Octangula ARG

*Not to be confused with the 7 ARG, a separate ARG developed by JoshA20.*

**The Octangula ARG** (*alternate reality game*; also referred to as, "The Lore", or jokingly as "just a scavenger hunt", formerly called "The ARG") is SMPEarth's ARG related to the Octangula shape that often appears all over the server. It is one of SMPEarth's two main ARGs, the other being the 7 ARG.

## Related Locations & Clues

### **Southwest Octangula**

* Discovered by VoiceOverPete (and later explored with help of Technoblade) on Day 1.

* When the text was put through a Vigenère cipher with the keyword "*OCTANGULA*", it revealed the link to the Stella Countdown.
* A similar book was found by Lukeorsomething in the Australian Fire Triangle/Triforce.

### **Northeast Octangula**

* Explored by Reflex on Day 3, after it was constructed by chip.
* Unfortunately, he lost all of the clues after dying in a cave where the items despawned.

* The disc plays the Five Nights at Freddy's 1 song by The Living Tombstone.
* This was said to be a joke from the server's beta testing phase that was accidentally left in the game by chip. It is allegedly a red herring.

### **The Wilderness Sundial**

A large plot of land centered on approximately (5944, 64, 11000) west of Antarctica was mysteriously claimed by a leaderless, unknown faction named the Wilderness. There lies a sundial-like structure, which was prominently explored by Reflex,King Burren, Michaelmcchill and StinksterDaily on Day 4.

```
SOCORZE? YAECL’R JCZ XO? YAECL OCS DFU, NTRLTWP?
CQU HCIPJ QONY NJ RGW IY AVP TFTE! YAY’O FCF FZE OHY LTRS EVFK?
MGXT XL WY HMV WCKRPU BPOW KHG VRPLY ZT HIOYL
DBGAYWDA, KWYC

```

Using the key "*HOLOFRACTAL*" to decode this text using a Vigenère cipher reveals:

```
LARAMIE? WHERE’D YOU GO? WHERE ARE YOU, LARAMIE?
OLD HAPPY JACK IS RED IN THE FACE! WHY’D YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT?
MEET ME IN THE WARREN NEAR THE CREEK OF CROWS
DQZMNIYJ, KUFC

```
* The last sentence was decoded using "*CTALHOLOFRA*" as

```
BIGPRISM, FFYA

```

**Full translation:**

```
LARAMIE? WHERE’D YOU GO? WHERE ARE YOU, LARAMIE?
OLD HAPPY JACK IS RED IN THE FACE! WHY’D YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT?
MEET ME IN THE WARREN NEAR THE CREEK OF CROWS
BIGPRISM, FFYA

```
YOU CHEATED INFORMATION NOW VOID

```

```
WODH NEFQ OOTK KLFWVN KL DPHR! JCZ THGTTPK ZZCP VLUXWSLFP...
AVP DWZZG BS YVH JCZIS VHDLF
SCZY JCSGPHPYS MWLGRKLM

```

Decoding this in the same way as the first book reveals:

```
PAST INFO VOID WARREN IS DEAD! YOU CHEATED LOOK ELSEWHERE...
MQY DUGZV UE NHC SCXPS KAPAR
NLZW QCHZBWBTB MUSGGDXB

```
* Decoding the second and third line separately gives you:

```
THE PRIZE IS NOT YOURS TODAY
LOOK ELSEWHERE BIGPRISM

```

**Full translation:**

```
PAST INFO VOID WARREN IS DEAD! YOU CHEATED LOOK ELSEWHERE...
THE PRIZE IS NOT YOURS TODAY
LOOK ELSEWHERE BIGPRISM

* Several items were retrieved from the sundial:
	+ an OP enchanted bow called "*Octangula*" with Infinity 2, Power 3 and Punch 2, currently in Reflex's possession.
	+ an enchanted golden apple, a (compressed?) emerald block and a TNT, currently in Reflex's possession.
	+ a nether star, currently with King Burren.
* Later that day, chip joined the Discord server's ARG voice chat along with three other streamers including GrunksPromise, LukeOrSomething and Jmak, claiming that the whole ARG was a fake. Luke said, "He's lying by the way," before leaving the call with chip and the rest.
	+ A tweet from Chip on twitter raised suspicions that these were fake accounts, but the Discord profiles were connected to official media and twitter accounts, proving that the accounts were legitimate.

