Cultists are figures that appear throughout FAITH: The Unholy Trinity.
They are mid-ranking members of the Eternal Order of the Second Death, above thralls.
Biography[]
Cultists appear as people wearing dark red robes with the hood obscuring their faces. Due to how the hierarchy works in the cult, they are more devoted to Satanism and are less likely to defect from Gary's command compared to thralls because they've been a part of the cult for a while.
When repelled by the crucifix long enough, they disappear and their robes remain, which questions whether they're entirely human or not. While chasing John, they mutter "THE SECOND DEATH" or "GARY LOVES YOU" repeatedly as if they're rambling or mindless.
In Garyland, there's a unique variation of them that has a large, fleshy head emerge from their hoods. Based on how they walk/run, it seems like the pink head is taking over the body and they can't control themselves. They can stretch their long arms to grab people and are animalistic enough to chomp people. Although not stated in game, their filenames are Plagas Cultist. Plagas is Spanish for Plague.
There is a third variant of the cultists called Blind Ones. However, due to how unique they are, they have their own dedicated wiki page. They look just the same as cultists except their robes are more ragged and are taller.
Between March 18th - 23rd, 1934[]
The Order of the Second Death has been active for an unknown period of time, but the earliest recorded action is when Miriam instructed cult members on how to perform the Second Death ritual on her. With how the hierarchy works, cultists were likely the ones more involved with the ritual than thralls since they're more devoted. Either way, the ritual was a success on the 23rd, and Gary was "born".
May - September 1987[]
Between these months, cultists summoned the Peekaboo Demon in the Candy Tunnels since it can help to bring the UNSPEAKABLE onto Earth. The homeless and drug addicts that live there are killed by the demon as sacrifices. One of the people living there writes a note about their encounter of seeing people who are painted red and have animalistic eyes walking deeper in the tunnel system every 2 weeks. It's unknown whether these people painted in red are referring to thralls or cultists, but likely cultists since thralls' eyes look normal.
September 21st, 1987[]
Although Gary and his cultists have been working behind the scenes for a long time, the first time we ever see them is on this date. If John decides to shoot a Sacrificed Fox after defeating Amy, he tries to drive back home but the trees in the background are replaced with cultists. Gary stands in the middle of the road with two barricades to prevent John from driving. We are not sure what follows next since the screen fades to black, but it's likely that they killed him or used him for some sort of sacrifice.
Their inclusion in the forest signifies that they've been prowling the forest to use the wildlife as sacrifices to put in Amy's face-hole, it's just that they had to temporarily leave the area to get more sacrifices. They wouldn't have caught John if he did not temper with their fox, it gave them a clue that someone else was in the area and they tracked that person down before they were able to find Amy nearly bleeding to death near the Martin House. That's why John doesn't see them in the best/canonical ending; he was leaving the area by the time the cultists found Amy, they wouldn't have gotten an earlier sign that someone else was in the forest. This ending is not canon since John wouldn't be alive for Chapter II.
September 28th, 1987[]
A week after failing his second exorcism with Amy, John experiences his worst nightmare yet, where he gives in to submitting to the cult by performing three conditions to get the UNSPEAKABLE's blessings. After defeating Miriam, John "wakes up" and walks to his backyard. The screen fades to John standing in the middle of a pentagram with Gary and cultists staring at him in the distance. The UNSPEAKABLE slowly floats down to him and John's hollow eyes begin to bleed.
This ending is not canon since John essentially submitted to the cult, which means Chapter III would've played out very differently. However, this ending gives implications that 1.) The UNSPEAKABLE can only interact with a person in dreams (which gives proof that the part with John walking to his backyard isn't real) and 2.) John's nightmares are heavily influenced by the UNSPEAKABLE or the cult in general to have John either submit to their cause or mentally drain him to make his faith weak.
October 30th, 1987[]
A few days prior to this, John finally got his long-awaited reply from Father Garcia on potential locations as to where the Martin Twins are or where Malphas might be summoned. Although he couldn't find either, he at least banished a great demon underneath an abortion clinic and Tiffany in the Unseen World version of the New Haven Apartment Complex.
On this day, Garcia tasks John to investigate a Daycare Center since, apparently, there are reports of strange behavior from the children. Sneaking past officers stationed outside, he unlocks a seal on the floor and enters Garyland.
Inside, he passes by two cultists and attempts to solve a puzzle on the wall. Suddenly, Gary rushes him and pricks him with a needle, where John becomes out of control and brutally slays the thralls that try to stop him. Waking up from his hallucinations, John travels deeper within the area.
