VCAERS: Your Veil City Operational Guide

Welcome, certified citizen. This section provides a fundamental overview of the Veil City Anomalous Event Rating System (VCAERS), our standardized method for categorizing and responding to the unique operational challenges within our city. Understanding the VCAERS is not merely knowledge; it is a critical component of your civic duty and our collective security.

Understanding the VCAERS Matrix

The VCAERS operates on a two-axis matrix, allowing for precise classification of anomalous phenomena based on both their immediate severity and their long-term impact on our environment.

1. Scale of Immediate Impact (AE 1-10): The "Throttle Setting"

This numerical rating quantifies the immediate danger, potential for destruction, and the resource strain an event places on Veil City's critical infrastructure and personnel. Higher numbers indicate a greater need for rapid and extensive operational response.

AE 1-2 (Minor Glitch / Noticeable Ripple): Brief, localized anomalies. Minimal threat. Requires passive observation.
AE 3-4 (Localized Distortion / Reality Bleed): Contained disruptions. Potential for property damage or psychological stress. Requires active, local response teams.
AE 5-6 (Environmental Corruption / Veil Thinning): Widespread environmental impact or significant Veil compromise. Direct threat to life and widespread infrastructure damage. Demands substantial resource allocation.
AE 7-8 (Major Breach / Cataclysmic Impact): Large-scale incursions or violent ruptures. Mass casualties and destruction are imminent or present. Requires extreme, city-wide operational deployment.
AE 9-10 (Global Unraveling / Existential Collapse): Fundamental breakdown of reality, threatening Veil City's existence and potentially spreading beyond our borders. Total resource overwhelm; survival protocols in effect.

2. Period of Impact (Temporal Modifier): The "Operational Duration"

This modifier describes how long an event's effects persist after its initial manifestation, influencing ongoing operational needs and long-term planning.

T (Transient): Effects are momentary, resolving within minutes.
S (Short-Term): Effects last hours to a few days. Requires focused, quick resolution.
M (Medium-Term): Effects persist for weeks to several months. Demands ongoing operational protocols.
L (Long-Term): Effects endure for years to decades. Requires continuous management, dedicated specialized units, and adaptation of standard procedures. The Cinder Wraiths are a prominent Long-Term (L) challenge.
P (Permanent): The event has irreversibly altered Veil City's reality, creating a new, enduring normal. Requires perpetual vigilance.

Full VCAERS Official Rubric & Historical Event Log

This section provides the full, detailed rubric for the Veil City Anomalous Event Rating System (VCAERS), complete with expanded explanations and historical examples from Veil City's classified records. This document is for certified personnel only and falls under Level 3 (Restricted) Clearance.

Scale of Immediate Impact (AE 1-10): Detailed Rubric

AE 1: Minor Glitch

Description: Fleeting, almost imperceptible sensory anomalies or very localized, momentary distortions of physical properties. Often dismissed as imagination, trick of the light, or environmental quirks.
Tangible Examples: A single object momentarily blurring, a faint phantom scent of elderflower where none grows, a door briefly sticking beyond normal wear, an internal thought briefly feeling like a whisper in the room.
Response Protocol: No formal response initiated. Individual observation advised.
Risk to Public/Resources: Negligible.

AE 2: Noticeable Ripple

Description: Clear, but brief or easily rationalized, sensory or minor physical anomalies that affect one or two individuals. Can cause momentary disorientation or unease.
Tangible Examples: A localized chill in a specific room, a distinct but brief sound of non-existent flowing water from a solid wall, minor electronic interference (e.g., radio static that resolves immediately), objects rattling without a cause.
Response Protocol: Requires passive monitoring by VCPD patrol units or TWG sensors. Discreet inquiries if patterns emerge.
Risk to Public/Resources: Low. Potential for minor psychological unease.

