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This article contains HEAVY SPOILERS for FAITH: The Unholy Trinity. Read at your own risk! |
The Antichrist is another overarching antagonist of the FAITH series, but it's only directly referenced two times in Chapter III. In biblical times, the Antichrist is not a demon; rather, it's a term for people who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. In modern pop culture, and particularly in this series, the Antichrist acts like the inverse or bastardization of Jesus Christ, typically depicted as some kind of demon or beast that governs Hell. We never truly see the Antichrist in FAITH because it's currently not summoned onto Earth yet, but we see a brief glimpse of its arm and sharp nails. The Antichrist is worshipped by the cult, Eternal Order of the Second Death, and their primary goal is to summon the beast onto Earth via the Second Death ritual to wreak havoc.
It's very important to note here that the Antichrist and the UNSPEAKABLE are two separate entities. There's a common misconception that they're the same.
Appearance[]
Like stated previously, we never truly see the Antichrist because it's not summoned onto Earth. Chapter III enforces the idea that whenever we see a demonic hand with sharp nails emerging from a Second Death vessel is the Antichrist.
Personality[]
The Antichrist is complicated since it never really talks, it's best implied that it's evil considering that it's a demon and all demons in this series are evil. The only time it ever really says anything is implied in Chapter III's "A New Journey" Ending where Amy, a Second Death vessel, tells Gary, cult leader, that he's a failure.
Biography[]
The Antichrist does not have a birth date and resides in Hell.
March 18th, 1934[]
Although this is the earliest date that we have in the entire series, the Eternal Order of the Second Death cult came into fruition sometime before this date. This cult is implied to not have always been called this, though, because originally, they worshipped an evil deity named the UNSPEAKABLE. At some point, a respectable cult member named Miriam found instructions on how to perform a ritual called the Second Death so that there's a way to create a portal to Hell. She found out about this information from an unknown outside source, so even though the cult doesn't truly know what they're doing and the conditions behind it, they plan to heed Miriam's instructions. Their new ultimate goal is to have the ritual performed on a worthy vessel to bring forth the Antichrist so that it can wreak havoc on Earth.
On this day, Miriam instructed cult members on how to perform the Second Death ritual on her, wanting to be the first (known) vessel to have the Antichrist summoned onto Earth. They followed her instructions later that night, despite knowing that they should've had newborns prepared to put into her face portal to Hell for the ritual to work.
March 19th, 1934[]
In the middle of the night, the ritual was successfully performed on Miriam, now she has a gaping hole on her face. The cult members neglected to gather newborns before the process was complete, so they hastily gather any they can get to put into her face hole and wait for a response. We aren't sure where exactly in Connecticut they're getting the newborns, either stealing them, birthing them with female members, or some other methods. Regardless, they sacrificially put them into Miriam but there's no response.
March 23rd, 1934[]
Several days of sacrificing has passed with no signs from Hell. Suddenly, the cult members see a tiny hand emerging from Miriam's face portal. They yank it out and the creature looks like a baby boy. It looks like a human just like all the cult members and they decide to name it Gary.
This creature is a demon from Hell named Astaroth. The ritual overall was a failure since the Antichrist was not summoned and got a lowly demon instead. This likely happened because Miriam was too willing to have the operation performed on herself, even though her instructions on how to do it were accurate, or that they currently don't know that performing the ritual on the Profane Sabbath (October 31st), a singular day where demonic activity is at its peak, is the best way to make sure the Antichrist is summoned. Regardless of everything, cult members and Miriam plan to bring up Gary to one day become the new cult leader since having a demon perfectly resembling a human is best to sneak into society undetected.
Because of how Miriam learned about the Second Death from an outside source, nobody in the cult truly knows how the ritual works. Miriam is currently used as a way for other demons to get summoned from Hell, giving her the nickname, "Mother of Demons". It would take decades before anything truly comes into fruition.
