Hoofstad

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Hoofstad and its Civilization

Hoofstad
One of the biggest city of the Lost era
Photography of the ruins of the former Schola Fengàri.
General Information
Level Number:	51 (M.E.G./G.P.D. classification)
Surface Area:	PLACEHOLDER
Environment:	Plains, and forests surrounded by mountains. Presence of two rivers.
Climate:	Mediterranean
Hoofish Civilization
Lifespan Estimation:	300 BM to 10 AM (Before/After Massacre)
Estimated Demography:	PLACEHOLDER
Ethnicities:	Greek in the early decades, Greek, Roman, Sumerian, [precuscor of the lost suns (aztecs)?], Egyptian towards the end
Main Worshipped Deities:	Philia, Nirmaan (full list of their Pantheon accessible here)

PLACEHOLDER IMAGE FOR NOW

Introduction

Hoofstad is an unusual case of level within the infinite realms of the Backrooms. While almost all levels morphed over time, the traces of old civilizations disappearing with the structural changes, the place known as Level 51 is one of the few that remained in a pristine condition, albeit eroded by time. Thanks to this level still existing in its ancient form, the Ariane Circle and the M.E.G. managed to excavate, study, and consign more than a hundred different objects, remains, and scriptures that have been created and used back in what we now call the Lost Era. This expedition wouldn't have been possible without the sponsorship of the I.M.B.H, and we have to thanks them again for their immense help during the operation. Our exposition "Acient Hoofstaf" can be accessed in level The Interdimensional Museum of Backrooms History from PLACEHOLDERDATE to PLACEHOLDERDATE, if you wish to discover more about this vast subject.

Beginnings

Even in the oldest scriptures of the Lost that have been found, it is clearly stated that the level structure, being its houses, temples and overall town buildings have always been here. We nowadays are used to inhabiting pre-made constructions with the many bases and outposts we can form there, but we now know that this habit wasn't recent, far from it. As we use corridors in the Habitable Zone, bedrooms in the Terror Hotel, or the many skyscrapers of the Endless City, the colonies of the Lost have resorted to the use of the same, older structures that the Backrooms have been mindlessly copying from their real home.

One of those tribes was one composed of ancient greeks from around 1000BC, although it's rather hard to define anything different than their lifestyle comparison with the one of the real world. Obviously, those people all originated from different parts of ancient Greece and noclipped into the Backrooms from different years. However, what is rather interesting is that, when those people slowly gathered, even though they originated from different cities, some of them even being ennemies (like Sparta and Athens), those Greek wanderers, with the harshness of their environment, decided to set their differences aside and stick to their common culture in order to survive together. This is a behavior we can also find nowadays, with a lot of different people from different countries allying themselves to form big outposts or even entire factions (that's how the M.E.G. or the Ariane Circle got created).

Even back in the day, the dimension we now call Level 51 was one of the most suitable for human life. Indeed, unlike many other levels that were quite monotonous and simple, the realm that would become Hoofstad was already an established town, resembling real-life way more than anything else. A comparison from today's era would be the Endless City, a level that, like Hoostad, is the most familiar and efficient for human civilization. We tend to forget, with all the danger in the Backrooms, that a working society needs a regular supply of food and water, comfortable houses, an efficient town structure that allows the city to have a good economic system and a place of power. Hoofstad was the best copy of the Frontrooms a Greek community could have ever asked for.

The denizens of the level started few. As manual labor was something common back in the day, they were quick to start farming and farms. Old accounting tablets from this era list us entities and objects that have been cultivated or nurtured by this lost colony, notable examples include Dunks, a very useful species for wanderers, or Hens, a race of anomalous chicken used for their meat. Some records even mention Scits, which were caught in the lakes of the level with rudimentary yet efficient fishing techniques. Harvested plants include an early species of Organiguns, taking the form of a vegetal bow, still forming an arrow with the blood of the user. Another really interesting fact is that early farmers, lacking a food source for the first year on the level, resorted to building man-made structures by using excavated rocks on the level, which attracted the Botanicancer phenomenon. While this wasn't the most efficient way of farming, those plants allowed the tribe to eat fruits rather easily, as the vines and roots were destroying the humble house they just built as bait. This therefore shows us that the Lost was far from helpless when it came down to surviving in the Backrooms. They managed to use their environment, and their knowledge, in order to use Backrooms elements and phenomena so as to survive. Not only this, but they also managed to use the anomalous terrain to their advantage, as the non-euclidian structure of the realm allowed them to build far more efficient aqueducts, capable of transporting water over long distances in a short amount of time. It is important to understand that as life back in the Frontrooms was still rather primitive and labor-oriented, the Lost were able to survive and master their environment far better than us.

