Incident Report 12/8/1924
ID: #L11751P101
Location: New Hamelin, town on the outskirts of Level 11
On the eve of that Friday's weekly celebration, a sizable portion of New Hamelin's population stopped what they were doing, got up, walked out of the town, and never came back.
There is always music playing during the town's weekend fair. But on that day, it sounded wrong. Ever so slightly off, unusual, discordant, filling the evening air with an undercurrent of unease.
The effects were not observable immediately. From afar, the festivities appeared completely normal: people were humming, dancing, talking, laughing. But over time, witnesses noted, conversations took a turn for the bitter.
The louder and more dissonant the music got, the more tension rose throughout the crowd. Friendly debates led to heated altercations; laughs gave way to mocking jeers. Carefree dancing turned into slow, dazed, hypnotized swaying. Gradually, the hostile crowd hushed, standing still, oscillating in place and humming melodies they did not recognize.
And then, the people started leaving.
It is unclear who was the first one to walk away, but eyewitnesses eventually saw their friends, family, neighbours, strangers, children and adults alike, all inexplicably fall into an orderly line and march away. As if commanded by an unseen force, people walked steadily ahead, ignoring everything else, cryptically claiming to be "following the music."
In no less than 3 hours after the fair began, a total of 438 residents of had vanished. They cannot be found across the entire level; their status and location is currently unknown.
Investigation has been launched immediately. Keep an eye out for a large procession of people humming. Please contact us for any information on these missing persons.
Incident #L11751P101 - Addendum 15/7/1926
Many stragglers of the mass departure event have been located in Level 8. Unfortunately, more than 70% of the missing population still hasn't been found. It is presumed that most of them scattered and attempted to find their way back as soon as they broke free of their hysteria.
New Hamelin has since become a ghost town. Survivors of the event have long left, and newcomers are spooked by rumors of the sudden, anomalous exodus. Possible causes and explanations of the event continue to evade investigators. Database has been alerted to keep an eye out for stories of "surreal, culty, hypnotic music that possesses people."
Written by Endrew1
My first actual con entry!
This phenomenon has been at the back of my mind for perhaps a year, and I only realized it would be a good fit for the con 3 days before the deadline. I really wish I had started developing it earlier. However, I'm glad to post it; this was an exercise to overcome my perfectionism and learn to write for the sake of writing, entering a contest for the sake of the con, without being paralyzed by fear of failure.
Music as a destructive force; music as a healing force. Singing aloud with a group of friends or strangers can be such a raw, touching, deeply human experience.
PTSPTS:
2P
MassClass:
Auditory Hallucination
{$title-sub}Area of Effect: Humans
200 to 800 meter radius
Area of EffectFrequency
15 to 170 minutes
DurationDuration
Variable by person
IntensityIntensity
Hamelin Harmony is a mass auditory hallucination event that occurs primarily near large groups of wanderers. It doesn't directly cause harm, but inflicts psychological strain and can induce compulsive behaviors.
This phenomenon manifests as dissonant, eerie, off-sounding music that is audible in a radius between 200 and 800 meters. Each person in the affected area hears something different at varying volume levels; some claim to not hear anything, or realize it later than others. Regardless, these songs and melodies sound awfully familiar but with a seemingly inverted harmony, in which the notes and chords are flipped around the tonal center.1
The music has no fixed source, but a fluid, fluctuating and permeating presence. It can feel like it's coming from just around the corner, or from the room in the distance, or from above the ceiling. Trying to escape the effect radius is a confusing task; the source seemingly rotates around, follows, fades then reappears.
Additionally, it's trickier to detect in urban levels, where there are many ambient sounds and perhaps actual music playing which add to the confusion.
