The Septuagint Ciphers

The Septuagint Ciphers (also known as the Mishpat Ciphers) was an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) solved by a small group from the Syntax Network. This small group was known as Mishpat, or, less commonly, Unauthorized Access. The solvers had found a peculiar image posted to 4chan, accompanied with some text. As quickly as the trailhead came, it was lost on /b/, however, someone had saved the original post, and posted it to /x/. The Septuagint Ciphers ran from January 26, 2017, to January 29, 2017. In that time, 5 videos were posted to a YouTube channel named 0000 0000. As time progressed, the channel name changed to 000 000, then 00 00, and finally 0 0, acting like a timer. Solvers had a total of three days to solve every cipher, and they managed to finish the ARG with several hours to spare. One of the solvers, Rid Script, created a Google Slides that walks you through how each of the codes were solved. You can view it here.

## Storyline

This ARG wasn't just comprised of random codes and mystery. There was a story to go along with it. At first, solvers didn't know it all. As the codes were solved, however, more was uncovered. When solved, the first video's title was "Judgment", and the morse code at the end said "END IS COMING END IS COMING END IS COMING END IS COMING END IS COMING END IS COMING | 2017-01-29 03:00 UTC". This was the first indication that there was a time limit. An SSTV of the video also revealed a distorted image of a girl. Though it was hard to make out, with some image editing tools, solvers found the text "NC 2 days" on the image. With a bit of searching, solvers also found the original image. The lore behind it was that it was the last image painted by a young Korean girl, before she jumped off a bridge and killed herself. Apparently, if you stared into the eyes of the girl in the painting for five minutes, you'd end up killing yourself. They also found the Hebrew symbol mishpat (which means sin, or judgment) in the spectrogram. Using the same decryption method solvers used for the first video title, they found the word "day" to be the second video's title. The third video's title was "countdown", with another Hebrew mishpat symbol in the SSTV. Later in the ARG, solvers found a webpage. They found the phrase "SEPTUAGINT PASSWORD PROTECTED LOGIN". With a bit of research, they found that septuagint was an ancient translation of the Hebrew bible into Greek. They also found another Hebrew mishpat symbol in the source code. Not only that, there were a bunch of Hebrew numbers as well. When added up, the number was 616, or the number of the beast. Later in the ARG, solvers stumbled across another spectrogram, this one with multiple political figures hidden in it, and the text "ACCESS MISHPAT". The political figures were Bruce C. Brown, Jeh Charles Johnson, Avigdor Lieberman, King Letsie III, Theresa Mary May, Roy Asberry Cooper III, and Donald John Trump. Bruce C. Brown was the Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and Roy Asberry Cooper III was the Governor of North Carolina. North Carolina seemed to be a reoccurring theme by this point. Later, a fourth video was posted. The decrypted title was "nigh". The SSTV gave solvers a crudely drawn map with some text in the top corner. "END" was written on a circle, with what looked like shockwaves coming from it. The spectrogram said "TARGET" and then the Hebrew symbol for 6 right after, along with a decrypted time that ended up being January 28, 2017 14:00 GMT. The sixth person on the other spectrogram was Roy Asberry Cooper III. He was giving a speech at that exact time. Once solvers pieced the map together, they found that the word at the top was "charlotte". They found out that it was a map of the Spectrum Center, and the surrounding area, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Remember the END JANUARY 29, 2017 03:00 UTC message? There was a basketball game here at that exact time. Later, solvers found an SSTV that finally gave some answers. The messages were:

* **Who are you?** Septuagint is a religious and political operation, established in 1982, and sanctioned by God. We have members from over 13 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel, and Lesotho.
* **What do you want?** Our goal is extending God's Law to this mortal World. We wish to rain his judgment upon every [Hebrew sign for sinner] and cleanse the world of all spiritual evil. To this end we have created the device you are now dealing with the aftermath of, which activated at 03:00 UTC 2016-01-29 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
* **What was this device?** The device you witnessed was a prototype of our Emergent Neural Destabilizer (END). The bloody carnage you witnessed after it's activation was our Judgment on the people of Charlotte for their crimes. The wages of sin is death.
* **What now?** We have tested the first of our devices, we plan to activate the others very soon. These have a much greater range, and are currently situated in undisclosed locations throughout the world. When simultaneously activated, all violators of God's Law will be expunged from the Earth.
* **What happens to the remaining six targets? You shall see.**

With that, another video came out. The title, decoded, was "bad". The morse code in it said "EMERGENT". The SSTV gave solvers an image of some text, when decoded with a caesar shift, said "UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED ON SHELL SERVER        ACCESS CODES CHANGED        ENCRYPTION METHODS ALTERED        DETONATION POSTPONED        AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS". And with that, the solvers had saved the world. Part one ended, and solvers are still awaiting part two.

## Trailhead

The trailhead for the Septuagint Ciphers was discovered on January 26, 2017, on a popular English imageboard website called 4chan. It consisted of a peculiar image, alongside some numbers. It was originally posted to /b/, however, it quickly moved to /x/, to keep track of it easier. Luckily, the original post on /b/ was archived, and you can view it here.

## Solvers

Many of the solvers came from 4chan, and later found the Syntax Network. At first they discussed the ciphers on 4chan. Realizing that a chatroom would be a more preferable option, they transferred the conversation to an online chatroom that deleted their messages everytime the page was refreshed. Realizing this was not ideal, they finally made a Discord server, and continued their work on there. For the first two days, the group remained nameless, solving code after code on a server called "The Septuagint Ciphers". It wasn't until the third day that some names for their group began to circulate. The idea to call the group "Mishpat" came about from one of the first codes they had to solve. One of the SSTVs gave them the Hebrew symbol mishpat, which, when translated, means sin. The other name, "Unauthorized Access", also came about from one of the codes. Once solvers accessed the shell server, a YouTube video was released, which lead to another code. A pastebin was found, that said "UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED ON SHELL SERVER. DETONATION POSTPONED." The solvers were that unauthorized access, and that's how the name came about. The server was highly active while the ARG was being solved, and for a few days after. It's basically dead now, however, still holds all the answers to the Septuagint Ciphers. Below, you will find a list of people involved in the solving of the Septuagint Ciphers.

* Rid Script
* Wrexxial
* Per
* Kaylee
* Flumen
* Hachiman
* Sirdown
* Thanosten
* Umbra
* Lyrical
* WowWhatDoesThatMean

*\*It is important to note that this article is currently incomplete. Modifications will be made by the creator of this article as the time becomes available. Please be patient.*