Liminal Archives site logo, drawn by Rutherford
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The Liminal Archives is a containment fiction community founded as an offshoot of the Backrooms/Tech Support community which utilizes some of the latter’s formats and aesthetic.
Liminal, as used by the Archives, means:
Liminality is the state of being in-between, like a half-furnished room or something that feels too empty. It could also mean familiar places.[1]
History
The Liminal Archives was originally founded on December 16 2020, by disgruntled members of the BR/TS community who coalesced together until the current branding was agreed upon. This culminated in the site revamping on April 6 2021 which brought about the current branding still used by the Archives in the present.
The first site contest, the collaboration contest, was announced in July 2021 and ended in August. Community and site staff members Vizlox and Worm_That_Walks tied for first place with their submissions: Blue Static America[1]http://liminal-archives.wikidot.com/contest:limconvizlox and The Home[2]http://liminal-archives.wikidot.com/contest:limconworm.
Universe
The Liminal Archives describes itself as “the primary global database of the strange and uncanny locations that blur the line between real and unreal”.[2] In-universe participants, termed Archivists, risk their lives to explore unknown corners of the multiverse — “the repressed side of humanity”, “wrinkles in reality” — and report back in a data format to inform others and add to the collection. These spaces intersect with “Baseline” (reality as we know it), though vaguely, and that require an intrepid and conscious individual to breach. These vague intersections are known as “Thresholds”.
The universe overlaps somewhat with its canonical predecessor Backrooms/Tech Support, which has its own dedicated lore space, and takes up approximately 1/3rd of the site’s content. Authors in this space create Levels, which follow the same rules as Backrooms, although these are described as:
These levels are the collective subconscious of the Multiverse, the nightmares, fears, hopes, and dreams that manifest into a physical thing.[3]
The Backrooms portion of Liminal prescribed formats to abide by, blending the two styles. The Backrooms database has ports of some original Backrooms articles, as well as original material.[4] Liminal Archives further categorizes Backrooms into subcategories: Core Quantum-Stable, Quantum Fluctuations, and Aberrant. The components of this are also subdivided, into Level Elements, Entities, Objects, Persons, Groups/Factions, and Tales.
Limspaces
Limspaces are the term given to the hidden and vaguely coherent spaces of the multiverse. They are what Archivists travel into and report on. Example Limspaces include: The Ashen Tomb, Bridgespace, Ageless Wood, The Doomed Forest, Lone Tower, The Sunken Forest.[5]
A Limspace System is a cluster of Limspaces that share common traits or a common theme. The Backrooms portion of Limspace, for example, is considered a Limspace System. Other systems include: The Crimson System, The Middenground, Erysichthon, The Oculus Initiative.