Children of the Scarlet King

The Children of the Scarlet King (GoI-586) is an ancient religion that worships a figure known as the Scarlet King. Though under many different names, the Children have existed since the end of the Stone Age, as the King began influencing the Daevites, humanity, and even the Yeren with promises of endless power and wealth under his tutelage. The Children are extremely hostile to the SCP Foundation and baseline humanity as a whole, threatening to upend the Veil and plunge the world into darkness.
==History==
===Origins===
It has been determined that worship of the Scarlet King began around 51,000 BCE, according to art of Species of Interest-378 that was dated to that approximate year. Within the prehistoric civilizations of Species of Interest-001, tribe-sized predecessors to the Children were established, though were swiftly exterminated and suppressed until the 34,000s BCE when their civilizations ceased to exist.The Children of the Scarlet King Hub
=== Daevite adoption===
====Establishment of the Faith====
The Kingdom of Daevon, ruled by the Daeva, would adopt worship of the Scarlet King in 12,148 BCE, intwining it within their government. This would be called the Scarlet Faith, and was considered a covenant between the Kingdom and the Scarlet King, serving as a basis for the Kingdom's authority akin to the historical Mandate of Heaven within ancient China. The demands from the King included: 
*the division of society into castes
*a secondary caste established based upon reproductive role
*the assignment of individual and unequal values to each caste
*the formation of a priestly caste staffed solely by women
*violent opposition to all interference with the Faith
In return, the King would grant:
*a source of thaumic power
*his favor to the monarchy
*protection from the King's divine beasts
*the Scarlet Covenant, a means to enforce the Faith
It is believed that the Faith may have originally been a religion that only the ruling and priest castes were bound by, but the violent reorganization it demanded would pave the way for the structure of Daevite society. Here, the central doctrine of the Children began to form, including oppressively gendered society and the establishment of the Scarlet King as dependent on inequality. This was one of history's first state-enforced gender binaries, and also one of the first divinely-mandated sexual hierarchies.
==== Continuation in the Daevite Empire====
The Kingdom quickly expanded, as violently building and maintaining the Kingdom was integral to the Faith; additionally, the divine hierarchies expanded at an equal rate as well. This eventually caused a transition to an expansionist imperial order in the 9000s BCE, forming a massive permanent slave caste and formally establishing the Daevite Empire. The Scarlet Faith was extended to the entire empire, and all were forced to obey.
In 8318 BCE, during the Empire's wars against Species of Interest-004 and its Kingdom of Eden, an avatar of the Scarlet King was emasculated during battle. This established the King as a martyr unjustly crippled by SoI-004. An apocalypticist sect would be formed, preaching of the King's scepter heralding Daevite conquest of the land and the stars.
According to SCP-140, belief in the Scarlet King extended into the Common Era, though was harried by the spread of religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Only 15% of the Empire's bureaucrats were adherents to the Faith by the time the Mongol Empire destroyed Daevon and assimilated the Daevites.
===After Daeva===
Iterations of the Scarlet Faith would come and go, within many different cultures. Human sacrifice was common among adherents, with victims being given non-lethal lacerations in factors of seven, before being drowned in saltwater. Though this was established before the rise of the Daeva, it became very common afterward. Preserved corpses recovered from after the 8th century BCE establish that the mutilation of reproductive organs was a continued practice, with a link between non-Daevite and Daevite Children being investigated. However, many iterations were closer to non-anomalous classical cults than anything resembling the Scarlet Faith, similar to a historical cultural exchange rather than the Scarlet King's direct hand influencing humanity.
Additionally, the Children never gained as much prominence as in the Daevite Empire due to the structure of the surrounding regions, particularly the religions of Zoroastrianism in the Achaemenid Empire and Islam throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Conversions were slow to non-existent, even peasantry were hesitant to convert in the wake of an iteration among a ruling class. The most common manifestation is a classical cult, of which they're typically named as some form of the Children of the Scarlet King. 70% of manifestations have fit this description, though the SCP Foundation fears a majority may have evaded attention.
