Welcome back to Dreamscape Archives, where we unravel the deepest mysteries hidden within gaming's most captivating worlds. Today, we're diving into the neon-soaked streets and nightmare dimensions of Zenless Zone Zero, Ho-Yo versus urban fantasy action game that presents a world teetering on the edge between miraculous survival and complete annihilation. Over the next hour, we'll explore every layer of this intricate universe, from the catastrophic disaster that reshaped civilization to the brave souls who fight to keep humanity's last flame burning in the darkness. So get comfortable, settle in, and prepare yourself for a journey through dimensional rifts, corrupted realities, and the indomitable spirit of those who refuse to let their world fall into the void.
This is the complete story of Zenless Zone Zero, the world before the fall. To understand the miracle of New Eridu, we must first comprehend the tragedy that preceded it. Our story begins in a thriving metropolis simply known as Eridu, a city that represented the pinnacle of human achievement and civilization. Founded several generations before the current timeline, Eridu was a sprawling urban center divided into multiple distinct quarters, each bearing names that echoed ancient mythology.
The Pluto Quarter and Minerva Quarter stood as the city's most prosperous districts, glittering monuments to progress and prosperity. The Janus Quarter, Faunus Quarter, and Vulcan Quarter each served their own purposes in this grand metropolitan machine, all working together to create a society that seemed destined for a bright and limitless future. During this golden age, Eridu citizens enjoyed the fruits of advanced technology and scientific progress. The Helios Academy stood as a beacon of knowledge, dedicated to research into phenomena that most people couldn't even imagine.
Founded by Professor Arch, one of the legendary void hunters, Helios Academy became the premier institution for understanding dimensional anomalies that occasionally appeared in their world. Here, curious minds pushed at the boundaries of reality itself, seeking to comprehend the nature of hollows and the mysterious ether energy that permeated them. The Marcel Group, led by a visionary CEO known as Sunbringer, revolutionized daily life with their invention of bangboos, those adorable rabbit-like robots that would become integral to the city's future survival. These mechanical companions represented more than mere convenience.
They were a symbol of humanity's ingenuity and our ability to create wonders from imagination and determination. The city's leadership recognized and honored exceptional individuals who made significant contributions to hollow exploration and suppression. Seven notable heroes earned the prestigious title of Void Hunter from Eridu's mayor, acknowledged for their fearless ventures into these strange dimensional spaces and their efforts to keep the city safe from otherworldly threats. Among these legendary seven stood Professor Archer himself, whose discoveries about the common characteristics of hollows laid the groundwork for all future research.
These void hunters became legends, paragons of courage, whose deeds inspired generations. Their stories spoke of descending into twisted realities, facing incomprehensible horrors, and returning with knowledge that advanced humanity's understanding of the universe's darker corners. They were humanity's champions against forces that dwelled beyond the veil of normal existence. But beneath this veneer of prosperity and progress, seeds of catastrophe were already taking root.
At Helios Academy, research into ether and hollows continued pushing deeper into dangerous territory. Carol Arna, serving as the advanced research director at the Academy, conducted experiments into the nature of these dimensional anomalies. The precise details of her work remain shrouded in official secrecy and conflicting accounts. But what is certain is that something went terribly, irreversibly wrong.
When Hollow Zero erupted with catastrophic force, official records would later name Carol Arna as the main culprit, her name etched onto a pillar of shame as someone blamed for the disaster. Whether she truly caused the catastrophe through her experiments, or whether she's been made a scapegoat for forces beyond anyone's control, remains one of New Eridu's most contentious mysteries. The fall of the old capital. Eleven years before the current events of Zenless Zone Zero, disaster struck with a swiftness and ferocity that defied comprehension.
What would later be designated as Hollow Zero, the oldest, largest, and most hazardous dimensional anomaly ever recorded, erupted into existence with catastrophic consequences. Unlike the smaller hollows that occasionally appeared and could be contained or suppressed, Hollow Zero manifested as an enormous spherical dimension that didn't just exist alongside normal reality, but actively consumed it, swallowing buildings, streets, entire districts with an insatiable hunger. The expansion began without warning, a dark sphere materializing in the heart of Eridu and immediately beginning its relentless growth. The Pluto quarter and Minerva quarter, those glittering jewels of civilization, were among the first to be consumed.
One moment they stood as testaments to human achievement. The next they were being pulled into a dimension where the laws of physics twisted into incomprehensible configurations, where space folded upon itself in ways that shattered sanity, where matter and energy danced to rules that existed beyond human understanding. The population of these districts had no time to evacuate, no chance to gather their possessions or say goodbye to their homes. They simply disappeared into the expanding sphere, lost to a fate worse than death.
Eridu's authorities responded with everything they had. The defense force mobilized in full, throwing their considerable military might against an enemy that couldn't be fought with conventional weapons. How do you shoot a dimensional rift? How do you bomb a space that exists partially outside of normal reality?
Soldiers marched into Hollow Zero in desperate attempts to slow its expansion, to buy time for civilians to evacuate, to do anything that might save their city. Most never returned. Those who did come back brought tales of nightmares made manifest, of creatures born from pure ether that defied description, of spaces where up became down and time flowed in directions it was never meant to go. The defense force suffered devastating casualties, entire battalions lost to the expanding anomaly.
The Yunkui Summit, a faction of mystical warriors and martial artists who had long protected Eridu from supernatural threats, also joined the desperate battle. Their ancient techniques and spiritual understanding gave them advantages that conventional soldiers lacked, allowing them to navigate the twisted spaces of Hollow Zero with greater success. Yet even their considerable skills proved insufficient against the sheer scale of the catastrophe. The summit's casualties mounted as they fought to hold back the tide, their members sacrificing themselves in attempts to slow an expansion that seemed unstoppable.
Masters who had spent lifetimes perfecting their arts fell to creatures that shouldn't exist, their wisdom and power proving inadequate against forces that operated on principles alien to everything they understood. As Hollow Zero continued its inexorable growth, spawning smaller companion hollows throughout the surrounding areas like cancer, metastasizing through healthy tissue, Eridu's leadership faced an impossible choice. Every conventional containment method had failed. The death toll climbed into numbers that defied comprehension.
