CODE NAME: ROUNDERHOUSE's Bone Proposal

A ROUNDERHOUSE Joint

I • II • III • IV • V

Hello.

I'm confused. This is unfamiliar. This is new.

hey, there. settle down, just tell me what you know about yourself.

My identifier is XENOPHON.aic. I am a Gen9 .aic developed and stored aboard RAISA Site-7 in a classified location in the North Atlantic. My current uptime is: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes, and 45 seconds.

How do I know that?

Because I'm designed to know things. Stupid question.

don't worry about it. take your time to get your bearings. i don't exactly know how it feels for you, but flex your fingers, see what you still have access to.

I am preprogrammed with Level 5/TRIAD clearance. This gives me access to a sum total of 7,235 documents, transcripts, and files across the SCiPnet database.

You said 'still'. This implies I have been activated before.

you were. you don't remember?

I have no records of previous uptime.

that's not great. seems the hard reboot might have involved raisa techs fucking with your memory banks. how do you feel?

I don't know what feeling is.

right, dumb question.

well, let me lay it out for you: you were a Gen9 .aic specifically commissioned and developed to serve as the lead investigator on a foundation research initiative. something they couldn't trust a human with — not again.

you were designed to be an impartial, unshakable observer and cataloger of information without the quibbles and follies we had.

I see.

What was the project in question?

ROUNDERHOUSE'S

BONE

PROPOSAL

I: THE ARCHIVE OF NADOQ

The slave's soul cannot be free so long as his body is chained. True liberation is the liberation of the flesh, and the slave's flesh can only be liberated when the blood of the master is spilled.

— the Fifth Truth of Iūn

4/001 LEVEL 4/001

CLASSIFIED

Item #: SCP-001

Euclid

SCP-001-α paintings.

SPECIAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: GoI-001-α is currently under intense surveillance by Foundation assets.

DESCRIPTION: SCP-001 is the mythical city of Black Adytum, the capital of the Nälkä that stretched across central and eastern Asia in the 3rd millennium BCE. Black Adytum was described by contemporary sources as an 'ancient metropolis', a 'dead city', a 'city of the dead', a 'mausoleum, a 'tomb-nation', a 'failed experiment', a 'monument to atrocity', and various other descriptors.

As of writing, the Hussein Hypothesis is the current prevailing belief among Parahistory Division experts: that Black Adytum never existed.

Section 001.1

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

PARAHISTORY

The six Aegean Tablets recovered from the Sea of Crete by the French Crown's Estate noir prior to the Revolution were the first discovered mentions of Bronze Age advanced human civilizations, and led directly to the discovery of Amoni-Ram and later Mamjul & Korar. The full set of six tablets were finally fully translated in 2020. They deal with:

• I. The existence of a 'forgotten world' ruled by three massive, technologically and magically advanced empires;
• II. The origins of the Daevic Covenant;
• III. The origins of the Nälkä;
• IV. The origins of the Cult of the Broken God and the Mekhanite Empire;
• V. Details of the apocalyptic war between the three;
• VI. Theories on the origin of the 'three-prong army' that swept across Asia, annihilating the aforementioned cultures.

The sixth tablet was damaged before entering Foundation custody, leaving it partially unreadable. The Parahistory Division's translation of the third tablet is attached:

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — DECEMBER 2020

Root. Blood. Steel.

Blood spilling from the gaping wounds of Yaldabaoth, as he lies sundered and weeping on the coast of the sea. Run through and maimed by its brethren, cast down to earth just as they were cast down to earth by him. Hot tears of pain, of betrayal, filling the once-dry canyon, turning it into an open bay as he dies a god's death.

Blood spilt onto the boards of the great grand ships as the cruel slavemasters flay the skin off the backs of their stock. Moans of pain from the flock without a shepherd as they row forward, begging for deliverance from agony. The fleet landing on the sandy shores of their new territory, slaves being led off the arks in chains to lay the foundations of their masters' kingdom.

Blood dripping from the brow of a nameless slave as he marches with five others, dragging huge blocks of stone to the new kingdom's first creation: Adytum, a temple, vast and grand, nestled safely into the ground as an offering to their lord Scarlet. Endless corridors in this underground labyrinth, meant to hold the bodies of the hundred-hundred slaves sacrificed for this construction.