Religion Impact

NOTE - PART TO REDO! influence of philia is major, then Nirmaan too (but mainly Philia as the protector of the city)

Obviously, resources can only help a civilization so far, as they also need political stability. While they tried to build a utopia at first, the nature of mankind made dictatorships very easy to emerge, even in harsh times when collaboration was crucial. However, it took an unusual form as powerful beings manifested themselves, trying to help mankind thrive in this place. They were personifications of concepts, sometimes tied to mankind, sometimes more wild and esoteric. As was the case in the Frontrooms, the civilization needed to reassure themselves by creating hypotheses about how the world around them worked. Those beings, representing aspects of the world, allowed them to have a direction and most importantly hope. As they did on Earth, they prayed to those otherwordly aspects, and they, as twisted and different as they were, still answered their call. The civilization of Hoofstad was a theocracy. The leading powers were effectively priests, channeling the will of the gods. They were the ones asking those beings about the rules of this world, using offerings. Some examples of said offerings were Royal Rations, which were as rare as they were today, or Warpberries, which albeit useless for nutrition were hard enough to cultivate that they quickly became known as a divine fruit of mystical powers. Human sacrifices didn't exist in this community, as it was something quite rare in their country of origin, to begin with. However, divine punishments existed in this religion, with things like losing a loved one by the Wretched Cycle or having his culture salvaged by Plague Rats being considered as the vengeance of the gods for a lack of faith or offerings.

With the nature of the town, a lot of temples were repurposed because of the will of the gods (according to the priest's scriptures), being made bigger, or changing their aesthetics to better match the god whose temple was dedicated to. One of the few that still stood the test of time was the Mausoleum of Philia, which was a round structure with five entrances (for the five petals a rose usually possesses), that didn't possess any door, as the goddess was so welcoming everyone could enter the temple at any time, seeking medicinal help. Although it is now destroyed, mosaics on the rose-shaped ceiling depict indoor gardens where medicinal flowers were being cultivated by the philiales, priestesses who devoted their lives to helping everyone who was in need. One of the other temples, dedicated to the divinity of dreams, had what seems to be a special bred race of Blub Cats that were more affectionate than usual, but also who tended to sleep more. It was a common practice for priests to meditate with a glob of blub cats in order to visit the oneiric realm more easily, according to some scriptures.

Jobs

Religion was more than a simple part of the life. It oversaw their entire life. This can be seen in the way each citizen of Hoofstad was conditioned in their jobs by their entire belief system. Indeed, unlike other civilizations of old earth, that used physical ways to differentiate the different levels of society, like with cranium deformations, Hoofstad relied on something purely psychological, based on faith. As explained, Hoofstaf maintained a close relation to religion, especially towards the twelve powerful beings that helped them settle in the city they renamed Hoofstad. To pay tribute to them, each citizen, and each family swore allegiance to one of those twelve gods. This was decided by the priests of a given temple, meaning that they would announce when a god "claimed" an individual, who would then be taken to perform the job linked to this given deity (for example, chosens of Philia would mainly become nurses or herbologists). It seems it was mainly a fabrication of the priests, as today's evidence shows us the aspects didn't interact with mankind in Hoofstad as much as the priests led their society to believe. Nevertheless, this allowed for a rigid cast system without the need for any physical harm or tyrannical reign. The pious citizens would accept their fate with happiness, training to become armorsmiths, farmers, cooks…

Families were also created within those social classes. It was extremely rare to see couples created from people originating from different jobs, and therefore different allegiances. The gods decided everything, as their rights were, according to the priests. Descendants of a family would also work for the same god as their parents, except in rare cases where a temple announced another god chose them to work for them. Some old accounting tablets seem to indicate that those announcements were rigged, as all temples made sure all roles for the city were equally taken, in order to balance everything and allow for the most socially accepted jobs (like clothes creators) to be rarer, and the most important ones (like fishermen of farmers) to always be able to sustain the community. They were listening to the will of the gods (or at least what they claimed it to be) for political reasons.

