Overview
“The Database,” also referred to as “The Archives” within its source code, is a primitive, primordial search engine of anomalous origin hosted on BACK-NET. The Databases’ design and function are similar to web directories that saw popularity in the frontrooms during the 90s, such as Yahoo! Directory, while still having features that are standard for modern search engines like Google, such as search querying. The homepage of The Database features a long brownish-yellow bar that streaks across the top of the screen with the Database’s logo plastered asymmetrically in the middle of it. The bar is mostly empty and only has a “Random” button a bit to the left of the logo, which opens up a randomly picked page from the database. Particularly, the page directory lacks any proper categorization; instead, it features a preview log of recently created web pages, as well as any recent site edit. On the top right of the log, there is a clickable arrow “>” that displays an enormous page whose entire interface is a cluttered mess of links to recently created web pages, 10 being displayed on each row. The preview log also shows the raw UNIX timestamp of an edit, formatted as a small, gray piece of text below the hyperlink.
Groups such as the M.E.G., Backrooms Colonists, the Kauer Research Organization, and Ruphis Proletarium host their own directories that let one view entries for Levels, Entities, and Objects and group with proper moderation, though they are usually biased, and information on each GOI directory often contradicts each other. Efforts to compile various GOI directory entries into a less biased and more trustworthy directory have been tried but often end up unsuccessful as they are either annihilated by other groups through DDOS attacks or due to a general lack of time and energy, as survival is more critical to most. For this reason, most prefer to read articles written by independent wanderers if concerned by bias.
Properties
The Database is exclusively accessed by Backrooms terminals, as any Frontrooms devices capable of connecting to the internet or generally just capable of transferring data to other devices, such as smartphones, computers, and smartwatches, will cease to function, with the devices’ being permanently bricked. Once a device is bricked, an anomalous error screen is displayed on the device. It's an otherwise standard recovery screen for the devices’ specific operating system; however, the top of the screen displays text that states that the device has run into an error—the number of which being the 64-bit integer limit—alongside an additional piece of text on the bottom that reads, “This is not meant to be here.”
It allows wanderers to host web pages without any sort of moderation, with the page being hosted on one's terminal. The Database doesn't have any form of manual page hosting, as it's capable of recognizing when something in a Terminals filesystem is intended to be a web page and adds it to its directory automatically, allowing others to view it freely. The most common method to get the database to recognize a website is using certain keywords in the title, such as “LEVEL”, “GUIDE, “ENTITY, and “JOURNAL”. The database can mistakenly add a site to its directory even when it’s incomplete—though this doesn’t happen often.
Juxtaposed to BACK-NET's support of modern internal protocols, the Database is not built on standard Frontrooms scripting or programming languages such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to display web content; instead, the database itself does not seem to be built on standard binary or machine code, instead using an esoteric programming language, the syntax of which bears striking resemblance to Fortran 95 and Common Lisp. The language is commonly referred to as “Voidcode,” or simply just “Void” by wanderers, and custom compilers for it have been developed by various software teams, allowing one to create software or web pages that work with no additional hassle. Interestingly, The Database's source code is not obfuscated and can be easily accessed and viewed; however, it remains unmodifiable and uncompilable. This oddity has spawned many theories, the most notable of which professes that the database being accessible was planned beforehand, with the end goal of its creation being something that wanderers were intended to see.
Contents
The contents section of this entry is to document paranormal web page findings (more on that later) and, as well as describe what sites one would usually see while on The Database.
As stated previously, GOIs host their own unique directories that let one view a moderated list of entries of Levels, Entities, and Objects. Some of these directories also include the organization’s history and pages for other groups. One can easily find these sites by searching for their name, as pages impersonating them are usually taken down in fear that they will be used to spread misinformation or propaganda that goes against the groups’ beliefs.
Other than that, The Database hosts a slew of random web pages created by wanderers, usually in the form of journals, personal blogs, tales, and informational websites such as the Unofficial Campus Documentation Club. There are also more complicated and technical websites that allow one to contact other wanderers digitally or for mass content distribution, examples for the former being Backchat and for the latter, LimLibrary.
Strangely enough, various wanderers have reported finding pages with negative UNIX time-stamps that date back to BC times, as well as the early 400s, with these pages being written in various, now archaic languages such as—but not limited to—Sumerian Cuneiform, Turkic, and Old Church Slavonic. These pages are devoid of stylization and images, only containing text. On 15/10/2098, Kauer Organization web crawlers found two web pages that violate the trend of the usual pages found on the database via the “Random Page” function. The first web page found will be referred to as DBSITE001. DBSITE001 is labelled under an unintelligible slew of letters along with a long negative UNIX timestamp that went across the screen. The UNIX timestamp of the web page was identified to be from 900,000 BC, the oldest site discovered yet, which even predates the existence of modern humans. The page itself consists of 4 paragraphs written in an unknown language and script. Attempts at deciphering this language are underway.
