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Info
SCP-8562: Nuestro Señor Desollado
Author: 
Din-Bidor
⚠️ Content warning: This article contains a content warning: Human sacrifice, including child sacrifice.
⚠️ content warning
The age of gods has ended and most of them have moved on, but Xipe Totec remains.
Item #: SCP-8562
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures:
Per the agreement between the inhabitants of SCP-8562 and the Foundation, MTF ɛ-6 ("Village Idiots"), in cooperation with the Mexican National Guard and CALMECAC, have successfully eradicated all local cells and operators of organized crime groups, including the anomalous cartel known as Sin Nombre. Remaining containment measures must be directed towards enforcing the popular perception that SCP-8562 possesses no anomalous qualities.
An annual census must be conducted to account for all births and deaths occurring within SCP-8562, with Foundation agents embedded within the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) suppressing any information that indicates significant deviations from local population trends. Likewise, national statistics must be doctored to attribute the surplus crops produced in SCP-8562 to other states and agricultural hubs.
Inhabitants of SCP-8562—including SCP-8562-1 instances—are allowed to freely travel through the entirety of the Mexican Republic; since all instances of SCP-8562-1 are taught from early childhood to hide their fleshcrafting abilities when traveling outside of SCP-8562 as a means of self-preservation, risk of containment breach is considered minimal. All baseline humans who visit SCP-8562 must be monitored by Foundation agents posing as local autodefensas.
Containment Procedure Update: (See Incident 8562.1)
The Iglesia de Nuestro Señor Desollado must keep SCP-8562-2 locked when not in use. No outsiders are allowed to attend religious ceremonies that involve SCP-8562-2.
Foundation personnel are not to interfere with the rites meant to appease SCP-8562-3 under any circumstances.
Description:
SCP-8562 refers to the town of San Bartolomé Mártir in the state of [REDACTED], México. As of the year 2025, it has a population of 98,382 persons, of which approximately 71% are known to be instances of SCP-8562-1: individuals who possess the innate ability of fleshcrafting.
SCP-8562's main anomalous feature is the unusual fertility of its soil. Analysis has revealed that San Bartolomé Mártir's soil organic matter (SOM) exhibits a cation exchange capacity surpassing 1000 meq/100g, while its levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and other micronutrients are all in excess of 10,000 mg/kg—measurements far beyond what is found even in the most fertile volcanic soils of central Mexico. As a result, plant life found in SCP-8562 grows at an extreme rate, and its annual crop yield is twenty times that of neighboring agricultural settlements. Plant gigantism is common, although the community's desire to avoid bringing attention to themselves leads to any abnormally large specimens being quickly and discreetly disposed of. All the produce that SCP-8562 exports to national and international markets is thus non-anomalous and safe for baseline human consumption.
This anomalous effect on fertility has also been observed in the townspeople. Any pregnancies conceived within the borders of the anomaly invariably result in the birth of dizygotic (fraternal or non-identical) twins. Even individuals not native to San Bernabé Mártir will undergo this effect, as was discovered when Foundation researcher Sara Álvarez, who had previously been diagnosed as infertile, became pregnant during her and her husband's stay at SCP-8562. Researcher Álvarez would later give birth to non-anomalous, non-identical twins despite there being no antecedents of multiple pregnancy in either her or her husband's families.
The population of SCP-8562 is mainly composed of members of the Nahua (45%), Otomí (22%), and Mazahua (20%) ethnic groups, with a mestizo minority existing since European colonization of the area. The speaking of indigenous languages remains prominent in San Bartolomé Mártir, with Spanish being used as lingua franca while Ämärangnä (commonly known by the Foundation as "Adytite") is mostly reserved for ceremonial and religious purposes. However, mitochondrial DNA analysis has revealed that approximately 33% of SCP-8562's population possesses maternal haplogroups, including U6a1 and M1, which are virtually absent from pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica yet match Berber-speaking peoples in present-day Morocco and Algeria. This divergence has been traced to around 200 years before the beginning of the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica in 1519, and corresponds with the supposed origin of SCP-8562 and its associated anomalies.