Impersonating a job was rare, given how the priests insisted on its blaspematory nature, telling monstrous and worrying tales about people who defied the gods in order to fulfill their own gains, instead of being punished by the beings they wronged. Psychological control, however, was sometimes inefficient, usually with people with strong independence needs, who wished to control their destinies. Those people were made quick examples, as the punishment was to cut one of their hands so that they would never dare to work in a field that wasn't chosen for them. Such action usually resulted in the detractor becoming a useless member of Hoostaf society, because of his difficulties to now physically work.

The twelve priesthoods weren't bloodthirsty dictators, however, as they have actually proven themselves to sometimes be quite magnanimous in the system they oversaw. Indeed, in the case of slaves (usually prisoners of war, or people who committed minor crimes like robbing), it was possible for them to be claimed by a god like any other people, which meant they could gain their freedom back, and work the city as a normal citizen. As slaves belonged to the temples rather than to an individual as it was the case in Greek cities like Athens, this again allowed the temples to if needed manipulate those events to the advantage of the city. However, those rigged decisions varied from year to year, as there were periods where priests from a particular temple could be harsher, and more egocentric than other time periods where they would look to the well-being of the city more. This, frankly, wasn't that far from classic kings and emperors of ancient civilizations.

The rarest and most craved job was the one of priests. Becoming a priest was something extremely rare, even rarer than other job changes. While most temples allowed for marriage and families to be created between members of the same temple (except for some rare cases where some temples were more open to the idea of romantic love and freedom), those children were still quite rare seeing how few priests there were in each temple. Nevertheless, becoming a priest, according to the very rare scriptures we have, was a very tedious learning, but is ultimately a mystery for both the population and us. It still remained, even with this mystery, a position of high respect, as any rank of power is in civilizations. It is also one of the rare cases where priests seem to never rig the apparition of new priests, and it is very well possible the influence of the mystical beings they claimed to look after was higher than we are led to believe. It is very important to understand that in Hoofstad, priests occupy such a crucial role and are so respected they can be seen as the political part of the city. They are the power who decide of the future of the town, and although they claim their actions to be only be the will of the gods, it is nowadays well-known that they used to tend to take their decisions to keep their power around, but also to maintain the cultural influence of the town over the Lost colonies in general. They are also the richest individual of the Hoofstad society, usually living in the luxury of villas, showing their power and wealth by owning art pieces, fancy clothing or slaves.

Entertainment

Like any culture, Hoofstad, even in a place as harsh and unforgiving as the Backrooms, needed ways to have fun and make the most of their lives. Arts and amusements were common in the town, as a way to for anyone to distract themselve and forget the difficult conditions caused by the Liminal Echo of the Backrooms.

Like their Greek counterpart, the inhabitants of Hoofstad enjoyed spending time in the thermae. The town's own one had been, according to legends, built after one of the early priests of the Morphean temple dreamed about their oneiric god, who told him about the heavy link between the body and the soul, and how the filth in one can have consequences in the other. This resulted to the construction of the Morphean thermae, near the temple of the same god. People from the city, as well as metics¹, used to spend their free time there several times a week, as a way to purify their body of illness and filth so as to put their soul at peace and therefore sleep better. Furthermore, the Morphean thermae also became a social center for the people. Here, away from the stress of the everyday life, relaxing became a way for citizens to discuss with strangers about various subjects, make friends or sometimes even find a romantic partner. Ancient records seem to indicate that the thermae was never truly closed, as even night workers were coming here before or after their work to relax. An interesting fact abour the Morphean thermae is that, in order to make sure the citizen truly relax and therefore serve the city efficiently, the priesthood chose to regularly emmit vapors of morphin in the thermae, which, mixed with the warm temperature of the water, allowed for an incredibly efficient rest for all visitord. However, this had the consequence of making said visitors develop a, albeit minor, addiction to morphin, as they breathed it during their sessions. This meant that many citizens were coming to the thermae as they felt it helped their purify their budy and mind as the teachings of the god of dreams dictated, but they actually craved the smell of the morphin vapors. Nevertheless, the Morphean thermae remained during the entirety of Hoofstad's existence an important epicenter of social interactions, and were the best way to forge friendships or even strategic alliances between families under the protection of the same god patron.

Much like the country their culture originated from, one of the key pastime of the inhabitants of Hoofstad was sport. PLACEHOLDERGENERALITIESORSOMETHINGIDK

In addition to common sports of the Frontrooms that were kept in their new community, Hoofstad also developped their own practice of a sport that was called PLACEHOLDER. This, like any other sport, was practiced at the Ófrian Hippodrome², and is described in ancient texts as "a chimera of endurance and precision". As the quote suggests, PLACEHOLDER combines traits from endurance race and archery, where the contestants have to run as long as possible, while shooting at different targets at the different milestones of the track. The Ófrian Hippodrome had four targets, each at 250 meters from the other³ in a 1 kilometer-long circular track. Each contestant had a bow and arrows of a different color, ensuring the points could be counted efficiently at the end of the race, after either half an hour or someone passed out from exhaustion. After this, points are counted depending on the distance run and the accuracy and number of arrows in targets. Mosaics found throughout the hippodrome seem to imply that this sport was born out of necessity. Indeed, even in antiquity, a space as harsh and dangerous as the Backrooms was still unheard of, and it was necessary for the people of Hoofstad to master fighting while moving, in order to never offer themselves as a prime target to the monsters who lurked past the protection of the city. Still according to art pieces⁴, it was not uncommon for organizers of such events to add obstacles in the hippodrome, such as a live Hound to avoid, or hidden traps on the floor that had to be distinguished while running and still focusing on the targets. In some instances, the public was even encouraged to throw projectiles such as rotten food at the contestants in order to challenge them. It was believed that such treatment allowed the competitors to train themselve for the outside world, as well as for potential wars against other Lost civilizations. As harsh as this seemingly deadly sport could be, deaths were apparently still surprisingly low, as the competition was stopped as soon as someone was severely harmed. This added to the healing skills of the followers of the goddess Philia, allowing for a sort of healthy sport despite the apparent dangers. Hoofstad wanted to train warriors, but the training wasn't supposed to be a dangerous one either, even if their sports may seem paradoxically harmful. In the Backrooms, especially at this time where civilization was much more helpless against entities and the overall terrain, it was crucial for fighters and explorers to be able to not only focus on a fight, but also be aware of their surrounding at all times. PLACEHOLDER was an entertaining way to train and test athletes against each other in a rather healthy competition. It is also interesting to note than the slaves serving the temple of war were able to earn their freedom in such competition, where being first against three athletes of the temple meant becoming a full citizen of Hoofstad.

As explained multiple times above, most competitions and sport activities were held in the Ófrian Hippodrome. PLACEHOLDERHIPPODROMEDESCRIPTION

Art

In Hoofstad, survival was a daily struggle. Twisted creatures lurking everytime, being held away only by the bravery of the soldiers of the city, unpredictable phenomena making the everyday life a gamble… Therefore, the inhabitants tried their best to enjoy the distractions of life. Their faith gave them the willpower to go beyond their primal fears, and appreciate their condition. They were humans, capable of defending themselve, prosperate, but also to create. Hoofstad, more than any other city of the Lost, was deeply fascinated with art. From the start, artists were a respected and valuable part of Hoofstad. With their mind, they were able to distract the townsfolks from their difficult life, with theater plays for instance, but also to make the town more aestetic and pleasant to live in, with pottery, mosaics or even with building design.

Hoofstad, like other civilizations in the Backrooms or Frontrooms, had the habit of decorating elements from their daily life. Those type of decorative art included drawings or paintings on pottery, or even mosaics on the floors or walls of the richer houses of the town. This type of art, present in the routine of the Hooftad citizens, acted as sort of a link between the person and their patron god. For instance, Pots used by agricultors to store the harvested cereals or fruits often had representations of the Allseer, the god of sciences and progress, as it was believed it allowed for better harvests. Having the "eyes of the gods" overseeing the work of the people in order to help them was a common practice in most of the different jobs Hoofstad could offer. Paintings could even have a strategic goal, as warriors were known to use shields with the face of Ófriðr, god of war, in order to scare their opponents by making the god favour them and guide them to victory.

