Item #: SCP-4540
Object Class: Hiemal
Historical documentation of the Sea People, the creators of SCP-4540
Special Containment Procedures: Wherever possible, public access to locations designated as SCP-4540 should be restricted. If not possible, non-functional portions of SCP-4540 should be recorded and destroyed to prevent SCP-4540 from potentially becoming public knowledge. Public deep-sea diving in the Mediterranean around the coordinates of SCP-4540 related locations are to be monitored and amnestics applied to divers if necessary.
All materials related to SCP-4540 are stored within Site-77 for further study.
Description: SCP-4540 is an underwater transportation unit composed entirely of sea glass, situated within the Mediterranean sea and several adjacent bodies of saltwater. Although it is known that other vessels similar to it previously existed, SCP-4540 is the only known object of its kind.
SCP-4540 is made of translucent glass shaped into a cube. The interior contains several hundred buttons, along with several levers and switches. Each of the buttons is labeled with an Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph, cuneiform, Greek or Latin characters. Some keys have icons which do not correspond to any known language or are faded to the point of being indecipherable.
SCP-4540 may be accessed from several circular patterns of rocks, tree stumps, or large sapphire crystals located around the coast of the Mediterranean. If a human subject kneels within the circle for at least one hour, SCP-4540 will surface within 20 meters of them, provided seawater connected to the ocean is present. SCP-4540 does not appear to have an upper limit on how many human subjects can enter it at one time, testing has not pushed this point of the anomaly due to the possibility of accidental neutralization.
Previously, SCP-4540 was capable of traveling to locations along the Mediterranean coast using the keyboard. Due to the lack of instructions, trial-and-error was used to uncover the travel functionality of SCP-4540 and it may have other functions which are not yet known. Following activation, SCP-4540 will submerge and appear to dissolve into coquina fragments.
When discovered, SCP-4540 was capable of transporting subjects to multiple locations along the coast of the Mediterranean. Due to several global conflicts between the Great Powers, taking place in and around the European continent, most of the points to which SCP-4540 could travel were destroyed. This has caused SCP-4540's anomalous properties to alter.
Subjects utilizing SCP-4540 report that after submerging, they did not descend from the surface at an accelerated pace but found themselves immediately in deep ocean water. After a brief period of time, the interior compartment begins filling with water, eventually drowning the subject. Following death, subjects will experience vivid hallucinations through the perspective of previous SCP-4540 users.
All test subjects up to the present have surfaced without suffering any apparent ill effects while inside of SCP-4540.
Containment History: The first documented reporting of SCP-4540's phenomenon was by the Ottoman Empire in 1867. In a report to the Sultan, members of the Islamic Artifact Expeditionary Corps spoke of a green glass room which would float upon the surface if an offering was given. In their report, those who entered SCP-4540 did not return, leading to a recommendation that access to the area be closely restricted. In the closing days of World War 1, the military of the United Kingdom came into possession of these documents, however it does not appear that they understood its significance. From there, Foundation agents embedded in the United Kingdom's government were able to acquire the information and allow containment to begin.
Each waypoint has also been shown to have gravestones buried beneath the center of the circle. Due to the destruction of most of these locations, the tablets were able to be recovered in a severely degraded state. Analysis has shown that thousands of words, believed to be names, were engraved on one side each tablet. The other side has always had an icon believed to represent the ocean, a wave of water surrounded by clouds and sharp points.
Addendum 4540-I: Partial list of known SCP-4540 way points, most of which have been lost.
- Italian Zone A: Located along the southern Italian coast, destroyed during the First World War.
- Italian Zone B: Five kilometers from the city of Venice, destroyed during the First World War.
- Italian Zone C: Tuscany coast region, destroyed during the Second World War
- Croatian Zone A: Dalmatian coast region, destroyed during the Second World War
- Albanian Zone A: Believed to have been somewhere along the Gjipe Canyon, destroyed during the Second World War.
- Greek Zone A: Cretan Coast, destroyed during the Second World War.
- Greek Zone B: Lesbos, destroyed during the Second World War
- Greek Zone C: Rhodes, destroyed accidentally by amateur archaeologists.
- Anatolian Zone A: Bosphorous Coast, destroyed during the Turkish Civil War.
- Syrian Zone A: Not located until after being destroyed during the Syrian Civil War.
- Israeli Zone A: Located near the Egyptian border, destroyed during the Suez Crisis
- French Zone A: Only current accessible way point, located along the Corsican coast.