The second webpage found, which is titled as ENTITY SAFETY GUIDE, is a supposed step-by-step guide written in English, whose main target audience is entities; the exact entity catered to this site is unknown. It is a detailed, step-by-step guide for entities on how to hunt humans. The content itself is graphic and contains explicit instructions on chasing, subduing, and ultimately killing humans. The page is stylized with a black background and Arial text. The page is stylized with a black background and bold red text in Arial, including a highly disturbing image of a gored victim. The guide includes a “Tips and Tricks” section offering advice on taking advantage of humans when they’re vulnerable, such as attacking lone wanderers instead of an entire outpost. A version of the site without graphic imagery is available, although the descriptions of the hunting process remain stomach-wrenching. Viewer discretion is advised, as the page contains graphic and explicit descriptions of violence.
Entity attacks can be life-threatening, stressful, and daunting. The page below is a guide helping you prepare for an entity attack step-by-step if it ever comes to that.
Keep in mind that being alone with minimal lighting are the most susceptible locations where an attack can happen, and the occasion that these areas are avoided stops entity attacks, which guarantees a chance for escape.
Keep in mind that weapons such as liquid pain and conventional firearms deter entity attacks, though it’s very uncommon for a wanderer to have said weapons.
Keep in mind that staying out in an open area or outdoor level gives greater vision, making entity attacks have a lower success rate, ultimately making a chance for escape all the more likely.
The first step to catching prey is setting the environment, the characteristics of this desired environment are as follows: Ideally you want to be in a dark area that has little to no room for prey to escape, making it an easy catch. You might need to develop some pain tolerance too in-case the prey have defenses loaded into it. The most lethal weapon of prey is Liquid Pain. its the thick red liquid that is super corossive, you know what i mean.
The second and very crucial method is knowing your area and surroundings. This heavily complements the first step and is very important as you have to know the structure of your level and where common supply objects are. You must know the locations of nearby human colonies, escape routes, nearby level access points, and the anomalous properties that your inhabited level may have. Knowing these pieces of information allows you to easily traverse your area and hunt prey more efficiently by cutting off key locations, setting up ambushes, and overall higher success rates when hunting.
The third thing you should be aware of is that you are stronger and faster than a single human and can get confident in hunting pretty much free of risk. Though you still have to keep in mind that sometimes prey can be carrying defensive tools.
Now with all that out of the way, it's time for your actual hunt!
Entity attacks are simple with little hassle as long as you're prepared and have proper technique when effectively catching prey. You can use any form of force for dispatching of prey such as brunt force, a swift bite, or any one of the anomalous abilities you may have. A usual hunt just consists of waiting in the dark until prey comes walking by, tips for luring prey is to try to mimic anything you heard from humans previously or make percussive noises against a nearby wall, they'll just be drawn to you.
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After successfully luring prey, a quick and powerful attack out of the dark will leave it shocked and the perfect target. If prey somehow manages to escape your initial attack, you know your area better than they do, so use your advantage of knowing the area to chase prey faster and cut off key areas, once again, keep in mind that you run faster and are stronger than any ordinary humans. If you ever find yourself in an unfamiliar environment, there is not much advice I can give besides improvising and adapting to the situation at hand, spots that generally look like exits out of the level are: Doors that look out of place, transition zones that look differently from the level you're in, and a dimly lit, descending staircase which leads to The Metro. If you don't know what the metro is, its pretty much resembles Level 154 where you're mysteriously repelled if you try to go enter the staircase.
However....If you ever encounter a human with a dark suit and red stripes, bearing an image of a creature resembling a Hound but with a long snout on its shoulder pad, leave the area immediately. These groups of humans are no joke, they most definitely have experience in dealing with you and other entities in the level you are in, and are equipping weapons specialized in dispatching you and WILL terminate you on sight. If you still think they are fodder, these groups of humans are able to kill many marauders and successfully repel a marauder raid--The guys with super futuristic technology whom we thought were immortal. If you killed one, there's likely tons more nearby, waiting to take revenge for their fallen comrades.
Origin
The date of last modification, found by installing the database’s source code and looking in the properties, doesn’t follow standard formatting of UNIX timestamps and instead is a negative with the sign of infinity. This points to the idea that the database has been around since the beginning of the Backrooms and is older than the current universe as we know it. It’s hypothesized that the database is the Backrooms counterpart of search engines like the previously mentioned Yahoo, which is thought to be the result of the Backrooms’ distortion of what are usually ordinary Frontrooms objects.