=== Modernity ===
To bring their god into reality, they kidnapped 7 girls and impregnated them through occult and dark rituals.Entry Page: 231 During the raid, the United Nations Global Occult Coalition captured six of seven ancient spears in which powerful demonic servants of the Scarlet King were encased. Because of their ability to summon other servants into Earth and inflict grave damage to people both physically and mentally, the GOC gave the custody of the spears to the SCP Foundation, designating them KTE-2013-Kapala-Mendes.KTE-2013-Kapala-Mendes
===Dissolution and return===
The Children of the Scarlet King was thought to be dissolved in 2018 after a joint operation carried by the Foundation and the GOC, during which both the Seventh Bride and the group's leader Dipesh Spivak were taken into custody. However, the cult lived on thanks to the preacher Elder Rockwell who spread their faith worship throughout America, while being aided by Orvo aka "Mr. Green".Entry Page: 3178
==Alternate realities ==
===Tufto's Proposal===
===REDTAPE===
==Organization==
===Religious doctrine ===
====Hierarchy and authoritarianism====
One of the most important thematic in the cult's doctrine is hierarchy and authoritarianism. The Children believe that the Scarlet King is the universe's rightful ruler and that all things must submit to him. As such, the King, according to them, will create a society where the strong will violently rule over the weak.
====Violence and transgression====
The cult believes that malice and violence are the source of the King's power. For this reason, the King can do whatever he wants, that may be bad or good. As a reflection of this, they regularly participate in violent and immoral actions towards other people. But they are still aware of their inferiority compared to their King; in fact, they also are equally subject to violence.
Furthermore, the cult believes that the Universe is chaotic by nature and that all forms of order, especially modernity, are mere "weak" attempts to "defy" the chaotic and brutal nature of the Universe. For this reason, the cult sees violation as the only way to live a "real" life.
====Sex and emasculation====
The cult always portrays the King as a man, even by members of species without an analogue to "maleness". They believe that the King's masculinity holds a very important meaning to them, although this changes in other sects. Also, the Children see themselves as a response to a "cultural emasculation" and they want to re-bring masculinity to the forefront of society. This preoccupation is a result of one of the King's avatar that was emasculated, manifesting as a psychic wound on its followers. Despite this, they still participate in ritualistic castration.
===Mythology===
====The Seven Brides====
The Scarlet King is always accompanied by the Seven Brides, some of the most important figures in the cult's mythology. They are the King's brides who will give birth to the Scarlet Children, abominations who will destroy the world. Only the seventh child will be the one to defeat the Scarlet King. The first records of them come from poems that were made during the early years of the Daevite Empire, around 9000 BC. The Seven Brides have been portrayed in various ways, from seven Daevite Matriarchs to the King's own daughters, or even female red whales.
====Scarlet Children====
The "Scarlet Children" are individuals who are the biological children of the Scarlet King and a female human. They may look like any normal human and have the same life expectancy of them. Some, like SCP-999 or SCP-682, do not appear human and instead appear monstrous or even friendly. 
====The Scarlet Covenant====
The Scarlet Covenant is a concept that is presented many times in SCP-140 ("A Chronicle of the Daevas"). This concept is the manifestation of the Scarlet King's favor or an actual physical entity, a Daeva demigod who was the child of the Scarlet King. This entity could hide itself under the skin of an animal, an ability that this entity could use to destroy its enemies from the inside, both literally and figuratively. Furthermore, this creature was an incredibly strong naval warrior that was capable of sinking entire ships single-handedly.
====The Three Laws of the Scarlet King====
The cult has three laws that are called the Three Laws of the Scarlet King; these are a set of laws that are the embodiment of the King himself and are composed of:
* The Law of Blood: a representation of the premodern world, where leaders ruled their subordinates through primal violence and people lived in total chaos.Entry Page: 001 - Tufto's Proposal
* The Law of Concrete: a representation of the modern world, a world that tries to analyze the Universe with rationality, spreads order and people live in the comfort of their concrete houses.
*The Law of Howling: a representation of the tension of these two worlds that caused the Scarlet King's existence in the first place.
===Practices===
The cult has various methods that uses to achieve its goals such as occult rituals or violence. However, there is a peculiar pratice that stands out from the others and it is called "rank-putting". This pratice consists in lacerating an individual on a factor of seven, then drown the victim in saltwater and then castrate the victim.
