Members of the Alger Lodge, 1913.
Unknown context.
The Society of Atheists for the Protection from Perilous and Hindering Institutionalized Religions Everywhere, better known as "SAPPHIRE", is a Group of Interest mostly set up in all the Western Europe but also present in the Eastern countries, in Nothern Africa, as well as the East Coast of the United States.
The oldest known actions linked to SAPPHIRE go back to 1909, although the organisation stayed very vague until the sixties, moment when SAPPHIRE seems to have known a real expansion. Its precise origin is unknown.
SAPPHIRE is a group promoting the struggle against any form of belief, religion and superstition, that they believe to be the root of all Humanity’s misfortune, as well as the SCP object, they consider to be the source of all the said beliefs, religions and superstitions.
Despite the ideal of rationality and humanism that SAPPHIRE pretends to support, they don’t hesitate to use anomalous means against religions, global or calibrated, occult or public, for terrorist purposes, whom first victim often are civilians. Those attacks can also be directed against superstitions, for example by attacking clairvoyance enthusiast civilians, or rival organisations, such as the Foundation.
"Selection of the RUBIES for the 12th June operation."
Unknown context.
Inner workings:
SAPPHIRE isn’t ruled by a real leader or a central power, but is divided in approximatively fifty semi-independant Lodges. Each Lodge is free to act in its own way, but if they are willing to they can collaborate with each other. The members of each Lodge are however under the responsability and the authority of a Lodge Leader. Those Lodge Leaders meet themselves anually during Summits taking place in an undetermined place, only known by the name "Stoa".
In spite of the egalitarian politic that SAPPHIRE claims to insure at its members, all of its Lodge Leaders and most eminent members seem to be part of an intellectual and/or wealthy elite, which is authoritative in the fields of civilian science. Several personalities known by the general public are believed to be secretly part of this elite, among which N███ ████████ █████, C███ █████ or R██████ ███████.
Financing:
SAPPHIRE seems to obtain a part of its financial means from a cotisation of its adherents in one hand and the generosity of several rich patrons on the other. Among those monetary supports, the Foundation actively watch the Silverstein dynasty, based on the East coast of the United States, and the Faustil dynasty, in Switzerland, whose most members are part of SAPPHIRE since at least the thirties. It is also assumed that other organisations which are not part of SAPPHIRE but having interests in the eradication of the anomalous and/or the religion could offer them financial assistance. Those suspicions are however unconfirmed.
Activities:
SAPPHIRE’s activities are centered around intelligence gathering, terrorism, research, active proselytism for the atheist cause and the destruction of anomalous objects and phenomena. To do this, the organisation is divided in several unities:
- Repressive Use of Bias and Irreal Entities Suppression: The RUBIES is the field unit of SAPPHIRE, more or less the equivalent of the Foundation's MTF. Their objectives, as stated in the names, is to collect discovered SCP objects, to manipulate them when they have to use it against religions (during attacks for example) and to destroy them, or to counter or limitate their effects if they are indestructible.
Because SAPPHIRE doesn’t have military forces like the Foundation, and because most of its members are civilians, each team of RUBIES is improvised depending on the situation by voluntary members having knowledge, practice or precise means adapted to the circonstances. Consequently, a RUBIES can be formed by one or one hundred individuals depending on the operation. Though they are often charged with amateurism, RUBIES’ operations are successful more than sixty percents of the time.
- Extorsions Manœuvres, Espionage and Reconnaissance inside Agencies, Leagues and Dogma: the EMERALDs refers to the undercover agents inside other organisms linked to the anomalous world. They are especially pernicious and are probably the biggest strategic advantage of SAPPHIRE, present inside "Agencies" such as the SCP Fondation, "Leagues" such as the Global Occult Coalition and "Dogma" such as the Horizon Initiative.
EMERALDs are particularly numerous, discreet and efficient. Most of SAPPHIRE members being scientists, they have no problem to infiltrate the Foundation, which often goes and search them itself without knowing. It is also assumed that several researchers already working for the Foundation and suffering from the Filbuson syndrome end up joining SAPPHIRE secretly. ██ EMERALDs have already been discovered within the Foundation since the seventies, and around ███ employees have been put under surveillance by the Intern Security Department.
- Zetetic Investigation, Rational Cognition and Oddities Negation: the ZIRCON is an unity comprised of debunkers, sent as pathfinders on the scene of anomalous phenomena in order to write a precise report about "why it isn’t possible". Scepticism and rhetoric experts, they also mainly works in the communications, intern or extern, of the Society, as well as in the "scientific" research (although clearly oriented and negationnist) on the SCP objects.
The research on the anomalous objects, pursued indepently by SAPPHIRE researchers, seems to limitate itself essentially at the practical abilities and the limits of the SCP objects, in order to know how to destroy, inhibit and/or use them. SAPPHIRE has no personnal interests to know more about them, and the discovery of several technical documents from their researches mentioning "morphic fields" and "telluric resonance", largely outdated terms in the field of the paraphysic, prove that they are largely behind in the scientific sector.
Note from Michel Saëmons, MTFs Coordinator at Site-Aleph:
We call it, the Filbuson Syndrome.
