Hidden behind reality exist a twisted place, thousands of dimensions mimicking our world, yet not quite what we know. This realm has been called by many names over the ages, but many now know it as the Backrooms.
Worlds, creatures, objects and events beyond logic and understanding. A harsh place where man would be expected to lose hope and die.
Yet, the Backrooms can be as mysterious and dangerous for mankind as it is welcoming to it. Infinite dimensions allow for a new start for many. One shall not fear the unknown, for as unfamiliar and harmful as it is, it is a reality of opportunity.
You are one of those many wanderers, blocked against your wish in this endless mockery or earth, where all can be found. So strange, yet so familiar.
Welcome to the Backrooms.
M.E.G. note retrieved in the Manilla Room
About the Backrooms Universe
The Backrooms Wiki is a fictional writing project depicting a wide array of different pocket dimensions out of the reality of Earth. Known as "levels", they are abnormal and mysterious places that are replicating the real world in a twisted way. Each posesses creatures and objects that are as strange and weird as the realms hosting them, and all of the above can be subject to unknown events and phenomena. Sometimes dangerous, sometimes helpful to humans, everything in the Backrooms remains anomalous and fantastic by nature, but most importantly, deeply familiar. While humans can enter the Backrooms by passing through Earthly reality (a process nicknamed "no-clipping"), none of them has seemingly been able to escape it. All they can do is struggle, sometimes even thriving against the twisted elements all around them that composes their new alien yet familiar home.
Backrooms Components
Levels
Levels are what composes the Backrooms. They are an endless amount of liminal pocket dimensions mimicking the real world in some way. Some are infinite, some are simply huge, while others are small and limited. They can be set inside, outside, be repetitive or have a lot of variation. Each level is a different world with different rules.
Levels connect to each other through entrances and exits. They can be subtle transitions in landscape (also called smooth thresholds), interactions through objects (such as opening a door or touching a TV), or even noclipping through a particular surface, such as a tree or a specific wall.
LEVEL CLASS
Sub-layers
Sometimes, parts of a level are discovered after a report about it has been published.
Sub-levels are, as their name indicates, sub-environments of their level, different enough to be remarked and recorded. Most of them have smooth transitions between each other (such as Level 1.2 in Level 1), but others can have clearer frontiers, such as with doors leading from Level 3 to Level 3.5.
Sub-levels are usually consistent environment that can span for kilometers or more, with a structure reminiscent of their parent level (although this isn't always true, with places like Level 6.1 being completely different from Level 6).
Rooms are similar to sub-levels in their functionning, but are unique enough to not be assigned a number, but rather a title. They are usually far smaller than sub-levels, and, in most cases, finite (although, again, exceptions such as the Red Rooms exist). Some of them are man-made, standing out from the rest of the level thanks to group action, such as The Sanctum in Level 8.
The denomination of sub-layers is frankly quite nebulous and rather new. Groups like The Leaders didn't use it, and many consider the M.E.G.'s confusing numbering system to be the source of their creation. Nevertheless, the consensus nowadays for sub-layers is a space that seems to take part of the same bigger level, despite how difficult veryfing this can be. Even phenomena such as Numberation cannot be trusted for such definitions, as the Backrooms' nature makes it hard to rely on one's senses.
Entities
Entities are a broad term to design all backrooms-born, non-human lifeform. While Frontrooms animals can exist in the Backrooms, such as in the Zoological Office, entities represent the true ecosystem of the levels they inhabit, sometimes even forming food chains between each others.
Entities can be separated into two big classes:
- Species are entity types where multiple exist, sometimes spaning multiple levels (like Hounds, sometimes only existing in one, such as the The Neighborhood Watch.
- Unique entities are one-of-a-kind beings, sometimes sapient (such as Mother), sometimes more feral, such as the Mangled. Some of them are even the result of human transformation, such as the Spokeslady. The distinction between unique entities and anomalous Persons of Interest can be blurry, but the latter are usually more influencial towards Backrooms societal politics.
Whether they are unique or species, entities are extremely common in most levels they inhabit. Some can be friendly to wanderers, even helping them find safe havens (such as Warning Kites. Others, however, are neutral, only attacking when provoked or when they feel threatened (such as Plague Goblins). Some are even hostile, usually being predators hunting for humans (such as female Deathmoths).
Entities can have various sapience levels. Most entities are more akin to wild animals, therefore only having low levels of intelligence, whether they are predators or symbiotic, peaceful beings. More rarely, some species like the Macchina have historically functionned as a civilization, communicating with humans. In some unique cases, beings such as Ambassadors have displayed intelligence far bigger than humans, making them a threat to humanity's survival or devlopment over time. The IETS system, created by the M.E.G. researcher A. River, is usually used to measure sapience and dangerosity.
