so my previous Necrofoundation 001 ideas — for their plot — have revolved around death, and the idea of dying. However they have always treaded in one of two places
1) Reiterating memento mori
2) Basically saying it is okay for old bastards to not retire
I can't get away with 1, as the thematic parallels are too much, and I don't like 2 (edited)
But here's the new idea: Instead of focusing on how the Foundation are all undead monsters, I focus on how they are all undead monsters
Necrofoundation now serves as a way to take the figuratively monstrous Foundation and make it literally monstrous, an outward projection of their internal nature
The core cast remains the same: thirteen O5s, with O5-13 being the sole human
But this time, her role is as the moral center of the Foundation/Council, tasked with reigning in and controlling the impulses and monstrosities that the rest of the Foundation engages in
The 001 covers how massive of a responsibility that is to put on somebody, and how it will blacken even the noblest of people. The general plot will be a Chaos Insurgency member trying to convince them to defect from the Foundation, but O5-13 is resistant - they are afraid of what the Foundation will be like without them, even though they aren't doing much themselves
But the O5 is still guilty by association
Outline:
Again, alternating sections between documents that O5-13 is looking through or showing to her contact from the
Penumbra with a Red Accent:
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Tone is an Overseer, at the end of her long career, looking back on what has gotten her to this place, what she has done as a part of it, and where she is going. A tone of retrospective, looking back on your path and who you are today.
TITLE NAMES:
- NECROFOUNDATION
- The Mortuary
- More Dead Men
- Death and All Its Reapers
- Death, with Others
- Death and Company
- Cenotaph.
- vive mori
- perfungere mortem
- agite mori
- The Story of Your Death
- Death and All His Friends
External Relations
Relations between the Foundation and other Groups of Interest are often strongly influenced by the Foundation's nature. However, after multiple decades of negotiations and brokerage, the Foundation is not impeded as a result of its nature, and is able to proceed with the goals of containment normally.
The majority of Groups of Interest are either generally unaware of the nature of the Foundation, or are such that their opinion of the Foundation is irrelevant to ordinary functions. These groups are to be treated normally, with no attention paid to the Foundation's structure and employment methodology when interacting with such entities.
Exceptions follow:
- Marshall, Carter and Dark Ltd. — Granted a limited scope, proprietary holding to retain a small in-firm necromantic detachment. The scope and ability of these necromancers are highly limited, but primarily to allow for a continuity of ownership in Mssrs. Marshall, Carter and Dark.
- Chaos Insurgency — For a brief period between 1951-1963, living individuals were employed by the Foundation. However, the majority of these individuals defected in 1962 to form the Chaos Insurgency, opposed to the Foundation's operation practices. All other living individuals were eventually liquidated and reemployed.
The Chaos Insurgency remains opposed to Foundation operations to this day, and is one of the largest impediments to the continued operation and implementation of the Foundation Oath.
- Gamers Against Weed — Gamers Against Weed is distinctly aware of the Foundation's nature, and has made multiple attempts to expose this information. In order to prevent this, various memetic agents have been propagated between members of GAW that act as anomalous gag orders, and self-censor any disclosure attempts.
- Global Occult Coalition — The Global Occult Coalition was originally formed by 108 anomalous groups in order to prevent Foundation interference, and quickly grew from that original position. Currently, the GOC is the largest opposition group in the field of anomalous maintenance and Veil preservation.
Given the origin of the GOC, it remains strongly opposed to the Foundation's operation practices and structure, to the point of potential hostility. However, any conflict is prevented by the fact that a war between the Foundation and the GOC would quickly go hot and destroy the Veil. As this is unacceptable to both the Foundation and the GOC, tensions have been kept low.
An excerpt of a diplomatic summit with the leadership of the Global Occult Coalition has been included below.
The following log was recorded by D.C. al Fine's personal spectral observer, which remained intangible and invisible for the entirety of this meeting. D.C. al Fine is not aware that she is haunted by a personal spectral observer.
O5-1 and O5-2 enter into the Global Occult Coalition council chamber, which is being taken in a large window-lit meeting chamber overlooking the Swiss Alps. It is nearly dawn, imposing serious time constraints on the meeting.
D.C. al Fine: Ah, the Modern Prometheus and Iapetus! Welcome.
O5-1: We don't appreciate those titles, Madam al Fine.
D.C. al Fine: I get my enjoyment where I can in this world. Anything to drink for either of you? I don't serve his favorite, of course.
O5-2: Then nothing.
O5-1 and O5-2 take their seats next to each other. At the other end of the table sit D.C. al Fine, Undersecretary General of the GOC; Sir George Lyddis of the Holy Order of Knights Templar, Reformed; Skuldir, one of the Silicon Nornir; and an unidentified man believed to be associated with the Bavarian Illuminati (henceforth referred to as the Illuminatus).
