Revision as of 17:02, 13 June 2010

Overview

In the small country town of Inaba, there is a rumor going around about a TV channel that comes on at midnight on rainy nights if you're alone and the TV's off. They call it the Midnight Channel, and supposedly it shows you who your soulmate is. That's what the general populace who bothers to listen to silly rumors like that knows, anyway.

Surprisingly, only one of these things is false.

Inaba Midnight Channel

For those more in the know, those who appear on the Midnight Channel... well, no one quite knows why they show up, but when they do, they become targeted by a kidnapper/murderer who's been plaguing Inaba since March. The killer, who murdered local announcer Mayumi Yamano and Yasogami High School student Saki Konishi, threw both of them into a TV, where their deaths appeared on the Midnight Channel before their corpses showed up again in the real world, Mayumi's hanging from a satellite dish, Saki's from a telephone pole. The Midnight Channel is home to even stranger and more dangerous things, as like the Dark Hour, it is rife with Shadows who are hostile to those who have the power of Persona.

To reach the TV world from which the Midnight Channel is broadcasted, one has to dive through a TV. One can do this either by having the Potential or the power of a Persona (being Shadow-Possessed works, too), or by being pulled or pushed in by someone with said power. This is also currently only possible in Inaba; even Persona-Users from Inaba will find that TVs are just regular TVs if they head outside that region.

Once inside the TV, one will quickly notice three things: there is a long drop, there is a lot of thick, cloying fog, and there is seemingly no way out. The fog has a detrimental effect on those who visit; without a special pair of glasses that one can get from Teddie, one can barely see anything at all, and extended exposure starts making one queasy and headachy. The Shadows, at least, leave normal people alone; only Persona-Users incite their aggression. And although the only way out of the TV world currently known to a large number of people is via Teddie and his exit route summon, care of the KDA, this matter has not been thoroughly explored. Teddie self-admittedly does not know everything about the TV world, and his world is one that responds and shapes itself according to a person's mind. It's thus possible that there may be other as of yet undiscovered ways to leave the Midnight Channel, and/or other beings capable of using the same or a similar method to what Teddie uses.

What happens to people when they enter the TV world various on who and what they are. There are exceptions, as judged in a case-by-case basis, but generally, the following occurs: Normal people, i.e. those without any supernatural powers, will get terrorized by their Shadows as a dungeon of some kind forms around them based on their truest, darkest feelings. Persona-Users, if they're in a level state of mind, will be okay, but if they enter the TV world in a disturbed or traumatized state of mind, run the risk of their Shadows appearing before them similarly to how they would for those without Personas. Shadow-Possessed, being already intimately acquainted with their darker selves, are blessedly (?) free of this problem, and in fact can wander the TV world unmolested by other Shadows so long as they don't pull aggro. Those who end up unintentionally building up a dungeon and being assaulted by their Shadow don't remember what happened inside the TV, or remember it only in a vague blur, due to the trauma of the experience.

Sumaru Midnight Channel

The Midnight Channel of Sumaru City appeared when rumors of it caught on like wildfire within the city. Typhoon Nobunaga struck the city soon after, marking its first appearance before a captive audience. The Midnight Channel in Sumaru follows some of the same principles as the one in Inaba, but it also has some of its own special characteristics.

There is no fog in the Sumaru Midnight Channel. There is no definitive timeline in which one can stay within the Channel before they are killed. Shadows do appear, however, and they are very aggressive. The power and number of Shadows that appear are based on the prevalence of local rumors involving the Midnight Channel. If someone appears on the Channel, it's very likely that the rumor level will spike, causing a significant increase in danger for some time. The nature and type of Shadows that appear in the Midnight Channel are also very receptive to external meddling. Sometimes, unexpected things will appear...

The rules of the Midnight Channel in Sumaru are also malleable, being a creation of Kotodama. If someone wishes to attempt to modify the rules, they are welcome to submit requests. Effective changes will be reflected with board posts (updates can be found on the wiki here).

Additionally, the TV world of Sumaru and Inaba are connected. One may travel from Inaba to Sumaru and vice versa. There is a significant change in the local ambiance, however, as one goes from one to the other, and the time it takes is heavily dependent on how well one knows the way, as distances seems to mean little in the morphic worlds of the Midnight Channel.