SAPPHIRE Hub
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Members of the Alger Lodge, 1913.
Unknown context.

The Society of the Atheist Partisans of Progress for the Halt of the Irrational and Religious Enemy, better known as "SAPPHIRE" ("SAPHIR" in French, La Société Athée Pour la Halte de l'Idéologie Religieuse), is a Group of Interest most established in Western Europe, but also present in Eastern countries, Northern Africa and the East Coast of the United States.

The oldest known actions linked to SAPPHIRE date back to 1909, although the organization remained obscure until the 1960s, when SAPPHIRE seemingly went through a major expansion. The precise cause for this is unknown.

SAPPHIRE opposes all forms of belief, religion and superstition, which they regard as the underlying cause of the woes affecting mankind, as well as SCP objects, which they consider to be the source of the aforementioned beliefs, religions, and superstitions.

In spite of the ideal of rationality and humanism SAPPHIRE claims to adhere to, they do not hesitate to use anomalous means for terrorist purposes, committing attacks against both traditional and occult religions, the primary victims of these attacks often being civilians. Attacks can also be directed against superstitions, targeting civilian clairvoyance enthusiasts, or rival organizations (including the Foundation).

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"Selection of RUBIES for the June 12th operation."
Unknown context.

Inner workings:

SAPPHIRE does not follow a real leader or central power but is instead divided in approximately fifty semi-independent Lodges. Each Lodge is free to act in its own way, but they can collaborate with each other if they are willing to do so. However, members of every Lodge are under the responsibility and authority of a Lodge Leader. Those Lodge Leaders assemble each year at Summits, taking place in an indeterminate location known only as "Stoa".

In spite of the egalitarian status SAPPHIRE claims to grant its members, all of its Lodge Leaders and most eminent members seem to be part of an intellectual and/or wealthy elite, authoritative in the fields of civilian science. Several leading figures known by the general public are believed to be secretly part of that elite, including N███ ████████ █████, C███ █████ and R██████ ███████.

Financing:

SAPPHIRE seems to raise part of its finances from the subscriptions of its adherents, and the other part from the generosity of several rich patrons. Among those monetary supporters, the Foundation actively monitors the Silverstein dynasty, based on the East coast of the United States, and the Faustil dynasty in Switzerland, who's members have often been part of SAPPHIRE since at least the 1930s. It is also assumed that other organizations, not part of SAPPHIRE but with an interest in the eradication of the anomalous and/or religion, offer SAPPHIRE additional financial assistance. However, these suspicions remain unconfirmed.

Activities:

The activities of SAPPHIRE focus on intelligence gathering, terrorism, research, active proselytism for the atheist cause, and the destruction of anomalous objects and phenomena. To this end, the organization is divided into several units:

  • Repressive Use of Bias and Imaginary Entities Suppression: RUBIES is the field unit of SAPPHIRE, more or less equivalent of the Foundation's MTFs. Their objectives, as the name suggests, are to recover discovered SCP objects, to use them against religions (for example in attacks), and to destroy them, or to counter or limit their effects if they prove to be indestructible.

Since SAPPHIRE does not have military forces at their disposal like the Foundation, and since most of its members are civilians, each RUBIES team is assembled, depending on the situation, from voluntary members known to have relevant knowledge, experience, or skills. Consequently, a RUBIES "team" can consist of a single individual or over one hundred, depending on the operation. Though they are often charged with amateurism, RUBIES operations have a sixty percent success rate.

  • Extortion Maneuvers, Espionage and Reconnaissance inside Agencies, Leagues and Dogma: EMERALDs refer to undercover agents inside other organizations linked to the anomalous world. They are especially pernicious and are most likely SAPPHIRE's biggest strategic advantage, infiltrating "Agencies" such as the SCP Foundation, "Leagues" such as the Global Occult Coalition and "Dogmas" such as the Horizon Initiative.

EMERALDs are particularly numerous, discreet, and efficient. As most SAPPHIRE members are scientists, they have no problem infiltrating the Foundation, which often unknowingly selects and recruits them. It is also assumed that several researchers already working for the Foundation and suffering from the "Filbuson syndrome" end up secretly joining SAPPHIRE. ██ EMERALDs have already been discovered within the Foundation since the 70s, and around ███ personnel has been put under surveillance by the Internal Security Department.

  • Zetetic Investigation, Rational Cognition and Oddities Negation: ZIRCON is a unit comprised of debunkers, who are the first to be sent to the scene of anomalous phenomena, in order to write a precise report about "why it's not possible". As skeptics and rhetoric experts, they also manage most of the Society's internal and external communications, as well as the "scientific" research (although clearly biased and negationist) into SCP objects.

Research on anomalous objects, pursued independently by SAPPHIRE researchers, seems to be limited to the practical abilities and limits of SCP objects, in order to learn how to destroy, inhibit, and/or use them. SAPPHIRE has no personal interest in learning any more than that, and the recovery of several technical documents from their research mentioning "morphic fields" and "telluric resonance" (largely outdated terms in the field of paraphysics) prove that they are largely behind in the scientific sector.

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