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Welcome to the M.E.G. group hub!
This hub aims to be a collection of most of the information an author would need to write about the M.E.G., whether it is their relation with other groups, the people in their ranks, or how the system operates, it is designed for you to be able to get the gist of everything without needing to go through backlinks or CROM search. Nevertheless, you can always (and are encouraged to) search the wiki if you need more information or find anything unclear. Feel free to ask the authors in Wikidot DMs or Discord too! This is a community writing site after all.
The main authors are Greggita Mahayfaio,
Natedagreat563,
Poliacci,
Positive123 and
Praetor3005, with additional help by other authors:
- Team Epiphany and John Rhinehart texts by
Robert Goerman
- Team Postal Delivery text by
ReyDay
- Team New Horizons text by
SnomWriting
- The bases and outposts list used for the Settlements part was gathered by
SquibbleZombie
Special thanks to BlueSignet,
C-Graph,
DrAkimoto,
Endrew1,
halo3rodent,
InspectingCritters,
jan Jejasa,
Light_Nate,
LiminalDoctor,
MC_Crafter_24_7,
Nikuchan ,
scutoid studios and so many others we couldn't name for helping revamp the M.E.G. lore, answering many questions and making this hub the most complete it could be and proofreading the draft. This is what collaborative writing is all about!
Want more information? Here's what you can do!
- Check page backlinks for more references of the article somewhere else
- Use CROM search for mentions of elements that don't have a page
- Check the tag list for character, setting or class use
- Ask authors on the discord server, whether the writer of a specific page or the whole community
The following canons are used for the wider M.E.G. lore:
- Multiverse Canon up until 2022 included
- Some mythological elements from The Pantheon Canon
- Simulation Canon up until the events of Level 13.1 not included
- Terror Hotel
- UnMasked
How to sort the M.E.G. Hub:
- Teams, POIs and relations are sorted alphabetically
- Links in the history section are sorted in this order: levels/unnumbered levels/entities/unnumbered entities/objects/phenomena/tales/POIs/groups
To appear in the list, a character needs to have enough pages to create a tag. See more information here.
To appear on the list, a team needs to be used in at least three pages. Sub-teams, however, can be added in their respective lists as soon as they get a page.
Groups can be added into the relations section if they have a group hub or a tag so that information can be accessed more easily. Level-specific groups like Slam City can use their level page as the group hub link, however.
Overview
The Major Explorer Group is currently the most widespread hegemonic group1 in the Backrooms. Since its creation in 2012, its goals have been to explore and document this reality in order to protect the people living there, and ultimately, find an exit.
A M.E.G. recruitment poster from Base Alpha.
The group has discovered many new levels, entities and objects, and studied known ones in detail. They have grown rapidly, recruiting most newcomers with their broad, noble, and hopeful goals. With the presence of many veterans in their ranks, the group quickly and efficiently trains most of their members in exploration and documentation, but also in creating and maintaining sustainable communities to protect as many people as possible. Naturally, this led the group to create one of the largest public databases, which comprises the bulk of the General Public Database.
Hegemonic Mess
While their size and general goals aided in their growth, this also means the M.E.G. has a loose and convoluted structure, with their many leading figures having competing visions of the group and their mission. This, over time, made the M.E.G. struggle to work cohesively or have a unifying culture. The physical distances between settlements gradually created many subcultures depending on their location, members, and available material.
While main settlements in or near the Main 122 benefit from close supervision and collaboration with the Oversight Council, settlements with fewer links with the rest of the Backrooms eventually develop their own philosophies about the goals of the M.E.G. and how to accomplish them. For example, an outpost deep inside the Backrooms in an entity-heavy ecosystem may eventually become more militaristic, reflected in their vision of duty or even their vocabulary.
This is even present in the M.E.G.'s bureaucracy, which is a complex yet messy environment reminiscent of their very database. Despite the archivists' best attempts, the group remains a gigantic mess of dozens of settlements scattered around just as many pocket dimensions.
