Seek the Truth.. The truth of the C.O.M.P.O.U.N.D facility..
This post is an archive of sorts, explaining the lore of the Compound scaremaze, the experience within it, explanations of each room, and some of my theories.
“Step into a world where you’re the subject of a sinister sci-fi experiment. Scientists are attempting to weaponise your DNA… but things are far from what they seem. Navigate the disorienting chambers and shadowy hallways of the compound’s lab — and try to escape before it’s too late."
Whilst Compound is the name of the scaremaze, the name in of itself is an acronym. The acronym standing for: Conversion of Organic Myosinic Pathogens and Observation of Unclassified Nemesis DNA.
Originally, Compound wasn’t always going to be called Compound.. The name and the acronym of scaremaze was going to be NEST, which stood for: Nemesis Extraction and Symbiosis Test.
Within the YouTube video “Back by popular demand!” on the Alton Towers Resort channel, around 10 seconds into the video, you can see on the security screen monitor camera feeds for multiple different cells within the Compound centre facility. A little further into the video shows another monitor next to the left one, on this one it shows that there are at least 2025 cells within the facility.
Compound is a very heavily themed scaremaze with a lot of details and Easter eggs scattered throughout. Some of these details include recycled props from previous attractions, including various different pipes from the Charley and the Chocolate Factory dark ride, cages from The Invitation, and lockers from Project 42.
Within a later part of the scaremaze, there is a poster on one of the walls that lists the benefits of Nemesis DNA. Some of those benefits are that it makes you faster and stronger.
Each room in Compound has a soundtrack that plays within it, and each room goes by what their respective soundtrack name is called. But it has been stated that the 'Cells Labyrinth' room is called 'Cage', and the 'Alien Bridge' room is called 'Unstable Life Form'.
There is concept art for one of the rooms within Compound, whilst information on if this room is present within the maze currently is available, there is concept art for a room that is called the Boiler Room drawn by James Mundy, the creative theming and scenic manger at Alton Towers. Concept art shown below.
Compound preshow transcription..
“This is the Phalanx Compound centre. The Phalanx have brought you here as they suspect you to be a member of the anarchist group known as ‘Seek the Truth’.”
“You have been placed into detention while we.. investigate these affiliations.”
“You should be warned that Compound is home to the younglings of the Nemesis.”
“This is a scientific experimentation facility, where we conduct our research into the DNA of dangerous creatures from another dimension.”
“Whilst within Compound, you will be observed on how you respond to these creatures and how indeed they respond to you.”
“Whilst under our jurisdiction we are entitled to use your body as a vessel whilst we carry out our.. research.”
“BE AWARE THAT VIOLENCE REACTIONS HERE ARE THE NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION!”
The experience within the scaremaze itself..
Before you enter the Compound facility, you are sent through within a group of people, escorted down the outside of the building and then promptly directed through the entrance.
There you are yelled at by a Phalanx guard to enter one of the 6 holding cells, this being one of the first instances where you can, and will, be separated from any group that you were a part of.
After the preshow has ended, sirens will blare and you are forced through the back of the holding cell into the Compound facility where you will follow along into different rooms, depending on which holding cell you were directed into.
As you are separated off into these holding cells, the doors will close and the preshow will play, giving you the context and lore you need to understand what exactly is going on.
There are 12 rooms within the Compound facility, and 36 different routes you can go through, so each time you go through the maze can be different.
Each room leading to the next, the experience ranges from being disorienting, loud, anxiety inducing, and urgent. The guards are able to touch you, force you through the maze how they see fit, interrogate you, and determine whether or not you are human.
Within the maze, you encounter Phalanx guards, various different members of the Phalanx, Seek the Truth members, Nemesis younglings, and mutants.
One of the first rooms that can heavily impact which root you go down is the Tanks Room,
an area that is very dark, stressful, and your first taste of how intense Compound will be. Within this room, you will be quickly forced through into either the Laundry room, the Kitchen, the Locker room or the Isolation cell.
Another of the rooms which greatly impacts the route you experience is the Cells Labyrinth with the sliding cages. Here there will be Phalanx guards who will trap you using these sliding cages, detaining you so they can shout demands and accusations your way, one of them being that you are suspected of being a mutant.
After usually being forced down another split path by the Phalanx Operatives, the branching paths combine by the time you reach the Human Experiment rooms, with various different mutants and Phalanx guards. The last few rooms within this section are very loud and filled with strobe lighting. The Phalanx guards in this section will be armed with electrified batons and will chase you relentlessly, threatening you with their batons and getting in your personal space. Once you’ve gotten through the overstimulating hell that is the Human Experiment rooms, you scramble through the exit of the maze, finally escaping the Compound facility.
