SCP-4840 - The Demon Lancelot and the Flying City of Audapaupadopolis

"sonofson.png" is from Max Pixel, CC0 Public Domain.

"temple1.png" is from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, taken by Steve F-E-Cameron.

"temple2.png" is from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, taken by Steve F-E-Cameron.

"temple3.png" is from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, taken by Rolf Süßbrich.

"header2.png" is from midjourney, released under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Item#: 4840

Containment Class: keter

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: ekhi

Risk Class: notice

SCP-4840.

SCP-4840.

Special Containment Procedures: Due to the mobile nature of SCP-4840, it is currently impossible to contain the structure to a single location. Foundation assets on-board SCP-4840 are to monitor weather conditions and the mechanisms that propel SCP-4840 in order to maintain its presence in the set area of exclusion, currently a region roughly 120km2 in the Russian Arctic Circle. Coordination of these efforts are under the express purview of SCP-4840 Containment Head Alyosha Yanovich and the current Applied Task Force Ru-199 "Siberian Squads" leader.

Foundation assets are to seed local meteorological phenomenon to encourage a thick cloud cover surrounding SCP-4840. In the event that this is not possible, or that the cloud cover clears and SCP-4840 becomes visible, on-board cloud generators are to be activated until such time that the weather conditions become favorable for natural cloud creation. ATF Ru-199 is to monitor local populations for sightings of SCP-4840. Individuals who claim to have seen SCP-4840 are to be remanded to Site-210 for processing.

Containment teams are to monitor the SCP-4840-B entity for any signs of activity. To date, this entity has remained inert.

Due to information gathered from SCP-4840-A and its relation to other anomalous phenomena, this document has been classified Level 4/4840 with Restrictions. Access to this document is limited to senior staff members assigned to SCP-2254, SCP-6666, SCP-6765, and SCP-4812. Due to potential interference by members of the "Insurgency Reborn" Group-of-Interest1, access to this document is possible only through authorized terminals.

Updated Containment Memorandum: Per Foundation Protocol 2513.99, the ongoing containment of SCP-4840 has been transferred to the jurisdiction of Project PARAGON. All other extant containment procedures remain in place.

Description: SCP-4840 is a large2, ancient, abandoned city floating roughly 7.8km3 above an empty region in the Russian arctic. The architecture of the city suggests that, while the city appears to predate any known civilization, it was constructed using advanced techniques and materials, including several components (such as gas lamps) that would not be seen elsewhere in the world for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

SCP-4840 bears markings identified as a long-dead human language4, one that does not appear in any ancient settlements anywhere else on Earth. Through deciphering the text, Foundation linguists have determined that, at one point in its history, SCP-4840 was called Audapaupadopolis, which roughly translates to "City of the First Father". Information gathered from within SCP-4840 indicates that it was once a city of over 100,000 occupants, though there is no direct evidence of any single event that lead to its decline. Based on information gathered from the single living occupant of SCP-4840 (SCP-4840-A, see Addendum 4840.3 for more information), the population of SCP-4840 simply left over an extended period of time following the loss of its first and only leader. SCP-4840, whether by natural factors or some kind of anomalous influence, disappeared entirely from the human social consciousness afterwards.

SCP-4840 is divided into four quadrants with a large central hub connecting them. The quadrants appeared to have been divided based on the craft of the population occupying them; blacksmiths and metallurgists, engineers and designers, farmers and bakers, and artisans and craftsmen. Each of the four quadrants has its own local center of governance near the central section. The central hub contains three large stone temples5 with iron ornamenture, as well as a larger, more ornately designed great hall that was likely used as the seat of power. The second of the temples, the Temple of Sunset, is in ruins caused by the entity laying across it, SCP-4840-B.

SCP-4840-A.

Beneath this hall is a chamber with a large stone door accessible only to SCP-4840-A. Individuals who attempt to pass the threshold of the doorway when the door is open describe a building tension that overcomes their bodies when trying to pass into the chamber beyond. This tension has been described as an increasingly uncomfortable guilt and regret, the intensity of which is enough to incapacitate anyone who approaches the threshold. The sensation is often accompanied by panic and anxiety, and can only be relieved by moving away from the doorway. It is currently unknown what exactly lies beyond this entryway (See Addendum 4840.3 for more details).

Prior to 1933, SCP-4840 was hidden from view and perception by unknown anomalous means. SCP-4840-A contends that this was due to its own influence on the structure. However, due to an apparent change in that individual's condition, SCP-4840 has been rendered visible to the naked eye, and to radar equipment. The installation of scrambling devices, cloud cover generators, and the movement of SCP-4840 to a remote location has helped mitigate this change in behaviour.

