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"Which one did you get for me this time?"
"Only one left. The Chaos Insurgency. This one was a tough nut to crack, I'll tell you that much."
"That so?"
"Barely any information from either side, that couldn't just have been propaganda. And the few scraps I could find are all contradictory."
"Let's start with the basics. Any history, primer, or manifesto?"
Overview
In 1900, O5-2 of the Estate Noir disagreed with the Foundation's ratification of the Veil Protocol and subsequently defected. Following this, a significant portion of Estate Noir assets vanished from inventory.
In 1914, O5-11 objected to the classification of humans as SCP objects. She, along with other members of Foundation High Command, subsequently fled to found a breakaway organization dedicated "to the principles of international humanism", disappearing into the European occult underbelly. Their whereabouts have never been found.
In 1924, O5-9 and -11, following the atrocities of the Great War, demanded more liberal usage and development of anomalous items and technologies for the benefit of humanity. Along with Researcher Wolfgang Fritz, the self-styled 'Triad' plunged the Foundation into civil war.
In 1926, the Civil War was won, and the remnants of the Triad were forced into hiding, taking with them thousands of personnel and hundreds of captured anomalies.
Around this time, Foundation High Command formed an elite black operations force tasked with carrying out direct covert action against the enemies of the Overseer Council. To date, the scope of their activities within and without the Foundation remains unknown.
That force, known as the Red Right Hand, operated without sanction and under heavy cover of disinformation. Notably, many of their operations were officially attributed to fictitious Foundation rebel groups for the purposes of deniability.
In 1948, they defected. Many remain at large.
It remains unclear which of these rogue elements faded into nothing and which blossomed into true rebellion. Or if there was only ever one true Chaos Insurgency, sucking all anti-Foundation sentiment into its orbit.
While other anti-Foundation groups tend to respect the bottom line of the Foundation's mandate, generally straying away from interfering with the containment of potentially world-ending anomalies, the Insurgency holds no such compunctions. In their long war against the Foundation and normalcy at large, no price is too great to pay, no devil's deal too dubious to strike.
Beyond that, the group's purpose becomes muddied. There are rumors that the Steps of the Plan crafted by the Engine are all leading towards some alien utopia, that the Engineer sees themselves as a bloody-handed gardener pruning away at fate one possibility at a time. Insurgents are told they are carrying out a great rebellion against the tyranny of the status quo—a world where "consensus reality" itself is an illusion, history's great lie, perpetrated by the Foundation, where "normalcy" is nothing but a mask of oppression and coercion.
They are told that they die in the dark so that mankind may one day truly live in the light.
It is uncertain whether or not the aforesaid is the true opinion of its leadership or just another layer of disinformation. Investigations are ongoing.
"Told you it was inconsistent."
"I'll be the judge of that. Are you sure you have everything?"
"Down to the smallest mention. See?"
"I need more details than that."
"You'll get it if you let me do this properly."
"Fine. What's next?"
"Structure. Been a bit easier. There's some common trends I could find in most of my sources. But as soon as you go into the details, you can forget about any consistency. And don't get me started on what the thought behind any of it is."
Organization & Ideology
The Chaos Insurgency consists of a network of independent cells with Delta Command at the centre. Cells can vary from outer cells which are not aware at all of the Insurgency, receiving orders once in a while from a mysterious source in exchange for resources or contacts, to inner cells completely integrated into the Insurgency's core structure.
Personnel
The Engineer
At the top of Delta Command sits the Engineer who issues out Steps of the Plan, provided through telepathic communication with the Engine. Nothing much is known about the Engine, other than it being a precognitive machine of some kind with its own motives. Potentially wary of falling completely into the Engine's schemes, the Engineer may limit their communication and fall back on alternative Engine Replacements to facilitate the Plan.
Delta Command
Outside of the Engineer, Delta Command consists of Delta Commanders and Step Compilers. The Delta Commanders each direct a plethora of cells, as well as coordinate the implementation of the Plan. Step Compilers are responsible for transcribing all Steps of the Plan and facilitate the documentation of Delta Command.
