The Mysterious History of the SCP Foundation

When did the SCP Foundation start?

The SCP Foundation is a collaborative fiction writing project and mythos centered around the fictional documentation of strange objects and entities. The wiki-style website describes the exploits of the SCP Foundation, a secretive organization tasked with locating and containing paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena. With thousands of user-created entries detailing bizarre creatures and artifacts, interdimensional locations, and enigmatic events, the SCP Foundation has grown from its obscure origins on 4chan’s /x/ board into a wildly popular creative phenomenon across the internet. But despite this explosive growth, the early origins and history of the Foundation remain shrouded in mystery.

Origins in Myth and Legend

While the modern SCP Foundation wiki was founded in 2008, hints and urban legends suggest it is far older. Several tales describe figures like the biblical Cain or Judas Iscariot as early predecessors to the Foundation, containing anomalous artifacts and entities from the distant past. Other stories point to medieval groups such as the Knights Templar, the Hashshashin order of assassins, or the secretive Rosicrucians as laying the groundwork for the shadowy organization.

During the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, it’s said that many of the era’s luminaries, such as John Dee, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci, were part of proto-foundation groups researching the occult and supernatural. Stories tell of powerful artifacts recovered from long-lost temples and secured in secret vaults beneath the Vatican. The Foundation grew as European colonial empires expanded worldwide, locating new anomalies while suppressing native lore. But whether any of these legends hold a kernel of truth remains uncertain.

Early 20th Century Foundations

More definitive signs point to the Foundation coalescing at the dawn of the 20th century. Several tales mention British occultist Aleister Crowley involved in containment projects, recovering artifacts and tomes from ancient sites, and securing entities like the “King in Yellow” or the mysterious “Black Queen.” Other accounts name pioneering scientists and researchers who encountered inexplicable objects and phenomena during their work, leading them to lay the foundations of the clandestine organization.

Prominent early figures include pioneering rocket engineer Jack Parsons, mathematicians Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel, psychologist Carl Jung, and inventor Nikola Tesla. While these geniuses made profound scientific contributions in reality, within Foundation lore, their most significant achievements involved developing procedures to contain reality-bending anomalies. Though again, fanciful storytelling likely distorts the truth behind the Foundation’s murky beginnings.

Growth During World War II

During the chaos of World War II, the Foundation increased in power and influence. Occult Nazi organizations like the Ahnenerbe came into conflict with Foundation agents while seeking artifacts and entities across Europe, Egypt, and the Far East. Meanwhile, in the United States, the emergence of super-science programs like the Philadelphia Experiment strengthened American paranormal research linked to the Foundation.

The postwar landscape saw the Foundation expand globally, absorbing personnel and facilities from shuttered wartime programs. Cold warriors on both sides continued the secretive battle over anomalies, from Soviet research at facilities like Leninsk and GULAG-20 to American efforts like Project MKULTRA. The shadowy “Insurgency” splinter group broke away during this time, seeking to weaponize anomalies against human enemies. The Foundation grew into a powerful, discreet institution embedded within governments across the world.

The Modern Wiki

While the Foundation may have existed for decades in secrecy, it has only recently emerged more publicly online. The earliest internet writings about the group date from 2007 on 4chan’s /x/ board. These anonymous posts first detailed bizarre entities like SCP-173 and experimental procedures for containing them. More documents quickly followed, attracting a community of contributors who fleshed out the universe.

In early 2008, the collaborative “SCP Foundation Series” emerged, gathering writers on a dedicated EditThis wiki before migrating to a Wikidot site. Here, the community grew exponentially as thousands of entries were created. By 2013, over 3000 SCP anomaly files had existed on the site, along with supporting stories and materials, attracting millions of readers in the communities of creepypasta horror fiction.

Today’s website thrives as perhaps the most significant ongoing collaborative fiction project in history. With thousands of writers working anonymously or under pseudonyms, it represents an unprecedented phenomenon of decentralized creative worldbuilding. The Foundation has become an expansive fictional reality explored across mediums from its roots as an online ghost story.

