Oldest House

The Oldest House is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, a featureless Brutalist skyscraper rising out of lower Manhattan that hides one of the strangest structures in the Control universe. From the outside it reads as a plain concrete tower; from the inside it is something else entirely. For broader context, see the Overview.

Quick Profile

Paranatural Architecture

The House's single most important property is that it resists outside notice: the public eye slides off it, and passersby tend not to register that it is there. Inside, the building is much larger than its exterior could possibly contain, with corridors, vaults, and entire wings that should not fit within the footprint of the tower. Its geometry is also unstable: rooms reorganize between visits, and a sealed wall on one approach can be an open hallway on the next. The FBC treats the building itself as part of its containment problem, mapping it continuously rather than once.

Connection To The Astral Plane

The Oldest House is a junction point between ordinary reality and the Astral Plane, an alternate dimension that houses the entity (or entities) referred to as the Board. That linkage is part of why the building is the FBC's headquarters. Historically, the House has also served as the agency's primary vault for paranatural artifacts: it was the long-term home of all major Objects of Power and a working archive of Altered Items.

Dylan's Pre-Resonant Home

For Dylan Faden, the Oldest House was his entire life. Following the childhood Altered World Event in Ordinary, Maine, the FBC took him into custody and never released him. Designated Prime Candidate 6, he spent his pre-Resonant years inside the building as a long-term containment subject, classified, observed, and held under medical and paranatural supervision. Players of the original Control will recognize him from glimpses of that period: a supporting figure shown in tanks and medical bays.

Lockdown Failure

Control (2019) ended with the Oldest House under a paranatural lockdown imposed to seal an active threat inside. Control Resonant picks up seven years later, and the headline change is that the lockdown has failed. Paranatural forces from inside the House have been released into the streets of Manhattan, which is now enclosed by an otherworldly barrier. The crisis the FBC is now trying to contain is, in effect, the leak of its own warehouse.

Role In Resonant

In the original Control the Oldest House was the entire game world, a single building explored across four major sectors nonlinearly. In Resonant it is not the playable space; that role belongs to Manhattan. The Oldest House is instead a backdrop and origin: the place Dylan came from, the source of the artifacts and creatures now loose in the city, and the historical anchor for the FBC's role in the story. Expect it to appear as a story location and in flashbacks rather than as an open level.

Unconfirmed Details

Several specifics about the post-lockdown Oldest House have not been confirmed and should not be assumed:

• The in-game depiction of the building after the failed lockdown has not been shown.

• Its current presence and condition during Resonant's timeline are undisclosed.

• Whether the campaign physically takes Dylan back inside the House has not been confirmed.

• Direct ties between the interior and the current Hiss and Mold spread across Manhattan have not been mapped.

This page will be updated as more is revealed.