3/4066 LEVEL 3/4066

CLASSIFIED

Item #: SCP-4066

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: All archaeological excavations of sites in the former Byzantine Empire are to be monitored by Research Task Force Digamma-7 ("Classical Cosmonauts") for instances of SCP-4066-A and -B. SCP-4066-A instances are to be documented and then defaced in ways consistent with decay, vandalism, or iconoclasm1 and returned; SCP-4066-B instances are to be confiscated and contained in an anomalous object storage vault at Site-77. Civilians who have come into contact with SCP-4066-A or -B instances are to be treated with Class-A amnestics.

Proposals for the study or reverse-engineering of SCP-4066-B instances should be submitted to the SCP-4066 containment lead, Dr. Kristin Maur, and require the approval of Site Director Gillespie.

Description: SCP-4066 is the collective designation for the dynasties of Byzantine emperors that were founded by, supported by, or composed of extraterrestrial or extradimensional entities. Between the ascension of Constantine I as sole Roman Emperor in 312 and the sack of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, almost every ruling family in the Byzantine Empire was in some way associated with extraterrestrial activity; during this period, there was very little confirmed extraterrestrial activity elsewhere on Earth. As of yet, no explanation for this trend has been found.

Art and literature from the Byzantine Empire that describes or depicts extraterrestrial entities and activities is designated SCP-4066-A; extraterrestrial technological artifacts from this period are designated SCP-4066-B.

Addendum: Emperors and Dynasties with Extraterrestrial Influences

This addendum contains short descriptions and summaries of the Byzantine dynasties with known extraterrestrial/extradimensional affiliations, alongside supplementary documents and data that serve to identify the nature and scope of those affiliations. These dynasties are designated SCP-4066-α through SCP-4066-π. For full dossiers on the individual dynasties, contact the containment lead, currently Dr. Kristin Maur.

Constantinian Dynasty - SCP-4066-α (312-363)

The emperor Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Mainstream historical sources claim that this conversion was the result of a vision Constantine experienced before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, in which he was instructed to adopt the sign of the Chi-Rho, a Christian symbol, to ensure his army's victory. Constantine's private journals, preserved in the library of the Great Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos, reveal that he received visions from the same entity throughout his reign; Constantine identifies this entity as either Sol Invictus or the Christian God, and says that the visions always came from "the morning sun himself". These visions gave Constantine advice on military, political, and economic matters, and encouraged him to support both the pagan cults of Mithras and Sol Invictus and the Christian church.

Constantine's dynastic successors continued to receive these visions and for the most part followed them, with the exception of his nephew, Julian the Apostate, who rejected the visions as the "messages of a false god" who was "preparing [the empire] for a war that is not ours". Julian believed that these visions had been misinterpreted by his predecessors, and that rather than advocating for Christianity, the visions wished him to found a new religion, which he described as "antithetical to the ancient customs of Rome and the new laws of the Christians". Julian argued against the messages he had received in a series of philosophical dialogues titled Against Himself; a section of the third dialogue is reproduced below.

Document 4066-α-17: Against Himself Chapter 3, p. 4-6

Circa 362 CE. Sixth-generation vellum copy, Venice, Italy. Greek. Translated by Gavin van Hofwegen, 1937.

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The main characters of the dialogue are Julian himself (Jul) and Phantasm (Pha), the representation of his visions.

Pha: But Julian, the world is in danger; nay, all worlds are in danger. My brothers and I weaken each day, and as we weaken, our enemies grow stronger.

Jul: And who, oh Phantasm, are these enemies of which you speak? Are they the Persians, who menace my empire's eastern borders? Are they the Goths or the Alemanni or the Franks, any of the barbarians my uncle subdued?

Pha: No, Julian, they are none of these.

Jul: Then they must be within the empire: my own rebellious subjects, in Gaul or in Syria, or perhaps my Christian cousins who covet my throne?

Pha: They are not within your empire, or within any mortal empire or kingdom or nation.

Jul: Have I angered the gods somehow? Or will the centaurs return from the wilds to make war on man once more? Or maybe the Christians speak the truth, and their god will return with a host of spirits and cast me down into Tartarus for my apostacy! Am I any closer, Phantasm?

