A Sage once said: if there are no orders and sortings, nature will lose their ways. Animals are divided into the naked, the scaled, the furred, the feathered and the shelled; books are divided into classics, historics, academics and literatures. So with bibliography of the West, the Abnormality Institute has documented the words on bamboo scrolls, included descriptions of anomalous objects, recorded bizarre events throughout different dynasties. Those documented as abnormalities includes divinities and demons of Chi (魑), monsters and beasts of Mei (魅), strange objects of Wang (魍), celestial signs of Liang (魉). They should be documented according to sources, files, histories and commentaries, classified with the use of numbering, stored into the library for future use. —— 3rd Year of Republic of China, Grand Commandant Merak
The Abnormality Institute is — was — the largest research organisation for the supernatural inside the borders of China. It was established sometime between Jin Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, among a small circle of the emperor and certain elite scholars. The original aim was only to contain the documented objects in the "Bamboo Scroll", rarely they have to deal with those not recorded in the Scroll, but that's all.
Slowly, curiosity overtook awe, there comes trials of understanding and applications, and what the Chinese are best at, moral criticism. Abnormality Institute had either grasped hold of, or had caused time after time turmoil and peace, rich or poor harvest, and have been experimenting again and again. This trend had given rise to and had buried kungfu, had extruded the Mongolians, had constituted themes of some tales of supernatural, (had possibly blew up half of Beijing), and gradually faded the Abnormality Institute into the mask of classification, then buried into the earth along with Qing Dynasty.
After that, when the reach of science extended, the last of Abnormality Institute organised the pile of documents, straightened their collars, and walked into the small doors of the Foundation.
—— Head Researcher Darkequation, The Beginning and Ending of the Chinese Abnormality Institute (Volumes 1-3), 19██, Smith-Conder Publication
Collected information
Remains of documentations with indexes
Legacy of the old era
To facilitate the research on the Chinese Abnormality Institute, documents of different dialects and genres should be organised into standard formats similar to Foundation documents when being transcribed.
For easier archival, all Abnormality Institute Bamboo scroll documents adding into the Foundation database should be named in format of "yixuexxx", where xxx is the three-digit Arabic numerals of the document number.
Number: Numbering of anomalous object by the Abnormality Institute.
Kind: Primitive classification system used by the Abnormality Institute, focusing on the external appearances and behaviours of the object.
- Chi (divinities and demons): Refers to objects that look human-like, but might not be a truly humanoid SCP.
- Mei (monsters and beasts): Refers to objects that look like living creatures.
- Wang (anomalous objects): Refers to objects that look like lifeless items.
- Liang (celestial signs): Refers to anomalous phenomena, including those caused by objects unobservable by people at the time.
Source: Words taken from Artifact One, mostly records related to the anomalous object.
File: Supplementary to the "source" part, may be sourced from other parts of Artifact One, may be from historic records or other Confusianists or other doctrines' books.
History: The historic researches on the object by the Chinese Abnormality Institute, most of which have been through multiple records. The style of records included are diverse, ranging from classical Chinese prose to odes.
Commentary: Similar to comments, most of these in discovered documents are the subjective opinions of members of Abnormality Institute on the anomalous objects.
Ancient
Humanity coexisted with the supernatural, though in awe, but the wisdom of mankind had been corroding the supernatural, and the precursor of Abnormality Institute had written the Bamboo Scroll.
Middle ages
The victory against the supernatural, an ending to the era of divinities, officially "naming" as Abnormality Institute, collecting abnormalities of the surrounding regions while the empire expanded, the peak times of the Abnormality Institute.
Pre-modern
Facing challenges brought about by science and external forces, the mighty struggle of Abnormality Institute, some went digging through the bamboo scrolls, some went raking up the past, some went performing somersaults, leading to a scene where bizarre people and events are even more common than stray dogs.
Modern
Ending of the Bamboo Scroll, after sustaining for a while with modern systems and technologies, almost all except the core members have flattered away, an era full of light but existing only in name (an example would be adding the word "Chinese" and extending the full name).
(Updated 1915/█/██, organised by Chinese Branch of the Foundation)
Leaders
The head of the Abnormality Institute were the Grand Commandants (太尉) / Overseers, referred to by codenames of the three sovereigns, five emperors and seven stars of the Big Dipper, fifteen in total.
(For reference purposes of Foundation personnel: Three sovereigns: Fu Xi (伏羲), Shennong (神农), Suiren (燧人). Five emperors: Yellow Emperor (黄帝), Yan Emperor (炎帝), Zhuanxu (颛顼), Emperor Rao (尧), Emperor Shun (舜). The seven stars of Big Dipper: Dubhe (天枢/贪狼), Merak (天璇/巨门), Phecda (天玑/禄存), Megrez (天权/文曲), Alioth (玉衡/廉贞), Mizar (开阳/武曲), Alkaid (摇光/破军))
Alchemists
The Alchemists is a force with unknown organisation. In the process of containment and storage of some abnormalities, members of Abnormality Institute would often encounter organisation or personnel claiming to be the "Alchemists". In different events, the Alchemists would assist, warn or even confront Abnormality Institute personnel, with Alchemists generally having higher technological level than Abnormality Institute of the same period. Early Abnormality Institute documents have perceived the Alchemists with "divine power".
