Stasis Vaults

In the final years before the Day the World Broke, as the world grew colder and births became increasingly rare, the desperate and the wealthy turned to radical solutions. Among the most ambitious were the Stasis Vaults—sealed chambers designed to preserve life, knowledge, or precious materials in magical suspension until "better times" arrived. Thirty years later, those better times never came, and the Vaults remain sealed throughout the frozen world, silent tombs of failed hope.

These chambers are found scattered across the ruins of civilization: in the basements of collapsed fortresses, hidden beneath old universities, secreted in the estates of the long-dead elite. Each Vault is unique in construction, but all share common features: hermetic sealing, arcane preservation wards, and the faint, unnerving hum of magic that has persisted for three decades.

The contents of Stasis Vaults vary wildly. Some contain preserved food stores that could feed a settlement for months. Others hold carefully catalogued libraries, books sealed against time's decay. A few—the most disturbing—contain people, frozen in magical sleep, waiting for an awakening that may never come.

Physical Description

Stasis Vaults share certain recognizable characteristics:

The Door

Vault doors are massive affairs, typically constructed of reinforced metal or stone, inscribed with preservation runes that still glow faintly with residual magic. Many are locked by complex mechanisms requiring specific keys, passwords in High Arcane, or blood from authorized individuals (now long dead). Breaking through a Vault door is possible but dangerous—disturbing the seals often triggers defensive wards or causes the preservation magic to fail catastrophically.

The Threshold

Crossing into a Vault feels immediately wrong. Temperature drops sharply—not the natural cold of winter, but a different cold, still and absolute. Sound dampens, as if the air itself refuses to carry vibration. Some describe a pressure on the chest, like invisible hands pressing inward.

The Interior

Inside, Vaults are often surprisingly pristine. While the world outside has frozen and decayed, Vault interiors remain exactly as they were sealed: dust-free, temperature-controlled, sometimes even lit by everburning magical lights that have lasted decades. This preservation is unnatural and deeply unsettling—a perfect snapshot of the old world, frozen in time.

The Hum

Every Vault produces a low, barely audible hum—the sound of preservation magic sustained over years. Those who spend extended time in Vaults report the hum getting inside their heads, a vibration in teeth and bone that lingers long after leaving.

Types of Vaults

Knowledge Vaults

The most common type, constructed by scholars and institutions to preserve books, scrolls, maps, and research materials against the coming disaster.

Contents

Libraries of pre-Fall knowledge, including magical theory, historical records, maps of the old world, and technical schematics. Some Knowledge Vaults contain unique copies of texts lost everywhere else.

Dangers

Many Knowledge Vaults are trapped against looters. Pressure plates trigger cave-ins, explosive runes punish those who touch books without proper authorization, and some tomes themselves are cursed or contain dangerous knowledge that drives readers mad.

Value

Immense. A single intact Knowledge Vault could restore lost magical techniques, reveal the locations of other resources, or contain information critical to understanding the Fall itself.

Provision Vaults

Built by communities or wealthy individuals, these Vaults contain preserved food, medicine, and survival supplies.

Contents

Magically preserved foodstuffs (still fresh after 30 years), sealed crates of medicine and herbs, seed banks, fuel, tools, and other necessities. Some include detailed instructions for rebuilding civilization.

Dangers

The preservation magic is fragile. Opening a Provision Vault incorrectly can cause the magic to fail instantly—decades of decay happening in seconds. Food rots in moments, medicine turns to powder, seeds die. Additionally, some communities sealed their Vaults with the expectation of returning; those who never came back sometimes left guardian constructs or bound spirits to protect the stores.

Value

A single Provision Vault could keep a small settlement alive through an entire winter. The seeds alone could restart agriculture if anyone could make things grow again.

Legacy Vaults

The most disturbing type, these personal Vaults were constructed by the wealthy elite to preserve themselves, their families, or chosen servants in magical stasis.

Contents

People. Suspended in crystalline pods or magical fields, perfectly preserved, technically alive but deeply asleep. Some Vaults contain dozens of suspended individuals—entire families frozen together.

Dangers

The preservation magic keeping these people "alive" is extraordinarily delicate. Disturbing it even slightly causes immediate death—the suspended individuals age thirty years in seconds, crumbling to dust. Worse, some Legacy Vaults were booby-trapped by paranoid owners; awakening the wrong person might trigger magical defenses or release bound creatures.

The Ethical Question

Even if someone could be safely awakened, should they be? They would wake to a world completely destroyed, everyone they knew dead, no hope of the future they dreamed of. Some argue awakening them is cruelty; others insist they have a right to consciousness. The Order of the Last Light has standing orders to report Legacy Vaults to their superiors for "proper handling," though what that means is unclear.

Value

Unknown. An awakened person from the old world might possess crucial knowledge, magical skill, or understanding of lost technologies. Or they might go mad from grief and become a dangerous liability.

