Intro
While The Backrooms Archive only makes up 1/3 of our wiki it still has quite a lot of popularity and content. This content can range from the things that make up Levels to machines created by Archivists. We explore how to write in this style and explain what The Backrooms Archive is all about.
What are The Backrooms?
In simple terms, The Backrooms is one of the most special Limspace Systems. In more complicated terms, The Backrooms is an ever-expanding Limspace System that will eventually devour everything. It affects time in a way where you could enter and reappear in the past or the future. Time within, however, remains unchanged.
Within The Backrooms lays levels, Limspaces within The Backrooms. These levels are the collective subconscious of the Multiverse, the nightmares, fears, hopes, and dreams that manifest into a physical thing. They can be dangerous or safe, scary or nightmarish.
While levels may sound like just scary locations, that's not all of it. Backrooms levels focus more on liminality than scariness (note: our name). Liminality is the state of being in-between, like a half-furnished room or something that feels too empty. It could also mean familiar places. This is the basis for levels.
Different types of levels do exist and typically expand on lore or start it. These different types of levels are known as Secret and Sub-levels. Secret levels are oddballs, they either don't fit in or have something that happened to them. Sub-levels expand on the lore of a specific level and are typically interesting.
The Elements
The Backrooms contain more than just levels. The things that make up and are inside levels are thrown in the mix as well. These include level elements, entities, and objects. Level elements are specific parts of levels that other levels share, entities are creatures created or mutated by The Backrooms, objects are items that have different uses in The Backrooms or are created by it.
These elements make up most of the levels, however, they aren't required.
The Backrooms Tone
While the Limspace Archive focuses on freedom and the Baseline Archive focuses on formality, The Backrooms Archive remains as a middle ground. The tone focuses on being informative yet having a feeling of mystery as if you should explore deeper.
Withholding information is interesting, and making stories spread across multiple articles is great.
How to Make an Interesting Level
Combing together all we know, we know that it should have lore, it should be unique, it should have some sort of eerie liminality to it, and it should have an interesting concept. While these aren't requirements, they still make your level all that more interesting, so let's look into this more.
Starting off with lore. Lore can be subtle or direct. If you plan to make a one-off it should be more direct and have a clear beginning and end. If you're making a drawn-out story, it should be more subtle, to allow the readers to piece the information together.
Secondly, we have uniqueness and concept. Uniqueness and concept are quite similar as one depends on the other (concept > uniqueness). Thinking of an interesting idea or concept can be quite hard so brainstorming is very recommended. You can spitball ideas on Discord or the Forums. Getting criticism and advice for your idea is always useful. Another way to think of a level is to think of an oddly creepy place and use it as a theme to build your level around.
Lastly, we have an eerie mystery-like tone. The hardest thing to capture and do right. This is what hooks and pulls a reader in. While this is very hard to capture, I recommend reading other articles to learn how to do this feel. An interesting level can be made without this but you will have to find a different way to reel them in.
How to Make a Unique Level
You are going somewhere. Doesn't matter where, or where from, it is the place in between you must hold in your mind. Is it a hallway, walls an off-white, and the waxed floor reflecting rows upon rows of lights stretching off into the distance? Is it a road, paved with gravel and winding through silent woods as the last of the sun's light dwindles, with only the occasional lamppost lighting the way? Are you in a city square, surrounded by crowds of faceless people in a blur of motion? You pass all these places on your way to somewhere else, never giving them a second thought, only ever focused on your destination. Now imagine there was no destination. Imagine the hallway stretched off to infinity, with no fourth-period algebra with Mrs. Watts and her ruler, no cafetorium with the noise of a thousand shouting children, and no exit with the buses idling their engines. Imagine the gravel road wound on indefinitely through the dark wood, with no hot cocoa or grandfather awaiting you at the end. Imagine if the traffic in the city square continued forever, and the nine o'clock train with its bitter coffee and worn seats would never arrive.
Be sure this place is unique, and not something already done. The list of locations you pass by is nearly endless, boardwalks and bridges, scaffolding and subways, towers and tunnels - the list goes on. Try to find some evocative imagery that represents the location. Don't just describe it - feel it - the stale air, crunching of the gravel, the smell of the city. Draw on your own memories to invoke the reader's.
What you have is a liminal space, the basis of every level in the backrooms. Now take it and twist it into a nightmare. It is not safe to linger in this place. You feel your feet sinking into the gleaming waxed floor as the tiles flow around your shoes like liquid, forcing you to run across the surface of the muck before lest you stay still too long and be swallowed up by it. The forest is silent no longer, you hear terrible creaking and cracking noises from among the trees, and in the dark, you could have sworn you saw one of them move. The faceless passerby in the square is moving faster now and seems to take no heed to your presence. One bumps your shoulder, almost knocking you to your knees, then another runs your foot over with your suitcase. If you don't dodge them they will trample you.
Once again, make sure this danger is unique. Nobody wants to read about a place that's just a reskin of an earlier level, it should pose new threats that wanderers must avoid in different ways. Notice how all the main levels each have a distinct danger:
Level 1: Insanity
Level 2: Entities
Level 3: Temperature
Level 4: Malfunction
Level 5: Weather
Level 6: Fear
Level 7: Darkness
Level 8: Drowning
Level 9: Entrapment
Level 10: Hallucinogens
Level 11: Starvation
Level 12: Sunlight
In each of these levels, the problem of survival is different, presenting new challenges to even experienced wanderers and drawing the reader's interest. This is what makes them stand out from each other.