Pha: You are no closer, Julian. Our enemies are not from the underworld, nor from the heavens. They live not on your world, nor on any world, nor in any star, nor in the space between the stars.

Jul: Then who, Phantasm, are these enemies, and where can they be found, if they are not anywhere in creation?

Pha: Our enemies are outside creation; they are unknown to man and to god; they hate the world and all life in it.

Jul: Then how, oh wise Phantasm, am I to combat them? Where can I march my legions, that I may fight these haters of all?

Pha: Only my brothers and I can fight them. You must support us in our eternal war.

Jul: And how can I support you?

Pha: Worship us. Lend us your blood for our eternal struggle. Make the sacrifices we require to continue our battle.

Jul: Now I see through your motives, Phantasm! You are hungry, are you not? Desirous of sacrifices? You crave the worship of mortals?

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The text continues for another seven pages; it ends with Julian concluding that Phantasm is some sort of minor spirit who has latched on to the imperial family, seeking worship and sacrifices. Investigation into the similarities between the philosophy articulated by the character of Phantasm and the Ortothan mythos of the Church of the Second Hytoth is ongoing.

Valentinian Dynasty - SCP-4066-β (364-379)

The Valentinian dynasty were members of a species of sapient humanoid extraterrestrials of unknown origin. SCP-4066-A instances depict Valentinian emperors and other members of their family with instectoid facial features, including compound eyes, chewing mouthparts similar to grasshoppers, and long antennae; these individuals had four arms, two on each side branching from a single shoulder joint, and two legs. Depictions of the Valentinian emperors exhibit a mild antimemetic effect, causing observers to perceive them as depictions of human beings; as a result, the anomalous nature of SCP-4066-β was not discovered until the first use of mnestic drugs by the Foundation in the 1980s.

Theodosian Dynasty - SCP-4066-γ (379-457)

Theodosius I, founder of the Theodosian dynasty, had close trading relationships with a number of extradimensional and extraterrestrial nation-states, including the Dominion of Cephus, the city-state of Alagadda, the Central L'Kir Co-Prosperity Tesseract, and New Carthage. These trade deals were brokered by two close advisors of the Emperor, Demetrios Makellos and Kourios Skotos, and resulted in an influx of extraterrestrial consumer goods, thaumaturgic and alchemical artifacts, and non-human slaves.

Leonid Dynasty - SCP-4066-δ (457-518)

The entire Leonid dynasty appears to have been fabricated at some point in the mid-8th century, replacing two Theodosian Emperors, Theodosius III and Arcadius II, and a non-dynastic emperor, Philip Chrysonomos2. Historical records and material evidence were significantly altered, although the memories of most individuals were not; nevertheless, only a few contemporary individuals seemed to notice the change, all of them monastic scholars, and none of them released that information publicly.

Examination of the Church of Saint Mary of the Spring, a sanctuary in modern Istanbul founded by the first Leonid Emperor, Leo I, revealed an inscription on the ancient cornerstone concealed by a series of antimemetic sigils; the inscription, originally written in both Latin and Lisk'Kvar3 has been reproduced below.

Document SCP-4066-δ-17: Cornerstone Inscription, Church of Saint Mary of the Spring

Date unclear. Inscription on marble, Istanbul, Turkey. Latin/Lisk'Kvar. Translated by Anne Benoit and Ezekiel N'krumah, 2012.

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In the Year of the World 59454, the Emperor Leo witnessed a miracle, the Mother of God giving him the power to cure a blind man. Upon his ascension to the throne, he founded upon this spring a church, dedicated to Saint Mary, in honor of the miracle.

[Translator's Note: The remainder of the inscription is in Lisk'Kvar ideograms, which have complex context-dependent meanings; the translation is necessarily imprecise.]

In the Era of the [Dark/Black/Hidden] Star5, "Cartwheels-Through-The-[Red/Orange/Burning]-[Fruit/Food/Pigment]-Trees"6 came to this [planet?], and on it created an [artwork/miracle]. "Cartwheel" [remade/rewrote] the [history?] of a [nation/people], but not their [minds/memories/souls]; all [sapient beings/artists] forget their [history?] too [quickly/easily/freely].

