The Game’s Afoot!
So. . . .games. What are they? Why do they hold so much mystery, intrigue and importance in real life and in story? The third book in my series, The Shadow Game, is all about games within games.
Definition - activity engaged in for diversion or amusement (or social or political power).
This is from Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary. I added the part in parentheses.
There are many definitions, as the definition of this word takes on many nuances. For this post and for my book, I will refer to the usual and first definition. The title for the next book is a play on the political and military intrigues between Great Britain and Russia over Afghanistan in the 19th century, called The Great Game by the British, and The Tournament of Shadows by the Russians. Much of the background action in this book is inspired by the political intrigues of that Great Game. There is a rising criminal empire that is planting mayhem and strife between many corporate and governmental players in the solar system while their true intent remains a secret, thus, the shadow part. Naturally, it is up to Jonas to find out what that real goal is and who is lurking in the shadows.
There are levels. There is the heated conflict going on between corporate enemies that captures everyone’s attention. And then there is a secret war being waged, unknown to most, by who I will call the criminal outsiders. Then there is the next level of this game, which is an alternate reality game designed to appeal to a certain subset of the population, of their children, more specifically. It seems fun and harmless, like Pokeman Go. It isn’t. There are dark undertones in it, very much like that most famous f internet mysteries Cicada 3301. Think Monarch programming, The TAG program in the late 80’s and 90’s and early 2000’s. In fact the premise of this book was inspired by Cicada 3301 years ago, another seemingly fascinating game with, at least in my opinion, sinister undertones. I just had to find a way to tell the story in a way that would work in my mind. And now I have.
Of T.A.G. and G.A.T.E. - I used to be a TAG student. I think this came before G.A.T. E.. I was in this program from third grade all the way to my senior year in high school but, thankfully, I missed the year that the government started trying to use this program and the children in it for their own purposes. Or this is the prevailing conspiracy theory, anyway.
Cicada 3301 - I’ve been wanting to talk about this mystery for years since I’ve had a story idea brewing in my mind about it and now I get to talk about it! The levels of this game alone are fascinating enough but the last section, the book of runes, still to this day has not been fully deciphered. Many have become obsessed with trying to crack its code but I do wonder by now if the true reason for it was to crack the personality types of certain people? To find who would go to the ends of the earth and sea to seek the answers? When examining this particular phenomenon I started to get the feeling that the real answer did not lie with the puzzle itself but the people trying to crack it. Why? When I pondered over the clues, an idea came to me. The idea of obedience. It was baked into the very beginning of the game. To obey shadowy, unseen entities, without question. The problem here was a mixed message. On the outset, players of the game were told that they were part of something that would help humanity, forward the cause of freedom and sharing valuable information with all people. Enlightenment for all. But the underlying message was the opposite. It was really about gaslighting the top players into feeling special, part of a chosen few, privileged to secret enlightenment. This is occultic cult territory. They actually wanted players to remain isolated, not independent, not sharing information with others to solve the riddles. If anyone was caught doing that they were eliminated from the game, told they would not be allowed to continue to play further. The shadowy creator(s) of this game had enough information on each player by this time after they’d advanced deep enough into the game to know or recognize who they were. So, they held a certain amount of power over the players. Also, people deemed too slow to figure out the clues were eliminated from the game. Freedom and enlightenment for the people, indeed.
By the time one got to the last portion of the game, the rune book, it became obvious to more sagacious observers that this “game” was about something else entirely. An intricate mind game on part of the public, most likely. A book of esoterical runes that even today have not been solved. Throughout the game there were references to the supernatural, to occultic texts, to numerology. The work of Aleister Crowley was included in the mystery and this rang dark bells in my mind about where this game was going. It took on a religious tone. This wasn’t just a game, in my opinion, it was an initiation. There were other observers who felt the same way about the matter. But an initiation into what? We will never truly know. To my mind, it seemed like initiation into a secret cult, a secret rite. Secret occult rites are the very opposite of free information and enlightenment for all. Cults, in the modern sense, do not tolerate free individuals who have their own minds and agency. That is my theory and the theory of others who examined the phenomenon too. What does it all mean?
Those that actually were invited to meet with Cicada 3301 were not heard from again. There are even ephemeral rumors that one man did come back after having met with one of these people in Latin America at an airport and he was scared out of his wits. But, as I’ve said, this is a rumor and I have no proof of such a meeting. Most of the people who were invited to meet these “enlightened ones” have fallen silent. That tells me all I need to know about Cicada 3301. The very number in the name seems significant too because the number 33 is a mystical number. It is my belief that it was/is a dark cult involved with the occult. This isn’t the only mysterious game played in real life that inspires the story.
Pokemon Go - This was a game, that, while not having occult secrets hidden within, was another type of deception played on the public by Google and other various businesses. Children, specifically, were targeted. The object was to get children out and about to play this game so that they and their family’s primary information and behavior patterns could be captured for (in my opinion) nefarious purposes. An excellent book on this very issue, and the person from whom I first learned about the real reason for this game, was written by Shoshana Zuboff, called The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism. On the outset, Pokemon Go got them physically into many businesses to encourage purchases, building a footprint of all of these kids and by luring them and their families into these businesses they made money on the outset but they also captured any and all information on their locations, behavior patterns and buying habits and other ephemeral data for data purposes meant for predictive control and to further build on the surveillance state later. We live under this surveillance state now.
So, the game in my next book will be some combination of these two. I haven’t worked it all out yet but there it is. Games can be played for fun, they can be played to learn something or they can be used for darker purposes and in fact can be used to lie, trick and deceive. A game can also be a long, political maneuver such as the games of the great powers that are played on the world stage. For me, that will be the outer layer. The second layer is the alternate reality game moving children here and there throughout the system, seemingly just for educational purposes and for fun. But this shadow game does not end there and it does not end well. I won’t reveal the details of the last layer, but I will give a clue. The clue is in this poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Erlking, of which I may use a small part as the book’s epigraph:
The Erlking (Erlkönig)
Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He has the boy well in his arm,
He holds him safely, he keeps him warm.
My son, why do you hide your face in fear?
Father, do you not see the Erl-King?
The Erl-King with crown and cape?
My son, it is a streak of fog.
"You dear child, come, go with me!
(Very) beautiful games, I play with you;
Many colourful flowers are on the beach,
My mother has many a golden robe."
My father, my father, and do you not hear
What the Erl-King quietly promises me?
Be calm, stay calm, my child;
Through dry leaves, the wind is sighing.
"Do you, fine boy, want to go with me?
My daughters shall wait on you finely;
My daughters lead the nightly dance,
And rock and dance and sing you to sleep."
My father, my father, and don't you see there
The Erl-King's daughters in the gloomy place?
My son, my son, I see it clearly:
There shimmer the old willows so grey.
"I love you, your beautiful form excites me;
And if you're not willing, then I will use force."
My father, my father, he's grabbing me now!
The Erl-King has done me harm!
The father is horrified; he swiftly rides on,
He holds the moaning child in his arms,
Reaches the farm with great difficulty;
In his arms, the child was dead.
The game’s afoot, dear reader. Your move.
Message At The Deep and The Red Book Of Ralston are books 1 and 2 of the Jonas Johnson sci-fi noir detective series. You can find them in ebook form on most major retailers or on my shop.
