SCP Foundation

The SCP Foundation is a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative-writing wiki project of the same name. Within the website's shared universe, the Foundation is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena unexplained by science (known as "anomalies" or "SCPs"), while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of human society.

The collaborative writing project operates on a wiki-like website, and includes elements of many genres such as horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. The majority of works on the SCP Wiki consist of thousands of SCP files: mock confidential scientific reports that document various SCPs and associated containment procedures. The website also contains "Foundation Tales", short stories featuring various characters and settings in the SCP universe. The wiki's literary works have been praised for their ability to convey horror through a quasi-scientific and academic writing style, as well as for their high standards of quality.

The SCP universe has inspired numerous fan-made adaptations in widely varying forms of media, including novels, video games, and short films (both animated and live-action).

Synopsis

The fictional setting centers around the findings and activities of the SCP Foundation: an international secret society, consisting of a scientific research institution with a paramilitary intelligence agency to support their goals. Despite their extremely secretive nature, the Foundation is entrusted by governments around the world to capture and contain various unexplained phenomena that defy the known laws of nature (referred to as "anomalies", "SCP objects", "SCPs", or informally as "skips"). They include living beings and creatures, artifacts and objects, locations and places, abstract concepts, and incomprehensible entities which display supernatural abilities or other extremely unusual properties. If left uncontained, many of the more dangerous anomalies will pose a serious threat to humans or even all life on Earth. Information on SCPs and the Foundation is strictly withheld from the general public in order to prevent mass hysteria that would supposedly occur if they were leaked, and allow human civilization to "continue functioning normally".Aelanna (17 March 2014)
About the SCP Foundation
''SCP Foundation''. Retrieved 13 February 2015

When an SCP anomaly is discovered, teams of undercover Foundation agents (often called Mobile Task Forces) are deployed to either collect and transport the object to a Foundation facility, or to contain it at its location of discovery if transportation is not possible. If an anomaly is too widespread, elusive, or otherwise inaccessible, containment usually consists of suppressing all knowledge of the SCP from the public. This is accomplished through censorship of mass media, and dosing eyewitnesses with amnestic drugs which erase their memories of anomalous events.

Contained SCPs are studied and researched by scientists in order to improve containment methods for them. The Foundation also acquires human test subjects, usually convicts from prisons, forcing them to take part in experiments involving certain SCPs. Considered to be disposable, these "D-class" personnel are used in experiments with particularly dangerous SCPs to avoid risking the safety of Foundation employees themselves. The Foundation maintains documentation for all SCPs which they are aware of, which can include or link to related reports and files. These documents describe the SCPs and include instructions for keeping them safely contained, as well as supplementary incident reports or experimentation logs.

Apart from the Foundation itself, there are numerous rival organizations (referred to as Groups of Interest) which deal with SCPs for various purposes. Examples of major Groups of Interest include the Chaos Insurgency, a terrorist splinter group consisting of ex-Foundation defectors who attempt to weaponize SCPs; the Global Occult Coalition (GOC), a secret paramilitary agency of the United Nations which specializes in destroying supernatural threats instead of containing them; and the Serpent's Hand, a militant group which advocates for the rights of anomalous beings, resisting both the Foundation's and GOC's efforts to suppress paranormal activity worldwide. Other Groups of Interest seek to exploit anomalies by producing or selling them for monetary profit; or using them to serve their own religious, political, or ideological goals.