### Spherical Lashawna *(prank/red herring)*

    On December 3, 2019 (Day 12), the official SMPEarth twitter account posted a tweet (which has since been deleted) with a link to a website (junkyjanker.com), presumably as a joke response to the volume of people requesting to join SMPEarth.

* *Interested in joining SMP Earth? Go to junkyjanker.com to be added to the whitelist*

    The link redirected to an image of Lashawna from *Total Drama* drawn as a sphere. Some ARG solvers in the discord attempted to scavenge for a hidden code within the image. Some properties about the image were discovered;

* The image was uploaded to a site that did not strip metadata.
* No like image was indexed by search engines, meaning that the image was most likely unique.
* The image's creation date had been found to be on November 15, 2019.
* The image's creator was chip themself.

It is assumed that this was a dead end, and that Josh and Chip were laughing at the ARG members' attempts to discover meaning within the image.

### **Fake End Landing ARG** *(easter egg)*

* Several clues were set up which were originally assumed to be part of the Octangula ARG.
	+ They were, however, part of a separate easter egg intended for Michaelmcchill regarding the End raid done by KaraCorvus, CaptainSparklez and IAmSp00n.
	+ Though it seems to have no connection to the larger ARG, it is possible that this was done to retcon the End in order to fit into the ARG storyline.

* Fans deduced that the numbers represented a coordinate X: 3834, Z: 4753 which corresponds to a lake where a chest was located at the heart of the lake.
* Michael and Sp00n deduced that these words refer to the name of streets in Los Angeles and presumably, the next clue lied somewhere within the Southern California region.
* Googling these words led to Hollywood Boulevard as the most common result.
* This suggested the End raid done by Kara, Jordan, and Sp00n was secretly filmed in a studio (an easter egg to the controversial theory that the moon landing was fake).

### **The Sheridan Trail**

* Discovered by IAmSp00n on Day 9 that leads to the discovery of Laramie Online Office.

* It was revealed through inspect element feature.

* It played out a jazzy tune with the ambience of a coffee shop or cafe. However, towards the end, a sudden, loud ominous audio can be heard followed by a fart noise.
* When played through a spectogram, the disc revealed an image with the text "*SHERIDAN*", an ominuous hooded figure and a string of alphanumeric data,
	+ WDogMTU4ODAgWjogNDM2OQ==
* When decoded through base64, it translated to the text "*X: 15880 Z: 4369*", which pinpoints to a small crab-shaped patch of dirt near Sheridan county, Kansas.

### **Laramie Online Office**

The Laramie Online Office is an abandoned office building located in Wyoming, belonging to the company Laramie Online. It was discovered after coordinates were found by using a spectrogram on the Sheridan Disc. It was first explored by IAmSp00n (later helped by GrunksPromise, InkTea, Sneegsnag and KaraCorvus).

* *Employees* by BIGPRISM
* *Parp* by Mike
 **Warren and Warden** | * 2 skeletons were found, named "*Warren*" and "*Warden*".

**BIGPRISM Computer** | When he entered the room, the pressure plates for the iron door triggered a message:

```
CQMEIQKY 1.0 // QTKPJM WZUMX ERAKIPZJ

```

This was decoded by putting the text through a Vigenère cipher using the code "*BIGPRISM*". The message translated to:

```
BIGPRISM 1.0 // PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD!

