Sub Vitruvia
Registered Phenomena Code: 263
Object Class: Omega-Black
Hazard Types: Ecological Hazard, Aggression Hazard, Climatological Hazard, Geological Hazard, Psychotronic Hazard, Contact Hazard, Explosive Hazard, Extreme Temperature Hazard, Mind Control Hazard, Visual Hazard
Containment Protocols: The Authority is to ensure the continual procurement of anomalies, fulfilling a quota that is determined quarterly and subject to sudden modification by the Board of the Global Directors. Seismic activity within and around Mount Vesuvius is to remain a high priority, and in direct proportion to the duration between its eruptions.
When deemed necessary by Authority Earth scientists, two appropriate (preferably inanimate) anomalies are to be selected from Authority containment and transported to Mount Vesuvius per OPERATION WHITECLOAK. Emergency protocols are in place to expedite the selection and delivery processes if necessary.
Minor eruptions of Mount Vesuvius that are anticipated to produce only plumage are allowed to occur given direct orders from the Global Directors.
As of March 18, 1944,1 Alpha-White class anomalous objects are no longer sufficient candidates for OPERATION WHITECLOAK.
Description: RPC-263 is a spherical object roughly 5 meters in diameter that is submerged beneath Mount (Mt.) Vesuvius within the Earth's mantle.
RPC-263 is able to withstand temperatures in excess of 1250°C and is likely constructed from iron, although it cannot be ruled out that the material may be anomalous in nature. RPC-263 has approximately 1.5 meter-wide partitions in its outer layer which allow for partial visualization into its interior. A cube made of a similar material is embedded in the interior of RPC-263, its vertices intersecting the frames of these partitions. A complex lattice of finer rods encircles the structure — the purpose of this lattice outside of probable reinforcement is unknown. RPC-263 is currently suspended within the asthenosphere.2
RPC-263-A is a humanoid structure within RPC-263 that resembles the Vitruvian Man,3 and is likewise inscribed within the parameters of the structure's cube and sphere.
RPC-263-B is the designation given to any pyroclastic plume of smoke, rock fragments, magma, and various other ejecta expelled by Mt. Vesuvius during eruptions. Debris from RPC-263-B ejections consistently contain human genetic material. This genetic material has been cross-referenced with the known living descendants of [DATA REDACTED] (see Document 263.GT-2019-FR - (LEVEL 4 CLASSIFIED)); genetic comparisons to [DATA REDACTED] are unavailable; given the historical figure's ascetic lifestyle, it is likely that he did not reproduce.
RPC-263-B exhibits a tractive effect on known anomalous entities. When observed by an anomalous sentience or sapience, RPC-263-B is considered a Class III, second-order4 cognitohazard, and will result in compulsive behavior including near-ceaseless attempts at decreasing the distance between the anomalous instance and Mt. Vesuvius.
History & Discovery: The Authority (then the Auctoritas Imperata5) was made aware of RPC-263 via a member of the Order of St. John the Hesychast.6 This individual, whose name is unknown, initiated contact with Auctoritas Imperata officials on 24 August, 1629 prophesying an imminent and catastrophic eruption from Mt. Vesuvius.
The Auctoritas Imperata had entered into a working relationship with the Order of St. John the Hesychast in 1514 such that PoI-2637 might be stopped in his seemingly at-will production of anomalous artifacts, machines, and entities, which was both prolific and unmanageable. Numerous attempts were made by the Auctoritas Imperata to confront and arrest PoI-263; however, all were met with failure due to anomalous counter-measures prepared by PoI-263, who anticipated the tactics of these attempts with relative ease, leading some to theorize his abilities as reality-bending (unconfirmed). Additionally, each unsuccessful attempt seemingly invigorated the creativity of PoI-263 to engineer increasingly refined artifacts for the purposes of sabotage; thus the incidence of rogue anomalous engineering was exacerbated given each failure.
The heretic saw to the frustration of our machinations against him with ones of his own — devilish in their construction and cleverness, 'twere as if God himself had him privy of our plans and arrivals. One day a trap that snatched up men and hoisted them up in a bag as would they grains of harvest; another assay thwarted by an unseen wall, as if the Hand of Beelzebub were staying our advance with some glee. And all the while, the corky witch slipping through our fingers. This very morrow, he escapes into the welken on a winged, wooden dragon! Our Lords are growing weary of these fruitless efforts, embarrassing as they are costly. The heretic has bested us at every whim; we are but playthings to him.
- Adger Hatt, Auctoritas Imperata, Grand Possessioner, 1512
It was known through the collection of abandoned texts that PoI-263's intentions and inspiration for the production of anomalous artifacts were informed by his theology, which sought to elucidate the oneness between nature/the divine and the human body. Thus, the Order of St. John the Hesychast was recruited by the Auctoritas Imperata in an attempt to intervene via less reactive, and more proactive means.
The following is a written account of a declassified conversation regarding this proposition:
The Auctoritas Imperata was not granted co-management of PoI-263 upon his matriculation into the Order, as this stipulation was not specified in the pact, nor was it spiritually justified per the monks' code of ethics. Every decade, the Authority sent a representative to renegotiate10 with the interest of establishing more thorough containment for PoI-263, and also to catalogue any additional anomalous inventions. The subsequent activities, health, and lifespan of PoI-263 remain unverified.
Addendum 263.1: In the year 1519, accounts submitted by agents in proximity to Mount Vesuvius recorded disturbing seismic activity. Analysis demonstrated a 400% increase in such activity from the year prior. Efforts to understand the sudden up-regulation of this activity were unsuccessful.
Addendum 263.2: Interview Record - In 1629, the sole remaining member of the Order of St. John the Hesychast presented to the Auctoritas Imperata's 3rd Archdiocese seeking asylum. This individual would not reveal his name "for shame of speaking it".
His conversation with the Archbishop was written down and catalogued.
Addendum 263.3: Approximately two years after the above interview took place (1631), Mount Vesuvius experienced a massive eruption. The force generated from the explosion abbreviated the day by several millionths of a second and moved the North Pole by 2.5 cm. Numerous towns were covered under magma streams, killing around 3,000 individuals. Emissions from this eruption were so extensive that the entirety of southern Europe was covered by the debris, and Vesuvian ash was discovered in Constantinople later that year (1,200 km away).
In the following months, hundreds of individual fauna and persons, from unaffected towns as far away as 1,000 km, were observed congregating upon the volcano. Those that survived the climb to the central peak then invariably hurled themselves into the maw of the volcano, and presumably to their deaths in the magma below.
This eruption marked the onset of a new stage of activity from Mount Vesuvius; eruptive behavior became near-constant. By 1636, the Auctoritas Imperata had begun enacting OPERATION WHITECLOAK, and subsequent eruptions (1660, 1682, 1694, 1698) were notably more contained with minimal damage and no significant loss of life.