The Night Unfurls / Tropes A to D

This page covers tropes found in The Night Unfurls.

Tropes A To D | Tropes E to N | Tropes O to Z |

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A

• Aborted Arc: Evetta's presence in the Waking World (or rather, her Stealth Hi/Bye tendencies in Celestine's personal quarters) is one of the driving points that escalates tensions between Kyril and Claudia. After the Rebel Scum Arc, Kyril makes a note to discuss with Claudia as to what she is doing having Evetta trailed, but this is dropped later on during the Hunt for Mandeville Arc.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: This is how Kyril infiltrates the Mercenary compound in Ansur per Grace's directions to find Maia. Unfortunately, this is also one of his Trauma Buttons, because it reminds him of a daughter of Gascoigne, whose carcass was torn apart by a boar beast. Poor Kyril is forced to experience his greatest failure a second time upon seeing another girl corpse dumped in the sewers.
• The Ace: Several characters fit the bill.
  • Vault fits the "charismatic leader" archetype of this trope, regarded as a Hunk In-Universe (deep voice, herculean physique) with the look of a hero of old. A good sword arm, and The Leader of the Black Dogs, he is famed for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat during his career as a mercenary, working closely with the Seven Shields during the Forever War against Olga. This trope is the main reason why he amasses a lot of supporters to fight for the Black Dogs and their ambition to build a Sex Empire.
  • Olga is considered one of the most talented sorceresses in the land, as well as the one who rivals Celestine, the Goddess Reborn in terms of magical prowess. Her good looks aside, it is implied that the dark elf community used to hold a great deal of respect for her because of her role as the community's representative and dark elf queen when the dark elves have been threatened with enslavement for a long time. There's a reason why the people of Loraine hate her guts after she "repaid" their loyalty by sacrificing the city to the orcs.
  • As for Celestine, the only noteworthy feat of her arcane talent is the power to see future visions. Other than that, she has yet to perform a feat considered exceptional at least In-Universe via her magic, making this an Informed Attribute^note For example, Soren claims that Celestine could "just simply blast him into oblivion without lifting a finger", yet there is not a single moment that depicts her using any offensive magic at all. Nevertheless, she is definitely a really talented ruler, capable of running her country for centuries and is beloved by many. Being able to see the future helps out a lot.
  • Played With for Kyril. He gradually develops into a straight example not because he becomes better at doing something over time — he's already way up there in terms of strength, combat, and other eldritch tricks. Rather, it's his reputation that improves. In the beginning, he's a Terror Hero feared by all, but later on, he consistently brings results by culling the traitors in the country so effectively that his soldiery and the common folk lionise him. Several character POVs observe that Kyril is gradually gaining a legendary status as a result of earning authority via asskicking, stopping the Black Dogs from doing harm to the people, and getting rid of the traitorous aristocrats that extort said people. His status as The Dreaded doesn't change, of course.
• Acid Attack: The Hunter fights a huge ogre which can gurgle and spew out acid in Chapter 14 of the original.
• Action Girl: Female combatants are not uncommon in the setting due to the prevalence of Gender Is No Object. Sanakan and Lily, both main characters and Trick-Weapon-wielding Hunters, deserve special mention for their consistent performance in small fights and large battles, racking up an ever-increasing body count.
• Action Prologue: The first chapter of the remastered version opens up with the Good Hunter wrapping up his hunt for an orc war band, killing the three remaining ones with ease.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Sanakan's remark to Grishom as "a flabby old cunt" has the normally humourless Kyril trying his hardest to hide a smile.
  • In Chapter 6 of the remastered version, Vault calls Kyril out for his disrespect of him. Kyril retorts that as Vault's men cannot discipline themselves in the North, it would be good for them to have "a change of scenery", saying, "I hear the South is quite lovely this time of year..." Olga's internal narration indicates that she begrudgingly finds the Hunter's answer to be funny, as much of a stone-cold bastard he is.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Both the original and remastered version expands further on the setting of Kuroinu, which is put aside in the actual canon in favour of fanservice. Examples include the crime-ridden Ansur, the Church, and the dark elf slave trade.
  • The remastered version of the story, in particular, expands the Assault of the Black Fortress Arc in the original story, such as more characterisation for Alicia and Olga, increased interaction between Kyril, Vault and the Seven Shields, and a more detailed journey from the Black Fortress to Ken.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the original version, Soren was a thief working for a street thug owning the streets. After a failed attempt to steal Sanakan's coin purse, he is Recruited from the Gutter into one of Kyril's apprentice hunters. The remastered version has him eventually become a mercenary of the Black Dogs, who goes rogue and assists Kyril for his Great Escape to be set into motion upon overhearing Vault's intentions of rape and enslavement.
• Adaptational Badass: Copious amounts.
  • The Good Hunter. In Bloodborne canon, an Empowered Badass Normal Hunter of Monsters skilled with a multitude of melee and ranged weapons. Here, he is many things aside from having all the abilities depicted in canon: a dreaded Terror Hero, a Badass Teacher who eventually takes four apprentices, a Four-Star Badass with military acumen, and a great one in a man's skin. Moreover, the Hunter died a lot in canon, whereas in the fanfic's original version, he only dies once.
  • Several of the main female characters of Kuroinu are given this treatment as opposed to canon, where they are forced to become Sex Slaves.
    • Olga, Chloe, Maia, Alicia, and Claudia have at least one fight scene on the battlefield, where they prove to be either competent combatants, or commanders leading the charge. Olga, in particular, goes through this trope a second time in the remastered version of the fanfic, having access to a lot more magical abilities for combat than plain Playing with Fire, allowing her to last a bit longer against the Good Hunter.
    • Luu-Luu is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse able to trade blows with the Good Hunter for a short while... after she is rendered Brainwashed and Crazy from Shamuhaza's experiments.
  • The Plain Doll has Mind over Matter, and she isn't afraid to use it when threatened. This is original to the fanfic.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: One of the taverns, Hound's Head Bar, uses the other naming convention of describing an animal in a different grammatical form than precisely "The Adjective Animal".
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Two instances — one at a church, the other in an Absurdly Spacious Sewer. Both involve the Good Hunter slowly advancing and cutting up the terrified Black Dogs within his vicinity, in a way that resembles the "Vader hallway" scene. No escape indeed.
• Adventure Guild: The place where sellswords get their bounties. Judging from how Kyril has wandered from place to place to sell his blade to those who needed it, many of these exist throughout Eostia, in contrast to the usual depiction of one single guild with a Random Power Ranking in Japanese media^note Kuroinu is a Japanese visual novel with an anime adaptation. Then again, mercenary work is stated to be a booming business in Eostia, so this makes sense.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • Amongst the Good Hunter's party, there are common names like Hugh, Lily, and Soren versus uncommon names like Kyril, Evetta, and Sanakan.
  • The Seven Shields is this as well. We have Celestine, Claudia, Alicia, Prim, Maia, Kaguya, and Luu-Luu.
  • Olga, the Dark Queen, and Chloe, her shadow.
  • Ex-Black Dog members (Boris, Fredrick, Oliver, Soren) versus prominent Black Dogs (Vault, Kin, Hicks).
• Aggressive Negotiations: A subverted example occurs at the end of Chapter 21 of the original. A tense atmosphere permeates the meeting between Kyril's company and the tribes of the Wild Ones, due to both sides being convinced that the other is looking for a fight. Luckily, no bloodshed happens. Both sides manage to arrive at an agreement after the chieftain of the tribe reunites with his daughter, who is under the custody of Kyril's company.
• Alien Geometries: The interior of the Malys Estate, which is featured in Chapter 22 of the original, seems to have ever-expanding dimensions. Imagine how nauseous one would be when traversing through the place. In particular, Kyril advises Sanakan and Hugh not to look too hard, especially at the roof above them that stretches seemingly forever. Then again, Eldritch Abomination Shamuhaza resides within, so naturally the place won't really make sense.
• All Beer Is Ale: The word "lager" is pretty much non-existent. Any time someone has a drink, you can guarantee that it's ale.
• All for Nothing:
  • Back in Yharnam, Kyril met several survivors, tried to keep them safe, and hoped to escape with them. It didn't matter in the end, for all of them lost their minds and, in turn, their lives.
  • Olga, who wants vengeance against humanity for the enslavement of dark elves, spent centuries before the start of the series engaging in warfare with Celestine. In order to gather more power, she sacrificed Loraine, one of her loyal cities, to the Always Chaotic Evil orcs, subjecting the people there to Rape, Pillage, and Burn. Kyril Sutherland's arrival, which directly led to her defeat, renders all her efforts moot. Even if one discounts Kyril's involvement, considering how the root cause is the Fantastic Racism between humans and dark elves, it is suffice to say that the Forever War barely changed the situation for good, if not for worse, as shown by how it persists throughout the story. Furthermore, she would eventually have to deal with the repercussions from what she did to Loraine's people. On the bright side, Olga acknowledging that this trope has occurred is what kick-starts her Heel–Face Turn and her endeavours to make amends one small step at a time.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The root of Kyril's Unwanted Harem. For some reason, women having the hots for an aloof, brusque, brooding, stoic, mysterious, somewhat handsome Anti-Hero is beyond his comprehension. Although he is anything but a complete jerk, he doesn't think the women deserve to be hooked up with a violent, broken Hunter of Monsters like him. Him being a humanoid great one is another factor.
  "Kyril did not understand why that was happening. He killed people on a daily basis and already women were trying to line up at his door."
• All Men Are Perverts: Obviously, not every single male character is depicted as lustful in this fanfic, but several characters, like Maia and Grace, assume this to be true, noting that a normal man would stare or ogle whenever any Ms. Fanservice is present. There's also the fact that the Black Dogs are a male-exclusive mercenary group who literally want to build a Sex Empire...
• All Myths Are True: Surprisingly, around half of the myths or legends about the Good Hunter have some truth to it, while the other half is either false or not confirmed.
  • A popular notion amongst the populace is that Sir Kyril can sense ill intent somehow. While it is true that Kyril is very observant, thanks to his accumulated combat experience from the Night of the Hunt, it is not explicitly shown that he can detect malicious ki/energy/intent.
  • Another notion is that Sir Kyril drinks the blood of his enemies to harvest their strength, or similarly, his Saw Cleaver drinks the blood of the traitors and the faithless. Although the two do not directly ingest the blood of his foes, and it is unknown whether the "rally" mechanic works the same way in the waking world as in Bloodborne (i.e. regaining health within a window of opportunity while continuously attacking an enemy), this is exactly what he does in Yharnam. To elaborate, his means of recovering health, levelling up, and purchasing consumables either directly or indirectly involve blood, as in, the Old Blood.
  • At the beginning of the story, Kyril has racked up a high body count of orc and goblin kind, leading to many believing that he had an intense hatred of them. In fact, he defies What Measure Is a Non-Human? and does not hold a grudge of any kind.
  • While not confirmed by the populace, the notion that Sir Kyril is nigh unkillable is certainly true, thanks to his Resurrective Immortality.
  • Some say that Kyril is a demon in human form, which is not true unless you equate "demon" with a certain slug/squid-like creature.
  • For the more absurd ones, there are stories about Kyril occasionally taking people, including teenagers like Soren, as a Human Sacrifice. This is simply not true.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In the original version of the story, the Black Dogs' main goal is the conquest of Eostia, so naturally, this trope often occurs in the form of takeovers or assaults on several main strongholds of the Seven Shields.
  • Feoh/Ur Arc: Since Alicia thinks that surrendering her control of Feoh and Ur for a group of nuns is a brilliant idea, Prime Minister Beasley and his cronies are ready to welcome the Black Dogs into the two fortresses, essentially a takeover with little resistance, the good guys' none the wiser. Their operation would've been successful if it weren't for Kyril's hunch that something is not right, namely, Feoh's missing garrison. The two strongholds are ultimately retaken thanks to Kyril and his two apprentices rescuing the people responsible for intelligence and invoking The Cavalry.
  • Ansur Arc: The Black Dogs attack Ansur with the help of the crime families within. Once again, they are repelled by Kyril and The Cavalry.
  • Rad Arc: Thanks to the Shamuhaza's efforts, Rad is taken over before the heroes arrive, making this instance a successful example. In fact, the attack is so successful that even though they manage to destroy all the mutated Elite Mooks that overrun the entire fortress, there are heavy implications that most, if not all, civilians are dead, and survivors would have to suffer from the destruction of their homeland.
• Alliance with an Abomination: Any instance of Kyril cooperating with someone, be it the Seven Shields to fight against the Black Dogs (original version), or a trio of rogue Black Dogs to do a Great Escape (remastered version), counts as this. Out of all the people he worked with, Celestine and Olga are the two people with a comparatively higher status than the rest, yet are ultimately "lower beings" when compared to Kyril's status as a great one.
• Alliterative Family: All three members of the Pantielle family (Michael, Mikhail, Michelle) have names that start with "Mi".
• Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate:
  • Kyril's blunt and cold public demeanour is tempered by his third apprentice Lily, who would soothe any choler his speech would inevitably create.
  • This dynamic is inverted for Celestine and Claudia. Celestine, The High Queen, is more approachable than her Number Two and sworn protector, Claudia.
• Always a Bigger Fish: During Chapter 4 of the original, a group of village women are taken to a church by the Black Dogs for an orgy, only for the Hunter to barge in the debauchery and rain hell upon the mercs responsible with his cleaver and gun. Unsurprisingly, the naked and blank-eyed villagers can do nothing but behold the Terrifying Rescuer covered in the insides of his foes in fear. His emotionless visage and gothic hunter attire that obscures his facial features do not help any matters in the slightest. The Hunter himself muses on this situation, internally noting that he looks more like a monster unleashed upon the other monsters than some saviour. Many a Mook Horror Show described in this fanfic only serves to hammer this notion further.
• Ambition Is Evil:
  • One of Vault's motives for building a Sex Empire is that, by utilising the Black Fortress and its vast resources, he and the Black Dogs have an opportunity to rise to a position higher than a mere mercenary. Unhappy with servitude under the Goddess Reborn, he wants to bring the current people in power, like the Seven Shields, under his heel, while every man under his rule can "live like kings". Ambition is only a secondary motivation, though.
  • Evil Chancellor, Prime Minister Beasley. Unhappy with taking orders from Alicia, heir of the fortress Feoh, he joins Vault and the Black Dogs so that he can rule over his own part of the future Sex Empire.
  • Evil Sorcerer Shamuhaza is willing to conduct inhumane experiments to both innocents and people on the same side as he is (The Leaping Lizards), for the sake of gaining more power and knowledge, as well as delving further into the Eldritch Truth. All of his test subjects have become either grotesque abominations, or breeders of said abominations.
• Anatomy Agony: It happens. If you are a mook, or anyone who is unlucky enough to bump into a hunter (especially Kyril), at least one of the following would happen to you as they strike you down:
  • Castration.
  • Decapitation.
  • Dismemberment.
  • Ear Ache^note often sliced when hacking off the upper half of the head.
  • Your Head A-Splode.
  • Evisceration^note thanks, Kyril.
  • Eye Scream.
  • Facial Destruction.
  • Halved Torsos.
  • Headshots.
  • Literal Asskicking^note when they need to kick off the corpse off their blade.
  • Mouth Trauma.
  • Nasal Trauma^note also sliced when hacking off the upper half of the head.
  • Neck Trauma.
  • Stomach Trauma.
  • Throat Trauma.
  • Tongue Trauma.
• Ancestral Weapon: The Pantielle family sword. It only has relevance during the Liberation of Ansur Arc, where Kyril is tasked to find Michelle. Disowned by his family, he stole the sword which was supposed to be given to his brother Mikhail. Later on, Kyril retrieves the ancestral sword in the mercenary compound, after Michelle, who was having his way with Maia, tries to take him down with the sword to no avail. When he returns it to Mikhail, Kyril internally notes that the gilded weapon would probably break over his knee in one go.
• And I Must Scream: If the citizens of Rad are not killed during Shamuhaza's experiments, then this would be the fate they are subjected to. Petrified, transformed into horrific mutants, amalgamated into a hulking Body of Bodies... all with a hint of awareness of their predicament. At least they are eventually released from their fate when the hunters arrive.
• And Show It to You: If anyone has the guts to face the Good Hunter who is silently enraged or has eaten some ball wrapped in cloth (it's the Beast Blood Pellet), they better pray that their insides are in one piece. And no, he doesn't even need to stab them in the back or shoot them with a gun to perform a visceral attack. Give him an opening, and they shall kiss their guts goodbye.
• Annoying Arrows: Generally speaking, this trope is inverted — arrows and crossbow bolts are as threatening as they are in real life.
  • During Chapter 6 of the original, Kyril and his company are ambushed by goblin archers and their Rain of Arrows. Everyone tries their best to take cover so they don't get hit.
  • A subverted case is when Kyril pulls out the crossbow bolts embedded in his side... only for him to immediately heal himself with a Blood Vial. Turns out that one of the bolts actually punched into his lung, so yeah, he did take damage.
  • Perhaps the ultimate inversion would be how a well-aimed crossbow bolt to the head can punch out the humanoid great one that is the Good Hunter, as the ending of Chapter 31 shows. Not that this does anything to him, but still.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Discussed. Shalala claims that Kyril is the Goddess Incarnate's wrath made manifest, as well as a champion of light. Kyril dismisses such claims, insisting that he's merely a killer who happens to be on the "good" side.
• Anti-Human Alliance: To enact vengeance against humankind for the enslavement of dark elves, the Dark Elf Queen, Olga Discordia, declared war against Eostia centuries ago. To achieve this end, she allied the orcs and the dark elves together by giving one of her cities to the orcs as tribute.
• Apocalypse How: Should Shamuhaza be left alive to continue his endeavour of uncovering the Eldritch Truth, the country of Eostia would be doomed to suffer under the Beast Plague (approximately a Class 0), like Yharnam, Loran, and ancient Pthumeru before it. Luckily subverted as he is put down in Chapter 22, with the country mostly intact.
• Apocalyptic Log: Should anyone but the owner pick up Kyril's journal, they would find the contents incomplete and scrambled in no particular order, yet they document a tale about his experience in Yharnam, including: one of his deaths, his initial hopefulness, the deaths of all the people he befriended, and other mind-shattering ordeals and monstrosities.
• Arcadia: The Hunter's Dream resembles one such place. An old workshop overlooking a small garden, together with the hill of white flowers outside the workshop contribute to the rural feel, though the fog and the many graves may bring a gloomy atmosphere to the area. It is a calm, soothing place with only a few inhabitants who are innocent to a fault, a perfect place for its master to rest and gather his thoughts. The kicker? The Hunter's Dream is a Utopia through and through — a Dream Land Pocket Dimension created by an Eldritch Abomination simply does not exist in reality.
• Armor Is Useless: Played With.
  • The Bloodborne hunters are simply on a whole nother level compared to their adversaries. They a) are superhuman, b) have weapons empowered by Blood Magic, and c) have guns. Of course armour would mean nothing to them. Heck, it would be unrealistic if their bullets somehow fail to penetrate a mook's armour.
  • As for the Soren's P.O.V. in Chapter 29 shows, the apprentice hunters are trained to attack the weak points of armour. While he does lampshade how he doesn't have enough strength to tear into the chestplate with his bare hands, Soren goes for his armoured opponent's throat, winning the fight.
  • There's also how the hunters invoke and exploit this trope via their emphasis on manoeuvrability over protection. After all, avoiding damage outright is better than receiving damage, with incapacitation or death being the likely result.
  • By reading between the lines, it is evident that a majority of mooks don't have access to high-quality plate armour. To start off, the fantasy "monsters", dumb brutes as they are, hardly wear any armour, though some groups (e.g. orcs, mutants and other Smash Mooks) compensate this with their innate toughness. Most of the Black Dog mercenaries, supposedly the most renowned Private Military Contractors in the country, all wear light leather armour. The exceptions are The Leader Vault (hard leather, metal plate) and, in the remastered version, Boris (mail and leather). On a similar level are the human rebels, ranging from being poorly armed to wearing leather armour. Armed soldiery/guards in general are assumed to be wearing metallic armour (the narrative does not specify whether it is heavy plate armour or not).
  • The one time where heavy armour is portrayed as durable is when Kyril fights a Dual Boss — Mandeville's familiars. The pair's golden heavy armour manages to protect them from Kyril's blows... for a short while. The first ends up having its entire helmet cleaved off, while the second is finally struck down via a vertical blow of the Hunter's Axe that splits it in half.
  • Last but not least, any amount of armour is worthless when the unit is on the receiving end of a giant fireball, a Sword Beam, or an exploding star that scatters streams of starlight, all of which classify as Anti-Armor.
• Army Scout: Scouts like Indriga and Sharl exist as a division of Kyril's company. Their job is to be the first to enter hostile territory stealthily and, if possible, ambush the enemy and start signals. They would then report back so their intelligence can be used to formulate tactics. Occasionally, some apprentice hunters like Hugh play this role for their immense firepower to be put into use.
• Arrested for Heroism: Subverted in the first chapter of the original. Kyril has been killing off bands of orcs, monsters and bandits throughout his time in Eostia to get paid. While Kyril himself would not call this "heroism", those who find themselves to be troubled by those marauding bands would. Eventually, he gains so much attention from his high body count that the ruler of Eostia, Celestine, aims to secure a meeting with him by having her agents bring him to the throne room. Kyril initially thinks that he is somehow being judged for a crime. Celestine reassures him that this is not the case — her intention is to acquire a skilled agent to end the Forever War by bringing her rival, Olga, to her alive. He accepts her request.
• Artifact of Doom: Both Kyril's saw cleaver and journal are said to have their own will, and anybody who makes contact with them risks gaining Insight, which makes them susceptible from the madness within the nightmarish horrors of Yharnam. Hicks, Celestine and Olga almost learn it the hard way.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • Kyril's combat prowess is the reason why soldiers follow him and he has to lead them into battle. In particular, the original version has him earning the titles of knight and Lord Executioner respectively because of his asskicking.
  • Chapter 4 of the remastered version has a moment where Kyril lampshades how this trope makes no sense.
    "Kyril moved in silence. He fought and killed in silence, and the men who were nominally under his command knew that he was not to be messed with but followed him regardless of their feelings on the matter. Truth to be told, he was irritated at this situation. He did not lead men into battle, he was not a true soldier. Kyril was a killer, yes, but not a soldier. He did not know his flank from his foot, or the words required to rise men up.
    
    Hunters did not consider battle lines, the experience of the troops under their command, or what supplies they needed to wage war. Hunters killed, and that was it. What was Vault playing at, putting him in charge of these men? There were better options in his company for troop leaders."
  • For the Wild Ones, strength is what matters. Whoever is the strongest takes lead.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Celestine's depiction of the Good Hunter in one of her visions is a man in a dark coat standing on a field of corpses, an image that appears right after a vision of the same man standing on a hill surrounded by white flowers^note the place where the Hunter duelled his mentor Gehrman.
• Attempted Rape:
  • The reason why Sanakan is not raped in Chapter 4 of the original is because the Black Dog mercenaries that captured her are busy with the other female villagers — it's not her turn yet. Luckily, the mercs are foiled by Kyril's timely arrival, though Sanakan assumes that he's here to take all the victims by himself.
  • In Chapter 6 of the remastered version, Kyril finds himself with a group of Black Dogs molesting Chloe. He proceeds to fetch her to her queen, Olga, before anything worse happens.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Celestine and Olga spent centuries fighting in a Forever War, but it was clear that both of them didn't intend for the war to last that long, nor did they want the other to die either. The remastered version expands on this, with Celestine feeling distraught regarding Kyril's notion that he would bring her Olga's head, and Olga later revealing to Kyril that she did try to make peace with her former friend, but to no avail, since the enslavement of her people was still ongoing. Finally subverted when said war is over — they are currently in friendlier terms than before to fight against the Black Dogs.

B

• Back from the Dead: Kyril in Chapter 32 after his assassination in the previous chapter, thanks to his Resurrective Immortality. For the audience, this is not really surprising, but to Celestine and Kyril's assassin, this is an Oh, Crap! moment.
• Backhanded Apology: Downplayed in Chapter 1 of the remastered version. Kyril is not one for insults or jerkassery, but his apology towards Alicia for not showing respect towards a noble like her serves to highlight his brusque, seemingly uncaring demeanour.
  Kyril: If I have offended you, I do apologize, but I must get going. *gives a short, curt bow* Have a wonderful afternoon.
• Bad Moon Rising: According to Celestine, this is the phenomenon when "omens come to dispense misery upon the dreamers", which wanes Olga's Black Magic, providing an opening for an invasion to the Black Fortress. Kyril finds this quite amusing. Then again, it's not like he has not experienced such a phenomenon before...
• Bad Powers, Good People: Downplayed. Kyril Sutherland is a Good Is Not Nice Knight in Sour Armor who uses blood-related, blood-powered arsenal yet fights against enemies who Rape, Pillage, and Burn. In the original version, he also has the ability to Mind Rape anyone to a Fate Worse than Death by tapping into his powers as a great one, but it is never used en masse, only reserving it for the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique and the elimination of an Ax-Crazy foe who would cause an Apocalypse How should he be left alive.
• Badass Bandolier: The Good Hunter has a bandolier of throwing knives that hangs over his left shoulder. Goes on to show that he is capable of other forms of combat that isn't "hack with melee weapon".
• Badass Boast: Kyril, the Cold Ham he is, does this occasionally.
  • This is what Kyril has to say after Grishom calls him "a godless foreigner".
    Kyril: (to Grishom) You seem to believe that as a holy man, you are safe from being killed. Let me tell you a secret, Grishom. Holy men bleed like any other man. You just have to find the right place to make it hurt.
