But I'm telling you. We're not the soldiers. 
We're not driving tanks. We're not even the 
civilians watching as their homes burn. 


We're the rats. The rats and mice whose nests 
the tanks crushed on the way to the battlefield 
somewhere else. We're the rabbits whose 
burrows were accidentally filled with mustard 
gas. We're the bugs the soldiers crushed 
under their feet on their way back to the 
trenches. 


The rats, the mice, the rabbits, the bugs, they 
may all believe the soldiers and tanks were all 
about them, that they all existed to destroy 
them. They're all stupid. Just like we are. Just 
like you are. (Laughter) Fuck it, I'll just say it. 
Give away my big fucking secret. Fine. You 
got me. You knew all along, didn't you? Don't 
play coy, you miserable shit. 


Please. Let's just put all our cards on the table. 
Yes, | know about the Worm. | know about 
Project Palisade. | know everything. 


See, what I'm really talking about is the Worm. 
THE WORM, do you still say it in all caps? | 
bet you do. | know what you think the Worm is. 
| know because | used to think it. That it's 
some kind of god, some kind of ultimate 
destroyer. 


Well, it's not. It's more like one of those drone 
strikes the US government was always doing 
when | last checked out of this reality. The 
ones that always missed and hit some poor 
random civilians. The Worm wasn't ever aimed 
at us. The gods above gods above gods fired it 
at something actually important and missed. 


Honestly, from what I've learned out there, the 
Worm isn't even on the level of a missile. No, 
it's basically a rock. A rock, thrown in a war 
using bullets and tanks and nukes, and it just 
so happened to ricochet in our general 
direction. 


And because we're human, which makes us 
shitty, and because of being Foundation, 
which makes us even shittier, we devised a 
way to keep the rock bouncing mindlessly 
around us, maybe forever. Ramping up the 
damage exponentially, sure, but at least we 
survive a little longer, just a little longer. 
Everything you've done, your entire project, all 
to bounce a rock around, because we aren't 
even on the level where we could just step out 
of the way. 


So | left. Can you blame me? Goodbye to 
Palisade. Goodbye to humanity. Someone like 
me can survive out there a long time, away 
from the firelight, out in the dark. So | thought. 


You're not still pretending to be confused... 


...Oh. Oh, fuck. You're not the original at all, 
are you? This whole time... You're just another 
offshoot. 


After the exchange above, subject ceased talking and 
was unresponsive to any attempts at communication for 
thirteen days. 


Afterwards, subject has refused to discuss any subject 
related to SCP-3591 or the above topics. 


SCP-3591 containment procedures updated after cross- 
reference with extra-universal files on Project 
Palisade. 


SCP-3593: The Betrayal of the ORIA 


Item #: SCP-3593 
Object Class: Euclid Keter 


Special Containment Procedures: (Valid as of 18/12/2017) 
Research Base 89 has been established within the Koh-e Sulayman 
to monitor and research SCP-3593. A dedicated team, fluent in 
Azeri and Persian, is to monitor SCP-3593 at all times. It is vital that 
SCP-3593-2 remains dormant, and SCP-3593-1's behaviour must 
be altered to that end. 


Research on how to penetrate SCP-3593 or communicate with 
SCP-3593-2 is ongoing. Diplomatic overtures towards the ORIA for 
cooperation on SCP-3593's containment are ongoing. 


Description: SCP-3593 is a cave, roughly 58ms in size, in the Koh- 
e Sulayman range in Qandahar Province, Afghanistan. An 
impenetrable layer of earth approximately 3m deep! surrounds 
SCP-3593, with the exception of a small entryway, where an 
invisible barrier blocks all entry into SCP-3593. This entryway is 
located at the end of a tunnel approximately 6km2 into the 
mountainside. 


