Overwatch fans may have just figured out one of Overwatch's biggest mysteries

Overwatch Fans believe they have identified the God program Chernobog as the mastermind behind The Conspiracy and Emre was the key to figuring it all out. If these players are right, it is the biggest mystery Overwatch history can be associated with one of the oldest pieces of tradition.

February 10th Overwatch released its soft relaunch with Reign of Talon Season 1: Conquest. One of the many things added in this update was Emre Sarioglu, a new Damage hero with a rich history in Future Earth. Former Overwatch agent fell from grace after leaving the organization and joined forces with Talon to pursue an unknown agenda.

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Three heroes have just left the clutches of Overwatch… And even more have just joined

Several key Talon operatives are officially leaving the organization, but even more Overwatch heroes are joining in light of the rise of Vendetta.

The Chernobog God Program AI may still be active in Overwatch

This means that the heel turn of the new Overwatch The Reign of Talon Season 1 hero is much more complicated than one might expect. As shared by The Omnic Reporter on Twitter, Emre's biography on Overwatch the web page consists of a series of numbers and letters that seem to have no meaning. However, through some conjecture, Overwatch fan Shax managed to develop a cipher that led them to an interesting phrase: the garbled message became “VAROITUS: CHERNOBOG-OHITUS KÄYNNISTETTY”, which translates from Finnish as “WARNING: CHERNOBOG-BYPASS Initiated”.

Chernobog was a Finnish God program developed to control and monitor global security in the world Overwatch. After the Anubis God Program went rogue and began the Omnic Crisis v Overwatch lore, Chernobog was sealed off by world governments who feared it would rise up against humanity as well. Before being disconnected, Chernobog printed out hundreds of pages of instructions on how to stay safe without him and sent one final message: “Understood. I'm sorry.”

Shax's discovery suggests that the God program may still be active—and far less benevolent than its earlier lore suggested. When Overwatch first revealed by Emre's recent backstory in the “Search and Destroy” comic, Emre's mind was not his own, causing him to fire at Freja, his old friend and colleague. The recent short story “Another Life” picked up where the comic left off, in which Emre explained that there were gaps in his memory shortly after leaving Overwatch. Now, a mysterious entity is forcing him to pursue an agenda he doesn't understand—and if he doesn't, it will suppress his consciousness through his implants, like when he first saw Freya again, or when he used his Ultimate in Overwatch.

Emre, Chernobog and Overwatch Eye “Conspiracy”

If Emre's mental captor is Chernobog, this could have huge implications for the lore Overwatch. This is primarily due to the eye motif on Emre's armor, which features a stylized red eye with three dots above and below it. This symbol has historically been associated with one of the deepest mysteries in Overwatchnicknamed by fans as “The Conspiracy”.

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The Conspiracy was introduced during Sombra's story as a character or organization with influence over Talon, Overwatch, Volskaya Industries, LumeriCo, and others. For most of the last decade, little was known about this mystery, although the “Lucky Man” short story featuring Soldier: 76 and Sombra hinted that The Conspiracy was behind the destruction of Overwatch HQ. Now, Emre is almost certainly an unwilling agent of The Conspiracy, forcing him to attack satellite command centers that monitor global security—something the Chernobog God program would be very interested in doing.

All God programs were considered inactive, so if Chernobog was not only online the whole time, but also pulling the strings behind the scenes, it could be a game changer. The Conspiracy's goals are still shrouded in mystery, but if it really is Chernobog, he could try to restart a new Omnic Crisis or even reawaken other God programs like Anubis, Macaria, Xibalba, or whatever controls the Gwishin that Overwatch hero D.Va and MEKA Squad must fight. Only time will tell what actually happens, but such a development would open many doors to the future Overwatch plot lines.