Info
Written by Nevuoliaa.
LEVEL
445
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY
CLASS 1
Exit: 3/5
Difficult to Exit
Environment: 1/5
Low Environmental Risk
Entities: 0/5
No Hostile Entities
“My head sank softly into the snowy cushions as the sky itself sang me a lullaby. ‘You'll be alright. Someone is coming. This is your final stop—it will all be over sooner than you think. Just wait. Just give time the benefit of the doubt, my sweet boy.’ Its voice was that of my own mother; the same figure I had craved and yearned for as I grew older. These pink locks of mine bleed into the ice as I allow myself to feel the embrace of my new progenitor. My future caretaker, the snow. I feel safe here. The ice reminiscent of my hometown in Kiev could not have been cozier. If this is a trap, hell is it a beautifully designed one. Gavriel, allow me to take a break. I know I've given myself rest way too many times throughout my whole life, but just this time, just once since I ever stepped into this labyrinthine hell, let me rest. For five minutes.”
Description
Level 445 is an expanse of boreal forests adorned with a permanent, unwavering thick fog that partially restricts vision over medium to long distances. Despite its seemingly eternal state of night, a soft comforting dark blue glow casts itself over the level. It does not originate from any particular point in the sky or level as a whole. This eerie glow is documented to bring subtle effects of relaxation and comfort, often tied to nostalgia that accumulates over time as a consequence of exposure to the light.
Recorded photograph taken by junior archivist Aleksi Koski
The level's climate is as still as stone. It maintains a constant 13°C (55.4°F) with snowfall being absent despite the abundance of snow. The snow is chemically identical to all other non-harmful snow scattered across the expanse of the Backrooms and it can be ingested to quench thirst, though this effect is not constant; the snow will only melt itself if a wanderer holds it with the intent of drinking it. Otherwise, snow scattered on the floor, accumulated on trees etc will not melt and it will not leave any traces of water behind. The only biological lifeforms present within level 445 are trees. These trees are anomalous; not obeying typical biology nor geometry, shifting their appearance depending on whether or not a wanderer is gazing upon them. These trees can be:
- White Oak
- Black Spruce
- White Spruce
- Fir
- Pines
All of these variants of trees scattered across the level are harmless. One particular quality about them is that their seeds (found within their cones, if the criteria fits) can be harvested to boil into a soft, relaxing tea. The tea in question has light healing properties, soothing properties and is said to act as a natural sleeping agent, a natural counterpart of fabricated melatonin.
The lower layers beneath the snow of the level include a thick, impenetrable segment of permafrost that hasn't been able to be penetrated until the date of this document. Contact or merely looking at this permafrost triggers strong feelings of unease, urging wanderers to coat it with snow and leave it as they found it. Although this effect can be nullified with any sort of glasses that filter out vision, such as sunglasses. (normal prescription glasses don't seem to hold this effect and if they do, it's minimal.)
The level also holds constant shifting geometry, consequentially making connecting with a group or individual highly improbable, although not impossible. Sound also doesn't follow any known laws; distant noise can appear close and clear, while the voices of wanderers close to each other may sound muffled and distant.
The Patience Effect
The patience effect is a unique phenomenon to level 445. It blooms within a wanderer's mind the second they begin exposing themselves to the level, making it unavoidable. Wanderers with any underlying mental illnesses that may target the memory (such as depression, PTSD/C-PTSD and DID/OSDD) are highly likely to fall victim to this phenomenon quicker than the regular individual.
The effect preys on the wanderer's mind, targeting past memories tied to feelings of hope or desire to be sought after; memories that may lead the wanderer to think of someone who might be coming for them, to save them or to just be with them. Experiences brought to one by this phenomenon are unique. As the resonance grows on the wanderer, they will slowly be enveloped by deep, intimate feelings of relaxation. One might feel the desire to sit down and relax, to sleep, to stop in their tracks and quit moving all along. This is a natural compound of the phenomena. Slowly, a wanderer will become motionless and their mind is twisted into something awfully beautiful; an eternal loop of false memories mimicking desired events such as meeting someone the wanderer might miss or someone they might be “waiting for", usually a past lover, someone deceased or a family member. These memories never conclude, they cruelly tease the victim by ending right as they would finalize into a beautiful tale, looping themselves and trapping the victim in an eternal dream of faux hope.
These might not be regular trees at all. Don't fight it. Just sit down and relax. You'll end up like them.
Outside, their bodies gradually sink into the snow. They mummify, becoming one with the snow, then becoming part of the frost. It is believed that the blueprint for their existence is absorbed as well—not by the level, but by the backrooms itself. The strongest backbone for this theory is a faceling that surfaced not too long after the disappearance of M.E.G intern Matilde Ribas, who was born nearly identical to the childhood picture of herself resting at peace in her office.
The phenomena brings its victims to a slow yet peaceful death, most if not all of the time concluding their life journey. Their lives are not erased but rather referenced; an artist referencing a previous painting to bring something new to the world, an AI training itself on the sweet corpse of someone long gone to bloom another life into being.
