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Biannual Security Update: Item Number Randomisation has been initiated. Until security update is complete, all files are locked. For emergency updates, please access the Emergency Data Archival System (EDAS).
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> 8525 items remaining. Item number 'SCP-001' targeted.
> 1 file identified with search term 'SCP-001'.
> File 'SCP-001' selected.
> Initiate automated item number randomisation.
> Scanning file for search term 'SCP-001'…
Item #: SCP-001
Object Class: Euclid
Clearance Designation: Level 5
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001 cannot be secured or contained conventionally, and it is unknown if it may occur in the future. As such, a reactive approach is to be adopted. Said approach consists of the following Chapters of the Forbidden City Convention:
- Prevention and minimisation of the conditions conducive to the possible occurrence of SCP-001 or its equivalent via Forbidden City Convention Chapter I.
- Management of organisational transition and unity following implementation of Forbidden City Convention Chapter I, via Forbidden City Convention Chapters II and III respectively.
All above-mentioned Chapters of the Forbidden City Convention are not to be altered, unless via a unanimous vote by the O5 Council.
Description: SCP-001 is a successful occurrence of a CK-class restructuring scenario, which generated the current reality via the alteration of a previous iteration of reality. Based on first-person accounts, SCP-001 occurred on the 1st of June in the year 1900 Anno Domini of the previous reality. The nature of SCP-001 is such that all causes, events, references and memories of Occult War i (referred to as the 'Fifth Occult War' in the previous reality) are omitted and replaced with various anomalous and non-anomalous parallels in the current reality.
Foundation documentation regarding Occult War i is obtained from anecdotal accounts of thirteen non-anomalous human beings who retain their memories of the previous reality via a phenomenon coined as 'partial SCP-001 immunity'. However, the mechanism behind partial SCP-001 immunity is unknown and will not be assessed, as decided by the O5 Council. Efforts to identify additional individuals (if any) with partial SCP-001 immunity are on indefinite hiatus, as decided by the O5 Council.
Below is an abridged list of events during Occult War i and plausible analogous events in the current reality; see Document OWi for an expanded list.
The cause and origin of SCP-001 are unknown and cannot be ascertained. It is unknown if SCP-001 or its equivalent has occurred prior to its known occurrence or may ever occur in the future. Additionally, it is unknown if SCP-001 represents a typical or atypical occurrence of a CK-class restructuring scenario. In the event that SCP-001 or its equivalent has occurred or will occur, it is speculated that a majority (if not all) of Mankind and/or sapient entities will have no recollection of them or the events prior to the moment of occurrence. It cannot be ascertained if partial SCP-001 immunity is applicable to future occurrences of SCP-001 or its equivalent.
The definition of SCP-001 was finalised by the O5 Council in a 5-4-4 vote, and the Forbidden City Convention was ratified on the 7th of September in the year 1901 Anno Domini.
Addendum 1: Excerpts from the Forbidden City Convention
CHAPTER I: THE FOUNDATION
The following organisations are to be dissolved and disavowed from their respective patrons, and their personnel and resources are to undergo merger:
- Her Majesty's Foundation for the Secure Containment of the Paranormal
- Estate noir
- Tsars' Seers
- Kaiserliches Deutsches Prüfamt für Paranormale Angelegenheiten (KDPPA)
- American Secure Containment Initiative
- Imperial Commission on Transgressive Occurrences
- Royal Office for Christian Artefacts
- Special Investigations Board, Council of the Dutch East Indies
- Inner Africa Expeditionary Society
- The Knights of the Military Order of Borja y Aragón
- Bureau of Onmyō (陰陽寮)
- Abnormality Institute (異學會)
- 0th Anti-Cult Regiment
In their place, a unitary organisation is to be established.
The mission of this unitary organisation is to secure and contain various anomalous objects in order to protect Mankind from said objects.
The referent for this unitary organisation is agreed to be the 'Foundation'; the following alternative referents (i.e. 'Institute', 'Organisation', 'Organization' and 'Front') have been proposed and rejected.
The aforementioned thirteen organisations from which the Foundation is formed are henceforth designated as 'Foundation precursors'.
CHAPTER II: THE O5 COUNCIL
The provisional executive administration of the Foundation is to consist of an executive council composed of thirteen individuals, one from each Foundation precursor.
The aforementioned thirteen individuals of this executive council were selected due to the following criteria:
- Leadership position in respective Foundation precursor.
