Fading Stars
Fading Stars is a canon based around the value of culture and systems of belief. In this world every idea manifests in a world of our subconsciousness, and it is our belief in these concepts and ideas that keeps them alive.
In this canon, all the gods are very much real, and there are gods for everything you can think of. These gods are fading away one by one, and the Foundation doesn't know why. As these gods fade, so too does what they represent. People are losing their ability to dream, to create, to exist as humans. It's up to the Foundation, an ever pragmatic beast, to stop this before humanity is past the point of no return by any means necessary.
There are a myriad of gods out there. If you can think of something, there's a god for it of some kind (sometimes even multiple!). These gods are contradictory, fickle, and unique individuals in their own right. Potential authors are encouraged to write their own god for this setting if they want to, there are no limits!
As a whole, Fading Stars leans more towards fantasy as a canon. That said there is still plenty of sci-fi, just be aware that the sci-fi itself still tends to be more magical in nature and based less in hard science. The world in this setting is innately magical, and that magic exists in everything everywhere. That said, you're free to explore any genre you want to if you choose to write something!
While there are a variety of genres and themes for the Fading Stars canon and authors are encouraged to explore whatever interests them the most, there are a few central ideas to highlight—
- Culture is valuable and needs to be respected — The gods of the Dreamscape come from a wide variety of origins. While several are completely original creations, beings from real world mythologies are also represented here. Authors are encouraged to represent a variety of real world backgrounds, and are encouraged to take their time to really research these gods and mythologies so they are represented well.
- Colonial practices wipe out systems of belief, and as a result, cultures — The main conflict of the Dreamscape setting is based in no small part on colonial practices actively decimating real world cultures and suppressing their traditions and mythologies in favor of the colonizer's. In this setting, traditions are largely recognized as important for creating and maintaining a cultural identity.
- The divine is in everything — There is a god for literally everything, even that wad of gum under your desk. While this setting doesn't necessarily demand that you see the beauty in everything, it does ask that you take a moment to appreciate the things that make the world exist in the first place.
- The Foundation is a complex organization, but the average person is good — The Foundation in this setting is a pragmatic beast. It seems kind on the surface, but in the end it does the things it does for its personal benefit. That said, the individual people working for the Foundation are, on average, sincerely good people who want to do the right thing. They're all individuals much like any god, with their own goals and beliefs, but there are very few people within the Foundation that are truly evil. When writing the Foundation, don't be afraid to embrace the idea of systemic failings and systemic issues.
- The future is uncertain, it's your choices that decide it — You never know what tomorrow brings. Some have made peace with that, and accept what they see as inevitable. Others are constantly striving to change their fate. In the end one thing will remain true, and that's the fact that our actions today impact the world we see tomorrow. Let's leave a better one for those who come after us.
- Life can be bittersweet, but there's always an inkling of hope — Several articles in this setting are known for their bittersweet endings, but it's important to remember that all of them have a sense of hope in them. Fading Stars is not intended to be a grimdark setting. While stories can be sad, there should always be a sense that hope is always there. That doesn't mean you need to write something bittersweet either— articles can have any tone that you want!
- The pursuit of perfection is a fool's endeavor — Especially prevalent in the Deus Est Machina series. The idea of perfection and any attempts to attain it are innately flawed and impossible to meet. Perfection does not exist, and attempting to attain it is innately a dangerous thing to do. A long, happy life is one where we make peace with our beautiful imperfections.
The most important thing in the end is to be creative and have fun. This is a canon about ideas and imagination, so let your own run wild!
What is the Dreamscape?
The Dreamscape has existed since humanity was first capable of complex thought, the world of our subconscious. It's the place everyone visits in their dreams, and the place that all of our ideas and thoughts take form. If you've thought of it, that idea exists somewhere in the Dreamscape.
The Dreamscape as a space exists as a world with dream logic. If you sincerely believe something can happen, it happens in there. As a result it's difficult to navigate and even harder to map out properly. All that's known for certain is that areas near entrances tend to be more "normal", relatively speaking, and become increasingly more surreal and bizarre the further you travel.
