Sarkicism.
The nature of belief and faith is certainly a powerful one, regardless of the concept
of a deity or deities, but even just looking at the power, control, and influence that
believers can possess.
From the widespread influence of the vatican to the utter control of a small cult leader,
faith has been a prominent aspect of our species for thousands of years.
We've already looked at one religion in the SCP Universe, the Church of the Broken God,
but now we'll discuss their counterpart, the sarkic cults.
Sarkicism is another very large topic within the scp universe, and this would be a very
long video If I tried to cover it all, so let's just try and get a good idea of what
sarkicism is, and why it has its followers.
Sark means flesh in ancient greek, which summarizes the overall belief system of the sarkites,
which is diametrically opposed to the church of the broken god's theology based on technology.
In fact, most sarkites don't actually refer to themselves using the term sarkic, as the
term was an insult created by the church of the broken god's predecessors.
That is not to overemphasize the sarkites opinion of the church, as it is believed that
while the church views the sarkites as a sort of biblical foe, the sarkites seem to view
the church as simply another obstacle.
The Sarkic cults are generally divided into two different factions that operate in vastly
different ways, but follow mostly the same set of beliefs.
The Proto-sarkic cults are those found in small isolated communities across Europe and
Asia.
These communities are usually poor, superstitious, technophobic, and are hostile to any outsiders.
The Neo-sarkic cults on the other hand are found in much more urban enviornments, and
can be difficult to differentiate from other wealthy city dwellers.
They are usually upper class, coming from affluent families, and with no apparent objections
to technology and modern life.
Both cults however believe that one of the main concepts of sarkicism is that one can
achieve apotheosis, that is, becoming a god.
It's generally accepted that Grand Karcist Ion, the founder and prophet of the sarkic
cults, did become a god through some sort of interaction with the primordial goddess,
Yaldaboath.
Proto-sarkites believe that in time, Ion will eventually provide them with godhood, and
neo-sarkites believe that it must be obtained through willpower, and they must one day usurp
Ion.
This will to power concept is prevalent in neo-sarkites, and a common proverb says to
do as you will, to whom you will, as desire is the measure of all things.
Both cults believe in the idea of sacrifice, but here they differ greatly, as proto-sarkites
believe in the sacrifice of oneself for the benefit of the many, and neo-sarkites instead
believe in the sacrifice of the many for the benefit of oneself.
Either way, belief in cycles of destruction and regeneration is paramount to the sarkic
faith.
Both cults often practice ritual cannibalism, human sacrifice, the worship and spread of
contagions, and bodily augmentation.
Grand Karcist Ion founded the sarkic cults nearly 4000 years ago somewhere in western
siberia.
The Sarkic timeline is muddy, even their recent history, but it's believed that Ion was born
to a Daevite mother and a slave father, as the Daevites referred to him as a half-breed.
Ion was a slave for much of his youth in the city-state of Adytum, possibly serving under
an alchemist or priestess, until he led a slave revolt against the Daevites.
During this time, Ion demonstrated great power over organic flesh, both his own and others.
Examples of this include transforming his hand into some sort of wolf jaw capable of
ripping through a metal jail cell, forcing others to act against their will, such as
causing men to throw themselves on their spears, and could also gift these powers and other
physical augmentations on to his followers.
During this revolt, Ion was aided by four disciples, known as Klavigar in the sarkic
faith, who would go on to be essentially saints.
It's unclear how exactly Ion gained his abilities, but it somehow involves Yaldaboath, a god
or goddess believed by the sarkites to be responsible for creating the universe, possibly
through the process of giving birth to other gods, and then devouring them and exhaling
the remains.
Neo-sarkites revere this god, but proto-sarkites seem to regard it as the enemy of all living
things.
Yaldaboath is also joined by six other entities, known as Archons, which are described as manifestations
of primordial chaos.
It's said that Ion endured six trials given by the archons, which allowed him to break
free from the bondage of mortal limitations.
In one text, Ion claims to have murdered death herself, and read the entrails of the creator.
Regardless of how Ion managed to become godlike, his slave revolt conquered the daevites, forcing
them to recede, and the sarkites built a number of cities largely composed of organic material.
The sarkic civilization experienced its golden age, and spread across eurasia, with their
capital being the converted kingdom of Adytum.
Their civilization eventually spread into the mediterranean, establishing a foothold
here and colonizing the various islands there.
It was here where they would encounter the real resistance however, as the mekhanites,
the precursors to the church of the broken god, would rise up against them alongside
other civilizations.
This massive war involved anomalous technology, huge colossi, monstrous abominations, and
20-30 million casualties.
The war ended with really no winners, as the sarkic empire broke apart and went into hiding,
leading to a division in culture and theology, the mekhanites dwindled and eventually became
the church of the broken god, and the devestation led to the collapse of the bronze age.
