SCP International

In general, Children of the Leaf’s beliefs revolve around the worship of plants, "the natural world", and the entity they consider to be its embodiment — the Wood Deity. According to believers, plants are the true and purest form of natural life, an inevitable outcome in the universe’s evolutionary process.

In contrast, according to Children of the Leaf, microorganisms are an inferior life form, and animals with flesh are the result of the degeneration of true life form. Modern civilization, machinery, artificial intelligence and inorganic life forms are considered to be the ultimate degradation, the "lowest of the low". Therefore, Children of the Leaf’s political ideology appears to be the closest to "Anarchism."

The nature of the Wood Deity, also referred to in documents of the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance as Wood Fiend, is still unclear, seemingly a high-dimensional pluripotent entity representing, or claiming to represent the concept of "nature and plants". The extremism of Children of the Leaf appears to be the will of the Wood Deity.

The beliefs practiced by the Middle and Upper tiers of this group are as follow:

• Monolatry: is the belief in the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity.
• Carnivore diet: Followers of Children of the Leaf reject all plant-based foods, considering their consumption to be blasphemous. The only exception to this is the consumption of plants "gifted" by the Wood Deity, such as SCP-420-VN.
• Anti-modernism: The doctrine of Children of the Leaf is mostly opposed to the industrialization and modernization trends of civilization. Middle tier members display a fierce opposition to urbanization and globalization.
• Millenarianism: The belief that the end is nigh, and only those who follow Children of the Leaf’s belief can be saved from the impending doom and live on in a new and better world.

Both the Middle and Upper tier of Children of the Leaf believe that the Wood Deity will descend in the near future and will "cleanse the world of all heterotrophs and shelter all of humanity under a single tree canopy". The exact meaning of this statement is not well understood, but based on the information extracted from some Middle Tier members captured by the Foundation, it is tentatively suspected to be a HK-Class Deific Subjugation Scenario. This is an extremely significant event and has been repeatedly mentioned in Children of the Leaf’s doctrinal texts.

While the Middle Tier maintains control over the Lower Tier via threats using anomalous abilities, the Upper Tier maintains control over the Middle Tier through indoctrinated belief. Upper Tier members of Children of the Leaf are the only ones who can communicate directly with the Wood Deity, and are seen as "envoys of the divine", holding absolute authority over doctrinal matters. There are signs that clans in the Upper Tier are using this power to exploit the lower classes and benefit themselves.

The extreme thought and practice of belief primarily occurs within the Middle Tier, currently suspected to be the effect of SCP-420-VN’s cognitive influence. The Upper Tier of Children of the Leaf does not enforce the doctrines absolutely and seems to view the relationship with the Wood Deity as a mutually beneficial one. The Foundation has even recorded cases where the Upper tier delayed some of the entity’s command to "bargain".

Historical documents from the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance unearthed by the Spiritual Division contain mentions of similar occurences, but with some difference in key events. Firstly, the group of sorcerers was established under the directive of Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng and led by Văn Du Tường. However, the actual core member was Abe no Seimei, a sorcerer famous for his powerful space-time magic in Japanese history. Secondly, the Wood Fiend was not completely killed but divided into three parts: Essence, Divinity, and Spirit, and sealed in three different locations.

The earliest traces of Children of the Leaf in history appeared right after the reign of Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng (968 - 979). Children of the Leaf was originally a form of belief practiced by some clans of sorcerers living in the mountainous region of Northwestern and North Central Coast of Vietnam.

In the early years of the Initial Lê dynasty, these clans became one of the first elements forming the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance, and from then on, the practice of their belief became more restricted. The extremism in their doctrines increased overtime, and these clans were eventually purged in an unexpected large-scale subjugation campaign conducted by the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance themselves in 1592.

Traces of Children of the Leaf’s existence in the following centuries were sparse and scattered, primarily appearing as small-scale events in remote areas. It wasn’t until the late 18^th century that their activities began to increase both in scale and frequency. The Nguyễn court at Phú Xuân even attempted to separate territories heavily affected by Children of the Leaf from Đại Nam.

