Dark Hour
The Dark Hour is a phenomenon of Port Island that began occurring ten years ago. Every night at midnight, the entire city undergoes a strange and terrible change. The night sky transforms to a pale green, the moon a sickly yellowish hue, and water takes on the appearance of blood. The atmosphere of the Dark Hour itself is almost toxic upon those within it. There is a constant mind-numbing sussurus within the Dark Hour that saps one's vitality and causes them to grow weak. Sometimes they can even get sick if they are active long enough. It takes a great deal of practice and training to combat these effects, but they never are eliminated entirely. One cannot enter or leave Port Island during the Dark Hour. The roads and routes out of the city appear to simply go on forever, never being able to actually leave the area. Additionally, the vast majority of electrical devices do not function during the Dark Hour. Cars do not run. Televisions do not work. Everything is dead and silent. The exception are a rare few objects created with special technology possessed by the Kirijo Group and SEBEC, and such objects are extremely expensive. Normal people are Transmogrified, a process that changes them into a gleaming coffin of obsidian. Within the coffin, the person passes through the Dark Hour completely unaware of the change. The coffins are generally invulnerable to normal damage, but some know the secret of removing the Transmogrification effect from a person, thrusting them into the Dark Hour completely vulnerable to the dangers therein.
This is because Shadows prowl the streets during the Dark Hour, hunting for those who can be taken. It is unknown what happens to those who are caught by the Shadows during this time. Sometimes they disappear. Sometimes they are found dead from unexplainable wounds and in strange circumstances. Most often, however, they are afflicted with what has become known as Apathy Syndrome. Those who have the Potential to manifest a Persona but have not done so are the most common targets, as they do not Transmogrify during the Dark Hour. There are also rare normal humans who do not Transmogify, but they are few and far between. It is unknown as to what allows them to operate during this time.
The Shadows' home is a massive tower known as Tartarus, which manifests only during the Dark Hour, in the location of the Gekkoukan High School. The building itself twists and transforms into the tower, the internals changing every time. Within Tartarus, a seemingly innumerable number of Shadows await those who dare to enter. The only path to go is up, as the stairs vanish once ascended. Every so often one may find a strange device that will teleport them to the first floor, which is the only safe location in the tower. Powerful guardians make their lairs every so often in the tower, having established their place in the strange and twisted shadow hierarchy of Tartarus. Every so often, the path further is blocked by seemingly impassible barriers of various forms, growing more ornate and alien as one ascends. The centerpiece of all of these barriers are a large pole with a glowing moon upon it. These barriers seem to vanish when certain conditions are met.
When the Dark Hour ends, everything changes back to normal, everything generally returning to exactly how it was, time resuming at 12:01 AM.