Within SCP-3593 are two humanoid figures, hereafter referred to as 
SCP-3593-1 and SCP-3593-2. SCP-3593-1 is an emaciated figure 
who has been crucified onto a diagonal wooden cross. This cross is 
placed directly behind the entryway to the cave, close enough to 
allow communication from the outside. SCP-3593-1 almost 
continually speaks in an incomprehensible glossolalia. It only 
occasionally speaks in a comprehensible language, ordinarily an 
antiquated form of Azeri but occasionally also in Persian. On these 
occasions, SCP-3593-1 demonstrates a greater level of sapience 
and awareness of its surroundings and people standing outside 
SCP-3593, occasionally responding or reacting to Foundation 
questioning. 


SCP-3593-1 is naked except for a cloth around its waist, and lacks 
all bodily hair except a long moustache. SCP-3593-1's legible 
speech almost always seems to consist of praise of the early 
modern Nuatavi sect3, both in terms of their theology and their social 
role. SCP-3593-1 has only been known to deviate from such praise 
on one occasion (Incident 3593-1), the details of which can be found 
below. 


SCP-3593-2's appearance is difficult to ascertain due to the vantage 
point of external observers. Ordinarily, it is seated on a rock 
approximately 4.6m behind SCP-3593-1, with its face pointed 
downwards. It is dressed in a black robe, and holds a large, curved 
knife across its knees. SCP-3593-2 has never been observed to 
move or vocalise by Foundation researchers, except during Incident 
3593-1. 


SCP-3593 was discovered on 18/10/2011, when the Foundation 
was notified to its presence by a message from the Office for the 
Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts (ORIA). The message consisted 
solely of a set of co-ordinates and a request for the Foundation to 
"solve the problem at hand." This was a particularly noteworthy 
incident due to the usual lack of direct communication from the 
ORIA and their conventional hostility towards Foundation 
interference in the region. To date, the Foundation has been unable 
to extract any other information about the anomaly from the ORIA. 
Only one defector has expressed knowledge of the anomaly4, and 
has refused to give the Foundation any information. 


Below is a series of fragments of the speeches of SCP-3593-1 and 
the conversations between it and Foundation personnel. These have 
been translated from the original Persian and Azeri. 


+Transcript 


SCP-3593-1: Four... four, there are always 
four... the fire, water, air, earth, mingling, 
dispersing, purifying, Adam becomes 
Muhammad becomes Mahmud, mingling, 
same substance, same substance, the 
Dervish told me, he told me, it must be true, 
the law is abrogated the ajamé are free... 


SCP-3593-1: Who was | before this... 


Dr. Rosenberg: Who were you before this 
imprisonment? 


SCP-3593-1: Before this life... this body, flesh 
blood bone fire water air earth, one divinity one 
substance will all divinity, calligrapher or artist? 
Mahmud was Muhammad purified, an ajami 
for the ajami cycle’, who was |? A king purified 
from an earlier king, but | was not purified, | 
am the impure, | am the imbalance, the traitor, 
lamlamlamlamtiam... 


SCP-3593-1: Fleeing, fleeing, running, to far 
India where they were safe from him, the 
traitor, the king8... the king sits in his parlour 
and thinks, mulls, contemplates, dies and is 
reborn, eats, sleeps, thinks, never knowing 
truth, divorced from his divinity... they put it all 
in me, not the king but the slave of Ali's 
threshold, all through me, all in my head, all in 
my heart, all in my being, humanity's conduit... 


SCP-3593-1: Eight thousand years of Arab 
rule, eight thousand years of ajami rule, how 
many has it been? Is it time yet? Is it time for 
my death yet? 


Dr. Rosenberg: Why do you need to die? 


SCP-3593-1: Divinity in all things is divinity in 
the one. We cannot, they cannot, trust the king 
again, the king must die, the king must be the 
conduit for the rise of the ajami, praise 
Mahmud, sweet Mahmud... 


Dr. Rosenberg: What do you mean about 
divinity? 


SCP-3593-1: All connected by a single thread, 


further. 


Agent Foster: Did you have the body scanned 
or order an X-ray beforehand? 


Dr. Itzkowitz: We did. | said we were doing it 
by the book. 


Agent Foster: You felt that was enough? 
Dr. Itzkowitz: ... 


Agent Foster: Doctor? Can you please 
answer? 


