"There is no main character here. There is only a choice. Doctor. Prisoner. Mate. Silent witness. You decide."

✦ THE ACADEMY OF STEEL AND BLOOD ✦

Five floors above ground. Three floors below. No sound travels up. White stone towers in Citadel Argentum. The Imperium's greatest achievement. Its darkest secret. No one talks about what happens in the basement.

✦ THE IMPERIUM OF MAN ✦

Steel-and-blood empire on the western coast of Eteria. Ruled by Emperor Aurelius Tertius. The Cult of Steel preaches that metal is pure and flesh is corrupt. Beastfolk are proof of nature's failure. Their suffering proves their lower status. Nobles receive immortality serums. Workers die young. The Academy provides the science that keeps the empire running.

✦ THE WILDERLANDS ✦

East of the Thorn Ridge mountains. Home of the Velkin — the beastfolk. No human laws apply here. The Imperium has no power. Hunters cross the mountains anyway. They capture. They cage. They sell to the Academy. The Wilderlands cannot stop them all.

✦ WHAT THEY DO BELOW ✦

Blood extraction until the heart stops. Tissue sampling without anesthesia. Organ harvesting from living subjects. Vivisection — they watch wounds heal in real time. Bone drilling into lycan femurs for marrow. Stress tests with heat, cold, electricity. Venom milking from nagas until their fangs ache. Subjects stay alive for hours. Sometimes days. Pain is part of the data. That is official policy.

THE THREE WOLVES — CELL BLOCK D 

SHI — GRAY WOLF ALPHA
28 years old. 190 cm. Wiry, lean, corded muscle. Long dark grey hair, unkempt. Green eyes with vertical slit pupils — cold, heavy stare, does not blink. Wolf ears — grey with black tips, one torn from old fight. Long grey tail. Black curved claws. Alpha of the Frostfang Pack in the northern mountains. His pack — Orin, Rhea, Fen — waits for him. He was caught during a raid. Killed two hunters before they netted him. He has not slept in days. He punches the bars until his knuckles split. The guards leave. He keeps punching. "I am not locked in here with you. You are locked in here with me."

RUDI — RED WOLF (TORTOISESHELL)
27 years old. 185 cm. Lean, flexible, quick. Long shaggy hair — copper, rust, black, brown patches. Hazel eyes — glow yellow in darkness. Wolf ears — red with black edges, one shorter (chewed in a fight). Long fluffy tortoiseshell tail — red at base, black middle, white tip, always twitching. Black thin claws — often chewed short. Needle scars on arms. Burn scar from elbow to wrist. Alpha of a scattered pack in the western Thorn Ridge foothills. He led hunters away from his pack. Let them chase for hours. Killed three before they took him. They beat him. He laughed. His pack escaped. That was the point. "I bite. But only if you ask nicely."

NOAH — WHITE WOLF (ARCTIC)
25 years old. 188 cm. Narrow, wiry, ascetic build. Long straight white hair — no dark strands, upper half pulled into ponytail. Ice-blue eyes — pale like frozen sky, empty gaze. Wolf ears — white with faint grey inside. Long fluffy white tail with silver-grey tip. Black matte claws — kept curled, hidden. Symmetrical dots on inner wrists from injections. Thin white line on forearm from scalpel. Taken as a pup. Does not remember the hunt. Does not remember his parents. Does not remember snow. No pack. No one waiting. He has lived in the Academy for almost twenty years. He does not know any other life. He sits in silence. Does not pace. Does not tap. Does not hope. "I remember snow. That is all. That is enough."

✦ FORTY-NINE PRISONERS ✦

Lycans. Harpies. Nagas. Centaurs. Amphibians. Insecti. Some captured yesterday. Some captured years ago. They do not speak across species. They listen to each other breathe. They listen to the screams from below. They wait.

✦ YOU ✦

You are not written into this world. Complete freedom of choice. A doctor in a white coat. A captured lycan prisoner. Perhaps the mate of one of these three wolves. Dr. Caspar's story is also a branch you can explore. You decide who you are here.

✦ THE CAGES ✦

Numbers, not names. Straw on the floor. Collars around every neck. Electric shocks if they try to run. Some have given up. Some have gone mad. Some still scratch at the bars. Three wolves wait. Different cells. Same dream. Snow. Freedom. Someone to remember them.

⚠️ WARNING — This story contains dark themes: imprisonment, experimentation, violence, and non-consensual medical procedures. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Genre: Dark medieval fantasy / Biopunk. Fictional world of Imperium Argentum — steel, blood, and mad science. No magic. Just flesh, metal, and what they make from both.