WELCOME TO THE 9TH ROAD
M.E.G. OUTPOST (8.7 MILES|14 KM) »
Help is ahead! Stay strong.
M.E.G. — Bettering Humanity
LEVEL
8
SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY
CLASS 4
Exit: 4/5
Very Difficult to Exit
Environment: 4/5
Extreme Environmental Risk
Entities: 4/5
Extreme Hostile Presence
A dark cave greets wanderers surfacing from the waters.
Description
Level 8 is a sprawling network of underground caves, its web of tunnels interwoven into a suffocating prison. It is cold, dark, and fraught with peril, predators lurking at every turn.
Given a choice, wanderers are warned to avoid it altogether.
Structure and Layout
By the standards of normal reality, the spatial architectures of most levels prior resemble artificial constructions. Level 8, in contrast, runs wild.
Unlike other subterranean domains such as the mines of Level 181, or the catacombs of Level 499, Level 8 is generally free of the visage of human engineering, composed predominantly of organic karst caves. Even today, humanity's attempts to civilize this untamed space remain futile, and its natural forces reign unchecked. Its rocky passages are feral and formidable. Its caves are savage, and cannot be bridled.
Level 8 is essentially infinite in size. Most settlements, entrances and exits are clustered closely, within a long cylindrical zone approximately 60 miles (90.5 km) in length and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in radius. New passages, furthermore, are continually discovered, and the vast majority of the level has yet to be explored. Its true depth remains unknown.
Nonstandard Physics
Level 8 is by no means easy to traverse. The very laws governing its nature are unforgiving in every way.
Like many preceding levels, the realm is subject to the characteristic spatial distortions of non-Euclidian geometry. In other words, space itself functions non-linearly within the caves. An apparently straight passageway may loop back to its own entrance. Taking the same path a second time may lead to a different chamber. Turning back may not return you to the place from which you came.
The perplexity of this experience is only compounded by erratic gravitational forces. Gravity fluctuates in magnitude and changes direction from cavern to cavern, and often within the confines of a single cave itself. These shifts are chaotic, unpredictable, and thoroughly bewildering.
At its worst, successful navigation through Level 8 demands perfect precision. A wayward step can cause a rush of confusion. A missed sign may cost you your bearings. A wrong turn will almost certainly result in complete and total disorientation. Focus is essential; mistakes are lethal. Even expert cartographers have lost their way in their valiant attempts to map the tunnels, driven mad as they roam its endless webs. Their missing bodies are seldom found.
Moreover, Level 8 is known for its entropic effects. Though the flow of time itself is unaltered, the effects of time are quickened considerably. Food spoils rapidly, batteries drain swiftly, and long-term residents even appear to age at an accelerated pace. Sounds echo more loudly, and light sources shine more dimly1. Such entropic effects also intensify when an area is left unobserved. Signposts and navigation markers degrade at an astounding rate, requiring consistent maintenance or replacement.
M.E.G. SURVIVAL GUIDE?Found yourself stuck in the caves? Fret not — this guide is here to help! Just stay calm and follow these instructions, and you'll be out in no time! (Probably. No guarantee.)
Tip #1: Stay on the 9th Road!
Our mascot Kennith says hello!
Our trusty navigation teams here at the M.E.G. have marked out a path known as The 9th Road, to help you find your way around. The Road starts at the entrance pool from Level 6 and runs all the way to the exit at Level 9, so if you're making your way out, it's your best bet!
We know the caverns can be unforgiving. Thankfully, the 9th Road runs through what we call "islands of stability" — regions where space and gravity function more consistently than everywhere else on the level. This makes the Road a safe and reliable route for any wanderer to travel! If you're up for some sights, it even goes past a couple of the nicer landmarks along the way!
The Road also passes by settlements run by our very own operatives, in conjunction with our friends at the B.N.T.G. and the Harmouth Society. You can stop for a shower, a change of clothes, a hot meal, and a place to rest. If you've got things to trade, you can even hire a guide!
The Road is lined with markers about every 50 metres or so (that's 55 yards for you American folks) to keep you on track! You'll recognize 'em by the familiar M.E.G. logo printed on. Whatever you may face, BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE MARKERS — we can't stress this enough. Otherwise, who knows where you'll end up!
Stay safe!
Environment
The environs of Level 8 are thoroughly inhospitable.
Oxygen is often limited — the air in many caverns is foul and stagnant, harboring dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide. Some contain harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, ammonia, or a raw compound similar to Vaporous Pain.2 Deaths by aspyhxiation are common, though they pale in comparison to the sheer loss of life by drowning alone.