SCP-4840 is abandoned except for two entities: SCP-4840-A and -B. SCP-4840-A is an elderly male human of nondescript build and uncertain ethnicity. Genetic testing of SCP-4840-A has revealed likely Mesopotamian ancestry, though the genetic markers present within the individual have no apparent pre-ancestral linkage. This suggests that SCP-4840-A is either an alien being on Earth, or contains genetic material that was the precursor of intelligent human beings on the planet. SCP-4840-A speaks many languages, including English, Mandarin, Russian, French, and Spanish.

SCP-4840-B.

SCP-4840-A is capable of controlling the general movement of SCP-4840. Additionally, SCP-4840-A appears to have a degree of limited local omniscience, being able to describe events taking place far away that it would have no knowledge of otherwise, though it cannot describe specifics or individuals involved in most cases. SCP-4840-A is also the only individual capable of entering the sealed structure beneath SCP-4840's great hall, which SCP-4840-A calls "the Old Library". Additional details concerning this structure are listed later in this document.

The only other entity located on SCP-4840 is SCP-4840-B, a massive, vaguely humanoid entity that lies unmoving in the ruins of the Temple of Sunset. This entity, roughly 12.8m in height, is only visible using thermal lenses. SCP-4840-B shows no signs of movement and is described by SCP-4840-A as being dead, but continues to output a constant, unchanging amount of heat. SCP-4840-B has a human torso ending in six legs and six severely distended arms, each of which ends in a rough metal clasp affixed to a chain connecting to a large iron flail at its end. SCP-4840-B also bears markings consistent with those found on SCP-2254, which appear to be some kind of sign or sigil6.

Sigil visible on SCP-4840-B.

Addendum 4840.1: Discovery

SCP-4840 was first discovered by British airman Sir George Dansen in September of 1933, while flying from London to Oslo7. When reports of a flying city over the North Sea were made public, the Foundation and the Royal Conservatory for Public Perception were able to disseminate information contradictory to Dansen's claims, instead alleging that he was drunk and hallucinating at altitude.

First contact with SCP-4840 was made when a crew of Foundation researchers, lead by Captain Francis Pike, approached SCP-4840 by hot-air balloon. Upon arrival they were met by SCP-4840-A. No official transcript of this conversation was ever recorded, but Pike described the event in his exploration journal, saying:

As we approached we could see the whole of the city laid out before us - a marvel, like Rome on a high hill. When we got closer we saw the truth of it. The city had been abandoned for some time, and where the morning dew and sunshine turned the stone streets and towers to sparkle, the midday sun revealed its empty and decrepit state.

Not entirely empty, however. When we landed we were met by one man, perhaps seventy years of age or more, who welcomed us the city (he calls Adapapdapolis I believe is the spelling - "odd-uh-paw-puh-daw-poh-lis" by speech). He introduced himself as the city's steward and showed us to his chambers. We walked down the promenade, as wide and regal as any in London or elsewhere in Europe, and saw the richness of this place. Abandoned though it was, the finery of construction was unmatched in any city I have seen in my entire life.

We passed by one structure - a temple made of orange and blue lacquered stone that was a ruin. I asked the old man what had happened here, and he told me that answers would come in time. I had a strange and uncanny feeling looking at that place, but we pushed on towards the grand hall at the center of the city and dined there. It was a simple meal but hearty, and the old man expressed his appreciation for our visit. We explained briefly what the Foundation is, and he told us he already knew - and had known for some time. He said that there are "old secrets" kept in the city that must be made safe.

When the old man speaks, he speaks as a friend. I cannot place why… it is strange, I would tell you I have known him my whole life. His presence feels as if he is a close companion whose company I have missed dearly. As the sun was setting on the day he showed us to long since abandoned rooms we could rest in. They are splendid and clean - much larger than those the old man sleeps in.

Addendum 4840.2: Imagery and Iconography within SCP-4840

While much of SCP-4840 bears markings and the standard symbology of "the City of Audapaupadopolis", the exceptions to this theme are the three temples in the city's center, and the structure beneath the grand hall. Much of the imagery decorating these structures seems to refer to events from history, groups and persons of interest, and other anomalies.

Temple of Sunrise

The Temple of Sunrise.

In the entryway to the main hall, two naked children stand at a treeline, seemingly nervously watching the horizon. A wolf and bear stand behind them, protectively. On the wall opposite this mural, a figure with a flaming sword is seen standing on a hill overlooking the trees.

The main hall is decorated with three murals:

On the far wall is a brilliant sunrise. SCP-4840 is visible in the foreground. Standing in front of the sunrise is a golden man and two others by his side, with a third set off from the rest. The man holds a long rod with a silver point and wears a shining crown. In the sky above them is a bronze dragon with green eyes. Words are written on the dragon's side reading "THEY WILL KNOW WHAT IS".

