The Lower Dark

The water

The deepest band of the open column. A phosphor haze hangs in the water and scatters your own lamp — the cone shortens and blooms hazy instead of throwing a clean beam — and a few ruined, clearly built shapes sit half-buried in the floor.

Conditions

Hazards

Past roughly 2,400 m, water deeper than your hull is rated for starts working on the shell: a strain meter fills, and pushed too far a relief valve blows — no death, just a shove back up to water you're actually rated for and the descent lost. Three of the four World Leviathans patrol this zone; see the beast roster below.

World hunts

3 World Leviathans patrol this water on its own real-time schedule:

• Demon Turtle at The Shatter Shelf
• Malefic Shark at The Riven Current
• Abyssal Octopus at The Black Choir

What lives here

15 catalogued species call this zone home: