SCP Foundation

Group #: GOI-004, "The Church of the Broken God"

Membership: Three known factions, ~300,000 worldwide

Resources: USD$1-5 billion annually, anomalous capability

Status: Active

The smith answers only to God, for his hands repair His body.
-Builder Robert Bumaro

Description: The Church of the Broken God is an anomalous religious organization which worships mechanization and believes flesh and life to be inherently evil or "broken". Though its origins are unknown, Broken God-related artifacts have been recovered from archaeological digs dating back to the Greek Classical period, and church dogma asserts its existence predates the appearance of life on Earth. Central to their theology is that their deity has been scattered, dispersed or otherwise rendered inert. Through the use of technology, often anomalous, Church followers seek to bring together the components of the body of God, thereby allowing the Divine a physical form to utilize and bringing about some sort of techno-organic apotheosis. Several SCP objects have been attributed to this group since its discovery. Personnel may reference items indexed under "broken_god" for a restricted list.

The current leader of the oldest extant denomination of "The Broken Church" (GOI-004A) is an individual identified in records as "His Holiness Robert Bumaro, Builder of the Broken God", who apparently gained the title in 1946.¹ While this sect continues its efforts to reconstruct their deity, the religion as a whole has at some time in the past century undergone a major schism. Two significant breakaway movements from the original church have entered into a major theological conflict.

Cast in the Design of God, We Faithful.
-The Schema of the Patriarchs

The "Cogwork Orthodox Church" (GOI-004B) espouses a form of literal religious iconography known as "Standardization", whereby adherents submit to anomalous mechanical enhancement with the stated goal of remaking themselves in the image or plan of their deity. Due to the extent of their mechanical augmentation, members of this sect often emit audible ticking or tapping sounds, and have been referred to disparagingly as "Tickers" by members of the other two sects.

Cogwork Orthodoxy deliberately adheres to technological norms of the late Industrial Revolution, and regard the mass-production of analogue, steam and clockwork-driven machinery as a form of prayer. Orthodoxy doctrine is highly centralized and regulated by a group of unknown composition, known as the Patriarchs. This body issues detailed production orders and design documents, which form the core of the group's extremely extensive holy writ. Orthodox belief decries the use of electronic or digital devices, and views distributed information sharing and decentralization as tantamount to the dissolution of divine knowledge.

Individuality is the file system through which our Lord is compiled.
-Words_Of_The_Prophet.txt

The "Church of Maxwellism" (GOI-004C) represents a modernized, computation and network oriented means of worship. No central organizing church body is known to exist. However, interviews and covert surveillance has determined that all known cells are in regular contact with one another, and capable of coordination. Maxwellists favour small-scale body modification through the use of advanced cybernetics and organ enhancement. While artificial limbs or reinforced skeletons have been observed, Maxwellist implants focus primarily on communication, data storage, and networking capabilities, and sensory enhancement.

Maxwellist doctrine interprets the Broken God as a "fragmented" deity, which exists as disparate data present in the linked technology and cultural zeitgeist of the digital age. Worshipers approach the divine by embracing their unique traits and sharing their knowledge and capacity for the good of the collective Church. By connecting all minds through computer networks, they believe their deity can be "recompiled" as the aggregate will of humanity. Due to their use of computer fan noise as a meditative aid, members are often referred to as "Hummers" by members of the other two factions.

Holy Writ:

Book of Pieces, Chapter 12: The Broken Mind
Volume 55.13.A-96: Of the Retooling of Sector 92, Production Line 8b, And Other Matters
GoHW > Chapter_5.js
Volume 21.01.A-01: Of the Five Pillars of the Standardization of Thought

Tales:

Implanting God
Variations on a Schema
The Heresy of Disassembly
20 GOTO 10

Church articles take the form of Holy Writ, a weird combination of technical manual and Biblical scripture. As it is obviously somewhat difficult to incorporate things like object classifications into scriptural form, the formatting guidelines for Church Holy Writ are somewhat different. For one, the style depends largely on which section of the Church you choose to focus on. They're divided up below.

Broken God Writ, which is to say the classic or old-school Church we know and love, does not follow any specific formatting guidelines, but the style is key. These are legends, or the transcriptions of legends, which are probably older than most human civilizations. The core goal here is a mythic tone, a tendency to cover vast sweeps of time and the kinds of writing you'd see in old legends and creation stories. These are records of the destruction of a god, and should treat their subject matter with the utmost gravitas. Classic church Writ is never straightforward: their subject matter is couched in deep metaphor and deliberate obfuscations.

Cogwork Orthodoxy Writ is like you stuck a notebook by Da Vinci or Brunel in a blender with a King James Bible. All Cogwork writ is taken from their massive Schema of the Patriarchs, and should be prefaced by an alphanumeric identification code hinting at the mind-numbing volume of written material the Orthodoxy produces. They are written in an archaic style with an intense devotion to detail and frequent use of cross-referencing. Remember that these are just as much factory output records and assembly line oversight documents as they are liturgical texts. Lines are individually numbered, with key words being capitalized. God is referred to as The MEKHANE, and the "Devil" as The FLESH.

Church of Maxwellism Writ can be taken from any number of sources. Maxwellist religious documents are distributed electronically, and are often shared and modified by individual members as a collaborative attempt to divine their true meaning. Their god supposedly is open-source and DRM-free, after all (though sysadmins being what they are, this may not always be the case). Maxwellist texts share the line-numbering scheme of Orthodox works, and refer to God as 'WAN'. The writing style here should be obviously formal, but generally simple and straightforward with the exception of technical terms. Instead of cross-referencing or providing detailed work figures, Maxwellist Writ emphasizes do-it-yourself construction and an almost instruction-booklet feel. Despite their sometimes esoteric compiling methods, their intended audience is not priests and scholars, but individual adherents of the faith.

All Holy Writ should have the follow title format:

Title of Book

Details of Book

1. Verse 1
2. Verse 2
3. Etc…