The Goddess

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This article is about the deity worshiped by the Order. For the enemies representing this figure, see God, Incubator or Incubus

The Goddess, sometimes referred to simply as God, is a deity worshiped among many members of the Order throughout the Silent Hill series.

The goals of many of the series antagonists revolve around initiating the rebirth of this god, hoping to bring about the Apocalypse, and through the destruction of humanity, a promised Paradise. She is the central deity of the Holy Woman sect.

Although the Goddess plays a significant role in the Order's goals and ambitions, it is unclear as to what exactly the nature of this "God" is, and as to how she's connected with the supernatural occurrences of Silent Hill. The Goddess could be seen as a symbol for the mysterious force that inhabits the world and is responsible for the horrific occurrences of the series. The Goddess' creations and actions are more suggestive of a demon rather than a benevolent deity.

When a physical manifestation of "God" is presented, it acts like an powerful monster, rather than an intelligent being.

Contents 1 Myth 1.1 Birth and Creations 1.2 Paradise and Death 1.3 The Crimson Ceremony 2 Resurrection 2.1 Dahlia Gillespie 2.2 Claudia Wolf 2.3 Walter Sullivan 3 Lesser Gods and Angels 4 The Nature of God 5 Influence of Real-World Religions 6 Trivia

Myth

Presented in Silent Hill 3, these myths help establish backstory for The Goddess. They can also be heard in Sun, track 22 from the Silent Hill 3 Official Soundtrack.

Birth and Creations

According to the Order's beliefs, humanity existed before the Goddess. Here, people knew only physical pain and hatred. Seeking salvation from the world around him, a man offered a prayer and a serpent to the Sun. A woman, offering prayer and a reed to the Sun, asked for joy. Taking pity on a world consumed by sadness, the pleas of these two people breathed life into God, and from them, She was born.

The world, as it was then, had no understanding of linear time. So, the first thing the Goddess did was establish a linear, measurable time, separating it into night and day. After this, She outlined to humanity the road to salvation, and gave the world joy. Since people weren't able to die, God took away their immortality. The reason for this was so people could know the freedom that comes from death.

Her next act was the creation of other deities and angels, those most notable among them being Lobsel Vith, the Yellow God, and Xuchilbara, the Red God. This was done so She would have help in leading humanity to follow Her in obedience. Her final gift to the world would be Paradise.

Paradise and Death

With her creation of the world completed, God set about creating a place where people would be eternally happy. With its creation, though, the Goddess's strength was used up and she collapsed. With her last breath, She promised She would come again. She is then said to have returned to the dust.

The Crimson Ceremony

The Crimson Ceremony, an item from Silent Hill 2 necessary to obtain the Rebirth ending, is a work written as though spoken by a figure who holds itself to be of some importance. The speaker is never identified beyond the moniker of The Crimson One, (another name for Pyramid Head,it is not fully known if this is him or not.) though the usage of the text in such a manner as implied by the Rebirth ending seems to indicate that it comes from a source of divinity with sway over life, death, and rebirth.

Resurrection

The people of the Holy Woman sect believed God would appear again one day, and as such, members of The Order have attempted to hasten Her arrival; notable attempts are summarized below.

Dahlia Gillespie

By performing an unnamed ritual in her own house, Dahlia was able to let her daughter, Alessa, carry God within her. Before the ritual could be completed, Alessa's soul fractured, ruining Dahlia's plans. This missing piece of Alessa physically manifested inself as Cheryl. Before completion, the ritual was interrupted by Travis Grady, and Alessa was left severely burnt and disfigured, yet still surviving as a side effect of either the ritual, or a second incantation performed by The Order. Desperate to have her daughter made whole so the ritual could be concluded, Dahlia cast a spell that would in time draw back the missing half (Cheryl) to Silent Hill.

When the two halves were made whole in the events of the first game, God's manifestation as either Incubator or Incubus was briefly brought into existence, this existence being terminated by Harry Mason.

Claudia Wolf

At the end of Silent Hill 1, Alessa, as the Incubator gives Harry a baby. The Order attempted to kidnap the baby, who is later revealed to be a reincarnation of Alessa, and continue the ritual. However, Harry fought back and killed the cult member that attempted this, as mentioned in Silent Hill 3. Harry and the child went into hiding, renaming the little girl Heather Morris and dyed her hair blonde. Seventeen years later, during Silent Hill 3, Heather was made to realize and a priestess of the Order, Claudia Wolf, attempted to nurture the God using hatred, that she still carried the God within her. Heather used Aglaophotis to dispel the God. As a result, she vomited the God, as a blackened fetus, but Claudia ingested God's fetus and violently birthed God herself. Heather defeated the physical manifestation of God, just like her father, Harry, did seventeen years ago.

