| Item #: SCP-7341 | Level 2/7341 |
| Object Classification: Keter | Classified |
Representation of a therian with canine characteristics or cynocephalus attacking a person.
Special Containment Procedures: Animals suspected or proven to be infected with SCP-7341 should be sacrificed to reduce the number of vectors of infection.
Persons infected with early stage of SCP-7341 should be contained in appropriate containment units in accordance with Regulation 1978.14-A for such cases until completion of the transformation process. Late stage infects should be managed and recovered with caution due to their increased aggressiveness. Those affected who have completed their transformation process should be isolated until the end of their feral state; the use of sedatives at this time is not recommended due to the appearance of subsequent acute cardiac problems. Subsequently, they will be transferred to a standard humanoid containment unit for long-term containment or will be integrated into an authorized Free Port under the Reintegration Program for People with Therianthropism.
Cases that complete their transformation process outside the containment of the Foundation or other competent entity trained to handle them should be obtained or eliminated by Mobile Task Force agents, seeing first to the safety of the agents upon capture of the entity. The Covert Department will provide cover for the disappearance of the infected, as it sees fit.
Description: SCP-7341 is the designation of an anomalous mutagenic virus with no cure commonly known as "therianthropic virus", which causes the Therianthropy Syndrome, a condition that causes physical and mental alterations in the affected person, causing them to acquire animal characteristics. SCP-7341 is distributed worldwide and affects mammals and humans. Infection is spread by contact of saliva from an infected animal or person with open wounds1. Animals are asymptomatic carriers, so the only evidence of SCP-7341 infection is noticeable increased aggressiveness of infected animals toward humans. Incubation of SCP-7341 in humans usually lasts from one month to one year until the appearance of the first signs of transformation.
In the early stages of transformation, the affected person will begin to suffer multiple alterations in his organism and psyche. These alterations are linked to characteristics of the species of the transmitting animal or person (e.g., an increased appetite for meat in carnivorous species or the complexification of the stomach like ruminants), which causes unusual symptoms or behaviors that are not linked to SCP-7341 in most cases. This phase may last one to three weeks before external transformations.
In the late stages of transformation, the infected will become more aggressive towards other people and will be more sensitive to stimuli, so they tend to isolate themselves until the end of the transformation. The alterations will be external and also linked to the species of the transmitting animal or person (e.g.: increase in muscle mass with large species, growth of fur and tail). The transmutation of the infected head to one similar to that of the infecting species, but with additional muscles to allow oral communication, is a constant in all cases; from this moment on it is given the denomination of SCP-7341-B. This phase is extremely painful for those affected.
Once the transformation is complete, the affected person will enter a feral state where it will actively seek to attack other people and attempt to devour them, regardless of if the species of infection is carnivorous or not. This state usually lasts from a few hours to weeks until the affected person regains their senses.
Both physical and mental trauma in SCP-7341-B often results in severe cases of depression and loss of individual identity. Prompt psychological care is imperative to avoid short- and long-term problems.
Until its identification in 1975, cases of SCP-7341-B infection were attributed to other similar anomalous diseases, such as transformational lycanthropy.
SCP-7341-B infection also affects sex cells by altering the genetic load of gametes, causing SCP-7341-B offspring (with both uninfected and infected humans) to develop the syndrome from birth2. If the instances breed between for several generations, it will result in the development of a SCP-7341-C instance. These individuals possess more notable animal characteristics than their progenitors, such as a thicker fur or altered limbs, but, more importantly, cease to be carriers of SCP-7341. This occurs because the virus is integrated into the cellular information of the subject and stops replicating, which also causes these individuals to become divergent species from hominids.
Appendix A
- History -
SCP-7341 has been recorded to have existed for at least 10,000 years, according to the records of SCP-140, being the longest known anomalous disease. The chronicle recounts the destruction of western cities of the Daeva Empire by a curse that transformed people into bloodthirsty beasts. They claimed that the curse was created by the people of the western forests to destroy both the daevas and the first men3.
The earliest physical evidence would be the Fayum Man, a human skeleton with a dog skull found in Egypt near the city of the same name, which would date back to the 2nd Century B.C. It is impossible to know how many myths have been influenced by or are records of cases of SCP-7341 infection.
