Borja's Letter - SCP Foundation

This is a Cloistered Sandbox Page of user f.flores@scip​.net.

This page likely contains incomplete information and is not (yet) fit for wider publication

If you who found this file are just going to erase it, then fuck you I guess. Go to hell. But I hope you're a sympathetic person, a researcher or technician or something, just stumbling on this and willing to make copies. The original documents have already been incinerated. I can't believe that fossil Dubois had my transcriptions deleted. It's ridiculous, this is 400 year old history. I know I'll be amnestized. Digitizers always are, per protocol, but fuck. I wonder how much other "unwanted" history they made me forget.

I'm using this page to re-transcribe one letter to the best of my memory. Translating to English too, maybe the American branch will be more accepting.

Letter of Francisco de Borja y Aragón, sent from the Viceroyalty of Peru to the Spanish court.

Dated August 3, 1617

Dear Luis, [Luis de Aliaga, Borja's mentor in mysticism]

I must congratulate you on your appointment as confessor to the Majesty Himself. I am glad to have seen your position in the court rise as it has, and I am certain you will be appointed Grand Inquisitor within mere years.

I must admit that I have sometimes felt like the protagonist of a chivalric romance, since I arrived in the New World. Government has been dry and difficult and I have surely not experienced the raw adventure our predecessors must have felt in this virgin land, but there is still a sense that we are fighting back the wicked with our glorious light of righteousness. You did always say that I took those romantic stories too seriously, but it is quite special to be able to play out that dream. It is certainly much more exciting than the courts of Spain.

Allow me to compile a report of my mission, to be delivered to our Prince and Sovereign.

May you know that the establishment of my Military Order of Knights has proceeded very well. Juan de Mendoza had greatly understated the prevalence of spirits, witchcraft, and foul ideas in this land. Just yesterday, as I write this letter, our Knights uncovered a grand conspiracy here in Cusco. A dozen Indians led by a witch were involved in some unnatural ritual, forming a shield of sunlight in an attempt to withhold many supernatural artifacts from us.

We originally believed the building to be an old potato store-room, but upon investigating it, we discovered cursed llama skulls, self-filling pottery, speaking sundials, and various Supay demons in jars. They must have collected these false idols from all over the territory. We have prudently taken those objects of potential value and stored them in our sturdiest crates. We have destroyed everything else, of course, as we do not yet have the manpower to contain such threats. The natives of Cusco worship the rock sundials, so their destruction is a very straightforward way of cultivating respect.

Our holy order befell no casualties during this incursion, I must stress. I cannot describe to you how common these sorts of discoveries are in this foreign land.

My voyage to México City has revealed an even more extensive network of aberrant individuals involved in sorcery. I took the opportunity to establish an arm of the Military Order, without the knowledge of the viceroy of New Spain, to contain these deviants and their crafts.

While traveling through New Spain, I realized what must be the most dangerous fountain of origin for spreading wicked sorcery. In New Spain much moreso than in Peru, Indians create artistics manuscripts. Tira, on animal hide or paper, are folded or rolled and may be hidden away. Lienzo, on cloth, may reach exceptional size. I initially did not realize the significance of this, but the Knights have since discovered many manuscripts that pose a direct threat to all men and our way of life.

During what should be routine inspections of Indian dwellings, the viceroy's men were repelled by a group of women chanting from a large theurgical scroll, through which they summoned great swarms of mosquitos. Fortunously, my Knights were able to confiscate the lienzo and other occult objects from this building, but the women avoided our capture.

The house truly did contain terrible things. Most horribly, a flute carved in the form of a human head, which, when played, transformed two of our men into monkeys! There was a spear-thrower that launched a missile at explosive speeds, and a club with obsidian blades that could decapitate a man yet keep him breathing and screaming for their damned sacrifices. There was a calendar stone which made several of my men disappear as they touched its glyphs. But most importantly, there were several tira depicting the many unholy rituals Aztec men perform with these objects.

I am aware that the burning of these writings has been common practice even among early conquistadors. I hear Diego de Landa was particularly successful in excising dangerous manuscripts, and I have begun a long-term strategy inspired by his work:

Texts and documents written by natives from the Aztec region are permissable only if they were written after the conquest by Cortés and have been explicitly approved by a Knight. Their writing is not sophisticated enough to do harm anyway.

Maya texts are to be destroyed with extreme prejudice.

We may consider ourselves highly lucky that the former Inca kingdom did not utilize a proper form of writing, but the Knights must of course continue to hunt down and exterminate the storytellers.

Efforts to erase the Purépecha Empire from memory are proceeding swiftly, and I praise Nuño de Guzmán for preparing the region.

I will include advice on writings originating in other regions in future letters. I got word that my men in the Yucatán have already incinerated a library's worth of tira describing "horse-headed demons" and "metal tubes of death" and who knows what other profanities. It was immediately clear that these texts were dangerous.

It is of the utmost import that Indians, where applicable, learn to read and write in Latin or Spanish. An appropriately literate class will form the foundation of the new societies of these lands. I do not believe that black magic of this extreme degree can be transmitted through a civilized language, and this will greatly ease our censoring.

Lastly, the spread of faith in our Lord the Savior has been highly successful. The natives' trust in groups that attempt to oppose us is completely exhausted. I believe the future of our great empire is secure, and I will continue to protect our interests in the colonies.

Our mission is proceeding well, my friend. We are discovering objects here in the new world which we do not yet understand and that no lettered man has ever laid eyes on before. Surely, our influence will quickly exceed that of the English Fellowship or even the Pope's Holy Office, as we bring these artifacts home.

May we ever be in the favor of our King,

Your trusted Knight,

Francisco de Borja y Aragón

To Secure and Protect

This is not exactly touted within the Foundation (who can guess why..), but the Knights of the Military Order of Borja y Aragón were the foremost normalcy agency in Spanish America for hundreds of years. Their obvious presence in colonial America may have faded in the 19th century, but believe me, their influence ran deep. There were so many letters like these, centuries worth of writing about colonial activities stashed deep in Site-4's vault. This our history.

Only four Maya codices survived, three of which only rediscovered in the 19th or 20th century.

I can smell the incinerators heating up again.