CAUTION
YOU ARE IN A RECURSIVE AREA
This sign follows you wherever you go. It serves to warn of the supposed lack of exits within the edifice. But now, as we know, there is no need to stay on the lookout. And yet, this sign warns of a danger that no longer exists. As if it hasn't caught up with the winds of change that blow across the Backrooms and will continue to for the foreseeable future. Perhaps the winds haven't breathed new life into this place for years, maybe decades or centuries. It has been left to stagnate, to stay frozen while all else around it changes. Even in the midst of the strongest gales, it stays, unchanging.
No wind to carry pollen, no wind to carry spores, no wind to carry rain, no wind to carry anything special to this place anymore. Everything unique has bled out of this space, now a hollow tunnel, instead of teeming with unique life.
Or, maybe, this place was never special. Maybe it always stood still, making but whispers and quiet senseless noise in spite of the other levels loudly speaking. Always been a vessel run dry. It was perhaps always endless copies of the same dull room, never faltering.
It is fun to posit and speculate on history, the past and the future, but in a place where there may have never been a history, does the past or future matter as much?
SURVIVABILITY INDEX
CLASS 0
Exit: 1/5
Each and every window is an exit out of the level.
Environment: 0/5
The environment does not go through any changes whatsoever, each room appearing identical to the room prior.
Entities: 0/5
No other organism aside from the wanderer appears to exist within the level.
Song is called Seraph II, by How To Disappear Completely in the album Seraphim.
The Recursion (Level 525) is a row of rooms stretching infinitely in either direction, with wanderers manifesting in one of these rooms. Every room appears identical, each sporting the same walls and floor, 2 sockets, a window with blinds, an armchair, a ceiling light, a small lamp, and a green and white sign warning wanderers that the space is recursive, and to never lose sight of an exit. Excluding the window, blinds, and ceiling lights, none of the aforementioned objects can be moved or influenced in any perceivable way. Ceiling lights will gradually lose brightness the further away they are from a wanderer. Any action on the blinds or window will reciprocate and be imitated by every other blind and window in the level.
The Recursion is devoid of any resources and supplies and is affected by Alone (Phenomenon 15) making encounters with other wanderers impossible.
Staring outside the lone window in a room within The Recursion reveals a white void, staring back at the wanderer, though the mass of light from said void does not seep into the rooms. Climbing out of any window and stepping into the void serves as the only exit of the level.
The Recursion's stark lack of any resources or unique phenomena worth studying makes the level only useful as a brief space for respite, where one can rest on the floor or armchair until they are ready to make their foray into another level.
The Recursion can be entered from any other level through an accidental noclip, though this entrance has only been documented very few times. The level can be more consistently entered by falling asleep in a chair of any kind in any level, where they may then wake up in this level.
A wanderer can leave The Recursion by simply climbing out of any window in the level. They can land in any level after doing so, though the most common have currently been Abyss Inn (Level 19), Sublimity (Level 37) and Don't Happy, Be Worry (Level 81).
📂 Levels > + Standard Levels > VI 500-599 > 🪑 Level 525: "The Recursion"
Spin to win, till you drop!
Author: The Black Tar Heroin Needle Chillin' Behind Your Fridge
Page partly inspired by The Dying Level on the Liminal Archives.
Critiqued by Char and Tom
Ported by Tom
Image for level was created by and belongs to Eduardo Valdés Hevia, and can be found on his site, which contains a portfolio of his works. The image used can be found under the project WARNINGS. Further information of the photo can be found here.
Ambience is the song Seraph II (See on YouTube), which is within the album Seraphim by How to Dissapear Completely. Visit their Bandcamp community, along with their SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and Spotify.