The Hiss

The Hiss is capable of possessing objects, living things and the environment of the Oldest House

“	I'd like to tell you about a dream I had last night. In my dream, the Hiss had broken free of this prison, this... house. At first, many people thought it was horrifying. But also... many people wanted to welcome the Hiss in. Funny.	”
— P6, Control Story Trailer

The Hiss is a hostile paranatural force that originates from beyond ordinary reality, capable of possessing and corrupting objects and living things. During the Hiss invasion, it overruns the Federal Bureau of Control's headquarters, the Oldest House, and kills Director Zachariah Trench, hurtling the Bureau's infrastructure into chaos. As the new Director, Jesse Faden is tasked with defeating this Hiss and restoring order to the Oldest House.

Description

The Hiss is a mysterious, chaotic, anomalous force that defies the natural laws of reality. Like other paranatural elements, the Hiss is extradimensional, originating from realms beyond our own, which obey different laws of physics and logic. The Hiss itself is a bodiless, contagious force of resonance that moves between dimensions, invading everything in its path in a viral, infectious manner. It corrupts matter and twists it in unpredictable ways, and can possess living things and use them for its own purposes, including the elimination of any resistance it faces. Elements of the Oldest House possessed by the Hiss exhibit distinctly reddish, fluid auras and blurs, contrasting with the gray, solid, Brutalist architecture of the Bureau's domain. The Hiss also creates a distinct sound akin to severe audio distortion, possibly the origin of its name.

The Hiss is utterly hostile to the Federal Bureau of Control and human life, constantly subverting the Bureau's control over the stability of the Oldest House. In this, it has been described as the antithesis of the Bureau's philosophy of objective order and control, instead representing subjective chaos. The Hiss can possess agents of the FBC and turn them into its slaves. The Hiss takes advantage of the special training and equipment of FBC agents to fight the survivors of its attack and ultimately overtake the Oldest House. These possessed agents exhibit multiple stages of Hiss "infection," and different variations display different mutations and paranatural abilities. It has been made clear that humans possessed by the Hiss are beyond saving; the infection results in their deaths, leaving only their bodies to be controlled by the alien force.

Emily Pope has stated that the Hiss escaping its containment in the Oldest House and breaching the outside world would effectively result in the destruction of humanity.

Known Variations

Human slaves of the Hiss possess exhibit various different abilities and mutations, which have been likened to the progressive stages of an infectious disease. The more the Hiss infection progresses in an individual, the more deformed and powerful they become. There are also variations of the Hiss which appear to not be possessed humans but rather entities of their own.

Image	Variation	Description
	Standard	Basic slaves of the Hiss possess no paranatural abilities, merely being human individuals under the Hiss's control; thus, they fight with the conventional weaponry and armaments of FBC agents.
File:Drifter.png	Drifter	Drifters are a unique variation of Hiss that possess telekinetic abilities similar to Jesse's. They float sporadically in the air and can hurdle objects at rapid speeds.
	Charged	Hiss Charged agents, as described by Emily Pope, are extremely physically deformed. They hone in on non-Hiss and explode in a burst of concentrated resonance dense enough to act as a physical force.
File:Cluster.png	Cluster	Clusters, unlike other Hiss variants, appear to be non-human; they are described as large, glowing spheres that continually heal enemies. If Seized by Jesse, Clusters will instead heal her.
File:Rooney2.png	Tempest	Tempests are advanced, highly dangerous forms of Hiss. Their abilities seem to be an enhancement of those of Drifters, generating storms of levitated objects around them. In spite of their strength, Tempests are not considered "bosses" in Control. Malcolm Rooney became a Tempest after he was possessed by the Hiss.

Notable individuals possessed by the Hiss

• Malcolm Rooney

Trivia

• The Hiss has numerous similarities to the Dark Presence, the antagonist of Control developer Remedy Entertainment's previous title Alan Wake. Both are unseen, bodiless, otherworldly supernatural forces capable of possessing objects and living things, turning them into their slaves.

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