SCP-3310 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-3310.

The Old Man of the Lake

stormbreath 29 Dec 2017 03:23

This is a rewrite of my first SCP, which was based off the Old Man of the Lake, which is a real thing. Most of the things mentioned in this article are actually based on real things. The 1988 event actually occured, and is mentioned on the Wikipedia page. The mythology is based on a myth of the Klamath. One of the stories that Lance Owens tells at the end is based on a story told to me by a family friend about the time he visited Crater Lake. The UFO the ASCI was chasing after was based on the mystery airships that were around in the 1890s.

The original version of this can be found in the files at the bottom of the page. My main problem with the original was that it wasn't original enough - this has a lot more original content, while preserving the fact that a large amount of it is a real thing.

The image is from here and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Just a little fact you might find interesting.

They attributed that eruption to the work of Llao.

Now reread the last Sigma event.

I have a lot of people to thank for this.

+ Reviewers

For looking over the original SCP

• hi im stel
• Aurox

For commenting on the original SCP, which led to changes either to that or that influenced this rewrite:

• minmin
• Alten
• A Random Day
• psul

For looking over this rewrite while it was in draft form:

• Captain Kirby
• JettG_G
• DrChandra
• Superblobby
• Shio
• taylor_itkin
• DrMorris

For giving some formatting help:

• DrMagnus
• tretter (although I ended up not using that help)

NOTE: The note at the end uses imperial measuring, nonclinical tone, and refers to the ASCI as the ASCII. All of these are intentional stylistic choices.

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Edit: I've added a test using this to the 978 Test Log. Check it out.

I also wrote a tale about this, called On the Outskirts!

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If you liked this thing and would like to read some comments about it, or check out other things I've written, head to my author page for more!

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

Last edited on 16 Jun 2018 23:22 by stormbreath Show more

Zyn 29 Dec 2017 06:19

That is… almost 8 MB of pictures attached to this article. Any chance the one displayed in the article itself can be shrunk down, for those of us who browse the site with a mobile device?

Communism will win 29 Dec 2017 06:53

I've uploaded oldman2.jpg, which is ~100KB, to the page. I assume that replacing the old image with it is the author's domain.

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if your reading this your gay

stormbreath 29 Dec 2017 17:55

I've replaced the photo with the one CWW uploaded, I hadn't realized it was so large. Sorry.

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

TL333s 29 Dec 2017 13:17

I was confused to see this showing up again, but I think it's fascinating. That said, I would call Addendum C a big mistake. I love "Office of Tactical Theology", but the whole thing is basically "Here's what's happening! It's exactly like the myth!" I'd rather see the note about Llao and go look that up myself to find out what the explanation is. I mean, up until that point, it's this neat thing where it causes crazy weather, which is bad on a number of levels, but is apparently also keeping something worse from getting into the lake. It's tantalizing, and knowing what it's about ruins the mystery.

Also, I'd suggest taking the reference to Pangloss out of Addendum B, just leave it in the note. And maybe even make that the last addendum, the punchline to the whole thing. Novote for now, but you're on the right track.

stormbreath 29 Dec 2017 17:59

I understand the appeal of doing the research on Llao yourself, but there are a couple reasons why I don't want to have it be like that:

• It just feels lazy for me to have the explanation in the SCP, but then basically say "You want to know more? Google an obscure mythological figure you've never heard of before!"
• There are two myths about Llao, both of which involve Llao being dead at the bottom of Crater Lake. However, the one in the SCP is the SCP is based on, and the other doesn't work with the SCP.
• The myth in the SCP isn't 100% the original myth, and has been tweaked slightly to fit the SCP better.

That said, I'll tweak the myth so it's less exactly the SCP, and likely remove some of the changes that I made to make it fit better. (EDIT: I've removed the mention of the pillar from the myth, as well as the monsters plotting to get the heart back.)

It's also worth noting that the Office of Tactical Theology is from spikebrennan's proposal.