On the eastern wall is a scene of a meeting in the Great Hall of Audapaupadopolis. The golden man from the largest mural stands at the foot of a throne, with the two other figures standing to each side of him. The third figure is absent in this image. Before the golden man is a king in crimson robes with a flaming crown, extending a hand of friendship. Beside him is a naked woman covered by a snake, a man made of metal, and a sorcerer in deep purple robes. Other figures stand nearby.

On the western wall is the golden man sitting on the throne in the Great Hall. Above his head hovers an iron crown - it is inlaid with words of an unknown language and set with a shining white jewel. Behind the golden man are several large, monolithic figures: one made of gears and steel, one made of flesh and blood, one made of ice and stone, one made of stars and another made of eyes. A young woman with long, brilliant white hair hangs in the air before them, pointing south.

The southern wall does not contain a mural, just the words: "FOR NOT THE SEA TO SWALLOW THEM AND THE LONG DARK APPROACH" printed in mosaic tile.

Temple of Sunset

The Temple of Sunset.

Like the Temple of Sunrise, the Temple of Sunset has a large entryway leading into the main hall of the temple. The entryway contains detailed drawings of cities and towns in and around SCP-4840, as well as a map of the city itself. SCP-4840 is depicted as having large walls and smaller towns and villages surrounding the exterior of the city. To the east is a river with another town on it, and farms stretching far to the north and south along the river. The words "THE LANDS OF MEN" are emblazoned over the top of the mural on the side of the same bronze dragon as depicted in the Temple of Sunrise. A stylized arrow points to the southeast with the words "LANDS OF THE BLOOD KINGS AND NECROMANCERS" written across it. Another arrow points west, with words reading "THE FAR STRANGE WEST".

The interior of the main hall is similar in structure to the Temple of Sunset; however, due to the fallen body of SCP-4840-B much of the main hall has been destroyed. A single remaining mural is visible, as is the western edge of another.

The remaining mural shows the golden man with the iron crown sitting atop a white horse. Legions of men and women with swords, bows, and axes stand behind him. To either side of him are two figures - likely the same figures from the murals in the Temple of Sunset. One of the figures holds a black sword, and the other a green rod. The golden man holds a long, silver lance in his right hand. Across from the golden man is a scene of gathering storm clouds and lightning, which grows more dramatic the closer it gets to the collapsed wall. At the corner of the wall are depictions of small humanoid figures, light green in coloration, with brilliantly colored clothing. The figures each have six eyes in two vertical columns.

The remaining wall contains more of the small green figures, as well as something large and mottled grey behind them, though most of the wall containing the subject of that mural is collapsed.

The ceiling of the structure appears to have been painted to match the night sky, though much of it is collapsed and the remaining stars do not match any known constellations in the modern sky.

Temple of Night

The Temple of Night.

The Temple of Night is the smallest of the three temples, set on the far side of the central courtyard - across from the Grand Hall. It is only a single level but covers much more area than the others. Information gathered from SCP-4840-A suggests that there are portions of the temple that run into the ground beneath the city, and may even interact with the structure located beneath the Grand Hall.

The entryway of the temple contains depictions of entities barely visible against the dark background of a forest at night. These entities have bright yellow eyes and appear to be covered in hair, though their faces are noticeably human in appearance. They each carry the same ornate wooden scepter with a bright red stone set in one end.

The interior of the temple is a maze of small, interconnected rooms. The purpose of these rooms are unknown, but many of them share the same depiction of a massive tree in the middle of a forest. Red lights surround the base of the tree, and humanoid figures appear to be hanging from the limbs. In the center of the tree is a large, red organ visible through openings in the bark. Towering structures of wood and stone surround the tree, each wrapped in thick vines bursting with large, blood-red blooms.

Other depictions include men and women being thrown into mass graves, children and animals being burned, men being placed into wooden coffins and buried alive, skeletons strapped to trees, and small green humanoids being raped and butchered by the larger, long-haired humanoids.

The most central room of the temple contains a staircase that descends beneath the structure. The chamber, as well as the rest of the temple, is dimly lit by an unknown light source. Long stone sarcophagi line the walls. Individuals entering into this space report feeling a sense of incredible unease, and describe hearing scratching sounds from within the sarcophagi. Access to the stairwell beneath the temple is blocked due to rubble and falling rock, likely from the same incident that caused the collapse of the Temple of Sunset.

During investigation of the Temple of Night, one exploratory team reported finding a room with a door marked with the Foundation focus seal, and upon opening it was able to enter what appeared to be an abandoned Foundation site identified as Site-00-00-00. Further explorations of the temple have been unable to locate this room.