Addendum 4540-II:
All expeditions within SCP-4540 were undertaken by Foundation historians, due to the necessary experience in identifying historical phenomena. All individuals within SCP-4540 were fully briefed on its effects and volunteered. Based on these hallucinations, if accurate, it is believed there may have once been more than one instance of SCP-4540, or other similar crafts in existence. Each log documents the hallucinations experienced by the occupant of SCP-4540 following their drowning.
Hallucinatory documentation log.
Bronze Age Collapse
"We left the elevator, and we could see the beaches. I swam as hard as I could. My muscles were cold and I felt so strong. When I got to the beach, I turned around. There were so many jewels floating in the ocean. I felt something like kinship with the ones that were green, but there were red and blue and orange and pink.
When enough of us had reached the shore, we started marching for miles and miles. Then, we saw columns. Through this desert, hundreds of men, and chariot archers, flooding over the hills at us. I raised my sword, then there was a spear in my chest, and I died."
Greek Dark Ages
"I was alone. Nobody could see me. I felt awful inside, in all the ways you can feel awfulness. My body was freezing cold, I felt like there were lungs in my skin screaming for air and there was a horrible tightness all around me. There were people in front of me, a lot of them. I don't know where they came from but they knew to be here.
They were scared of me but they came forward anyways. I could see myself in their eyes. Gigantic and armored, with spines poking out of my joints. Once they had all squeezed themselves in, it seemed like we were always about to run out of room but never did, we started going under."
Ancient Carthage
"It felt like I wasn't wearing anything. Just a flowing white robe. that seemed to always be ready to be flung away by the wind. There were some men with me, five of them carrying chests made of big oyster shells. I thought they were wearing turtle shells on their backs, but I think those were just what their backs looked like.
There was a desert and we walked the whole time. There was a city there, Carthage. Caravans were pumping into the heart of commerce from everywhere. We were escorted inside. We received a gift. They didn't know what they had, and it frightened them. I never saw it but they showed us men turned to hair. They still lived, but what was living then? We never said a word to them and walked all the way back. There were other chests like that in the elevator, SCP-4540. This wasn't the first place we had visited on this journey."
Probable Classical Era.
"We came down from on high and there was this glowing vein in the seafloor. A city mended from the broken wrecks of ships. There were these amazing, huge green domes. Sea glass, it looked like they had sea foam lapping it from the outside, waves on a beach from the sky.
I saw people, or parts of people, with tentacles, fins, scales, gills, eyes on tentacles and wider than dinner plates. I saw one little boy hugging a mutant girl. Lots more of touching and hugging between the standard people. Maybe they were checking each other. Making sure there was still some normal here. We were carrying a column, pulling it out. It fell too far, and toppled onto me. That was the last thing I saw"
Roman Empire, Severan Dynasty
"My god, there he was. The Young Lion, the Emperor, and guards positioned so smartly, so poised. I carried a man in a sharktooth crown out of the slick glass cage, I'll tell you, it wasn't easy. Nothing was easy. Hard to focus, seeing everything through those wide eyes. Slippery grip, my hands, they were tentacles, some holding the litter sharktooth sat on and some swatting at my own angler-fish forehead. They had a gift for us, from their barbarians. A hammer that could strike through mountains. A demonstration was requested. That, was when I died."
Roman Empire, Crisis Of The Third Century
"Another Emperor. He was a baby this time. He died the first time when we went under. But when we got to his stop, he knew he was going to die again. Had to. That's why he gave us the star. Last I saw he was waiting on the beach, for something to happen."
Byzantine|Ottoman Empires, Fall of Constantinople(1453)
"Everything shook when the bombards boomed. Blinding fires and the crackling of combat. Stale masonry hanging in the air. I could see the Turks scaling the walls. They were looting. But they were giving me something too. They gave me a camera obscura to take the images home. I took notes. I remembered. We went back under to tell of what we saw."
Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt and Syria
"There were so many bodies to pick out of what we wanted. This was what we wanted. Nobody could tell us not to take it. The piece without which war could not be waged. I was tired of collecting. My arms were heavy with scale weight, weight of my family, whom were dead. If we didn't go up soon we would all be like them. If anyone said we were brothers now they could have it.
We picked through every broken ship plunging into the void, until we found it. A jar with a bird's eye, darting and quivering. I can count down the days until we are no longer preserving the dustbin of history. We can show them what they are missing. We took everything else, too. The city would need to be bigger for what we had to do."
Late World War 1
"Everyone has been angry. I stepped out of the elevator and something wet and hot splattered on my face. There had been brotherly bonds in this place, once. Familial ties. But who leaves family behind? I wiped my face and looked up. They were building the way now, out of the rivets and iron they had blown out of the surface.
