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The "Blessed" organization is the name given by the Federal Bureau of Control to a number of supposed paracriminal individuals and organizations related to a string of events spanning several years, in which dangerous Altered Items and other paranatural materials were distributed to unsuspecting civilians, seemingly with no clear motivations. It is still unknown if a singular individual or group is responsible for these incidents or even if the source is human at all. However, William Kirklund, the FBC's former Head of Investigations, considered the investigation of the organization to be a top priority.
Background[]
Control[]
The source of the "Blessed" phenomena has operated outside of the Bureau's notice for decades, and hides behind a series of proxies in order to interact with its targets, such as unmarked postage, fake names, and PO Boxes. Investigating the events has led FBC agents to seemingly unrelated and broadly spaced locations, including Toledo, the San Fernando Valley, Arkansas, and Sardinia. The sole connection between each of these has been the reoccurrence of the term "blessed" (as well as variations of the word) in the responsible parties' names. It is unknown if "Blessed" is a human, humans with a powerful connection to the Astral Plane, or simply an entity/entities directly from the Astral Plane, but it seems to be able to initialize an Altered status onto a desired item. In spite of this control over the nature of Altered Items, the instances of the distribution of these items on record do not seem to fit any interconnecting goal other than to spread chaos.
Though the little knowledge of the organization beyond its connections to specific Altered Items and incidents is currently known by the Bureau, an active arrest order has been put in place against any individuals suspected to be connected to the group.[1]
Documents available to Jesse Faden point to at least four specific events, unrelated except for their focal use of the word "blessed" and their distribution of powerful Altered Items and Objects of Power:
- In May 1988, the Songmaster Jukebox may have been initiated as an Altered Item from directly within Tex's Roadside Diner on the day before the restaurant's patrons were transported to an unknown beach location. On the previous day, a service referred to as "Blessed Repair and Service" replaced all of the albums in the Jukebox with the single album it contained when acquired by the FBC. No company in the region could be identified by that name.[2][3]
- In July 1994, a man named Chester Bless ran a self-help course called "The Power of The Board" which used the Guru Surfboard, advertising the item as a supposed miracle worker. After the course began to attract thousands of attendees at a time, it was discovered by the FBC, which soon raided Bless' home only to find that the house was empty and Bless was gone, and only the Surfboard was left there in plain sight.[4][5]
- In September 2016, a series of VHS films were distributed by an organization referred to as Blessed Pictures, using the ActionMaxx Camera, originally bought from a movie production crew in Italy and later turned into an Altered Item. The films are created by the camera itself, which is highly independent and capable of sending its target into an augmented reality filled with dramatic representations of the environment, resembling an action movie. After a mail carrier in Alaska was injured in one such event, the FBC traced the camera back to a PO box in the San Fernando Valley, which was opened in 1968 with no evidence of having ever been used by its owner.[6][7][8]
- Also in 2016, the America Overnight radio show (a secret FBC initiative) was directly targeted by the organization in the form of a cryptic letter and a fondue fountain sent to the studio which reduced Karen Harris, the show's producer, to ash. The package that did ultimately arrive in the studio at some point was traced back to the same PO Box from the Movie Camera investigation, but no further leads have been identified. Compared to the other events on record, which were more focused on creating mayhem, this was the first instance in which the organization directly targeted the FBC and was intended to cause fatalities.[9] It is also notable that the attack occurred not long after the Movie Camera was acquired the FBC.
Alan Wake 2[]
In a May 2022 email correspondence with Alice Wake, Barry Wheeler (the former literary agent to Alan Wake) tells her that he has been staying at the "Blessed Wellness Retreat" in California; jokingly referring to it as a "cult". Wheeler tells Alice that the retreat is run by a man named Chester; whom Barry praises as a "a god damn miracle worker" for helping him lose a large amount of wait and is "not a wacko in anyway". Barry also recalls Chester telling him he was lucky to be there, because he warned that "something bad" would have happened to Barry if he decided to stay in New York and Barry believed him.
While traversing the Dark Place's version of New York City in his final chapter for Initiation, Alan Wake discovers his and Alice's apartment in Parliament Tower almost entirely empty, with several moving boxes from a company called "Blessed Logistics and Transit" found throughout.
Associated paranatural phenomena[]
- Songmaster Jukebox
- Guru Surfboard
- Actionmaxx Camera
- Unknown fondue fountain
Aliases[]
- Blessed Repair and Service
- Blessed Logistics and Transit
- Blessed Wellness Retreat
- Blessed Pictures
- The Power of The Board
- Chester Bless