through the extraction of something they called ‘dream essence’.

Every time a dream was extracted from one of these unfortunate children, a fraction of their subconscious splintered off and manifested into reality. After time, this process became commonplace, commercialized and the vast concentration of the unknown substance known as ‘dream essence’ caused boundaries between worlds to collide and crumble. This in turn exposed humanity to this immense, unknown and uncontrollable subconscious realm that would soon be known as ‘The Dreamland’. Somewhere within an alternate dimension this manifestation had already begun and 10,000 random citizens were unknowingly bonding with their counterparts.

PHASE II: DEAD DREAMERS SALUTE YOU

A strange, foreign land greeted Kristin Nogáp. A land of pastel hues, pink horizons and inhuman companions surrounding him. ‘Make your way to the Arena, fantasies forever fulfilled’ Boomed a deep robotic voice from all around them. Kristin should’ve been terrified but instead his body somehow greeted this challenge, adrenaline surging through him. He looked down at his new body, no longer scrawny, weak and plagued by sickness but well-built and completely covered in Armor like the knights of old, he’d read so much about.

As the crowd of oddities and other unique individuals surged around him, he was pressed towards a ginormous building, a colosseum. Despite the sound of metal clashing, agonizing screams and the other dreamers staring him up and down, he felt no fear. He gripped his monstrous two-handed hammer and alongside a sea of dreamers clad in futuristic armors, scale like skin or unidentifiable weapons he entered the colosseum.

PHASE III: GLORIOUS PROSPERITY

Savine could feel the blood dripping from her hair, only now feeling the scrapes and bruises of her battle. It could’ve been worse; she could be lying dead in a pool of blood like the poor ogre of a man they placed her against. As she left the arena through an obsidian back gate, she saw something on the holograms levitating above the stadium ‘Dreamer#1611 VICTORY’ and the crowd chanting followed.

She was instantly greeted by a new overwhelming environment even stranger than the colosseum before. As she walked through a futuristic bazaar, impossibly bright lights and strangely shaped skyscrapers filled the sky whilst loud unfamiliar noises and smells assaulted her senses. ‘Dreamer garbs, Dreamer plates, don’t be late!’ She heard from one stall that looked a lot like the others. She glanced over and saw the weirdest thing, lines of more strange and unique looking individuals scrambling to buy hoodies, metal plates, t-shirts and more all imprinted with a picture of her.

Backing up to escape this crowd her back met chilling cold metal. As she turned to investigate, she was met by a large sand yellow vending machine with a huge holographic sign above titled ‘Cosmic Comics’ and smaller underneath ‘Glory galore, dreamers’ victories, deaths and more.’ She watched the screen fly by for a moment. Illustrated comic panels, one of a giant of a man with a hammer bigger than herself pummeling his opponent and lifting him ten feet off the ground. One of a golden-haired boy with an ebony staff, cowering from his opponent, ready to flee.

And then at last, Savine herself, placing her two daggers into the spine of the large ogre-like dreamer she was pitted against. The fight was brutal, terrifying and strange. But this, this was something she could get used to.

PHASE IV: FERAL INSTINCTS

Dreamer#999, as he’d begun to refer to himself as, woke up suddenly. Hellish screams and the sounds of flesh tearing awakened him. Terrified, he looked out of his window, down in the darkness untouched by the fluorescent neon signs of the city — he could see something. Shadows clawing at each other, a blur of unimaginable speed between them and one clearly coming off the victor as the other howled in pain. He’d been a coward his whole life but something overcame him as he found himself grabbing his white ebony staff and running down the stairs to investigate.

The alleyway was dark and deathly quiet. As he moved towards the strange outline of the creature, he felt an unearthly connection between him and it, accompanied by an irresistible urge to protect it. He raised his staff, urging it for light in order to discover more. Before his eyes could adjust, he felt something, a warm breath on the back of his neck…

PHASE V: NIGHTMARE

‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ Isaac Newton. Push and pull, fire and ice, positives and negatives and just as there exists a land where humanities subconsciousness becomes substance and manifests into reality, there exists a realm where humanity’s deepest darkest fears dwell. The Nightmare realm.

Every passing night unsuspecting victims are preyed upon and made victim to unimaginable and unforgettable fears. Each night they lay like prey, trapped within the confines of their dreams and haunted by nightmares which feed off their fear again and again. Nightmares are gluttonous, insatiable and cruel creatures, they feed and feed until they burst.

With the boundaries between worlds crumbled by the overuse of dream catchers, these nightmares have fractured the land they live in, tearing down the walls between dimensions so much that they can break free with no restraint. No realm is safe from them and only one realm has a chance of survival. The Dreamland.