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| “ | For three days the King was hanged. His blood streamed down from the high palace, and seeped into every inch of the city. For three days he struggled and twitched and refused to go out, yet all the sounds he made was drowned out by the laughter of the Ambassador and the applause of his own people. For three days his body grew colder and colder, until it was as dead as the queen deep beneath the castle; until he was but an empty husk, a hole of his previous self. | „ |
| ~ From "Theology of a Snake". |
| “ | He was standing there as the King shrieked and shrieked, as the King crawled back to his throne with maggots and decaying flesh, as the King was offered their blood by the jester, and as the King dropped the cup. The jester was laughing, the Court was laughing, the crowds were laughing, the crows were laughing, and he was laughing with them. The Dragon was laughing in his brass prison, and he witnessed his mark. | „ |
| ~ An Alagaddan guard from "The Clock Shall Strike Again". |
The Hanged King is a major antagonist of the SCP Foundation universe. He is a powerful beingin the SCP settings, being the monarch of the distant realm of Alagadda, and is considered one of the most enigmatic and powerful entities in the multiverse. Although it is often shown that the King is in actuality being used by his purported servant, the Ambassador of Alagadda. He is designated by the Foundation as SCP-2264-5.
The Hanged King plays an important role in the "Only Game In Town" canon, and "The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit" series.
Contents
- 1 Personality
- 2 Appearance
- 3 Powers and Abilities
- 4 Followers
- 5 Other Media
- 5.1 In Music
- 6 Trivia
- 7 External Links
- 8 Navigation
Personality[]
The Hanged King encompasses Cosmic Horror, so his true motivation and reasoning is beyond human-comprehension. The reason for SCP-701 and it's effects are unknown, and the city of Alagadda appears to be more ideal for higher beings such as the Karcists of Sarkicism. In SCP-6500, after being finally freed from Alagadda, the King was shown to be full of anger and fury as he had spent eons chained and tortured on his throne, and didn't want to have anything to do with Alagadda anymore as he saw it as a filthy and unworthy place and opted instead to spread chaos across the universe. However, after learning that the Black Lord had returned, he became convinced by Okorie to return to Alagadda and take the opportunity to make a difference in the city-state, only for him to be chained once again to his throne. The Hanged King was also shown to feel disgust towards the Faeries. In SCP-7838, the Hanged King was shown to have a desire for him and his kingdom to be remembered again and also wanted to rebuild his body and have an heir to succeed him and take the throne of Alagadda from him. However, as he had so far failed to achieve these goals he became furious and wrathful, trying any means necessary to fulfill his desires.
Appearance[]
As SCP-2264-5, agent Papadopoulos describes the King being covered in tattered robes, having hallowed bonds around his corpse-like hands and throat, with pale tendrils slither in and out the tattered robes. There were impish creatures crawling all over the him, caressing his twitching body as if intending comfort while others pulled the tethers that anchored the King even tighter. The face was covered with a veil, and what lied beneath was described as a "god-shaped hole", enough to turn a human insane and suicidal.
In SCP-6500, the Hanged King was described as a sentient charcoal nebula and possessing a face resembling "a clotted mass of scars and boils and burns and bleeding gashes, a mass of twitching feelers like maggots crawling beneath cadaverous skin, a face no mask in creation could hide".
In SCP-7838-6, the Hanged King was described as a giant with a nimble body, bones visible in its sagging and discolored skin, covered in stitches that burst open to reveal his black bones and rotting flesh, and his eye sockets were pierced with golden chains held by rope, while wearing a robe made out of human scalps and a large bloodstained crown.
In "Journey to Alagadda", the Hanged King, at a first glance, appeared as a pale and gaunt figure, covered in silk and satin, with gold and silver jewelry wrapped around his neck, wrists and torso. However, upon further inspection, the jewelry were actually chains, and the robes were nothing more than just tattered wrapped cloths, with no person beneath them.
In "The Superstar", the Hanged King wore black robes stapled to a cross, a sweatband that kept his hair from getting into his eyes, and scalpels that kept his eyelids opened and let blood to moisturize the eyes. He was bound by chains, but only on his pectorals, leaving the rest of his body free to move. He was also described as having juggling thighs and a very dirty vagin*.
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | Everything beyond this garden is ruled by a wise and powerful king. He is called Pain. The fruit of the branch is his body. The juice of the fruit is his blood. Consume him and he will guide you. Reject him and he shall be as your shadow for your remaining days. | „ |
| ~ Eden's serpent to Eve in "Hard To Keep From Being King". |
The King's true power is unknown, though according to the Wandsman of Kul-Manas, the ancient being known as Yaldabaoth could rival the Hanged King, making him one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. It was said that the Hanged King had an insatiable thirst for blood, possibly as result of accidentally spilling the cup of blood which he needed to fully become a god, causing his servants to make sacrifices of blood. However, according to a Mekhanite poem titled "In the Shape of the Dragon", all of the blood that goes to his hole instead of nourishing him it is consumed by Yaldabaoth, as a way for the beast to regain its strength and break free of its cage. It is also presumed that the Hanged King was much more weaker than Saint Alagadda, the very fabric of reality and the namesake of the his kingdom. It was said that when its music was performed St. Alagadda would arrive and cleanse Alagadda of the Hanged King and the Ambassador's corruption.
