| Wreck of the Heimweht | |
|---|---|
|
Origin |
Heimweht shipwreck via storm; its crew |
|
Type |
Merchant ship (shipwreck) |
|
Effects |
Manipulates water to capture and drown victims |
|
Downsides |
Effects |
|
Activation |
Constantly/automatically active |
|
Collected by |
Warehouse 8 (encountered) |
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
Drake-32 |
|
Dock Station & Buoy No. |
TBA |
|
Date of Collection |
TBA |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
The Heimweht was an 16th-century German merchant ship largely manned by Norwegian sailors, who at the time earned a living on foreign ships moreso than native ones. The crew were frequently out at sea for extended lengths of time, and rarely got to return to their various homes, which they greatly missed.
In TBA, the Heimweht was caught in a violent storm on the Norwegian Sea on its way home after a long period at sea. The crew's longing to return home coupled with the grief at how they would never be able to turned the entire ship into an artifact as it sank.
Effects[]
Fueled by its crew's desire to see their families once again, the ship has the ability to manipulate sea water, and sends extensions of it across land to search for the families of its crew, causing destruction and risking unrelated casualties in the process.
When a family member is found, the water will seize them and immediately retreat back into the ocean at a rapid pace, inevitably drowing the victim, who will eventually be brought to the underwater wreckage of the Heimweht where their corpse will be placed next to that of the crewmember they were related to.
Collection[]
Warehouse 8 was alerted to this artifact's activity after several people across Norway and Germany had already disappeared or seen captured.
The agents sent to investigate, after some time, managed to find the commonality between the victims: they were all related to sailors, none of whom had returned home after departing some time ago. The only remaining family of a crew member were Doreen and Gianina van Ankeren, wife and daughter of sailor Alexis van Ankeren.
Doreen and Gianina had been on the run for several days by this point, running from a persistant tentacle of seawater that had followed them far inland. Soon after the agents found them, the tentacle of water finally captured Doreen and retreated to the sea faster than the agents could follow, and she was lost forever.
TBA
The pursuit of this artifact is considered one of Warehouse 8's greatest failures, as they were unable to save any victims or find the ship in time to somehow Neutralize it. In all, well over 60 people were drowned. When Warehouse 12 later found this artifact, they were unable to remove the corpses of the crew or their families, and they had to be left in the ship while it was finally brought into storage, where they currently remain.
Trivia[]
- Heimweht is a play on heimweh, the German word for "homesickness". It is a portmanteau of heim (home) and weht (to blow/to be windy, as in a storm).
- Alexis and Doreen are named after Alexis and Dora, a short story by Goethe about a sailor (Alexis) who, after a long period of longing from a distance, finally confesses his love to a woman he lives near but never spoke to (Dora). Soon after he does so, though, he must venture out to sea, and he is suddenly struck with the grief of lost love and the fear that she may find another love while he is away.
- Gianina is a variant of the name Giovanna, a feminine form of Giovanni. She is named after one of the main characters of Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad by this name, who makes a promise with his friend Campanella that they will travel to the ends of the universe together. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Campanella had drowned in a local river, leaving Giovanni alone.
- "van Ankeren" is a Dutch surname meaning "from the anchor".