Due to how different entities can be, the database is usually vital to make sure an encounter doesn't end badly. Level-specific entities, such as the Denizens of Level 1.1, are explained in their home level. Wandering unique beings or widespreadt species, however, warrant their own articles. It's important to remember than levels can sometimes change the behaviors or even the look of an entity, like a twisted evolution. Therefore, knowing where the entity is can be as important as knowing what the entity is.
No-clipping
paragraph about what noclipping
Liminal Echo
- and level shift
- retcons and allat
Cosmology
Pocket Dimensions
Many wanderers believe the Backrooms to be a linear place, an endless skyscraper with each layer corresponding to levels1.
However, with time, groups and seasoned explorers have come to the conclusion that the Backrooms is more akin to a nexus of many pocket dimensions overlapping with each other, forming a "multiverse" of realities, each with their own rules and physics.
These pocket dimensions can take many forms, from indoor complexes to infinite flat fields under a skybox. Each has their own rules:
- Gravity can vary, such as inside the Cave System
- Spaces can be non-Euclidean, like on the Habitable Zone
- Levels can shift their form depending on the wanderer, such as with Memories or Good ol' Days
- Levels can isolate wanderers in a way where they cannot interact or see each other, like on the Yellow Halls
Each level is its own universe, and something can be true in one and impossible in the other. Even staples of the Backrooms, such as No-clipping can be impossible in places like Level 363.
However, levels must not be confused with planets. Levels like the Space Station of the Celestial Cathedral are obviously huge universes, yet they do not exist together. One cannot simply land on a nearby planet covered by the Endless City. Level sizes and the infinite nature of some of them make that impossible.
Blue Channel
Instead, these levels/pocket dimensions "float" inside a void nicknamed the Blue Channel. This place encompasses almost every physical level of the Backrooms and shelters them inside its eleven dimensions. Since humans can only see up to three of them, it is rather rare to see the Blue Channel while inside a level, as it exists on a higher plane of existence, meaning a level infinite in three dimensions can still be inside the Channel, which is around it in higher dimensions.
[a chart could be useful, spheres inside the blue void]
Sometimes, however, levels can crumble or even be shattered, with the Blue Channel entering its structure through holes in reality. It can happen when a level is unstable, such as with the Silk Road in 2017 or Level 600 during the Leaders' era. This can happen through many phenomena the Backrooms use as a way to regenerate itself, such as the Blue Consumption or sinking into the Bottomless Blue.
Level Velocity inside the Blue Channel
Levels aren't static inside the Channel. They drift around according to Level Displacement. This means some of them can "collide" with each other by temporarily merging as they phase through each other, which creates thresholds (sometimes one-way, sometimes two-way) between them, forming entrances and exits between levels.
- Depending on their speed, these thresholds can be temporary, like between the Futuristic Halls and the Bumper Crops.
- Most of the time, however, they stay open for eons, creating safe passages for wanderers. This also means some levels are thresholdless, drifting around the Blue Channel without any access for decades or even centuries.
Some special cases include what wanderers call the "Main 12", from Level 0 to Level 11, which are levels so close inside the Blue Channel they have considerably more thresholds between each other than any other levels, leading to a common path to be taken by wanderers to safe levels like the Abandoned Office or the Endless City. This allowed groups to create huge paths such as the M.E.G. with the Dark Highway from Level 6 to Level 9.
Some hub levels also exist, such as the Hub, the Endless City, The Great Outdoors or the Silk Road. They possess a lot of exits to other levels.
- Some, like The Great Outdoors, hold this title thanks to their temporary place, but might lose many of these thresholds in the future. They are called "false highways".
- Others, however, like the Hub, are static inside the Blue Channel and will therefore always share these entrances to other levels connected to them. They are called "true highways".
Fauna inside the Blue Channel
Beings in the Channel (saberzoas, L206…)
Out of Reach
If the Backrooms can be loosely defined as "What's inside the Blue Channel", things exist at its metaphorical edge, such as The Fictitium Void or the Bottomless Blue. However, the Backrooms as a "Reality" doesn't include other Realities such as the Frontrooms or the Broken, which therefore cannot be accessed normally. While this would hypothetically mean entrance to the Backrooms from the Frontrooms is impossible, the fact it happens so often, even if only one-way, leads many to believe undiscovered paths back to it exist somewhere.
In the case of the Simulation Canon specifically, the existence of the Middlesorts means all Backrooms wiki share the same wider Reality, although each exist far away from each other to a point where the Middlesorts is the only "true highway" capable of reaching these other parts of the Backrooms Reality.
special case: the well, the platform, the metro, home on the road…
Humanity in the Backrooms
Immortality through no-clipping
Backborns
- Mention of Hoofish + Venoshans
History
Humans have been falling into the Backrooms for as long as it has existed, and as such, civilizations here have risen and fallen since the dawn of mankind.
