Info
Written by Mctoran. Parts taken from/inspired by this draft by
Praetor3005.
Original concept by Dr Bierre
Who are The Lost?:
"The Lost" refers to the collective civilization of all ancient humans within The Backrooms. Although once the most powerful and prosperous group within The Backrooms at their height, they have long since fallen from glory, and are now on the verge of complete extinction.
The exact number of remaining members within The Lost is unclear due to their seclusive nature, however may be anywhere 500 to 1000 individuals. Relations with The Lost should be held in high regard, as it is difficult for outsiders to earn their trust.
History
Members of The Lost all originated from different parts of the ancient world in The Frontrooms, no-clipping into the Backrooms over the years. However, what is rather interesting is that, when those people slowly gathered, even though they originated from different cultures and empires (some of some of which enemies), these ancient people set aside their differences in the face of this harsh alien environment, coming to form a collective common culture in order to survive together. This is a behavior we can also find nowadays, with a lot of different people from different countries allying themselves to form big outposts or even entire factions (as is the case with groups such as the M.E.G. or Ariane Circle).
Worship
Obviously, resources can only help a civilization so far, as they also need political stability. While they tried to build a utopia at first, the nature of mankind made dictatorships very easy to emerge, even in harsh times when collaboration was crucial. However, it took an unusual form as powerful beings manifested themselves, trying to help mankind thrive in this place. They were personifications of concepts, sometimes tied to mankind, sometimes more wild and esoteric. As was the case in the Frontrooms, the civilization needed to reassure themselves by creating hypotheses about how the world around them worked. Those beings, representing aspects of the world, allowed them to have a direction and most importantly hope. As they did on Earth, they prayed to those otherworldly aspects, and they, as twisted and different as they were, still answered their call. The Lost was governed as a theocracy. The leading powers were effectively priests, channeling the will of the gods. They were the ones asking those beings about the rules of this world, using offerings. Some examples of said offerings were Royal Rations, which were as rare as they were today, or Warpberries, which albeit useless for nutrition were hard enough to cultivate that they quickly became known as a divine fruit of mystical powers. Human sacrifices didn't exist in this community, as it was something quite rare in their country of origin, to begin with. However, divine punishments existed in this religion, with things like losing a loved one by the Wretched Cycle or having his culture salvaged by Plague Rats being considered as the vengeance of the gods for a lack of faith or offerings.
With the nature of the town, a lot of temples were repurposed because of the will of the gods (according to the priest's scriptures), being made bigger, or changing their aesthetics to better match the god whose temple was dedicated to. One of the few that still stood the test of time was the Mausoleum of Philia, which was a round structure with five entrances (for the five petals a rose usually possesses), that didn't possess any door, as the goddess was so welcoming everyone could enter the temple at any time, seeking medicinal help. Although it is now destroyed, mosaics on the rose-shaped ceiling depict indoor gardens where medicinal flowers were being cultivated by the philiacs, priestesses who devoted their lives to helping everyone who was in need.
Jobs
Religion was more than a simple part of the life. It oversaw their entire life. This can be seen in the way each member of The Lost was conditioned in their jobs by their entire belief system. Indeed, unlike other civilizations of old earth, that used physical ways to differentiate the different levels of society, like with cranium deformations, The Lost relied on something purely psychological, based on faith. As explained, The Lost maintained a close relation to religion, especially towards the powerful beings that helped them settle in the city they renamed Hoofstad. To pay tribute to them, each citizen and each family swore allegiance to one of those gods. This was decided by the priests of a given temple, meaning that they would announce when a god "claimed" an individual, who would then be taken to perform the job linked to this given deity (for example, the chosen of Philia would mainly become nurses or herbologists). It seems it was mainly a fabrication of the priests, as today's evidence shows us the aspects didn't interact with mankind much as the priests led their society to believe. Nevertheless, this allowed for a rigid cast system without the need for any physical harm or tyrannical reign. The pious citizens would accept their fate with happiness, training to become armorsmiths, farmers, cooks…
Families were also created within those social classes. It was extremely rare to see couples created from people originating from different jobs, and therefore different allegiances. The gods decided everything, as their rights were, according to the priests. Descendants of a family would also work for the same god as their parents, except in rare cases where a temple announced another god chose them to work for them. Some old accounting tablets seem to indicate that those announcements were rigged, as all temples made sure all roles for the city were equally taken, in order to balance everything and allow for the most socially accepted jobs (like clothes creators) to be rarer, and the most important ones (like fishermen of farmers) to always be able to sustain the community. They were listening to the will of the gods (or at least what they claimed it to be) for political reasons.
Impersonating a job was rare, given how the priests insisted on its blasphemous nature, telling monstrous and worrying tales about people who defied the gods in order to fulfill their own gains, instead of being punished by the beings they wronged. Psychological control, however, was sometimes inefficient, usually with people with strong independence needs, who wished to control their destinies. Those people were made quick examples, as the punishment was to cut one of their hands so that they would never dare to work in a field that wasn't chosen for them. Such action usually resulted in the detractor becoming a useless member of Lost society, because of his difficulties to now physically work.
The priesthoods weren't bloodthirsty dictators, however, as they have actually proven themselves to sometimes be quite magnanimous in the system they oversaw. Indeed, in the case of slaves (usually prisoners of war, or people who committed minor crimes like robbing), it was possible for them to be claimed by a god like any other people, which meant they could gain their freedom back, and work the city as a normal citizen. As slaves belonged to the temples rather than to an individual as it was the case in Greek cities like Athens, this again allowed the temples to if needed manipulate those events to the advantage of the city. However, those rigged decisions varied from year to year, as there were periods where priests from a particular temple could be harsher, and more egocentric than other time periods where they would look to the well-being of the city more. This, frankly, wasn't that far from classic kings and emperors of ancient civilizations.
The rarest and most craved job was the one of priests. Becoming a priest was something extremely rare, even rarer than other job changes. While most temples allowed for marriage and families to be created between members of the same temple (except for some rare cases where some temples were more open to the idea of romantic love and freedom), those children were still quite rare seeing how few priests there were in each temple. Nevertheless, becoming a priest, according to the very rare scriptures we have, was a very tedious learning, but is ultimately a mystery for both the population and us. It still remained, even with this mystery, a position of high respect, as any rank of power is in civilizations. It is also one of the rare cases where priests seem to never rig the apparition of new priests, and it is very well possible the influence of the mystical beings they claimed to look after was higher than we are led to believe. It is very important to understand that in The Lost, priests occupy such a crucial role and are so respected they can be seen as the political part of the city. They are the power who decide of the future of the town, and although they claim their actions to be only be the will of the gods, it is nowadays well-known that they used to tend to take their decisions to keep their power around, but also to maintain the cultural influence of the town over the Lost colonies in general. They are also the richest individual of the Lost society, usually living in the luxury of villas, showing their power and wealth by owning art pieces, fancy clothing or slaves.
Entertainment
Like any culture, The Lost, even in a place as harsh and unforgiving as the Backrooms, needed ways to have fun and make the most of their lives. Arts and amusements were common in the town, as a way to for anyone to distract themselves and forget the difficult conditions caused by the Liminality of the Backrooms.
The inhabitants of Hoofstad enjoyed spending time in the thermae. People from the city, as well as metics1, used to spend their free time there several times a week, as a way to purify their body of illness and filth so as to put their soul at peace and therefore sleep better.