While paintings on daily life object was common place, it was way rarer to find more elaborated forms of decorative art. Mosaics, for instance, were almost exclusively seen in the homes of the wealthy, or in temples. Most of them were linked to the allegiance of the owner of the house, when they were not simply representating the patron of the temple they were found in. They could also be found decorating various buildings that, while not locations of faith, were still very important in the daily life of the citizens as public spaces. It was for example common to find in the representations of Fengári in schools, where his presence was believed to challenge the minds of the various scholars and philosophers. Interestingly enough for this deity in particular, it seems like it is one of the few who had different interpretations over the ages in the town, as it has been depicted as a female in older representations, while mosaics or paintings in newer buildinds, that were better preserved, represented them as a male. This has been a subject of debate amongst historians for years since the discovery of this inconsitency, and the gender of this god has yet to be confirmed. This seems to indicate that most of the records of the primordial era might not have changed over the ages because of the ever-morphing nature of their religion.

One god in particular stood ouf of the others when it came down to art in Hoofstad. Since creation was a key part of the artistic process, it is only natural than the diety of creation Nirmaan was heavily worshipped by artists in general. Nirmaan was one of the most important divine figure of not only Hoofstad, but also the Lost culture in general, as it is a deity who was present in most of the different sub-cultures' mythological beliefs. Being the aspect of creation, Nirmaan was the avatar of existence, birth, life, PLACEHOLDERMINORCONCEPTS. Over time however, as Hoofstad developped itself, the goddess went from a purely metaphorical role into their mythology to a duty that was more in line to the city's needs. As said previously, art was a very core part of the Hoosftad civilization, and one of the most popular god to look up to. Given the importance of the goddess over all forms of art, it was common practice to represent her in any type of creative work. From scupltures featuring a small engravment of her face on their base to paintings presenting her name at the bottom of the drawing, almost any art from Hoofstad featured the goddess in one way or another. It was believed representing her was a way to attract Nirmaan's blessing onto the artist. However, Nirmaan representation in artistic work goes far beyond simple easter eggs. Indeed, many representations of the diety have been recovered both in her dedicated temple or in people's houses.

Morevover, fashion in Hoofstad was also subject to art, and the most notable type of fashion was jewelry, as it was a very popular type of accessory to wear. The mines around the city allowed for a continual, albeit rare, supply of various cristals, as well as some different types of rocks. Most of them were believed to have special properties and fragments of the god's essence lingering into the world and influenciate it. Posessing a gemstone would therefore mean posessing a part of a god, as small as it was. Therefore, they were prized posessions believed to enhance the life of the owner by gathering the power of the gods to their site. For example, some precious rocks or gemstones like granite or agate were associated with access, and therefore with the Gatekeeper. Wearing stones associated with him PLACEHOLDERPOWERSUPPOSED

However, the most prized types of jewels were the ones made out of pearls. Indeed, pearls, being only found in beaches or aquatic levels, were only accessible through trading with other cities in other levels. In consequence, this made pearl-based jewels, like medallions or earring, a symbol of wealth. Surprisingly, however, this wasn't as much because of their rarity as it was due to their common use for offerings. Indeed, it was common for Hoofstad citizens, from the poor worker to the richest priest, to buy jewels exclusively to use them as offering for their god. For instance, couples trying to make a baby were known to put a pearl or pearl-based jewel under their pillow in order to gets the favor of the goddess and therefore get the bride pregnant.

Interestingly enough, some of those materials were believed to have properties outside of jewelry. This was the case with granite, which was the most used type or contruction material for door frames. It was believed to be blessed by the Gatekeeper, which allowed to keep the evil spirits away from the house.

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To Do/To Fix List

Beginnings

Religion Nature and Impact

• make a religion section with the way hoofstad interepreted the existence of avatars + powerful beings as gods who ruled the universe
• Accent on Philia as main patron, then Nirmaan as a generally popular god
• Religions can justify the power dynamic in place. How would the Pantheon mythology explains the existence of the priests as the rulers?
• Les dieux se fichent de comment leur leur pensée est interprétée ? (probablement pas Philia en tt cas) Ne s'intéressent pas à politique ? Pas sûr que ça marche pr tous… besoin de liste des dieux présent en physique, la moins longue possible
• political system (priests and all, how they are designed and how they manage the city, system inspired by athènes? -> monarchie parlemantaire en gros?)

