The Order Exposed - Whitechapel Power Failure

A second newspaper clipping has been shared. Unlike the first article shared, this one has a visible date, and the main story being reported upon is legible, for the most part. A transcription of the article appears below the image.

United Herald, Saturday October 17, 1886 - One Penny

District Paralysed by Power Failure

Total outage: Whitchapel, Stepney, Shadwell.

Partial outage: Wapping, Bethanl Green, Spitalfields, Tower.

Council authorities have yet to provide an explanation for the loss of electric power experienced throughout the Whitechapel district. The situation remains unresolved as this paper went to press, prompting fears that the already notorious neighbourhood could descend further into disorder with looting and violent [repp...] among rival underworld factions likely to increase.

The interruption in electric service is rumoured to have followed an incursion by Her Majesty’s Knights into the area. The blackout came seconds after a ghastly eruption of animal noise. Whitechapel’s legion of stray dogs set to a fiendish howling and were seen rampaging through the streets and alleys.

“It were a terrible thing to hear. A terrible thing,” claimed one [guttersnipe] who said he himself heard nothing untoward.

Were the knights to blame for the sudden disruption? What reason did they have for violating the Whitechapel perimeter? Officials [b...] quarters remain mum on the subject. Could terrorists have tampered with the power station, hoping to instill panic? And do they now plan on escalation to city-wide chaos? Or was Whitechapel’s well-known reputation as a stockpile of illegal [w]eapons to blame?

Our readers demand answers.

The incident described occurs in the East London district of Whitechapel, which is probably most famously known for being the location of serial killer, Jack the Ripper's activities. However Jack's five canonical murders only took place after the article above was published. Thus Whitechapel must have been a "notorious neighbourhood" for other reasons in 1886.

From what I've found on Wikipedia, in the early 1880s Whitechapel was primarily inhabited by poorer members of the English working class. There was also an influx of immigrants, primarily Irish and Jewish, and many inhabitants of the district would have been living well be low the poverty line. As such, many of the women were forced to become prostitutes in order to subsidise a families meagre income.

According to a day of the week calculator by Calculator Cat, 17 October 1886 was a Sunday, not a Saturday. I checked 17 October 1880, in case I'd misread the date, but that was a Sunday too.

Of interest is the headline of another article at the bottom of the page, "Additions to the underground planned." This may tie the above clipping to the Railway Map of Central London that was posted shortly afterwards.

The Order Exposed - United India Company

The following photo of a copy of The Morning Post front page was posted to The Order Exposed blog last night:

The date is not visible. in fact the only article that seems to have a legible headline is one entitled, "United India Company." The subheading looks to read, "Combination callf..."

While I couldn't find anything about the the United India Company, there is a lot about the East India Company, who even had a vessel named Agamemnon. One of the blue prints discovered by Ian and Jim are for an Agamemnon Class Airship.

The East India Company became defunct in 1874, although an East India Club was founded prior to the company's closing, and acted as an officer's club. The East India Club is still in existence today, as a gentleman's club. The Club's physical address is on St. James's Square, which may tie it to the activities of The Order.

In addition to the gentleman's club, there is an equivalent club for ladies, The University Woman's Club, which is situated in Mayfair. In the right column of The Morning Post page posted, under the advert we can see a headline that reads, "More... wars on Mayfair ...nt."

Not sure where all this is leading to, but it seems a lot was going down in quite a small area.

The Order Exposed - Tesla's Note

A new puzzle has surfaced, which was found by Ian Q and Jim S in Tesla's underground lab:

There are characters that look as though they are Serbian Cyrillic. This makes sense as Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire, in a region now included in Croatia. Jim S's transcription of the note however used Latin characters to represent these letters. I checked the transcriptions and there were a few more inaccuracies too, which I corrected.

After including the Cyrillic characters, I used a Caesar Shift Cipher, with 11 as the key, which spat out the following text:

"bez obzira na potešjoče moj rad napreduje, novo oružje radi vrlo dobro. ja sam vrlo zadovoljan sa thermite pušjom, bez obzira na poćetne probleme i poteškore sa vatrom tokom ljeta. usprkos drugih istraživanja koja me privlaće, bolje je da se koncentriram na sadašnji rad. vrijednosti su prevelike. bilo koju prijednost da ja mogu doprinjeti mojim suborcima, ja ju moram ostvariti. mi se borimo"

I ran this through Google translate, which detected the language as Serbian/ Croatian. Google also suggested changing "potešjoče" to "poteškoče," so I did. I then changed the "j" in "pušjom" to a 'k,' as that was the only word that remained untranslated. It worked, and Google gave the following translation:

"Regardless of the difficulties of my work progresses, new weapon works very well. I am very pleased with thermite rifle, regardless of the initial problems and difficulties with fire during the summer. Despite other research that attracts me, it is better to concentrate on the current work. Values are too large. Any advantage that I can contribute to my comrades, I have to realize it. We are fighting for all..."

