Testimony
“I was there with the usual hum and all of a sudden, nothing. I held my breath until I heard the click of the fuses, honestly.”
Environmental events are changes that happen to Level 0 without anyone causing them. The place decides when and where, and each event has its phases and its duration. A zone is a large cell of the map, and what happens in one isn't felt in the next.
Light catalog
| Event | What happens |
|---|---|
| Lamp that pops | A lamp breaks |
| Flicker wave | Several lamps flicker in succession |
| Zone blackout | The light goes out across the whole zone |
| Fuses that return | The light comes back |
| Tone shift | The light changes color |
| Falling lamp | A ceiling light comes loose |
The blackout follows an order. First a warning, then darkness and only the flashlight is left. The fuses bring the light back when they feel like it.
How to recognize it
Events almost never announce their arrival with an image. You hear them before you see them. When the hum breaks off, something in the zone is about to change.
How to survive
- If you hear a snap above your head, step aside, because it could be a lamp or a ceiling light.
- In a blackout, stay still for a moment. Moving your feet in the dark makes more noise than you think. See footsteps on carpet.
- What happens in a zone isn't preserved. If you leave and come back, everything may be as it was at the start, or maybe not.
- If there's a bed nearby, use the blackout to rest in the shelter instead of going out to search.
What people report
- Before a lamp bursts there's a short ballast snap, just before the burst.
- In zone blackouts, they say, the hum goes completely quiet. Nobody has confirmed whether the silence is the warning or the consequence.
- People speak of other, slower changes, such as damp and mold advancing along the walls. The archive has never seen them advance by eye, only already settled in.
- How long a blackout lasts depends on whom you ask. Some count minutes, and others say they never saw the end.
See also
The Zone Cycle, Space Events and Sliding Chair, The Pulse.
Sub-entries
P-014 · PhenomenaThe Zone CycleEvery occupied zone breaks down slowly, mends more slowly still and never repeats the same blow twice in a row.P-016 · PhenomenaThings That Change PlacesA door that was locked and now isn’t, a chair in the middle of the corridor that wasn’t there before, something that falls without being touched.
Mentioned in
P-017 · PhenomenaThe Wanderer’s GlossaryThe words wanderers repeat until they stop explaining them, with the entry where each one is told.P-007 · PhenomenaThe PulseThe place seems to keep its own rhythm of calm, stalking, peak and lull. Wanderers call it the Pulse.P-028 · PhenomenaFluorescent HumThe sound of the place is a low electrical hum that never quite goes quiet and, now and then, something being dragged far away.E-024 · EntitiesField Guide: CreaturesHow to recognize each Level 0 creature, what it does if it reaches you, and what to do before you find out.S-026 · SublevelsNull ZonesIn certain dark rooms of Level 0.1, nothing leaves a trace, neither your footsteps nor those of whatever is following you. A sign warns you.