Sarkicism would continue to live on in small communities throughout eurasia, and their
belief systems would slowly differ.
At this point, it's completely unknown what happened to Grand Karcist Ion, and the foundation
is currently not even sure if he ever existed at all.
Eventually, certain sarkites would become intertwined with some noble courts, acting
as advisors, or court magicians, teaching the lords and ladies about alchemy, astrology,
and the occult while spreading belief in sarkicism.
These courts would become sarkic great houses, practitioners of neo-sarkicism that follow
their own interpretation of the religion.
Both proto-sarkites and neo-sarkites would maintain their numbers through generations
of in-breeding, avoiding genetic defects through sarkic rituals, and sarkites have shown vastly
lower mortality rates compared to normal populations.
Both groups also adhere to a strong belief in secrecy, whether through mistrust or necessity,
and so sarkicism is largely unknown to the wide world.
So, most sarkites present a dangerous threat to the current world order, as the foundation
considers their speculated goals to be fairly apocalyptic in nature, although not all sarkites
are dangerous, such as SCP-2815, a village of inbreds that give out human flesh disguised
as fruit that for some reason is safe to eat.
They also donate organs and blood grown from a tree to local hospitals.
Sadly however, these benign examples are few and far between, and we're left mostly with
highly anomalous and dangerous entities.
I would be doing many of these SCPs a disservice by only quickly summarizing them here instead
of giving them their own videos, but I'll provide a few examples.
SCP-2480 is one of the more notable ones, a dimensional anomaly located in a town in
Massachusetts.
The anomaly is causing sarkite monstrosities to bleed into our reality, either from another
dimension or another timeline.
The GOC and the Foundation are currently working together to contain the situation, but this
is connected with another SCP located in Romania, SCP-2191.
Here, a massive entity spread across hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of tunnels,
believed to be a concubine of Grand Karcist Ion.
This entity is fed liquified human remains provided to it by a species of mutated vampiric
humans.
It's also appeased by locals who provide human sacrifices to minimize seismic activity.
SCP-2133 is a proto-sarkic commune in Russia whose inhabitants are reincarnated whenever
they die, possessing all of their past memories and appearance.
They deposit their turnip harvests and any gangrenous limbs or tumorous growths in the
church every evening, and the village is also filled with dark red tentacles that attack
any outsiders entering the church.
Beneath the church is an expansive series of tunnels and caverns, where there seems
to be thousands of entities growing in eggs, as well as a temple devoted to a Marxist.
There is possibly a strong connection between scp-2133 and scp-610, the flesh that hates.
I've already made a video covering 610, which sarkites refer to as the red death, and it's
believed that this is the sarkites ultimate weapon in reshaping the world.
Massive sarkic organisms containing human dna are believed to have battled the capture
colossus, scp-2406, during the war between the sarkites and the mekhanites.
Another large organism was used as a sarkic temple in their golden age, scp-2095, but
eventually was conquered during the war and died.
SCP-2075 is a karcist that was captured by the foundation, but easily broke containment
when it revealed that they had only captured one small aspect of itself, along with two
of the security personnel assigned to the scp.
The doctor in charge was stabbed with an anomalous dagger, which seemed to transform him into
a large amorphous mass of flesh and bone, which proceeded to kill fifty six personnel
before dying.
Finally, there is scp-2510, an important anomaly related to both the church of the broken god
and the sarkic cults.
2510 is a large machine, and part of it has been made into a transdimensional gateway.
The first people reported to have gone through the gateway, in 1940, were said to have found
a machine city.
The gateway destination can be controlled, and the foundation sent a team to multiple
dimensions, all variations of earth.
There's too much here to really go into detail, but to summarize, these dimensions were each
one where the war between the sarkic cults and the rest of humanity came to a climax.
In one of them, parts of the broken god were fashioned into an unimaginable weapon that
wiped out every trace of life from the planet.
In others, the sarkic forces win out, and Yaldaboath broke free from its cage, driving
the world to a horrific apocalypse.
In another reality however, humanity banded together and achieved a technology singularity,
uniting to defeat the sarkites.
The lesson to be learned from this anomaly, is that if humanity doesn't work together
and embrace the church of the broken god's ideology, the sarkic cults will win.
Since there's really no canon however, this is just one perspective.
So, this should have provided a good jumping off point to continue learning about Sarkicism
as its continually expanded.
In the majority of cases, it's very easy to look at the sarkic cults as nothing more than
threats to humanity, and that seems to be the general consensus for most of the community.
While some might boil the conflict between the broken god church and the sarkites to
just good vs evil, good fiction is rarely as simple as that.
Regardless, sarkicism and its anomalies are a very interesting blend of religion, folklore,
occultism, and body horror.