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The inscription is signed by the same "Cartwheel" mentioned in the text. The Foundation has as of yet been unable to ask any Lisk'Lurthan individuals about the Leonid dynasty, the inscription, or the individual mentioned within.

Justinian Dynasty - SCP-4066-ε (518-602)

Documents recovered from excavations within Nx-34 have revealed that all important members of the Justinian dynasty, including all Justinian emperors, were controlled by the psionic extraterrestrial species known to the inhabitants of Nx-34 as the "Soul-Thieves". A colony of Soul-Thieves was established in an artificial cavern in the harbor of Constantinople; when a member of the dynasty that was under the control of these entities left the city, they would be followed by a Soul-Thief either in the sea or in a levitating tank cloaked in a light-refraction field. The eventual deposition of Emperor Maurice by Phocas (see below) was possibly aided by some natural psionic resistance granted by Phocas' divergence from baseline humanity.

Phocas - SCP-4066-ζ (602-610)

SCP-4066-A instances depicting the usurper Emperor Phocas show the sloping forehead, pronounced brow ridge, and protruding jaw typical of Homo neanderthalensis; contemporary sources claim that he and his family spoke a dialect of Greek not like any spoken in the empire, and that he made occasional veiled references to a birthplace to which he could never return. Extraterrestrial/extradimensional origin unconfirmed, but likely.

Heraclian Dynasty - SCP-4066-η (610-695)

While no documentary evidence has been found linking the Heraclian Dynasty to extraterrestrial activity, archaeological excavations of sites from this period contain numerous instances of SCP-4066-B, mostly military armaments. A representative list is presented below.

Table 4066-η-1: Significant SCP-4066-η-B Instances

Site
Date (approximate)
Object(s)

Ephesus (Selçuk, Turkey)
614
Two artillery railguns, probably originally rendered inoperable by earthquake damage. Instances were found in what was once the bay outside the ancient harbor (now several kilometers inland due to silt deposition by the Küçükmenderes River). Instances appear to have been connected to some external power supply, which has not been recovered.

Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq)
627
Remains of four powered-armor exoskeletons, heavily battle-damaged and with the internal power sources removed. Instances are engraved with passages from Christian scriptures, and each has a panel on its chest depicting one of the four winged creatures named in the book of Revelation and associated with the four Christian evangelists: a lion, an ox, an angel and an eagle.

Jerusalem
637-8
Skeleton of a large six-legged mammalian creature, killed by a spear wound to the neck; genetic testing indicates extraterrestrial origin. Skeleton found inside heavily rusted scale armor with built-in saddle; design is similar to contemporary Byzantine horse armor.

Phoenicus (Finike, Turkey)
654
Wreck of a seagoing hovercraft, 15m in length. Hovercraft appears to have been solar-powered, and was equipped with a bronze ram at the prow and two ballistae amidships.

Dvin, Armenia
686-8
47 lithium-ion batteries, enclosed in a ceramic vessel. Batteries appear to have been used at time of deposition; a number of SCP-4066-B instances which could accept this shape of battery have been recovered.

These SCP-4066-B instances cannot be traced to a single extraterrestrial civilization; the Heraclian dynasty had probably established a relationship with some group of extraterrestrial arms dealers, although what they could have provided such a group in return for these weapons is unknown. It is possible that the formula for the incendiary compound known as "Greek fire", invented near the end of the Heraclian Dynasty, was also given by or purchased from extraterrestrial entities; research is ongoing.

Tiberius III Apsimar - SCP-4066-θ (698-705)

Tiberius III Apsimar was a Scientologist. Further information is restricted to personnel assigned to Project FROZEN SOUL and the Temporal Anomalies Department.

Anastasios II - SCP-4066-ι (713-715)

Recovery of the remains of Anastasios II revealed that this Emperor was a humanoid robot, controlled from a small cockpit within the chest cavity. The cockpit is sized for an entity between 15 and 20 cm in height, with at least six manipulating appendages. Anastasios II was powered by a small fusion reactor, which was damaged during its execution by Leo III; the identity and fate of its pilot are unknown.