On several occasions, SCP-4840-A has mentioned that he is not the only person within SCP-4840, and that there is another in the Temple of Night. SCP-4840-A has seemed reluctant to say anything else about whoever this individual may be, and notably has never been seen entering the Temple of Night for any reason.

Sealed Chamber

The Grand Hall of Audapaupadopolis bears much of the same iconography and imagery as the Temple of Sunrise8, but the sealed chamber beneath it does not. The small antechamber containing the sealed door is featureless except for a depiction of two figures on the door itself. The figure on the left is composed of a single vertical shaft of ornately decorated gold and silver with a smooth white stone set in its center. The figure on the right is not a figure at all, instead being an inset of the same figure on the other door. The door on the left is made of white marble with bronze hinges and gold fixtures, while the door on the right is bound in rusted iron.

When opened, individuals in the antechamber claim to be able to hear someone speaking with their own voice from somewhere beyond the door.

SCP-4840-A has described the doorway as "a passageway, like any other. One between this place and somewhere else. Unlike others, it is old and its steps are well tread. The light of the world has long since left that place, and mortal men can no longer walk it."

Addendum 4840.3: Interview

The first recorded interview with SCP-4840-A was conducted in September of 1949 by Foundation researcher Dr. Val Ostrovich. In the years between SCP-4840's discovery and this interview, SCP-4840-A had answered questions sparingly, often seemingly cautious and uncertain around armed soldiers with guns. Dr. Ostravich conversed with SCP-4840-A by herself, with only a recording device in the room.

SCP-4840-A: -marvelous, and you can use this to hear what I've said later?

Ostravich: Yes, of course, listen.

Tape cuts out briefly.

Ostravich: -down later, once we have time to review the recording. That way I don't have to spend all our time scratching notes, or bringing someone with me to do it.

SCP-4840-A: That is very impressive. (Pauses) I wondered when you would want to talk. Not casually, but talking like we are now. You want to know the truth.

Ostravich: What do you mean?

SCP-4840-A: You're seekers of knowledge, aren't you? You remind me of my brother, I think. He was a scholar, maybe the greatest of our age. He could sit across the table from a person and gather everything he ever needed to know about them from a look. (Sighs) Like him, you've wondered why you get the lingering feeling that you are at the center of something much larger than yourself. It isn't your fault - how could you know? Those early days are billions of years past, and almost everyone who was there has since passed by the silence. (Pauses) But I was there.

Ostravich: Billions of years?

SCP-4840-A: Or more. We were young with the world, and with creation itself. We saw the iron god put the flaming stars in the sky, and the god of flesh loose the first red drops of blood splash against the earth to give it life. I was a boy when the Serpent and its Dark Brother set the foundations of what is and what is not, and saw the first sun rise when the world began to turn. (Pauses) This truth I have for you is not, I think, what you will be expecting. I imagine you will think it is the fanciful ranting of a demented old man, and who could blame you? If you would give me the time, however, I'll tell you how it happened.

Ostravich: How what happened?

SCP-4840-A: The beginning of all things. The great mystery.

Ostravich: I- I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean.

SCP-4840-A: (Laughs) No, no you don't. Nor would you. This place - this city, this is where we were born. This is where all that is, was, and ever will be was realized. You have questions about the city, I understand. You want to know the secrets it keeps, and you want to know about Lancelot. These answers lie within this story, if you would humor me.

Ostravich: Go ahead.

SCP-4840-A: (Pauses) We were few then, in a world of infinite mystery. The haze of creation hung heavily over this planet for such a long time, but in that haze we learned many great truths. We studied and watched and learned, for millions and millions of years. When we had learned what we could, we came here, to this place, and built this city—the city of Audapaupadopolis. The first city. Here, right here, at this spot, this is where that which IS came to be.

IS. That is what we called it. You have seen wonders beyond belief, I am sure, but there were only ever two true gods. IS, and IS NOT. They are not beings, not ideas. They are truths. There are things that are, and things that aren't. When the work of IS was completed, the remnant of that truth became the Serpent - a being whose purpose is only to study that from whence it came, and learn those lost truths about itself. The other, IS NOT, was a shadow of IS. The two cannot exist without each other. IS NOT encompasses IS, it is the long nothing that stretches out beyond the world and further. Together, they are the truest knowledge there is - everything that ever was or was not, all at once. When those truths were first realized, this world came into being.

Ostravich: The Serpent? The god they worship in the Wanderer's Library?

SCP-4840-A: The very same. You see, there was an order then. There were monsters and demons, but they were the monsters and demons of this world. You have no doubt encountered many of them. Other worlds - those that run with and against our own, were kept apart and far away. We could dream of them, but never reach them. They were forever resigned to the minds and dreams of men.

