Document 8: The following is an interview between Dr. Robert Montauk and PoI-3172.

Date: 29/04/2018. Interviewer: Dr. Robert Montauk. Interviewee: PoI-3172 Location: Site 713, Interview Room 2. <Begin Log> Dr. Montauk: Hello, Dipesh. PoI-3172: Hello, Dr. Montauk. I hope that our last meeting…? Dr. Montauk: I am sorry for my unprofessional behaviour. You… touched upon a sore subject. PoI-3172: Of course. I will try to refrain from doing so in future. Dr. Montauk: Shall we begin? PoI-3172: This time, doctor, I have a question for you. Dr. Montauk: Indeed? I suppose it can't be worse than your last. PoI-3172: Well. What do you know of the origins of the Scarlet King? Dr. Montauk: There are many theories. A creature from the abyss, some shambling thing of old, a denizen of Alagadda… PoI-3172: They are all… I will not say lies. But the texts have changed, the knowledge has changed, the past itself has been changed by what came after. Dr. Montauk: He has changed the past? PoI-3172: No, his past has been changed for him. But now you tell me something. This should be a give and take, after all. Dr. Montauk: That is not what- PoI-3172: Why did you approve the Montauk procedure? There is a pause here for several seconds as Dr. Montauk stares at PoI-3172. PoI-3172: I am sorry if I have offended you. Dr. Montauk: I thought I made it clear that this is none of your business. PoI-3172: See, the thing I don't get is that it should not have worked. Not in the way the Foundation does- Dr. Montauk: This is not under discussion. PoI-3172: What happened to Jacob, doctor? What happened to your brother? Dr. Montauk: This interview is- PoI-3172: Oh, alright, alright. I am sorry. I am not trying to hurt you, doctor, truly. I just want to understand. It's just- it shouldn't have worked. The child should have been born. There is a pause of several seconds. Dr. Montauk: I… was angry. When I drew it up. It was unprofessional. PoI-3172: Did you think we took Jacob? Dr. Montauk: Well, what the hell was I supposed to think? I start looking into your lot, making discovery after discovery, and then he disapp- look, this isn't relevant. PoI-3172: Alright, alright. I am sorry I asked. But can we agree that it was not a decision made scientifically? That it was done in a moment of fury, rage, hate? Dr. Montauk: I didn't- the girl, I didn't mean to- PoI-3172: But you did, doctor. Look, I'm sorry, I don't mean to dredge these old wounds up for you- Dr. Montauk: Why are you, then? PoI-3172: Because I just want to understand. And now I think I do. Dr. Montauk: How? PoI-3172: You… I don't know where to begin. Let me go back. I don't think your department has had very much activity in recent months, not after the Hand's attempt to open the gates, right?. Your procedure keeps the girl from giving birth, the nomads keep fighting their endless war, the spears are safely locked away by the Bookburners, and the Devourer- well, there's nothing you can really do about the Devourer now, is there? Dr. Montauk: SCP-2317 isn't SCP-001. PoI-3172: Wasn't SCP-001. But the thing is, you've been telling everyone he is. Technically, you're meant to think that he is, if I understand Foundation hierarchies correctly. You are only a level 4, after all. Dr. Montauk: I don't understand. PoI-3172: Across every culture, in every city and tribe and civilisation, you've come across the idea of the Scarlet King. Always the same: an emperor in red, with a burning crown and an ethos rooted in some archaic fear of female sexuality. He is always the same: a monster that is all-consuming and terrible, but so understandable. The big bad thing in the dark, full of rape and fire and old blood-ritual. Does it never strike you as odd that this is the thing behind the eyes? You've faced monsters far grander and more subtle, as you told me yourself. But always, always there's that lingering fear and knowledge of this hidden but oh-so-simple thing standing behind it all. Dr. Montauk: You know it strikes me as odd. I told you as much myself. But I also stopped trying to make sense of our world a long time ago. The anomalous does not play by the rules of man. I'm too old to start redefining the universe. PoI-3172: But the thing you don't remember, or don't know, is that this wasn't the only past. The Scarlet King used to be something very different. He wasn't a monarch, and he wasn't always red. He was the whisper on the wind that kept the peasants working, staring up in fear of his righteous famine. He was that inborn knowledge of a world of gods and demons which belied human agency and existed beyond us. He was the cold hunger of a famine that had no rhyme and reason but the cold apathy of a supernatural beyond us. And, given enough belief, he could be the Devourer, too. He is a creature of truth. Dr. Montauk: You mean- he transformed? From one type of deity into another? PoI-3172: The Scarlet King is not a deity, doctor. The Scarlet King is an idea. Dr. Montauk: Wh- what? But he's real- physical! We've seen- PoI-3172: I can't tell you any more. Not yet. Did you find anything out about the law of concrete? Dr. Montauk: …No. Not much. I found out that there seems to be a disturbing correlation between the activities of the King's followers and certain decisions made by the Council. PoI-3172: I see. Dr. Montauk: But there wasn't much else at all. The trail led me to some lost documents, but eventually all I found was a dead end. A document about the Foundation's origins, and some insane old Child ranting on about modernity. PoI-3172: Cartwright, I presume? That makes sense. Dr. Montauk: You are a maddeningly infuriating person, you know. Why can't you just tell me this stuff properly? PoI-3172: I am your prisoner. You did destroy my life's work. Why should I help you? Dr. Montauk: Because you're bored. Because you think none of this matters. And because you love tormenting me. PoI-3172: I don't, you know. Dr. Montauk: The Scarlet King is an idea? What the hell is that meant to mean? PoI-3172: You're close now, doctor. Close to the truth. I can see it in you. You will understand, and then you'll understand me. Why I did what I did. Why I am- was- a member of the Children. I know you're curious. Dr. Montauk: You do seem oddly well-adjusted to be a Satan worshipper. PoI-3172: Be careful, doctor. The law of the howling may break you. Dr. Montauk: As cryptic as ever, Spivak. Alright. Until next time. PoI-3172: Goodbye, doctor. <End Log>

