Ask a group of unrelated people how
all life in the universe was created, and they would each probably
give you a different answer. Ask someone with a scientific background and
they’ll tell you the universe was birthed after the Big Bang, and that life gradually
evolved on Earth over millions of years. Or, if you were to ask someone of the Christian
faith, they might tell you that, God created the entire universe in six days - every planet, star,
even giving life to every single creature - then took Sunday off. Every belief system since
the dawn of humanity, whether monotheistic, pantheistic, or even atheistic, have had
their own creation stories and myths. And then there’s the answer that a member of
The Church of The Broken God would give you, and trust us, it’s far more complicated.
Just in case you’ve never heard them mentioned before, The Church of The Broken God is an
anomalous religious organization and Group of Interest. The SCP Foundation has actually had
a number of encounters with the Church over the years, and we’ll get to why that is in a moment.
Members of the Church share in the belief that life - specifically biological, flesh-based life
like that of human beings - is inherently wrong, a direct product of evil. Their religion
focuses on the worship of mechanization, which is the process of making something,
or someone, more mechanical in nature. So, what do members of the Church
believe created life in the universe? Well, according to their beliefs, in the
beginning, there were two ancient and powerful beings. It was these gods, named Yaldabaoth
and Mekhane, who created humanity together. Yaldabaoth was the god of flesh and animal
instinct, granting humans bodies while Mekhane, the god of machine and intellect, blessed man with
the power of free thought. As humankind developed, its civilizations began building machines. This
enraged Yaldabaoth, seeing that the humans were ignoring the instincts she had bestowed upon
them. As a result, she swore to destroy all the creations of man, seeking to revert them back to
the animalistic state she had intended for them. According to the Church’s legend, Mekhane
acted as humanity’s savior, and intervened to stop Yaldabaoth. The god of machines shattered
himself, transforming his metal body into a number of pieces to form a cage for his fellow god.
These fragments of Mekhane’s body rained down on planet Earth, scattered and lost. The Church
of the Broken God believes it is their duty, their only true purpose, to recover those
pieces. As such, the Church is devoted to the worship of Mekhane, their broken god that
lies in fragments scattered across the world. Often using anomalous technology, members
of the Church of The Broken God intend to uncover or steal these various components. The
Church’s ultimate goal is to bring the correct pieces together and eventually restore Mekhane’s
form. It is their hope that he will guide them to intellectual enlightenment, and bless them
with new, mechanical forms so that they can discard their mortal bodies of flesh and blood,
and ascend to a fully mechanized way of life. The one problem is there could potentially
be hundreds of pieces required in order to rebuild Mekhane. He cannot lead the Church
to glory and defeat Yaldabaoth once and for all with parts still missing. A number of these
pieces have already surfaced as cataloged SCPs that the Foundation is either aware of, or
has in containment. Among them are SCP-882 or ‘His Broken Heart’ to the Church, SCP-271,
His Broken Gift, SCP-813, His Broken Eyes, SCP-1139, His Broken Tongue, SCP-635, His
Broken Mind, and finally His Broken Blood, which refers to SCP-217. And then there’s
SCP-3179, sometimes referred to as The Seed. In 1909, a meteor shower rained over
Dellinton. a tiny village in England. But something else fell with the meteors, something
otherworldly. It was made out of liquid metal, its form constantly shifting and shimmering,
never staying at the same mass or held in the same shape for long. The object, whatever it was,
quickly fell into the possession of a group known as the Cogwork Orthodoxy. You see, within the
religion of the Church of the Broken God there exists a number of splinter factions that,
ironically, broke away from the main Church. One such group, referred to as the Cogwork
Orthodox Church, augment their own bodies through mechanical implants. However, we aren’t
talking microchips, the Cogwork Orthodox Church will only use technology from the late
Industrial Revolution, as they think it is more fitting of their god, Mekhane.
So, what does this object, SCP-3179, have to do with all these tales of
mechanical churches and broken gods? SCP-3179 is capable of extending its mass,
forming long, rod-like metal structures that protrude from its central mass. These rods
are then used to create smaller entities, referred to as SCP-3179-1. These entities
might lack the ability to expand or change shape the same way that SCP-3179 can, but they
are specialized for a wide range of functions. The SCP-3179-1 creations are usually designed
to help free SCP-3179 from its containment and will obey this purpose without
exception, yet somehow they do not appear capable of communicating with the
main body that they were created from. While SCP-3179 remains as a constant mass of
liquid metal, the entities it creates are able to simulate an exterior organic appearance.
In other words, they look like they are alive. Still struggling to figure out why the Cogwork
Orthodoxy and Church of the Broken God would be so interested in this thing? Well, maybe
this will answer that burning question. Warranty Silas, One of the members of the Cogwork
Orthodoxy that recovered SCP-3179, thought the metallic object was The Seed of Mekhane.
According to the beliefs of the Church, this liquid metal entity would one day expand
to form the offspring of their Broken God. Perhaps hoping to protect the future child
of their faith’s deity, the Cogwork Orthodoxy constructed a containment bunker around SCP-3179
in 1917. At first, this sturdy container seems to have done its job, possibly having even been
made using anomalous methods or properties to keep SCP-3179 in place. For over a hundred years,
it successfully held the entity and restricted its ability to grow. However, the unit has since
been damaged by multiple attempts by the entity to breach its containment, and will likely
fail completely within the next five years. You see, SCP-3179 isn’t just alive, but sentient.