Irene of Athens - SCP-4066-κ (797-802)

Irene of Athens, regent for her son Constantine VI and then sole ruler in her own right, was the host for an extraterrestrial parasite, which was invisible to the naked eye but could be seen by individuals with anomalously enhanced sight. Descriptions of the parasite's appearance vary; one of Irene's advisors, a eunuch named Aetios, compiled a number of these descriptions in Τὸν Βίον Τᾶς Βασσιλίσσας (The Life of the Empress), his biography of Irene.

Document 4066-κ-5: Τὸν Βίον Τᾶς Βασσιλίσσας, Book 4, Chapter 6

Circa 800. Fourth-generation parchment copy, Rome, Italy. Greek. Translated by Ioannes Pappapetrou, 1927.

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The Empress could see her own daimon7, of course, and so could her mages and alchemists, and those priests and monks gifted by the Lord with heavenly sight. But no two of them saw it the same way, and argued among themselves over who was more correct in their seeing.

The court wizard, the eunuch Bartholomeos Timotheou, saw a halo of flames around the Empress' head, from which golden eyes stared in all directions; and of course he swore that it was a member of the lower orders of angels, sent to advise the empress of the Lord's will. His apprentice, Petros Polydactulos (he had a sixth finger on his left hand, a sure sign of sorcerous talent), believed that the Empress was constantly circled at her waist by a five flying discs, each of a different precious stone, that passed through all solid matter as they orbited her. The Egyptian physician we called Harpocrates8, as he was mute, sketched what he saw when he applied a certain ointment to his eyes; curls of smoke emerged from the Empress' ears and nose, and coiled upwards in intricate spirals.

The priests saw visions stranger still, although despite the oddness of these sights none of them believed that the daimon was infernal in nature. Brother Leontios of the Stoudion saw swirling black lines crawling, snake-like, across the Empress' face; these lines would sometimes leave her skin, travel in the air for a short distance, and alight on her once more. The Patriarch of Constantinople, when briefly granted an angelic vision as he was giving the Empress the holy eucharist, saw needles, some of black iron and some of red brass, bloodlessly penetrating her head and chest; they sank in and raised back up, sometimes in regular waves and sometimes without any pattern he could see.

The Empress herself claimed it appeared as a squid, or an octopus, whose tentacles curled around her head; only she could hear its voice, which was that of an old woman, but eloquent and refined, as if it had been trained as an orator. I am reminded, as I retell these descriptions, of the Persian parable of the blind men and the elephant; each man feels only a part of the beast, and thus each believes the elephant to be something more simple than it truly is. The empress' daimon must be as far above us as we are above the creeping insects of the earth; perhaps one man can only see one part of it, and is misled by his own fallible senses.

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Aetios claims that the parasite's advice was cryptic and often seemingly unhelpful, but that Irene "derived great comfort from its messages" and followed its commands whenever possible. He complied some of the parasite's messages, and Irene's interpretations, in a companion piece to Τὸν Βίον Τᾶς Βασσιλίσσας titled Ἀγαθαδαιμωνολόγοι (The Teachings of the Virtuous Daimon), some excerpts of which is reproduced below.

Document 4066-κ-7: Excerpts from the Ἀγαθαδαιμωνολόγοι

Circa 801. Fourth-generation parchment copy, Rome, Italy. Greek. Translated by Ioannes Pappapetrou, 1929.

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The Daimon said, "An emperor of an empire that has no emperor. The sun in reverse, rising west and falling east. Betrayal leads to slavery leads to betrayal." The Empress said, "It speaks of the Frankish pretender9; he claims the crown, but it is mine alone. He will try to steal it, and he will fall."

The Daimon asked, "Why are we not philosophers?" The Empress said, "Because the philosophers were pagans, although virtuous." The Daimon asked, "Why are we not philosophy?" To this, the Empress had no response.

The Daimon said, "Not all truth is happy. Not all wounds are bloody. Not all plants are leafy. Beware the butterfly." The Empress said, "The unhappy truth is the power of the Arabs. The bloodless wound is the theft of the Bucellarian theme. The leafless plant is my childless state. The butterfly is he who will try to depose me."

The Daimon said, "Lust. Self-pleasure. Corruption in the highest orders of power. A kingdom founded on the desires of a youth." The Empress said, "The Arab kingdom is decadent to its core. It cannot hold before the virtues of Christendom. We will overcome them and take back the holy land."

