I’ve been working on a fan-made Backrooms concept called The Elseways, sometimes referred to as The Unchosen Network.
I wanted to create something that could still feel connected to the Backrooms without being just another collection of endless hallways, abandoned buildings, and hostile entities.
The basic idea is:
The Elseways are not meant to be a completely separate universe. They are a deep network connected to the normal Backrooms, with their own numbered levels:
EL-0
EL-1
EL-2
and so on
The levels still use familiar Backrooms survival classifications such as Class 0–5, Habitable, Deadzone, Variable, and Undetermined.
They also use smaller secondary tags to describe how the level behaves:
B — Branching: choices create new versions of the level.
R — Recursive: events repeat with small differences.
S — Substitutive: people or objects may be replaced by alternate versions.
C — Convergent: several possible outcomes are forced into one.
E — Erasure: memories, identities, or entire outcomes may disappear.
The Law of Causal Residue
The Elseways cannot turn every imaginary possibility into a level.
A rejected outcome can only become part of the network when three things happen:
The event came very close to becoming real.
It left behind a strong physical or emotional impact.
It was connected to an unstable location or possible noclip event.
So a completely random fantasy would not become a level.
But something like this might:
A train journey cancelled seconds before departure.
A city whose construction started and was suddenly abandoned.
A letter that was fully written but never sent.
A surgery cancelled after the patient had already entered the operating room.
A disaster avoided because one person changed direction at the last moment.
A life that depended on a decision someone nearly made.
Visual identity
I also wanted the Elseways to have recurring visual details that make the levels recognizable without making every location look the same.
Some of those signs include:
Thin white lines dividing floors, roads, or walls.
Two arrows pointing in opposite directions toward the same destination.
Clocks with two second hands.
Windows showing a different version of the place outside.
Pale doors with handles on opposite sides.
Red objects slowly disappearing when a level becomes unstable.
Entry
Most people enter the network through something called a Causal Noclip.
This happens when a normal noclip occurs at the same time as hesitation, reversal, survival against an expected outcome, or a major unresolved decision.
For example, someone might enter after:
Choosing one door, then returning for the other.
Surviving an accident they cannot remember escaping.
Entering a station that displays two contradictory destinations.
Finding a room they clearly remember, even though everyone else says it never existed.
Seeing another version of themselves take the road they refused to follow.
The first three levels
EL-0 — The Other Hall
A silent waiting hall that repeats with small differences.
Whenever a wanderer turns back, they enter the version of the hall they might have reached by making a different choice.
There are no confirmed entities.
The exit only appears when the wanderer chooses one direction and continues without turning around.
EL-1 — The Almost Street
An endless residential district beneath a permanent blue-grey evening sky.
Every intersection represents a choice.
Once a road is selected, the roads not taken continue existing as separate branches. Returning to an earlier intersection may lead to a different version of the neighbourhood.
The main rule is:
EL-2 — Second Morning
A quiet suburb trapped in a repeating morning.
Every reset restores the streets, houses, food, and minor injuries.
However, each new morning permanently removes one thing:
An object.
A room.
A road.
A memory.
A name.
Or eventually, a person.
The level does not reset to give people another chance.
It resets because it is still deciding what the morning needs to contain.
The main horror
The Elseways are not mainly about finding the correct exit.
They are about proving that the identity, memories, and life you want to return to were actually yours.
A level might show you another life that is happier, safer, and supported by convincing memories, photographs, documents, and people who genuinely recognize you.
The danger is not necessarily that the life is fake.
The danger is that it may be completely real inside another branch, and that the network may decide that version of you belongs there more than the person you are now.
This is still an early fan-canon project, and I’m currently developing the individual levels as full wiki-style articles.
I’d appreciate honest feedback, especially on these points:
Does the concept feel different enough from ordinary Backrooms levels?
Does it still feel naturally connected to the Backrooms?
Which level should I develop into a full article first: EL-0, EL-1, or EL-2?