Alpha Lupi

"Alpha Lupi" is the name of a mysterious account that began posting on Bungie's forums on February 11, 2013. It is suspected that Alpha Lupi is the beginning of a Viral Marketing Campaign (VMC) and possibly an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed to market the official public announcement of Destiny.

Alpha Lupi's Avatar on Bungie.net

The Alpha Lupi Account

"Alpha Lupi" is an account on Bungie.net, Bungie's official website. The account was created on February 8, 2013, and, like other official accounts, is distinguished from a regular member's account by its custom avatar. This distinguishing characteristic is essential in identifying Alpha Lupi as an ARG/VMC controlled by Bungie rather than one of the numerous fan-created ARGs.

Alpha Lupi's custom avatar contains a stylized version of the physics symbol for "Force" atop the mathematical symbol for "equivalency."

The name "Alpha Lupi" references the star Alpha Lupi, which is located in the southern constellation of Lupus. Alpha Lupi is the brightest star in that constellation, is readily visible to the naked eye, and is located around 460 light years from Earth.

Alpha Lupi's first forum post

Alpha Lupi came to the attention of the Bungie community when it made its first forum post on February 11, 2013. The post's subject line was entitled "Something is falling towards you. Or are you falling towards it?" and the body of the post contained only the phrase "7 - Only the trusted few..."

The Alpha Lupi account has, so far, not engaged in any other activity on Bungie.net, including other forum posts, groups, follows, or likes.

Day 7: Monday, February 11, 2013

Alpha Lupi's first post also contained a link to alphalupi.bungie.net.

The welcome page for Monday visitors to the Alpha Lupi site.

Upon visiting the link, users were greeted with a mysterious welcome page that contained a Geomantic Figure and the instructions "Begin by aligning the day's pattern to the light." The page also said "Monday" at the top and contained numbers counting down from 7 to 1. The "7" was highlighted, indicating that this was "Day 7" and that the days would count down from there.

Geomantic figures and days of the week, cross-reference chart created for the Alpha Lupi VMC.

Users quickly realized that they needed to enter the "Daytime" geomantic figure for Monday. By cross referencing Geomantic figures with old Roman names for days of the week, users realized that the correct geomantic figure for Monday was "Puer" and unlocked the first puzzle.

Upon unlocking the puzzle, users were greeted with a second page entitled "Pattern Active. The page contained two highly distorted and unrecognizable images side-by-side. The right image was captioned "Active baselines" on top and, underneath, captioned "Frequency gaps detected. Additional global observatories required."

The initial "Pattern Active" page for Day 7.

The left image was captioned "Coordinate. Combine. Clarify." on top and, underneath, captioned "Note: (x,y) visibility limited. (u,v) analysis might prove useful." The caption underneath also contained a hyperlink to a page entitled "Instructions", which read as follows:

Our sky is filled with unseen signals. Radio-frequency emissions pulse and flit and dance all around us. Yet even a singing patch of sky can be observed, and transformed into a range of frequencies.

Can you hear it? No, not yet. It has not yet arrived. But together we can receive its call.

Imagine combining the observations of thousands across the globe on an object meandering through the heavens. The resulting array would be quite large. Quite powerful. This is your task.

Alone it will not be enough. Coordination and timing is needed. Observations must be made simultaneously.

Your window will be small. Five minutes at most. But windows may be reopened. And the distance between observer pairs will be key.

There will always be limitations in clarity, so the results must be archived for study. Highly technical observers may be required. Detailed frequency analysis is recommended.

Everything that belongs to us will be ours, but only if we create the capacity to receive it.

Users realized that the distorted images would become clearer and clearer as more and more people viewed it at the same time. As word of the site spread across social networks and other websites, the distorted images began to change, and did, indeed, become clearer.

Varying Iterations of the Images Depending on Number of Simultaneous Global Page Views

With the images becoming more complete, and with the Instructions page stating that "highly technical observers may be required" and "detailed frequency analysis is recommended," users began experimenting with the images.

Late on Monday evening, Reddit user Techercizer solved the puzzle. How he did it in his words (Original post located here):

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Techercizer's image manipulations resulted in an image that was clear enough to lead users to the next clue.

Techercizer's image manipulations resulted in an image that was clear enough to lead users to the page alphalupi.bungie.net/98862748014.jpg.

On that page was a cleaned-up image with the following text:

The final Monday image.

The best voices -- voices that truly matter -- never allow themselves to be heard. This lesson is worth learning again and again.

Forever.

Your voice moves as whispers, murmurs and urges inside larger winds. Only the trusted few can absorb what is necessary. Wise and sly and perfect, your instructions drop, leaving nothing but the hard sweet rime of enlightenment.

The path is set. Your voice is unleashed. Except now it is gone...

And maybe it never was.

Day 6: Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tuesday's "Pattern Active" puzzle.

Image manipulation on Tuesday's puzzle revealed a QR code.

Day 6 began much the same as the first. Users entered the correct "Tuesday" geomantic symbol (from the chart above) and were confronted with a similar page and identical instructions as in Monday's puzzle.

Once again, the image could only be unscrambled when enough users clicked on the site simultaneously. Instead of a URL this time, the image manipulation resulted in a QR code, scannable by most smartphones to redirect to a website address at alphalupi.bungie.net/09394972304.jpg.

Like Monday, the Tuesday page contained a cleaned-up version of the Output image and read as follows:

Life waits inside this world's bones.

Your voice flows across the red rock and through the dead valleys, speaking in codes and goads.

Ancient volcanoes swell, exploding at their peaks and splitting wide along their shoulders. Ash clouds blacken the starved air. A fossil ocean of ice softens and collapses; geysers erupt, tall as mountains, throwing up steam and clouds.

Every moment matters. And from a great distance, in the midst of a thousand careful disasters, you watch the transformation with your own eyes.

The rose has blossomed.

Tuesday's puzzle solved.

Day 5: Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wednesday's "Pattern Active" page with few active nodes.

Early image manipulation on Wednesday's puzzle.

Day 5 was similar to the previous days. Users entered the correct "Wednesday" geomantic symbol (see chart, above), and saw yet another set of scrambled images. Using the same descrambling methods as used on previous days, users uncovered a set of numbers that formed a circle.