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

Last edited on 29 Dec 2017 18:03 by stormbreath Show more

TL333s 29 Dec 2017 20:08

I can see why you did that, but my point is, this stands perfectly well without the mythological backing to explain it. Knowing it derives from an actual myth can serve as an Easter egg to further develop the mystery of what you've put down.

That said, I feel I'm being a little too critical here. Tweaking the myth is good enough, I think, for an upvote.

spikebrennan 10 Jul 2020 21:22

Necropost to agree with this. This article stands upright perfectly well without dropping in the recitation of folklore. I think it'd be even better if the concept remained more implicit: the Old Man of the Lake is a protective device, but with the questions of who installed it and what exactly it's protecting against being left unspoken.

DrBleep 05 Jan 2018 00:18

I missed this being posted but the definition given here for Hiemal is technically incorrect, and almost meta. Hiemal is, as yo clarified a network of anomalies that are self containing. But that makes it thaumiel technically. What makes hiemal hiemal as a narrative class is that the foundation tries to contain one of the anomalies that has negative impacts and inadvertantly unbalances the whole system. This only comes to light after the attempts fail or unbalanced, thus the resulting classification in the articles you linked. This should be thaumiel as it doesnt fit within the slim narrative groove that contains hiemal.

AbsentmindedNihilist 05 Jan 2018 01:26

I intended Hiemal to a self-containing set of anomalies that were disrupted by any outside disturbance, not just the Foundation, but in any case it is not hiemal.

stormbreath 05 Jan 2018 03:36

Everything that the Foundation/ASCI has done here has only served to make everything worse.

There's the immediate repercussions of the Foundation, which serve to trigger the initial set of four activation events. These clearly and obviously upset the balance between the gods, and allow Llao to possibly become free.

There's also more subtle repercussions, which is that the balance can now be upset while the 3310 remains within Crater Lake (seen in the last three activation events) and that bad stuff is occuring around Crater Lake even while the Old Man is fine (seen in the final log). Both of these are resultant from the removal of SCP-3310 from the lake.

Perhaps I should revise the article to make this clearer, but the Foundation's interferance absolutely resulted in a disruption of the anomaly here. (Or make the Heimal reclassification happen later, because I realize that it wouldn't be Heimal in 1945, when the reclassification occurs.)

I've removed the definition for the time being, in any case.

EDIT: Nevermind any of this discussion, it's not Hiemal anymore. Archon fits better.

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

Last edited on 07 Jul 2018 04:15 by stormbreath Show more

mayoculpa 05 Jan 2018 03:38

The update with the figures in the mist and the implication that this cold war between the two gods is escalating again made an already interesting SCP a lot stronger. Nice to see a Foundation operative showing initiative by proactively reaching out to make updates about a change in an SCP's situation. Plus both the note itself and the idea of an "Office of Tactical Theology" I really, really love.

However, I agree with DrBleep that the Old Man itself may be more properly Thaumiel. Or at least, will be Thaumiel as soon as the Foundation is sure that it's a manifestation of one deity who is actively (in a sense) engaged in containing a different, hostile deity.

stormbreath 03 Jul 2018 04:06

The following haiku is thanks to Gabriel Jade after I plugged 3310 at him on chat:

Afloat in a lake
Monsters come in from the fog
So it floats in peace

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

+1

Ralliston 25 Feb 2022 12:27

This starts off rather weakly with its confusingly-worded description and some very awkward phrases (for example: "activation event of SCP-3310" could just be "SCP-3310 activation event" which sounds, like, ten times better imo) only to become very strong towards the end. And then it all clicks together when the final note is read — and that "click" of everything falling in place is immensely satisfying. Fun!

Maxyfran73 30 Jun 2022 05:24

I like it. It's a pretty simple but effective piece, and I'm always up for mythology/folklore in skip form. Loved how… Serene the whole piece is? Dunno if that's the word, but the pace is just really calm and easy to read through.

Really good read. +1~

Soultear 25 Sep 2022 06:04

It gets kind of over-explainy at the end, but nonetheless it's quite good.