SCP-5373


rating: +82+x
BY ORDER OF THE O4 COUNCIL
Due to the plans outlined within Document O4-5373-2, SCP-5373 is currently under official military engagement from the SCP Foundation. This file might be outdated at the time of your access and is Level 4 Classified.
Unauthorized access is forbidden.
5373
Item#: 5373
Level4
Containment Class:
esoteric
Secondary Class:
gödel
Disruption Class:
ekhi
Risk Class:
notice


Revised Special Containment Procedures: Following the passing of the vote during the 01/05/1985 summit of the O4 Council, SCP-5373 is under official SCP Foundation blockade. At this time, leaving the anomaly is strictly forbidden. Until PoI-5936 ("Damien Nowak")1 is properly eliminated, the system blocking the escape entries is to be activated for as long as needed.

Should the crisis be properly dealt with, the Special Containment Procedures are to revert to their Archived version and this file is to be updated to adhere to this change.

Archival Notice: Foundation personnel accessing this file for overview information regarding Esterberg should be reminded that it primarily acts as a file pertaining to Operation Neverland. For exact information regarding the Free Port, please access the attached external file.

Description: SCP-5373 is FP-120, a Free Port-type Nexus currently existing within a pocket dimension parallel to the city of Częstochowa, Poland, commonly referred to as "Tysiąclecie Górne" in Polish or "Esterberg" in Fae, acting as the hub of operations for GoI-120 ("Triumviraté").2

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One of the five entries into SCP-5373 as seen behind an abandoned factory building in Częstochowa, Poland.

Although this area is strictly separated from baseline reality, it is accessible through five main entries from baseline reality, one for each of its districts, connecting these two dimensions together leading into one of its districts. All of them are located throughout the entirety of Częstochowa, Poland, only accessible to individuals knowing the passcodes necessary to pass through each door. Despite the location of these entries and / or said password having been noted to be changed about once a century by Esterberg's rulers, the Foundation had been successfully able to locate them following each shift through the usage of scanner technology and thaumaturgic rituals.

Despite mostly acting as a free living space for numerous anomalous races, such as common Fae (Homo sapiens sidhe) or Yeren (Homo sapiens noctis),3 human society is neither a rarity nor an ostracized minority — in fact, the concept of racial discrimination within SCP-5373's boundaries is nearly nonexistent.

SCP-5373's area covers around 59 km x 62 km of land (with 10% of that being taken by the actual city and 90% by the outside), with a centralized citizen-run council currently acting as the main ruling organ for the city. The entire city appears to run on a democratic-socialistic system, with the internal government being run by a body known as the "Council of Three," a group comprised of one Fae, one human, and one Child of the Night, chosen from the city council once every four years in a democratic vote among the council, acting as a position similar to that of prime minister and president to the city.

Due to SCP-5373's large area, it is inherently divided into five different districts, self-referred by its inhabitants as the Ruling District, the Living District, the Market District, the Sewer District, and the Port District.4 Due to their complexity, refer to the Addenda for further information on each.

Discovery and Historical Context: SCP-5373 first came to the Foundation's attention even prior to Site-120's founding in 02/05/1916. During that time, intel from allied minor Groups of Interest revealed the existence of a Free Port within the boundaries of Częstochowa. Following the founding of Provisional Site-120, SCP-5292's discovery (at the time known as PL-X0R38/0124) and the Fae attack that followed, Site-120 had been properly established to watch over the entirety of the Free Port for further action-planning.

With the passing of the 1923 "Free Port Protection" League of Nations Act, any plans of containment of SCP-5373 were immediately discontinued to not break the newly established international law. However, due to a loophole allowing for unarmed Foundation research exploration, further study conducted revealed that SCP-5373 is most likely more than 500 years old. Markings found within its oldest building — the Grand Temple located in the Ruling District — suggest that it was originally created as a refugee camp for anomalous during Medieval times during the attacks by the Catholic Church on the the Fae and Children of the Night populations during the Fourth Occult War, caused by an attempt at resurgence by the Fae Empire in the 13th century.

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Second one of the five entries into SCP-5373 as seen within an abandoned block of flats located within Częstochowa, Poland.

Despite SCP-5373's continued existence over the following eras, no major interactions with the human population in any capacity were noted — the only real exception of this rule was the hermetic sealing of the community during the Medieval-era Catholic Church-organized hunts for all that was anomalous, with a focus on individuals possessing thaumaturgic abilities and / or anomalous races. It's believed that this was mainly caused by the fact that almost no representatives of the hunting organizations possessed any knowledge regarding the usage of thaumaturgy; therefore a magical lock on portals leading to SCP-5373 were effectively permanent protection.

During 1916, intel of its existence had been acquired by the Foundation — in the light of this information, further actions were almost immediately undertaken, in the end resulting in Site-120's establishment. For more information regarding these events, see file — SCP-5292.

In recent years, SCP-5373 has been acting as the main hub for all legal anomalous activity within a majority of central Europe. Being both a Foundation influence-free area as well as a society accepting of thaumaturgy, ontokinetic abilities, and other common anomalies, its population consists of more than 50 000 individuals both living within it on a daily basis as well as visiting. Noteworthy is the fact that despite being relatively up-to-date with modern technology, SCP-5373 has no infrastructure supporting cars,5 and its architecture is heavily non-modern, with a currently untitled mixture of neoclassical, gothic, medieval, and modern architecture dominating within.

Due to the relative ease of access to most individuals as well as the fact SCP-5373 is not forbidden to anyone, even Foundation personnel, FP-120 is seen as both a positive phenomenon and a wanted one due to its limitation of any non-controlled anomalous activity within the region — it's currently estimated that due to its existence, at least 100 anomalous events are prevented from being seen by the public on a daily basis.


⚠️ FILE UPDATE — 01/05/1985 — Project Neverland Briefing ⚠️


Following the receival of intel suggesting that the next planned move of PoI-5936 is going to be an exploration mission into SCP-5373 for the purpose of a gathering of his military force consisting of anomalous races, SCP-5890-1 entities,6 and SCP-5795-2 instances, which are able to remotely compromise Foundation databases. Due to this, as well as information suggesting this event will lead to a destruction of the second metaphysical thaumaturgic circle referred to by his followers as a "Seal," in turn progressing his final, currently unknown, plan.

To counter this, a planned military operation focused only on the elimination of PoI-5936 and his followers has been launched on 17/05/1985 by the Foundation; logs and details of this operation are available below.

Operation details in regards to specific SCP-5373 Districts are marked in the color of blue.


Addendum 5373-1: Specific SCP-5373 District Descriptions


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The entry point into the Sewer District as seen by MTF Theta-120 (portal-entry-enduced visual anomalies removed).

The Sewer District: Being the smallest district within all of FP-120, the sewer district acts as the city's main garbage disposal system. Within its boundaries, numerous thaumaturgy-operated burners as well as other machinery to which all pipes and sewage lines are connected, are located. Despite this system however, a large portion of the underground sewer system is either heavily outdated due to its age and repurposed for usage by anomalous races finding the environment it creates to be beneficial. Such modifications range from mass grave / crypt areas,7 tunnel underground black markets, and housing areas for the previously mentioned races to connections to local cave areas.

Entry into the Sewer District is available directly through a loose portal located within Częstochowa's sewers, through which the Foundation leads almost all exploration missions into SCP-5373 due to the relative secrecy that location offers. However, due to the loose dimensional boundary enforcement this way of dimensional separation creates, numerous minor anomalous behaviors have been noted to affect the non-SCP-5373 part of the gateway, with the most present one being the feeling of a powerful presence within the Częstochowian sewers. However, as none of these effects is severe enough to affect anything else than the extremely small space that is the connection between Częstochowa and SCP-5373, no action against them was declared necessary.

The Sewer District is to act as the starting point to the PoI-5936 Capture Mission, further referred to as "Project Neverland." There, a total of five MTF units are to be dispatched as the beginning to this operation, with their main goal being heading towards the Ruling District, where a Foundation-contacted inside agent is planned to provide more intel information to the squads regarding Nowak's whereabouts; after this occurs, the main focus is on locating the area he resides in and eliminating him.



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A section of one of the smaller temples located within the Ruling District.

The Ruling District: Despite its extreme size, the Ruling District doesn't house as many buildings as it would be expected to — in fact, most of its area is covered by large administrative buildings, the main parliament housing the city council and the Council of Three, houses of individuals bearing rule over the city, and its religious buildings — with the oldest and the largest of them being the Grand Temple, which acts as the main housing unit for SCP-5373's thaumaturgic and theological activities. Due to the buildings it houses, most of the Ruling District's area is severely renovated above any other area within the city.

Being the oldest part of the city as suggested by prior scans, the Ruling District possesses by far the highest rankings of Akiva radiation out of the entire city, with the focus point of this radiation being the Grand Temple, which is also the oldest building within the entire city. It's theorized that this is mainly caused by the sheer amount of religious activity it houses every day due to its size — however, this doesn't explain why energy amounts similar to those excreted by dietic entities are mainly focused on underground parts of the facility.

Due to the relatively rich population of the Ruling District, a relatively large portion of its buildings are directly owned by large Groups of Interest, with the main players within this area being Marshall, Carter & Darke, which possesses an official auctionhouse within the district and the Global Occult Coalition with its own office and a patrolling force. Additionally, numerous cults and smaller religious organizations such as the Church of the Broken God, the Serpent's Hand, with a direct portal to the Wanderers' Library in one of its buildings, singular believers of Sarkicism, and a small but formidable cult of individuals worshiping an unknown deity known as "Father" have been found within the numerous minor chapels and religious buildings the Ruling District offers.