Updated on 1993 by Chinese Branch of the Foundation: As shown on Chinese Abnormality Institute documents retrieved on year ████, the organisation referred to as the "Alchemists" have divided on year ████, at the moment several groups of interests in Chinese regions are believed to be created by separated Alchemists members or have former Alchemists members joining. The situation with Alchemists itself is currently unknown.
Kuiyang Sect
The rise of Kuiyang Sect are undoubtedly related to the rise of Taoism, but in fact Kuiyang sect was never a sect within Taoism that it claimed to be, with early documents of Abnormality Institute showing that the appearance of Kuiyang Sect is even earlier than Taoism itself.
Different from the Alchemists, the technological level of Kuiyang Sect is consistent with the time period it is in. Correspondingly, Kuiyang Sect members would use anomalous items more often.
Kuiyang Sect and Abnormality Institute had kept a friendly relationship for a long time, with Abnormality Institute able to get hold of much information concerning Kuiyang Sect. But after the retrieval of Artifact ██, the relationship deteriorated considerably, attacks on Abnormality Institute by Kuiyang Sect had destroyed much information concerning Kuiyang Sect. Currently Abnormality Institute considers Kuiyang Sect the only "rivalry organisation".
Kuiyang Sect has unique attainment on the tea culture, perhaps accounting for a factor such that it can make use of anomalous items proficiently.
Updated on 1993 by Chinese Branch of the Foundation: At the moment most information concerning Kuiyang Sect are extracted from retrieved Chinese Abnormality Institute documents. Considering the relationship between Abnormality Institute and Kuiyang Sect, the Chinese Branch should prevent leaking any information concerning the relationship between Chinese Branch and Abnormality Institute.
What Abnormality Institute IS
The Abnormality Institute is an idea by Darkequation, a historyphile and canonphile, with the completion by people such as Archibald1, and the logo is drawn by Koo.
First Abnormality Institute is historic, with time and history as the main theme of Abnormality Institute. An anomalous item, in the river of time, would be taken out once and again to be touched, to be written about, to be fiddled with, to be worshiped, they will become the bridge that cross over the gap, connecting the past and present, witnessing the changing times, and be seen by people of different era.
Then, Abnormality Institute is literary, a cumulation of traditions, as opposed to the scientific Foundation. You know, people interested in literature love to pose, to exaggerate, to make an issue of, to cite texts, to write a song pretending sadness. They believed deeply that every event must have its implicit meaning, orders from the divine, messages to warn the world, signs of fortunes or disasters, and so on. The Foundation only documents phenomena, but the Abnormality Institute endows meanings; the Foundation will tell you what ingredients are in a hotchpotch, while the Abnormality Institute does whatever it takes to make it a Fotiaoqiang.
At the same time, Abnormality Institute is casual, the only sure aim is the Bamboo Scroll, so Abnormality Institute's organisation structure is loose, they only deal with encounterings by experience, their actions are unilateral, and the Abnormality Institute documents almost do not have a fixed format. Members of Abnormality Institute are literati holding ink brushes, sometimes subbing for advisors or writing poems, doing whatever they like.
Therefore, Abnormality Institute is mysterious, Abnormality Institute did not specifically try to hide themselves, but their deeds may vary significantly from that on records, with legends and facts mixed, sometimes a poem within. There seems to be their traces everywhere, it is hard to identify whether one event really happened, or was just a dream on some summer night, or both; many anomalous items and records are still buried under this earth till now. This makes them a bit like the Wanderers' Library: inside this big Bamboo Scroll there are truths and falses, there are past, present and future.
Last but most importantly, Abnormality Institute is in past tense, the invasion of western forces in late Qin have made the already ossified Abnormality Institute decide to hide under the roof of the Forbidden City, then the hall collapsed, and they could never get up again. It has been strong in the past, now only leaving behind a bookworm and its library full of yellowed bookpages. Whether it is the vicissitudes, whether it is the lamenting, or whether it is reminisce, please write Abnormality Institute with this feeling in your gut.
What Abnormality Institute IS NOT
Abnormality Institute is not translating existing SCP into classical Chinese. What Artifact One is copying you can spot it in the first glance, but super document does not have a history of two thousand years, and is hung on the lobby walls, and Xirang has not been observed under a microscope. Only using classical Chinese to replace modern Chinese is not enough, and even with simple, easy-to-understand classical Chinese or even modern Chinese, the styles of Abnormality Institute can be conveyed.
In other words, after completing a basic valid SCP, put it into China at a certain era, ask yourself "what then" for one to ten times, write down the results, this makes up a piece of Abnormality Institute document.
Neither is Abnormality Institute a method to make bad ideas epic. If you want people to not understand it but admire it, I suggest you can add (Liopleurodonese) after every sentence.
About the character Darkequation
Being the last of the Abnormality Institute, sometimes he felt to have stood on the shoulders of the giant, other times he felt to have a giant standing on his shoulders.
Perhaps he would never tell anyone how Abnormality Institute truly ended.
Loves cats but has never owned even half a single cat.
Notes from Dr.Ding
The so-called Abnormality Institute document format isn't some rules that everyone has to abide by, the so-called format intends to only provide a direction of idea and some useable templates, or even the "Abnormality Institute documents" themselves are possibly only a pile of notes, tales, poems, songs, etc. Abnormality Institute is an old man similar to but is different from the Foundation, it has already become the past.
The only unchangeable canon for Abnormality Institute is Artifact One, the aims of researching for knowledge, fifteen leaders and that Darkequation loves cat but never owned even half a cat.
