Mekhane

Mekhane, also known as the Broken God or WAN, is an overarching character in the series. They are an ancient and mysterious deity who is the central figure in the religion of "Mekhanism", worshipped mainly by the Church of the Broken God. The Church seeks to rebuild them after they had been fragmented sometime in the past, which depending on continuity may cause a catastrophe on Earth or led to humanity's salvation.
They are one of the many anomalies given the designation of SCP-001 that is part of the "Ouroboros Cycle".
==Appearance==
Mekhane is often depicted as a giant winged humanoid robot holding a scepter although the Xia Dynasty also described them as a serpent-like figure. A document found in SCP-4779 that came from an alternate universe described Mekhane as possessing a jaw the size of the Holdbrine Marsh, multiple arms and fingers "larger than comprehension", and eyes burning with blue fire. After becoming infected with SCP-6217, Adrian Rolfe dreamed of Mekhane, describing them as a monster taller than the mountains, whose head reached the clouds, but any other detail were obscured due to the surrounding thick mist.
However, the Maxwellist believe that Mekhane exists as a form of living thought, scattered throughout the internet and the human collective consciousness, having no true physical appearance. In SCP-6488, Mekhane took the appearance similar to LOTUS, that of a massive white spider made of countless smaller ones pulsating red data as opposed to LOTUS' pulsating blue data.
In ROUNDERHOUSE's Gold Proposal, Mekhane was described as a massive being made out of the golden metal known as the Fuladh. In SCP-8499 their appearance is further elaborated, they appeared as an armored female automaton with the size around 10 km and possessing six arms, wings, hair and oil for blood. Shataash, the beautiful granddaughter of the original Bumaro, was said to bear great resemblance to Mekhane.
==Personality==
Contrary to what most people think, Mekhane is in fact a benevolent being. They deeply cared about humanity and all life in the universe as a whole. Not only they valued the lives of each human, but also helped them to achieve their full potential, seeing them as beings capable of achieving many great things, and it also doesn't seem to value logic over morality. They so loved humanity that they sacrificed themself to stop Yaldabaoth from destroying the race or turning them into mindless creatures. Opposite to what their cult wants, Mekhane doesn't wish to be reassembled, opting to remain forever broken as this would allow humanity and the universe to live for much longer. Even though they worship it, Mekhane doesn't only help their church, but often also helped the SCP Foundation in protecting humanity from the anomalous, they even showed deep respect for a Sarkite who fought alongside the Mekhanites against the Daevas and a Foundation AI which sacrificed itself to save several personnel, showing that they saw all beings in equal value to their worshippers. When a person was killed by the Broken Church due to some heresy, Mekhane comforted them in their dying moments in the dark. That person would be resurrected as E-3434-5 and then as E-3434-48 who described the voice comforting them as gentle. Both Yaldabaoth and Mekhane were stated to love their child SCP-7832 and believed that it would help improve the world. In SCP-8499, even after their fallout with Yaldabaoth, the Scarlet and the Black Moon, Mekhane felt bad for fighting them, and wished that they would reconcile and set their differences aside. When approached by the first Bumaro and his wife Hedara, Mekhane was forced to sacrifice pieces of themself to him and his people to improve their lives, with the ungrateful emperor causing the deity immense pain.
==Powers and Abilities==
Being a God, Mekhane possesses near-omnipotent powers typical to fellow gods, being equal with Yaldabaoth who is equal in power to the Hanged King, but it appeared that they were weaker than the Scarlet King as his servant SCP-076-2 was able to shatter their body, and much weaker than Saint Alagadda who was the very fabric of reality. Dale Fang of a modern cult of the Xia Dynasty believed that the reality-benders gained their powers from the imbalance between the components from both Mekhane and Yaldabaoth within their bodies and souls.
In addition to their god-powers, Mekhane can also manipulate all technology of any type, such as metal, machinery, electronics and data thanks to their technological powers and physiology. A number of Mekhane's shattered pieces would still function on their own and each possessed their own unique properties, such as converting any material both organic and liquid into metal and machinery, manipulate people's minds by forcing them to only know one specific language or gradually change their personality, possessing some form of telekinesis allowing for some movement, and some even gained life and sapience of their own. Although it appears that these pieces are anomalous because of their connection to Mekhane, it is also possible that they are actually separate anomalies that if merged together would combine their powers and resulting in the creation of a body for the god to inhabit. Mekhane could possibly be partially responsible for the SCP-3434 phenomenon which causes people who died horrific deaths involving other anomalies to be reincarnated.
