The General Public Database (G.P.D.)

Greetings. If you, or anyone for that matter, have lived in the Backrooms for any amount of time, you've probably heard of something known as "the Database", "the Forums", or as we are actually known, the G.P.D. (often spelt as "GPD". Both are fine, really). At this point, it's come to the point that anyone who manages to survive Level 0, or is lucky enough to not noclip into that level at all from Earth, knows about and uses our databases. We have embedded ourselves into just about every single facet of the average Wanderer's online life, something that has grown ever-more present after the 1990's, it is to be expected.

Since the Second World War, we have become the home to a grand array of physical archives (which is how we started, in-fact), a digital archive with thousands of documentation pieces, sub-sites and smaller databases held within us, and a variety of chat/image boards. "Social Media", if you will. At this point, we are almost everywhere, but despite that few seem to know who we are, and fewer are aware we are a real organisation created by humans. Theories about us being mysterious and a group bathed in shadow have been prevalent on our own chat forums, as have theories that we were created entities or in fact have existed since the dawn of time itself. While these are entertaining, especially for us, they are as fun as they are false, which is to say that they are very false.

Spurred on by our first in-person interactions with the M.E.G. during a current time of crisis for nearly everyone, we have taken the time to do some documentation of our own, especially now considering that most groups of generous size are… busy. For lack of a better way of describing it. As such, after only 79 years, we have elected to make an actual page to describe who we are, where we are, what we do, where we come from, and who we affiliate with the most.

So, who are we.

Our film reel archives for the year 1990. Yes, we're surprised at how much there is too.

In our eyes, even trying to look over our humility, we are nothing special. At our core, we archive, and in the simplest terms that is all we do. To explain ourselves more in-depth, which is the point of this page's existence, we a neutral, non-aligned, externally apolitical¹ group. Anything created by humans for any purpose we have the interest in preserving (or copying) to for the sake of creating as complete of a historical timeline of everything as we can. That is not to say we will go to inhuman, lethal, or frankly suicidal lengths to protect and document everything, though. We won't host a funeral if we fail to stop a Woolworth's receipt going into the gutters of Level 159, but we will absolutely itemise it meticulously if we get our hands on it.

Many may think the fact that our care to catalogue and preserve nearly everything is futile or pointless or impossible, and while it certainly is impossible, it is definitely not those other two things. As our original founders, may they rest in piece, were archaeologists and history tutors, they were all too familiar with the annoying gaps a lack of documentation leaves. In-depth records from the era of King Tut allow us to know a great deal about his life and what he did, but where is the similar archival sources for the common man? The answer is, of course, nowhere. Really, being able to learn about the average joe is a recent commonality, thanks to reading, writing, and the internet being commonplace. Those primary sources only last for however long they are preserved, which is exactly why we exist. At best, that Woolworth's receipt helps figure out a key moment in Joe Schmoe's life, and at worst you can figure out the price of tomato soup in 1988. Either are grand. The only things we do not store and archive in physical form is stuff that would be too dangerous or too inhumane to. Dangerous objects are a no-go, as are all phenomenon for obvious reasons, and keeping any entity of any kind is just cruel.

Part of our ethos is, obviously, to be used by people. Cataloguing is good, but having those catalogues be utilised is better. We desire to make lives easier for everybody, which is why we opted to branch out in the ways that we did. Source from us, cite us, spend hours digging around in our digital and overly meticulous servers (the physical print stuff is strictly off-limits, but thankfully we scan everything physical we find.²), as at the end of the day we exist for the benefit of others and not for ourselves. That being said, we do cite ourselves a lot.

Where are we located.

Other servers tend to be bigger.

As we are a human-led, non Backborn founded organisation, we obviously come from somewhere. Truth be told, we have never been coy or discrete about our HQ and position within the Backrooms, and frankly we will just tell anyone who asks. After learning that the M.E.G. did not even know we had a HQ until a month ago,³ though, we figure it's probably best to just state it outright. Again, it's not like we hide ourselves, we have protections and safeguards.

