Screenshot from the Halloween Horror Night 18 website, Universal Studios Florida, 2008.
A Note About “Legendary Truth 2008:” The following information describes characters from the Halloween Horror Nights 18 (2008) alternate reality game, “Legendary Truth: The Collective.” The game unfolded over the course of several months, as new puzzles were revealed and new events occurred inside the confines of the Universal Studios Florida theme park. The purpose of the game was to create an elaborate storyline that interconnected the event’s various haunted houses and scarezones. This storyline placed the attractions and characters into a pseudo-historical context: most of the characters mentioned in “Legendary Truth: The Collective” are entirely fictional, yet their back stories depict them as ancestors, descendants or other relations of real, formerly-living persons.
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On this date in 1936, Lieutenant Von Stebler, the second patient of Dr. Mary Agana’s ‘Living Fearlessly’ program (and eventual victim), was born.
Von Stebler, first name currently unknown, was born to retired Navy Admiral and harbor master George “G. J.” Von Stebler. Throughout his early life, the younger Von Stebler suffered from extensive and intense childhood fears. An early psychiatric profile was established by family friend Dr. Christian Kubsch. During the evaluation, Von Stebler claimed to have knowledge of “Bloody Mary,” the famous urban legend.
The Von Stebler/Kubsch connection can be traced back to the childhoods of George and Christian. The young men were students together at the tiny, one-room Carey Elementary School. Both men were present during the mysterious disappearance of their teacher, Miss Mary Worthington. While no students were ever found to be complicit in her disappearance (Worthington’s remains were never discovered), it is not unfeasible to think that Christian Kubsch and George Von Stebler, the two oldest students at the school, may have played a role. Whatever may have occurred within the confines of the Carey schoolhouse bound Kubsch and Von Stebler, and their families, together for the rest of their lives.
The younger Von Stebler eventually grew up and joined the Navy himself. After he achieved the rank of Lieutenant and became a candidate for the astronaut training program, Von Stebler’s psychiatric issues re-emerged. Suffering from disassociation, night terrors and visions of mysterious, unknown symbols, Von Stebler was soon judged unfit for military service and given a Section 8 discharge. As his world collapsed, Von Stebler once again sought out the advice of Dr. Kubsch, who referred him to Dr. Agana.
After conducting her own evaluation, Agana prescribed a session of her immersion therapy: immobilization, then forced viewing of the aforementioned symbols. As the symbol images flashed by, Von Stebler became more and more violent. His ankles and wrists bruised, blood vessels in his eyes burst, and his teeth were broken from biting through his gag. After getting his hands on a writing pen, Von Stebler used it to carve the symbols deep into the flesh of his thighs.
Agana’s immersion therapy ultimately proved unsuccesful. Lieutenant Von Stebler was subsequently committed to an institution, where he eventually disappeared.