Entities: These are some of the living things that creep through the Backrooms. Try to imagine what kind of thing would be able to live in roaming around on different Levels. Try to think through unique features that tell a story of how this Entity is able to survive. Try to give it some personality traits, or maybe physical traits that show where it has been like scars or unique apparel.
Objects: anomalous items which may function differently between levels. This type of writing is basic containment fiction, a physical object which has supernatural properties via known or unknown means. Try and be creative and think of something that would be different but similar on different levels like how water, gas, and ice are different state of chemical elements
Formats
Below is a list of Backrooms formats. While these formats are useful, it is not recommended that you follow them very strictly. Writers are free to adapt the formats to fit their article best, within reason of course.
[[include component:rate]]
+ Level Classification
||~ **Survival Difficulty** || //0/5// || Describe the habitability of the level. Is it difficult or easy to survive in for long periods of time? ||
||~ **Hazard Level** || //0/5// || Describe the hazards present within the level, including environmental hazards and entities. How dangerous are they? How frequently do they appear? ||
||~ **Chaos Rating** || //0/5// || Describe the stability of the level. How chaotic is it? How much does it change? ||
||~ **Basset-Frazier Index** || //0/5// || Give a brief statement about the level in terms of its overall difficulty. What kind of experience can explorers expect to find if they travel to this level? ||
----
+ Description
Explain the workings of the level and the appearance.
+++ Mention specific areas if you'd like.
Explain why this area is important.
----
+ Access
+++ Entrances
The ways to enter.
+++ Exits
The ways to exit.
[[>]]
[[collapsible show="+ Author(s)" hide="- Author(s)"]]
You can put whatever here!
~ [[*user (Username)]] / [[[(Author Page)]]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/>]]
[[=]]
{{[[[Backrooms Limspace System]]]}}
[[/=]]
[[include component:rate]]
+ Entity Classification
||~ **Aggressiveness** || //2/5// || Explain how they're aggressive. ||
||~ **Frequency** || //1/5// || Explain habitats. ||
||~ **Intelligence** || //5/5// || How they act. ||
||~ **Pritoria Index** || //2.667/5// || Add together all attributes and divide by 3 for overall danger. This section is used for putting it all together and explaining overall danger. ||
----
+ Description
Explain appearance in detail.
+++ Behaviors
Explain their actions and how they think.
+++ Biology
Explain their make-up.
+++ Discovery
Explain how they were discovered.
----
+ Survival Guide
A list or paragraph about how to survive the entity.
[[>]]
[[collapsible show="+ Author(s)" hide="- Author(s)"]]
You can put whatever here!
~ [[*user (Username)]] / [[[(Author Page)]]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/>]]
[[=]]
{{[[[Entities]]]}}
[[/=]]
[[include component:rate]]
+ Description
Explain the object.
----
+ Use
Explain the use(s) of the object.
----
+ Discovery
How it was discovered.
[[>]]
[[collapsible show="+ Author(s)" hide="- Author(s)"]]
You can put whatever here!
~ [[*user (Username)]] / [[[(Author Page)]]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/>]]
[[=]]
{{[[[Objects]]]}}
[[/=]]
[[include component:rate]]
+ Description
Explain the level element.
**Ur-Example:** [[[(Level)]]]
----
+ Levels of Occurrence
* [[[(Level)]]]
* [[[(Level)]]]
[[>]]
[[collapsible show="+ Author(s)" hide="- Author(s)"]]
You can put whatever here!
~ [[*user (Username)]] / [[[(Author Page)]]]
[[/collapsible]]
[[/>]]
[[=]]
{{[[[Level Elements]]]}}
[[/=]]
Code
These are pieces of code that aren't required, such as images or fancy stuff.
Image Code
[[include component:image-block name=(link)|caption={{fig 1.0}} (Text)]]
Basic Rating Module
[[>]]
[[Module Rate]]
[[/>]]
Advanced Rating Module
An optional rating module that includes a bar to display the percentage of upvotes
[[include component:rate]]
If you want to use this rating module but would prefer if it didn't clear the line, use this:
[[include component:rate clear=false]]
"I have always found that building the basis for your lore and then making it more complicated is the best way to go about things." -
DrainedWell
"Atmosphere is essential. Besides writing about a setting, you must also cultivate something that evokes emotion through your description." -
BanachTarskiPdx
"Great writing comes from a complete concept. Plunge your reader right into the deep end… detailing the nitty-gritty depths they didn't even think to consider. Don't be afraid to go too far. You want your audience to be gasping for a breath of fresh air after diving into your entry." -
knafflad
"Remember that a key to a good level is a twist, something that makes it unique and interesting rather than just a place with monsters in it." -
Generic3
"Know your demographic. When getting into a technical aspect of your concept, make it accessible to a wide range of people. Further detail can be added outside of the page in Discord or elsewhere. Too much technical, and it's too niche. Too little, and it becomes vague and difficult to understand." -
Atom_Rutherford