Paradise

Paradise (楽園の少女) was a D∴G cult lodge.
== Background ==
Paradise was one of the many lodges the D∴G cult operated on the continent of Zemuria. Like most lodges, it had a particular focus pertaining to their focus on their 'true god' and the denying of Aidios' existence. Unlike many of the lodges that focused on the development of Gnosis and the research principles of some of their high priests, the Paradise lodge sought to create a vessel that their god could inhabit on this plane.
Paradise was founded by the high officials of the cult. On the surface, it operated as a child exploitation ring that used children abducted or sacrificed to the cult. Whenever an influential figure visited Paradise and exposed their depravity, the blackmail material made them easy to bend to the order's will, giving the Cult influential pawns.
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Paradise is mentioned for the first time in the back story of Renne. After a series of unfortunate circumstances, Renne was abducted and forced to take part in the activities of the lodge. She made four friends but slowly they were all broken by the experience. Renne, who had been manifesting their own personalities inside of herself to disassociate from the horrors happening to her, was eventually left alone and forced to face the reality with her own personality.
Due to its location, Paradise was missed in the international joint effort to wipe out the Cult- the D∴G Cult Extermination. At some point in time after this, Ouroboros finished them off and slaughtered the last remnants. Joshua Bright and Leonhardt discovered Renne and took her in. After Renne revisited Crossbell and saw her family, whom she thought had moved on from her, she decided to join the Society.
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Hartmann is coerced into following the will of the surviving cult members after his link to Paradise is exploited. Ernest Reis states that a patron of that place such as Hartmann has no right to be the one calling him demented.
High priest Joachim Guenter regrets the loss of a particular lodge, Paradise, that deviated from his research principles yet managed to produce the ability of a girl to channel and absorb the personalities of others through the power of Gnosis.
Renne leads Estelle and Joshua Bright to seek the truth about Paradise in the hopes it would make them throw off the chase, but this does not work.
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The inner workings and location of Paradise are revealed as being within Calvard upon Nemeth Island. The Cult officials were seeking to create a vessel that could contain their god and decided upon making a being that had the qualities of an angel. They worked on using Gnosis to extract personalities out of children and place them into others such as Renne, in doing so creating an empty husk that something from another world could inhabit. They practised genetic manipulation upon infants in the womb to create hermaphrodites as they believed this fitted the characteristics of an angel better. Quatre Salision was a victim of this same process, but was not the same Quatre that Renne knew.
The cult on the island had also desecrated the church there, and it is speculated that it may not have even been set up by the Septian Church but instead a blasphemous version of it by the cult to hide their activities. they also attempted to create a gate to another demonic world in the depths of the Island's underground caves. They devised a cursed poison that would affect trespassers as a last death throe before their extermination.
Ellroy Harwood invites the party to the island for his own intents and purposes and gradually unveils the truth about paradise to them. he says he had done this for the benefit of Renne but the party speculates otherwise. He also activates the latent powers of Quatre and witnesses him destroy the island in one version of events. He provides further exposition and history near the gate where one of the Seventy-Seven Devils is attempting to break through.
Whilst on the Island, Renne experiences the other personalities she had absorbed resurface. Cross initially takes over and is hostile to the party, but recedes once Renne is defeated. All four of her former friends briefly re-emerge in the effort to seal the gate. this is their final goodbye and Renne thanks them and states she no longer needs them, having made peace with her past.
== Known Victims ==
* Renne
* Adje
* Cross
* Quatre
* Etta
Category:Calvard Locations
Category:D∴G Cult