As stated, it is accessed by everyone when they fall asleep, but to actually explore it properly with your physical body, you'll need to find a different way in. There are several methods of varying levels of success, but the most consistent method employed by the Foundation is blood magic. By drawing a sigil of blood on a reflective surface and giving a little chant, one can enter the Dreamscape properly in their physical body.
That isn't to say there aren't plenty of ways to get out. Things leave the Dreamscape all the time, but it tends to be in limited numbers and in limited places. Places of extreme cultural or religious significance to people tend to have a thinner barrier between reality and dreams. Not only does it make it easier for a normal person to potentially fall into the Dreamscape in these places, it also makes it easier for things from the Dreamscape to get out.
Overall the Dreamscape itself is limited only by your imagination in a very literal sense. It can be as fantastical or mundane as you want it to be.
Denizens of the Human Mind
The Dreamscape itself is the origin point of several fantastical beings. Some of these beings are known as gods, goddesses, divinities, etc. Some are familiar to humanity as a whole, being the divine beings that appear in various global cultures and mythologies. Others are… less familiar, being relatively new. In the end, though, the divine hold great power over their domains, whatever that domain may be. That also means that multiple gods claiming the same domain may find themselves in conflict with one another.
Gods themselves come in all shapes and sizes. There's also a god for every concept you can possibly think of. For example, Botulae, SCP-6059 is the god of the ball pit… specifically the one that it's in. Chuck Storms, SCP-7679, is the god of weather specifically for the eastern United States. Meanwhile you'll also see more traditional gods pulled directly from real world history and myth. For example, Daždźboh, SCP-8585, is still a Slavic solar deity. Ratatoskr is still the Norse messenger of Yggdrasil.
You can identify a god through their sigil, a magic symbol that represents them and holds a bit of their power. Mages can even use these sigils to channel a god's power for a period of time, performing all sorts of magical feats.
Gods are kept alive through the worship that humans provide to them. Worship can take many forms. It can be the traditional type of worship you're thinking of— going to a religious site and praying, offering animal sacrifices, etc. It could also be more nontraditional means, like feeding an animal in a park. You may not even know you're worshipping a god! Sometimes simply saying their name is enough to keep them around for another day.
While gods are born from the Dreamscape, they don't necessarily stay there forever. Throughout human history, gods have entered our reality and mingled among humans. Likewise, monsters from within the Dreamscape have also escaped and wrecked havoc on the world. As a result, the Foundation has been working to formalize agreements between itself and the divine. Gods that don't risk lifting the veil are allowed to exist in our reality under close observation by the Foundation, while those who would risk revealing the anomalous to the world are kept within the Dreamscape itself. If they violate this agreement, they risk becoming just another contained anomaly. Several have already met this fate.
One thing this canon aims for is for anyone to add their own god to it. While authors are encouraged to pull from real world cultures and history to help represent more cultures and histories from around the world, you're also encouraged to make your own original god if you feel inspired to. While there are ongoing storylines in this setting, there's nothing wrong with a one off article just about one specific god.
Death of the Divine
While there are a myriad of divine beings in the Dreamscape and they're all different from one another, they all have one thing in common— all gods are dying. Some are dying faster than others, but all of them are dying.
For some this is natural. Certain gods have never been "popular" in the real world so to speak, their mythologies and histories never being particularly present in the wider subconscious. They've been fading for years, and are acutely aware that their time is coming. How they respond to this varies from god to god, but they've known for some time that their death was near.
For others, however, this is not a natural death. Humanity is forgetting gods that should not be fading, and even the most "popular" gods are beginning to feel themselves fading. This is beginning to incite a panic in both the Dreamscape and within the Foundation. The Foundation's accords with the divine still within the Dreamscape is beginning to fail, as more and more gods seek ways to escape into reality and take worship by force— a return to the early years of human history. Others seek to work alongside the Foundation to investigate why this is happening in the first place, and others still have sought to extend their lives through less… conventional means.