The strange folk in the west were the first to open their eyes upon the cosmos. They are not born from the Earth like you or I - they were made from the last glittering fragments of IS, and they more than any other were attuned to the will of creation. They kept to the woodlands and wrote the first songs, and though we were a world apart we heard them singing.

We came next, my brothers and I, and the first men to see with their own eyes the world they had been born into. The mothers of the world cared for us, in our infancy - the wolf, the bear, the sow, the lion. As we grew we learned, and gave ourselves names. We wandered the world, marveling at its mysteries and reveling in the life we had been given. There was no greater serenity than what we felt in those early days.

Impossibly powerful women and men walked the streets of Audapaupadopolis then. Myself and my brothers, the man with eyes of wonder, the king with the scarlet cloak, the serpent and his brother, the dragons and lords of the sky, the envoy from Saturn and so many others. The god of iron and the god of flesh took counsel in these halls, and the king of dreams kept his watch in the night. But the greatest of them all was the First King of Men.

He was called Asem, and he was golden and beautiful. With his hands he could build mountains, with his feet he could cross the wide plains, and with his voice he could call the sea to bear. His laughter was light and powerful, like the whisper of a thunderstorm on the horizon, and he carried a lance they say could kill gods. He saw with eyes that peered past the heavens, into the worlds beyond. We called him Asem because the word meant "IS", and we believed he was the joy of creation given form.

But within him grew the first vice - envy. He looked to the skies and wished them to be his. Even while we built this city, the first and greatest city of man, he longed for more. His reach extended to creation itself, and he was the first to push past the order of the cosmos and take something from another world.

It was a crown. He took it from another world, another existence, and declared himself the King of All That IS. On this spot, the place where IS had come to be realized, he built his seat of power. He was kind and beautiful still, but he desired ever more. He became paralyzed by this desire - incapable of thinking of anything more than the great cosmos that he demanded answer to his beck and call.

Ostravich: You were right. This is a fanciful story.

SCP-4840-A: I warned you! Do not fear - the answers you want are coming. All in good time.

Ostravich: Alright, continue.

SCP-4840-A: The first betrayal came from his sons. The middle son envied his father's crown, and demanded it pass to him. He raised an army and savaged his father's lands, laying waste to the world of men by the sword and the torch, but he was struck down by Asem and locked in a stone tomb deep beneath the earth. The eldest son spoke passionately to the people of that world, calling upon sense and reason to demand his father pass the crown to him. The kingdom bent their knee to the eldest son and worshipped him as their god, but Asem cursed him to poison the land and his followers. He was exiled, forced to wander the desolate places of the world until the sun went down in the east.

Finally, the last son came into his father's room while he slept and took the crown from his head. It was the greatest betrayal, for the father loved no living thing more than his youngest. (Pauses) The youngest son slipped away into the night as his father's kingdom fell into ruin, and as Asem turned the world into a smoking waste we disappeared into the shadows, those few who followed the youngest son.

We fled into the night for a thousand years, hunted by Asem and his two eldest sons. They desired nothing more than the crown, and would turn the heavens and earth to find it. But it was hidden, kept away from them until they faded into legend and then into myth. When I finally stepped back into the light of day, the world had changed again. The fields were lush, the forests full, and the skies clear. Those who had fled with me had started families, and their families spread across this new world. Those who have written about this place call it Old Europ - the first true kingdom of mortal men.

I came into the realm of Harrian, a kindly man with a passion for knowledge and a desire to learn. He and his family were gentle and good, and every day more families flocked to his lands. Harrian and I spent many long hours speaking about the times before the darkness, about the strange wonders I had seen across the world. His sons took counsel with me, each of them as strong and noble as the last.

So I crowned him with the iron crown of my father and called him Apollyon - the King Over The Darkness. He built his great halls and his great temples and libraries and in time all of Old Europ kneeled to the High King. When Harrian passed and his crown came to his son Uvan, I took my leave and returned to the east - to this city, the city of my father and my brothers. For the first time in ten-thousand years I could rest, and I did.

When I awoke the world had changed again. The bloodmancers of the east, the Daeva and their Mad King Moros the Accursed, had taken up arms against the west and fought a thousand bloody campaigns. The House of Apollyon, the house of my friend Harrian, had taken to calling themselves the Sky Kings and were pillaging and conquering every settlement and minor lordship across the continent. In the west, rumors abounded that another race had come out of the dark forests in strength - one older even than men and with weapons built from the trees and roots themselves. War had come to the world. These ruins, these are the ones you find and cannot explain. They are old, and their meaning has long since been lost, but these wars lay the foundation of the world to come.

Ostravich: There have been… yes, ruins. Things in the dirt we could not explain. Old things, things we assumed we would find answers for, eventually.