While the Backrooms mostly follows a fluid timeline, following the Frontrooms' flow of time, it isn't uncommon to see people from the Frontrooms fall into the past (such as the [[letter-from-the-one-left-behind|Speedrunner]]] or into the future (which is one of the theories concerning the Originals of the Terror Hotel).
As such, the Backrooms' historical periods are defined by historians following the rise and fall of the "hegemonic groups" (see the M.E.G theory). These periods include:
- WHY IS THERE NOTHING BEFORE THE 50S BRO WHAT IS THIS WIKI EVEN DOING
- The Backrealms Unity Era in the 70s, from PLACEHOLDER to PLACEHOLDER FOGEL deems it a "temporary thing", and set a date of existence in 1974 (towards the end? Did the Leaders already existed and took the crown after it?)
- The Leaders' Era, from 1970 to the destruction of their base on the Electroscape in 1997, officially to 2000
- The Drought, from 1997 to 2011
- The M.E.G. Era, from the inauguration of Base Alpha in 2012 to today
While some groups existed for longer than these, they never became hegemonic groups due to their smaller size or from their mission not being focused on setting a database or protecting wanderers:
- The Lost Kengir from PLACEHOLDER to PLACEHOLDER
- The Lost Suns from PLACEHOLDER to PLACEHOLDER
- The Eyes of Argos and the Church of the Veiled since PLACEHOLDER
- Amor Incrementum since PLACEHOLDER
- Poli's Unified Group from 1939 to 1987
- The General Public Database since 1943
- Slam City since PLACEHOLDER
- The Ariane Circle since 1998
- The B.N.T.G. since 2016
All these civilizations/groups shaped the Backrooms into what it is today, but never had the central, epoch-defining power that hegemonic groups had.
The G.P.D.
The Backrooms Wiki canonically represents a website created by many human communities inhabiting the Backrooms called the General Public Database (often shortened in G.P.D.). First used by said groups as a big collaborative database they could all share their findings from their own databases, it quickly gained traction amongst the guildless wanderers of the Backrooms, as the G.P.D. proved to be an incredible source of knowledge, allowing for a better overall safety.
Over time, the G.P.D. therefore opened itself to more contributors, instead of simply being alimented by the main factions. Nowadays, any wanderer can publish their stories and their discoveries of the Backrooms, while the database moderators watch for misinformation and redundancy.
As helpful as the G.P.D. came to be for wanderers, it turned out to not always be reliable. Indeed, contributors are far from researchers, and their lack of complete knowledge of the Backrooms, coupled with how cryptic and strange the latter was, meant that articles were from the start bound to be innacurate from time to time, or worse, to, albeit rarely, contradict earlier reports.
Differenciating the true data and the real tales from made-up elements or wrong documents might be tough, but overall, there is no denying that the collaborative nature of the G.P.D., coupled with its popularity amongst wanderers, allowed for a relatively well-curated database that saved countless wanderers since its inception.
There in the database can be found descriptive documents about levels, entities, objects, phenomena, factions… Anything that got recorded once by someone who wanted to share it to the world. Sometimes clinical, sometimes more narrative or personal, all articles aim to inform others, even if it was in more surprising ways from time to time. Stories are also shared from the wanderers themselve, or by storytellers or historians trying to rpeserve the memories and adventures of their comrades. Anything helpful to uncover the mysterious worlds of the Backrooms can be found in this database, for better or worse. Not all secrets should be uncovered.
The Level 0 Shift
The Level 0 Shift refers to an event in 2020 where Level 0 was transformed from a place with bases where people could interact with each other into a barren place of isolation.
However, the Level 0 Shift never happened. Many database entries mention people being separated from others even before 2020, while other articles state it never happened. Much like this, even handwritten records mentions Level 0 looking like today, where other evidence mentions the contrary.
The Level 0 Shift is one of the many examples of the most confusing fact of the Backrooms: it doesn't make sense. Retconned events, broken temporality, groups absent in some records… The Backrooms isn't a place that can be fully understood, even by the most zealous of historians. For each contradiction that finally gets explained, ten more arise, major or minor. Studying the Backrooms is like studying quantum physics; it is a tedious and illogical field of research where many things won't make sense.
The issue may be rooted in unreliable documentation, especially since most of it comes from wanderers or neophyte archivists who don't understand everything about this place. However, it is just as likely that the Backrooms is a chaotic realm that will never fully make sense, a contradictory realm where anything can happen, even the things that shouldn't.