The Origins of SCP-173

Among its thousands of entries, one particular SCP anomaly stands out for starting it all: the grotesque and deadly SCP-173. According to accounts, SCP-173 originated on June 22, 2007, with a post by an anonymous user to 4chan’s /x/ board. Along with a photo of Izumi Kato’s untitled sculpture, the user described a concrete statue that violently attacked any living being without observing it.

This new style of pseudo-scientific creepypasta struck a chord. Soon, additional SCP files appeared, modeling themselves off the clinical tone and experimental logs of SCP-173. Within months, an entire wiki was established to contain new paranormal documentation. Today, SCP-173 remains one of the most iconic and terrifying anomalies in the Foundation universe, which spawned from its creation.

Who Founded the SCP Foundation?

The founder of the SCP Foundation remains shrouded in mystery and myth. Various accounts credit figures like British occultist Aleister Crowley, pioneering psychologist Carl Jung, genius inventor Nikola Tesla, and mathematician Albert Einstein with involvement in the Foundation’s establishment.

Some of the earliest tales point to American physicist Aaron Siegel as the founder. Born in 1866, his encounter with a magical geometrically impossible path led him to gather supporters and build an organization to contain such anomalies. Over decades, this group formalized into the modern bureaucratic Foundation while keeping its anomalous origins secret.

Other accounts dispute this. SCP Foundation mythology has expanded into overlapping canons with conflicting origins. Core stories portray the Foundation as an ancient organization shrouded in conspiracy. Groups stretched back to the medieval or biblical eras gathered artifacts and guarded forbidden knowledge. According to these tales, there never was a single founder but a secret history stretching through the millennia. In the end, the true origins of the SCP Foundation remain multiple, fictional, and untraceable.

First SCPs Documented

The first SCP anomaly contained by the fictional Foundation provides another uncertainty in its murky history. Many point to SCP-173 as the first, given that its documentation in 2007 birthed the phenomenon. Its bizarre appearance, violent behavior, and the initial containment procedures accompanying it established the blueprint for all later SCP files.

However, within Foundation mythology, numerous accounts contradict 173’s being first. Some early tales describe powerful artifacts secured during the Renaissance or even entities locked away in ancient times. Given the number of contributors to the collaborative fiction, no definitive first SCP exists.

Later, Canon even declares that the SCP Foundation had never “discovered” any anomalies. Its files consist of fabrications to hide the organization’s true origins. In these versions, its founders “created” anomalies through occult research or by altering reality, manufacturing falsified documentation afterward. So, in the end, there likely was no patient zero among the contained anomalies, just another deception in the wall of secrecy surrounding the Foundation.

A Social Phenomenon

The history of the SCP Foundation as an actual organization ends there, as fiction and rumors. But its growth into a pop culture phenomenon remains very real. From tiny origins as ephemeral creations on an anonymous message board, the paranormal documentation of the SCP Foundation has exploded in scope and popularity. What began as microfiction curiosities shared on 4chan evolved into a sprawling literary universe with thousands of interconnected stories.

The minimalist writing style proved compelling, inspiring more disturbing entities and experimental reports. Collaborative crowdsourcing grew the Foundation wiki into the most significant open creative fiction endeavor online. User voting determined canonicity, enabling decentralized storytelling between thousands of anonymous contributors. This collaborative model allowed the creation of esoteric lore and complex fictional realities beyond any individual author.

The Foundation now exists as myriad canons, reinterpretations, and creative formats outside the central wiki, from video games and films to podcasts and art. Containment procedures and ritualized bureaucracies inherent in its fiction carry timely relevance. The communal nature of the SCP Foundation reflects broader internet culture, and its crowdsourced origins as creepypasta demonstrate the power of collective creativity and worldbuilding online. Now entering its second decade, the phenomenon remains a fascinating evolution of participatory fiction from the internet’s strange depths.

Summary about When did SCP start

The history of the SCP Foundation’s fictional universe is as convoluted and multifaceted as the anomalies it contains. While its earliest origins remain obscure, the collaborative writing phenomenon represents a landmark in the decentralized online creation of imaginary worlds. Understanding the Foundation’s mythology requires peering behind its in-universe guise as a secretive global organization. But like its enigmatic objects of study, the SCP Foundation ultimately defies any single history or explanation for its existence. Its sprawl across mediums and conflicting canonicity instead serve to contain its exponential mythos from breaking containment into any one narrative.