Our HQ is simply known as "us" or "the G.P.D." by us who work and live here, however such a vague title seems to not do for a great many other groups who choose to catalogue us. We have been known under many names, such as "Level 946" by the M.E.G., as well as "Level 4412" by another similar group. A group inspired by the M.E.G. regarded us as "Level 15" when they happened to stumble upon us accidentally, and an attempt at restructuring the common level list from the ground up very kindly put us as "Level 0". They, unfortunately, did not last very long. We have previously been known as Scene-02.9 and Technological 2, but those names are even more out of fashion and even more dead than the group who called us Level 0.

Putting aside the complicated history of our many names, our location is somewhere discreet, off to the far reaches of the observable Backrooms multiverse.⁴ It has evolved heavily since its original occupation in 1942, both thanks to natural level evolution and direct interference. The entire level has been modified and enhanced, containing a mix of servers and storage spaces, and some places for us to live as well. Since we have existed for nearly a century, the seasoned members of this organisation have lived here since birth. Many do not even work on the database, but instead work on food or general upkeep of our home level itself, which can be read about separately.

On the topic of non-database duties, the General Public Database also has a second place of residency in the outskirts of Level 11's main inhabited area. This area is used mainly for resource gathering and extra residential areas for newly accepted staff members, as the levels which connect to Level 946/Level 4412/what-have-you are not the most lucrative of places when it comes to varied resources. Not in the way that Level 11 is. Since it's a big journey between Level 11 and Level 946, supplies are transported in big processions once every two months, and newer members are trained on how to manage archival duties using duplicate or digitally isolated media to not risk damaging precious archives.

Our origins

The servers being set up in January of 1943 by two of the original G.P.D. founders.

As pretty directly stated already, our group was officially founded in 1943, February 28th. Before that, however, the group (which did not have a name at the time) was operating out of what is now known as Level 1. Not counting the extra stragglers which came and went in 1942, the group was made of Helen Meanwood, Kelly Aitken, and Joan Mary. All three, despite the time period, were employed and well-off. Helen and Kelly were teachers, educating middle schools and colleges respectfully on different facets of history, and Joan operated a freelance archaeology business which she travelled frequently for. Despite living so far apart, since Helen lived in New York, Kelly lived in Cincinnati, and Joan travelled multiple countries, the trio still talked through letters and phoning, and met up during winters.

Despite being an original member (noclipping along with the other two just a week after America entered the Second World War), Joan Mary would unfortunately meet a gruesome end to a Smiler after getting lost in Level 3. Desperate to preserve her memory, the other two founders (as well as the others who camped with them) kept as much of her belongings as she could, which included their journal. As Joan's death was caused by a lack of knowledge of Level 3 and Smilers, and could have been circumvented if she had the means to communicate easily, what started off as a way to preserve her memory became a want to ensure it never happened again. In the latter half of 1942, the duo teamed up with a group known as PUG (standing for Poli's Unified Group), and agreed to use their expertise as primitive computer technicians and scientists for the war effort in Ireland for help establishing something similar to the Frontrooms' telephone system.

The initial idea was to transmit radiowaves across the Backrooms, utilising an object which is now colloquially known as "Wi-Fi". This object is, in the broadest sense, an invisible yet numerous wave that exists across the Backrooms and the Blue Channel, and can interact remotely with one another. PUG hoped to construct a receiver for these waves with a specific, modifiable frequency to pick up only the audio sent through the Wi-Fi waves. Initial tests were successful, but what shocked both groups was the fact that this process worked for almost anything. While the Lost had previously used these waves to send written notes quickly between levels,⁵ it had largely become a forgotten art. What further surprised the two organisations, though, was the direct sending of electrical signals between locations. Combining primitive computer technologies, materials and items unique to the Backrooms, and the Wi-Fi object birthed the first digital space and chatroom by 1955, an invention which predated Talkomatic by 18 years. The first image posted on this forum was a picture of a Blub Cat.

Of course, by 1955, the General Public Database had already been a hub for groups to donate their written materials (be it actual documentation or otherwise, which few actually did), with the built servers designed to list what was being stored physically and display photos and scans of them. During the 50's, 60's, and especially the 70's, we received a boom in traffic. Thanks to the PUG making talks with the Backrooms Remodelling Company on our behalf, they did the modifications to Wi-Fi done by us but on a Backrooms-wide scale. Every sprouting up monitor and terminal across the Backrooms was tuned into our database. Many began to use it for information seeking, saving lives and even led to people making new discoveries. Permission to add one's own documents to the digital-only records was opened in '66, and chatrooms were made completely completely public in '69. This network would later be known as the Backweb in '93, designed to be a tongue-and-cheek reference to the Internet of the Frontrooms, a gag which became especially relevant when fragments of said internet began to project onto the Wi-Fi object, allowing partial access to it for Backrooms residents.

