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This concept is based off of an scp foundation wiki monster. http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-231

An ancient deity called the scarlet king exists across several dimensions, but is prevented from entering our world due to a magical barrier. A cult formed in his name with the purpose of bringing him into the mortal realm to rule humanity. To accomplish this, they opened up a portal between dimensions, allowing his essence to seep through and take residence within an infertile cultist as a developing fetus. However, the gods essence is so massive that it cannot be contained within one individual, and must disperse his essence among other individuals in order to cross over. Thus, seven volunteer cultists were chosen to carry a "shard" of the deity, becoming what the cult referred to as the seven brides of the Scarlett king.

These seven were captured and taken in by secret governmental forces, who seek to prevent these shards from being born. This is accomplished through a process called Montauk-110, an expensive and complex sealing ritual involving incantations, ritual circles, and the sacrifice of a D-class prisoner. This ritual must be performed every 24 hours when the brides go into labor. If the ritual is successfully performed, it causes the beast to subside and prevents the birth. If unsuccessful, the seal is broken, allowing the deity to cross over and begin it's period of darkness.

Only the 7th bride remains, the others dying due to suicide or complications during labor. The deity could easily be eliminated as a threat by killing the final bride. I need a way to make the sealing ritual continue to be necessary to prevent the government from taking that step. How can I make this setup possible?

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    $\begingroup$ I think I need to understand how the life of the final shard is sufficient to pose a threat, provided that the initial layout required all 7. Most importantly it sounds like the other 6 shards are a complete non-factor - your best solution may be to make that not the actual case. $\endgroup$
    – user8827
    Commented Nov 23, 2019 at 16:32
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    $\begingroup$ That is to say, perhaps the final disposition of those shards is not as simple as it would appear to be. I'm not suggesting a rewrite of the scenario per se. $\endgroup$
    – user8827
    Commented Nov 23, 2019 at 16:41
  • $\begingroup$ @Willk corrected. $\endgroup$
    – Incognito
    Commented Nov 23, 2019 at 18:12
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    $\begingroup$ Having now done my homework, that file does a good job of demonstrating that the death of the subject, or the death or birth of the shard will result in the destruction of our world, and that they are looking for a way around that so they can stop with the ritual torment. If you have modified this fact for your writing, I'd like to know in what way. If you have not, then perhaps you already have your answer? $\endgroup$
    – user8827
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 16:20

3 Answers 3

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The secret society wants the baby.

At the same time they are delaying the birth of this baby, the society is preparing the wards and mechanisms needed to control it after its birth. A seventh of a god is not a god, but it is a power to be reckoned with and this Crimson Seventh will be in a human form.

The society has experience in deploying technology to control and channel magic. Once the tech is ready it will be put in place and the baby will be allowed to come into the world. The baby will be raised by the Foundation. It will be taught how to use its human mind in addition to its technologic and arcane augmentations to channel its divine power. This baby will grow up to be a force in the service of humanity.

The use of a human vessel was risky. For the god. Humans are too clever. It will not make that mistake a second time. It will choose a different route to bring the other six into the world. Seventh will be ready. She has a head start.

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  • $\begingroup$ This premise pretty much writes itself as a TV series. Seventh works with SCP Foundation to protect humanity, with the thread of her origin tying together the stand alone episodes. Syfy, you there? $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 19:26
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Ethics*

Somehow you've encountered the one government department that doesn't believe the end justifies the means, and doesn't think it's appropriate to kill this woman just to make life easy for themselves. Perhaps it would save the world, but it's not strictly necessary and hence unacceptable. I assume D-class prisoners exist for exactly this reason, ethics are flexible things anyway.

What's to stop the cult just doing the same thing again?

All it takes is another seven women and here we go again, but the sealing ritual means that if they want to try again, they must use this woman. Now she's under the control/protection of the government the world is safe until such time as she dies and the seal is broken . Unfortunately this requires her to have a hystorectomy as well, as the only certain way to make sure she doesn't have the child in the long run, but the end justifies the means.

*It's the bit between Kent and Suffolk

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  • $\begingroup$ SCP D-Class personnel are human guinea pigs, essentially. They're recruited from the world's worst prisons and generally are people who would otherwise be sentenced to death. $\endgroup$
    – Halfthawed
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 0:24
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The bride has already helped. Now she’s actually in the way.

Imagine water flowing from a tap. Usually it flows out of a tap, into a sink and down the drain. Now imagine you want to pour a load of water in a different room, and all you have to hand are seven water balloons.

First you fill the water balloon, then take it into the next room. At this point you can either pour out the water or pop the balloon. Either will suffice to get the water from the sink to the next room. In order to safely get rid of the water you have to take the balloon back to the sink.

The water is the Scarlet King. Your brides are the balloons. The first ritual plus nine months to bring the baby to term is filling the balloon and taking it to the next room. The next room is our world. At this point the bride could give birth (pouring the water out) or be killed (pop). Either will bring the Scarlet King into our world, and indeed killing the brides might have been the cultist’s plan all along!

Your ritual is the equivalent of taking the water balloon and holding it over the sink. Then it doesn’t matter if it pops: the water stays where it should.

Not making a mess of the other room.

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