While the M.E.G. has no difficulty attracting new members, many veterans have left the group over the years. Some of them have become bitter about the naive hope of the faction or even turn against them due to mistreatment. Despite the many splinters and wars created by a lack of a consistent direction, the M.E.G. has still managed to heal every time, growing stronger than ever as they live and learn about the Backrooms and others who live here.
Everlasting Hope
Despite all these struggles, the M.E.G. isn't the most recent hegemonic group for nothing. While their size has been a source of issues many times in their history, they are a group unified by hope. The initial message of the original overseers still holds strong, with the goal of finding an exit sparking zeal and willpower inside the group's ranks.
Many times in the past, the M.E.G. has proven other factions wrong by doing the impossible, from vanquishing ancient powers to uncovering anomalous mysteries. Since its inception, the M.E.G. pushed the limits of humanity in the Backrooms. At the end of the day, all M.E.G. members are unified by the desire to help others and work toward the greater good.
The M.E.G.'s history shows their dedication better than anything else. Despite going through many struggles, losing members and bases, and sometimes even having their motives called into question, the group has always managed to learn from their mistakes, regroup, and continue forward.
Organization
The M.E.G.'s mission has led them to create countless bases and outposts all over the Backrooms, but not all of them are directly linked together through the group's trade routes. As such, this causes each settlement to adapt a subculture unique to them and the environment they live in.
As such, jobs and the overall chain of command can vary from settlement to settlement, with many of them handling survival and development differently from each other. However, the M.E.G. still recognizes some jobs universally in all locations in order to communicate and shuffle members around when needed.
The Oversight Council
Established in 2014 due to the overseer's work overload, the Oversight Council is the highest power of the M.E.G. Unlike most leadership councils in the Backrooms, its members and positions are fluid and change according to the current needs of the group as a whole.
- Overseers are the oldest leaders in terms of rank. While they have the same effective grip on the group as underseers, they have a right to veto any decision of the council, effectively acting as checks to the council’s power.
- Underseers are members of high skill who joined the council thanks to their leadership capacities for M.E.G. activities requiring development or management at the time. While consisting of only six members in 2014, it quickly diversified over the years, with more M.E.G. domains requiring a centralized or branched leadership from the three major wings3
History
Still somewhat young when compared to other groups such as the Ariane Circle or the I.M.B.H., the M.E.G.'s existence has already had a lot of ups and downs, juggling between phases of huge development and rough times when agent morale was put to the test.
Despite their unstable history, the M.E.G.'s status as a hegemonic group allowed them to grow without stopping over the years, managing to complete major discoveries even during times of war or doubt.
Most of the M.E.G.'s geopolitical history takes place within the Main 12 and its connected levels, due to most factions and wanderers residing in these safer and more populated areas. This doesn't mean deeper areas of the Backrooms never influenced the fate of the group. The anomalous nature of the Backrooms created challenges for the group many times in the past.
Despite their struggles, the M.E.G. keeps the glimmer of hope alive. With each struggle, they come out stronger, slowly but surely learning from their mistakes and lack of experience in order to make the Backrooms a better place and eventually find a way out of it.
1997 to 2007: Power Vacuum
This period, often nicknamed the Drought by wanderers, is marked by a large power vacuum following the destruction of the Leaders, leaving wanderers without reliable help. While some minor factions like Camp Amber or the Ariane Circle tried to fill the gap to help wanderers, they lacked the vision and numbers to become their true successor. It is in this situation that these three communities were either created or prospered:
- The Nomadic Coalition: A nomadic faction of explorers regularly coming back to Level 1 to save and recruit newly noclipped wanderers
- The Early Home: A small encampment offering rest and food to needy wanderers, using their logistics skills to save many wanderers by sheltering them temporarily.
- Station 01.3: A former research settlement of the Leaders ran by newer researchers trying to refill the partially destroyed database of the former group.
Relevant Database Entries:
- None at the moment
Additional Information
Teams
Teams are small batches of operatives with similar skill sets, specializing in a precise type of mission. Unlike other M.E.G. agents, they usually aren’t working for a specific settlement, instead being called to a level when their exploration skills are the most needed and staying there until they are called elsewhere.