The Order Exposed - Weapons/ Devices

Arbalest repeating crossbow

Seen in first and second videos posted to Ian Q's blog

Machinepistole
Shown in second video 

Arc gun

Shown to still be in working condition in second video

Essex M86.FL Thermite Rifle

Agamemnon Class Airship (Blueprints)

Agamemnon commanded the united Greek forces in the Trojan War
Looks to have been given the registration code "G-FAXX"

? Class Airship

Differs from the airship above in that it has twin balloons

Communicator

The Order Exposed - Underground Headquarters

Tonight Jim shared a video of he and Ian Q entering the London sewer network in St. James's Park. Ian Q mentions that he believes that there is a series of underground tunnels leading to The Order's headquarters. He is shown using the map shared last night.

In the video we see what Ian Q and Jim exploring an underground room that contain many artefacts, that lead us to believe that the chamber was indeed used by The Order. There is appears to be an early version of a Tesla coil, several laboratory flasks containing preservative fluid and soft tissue specimens, a set of knight's armour, a machinepistole, an arbalest repeating crossbow (also visible in Ian Q's first video), and a working version of the arc gun.

Machinepistole concept art

Arbalest repeating crossbow concept art

The Order Exposed - Map of London, circa 1880

Along with the blacked out page posted, two hand drawn maps were also shared.

The map on the left page looks to indicate the position of the Palace of Westminster (Labelled Westminster Palace) in relation to the River Thames, St. James's Park, and Piccadilly.

I'm not sure what the map on the right is of. I'm thinking it's either a floorplan of the Palace of Westminster, or  a map of a series of underground tunnels and chambers, with entrances marked by the 'Xs' on the map.

-- Update 21:59, 24 Jan. 2015 --

According to this Britannica article, the Yeoman Warders are sworn in at St. James's Palace, which is situated to the north of St. James's Park. The Yeoman Warders are the official guardians of the Tower of London, and are responsible for guarding the crown jewels, and 'looking after' prisoners. One Yeoman Warder is tasked with looking after the welfare of the Tower's ravens, and is known as the Ravenmaster.

The mysterious armband found among the belongings of Ian Q's great grandfather, who was a non-commissioned officer in the army (thus eligible to become a Yeoman Warder), and assigned to the "Royal Guard at the Palace of Westminster," strongly suggests that Ian Q's great grandfather may have actually been the Yeoman Warder Ravenmaster. This would account for his ability to spy on the comings and goings of L.H. and S.P., who are possibly connected to The Order.

The Order Exposed - Meaning in darkness/ Tesla revealed

The solution to the second 'Masonic' code is the hint to look for a hidden message in the ink blot posted today. Below is an edited version of the image. I have inverted the colours, and adjusted the levels in order to make the writing legible. A transcription of the text appears to the right:

"Little is known of Tesla but
it is said that he creates
terrible machines and
weapons of great power. The
few who have beheld them
say they channel strange
forces but I find these
opinions without merit. In
my view Tesla appears to
have a most rational and
scientific disposition. His
value to The Order is clear,
his presence in the complex
is kept as secret as possible
and he is treated with the
greatest respect"

Interestingly the hidden message is undated. A quote by Nikola Tesla appears in the opening of the Official Gamescon 2014 Gameplay Trailer, entitled Tesla Revealed, which is also narrated by Tesla.

The Order Exposed - People

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last few days trying to piece together clues from the alternate reality game, The Order Exposed, being used to promote the upcoming PlayStation exclusive, The Order: 1886. 

At the moment we have characters, and events occurring during two time periods; Modern day, and the Victorian Era. I thought I'd put together the following list of the known characters in the two universes, as a means of keeping track of who is who. I'll update the list as necessary. 

