Integrated Strategies is a game about exploring a randomly-laid icefield over and over. So rather than a fixed plot, what forms the backbone of the story is the world laid across that snow, and the one prophecy that keeps recurring within it. And the stage's name is none other than the silver-frosted edge of Sami.

Supplies and personnel — the preparations are perfect. The expedition sets out from Sami's southernmost city and heads north. Once they cross Sami and the icefield beyond, the veiled unknown will soon be revealed.

And yet this journey is a little strange. Without knowing whether they're moving forward or just circling in place, the expedition keeps repeating the same course. Nature has not yet accepted them as friends.

1. From the Silver Lake to the Eternal Dust

The icefield unfolds in layers, from the snow-falling Silver Lake to the lightless Silent Forest. A curled-up Hornbeast invites visitors to rest, but a pitch-black shadow silently stains the snowfield.

Past the forest lies the Dawn Tundra — a cold that bites to the bone, trees growing ever sparser. The map is blank, and now, who is there left to trust?

Beyond that are the Frozen Rock, where ruthless warriors have raised towering walls, and the Flawless Garden, where every trace of life has vanished. Solid ice has sealed away countless lives from ancient times to now, blossoming into beautiful crystals.

At the very end lie the Foreseen Sphere and the Eternal Dust. An inescapable fate stands at the icefield's edge, visible to everyone in this moment. A single grain of dust is still too heavy — the expedition neither hopes nor regrets.

This snowfield has one line that nature keeps repeating. Even if you fall and become nourishment for this land, nature will never interfere — neither welcoming nor refusing.

2. The Tribe Tree and Nature's Code

People live on the icefield too. When the giant Tribe Tree settles down in the middle of a bog, Sami merchants gather along its trunk, roots, and shoreline to open a lowland market.

Branches move stalls on their own, wooden puppets carry goods back and forth between the bog and the flatland, and animals announce the news at the top of their lungs. It's all so bewildering that the expedition takes photos first, just so no one back home calls them liars later.

To the Sami, nature is power itself, and gods dwell within all things. The very first code, they say, was a cry that once echoed across the mountains and fields.

Follow the beast trails, and sometimes the one walking beside you turns out to be a Rock Hornbeast, not a fellow member. At the end of that trail, a pure white, colossal Hornbeast sleeps soundly in a flower bed, with a clear spring trickling gently beside it.

It's less that the beast lives here and more that the forest seems to exist for its rest. Offer it tribute, and it grants your wish; take a sip from the spring beside it without waking it, and the sorrow and pain in your heart are washed away.

The northland shaman games, where many tribes gather, are worth seeing too. Grotesque 'giant' war golems march out of the forest at the high priest's command, and you choose which champion to bet on. When Beast Hornfell knocks out Giant Moss in a single blow, the once-solemn arena erupts in cheers.

That revelation is carved onto the Foldartal. Called the Foldartal, this tablet forms when an ancient tree's bark splits open with a roar, surfacing in intricate patterns. A shaman reads those patterns to convey nature's will.

The shaman shares one old prophecy: that Sami will one day manifest as mountains and icefields melted by flame, and that before all things awaken, their war will break out once more.

Among the expedition members is Surtr, Sami-born herself. When she brings an irresistible flame before the ancient tree, scorched Foldartals fall to the ground.

Flame, war, and my memories……

— Surtr

She watches the flame die out in the blizzard, takes out a notebook and writes something down, then crosses some of it out again.

3. Those Who See the Prophecy

At Sami's northernmost edge live the Cyclops — a Sarkaz clan who see the future and fate, trailed by rumors that they bring misfortune.

Ask a silent group walking north through the blizzard where they're headed, and they answer: toward the next thousand years.

Among that group, Valarqvin becomes the expedition's guide. She 'sees' things like a faint mist, a formless needle, a black key. Their meaning is unknown, but she draws a clear route on the map all the same.

In a cave she leads them to, there's an altar. A single flower blooms there, rootless yet impossibly sharp, and countless Cyclops watch it in silence.

Reach out and you still can't touch the flower. Try to focus and dizziness sets in, until the flower finally takes root inside your own mind. Only once that coordinate is fixed can you finally 'take' the flower.