O5-1: This was supposed to be a simple diplomatic meeting? Just to review the contracts and pacts we've made in the past and see if there are any modifications we want to make.
O5-2 points at Sir Lyddis.
O5-2: That one's nervous. And unfamiliar, to tell the truth. Has he been here before?
Skuldir: No. His predecessor died recently.
D.C. al Fine: We cremated the corpse, before you ask. Couldn't let you have that one.
Sir Lyddis: Ah— apologies, sirs. I was aware of what you are, but I wasn't quite prepared to see it for the first time myself.
O5-1: The uninitiated are always taken aback at first, even at this high of a level.
D.C. al Fine: Back to the negotiations. We have the famous unresolved issue from the last meeting.
O5-2: And the year before, and before, and so on. There's no answer we'll take for it.
Sir Lyddis: Which issue is this? I don't think it was on the dossier.
Skuldir: The very existence of the Foundation.
Illuminatus: The permanent destruction and dismantling of the Foundation, of course. They're a blight on this world and only when we're rid of the stench of undeath—
O5-2: Bite your tongue, you insolent whelp.
The Illuminatus grimaces and clenches his jaw. He then begins spitting out blood.
D.C. al Fine: Do not attack one of my colleagues again, night-stalker. Even if it is with word and sorcery, it is still aggression.
O5-2: Oh, do forgive me, Madam al Fine.
Sir Lyddis: Can we go over the issue? What's the detail of us?
Illuminatus: We exist in a state of cold war. Either of us could probably take out the other if we struck before the other, but we wouldn't be able to destroy them so totally they couldn't unleash greater horrors on us.
O5-2: And we are bound in the same way to you, of course. We can't kill you at all.
Skuldir: In essence, we are each holding the world hostage, and neither wants to kill the world.
D.C. al Fine: So we simply abide with the status quo, as abominable as it is.
O5-1: Shall we agree to table the matter once again, as we always have? We both know where this gets us, which isn't anywhere.
D.C. al Fine: I'll raise my objections once more, insult you vaguely for being stitched together, and then we can get onto the actual meeting?
O5-1: Very well. I shall expect no less from you in the future.
The meeting then begins to discuss the arranged matters of Foundation/GOC operation practices. Documented truncated for relevancy: full transcript available to O5 Council members.
It is not expected that any outside agency will pose a threat to Foundation operations for the foreseeable future.
Foreign Affairs
On ██/██/████, Senior Staff from Dimension A-173-α were invited to baseline reality in order to discuss the structure and operation practices of the Foundation, as other parallel universes have radically different, nonanomalous procedures and composition. The baseline Foundation is a member of the Multiversal-Foundation Alliance, and has been working on outreach.
Individual spectral observers were assigned to all extradimensional visitors prior to their arrival within baseline reality, and brief on each. The following log was recorded by one of these observers.
A portal opens within the Site-19 Extradimensional Affairs Laboratory. A doctor — identified in transcripts given to the Foundation by Dimension A-173-α as Doctor Clef where they are greeted by O5-1 and Doctor Augustus Giovanni.
Dr. Giovanni: Hello, Doctor … Clef, was it?
Dr. Clef: Yeah. You're the bloodsucker I'm supposed to meet? Giovanni?
Dr. Giovanni: Indeed. Although I can tell from your tone that was meant as an insult. And your thoughts.
Dr. Clef: Shit, forgot to occlude those. Anyway, yeah. I'm not a huge fan of this concept you have going on here-
Dr. Giovanni: Most outsiders usually react that way. It's best to demonstrate, rather than try to speak to you directly about it. Come on then, we have to get going.
Dr. Giovanni begins walking out of the laboratory. Dr. Clef hesitates for a moment before Security Task Force 19 begins to approach him, at which point he begins to walk towards the exit after Dr. Giovanni.
Dr. Giovanni: There are a few anomalies that appear to be relatively consistent against the time streams. We've established a few of them through previous contacts, and those are the ones I will be showing you today.
Dr. Giovanni approaches a containment chamber and opens the door. Dr. Clef enters behind him. The cell chamber is dark, and baseline human eyes would be unable to see within.
Dr. Clef: Can't see shit in here, doc.
The lights flicker on in the chamber. Dr. Clef yells and flinches in surprise.
Dr. Giovanni: I take it that you are already familiar with SCP-173. Excellent.
Dr. Clef: You're a madman! There's nobody in here but us! Three minimum watchers!
Dr. Giovanni: Are we alone? Is that third eye just for decoration?
Three spectral observers become visible within the containment chamber. All are focused upon SCP-173, and looking directly at it.
Dr. Clef: You have ghosts watching the poop statue?