When a god dies its soul lingers, at least for a bit. Regardless of where they die, their soul is sent to the Dreamscape to wander, burning out the last remains of its life until it fades entirely. Think of this like the last embers in a dying candle— they're still there, but any moment it will go out. During this time another god can claim this soul for their own, and in doing so claim part of the god's name and power. This practice is considered extremely taboo, but more and more gods are considering this as a way to stay alive for just a bit longer, to claim a bit more worship. One of the Foundation's goals is to recover the souls of dead gods before they fade entirely or are claimed by another, as in dragging it back to reality they can revive that god. This is a temporary measure, but it's enough to stave off disaster for another day.
Once a god's soul fades, so too does what it represented. Every god represents a concept, or at least a piece of it. This can have a wide variety of consequences— the sun may shine a little less, humanity may forget what something was, or the weather itself may be thrown violently out of whack.
Foundation Site-58
Site-58 was founded by a being named Tallakant with the initial goal of reconnecting humanity to the divine. Tallakant envisioned a world where all of the divine could walk alongside humanity. They hid this goal from the Foundation, knowing that the Foundation would never support such a mission. As expected, when the Foundation discovered this, they felt threatened. They feared Tallakant's nature as a hivemind, and they feared that Tallakant was planning a divine takeover of the world. In response, Tallakant was wiped out… though one may have survived.
Site-58 itself is designed for the care of sentient anomalies. In many cases, this involves the divine from the Dreamscape, though there are plenty of sapient anomalies that are not divine in any way that wind up in 58's containment. 58 also allows for anomalous staff, with several precautions in place to properly monitor and control them. They work hand in hand with the Integration Program.
Site-58 is proof of the Foundation's pragmatism. The initial vision presented by Tallakant was valid- the more relaxed conprocs meant less breaches and less wasted funds and resources. As such it lives on, steadily working towards the eventual goal of integrating sapient anomalies into the world beyond the veil.
Site-58 does not treat its staff notably well. Director Scarborough is an egoistic ass, and the Foundation itself is exhausting to work for. Stories focused on site staff will typically reflect real world working environments- perfectly imperfect and sometimes even abusive.
Many wonder why Site-58 has such a robust .aic program. The Foundation is no fool at the end of the day, and they like to consider a myriad of options and plans for any situation that threatens humanity as a whole. Should the Foundation be unable to save the gods… why not simply make their own? Who knows, perhaps someone finally gave them the tech needed to do just that.
Characters
As this is a still growing setting, the list of properly established characters is still fairly small. Not everyone has a lot about them yet, so if you see someone without a lot of material I encourage you to take your own direction with them.
Anomalous Ambassadors
A group of individuals focused on establishing positive relations with anomalies in the real world. Skilled in diplomacy and psychology, they're the people to call to calm down an upset anomaly.
| Character |
Description |
Appears in |
| Dir. Gerald Scarborough |
A gruff and abrasive man, Dir. Scarborough was granted the position of director for Site-58 following the death of the previous director. While difficult to work with and prone to sticking his foot in his mouth, his intentions are good deep down. |
SCP-7679, The Graduating Class of 58, Rate My Director |
| Dr. Amy Hopewell |
The Vice Chair of the Anomalous Ambassadors. An older woman who cares deeply about appearances. Many consider her a prime representative of the department, able to nimbly navigate any situation with grace and poise. While she is a deeply kind woman, she is also as pragmatic as the Foundation itself and is not against making decisions that better serve the Foundation's mission. |
SCP-7373, SCP-7374 |
| Agent Basil Bayside-Sias |
A man best known for his laid-back, calm personality. Joined the Foundation out of necessity following the death of his father and older brother which forced him to adopt his niece. He is especially skilled at working with "at risk" anomalies, those with heightened emotional states who need a friend. He sees himself in them. |
SCP-5828, SCP-6033, SCP-6103, SCP-7999, SCP-8585 |
| Dr. Zacharias Rosemary |
A newer doctor at the Foundation. Easily overwhelmed, and very much still learning the ropes. |
SCP-6059, Secure Facility Dossier - Site-58 |
Zoological Studies Department
Many gods take the form of animals, and the Zoological Studies Department is all about researching them! Its members tend to be more reserved and less chatty, but are often extremely brilliant minds.