Early 1986[]
We skip nearly five decades later to now around the early months of 1986. The Antichrist is not directly mentioned, but Gary becomes the primary cult leader at some point and inducts cult members by emotionally manipulating them. Miriam is elderly all these years later but is still highly respected among her members, acting as a secondary leader. At some undisclosed time, Gary operates a clinic somewhere in Connecticut that acts as a front to gather newborns to be sacrificed into a worthy vessel for the Second Death. Additionally, any other patients are used as potential vessels for the Second Death. Like stated before, nobody knows how to reperform the ritual, and all of these attempts are failures. Piles of bodies stack up in the basement of the Clinic, the Department of Health and the local police department (Sterling Police Department) are starting to get suspicious, but Gary is sly enough to sleaze his way through.
Recently, a new employee catches Gary's radar. He believes that the new employee, Amy, could be the worthy vessel for the Second Death. Although it's never outwardly revealed, it's implied that the ritual only truly works on somebody who's young, able-bodied (as in, alive), and emotionally vulnerable. Amy's father, Bob, recently moved out to Nicaragua for missionary work and her mother, Cindy, is so delusional that she believes her miscarried twins are still alive. Her house is also in the middle of a dense forest, so she doesn't get to interact with other people very often. All of these factors are too much for Amy, and Gary starts to groom her in hopes that he and his cult members can use her for the ritual.
All of this happens in hopes that the Antichrist would be summoned, so even though it is not directly referenced, all of these events are still brought up since they all occur for its sake. It works primarily in the shadows, just like the UNSPEAKABLE.
September, 1986[]
On September 6th, after much enticing from Gary, Amy plans to sneak out of her house and attend a party held at the Clinic into the night. When she gets there, cult members restrained her and intentionally get her possessed by an unnamed demon (heavily thought to be an alias for the UNSPEAKABLE, check its wiki page) to support the process of the Second Death. Gary isn't cutting corners this time and wants to make sure the ritual is performed correctly. What he failed to plan, however, is Bob returning back home soon. When he notices that his daughter is reserved and standoffish, he believes that she's possessed. Her parents contact the Catholic Church to see if they can bring exorcists to relieve Amy.
Two priests, Father Allred and John respectively, take on the challenge, but everything goes wrong during the exorcism session on the 21st. The session resulted in Amy killing her own parents and Father Allred during the confusion. John accidentally made a deal with who he thought was the Lord to escape the house alive. Paramedics and the police arrive to handle the situation. The two are temporarily sent to Yale Psychiatric Institute when the police find the bodies of the deceased.
In the end, John leaves the institution after successfully completing his required counseling sessions with his psychiatrist and Amy gets sent to an unnamed mental institution to serve her time for the killings. All of this screws over Gary since now he has to wait until Amy somehow gets released. Shortly after this, the Clinic shuts down.
September 13th, 1987[]
Over a year passes and, on this date, Amy somehow escaped her confinement in an unnamed mental institution. She fled to the Martin House, but unfortunately, Gary and a select few of his cult members have been prowling around the property in hopes that she would return. Now that she's there, they restrained her in the basement and performed the Second Death ritual. Sometime between 1986 to 1987, Gary came into a realization that the Profane Sabbath is the best day to summon the Antichrist, so for now cult members are sacrificially placing whatever wildlife they can get their hands on into Amy's gaping face hole.
September 21st, 1987[]
On the anniversary of the failed exorcism, John decides to return back to the Martin House to complete the botched exorcism once and for all. Apparently, he had a strange dream where Amy reached out and told him to come back to the Martin House on the 21st to finish what he started. John traverses through the forest, finds a key in a nearby decrepit shed, and enters the house. After a brief struggle, he finds Amy standing motionlessly in the attic. John attempts to finish the exorcism, and seemingly did so, but Amy suddenly leaped out of the window and fell two stories to the ground. As John enters the foyer room, he sees a rifle and the words, "KILL HER" written backwards in blood. He stumbles outside and finds Amy barely alive from her injuries and continuously bleeding. Although tempted to kill her, John fights off the urge and shambles back to his car to drive back home, intentionally leaving her to die from her wounds out of sheer cowardice. John shoots an oncoming "Chupacabra" in self-defense and heads back home.
