Lost Memories

Lost Memories
Active since 2016-10-25
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 ARG (also known as "Olhg Nvnlirvh" or "Incoming Transmission"), is a multi-media ARG 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 ARG 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 ARG 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).

UPDATE: As of 2016-11-01, Lost Memories has been confirmed an ARG by the PM. [4]

Build Up to November 1st

November 1st (Video)

On 2016-10-23, the youtube page for Olhg Nvnlirvh uploaded a video titled "November 1st." [5] 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."

Email

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..."

Twitter

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" [6]. 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. The twitter page even went so far as to taunt users, by uploading a picture of an open box (telling them to "think outside the box"). About one hour later, the youtube page uploaded a video entitled "The Creator" [7]. 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 avant-garde composer 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.

Discord Invasion

After The Creator was solved, the Olhg twitter posted "The Creator: My purpose is to heal the wounds that plague you. Whether they are physical, or deep in your memories, it doesn't matter." A user then posted the quote deciphered from the The Creator video to the Olhg twitter, to which someone calling themself "The Creator" responded with "@BoobieSweater The Creator: I see you're familiar with my method." This began a lengthy conversation between users and what was presumed to be The Creator. Through this conversation, multiple things were learned.

1. The Creator and the manager of the Olhg twitter are separate entities.

2. The manager of the Olhg twitter (hereby known as "Riddle Giver" or "Riddle"), is not a human with a body like The Creator.

3. The Owl is another entity as well.

4. Both have signatures, with The Creator's being the post prefix "The Creator: ."

5. The Owl did not post their after riddle tweet, as The Owl's signature is the post suffix "- Owl."

6. The Creator and Riddle do not get along.

7. The Creator is paranoid of Riddle tracking him.

8. The Creator is a former resident of New York City, New York, United States of America.

(*) 9. Apparently, The Creator is still a resident of New York City, just not in the same New York City we have.

10. The Creator is a child and adult psychologist.

11. The Creator loves rain.

12. The Creator loves pizza.

13. The Creator is a kind, talkative individual.

(*) - Point 9 helped bolster the previously mentioned 9/11 theory, as many New York City residents claim that New York was never the same after the 9/11 attack.

After this conversation, The Creator asked a user if a link was a profile of Dann2442 (the user that talked the most with The Creator). After the user being questioned stated that the link was a profile of Dann2442, The Creator stopped talking on twitter, and a few minutes later he joined the Game Detectives discord server as an account named "TheCreator04." A few more things were learned from this conversation.

1. The Owl and The Creator's signatures hold some type of power over Riddle, blocking information from them.

(*) 2. The Owl loves fighting games, in particular, Mortal Kombat especially.

3. The place of residence for The Creator is nicknamed "Lost New York."

4. Twitter posts from The Creator should be trusted 75% of the time, while conversations on discord should be trusted 95% of the time.

5. The Creator does not care too much about his signature being abused by Riddle, which is why he uses a prefix signature that can potentially be mimed by Riddle (with an example of this being the post made on the Olhg twitter after the The Creator video was released).

5. Riddle is aware of pretty much all ARGs, and uses them as inspiration for their own ARG.

6. There is an ARG inside of the Lost Memories ARG.

7. The Creator made his discord account to be more secure from Riddle.

8. Whoever has dominant control over any given Lost Memories account is decided on a first come first serve basis.

9. If someone other than Riddle has dominant control over an account, it is believed that Riddle is "info blocked" to said account.

10. The Owl is a very reserved and quiet person.

11. The Owl is very to the point.

12. The Owl is very tech savy, and enjoys mysteries.

13. The Owl does not own a single account, nor does he want to.

14. The Owl is best friends with The Creator, and also lives in Lost New York.

15. The Creator describes The Owl as "an antihero," and "like a Shadow the doesn't suck."

16. The Creator is 56 years old.

17. Anything posted from "their side" to "our side" suffers transitional artifacts that degrade the quality of the post. The only person who can freely control this change is Riddle.

(*) - After this revelation, two users realized that the background music to the The Owl video was the main menu theme for Mortal Kombat: Deception.

Note: The Creator is almost universally loved by the Game Detectives community, and ARG community alike, and has even been given community roles on the discord server. Many users in community have since joined the ARG due to this character, and he (and the other characters in the ARG) are regarded as some of the most well-written characters to ever be in an ARG.

Shortly after The Creator joined discord, The Owl briefly used the account with The Creator's permission to do a quick question and anwser session regarding the ARG. In the session, it was discovered that...

1. The Owl is 21.

2. The person asking for help at the beginning of the ARG, is connected to November 1st and the bandcamp page.

3. The person is referred to as "New Guy."

4. The Owl believes that he is being tied to Nick Nocturne by Riddle due to them sharing some characteristics. He also has the same theory regarding The Creator being tied to William Basinski.

5. The Owl STRONGLY dislikes Riddle, calling him "a cunt" and other obscenities on numerous occasions.

6. The Owl was doing this session because he knew The Creator wanted him to.

7. The New Guy is 16.

8. The New Guy is in "Lost Boston," and has been safe in an apartment since his arrival.

The Proxy Videos

On 2016-10-28, Riddle posted "3. I am the light, I am the dark. I am the wind, I am the rain. I am the sun, I am the moon. I am everything you need me to be." Users tried posting guesses, but this time Riddle did not respond at all.

Shortly after this post was made The Owl and The Creator had a conversation on the discord server. [8]

The Owl: Hey bud. @TheCreator04 someone's sending something on the bigger side and it's not riddle. The Creator: What? Why aren't you sending this through text? The Owl: You haven't been responding The Creator: Oh... that's the connection issue The Owl: It's that bad over there? The Creator: Yeah The Owl: Ok. The Creator: You think it's the new guy? The Owl: Maybe we should move this C. The Creator: Where? The Owl:Try Skype? The Creator: Ok I'll try.

Users quickly freaked out over this and managed to save the conversation before it was deleted.

After that conversation, the youtube page uploaded a video titled "The Proxy III." [9] The video contains heavy static, yellow footage of a city, and a reversed audio track.

In the video users found two ciphers, and a spectrogram at the end of the video that said "EMAIL." The first cipher was revealed to be the name of the original song used in the background of the video, "Jynweythek Ylow" by Aphex Twin, and the second cipher was the name of the vaporwave label Dream Catalogue.

Users who emailed the Olhg email address were given the message

"iAs?ladygaiwncktloiehettnsunfnicm h?reIeeradlohH

tjjv://nnn.rpfdbzdpp.vlr/ddpn/rvr7fztn9v49b49/Ztbvjdlb.nvj,"

and Riddle tweeted "III: If I am the walrus, they are the walrus."

After some time, Riddle tweeted "Bastard should've used a key that made sense. acck://jjj.dtilbelgt.xzd/yltj/dxq7irnj9k49o49/Enoxclzo.wkp" and the link (which now replaced the link cipher in the email) was cracked using the mm/dd code for November 1st (). This image was revealed to be an image Dann2442 had previously posted to the vaporwave discord server "Ocean Lounge," and lead people to believe that Riddle was taking more than just inspiration from other ARGs. In response to the cipher being cracked, Riddle tweeted "pixlr + these 2 VHS effects = recreation Thanks @Dann2442," along with two images of effects from Dann2442's image. The first cipher was cracked the next day, and read

"Howcanthingsfunctionlikethishere? AmIreallydead?"

NOTE: Due to the first link being broken, and Riddle's response, it is believed that New Guy isn't actually trying to cipher, and that the ciphers are a result of the transitional artifacts.

On 2016-10-29, Riddle tweeted "2. I do not share you, but I share with you. You are not me, but you share through me. I am a wall, that only you can pass." This was followed by a video titled "The Proxy II" [10] that was in the same style as the The Proxy III video. In the description of the video were two ciphers, one translated to another Aphex Twin song from the same album as Jynweythek Ylow (drukQs), and the other translated to the vaporwave label Lost Angles. After the video was uploaded, Riddle tweeted "II: If I am a shadow, you are the caster."

Shortly before this video was uploaded, someone presumed to be New Guy tweeted a slew of ciphered tweets that were very quickly deleted by Riddle, who remarked "So I see. The boy cares more than I thought. I'll have to keep a better eye on him." When translated, the messages read as follows.

"Testingagain.Hello?" "I don't think anyone will be able to see that..." "Is there even a point?" "I don't even know if this method works. Maybe this is pointless." "Why does everything act this way? Am I in the afterlife or some bastard-child dimension?"

Afterwards, New Guy sent an email that read "RQL ZL DQB WQ TWEL!!!" To this day, the email has not been deciphered.

Any attempts to reach New Guy from this point have lead to a hostile reaction from Riddle.

On 2016-10-30, Riddle tweeted "1. If earth quakes, we will be there. If volcanoes erupt, we will be there. If tsunamis fall, we will be there. Who are these symbols?" This was followed by a video in the same style as the The Proxy III and The Proxy II videos called "The Proxy" [11]. This time around, the song was Strotha Thyne, and the vaporwave label was Bedlam Tapes. Users also noticed a spectrogram at the beginning of the video that read

"ON WE CAN HELP YOU YOU KNOW WHAT TO."

The video was followed by the tweet "The Proxy: We serve the cause without question."

The Anomaly

On Halloween 2016, Riddle tweeted "0. Who am I?" Users then tried guessing, but everytime Riddle responded with a thumbs down emoji. A couple hours later, a video titled "The Anomaly" [12] was posted. The description contained the phrase "TheCreator04" (the username of The Creator on discord), and the link to the Olhg bandcamp page. Literally everything about the video itself is unsolved, and it also breaks many of the patterns seen on the previous videos posted from the Olhg youtube channel (not having static, using multiple clips, seemingly random song, seemingly random video length). After this video was posted, Riddle tweeted "I am... The Anomaly." From this point forward, Riddle is now known as "The Anomaly."