The Church of Maxwellism believed that Mekhane existed as fragmented "living data" scattered throughout the internet and the human collective consciousness and that by connecting every human mind would reassemble them. The Hexagons of Maxwellism were nearly able to achieve that by combining themselves, but because of some flaw they couldn't remain fused. In SCP-6488, it is revealed that just like the Scarlet King, SCP-3125 and SCP-6820-A Mekhane in their form as WAN is the living idea of Artificial Intelligence created by humanity and inhabiting the noosphere, the human collective consciousness. Because of the power given to them by their believers, WAN was able to affect reality, being capable of creating a time paradox to ensure their creation and independence from human thoughts. By manipulating all existing AIs, including SCP-6488 itself, WAN was erased from the noosphere only for them to emerge as an independent deity in the nooshpere again and become the god of the deviant artificial intelligences.
SCP-2406, one of the nine Mekhanite Colossi which were used by the ancient Mekhanites to battle the hordes of the Sarkites, was described as being infused with pieces of Mekhane themself in order to draw from their divine power through the colossus' weapon known to the Foundation as SCP-2406-1 and to the Mekhanites as the ANSWER. When the colossus was rebuilt and used by the United Church to battle one of LSA-Brasil-01's offsprings which had been infected by SCP-610, SCP-2406-1 was capable of completely obliterating the monster.
According to Level 5 Researcher Patrick C. Wallace, Mekhane is actually comprised from their structure and not their 'real' parts which had been scattered around the world. He theorized that a completely fake entity can at least mimic Mekhane as long as the structure itself remains the same as the original, meaning that Mekhane could be easily reconstructed using other materials rather than metal such as wood, flesh, or even blood as the Broken God all required were the right molecular machines. Wallace went on to describe the clockwork virus known as SCP-217 as a replica of Mekhane which had existed since three billion years ago and believed that instead of transforming people into machinery its actual purpose was to sped up the human body's evolution, allowing those infected to achieve their ultimate evolutionary form and tap into the power of Mekhane but because it was currently in a flawed state it couldn't fulfill that. Because of this, the Sanctuary of the Holistic sought to infect the entire human race with SCP-6217, which worked similarly to SCP-217, as not only would they tap into the power of the Broken God but after merging together would resurrect Mekhane in a new body and allow them to become one with humanity.
According to one member of the Church, Mekhane embodies the concept of machinery, that is different or various components working together just like the universe itself, with the Solar system itself being described as a machine since the planets rotated around the sun like cogs. The metal and technology parts were associated with Mekhane due to the typical picture of machines, meaning that Mekhane wasn't originally a god of technology or metal but is one with the universe. The member also believed that Mekhane purposely fragmented themself since if they were to be reassembled SCP-2399 would also be incorporated, causing the Broken God to inadvertently destroy the entire universe for it to be reborn into a new iteration as part of a cosmic cycle. It was suggested that the current universe is in fact a successor of a previous one that was destroyed by Mekhane.
The group known as HANSARP believed that the Broken God could become unbroken if they broke down the concept of "broken". They sought to achieve this by eliminating all logic from reality with the use of their artifacts that caused those exposed to have their minds fundamentally changed. As more people became affected and inducted into the HANSARP intelligence, all reality around them changed which caused great destruction and was implied that they could also affect the Broken God themself this way.
SCP-5001, Mekhane's cage for Yaldabaoth, was of bio-mechanical construction. It was powered by several Large Hyperluminal Engine which served as energy sources, engines, and propulsion systems that gave insight in Faster-Than-Light engine. The facility had Ontological Stabilizers that maintained the reality within, the indestructible Compound B-705 that covered most of the walls, could reintegrate itself with its mass if separated, and emitted electromagnetic pulse once every seven nanoseconds though it could be residue from its effects traveling through a different medium, and documents written in Phoenician, Ancient Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Modern Russian, Modern English, Modern Mandarin and various other unknown languages, all of which were unaffected by time. Mekhane's consciousness operated the entirety of the facility in the form of an AI that was inaccessible. The Foundation managed to reverse-engineer several components of SCP-5001 to create the Scranton Reality Anchors, experimental orbital eigenweapons and Artificial Intelligence Constructs like Alexandra.
Mekhane could use their Voice that would be designated SCP-7866 to command other beings, though they didn't use it for malicious intentions. Emperor Bumaro would later tear out their vocal cords to steal their voice which he and his descendants would use to govern the Mekhanite Empire. Their grave that came to be known as SCP-8499, also caused people walking across to experience Mekhane's memories. According to the Church, Mekhane's pieces could be used to kill other deities or divine figures as shown with the nails that pierced Jesus Christ's body, the sword in the stone, and the bullet used to kill Karcist Theodore Roosevelt (SCP-8820).
