Lost Memories
| Lost Memories | |
|---|---|
| An investigation on a potential ARG starting 2016-11-01. | |
| Type | Independent ARG |
| Creator | Unknown |
| Discovered | 2016-10-25 |
Main Page > List of Investigations
The Lost Memories Investigation (otherwise known as "Olhg Nvnlirvh" or "Incoming Transmission"), is a multi-media investigation that currently involves a youtube page [1], email address ([email protected]), twitter page [2], empty bandcamp page [3], and a discord account, which gives cryptic messages and riddles to players about symbols, and as many as two unidentified characters.
Two days after the first video "November 1st" was uploaded, the investigation was discovered by the /r/GameDetectives community and an Overwatch community in Korea, believing it to be Sombra related (although on 2016-10-27 this was disproven). Upon discovery, the investigation quickly grew in popularity, and now receives hundreds of views per video, this is largely due to it's incredibly cryptic but somewhat simplistic nature, and it's use of bandcamp (which is believed to open on November 1st).
Contents
Build Up to November 1st
November 1st (Video)
On 2016-10-23, the youtube page for Olhg Nvnlirvh uploaded a video titled "November 1st." [4] The video featured dashcam footage of an unknown area, accompanied by heavy static, and extremely loud and distorted music. In the description of the video was the morse code message ".. -. -.-. --- -- .. -. --. / - .-. .- -. ... -- .. ... ... .. --- -.," which translated to "INCOMING TRANSMISSION." Also, the description contained a link to the bandcamp page.
YouTube Channel
After the initial video was discovered, users investigated the YouTube channel page, and discovered a Base64 cipher message which translated to "Testing Testing 123."
After seemingly everything had been solved at this point, a curious user managed to track down and send an email to the address "[email protected]." Once the email was sent, an automated response was sent back with the same INCOMING TRANSMISSION morse code message as the subject, and a columnar transposition message that when translated, gave the following message...
"TEST
Hello? Hello? IfAnyoneCanReadThis,PleaseHelp. IDon'tKnowWhat'sHappening. I'mScared..."
On 2016-10-26, an Olhg Nvnlirvh twitter account was found. The twitter page had the same Testing Testing 123 Base64 cipher as the youtube page.
The Owl
On 2016-10-26, the Olhg twitter posted the riddle "5. The one who stalks the night, whose curiosity knows no bounds. They hide in the shadows, to everyone's delight. Who is this key?," followed by an upload to youtube entitled "The Owl" [5]. This video contained footage of an owl, accompanied by heavy static and extremely loud and distorted music. In the description of the video, users found two ciphers, and in the video itself, users found a spectrogram image of the letters "NNNM" (note that the "NM" portion may not be visible on some spectrogram software).
Later that day, users decoded the first cipher to "MortalKombat," which stumped and confused everyone involved. The second cipher would remain unsolved until the next day, when Olhg tweeted "The Owl: I help others discover the truth behind initial deception. I know how we work. totMam6olbrKa." In this tweet was an Atbash cipher that translated to "MortalKombat6" (more commonly known as "Mortal Kombat: Deception"). After deciphering the reference to Mortal Kombat 6, users tried the second cipher with the key "Deception," and cracked the code to be "NickNocturnetheNightMind."
After deciphering the second cipher, users were again perplexed as to why such a strange reference was made. It is believed that Nick Nocturne (also known as the owner of the Night Mind youtube channel), has nothing to do with Lost Memories, and that this reference was nothing more than a symbolic device in the story.
The Creator
On 2016-10-27, the Olhg twitter posted the riddle "4. Not a god, but has affected others like one. Although godlike, they share the body of man. Who is this symbol?," and this time answered answers from users attempting to solve the riddle. About one hour later, the youtube page uploaded a video entitled "The Creator" [6]. This video contained footage of a tree losing its leaves, accompanied by heavy static and a pitched down edit of the song "dlp 2.1" by William Basinski.
The description of this video contained two ciphers, both of which were solved within 5 minutes of the video's upload. The first cipher translated to a quote from the pitchfork review of "The Disintegration Loops," that read "It'sthekindofmusicthatmakesyoubelievethereisaHeaven,andthatthisiswhatitmustsoundlike." The second quote translated to "WilliamBasinski." This second cipher is believed to have the same symbolic meaning as the Night Mind cipher in The Owl. An important thing to note here is that the WilliamBasinski cipher was translated with the code "911." Because of this, and the fact that The Disintegration Loops is often regarded as "The 9/11 Soundtrack" a theory about the story of Lost Memories being about 9/11 conspiracy theorists began, stating that the owl was a metaphor for the government, and that The Creator affecting people like a god is a reference to how 9/11 affected those involved.