  • The climax of Chapter 22 has one from Kyril to Shamuhaza in the form of a giant arthropod, which really sounds like something a typical villain would say. Also doubles as an I Am Not Left-Handed moment for Kyril.
    Kyril: And here I thought I wouldn't have to do this. Shamuhaza... It's a pity. I would have shown you just how unwise it is to cross me. So... as a final gift, let me show you just how small and insignificant you truly are. A taste, if you will, of what I truly am.
  • This one is an O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment, when Kyril, under the effects of a Beast Blood Pellet, delivers a big one towards the rebels during the climax of the Rebel Scum Arc:
    Kyril: TRAITORS! You should have fallen on your own swords to spare yourself from this torment! Now weep in agony! Beg for your worthless lives! I HAVE COME FOR YOU!
  • Apparently, calling Kyril a monster doesn't stop him from delivering a one of these. Best shown in this exchange in Chapter 7, remastered version:
    Olga: You are an unfeeling, accursed wretch...
    Kyril: Yes... yes I am. But do not worry, I have more deaths on my conscience than anyone here. What is a couple thousand more? Sometimes, the dead come to speak to me in my dreams. That is suffering I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemies...
• Badass Normal: Any named, non-mage character amongst Kyril's Men of Sherwood count. Examples include Bergen, a regular Drill Sergeant Nasty; Indriga, a normal Army Scout; and Roland, a guy with an axe. These people have no magic, no Alien Blood, no absurdly cool weapons, and no "enhancements" of any sort like the five superhuman hunters, yet they all contribute to the war effort by being part of a company that emphasises good tactics and high morale.
• Badass Teacher: Exaggerated. The teacher, Kyril, witnesses his students Sanakan and Hugh being incapacitated by Shamuhaza in battle. What does he do? He Mind Rapes the being responsible for this to a Fate Worse than Death.
• Bar Brawl: Variations of these happen all the time when Kyril is in a Fantasy Tavern, though it is never played straight every time, as little to no furniture is shown or described to be destroyed in any way, minus any blood or gore spilt on the floor.
  • Original version:
    • A subverted case occurs at the end of Chapter 9, where some thugs think it's a good idea to start a fight with Kyril in Hound's Head Bar. Rather than a brawl, Kyril simply draws his pistol and shoots the lead thug in the chest and, besides threatening the others not to rush him, he interrogates them for the whereabouts of Michelle Pantielle and associates of the Black Dogs. Super effective.
    • In Chapter 10, Kyril notices five Black Dog mercs about to antagonise him while conversing with Grace in the same bar as before. To be frank, this "brawl" can be summarized as "Kyril killing five people in quick succession".
    • Chapter 28 has six traitorous soldiers launching a preemptive assault on Kyril and his cadre of hunters in Talon Bar. Take a guess on how long the brawl lasted, in addition to which side comes out victorious in the end.
  • Remastered version:
    • Subverted during Chapter 8 in Half-Moon Inn. A brawl is about to break out when Kyril deliberately provokes Morgan by pulling Grace close to him. It does not come to pass in the end, as Morgan's men decide to bail their leader out upon witnessing him receiving a kick in the gut that sends him flying.
• Batman Cold Open: The first chapter of both versions opens this way. It shows the Hunter's chores as a wandering sellsword, hunting down orc bands left and right as his means for earning income. The Hunter also gives brief exposition on how Eostia has a war going on, though he wants nothing to do with it. The only difference between the two versions is that the one for the remastered version has a bit more action.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: An inversion happens in Chapter 26 of the original. The last battle between Kyril and Grishom's forces occurs outside a burning area, not within the area. It starts with Soren starting a fire at Grishom's cathedral, with the mages breaching the wall and controlling the flames simultaneously. The rebel forces are driven from the cathedral due to the smoke and heat, only to be cornered by Kyril's forces waiting outside.
• Battle Cry: Practically a prerequisite at the beginning of any battlefield sequence, where armies of both sides charge into battle. The war cries can last quite a long time.
• Beast Man:
  • The Mordatella Brothers are twin pigmen.
  • In a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin, halflings look like "adorable, tiny petting zoo people".
  • The wild tribes, known as Wild Ones, are part-beast unlike the halflings above. These beast kin bear cat-like ears and claws, dressed in furs to keep out the cold.
  • The mutants that appear in Chapters 21-22 are synthetic Insectoid Aliens.
  • Grishom summons two minotaurs to fight Kyril offscreen.
• Because I Said So: Subverted. Olga wishes to speak to the dark elf refugees that Kyril has rescued. Kyril initially denies her request, the reasoning being "she can when I say she can"... but then it turns out she wouldn't be safe around those refugees, because they were from Loraine, the city that Olga once sacrificed to the orcs. Reasonably speaking, there is no point in speaking to people who loathe her. To Kyril's credit, he later has Grace send a message to the refugees after some convincing from Olga, informing that their queen wants to speak to them. This allows Olga to head towards the refugee camp and start making amends with the people she had wronged before.
  "My lady wants to speak to those people you rescued, knight." Chloe snarled stepping in front of Olga.
  "And she can when I say she can." Kyril returned slowly, mocking Chloe as if she was a particularly stupid child. "It is not safe for her to be around them anyway."
• Beneath the Mask:
  • Vault presents himself as the famed mercenary leader of the Black Dogs, being a Hunk and The Ace. The moment where Olga is defeated and her throne is empty, he doesn't hesitate to sit on it with a grin on his face, revealing an ambitious side. The mask goes off entirely when Vault convinces Kyril to join him in achieving his ambitions of a Sex Slave Empire.
  • Kyril is normally a stoic, brusque and aloof person. He is more relaxed whenever he returns to his Pocket Dimension and spends time with the Doll, like a man who comes home from a good hard day's work to a quiet house. From how the Doll sees him as someone who likes to keep to himself, even in private, his "public" self is a part of his "real" self after all.
  • Olga from the original version had to put on a brave face to present herself as the stoic, cold-hearted Dark Elf Queen to hide any hint of vulnerability. She notably becomes more straightforward and shows a playful side to Kyril and Celestine after being ousted from power and making a Heel–Face Turn, something Kyril eventually takes note of during his P.O.V. in Chapter 23. Later attempts at putting the mask on are often met with failure as the shameful parts of her reign become more apparent, with the mask going away entirely during her breakdown in response to Chloe's condition. Celestine even tells Kyril that for the past thousand years or so, she has never seen Olga showing that kind of vulnerability to anyone.
• Beyond the Impossible: Kyril is shown to dual wield trick weapons at once in two occasions: Chapter 22 of the original (Hunter's Axe + Stake Driver), and Chapter 12 of the remastered version (Beast Cutter + Stake Driver). On the surface, this may seem nothing out of the ordinary, until one realises that in Bloodborne, this is by no means possible^note in the game, the right hand is used to wield trick weapons, while the left hand is used to wield firearms and sidearms only.
• BFS:
  • The Holy Moonlight Sword, in its transformed state, is noted to be a mighty greatsword that gleams with black-green energy. Kyril opts for this weapon whenever he faces a particularly strong opponent, or he needs to take out groups of enemies at once.
  • Being a villainous Guts expy, Vault wields a greatsword in combat.
  • Ludwig's Holy Blade, one of Sanakan's weapons, is a massive greatsword of considerable weight when the longsword is combined with the sheath.
• Bifurcated Weapon:
  • Sanakan seems to be pretty fond of longswords that can be inserted into something to form a larger weapon, like the Kirkhammer and Ludwig's Holy Blade.
  • Kyril's Whirlgig Saw is a mace that can be attached to three saw blades to form a long-handled mechanical saw. It makes its debut in Chapter 11 of the original.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Any moment where Kyril either leads the charge to save as many soldiers and civilians as possible in a region, or rescues the Seven Shields members that have been captured by the Black Dogs. While there are times when he, his hunters or his company arrives late to save a portion of the people from being killed or raped, no further damage will be done at the very least.
  • In Chapter 30, Hugh pulls one of these to save Soren from being executed by Mandeville and his goons.
• Birds of a Feather: One is a hunter of beasts, the other is a creepy/kindly housekeeper, Kyril and Evetta actually resemble each other a lot despite their different roles. Both are stoic, soft-spoken characters with a preference for peace, quiet, and solitude. They are both very dedicated and task-oriented, to the point where Kyril himself notes that she has a stubborn streak that could match his when a task has to be done. Both of them appear to be lifeless, which makes them all the more unsettling when combined with their serenity, yet have the capacity for kindness. Most importantly, they are arguably the only ones that have full knowledge of Yharnam and its secrets. And there is also the fact that both of them are not human, while possessing tremendous power. To be precise, Kyril is a humanoid-great one, while Evetta is a living doll with an "ancient power", whatever that entails...
• Bitch Slap: In a move no one saw coming, the normally soft-spoken Lily slaps Alicia for surrendering her entire fort to the Black Dogs instead of holding the line, hoping that the Black Dogs would keep their word to release the hostage nuns, Lily included, which ended with the hostages getting prison-raped. Afterwards, Lily gives Alicia a scathing remark, that she'll never forgive her for being an Accomplice by Inaction, and that she would happily have Alicia dead in exchange for her sisters' lives.
• Black Magic:
  • Olga uses dark magic as a means to turn Garan into a Mordor.
  • Shamuhaza uses this to create a legion of Elite Mooks, known as "the Neverborn experiments". A component of the Eldritch Truth pursued by the Mensis scholars.
  • Summoning minotaurs like what Grishom did in Chapter 26 is seen In-Universe as dark magic. Doing so in Ken, the capital of Eostia, is seen as a death sentence.
• Black Speech:
  • Kyril and his apprentices (except Soren) have advanced through Rad, killing everything in their way to hunt down Shamuhaza. Upon reaching a courtyard, a maddening drone drowns out the silence, "in a language so incomprehensible that lesser men would have torn their own throats to escape it". Kyril, of course, is unfazed, but not so much for the other three. Sanakan mutters that everything sounds wrong, Hugh shakes his head in a grimace, and Lily turns paler than usual.
  • The tongue of Garan that the dark elves speak merely comes across as this. This language is described as "sibilant" or "spiteful", "like the whisperings of a murderer at the bedside of a dead man", but it is not inherently evil, just as how the dark elves are not depicted as Always Chaotic Evil. There's also no Brown Note involved, obviously.
• Blade Lock: Happens all the time when steel meets steel, but only the ones that last a bit longer count. Don't expect them to be played completely straight, with all the extended talking and wrestling that ensues in typical instances.
  • Chapter 3, remastered version: Vault locks blades with Kyril after blocking a strike for his head. Vault compliments him, and in response, Kyril simply disengages and strikes once more.
  • Chapter 12, remastered version: Alicia trying to do this against Kyril's Beast Cutter. Much to his confusion, this gives room for the obviously stronger Kyril to force her sword aside, grab her gorget, and toss her right into Maia, leaving his two opponents in a vulnerable state.
• Blatant Lies: In Chapter 1 of the original, Celestine asked Kyril about the heritage of the bandaged sword he is leaning on (it's the Holy Moonlight Sword). He merely answered he bought it in town. Good going, Kyril, like anyone would ever believe you can buy a Cool Sword made of silver in a random shop...
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • The six Bloodborne-centric characters have two trios that follow this pattern:
    • The women: Evetta (Mystical White Hair), Sanakan (Raven Hair, Ivory Skin), Lily (Inverted Fiery Redhead).
    • The male hunters: Soren (sandy hair; blonde), Kyril (black hair; brunette), Hugh (brown hair; redhead).
  • The remastered version has another trio that fits this trope: Alicia (blonde), Vera (brunette), Kendra (redhead).
• Blood Iron: Implied. Kyril's Saw Cleaver is referred to as "blood-forged iron" by the narration in Chapter 5, remastered version.
• Blood Knight:
  • The Good Hunter is a downplayed variant. There are several instances where he hopes for a greater challenge from his foes. Occasionally, he has thoughts of bloodlust, such as any time he eats a Beast Blood Pellet, or whenever he faces an enemy tougher than most, not to mention that the Old Blood that flows within him has an intoxicating effect. Nevertheless, Kyril neither relishes in bloodshed, nor actively seeks out people or things to kill for the sake of it, having a preference for peace and quiet. On the other hand, the entire populace see him as the most bloodthirsty knight in Eostia, believing that this trope is one of his primary traits.
  • Played Straight for Sanakan and Hugh, considering the enthusiasm they have shown in many combat scenes which involve them. This is especially so for Sanakan. On top of being a Screaming Warrior, she gets bored easily during periods of inaction, wishing that her enemies show up automatically for her to jump straight into action.
• Body Horror: The mutated and deformed mooks and people in Rad and Scathlocke thanks to Shamuhaza's experiments. Implied to be aware yet helpless. This trope is one of the few reasons why they are considered Elite Mooks — anyone who is not the Good Hunter has no experience in facing grotesque enemies like this, so typical Red Shirts would be so sickened that they get overpowered easily, causing morale to drop.
