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Okay, here goes:
Definition of a Universe
The reason that a single universe in SCP is so big is that, like in Marvel, a "universe" in SCP refers not to a single spacetime, but to a separate continuity. The SCP site has a rule that as long as what you write is popular, they will allow it regardless of inconsistencies, so many authors have written conflicting takes on the SCP setting. The vast majority of these portray the SCP verse as having only one 4D spacetime, but a considerable number portray it as having a 2-C to 2-A multiverse, with a distinct few entering Tier 1; off the top of my head, the two most notable examples are Djoric's canon, which uses a Low 1-A multiverse, and djkaktus's canon, which uses a 1-A+ metafictional hierarchy.
To canonically explain these conflicting interpretations of SCP, the user Placeholder McD manages a meta-project known as Metafoundation/From 120's Archives/the Placeverse, which functions as a "mega-canon" that incorporates all other canons into itself. Essentially, it portrays the SCP setting as a "mega-multiverse" where each writer's canon, some of which already contain multiverses, exists as a different continuity. This means that the physical contents of one SCP universe vary between Low 2-C to 1-A+.
The Noosphere
Now, the first obscure philosophical concept we must get familiar with is the Noosphere. In the mega-multiverse, a structure called the Noosphere envelops and encloses each canon, of which there are infinite, though naturally, only finitely many can be explored in any detail. The Noosphere is, in simple terms, the sum of all human thoughts, in the same way the biosphere is the sum of all of Earth's ecosystems. Naturally, this includes every meme humanity has ever invented, from the most obscure posted cat photo to the most persistent.
Yes, the SCP cosmology genuinely incorporates memes as a reason why it's so overpowered. This property of the Noosphere is crucial because one of the most common ideas in the SCP multiverse is that memes can be alive. They're classified as a subset of cognitohazards, a type of paranormal activity that can affect you by merely perceiving them. In simple terms, Medusa was the first cognitohazard ever written. Living memes are so common that the Foundation uses them for informational security, typically by embedding a photo infected with a living meme into classified files so that anyone who accesses the file without having first taken anti-memetic drugs dies from merely seeing the image.
In an interview, Placeholder McD clarified that the Noosphere doubles as an analog for Plato's "theory" of the World of Forms, meaning living memes inhabit the Noosphere on a more literal than metaphorical level, existing not only as living ideas but also as "perfect" ideas that everything in an SCP canon is but an imperfect reflection of.
Why is this important? Well, in SCP-7650, we're treated to a nice little factoid that inaccessible cardinals are part of the cosmological theories the Foundation is aware of. Simply put, though no object with an inaccessible cardinal's worth of dimensions has ever been shown in an article, SCP Foundation researchers know they're possible, meaning such an object must possess a perfect, memetic version in the Noosphere. To contain memes with an inaccessible cardinal's worth of dimensions, the Noosphere must also be that big itself, meaning the Noosphere is High 1-A. As the Noosphere is the same across all canons, one canon demonstrating ideas on this level scales to all of them.
The Seminosphere
The second obscure philosophical concept crucial to understanding the SCP cosmology is the Seminosphere, a structure that precedes, envelops, and encloses every canon's Noosphere. Just as the Noosphere is the sum of all human thoughts, the Seminosphere is the sum of all human senses. As explained in SCP-INTEGER, while the Noosphere contains information after it's perceived, the Seminosphere contains information before it's perceived. In an interview, Placeholder McD clarified that the Seminosphere transcends the Noosphere.
Now, anomalies that can affect the Seminosphere are consistently shown as affecting the very laws of logic, mathematics, and information. SCP-INTEGER, an entity with the power to rewrite history to make it so that something or someone with a name has always been referred to abstractly instead, can affect the Seminosphere to change the results of mathematical equations. SCP-5650 damaged the very concepts of math and set theory. SCP-6276 used its Seminosphere-manipulating powers to change the logic that governs its own information as defined by the Noosphere, and this article also mentions that the Seminosphere functions on different logic from anything else.
