The Children of the Scarlet King Hub

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The heat of his night time fever was being brushed away entirely by the breeze as the light mists evaporated. The same process that was happening around him, was happening within him too. He was being reborn with the morning.

Gabrielle D'Annunzi, The Flame (translated by Susan Bassnett)

⚠️ Content warning: This hub contains discussion of rape and sexual harrassment, harm to children, nazis, forced sinning, and gore.

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WARNING

Following Incident-001-SK, it is suspected that this file may contain infohazardous discrepancies with official documentation. Readers are advised to exercise caution with its contents.

A seal used by a 2014 iteration of the Children of the Scarlet King.

Group of Interest Number: 586

Known Aliases: "The Children", "The Scarlet Church", "Cult of the Scarlet Archon"¹,
"Rubella"²; see "Organization" for more details.

Estimated Membership: Between 70.000 and 300.000

Threat Level: Black ●

Overview: The Children of the Scarlet King are a series of independent churches, organizations, or movements associated with the entity known as "the Scarlet King". While their exact doctrine varies between organizations, said doctrine often includes a series of key themes, documented in detail in the "Beliefs" section of this report.

The origins of the Children are difficult to trace; while worship of the Scarlet King has been recorded as far back as the 50000s BCE, the composite elements of modern sects first appeared in the early days of the Daevite Empire, circa 12000 BCE, as a state religion. Additionally, although certain sects can be traced back to this order, many developed independent of it, even in civilizations with no known contact with the Daevites. Many such traditions appear to have initially begun without any reference to the King.

The Foundation's prevailing theory is that individual sects begin when an individual or subculture makes contact with the Scarlet King. Under the right conditions, the Scarlet King will exert a psychic influence upon its point of contact, implanting a memetic philosophical framework that may coalesce into a sect of the Children. If this is true, it suggests that as long as the Scarlet King is active, the Children cannot be neutralized.

Policy of Engagement: It is the opinion of Drs. Lydia Homme and Robert Montauk that there is nothing to be gained from diplomacy. With few exceptions, all individuals associated with the Children are to be killed on sight.

NOTE: Due to the retrocausal nature of the Daevites, as well as ambiguity in surviving historical records, documenting the Children of the Scarlet King has proven difficult. The following report constitutes the theory of Drs. Lydia Homme and Robert Montauk on the origins of the Children, and a chronicle of what the Department presently believes. It is therefore subject to revision.

The Scarlet King was first recorded in the artwork of Species of Interest-378³, circa 51000 BCE. Such artwork depicts a large cephalopod wielding its hectocotylus as a scepter, often with a host of aquatic creatures. Despite clear allusions to the themes of hierarchy and masculinity, there is no evidence that SoI-378 actually worshiped the king; rather, the King appears to have aided them in their conquests, alongside the entity identified as "The Unseelie Queen".

Communications with defectors from Species of Interest-001⁴ have made reference to attempts by factions in the prehistoric SoI-001 civilizations to establish what we now understand as the Children of the Scarlet King. According to them, these attempts were quickly crushed, and would continue to be suppressed until the fall of their civilization in the 34000s BCE.

Between the reign of SoI-001 and the establishment of Daevon, there exist little record of organized Children activity beyond individual tribes. Until further information is uncovered, the first successful sect of the Children is considered to be the Daeva's Scarlet Faith.

The Daeva and the King

Copies of SCP-140 acquired by the Foundation show excessive signs of tampering; therefore, it is unclear if the Scarlet King's imperial cult was the chief Daevite religion, a henotheistic faith, forced upon Daevite history by SCP-140's author, or complete fabrication. For the purpose of this report, the Foundation will assume the imperial cult as depicted in SCP-140's first documented back-up was factual.

The Scarlet Faith, as it was known to the Daevites, began as an explicit covenant between the Kingdom of Daevon and the Scarlet King, allegedly serving as the basis for the Kingdom's authority. According to available documentation, the ruling Daeva were required to do the following:

Divide its populace into a series of labor-based castes.
Establish a secondary caste independent of the first, based on an individual's reproductive role.
Ensure these castes were assigned individual and unequal values.
Establish a priestly caste dedicated to the worship of the Scarlet King, staffed exclusively by females.
Violently oppose any attempts to interfere with these mandates.

