Most information regarding Sarkic history and mythology is sourced to the Bodfel Codex.
Recovered from SCP-2480, the codex includes a partial translation of the Valkzaron and
related marginalia.
Along with archaeological evidence, the Foundation has been able to establish the historicity
of Sarkicism.
As essential as the codex has been, large gaps remain in the timeline and much of the
following is entirely speculative and subject to change.
Early History:
Sarkic weapons, armor, and trinkets have been discovered among Minoan ruins on the island
of Santorini (formerly Thera), possibly placing their origins to at least before the eruption
event which triggered the complete collapse of Minoan civilization around 1500 BCE.
Foot note 20: Not enough to suggest an invasion and occupation.
More likely, the items arrived via Minoan merchants and Central-Asian trade routes.
It is presently believed that Sarkicism itself did not reach the Mediterranean until approximately
1200 BCE (theoretically related to the Bronze Age Collapse).
Daevite tablets, dated to approximately 1800 BCE, refer to a slave rebellion in the northernmost
province, led by a charismatic heresiarch and "half-blood".
Scrolls discovered within contain phrases and terms archetypal to Sarkic cults, including
references to a "Grand Karcist Ion".
These findings suggest that Sarkicism has existed for nearly 4,000 years.
All evidence, linguistically and archaeologically, points to western Siberia as Sarkicism's place
of origin.
Ion, if still alive (if having ever existed at all), likely represents a high level reality
bender and has been classified as PoI-93.
foot note 21: Classified by the GOC as KTE-0452-Black/4 (Severe Threat) in 1952.
This represents the earliest secular analysis of Ion.
Little is known about the Grand Karcist, "Sorcerer-King of Adytum22", with all information being in
the form of deification or demonization and lacking in factual reliability.
Foot note 22: "A city of unnumbered, unspeakable crimes" according to the ancient Mekhanites.
Considered the capital of Sarkicism, it remains unknown if the location continues to exist
in some manner.
The Valkzaron refers to Ion as having been born to a Daevite mother and sired by a concubinus
father - implying that males born of such unions were destined for slavery.
The exact nature of Ion's bondage is unknown but his supposed intellect suggests that he
was not used for combat or manual labor, perhaps serving under an alchemist or priestess.
It remains unknown which came first: Ion's doctrine or his revolution.
If these events are grounded in reality, it is possible that the religion developed in
coincidence with his slave revolt and as a way to codify their methods of anomalous warfare.
In his mission, Ion was aided by four individuals known as the Klavigar.
Figures of reverence and supposed disciples of Ion, they are the saints of Sarkicism.
Hagiography:
Klavigar Nadox
Associated with intelligence, wisdom, perception, and mysteries.
Epithets include: the Tongueless Speaker, Lord of Mysteries, the All-Seeing, and the
Anticipation of Ion.
Once a sage in the southernmost region of Daevite influence, he preached a philosophy
of peace and equality, building a following among the impoverished.
Agitating the Daeva, he was captured and publicly tortured - the poor he had tried to help now
hurling stones upon him.
Before the crowd of hundreds, "drunk and atrocious in their stupidity", a Daeva priestess cut
off his tongue, sewed shut his mouth, and had him emasculated.
foot note 23: The complete removal of the penis and the testicles; an apparently common
form of punishment among the matriarchal Daevites.
Rather than having Nadox executed, they instead had him "marked" - a symbol placed upon the
forehead.
Impossible to remove, it designated him as a "Sufferer" - one who the people were required,
by the Daeva's decree, to forever torment but never kill.
Nadox wandered the land as a pariah; denied refuge and safe passage; struck with rocks
and slashed with knives - all by the people he had hoped to save.
It is written that he beheld, while suffering a fever dream, a messianic entity; one that
could rescue him, and humanity, from an existence of "suffering and tears".
Nadox would travel north in search of this savior, to guide Ion toward his destiny.
And Ion held six fingers aloft and upon their spears did the soldiers impale themselves.
"For you!"
they cried before the blood drowned their tongues.
And Ion said, "Now do you see?"
And Nadox wept, as more did skewer themselves in Ion's name, for he had seen and now knew
the truth of his words.
Sone Suraas
Klavigar Lovataar
Associated with sex, love, eroticism, pleasure, motherhood, disease, and unrestrained reproduction
(breeding, cancers, growth, etc.).
Epithets include: the One Whom Ion Most Desired, the Highblood Redeemer, and the Mother (on
rare occasion "Brood" or "Hive" Mother).
A priestess, as well as the daughter of a Daeva Matriarch, she was initially in opposition
to Ion - whose revolution threatened her way of life.
It is written that her hatred for Ion eventually became a sort of infatuation.
Unable to remove him from her mind, she sought to capture and bind him as her consort.
