The People's Church of the Divine Host is an organization related to The Dark.
It is connected to symbolism of a closed eye drawn as a curved line with four straight lines coming out of it. Many of the group's members wear silver pendants depicting a hand with this closed eye symbol in the palm.
The People's Church of the Divine Host is also associated with the company "Outer Bay Shipping", with a warehouse in Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway.
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History[]
The cult was founded by Maxwell Rayner. It was active in the late 1980s-early 1990s, until Rayner's disappearance, after which it fragmented.
Linette Montauk, mother of Julia Montauk and wife of Robert Montauk, was a member of this cult. After her disappearance from the family home in 1990, Robert Montauk (then a police officer) became a serial killer on behalf of Maxwell Rayner, in a futile attempt to get her back. After Robert Montauk turned on the group and killed a cultist named Christopher Lorne, the group sent a creature to attack him and his daughter, which Robert banished.[1] He was arrested and later killed in his prison cell shortly after a visit from Rayner, where he was found stabbed 47 times in the heart while locked alone in his cell, which had the bulb had blown out.[2]
In early 2007, Rayner's right-hand Manuela Dominguez was sent to space on the Daedalus, where her task was to create a ball of darkness called the Dark Star or the Black Star, a necessary component for the ritual of the Dark called the Extinguished Sun.[3] She succeeded, and reportedly only she, Rayner, and Natalie Ennis could look upon it.[4]
In 2010, an adult Julia Montauk was working as a security guard at an office building when she discovered a ritual by members of The People's Church of the Divine Host. She tried to interrupt the ritual and found herself dragged into a deep, black pool of water. She was rescued by Trevor Herbert, who had broken into the building to hunt the cult members.[5]
In March 2015, Natalie Ennis joined the cult. She talked about how they had been waiting for 300 years, but soon would all be collected by "Mr. Pitch", likely referencing the ritual to bring The Dark into the world. On March 11, her roommate's boyfriend tried to follow her to the Hither Green Dissenters Chapel in a graveyard near Lewisham. Inside, people were singing, and their words repeatedly coming together for the words "Ny-Ålesund", which stopped when he turned on his phone flashlight.[6]
On March 20, 2015, an eclipse was to pass over Ny-Ålesund, which the People's Church of the Divine Host would use to replace the sun with the Dark Star Manuela Dominguez had created. The ritual took place over the course of a "week of night and horror", with members of the church around the world performing sacrifices by drowning people in pools of brackish water blessed by the "Still and Lightless Beast". However, various congregations of the church began to disappear, and while they did not stop the ritual, members in the heart of the ritual in Ny-Ålesund became concerned. Though Rayner and Dominguez succeeded in bringing the Dark into the world, Dominguez says that it just stopped, and the ritual failed, which she believes this to be the work of Gertrude Robinson.[4]
On May 15, 2015, screams were heard from inside Hither Green Dissenters Chapel just after 11 pm. This is also the official date of Gertrude Robinson's death.[6]
In February 2017, the cult kidnapped Callum Brodie and was planning a ritual for Maxwell Rayner to transfer his consciousness into Brodie when Basira's team of sectioned officers interrupted them. Officer Leo Altman and cultists Natalie Ennis and Maxwell Rayner were killed during the raid.[7]
Known Members[]
- Maxwell Rayner - Founder and leader of the cult
- Manuela Dominguez - Second in command to Rayner
- Natalie Ennis - High ranking member of the group
- Linette Montauk
- Christopher Lorne
Other[]
The Serapeum of Alexandria was destroyed by "those who sing the night".[8] This is possibly an early predecessor of the modern-day church.
The cult bears a strong resemblance to the "Starry Wisdom Sect" from the HP Lovecraft story The Haunter of the Dark. Like the Divine Host, Starry Wisdom are also based out of an old church, connected to a larger, globe-spanning occult organization, have wealthy backers and summon a supernatural creature that is weak against light.