““Sing, O great Muse, of the daemon son of the old sea god Phorcys, son of Pontos the Sea who in turn sprang from the Earth's womb,
He who made the gruelling journey the lesser daemons of Strife, daughter of black Night as claimed by great poet Hesiod, could merely dream of,
Who travelled from the inky depths of Poseidon Earth-shaker's wine-dark house where he was born and whence he hailed
To the blood-bathed innards of Tartarus the Black Pit, where at last he found peace, at least as daemon-kind know it...”— The opening lines of the Phrikeid.
ENTITY NO. 18
THREAT LEVEL
5
Habitat:
Level 5
Aggression: 4/5
Not actively hostile unless provoked
Intellect: 5/5
Surpasses human IQ
Danger: 5/5
Attacks are mainly fatal
Overview
Entity 18, most typically alluded to as the Beast of Level 5 (albeit also less commonly known as the Beast of Terror Hotel or the Terror of Level 5), is an eldritch sapient creature lurking deep within Level 5. Though he is mostly considered a force of nature by many wanderers, being the supposed cause or even the embodiment of the constant unease and insanity permeating the Terror Hotel, the Beast does indeed have a physical form; taking the vaguely humanoid shape of a chimaeric conglomeration of human, octopus and deathmoth dressed in a furred black suit. Additionally, he is known to possess an anomalous camouflaging ability similar to those of regular octopi, allowing him to blend in so well with his surroundings that he is practically invisible to the mortal eye.
The Beast of Level 5 appears to possess godlike powers, able to make the hallways and chambers of Level 5 shift at his will. The architecture of the level has been known to even defy the laws of conventional physics at his command, with corridors looping back on each other to trap wanderers; entire sections of the hotel intersecting hallways at a perpendicular angle to block them off; and even walls closing in on wanderers and crushing them in some gruesome imitation of a hydraulic press. How exactly these satanic powers were acquired is left to speculation, though it is worth noting that the Beast only possesses his reality-warping powers in hotel levels such as the Abyss Inn, Level 188, and — of course — his home turf; in other levels, he is simply as dangerous as any demonic human-moth-octopus chimaera would be.
It is believed that the Beast is currently in possession of Level 5's level key.
Behaviour
The Beast of Level 5 is able to harness the Akashic Field, specifically its Empathic Subfield,[1] being able to detect and warp the emotions of other sentient creatures. In fact, he is such a powerful empath that a sort of "empathic aura" surrounds him like a magnetic or gravitational field, instilling terror into whomever comes too close to him. When in possession of his godlike powers, the range of this aura is amplified a thousandfold, thus creating the constant atmosphere of terror that permeates his lair of the Terror Hotel.
The Beast mostly keeps to his own level, stalking the shadows of his hotel and, on occasion, selecting a victim wandering the level to prey upon. According to firsthand accounts, any unfortunate individual chosen as the Beast's prey will suddenly feel far more terrified and paranoid, and begin to show signs of Roth Syndrome over the course of several days, until they are practically driven to the brink of insanity. However, just before the turning point when one effectively becomes a wretch, all signs of madness and paranoia will inexplicably vanish from the victim, and the Beast himself will manifest before them in a usually flamboyant and zesty manner (these entrances include emerging from a column of flame that erupts in front of the victim, or materialising in a violent flash of purple light).[2]
Following this dramatic entrance, the Beast typically offers its victim a deal — the victim can trade their soul in exchange for whatever they crave most (e.g. safety, adventure, paradise, or even love).[3] Many researchers have theorised about what exactly the term "soul" refers to in this context; it seems that ownership of a "soul" grants the Beast much power over the actions and emotions of his victims — though he often does not exercise full control of his thralls, as he seems to find the natural behaviour of humans in distress quite amusing. Interestingly, there have been accounts of several individuals who have escaped the clutches of the Beast through mental fortitude alone — though these are few and far between — suggesting that the entity only retains power over an individual if they are lacking in mental strength.[4]
Despite his reputation as a fearsome entity, the Beast of Level 5 actually maintains a gentlemanly demeanour throughout the proposal and is known to always keep his word after a deal is struck. In the event that a wanderer accepts the Beast's bargain, the pact will first be made binding with a handshake, before the individual is then allowed to exit the level with the blessings the Beast has granted them — although, one may say, these blessings are truly a curse. In addition, the promises of the Beast are often subject to a specific time allotment, usually one of several years, after which their time will be up and the Beast will begin his terrifying hunt.
