|
Trigger Warning
This article has mature content, such as: "Child Abuse", and "Excessive Violence". View at your own risk. |
Angel Nogales is a minor character that only appears in FAITH: Chapter II. Alongside two other people named Sandra Attwood and Troy Ingles, Angel was a low-ranking cult member (who are titled as "thralls") a part of the Eternal Order of the Second Death, a satanic cult primarily functioning in Sterling, Connecticut.
For reasons unclear, he and the other thralls were brutally murdered by their cult for some kind of ritual. A newspaper article was published about the gory crime scene shortly before Chapter II begins. Angel's death and publishment was significant enough for John Ward to dream about the thralls and walking around the murder scene.
Biography[]
Not much is known about Angel, Sandra, and Troy. From what little information is found, we at least know that Angel was a cult member, male, and bald. Even though he visually looks older among the others, Note #18 in Chapter II signifies that they were all young adults, so Angel was likely in his 20s or early 30s before he was killed.
Unknown Time[]
We begin Angel's biography with a tragic childhood. Taking implication of Note #6 from Chapter II in mind[1], where the child detailed in this note was Angel himself, he was a child who recently lost his grandfather, whom he was deeply attached to. One day, his stepmother promised him that he can see his grandfather again. He agrees to follow her in desperation and was dropped off at one of her friend's houses late at night. Angel was lured by her friends to walk down a staircase towards the basement, where he saw his grandfather standing in the darkness. At first, he was gleeful, but as he approaches who he thought was his grandfather, he comes into realization that, "Only it wasn't actually him." Angel tried to run away from whoever it was, but the basement door was locked.
Angel's memory on what happened next is hazy, but ever since then, he's been pressured by his stepmother's friends to fulfil some kind of debt and doing work for them. Currently it's not too obvious with this note alone, but it's greatly implied in Chapter II that Angel inadvertently inducted himself into a cult called the Eternal Order of the Second Death, growing up to become a thrall, a low-ranking cult member. His backstory is tragic compared to the other two thralls featured in Chapter II because he couldn't have known any better, he was just a child who got wrapped into all of this unwillingly.
Between September 22nd to 27th, 1987[]
It's heavily implied that the locations John will eventually visit in his dream/Chapter II, Gallup Cemetery, Snake Meadow Hill Church[2], and the Candy Tunnels[3], were affected by murders and disappearances that were published on the newspaper and loosely corelate to the Eternal Order of the Second Death. Taking consideration that Chapter II takes place a week after Chapter I[4], we can surmise that all of this occurs between September 22nd to 27th of 1987. This is a reminder that all of this is undated, it could've taken place in January or some other month for all we know.
Flashing forward years after Angel's childhood, he's a young adult by the time September of 1987 rolls around. In between the 22nd to 27th, Angel, a cult member named Troy Ingles, and another named Sandra Attwoord, were chosen to be sacrificially killed for an unknown purpose nearby a cemetery, aptly called Gallup Cemetery. We can speculate that the cult leader, Gary Miller, commanded this to happen considering that he's their leader, but this is uncertain as he never brings it up in Chapter III. It's implied that the trio were congregating within a tomb, named Save Family Tomb because it was built by an affluent group a part of the cult called Save Family, before they were gruesomely stabbed multiple times by their fellow cult members. Their corpses were dragged into the nearby woods, leaving a trail of blood. Once they've reached their destination, cult members laced the bodies in a ritualistic circle and decapitated each of them. For some unknown reason, two of the bodies were burned while the other was left alone, and all of them were left behind to rot.
Shortly thereafter, the Sterling Police Department discovered the bodies, identified them, and investigated the area for any evidence on what happened to them. A newspaper article titled "THREE MURDERED IN LATEST WAVE OF RITUALISTIC KILLINGS" was published to the community of Sterling, Connecticut the next day (or several days later or on the 28th, the publishment is undated) about their report[4], stating that three young adults named Angel Nogales, Sandra Attwood, and Troy Ingles respectively were found deceased a couple miles off of Gallup Cemetery.