Gamma Operatives
Gamma-class researchers and military commanders have oversight over the execution of Delta Command's orders. Personnel of this rank can most often be found in leadership positions in inner cells and tend to have a moderate grasp about the Insurgency's overall activities, though missing the breadth of view that Delta Command has.
Beta Agents
Beta-class personnel, while not given the same level of command as Gamma-class, carry out the Insurgency's work in the field. Broader awareness of the Insurgency's goals may vary from person to person, though they can be expected to be well integrated into their cell. Delta Command views leaders of outer cells as Beta-Class even if the cell has never heard about the rank.
Alpha Personnel
Alpha-class personnel, often recruited from individuals with little to no knowledge of the anomalous, accept offers of employment often because the alternative outside the anomalous world is worse. They are the grunt workers: numerous and expendable. If a Chaos Insurgency raid resulted in all Insurgents dying, chances are it consisted entirely of Alpha-personnel and their sacrifice was part of a larger scheme.
Cell Structure
Beyond the loose classification of inner and outer cells based on how much contact they have with Delta Command, cells can often additionally be divided into Research and Development Cells (R&D) or Military Cells. The former focused on creating weaponry and equipment facilitating their new utopia, the latter enacting the Insurgency's will in the field.
While all cells are expected to contribute to the Plan when ordered, they have otherwise free reign to follow their own goals as they see fit. Just as often as Delta Command orders cells to execute their orders, do cells reach out to other cells including Delta Command to sponsor or otherwise help implement their own ideas.
Even cells that initially seem counter to the goals of the Insurgency are not out of the question. If it creates a fire for the Foundation to keep busy putting out, it has served its purpose.
"Thorough enough?"
"Oh, I am more than pleased."
"Right. Next I have catalogued the equip—"
"We can move to that later. Tell me first, what you think."
"What I think?"
"The heart. Now that you've seen the organisation, what do you think makes it tick? What is the Insurgency."
"I already gave you the most consistent history I could find."
"But surely that is not everything you could find."
Interpretations
The Chaos Insurgency is one of the oldest and most Foundation-tied Groups of Interests. This and frequent dissatisfaction with how nebulous the group is sometimes defined has led to authors creating many different interpretations across many different settings.
The Overview mentioned four possible starting points of the Insurgency as an example. These four, followed by other more well-used interpretations are explained here in more detail.
Overview
Red Right Hand and the Engine
In 1924, the SCP Foundation formed a covert special task force, known only to the O5 Council and consisting of members of the Council-loyal MTF Alpha-1 "Red Right Hand". The task force was codenamed "Insurgency." Its task was to further goals of the Council, which would otherwise reflect badly on the Foundation. Officially, the Insurgency was a splinter group of the Foundation that went A.W.O.L. In 1948, much to the surprise of the O5 Council, a staged raid resulted in severe casualties and the removal of actually important SCP objects by the still thought loyal MTF Alpha-1. The reason for this lies in a V8 automobile engine, whispering of higher knowledge and a way out of humanity's inevitable demise if they just fight the Foundation.
All of them are getting played by the Engine, which is reflected in their organisation. They're an organisation that purports to have as its goal the perfect understanding and integration of the anomalous—but they don’t tell their operatives anything about these paranormal objects or phenomena. There is the illusion of order—they’re following a strict series of instructions. But the reality is chaos—the average Chaos Insurgency operative has no idea what they’re doing or why. They’re just following the Engine’s plan.
This interpretation came about in the 2014 Groups of Interest contest and was listed on the original hub. This is the origin of most parts of the organisational structure, like the existence of the Engineer, the Engine, Delta Command and cells divided into R&D and Military. It is also the origin of the GoI-Format.
