Line #48 Fridge/Bloodborne


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3	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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6	* Each of the unique bloods in game do something extra depending on who it comes from:
7	** Iosefka is a doctor, her blood recovers more health compared to the generic blood vials.
8	** Arianna is a "woman of pleasure", her blood boosts stamina recovery.
9	** Adella is a nun of the Healing Church, her blood gives health regeneration.
10	** Adeline is a saint of the Healing Church, her blood also gives health regeneration.
11	** Cainhurst's bloodline are the descendants of Yharnam, The Pthumerian Queen, the Chikage can inflict rapid poison.
12	** You, the Hunter, are a potential [[EldritchAbomination Great One]] who absorbs the Blood Echoes of your prey, the Bloodletter can inflict frenzy.
13	** This last one is speculation, but the blood you get at the beginning of the game could be Gerhman's, which can explain how you have access to the Hunter's Dream.
14	* It's incredible that [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]] don't make a single appearance throughout the game, even though it's a setting they should thrive in (rampant Blood consumption, pervasive Gothic architecture, grand elegance amidst decay, ect). Yet when you take a closer look at the people of Yharnam, you may notice [[TownWithADarkSecret some alarming quirks that set them apart from your average human:]]
15	** [[BloodLust Yharnamites find blood more intoxicating than alcohol]]. Yet while blood may be heady, you can't get ''drunk'' off of it.
16	** The "prostitute" you meet in the game implies that she sells her blood rather than sex, meaning that the blood isn't just appetizing, it's ''[[HemoErotic euphoric]]'' to them.
17	** An item in the ''Old Hunters'' DLC implies that Yharnamites [[ImAHumanitarian regularly cannibalize "ignorant foreigners"]].
18	*** There's a few implications that Yharnamites outright eat each other. This is, after all, a town obsessed with human blood. The idea of ingesting blood that belongs to an animal or alien never even comes up.
19	** The plague and the rampant beasts have apparently been endemic for more than a generation. With all the chaos, bloodshed, and death preventing any sort of trade, productivity, or daily work from taking place, what have the people been eating all this time? A city the size of Yharnam would need massive amounts of food and other supplies to function for even a day, let alone years. [[EatingOptional They would either need far less food than a typical human, or consume something else entirely...]]
20	** Consider how the [[BadassLongcoat Hunter's garb is designed]]; every iteration seems intent on [[CoolMask covering as much of the face as possible]], even at the risk of [[NoPeripheralVision obstructing the wearer's vision]]. It could simply be for protection in combat, or to [[BloodSplatteredWarrior keep splashes of blood out of your eyes]]. But it would also be useful in [[WeakenedByTheLight keeping sunlight off of the face, or protecting sensitive eyes from daylight glare]].
21	** At the start of the game, you [[SuperhumanTransfusion take a blood transfusion to "become one of them", and gain far greater strength and endurance as a result]].
22	** Most telling of all, you can heal yourself via ''[[HorrorHunger consuming blood intravenously]]''. A blood transfusion can only replace lost fluids; it doesn't mend wounds or knit bones... at least it ''[[ThePowerOfBlood shouldn't]]''.
23	** In conclusion, spending the whole game [[NothingIsScarier anticipating an encounter with a vampire]] may lead you to realize in hindsight [[TomatoInTheMirror that you may have BEEN one]].
24	*** Well, the Vilebloods in Cainhurst do seem a little vampy... incidentally, one superstition about being turned into a vampire is that you have to be injected with vampire blood (being drained dry by a vampire just kills you) -- which adds an uncomfortable subtext to the blood transfusion performed by the old hunter in the opening cutscene.
25	*** Which would seem to set up a neat little FurAgainstFang situation as you fight your way through the beasts of Yharnam... until you begin to recall that the plague makes things much more complicated than that. The Old Blood is the reason for your vampiric abilities, but is also the bearer of the Beastly Scourge. In this world, werewolves and vampires are not separate creatures, but the same kind of creature, with one infected by a disease.
26	* The starting class "Noble Scion" is described as a "scion to a respectable line with faith in your pedigree." It also happens to be the starting class with the highest Bloodtinge. A distant relative of the Cainhurst nobility, perhaps?
27	* Old Hunter Djura is trying to protect the beasts of Old Yharnam, saying that they're 'No threat to those above'. Is he referring to those in the waking world or the Great Ones?
28	** In any case, he's not wrong. There are only two entrances to Old Yharnam; one involves finding a secret passageway beneath a sarcophagus, making it past a savage werewolf, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and ignoring a "No Hunters allowed" sign]], in that order. The other entrance is through [[EldritchLocation the Hidden Village,]] [[NightmareFuel Yahar'gul]], and that gate's guarded by an even bigger skeleton werewolf, Darkbeast Paarl.
