There are certain places that might be considered haunted.
Haunted either by the weight of events that might have transpired there, by the telltale
signs of anguish and torment, or perhaps haunted in the more literal sense by malevolent forces
either natural or supernatural.
Now, the Templin Institute has yet to successfully develop the means to measure just how much
a place is haunted, fear after all, is not something that lends itself well to units
of measurement.
But in the spirit of the season, I would like to submit for the approval of the Midnight
Society, ten of what I consider some of the most haunted places from across alternate
worlds.
Before we begin though, I’d like to quickly review our criteria.
In particular I’d like to stress that I’m not necessarily looking for the most horrific
or outwardly evil places.
The Realm of Chaos, the Burning Hells, the Mirror Universe, these places are certainly
terrible, and likely scarier than anything on my list, but they’re also places where
the malevolent forces affecting them are obvious.
There’s no sense of mystery and that’s what really elevates a haunted place.
What I’m instead looking for is a bit of subtlety, places where whatever evil present
is less pronounced, yet still discernible, even if it's only a feeling.
It should also be said that I am biased by my own experiences, so if there is a particularly
noteworthy admission, it’s likely because I just lack any personal connection to it.
With that said, let us begin.
In no particular order, I’d like to start with City 17.
On the surface, it should be obvious why this place has ended up on my list.
It is a once grand European City slowly crumbling to ruin under the weight of its occupiers,
both figuratively and literally.
The Transhuman Overwatch patrols every street, aliens from the borderworld of Xen have infested
certain sections, and the Citadel looms over everything.
And it's this last element of City 17 that I found the most affecting.
City 17 is a monument both to the lost glory of mankind, and the overwhelming power of
the Combine.
To see a once vibrant heart of human culture, commerce, industry and discovery, reduced
to a largely dead thing that is slowly being consumed is heartbreaking.
Its population is fully aware that they, like the rest of mankind, are headed to extinction
and their lives are ultimately meaningless.
City 17 is a place where humanity has given up and meekly accepted that its time is over.
The human race will exist just as long as the Combine deem it beneficial, which is probably
the same amount of time it will take them to strip out everything of value from the
planet.
As a human supremacist, it offends me, on a very deep level.
But the right man in the wrong place, as they say, can make all the difference in the world.
Next on our list is Asshai by the Shadow.
Now there are hints across the continents of Westeros and Essos, and all the lands around
them, that otherworldly forces are acting out on reality.
Places where magic has yet to be extinguished.
Most of the time, these forces are intangible, a vision in the flames here, an assassin made
out of shadows there.
So rare you might dismiss them entirely.
In Asshai however, all these mysterious forces that might otherwise be confined to the periphery
of civilization are present.
What might be miracles or terrors elsewhere, are common in Asshai.
It is a perpetually bleak city, larger than any other that might be found on the planet,
yet almost empty.
Only one in ten houses shows any light during the night, yet its residents have devoted
themselves to what the Measters call the “higher mysteries”.
Night-walkers, pyromancers, bloodmages, torturers, poisoners, worshippers of dark gods, all might
be found in Asshai, where no practice is forbidden.
What is perhaps most unsettling about Asshai however, is that it guards the path to an
even darker place, a city so horrific in reputation that no one, even those well versed in the
dark arts, will ever willingly tread.
At number eight on our list, we have the Event Horizon and my thoughts on this one can be
distilled rather succinctly.
I’m always drawn in by the idea that science and technology might lead us to places where
science and technology offer no explanation or comfort.
The Event Horizon is a perfect example of this, a noble attempt to further the spirit
of exploration that inadvertently brought mankind into contact with an indescribable
dimension of pure evil.
And it offers humanity two potential paths forward.
Either research will continue into where exactly the Event Horizon went, and the seeds will
be planted for further incidents, or everything related to the project will be banned and
suppressed.
Through this latter option, humanity will perhaps be safer, but at the price of forever
being forever reminded that there are certain places and certain things we have collectively
decided to hide from.
Both options to me are equally terrifying.
Next we have Athel Loren, or rather a very specific part of Athel Loren: the Vaults of
Winter.