- Darkness On the Face of the Deep
- Polycephaly
- Cactus Insurgent
- Headhunted
Slate Thunder
Officially, a few rogue agents stole some anomalies in 1924 and formed the Insurgency. The Slate Thunder report reveals a much larger conflict: The Foundation Civil War. Following the end of the First World War, the idea of using anomalies for the benefit of humanity at large gained traction, pushed by the influx of veterans in the organisation. The issue escalated with the publishing of the "New Manifesto", which was in turn banned by O5-7. With some Overseers favouring ideas of the manifesto, this caused a schism in the O5 Council, ultimately leading to a vote of no confidence to replace all current Overseers. On June 11th, before the vote concluded, leaning towards failing, O5-9 and O5-11 ordered the rest of the Council arrested with no success. The two fled and formed the "Triad" with the Site Director of Site-37. After an initial battle, the Triad revealed the Council's actions at large, causing widespread unrest and several Sites to defect. The Civil War had begun in earnest.
Ultimately, the Triad was defeated and its members executed, though many items and personnel remained unaccounted for. Under Major Damien O'Connor, a former Task Force Commander with backgrounds in the IRA, reformed the remaining forces into the "Chaos Insurgency", focused on guerrilla warfare to even the unfair playing field, laying fires to "exhaust the fire brigade". The Foundation remained unaware of the Insurgency's existence until 1933, having in the meantime purged the records of the Civil War from its official history.
The New Age report corroborates these details, though differs in two key details: The vote of no confidence was leading in favour of dissolution until the vote was forcefully stopped by parts of the Council. Only then did O5-9 and -11 retaliate. The report also suggests the Chaos Insurgency to be nothing more than a name applied to them. They consider themselves to still be the legitimate Foundation, including an O5 Council of at least three members, though only a few countries take their presence over the "reactionaries", the title they use to describe what most would consider the Foundation.
Slate Thunder marks the oldest concrete origin of the Chaos Insurgency on the wiki, being published in 2012. Outside of the reusing of the character Damien O'Connor as a Delta Commander and the New Age series, this version of the Insurgency has only rarely been mentioned anywhere again at the time of writing. Most other interpretations have the Insurgency defect as part of a raid, unlike the full Foundation Civil War of this interpretation. The idea of the Foundation Civil War stuck around independently and has been referenced across the wiki.
The Conspiracy series is noted to conform to this interpretation.
Insurrection
The breakaway from the Foundation by rogue Overseers in 1914 came with two different motivations.
O5-11 broke away when the Foundation started classifying humans as anomalies. Those should be treated as equals and are part of the very humanity the Foundation swore to protect. With her came O5-12 and O5-4.
O5-7 was brought into the fold with the promise of more leniency in regards to his science. Where the Foundation knew limits of how far one should go in an experiment, the Insurgency would know none.
Estate Noir
When the Foundation was founded out of thirteen organisations as the result of a CK-class event removing all mentions of an Occult War in 1900, O5-2 of the then Estate noir was against the establishment of the Veil. Now, with its enforced ignorance, a repeat of old events is inevitable, no action required by the Overseer, earning him the moniker "He Who Waits".
Following their leaders' disapproval, elements of the Estate refused to become part of the Foundation, destroying valuable documents. Some documents may have fallen into Insurgency hands instead. Exact relations between the two organisations remain unknown, but the Estate is not sometimes called an Insurgency precursor for no reason.
- Wrong Proposal — The Consensus
- SCP-3668 — Provenance
- SCP-5041 — The Man in the Iron Mask
Other Interpretations
The following is a list of additional interpretations that differ from what was mentioned in the Overview about the Insurgency in the base setting. If an interpretation differs from any of the ones listed here or above, it can be added to the list as long as the interpretation is mentioned in two articles.
Ouroboros
In 1926, Aaron Siegel killed the Administrator using SCP-001 before fleeing with 4 other of the highest officials of the Foundation at the time, founding the Chaos Insurgency.
Though Siegel later left for the Foundation again, he left behind the myth of the mythical Insurgency founder of the Engineer, a legend based on the person of Aaron Siegel and the designs of Vincent Arians.
What remained is a chaotic mess of cells barely held together by Delta Command and the belief that the Foundation has altered reality for itself, being the source of all anomalies, contrary to their official goal. Killing the thirteen overseers of the Foundation is the sole goal of the Insurgency, their "Summa Modus Operandi".