29	* When you first go to the clinic, the doctor introduces herself as Iosefka. Later, the person inside asks you to tell people to "seek Iosefka's clinic". The second person doesn't say she is Iosefka, does she?
30	* It's not EarnYourHappyEnding or EarnYourBadEnding... it's just Earn Your Ending, period. If your objective is to just survive the nightmare and get the hell out, then congratulations; as far as you are concerned, it was all a bad dream and you can walk out into a world empty of monsters and people trying to kill you. On the other hand, if you want to stay in the nightmare, that means you've been captivated by its conflict, or possibly powerlust... and your fate is to be enslaved to the nightmare. ''Unless'' you've mastered the nightmare, by scouring its most hidden points and getting rare items you can't get except through specific circumstances; then your reward is to be the new master of the dream world, for good or ill.
31	** So, in the end, you have three options: Leave the nightmare, free (hopefully) of whatever malady that had afflicted you that led to you venturing into the city in the first place; become semi-immortal, able to die only when someone else comes along and kills you, taking your place; or slay a nightmarish abomination, and in doing so, become a creature that has an effectively endless lifespan, unimaginable power, and is something that transcends, on all levels, what we consider the human condition. Given that you live in a pretty CrapsackWorld version of the Victorian era, where disease, murder, and war are quite common, and even if you survive the horrors of the dream, there's no guarantee that you won't suddenly die of any number of things before you reach home (if you even have a home to come back to). The hero is an ordinary person, and when you leave the dream, nothing will have changed, except that you're a good deal stronger, faster, and more resilient than your fellow man. All of that taken together, there's a pretty strong argument for the Childhood's Beginning ending being the "good" ending...
32	* In the debut cinematic trailer, the second shot lingers on an abandoned baby's carriage in the midst of a dilapidated Yharnam street. An attempt at fridge horror, or a brilliant piece of foreshadowing regarding the Great Ones' plan for humanity?
33	* Speaking of babies and childhood: At first it probably seems random and arbitrary that Rom the Vacuous Spider's transition from human to kin resulted in the destruction of her consciousness ([[EmptyShell hence the "Vacuous" part]]) when other formerly human Great Ones, such as the Celestial Emissary, only ever saw their consciousnesses expand from the transition... until you remember that 1) Rom was an adult, learned scholar of Byrgenwerth, and 2) the entire reason the Orphanage exists is to foster children and infants into potential kin because their young and flexible minds won't be [[GoMadFromTheRevelation shattered by the process]] — unlike the brittle minds of adults, who are more susceptible to going mad the more learned and therefore biased their minds are...
34	* It may seem like a case of ButThouMust to assume that you automatically care enough for the Plain Doll to bring her to life. However, the first instinct of every beginning player when they first see the Plain Doll sprawled out in the Hunter's Dream is to approach her, as they assume she must be a human and can be spoken to. It's not much, just a tiny bit of empathy based on a mistake, but it's more than enough to bring her to life (after becoming a little more insightful about the world, of course). It's not quite ButThouMust, it's linking [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration Gameplay-Story Integration]] with IntendedAudienceReaction.
35	** Not to mention the other IntendedAudienceReaction is to have someone, ''anyone'', around who gives a crap about you. Aside from Gilbert, everyone's really hostile in Yharnam…
36	** This becomes weirder if you've met her already but drop back to 0 Insight. She resumes seeming like a lifeless doll, but you can still interact with her, implying before that empathy didn't awaken the doll but it was watching you without you knowing.
37	* If you tell Viola's daughter to seek refuge at Cathedral Ward, then you'll eventually find her ribbon in the corpse of the pig in the aqueduct. How did this happen? The bridge preceding Oedon Cemetery (and by extension, Cathedral Ward) is guarded by a large number of Huntsmen, and they have a boulder trap set up to take out any trespassers. Fighting is out of the question for a child, and if you can't sneak past them then there's no way she could sneak past them, either. So, she took the alternative route via the long ladder that you can conveniently climb down in that area. This would have led her to the aqueduct, which in turn would have let her pass safely under the bridge. The aqueduct is populated by Rotted Corpses, whom the little girl could have actually snuck past. Unfortunately, it's also where the giant pig took shelter in, but by the time the girl figured that out, it was too late.