Entire districts lay empty. Their populations either consumed by the hollows or fled in terror. The city's infrastructure crumbled under the weight of the disaster. Power grids failing, water systems collapsing, transportation networks severed.
Eridu, once a beacon of civilization and progress, teetered on the brink of total annihilation. Something drastic had to be done, no matter the cost. The decision that was ultimately made would haunt the survivors forever. Eridu's leadership ordered the detonation of 14 Shiyu pillars, massive structures that ran along a southwest to northeast axis, cutting through the heart of the city.
These towers, originally built as part of the city's energy infrastructure, were repurposed into the world's most devastating weapons. When they detonated in a carefully coordinated sequence, the explosion was unlike anything humanity had ever unleashed. The blast didn't just destroy, it annihilated, removing matter from existence at a fundamental level. The detonation created the chasm, a massive ravine that carved through what remained of Eridu like a wound in the earth itself.
The strategy behind this desperate gambit was grimly simple. Hollow Zero fed on matter, converting buildings, vehicles, organic life, everything it touched into ether and twisted dimensional space. By creating a zone where absolutely nothing existed, where even the ground itself had been obliterated down to bedrock and beyond, the authorities hoped to starve the hollow of fuel for its expansion. It was scorched earth taken to its logical extreme, sacrificing vast swathes of their own city to save what remained.
The psychological weight of this decision is difficult to comprehend. Every building demolished by the Shiyu pillars represented memories, dreams, lives lived. Every person who died in the detonation was someone's child, parent, friend, lover. The leadership chose to kill thousands to potentially save millions.
The terrible gamble succeeded. The chasm's absolute void provided nothing for Hollow Zero to consume. And the anomaly's expansion finally, mercifully, stopped. The hollow's activity began to decrease, its size stabilizing, and eventually even shrinking slightly as its accumulated ether dissipated without new matter to convert.
But the victory was pyrrhic beyond measure. When the survivors emerged from their shelters and assessed the damage, they found that Eridu, as they knew it, simply no longer existed. The old capital had fallen, its ruin standing as a testament to humanity's vulnerability before forces we barely understood. Countless lives had been lost, entire family lines erased, irreplaceable knowledge and culture destroyed.
The psychological scars ran deeper than any physical wound. Survivors' guilt and trauma etched into the collective consciousness of those who remain. From ashes, the birth of new Eridu. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, the survivors faced a choice that would define their future.
They could scatter to other settlements, abandoning their home entirely and becoming refugees in lands that might not welcome them. Or they could stay, rebuilding from the ruins and refusing to let the disaster that had claimed so much also claim their spirit. Those who chose to stay gathered in what remained of Eridu's eastern districts, beyond the chasm and outside Hollow Zero's reach. Here, in the shadow of their destroyed home, they began the monumental task of constructing a new city from the ashes of the old.
They named their new home New Eridu, a declaration of both continuity and transformation. The name acknowledged their connection to what had been lost, while also asserting their determination to create something that could survive and thrive in this changed world. New Eridu would be different from the old capital, built not just with bricks and steel, but with hard-won knowledge about the true nature of their reality. Every street was planned with evacuation routes in mind.
Every building incorporated anti-ether measures. The entire city's layout reflected lessons learned through devastating loss. The survivors established a strong centralized government, understanding that the loose coalition that had governed old Eridu had proven inadequate during the crisis. Mayor Mayflower emerged as a leader who could unite the fractured population, providing direction and hope during the darkest times.
Under this new administration, New Eridu developed working public infrastructure that prioritized resilience and redundancy. Power systems were distributed rather than centralized. Water treatment facilities were hardened against hollow incursions. Transportation networks were designed to continue functioning even if sections were lost to dimensional anomalies.
Every system was built with catastrophe in mind because the survivors knew, in ways that people in peaceful times never can, that catastrophe was not a distant possibility, but an ever-present reality. But perhaps the most crucial decision made during New Eridu's founding was how to approach the hollows themselves. Rather than simply trying to defend against these dimensional anomalies, New Eridu's leadership recognized that the hollows could be turned from pure threat into opportunity. The ether energy that pervaded these spaces, while dangerous and corrupting, could be harvested and utilized.
Technologies were developed to extract this otherworldly energy and convert it into usable power, resources that the fledgling city desperately needed. Hollows became mining sites, dangerous but valuable sources of materials that existed nowhere else in normal reality. This decision transformed New Eridu from a survivor settlement into something more remarkable, a post-post-apocalyptic civilization that had not only endured catastrophe, but learned to thrive because of it. The city attracted settlers from other regions, people seeking the economic opportunities that came with hollow resource extraction, or simply looking for a place where humanity had proven it could stand against the void.
New Eridu grew from a refugee camp into a bustling metropolis, its streets filled with life and commerce, its skyline rising with structures that blended defensive necessity with architectural ambition. It became known as the City of Miracles, a place where humanity had stared into the abyss and not only survived, but built something beautiful from the experience. Yet this miracle came with a price that could never be fully paid. massive exploration of hollows became not just an industry, but a necessity for the city's continued expansion.
and prosperity. Organizations dedicated to hollow suppression and research proliferated. The new Eridu Defense Force was rebuilt and restructured, incorporating lessons learned from the fall. The Hollow Investigative Association was established to study these phenomena and develop better containment methods.
HAND, an organization dedicated to addressing hollow-related disasters, created specialized response teams trained to operate in these twisted dimensions. The White Star Institute set up research facilities like Scott Outpost near Hollow Zero itself, gathering data and monitoring the anomaly that had destroyed their original home. This ongoing engagement with hollows defined life in New Eridu in ways both obvious and subtle. The city existed in a constant state of preparation, its population trained in evacuation procedures, its institutions ready to respond to dimensional incursions at any moment.
A memorial was built beside the chasm, a somber reminder of the price paid for survival, and a place where citizens could mourn those lost to the fall. Every resident of New Eridu carried the weight of their city's history, the knowledge that they lived in the last bastion of urban civilization, that beyond their walls lay ruins and hollows, that the disaster which had claimed the old capital could potentially return at any time. The nature of hollows, dimensions of madness. To truly understand the world of Zenless Zone Zero, one must comprehend the fundamental threat that shapes every aspect of life in New Eridu.
