The media called it Jonestown 2.0 but the mass suicide had more in common with the Heaven’s Gate tragedy. The only thing closer to its namesake’s character was scale, 316 people dead in a commune in the California desert, 9 were arrested or indefinitely hospitalized after the fact, and what is guessed to be somewhere shy of a dozen are still in the wind. For an event so intensely scrutinised and which touched and destroyed the lives of so many people very little is properly, publically understood about what went on in the final days of the 14th Enochian People’s Collective.
Three of the survivors know exactly what happened, cult guru Lincoln Barksdale promised them heaven and at the moment of their salvation they faltered and failed him. It’s still there, just barely out of reach with all of those who passed over waiting on the other side. The person-sized and -faced butterflies fluttering around an endless Greek agora that haunts the cabal’s shared dreams looks little like what was promised but still compels them to action. Incomplete as the result of the botched creation, what is actually a sacrifice-fuelled otherspace has less than a year until it collapses. The creature wearing Barksdale’s face understands this even though they don’t and has harassed them into action.
Paradise Lost is formed around the idea that with another 14 willing participants to make up the shortfall they can redeem their failed test of faith and survival. They have precious little time and added complication of scrutiny from all corners but are slavishly motivated by the possibility of redemption and eternal reward. Their objectives are:
- Mulligan the otherspace creation objective to gain access to the weird paradise (current objective 26%).
- Avoid scrutiny by both the authorities and the media. Their participation a massive tragedy is terrible enough without people realising they're going for a redo.
- Find other survivors. If they're experiencing the same shared dreams and unnatural phenomenon they might be convinced to try again. Alternatively they may pose the biggest threat.
Brian Digger was an accountant, not a very good one but he has a way of making people laugh that surprised and endeared him to clients. It's disarming in a way that meant that the embezzlement scheme he used to fund an obnoxious coke habit wasn't discovered for years. He did his time, got out, lamented job prospects that began and ended with manual labour and cooked up a scheme to get himself back to work.
As Brian saw it the 14th Enochian People's Collective was just another cult fleecing its believers. He'd be doing them a favour robbing the people who were robbing them. Using his characteristic easy going manner he wormed his way in and looted a bundle. Then things became very frightening very fast.
The trauma has led Brian to embrace asceticism, eschewing the material pleasures he once embraced and coveted. It's not easy, he's a lifelong cokehead but he's seen the light and believes this is his chance at salvation.
Tricia Kessler was a minor league investigative reporter with outsized ambitions, inserting herself into the cult as a believer was a harebrained scheme cooked up between jobs she resented for their lack of popular appeal. Intending to write a book about her experiences she got more than she bargained for when the cult's plans were revealed. Cut off from communication or escape to the outside world she found herself party to a horrifying nightmare.
She can't believe how wrong she had been. The "truth" that there is another world to go to has shattered her worldview and replaced it with guilty zeal. As the member of the cabal with the highest profile she has the most to worry about from outsiders like friends and family.
Brother Xanax (he refuses to discuss his real name or his current moniker's drug connotations) was a faithful adherent to the Enochian People's principles and beliefs, he only survived his ritual poisoning by misdosage. He believes he is in the company of sinners and apostates and isn't shy about letting the rest of the cabal know. Still, he needs their help if he is to succeed in their task and expediency is winning out over piety so far.
A veritable theological encyclopedia, the mystery of Xanax's background is a source of constant, quiet speculation between Brian and Tricia. Neither of them are close to the truth, his convictions are the result of an episode of drug-induced psychosis over the conflict between his strict Methodist upbringing and his former employment as the proprietor of an adult video rental store.
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