Legendary Truth: The Collective

> "*Since time began the world had been divided between light and dark. Between the obvious and the unexplained. In the light, there is clarity, Reason and order. But in the dark There is mystery, horror and fear. Legendary Truth seeks to shed light out the darkness, Explain the inexplicable, And delve deep into the unknown. We do not undertake this quest alone. Welcome to the Collective*"
> ― Rhyme
>
>

## Group information

### Headquarters

Legendary Truth Mansion, Sourland Mountains, New Jersey (near Princeton)

### Affiliation

Goth Wackee
The Spirit Seekers

### Leader(s)

Boris Shuster (formerly)
Calvin Thorncastle
Richard Steerington (deceased)

### Members

Gabriel Fell
Ignatia Himmel
Professor Kirsten Ivers-McLure
Sandira Kurush

**Legendary Truth: The Collective**, also known as **Legendary Truth** or **The Collective** for short, are a fictional recurring organization from *Halloween Horror Nights* who have a major role in various haunted houses and events.

## Description

Legendary Truth: The Collective is a detective and paranormal investigation organization active at-least in the United States of America. The organization often categorizes monsters, enemies, and their own ranks within the, "Legions of Horror".

### Members

#### Leaders

* **Boris Shuster**: Boris Shuster was a New York City police-officer turned private-investigator who had experience with the supernatural. Shuster was the founder of Legendary Truth though his later history with the organization is a mystery. He is a member of the Baccanoids legion.
* **Calvin L. Thorncastle**: Dr. Calvin L. Thorncastle, PhD is a frequent CEO of Legendary Truth: The Collective. He has a PhD and doctorate in Quantum Engineering Theory which he received from M.I.T.. In his past, he had a senior executive position at Bell Laboratories, the Sarnoff Research Center at Princeton, the N.S.A., and Rhode Scholar.
* **Dr. Richard W. Steerington**: Dr. Richard W. Steerington was the C.O.O. of Legendary Truth who succeeded Calvin Thorncastle before mysteriously disappearing (and presumably dying) leaving Thorncastle to once again take control. He had degrees from Duke University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Cambridge University. He also was a senior fellow in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study where he specialized in Theoretical Perception Sciences. After Steerington's disappearance, his daughter Paige began investigating Legendary Truth's corruption.

#### Assorted members

* **Gabriel Fell**:
* **Ignatia Himmel**:
* **Professor Kirsten Ivers-McLure**: Professor Kirsten Ivers-McLure is a senior member of the Legendary Truth's staff, having the position of *President of Research Operations*. Professor Ivers-McLure is a graduate of Yale University with degrees in English literature, religion, and Nordic folklore. Before she was hired by Legendary Truth, she was a professor in ethics at the Harvard Law School.
* **Sandira Kurush**: The Collective's *Chief Communications Officer*.

### Bases

* **Legendary Truth Mansion**: The organization's headquarters in a private tract of Sourland Mountains of New Jersey, nearby Princeton, New Jersey. The design of the mansion comes from Leonardo Da Vinci's *Codex Phasma Phasmatis* with augmentations over the centuries from various different architects. The building presumably acts as a fusion of an abbey, sanctuary, library study hall, and which has an underground labyrinth of archive vaults.

## History

### Background

#### Origins

Legendary Truth: The Collective was founded in the 1960s (possibly 1963) by Boris Shuster, a New York City private-investigator who had experiences with the paranormal such as assembling and hiding away the Totems of the Legions of Horror in the attic of a New Jersey building.

By 1981, Princeton, New Jersey architect Ralph Adams Cram collaborated with a fellow New Jersey architect under the moniker R.S. Harrison to construct a mansion based on unused architectural designs originally made by Leonardo Da Vinci in his *Codex Phasma Phasmatis*, in the possession of Princeton, University. This mansion was constructed near Princeton in a private tract of the Sourland Mountains, with commission for their work coming from *Legendary Truth: The Collective*. After the groundbreaking ceremony in 1981 Princeton, Legendary Truth moved into the estate to make it their headquarters. This was Harrison's last project as he died a month later.

