Zones

Thaumic Exclusion Zones, often simply refered to as zones, are dangerous places with extreme amounts of thaumic energy where reality starts to break down and regular laws of physics, reason or logic no longer apply.

Numerous thaumic exclusion zones exist throughout the world, most of which are cordoned off by the local governments and entry into them is forbidden without special permission. Despite that, trespassing into them is very common due potentially valuable objects within then, dubbed artifacts, with the activity of trespassing into these zones refered to as "stalking".

Contents:
• Overview
• Effects
• Artifacts
• Locations
• "The Great Zone"
• Belsev Zones
• Astrolibert Zones
• The Kitshon Phenomenon
• Stalkers
  • Notable Stalkers

Overview

While mild levels of background thaumic energy are perfectly normal throughout the world and most individuals barely feel it, when too much thaumic energy is gathered in the same place it can become dangerous and unpredictable, directly affecting anyone within it.

Historically, very few zones were known because they were small and usually in very remote and unpopulated areas, while their effects were minimal and limited to occasional oddities and unusual sightings. The situation changed drastically in the wake of the Exothaumic Emission Event two decades ago, a sudden and extreme outburst of thaumic energy that greatly amplified its presence throughout the world and, in turn, made the zones much larger and much more dangerous.

The zones vary greatly in sizes and cover a perfectly circular area, with their effects being minimal near the border and most powerful at their epicentre. This can make smaller zones very immediately dangerous due to a much more drastic shift between safe and unsafe areas, whereas the danger of the large zones lies in the wide area they cover and much more subtle change in the intensity of their thaumic field, which can catch inexperienced individuals off guard.

The zones rarely change their size and usually remain static, although the exact border may change depending on population and technological changes around them due to the way thaumic fields work. While multiple zones can also overlap, generally this doesn't change an individual zone's amount of thaumic energy.

Effects

The most noticeable effect of the zones is how they affect the environment, warping and distorting the landscape within them. This can range from relatively benign changes like like plant gigantism or unusual foliage colours to dangerous anomalies that distort temperature, gravity, or time-space itself. The deeper into the zone, the more dangerous it gets as anomalies become more common.

The zones are notably completely devoid of life, giving them an eerie silence. They are also completely unaffected by weather, as well as having no wind and always appearing completely still unless disturbed. While there have been reports of unusual sightings within the zones, none of them have been proven or thoroughly documented so far. The current theory is that the zones appear to adopt cultural beliefs of the local areas, leading to physical manifestations of the local folklore.

Another notable effect of the zones is how they appear to alter those who remain in them for prolonged periods of time. Those from the rural communities who refused to evacuate from the exclusion zones have been noted to become increasingly more beast-like over years or decades of staying there. Eventually, depending on the affected person's health, personality and general intelligence, they either turn completely feral, or become full beastfolk while retaining their intelligence. Such changes are generally considered irreversible as only experienced mages can effectively change someone's form.

The zones also appear to affect those who frequently visit them in a different fashion, usually by making the transformation either partial or periodical. This is the case with Ivan and Autumn: their zone influence manifests in the form of werewolf-like traits that turns them more wolf-like during the night, with the intensity of their transformation depending on the moon cycle and season. There have also been reports of individuals gaining animalistic features not usually seen on this world's inhabitants, such as wings or fish tails.

Artifacts

The zones' influence can also be seen in the form of artifacts: previously ordinary objects that have since gained unusual properties. While any object that's been in the zone long enough might have supernatural properties, most of them don't manifest it in any obvious fashion, only having a faint thaumic field at most. Artifacts are often given a simple and recognizable name descriptive of their properties, although some may be more poetic depending on who named them.

Much more interesting are artifacts that show some sort of immediate effect, some examples being:

• Defying laws of gravity, such as:
  • a "Lid" (Russian: «Крышка»), a flat object that always appears to always rest at a 45° angle;
  • a "Pole" (Russian: «Шест»), a long object that always returns to a perfectly upright position;
  • an "Eternal Engine" (Russian: «Вечный двигатель»), a ring that will continue spinning or tumbling after being applied force to until manually stopped;
• Affecting the environment around them, such as:
  • "Charcoal" (Russian: «Уголёк»), a warm to the touch object that appears to gradually increase temperature around it up to around 1000°C;
  • a "Freezer" (Russian: «Морозилка»), a cold object that gradually lowers the temperature around it close to absolute zero;
• Hold an unlimited electric charge, such as a "Battery" (Russian: «Батарейка»);
• Produce a bright light when disturbed, such as a "Flashlight" (Russian: «Фонарь»);
• "Record" and then "playback" random phrases or entire conversations from the past, even those they weren't around to possibly "hear", such as a "Gramophone" (Russian: «Граммофон»);
• A lot of artifacts don't appear to hold any useful value at all but are nonetheless popular because of their appearance or visual properties, such as "Beads" (Russian: «Бусинки»), transparent objects that alter any light passing through it, creating beautiful colours.