Gary and his cult members return to the house after they gathered sufficient sacrifices but find Amy nearly bleeding to death not too far from the house. In her current condition, they cannot use her to summon the Antichrist. Cult members relocate her to a secluded area underneath a daycare center called the Crucible in hopes that she would ever recover, preferably sometime before or during the Profane Sabbath. For some undisclosed reason, Gary found out that John was the one who meddled with his plans and where he lives, so now cult members stalk him and he's starting to suffer from nightmares that seem to be demonically influenced.
September 22nd to 27th, 1987[]
At some undisclosed time between the 22nd to the 27th, Miriam ordered a select few of cult members to reperform the Second Death ritual on her in a discrete inner sanctum nicknamed Malphas' House. She did this because Amy is currently incapacitated, and the Profane Sabbath draws near. Their entire decades-long plan can be unraveled if Amy ends up succumbing to her injuries when October 31st comes and goes, they'll have to restart everything and find a new vessel for the Antichrist to emerge from. Unfortunately, cult members did not take account of Miriam's old age, so when the ritual was complete, Miriam became unresponsive. They can't use her to summon the Antichrist, so cult members relocated her to the Crucible to see if she'll ever awaken. Now, Gary is left to figure everything out by himself without any advice, which is an issue for him considering that nobody in the entire cult truly knows how the ritual works besides Miriam.
September 28th, 1987[]
A week has passed ever since John failed his second attempt of exorcising Amy. He sleeps in his bed on this date and experiences his worst nightmare yet.
To cut a long story short, John relives recent events occurring throughout Sterling, Connecticut by walking through Gallup Cemetery, Snake Meadow Hill Church, and the Candy Tunnels. After following a thrall, he winds up in Malphas' House. Unlocking a door after coming across three Blind Ones (freakishly tall cultists), Miriam appears right behind him and tries to grab his neck. Just before she does so, she recoils in pain and disappears when a gray figure slowly walks towards him with his crucifix out. The figure, who is actually another priest named Father Garcia, tells him that they can banish the demon (Miriam) together if he protects him. Shortly before they come across her, John stands on top of a Second Death marking. Garcia tries to cheer him up and says that he couldn't do much about Amy's predicament back in the Martin House but pray that her soul is at rest. John doesn't know this, but this Second Death marking comes from cult members attempting to perform the Second Death on Miriam back in the "22nd to 27th" time frame.
The dream ends when John and Father Garcia defeat Miriam, who ends up evaporating into the UNSPEAKABLE. John stumbles out of bed and reads a letter from Father Garcia, even though the two never (formally) met each other. Garcia instructs him to wait for future updates because their new goal is to prevent the cult from using Amy's twin brothers, Nate and Jason, to summon a great demon named Malphas on the Profane Sabbath. John hops into his car to clear his head and has no choice but to wait until there's any more updates.
October 30th, 1987[]
We cut a little over a month later to when the Antichrist is relevant (and gets referenced directly for the first time).
Two days ago, John finally received an update from Father Garcia who instructs him to investigate a clinic Amy used to work at to see if the cult will summon Malphas there. John does so and only finds a woman lurking in the basement. He banishes her but couldn't find the twins nor Malphas' summoning site, so he returns home. The next day, John was tasked to explore an apartment complex in New Haven because Garcia believes that Malphas' summoning site might be there. Additionally, John received letters from a childhood friend named Lisa, who urges him to rescue her from her creepy neighbors. John does so by exorcising the demon possessing her and defeating Lisa's friend, Tiffany, in a Purgatory-esque version of the 10th Floor. Nate, Jason, and Malphas' summoning site was nowhere to be found, so he heads home.
Now the 30th, Father Garcia tasks John to investigate a daycare center because he's getting reports of children exhibiting strange behavior. He's certain that if they find the twins there then they'll find Malphas' summoning site as well, so John reaches the destination and sneaks inside. He unlocks a seal and figures out there's a secret entrance leading into a vast tunnel system. John explores the area and, after forcefully getting injected with a strange substance and unlocking a door, he winds up in some kind of white field dotted with stick dolls and trees.
partake of the dark[]
John wanders and comes across a large door with an insignia of the UNSPEAKABLE etched on it. There's a gigantic seal preventing him from opening the door, so he explores the area in order to remove it. As he gets bombarded by acolytes who serve Malphas, he spots a lone shack in the middle of stick dolls. John heads inside and figures out that this is where Gary lives, a tiny shack that only has two desks and photos taped on the wall. There's also a symbol representing the Second Death.
