Interviewed: SCP-3514-3.

Interviewer: Dr. O████████.

Foreword: This interview was conducted 23/05/1972. The conversation has been translated from a 16th century dialect of Azeri, the native language of Shah Isma'il. Once again, SCP-3514-3 demonstrated particular lucidity throughout this interview.

<Begin Log>

SCP-3514-3: You do not know what it is to be dead, Doctor.

Dr. O████████: Wh- er, no. I haven't died. H-Have you?

SCP-3514-3: I have. I was sitting in my palace, dreaming of older days, drinking more and more wine as the world became red. And then the red changed, into black and blue and green, and I saw Azrael. And he took me away.

Dr. O████████: To where?

SCP-3514-3: So many places. I saw the halls of paradise, and the depths of Jahannam. I saw 'Ali and the Imams, I saw- I think I saw them, anyway. I forget. I saw the past, saw Kayumars and Kay Khusraw and the Prophet. I do not know if what I saw was real, if those kings truly roamed the earth or were merely real to me and the world I inhabited, but I saw it all the same. Then I saw the present, the Venetian ships plying the water, the dying emperors of old China, the screams of the servants as they found my body, the mourning of my followers. I saw Suleiman's laughter and Babur's grave sighs. I saw the world in miniature. And then… and then…

Dr. O████████: You saw the future?

SCP-3514-3: I saw my son- not like me, but more bitter and far wiser. He knew from the start that he was not a god. He was a graver and a darker soul than I, but one who knew more than how to hunt, drink and kill. He made an empire. I saw brave 'Abbas, and the poorer men who followed him. I saw the land I'd conquered rise to heights unknown for a thousand years, and fall to depths seen only in the righteous destruction of the Mongols. And then I saw things I still do not understand… a red Shah, a living statue, and a darkness coating the world in silence. And I realised that none of it mattered.

Dr. O████████: Those sound like things that matter.

SCP-3514-3: They didn't, because then I saw myself. I was Isma'il. I was born and raised knowing I was a saint, a murshid, the messiah-king, the expression of God or maybe God himself. I was a divine instrument, a righteous warrior for vengeance. And then I died at Chaldiran. The divine part of me fled, and I was just a servant, a mortal, a dog that had been kicked from 'Ali's threshold and was forced to roam the streets. In an instant, I, a God, became a man. In an instant. A single day of blood.

Dr. O████████: That must have been… hard.

SCP-3514-3: I can see the doubt in your eyes, little man. I can see the scepticism. What do you know of religion? Of God? What do you know of the blood and the need for revenge? The righteousness of our cause? The clerics never got it, nor the sayyids. We were overthrowing the heretic temples of the Sunnis and establishing a new order, a just kingdom, a place free of the blood and mire of this world. We were heroes!

Dr. O████████: …I apologise if I offended you. It was not my intent.

SCP-3514-3: You didn't. I must give you apologies in turn. I thought time had turned me into a humbler man than that. You see, that is why God- or whoever I saw in the melting light- gave me this punishment. In life, I had been a man of arrogance, who thought himself divine. And so now, I must sit here, until I have learnt the truth; that the struggle was irrelevant. That this was no more different a moment than any other.

Dr. O████████: You mean- you're being forced to stay here? As punishment?

SCP-3514-3: Forced? Oh, no. I can leave at any time- but God knows I will not. I am here because I want to be. I must thank God, I truly must, for putting me here. An eternity of truth-seeking. You see, I never quite believed it. That I was not special, not a conduit for the divine. Even if I could only remember it in wine, I was still the Mahdi, the messiah, and when in my cups, Chaldiran was just a child's dream. I knew myself mortal by then, but felt myself more. So I stay here. Because I must. Because… because… then I will be free.

Dr. O████████: Well, why don't you just-

SCP-3514-3: Free, child… free… in the light of the sun and with the scim-scim-scimitar, beneath the noon of 'Ali, in the twilight, in the free light… they're coming soon, you know… the men of false righteousness, here to reclaim me… I have seen them talking each to each…

At this point, SCP-3514-3 began to speak incoherently, becoming increasingly unaware of its surroundings. Dr. O████████ ended the interview shortly afterwards.

<End Log>