• Body Motifs: Later on in the story, Kyril gains a title known as the Left Hand of the Goddess. Left-handedness used to symbolise unsavouriness, and Kyril himself is not nice.
• Body of Bodies: Paying homage to The One Reborn, the being that drops from the skies of Rad is depicted as a "deformed, ungodly amalgamation of mortal and eldritch minds" that is half-corpse, half-stone. What makes it different from The One Reborn is that the many faces glued together that form the creature's vessel are alive somehow, eyes missing, letting out bloodcurdling shrieks of pain all the while. And then the reader realises where the rest of Rad's citizenry have gone, aside from being turned into statues and husks.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Despite the fact that the original was discontinued at Chapter 33, the end of the chapter feels like one of these. The Alliance Expeditionary Force depart to Thorn, among the army are five thousand men including Kyril, his four apprentice hunters, Bergen, Claudia's Dawn Templars, Alicia's Knights of Iris, and Olga. Meanwhile, the forces of Thorn, clearly in a tight spot, is nevertheless fighting hard against the Black Dogs' hordes of mutants, with Sanada Yukimura as commander cutting a path straight through the horde in a cavalry charge. Ultimately, whichever side comes out victorious, as well as whoever survives (other than Kyril, of course) in this Big Badass Battle Sequence is unclear. Around 3 years later, the trope is ultimately subverted due to the release of Chapter 34, which signals the fanfic's continuation.
• Bond One-Liner: Doubles as Mythology Gag. Kyril utters "Prey slaughtered" after killing Beasley and Shamuhaza as an Eldritch Abomination personally. At one point, he utters "Nightmare slain" after taking out one of Shamuhaza's creations that resembles The One Reborn. Who would've thought that the announcement the Player Character gets whenever a boss is slain in Bloodborne turns out to be Kyril's Post-Mortem One-Liner?
• Boring, but Practical:
  • This trope is the reason why Kyril fights using the innate attributes of a Bloodborne Hunter of Monsters, rather than the Combo Platter Powers of his great one form. The former essentially boils down to "super-human mowing down mooks left and right while dodging to avoid damage", while the latter boils down to "resolving the plot in an instant while driving innocents insane just by perceiving his true form". Obviously, the former is less flashy but more reliable.
  • Apart from that, this trope is what allows Kyril's company to be the Men of Sherwood in the story. Compared to Kyril and his apprentices, the soldiers don't look that impressive. These men and women in the company don't have their fancy, overpowered trick-weaponry. They don't have the hunters' enhanced strength and reflexes. Nonetheless, they are able to perform their duty efficiently on the battlefield, and they have yet to suffer from The Worf Effect. Why? Are they disciplined? Yes. Do they have high morale? Yes. Do they put emphasis on practical tactics (flanking, pincer maneuvers)? Yes. And most importantly, can they strike at multiple places/directions at once with their numbers? Oh yes.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • The eventual fate of Genji the Slicer, thanks to Kyril wrapping his tendrils around his head. He is ordered to attack the Mundus Criminal Family of Ansur to kill every important figure he can think of, which he does.
  • Luu-Luu, once a Genki Girl, is brainwashed by Shamuhaza and sent to attack Kyril, due to being subjected to Playing with Syringes and Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong.
• Breaching the Wall:
  • Happens to a Leaping Lizard stronghold in Chapter 20, where the Good Hunter unleashes A Call Beyond to create a breach for his company to charge through.
  • Vault has this in mind regarding his schemes for victory against the Seven Shields. Unfortunately, it never comes to pass as a result of the fanfic being discontinued.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Congratulations, Perdita! You are the first person to assassinate Sir Kyril, the Lord Executioner himself! Unfortunately, death is a mere setback for him, and once he respawns, he's out for your blood. Way to go, dude.
• Broken Bird:
  • Kyril Sutherland is a male example. He's a stoic, cynical One-Man Army who went through the nightmare that is Yharnam, a land of gore, illness, madness, tragedy, and depravity. Regardless, he has soldiered on, but the experience has left him shell-shocked and desensitised towards anything one considers unsettling. Kyril also ticks off the box of filling a mentor role towards his four less-experienced apprentices, eventually feeling pride towards their growth as hunters, akin to how a father feels towards his children Taking a Level in Badass. Ultimately, he doesn't have a high opinion on love and humanity, but his cynicism never stops him from doing good and empathising with other people.
  • Lily is a downplayed example. Her Cynicism Catalyst is a Crisis of Faith which stems from a Rape as Drama at the hands of the Black Dogs, an Army of Thieves and Whores who rapes, pillages, and burns in war. While she does Take a Level in Badass by becoming Kyril's third apprentice, together with how she develops into a Nay-Theist who only believes in her own strength, Lily is by no means aloof or confrontational.
  • Maia, like Lily, also suffers from a Rape as Drama by the Black Dogs during the story. In contrast to the example above, she is an inversion due to her Freak Out — she goes from being outgoing and confident to being withdrawn, chastened and melancholic. The fact that she used to be part of the Black Dogs, only to find herself betrayed by the very people she sees as fellow comrades doesn't help matters. On one hand, Maia eventually acknowledges that she can't let the trauma affect her anymore, as it is impossible to change what happened to her. On the other hand, the pain is there all the same despite her efforts to move on.
  • Olga Discordia is a Really 700 Years Old Lady of Black Magic who has tried her best to steel herself during her time as Dark Elf Queen. In the past, she witnessed the enslavement of her kind, the dark elves, at the hands of human slavers. Jaded, with a strong belief that Humans Are the Real Monsters, the once passionate woman's verdict was to fight prejudice with prejudice, to declare war against Eostia for vengeance against humankind. She sacrificed her bond with Celestine, sent her myriad of armies to her former friend's lands, and betrayed a portion of her own people to the orcs for them to play with, all for the sake of achieving this end. Fast forward to the present day, and the war failed to change anything for the better. The "Broken" part becomes more severe throughout the story, for Olga's past sins find themselves next to her doorstep. She finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her seemingly expressionless facade, to the point where she shuts down hard when her vassal Chloe is put under critical condition. Not all is lost, however — Olga manages to reconcile with Celestine, warms up to Kyril, and brokers an uneasy alliance with the people she wronged to fight against the current threat, the Black Dogs.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • Kyril and Evetta are a platonic example. Kyril is a quiet, stoic Anti-Hero who is shell-shocked from his ordeal in Yharnam. Evetta is a sweet living doll who is just as soft-spoken as he is. She opts to care for her Good Hunter and soothe his sickly spirit, for he bears many burdens. Therefore, it is of no surprise that Kyril finds Evetta to be the one person he could be entirely comfortable with, whether it is sharing his pain, or expressing affection. As a bonus, their hair colours are used to underline this dynamic (Kyril, dark; Evetta, white).
  • Celestine and Olga discuss this trope in Chapter 23, the former getting teased by the latter for earnestly trying to get her Love Interest Kyril to relax. Indeed, Celestine has been doing that a lot in the story, from how she coaxes Kyril to rest more and wishes the troubled young man to obtain the peace he deserves (preferably with her). On one hand, Kyril appreciates her efforts, admits at one point that she's "highly desirable", and even obliges Celestine's plea to kiss her. On the other hand, he is reluctant to return her affections or start a relationship with her, making this a subverted example.
• Brown Note:
  • In Chapter 16 of the original, right before Shamumaza reveals himself in the courtyard, a Black Speech is present that gives Sanakan, Hugh, and Lily visible anxiety and discomfort.
  • Kyril advises Sanakan and Hugh not to look too hard at the Alien Geometries of the Malys Estate, noting how lesser men and women would be driven mad by the place.
  • Anyone who catches a glimpse of what's behind Kyril's mortal mask gets mind-raped to a Fate Worse than Death. He even says to his first two apprentices that this would do "very bad things" to their heads. The insect beast who was once Shamuhaza learns this in the worst way possible.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Kyril Sutherland is never a person who deceives, sugarcoats his words, or spares one's feelings, even if he tries. The instances where he plays this trope straight are portrayed both in a good way (e.g. his accurate assessment of his apprentices' progress, which shows that he is a well-meaning mentor) and in a troublesome way (e.g., him admitting to Olga that there's nothing she could do for the recovering, but battered Chloe, which comes off as unempathetic).
  • Tact has never been Sanakan's forte. One of her best examples is her remark on how Ansur providing the best mercenaries in bulk severely weakens Eostia's military^note the fact that Ansur turns out to be a prime recruitment spot for the Black Dogs doesn't help matters, spoken out loud for everyone, including Bergen, Alicia and Olga, to hear. Another example would be the one time she calls Sinister Minister Grishom "a flabby old cunt" during a council meeting.
• Bullying a Dragon: A trope implicitly explored, to the point of deconstruction. As per Kyril, "history is rife with the few who stand against many. The weak going against the strong". In hindsight, it is tempting to dismiss those who antagonise someone far more powerful than them as morons, but reality is not so simple.
  • The confrontation between Olga and Kyril twists this trope via perspective. Olga, the Dark Queen, has a dreaded reputation In-Universe as an adept Lady of Black Magic, and she knows it. Therefore, when the doors of her throne room open, revealing a lone man who have come to challenge her, Olga believes that she is the "dragon" and the man is the suicidal "bully". The kicker is that said lone man is actually the Good Hunter, whom the audience, not Olga, knows to outclass pretty much everyone in terms of might. It is until the Hunter shows Olga what he is capable of that she is forced to acknowledge that she is severely outmatched, and that Kyril is the "dragon" not to be messed with.
  • The assault on the Black Fortress may come across as this, since the Black Dogs' strategy is a surgical strike to the Dark Queen, despite knowing that she is more than capable of burning them to a crisp in one go. There are a couple of caveats to this way of thinking, namely, a) both sides are at war, and going for Olga is crucial for achieving victory should they succeed; b) the presence of One-Man Army Kyril makes this more viable. Besides, Vault figures out a potential exploit — holding her beloved servant hostage to force her to surrender. The plan works.
  • A straight example occurs in Chapter 6 of the original has a bar patron grabbing Sanakan's buttocks. Keep in mind that Sanakan has a big-ass hammer hanging on her back, which says a lot about the kid's strength. That patron has his head slammed into a wall for his troubles, killing him.
  • This is a very common occurrence for the Hunter, considering the sheer amount of foes who dare to fight/antagonise him, only to be inevitably dispatched in the end. From the looks of it, all of those people would fit at least one of the following: they are dumb (e.g. orcs), they are mindless husks (e.g. mutant Elite Mooks), they are fulfilling their duty (e.g. guards), they underestimate him (e.g. anyone who says he's Just One Man), and lastly, they overestimate themselves. Many characters, including the Hunter himself, have lampshaded that Kyril's foes really don't understand who they are fighting against.
    Kyril: When a man or woman thinks themselves invincible you show them how wrong they are. You destroy them without hesitation, without remorse or pity.
  • And then there are people who provoke Kyril and not get killed, like Chloe and Claudia. They manage to get away from it because Kyril is not a bloodthirsty psycho, and he is patient enough to cooperate with them instead (not before reminding them of their place, of course). There's also how they do have a reason for this other than "plain stupidity" (e.g. their protectiveness towards their respective liege ladies).
• Burn Baby Burn:
  • In Chapter 26 of the original, Kyril and his company set Archbishop Grishom's cathedral aflame to flush the rebels in the same area and kill them all in one fell swoop.
  • Exaggerated and Played for Laughs in Chapter 28. Stacks of letters from angry noblemen are being used as kindling for the fire thanks to Evetta taking a page from Firekeeper's book, much to Grace's consternation. Eventually, the flames are tended to so thoroughly that Kyril's office starts to swelter.
• Bystander Syndrome: Kyril's main reason for fighting against the Black Dogs is to defy this trope, reasoning that he bears the shame of doing nothing if he stood by allowing them to cause harm to a nation that has done nothing to deserve its fate.

C

• Campfire Character Exploration: Chapter 7 of the remastered version has a campfire moment where Olga vents her frustrations to Kyril, revealing that her hatred of the humans that enslaved the dark elves is the reason why she hates humanity as a whole and why she started the centuries-old war. As the conversation goes on, Olga realises that she isn't so sure what happens next if she were the winner, nor could she truly remember why she chose to fight against her former friend Celestine.
• Cannot Talk to Women:
  • Kyril sees himself as a man who is not very good with women, and he would rather face a gang of outlaws instead. Downplayed in practice, since he is able to talk to them normally. It's just that he, in Lily's words, is far too brusque in his mannerisms, not to mention how he is like this to everyone else.
  • Soren, the Cowardly Lion he is, stammers more frequently when interacting with women.
• Cat Folk: The Wild Ones are wild tribes with feline features, like the furs, the claws, and the huge ears, respecting strength above all.
• Catchphrase: Whenever Kyril shows indifference or dismissiveness, he often utters "so I have been told", "so I am", "so he/she is", or something similar. Claudia from the remastered version finds the former one very irritating.