Examples of SCPs

* SCP-055 is an "information autosuppressor" that causes anyone who examines it to forget its characteristics, thus making it indescribable except in terms of what it is ''not''.
* SCP-087 is a staircase that appears to descend infinitely and inhibits any light within its space. The staircase is inhabited by SCP-087-1 and SCP-087-2, described as a face without a mouth, pupils or nostrils.
* SCP-108 is a Nazi bunker system that is accessible only through a portal found in a woman's nose.
* SCP-173 is a humanoid statue composed of rebar, concrete and Krylon spray paint. It is immobile when directly observed, but it attacks people and breaks their neck when line of sight with it is broken. It is extremely fast, to the point where it can move multiple meters while the observer is blinking.
* SCP-294 is a coffee vending machine that can dispense anything that does or can exist in liquid formincluding, on occasion, abstract concepts. Regardless of the properties of the substance chosen, the machine's polystyrene cups appear to suffer no damage from the substances dispensed into them.
* SCP-426 is a toaster that can only be referred to in the first person.
* SCP-999 is a gelatinous slime mold-like creature that smells similar to whatever is most comforting to the person it makes contact with. It has a friendly personality and is known to induce positive emotions on contact with humans and other organisms. Therefore, it is sometimes used as a tool by the SCP Foundation.
* SCP-1171 is a home whose windows are covered in condensation; by writing in the condensation on the glass, it is possible to communicate with an extra-dimensional entity whose windows are likewise covered in condensation. This entity bears significant enmity towards humans but does not know that the Foundation members are humans.
* SCP-1609 is a wood chip mulch that teleports into the lungs of individuals displaying aggressive behavior towards it. Previously a benevolent chair that teleported to nearby individuals who needed to sit down, it became aggressive after being destroyed in a woodchipper by the Global Occult Coalition.
* SCP-3008 is an IKEA store whose interior is a seemingly infinite, labyrinthine pocket dimension designated SCP-3008-1. Prospective customers trapped within the building have formed rudimentary civilizations, and must defend themselves against hostile creatures known as SCP-3008-2: tall, faceless humanoids wearing IKEA employee uniforms that become violently aggressive towards other entities in SCP-3008-1 when the lights are turned off.

Writing style

On the SCP Wiki, the majority of works are stand-alone articles detailing the "Special Containment Procedures" of a given SCP object. In a typical article, an SCP object is assigned a unique identification numberNewsom, p.152 and a "containment class" based on the difficulty of containing it. The documentation then outlines proper containment procedures and safety measures before describing the SCP object in question. Addenda (such as images, research data, interviews, history, or status updates) may also be attached to the document. The reports are written in a scientific tone and often censor words with black bars (ex. █████) and ATA EXPUNGEDmarkings. As of August 2021, articles exist for nearly 6,600 SCP objects; new articles are frequently written by contributors.

The SCP Wiki contains over 4,200 short stories referred to as "Foundation Tales". The stories are set within the larger SCP universe, and often focus on the exploits of various Foundation staff members, SCP entities and objects, among other recurring characters and settings. Gregory Burkart, writing for Blumhouse Productions, noted that some of the Foundation Tales had a dark and bleak tone, while others were "surprisingly light-hearted".

The SCP universe has neither a central canon nor the ability to establish one due to its community-oriented nature, but stories on the wiki are often linked together to create larger narratives.Alexander, p. 72 Contributors have the ability to create "canons", which are clusters of SCPs and Foundation Tales with similar locations, characters, or central plots; many of these canons have hub pages that explain their basic concept and provide information such as timelines and character lists.

The genres of the SCP Wiki have variously been described as science fiction, urban fantasy, horror and creepypasta.

Community

The SCP Foundation originated in the "paranormal" /x/ forum of 4chan in 2007, where the very first SCP file, SCP-173, was posted by an anonymous user (later identified as Moto42), accompanied by an image of the sculpture "Untitled 2004" by Japanese artist Izumi Kato. Although displeased with the unlicensed use of his art, Kato allowed the use of the photo explicitly for the noncommercial purposes of the community. Initially a stand-alone short story, many additional SCP files were created shortly after; these new SCPs copied SCP-173's style and were set within the same fictional universe. A stand-alone wiki was created in January 2008 on the EditThis wiki hosting service to display the SCP articles. The EditThis website did not have moderators, or the ability to delete articles. Members communicated through individual article talk pages and the /x/ board; the website lacked a central discussion forum. In July 2008, the SCP Wiki was transferred to its current Wikidot website after EditThis switched to a paid model.Pedullà, Lorenzo (25 July 2017
Cos'è la SCP Foundation?
''Fantascienza.com''. Retrieved 18 August 2017. "Untitled 2004" was removed from the entry for SCP-173 in 2022.

The current Wikidot website contains numerous standard wiki features such as keyword searches and article lists. The wiki also contains a news hub, guides for writers and a central discussion forum. The wiki is moderated by staff teams; each team is responsible for a different function such as community outreach and discipline. Wikidot users are required to submit an application before they are allowed to post content. Every article on the wiki is assigned a discussion page, where members can evaluate and provide constructive criticism on submitted stories. The discussion pages are frequently used by authors to improve their stories. Members also have the ability to "upvote" articles they like and to "downvote" articles they dislike; articles that receive too many net downvotes are deleted.Newsom, p. 154 Writers from the ''Daily Dot'' and ''Bustle'' have noted that the website maintains strict quality control standards, and that sub-par content tends to be quickly removed.