In a nutshell, just as the Noosphere contains "perfect" memes that reflect imperfect copies of themselves into reality, the Seminosphere precedes and generates the very logical systems that allow for such things to happen, meaning the Seminosphere entirely transcends the logical systems governing the Noosphere's inaccessible cardinal-related nature, making the Seminospere baseline Tier 0.
The Patasphere
The third obscure philosophical concept crucial to understanding the SCP cosmology is the Patasphere, a structure enveloping and enclosing every canon's Seminosphere. Though canons can contain any number of conventional spacetimes, as documented in I. H. Pickman's SCP-001 proposal, the Patasphere exists as a canon's narrative timeline. Just like regular temporal dimensions govern the flow of time, the Patasphere's narrative temporal dimension governs the flow of events in each canon's narrative. In practical terms, the Patasphere is the structure that allows things to happen in an SCP canon, meaning it governs all the different causality systems of the Noosphere and Seminosphere.
In summary, each SCP canon's Patasphere exists as the blank, metafictional canvas onto which its contents are drawn that governs its fundamental narrative causality systems on a deeper, more primal level than the Noosphere and Seminosphere, both of which it entirely transcends, meaning the Patasphere is one layer above baseline Tier 0.
The Infosphere
The Infosphere is a structure that encompasses the entire SCP mega-multiverse. It's defined as the set of all information that exists in every SCP canon, so it obviously contains them all. This structure contains thirteen entities known as Constants, which are essentially Noospheric memes existing on an unfathomably grander scale but without the memetic aspect; just as Noospheric memes reflect imperfect shadows of their perfect selves into their canon's physical reality, Constants reflect one copy of themselves into every SCP canon.
Of the thirteen Constants, at least three, possibly four, have been explored in articles:
- The Constant of Termination, whose avatar is the infamous SCP-682, the Hard-to-Destroy Reptile.
- The Constant of Anafabula, whose avatar is SCP-2747, a highly destructive narrative anomaly that instantly destroys any narrative its full form is written into.
- The Constant of Chaos, whose avatar is SCP-3125, a Noospheric memetic entity with notorious "starfish" imagery.
- SCP-6488 may cover a constant related to the Church of the Broken God, but I have limited knowledge regarding this one and unfortunately can't provide an explanation.
The Proxyverse and Swann Entities
The Infosphere and everything within it is created by a race of metafictional authors known as Swann entities, as documented in S. Andrew Swann's SCP-001 proposal. To interact with the SCP setting, these beings first create a realm they see as fictional, the Proxyverse, as documented in SCP-6747, containing avatars of themselves they then use to create the Infosphere and everything within it, which even the Proxyverse sees as fictional.
In an interview, Placeholder McD spoke of additional narrative layers inserted in between layers of the cosmology, but their place in the cosmology is currently unclear. Nevertheless, the gap between the confirmed layers are at least as big as the ones we've already discussed, seeing as the authors see everything as equally fictional, meaning the Proxyverse is at least three layers above baseline Tier 0, likely far higher, and the Swann entities are at least four layers above baseline Tier 0, likely far higher.
The Narrative Stack and Universe Prime
Beyond this point, our information regarding the exact structure of the SCP cosmology is limited, so I'll just give you the basics. In an interview, Placeholder McD described infinite layers of additional, unexplored authors above the Swann entities, each with one more narrative dimension - a phrase that here means "one level of ontological superiority" - over the last, and a nebulous structure known as "Universe Prime" that subsumes this stack of narratives entirely, having no narrative dimensions at all while possessing infinite narrative energy it channels into every lower reality. As such, given how each new layer is at least as large of a transcendence as the ones already described, the narrative stack is infinite layers above baseline Tier 0 and Universe Prime is unreachably beyond stacking baseline Tier 0 layers.
