SCP-4002 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-4002.

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Co-Author's Note

Modern_Erasmus 01 Aug 2018 04:01

The oldest mystery in Human mythology is the end of the Epic of Etana. A wise king, desperate to provide his people an heir to stave off the chaos to come. In the real world, we know he succeeded. But we don't know how. MayD and I have provided an answer, though perhaps not one that does justice to Etana himself.

The translations presented here are heavily modified versions of real translations of the Sumerian King's list and the steles we have about the Epic of Etana. Even Sargon's boasts are about 50% true to a contemporary text, though I'm hardly the first to re-purpose that apocryphal tale (glances at story of Moses).

There's some crosslinks in here, though the text color of the Css makes them a bit hard to spot at first glance.

+ Credits

Tretter for being an awesome collab partner
djKaktus for giving permission to use his beautiful O5 css
Weizhong, Weryllium, CadaverCommander, Filenum(sp?), ARD, Captain Kirby, Gabriel Jade, and several others for critique and advice.
FortuneFavorsBold and TheDeadlyMoose for inspiring plot elements with their own X000 contest entries.

+ Image Source

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sumeriankinglist.jpg
Public Domain

+ Spoilers:read if confused

Lazarus is SCP-2000, it's crosslinked but its possible to miss the link due to the aforementioned text color similarity. The Foundation wants the Seed of Life to complete the Bright-Zartion Hominid Replicators used to rapidly create Human clones en masse, but in searching for it they discover more than they wanted to. Humanity is inherently anomalous, and creates anomalous phenomena just by existing. That nature was pawned off to an unknown and hostile deity, whose identity is up to you but I did leave a couple clues that could be used to form interpretations, in exchange for the Seed of Life (which if you know anything about Sumerian myths, its pretty much the universal macguffin in 'em. Even the epic of Gilgamesh ends with him trying and failing to find it) and the more metaphorical order of dynastic succession.

Many millennia in the future, the rising number of anomalies (a plot point often mentioned in tales and such on this site as a tongue in cheek reference to the ever increasing number of skip entries irl) is a sign that the mortgage is beginning to run out. But if human nature is the problem, and the Foundation can now make Humans en masse and attempt to modify them according to their whims… Well, I'll just end with this quote from 2000:

Why did we have to build this thing?
When did we do it?
How long have we been doing it?
Do we even know?!

Last edited on 05 Feb 2020 20:17 by Modern_Erasmus Show more

Re: Co-Author's Note

MayD 01 Aug 2018 04:39

It was great working with you, Erasmus. It was fantastic to see this take form over the weeks we worked on it.

Gabriel Jade 01 Aug 2018 04:40

The primeval king
strikes a bargain for mankind
'till the black moon howls.

Modern_Erasmus 02 Aug 2018 23:38

Does the black moon haiku? :P

Genshed 01 Aug 2018 05:11

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I know enough Mesopotamian ancient history to play along, and everything you added was quite satisfying.

Modern_Erasmus 03 Aug 2018 11:30

It’s an amazing collage of characters that have been pretty underused on this site, and I’m happy to help change that!

Last edited on 03 Aug 2018 11:30 by Modern_Erasmus Show more

stormbreath 01 Aug 2018 13:17

The border and background color of the collapsibles here is very different from the other colors of the CSS theme, and they clash pretty hard. Is there any possibility of changing them to match better?

Otherwise, very cool. +1

EDIT: I also don't think any of the CSS from 3201 is doing anything on this page, and could/should be removed?

---

can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke broke
understandable have a nice day

Last edited on 01 Aug 2018 15:38 by stormbreath Show more

Modern_Erasmus 01 Aug 2018 22:36

Glad you enjoyed!

The Css is what’s making the header image.

stormbreath 01 Aug 2018 23:27

Looking at the code, the stuff from 3201 is defining two div classes (inset and space), neither of which is used on the page. It doesn't look like inset was used on 3201, and I'm not sure why it's on that page either. The header stuff is defined by it's own divs, and nothing else.

