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Warhammer 40K: Backrooms Timeline: M31, First Century
014 M31. In the aftermath of Magnus' destruction of the Webway gate in the Imperial Palace and the full retreat of Chaotic forces after Horus' death, the Emperor, as one of his last acts before being interred on the Golden Throne, rerouted the damaged portal to a separate location. An endless series of dimensions where the grasp of the Warp was weakened, time flowed 90 times as quickly as the Materium, and there was no known presence of any of the Imperium's enemies. From what he explained before being hooked into his new life support system, it had existed since before the universe began, and would exist afterward. Originally, he had intended to set up a specific connection to it as part of the Webway network, a fallback position for the entire species if something happened to cause a second Age of Strife or something similarly calamitous. The lack of Daemonic presence was easily explained by the fact that, while Blanks were completely unbothered, Psykers suffered a drop in power roughly equally one grade. An Alpha would become akin to a Beta, a Beta a Gamma, and so on. As this seemed to apply to psychic phenomena in general, it would in turn make Daemons both exponentially more difficult to summon and maintain, and far weaker. Orks and Eldar would be similarly crippled, if not quite to the same degree, and the only active portal that existed lay in the very heart of the Imperium. Thus, it was a simple matter to begin colonization, though the Emperor had made note of a few dangers and precautions therein.
There were a number of reasons this had not been the Emperor's original plan. First, an inherent feeling of wrongness to the spaces, as if they were an Abominable Intelligences idea of where humanity would live and work. Even the very first of the dimensions was an unfathomably massive space, all done in a yellow rendition of the backrooms of the Administratum's offices. If it were merely the size of the entire Sol System, that would place it beyond easy comprehension of an unaugmented human. Were it the size of the galaxy, it would be beyond the easy comprehension of the most thoroughly augmented beings in the galaxy. Instead, it's scope was, as near as Mechanicus instruments could discern, infinite. What's more, there were an infinite series of these infinite layers accessible via what appeared to be service tunnels, meaning an infinite number of infinities could be housed in each layer. The layers themselves either existed in separate spaces or the service tunnels dramatically shortened the effective distance between them, because digging a mile down into the rotting carpet would only reveal endless layers of carpet. More than a few first-generation colonists fell to one form of madness or another attempting to contemplate either infinity or the anomalous spatial properties blatantly on display. Still, the Imperium was in no condition to say no to a space where time passed at 90 times the rate of the normal universe, especially when untrained civilians could make a reasonable attempt at living off the 'land' without technology more advanced than a common shovel. There was also the fact that the air seemed to self-regulate somehow, pollutants above a certain level simply... vanishing. The dimension seemed to work to actively make itself semi-hospitable, though to many this only contributed to the unnerving effects of the dimension. First Smiler sightings in particularly dark areas of what has become known as Level 0.
First recorded sightings of Hounds and Partygoers, two threats that had been explained as being viral in nature as part of the general explanation of the dangers of this place, which is swiftly confirmed by Biologis analysis, respectively based in their saliva and the thorny appendages at the end of their limbs, though their blood itself is no threat. Smilers, being creatures literally of darkness, have proven vulnerable to las-fire, though if one is present there are usually many more in the general area. High-intensity lights are set up in areas of darkness where Smilers are known to lurk. The Hounds and Partygoers are little threat in small numbers, but anyone who is foolish or unfortunate enough to end up in their home Levels, as they are increasingly referred to, is considered lost. Level FUN, the Nest, and Level Smile, respectively, which swarm with the creatures. Loyalist Astartes begin recruiting from this population, finding that acceptance rates are down a bit, but there is otherwise no issue. Custodes find no problem whatsoever, by the same token. The Defense Force regiments raised here are nothing special, and so it seems at the time that Astartes and Custodes are to be the dimension's primary export. Several Chapters are set up specifically to do two things. Clear out particularly large concentrations of the creatures that threaten humanity within The Backrooms, and recruit from the populations, which are forming inverted Hives, digging down into the endless depths where the environment grows cleaner and more pleasant than the surface.
4 generations of recruiting from the currently relatively small population were enough to gather a significant number of Marines, though not yet full Chapters. The veterans dispatched to found these Chapters return, which in the case of the Dark Angels, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists, is just in time for them to help with the rebuilding of the primary Chapters, which had taken a beating in various campaigns against the traitors.
015 M31. As time has been proven to pass 90 times as swiftly within the strange series of dimensions known as The Backrooms due to the general form of Level 0, and yet food, drink, and aging correspond to the Materium's timeflow, the High Lords of Terra debate moving within to better administrate the space (and be given dozens of times as long to debate any given matter in the wider Imperium due to the time differential) which is technically considered part of Terra due to the location of the portal, or remain outside in case, for example, the duplicitous Eldar made a strike on the sole entryway for some inscrutable reason. A compromise is reached, and a branch of the Administratum is founded to handle the dimension's affairs, the Administratum Locus, which divorces Terra and the Backrooms enough that the budding controversy over whether non-Fist Astartes should be allowed to recruit from within dies before it can truly begin. The Fists do retain a place of pride as the only Astartes that can recruit from Terra proper, however. It is determined that Blanks are slightly more common within The Backrooms, and so the Sisters of Silence and Assassinorum see a steadily rising number of recruits from this strange dimension as 3 generations and change are enough for enormous growth of the population, even though the colonists can only trickle in. Additionally, a number of those being groomed for the position of High Lord are trained in a special facility within meant to take advantage of the time differential to give them as much training as possible, with sufficient foresight that 'timed tests' are implemented to prevent the excess of time to make a decision compared to the High Lords proper from becoming an issue upon actually taking on the role.