• Chainmail Bikini:
  • The supposedly "armoured" fighters of the Seven Shields (Alicia, Claudia, Luu-Luu) are dressed in "armour" designed with revealing skin in mind (the doylist reason for this is because these three characters are designed that way in Kuroinu canon). Special mention goes to Luu-Luu, a Cutesy Dwarf who wears a two-piece "armour" made of animal hide, all underneath a green cloak. Averted in the remastered version due to Adaptational Modesty.
  • In a couple of her scenes on the battlefield, Olga wears scaled armour that shows off a hefty bit of cleavage. Also applies to her servant Chloe when she is wearing chest armour made of scale and mail.
  • For a specific example both inverted and lampshaded, half-ling commander Shalala, who wears a regular chestplate. Kyril internally remarks that it's "sensible unlike some female fighters in Eostia".
  • Gender-inverted for Chieftain Raus, chieftain of a group of Cat Folk tribes named the Wild Ones. His bulky furs do nothing to hide his intimidating physique (aka chiselled pecs and abs).
• Chase Scene: In the original version, Soren's debut features him getting chased by Sanakan after stealing her coin purse. It did not last long.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Michelle, the Arc Villain of the Liberation of Ansur Arc (Chapters 9-11), is introduced as early as Chapter 4. You probably don't expect much from him in terms of plot progression, given that he is, in Kyril's words, "a disgusting pile of excrement" and nothing else.
  • Grishom is introduced in the original story in Chapter 9, merely being a thorn in Kyril and Celestine's side, yet not contributing much to the main plot. He then proceeds to graduate into Arc Villain status in the Rebel Scum Arc, staging a rebellion against them in the name of the Black Dogs.
  • The remastered version has Boris, introduced as just a lowly Camp Cook who works for the Black Dogs. The only thing notable about him is that he makes rock-hard bread. Turns out that he plays a pivotal role in Kyril's Great Escape plan, becomes a prominent member of the team involved in said plan, and is able to cook decent meals after ditching the Black Dogs.
• Chick Magnet: Kyril is not some magnet for women right off the bat, but later on, he receives love letters from noblewomen on a daily basis. He had to politely ask some members of the nobility to stop sending potential marriage candidates and servant women who would attend to more "personal needs" (though he does hire them to assist Evetta in what she was doing to keep his office presentable). Double points for being a Celibate Hero who is not amused with all the attention.
• The Chief's Daughter: Yurie is a rare example that features a non-human child. She is the daughter of Raus, chieftain of the Suvai Clan. The clan is a group of Cat Folk tribes, named the Wild Ones.
• Child Soldiers: A reconstruction (or a Lighter and Softer deconstruction). Since Sanakan, Hugh and Soren are Kid Heroes who participate in the war against the Black Dogs, they would qualify in all but name. Notably, they are not portrayed as emotional wrecks fucked up beyond repair from war, and the narrative does not milk the potential angst for all it's worth either.
  One reason is that the setting of the story is a Medieval European Fantasy, rather than a modern/futuristic one. Therefore, Deliberate Values Dissonance is expected. Aside from the absence of The Laws and Customs of War, their apprenticeship under Sir Kyril, a legitimate knight, brings to mind how kids are trained under feudal systems with a warrior-aristocrat caste (see the Real Life folder of the Precociously Talented Type for more details). In particular, Kyril outright refers to both Sanakan and Hugh as his "squires". The minor differences include the fact that the three are of commoner blood rather than Blue Blood, as well as the more "fantastic" way of training. As a bonus, their Mentor in Sour Armor happens to be quite decent, and the fact that he can't die means they don't have to worry about losing him.
  Most importantly, the other alternative (that is, being a regular citizen rather than a Child Soldier) is worse.
  Kyril: You (Sanakan and Hugh) did ask for me to make you both stronger. But if you wish to still leave you are free to go. The contract is merely a formality under my ruling. You'll wake up from the Dream, forget about it and you can be on your merry way. You can live out your life until the Black Dogs take you as a slave or kill you.
• Choice of Two Weapons:
  • The Good Hunter is able to carry two melee weapons and one firearm during combat. One instance in the remastered version has him overdoing himself by carrying the Saw Cleaver, the Holy Moonlight Sword, the Hunter's Pistol, the Hunter's Blunderbuss, and presumably a bandolier of throwing knives at the same time (though the sword is strapped to his horse's saddle). He also has the option to use magic-esque abilities like A Call Beyond, making him a multi-melee, multi-ranged Magic Knight.
  • Hugh is a Multi-Melee Master who carries two trick weapons (Threaded Cane and Chikage) with him, plus a pistol. The pistol may or may not be used together with a trick weapon. He later gains the Simon's Bowblade — a curved sword that can transform into a bow — as another weapon, giving him two additional options: Bow and Sword in Accord and Multi-Ranged Master.
• Clashing Cousins: Downplayed for Alicia and Prim. They are cousins on good terms, and both of them care for each other's well-being, but their opposing views on Kyril (the former mistrusts him while the latter vouches for him) cause tension between them.
• Clean Cut: Zig-zagged. The Hunters' impossibly cool bladed weapons do not consistently pass through their victims. For example, the strongest of the Hunters, Kyril, is strong enough to sever a regular enemy in two vertical halves^note e.g., the first strike he delivers to a mutant in Chapter 34 is compared to cutting air, clearly slicing it with little effort, but most of his attacks to the head bite deep into the skull instead of passing through the torso vertically. Generally, effortless decapitation and dismemberment are A-OK, but they cannot do the absurd feats (e.g., the "smooth" cuts or split-second slashes). By toning down the fantastical factor and amping up the realism, the story illustrates how fights involving edged weapons tend to leave rough, nasty, horrible, and lethal wounds^note it also helps that a fanfic like this one doesn't have to worry about pesky things like animation costs.
• Coat, Hat, Mask: Different from the conventional look you see in the main page.
  • The Good Hunter's Hunter Set is a combination of a Badass Longcoat, a hat, and a bandana that obscures his facial features like a mask.
  • Sanakan's Old Hunter Set and Hugh's Yharnam Hunter Set have a similar combination.
• Cock Fight: Invoked in Chapter 8 of the remastered version. In order to have a free tankard of ale, Kyril accepts Anna's request to help her friend Grace get rid of Morgan, who is harassing her. To do so, the Hunter deliberately makes a scene, grabs Grace in the forearm, and pulls her in close. Predictably, Morgan is ticked off, believing that this stranger in the grey coat wants the same as he does (not true — he's not interested). Morgan intends to settle the matter by roughing the stranger up, ignorant of the fact that he's Mugging the Monster, and ends up getting wrecked.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • The Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique is occasionally used by the good guys, like Kyril and Chloe.
  • The end of Chapter 27 reveals that Chloe has gone missing when following a lead into Mandeville's location. Turns out that he is her father, and by the time of her next appearance, she is missing an eye and severely wounded, meaning that she has been tortured by Mandeville since her absence. If one puts her past as a Sex Slave under Mandeville into consideration, this is probably not her first time being subjected to this.
• Cold Ham: The Good Hunter. He's not into theatrics, yet his voice is occasionally described as filled with conviction and menace.
• Collapsing Lair: An invoked inversion. In order to defeat Grishom and his rebel forces, the cathedral where they are hiding at is burned down as a tactic of smoking them out, meaning that the lair collapses before the villain's defeat. With the smoke and flames surrounding them, as well as Kyril's company awaiting them, there is no escape for Grishom.
• Color Motif: Several characters / locations are associated with one or two colours.
  • Kyril has dark grey and dark red as his primary and secondary colours respectively. Grey, the colour of his Badass Longcoat, complements his humility, dourness, moral complexity, and him being a total enigma. The moments where the colour red is present, be it his eyes or his coat stained with blood, basically screams "don't mess with this guy". Befitting a '90s Anti-Hero, both colours are of darker shades instead of lighter ones.
  • The Hunter's Dream is predominantly white and grey due to the abundance of white asphodels and gravestones, hence associated with death and mourning.
  • Claudia is silver, from how she is clad in steel plate in most of her appearances. She is regarded as the right hand of the Goddess Reborn, Celestine, whose appearance has a gold and white motif.
  • Prim, associated with pink and white, is characterised as a Princess Classic and The Cutie.
  • Maia, associated with red and tangerine, is characterised as the fratboy of the Seven Shields.
  • Orcs are also known as "greenskins", alluding to their dull-green skin color. They are portrayed as dumb, dirty, and depraved.
  • Alicia (remastered version) is blue. She has blue eyes, is always clad in blue armour, is the leader of the Iris Knights (the iris is commonly depicted as a blue flower), and strives to live up to the ideals of a noble Knight In Shining Armour that protects the innocent from the orcs' predations.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Kyril has a distaste for honourable combat, something he learned through his accumulated combat experience from the Night of the Hunt, as well as his mentor, Gehrman, the First Hunter. This trope is evident throughout every combat scene that Kyril and his apprentices participates in. Should there be a window of opportunity, they would shoot first (literally), attack stealthily, kill mid-sentence, and employ any tactic that guarantees the upper hand.
  • Suffice to say, this trope applies to the army of Eostia, especially Kyril's company. Boring, but Practical, their dismissal of Hollywood Tactics, as well as the consideration for long-term strategy, is ultimately what makes them superior to The Horde, mostly orcs and mutants that are defined by their Unskilled, but Strong Zerg Rush, with little concern for strategy or tactics. Of course, the hunters' asskicking provides invaluable morale that serves to boost the army's effectiveness.
• Combo Platter Powers:
  • The Good Hunter's power set as a great one has no thematic element. His abilities include, but not limited to: Domain Holder, Partial Transformation, Touch Telepathy, Brainwashing, and Brown Note. That's not including the powers he has as a blood-empowered Hunter of Monsters, as well as his true form (yet to be shown for obvious reasons) that most likely takes the previous abilities up to eleven.
  • Olga's arcane arsenal typically revolves around fire. Her other abilities, like fortress manipulation and sound muffling, breaks the theme. The remastered version buffs her up even further by giving her Deflector Shields, heightened agility, a telekinetic push, an anti-Intangibility field, and so on.
  • Celestine can experience visions of the future, can augment her voice (aka. magical loudspeaker), and can heal others. The three don't match, obviously.
  • Apart from the ability to access both the real world and the Dream freely, the Plain Doll has Resurrective Immortality, Invisibility via Perception Filter, and Mind over Matter.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: A variation, when Kyril offers Olga the opportunity to join him in their Great Escape so he can complete his mission.
  Kyril: Your choice, stay here and suffer... or live in uncertainty and come with me.
• Comfort the Dying:
  • Kyril did this at least three times throughout his life. The first was when he had a final conversation with his mentor figure Eileen the Crow, staying with her until her breathing stopped. The second was when he told a white lie to Ludwig so the once great hunter would rest in peace. The third was during the events of the main story, where he Mercy Killed the Brainwashed and Crazy Luu-Luu, holding her in her last moments.
  • Celestine is implied to have done this in Chapter 24 of the original, when she lends her assistance to the healers patching up the critically injured. Especially during the time where a patient has received six hours of surgery and ended up dead anyway.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like:
  • Due to Chloe's Fantastic Racism towards humankind, she cannot bring herself to appreciate Kyril's efforts to save her and her liege, Olga, from the Black Dogs' clutches. The thought of stabbing him with a knife comes to her mind for more than a couple of times. To her, Kyril is a "filthy human" who assisted the Black Dogs to kill and imprison her fellow dark elves.
  • While Olga does not share the above sentiment, she's not thankful to Kyril for fetching her servant back to her in the remastered version, because the Adaptation Expansion has Kyril beat Olga in a fight and throw her in a cell, which results in her Adaptational Jerkassery.
  • For a wordless example, several villagers in Chapter 1 of the remastered version are not happy with how Alicia has arrived late to save two more from defilement and death.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: In a war-torn region like the Kuroinu 'verse, this is bound to happen for people who manage to see things through.
  • Enduring the nightmarish hell of Yharnam, together with presumably experiencing countless deaths, has made the Good Hunter desensitised to death, violence or any sort of harsh environment or anything one would certainly find unsettling.
  • Sanakan and Hugh have bore many scars during their harsh lives as orphaned pickpockets. From how she confides to her mentor Kyril that they "didn't care about anything until the Black Dogs came", and that they didn't care if they survived or not, it is strongly implied that the two kids have developed shades of this trope, perfectly aware of the possibility of death, starvation or enslavement. This becomes more apparent throughout their tenures as hunters along with Lily and Soren, to any of those who are wondering just why they have not gone through some sort of Heroic BSoD or Sanity Slippage in the battlefield, especially after the ordeals in Rad (aka Yarha'Gul 2.0) and the Malys Estate.