Modern Day (22 Dec. 2014 - present)

• Ian Q (1985? - present?): Great grandson to the author of the journal. Created The Order Exposed blog. Missing since 8 Jan. 2015.
• Jim S (1986? - present): Childhood friend of Ian Q, and the "voice of caution." Takes over the responsibility of posting to The Order Exposed after Ian Q's disappearance.
• Ian Q's girlfriend: Only mentioned by Jim on 23 Jan. 2015.
• Ian Q's Aunt: Mentioned by Jim on 24 Jan. 2015. Lives in Sussex.
• Ian Q's brother: Mentioned in the video posted on 25 Jan. 2015. Apparently he's an arse.
• Larry: I'm not sure if this is a legitimate character, or just a fan. Continually comments asking for his "200."
• Belle Lupton: News reporter for 'BCO News.'

Victorian Era (12 Nov. 1880 - 16 Nov. 1880*)

• Ian Q's great grandfather (? - 1915): Non-commissioned officer in the army, stationed at the the Palace of Westminster. Author of the journal. Instructed to keep tabs on The Order of Her Majesty's Royal Knights.
• "K.": Mentioned on the first page of the journal, dated 12 Nov. 1880. Instructed Ian Q's great grandfather to report on the activities of The Order. Ian Q's transcription refers to this person as "F.K." 
• Charles Darwin (12 Feb. 1809 - 19 Apr. 1882): Once visited Ian Q's great grandfather for tea.
• "L.H.": Mentioned in entry on coded page, dated 15 Nov. 1880. Acquaintance of S.P.
• "S.P.": Mentioned in entries on coded page, dated 15 & Nov. 1880. Acquaintance of L.H. Not certain if meeting on 16 Nov. in the drawing room included L.H. or not, although it is implied.
• Nikola Tesla (10 Jul. 1856 - 7 Jan. 1943): Confirmed to be aiding The Order.

--

* These are the current dates provided in the journal.

The Order Exposed - Ravens of the Tower of London

Last night 'Jim' posted a picture of an armband thought to belong to 'Ian Q's' great grandfather (above). The armband bears the symbol of a white tower, covered by what appears to be the head of a raven. This combination is likely a reference to the ravens of the Tower of London, and perhaps more specifically, the White Tower.

The current symbol for the Tower of London (right), depicts the façade of the building, and shows the entrance to the tower on the first floor.

According to the time-line of Ian Q's great grandfather's journal, the Constable of the Tower would have been Sir Charles Yorke. Yorke died on 20 November 1880, and was succeeded by Sir William Fenwick Williams.

I'm not sure how the ravens relate to White Tower, but perhaps in an alternate reality Ian Q's great grandfather witnessed the event that led to Yorke's untimely end.

The Order Exposed - 'Masonic' code, Part II

Today we got another photograph of the first page of the journal, as well as a another string of 'Masonic' symbols. First here's a comparison of the transcriptions of the first page posted by 'Ian Q,' and then 'Jim.' Differences between the two transcriptions, and the source material are marked in red. I've tried to format the two texts so that they match the journal.

Ian Q's transcribed text from 25 December:

November 12, 1880
Several months ago I was approached by
F.K. to report on the activities of a group
of operatives within the halls of
government. Clearly he was aware of my
assignment to the Royal Guard at the
Palace of Westminster. It took time and persuasion but I finally
agreed for reasons I need not address
here. This is the first entry of my
journal. Its purpose is to document the
operations of a group that seem [my by]
shrouded in secrecy, to record what I
have witnessed in the last few months
and what I have been tasked to keep an
account of: The Order of Her Majesty's
Royal Knights.

Jim's transcribed text from 23 January:

November 12, 1880
Several months ago I was approached by
K. to report on the activities of a covert 
organization within the halls of
government. Clearly he was aware of my
assignment to the Royal Guard at the
Palace of Westminster. I immediately
agreed for reasons I need not address
here. This is the first entry of my
journal. Its purpose is to document the
operations of a group that seem [my by]
shrouded in secrecy, to record what I
have witnessed in the last few months
and what I have been tasked to keep an
account of: The Order of Her Majesty's
Royal Knights.

For some reason Jim's transcription is a more accurate transcription than that of Ian Q. Just to make sure every one is on the same page [da-dum tish], the reigning monarch at this time was Queen Victoria.

The new masonic code is on the reverse of the page transcribed above, and translates to read,

"THERE CAN BE MEANING IN DARKNESS"

Perhaps this is a motto, or a justification for the events and happenings that Ian Q's great-grandfather was instructed to document.

