Silent Hill Storylines
The storyline for Silent Hill is very confusing. I decided to break it down to what I know about it. To my understanding the games are about the following…
Birth of The Order’s God Storyline
Silent Hill 1
There is a cult called The Order that lives in the town of Silent Hill. They worship some sort of God (more like a Demon). Their main plan is to birth the god into reality by using a human vessel. Dahlia Gillespie uses her own daughter Alessa as this vessel. In some sort of ritual to birth the God, Dahlia burns Alessa in their house when she is 7 years old. In Silent Hill Origins, trucker Travis Grady rescues Alessa from the burning house. Burned Alessa is taken to Alchemilla Hospital. Alessa doesn’t want to birth the God and her torment and pain is so severe that it manifests the Nightmare Other World. In order to stop the God from being birthed and to save a part of herself, her soul splits in two. The second half becomes the baby Cheryl that’s adopted by Harry Mason. Alessa cannot birth the God unless her soul is whole. 7 years later Cheryl is drawn back to the town to reunite with the other half of her soul. Harry’s character is drawn into the world of Silent Hill by chance as he searches for Cheryl. Once Cheryl and Alessa are reunited as one, the cult is able to bring forth a manifestation of the God through them that Harry Mason defeats. After it is defeated a new baby housing the soul of Alessa is created. Harry once again takes the baby to adopt as his own naming her Heather. He and Heather escape.
Silent Hill 3
The direct sequel to Silent Hill takes place 17 years later. Heather Mason is now a 17 year old teenager and apparently she and Harry have been hiding from The Order. Members of The Order hired detective Douglas Cartland to find Heather by claiming she was kidnapped. The Order are still attempting to birth their God but they need Heather to use as a vessel. Douglas, unaware of The Order’s intentions and believing he is just trying to help find a kidnapped girl, consequently leads The Order to Heather. Heather meets Claudia Wolf who was apparently childhood friends with her previous incarnation, Alessa Gillespie but Heather has no knowledge of her past life. Much like Dahlia, Claudia is a devout priestess of The Order. To lure Heather back to Silent Hill Claudia has Heather’s father, Harry Mason, killed. Back in Silent Hill Claudia attempts to have Heather birth the God. Heather rejects the entity and vomits it out (it appears in the form of a worm). Claudia swallows it in order to birth the God herself. She is successful and the God bursts out of Claudia, killing her in the process. Heather defeats it, much like her father did in the first game, and leaves the town. Douglas acts as if he will adopt Heather as they escape together.
The Order Cult Rituals Storylines
Silent Hill Homecoming
Takes place in the neighboring town of Shepard’s Glen which is home to a different sector of The Order who relocated there from Silent Hill. This sector is not into worshipping and birthing the God but instead sought protection from it. The four founding families of Shepard Glen’s Order required ritual sacrifice of one of their children every 50 years in order to receive protection from the God. The families consisted of Mayor Bartlett, Judge Holloway, Doctor Fitch and Police Chief Shepard. The story follows Alex Shepard as he returns home to Shepard’s Glen to find it desolate of townsfolk and overrun with monsters. He learns that his younger brother is missing and goes looking for him. Throughout his investigation, it’s revealed that his father planned to sacrifice him in the ritual but before he could Alex’s younger brother was killed in an accident. This threw off the balance of things, even though the other 3 founding families made their sacrifices, and the town was sent into darkness. The Order began kidnapping and sacrificing residents of the town to try and appease the God. All the sacrificed children manifest into demons that Alex fights off. Once they’re defeated he and his childhood friend Elle Holloway escape.
