The Verne Club
| The Verne Club | |
|---|---|
| Uncovering the mystery of the Verne Club. | |
| Type | Official |
| Creator | The Cabrera Brothers Company |
| Discovered | 2021-07-13 |
Main Page > List of Investigations > The Verne Club
Contents
Summary
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." Wepemnofret's Reddit cake day was July 13, 2021 and in total he made 5 posts between July 13 and July 19.
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.
On the next day, he made another post on Reddit, this time on the History sub on Reddit asking for information about "magic and rituals in pre-Columbian civilizations in South America." On the post, wepemnofret (now known to the ARG community as Bishop) 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.
The Spaniard
A few days later, Bishop updated his post, mentioning he planned to meet with a retired Spanish historian. The man contacted him through a private message, claiming to have a book with an illustration depicting a ritual sacrifice similar to the one he mentions 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, Bishop 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, Bishop also mentions he is **traveling abroad**, presumably to Spain to meet with the retired historian.
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, Bishop 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.
The following is a list of reddit users who might or might not be in-game characters:
- Randolphfish (Reddit user) posted on the Occult sub on Reddit claiming his ex-roomate was a member of The Verne Club. He hasn’t posted or commented on Reddit since July 21, 2021.
- Franciswhiskeyjar (Reddit user): Reddit made one of his first comments on Reddit claiming that “My mother said her grandfather's brother (great-uncle?) was a member of the Verne Society.” And had “a booklet in a drawer somewhere with their silly handshakes.” He made a separate Reddit post on July 20, 2021 showing the following book page. He has not posted or commented on Reddit since July 20, 2021.
- Momento358mori (Reddit user): presented himself as a Freemason and said that The Verne Club might be an old Swedish Rite group of Masons.
Writers and the Occult
A new Reddit post by Bishop titled [TIL] Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, french occultist and author, and Victor Hugo (THE Victor Hugo) might have been pals in a secret society sheds light on The Verne Club.
The following writers are mentioned in the thread, by either Bishop or the Redditors:
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: the father of Sherlock Holmes wrote _The History of Spiritualism (1924)_, maintained fairies were real. He was also known during his last days for frequent spiritist circles.
- H.P. Lovecraft: his marriage to Aleister Crowley's ex-girlfriend, Sonia Greene, and his work association with Harry Houdini (a known Freemason)
- Arthur Llewellyn Jones: Welsh author and mystic. He was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
- Antonin Artaud: Dramatist, theatre director, and film actor. He was into the occult, alchemy, and cabala.
- William S. Burroughs: American writer, he was into the occult. He wrote Naked Lunch, Junky, The Wild Boys, Queer, and many others. He became interested in black magic after traveling to South America.
- Victor Hugo: French poet. During his political exile in the channel Islands, he dedicated much of his time attempting to communicate with spirits. He was friends with Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, a French occultist and author.
Bishop's Video Messages
On July 15, 2021, Bishop starts posting on Twitter under an account with the same username as his Reddit profile: @wepemnofret. The account also shares the same avatar (a black hat moving a Bishop chest piece).
In some of his tweets, Bishop boasts about successfully hacking The Verne Club's website. But although he says to have found thousands of "uid" (Unique Identifiers) of encrypted data, he could not retrieve any of that information before the server kicked him out. He also mentions he will not be trying to gain access again for the time being since staying in one place for too long has become "too risky for him".
Some of his posts are videos with messages encoded in Base64.
When asked for more information about Shane C. Mitchell, Bishop answered with a video message:
SGUgd2FzIHN1cHBvc2VkIHRvIG1lZXQgdXAgd2l0aCBKb3JnZSB0byBtYWtlIHRoZSBleGNoYW5nZSBpbiBWYWxlbmNpYSwgYnV0IFphaW4ga2VwdCBnZXR0aW5nIGluIHRoZSB3YXkgYnkgYmlkZGluZyBoaWdoZXIgdGhyb3VnaCBoaXMgcGVvcGxlLiBJIGhhZCBubyBjaG9pY2UgYnV0IHRvIGdvIGJhY2sgdG8gdGhlIFN0YXRlcyB0byBrZWVwIFphaW4gZnJvbSBnZXR0aW5nIGluIHRoZSB3YXkuIEkgbWVzc2VkIHVwIGhpcyBiYW5rIGFjY291bnRzIHRoZXJlIGFuZCBib3VnaHQgdXMgc29tZSB0aW1lLCBidXQgbm93IEpvcmdlIHRlbGxzIG1lIFNoYW5lIG5ldmVyIGFycml2ZWQgYXQgdGhlIG1lZXRpbmcsIHNvIEkgY2FtZSBiYWNrIHRvIFNwYWluLg==
Which decodes to:
He was supposed to meet up with Jorge to make the exchange in Valencia, but Zain kept getting in the way by bidding higher through his people. I had no choice but to go back to the States to keep Zain from getting in the way. I messed up his bank accounts there and bought us some time, but now Jorge tells me Shane never arrived at the meeting, so I came back to Spain.
The King in Yellow
With the message "Here's your damn proof", Bishop posted a video encoded in morse code on his twitter account.
- .. -. -.-- ..- .-. .-.. -..-. -.- .. -. --. .--. .-. --- --- ..-.
When decoded, the message reads TINYURL/KINGPROOF, leading players to a photo of a page from an unknown copy of The King in Yellow. The photo's EXIF data reads ``Artist: Jorge Munoz`` (apparently, the name of the ex-historian from Spain Bishop spoke about).
The King in Yellow might also refer to Hastur (The Unspeakable One, also known as "Him Who Is Not to be Named", "Assatur", "Xastur", "H'aaztre", or "Kaiwan"), an entity of the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft.