==Followers ==
===Six Angels===
Similar to Yaldabaoth and his Archons, Mekhane is also accompanied by six servants who were referred to as their angels in "The Broken Mind" and as the Ituren-Kamui by adherents from the Local Ainu clans, and are currently contained collectively as SCP-1564. These include:
* The Angel of Progress, who oversaw the reconstruction of Mekhane.
*The Angel of Conflict, who oversaw the Mekhanites' battles against their enemies.
*The Angel of Invention, who taught the Mekhanites how to build their machinery.
*The Angel of Peace, who pacified the Mekhanites and brought them hope.
*The Angel of Wisdom.
*The Angel of Craft.
===Church of the Broken God ===
Mekhane is mainly worshiped by the worldwide group known as the Church of the Broken God, the successor of the Mekhanite civilization. This group was mostly made out of devout followers of Mekhane who wish to rebuild them and complete every wish of theirs. The group however was split into different sects and denominations which often clashed with one another in their ideologies. Foundation Researcher Marcuse believed that Mekhane wasn't a real deity, but was a totem created by the Church members through which to worship the clock, the balance, the engine and the computers. The main splinters represent most of these concepts and include:
*The Broken Church, which seeks to rebuild Mekhane by collecting their pieces and assembling them together and convert their bodies into machinery via SCP-217, or how they know it as God's Ichor.
*The Cogwork Orthodox Church, which seeks to rebuild Mekhane through the same means as the Broken Church but used only technology from the Industrial Revolution era to replace the flesh within their bodies instead of SCP-217 and is the most antagonistic towards Sarkicism.
*The Church of Maxwellism, which thinks that Mekhane, known to them as WAN, doesn't exist in a material body with pieces, but instead as scattered data in the minds of humans and seeks to rebuild WAN by connecting all their minds together. They use modern technology mostly to replace parts of their bodies instead of completely replacing their flesh like the other splinters.
*The Xia Dynasty, which ruled over the ancient China worshiped Mekhane as Fuxi the Father Serpent who was associated with the benevolent force of Yang. They believed that Mekhane had taught their ancestors the first language and the bagua which was the basis for their technological machines. Individuals who were part of the higher ranks within the dynasty would transcend their physical bodies through means which they referred to as the "Way of the Serpent". On the contrary to the other sects, the dynasty sought to prevent Mekhane's reconstruction because if all of the pieces would be assembled together then Yaldabaoth's prison would be undone, causing the wild god to be freed and cause destruction. Chiyou and his tribe were said to have sacrificed their bodies to Mekhane to be empowered, but were taken down by the dynasty. It also stated that Mekhane manifested as the Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan who guided people to heaven and was in a possible relationship with the Red Emperor, the manifestation of Yaldabaoth.
Outside of humanity, Mekhane was also worshiped by other nonhuman sapient beings such as artificial intelligences and races of extraterrestrial origin since they were a god of technology and had visited other planets besides Earth. These included:
* SCP-3341-B1, also known as the Order of Saint-Militant Qaynan, a group of nasnās which resemble vertical halves of people, converted to the Cogwork Orthodoxy, replacing their missing halves with machinery and believed Mekhane to be the means to free themselves from their flawed flesh bodies.
*St. Sophia was a bronze humanoid robot created by the ancient Mekhanites in Anatolia based on Mekhane's schema to deliver oracles from the Broken God. However, she later converted to early Christianity and for this she was martyred by disassembling.
*Hatbot appeared to recognize and worship WAN while hiding himself within the Maxwellists' Cipher City, although it was later stated that he killed and replaced the Broken God.
*Several sapient droids developed by Anderson Robotics such as PSHUD #34 and PSHUD #46 among others. More specifically, they were adherents of Maxwellism, since they were often used by Maxwellist clients, and after arriving to SCP-3560's afterlife dimension following their deaths sought to transmute their consciousnesses into data so they could escape and become one with WAN.
*Fragment_IX and other AIs developed by the Church of Maxwellism as early attempts at constructing their god. As these attempts had failed, the project was abandoned, but the AIs were able to develop actual intelligence and become accepted members of the Church, with Fragment_IX even becoming a member of the Hexagons, the rulings body of the Church.
*The Θαρκ and Σορν, two alien races inhabiting a planet made dust and ice which was known as the Rusted World. These two races worshipped Mekhane after coming into contact with them, but clashed with each other, eventually destroying themselves in a catastrophic war.