The result is the purpose, and the purpose is the cause.

— Valarqvin

When the mountains' shadows overlap and blur your sight, a woman dressed as a fortune-teller may even offer you a card to draw — odd, since neither the Sami nor the Cyclops are known to read the future by tarot.

Inside the crystal ball she holds out, only a black mountain range appears, as if it weren't your fate at all. She's wandering these mountains trying to recover an old companion swallowed by a great shadow, and by the time you part ways, you notice Originium crystals have grown thick across her own body too.

Don't fear fate, one fortune-teller says, and don't fear turning your back on it either. On the day you meet the prophecy, you finally realize it had always been waiting for you in the future.

4. What Stains the Snowfield Black

This journey isn't all mystery and wonder. At some point, black footprints begin spreading across the snowfield.

Before the countless animal carcasses buried beneath murky snow, the expedition's legs freeze in place on instinct. This threat has already spread hundreds of kilometers — perhaps farther still.

The Sami warriors seem to know what this is, but for some reason won't say a word about it. What did they go through, to make them so wary of every outsider?

This is Andskotarnir — corruption. Corrupted Sami catch arrows with their bare hands, and Originium Arts vanish without a trace before them. It's also the true face of the great shadow that has haunted the tribespeople's dreams for years.

Reflected in the never-freezing river are eroded earth, vanished beasts, and your own body growing inward. Pull a drowning person out of the water, and even they can't remember whether they leapt in out of terror or were strangled by the river itself.

A Sami warrior known as 'Treescar' leaves their helmet behind in the camp and sets off into the snowfield alone. For a Sami warrior to leave their helmet behind means they've given up any thought of returning alive.

The funeral procession moves to a steady drumbeat, each person kissing the water's surface and praying for the protection of all things and the sun. Such healing rites are said to steady the heart and give courage to face evil spirits — but no one knows just what evil spirit they claim to have seen.

"We don't recognize this as Sami. This has only borrowed Sami's shape." So says a shaman who carries a withered branch with them. Nature is power, she says, and once you've gained power, standing against a threat is only natural.

Still, if you don't press forward, fear will catch up eventually, and the end of flight holds only emptiness. The old tree's attendant reveals the truth of this land as disturbed by Andskotarnir, and thankfully, the expedition's companions agree to see this long, nearly hopeless journey through to the end.

5. All Sorts of Guests on the Snowfield

It isn't all heavy stories, though. This icefield is also crawling with plenty of absurd guests.

Off away from the campfire, there's a Sami man drinking alone, talking to a tree. He asks the tree how it'd feel about befriending a stranger, and when it seems fine with that, he nods to himself, satisfied.

The tribal tales he tells don't quite add up somehow. A warrior said to have sacrificed himself turns out to be alive and well; the drink tastes off, and when you come to, you're curled up on the floor. This place has its own rules, and guests simply have to follow them.

In a cave that looks like a Mangler's nest, drunk Ursus folk throw a party and insist that since only Ursus people are here, this is naturally Ursus land. They hand over a vodka wrapper, claiming this 'official colonization permit' is all you need to get the nation's full backing.

A duck calling itself 'Duck Lord' causes no end of trouble too — gathering corrupted Sami for a ritual one moment, luring Columbian tycoons into danger the next. As it turns out, that 'Sinister Fortress' is actually a Rankwood film crew's shooting set.

An outdoor survival expert everyone thought had gone missing is overjoyed to receive a few coins, saying it's plenty to bike back to his warm apartment, and slips you some expedition data he calls Rhine Lab classified intel.

Bob's General Store, selling canned vegetables and beer, is so popular locally it can't keep stock. Even so, the owner has a quiet regret — that he shouldn't have sold this modern technology to the Sami people at all.

There's also a courteous Sarkaz woman living alone in a small cabin on an icefield with not a soul in sight. But be rude to her, and the cabin splits into four rotten branches. As it turns out, she's an important figure in the Náchtcherer royal house, which is why she builds her home out of such things.

Watch out, too, for the crimson tent pitched on the silver-white icefield. Open the curtain and a play is in full swing — an actor aims a weapon at the audience, and dancers step down from the stage. Turn around, and the tent is suddenly ablaze, with no survivors. A troupe that's made its way even to remote Sami is best avoided.