Following their escape from the Sewer District, Project Neverland exploration teams are to head into the direction of the Grand Temple, where they are to meet the Foundation's inside agents, from whom they are to collect information regarding Nowak's whereabouts (this information wasn't forwarded prior due to the chance of compromisation this offer would hold for the agents). After this exchange is done, the team is to act accordingly to the information provided with the goal of capturing PoI-5936 in mind.



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The lake directly visible from the Port District. Notice the lack of any visible shoreline.

The Port District: Despite its name, the Port District's actual port hasn't been the center of the attention it gets for a long time — that title inherently belongs to the storehouses the sector houses, used by numerous suppliers within the city, especially for establishments located within the Living District and the Market District. Due to boats becoming more of an obsolete movement method as well as the closing of all river-based entries into SCP-5373 within the couple last centuries, the actual port is now more of a decoration / tourist attraction rather than a functioning trade center; though boats still roam the waters of the foggy lake, Lake Arlande, connected to the harbor, trade through this method is almost nonexistent.

Despite being mostly populated by large warehouses as well as markets from the Market District, numerous other buildings, including houses, still do exist within the Port District's area — the biggest landmark being the gigantic lighthouse located on the shores of Lake Arlande. The building, being powered by a thaumaturgic flame, permanently exhorts a large pillar of light, regularly patrolling the harbor. Despite no real need for this, a local legend attributing the flame's wealth to the wealth of the city exists; no correlation has ever been noted, but Esterbergians keep the flame permanently alive as a visible tradition.

After the information exchange within the Ruling District will become successful, Project Neverland personnel are to head within the location within which PoI-5936 is planned to locate himself, in the process adhering to as many safety rules as possible — not being detected by the target prior to engagement is top priority. During the relocation process, all individuals involved are to keep an eye out for any irregularities within SCP-5373's terrain, with structures such as thaumaturgic glyphs, runes, totems or any other items possibly used for the completion of a ritual being items they are to look for the most. All such irregularities are to be immediately destroyed with specific instructions being given out by local mission thaumaturges.



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A part of the Living District as photographed by off-duty Site-120 personnel.

The Living District: Being the main center of the entire populace of SCP-5373, the Living District is the largest area within all of FP-120. Despite being mostly filled with houses and buildings built with similar purposes, the district possesses numerous buildings commonly found within urban areas, such as shops, restaurants, and small businesses. Due to this as well as the large clientele the area offers, numerous smaller Groups of Interest were noted to open their locals within, with the most active players being Wilson's Wildlife Solutions with an active shelter for stray animals titled "Wilson's Esterberg Center" and Ambrose Restaurants, with numerous smaller sub-instances located within. Surprisingly, Ambrose does not possess any subinstances outside of the Living District — the reasons for this remain unknown.

Despite being an active nexus for anomalous inhabitants, it's been noted that numerous portals appear to lead out of parts of the area, connecting areas inhabited by anomalous races spread across Poland to this area; examples of such include SCP-1000 habitats within the Podlasian Voivodeship, Fae habitats in the Wielkopolska areas, and Finfolk housings near the Baltic Sea.

Though initially entirely separate, due to the ever-increasing amount of residents requiring vital products on a daily basis, the Living District and the Market District partially overlap, resulting in a large area of the Great Market existing partially within the latter.

During the search for PoI-5936 following the inquiry of vital information regarding his whereabouts, Project Neverland personnel are to be especially worried about potential threats coming from within SCP-5373 inhabitants — as seen from prior interactions, Damien Nowak possesses an inherent ability to turn normally neutral parties against the Foundation; with FP-120 possessing numerous potentially dangerous races as well as the Living District's large amount of inhabitants, special caution is to be shown during the operation.



markety.jpg

The intersection sector between SCP-5373's Market District and the Port District.

The Market District: Being the center of all trade within SCP-5373, the Market District consists mainly of an extremely large open area referred to as the Grand Market, which in turn consists almost entirely of markets, shops, and other commercial buildings. Despite the fact that almost the entire district is populated by this area, smaller agglomerations of housing units still exist, though noticeably smaller. Due to the overlap between both areas, with each year of their existence, both have been noted to lose their distinct borders more and more, with each year fusing into each other.

Should any previously unaccounted for events disrupt Project Neverland, personnel are to be reminded that the Market District is an area within which they can take cover — due to the almost nonexistent authority patrols and the existence of an easy connection to the Sewer District, the possibility of seeking refuge within this area has been noted to be extremely easy. Paired with the fact that personnel trained with opening dimensional rifts will find such activity greatly easier due to the relative dimensional instability the region offers, the area can act as a perfect failsafe in case of an emergency.









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