The religion of San Bartolomé Mártir is a syncretism of Nälkä beliefs and elements from the old Mesoamerican religions. Despite Nälkä traditionally being a dystheistic belief system in which gods and other divine entities are seen as antagonistic forces that must be opposed rather than worshipped, the inhabitants of SCP-8562 venerate the pact between Xipe Totec—the teotl of spring, agriculture, fertility, plagues and renewal—and Karcist Maitham, an individual who is considered the founder of the community that would later become San Bartolomé Mártir.
According to the town's foundation myth (see Interview Log SCP-8562-1-3), Karcist Maitham made a bargain with Xipe Totec, who appeared to him in a dream, to transport his people across the ocean to escape religious persecution. Xipe Totec also provided these Nälkä refugees with new skins and faces so they may intermingle with the peoples of Mesoamerica, and taught them the cycle of life, death and rebirth that dominated Mesoamerican cosmovision, blessing them with bountiful crops and progeny. In exchange, Maitham's flock were to venerate Xipe Totec and give tribute to him in the form of human sacrifices, with flaying being the teotl's preferred method of execution.
When the Spaniards conquered central Mexico in 1521 and began forcibly converting the indigenous peoples to Catholicism, the descendants of the Nälkä refugees remained hidden within the larger population and continued their practices in secret, even adopting Catholic iconography and rites to better conceal their true beliefs. San Bartolomé Mártir is indeed named after Bartholomew the Apostle, who according to tradition was martyred by being flayed alive. Likewise, the Church of Our Lord the Flayed One was consecrated to Saint Bartholomew and was originally named Iglesia del Santo Desollado (Church of the Flayed Saint) to disguise the devotees' true allegiance to Maitham and Xipe Totec.
Discovery:
On 13/12/2022, Foundation agents Javier Vargas and Soledad Singüenza were in pursuit of Raúl "el Chacal" Sánchez, a Sin Nombre hitman and nahual. Although the agents were able to terminate Sánchez, they were severely wounded and would have bled out had it not been for the timely intervention of Humberto Cuaquehua, head priest of the Iglesia de Nuestro Señor Desollado, who used his fleshcrafting abilities to close the agents' injuries and took them to San Bartolomé Mártir to recover. Upon waking up, the agents were informed by Father Cuaquehua and other community elders—who demonstrated prior awareness of the Foundation's existence and mission—of San Bartolomé Mártir's nature, as well as the crisis currently affecting the town due to the encroaching presence of Sin Nombre and other anomalous and non-anomalous crime syndicates who all wished to exploit the land's unique properties for their own ends.
Following classification of San Bartolomé Mártir as SCP-8562, an agreement was reached with the town's inhabitants to ensure the anomaly's containment: the Foundation cooperated with the Mexican authorities to suppress organized crime activities in the region, while SCP-8562 agreed to continue concealing its anomalous characteristics and allow the establishment of a permanent Foundation presence in its territory. Due to the population of San Bartolomé Mártir expressing a strong desire to remain hidden for their own safety and to preserve their ancestral way of life, containment measures are more relaxed than in other anomalous settlements, which has also proved beneficial to the Foundation as it allows for the allocation of fewer resources and personnel while effectively preserving Veil integrity.
| Interview Log SCP-8562-1-3 |
Interviewer: Dr. Alfonso Velez
Interviewed: Father Humberto Cuaquehua
Date: 22/05/2023
Foreword: Humberto Cuaquehua Solís, an instance of SCP-8562-1, serves both as the Karcist of San Bartolomé Mártir and as Huey Teopixqui (High Priest) of Xipe Totec. He is addressed as "Father" both by his congregation and by Foundation personnel to maintain the guise of him being an ordinary Catholic priest. At the time of this interview, he claims to be 245 years old, having used his abilities as a Nälkä practitioner to extend his lifespan beyond what would be feasible for a baseline human. Since rescuing agents Vargas and Singüenza, Father Cuaquehua has been highly cooperative with the Foundation, providing information about the town's history and culture while remaining fiercely protective of its religious practices and way of life. This interview was conducted in Náhuatl.
<Begin Log>
Dr. Velez: Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Father Cuaquehua.
