SCP Foundation

The **SCP Foundation** is a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative-writing wiki project of the same name. Within the website's shared universe, the Foundation is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena unexplained by science (known as "anomalies" or "SCPs"), while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of human society.

The collaborative writing project operates on the wiki-like website **SCP Wiki**, and includes elements of many genres such as horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. The majority of works on the SCP Wiki consist of thousands of SCP files: mock confidential scientific reports that document various SCPs and associated containment procedures. The website also contains "Foundation Tales", short stories featuring various characters and settings in the SCP universe. The wiki's literary works have been praised for their ability to convey horror through a quasi-scientific and academic writing style, as well as for their high standards of quality.

The SCP universe has inspired numerous fan-made adaptations in widely varying forms of media, including books, comics, video games, animated, and live-action short films.

## Overview of the SCP universe

The fictional setting centers around the findings and activities of the SCP Foundation: an international secret society consisting of a scientific research institution with a paramilitary intelligence agency to support their goals. Despite their extremely secretive nature, the Foundation is entrusted by governments around the world to capture and contain various unexplained paranormal phenomena that defy the known laws of nature (referred to as "anomalies", "SCP objects", "SCPs", or informally as "skips"). They include living beings and creatures, artifacts and objects, locations and places, abstract concepts, and incomprehensible entities which display supernatural abilities or other extremely unusual properties. If left uncontained, many of the more dangerous anomalies will pose a serious threat to humans or even all life on Earth. All information regarding the existence of the Foundation and SCPs are strictly withheld from the general public in order to prevent mass hysteria that would supposedly occur if they were leaked and allow human civilization to continue functioning under a masquerade of "normalcy".

Whenever an SCP anomaly is discovered, teams of undercover Foundation agents (often called Mobile Task Forces, or MTFs) are deployed to either collect and transport the object to one of the organization's many secret facilities, or to contain it at its location of discovery if transportation is not possible. If an anomaly is too widespread, elusive, or otherwise inaccessible, containment usually consists of suppressing all knowledge of the SCP from the public. This is accomplished through censorship of mass media, and by dosing all eyewitnesses with amnestic drugs which erase their memories of anomalous events.

At the Foundation's secret facilities, SCPs are studied and researched by scientists in order to improve containment methods for them. The Foundation also acquires disposable human test subjects called D-class personnel, who are usually (though not always) convicted criminals taken from prisons around the world and forces them to take part in experiments with potentially dangerous SCPs in order to avoid risking the safety of Foundation employees themselves. The Foundation maintains documentation for all SCPs which they are aware of which can include or link to related reports and files. These documents describe the SCPs and include instructions for keeping them safely contained, as well as supplementary incident reports or experimentation logs.

Apart from the Foundation itself, there are numerous rival organizations (collectively referred to as Groups of Interest, or GOIs) which are also actively involved with the paranormal world. Notable examples include the Chaos Insurgency, a terrorist splinter group consisting of ex-Foundation defectors who attempt to capture and weaponize SCPs; the Global Occult Coalition (GOC), a secret paramilitary agency of the United Nations which specializes in destroying supernatural threats instead of containing them; and the Serpent's Hand, a militant group which advocates for the rights of anomalous beings, resisting both the Foundation's and GOC's efforts to suppress paranormal activity worldwide. Other GOIs seek to exploit anomalies by producing or selling them for monetary profit; or using them to serve their own religious, political, or ideological goals.