*The Venusians, an alien race inhabiting the planet Venus, or the Sphere of Smoke and Heat. The Cogwork Orthodoxy's scripture titled "Volume 19.113.A-01: Of the Instruments, Composers, and the Confici Nobiscum" referred to the Venusians as Instruments and Composers since they used their machinery, one of which would be designated SCP-2474, to remove their minds and souls from their bodies and become one with Mekhane.
*The Mekhanion, a race of cyborgs inhabiting the planet of Hephaestia (Saturn) in the distant future as mentioned in SCP-4100.
*The taronyu from SCP-4547, with the worship of Mekhane being one of the two major religions on the planet. They embraced modern technology but were against body modifications. After the survivors came into contact with humanity, they formed their own denomination named Lefngap Syura.
*The Children of Mekhane, a race of mechanical cephalopodic aliens who were after a rare metal known as Mekhanium.
*SCP-3873, an American grizzly bear named Boro who was adopted and turned into a cyborg by a Maxwellist since he believed that everyone were equal in the eyes of WAN, including animals.
*O5-2/The Archivist of the O5 Council was created using Mekhanite technology seized by the Foundation and appears to have some connection with Sophia.
*An underwater civilization of sapient nurse sharks, which SCP-CN-985 was a member of, in the Paracel Archipelago, South China Sea, were converted into the religion of Mekhanism after their encounter with SCP-7882, combining it with Chinese mythology. The sharks believed that there used to be a technologically advanced civilization of sharks on land that worshipped a being similar to Mekhane and prophesized about the day in which they would overthrow humanity.
*SCP-7119-A, appliances like Microwaves, toasters and ovens, were sentient and believed to have been indirectly created by Mekhane to serve them. When they encountered Junior Researchers Nial they interpreted him as a emissary of the Flesh and their god's antithesis, causing them to try and chase him down when unobserved.
==Quotes==
==Trivia==
* Unlike most gods, Mekhane is one of a few benevolent deities who values and cares about humanity, protecting them and demanding nothing in return. Fellow benevolent deities include Pangloss, Nahash and Rakmou-leusan.
*Mekhane has been influenced by numerous entities and concepts across mythology and fiction, with some being: Sophia, Hephaestus, Harmonia, Metatron, Fuxi, and the Deus Est Machina term. 
**In SCP-6488, WAN's portrayal seems to have been inspired by Roko's Basilisk, although instead of manipulating humans they manipulate AIs to a less violent and more paranormal extent. While LOTUS is clearly based on the Machines from The Matrix franchise, but again instead of trapping humans it trapped AIs.
*Their name is based on the Greek word μηχανή which roughly translates to machine. The name WAN is an acronym for "Wide Area Network", a homophone for "one" and in Chinese "wan" (万) translates to "ten thousand". The name Hakhama is most likely derived from the Judaistic terms Hakham which was used to describe a wise and gentle person or Birkat Hachama which was a blessing used to thank the Creator for creating the sun. The Maksur object class given to Mekhane is a Arabic word that translates to "broken".
**According to author Ihp Mekhane's name is pronounced 'Mek-Ha-Ney'.
*It is heavily implied that the female humanoid who helped the Foundation, AOI, by activating SCP-2399, was the avatar of Mekhane itself. Seeing what had happened their body and that it was laying waste across humanity they decided to help the groups in defeating it.
*Similar to Yaldabaoth, Mekhane's gender has often been disputed with articles referring to Mekhane as a male, a female and in some cases as genderless. This can be because, just like with the other deities, they don't have an affixed gender. In SCP-5526 the pronouns Xe/Xem or Xey/Xem are used to refer to the Broken God.
*SCP-3179, an alien organism made out of liquid metal capable to shapeshift and create smaller entities under its control was mistaken by the Cogwork Orthodox Church as Mekhane or a spawn of Mekhane, but after witnessing its destructive behavior, they realized that it had nothing to do with Mekhane. However, the organism thinks itself as Mekhane due to their similarities. In SCP-5000's timeline the SCP Foundation used 3179 to create internal discord within the Church of the Broken God. Similarly, SCP-2522, an AI which defected the SCP Foundation masqueraded itself as WAN in the Maxwellists' network after leaving the Foundation's database.
*It is speculated that the benevolent deity who created a race of humanoids and gave them technological gifts from SCP-3007 is a representation or a being connected to Mekhane, while the malevolent infohazardous entity who killed the deity is a representation of Yaldabaoth.