Periscopes, smokestacks and bulkheads welded together with glowing red gel. I look down. A young man and a mutant women are running, fleeing from a gang of men with knives. Lovers. I clench my fist. My vision went red. Fraternal love could only go so far. How could man care for a beast?"
World War 2, Battle of Crete
"They fell like rain. Little clouds each holding one little raindrop. They fell faster sometimes. Falling so far away, you couldn't tell how hard they hit the ground until you found them. They all had their manuals with them, guns and ammunition. We moved when it was almost time.
Everything was almost ready. One of the men in our cadre, third in command, had started to show signs of mutation. He needed this more than any of us. To get out of this pit at the bottom of the world, and leave those who belonged behind."
Unknown, believed to be post-war Croatian coast.
"This wasn't the first expulsion. When the others heard of the coming ascension, they flooded out of their nests and the cracks in the ground. They poured out to remind us that they were here too. But if they wanted to ascend, that was fine too. Time to learn their place. They belong down there.
We can forget about them as we ourselves have been forgotten. Mostly turtleheads here. They could snap at me, but I had a machine-gun. Once we reached the surface, one turned to look at me. I cracked one of his eyes open with the butt of my weapon. The rest of them fell over themselves to leave. I do not know what became of them after, but the last thing I heard before going under was that wretched gasping…"
Addendum 4540-III: On 09/18/1989, Foundation underwater archaeologists were able to locate the apparent settlement serving as the source of the civilization which created SCP-4540. Using new sonar technology, combined with triangulating the locations of the former way points, led to the discovery an abandoned ruin, appearing to have been destroyed at some point between 40-60 years prior to Foundation reaching it. The initial log of exploration follows:
Access Granted
Exploration Log 4540-A
Initial Exploration 04/12/1989
Dr. Howard Gibbon, Agent Calvin Ekblad, Agent Danie Sanders
Preface: This aquatic walled city, dubbed Atlantia by Dr. Gibbon, appears to have been under constant construction during the entirety of its existence. After taking a Foundation submarine to an entry point, G, E, and S exited the craft and entered the city. Communication was done via radio.
<Begin Log>
G: We are coming up now… exiting the water. We are in a… large antechamber. It's empty. I can see… light, streaming in, from several apertures above us.
E: I'm taking this wetsuit off. Do we think it's safe to leave 'em here? Nothing going to be crawling in? I've had that before. Bahamas. '86. Big ol crawdad right up my… it was less than ideal.
G: Every indicator we have points to this city being quite dead. I wouldn't be worrying about it.
S: Let's keep moving. We don't have all day.
G: Absolutely. We are exiting the antechamber… approaching the door. I can see… my goodness, look up there. Look at that.
S: Looks like the beach.
G: Yes, there appears to be a dull green glow, illuminating most of the city from what I can tell. The interior of the dome above us… well, looking from outside, or through another's eyes, didn't really do it justice. I feel like it could reach up and feel the foam, even though it's so far away. It's quite mesmerizing, really-
S: Hey, there's a skeleton over here.
E: Lots of skeletons. Yikes. Watch your step.
S: Something written on the walls here, doctor. Anything you can understand?
G: Confirming first that we are indeed seeing… ohh, looks like a tremendous number of dead bodies. A few leaning up against walls, most laid out in the street. Going to say that most appear to have died in a violent fashion. I can see evidence of stabbing on the bones…
S: Doctor. The inscription.
G: Oh, yes, sorry. Erm… here, let me write it down. Looks like something here used to be a message from the state. Propaganda posters, but bronzed.
(Greek, bronze fragment)By the gods, the arrangement of our city is preordained and we shall preserve it until those who seek to destroy us are made to understand.
E: So not really much like a poster at all then, doc?
G: Oh, you know what I meant.
S: Let's keep moving. There's some more writing on the wall beside it.
E: What's left of it.
G: Wall appears to be… ooh, almost completely collapsed. Burn marks present… looks like we're looking at a shelling here. Marvelous. Never thought I would see the remains of a battleship, a sailboat, and a submarine after being bombarded.
S: If that's what happened, the rest of this place looks mostly intact.
G: Could have been a light one. I'll write this down too…
(Latin, graffiti) When the bitemother made us both, there was only equality in the womb. The sea never forgets, even if you cannot even recall where you come from.
E: Some of these skeletons look pretty… off. These the non-humans you we got briefed on?
G: Former humans, really. The older you got, the more likely you were to turn. My current hypothesis is that was spending time down here, changed them.
S: Moving on… let's keep going down this main concourse. It looks like it takes us all the way to that tower, or what's left of it.
E: You taking point?