```

**Trials and Errors:**

\*A torch was thrown into the computer's input hopper.

```
J'U YDIZQ. NVB ZWRB'K FIM CGFVY BBAYLFZV! //
KPC GGV WFQ TBKE RESK // CQMEIQKY

Translation:
*I'M SORRY. BUT THAT'S THE WRONG PASSWORD! //*
YOU ARE ONE STEP AWAY // BIGPRISM

```

* A book and quill, unsigned, with the word PARP in it.
	+ It played the tune from the Sheridan disc, but was cut off shortly after.
* Another book and quill, unsigned, with the word PARP in it.

```
INVALID PASSWORD - 10 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- BOOK MUST BE SIGNED - BIGPRISM

```

* A book signed and titled PARP, with the word PARP in it.

```
INVALID PASSWORD - 9 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- BOOK MUST BE SIGNED - BIGPRISM

```

* The book signed by Mike titled PARP.

```
INVALID PASSWORD - 8 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- TIME IS TICKING - BIGPRISM

```

* A book signed and titled OSLA, with the word OSLA in it (OSLA was the result of PARP being translated through a Vigenère cipher using the code BIGPRISM). It should be noted that the error message skipped one attempt (supposed to be 7 more attempts), and this attempt was a "half-attempt", most likely as a joke.

```
INVALID PASSWORD - 6.5 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- TITLE IS THE SAME AS BOOK CONTENT - BIGPRISM

```

* A book signed and titled BIGPRISM, with the word OSLA in it.

```
INCORRECT PASSWORD - 5 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- THE TITLE MUST BE THE SAME AS THE BOOK CONTENT - BIGPRISM

```

* A book signed and titled DEATH, with the word DEATH in it.

```
INCORRECT PASSWORD - 4 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- NO MORE HINTS! EASIER THAN YOU THINK - BIGPRISM

```

* A dropper dropped another item into the hopper without player input. It is assumed that the dropper was a timer system, based on the earlier clue of "TIME IS TICKING".

```
INCORRECT PASSWORD - 3 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- YOU'RE ON THIN ICE - BIGPRISM

```

* An empty book and quill, dropped by accident.

```
INCORRECT PASSWORD - 2 MORE ATTEMPTS REMAINING
- YOU ARE BRAVE - 13 - BIGPRISM

```

* A book signed and titled LARAMIEONLINE, with the word LARAMIEONLINE in it was set to be submitted when the dispenser dropped another item in, and rather than leaving one attempt left, the computer skipped an attempt, saying:

```
WRONG PASSWORD // COME BACK IN 24 HOURS

```

* The same message was displayed when the LARAMIEONLINE book was thrown into the hopper after the machine was locked.
Both him and Sp00n then decided to wait another day to try, and as they both about to leave the office, Sneeg suddenly found an unknown, unsigned book in his inventory with the following code:
* MTc2NjEgMTkyMQ==

A quick base64 decryption later revealed two numbers, 17661 and 1921, corresponding to a location somewhere in the icy region between Canada and Greenland. Arriving at the coordinate, Sneeg and Sp00n were joined by Kara and found a random 4x5 block of bedrock on the icy surface. A book was found in a chest deep underwater on the seabed, containing the following code:
* aEFxNDQzZmh5RG8=

 **BIGPRISM Archived Files** | On Day 13, after the 24-hour timer was off and the computer was able to accept new password, KaraCorvus submitted the LARAMIEONLINE book and the computer was successfully unlocked.

```
(Broadcast) SUCCESS - BOOTING UP.
FILES WILL BE READY TOMORROW AT 12:00 AM GMT.

```

New instructions were given by the computer when Kara returned to BIGPRISM on Day 13 after 12 am GMT:

```
SERVER UPDATE IN PROGRESS.
THE PORTAL HAS OPENED IN OUR SOUTHWEST DIVISION.
TALK TO A SERVER REP FOR MORE INFO. DO NOT COME ALONE!

```
* An external link was provided to download the zipped archived files consists of a HTML webpage containing info on Mariah Camrey and the Stella Octangula; an image folder named "*Stella*", and a text file called "*README*". They provided more background lore related to Laramie Online, BIGPRISM and the Octangula.
* Kara also received 32 diamonds from the computer after "clearing the cache".