It was back in the twenties, when the Foundation was still "spry". Human ressources weren’t the same as today, and there weren’t all these tests to pass during the recruitments. William Filbuson have been one of the best man of the United States Army, and one of the first great heroes of the american aviation at the time. Strong mental, inimitable reflexes, sheer determination, and a long list of achievements behind him. Him and fourteen other men from the elite of the military went directly from the US Army to the Site-32, near Chicago, to form the brand new Elite Task Force : the FIM Mu-8, "Titans". They were in charge of the hunt and the elimination of the SCPs that the Foundation couldn’t allow itself to keep alive longer.
Oh, of course they were given introduction conferences, orientation courses, and a bunch of theoric and practical training. But they never have been put face to face with an SCP.
It was during their first intervention. In Oklahoma, i think, an Euclid. Some kind of giant panthera with lithokinetic abilities. It was an iteration among many other generated by an old anomalous mine, so we could eliminate it without any loss. They tracked it across the forest, they found the beast, and…
They did nothing. "Do you see anything ? " asked Command. "Yes" said Filbuson. "A big cat." The SCP was three meters tall for the record. "Are you sure that cat isn’t the SCP ? He doesn’t make rocks float, or anything like that ?" asked Command. "Haha. Looks like it." answered Filbuson. "But that can’t be. Probably some kind of hallucination. A big cat that makes rocks float, it doesn’t exist."
It was right in front of them. They had been trained for that. We had taken a lot of time to explain to them the abilities of the creature and its abnormal caracteristics. But once it was in front of them. They just couldn’t… accept it. Oh, they could see it, of course. They heard it. They smelt it. But their brain just couldn’t conceive something that much unbelievable. Only five members of the MTF Mu-8 weren’t affected by this complete negation of the threat.
They are the only five that survived.
Note from Abigail Hamon, Psychology Department:
SAPPHIRE members doesn’t really have a specific psychological profile.
It is honestly quite difficult to detect an individual who would be able to fully accept the existence of the paranormal from an individual who would be highly short-minded on the inside, as well as it is hard to distinguish at first sight a fanatic personality from an i-don’t-care character. You’ll be surprised by the number of pseudo-new age Wiccas who are incapable of tolerating another world than the one ruled by the "banal" rules of physics they know, and on the opposite the numbers of aerodynamics engineer who accept without problems to see their home being turned into pudding.
Well, of course, a lot of factors helps. The studies and the employment in the fields of public sciences, notably, make the discovery of the anomalous an especially hard ordeal for the discoverer, since it means that everything they dedicated their lives to is to be thrown away. Even if we know today that the SCPs also follow different rules, much more complex, most of the people shaken by it "block" themselves and doesn’t search any more elaborate answer but just jump into denial.
We tend to think of SAPPHIRE members as old university lecturer, strict and dull. That was probably true a while ago, and it probably still is among the elite who rules and funds the different Lodges of the Group of Interest, but the fact is that the majority of their headcounts are diverse and varied. We can’t pin down an individual who’s at risk to fall in the Filbuson syndrome, the same way we can’t detect an individual affiliated to SAPPHIRE in the crowd.
And yes, this also applies to our own members.
Note from Ernesto Gomez, Assistant Director at the Observatory of the Groups of Interest:
Of course at the OGI we know very well the Filbuson syndrome. At each containement breach, each public anomalous manifestation, there was always two or three people that persisted to claim that they saw nothing, that nothing happened or that they had seen something but that it doesn’t mean that it existed. The thing is that the people affected by the Filbuson syndrome decides to mentally separate what they perceive from what they know to be the reality, and this in order to save their perception of reality. They’re conscious of the abnormality around them, but to them it’s just a bug in the real world, which is outright.
It’s a bit like a stain on the lens of a camera that ruins the picture, you see ? The stain is real, you can’t deny it, and the landscape too, but the two doesn’t go together. So you have to wipe the stain.
Against all odds, we’ve got a lot of Persons of interest who were suffering of it. I remember the case of a Parisian warlock, in the fifties, who was genuinely convinced to be a crook while all the spells he was casting were absolutely real.
But we always thought it was isolated case. Frequent, right, but isolated. We knew that individuals suffering of the syndrome often found themselves in a high psychological distress and that’s why we still gave them amnestics after public events most of the time. We also knew that amnestic untreated individuals tended to develop an obsession about the anomalous, but that’s like every conspiracy theorist: they go unnoticed, so we let them play around.
It blew our minds when we discovered they were regouping themselves in a Group of Interest.
Especially when that one is as dangerous as SAPPHIRE.
Note from Michel Saëmons, Site-Aleph MTFs Coordinator:
The Jewellers were implemented for that, yeah.
There’s still a lot of things we ignore about those "atherrorist". How do they do to proselytize in the street in broad daylight and disappear as soon as we get there? Where does they find their SCPs, since they despise creating them? And if their weapons doesn’t exist, how does their victims die, in their opinion?