In this stretch of time, a group of Astartes were investigating a rash of disappearances, and discovered a location where the physical matter of Level 0 glitched out, revealing a second Level, as the Emperor had made note of. This Level, referred to as The Habitable Zone, due to the Astartes officially credited with it's discovery making note that individual humans could survive here indefinitely without any wide-scale efforts to make it more conducive to life, as water and electricity could be found in abundance, and more strangely, the enormous labyrinthian warehouse seemed to 'generate' supply crates at random, having common food items, clothing, weapons, and even medical supplies. Bizarrely, this included battery packs for lasguns and other weapons, as well as what looked like the Ancient Terran equivalent, while also possessing both modern and Ancient car parts. This would attract the attention of the Mechanicus, which had before been mostly concerned with regaining control of the Forgeworlds and removing the Dark Mechanicus, as it would later be called, from the picture with, if anything, greater fervor than the majority of Imperial Loyalists who were neither Primarch nor Astartes. The Biologis led the charge, as the bizarre physiology of the creatures found within led to much interest from them, and the fact that the Backrooms were clearly in the form of human structures up to this point markedly increased interest in the mechanics of the place.
017 M31. Another 180 years within The Backrooms, and Imperial forces have reached Level 11. Some explorers are Explorators of the Mechanicus interested in learning more of the strange properties and odd bits of technology to be found within. Others are representatives of Rogue Traders interested in finding resources caches and artifacts to trade. Still others are members of the Penal Regiments. The dangers of The Backrooms are myriad, and the dangers of exploring them even moreso, and yet Servitors can only do so much. A human touch is still required as often as not, if only to determine if a Level has dramatic deleterious effects over time like Level 6's mutative effect. To keep them in line, it is known that a prominent enough contribution will allow their crimes to be expunged. The discovery of Sub-Levels, Levels that are placed between two normal Levels, often having modified or fused traits from them, was one such example. The discovery of 2.6 as an underground realm of relatively little danger that the Squats could send a population into for similar fallback purposes as the Emperor had intended for The Backrooms as a whole, was also quite well rewarded, given the value the Heavyworlders had to the wider Imperium.
021 M31. 360 more years within The Backrooms, reaching as far as Level 14, and the population is approaching 6 billion from an initial investment of less than 11 million. The detachments sent within The Backrooms to maintain order and recruit from that population have reached full strength, despite losses from efforts to clear out Level Fun, the related Afterparty, Level Smile, and the Nest, which have dramatically lowered the numbers of those threats. While individually little threat, sheer numbers and the viral nature of the majority of the entities dealt with takes it's toll every now and then, with even Astartes physiology being threatened by something that can convert a normal human within a matter of minutes. The Inquisition keeps a close eye on the creatures, in case Nurgle attempted to link up with one, or the rampant bloodlust and consumption of human flesh by Partygoers attracted Khorne's interest. At any rate, the detachments are officially recognized as Chapters at this point by the Legions that are not Ultramarines, with some controversy over the initiation of talks with the Frowners and Partypoopers, both of which appear to be more neutral creatures compared to their counterparts, with it being known that the former were definitively converted Smilers, and the latter were strongly suspected of being the equivalent for the Partygoers. The Imperium, not being able to muster a huge taskforce and not needing the extra enemies, made a neutrality pact with both, with the universally hostile entities recognized as common enemies. This would be pointed to by Imperial historians as having knockon effects as the Imperium would take a slightly less hardline approach, though some would insist that The Backrooms still technically counted as part of Terra, and that these were not xenos. Particularly since if the Partypoopers were indeed reformed Partygoers, they were human at one point.
034 M31. The human population has reached 657 trillion and Level 61, which by some standards makes Terra representative of more than 5% of the human race. By this point, even the small fraction of the population that is willing to explore deeper into The Backrooms is in excess of the population of many Civilized Worlds, to the point of forming Explorer Guilds of various types, still subordinate to the greater Imperial authority of course. There are also whispers of the previously banned worship of the Emperor skyrocketing. It is impossible to avoid rumors spreading from the halls of power on Terra, and those do eventually filter down into the general population. Thus, many are grateful that The Backrooms are far, far safer than the outside galaxy, and thank the Emperor for opening it for them. The fact that their lifespans are universally extended far beyond what Juvenat could offer those outside certainly helps.
