 Most information regarding Sarkid history and mythology is sourced to the Bodphil Codex. Recovered from SCP-2480, the Codex includes a partial translation of the Valkyron and related Marginalia. Along with archaeological evidence, the Foundation have been able to establish the historiocity of Sarkicism. As essential as the Codex has been, large gaps remain in a timeline and much of the following is entirely speculative and subject to change. Sarkid history. Sarkid 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 a complete collapse of Minoan civilization around 1500 BCE. Footnote 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. Day-by-tablets dated to approximately 1800 BCE refer to a slave rebellion in the northern-most province led by a charismatic Heriocethearch and half-blood. Scrolls discovered within contain phrases and terms archetypal to Sarkid cults, including references to a Grand Carce's Ion. These findings suggest that Sarkicism has existed for nearly 4000 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. Footnote 21. Included by the GOC is KTE-0452-Black-4-Severe Threat in 1952. This represents the earliest secular analysis of Ion. Little is known about the Grand Carce's Sorcerer King of Atatum, with all information being in the form of deification or demonization and lacking in factual reliability. Footnote 22. A city of unnumbered, unspeakable crimes, according to the ancient mecanites, considered a capital of Sarkicism, it remains unknown if the location continues to exist in some manner. The Valks-Iron refers to Ion having been born to a devite mother and sired by a conchemist 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 its Revolution. It remains unknown which came first, Ion's Doctrine or its Revolution. If these events are grounded in reality, it is possible that the religion developed in coincidence with slave revolt and has a way to codify the methods of anomalous warfare. In his mission, Ion was aided by four individuals known as the Clavigar, figures of reverence and supposed disciples of Ion, they are the saints of Sarkicism. Hagiography, Clavigar, 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 Day-by-influence, he preached a philosophy of peace and equality, building a following among the impoverished. According to Deva, 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 Deva priestess cut off his tongue, sewed shut his mouth, and had him emasculated. Footnote 23, the complete removal of the penis and the testicles, an apparently common form of punishment among the matriarchal Devites. 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 Deva'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 the Saviour, to guide Ion towards 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 has seen and now knew the truths of his words. Son Surus Klavigar Lobotar Associated with sex, love, eroticism, pleasure, motherhood, disease, and unrestrained reproduction, breeding, cancers, growth, etc. Epitets include the one whom Ion most desired, the high blood redeemer, and the mother, on rare occasion, brood or hive mother. A priestess, as well as the daughter of a deva 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, Lobotar 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 bed chamber. Instead of attacking, he sat upon the edge of the bed and quietly spoke to her. What was said is unknown, but resulted in Lobotar and Ion forming a union over a period of twelve days. Footnote 24 It is written that the words were meant for Lobotar alone and thus never recorded. Within the twelfth 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 Adium. Penetrated amber blood, colored by ancient sins, poured from the wound, her tears like the warm rain of distant summers. Beneath the poisoned moon, the amber flowed no more, and the snow, she painted red. Indecipherable for Ion, who drank deep the fermented honey of Lobotar's kiss, Ion surrendered upon her pale breast, a shared respite and ecstasy. Still, Ion hungered, and from Lobotar'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. Soan Tau Klavigar, O'Roch A figure of reverence and supposed disciple of Ion, associated with strength, war, violence, wilderness, hunting, and seemingly in contradiction, loyalty and revolt. Appetites include the horned beast, the brute lord, and the pale hunter. Described as being of unnatural physical strength, O'Roch was the product of alchemical and thermoturgical experimentation on slaves, enthralled the matriarch as Vigosa, the ruling diva in the city of Jail. O'Roch served as a bodyguard and pet fighter. Footnote 25, apparently considered the greatest gladiatorial combatant of his time. It is written that Ion, when taking the city of Jail, entered the palace of matriarch as Vigosa, presumably the highest authority in the city. He requested that the matriarch should leave and take with her a message to the diva of divas, lest she suffer retribution. Refusing his ultimatum, the matriarch ordered O'Roch to destroy him. It is written that O'Roch hesitated, his runes of bondage setting his starved soul aflame so that his body became spirit. Turning to his matriarch, he struck as Vigosa. His fist imbued with the very power she had forced upon him and reduced her body to cindered