In return, the Scarlet King would provide the Daeva with the following:

A consistent source of thaumic power.
Divine favor upon the monarchy.
Safety from the King's "divine beasts".
"The Scarlet Covenant", a means by which the Kingdom enforced the Faith.

The Scarlet Faith was intimately intertwined with the Kingdom's establishment in 12148 BCE.⁵ The Faith may have initially been a religion of Daeva — the ruling and priestly castes were the only ones bound by its strictures — but the violent reorganization of its subjects paved the way for the Daevite State as we understand it.

It's here that the thematic elements of the Children first began to coalesce. The Scarlet King's power was recognized as dependent on and stemming from a series of inherent inequalities. Moreover, by separating the Kingdom into a hierarchy of women, men, and neuters (defined by their absence from the hierarchy, and treated accordingly), the Daevites inadvertently created one of the first examples of a state-enforced gender binary — and thus, a divinely-mandated sexual hierarchy.

As an aside: it's notable that the gendered hierarchy constructed by the Daeva was matriarchal.⁶ This suggests that, despite the masculinity of the King, it does not mandate patriarchy — only that one gender rule over the other.

As the Daevites developed, so too did their understanding of the Scarlet King. The violence of building and maintaining the Kingdom was increasingly viewed as integral to the Faith, and as it expanded, so too did the divine hierarchies. The transition to an expansionist imperial order in the 9000s BCE would see the creation of a permanent slave caste, eventually growing to dwarf the non-slave population; to this end, the Daeva expanded the Scarlet Faith to encompass its entire citizenry, putting on them strict obligation to control those below them.

The most immediate shift in the Scarlet Faith happened during the Empire's war with SoI-004⁷, in 8318 BCE, when an avatar of the Scarlet King was emasculated in a battle with the "Kingdom of Eden". Once a figure of unquestioned strength, the Scarlet King was now envisioned as a kind of martyr of Daevite imperialism, "unjustly crippled" by SoI-004. An apocalypticist sect soon emerged, popular with minor nobles, that preached the return of the King's "scepter" would herald the Daevite's "conquest of the land and stars".

According to SCP-140's revisions, worship of the Scarlet King continued well into the Common Era, though its influence over the populace waned with the introduction of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam to its territories. By the time of Daevon's destruction and assimilation into the Mongol Empire, SCP-140 estimates that only 15% of its bureaucrats professed the Faith. Notably, while SCP-140 appears unusually sympathetic to this decline, revisions have consistently prolonged the Scarlet Faith's influence on the Daevites.

From Antiquity to the Modern Era

There is reason to believe that the Daevite character of the Children is overstated, however. Throughout history, the Children of the Scarlet King have emerged from numerous cultures, many of whom had little to no interaction with the Daevites.

In lieu of listing every suspected manifestation, this section will discuss broad trends.

Many Children of the Scarlet King practice a specific form of human sacrifice, often named some variation on "rank-putting". A typical victim would be subject to a series of deep but non-lethal lacerations, often in factors of 7, before being drowned in saltwater. This has been recorded in populations well-before the Kingdom of Daevon; however, it appears to have exponentially increased with its founding. Preserved corpses from after the 8th millennium BCE have frequently also been found with mutilated reproductive organs, further suggesting a link between Daevite and non-Daevite Children.

Despite this connection, most of the actual Faith's foreign permutations appear to have been non-anomalous classical cults, typical of any empire's cultural exchanges. Genuine manifestations of the Children appear evenly distributed with respect to human habitation.

While it can be tempting to see them as a religion of empire, their universal manifestation patterns have, more often than not, put them in the minority. This is most evident in Zoroastrian and Islamic civilizations, where stigmas against idolatry and human sacrifice have seen them subject to harsh persecution. Even in manifestations among a culture's ruling class, the peasantry is loathe to convert.

The Children's most common recorded manifestation is the formation of an explicit classical cult, often named some variation of "the Children of the Scarlet King". While this accounts for around 70% of known manifestations, the Department fears that it may only be the most recognizable, and that the majority of Children have evaded the Foundation's detection.