Once the allotted time of the deal is over, the Beast will begin to traverse through the levels (usually under guise of his powerful camouflage) in pursuit of his thrall. Though he still only possesses his godly powers on hotel levels, it seems that the empathic connection between the victim and the Beast grants the latter a great deal of might, even allowing him to enter levels classified as "safe" under regular circumstances.[5] Furthermore, many instances of this dreadful hunt have involved the entity threatening people or objects important to his prey in a manipulative effort to capture them more easily. Once the Beast has caught his victim, he slinks back to Level 5 with them, oftentimes leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The exact fate that awaits thralls of the demonic entity remains unknown at present.
However, if a victim of the Beast chooses not to accept his deal, the entity will instantly lose his cordial demeanour and begin to enact a physical attack on the unfortunate wanderer. These attacks are known to consist of many fearsome assaults — including, but not limited to, the prey being suddenly engulfed in flames; eldritch tentacles rising from the ground and suffocating or ripping apart the victim; or even the ceiling of the hotel descending and squashing the wanderer — and by some are considered even worse a fate than acceptance of the Beast's devilish pact. Across the millennia of history the Beast of Level 5 possesses, only fourteen wanderers are known to have ever escaped one of its physical attacks, and all of them reportedly underwent a full transformation into wretches shortly afterwards.
In regards to speech, the Beast of Level 5 has been known to use Latin and the language of his addressee interchangeably. He speaks with what is described as "an undeterminable accent, resembling those of the ancient Germanic tongues, yet also a tinge of the Italian eloquence, and at times even bearing semblance to the stereotypical East Asian accent." Even in the way he converses, the Beast truly is an enigma.
Biology
When assuming physical form, the Beast of Level 5 takes the shape of a humanoid figure with a head resembling a dark blue octopus, his eyes an otherworldly violet. He stands at around 6'2", with two pairs of arms — the upper set resembling mottled blue tentacles; whereas the lower pair are more akin to those of a human, albeit having clawed hands with sharpened ungues of what appears to be steel. According to every known eyewitness account of the Beast, he is always seen clad in a fashionable and furry black suit and pointed, buckled black leather shoes resembling footwear common in the eighteenth century. Interestingly, the furred outer jacket of his suit appears to actually be a massive pair of moth-wings, and several accounts describe him unfurling them to extinguish flames or blow objects and wanderers away with a powerful draught.
Intriguingly, the Beast's tentacles (both those on the bottom of his head and those which act as his upper limbs) are able to produce moth jelly. This production seems to be fully controlled by the Beast himself, as it has not been witnessed occurring except as a natural instinct due to being startled (an event that, for obvious reasons, does not happen often) — similar to how an octopus produces ink as a natural reaction when frightened. It is unknown whether the Beast requires nutrition to survive, but researchers believe that if this is the case, this self-produced moth jelly is likely to be his main source of food.
When commencing a physical attack, the Beast assumes a twisted humanoid form in a similar fashion to the Mime:[6] his stature grows to over 4 metres (approximately 13ft); his claws sharpen and elongate into shining blades; the tentacles on the bottom of his head undulate furiously; and his purple eyes split into compound orbs like those of a moth, thousands of tiny twinkling violet lights shining from dark eyeballs. It is unknown what the purpose of this transmogrification is, although it is likely that the reason behind it is simply to intimidate.
Carefully performed X-ray scans and other forms of research[7] have revealed that, similarly to many standard octopi, the Beast seems to have three hearts and a ring-shaped brain which wraps around his oesophagus. Furthermore, his tentacles and limbs seem to house up to two-thirds of his neurons, meaning that even brain-death would not be enough to permanently kill him. The final noteworthy piece of data discovered by this endeavour was that, instead of blood, the Beast has an anomalous form of haemolymph running through his veins.
History
The earliest records of the Beast of Level 5 were made in ancient Greek times, with accounts describing a man of massive stature bearing the head of an ancient sea creature from the depths of Poseidon's forsaken domain. Moreover, ancient Roman records unearthed in Level 6 detailed a similar figure, a monstrous slave-trader who wished to make all human beings his eternal servants. Perhaps the most famous depiction of the Beast in antiquity, however, was the ancient Greek epic poem known as the Phrikeid, a completely fictional work of literature describing the Beast's perilous journey from Level 7 (where, according to the epic, he was born to the old sea gods Phorcys and Ceto) to the purgatory of Level 5 — the latter apparently being the long-sought "Promised Land" of daemons like himself.