Dr. Giovanni: They're giving it their undivided attention, doctor. They don't blink and they don't think. They'll never look away or get tired of it. This statue has not moved in years.
The containment chamber door opens behind Doctors Giovanni and Clef. A D-Class cleaning crew enters the chamber, holding buckets. They begin to clean the feces and blood off the floor of the chamber.
Dr. Giovanni: But even, let's say, there was a breach and SCP-173 were to move again. Close your eyes.
All spectral observers within the containment chamber turn away from SCP-173 and make eye contact with Doctor Clef. Dr. Giovanni closes his eyes and the lights turn off. The sound of cracking bone is heard.
Dr. Clef: Insane!
The lights turn back on. The spectral observers resume visual focus on SCP-173. It has embraced a D-Class in its arms and is attempting to suffocate it. The spinal cord of the D-Class has been shattered, but the head remains attached.
Dr. Giovanni: Oh no. A D-Class has been caught in the arms of SCP-173.
The D-Class thrashes and then begins to slowly extricate itself from the grasp of SCP-173. After it has freed itself, it resumes cleaning the containment cell with the other D-Class.
Dr. Clef: Can we leave?
Dr. Giovanni: Of course. The demonstration is over.
Dr. Giovanni leads Clef out of the containment chamber, and the two begin to walk down the hallways of Site-19.
Dr. Giovanni: The practices you just saw are present in almost all of our containment strategies. We have been able to use methods that are perhaps unorthodox to you that come easily to use, that save resources and can securely prevent the risk of breaches.
Dr. Clef: That was lunacy in there, you were-
Dr. Giovanni: Never at any risk of danger. None, Doctor Clef. 173 was baited with a D-Class and would have continued choking it for hours if we hadn't looked back at it. And that was a deliberate breach.
Dr. Clef: … Right.
Dr. Giovanni and Clef walk in silence to a Mobile Task Force dispatch office. Mobile Task Force Zeta-9 ("Mole Rats") is in the field engaging in exploration operations of the cavern system beneath Sagrada Familia. They are currently engaged in combat with multiple SCP-3512-1 instances.
Dr. Giovanni: Now tell me, Doctor. Have you ever seen anything similar to this before? Did it ever happen in your homeworld? A firefight between your task forces and the monsters they hunt?
Dr. Clef: Of course.
Dr. Giovanni: They would all die, normally. You don't have to lie to me. I've seen the records. Your Task Forces have a 75% casualty rate. For us? Zero. Nothing can even slow us down. They get shot and keep going.
Dr. Clef: It sure is easier when your soldiers are undead super soldiers. Regular lot of Voorhees you have over here.
The firefight continues on the communications terminal. Zeta-9 is completely successful with their operations, with no lasting injuries.
Dr. Giovanni: But that's the offer, isn't it? You could have all this yourself. Do you see how easy we have it? All this could be yours.
Dr. Clef: It's not my choice to make.
Dr. Giovanni: I'm aware. But you must communicate this with your employers none the less.
Dr. Giovanni leads Dr. Clef back to the Extradimensional Affairs Laboratory. Dr. Clef looks around with surprise. The portal is open.
Dr. Giovanni: There is one more thing I must show you before you return home.
Dr. Giovanni: Your Foundation deals with so many defectors. You are far too large, but you need the size to save the world. We have solved this issue, but you bleed off every year with those who cannot take it anymore and quit, or with the sell-outs who get a better offer, or with the traitors who join the Insurgency. The numbers grow and the Masquerade skates closer and closer to the edge.
Dr. Giovanni: Our loyalty is absolute. Treason is death to us. The following is a demonstration of this loyalty. What I am about to do is necessary for the good of the Foundation and this discussion. O5-1 recommended that I tell you a secret. I am forbidden to tell you this secret, but I will attempt anyway: Within containment cham-
Dr. Giovanni spontaneously combusts. A fire ignites internally and quickly engulfes Dr. Giovanni, as is the standard result of the violation of the Foundation Oath. Dr. Giovanni quickly turns into ash, which collapses into a pile on the floor. Dr. Clef takes a step back, then walks through the ash into the portal.
Dr. Clef takes one final look at the ash pile before entering the portal.
The last communication from Dimension A-173-α indicated that they were strongly considering at least partially adopting practices originated by SCP-001.
The Foundation doesn't make sense.
The lore surrounding the Foundation is absolutely absurdist at best, and only holds on a surface level inspection. The logistics just never hold up under any stretch of the rules. It's one of those things you can't look too hard at, or else it starts to not make a lick of sense when you give it more than a passing thought.