  • Lily reflects on this trope as she watches Chloe interrogating a thug affiliated with the Black Dogs via torture. A former nun, she would normally have been appalled by the usage of Cold-Blooded Torture, even towards unsavoury people. Ever since she had been taken hostage, tied to a post, and raped by the Black Dogs, she admits that it is hard to sympathize with them now, including the thug who is currently being tortured in front of her. To demonsrate this, she steps forward to stop Chloe from continuing... only to suggest putting the thug under isolation, deprived of sound for a day (aka. solitary confinement).
  • Depictions of battlefields aside, this fanfic uses a considerable amount of effort to show the everyday conditions of the healers and clerics, how they feel about patching up the wounded soldiers and citizenry. Notable examples include Lily's P.O.V in Chapter 15, and Celestine's P.O.V in Chapter 24. Needless to say, playing this trope straight is pretty much essential if you are a healer. Apart from being accompanied with images of gore and lamentation from the injured all the time, both of which would give a lesser one nausea and constant headaches, they also have to cope with the all too often scenario where patients eventually succumb to their wounds despite their efforts. Gruelling work, indeed.
  • The narration that describes Shamuhaza overseeing the Neverborn experiments reveals that he was once an acolyte easily nauseated by Black Magic. He got used to it eventually, now unfazed by even the most debauched of spells.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The opening narration of Chapter 10 of the original points out how the main antagonists of this fanfic differ from that of Bloodborne (this fic is a continuation of the video game). The antagonists of Bloodborne tend to be sympathetic, ranging from innocents transformed into horrific beasts against their will, to people who relentlessly pursue a great cause with vile methods (e.g. the Healing Church of Yharnam). In contrast, the antagonists of this fic consist of unsympathetic folk, like rapists, pillagers, slavers and their cronies.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Lampshaded by Kyril in Chapter 11 of the original regarding the Ancestral Weapon of the Pantielle family — the gilded sword is merely for ceremonial purposes rather than practical ones. Kyril preferred Boring, but Practical weapons actually used for killing, not something that would break over his knee in one go.
• Cosmic Motifs:
  • Kyril is associated with the moon. Like the moon, he is a cold, distant, mysterious and self-reflective person, yet Eostia becomes a less crappy place to live in due to his actions, just like how the moon reflects light under the dark night. Moreover, he wields the Holy Moonlight Sword, provides guidance (guiding moonlight, duh) to his apprentices, and smells like the moon (as in, moon-scented hunter). To mirror the moon's cycling phases, Kyril is somewhere in between the nature of man, beast, and great one.
  • Olga Discordia has an artillery spell that resembles a storm of fiery meteors conjured from the darkened sky above.
  • Star Power invokes a sense of otherness and uncanniness, much like the unfathomable distance of the stars. Only two characters are shown to have the ability to bombard others with starlight, for those who do have delved into Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
  • In the remastered version, Olga compares her former friend Celestine to the rays of the sun. Revered as the Goddess Reborn, Celestine is known for her warmth and benevolence as The High Queen of Eostia, akin to the celestial body that is worshipped as a deity for bringing light and warmth.
• The Coup: During a time before the events of the fanfic, The Leader of the Black Dogs, Vault, has secured alliances with a section of the Eostian noble houses, plotting to achieve his dream of taking over the country, betraying the Seven Shields Alliance, and creating a Sex Slave empire. The plot has been kept in dark until the Black Dogs manage to achieve victory against the Dark Elf Queen, and Vault, winning the support of the Always Chaotic Evil orcs, starts his attack. The rest of the story involves dealing with the elements of this coup.
• Cradling Your Kill: Kyril does the Mercy Kill variant of this trope to the husk that was once Luu-Luu. After drawing his Holy Moonlight Sword out of her chest, he catches her before she can fall. As she reaches up, coming back to her senses, he holds her hand until she passes on.
• Crapsack Only by Comparison: Eostia has its flaws — the Fantastic Racism, the slavery, the war, and the imminent threat of a PMC aiming to make a No Woman's Land Sex Slave Empire. The last one would've been realised if it weren't for Kyril's intervention. Despite these flaws, the country is a functioning place rather than a miserable shithole. Several P.O.V. characters have indicated that in spite of the war going on, life moves on, with the merchants making money and the townsfolk buying stuff and all that. To give a comparison between Yharnam (the place where Kyril hails from) and Eostia as illustration, Yharnam collapsed, while Eostia persisted for centuries. One thing is certain though: if you are a dark elf, or an Innocent Bystander from an outermost village, you are screwed.
• Crapsack World: Surprisingly downplayed for a Dark Fantasy story like this one — the Low Fantasy elements keep the main setting, the country of Eostia, from being so relentlessly, unrealistically dark. Accurately speaking, Eostia is portrayed as a workable yet flawed place, where anyone unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of those flaws would suffer.
  • While Wretched Hives (e.g. Ansur) and other shoddy places are not uncommon, they are not everywhere.
  • Eostia has been engaging a centuries-old war with the Grim Up North. War Is Hell, obviously, but the country did manage to persist for centuries as well.
  • The Church is obviously not saintly, but not beyond saving, a rarity amongst the usual depiction in other Dark Fantasy series. Scumbags like Archbishop Grishom exist, but an average, nameless or non-nominally important cleric in the battlefield can be decent and fulfil their duty as expected of their occupation. In particular, one of the heroes (Lily) started out as a nun of the church.
  • Slavery is considered to be a crime in Eostia, and several characters treat it as a special kind of evil, but it is often went unpunished, indicating a sizeable black market implied to persist for centuries. As the trafficking scenes would tell you, the enslaved are obviously not having a good time. Fortunately, progress of any sort is being made, with the slavers responsible getting hunted down.
  • The narrative doesn't give any indication on whether the gods do anything, but there is certainly an active Eldritch Abomination. Said Eldritch Abomination is neither benevolent nor something out of a straight Cosmic Horror Story, which really says a lot on the bent of this story. Ah, forgot to mention. The Protagonist (Kyril) is the Eldritch Abomination.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Chapter 11 of the original has Sanakan suggest that the Alliance troops should just "break through" the orcs in front of the gates of Ansur. One of their members, Alaric, thinks she's going to pull a Leeroy Jenkins. Sanakan reminds him that they have magic artillery (Olga), so it will be fine. Alaric internally notes that "this crazy plan was probably going to work after all". And boy it does.
• Crippling Castration:
  • According to Bergen, the official punishment for rape is castration.
  • The Good Hunter inflicts this on one of the mooks during his spree in the halls of the Mercenary Compound. He kicks the man responsible for driving a sword to his side by kicking the mook in the groin, crushed under his very strength.
• Crossover: Between Bloodborne and Kuroinu: Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru, where the Good Hunter from the former ends up in the world of the latter.
• Cry into Chest: In Chapter 8 of the original, Kyril finds Lily in a healer's tent sobbing her guts out, as a result of her trauma and Crisis of Faith. Feeling his hand on her shoulder, she wipes away her tears as an attempt to hide them. Kyril tells her not to hold back, and so Lily does exactly that by throwing her arms around him crying. He does not exit the tent until she slept.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Church and the clergy aside, the religion practised in Eostia is based on the worship of a Goddess Reincarnate. The remastered version expands on how this notion came to be — a deity named Laurendau "blessed Eostia with her touch before leaving behind her spirit to reincarnate in those she deigned worthy enough to hear her voice". The high elf Celestine Lucross is the current holder of the title "Goddess Reborn" as a result of receiving her favour in the past, currently having her own kingdom to rule. A Satan analog (Olga) also exists, although it is clear that she is more of a person than a concept.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Original version:
    • Kyril VS Luu-Luu as a husk in Chapter 16. He is able to end the fight quickly (i.e. within five short paragraphs) by stabbing her in the chest with his Holy Moonlight Sword, but not before being briefly pushed back, being tossed aside a considerable distance, and exchanging a good amount of blows as the two are determined to break through each other's guards.
    • Kyril, Sanakan, and Hugh VS Shamuhaza in Chapter 22. It seems like the three hunters are dominating the fight at first, but Shamuhaza as an Eldritch Abomination proves to be a rather effective Mighty Glacier that can not only endure a lot of punishment from the three, but also release a shockwave that launches all three of them back, even putting Sanakan out of comission. This exceeds Kyril's expectations... because he thought he didn't have to let a bit of his eldritch power out.
    • Kyril VS Mandeville's familiars in Chapter 30. As a result of the unison and the heavy armour of this Dual Boss, Kyril has to dodge more frequently and score multiple blows before beheading the first one and slicing the second one in half.
  • Remastered version:
    • Kyril VS Olga in Chapter 5, remastered version. Here, it is Olga who initiates the battle by attempting to One-Hit Kill him with fire, instead of heeding his warning for surrender. This merely singes a few spots on his clothes. Olga also manages to maintain a distance from the ever-dashing, ever-dodging Kyril for a while, even blocking a few hits from him with her barriers, but the moment he decides to Flash Step behind her and destroy both her barrier and staff, the battle is over.
• Curtains Match the Window:
  • In the original version, both Kyril and Sanakan have black hair and dark eyes. For the former, this trope is Played Straight as long as his eyes don't turn red all of a sudden.
  • Maia, a Fiery Redhead, has tangerine eyes. Even the tunic she wears is red.
  • As per Bloodborne canon, the Doll has pale grey eyes that matches her Mystical White Hair.
• Cutesy Dwarf: Halflings like Luu-Luu are depicted as "adorable, tiny petting zoo people" who are strong enough to wield weapons larger or longer than their sizes would suggest.

D

• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Kyril was just a guy who wanted to find a cure for his illness, only to find himself amidst a nightmarish city of bloodthirsty beasts and Ax-Crazy people. To the other P.O.V. characters, his past is shrouded in mystery. To the readers (if they had played Bloodborne before), however, they would know that he went through a cumulative ordeal of pain, loss, death, slaughter, deprivation, monstrosity, and lastly, dehumanization (metaphorically and literally; it befell not just the others, but himself as well). Being able to kill things by the thousands is all well and good, but being a shell-shocked mess with a battered psyche isn't.
  • Sanakan and Hugh were Street Urchins struggling for food, shelter, and survival. The latter, in particular, survived a Slashed Throat, leaving him mute.
  • Soren was luckier than the above two, since he was raised in an Orphanage of Love, but even then, he had a hard life. The child had to scrape up a living in the streets as a thief for the sake of supporting his home, and if he failed to make the quota, he'd get beat up by thugs (which happened on a regular basis).
  • Grace lost her home and her husband to the Rape, Pillage, and Burn of the orcs, because Olga allowed it to happen during the war she started. After being displaced by the war, she was Made a Slave by Morgan and the Leaping Lizards band. While Grace isn't callous or overtly cynical, she took Olga's betrayal very personally.
  • Chloe was born of rape, the product of a human father and a dark elf mother. Her father murdered her mother when the dark elves, Chloe included, were taken by human slavers for entertainment. Chloe's past contributed to her jerkassery and Fantastic Racism towards humans.
• Dark Fantasy: The Night Unfurls is most certainly this, albeit a story of a smaller scale compared to other works of fiction with the same genre. There are no signs of any world-ending events or active gods of evil, and the kingdom of Eostia seems like a functioning regime in and of itself. However, don't let these subversions hide the fact that Eostia has been engulfed in a Forever War for centuries, with the underlying Fantastic Racism as the main driver for this vicious cycle. Luckily, said war finally comes to an end when The Good Hunter comes to the picture... only for ''another'' war to break out when the Black Dogs, an Army of Thieves and Whores who happens to be the finest mercenary group in Eostia, decides to take over the country to build a Sex Empire. As such, civilians are constantly threatened by not only the Always Chaotic Evil monsters in the North, but also the rogue mercenaries, both of whom engage in Rape, Pillage, and Burn on a frequent basis. Later parts of the story even reveals that sizeable support for the Black Dogs is evident, courtesy of traitors within the country that puts it in a war of multiple fronts. War Is Hell is in full effect, as the pyrrhic victories and numerous descriptions of war crimes committed by both sides would tell you. As for the main protagonist, he is an anti-heroic Shell-Shocked Veteran talented in the art of bloodshed. While it is true that he is at best a Knight in Sour Armour who believes that Humans Are Flawed and defies What Measure Is a Non-Human?, these qualities are only backed by his infamy as a merciless World's Strongest Man, driving home that might certainly makes right, instead of the other way round. Oh, did we forget to mention that he is a humanoid great one? The Serial Escalation involving an Evil Sorcerer shows how far he will go to bury the secrets of the Eldritch Truth, in order to avert a far worse outcome.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Kyril's gothic hunter attire sticks out like a sore thumb among the medieval world of Eostia. Despite constantly exuding a sinister vibe, he is a Knight in Sour Armour who can be a gentleman towards any decent person, and his main enemies in the story are rapists, pillagers and slavers.
  • The dark elves of Garan, despite their affiliation with the Always Chaotic Evil orcs, are not inherently barbaric. In fact, they generally behave no different than any regular human or high elf, yet are regarded as a commodity in slave markets.
