I remember that day perfectly. I was having fun with my friends in Playland, using the slides, running in the big castle constructions. Classic Backrooms fun, you know, something to disctract us from the harsh conditions of this world. We started to get hungry, but we were reluctant to visit The Lounges because we knew the one near us didn't have enough adult facelings to temper the child ones enough. Those nightmarish creations would cut us into pieces before we could even react. But starvation finally made us take the risk. But once we were in front of the zone, stressing about what wicked play those monsters could do at us, we were shocked to see said children being… different.
They looked like… normal humans. Of course, they still had no face, but they really were resembling us. No creepy dress and hairstyle, no knife in their hand. They were just aimlessly wandering in the lounge. Of course, we were scared at first. Was it one of their trick? But the further we went into the area, the bigger our surprise grew. One of those children even gave me a chocolate bar they had just bought from a vending machine. Even if we were relieved for our lives, we could not stop wondering? What was this change? Have Facelings somehow shifted their very identity we always thought we knew? Was it contained to Playland, or would it be widespread everywhere?
Description
Phenomenon PLACEHOLDER, also called "Faceshift", is referring to an event where Facelings in the Backrooms started to undergo a notable change in their physique and behaviors alike. This phenomenon started at an unknown date and is slowly spreading into the Backrooms, seemingly modifying the different types of Facelings randomly. So far, three main types of changes have been observed, and are as follow:
Biological Faceshift
The first form of Faceshift is about the physical changes encountered by all instances of the entity.
The most apparent one is the apparition of abnormal facial organs, seemingly at random, as the faceling ages. Indeed, before the shift, Facelings used to all have the same common traits regarding their face, being the total absence of features such as eyes of mouth. However, it seems that now, Facelings can, during their lifetime, grow specific body parts all over their head. They are placed in a random pattern1, and most of those organs are functional, yet deficient. Those grotesque apparitions can only be found on adult Facelings, which lead to the next major change in their biology, which is the aging process. For years, M.E.G. biologists have classified adult and child Facelings into two separate sub-species, as although they clearly were to human stages of growth, they did not seem to be linked towards each other. It was believed at the time that facelings instances were created directly as a child or an adult Faceling. Faceshift has changed this drastically, as now, child Facelings will progressively grow to become an adult Faceling, like a mockery of the human biology they are trying to replicate.
With the growth of the Faceling also comes the apparition of the facial organs that were presented beforehand. The overall Biological Faceshift, while not being important towards wanderer survival, is a rather crucial detail for researchers, as it indicates an evolution in the overall species. However, this evolution, unlike any other that can be found in the Frontrooms, has occurred incredibly quickly, visibly happening in the span of only a couple of months. This underlies how much the laws of nature in the Backrooms can be twisted regarding its many species.
Child Faceshift
The second form of Faceshift is related to the former child Faceling sub-specie. Indeed, now that they seem to be part of the overall Faceling aging process instead of separate entities, two major characteristics changed for them.
First, the overall morphology of child Facelings changed. Instead of looking wildly different from their adult counterparts, resembling horror show creatures with no face, they now present way more similarities with human children. The most obvious change is the shift from purely female-looking creatures to the two biological genders, like adult Facelings, but also sometimes androgynous. As previously stated, they also seem to grow, becoming adults in around the same amount of time as humans.
The second aspect of Child Faceshift relates to their behavior. Indeed, before this change, they were mischievous creatures that tried to kill wanderers they saw, using sharp objects like glass panes or knives. This made them far more dangerous than the former adult sub-specie, as the latter was mostly aimlessly roaming levels until provoked. Now, the behavior of child Facelings resembles that of a real child, showing not only grief or sadness but also more optimistic feelings like happiness. Even if those feelings paired with a faceless creature are usually unsettling to the wanderer, they do not possess any aggressive behavior anymore, nor the unnatural physical strength to do so.