AE 3: Localized Distortion

Description: A contained, demonstrable disruption of reality within a small, defined area (e.g., a single room, a small section of forest, a specific cul-de-sac). Effects are persistent for minutes to hours.
Tangible Examples: Repeated movement of inanimate objects (poltergeist-like activity), a persistent localized illusion (e.g., a shimmering heat haze in a cool cellar), inexplicable and sustained drain on power grids in a single building, a patch of moss growing to unnatural size overnight in a backyard.
Response Protocol: Active VCPD/TWG response team deployment. Area may be cordoned off with fabricated excuses (e.g., "gas leak," "electrical issue"). Psychological support for affected citizens may be required.
Risk to Public/Resources: Moderate. Potential for property damage, minor injuries (e.g., from falling objects), or significant psychological distress.

AE 4: Reality Bleed

Description: Undeniable incursions from another dimension, localized but impactful. Manifestations are more substantial, often visual or affecting environmental parameters.
Tangible Examples: A small, stable portal, not large enough for passage but allowing glimpses into another reality; a persistent pocket of unnaturally heavy fog that dissipates abruptly at a defined line; unnaturally rapid plant growth or decay in a specific, contained area; the sustained, passive manifestation of a low-threat entity (e.g., a single, non-aggressive Cinder Wraith observed for a few hours).
Response Protocol: High-priority VCPD/TWG response. Requires immediate physical containment, often including temporary evacuation under false pretenses. Intense misdirection efforts for any external inquiry. Firewatchers begin active containment protocols if Cinder Wraiths are involved.
Risk to Public/Resources: Significant. Potential for major property damage, minor injuries requiring medical attention, or widespread psychological stress among affected individuals.

AE 5: Environmental Corruption

Description: Widespread environmental impact across a defined region (several square miles), where the anomaly overtly affects natural systems.
Tangible Examples: An anomalous weather pattern (e.g., localized, perpetual light rain, or unnaturally intense cold snap) confined to a specific valley; large-scale mutations in flora/fauna (e.g., all local squirrels developing bioluminescent fur, trees growing crystalline leaves); ground instability or minor seismic activity that forensics confirms is not geological.
Response Protocol: Large-scale, coordinated response involving multiple VCPD and TWG teams. Requires significant resource allocation (e.g., extensive hazmat-style cleanup operations, mass disinformation campaigns). Difficult to conceal entirely from external observation, relying heavily on existing skepticism.
Risk to Public/Resources: High. Significant disruption to infrastructure, potential for non-fatal injuries, and severe strain on local economy due to disruption and cover-up costs.

AE 6: Veil Thinning

Description: A critical, persistent compromise of the Veil's integrity, leading to frequent and overt anomalous phenomena across a substantial portion of Veil City. Laws of physics may subtly and consistently break down.
Tangible Examples: Multiple, active but unstable rifts occasionally allowing brief passages for unknown entities; frequent and aggressive appearances of multiple cryptids (e.g., a continuous influx of aggressive Cinder Wraiths); widespread sensory overload affecting large segments of the population (e.g., constant impossible sounds, pervasive unsettling visions); areas where objects consistently gain or lose weight, or light bends unnaturally.
Response Protocol: Maximum operational capacity. All available Veil City resources are deployed. Requires localized mass evacuations *within the city limits*. Infrastructure damage is severe and widespread. Desperate measures taken to prevent external knowledge.
Risk to Public/Resources: Very High. Direct threat to life and property. Significant resource depletion and potential for large-scale psychological trauma.

AE 7: Major Breach

Description: Large, semi-stable portals or multiple widespread rifts open, allowing consistent, active passage for diverse entities and extensive environmental bleed-through. Reality within the affected zone is severely and consistently inconsistent.
Tangible Examples: Regular incursions by multiple, powerful cryptids, often acting in concert; large segments of landscapes visibly merging with elements from other realms (e.g., a street suddenly flowing with liquid light, a forest becoming petrified crystalline structures); fundamental alteration of natural cycles (e.g., a district experiencing perpetual twilight, sudden shifts in seasons).
Response Protocol: Extreme. Veil City forces are on the defensive, struggling to contain widespread chaos. Mass casualties and destruction *within Veil City*. Society in the affected region begins to break down. Cover-ups are internally impossible, relying solely on external disbelief and isolation.
Risk to Public/Resources: Extreme. Mass casualties, widespread destruction, and breakdown of social order within the city. Existential threat to Veil City's continued hidden existence.