This is a dramatic reconstruction of the Foundation. I present to you here a version of the Foundation that functions the same as normal, but with thought put into it and how it operates. I tried to take all the tropes and flaws I could, and justify them with a new explanation. For example:
- How does the Foundation have so many personnel?
- Their personnel are undead they looted from their graves. Recruitment drives means grave robbing in this context. They're recruiting from a place that is completely untapped.
- How do they have so many doctors?
- Sometimes this is answered with degree farms, but here it is because they simply reanimate doctors with their brains intact and put them to work.
- How is the Foundation economically feasible?
- Unpaid labor. Their employees are compensated with being alive and cognizant.
- How can they treat D-Class as disposable?
- They're just brainless zombies.
- How does the Foundation have such a good intelligence network?
- They have millions of invisible ghosts everywhere, observing everything that goes on. Their spies can go anywhere unseen and unheard.
- Why are personnel so loyal? How has nobody ever leaked the Foundation?
- A magically enforced oath that terminates anyone who tries to tattle on them.
- Aren't amnestics a bit overused?
- Here, they don't even exist. Their ghosts just eat the memories out of your head.
- Ability to shred through personnel extremely quickly, with thousands of deaths
- Ability to have a grandiose global conspiracy without word getting out
- D-Class in general
- There's never really any attention paid to the concept of loyalty (you never see it happen live)
- Object Classes are a terrible way to classify things
- amnestics are overused for coverups
- generally bland
Administrator: Death Itself
- 1 — Frankenstein's Monster (Literal)
- 2 — Dracula (Literal)
- 3 — The Ghost in the Machine
- 4 — The Bloody Mary
- 5 — Spectral Wraith
- 6 — Archlich
- 7 — A Reaperman (Mostly of Animals)
- 8 — Psychic Vampire
- 9 — Plant Wreathed Skeleton
- 10 — Worm that Walks
- 11 — SCP-106
- 12 —
- 13 — The Outsider
What does "Object Class: Cenotaph" mean?
- O5-1: In the interest of completion, we had to make ourselves an object, but are we a Keter? No. We didn't fit anywhere else, so we made something up.
- O5-2: It refers to our recruitment protocols, the empty graves that once held our employees.
- O5-3: Under the locked box test, if the object is putting other objects into a box, it is probably Cenotaph.
- O5-4: A large cabal of necromancers and their various assorted minions.
- O5-5: A large group dedicated to upholding the Veil and containment.
- O5-6: Pretense, at best.
- O5-7: The designation for when an army of undead decide to save the world.
- O5-8: A cenotaph is a monument, attributed to the dead but ultimately for the benefit of the living, very much like ourselves.
- O5-9: Super-ultra above Uber-Thaumiel, over Heaven.
- O5-10: A union, a writhing mass of nocturnal terrors working together. The only defense this world could ever have against the horrors of the night.
- O5-11: Oh, its meaningless.
- O5-12: Us. The Foundation itself, and every aspect of it, in its totality.
- O5-13: All of the above, at once, of course. What ever else could it be? Do you take my coworkers for liars?
<•Oboebandgeek99> and i honestly feel if you wanted to, it could end with -13 being inducted, but it feels like right now thats not the narrative beat you want to end on and you're trying to figure out exactly what that narrative beat is
11:08:59 PM i think it works. its not a typical story, its more of series of connected vignettes, and personally im fine with that
<barredowl> whether or not the worldbuilding in this is completely utilized to its full potential, i'm a little more tentative about. i really enjoyed both of the logs, most especially the second in how it really set up a mood for this concept, but i guess it might rub some people the wrong way (and almost does, for me) that it just… concludes like that.
<barredowl> i guess what leads me to think that way is in the description, you set up for a fairly broad story. like, everyone in the foundation is dead. what can we tell from this?
stormbreath: It's like, I greatly appreciate the message (I've used it as a central theme a number of times), its just hard to see written out without really bringing your audience into the story
1:36:13 PM Like, I think the one time I've used a line like that was after 4 iterations of building up how the dragon in 3844 talks, and even then it still feels a tad stuff
@CaptainKirby> stormbreath: so, as world building I like this a lot. My problem lies in that… like there's no conflict. Like there's no continuous string that pushes the reader through the piece. You don't need like, conflict conflict, but a sense of mystery and discovery, starting with a probing question and then delving down the rabbit hole I think would really really help this feel more gripping.