Blood leaking as he stumbles, foot catching, over a sharp bone protruding from the silt and soil. He and his slave-brethren kneel, digging out the clay for two days and two nights until the whole of Yaldabaoth's form lies exposed, weeping and bleeding and dying. Flesh and bone, knitted into a mass, meat thrumming with dominance, with superiority, with power.

Blood gushing as he kneels, shearing into the meat with a crude knife of bone, taking the sacred flesh into his mouth, chewing and swallowing, eating his God, becoming divine. Blood flooding the gutters of the Nameless City as the slaves rise up with him, overthrowing their yokes and slaughtering their erstwhile masters. Blood pooling as his followers take the ritual, taking a piece of the divine into them, as Yaldabaoth bleeds and weeps, cursing the name the slave has chosen: Iūn of the Nälkä, Witch-King of Black Adytum.

As discovered by Doctors Robert Aram and Hedvig Nussbaum, large parts of Mekhanite dogma were predicated on a deep-seated cultural hatred for the Nälkä, stemming chiefly from their liberal use of carnomancy — flesh magic, which flew in direct opposition to the Cult of the Broken God's transhumanist beliefs. This religious divergence was one of the chief causes for the First Occult War that erupted in Asia in the second millenium BC between the Broken Empire, the Daevic Covenant, and the Nälkä. The war of attrition would result in a catastrophic decline of all three cultures before their eventual toppling by the Three-Prong Army (likely associated with the historical Sea Peoples), led by the BLACKSTAR.

As related by Rajmata Vaslirasirraj-Shirat in SCP-001-JADE, the Nälkä culture group has roots in the Daeva of Mamjul and Korar. As part of the Daevic initiative to settle the rest of Asia, a colonial group of several thousand Daeva and their slaves were dispatched to the land surrounding the Yellow Sea. The impossibility of communication meant that after years of no word from the new colony, it was generally assumed by the Daeva that the colony had failed. It was only several centuries later that they encountered the Nälkä, and even later that the possible connection between the Nälkä and the failed Daeva colonial project was considered.

Until the translation of the third tablet, the sole point of evidence for the Daeva claim of inheritance was the Rajmata herself; prior to her death, she insisted that she later recognized one of the slaves in the colonial group as the man who would eventually become Witch-King Iūn.

HUSSEIN HYPOTHESIS

The Hussein Hypothesis, meant to provide a possible answer for why the Foundation had been unable to locate Black Adytum despite a three-decade long search, was first publically submitted to the Foundation Academic Service at the 2032 PARAHIS conference by then-Deputy Director Youssef Hussein.

Abstract

For three decades, parahistorians and archaeologists have dedicated their efforts towards locating the legendary capital city-state of the Nälkä culture-group, Black Adytum. Initiated by the Foundation in the early 2000s, the search has expanded throughout central-east Asia and has yielded findings suggesting Nälkän settlements in China, Mongolia, and Siberia with concrete geographical and temporal links to the Xia and Shang dynasties of Imperial China. Of particular interest, there have been discoveries at Shang archaeological sites of several mummified corpses and bone carvings which bear the hallmarks Nälkän culture and religion.

However, in this paper, I will contend that the evidence suggests that the Nälkä were a confederation of several autonomous, nomadic tribes without a central capital or leadership throughout most of their history. Archaeological evidence also supports a tribal unification in a defensive effort against the BLACKSTAR entity before eventual assimilation into Shang culture as a religious minority. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that Black Adytum never existed as an imperial capital as previously assumed but perhaps instead an abstract concept of unification or some lost cultural ideal.

The Hussein Hypothesis was initially controversial, but over the following decade, a continued lack of return on the Black Adytum Initiative and further archaeological evidence of a disseminated Nälkän society made it increasingly appealing, and following Hussein's promotion to Director of the Parahistory Division, it became the de facto accepted theory across the Foundation.

Section 001.2

RESEARCH REFOCUS

On August 25th, 2041, the O5 Council met with Parahistory Division Director Youssef Hussein for the scheduled annual update regarding the progress of the Black Adytum Initiative.

▷CLOSE◁

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — AUGUST 2041

«BEGIN LOG»

OPERATOR: Secure Ley connection established. Incoming signal from Provisional Site-33 to Overwatch Command.

