Main Nine
- The Main Nine, a matter of purpose
The main 9 is a progression in the Backrooms universe. Technically speaking, they are the most common type of linnearity that any wanderer can take to get to the Bumper Crops or the Endless City. The main nine is a great way for both a wanderer and a reader to understand the baseline how what they can expect from a Backrooms level. The basics are given in the early levels, then more and more complexity happens, as the Backrooms shows how diverse it can be. How does each level introduce the Backrooms to both the reader and the wanderer? What elements crucial to understand how the universe work are showed one by one by those pages? Well let's see!
- Level 0 introduces the Backrooms as a concept, a parallel dimension with illogical architecture. There, you are alone, trying to figure out where to go and how to leave and survive. It is the simplest of all because it is the start. Devoid of all purpose but to teach the foundations of the wiki and the universe. Showing noclipping is the last thing the level teaches with the Manilla Room.
- Level 1 introduces the second half of the foundations of the Backrooms, as an extended universe. It has an ecosystem, it has resources, and it has people. It shows how what the Backrooms contain where Level 0 shows what it was. Most elements of the Habitable Zone are bland because they are found everywhere else. The level teaches the basics of survival by giving the true rules of the Backrooms.
- Level 2 shows progression. Its environment shifts more, and entities are more present. As you go deeper, things become more complex. Complex machinery and dusty pipes replaced the white walls and the simple architecture of Level 1. It has simply more, although it remains simple in nature. It shows the reader and the wanderer that there is much more to discover. Yet, the common elements are shared with Level 1, showing the basics of what to expect in levels. Anomalous creatures and tools, a twisted familiar place, and people living in it. Those are the main elements to find in levels in general, and their repetition, albeit in a more complex way, shows how things will go moving forward.
- Level 3 is a complicated case. In nature, it reminds a lot of Level 2, albeit with more creatures and more resources. The progression in danger continues, and what everyone learned in Level 2 continues to become more pressuring. Here, if people don't understand the collaboration needed for survival, the level will teach them clearly. Any base there has been founded in sweat and blood alike, but with the pride of many working together to survive. Here is the first real level where all the survival skills are put to use. It is the final test of the three industrial levels of the Main Nine. If it had a boss fight, it would be Level 3. It is a practical test as a progression in horror. However, I will have to say that the level page isn't good at showcasing this. It is an explanation you don't get easily and one that doesn't feel very convincing. The progression starts getting very linear with Level 3, as it doesn't introduce anything more like Level 2 didn't introduce anything as well. It is a good example, writing-wise, of how stale the basic tropes installed by Level 1 can be if deeper levels don't innovate.
- Level 4 is a brutal cut in the progression of danger we had before. Not only is it safe, but it is safer than anything we got before. Even Level 1 wasn't as safe as the Abandoned Office, mainly because a new wanderer was lost and had to learn. Here, Level 4 is a resting place. It still possesses the common denominator of the other levels but is turned down for better survival. In any survival horror game, the world gives the player rest. An everlasting danger doesn't create fear, but instead frustration. Level 4 ensures that the wanderer will not get accustomed to danger. The tricks the Backrooms play on them will continue to discomfort them in the future. Yet, here, we learn that the Backrooms can be forgiving instead of progressively inducing pain. It feels like a wicked safety for anyone wishing to move deeper, but it is safety nonetheless. It is a place where people can truly live normally, and shows that the Backrooms can be a place of community and stories better than Level 3, which was supposed to do so.
- Level 5 is a very interesting take on the Backrooms. If the comeback of danger was expected, we learn a lot by going in the Terror Hotel. First, we are shown that the environment are not only linked to modern liminality. The lavish look of the 1930 hotel shows how old and everlasting the Backrooms are. Anemoia is real, and any wanderer will feel it. Secondly, the Terror Hotel introduces intelligent forces. The Terror Hotel staff is the first entity species (if you can even call them that) that are cunning and intelligent, perhaps more than mankind even. If we so far got accustomed to mindless yet vicious beasts, Level 5, in its elegant style, shows that the monsters can take the form and sapience of something even we fail to replicate. In Level 5, we learn to never lower our guard, because as homely as it can feel, we are still in the belly of the Beast. Forces beyond our understanding are introduced, something we will see again in the future, way deeper in this realm.
