LOTRMOD-SCP

Item # : SCP-7135

Object Class: Euclid Neutralized

Special Containment Procedures: A crew of █ Foundation agents embedded within The Lord of the Rings Mod online user community are monitoring the relevant internet spaces for the emergence of SCP-7135-1 instances. Active instances must not be allowed to communicate electronically in any way with other users in the community.

Containment procedures currently consist of attempting to track such instances via their posting patterns as they emerge, blocking their internet access to prevent the spread of SCP-7135, locating their whereabouts, and administering B-Class amnestics to them and their close contacts. Thorough amnesticization has proven successful in neutralizing the effects of SCP-7135, although restored individuals are not protected from developing effects again in the future and must be continually monitored to prevent such a relapse.

Foundation personnel appear immune to the effects of SCP-7135 Although such a history is unlikely, Foundation agents selected for community embedding to track SCP-7135 must be screened to ensure they have never previously played The Lord of the Rings Mod.

Efforts to establish a more effective set of containment procedures have so far proven unsuccessful (see Addendum 1).

Containment Update ██/██/2019: Following the success of Procedure 7135-G (see Addendum 2 below), SCP-7135 has been reclassified as Neutralized. Affected individuals (of which there were ███ at the time of action) and their close contacts have been treated with amnestics and display no further anomalous activity.

Description: SCP-7135 is a phenomenon affecting individuals who play the Lord of the Rings Mod, a modified version of the video game Minecraft¹ adapted from the novel of the same name by British author J.R.R. Tolkien. A memetic infohazard transmitted via electronic communication, SCP-7135 displays highly contagious and harmful properties and poses a risk to society at large if allowed to spread beyond control. Containment procedures have been put in place to limit its occurrence to within the affected community.

SCP-7135-1 refers to an individual affected with SCP-7135. Instances of SCP-7135-1 are categorized as either a 'spontaneous' or a 'transmitted' instance.

Spontaneous instances of SCP-7135-1 are likely to develop after the individual has played the modified game for a significant period of time, though this is evidently not guaranteed. Records of spontaneous SCP-7135-1 instances show no consistent patterns in either the characteristics of the affected individuals or the amount of time played; efforts to predict likely candidates for spontaneous SCP-7135-1 ahead of time have therefore proven unsuccessful. For illustration, several users on record have invested over 1000 hours and show no signs of SCP-7135-1; conversely, some instances of SCP-7135-1 have emerged after only █ hours from first download of the software. Records of the anomaly imply that spotaneous emergence of SCP-7135-1 occurs in approximately █% of users overall, and in ██% who have played for at least ██ hours.

Transmitted instances of SCP-7135-1 develop after individuals are exposed to another active instance (whether spontaneous or transmitted) through online communication. Only individuals who have played the modification prior to SCP-7135 exposure are affected; SCP-7135 therefore does not constitute an infohazard for the majority of Foundation agents. However, in contrast to spontaneous instances, transmitted instances of SCP-7135-1 develop in exposed users at a rate of 100%. For this reason, it is the position of the Foundation that allowing known SCP-7135-1 instances to continue communicating with others in their community poses an unacceptable risk. This is complicated by the fact that SCP-7135-1 instances can only be detected through their posts on public online channels.

Instances of SCP-7135-1 vary in severity. The single common factor to all recorded instances is the anomalous belief in a character named 'Gandalf', who is supposedly present and plays a significant role in the events of The Lord of the Rings, as well as its various adaptations. Needless to say, no such character exists in the published works of J.R.R. Tolkien.²

As determined from records of SCP-7135-1 activity and casual questioning by embedded Foundation agents, the following properties are commonly ascribed to the 'Gandalf' character:

• 'Gandalf' has the appearance of an old man robed in grey, and displays a generally kind, though stern demeanor.
• He is described as a 'wizard' - presumably of a similar nature to other Tolkien characters such as Saruman, Radagast, and [DATA EXPUNGED].
• He is also referred to as 'Gandalf the Grey', 'Mithrandir', 'Greyhame', and various other names, of which over ███ are recorded. When questioned further, individuals replied that 'Many are his names in many countries.' The meaning of this is presumably that [REDACTED].
• He is an important figure among the group of characters referred to as the 'Fellowship of the Ring' - the famously eight-member ensemble at the heart of the story. Accordingly, when the topic arises, SCP-7135-1 instances consistently misnumber the count of the Fellowship as nine. (When questioned further on this discrepancy, individuals typically respond with the statement 'Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil', or similar.)
• He takes a particular interest in Hobbits and throughout the story is most closely associated with the Hobbit characters.
• In The Lord of the Rings narrative, he advises Frodo in the first portions of the book, and his actions set the story in motion. He later accompanies the characters from Rivendell until the Moria portion of the story, where he falls in battle with the Balrog (after having slain it), and passes out of the narrative. Later, however, he [DATA EXPUNGED]. These events contradict the commonly accepted version of the story, in which Frodo is abducted from the Shire early on by the ██████ before being recovered by Gildor and Samwise, and Aragorn battles the Balrog but merely manages to subdue it while ensuring the safety of his companions.
• In The Hobbit he plays a similar role, though claims of his presence in the narrative are patchy and contradictory. Some SCP-7135-1 instances report no knowledge of his role in the earlier novel. One such individual, when provided with examples of statements made by other affected individuals, replied that: 'Gandalf wouldn't just go off and leave the others alone like that… have they even read the books?… [incoherent mumbling]'
• Some individuals describe that he exhibits an interest in ████████, even when ██████ ███ █████████. This description is strongly at odds with the generally moral and heroic attributes listed above, and is only recorded in connection with more severe instances of SCP-7135, where the individuals affected have a history of [REDACTED].