Dr. Itzkowitz: ...| didn't see a need for further 
counter-measures. We were dealing with time 
constraints to perform the autopsy before the 
incineration deadline. So no. 


Agent Foster: (scribbling) Then what 
happened? 


Dr. Itzkowitz: It came back to life... 
Agent Foster: You were present? 


Dr. Itzkowitz: | was in the observation booth. | 
was the one that called security. 


Agent Foster: Was there a reason why 
security wasn't on standby? 


Dr. Itzkowitz: | told Doctor Sharma to take 
care of that. Apparently he didn't. 


Agent Foster: Yes. Now Sharma is dead. 
Dr. Itzkowitz: Yes. 


Agent Foster: (scribbling) Tell me about 
Doctor Briggs during this incident. He was the 


born dying decomposing, all within a single 
cycle, all containing common divinity, all one, 
all fed through the king, all inside him, waiting, 
to inaugurate the cycle of the ajami... 


SCP-3593-1: They come, they came, they will 
come again... he sits on the battlefield, 
watching his brokenness, he understood but 
not wholly, he understood the fire but not its 
form, understood the passion, the ride, as | did 
not, | killed it, | betrayed them, my followers, 
like they betrayed you, your Foundation, your, 
your your... 


Dr. Rosenberg: Wh- Who betrayed us? You 
know who we are? 


SCP-3593-1: They betrayed you... the spirit of 
the age, the ajami spirit, the men who covet 
and the women who need, the desperate ones 
who were sorry, SO So sorry, sorry for what 
they did... divinity in one is divinity in all... 


Addendum 1: On 19/01/2017, SCP-3593-1's manner of speech 
took on an unusual level of legibility, concurrent with a dramatic 
change in the topic. The results of this can be seen in the transcript 
below. 


+Incident 3593-1 


Officer on duty: Dr. Safi Rosenberg, Level 2 
Researcher. 


<Begin Log> 


SCP-3593-1: ...and glory to the Dervish, glory 
to Mahmud, glory to Yusufi the Shah... no... 
no not to him... no... the heresy of the 
Nuqtavis cannot be abided. The Nuqtavis must 
be purged, must be extirpated. You, there. 


Dr. Rosenberg: Er- Yes? 


SCP-3593-1: You must ride to Esfahan at 
once. The city will let you in, it was how | 
ordered it built. There are Nuqtavis here who 
are planning sedition against the state. | am 
the Shah, | must have order. | must have 
peace. | must stop the men of regret and 
reclamation. Send for my son, Mohammad 
Bag- no, no... 


Dr. Rosenberg: I'm afraid that is not possible. 
Are you are aware of your present condition? 


SCP-3593-1: What condition? | am perfectly 
well. Send for- for Amano'llah, he'll... no.... 


At this point, SCP-3593-2 is seen to raise its 
head. 


SCP-3593-1: No... no he- Send for Sultan 
Mohammad, my other son. He will know. He- 
he was- Where am I? Is this Alamut? Where 
are they gone, the others, the ajami 
Reclaimers? Don't they know what happens to 
those who are not ajami, when the cycle is 
inaugurated- 


SCP-3593-2: He will not come. 


SCP-3593-1 looks shocked, and attempts to 
turn around. SCP-3593-2 rises, and lifts up the 
dagger. SCP-3593-2's appearance is now 
more visible; it is a dark-haired male with large 
wounds across its face, hands and body. Later 
analysis determined that these wounds were 
consistent with those made by Iranian muskets 
from the sixteenth century. 


Dr. Rosenberg: | am Dr. Safi Rosenberg of 
the SCP Foundation. Please identify yourself. 


SCP-3593-1: Y- you're dead. | had you shot. 


SCP-3593-2 begins advancing towards 
SCP-3593-1. 


SCP-3593-1: | had you killed! | had you all 
killed! You and the rest of- | won't lie any more! 
| have chanted your praises for centuries, you, 
you who dug me from my tomb when the 
Afghans plundered it, you who will kill them all, 
you who- 


SCP-3593-2: Recant your betrayal. 