After France colonized the Indochina Peninsula, there were reports that Children of the Leaf relocated their headquarters to the Laos-Myanmar border to exploit the geopolitical sensitivities between the British and French empires, thus limiting the influence of these nations on its area of control. By taking advantage of the unstable socio-political environment during the latter of the 19^th century and early 20^th century, Children of the Leaf methodically infiltrated the anomalous community of Vietnam, particularly the NX-59-VN ("District Zero") area.

Unlike the period before its suppression by the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance, the doctrines of Children of the Leaf during this era began to show early signs of Anti-modernism and Millenarianism. Discourse preaching Anti-Western civilization and apocalyptic propaganda spread widely. The number of Middle Tier members grew continuously, mainly due to two reasons:

1. Children of the Leaf organized several charitable treatment sessions in impoverished rural areas. They often used products derived from anomalous plants to treat many diseases which at the time, were considered incurable by Western medicine, thereby gaining the favor of a portion of people living in poverty.
2. Upper Tier members had extensive relationships and large networks of information, allowing them to grasp global situations quickly (a difficult thing to do in a colonized Asian country at the time). By being perceptive of information, their propagandas/predictions about political developments and the start of World War 2 almost seemed prophetic to the commoners.

In the struggle for control over District Zero, Children of the Leaf inevitably sided with IJAMEA of the Japanese Empire, as their political ideologies seemed entirely opposed to both the French Colonial Empire and the progressive revolutionary forces in Vietnam. Their political struggles usually exploit their large follower base in District Zero at the time to preach discourse against the pro-French government.

As a part of the Japanese coup d’état in French Indochina, IJAMEA and Children of the Leaf planned an armed usurpation to seize control of District Zero as a bargaining chip with the Allies. However, this plan failed during an event on 09-03-1945 that led to the deaths of all Japanese forces in the city. The details of the event remain unclear as no witnesses were left.

Members of Children of the Leaf in the city, once again, underwent heavy suppression as part of a campaign led by the three major clans of District Zero to purge all foreign influences. Nevertheless, many criminal organizations under their control continue to operate discreetly within the city to this day.

In the latter half of the 20^th century until now, Children of the Leaf focused more on expanding its scope in the criminal world, creating an extremely extensive Lower Tier force. Their self-isolation and discretion have helped keep their activities from significantly affecting the Veil. However, Children of the Leaf’s efforts in practicing their beliefs and preparing for the apocalypse will become serious threats to the anomalous community and global security in the far future.

The Middle Tier/Upper Tier stratification method is based on external observation and is only used by the Foundation. The main criteria used to distinguish these two tiers are the source of anomalous abilities (gained through anomalous objects or possessing knowledge of thaumaturgy) and attitude toward the group (fanatical or pragmatic and self-serving).

Internally, Children of the Leaf maintains an extremely strict religious hierarchy, consisting of five ranks:

• Initiate: compared to mere grass, they are new members recruited to the group. They take on the task of assisting and serving members of higher ranks.

• Protector: compared to the leaves, they are official members of the group and make up the majority. They execute tasks assigned by members of higher ranks.

• Discipliner: compared to the branches, they are responsible for managing, coordinating, and auditing daily activities of lower ranks.

• Preacher: compared to the tree trunk, they are responsible for propagating doctrines, controlling the rules, and making decisions about important matters for the group.

• Elder: compared to the roots, they wield absolute authority over both doctrinal and secular matters and often claim to be messengers of the Wood Deity.

The Discipliner rank appears to be the intermediate between the Middle Tier and the Upper Tier. However, this correlation is not entirely accurate, as there are cases of Upper Tier members occupying lower ranks, or higher-ranked members originating from the Middle Tier.

Anomaly Files:

• SCP-165-VN written by KH Nam KH Nam
• SCP-420-VN written by Irina Bougainvillea Irina Bougainvillea /KH Nam KH Nam /Goose of the Pool Goose of the Pool
• SCP-030-VN written by KH Nam KH Nam
• SCP-079-VN written by Irina Bougainvillea Irina Bougainvillea
• SCP-015-VN written by Rigball does not match any existing user name/Dept Dept
• SCP-045-VN written by MI SA MI SA

Other Files:

• NX-59-VN - District Zero written by KH Nam KH Nam /MarkNguyen MarkNguyen /Goose of the Pool Goose of the Pool
• The Aftermath written by KH Nam KH Nam
• An Emergency Case At The Spiritual Division written by KH Nam KH Nam