AE 8: Cataclysmic Impact

Description: A single, massive, violent rupture in the Veil, forcefully depositing large, immensely powerful entities or entire alien environmental elements from other realms. Causes an immediate, profound, and destructive reshaping of the landscape upon initial manifestation.
Tangible Examples: The instantaneous manifestation of a massive, non-Euclidean structure; a sudden, powerful influx of a hostile, alien ecosystem that overwhelms vast areas; the arrival of a single, colossal entity that obliterates anything in its path.
Response Protocol: Total overwhelming of all local resources. Focus immediately shifts from containment to survival, damage control, and evacuation of any possible survivors. External disbelief struggles to hold in adjacent counties due to the sheer scale of the event.
Risk to Public/Resources: Cataclysmic. Immediate, large-scale casualties and wholesale destruction across a significant portion of Veil City. Society shattered on impact.

AE 9: Global Unraveling

Description: The fundamental laws of reality within Veil City begin to unravel on a scale that is now almost impossible for even distant observers to ignore, actively threatening to spread beyond the city's immediate borders.
Tangible Examples: Time distortion visibly affecting large areas and adjacent communities (e.g., a neighboring town experiences recurring loops or rapid aging); matter spontaneously reconfiguring or disappearing on a massive, visible scale across the state line; impossible celestial bodies becoming consistently visible in the night sky across multiple states, defying astronomical explanation.
Response Protocol: Beyond current capacity. Veil City's authorities are engaged in a desperate, last-ditch effort to contain the event, knowing failure means imminent existential threat to the world's perceived reality and undeniable global exposure.
Risk to Public/Resources: Imminent Collapse. Life within Veil City is unsustainable. Global ramifications are unavoidable if not immediately halted.

AE 10: Existential Collapse

Description: The Veil has completely torn open, leading to an irreversible, catastrophic merger or erasure of Veil City's reality with one or more other planes. The city, and potentially a growing region, fundamentally ceases to exist as a recognizable part of Earth's reality.
Tangible Examples: Veil City transforms into a non-Euclidean landscape permanently inhabited by alien entities; the entire geographical area where Veil City once stood simply becomes an empty void or an anomalous zone reflecting impossible physics.
Response Protocol: Irrelevant. The event is complete; there is nothing left to contain or manage. Veil City is lost.
Risk to Public/Resources: Annihilation.

Period of Impact (Temporal Modifier): Detailed Rubric

Transient (T)

Description: Event effects last for less than one hour. Self-correcting, or easily resolved with minimal, immediate intervention. No lingering effects or residual operational concerns.
Examples: The "Whispering Breeze of '78" (a brief, city-wide wave of faint, disembodied whispers that lasted 15 minutes before dissipating), the "Flicker of Main Street" (a single, isolated building briefly vanishing from sight for 30 seconds).

Short-Term (S)

Description: Event effects last for hours to a few days (typically 1-7 days). Requires active, focused containment but resolves relatively quickly with no permanent environmental or social scars.
Examples: A section of the river appearing to flow backwards for 3 days. A localized section of Loud Creek emitting impossible, non-aquatic animal sounds for 48 hours.

Medium-Term (M)

Description: Event effects persist for weeks to several months (typically 1-6 months). Demands ongoing operational protocols, dedicated resource commitment, and often leads to noticeable but manageable temporary changes to the environment or social routines.
Examples: A peculiar, disorienting fog covering a valley for 3 months, causing mild spatial disorientation. Certain spring-fed wells subtly altering memories for 6 weeks, requiring extensive counter-measures.

Long-Term (L)

Description: Event effects endure for years to decades (typically 1-50 years). Becomes a persistent operational challenge requiring continuous management, dedicated specialized units, and adaptation of standard procedures. Creates enduring features of Veil City's unique reality.
Examples: The "Cinder Wraith Cataclysm of 1967" (an AE-6 event that forcefully deposited a population of Cinder Wraiths, requiring decades of sustained Firewatch containment and becoming a defining feature of Veil City's operational reality). A section of forest developing unnaturally dense, light-absorbing foliage that persists to this day, requiring continuous pruning and specialized patrol routes.