In 1991, a conspiracy-theorist named Tim Foyle used the books written by Boris Shuster to locate the attic in New Jersey where the totems for the Legions of Horror were kept. On the Halloween of that year, Foyle assembled the totems and inadvertently opened up a supernatural portal. The outcome of these events are unknown.

#### Reflections of Fear

By 2008, the CEO of *Legendary Truth: The Collective* was one Calvin Thorncastle.

The August 27th of 2008 was the 50th year anniversary of the death of Boris Shuster's old enemy Dr. Mary Agana, an insane psychiatrist who murdered several of her patients and who after her mysterious death became the origin of the, "Bloody Mary" urban myth. The Collective began an investigation on Bloody Mary, whose spirit had since been active within a supernatural mirror dimension. At 11:03 pm on August 27th, Bloody Mary's spirit manifested and caused several of the Collective's agents to vanish.

After this, Bloody Mary opened a portal to the mirror dimension in Universal Studios Florida, disguising it as part of the theme park's annual Halloween celebrations. Calvin Thorncastle began a Legendary Truth mission to defeat Bloody Mary and stop her evil scheme, which involved crowd-sourcing online to find more information while also sending various agents and volunteers into her realm, uncaring of if they would be harmed. After collecting more details on Mary Agana and her patients' origins, Mary was defeated and trapped within her mirror.

On the November 1 of 2008, the Legendary Truth took a CFO with CRO group gathering photo outside of the Carey Elementary School.

#### Twenty Years of Fear

Early in the year 2010, a trusted cell director of the Legendary Truth was fired and then disappeared. While performing an, "intellectual sanitization" of the cell director's office, members of Legendary Truth: The Collective discovered a printed out email from contacts at Universal Studios' art department which included mysterious symbols burned into photographs relating to past, "Halloween Horror Nights" events as part of a puzzle. The photographs included ties to Dr. Albert Caine, the Midway of the Bizarre, the Fright Yard, and the Festival of the Dead. Gabriel Fell was conspiring on ousting Legendary Truth senior members Calvin Thorncastle and Kirstin Ivers, a plot which may have involved Ignatia Himmel.

Legendary Truth members Ignatia Himmel and Gabriel Fell solved the puzzle and on September 16th, solved it which accidentally released the god-like entity *Fear*, who had been trapped within a supernatural lantern at *Universal Studios Art & Design Department* where he influenced many of the events of, "Halloween Horror Nights". There was a power black-out and Universal and Gabriel Fell went missing after this incident. Fear then possessed Universal Studios art team director Heather Summers and planned to terrorize Universal Studios to celebrate his, "Twentieth Cycle".

On September 24th at Universal Studios, Fear summoned his five heralds: the undead serial-killing clown Jack Schmidt AKA *Jack the Clown* (representing Chaos), mad doctor and murderous cemetery owner Dr. Albert Caine AKA *The Caretaker* (representing Death), snuff-film director Paulo Ravinski AKA *The Director* (representing Sacrifice) and supernatural *North Hollow Household* owner Elizabeth/Elsa Strict AKA *The Storyteller* (representing Legend), and cinephile phantom of the *Universal Palace Theater* Julian Browning AKA *The Usher* (representing Vengeance). Legendary Truth launched a mission to oppose Fear, and were ultimately able to trap him within his lantern along with his heralds and various other monstrous supernatural entities. Fear's influence may have then corrupted the leaders and members of Legendary Truth after this.

COO Dr. Richard W. Steerington replaced Thorncastle as CEO of Legendary Truth. Ignatia Himmel was fired from the Collective due to her involvement in Fear's release.

One night in 2010 five teenagers who were the children of different Legions of Horror were taken into a forest where they were to be murdered by an unknown entity. Doctor Steerington's daughter, Paige Steerington, was a, "Pure" member of the Baccanoid legion and before the deaths occurred, he knew she would be amongst the dead. Because of this, Steerington sent Paige away to Salzburg, Austria, saving her.

