— Impressive! —
You’ve reached the Axis.
You navigated the darkness, outsmarted my misdirections, and found the path. Your name belongs among the elite. You are among the first ten seekers to reach this point.
As one of the legendary first ten, you have earned a physical artifact of your choice. You can select a set of the first three volumes of The Axis Puzzle or a physical jigsaw puzzle or high-quality poster featuring artwork from your journey down the rabbit hole. In addition to your physical prize, a custom digital achievement badge marking your exact winning rank will be sent straight to your inbox. You can proudly share this badge on Instagram, Threads, or X (formerly Twitter) to show off your rank. We only require that you tag us when you post it so we can celebrate your victory!
Claim your place in the Axis Hall of Fame and secure your reward by filling out the form below.
Creator’s Note: The Axis Puzzle Origin Story
Years ago, the world got swept up in the mystery of Cicada 3301. I was too young to participate, barely a teen, in fact, and I learned about it later from the CBS series Person of Interest. In Season 4, Episode 2, “Nautilus,” the show drew inspiration from the real mystery, and I was completely captivated watching it unfold on screen. It was incredibly fascinating with its use of layers of cryptography, hidden digital files, and the way an online puzzle suddenly manifested in the physical world with real-life coordinates, poster clues, and maps.
I wanted to create an experience just like that, crafted from the comforts of my own home. A code of sorts that could hold secrets and demand a similar deep, methodical focus.
Before The Axis Puzzle became a book and website, it had a different name. Inspired by the cicada, I chose a wasp, specifically drawn to the five-letter word “Sphex,“ as it was the only five-letter word beginning with “S” with an “H” as its center axis.
Armed with a string of text and a newfound love for decoding riddles, I originally dropped the very first iteration out into the wild as a Ghostbin paste shared on 4chan. In the vast noise of the internet, it remained a quiet, hidden artifact that I’ll never know if anyone noticed. It was just a small thing I did. Life continued on, and I dropped the idea, years passing by until I stumbled upon my original file in 2023.
The spark immediately returned. I now had the necessary skills to turn that small idea into a greater concept. I began creating a logo, and I held the vision of Volume 1’s book cover in the back of my mind. But my freelance work and fantasy novel writing soon took my focus again, shelving the project once more. Eventually, I returned to it, evolving and tightening the raw concept into the 100-puzzle book and the rabbit hole journey you just completed.
Thank you for taking the plunge into the warren, for looking beneath the surface, and showing me there are others who love connecting the dots as much as I do!
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