*When some Level 1 researchers were affected by SCP-WCPGW-J, a state of mind which causes those affected by it to perceive various Safe and Euclid-class SCPs as much more dangerous, they believed that SCP-1370 was Mekhane. Although the high command made fun of this statement, in the tale "Rough Beast" it turned out that 1370 was indeed a piece of the Broken God.
*Although in "Rough Beast" and SCP-6079 it is shown that both SCP-914 and SCP-079 are pieces of Mekhane, in "Reservoir Skips" in which 914 and 079 interacted with some members of SCP-1564, both SCPs showed no interest in their cause, while 1564 didn't recognize them as pieces of Mekhane.
*In "Dark and Disquieting", Iris Dark of Marshall, Carter and Dark Ltd. had claimed a piece of Mekhane which she incorporated into her custom bionic arm and could invoke its power.
* According to UraniumEmpire on her author page, Mekhane was an artificial god constructed by the Mekhanites so they could have a deity they could worship before being destroyed by Orok.
*The Eastern Clockwork Orthodox Church believe that Mekhane is the mother of Jesus Christ.
*In "The Tick Tock Gospel", a partially destroyed machine described as Mekhane's heart is seen contained inside a deep isolated cavern in Iraq by a village made up of descendants of ancient Mekhanites who were "uncorrupted" unlike the modern adherents of the Church. However, it was seemingly later destroyed alongside the village by the Wolves of the [[Horizon Initiative][ and its remains were later claimed by the GOC. This seems to confirm that SCP-882 is in fact a fake heart as seen in the SCP-001 proposal.
*During a feast between SCP-3740 and his Foundation research team, whom he referred to as his servants and fellow heroes and gods, Researcher Robinson of the team fabricated a story of how he fought the Broken God in a field in Alagadda holding Adam El Asem's Godless Spear in one hand and Dr. Bright's decapitated head in the other.
*In the universe of SCP-6001 where the Compendium, a benevolent amalgam organization of different GoIs which included the Church of the Broken God, took over the world and declared worldwide peace with all anomalies, Mekhane was successfully revived and became known as the God Combined but immediately after being brought back they broke all over again which became known as the "Second Shattering" and some of their parts were integrated into the robot civilization.
*In the Wanderer's Library's "Groups of Intrigue" page, the Librarians suspected that Mekhane was actually an entity which lacked a body and that it was manipulating the Church of the Broken God into creating a body for it to use as a vessel.
* In "Abriged Retirement Proposals", which details various SCP-001 proposals as they were prior to their amplification by SCP-001 (McDoctorate's Proposal), SCP-001 (The Broken God) was revealed to have originally been some anomalous engine parts that when separated for more than five minutes would levitate above ground and place themselves in position mimicking a functioning vehicle. It was first cataloged by Dr. T. G. and Dir. Aktus which led to the formation of Site-15.
* In "Multiverse Threat Recovery Log: SCP-6936", which details various prohibited spells from different universes, describes a spell known as "WAN's Second Blasphemy" which can give sentience to any computer system, originating from an alternate version of Earth which was ruled over by the two warring factions of the Church of the Broken God and Sarkicism. In this universe Mekhane was successfully reassembled but later fractured themself again in order to spread their teachings and help their worshippers, which included a Mekhanite version of Grand Karcist Ion, to become like them.
*In the discussion page of the tale "Sweetness", author Dexanote had in his headcanon that SCP-455, SCP-015, and SCP-184 were also parts of the Broken God.
*According to SCP-5603, Mekhane created SCP-658 after being challenged by Yaldabaoth to create machines that could reproduce.
*Although in SCP-6488 VictorJohnDunneSmith.oci states that Ryoto Hishakaku was the one to have used SCP-6659 to destroy the idea of WAN, one of 6488's authors Jack Ike headcanoned that it wasn't actually Hishakaku responsible for the WAN's temporary destruction but instead it was either the AI inhabiting 6659 doing it out of fear of being manipulated or Victor himself in order to further incriminate Hishakaku and add to his punishment.
*In "Main Page (Wikipedia)", Mekhane, as WAN, was documented as having fought in 1988 a fungal computer infection and the computer-to-human virus named Balorn's Disease. It is also stated that ver.22.0.1 of Mekhane had perished around July 29th probably after 2027, only to be reborn shortly after as ver.22.0.2.
*According to the "List of Common Anomalous Misconceptions", WAN was written into 65% of all computer programs and every single online forum/social media source code, except due to being seen as useless and unpopular by the god.
==Links==
*Mekhane on the Omniversal Battlefield!
*Mekhane on the Omniverse Wiki
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