Any music or sound produced by the phenomenon cannot be detected or recorded on any devices. True to being a hallucination, it is manifested or transmitted directly to the brain.2
Effects
Exposure to Hamelin Harmonies produces psychological and compulsive behaviors on those who hear them. These are not harmful per se, but can be disruptive and frustrating to overcome.3
| Exposure | Effect | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 3+ minutes | Psychological distress | Even as little as 3 minutes of hearing the music can begin to exacerbate the listener's own stress, doubts, fears and dissatisfaction.4 |
| 10+ minutes | Compulsive humming | The listener will begin to intermittently hum along to what they hear, without even being aware of it. |
| 25+ minutes | Trance-like swaying | The listener will subconsciously start swaying, at first just with their head or arms, and eventually fully halt and stand in place, teetering on their feet. |
| 40+ minutes | Walking away | The listener will drop everything they're doing and start walking away, as if solemnly following an invisible procession. |
If confronted about these behaviors, afflicted wanderers are quick to become defensive and irascible. They can be momentarily shaken out of the trance, but as long as they remain within the effective radius, they will eventually fall back under its spell.
Wanderers that reach the last stage do not meander around aimlessly, but rather are persistently heading towards a specific direction. They can and will no-clip from level to level, ignoring the potential danger posed by their route. Once in this stage, the phenomenon's music can linger in the mind even if they already exited its effective radius (or the level entirely).
Those who end up following the music to the very end inevitably reach Level 8. Reports unanimously agree that they suddenly snap out of their trance upon entering the caves, all music suddenly gone, with an odd scattering of rats in the vicinity.
Impact
For some yet undiscovered reason, not all wanderers are affected equally. Some seem to be more resistant to these effects and more self-aware of the phenomenon's influence. A preliminary theory suggests that those who don't have an internal monologue are the most suggestible, but this has not been studied sufficiently.
A solo wanderer subjected to Hamelin Harmony will probably end up feeling wary, unsettled, and derailed off their original route. Unless they endured a significant amount of time in the last stage, causing them to follow the source through potentially dangerous levels, the experience should be relatively harmless overall.
However, this phenomenon is particularly disruptive when it comes to large groups of wanderers. The negative feelings it augments also concern connections within the group itself, therefore disseminating contention, distrust, and uncooperation between members. Even after evading the phenomenon, subjected groups remain high-strung and quarrelsome.
Hamelin Harmony is suspected to be a major catalyst against the efforts of humanity to work together across the Backrooms: leading squads astray, fragmenting teams into splinter groups, causing internal conflict in large organizations, spurring members to abandon or betray their faction, and even bringing about complete dissolutions of entire groups.
Countermeasures
Unfortunately, earplugs or noise-cancelling devices can't manage to silence the music, and will simply render communication with fellow wanderers difficult since everyone is half deaf. Reality fresheners are not that effective due to their limited area of effect.
The most efficient way to combat this phenomenon is to sing aloud.5 The more people sing together, the more the discordant melody fades. The phenomenon loses strength when drowned out by collective, intentional, human-made harmony.6
Not only can this neutralize the phenomenon's effects, it can potentially reverse the psychological pressure into benefits for those who sing together:
- Lowered stress and anxiety
- Reduced pain perception
- Strengthened immune system
- Boosted trust and cooperation
It is thought that many traditional hymns and choirs independently popped up among populations across the Backrooms to combat this very phenomenon.
Incident #L11751P101 - Resolved 08/12/2003
The cause of the famed incident has been retroactively identified to be the worst recorded event of phenomenon 10, aptly named Hamelin Harmony.
The music and ambience of the fair acted as the perfect cover for the phenomenon's audio hallucinations, effectively subjecting the entire population to nearly 2 hours of psychological turmoil. It is no surprise that the effects lingered on for so long that the people remained entranced enough to complete their induced pilgrimage all the way to level 8.
Music is, indeed, the purest form of communication. It can enchant without a single word, sway crowds to tears, or plant seeds of despair. Of course, this is a double-edged sword. But the outcome is what you make of it.
Next time you hear strange, ethereal music wafting through this reality, do not fall for exaggerated folk tales. It is not some siren song intent on pulling you into the abyss, nor is it some malevolent mind-controlling pied piper leading you to your doom.
Next time you hear a crowd singing together, uniting their voices as one, whether it be to soothe sorrows, face fears, celebrate joys, or simply know each other as humans…consider joining in.
“Music is the universal language of mankind.”