Until the cycle begins anew.
Articles with a slightly different version of this take:
- SCP-8181 — The Real World
Consortium Independent
What is the Insurgency's ultimate purpose, but to entertain the reader? The Consortium Independent focuses on just that, mostly inside what their narrative box of Saturday cartoon villains allows, but they are not above changing into another role all in purpose of an interesting narrative.
Note: This interpretation also exists as the ideology followed by a single cell instead of the whole Insurgency.
- Chasing Interest
- SCP-2215 — I Saw the Sign
Livery Companies
The Insurgency has a two-fold purpose. For one, it is a collection of the worst people imaginable. Without careful direction from the top, these people might bring genuine harm to the world. This way, they can be repurposed for something else: The stress-testing of other organisations under the control of the Administrator, just as the Insurgency was before his demise. It is helped in this purpose by the Livery Companies, which use the Insurgency to gather information. Before essentially merging with the Insurgency, the Livery Companies appeased evil gods and the anomalous at large in a time long before the organisations of today learned how to actually fight back. With the Administrator gone, a new person is required to lead it so that it does not stray from this purpose.
Revolution Earth
A take with a very small Chaos Insurgency, originally led by twelve people following the Engineer, who has a hole in the head, constantly spouting surreal prophecy.
No Insurgency
The "Chaos Insurgency" has always been a fiction. There may have occasionally been operations attributed to the Insurgency to keep the Council's hands clean, but it was never real. It is a useful tool when any dissidents of the Foundation can swiftly be declared to be part of a supervillain terrorist organisation. A fiction so useful, the Foundation is no longer the only one using it.
- Internal Investigation (I-49274)
- The Glorious and Everlasting Victory of Pablo Foxenflower over the Traitor Lazarus Wyrm
- SCP-6396 — Overhead
- SCP-7209 — BRAND NEW JOB.
- SCP-7314 — Horn of Plenty
- SCP-7777 — Heptaphobia
"Satisfied?"
"Please. If you couldn't handle this much, there'd be no point in hiring you. This is where it actually gets interesting."
"The Assets."
"Interesting word choice."
"It's what they are. Weapons, locations, people; it's all the same to the Insurgency. Everything becomes a pawn for the greater game, no matter how high you climb."
Cells, Characters & Equipment
The following lists all the different assets of the Insurgency as they appear on the wiki. These lists can be added to as soon as they appear in one article on the wiki.
The cell is the fundamental organisational unit of the Chaos Insurgency, though what is and is not part of the Insurgency gets less clear at the edges of the organisation. Some interpretations of the Insurgency have also been used as cells in other articles. The following is a list of all distinct cells which Delta Command might view as a part of the Insurgency.
- Black Sheep (Outer Cell) — A group of impressionable young adults who just want to watch the world burn, helped by an Anartist who calls herself the "Abstract Murderer". While the Engineer tries to guide the cell and its destructive potential towards their purposes, other cells had to step in before and stop their actions.
- Catering Isolated (Front) — Restaurant Front. While a chain might be a possibility, the only current known branch sits in the Insurgency-controlled city Maladh.
- Causality Institute (R&D Cell) — After securing approval by the Engineer the Institute has started its experiments in the city Maladh to test out the Insurgency's vision of utopia.
- Causality i (Military Cell) — Led by Sir Kneverbeen and his representative Chadwell, the Insurgency's answer to the Foundation's Delta-T. Follows the ideal that everyone should have access to time-travel, which would emergently make the perfect timeline arise instead of the current Foundation-controlled one. In accordance with this ideal, Causality i often supports other time-travellers like the Golden Horde or time-travellers forcefully enlisted by the Foundation. Is most of the time at war with the Foundation during the 20th century time war, spanning from roughly the 1930s to 2021.
- Chilli Inferno (Front) — Cell with the sole job of frustrating all efforts of the biggest Foundation Front Spicy Crust Pizzeria.
- Compendium Incarnate (R&D Cell) — A group of magicians being sponsored by the Insurgency in their efforts to create a grimoire with which any possible concept can be summoned. The authors may or may not have made themselves part of the grimoire.