The Hanged King cannot move away from his palace in Alagadda, having to use the Ambassador to travel across creation, apparently only being able to manifest in the human world through SCP-701. He, or the Ambassador, held power over the Alagaddans, being capable of preventing them from giving birth by erasing the unborn children from existence. The unborn children were transformed into Pattern Screamers who lamented about their non-existence, though they were kept at bay by the King. According to SCP-7838, the Hanged King, through his art pieces, could induce pregnancy to anyone, regardless of sex, though the fetus, designated SCP-7838-A, took the shape of a noose that would strangle the host, and apparently could even erase memories of others.
Despite all this, he was still weaker than the Scarlet King, and for this reason presumably fell to his service, though other legends depict him as equal to the Scarlet King often even superior to him.
Followers[]
As the Hanged King was regarded as a god, he was worshipped by millions of individuals. The King was mostly served by the Alagaddans who constantly held hedonistic, sadomasoch*stic and orgiastic celebrations in his name and would spread his influence outside of their kingdom, mainly his supposed subordinates the Four Lords and the Ambassador of Alagadda among other individuals. They affected various individuals on Earth to create pieces of art to grow the Hanged King and Alagadda's power on the main realm. As a result the Hanged King would be likened to other mythological and religious figures like Odin and Jesus Christ. Dr. Dylan King may be the son of either the Hanged King, the Scarlet King, or both.
Because of their influence on Earth, some non-Alagaddan people also came to worship the Hanged King. The most notable being artists like Henry Percy, Christopher Marlowe, Francisco Goya, Theodore Gericault, Carlo Gesualdo, the author of SCP-4505-265, Thomas A. Harding and Charlie Chaplin. These individuals would use their artistic talents to create various anomalies to assist the Hanged King and his subjects. Goya and Gericault even formed the artistic movement known as Are We Cool Yet? whose members would dabble with Alagaddan magic. The art pieces featuring the King have all been designated SCP-7838 which could chanel his power and affect people not just mentally but also physically. A copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone found by the Foundation was changed to depict the titular protagonists and Hogwarts as worshiping the Hanged King and commiting sacrifices for him.
When Dr. Robinson of the Foundation and Agents Rodriguez and Tate of America's Secret Service examined SCP-1981 while playing, Ronald Reagan mentioned that his speech was the Hanged King's tribute. It was later revealed by Bobble the Clown that this was most likely due to cloaked figure in the background of the video being the Speaker of Alagadda.
When the interdimensional group known as the Black Queen began researching on the influence of the Hanged King and the Ambassador on the multiverse they came across different version of The Hanged King's Tragedy play: In Timeline E-473 the play was about the royal family of the fictional Italian city state of Trinculo and king Sforza who was hanged from a tree postmortem, the play was later plagiarized by Shakespeare who replaced the fictional setting with a real place which resulted in the play losing its memetic anomaly and since Shakespeare's version was more famous the original was thankfully left unnoticed; in Timeline W-116 the play was a bit more different and completely non-anomalous which allowed it to become more popular; in Timeline Y-2079 the play took the form of an online story revolving around the newly crowned young king of Britain in the 2010s who later hanged himself due to his mental illness developed by the pressure; in Timeline C-431 the play revolved around a fictional king who after failing to proclaim anything, due to his author not writing anything else, was hanged by the author themself; in Timeline M-759 the play revolved around a slave in America who descended from a royal family in Africa and ended in him being lynched. Later on, one of the Black Queens, nicknamed Caroline, revealed herself to be an accomplice of the Hanged King and tried to spread his influence on the server used by the other Black Queens but was fortunately stopped.
A ritualistic doomsday cult named the "Final Masquerade" was formed by the native inlanders of Juan de Nova Island combining the religion of the Church of the Broken God with that of the Hanged King after coming into contact with both SCP-7882 and SCP-2264-B. They masqueraded themselves in masks and replaced their limbs with metals from Alagaddan Alchemy and prophesized in the day in which Earth would merge with Alagadda and the Hanged King would govern over the new world.
Other Media[]
In Music[]
French musical artist Edward Ikor released on January 5, 2020 a song based on the Hanged King's Tragedy of the same name, which was succeeded by several versions. He got a big gyatt :3
Trivia[]
- The Hanged King is based on the various incarnations of Hastur, especially the one from Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow. However, the Hanged King coming back to life after three days could also be a parallel to Jesus Christ.
- SCP-4505-265, an oil painting linked to other old anomalous art pieces, depicts the Hanged King by using the appearance of a hanging Jesus Christ.
- The Hanged King's portrayal in "Tears and Bone" was based on the unnamed king from Edgar Allan Poe's story Hop-Frog.
- A book that can be accessed through SCP-1326, titled Theological material of the Church of the Hanging God, tells about how life is suffering and that people should just commit suicide, but also states that the faithful shouldn't kill others. It is unknown if this book is related to the Hanged King.
- Although at first it appears that the Ambassador serves the Hanged King, it becomes evident, especially in the tale "Midnight Parade" that it itself is the true power and ruler of Alagadda and it deliberately keeps the King chained to his throne.
- An entity or entities known as SCP-001 (Kalinin's proposal), turned SCP-701 into a TV show with multiple seasons, allowing the Hanged King to spread it much faster through Earth.
- Li’l Lollipop of Herman Fuller's Circus of the Disquieting once tried to complain to the King that Alagadda wasn't colorful enough.
- In the tale "The Superstar", the Hanged King is depicted as a drag king.
External Links[]
Navigation[]
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