Now for those familiar with this particular world, my choice might seem rather strange.
The Chaos Wastes, Sylvania, the Darklands, Lustria, the Land of the Dead, there is seemingly
no shortage of haunted places, so why the Vaults of Winter?
Well, it comes back to the fear of the unknown.
Sylvania and the Chaos Wastes might have definitely earned a place on this list, but they’re
also a known quantity.
We have very detailed accounts of how those places ended up the way they are.
The Vaults of Winter represent something else entirely.
Athel Loren has always been a world apart from the lands around it, a forest in which
it is said there are no safe paths for anyone other than the Wood Elves.
Yet there are places even they will not go, and the Vaults of Winter are first among them.
As part of an ancient pact between the Elves and the Forest, no one is allowed to enter,
though why this is exactly, has been lost to time if it was ever known at all.
Certain accounts state that the Vaults are connected to the Sinaann-Tor, ageless Waystones
thought to predate the elves, the gods, and might in fact be the echoes of a previous
world.
Within the Vaults is supposedly an eternal winter, and caves filled with many hued crystals
that glimmer with desires, memories and fears.
A guardian lies at its heart, so great and terrible that even demons might be imprisoned
there.
Whatever the truth, the Wood Elves are known to take in guests, treat them to a great feast,
and then leave them insensate with indolence at the entrance to the vault.
Why?
Well that’s the mystery that placed the Vaults of Winter on this list.
At number six, we have Derry, Maine.
And I must admit, this might contradict my previous assertion that I prefer places with
a bit of mystery to them.
The explanation of how Derry has become what it is now, if not entirely complete, is fairly
well documented.
A transdimensional evil lay dormant beneath what would become Derry for Millenia, and
it has corrupted the town since its founding, preying on fear and tragedy.
I think what makes Derry stand out then, is that perhaps more than any other place on
this list, I have a sense of what it’s like to live and grow up there.
The Barrens, the Canal, the Kitchener Ironworks, the Baseball Diamond behind Tracker Brothers
Shipping, the Standpipe, the memories I have of these places are as real and lasting as
any other.
And to know that these place all reside in this monstrous shadow, and that the entire
town has become so used to its presence, is a grim thought.
Next we have Berlin, specifically the version of the city that was built following the Nazi
victory made possible by Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse.
Like Derry, there is no real mystery here, but I think there is something particularly
disturbing in seeing the plans of the Nazis come to fuition so boldly.
It is a city meant to evoke an overwhelming feeling of triumph and victory, and yet we
know that Berlin in this timeline was in fact built on the graves of millions and no amount
of parades and flying banners will ever be able to erase that.
It is a city where evil won, and for decades it was allowed to enjoy the fruits of that
victory, to revel in everything their power made possible.
At number four we have the Dunwhich Building, and here that sense of mystery comes back
in full force.
Now the wastelands that emerged following the Great War are bizarre and otherworldly,
but no matter how outlandish the elements within them might appear, there remains a
rational explanation.
Ghouls, Supermutants, Deathclaw, these might appear to be not of this world, but they are
hardly supernatural.
The Dunwhich Building by contrast stands apart.
It is a place where all rational explanations fail us.
The deeper one goes, the harder it is to deny that something else is present, something
that not even the most fantastical elements of the wastelands can make sense of.
The Dunwhich Building is not the only place in the Wastelands like this, but it's the
starkest evidence that the world is not what it seems.
And no matter how much time goes by, and what else might be found in the Wastelands, this
thought is always in the back of my mind.
The township of Silent Hill takes the number three spot, and I must confess that my knowledge
of this place is mostly secondhand.
Yet while my own personal experiences are minimal, Silent Hill is just so striking in
its aesthetics.
Perhaps my lack of knowledge even adds to its nature a bit.
I know certain things about Silent Hill, but not how they all fit together, which in a
way makes it more unsettling.
I cannot walk through my own city on a foggy day or night without thinking of Silent Hill,
and this by itself is enough for it to earn a place on this list.
At number two, we have the dimension known as the Upside Down, a strange reflection of
our own world in which humanity has disappeared and nightmarish creatures have taken root
in their absence.