Document 9: The following is a translated excerpt from the 1953 Bengali work Lāla Rājā. The work had been lost for some time, and rediscovered by Dr. Montauk in the course of his investigation.

And so as British rule continued, something began to come with them, piece by piece. A shadow, at first; a red thing. But it was not whole. It was not even in pieces. It was something that crept up slowly, piece by piece. It met the shadows of our country, the mice bleeding in the rice fields, and it began to take form. It didn't have a mind. Not at first. It wasn't enough of a real thing yet to have one. It was a set of images. It was a blood-red slab of skin, taken from the heart of some Christian demon, which was set upon an ancient magician of Hindu rites. But then it was categorised, written down, described with precise scientific terminology. It didn't like that. Things of magic, technology, empire that were never meant to mix all came together, and began to bend the nature of the world. As Europe came to us more and more, as we learnt to be "civilised", our religion began to change too. Anantashesha was not an ancient and capricious god in the form of an immense snake- it was a moray eel of scientifically unusual size, noted for producing amnesiacs and causing a cognitohazardous effect. We learnt that we were Hindu, that we always had been Hindu, and that all our various and mixed beliefs were all variations on a singular ideal, because the British weren't comfortable enough with another way of living which could not be classified, explained, killed like a butterfly pinned to a board. But beneath this lay a fury. A cry for authenticity, for a reality, even as we expressed ourselves more and more in their language and their categories, even in our struggle against them. It lay in our literature, in Tagore and the others; it lay in our adda , in our menial jobs as clerks. The endless, struggling tension between old and new, between modernity and premodernity. And in those fault-lines, in that cry of rage and fury, in our hatred of the old and the hatred of the new, there rose a hybrid obeying nothing but the law of the howling. There rose the Lāla Rājā. Because what is he but the cry for a forgotten age? He is the British peasant staring up at the red sky, the Bengali widow's weeping and shaven head, the Aztec priest ripping out another's heart. He is all of those things transformed, as modernity does to everything, into modernity's own destruction. He is the resistance, the fury, the hatred of all that was for all that presently is. What we were was full of good and evil and all else mixed together. The happiness, the beauty of the world, the struggles and heartache and reality of it all. But now we have lost almost all of it to the machine- except our rage. That's all that's left. And thus comes the King. The howl of the destroyed and forgotten and oppressed. His only purpose is to destroy, rape, maim, enslave and smile, smile that smile of a king whose enemies weep before him. He cannot exist where there is no modernity, because his entire purpose is given to him by modernity. He is a god of blood, a god of spine and bone and sinew, to remind the denizens of this world that it is not good. It is cruel and hateful and that is good, that is right. Modernity is a sin and he is the correction, so that we can once again live as we must: cold, and hungry, and starving, and very, very afraid.

