Electrical Station
rating: +13+x

Level Classification

Difficulty 5/5 The environment is extremely hostile.
Entity Count 1/5 Common entities inhabit this level, they are rare but aggressive.
Chaos Gradient 5/5 The highly chaotic construction actively works against you.
Basset-Frazier Index 3.67/5 This level is highly dangerous and should be avoided if at all possible.

Description

the-electrical-station.png

fig 1.0 The electrical "plains", sparsely dotted with small transmission towers.

The Electrical Station is a vast, lifeless stone landscape overgrown with fields, forests, and metallic jungles of electrical equipment. High-voltage transmission towers rise from the barren rock in all directions, extending out towards the horizon to form a jagged skyline of towers and wire. The sky is blanketed in perpetual gloom; clouds obscure the source of light, and shadows are cast only as hazy blurs pointing in no particular direction. The air is always still, contrasting with the constant background of distant flashes and booms — not of lightning, but of electrical arcing from the lines. The more time is spent in this level, the more likely it becomes that one of the many arcs striking in the distance will find you as its next target.

The level actively defends itself against perceived threats — namely, wanderers, who could potentially impair its function as the source of all electrical power in The Backrooms. The level itself is intelligent and malicious. Although it is unknown exactly what senses it uses to locate intruders in its domain, touching — and especially tampering with — electrical equipment is likely to have fatal results. Despite this, many still choose to steal from the endless power grid, as it is home to half of all the entangled batteries in The Backrooms. For every Entangled Battery receiving power in any of the many levels of The Backrooms, its partner will be found in The Electrical Station, transmitting it. To obtain a complete pair, one must risk the wrath of this hostile environment by taking its forbidden metal fruit.

Oceans

the-electrical-ocean.jpg

fig 2.0 The endless electrical grid extending over the waters.

Despite being composed entirely of unbroken stone, the terrain of the level is far from featureless. Hills, valleys, mountains and cliffs rise and plunge across the desolate landscape, all strewn with masses of electrical equipment growing in a metallic mockery of life and nature. Oceans, too, exist here, mired with endless archipelagos of concrete platforms lifting iron pylons from the depths, stretching the electrical web out across even the deathly stillness of the sea.

Wanderers who enter the level on one of these artificial islands often have no choice but to return to the searing heat of the level before. Some may be close enough to shore that survivors of the level before are tempted to face brine and exhaustion over return, but this often leaves those who try tired and stranded at the feet of another electrical tower similarly far from shore, now cut off from the option of returning. It is from these that the level most frequently draws its repairmen, offering a short life maintaining the grid to those who would otherwise only face a slow death from dehydration.

Substations

the-electrical-substation.png

fig 3.0 The dangerous passageways within one of the level's substations.

Occasionally, the chaotic and twisting skyline is interrupted by blocky shapes cut into the horizon. Large, monolithic structures of wires and transformers jut forth from the stone, making a mechanical mockery of architecture in the same manner as the web of power lines spewing forth from them mocks nature. These machine fortresses are the level's substations, the central nodes from which the power lines are spread, like fingers of a hand. They themselves are not the sources of the level's power, but merely relays of it. Power is fed into the towering electrical fortresses by chains of high-voltage towers radiating from the still-greater electrical stations, structures of an even greater magnitude that also produce no power of their own. These stations are fed in turn by even greater cables, stretching outwards from what are theorized to be "superstations", which are themselves fed by stations larger still in an infinitely ascending fractal hierarchy without source or limit.

In this manner, the power grid of the level is able to expend limitless energy simply by existing — feeding off of its own infinitude to transmit power in perpetuum. This allows the level to transmit endless quantities of electrical power through the entangled battery pairs to power every light, fan, and machine in The Backrooms, supplying the energy that will eventually find its way to becoming neutrinos stranded in The Darkness as the Backrooms energy cycle completes itself. Should a large enough station be destroyed, entire levels could theoretically be deprived of power. This is something the level's hostility to intrusion seems to be designed to prevent. Because of this, substations are some of the most dangerous areas within the level, being filled with not just electrical arcing but also malicious malfunctions, such as exploding transformers and electrical fires, sacrificing pieces of the level to eliminate the threat of the wanderer interfering with its system. Dangerous entities also reside within the stations, seeming to act as guards on the level's behalf. As the only way to reach The Office, substations pose a dangerous obstacle to any wanderer trying to progress down the level chain.


Communities

Small groups of repairmen live short and restless lives within the level. As the only inhabitants permitted, if only temporarily, the repairmen pay for their continued existence with labor, fixing damages inflicted upon the level by wanderers and its attempts to destroy them. They are most often found living in camps suspended in the arms of pylons, avoiding the ground level by preference. Little is known of them as they are kept under constant watch by the level; none can defect from its service and live to tell of it. Although they are not hostile themselves, they should still be avoided, as wherever they go, the level's gaze follows.


Access

Entrances

Electrical Station can be entered by going through service doors in The Sub-Basement or by using an elevator in The Apartments.

Exits

The only way to exit The Electrical Station is to brave the dangers of the substations to locate a service door to The Office.

More Levels:

The Flooded City - (+19)

The Sub-Basement - (+19)

Starlit Cinema - (+18)

Bloodpool Catwalks - (+22)

Your Home - (+14)

The Darkness - (+20)

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