Info
Written by Br Miller and
pnn wepm (Author Page).
This page is a rewrite of traders-vault which was originally written by Stretchsterz in May 2020.
Special thanks to:
Greggita Mahayfaio for the idea of the room containing lost Dr Who episodes.
halo3rodent for the idea of the water room.
AndromedaObserver for the idea of the oranges containing nothing but peal, the linked doors, and the room with endless storage doors.
XRaggiX for the idea of the room with the staring entity and the room filled with money.
neptunium153 for the idea of the room that is unopenable but something can be seen with radar behind it.
- iampartyfan for the idea of the maintenance room.
Crits by: XRaggiX
SURVIVAL CLASS
1
Resources: 0/5
Food is Plentiful
Exit: 0/5
Guaranteed Exit
Environment: 1/5
Low Environmental Risk
Entities: 1/5
Minimal Hostile Presence
| Traders Vault | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Photograph of the interior of the Traders Vault | |
| Names | Traders Vault Long Corridor with Garage Doors (Formerly) Storage Rooms (Formerly) |
| Discovered by | Mary 'Manila' Mitchell |
| Discovery Date | 24 April 1957 |
| Controlled by | None (Unknown-2014) The M.E.G. (2014-2016) The C.T.G. & The B.N.T.G. (2016) The B.N.T.G. (2016-Present) |
| Population | No permanent population, but continually staffed by 40+ guards |
| Temperature | -20°C (-4°F) Minimum 25°C (77°F) Maximum |
| Floor Space | 96,000 m2 (excluding Room 314) |
Within Level 1 lies the Traders Vault, a six-kilometre-long hallway lined by garage doors on either side. These doors lead to rooms of various sizes, most of which are empty besides some that display unique properties.
Previously known as the 'Storage Rooms', the Traders Vault had existed prior to human influence for a currently unknown period of time. Throughout recent years, it has fallen into the ownership of different groups, until it eventually got repurposed by the B.N.T.G. to function as a vast storage facility containing a wide diversity of resources and items.
Located near to an entrance of the Hub, it is one of the B.N.T.G.'s most strategically important assets. This is because many of the B.N.T.G.'s trade routes use the Hub as a path, making the facility useful for storing goods before they are sent along the B.N.T.G.'s vast trade network. Many of the group's most prized possessions are kept here, remaining constantly heavily-guarded.
The B.N.T.G.'s primary base in Level 1, the Traders Keep, was constructed around the Traders Vault.
Description
The hallway of the Traders Vault has steel walls and concrete flooring, and at only two metres wide, it is also quite narrow. The ceiling is metallic and supports hundreds of fluorescent lights that keep the hall illuminated.
There are roller doors on either side, similar to what is seen on a garage door. They are covered by a layer of orange paint, which historically displayed random numbers and letters printed on them in black. For ease of identifying the rooms, the B.N.T.G. painted over those codes to replace them with a standardised numbering system.
There is a total of 5040 rooms, all of which the B.N.T.G. numbered sequentially going from one end of the Traders Vault to the other, with odd-numbered doors on one side and even-numbered doors on the other.
Though the Traders Vault as a whole does extends for six kilometres, the hallway itself is not continuous. Every few hundred metres there is a dividing wall, connected to each other by doors. Some sections between the dividers are frigid, kept cold by -20°C1 Voidstone. These cool sections have blue-painted garage doors and have proved useful for storing frozen goods. The Traders Vault has two entrance doors at each end of its length. While the main corridor is perfectly straight, due to the non-Euclidean nature of Level 1, the Traders Vault loops back around and the two entrance doors are right next to each other.
Before the two entrances of the Traders Vault there is a large sorting and processing facility. Goods from all across the Backrooms arrive here, but a majority of them are from Level 3. The train network in Level 2 brings extracted resources from Level 3 straight to the Traders Keep. Additionally, a majority of the B.N.T.G.'s Almond Water supplies are sent through this facility, delivered from Level 695. These resources are sorted and packaged and are then sent to the Traders Vault to be stored or sent elsewhere, primarily the Hub to be delivered to other levels.
Behind all the surface layers of the Traders Vault lies a layer of Voidstone. Voidstone is impenetrable making it impossible to dig a tunnel to break into the facility. Any thieves have to make it past the guards at the entrances. Following the increase in security measures in 2022, only a couple of robbers have gotten successfully into the Traders Vault by using fake identification, but all of them were later caught as security cameras have coverage of the entire hallway.
The Traders Vault during a blackout event.
Much like the rest of Level 1, the Traders Vault experiences periodic blackouts, plunging the facility into total darkness. To combat this problem, back-up power was installed on 19 May 20172 to ensure lighting remains during one of these events.
