Here are 6 intermediate Story Realms, designed to sit naturally near Homeward without stepping on existing concepts.
Theme: Responsibility without response
CR Band: 6–9
A coastal world dominated by a massive lighthouse that is meticulously maintained… yet has not been lit in generations. Ships still wreck. The keeper insists it is “not time yet.”
Story Question:
If you are ready, but never act, are you responsible for what follows?
Storyless Pressure:
Storyless Enforcers and Archivists accumulate around the lighthouse’s mechanism.
Theme: Living on futures you haven’t earned
CR Band: 7–10
Trees grow fruit that grant brief visions of possible futures—stronger, safer, happier ones. The people eat them constantly. No one plans anymore.
Story Question:
What happens when the future is consumed instead of built?
Storyless Pressure:
Choruses appear where futures contradict one another.
Theme: Clinging to a connection that should have ended
CR Band: 6–8
A vast suspension bridge stretches across an endless void. The cities it once connected are long gone, but the bridge remains—maintained by people who don’t remember why.
Story Question:
When the destination is gone, is the path still meaningful?
Storyless Pressure:
Husks and Drifters reenact crossings endlessly.
Theme: Celebration as avoidance
CR Band: 7–9
A city locked in perpetual festival. Fireworks nightly. No closing ceremony. No aftermath. No mourning for what the festival originally commemorated.
Story Question:
When joy never ends, does it still mean anything?
Storyless Pressure:
Refrains enforce repetition of the same “best moments.”
Theme: Obligation taken too far
CR Band: 8–10
A subterranean world where every promise ever fulfilled is recorded, preserved, and guarded. The inhabitants are exhausted but proud. No one rests.
Story Question:
Can devotion become a form of self-erasure?
Storyless Pressure:
Archivists and Adjudicators dominate.
Theme: Mutual waiting
CR Band: 6–9
A quiet coastal realm where travelers arrive… and wait for someone else to depart first. Boats are ready. No one boards them.
Story Question:
Is waiting together still avoidance?
Storyless Pressure:
Minimal—collapse only begins if someone forces a departure.