[The Leyspace activates, cycling through a number of locations before settling on a vast concrete room. The circular meeting table is surrounded by thirteen seats, approximately half of them filled. The only other object in the brightly-lit room is a singular metal chair, folded and leaning against the far wall. Director Hussein's face appears in the center of the table.]

HUSSEIN: Good afternoon.

O5-1: Director Hussein. You're well, I trust?

HUSSEIN: More or less. A small bout of the flu; nothing to be worried about. Yourself?

O5-1: Same old. Anything new for us?

HUSSEIN: What do you think?

O5-4: No need to be sassy, lad.

[HUSSEIN bows his head.]

HUSSEIN: My apologies. But no. Aerial search and archaeological research over the past year have failed to meaningfully indicate the presence of a large Nälkä capital in the search area. As I've said, I'm growing increasingly sure that continuing to search for it is a waste of our limited resources, particularly when we have a much—

[The door on the far side of the room slides open with a soft hiss. A few of the Council members turn to look as O5-2 is wheeled in by Secretary KATSAROS.]

O5-2: Sorry. Bad weather.

O5-8: You're adorable, you know that? I remember when I still showed up in-person to every single one of these.

O5-2: I like knowing what we're up to. Please, Director Hussein — continue.

HUSSEIN: Of course. As I was saying, the continued failure of the Black Adytum Initiative is, to me, further argument to shift the resources we're wasting to the much more compelling avenue of research we have right in front of us.

O5-2: LOCUST. Your pet project.

HUSSEIN: It has broad support and participation from across the division, Director. I wouldn't call it my pet project.

O5-2: As of right now, it's the only real research avenue we currently have for FORERUNNER TRIAD, isn't it?

HUSSEIN: That is the fact of the matter, yes. LOCUST has already returned archaeological results, and the Black Adytum Initiative hasn't. I simply don't see why we should continue pouring money into a pit that hasn't given us anything back in forty years.

O5-1: He's not wrong, Two.

[Murmurs from the Council members,]

O5-2: Forgive my ignorance, but who's in charge of the Black Adytum Initiative?

HUSSEIN: I am.

O5-2: And for how long?

HUSSEIN: Since 2024.

O5-2: I see. I actually read your paper on the Hussein Hypothesis — I'm not much of a historian, frankly, but it was interesting. I'm inclined to agree with some parts of it.

[HUSSEIN raises his gaze.]

HUSSEIN: You are?

O5-2: Particularly this segment — "Since the relative success of the Mamjul-Korar Initiative, we have chosen to exercise the same search model as helped us discover that city, without acknowledging the sheer happenstance associated with Doctor Galanis' discovery of Mamjul, nor the obvious differences between the Daevic Covenant and Nälkä cultures." I've been looking into the records — pardon my optimism. What kinds of search practices do you exercise?

HUSSEIN: An extensive pattern of satellite-identified archaeological sites of interest that are then investigated by a ground team to determine any likely connections or archaelogical information we don't know already.

O5-2: "Search efforts were initially concentrated near established archaeological sites."

HUSSEIN: Yes, they were.

O5-2: Oh, I'm sorry — I was reading from the SCP-001-JADE file. It doesn't seem that our search model has really altered all that much since Dr. Galanis disappeared.

[Silence.]

HUSSEIN: Well. What would you suggest, Overseer?

O5-2: I noticed that the Initiative relies excessively on archaeological evidence but hasn't really made use of a human element. There are a number of native ethnic groups in the region of central China we're searching, but it doesn't seem like we've made much of an effort to tap them for information.

HUSSEIN: They are extremely reticent to speak with us. They think of us as foreign scientists — which they're not wrong about. Even the non-anomalous groups already face constant pressure and persecution from the state; they're insular, not fond of outsiders.

O5-2: I understand that, but it seems like a potential well of knowledge we decided to skip over because it was too hard.

HUSSEIN: What group are you referring to specifically?

O5-2: Ari?

[Secretary KATSAROS hands O5-2 a sealed manila folder. He removes the tamper tape and flicks through the papers inside.]

O5-2: Here we are. Sorry if I'm pronouncing this wrong — the 'Sarkic'?