Rooms
Certain rooms contain only one type of item, and as a result have been referred to as "Item Rooms."
If items are taken from the rooms, after a few weeks the items will spontaneously be restocked. These rooms are not used by the B.N.T.G. for storage, as anything placed in those rooms that is different from what naturally is there will spontaneously disappear after a few weeks. However, they have proven extremely useful as a source of resources, food in particular. Aside from the Almond Water imported from Level 695, the Traders Vault supplied almost all sustenance to the residents of Traders Keep in its early days.
The C.T.G. & The B.N.T.G. Traders Vault New Resident Guide | Page 13
Those who reside at the Traders are not just given a diet of almond water. With the supplies sourced from the item rooms, you can help yourself with the finest food in all of Level 1.
Sweet & salty Almond Water porridge.
For breakfast, you can have delicious almond water porridge. With the added potassium chloride and glycerol, it has a sweet and salty taste.
Another dish is the spinach tofu quesadilla. It is nice and oily with the tortillas soaked in walnut oil that provides an added nutty flavour.
Help yourself to a healthy snack of Greek yogurt and mango. To make it a sweet treat, chill it and add glycerol to turn it into a frozen yogurt.
⋯
Given the low variety of food from Traders Vault however, Traders Keep residents now primarily eat food from elsewhere. Sale of these spontaneously generated items is still a source of income for the B.N.T.G. The M.E.G. is a regular purchaser of Liquid Pain from the Traders Vault for use in the Base Gamma defence systems.
The full list of item rooms is contained below.
Of these rooms, room 610 is the most famous. With such a significant quantity of notes and coins of various Frontrooms currencies, if one were to take all this to the Frontrooms it would make them a billionaire. The B.N.T.G. regularly smelts these coins to extract zinc, copper, and nickel out of them.
Other rooms contain various anomalies. These are listed below.
Some doors don't even lead to rooms. For example, entering door 3456 will take one to door 4422 and vice versa. But some doors can instead lead to other levels. If one has the correct Level Key, door 2875 can be used to enter Level 75 and door 1509 can be used to enter Level 520.
History
During one of her missions, Mary Mitchell of the I.M.B.H. first discovered the Traders Vault in 1957, which she eloquently named 'long corridor with garage doors'. While they included the location in their maps of Level 1, they never did anything further.
In late 2014, Yichen Zhu was looking at the Level 1 maps made by the I.M.B.H.
He was a member of the Board of Directors for the C.T.G. (City Trade Group), the largest group in Level 11 at the time. The C.T.G.'s Board of Directors sought to expand the C.T.G.'s power and influence beyond Level 11. Zhu was attempting to establish a trade route from Level 695 to Level 11 that went through Level 1 and the Hub. He had been looking at the maps of Level 1 to decide which path through Level 1 would be most effective and where it would be good to provide a resting spot along the supply route, but while looking at the maps, he noticed the 'long corridor with garage doors'.
Following his enquiry to the I.M.B.H. as to what this location was, he decided this was an optimal location for an outpost. The presence of only two entrance points would make it straightforward to defend from intruders.
Scouting missions were sent to the Traders Vault and these scouts discovered some of rooms that contained food, which made building a base there even more appealing.
Unfortunately, for the C.T.G., an M.E.G. operative followed the C.T.G. scouters. Desiring a second base in Level 1 that was much closer the Hub, the M.E.G. quickly claimed the location for themselves, naming it the 'Storage Rooms'. When the C.T.G. told the M.E.G. to leave, the M.E.G. refused. Given the far greater military presence of the M.E.G. in Level 1, forcibly evicting them was not practical.
However, at the start of 2016, an opportunity came. The M.E.G. had many forces directed towards fighting the Church of the Veiled and with the B.N.T.G. splintering from the M.E.G. on 23 February 2016, the M.E.G. was weakened and had begun to fracture.
In secret, the C.T.G. made an agreement with the B.N.T.G. to support the latter's secession from the M.E.G. In coordination with B.N.T.G. sympathisers, the C.T.G. sent 50 soldiers to capture the Storage Rooms. Unprepared to defend, those loyal to the M.E.G. fled the Storage Rooms. The following day the C.T.G. renamed the Storage Rooms to the Traders Vault and declared it a joint base of the B.N.T.G. and the C.T.G.
The bedroom of a former Traders Vault resident. It was eventually converted into a storage room in 2018.
In retaliation, the M.E.G. sent troops to retake the base, but with the entrances barricaded, they were not able to enter. Not long after, the M.E.G., B.N.T.G., and C.T.G. signed a peace agreement. The M.E.G. would let them keep the Traders Vault, recognise the B.N.T.G.'s independence, and in exchange the B.N.T.G. would return many of the resources they had taken.
