Silent Hill is one of America’s “tranquil” towns; it can even be said that the town itself is a popular vacation spot. There is an entry for Silent Hill in the Book of Lost Memories:
“The name of that town is Silent Hill. Although it is known as a scenic resort area, it is a cursed place where the town’s former inhabitants were once driven away, brutal executions were once carried out, and a mysterious plague was once prevalent. The town is centered around Toluca Lake, from which a thick fog perpetually enshrouds the area and makes vague the reality and dreams of those who visit the town. And according to those who have seen them, there are also times when “things” that should not naturally exist appear.”
Around the 16th century, the Native Americans were performing mysterious religious rituals in this town. They were dealing with taboos such as resurrection, exorcism, healing of mortal wounds and communication with creatures from beyond. These lands were also sacred for the natives. Any kind of disrespect to these lands were taken as if they were direct insults to the natives themselves, and were not taken lightly.
They named the town as “The Place of Silenced Spirits” and, as alias, “The Nest of the Raven”. But why would they name it after a bird? A raven was seen as a trickster because of its everchanging and variational nature according to the belief of the Indians. Because of these characteristic features of ravens, the natives started to use them to clarify their own visions. They were appeal to the ravens in order to understand whether a vision was true or not. Above all, according to their belief, a raven was the natural magic wielder, and was responsible for the enlightenment of their kind by carrying messages from beyond time and space. As a result, this made the raven something more than a mere bird for the natives: A confidant, a magic wielder, a trickster and a scholar. The place of the town was considered as sacred and was supposed to bear mysterious power.
At the end of 1600s, European workers, peasants and businessmen travelled to America and settled in Silent Hill. But, as they didn’t know about the special condition of the area, it led to inevitable conflicts with the natives. The newcomers, as they outnumbered the natives a long with the help of the government on their backs, exiled the natives from Silent Hill. Although the natives moved on to new lands, they knew that the place they left behind was sacred and the new settlers cursed it with their arrival. Some people who had come from Europe to settle in Silent Hill found out about the strange energy surrounding the town, either by talking to the very few natives still living in the area or by themselves. Jennifer Carroll was one of these people, she was aware of this incredible power. In order not to have any conflicts with the religious authorities, she formed “the Order” along with those who believed in the same things. The Order would later on turn into a very closed group and even into a cult of its own. Jennifer Carroll was burned at the stake in the year 1692 by the puritanical inhabitants due to her reputation noted for being in close terms with witchcraft. As she was seen as a saint because of her role in forming the Order, she was immortalized with a monument put in the Rosewater Park later on. There was a message on this monument: “What happened here shall never be forgotten.”
The influence of the Order, also know as “The Organisation” spread to the nearby villages such as Shepherd’s Glen in time. It is still a matter of debate whether the works of the Order on “true faith” and “true religion” are genuine or just lies in order to gain more followers. It is impossible to come to a conclusion on this matter as the biggest secret of the Order is buried under the dark waters of Silent Hill along with the Order itself.
Not everyone, of course, was as troubled or violence prone in the Order as some who didn’t flinch from murder, kidnapping, torture and drug smuggling in order to achieve their goals. The Order made use of a plant that grew only in Silent Hill, “the White Claudia”, in order to create hallucunations and mysterious visions, and they also used it as the main ingredient to make a drug they called PTV. This drug was fondly used by the inhabitants of Silent Hill and the tourists, and was always asked for more. Although there were claims of Dr. Michael Kaufmann, the manager of Alchemilla Hospital at Central Silent Hill, responsible for the illegal distribution this drug, they were never proven right.
The Order followed a nihilist perpective in terms of morals. For them, there were “chaos and order” instead of “good and evil”. They believed that this kind of mentality was more in league with their belief. It was not important for them if an individual was good or evil as long as the individual fulfilled their duty, contributed to their order and, as a result, didn’t create chaos. As long as there was no chaos, the Order would prevail. With this belief that focused more on discipline, they were able to embrace their spiritual worlds more conveniently. At the same time, the entity in the parallel universe that they called “God”, who was generally depicted as a woman in red, was the center of their faith and the reason of the Order’s foundation. This myth was said to contain other beings such as Valtiel, Metatron, Lobsel Vith and Xuchilbara.
As for the Order’s belief of the God, there were legends that the followers believed: Humans lived long before the God and were immortal. A man, looking for salvation from the world around him, offered a prayer and a serpent to the sun; and a woman, looking for joy, offered a prayer and a reed. These two human beings, in accordance with their wishes and thoughts, gave life to the God. The God was actually a woman. As there was no linear time, the God created a linear and measurable time as her first act, creating day and night. Then she gave joy to the world and showed humans the way to salvation. As humans were immortal, and couldn’t understand the notion of freedom after death, she took away their immortality. She also created some other beings and angels in order to have help from them while leading humanity. Two most noteable figures among them were the Yellow God, Lobsel Vith, and the Red God, Xuchilbara. The God’s last gift to the world was the Paradise where everyone and everything would live in peace and harmony, but having spent all her power, she collapsed. With her last breath, she promised that she would return, and according to the Order, she turned into dust.
The true purpose of the Order, as most of its followers stated, was to show the right way to the mortals on the Judgement Day and to admit those who deserved to the Paradise. This notion of “paradise” might have had different incentives for each member but the purpose was the same: To have the God reborn and to have people believe in the true faith. This way, they would restore the order and prevent the chaos. Most of the information about the Order was written in blood onto the walls of the underground tunnels that led to the Temple of the Order. In these writings called “the Prayer to God”, there were no clarifying statements on the methods of their magic use or the parallel universe.