The night that the five teenagers died, Steerington went on a fishing-trip with Captain Lawrence B. "Lazy Bastard" Manely to Amity Island where Steerington died/disappeared. The circumstances of Steerington's death are a mystery, with some saying Manley killed him, and Steerington's daughter Paige believing that the death was orchestrated by Ignatia Himmel. Calvin Thorncastle would again become CEO after this disappearance. Paige would also come to believe that her father saving her cost him his own life.

At some point in the year 2010, Boris Shuster's bio was mysteriously removed from the Legendary Truth website. Also in this year they investigated the Shadybrook Asylum where they photographed several ghosts.

#### The Wyandot Incident

**Note**: *The exact year in which Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate took place has yet to be confirmed, though it came out in 2010 so may take place around said date.*

A splinter-faction of *Legendary Truth* known as the *Spirit Seekers* travelled to the town of Carey, Ohio to test out a spirit-gathering machine on the infamously haunted Wyandot Estate where one Malcolm Wyandot killed his wife, thirteen guests, and himself on the October 31 of 1929. Those who attended the Spirit Seekers' event were terrorized by ghosts, and the outcome of these events are unknown. It is believed that two Spirit Seekers members were killed, one was blinded, one was possessed, and that a spirit overloaded the electrical equipment however some footage was recovered from the event.

#### Evil Takes Root

The late Doctor Steerington's daughter, Paige, was anonymously give GPS coordinates tucked into the wiper of her car. These lead to a cabin in the woods where the other children of the Legions of Horror had died. Inside there was a cellphone and bags of items connected to paranormal and true-crime history as a warning about a, "rooted evil" being released. Paige used the online alias, "PS" to reveal these items online while also investigating her father's death and corruption within the Legendary Truth Collective. During this time, Paige became paranoid that something was watching her.

Amongst the items which Paige received were:

* **June 27**: Cell-phone footage of encountering the *Cabin in the Woods*.
* **July 8**: Blood stained sketches of the Necronomicon, Kandarian Demon burying a man, and a pentagram.
* **July 22**: A ring-box containing a severed human ear which was severed post-mortem. This item was an allusion to the ear on the necklace of Daryl Dixon in *The Walking Dead* continuity.
* **August 2**: The SD card for a wildlife camera with footage of a young ghost girl, presumably connected to La Llorona, a monstrous spirit from Latin American culture said to have drowned her own children and become a bogeyman-like monster after.
* **August 6**: A 1920s Justice magazine, ring of keys and knife stained in blood which related to the 1933 electric-chair execution of serial-killer Bobby "The Blade" Galletta in Carey State Penitentiary (in the aforementioned Carey, Ohio). Paige's research revealed that something paranormal occurred at the event which traumatized those who attended the electrocution.
* **August 7**: A pair of handcuffs, a railroad spike, a whistle, and a lock of dark hair related to how a military transport train carrying super-soldier, "Dogs of War" made by Shadowcreek Enterprises crashed in Carey, Ohio and went on a rampage before the government covered it up.
* **August 13**: British coins and, a microcassette tape with footage of werewolf David Kessler's rampage in London during the 1980s.
* **August 23**: Items relating to the City, "Raccoon City Destruction Incident" of Resident Evil continuity, including a chain/collar for restraining a zombie, and footage of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City amusement park.

On the November 3rd of 2013, Paige confronted Ignatia Himmel who refused to comment on any involvement and told Paige not to contact her again. On this same day, Paige realized the truth about how her father saved her from being killed in the woods like the other children of the Legions of Horror. Paige's further fate is unknown, though it is possible she encountered or was even killed by whatever entity killed the other teenagers in the woods.

Around this year, the Collective seemed to recruit several members to investigate the Legions of Horror while testing the recruits. Doctor Thorncastle made a live appearance to acknowledge these recruits' efforts.