Doctrines of the Children

It should be noted that as a "god", the Scarlet King is worshiped by more than just the Children. The King has appeared in numerous pantheons — often but not always in an antagonistic capacity — and multiple thaumaturgists "worship" the King solely for the power it provides. Thus, determining who qualifies as "the Children" can prove difficult.

Over the years, there have been many attempts to create an official diagnostic by which the SCP Foundation can separate the Children from other groups of interest. Until Incident-3178-F-Summers, the official Foundation criteria for the Children was considered thus:

A given sect of the Children of the Scarlet King must:

Worship, venerate, or otherwise center their cosmology around the Scarlet King.

Motivate adherents through ideological incentives derived from the King and its teachings.

On July 4th, 2010, the SCP Foundation acquired documentation from the UIU on the "Christian Ministries of America", a hostile group of interest responsible for the deaths of at least two agents. The CMA is an ostensibly Christian organization, with a doctrinal policy based in American Evangelical politics; however, its intimate ties with the Scarlet King suggest that, despite the subordinate position of the King in its cosmology, the CMA is a genuine manifestation of the Children.

The Summers Report has forced the Foundation to reevaluate how it views the Children. In the interim, determination has been relegated to an internal Department committee, which examines the abilities, actions, and beliefs of a given Group of Interest before making a judgement.

The following thematic elements are not universal among the Children; however, almost all identified manifestations have included at least one element.

Hierarchy and Authoritarianism

The Children of the Scarlet King are infamous for their violence and alleged "depravity", and as this report will later cover, such attitudes are a key part of many manifestations. Such attitudes, however, fail to connect this to one of the Children's most common thematic elements: those of hierarchy and authority.

While many gods have been associated with concepts of kingship, this is often a secondary, even incidental aspect of their nature. With the Scarlet King, however, this kingship is envisioned as an explicit reflection of their place in the universe. Almost all Children emphasize this kingship in their ideologies, contextualizing the place of all things in relation and treating them accordingly.

In most manifestations, the right of the Scarlet King's power is granted by its strength; the Scarlet King can conquer the universe, and is therefore its rightful ruler. By this right, the King decrees the universe be arranged into a hierarchy of strength, where the strong are required to rule and the weak are required to submit. Primal violence becomes the rule of law, and egalitarianism heresy; the strong may do anything to the weak, except to show mercy.

Some Children, particularly those associated with existing religious groups, may alternatively subordinate the King to a higher power. While the King's kingship is still emphasized, it is only within a narrow purview; often, however, it is indistinguishable on a societal level from the orthodox position.

Interestingly, the Children are not always directly beneath the King. Their position may be conditional on their own ability, or stuck in a lower tier as a servile class. They are, however, near-universally violent in their defense of this hierarchy.

"The King is good
As the King is good, the King does no wrong
As the King does no wrong, to do as the King does is to do good"

—Found engraved in Akkadian cuneiform on a human femur, partially obscured by teeth marks. Uncovered from a mass grave in the Hauran, circa 2000 BCE.

Violence and Transgression

Violence and transgression play an important role in most of the Children's cosmologies, and are often intertwined with themes of hierarchy.

The Children of the Scarlet King believe their god to be violent and rapacious, and that this malice is the source of its power. Being more powerful than anything in its purview, the King may do whatever it wants to its subjects, and indeed, there is no clearer display of its power than by committing violence against its inferiors.

In reflection of the Scarlet King, the Children regularly engage in violent and "immoral" acts against others, within and without their organization. Because they are lower in the Scarlet King's hierarchy, however, the Children are equally subject to violence. Several captured members of the Children have insisted they be physically and psychologically tortured by the Foundation, and become distressed when interrogators refuse.