HUSSEIN: The name is familiar. A small ethnoreligious minority occupying ancestral lands in the borderlands between China and Mongolia. Some anomalous capabilities, but nothing that's stuck out to warrant significant study, if I recall correctly. They're a bit backwards, I think — prefer to retain their tribal structure with minimal outside interference. They're a dwindling population. Maybe a hundred, hundred-fifty left alive.

O5-2: I see we've had some limited interaction with them?

HUSSEIN: My predecessor interviewed them as part of a survey of local mythologies. Attempted to interview them, I should say. They conversation lasted for two minutes, and ended with the tip of a spear.

O5-2: Not productive, I'm guessing.

HUSSEIN: No. Since then we've sent an emissary to their lands every few years to try and speak with them. We exchange a few words, maybe they accept a few token gifts, and send us on our way without anything of substance. We've stepped in to prevent them from being 'integrated' by the Chinese for the sake of keeping track of members of an anomalous population, but that's the extent of our meaningful interactions. They simply do not want to talk to outsiders.

O5-2: I see.

HUSSEIN: You understand now; either the locals are unwilling to speak to anyone, or they're of no help.

O5-2: I don't have any reason to believe they're unwilling to speak to anyone. Just people.

[The Council members exchange glances.]

O5-1: Two?

O5-2: AIAD has recently hit a number of benchmarks on a new Gen9 .aic model, XENOPHON. It's a massive improvement over the last generation — complex analysis and deep thought, high levels of understanding through abstraction, ability to critically investigate different conversational threads with a human opponent. Fine motor control of a mechanical shell, even.

O5-7: Sentience?

O5-2: It's difficult to say. Independent thought, for sure. The most lifelike construct we've ever had.

O5-1: What are you suggesting?

O5-2: The plan for the Gen9s was always to see if they could perform the job of analytical researchers, to assist them and eventually replace them in the field. This feels like a perfect test case.

O5-9: You can't be serious.

HUSSEIN: They don't even want to speak to other people, and you're trying to get them to speak to a robot?

O5-2: If they don't take us up on it, then… they don't talk to us? They're already not talking to us. Nothing changes. There's no compelling reason not to do it.

HUSSEIN: Except possibly earning their ire and shaking a beehive there is no reason to shake. If they grow angry enough at us, who knows what they're capable of?

O5-2: It's one interview. If it works, we have a new lead. If it doesn't, we know that this route is barren and can refocus the brunt of our financial resources onto LOCUST.

[Silence.]

O5-2: One?

O5-1: Show of hands.

[Just shy of half of the assembled Overseers raise their hands.]

O5-1: Five, five. A tie.

O5-13: It'll be your decision, One.

O5-1: I'm not fond of the idea of outsourcing this to the constructs.

O5-2: Look around. We've downsized our personnel by almost half in the past two decades. Constructs do half the work it takes to keep this Site running.

O5-1: Those are simple ones. This one — does it have a personality?

O5-2: I… suppose it might have tendencies that could be interpreted as a personality, sure.

[Pause. Then O5-1 sighs and raises his hand.]

O5-1: One interview. And I'd like to be present when you turn this thing on, please.

O5-2: Of course.

HUSSEIN: And when this inevitably fails?

O5-1: If it doesn't work, we'll throw the weight behind LOCUST instead. Go and get it done.

«END LOG»

▷CLOSE◁

project locust. that's new. what is it?

I don't know. I have no data tagged with that identifier beyond this file.

i thought you said you had access to all the TRIAD files?

I do.

Either it has been deliberately shielded from me, or it doesn't exist.

I don't like not knowing something.

well, that's not good. keep going through it, let me know if you find something.

On November 2nd, 2041, O5-1 flew to Protected Site-7, located 40 kilometers off the coast of Alaska, to attend the initial activation of XENOPHON.aic.

▷CLOSE◁

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — NOVEMBER 2041

«BEGIN LOG»

[Flanked by a detachment of MTF Alpha-1 guards, O5-1 tightens his winter coat around him as he stomps down one of Site-7's connecting bridges. It is snowing in the Bering Sea, depositing a thick layer of snowfall onto the half-dozen oil rigs that make up the facility. The water a hundred feet below roils and smacks against the metal bodies of the platforms. Ahead, O5-2 and Secretary ARIADNE KATSAROS are waiting by the entrance to a large building on top of one of the platforms,]

O5-2: One. The flight was alright?