Document 10: The following note was found in Dr. Montauk's personal quarters. It is believed to have been written shortly after Dr. Montauk's discovery of Lāla Rājā.

SCP-001 is a conceptual entity created at the boundaries of the modern and the premodern. The Scarlet King is a thing of blood and bone and sinew. His rule is just, the justice of the dark. SCP-001 is a creature emperor physical being made manifest in a conceptual He comes with fear and a sword dripping with wrath and fire SCP-001 originated in ancient Turkmenistan. It is believed that is was originally a Scythian deity who They rode with thunder in their hooves and the bow on their backs, laughing as they slaught SCP-001 is a scientific phenomenon. It will be classified. It will be contained described. It will be understood as an anomalous entity, as with every other an but he exist in the cracks, the faultlines. He feeds on description. he feeds on science, on the objective principles and qualities. Seven chains! Seven brides! Seven seals for the Scarle I am Robert Montauk, Level 4 Researcher, Project Lead on SCP-001. I am a researcher. I impose my solid, mechanical will. I am in control. I possess agency. I possess agency. I am a quivering thing, looking up at a dark and clouded sky, fearing the Almighty God. i am free. i am chained i am a doctor i am a child

Document 10: On 22/05/2018, a large crack appeared in the wall of PoI-3172's containment chambers. The crack appeared to open on another dimension. A large quantity of red smoke could be seen pouring out of it, while an unknown number of human voices could be heard screaming from it.

Foundation staff found themselves unable to enter PoI-3172's containment chamber. PoI-3172 informed them that he would only permit Dr. Montauk entry into his chamber, and would communicate with nobody else. After some debate, Dr. Montauk was permitted entry into the containment chamber to interview PoI-3172. A log can be found below.