Permanent (P)

Description: The event has fundamentally and irreversibly altered the region's physical or metaphysical reality, creating a new, enduring normal. This may lead to a continuous, self-sustaining anomalous state that cannot be undone.
Examples: The permanent manifestation of a new, anomalous mineral vein beneath the city, subtly influencing local magnetic fields. The highest peak in the region having a permanent, faint, multi-dimensional echo, making communications difficult near its summit.

VCAERS Matrix: Historical Event Examples

Scale of Immediate Impact ↓ / Period of Impact →	Transient (T)	Short-Term (S)	Medium-Term (M)	Long-Term (L)	Permanent (P)
AE 1 (Minor Glitch)	The "Whispering Breeze of '78" (brief city-wide whispers)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
AE 2 (Noticeable Ripple)	"Flicker of Main Street" (building vanishes for 30s)	A stream emitting impossible, non-aquatic animal sounds for 48 hours.	N/A	N/A	N/A
AE 3 (Localized Distortion)	A porch rotated 90 degrees for 5 mins.	Bakery ingredients self-animate for a day.	A peculiar fog in a specific valley, causing mild spatial disorientation for 3 months.	N/A	A well that causes mild disorientation, forever.
AE 4 (Reality Bleed)	A person seeing their own shadow act independently for 1 hour.	A section of the river appearing to flow backwards for 3 days.	Wells subtly altering memories for 6 weeks.	The highest peak in the region having a permanent, faint, multi-dimensional echo.	A new anomalous mineral vein appearing beneath the city.
AE 5 (Environmental Corruption)	A brief, localized aurora visible in daytime.	A localized, disease-causing mist persisting for 2 days.	A small area of reduced gravity for 2 months.	A section of forest developing unnaturally dense, light-absorbing foliage that persists to this day.	A single meadow always covered in anomalous, glittering dew.
AE 6 (Veil Thinning)	A 1-hour complete absence of sound, causing psychological impact.	Brief, unstable rifts appearing for 1 day, causing chaos.	A cabin repeatedly rematerializes in different locations for 2 months.	"Cinder Wraith Cataclysm of 1967" (forcibly deposited Cinder Wraith population, requiring decades of containment)	A section of river becoming sentient and mildly telepathic, permanently altering its flow.
AE 7 (Major Breach)	A marketplace briefly overlapping with an alien Bazaar (30 min, 15 casualties).	Sky raining razor-sharp crystal shards for 48 hours (300+ casualties).	A city-wide psychic feedback loop causing vivid nightmares & exhaustion for 3 weeks.	N/A	A hollow turning permanently blood-red, continuously bleeding a viscous, non-corporeal fluid.
AE 8 (Cataclysmic Impact)	"The Howling Crater of 2003" (instantaneous manifestation of a mile-wide crater emitting maddening sound)	N/A	N/A	N/A	"The Petrified Valley of 1890" (entire valley turned to solid, impossible crystal upon event, remains so)
AE 9 (Global Unraveling)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	A major mountain range vanished, replaced by temporal distortion, permanent impact felt statewide.
AE 10 (Existential Collapse)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Veil City erased from reality, leaving behind a geographic anomaly that maps do not recognize.

VCAERS CERTIFICATION - STUDY GUIDE

This study guide is designed to assist you in preparing for your mandatory VCAERS Classification Certification. Mastery of this material is essential for your safety and contribution to Veil City's operational integrity.

B.1. Key Definitions to Memorize:

Anomalous Event (AE): Any instance of deviation from recognized physical, metaphysical, or temporal laws originating from outside the accepted baseline reality.
The Veil: The semi-permeable metaphysical barrier separating Veil City's reality from other dimensions. Its integrity is paramount.
Cinder Wraiths: Extinguished fire beings of smoke and smoldering coals, a primary Long-Term (L) anomalous threat contained by Firewatch.
Technowizardry Guild (TWG): The city's primary authority on metaphysical theory, arcane engineering, and active anomalous containment.
Veil City Police Department (VCPD): Responsible for immediate response, public safety, and critical cover-up operations during anomalous events.
Firewatch (Veil City): Specialized unit primarily focused on the detection, management, and containment of Cinder Wraiths, as well as conventional wildfire prevention.
Containment: The act of preventing an anomalous event or entity from escalating in impact, spreading beyond Veil City's borders, or becoming known to the outside world.
Information Containment Directive: The unbreakable civic duty of all Veil City citizens to keep knowledge of anomalous events strictly within city limits.