In her quest to make him hers, Lovataar sent wave after wave of slave-hunters but none
returned.
In time, it would be Ion who came to her by his own accord.
It is written that Ion visited her in the night, bypassing her guards and appearing
within her bedchamber.
Instead of attacking, he sat upon the edge of the bed and quietly spoke to her.
What was said is unknown but resulted in Lovataar and Ion forming a "union" over a period of
twelve days.
foot note 24: It is written that the words were meant for Lovataar alone and thus, never
recorded.
On the twelve day, the two left her palace behind - never to return.
Beneath the Black Moon, Her Devotion took the form of a stone knife, like those of the
reindeer folk of Adí-üm.
Penetrated, amber blood, colored by ancient sins, poured from the wound - her tears like
the warm rain of distant summers.
Beneath the Poison Moon, the amber flowed no more - and the snow, she painted red.
[indecipherable] for Ion, who drank deep the fermented honey of Lovataar's kiss.
Ion surrendered upon her pale breasts - a shared respite in ecstasy.
Still Ion hungered, and from Lovataar's dark lips flowed words, "There is pleasure in serving."
Smiling, he [bowed/lowered] his head - knowing the drunk joy, of milk and sweet fermented
honey.
Sone Tal
Klavigar Orok
A figure of reverence and supposed disciple of Ion.
Associated with strength, war, violence, wilderness, hunting and, seemingly in contradiction, loyalty
and revolt.
Epithets include: the Horned Beast, the Brute Lord, and the Pale Hunter.
Described as being of unnatural physical strength, Orok was the product of alchemical and thaumaturgical
experimentation on slaves.
Enthralled to Matriarch Aśvighoṣa, the ruling Daeva in the city of Jel, Orok served
as a bodyguard and pit-fighter.
foot note 25: Apparently considered the greatest gladiatorial combatant of his time.
It is written that Ion, when taking the city of Jel, entered the palace of Matriarch Aśvighoṣa
(presumably, the highest authority in the city).
He requested that the matriarch should leave and take with her a message to the "Daeva
of Daevas", lest she suffer retribution.
Refusing his ultimatum, the matriarch ordered Orok to destroy him.
It is written that Orok hesitated, his "runes of bondage [setting] his starved soul aflame
so that his body became spirit"; turning to his matriarch, he struck Aśvighoṣa, his
fist imbued with the very power she had forced upon him, and reduced her body to "cinder
and ash and heavenly starlight".
As Orok said to the Kytherans26 : "Power is made from the pain of the fragile.
Here weakness dies.
Here strength is born.
I exert myself, a pale reflection of Ion's sacrifice of flesh to the intolerable force,
and shed frailty's husk.
I commune with my akuloth27 core - my sacred metamorphosis complete."
Sone Szusk
foot note 26: Kythera is a location that appears in both Sarkic and Church of the Broken God
scripture.
The Valkzaron describes the conquest of Kythera and the conversion of its people.
The Maxwellian Book of Horrors associates the location with a prophesied NK-class end-of-the-world
scenario.
foot note 27: A symbiotic organism implanted in the bodies of Sarkic cultists.
Further discussed in the Organisms section.
Klavigar Saarn
A figure of reverence and supposed disciple of Ion.
Associated with darkness, secrecy, deception, poison, assassination, and justice (or jaka).
foot note 28: Jaka translates as "divide", "separate", or even "cull".
It is employed in Sarkicism as a concept of cosmic justice, separating the strong from
the weak, adherent from apostate - terminating those deemed enemy or unnecessary.
Epithets include: the Whisperer, the Coiled Shadow, the Faceless One, and the Judgment
of Ion.
A young house servant, she quietly endured Daevite abuse throughout her life.
Having suffered long enough, she calmly murdered the entire household with poison, garrote,
and dagger.
Captured, she would be imprisoned within the fortress city of Kurst.
foot note 29: "The first to fall so that He might rise"; said to be the first kingdom
to fall to Adytum and having become symbolic of the inevitable defeat of those who stand
in opposition to Sarkicism.
Saarn was awaiting execution when first approached by Ion, who moved through the dungeon walls
like "the mist of Summer's snow-melt".
There he said: "The winds whispered of your actions.
There is no evil in the Judgment.
You did not choose to be the vessel of our will.
Many will die this day but you are needed alive".
The prophet's hand is described as having transformed into "a wolfish maw", tearing
apart the cell door with its teeth and liberating Saarn.
Honing her skills, Saarn would eventually control a network of spies and assassins.
A Daevite tablet describes their efficacy in graphic detail, including men and women
disemboweled in the streets and Daevite infants strangled in their own cradles by "traitorous
servants".
The heart is made [silent/still].
Before her dagger seen.
