Los Iluminados

File:Los Illuminados.jpeg

The Los Illuminados Insignia

Los Illuminados (from Spanish, meaning "The Enlightened Ones") was a cult operating in an unknown rural region in Spain.

History

Early history

Los Illuminados was created some time around the 18th century where they worshipped "Plaga", a parasitic organism with the ability to control its hosts.

The first Castellan of the region outlawed the cult, and had the Plagas sealed in a cave system beneath his castle.

Release

Eventually under the rule of the 8th Castellan, Los Illuminados now under the rule of Osmund Saddler, were allowed to mine the area, for that was how Salazar felt he should atone for the sins of his ancestors, who sealed Plaga from Los Illuminados, effectively occupying his castle which acted as a base for the cult under Saddler.

When Ramon Salazar released the Plagas seal no one thought they could bring them back to life. However, Plaga remains were found to be fossilized (suggesting they could be millions of years old). Although they appeared fossilized, they were able to survive the long years by lying in a dormant state at cellular level remaining in a spore-like form. These were found to be what first infected the miners, becoming full fledged Plagas after many years of development. Likely using these first Plagas, Saddler perfected the ability to reproduce the organism and took to implanting Plagas eggs into new hosts.

The entire Los Illuminados were soon implanted with Plagas along with much of the local population who had joined the cult. Saddler himself was implanted with a dominant-strain Plaga and as such has direct control over the others, using lieutenants with similarly augmented Plagas to monitor and direct the Ganados on the ground.

The villagers then returned to life as normal as they could, farming, attending cult services at the local church, acting as guards for Salazar's castle or working the mines while the cult zealots engaged in dark rituals and sacrifices in the name of Saddler.

The plan

Some time before Autumn 2004, American agent Jack Krauser, while secretly working for Albert Wesker, arrived at the village in search of the parasite. He was later used to kidnap Ashley Graham, daughter of U.S. President Graham, as part of an Illuminados plot to do no less than take over the entire world by infecting Ashley and returning her to her father in order to influence the United States' executive branch. Saddler noted, however, that in order to take over the US, the parasites would need to spread to those with influence over the President's decisions - Congress; the Department of Justice; military government agencies and large private companies.

Plan B was to use Saddler's paramilitary militia to infiltrate the United States and sow discord from within, likely gaining converts to Los Illuminados as they went. Ada Wong, an agent for "the 3rd Organization" and subordinate to Wesker, destabilized "Plan B" when she sank the militia's warship docked within the island.

Los Illuminados is believed to have been destroyed with the death of Saddler and the dominant-strain Plaga.

Trivia

• Los Illuminados means 'The Enlightened Ones'. This may be a reference to The Illuminati, a real world secret society existing in the eighteenth century. Their mission may also be a reference to the New World Order conspiracy theory, which aims to conquer the world with their influence.
• The insignia of Los Illuminados is based on the larval form of Plaga.