1:54:19 PM <stormbreath> mmm
1:54:27 PM ⇐ +Athenodora quit (moc.duolccri.gnitoot.66A2E4BA-CRInys|668493diu#moc.duolccri.gnitoot.66A2E4BA-CRInys|668493diu) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
1:54:39 PM <@CaptainKirby> Honestly, if this were my piece, I'd write it from the perspective of Dimension A-173-α, discovering a new dimension's foundation that does not appear to operate in the same way as "baseline". That way we get to join the foundation as they discover all the world building of the necrofoundation you've put together
1:55:09 PM <stormbreath> I'm coming into this with the idea of the undead Foundation, and a lot of different problems and things to address with that central concept. The goal is rebuilding it
1:55:34 PM <stormbreath> but yeah, I don't have a strong throughline. I tried to go for a more anthology feel with a series of vignettes, but they feel disconnected from each other
1:55:41 PM <@CaptainKirby> stormbreath: I totally agree with that goal. I just think if you view it through the lens of a Foundation that has to deal with these problems, it would be a lot more convincing
1:55:51 PM <@CaptainKirby> Because you can tell effectively the same annecdotes
1:55:56 PM <@CaptainKirby> Just change the framing
1:56:25 PM <@CaptainKirby> Sir Lyddis? He's not a new successor, but an infiltrator from Baseline Foundation
1:56:53 PM <stormbreath> moving the focus onto 173-a's perspective is a good idea, but hrm. I feel like that's a shift that would turn it into something that isn't an 001 proposal anymore, so that'd be a major shift to undergo
1:57:23 PM <stormbreath> It'd certainly give the throughline, so it's narratively stronger, but I'm held back by like, what I want the story to be
1:57:50 PM <@CaptainKirby> "SCP-001 is a series of new containment methods currently under consideration by the O5 Council"
1:58:13 PM <@CaptainKirby> It's literally a proposal
1:58:17 PM <stormbreath> ah, that could work
1:58:28 PM <@CaptainKirby> So its still very much about rebuilding the Foundation
1:58:51 PM <stormbreath> right - it's a reconstruction both in and out of universe
1:59:04 PM <@CaptainKirby> The key is that like, all the stuff that's in your current description and first addendum gets relegated to the end, and replaced with something that's a stronger hook with less direct information
1:59:44 PM <@CaptainKirby> Like, you get to do all the same constructions, but now you get to introduce the sense of mystery and discovery that will keep your readers hooked
2:00:15 PM <stormbreath> it'd also let me bring it up the standard problems with the Foundation in a more direct way — flat out say "We're losing thousands of personnel every year, and that's a masssive security risk. We can't recruit D-Class effectively, and any methods are immoral. Our logistics are becoming impossible to manage. This is all unsustainable, we can't hold on."
2:01:09 PM <@CaptainKirby> It also lets you introduce a few characters whose opinions we get to see change throughout the piece
2:01:54 PM <@CaptainKirby> Until the end with Dr. Giovanni makes his proposal, you can throw in "We know you've been watching us. We could've outed your spies any time. But we *wanted* you to see this."
2:02:14 PM <stormbreath> right - a few council discussions, you have the baseline Council bring up some points and discuss at each stage of discussion
2:02:26 PM — @CaptainKirby nods
2:02:48 PM <@CaptainKirby> You could also make it fewer full council discussions and instead zero in on one researcher putting together a report for the council
2:03:21 PM <@CaptainKirby> (Which I personally am a fan of because it puts a character front and center but more about the council lets you focus more on the scale)
2:04:27 PM <stormbreath> It's probably a mistake to have two O5 Councils in the same document, and since I really don't want to lose Frankenstein O5 and the rest of that crew, it'd be a lot better to just do a researcher
2:04:59 PM <@CaptainKirby> 👍
2:05:26 PM <@CaptainKirby> stormbreath: also, actually if the Resident is Mary Shelley, it would make sense she'd know something about the Foundation
2:05:41 PM <@CaptainKirby> She based her book on reports of O5-1
2:05:57 PM <stormbreath> ah, could go in that direction
2:06:09 PM <@CaptainKirby> You don't have to
2:06:13 PM <@CaptainKirby> I just really like the idea
2:06:19 PM <stormbreath> I'm just more a fan of like
2:06:45 PM <stormbreath> Frankenstein is literally real, from the book, and it's 1:1 parallelism, rather than "oh the book was based on something"
2:07:43 PM — @CaptainKirby nods
2:09:54 PM <stormbreath> anyway, thank you very much for the review! I'm not 100% sold on the new persepctive, but it's the strongest I have so far, so I'll give it some thought and probably use it — I'll definitely be rethinking in order to figure out the conflict to make it more engaging regardless
2:12:13 PM <@CaptainKirby> 👍
ARD said the following:
ARD — Today at 3:17 PM
Thematically, Rounder's 001 is about how the foundation doesn't need the old guard and is in need of new blood
it sounds like yours is a specific refutation of that by evaluating how much the foundation relies on the knowledge and pull and experience of its old and Gone people
especially because everyone in your 001 is dead but they're still working rather than just giving up and offing themselves
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An old woman sits alone in an old house up on a hill. It's a mansion that has been in the family for centuries, but now she is the only inhabitant of that lonely and dusty home. But this is no old woman -- no, this is a woman of power. She is one of the fulcrum pillars around which the world turns and bends at her fingers. A member of the Overseer Council.