What qualifies as transgression differs across manifestations, but largely hews towards existing cultural attitudes. These have included, but are not limited to:

Forcing men to auto-castrate. (A 1998 iteration of "The Children of the Scarlet King")
Administering dangerous amounts of castor oil to communists and anarchists. ("Partido de Integralismo Guatemalteco")
Using anomalous means to create fake pornography of political opponents. ("Kingship Land Bridge, LLC.")
Force-feeding religious minorities forbidden foods. ("Order of the Iron Tigers")
Artificially inseminating adolescent girls with "Scarlet Spawn". (A 2018 iteration of "The Children of the Scarlet King")

It should be noted that while the Children frequently engage in transgressive acts, there are few attempts to "normalize" them. The Children almost always recognize the "repulsive" nature of their actions, and in many cases are disgusted with themselves for having performed them; it is, indeed, the transgression that gives such actions power.

Sex and Emasculation

The Scarlet King is notable among Pluripotent Entities for having a fixed gender. Even among species without an analogue to "maleness", the Scarlet King is never portrayed as anything other than a man.

Sex is, after hierarchy and violence, the third-most common thematic element of the Children, and the most malleable of them. The Scarlet King's masculinity holds meaning to the Children, but that meaning differs between sects; the only constant is inequality between the sexes.

Similarly, emasculation has been a common motif in the Children since the 8th millennium BCE. The Children may see themselves as an antidote to a "cultural emasculation", working to bring masculinity to the forefront of society; they may also engage in the ritual emasculation of human and animal sacrifices, or even themselves. The Department of Egregorian Studies suggests this preoccupation may be the result of an avatar of the King's emasculation, manifesting as a psychic wound on its followers.

Addendum: On Reaction

With its preoccupation with hierarchy, violence, and sex, it's tempting to see the Children of the Scarlet King as a reactionary, even fascistic movement. This has been a frequent topic of discussion among those who study the Scarlet King, and so the Department is forced to address it.

The Children have certainly manifested a number of "far-right" iterations, such as the "Partido de Integralismo Guatemalteco" and the "Order of the Iron Tigers". Ultimately, however, not all of the Children belong to the "far-right", or are even necessarily political. Indeed, the Children predate the advent of fascism by several thousand years.

Secondly, the Children have faced heavy opposition from several fascistic groups of interest. In particular, groups of interest based in Kahanism⁸ and Salafi Jihadism⁹ have consistently stood in violent opposition to the Children. Occasionally, the Children may even ally with anti-fascist organizations to achieve their goals.

Finally, there are many groups of interest which share elements with the Children that are connected neither to fascism nor the Scarlet King. Violence, for example, is a common method of conflict resolution among groups of interest, exclusive to neither the "right" nor the "left". Many of these organizations are arranged hierarchically, often because of a reasonable belief in the effectiveness of such structures. The SCP Foundation in particular, with its militarized structure and focus on normalcy, could be accused of maintaining a "Scarlet" worldview, and it is certainly neither "fascistic" nor beholden to any "god".

Despite themes of hierarchy and authority, the majority of the Children operate as autocephalous organizations, independent of other cells and only occasionally collaborating with one another. Naturally, this leads to high levels of variation between groups.

Below are five active manifestations of the Children of the Scarlet King. This list is not exhaustive, and it's suspected that many more organizations remain undetected by the SCP Foundation. Relevant personnel may request additional documentation from RAISA.

The Eponymous "Children of the Scarlet King"

"The Children of the Scarlet King" is the most common manifestation of GoI-586, and the group from which it takes its code name. It is suspected to be the favored manifestation of the Scarlet King itself.

The Children of the Scarlet King is a classical cult dedicated explicitly to the Scarlet King. It typically contains all three of the thematic elements covered in the "beliefs" sections, as well as a numerical motif of "7" and an apocalypticist preoccupation with bringing the King or its spawn into our world. With some exception,¹⁰, there is only one "Children of the Scarlet King" at a given time.

The most recent iteration of the Children of the Scarlet King was destroyed by a joint Foundation-GOC operation in 2018. Its leader, Dipesh Spivak, professes he was made to worship the King through esoteric knowledge of its true nature; Dr. Robert Montauk has organized an investigation into these claims.

Order of the Iron Tigers

By all accounts, the Order of the Iron Tigers began as a Malaysian street gang associated with "Malay Power"¹¹ bands, originally based around the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area. Prior to infection, there was no indication they were involved with the anomalous.