In around the year 911CE, a group of wandering scribes stumbled across a painting — a photograph of which is shown above — in Level 1, and one of them sketched its appearance in their notebook. This notebook was subsequently discovered by the M.E.G. in the humid brick sweatshop of Level 3, whereupon they realised that the painting seemed to be depicting the Beast of Level 5. This kickstarted a search for the painting in the Parking Zone, and in 2009 it was finally rediscovered — however, researchers noted several differences between the actual Beast and his painted likeness: the portrait seemed to be missing his upper tentacular limbs; and his eyes were deemed not nearly violet enough. Due to the inherent mysterious nature of Level 1's paintings, the M.E.G. have been unable to determine whether the portrait is a creation of the Backrooms itself or an eyewitness's depiction of the Beast; howbeit, researchers have been able to use xenon dating[8] to estimate the time when this painting was created — approximately 100,000 years ago, far before the first human records of the entity, and indeed far before humans even began to paint on canvas.
The first known victim of the Beast to ever escape thraldom was a young female scribe living during the Medieval Era, who chronicled in her journal a life living in fear before the Beast began his hunt for her; and how she decided that she would be a slave to terror no more, eventually ceasing in trying to evade him and instead confronting him face-to-face in his own home. This display of sheer courage and bravery miraculously allowed the scribe to regain her "soul" from the Beast, as well as surprising the eldritch entity so much that he allegedly stood, shocked and unmoving, for several seconds, allowing his escaped thrall time to flee from the site. What happens after this is unclear, although — as the journal was discovered in Level 188 with no other trace of the scribe, it has been deemed likely that she subsequently lived out the rest of her life in the Windows.
The Beast of Level 5 recently made a guest appearance in Sir Caius Taggert's 2024 parody duet "Ad Periculum Transitus (ft. The Beast of Level 5)",[9] a satire on the popular track "APT." with lyrics written entirely in Latin. He similarly appeared in the music video for this parody, which was apparently recorded within an abandoned house under the Bloodmoon. This appearance was completely unexpected and took the Backrooms by storm, although certain groups (especially the Party Crashers) remain sceptical about whether Sir Taggert had really managed to coerce the Beast into creating the duet with him, or if it was all yet another orchestration of false grandeur by the Party Host.
Names and Epithets
Ancient Greek & Retru Latin. To the ancient Greeks, the Beast of Level 5 was a daemon known as Phrike (Ancient Greek: Φρικη), a son of the primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto — likely on account of his octopoid features.[10] Similarly, to the ancient Romans, he was known as Horror (the Retru Latin translation of Φρικη), though on many occasions the epithet Venalcius (meaning "slave-dealer") was given to him because of his tendency to turn mortal souls into his thralls. In both of these cultures, the Beast is also given the epithet Aegypteus or Aigyptios (Ancient Greek: Αἰγύπτιος), meaning "Egyptian", because of the well-known myth in which the Greco-Roman gods fled from the giant Typhon in semi-animalistic form — thus drawing parallels to the Beast's chimaeric nature.
Classical Chinese. To the Chinese of yore, the Beast of Level 5 was a powerful yaoguai known as the Squid Demon-king (Traditional Chinese: 魷魔王; pinyin: Yóu Mówáng), a ruthless and evil creature who made no truces or alliances and instead devoted his time to obliterating all life which strayed too near to him, whether it be a Celestial, a mortal or another demon. He was apparently said to possess a "Staff of Slaughter" (Traditional Chinese: 殺戮棒; pinyin: Shālù Bàng), a weapon able to slice through any surface (tangible or intangible), rivalling even the Golden-Banded Staff of Sun Wukong. The basis of this legendary staff is unknown, although modern researchers assume it refers to either a heavily misinterpreted level key or the man-catcher of Caius Taggert, who (as apparently evidenced via their duet) may be an acquaintance of the Beast.
Old English. To the late Anglo-Saxons who adopted Christianity, the Beast of Level 5 was the Devil incarnate, and hence they gave him the name Deofol, literally meaning "devil, Satan". Moreover, many spiteful yet plain epithets were attached to this name, including Fyren (meaning "fiery"), Niþerweard (meaning "netherward"), or even simply Yfel (meaning "evil"); however, the most common title for the Beast in Old English was Hellebroga, a poetic term literally referring to "the terror of Hell". Indeed, this particular name is what evolved into our modern English title for the entity, as the term "Beast" is a commonly utilised to refer to the Devil.
Old Norse. Despite the fame of the Kraken in the Norse mythos, the ancient Norsemen who originally devised Old Norse did not, in fact, consider cephalopods a common or well-known creature in their homeland and the waters surrounding it; as such, they drew no parallels between octopi and the Beast of Level 5 despite its tentacular appearance. In fact, it appears that the Norsemen — likely due to misinterpretations of tales told across generations — somehow managed to conflate the Beast with a wyrm, naming him Drekinn Herbergisins, which means "Dragon of the Inn". In regards to epithets, a commonly given title to the Beast was Ógnarligr, meaning "dreadful" or "terrible".
