What is the BackStory Behind the Pagan Ritual Mystery in Red Dead Redemption 2?

The Pagan Ritual site is oe of RDR2's most popular mysteries.

If you travel here, you'll find a man murdered brutally in some sort of ritual. He's missing the lower part of his body his heart and half of his face.

Additionally to that, you can spot a severed head of a goat, human skulls and a pagan skull mask.

You can find three symbols here.

Two on these Rocks.

One black.

One white.

And the one that fills the entire circle.

The site itself doesn't explain who did it, but the location called Lakay will help you understand the answer to this question.

Not much is known about Lakay but the locals seen to be afraid of it.

The symbols from the Pagan Ritual site appear here.

The black symbol is white this time and can be seen on two trees.

One finished.

One half finished or half gone.

You can also find the second symbol from the rock.

The first symbol is called 'Veve of Ogoun'. Ogoun is one of the spirits in the religion of Voodoo, Voodoo spirits have their own unique symbols which are called veves.

Other than the Ogoun symbol, you can notice another veve at the Pagan Ritual which doesn't appear in Lakay. This one seems to be inspired by the Papa Legba Veve.

As for the third and final symbol, well this one isn't a part of Voodoo religion, this painting portrays a spell from a religion called Palo Mayombe.

The spell was used to consecrate objects against negativity, it looks as if Rockstar created their own version of religion for the game, and it is a mixture of Voodoo and Palo Mayombe.

Lakay looks like a location that was used or more likely still is being used for rituals, Here you will see a painting of women dancing around the fire and a small altar in front of it, most likely a place where the rituals take place.

In the shack close by, you can find a shrunken human head, Rockstar probably took inspiration for this from real life amazonian tribes who actually practiced head shrinking.

All the evidence implies that a black magic cult is behind everything but what exactly happened in Lakay?

The village looks like a location that used to be settled by regular people, they were most likely christians since there is a decorative church hearby. At some point, Lakay was raided by this black magic cult.

Voodoo objects, tree symbols and the poor condition of Timy church and the village seem to confirm it, Palo mayombe. As mentioned earlier, uses the Crucifix and images of catholic figuers as representations of the Palo spirits.

Everything here suggests that the black magic practitioners are actually the night folk. You can see they wear the Voodoo beads and body paint, the easiest place to find them at night is around Lakay.

It suggest that they're the ones who perform rituals in Lakay, night folk are known to drive people out of their homes. Just like they did with this Old Cajun.

They're known for brutal and merciless murders, so it's not a stretch to think they perform truesome rituals, as well. Why is the pagan ritual site so far away from Lakay? Rockstar probably placed it here, so you wouldn't know its backstory right away.