38	* When you think about it, the reason why you turn into an EldritchAbomination yourself is because that, when you killed all of the potential candidates of the new Great Ones and consumed the Umbilical Cords, there's no one left for the Great Ones to continue the line of the Moon Presence, except for you. HeWhoFightsMonsters indeed.
39	* When you meet the head of the Byrgenwyrth College, you'll find that he's almost completely incapable of speech or movement, only able to point and make a vague mumbling noise. Why would that be? It's revealed through item descriptions that he had believed that by lining the brain with eyes, it would allow man to perceive the unfathomable, likely due to the huge number of eyes that every Great One possesses. However, the surface of the brain is where all of the action in the head takes place: The more eyes on the surface, the less the brain is actually able to do. Robbed of too much of that area, a person loses the ability to reason, to see, hear, or even ''move.'' Thus, no wonder the lot of them experienced the still-birth of their brains; by gaining the ability to perceive the unfathomable, they unintentionally robbed themselves of the ability to ''think''. What good is being able to see the great unknown if you can no longer comprehend what you're seeing?
40	* You may wonder why the game is filled with ArbitraryGunPower. How come your guns do ScratchDamage but the Hunting mobs can do quite a lot? But think about it; the Hunter guns use bullets made out of quicksilver, AKA mercury, mixed with magic blood that allows it to take different forms and fit in different weapons. The Yharnam citizens are using normal bullets, musket balls, and cannonballs. You're essentially spraying enemies instead of shooting them, and while globs of metal will still hurt, they can't match the power of a lead slug. At the same time, though, the mob's guns would probably do nothing against the beasts due to lacking the magic enhancement.
41	** They are indeed using the same kind of bullets you do, they are simply better at it. Or else, why would everyone of them drop quicksilver when slain?
42	** Regular bullets are ineffective against the beasts, so it wouldn't make sense for the Yharnam Huntsmen to use regular bullets against the player when they are fully convinced that you are the beast that's hunting them. Rather, this troper believes that because the Yharnamites are already blood-addled, their bloodtinge is inadvertently at a higher level than the player at the level of which you fight them. Why else do the Yahar'gul gunmen do ridiculous amounts of damage? Because these guys are literally ''covered'' in blood!
43	** Alternatively, they really are using regular bullets, which would show how terribly unprepared and under-equipped they were for the Hunt, but would still do a lot of damage to you.
44	** The thing is, all enemies that use guns in this game drop quicksilver bullets, so they definitely have quicksilver bullets on them. They might be shooting at you with regular bullets, though, and only carry quicksilver as backup. Although, if their guns are essentially spraying super-heated magnesium at you, then it would explain why a wooden shield can somehow reliably protect you from bullets.
45	* If you perform the "Make Contact" gesture to the Brain of Mensis, then it will give you the highest-level Moon Rune in the game, which increases the number of Blood Echos you get from slain enemies. Why would it offer the Hunter, who it's caused no shortage of problems to, something that would make it an even more tempting target to kill? Because that's what it ''wants''. The Brain is begging you to MercyKill it in the only way it can.
46	** If you perform the "Make Contact" gesture to the Plain Doll, she claps enthusiastically. This isn't just celebration. It's an indication that you've discovered something important.
47	** The Doll doesn't clap until you wait about a minute and your arms switch positions. The Brain of Mensis also doesn't give you the Moon rune until your arms switch positions. This implies that the initial pose is actually the incorrect way to make contact, and after you switch your arm positions, then you're finally doing it correctly.
48	** The runes are the language of the great Old Ones; it's entirely possible that it is not even aware you make use of these runes and directly asking for a mercy kill in a language you don't understand.
49	** The "Make Contact" emote is also a way of communicating with the Great Ones because the extensions of the arms make the outline of a right triangle, thus demonstrating knowledge of mathematics.
50	* Various characters (who are all insane in one way or another) have been beseeching Kos to "grant them eyes" throughout the lore. Yet in the ''Old Hunters'' DLC, we finally get a look at Kos... only to see that she had no eyes herself.
51	** Quite a bit of the madness she caused could very well be the result of PoorCommunicationKills, as she was trying to fulfill a wish that she only had a rudimentary understanding of. After all, the incomprehensible nature of the [[EldritchAbomination Great Ones]] is probably [[HumansAreCthulhu a two-way street]].
52	* The Forbidden Woods. It's not just a fancy name for a creepy "[[DontGoIntoTheWoods don't go in the forest]]" area. The upper part of it is covered in shacks and has lots of townspeople hunting around, and there are tons of booby traps. When you finally get to the lower areas, infested with horrible hydra parasites, you realize that the traps were meant for the creatures ''below.''
