The Chaos Insurgency Wiki is a containment fiction writing website and its associating community.^[1]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com It is an unofficial spin-off from the SCP Foundation’s canon focused on the ‘Group of Interest’ of the same name. The Chaos Insurgency Wiki represents one of the longer-running containment fiction communities in the broader ecosystem of similar sites inspired by the SCP Foundation. Despite its more specialized focus, it has maintained an active community of writers who continue to expand upon its unique premise and fictional universe.

Format and Content

The primary format used on the Chaos Insurgency Wiki documents items in the arsenal of the eponymous organization. These are generally anomalous objects which must be useful and exploitable, as to further the Insurgency’s goals in global control.^[2]http://chaos-wiki.wikidot.com/about While the site also hosts supplemental formats for Persons of Interest and collaborative logs as indicated in the Directory section of the site,^[3]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/directory these remain secondary to the Item Arsenal format that constitutes the majority of the site’s content.

History

The current Chaos Insurgency Wiki was created in 2013 by WikiDot user yaboyken (previously DrHockenberry).^[4]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/, rev.0^[5]https://web.archive.org/web/20180604124117/http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-4369361/how-was-orientation^[6]https://www.wikidot.com/user:info/yaboyken^[7]https://web.archive.org/web/20180704054113/http://www.wikidot.com/user:info/dr-hockenberry Unlike the SCP Foundation, the Chaos Insurgency Wiki focuses on the willingness to use anomalous items and organisms for the benefit of humanity, whereas the Foundation stores and contains potentially helpful and beneficial items.^[8]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/about

In 2015, the Chaos Insurgency Wiki underwent a significant restructuring period called the Mass Edit, during which no new works could be posted and all existing works were judged, with many deleted. This process proved challenging for the community but was part of their attempt to improve quality standards.^[9]https://web.archive.org/web/20200929043039/http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-1117217/site-overhaul

In retrospect, the Mass Edit has been characterized as “a drifting and self-defeating effort to please a demographic they had absolutely no chance of winning over” – namely, the staff of the SCP Wiki.^[10]https://www.conficmagazine.com/post/what-me-mass-edit While clearing away older material may have had long-term benefits for content quality, the process arguably damaged the community in the immediate term.

The wiki suffered an “administrative crisis” around 2019-2020 when applications couldn’t be processed because administrator DrCaduceus was on hiatus. The site has since been more active under new adminship.^[11]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/forum:recent-posts^[12]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/

In-Universe Context

Within the broader SCP fiction universe, the Chaos Insurgency is portrayed as a splinter group that in 1948, as part of a seemingly routine staged operation, removed several SCP objects from Foundation containment and transported dozens of defecting Foundation researchers to various safe locations.^[13]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/chaos-insurgency-hub Unlike the SCP Foundation, which contains anomalous objects, the Chaos Insurgency is more willing to use SCPs without restriction.

The Chaos Insurgency Wiki builds upon this foundation but creates its own expanded canon around the organization and its activities. The site describes the organization as having a decentralized but connected structure, so that even if a majority of the Insurgency is destroyed, they remain self-sufficient and capable of fast rebuilding.^[14]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/about

Community and Structure

The site has a hierarchical structure that mirrors the fictional organization it portrays, with various “cells” representing different ranks within the Insurgency. According to the site’s ranks page, these range from Test Subjects at the lowest level, through Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Zeta Cells, up to the mysterious Omega Cell.^[15]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/theinsurgency:ranks

Like most containment fiction websites, the Chaos Insurgency Wiki operates under a Creative Commons license. This allows for collaborative development of the fiction while maintaining appropriate attribution. The site has current administrators who maintain the community standards and help guide the site’s development.

Similar to the SCP Foundation Wiki, the Chaos Insurgency Wiki primarily uses an upvote/downvote metric to judge quality and govern their deletion process.

Trivia

• The most prominent and popular work on the site is the “Bell of Entropy,” which is described as a powerful anomalous object. According to its entry, during the initial splinter of 1924, Insurgency sympathizers at Site 21-K breached containment for eight Safe and Euclid class items, one of which was the Bell of Entropy.^[16]http://chaos-wiki.wikidot.com/bell-of-entropy The Bell has been referenced in other media including the game SCP – Containment Breach, where it is mentioned as “an object that can cause a variety of destructive effects depending on where it is struck.”^[17]https://scpcb.fandom.com/wiki/Chaos_Insurgency
• The Chaos Insurgency Wiki had at least two versions – an “old site” created by Wikidot user Doctor Creed and a new one that was created when DrHockenberry and DrCaduceus decided to make their own site.^[18]https://www.wikidot.com/user:info/doctor-creed) These eventually merged, and the old CI wiki was shut down by its creator.^[19]http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-849023/found-the-creator-of-the-old-ci-wiki#post-2016187^[20]http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-842089/retiring-of-the-old-ci-wiki The merger of the two Chaos Insurgency Wikis involved the old wiki becoming the CI Sandbox site.^[21]https://www.containmentfiction.net/UserWiki/chaos-insurgency-wiki-oral-history/^[22]http://ci-sandbox.wikidot.com/
• The first CI Wiki was based on the Wikia (now Fandom) system.^[23]http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-849023/found-the-creator-of-the-old-ci-wiki#post-2016130
• The new CI Wiki was created because users were unhappy with how the old one was run.
• The split from the old Chaos Insurgency site was written into the lore as a “civil war in the insurgency.”
• The “Haos Doctrine” of the Chaos Insurgency was written by EdAWACS as a homage to “A Message from the Administrator” from the SCP Foundation.
• EdAWACS wrote the original “Site Rules” and “Guide For New Recruits” which were proofread by Zyn from the SCP Foundation.
• The Insurgency’s hierarchical structure with concepts like the “Intelligentsia” and “Ouranos Council” was developed by EdAWACS, who admits it was partly inspired by the O5 Council from SCP Foundation.
• The name “Ouranos Council” was based on the Greek god Uranus who fathered the Titans, while the “Intelligentsia” was based on the Russian Intelligentsia that helped spark the Russian Revolution.
• The Chaos Insurgency Wiki had both an English and Hispanic branch, with the Hispanic branch developing original content like the “Corvus Project.”
• Some users discovered the site through the SCP – Containment Breach game rather than through the SCP Foundation Wiki directly.
• Several users noted they were attracted to the Insurgency’s approach of using anomalous items rather than just containing them.
• “Falchion Valley” was an admin site created for the Chaos Insurgency Wiki that was originally going to be called “Ouranos Council.”^[24]http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/
• The Chaos Insurgency Mass Edit led to a period of inactivity that continued until a Discord server was created in November 2019. The policy ultimately led to many writers quitting the Chaos Insurgency Wiki.
• The Chaos Insurgency Wiki staff implemented the Mass Edit in hopes of gaining recognition from the SCP Wiki.
• In a journalistic article on Mass Edits, pixelatedHarmony wrote: “… the Chaos Insurgency’s mass editing project was a drifting and self-defeating effort to please a demographic they had absolutely no chance of winning over. That audience in this case being the staff of the (English) SCP Wiki.“^[25]https://www.conficmagazine.com/post/what-me-mass-edit
• The CI Wiki has a “Visual Documentation Database” of media.^[26]http://ci-visualdocuments.wikidot.com/
• The site went through a period known as “LOLsurgency” where content was more lighthearted and less serious.
• The “Doomsday Clock” was both a narrative device within the Chaos Insurgency lore and a real fallback plan if moderators became inactive.^[27]https://www.containmentfiction.net/UserWiki/chaos-insurgency-wiki-oral-history/