Meet the creatives charged with bringing the Unknown 9 experience to life and hear what they have to say about the lore, the adventures they’ve crafted, and what you can expect when you dive in!
Why Build a Universe?
The idea behind Unknown 9 was always to establish an expansive story-driven world filled with mystery and adventure, where knowledge is power, and magic lurks at every turn.
Made up of six standalone adventures told across hand-selected media formats to fit their unique narratives, the Unknown 9 universe offers something for everyone. And though each story is self-contained, the more of them you consume, the deeper and more immersive your experience gets.
As your journey unfolds, you’ll start to recognize the foundational elements that tie the adventures together. Rooted in the Unknown 9 IP’s rich lore, these details are embedded in every tale. Taken together, they give way to a single overarching story—what we call the metanarrative.
Unknown 9’s Core Narrative Threads
As their name suggests, the infamous Unknown 9 are central to our universe. These ancient immortal figures are the guardians of the world’s knowledge. They belonged to a civilization advanced far beyond our own that has since been lost to time, but our characters and audiences alike are bound to spot traces of the 9 scattered throughout every story.
There are also the warring secret societies whose century-old feud seeps into all Unknown 9 adventures, roping in every protagonist who finds themselves in their orbit. First you have the Leap Year Society, a benevolent group of adventurers and academics attempting to track down the Unknown 9 and better understand the Fold.
The Ascendants are the LYS’s darker, more ruthless counterparts. In search of the same answers, they’re known to rely on far more aggressive methods to obtain whatever they seek.
The object of each faction’s fascination remains the Fold; the alternate reality at the heart of our universe said to harbor great power. After all, all human history and knowledge are encoded in its depths.
Though the connections between our tales abound, its these foundational elements among others that most clearly tie each quest together.
Many Adventures to Choose From
The beauty of the Unknown 9 experience is that you get to decide where to begin, which direction to take, and how long to stick around for.
1. Unknown 9: Awakening
This third-person action-adventure game is one of the more immersive entry points into the Unknown 9 universe. Playing Awakening is also the best way to experience the Fold and its inherent power—you literally get to dive right into it and wield its Umbric energy—plus, it’s one of the key drivers of the game’s combat system.
2. Unknown 9: Passage
Unknown 9’s first original web series takes place two years after the events of the video game on board the SS Talaria, a ship tasked with carrying a mysterious cargo across the Atlantic. Whatever its contents are, one thing is clear. It’s the source of the strange illness wreaking psychological havoc on all those aboard.
Shot on a Canadian vessel, Passage’s small set lent itself well to creating the unshakable feeling of entrapment while stuck aboard a cursed ship.
3. The Unknown 9: Genesis Trilogy
Written by Layton Green, Unknown 9’s novels tell the story of Andie Robertson, a young physicist who follows a trail of clues left behind by her missing mentor to find out what happened to him and solve the enigma of her past.
Her journey takes her around the world, through the annals of human history and scientific discovery, and leads her right to the center of the conflict between our universe’s warring secret societies.
The thrilling conclusion to the trilogy, Unknown 9: Ascension, is out today!
4. Unknown 9: Out of Sight
The Out of Sight podcast, now in its second season, follows two paranormal investigators who fall in with the Leap Year Society. What starts out as a monster-of-the-week-style show morphs into a series of interconnected investigations with deep ties to the larger Unknown 9 universe.
Written by Jessica Kincaid and recorded using binaural audio technology, this multi-season scripted audio drama is sure to plunge listeners into the center of all of its eerie action.
5. Unknown 9: Torment
The 12-Issue comic book series chronicles the life of Jaden Crowe, a troubled young man who has unknowingly slipped in and out of the Fold his entire life. The moment he lands on the Leap Year Society’s radar, however, the source of his torment begins to make a lot more sense.
You can read issues #1 through #6 right now, and with weekly issue releases available for free exclusively right here, you’ll get an insider’s perspective on the stealthy operations of a clandestine elite organization.
6. Unknown 9: The Taylor Files
It’s 1975, the Vietnam War is coming to an end, and the Ascendants have infiltrated the CIA. Locked in a psychic arms race with the KGB, three operatives work to recruit seemingly superhuman spies in the hopes of securing a Cold War victory.
Inspired by the works of David Lynch and various comic books, the series includes clever character crossovers from numerous other Unknown 9 stories and offers new perspectives on life with Umbric abilities. It’s set to premiere in early December.
Are you ready unravel incredible mysteries and put the pieces of Unknown 9’s larger puzzle together?
Choose an adventure to follow and see where it leads you…you’re bound to start believing in the Unknown.