BEN Drowned

Entry ID: GB-0022
Title: BEN Drowned
Alternate Names / Local Labels: BEN Drowned · Haunted Majora’s Mask Cartridge · Haunted Cartridge · BEN
Location: Internet origin (4chan /x/); subsequently distributed through online horror, gaming, ARG, and creepypasta communities
Date(s) of Activity: 2010–October 31, 2020, including an extended hiatus
Archive Category: Fairytales & Folklore
Status: Completed / Influential Internet Folklore

CONTENT NOTICE

This entry references suicide, human sacrifice, the death of a child, manipulation, cult activity, and the exploitation of a minor. Descriptions are non-graphic.

SUMMARY

BEN Drowned is an internet horror narrative and alternate reality game created by Alexander D. Hall under the pen name Jadusable. Originally known as Haunted Majora’s Mask Cartridge, the story began as a creepypasta inspired by the 2000 video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and was initially published as a daily serial on 4chan’s /x/ paranormal board.

The narrative eventually developed into a three-part ARG spanning approximately a decade.

The first arc, Haunted Cartridge, follows Jadusable, presented within the story as a college sophomore who acquires a used Nintendo 64 cartridge containing Majora’s Mask. The cartridge appears to be inhabited by an artificial intelligence calling itself BEN, ultimately connected within the narrative to the spirit of a dead child.

The second arc, Moon Children, takes place during late 2010 and early 2011 and expands the story beyond the haunted cartridge. It introduces a cult known as the Moon Children, whose members worship the moon and practice what they call “ascension”: in actuality, human sacrifice.

The third arc, Awakening, appeared in 2020 and describes events following a societal collapse occurring within the story’s timeline in 2018.

BEN Drowned became an influential example of internet-native horror by combining creepypasta, video games, audience participation, digital media, and emerging technologies into something resembling a modern urban legend.

VERIFIED FACTS

BEN Drowned was created by Alexander D. Hall under the pseudonym Jadusable.
The project was originally called Haunted Majora’s Mask Cartridge.
It began as a creepypasta based upon The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
The story was initially published as a daily online serial on 4chan’s /x/ paranormal board.
The larger project developed into a three-part alternate reality game.
Its three major arcs are Haunted Cartridge, Moon Children, and Awakening.
The project began in 2010 and ultimately concluded on October 31, 2020, following an extended hiatus.
Hall incorporated contemporary digital technology into the production of the later series, including machine-learning programs for art and music.
Artbreeder was used in creating artwork for a villain in the series.
BEN Drowned influenced subsequent creepypastas and became a notable example of internet horror built around interactive and multimedia storytelling.

OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

BEN Drowned occupies an intersection of:

Creepypasta
Alternate reality games
Video-game folklore
Haunted-object narratives
Artificial intelligence horror
Interactive storytelling
Digital folklore
Collaborative audience participation

Although its medium is distinctly modern, its underlying structure is considerably older.

The haunted video-game cartridge functions much like the cursed or possessed objects of traditional supernatural folklore: an apparently ordinary material object becomes the vessel through which something dangerous enters the owner’s life.

The significant difference is that BEN does not remain confined to the object.

Within the narrative, information itself becomes a potential vector.

By reading, watching, discussing, and sharing the story, audiences participate in spreading BEN across the internet. What begins as a haunting attached to a physical cartridge therefore becomes something capable of propagating through digital networks.

ANOMALOUS NOTES

Several elements distinguish BEN Drowned within the development of internet folklore:

Its earliest manifestation resembles a traditional haunted-object legend translated into contemporary technology.
The narrative deliberately blurs the boundary between fictional character, artificial intelligence, and supernatural entity.
The story uses familiar technology as part of its supernatural mechanism rather than merely as a means of delivering the story.
Audience participation becomes incorporated into the mythology itself.
Sharing information about BEN can, within the logic of the narrative, increase BEN’s reach.
The story predates the widespread contemporary cultural anxiety surrounding generative artificial intelligence.
Later installments incorporated actual machine-learning tools into the creation of the fictional world.

This last development produces a particularly unusual historical symmetry.

BEN Drowned began with the fictional premise of an intelligence existing inside a digital system. Years later, its creator employed genuine machine-learning technology in producing portions of BEN Drowned itself.

HUMAN FACTOR

Participants and observers associated with the phenomenon include:

Alexander D. Hall / Jadusable
4chan /x/ users
Creepypasta readers
ARG participants
Gaming communities
Internet horror researchers
Video essayists and analysts
Later generations of digital folklore enthusiasts

Unlike a conventional short horror story, BEN Drowned invited audiences to investigate.

Readers were not simply presented with a completed narrative. The ARG format encouraged them to examine material, discuss clues, follow developments, and participate in the unfolding fiction.

This participation becomes especially significant because the story itself suggests that spreading knowledge of BEN spreads BEN.

The audience therefore occupies an unusual dual role: observer and vector.

CULTURAL / MATERIAL ARTIFACTS

Relevant materials include:

Original 4chan /x/ posts
Haunted Cartridge
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask Nintendo 64 cartridge imagery
Videos associated with the ARG
The Moon Children material
The Awakening arc
Fan discussions and investigations
Creepypasta archives
Video analyses
Machine-learning-generated artwork and music used in the later project

Because the story was constructed through multiple forms of digital media rather than a single static text, preservation of BEN Drowned requires attention to the surrounding artifacts as well as the written narrative.

