Silent Hill Real Lore

In this guide I'm gonna tell you the Silent Hill Chapter backstory. I won't only talk about Pyramid Head and Cheryl Mason, I will also talk about iconic Silent Hill places that you can see in the games and cannot be appreciated in Dead by Daylight. The complete backstory of the characters wasn't included either in DBD so I will also cover that.

If it is interesting to you, please don't forget to rate up. You can also leave a comment if you wish to know anything else. I'm open to suggestions about what should be also written here.

Introduction

The reason why this guide has been created is because the backstory shown in Dead by Daylight is quite poor. It doesn't reflect the true nature of Pyramid Head. If I didn't know his true story, I would think that he is a serial killer who murder just for pleasure. The reality is far away from that. That's why I've created this, for those lore lovers as me. That been said, let's start with Pyramid head real backstory!

Silent Hill

"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."



On the surface, Silent Hill is portrayed as what could be considered an archetypal, peaceful, New England tourist town for relaxation. Chiefest among its industries are tourism and, to a lesser extent, agriculture. In the first Silent Hill, it is described to be a small town with a population below 30,000 and its key industry, tourism, is in a state of steady decline. However, it is still growing and expanding and may be considered a city by the events of Downpour. Some of the town's conservative residents oppose modernization and the transformation of the town into a tourist attraction.

However, Silent Hill is shown to be anything but ordinary. Although Silent Hill appears at a glance to be an innocuous rural town, this has brought about an unexpected darkness of drug distribution. A great number of eerie and odious rumors surround the town, such as Silent Hill being built on an ancient burial ground, and/or being a portal to Hell, people being spirited away, murderers, kidnappers, monsters, ghosts, aliens, etc.


Worse yet, Silent Hill plays host to a horrific supernatural alternate reality known as the Fog World and Otherworld, home to all manner of nightmarish monsters. It is also common to hear air-raid sirens between Fog World and Otherworld shifts (that's the sirens you can hear in the endgame colapse)



A religious extremist doomsday cult known as the Order lurks about the town, orchestrating their malefic endeavors in the shadows. Adamant for the return of their god in order to reach Paradise, the Order has been involved with murder, torture, child abuse, and has even convinced parents to dismember, drown, and set their children on fire, believing their sacrifices to appease God. Sinister traditions and rituals continue to be handed down from a time long ago and are performed in secrecy. Following the events of Homecoming, the Order is potentially defunct.

Otherworld

"In Silent Hill, the border between reality and unreality is indistinct. It may be that the town itself has moved somewhere that is like another dimension, or it may be that this is all happening inside someone's dream. Could it be that the real world awaits beyond the collapsed roads?

It may be viewed as a parallel or nonparallel plane of existence, although the Otherworld is an abstract concept which has never been officially or completely defined, and attempting to categorize the Otherworld as one or the other would be arguing semantics. However, both "world" and "dimension" have been used in reference to the Otherworld both in-game and in official guidebooks.



The doctor's journal implies it lies on the border where reality and unreality intersect, a place both close and distant. The Otherworld is not reality, yet it is still real on another plane of existence that is impossible for ordinary humans to comprehend and is difficult to describe by human language. The Otherworld may be viewed as a cancerous disease slowly infecting reality until reality becomes Hell on Earth, or a dimension invading another dimension. However, there is no doubt that the Otherworld is shaped by minds and the psyche of those present, usually to the effect of creating their own limbo.



Originally localized in Silent Hill, over time, this supernatural phenomenon extended to neighboring towns, such as Shepherd's Glen and Ashfield, especially with the burning of Alessa Gillespie, who acted as a catalyst for the Otherworld's state. Most games in the franchise feature the protagonists caught in dimensional shifts between this world and the less dangerous, but still hostile Fog World. Transitions to the Otherworld often occur suddenly and with little warning. The only protagonist who can willingly control the Otherworld shifts is Travis Grady through the use of mirrors.

Travis Grady is the protagonist of Silent Hill: Origins and we won't be talking about him because he wasn't introduced in Dead by Daylight. It is important if we are talking about "the otherworld" so that's why I mentioned him.



