Dahlia Gillespie
From Silent Hill Wiki
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- The name Dahlia may refer to multiple subjects. Please see Dahlia for other uses of the term.
Laurence Bouvard (SHO)
| “ | The time is nigh. Everyone will be released from pain and sufferring. Our salvation is at hand. This is the day of reckoning.
-Dahlia Gillespie | ” |
Dahlia Gillespie is a fictional character from the PlayStation video game Silent Hill and the Silent Hill of the same name. She is one of the series' first antagonists.
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Biography
Although her given age is 46, her physical appearance looks much older than that. She wears a ceremonial dress and headdress and always seems to be barefoot, much like Claudia Wolf.
Dahlia Gillespie is the leader of The Order, a cult that worships its own God. She is the mother of Alessa Gillespie, whose presence has summoned poltergeist activity since she was a child. These disturbances, along with Alessa's latent telekinetic powers, saw her branded as a witch by her classmates. Dahlia knew her daughter's powers were linked to the dark "God" which The Order worshipped. Hoping to "birth" her God through Alessa, Dahlia used occult rituals to impregnate her daughter. To expediate the summoning of God, Dahlia set their house on fire with Alessa trapped inside. Although the fire was ruled an accident, Alessa was left completely disfigured from the resultant burns.
Through the use of a magical incantation invoked by her mother, Alessa lingered despite her injuries (which should have been fatal) and was placed in the care of Dr. Michael Kaufmann, a cult affiliate. While the constant torture of her wounds helped refine Alessa's reality-bending powers, she resisted being used as a container for the 'God', and her soul split in two halves, using a form of Bilocation in order to escape her torture. Her other form, a newborn, was discovered by Harry Mason and his wife, who named her Cheryl and raised her as their own.
At some point over the course of her captivity, Alessa overhears a conversation about a 'special visitor' she is to receive, and becomes aware of her mother's intent to still carry out her plan to use her to 'birth' the God. Alessa realizes that for however long she continues to live, this remains a possibility. Knowing that Cheryl holds the other half of her power, Alessa summons her telepathically back to Silent Hill so she can end her life and prevent the God's birth.
During this time, Kaufmann grows impatient after waiting for the return he has been promised (wealth, presumably) for his role in the conspiracy, leading to a falling out with Dahlia. Kaufmann stashes vials of Aglaophotis, a chemical capable of 'aborting' the demon in Alessa and ending Dahlia's plans, in case she ever turned on him.
Silent Hill
Dahlia gives hints to Harry Mason throughout the game of where he might find his daughter. She also confides that the town is being devoured by darkness. During the game, seals are carved throughout the town, and Dahlia refers to them as "the Mark of Samael." She tells Harry that if all of the seals are complete, all is lost. Dahlia emerges a second time in Alchemilla Hospital and impatiently tells Harry that he is wasting time. She does not appear again until the finale, when Harry has become completely removed from reality. Dahlia waits with Alessa in a void at the edge of the Otherworld, known as "Nowhere", a reflection of Alessa's memories.
As the player uncovers evidence, it gradually becomes evident that Dahlia is hiding her true motives and is actually responsible for demons overrunning the town. She is the leader of Silent Hill's cult, which is devoted to engineering the birth of their "God". Although Dahlia envisions a "paradise", the benevolence of the cult's deity is in doubt. Adding to the urgency of Dahlia's mission is the Mark of Samael, a mystical crest which Alessa is allegedly laying throughout town. The function and meaning of the symbol is unexplained, but Dahlia is most anxious to capture Alessa before she can create any more. She later confesses that the talisman Alessa is using does not belong to Samael, but to Metatron. Dahlia fully intends for Harry to survive, despite Alessa using her reality-bending powers to hinder his progress. In that sense, Harry is Dahlia's pawn.
Dahlia runs into Harry at the Alchemilla Hospital because she has come to ransack Kaufmann's office and destroy his sample of Aglaophotis, but Kaufmann merely left it there as a decoy. If Harry saves Kaufmann from a demon attack (this is fully up to the player), Kaufmann immediately heads off to retrieve another vial.
When Harry finally reaches Dahlia, Cheryl and Alessa have merged and she attempts to explain their connection, although her cryptic speech frustrates Harry. She prepares the ritual, and Cheryl and Alessa join. At this point, the player's actions affect the outcome of the scene, although Dahlia's fate is the same:
- If Kaufmann is dead, Alessa morphs into her Incubator boss form and sets Dahlia on fire (as poetic justice).
- If Kaufmann lives, he appears unexpectedly and shoots Dahlia with a revolver. He then throws his vial of Aglaophotis at Alessa, which shatters and causes her to mutate into the Incubus, which resembles a winged Baphomet (a 'premature' birth, of sorts). Wounded but still living, Dahlia is then set aflame by the demon and dies.
Silent Hill: Origins
Silent Hill: Origins is a prequel to the first game. When Travis Grady sees the burning house, he sees a younger looking Dahlia near the house who slinks away. She appears later in the game in the Cedar Grove Sanitarium, telling Travis to quit his quest to help her daughter. She appears just before Alessa unleashes all her power on Silent Hill. During the good ending, she and Dr. Kaufmann plot to return the young, pure baby to Silent Hill.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
- Main article: Dahlia Gillespie (Shattered Memories).
Dahlia's appearance is drastically altered in Shattered Memories, instead appearing to Harry as his lover and then wife. She is far younger and more sexualized than the original Dahlia.
Lingering influence
Beyond her involvement in Silent Hill 1 and Silent Hill 3, Dahlia has also been given connection to the serial killer Walter Sullivan. When he was just a young boy, he was told by Dahlia that Room 302 is his "Mother". Throughout the diary entries in the Forest World, the writer wrote of an important lady with the beginning syllable "Dah", but in those words, it revealed a sort of kind nature rarely seen in someone like Dahlia. But with the mentioning of his Mother, the writer (supposedly Walter) might have taken someone like that in a thankful sort of love. Further connection of Dahlia and Walter can be found in the Wish House just before the death of Jasper Gein, where Henry Townshend finds a note beside a bookshelf close to the stairs asking if Alessa was found and if Walter was ready, implying that if Alessa wasn't found then Walter would replace her in the rebirth of God, hence the "21 Sacraments".