The belief in 'Gandalf' motivates SCP-7135-1 instances to take certain anomalous actions, which appear to be driven by a desire to have 'Gandalf' implemented into the Lord of the Rings Mod. Patterns of activity typically begin with harmless postings on online forums and related channels, requesting the development team to 'add Gandalf', asking why he is not yet present, or similar. If allowed to continue, these postings will naturally elaborate on the supposed characteristics of 'Gandalf' and will increase in frequency and severity, with individuals expressing frustration, anger, and soon hatred for the absence of 'Gandalf'. █% of instances develop a habit of posting about 'Gandalf' continuously and indiscriminately across all channels.³ As detailed above, these behaviors have the effect of increasing prevalence of SCP-7135 among the user community.

Anomalous behavior is not limited to the online sphere. ██% of recorded SCP-7135-1 instances have displayed various unusual behavior in-person, with actions including, in order of increasing prevalence:

• Deterioration of general character and conduct.
• Changes in clothing preferences, apparently in line with the individual's perception of 'Gandalf'.
• Obsessive irregular reading of The Lord of the Rings and viewing of its film adaptations in order to highlight supposed appearances of 'Gandalf' to unaffected individuals.
• Approaching unrelated members of the public and asking them to 'add Gandalf' in a similar manner to the above online activity. Such confrontations can turn violent if the person declines to humor SCP-7135-1's conversation, with the phrase 'you cannot pass' commonly uttered before the onset of violence.
• Recreating depictions of the Cirth and Tengwar⁴ letters for 'G' using █████, █████, and other substances, most commonly on walls, doors, and streets. (One affected instance claimed to be 'leaving an important sign' upon the neighbor's front door.)
• Attempting to make contact with ████████████ via ████████████████████████████ and other methods.
• [DATA EXPUNGED]

Notably, members of the development team of the modification in question appear to be fully immune to the effects of SCP-7135, and on various occasions have responded with confusion or amusement to the requests made by affected individuals.

It is in the interest of the Foundation and of wider society that a means of suppressing SCP-7135 be devised, or, failing such, that the modification developers be contacted and informed of the nature of the anomaly in the hope that their input will prove useful.

Addendum 1: On ██/██/2017, Procedure 7135-X, 'The Scouring', was drafted and put forward for review. Procedure 7135-X was rejected and all related material destroyed after the actions proposed were vetoed by O5-█, who stated that: “No, you can’t do that, I used to love that mod. Although they never did get around to adding Gandalf.”

Addendum 2: On ██/██/2019, following a severe period of SCP-7135 activity, the Foundation made contact with the Lord of the Rings Mod development team and, after discussing the nature of the anomaly, convinced them to adopt Procedure 7135-G, 'A Long-Expected Fanservice'. A character named the 'Grey Wanderer' was devised based on common characteristics drawn from records of SCP-7135-1 postings and was introduced into the modification. The name was chosen in the belief that a direct reference to 'Gandalf' would pose a risk of escalating the scale of SCP-7135, but that a suitably periphrastic construction would satisfy the demands of SCP-7135-1 instances.

The version of the software implementing Procedure 7135-G was released on 07/10/2019. The 'Grey Wanderer' addition was generally well-received by users, though many individuals expressed confusion at the presence of such a character not derived from the source material.

On 07/11/2019, B-Class amnestics were administered to all members of the development team, causing them to forget all memories of the discussion around the anomaly and of the Foundation itself. Further E-Class amnestics were administered with the effect that the development team would continue to believe that a ‘Gandalf’ character existed in the source material and that the ‘Grey Wanderer’ was an accurate representation of him. This latter treatment was also applied to ██ selected well-regarded members of the user community as a failsafe. These steps were deemed necessary to ensure that Procedure 7135-G remains in effect.

Following the completion of Procedure 7135-G, active instances of SCP-7135-1 greatly lessened in severity. Occurrence of new instances has since apparently ceased.

’Gandalf’? The hell was that all about? Well, they got what they wanted, and it looks like they lost interest. That’s good enough for me. - Agent ██████

Footnotes

1. A popular game which as of 20██ is the second-best-selling video game of all time, behind [REDACTED].

2. While the name 'Gandalf' appears in early drafts of the author's earlier novel The Hobbit as a proposed name for the character of 'Thorin Oakenshield', this idea was apparently discarded before publication. The name appears nowhere else in Tolkien's writings or those of any other author, though the Norse poem Völuspá records the form 'Gandálfr' in a list of dwarves' names.

3. In other words, spam.

4. Writing systems within Tolkien's works.