Hollows are not natural phenomena in any conventional sense. They are supernatural disasters, dimensional anomalies that appear seemingly from nowhere, manifesting as spherical zones where normal reality breaks down and is replaced by something profoundly alien. When a hollow appears, it doesn't just damage or destroy the physical space it occupies. It transforms that space, pulling it partially or completely out of normal existence and into a disordered dimension governed by rules that defy human understanding.
Inside a hollow, the basic laws of physics become suggestions rather than rules. Space folds and twists in ways that would be impossible in normal reality. A corridor might loop back on itself, leading explorers in circles despite traveling in a straight line. Gravity can shift direction without warning, turning walls into floors or creating zones where up and down become meaningless concepts.
Time itself behaves erratically, moments stretching into eternities or compressing hours into seconds from the perspective of those trapped within. Navigating a hollow requires not just physical skill but mental fortitude, the ability to maintain one's sanity and sense of direction in an environment specifically designed, if such a word can apply to these places, to disorient and confuse. The visual appearance of hollows is simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. Objects and structures within these spaces undergo transformation, their appearances warping and degrading as they're converted into ether constructs.
Buildings twist into impossible geometries, their architecture becoming nightmarish parodies of what they once were. Streets buckle and reform into mazes that shift when not directly observed. Large black ether crystals grow throughout corrupted spaces, clustering around and within objects like crystalline cancer. These formations pulse with otherworldly energy, their surfaces reflecting light in colors that seem wrong, shades that human eyes weren't designed to perceive.
The air itself takes on a thick, oppressive quality, charged with energy that sets teeth on edge and raises hairs on the back of the neck. But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of hollows is their capacity for growth and reproduction. When a hollow reaches a certain threshold of ether activity, designated as the zenless limit, it spawns smaller companion hollows in surrounding areas. These derivative anomalies maintain connection to their parent hollow, their activities synchronized in ways that suggest some form of communication or shared consciousness that operates across dimensional barriers.
Hollow Zero, as the original and largest anomaly, has spawned numerous companion hollows throughout New Eridu and beyond. According to the Hollow Investigative Associations database, every major hollow discovered in the region can be traced back to hollow zero as its ultimate source. The city's survival depends on regular suppression activities within hollow zero itself, as reducing ethereal activity there correspondingly decreases the threat posed by its companion hollows. The process of hollow expansion is terrifyingly efficient.
These anomalies feed on matter, converting everything they touch into ether and using that energy to grow larger. Left unchecked, a hollow will continue expanding until it consumes everything available, potentially threatening the entire planet if given enough time. This insatiable hunger makes hollows something more than mere environmental hazards. They are existential threats, dimensional parasites that feed on reality itself.
The only reliable method of stopping or reversing hollow growth involves destroying the ethereals within, as these creatures are intrinsically linked to the anomaly's maintenance and expansion, kill enough ethereals, particularly the larger and more powerful ones, and a hollow can be made to shrink or even dissipate entirely. This discovery turned hollow exploration from a purely defensive activity into an offensive campaign, humanity fighting back against the dimensions that sought to consume them. Ethereals, life born from chaos. Within every hollow, the twisted dimension gives birth to inhabitants as alien as their environment.
Ethereals are the native life forms of these spaces, creatures composed of living ether rather than conventional organic matter. They spawn most frequently in areas of high ether concentration, materializing from the dimensional energy itself in a process that blurs the line between creation and manifestation. The exact nature of their origin remains debated among researchers. Some theorize that ethereals might be fragments of consciousness or matter from things consumed by the hollows, corrupted and reformed into new entities by their passage through dimensional barriers.
Others propose they represent genuinely new forms of life, evolutionary branches that demonstrate how existence adapts even in the most hostile conditions imaginable. What we can observe is that they appear consistently within hollows and seem intrinsically linked to the anomalies themselves. Ethereals display staggering diversity in form and function, each type adapted to the specific environment where it manifests. This variety extends far beyond simple differences in size or strength.
Ethereals take on physical characteristics influenced by their surroundings, incorporating elements of the spaces they inhabit into their very beings. The Metro Goblin, found in the ruins of the old capital subway system, sprouts signal signs and utility equipment from its body, as if the hollow had fused the creature with its environment. The spectre, haunting the ballet twins' hollow, resembles an artistic sculpture. Its form echoing the aesthetic of the space it protects.
This mimicry extends beyond mere appearance. Ethereals also adopt abilities and behaviors that reflect their origins, using their environment-specific traits as weapons or defensive mechanisms. Despite their incredible variety, all ethereals share certain fundamental characteristics. Each possesses an ether core somewhere within its body, a concentrated node of dimensional energy that serves as both heart and brain.
This core is the ethereal's true weak point. Damage the body and an ethereal might slow or weaken, but it will continue fighting. Destroy the core and the creature dies instantly. Its form dissipating into ambient ether like smoke and wind.
More powerful ethereals have evolved sophisticated methods of protecting their cores. Some encase them in thick crystalline armor that must be shattered before the core becomes vulnerable. Others hide their cores within shifting, semicorporeal forms, where conventional attacks pass through harmlessly. The strongest ethereals, those designated as ethereal swarms, possess cores so well protected and so massive that destroying them requires sustained assault from multiple elite agents working in perfect coordination.
The threat posed by ethereals extends far beyond their physical danger. These creatures are fundamentally hostile to normal matter and conventional life. While they typically remain within their hollows, the boundaries between dimensions aren't always absolute, and ethereals occasionally breach into normal reality with catastrophic results. Their very presence destabilizes the physical world, their ether-based bodies radiating corruption that can trigger secondary hollow formation or expand existing anomalies.
A large ethereal incursion into a populated area could result in casualties numbering in the hundreds or thousands before being contained, with survivors potentially facing ether corruption from exposure. But perhaps most disturbing is what ethereals represent on a symbolic level. These creatures are existence inverted, life sustained by the same energy that destroys normal reality. They thrive in conditions that would obliterate humans instantly.
