Main Characters | Secondary Characters | Enemies and Bosses | Great Ones | Covenants | The Old Hunters | Comic
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Main Game
In General
- Faction Calculus:
- The Hunters of Hunters - Powerhouse.
- The Executioners - Powerhouse.
- The League - Balanced.
- The Vilebloods - Cannons.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
- The Hunters of Hunters are The Realists.
- The Executioners are The Optimists.
- The League can serve as both, The Conflicted as well as The Cynics.
- The Vilebloods are The Apathetic.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- The Hunters of Hunters are The Sanguine.
- The Executioners are The Choleric.
- The League are The Melancholic.
- The Vilebloods are The Phlegmatic.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Eileen and The Hunters of Hunters are Nice, The Executioners and The Vilebloods are Mean, and The League is In-Between.
Hunters of Hunters
- These watchmen admonish those who have become addled with blood. Be they men or beasts, anyone who has threatened the pledgers of the "Hunter" oath surely has an issue with blood. - Description of the Hunter Caryll Rune
The first of the Covenants that The Hunter can encounter from the very beginning in Central Yharnam. A specialized group of Hunters that don't hunt the usual prey, but instead fellow hunters who have fallen to the Beast Scourge. Eileen leads this covenant.
- Ancient Order of Protectors: They've been protecting Yharnam for many years as of now, as the mantle of a Hunter of Hunters is passed down through various generations having started with the original with the title being currently held by Eileen. The Hunter themselves can become the very next member of the line should they finish Eileen's questline.
- Creepy Crows: Intentionally invoked due to their crow-themed Attire, but played straight only to those for whom they deem a threat to the people of Yharnam, otherwise they're perfectly affable.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Crowfeather Set is their signature Attire and they hunt other humans, but they're actually a heroic order administering mercy kills to hunters who are about to become beasts.
- Expy: Their actions of eliminating Hunters who break their oaths and threaten others are reminiscent of the Blade of The Darkmoon and Blue Sentinel covenants from the Dark Souls trilogy.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: As the name suggests, they hunt down other hunters.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: They hunt down hunters, who are generally much more tough than Scourge Beasts. Though the 'doing it for the challenge' part is subverted; if a Hunter of Hunters is targeting someone, it's because they've lost themselves to the Scourge and need to be put down before they become threats to the people they wanted to protect.
- Mercy Kill: If a Hunter of Hunters is going after someone, chances are the target, if they were lucid, would be thanking them for it.
Executioners
- The Executioners despise the impure Vilebloods, and no matter what the circumstances, would never cooperate with the bloodthirsty hunters who serve the undead queen, Annalise. - Description of the Radiance Caryll Rune
The second Covenant that The Hunter can encounter early on in The Cathedral Ward. The followers of Martyr Logarius, who were all but killed off entirely in the name of the extermination of the Cainhurst Vilebloods, with Alfred as the only known survivor and Covenant Leader while Logarius is indisposed. Their signature weapon is Logarius's Wheel, something that, ironically enough, Logarius does not wield. Their rune, Radiance, increases the amount of health recovered by blood vials.
- Arch-Enemy: To the Cainhurst Vilebloods. Players with the Radiance rune equipped are always considered hostile to any Vileblood player, even if they were summoned for cooperation.
- Improbable Weapon User: Their signature weapon was a giant wheel. Ironically, it works much like the Chikage in that it has an alternate mode that increases damage in exchange for harming the user.
- Knight Templar: They hated the Vilebloods because they practiced a corrupted form of blood ministration, and they felt that the best way to remove the impurity the Vilebloods represented was to massacre them in their entirety, taking heavy losses of their own.
The League
- Confederates of The League cooperate with hunters from other worlds, and hunt to discover vermin. Vermin writhe within filth, and are the root of man's impurity. Crush all vermin without hesitation. - Description of the Impurity Caryll Rune
The third Covenant that can be found after Nightfall in The Forbidden Woods. A group of hunters who cooperate with other worlds and hunt creatures called Vermin. Valtr is the leader of this Covenant.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The League focuses on cooperation with hunters from other worlds, with their signature rune giving you a buff when you're summoned as a friendly phantom.