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Takes place in South Ashfield which is a town several hours drive away from Silent Hill. It’s a stand alone story that centers around Henry Townshend. Henry lives in an apartment complex in room 302, later to be revealed as the room where serial killer Walter Sullivan performed ritual sacrifices. Walter was raised at Wish House Orphanage near Silent Hill owned and operated by members of The Order. There he learned rituals and teachings in accordance with The Order. Walter attempts to perform the 21 Sacrements ritual to resurrect his mother, which requires the murder and hearts of 21 sacrifices. He makes 10 sacrifices, but then kills himself as the 11th Sacrament in order to complete the Ritual of the Holy Assumption. This makes him a ghost and gives him the power to create his own Otherworld that he sucks Henry and the rest of his victims into. During the gameplay, Henry Townshend witnesses the deaths of 4 more of Walter’s victims (Sacraments 16, 17, 18 and 19). Henry’s neighbor Eileen is meant to be sacrifice 20 and Henry the final 21st sacrifice. Henry ends up saving Eileen and himself by defeating Walter. This game takes place in a different town and a different Otherworld reality. It doesn’t have the traditional Silent Hill themes but then it doesn’t take place in Silent Hill. It’s a different story about one of The Order’s orphan’s being able to achieve the dark power to create an Otherworld of his own, separate from that of Alessa’s. Though unlike Alessa, his powers are not able to alter the reality of an entire town. It seemingly only affects certain people, mainly his intended victims.
Dark Past Drawing Main Characters Back to the Town Storylines
Silent Hill 2
Follows James Sunderland who receives a letter from his dead wife Mary asking him to meet her in Silent Hill. This is a stand alone story arc which demonstrates the town of Silent Hill as having the power to draw people with dark forgotten pasts from the town back into it to explore their hidden mental torment. The characters who are drawn in have no memory of the tragic events but clues present themselves as you play through uncovering their back story and history with the town. In James’ case, he and Mary used to vacation in Silent Hill staying at the Lakeview Hotel. His wife later became terminally ill and was admitted to the Brookhaven Hospital in Silent Hill. This would indicate the James and his wife lived near the town. James ended up suffocating and killing Mary with a pillow while she was sick. It’s unclear if this was a mercy kill or if he couldn’t handle her sickness any longer and snapped. In any case, he had no memory of these events and it is revealed slowly as he explores the town of Silent Hill and consequently his own dark past. During the gameplay he meets other characters who appear to be experiencing similar scenarios where the town has lured them in to deal with their own pasts, Angela who killed her abusive father and Eddie who also killed someone. Much of what happens to James in the Nightmare World are manifestations of his guilt for murdering his wife. At the end when the truth is revealed James commits suicide by drowning himself in Toluca Lake.
Silent Hill Origins
Takes place before Silent Hill 1. Travis Grady rescues the 7 year old Alessa from her burning house and is sucked into the town of Silent Hill and the Nightmare Other World. Alessa was obviously able to manifest the Nightmare World immediately upon her being burned, so in a way it seems Dahlia’s ritual was somewhat successful in unleashing Alessa’s power. Despite it being a prequel, Travis Grady’s story isn’t connected much to the main storyline of Silent Hill. He interacts with a few characters from the first game to move the story events along but his is more of a stand alone story arc. As stated previously the town of Silent Hill has a dark power to draw people with forgotten pasts back to explore their hidden backstories. In Travis’ case his mother, Helen Grady, went insane and tried to kill him when he was a child. She was admitted to the Cedar Grove Sanitarium in Silent Hill and his father ended up hanging himself in the Riverside Motel. This implies that Travis lived in or near the town of Silent Hill when he was a child. It’s possible his mother was raised within The Order or has some connection to them though it's not mentioned. Travis ends up escaping Silent Hill ready to start over as he leaves.
Silent Hill Downpour
Follows prisoner Murphy Pendleton as he’s being transferred to another prison. As the prison bus passes by Silent Hill it crashes trapping him in the town. Of all the Silent Hill games, this one has the least to do with the series as a whole. It’s a stand alone story and none of the reoccurring themes used throughout the Silent Hill series is present besides him being drawn into Silent Hill to reveal his past. He was apparently not affiliated with the town prior to being trapped there and the town itself looks and feels nothing like it does in previous games. It’s rainy instead of foggy and the Nightmare World is completely different. He has no previous affiliation with the town so the places that he explores have no significance to the character’s backstory. I honestly don’t think any of the previous Silent Hill settings even appear in this game, such as a hospital or motel. It’s revealed through flashbacks that Murphy killed the man who murdered his son, though he did not kill Officer Frank Coleridge. Frank was the father to Officer Anne Cunningham, Anne being the police officer vengefully pursuing Murphy throughout the game believing him to have killed her father. This story arc was pretty much a throw away with no thematic link to the Silent Hill series at all.