On the desk lies a letter written by Gary and addressed to somebody named Jakob:
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My Dearest Colleague Jakob, Thank you for the letter. I am delighted to hear of the success of your venture in Pennsylvania. However, it was not enough to pursuade me to join your cause. I have no interest in crumbling ghost towns nor government experiments nor the gibbering behemoths that lurk shamefully in the darkness between worlds. Such matters are not worthy of my expertise. My methods may be more delicate than yours but I assure you they were given to me straight from the “source”. The Anti-Christ will seep forth very soon. The Second Death will consume this world… this pitiful fleshy sphere still in its infancy yet everlastingly too late to redeem. When the time comes, I hope we may reunite as cohort, albeit not equals. Love Always, Gary P.S. I almost forgot to thank you for the pet. I will keep it outside my private quarters as a guard against intruders. |
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— Note #40: Gary's Letter to Jakob, Chapter III
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Gameplaywise, this is the first time the Antichrist has ever been mentioned. Jakob originates from Dusk[1], a game published by New Blood Interactive where he serves as the main antagonist. Apparently, Gary likes to collaborate with others who deals with demonic entities, but his ego gets in the way and believes his methods of summoning the Antichrist overpowers anything else. There's a photo nearby of Gary, Jakob, and an unknown individual with a face mask.
John steps outside and gets ambushed by Gary's "pet", a Horror from Dusk. He hastily banishes it and neutralizes all the triggers to the seal, causing it to be removed. Now that the seal is gone, John hesitantly opens the door and walks down a dark hallway where thralls stare at him coldly. Gary's disembodied voice booms and questions John on how to create a door to Hell. As he explains that, "Sometimes, it comes walking up to you.", John spots Nate and Jason holding hands at the end of the hallway. He gets closer but feels that something is wrong. He stops briefly to catch his breath. As blood seeps from his eyes and mouth, John turns around and sees Gary smiling right back at him. Gary calls out to John and remarks how good it is to finally meet him.
October 31st, 1987 (Ending II "A New Journey")[]
It's 12:00 A.M., the Profane Sabbath is here. Gary crosses his hands and introduces himself with his full name. John connects the dots and realizes he's the one who has been behind the majority of his torment. John demands some answers; Gary chuckles and grants him three questions about anything.
One of the questions John can ask is Gary himself. Gary's face distorts and replies that he's a normal human being just like himself and John. He goes on to say that he grants the Second Death to his people so that he can prepare the world for the summoning of the Antichrist. On first glance, this answer doesn't reveal much but it provides much needed confirmation on the cult's goal. Up until now, John never got a real reason as to why all of these demonic events are happening throughout Connecticut. This is the second and last time the Antichrist will ever be directly mentioned. Everywhere else beyond here is highly speculative but makes sense when you piece details together.
Two questions later, Gary's body retorts back to normal and gets annoyed with all the pestering. The screen fades to some kind of secluded arena with wiggling flesh in the background. He states that it's time for John to kneel/decay against the UNSPEAKABLE and that he'll be a fine sacrifice. The two battle.
During the fight, Gary can summon apparitions of former foes, throw his trident around, cast "Rain of Spiders", and summon some kind of skeletal figure that resembles a clown. All of these don't kill John upon contact but can make him drop his crucifix and fall to the ground. If John doesn't retrieve his crucifix in time, Gary catches him and performs the Second Death ritual on him. We, the player, are shown a cinematic of John slowly taking off a white sheet over his face, revealing a large gaping hole. A demonic hand with sharp nails, the Antichrist, emerges from within and grabs the camera, giving us a game over (or "MORTIS" if you want to be precise).
Since the ritual was performed on the Profane Sabbath, the Antichrist is capable of influencing Earth's environment by stretching out it's arm. More specific details as to why this hand is the Antichrist and not the UNSPEAKABLE or anyone else will be elaborated in the "Antichrist v. UNSPEAKABLE" section.