- Crazy Sane: The covenant. Their focus on hunting vermin keeps them focused on cooperation and killing monsters instead of attacking civilians and other hunters, despite teetering on the edge of blood-drunkenness and Vermin not even being real.
- Expy: Them helping out other Hosts through co-operation and killing bosses are exactly like the Warriors of Sunlight from the Dark Souls trilogy. Although the former is rather lacking in terms of morality and ethics.
- Motivational Lie: It's heavily implied in the lore that Vermin, or at least the impurity they're said to represent, isn't actually present in humans, but the idea that they do and the alleged need for it to be purged keeps nearly blood-drunk hunters focused on fighting monsters instead of other humans.
Cainhurst Vilebloods
- Pledgers to this oath are Cainhurst Vilebloods, hunters of blood who find dregs for their Queen in coldblood, particularly in that of hunters. Yet the corrupt are heretics in the eyes of the Church, and thus subject to the wrath of the Executioners. - Description of the Corruption Caryll Rune
The fourth and final Covenant that can be encountered by using an secret passage in The Forbidden Woods and then later traveling to Hemwick. A sect of hunters who have pledged loyalty to the noble family of Cainhurst, whose use of corrupted blood ministration has drawn the Healing Church's ire. Queen Annalise, the sole survivor of Cainhurst, leads this covenant. Their signature weapon is the Chikage, which can be purchased after joining the covenant.
- Arch-Enemy: To the Executioners of The Healing Church. Executioner and Vileblood players are always hostile to each other if one summons the other, no matter the circumstances.
- Deadly Decadent Court: Seem to have been one in their heyday. The item description for the Executioner's Gloves (which can summon three homing arcane projectiles described as "wrathful spirits from the past") states that the nobles liked to use it as a party trick.
- Lost in Translation: They're heavily tied to the Shinto concept of kegare
, which is a spiritual defilement caused by exposure to physical pollution.- 'Vilebloods' is original to the English version, emphasizing their use of corrupted blood ministration (i.e. they didn't bother to purify kegare in the blood). In Japanese, their title translates better to 'Cainhurst Family'. Joining the covenant means you're being adopted into the Cainhurst line.
- 'Blood Dregs' are actually Chi no Kegare (best translated as 'Corrupt Blood'), showing that Annalise's plan to have a Child of Blood is to invite large amounts of kegare into herself, unlike the Church who try to purify it.
- Player Versus Player: The Vilebloods are designed for this. You level up in the covenant by collecting Blood Dregs from the blood of other hunters, which more often than not are other players (NPC hunters drop them too if you've got the rune equipped, but there's a limited number of these).
- Regenerating Health: The Corruption rune lets you slowly regain health when you're really low.
The Old Hunters
Blood Beast
- Those who swear this oath take on a ghastly form and enjoy accentuated transformation effects, especially while wielding a beast weapon. - Description of the Beast's Embrace Caryll Rune
A strange covenant from The Old Hunters, focused on using the Beast's Embrace rune to transform oneself into a beast and boost the power of weapons like the Beast's Claw. This covenant has no leader, with the rune instead being a drop from Laurence, the First Vicar. The Bestial Hunter appears to be a member of this Covenant, since they have the rune equipped.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Beast's Embrace transformation completely hides your character's gender, with their chest being merely a pronounced ribcage.
- Partial Transformation: Focuses on partially transforming into a Cleric Beast and using things like the Beast's Claw to tap into the Scourge.
Lumenwood Kin
- A translation of the inhumane, sticky whispers that reveal the nature of a celestial attendant. Those who take this oath become a Lumenwood that peers towards the sky, feeding phantasms in its luscious bed. Phantasms guide us and lead us to further discoveries. - Description of the Milkweed Caryll Rune
An Old Hunters covenant. Saint Adeline is the closest thing this covenant has to a leader, as she gifts the player with the Milkweed rune at the end of her questline. Those who use this rune become a Lumenwood Kin and can use the Kos Parasite to its fullest potential.
- Body Horror: Those attack animations do not look natural.
- Combat Tentacles: The Kos Parasite + Milkweed Rune combo gives you these.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Lumenwood Kin transformation. The cauliflower head is the least of your problems.
- Plant Person: The rune turns you into a Lumenwood, like that tree in the center of the Living Failures' boss arena.