-- Update 20:03, 24 Jan. 2015 --

"There can be meaning in darkness" was a clue to look for a hidden message in the ink blot on the page posted earlier this evening.

The Order Exposed - New Year's Day OTP

Clues for deciphering the 'New Year's Day' code are split between three different posts by Ian Q.

1 January:

A string of 32 letters, "UcrxtfwvRahfzVuyzwXspgblsfedXgys" was posted, along with the message, "First of four."

2 January:

A reference to the "other" Frank Miller. Miller was the cryptographer responsible for creating/ describing the one-time pad (OTP) in 1882. 

In a post about Charles Darwin, the following OTP 546-14 is given. I'm fairly certain that when I first read this post at about 15:00 this afternoon (23 Jan.) there was no hyphen in the OTP. I think it's been edited to make it simpler to decode the text from the New Year's Day post.

-- Update 23:50, 23 Jan. 2015 --

If you follow the link provided in the Darwin post from 2 January, you'll be directed to a digitized copy of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (5th Ed.). the OTP points us to page 546 (left), line 14, which reads, "How these difficulties can be mastered."

Since the cipher was only 32 characters long, and this sentence has 33 characters, the key becomes:

'HowtheseDiffiCultiEscanBemasTere'

The capitalization used is the same as that in the cypher, and it's significance will be made known in a later point.

The next step is to use the key to correctly decode the message, as outlined in Table 1. Each character is substituted for a numeral, with A = 0, and Z = 25. The value of the key is then subtracted from the value of the corresponding cipher. If the resulting number is less than 0, then 26 is added.

Table 1. Solution to the New Year's Day/ Darwin OTP

The decoded message thus reads:

"NovemberOscarTangoTangoHotelEcho"

The uppercase letters in the cipher were used to denote the beginnings of each word. Initially I had interpreted the upper case I as a lower case L, but that was easy enough to fix once the rest of the cipher had been cracked. Once again there is a code within a code, and using the NATO phonetic alphabet, we can be further decode this to read "NOT THE." 

Since this was the first of four OTPs, we'll have to wait and see what the rest of the message is, and whether or not it ties in with the two 'Masonic' codes.

-- Update 12:16, 24 Jan. 2015 --

I was researching the ravens of the Tower of London, when I came across a list of unlucky symbols. In Chinese custom, the numbers four, five, and six are considered unlucky. These are the same numbers used for the page reference in the New Year's Day/ Darwin OTP code. Not sure if there is more meaning to this, or simply a coincidence.

The Order Exposed - 'Masonic code'

Here is a direct translation of the code posted to The Order Exposed on 27 December, with corrections denoted by square brackets, after the decoded symbol:

NOVEMBER FIFTEEN

LH HAD AN URGENT CONVERSN[A]TION

WITH SP IN THE ROYAL GALLERY FOR

A QUN[A]RTER HOUR LH DEC[P]ARTED THE

PALACE IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS IN

A CARRIAGE I WAS UNABLE TO

FOLLOW NOVEMBER SIXTEEN SP

ARRIVED AT THREE ENTERING

DISCREETLY AT BLACK RODF[S] GARDEN

USHERED INTO THE ROYAL COURT

DRAWING ROOM I DID NOT OBSERVE

THEM LEAVING HOWEVER AT QUARTER

FIVE THE ROOM WAS UNOCCUPIED

The Black Rod, or more correctly, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, is a parliamentary position held in a number of Commonwealth territories. In 1880, the year the coded journal entry is thought to have been written, the position was held by General Sir Thomas Knollys.

According to the comments posted at The Order Exposed, LH may refer to a Lord or Lady, possibly Lord Hastings, while SP is thought to mean Sir Percival.

Percival was a knight of King Arthur's round table, most well know for his involvement in the search for the Holy Grail. 'Ian Q' refers to King Arthur in History and Legend in his post dated 29 December. The post also mentions a page number, but I couldn't find it. The title of the book also contains the solution for the email number code.

There are a few instances where the incorrect symbol was used, in particular, that for the letter N was used instead of the symbol for A twice. Other mistakes include switching C for a P, and F in place of an S.

If the word 'quarter' was spelt incorrectly in both instances I think the substitution may have had more significance. Inititally I though the G in 'gallery' was a T, but the dot is not as well defined as in the other symbols, so is likely just a lapsus calami.

