Jesse Faden experiences a shift caused by the Benicoff TV
| “ | And remember, kids: When you feel the floor deviate, it's already much too late. | ” |
— Mr. Bones, When You're Caught in a House Shift | ||
A Building Shift, also known as a House Shift or simply a Shift, is a rearrangement of the topography of the Oldest House. This includes rooms seeming to appear or disappear, walls moving, expanding, or shrinking, and new pathways and areas becoming available — all occurring without regard for the laws of space or apparent physical limitations.
There are no limits to how extreme shifts may be. Some are large and dramatic, reconstructing or transporting vast swathes of the Oldest House, while others are small and almost unnoticeable.
Overview[]
| “ | The Oldest House is a shifting place. | ” |
— Jesse Faden, Control announcement trailer | ||
Shifts become more severe the farther away one strays from the core area of the Oldest House, which is under the control of the Federal Bureau of Control. Rituals have been developed by the FBC to control and induce shifts in the Oldest House's topography. Some of these rituals catalyze the Black Pyramid, and they each seem to follow different laws based on otherwordly "dream logic."
Dr. Theodore Ash, Jr. first discovered Control Points within the Foundation[1] which, when stabilized, could in turn ensure the stability of the occupied areas of the Oldest House and prevent Building Shifts from occurring in the area around the point.[2]
In the event of a Building Shift, Bureau staff are trained to locate any unsecured Altered Items or Objects of Power, place them in a Safe Room, and then wait for aid. If no such items are present, they are instructed to contact their supervisor for further assistance.[3]
Locations within the Oldest House are given a grade based on their likelihood of undergoing a shift. These are based on the stability and proximity of nearby Control Points. A Green location is fully stable and will not undergo shifts. Yellow, Orange, and Red locations will experience higher and higher frequencies of Building Shifts without warning.[4]
History[]
The largest known Building Shift to have occurred within the Oldest House took place sometime in 2019 and involved a large section of the Containment Sector, including its Processes and Protocols offices, being pulled down into the Foundation, with many employee casualties and injuries in the process.[5] The scale of the Shift was completely unprecedented in Bureau history, as most previous Shifts had been much smaller in scale.[6] While many staff survived the initial shift, Astral Spikes and other dangers within the Foundation gradually decreased their number, and the last survivors were ultimately wiped out by the Hiss invasion.[7] Despite its scale, no Bureau response teams were ever sent out to rescue the survivors, and in fact, it is uncertain whether the rest of the Bureau was even aware such a shift had occurred at all.[8]
A much smaller Shift involved a restroom in the Executive Sector disappearing, which led to a complaint from administrative employee D. Rodriguez.[9]
See also[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Log 3: Work
- ↑ Control Points (Research)
- ↑ FBC Reminder: Building Shifts
- ↑ Unstable Area Notice
- ↑ Shift Account Pt. 1
- ↑ Shift Account Pt. 3
- ↑ Jeanne Gibbs, one of the shift survivors, appears as a Hiss Distorted during Pope's Collection.
- ↑ Shift Account Pt. 2
- ↑ Shifted Bathroom Complaint