For the safety of our city Vey, the following mandates have been made. These guidelines have been passed down to us by our Founders to keep the other contained. To live and prosper in Vey, all residents must abide by these rules. To break these rules is to forfeit one's own life.
-
Info
SCP-XXXX
What does containment look like beyond the end of the world?
1.2k words (4-min read)
by TopDownUnder
The Accords of Red Stone, as Kept Since the First Founding
For the safety of our city Vey, the following mandates have been made. These guidelines have been passed down to us by our Founders to keep the other contained. To live and prosper in Vey, all residents must abide by these rules. To break these rules is to forfeit one's own life.
I. On the Keeping of Names
1. No child shall bear a fixed name before their thirteenth year.
- For the purposes of recordkeeping, children of the younger ages are to be referred to as Child of Parent until they are of age.
2. Names given in youth shall be burned once of age and not spoken thereafter.
- As the young are prone to careless naming, all such names must be written and burned by the next solstice, lest they linger beyond their span.
3. No citizen shall answer to a name not granted within the city.
- Names from elsewhere lack the safeguards of Vey. Those who travel beyond may use lesser names, but must discard them before returning within the walls.
4. The speaking of one's own name in solitude is forbidden.
- Citizens have no need to declare themselves to nothing. That which listens without answer must not be given shape.
5. Names of the dead are not to be recorded, only remembered.
- As with the names of youth, the names of past lives must be burnt. Memory may hold them; ink shall not.
II. On Reflection And Likeness
1. No polished surface shall be kept amongst the sleeping.
- Our weak minds wander in our sleep. Let it not wander into a second self.
2. During the Red Moon, all mirrors must be covered in ash-cloth.
- Ash blinds what sees without eyes. Blind it, lest you be visited by another you.
3. No artisan may produce a likeness of a living one without consent of the Accord Keepers.
- A likeness fixes a person into a solid shape. A shape that may be stolen.
4. Masks worn in judgment must conceal both eyes and mouth.
- The guilty become vessels for the spirit of the vengeful. Measures must be made to keep these spirits shackled.
5. It is forbidden to look upon one's reflection while speaking one's name.
- To join name and self is to declare a boundary. Boundaries, once declared, may be crossed.
III. On the Dead
1. The dead must be burned before the second sunrise.
- Delay allows what remains to return.
2. No body shall be left unattended after death.
- The moment between breath and ash is not empty. It must be witnessed.
3. The face of the dead must be covered before the name is spoken.
- A face can hold a name. The two must not meet again.
4. If a dead person answers when called, they are not to be answered in return.
- Reply affirms existence. Existence is not to be granted.
5. Those who resemble the dead too closely shall be brought before the Judges.
- The relatives of the deceased shall scar or disfigure themselves.
IV. On Tongue and Memory
1. No story may be told the same way twice.
- Patterns strengthen what listens.
2. Written accounts must be altered upon each copying.
- A perfect record endures. What endures unchanged may be inhabited.
3. Perfect recitation is forbidden outside the ceitu.
- Only the Keepers may risk exactness, and only within guarded space.
4. No citizen shall keep a complete record of their own life.
- Citizens are to keep fragments of their record amongst others, so that no single account becomes whole.
5. Repetition of another's words shall not be done.
- Imitation draws likeness. Likeness draws replacement.
V. On the Red Chamber
1. The Red Chamber is not to be opened.
2. The Red Chamber is not to be named in full.
3. The Red Chamber is not to be described as seen, only as forbidden.
4. No map shall include the Red Chamber's true position.
5. No two records may agree on its nature.
6. Should the Chamber open, all prior laws are void, and the Final Accord applies.
VI. Records of Violation
Case 14
Citizen spoke their childhood name continuously for an hour. By nightfall, three others answered to it. By morning, none could agree which had spoken first. All three have been exiled and struck.
Case 27
Body interred without fire. Returned on third night. Claimed an uninterrupted life. Family accepted claim. Corpse and Family removed by the Fair Guard.
Case 39
Two reflections observed where one stood. Both reflections moved without the citizen. Citizen has been exiled and struck.
Case 41
Citizen spoke their own name repeatedly in isolation. Neighbors reported answering voices. Dwelling found empty in the morning, with the name persisting. Structure sealed, then later razed.
Case 52
Three laborers sought entry to a sealed room beneath the southern archive. Witnesses reported hearing all three continue conversation after descent. The passage was sealed by Accord authority the following morning.
Case 63
Accused brought before Judges with eyes uncovered. Witnesses reported verdict spoken before Judges awoke. Voice matched none present. The chamber was purged. Judge was exiled and struck, and all other attendees were silenced.
Case 74
Mirrors left uncovered during Red Moon. Multiple citizens reported being felt while asleep. A family of seven awoke with conflicting memories of the same life. All seven were exiled and struck.
Case 84
Citizen mimicked deceased spouse in tone and phrase. Listeners replied as if the spouse spoke. Citizen refused to respond to their given name. The citizen was exiled and struck. Listeners were sealed.
Case 101
Twin siblings retained identical names into adulthood. Witnesses report exchange of identity during a public gathering. Both claimed to have retained their original name. Both exiled and struck.
VII. The Final Accord
When the Red Chamber is opened, all prior law is rendered void. No rank, title, or station shall override these mandates. All citizens who remain within Vey are subject to the following:
1. All names are to be abandoned.
- No citizen shall speak, answer to, or record any name, including their own. Those who continue to respond are to be treated as already lost.
2. All reflective surfaces are to be destroyed.
- Glass, still water, polished metal, and the eye itself are to be obscured. Those who cannot be separated from reflection are not to be approached.
3. All records are to be burned without review.
- No attempt shall be made to preserve history, lineage, or identity. What is written may be taken. What is remembered may remain only in fragments.
4. All speech is to cease.
- Voices carry shape. In the red air, shape may be taken. In silence, shape cannot travel.
5. All bodies, living or dead, are to be burned upon uncertainty.
- Distinction can no longer be trusted. Doubt is sufficient cause.
6. No gathering shall exceed three persons.
- Company between many stabilizes what should not be made stable. Disperse all assemblies.
7. The Judges shall not convene.
- Judgment requires identification. Authority requires identification. Identification invites theft.
8. The Red Chamber is not to be sought, sealed, or studied.
- What emerges must not be given direction, resistance, or form. To act upon it is to define it.
9. Any who claim constancy are to be struck.
- Those who insist they are unchanged have already been altered.
10. When distinction between citizens fails, the city is to be abandoned.
- No wall, law, or fire shall preserve Vey beyond this point.
11. Those who remain shall forget the city.
- Do not speak its name. Do not mark its place. Do not return.
12. Should forgetting fail, no further accords apply.
- What follows cannot be contained.