Date: 22/05/2018. Interviewer: Dr. Robert Montauk. Interviewee: PoI-3172 Location: Site 713, Humanoid Containment Chamber 77. <Begin Log> Dr. Montauk enters the chamber and approaches PoI-3172. PoI-3172 is standing in front of a jagged crack in the far wall. Red light and smoke can be seen emerging from this crack. Dr. Montauk: Hello there, Dipesh. PoI-3172: Hello, doctor. Dr. Montauk: Always formal, even to the last, aren't you? Can I ask you what… this is? PoI-3172: A plea for attention, mostly. I wanted to see you again, and my requests were all denied. It's been weeks, doctor. Dr. Montauk: I… I had nothing to ask you. PoI-3172: I thought so. You have deduced the truth, haven't you? Dr. Montauk: Maybe. Yes. The crack shrinks slightly. Dr. Montauk: It- did that just- PoI-3172: It grows and shrinks depending on the situation. Different actions have different meanings, and thus different effects. It all depends on context. The other Children never got that, but- well, they never got anything, really. They thought we were all devil worshippers, heading for violation. Only I understood the point. Dr. Montauk: It took me a while to understand. PoI-3172: I didn't think you would. Dr. Montauk: Just tell me- did the Procedure even matter? What we do, is it even relevant? PoI-3172: To prevent the birth, it had to be something awful, something evil expressed in pain and rage and fury. That is why it worked. It was never a sincere attempt to formulate a scientific procedure on your part: it was just pure, unadulterated hatred wrapped in a veneer of objectivity. You thought the King had taken your brother, so you decided to hurt the King. You didn't, of course, and what you do each day to that poor girl is little more than mere cruelty. But effective cruelty. The specifics are unimportant but the intent, that matters for everything. Dr. Montauk: I… I should stop it. I didn't- PoI-3172: And then what? The Foundation won't get it. They will never understand the law of the howling. Dr. Montauk: If I explain- PoI-3172: They can't imagine it. It's beyond their conception of reality. But you might. So, tell me, Doctor. Do you know why the Scarlet King exists? Dr. Montauk: Because modernity and premod- PoI-3172: No. Because the SCP Foundation exists. Modernity helped shape him, defined the contours of his rage, but it was when modernity started interfering in his kingdom that he was crystallised. Modernity in the form of you. Your lot came first. You came into being to lock away, classify, pin down everything that didn't fit into your philosophy of Enlightenment rationality. Everything had to be understood, contextualised, transformed from faerie and godhood into simple, comprehensible chunks of logic and matter. It's abhorrent. And it could never go on forever. Something had to give. Something had to rise up in opposition. Dr. Montauk: …We were first? Truthfully? I know that Beauvoir had- was this whole thing really our fault? PoI-3172: That depends. Is it your fault if you don't know you're doing it? Dr. Montauk: I don't know. PoI-3172: Neither do I. Dr. Montauk: The ceremonies. They all held that contrast. PoI-3172: The King cannot exist without that tension. We needed those symbols of modernity, those stark grey images, to make the rift in the first place. It was the perfect plan. Dr. Montauk: But you failed. PoI-3172: Yes. There is a pause for several seconds. Dr. Montauk: The Foundation was formed in the 1820s. It was formed to protect the world from the dark, by a collection of brave men and women. To s-secure. Contain. Protect. That is our purpose. There is a virtue in normalcy which I don't think you can see. The world can be understood. Truth, reason, rationality. The Enlightenment. These are our bedrock, these are what have allowed us to see what is objective. PoI-3172: Do you really believe that? Dr. Montauk: I have to. PoI-3172: You're a scientist. You should know that there's no such thing as an objectively true finding in any science. There's always room for doubt, always space for error. Dr. Montauk: But that's just humanity. We may have flawed minds, incapable of full interpretation, but what we observe is solid and real. Beneath it all, the laws, the bedrock- PoI-3172: The bedrock is defined by the number seven. Seven chains, seven brides, seven seals, seven, seven, seven… my whole life has been defined by that number. It tortures me. Endless heptagonal shapes dancing behind my eyes. We're not allowed to live. We're not allowed to be people. That is the luxury of modernity, despite its coldness and its creaking wounds- to be able to be a full person. Seven, seven, seven. Seven girls taken away by raiders in the cold, as the wind demon howled and howled. So the Scarlet King had to have seven brides. Dr. Montauk: Modernity is not always cold. It's less brutal than slavery. PoI-3172: But what is it for? Is that the only purpose, a mere absence of brutality? What's the point of having peace and kindness for its own sake, so you can smile for a few decades before falling dead into an empty grave? Self-affirmation for a finite self. I don't understand it. I never did. I grew up trying. I wanted to be like them, like you, but the system just stared down at me with contempt. Maybe it's not coldness, doctor. Coldness seems too objective. It can't be that, because there is no objectivity. There's just the screaming and the madness and the need for purpose. Dr. Montauk: Did you really think that nothing is true? PoI-3172: There's truth, but it's never… final. There's no ultimate reality, doctor. No totality. No concrete way in which the world is run. There's just what we make of it. The clay things we bind together and crudely make in clay. Dr. Montauk: All this introspection… The crack in the wall grows larger. The sound of screaming can be heard. Dr. Montauk: Who is in there with him? PoI-3172: Who knows? His seven brides, his loyal nomads, ancient servants, more creations of the gap between realities. I don't know any more. It all breaks down, in the end. All I see any more is the fire. I don't see the world, or gods, or kings. I don't see anything but the flames. What else is there? This stuff? Matter and the physical, all banal, all fake. I only see the smile of my King, forged out of burning and frail matter. And it's a sight that hurts. It hurts, so much, behind the eyes. It is burning and being consumed and it's never, ever finished. Dr. Montauk: Then why not stop worshipping him? PoI-3172: I was a frail thing. I was born in the cold and the dark. I tried my hand at writing, when I was very young. I tried my hand at many things, bartering, starving, surviving in the marketplaces of Calcutta. Like so many of us, struggling to live while you Westerners grew fatter on our forgotten wealth. I grew mad. There was no meaning, no purpose, in a country born to be ripped apart. I tried the gods, but they were silent. I tried reason and atheism, but they were just as empty and unreal. Because they were always going to be. Because- Dr. Montauk: Don't say it. PoI-3172: You have to hear it. Dr. Montauk: I- I don't want- PoI-3172: No, listen, Robert, just listen. You know now what the Scarlet King is. He is a creation of swirling anomalies, of so many different times, all over the world. He is the memory of a world that is lost, the premodern world, made manifest in a form of hatred for modernity, the new, the humanism and smiling coldness that marks our day to day existence. Forged from a perfect balance of irreconcilable anomalies and our breaking minds. He is an entity created by this overwhelming, unavoidable tension. Of the howl of the old world when faced with a cold, grey, purposeless new. He is the revenge of our fallen past. He is the idea of the ancient in a world which discards and fetishises it. Dr. Montauk: He is the tension between the modern and the premodern made manifest. PoI-3172: Yes. He is the faultline between two irreconcilable worlds. And he can only, in the end, destroy them all. And that is what is right. There is another pause for several seconds. Dr. Montauk: What do we do now? PoI-3172: You shoot me, let them take my corpse, go back to your life. It won't last long now. The King's coming is inevitable. You might try to do something to stop it, but it won't work. The Foundation has too much at stake, too much resting on the preservation of their ethos. They will coat the world in concrete grey and the King will rise from the ashes, and the Children won't even have to lift a finger. Dr. Montauk: I don't believe you. PoI-3172: Believe what you like. Come, doctor, I think it's time. Dr. Montauk takes out his firearm and points it at PoI-3172. Dr. Montauk: Just- look, just tell me one more thing. Was it you who took Jacob? PoI-3172: No. We had no idea who he w- Dr. Montauk terminates PoI-3172. The crack disappears. <End Log>

