The Scarlet King

"You know now what the Scarlet King is. He is a creation of swirling anomalies, of so many different times, all over the world. He is the memory of a world that is lost, the premodern world, made manifest in a form of hatred for modernity, the new, the humanism, and smiling coldness that marks our day to day existence. Forged from a perfect balance of irreconcilable anomalies and our breaking minds. He is an entity created by this overwhelming, unavoidable tension. Of the howl of the old world when faced with a cold, grey, purposeless new. He is the revenge of our fallen past. He is the idea of the ancient in a world which discards and fetishes it."

-Dipesh Spivak, Tufto's Proposal

Harak, later known more famously as the Scarlet King, is the main threat to the lower dimensions of the SCP Outerverse. He is an ancient and demonic god who is untold amounts of eons-old and is the son of the Third Brood. He appears in countless articles and tales across the SCP site, often tied to the end of the SCP Outerverse itself.

Khahrahk, also known as Shormaush Urdal or the Scarlet King, is a powerful eldritch god, who seeks the end of all creation. The SCP-Foundation views him as one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse.

Origin
The Scarlet King was born with the planting of the Tree of Knowledge, called Khahrahk at the time. He was the smallest of his siblings, but the only one aware, and it brought him great pain. He decided that existence itself is painful and that he'd have no part in it, as well as destroying existence itself. He started by consuming his siblings and growing stronger in their essence.

He vowed to destroy the Tree, the Creator, and Creation, and consumed or subjugated all the other gods, naming himself "King of the Darkness Below". He declared war on creation itself, one which will not end until the very end of everything. He took Sanaa, one of the gods he subjugated, forcibly as his wife and sired seven daughters on her. Sanaa died after birthing them, and the King took his seven daughters as his new brides, sealing them so they would not die as their mother had. From his seven bride-daughters, he had seven children called Leviathans.

As the war began, the king forced himself upon Sanna, the wisest and most beautiful denizen of the Darkness Below. He lay with her for seven days and seven nights, breaking her and rising in her blood. It was here that he first took the name Shormaush Urdal, the Scarlet King. Sanna bore the king seven daughters A'tivik, A'ghor, A'distat, A'zieb, A'nuht, A'tellif, and A'habbat. He took his offspring as his brides, placing a seal upon each to prevent them from dying as their mother had, and through them bore seven legions to serve him, each with different strengths and traits.

With the strength of his new legions bolstering his forces, the Scarlet King soon subjugated many of the worlds that had previously resisted him. The roots of the Tree of Knowledge began to rot and fester as they became covered in the king's spawn, the Ways became poisoned and dangerous for any to travel, and the king's realm became full with even more damned souls. Other gods including the Factory, the Hanged King, the Prince of Many Faces, and Moloch. Other gods and older beings agreed to follow him as well, among them were Jeser, Goran, Moloch, and Hastur. It is also speculated that he is the nephew of Yaldabaoth. Eventually defeating any who opposed them, the Scarlet King's forces eventually reached the Taproots, the core worlds of the Tree of Knowledge, including earth.

Lord of Daevas
The Scarlet King began to gain power on earth in the East, where the Daevite culture came to serve him. As the Daevites and the influence of the Scarlet King spread further West, the People of the Two Trees became aware of the threat he posed, and their champion Hevel traveled east to fight the Scarlet King's forces. Hevel fought against the Daevites for thirty-three years but was eventually driven by vanity to swear allegiance to the Scarlet King and drink deep of the Daevites' black magics. Hevel then took the name "Ab-Leshal" and became the greatest of the Daevites' generals, leading an army to conquer the west. Al-Leshal led the Scarlet King's forces to the valley where he had once lived and slaughtered his former allies, including all of his family bar his brother Set. The Daevites also burned the Tree of Knowledge and stole the Tree of Life, destroying its guardian Hakhana and looting her body. The only surviving member of the valley people not taken as a slave, Set prayed for answers as to what he should do and was shown a path through which the Scarlet King would one day be destroyed. With instructions on how to achieve this future, Set founded the Thirty-Six, who spread across the earth to protect it and wait until the time to oppose the Scarlet King was right.

Ashamed of what he had done to his family, Hevel turned against the Scarlet King, killing Moloch and slaughtering many Daevites, and in doing so inspired those subjugated by the Daevites to rise up against them across the world. Hevel then challenged the Scarlet King himself, who answered. Thus began the Flood, which wiped the earth and time itself clean.

Little did anyone know, that he was merely a puppet for the demon Maltresia- who had been ordered to manipulate and draw him towards the destruction of his Outerverse by Lucifer, as a way of ruining his Father's plan, however, no-one realized this in the Outerverse. Even now, she is slowly resurrecting Khahrahk, so he can initiate the end of this Outerverse, even if she doesn't need to become directly involved.