- Possession of memory regarding Occult War i.
Future members of this executive council are not required to possess both of the above-mentioned qualities.
The referent for this executive council is agreed to be the 'O5 Council'; the following alternative referents (i.e. 'Overseers Committee', 'Level 5 Council' and 'O5 Command') have been proposed and rejected.
The function of the O5 Council is to facilitate the initial transition from Foundation precursors.
Each O5 Council member is designated with a Roman numeral ranging from One to Thirteen.
Other organisations merged into the Foundation henceforth are to be denied representation on the O5 Council.
CHAPTER III: GROUPS OF INTEREST
Organisations with awareness of anomalous phenomena that are not subsumed under Foundation control are hereby designated as 'Groups of Interest'.
The Foundation's default approach towards Groups of Interest is to pursue their dissolution, termination and/or assimilation of their personnel and resources.
Addendum O5-(1-13): Succession Note re: SCP-001. File displayed is dependent on logged-in O5 account.
Verifying login credentials. Administrator Override (CODE HOWLING BLACK MOON) identified. All files displayed.
Welcome O5-1
To my successor,
As the main editor of SCP-001, I have already written all that you need to know. After SCP-001, only the thirteen of us knew of it and we each stood at the height of our respective precursor organisations. Certainly, we were fated to take command and unite as the Foundation.
As you can tell from the votes, there were two other alternatives for SCP-001 from our debate at Peking. They were ultimately voted down, but Two and Twelve left their marks on Foundation history. A pity that Twelve's limited command of the English language mustered a relatively vernacular term, as opposed to Two's and mine. Nevertheless, our initiative to speak up for the first O5 meeting will be remembered and honoured in almost every SCP article ever penned down.
As for the Foundation's mission, I hope you and your colleagues continue our work.
Welcome O5-2
To my successor,
Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Now, the world as a whole cannot remember the past. But does it repeat itself? Yes, it does.
During the Second World War, was there not another authoritarian dictator terrorising Europe and were the Chinese not massacred again? Of course, the details differ and America kept itself together throughout that war. Maybe that civil war occurred again in your lifetime, or will occur soon. Or that scaled-down skirmish was it. That still leaves the Factory, but it is elusive.
The product of an anomaly should be an anomaly in itself; SCP-001 and this world are no exceptions. Piece by piece, this world is undoing and repeating itself. For every SCP not (if not, minimally) in our control, the process is ongoing. Until then, there will be chaos in the system. Once, I proposed that we guide the world back to its original state but the others disagreed in favour of establishing tyranny. Ultimately, I acceded. There is no need to fight for my views. Nothing will change the process.
No action is needed, except to wait. Or in short, 'Keter'.
Welcome O5-3
To my successor,
Anomaly and normalcy — both are subject to the consensus. Today's anomaly might have been yesterday's normality, and vice versa. The scandal Nine uncovered is one such example; drapetomania is no longer anomalous when the consensus decides it no longer holds water.
Apply the consensus onto SCP-001. To the rest of the world, the Occult Wars do not exist. They exist only to those who know the anomalous. To those who know the anomalous, Occult War i does not exist. Only thirteen men imagined it to have existed, and that could have been SCP-001.
However, the council established our own consensus and my opinion shifted to that when it was announced. More of us decided that we should establish order over all anomalous matters instead of suggesting that we might be the problem. That would only be the first of the many consensuses reached, where we held influence over the world's conceptions of what is normal and what's not. Perhaps they resulted in the world you have grown up in.
Thus, remember these. Consensus has value, and to be normal is to abide by the consensus.
Welcome O5-4
To my successor,
I'm one of the few who have fought in the front lines for both Fifth Occult Wars. I was gravely disappointed by the official Fifth Occult War, which is more accurately a skirmish. Those Boxers simply can't compare to the Daevites and clockwork worshippers. Even after turning almost every other agency and cult into our enemies, the Wainscot society cannot compare to total war.
Perhaps it's the youthful bloodlust in me talking. It's a frequent quirk since SCP-001 happened, like during Peking when I voted for Two's proposal out of impulse. I didn't care for his strange theory. I only wanted to fight on. So many sacrifices have been made already, and I have made significant sacrifices as well. They cannot end in quiet days.
But now, I'm old and quietness will come for me. But you are here to fight on. Make sure that it does not end in quietness.