John temporarily wounds Gary with his crucifix. Gary stumbles to grab his neck but suddenly gets shot in the face from Father Garcia.
The two priests pair up and follow Gary's trail, leading off into the entrance of the Crucible. Since John defeated all the demons that act as triggers to neutralize a seal (Mother, Tiffany, Unclean Spirit), nothing stands in their way to track down Gary once and for all. John jumps below while Garcia fends off oncoming cult members.
The Crucible[]
John landed into some kind of decrepit version of the Martin House. As he walks upstairs to the main attic, the screen cuts to a creature kneeling in front of an incapacitated Miriam. John draws near and the creature, Astaroth (Gary), presents his mother, saying that her body could not withstand becoming the Unholy Trinity. He says that after so many years he found the perfect Vessel to take the honor of becoming the Unholy Trinity, but sulkily says that they know how that turned out. Gearing up, Gary says that John has been pursuing him long enough and only one of them will be able to escape alive. He tells him that he'll be the first to witness the Profane Sabbath and to be consumed by it. Before doing so, Gary lets him in on a secret and turns around: "GARY DOES NOT LOVE YOU".
Malphas joins the fray as Gary tries to kill off John, but he prevails. In a last-ditch effort, the demons take the form of spirits and possess Miriam's body. She howls in pain as she contorts into an amalgamation of the demons. John weakens her and briefly separates Gary and Malphas. He lights himself on fire from a nearby torch and transfers the flame to Miriam. As she burns, Malphas disintigrates since every demon within Connecticut was summoned out of her. She bursts into a pool of blood and Gary reverts back to his human form. As her blood trickles down, John becomes speechless as he sees Amy floating towards them from the darkness. Her awakening is unknown, the only explanation could be that the demon possessing her was weakened when Miriam died.
Gary gets close to her and mumbles in Latin about how she's his and can finally complete his Profane/Unholy Trinity. He opens his arms and embraces her presence. Suddenly, a demonic arm emerges from her face and grabs his face.
Gary's eyes widen in shock from this unexpected betrayal. Amy shouts, "FAILURE!"
The demonic hand sucks Gary back into Hell.
Although he's not really dead, somebody would have to restart the entire ritual process to have him "born" as a baby and start from scratch, so technically he's dead. Amy shouting that word signifies that it's not really her who's saying that. Since the demonic hand this time doesn't look human and has sharp nails, it's suggested that this is the Antichrist. For decades the cult has been deadset on having it get summoned onto Earth, and the Antichrist was waiting until Gary gets it right. Inadvertently causing Miriam to die was, in a sense, the straw that broke the camel's back. From the 30s all the way to 87', Miriam is the only one who had the Second Death correctly performed on her and the only vessel where demons can come into Earth to-and-fro. Her death ruins everything, hence why the Antichrist called him a failure. Precise details will be provided in the "Antichrist v. UNSPEAKABLE" section.
Amy's face reverts back to normal and praises John for his bravery and requests for him to finish what he started. John raises his crucifix and completes the exorcism prayer, banishes Amy's demon and finally allowing her to pass away (the Second Death kills the vessel no matter what, so Amy has been a zombie of sorts all the way up until now).
The series ends on John and Father Garcia stumbling out of the daycare center. John has a choice of either going on a demon-hunt with Garcia or settling down with Lisa, who apparently was around the area while John was deep below the surface. Regardless, the Antichrist is still out there, but it's return is unlikely unless somebody else wishes to find a brand new vessel and start over. It doesn't hold as much of a grasp on Earth compared to the UNSPEAKABLE.
October 31st, 1987 (Ending III "A New Vessel")[]
In this alternate timeline, John wussies out from exploring the Daycare Center and promptly turns back home. Now the 31st, the Profane Sabbath, he wakes up from a recurring nightmare about the first exorcism.