Believing the location of the portal would be at the Southwest Octangula, Kara was joined by Sneegsnag and AntVenom to go explore the structure in hope of finding a portal. As of the present, a hypothetical "portal" has yet to have been found, although possible locations have been speculated.

```
WAIT, THE "SOUTHWEST DIVISION" DOESN'T REFER
TO THE SOUTHWEST OCTANGULA?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I CAME ALL THE WAY FOR A LOUSY BOOK?

```
IT'S NOT AT THE SUNDIAL EITHER? ARE YOU KIDDING?
I GUESS THAT WAS PRETTY STUPID OF ME TO ASSUME.
GIVEN THAT IT ISN'T SOUTHWEST....

```
IT'S NOT AT THE MOST SOUTHWEST
POINT OF THE MAP EITHER? WHAT?
I MEAN, I GUESS THAT MAKES SENSE
GIVEN THAT THE MESSAGE SAID "DIVISION",
IMPLYING A BUILDING, BUT WHAT DO I KNOW?
I'M JUST A BOOK

```

### **On SMP Earth Discord server** *(easter egg)*

* On December 6, 2019, at about 7:57 am EST, Josh gave a hint in the *#arg-talk* and *#arg-news* channels of the official discord server:
	+ A link (qualityserver.smpearth.com), user ID (Electric) and password (boogaloo) was given to direct the ARG community to the next clue.

### **Frequently confused locations** *(not related to ARG)*

* This was present since Day 1. It was confirmed by chip as having only been added in as an easter egg.

## History

Important days of progress in the Octangula ARG were recorded in detail in the Incomplete History page.

If you're new to the ARG and don't know what's going on, start there! The Incomplete History is a narrative-style retelling of all the events in the ARG. Information for new days was usually added around a day after it's been discovered, so the section is not always up to date with the most recent events and findings. The Incomplete History was primarily edited by users Grasslandia, denightwalker, and GitGood, so if you have any questions regarding it, send those questions their way.

## Theories

### The Simulation Theory

*Further reading: Simulation hypothesis, simulated reality*

In the beginnings of the ARG, most of the speculation concentrated around a single notion: the simulation hypothesis. In regards to the interpretation of the narrative qualities of the ARG, the theory of the Fractal Holographic Universe proposes that all of reality (in the broadest sense, the Universe and its contents) is in fact an artificial simulation. It further aims to explain the fundamental mechanics of our universe on the basis of this principle. Whilst various interpretations exist, theories envisaging a computer simulation as the setting of apparent existence have gained particular interest.

Holofractals are a series of geometric shapes, beginning with a tetrahedron, then an *octangula* (stellated octahedron), and ultimately reaching a cubifrom shape. Presently documented structures exhibit a similarity to holofractals — this may suggest that existence is inherent to a sort of computer simulation, with corroborating evidence being Minecraft's cube-like infrastructure. Furthermore, the holofractal theory suggests a contrived, machine-like existence (a "we are living in a program" scenario, if you will), this is commonly referenced alongside pixels, the fundamental structural, controllable element in a computing environment as a commonality between the two — an existence that is directly parallel to SMPEarth; an augmented, digital recreation of the world.

After the events of Day 9, it seemed to be clear that SMPEarth was most definitely a stimulation, run by the Laramie Online company and/or the BIGPRISM Computer. The Laramie Online company, however, has been abandoned for reasons unknown.

The Stellated Octahedron page found in the archived files urges its readers to "Pay no mind to The Three-Dimensional Hypersphere Model, the Holofractal Theory or the Hyperbolic 3-Manifold Model" as "they are simply incorrect", casting doubt on this theory.

## Story

Compiled by u/303d on Reddit, with some modifications and updates:

In an alternate universe, a civil war in the United States led to the division of the country into local states, destroying infrastructure and leading to unclear internet laws. There are two known states in this fictional universe: Wyoming, which became Laramie, and California, Oregon, and Washington which became Cascadia. Another state, Wheatland, is placed in an unknown area.

The state Laramie gave rise to the company Laramie online, which invented a computer that allows "digitally assisted astral projection" through higher/lower dimensions. This system is called BIGPRISM. There may or may not have been a coup in Wheatland which caused it to get annexed or otherwise effected and made Rick Rouga be a leader of a new government.

