When you reach door 60 you can go through a crack wall and find yourself in a secret room that leads to The Rooms, a reference to a game of the same name that inspired Doors. When dying to an entity in this place, we are not greeted by Guiding Light (GL) but instead by the yellow Curious Light (CL). The behavior of CL is odd, it’s quite vague and generally less helpful than GL, but it does encourage the player to come back implying that it needs the players help for something. It is suspected that CL requires the player to be able to escape The Rooms because in the recent Backdoor update, upon leaving The Rooms or The Backdoor, the player exits through a doorframe covered in yellow cracks and stars.
Speaking of which, backtracking to Door 60 there is a painting that has no title of a large yellow star. It is suspected this star is a symbol that represents CL.
https://preview.redd.it/ofihp1mdaa0d1.png?width=703&format=png&auto=webp&s=1425154a12a27aceb5407e3fe95c9c444aece319
This painting hides more secrets however. Also in this room are 3 chairs placed together. As far as I remember, these chairs have always been in this room, and I thought of them as significant but with nothing to connect it to. This is no longer the case as of the modifiers update because now, if you enter this room with at least 1 modifier turned on, the painting changes to this:
https://preview.redd.it/27omnf2taa0d1.png?width=699&format=png&auto=webp&s=447ac5c21d33375c81aafcfbac261e0a09341b49
Two more symbols appear on the painting, one of a blue crescent moon, and one of the red modifier icon. If CL is connected to the star icon, then who is connected to the other two? The crescent moon is obviously Guiding Light, sharing the same blue color and the crescent moon icon appearing when using the crucifix. The modifier icon however doesn’t belong to a light we’ve met yet, they have however made appearances. But first I need to talk about what the lights are, and what they want. When a player uses the crucifix, one of the symbols that appears is a closed string of wingdings, which when translated and put through a Caeser cipher translates to, “One Of The Three Architects Marked By Celestials Assists You”. Three architects, three icons, three chairs, three lights. So the lights are referred to as architects, but what does this mean? Game Theory believes the reason they are called Architects is the lights have the ability to change the layout of The Hotel, and GL uses this ability to turn The Hotel into a labyrinth keeping the hostile entities trapped inside.
In The Hotel the players goal is to make it to Door 100. The reason for this isn’t clear, but I speculate that in the upcoming Mines update there is some kind of escape from The Hotel for the player. Guiding Light seems to support the player in this endeavor, remembering the past deaths of players, which suggests that death itself is not an escape from The Hotel. El Goblino mentions other humans he has seen attempting to reach Door 100, so I believe that humans who become trapped in The Hotel need to reach The Mines in order to escape, and every time they die they reappear at the beginning of The Hotel and GL assists them each time. GL assists the player by glowing in certain areas to highlight them, items like the candle and the crucifix to defend against the enemies, and of course providing tips for dealing with the entities upon death. Finally I believe the rift in the Electrical Room that stores items to be used in another run is another power of GL (which is important later). Curious Light as already mentioned is less helpful than GL but nonetheless needs the player’s help in The Rooms. In the Backdoor update CL seems more acquainted with the player and more inclined to help, giving better tips, providing Starlight Vials with his star icon, and placing the levers in The Backdoor to keep Haste at bay further supporting the lights ability to change The Hotel as the Architects.
But what about the third architect, represented by the red modifier icon? With the evidence I have gathered, I believe this architect is a malevolent entity allied with the hostile entities. In a post by they suggest looking at the painting like a coordinate plane, with GL’s icon falling in the Positive, Positive section suggesting to symbolize GL as a force of good, CL falling dead center to symbolize neutrality, both of which makes a lot of sense given their personalities, and finally the modifier icon falling into the Negative, Negative section symbolizing our final architect as a force of evil. How do we prove this? First let’s look at the modifiers themselves, since this light is clearly connected to them. The modifiers are able to control the entities behavior, affect The Hotel, and even disable Guiding Light! This isn’t the only instance of modifiers affecting GL either, when modifiers are turned on GL is not present to give tips on the entities and the biggest piece of evidence suggesting rivalry between this architect and GL is that the more modifiers are turned on, the SMALLER GL’s icon gets in the painting.