Father Cuaquehua: Of course. I appreciate any opportunity to teach others about the way of Maitham, especially those with whom we hold a sacred bargain.
Dr. Velez: Tell me more about Karcist Maitham. He was the founder of your community, correct?
Father Cuaquehua: He is our deliverer, our saviour and our most revered ancestor. He led our people across the ocean and into a new world where we could be free. It is through his great sacrifice that we enjoy this paradise that today we call San Bartolomé Mártir, but which once had another name – a secret name now remembered only by the teteoh and the honored dead.
Dr. Velez: In every other Nälkä community that the SCP Foundation has encountered, rejection of the gods and their influence is a fundamental aspect of belief. How do you reconcile Maitham's pact and San Bartolomé Mártir's worship of Xipe Totec with the teachings of Grand Karcist Ion?
Father Cuaquehua: We do not worship the Flayed One, Dr. Velez. [Laughs.] No, ours is not worship as you would understand it, for to worship is to subjugate oneself to a deity, and we aim not to serve but to be emancipated. Indeed, Ozi̮rmok Ion instructs us to devour the gods, and that is what we do: we eat the flesh of Xipe Totec—the fruits and grains that are his renewed skin—and keep our people and traditions alive.
Dr. Velez: Yet you still celebrate the Flayed One's feast and give offerings unto him. Does this not entail a degree of worship, or at least of veneration?
Father Cuaquehua: Our way is the way of symbiosis. Our Nälkä brethren think that they can be parasites upon the gods, that they can take without giving back, yet we know otherwise—there is no taking without giving up something in return. Karcist Maitham understood this, and that is why he sacrificed himself to the Flayed One: he laid down his life in exchange for countless others. He did what was necessary for the good of the many, and the only way we can honor his sacrifice is to perpetuate it.
Dr. Velez: I understand. You do these things not out of devotion, but out of need.
Father Cuaquehua: Yes. The offerings we give to Xipe Totec and the rites we celebrate in his name are all necessary to uphold our pact with the teteoh; gods are, after all, creatures of rules and rituals, bound to keep their word as long as we keep ours. The same is true about your Foundation: we allow you into our community because we have need of you, and you of us. You can keep us safe and hidden as we have been since before the Spaniards came, and we can help you keep the Veil from tearing. Most things in life are an exchange; in the end, there is no escape from it, only acceptance.
<End Log>
| Video Log Transcript SCP-8562.02 |
Foreword: On 20/03/2025, Dr. Velez and his research team were invited to attend the annual festivity known as tlācaxīpēhualiztli. Traditionally celebrated on the March equinox to mark the coming of spring and the advent of rain, this ceremony is the feast of Xipe Totec and was one of the most important festivities in the Mexica Empire. In ancient times, the celebrations involved the flaying of live war captives, ritual cannibalism and the ceremonial wearing of the sacrifices' fresh skins by the warriors who had captured them. This represented the renewal of the earth, with Xipe Totec shedding his withered skin before growing a new green and fertile one in an eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth.
Thanks to their fleshcrafting abilities, however, the inhabitants of San Bartolomé Mártir can replicate the process of flaying without fatal results, thus modernizing the ritual and, according to Father Cuaquehua, better embodying the true nature of Xipe Totec.
In preparation for the ritual and to minimize shock due to the ritual's inherently graphic nature, Father Cuaquehua showed Dr. Velez and his fellow Foundation researchers the most sacred relic of the Iglesia de Nuestro Señor Desollado: the incorrupt skin of Karcist Maitham, now classified as SCP-8562-2.
SCP-8562-2 is a flayed human skin belonging to an adult male of North African origin, removed from its source through an unknown technique. Despite being around 700 years old, it shows no signs of rot or deterioration, and—when worn by a living individual—will bleed as if it had been removed mere instants before. As explained by Father Cuaquehua, this anomaly is purportedly the skin of Maitham himself, and it is to be worn by a priest of Xipe Totec only during rituals honoring the pact between the Karcist and the teotl.