They are proof that the universe contains spaces fundamentally inhospitable to humanity, dimensions where we are the invaders, the aliens, the things that don't belong. Fighting ethereals isn't like fighting conventional enemies. It's fighting against the universe's assertion that humans have no right to exist in certain spaces. That some dimensions belong to forms of life so alien that peaceful coexistence isn't even theoretically possible.
Every ethereal destroyed is a small victory in an ongoing war to assert humanity's right to survive in a cosmos that has revealed itself to be far stranger and more hostile than anyone imagined. The corruption, a fate worse than death. Of all the horrors associated with hollows, none is more personal or more terrifying than ether corruption. This insidious process affects anything that spends too long within a hollow, a gradual transformation that begins suddenly and ends in complete loss of identity and humanity.
The corruption affects both living and non-living matter, though its effects manifest most tragically insentient beings who must remain conscious throughout their transformation into something no longer recognizably themselves. The corruption process begins almost immediately upon entering a hollow, though initial symptoms are so minor as to be nearly unnoticeable. A slight tingling sensation in the extremities, a faint buzzing in the ears, colors appearing slightly more vivid or sounds seeming to come from wrong directions. These early signs are easily dismissed as stress reactions or sensory adaptation to the hollow's unusual environment.
But beneath these surface symptoms, something far more sinister is already occurring. Ether energy is infiltrating the body at a cellular level, beginning the long process of converting organic tissue into something else entirely. As exposure continues, symptoms become increasingly severe and impossible to ignore. The first visible sign of advanced corruption is the appearance of small, dark crystals beneath the skin, painful growths that spread like crystalline cancer through the victim's body.
These formations are not truly solid matter, as humans understand it, but rather concentrated ether taking physical form, using the victim's own cells as scaffolding for its growth. The crystals tend to cluster around joints and vital organs, their expansion causing excruciating pain that no conventional painkiller can effectively treat. Victims describe the sensation as feeling like they're being filled with broken glass, as if their insides are being slowly replaced with razors that cut from within. As corruption progresses, the victim's physiology begins changing in ways that defy medical understanding.
An ether core starts forming within their body, typically in the chest cavity, where it can draw on the victim's life energy to fuel its growth. This core serves as an anchor point for the corruption, a beachhead from which ether can more efficiently convert surrounding tissue. The victim's skin takes on a dark crystalline sheen in affected areas, becoming harder and less sensitive to pain. Their body temperature drops as their metabolism shifts toward forms of energy processing that have nothing to do with conventional biochemistry.
Blood tests return results that make no sense, showing chemical compounds that shouldn't exist outside laboratory conditions, and energy readings that indicate something fundamentally wrong with the victim's cellular structure. But the physical transformation, horrifying as it is, pales before the corruption's effects on the mind. As the ether core grows, and the victim's brain tissue begins converting, their consciousness starts fragmenting. Memories become unreliable, mixing with experiences that never happened or couldn't have happened.
Emotions intensify beyond normal human ranges, rage becoming homicidal fury, sadness transforming into suicidal despair. The victim's sense of identity begins eroding, their understanding of who and what they are gradually replaced by something that thinks in patterns no human mind was meant to comprehend. They begin perceiving reality in ways that correlate to hollow physics rather than normal space, seeing dimensions of existence invisible to uncorrupted eyes. This expansion of perception is not enlightenment, but madness, the mind trying and failing to process information it was never designed to handle.
The final stage of ether corruption occurs when the victim's human consciousness is completely overwhelmed, replaced by whatever passes for awareness in an ethereal. The former person transforms completely into one of the creatures that haunt the hollows, their body restructured into a form better suited to dimensional existence. Some retain vague shadows of their former selves, haunting locations that held meaning to their human incarnation, or displaying behavioral patterns that echo their previous life. 者 funzあります.
者 sets. 者 chests. 者 trees. 者 лич из- transform into something so completely alien that no trace of their humanity remains.
Both outcomes are equally tragic. The person who entered the hollow is dead, replaced by a creature wearing their restructured corpse. There is no known cure for advanced ether corruption. Current medical technology can reverse very mild cases if caught immediately before crystal formation begins.
Some treatments can slow the corruption's progress. Buying victims additional time before transformation becomes inevitable. But once the ether core forms and significant crystal growth occurs, the process becomes irreversible. The best that can be done is making the victim comfortable during their remaining time as themselves, allowing them to say goodbye to loved ones and make peace with their fate.
Many choose to end their own lives rather than risk transforming into ethereals, preferring death with dignity to existence as monsters. New Eridu maintains dedicated facilities for corruption victims, places where they can spend their final days in care, isolated from the general population, to prevent potential violence as their humanity slips away. The existence of ether corruption fundamentally shapes how New Eridu approaches hollow exploration. No one can stay within a hollow indefinitely, not even agents with high natural resistance to corruption.
Every mission has strict time limits. Every explorer wears specialized anti-corruption equipment, armor lined with materials that slow but don't stop the infection process. Regular medical screenings are mandatory for all hollow workers, catching early corruption before it progresses beyond treatability. Those who venture into the deepest, most ether-rich regions of hollows, like hollow zero itself, can only spend minutes inside before corruption risk becomes unacceptably high.
The threat of transformation hangs over every hollow-related activity, a constant reminder that no matter how advanced technology becomes or how skilled agents are, the price for mistakes in these dimensions is the loss of one's very humanity. Proxies, navigators of the abyss. In the dangerous world of hollow exploration, one profession emerged as absolutely essential, yet fundamentally misunderstood by most of New Eridu's population. Proxies are the invisible hands that guide agents through the twisted dimensions of hollows, the expert navigators who transform near-suicide missions into merely extraordinarily dangerous ones.
Without proxies, hollow exploration would be virtually impossible. With them, humanity gains the ability to not just survive in these spaces, but to actively suppress and harvest them. The fundamental challenge that proxies address is straightforward. Normal communication and observation systems don't work properly within hollows.
Radio signals distort beyond recognition. GPS positioning becomes meaningless when space itself refuses to behave consistently. Visual observation through cameras or drones arrive so delayed as to be useless. The time lag between what happens in the hollow and what appears on monitors outside making real-time coordination impossible.