My own interpretation of the lore..
The Phalanx have a team of investigators whose main job is to investigate those who have been marked as suspicious for the possibility of being a Seek the Truth member. Though, with this being their main focus, they will also seek out random civilians as well, those who won’t have much of a fuss made about them if they go missing, as determined by the Phalanx.
Either before or after the Phalanx capture and detain someone, they will have done research into them as a person and collected information on them, creating a record of sorts.
Once a person is captured by the Phalanx, they will be thrown into detention and will be held in a holding cell. One by one, each person who has been detained will be pulled from their holding cell and placed into an interrogation room to be questioned.
The purpose of the interrogations is mostly for those who they actually suspect as Seek the Truthers, and anyone else who would have information that could be of value. The guards don’t intend on investigating as a means of determining if you are “innocent”, they are already well aware if you are or are not. No amount of begging or persuasion will help the person be set free.
After the interrogation, the person will be placed back into the holding cell so the guards can figure out how they will use you. Be it as food for the Nemesis younglings and mutants that are kept within the Compound facility. For various different experimentations. Or just to dispose of you.
The different rooms and areas within Compound consist of, as labelled by what each name their respective soundtrack is called..
The title of each section will also link back to it's respective OST.
Holding Cells: A room that has 5 different holding cells where you will be forced into and will be shown the Compound preshow. After the preshow has ended, audio will play within the holding cell as the doors in the back of the holding cell are released. The audio transcribed:
“INCIDENT PROTOCOL NOW IN EFFECT."
"ALL PERSONAL TO PROCEED TO RESPONSE POSITIONS."
"HOLDING FACILITY DOORS NOW RELEASE.”
Mutant Cells: Rooms that consist of misty and dimly lit cells lining along the walls. Some of the cells have glass that’s too foggy to see through, some cells are covered in blood, some cells are empty, and some have mutants contained within them.
Exercise Yard: These two rooms are lit and have fences dividing the rooms up so you have to cautiously weave your way around to get through.
Tanks: Alongside Cells labyrinth, Tanks is one of the two biggest rooms within Compound. It is slightly misty and dimly lit, with some flickering overhead lights scattered around the area. This is one of the more stressful rooms, with loud sirens blaring, Phalanx guards yelling at you & forcing you through, and mutants getting in your personal space & threatening you. This room also has mutant containment units, some units seem to be unconscious and others host Nemesis’ eggs.
Isolation Room: A small room that you are selected for and forced into. You are isolated within this room for 20 seconds as lights flash and loud music plays - the music being distorted segments of the song ‘The Age of Aquarius’ by The 5th Dimension - and once your isolation time is up, you are forcibly released. There is audio playing within this cell, giving you an explanation of what is happening in the cell and a countdown after as well. The audio transcript being:
“YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR ISOLATION.”
“20 SECONDS REMAINING UNTIL RELEASE.”
“10 SECONDS REMAINING, 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. FORCE RELEASE.”
Laundry Room: A very dark room that seems to be the facilities’ laundry room, consisting of laundry and washing machines.
Locker Room: A dimly lit room consisting of showers, lockers, and various different uniforms and coats. There is usually a Phalanx member hidden in the shower, and when you walk in they will yell at you. This room is also kind of bad (lol).
Kitchen: The Compound facility’s kitchen is very dark, consisting of counters, shelves, stoves, and a very angry Phalanx member who will yell at you. Sometimes asking you why you’re in their kitchen and sometimes will demand you get out.
Cells Labyrinth: This room is one of the most intense and stressful sections of the maze, consisting of harsh strobe lighting with loud and disorienting music. This area is where Phalanx Guards force you into wire cages by sliding doors. You can have multiple different experiences here, such as immediately being directed through into a room, yelled at, and pushed. The Phalanx guards will make demands, for example: making you show them your hands, front and back for any signs of mutation, demanding you tell them whether you are a human or a mutant. The Phalanx guards will also resort to physical force as well, where the pushing and shoving comes in, and sometimes will even pick you up.
Alien Nest: These rooms are quite dark and misty, with a haze that shines through. These rooms are filled with Nemesis’ eggs and Nemesis younglings. The younglings will get in your personal space and stalk you as you make your way through, some even being aggressive, while quite mischievous. Hats seem to be something the younglings like to steal and mess with.