(150% knobs multiplier for non-players)
Next we have the red barrier that blocks access to The Rooms when modifiers are turned on. We know this is an ability of the Architects because CL does the same thing for The Backdoor until players reach The Rooms for the first time. Why would the Red Light do this? I speculate it is because it (and GL) don’t have much control over areas like The Rooms or The Backdoor since you can’t use modifiers in those areas.
Finally I want to look at the Tower Heroes collab event. While the event itself is not canon to the lore, I want to point out an interesting detail from this event. When playing a Doors-themed level you typically are assisted by GL giving tips in between each wave of enemies. CL also makes an appearance in this event in Adventure mode giving hints to the secret Void boss fight. However, one particular Weekly Challenge during that event called, “Hotel Visitors” had the player assume the role of Figure defending the Library. This time, instead of GL giving tips we are assisted by something speaking in RED text, which the community referred to as Mischievous Light. They could have just as easily made GL talk during this challenge but they specifically chose to replace GL with something else. Not only that, they gave this Mischievous Light some personality, referring to the enemies as “trespassers”. It just fits so perfectly that I can’t help but believe it to be intentional.
https://preview.redd.it/tsy0yrfpka0d1.png?width=1334&format=png&auto=webp&s=865436166cce588de59c3136776754e4fe14ac08
Now that I’ve thoroughly explained the Red Light/Mischievous Light (ML), let’s circle back to Curious Light. Going back to the Door 60 painting, there is one more detail I’d like to discuss, and that is the fact that CL’s icon is much larger than GL’s or ML’s. I believe this is a representation of how powerful each Architect actually is. This is supported by GL’s icon shrinking when the player adds more modifiers, suggesting that they weaken GL. Furthermore GL and ML seem to possess a different set of powers, while CL seems to possess it’s own unique powers as well being able to replicate the other Architect’s. Like GL, Curious Light does glow on the entrance to and exits from The Rooms, and if we use the Bottle of Starlight bought at the end of The Backdoor on GL’s rift, it creates a second yellow rift. We don’t currently have any more similar powers between CL and ML besides the barriers they both create but I believe ML doesn’t consider CL an enemy like it does with GL (more on that in a second). Finally, only CL seems to be able to affect The Rooms and The Backdoor.
When dying to Blitz for the first time in The Backdoor we are greeted by Curious Light who drops a very strange detail:
https://preview.redd.it/oea3ahgdja0d1.png?width=1334&format=png&auto=webp&s=208f6611b341eca375de1ea38c94f01c459bb26f
We haven’t met anyone in The Hotel that’s been confirmed to be female so who could Curious Light be referring to here? The identity of this character is not yet clear, but the first candidate that people have suspected is Guiding Light, and sure on the surface that makes sense; they’re both Architects and we’ve seen them both talk but not necessarily to each other. But upon further inspection it doesn’t make sense for GL to be this character for one specific reason: the fact that this character decided to give Blitz a name. According to dialogue from GL and a tweet from the devs, the names of the entities in The Hotel were given by the player, NOT GL. If other humans have been to The Hotel then GL has been there for some time and has never bothered to give the entities names, so why would it start now? You know who’s more likely to give these entities names? Mischievous Light, the architect supposedly allied with these entities. This belief is shared by Game Theory, which I was super excited to see in their most recent theory.
So what is ML up to talking with CL? I believe that ML wants CL and possibly the player to join them. If CL is the most powerful architect and has dominion over The Rooms and The Backdoor, they would be a great ally to have. But what about the player? As we’ve discussed, despite CL’s power, they need the player’s help to access other areas, and in The Mines possibly will exist an escape from The Hotel that ONLY the player has the ability to open. If we take the Tower Heroes collab into consideration, ML initially sees players as “trespassers” and wants the entities to kill them. However, what if the modifiers are a test by ML to evaluate the player’s usefulness? Furthermore, not all modifiers are bad and actually make the game easier, so while ML definitely sees GL as an enemy, it may not be the same case for CL and the player. I speculate that Mischievous Light’s ultimate goal is to use the player to help the entities escape The Hotel, bringing death and destruction to whatever unfortunate world awaits behind the exit door.
But that’s just a theory, a DOORS THEORY! Thanks for reading!