International Canon Contest

This contest has now ended. Scroll down to see the winners and the contest entries.

The first thing they tell you about the SCP Wiki is that "there is no canon" - anything goes, as long as you can write it well enough!

But that's not quite true…

We actually have many canons, each with distinct continuities that occasionally cross over. I expect most of my readers will be familiar with at least one of the canons created here, on the English Language Wiki, but to be far less familiar with canons created by people writing in other languages, on other branches of the SCP Wiki… until now!

(For those of you who already knew about International Canons in advance - well done, this contest is the perfect opportunity for you to share that with authors and readers here on the English Language Wiki!)

The Premise

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The Premise

Participants in this contest will need to form groups of 4 people, then choose a team name and an International canon to write for.

You may choose any canon originally created on and officially recognised by a non-English branch of the SCP Wiki - the International Canon Hub is the best resource for listing translated canon hubs from other branches, providing a short summary of each canon and links to some translated works. To avoid any confusion - even though many of them have been contributed to by people from other branches writing in non-English languages, you can't choose any canon listed on the English Language Canon List.

All the works you write should be consistent with the core premise of the canon, whatever that is. Some canons have a very broad scope, while others will be more restrictive, so think carefully about the canon your team chooses.

Although the theme of this contest is International, all entries to this contest must be written in English and posted on the English Language SCP Wiki, and all team members must be a member of this Wiki. People who are also a member of another branch of the SCP Wiki are of course very welcome to participate in this contest, and can write about a canon from their own branch, or one from another (non-English) branch. If you haven't already, it's not too late to Join the Site to enter the contest and vote on contest entries. Apologies to anyone unable to participate because of this, we plan to have future International contests open to entries written in other languages, but the English Language Wiki seemed like the best place to host this contest.

While you are free to form whatever teams you like, we hope this event encourages collaboration between people from different branches. If you're looking for a team or for additional team members, feel free to use the discussion page of this contest to find each other. I recommend that you look for posts from groups looking for additional members to write for a specific canon first, and if you can't find one you'd like to join, make your own post to say which canon or canons you'd be interested in writing for.

In addition to the SCP Wiki Discord, you may also find it useful to join the SCP International Discord so that you can more easily contact people from other branches.

The Rules

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The Rules

Each team must have 4 members. Once posting begins, you cannot change your team members. You may only be in one team. All contest participants must be a member of the SCP Wiki.
One person on each team should be designated as the captain - they'll be the primary point of contact for the contest marshals if there is any confusion about the rules or requirements.
You must select a canon originally created on and officially recognised by a non-English branch of the SCP Wiki. All of your team's articles must be written to fit within this canon.
Each member of your team must post at least one work onto the Wiki. This may be an SCP, tale, GoI format, or site dossier. You may collaborate on articles, but each team member should post at least one article that they are the primary author of, and so a minimum of 4 articles must be posted for your team to be eligible to win.
- If you entirely rewrite someone else's article, it's still a collaboration, but the original creator would not be considered to be the primary author.
- I am willing to be accommodating if someone has to drop out unexpectedly, but your team should go into this contest with plans to all write at least one article.
All entries must be original works created for this contest, and cannot be existing drafts, reposts or translations (unless you wrote and translated the article for this contest!). It's fine if you've had an idea for a while and this is your chance to finally get it written, just don't try to submit works you've already been getting feedback on prior to the contest.
After posting your entries, tag them "intcanoncon2025" and link to them in your team's section at the bottom of this page.
The final scoring of teams will be determined by the total net rating of your top 5 entries at the time the contest ends. If one of these is in the negatives, it will count towards your total, although the most that it will count towards scoring is -9. Since this is an unofficial contest there is no prize for the winners, besides the prestige of being the world champions!
- I will highlight notable achievements at the end, so even if you don't win by upvotes you may still get an honourable mention for doing something nobody else does.
You may post a hub for your team's articles, but it will not count towards the final scoring, and neither will supplement pages or art pages.
After posting, you may not delete or make major edits to an article, regardless of performance, until after the contest has ended. The only changes that are allowed during the contest are minor corrections to spelling, grammar, phrasing or spacing. Articles that reach the deletion mark of -10 will be subject to normal deletion practices, and won't be counted for scoring. Make sure to get critique and feedback on your work before posting!
Any member who takes unusual or negative actions to increase their vote total, or decrease that of their competitors, will be disqualified from the contest, and potentially banned from future contests. Site members who are not participating in the contest but do this sort of thing may be subject to Disciplinary action.
- - This includes (but is not limited to):
    - Downvoting all of your competitors' work within minutes of them being posted
    - Spamming people with direct messages about your work.
    - Encouraging malicious upvoting or downvoting, on your work or anyone else's.
    - If you're not sure if something counts as shenanigans, then it probably does, but feel free to message Jerden to ask.
  - Entries to this contest are likely to get a lot of votes from people who are also members of another branch of the SCP Wiki - that's to be expected if you're writing about a setting from their branch. While we hope this attention is mostly positive, it could also be negative, as they may dislike your interpretation of their branch's canon. Getting a lot of downvotes (or upvotes!) from members another branch is not considered "brigading", as long as it is based on their honest assessment of the article's content. If you do dislike (or like!) a particular article, you can tell other people what you think, but don't encourage anyone to vote on an article without reading it first, or to vote based on your opinion of the author - that is against this sites rules, and may result in disciplinary action.