The Daimon said, "All the demons are loosed, and those who come after see the messages of those yet to come but already dead, and they understand them, and they secure the threat." The Empress knew the meaning, but could not tell me, for I had not enough trust to know her deepest secrets.

The Daimon said, "History is tragedy. Tragedy is history. Sisters are sisters and foes are foes." The Empress said, "My sister-in-law is Anthousa, who lives now as a nun; my foe is the rest of that family, who covet the throne that was my son's and then mine. The past tragedies of that family are well-known."

The Daimon said, "Do not name anything you do not want to become." The Empress said, "When one dwells on failure, one leans every more quickly toward that failure. I think and speak only of success."

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When Irene died in exile on the island of Lesbos in 803, the parasite died with her; an imperial agent sent to retrieve her body claimed that it was buried in a mass of stone, metal, broken glass and rotting flesh, filling the entirety of her small house.

Leo V - SCP-4066-λ (813-820)

The personal journals of Leo V, dictated to a court scribe and preserved by the Monastery of Stoudios and then the Bab-i Mukhfi10, describe an abduction experience the emperor experienced around age 20. An excerpt has been reproduced below.

Document SCP-4066-λ-3: Personal Journal of Leo V

Circa 814. Fifth-generation paper copy, Istanbul, Turkey. Greek. Translated by Anne Benoit, 1977.

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Even before I served under Bardanes in his failed revolt, I knew I would be Emperor some day. God had chosen me, as he chose Constantine the Great, by sending me a vision of the heavens.

In the third Indiction, the second such since my birth11, in August, I went out from the City12 with some companions, to hunt in the forests of the Bucellarian Theme. We were staying at an inn along the road to Ancyra13, and after a night of celebrations, we retired to our rooms.

In the darkest part of the night, I left my room to make use of the latrine; and as I was returning from that building, a bright light shone down from above, stunning me where I stood. I was lifted from the ground by unseen hands, and carried up towards the light, which I now saw emanated from bright lamps mounted upon some flying vessel; I was carried into the vessel through a door on its underside, and placed upon a polished metal floor.

Before me in the room stood an angel. He stood half again as tall as me, in shining silver armor that covered his skin entirely; his helmet had a face-plate of clear glass, through which I could see his face. He had no nose, and only a single eye; and his mouth was filled with sharp teeth like a dog's; and yet I was not afraid, for I knew him to be an angel of the Lord.

He spoke, then; and though he did not speak Greek, nor any other mortal language, I could understand his words, for the language of the angels is comprehensible to all. A metal table rose up from the ground, and he instructed me to undress, and to lay upon it, and when I had done so he commanded me to sleep, and I slept.

The sleep was dreamless, but seemed long; and when I awoke it was morning, and I was in my bed, with a fresh scar across my stomach, as if I had been under the surgeon's knife. Later in life, while I was making war against the Arabs as governor of Anatolia, I was cut deeply across the belly by a Syrian swordsman, whom my companions slew shortly after, and as I was being treated for the wound, a strange artifact was found under the flesh of my stomach, which I will now describe.

The artifact was made of white stone, or very fine pottery, without seam or opening, and inlaid upon its surface in silver were strange designs, which I thought to be the written language shared by the Grigori with the first men after Adam. When it was brought before Brother Ioannes Euglossos of the Stoudion, who is known to have the gift of tongues, he understood it and transcribed it into Greek; and I will read to you now what he wrote.

"Glumoriclopharnion14 Internal Tracking Device. Insert Into Central Body Cavity. For Assistance Contact Us By Far-Sound At Eight Seven Six Eleven Four One Zero Two Nine Ten One Nine Or At Our Through-Net Location15."

Neither I nor any of the scholars of the Stoudion could understand the message, but perhaps my son or my son's son will comprehend its secrets, and contact the angels once more for guidance. Until then, the artifact is stored with other holy relics in the royal vaults.

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The artifact in question, SCP-4066-λ-B-1, was captured by the Ottoman Empire during the fall of Constantinople; it came into the possession of the Foundation when the Bab-i Mukhfi was disbanded in the aftermath of the First World War.

