DESCRIPTION

The Backrooms is an infinite, limitless space that tries to imitate the real world, though it never really gets it perfect. It is a massive complex that can be found through null zones, which are surfaces that can be clipped through.

The Backrooms is widely known for constructing real world places in it's own version, such as the Oshkosh, Wisconsin furniture store, the Holiday Inn Hotel in Heathrow, London and many, many more. The Backrooms version of these places tend to be.. familiar, though at the same time wrong.

For example, you can find yourself wandering in an office space in the Backrooms, though you'd notice how the structure of the place is illogical and weird. Certain walls would seem unnecessary, columns and pillars can be placed in random spots that look like they dont even support anything, and the lights on the ceiling don't always look symmetrical. Some parts of the architecture would look like something a construction worker would realistically build, but then you turn around and find a room that no human would ever have the thought of building or even have the capability of doing so. That is the Backrooms trying to remember the place it had constructed, though it does not fully understand how or why that place was created or designed in the first place. This explains why most of the places you'll be wandering around in there seem so surreal and unnatural. It wasn't created by human hands.

The Backrooms doesn't only imitate real places, though. It also imitates someone's memory. Whether it's the memory of a certain place, a childhood home, anything. The Backrooms isn't only known for it's liminal spaces, but it is also heavily associated with the psychology of someone. It doesn't always construct places based on the person who enters it. Someone can come across a room and won't recognize it, but someone else who enters it would. That creates a weird sort of dissociation for the Backrooms.

ATMOSPHERE

The atmosphere of the Backrooms is usually quiet, only filled in with the sound of the lights in the room you're in. Sometimes though, there would be speakers in a certain room. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it doesnt. Sometimes it plays a song you recognize and sometimes it just plays an incoherent mess of sounds thrown together into one audio track. As if the Backrooms tried to create its own version of music. It doesnt seem to understand how rhythms work, though. As for the smell of the place, it can vary. Sometimes it'd smell like the chandelier section of a Home Depot, sometimes it'd smell like a storage room that hasnt been opened for 3 months due to negligence. Whatever smells the Backrooms might have in its different sections of rooms, it will always be a smell you'd recognize in the real world.

The feeling of being in the Backrooms is the highlight of it all. You would feel a multitude of things. Claustrophobic, nostalgic, unease, all the above, but the most prominent one will always be an unrecognized familiarity of the space you're in.

ENTRY

How does one even enter the Backrooms in the first place?

The most well-known aspect of the Backrooms is that you cant really predict when or how you'd ever fall into the Backrooms. The uncertainty of it is a horror on its own. You could either noclip through a wall, the ground or even while you're driving.

Safe to say that you have a low chance of entering the Backrooms on purpose. It will just happen at any time, any moment, and any place. These noclippable areas are refered to as 'Null Zones'.

Null Zones dont only exist in the real world, but in the Backrooms as well. So there's a chance you can accidentally fall into the floor while walking through the long winded corridors and end up in a different place entirely.

INHABITANTS

When you enter the Backrooms, you're not exactly alone. There are two main things that we know for certain prowl through the Backrooms. The Bacterium, and the Still Lifes.

1] Bacterium

The Bacterium is merely just a clump of bacteria that would usually be found in the human body. Though this bacteria would be considered harmless as it contributes positively to the biology of a person, the Backrooms sorts of warps it if someone stays in there for too long.

No one knows how the bacterium is really formed, though. Whether it's through the prolonged rotting of a human corpse in the Backrooms, or from the mold that builds on the walls inside there, we do know that the Backrooms manages to give the bacterium a life of its own.

Bacterium typically look like long, wire-like black creatures with a geometric-shaped head. These head shapes can vary, though they are typically shaped like radios for whatever reason. They are always much taller than the average human, as well as being able to chase people for long periods of time unless the person gets inside a small crevice that the bacterium can't fit through.

The Bacterium always seems hostile to humans, as they always chase after them if it sees one. What they do to the people afterwards, no one truly knows. But it cant be anything good. When it chases someone, they always let out a loud, unintelligible scream. It sounds kind of like a human, though very, very warped. The Bacterium are also able to mimic people's voices if it stalks them for long enough.

2] Still Life

The Backrooms doesnt only imitate places, but humans too. Atleast, as much as it could remember them.

Still Lifes are far more diverse than Bacterium, as they are completely based off of real people. Most Still Lifes aren't only based off of the physical looks of people, but also their psychology and behaviour.