Suggestions on Selecting A Canon

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Selecting a Canon

There is no limit on the number of teams that can write for the same canon, so there's no need to rush to claim one. I'd recommend that you don't all choose the same one, but the scope of a canon is broad enough for more than one team to write distinct works within the same setting.

While all your entries must be set within the same canon, as a team you are free to write standalone pieces, a series of interconnected stories, or any combination of the two.

You may choose a canon that doesn't have a hub translated on the International Translation Archive, but I wouldn't recommend it, unless a member of your team can understand and translate the original language. Please don't rely on machine translation or AI summaries, as it isn't always accurate.

A "canon" on the SCP Wiki is defined by being open to new contributions from any site member, so a series that is closed to new contributions or requires permission from a specific person for new works to be included would not be suitable for this contest. If you're not certain whether a setting from another branch counts as a "canon", please contact Jerden for clarification. The International Canon Hub is the best place to check, although it is possible there are some more recent translations that have not been added.

While some participants may already have written for canons on other branches, for those who haven't, I recommend getting in contact with people who have previously written for the canon for advice and feedback. Be aware that they may not be available immediately, and there may be language barriers to navigate.

The inspiration for this contest is fiction translated from other languages, and the premise naturally encourages you to write stories set outside the English-speaking world. This may sound challenging, but it's not too difficult to do well, as long as you rely on research rather than assumptions or stereotypes. The SCP community (particularly the INT discord) enables you to talk to people from all around the world, and the internet more broadly is full of resources for learning more about other countries and cultures. It is also worth noting that many canons from other branches have a premise that encompases the entire planet, so you can contribute to these canons by writing a story set anywhere in the world, without needing to write about a specific place.

If your works are deemed to not fit the canon you have chosen, you may be disqualified. Don't worry too much about this, it is unlikely to happen as long as you're making an honest effort to build on other people's work. This is primarily intended to prevent in-name-only adaptions, and nobody will be disqualified just because some people dislike their contribution to a canon. While you should take inspiration from the work of the original creators of the canon, you're going to need to write your own story! Feel free to explore previously neglected aspects of the canon or to take it in a new direction, especially since there can be multiple continuities within the same setting.

You are not prohibited from writing a canon crossover between two or more canons if you want to, either English or International, just make sure that all works your team submits to this contest are clearly part of the specific International canon you're writing for.

Getting Feedback Before Posting

The Schedule

Team Prizes:

Final ranking determined by adding together the rating of each team's 5 highest rated entries at the time the contest ended.
1st Place
The Delilahs
THE CANONICAL WORLD CHAMPIONS
Uncle Nicolini, Guaire, Lemonsense and Diogene_s

2nd Place
The Three Note Oddities and Fish
Fish^12, SynthPanda_, sailorenoch and AstersQuill

3rd Place
Nobody expects the Italian Resurgence
Civil Western, JNColossus, Heck_Tech and just cave.

Additional Prizes

Non-Canon Participation Trophy
Highest scoring team not eligible to win
PHLOX
Mang Gwan, Detective_O 1 and sprawlingstar

Full Broadside
Most entries by one team
The Delilahs
Uncle Nicolini, Guaire, Lemonsense and Diogene_s

SCP Purists
Entire team only wrote SCP articles
Men in Black 9: Battle for New York
choccoMan, battlecruiser12, Shirley Sterling and Letova

Tale Authors
Entire team only wrote tales
Staying Alive? In this economy?!
Dino tales, DocBubbles, Dr Avenlee and arthcymro

Individual Awards

Most Shots Fired
Most entries by one person
Uncle Nicolini of The Delilahs, contributing to 3 different articles.

Top SCP
SCP-7487 by Letova (+43)

Top Tale
This Machine Bleeds by sailorenoch (+53)

Top GoI format
KTE-1221-Parallax-NACL-Carcinoma by Uncle Nicolini (+40)

Driver of Engagement
Most Comments
SCP-8679 by Heck_Tech (15 comments)

First In
Article posted first
SCP-8162 by 22o9L

Last Out
Article posted last
These Little Wings by DocBubbles

List of Teams

Eligible to win

At least one entry posted by all four team members.

The Delilahs - 🥇

Final Score: 139
International Canon: 1998
Team Members: Uncle Nicoliniᶜᵖᵗ, Guaire, Lemonsense and Diogene_s (THE CANONICAL WORLD CHAMPIONS)