SCP

he SCP Foundation[note 3] is a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative-writing wiki project of the same name. Within the website’s shared universe, the Foundation is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena unexplained by science (known as “anomalies” or “SCPs”), while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of human society.

The collaborative writing project operates on a wiki-like website, and includes elements of many genres such as horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. The majority of works on the SCP Wiki consist of thousands of SCP files: mock confidential scientific reports that document various SCPs and associated containment procedures. The website also contains “Foundation Tales”, short stories featuring various characters and settings in the SCP universe. The wiki’s literary works have been praised for their ability to convey horror through a quasi-scientific and academic writing style, as well as for their high standards of quality.

The SCP universe has inspired numerous fan-made adaptations in widely varying forms of media, including novels, video games, and short films (both animated and live-action).

The fictional setting centers around the findings and activities of the SCP Foundation: an international secret society consisting of a scientific research institution with a paramilitary intelligence agency to support their goals. Despite their extremely secretive nature, the Foundation is entrusted by governments around the world to capture and contain various unexplained phenomena that defy the known laws of nature (referred to as “anomalies”, “SCP objects”, “SCPs”, or informally as “skips”). They include living beings and creatures, artifacts and objects, locations and places, abstract concepts, and incomprehensible entities which display supernatural abilities or other extremely unusual properties. If left uncontained, many of the more dangerous anomalies will pose a serious threat to humans or even all life on Earth. Information on SCPs and the Foundation is strictly withheld from the general public in order to prevent mass hysteria that would supposedly occur if they were leaked, and allow human civilization to “continue functioning normally”.[5]

When an SCP anomaly is discovered, teams of undercover Foundation agents (often called Mobile Task Forces) are deployed to either collect and transport the object to a Foundation facility, or to contain it at its location of discovery if transportation is not possible. If an anomaly is too widespread, elusive, or otherwise inaccessible, containment usually consists of suppressing all knowledge of the SCP from the public. This is accomplished through censorship of mass media and dosing eyewitnesses with amnestic drugs, which erase their memories of anomalous events.[5]

Contained SCPs are studied and researched by scientists in order to improve containment methods for them. The Foundation also acquires human test subjects, usually convicts from prisons, forcing them to take part in experiments involving certain SCPs. Considered to be disposable, these “D-class” personnel are used in experiments with particularly dangerous SCPs to avoid risking the safety of Foundation employees themselves. The Foundation maintains documentation for all SCPs which they are aware of, which can include or link to related reports and files. These documents describe the SCPs and include instructions for keeping them safely contained, as well as supplementary incident reports or experimentation logs.[5]

Apart from the Foundation itself, there are numerous rival organizations (referred to as Groups of Interest) which deal with SCPs for various purposes. Examples of major Groups of Interest include the Chaos Insurgency, a terrorist splinter group consisting of ex-Foundation defectors who attempt to weaponize SCPs; the Global Occult Coalition (GOC), a secret paramilitary agency of the United Nations which specializes in destroying supernatural threats instead of containing them; and the Serpent’s Hand, a militant group which advocates for the rights of anomalous beings, resisting both the Foundation’s and GOC’s efforts to suppress paranormal activity worldwide. Other Groups of Interest seek to exploit anomalies by producing or selling them for monetary profit; or using them to serve their own religious, political, or ideological goals.[5]