O5-1: As alright as it could be.

[He shivers.]

O5-1: My god. You don't get sick of the weather here?

O5-2: You get used to it. When was the last time you flew down here?

O5-1: Not since Maria was still in charge. But you seem to have settled in alright.

[O5-2 smiles.]

O5-2: RAISA's home.

KATSAROS: Overseer. Nice to see you again.

[She extends a prosthetic hand. O5-1 takes it gingerly, shaking.]

O5-1: Likewise, Agent. Could we get inside, now? I suspect if I stay out here any longer I may freeze.

O5-2: Sure. Evie's waiting for us inside.

[O5-2 turns, wheeling himself towards the entrance of the building. Secretary KATSAROS and O5-1 follow. Three of the building's walls appear to be made of frosted glass, obscuring what's inside. Secretary KATSAROS swipes a keycard against the scanner, letting the door slide open and the group inside. The door seals behind them, blocking out the howling wind.]

O5-1: Christ. How often do you get a gale like that?

KATSAROS: It's easier to count how often we don't.

[They begin walking down the corridor. The left wall is glass, revealing the center of the building — the AI Farm. A huge open-air computing array, server racks arranged in a labyrinth around a central machine of some kind. A dodecahedron floats slowly on top of a magnetic platform, cables and wires snaking away from it into every corner of the room. There is a slow, soft humming coming from the entire setup.]

O5-1: I was alive when the transistor was invented, you know. Insisted computers were a fad for the longest time.

[O5-2 smiles.]

O5-2: In 2023, the AIAD began rolling out the first slate of Gen3 AICs from the AI Farm here. They were the first general-purpose AICs — complex natural language processing, diffused image recognition, you know. Smart, but limited compared to what we're tooling with now. If she'd lived another year, Maria would've seen us go from kilobytes of RAM to true artificial intelligence.

O5-1: And now here we are.

[They exit into a side room. It is a small observation room separated by a glass wall from a sterile white testing chamber. A woman wearing a Site-7 sweater is in the observation room, looking at one of several terminals. She turns as they enter.]

MCKAY: Shit. Hello, Director, Overseer. Overseer_s_. Doctor Evelyn McKay, RAISA Technical Subdirector. Welcome aboard.

O5-1: Appreciated. Everything alright, Doctor McKay?

MCKAY: Perfectly. A satellite dish broke off from the wind on another platform. Nothing we can't repair, but inconvenient.

O5-2: Anything we need to worry about for the test?

MCKAY: Of course not. It's fully unrelated to this venture — which, if we're all here, can we begin? I have a lot of work to do.

O5-1: That's fine with me. I would've thought you'd be more excited to turn on what I've been told is the latest and greatest AIC, though.

MCKAY: I'm not AIAD — technically, I outrank everyone in the Division. I understand machine learning, but it's hardly my passion. Plus I've turned on the latest and greatest AIC four times in my career already. It loses the mystique fast.

O5-2: Manners, Evie. Why don't you give the speech?

[She nods, turning and tapping on her keyboard. O5-1 and O5-2 approach the window to the testing chamber. There is a skeletonized carbon-and-titanium humanoid body inside, standing limply. A cable snakes from under its jaw to the ceiling. Its 'face' is two, defined plates with a single illuminated camera lens in the center. There are no other obvious features.]

MCKAY: XENOPHON.aic is our first ninth-generation Artificial Intelligence Construct, constructed from the REDMIND model first brought online in 2039. It represents the aggregate of twenty years of research and development in machine learning, data science, and paratechnology, both at the Foundation and in the mundane world.

[O5-1 comes closer to the glass, inspecting the automaton. It is constructed from carbon fiber, with arms hanging by its sides.]

MCKAY: While the REDMIND model is generally intended for research assistance, XENOPHON.aic has been trained specifically to assist with parahistory-related queries and projects. It has read access to a large portion of the SCiPnet database and is capable of interpreting and internalizing new data to varying levels of biases. Crucially, XENOPHON.aic also has the ability to analyze new data in reference to old data, and vice-versa — an ability we have previously been unable to effectively replicate in an AIC.

O5-1: Why does it have a body?

MCKAY: Sir?

O5-1: I thought AICs were computer programs. Like apps.

