In morte vita est— IndexNodei
IndexNodei is a small myth known for their game "Encoding Failure" and for their group BRANCH ZERO. They created their account in mid-2023 and had their first sign of activity on the May 2023, later being noticed for the first time in August 2023. Their game "Encoding Failure" is known for being randomly generated, meaning that the game can be quite time consuming.
With its use of touch triggers and the procedural generation of studded islands, Encoding Failure is an abstract myth which tells the story of a soul’s journey from the land of the living to whatever comes after death. While it uses the popular touch trigger style, it does it in a rather unconventional way, breaking from the norm and interesting the player. The main mechanic of the game consists of following an angel to certain triggers, spawning in the next islands. While it doesn’t convey a concrete story, it leaves a lot of room for speculation and theorising, things which will be expanded on later.
Biography
This section has not been written in the source archive.
History
IndexNodei created their account on the 24th of May, 2023. Later on the 28th of May, IndexNodei created his t-shirt of the same name, and created his Twitter account sometime afterwards. Their first tweet on this account would be made on the 29th of May, teasing his game "Encoding Failure"[1]. Later on in July and August, IndexNodei would tweet more images of their game, while also adding five badges to his game on the 24th of July, 2023.
Also in July, IndexNodei would create his group BRANCH ZERO. This group would quickly become active with two new members being added, named "DyingintheCold" and "Byufcha" respectively. The first new member to be added after them to the group was "sebjuct", who would be teased on the "IndexNodei" Twitter on the 25th of December, with an image of his game[2]. The same thing would happen with the next two members, "Jodthes" and "reenoiPehT", with both of them being teased in the same way, with IndexNodei retweeting one of Jodthes' tweets and IndexNodei posting an image of reenoiPehT's game on the 5th of January and 24th of February respectively[3].
The last time that IndexNodei would update his game was in October 2023, with the last time that he was active at the time of writing this being in February 2024.
Appearance
IndexNodei currently has black arms and legs, with a dark gray torso and a white head. They also wears the "Cozy Wool Scarf" accessory, the "White Glowing Head" and a t-shirt named "IndexNodei".
Personality and Traits
Little is known about IndexNodei's personality, although according to a message made by the user "toxiczombie1359" in the Robloxian Myth Hunters Discord Server[4], IndexNodei is completely silent when ingame, and mostly just walks around interacting with things when ingame. They also tend to use the wave emote.
Games
Encoding Failure
Spawning into the game, the player will find themselves on a singular island, surrounded by anything from trees to grass, flowers, ruins and benches. Every island is procedurally generated, meaning there will be differences in what spawns every time. The first island will always have a sign as well as an obvious spawn point. If the player touches the sign, the word “Welcome” will appear at the top of their screen. Then, the player will have to find a trigger to spawn the next island. Unfortunately, these triggers are randomly generated, however triggers tend to be around trees, at the edges of islands and on occasion, near any structure which may have generated. The player will be able to tell when they have triggered a new island, as a sound will occur, and the angel figure will suddenly reappear, guiding them to a new island. We know this is an angel due to text later on in the game.
Having identified and touched the trigger, a bridge to a new island will spawn, as well as an angel leading you to it. Something to note is that music starts playing only after the first trigger has been activated. This same pattern will continue until certain events, with the player having to find the trigger to each island to spawn the next one.
What the player has to be on the lookout for while spawning islands is the following: 5 statues, 5 signs (excluding the one on the spawn island), a flower, a coin, a well and a gravestone. The statues and signs are only necessary for story purposes; however, the flower, coin, well and gravestone are necessary for gameplay progression. I will begin by detailing the rough locations and contents of the statues and signs.
The statues speak in the third person, telling the story of what happens to the soul after death, while the signs speak in first person, directly to the player.
The first statue spawns on around the 5th island, the second on around the 15th, third on the 25th, fourth on the 35th and fifth on around the 45th. If the player clicks all of them, and combines them they will end up with the following message: “In the beginning, the angel receives the frantic soul with open arms and attempts to ease its panic. After the dust settles, the soul is told to follow close behind, as not to stray from the path of transition. As they travel, the soul encounters various windows into its memory, and reminisces - for better or for worse - on its past. Upon arrival at the game, the angel bids the soul adieu - and so begins the transition. At long last, the soul is retired - its past thoughts and feelings having been condensed into a singularity from which many new souls shall be born.”
It is explaining, in the form of a story, what is happening to the player; and as the player spawns more islands, more and more of their story unfolds, until the player discovers their fate.
Moving onto the signs, it’s the same deal. After the welcome sign, the second sign spawns on around the 10th island, the third on the 20th, the fourth on the 30th, the fifth on around the 40th, and the sixth sign will almost always spawn on the 48th or 49th island. If the player touches all the signs, and then combines their messages they will get the following: “Welcome. Do not be scared. It happens to everyone. I will guide you. Ease your thinking. And let us go.”