Some artifacts have a much more subtle effect, like improving a person's health in various ways (such as a "Pill" (Russian: «Пилюля»)) or bringing them unusual luck (such as an "Amulet" (Russian: «Оберег»)). Because their effects are hard to immediately prove to a potential buyer and because of their beneficial effects, stalkers usually prefer to keep them to themselves.

There are also artifacts that only appear to have negative effects, such as a "Crybaby" (Russian: «Каприза») that causes whoever held it to suffer a terrible accident after a few days. These artifacts are actively avoided and if accidentally brought it is customary to bring them back to where they were first found, upon which the artifact appears to "forgive" whoever previously disturbed it.

Finally, there are also artifacts whose effects may not be immediately obvious, or might appear beneficial at first only to then reveal having a harmful effect. One of the most notable ones is a "Genie" (Russian: «Джинн»), which is an empty container that appears to almost immediately grant a wish to whoever activates it, only to make them pay a terrible price equivalent to the wish much later.

Locations

There are many different zones throughout the world, ranging wildly in size and their potential danger, manifesting potentially anywhere: from lush jungles to scorching deserts, from abandoned towns to dense forests. Because of their remoteness and inhabitability, the Great Southern Ocean and the Northern Polar Tundra are also believed to hold massive and dangerous exclusion zones within them. Some of the most notable zones are:

The Great Zone

Known as The Great Zone (Russian: Большая Зона) in Belsev, also known as Ground Zero in Astrolibert due to its presumed role as the epicentre of the Exothaumic Emission Event, is a massive zone on the maritime border between Belsev and Astrolibert. Not much is known about it due to its extremely hostile environment and terrain making research difficult, as well as cutting off any direct contact between Belsev and Astrolibert.

Belsev Zones

While Belsev holds multiple zones within it, by far the most well-known one is the Volkograd Oblast Thaumic Exclusion Zone (Russian: Паранормальная зона отчуждения Волкоградской области), frequently refered to by the locals as simply The Zone, a zone that covers most of the local forests to the north and is one of the largest exclusion zones in Belsev.

Due to its proximity both to Hyperborea and the University, it is one of the most researched and well-charted out zones currently known. Because of rampant stalking by the locals, its border areas are generally considered safe and devoid of any valuable artifacts, however it is still illegal to trespass onto without special permission, and what lies in its deeper regions is still currently unknown.

Astrolibert Zones

Because most of Astrolibert's territory is taken up by large technologically advances megalopolises, there is very little thaumic energy present on its territory. Nonetheless, there are certain areas that allowed for zones to manifest, such as the one in Astrolibert's south-western desert.

The Kitshon Phenomenon

By far the most curious case of the zones is the Kitshon Phenomenon, also sometimes refered to as the Kitshon Anomaly. Despite being very densely populated, Kitshon's territory has some of the highest concentrations of thaumic energy ever measured. Despite that, there are no apparent negative effects on its population and it appeared completely unaffected by the Exothaumic Emission Event. While there is no current explanation for it, less scientific theories attribute it to their spiricual practices, taught to everyone in Kitshon since birth.

Stalkers

Individuals who trespass into thaumic exclusion zones are refered to as stalkers (Russian: сталкеры, pronounced "stahl-ker"), most often doing it in hopes of profit or for the thrill of exploration and danger, although some are known to do it for what appears to be religious reasons. Some of them later try to "legitimize" their activities by providing their services and knowledge to interested clients.

Because trespassing into the zones is highly illegal in most places, stalkers commonly use various aliases, usually related either to their activities or accomplishments, although sometimes it might simply be descriptive of their background, appearance or character.

Despite coming from many different backgrounds, stalkers generally adhere to certain unspoken rules and have various customs and rituals due to the zones' paranormal nature. One of them is to bring the Zone an "offering" upon entering it, usually by planting something and generally respecting the zone's environment. Another is to never bring a weapon, as the Zone will then see the tresspasser as potential danger (and because anything they might encounter there likely won't be susceptible to it), while tools and instruments are considered okay.

The exact origin of the term "stalker" is unknown and is believed to be just a mispronounced belsevian loanword from merlian that simply "sounded cool".

Notable Stalkers