The First Church

Actually, it's The First Church of the Divine Eucharist. Here's the short version: a missionary in Polynesia learns cannibalistic rituals from the inhabitants of a litte-known island. He recasts their beliefs in Christian terms to create a new communion ceremony that transforms human flesh into the body and blood of Christ. Consuming this flesh regularly increases one's strength, speed, and general health. Certainly, this is proof that God looks fondly upon the practice.

When he returns to Gotham, he takes over one of the city's historic churches and gradually gathers to himself an inner circle of faithful cannibals. For some reason, he seems to attract a lot of crime bosses, crooked cops, and corrupt politicians. Soon enough, the First Church has become a social club for Gotham's wicked elite, even if most of them remain blissfully ignorant of all the flesh-eating that goes on after hours.

By the time the Night Shift becomes involved, years of cannibalism have tranformed the priest and several of his original disciples. The latter have become ghouls who can no longer derive sustenance from living flesh, but must consume the rotted meat of the dead. They're chained up in the church basement and fed a steady died of corpses from the adjacent cemetery. On occasion, they are also used as guard dogs.

The priest has become the living embodiment of the cannibal spirit, who his North American ancestors called the Wendigo. He can make himself appear any way he wishes, but his natural form is that of an emaciated human whose nose, ears, and toes have all rotted away. His heart is made of ice and melting it is the only way to make sure he stays dead.

Wendigo Priest - Murder Machine (5) Scary as Hell (5) Hunter of Men (4) Chi (5)

TheFirstChurch

The First Church