SCP-4840-A: Is that right? Isn't that interesting. (Pauses) I hid myself in the ruined halls of my father, but it was not long before the Sky Kings found me. Xorus was his name, and he raised an army to march on Audapaupadopolis and demand I give him my father's lance. Even if I'd wanted to I could not - though I did not want to - because the weapon had been lost with my father sometime during the dark age of the world. When I told him this, Xorus Apollyon threatened to turn this city over to find it. But there are still secrets here, greats truths locked away down below, and so in my grief I called upon the last of the titans that still walked the earth - the great dragon Bharata9, and together we raised the city into the sky, forever separating it from the men of the earth. I moved the city to the far north, away from Eden's garden where Asem once walked, and out of the reach of men.

Then, I watched. For thousands of years I watched as king after king came and went, each carrying on the bloodied legacy of his line, all while my father's iron crown sat upon their heads. I watched as the Daeva hero Gilgamesh slayed Sarrus II's only son in single combat on the fields of Jor-Salem. I saw the dread sorcerer Ultan El Mehtoh rain fire down from the high heavens to burn the first sons of the east until he was struck down by Malus the Wrathful, grandson of Old Moros. I watched Jorei Apollyon sail across the sea to meet with the king of the Night Children and watched as she was buried alive to feed the heart of their horrible goddess tree. I watched, and I waited, and the world turned.

Then, when Sarrus VIII crossed the sea to bring ruin to the last of the strange folk, and when his son Sarrus IX brought the Great Profanities of those people upon his kingdom when he buried their princess, I watched with a deep sadness as the kingdom of men faltered and Sarrus suffered his four betrayals. His knights, their knees bent to foul gods, became monsters and beasts. La Hire went to the west, Ogier the east, Hector the south and to the north came Lancelot, who had been his king's iron hand. In time he found his way here, to the city of my father.

Ostravich: You mentioned that name before - Lancelot. From the tales of King Arthur?

SCP-4840-A: In time, the betrayals of the knights fell into legend, and then into less than that. Eventually all that remained were four names, and those names were adopted into other stories. (Laughs) There may have been a man who sat at the round table, but it was not this man. This man was the being they would come to call the Demon Lancelot.

That is the fell creature you saw there sprawled across the ruins of my brother's temple. Lancelot would have turned this city into a ruin, but the last of our allies came to Audapaupadopolis' defense. For weeks, the Demon Lancelot fought the old dragon Bharata, the sea lord Arkthurus, the hero Beowulf and Relivine, the last Daeva king. These were the last of the great heroes, long since forgotten and passed out of memory. The battle cost them each their lives, until only myself and the dragon remained. With his final gasp, Bharata tore out Lancelot's fetid heart and cast his ruined form across the Temple of Sunset.

With Bharata gone, I was alone. All that remained were my brothers, roaming the earth in search of our father's crown. I suppose my father is out there somewhere as well, if he is not rotting in the heart of the Earth. The crown is lost, swallowed whole when the Profane Dark took Sarrus IX into its maw. The House of Apollyon was ended in a night, and when the last kingdom of Old Europ was scattered the Children of the Night crossed the seas in their long, dread ships and took what they could from the world of men and carried it back to their dark halls on the edge of the world. (Pauses) Time passed, and now we are here. You have questions.

Ostravich: You mentioned knights - what are they?

SCP-4840-A: They were nobles sworn to the House of Apollyon. La Hire was the first to bend his knee, and then Lancelot, Ogier, and reluctant Hector. They swore their lives to the king, but when the strange folks' curse came to them their hearts were turned over. They took strange and grotesque shapes - the shapes of old fae gods, and for their betrayal they were called accursed by Sarrus IX. Lancelot was adept with a mace, so his arms were transformed and his mind was vacant save for a singular lust for wanton destruction. The sound he made as he was coming across the mountains was like a great legion of screaming pigs.

Ostravich: You realize how ridiculous this all sounds, don't you?

SCP-4840-A: I do. I would distrust you if you believed me without reservation. But I have kept much of the old world hidden for these many long years. As my life has waned, so has my ability to keep it hidden. I can see La Hire moving unseen in the west, and noble Hector's slumber is troubled in the south. Lancelot has laid here dead these many years, and yet he does not grow cold. Why? They say that the Profane Adamant has been seen again in the skies, and that the Profane Adamant was who Lancelot prayed to for strength overwhelming. Something is moving here, something that has been lying dormant for many long eons. And so I require your aid. We were called immortal, and while I have lived an impossibly long time I will not live forever. The strain of sustaining this city drains me, and a day will come when it must be passed to you, the sons and daughters of men. You will have to guard these secrets.

Ostravich: You've mentioned that several times - secrets. What secrets? Where?