Authorities and investigators a part of the Police Department suspect that the victims were stabbed multiple times and decapitated before ultimately killed in what they believe is a paganistic ritual. They note two of the bodies were partially burnt, but authorities aren't reporting who specifically was burned. The article continues that the residents of Sterling found a desecrated tomb and blood trail leading off into the woods, but investigators are not commenting whether these two incidents are related.
Interestingly, the article points out that the arrangement of the bodies in a ritualistic pattern and the writings of certain symbols in blood matches the style of several murders within the Sterling community, which has been occurring within the area ever since 1986. This signifies that Angel and the other thralls' deaths were not the first, and Gary has been allowing his cult members to perform these rituals for an unknown purpose. Considering that these rituals have been happening since 86', we can best speculate that this ties to Gary losing contact with his "perfect vessel", a teenager named Amy Martin, after a failed exorcism that got her sent to a mental institution (check Amy's wiki page for further details because this will not be explained here). The article ends that investigators and authorities are urging the Sterling community to report any findings regarding this case towards the Police Department.
September 28th, 1987 (Chapter II)[]
A week passed ever since John failed his second attempt of exorcising Amy. He falls asleep in his bed and experiences his worst nightmare yet.
The dream begins with John standing in the middle of five pebbles, around the outskirts of Gallup Cemetery. He wanders aimlessly and unlocks the front gate to the cemetery. In the middle of the area lies Save Family Tomb. All the other gates are locked, so he has no choice but to explore inside.
enter the spirit house[]
Inside the cramp tomb has Angel, Troy, and Sandra sitting motionlessly on benches. Satanic symbols are tattooed on their bodies, and they blankly stare at John, either because of his priestly clothing or they're dead.
There's a lone mirror at the end of the tomb. John slowly opens his eyes and smiles at himself in the mirror while presenting a key.
Spirits exit the thralls' bodies, and they scatter throughout the area. Four purple skulls mounted on the wall light up for some inexplicable reason. John exits the tomb and has to track down the spirits in order to gain access beyond the cemetery.
Walking to the left and downward, mist surround the area. John walks towards the middle of the area and a demon appears from nowhere, making unintelligible, child-like screaming. It darts from one cloud of mist to another in some attempt of hiding from something. Among all the other demons within Gallup Cemetery, this demon doesn't actively attempt to kill John.
John banishes the demon, who bellows one final cry before bursting into a pool of blood. It leaves behind a note detailed in the "Unkown Time" section. If John visits the tomb before banishing the other two demons, the bald thrall is nowhere in sight. With this in mind, we can assume that the Mist Demon is somewhat affiliated to Angel's traumatic childhood from whatever happened between him and his "grandfather".
darkness surrounds thee[]
We flashforward to John exiting a lone shed connecting to the basement of Snake Meadow Hill Church. Now in the middle of nowhere in the dense woods, John meanders and comes across the bodies of Angel, Troy, and Sandra. They're all beheaded and there's visible stab wounds. In the middle of the ritualistic circle lies a newspaper article. With nothing better to do, John picks it up and reads it.
The article is almost the same as detailed from prior. There's a notable difference, however, that signifies that some demonic force is attached to the newspaper. It randomly contains the words, "Pandemonium Regnant" while detailing the murders of the thralls. It erroneously states that this recent spike of ritualistic murders may be connected to last week's killing of Amy Martin (this is where we got confirmation that Chapter II takes place a week after Chapter I), a 17-year-old girl that was lured into the woods nearby her home by John himself. He impersonated a priest to lure her into a false sense of security and shot her in the stomach.
The article derails as it states that the Sterling community should not mourn the victims because, "after all, they were degenerate devil-worshipping thugs who were hooked on crack cocaine and hated their parents." This tone shift starts to communicate to John directly, stating that that's what he wants the police to think about the victim and wonders why they even conducted an investigation at all, they got what they deserved.