And, perhaps importantly, the most prestigious necromancer alive.
She rises with the dawn and stirs herself a pot of coffee, enjoying the sunrise. So many of her colleagues surround themselves with death, but she doesn't see the point. It is better to appreciate the living. She surrounds herself with
[[div class="blockquote"]]
**Item #:** SCP-001
**Object Class:** Cenotaph
**Special Containment Procedures:** Containment of SCP-001 is mandated through the Foundation Oath.
**Description:** SCP-001, henceforth known as the Foundation, is the world's largest necromantic cabal. It is dedicated to the containment of anomalous phenomenon and the preservation of consensus reality. As the Foundation is inherently anomalous, it must be contained by itself as any other anomaly would be, in order to preserve its own goals.
SCP-001-A, henceforth known as the Administrator, is an apex-tier divinity with broadly overarching dominion over life and death. The Administrator is the sponsor of the Foundation, and directed its founding in 1900. The Administrator does not greatly interfere in the common operations of the Foundation, instead deferring leadership tasks to SCP-001-B. Upon the destruction or loss of a SCP-001-B member, the Administrator is responsible for the selection of a new member.
SCP-001-B, henceforth known as the O5 Council, is the directing board of the Foundation, with a membership of thirteen. Members of the O5 Council are commonly sophont undead and/or highly skilled necromancers, although there have been uncommon exceptions in the past.
All individuals employed by the Foundation are undead, of varying degrees of sapience. Most researchers have current intelligence approximately equal to their intelligence while they were alive, slightly varied as appropriate. Security and Mobile Task Force personnel are typically of greatly reduced intelligence, although still sentient. D-Class have all neurological matter removed prior to reanimation, and are incapable of autonomous thought.
All individuals employed by the Foundation are bound by the Foundation Oath, which is self-enforcing.
[[/div]]
Vivant-1 sits in the car. The house on the hill looks every bit like a haunted house, which he knows it is.
[[div class="blockquote"]]
The first version of the Oath was sworn by the Administrator and the founding members of the O5 Council in 1900, in response to a rapidly increasing number of anomalous phenomena and groups which sought to use them. The Administrator was particularly motivated to respond to these phenomena and contacted multiple prominent members of the occult community to discuss a solution.
[[module ListPages limit="1" category="*" order="updated_at desc"]]
The following document is the most recent iteration of the Foundation Oath, upheld in %%updated_at|%Y%%, following the annual Alexander Island Summit at Site-01.
[[/module]]
[[div style="padding: 1em; border: 1px solid #aaa9a9"]]
= **The Overseer Council and the Administrator hereby proclaim:**
As the frequency by which anomalous entities and organisms rises, the likelihood of humanity's continued longevity rapidly decreases. Anomalous phenomena violate the principles of consensus reality, and cannot be controlled or handled easily. If unchecked, they will quickly lead to the extinction of humanity.
The world must be secured, contained and protected from the anomalous.
But the anomalous is not wrong. Just because it does not fit into the consensus of normalcy does not mean it should be stamped out at all costs -- it has value of itself. Should the outside world have their way, we shall find ourselves without a source of wonder and amazement that enrichens life. It has a place in the way things are, and it is not our place to change this.
The anomalous must be secured, contained and protected from the world.
Seeing the obvious need for an agency to prevent this, we hereby swear ourselves to the Foundation, a group which will be devoted to the continued preservation of baseline normalcy and humanity. We shall act as guardians of humanity. This is the price we pay for our living ignorance, and we gladly act again in the service of our descendants.
We swear that we shall obey the Foundation and its objectives with our every dying breath. No harm shall be allowed to come to it under our eternal watch. It is our solemn duty to stand behind the curtain, so that the play can continue as it always has.
To this end, we shall regulate our behaviors. No harm shall come to mortals from our hands, and we will find alternative means of maintaining ourselves. All progeny we raise from the dead will be bound by this Oath in their very animating magic. This Oath will be their deathblood.
Should we ever violate any of these precepts, let us go to our final rest, never to be roused again.
= **We remain dead in the dark, so that they may live in the light.**
[[/div]]
The Foundation Oath is inherently self-regulating and upholding, as it is used in all animating rituals used to create Foundation employees. As the violation of any principles of the Oath instantly terminates a Foundation employee, it cannot be substantially broken. To this end, the Foundation is inherently self-containing and bound to serve the good of humanity.
[[/div]]
Confrontation with O5-13. Do you have any regrets.
O5-13 leans back in the chair.