The liquid metal entity has displayed an extremely high level of intelligence, although not through
direct communication. It shows its intelligence through its evolving tactics, changing the
shape of its mass or creating more instances of SCP-3179-1 to aid in its escape. In fact, the
so-called Seed of Mekhane is so vastly intelligent in its strategies and relentless in its goal
to breach its containment, that in 2016 most of the containment unit built around it had been
destroyed. The Cogwork Orthodoxy had no choice but to directly contact the SCP Foundation, and appeal
to them to take over the containment of SCP-3179. Even after this exchange, the Foundation still had
significant trouble keeping the entity contained. They couldn’t transport it, instead assigning a
Mobile Task Force, Zeta 10, codenamed Death Metal, to monitor SCP-3179’s growth. If a section of its
body expanded too far beyond an acceptable level, these personnel had to step in and
sever it from the main body of SCP-3179. Any part sliced, severed, or otherwise
removed from the liquid metal mass still continues to grow for several hours after its
removal. However, this growth eventually stops and these pieces are left inert and lifeless.
For example, on one occasion in late December of 2016, SCP-3179 grew a number of metal supports
from its main body, not unlike multiple pairs of legs. Before the entity could use these new
appendages to pull itself free and escape its containment, members of MTF Death Metal stepped
in and severed them before they could fully grow. A few weeks later in January of 2017,
SCP-3179 tried a similar strategy: growing structures resembling propellers on
the top of its body and attempting to attain flight. Once again, Death Metal did what
they do best and clipped SCP-3179’s wings. It later produced instances of SCP-3179-1 in the
form of numerous flying drones, that it tried to use to fly away from the containment zone. MTF
Zeta 10 was able to shoot these entities down, forcing SCP-3179 to once again alter its tactics.
Next, it produced a number of sound-emitting structures from its central mass and used them
to mimic the voices of a number of MTF Zeta 10 members. The metallic creature attempted
to plead with the Foundation’s operatives in the voices of their colleagues, claiming that
they had become trapped inside the liquid metal. After no result, a day later SCP-3179 began using
the same structures to emit screams of the same MTF Zeta 10 troops. This time, the voices claimed
that SCP-3179 was killing them, and begged to be set free. Once again, the Foundation’s personnel
remained at their posts, though this breach attempt apparently added a lot more job stress to
the role. SCP-3179 even, on multiple occasions, produced instances of SCP-3179-1 that were
identical to existing MTF Zeta 10 members, trying to convince the others that the entity
should be released from its containment zone. At one point it was even able to use tiny
SCP-3179-1s to replace the internal organs of one of the MTF Zeta 10 members in his sleep with
entirely mechanical components. On the outside, the man looked to be human, his eyes,
skin, and tongue all organic. But inside, he had been made a puppet of SCP-3179 and
sent off to sabotage a number of systems involved in the entity’s containment. Luckily,
the Foundation’s forces were able to stop this new instance of SCP-3179-1 and terminated him.
Of course, this all begs the question, why would the Cogwork Orthodoxy hand SCP-3179
over to the Foundation? If the Seed of Mekhane was so sacred to them, so important to their belief
system, then why give it to another organization? You could argue that the Cogwork
Orthodoxy were admitting that they weren’t as well equipped as the Foundation
are when it comes to containing anomalies, or that they’d rather the future offspring
of Mekhane was best kept as safe as possible. But that is if you even believe that SCP-3179
really is The Seed of Mekhane. While growing in its containment, the entity showed to be
considerably hostile towards the members of the Church that curated it. It even caused
a number of casualties, killing many that wanted to protect it on behalf of Mekhane.
Additionally, the metallic mass wouldn’t change its state whenever they would read
scripture relating to the Broken God, in fact, it showed little reaction at all to any
displays of faith from the Cogwork Orthodoxy. Surely Mekhane’s own offspring wouldn’t have
behaved in such a way. Unless, of course, SCP-3179 wasn’t the Seed of Mekhane at all. What if this
entity was an imposter, oblivious of the beliefs of the Church of The Broken God? And given
how intelligent it had shown itself to be, surely SCP-3179 would know to take advantage of
the faith of those that had tried to procure it. On the second of June 2017, SCP-3179 produced
a number of metal tablets from itself and dispersed them throughout the containment
area surrounding it. Each tablet had the same inscription written on it: “Humans must obey the
ruling of gods. The Mekhane is a god. The Mekhane is a powerful entity of steel and industry. I am a
powerful entity of steel and industry. Therefore, I am Mekhane. Therefore, I am a god.
Therefore, you will release me.” It is entirely possible that SCP-3179
was indeed a part of Mekhane, the ancient, Broken God and deity to the Church
and the Cogwork Orthodoxy. But then again, this entity showed intelligence and adaptability,
as well as hostility towards the human beings around it. Perhaps this so-called Seed of Mekhane
was nothing more than a false prophet, trying to use the faith of the Church to ensure its own
escape. It doesn’t get much craftier than that... Now go check out “SCP-001 - The Broken God -
Ouroboros Cycle” and “What Actually Happened to Major Alexei Belitrov? SCP-2273 - Tale” for
more lore from the Church of the Broken God!
