SCP-001: The SCP-001 Proposals - the secret of the Foundation's first and most classified object

Among the thousands of anomalous files at SCP Foundation, no designation stirs as much curiosity and unease as SCP-001. It is believed to be the first object, the most important, and the most closely guarded in the whole organisation. But try to open that file and you will not find a single truth — you will find a labyrinth built to mislead curious people exactly like you.

What is SCP-001?

Unlike any ordinary document, SCP-001 is not a single file but a collection of SCP-001 Proposals (The Proposals of SCP-001) drafted by various senior figures within the Foundation. Each proposal tells its own story about the "originating object". The chilling part is that only one of them is true, while all the others are decoys planted on purpose. Outside a handful of people, no one is permitted to know which is the genuine one.

Object class: Euclid

In the SCP Foundation classification system, an object is rated Euclid when it is unpredictable enough that containment cannot be guaranteed absolutely. The class sits between Safe (secure, easy to control) and Keter (extremely dangerous, almost impossible to hold). Labelling SCP-001 as Euclid is a tacit admission that too much about its true nature remains unknown, and that no one dares claim to understand everything behind the number 001.

Containment procedures

The containment mechanism of SCP-001 is the decoy system itself. By publishing several mutually contradictory proposals at once, the Foundation makes it impossible for hostile powers — and for curious staff — to work out which one is true.

• All proposals are archived side by side, with no distinction between true and false.
• Access to the original file is restricted to the highest security clearance.
• The confusion of information itself becomes the "fence" protecting the real object.

Description and the chilling story

Each SCP-001 Proposal opens onto a haunting scenario of its own. One tells of The Gate Guardian (The Gate Guardian) — a colossal entity watching over the gate back to Eden, standing motionless through millennia. Another speaks of The Scarlet King (The Scarlet King), an ancient power that sows the end of the world. There is also When Day Breaks (When Day Breaks), in which sunlight becomes a predator that burns away every creature stepping out of shadow; and The Prototype Machine and The Broken God. Each story chills in its own way, and you can never be sure whether what you have just read is the true origin of all anomalies or simply another smokescreen.

Perhaps that is the greatest fear SCP-001 offers: a truth buried so deep that even the Foundation lets it sink into the dark. Please note that everything about SCP-001 and SCP Foundation is community-created fiction (collaborative fiction/creepypasta) and is not real. Enjoy it as a work of imaginative horror.