Testimony
“The steps are all the same and I still never reach the top when I should.”
The stairs are the link between the floors of the building. They have a regular, measured geometry, and all wanderers, like all creatures, walk on them over the same steps.
Measurements
- Riser: 17.5 cm per step.
- Tread: 28 cm deep.
- Slope: about 32 degrees.
- Headroom above your head: 2.10 meters.
- Landing: 1.2 meters deep, one for every flight of up to 3 meters of rise.
- Floor height: 332 centimeters.
The highest step you can climb in one go is 27 centimeters. That is why the ramps in Level 0 are built like staircases of tiny steps.
How to recognize them
A Level 0 staircase is long, straight or zigzagging, with a landing every few meters. The zigzag tower is the same piece repeated many times, and it is the basis of the 63-meter staircase.
How to survive
- Climb calmly, because the steps are equal but tiredness is not. If something is chasing you, stop at every landing, since a landing is a good place to turn and see it coming.
- Don’t run down in the dark, because a stumble on a long staircase costs more time than you save.
- The stairs connect to the floors above. If you climb, expect to find creatures.
What people say
- On long staircases your stride grows more sure with time, because the foot seems to recognize each step.
- They say that anyone who goes down very fast notices that the last step always arrives sooner than expected, and that this error is what makes you trip.
- Some swear they counted one more step going up than coming down.
For the whole picture of verticality, see The Building and the Descent.
Mentioned in
E-015 · EntitiesGrilleA bundle hanging from the ceiling bars or a service staircase. Still while you look at it, and a step lower when you look away.P-011 · PhenomenaThe 63-Meter StaircaseTwenty-one flights of three meters in a zigzag and, at the top, a place you can't reach any other way. Everyone tells the ending differently.P-009 · PhenomenaHow It All Fits TogetherThree levels joined by pits, stairs and doors to nowhere, and sublevels that have no door and are reached by mistake.P-022 · PhenomenaThe Floors AboveFor a while, going up a floor left the world without creatures. Not anymore. Up there, too, someone is waiting for you.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.