In the game: help the hum Also hum resonance
The Hum: the sound that runs through the whole city, and what people believe it is.
Everyone and everything in Deshret knows the Hum.
You hear it best when the city is quiet, in the hour before the work-bells ring. You hear it in the lifts, and when you press an ear to the walls. Some days it is barely a chatter in your teeth. On others, cups tremble on the shelves and the walls seem to breathe. Children learn about it growing up, from lullabies and nursery rhymes like this one:
Sleep, little sparrow, fold up your wings
Dream while the stone beneath you sings
Whatever it promises, whatever it knows
Lie very still and keep your eyes closed.
Sleep, little sparrow, morning is near
Pay no mind to the voice in your ear
Though it may weep and though it may plead,
Mother won't ever call from beneath your feet.
What the Church Says
Sepulchre teaches that the Hum is the breath of Saint Marrow himself, rising from his tomb beneath the Cathedral at the very bottom of the city. It is living proof that the Prophet endures, that he listens and hears every prayer. To say otherwise is heresy.
What People Whisper
Even so, rumours persist. People talk of hearing voices in the Hum when the city is quiet enough: dead relatives, strangers, and sometimes voices that seem to know the listener by name. Some claim it can be answered. Some say it warns, comforts, or leads those who know how to listen.
Most people accept the Church's teaching. Others think the Hum is just a frequency carried through the bedrock, maybe from the Pneumatikon, the great engine that powers the city. Divers often back that view, and insist the Hum is louder when you are jacked in. And some believe neither priest nor engineer. They say the Hum is the dead.
Read next: help religion and help saints.
On the Agora: https://agora.underspire.net/t/the-hum/30