Macedonian Dynasty - SCP-4066-μ (867-1056)

The Macedonian Emperors belonged to a variety of alien species, equipped with memetic and holographic concealment devices that allowed them to pass as human. This dynasty was put into power by an extraterrestrial entertainment corporation, "HarrShaNget Pseudo-Authentic Productions"; the power struggles between the various emperors and their fake family members were recorded and broadcast on a number of interplanetary entertainment services as a reality television show, "Primitive Leadership Overtaken and Contested". The show was canceled after the 19th season, and all remaining contestants either faked their deaths or were replaced with androids.

Doukid Dynasty - SCP-4066-ν (1059-1081)

Members of the Doukid dynasty had access to consciousness-transfer technology similar to that found in SCP-1980. Arcadius the Ephesian, a court eunuch who wrote biographies of the Doukid emperors, reported that each member of the family "wore close to their skin a dark metal amulet, covered with gemstones"; when one member of the family, Ioannes Doukas, had his amulet taken from him briefly by a childhood playmate, "his soul fled from his eyes, and only when the amulet was returned was he himself once more". All Doukid emperors reportedly searched for body doubles, claiming to be afraid of assassination plots; on at least two recorded occasions, one of these emperors was reportedly killed in battle, only to appear alive later and claim that it was a body double who had died instead. Whether this technology came from another site like SCP-1980 or was introduced independently is unknown.

Komnenid Dynasty - SCP-4066-ξ (1081-1185)

Study of the preserved remains of Komnenid emperors has indicated that numerous members of the family were heavily cybernetically modified by an unknown entity or group. An abridged table of known augmented dynasty members and their modifications is presented below.

Table SCP-4066-ξ-1: Augmented Komnenoi

Dynasty Member
Augmentations
Other Notes

Alexios I Komnenos
Artificial right arm and leg; subdermal ballistic fiber across torso and neck; artificial organ of unknown purpose in upper pelvic cavity.
Decay of organic parts of corpse made the purpose of the extra organ unclear, but it seems to have been connected to the reproductive system.

Anna Komnene
None found; see notes.
Body showed signs of post-mortem mutilation: eyes, lungs, heart, and left leg were missing. It is possible that augmentations were removed for reuse after death.

John II Komnenos
Entire digestive tract, from esophagus to colon, replaced with artificial organs capable of filtering out poisons and pathogens and digesting an number of substances normally indigestible by humans. Left arm artificial from elbow down.
Replacement of left arm appears to have happened shortly before death.

Manuel I Komnenos
Full-body cybernetic replacement from the neck down.
Several parts of body were missing, including right arm, both feet, several internal components, and pieces of the artificial skin and armor. (See Alexios II, below.)

Maria of Antioch
Artificial eyes, left leg.
Left leg seems to be slightly shorter than right leg. Possible scarring around sites of implants indicates moderate to severe rejection syndrome.

Alexios II Komnenos
Right arm, both feet, heart, liver, and parts of skin replaced with artificial components.
Implants match missing components from body of Manuel I, and are not proportioned properly for Alexios II's body. Possible scarring from surgery procedure around implant sites

Andronikos I Komnenos
Artificial left arm.
Arm is made of bronze and silver, using contemporary metallurgy techniques. Contains no electronic components. Possibly made in imitation of advanced prostheses worn by earlier dynasts.

Save for Andronikos I's primitive prosthetic arm, all of the prostheses worn by Komnenid emperors and family members were similar in aesthetic and composition, presumably deriving from the same source.

Angelid Dynasty - SCP-4066-ο (1185-1204)

The Angelid dynasty was heavily funded by a single instance of SCP-3201, which produced gold, silver, and bronze in exchange for icons of obscure saints. The Angelids believed that the SCP-3201 instance was an angel, who had been sent by God to give boons to their family; the founder of the family, Constantine Angelos, chose his surname to reflect this relationship. It is believed that this dynasty fell from power when the SCP-3201 instance was satisfied with its collection of icons and no longer provided them with precious metals.

Palaiologan Dynasty - SCP-4066-π (1261-1453)

The Palaiologan Dynasty was not controlled, supported, or composed of extraterrestrial entities; however, they were aware of the SCP-4066 phenomenon, and took steps to counteract the influence of extraterrestrial entities on Byzantine politics. Michael VIII Palaiologos, after reclaiming Constantinople from the Latin Empire, founded the Military Order of Saint Constantine the Great, an organization modeled on contemporary Catholic military orders like the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller; its founding document, the Creed of Saint Constantine, established the duties and responsibilities of the organization, and is reproduced below.