Find a clearing that glows when stepped on, and after a long while, your radio picks up a signal again. The stripes on the ground light up brightly, and you hear the voice of a companion far off at the southern camp. But once the stripes lose their glow, the transmission cuts out at once.

In the middle of the icefield there's also the Hundred-League Garrison, where exotically dressed Kuranta soldiers are stationed. What looked like an empty encampment suddenly fills with soldiers the moment a horn sounds, and that vast camp stretches endlessly to the north — like the footprints a lone traveling knight left across the earth.

6. The Great Structure at the Icefield's Edge

At the icefield's far edge stands a ring-shaped Stargate. It was discovered years ago already.

Much has happened since. A so-called Black Hole Accord was struck to research and restore the structure, the Behemoth departed Sami, and Collapsal research sent technology leaping forward explosively. Reaching this northern land that changed everything has now become every explorer's dream.

Then one day, a stranger appears at the camp. Invisible to the other members, he takes the invitation you hand him, nods, and departs. On his back, something like Rhodes Island's logo and insignia flashes past.

The next moment, the expedition finds itself standing in the middle of Sargon's desert. The others fall into panic, but the Doctor knows this is a test. It's time to prove yourself.

Ask for help before the ring-shaped gate, and interesting things happen — a squad hauling camp-building materials might emerge, or the operator you need might simply walk out. But sometimes, an unfamiliar enemy that clearly didn't come from the icefield's edge bursts through instead. Where does this door really lead?

The gathered materials are handed over to Kal'tsit at camp, and restoration work officially begins. First the Collapsals are cleared out, then the spatial stabilizer once used against Crazelyseon is powered up.

Researchers from Columbia, casters from Leithanien, Sami shamans, Sarkaz well-versed in sorcery, and even the Elves' ancient civilizational knowledge all gather in one place. They stabilize the disordered flow of space, and at last every facility is restored.

The great structure powers on once more, waiting quietly for a visitor. And the one to take the first step inside is none other than the Doctor.

7. Five Branching Ends

Depending on what truth the icefield yields, this journey closes on five different ends. Some end in dialogue with the mountains, some in frozen blood and stillness, and others lead into a new journey beyond the desert.

To Talk with the Mountains — the end beyond 'Sami's Resolve.' The mountains are already conquered, and the explorer's footprints now mark the endless icefield. The cracked earth speaks with you, asking and promising in turn: that the pursuit of knowledge never ends, but misfortune has only just begun.

Winterfall — the end that comes from felling 'Treescar' Eikthyrnir. Fate draws near at the edge and lowers its own curtain, and the warrior's last drop of blood freezes before it can even fall.

In another branch, though, the northern fortress allows the expedition passage. Then the warrior climbs atop the high walls, watching over Sami's frontier day and night.

Long into an Abyss — the end beyond 'Crazelyseon of the Endless Toll.' You see a darkness too deep to cross, and feel the heavy weight of snow settling on your shoulders. And now, only stillness remains.

At the far edge of that stillness, the Cyclops shares everything they have seen with you. Now is the time, deep within the icefield, to reveal the prophecy in full.

A Ray of Light — the hidden end. Wrong deductions, wrong blame, wrong sacrifices. And yet you still manage to find a path that lets those who come after reach this far. Still, the depth of fate remains, even now, unknowable.

From Start to End — the end that goes farthest of all. In Sargon's desert beyond the open door, the expedition endures endless yellow dust and war, surpassing 'the Scourge of the Land' Kharanduu Khagan and 'the Overlord of Ages' Lugalszargus.

And you return beneath another great structure, weathered by sandstorms, identical to the one on the icefield. This is the end of a long journey, and the beginning of a new one.

Following in your footsteps, explorers will press on into the vast land behind the structure. And someday, they'll come face to face with the truth. The ring-shaped door waits in the cold wind, for someone to open it once more.

Changing its order and scenery each time, the icefield welcomes the expedition once more. Those who set out fully prepared come face to face with a prophecy sleeping beneath the snow, and nature watches on still, neither welcoming nor refusing. The pursuit of knowledge never ends, but misfortune has only just begun.