53	** Alternatively, the Forbidden Woods are Forbidden because they're essentially the [[LastStand Alamo]]; the place where the people of Yharnam are meant to make their last stand should the Hunt go poorly. It's full of fairly elite hunters, booby traps and generally just really heavily fortified. Moreso than the actual city around them. The enemies you face there are also the last time you see normal Yharnamites outside of Yahar'Gul which is a special situation due to the kidnappings and rituals taking place there.
54	* The Winter Lanterns exclusively inhabit the nightmare realms (Nightmare Frontier, Nightmare of Mensis, and the Hunter's Nightmare), and since they wear the Plain Doll's clothing and their heads are a mass of Messengers squashed together, they are a mockery of the inhabitants of the Dream. It really should come as no surprise that their very presence is harmful to the Hunter; they are the EvilCounterpart to the Hunter's greatest allies.
55	* At first, Micolash's presence as a boss battle in the game may be confusing, since it seems to come out of nowhere, despite his presence in the lore. However, it was foreshadowed as early as your arrival in the Abandoned Old Workshop: the Third of an Umbilical Cord inside the workshop states Gehrman formed a pact with the Moon Presence to create the Hunter's Dream, as Micolash struck a deal with another great one (either Mergo or the Brain of Mensis) to create the Nightmare of Mensis. Hence his title "Host of the Nightmare". Micolash is to the Nightmare of Mensis what Gehrman is to the Hunter's Dream.
56	** Looking at them closely, you can even see that the two are opposites of each other. While Gehrman is old and weary of the dream, Micolash is young and absolutely loves it, never wanting to leave. Gehrman is a Hunter, who rely on Blood Echoes for power, while Micolash is a member of the School of Mensis, a group formed by former Byrgenwerth students who similarly gained power through Insight. Gehrman fights you head-on with his trick weapon and physical strength, while Micolash runs from you for the most part and resorts to magic. Finally, Gehrman's trapped in a dream, while Mikolash dwells in a nightmare.
57	* Many people comment on how the Moon Presence boss fight was easier than the battle with Gehrman. However, when you think about it, it makes sense. You can only fight the Moon Presence once you've eaten the three umbilical cords, which is what makes you a Great One. This isn't a battle between a Hunter and a Great One. This is a fight between two Great Ones! And considering as a mere human, the Hunter was able to bring down other Great Ones...
58	* Looking at the three nightmares (Frontier, Mensis, and Hunter), you begin noticing similarities between them. From the odd-looking terrain, to Frontier and Mensis sharing similar enemies (the Silverbeasts, the Lost Children, and the Winter Lanterns), and finally, if you look carefully in the Frontier, you can see the masts of ships in the distance, exactly like the ships in the Fishing Hamlet. All three nightmares are connected. You're not just going into three different nightmares. It's all one big nightmare!
59	* From a gameplay perspective, the parry mechanic and how players are introduced to it. The first boss, the Cleric Beast, can be set up for parries at pretty much any time so long as you shoot it in its head and said head being "intact", providing an easy way for damage. Father Gascoigne, in contrast, can only be parried in the leadup to attacks, but at the same time, there are comparatively large windows of opportunity to do just that. This helps prepare players for the [[FinalExamBoss Blood-starved Beast]], a boss with extremely narrow windows for allowing parries, and who first adds poison to attacks (thus making mistimed parries costly) and then as a passive AOE (thus making melee combat, if you were doing it, suicidal).
60	* The Caryll rune for the [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Hunter of Hunters]] looks the same as the regular Hunter rune that is already etched in the mind of the player (and presumably all Hunters). In the language of the Great Ones, they are literally marked as a Hunter Hunter.
61	* Most of the more hammy and energetic gestures elicit an applause from the Plain Doll. The one labeled "Joy", however, only gets the QuizzicalTilt from her. Considering she only learns about the emotion of joy after you give her the hair ornament, it's only fitting that this motion would confuse her.
62	* The concept of Hunters being overcome by bloodlust and succumbing to the Scourge of the Beast makes a lot of sense from a medical perspective; the Plague is obviously blood-borne, and the way Hunters butcher beasts would certainly cover them in a lot of beast blood. As such, it's not too hard to imagine beast blood getting into open wounds and infecting Hunters in much the same way a dirty needle could transmit HIV or hepatitis.
63	** This also offers a cool explanation for the title of the game: Bloodborne.
64	* The Shadows of Yharnam encountered in Mergo's Loft make a lot more sense once you learn the name of Mergo's mother; they're shadows of Yharnam the queen, rather than Yharnam the city.
