SCP-3878 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-3878.

It's NAIDOC Week!

Taffeta 05 Jul 2017 08:51

The importance, resilience and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages will be the focus of national celebrations marking NAIDOC Week 2017.

Yay for that thing that encompasses on the 4th of July that you all care about!

Image created by Kwamigami and released under CC-by-SA 3.0. Crit thanks to Jacob Conwell, GreenWolf and A Random Day.

ETA: Possibly inspired by the "a nuke is Safe-class" thing that everyone keeps talking about. "Now what about a semantic nuke…"

Last edited on 05 Jul 2017 20:24 by Taffeta Show more

Jacob Conwell 05 Jul 2017 09:12

When the subject is "activated" via exposure to a previously chosen trigger stimulus, the anti-concept interacts with that of the subject's native language and turns all instances of that language (whether written, recorded or otherwise) into a lethal cognitohazard that exclusively affects people who do not fluently speak that language.

Jesus, how horrifying.

As I said in chat, I dig this. Not only is the concept of being literally talked to death come across as incredibly creepy, the history of the Obskuracorps developing this, and the Foundation countering that development and containing the anomaly is very interesting. The fact that it might still be loose is also chilling.

+1. Well done, AE.

A Random Day 05 Jul 2017 13:51

There's something deeply satisfying about the OBSKURAKORPS boning their own research because of their racism.

DrSevere 05 Jul 2017 16:39

I've been gone a while and am not familiar, but based on context I'm guessing Obskuracorps is/was basically the Nazi version of the Foundation?

(account deleted) 05 Jul 2017 16:45

Militant wartime subdivision of the Ahnerbe bent on proving Aryan superiority through anomalous antics and/or research which eventually coalesced into the post-war OBSKURA, doing essentially the same thing but undercover.

tl;dr anomanazis

RJB_R 05 Jul 2017 18:33

I don't think this article postulates a post-war Obskuracorps, it seems to imply they dissolved around the time Germany was surrendering to the Allies. Author can chime in to clarify either way, I suppose.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Taffeta 05 Jul 2017 19:40

In this particular article: the Obskuracorps collapsed with the surrender of Germany, but what remnants they had later formed into OBSKURA.

InitHello 05 Jul 2017 14:39

I have two minor quibbles that you're enthusiastically encouraged to pass off as stylistic choices:

The conditioning program uses a strict regiment of psychotropic drugs, electroconvulsive therapy and, at the conclusion of the program, trepannation to create an extremely strong anti-concept within the subject's mind.

1. I seem to recall the canonical spellings are trepanning or trepanation.
2. If I'm not mistaken, a regiment is (in the US) a military unit consisting of 2000-4000 combatants, wheras a regimen is a regulated course of medication, diet, exercise, and so on. That one is perhaps a bit questionable, because regiment used as a verb can mean the act of organizing according to a strict pattern.

Taffeta 05 Jul 2017 19:42

i feexsh

NatVoltaic 05 Jul 2017 15:52

SCP-3878 is a semantic weapon developed by the Obskuracorps in 1938, derived from the study of anomalous conceptual objects retrieved from their expeditions into the multiverse.

This reeled me right into the article, and the rest of it didn't disappoint.

+1

(account deleted) 05 Jul 2017 18:08

This is an interesting concept, and I do like the idea of the Obskuracorps inadvertently fucking themselves over to be a funny one, I feel that this could have had more expansion on how exactly they did this¹ and the exact parameters of how they fucked themselves over. As is, it has the bones of a good article with none of the meat.

Originally, I was gonna downvote, but I think I'll go with a no vote.

EDIT: Also,

SCP-3878 is a semantic weapon developed by the Obskuracorps in 1938, derived from the study of anomalous conceptual objects retrieved from their expeditions into the multiverse.

It's been awhile since I've read GW's Preliminary Report tale, but from my memory and casually looking over it, I'm pretty sure it was the Thule Society that went on expeditions into the multiverse, not the Obskuracorps. Maybe you mean that they based the research off the expeditions of the Thule Society? That would make a lot more sense.

Footnotes

1. beyond a simple explanation of " psychotropic drugs" and "electroconvulsive therapy"

Last edited on 05 Jul 2017 18:11 by (account deleted) Show more

Taffeta 05 Jul 2017 19:37

Good catch, actually. Fixed.

RJB_R 05 Jul 2017 18:31

I enjoyed this not just because Obskura failed, but I enjoyed that they weren't portrayed as stock bumbling buffoons. This is definitely the kind of attitude bias the true believer Nazis had since most of their occult research was really an end searching for a mean. Doing so avoids the wacky bumbling buffoonish Nazi tropes that I personally find to be very tired. It's a true-to-life piece of worldbuilding that opens the possibility for future stories while feeling like its own fully realized article. All in a nice concise package. Well done.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Decibelles 05 Jul 2017 19:42

Anomalous languages are cool, brevity is good, Thaumiels are neat, and Nazis suck.

Clevehammer 30 Nov 2018 00:13

But the language itself does exist.
(Australia: *Triggered*)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giimbiyu_language

Agent MacLeod 05 Jul 2017 21:20

Upvoted when nazzys wowwee go kild themsevles

Lucidnonsense 05 Jul 2017 22:48

I don't quite understand what the intended and actual effect of the scp was, even without this understanding I really like the worldbuilding. Obskura is a GoI I have always wanted to see more of.

Also is this the first obskura scp article?

Last edited on 06 Jul 2017 00:15 by Lucidnonsense Show more

(account deleted) 05 Jul 2017 22:49

Nope. SCP-2893 was the first Oskurakorps SCP formatted article on the site.

Taffeta 06 Jul 2017 00:34

Intended effect; the Giimbiyu language gets wiped from existence. Everyone who once spoke it no longer can, because it doesn't exist anymore, probably collapse of the Giimbiyu people as their language gets pulled out from under them. Actual effect; anyone who doesn't know Giimbiyu gets killed if they perceive it.