Throughout history, there have been several attempts to establish societies of SCP-7341-B instances, most of them failing or being destroyed by organizations that were hunting SCP-7341-B instances. A situation of discrimination that has continued to the present day, causing the few SCP-7341-C populations to be extremely xenophobic and isolating SCP-7341-B sufferers in marginal areas in the various Free Ports.
Appendix B
- Recognized species -
Portrait of a Homo canis viator
Also see: List of extinct and present therian species
The World Organization of Parabiology and the Anomalous Environment4 recognizes the existence of 5 species or "pure races", as they usually call themselves, of SCP-7341-C derived from the human genus that are widespread behind the Veil.
- Homo canis: Dog-men, Wolf-men or Cynocephalus are humans with canid characteristics that possess the highest number of subspecies with 8. Among the most remarkable subspecies are the Homo canis viator or Ga'ah, a tribe of Therian traders who would have traveled from North Africa to Indonesia and inhabit the floating city of Yaka, being one of the most open species with normal humans. Or the Homo canis lupus or the Vokra, people from a settlement located in western Siberia who have a culture that highly values physical amplitudes; also, remarkable is their religion, with syncretic practices between orthodox Christianity and local pagan traditions.
- Homo ursus: Bear-men or Argyrians are humans with ursidae characteristics of which only the species of the Meched people is recognized, individuals from a village located in Lithuania who do not usually allow the entry of foreigners. The Meched have a family culture where the stability of the family nucleus is highly valued.
- Homo capra: Fauns are humans with capride characteristics of which two subspecies are recognized: the Homo capra gallus or Silvans, located in France, who have a nomadic lifestyle and maintain Roman customs, and the Homo capra graecus or Silenos, located in Greece, who maintain a culture with a markedly hedonistic character.
- Homo bos: Minotaurs are humans with bovine characteristics, which have three subspecies: Homo bos taurus; Homo bos mutus; Homo bos furore. Unlike the rest of the therian species, they do not have a common culture among any of their subspecies because they do not have a common origin. This species has the only "artificial" subspecies of therians, the Homo bos furore or the "War Minotaur", which was originally a race developed by the Ottoman Empire as a shock force for several hundred years5.
- Homo felis: Lion-men, Jaguar-men or Narasinjas are humans with characteristics of the big cats, mostly of the genus Panthera, with 5 subspecies, with a remarkable cultural variation even among the peoples of the same subspecies. The 3 "pure" subspecies are: Homo felis leo, located in Asia, Europe and formerly in Africa; Homo felis onca, in South America; and Homo felis puma, in North America. While the hybrid subspecies are: Homo felis velox, a fertile hybrid between instances of SCP-7341-B of jaguar and puma; and Homo felis ligris, between instances with lion and tiger characteristics.
Appendix C
- Social situation -
Also see: List of known Human-Therian wars
Also see: List of therian criminal syndicates
St. Ivan's Cross, a distinctive symbol of Christianity among the Homo canis lupus and with which they identified themselves among the Red Army troops.
The relationship between SCP-7341-B and -C with humans in most cases in history has been hostile, being persecuted by multiple groups to eliminate them and declaring anomalous wars against the Therian states, such as the Wolf War of the XIV century when the Mongol Empire confronted the "werewolves of Siberia" who carried out plundering raids in the south of the territory.
In more modern times, Therians were also recruited as shock forces by various armies during the Sixth and Seventh Occult Wars6 such as the Wolf Troops and the 780th Assault Division of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, respectively, which were composed almost entirely of canid therians.
The aggressive use of Therians in armies and the ethnic cleansing carried out at the beginning of the 20th century led to the disappearance of several SCP-7341-C species. With the end of the Seventh Occult War and the creation of the Global Occult Coalition it led to the isolation of almost all Therian peoples as they were not included as part of the original 108 members of the Coalition despite having helped the allied victory. This caused a confrontation between the Therian peoples and the non-anomalous states, leading to the destruction of several Therian cities and their migration to other nexuses.