65	* The importance of the Paleblood Moon and the Moon Presence become much more obvious in hindsight; the alternative name for a blood moon is a Harvest Moon, or, alternatively, a Hunter's Moon.
66	* The opening scene with the not-known-to-be-friendly-yet messengers crawling all over one's paralyzed, sedated self might be familiar to anyone who suffers from night terrors or sleep paralysis. The little guys (who are "born from the nightmare", appropriately enough) really do resemble beings that people who experience these conditions "see" in that half-dreaming state.
67	* The final boss of the DLC (the Orphan of Kos) is a Great One's attempt at creating a counter to the Hunters. In its introductory cutscene, it cries -- using a sound clip taken from Gehrman's dialogue. Makes sense; if you want to create an alien "clone" of the Hunters, what better template than the first and once best of them?
68	* What's so special about Gehrman's sleeping spot in the Hunter's Dream's garden? Why would we find Gehrman sleeping there of all places? At first, the complete mundanity of the spot would not indicate anything special lore-wise, and it's certainly not to make Gehrman easily spotted by the player like the Doll. However, later insight into Gehrman's character gives one potential reason: that spot is the only place in the Hunter's Dream that allows you to turn your back to the rest of the Dream... That is the spot Gehrman, who wishes for nothing more than to leave this place, goes to when he simply cannot stomach so much as looking at the Dream any longer.
69	* What is Eileen doing in the rafters where you can first meet her in Central Yharnam? It seems a strangely remote and secretive location for a Hunter of Hunters to spend so much time in, especially since she doesn't mind ''you'' discovering it at all. That is, until you look at the map and see what she is actually looking over: the sewers below (leading to the aqueduct and the Tomb of Oeden) and ''Gascogne's house'' almost exactly across from her location. In other words, she is there because she is [[TheStakeout staking out Gascoigne's place]] and the most likely route for him to return home! The idea that Father Gascogne is her first potential mark is further supported by her dialogue after you help her kill Henryk: "You must have killed Gascoigne as well then. He was falling apart... I'm sure it had to be done." She sounds like she wasn't sure if Gascoigne succumbed to the Scourge when he first left for the Tomb, and probably waited to see if he would return ''with'' Viola (indicating he kept his sanity) or without her (meaning that he was too far gone). After she sees you go to the Tomb and not return, she follows and catches up with you by the Oedon Chapel.
70	* The Pthumerians are a [[{{Precursors}} Precursor Race]] that currently live in the Chalice Dungeons/Tomb of the Gods beneath Yharnam. They look rather frightening, no? [[BlackEyesOfEvil Big bulging black eyes]] and deathly pale skin. These kinds of traits are typically reserved for creatures who adjust to live underground. It's likely that they looked very different long ago before whatever misfortune led to them relocating below the surface.
71	* Mined content revealed that the FinalBoss, Mergo's Wet Nurse, was originally named "Succubus" before the final version of the game. While just a place-holder name, it makes a lot of sense: despite being known as sexually charged tempters and temptresses in the modern day, in the Middle Ages, the terms were also applied to demons who caused ''nightmares'', which is perfect for the being that may be the root cause of the Nightmare, or at least the being sustaining this one. That fact would fly over most casual players' heads today, however, likely leading to the reason it was changed.
72	* Laurence being an OptionalBoss doesn't just keep up Soulsborne tradition, it makes lore sense. The Hunter's Nightmare is an IronicHell for people associated with Byrgenwerth and the Healing Church for their atrocities against the Fishing Hamlet and later Yharnam. Laurence is also the least innocent of all the DLC's bosses; Ludwig was a KnightInShiningArmor who just wanted to protect the city, the Living Failures are unfortunate test subjects, Maria participated in the massacre but regretted it to the point of renouncing the Hunt and eventually suicide, and the Orphan of Kos is just a baby. The player will [[MercyKill free these ones from the Nightmare]] as a matter of course, but the guy who started the Scourge in the first place can rot in the Nightmare unless you decide to take mercy on him.
73	* The ritual to Curse a Chalice Dungeon requires the Bastard of Loran, stated to be the remains of a child who died from plague in Ailing Loran. Curses are said to be the anger of the Great Ones, and it's ''also'' said that each Great One loses their child — not just 'can't have a child', but they've all had a child die on them. It's no wonder that [[DeathOfAChild dead children]] is a touchy subject with them, and a ritual to get their attention that ''involves'' the remains of a child is going to piss them off.