• Dark Secret: The Night of the Hunt and The Good Hunter's true nature. The reason why he keeps his mouth shut is not because he fears that everyone would think ill of him, but rather he is sparing them from a more horrifying fate. While a select few (Celestine, Olga, and Kyril's four apprentices) eventually have the privilege of getting closer to his secrets than anyone else, and hence realizing what he had to endure to become the hardened killer he is today, they still don't understand the full picture. In particular, they only have an idea that he is far from human, but not exactly what he is. It is implied that the only person who has full knowledge about him is Evetta, who's been with him throughout the whole night.
• David Versus Goliath: Occasionally, the Good Hunter fights foes so massive that they loom over him, like ogres. Even so, from how the former has fought numerous hunters, beasts and abominations that are taller and larger before, it is very obvious to figure out who has the upper hand.
• The Dead Have Names:
  • When Vault remarks how Kyril slayed several orc war chiefs by listing out their scary-sounding names, Kyril inverts this trope by replying, "Those orcs have names?", clearly seeing them as prey, not victims.
  • Chapter 7 of the original reveals that at some time before the events of the story, Kyril made a particular gravestone with the names of every person he met in Yharnam.
    Gehrman, First Hunter, a teacher who has earned his rest.
    Eileen the Crow, Hunter of Hunters, a mentor who no longer dreams.
    Gilbert, a man who deserved a better end.
    Alfred the Executioner, an unwitting martyr due to my actions.
    Sister Adella, a kind soul taken by madness.
    Arianna, Woman of Pleasure, a dear friend taken far too soon.
    
    Countless others covered the gravestone, a large list.
• Deadly Dodging: Kyril accomplishes this in Chapter 16 of the original, ducking underneath the mad swings of a Giant Mook that takes out its smaller friends.
• Deadly Euphemism:
  • A number of characters note how bad it would be for anyone to be handed over to Kyril Sutherland's "tender mercies", for they either die without fanfare or die a Cruel and Unusual Death.
  • In the remastered version, Vault reassures his compatriot Hicks that he'll "deal with" the Hunter when the time comes. His other compatriot Kin wants him to clarify, of which Vault means by giving the Hunter a choice to join up or be cut down. He brings the euphemism up one more time when he is in the Black Fortress, right after sending the Hunter away to face Olga alone as an Uriah Gambit.
  • Implied in Chapter 7 of the remastered version. Kyril warns Chloe, Olga's loyal vassal, not to test his patience by antagonizing another member of the camp, or else he will "rescind his amnesty". Although he gave a more specific warning to her before (do it, and she will be left behind), Olga knows that the Hunter only needed herself, not Chloe, and she wouldn't be able to do anything should the Hunter decide to kill her servant.
• Death Glare: The fact that Kyril's default look is a stoic, masked visage that only reveals his blank eyes (the remastered version even changes his eye colour to be perpetually red) means that he is capable of shutting people up by simply looking at them for a few seconds. Many a character are unnerved by his murderous visage that seemingly stares right into their souls. Case in point:
  Kyril: Lady Olga, Chloe. Help the others with setting up camp. I will sweep the area.
  Chloe: You dare order the Queen around as if she is some common scullery maid!? I should cut out your tongue for your rudeness!
  Kyril: *stares*
  Chloe: *blinks first, looks away, does as told*
• Decapitated Army:
  • Exploited by Vault. After Olga's defeat (though she is not killed), he plots to utilise the vast resources and Always Chaotic Evil armies in the Black Fortress to seize power for himself and the Black Dogs, intending to stage a Military Coup against the Seven Shields and build a Sex Empire for themselves. This is what kicks off the later events of the original story.
  • Lampshaded and discussed in the remastered version. For context, the events of the original and remastered versions of the story differ. While Vault is still alive and out there in the original version, due to Kyril being so laser-focused on his mission to bring Olga back south that he does not bother killing Vault to be on his way, Vault is offed by Kyril in the remastered version, just as his ambitions are laid bare. Kyril lampshades that traitors and many other Black Dog supporters are within the society of Eostia, musing that the waking world would call for a hunter soon and more bloodshed ensues. Furthermore, this trope is discussed during a conversation in Chapter 9. Both Kyril and The Rat share a foreboding feeling that another war is afoot after the assault of the Black Fortress, with the Rat providing some further insights on the matter.
    Kyril: My hunch was right I suppose. There's another war coming.
    The Rat: Aye... there will always be another war upon this land, hence why people like you are coming around. The Old Gods are waking, perhaps they may have need of you when this war has begun. A war of traitors.
• Decapitation Presentation:
  • Hugh upends a sack and allows the head of a hobgoblin to hit the floor, showing to their mentor Kyril that he and Sanakan succeeded in hunting down the target as he instructed.
  • In response to a question regarding what to do with Beasley's corpse, Kyril replies that he needs proof of the kill, for "the heads of the traitors should be more than enough for a successful hunt". A few days later, Beasley's severed head is taken out from a sack and presented to Celestine and the others in the council chamber.
  • Grishom remarks that should he bring Sir Kyril's head, Vault would reward him with plenty of women. He doesn't get to do the deed.
  • Mandeville, intending to kill Soren, wants the kid's head to display when the Lord Executioner, Kyril, loses him. This also doesn't come to pass due to Hugh's Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • To receive his bounty, Kyril presents the head of an orc war chief, named the Arch-Arsonist, to the bounty board of an Adventure Guild in Chapter 1 of the remastered version.
• Decon-Recon Switch: The story initially deconstructs the The High Queen trope by showing Celestine. Despite being a kind and effective ruler, she still faces opposition, and her idealist nature is the result of a sheltered upbringing that leaves her unprepared for the harshness of war. However, she never abandons her ideals. Instead, she comes to grips with the fact that she has to take harsh measures to defend her ideals.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Has its own page.
• Deconstructed Trope: Has its own page.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Sir Kyril the Bloody, who has yet to experience defeat or demise, experiences his first death at the hands of an assassin of House Mandeville, who shoots him from a distance. Said assassin pays dearly for this.
• Defector from Decadence: The remastered version of this fanfic introduces Black Dog members that cannot tolerate with Vault and his ambitions to build a Sex Empire, in contrast with the original version depicting the Black Dogs as Always Chaotic Evil. They include Boris, Fredrick, Oliver, and Soren, who is not a Black Dog member in the original, and is not an apprentice of Kyril yet as of now.
• Defensive Feint Trap: Attempted during the battle at the Black Fortress, where the dark elf spear line parted as if to make way for the Black Dogs to enter, only for a giant fireball to wipe out a sizeable portion of the Black Dog army. The tactic would've worked splendidly had the Hunter not sensed the danger miles away and bellowed the men behind him to move away. The Hunter, on the other hand, quickly dove under it, and rushed towards the mage responsible, killing her. From this point, any advantage the forces of the Dark Queen had due to said tactic is lost in an instant.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Should any named character be under the mercy of the Black Dogs and their associates, they will make it absolutely clear that: one, those people won't prevail; two, those people will die horribly either by someone's or their own hand; and three, they are never going to give those people the satisfaction of doing whatever as they please. Hardly surprising, considering their vile deeds.
  • Few supporters of the Black Dogs, as opposed to the majority of them who break, remain defiant towards Kyril during their interrogation.
    • Chapter 8: Kyril approaches a mortally wounded mook, who calls him a monster. The Hunter wants to find Beasley's whereabouts, but he refuses to tell him anything. The mook continues cursing Kyril until his final moments, even when his face is being squeezed by Kyril's tendrils.
    • Chapter 25: A captive clergyman curses Kyril, Celestine, and Olga right before getting shot in the face. His two compatriots begin begging and blubbering, for being "defiant" won't mean anything upon death.
      Unnamed captive: Demon filth. You've ruined everything our city and country stand for! You, the False Goddess and that Dark Elf harlot can all rot in hell!
      *BLAM*
  • Soren, as he faces against Mandeville and his five guards, all battered up with a broken arm. Outmatched, he prepares himself to go down swinging, after telling him and his mother to go screw themselves. Fortunately, he lasts long enough for Hugh to pull a Big Damn Heroes.
  • Subverted for Sir John Mandeville, when he's locked up in the dungeons after his defeat. At first, he seems defiant as ever even when Kyril is giving him a Breaking Speech about his failures (i.e. how his house is being investigated for its crimes, together with how Chloe, his own daughter that he tormented, would be the one to determine his fate). Until Kyril bluntly states that all the fortunes of House Mandeville will be utilised for the reconstruction in the Western District of Ken, with the house itself disassembled along the way. Cue Villainous Breakdown.
• Defiled Forever:
  • Lily is a nun of the church who, along with her fellow sisters, are raped by red imps in the dungeons. In addition to experiencing a Crisis of Faith, she refers herself as "ashamed nun" or "worthless nun" after being saved. Fortunately, she would later grow out of this mindset and find worth for herself, as a healer and a hunter.
  • Speaking of nuns, Archbishop Grishom uses this trope as an excuse to stop using the Church's resources on them, claiming that the nuns have been "tainted" by the Black Dogs, so this "corruption" may cause them to betray Eostia and the Church's cause. Kyril and Celestine are not happy with this.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • The Dark Elf Queen, Olga, starts off as a haughty and proud Aloof Dark-Haired Girl who wants vengeance on the human race for their Fantastic Racism against her kind, the dark elves. After a Break the Haughty sequence that involves her being ousted from power, being imprisoned, and being free from prison with Kyril's help, she begins to warm up to her rescuer and reconciles with her old friend Celestine, whom she ultimately cares about despite warring with her for centuries, leading to her Heel–Face Turn. As the story progresses, the defrosting process becomes more prominent than ever when Olga develops feelings towards Kyril, even though he didn't mean to defrost her in the first place.
  • Kyril is a stoic, brusque, and jaded Consummate Professional who is traumatised from his Dark and Troubled Past in Yharnam. The people that are in love with him certainly want this trope to occur, the ideal scenarios being him returning their affections and/or him genuinely smiling. The outcome is more nuanced than expected — he later shares a tender moment or two with each of his main suitors, yet he neither becomes more friendly nor makes an effort to gets closer to them, remaining a stoic, brusque, and jaded person throughout the story. It has never been a case where the Ice King turns into a Nice Guy or falls in love when some random Love Interests appear, but rather a case where the Ice King recognises his colleagues as decent, trustworthy people as he works with them for the war effort, and he will console them when they are in need of it. There's also how the people who seek to defrost Kyril never know the full extent of his Dark and Troubled Past, because said past involves Things Man Was Not Meant to Know and he wants to preserve their sanity.
• Dehumanizing Insult:
  • Bishop Sharkov wants to throw Lily and her sisters out of the church, calling the nuns "creatures" who have long since overstayed their welcome.
  • Archbishop Grishom exhorts the rebel forces to "do away with the yolk of the 'False Goddess and her pet demon'". The term "pet demon" is meant as an insult to the Good Hunter.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: A logical consequence of a land vastly different from the modern world.
  • Eostians are perfectly OK for Celestine, a Long-Lived high elf bestowed with precognition as a result of a literal case of Divine Right of Queens, to rule her country for a thousand years (imagine a political leader with a centuries-old term in the modern era). It should be noted that rulers worshipped as a god are Older Than Dirt, though.
  • The nobility is irked that Sanakan and Hugh are following around Sir Kyril has his apprentices, not because the two are children fighting in a war, but because the two are of commoner blood rather than Blue Blood. Bear in mind that extremely young squires serving their knights were commonplace in the Middle Ages.
  • Due to Might Makes Right, getting away with murder in a Fantasy Tavern is a piece of cake. Disconcerting, yes, but no one would dare speak up on this matter. Double points if said Fantasy Tavern happens to be in a Wretched Hive, or if the killer wields a giant serrated saw and is named "Sir Kyril the Bloody".
  • Lily's P.O.V. indicates that slavery is a crime often went unpunished in Eostia. Tales of slavers picking the "choicest" women to sell to the rich abound. The end of Chapter 29 has Mandeville "making a show" of his daughter Chloe, which all but confirms that this phenomenon has yet to cease.
  • Speaking of slavery, humans have a history of enslaving at least two fantasy races, the Wild Ones and the dark elves respectively. This has been going on for centuries.
  • Some of Kyril's actions (or the "good guy" faction in general) during the war against the Black Dogs, like his "No Quarter" policy to prisoners and those who surrendered, plus the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique, would be considered war crimes in the present day. While several characters have expressed disapproval towards such methods, the cold fact remains that The Laws and Customs of War is simply absent in the setting.
• Desolation Shot:
  • In order to bring Olga to justice, Kyril and the Black Dogs traverse Garan. What was once a verdant place is now a desert wasteland, with villages few and far in between.
  • Chapter 14 has the village of Shad, now wiped out, with the villagers' corpses either drained of their blood or torn up, as if something had crawled out of them.