The massive migration of therians to nexuses such as Three Portlands in America or Hy-Brasil in Europe and the discrimination against this group caused their overcrowding in marginal areas of the nexuses; so marked that they were not considered as citizens in the population censuses of the nexuses. This situation led to the inevitable creation of therian mafias in marginal areas, such as The Pack, which operated in the United States, United Kingdom and France. During the 1970s, therian rights movements emerged in America and later in Europe advocating for equal political treatment as other non-human races received. Many of the Therian protests were heavily repressed by local authorities and the Unusual Incidents Unit of the FBI; the bloodiest protest was the 1971 Backdoor Soho Riots which lasted 2 days and ended with 14 dead and dozens injured. These incidents generated the empathy of other non-human groups such as the Sidhe who joined the movement and promoted a peaceful solution. The decriminalization of therian-human relations was achieved in 1995 in Three Portlands and in subsequent years in other nexuses, but most of these relations are condemned for charges of zoophilia and offending against social morality.
To reduce crime among Therian populations, the Foundation in collaboration with the Global Occult Coalition promoted measures and plans to improve the living situation of Therians and modernize their areas in the nexus at the end of the 20th century.
In more recent times, anti-Therian individuals have sought to ridicule and generate contempt for Therians through various means. Such as the continued use of the term "furry virus" to refer to SCP-7341 in social networks and media; this to denigrate instances of SCP-7341-B and -C and link them to the more negative aspects of furry fandom.
Appendix D
- External Consultant Talk -
Excerpt from the talk given by Dr. Steven Regan, psychologist at Saint Germain University of Three Portlands, to members of the Foundation's Psychology Department in May 2013.:
Thank you very much for inviting me to give you this talk, this informative session. Although I feel that you will only seek to get the most out of the words I say, I hope that it will help to improve the quality of life of the people in your care.
To begin with, what is a therian? As you may already know and others may not, therians are people who suffer from the so-called Therianthropism Syndrome, which means that they have both human and animal characteristics, especially animal heads. A disease like lycanthropism but with more noticeable changes for common people and not conditioned to the lunar cycle. Well… Until not so long ago, and I am talking about the nineties, many academics, scientists, psychologists like us included, believed that therians had a mental disability. They considered that instinct badly dominated over reasoning, and some even said that they were no longer human at all, that mentally they were the same as a common animal. A thought that we now realize was incorrect. That is, one could have a fluent conversation with these people, even if they had a dog's snout instead of a mouth. But this did not prevent the Therians from being treated more like animals than people. Notable was the book by Stone7 which talks about dog training techniques to have them controlled, tamed, contained.
What am I getting at with this shameful mention? If this was the point of view of us, academics, what would ordinary people think? What many still think today: they are nothing but animals. Discrimination, marginalization, exclusion. Social ostracism at all levels. This is one of the biggest obstacles we face when trying to help these people, for the project8 for which I agreed to come here today. The social exclusion.
One of the first things to say when working with a therian is to reestablish his or her identity. As Grayson says9, when one suffers from therianthropism one loses one's face, one's identity as a person, as a human being. Although it is possible to make the person accept their new reality, it is very difficult for us to make them integrate back into society. They no longer see themselves as human, so they no longer feel part of humanity, and humanity shares that feeling. Releasing a person who became a Therian into one of the Therian communities like Three Portland's Nightstreet only reinforces that: "I am different, another race, another species." The result of that is the hatred of both sides for each other that has caused the bloodshed in the streets.
The solution to this problem would be the reinclusion of people suffering from the syndrome in social life in the nexus. To make therians feel human again, as members of society and not external beings to it. This is easier said than done, and many of the changes needed for them are beyond our capabilities as experts of the human psyche. But today we are living in times of change as the gay community movements have made great strides in their field. So, there is chance to improvement the live of these people…
Appendix E
- Reintegration Program for People with Therianthropism -
The Reintegration Program for People with Therianthropy (RPPT) was a proposal put forward in 2009 to reduce the number of SCP-7341-B instances held by the Foundation to save on containment costs and space used. It would not come into operation until April 2015, when a dozen SCP-7341-B instances were released at the Three Pordlands Free Port with a year's financial assistance to enable them to obtain a job. Although the instances were able to enter the job market and engage with the local Therian community, anti-Therian groups seeking to boycott the project managed to leak the addresses of the instances and vandalized their residences. Despite this, this first attempt was deemed a success and the RPPT continues today. Estimated savings of 60% in SCP-7341-B instance containment expense since project began.