<Begin Log>
Video feed comes online. A multitude stands before the main altar of the Iglesia de Nuestro Señor Desollado as Father Cuaquehua, wearing SCP-8562-2 over his nude, painted body, leads four of his priests and a male individual dressed in the fashion of Xipe Totec. All Catholic iconography has been taken down, replaced instead with long deerskin banners bearing the images of the main four teteoh: Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec.
Upon reaching the altar, the man dressed as the Flayed God lies face up while the four priests hold down his arms and legs. Father Cuaquehua holds a flint knife over the man's chest and chants a traditional prayer to Xipe Totec.
Father Cuaquehua: Yoalli tlavana, yztleican timonenequia, xiyaquimitlatia teucuitlaquemitl, xicmoquentiquetl oviya.
Noteua, chalchimamatlaco apanaytemoaya, ay, quetzalavevetl, ay, quetzalxivicoatl. Nechiya, yquinocauhquetl, oviya.
Maniyavia, niavia poliviz, niyoatzin. Achalchiuhtla noyollo; a teucuitlatl noyolcevizqui tlacatl achtoquetl tlaquavaya otlacatqui yautlatoaquetl oviya.
Noteua, ce intlaco xayailivis conoa yyoatzin motepeyocpa mitzalitta moteua, noyolcevizquin tlacatl achtoquetl tlaquavaya, otlacatqui yautlatoaquetl, oviya.
The multitude repeats the chant as Father Cuaquehua raises the knife and plunges it into the sacrifice's chest. The man wheezes as his diaphragm is pierced, but exhibits no other signs of pain. Father Cuaquehua introduces his right hand into the wound and removes the sacrifice's heart; he holds it up towards the multitude, dripping blood over the altar and the still-living man. He then places the heart into a stone bowl decorated with the image of an eagle and addresses the multitude in Spanish.
Father Cuaquehua: We thank you, Flayed One, for your boon of fertility. We thank you for your green skin that is our sustenance and quench your thirst with blood. We thank you for our children who are numerous and feed you the heart of this brave one who honors you in the flesh. We pray that you will bless us with another year of plenty and that our pact may hold strong. Now we complete your renewal, the shedding of your old skin."
The four priests take up their own flint knives and begin flaying the sacrifice, starting by his limbs. The man does not scream as his skin is removed, only writhing momentarily when the priests reach his face. The multitude croons softly as if to lull him.
After twenty minutes, the procedure is complete, the priests having produced a whole flayed skin with minimal cutting. The skinless man stands from the blood-soaked altar and presents his form to the crowd. Father Cuaquehua removes SCP-8562-2 from his body and dresses the flayed man with it.
Father Cuaquehua: With this, we honor Karcist Maitham, for through his sacrifice the Flayed One granted us new skins, new faces so we may start our lives anew. We uphold his pact with the teteoh, for through this sacred agreement we receive the gift of paradise.
<End Log>
Afterword: With the ritual complete, the flayed sacrifice was paraded through the streets, dancing in honor of Xipe Totec and Maitham, whose skin he still wore. It was noted that, despite having had his heart and skin removed, he showed no signs of shock, pain, blood loss, hypothermia or any other physical unwellness. By the following morning, the man had recovered from all mutilations inflicted upon him and remained in good health and spirits, although his hair would not grow back for another full week. SCP-8562-2 was cleaned, purified with copal incense, and returned to storage.
Incident 8562.1:
On 12/06/2025, Foundation agent Brian Miller witnessed a procession of SCP-8562 citizens leading a set of infant twins into the Iglesia de Nuestro Señor Desollado. Despite being denied permission to investigate by his superiors, agent Miller nevertheless covertly followed the procession into the church. There, he saw them enter a concealed passage beneath the main altar which led to an underground temple complex carved into the igneous bedrock. Of note is that agent Miller had previously expressed considerable discomfort with the town's religious practices and had applied for reassignment to a different anomaly.
At the center of this hidden temple was a circular gateway measuring around thirty meters in diameter; in front of it stood a stone altar upon which the procession laid one of the twins (later identified as the second-born twin) before chanting in both Náhuatl and Ämärangnä. Although agent Miller does not understand either of these languages, he later claimed the chant sounded like an invitation or summoning.