With these signs, it is easy to understand that the player is being comforted about their death. This is especially clear due to the “It happens to everyone sign.” as death does indeed happen to everyone. These signs are a rather obvious consolation on the part of the angel, comforting the player until they are ready to move on with their journey.
For just game progression, the player may ignore the statues and signs and proceed to look for the following structures and items.
The first of these items to spawn is the flower, spawning about 10 islands in. The player will find that if they hover over this flower, their cursor will show it is clickable. Another way to easily identify which flower it will be is by the coin which always spawns near it. If the player sees a coin against the ground, the flower will be nearby. If the player clicks the flower they will find that they’ll be teleported to a subgame, “Guidance”. Something to note is that once the player teleports and leaves their server, they will not be able to come back to it, and all their islands will have reset. A way to combat this is to bring an alternate account or a friend to keep the server alive while they are gone, so they don’t have to spawn the islands every time they come back.
Once spawning into “Guidance”, the player will find themselves on a long colourless bridge, lit only by flickering lamplights. Looking at themselves, they will find that they look like a simplified version of IndexNodei, the creator. This is true for all the subgames. If they walk to the left and then forward for about 20 seconds, they will come across a bench. If the player sits on the bench, they will see the same figure of an angel from the main game walk towards them, and stop in front of them. Soon after, the angel will begin talking and say the following: “Hello… You don’t have to worry about them anymore. Everything is exactly as it should be… Come with me.” Then a portal will reveal itself from out of the ground, with the angel walking towards it and disappearing within it. It is obvious that the angel wants the player to follow it into the portal, but the player should not as this would just take them back to the main game. Instead, the player should walk behind the bench and let themselves fall off the bridge. It is important that the player does not jump, but rather stick close to the wall as they fall. If they do this, then they will fall onto a path with a transparent sign at the end of it. If the player walks towards and touches the sign, a certain number will show up multiple times on their screen. The player should note down this number, as it is necessary for finishing the game. The number is random and changes every day, so it cannot be relayed.
Going back to the main game, hopefully to the server which the player was in beforehand, the player will have to take the coin which spawns on the same island as the clickable flower, and spawn more islands, until they reach the 25th island, where a well will spawn. If they interact with the well with the coin in hand, the well will begin glowing, and will be the next teleport.
This next subgame is called “Community”. The player will find themselves in a small area containing a house, a well, and a sign. All three of these are familiar from the first game, with slight exception to the house, which is in ruins whenever seen in the main game. If the player walks towards the sign, they will get the same message as the start of the main game, “Welcome.” The player should walk backwards off the studded area from spawn and continue walking until they see another transparent sign. Touching the sign, the same process ensues, with a certain number showing up on their screen multiple times. Once again, this number changes every day and the player should note it down. Once getting it, they will be teleported to the main game again.
In the main game, the player should continue to spawn islands until about the 35th island, where a clickable gravestone will spawn. If the player touches this gravestone the words “It’s you” will pop up on their screen. If they click it, the player will be taken to the final subgame, called “Judgement”. The player will find themselves in a graveyard. The angel will often be seen walking around in this graveyard but following it amounts to nothing. What the player has to do is to walk backwards from spawn until they hit a wall. This is a little trickier but they should walk along this wall until they find a tree close enough to the wall that they can climb so that they can jump on the wall. The wall is quite thick, but the player should keep walking until they fall into the void once more. Having fallen into the void, the player will once again find themselves on a path, and if they follow the path, they will be met with the transparent sign again, and get their last number.
Going back to the main game for the final time, the player should continue spawning islands until they come across a portal on the 50th island. Something to note is that this portal is in the shape of a casket. The player should say all the numbers they got in order, and numerically, in the format “xxx”. If they do this the portal will light up, and walking into it they will be teleported to the final game “Transition”. There, they will be met with an empty landscape, containing only a casket. Interestingly enough, this casket is in the exact same shape as the portal. If the player walks into the casket the following text will appear: “Here you are. At the edge of everything. I hope you are happy. Because there is no going back now. It is time to watch yourself grow.” Then, a timer will start at the top of the screen, and a tree made of truss will begin to grow out of the casket. This tree will grow endlessly, and the timer will never stop running.
This is the end of the game.
Theories
This section has not been written in the source archive.
Trivia
- IndexNodei is followed by only one myth following project, that being InterestingMyths.
- IndexNodei only has five badges, those being the ones related to their game "Encoding Failure".
- RMH once tweeted about IndexNodei. On 18/8/2023, IndexNodei was their “Myth of the Week”.
- The islands in Encoding Failure used to go up to 100 instead of 50.
Gallery