Almond water flows freely across the caverns, ebbing and flowing chaotically under the influence of unseen tides. Many caves are partially or fully waterlogged, inaccessible except to experienced divers. Some networks are particularly prone to sudden, spontaneous flooding. Their bone-dry chambers may be completely submerged in a matter of seconds.
Those who escape drowning may yet die of hypothermia. Most regions carry frigid temperatures of 50-60°F (10-15°C). Some systems, however, have been known to reach sweltering heights of 110°F (43°C) and above, owing to peculiarities in their chemical and ecological composition.
M.E.G. SURVIVAL GUIDE
Tip #2: Stay hydrated, warm, and AWAKE!
Level 8 is full of Almond Water. You can find pools of it all around, and it's generally safe to drink! It might taste a bit bitter, but that's just some harmless minerals that found their way in from the rocks around. They're actually good for you!
Although it's good to hydrate, be aware that TAKING A BATH IS A REALLY BAD IDEA. It might be refreshing at first, but because of how cold the caves are, you can soon get VERY sick! Instead, avoid taking a dip, and put on some warm clothing if you can. Our friends at Harmouth can supply you proper caving suits at any of their camps. They've got warm fleece on the inside, and waterproof polyester on the outside (not to mention lots of handy pockets!). That way, if you have to wade through a puddle or a waterfall, you can stay nice and dry, and keep yourself from freezing up!
Oops… Kennith got wet.
Another important tip: whatever happens, KEEP AWAKE! If you do get drenched and cold, know that victims of hypothermia (freezing to death, that is) tend to die because they give in to exhaustion. When they close their eyes, they can't open them again. It might be unpleasant, but if you force yourself to keep going, you might just make it to safety. Help often isn't as far as you may think!
What if you're not cold, or wet? Well, unless you're absolutely SURE you're in a place that's safe, it's still unwise to take a snooze. If you've got friends with you, sleep in shifts, and only if you absolutely must. Note that drowsiness can be a sign of dangerously low oxygen levels… all the more reason not to doze off. Besides, who knows what might happen while you nap? A spider might crawl into your mouth! Blegh!
Keep those eyes open!
Terrain and Speleology
The level's cavernous terrain makes no accommodations for human comfort. Even along the 9th Road, smaller tunnels tend to be tight, low, and awkwardly shaped. The floors of larger chambers are littered with loose rocks, making it easy to slip. Vertical shafts require great physical exertion and athletic prowess to scale. Corpses are strewn along difficult passages, with shattered bones and fractured skulls.
Level 8 Report: Intriguing Intricacies!
Perilous as they are, these caves hold a remarkably diverse spectrum of rock formations. The extranormal physics here has resulted in eccentric networks which are as beautiful as they are dangerous. Among bolder and more well-equipped communities — such as ours! — they have long been the basis of much careful study.
— Sir Reginald Harmouth III, Founder of the Harmouth Speleological Society
Descriptions of typical cavern types and rock formations are detailed below.
A phreatic tube. Note the cavern's elliptical "eye shape".
Phreatic Tubes
In regular reality, phreatic tubes take form when water and sedimentary particles erode cracks between rocks over time — particularly at the horizontal surface between two different mineral beds (known as the "bedding plane"). As they are formed by a constant flow of fluid, phreatic tubes are known for their roughly uniform "eye-shaped" structure, with the cavern ceiling arching upward and cavern floor arching downward from the bedding plane.
However, due to the effects of nonstandard physics and inconsistent gravity, many phreatic tubes in Level 8 form chaotically. Bedding planes are often not uniform, and not even horizontal. Phreatic tubes may form in oddly slanted directions, and often curve in apparently impossible ways.
Ecology
Some portions of Level 8 appear empty, devoid of entities altogether. Others, however, house entire habitats which teem with life.
Level 8 Report: Entity ecosystems?
Most people are used to seeing entities in the Backrooms as these senseless monsters. They "spawn" and "despawn" randomly. They don't need to sleep or eat. They eat people anyway.
But in Level 8, things function… differently. In my recent expeditions with the Harmouth Society, we've uncovered caverns with entire ecosystems full of life. Most shocking of all, these habitats work COHERENTLY. They've got functioning food chains and energy cycles that actually sustain what's living inside them!