Food

• Agriculture (les cultures anciennes sont typiquement développées autour d'une céréale. Laquelle pour Hoofstad? En créer une ?)
• Fishing
• Hunt/élevage animal

Economics

• Jobs putting there?
• money, trading system (refined firesalt coins? troc? debt system?) (ont-il popularisé l'utilisation de l'argent? Chaque ville utiliserait sa propre monnaie peut-être ? Et le trading inter-ville se ferait
• relations with other levels (trading routes? Attacks from other wanderers? clash of culture with like aztecs or something would be cool) (trucs comme trève olympique peut être cool)

SPORT (=entertainment?)

• sport, mixte
• type de sport pratiqués : "classiques" + le nouveau ou faut que je trouve un nom grmblf
• hippodrome construit
• dans partie sport parler des jeux entre les civilizations (un peu comme la ville truc de vidéo) (panhellénisme)

Art

• Pottery, mosaic (decorative art)
• Jewelry, clothes (fashion art)
• Theater, dance (physical art expression)
• clothes (style?)
• REMEMBER TO TALK ABOUT NIRMAAN HERE, maybe for the artist inspiration
• also their art is used for cult stuff, like showing faith and all

Geopolitics

• Wars and with/against who
• relation with Macchina (did they have their victorian technology yet?), The Steel too
• Trading
• Mention different other towns in different levels
• Mention the villages around main town too
• war against the Lost Kengir (sumerians/mesopotamians folks) which lead to the destruction of their new capital New Bāl (start of the multiculuralism? y'know, the slave thing)

Historical Devlopment and Fall

• Wars and slave import leading to multiculturalism (name some wars? Not develop those too much)
• hoofstad devient de plus en plus hétéroclite avec le temps (melting pot) notamment grâce aux météques, a l'influence du commerce et aux esclaves libérés transmettant leur culture
• Yiliad Massacre
• the war
• that silly thing Zephyr did
• Decline
• Lunar Chimeras doing stuff to preserve it

Misc

prioritize the use of either entities/objects or god devlopment (god devlopment with link to other pages if possible
USE LIMINALITY SOMEWHERE PROBABLY

• NATURE DE HOOFSTAD SIMILARE A VILLE GRECQUE, ORGANISATION SIMILAIRE (en tt cas au début)
• panhellénisme: ce qui rassemble les grecs (what helped them get together, also what link them to other lost cities, even other cultures)
• defending against entities here?
• also how do they bury the dead???? Funeral rites?
• Marriage? You talk about the Philia pearl thing already, but that's important stuff in a Philia town.
• changement de Hoofstad à une autre ville ? Nom, Panklessios?
• calendar system ( * vacation day, honorer mort du mari de Nirmaan (au jour où il est supposé que c'est arrivé))
• education (tied to jobs probably. What abour scholars and philosophers?)
• craftmanship (forge by FINALLY USING HELIOS creating objects with stuff like firesalt probably, making clothe, farming and elevage, defending the village, praying, do I do slavery as well?) + using gods as patrons
• random idea - un écrit super cryptique et impossible à comprendre par M.E.G mais qui est juste une fanfic cringe d'un mec de Hoofstad x le keymaster

ne pas oublier de mettre les trucs à réutiliser/développer (genre esclavage) ou trucs susceptibles de changer (genre le "seulement douze temples [majeurs?]") en rouge pr pouvoir revenir dessus

Philia stuff because she's the best character

• statues de philias dans des bordels? peut-être trop pour le site
• whenever couples marry in Hoofstad, they were offered a statue of Philia and were advised to make an altar with it and give offerings to "streghten their love" (better fertility, fidelity…). It was also common for couple trying to have a child to put a pearl under their pillow as an offering to the goddess of love

Image links

• https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/jardin-labyrinthe-_qXjdWm8YEo
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salamis_Ruins.jpg image hoofstad

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Footnotes

1. "strangers" for the town of Athenes, which was also used by the population of Hoofstad

2. Ófriðr being the god of war of the Hoofstad Pantheon.

3. Each at a different cardinal point.

4. Such as mosaics or pottery paintings.