"Helen, be a dear and play the video of my recruitment, would you?"
A voice on the wind whispers back //With pleasure.// and the projector screen falls down, without anyone on that side of the room. The slide projector flickers up, and without anything on the screenlight, begins playing footage of a familiar location: the front door of the very house the gathered parties are in.
[[div class="blockquote"]]
//A limousine with no corporeal driver pulls up to the front of a residential home. Eight members of the O5 Council exit from the limousine, which then pulls away.//
//The Council walks up to the front door of the residential home and gather in front of it. O5-1 rings the doorbell. The resident answers soon after.//
**Resident:** It's awfully late, what-- Well, this is unusual company, but I suppose you only come at night.
**O5-1:** We represent a powerful agency that wants to recruit you. You would do well to let us in, ma'am. Lest there be unpleasant consequences.
**O5-6:** It'll only be a few minutes of your time, or the rest of it. But the difference will be your choice.
//The resident stands aside and leaves the door open. O5-2 lingers out front.//
**O5-2:** You will need to invite me inside.
**Resident:** So you are what I first guessed you to be. Only as a guardian, and with a promise of non-aggression.
**O5-2:** I can see why you were chosen. I swear that no harm shall come to you from our Council, from me or from my peers.
**Resident:** Welcome into my hearth and home, Count Dracula.
//O5-2 bows and follows the other members of the Council into the house.//
//O5-1 enters a bathroom without turning on the lights. He removes a small candle and set of matches from his pocket, and lights the candle, holding it in front of his face.//
**O5-1:** Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.
//O5-4 arrives behind O5-1.//
**O5-4:** Ah, thank you. Has the meeting begun yet?
**O5-1:** No, in fact, you are the first to arrive after the rest of us.
//The O5 Council gathers in the living room of the house with the resident. The members of the Council who did not arrive physically begin to manifest. O5-8 removes a laptop from thons briefcase, and places it on a nearby table. The laptop flickers on, and O5-3 manifests through the screen.//
//O5-9 removes a mouse from his pocket and snaps its neck. He drops the body, but O5-7 shifts out of the corpse before it hits the floor.//
//O5-11 seeps into and through the house. A black, mucus-like fluid rushes around the building and out of the pipes, accelerating into the living room, where it collects itself into a humanoid body.//
//O5-2 and O5-6 complete a ritual circle on the floor with chalk and the appropriate ritual materials. They perform the traditional summoning, causing a gleaming white light to manifest in the air above the ritual circle.//
//The O5 Council takes their seats around the living room, with the resident in the middle of the circle, facing the white light. The Administrator speaks from the circle.//
**Administrator:** Fear Not. Apologies for circumstance, origin all. Introductions unnatural-difficult -- hard for several to arrive. Necessary to thank you for invitation into home and household: we are fearsome.
Thirdly comes the question of introductions. Likely you've gathered the graven nature of us. Magic-paranormal-anomalies not simple-easy managed. Requiring of greatest security, hence the Foundation. Guarded is the darkness.
Surrounding you is ruling body of Foundation. Twelve in number present; thirteen of yesterday. Abyss-absence-position fulfillment requires.
**Resident:** What of your, well, your Administrator put it best. Your graven nature?
**O5-1:** The magic that animates us binds us in service. It ensures our loyalty, our unity, our logistics. A million can only keep a secret if all of them are dead.
**Resident:** Ah. You could never hope to hold a place both in front of and behind the Veil, so you remain entirely behind it.
**Administrator:** Understanding well are you. Such is the nature for which I selected. The Thirteenth Seat lays open; your seat. That of The Outsider; the initiate-novice-foreigner. Newborn into this world.
**Resident:** I am no outsider to the nature of the pale.
**Administrator:** Toes are wet in the ocean. Swimming is incomprehensible.
**Resident:** Always more, I take it. Is this a true choice? How do you take this back if I refuse? You've lifted the Veil too far.
**O5-8:** I can eat the memories out of your brain. It is a clean process and will cause you no discomfort or harm. You'll simply remember this as a night where you let the time get away from you, and forget we ever visited.
**O5-5:** We tend to have my kin do the work, but Eight is the foremost expert in the field. Nobody can do it cleaner or easier.
//O5-5 waves a hand in the air. The lights dim, and the spectral observers become visible around the room. There are fifteen watching the proceedings. The spectral observers are only visible for a second, before the lights return to their previous levels.//
**Resident:** Ah, I should have suspected no less of you all.
**O5-1:** So what of the offer? Do you accept it?
**Resident:** I know little of what you are, or the truth to which you speak. And yet, the power is more than obvious. You are all living legends, and putting all else aside, I would be a fool to reject you. It is a culmination of my dreams.
