LORE! LORE! LORE!

Hello, fellow Cultists! Liz here. We’re closing in on the last couple of weeks of development. Don’t forget we’ll be at WAGIC’s Let’s Break Games on the 3rd of November, so grab your tickets and come and break our game!

Today, I’ll be talking about the lore behind Stay Hidden and The Hinchcliffe Family. Below, you will see a family tree that shows how each family member is connected. The family's lore has been created by our Art Lead, Yin and yours truly, Producer and Marketing Lead, Liz. As you may know from our post about the Story of the game, Stay Hidden is based in Darton, London, in a big Victorian-style mansion. Inside the dusty old mansion lives the Hinchcliffe family, a vicious, Satan-worshipping cult family.

There is much to uncover with this strange family, so let’s start with the cult leader.  This cult has existed for many generations; Bev wasn’t the creator. At the time of her birth, her parents were the leaders of the cult, High Priest and Priestess. Bev was by far the most beautiful girl born into the cult. Her hair glowed golden with all the power of the depths of hell. She was raised to be the High Priestess and would give offerings to and conspire with the most heinous spirits in return for more power than her parents could ever wield. This changed her. Something dark started to grow inside her. 

As she would one day take over her parents’ role as the cult leader, she needed a partner to rule alongside her. Bev’s parents promised her to a powerful man from a neighbouring cult. For years, Arthur had been obsessed with Bev and her power. He would give anything to be with her…even his mortal soul. He made a deal with Lucifer himself, his soul, for a life with the most powerful satanic Priestess. The Prince of Darkness delivered. He made Arthur a powerful cult member, powerful enough to catch the eye of a Priest and Priestess looking for a suitor to marry their daughter, Bev. It was a hard, loveless marriage. Arthur didn’t love her; he loved her power. He was unfaithful and had a child with another. She was never truly accepted into the family.

A few years later, Bev finally had a child of her own with Arthur. She was reluctant at first, as she did not want to bring more innocent children into the cult. But after seeing her child lacked the Satanic power characterised by the golden hair, she was relieved that her daughter could have a normal life and not be enslaved by Satan. 

Shortly after the two daughters were born, Arthur kept to his greenroom on the second floor. He didn’t want to get in Bev’s way after his unfaithfulness. Arthur adored his plants more than anything. He tended to them every day. As time when went on, he started to grow paranoid about his initial deal with the Devil. Everyone thought he was crazy, but Arthur could have sworn his plants were growing more restless by the day. They were hungry, but not for soil... Arthur realised Lucifer was collecting his debt. He didn’t fight it. He kept tending to his plants until one day; they took what he had promised the Prince of Darkness all those years ago.

After Arthur was buried in a tome of his own creation, Bev’s daughter grew up in the house as a fairly normal child. Once old enough, the bastard child came to the mansion wanting to unfurl the truth about her parents under the guise of working as a maid. It was here where she found her much older true love, the butler.

It was around this time, too, that Bev’s Biological daughter found love and got married. This time to a normal man unwilling to sell his soul for her heart. Shortly after they got married, they had two children. First Michael, then Maddie a couple of years later. To Bev’s horror, both children were born with the same golden hair that she was, meaning they, too, would be sentenced to a life as horrid as hers. Michael and Maddie grew up with a certain…darkness within them. They both had an affinity for all things satanic, like pilfering the kitchen pantry for herbs and spices to hold seances and rituals in secret. Michael was the more timid of the two, wanting to see what the hell had to offer but terrified of what he found. Maddie, however, was especially psychotic. She hated the gift of life and took it away from small animals and bugs whenever she could, using her Mama’s sharpest kitchen knives. The only thing she did show any human emotion to was her Grandpa, who she would visit on the second floor every day. 

That is all the lore I can share with you so far, and you’ll have to discover the rest of the secrets of the Hinchcliffe family yourself! What will you find?