In the beginning of the M.E.G., there were a variety of teams who did not communicate with each other, creating multiple teams who did the same job, but the overhaul of the group in 2014 led to drastic structural change. Nowadays, most small teams with similar missions now work together in one of the 6 main teams4, with each of these sub-teams working with their specializations.
Nowadays, few teams have purposes that are unique enough to work outside the Major Teams. Instead, smaller teams called minor teams work within the six major teams and have a specific focus within the major team. While they are grouped within another group, minor teams still retain some autonomy in how they work and only answer to the Major Team leader in times of crisis.
New minor teams are constantly being created and disbanded depending on the needs, such as to handle a particular group or entity, an environment type that is becoming more and more frequent, or to respond to a geopolitical change in the wider Backrooms. Teams can also sometimes be assigned to specific levels or settlements to carry out their duty, whether temporarily or permanently, if they have been created for this purpose.
Major Teams
There are six total Major Teams, and they are present all over the Backrooms. They are collections of dozens of smaller minor teams operating with the same mission in mind, with each of these sub-teams specializing in a more specific part of the wider major team's purpose.
Team "Compass Point" - The Explorers
When the M.E.G. was founded, its priority was to refill the information gaps in the remnants of the Leaders' Database, the most important ones being maps of levels of the Main 12. These duties have been conducted by many small exploration teams with different terrain specialties, which eventually merged into Team Compass Point after 2014.
Nowadays, Compass Point acts as the heart of M.E.G. operations, scouting newly discovered levels to note down the thresholds, dangers, and safe zones for wanderers. Due to its nature, Base Alpha acts both as their center of operation and living quarters for them, with missions and training being supervised there before the operatives are sent to various locations through the M.E.G. trade routes.
Compass Point is without a doubt the biggest team of the M.E.G. and the most popular one among new operatives, who wish to maintain the glimmer of hope and eventually find an exit. The reality can sometimes be disappointing, however, as exploration of unknown levels can prove dangerous or fatal in many cases. Still, the terrain specialization of the Compass Point sub-teams, as well as their motivation to understand the Backrooms, has led the M.E.G. to eventually grow the biggest level database since the destruction of the Leaders' Archway OS.
Team "Life Line" - The Saviors
Life Line is a mobile medical corp responsible for emergency treatment and humanitarian aid, being deployed alongside other teams to rescue wanderers and provide medical help for injured operatives. Initially a minor Quick Match team, the need for medical specialization led to them becoming a major team.
Due to the nature of their mission, Life Line is often working alongside other teams during missions, whether from the M.E.G. or other allied groups, but can also work alongside field research teams in some situations. Similarly to Quick Match, their operatives are trained to act quickly and improvise with the available material, which makes the two teams working together often during support or extraction missions.
Team "Quick Match" - The Improvisers
Quick Match is the M.E.G.'s first-response and tactical support team, and the result of a fusion between Team "First Response" and "Quick Match". Together, they handle emergency rescues, rapid reconnaissance, and critical data retrieval. Members of this unit are trained to assess and respond to threats with minimal backup and often under extreme time constraints during small windows of opportunity.
Sub-teams of Quick Match can be found in all major bases and outposts, allowing for fast deployment in as many places as possible. Members of the team not only benefit from extensive training to maximize their improvisation skills in every situation but also work with emergency M.E.G. equipment, composed of rare Backrooms items, weapons, or tools to be used only in dire situations.
Team "Track Mappers" - The Gatherers
Unlike most teams, which travel from settlement to settlement depending on the missing, Track Mappers are assigned to a level of interest as soon as a major settlement or trade route is being set up. Their job is to map the surroundings, set up routes, and note down threats and resources.
As a result, Track Mappers operatives often reside in the same level for far longer than agents from other teams, either setting up encampments as they map a future trade route or residing in and assisting a new settlement by providing invaluable information about the level. After their mission is done, the members may permanently enter the new settlement, or be sent on another level, depending on the needs of the M.E.G. as a whole.