The Foundation had been alerted to the existence of the Order of the Iron Tigers and their connections to the Scarlet King prior to Incident 3178-F-Summers; as such, it did not consider the Order in its purview, due to the Islamic character of the Malay Power movement. Following acquisition of the Summers Report, the Foundation now recognizes the Order as a genuine manifestation of the Children.

The Order's aims are non-anomalous — revoking citizenship from non-Malay Malaysians — but the Scarlet King plays heavily into their iconography and justifications. Furthermore, members have been seen utilizing common Children-linked thaumaturgy against racial minorities and rival gangs.

Infiltration operations are underway.

Circuitous-Accelerationism

Circuitous-Accelerationism is a political philosophy invented by members of "Function/Rationality", a "rationalist" forum that was formerly part of the mainline Maxwellist Church before its excommunication for "excessive sophistry."¹² It proposes that society should be ruled by a supremely powerful AI, constructed by an "intellectual elite".

Circuitous-Accelerationism is a kind of "crypto-Child" philosophy, in that while it makes no explicit mentions of the Scarlet King, it takes clear elements from — and allies with — existing groups of Children. Plans for the AI include sigils and motifs relating to the Scarlet King, as well as hierarchical structures and systems based around the number 7. Complementarianism¹³ frequently comes up in Function/Rationality's discourses, as well as "evolutionary" justifications for human hierarchy. Prominent figures associated with the Children, such as █████ █████ and ██████ ████████, have additionally made significant donations to Circuitous-Accelerationist causes.

The most prominent Circuitous-Accelerationist organization is the Institute of Circuit-Based Intelligence (ICBI); documentation recovered by hacking reveals plans to incorporate dimension-breaching magic into its most recent prototype.

The Writings of "Alberto Weider-Hoffman"

Alberto Weider-Hoffman is the pseudonym of a Spanish-language author, taken from the final subject of Roberto Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas and its subsequent expansion, Distant Star. Little is known of him, other than that he was allegedly born on September 11th, 1966 in the outskirts of Santiago, Chile.

Mr. Weider-Hoffman's writing incorporate numerous thematic elements of the Scarlet King's mythology. This would normally not warrant attention — the Scarlet King is a common stock character in literature — except that he writes for an above-Veil audience. Additionally, Mr. Weider-Hoffman has sent numerous letters to Foundation front companies, typically consisting of poetry and microfiction.

It has been difficult to locate Mr. Weider-Hoffman. No pictures of him exist online, and the return address on his letters leads to an abandoned fishery in the Magallanes Region.

The "Christian Ministries of America"

The "Christian Ministries of America" (CMA) is an ecumenical Christian advocacy group, and a signatory to the Southern United States Extranormal Organization Cooperation Treaty (SUSEOCT) through unknown means. Since August of 2009, the CMA has adopted a policy of hostility towards the Foundation, manufacturing false accusations of child abduction while obstructing investigation into its ties to the Scarlet Church.

According to a report obtained from the Unusual Incidents Unit, the CMA has explicit ties to a number of churches that were later revealed to be fronts for the Children. Additionally, motifs of the Scarlet King (such as the number 7, aquatic animals, and the color red) have appeared in a number of CMA-related SCP projects. In combination with mentions of "God's Red Right Hand", an "angel" with a heavy resemblance to the Scarlet King, this suggests that the CMA have successfully synthesized American Christianity with the Children.

The CMA's priesthood is managed by one "Joseph Comstock Rockwell", a Baptist preacher who previously served in the United States Army. The Summers Report strongly implicates him in its connections to the Children, although its biographical details have proven difficult to verify.

The Scarlet King

The Scarlet King is a Pluripotent Entity of unclear nature. According to various sources, the Scarlet King is, among other things:

Foundation researchers have found evidence for almost¹⁵ all of these origins and more, as well as evidence contradicting each. Common thematic elements include cephalopodic features, the presence of horns, the number "7", and bronze regalia.¹⁶

Separating the literal from the metaphorical has proven exceptionally difficult. The mythology of the Scarlet King is rife with poetic flourish and allegory, often unique to its respective time and place. Further complicating matters, Foundation personnel have never directly observed the Scarlet King in a controlled environment.

