gloom
despair: joseph schreiber
"From the Darkness and Void, bring forth Gloom,
and gird thyself with Despair for the Giver of Wisdom."
The 15th victim is the first one (besides Walter, of course) that has directly something to do with the game storyline itself; because is Joseph Schreiber, the man who lived in Room 302 immediately before Henry moved there.
Nobody in South Ashfield Heights suspected what really happened to him, maybe because the body was never found. Before we can finally get to know what happened, we spend most of the game getting some bits and information here and there: For example, right after you come back from the Water Prison world (the first time you visit it) a scene takes place in the corridor, in which Frank Sunderland is trying to open the Room 302 and he isn't able to do it; then he tells Eileen that "it's not the first time", because apparently it happened the same to the guy who lived there before (I've included the dialogue in this section). Right after that, when you reach the Building world, we can know a little more during the cutscene where Henry meets Richard:
"Then there must be something wrong with the whole
apartment
building... That must explain what happened to that other guy too..."
"What "other guy"?"
"The guy who lived in 302 before you... A journalist...he disappeared one day. He got pretty crazy towards the end... Shut himself up in his room and wouldn't come out..."
Henry quickly understands that Joseph went through all the same he's going through now: he was also locked up in the room against his own will, maybe he could even visit the same nightmarish worlds he's visiting now. Maybe he also witnessed horrible crimes and had to fight to scary, disgusting monsters in order to survive and find a way to escape...
But "thanks" to Joseph's experience and investigations and the notes he left behind, is that we're able to survive in Silent Hill 4. It makes perfect sense: while Joseph is "the giver of wisdom", Henry is "the receiver of Wisdom". Henry learns everything he needs to know through Joseph notes, and Joseph knew there would be a person who would live in Room 302 once he had died, and that person would be their only hope - the only one who could stop Walter from what he was trying to do. That's why Joseph does everything he can to help this person, the one who's intended to be the #21 sacrifice: he knows he won't be able to survive because Walter is too powerful to escape him, and because his role in the "21 sacraments prophecy" isn't this one - but preparing the way for the person who will have to stop Walter, and the way to do so is sharing his knowledge with him. Letting him read, through documents and letters, about everything he has learned on this matter.
Joseph was a very active and competent journalist. He decided to do some research on the infamous Silent Hill religious cult because of the negative rumours that surrounded it. That's why he ended writing that article about the Wish House and publishing it in a gossip magazine, hoping that it would turn people's attention to them and the truth behind the cult would be then investigated and brought to light. Because of all the things he had got to know about the cult and the type of person he was, he was actually the best option to be the 15th sacrifice, considering that person should be the Giver of Wisdom. However, the fact he was chosen by Walter to be his 15th victim could have had also something to do with the fact he was living in Room 302 and being one of the main reasons, if not the main one, why Walter couldn't meet with his lost mother. I mean, it could have been simply a matter of revenge... But well - I think that probably Joseph went to live to South Ashfield Heights *before* his investigations on the cult, though... and he ended feeling somehow attracted to the cult's true story and wanting to investigate it maybe because he was destined to do so, or even maybe Valtiel tried to use his powers to influence him, who knows. Whatever the reasons were exactly, Joseph was chosen by Walter to be the 15th sacrifice, and he couldn't do anything to escape this fact.
"He locked me up in this room and played with me just like a toy...
My eyes are starting to go blind...
The pain...
I can feel my body starting to die...
But...things are taken care of...
Whoever lives here after me...
You'll be the 21st, the last of the sacrifices...
I leave it up to you...
When the bell tolls,
the ritual begins.
Eileen=mother's body, blood.
Part of the mother's
flesh=super's room.
This is all I've been able
to figure out.
I hope this letter gets to you in time..."
On a side note, while we can find most of the victims wandering around the different game scenarios in their ghost form, I'm not sure at all if we can see Joseph besides in the scene his spirit talks to Henry and Eileen, at the beginning of the Apartments world (2nd visit). Though I guess he's also the "wall man" spirit that appears in the intro, and also the ghost that appears in different places of Room 302 in the second half of the game, when the hauntings begin to take place there. I'm not sure, because I actually can't understand why we can't see his face while he talks with Henry and Eileen while we've been able to see the face of every ghost and monster before... but I guess it was him, considering most of the ghosts appear near the places where they were killed and, as far as we know, nobody else could have been killed in Room 302 besides Joseph. Yet.
21 Sacraments is a Howlingmoon.net
production (2005) / We're not affiliated with Konami and we don't
claim Walter and/or any other Silent Hill related characters & items
as our own - this is an unofficial, non-profit site, made by fans
for fans, and no copyright infringement is inteded - for any questions
or concerns, please don't hesitate contacting me.
This site is valid XHTML
1.0 Transitional and is viewable in 800x600 resolution, though 1024x768
(or higher) is recommended