## Examples of SCPs

* **SCP-055** is a mysterious memory-erasing anomaly known as an "anti-meme" that causes anyone who examines it to forget its existence, thus making the object's characteristics indescribable except in terms of what it is *not*.
* **SCP-087** is a staircase that appears to descend infinitely and inhibits any light within its space. The staircase is inhabited by an entity known as SCP-087-1: a disembodied floating face without a mouth, pupils or nostrils, which chases after anyone walking down the stairs.
* **SCP-108** is a Nazi bunker system that is accessible only through a portal found in a woman's nose.
* **SCP-173** is a humanoid statue composed of rebar, concrete, and Krylon spray paint. It is immobile when directly observed, but it attacks people and breaks their neck when line of sight with it is broken. It is extremely fast, to the point where it can move multiple meters while the observer is blinking. In real life, SCP-173 is notable for being the first SCP ever written.
* **SCP-294** is a coffee vending machine that can dispense anything that does or can exist in liquid form—including, on occasion, abstract concepts. Regardless of the properties of the substance chosen, the machine's polystyrene cups appear to suffer no damage from the substances dispensed into them.
* **SCP-426** is a toaster that can only be referred to in the first person.
* **SCP-999** is a gelatinous slime mold-like creature that smells similar to whatever is most comforting to the person it makes contact with. It has a friendly personality and is known to induce positive emotions on contact with humans and other organisms. Therefore, it is sometimes used as a tool by the SCP Foundation.
* **SCP-1171** is a home whose windows are covered in condensation; by writing in the condensation on the glass, it is possible to communicate with an extra-dimensional entity whose windows are likewise covered in condensation. This entity bears significant enmity towards humans but does not know that the Foundation members are humans.
* **SCP-1609** is a wood chip mulch that teleports into the lungs of individuals displaying aggressive behavior towards it. Previously a benevolent chair that teleported to nearby individuals who needed to sit down, it became aggressive after being destroyed in a woodchipper by the Global Occult Coalition.
* **SCP-3008** is an IKEA store with an interior that contains a seemingly infinite, labyrinthine pocket dimension designated SCP-3008-1. Prospective customers trapped within the building have formed rudimentary civilizations and must defend themselves against hostile creatures known as SCP-3008-2: which are tall, faceless humanoids wearing IKEA employee uniforms that become violently aggressive towards all nearby humans when the lights are turned off.

## Community

The SCP Foundation originated in the "paranormal" /x/ forum of 4chan in 2007, where the very first SCP file, SCP-173, was posted by an anonymous user (later identified as Wesley "Moto42" Williams), accompanied by an image of the sculpture "Untitled 2004" by Japanese artist Izumi Kato. Although displeased with the unlicensed use of his art, Kato allowed the use of the photo explicitly for the noncommercial purposes of the community. Initially a stand-alone short story, many additional SCP files were created shortly after; these new SCPs copied SCP-173's style and were set within the same fictional universe. A stand-alone wiki was created in January 2008 on the EditThis wiki hosting service to display the SCP articles. The EditThis website did not have moderators, or the ability to delete articles. Members communicated through individual article talk pages and the /x/ board; the website lacked a central discussion forum. In July 2008, the SCP Wiki was transferred to its current Wikidot website after EditThis switched to a paid model. "Untitled 2004" was removed from the entry for SCP-173 in 2022.

The current Wikidot website contains numerous standard wiki features such as keyword searches and article lists. The wiki also contains a news hub, guides for writers and a central discussion forum. The wiki is moderated by staff teams; each team is responsible for a different function such as community outreach and discipline. Wikidot users are required to submit an application before they are allowed to post content. Every article on the wiki is assigned a discussion page, where members can evaluate and provide constructive criticism on submitted stories. The discussion pages are frequently used by authors to improve their stories. Members also have the ability to "upvote" articles they like and to "downvote" articles they dislike; articles that receive too many net downvotes are deleted. Writers from the *Daily Dot* and *Bustle* have noted that the website maintains strict quality control standards, and that sub-par content tends to be quickly removed. Notable authors who have written for the site include Max Landis, qntm, and Adrian Hon.

The Wikidot website routinely holds creative writing contests to encourage submissions. For example, in November 2014, the SCP Wiki held a "Dystopia Contest" in which its members were encouraged to submit writings about the Foundation set in a bleak or degraded world. The website has also held seven themed contests for the opening of new Series, wherein the most-upvoted submission is listed at the beginning of the Series and the submissions of runner-ups are listed under an available number of their authors' choosing's. As of Series VIII, the contest themes have covered urban legends, science fiction, eldritch horror, history, mystery, nature, and luck.

Apart from the original English wiki, 15 official foreign language branches exist, and some of their articles have been translated into English. The Wanderer's Library is a sister site and spin-off of the SCP Wiki. It uses the same setting as the SCP universe but is made up of fantastical stories rather than scientific reports. The SCP community also maintains a role-playing site, a forum on Reddit, and accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

## Explanatory notes

1. Official foreign language branches of the SCP Foundation exist in German, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Thai, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Czech, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese.
2. **^** Registration is only required to submit works and projects, or to leave comments and vote upon existing works. The site is free to view to people without an account.
3. **^** *SCP* officially stands for "**Special Containment Procedures**" in the organization's name; the organization also has the backronym motto "**Secure, Contain, Protect**".
4. **^** Commonly used object classes include:Several hundred SCPs use an unofficial classification system that displays information in addition to containment difficulty.
5. **^** Including deliberately humorous "joke" SCP objects, SCP objects that were archived or decommissioned in lieu of deletion, and translations of SCPs from foreign language branches.