The Howling Wind
A battle that would later be key in defining the Scarlet King was fought in a blackened wasteland between a group of peasants and an obscure steppe tribe fielding a horde of conscripted soldiers. Both sides were starving, with the wind screaming at them. The peasants pleaded, begged, and prayed to the horde, some of whom laughed or cheered, while others wept. During the battle, seven peasant brides were ripped from the fields and taken as spoils of war. Some of the tension between pre-modern and modern that would shape the Scarlet King arose in South-East Asia as it was colonized and westernized by the British Empire. The British defined and categorized many of the Asian cultural beliefs and practices, causing rage amongst the natives, and as part of this, the concept that would become the Scarlet King became more defined as well, although this did not please it.

Description
The Scarlet King is an eldritch god formed as the manifestation of the tension between the modern world and the premodern world and the rage it creates. Originally it existing as the concept of there being something greater than man, such as gods or the supernatural, that could not be controlled or reasoned with. The concept was linked into the howling of the wind, and the uncertainty of starvation and famine. This concept was then shaped by the encroachment of modernity into the old world and the clash between the two.

Due to the lack of canon, the Scarlet King has no true form. Artists often draw him as a classical Devil-like figure with antlers, sometimes having also tendrils/tentacles coming from his body, likely a reference of his Lovecraftian inspiration. He is also often depicted with eyes on his chest.

In the tale, Three Short Scenes About Death the Scarlet King is given a little description. His fist is described as massive and gnarled, holding the chains of his consorts and concubines. The same fists could effortlessly smash a man's throat. The King's voice is described as similar to "the chittering of a billion infinitesimal insects", and swirling and constantly moving. His voice also was neither "high nor low nor cacophonous nor methodical", simply just being. According to Tufto's SCP-001 proposal, the King is more akin to a living meme than an individual entity; in effect, he is the idea of nihilism and a force of chaos and can assimilate an entity thought to be him into an aspect of himself.

Powers & Abilities
The Scarlet King's true power is unknown, though he can conquer and destroy entire worlds and civilizations, and threaten other low elder gods. For regular humans, his true power is presumably beyond comprehension. However, he could threaten the existence of his own Outerverse but nothing beyond that- as Malteresia a being who is far beyond any being higher in that Outerverse easily manipulated him and all of the Outerverse.

Brides
The seven brides and their Leviathan-spawn are referred to as followers:
 * A’tivik (vaduk/dominion)
 * A’ghor (kifenn/longing)
 * A’distat (hezhum/desolation)
 * A’zieb (ba/wrath)
 * A’nuht (ner/lack)
 * A’tellif (usheq/hidden)
 * A’habbat (xokib/hope)

Followers
The Scarlet King has gathered many followers, among them other gods, among them, were The Factory, Jeser, Goran, Moloch, and Hastur. It is implied in the SCP-231 proposal that the Hanged King also serves him. Humans also follow the King, most notably the savage Daevites and the Children of the Scarlet King, a "Satanic" cult that poses as an American right-wing Millenialist fire-and-brimstone Christian church. The group consists of 8000 actual cultists, and about 60 000 Christians, who unknowingly serve the interests of the inner circle. The cult has also wealthy benefactors.

Trivia

 * The Poem hints that instead of working against the Scarlet King, they may be unwittingly or even knowingly playing right into his hands. If this is true, that is presumably why in one canon, "New Job", the O5-Council decided to stop the Protocol, which resulted in the birth of SCP-999. SCP-999 is described as a being that can cure depression and PTSD. As the Scarlet King's background is tragic due to being born aware and possibly suffering from some sort of existential crisis, the O5-Council plans to defeat him "with light and love and laughter that can brighten the blackest of hearts".
 * The Scarlet King is often theorized to possibly be the true or final stage of SCP-2317, an untold horror that even the SCP Foundation has difficulty containing and documenting. Since the foundation has no real canon, it is ultimately up to the reader to believe if SCP-2317 and the Scarlet King are one and the same. However, 2317's creator personally believes that it and the Scarlet King are completely separate entities.
 * He is the creator of SCP-682 and SCP-999.
 * SCP-3806-A claims that Yaldabaoth and the Scarlet King are known to snatch human souls in the astral plane.
 * His followers, The Children of the Scarlett King, could possibly have a tie with Sarkicism, as their rituals have some things in common such as human sacrifice, mutilation, "sex magic", thaumaturgy and the overall worship of a higher being. The Foundation though never has discovered a proper connection.
 * The Global Occult Coalition refers to the Scarlet King as "PTE-616-Mendes-Ex-Machina".
 * He was a low elder God but a lesser Great Old one named the Koitern arrived and granted him powers. The Scarlet King then began to absorb powers and even turned on the Koitern. But his son 682 possibly worships the Koitern and betrayed his father like his father betrayed the All-Mighty.