Summary
South-east of the Wapiti Reservation inRed Dead Redemption 2, at the base of a mountain, players will encounter a mysterious mound. At first, it appears to just be an awkward piece of landscape, but as one draws closer, they might notice the mysterious symbol painted at the top of it, the logs propping it up, or the doorway adorning the side of it. While seemingly quaint and innocuous, the home has ties to a dark cult, and its location is foreboding. This isRed Dead Redemption 2’s Mysterious Hill Home, one of the game’s many hidden mysteries and Easter eggs.
Red Dead Redemption 2is filled with Easter eggs, mysteries, and tales to tell that are largely detached from the game’s main story. This ranges from vampires in Saint-Denis all the way to what appears to be a crashed airship. Easter eggs inthe game tend to be fantastical in nature. Players can encounter ghosts, evidence of aliens, and even witchcraft in the game’s world. While the first game had a zombie-flavored expansion pack withUndead Nightmare,Red Dead Redemption 2has instead opted to occupy its world with creepy nods toward the occult and American spiritualism’s impact on the West.
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Red Dead Redemption 2’s Mysterious Hill Home has a white crest above its entrance. This crest is associated with a cult known as the Chelonians. They believe in a Utopian society called Chelonia and think that the only way to escape the struggles of modern life is to give everything they have to the cult to be guided to Chelonia. The player encounters the group during the main story at the behest ofMary Linton, who asks Arthur to rescue her brother from them. This quest reveals that the Chelonians are a suicide cult.
In the game’s epilogue, the player can watch one of the cult’s suicide rituals. These rituals happen at the top of mountains, where the cultists jump off to their deaths. The hill home is located at the foot of a mountain, and the door is locked. In this light, the Chelonian symbol becomes ominous. This location could be used to prepare for these rituals or even hide bodies. Even if the building serves a more innocuous purpose, the presence of a Chelonian symbol indicates that the occupant may have been a victim since there are no signs of life around the building, not dissimilar toRed Dead Redemption 2’s witch house.
The Hill Home Is A Tolkien Reference
The other purpose that the Mysterious Hill Home serves is as a reference to Tolkien’s beloved world of Middle-earth. The hill home inRed Dead Redemption 2bears a strong resemblance to the dwellings of the Hobbits inThe Lord of the Rings' Shire. The Mysterious Hill Home, like a Hobbit Hole, is embedded in the earth and features a dome-like roof of grass. Unfortunately, the hill home doesn’t feature the circular hole-like door of the Hobbit dwellings. The other possibility is that the mysterious structure is the ruins of a Norse turf home.
Vikings were known to build homes of stone and turf, some of which still stand today. An often-forgotten fact of the history of the Americas is that Vikings were able to reach North America almost 500 years before Columbus did. This home is the spitting image of a Norse turf house, so it stands to reason that it might be just that, an ancient relic of Vikings in America. While more information about the hill home will likely never be provided, a leaker has indicated thatRed Dead Redemption 3is in development, so hopefully, Rockstar Games will be delivering players more mysteries of the Wild West to ponder in coming years.
Red Dead Redemption 2is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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