In 2015, Carvin Thorncastle reinstated Ignatia Himmel to the Legendary Truth by Calvin Thorncastle.

#### T.E.S.T.

**Note**: *The exact year in which the Legendary Truth game of Halloween Horror Nights 24 took place has yet to be confirmed, though it came out in 2014 so may take place around said date.*

Doctor Thorncastle had several recruits test out new Legendary Truth technology such as the *Spectrum Response Gauge* on the software T.E.S.T..

## Appearances

### Halloween Horror Nights

#### Ghostbusters (2019 haunted house)

A Legendary Truth logo sticker appeared on one of the books in the New York Public Library.

#### Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear

Legendary Truth was part of the event's story, collecting history on Agana and her victims while sending in agents to the mirror dimension.

#### Halloween Horror Nights: Twenty Years of Fear

The plot of this event surrounded the Legendary Truth inadvertently awakening Fear.

##### Legendary Truth: Awakening

This was an ARG promotion for *Halloween Horror Nights: Twenty Years of Fear*.

##### Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate

The Spirit Seekers were major characters in this haunted house, and had some Legendary Truth documents.

##### HHN XX VIP Lounge

This lounge presented, "Legendary Truth - The Journal of Mary Agana".

#### Halloween Horror Nights XXIII: What Evil Has Taken Root?

The lead-up to Halloween Horror Nights XXIII had a storyline surrounding PS and the Legendary Truth. This HHN in 2013 had a game about investigating the Legions of Horrors' totems from the previous year. Dr. Calvin Thorncastle made a live appearance at the end of this event.

#### Halloween Horror Nights 24

This event had a digital game about gathering the seals for the different legions of horror by going to different haunted houses/scare zones and filling a *Spectrum Response Gauge* on the app T.E.S.T. (TACTICAL EVALUATION OF SPECTRUM TERRORS).

#### Halloween Horror Nights 26

##### The Repository

This was an uncharge haunted house which required additional payment to experience. The story was connected to doing a special assignment for the *Legendary Truth*.

#### Halloween Horror Nights 30

##### Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth

The story of this haunted house surrounded Legendary Truth founder, Boris Shuster and his obtaining of the Legions of Horror's totems.

##### Halloween Horror Nights Tribute Store (2019)

The 2021 store had the seal of Legendary Truth appear within.

## Trivia

* Founder Boris Shuster's detective agency is visible in the *New York* area of Universal Studios Florida.
* The case for *Legendary Truth the Collective Case Investigation: Boris Shuster* featured allusions to other Halloween Horror Nights stories and characters. It contained a business card for *Shady Oaks Cemetery* and Dr. Albert Caine AKA The Caretaker from *Halloween Horror Nights: Islands of Fear* along with a message asking where his location Cindy Caine is, a promotion for Dr. Oddfellow's Carnival of Thrills from *Halloween Horror Nights 32*, a promotion for Elizabeth Strict AKA the Storyteller from *Halloween Horror Nights: Tales of Terror* retelling the story of "Terra Cruentus", a tag from the *Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium* of the Psycho Scareapy series along with a newspaper article on Shadybrook Asylum shutting down, an audition ad from the Director from *Halloween Horror Nights 13*, a photo of what appears to be the Jersey Devil from *Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth*, Lady Luck's skull Ace of Spades playing card from *Halloween Horror Nights 21*, and multiple allusions to the Universal Palace Theater from *Halloween Horror Nights: Ripped from the Silver Screen* and *Silver Screams* including a bloody Phantom of the Opera ticket from September 6, 1925 and a newspaper article about usher Julian Browning being hanged to death.

## External links

* *Legendary Truth: The Collective on the Halloween Horror Nights wiki.*

## References

1. ↑ https://behindthethrills.com/2013/09/legendary-truth-the-collective-deciphering-the-games/
2. ↑ https://insidethemagic.net/2013/08/legendary-truth-begins-halloween-horror-nights-2013-game-as-universal-orlando-weaves-online-in-park-mystery/