B.2. Understanding the VCAERS Matrix:

What are the two primary axes of the VCAERS?
- Scale of Immediate Impact (AE 1-10)
- Period of Impact (Temporal Modifier: T, S, M, L, P)
How does the "Scale of Immediate Impact" relate to resource strain?
- Higher AE numbers correlate directly to greater immediate danger, destruction, and demand on Veil City's specialized resources.
What does each Temporal Modifier signify?
- T (Transient): Gone in under an hour.
- S (Short-Term): Resolves in days.
- M (Medium-Term): Persists for weeks to months.
- L (Long-Term): Endures for years to decades.
- P (Permanent): Irreversible, fundamental change to reality.

B.3. Situational Awareness & Response Basics:

AE 1-2: Primarily observation. Report patterns to VCPD. Do NOT openly discuss or speculate.
AE 3-4: Localized response likely. Cooperate fully with VCPD/TWG directives (e.g., temporary relocation, answering specific questions). Maintain calm.
AE 5-7: Large-scale response. Be prepared for rapid, localized evacuations. Follow all emergency instructions immediately. Understand that public explanations will be fabricated. Your role is to support the official narrative.
AE 8-10: Catastrophic. Immediate survival protocols. Prioritize personal and family safety. Await emergency broadcast for any last-ditch instructions.

B.4. The Information Containment Directive - Your Vow:

Why is secrecy paramount?
- External skepticism is Veil City's primary defense.
- It allows specialized forces to operate unhindered by outside interference.
- Exposure poses an existential threat to Veil City and its citizens.
What is the "Golden Rule" of gossip?
- All anomalous knowledge and experiences MUST remain within Veil City boundaries.
What are the consequences of violating this rule?
- Severe, reflecting the existential threat of exposure. (Specific consequences will be detailed in higher clearance level briefings.)

B.5. Sample Scenarios (For Self-Assessment):

You see a street lamp flicker red, then blue, for 15 seconds, then return to normal. What AE rating (approximate) is this? What is your immediate action?
A small patch of garden vegetables in your neighbor's yard suddenly grows to giant size overnight. What AE rating (approximate) is this? Who do you contact?
You begin hearing faint, overlapping whispers whenever you are near the old library. This has persisted for a week. What AE rating (approximate) might this be, and what temporal modifier could it become?
A member of your family, not certified, asks you about a strange event they heard from a friend's friend. How do you respond, adhering to the Information Containment Directive?
What is the core difference in response protocol between an AE-4 and an AE-6 event?

*(Self-check answers available upon request from certified VCPD instructor during formal training sessions.)*

Important Policy Information

The Department of Civic Security operates under strict adherence to Veil City Ordinance 4.01, which governs all aspects of anomalous event management, public safety, and inter-dimensional containment protocols. All citizens are expected to familiarize themselves with and abide by these regulations. Violations are subject to disciplinary action as outlined in the Veil City Charter.

Contact & Support

For immediate reporting of anomalous phenomena, please contact the VCPD Dispatch at [VCPD_EMERGENCY_NUMBER]. For non-emergency inquiries regarding VCAERS or Citizen Certification, contact the Department of Civic Security during standard operational hours (09:00 - 17:00 ET, Monday - Friday) at [DCS_OFFICE_NUMBER] or via secured electronic mail at civic.security@veilcity.gov. Please be prepared to provide your Citizen ID Number for all inquiries.

© 2025 Veil City Department of Civic Security. All policies subject to review and revision by Veil City Council. Your continued adherence to the Information Containment Directive is essential for the collective security of Veil City.