The Otherworld has the ability to reflect a character's psyche, or even multiple characters' psyches at a given time, and to twist the environment around them into their own personal nightmare. As monsters represent the personal fears and vices of a current inhabitant of the Otherworld, the environment too is altered to suit the subconscious of its current victims. As such, the Otherworld may appear anywhere from slightly to moderately different, depending on the character's subconscious that it is manifesting. This is in part due to the fact that it is usually the character's own personal influence and experience that is manifested in their particular nightmare world. However, for the most part, the appearances of the Otherworld typically follow a similar stylistic pattern.

The Otherworld is frequently depicted as a dark, decaying, oppressive, ruined universe, parallel to the Fog World. Many of its environments are partially or entirely made up of rusted and bloodstained metal floors and walls. Grating, fencing, barbed wire or entire sections of wall composed of flesh and other organic material resembling gore are also commonplace. Elements like chains, hooks, industrial fans, cages, meat carcasses, and rotting corpses can be found scattered throughout this world. The fans that are featured in many of the games are representative of rebirth, a recurring theme in the series.

Fog World

"I hear that it's almost never sunny in Silent Hill. And people say that when the fog comes out, strange things happen."

In the titular series, the resort town of Silent Hill was founded around Toluca Lake from which dense fog and darkness can envelop the area, blurring the distinction between dream and reality for some characters. During this state, elements of the unconscious mind, including impossible monsters and scenarios, can manifest into tangibility. This supernatural phenomenon is referred to as the Fog World or Misty World. Mirroring the cycles between REM and non-REM sleep, the Fog World will periodically shift to a deeper part of the nightmare referred to, as we've explained before, the "Otherworld" or the "reverse side". Those with troubled psyches are more susceptible to the Fog World, and the town has been known to attract those with darkness in their hearts.



There is no distinct boundary between the Real World and the Fog World. The flow of time and the laws of physics can also change when entering this state. The Fog World usually appears sparse, except for monsters and the occasional human being. The lingering thoughts of certain people who died suddenly and unexpectedly can cause their spirits to remain in the Fog World. Fog World-like states can affect areas outside of Silent Hill and Toluca Lake, but only under special circumstances.

Midwich Elementary School

Midwich is an important location in the original Silent Hill. Midwich Elementary School was also featured in the film and comic series.

Alessa Gillespie (an important non-playable character from the game introduced as an alternative skin for Cheryl Mason in Dead by Daylight) was a student here for approximately a year or two during her childhood. Alessa was the subject of extensive abuse and rejection from her peers, due to her possessing witch-like powers. For example, she was told to go home and drop dead, which would have a profound impact upon her psyche and how she viewed the world.



Midwich is very much symbolic of a hellish school, which no sane parent would want to send their child to. The environment was palpably toxic, where children bully others and the teachers seem to condone it (or at the very least, ignore it), and where kids who are "different" are ridiculed and teased. To add onto this, in the film adaptation, Midwich is shown to have a janitor that engages in acts of pedophilia.

It is heavily implied that Midwich, like many contemporary schools, is religious in nature. In the first game, crucifixes of Jesus can be found in the classrooms, implying that Midwich is a Christian or Catholic school. It is possible that Midwich is run by the Order since Dahlia Gillespie, an Order member, specifically chose it to educate her daughter (Alessa Gillespie).

The school appears as the first major building in Silent Hill that Harry Mason explores, in a bid to find his adopted daughter, Cheryl Mason. He was led there by clues Cheryl left in order to indicate her next possible location (in the form of scrawls from her sketchbook).



During Harry's visit to the school, he encounters the Grey Children (or Mumblers in the non-North American versions), as well as an assortment of various riddles and puzzles. These include burning a hand with a chemical and playing a piano (in this order). After collecting a Gold Medallion and Silver Medallion, Harry places them in the clock tower in the courtyard. He then goes to the boiler room and starts a boiler to unlock the clock tower doors. Back at the courtyard, Harry enters the clock tower and traverses to the Otherworld version of the school.

Heather Mason (Cheryl Mason)

"Listen, suffering is a fact of life. Either you learn how to deal with that or you go under. You can stay in your own little dream world, but you can't keep hurting other people! Besides, I'll never forgive you for hurting my father!"

Heather Mason is a character first appearing as a baby in Silent Hill and later as the protagonist of Silent Hill 3. She is the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie and Cheryl Mason, and the adoptive daughter of the original Silent Hill protagonist Harry Mason.