The Wikidot website routinely holds creative writing contests to encourage submissions. For example, in November 2014, the SCP Wiki held a "Dystopia Contest" in which its members were encouraged to submit writings about the Foundation set in a bleak or degraded world. The website has also held seven themed contests for the opening of new Series, wherein the most-upvoted submission is listed at the beginning of the Series and the submissions of runner-ups are listed under an available number of their authors' choosings. As of Series VIII, the contest themes have covered urban legends, science fiction, eldritch horror, history, mystery, nature, and luck.

Apart from the original English wiki, 15 official foreign language branches exist, and some of their articles have been translated into English. The Wanderer's Library is a sister site and spin-off of the SCP Wiki. It uses the same setting as the SCP universe, but is made up of fantastical stories rather than scientific reports.Tapscott, p. 115 The SCP community also maintains a role-playing site, a forum on Reddit, and accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

Reception

The SCP Foundation has received largely positive reviews. Michelle Starr of ''CNET'' praised the creepy nature of the stories.Starr, Michelle (11 August 2013)
SCP Foundation web series coming to YouTube
''CNET''. Retrieved 6 February 2015. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, writing for the ''Daily Dot'', praised the originality of the wiki and described it as the "most uniquely compelling horror writing on the Internet". She noted that the series rarely contained gratuitous gore. Rather, the horror of the series was often established through the reports' "pragmatic" and "deadpan" style, as well as through the inclusion of detail. Lisa Suhay, writing for the ''Christian Science Monitor'', also noted the SCP Wiki's "tongue-in-cheek style".

Alex Eichler, writing for ''io9'', noted that the series had varying levels of quality and that some of the reports were dull or repetitive. However, he praised the SCP stories for not becoming overly dark, and for containing more light-hearted reports. Additionally, he praised the wide variety of concepts covered in the report and said that the wiki contained writings that would appeal to all readers. Leigh Alexander, writing for ''The Guardian'', noted that the wiki's voting system allows readers to easily locate content which "the community thinks are best and most scary."Alexander, Leigh (5 May 2016
_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9: the mysterious tale terrifying Reddit
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 25 August 2018.

Winston Cook-Wilson, writing for '' Inverse'', compared the SCP stories to the writings of American author H. P. Lovecraft. Like Lovecraft, SCP casefiles generally lack action sequences and are written in a pseudo-academic tone. Cook-Wilson argued that both Lovecraft's works and those of the SCP Wiki were strengthened by the tensions between their detached scientific tone and the unsettling, horrific nature of the stories being told.

Bryan Alexander, writing in ''The New Digital Storytelling'', stated that the SCP Foundation is possibly "the most advanced achievement of wiki storytelling" due to the large-scale and recurring process through which the wiki's user-base creates literary content.

Cultural impact

The works present on the SCP Foundation website have been the subject of numerous independent adaptations and inspired some original works:

Films and videos

* ''SCP: Overlord'' is a 35-minute live action thriller short film, directed by Stephen Hancock and written by Evan Muir. The film was pitched on Kickstarter in January of 2020 as an independently-produced horror piece set in the SCP universe. It received $23,497 in funding from 609 backers over the course of 30 days. The short was released for free in November of 2020 on the YouTube channel Evan Royalty.

