An innocuously small PDF file titled False Earth Core Knowledge can be found among the forums of various conspiranoia websites. Among its bizarre and sometimes contradictory claims are that human life was dumped on Earth millennia ago by aliens who considered it waste; that Earth isn’t really a planet; and that a “true Earth” is out there in the universe, as yet free of the human stain.
Codex - Yellow 2 Miscellany - Three Dozen More Forbidden Texts
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Bad Dog A 1981 video game written and self-published by Sharik Preobrazhensky for the APPLE II. Like many games of the time it was sold in a plastic bag with minimal art or instructions (a mimeographed card insert in broken English listing many of the basic commands) with a childish cartoon of a smug dog chewing on a human arm on the reverse. A typical action game of the time, the player’s avatar a block pixelated dog who navigates a 2D maze “the house” to find and devour the “master”. The game is marred by a discordant soundtrack of inexplicable buzzing, seemingly the result of a bad conversion from MicrosoftBASIC to ApplesoftBASIC. Rumors on hacker BBS at the time Bad Dog was published indicate that if the sound code was compiled and run separately on a Microsoft machine it produced both a cheerful tinny song and odd higher pitched noises that the orginal poster/tester claims made both his pet chihuahua ‘Lasagna’ and hamster “Krull” aggressively violent. There is no other record of Sharik Preobrazhensky, beyond one post on the “Jungle Kingdom BBS” of Long Island in August 1980 in it’s “Animal Rights and Rites” forum where a user with Sharik’s name posts that he’s “No going to be around much … [he’s] hard at work on something to punish the Exploiters and Speciesists!”
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A loose cassette tape labeled Closet #72 in ballpoint pen. Playing the tape reveals a muffled, somewhat distant recording of your mother tucking you into bed at night. On each subsequent listen the recording becomes clearer (and, somehow, closer?) but your memories of your mother fade.
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To pursue the wisdom of the Codex of Scars, you must become it. Assuming the Cult finds you a worthy vessel, you must offer them a piece of knowledge heretofore unknown to them. Only then may you become the Codex: Your eyes plucked out, your tongue removed, your ears pierced, your own wisdom flayed onto your skin, you may take your place among its pages. Only then you may reach out, and read.
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The Turpentine Receipts: a collection of receipts for chemical and parachemical reagents that, when combined and processed in the correct way, allow one to blend, smear, and ‘discolour’ realities.
Gun with a Bible Hidden Inside: looks like a gun, but actually it’s got all the parts of the Bible split up in little secret compartments or inscribed in the metal inside.
Libretto for Atrocity: an apparent recounting of the Battle of the Somme, down to the breath and the bullet. The score is theoretically playable by machine; however, the manuscript is tear-stained and the notes distorted.
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The Chronicle of the Droning Queen is the entire history of the Buzzing Empress, laid out carefully in wax and honey in the layered chambers of the Cyclopean Hive. There is the gestalt wisdom of ages, carefully-observed ephemera of flora long-extinct, encoded within the arrangement of those waxen cells. Of course, the only way for a scholar to pursue it would be to either become queen themselves, or carefully dismantle the cathedral-sized hive one layer at a time.
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The book Nec Deum Nec Dominum has had many names throughout the millennia, but always appears in a language easily read by the people in desperate need who discover it. Upon reading it, they are imbued with certain, terrible purpose. A brief period of suffering inevitably follows, as it follows any sudden, dramatic change, but in its wake is liberation from churches, royalty, and other abusive power structures. The book vanishes soon after, never to be seen by those people again.
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Gra’arh’s Anatomy. The master assassin’s journal that contains detailed analysis and instruction on delivering a variety of deaths via nerve cluster to every sentient species in the galaxy. Gra’arh wants her journal back and of course, the section on her species is riddled with inaccuracies.
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In 2431, Interstellar Command exploration vessel Zheng He detected a mysterious radio signal from the uninhabited Theta Draconis system. Not two hours after deciphering the message embedded in the signal, the entire crew erupted into an orgy of violence. All aboard were lost in the bloodbath. Interstellar Command has since quarantined the Theta Draconis system, and deployed a flotilla of armed jammer drones to prevent anyone else from receiving that signal. Rumors still circulate that the ISC salvaged the Zheng He’s computer core before scuttling the starship, but any information about that incident is accessible only to those with Omega-class security clearance.
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You’ve gone into your older sister’s room looking for that nice pair of scissors you think she keeps in her desk, and instead you found her diary. You didn’t know she kept a diary. This is gonna be good! But before you open it, take a moment to reflect: Do you really want to know her deepest, darkest thoughts, including exactly what she thinks of you and your parents? Things that might forever strain your relationship? Of course you do! You open it and start reading…
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The Déjà Rêve. Write a word in the Déjà Rêve, tear the page out and put it under your pillow. Your dreams that evening will be shaped by that word. If you write a word that has already been written, you will be visited by a nightmare instead.
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The Ynda-Khend manuscripts remain untranslated since they were unearthed from the ruins of a lost citadel, centuries ago. Its evocative figurative writing system mostly resembles people in different ages, performing various tasks. Every scholar who perused the texts in the claustrophobic chamber they are conserved in, trying to understand its patterns and meanings, came out disoriented and amnesic. They seem not to recognize their peers and surroundings, and even called themselves by other, strange names.
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The adventure module The Seven Kingdoms of Grisfen Moor has faded into obscurity after many gaming groups banned it’s play outright. Among it’s many transgressions is the fabled ‘23 pages of box text’ that begin the adventure.It’s been described equally as languid, trope-filled and littered with typos.Topics include: two dead baron’s eating habits, three vanquished wizard’s love affairs, the trials of one particularly malnourished horse and lengthy, predictable descriptions of women’s bosoms. Absolutely none of the text culminates in any real sense of place or narrative and ultimately leaves the reader confused and bored.
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The Martyr’s Tome is never dry - it’s pages are always damp, dripping tears in constant remembrance of the saints and brave souls listed on its pages. Who else will weep for their noble sacrifices?
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Wow, incredible work, everyone! This thread is now closed. I need the following people to tell me how they want to be credited (reply here or DM):
@Anders @Gus.L @Jon @madflacc @Matt @PaleoGamer @Ryehat @Shawn @Speak_the_Sky
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Shawn McCarthy
Thanks Jason!
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Happy to contribute! Pls. credit as Josh Flaccavento.
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Thanks Jason! I’d like to be credited as Ryan Hatt.
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I’d like to be credited as Anders Gabrielsson.
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Speak the Sky, thanks!
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