74	* In a meta sense, Players utilizing the chalice dungeons, especially the infamous "cummmfpk" dungeon, to power level is actually completely intended when you think about it. Gehrman literally spells out that if the game is getting too hard, go root around in the Tomb of the Gods for a while until you feel strong enough to continue the hunt. But lorewise his insistence that you "partake in communion" also makes sense considering his loyalties. In a way, he's also telling you to finish the work started by his friends or colleagues from Byrgenwerth by excavating the tombs all the way to the bottom and finding what's down there.
75	* Unlike Mergo, killing the Orphan of Kos does NOT drop an Umbilical Cord, despite being a child of a Great One - why? Because that Umbilical Cord is ''already in the game'', inside the waking world's Hunter's Workshop - the Old Hunters killed Kos and her child out of a desire for ascension, why would they have ''not'' taken the Umbilical Cord as well?
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79	* The description of the Pungent Blood Cocktail mentions that Yharnam produces more blood than alcohol, with the Yharnamites considering blood the more intoxicating of the two. ''Where the fuck do they get '''that much blood'''?!''
80	** It's more than just the Alcohol. The sex worker you meet in the game implies that she sells her own blood instead of sex. If drinking blood gave the people of Yharnam the same thrill as lovemaking, it paints a nasty picture of what the city must have been like even before the plague.
81	* The Brainslug mind flayer enemies you come across throughout the game that can drain your Insight. How many of them walked among the streets of Yharnam, keeping the populace from digging too deep into what the Healing Church was doing?
82	* It's heavily implied that the cure used by the Healing Church is what helped spread the Plague. In addition, people from foreign lands had traveled to Yharnam seeking a cure for their own illnesses. Assuming that those travelers returned to their homelands after believing themselves cured, how many other cities and nations are presently being afflicted by the Plague?
83	* Late game, you'll find reference to groups who worship the Great Ones, and who sought to become like them by "Lining their brains with eyes". One of the stats in the game, one raised by gaining knowledge of the eldritch, is call "Insight". The more you have, the more you can see and understand about the world. That said, "Insight" doesn't mean understanding. It means ''that there are eyeballs growing on your brain that let you see the freaky stuff going on around you.''
84	** Take a good look at the massive brain you find within the nightmare. You know, the horribly rotten mountain of flesh riddled with eyes? A smaller version of it is crawling around inside your skull.
85	* When you first meet Gehrman, he invites you to ''"use whatever you find"'', but adds in a secretive, creepy tone: ''"...[[RapeAsDrama even the Doll, should it please you!]]"''. While he ''probably'' was referring to her ability to use Blood Echoes to make you stronger, those familiar with the lore would know that Gehrman has an unhealthy obsession over the person the Doll is modeled after, lending credence to some nasty possibilities. Who knows what he has been doing to pass the time, all these years trapped alone in the dream?
86	* So, in the Childhood's Beginning ending, you take the place of a Great One, with all the powers this entails. Sounds great, right? Except that no matter how you decide to use that power, you'll only be replacing the Great Ones you just destroyed, and perpetuating the cycle. And as you grow more familiar with your power, you may realize that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you spent most of the game killing those who had mankind's best interests at heart]]...
87	** Do you want to become humanity's defender? Rom was already doing that, by shielding humanity from the madness the Great Ones would cause, and holding their powers in check; she was Vacuous because she wasn't exploiting her power, and preventing other Great Ones from exploiting theirs. Her only reward for this restraint was to be slaughtered by the same people she was trying to protect.
88	** Want to uplift humanity to the same power and wisdom that the Great Ones enjoy? Mergo's Wet Nurse was nurturing and protecting humans who had the potential to become Great Ones, only to be killed by other humans who didn't know or care that she was trying to bestow power and privilege unto those in her care.
89	** Want to guide mankind without compromising their humanity? Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, was working through the Church to acclimate humanity to the world around them. Although much of the Church's actions may be considered unsavory, the knowledge Ebrietas provided was genuine. She was informing humanity about the ''actual truth'' about the universe, and it was the Healing Church which was misusing it. In the end, she was murdered by the same creatures she was trying to educate.
90	** Want to wipe out the Great Ones, forever freeing humanity from their influence and machinations? The Moon Presence was way ahead of you. In fact, if it hadn't been for the Moon Presence, the Hunt would never have existed, and you would have been dead meat within minutes of starting the game. [[TheFarmerAndTheViper It helped kill its fellow Great Ones for the sake of humanity, and humanity killed it in return.]] Of course, this does imply that just cooperating with it via the "Yharnam Sunrise" ending can get you a good enough result.