Chapter III

[…] that is not to say that the human mind is inherently geared to perform acts of Evil, rather, the human body is engineered for such acts.
[…] Consider the blue whale. At 40,000 pounds, the blue whale can lift 13,900 pounds, exert 60 kilonewtons of force, and must consume 16 tons of living creatures daily to survive. But the blue whale, with all its strength and all its might, has no desire for wanton destruction.

In fact, the blue whale is the gentlest giant in the sea. Feasting solely on krill and plankton, it refuses to employ its gullet on animals of higher orders. In dazzling displays of athleticism, it regurgitates the water it swallows, so all life may continue to utilize it. The blue whale will sing for his mate in the night, like the crooners of old.

By all accounts, the blue whale could have developed into the perfect killing machine, but his own psychological influence has kept him from doing so. The blue whale is kindly because he chooses to be.

Let us say, then, hypothetically, the blue whale lacked its mind. Let us call this the red whale. The red whale has all the capability of the blue whale, but his intelligence is devoted to slaughter — he preys on all animals of all orders, from the low-bearing urchin to the diving tourist. He will swallow gallons of water and continue to filter it for prey, but he will also swallow it for himself. He will use his massive body to force himself upon mates, destroy the dens of weaker creatures, and follow his base, instinctual desires to the letter.

One may call this a shark, but this is simply false. No creature such as this exists; no creature is malicious for the sake of malice.

This is the difference between mind and body. Without the mind, and its love and conscious, there is chaos and horror. The mind, the man within it, is inherently good and kind. There must be pressure and circumstance to drive the mind to surrender to, or simply surrender, the body. That is when this ultimate predator, who consumes and produces only for himself, comes to life, […]

— వ: The Fading Age of Pisces is a collection of post-schizoanalytic essays, written by an unknown author. Though a majority of the work describes environmental concerns and activism, there are frequent allusions to Daevite occultism; in particular, the recurring appearances of the "red whale" as an archetype of pollution is reminiscent of historical depictions of the Scarlet King.

The Scarlet Brides

"The Seven Brides of the Scarlet King" are some of the most recognizable figures in the Children's mythology, second only to the Scarlet King. They have taken many forms throughout the years, from seven Daeva matriarchs, to the Scarlet King's own daughters, to a pod of seven female whales. In reality, the Seven Brides are more akin to a phenomenon.

The Scarlet King is capable of impregnating sufficiently complex organisms in groups of seven. This can be accomplished through a number of means, including:

Direct breeding by members of the Children.
Injection of a Scarlet Spawn's¹⁷ body fluids into the cervix or uterus.
Indirect or symbolic impregnation by way of ritual magic.
The simultaneous occurrence of nocturnal emissions in seven female organisms that dream of the Scarlet King.

In addition to impregnation, such processes have a profound effect on the physical and emotional state of the mother organism. The nature of these changes very between themselves, but have often included recalcitrance, increased/decrease receptivity to pain, reddening of the skin, and delirium. Few survive the process of giving birth.

The first mythological record of the Seven Brides comes from the early years of the Daevite Empire, circa 9000 BCE. According to a recovered poem, the Daevites believed the "first" Seven Brides to be the Scarlet King's own daughters, taken as its wives upon the death of its mate; due to the esoteric nature of the Scarlet King, however, these seven may only have counted for one "Bride". Such records also speak of a "Second Bride", those being seven Daeva Matriarchs who made a covenant with the King upon the Kingdom's founding.

Certain Neo-Daevite¹⁸ sects believe that the rest of the Brides, or all but one, have already been taken by the Scarlet King, attributing apocalyptic significance to the final Bride's "child". These claims are under investigation.

Barring direct intervention, all Brides will eventually give birth to Scarlet Spawn.

The Scarlet Spawn

Along with the Children, the Scarlet King primarily operates within our universe through its spawn.

"Scarlet Spawn" is the technical term for any organism birthed or created by the King, its Brides, the Children's rituals, or other Scarlet Spawn. This concept has roots in early conceptions of the Scarlet King as a fertility idol, and even appears foreign mythologies, such as those of the Xia Dynasty and SoI-004.

Aside from their origins, the Scarlet Spawn vary greatly in appearance, manner, and function. This section will cover only a few instances.

"Scarlet Children" (███-████)

When an individual woman is impregnated through Scarlet ritual magic,¹⁹ she is said to give birth to a "Scarlet Child", not to be confused with the Children of the Scarlet King.

Scarlet Children are physiologically identical to normal human children; it is presently impossible to tell them apart. While long-term studies are presently underway, there is no evidence that Scarlet Children suffer disease or injury at greater or lesser rates, and life expectancy appears to be on-par with baseline levels. Researchers have observed an increase in childhood mental disorders, but these appear to be the result of familial circumstance, rather than innate tendency.

[REDACTED]

"The Holy Beasts" (SCP-53C)

A "Holy Beast" (classified as SCP-53C in official documentation) refers to a specific kind of cephalopodic organism, engineered by the Daevite Empire for the purpose of war against sea- and river-based civilizations.

SCP-53C is notable for its extreme aggression, fecundity, and ability to survive in both freshwater and saltwater. Introducing a population of SCP-53C to a given body of water will rapidly destabilize the ecosystem. Indeed, while the original purpose of SCP-53C appears to have been direct aggression, the Daevites later employed it as a form of ecological warfare.

Efforts by the Global Occult Coalition have eliminated almost all instances of SCP-53C, with the exception of a population off the West coast of the Americas.

"The Scarlet Covenant" (SCP-████-Beta)

The "Scarlet Covenant" is a concept referenced several times in SCP-140, both as a mark of the Scarlet King's favor and the means by which the Daeva supposedly employed its power. There is evidence to suggest that the covenant itself was a physical entity, "half-god and half-Daeva"; indeed, the Scarlet Covenant may have been one of several such "covenants", the concept itself being a common mythological motif among the Daevites.

If the Scarlet Covenant existed, it would have been an excellent addition to the Children's cause. The Scarlet Covenant could allegedly hide itself under the skin of an animal, wherein it could infiltrate the enemies of the Daevites, learn their secrets, and infect them with parasites. Moreover, the Scarlet Covenant was alleged to have been a legendary naval warrior, capable of sinking entire ships on its own.

The Scarlet Covenant appears to have left the Daevites around the 1800s BCE, just before the rise of the Kalmaktama Empire. An entity or group of entities similar to the mythological figure (designated SCP-████) have been sporadically documented since; most recently, documents confiscated from PoI-0000 ("Nobody") suggest their preoccupation with a "Verdant" and "Violet" Covenant.

There has been at least one claimant to the Scarlet Covenant. On the 11th of February, 1963, Foundation agents encountered an anomalous entity, hereafter designated URA-9521, in the alleged employ of a Neo-Sarkic crime ring. URA-9521 appeared human, but shed its "skinsuit" upon request, revealing it to be a 2.4m tall cephalopod entity. It initially begged the Foundation to contain it; however, URA-9521 would escape through its cell's ventilation system three days later, mating with an instance of SCP-4D33 before fleeing the facility entirely.

During its containment, URA-9521 was interviewed extensively. Below is a transcript of its interview on the nature of the Scarlet King; full documentation may be requested from RAISA.

Dr. Glass: Thank you, Jack.²⁰ Now, this may be cliche, but I'd like to know more about your "father".

URA-9521: Uh, sure? I don't know if I'll be much help. He's… he's kind of hard to remember.

Dr. Glass: How so?

URA-9521: I, uh, don't like remembering him. Not a… good father.

Dr. Glass: That's unfortunate.

URA-9521: I don't know how you'd, uh, do better. King²¹ was the god of, you know, rape, violence, being cruel to the people below you. It's not like, uh… it's not like he knew anything else.

Dr. Glass: I mean, that doesn't mean you can't criticize him for what he did.

URA-9521: Sure, but he's not human. I don't… think he's smart enough to be responsible for his actions.

Dr. Glass: Pardon me, but what do you mean by that?

URA-9521: He's an idiot. He doesn't know anything you haven't already taught him. I'd be more worried about the people acting in his name.