The Nightlight Zone's Chutes

After animals from the surface waters get caught in the Gatekeepers' whirlpools, they get teleported straight to the Nightlight Zone, exiting through the various chutes that can be found all over the realm. Then, they are left to fend for themselves.

Manifestation

The chutes found in the Nightlight Zone appear as dark, whorled structures that extend to the furthest reaches of the upper waters of the realm. They have several spires branching off from the mouth, creating a sort of dome structure over the seabed. Occasionally, the chutes can even host various types of plant near the bases of the spires.

The chutes also come in two varieties; large ones serving as entrances, and smaller ones serving only as exits. The larger entrances spew out swarms of animals once a month, who quickly get killed by the indigenous lifeforms of the Nightlight Zone for extra food. It has been observed that the realm's ecosystems lack saprotrophic lifeforms, which are essential to an ecosystem's continued stability. The surface bacteria coming through the realm's entrances serve a purpose to recycle the nutrients of the Nightlight Zone once in a month, and the inhabitants are made to be unnaturally strong to ensure the regular animals that happen to join them do not survive and begin their own populations in the realm, where they could disrupt the already established ecosystems.

Localization

There are only four entrance chutes in the Nightlight Zone, and around twenty exit chutes. The entrances are positioned around the four corners of the entire realm, while the exits are spaced randomly throughout every environment, though no two chutes can be found within seeing distance of each other.

The four entrances appear to correlate with the four quadrants of the entire planet. Depending on which quadrant the Gatekeepers show up in, the animals caught will go to one of the four entrances:

Northwestern Quadrant: Northern and Western entrances

Northeastern Quadrant: Eastern and Northern entrances

Southwestern Quadrant: Southern and Western entrances

Southeastern Quadrant: Eastern and Southern entrances

The entrance chutes are known to disappear after spewing out animals, which can potentially escape the Nightlight Zone through one of the exit chutes scattered around the realm. However, there are only records of humans being able to reach these exits at all, which has led some to believe that the exits were specifically designed for humans to find.

Type

Metaphysical, Supernatural