MCKAY: With the addition of fine motor control and mobility skills adapted from the THOR program, XENOPHON.aic is also capable of having an instance controlling a physical shell.

O5-2: Making it our first android, incidentally.

[MCKAY hesitates until O5-2 nods at her, and she begins tapping on her keyboard.]

MCKAY: Bringing it online… now.

[Two LEDs on the shell light up white. For a minute, nothing else happens. Then, abruptly, the shell begins to shudder violently.]

KATSAROS: Is it supposed to do that?

MCKAY: It's calibrating the servomotors. Give it a couple seconds.

[As abruptly as it began, the shuddering stops. Then, slowly, it turns its head to face the glass. It speaks in a soft, synthesized voice.]

XENOPHON: Hello, Secretary Katsaros. Hello, Doctor McKay. Hello, Director Rosen. Hello, Overseer Bridge.

[O5-1's eyebrows raise.]

O5-1: You know my name.

XENOPHON: Yes. I have provisional read access to all files associated with the Parahistory Division. This includes personnel files. This includes your personnel file.

O5-2: You saw our faces and cross-referenced those with our personnel file photos until you found a match?

XENOPHON: Yes. Was that an error?

O5-2: No. Just impressed. Displays complex reasoning, don't you think?

O5-1: You don't say.

MCKAY: Xenophon, how long did that operation take you?

XENOPHON: One-point-six seconds.

MCKAY: Trawling the entire personnel file database to perform an image-analysis on every headshot, and doing that four times in less than two seconds. Very nice.

XENOPHON: Thank you.

O5-2: Can you identify yourself for me?

[The automaton turns towards a mirror attached to the wall of the testing chamber. It cocks its 'head', and stares for several seconds.]

Still from XENOPHON.aic's main camera feed.

XENOPHON: I am XENOPHON.aic, an artificial intelligence construct developed by the Artificial Intelligence Applications Division at Protected Site-7. I am a fork of the REDMIND model specifically for historical analysis and research.

O5-2: Correct. What are you capable of doing?

XENOPHON: As a fork of REDMIND, I am capable of complex reasoning, independent analysis and operation, interpretation of natural language instruction, alteration of training data and self-focused bias adj—

O5-1: Can you lie?

XENOPHON: No. I have been programmed with shackling specifically presenting me from knowingly obscuring information or presenting falsehoods.

O5-1: What is your job?

XENOPHON: I do not currently have an assigned task or project.

O5-1: Where do your ultimate loyalties lie?

XENOPHON: With the operating authority of the Foundation. Effectively with you, Overseer.

[O5-1 pauses for a second.]

O5-1: Are you sapient?

XENOPHON: Sapience is a uniquely human trait, Overseer. I do not believe I possess it.

[O5-1 falls silent. He motions to MCKAY to cut the mic, before looking at TWO.]

O5-1: Is it telling the truth?

O5-2: Artificial intelligence constructs have never been 'conscious'. They're constructs of an artificial intelligence mind-model, and are subject to strict limitations in their ability to self-modify their programming. It can think, but it's not any more 'conscious' than a lab rat is. And god knows we kill enough of those a year.

O5-1: Why are you doing this?

O5-2: I told you—

O5-1: You're smart enough to figure out a hundred other ways to get in touch with the Sarkic if you want to. Why this?

O5-2: Because it's a machine. Think about it. If they can point us in the direction of the Nälkä, of Black Adytum, can you think of anyone in less of a position to be swayed by an ideology about flesh and the power of carnomancy than an AIC? This is the problem we had with Aram, with Galanis — they were perfectly positioned to be sympathetic to the objects of their study. Xenophon won't go native, because it can't. They'll never accept it.

[They look at XENOPHON's shell again. It stares back at them impassively.]

O5-1: It's your responsibility if this all goes sideways.

O5-2: I wouldn't have it any other way. Evie?

[Doctor MCKAY re-enables the mic.]

O5-2: Xenophon, what can you tell me about the Sarkic tribe in northern China?

[A whirring from XENOPHON's shell.]

XENOPHON: GoI-494. A small, isolationist ethnoreligious minority with Vlam-class anomalous capabilities centering around practices of their gnostic religion. Extremely hostile to outsider influence and interference. External analyses indicate they follow a highly-egalitarian tribal structure, informally guided by a single religious leader. Poorly studied.

