Talk:The Verne Club

The Verne Club ARG (also known as The Society of Extraordinary Readers ARG), is an ARG made by The Cabrera Brothers Company for their Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, Free Bundle Magazine. The ARG is centered around lore from several writers of the weird and fantastic genre, including H.P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne, and Robert E. Howard. The official home page for the ARG can be found here. Currently, the primary solving hub for this ARG is the Free Bundle Magazine community, who have a Discord server here.

Human Sacrifice Photo

On July 13th, 2021, a user named "Wepemnofret" shared a post to "Paranormal Encounters" and the "Supernatural Encounters" sub on Reddit, claiming to have come across a photograph depicting a ritualistic human sacrifice dating from 50 years ago during a "system intrusion."

I know posting here might be a stretch, but... what the hell. My line of work involves breaking into different types of systems. I don't want to get too much into that. Here's the thing: I recently found this weird photo of what can only be described as an odd satanic ceremonial of some sort, with torches and all that crap. Naked people eating at a nice formal dining table inside a large cave. I will try to describe all this from memory since I can't access the photo for the time being. 

The cave was pretty large. I don't know a thing about caves, so to me, it was just a cave. A man and a woman are at the center of the picture. The man is your average Joe, but the woman was not all that bad. Around them is a group of six women, all naked too. There are shadows from people not in the photograph, so there might be more crazy nude women behind the camera too. Some of these women were in their sixties, others in their twenties and forties. Some were fat, others were slim, but they were all evidentially not in their best shape. I only mention this because if I simply say "naked people," one tends to picture instagram models, which was not the case here. They were all regular people. Besides dancing around the dining table, the women were doing "things" to each other. I will leave that to your imagination. 

There were like a dozen people or so, all wearing black robes and playing funny looking musical instruments in the background. Some had goat masks, others were just looking down, so their faces didn't show. Two were wearing a jester costume. Now, that was weird, but here's the really screwed up part. There was this thing sitting? crouching? next to the central two figures of the photo (the man and the woman). Picture a 200-pound slug the size of a man. That's what it looked like. Maybe it was a statue. Maybe it was a costume. I don't know what it was. It was this thing, this freaking ugly giant slug, sitting there with them. 

The photo was black and white, not the best quality but, checked authentic. It dated from around 30, 40 years ago or so, according to a guy I know. He's no expert, but he's a camera freak and the only other person who had a peek at the photo while I had it. Next to the dining table, there was a stone altar. Same height as the table, maybe a little taller. There was something on the altar, but I don't want to even hint at what was there. I've been doing this for a long time, seen many things people pay good money to keep hidden and trust me: I've seen weird, I know weird. But this? It gave me the creeps. 

If someone here knows about what type of ceremony this might be, DM me.

The next day the user makes a post to the History sub on Reddit, asking help to gather more information about "magic and rituals in pre-Columbian civilizations in South America." On the post, he shares a screen capture from a Brazilian history aficionado's blog featuring a group of tribal men wearing bizarre costumes. One of the costumes he acknowledges to be somewhat similar to what he found in the human sacrifice photograph he ran into:

Disclosure: I'm not a historian. I'm not even an aficionado. So keep in mind that I'm as layman as they come with this stuff.

What books or papers would you guys recommend when it comes to South American pre-Columbian civilizations and their relation with ritualistic magic? There is plenty about Mayans, but I'm having trouble finding anything about the rituals of the South American cultures.

My interest comes after seeing a photograph of a magic ritual being performed. Two participants wore a costume very similar to what the "onas" (aka the Selk'nam, or the Onawo) used for their initiation rituals.

Again, I am not a history buff. I was only able to find the similarity after googling "jester costume" for a few hours. I have already tried Amazon and there's not much about the Onas being translated to our language.

A few days later, wepemnofret updated his post on the Historians sub on Reddit, mentioning he was going to meet with a retired historian from Spain. The man, who contacted him through Reddit, claimed to have a book with an illustration depicting a ritual sacrifice similar to the one wepemnofret mentioned in his posts.

Confirmed, the photo I came across had little to do with the Selk'nam people. Despite using a similar "jester" there's nothing connecting it with what I saw. I've met with the book owner I mentioned, the one who contacted me thanks to this post. He showed me some scans of the pages that reference a "magic" ritual similar to the one I saw, cannibalism and all. Interesting guy, this Spaniard, he's a retired historian. Actually, you guys are all very interesting people. I've no idea why school teachers don't do a better job at teaching this stuff because I can really tell it is something anyone can be drawn into. Even tech guys like me. The woodblock drawing and the description on his book reference a cannibalistic ritual a french occultist described in one of his journals. He didn't allow me to take the scans back with me to the hotel, though

On July 19, wepemnofret makes a post on the OccultConspiracy sub on Reddit, searching information about the lost journals of Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, a french writer and occultist. In the post, wepemnofret mentions he is **traveling abroad**, presumably to Spain.

A year and a half ago, I screwed up and run into something I shouldn't. I began asking questions around to see if there might be someone who knew something about it and was told about a "social club" where a bunch of librarians, scholars, and writers get together to sweep things under the rug (mostly esoteric books). Like everyone with an Internet connection, I know about freemasons, the Illuminati, the skull and bones, the Rosicrucians, etc. But until recently, I had never heard about the Verne club. I did a little google Dorking, and nothing came up. Since there are as many cults as crazy people in this world, I assumed it was either something small or another Internet rumor. A few hours ago, someone mentioned the Verne Club to me, yet again. This time it was a person I met through another subreddit. I've done some more digging on it, and it looks like they are heavily paper-based. I breathe digital, and since you guys know your books...

The Verne Club

Days after posting about Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Wepemnofret asks information about "The Verne Club" on the OccultConspiracy sub on reddit.

A year and a half ago, I screwed up and run into something I shouldn't. I began asking questions around to see if there might be someone who knew something about it and was told about a "social club" where a bunch of librarians, scholars, and writers get together to sweep things under the rug (mostly esoteric books). Like everyone with an Internet connection, I know about freemasons, the Illuminati, the skull and bones, the Rosicrucians, etc. But until recently, I had never heard about the Verne club. I did a little google Dorking, and nothing came up. Since there are as many cults as crazy people in this world, I assumed it was either something small or another Internet rumor. A few hours ago, someone mentioned the Verne Club to me, yet again. This time it was a person I met through another subreddit. I've done some more digging on it, and it looks like they are heavily paper-based. I breathe digital, and since you guys know your books...

Reddit users of the OccultConspiracy sub quickly point out wepemnofret to the web address of the secret society: https://theverne.club.

On their website, The Verne Club mentions an "Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Apparently, their library contains rare literary works, such as the authentic copy of the Necronomicon, the handwritten manuscript of The Codex Gigas, or the complete translation of The Voynich Manuscript. The website also mentions these books are kept under "strict surveillance" and that their mission is "not to suppress or withhold knowledge, but to contain it from disruptive individuals."

Going to the address https://theverne.club/keepers reveals a secret section accessible only to members of the secret society, or "keepers." The address is also accessible by clicking a hidden link at the bottom of the home page.