SCP-1643

Description

SCP-1643 is a 230-m tall tower located in the center of the ruins of a walled town in northern Iraq. The lower 70 meters of the tower are made of clay brick. The upper 160 meters are constructed of modern steel alloys in the form of an open framework surrounding an elevator shaft with a single chamber at the top. Upon containment, ritual equipment consistent with that believed to be used to stabilize temporary inter-dimensional spatial anomalies was found within this chamber. The clay levels of SCP-1643 are structurally reinforced using modern materials. Metallurgical analysis of the modern components of SCP-1643 indicates that they were constructed within the last decade.

All individuals who come within 800 meters of SCP-1643 become unable to speak, read, write, or comprehend the same language as anyone currently within this area. If this would mean that an individual would be unable to speak in any language, due to all the languages that they know already being spoken by someone within the effect of SCP-1643, they instead find themselves fluent in another language.

Upon attempting to leave this radius individuals are instantaneously relocated to a part of the world in which whatever language they are able to communicate in within SCP-1643’s radius is the predominant language. Individuals retain the ability to communicate only in the language or languages they could speak within the radius of SCP-1643.

In addition to a significant quantity of conventional construction equipment, several pieces of notable but non-anomalous technology were found in the area surrounding SCP-1643.

Within the base of the tower is a complex system of communication equipment and computers. This system appears to have been designed specifically to facilitate communication within the area affected by SCP-1643. Users speak into mobile handsets which relay their words to a central installation. The central installation translates from whatever language they are currently speaking to those spoken by other individuals within SCP-1643. The device appears to have been trained by having individuals who enter the tower remember an extensive list of ordered terms and having them speak it into the central machine to calibrate it. This would theoretically allow for an individual to achieve at least rudimentary communication with others connected to the system even if they are speaking a dead or otherwise unknown language.

The communication system also has the capability to broadcast translated instructions, using shortwave radio, to receivers beyond the region SCP-1643 affects.

Several trucks with basic self-driving capabilities added to them appear to have been used to transport material in and out of SCP-1643’s effect without triggering the relocating aspect of SCP-1643.

A draft of a letter was found in the glove compartment of one of the trucks.

For the attention of Reverend Dijkstra:

Hello Armond, I am writing to say goodbye one more time, and to ask for one last favour. Enclosed you will find the journal of my expeditions into the ways, and copies of the significant findings of my last thirty years of research. I would ask that you see that they are preserved in such a way that, when the church is ready for the knowledge, it will be waiting for them. I know that you disagree with my ultimate conclusion as it pertains to the nature of God; however, even if you only consider it applicable to pagan gods, my work still represents the most comprehensive work of field theology to ever be passed into the church's hands.

This may be the last time I write to you, I am about to embark on an experiment which could lay to rest our old disagreement. It may also kill me.

I’ve lived a full life. I’ve been ordained. I’ve been defrocked. I’ve walked the ways, and seen worlds beyond human reckoning. I’ve spoken to gods and demons. In my search for knowledge I’ve pushed back the boundaries of theological science, and pursued answers into places that no man had ever walked. But one question weighs heavily on my soul yet. I’ve seen the God’s hold. I’ve spoken to those that remain. It’s true, faith made them, and their belief in each other sustains them. How then can we know that our god is not the product of our faith?

My last experiment aims to test this. If belief shapes a thing, then a weapon invested with stronger belief ought to be able to unmake it. Both my investigations and the historical record support this conclusion. Certainly it was possible to wound the pagan gods I've met with nothing more than a blade of cold steel and a certain amount of determination. Within the last century a great deal of effort has been spent promoting the effectiveness of atomic weapons, to the point where many men’s fear of such tools looms greater than their love of god (should in fact he believe in god in the first place).

The problem then was reaching heaven with such a device.

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven” - Genesis 11:4

We found the remains of the tower. We rebuilt it. Tomorrow I will test my faith with nuclear fire. Should I die in the process, I’ve made provisions for the results of this final experiment to be delivered to you.

-Arthur Grisham

The whereabouts of both Arthur Grisham and Armond Dijkstra are currently unknown.