Alien Bridge: This area is quite open and dark, lit up by bright spot lights that pierce through the thick fog filling the room. In this room, you have to steadily walk across a bridge suspended from the ceiling, as below you is a large body of unknown, bright green liquid, glowing from the lights that shine through the murky haze of its consistency.
Human Experiment: This area of the Compound facility seems to be the biggest area of the maze, consisting of multiple different rooms you have to make your way through.
This area of Compound being probably the most intense out of the entire maze, consisting of the most intense music, heavy fog, intense strobe lighting present within the entire area, aggressive mutants who will get in your personal space, and Phalanx members who while relentlessly harassing you, chasing you, threatening to taser you with their electrical batons.
The first of these rooms within this segment of compound is very cluttered, with desks along the walls, filing cabinets scatter around the room with some of them covered in blood, and shelving units with boxes and other items on the top and hangers below, with coats and other items of clothing draped over them. Towards the end of the room, there seem to be blue hospital room dividers that almost block your view from what is behind them, only being able to catch glimpses of what seem to be surgical beds.
The second section to this area of Compound is where you will find the Phalanx guards armed with the electrical batons. These rooms have fences running all the way through them, so to get through you have to wind and weave your way through. In between the two bigger rooms with the fences, there is a smaller room that has rope hanging from the ceiling.
Recreation of the order each room appears in within the scaremaze..
I have only gone through Compound 2 times, so my experience of the rooms I have not been through is a little bit more limited than the rooms I have been through. I have made sure to do as much research and fact checking as I can, but take everything I do with a grain of salt because I could have missed some stuff or gotten something wrong.
Non-canon, theories, and speculation regarding the scaremaze and the lore..
1.) The Phalanx do not care..
When the Phalanx suspect you’re a Seek the Truth member, I don’t think they actually care if you are or not.With them becoming more corrupt, they will resort to doing anything to maintain their status, power, and influence. So if you are just a regular person, too bad I guess.
I do think that one of the reasons they probably don’t seem to care about if you are a Seek the Truth member or not is so they have plenty of subjects for their research and experimentation. Also probably plenty of food for their seemingly ever growing nest of Nemesis younglings.
2.) Super human soldiers..
What I think the Phalanx are trying to achieve by testing with the DNA of humans and Nemesis DNA is to try and figure out how to understand it better so they can control it, so they can successfully create super soldiers infused with Nemesis DNA and for them to retain their humanity.
3.) John Dalton’s involvement..
So I do think that even before John Dalton became the head of the Phalanx, they still had the potential to do very questionable and bad things. Which they did, with what they used to do with the human testing and the animal testing within Project 42.
With the involvement of John Dalton, the Phalanx has gotten so much worse, especially with the Compound facility seemingly popping up to "investigate" and deal with Seek the Truth. Or people they accuse of being a part of the group.
4.) Nemesis younglings and mutants..
While we know that the creatures within the Compound facility are the younglings, I do also think that there are mutants kept there, too. While this part of the Compound’s main focus is the younglings, I feel as though with them experimenting on the DNA of people put into Compound would also mean that there are bound to be mutants kept in containment too.
I feel as though their main reasons for keeping mutants within Compound too is to study them and experiment on them. Also, it serves as another means of getting rid of any unwanted subjects or Seek the Truthers.
5.) Electrified Compound guards..
With those Compound members armed with electrified batons, I think that these guys are the ones tasked with keeping the Nemesis younglings and the mutants under control and are probably a very big reason as to how things are kept so under control.
I imagine that with there being so many younglings and mutants, surely there should be more chaos.. more than there probably usually is. Also I like to think that these guards are also a part of the interrogations, for controlling the situation and for intimidation.
The breakout happening within the actual maze itself is because a Seek the Truth member got into the Compound facility and tampered with the securities systems, opening holding cells and mutant cells, allowing everything to roam free and cause chaos.
You being free from your holding cell alongside Nemesis younglings and mutants could be why within the Cells Labyrinth section you are questioned by the guards if you are a mutant or if you’re human. Having to prove this through various different means as well.
Also following along with the chaos in the Compound facility, I imagine that usually it can be quite an unpredictable and stressful environment. But with how loud, hectic, and dark it is, I imagine a breakout must be responsible for all the blaring sirens, flashing lights, and intense music.
Big thanks to @@stainedmystery for helping me with formatting and making sure this all made sense :)
Divider credits go to @@lunaridae & @pixopix
