Phenomenon 0 - "Liminality"

Info

Loneliness, eating me inside. It's burning me alive.

Written by Mctoran.

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{$title-component}PTS:

{$title-class}Class:

Inherent

{$title-sub}Area of Effect: The Backrooms

Perpetual

{$title-one}Frequency

Eternal

{$title-two}Duration

Gradual

{$title-three}Intensity

Liminality may be the most universal force of The Backrooms, permeating nearly every pore of its walls. It is so widespread, in fact, that many take it for granted – especially inhabitants born into this reality who know nothing else.

For as much as this entry attempts to explain liminality through words and images, the only way to truly comprehend it is by directly experiencing it. It is an ethereal, nebulous state that is more often understood through intuition rather than description.

Description:

The Backrooms is likened by many to a form of Purgatory or Limbo; Liminality is the driving force behind this.

The feelings and sensations one experiences in the presence of liminality are often associated with and compared to the following:

Kenopsia
The Uncanny Valley
Surreality
Nostalgia
Anemoia
Déjà vu
The Mandela Effect

This suggests that liminality may be heavily intertwined with one's memory and perception of reality (or fallibility thereof), both influencing and being influenced by its observer.

Liminality is neither inherently benevolent/docile nor malevolent/hostile; in its most fundamental form, it is merely a force of nature, a perpetual state of change, blurring the line of duality.

Effect:

Liminality familiarizes the unfamiliar, and defamiliarizes the familiar. It strips away then inverts one's traditional context/origin, sterilizing and stagnating it with a surreal and uncanny tinge. This usually manifests as hyperreal simulacra; an artificial thing formed by natural means, a natural thing formed by artificial means, or any general thing formed by relatively alien means.

Spaces:

A liminal space is a physical snapshot capturing a suspended state of change or transition, an "in-between-ness". They are like frozen moments in time, from a time which never existed. Therefore, the most prominent characteristics of liminal spaces are associated in some form with travel, crossing or transition. Locations that are typically known/expected to be occupied are instead completely vacant, causing modern settings to instead feel like long-abandoned ruins.

Not all levels in The Backrooms are liminal from the beginning. Most levels, especially "newer" ones, appear to be attempts to replicate vague environmental imagery from the observer's memory, in a manner akin to procedural generation. Said spaces tend to initially begin with perfect stability, seeming indistinguishable from locations in one's native reality and lacking any distortion. However, due to their imperfect and flawed nature, levels do not remain stable forever, and the cracks in their design begin showing as the entropic effects of liminality bleed through.

The longer liminality affects a space, the further the space warps, abstracts and deteriorates. This process is known as liminalization, in which the space gradually adopts characteristics such as:

Distorted lighting
Outdated aesthetics
Lack of furnishment/decoration
Repetitive features
Non-Euclidean geometry
Labyrinthine layout

Attached below are several photographic examples of spaces before and after liminalization, provided courtesy of the Middlesorts archives:

vv Open Gallery vv

Liminalization can vary in its timespan. Some levels will turn fully liminal in a matter of weeks, while others may take centuries to do so. It has been observed that this may be influenced to some degree by the occupation of the space; the more/longer a space is inhabited, the slower liminalization may progress within that space. However, there are no known means of reversing liminalization.

Beings:

Contrary to popular belief, beings are subject to liminalization just as much as spaces. In this context, it most often manifests as the Wretched Cycle — which transforms humans into entities like Wretches, and transforms animals into entities like Hounds.

Liminality is also a suspected cause behind the extended lifespan and slowed/suspended aging of some beings in The Backrooms. Since liminal spaces are often described as being "frozen in time", the same could potentially apply to living things as well.

It can even be said that liminality is responsible for the nature of humanoid races such as Facelings — whose similar yet inexact resemblance to humans elicits feelings associated with the uncanny valley.

Of course, the most infamous case of liminalization applied to beings are The Opeh, formerly humans whom willingly gave themselves over to Liminality in the worship of their patron deity.

Discovery:

The true origins of Liminality are unknown, but many theories persist. It has been characterized in different ways by different cultures.

The Lost's perception of Liminality is intriguing in its apparent evolution over time. Several mosaics indicate that they once associated the phenomenon to a certain degree with Asterion and Gatekeeper, two of their gods, due to the overlap in spheres of influence.
According to the The Lost, The Backrooms was once a beautiful paradise, which became corrupted in the downfall of their pantheon. Because of this, they came to believe Liminality to instead be a form of divine punishment by the gods, who cursed the land in spite against humanity for defying them.

‡ Licensing / Citation

The Backrooms: Pantheon

A World of Gods and Monsters.

Description:

Effect:

Spaces:

Beings:

Discovery: