Doctors Of The Church Hub

This canon is most succinctly described as a "post-apocalyptic pseudo-Medieval fantasy setting".

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It was said that in ancient times, as it is today, that there were a great many expunged that walked the world - not all creatures of flesh and blood, but machines, objects, places, even words and ideas, that knew not the laws of man nor God and caused great ruination and confusion wherever they roamed. To protect all men, believer and heathen alike, the Ancient Temple was founded, to secure, contain, and protect those terrors that threatened the safety of all.

But this, the saints say, was the sin of the Ancients; not that they did not fear what might come to pass if they were careless, but that they feared it too much. For they kept the secrets of the expunged to themselves, saying to themselves 'Man is a timid and superstitious animal; if he knows that these things exist, he will be consumed by terror and chaos will reign around the world. Let us do our work in secret, then, and let none learn of these things, that they may live unafraid.'

But no secret can be kept forever; and in time, many others learned that the expunged existed, and rather than being fearful, they became covetous of the Ancient Temple, and created their own heathen temples, seeking to make and take such things for themselves. And from this conflict arose the Great Breach; and when the masses of the expunged found themselves loosed at once upon the world, a world which knew not that such things could exist and stood against them like a leaf stands against the hurricane, then no stone was left atop another.

And when the flames had passed, those priests of the Ancient Temple who yet lived saw a world that would never again be as it had been before. And they said to themselves, 'What shall we do now? Mankind has no chance to regain what he has lost if the knowledge of how to combat the expunged dies with us. How can we few ever undo such a great calamity?'

And they saw the Lord ██████ approach them; and a great commotion arose through the crowd, for they thought Him dead. And the Lord spoke with a great voice, and He said; 'Shut the fuck up for ten seconds and I'll tell you.'

-Everett 1:1-9

Introduction by SmaptiSmapti


What is this?


Doctors of the Church is most succinctly described as a "post-apocalyptic pseudo-Medieval fantasy setting". But what does that mean?
  • post-apocalyptic - at some point in the late 20th or early 21st century, the world suffered an IK-Class "Collapse of Global Civilization" Scenario now remembered as "The Great Breach". Religious texts record that this event was precipitated by a large-scale conflict - potentially an Eighth Occult War - between the SCP Foundation and multiple Groups of Interest, which led to an escalating series of containment breaches, catastrophic magical disasters, and eventually the death of most of the human population. 700 years later, most modern technology and scientific knowledge is long-lost, few (if any) modern structures still stand, and much of pre-Breach history has been swallowed up by myth and legend. Remnants of Ancient technology still exist, buried in sheltered bunkers or exclusionary sites, but most of the world only has access to things invented before the Renaissance. People now account time in AB ("After Breach") and refer to pre-Breach civilizations as "The Ancients".
  • pseudo-Medieval - in the wake of the Great Breach, remnants of the SCP Foundation reorganized as a religious institution in order to preserve knowledge of anomalous phenomena and containment procedures thereof. To give itself an air of legitimacy, appeal to cultural archetypes, and otherwise make this scheme more likely to succeed, the so-called Holy Foundation adopted terminology, aesthetics, and other elements reminiscent of the Catholic Church. Just as the Church was a stabilizing and nearly hegemonic force in the Middle Ages, so was the Holy Foundation for eight centuries after the Great Breach. For unclear reasons - a deliberate affectation, a compromise forced by the destruction of so much knowledge and technology, or a byproduct of some supernatural limitation - the rest of society has also acquired a bizarre resemblance to the Middle Ages. This is a world where mail-clad knights cross swords for their Lord, where artisans' guilds vie for power and wealth with traveling merchants and hereditary nobility, and where a good chunk of the population consists of serfs and peasants.
  • fantasy - however, many of the magics and monsters set loose by the Great Breach are still running around. The Veil of Secrecy has been replaced with a Veil of Superstition; though everyone knows that anomalies exist, they are viewed by the Foundation as demons, monsters, witches, or magical artifacts worthy of fear and awe. Heroes and adventurers bravely face the Expunged in combat, loot Ancient relics from the subterranean ruins of Foundation sites, and study the parasciences as schools of magic.

Canon Articles


A Canticle For Bright by SmaptiSmapti

The cardinal raised his eyebrow. "Do you know what would happen if the Rite of Montauk were not performed as the Holy Containment Procedures instruct, aspirant?"


By One Iota by SmaptiSmapti

"There is no sin in any of the actions you have been asked to perform today - and though He may test you with His cries and protestations, remember that the Lord loves you and will forgive you."


Quid Est Non Scitum by JekeledJekeled

Decades ago, at the beginning of his study, he had chosen to focus on the writings of Saint Gears, a path he had never regretted. Because of this, he was the natural choice to carry out the Ceremony of the Clockworks.


Though I Walk Through The Valley by AnaxagorasAnaxagoras

I expected pain, the pleading gaze animals assume as death becomes a mercy. But it had a tenderness in its eyes like I have only ever seen in yours, Rachel.


Placere Non Trinus by RejekyllRejekyll

"Er, Lord, what we know is mostly conjecture—bits and pieces from surviving encounters, which are rare enough in themselves—but they say the Yellow Book rewrites the past."


Deus Vult by SmaptiSmapti

"Knights, nobles, peers of the realm, and peasants and serfs alike—hear us this night, for a threat has come to our lands that imperils not only our nation, but all of Christendom itself! Not since the time of the Exodus have our people known such an enemy as the heathens which now return to this land to resume their ancient debaucheries—the vile forces of the nation of man."


Indwelling of Bright by MrWrongMrWrong

"Son, you know not of the Holy Foundation's ways. Our starvation is the Holy Foundation's love towards us, the D-Caste."


The Lord Judge by SmaptiSmapti

When you speak the Four Words, do so with the utmost confidence; for if you have no faith in yourself, he will have no faith in you.


The Arnven Chronicles by EcronakEcronak

To Doctor Asser Clef,

I bring dire tidings.


To my dear Sigurrós, wherever you are,

I bring good tidings.


Body and Blood by TrotskyeetTrotskyeet

Crossing over to the altar, The Doctor brings down the Hammer upon the head of the Host. They are transubstantiated into The Substance, a spicy vegetable sauce.


Governed on Horseback by TrotskyeetTrotskyeet

"I could regale you endlessly with accounts of the death-defying feats of the travelling Wettelian harlequins or the horrors locked in the Foundation’s crumbling keeps or the fractal teachings of the Fifth Temple: you and your court have heard of them before. But, Angelo, you have never heard of the glories of Perth."


Time Machine by RallistonRalliston

Sorry. God stuff. Her twenty-fifth son just ate my sixteenth cousin. Need to send a two-generation plague onto her town. You know how that goes.


What Does Not Rot by JNColossusJNColossus

“So no one deserves to die a victim of this world, as I find myself to have their blood on my many hands.”


The Lord of the ██████ by KothardarastrixKothardarastrix

The book in your hands is the true personal account of one Princess Geva of Arnven, describing her travels from that fair city to the cursed island of Uk and back. Herein you will encounter daring feats of battle, wizardry, cleverness, and courage, tales of untold wealth and hideous monsters, and a historical blueprint for our present.


Recountings from the War of the Dragons as collected by Wandermen Petyr by Diogene_sDiogene_s

The world trembles when dragons go to war.



Setting Summary


This section is intended as a primer for the history, culture, and current (~800 AB) status of the major nations and organizations that have appeared in the setting so far. JerdenJerden created the flags, banners, and coats of arms - more images and information about the designs can be found on the Doctors of the Church Heraldry page.

You are welcome to expand on any of these regions or explore new ones in articles you write! Contact KothardarastrixKothardarastrix to have new developments added to the hub.

Holy-Foundation.svg

Approximate Location: Eastern United States, bounded by the Mississippi River to the west and the Canadian border to the north.

System of Government: Feudal theocracy led by the 13 Overwatch Cardinals of the Holy Foundation. Local government is predominantly secular, but all officials are expected to defer to Overwatch's authority. Though localities maintain their own militias, the Mobile Legions of professional soldiers that serve as the nation's primary military force answer directly to the Foundation, as do the various knightly orders associated with certain Saints.

Summarized History: Supposedly founded by surviving Foundation personnel immediately after the Great Breach, though heavy mythologization of early history makes this claim difficult to verify. The current power structure was codified at the Synod of New Denver in 237 AB with the deposal of the Archministrator, a king-like position that would have served as the primary landholder of the Provinces and a secular equivalent to the Overwatch Cardinals, who now wield its powers in addition to their own. In 709 AB, the existing Overwatch Cardinals were again overthrown by a "Neutralizationist" faction that took a more extreme stance in favor of exterminating and destroying anomalies instead of merely containing them. The Provinces have waged war on all of their neighbors to varying degrees of success, and they are currently being invaded by the Thereven Khanate. The ongoing invasion, coupled with prior military and territorial losses and multiple internal schisms, has sent the Foundation into a period of decline.

Culture & Religion: Most inhabitants of the Seven Continental Provinces practice a religion known as the Veil, over which the Holy Foundation is the most widely recognized authority.1 Foundation doctrine maintains an extremely conservative but somewhat contradictory stance toward anomalous phenomena; Euclid- and Keter-class objects are typically referred to as "Expunged" and regarded as monsters or demons, while Safe-class objects are more often described as "Relics" and involved in religious rites. The Foundation ruthlessly persecutes thaumaturgists, ontokinetics, and other anomalous humanoids as "witches" or the like. The social strata of the Provinces also includes "D-caste," a population of enslaved criminals and their descendants used as slave labor, conscripted soldiers, and containment apparatus by the Foundation, which claims that this is a fair and redemptive punishment for their sins against the state and therefore the church.

The principal figures of worship under the Veil of Superstition are sanctified versions of the modern Foundation's senior staff.2 Adherents of the Veil believe that their saints have formed a perfect Foundation in the land of Corbenic, located on the dark side of the Moon, where the faithful will join them in a utopic and orderly existence after death.

In orthodox Veil beliefs, the saints are portrayed as subordinates to an even greater figure, Lord ██████. As the immortal creator of the Holy Foundation and its last living connection to the pre-Breach world, Lord ██████ eventually came to be seen as a literal living god.

Relevant Anomalies:

  • Poison Words and Warding Patterns - esoteric artistic techniques practiced by the Foundation's knightly orders, derived from verbal and visual memetics, respectively. Knights who employed them were often held in fear and suspicion, an attitude that eventually led to the near-abandonment of the practice.
  • Holy Water - a liquid that can "cleanse the mind of consecrated information," though it's anybody's guess whether this is a genuine amnestic (which would be quite impressive, since the Holy Foundation no longer has access to modern pharmacology or SCP-3000) or just regular water administered as part of a religious ritual that induces placebic amnesia.
  • Scrantonum - a dark red, glowing metal that inhibits "sorcery" - the Holy Foundation's term for reality bending - and possibly also thaumaturgy. Allegedly, the Holy Foundation depleted its last stores of the material in combat with the Witch of Arnven.

Miscellaneous Musings


Rebranding the Foundation as a religion is not as far-fetched as it might seem. In 1981, a similar idea was proposed in the real world. From Wikipedia:

The linguist Thomas Sebeok was a member of the Bechtel working group. Building on earlier suggestions made by Alvin Weinberg and Arsen Darnay he proposed the creation of an atomic priesthood, a panel of experts where members would be replaced through nominations by a council. Similar to the Catholic church – which has preserved and authorized its message for almost 2,000 years – the atomic priesthood would have to preserve the knowledge about locations and dangers of radioactive waste by creating rituals and myths. The priesthood would indicate off-limits areas and the consequences of disobedience.

Tradeoffs with this approach include:

1. An atomic priesthood would gain political influence based on the contingencies that it would oversee.
2. This system of information favors the creation of hierarchies.
3. The message could be split into independent parts.
4. Information about waste sites would grant power to a privileged class. People from outside this group might attempt to seize this information by force.

And, in Doctors of the Church, every single one of those trade-offs has come to pass. The Holy Foundation is a dysfunctional and oppressive theocracy held together by blind obedience, empty rituals, and fanatical ignorance. It inherited all of the modern Foundation's authoritarian qualities and none of its enlightenment, leaving those under its rule as vulnerable, superstitious peasants who depend on lies and idolatry to keep them safe and sane.

As a result, most of the works in this canon address, in one way or another, the dangers of clinging too tightly to the past. This theme can be applied to many topics, such as

  • oppressive religious institutions
  • political conservatism
  • hero-worship
  • fear of change
  • grief
  • overuse of tired tropes in fantasy literature
  • fixation on Series I and high-profile Author Avatars
  • and more!

This does not mean that anything you write in this canon has to be overtly political or allegorical - after all, the Lord of the Redacted is an adventure first and a statement second - but it may help to keep these ideas in mind when conceptualizing the setting.


Spoiler Warning

For the sake of convenience and continuity, I have compiled below a list of all characters, groups, and objects that've appeared in this canon, and in which works those appearances happened. Those detailed in the World Guide section above are not repeated here.




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