Before Heather was born, a cult in the town of Silent Hill, Maine impregnated the psychic child Alessa Gillespie with the fetus of their God so that it could be born and bring their horrific version of paradise to mankind. During the ritual, Alessa sustained significant burns, causing her to split her soul into two halves – one remaining in her charred body, while the other manifested as the baby Cheryl found on the side of the road by Harry Mason. Seven years later, Harry and Cheryl returned to Silent Hill on vacation, causing the two souls to reunite and allowing for the birth of God to take place. Harry was able to stop the deity, but the ritual was too much for the now-whole Alessa. As she was dying, she was reincarnated as a baby saved by Harry during the ordeal.

As with Cheryl, a grieving Harry raised the baby as his daughter Heather Mason. However, seventeen years after her birth, the cult managed to track down Heather in an attempt to birth God once more. They murdered Harry in the process, prompting her to seek revenge and stop the cult as her father did years ago. After the events of Silent Hill 3, she changed her name to Cheryl Mason to honor the name that Harry gave her former self before he became entangled with the cult.

Background:

Heather's given name is Cheryl Mason, the adopted daughter of the writer Harry Mason, who survived the events of the first Silent Hill game. When Harry escaped Silent Hill, Alessa, at that time serving as the Incubator, came back as an apparition and presented him with a newborn baby, which is both Cheryl and Alessa herself restored to one body again. Harry left Silent Hill with the baby and moved to Portland.

Harry was unsure about raising the baby and considered killing, strangling, and abandoning her because he suspected the baby was a reincarnation of Alessa, and Alessa was responsible for taking Cheryl away from him. However, Harry decided to raise her and chose to name the baby "Cheryl" again; he later felt this name was a mistake, though, since at the time, Harry only thought of her as a replacement for his lost Cheryl.

Five years later, they were attacked by a member of the Order in Portland, and Harry killed him in self-defense. In an attempt to throw the cult off if they come and look for them, he renamed her "Heather", dyed her hair blonde, and relocated to another city. Harry eventually settled in the Daisy Villa Apartments with Heather.

On one of Heather's birthdays, Harry gave her a pendant with a red jewel inside and told her to take good care of it and to never take it off; the reason being that the red jewel is crystallized Aglaophotis, which can expel demons, so if Heather should ever be in danger of birthing the Order's god again, she could survive by swallowing the Aglaophotis and expelling the entity.

Pyramid Head

There isn't only one Pyramid Head along the Silent Hill saga. The one who was introduced in Dead by Daylight is the original Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2. That's why I'm gonna give a general explanation and then I'm gonna focus on the Pyramid Head from the named game.



Red Pyramid Thing, more colloquially known as Pyramid Head, is a humanoid monster in the Silent Hill franchise first appearing in Silent Hill 2. His red helmet and butcher's attire echo the executioners of the town's past, who worshipped the angel of rebirth Valtiel. He is a manifestation of James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment, existing to keep him human and help him remember his past actions. His signature weapons are the Great Knife and the Great Spear, instruments of James' inner torment. After James kills Eddie Dombrowski (a character from Silent Hill 2) in self-defense, a second Pyramid Head materializes.

The character was reimagined in Silent Hill: Homecoming as The Bogeyman aka The Shadowed One, a creature of vengeance and justice who inflicts punishment on those who deserve it. The films and novels have extended his role to that of a protector and a servant of Valtiel.



Remember that the monsters in Silent Hill 2 are not pre-existing creatures, but rather manifestations of protagonist James Sunderland's subsconcious.



"I created Valtiel because I wanted to relate the works of the series through a creature. In the religion of Silent Hill, Valtiel exists as one who is close to God, and Pyramid Head takes the shape of Valtiel's reason for existence. That is to say, the Pyramid Head character was born from the townspeoples' idolatrous ideologies."

There is a supernatural power that surrounds Silent Hill, Maine that has the ability to manifest elements of the unconscious mind. In the early history of the town, Native Americans used this to seemingly communicate with both nature and their dead relatives. Their land was eventually stolen from them by European settlers. Because of the town's power, a mysterious cult began to form that took control over much of its infrastructure. One of the deities they worship is Valtiel, who serves as an angel of rebirth and a being close to God who has appeared in many forms throughout the town's history. The cult began performing ritualistic executions, wearing red hoods and an executioner's outfit modeled after him.