Common Locations

Fortress Basements

The floating fortresses that crashed often had extensive Vault systems in their foundations. These are among the most heavily protected and dangerous Vaults, but also potentially the most valuable—the elite stored their greatest treasures here.

University Archives

Academic institutions built Vaults to preserve their libraries and research. These are often intact and relatively accessible, though the universities themselves are ruins crawling with dangers.

Estate Crypts

Wealthy families built private Vaults beneath their manor houses. These are scattered and unpredictable—some contain fortunes, others merely the mummified remains of the rich who sealed themselves in and died anyway.

Hidden Community Caches

Some villages built secret Vaults and hid them outside settlement boundaries, planning to retrieve supplies when needed. Most communities died before accessing their caches, leaving Vaults scattered in the wilderness, unmarked and forgotten.

The Vault Hunters

A specialized profession has emerged: Vault Hunters, scavengers who seek out and crack open Stasis Vaults for profit. They're respected for their skill but viewed with moral suspicion—they're grave robbers by another name.

Skills Required

• Knowledge of pre-Fall architecture and magical theory
• Lockpicking and trap detection
• Understanding of preservation magic (to avoid destroying contents)
• Strong stomach for the ethical implications

Dangers Faced

• Magical traps and wards
• Structural collapse of ancient buildings
• Rival Vault Hunters who might kill for a valuable location
• Psychological toll of witnessing frozen people or destroyed hopes
• Corruption from sustained exposure to old magic

Famous Vault Hunters

Kael the Unsealer

Legendary hunter who has opened over fifty Vaults. Claims to have once spoken to a woman suspended in stasis before she crumbled to dust.

The Blackward Company

A mercenary group specializing in Vault extraction. Ruthless but effective.

Sister Rylane

A priest of Father Death who opens Legacy Vaults specifically to give last rites to those preserved within, then seals the Vaults again. Considers it her sacred duty.

Vault Seals and Warnings

Many Vaults bear inscriptions or warnings at their thresholds. Common messages include:

• "Sealed by order of the Empire—Year -2. To be opened only by designated survivors."
• "Knowledge within. Price of opening: integrity of seal. Choose wisely."
• "Family of House Terenth rests here. May we wake to summer."
• "Provision Cache #47. Authorization required. Unauthorized access is theft from the future."
• "Do not open until the sun returns."

The last message appears on many Vaults. Thirty years later, the sun has not returned.

Known Vaults

The Academician's Regret (Farrow's Rest region)

A Knowledge Vault beneath the ruins of a old university satellite campus. The door bears unusual inscriptions warning that opening it will "release understanding unearned." Several Vault Hunters have tried to breach it; none succeeded, and two died when wards activated. Rumors suggest it contains research into the cause of the Fall itself.

The Garden Sleep (Location Unknown)

A legendary Legacy Vault said to contain over a hundred children, sealed away by desperate parents who hoped their offspring might wake to a better world. Its location is unknown, and many believe it's merely a myth—a story too tragic to be true.

Cache Thirty-Seven (Northern Wastes)

A Provision Vault discovered five years ago by the Frostmarked. When opened, the preservation magic failed, and thirty years of rot happened instantly. The stench of decaying food was so overwhelming it could be smelled a mile away. The Frostmarked left it unsealed as a warning: "Do not disturb what was preserved for those who will never return."

The Merchant's Promise (Rumored)

Supposedly a Vault beneath the ruins of what was once the Empire's largest trading city, containing not food or knowledge but wealth—gold, gems, trade goods. The inscription allegedly reads: "When currency matters again, this will be here." Raiders have killed each other over maps claiming to show its location.

The Preservation Paradox

Scholars at the Aurora Conservatory have noted a disturbing pattern: the more carefully something was preserved, the more tragic its current state. Food sealed perfectly rots the instant exposed to air. Knowledge protected by deadly wards goes unread. People suspended in perfect stasis cannot be awakened without killing them.

Some argue this is merely the nature of decay—time catches up eventually. Others whisper of something more sinister: that the very act of trying to preserve against the future angered whatever power brought the Fall, and these Vaults are cursed as punishment for arrogance.

A third theory, less popular, suggests the Vaults are working exactly as intended—preserving their contents until some specific condition is met. But thirty years later, that condition remains unfulfilled, and no one knows what it might be.

Related Articles

The Day the World Broke

• Floating Fortresses
• Aurora Conservatory
• Vault Hunters (Profession)
• Preservation Magic
• The Fall of Civilization

"The rich built these Vaults thinking they'd sleep a few years, wake to spring, and laugh about the close call. Thirty winters later, the doors are still sealed, and I wonder: are those inside the lucky ones, or are we? At least we got to see the world die. They're just waiting, forever waiting, for a dawn that will never come."

— Inscription found scratched into a Vault door, author unknown