- Consortium Independent (Cell) — Led by Delta Commander Linda Liesmith, the Consortium is aware of the fictional nature of the universe. It is unclear if they try to use their role as a villain for their own benefit or merely to tell a good story.
- Foundation Feast (Military Cell) — Led by Delta Commander Damien O'Connor, Foundation Feast is the cell with the most recurrent contact with the Foundation. For them, the Foundation is an all-you-can-eat buffet, where you can steal whatever your heart desires, or your commander currently needs.
- Isfet (Cell) — A cell with a focus on chaos magic, mostly viewed under the lens of the subversion of practices from ancient Egypt. Interested in all magic and ritual they can get their hands on.
- Lost Fives (Cell) — A cell founded out of lost fifthists, after the death of their religion. With the help of a remaining fifthist angel, the group of kids was able to advance beyond their powerless state. Still able to attune reality anchors to the Fifth World.
- Manna Charitable Foundation (Disputed) — While the Engineer still considers the group part of the Insurgency, how the MCF would likely disagree with that claim, especially on account of the Insurgency once kidnapping a high-ranking figure of theirs. Fact is that the Foundation has received donations by the Insurgency before. Coordinated actions between members of the two groups have also been noted in isolation.
- Nigurath (Military Cell) — Early cell of the Insurgency that was destroyed in 1948.
- Seattle-based Cell (Cell) — Cell in the Third Law setting that has engaged multiple times in narrative warfare in which battles are waged both by writing and by entering written narratives.
- Sototh (R&D Cell) — Early cell of the Insurgency that was destroyed in 1948.
"Interesting. Even a few here that I haven't heard of before."
"I aim to please."
"But that's enough dancing around. Now for the main course."
"Sure. It's all in here. Files, interactions, events, everything any other organisation would think about the Insurgency."
"Anything?"
"Of course not. Even my sources have limits, but these files should hold you over water for quite a while. Oh, you'll find the end interesting. I market it just for you."
"You don't mean—"
"You really thought I'd just keep it to outsiders?
"How far did you get?"
"See for yourself."
Articles
To be listed here, the Series needs to include the Insurgency as a major, if not the main focus. Some of the series listed here were also listed in the earlier Interpretation tabs.
"In the Silesian heart of Europe, southern Polish voices shout more and more loudly about independence, about separatism — a cause as noble as it is susceptible to abuse by forces far greater and far more malicious than those from which it arose."
unVeiled: The Face of Silesian Independence in the 21st Century
Dark Sushi File No. 120 "Mab Maki"
Armed with Hell-Flames and Fury
KTE-2039-Carcinoma-Oder-Templum
It is the middle of the Cold War. The Insurgency has found one unlikely ally in Southern Africa: The Republic of Rhodesia, facing an anomalous micro-nation known as Great Zimbabwe. The alliance between the Rhodesians and the Insurgency is shaky, but Hudson's Scouts, the Insurgency's primary military cell within the country, is prepared to do whatever it takes to defeat Rhodesia's anomalous enemy. In this chaos with even Insurgency Cells split on ideological lines, whom can a fledgling Insurgent trust?
Homecoming
Remember Your Black Day
Respite
Hill of Fire
Enter The Spire
Optional Reading: SC-63/141-65/030 — The Asset
- I after 5 by Ethagon
4 different organisations put their full attention on a fifthist angel being summoned not long after the death of the Starfish. But among them, only the Insurgency has an idea of how to fill that lost angel with a new purpose.
KTE-5503-Bice-Copernicus — "Five-Winged Mirror"
SC-18/005-18/350: Graduation
SCP-8530 — Not Built To Last
The journey of one Keagan O'Neill from prison to prison until they are confronted with a plan spanning multiple Chaos Insurgency cells. Or the "true Foundation" as they call themselves.
Book I—'Cells'
Book II—'Mr Brightside'
Book III—'Gunning For The Buddha'
"Romance and Betrayal in the Chaos Insurgency"
Static In My Attic
Burned A Hole In My Mind
Hot Latitudes, Cool Attitudes
"Just for insurance, you understand."