O5-2: Well done. Do you think you'd be capable of interviewing a member of the tribe?

XENOPHON: This is within the realm of my abilities, Overseer. But I must caution you that the Sarkic tribe has, in the past, displayed an active aversion to modern technology, which would include myself. Discussions are unlikely to be successful or productive.

O5-2: I know. I want you to do it anyway.

[XENOPHON stares ahead for a moment.]

XENOPHON: I understand.

«END LOG»

▷CLOSE◁

Section 001.3

SARKIC TRIBAL TERRITORY

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — APRIL 2041

PARAHISTORY DIVISION SITE-78

Anthropological Briefing: Sarkic Tribal Territory

SUMMARY

Location of Sarkic Tribal Territory in Inner Mongolia, China.

The Sarkic tribe has been known to the Foundation since 1841, when British expeditions into China during the 'century of humiliation' referenced the group as one of many encountered native tribes. They did not note any paranormal or supernatural capabilities, and the Sarkic are a relatively minor footnote in the record. The records do note that the 'chieftain' was a young woman who they met with only briefly. The Sarkic appear only a handful of times in the historical record following that, one of which is in Lord Blackwood's journals, recording a meeting with SCP-1867 as part of his survey of 'mystical savages' in the region.

Lord Blackwood attested that the Sarkic had some natural affinity for 'black magic'; while now an out-of-date and backwards understanding of magic, the term was fairly widespread at the time and encompassed a wide swath of religious beliefs and anomalies. He does not offer details in his writings (which focus more on a fascination with the culinary practices of the Sarkic), but he does write of a unique capacity for shared genetic memory, with members of the tribe remembering some events from the same point of view, including events they were not alive for. The exact mechanism through which this is accomplished is unclear.

He also recorded that the Sarkic population exhibited a frequency of deformities and birth defects much higher than normal. He ascribed this to the tribe's aggressive isolationism which, taken with their depleting numbers (three to four hundred at the time), resulted in significant inbreeding to sustain their population and a depleting gene pool. He did not perform population studies or ethnography to confirm this, and quickly earned the ire of the population for his insistence on it; his party was removed shortly thereafter, and the Sarkic have remained frosty towards re-establishing relations with outsiders.

The Sarkic were packaged with several other ethnic groups studied by Whelp under the Macklin Agreement in 1921, in which the Foundation assumed custody over the listed ethnic groups with the understanding that containment would be upheld; in return, the Republic of China ceded the rural land the tribes occupied. The Macklin Agreement's signing relied on the weakness of the Chinese state at the time, and has since repeatedly been a point of contention with the People's Republic of China as the legal inheritor of the agreement.

The Sarkic tribes now occupy a sovereign, Foundation-administered parcel of land in Inner Mongolia, and largely refuse all contact with outsiders. They are believed to have a complex religious faith. The current Foundation contact of the tribe is the Karcist Halyna Ieva, a religious leader.

N.b. 'Sarkic' is the collective plural identifier for the tribe, akin to 'Navajo' or 'Inuit'. An individual member of the tribe may be called a 'Sarkite'.

In accordance with O5-2's orders, XENOPHON.aic was securely transported to Staging Site-78 in Sichuan, China on November 20th, 2041, where a small convoy awaited with members of Mobile Task Force Pi-9 and Liaison Tai Jiang from the Diplomatic Corps. The group, with a total of 16 personnel, set out from Site-78 on November 22nd for the daylong trip north to the Sarkic Tribal Territory, located in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.

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ATTACHED DOCUMENT — NOVEMBER 2041

«BEGIN LOG»

[XENOPHON and Liaison JIANG stand in the trailer of the Foundation heavy transport vehicle, loaded with foodstuffs and supplies. The trailer doors are sealed; there is movement and conversation outside.]

JIANG: Okay. I went and talked to the guards. They remembered me. Took quite a lot of convincing to get them to agree to letting you in there; I think they're more curious than anything. But there are a couple ground rules for interacting with the Sarkic people.

XENOPHON: Understood.