Another group of interest, who follows the Merkabah religion, uses meditation to access higher dimensions and astral projection. They also have their own digitally assisted astral projection system called ONEPRISM, which is not very well optimized and is run on a server connected to the SMPEarth server through some unknown means. One of the employees of Laramie online, Mariah, decided to go against the wishes of the company somehow and was disconnected during astral projection by BIGPRISM to silence her. This has caused a separation of her mind and body, and the Merkabah followers were able to retrieve her body, presumably through Warden, who is Mariah's grandson. As Warden was a listed employee of Laramie online in some files Chip posted in the community discord, Warden may have betrayed Laramie Online to steal technology and his grandmother's body after their attempted killing of Mariah.

Mariah is now on life support as they wait for her mind to return, and she was last described as being in a catatonic state, simply sitting in the same position and not moving. Sheridan may be the Merkabah followers' home base of operations and may have been under attack by Laramine online.

After the described "total collapse of the system" (presumably BIGPRISM), the Laramie Online office seems to have been abandoned and empty. Warren and Warden's status is unknown, however, the two skeletons found in the Laramie Online office seem to imply that they are dead, along with a book from Chip describing how Warren was dead. However, books found across the map from attempts to find the locations of the "southwest division" were signed by Warren and describe his search for the southwest division as well, but it seems that these were simply clues designed to direct the ARG team towards the area of the southwest division.

## Notes

* Searching up "*Octangula*" brings up information about the Octangula shape.
	+ The word "octangula" refers to the stellated octahedron, also known as the *stella octangula*. Stellation was defined by Kepler as "the process of extending edges or faces until they meet to form a new polygon or polyhedron."
	+ 'Stella' was the name of the link to the countdown.
* Garfield was a prominent theme on chip's YouTube channel. The Octangula Disc plays a distorted version of the Garfield Show theme.
* Chip posted a video on their twitter around 2 weeks before the launch of SMPEarth featuring the same stellated octahedron shape with the face of Obama in it. The Obama stellated octahedron can also be seen as paintings found in the Ancient Stronghold and recently on the entrance of the BIGPRISM computer room and presumably is a part of the server's custom texture pack.
* Searching 'holofractal' and 'Nietzche' in the same search term gives interesting results-
	+ *“And do you know what “the world” is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not grow bigger or smaller, that does not expend itself but only transforms itself; as a whole, of unalterable size, a household without expenses or losses, but likewise without increase or income … This world is the will to power–and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power–and nothing besides!” –Nietzsche, ‘The Will to Power’, 1067*

* Chip's YouTube channel has interesting videos related to Garfield and octangulas. A lot of information is compiled on this subreddit thread.
	+ a video  was found playing the same jazzy music found in Sheridan disc for the first half, then interrupted with splices of a news clip, distorted unexplainable videos and a subliminal octangula symbol, before cutting back to the jazzy music which is distorted till it ends abruptly.
* The original Warren book contained several keywords that may refer to the city of Laramie, Wyoming, near which are features such as Happy Jack Road and Crow Creek. In addition, Crow Creek seems to pass through Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, WY.
* Past cipher keys, names, places, and other significant words have been OCTANGULA, TETRAHEDRON, HOLOFRACTAL, WARREN, SHERIDAN, BIGPRISM, LARAMIEONLINE, MARIAH and WARDEN.

***History, lore and theories*** •
*Chip* •
 Southwest Octangula | Octangula Disc •
Vigenere totem of undying •
 Northeast Octangula | Nietzsche villager •
Tetrahedron book •
 Antarctic Wilderness Sundial | First Warren Book •
Red Herring Book •
Second Warren Book •
 Laramie Online Office | The Stella Countdown •
Sheridan Disc •
Laramie Online (company) •
Laramie Online Books •
BIGPRISM Computer •
BIGPRISM Archived Files •
Mariah Camrey •
 The Moon | The Moon Octangula •
The Hidden Moon Base