"You certainly made your point clear."
"If you don't mind, a question of my own."
"By all means."
"You asked me about the 'heart' of the Insurgency before. What is your take? What is this all for?"
How to Contribute
Takes about the group can vary pretty wildly. Just pick any of the aspects mentioned on this hub or in articles featuring the CI you like and go from there. Or stick to one particular interpretation if you want to.
Traditionally, the Insurgency has often been used as a plot device- mooks that engage in armed hostility against the Foundation without needing further elaboration for their reasons. This approach may not have the most depth, but it gets the job done. Unlike other groups who might shy away from attacking a Foundation Site containing monsters that could end the world, it's almost always believable for the CI to do so.
Just keep in mind that this variant does not make an article Insurgency-centric enough to be mentioned on the hub.
Another specific take to keep in mind is the Insurgency as a cover-up. The idea comes up here and there, but it's rarely applied to answer what it means in practice.
Now, suppose you want to adapt the CI to a specific setting. In that case, my recommendation is to look at what the Foundation ideology represents in that setting and have the CI split over a disagreement with that philosophy, serving as an ideological counterpoint. From a Foundation-centred point of view, the CI is an antagonist. The one group that will always play against them, be it in exemplifying the extremes of the Foundation or in a just as radical a rejection.
In general, the Insurgency works well in harbouring the extremes of an ideology. When creating a cell, I try to think of one aspect of the SCP setting and then try to craft ideals specific to it, which sound a bit insane, but still like something a person might believe in. Better if it fits into the overall narrative of the CI trying to create an anomalous utopia. For example, for Causality i, I imagined the cell as a player against Delta-T. Where Delta-T usually restricts time-travel as much as possible, this cell instead sees the ideal state in everyone being free to use time-travel like any other technology, with the hope that everyone using time-travel leads to the perfect timeline.
On the other hand, not everything needs to be as black and white. Most often, cooperation between any GoI and the Insurgency is seen as impossible, partly because the Insurgency paints itself as the anomalous boogeyman, but it is fun to see what some minor overlap could look like. This goes double for encounters with the Serpent's Hand. If you look at the left-leaning parts of the Insurgency, there are a lot of similarities and differences, like the more militant portrayal of the CI, which you can play around with.
That aside, the Insurgency isn't solely defined by its position to other groups. The semi-decentralised cell structure is a good source for inner conflicts or ideological clashes. Defending the few territories they have or securing new assets are somewhat recurring motives, with more ground to cover.
If you're having issues inserting the Insurgency into your story with a concrete goal in mind, I'd think back to the two mentioned ideologies of Iterationists and Horizonists. One way, though a bit tricky to execute, is to have whatever the Insurgency is doing just be one more step in their web of plans. Whatever happens, the Insurgency gets something out of it, even if they seemingly lose. Doing it like this has the added benefit that the villain organisation, whose leader has precognition, comes off as scarier if they do not lose in every appearance.
The other way is to let their goal be a more direct step to whatever utopia the Insurgency imagines. Like facilitating a hive mind as the next step in conflict resolution; or a city-wide experiment of their ideals, as can be seen with Maladh.
Another important thing to note that sometimes gets forgotten is that the Insurgency, in most interpretations, is an Anti-Normalcy group. It wants to end the veil just as much as the Hand wants, if not more so.
Contributing to this Hub
If you want to add to this hub, just see the corresponding section for any requirements. The idea behind the Cell, Characters & Equipment section is to catalogue as much as possible to serve as inspiration for others, given how few characters have more than a one-off appearance.
An Interpretation should be a little more established before being added. A new article belonging to any specific Interpretation can be added to it.
The Articles section should only be added to if the Insurgency has a major presence in the article.
"If that was all, we'll be in touch."
"Did I pass?"
"If you need to ask, maybe I overestimated you after all."
"I'll take that as a yes."
"Welcome to the Insurgency."












