The Erysichthon Model

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[[size 15px]]**##black|We feast on the Battlefield##**[[/size]]
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+* ##black|A WARNING FROM THE HIGH TABLE##
The following information is property of the Valravn Corporation and its access is reserved only for members of the High Table and authorized personnel.

Employees of the Valravn Corporation not authorized to view the following document will incur a violation of **statute 47 of the Code** and be sanctioned accordingly. This may include termination of employment in the Valravn Corporation.

Non-employees viewing the following document will be considered **Acceptable Collateral Damage** according to the company's **Information Protection Policy**.
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[[size 15px]]**##black|Óðinn á yðr alla##**[[/size]]
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+ Technical briefing regarding the development of the Erysichthon Model
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**Background:**
"Personification" is a phenomenon in which a (usually humanoid or human-like) entity becomes strongly ontologically associated with a concept, either concrete or abstract. This phenomenon can be affected by widely held beliefs depending on the strength and number of people holding that very belief. ORIA, for instance, employs genies that came into existence because of the world’s belief in them. 

Historically, humans have tended to personify all aspects of nature. This has resulted in the existence of a vast number of Nymph-class entities, usually female personifications of various bodies of water, streams, and the like. According to the theory of Conservation of Ichor[[footnote]]The theory, also known as the Aeschylus-Sturluson Hypothesis, stating that there is only a finite amount of divinity in the pagan cosmos, such that each new god created diminishes the stores of divinity of its parents, if it has any, or of the cosmos, and can only gain more by killing or merging with another.[[/footnote]], however, their vast numbers have resulted in their individual abilities becoming too weak to serve Valravn's needs. Valravn's efforts to find a way to extract ichor from captured Nymph-classes are ongoing, yet largely unfruitful.

Fewer in number, however, are the entities formed out of the concepts of absence. The thoughts forming whose mold were merely the thoughts of negation of other concepts. Health, the absence of disease. Peace, the absence of enmity. Famine, the absence of plenty.

In most situations, such entities would fail to exist, because there are few people who would think of the negation of a concept as a person. However, Ovid's //Metamorphoses//[[footnote]] An influential poetic collection of mythological transformations written in 8 CE [[/footnote]], records just such a personification of Famine, whom Ceres sends to Erysichthon in order to avenge his felling of a sacred grove and the murder of its nymphs. In Ovid's conception, such a personification has the ability to fill a person with unending hunger. Given the wide reach of the //Metamorphoses// across the millennia, as well as the beliefs at the time of writing that it must have drawn upon, Valravn commissioned a student project at ICSUT[[footnote]]International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumaturgy[[/footnote]] to verify the existence of such entities. These efforts were successful[[footnote]]See "Where Starvation Still Stalks: A Geographic Survey of the Distribution and Migration Patterns of a Novel Species of Conceptual-Elemental Entity", //Unified Thaumatology Quarterly//, Volume 83, No. 1, pp. 372, January 1996[[/footnote]]. Valravn has deemed such a Famine spirit a prime candidate for capture and psychological conditioning to enter our ranks.
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**Technical description:**
The Erysichthon Model has proven to be highly cost-effective, especially compared to other assets of similar strategic value. A containment unit can be produced for under 2000 USD since most of its components are non-anomalous and can be secured through mainstream providers.

The capture of each Erysichthon Model is simple. R.U.N.N.E.S searches for atypical patterns of crop failure, unexplainable by mundane factors. Once one has been detected, hundreds of containment units should be airdropped into the area. In 68% of cases, an Erysichthon model will be secured during the first 48 hours.

Inside its parachute and packaging, each containment unit consists of a power source, an internet connection unit, a Famine Entity Detector (F.E.D.), and a Famine Entity Adoration Shrine Trap (F.E.A.S.T.)
 
A F.E.D. consists of a voltage meter connected across a piece of fruit. If the entity spends a prolonged period of time within ten meters of the F.E.D., the fruit will decay and desiccate at a highly advanced rate compared to the baseline. This will cause its electrical resistance to change at an accelerated rate when a Famine entity is near, which the voltage meter will detect.

A F.E.A.S.T. consists of one ordinary smart cellular telephone device with a screen and full internet access. All F.E.A.S.T. models have had their software cloned off of a template model. The algorithms of various social media and internet advertising platforms have been trained to see this template model as a voracious consumer of advertisements and posts about various weight-loss methods, especially fasting. 

Nymph entities crave worship, yet have been denied it for more than a millennium. Seventy percent of Erysichthon models which have discovered a F.E.A.S.T. have kept their total attention onto it for the duration of the testing period[[footnote]]Results are pending from the most recent test, which has gone on for three years and counting. [[/footnote]], and during that time their effect on organic matter drastically decreases in radius. 

It is safe to transport and store an Erysichthon model inside such a containment unit. The danger comes when an agent must turn off the power to the F.E.A.S.T. in order to deploy the entity. For these purposes, agents assigned as handlers of the Erysichthon Model must be adept in psychological conditioning techniques, to prevent the models from going AWOL or destroying Valravn assets. Handlers must carry an intravenous feeding apparatus at all times, in order to ameliorate the constant nutrient drain that comes with prolonged close contact to the models.

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**Tactical and Strategical Justification:**
The asset allows the benefits of a scorched-earth campaign without the negative publicity and blame that would otherwise follow.