Their way of thinking, that’s the problem. We formed the MTF Omega-5 to take SAPPHIRE member’s mentality into account, and God knows that it’s a fucking mess in there. Those guys are to the GOC what ISIS is for the Islam. And we both know the GOC very well. And yet, 90% of the time, we discover that this fucking anti-religion fanatic was your neighbor, this polite little math teacher, maybe a bit hung-up, but that didn’t in the least seem to be unhinged.
You might well try to reason with these guys during hours, with a foolproof logic, now, they’ll never admit that the abnormal could exist. It’s visceral, this will drive you nuts. Even under torture. You can believe me.
You’re doing your little interview here, but you probably never saw a member of SAPPHIRE who’ve just been caught, and who doesn’t care at all. You never had the occasion to watch in the eyes of a guy who believe that all your work is nothing.
This cold but clear soul.
Sharp but still peaceful.
And unbreakable.
Trust me, the guys from Omega-5 know why these lunatics call themselves SAPPHIRE.
SAPPHIRE seems to maintain numerous antagonistic relations among the anomalous world and the other groups of interest, which does not minimize its threat but insure to "keep them busy". These antagonisms notably includes:
The Office for the Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts:
Status: Defensive / Active
Although the informations about it are vague, it seems that several SAPPHIRE related attacks had already happened in Middle-East during the last century and this in spite of the geographical remoteness of the target from the European core of the Society. However, since the implementation of the ORIA in the eighties, the atheist attacks seems to be easily controlled, and tens of the members of the Society had been caught/executed by the Islamic forces over the past thirty years.
ORIA’s position about SAPPHIRE is unknown, but the measures taken appear to be effective.
The Global Occult Coalition:
Status: Offensive / Active
The GOC's archives show that SAPPHIRE was previously part of the Council of 108 during the formation of the Coalition, but the Atheist Society left its seat as soon as 1953 following ideological divergences, the Coalition protecting civilian religions and recruiting numerous consultant thaumaturges.
SAPPHIRE is today under an Alpha class arrest warrant from the GOC because of the threat it is against the organization and the civilian world since its departure.
The Humanist Gentlemen:
Status: Competitive / Active
The historical data seems to indicate that SAPPHIRE and the Gentlemen have their sources in the same organization which, during the 18th century, fought for the emancipation of Man in the anomalous world. However a split occurred between the Gentlemen, who were trying to use the SCP objects and make them work for their values, and SAPPHIRE, who felt that Humanity should before anything else free itself from its irrationality by the destruction of these.
SAPPHIRE and the Gentlemen appear to show a mutual "respectful hate", conscious of their shared origin and ideology, but convinced that the other camp is wrong. However they seem to avoid direct conflict.
The Horizon Initiative:
Status: Defensive / Semi-inactive
The alliance of the three biggest Abrahamic religions dedicated to the management of SCP objects is of course the first target of SAPPHIRE, and the only one being able to respond to the attacks from the Society since neither the Vatican, nor the Mecca, nor Israel can publicly adjudicate on the field of the anomalous.
A sub-ministry was recently created within the Malleus Project to face up to the threat of the anomalous extremist atheism, but seems to restrict itself to defensive measure and has very little organization.
The Mossad:
Status: Defensive / Active
Due to the religious center that Israel and more specifically Jerusalem embodies, it appears that SAPPHIRE took advantage of the local geopolitical tensions to orchestrate several attacks under cover, in particular at the end of the nineties. Although most of those attacks were foiled, the Israeli government is warned about the existence of SAPPHIRE, and a national plan of securing against extremist atheism was set up secretly under the responsibility of the Mossad and in collaboration with the Shabak.
Although the nature of that plan is unknown, no attack from SAPPHIRE appears to have occurred on the Israeli territory since 1998.
The Anomalous Religions:
Status: Unknown / Unknown
Although we know that SAPPHIRE targets essentially anomalous cults and Groups of Interest of religious nature, there is little leaked information about possible attacks (successful or not) against them. These occult religions most often manage these cases internally and let little information leak from their underworld.
These groups include but are not limited to: the Sarkic cults, the Church of the Broken God, the Fifth Church, the Order of the Light, and smaller sects such as the Sons of Seth (GdI-0236) or the Holy Proscribed Company (GdI-0092).
Trough retrieved documents, it’s known that SAPPHIRE has undercover agents within the Fifth Church and the Order of the Light, at low rank position. It appears unlikely that they would have some within the Church of the Broken God or Sarkic groups, since those currents call their members to perform anomalous modifications to their bodies (bionic implants, diseases propagation…).
The Vatican:
Status: Defensive / Inactive
The Holy See was officially warned about the threat they were exposed to by the Horizon Initiative in 1979 following the events of the Trevi Fountain. Since this day, it has come to the notice of the Foundation that a secret document called "The Pious Letter in front of the Incredulous" is passed on from pope to pope. The exact nature of this document is unknown, though it’s supposed to be a protocol dictating how the Church should react and organize should God die.
No act of aggression seems to have hit the Vatican’s territory since the apparition of SAPPHIRE. It’s presumed that it’s protected by [DATA EXPUNGED].
For more information, please consult the Observatory of Groups of Interest to know about the evolution of these relations and the related hypothesis.