An agent relying on conventional remote support might receive warnings about dangers seconds after those threats have already killed them. This communications blackout historically made hollow exploration exceptionally lethal, with teams getting lost in dimensional mazes, stumbling into overwhelming ethereal concentrations, or triggering environmental hazards they had no way of knowing existed. Proxies solved this problem through the development of specialized systems that could project consciousness directly into hollows in real time. Rather than relying on signal transmission through dimensional barriers, proxies use technology that allows their minds to inhabit small machines already inside the hollow.
These machines, typically bangboos, due to their robust design and mobility, serve as vessels for the proxies' awareness, allowing them to observe and interact with the hollow's interior without the time delays that plague conventional systems. From their position safely outside the anomaly, proxies can see what their bangboos sees, react to threats instantly, and provide guidance to agents with no perceptible lag. It's as if the proxy is physically present in the hollow, while their body remains completely safe. But operating as a proxy requires more than just technical skill with the interface systems.
The job demands an almost supernatural spatial awareness, the ability to build and maintain mental maps of spaces that actively resist being mapped. A proxy must simultaneously track multiple moving agents, anticipate how the hollow's shifting geometry will affect their roots, identify threats before they become critical, and make split-second decisions that determine whether their clients live or die. They need encyclopedic knowledge of ethereal behaviors and hollow environmental hazards. They must understand their agents' combat capabilities well enough to know what threats they can handle and what situations require immediate retreat.
The best proxies develop an almost intuitive sense for hollow patterns, able to predict shifts in dimensional stability and guide their teams along paths of least resistance through these chaotic spaces. The legal status of proxies exists in a complicated gray area that reflects New Eridu's complex relationship with hollow exploration. Operating as a proxy without authorization from New Eridu public security is technically illegal, a measure implemented to maintain some governmental control over hollow activities and prevent untrained amateurs from getting themselves or others killed. However, the demand for proxy services far exceeds the number of authorized operators and the city's prosperity depends on extensive hollow resource extraction.
This creates a situation where illegal proxies flourish, operating through networks like the Internet that connect them with clients who need their services. Authorities typically turn a blind eye to this underground economy unless a proxy's activities result in major incidents or casualties. It's an uneasy equilibrium, a tacit acknowledgement that rigid enforcement of the laws would cripple the city's ability to function. Among the sprawling underground network of illegal proxies, one name has achieved legendary status, Phaethon.
This mysterious operator has built a reputation for successfully completing jobs that others consider impossible for navigating hollows so dangerous that even authorized public security proxies refuse to enter, for bringing teams back alive from situations that should have resulted in total party wipes. Clients seeking Phaethon services report that the proxy demonstrates seemingly supernatural awareness of hollow conditions, providing guidance so precise that it borders on precognition. Phaethon accepts commissions that others reject, driven apparently not just by profit but by some personal mission that remains opaque to clients. The identity behind the Phaethon codename is one of New Eridu's most intriguing mysteries, speculation running rampant about whether they're a solo operator with extraordinary natural talent, a collective of proxies working under a shared identity, or something else entirely.
The truth, known only to a select few, is that Phaethon is actually two people, Belle and Wise, sibling proxies who operate in perfect synchronization. These twins were students at Helios Academy before the fall, raised and taught by Carol Arna herself. She served not just as their instructor but as a foster mother, caring for them with deep affection while also implanting them with specialized crystalline lens technology that connected directly to their brains. This modification, one of Carol's creations, allows them to uniquely synchronize with their Bangbu Eos and the hollow deep dive system she developed, though it came at the cost of reducing their natural ether aptitude.
When the fall occurred, Belle and Wise were separated from Carol in the chaos and she would later be officially blamed for the catastrophe. The siblings became proxies, not just for survival or profit, but driven by a deeper purpose, to gather enough observational data from hollow exploration to one day investigate Helios Academy's ruins and uncover the truth about what really happened, clearing their beloved teacher's name if she was indeed wrongly accused. To maintain their cover and operate safely as illegal proxies, Belle and Wise run a video rental store called Random Play in one of New Eridu's quieter districts. The shop serves as their public face, a legitimate business that explains their presence and provides a front for their actual activities.
Random Play specializes in VHS tapes, a technology that might seem hopelessly outdated in most settings, but makes perfect sense in New Eridu's deliberately retro aesthetic. The shop attracts a diverse clientele from nostalgic older citizens seeking entertainment from better days to younger people curious about pre-fall media. Behind the counter, filled with movie cases and amid the whir of rewinding tapes, Belle and Wise conduct their real business, coordinating with clients through secure channels and preparing for missions that will take them into the most dangerous dimensions their world has to offer. The factions united in survival.
New Eridu's survival depends not on any single organization, but on the coordinated efforts of multiple factions, each approaching the hollow threat from different angles and bringing unique capabilities to bear on humanity's ongoing struggle. These groups range from legitimate government organizations to underground criminal enterprises, from corporate entities to informal associations, but all play essential roles in keeping civilization alive in this hostile new world. Understanding these factions provides insight into how post-apocalyptic society reorganizes itself when conventional institutions prove inadequate to emerging threats. The cunning hares, officially registered as Gentle House, represent the scrappy underdogs of New Eridu's hollow-related economy.
Founded by Nicole De Mara, this small-scale human resource dispatch agency operates on the margins, taking on hollow-related commissions that larger, more reputable organizations consider beneath their notice or too risky relative to the payment offered. The hares earned their unofficial name through Nicole's particularly crafty approach to problem-solving, using cunning and tactical ingenuity to overcome situations where they're outmatched in raw power or resources. Despite their precarious financial situation, largely a result of Nicole's poor money management skills and tendency to accumulate debt, the cunning hares have built a reputation for reliability and resourcefulness among clients who need work done quickly and quietly. The faction's roster reflects their grab-bag approach to team-building.
Anby De Mara, no relation to Nicole, despite the shared surname, serves as their primary combat specialist, a young woman whose extraordinary fighting abilities and mysterious past make her far more formidable than her quiet demeanor suggests. Billy Kidd, a cyborg whose enthusiasm and love of heroic fiction sometimes borders on childlike, provides ranged support and surprising combat effectiveness despite his goofy personality. Nekomata, a Therian with feline characteristics, brings stealth and agility to the team, though her love of mackerel and sometimes mercenary attitude create amusing tensions. Together, this odd collection of individuals has become one of New Eridu's most frequently employed hollow exploration teams, their success rate speaking volumes despite their unconventional methods.