| Character |
Description |
Appears in |
| Dr. Zacharias Hanneman |
The head of the department. An eccentric older man who cares deeply for his time and research. Writes surprisingly professional emails. |
SCP-6458, SCP-7529, SCP-8004 |
| Dr. Faran Caraway |
The vice chair. A shapeshifter who spends most of his time looking like a large devil man. If you ask him why, his answer tends to be "if you could shapeshift you'd wanna be one too." Loves his job, but struggles with the idea that he needs to be the best representative for anomalous humanoids possible so that others have the same, if not better, opportunities that he had. Easily taken advantage of by others. A big man with a big heart. |
SCP-6968, SCP-7073, SCP-7195, SCP-7373, SCP-7679, SCP-7904, Animals, Shapeshifters, the Wilsons, and Faran, The Graduating Class of Site-58, The Holiday Special |
Artificial Intelligence Department
Poorly understood by the wider Foundation. They seem to focus on developing advanced .aics to help agents in the field, though these .aics tend to have a lot of… "personality", more than most agents would consider acceptable. Still, the department seems to be allowed to work without much oversight for some reason…
| Character |
Description |
Appears in |
| Dr. Andrea Parker |
Chair of the department. One of the greatest minds in the Foundation, and also one of the most difficult personalities to work with. Often described as a bulldozer of a woman, she's prone to acting first and asking forgiveness later, if she asks at all. Her life is dedicated to her work, and she seems immensely disappointed in every project. |
SCP-7373, SCP-7374, Alive, Secure Facility Dossier - Site-58 |
| Zuri Achebe |
An intern working for the department. Opinionated with a strong sense of morality. She wants to impress her superiors and fit in, but at the same time cannot sit idly by and allow what she considers to be an injustice. |
SCP-7373, Alive |
| Screamy.aic |
An .aic designed to predict future events and offer a strategy to combat potential threats. Its predictions wound up being somewhat incomprehensible and unclear. Prone to dramatics and fits of screaming. |
SCP-7373, SCP-7374, Secure Facility Dossier - Site-58 |
| Rosetta.aic |
An .aic designed to translate anything presented to it, from anomalous texts to alien languages. Considered the most successful .aic to originate from the department |
SCP-7374, SCP-7999, Secure Facility Dossier - Site-58 |
| Cyril.aic |
An .aic constructed from the soul of a dead Foundation field agent. Designed to be used in the field to formulate tactical strategies when on missions. Prickly in nature, but with a good sense of humor. |
SCP-7904, Alive |
| Cruz.aic |
A strange .aic developed to interface with anomalous objects. No one is entirely certain what that means in practice, but he appears to be able to replicate anomalous effects to some degree. Surprisingly good mind for tactics and navigation, but also very quick to speak his mind. |
SCP-001 - Touching Eternity |
MTF Chi-58 "Dreamscrapers"
The Foundation's MTF designed to handle any and all missions within the Dreamscape itself. Several members are gods who have allied themselves with the Foundation in hopes of saving their fellow divinities.
| Character |
Description |
Appears in |
| Agent Kiku "Chrissy" Watanabe |
The leader of Chi-58. Wears a brilliant smile that hides her love of violence. Sees other Chi-58 members as family, and is fiercely protective of them. |
SCP-7679 |
| Agent Spero "Rusty" Alejo |
The god of rot. Wears a facemask to hide their rotting jaw. A serious, quiet individual. Hates wasting time, and is acutely aware that they don't have much time left. |
SCP-7679 |
| Agent Senna "Sunny" Abebe |
The goddess of sparks. Doesn't like to wave her divinity around, and seems content living as close to a normal human as possible. Low tolerance for nonsense, quick to correct disrespect, and quick to take a physical solution to problems. A woman of action above all else. |
SCP-7679 |
| Agent David "Davy" Davidson |
A fairly new member of Chi-58. Hired because of detected potential in thaumaturgy. Quick to learn, easy to overwhelm. |
SCP-7679 |
| Agent "Zachy" Zacharias |
One of The Flock, the gods of crows. A crude, loud crow that takes pleasure in upsetting others. Assisted the Foundation in recovering SCP-7679's soul, and joined Chi-58 following his previous employer's betrayal. |
SCP-7679 |