SCP-3593-1: | had you shot! You filthy heretic! 
| crowned you, girded you, watched your 
failure, watched- 


SCP-3593-2: Recant your betrayal. 


SCP-3593-2 has reached SCP-3593-1. It 
places its knife across SCP-3593-1's neck. 


Dr. Rosenberg: Please, tell us your name. 
Your identity. Why do you- 


SCP-3593-2: Because he has not recanted his 
betrayal. 


SCP-3593-2 pauses, staring at SCP-3593-1. 
SCP-3593-1 panics, slightly cutting its neck on 
SCP-3593-2's knife. SCP-3593-1 then relaxes. 


SCP-3593-1: |... | praise the great Mahmud... 
| praise him, | praise him, his vision, the end of 
the cycle, the restoration of the ajami, the true 
ajami, the real ajami, | praise him, | praise him, 
| praise him... 


SCP-3593-1's speech degenerates once 
again. SCP-3593-2 moves away from 
SCP-3593-1. 


Dr. Rosenberg: W-wait! | demand you tell me 
your identity! Who are you? What do you want 
with him? 


SCP-3593-2 does not respond to this or further 
questioning. It returns to its original position. 


<End Log> 


Addendum 2: On 16/12/2017, the ORIA defector Dr. Ismail 
Khorasani was found dead in his quarters, having hung himself with 
a length of rope. There was no suicide note, but a fragment of an 
ORIA memorandum was found on his desk. A transcript of the 
memorandum is as follows: 


+Document 1 


lends further credence to the theory that the 
figures are indeed 'Abbas and Yusufi. Given 
the respective positions of these two within this 
Nuagtavi offshoot (as demonstrated in Section 
3) and the evidence of our alchemists (as 
demonstrated in Section 15), the Nuqtavis 
tapped into some interconnected aspect of the 
human race, filtering their "divinity", as they 
term it, through the person of 'Abbas and with 
the parameters controlled by Yusufi. 


The Nuqtavi conception of reality, its 
interconnectedness, and their desire for the 
abrogation of Arab rule and the inauguration of 
ajami rule are thus extremely dangerous. It is 
only by luck that they had chosen this poetic 
manner to inaugurate their changeover; the 
death of the king who thwarted their last 
attempt at victory in order to usher in their 
ultimate triumph. 


Regardless, the facts of the matter remain. 
With the extinction of the Nugtavis, Yusufi no 
longer held any definition as to who was or 


was not an ajam/ in spirit. And while Dr. 
Khorasani's actions may have been well- 
intentioned, the fact remains that the ORIA's 
stated mission is the protection of Iran and the 
broader Islamic world. With the term ajam and 
the ORIA now inextricably linked in Yusufi's 
mind, and all other humans therefore 
presumably classified as Arab, we are directly 
responsible for the worldwide 


Following the discovery of this document, SCP-3593 has 
been reclassified as Keter. 


Footnotes 

1. exactly onedaca trayas, an ancient Iranian unit of measurement 
2. believed to be exactly oneparasang, another ancient Iranian unit 
of measurement 

3. The Nugtavis were a sect founded at the end of the 14th century 
by Mahmud Pasikhani, who claimed to possess a divine revelation 
superseding that of Muhammad. They are notable for their Gnostic 
sensibilities and their belief in alternating cycles of time, with a 
period of religious rule by "Arabs" (i.e. by Islam) being replaced by a 
period of "ajami” rule (i.e. by Iranians acting in a Mazdean religious 
tradition). 

4. Dr. Isma’'il Khorasani, an archeologist specialising in anomalous 
forms of architecture. 

5. Believed to refer to Dervish Khusraw, a Nugtavi leader in Qazvin 
in the 16th century. 

6. An Arabic term referring to a non-Arab, which was usually used 
by the Nugqtavis and others in the period when they flourished as a 
term for Iranians and Persian-speakers. 

7. Believed to be a reference to the Nuqtavi belief in cyclical time, 
with alternating periods of Arab and Iranian rule.