Unsurprisingly, Helen and Kelly are both deceased, passing away in 03' and '08 respectfully, and having retired from work over a decade prior. Long before this, though, they stepped down as the figureheads and leaders of the GPD, and allowed it to run under the systems of its servers and the circadian rhythms of its gradually acquired staff. As Level 946 became gradually more self-sustaining, and especially when employees started to live on the site, children began to arise. These children were raised in 946, and would be encouraged to work for G.P.D. in any capacity they could. A great majority of the modern staff have been involved with this group and project their entire lives, as will the next upcoming generation.

The good (and bad) eggs.

As we stay neutral and non-aligned to, well, basically everyone and everything (besides the PUG, but they don't exactly exist anymore), we very rarely interact directly with other groups. That being said, we do have opinions on them, particularly the groups who upload directly to our database or to their own sub branch of it. We won't list everybody, because let's be honest that would be tedious, but we will list the groups which have had the biggest effects on us. Both positive and negative.

Backrooms Remodelling Company

Active ???? - Present.

Yes, a group that has been around for… forever, as far as we can tell. They're entity majority, and obviously most of their time as a group within the Backrooms has been spent not on our database. When we reached out to them during the 1950's, however, they were elated to work on such a project, happy to get away from doing the same old boring level renovations and other commissions. Apparently, they're not one to really keep notes and records, and tend to play everything by ear, but they started to upload their documents and chat transcripts to us when we went Backrooms-wide.

Despite not being business partners for decades now, we still hold them to a nice regard. Strange and different to us, perhaps, and definitely with a strange work ethic, but we appreciate their existence all the same.

The Lost

Active Approx. 1025 BCE - Present.

The Lost are similar to the B.R.C. in many ways, most prevalently in the fact that they are very, very old. Their existence can at least be traced back thanks to records of Nua, and while they were not the first group ever to exist in the Backrooms, they are most certainly the toughest. Or, if you look at it from another lens, the most stubborn. We like them either way.

Like the B.R.C., we have actually worked with the Lost in the past. At our inception, entire centuries after the Lost downscaled their empire, they willingly approached us and donated to us great swathes of their ancient documentation and record keeping. In the years since, we have become the Lost's sole custodians for both their present day writings and ancient ones.

Backrooms Robotics

Active Circa 1851 - Present.

Despite having unknown origins, our cross-referencing with all kinds of physical media tell us that the Backrooms Robotics came to being some time after the extinction of the Macchina, utilising and modernising the steam technology they had left behind and using it for humans. In essence, they became the human equivalent of the Backrooms Remodelling Company, but with a focus on technological adaption and innovation rather than level editing and modernisation.

Despite being one of the first groups to use us, and dumping just under a century of written documents onto us unannounced, we have done little with the group and do not think of them too well. They are seedy and self interested, and frankly it brings joy to be able to write that here knowing there is nothing they can do about it. However, for impartiality, they are still allowed to document on us. Just do not interact with them.

The PUG

Active 1939 - 1987.

For those who have the ability of retention, you'll know that this former group have already been discussed at length before. They were a group that began in December of 1939, months after Europe entered the Second World War. Many of the original members were soldiers, widows, and as already described, computer technicians and scientists. They documented like the Leaders did, and like how the M.E.G. still do, and were the forebearers of what is considered contemporary Backrooms documentation. Unfortunately, the group merged with Emstable in 1987 after its self-declaration of being a Micronation, due to the fact that its still-living founder (Ivy Poli) was the sister to one of Emstable's founders (Atlas Poli). Due to Ivy's old age and Emstable's apparent need for servers, and their refusal to use ours, their generational expertise went to them.

Thankfully, we have never had to interact with Emstable, but PUG we had always been on good terms with. From our similar histories to the fact that they helped birth the database you are literally reading this on right now, they have always been a favourite to us.