Do members of the Order not know who Dante is?

[smapattack]

One thing that always bothered me about this game...
Wouldn't it be blasphemous to attack the son of the demon they worship? Did they not know who he was? They really only seemed to react in fear when they saw him.

Man, I wish they explained things better in this game.

 

[NessPSI]

Well the first thing they saw Dante do was shoot their leader in the face then slowly turned toward the audience in a frightning manner. I would be surprised if the civilians werent in fear of him at that point. They probably thought he was just some assassin or something. Also the soldiers that attacked him were actually demons in disguise. Which im sure the only people who knew this was Credo and Sanctus. No civilian/worshiper raised a blade against Dante from what i saw. I just figured Dante was trying to scare the civilians away with his glare to keep them out of harms way. I dont think they knew he was the son of sparda.

 

[Viper]

Unless their faith is on seriously delusional level, people tend to react to anyone, let alone their leader, being killed very emotionally. Run or attack, depending whether you are an obedient human sheep or a raging knight turned demon. So they showed a logical reaction in the game.
The higher ups probably knew who he was, and I gather Credo was thinking maybe they can catch him or at least keep him busy until the rest of the plan is done. In minds of such people like Sanctus, Credo, Agnus... blasphemy doesn't apply if it's for higher good.

 

[Lord Nero]

Well, they are an evil cult, you know. The most important thing to note is that all the knights present at Sanctus's speech were apparently demons. They had gone through with the Ascension Ceremony. Since that's an honor bestowed only on the most loyal followers, they were probably in on Sanctus's plan. None of the civilians attacked Dante.
Also, it's possible that they don't even know who Dante is (or at least what he looks like). For one, as far as I know, there isn't any literature on Dante. Secondly, while he has saved the human world before, I'm pretty sure most humans didn't notice it. Dante tries to keep things secret, so as not to become idolized himself. At best, people only heard some rumors about him.

 

[V's patron]

well i think the legend doesn't actually name Eva, Dante or vergil when Arkham recites for Vergil in DMC3 so Im guessing the average citizen or guard doesnt know about them.

But then again, Dante/Vergil dont really act like what you expect them too so it would be quite the culture shock.

We dont really know how Fortuna interacts with the outside world etc (DMC is pretty vague/hollow when it comes to world-building) so its anyone's guess.

@Sunny @NessPSI @ColdSteel pretty much gave the rest of the reasons

 

[Dante's Stalker]

One thing that always bothered me about this game...
Wouldn't it be blasphemous to attack the son of the demon they worship? Did they not know who he was? They really only seemed to react in fear when they saw him.

Man, I wish they explained things better in this game.

You need to keep in mind that they are a cult. Cults ace in brainwashing their following. The worshipping and oh holy thou Sparda was all a gimmick to assure their following don't run or rebel when Sanctus 'becomes' Sparda. So if you look at it from their pov, it's not blasphemous to take out anything and anyone that get in their way of accomplishing their goal. That's why they tried to take out Nero, because he wasn't a drone that followed their orders without question.

And yep, they did know who he was. The demons throughout the game say they can smell Sparda's bloodline. That, combined with his action in the cathedral, was already a dead giveaway to them who he is.

 

[Meg]

Wouldn't the general population know who he is? The little in-game bio for Dante says that he's considered to be even stronger than his father. Who are these people saying that I wonder?

 

[Axon49]

I believe it actually says:

His mastery of close-quarter and ranged combat has led some to believe he has surpassed his father.

So it's just some people, which could be anyone Dante's come into contact with and not necessarily the general population.

 

[smapattack]

I wish they would make a DMC5. There is potential to make a deeper story.
It would be interesting if DMC was set in a world where small sects of the population know about demons/fight against demons or are fanatical cults.

 

[Cranberry]

We need another anime, maybe a Nero and Dante anime, and Nero's trying to piece together the past of Fortuna while Dante notices some shifts in the Underworld that are effecting the human world; perhaps especially Fortuna. A manga about Vergil's past wouldn't hurt either. I think they are both mediums that would do well to lead up to DMC 5. They could be separate stories of the three characters that connect and set up the plot for DMC 5. And it would be a way to include what they can't cram pack into a game.

 

[berto]

We know that the heads of the Order know who he is. Credo, Agnus, Sanctus, and probably everyone sitting in that table when Agnus walked in screaming about Nero know. Kyrie knows by the end, and probably a whole lot of people who were saved by him and Trish when they invaded town. But before the facts of the incident that led to a demon invasion, no, probably not.

However, there is also the possibility that Fortuna in general doesn't know there are any children produced by Sparda. There weren't any talks of 'Sons' or 'Descendants' during the service and if you knew Jesus was walking around another nation wouldn't you go look for him? Nobody in Fortuna has ever made the effort to go look for him, maybe they don't know.