Walter Sullivan

Another ritual, the 21 Sacraments, was a back-up plan in case Dahlia's plan failed. Dahlia told Walter Sullivan (as a child) about the ritual of the 21 Sacraments. He planned on using the ritual to bring his mother back to life, this could mean Dahlia lied about the ritual so that Walter would carry it out. Its thought that if Walter did carry out the ritual, his mother would not have been brought back to life and Dahlia's plan would have worked. Henry Townshend defeated Walter during the events of Silent Hill 4: The Room, preventing his and Eileen's death, and ending the ritual in the process. Eileen Galvin, "The Mother Reborn," may have been the planned carrier for God.

Lesser Gods and Angels

There came a time when the Goddess felt she needed assistance in holding sway over humanity. To accomplish this end, she was said to have created many lesser gods and angels.

Among them were --

Lobsel Vith, referred to as the Yellow God in the Myth 4: Creation text, was said to have been created by God as an assistant to Her. Little canonical information exists on Lobsel Vith.

Xuchilbara, called the Red God is mentioned in the same text. As with Lobsel Vith, no concrete evidence exists that can tie Xuchilbara to any established figure in the Silent Hill mythos.

Valtiel, often times cited as the closest being to God, is another being created by the Goddess. His role appears to be one of protection, as seen through his constant vigil over Heather Mason in Silent Hill 3, as he drags her body away when she dies in the Otherworld to revive her. However, he may simply be protecting the growing god she carries with no real concern for Heather's welfare. Taking the Sect of Valtiel into consideration, it would seem he is also worshiped, and the town's early executioners modeled their attire after Valtiel's. The name "Valtiel" is also derived from the word "valet," which denotes Valtiel's position as the caretaker or attendant to God.

The Nature of God

Through the course of the Silent Hill series, God, as a being, is rarely explored in depth. Instead, players are shown The Order acting in Her stead, following what they consider to be Her commands. Through their actions, God is portrayed as a strict being, demanding complete faith and devotion from Her subjects, as well as various forms of sacrifices. In exchange, She seems to grant Her followers rather bizarre powers, an example of which is Claudia Wolf and her ability to conjure shifts between worlds. By examining The Crimson Ceremony, presented above, if that work can indeed be attributed to the Goddess, She is painted, not only as strict, but vengeful as well, promising wrath and bitter vengeance, presumably on those who fail to heed Her call.

During the events of Silent Hill: Homecoming, God is presented as, simply, a malicious being. 150 years prior to game events, the founder's of Shepherd's Glen sought to separate themselves from the Order for unknown reasons. Fearing retribution from God, however, those four families entered into a pact with their divine patron, the Order's deity. In exchange for the life of one child from each of the four families every fifty years, they and their new home would be spared from Her wrath. When the pact is broken, however, Shepherd's Glen becomes entwined with the Fog World, indicating its status as "damned".

God's nature as a benevolent deity is often called into question. God's behaviors and actions are often violent and inhumane, exemplified by Her interests in torturing lost souls and punishing those whom She feels require it. She appears to be much closer related to the common definition of a demon than a god. In Silent Hill 3, Heather even asks Vincent if God be considered the devil, which he responds, "Whichever you like." God seems to feed on suffering, as all of her rituals and birthing sacraments focus around both physical and mental agony. It often seems that God has little interest in preserving members of the Order unfortunate enough to be caught in the Otherworld, as members exhibit a fear of it and the mangled bodies of Order members are not an uncommon sight. God's intelligence may also be questioned, as all of her incarnations act no different from the other creatures that inhabit the Otherworld.

Influence of Real-World Religions

No single religion can be listed as an influence for the Order's deity, and by proxy, the Order's teachings and rituals themselves also have multiple influences. [1] The creators cite Christianity, Japanese folklore, and Aztec rituals as inspirations for the faith as detailed in the Silent Hill series.

A distinquishing trait sets the Order apart from other religions, in regards to its mythology. The Order proposes that humans had a history, if a jumbled, non-linear one, before God came into being, and that God only came into existence with the help of humans. This is contrary to every mainstream religion, in which the reverse is true.

Trivia

• According to a memo in Silent Hill 3, The Goddess has been called The Creator of Paradise and The Lord of Serpents and Reeds.