Now it's possible and perhaps likely that we will someday receive a full explanation
of what the Upside Down actually is, but I hope not.
The questions and theories raised by this dimension are likely going to be much more
fulfilling than whatever answers we might get.
My initial theory was that the Upside Down was a parallel dimension, a world identical
to our own, but was at some time beset by otherworldly forces to which human civilization
had no defense.
It’s our, conquered world, and a warning of what must be avoided.Your interpretation
might be different, and I think that's the real appeal.
It's impossible to look upon its twisted landscapes and not try to come up with an answer to the
questions of: what happened here?
How did this come about?
Regardless of the answer, the questions are enough to mark the Upside Down as a truly
haunted place in my mind.
Now before we get to the last place on my list, I’d like to briefly mention a couple
honorable mentions.
First, the Tomb of Kujet on the world of Dathomir.
Even in a galaxy in which supernatural elements are, if not common, certainly not rare, this
tomb exudes an eerie presence unlike anything else in the galaxy.
Now once inside, I did find it to be slightly underwhelming, but in the moments leading
up to entering it, there was certainly a feeling of trepidation I had not expected.
The other honorable mention is the abandoned Danvers state hospital.
You might recall it once had its asbestos removed by Gordon Fleming and his struggling
company.
It’s likely the least known place on this list, but I think it will inevitably leave
an impression on anyone who has witnessed it, and the events that transpired there.
Like Silent Hill, its atmosphere is overwhelming, and the idea of wandering its halls even in
the light of day is not one I’d like to entertain.
And so finally, at our number one spot we have, well a place with no name but sometimes
known as the Skull Pit.
Within the Imperium of Man, on a world known as Lucin's Breath, a remote nephium extraction
site was established by the famous rogue trader Aspyce Chorda.
Nephium being a useful and unusual resource highly prized by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
At its height, the facility was home to over 300 workers, mostly slaves, convicts and captured
raiders.
In the 814th year of the 41st millennium, all contact with the site was lost.
Teams sent to investigate the site found the entire facility empty, save for one man, a
former raider commander who’d been sentenced to a lifetime of forced labor.
Across the facility there were no signs that anything had gone wrong.
Clothing, tools, half-eaten food, all had been left in place in what had seemingly been
an entirely routine workday.
It was as if the entire workforce had suddenly vanished.
The lone survivor offered no explanation, merely exclaiming “touch the pool” over
and over.
When investigators did check the nephium sinkhole, they found a horrific scene; polished white
skulls surrounding the pool.
Each had been turned away from the pit so their empty eye sockets would gaze on all
those approached.
Their number matched perfectly that of the workforce, minus one.
Now in a universe like the one the Imperium of Man claims dominion over, there are any
number of explanations here; Drukhari Raiders, Chaos Cultists, Kroot Mercenaries, the list
goes on.
Or maybe the entire thing is just a cover story, maybe whoever Aspyce Chorda put in
charge was just really bad at managing a mine.
The workforce was killed and a story made up to divert attention away from some administrative
failure.
That might actually be the most reasonable answer.
The other explanation, and the one that places this nameless nephium site on my list, is
that it was something else.
There are of course a multitude of dangers out there, the Imperium has its hands full
dealing with the biggest ones, and sometimes even scores some major victories.
But there’s also an unknowable number of smaller threats; things out there that prey
on human civilization that will never be brought to account, simply because the Imperium as
a whole is not aware of them.
They can strike with impunity so long as their targets are of minimal value, and then vanish.
The so-called “Skull Pit” earns a place on my list because it represents a larger,
terrifying aspect of the Imperium.
For every danger humanity is aware of, there are countless others waiting in the shadows.
But that of course, is just my opinion, and even though the Templin Institute represents
the greatest collection of Hauntologists and Ghost Hunters in this reality, and our thoughts
on this matter are perfect and correct, I’d like to hear your opinions.
Do you agree with my selections?
Was there a notable omission?
What are the most haunted places across alternate worlds?
Let me know in the description below, and until next time, this has been Incoming.