#mannies

I started out with the Wastes, a cluster of areas known for being exposed, largely featureless, and inhospitable to most forms of life. Solid idea, got a few different areas cooked up for it, and I was even planning to make it the focal point of the world.

Then Manheim happened.

It started with the concept of the Offices. I wanted to make some environments that specifically evoked the Backrooms (with my own spin on them, of course) so I pulled out this old maze from my nightmares: a windowless, endless office building with no way to go outside. And the thing about my office building dreams is that there's *always* people in them. So, based on the weird half-real characters who tend to show up in dreams, I created the Mannies. From my worldbuilding notes:

The “Mannies” are the sole living inhabitants in Manheim. They look almost identical to humans, with one notable exception: their skin is abnormally smooth, with no wrinkles or blemishes, and covers their faces completely, leaving only the impression of facial features... ...They perform basic actions that echo different human behaviors, but seem to have no real purpose behind them - for example, they can often be found seeming to use restrooms, but do not flush or use toilet paper, and never leave any waste behind.

This is just a snippet of the notes I have on these dudes, but basically, they're faceless, autonomous pseudo-humans who mimic the behavior of real people without the underlying motives or logic. The only time they display any actual awareness is when one of their number is threatened, at which point other Mannies in the vicinity will violently come to their aid. Aside from being based on dreams, these are meant to evoke the feelings of crowded isolation that I often experience in urban areas, as someone who grew up in a deeply rural environment.

And then things kind of spiraled.

See, I have lots of urban spaces that I visit in my dreams, and all of them are peopled. So I started creating more areas, with distinct rules for how the Mannies act in those spaces - based on a combination of how they actually work in dreams, and my overall ethos of making most places feel inhospitable if not outright hostile. And I... really started to fall in love with the guys.

Like. Mannies represent the feeling of being so alienated from other people that even in a crowd you feel like no one would reach out if you fell. Irrationality aside - because this isn't about rationality, it's about the psychological damage from being raised in the middle of nowhere by cultists - the thing about all those people is that you are the same to them as they are to you. How things feel isn't the same as how things are - and while the Mannies aren't real human people, they're definitely still Just Doing Their Best. It's not their fault that a human would find them weird and offputting! Frankly, the feeling is mutual!