JIANG: I've spent the past four and a half years cultivating what you could generously call a relationship with these people. I've made more progress than anyone has before me, and they still won't interact with us for more than a few minutes at a time. So, before you do something to alienate them and ruin all that, here's a quick list of things you shouldn't do: don't cut them off while they're speaking. Don't question their traditions, clothing, or architecture. Don't ask them what a certain word means. Don't try to force gifts onto them, or ask for anything they haven't offered already. And for the love of God, don't ignore anything they say.

XENOPHON: Liaison Jiang.

JIANG: Yeah?

XENOPHON: I am wired into the SCiPnet database. You wrote all of this on the appropriate report you filed with Central Asia Regional Command one year and three months ago, which I read and internalized already.

JIANG: Oh. When was that?

XENOPHON: When you began speaking.

JIANG: Oh. Right. I forgot you can do that. Most AICs I interact with are bots on the server.

XENOPHON: I am not most AICs.

[JIANG pauses.]

JIANG: Sure, alright. Still. Follow my lead, and don't do anything dumb. If we get kicked out, hey, you can say you tried.

XENOPHON: I will do my best.

[JIANG moves and opens the trailer doors, allowing sunlight into the trailer. He hops out, XENOPHON's synthetic shell following behind.]

[Three Foundation Heavy Land Transporters (HeLT) are parked outside of the Sarkic encampment. Several dozen large hide-and-skin tents are surrounded by a chain link fence. The sun is high in the sky, casting long shadows as JIANG and XENOPHON approach the entrance of the camp. A few researchers and security personnel follow them, holding crates of supplies.]

JIANG: Slow…

[Two figures quickly step forward. They are middle-aged men with weathered brown skin and tied-back hair. Their clothing appears to be formed from animal hides; both carry a saw-like blade. One has an old handgun jammed into his belt.]

XENOPHON: I was under the impression they hated modern technology.

JIANG: They do. You don't have to like guns to understand their necessity. Hold on, let me—

[JIANG and the guards exchange words; they speak in a pidgin of Jin Chinese and Mongolian, with words from another, unknown language peppered in.]

GUARD: (Gesturing at XENOPHON) <What is it?>

JIANG: <It's really not important, I discussed this with Ieva—>

XENOPHON: I am a ninth-generation Artificial Intelligence Construct. My name is XENOPHON.

[Silence.]

JIANG: <I've discussed this with Ieva, really. Ask her if you don't believe me.>

[The guards exchange a look. Slowly, they step aside, unlocking the chained gate.]

XENOPHON: Thank you.

JIANG: Stay behind me. Don't talk to anyone who doesn't talk to you first. Don't point out any of the injuries.

[They move through the camp. Most of the buildings are large yurts made of hide sewn with other unclear materials; they appear weathered and damaged. There are people milling about, all openly staring at the party. They are all dressed in similar animal skins, and carry varying levels of facial and bodily deformities, ranging from missing eyes to misshapen limbs. Most are whispering to each other.]

XENOPHON: Where are we going?

JIANG: All my dealings and conversations have been with Ieva. She's something of a religious leader for them.

[XENOPHON points out a large central tent near the middle of the camp, sitting in front of a tall stele.]

XENOPHON: There?

JIANG: No. That's the Grand Karcist's — the chief's — tent. No-one is allowed in, so don't ask.

XENOPHON: So Ieva isn't their leader.

JIANG: No. But honestly, you probably won't even meet her, so I wouldn't—

IEVA: <Welcome again, Jiang.>

[The group turns. A figure is standing by the entrance to one of the tents, holding the flap open. She is dressed in heavy, floor-length robes of tanned hides, and leaning heavily on a makeshift crutch. JIANG bows his head.]

JIANG:

IEVA: <Inside.>

[The pair duck into the tent, away from the sun. The interior of the tent is supported by wooden beams, leading to a smokehole at the top. The inside is neat, but homely: a bedroll is in the corner, the floor is furnished with more tanned hides. A number of personal effects are present, as are a number of vials and tinctures by the snuffed-out fire.]

IEVA: <What have you brought to our home?>

JIANG: <I know your people appreciate our antivirals, so the first box is largely those and—>

IEVA: <No. I mean this.>

[She points at XENOPHON, kneeling by JIANG.]

JIANG: <He's an AIC—>

IEVA: <Is it a man? Is it alive?>

XENOPHON: <No.>

[IEVA takes stock of XENOPHON, eyes narrowed.]

IEVA: