Permanent div box on The Backrooms Wiki frontpage, aluding to SCP as inspiration.

Note: This is an encyclopedia for containment fiction. While the lineage of containment fiction projects such as SCP and liminal fiction projects such as The Backrooms are clear, this encyclopedia regards liminal fiction as a separate area of study, and is noted here in so far as it relates to containment fiction. Thorough sources for information regarding liminal fiction should be sought elsewhere.

Liminal fiction, or limfic, is the stylistic designation given to a literary subgenre that is focused on transitionary ethereal spaces, and later, the narratives and characters that take place within them. Limfic communities are primarily extant on the WikiDot platform and feature a heavy overlap with containment fiction demographics, authors, and social media spaces, and like containment fiction, trace their lineage to 4chan message boards. The subgenre has been referred to as “second generation” containment fiction due to the family resemblance and general familiarity each demographic has with the other.^[1]https://archive.ph/OuDxr#selection-1401.0-1415.38

Limfic arguably began with the creation of Backrooms/Tech Support. The term “liminal fiction” was coined by SCF member DrKrim/Krim to describe offshoots of containment fiction and its communities, such as Tech Support/The Backrooms, and Liminal Archives.

Examples

• The Backrooms/Tech Support
• Liminal Archives
• Timeless Places

Historical Development

Unlike the SCP Foundation, which evolved gradually from 2007-2008, The Backrooms experienced rapid expansion after going viral on social media platforms in 2019-2020. Video content creators on YouTube and TikTok significantly contributed to popularizing limfic concepts beyond their original text-based format, with found footage style videos becoming particularly influential in shaping public perception of the genre.

The Backrooms Content Explosion

The evolution of The Backrooms from a single image to a sprawling mythology represents one of the most rapid expansions of a collaborative fiction project in internet history. This explosive growth occurred in several distinct phases:

Initial Viral Spread (May-June 2019)

The original Backrooms concept emerged on 4chan’s /x/ board in May 2019 when an anonymous user posted a photo of an unsettling yellow-wallpapered office space with the caption describing it as a place one could “noclip out of reality” into. Within days, the image and concept spread to Reddit’s r/creepy and other platforms, generating immediate creative responses. Unlike the SCP Foundation’s relatively slow initial growth, The Backrooms concept reached widespread recognition within weeks.

Early Expansion (Late 2019-Early 2020)

During this period:

• Multiple competing wikis emerged simultaneously, including the Backrooms Wiki, Liminal Archives, and the Backrooms Wikidot
• The concept of “levels” beyond the original yellow rooms was introduced, with Level 0 (the original yellow rooms), Level 1 (often depicted as a warehouse), and Level 2 (pipe-filled maintenance areas) becoming standardized
• Early entity concepts appeared, including the “Hounds” and “Smilers”
• The first organized factions were created, such as the “M.E.G.” (Major Explorer Group)

Multimedia Explosion (2020-2021)

The Backrooms experienced unprecedented growth through diverse media channels:

• YouTube creators like Kane Pixels produced highly influential found footage videos that dramatically expanded the audience
• TikTok creators generated thousands of short-form Backrooms content pieces, often focusing on specific levels or entities
• Gaming communities developed Backrooms-inspired games and mods, with “Backrooms Game” and “The Backrooms: Mass” gaining significant followings
• Several Discord servers became hubs for real-time collaborative worldbuilding

Canonization Efforts (2021-2022)

As the concept proliferated across platforms:

1. The Backrooms Database emerged as an attempt to catalog and organize the rapidly expanding mythology
2. The “Level Fun” concept became a particularly viral addition, featuring entities like “Partygoers”
3. Competing canons developed, with some communities embracing maximalist approaches (hundreds of levels and entities) while others advocated for minimalist interpretations
4. Distinctive visual aesthetics emerged for different levels, with Level !-11 (The Poolrooms) developing its own substantial following
5. Commercial interest grew, with several independent game studios announcing Backrooms-themed projects

Contemporary Landscape

The current Backrooms ecosystem is characterized by:

• Multiple semi-independent creative communities with varying approaches to canon
• Over 1,000 documented levels across various wikis
• Hundreds of distinct entity types
• Several competing fictional organizations and factions
• A robust economy of merchandise, games, and media adaptations
• Ongoing tension between maximalist worldbuilding and minimalist “return to roots” approaches

This rapid expansion contrasts sharply with the more structured and centralized growth of the SCP Foundation, reflecting both the accelerated pace of internet culture in the late 2010s and the multi-platform nature of The Backrooms’ development, where no single community maintained definitive creative control.

Style

Stylistically, limfic primarily deals with sparsely occupied spaces and architecture in order to convey an unsettling, other-worldly atmosphere, with an emotional focus on anxiety, isolation, nostalgia (sometimes referred to as “liminality”), and helplessness.

Early limfic, or “first-wave”, was largely centered on the liminal spaces themselves, unorganized into any overarching themes, whether stylistic or format-based (e.g. the addition of Levels or Entities). Like containment fiction, early instances were derivations from images. The content of proto-limfic articles dealt primarily with the qualities and attributes apparent from these images.^[2]https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/22661164/

Limfic next saw the expansion of literary instruments along with a constriction of acceptable content, as well as format-based serialization, and a heightened presence of criticism. Generally, these instruments include narrative, lore, character placement, and entities. For Backrooms, second-wave was in part heralded by preexisting authors in the general space, notably those from the SCP Wiki.^[3]https://archive.ph/mh6WP Many second-wave limfic authors do not regard liminality is essential or even relevant.

The genre is beginning to see a call to return to more limfic-specific fundamentals of style, with a focus on the spaces themselves, as opposed to character development and narrative.^[4]https://archive.ph/5iNHn^[5]https://archive.ph/mh6WP^[6]http://web.archive.org/web/20220404001653/https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueBackrooms/

Relationship to Containment Fiction

While containment fiction like the SCP Foundation focuses on the documentation and containment of anomalous objects and entities, limfic centers on the spaces themselves and the experience of being trapped within them. However, both genres share similar collaborative writing approaches, in-universe documentation styles, and community-driven worldbuilding techniques. The crossover of authors between these communities has led to shared storytelling conventions and critical approaches.

Both subgenres share a commitment to collaborative worldbuilding and often utilize wiki platforms as their primary means of documenting and organizing their fictional universes. This community-driven approach allows for the continuous expansion of lore, the creation of new narratives, and the development of intricate fictional ecosystems. The shared interest in exploring the boundaries of reality and the human response to the unknown unites these two subgenres, even as they approach these themes from different perspectives.

Trivia

In a recent interview, Dr Gears stated he was present in the original 4chan /x/ thread that started the Backrooms.^[7]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSGgUmPxGRg&ab_channel=SCPWeekly