A moment immortalized in a single [strike/stab].
The Judgment - unavoidable, inescapable.
Dismay; a death inconceivable,
To the arrogance of Daeva.
Triumph; a dagger in the darkness.
With the blood of tyrants,
Our children sleep well.
Sone Vaku
There is little available information about Sarkicism between c. 1600 and c. 1200 BCE,
despite the period being considered the "Golden Age" of Sarkic civilization.
It is during this period that Daevite culture recedes, existing only as a small city state
in what is now Mongolia.
foot note 30: It has been hypothesized that the Daevites sought to anomalously preserve
themselves, as more and more territory was lost to Sarkites.
It is theorized that the Adí-üm empire left little archaeological evidence for its existence
due to Sarkic structures being composed of living organic material.
War and the Fall of the Adí-üm Empire:
Sarkic civilization, having reached its zenith, began to spread into the Caucasus, Anatolia,
Balkans, and parts of the Levant and Mesopotamia.
Impressed by (or fearful of) their anomalous capabilities, several tribal groups began
to fight under the banner of Adí-üm; these include Kaskians, Proto-Thracians, Lycians,
Illyrians, and many others.
The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II tried in vain to defeat the invaders, contributing
to the fall of the Hittite empire.
foot note 31: This information, as with all information involving Sarkicism, cannot be
revealed to the public.
Fortunately, most non-Foundation historians blame the events of the Late Bronze Age collapse
on the mysterious "Sea Peoples".
The Adí-üm empire established a foothold in the Mediterranean, invading/colonizing
the islands of Cyprus, Crete, and Gyaros.
It is uncertain as to who struck first but a coalition of kingdoms was formed in response
to the Sarkic threat, resulting in a war around 1200 BCE.
Archaeological findings such as mass graves, weapons, terrain damage, and primary source
documents (such as scrolls recovered from Gyaros and the Aral Sea) reveal the extreme
(and anomalous) nature of the war.
Foundation historians estimate a death toll ranging from 20 to 30 million, making it the
fourth most devastating war in recorded history.
According to recovered documents, the coalition formed in response to the Adí-üm empire
included Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks, Minoans, Canaanites, Assyrians, and the Mekhanites.
foot note 32: It appears that Minoan "conspirators" fought on the side of the Adí-üm empire.
Minoan civilization had been on the decline at the time of the war.
foot note 33: The Mekhanites are theorized as having been the driving force for the coalition,
seeking allies against a threat perceived by them as the end of the world.
Although Greek in origin, the Cult of Mekhane had temples throughout the Mediterranean;
most notably in Egypt and the Levant.
Most details of the war are unknown to the Foundation.
It is suspected that the deployment of Colossi (such as SCP-2406), as well as the heavy use
of a substance resembling "Greek fire", that turned the tide of war against the Sarkites.
foot note 34: Traditionally thought as having been developed c. 672 CE.
When the war was over, the Adí-üm empire was assumed destroyed along with Sarkic civilization.
In reality, Sarkicism would continue in secret - at both its homeland in the Urals and among
the tribes that had fought under the banner of Adí-üm (such as among the Thracians and
Dacians).
The damage to the region was great and many civilizations did not recover, resulting in
the collapse of various kingdoms, a crisis of refugees, the decline of art, literature,
science, and technology, and the lingering disease and famine from Sarkic biological
weapons; an event later known to historians as the Late Bronze Age collapse.
The fall of the Adí-üm empire also resulted in a Sarkic diaspora, leading to the development
of culturally distinct Sarkic cults in places such as the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian
subcontinent.
Due to a lack of reliable information, the Foundation can only speculate about Sarkic
activities between c. 1100 BCE and 1300 CE.
The Rise of Neo-Sarkicism:
The majority of known Neo-Sarkic cults appear to descend from certain Carpathian noble families
influenced by the Proto-Sarkic Solomonari.
foot note 35: The Hunter's Black Lodge being the only known Neo-Sarkic cult to not share
this lineage.
This is likely subject to change as the Foundation uncovers more Sarkic organizations.
It is unknown whether the Solomonari intentionally infiltrated Carpathian courts or if they were
instead sought out by the nobles themselves, ignoring or dismissing (possibly embracing)
the rumors of devil worship and witchcraft surrounding the cult.
Documents and artifacts retrieved from SCP-████ suggest that some Solomonari served as "court
magicians", advising their lords and ladies on matters of alchemy, medicine, astrology,
and the occult.
In time this would result in the development of Sarkic "Great Houses"; affluent families
practicing their own interpretation of Sarkicism, placing the individual above the collective
and applying it to their own self-serving needs.
This new strain of Sarkicism would spread throughout Europe via marriage; once these
footholds were established, the Great Houses grew incestuous.