From the circular gateway then emerged a colossal organism (now classified as SCP-8562-3) with a vaguely cephalopodic shape which filled the entirety of the opening, possessing a singular vertical eye in the middle of its tendrils and a lamprey-like maw full of serrated teeth. Agent Miller noted that the creature seemed to be flayed, its mutilated flesh squirming as if in agony as it dragged itself forward. Upon reaching the altar, SCP-8562-3 grabbed the infant and proceeded to tear away his skin with two pairs of specialized tendrils before consuming him whole. At this point, agent Miller screamed and was discovered by the procession, who subdued him before he could draw his firearm.
Following this, agent Miller was delivered back to the Foundation, reprimanded, questioned and amnesticized; his reassignment has subsequently been approved. Father Cuaquehua was brought in for questioning.
| Interview Log SCP-8562-1-4 |
Interviewer: Dr. Alfonso Velez
Interviewed: Father Humberto Cuaquehua
Date: 12/06/2025
<Begin Log>
Dr. Velez: You lied to us, Father.
Father Cuaquehua: All peoples and creeds are entitled to keep their secrets. This ceremony was none of your concern.
Dr. Velez: It is when your secret is that you have been feeding children to a giant monster. Agent Miller–
Father Cuaquehua: Should not have been there. He followed us when your people told him not to. And now that he has seen the truth, he cannot bear it. And neither can you.
Dr. Velez: And what "truth" is that?
Father Cuaquehua: That things are as they have always been. The gods feast on our flesh and blood, for that is their nature and the nature of the world they created. As I said before, all we do is out of necessity.
Dr. Velez: You already give sacrifices! You perform tlācaxīpēhualiztli and give human hearts to the gods. Why do you think you need to sacrifice children?
Father Cuaquehua: There is no other way, doctor. Our ancestors—both Nahua and Nälkä—understood this. Maitham's pact is our boon, but also our burden. The Karcist gave his life for us, yes, but he also forfeited lives yet to come. By the Flayed One's decree, Maitham's descendants come two by two—one joyous and one full of woe; one anointed in love and the other one destined for slaughter. When the time is right, our children feed the Divine Child just like we feed its flayed father.
Dr. Velez: The Divine Child? Xipe Totec's child?
Father Cuaquehua: Yes. Ironic, is it not? Xipe Totec, Lord of Fertility, had no child to call his own. Then came Maitham, and the Flayed One saw his chance not only for procreation, but to ensure his power would remain amongst his followers. The Divine Child is a vessel, a crack through which its father continues to influence a world he no longer has a place in. The age of gods has ended and most of them have moved on, but Xipe Totec remains.
Dr. Velez: Why?
Father Cuaquehua: For kindness or cruelty, who can tell? Gods are capricious like the forces they embody. They are both protectors and destroyers, and their machinations are beyond our own.
Dr. Velez: And if you stopped sacrificing children? What would happen then?
Father Cuaquehua: What happens if your Foundation stops feeding men and women to your imprisoned abominations?
Dr. Velez: Answer the question!
Father Cuaquehua: You mean if you stopped us from sacrificing our children. Oh, yes, we know what happens when a people deviates too much from what the Foundation considers permissible; Clan Bah was certainly made into an example.
Dr. Velez: How do you know–
Father Cuaquehua: If you stopped us, Dr. Velez, then our pact would come undone. The last faithful of Xipe Totec—reluctant as we are to sate him—would have broken our oath, and the wrath of the Flayed One would follow. Your Foundation knows countless ways in which the world could end, yes? This is one of them.
<End Log>
Afterword: Following this interview, containment measures were updated. As Dr. Velez argued, "The risk of SCP-8562-3 or its parent breaching containment could have catastrophic consequences. Even assuming interruption of sacrifices does not result in an XK-Class End of the World Scenario (and given Xipe Totec's role in the Five Suns myth, he is very well capable of ending humanity) the damage to México's agricultural production would mean national—if not global—famine." The SCP Foundation, in accordance with the third tenet of its mission, will do everything in its power to prevent such a scenario. The sacrifices will continue.
