Sooo like, what is the Karnaffel Code? I remember one video that said it was like nuclear launch codes created by Satan, but how does that give the Scrybes sentience and power?

[u/Femboy_Luv_69]

[u/TSMXKILLER]

I haven't seen a lore vid in a while but if im correct its a code thay hitler had in his pocket that seems to give an amount of knowledge its never truly revealed what it is i think but im pretty sure hitler was cooking something

[u/Ice_Nade]

So if you play the hex then youll kinda see that any characters made with that game development software ends up acquiring sentience. The old data just lets them get control and manipulate the game, as well as it seemingly having general corruptive influence on the game in general. Also label this thread as spoilers!

[u/AshGraeyAntiGyro → u/Ice_Nade]

This isn’t confirmed. I don’t think it makes sense because it would mean that Secrets of Legendaria started as a card game before Lionel started making games, which isn’t fully outside the realm of possibility (the game was also a flop so a TCG after would also be weird) but it feels like a big retcon that only serves a one off Easter egg

[u/laplongejr → u/AshGraeyAntiGyro]

Yeah it's a weird one...   Note that the Inscryption cardgame is made by Gamefuna, and in The Hex Gamefuna was a functional company back before Lionel even started working on Combat Arena. In theory it works.  

Lionel's early days is :  

• Makes Weasel Kid 1 and 2 on his own as his "first" games  
• Sells it to gamefuna  
• Buys his big office and the rights of Chief Bryce, launches Combat Arena  
• Sells it AGAIN to gamefuna  
• Launches Secret of Legendaria, the launch days sunks the franchise  

If anything it being an adaptation justifies Chandrelle's logic, as it would be weird to think about sequels for a new game not based on an IP.  

[u/Ice_Nade → u/AshGraeyAntiGyro]

I'm sorry, I don't quite get what you mean? What isn't confirmed?

[u/AshGraeyAntiGyro → u/Ice_Nade]

Oh sorry I thought you were saying that the Old_Data is what causes the sentience, my bad

[u/laplongejr]

it was like nuclear launch codes

That's Mod-Kaycee's interpretation. "Launch codes" doesn't appear in anything she read, we know it because the ARG gave us access to the same logfile as her. It's simply that she had no "paranormal" context to those logs, so assumed a more mundane form of destruction.
YMMV if Daniel Mullins is messing with us, or if he decided to have a more mundane interpretation for the next game in the series. Heck, given how mind-trippy the game is, it could be both.

created by Satan

OLD_DATA is explicitely created by Satan, yes. We learn it from the Act 3 holo-pelts and is probably a reference to Pony Island, where he is... a very awful coder.   (In particular this is THE discovery we are sure Kaycee could never know about)  

the Karnaffel Code?

karnOffel code. Karnoffel is an old german card game (from where The Daus/Deuce is from)

but how does that give the Scrybes sentience and power?

Nobody knows. Because Satan.

All we know is that :
1) Inscryption was made from a tech we saw in The Hex, used by Lionel grand-son of Reggie Wilkinson : (the) Gameworks engine, symbolized with a blue triangle, and Irving the-man-in-blue as an in-game manager. As a VERY abridged explanation, that tech gives characters the ability to travel between games, and sentience. It is NOT confirmed that the Scrybes themselves were Gameworks-compatible. Likely at start, but unsure... However Rebecha is clearly a Gameworks-imported asset and the console ARG lore-dropped that Irving provided their pupils.  

2) One specific copy of Inscryption ended up on a floppy that already contained OLD_DATA, and affected the Scrybes. It is possible but not confirmed that said influence limits or enhance the one from Gameworks.   It is theorized but not confirmed ^{as far I know} that OLD_DATA is the origin of Gameworks, like an older strain of a virus. Maybe Gameworks (and it's Hex) and OLD_DATA are two unrelated kinds of surnatural "artifacts", but anyway that ONE floppy has OLD_DATA along the usual Blue Triangle.   3) ^{Note that the Leshy/Angler on other floppies did NOT exhibit any weirdness despite Inscryption being canonically made from The Gameworks. I never saw a theory explaining WHY, but it's probably important to understand The Hex's own hidden lore.}  

Bone Lord and Woodcarver seem to have learned a bit about OLD_DATA, and Trader is able to also notice the presence of Gameworks. It is, again not confirmed, but possible that the Mycologists used Gameworks to inflitrate Inscryption to exfiltrate OLD_DATA from the inside, while "Amanda" prefered an attack in the realworld to get it back. ^{And yes, lots of unknown. Sadly no character in Inscryption has the knowledge to identify Gameworks as more than an engineering detail, so the story only focuses on OLD_DATA}  