91	** Just want to withdraw from the affairs of men and gods and be left alone? The Brain of Mensis was completely passive when Mensis found and enslaved them, and was still utterly passive when you dropped their down a pit, climbed into said pit, and proceeded to hack them to bits. They're only a threat to you because their mere presence increased your frenzy, and there is no indication that this was intentional. Even if you try to be as benign as possible in your post-human state, those humans will still find you, bind you, research you, and go crazy from your presence, only for you to be butchered by those sent to clean up the mess when the crap inevitably hits the fan.
92	** Since there's no good helping humanity, why not just [[ThenLetMeBeEvil mess with it]] and strike fear into their minds with your almighty power, and [[KneelBeforeZod bend their knees before you]]? If that's your answer, then you are no different to Amygdala. She, as an entity who rules over emotion and fear, chose to side with [[{{Necromancer}} the School of Mensis]] and invoked total destruction and fear to humanity. Among the rest of the choices, perhaps this is '''[[HobbesWasRight the best answer to humanity]]'''? Feel free to lord over the hapless mortals, but enjoy it while it lasts; humanity is a tough lot, and sooner or later [[BullyingADragon you will provoke a Hunter who has the skill and determination to take you on]]...
93	** Want to create a legacy that will outlast you? Good luck with that; all Great Ones are sterile, and the disastrous attempts to subvert this shortcoming is one of the central causes of all the death and misery you see throughout the game. Only Kos ever succeeded in birthing a child... and she gave her own life in order to accomplish this. They went to such great lengths to create their own protégés that most would have willingly cashed in their immense powers to start a family (something Kos herself put into action in the end).
94	*** In the end, it doesn't matter how you use your newfound power, what you intend, or how you implement it; you are nothing more than another cog in the next cycle, and will accomplish nothing more than upholding the status quo. At least, until the Hunter from the next cycle finds you...
95	*** This means, ironically, the Great Ones were more [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned]] than the [[HumansAreCthulhu various humans]] you meet -- the majority of the residents of Yharnam are rude to outsiders, if not in the middle of killing you, and think nothing of consuming "ignorant foreigners". Gherman is implied to be an former agent of the scholars (he mentions Lawrence while sleeping). The other Hunters are mostly insane and violent (even Eileen can be motivated to start hunting you, under certain conditions). The less said about the scholars, the [[CorruptChurch Healing Church]], and the [[{{Necromancer}} School of Mensis]], the better. The people in Cainhurst Castle became the Vilebloods. HumansAreTheRealMonsters.
96	*** {{Cosmic Horror Stor\|y}}ies are set in a CrapsackWorld almost by default, but ''From Software'' takes it one step further; [[EldritchAbomination the unspeakable horrors from beyond]] ([[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow so often the source of madness]]) such as Rom and the Moon Presence [[SwappedRoles are the ones most intent on preventing insanity]] while [[HumansAreCthulhu mankind is actively propagating it]]. Even among a genre infamous for its bleakness and despair, ''Bloodborne'' stands out.
97	*** ''Bloodborne'' comes from the same developers (and might even be [[WMG/GrandUnifyingGuesses in the same universe]]) as ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. With that in mind, is it any wonder that humanity might be the real curse, after all?
98	*** The concept of [[ShaggyDogStory putting in so much effort but ultimately achieving nothing]] is pretty much a key trait of a CosmicHorrorStory; no matter what you did, you're only a very, very tiny and insignificant inhabitant of the universe, and other forces greater than you will override what you've done. In a brutal twist on the genre's normal conventions, it's the eldritch, unknowable alien beings who are the ones whose lives turned out to be insignificant in the face of humanity.
99	*** One potential comfort to the Old Ones is that they aren't really dead. Merely shunted back into a sort of sleep. Essentially, we may have less "killed" them, so much as sent them to bed without dessert in the hopes that they'll learn from their courses of action ((EG, learn to leave humanity alone for the time, as they're not yet mature enough to handle the true cosmos)). After all... "That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons, even death may die"
100	* Look at the picture for the Blood Dregs you can collect from your fellow Hunters (both [=NPCs=] and players) if you're in the Vileblood covenant. It appears to be a simple drop of blood with sperm cells. Annalise is gathering these things because she wants her heir to be the sire of a Great One. The fertilizing agent of an unknowable eldritch horror is literally ''pumping through your veins.'' And it's even worse if you're playing as a female Hunter; what exactly is stopping ''you'' from being impregnated that way?
101	* While the shape of the pebbles seems strange at first, people will most likely just write it off. Though the crows and the eye-collecting hags have a 100% drop rate for them. It shouldn't take long for an observant player to realize that they're not actually rocks, but ''petrified eyes.'' The strange circles in the center are actually the iris and the pupil.