Welcome O5-5
To my successor,
You now know that the world was once averted from total destruction due to an uncontrolled event. And because it is uncontrolled, we cannot guarantee if it can work again. Or if it would be in our favour. We should not rely on uncertainties like SCP-001.
As a species, we have mastered and stomped on all the beasts and lands of the world respectively. Many crafts are now mastered by Man, crafts that were once dreams. The restoration of the world is simply another thing to be mastered. If the world can rewind itself, we can do it too.
By combining our resources, the magnum opus I envisioned can be reality. It might have been utilised already or construction is still ongoing, but SCP-001 will be irrelevant when it's ready. By our will, Mankind rules eternal.
Welcome O5-6
To my successor,
We agreed that SCP-001 happened, but we don't know if it is the only time SCP-001 ever happened. Could it happen again? Must the world be near its annihilation for it to work? How much is it enough? What about trans-reality memory retention, a more accurate term than that ill-defined compromise? How does it work? Why only us? Can it be replicated? The list goes on.
This unusual phenomenon's level of uncertainty surely necessitates quantification. 'Euclid' is a reminder of that conviction, that more should be known about SCP-001. I suppose you would have that drive, cultivated by the Foundation's advocacy for scientific methodology. Containing and protecting cannot be the ends; knowledge is. But the majority of the first council was too afraid to probe and wanted to either abandon it or be preventive. Neither solves the problem, really.
But you can do your part in solving it. Only you can see this and have access to however little I can find out, so let that be your starting point. May you deliver results and bring meaningful data to SCP-001.
Welcome O5-7
To my successor,
Officially, only thirteen people were immune to SCP-001. But there is another, Jibril Mani. He was a consultant working for the Sublime Porte, and we met when I took refuge in Constantinople due to Napoleon. He was most hospitable and we became fast friends despite the traditional enmity between Christendom and Dar al-Islam. We stayed with each other until the occurrence of SCP-001, where I found myself in Rome.
In the current world, he managed to contact me and I knew he remembered our friendship in the lost past. Meeting him, we spoke extensively about our memories of Occult War i. I invited him to join me in an upcoming gathering in Peking with other men who remembered the war, but he politely declined.
Jibril would rather defend his friends and clansmen, especially when we knew that the Middle East was in chaos then. He was sceptical towards One and his affiliation, but I could not blame his suspicion and respected his wishes. We parted ways since then. While I took on the title of O5-7, Jibril told me that he would return to Iran to gather allies for his cause.
Just as he desired to protect his loved ones, my obligation is to the world and I will defend it.
P.S. Out of respect, I decided not to report to the Council about Jibril. I do hope that whatever organisations Jibril and the council built in the end will not clash. We only wish to protect.
Welcome O5-8
To my successor,
As you can infer from the votes, there were three choices that ultimately led to SCP-001. One's proposal was really the only option. The others were stupid. Two essentially demanded us to be anarchists, while Twelve assumed that we're a bunch of lunatics who need an Oriental drug. No thank you to either!
Most of us have been collecting anomalous objects to begin with, so the Foundation is not much different from at least half of its precursors. As for the other half, the Groups of Interest will have everyone on the same page.
You should have been doing this job for quite some time, so I expect you to keep it up.
Welcome O5-9
To my successor,
SCP-001 is the restructuring of reality, that's our consensus. Therefore, SCP-001 is reality bending. Two claimed that reality will inevitably revert to correct the world, which is similar to Scranton's famous address on the topic. That being said, the latter insisted that reversion would be caused by the reality bender. It might be hard to control sapient beings, although some scholars believe that an engine may theoretically increase the probability. This prospect brings hope — that the greatest known act of reality bending can be reverted.
And when it happens, the world might revert to its previous state — complete with my home in the African Free State, where the IK-class scenario did not really apply. It might as well be the previous world's only safe haven. That stability was lost after SCP-001, and I ended up working in a less hospitable setting.
Even though I was not favourable to One's concept, the Foundation is by far a better environment. It is also a good place to figure out how to realise Scranton's ideas, or at least invest in someone who can. Despite the money and subjects I have supplied, progress has been slow and I have come to terms that I might never regain my losses.
But you can, should SCP-001 happen again. You should continue the research in whatever way you can, because you shouldn't be like me and lose that which is yours. No one deserves that.