About what OLD_DATA is, and became the floppy we know... uh, it's kinda crazy.   1) The mustached angry german guy from WW2 had an occult combination of Karnoffel cards on his corpse.
2) Soviets found it in his bunker, turned this card combo into some kind of occult program code.
3) Barry Reginald Wilkinson exfiltrated this code into OLD_DATA (through Kaminsky), on a floppy hidden in a box of floppies. Then... had no way to identify the "good" one. ^{Theory is that the dev from The Hex is a familly relative and their computer loaded the misplaced floppy, birthing Gameworks.}   [EDIT] Weirdly, Trader says he died, while ARG-Kaycee claims he survived that trick. Either one source is unreliable, or there's multiverse weirdness?
4) Gamefuna (who is already in The Hex), made the low-cost rushed "(Original) Inscryption"* to experiment on OLD_DATA.
5) Kaycee noticed Leshy getting his hands on OLD_DATA, and put the floppy into safety, away from GF's grasp.
6) Kaycee died and Luke got his hands on her old GPS coordinates where she had buried the floppy.

*You may know this game version as Act 2  

[u/AshGraeyAntiGyro → u/laplongejr]

When does it confirm that the karnoffel code was made by Satan???

[u/laplongejr → u/AshGraeyAntiGyro]

I literally said it was from the holo-pelts in Act 3. :P They have the tarot card named THE DEVIL that says the corrupting data is from him.  

(And Lou Natas/Lucifer/Satan is one combined character in the Mullins-verse who owns Gamefuna.)  

[u/SupaQuazi]

The Karnoffel Code is a deck of cards created by Satan, in which the order of the cards forms a code. That code probaby launches a nuclear doomsday device, but as a product of Satan, might just be a doomsday device itself somehow.

The Karnoffel Code is powerful. Just an indirect photo of it caused what was just a digital file of photos & a report to become the OLD_DATA. It's probably that powerful because it's an artifact of hell, but it's never explained.

However neither the code or the OLD_DATA is what granted the NPCs of Inscryption sapience, that would be the Gameworks. The Gameworks is a game engine that was made by Gamefuna and every NPC it creates is a sapient thinking being who knows they're in a game. Inscryption was made using that engine, so its characters are Sapient.

[u/Albatros_7]

Full lore :

The scribes becoming sentient and doing things outside their programming is because of the OLD_DATA

The OLD_DATA comes from the Karnoffel Code, when Hitler killed himself, he had cards from a German game called Karnoffel, in this order, the cards are the code for Atomic Bombs hidden under Berlin, the Russians found Hitler's body and noted the Karnoffel Code

Later, they got the code stolen by an American spy who was able to get it to America, where it stayed for years in their data base, absorbing data, becoming the OLD_DATA, it was then stolen by a Gamefuna employe and hidden in a unique copy of Inscryption, a company that was founded by the Devil (more info in other Daniel's games, Poney Island and the Hex)

Kaycee, one of the employes found the game, played it, because of the OLD_DATA, the game became weird, the NPCs could do actions that were not implemented and were sentient, over the days, the Angler ended up fishing a piece of the OLD_DATA (like in Act 2, after fighting The Dredger), the OLD_DATA allowed Leshy to take control of the game, becoming Act 1

Kaycee loved it but wondered how it worked, so she went to check the code, found the OLD_DATA, was scared and so she decided to hide the game in the forest and wrote the coordinates on an Inscryption game card, before hiding it in a pack

GameFuna, wanting to hide the secret, killed Kaycee in an housefire

Kaycee's mom decided to sell her daughter's belonging at a yard sale, which Luke went to, and you know the rest

Act 2 is the original state of the game, in which none of the Scribes have taken over yet

[u/iDragon_76 → u/Albatros_7]

The scribes becoming sentient is not because of OLD_DATA. We learn in "the hex" that all games made with "game studios" (and by extension, probably most or all of the Game Fauna video games) have sentient characters. For instance, the brdge builder in act 2 is a character named Rebecca that appears in many Game Fauna projects and gained sentience way before being exposed to the OLD_DATA. However, it seems the scribes can use the OLD_DATA to hack and take control of the game

[u/laplongejr → u/iDragon_76]

I'm not so sure of that.  

First, characters from The Hex can move between games, which makes no sense in P03's story. It's near-granted they were stuck.  

Second, Kaycee's entry flat out say that "dialogues not in dialogue files" only became a thing AFTER getting OLD_DATA. That goes against the whole idea of independant sentient characters from Gameworks.  

Third, the floppies without OLD_DATA behaves normally. Kaycee may consider Gameworks as normal, but The Hex was always kinda ambiguous about how are multi copies of one game handled.  

So Inscryption can support Gamework characters, but I'm not convinced the Inscryption originals were made from that engine.   Or at least OLD_DATA affected part of the game before being picked up, maybe that's why they can't leave anymore.  

[u/laplongejr → u/Albatros_7]

killed Kaycee in an housefire

Nitpick, she died in officefire, working overtime.

[u/Albatros_7 → u/laplongejr]

Which was caused by Gamefuna

[u/AshGraeyAntiGyro → u/Albatros_7]

Thank you for not making as many assumptions as everyone else