Literature

* ''SCP Foundation: Iris Through the Looking-Glass'' is a light novel series written by Akira and illustrated by Sidu. The book focuses on a boy who is kidnapped by the SCP Foundation after he sees a picture of Iris Thompson, a woman designated SCP-105, in every book he opens; the boy and Iris are forced to cooperate to escape the Foundation. The novel series began publication in Japan in September 2018, and was released by Seven Seas Entertainment in North America in January 2020.Loo, Egan (18 April 2018)
Seven Seas Licenses Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? & My Father is a Unicorn Manga, SCP Foundation: Iris of the Mirror World Novel
''Anime News Network''. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
* ''SCP-5000 WHY - The Graphic Novel'' is a 120-page graphic novel adaptation of ''SCP-5000 - Why?'' (a contest-winning entry) written by Tanhony and illustrated by DRDOBERMANN. The novel focuses on technician Pietro Wilson surviving in an alternate universe where, for unknown reasons, the SCP Foundation has declared war against humanity and is releasing SCP objects to assure human extinction. Funded through Kickstarter, the novel was published by Discordia Publishing in August 2021, with promotional items including bookmarks, mini prints, and jigsaw puzzles made available.
* ''There Is No Antimemetics Division'' is a novel written and self-published by Sam "qntm" Hughes, an author from the SCP Foundation website. The novel is an anthology of works Hughes uploaded to the site from 2008 to 2020, including '' SCP-055'', the ''There Is No Antimemetics Division'' storyline, and its sequel ''Five Five Five Five Five''. The novel focuses on the concept of "antimemes", ideas and entities that censor themselves through memory loss, data corruption, and other anomalous means, and more specifically the invasion of an antimemetic entity inimical to human life. The novel was published June 2021.

Live performances

* In October 2014, a stage play entitled ''Welcome to the Ethics Committee'' was performed in Dublin at the Smock Alley Theatre. The play focused on the SCP Foundation's Ethics Committee, a body that tries to limit unethical containment procedures.Power, Una (8 October 2014)
Welcome to the Ethics Committee
''Belfield FM/UCD Student Radio''. Archived from th
original
on 11 August 2015.
* In mid-2016, the Glasgow New Music Expedition under conductor Jessica Cottis performed works inspired by the SCP Foundation at the 10th annual Plug festival of contemporary music.Molleson, Kate (3 May 2016
Plug in to a feast of new music in Glasgow
''Herald Scotland.'' Retrieved 31 May 2016.

Video games

* ''SCP – Containment Breach'', one of the most popular games based on the SCP Foundation, was released by Finnish developer Joonas Rikkonen in 2012.Chan, Stephanie (8 December 2017)
SCP-3008 is survival horror in an unending Ikea purgatory
''Venture Beat''. Retrieved 20 May 2018. The player character is D-9341, an unarmed D-class who attempts to escape from a containment facility while evading armed Foundation guards and escaped SCPs, including SCP-173.Boring Aloof Gamer, The (27 June 2013)
Cute Little Things- SCP: Containment Breach Review
''Game Skinny''. Retrieved 20 May 2018. The game includes a blink function, which makes the player close their eyes but allows SCP-173 to approach.
* ''SCP: Secret Laboratory'' is a multiplayer game based on ''Containment Breach''. Players have the option of playing as a breached SCP, an escaping scientist, a D-class, a Mobile Task Force Operative or the attacking Chaos Insurgency.Clark, Dean
SCP Secret Laboratory First Impression: Great Game, If You Can Get it Working
''Game Tyrant''. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
* ''SCP: Pandemic'' is a multiplayer co-op first-person shooter in development by Affray Interactive. Set in the alternate universe of ''SCP-5000 - Why?'', players perform missions on behalf of various factions against the Foundation, which has become genocidal and seeks the annihilation of humanity. The game is currently available on Steam as an open alpha.
* ''SCP: Secret Files'' is an episodic horror adventure game in development by GameZoo Studios. The player plays through chapters that each cover different excursions into the SCP Foundation's operations with the bizarre and abnormal. A demo was released for Steam Next Fest; the chapter centered around the Euclid-class anomaly SCP-701, a '' The King In Yellow''-esque stageplay titled ''The Hanged King's Tragedy''.
* ''Control'', a video game created by Remedy Entertainment, was first revealed at E3 2018 and released in August 2019. The video game was heavily influenced by the SCP Foundation, with the game centered on a fictional Federal Bureau of Control that collects mundane objects imbued with paranormal influence to study and keep secure.
* ''Lobotomy Corporation'', a management video game by Project Moon, was released in April 2018. Inspired by the SCP Foundation, the titular Lobotomy Corporation contains and harvests energy from supernatural "Abnormalities", and handling containment breaches is a major aspect of the gameplay.
* Other video games include ''SCP-3008'' (a planned multiplayer game set in SCP-3008) and ''SCP-087'' (a short horror game about walking down SCP-087.)

See also

*Creepypasta
*Slender Man

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited references

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External links

* {{Official website

Text-only archive
of the earliest-known SCP-173 post on 4chan
obtained
from th
4Chan Threads Text Archive


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