Overview
Backlund (贝克兰德) is the imperial capital of Loen and the largest city in Lord of Mysteries. It is roughly the size of Tingen squared and is divided into multiple class-coded boroughs that each house a distinct slice of Victorian society. Backlund is built and previewed in the Crimson Test in real-machine footage, and it is a confirmed explorable region of the game, with current test builds still centred on Tingen; in the source material it is the imperial capital and the setting for later story arcs.
Boroughs
Backlund's boroughs are organised on two axes: cardinal direction and social class. The cardinal layer divides the city into North Borough, South Borough, East Borough, and West Borough. The class layer adds named upper-class districts inside the cardinals: Empress Borough (top-tier aristocratic), Cherwood Borough (high-tier professional), Hillston Borough (upper-middle-tier), and St. George Borough (lower-class but respectable working-class).
Empress Borough: aristocratic and royal-court adjacent. Town houses of marquesses and viscounts, the imperial gardens, and the most exclusive Beyonder circles.
Cherwood Borough: senior professionals and Beyonder operatives. The largest Nighthawk facility outside the central palace district sits here.
Hillston Borough: upper-middle-tier residential. Dense quest-giver civilian population.
St. George Borough: working-class but respectable. Trade guilds, dock workers, and low-tier Beyonder contacts.
East Borough: at least twice the size of Tingen. The industrial-and-ports beating heart of the city, including the famous Backlund docks.
North, South, and West Boroughs: dense mixed-use districts each carrying their own anomaly density and faction footprint.
Faction Presence
Backlund hosts the headquarters of the four official Beyonder organisations of the Loen Kingdom: the Nighthawks (under the Church of the Evernight Goddess), the Mandated Punishers (joint-Church enforcement), the Machinery Hivemind (Church of the God of Steam and Machinery), and MI9 (the kingdom's intelligence service). Each operates from its own dedicated Backlund borough and offers reputation-tracked quest lines.
The Seven Orthodox Churches each have their largest cathedrals in Backlund. The Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery have the largest footprints.
Saint Selena Cathedral
Saint Selena Cathedral is the most prominent religious-and-Beyonder landmark in Backlund. It is both an active cathedral and a high-Sequence ritual hub. Several Sequence 6+ advancement ceremonies route through Saint Selena's inner sanctum.
Beyonder Densities
Backlund has the highest Beyonder density of any city in Loen. Mid-Sequence (4 to 6) Beyonders are common; Sequence 3 and higher Beyonders pass through frequently for cross-Church coordination. Anomaly density is correspondingly high, and Backlund's raid content is the live game's primary endgame setting.
Travel From Tingen
The canonical Tingen-to-Backlund route runs by rail through the East Balam corridor. The game uses this rail line as the gameplay transition between the introductory campaign in Tingen and Act 2 in Backlund. The train sequence is a story setpiece in its own right, including a multi-encounter set-piece that introduces several Backlund-side NPCs.
Crimson Test Status
Backlund has been shown in real-machine footage, and it is now confirmed as one of the game's explorable regions, though current test builds still centre on Tingen. Its campaign content, raid encounters, and vendor pass have not been detailed for the current test; descriptions of a full Backlund gameplay loop are drawn from the source material and dev previews, not from confirmed in-build features.