The Panopticon

"Do you ever experience the sudden and inexplicable feeling that you are being watched, even if you are utterly alone? Normally, this is called paranoia, but not in there. There, it's a warning. A warning that if you venture further, something very, very bad will happen. Most people get the message, but I need to see it. I've picked a small, fast ship with as few crew as possible. Lower chance of mutiny when we arrive. Fewer lives that'll be wasted if we don't get the chance to leave. I just need to see what's inside."

- An Anonymous Note

The Panopticon is a region within Umar's Arctic Ocean, north of Kystra. If one were to look at it on a map, there would be no distinct reason that this region should warrant its own name, as there are no physical characteristics or borders separating it from the rest of the ocean. However, its uniqueness comes from what happens to the people who sail into this area. Any creatures that enter the Panopticon begin to feel as though they are being watched. It starts off as a small suspicion and grows more and more intense until they are certain that something is lurking underneath their ship, looking up at them. Animals other than humans have also displayed anxiety, and most fish avoid the area. Many sailors become so wracked with paranoia that they will refuse their captain's orders and even mutiny if it means they'll leave the Panopticon faster.

This feeling usually subsides once a person leaves the area, and it seems to cause no lasting effects other than relief that they finally got out. It's garnered quite a few theories as to why this happens, although no single theory is widely accepted. Mass hysteria was proposed, but that theory was disproven since even people who had never heard of the myths surrounding this place or who didn't expect to sail into it inevitably felt that something was beneath them, watching their ship's silhouette against the surface from so far below that it couldn't be seen itself. Even the bravest cartographers or explorers who try to map it out only ever sail around the edges of it, growing too fearful to venture further in. Some other theories propose that nothing lies beneath and that it is some powerful spell made to scare people away from a great treasure at the Panopticon's center, while some believe that this feeling of being watched is rational because there actually is some great beast under the surface, and that the Panopticon is its hunting grounds.

History

Towards the end of his reign over Vincar, Emperor Kaiar searched for a powerful treasure within the Panopticon. Not wanting to subject his own soldiers to its effects, he filled three small ships with prisoners of war and sent them into it, threatening to sink them if they left before finding anything. Two vessels tried to flee, but the third, more fearful of the emperor's fleet than whatever may be lurking beneath them, sailed straight into the center. They did not return. Although they could have sailed through it and exited from another side where his fleet was not patrolling, this mission occurred at about the same time as the emperor's mental decline, and he suddenly became convinced that the prisoners had found the treasure within and were keeping it from him.
No longer caring whether his own soldiers could withstand this place's psychological effects, the emperor declared war on the Panopticon and ordered his fleet to sail straight into it in search of the lost ship. Most vessels disobeyed their emperor either through captain's orders or through mutiny once they arrived, too fearful of whatever may be beneath them to follow his command. However, there were four ships that sailed unswervingly into the Panopticon - one housing the emperor himself. They did not return. Afterwards, most sailors who disobeyed their emperor's order were pardoned by his generals who had taken power using the military after the emperor's disappearance.
There is rumor that these generals approved the emperor's decision specifically because they knew his mind was unwell, hoping to send him away on an obviously foolish errand so that they would have reason to take control of Vincar. However, it was so long ago that little can be confirmed about such rumors other than the fact that Emperor Kaiar's mental decline and disappearance made the population more willing to accept new rulers. Current historians can only guess as to whether this was intentional or not.

Alternative Name(s)

The Eye

Type

Expanse