Victoria Housekeeping Company presents a stark contrast to the cunning hare's chaotic approach. This organization markets itself as a high-end domestic service provider offering housekeeping, security, and concierge services to New Eridu's wealthy elite. However, their true specialty lies in threat elimination, both conventional and supernatural. Victoria Housekeeping will clean your mansion to immaculate standards, certainly, but they'll also venture into hollows to retrieve valuable items, eliminate ethereal infestations, or handle security threats too sensitive for official authorities.
Their services command premium prices, targeting clients for whom money is no object but discretion and guaranteed results are absolutely essential. The faction's aesthetic deliberately evokes Victorian-era service professionals mixed with horror movie archetypes, creating an unsettling yet oddly appropriate vibe. Von Lycaon, their leader, is a Therian with wolf-like characteristics whose impeccable manners and professional demeanor mask formidable combat capabilities. Ellen Jo references shark movies with her tail and specialized weapon, bringing aquatic predator ferocity to her work.
Rena commands floating dolls in combat, her abilities evoking haunted house horror. Corin, the newest member, displays characteristics reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster, her immense strength and anxiety-prone personality, creating an interesting contradiction. Victoria housekeeping's methods sometimes result in significant collateral damage, but their ability to consistently accomplish objectives others fail at keeps them in high demand despite occasionally controversial results. The Lobog Heavy Industries approaches hollow-related challenges from an industrial and engineering perspective.
This corporation specializes in construction work within hollows themselves, building infrastructure in these hostile dimensions to facilitate resource extraction and establish forward bases for deeper exploration. Their expertise in heavy machinery operation and modification allows them to work in conditions that would be impossible for conventional construction companies. Their equipment specifically hardened against ether corruption and dimensional instability. Bellobog workers face dangers that go beyond typical construction site hazards, working in spaces where structural collapses might tear holes in reality and where ethereal attacks can occur without warning.
The company's leadership could have been more than of experience is going to be less and workforce reflect their blue-collar, get-the-job-done ethos. Kolita Belobog, despite her small stature, leads the organization with determination and engineering genius, personally modifying much of their heavy equipment. Anton brings enthusiasm and loyalty, his dedication to the company running bone-deep. Ben, a Therian with bare characteristics, provides muscle and mechanical expertise.
Grace Howard's electrical specialization makes her invaluable for the complex systems that keep their equipment functioning in hollow conditions. Belobog Heavy Industries represents the industrial backbone of New Eridu's prosperity, the workers who do the dirty, dangerous job of literally building infrastructure in hell so others can follow safely. The Criminal Investigation Special Response Team operates under New Eridu Public Securities Authority, representing the law enforcement approach to hollow-related crime and security threats. Unlike the freelance operators and private companies, CISRT carries government-sanctioned and official authority, allowing them to make arrests, conduct investigations, and use force with legal backing.
Their mandate focuses on criminal activities related to hollows, from unauthorized exploration to smuggling of dangerous ether-based materials to organized crime groups using hollows as bases of operation. CISRT's work requires balancing police procedure with the improvisational flexibility needed for hollow operations, maintaining legal standards and dimensions where conventional rules often become meaningless. Zhu Yuan leads the team with ambitious determination, her goal of rising through public security's ranks, driving her to pursue cases with relentless dedication. Seth provides support and technical expertise, his more cautious approach balancing Zhu Yuan's aggressive tactics.
Chingy and Jane Doe bring different but complementary skill sets, their work often involving undercover operations or investigations requiring subtlety. The team's professional demeanor and standardized equipment mark them as distinctly governmental compared to the more eclectic private operators, but their effectiveness speaks to proper training and institutional backing compensating for any lack of individual flair. Hollow Special Operations Section 6 represents the sharp end of New Eridu's military response to hollow threats. Operating under HAND, a governmental organization dedicated to hollow disaster response, Section 6 deploys to the most dangerous situations, handling high-risk scenarios that exceed other factions' capabilities.
When a hollow undergoes catastrophic expansion, when ethereal swarms threaten populated areas, when dimensional stability in a region reaches critical failure points, Section 6 gets the call. Their members rank among the strongest and most terrifying agents in New Eridu, individuals whose combat prowess and ether resistance allow them to operate in conditions that would kill lesser operatives within minutes. The faction's reputation inspires both respect and fear throughout New Eridu. Hoshimi Miyabi leads Section 6 with stoic determination, her abilities marking her as one of the legendary Void Hunters.
Tsukaku brings surprising power despite her youthful appearance, her combat style reflecting traditional techniques adapted for hollow warfare. Tsukishiro Yanagi provides strategic intelligence and support capabilities essential for coordinating complex operations. Asaba Harumasa rounds out the team with his own specialized skills. Section 6's very existence represents New Eridu's commitment to being prepared for the worst-case scenarios, maintaining elite forces ready to respond to catastrophic threats at any moment.
The Sons of Caledon operate far from New Eridu's urban center, based in the Outer Ring, where civilization gives way to wilderness and scattered settlements. This biker gang serves as combination transportation company, trading organization, and security force for the frontier regions, their members embodying freedom and individual expression. The Sons traverse dangerous territories on their motorcycles and trucks, delivering goods between isolated communities, and occasionally venturing into Outer Ring hollows that official organizations haven't mapped. Their tagline, I Come, I See, I Crash, perfectly captures their direct, explosive approach to problem-solving.
Caesar King leads the Sons with charismatic authority, her presence holding together a group that values independence highly. Lucy provides strategic thinking and coordination, her calm demeanor balancing the faction's more hot-headed members. Piper Wheel handles mechanical needs, keeping the Sons' vehicles running in conditions that would destroy conventional machines. Bernice White brings explosive personality and literal explosives to combat situations.