Document 11: The following is a record of O5 Council Vote #4985.

Council Vote #4985, "Vote to approve suggestions made by Dr. Robert Montauk on Foundation Operating Procedures for improved containment of SCP-001." Proposed by O5-13 on 30/05/2018.

For Against Abstain O5-2 O5-1 O5-4 O5-6 O5-3 O5-5 O5-7 O5-8 O5-10 O5-9 O5-13 O5-11 O5-12

Vote Denied.

Statement by O5-1: Dr. Montauk's investigations have been most illuminating. They have certainly raised serious concerns about how the Foundation has been operating in recent years. But we feel that his suggestions go too far.

The ethos of the Foundation is comprehension. Postmodern notions of the fallibility of objective universal truths are all very well in academic circles, but the Foundation has always been first and foremost concerned with practicalities, basing its analyses on the hard sciences and unquestionable truths. Changing our intentions and modus operandi is, frankly, an absurd proposition. Our duty is, and always has been, to die in the dark to protect those in the light. If we begin to abandon or redefine the notion of what dark and light are, we risk a sharp descent into tyranny, incoherence and the loss of our mission entirely. This must not happen. We cannot engage in cavalier redefinitions of what the Foundation's very essence is.

We thank Dr. Montauk for his work, and we will be accordingly updating SCP-001's classification to Safe as a result of it. Containing SCP-001 is no longer as difficult as it once was, despite its potential danger; if Montauk's information is correct, then it seems clear to us that the Foundation should simply take a more laissez-faire attitude towards SCP-001's containment. We look forward to a more productive containment relationship with our oldest anomaly going forward.