Saint Havohej

The Tragedy of Makoba Village
(1997 radio drama)

Saint Havohej‏ (聖 (ひじり) ハヴァオス, hijiri havaosu) is a deity worshipped by an American religious commune in the Arklay Mountains. The cult was formed at some point prior to the 1920s, but was destroyed after its followers were infected with t-Virus.

Etymology

Saint Havohej's name is a reverse of the word Jehovah, a 16th-century Anglicisation of the Hebrew word Yahweh (יהוה). This is one of the names for the god of Abrahamic faiths.

Origins and development

Havohej's origins lie with the emergence of orthodox Christianity in the Early Mediæval Period, which itself inherited preceding cultural suspicions of sinister outliers being responsible for disaster, and was often tied with stock cultural fears such as cannibalism and witchcraft. In the eyes of Christian Europe, people accused of these crimes were also by association assumed to have entered pacts with Satan, and into the Early Modern Period tens of thousands were executed over such accusations with the vast majority now believed to have been innocent of the charges.

At some point prior to the 1920s, one group of American Christians did however reject God in favour of Satan, known to them as Saint Havohej, and they formed a commune in the Midwest to live in secret. This secrecy was broken in 1924 following an investigation conducted by residents Raccoon City, a community 40 km to the south. In spite of this, however, further investigation were scarce and the commune's nature was largely forgotten about.

In May 1998, a strain of t-Virus leaked out at a top-secret bioweapons research complex in the mountains, infecting the local wildlife. The following month a group of pilgrims went out into the forest in search of herbs as part of the Feast of Saint Havohej. There, they ritualistically killed and consumed the blood of an infected snake, and soon began displaying symptoms of Cannibal Disease. Within days they began attacking, killing and eating their fellow members, in some cases drifting in and out of consciousness. Attempts were made by the villagers to stop the spread, but they were thwarted by those with orthodox views. Within days the village was near completely destroyed. By the end of July, the only remaining members of the cult were two children, Lorraine and Toby Simmons.

Worship

Due to the origins of Havohej's name, it would appear the cult's belief system was based on a dualistic cosmology, that Jehovah and Havohej are competing deities. As they did not denounce their belief in Jehovah, they did not regard Christians as apostates, simply as followers of the inferior deity; Christians themselves were known to live in the village as relatives of Satanists. Havohej may have been associated with snakes, which were sacrificed, and it was believed to imbue his followers with fantastical powers to serve as his agents. Far from the stereotypes of the then-ongoing Satanic panic, those living in the commune in 1998 shared a variety of viewpoints from the more orthodox Satanists to more secular practitioners, and there is no indication human sacrifice was ever performed.

The only known holiday of the calendar was the Feast of Saint Havohej, which took place every four years in mid-July. This holiday required much preparation; though it concluded sometime in late July, participants were expected to go out on pilgrimage into Raccoon Forest to collect herbs in June.

In July 1998, a schism broke out amongst the followers over how to deal with Cannibal Disease, divided between the more secular and orthodox factions. The former, led by the Village Chief, believed those that drank the blood of a deformed snake had been cursed and that for the good of the commune they were to be isolated and, if necessary, killed. The latter, led by Simmons, instead believed it was a sign of their pact and something to be welcomed and spread around. Ultimately Simmons' faction was responsible for the cult's destruction, having deliberately sabotaged any attempts to slow the spread.

Further notes

• The idea of a Satanic cult being active in the Arklay Mountains was an early idea proposed by the Resident Evil development team for what would eventually become the Umbrella Corporation. Promotional material for the 2002 remake would make reference to this scrapped idea in the form of an RPD theory about the cause of the cannibalistic homicides, and would finally become the basis of Los Iluminados in Resident Evil 4.

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