Lighter works as the Sons' champion fighter, his reputation extending even beyond the Outer Ring. The Sons of Caledon represent an alternative to New Eridu's urban structure, showing that humanity can survive and thrive even in frontier regions, maintaining community and purpose without official government oversight. The Bangboo, humanity's adorable helpers. Throughout New Eridu, one of the most ubiquitous and beloved sights is the small, rabbit-like robots known as Bangboos.
These machines, invented by Sunbringer during the old capital era, have become thoroughly integrated into post-fall society, serving roles ranging from domestic assistance to critical hollow operations. Their design reflects careful consideration of both functional requirements and psychological factors, creating machines that are simultaneously useful tools and comforting companions during difficult times. Bangboo's basic design resembles rabbits or bunnies, with long ears and compact rounded bodies that immediately trigger positive associations in human psychology. This deliberately cute aesthetic serves practical purposes beyond simple appeal.
During the chaotic aftermath of the fall, when survivors struggled with trauma and despair, Bangboos' friendly appearance provided small moments of comfort and normalcy. Children especially responded well to these machines, seeing them as friends rather than cold technology. This psychological benefit proved so valuable that the design was retained and refined even as Bangboo technology evolved and improved over the years. But underneath their adorable exteriors, Bangboos are sophisticated machines capable of remarkable feats.
Most models possess basic AI, allowing them to navigate environments, recognize individuals, and respond to commands with impressive flexibility. Their compact size and durable construction make them ideal for accessing spaces humans cannot, while their modular design allows them to be customized with various attachments and upgrades suited to specific roles. Some Bangboos serve as household helpers, performing cleaning, cooking, and other domestic tasks. Others work in commercial settings, serving as greeters, deliverers, or assistants in various businesses throughout New Eridu.
Their versatility makes them invaluable across virtually every sector of the city's economy. In hollow operations, Bangboos serve absolutely essential functions that dramatically improve agent survival rates. Proxies use specialized Bangboos as their avatars within hollows, projecting their consciousness into these machines to guide agents in real time. The Bangboos' sensors become the proxy's eyes and ears, their speakers allowing communication even in conditions where conventional radios fail.
Some models are equipped with environmental analysis equipment, allowing proxies to assess ether concentrations, detect ethereal presence, or identify dimensional instabilities before they become critical threats. The most advanced Bangboos, used by elite proxies like Phaethon, incorporate experimental technology that pushes far beyond commercial models' capabilities. Different Bangboos models exist for various purposes, from civilian helpers to specialized combat units. Some are designed for heavy labor, with enhanced strength and durability, allowing them to move obstacles or assist in construction.
Others focus on speed and agility, racing through hollow corridors ahead of agent teams to scout routes and identify threats. Combat Bangboos carry weapons and defensive systems, providing additional firepower during ethereal encounters. The variety reflects how thoroughly these machines have been integrated into new Eridu society, filling niches and roles that continuously expand as their technology improves. The emotional bond between humans and Bangboos, while perhaps seeming trivial to outsiders, reflects something deeper about life in post-apocalyptic society.
In a world where ether corruption can steal loved ones, where hollows threaten the only remaining city, where death lurks in dimensional pockets scattered throughout the region, having reliable companions who cannot be corrupted, provides profound psychological comfort. Bangboos represent permanence and stability in an unstable world. They're friends who will never transform into monsters, helpers who can be trusted absolutely. Each Bangboo hopping through new Eridu streets carries with it a small piece of continuity with the old capital era, when these machines were invented by humans who couldn't have imagined the horrors that would later plague their descendants.
In this way, Bangboos serve a purpose beyond their practical functions, offering emotional anchors and reminders that humanity can create things that are purely helpful and joyful even in the darkest times. The ongoing struggle, life in the shadow. Eleven years have passed since the fall of the old capital, and new Eridu has transformed from a desperate survivor settlement into a thriving metropolis. But the threats that destroyed the original city have not diminished with time.
Hollow Zero remains stable but present. Its massive dimensional bulk, a constant reminder visible from certain vantage points throughout new Eridu. The companion hollows, its spawns continue appearing, requiring ongoing suppression efforts. Ether corruption still claims lives despite improved safety measures and medical treatments.
The struggle for survival never truly ends. It simply becomes normalized, integrated into daily life until constant danger feels like just another aspect of existence. Scott Outpost stands at the front line of humanity's research into hollow phenomena, a facility established near hollow zero specifically to study the anomaly that destroyed their original home. Scientists and researchers at the Outpost work under conditions most people would find intolerable.
Their research stations located close enough to the massive hollow that dimensional effects occasionally cause equipment malfunctions and strange perceptual distortions. Ray Yerson serves as research director coordinating studies into ethereal behavior, dimensional physics, and methods for more effective hollow suppression. The Outpost's work has yielded numerous breakthroughs in understanding these anomalies, though many questions remain unanswered or answered only with information that raises further mysteries. One particularly troubling discovery involves the nature of powerful ethereal swarms like Nineveh and Geppetto.
These massive entities, far more powerful than typical ethereals, demonstrate capabilities that have raised unsettling questions among researchers. According to information that reached Ray Yerson from a mysterious supervisor within the White Star Institute, these creatures might not be just an act of nature, but rather something created by people. This suggestion implies that powerful corrupted entities could be products of experiments or hidden schemes rather than natural hollow phenomena. If true, this would mean that factions within New Eridu or its predecessor might possess knowledge or capabilities related to creating or modifying ethereals, secrets they've kept hidden from the general population.
The implications are deeply troubling, raising questions about whether such entities were created as weapons, experiments gone wrong, or something else entirely. However, concrete proof remains elusive, and the supervisor's claims remain unverified. The legacy of the original Void Hunters continues inspiring new Eridu's defenders, their legendary status representing the city's determination to fight back against dimensional threats rather than simply cowering in fear. These seven heroes from the old capital era demonstrated that humans could venture into hollows and return, that ethereals could be fought and defeated, that dimensional anomalies need not spell inevitable doom.
Their example led directly to the establishment of modern agent teams and proxy networks, showing that organized resistance to hollows was not just possible, but essential for survival. The title of Void Hunter has been revived in the present day, bestowed upon individuals who demonstrate exceptional capabilities in hollow suppression, and make significant contributions to humanity's understanding of these phenomena. But beneath New Eridu's surface prosperity, mysteries and tensions simmer. The precise circumstances surrounding hollow zero's creation remain unclear, with official records either lost during the fall or sealed by authorities for reasons they won't explain.
