Entity 56 (known as Arbor Hominivora by Backroom biologists) is a tree-like entity, with the outward appearance of a Frontrooms Douglas Fir tree (Pseudotsuga Menziesii). They resemble the common Christmas tree, with decorations including lights, ornaments, garland, and a star/ angel on top. Currently, it is unknown how Entity 56 lights up; however, it is commonly believed that it uses some form of bioluminescence. Entity 56 is sexually dimorphic. With males having stars, and females having angels on their tops.

Entity 56 primarily inhabits forested levels or levels with some presence of trees, such as Level 9, Level 445, and Level 199. It is considered an apex predator, preying on humans and human-like entities. It is considered biphasic, sleeping twice a day and going into an inactive state; however, reports of it adapting to diurnal or nocturnal sleep patterns have been noted. Entity 56 is a social species, forming small, social groups called “carols” of about 30-50 individuals and their young in forested parts of the Backrooms. An Entity 56 Carol consists of a group of Entity 56s and their young, as well as a leader called a “Santa”. A Santa Entity 56 can be of either gender and is typically in the middle of its life cycle. Typically, once an instance of Entity 56 has established itself as a Santa, its position in the carol will not change unless it becomes sick or injured. Despite being a social species, Entity 56s are solitary hunters.

Entomology

The generic name is part of the “Entity Renaming Project”, meant to reclassify Backroom entity’s with generic names to make for easier studying and classification due to the unknown, potentially infinite amount of entitles living in the Backrooms. The name “Arbor Hominivora” roughly translates to “Tree that eats humans”

Description:

Entity 56's colors vary based off the health of the individual with healthy Entity 56’s having bight green needles, well sick, injured or otherwise unhealthy Entity 56’s having a brown-ish tinge to their needles. Entity 56 produce a sticky sap like excretion from their needles. Analysis of this sap has shown it to have a similar chemical composition to industrial strength adhesives.

Entity 56 is an egg laying species, with females laying square, Christmas present like eggs, after which a male Entity 56 will fertilize the eggs using its pollen. Eggs typically take 1 to two months to hatch, with baby Entity 56’s resembling Douglas Fir saplings.

It is currently unknown for certain how Entity 56 moves, however it is commonly believed that it possess some form of teleportation, as multiple wanderers have reported Entity 56 disappearing from closed, locked rooms.

Size:

Instances of Entity 56 grow to full size in roughly 10 months, with males on average being slightly taller and heavier.

Saplings Averages (Birth – 1 Month)
	Male	Female
Average Height	30–60 cm (1–2 ft)
Average Width	10–25 cm (4–10 in)
Average Weight	2–4 kg (4–9 lbs)

Adolescent Averages (1-10 Months)
	Male	Female
Average Height	1.5–2.5 m (5–8 ft)	1.5–2.3 m (5–7.5 ft)
Average Width	1–1.8 m (3–6 ft)	1–1.6 m (3–5 ft)
Average Weight	35–120 kg (80–260 lbs)	30–100 kg (66–220 lbs)

Adult Averages (10+ Months)
	Male	Female
Average Height	2.5–4 m (8–13 ft)	2.3–3.8 m (7.5–12.5 ft)
Average Width	1.8–2.6 m (6–8.5 ft)	1.6–2.4 m (5.2–8 ft)
Average Weight	150–400 kg (330–880 lbs)	120–350 kg (265–770 lbs)

Decorations:

No instances of Entity 56 have the exact same decoration pattern. Entity 56 decoration patterns are a result of genetics with baby Entity 56’s mirroring their parents. The addition of decorations evolved sometime in the early 1800’s, around the time when Christmas was introduced to the Backrooms.

Instances of Entity 56 grow their decorations in late October and conversely, shed them in January. Examination of these decorations have shown them to be comprised of plant and organic material.

Typically the Santa of an Entity 56 carol will be more decorated then the other Entity 56’s.

Color variation:

White Entity 56’s, with entirely white lights and decorations are a rare morph of Entity 56. They are a result of a genetic condition called leucism. Notably leucism is a loss of pigmentation in animals, suggestion that Entity 56 may fall under the “animal” classification rather than a “plant” classification.

This condition is caused by a rare double recessive allele on their “Jolly” gene. Other than the white coloration, there is no disenable differences in behaviors. Only 25 instances of white Entity 56’s have been reported, with only 1 being found deceased and able to be studied.