===Relationships with other groups===
====Daevite Empire====
The Children of the Scarlet King's faith was embedded deeply into the Daevite Empire, though this may be altered dependent on the universe, including U-6140 where the Daevite Empire was overthrown and transformed into Daevastan by the revolting slave population.
==== Doctor Wondertainment ====
The Children completely ideologically oppose Dr. Wondertainment, as Wondertainment themself is perceived as an avatar of bliss.
==== Global Occult Coalition ====
The United Nations Global Occult Coalition is fighting the Children of the Scarlet King across several operations, with moderate success.
==== "Nobody" ====
Nobody escapes the attention of the Scarlet King.
==== Shark Punching Center ====
While the Children does not exist in U-SPC, the Shark Punching Center does counter a version of the Scarlet King known as the Scarlet Whale-Shark.
==== Das Wunderkabinett ====
The Scarlet King was disappointed that a descendant of one of his greatest enemies was not as powerful as her ancestor, though led Das Wunderkabinett.
===Subgroups===
====Christian Ministries of America ====
See Christian Ministries of America.
====Circuitous-Accelerationism====
See Circuitous-Accelerationism.
====Order of the Iron Tigers====
See the Order of the Iron Tigers.
====Other Iterations====
The cult has many more iterations around the world, many of them that are possibly still unaccounted. These other iterations include: 
*Alysída Ltd.
*Army of the New Dawn - a group that tried to open a portal to make the Scarlet King enter in reality by executing a ritual that consisted of burning off Gregorian Calendars and replacing them with blood-soaked Julian, Hijri and Persian Solar system calendars to turn them in the King's effigy. Their attempt, however, was stopped by the Serpent's Hand who took and recovered their materials to the Wanderer's Library.
*Church of the Scarlet King
*Global Occult Coalition (briefly)
*Kingship Land Bridge, LLC: a company that makes through anomalous means fake pornography of its opponents.
*Marsagenie Minions
*Partido de Integralismo Guatemalteco: a neo-fascist political party based in Guatemala that administered a dangerous amount of castor oil to communists and anarchists.
*Provisional Children of the Scarlet King
* Red Guards: another iteration that tried to bring the Scarlet King in reality. This time, they used animal spinal fluids, blood and carved SCP Foundation's logo on bones to combine them with a ritual chanting. While doing the ritual, they called the Foundation's protection for unknown reason. The group was coming close to success, but a critical mistake in the words of the ritual caused an explosion that killed all members of the group.
*Reypay 'Eveng (English: Blood Children): an iteration that originated on the planet Mo'ara, designated by the SCP Foundation as SCP-4547. This iteration performed a ritual that caused some taronyu, the inhabitants of the planet, to birth SCP-4547-B4, spawns of the Scarlet King. These creatures ended the taronyu's civilization and their world. After this catastrophe, the iteration saw their mission as completed and became less hostileEntry Page: 4547.
*Serpent's Hand (briefly)
==Notable members==
*Amy
*Andrew
*Ashley
*Ariadne Cartwright
*David
*Deág
*Geát
*Georga
*Gregoriy
*Jack Hearst (formerly)
*Jean-Pierre
*Kaes
*Lucy
*Robert Montauk
*Yelizaveta Pavlova (formerly)
*Sam
*Ṭao
*Téan
*James Thomas
*John Thomas
*Victor Villanueva
*Alberto Weider-Hoffman
*Father Whatley
==Notable locations==
*Alabama, U.S
*Eastern Europe
*North Africa
*Middle East
*Daevastan
==Meta==
===Appearances===
*Entry Page: 001 - Tufto's Proposal
*KTE-2013-Kapala-Mendes
*Entry Page: 3178
*Entry Page: 6140
*Entry Page: 001 - McDoctorate's Proposal
*The Children of the Scarlet King Hub
*Entry Page: 231
*Entry Page: 6140
*Entry Page: 6462
*Excerpts from PHYSICS Division Strike Team Database - 14 May 2023
== References==
Category:Groups
Category:Religions
Category:Cults
Category:Groups of Interest