---

can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke broke
understandable have a nice day

Modern_Erasmus 02 Aug 2018 00:23

It's possible I've got a little redundant code, but hey, whatever works!

TL333s 01 Aug 2018 15:53

I saw this one beforehand, and I'm glad it's here because now I don't have to read it again.

I've been thinking about this one all morning as I see "Does the black moon howl" in other articles.

Modern_Erasmus 03 Aug 2018 23:47

That’s exactly the sort of reaction I’d hoped people would have!

Am I really out of touch? No. Its the children who are wrong.

Jacob Conwell 02 Aug 2018 03:45

Neat.

The build-up to this one is quite enjoyable, with tension rising as the archeologist's race for the truth and the various historical accounts begin to reveal more and more about what exactly is going on. And then we get to that twist.

I really love WJS's 001 proposal. To me, it is highly plausible and has fantastic narrative potential (and that letter from the 05 at the end). The revelation here that the O5 council have basically made a ruling on what is anomalous on such a grand scale as to condemn everything that isn't the actual anomalies takes the WJS 001 idea to an interesting extreme that it makes me pause and reflect on the nature of that 001.

This was a fun article, and I am glad you got it up in time, M_E.

+1.

Re: Am I really out of touch? No. Its the children who are wrong.

Modern_Erasmus 05 Aug 2018 00:40

Glad you enjoyed! And thinking about how these two articles could fit together is really fascinating, and imo makes the O5s seem even more like the ruthless bastards we know and love!

Liszt 02 Aug 2018 04:41

Nicely put together, but I had a nitpick: the conversation between the O5s doesn't seem to flow very naturally in my mind. Even if it's supposed to be an edited transcript or something, it reads more to me like a work of poetry or something than an actual discussion between real people.

Anyways, nicely done!

Modern_Erasmus 05 Aug 2018 23:29

To an extent that’s intentional: Tretter and I both enjoy portraying the O5s as very detached and somewhat inhuman. That said it could certainly be better, what lines in particular stood out to you as problematic?

Glad you enjoyed!

Maxisonfire 03 Aug 2018 18:12

This is a really strong entry. Very poetic, cross-references to other entries without making a farce out of it, great use of real history and SCP-canonical history. Also a big fan of your expansion/explanation post in the comments. I know some people don't like 'closure' but in this case I do. Big +1

Modern_Erasmus 06 Aug 2018 12:05

Thanks a bunch! Blending site and irl history was definitely a big goal here so I’m glad it comes through in the reading :)

rattles 03 Aug 2018 19:31

This is an extremely good entry, and I really like the connections to 1000 and 2000 before it. However, I think there may be a teensy typo in the containment procedures:

When activated, the trigger will cause the subject to utter a vocalization related to the nature of any present anomalies effecting them.

I'm pretty sure this should be affecting.

MayD 04 Aug 2018 01:09

This has been fixed, thanks for bringing it up.

Otherwise, I'm glad you enjoyed our entry.

Modern_Erasmus 07 Aug 2018 20:36

Thanks for the spot!

machiavelli33 04 Aug 2018 05:56

I absolutely love this. The resonating tie-ins are so far-reaching, so complete, and so comprehensive.

It requires a really in-depth knowledge of the Foundation *and* at least a cursory knowledge of real myth to fully distinguish what's going on. For my part, I definitely thought there was more going on with the whole "I cannot bear an heir" thing, more than Etana just literally being unable to conceive children, until I researched it and realize that was part of the real epic.

It's a bit of obscuring opaqueness to what's going on that might make some people miss the "punchline" so to speak, but you might be okay with it - it makes picking through this like picking through the symbolism of old real-world myths to suss what's actually going on.

All in all though, it's a weighty piece that beautifully fulfills the history theme, makes my brain happy, and makes my heart excited.

I hope this goes far.

Modern_Erasmus 08 Aug 2018 19:06

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad the thought process and themes really shined through for you.

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