From the physical appearance, a Still Life would typically look like the people they're representing, but wrong. Certain parts would be displaced, duplicated or merged together, such as their fingers, eyes, nose, ears, any part of the body. Clothes also follow the same rule. It's as if the Backrooms only saw the appearance of someone for only one time, then try to create it to the best of its memory. This borders the uncanny valley aspect. Additionally, some Still Lifes dont have blood, while some do. It is implied that they are edible, though take that for what you will. We dont know if Still Lifes are able to speak or not, but they are able to make noises such as wailing, screaming or yelling, similar to when the Bacterium chases someone.

From the psychological aspect, they would mimic specific parts of someone's mentality or behaviour and act out on it in it's own way. For example, if someone is egotistical, their Still Life version would seem bigger or taller since it represents how the original person sees themselves as bigger than they really are.

In terms of hostility, it also depends on the person the Still Life is referencing. If the person is considered a negative or bad person, their Still Life has a higher chance of hurting people. If not, then the Still Life would be docile. They might still follow you around, though. They probably dont even have their own consciousness, only being a mere, poorly imitated copy of the original person. They don't react if violence was instilled upon them, as if they were just merely furniture themselves. What a nice way to live, huh?

THE COMPANY

When you have something this abstract and unknown in your world, it's impossible to have it ignored by the higher-ups.

A company by the name of Async used to be a business that revolved around creating MRI machines. We dont know how Async really discovered the Backrooms, but they were able to create their own threshold through the same electromagnetic pulses that are used in MRI machines.

They plan to utilise the Backrooms into a storage area for how limitless it is. Maybe turn it into living space to solve overpopulation, while disregarding the undeniable danger that resides in the Backrooms. What a great idea.

Async has done their own expeditions and explorations of the Backrooms. Some employees went missing, some managed to come back. But even through all this research, mapping out and experiments, Async is still just as clueless as the rest of us on what the Backrooms really is.

NOTABLE CHARACTERS OF ASYNC: • The Director: Ivan Beck

Ivan Beck is the vice director of the Async Research Institute and presumably the one who proposed the idea of storage for the Backrooms. He held a press conference in April of 1988 where he talked about the new project. He described the then undiscovered dimension as a solution to all current and future storage needs. He was present during an interview with a doctor who performed the autopsy on Nicolas Bolton, an 18 year old man who went missing and presmably died in the Backrooms. The baffled doctor asked where the body came from, but no further information is given from here.

He is very serious about the project and will not abandon it no matter the cost. Not much is currently known about him, although there is a theory that he is the actual Director of Async, he presents himself as Vice Director to avoid certain forms of accountability.

Additionally, it is heavily implied that Ivan Beck has Memory Loss because of a solar flare that was happening during the same time as when the threshold to the Backrooms finally opened, causing him to lose vision in one eye.

• The Unfortunate: Peter Tench

A former researcher. On March 1st, 1990, he was separated from his exploration team and time travelled two months to May 8th, 1990. During those two months, however, Async had faked Tench's death in order to mask his disappearance and bring closure to his family, which resulted in him staying in the Async underground facility until he fled back into the Complex due to alleged development of mental illness. Tench was then found by Mark Blume while he and his partner were conducting another exploration of the Backrooms.

After taking the shotgun from Mark, he proceeded to fatally wound him and escape the facility as an armed individual. Before exiting the facility, however, he was disarmed by Kirk Maxwell. While outside, Tench failed to predict a sudden drop in the relief, in which he fell onto a rock and presumably died.. or atleast, that's what Async told us.

• The Cameramen: Marvin Leigh and George Levy

Marvin E. Leigh was the cameraman for Async who helped record expeditions. While exploring with a team he fell into one of the pitfalls in Room 14D, and became the first researcher to record an encounter with the Lifeform, or the Bacterium, on May 6, 1990.

After convincing Marvin Leigh to take some time off, George Levy operated the camera and documented the progress in Room 14D, as well as a section behind the room's door with distorted wallpaper and a room similar to 14D, which had miscellaneous objects fused into the floor and walls.

EXIT There have been rare chances where people were able to leave the Backrooms, whether through the threshold Async opened up, or through a null zone that leads back into our reality. No research or information is documented on how you leave the Backrooms without the help of the threshold, but it is still possible. If you get trapped in there, just hope that kind of miracle happens before something else gets you first.

CONCLUSION

In short, the Backrooms isnt a concrete place. The main appeal of it is the uncertain feeling it emits, not the places itself, nor the inhabitants that lie within it. It constantly shapes itself around the real world and the people who live in it, and anyone who is unfortunate enough to stumble across it should start praying that they'll be able to find an exit.