SCP-4840-A: In the Old Library. (Pauses) I was not exaggerating when I told you. This place is where IS was realized. This is where IS came to be. My father built his seat of power over the place where the greatest authority of all authorities came to rest at the beginning of all things. We called that place the Old Library, and within it is the First Book. (Laughs) It's not truly a book, but that is maybe the easiest way to describe it. You spoke of the Serpent's Library earlier - that is the greatest collection of knowledge in the entire cosmos, and it has grown across space and time, across dimensions, and across realities. The texts in those halls describe IS and all that IS. The First Book does not just describe IS, it IS. It holds the most fundamental truths, those never intended to be understood by man or beast. How. Why. Those and more. In truth, I have tried and failed to read that book and know those truths. I believed once that if I could, I could right the wrongs of this world, but I was a confused child and knew nothing. I nearly lost myself once in the Other Book, and in it I grew old.

Ostravich: The Other Book?

SCP-4840-A: There are two books in the Old Library. The First Book, and the Other Book. The Other Book is the book of IS NOT. It too contains truths, truths of things that cannot be. Truths that do not exist. Dark truths. Old truths. My sorcery protects the Old Library now, but a day will come when it finally fails. There are those who know what is here and would seek to find it.

Ostravich: This is… a lot of information. I don't think I'll be able to believe it all.

SCP-4840-A: I understand. (Pauses) When Sarrus IX buried the last princess of the strange folk, she cursed them with three great profanities. Restrictor, Adamant, and Dark. Watch for these three. They are the last remnants of a cursed people, a people who fled from the Children of the Sun and their iron swords, and the Children of the Night and their dark dreams. When you see these terrors, remember what I have said here. They are ancient, from a time long before your history begins. Watch for them, and see.

Ostravich: Who are you?

SCP-4840-A: (Pauses) My name was Seth, brother to Cain and Able, son of Adam El Asem, the First Man.

Ostravich: Was?

Silence.

Ostravich: I'm sorry, I-

SCP-4840-A: No, it's alright. (Pauses) I was a boy when I gazed into the night sky of a young universe and asked my father for a star all my own. He reached out and pulled for me an iron crown, and that crown seeded the foulness that lingers in the hearts of men. It drove my father to madness, my brothers to butchery, and led to the ruination of our kingdom. Without that crown, Sarrus VIII might not have crossed the sea. Without the crown, Harrian's lineage might have been able to fight off the Children of the Night when they came across the sea. There is no more hateful a thing, no greater abhorrence than that crown. It is the seed at the root of evil- (pauses) -and it was a gift to me. No, I was once Seth. I have lost my name.

Addendum 4840.4: Interview

The following interview was conducted by SCP Foundation Overseer O5-1.

O5-1: I'm sorry to keep you up so late, friend.

SCP-4840-A: Fret not. I know the world moves quickly outside of this place. An old man like me can stand to spare a few moments.

O5-1: How are you feeling?

SCP-4840-A: In truth, I am tired. I have been here for a long, long time. My youth is spent, and I am waning. The prayers I once spoke to bury the secrets of the past are little more than the murmur of a distant echo. I am nearing my end.

O5-1: I understand. We're preparing contingency plans for that inevitability - we want to be able to take as much of this off you as possible. We'll begin moving the city within the next few months. Our people are working on preparing its resting place as we speak.

SCP-4840-A: I am encouraged by this, thank you. (Pause) You are not here to talk about this city though, are you?

O5-1: I am not.

SCP-4840-A: Then speak your mind, my child.

O5-1: I want to know more about your father.

SCP-4840-A: Ahh. (Pauses) By the time I came of age, my father was already a legend in the eyes of our people. They said he'd spent the lifetime of a man walking the young Earth alone, working wonders and casting out the old horrors from his lands. He was said to have built Aud on Eden's hill, and lingered in the garden during the twilight of those early days, when the stars were still bright in the sky. He met the first woman there, in the garden. She was Lilith - the mother of nations. My father chose her first two sons to sit at his right and left hand. The firstborn sons and daughters of Aud were her children, but she left after some time and disappeared into the weird places of the world.

O5-1: Who was your mother?

SCP-4840-A: Her name was Eve, the daughter of paradise. She was not born of Lilith, or of the gods. She came wholly from my father, who cut a rib from his own chest and built my mother from it. I was their only child, and the effort of my birth weakened her terribly. She passed a short time later - I never truly knew her.

O5-1: What was your father like?

SCP-4840-A: (Pause) Time, it does dull the senses terribly. Of my father, I remember little - but I do remember feelings. Being near him was like a summer's day, and his words were music. He… he was quiet. I was told he had not always been so, but the loss of my mother had darkened him. Still, when he laughed it was a peal of bright thunder, and when he raged it was a hurricane.

O5-1: What caused him to rage?