Behavior Faceshift
Finally, Faceshift also induced some behaviors on the Faceling species that make them more tied to humans than before. The main change is the generalization of what wanderers commonly refer to "the 11 Effect". This phenomenon, named after the Endless City and mostly present there, made adult and child facelings mimic human life in the Frontrooms. However, Faceshift made this behavior global throughout the overall species, which means that now, all Facelings seem to, in essence, replicate human jobs, motives, and overall behaviors. Although the 11 Effect still exists on entities like Hounds, which behave like dogs under its influence, it now has no effect on the new forms of Facelings because it seems to have become a base trait of their species. Moreover, as previously stated with child Facelings, each individual seems to be able to mimic human feelings like love or anger, something that wasn't possible before, as their behaviors were too primitive to allow this kind of conduct.
Theories
The Ariane Circle historian A. Kelvin provied the following theory regarding this phenomenon, based on the renowned work of Dr. John Rhinehart, PhD of the M.E.G. Team "Epiphany":
The interesting thing is that in the early days of the M.E.G, what we can call the "contemporary period", Facelings were considered as a dangerous threat just like any other creature in the Backrooms. They were these horrible human-like entities that roamed levels in search of preys. Child Facelings were the best example out of all of the Facelings sub-species, as their appearance was very reminiscent of some Frontooms horror story characters. If we follow the Liminal Echo theory, it is safe to say that facelings, at the time, were mimicking murder monsters because wanderers at this time depicted and thought of the Backrooms as an immense horror mansion where everything wanted and could kill you.
But nowadays, wanderers understand those endless dimensions better. Groups like the M.E.G., B.N.T.G., or even smaller factions like mine, the Ariane Circle, were able to study the many levels they discovered, alongside the entities living in each one. We all discovered more and more frendly or neutral creatures, and as time passed, the Backrooms became less of an horrible liminal purgatory, but more like a new, more twisted home. Wanderers became more and more prepared to face the threats of the Backrooms, and Facelings became known more for their low level of danger than for the horror mockery of man they once were.
But the Backrooms, again with the Liminal Echo theory in mind, is a place heavily tied to the human consciousness. Their fears, their hopes, and their understanding of the world they inhabit of the places they knew on Earth fuel the Backrooms, modifying its environment to stick to what humans feel more familiar with. That's mainly why heavily inhabited levels like the Habitable Zone, the Abandoned Office or the Endless City resemble current-day architecture: because we, humans, are heavily tied to it. And that's also why older levels, now devoid of human settlements like the Forgotten City or Pax Desolatia are stuck in an antiquity-like structure, because Liminal Echo fulfilled its purpose, back in the days, using the consciousness of people at this time. And to come back to the entities, they also were linked to this phenomenon. Lots of creatures known by The Lost were similar in shape, but reminiscent of their beliefs. One great example is the Clumps, which seemed to have been created because of their beliefs in a god that tried to help humans by creating a perfect being.
So let's get back to Facelings. We know that the Backrooms mimic what humans are familiar with. Facelings resembled fallen humans, that deviated from a path they were supposed to follow, "corrupted by a great evil". As time passed, humans from the Frontrooms morphed their cultures. Humans that then fell into the Backrooms. And Facelings are the biggest contender for consciousness morphing, for Liminal Echo. Indeed, their heavy human-like physical structure makes them creatures that try to resemble humans, both physically and psychologically. Therefore, willingly or not, they morphed across the ages to look like what mankind expected humanoid creatures in the Backrooms to be. And when the General Public Database and the M.E.G were created, people thought of them like any other murder monster in the Backrooms: like dangerous creatures they needed to fight. But things change. And now, Facelings are not simple creatures in a blood lust stage. They are complex entities that mimic our exact way of living. They copy our physics, because now, the Backrooms are, in our mind, a twisted mockery of our Earth, not just scary endless halls. And the entities, like the levels we inhabit, are the Backrooms' attempt at creating a life that resembles us, and the wildlife we knew. Familiar birds with an almost comical twist, chickens with teeth… and now Humans with random face features, familiar aging evolution, and so on. And Facelings will likely continue to evolve, perhaps even surpassing humans if this continues. Some records even hint at this future, so this might be a matter of when more than if. Facelings now are the reflect of humanity after all, so it would make sense to see them evolve like this.
Facelings haven't changed because the Backrooms wanted to. Facelings changed because, deeply in our minds, our perception of them changed so much that it actually impacted them.