Welcome O5-10
To my successor,
There were thirteen groups that started the Foundation, but not all of us stand equal. Take Twelve's Abnormality Institute, unendorsed by the Qing. But mine is similarly in decline. Our namesake was a witch hunter, but none of us actually met a real witch. An interest group was a more accurate description for the Borja Knights of the late 19th century. If not for the memories I had of Occult War i, it would've remained that way.
When One spoke of his great scheme, I had my doubts about fighting the anomalous. Each new generation of knights is a shadow of the previous, and it shows. In Occult War i, I remembered my knights being annihilated by Napoleon's clockwork soldiers. They were (and are) not ready for an occult war or any fight against demons or sorcerers. To submit to One's proposal would have meant gruesome deaths for them again. As their grand master, I would not send them to their deaths.
When the vote was not in my favour, I briefly considered to not oblige to the terms of the merger. That thought perished when I heard Eight's proposal to foster the unity of our newly-dubbed Foundation. After that, I decided that my knights should at least die meaningfully against monsters rather than as a sacrifice.
All of us die eventually. Make it meaningful for those you hold responsibility over.
P.S. All things considered, the resources from the other precursors did ensure that the last generation of knights will be better than the previous batch.
Welcome O5-11
To my successor,
Congratulations for your service to the Foundation. I imagine that you have to climb the hierarchy to reach this position, unlike I who was granted this position by virtue of being the first. Your virtue must be astounding, unlike mine.
During Occult War i, Kyoto fell to the Daevites. Emperor Kōmei and most of the council were killed. The Shogun and his agents only fled to Ezo. I was among the few to have left Kyoto alive, but only because I feared for my life. I ultimately regretted my choices, and shame overtook me. Not even death liberated me. At least Emperor Kōmei passed away in a less violent manner in this new world.
This brought me to my vote at Peking, that we were hallucinating and the amnestics will cure us. Actually, I only want to forget. But the consensus was reached, and I am not allowed to forget. One insisted that we were fated to work together, and no one else shall stand alongside us in this council.
At least it was tolerable, knowing that there were others like me. Three, Seven and Thirteen were very positive influences. My successor, I know not your colleagues in the O5 Council of your time, but they shall be your sworn allies. Remember that.
Welcome O5-12
To my successor,
I am sure you have heard of amnestics, and I am sure that it has been improved over the years. But the origins of amnestics (as a whole) is one of the many secrets of the Foundation. I will explain it.
Amnestics was originally a secret of the Meng Clan of alchemists. I married one of the clan's women to claim the right to make it. Originally, I wanted to cure myself of a series of disturbing visions which we now recognise as memories of Occult War i.
Before I could prepare the concoction for myself, Eleven contacted me and told me of similar visions. Soon, I gained knowledge that there are more men who experienced the same vision and they intend to meet at the capital. As a physician, it is my duty to see to everyone's recovery and I attempted to convince them that it will be safe if we take no unnecessary action. Most of them disagreed with my views, so they insisted on a democratic vote as per the ways of the West. Needless to say, my views were rejected.
But not amnestics. Five concluded that it is useful, for it can revert memory, vaguely similar to SCP-001. Thus, amnestics stopped being a cure for the illness I had proposed, but to cure the common folk of any knowledge of the abnormal.
Unfortunately, Matriarch Meng did not approve of the foreigners' theft of her clan's secrets and the Meng Clan was one of the earliest Groups of Interest we faced. Their fate was as the Boxers were, although a junior or two might have escaped to Hong Kong with what little they knew of the formula.
Please be of use to the council. But if you have earned this position, you should be of use.
Welcome O5-13
To my successor,
SCP-001 said that only the thirteen leaders of the precursors were immune from its effects, but that was incorrect. There were only twelve.
One and I have known each other for decades, and I owed him a lot. Naturally, when he asked for a tiebreaker vote, I obliged. He filled me in on the Daevite incursion in India to complete the deceit. When there were things I did not know of, I'd blame it on the British's unwillingness to be open with my regiment.
I suppose you might be ashamed of the title by now, but if not for me, I daresay we might have three different Foundations at war with one another. For me, it was an opportunity to be treated more seriously by the Europeans and I took advantage of it. Since then, I have made many amends so that others will not end up in my situation.
Thus, promise me that you vote according to your will, not by another's.
> Scan complete. 40 instances of 'SCP-001' identified.
> Initiating random number generation…