ash and heavenly starlight. As O'Roch said to the chytherans, power is made from the pain of the fragile, where weakness dies, here strength is borne, 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 Acolyth core, my sacred metamorphosis complete. Son susk. Footnote 26, Kythera is a location that appears in both Sarkic and Church of the Broken God scripture. The Valks-a-ron describes the conquest of Kythera and the conversion of its people. The Maxwellian Book of Horrors associates the location with the processized N.K. Class End of the World scenario. Footnote 27, a symbolic organism implanted in the bodies of Sarkic cultists, further discussed in the Organism section. Clavigar Sarn, a figure of reverence and supposed disciple of Ion, associated with darkness, secrecy, deception, poison, assassination, and justice, or Jaka. Footnote 28, Jaka translates as divide, separate or even coal. 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. Appetites include the Whisperer, the Coiled Shadow, the Faceless One, and the Judgement of Ion. A young house servant, she quietly endured day-by-day abuse throughout her life. After suffered long enough, she calmly murdered the entire household with poison, garret, and dagger. Captured, she would be imprisoned within the fortress city of Cursed. Footnote 29, the first to fall so that he might rise, said to be the first kingdom to fall to additum, and have him become symbolic of the inevitable defeat of those who stand in opposition to Sarkicism. Sarn was awaiting execution when first approached by Ion, who moved through the dungeon walls like the mist of summer snow melt. There, he said, the winds whispered of your actions. There is no evil in the Judgement. You do 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 celled door with his teeth and liberating Sarn. Honing her skills, Sarn would eventually control a network of spies and assassins. A David tablet describes her efficacy in graphic detail, including men and women disemboweled in the streets, and David 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 Judgement unavoidable, inescapable, dismay, a death inconceivable. To the arrogance of David, triumph, a dagger in the darkness, with the blood of tyrants, our children sleep well. Son Vaku. There is little available information about sarcasm between circa 1600 and circa 1200 BCE, despite the period being considered the Golden Age of Sarcasm civilization. It is during this period that David's culture recedes, existing only as a small city state and was now Mongolia. Footnote 30. It has been hypothesized that the David's sought to anonymously preserve themselves as more and more territory was lost to Sarkites. It is theorized that the Adium Empire left little archaeological evidence for its existence due to the Sarkic structures being composed of living organic material. War in the fall of the Adium Empire, Sarkic civilization, having reached its zenith, began to spread into 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 Adium. These include Caskians, Protothracians, Lycians, Ilians and many others. The Hittite King, Supolulumia II, tried in vain to defeat the invaders, contributing to the fall of the Hittite Empire. Footnote 31. This information, as with all information involved in 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 Adium Empire established a foothold in the Mediterranean, invading colonizing the islands of Cyprus, Crete and Gheros. It is uncertain as to who struck first, but a coalition of kingdoms was formed in response to the Sarkid 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 Gheros and the Aral Sea, revealed 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 Adium Empire included Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks, Minoans, Canites, Assyrians and the Mekhanites. Footnote 32. It appears that Minoans conspirators fought on the side of the Adium Empire. Minoan civilization had been on decline at the time of the war. Footnote 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 Mekhan 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 Colossae 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. Footnote 34. Traditionally thought as having been deployed circa 672 CE. When the war was over, the Adium Empire was assumed destroyed along with Sarkic civilization. In reality, Sarkicism would continue in secret, at both its homeland and the Urals and among the tribes that had fought under the banner of Adium, 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 as historian to the Late Bronze Age collapse. The fall of the Adium Empire also resulted in a Sarkid Dyspora, 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 got only speculated about Sarkid activity between circa 1100 BCE and 1300 CE. The Rise of Neosarkicism The majority of known Neosarkid cults appear to descend from certain Carpathian-Norval families influenced by the proto-Sarkid Solomonari. Footnote 35 The Hunters' Black Lodge being the only known Neosarkid cult to not share this lineage. This is likely subject to change if the Foundation uncovers more Sarkid 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 cult. In time, this would result in the development of Sarkid 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.