The Order Exposed - Email number code

The Order Exposed is a blog/ alternate reality game based on the happenings of the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886.

So far there have been a few references to old books, and a 'Masonic code' (with key) posted. In fact the first post holds a key too, although less obvious.

In the top left, written on the yello post-it note, is the key to the number code received by sending an email to ian.q1985[at]gmail[dot]com. The automated repsonse reads:

Hello,

I’m travelling and will only have sporadic access to my email. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I’m able.

Cheers,

Ian

2334441531 2433142411 432415424211 4411332234 3443131142 4234321534 541133251515

By using the grid on the post-it, the following number can be deciphered to read:

"HOTEL INDIA SIERRA TANGO OSCAR ROMEO YANKEE"

This is NATO phonetic alphabet spelling the word "HISTORY." 

I haven't tried calling the telephone number included as a hot link in the email, but hopefully someone who lives in the United States will do so soon, and post the outcome online.

Now to see if History is a cypher for the code posted on 1 January, or how it relates to the OTP from 2 January. The letter J (or Juliett) is missing from the 5x5 grid in the image above. I'm not sure if this has any implications on the 1 Jan. code though.

Sol Invicto - French toast (Free download)

Last week Sol Invicto released a track off their upcoming release Initium III. The new trach, French toast, is a collaborative effort between Richie Londres, Stephen Carpenter (Deftones), and Mark Caro (Tech Itch).

French toast sounds like a mash-up between something by Fear Factory and a b-side from the Deftones 'Saturday Night Wrist' sessions. I really dig the vocal elements, which made me think of Annie Hardy's (Giant Drag) contributions to Pink cellphone.

Caro also worked on Sol Invicto's previous release Diaz brothers, which I forgot to post about when it was released.

There are rumoured to be three more tracks to be released from Initium III, the next track being titled Pancake, while another may or may not be called 'Black pudding.' There are plans to release physical copies of the Initium series in the near future.

Lieutenant's new song & album details

Lieutenant have premièred their third track, Believe the squalor, over at Stereogum. In addition to the new music, the article also reveals the album's title, contributors, track list, and artwork. 

If I Kill This Thing We're All Going To Eat For A Week (quite a mouthful of a title) will feature contributions by Page Hamilton (Helmet), Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, The Shins, Cold War Kids, Mister Heavenly), Josiah Johnson (The Head and the Heart), Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate), and fellow Foo Fighter, Chris Shiflett (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes).

The track list looks a little sparse, with only nine songs:

1. Bell epoque
2. The place you wanna go
3. Believe the squalor
4. Rattled
5. Prepared remarks
6. Some remove
7. Sink sand
8. Artificial limbs
9. Lift the sheet

The album is due for release on 10 March, and can be pre-ordered on CD or vinyl.

Foo Fighters write new song while touring Chile

I think the following video proves that Dave Grohl is one of the best front men in the world, and that the Foo Fighters are easily the best live act around at the moment.

It would be great if the Foos went on to record a version of this track and release it as a free download for their fans, or even as part of a live compilation EP à la Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, and Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Deftones rehearsal footage from Eros sessions

A video of the Deftones rehearsing a previously unreleased song has surfaced on YouTube. The footage is rumoured to have been filmed during the Eros recording sessions, and includes scenes with deceased bassist Chi Cheng.

Last year the track Smile was released to commemorate the one year anniversary since the passing of Cheng. The remaining members of Deftones have yet to confirm whether Eros will ever be released in its entirety, but with material like this surfacing, it's looking more, and more likely that it will.

Spookshow International Live

Rob Zombie has announced that he will be releasing a new live album later this year. According to Zombie's Facebook page the new record will contain "...no overdubs, no fixes, no fake crowd, no nothing. 100% absolutely live. No joke."

The album artwork and track list were released via Facebook too:

  

I have a copy of Zombie Live, and have watched the Past, Present & Future DVD. If the new live recordings have managed to capture the same energy, then the album is likely to become a hit.

I'll likely purchase The Zombie Horror Picture Show blu-ray in the next few days, in order to witness the theatrical spectacular that is a Rob Zombie concert in the best way possible. Well at least the best way possible until Rob Zombie comes to South Africa. 

Uncorking Cristal with a .50 calibre rifle

Here's a video showing exactly what the title describes, a dude uncorking a bottle of Cristal with a .50 (12 mm) calibre rifle. 

Video by FullMag

Happy New Year!