| “ | 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 fetishes it. | ” |
–Dipesh Spivak, Tufto's Proposal | ||
Khahrahk, also known as Shormaush Urdal or the Scarlet King, is a powerful eldritch god, who seeks the end of all creation.
The SCP-Foundation views him as one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse.
Description[]
| “ | The Scarlet King used to be a Janitor. 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. | ” |
–Dipesh Spivak, Tufto's Proposal | ||
The Scarlet King is an eldritch god formed as the manifestation of the tension between the modern world and the premodern world and the rage it creates. Originally it existing as the concept of there being something greater than man, such as gods or the supernatural, that could not be controlled or reasoned with. The concept was linked into the howling of the wind, and the uncertainty of starvation and famine. This concept was then shaped by the encroachment of modernity into the old world and the clash between the two.[1]
The Scarlet King solidified into a sentient entity after it was defined as such by the SCP Foundation, following the group's creation of the in the 1820s. As it became real, so too did a history of its existence[1] reaching back to the Dawn of Creation, altering history to include it. In its eldritch god form, the king is consistently described as being red in colour and wearing a crown or similar items associated with or signifying royalty.[1]
History[]
The howling of the wind[]
| “ | Seven girls taken away by raiders in the cold, as the wind demon howled and howled. | ” |
–Dipesh Spivak, Tufto's Proposal | ||
A battle that would later be key in defining the Scarlet King was fought in a blackened wasteland between a group of peasants and an obscure steppe tribe fielding a horde of conscripted soldiers. Both sides were starving, with the wind screaming at them. The peasants pleaded, begged and prayed to the horde, some of whom laughed or cheered, while others wept. During the battle, seven peasant brides were ripped from the fields and taken as spoils of war.[1]
Some of the tension between pre-modern and modern that would shape the Scarlet King arose in South-East Asia as it was colonised and westernised by the British Empire. The British defined and categorised many of the Asian cultural beliefs and practices, causing rage amongst the natives, and as part of this the concept that would become the Scarlet King became more defined as well, although this did not please it.[1]
Formation of the Foundation[]
| “ | 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. | ” |
–Dipesh Spivak, Tufto's Proposal | ||
History rewritten[]
With history altered,[1] the Scarlet King became one of the many elder gods born of the Darkness Below in the time that the Tree of Knowledge was planted. Known initially by his birth name Khahrahk, the king was the only of his siblings to possess self-awareness. This was both a curse and a blessing, and meant he could also feel pain and loneliness. The thought of light outside the abyss and the shade of the Tree of Knowledge pained the king even more, driving him to decide that existence was pain and that would be best if nothing existed at all.[2]
Vowing to end all existence and the Tree of Knowledge, the king devoured his siblings, causing him even more pain as he grew greater in size. Slaying or subjugating the other gods of his realm who did not flee, the Scarlet King took the name Khnith-hgor and declared himself King of the Darkness Below. The king then defined the boundaries of his realm and began diverting souls to suffer there. With his kingdom established, the Scarlet King declared war on all creation that would last until the end of time itself.[2]
As the war began, the king forced himself upon Sanna, the wisest and most beautiful denizen of the Darkness Below. He lay with her for seven days and seven nights, breaking her and rising in her blood. It was here that he first took the name Shormaush Urdal, the Scarlet King. Sanna bore the kings seven daughters, A'tivik, A'ghor, A'distat, A'zieb, A'nuht, A'tellif and A'habbat. He took his offspring as his brides, placing a seal upon each to prevent them dying as their mother had, and through them bore seven legions to serve him, each with different strengths and traits.[2]
With the strength of his new legions bolstering his forces, the Scarlet King soon subjugated many of the worlds that had previously resisted him. The roots of the Tree of Knowledge began to rot and fester as they became covered in the king's spawn, the Ways became poisoned and dangerous for any to travel, and the king's realm became full with even more damned souls. Other gods including the Factory, the Hanged King, the Prince of Many Faces and Moloch. Eventually defeating any who opposed them, the Scarlet King's forces eventually reached the Taproots, the core worlds of the Tree of Knowledge, including earth.[2]
Lord of the Daevas[]
The Scarlet King began to gain power on earth in the East, where the Daevite culture came to serve him. As the Daevites and the influence of the Scarlet King spread further West, the People of the Two Trees became aware of the threat he posed, and their champion Hevel travelled east to fight the Scarlet King's forces. Hevel fought against the Daevites for thirty-three years, but was eventually driven by vanity to swear allegiance to the Scarlet King and drink deep of the Daevites' black magics. Hevel then took the name "Ab-Leshal" and became the greatest of the Daevites' generals, leading an army to conquer the west.[7]
Al-Leshal led the Scarlet King's forces to the valley where he had once lived and slaughtered his former allies, including all of his family bar his brother Set. The Daevites also burned the Tree of Knowledge and stole the Tree of Life, destroying its guardian Hakhana and looting her body. The only surviving member of the valley people not taken as a slave, Set prayed for answers as to what he should do and was shown a path through which the Scarlet King would one day be destroyed. With instructions on how to achieve this future, Set founded the Thirty-Six, who spread across the earth to protect it and wait until the time to oppose the Scarlet King was right.[7]
Ashamed of what he had done to his family, Hevel turned against the Scarlet King, killing Moloch and slaughtering many Daevites, and in doing so inspired those subjugated by the Daevites to rise up against them across the world. Hevel then challenged the Scarlet King himself, who answered. Thus began the Flood, which wiped the earth and time itself clean. [7]
Trivia[]
- Shares a lot of similarities to SCP-2317-K.
Appearances[]
- Special Personnel Requirements
- A Door to Another World
- Dust and Blood
- Beneath Two Trees
- Channeling Flows
- KTE-2013-Kapala-Mendes
- Tufto's Proposal
- Ambrose Makiling
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Tufto's Proposal
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Dust and Blood
- ↑ jacklyn diamandis, accountable to nobody
- ↑ i was a teenage shoggoth (ween cover)
- ↑ The Montauk House
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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