The article continues as if he was the one who killed them, affirming that he caught the victims getting high inside Save Family Tomb and tracked them down one-by-one. He stabbed their bodies while they plead for help and decapitated them because, apparently, everyone knows that's how you would kill a snake. The tone shift becomes more aggressive, telling him that he did not kill the snake and cannot kill what can't be killed. Interestingly, Amy is referenced and blames John for being unable to kill her and destroy it's works because, "FOR THEY ARE THE WORKS OF THE ETERNAL DRAGON." The article mentions Amy one more time, cryptically stating that she is at some door, her hands is on his throat, but he's unable to see her. It'll have her soul because it's, "T H E G O D O F T H I S W O R L D".
The article derails as it repeats the words, "PANDEMONIUM REGNANT" and shows an inverted crucifix in the form of "666". Way down the article has purple text from Amy: "I'M HERE, JOHN." John looks away from the newspaper and Amy's Demon shouts, "YOU ARE MINE, PRIEST!" Angel, Troy, and Sandra are standing up and their bodies are ablazed with fire. Cultists roam the background and Amy stares at John from underneath a tree.
For some inexplicable reason, John agonizingly melts and contorts into a Wretch, a gray, four-legged spider-like creature with two bright red eyes.
This is the last time Angel and the other thralls are mentioned, surprisingly, considering that this pivotal note is the only one that has to be acquired throughout the entire series. Analyzing the newspaper article is crucial because it sheds some light on John's personality and provides details that were left unanswered in Chapter I. To start things off, the tone shift in the note is most likely from the UNSPEAKABLE itself, an evil deity that the cult worship.
To keep things relevant for Angel and the thralls (check the UNSPEAKABLE and Amy's wiki page for more explanation), the tone shift heavily suggests that John thinks very lowly of anybody who he considers a cult member or satanic worshipper. This also applies to drug addicts and people who don't follow the rules, hence why the article steeply declined where it stated that the thralls hated their parents and were addicted to cocaine. The article is grounded in reality and reveals how goody-two-shoes John tries to be, but his more violent and destructive thoughts & feelings are enhanced by the UNSPEAKABLE. This hatred is amplified in Chapter III when John gets injected with a mysterious substance and goes on a violent rampage against thralls because the drug is connected to the UNSPEAKABLE's immense power.
Trivia[]
- We don't know if Angel is supposed to be the bald thrall or the thrall with unkept facial hair. Airdorf confirmed that he did not specifically name who is who[5], besides Sandra because she's the female thrall with long hair in Save Family Tomb, so it's very well that Troy was supposed to be the bald thrall while Angel was supposed to be the thrall with unkept hair/tweaker (in the grand scheme of things, the naming doesn't matter too much, they're interchangeable).
- The same applies to the corpses too, we don't know which is which because all the thralls look the same.
- It's vague as to whether John truly killed Angel and the other thralls. Since we can assume that the UNSPEAKABLE wrote the derailing newspaper article, we cannot trust it's claims that John tracked down and murdered them one-by-one because it erroneously states that John tricked Amy and shot her in the stomach. Chapter I's "When Faith Endures" Ending (where he decided not to shoot Amy and drove away) is canonical, so he never shot Amy at all. Additionally, their deaths are not brought up again beyond Chapter II, so it's very unlikely that John killed them.
- If you look at the first letter of the first and last names of the three thralls in order: Sandra-Angel-Troy, Attwood-Nogales-Ingles, they spell out "SATANI". "SATANI" is Latin for "SATAN". Airdorf confirmed the intentionality of this Easter Egg in our FAITH Fan Community Discord Server[6].
- Before entering the Candy Tunnels, there's three stick dolls on top of the entrance. These could be Sandra, Troy, and Angel.
- We don't entirely know what a Wretch or stick doll are, and although it won't be thoroughly explained here, it's likely that they're supposed to be husks of former people who got involved with demonic-related things.
Gallery[]