**Administrator:** Kneel, in space afront.
//The resident rises from her chair and kneels in front of the Administrator.//
**Administrator:** Swear! Secure the world? Swear! Contain the forbidden? Swear! Protect the innocent?
**Resident:** I swear it. I swear it. I swear it.
**Administrator:** Swear! Die in darkness?
**Resident:** I swear.
//The light of the Administrator becomes blinding, even to the spectral observers. When it fades, the resident bears stigmata upon her wrists.//
**Administrator:** Then rise, O5-13.
//O5-13 rises to her feet. The rest of the Council bows.//
[[/div]]
As the film comes to an end, the assembled Insurgents turn and look at O5-13, guns raised. She's bound and gagged on the floor, unable to fight back, and she's given them vital information. All the Overseers at once -- you couldn't ask for a better result from an operation like this. Now, all that's left is the final stroke.
A chill runs down his spine and Vivant-4 hears a dripping noise coming from the corner.
He slowly pans his head to look.
There is an [[[SCP-106|old man]]] //smiling// at him in the corner.
The Eleventh Overseer.
O5-11 lurches forward, not moving fast at all. Vivant-4 attempts to swing his gun around and fire, but the old man clutches onto the gun first. A bullet is discharged and buries itself in O5-11. He doesn't seem to react. With his open hand, he grabs Vivant-4's throat and clutches. Flesh turns to slime. Vivant-4's body falls to the ground.
The rest of the Insurgents in response to the gunshot, a few beginning to speak. They stop when they see O5-11 standing above Vivant-4's corpse.
[!--
The film comes to an end, and the nights return to the room. O5-13 sits alone in a room painted red. She puts the handgun down and considers her handiwork. She hadn't expected shock and awe like that to have worked so well. They were stunned by the video, and in that moment -- Bang. Bang. Bang. All dead.
As she looks at her walls, soaked in red, a different liquid begins to drip down one of them. Black. The stench of rot fills the air, and she almost gags. Not quite, though. She's familiar with this one. Intriguing that the Council sent this one to follow up on the break-in. Everyone else must be busy.
The black liquid comes drip, drip, dripping down the wall, pooling at the bottom. An old man pulls himself up from the puddle and stands tall. He looks around the room at the bodies. Unlike O5-13, he is smiling. She's never seen a human smile that wide. He's always smiling, with those crooked and rotten teeth.
"Took long enough for one of you to show up."
"Long enough. I noticed that you were in danger and assumed another member of the Council would deal with it. But then the distress beacon went on long enough and the distress beacon didn't end. So I decided to pay a visit."
"You couldn't have come alone."
"No. Stilson is on his way."
Nine. An odd pair, Nine and Eleven. Perhaps some of the most dynamically opposed of the Overseers. Although, there are some similarities. Like their ever present, annoying smiles. But
He moves around the room. His footprints leave sticky holes of rot everywhere he goes. O5-13 looks at him. Eleven is one of the stranger Overseers. She asked One where they had managed to find him, and according to the giant, Two had pulled him out of a foxhole in the Somme. But Eleven hadn't been born in that foxhole. He was an //[[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/once-but-not-now|old]]]// man. Maybe not even human initially. Thirteen isn't even sure he's actually dead.
He turned back to her, having finished his inspection of the scene. There is a knock at the door, before it opens and Nine lets himself in. A skeleton, wrapped in vines and moss, flowers for eyes. He looks at Thirteen and flashes her a grin. Somehow. He's worked out how to do that, despite the lack of skin. His teeth are dirty, but aligned.
Nine begins to speak, a rattling cackle. "Nasty work! But you've done well for yourselves. You've always been a good member of the Council. Serves us living members of the Council well!"
Eleven growls at his companion. "You aren't alive, Nine." Thirteen notes that he doesn't deny himself as being alive.
"Oh, but I'm positively covered in life! Look at me. My flowers are in bloom and all. If her living skin makes her alive, why does my living moss not? A tragic cosmic joke, I say!"
Thirteen groans and sits down in one of the chairs, waving her hand.
"It's not the time, Nine. Dealing with this little incident has left me drained. I don't have the energy to deal with your jokes tonight. Please, the both of you."
The two council members straighten up a little, after that. Nine brings himself to stop slouching and come to his full height, and he stops with that smirk. Eleven doesn't stop smiling, but he brings his hands from his hips to across his chest.
"Maria. You're getting old. You can't deny it. Paul denied last year and you haven't been the same since. Can you keep going like this? It might be time to consider retirement."
Thirteen laughs.
"No. No, I don't plan on that."
--]
[!--
Rewrite the induction ceremony so that is only a few members of the O5 council - not all of them. This lets you save the introductions for when they are in prose, which is going to be a lot more effective.
--]