He hops out of bed and notices that the atmosphere in his house is warped. Thunder rolls in the background; As he leaves his bedroom, he spots a shadow of Amy floating away. At this point, John understands the kind of situation he's in and he's about to be killed. He rushes towards a door covered in crucifixes in an attempt to look back at psychiatric notes one more time, but it's locked, he'll have to grab the key in his basement.
Avoiding capture by thralls who break into his house and a centipede-like demon barreling through the basement, John unlocks the door and heads inside. One half of the room looks relatively normal, there's filing cabinets but one of them is haphazardly knocked down. The other half is wrong, it's the Martin House's attic. Amy, in her 86' outfit, stands nearby the attic window motionlessly with hollow eye sockets. This is an illusion, but unfortunately, John either falls or accepts the deception and approaches.
Kneeling, John questions what they (thralls) want from him and why she's tormenting him like this. Amy doesn't twitch and stays silent.
He continues that he's not sure how she made it here. Before he can plead for his nightmares to end, a human hand emerges from her mouth and grabs his face. She mutters, "UNFORGIVABLE."
The screen fades to The Forest, there's a path behind a well that leads towards the Martin House. John spots a glimpse of the "Chupacabra", Michael, scurrying away. He follows him and comes across the house. Seeing the decrepit house before him makes him fall into an emotional state, recounting everything that went wrong between the first and second exorcism. John feels compelled to explore inside, so he does. He enters various rooms and becomes hopelessly depressed as he feels Amy should've lived a normal childhood and her parents and Father Allred did not deserve to be killed.
John enters the Martin Twins' bedroom and kneels in front of two mannequins in defeat. In this ending, John has no idea that the twins never existed, he feels responsible for failing to find them as well.
He willingly continues to kneel as Michael and Amy, in her 87'/Second Death design, appear from nowhere and hold his arms steady. The entire room slowly fades to darkness as he kneels. A demonic hand with sharp nails, the Antichrist, grabs him and shrouds back into the darkness. The screen cuts to outside, but the entire house is gone, and we're shown "Damnatio Memoriae". The series ends on a somber note.
Antichrist vs. UNSPEAKABLE Confusion[]
There's misconception as to which evil deity is who because the series prefers to be vague on a lot of key plot details, which is concerning since a large majority of events before Chapter I occur under their respective influence. So, to start things off, it's important to distinguish the hands that come out of Amy's face portal. Whenever it's a red, human hand, it's from an alias of the UNSPEAKABLE. If you checked out the UNSPEAKABLE's wiki page, a newspaper article in Chapter II heavily suggests that when Amy got possessed back in 1986 (before the first exorcism), that was a manifestation of said deity. One of the trademarks that the UNSPEAKABLE has besides a singular eye and fleshy mass is twelve human hands, and John's nightmare in Chapter III implies that Amy is capable of having a red humanistic arm emerge from her mouth (even though this cutscene in particular doesn't canonically happen, check John's wiki page in the "Bad Variant" section).
So, from the first exorcism to the second exorcism in Chapter I, it's a sign of the UNSPEAKABLE.
As the Profane Sabbath approaches, the Antichrist is able to make its presence known and somewhat interact with what's happening on Earth by stretching its arm, so that's why in Chapter III the hand is demonic and has sharp nails.
This hand detail alone establishes that the UNSPEAKABLE and the Antichrist are not one of the same and are separate entities. For bigger evidence, when Gary captures John for a special Game Over, a demonic hand emerges from his face portal and grabs the camera.
John did not get possessed by any demon at all, and only the Second Death was performed on him on the day of the Profane Sabbath, so this means that it's the Antichrist. Besides, whenever Gary has to mention either of the two entities, he never says the UNSPEAKABLE is the Antichrist or vice versa. To clarify everything, the Second Death only relates to the Antichrist. The injection, nightmares, and the Peekaboo Demon only relates to the UNSPEAKABLE.
To decode Ending III, check out John's wiki page about that section. We'll likely never get any concrete information as to what happened, but it seems like the Antichrist dragged John to his own special Hell. The section blend into suicidal themes, so don't look at it if you're sensitive to that kind of topic.
Trivia[]
- Just like with the White Entity, the Antichrist does not have an overworld asset or sprite.
Gallery[]
Cinematics[]
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