Cheryl's "birth"

[Alessa]

I haven't come up with a conclusoin about Cheryl's "birth" yet. Was it Dahlia that gave birth to another child? Was it Alessa that split herself in two?

Depending on what theory you choose to believe, the purposes for calling Cheryl to town are slightly different:

- Dahlia gave birth to another child: the ritual with Alessa went wrong and Samael was not complete.
- Alessa split herself in two: the ritual with Alessa was a succesful one, but now half of Samael is missing.

Moreover, the way in which baby Cheryl was left in the outskirts of the town also varies. If Dahlia had another child it was probably Lisa who did it. If Alessa split herself in two it was probably herself who "magically" placed the baby on the road.

I feel inclined to believe the latter. In Nowhere, where there are four people surrounding Alessa's sick bed, one of them says: "But it's not done yet. Half the soul is lost. That is why the seed lies dormant."

Anyway... what do you think?

[Spider]

Just to be clear, are you talking about first birth or first rebirth?

[shootzombies]

Well it seems to me that Alessa was the one who put cheryl on the side of the road. She didn't seem to want the ritual to happen but she knew that it did have to happen. Otherwise there would never be a "paradise". In fact if you listen to the songs on the sountracks Alessa seems to want to know all about Cheryl's life.

There is a quote from "Letter- of the Lost Days" though that sort of confused me and disturbed me at the same time. In the song Alessa is talking to Heather/Cheryl and wondering what life is like for her- she then says this quote in the song: "is daddy still a good man?" What does that mean? How would Heather know Alessa's father? Unless of course Harry Mason is both Alessa and Cheryl's father *shivers*. Or it could be that Alessa just knows who took Cheryl under their wing. Still you gotta admit that is a bit disturbing. What do you guys think about it?

[Alessa]

Just to be clear, are you talking about first birth or first rebirth?

You confused me there... But I suppose I meant "first birth". I'm not talking about Heather, but the very first Cheryl.

[Spider]

Heather is Cheryl, first rebirth.

It gets complicated.....

Alessa is born of Dahlia. Father unknown, most people lean towards Kaufmann.

Alessa splits off baby Cheryl when Harry and his wife are visiting Silent Hill. I believe that Alessa saw the inherent good in Harry and created Cheryl from half of her own soul so that Harry would be able to stop Alessa's suffering in the future.

Cheryl First Birth goes home with Harry and his wife. Wife dies, Harry and CFB come back to Silent Hill for vacation. Events of V.1 transpire.

With the ending given to us as the right one by Konami in Lost Memories, Harry and Cheryl Rebirth leave the town.

Valtiel is the resurrector of the God, so he has a hand in the creation of Cheryl Rebirth. The ritual was not completed with Alessa/CFB brought back together, so he had to facilitate Cheryl Rebirth.

Harry took Cheryl Rebirth with him, renamed her Heather to try and stop the cult from finding Cheryl Rebirth and completing the ritual.

Then the events of V.3 take place. At the end, Heather goes back to being Cheryl Rebirth by name.

So, to answer your question, Dahlia had no other child to create Cheryl. While she may have had another child, it wasn't Cheryl.

[Lobsel_Vith]

Cheryl is a physical incarnation of half of Alessa's soul. She was placed in the cemetery by the Red God (Xuchilbara) though as to what form is unclear (I'm leaning towards Lisa, or Kaufmann)

[Maria]

I don't know.

I always saw it as the 'rebirth' is Alessa, using the power of the god, re-fusing her soul into one being.

That would mean that there really isn't a 'Cheryl Rebirth', but an Alessa Rejoined.

Cheryl, such as she is, isn't really a person at all. She was created by the god as a safe repository of part of her soul.

There is a weird 'hole' here. The god promised that she'd be back to open the path to Paradise. A good thing, yes? Yet the alternate SH is not a good place. Claudia justifies the horror by claiming that there needs to be a cleansing, and Paradise will be opened after it. We're told that the horrible SH is the result of Alessa/the god's pain acting on the town.

But we are left with the puzzle, why did the god not simply come back when the initial ritual was done? That would have avoided all the dark Silent Hill stuff, the path to Paradise would be open, and mankind would live in joy.

Was Dahlia's initial ritual so screwed up that it made the god(who is clearly present) not want to manifest?

[=AoD= Captain]

The Cult never actually completely the ritual correctly, and our protaganists have prevented the arrival of Paradise. Ritual in the occult tend to be very specific, with the least variation they wont work (all those that have ancient roots and are worth a damn anyway). Someone always kicks god's ass and screws it all up. It is a malignant deity and therefore paradise would be all pain and diabolical chaos anyway; I suppose the paradise that will eventually be wrought in SH is the rest of the world functioning with the same madness.

[Lobsel_Vith]

I disagree Captain. When the God first appeared as depicted in the painting in the church the people did need her. They were suffering endlessly, living forever in constant turmoil.

The problem with the God is that it's influenced by it's surroundings, it needs to be born into a healty enviroment, not the one's that Dahlia and Claudia have made.

One last thing, in theory Alessa has always had the God inside of her.

Another last thing, the name Samael was used as a trick to turn Harry against Alessa and ultimately his daughter.

[geeksicle]

That's assuming that the doctrine taught to the members of the cult is actually true, though. Religions all over the world have bits added, subtracted or changed in order to keep followers believing what the leaders want them to believe, and we already know that those behind the Cult aren't above using less-than-honorable tactics to achieve their goals.

While I'm not sure as to whether the god is actually malevolent or if that's a result of the way it's being brought into the world, we can't say for certain whether the Cult's leaders are being honest with the followers in what they teach them.