There are situations in which a long-term, subtle approach to warfare is preferable to the straightforward path. By their nature, insurgent elements must isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Yet they must eat. Rebellions survive on the produce of the interior of the land they control. When our clients merely want their enemies to fail, with no suspicion that any outside forces were involved, then the Erysichthon Model is the best tool in our arsenal. 
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Ariadne Nox
**Lead Djúpúðga[[footnote]]"Deep-Minded"; A title adopted from Auðr djúpúðga Ketilsdóttir, used by Valravn to refer to a lead researcher who has earned the esteem of the High Table.[[/footnote]] of the Secret Siege Division**
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[[collapsible show="+ Field Test Transcript 554" hide="- Close"]]

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**m.dufrain:** Beginning transcript. The date is August 17, 2016. The location is a rice paddy owned and operated by the local Ambrose Restaurants franchise in an undisclosed location within Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Japan, and which our client Greazeburger, Incorporated, has made a target. The subject: Erysichthon Model Prototype Number 22, code name: Njaa. Subject has proven resistant to outside direction in the past, having driven nine of its former handlers to starvation. The goal: prove the feasibility of this model by getting it to obey orders without causing unacceptable collateral damage. Djúpúðga Nox, awaiting your permission to release the subject and start the experiment.

**control:** Permission granted. May Loki bless your tongue.

**erysichthon.model.22:** You need my famine in you, Maria DuFrain. Now you are ugly. I can make you beautiful.

**m.dufrain:** Do you always have to start that way, Njaa? It’s getting boring.

**erysichthon.model.22:** Just look at your flesh. By all standards, you need to be less of yourself. Beauty lies in having the minimum.

**m.dufrain:** And you would judge me to have too much of myself were I dying of starvation. I feel beautiful with all my flesh exactly where it is.

**control:** Change tactics, Agent DuFrain. It's attention is fully on you; your blood sugar is dropping, but the crops are nearly untouched.

**m.dufrain:** But, see, you always begin with those things. I hardly know anything about the mind behind the demands. You’re more than an anthropomorphic personification, Njaa. You’re a fully developed personality. I want to worship you not because of what you are, but who you are. [[footnote]]32 seconds of silence followed this statement.[[/footnote]]

**erysichthon.model.22:** I…

**m.dufrain:** Yes?

**erysichthon.model.22:** I always wanted to learn to dance.[[footnote]]Two minutes of silence followed this statement. [[/footnote]]


**erysichthon.model.22:** I see nymphs of plenty having their dances in the moonlight all the time, DuFrain. And though they stand for everything that I, by my very existence, must oppose… I want to join in. But I and they must keep our distance from each other, or we’ll annihilate each other.

**erysichthon.model.22:** Famine spirits are solitary creatures, DuFrain. The only validation I get that people like the reason for my existence is that altar in there. When I come out… it’s a night and day difference. People don’t want me to exist.

**m.dufrain:** You can choose what defines you, though. If we get you trained up, you can be Njaa, star ballet dancer. You can explore all your options. You don’t have to define yourself by your ability or compulsion to make people starve, and you can try to interact with people in a way that doesn’t judge them as you are compelled to.

**erysichthon.model.22:** A nice fantasy. But at the end of the day, you Ravens only keep me around so I can work my purpose on these fields. So long as you all define me by that, I’ll never escape that definition of myself. In fact, why don’t I just leave now-

**control:** Abort! Abort!

**m.dufrain:** So go on, then. Go on into a hostile world that doesn’t worship you, or want to appease you.

**erysichthon.model.22:** They love me in weight-loss clinics. Maybe there’s a dance instructor there-

**m.dufrain:** But not a dance instructor who can see you, as I can. Not a dance instructor who believes in your existence. The above-veil world worships you only for your ability to cause starvation, not for who you really are.

**erysichthon.model.22:** Then I’ll go below the Veil-

**m.dufrain:** Nobody there would really understand you, either. And who of them would want to befriend a Famine spirit? No, we, Valravn, are the only ones who would possibly want to be your friends- aggggg..

**control:** DuFrain! DuFrain, do you read me? Your blood sugar levels are tanking and you're getting dangerously dehydrated.

**m.dufrain:** Go ahead and kill me, see who will want you then. I’m the only one who sees you as more than a blight on this earth. Kill me and you wander alone for the rest of eternity.

**control:** Dufrain, it was an honor to have you in service. May the Valkyries guide your soul straight to Valhalla, to the waiting arms of all your comrades. There, the endless dance will begin, preparing for the final war.

**m.dufrain:** It... was.. an honor... serving....

**erysichthon.model.22:** I...

**erysichthon.model.22:** I don't want to be alone.

**erysichthon.model.22:** DuFrain, by Jupiter, get up! Get up, you insolent blockhead! Who's going to teach me to dance if you go off to Valhalla? Get up, damn it!

**erysichthon.model.22:** DuFrain... I- I need you, DuFrain...

**m.dufrain:** kk- call...

**control:** I don't believe it. Blood sugar and hydration levels are leveling off. The IV tube should be able to bring them back to normal in a few minutes.

**erysichthon.model.22:** DuFrain! You're alive! Thank the gods!

**m.dufrain:** call... me... Maria...

**control:** Don't get up too quickly, DuFrain. You're still recovering....

**m.dufrain:** It's... it's okay, Commander Nox. There are more important things than my health right now.

**control:** Such as what?

**m.dufrain:** I'm going to teach Njaa to dance. So long as you help us destroy this field at the same time, eh, Njaa?

**erysichthon.model.22:** I- I'll do what I can, Maria.

**m.dufrain:** I hope you don't tire easily.

**erysichthon.model.22:** Don't worry. Hunger never takes a day off.

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[[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box |author=Alzin Cdag]]
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The Erysichthon Model

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