Document SCP-4066-π-1: Creed of Saint Constantine

Circa 1265. Marble inscription, Istanbul, Turkey. Greek. Translated by William Wentworth FitzWilliam, Viscount Milton, 1864.

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We swear by the Trinity of the Lord God Almighty, the Father in Heaven Above and the Son Jesus Christ who died for our Sins and the Holy Spirit;

And we swear by the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, and by Saint Constantine the Great, and by all the other Saints who watch over us from Heaven;

And we swear by our Loyalty to the Emperor and to the Empire of the Romans, the Bastion of Christendom, now and forever;

We swear to protect the Empire of the Romans and all her Subjects and Protectorates from all Enemies and Influences that are not of this Earth, whether they seem to come from Heaven or from Hell or from some Unknown Sphere;

And we swear to protect the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church from the same Enemies and Influences, and to obey the Teachings and Traditions of that Church;

And we swear to use the Unearthly Weapons and Tools passed down to our Order by the Emperor to defend against their Creators, and to maintain the Condition of such Artefacts to the best of our Ability;

And we swear to guard both Church and Empire from Dangers Within as well as Without, never allowing Unearthly Corruption to Take Root in any Office of those Sacred Bodies, and to thus guard our own Order, that our Righteous Purpose never be Suborned.

This we swear, before our Brothers in Faith and in Arms, before our Emperor, before our Church, and before our God. Amen.

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Membership in the Order was restricted to Byzantine nobility from families that had never had "the taint of the unearthly," and several prominent noble families, including the remaining branches of the Angeloi and Komnenoi, were thus banned from the Order entirely. While the Order of Constantine was not the first esoteric containment organization, it was the first to be more than moderately successful; they repelled a number of attempts by extraterrestrial and extradimensional forces to depose, control, bribe, or replace various Palaiologan Emperors, and on two separate occasions led the armies of the Empire to victory against full-fledged extraterrestrial invasions. These victories were recorded in the Συγγραφαὶ Ἱππῶν Κονσταντίνου (Histories of the Knights of Constantine), a compendium written by a number of Byzantine scholars and court scribes; an excerpt is reproduced below, describing the Battle of Nicomedia, fought in 1312 against an invasion force apparently comprised of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial mercenaries employed by an individual known as "Alexander Star-Born".

Document 4066-π-12: Συγγραφαὶ Ἱππῶν Κονσταντίνου Book 7, Chapter 23

Circa 1315. Second-generation vellum copy, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Greek. Translated by Ioannes Pappapetrou, 1933.

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The emissaries from Star-Born came on the eve of the battle. There were three of them, Alexander's most trusted companions and subordinates. Each was a king in his own right, but had sworn himself to the warlord in the hope of expanding his kingdom under another's protection and patronage.

The first was Agaleüs Ironclad, a titan half again as tall as a man, whose body was more iron than flesh; he commanded five thousand infantry. The second was Gnephrou Dorokrates, an octopus the size of a small boy, who sat upon a large plate that flew at waist-height; he commanded two thousand cavalry on mechanical steeds and four hundred on plates similar to his own. The third was Theulian, called Suneater, a Nubian of modest stature whose skin was covered in shifting patterns of light; he commanded twelve sorcerers and their twelve-by-twelve demonic familiars.

They delivered unto the Emperor and his advisors a proposition: if he were to swear fealty to the Star-Born and aid him in his conquest of the whole world, he and his descendants would be governors thereof until their line should die out. The Emperor, knowing this Alexander's true nature, his endless treacheries and his lust for power, refused. The emissaries returned to their master, swearing retribution.

Before dawn, the two armies assembled on the plains outside the city's walls. The Star-Born's light-ballistae fired as the first rays of the sun came over the hills; they were deflected by the invisible Aegis granted long ago to Constans II by his benefactors, and an answering volley of stones and fire-jars came from our war-engines. These landed among the German mercenaries on the enemy's right flank, slaying many men and causing great confusion.