Right before Mary Shepherd-Sunderland contracted a lethal disease, three years before the events of Silent Hill 2, she and her husband James Sunderland visited the town of Silent Hill on vacation. One of the locations they visited was the Silent Hill Historical Society, which contained paintings and artifacts relating to the executioners of the town's past.



In the final stages of her disease, Mary fell into a state of agony and became verbally abusive towards James. It was during this that James smothered her with a pillow to relieve her of her pain and because of his growing resentment towards her. He instantly fell into a state of regret and denial, later receiving a letter of someone claiming to be Mary telling him to find her in Silent Hill. With the memory of killing her having been repressed, he traveled to Silent Hill to find her. But as he arrived, he found himself in a Dream-Reality state where the darkest elements of his subconscious were manifested into twisted monsters and scenerios.



As it has been said before, Pyramid is a direct manifestation of James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment. Now you can jump to the conclusion that he is extremely regretful for killing his wife. In fact, we can appreciate Jame's sexual frustration in the first encounter with Pyramid Head, when he is abusing two monsters known as Mannequins.

Lisa Garland

"Somehow I feel I'm not supposed to leave this place... Oh Harry, I'm so scared... I'm cold."

Lisa Garland is a character in the Silent Hill series, first appearing in Silent Hill, followed by its sequel Silent Hill 3, and later in the prequels Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Cage of Cradle. Growing up in the titular town, she once dreamed of becoming a renowned actress, but due to family tradition went into a career of nursing instead.

Lisa was the staff member at Alchemilla Hospital responsible for treating Alessa Gillespie in the seven years after she was burned during an occult ritual. Her addiction to narcotics made her a target for blackmail by a mysterious organization who had a vested interest in keeping Alessa alive. Lisa eventually died before the events of the original game, but her specter remained in the Otherworld, oblivious to her past.

Background

"Still has an unusually high fever... Eyes don't open... getting a pulse... but just barely breathing. Her skin is all charred! Even when I change the bandages, the blood and pus just start oozing through! Why... What is keeping that child alive? I... can't stand it any longer... I won't tell a soul... promise. So please..."

Lisa Garland is a young woman who grew up and worked in the tourist town of Silent Hill, Maine, attending Midwich Elementary School at an early age. In her late-teenage years, she was a theater enthusiast with aspirations of becoming an actress, sometimes visiting the Artaud Theater to daydream about rising to stardom. Her ambitions were overridden when she was pressured by her family to become a nurse like her mother and grandmother before her. She worked as a trainee nurse in Alchemilla Hospital under Dr. Michael Kaufmann, who secretly ran the town's drug trade and had business associations with the shadowy cabal known as "the Order".



Immediately after the psychic girl Alessa Gillespie was severely burned during an occult ritual orchestrated by the Order, Lisa would cross paths with Travis Grady, a man suspicious of the ordeal. Kaufmann began administering an illegal narcotic to her called PTV (a recreational drug used by tourists and citizens of Silent Hill) from his business, using her addiction to blackmail her into keeping Alessa alive in the basement and maintaining the Order's secret plan of impregnating her with their god so that it may be born into the physical world and cleanse the earth of suffering. Because of Alessa splitting her soul in half to stop the god's birth (materializing as the baby Cheryl Mason), she could not heal from her injuries, requiring constant medical attention.

Lisa spent the next seven years under Kaufmann's control and was promoted to the rank of nurse in this time. The years of drug abuse, blackmail, and stress of taking care of Alessa severely impacted her physical and mental health. She experienced hallucinations as her dependency on the drug grew worse, such as insects invading her personal space and bodily fluids pouring from the faucet. She became emotionally unstable and neurotic, often begging the Order to release her. The cult's angel of rebirth Valtiel manifested around this time as well, watching over the god fetus inside of Alessa as a protective guardian. One day, Lisa's boyfriend Matthew traveled to the town in a desperate attempt to save her.

Approximately a day later, the mother of Alessa, Dahlia Gillespie's spell of baiting Alessa's second half back to its source came to fruition. A now seven-year-old Cheryl and her adoptive father Harry were drawn back to the town of Silent Hill on vacation, after she felt an inexplicable craving to return there. This had disastrous consequences – Cheryl (Alessa's second half) and Alessa reuniting in the same vicinity caused Cheryl to revert to her former self, and Alessa's nightmare was psychically projected onto the entire town as a result. Matthew was killed when the town transitioned into this nightmare, coming face-to-face with Valtiel. He was unable to save Lisa from death, whose spirit remained trapped in the part of the nightmare known as the Otherworld.

