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| “ | Chemical weapons, human experimentation, SANCTUS was -- is the darkest part of the Agency's history... This place is just evil. | „ |
| ~ Special Agent Iman Avesta on SANCTUS. |
SANCTUS are the overarching antagonists of the 2017 video game Batman: The Enemy Within.
They are a criminal organization that were once a former black ops science division for The Agency that split from them on the account of the former's viciousness and unethical experiments. From there, they went underground to continue their immoral experiments.
History[]
Little about the history of SANCTUS is known, but apparently they were once part of the clandestine government organization known as The Agency. Specializing in scientific fields, SANCTUS would conduct black ops experiments for the Agency. They even brought the Gotham City super-criminal known as The Riddler into their ranks following his promotion sometime after the Agency recruited him because of his criminal history and ambitious vision, with Riddler being given a fortune and promised a better future in life. Riddler quickly developed a prestige career in the Agency, which resulted in his promotion to a SANCTUS scientist. Riddler helped SANCTUS by collaborating on their genetic engineering and biochemical weaponization projects, including Project LOTUS. The project involved SANCTUS hoping to turn an enhanced chemical serum known as the LOTUS Virus into something that healed and strengthened the human body to levels of supernatural perfection rather than quickly or slowly ravage it to death.
However, all of the attempts were initially failures which resulted in the deaths of all human test subjects... until Riddler himself was exposed to it, albeit accidentally. However, instead of dying like the other test subjects, Riddler survived, though was driven to permanent insanity, with his body became enhanced to possibly superhuman levels. Experimented on and turned into a guinea pig, Riddler eventually escaped, seething with hatred for SANCTUS but also blaming it's parent organization for it's actions. Thus, Riddler vowed to destroy the Agency while SANCTUS went underground after being cut loose from the Agency when the latter attempted to rectify their mistakes. From there, they became the organization they are as of the events of the games, continuing their work on the LOTUS Virus and trying in vain to repeat their one-time success with Riddler.
Each respectively suffering from an addiction to the super-steroid Venom, a hereditary mental illness that she did not wish to inherit, and a terminally ill wife in need of a cure, the supervillains Bane, Harley Quinn, and Mr. Freeze joined forces with the Riddler, to each get what they wanted; Riddler, his revenge, and the other three, the means by which to make a "miracle cure" using a combination of the LOTUS Virus and Riddler's own blood, while their friend John Doe, a former patient at Arkham Asylum, preferred to get what he wants through different means instead of through the virus. Little did any of them know that even the "success" of Riddler was in fact another failure: the virus, though indeed enhancing his physical abilities, also did irreparable damage to his mind, making him progressively more aberrant, psychotic, and violent.
Ultimately, Bruce Wayne comes to join the Pact undercover at the Agency's request. During the time he spends with the Pact and working with Amanda Waller and the Agency, Bruce learns much of the above (including Catwoman's involvement), before finally getting the rest of the story after the Pact assault SANCTUS' Gotham black-site underneath the seemingly ordinary Bodhi Spa. By this point, between the efforts of the Pact and also the Agency (especially if Bruce earlier broke his cover and thus caused the villains to get there ahead of him and slaughter numerous SANCTUS personnel), the organization appears to be at last disbanded. Waller expresses her intent to salvage some of their technology for her own use, which Bruce/Batman can either support or fight against.
Trivia[]
- As a criminal organization involved in human experiments and unethical practices that create multiple supervillains who work for them before breaking away later, they could be likened to Weapon X from Marvel Comics. Both are also opposed by both government organizations (SHIELD and the Agency), and superheroes (Wolverine, the X-Men, and Batman).
- Likewise, as a criminal organization once part of a greater organization that broke away from them and from there went on to perform many unethical and immoral experiments on humans that created at least one vengeful survivor, they are also somewhat similar to Cerberus from Mass Effect (especially since both are villainous organizations in roleplaying video games).
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 Villains
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Gotham Criminal Triumvirate Children of Arkham The Pact The Agency Joker's Gang Others | ||