Part 33

Welcome to Temple Gate, the main setting of Outlast 2! Learn about its history, its leader Sullivan Knoth, and its true purpose as a Murkoff Corporation testing ground.

Alright, let's talk about Temple Gate. This is where the bulk of your nightmare in Outlast 2 is going to unfold. Think of it as a remote settlement way out in the Arizona desert, home to a rather intense Christian doomsday cult called the Testament of the New Ezekiel. It was all set up by their leader, Sullivan Knoth, who used to be this guy named Reagent 1616. Now, here's the kicker: Temple Gate wasn't just some random cult hideout. Unbeknownst to pretty much everyone living there, it was actually a secret testing ground for the Murkoff Corporation. They were using it to mess with people's brains on a massive scale using microwave broadcasts, likely from those creepy radio towers you'll see around. To understand how this place came to be, we have to go back a bit. It all started with something called Project Lathe, a Murkoff experiment at the Sinyala Facility. The goal was to create sleeper agents, called Reagents, for the CIA. Sullivan Knoth was one of these Reagents. He was a super charismatic guy, apparently able to charm anyone. Murkoff agent Clyde Perry kept tabs on him, noting how Knoth started acting weird, like he was being guided by some invisible compass, always heading towards the spot where Temple Gate would eventually be built. Knoth started hearing 'voices' from evangelical radio programs, which he took as God telling him to become a prophet and prepare for the end times. He gathered a following, and even encouraged his female followers to, uh, 'contribute to the cause.' Eventually, they were driven out of New Mexico and ended up in the Arizona desert. Things got really wild when a containment breach at Sinyala Facility in 1960 let hundreds of Reagents escape. The project director, Doctor Hendrick Joliet Easterman, saw an opportunity. He showed Perry's files on Knoth to his boss, A. Bradley Avellanos, and the architect Moses Scarfiotti. Since Knoth already had a bunch of followers, they figured he could absorb the escaped Reagents if they gave him a new 'mission.' So, it looks like many of the first settlers in Temple Gate were actually escaped Reagents who fell under Knoth's influence, and Murkoff basically helped shape his religious ideas to keep everyone in line. By 1971, Knoth and his followers had built Temple Gate, a self-sustaining settlement where they could live in isolation. They had livestock, crops, even a generator for power and loudspeakers for Knoth to address everyone. But beneath the surface, it was a dark place. Knoth and his inner circle were raping women, and as the fanaticism grew, Temple Gate became a place of religious murder.