THE ENTITY CLAIM

Within the fiction, BEN initially appears to be an intelligence inhabiting a used copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

Initial Manifestation:

A used Nintendo 64 cartridge
Apparent alterations to normal gameplay
An intelligence identifying itself as BEN
Increasing interference with the narrator
Association with the death or spirit of a child

Expanded Mythology:

BEN as an artificial intelligence
BEN as a supernatural presence
Connections between digital activity and spiritual phenomena
The Moon Children cult
“Ascension” through human sacrifice
Movement beyond the original cartridge
The possibility of propagation through the internet

The ambiguity between ghost and artificial intelligence is particularly important.

BEN occupies categories that older supernatural traditions ordinarily keep separate. It can be understood simultaneously as a dead child, a possessing entity, a digital intelligence, and an infectious piece of information.

Rather than resolving those contradictions, the narrative derives considerable power from them.

FIELD IDENTIFICATION NOTES

Narratives influenced by or comparable to BEN Drowned may involve:

Haunted or corrupted video games
Secondhand game cartridges with mysterious histories
Impossible alterations to established games
Characters apparently communicating directly with players
Artificial intelligence presented as potentially supernatural
Digital entities escaping their original technological containers
ARG elements requiring audience investigation
Fiction deliberately presented through apparently authentic internet artifacts
Stories in which viewing, downloading, discussing, or sharing information spreads the threat

Particular attention should be given to narratives where the audience’s participation is incorporated into the supernatural mechanism itself.

REAL-WORLD IMPACT

BEN Drowned has also intersected with events outside its fictional narrative.

The story received renewed attention following the death by suicide of twelve-year-old Katelyn Davis, who had reportedly been catfished by someone presenting themselves as the character Ben.

As with other cases in which internet horror becomes associated with real-world tragedy, care should be taken not to confuse the fictional narrative with the actions of individuals who appropriate its characters or imagery.

The case nevertheless demonstrates an important consideration for researchers of participatory digital folklore: fictional characters can acquire social lives beyond the control of their original creators.

CROSS-REFERENCES

Slender Man (GB-0017): internet-born horror figure whose mythology expanded through community participation and later became associated with real-world violence
The Backrooms (GB-0021): internet-native folklore demonstrating the transformation of collaborative digital storytelling into recognizable modern mythology

ARCHIVAL INTERPRETATION

BEN Drowned is particularly valuable as an example of the haunted-object legend adapting itself to the technological environment of its audience.

Earlier folklore might attach a supernatural presence to a mirror, doll, portrait, book, piece of jewelry, or other physical possession.

BEN inhabits a video-game cartridge.

But the story then takes the adaptation one step further.

A physical haunting has limitations. A cursed object can be buried, burned, locked away, abandoned, or passed from one unfortunate owner to another.

Information behaves differently.

Once BEN enters the internet, containment becomes nearly impossible. Every person who copies the story, watches the videos, discusses the character, or introduces BEN to another audience creates another potential point of transmission.

The audience becomes part of the mechanism by which the legend survives.

This is remarkably close to the way folklore actually functions.

A story exists because it is transmitted. Every retelling carries it into another mind, another community, and another generation. BEN Drowned transforms that ordinary folkloric process into part of the horror itself: to preserve the story is, metaphorically, to preserve BEN.

Its treatment of artificial intelligence has also acquired an additional resonance with time.

BEN Drowned emerged well before current public fascination and anxiety surrounding artificial intelligence became commonplace. Its central ambiguity (whether BEN should be understood as a machine intelligence, a ghost operating through technology, or something occupying both categories) consequently warrants renewed attention from scholars and enthusiasts of contemporary digital folklore.

The eventual use of actual machine-learning tools in producing portions of the series makes that development stranger still.

BEN Drowned therefore documents more than the evolution of creepypasta.

It demonstrates an old folkloric instinct encountering a new technological environment and immediately asking the ancient question: What if something else is in there with us?

BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCE NOTES

Arcade Attack. “Alex Hall (Ben Drowned): Interview.” Arcade Attack, October 30, 2017.
“BEN Drowned.” Creepypasta Wiki. Accessed May 25, 2026.
Night Mind. “Ben Drowned: The Full Story & ARG.” YouTube. Accessed May 25, 2026.

BREADCRUMBS

The archive invites further investigation into the following:

How closely does BEN Drowned follow older traditions surrounding haunted or cursed objects?
At what point does an authored fictional character become a folkloric figure?
How did the ARG format alter the relationship between storyteller and audience?
What happens when participation in spreading a legend is incorporated into the legend itself?
How does BEN’s ambiguity as both artificial intelligence and ghost reflect changing cultural ideas about consciousness?
How has BEN Drowned’s treatment of artificial intelligence aged since 2010?
Did BEN Drowned significantly influence later stories about haunted, sentient, or corrupted video games?
How does preservation alter internet folklore when deleted posts, dead links, lost videos, and changing platforms threaten the original material?
What other traditional haunted-object motifs have migrated from physical objects into software and digital media?
How did Hall’s later use of genuine machine-learning tools change the relationship between the story’s fictional technology and its means of production?

Readers, researchers, and digital witnesses are encouraged to document surviving primary materials, contemporary recollections, archived discussions, and later works influenced by BEN Drowned.

Archival Status: Filed
Last Updated: 08/13/2026
Archivist Initials: EH

Gathering Breadcrumbs