- Level 6 breaks everything we learned before. It is not a succession of rooms and corridors, or at least we can't see it as it is. It is a gimmick and one that takes everything you learned and switches it. Here, no entities, no liminality. You are devoid of your most precious sense, alone. Everything you learned about survival you used in Level 5 means nothing. The Backrooms reminds you that you are still in the unknown and that you cannot rely on familiarity, because this familiarity is a lie. Making sense of the Backrooms and extracting logic is meaningless. All you can do is adapt. I would like to leave a criticism here, however, as Level 6 is a danger far beyond anything seen so far. Without light, it is extremely hard to adapt here, as presented in the page. The challenge might be too big, too harsh as it is written right now to make sense in the universe. Would enough people manage to beat it?
- Level 7 is an interesting case. After you leave Level 6, the first real challenge of your adventure in the main 9, you end up in a flooded room. Familiarity again, but still a different one. Levels aren't only corridors with different types of dangers. They can take another form, and this can be seen as soon as the door is opened. A flooded warehouse, and a deep one. Not only this, but the structure can also be something more than monotomous, as there can be different areas with various different structure. Preparation is key, and much like Level 3 and 6 showed, adaptability is key. The level asks you to be ready immediately, and even ready long before, as some material is required to leave this place.This is here that I have to say how illogical this level is worldbuilding-wise, as no-one would realistically reach any exit seeing how they lack training and equipment. They would just die out of fatigue or because of the pressure. If with Level 6 we could give some doubt about how survivable it was, it is certain that Level 7 as it is right now doesn't allow for survival. If Level 7 introduces a change in the corridor-like nature of the previous level, one that allow for a smooth transition with Level 8 complete nature, it is just too unrealistically dangerous as of now. If it was more realistic, the intent of the Level and the lesson given as a Main Nine piece would be more easily seen.
- Level 8 shows a very important feature of the Backroom moving forward. This dimension isn't solely artificial. We've seen how the natural could influence the artificial we've seen before, but here, only the natural exists. Yet, this nature has similarities with other levels. It is abnormal. This is the true consistency of the Backrooms, and Level 8 proves it. The Backrooms aren't liminal more than they are natural. They are anomalous. They are a twisted version of the real world. Like Level 6 and Level 7, but it is truly confirmed here. Fortunately for wanderers who realize it, they can adapt to it and continue their travel. Logic-wise, Kai's draft makes more sense than the stretch version, as where Stretch page is simply dangerous because of entities, a blatant copy of Level 3 in term of gimmick, Level 8 as Kai created it is anomalous and obviously so, with gravity being unnatural for example.
- Level 9, the bonus level of the Main Nine, shows one last important element of the Backrooms before letting the wanderer through the colossal nature of the Backrooms (showcased by Level 11, but I'm digressing and if I do that this would mean I would explain that Level 10 is bland and was supposed to show the peaceful entities of the Backrooms but anyway). The Backrooms can replicate the outside world as well. The last thread of the harsh thin liminality, being close indoors corridors, is broken. Even if the place is infinite and therefore unnatural, Level 9 is set outside, which shows the possibilities of the Backrooms well. Yet again, however, the danger is here, and it can take many forms, new (neighborhood watch) and old (already known creatures).
I could go deeper with what Level 10 should have been (and why the rewrite wasn't good at working with the Main 12 purpose) and what Level 11 did do well (group development showing the world created by man, and the tentacular nature of the Backrooms), but I won't this time
empty rooms (0) -> basic rules (1) -> progression in horror (2) -> "boss fight", collaboration needed (3) -> peaceful place exist, manmade timeline possible (4) -> old liminality, intelligent creatures (5) -> Backrooms dangers can vary (6) -> Backrooms structure can be more diverse and complex (7) -> Backrooms can be natural and still anomalous -8) -> Backrooms can be outside (9)