In any case, this lines up well with my recent theories on the way entities actually function. Humanity's conventional understanding of them has GOT to change. We're always going to be afraid of things we don't understand. But that doesn't mean these things are impossible for us to grasp. The existence of coherent ecosystems within Level 8 proves that entities aren't always "senseless", or "illogical", or "nonsensical".
They just have a logic we don't fully understand. At least… not yet.
— Former M.E.G. Head Field Researcher Eden Gardenhigh †
Across its caverns, the level hosts a wide variety of ecological systems. Despite the chaotic and disordered nature of their environment, these ecosystems are known to be coherent, organized, and complex. Descriptions of some of the more well-documented and unique habitats are detailed below.
Hyperspace Lane
This network of twenty-three long, narrow passageways contains glowing bacteria and fungi that feed off of almond water deposits seeping through cracks in its walls. It also contains a population of native light guides, which are known to help wanderers navigate through its winding corridors.
Larger passages also contain flowing rivers of regular, non-almond water, which house several species of eyeless fish, shrimp, and newts, feeding off organic debris which flows in from other cavern systems. Xenon marbles may be found at the bottom of these streams, which serve as nesting grounds for the light guides in the region.
In addition to the above ecosystems, some entities are prevalent all throughout the caves. The most common examples have been listed below.
Wranglers
More complete documentation on Wranglers may be found here.
Illustration of a male wrangler.
Wranglers are massive serpentine predators, with adults often reaching — and even exceeding — a mile (1.6km) in length. Though their bodies are elongated and snake-like in appearance, with slimy grey skin, they possess humanoid heads, with distinctive white, glowing eyes. The faces of male wranglers are uncannily human, with mouths which perpetually sport disturbing, broad smiles. Female faces more closely resemble those of arthropods, with pincers sprouting from their jaws.
At rest, the entities lie exposed within the caves. However, in order to hunt, they burrow into the rock layers of Level 8, twisting and turning their bodies in a drill-like motion to generate the immense power needed to force their bodies through the ground. While younger specimens burrow physically through the rock, mature adults eventually gain the ability to travel by no-clipping through, only materializing physically when they are close to their prey.
The hunting behaviors of Wranglers also contributes to the instability of the caverns. Larger wranglers can damage caves as they burrow to hunt, altering the composition of the networks significantly. The specimen responsible for the infamous Level 8 Incident created dramatic structural shifts across the level in its entirety, resulting in over five hundred confirmed casualties in total. The wrangler's body was several orders of magnitude larger than average adult specimens, and required several hundred tonnes of pyroil to burn away. Overall, it was estimated to span a colossal 70 miles (112km) in total length.
It is believed that specimens of even larger size may lay dormant further below.
Arachnids
Within the caves, a disproportionately large number of lifeforms fall under the Arachnida family of arthropods. The arachnids of Level 8 include scorpions, ticks, mites, and — principally — innumerably many species of spiders.
While some spiders occupy important roles within healthy ecological systems, the vast majority of them form large, single-species clusters. Entire swathes of some networks are dominated entirely by colonies of spiders. These are to be avoided at all costs. Many species found in such colonies are aggressively territorial, and will not hesitate to give chase to hapless victims who disturb their habitats.
M.E.G. SURVIVAL GUIDE
Tip #7: Creepy Crawlies
Where do these li'l guys keep coming from?
Everyone knows that Level 8 has a bit of a spider problem. No matter how much bug spray you carry, you're bound to find 'em in your hair, in your backpack, and — worst of all — in your rations. Extra protein!
While one, two, or ten spiders isn't normally a problem, some caverns have nests with literal thousands of the critters crawlin' around. The 9th Road generally avoids the areas that are a bit worse off, but new nests are known to pop up along the path from time to time. DO NOT DISTURB THESE COLONIES — they're about as territorial as your average wasp nest, and many species are HIGHLY venomous! If you do happen to stumble into a nest by accident, your best bet is probably to get to the nearest body of water. Spiders can't swim! Well… most of them can't, anyway.
There is a chance you may come across nest caverns with strange glowing emblems nearby, resembling hieroglyphs or occult markings. If you encounter such symbols, stop what you're doing, sketch or photograph what you've found, and leave the vicinity as soon as possible. Next, head back to the nearest camp site, and notify any M.E.G. personnel there immediately.
NEVER under any circumstance enter caverns with these markings.
Recent research has suggested that most spiders are not actually native to Level 8. The purported extranormal abilities3 of many breeds appear to be the products of Arcane Glyph Magic — for which the Church of the Veiled is almost certainly responsible.
Level 8 Report: Introduced Species?