On July 2016, due to the two groups possessing almost identical goals, the C.T.G. agreed to join the B.N.T.G.
Initially, the Traders Vault served both as storage space and living space with many rooms being used as dorms. With the influx of migrants to the Traders Vault4, living spaces were constructed around the exterior of the Traders Vault. In 2018, these areas officially became known as the 'Traders Keep' with Traders Vault being repurposed to just be storage space. The Government of Traders Keep was established as a local government entity to manage the affairs of the Traders Keep and Traders Vault.
"Two years ago, in 2016, my parents migrated to the famous warehouse-like level under an allure of job opportunities."
"It was lonely at first. The environment was so much duller than my previous home of Level 11, and hardly anyone was around. Those that were in the vicinity were just some of those lame B.N.T.G. workers who weren't the talking type. Even my parents had to leave for long hours as the jobs they took were demanding."
"Yet I had no choice. All other nearby levels were out to either kill or isolate as soon as someone like me dares to enter. All I wanted was some company. Just… some."
"But these prayers were answered eventually. To my surprise this place rapidly received more and more inhabitants, including some desperate refugees from the shithole of Level 22 started arriving. I made new friends, and some of them displayed interest in the Frontrooms. An interest I would display as well soon."
"In my spare time, I would wander Traders Keep, searching for discarded Frontrooms trinkets I could collect and keep in my Traders Vault bedroom."
"These Frontrooms posters look so similar to Level 11, my former home. Should I go back, or stay where I am now? I honestly have no idea which choice is better."
Claire J. Beau, inhabitant of Traders Vault.
Leviathan's Tooth Program
In June of 2003, the C.T.G. successfully stole a tablet known as the Leviathan's Tooth from Level 105. Stored in a hidden location in Level 11, they kept its existence a secret from the public and in 2016 it was inherited by the B.N.T.G.
Following the events regarding the destruction of the Leviathan's Tooth, the B.N.T.G. blamed the Government of Traders Keep for the incident stating they had insufficient security measures to protect the Traders Vault from attackers. The Traders Keep Government was barred from managing the Traders Vault and a new government entity was established to run the location.
Despite years of defending their actions as ethical, following heavy pressure from the public, the B.N.T.G. eventually provided an apology for the horrific events regarding the tablet four years later.
The Traders Vault Under The B.N.T.G.
Flag of the Traders Vault Authority.
Established in 2022, the affairs of the Traders Vault are managed by the Traders Vault Authority, a department of the B.N.T.G. independent from the Government of the Traders Keep.
Some of the rooms in the Traders Vault are operated directly by the Traders Vault Authority which includes the item rooms. The sale of said items helps cover the operating expenditure of the authority. The rest of the rooms are leased out to various businesses that desire to use them, paying a fee for protection against thieves by the B.N.T.G.'s Security Operation Center.
One of the rooms being used for storage space.
Guards are stationed at the entrance doors. Only people renting rooms or those with special permissions are allowed to enter. They are provided security passes and are only permitted to enter if they present them to the stationed guards.
All garage doors are locked and people can only access rooms that they have been given a key for. To ensure efficient flow of traffic through the tight corridors, people must keep to their right and transport items on narrow trolleys.
Guards are present at various points in the Traders Vault. They are there not only to deal with suspicious individuals, but also any entities that no-clip into Traders Vault, although the latter occurrence is rare.5
The sirens going off in the Traders Vault during a routine alert system test.
From doors 3456 to 4422 lies the high-security sector of the Traders Vault. This section is protected by another set of guards. Only high-ranking B.N.T.G. members are permitted to access the area. All other individuals are to go around this section by using the linked doors, door 3430 and door 4477.
Many of the B.N.T.G.'s most valuable and dangerous items are within the high security sector. This includes ancient artefacts, level keys, and the burnt remains of the infamous Leviathan's Tooth.
The Level 0 exit is located in this sector, so in the event of a security breach, valuables can be evacuated through this exit.
"What has allowed the B.N.T.G. to become the leaders of trade in Backrooms is that they have used the unique environment of the Backrooms to their advantage in all areas of trade. Storage, which is a critical step between goods getting produced and them getting delivered, is no exception.
The Traders Vault was nothing more than an unusual environmental feature of Level 1 discovered by our museum, but as soon as the C.T.G. found out about it, they saw its potential and quickly converted it into a Storage Facility. Its natural defence and prime location made the facility highly successful."
Excerpt of an informational plaque at the Interdimensional Museum of Backrooms History Art of Trade section.
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