In order to unlock a door on a statue of Moloch, he comes across a room that has a pink, fleshy statue in the middle of the area. Attempting to walk away, Latin text appears on the screen that (roughly) translates to, "We were like what you are." and "What we are, you will be." Suddenly, a cultist replaces the statue and stumbles towards John, turning into a plagas cultist when repelled long enough. It leaves a splatter of blood when banished.
Before coming across the Mirror Demon, John walks past a room that has an effigy of Magog and two cultists trapped in cages. There's a lone table next to a cage, which makes John uncomfortable enough to recognize and talk to himself about it. Either way, John banishes the Mirror Demon once more and continues.
In another room, there are two Plagas Cultists that try to eat John before playing Red Light Green Light with a Blind One. John surpasses them and grabs the third artifact, unlocking the door on Moloch and enters the Nowhere Forest.
October 31st, 1987[]
After weakening Gary, he retreats inside the Crucible. John and Father Garcia follow him in pursuit. They come across a gigantic floating slab underneath the entrance to the Crucible. If John did not defeat the Unholy Trinity, he has to exorcise the slab to seal the entrance of the Crucible while Garcia shoots the oncoming thralls and cultists that were coming in to witness the Second Death being performed. However, John was able to remove the seal and enters the Crucible while Garcia fends for himself.
Although that was the last time we see cultists, what happened inside the Crucible is that John finds Gary kneeling in front of Miriam. She tried to perform the Second Death ritual on herself, but she ended up dying from its affects due to her old age. Although Malphas comes to aid Gary, John bests them. In a last-ditch effort, Malphas and Gary's spirits inhabits Miriam's body to become Super Miriam. However, John was able to split the two spirits long enough to catch Miriam's body on fire from a nearby candle. She explodes and Malphas disintegrates since he can't possess a body anymore. Amy awakens and floats down from the distance. Gary starts praising her, thinking that he can still use her for the Second Death ritual, but her demonic hand grabs him, calls him a failure, and drags him into Hell, killing him. Amy's face contorts back to normal and John finally finishes his exorcism with Amy. John and Father Garcia leave the Daycare Center and he starts a new journey either fighting demons with Garcia or starting a new life with Lisa.
Quotes[]
| Context | Quote | Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Approaching John | "THE SECOND DEATH." (x3) | |
| "GARY LOVES YOU." |
Trivia[]
- For a long time, the Faith community thought the red-robed enemies were called Thralls and the red people were called Cultists. However, it's the opposite. Looking at the filenames for each of them, the red-robed enemies are called Cultists and the red people are called Thralls (There may be some errors in a lot of pages because of this).
- Cultists and Thralls oddly don't appear as apparitions during a battle against Gary, but a Blind One does.
- What the Creepy Statue says before (seemingly) transforming into a Cultist is, "QUOD TU ESTIS, FUIMUS TALIA" and "QUOD SUMUS, ERITIS TU"
- The Plagas Cultists are likely a reference to the parasite of the same name from the Resident Evil franchise, which erupts from the host in an attempt to kill the victim.
Theories[]
- Just like the thralls, there are implications that cultists are constantly drugged or always in an altered state of mind.
- There's more evidence that thralls are drugged than cultists, but the way they ramble about the Second Death or "Gary Loves you" and how Gary reminds his members to swallow their pills as if it's mandatory gives credence to this.
- The cultists we see throughout the series are Tier IV Acolytes.
- The kind of wording we see in a note in Chapter III about this tier suggests that they think absolutely nothing but the Second Death ritual, which also explains their quotes.
- There's a hidden third goal to Gary's plans: bringing about a zombie apocalypse.
- The translation of the name "Plagas Cultist", the Magog effigy we see, the strange table, and how they're left unattended in Garyland gives evidence that Gary has been trying to bring greater chaos to the word by starting an apocalypse. He uses his cultists as test subjects to become zombies, proving that it's a success. Read the wiki page for Magog for greater details because this theory is a lengthy one.
- Thralls and Cultists don't appear as apparitions because John was either not scarred enough to remember them or their normal humans who got inducted into the cult.
- You'd assume that, at the least, thralls would appear since they've interacted with John more than Cultists do, but the meaning behind apparitions are overall vague. We're not sure if John came up with these apparitions or Gary summoned them himself, but it appears that these figures show up that have traumatized John. He might know that, deep down, thralls and cultists were persuaded by Gary to join his cult and doesn't get freaked out by them compared to the abomination of whatever Jeffrey is or how strong Michael was under possession. It's tough to say, because I don't know where to begin with the Skeletal Figure.
Gallery[]
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