  • Rad, in Chapter 16. The silence and the petrified citizens add to the foreboding atmosphere.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?:
  • More like "Cthulhu Chats With People", which happens frequently, because Kyril hides his nature as a great one under a man's skin, allowing him to interact with people with no issue. As for Kyril himself, he's more "Good Is Not Nice" than "benevolent".
  • Taken to its Logical Extreme, Kyril would eventually have tea with Celestine and Olga, who have a loose connection with the Hunter's Dream after peeking into his journal.
  • The Plain Doll makes tea for her Good Hunter as a gesture of affection, something he appreciates greatly amongst other things.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Perdita, an assassin that serves House Mandeville, manages to assassinate the Good Hunter by shooting him in the head from a distance, while putting out one of his eyes. Unfortunately for him, the Good Hunter, once thought to be nigh-unkillable, is actually unkillable, not to mention that losing an eye is no impediment to his combat abilities^note in the game, the Player Character would respawn unscathed upon death, making this a Retcon, but it is what it is, making this a subverted trope.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Kyril Sutherland himself is such an Outside-Context Problem that every party in the story (the antagonists moreso) are subjected to this trope. The most common instance of this trope in action is how his enemies do not expect the Hunter to be that strong, as result of thinking that he's Just One Man. And then there's the two Unknown Unknowns — his Resurrective Immortality and his true nature as an Eldritch Abomination... yeah.
  • The Seven Shields of Eostia do not expect the most renowned PMC group, the Black Dogs, to turn on them, kicking off the majority of the plot with a bang.
  • The Eostian military have fought orcs and mercs, but not mutants that look horrifying, with the abilities to match. Thus, regular Red Shirts find themselves to be at a disadvantage when encountering them. Nevertheless, this element is slowly mitigated over time as morale is restored, thanks to Kyril's prowess in fighting them, his relentless advance, as well as the troops themselves gaining more experience.
  • The plot thickens during the Rebel Scum Arc because of Celestine giving the order to quell the rebellion in the capital, a move that no one, not even Kyril, can see coming. They assumed that she, being The High Queen, would opt for the more peaceful option. The result is that the rebellion, sponsored by Mandeville, ends in one swift stroke, courtesy of Kyril and his forces setting Grishom's cathedral aflame to smoke out every rebel. Cue Oh, Crap! from Grishom.
  • The guards under Mandeville's payroll attempt to kill everyone in Celestine's personal estate when Kyril is away. They do not account for the skeleton crew that Kyril has set up there in case something like that happened, together with an animated doll that rends things as she wills.
• Didn't Think This Through: Characters who do this would find themselves either with additional trouble, or severe punishment.
  • Vault invites Kyril to join him and the Black Dogs to create a Sex Empire. He assumes that the Hunter, a man, is eager for a life to "live as a king" by fulfilling his sexual desires. However, he fails to consider that the Hunter is not only celibate, but also against his actions because they are, well, bad. Vault's invitation only created his biggest threat to his conquest. The remastered version is even worse for Vault, as this misplay gets him killed.
  • Kyril's decision to leave his journal, an Artifact of Doom, inside his unlocked quarters, instead of the Dream where only he and his trusted companions can enter. He doesn't consider that someone would just waltz in and take a peek at the journal due to curiosity, which is exactly what Celestine and Olga do. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two gain Insight, suffer breakdowns, and unwittingly know of a fragment of Kyril's memories in Yharnam, all of them are scenarios Kyril wants to avoid in the first place. He lampshades this one chapter later.
  • By the same token as the above example, Celestine and Olga as well, for falling for the Schmuck Bait. Never underestimate the urge to read someone's journal/diary.
  • Alicia's decision to surrender her entire fortress to the Black Dogs just to save a group of hostage nuns from being raped. Even if one considers that those nuns are her cousin Prim's friends, which may have contributed to this decision, it still doesn't change that fact that she blatantly sacrifices her advantage/high ground, allowing the Black Dogs an easy win with little effort. To make things worse, the nuns end up getting raped anyway, both Alicia and Prim can do nothing but wait for Kyril and the others to bail them out, and Alicia is alienated by both said nuns and her own cousin.
  • Discussed and defied in Chapter 19 of the original. Lily is perturbed by Soren stealing a List of Names from a representative of the merchant's guild. While it is true that Soren has found useful intelligence, namely the transactions Sir John Mandeville made with some of his associates, he fails to consider that this action would risk causing unnecessary complications, including: alerting Mandeville, which would make him harder to catch; and forming a rift amongst The Alliance due to the potential scandal that involves Claudia's husband Klaus (because his name is found alongside the names of a list of traitors). In order to avoid said complications, the two decide to act subtly, communicate with their allies, and plan ahead.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Kyril's response to Vault's Motive Rant about his ambition for a Sex Slave Empire is to break character, drop the stoicism, and laugh out loud for how ridiculous the situation is.
• Disappointed in You: During the journey in the Badlands in the remastered version, Kyril, irritated at the infighting of the Great Escape group, tells Olga and Chloe, "I am most disappointed." Chloe attempts to talk back, only for Kyril to step into her personal space and give her a "Reason You Suck" Speech on why he is disappointed.
• Disapproving Look: While treading the muddy plains of Scathlocke, Sanakan has an internal narration on how she would jump in every puddle just to mess with Hugh if she were a little girl. As if sensing her thoughts, Hugh gives her an annoyed look, daring her to try something silly.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries:
  • In Chapter 20 of the original, Olga wants to meet Grace in hopes of making amends. The latter, who has a grudge towards the former, coolly tells her to ditch the platitudes and tell her what she wants.
  • Chapter 28 has Kyril and his apprentices entering a bar to find any leads to Mandeville. Not wasting any time, he takes out his pistol, fires at the ceiling to get everyone's attention, and says the following.
    Kyril: I killed quite a few of the Black Dogs and their orcs with this weapon. So... let's dispense with the welcome.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • Whether it be mentioning how someone tried to kill him, describing how he's going to kill another, or actually doing the killing left and right, the Hunter is always the calm in the middle of horror, anxiety and carnage. The word "serenely" is often used in tandem with any bloodshed that involves him, as if he is not concerned in the slightest with being covered in viscera. Many of his allies find it disconcerting that someone could react with casual indifference or even be in a good mood during such situations.
  • Evetta is poised and composed, behaving like her usual self even when two men are having the life choked out of them as she wills. Her reaction to a traitorous guard with his leg bent in the wrong direction is to tilt her head in curiosity, ask for the person who paid him, and bend his leg further.
• Divine Right of Kings: A literal case. Celestine Lucross, High Elf Queen of Eostia, is the current holder of the title "Goddess Reborn", with the Royalty Super Power it ensues, as a result of receiving gentle Laurendau's favour. As such, Celestine is regarded as God-Emperor.
• Do with Him as You Will:
  • After freeing Soren from Barnum Bailey, Sanakan leaves the thug leader at the mercy of angry townsfolk. Said townsfolk have been harassed by Barnum and his thugs before, since they were unable to pay protection money. The narrative cuts away after he is shown being beaten up.
  • During the Rebel Scum Arc, many of the rebel aristocrats find themselves to be Torn Apart by the Mob. It is said that this has been quietly approved and encouraged by Sir Kyril and his company, because those aristocrats decide not to heed the crown's call of suppressing the rebellion, an indication of picking the Black Dogs' side.
  • Kyril intends to leave Mandeville to his daughter Chloe, whom he tortured and had her mother murdered in the past
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Chapter 20 of the original has Lily making a point to a lead thug that there will be violence if he doesn't sheath his weapon. The thug complies and immediately tries to grab her, which proves to be a big mistake as he soon finds himself pinned on the floor with her Church Pick stabbing his shoulder. Even worse, said thug gets brought back for interrogation the hard way.
• Dramatic Irony: If the readers have played Bloodborne before, it is very likely that they would know how strong the Good Hunter is, as well as his identity as a great one, should the Childhood's Beginning Ending is chosen. They are expected to cringe on whoever crosses him, as the chances of them prevailing are nil.
• Draw Aggro: Kyril points his Saw Cleaver at the bigger orc out of the band during Chapter 1, remastered version. The narration described this gesture as "a brazen challenge to any orc that saw it". The orc, as dumb as it is, bellows and goes after him, to no avail.
• The Dreaded:
  • The anti-heroic Hunter is so feared by his enemies, his allies, and even strangers seeing him for the first time due to his power, brutality and aura of lethality. Dread and wary stares are constants whenever he is nearby. In the original version, he is infamously known as "Sir Kyril the Bloody" among the populace that shows how much fear they have for him.
  • Discussed by Olga and later Hugh in the original version when Olga is on her way to the refugee camp to meet her people. She was once the most feared (and hated) person in the setting when she played the "fantasy dark lord / queen lurking in an ominous fortress" role. However, the events of the story, namely her defeat at the hands of Kyril, as well as the war against the Black Dogs going on, has led to her gradually losing that title (except the "hated" part — many people still hate her guts because of what she did). Olga muses how far she has fallen that her name now holds no special terror for Kyril's battle-hardened soldiers or even a fresh-faced boy like Soren, while Hugh sardonically remarks how there is no point being afraid of her anymore.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Bergen fits this trope to a T. Strict and abrasive to his recruits, yelling and calling them derogatory names are part of his routine.
• Dropping the Bombshell:
  • The cliffhanger in Chapter 11 of the remastered version features one of these when Kyril nonchalantly states that he killed Vault when asked by Maia about his whereabouts.
  • Likewise, Chapter 12 has Kyril being accused of making a deal with The Rat, described as a malicious entity far older than both Celestine and Olga. In response, The Rat drops this wham, especially in regards to Kyril's true nature.
    Alicia: What is difficult is why this blasphemer (Kyril) is still here. He does not serve the Goddess but that... that thing.
    The Rat: I have no power over him, Knight of Iris! Where is it written that a man touched by the Gods must serve a master?
• Dual Boss: Mandeville's familiars, clad in golden-coloured armour. Kyril internally remarks that they are a challenge, thanks to their synchronicity.
• Dual Wielding:
  • The Good Hunter, of course, in true Bloodborne hunter fashion — melee weapon on the right, firearm on the left.
  • For Hugh, it's either the Threaded Cane-Evelyn setup, or the Chikage-Evelyn setup.
  • Occasionally, Lily wields her Church Pick (normal mode) on one hand, and her Flamesprayer on the other.
  • Maia duel-wields shortswords in combat.
  • While this is not Sanakan's typical style of combat, she uses a Saw Cleaver along with a torch on one occasion in Chapter 22 of the original.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • Alicia and Claudia dislike Kyril for not showing respect towards the Goddess Reborn, as well as their authority as part of the Seven Shields. They are not alone in this regard, though - the fact that Kyril saw no difference between classes draws the ire of the nobility. Not that he cares, though.
  • In the remastered version, Vault is described as "a man who demanded respect from all that encountered him, friend or foe". Naturally, he is not happy to see Kyril disregarding him from the first day they met, ranging from his blatant statement that he will lose in a match between the two, to his dismissal about the critical state of one of his men.
• Due to the Dead:
  • As per Bloodborne canon, the Hunter's Dream has a garden riddled with graves. Each gravestone stands in honour of the memory of every hunter who visited the Dream during the Night of the Hunt.
  • A private funeral is held for Luu-Luu at the end of the Rad Arc. In a similar vein, Kyril would later be shown cleaning a gravestone, the list of names of those lost carved into the surface, including Luu-Luu's and Indriga's.
  • The beginning of Chapter 2, remastered version reveals that Kyril offered to clean and bury the corpses of the two victims from the orc band attack in the previous chapter, a gesture no one expected from a grim man like him. Turns out that he was accustomed to burying the dead.
  • In the very same chapter, however, he dissuades Alicia and the others from grieving and burying their dead comrades after they are ambushed by an orc band. Prioritising pragmatism over respecting the dead, he reasons that more of them would die should the orcs come back, so they should get to a safer area as soon as possible. Naturally, he gets called out for this, but Alicia, still shaken from the assault moments before, ultimately relents.
• Dumb Muscle: A common trait of many mooks. Orcs, trolls, ogres, mutants... you name it. Their relative strength in comparison to the Red Shirts makes up for their primitive and unintelligent nature.
• Dungeon Bypass: Provided that there is an easier method of infiltration of a target location, it will be used.
  • Rather than strolling through the main gate, or directly attacking it in any way, Kyril and the Black Dogs infiltrate the Black Fortress via a secret passageway/culvert at the base of the southern wall. This is a downplayed instance, however, as they are still met with resistance, but they get through nonetheless.
  • Kyril invokes this trope during the Liberation of Ansur Arc, when he is trying to find a shortcut to enter the mercenary compound where Maia is held captive. While it is true that he can steamroll anything in his way without dying, the more time he uses to kill things outside, the longer Maia is in trouble. His fears turn out to be well-founded — he did manage to find a shortcut with Grace's help, but he arrives a bit late to stop Michelle from violating Maia.
  • Also invoked by the Black Dogs, who are looking into old sewer routes to enter the city of Ken while bypassing the majority of its defences.

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