This effect can and should be reversed if possible. To nullify by complete the consequences of the patience effect, one must:
- Rescue travellers from the snow if they already began the mummification process
- Try your best to snap a traveller into reality if they're already embedded into the snow; like when you drink it, the snow will obey your wishes if you wake up and get yourself out of the snow. Help another wanderer do this, for they are helpless in this state.
- When a wanderer is out of the level, do not feed them tea made from level 445’s cones and seeds. This allows the effect to slowly incubate and proceed normally outside of 445, though it is rare.
- Convince the wanderer that nothing that occurred while catatonic in the snow was ever real. Help them avoid seeking out the level again.
To avoid falling victim to the patience effect, do the following. Note that these aren't guaranteed. The patience effect isn't merely environmental, it's psychological. It can and will bypass any man-made mechanism meant to block it out, but nonetheless do your best to keep it out:
- Bring with yourself any musical device. Loud, distracting music or music that contradicts the soothing and relaxing atmosphere of level 445 can help slow down the patience effect.
- Bring with yourself a ‘physical anchor'; necklace, wrist band, treasured artifact. Use this as a physical snap into reality if you feel yourself dissociating.
- Do not think about it. Don't. Keep the bad memories for when you're out. You don't need to remind yourself of that right now.
Where Memories Melt
Crowned with the title of “Where memories melt", or Lake Forever, is a lake located at the assumed center-most point of the level. It expands throughout a territory deemed as big as Lake Victoria in the front rooms (68,800 km2 / 26,828 square miles) and its pigmentation is that of a deep, dark navy blue.
"…And where memories melt, I hear them in the waterflow…"
It is the only natural occurring body of water within the level, but despite this the chemical components of the water do not match that of the snow’s, but rather that of the permafrost (harvested from scraping its surface lightly). Through the level, as one proceeds towards the center coordinates, the landscape will slowly sink ever so slightly as they approach the center of the level. While this lake does not hold any useful properties, points of interest or useful resources, it is easily the only trustworthy and stable reference point within the level’s vast, near-identical geography.
The water of Lake Forever
Upon consuming the water of Lake Forever, wanderers will undergo an event atypical to any other liquid found in the backrooms; they will absorb miscellaneous, randomized memories. Memories that do not belong to them, but rather once belonged to the people that fell victim to the embrace of the ice.
These memories range from small flashes of thought, like someone playing with childhood toys, or more grave and bitter memories, such as a recall of a traumatic experience. Sometimes they are sweet, like marrying a beloved one. And sometimes they're even familiar, like when the other part first fell in the backrooms. Do note that in the minds of the wanderer, they see the person as who they were rather than themselves, meaning that the effect triggers the brain into visualizing the memory like watching a movie from the actor’s perspective. These memories that don't belong to anyone alive will bring sadness and discomfort to those consuming it, for they will yearn for the life these deceased souls could've had.
Ingesting this water will also help strengthen and speed up the patience effect. It is not recommended to consume this water under any circumstances, for it is much more accessible and safer to drink from the snow anyways. This leads to the origin of the belief that the permafrost too holds memories; memories too personal, too dangerous to simply be remembered. Secrets, things one swore to not tell anyone. They lie embedded with the permafrost, only breaking if they themselves allow it.
"… Listening to the thousand hands that clap for me in the dark"
Entities
There are no entities in this level, at least none that are native to it. A mysterious golden-clad androgynous humanoid has been seen wandering the level at rare occurrences, seemingly unbothered by the cold or the patient effect and its consequences. No interactions between this figure within the level have been recorded. Its appearance is reminiscent of a youthful, human male that had fallen victim to the level's grip years prior to the first sighting of this entity.
Groups
Due to its atypical geometry, there are no groups in level 445 that we know of.
Entrances And Exits
Entrances
Due to it working as a trap level, level 445 has many easily accessible entrances. It will also infiltrate itself into memories of other snowy landscapes inside a wanderer's mind if they fit the criteria for housing the patience effect, tricking the code of the world into bringing one there if they miss those snowy landscapes so badly.
- Telling the many lakes in the Crimson Forest about your regrets and taking a dive in their waters may lead one to emerge in Lake Forever.
- Stepping into an unfamiliar patch of snow somewhere within the fields of Level 10 will trigger a no clip into the level.
- Finding and interacting with a stand-out white oak tree in Level 37 will trigger a deep state of sleep upon contact. Wanderers might emerge in level 445 when awaking.
- Entering a blurry painting depicting the level in Level 57 will trigger a no-clip into the level.
- Talking to a frantic Cat Animation in Level 94 about his vacation to the Italian Alps may trigger a false memory of level 445 and consequentially make the wanderer emerge in level 445 after sleeping.
- If you think about those painful memories within The Garden of Bliss, the landscape might twist into something way more unsettling.
Exits
- Believe in yourself. Overcome those memories. Think about a bright future and you will emerge in The Garden of Bliss.
- The M.E.G often executes controlled search missions on this level. They'll take you somewhere else.
- “Please keep me company. Talk to me, teach me about your ways; how to be a human being, how to remember, how to feel. Fulfill that promise and I'll bring you somewhere safe. I promise.” — Accept the invitation and you will be in a peaceful state of Catatonia