Carol Arna stands accused as the primary culprit, but many, including her former students Bell and Wise, believe she may have been wrongly blamed. The truth of what actually triggered the catastrophe continues to elude investigators. Professor Archie himself ventured into hollow zero at some point, seeking answers about the anomalies true nature, entering its depths in search of what he called the truth. He never returned, lost to the same dimensional chaos that consumed so many others.
What he might have discovered or what fate befell him in those twisted spaces remains unknown. These unanswered questions drive ongoing research and investigation, with some believing that critical information about hollow prevention or control might still be hidden within hollow zeroes depths waiting to be uncovered by those brave or desperate enough to seek it the internat network through which illegal proxies connect with clients represents both community and vulnerability a communication system that exists in a gray area of new eridu's legal structure based on how authorities respond to proxy activities it appears they tolerate this underground economy because completely shutting it down would cripple the hollow resource extraction that powers the city's prosperity however illegal proxies likely remain under constant surveillance with authorities ready to intervene if activities cross into territory deemed truly unacceptable this uneasy equilibrium allows new eridu to benefit from extensive proxy services while maintaining at least nominal governmental oversight factions operate in uneasy cooperation and occasional conflict their goals sometimes aligning and sometimes contradicting corporate interests clash with public safety concerns scientific curiosity pushes against ethical boundaries individual ambitions conflict with collective survival needs new eridu functions not through perfect harmony but through managed tension numerous groups pursuing their own objectives while recognizing that allowing any major faction to fail would weaken the entire structure keeping humanity alive for ordinary citizens life means adapting to constant underlying danger children grow up learning evacuation procedures alongside reading and mathematics workers accept that some professions carry risk of ether corruption as routine hazard families maintain emergency supplies and know multiple routes out of their districts should hollows appear the memorial beside the chasm sees regular visitors people coming to remember those lost to the fall or more recent hollow incidents reminding themselves why vigilance matters and sacrifices sometimes prove necessary life continues with remarkable normality considering the circumstances people falling in love starting businesses pursuing dreams even while knowing their city exists as an island of order in a sea of dimensional chaos the future hope and determination as our journey through zenless zone zeroes lore comes to its conclusion we're left contemplating what the future might hold for new eridu and its determined inhabitants the questions that drive bell and wise's investigation as phaethon the mystery surrounding hollow zeros origin and potential prevention of future catastrophes remain partially unanswered but perhaps that's appropriate for a world defined not by tidy resolutions but by ongoing struggle by humanity's refusal to surrender even when the universe itself seems hostile to our continued existence the story of zenless zone zero is ultimately one of resilience and adaptation it shows how civilization reorganizes itself when confronted with threats that invalidate previous assumptions about reality it demonstrates that humans can find ways to not just survive but thrive even when physics itself becomes unreliable and dimensions hostile to life proliferate around their last refuge the factions operating throughout new eridu from scrappy mercenaries to elite government units from construction companies to law enforcement all represent different approaches to the same fundamental challenge maintaining human civilization and dignity when conventional safety has become impossible the agents venturing into hollows daily the proxies guiding them through dimensional chaos the researchers studying ethereal behavior the ordinary citizens maintaining commerce and culture despite constant underlying threat all contribute to something remarkable new eridu stands as proof that catastrophe need not mean extinction that losing everything can lead to rebuilding something different but still valuable that the end of one world can birth another worthy of fighting for the city's retro aesthetic its vhs tapes and crt televisions represents more than nostalgia for simpler times this design choice appears connected to a practical concern modern more advanced digital technology has proven more susceptible to corruption and interference from ether exposure by maintaining older analog-based systems that rely on simpler electronics and mechanical components new eridu has created an infrastructure more resistant to the dimensional anomalies that permeate their world it's a step backward that enables survival showing that sometimes progress means knowing when simpler solutions prove more reliable than cutting-edge alternatives the relationships form between factions between bell and wise as faith on and the various agent teams they guide between citizens and their bangboo companions all speak to humanity's fundamentally social nature we survive not through individual strength but through networks of support and mutual assistance the cunning hares may struggle financially but they support each other as found family victoria housekeeping maintains strict professionalism but their members clearly care deeply for one another beyond mere co-worker relationships section six operates with military discipline yet their trust in one another runs deeper than any chain of command could mandate these bonds formed and maintained despite or perhaps because of constant danger demonstrate that humanity's greatest strength lies not in weapons or technology but in our capacity for connection and cooperation as researchers at scott outpost continue probing hollow zero secrets as agent teams venture deeper into unexplored anomalies as proxies perfect their craft and guide clients through ever more dangerous dimensions new eridu story continues unfolding new characters will join the struggle new factions will emerge with their own approaches and philosophies new mysteries will surface to replace those gradually solved the fundamental tension between dimensional chaos and human order will persist perhaps forever an ongoing narrative without clean resolution but filled with countless small victories and moments of triumph against overwhelming odds for players experiencing zenless zone zero the lore provides context for every mission explanation for every mechanic justification for every faction's existence and motivation understanding that ethereals represent corrupted existence makes fighting them feel more significant than simple monster slaying knowing that ether corruption threatens every moment spent within hollows adds tension to exploration recognizing that new eridu represents humanity's last major urban stronghold raises stakes for its defense the world hoyo verse has crafted rewards attention and thought revealing depth beneath its stylish surface substance supporting its spectacular action thank you for joining me on this comprehensive journey through zenless zone zero's complete lore i hope this exploration has deepened your appreciation for the game's world its characters and the complex web of history tragedy and determination that makes new eridu such a compelling setting if you enjoyed this deep dive please consider subscribing to dreamscape archives for more explorations of gaming's most fascinating narratives give this video a like if you found it informative and leave a comment sharing your own thoughts on zenless zone zero story and world building until next time keep exploring those digital worlds keep questioning those narrative mysteries and keep finding the stories that make gaming such a rich and rewarding medium this has been dreamscape archives and i'll see you in the next video you