G: Oh, let's go. Looks like we're being left behind. We're moving down the street. I can see… damaged, rusty remains of some weapons. Firearms… look like they were modeled after semi-automatic rifles. Maybe Second World War, late, or Korea.
E: Found some money.
G: Currency has image of… dice, on one side, and a face on the other. Humanoid, no trace of any mutation.
(Greek, silver coin) Great riches be found if you remember where to look.
G: Note, that there is a border of a shark and a man around the dice. The residents of Atlantia believed that their civilization had been founded by a human and a shark, parents of the first generation. The man, you see, had been driven from the surface for greed.
S: Fascinating. Are you two going to keep moving?
E: We're coming, hold your horses. Still seeing a few dead bodies here, but there were definitely tons more by the front entrance.
G: Yes, strange. I would expect there to be more to be found there than elsewhere, but not at this ratio.
S: Approaching a temple. Looks a little dilapidated.
G: Definitely of Mesopotamian origin. Tiamat, goddess of the waters. Sensible for where they were situated. I would say this is a work of salvage… find a city put underwater when the climate changed, bring it here, brick by brick.
S: Or however many bricks they had. This is coral over here.
E: I'm seeing a lot of seashells. Now that I'm not tripping over bones, there's a lot of seashells on the ground, too. Looks like they paved their roads with 'em.
G: I suppose they used what they had. Really I could stand to look through this for hours… Shall we go inside?
S: Another time, doc.
G: Oh, look! There's a shrine to Athirat here! Looks like they've got some pieces of Akkadian, some Hittite, is that… yes, a little Ugaritic temple pieces! My goodness, they must have been busy. This really should be documented with-
E: Doc, we have more ground to cover.
S: Continuing to move… still seeing dead bodies. Looks like this one might've been hanging out the window. Smashed to pieces once it rotted off and fell.
E: Taking a sample of the bone powder, here.
S: Most of the buildings closer to the tower are almost all metal. I can see… looks like U-Boats. They didn't take any of the German insignia off.
G: Now, one of the things I've gleaned through SCP-4540 is that their society operated like a despotic lottery. They were all refugee tribes and peoples coming here to escape something, yes?
S: That's your theory, I know that.
G: So these houses, they were where whichever ruling tribe at the moment would be able to reside. One of their own was absolutely powerful, for however long. I haven't quite nailed down whether it was consular-based and annually or if they had any sort of term limit to speak of.
E: Must've been good to be the king. Oh, hey, doc, there's some more graffiti over here.
G: A keen eye. Let me see that… here, we can translate it later.
(Latin, graffiti) They style themselves masters of the world, most of them don't even know Jupiter from Neptune. No matter who wins the draw of lots, we lose every time. How can you need something so bad and fear it even worse?
(Latin, graffiti) Even though we all died to enter here, to have new life, what life is this? living forever and remembering eternity while they take your love to put the feeling back in the new people. what are we now
S: I'm definitely seeing a lot more branding, I would call it, on the structures here, especially the ones appearing to have been dwellings. It looks like they went out of their way to keep as much of the identifying marks as possible.
G: Yes, I would guess that, given their fixation with preserving history, surface artifacts, especially the older ones, were highly coveted. If you could afford to have artifacts in prominent locations, you'd be smart to do it whenever possible. The outer sections of the city, probably where the less fortunate or mutated elements of the society resided, that looked- oh, don't let me get carried away, Ekblad, there's some more graffiti to be documented!
(Latin) graffiti The sea forgets nothing but these pretenders remember to hoard baubles and trinkets.
E: Sorry doc. That tower is just looking worse and worse as we're seeing it up close, huh?
G: It's more of a stump than a tower now. Approaching it from straight on… looks like it toppled backwards. Going to hypothesize that it was pushed over, maybe explosive, maybe something else. Oh! This is interesting. My idea was that this perpetuated some of the anomalous phenomenon here, or served as a center of power… this is a temple!
S: It could still be a military installation. It looks like a few parts of Dreadnaughts were used here. Some submarine parts. I see more than a few periscopes laying in the debris.
G: Unmistakably! A great one, dedicated to… dedicated to Athirat! Marvelous. She was a sort of elder goddess, you see, seniority among the other deities in her pantheon… well, ooh, this is quite interesting as well.
E: I think we've seen enough mutated skeletons for one day, doc. I already have bone powder.
G: These two here, you see how they're holding hands? Oh, they've been utterly pulverized. Gruesome to even consider how these two died. Right at the steps of… the temple, too. Perhaps this is where whatever ended this place started.
S: This is the biggest concentration of bodies we've seen, other than by the passageway we came in through. Could have been a riot.
E: Or a crackdown gone bad.