Distribution and habitat:

Entity 56’s live in scattered populations throughout the Backrooms. During their “inactive” seasons, they reside in forested levels of the Backrooms, or levels with a high amount of trees. With them rarely entering industrial levels during this time. During the holiday season (November and December) they disperse though the Backrooms though as of yet, an unknown form of locomotion as Christmas trees, setting up temporary habitats to hunt humans and human like entitles.

Behaviour and ecology:

Instances of Entity 56 spend much of their time dormant. Consuming as little energy as possible. Their activity generally peaks during dawn and dusk hours (6am and 6pm) with a period of grooming, socializing and caretaking of young and elderly members of their carol. Their activity is at the lowest during midnight and midday hours (12pm and 12am) during which they enter an inactive state, it is generally safest to move around and near them during these hours, however doing so is generally advised against.

Group organisation:

Entity 56 is a social species, forming small, social groups called “carols” of about 30-50 individuals and their young in forested parts of the Backrooms.

Typically, a carol will follow a strict hierarchy with the carols Santa at the top, followed by it’s mates and their children, followed by “elder members” and their offspring, followed by the general population of the carol, with newer members at the bottom. Entity 56’s are believed to form carols for socialization, protection and breeding purposes.

Hunting and diet:

Entity 56 is strictly a carnivore species, with their primary targets being humans. Entity 56 uses its appearance as a Christmas tree during the holiday months to lure in unsuspecting prey (primarily children). When prey enters a roughly 5-foot radius of the entity it will produce a signal that forces its prey to remember happy, nostalgic moments of the holidays, with some victims reporting full blown hallucinations of Christmas cheer. In this state the prey is more inclined to approach and contact the needles of the tree, becoming trapped due to the glue-like sap that is produced by the needles.

The instance will then pull in the prey into its branch’s, similar to a Venus fly trap (Dionaea Muscipula). Once the prey is fully encased in the branches the needles will produce digestive enzymes that break down the prey into liquid, which is absorbed into the tree. This process from luring to entrapment to liquefaction takes roughly 10 minutes. The estimated acidity of the enzymes is currently unknown, but is believed to far exceed that of Frontroom superacids.

Reproduction and life cycle:

Entity 56’s produce though sexual reproduction. Typically, female’s and males will spend the first half of the holiday season hunting. After which females will return to their carol to lay their eggs, and males will return to fertilize their eggs. This temporary pause in hunting to reproduce will typically happen in the first week of December, though it depends on the carol.

After this pause, both male and female Entity 56’s will resume their hunting period for the rest of the holiday season. Before returning to their carol for the off season roughly at the start of January.

During the off season both parents will raise the young with the mother producing a sap like substance to feed the young, and the father providing protection to the mother and their young. Notably well normal members of a carol are strictly monogamous and typically mate for life, the Santa of the carol is polygamous and will have multiple mates.

Young Entity 56’s face a high motility rate of upwards of 75%, as a result Entity 56’s can lay upwards of 50 eggs in a season. Instances typically live for 80 years. Though instances living for up to 200 have been reported.

Communication:

Entity 56’s communicates through a system of branch waves during off-season and light flickering’s during the holiday season. Their language and the topics that they communicate about is unknown. However, it seems to follow a similar structure to Moorse Code.

Evolution:

Pre-Christmas (Before 1803):

Entity 56’s have been endemic to the Backrooms assumedly, long before humans first arrived, with their diets likely being other entities that were trapped by their needles. First reports of “Man Eating Trees” can be traced back to 1209 in Level 199. Their hunting tactics remained roughly the same, however they would use feelings of nostalgia around trees and general and the safety that trees would provide to lure in targets, not the nostalgia of Christmas itself.

The Eggs of Entity 56 also reported to simply be small pinecones, with the sapling spouting from it. It’s likely that the evolution of their eggs from pinecones to Christmas presents evolved to further sell the Christmas tree illusion.

Post-Christmas (After 1803):

During the period of 1760-1803 (the roughly the period when the industrial revolution started in the Frontrooms), reports of “Man Eating Trees” fell, likely due to people having less nostalgia and “good feelings” around trees, as the world modernized around them both in the Front and Backrooms.

After 1803, when an unknown wanderer first celebrated Christmas in Level 11 and the holiday took hold in the Backrooms, Entity 56’s began to evolve to look like Christmas tree, likely out of desperation to save their species.