Theories
The Corruption Theorem. One of the earliest hypotheses formulated about the Beast, the Corruption Theorem states that the entity was once a wanderer who, upon no-clipping into the Backrooms, somehow managed to skip past the initial five levels and was sent to Level 5 in a strenuous bending of reality requiring far greater force than anything since the Xenon Fulmination. It is theorised that, during this physics-warping process, the Beast's DNA was inexplicably bonded with that of deathmoths and several species of ancient cephalopods — which, according to the Backroom Colonists' discovery of extremely rare fossils in the seabed, once thrived in Level 7 before they were presumably killed off by the Thing on Level 7 — thus corrupting the wanderer into the Beast of Level 5 as we know him today.
The Octopode Theorem. The Octopode Theorem states that the Beast of Level 5 is the last remaining survivor of a once-thriving race of octopus-headed hominids which researchers call "Octopodes", supposedly predating even Homo callidus. This theorem stems from the fact that the most famous artwork of the Beast — the painting in Level 1 — has many discrepancies with the true appearance of the entity, suggesting that it may actually depict one of his ancestors that had not yet evolved six limbs or striking purple eyes. This hypothesis is flimsy at best, however, as we do not yet know what could have killed off this alleged race of Octopodes, nor how they would have managed to evolve to gain DNA extremely similar to that of deathmoths.
The Tulpa Theorem. True to its name, the Tulpa Theorem states that the Beast of Level 5 is actually a tulpa formed by the phenomenon of tulpaefication, perhaps a god worshipped by the sapients of the Backrooms who predated humanity. The evidence provided for this theory is the sheer bizarre appearance of the Beast, which researchers call "something only the human (or semi-human) mind could think into existence." Additionally, the theory purports that the Beast's ability to manipulate the Empathic Subfield may also stem from his tulpic origins, as many tulpae have an affinity with the Akashic Field.[11]
The Utmost Gospel. In the shadows of Level 5, there lurks a cult of mostly American wanderers known simply as the "Gospellians", considered insane and uncouth by nearly every major faction of the Backrooms. The Gospellians have been known to purport a ridiculous theory called the "Utmost Gospel", which states that the Beast of Level 5 is a tulpa formed due to the constant memorisation of a mnemonic in American schools overwhelming the Akashic Field and creating a supreme being with a might rivalling that of deities. The mnemonic referred to is one to remember the names of the Great Lakes of North America, reading as "Shake My Hand, Evil Octopus" (for Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario); according to the Utmost Gospel, this simple phrase led to the manifestation of a literal humanoid octopus who — in striking Faustian bargains — shakes hands with wanderers. This theory is considered by many to be one of the most unlikely hypotheses to ever have graced the Backrooms.
Footnotes
- ↑ This subfield of the Akashic consists of psychic energy relating to emotions rather than cognitive thought.
- ↑ In certain cases, it has been recorded that the Beast seemed either to forget that he had ever chosen this victim, or ignored them for no good reason in particular; and the unlucky individuals in question then completed their full transformation into a wretch.
- ↑ This has been likened to the age-old trope of the Deal with the Devil; and, indeed, the Beast has been known to sometimes refer to his deals as Faustian bargains — an alternative name for such a pact.
- ↑ It is, in fact, extremely difficult to retain one's mental fortitude as a thrall, as the Beast of Level 5 is able to exercise nigh-full control over one's emotional state.
- ↑ There have been two cases in the past three decades which involved the invasion of Level 399 by the Beast in an attempt to claim what is, by contract, rightfully his.
- ↑ The Beast actually possesses many other similarities to the Mime, including their shared harnessing of Shifting Geometry and association with tentacles.
- ↑ Despite the M.E.G. taking great caution while conducting this research, many of the wanderers who assisted in it were eventually subject to death or enslavement at the hands of the Beast.
- ↑ Xenon dating is a method used to determine the age of a material or a combination of materials based on how much xenon-136 it contains. This works because of an ancient and enigmatic catastrophic event called the Xenon Fulmination, when xenon-136 levels in the Backrooms suddenly and inexplicably skyrocketed, before beginning to fall at a far slower rate, allowing for the vague estimation of an era based on the relative amount of xenon contained within any particular object.
- ↑ Meaning "passage towards danger" in Latin.
- ↑ Note that, in the Frontrooms, another Greco-Roman deity known as Phrike exists, a daemona — likely a child of Nyx or Eris — who embodies horror.
- ↑ An obvious exception to this rule is, of course, the infamous entity with roots in tulpaefication known as the clump.
Rewrite Author: The Bishop
Original Author: Homie Robot
Including concepts by: Stormy, 1morro.com, Dulling, Forknife
Greenlighter: Cringey