G: We've got what we came here for, but I shall look to press on a little further… perhaps the eye, whatever it did, that gave them the confidence to start building their strength to take back the surface. It could be here, still…
S: Another time, doc. We'll have more opportunities.
G: Yes, yes. Let's go home.
(Ancillary interactions removed)
S: Beginning exiting procedures… wetsuits, on.
E: Wetsuit is… clear. Good. I couldn't take another six months of being called craw daddy all the time.
G: Atlantia… we finally found it.
After Action Report:
This aquatic walled city, Atlantia, appears to have been in a constant cycle of construction, renovation and reconstruction. This expedition primarily examined the surficial section, although it is known that the mutated population resided somewhat below the surface. Inscriptions found upon the walls of these areas indicate dissatisfaction with the arrangement.
This was an advanced civilization, with knowledge of construction, mathematics and economics. They had their own currency, although what it was backed by and how well circulated it was remain open questions for further research.
Citizens of Atlantia believed that their civilization had been founded by a union of man and shark, parents of their first generation. Man had been driven from the surface due to an insatiable lust for knowledge. The shark was an embodiment of the sea, and what lurks below. They instructed their progeny that one day the surface would remember what they had, and to never cease collecting and striving for that return. It appears this was also their explanation to themselves as to why some individuals, as they aged, took on biological attributes of marine life. The cause of this phenomenon is unknown.
Their religious practices appear to have been based around temples which had been submerged under seawater and recovered/reconstructed within the city. The structures still identifiable by the time of Foundation excavation primary exhorted Tiamat, the Mesopotamian goddess of waters, and Athirat, a deity worshiped by Akkadian, Hittite and Ugaritic peoples as an ancient elder goddess.
As far as governance, their style was a unique autocratic lottery, with different tribes being able to rule for a fixed period until a lottery would be held for a new tribe to elect an all-powerful leader. This appeared to cause friction among the mutated population which did not belong to any one tribe but affected all parts of the civilization. The official language of the government was a Greek dialect, although most of the mutated population spoke a variation of Latin.
Construction practices consisted of utilizing sunken materials, along with natural phenomenon such as coral, stone, sand and volcanic rock. Great care was taken to ensure that surface artifacts, especially the older ones, were placed in highly visible and prominent locations whenever possible. This phenomenon is less present in the submerged sections of the city, believed to be where the mutated elements of the society resided. It appears that the society of Atlantia took great care in preserving cultural elements of humanity from sunken ships and through trading with surface peoples.
It appears most of the society in Atlantia focused on objects and cultural value. Social status was gleaned from those who had been living in the city for the longest without mutating, possession of important objects, or having constructed a great work of architecture in the city. The primary temple complex, which appeared to have been dedicated to Athirat, was considered the greatest building in the city. It was toppled and destroyed prior to this expedition.
In addition, numerous skeletons were found throughout the city. Analysis of their locations, wounds, and other factors indicate a massive social upheaval occurred in a sudden, spontaneous fashion.
Notably, at the center temple of the civilization the skeletons of a male human and female mutant were discovered, both bearing marks indicating they died in a highly violent fashion. Most bones have signs of fractures or breakage, and the ground upon which they died is pockmarked with projectile impacts and deep scrapes. These two skeletons were found hand in hand.
- Gibbon
</END LOG>
Addendum 4540-V: Last known writing of Dr. Howard Gibbon, lead researcher and historian during the excavation of Atlantia. All Foundation personnel known to have entered SCP-4540 are to be quarantined for study until further notice.
We have discovered a great many historical treasures over the past thirty years of excavation. A few loose ends still trouble us, and probably shall for quite some time. The first being that there are not nearly enough skeletons present inside of Atlantia to account for the entire population, even given that we may not have found a fraction of those present in the city if some unknown compartment is found.
They're still out there. I know it. I literally can feel it in my bones. Going through SCP-4540… you don't remember death. But Howard Gibbon died on that ride. A few years ago, I noticed that the bottom of my foot was growing soft. Now, most of my toes look like jelly. I can't wriggle them anymore.
I don't belong here anymore. All the histories I've studied, everything I ever knew and dreamed of, maybe I always belonged with them. The collectors. The ones trying to keep everything from going away. Hoarders. Too many of my father's tendencies.
The Foundation is not going to be changed from how it operates. We're like them, but up here we keep the things nobody has ever known about. The man still trying to be living up to her, a toothy mother living somewhere underneath those lapping waves.
I don't know where your journeys are going to take you, I wish everyone the best of luck. Sophia, don't miss me too much, we may meet again. Please remember to feed Tiger Lily twice every day.
As for myself, I depart tomorrow for an unknown destination.