What is the deal with the cults/orders? (Plus a small question about the Gods)

Discussion

This may just be me not remembering things correctly, but isn't there more then ONE cult/order? Like, I think there's...what? Four or Five sections of the cults, but I don't remember their names and their cause, the only one I can somewhat remember is the cult that Walter was part of in Silent Hill 4: The Room.

Like...what's the difference between the cults and orders? Are they more or less the same just with different shades of color to their robes? Do each have their own "purpose", and how are they different from one another?

I kinda just picture some of the members getting confused on whose who and going "Oh shit, wrong family, my bad."

Also, what God's or Demons do they worship? I think the thing they try to summon throughout the games changes, and I'm kinda at a lost what these God's and Demons do. I remember at least one, Samael, but I don't know what he does.

Can you guys help me out? I'd appreciate it.

in silenthillby Bones-Ghost

88%

19d

UrsusRex01

19d

There is one cult called The Order.

The cult's holy seal is The Halo of the Sun.

They worship a female deity they simply refer to as God which shall bring Paradise to mankind.

In their mythos, according to SH3, there are two angels which serve God (Valtiel and Metatron) and two other deities that helped Her create the World (Lobsel Vith the Yellow God and Xuchilbara the Red God).

They believe God came into existence as an answer to mankind's prayers for salvation.

The cult is divided into several sects (introduced in different games of the franchise) : * The Sect of the Holy Woman. Its members believe God will be born again to the world by impregnating a woman. They see Alessa Gillespie as the Holy Mother of God. Its leaders were Dahlia Gillespie and then Claudia Wolf. Vincent Smith and Leonard Wolf are notable male members of the sect. This sect is the main antagonist of SH, SH Origins and SH3. * The Sect of Valtiel. Its leader was Jimmy "Red Devil" Stone. Its members are the executioners of Silent Hill and wear red pyramid-shaped hoods. Red Pyramid Thing/Pyramid Head was "born" from ' memory of a horrible painting representing (possibly) Jimmy Stone. * The Sect of the Holy Mother. Its members use the Mother Stone, a giant stone located in the Silent Hill Woods, in their rituals and believe they can raise a conjurer that would bring the Holy Mother (God) to the world. They have been torturing children as a mean to create that conjurer. They are also versed in Necromancy (the ritual featured in one of the endings possibly comes from that sect's knowledge). This sect is mentioned in SH4. * The unnamed sect of . It is composed of cultists who left Silent Hill to live a more peaceful life. In order to be free to do so, they've made a pact with God and each of the founding families of that sect has to sacrifice one of its children to God every 50 years. This sect plays a role in SH Homecoming.

What is God exactly is left to interpretation. Samael may be Her name but it could also simply be a trick by Dahlia who, at that time, was pretending to be an enemy of the Order so Harry Mason would help her twart Alessa's attempt at stopping her.

Personally I like to believe the Order's mythos tells everything we need to know : God didn't exist before the Order prayed Her into existence. Therefore, my take is that God is nothing but a monster brought to "life" in the Otherworld by the psyche of the cultists.

There are no gods nor demons behind the events of the games, only pure human cruelty and a location with freaky supernatural qualities.

TheWorclown

18d

I love how there is a cult whose founder is named “Jimmy.”

It’s so silly and innocent with the morbidity of that sect’s work.

Bones-Ghost

18d

Oh boy, imagine if he was called "Jimbo" in his description.

GuabaMan

18d

great explanation!

UrsusRex01

18d

Thanks. To give credit where it's due, the Silent Hill wikia explains this very well. I had to check it since I haven't played SH4 nor Downpour and didn't want to miss important stuff regarding the cult.

Bones-Ghost

Very sorry I'm responding to you 15 days later, but isn't the Orders' religion a mix between Christianity and some other religions?

UrsusRex01

No problem.

That's a good question. It seems to be the case. For instance, the Sect of the Holy Mother is very reminiscent of pagan religions while the Sect of the Holy Mother looks like a deformed version of Virgin Mary.

Metatron is taken straight from the Old Testament and Valtiel, while it's a made-up name, has the -el suffix found in the name of angels in rabbinic literature.

No idea where Xuchilbara might come from but it sounds like a name from mesoamerican mythology so it could be a remain of the culture of the native americans who used to live around Toluka Lake.

Bordanka

19d

That's called later developers not respecting the work of their predecessors and making shit up.

All games from Origins to Downpour attempt to retcon or significantly alter the original lore, which led to a creation of a split off cult in previously non-existent Shepherd's Glen and whatever is going on in Downpour.

There WAS a split sect in the original - Church of Valtiel - but they weren't a thing of their own. They were still considered (amd saw themselves) as part of the same religion, just exercised things a little differently. It's typical for religious cult, honestly.

The green Halo of the sun is a symbol of pagans and sinners in the eyes of the Cult.

If you don't want to get confused then ignore anything that goes after 4 (at least for clarity, if you like those games - it's totally fine), and remember this:

Main Sect:

SH1
SH4
Dahlia
Walter Sullivan
Andrew Desalvo
possibly Vincent Smith

Church of Valtiel:

SH3
Claudia
Leonard Wolf
Jimmy Stone
George Rosten

Yes, some aliments can be debatable. But it's natural, because they aren't different churches, just different sects of the same cult that even worship in the same temples.

EDIT: SH2 doesn't know what it wants to be, disregard as almost fanfiction ASIDE from PH