102	* Giving Alfred the invitation to Cainhurst causes him to literally tear Annalise to shreds, with her viscera lining the floor, her chair, and Alfred's wheel. She's implied to still be alive in this state, seen in the description of ''the scraps of her you can pick up''. AndIMustScream is in full effect.
103	* When you return to the original starting room in Iosefka's Clinic, you find a Celestial Being that drops a Iosefka's Blood Vial. It's implied that Imposter Iosefka somehow transformed her and anyone you sent there into one of them.
104	* The beasts, especially the Cleric Beast and Vicar Amelia, frequently let off very loud and ear-grating screams. Normally, this would seem like typical RoarBeforeBeating behavior, but pay close attention to Father Gascoigne's transformation. His body seems to ''explode'' to transform, and he sounds pained when he attacks. Most of the beasts also look horribly deformed and twisted. Those roars the beasts make aren't all aggression, they're ''screaming in agony''.
105	* The beasts in Old Yharnam will back off from a Hunter with a torch or fire, covering their eyes and circling until the torch is put away or they get attacked. They're the only enemies who really react to flame in this manner. Then you hear that this part of the city was set on fire and its infected citizens massacred by Powder Keg Hunters in a single night. Of course, the beast-turned survivors would shrink from fire; they still remember that night where their families and homes were burned to cinders.
106	** Very similar beasts inhabit the Hunter's Nightmare in the DLC. But these ones act a bit differently; they cower from you even if you don't have a torch out. Why? Well, this area is full of Hunters who will, if they see any, kill any beast with a brutal assault. Just like the beasts in Old Yharnam learned to fear fire, these beasts have learned to fear Hunters.
107	*** Or perhaps, part of the hell and torment for the Hunters sent to this Nightmare is that none of the beasts in that place will fight them back? They're doomed to an eternal hunt with no challenge or danger.
108	* When you kill the TrueFinalBoss of ''The Old Hunters'', the Doll will remark that she can hear Gehrman sleeping peacefully for once. The old man was being forced to go into the hellish Hunter's Nightmare ''every time he slept''. Which also means that if you didn't complete the DLC before killing him, then he most definitely went straight to the Nightmare to suffer an even more torturous existence.
109	* When you're running around the Hunter's Nightmare, you'll come across what looks to be the corpse of an Amygdala. You might have wondered how this thing died. Then you remember that the Hunter's Nightmare is full of blood-thirsty lunatics who will attack ANYTHING not human on sight. Suddenly you can't help but feel sorry for the thing.
110	* With the appearance of Rom in the Chalice Dungeons, even after you kill her in the storyline, and the fact that the Auger of Ebrietas still works after you've slain her, the Great Ones you've defeated during the game may not be dead at all, rendering your most hard-earned victories completely moot. Good news for you though if you defeat the Moon Presence in the end.
111	* Both the above Fridge horror entry and the writings of HP Lovecraft come to the conclusion that is nigh impossible to kill a Great One. The only thing achieved is to temporarily put it back into its own slumber, and since it is a dream, what if it simply is a reoccurring dream? Now think of the Sunrise ending; imagine if you wake up after going through that horrific nightmare and chose to forget... but what if the night after, you end up coming back to the Nightmare, starting at the same place you did before.... Now remember how NewGamePlus starts? What if your Hunter is in an [[GroundhogDayLoop endless loop]] until either you become trapped by the Moon Presence or kill it?
112	* Perhaps counting as both a bit of horror and hope is the sheer power that humans can wield in this setting. Think about it; for all the might the Great Ones supposedly wield, it's you, a human, that the Moon Presence sets against the others. Humans ''enslaved'' the Brain of Mensis. Humans are so ''unfathomable'' to the Great Ones they can barely figure out what we want from them. Humans are so powerful that Kos, one of the most powerful Great Ones, gives her life to spawn a single being ''in our image'' and it is by far the mightiest ''and most violent'' of its kin. For all their supposed strength, the Great Ones hide or lurk in shadows, for as soon as a human wielding any real power sets sights on an Great One, it inevitably ends up dead (temporarily or otherwise). Some of them even end up seeming downright ''pathetic'' once forced into an actual battle despite their eldritch powers. The only one of their kind to escape unscathed is Formless Oedon, and if he ever bothered to show up, you can bet your blood that he'd end up dead too one day, by the hands of a Hunter. The real horror of this story isn't that there are unfathomable beings hiding beyond our sight, it's that '''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters we are the monsters]] [[HumansAreCthulhu they are hiding from]].'''

Context Fridge / Bloodborne