SCP-4840-A: Oh, he… (Pause) I recall thrice when my father was angry. Once, when he shattered the iron god Mekhane - his own father - for attempting to usurp him, and then… ah, when my brother…

O5-1: What's that?

SCP-4840-A: I have told you about my brothers, and how they rose in defiance to take my father's crown for their own. What I did not say… ah, the fear of it grips me even now - it is perhaps the strongest memory I have of my father. I told you that my father locked away my brother Able for his insolence. This was a lie. In truth, it was a mercy he gave him. On the plain below Eden's hill, where Aud once overlooked, the sons and daughters of my brothers met in a grim struggle. They both lusted for the crown of my father and desired nothing else. Asem had long since barred them from the city, itself inhabited by only ghosts then, and myself. In the midst of that battle, he… ah…

Pauses

SCP-4840-A: There was a brief interlude in the fighting. Able came out from his camp and offered peace to my brother Cain - an end to their fighting. But Cain was overcome with wickedness, and in that moment he took a stone from the earth and killed Able. He broke his body beneath it, and in his madness declared himself rightful lord over the heavens and Earth, and sole inheritor of his father's crown. Then he… he wept, and as he wept he was filled with a terrible despair for the thing he had done. He brought my brother's body before the gate to Asem's city, and called out for my father. He… (Pause) He broke Cain's body, took the arms with which he had used to kill our brother and fed them to the wolves, and then placed a fell curse on his soul. He was damned then to ever walk the world, cursing the ground beneath him where he went, and to be cursed with a perfect memory, such that he would never forget the fear in Able's eyes as he brought that stone down upon him.

Pauses

SCP-4840-A: When my father brought Able back from beyond death, he was changed. His spirit had been separated from his body, and when they were reunited a truly terrible hatred filled the gaps between them. My father lamented what his son had become, and put him in a stone crypt where he could hate forever. But I tell you this - even in his despair, my father was terrifying to behold. The very gods quaked at the sight of him in those hours, as did I.

O5-1: What happened to your father?

SCP-4840-A: I wish I could say. After Able was killed I knew that there would be other brothers who might kill their own for a chance at my father's crown - so I stole it and fled. My children came with me, and we hid like insects. This was the third time I felt the rage of my father - a rage from which there was no escape. It was a heat, an inferno that came from him like a storm and drove those few who remained away from Eden's hill. But we endured, and after a hundred years or more he diminished, and returned to his empty halls. I stayed hidden until long after he was gone, but we… we heard stories. Stories of dark multitudes on long ships, of a dancing king under a red star and my father standing alone against them. It was not until later that I learned of the Nightwalkers and their Faerie masters. I would not have believed it, that any power existed in this world that could undo Adam el Asem, and yet he is… gone.

O5-1: You hesitated.

SCP-4840-A: It is nothing. There was a time, in ages past, where I would dream about hearing my father's voice crying out from the very foundations of the world, but those days have passed. What little remains of my father's legacy is a shadow, passing before the dawn.

O5-1: I see. (Pause) We know where your father is.

Pause.

O5-1: It is not a lie, I swear it.

SCP-4840-A: It… it is impossible. He was broken.

O5-1: Aye, that he was. But we have found him all the same. I came to you today, Seth, because I need your help. There are those in this world who would call us their enemy, who find our task abhorrent in some way or another. One of them is a man who once called me friend, but now he… well, nevermind it. He knows about your father, and where he is. It is possible he knows even more than that. I am afraid of his intentions, and what he is capable of. I need your help.

SCP-4840-A: I… I will give it, so much that I have left to give. Yes, I will help you.

O5-1: Good. Once we have moved this city to the designated place, I will send for you. We will need to speak, the four of us, about what we should do with what we found.

SCP-4840-A: Four of us? (Pause) You… you mean my-

O5-1: Your brothers, Seth. You've all been alone for too long, and we're going to need all of you.

Footnotes

1. Report pending.

2. Roughly 5.45km in diameter.

3. Despite the height at which SCP-4840 rests, persons within the city's boundaries experience temperature and oxygen density like they would at sea level.

4. Seemingly a precursor language to ancient Greek and other Mediterranean languages.

5. The Temples of Sunrise, Sunset, and Night, respectively.

6. This sigil bears many similarities to those discovered during excavation of other pre-antediluvian sites, specifically those concerning SCP-████, the "Royal House of Apollyon".

7. Due to the limitations of aircraft at the time, it would have been impossible for Dansen to accurately describe SCP-4840 due to it being over 3km higher than he would've been flying, leading many to speculate that the city was much closer to the ground at that point, perhaps 4.5 - 5km.

8. According to SCP-4840-A, the two structures were "cut from the same stone".

9. Thought to be the figure depicted in the murals within the Temples of Sunrise and Sunset.