Team "Trial Testers" - The Researchers
Trial Testers is a team tasked with assisting researchers during missions through their knowledge in field experimentation. They specialize in first-hand testing of anomalous objects, phenomena, and level behaviors outside of settlement safety, often placing themselves in danger to obtain results.
Trial Testers either count operative-researchers in their ranks or are deployed alongside base researchers, following discoveries made by exploration teams such as Compass Point or Quick Match. Thanks to this, team members are often much more careful and controlled, relying on the established theories and research in order to act accordingly, preparing for each possible scenario before starting the field tests.
Team "Wild Warriors" - The Protectors
Team Wild Warriors is the offensive wing of the M.E.G., usually involved in fights against aggressive groups or entities. Mostly made up of people with Frontrooms or Backrooms military knowledge, the team is known for their violent tactics, as well as their zeal for confrontation, which has been frequently criticized by other teams due to the possible collateral damage.
Although their involvement in missions peaked during the Veiled Conflict, they still act as a major tool of the M.E.G. when the time demands it. While they possess the highest casualty rate out of all teams, they are still a popular one to join, with many people entering to protect their loved ones by any means necessary.
Special Teams
Special Teams are more specialized operative teams whose mission is unique enough for them to not be part of a main team. They are charged with more specific yet still vital missions, often created when the situation demands it. Although their skills are more narrow than members of major teams, they still play a vital role in M.E.G. envelopment, by expanding the M.E.G.'s Backrooms knowledge in many ways.
Team "Overseer" - The Leaders
The term "Team Overseer" is a vestige of the early days of the M.E.G., when the triumvirate of Justin Zimals, Katherine Zimals, and Andrew Donovan were leading the diplomacy between the three different settlements that merged into the coalition within the newly created Base Alpha. However, having only three people acting as the cement between three different sub-factions with different mindsets proved to be a difficult task.
With the creation of the Oversight Council in 2014, the concept of a leadership team similar in structure to the operative teams faded away. Despite this, the term is still sometimes used nowadays to describe the inner circle of the council made up of the three original leaders, who brought the three original settlements together.
Team "Epiphany"
Created by Dr. Rhinehart in 2016, Team Epiphany is one of the smallest teams, the two other members being Anne Dune and Amy Cochrane. Their work revolves around experimental science and metaphysical fieldwork. The research methods of Team Epiphany are as esoteric as the phenomena they work on.
Despite the cryptic nature of their research, the information gathered has been of colossal help for the M.E.G., allowing the group to adapt to the ever-changing anomalous reality they live in.
Team "The First Discovery"
Formed by Justin Zimals in 2009, The First Discovery was originally an exploration team for the Nomadic Coalition. In 2012, they were made the first official team of the newly formed Major Explorer Group. During the merge, Justin left them to take on an overseer position in the M.E.G.
The First Discovery is known for being the main team that proficiently mapped out the Main 12, and for taking only the highest risk-assignments. In 2022, they were selected by the Oversight Council to work with them directly, and only follow their orders.
Team "New Horizons"
Team New Horizons started life as a dedicated exploration team, focused on exploring the deep reaches of the Backrooms. Their current flagship assignment revolves around the Cygnus Archive, being responsible for database entries pertaining to it, its keeper, Lady Blanche, and her protégés Tom and Dolly, as well as the establishment of the Blanche.net chatroom.
The team is composed of four members: Dawn Marchesa, Axel Lowe, Faith Silversong and Killian Teles. Despite its small size, New Horizons still performs expeditions, provides support for other M.E.G. teams, has played an important role in the cataloguing of Level 811’s relics, and has seen some involvements with the Masked Maidens.
Team "Postal Delivery"
Founded in 2017 due to popular demand, the M.E.G. Postal Delivery Service delivers letters to wanderers all over the Backrooms.
Letters and packages are dropped in M.E.G. mailboxes that are periodically visited by individual team members going on their specific postal path, following a specific trail by collecting and handling over what has been assigned to them.
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