At any rate, huge numbers of Astartes have begun being sent on Crusades to various locations from those within The Backrooms, who have been forced to calve off further Chapters simply to properly police the massive population. Roughly 60000 Astartes now exist within the confines of Level 0, with smaller detachments on the lower Levels to watch over their smaller populations. While relatively green in combat by the standards of the wider Imperium, they excel in dealing with bizarre creatures and circumstances, allowing them to excel when dealing with Orks and Chaos. Being able to dispatch an extra three Chapters worth of Marines every day also did much to aid many campaigns happening at this point. It is suspected that such a massive host of Astartes being present on the Sword of Sacrilege prevent Rogal Dorn from being killed in a massive battle with Chaos forces. The second, if one considers the Horus Heresy the first. He, in turn, would do a great deal to aid in the fortification of the Imperium over the years.
081 M 31. With a population of 436 sextillion reaching as far as Level 233, there may well be more humans in The Backrooms than there are sentient beings in the galaxy. By the same token, Astartes numbers had climbed to 43.6 trillion in an effort to keep this under control. The Inquisition is quietly glad that psychic power is so much weaker within The Backrooms, as the odds of coming across a Beta within them are similar to the odds of stumbling across an Alpha, and with Chaos' influence further weakened by rumors that are now intentionally spread that the outside galaxy is so much worse than what The Backrooms have to offer, the chances of them coming out pure are dramatically higher. It is around this time that the Martian Mechanicus, having had over 5000 years to work on the problem, discover a means to generate small portals between Level 0 and the Materium, though they seem to rely on the repurposed Webway Gate in some fashion, and do not work more than a few light-hours from Sol. Still, this allows for huge numbers of the elites and Psykers produced by the teeming masses within The Backrooms to leave and serve the Imperium in the greater galaxy. This allowed all the outside Chapters to 'replenish' their losses even from truly ruinous campaigning. The Raven Guard having relied on the Astartes descended from their old detachment to replenish their numbers in the first place, for instance. While many Chapters followed the letter of the Codex, it was not uncommon for a Sector to see every major threat have a Chapter's worth of Astartes deployed to combat it. As such, the Emperor's Angels, as the Astartes were increasingly known, came to be seen by many as ever-present protectors.
With the Astronomicon and Golden Throne fed a steady 10,000 Psykers a day each, due to the incredible numbers that can be harvested from The Backrooms, the light of the former could easily cover the entire galaxy, as well as any nearby Dwarf Galaxies. With the massive influx of Astartes, Custodes, stable Psykers, Sisters, and Assassins, and the Mechanicus steadily innovating via the various workarounds to their issues with it in the aftermath of the Dark Mechanicus, such as combining parts from two different STCs, the Imperial war machine had the most major shot in the arm it had experienced since the recovery of the Primarchs. This wasn't always enough, such as when a Dark Eldar fleet ambushed an Imperial one, had the detachments of elites fend off many of the boarders with grievous casualties such that a Chaos fleet determined they were easy picking and savaged it, until by the time they got to the Ork worlds they were supposed to expunge, they lacked the forces to actually accomplish their task, getting bogged down on the first world.
Still, it was very much considered an Age of Expansion, with the Imperium's holdings swelling, and hostile xenos being stamped out en masse. The Orks remained a problem, but that was an issue of their sheer numbers as much as their habit of colonizing rogue planets and asteroid fields. Rogue Traders grew incredibly rich off the back of exploring and mapping out the new Sectors in the far reaches of the Astronomicon's light. Of course, these rumors too made their way back to The Backrooms citizenry, and the underground worship of the Emperor grew dramatically in strength as the years passed.
AN: A barebones outline for the 40K-Backrooms setting, at least for the first century of the 31st millennium. Locus is Latin for room, so I figured it was fitting. Anyway, Astartes, Custodes, Assassins, and Sisters of Silence represent sufficient force concentration to be worth devoting the tiny amount of people who can come through the portal on a regular basis, with an exception made if a High Lord or three dies and needs replacing. A number of candidates trained for decades at absolute minimum can take on the role, at least temporarily if someone more popular/accomplished shows up. In which case they'll fill a role similar to the US Vice President. Next in line, though in some ways they're a glorified secretary/aide.
The idea is that The Backrooms have existed either since before Earth existed or outright predated the universe(which make the Levels especially odd in format) and Emps had planned it as a refuge if the Warp Storms got really bad again or whatever. Just in case his plotting out of humanity's psychic evolution didn't work out. The portal can transport about 30,000 people in either direction per Terran day. Meaning 10.95 million in the first year. Assuming 1% population growth a year(absolute rock bottom for Terran stock), that's 26.81 million by 30015, 160.76 by 30017, and 5.779 billion by 30021. Enough for the Chapters to start doing some serious recruiting.
Now, just because the Imperium's elites and RnD are getting a huge boost from sheer weight of numbers doesn't mean everything's magically going to be resolved. For one thing, as I've been hinting, the time differential is leading to the Imperial Faith beginning to sprout up way early in the timeline, as I mentioned.
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