That's all!

Thanks for reading. I hope I made it interesting. I've tried to explain the main things about the Silent Hill games that you need to know in order to understand the elements that has been introduced into Dead by Daylight. Anyways, I highly recommend you to at least watch the film and, if you feel like, play the games. They will be fantastic survival-horror experience that you will hardly forget.

There are a total of eight games but the the ones I recommend to play are the three first because the other ones are going to be a declining experience. But that's up to you. On Steam you have avaliable Silent Hill: Homecoming, it is said that the port is horrible but you could give it a try if you wanna get iniciated in the saga.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/19000/Silent_Hill_Homecoming/

Games

• Silent Hill (1999)
  
• Silent Hill 2 (2001)
  
• Silent Hill 3 (2003)
  
• Silent Hill 4: The Room (2004)
  
• Silent Hill: Origins (2007)
  
• Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008)
  
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)
  
• Silent Hill: Downpour (2012)

Books

• Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle
  
• Drawing Block: Silent Hill 3 Program
  
• Silent Hill: The Novel
  
• Silent Hill 2: The Novel
  
• Silent Hill 3: The Novel

Comics

• Silent Hill: Dying Inside
  
• Silent Hill: Among the Damned
  
• Silent Hill: Paint it Black
  
• Silent Hill: The Grinning Man
  
• Silent Hill: Dead/Alive
  
• Silent Hill: Hunger
  
• Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward
  
• Silent Hill: Past Life
  
• Silent Hill: Anne's Story

[Hyperion]

If you +rep me on my profile and say something like good Dead By Daylight player, really good killer etc... I will do the same for you :)

[Wild Cloud]

P.S: You can buy and play the fourth game, which has a connection with someone who is mentioned in the first game, in GOG

[Wild Cloud]

They are until the fourth game. Everything after that game is kinda unnecessary. There are rumours that a remake of the second game is on the way tho (this is the best game of the franchise by far imo)

[Totally TopHat]

I wish they would remake the silent hill games and release them on steam like the resident evil games, cause they look really fun to play

[ralp h]

good shit

[Wild Cloud]

I already said it. I am quite sure that developers would have loved to include all the amazing lore of SH in the game but Konami is a huge obstacle. I am sure that they didn't allow it. The ones who knew Konami were already susprised of seeing that they let Behavior introduce something Silent Hill-related @Q-wer-T

[JenꞳter]

Well, alright then; since that moment, I'm on my grand discovery journey dedicated to Silent Hill. I do hope I'm tough enough for this, so wish me some luch :). Please, don't abandon this informative masterpiece; even though there's a presumable limit to this, one can always find something more to add. At the moment, as I suggest, you can express your own opinion as the author, e.g. why the developers didn't cover these aspects (and that's why you decided to make such an informative contribution). No doubts, you'll succeed, 'case people really appreciate it, and me, too, of course.

[Wild Cloud]

Sadly, only Silent Hill: Homecoming is on Steam. That's because Konami (the company responsable of Silent Hill) has released most of their games on PlayStation. They have been a long time without launching games and there are rumors that a new silent hill will be created and launched by Sony

I'm glad to hear that the guide helped to make you interested in the saga. About the books, if I am not mistaken... The books aren't officially free. I say "officially" because you can find everything free on the internet nowadays but that would be piracy and that's up to you @Q-wer-T

[JenꞳter]

Oh, my big thanks, Wild [should also add 'super informative'] Cloud, I'm all absorbed with reading right now. It's very nice of you; at first place, I thought my suggestions were rather bothering for you, but nevermind. I'm looking forward to have my own experience in Silent Hill (one day, long time ago, I started it, but then eventually stopped, which is sad find out at the moment). DbD is a fine 'platform' for paying special attention to such horror games like Silent Hill. Besides, I don't take it only just as a horror game anymore - all thanks to you once again.
Also, it's werid not to find this outstanding franchise in Steam. Well, at least there's a discernible in front if my eyes in this guide, so I won't lost anyway. In addition, I wonder if the books' series are in a free access? I think there's a reason or two for some serious doubts.

[Wild Cloud]

Btw, Lisa Garland is already here @Q-Wer-T