As the armies marched toward each other, arrows and flame-lances and bullets filled the air. Our cavalry attacked the right flank of mercenaries, slaying those who had not been slain by the earlier attack; the flying cavalry of the Star-Born's forces tried to intercept them, but was repelled by a barrage of war-rockets. The infantry met in the middle, the metal-men commanded by Agaleüs crashing through our own ranks. The center held after the first charge, and was reinforced by our war-constructs, a scarce hundred of which had been captured after their last invasion.

The battle continued throughout the day; neither side could gain the upper hand, so evenly were the forces matched. We thought we might fight until the last man fell, and still not truly repel this invasion. But the Lord God was with us on that day, and delivered us from such a defeat. Near sunset, the enemy began to retreat; and as they fled, the same commanders who had come before the Emperor on the previous day rode out bearing a flag of truce. His armor's air-passages having been clogged with the mud of the field and the gore of the men he slew, Alexander had suffocated; and, like his ancient namesake, he had not established his succession, and each general wished to return to his kingdom and consolidate his own power. They returned to their ships and their sky-chariots, and left our lands.

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After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Order of Constantine was split; one branch of the knights, believing that the Ottoman Empire had, by right of conquest, taken up the mantle of the Roman Empire, swore their fealty to the Ottoman Sultan, becoming an integral part of the Bab-i Mukhfi, while another branch fled for Russia, continuing their work in support of the Orthodox Church. The Russian branch of the Order was folded into the Tsar's Seers16 by Tsar Peter the Great in 1699, a Foundation precursor organization that specialized in the preemptive destruction of esoteric threats via precognition and thaumatological advanced-warning systems.

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Footnotes

1. The destruction of icons and other images for religious purposes; iconoclasm was practiced by Byzantine Christians during parts of the 8th and 9th centuries, and occasionally by the various Muslim empires that invaded and conquered parts of the Byzantine empire beginning in the 7th century.

2. "Gold-named", after his successful tax and coinage reforms that were later credited to the fictional Anastasius I.

3. The primary language spoken by the Lisk'Lurthan, an extraterrestrial species encountered via SCP-2088. The Lisk'Lurthan are pentaradially symmetrical, with an ovoid body approximately half a meter in height and a quarter meter in diameter surrounded by five three-jointed arms; on one end of the body there is a mouth surrounded by five compound eyes, on the other a cloaca for the expulsion of waste. The Lisk'Lurthan locomote primarily via brachiation in forests or on specialized structures, or by "cartwheeling" on flat ground. Most Lisk'Lurthan encountered in SCP-2088 have been performers, favoring various forms of gymnastics, a combination combat sport and performance art similar to human professional wrestling, and choral singing.

4. 437 CE. This dating scheme is anachronistic, not being put into use until 691 CE.

5. The Foundation does not currently have a full grasp on Lisk'Lurthan calendar systems; the current Lisk'Lurthan chronological era is the Era of the [Yellow/Bright/Precise] Star.

6. Probably a personal name, hereafter "Cartwheel"

7. A kind of guardian spirit, which was said to provide advice and guidance to the person it watched over.

8. A Hellenized version of the Egyptian god Horus, usually depicted making a "shushing" motion with his finger in front of his mouth.

9. Charlemagne, who was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, possibly in response to a woman holding sole rulership of the Byzantine Empire.

10. Also known as the "Hidden Porte", the main normalcy-preservation agency of the Ottoman Empire.

11. i.e. the year 794-5. Before the year 988, the secular calendar of the Byzantine Empire used 15-year administrative cycles, called "indictions", to measure time; the year started on September 1st, as opposed to January 1st.

12. i.e. Constantinople

13. Modern Ankara, Turkey

14. Translator's note: Probably a transliteration of a proper noun.

15. Translator's note: "τηλέφωνος", literally meaning "far-sound", is the modern Greek word for "telephone"; "διαδίκτυον", literally meaning "through-net", is the modern Greek word for "internet". For examples of similar linguistic phenomena, see Arvidsson and Nguyen, "Anachronistic Vocabulary in Glossolalia and Thaumotranslation," Journal of Paralinguistics 34.1 (2011), 45-70.

16. Πровидцы Царя (Providtsy Tsarya)