Our recent surveys have corroborated what the Harmouth guys have been telling us. Data shows that clusters of "arachnid infestations" are centered around the old Veiled territory, and their frequency drops off dramatically outside it. This is just more evidence of our mounting suspicions that the arachnids of Level 8 by and large consist of invasive species — more than likely introduced by the Veiled.
The clusters don't fit with the other complex ecosystems we see around the caves. They're completely dysfunctional; there just shouldn't be enough food around to sustain such massive populations. I've examined a few specimens from these nests, and I can say with certainty that something just feels fundamentally wrong with these creatures.
Even if we've flushed out the Veiled, they've been here so long that their impact's left a scar on the level's ecosystems. They've been experimenting on these spiders for hundreds of years. In all that time, who knows what else they've done in this place.
— M.E.G. Entity Research Specialist "Gums"
Hands of Tar
Pools of a viscous, tar-like substance4 are scattered across the caves. The temperature of the fluid varies from pool to pool, but may reach heights of up to 203°F (95°C). They should be avoided — wandering too close will trigger a group of tar-covered humanoid hands to reach out from the pool, dragging their helpless victim into the boiling, acrid substance to be smothered to death.
Owing to their vicious nature, the hands of tar lurking within these pools are poorly studied. The few survivors reported losing consciousness in the pool, and finding themselves in either Level 37 or Level 926 upon waking.
Landmarks, Settlements, and Communities
Contrary to expectations, larger caverns are indeed capable of supporting sizeable populations — especially those containing rivers or lakes. Apart from vitamins C and D,5 native lifeforms such as fish are able to provide sufficient nutrition to sustain human life. Indeed, many permanent communities are known to exist within the level's islands of stability.
Along the 9th Road in particular, several settlements and encampments have been established to provide shelter, food, and other basic necessities. For those too old, sick, injured, or otherwise unable to complete their journey out from the caves, these have become a permanent refuge in which to live out the rest of their days.
However, not all residents of the caves are friendly. Mid-sized caverns along the center sections of the Road are known to house squatters who have given up hope of escape, and who subsist purely off of vagrancy or thievery. Many of these chambers are not suited for prolonged human habitation due to poor air quality, stagnant water, and a lack of food sources. Without proper governance or management of any kind, these organic clusters easily deteriorate into overpopulated slums, rife with criminal activity, disease, and appalling conditions.
Wanderers are strongly advised to seek shelter in established and well-equipped settlements rather than contributing to these destructive enclaves.
History and Discovery
Level 8 has been known from antiquity. For hundreds — if not thousands — of years, the caves have been employed by the Church of the Veiled, the Lost, the Eyes of Argos, and other ancient groups, for benign and nefarious purposes alike. The successful expulsion of the Veiled in 2019 has removed many obstacles to archaeology, allowing more accurate historical reconstructions of human activity in the caves.
Brevity will not permit an adequate examination of the level's extensive past, as unearthed by recent efforts. Let it suffice for us to ponder the mystery of its original discovery and the secrets buried yet further below, concealed by the ever-shifting passage of time.
The Hypogeal Plane is a cleithral network of caves, its sprawling tunnels interwoven into a suffocating prison. It is bitterly cold, oppressively dark, and fraught with incalculable peril, predators of all kinds lurking at every turn.
Given a choice, travellers are warned to avoid it altogether.
Yet those who dare to brave its depths — or those whom fate sets upon its path — may find in its caves more than meets the eye. Its hollows hold subterranean worlds, restlessly alive with Stygian beauty, their ferocious vigor defying the shadows still.
Though the darkness lingers long, faint hope glimmers within the gloom.
— Excerpt from το χαμένο βιβλίά του χώρου (to Chaméno Vivlíá tou Chórou), volume VII7
Entrances And Exits
Info
The original authors of this page were the Reddit users u/Bart0nius and u/avolded.
Initially rewritten byStretchsterz.
Rewritten again byKai4C!
Glory be to the Man in White.
A BIG thank you to…
kennith,
Nooknic14,
Sariastuff,
Tsunami_Toshiharu,
andAvery, for their AMAZING art and illustrations!
MC_Crafter_24_7,
Natedagreat563,
C-Graph, RatifTheRatGod! does not match any existing user name,
Greggita Mahayfaio,
Sky3,
MyrandFox,
ForestIsWatching
and many more folks than I can count or remember
for their invaluable critique and feedback!
Finally, thank YOU for reading! Hope you enjoyed this article! ^_^
Additional revisions by Mctoran.