Unitologists
The Unitologists are aggressive religious fanatics whose worldview has been severely distorted by their particular faith. These people do not merely believe devoutly in God — they believe that their God is attempting to cleanse the world of sinners by subjecting humanity to the trial of a zombie apocalypse.
Unitologists on the Map
Unitologists' Base
History of the Unitologists
Even before the apocalypse, a strange community lived in a remote village isolated from the rest of society. Countless rumors surrounded them.
Some of those rumors — such as stories of their disturbing and unwavering faith — were true.
Others spoke of horrific offerings to God and the agonizing screams of victims.
Whether those stories were true, nobody really knows.
After all, those who entered the village never returned.
The settlement itself was very small.
There were only five houses, a barn, and a church, with a total population of just twenty-three people.
Behind its fences lived an isolated community whose members tirelessly and unquestioningly obeyed what they believed to be the will of God.
Religion was the force that united them, while faith served as the foundation of their relationships.
They had been praying for a sign from the Almighty for several months when, during another daytime church service, an explosion thundered somewhere in the distance.
The religious fanatics immediately decided that this was the sign they had been begging their God to send them.
They eagerly waited to discover what this omen would bring.
They wondered whether they should leave the settlement in search of answers or wait for God to send them another message.
For an entire week, they prayed to the Almighty for guidance.
Then, early in the morning on the eighth day of their prayers, a dull, rhythmic pounding echoed from the enormous gates of their settlement.
The guards climbed onto the walls and saw a creature that only vaguely resembled a human being.
Its clothes were torn apart.
Its jaw hung loosely from its face.
Its eyes were empty and clouded.
Its skin had a strange greenish tint.
The creature repeatedly slammed its head against the gate, apparently unable to feel pain.
Eventually, the guards noticed a dark red stain forming on its forehead and leaving bloody marks against the gate with every impact.
Astonished by the creature's extraordinary resilience, the guards quickly spread word of the mysterious visitor.
An emergency gathering was immediately called.
At the end of the meeting, the elders, shocked by the description of what had happened, went outside to witness the strange sight for themselves.
The moment they laid eyes on the creature, they believed they understood.
It was a creation of God.
What they did not yet understand was its purpose.
The wisest members of the community ordered everyone else to wait.
They needed to witness God's messenger in action before they could understand what the Almighty had prepared for them.
The entire settlement began following the situation in Los Santos with bated breath.
Surely, they thought, those blind fools in the city could not fail to recognize such an obvious divine message.
Then an announcement came over their small, old radio.
The “mutated,” as the city residents had begun calling them, were attacking people.
At that moment, the elders understood everything.
The time of judgment had arrived.
God had descended upon mankind, leaving His prophets among creatures unlike anything the world had ever seen so that they might cleanse the Earth of sinners.
The community strongly disliked the word “zombies,” which people later began using to describe these holy beings.
They therefore gave God's creations a name of their own:
Messengers of God's Will.
Or simply:
Prophets.
And so a new era began for the community.
The group, which now called itself the Unitologists, believed it was their sacred duty to protect and glorify the Prophets.
Members of the community tried to interact with the Messengers of God's Will as rarely as possible because they considered them the purest of God's creations — sacred and untouchable.
The Unitologists had another reason to avoid direct encounters with the Prophets.
The creatures were blind.
According to the elders, this was God's way of guaranteeing impartial judgment.
Because of their blindness, however, the Prophets occasionally attacked even their own followers.
The Unitologists' religion forbade them from harming divine creations.
For that reason, they decided that the only solution was to minimize the possibility of confrontation.
As time passed, rumors about the Unitologists spread throughout the surrounding regions.
But now, people no longer spoke of them merely as strange religious fanatics.
Instead, stories began circulating about kind people who purified, blessed, and helped others in the name of the Lord.
Nobody knows exactly where this reputation came from.
Nevertheless, more and more people eventually began knocking at the gates of the community, hoping to embrace faith in a higher power and pray for salvation and God's favor during the terrible years of the apocalypse.
Survivors who came seeking shelter and protection within the walls of the small settlement soon encountered the disturbing behavior of its inhabitants:
constant surveillance,
strange noises,
and a suspicious, dirty stone located near the outskirts of the settlement.
Nobody knows whether the rumors about the community's cruelty had been true before the Apocalypse.
After the appearance of the “zombies,” however, the community truly began committing horrifying acts.
Those who rejected their beliefs were kidnapped in the middle of the night and subjected to various rituals.
At the end of these ceremonies, one of the elders would drive a ritual sacrificial knife into the captive's forehead.
In their minds, this demonstrated their devotion to God.
Several years passed.
Eventually, the few survivors who had previously visited the Unitologist settlement stopped coming.
At first, the elders were delighted.
They believed that the Prophets had managed to eradicate all sinners in an extraordinarily short period of time.
Then they heard something over the radio that sent them into a rage.
The nearby city of Los Santos had “finally” completed construction of a Wall separating the city from what its residents had begun calling the Wasteland.
The wisest members of the community decided that they needed to help the Almighty understand the problem.
To accomplish this, they devised a plan.
Several strong and capable men would infiltrate the city and kidnap two or three residents for ritual sacrifice.
The Unitologists genuinely believed that performing a ritual using the flesh of a “city resident” would allow God to learn about the plans of the people of Los Santos.
Over time, this became a tradition.
Members of the community now periodically kidnap people from the city and sacrifice them.
Ten years after the beginning of the Apocalypse, the Unitologists continue to hold the same belief:
“zombies” are divine beings whose purpose is to restore righteousness to this rotten and sinful world.
Compared with the other factions that still exist today, the Unitologists were incredibly fortunate.
From the very beginning of the Apocalypse, they already possessed shelter, a source of food, and a means of communication.
Distinguishing Features
The Unitologists have several recognizable characteristics:
white clothing and robes;
an extreme sensitivity to criticism and violent reactions toward it;
hostility toward any religion or belief system different from their own;
and the justification of violence whenever it is committed in the name of their faith.
Unique Traits and Behavior
The faith of the Unitologists is unwavering and borders on madness.
They are narrow-minded and attempt to defend their beliefs in virtually every situation.
They will readily do anything they believe their Lord expects of them.
From time to time, the Unitologists kidnap people from the city and, less frequently, from the Wasteland.
Their captives are brutally executed and sacrificed to their God.
Behavior type: aggressive.
Interesting Facts
The Unitologists were directly responsible for helping create the breach in the Wall separating the city from the Wasteland.