Dangling, upside-down rune etched in one's mind.
Symbol of a hunter.
By focusing one's thoughts on this rune, a hunter loses all Blood Echoes, but awakens afresh, as if it were all just a bad dream.
The Hunter's Mark, aka the Hunter Rune, is one of the Caryll runes; one that was branded into the player character's mind directly by a Great One and ties them to the Hunter's Dream. But what actually is it symbolically? And more specifically, why is it dangling?
Other people have compared it to the tarot card The Hanged Man, which is a comparison that's supported by various proto-Hunter runes found inscribed the deeper layers of the Pthumerian labyrinth and on one of the chalice ritual tombstones in the Hunter's Dream. As well, there's the hanging corpse in the Fishing Hamlet suggesting that the Hunter rune may be depicting a method of exsanguination. That gives us one side of the puzzle, but the Caryll runes aren't human symbols, they're transcriptions of the voices of the Great Ones.
So, let's go back to "dangling, upside down rune". If it's upside-down, what does it look like right side up?
You could also say it looks like the Communion or Guidance runes, and I plan on exploring those comparisons in other posts, but the first thing I was reminded of when I flipped the Hunter rune "right side up" was the Beast rune.
And that makes a good amount of sense; Hunters invariably turn into Beasts once they lose themselves to the blood. Comparing the two runes, the Hunter rune is simple and geometric in a way that reminds me of the real life runic script, in particular Algiz. Meanwhile the Beast rune is rough and undeniably biological-looking, almost more grown than carved. It's also worth noting that while the Hunter rune has 3 "prongs", the Beast rune has six. I'm not sure if three has any significance in Bloodborne, but six is the number of fingers that Great Ones and their kin have. The clawed hands of scourge beasts do look similar to the Beast rune, but no Beast enemy to my knowledge has six fingers, so the rune might reflect the touch of the Great Ones.
I interpret "Beast" as a wild, untamed, and unrefined relative to "Hunter", reflecting the dangerous effect that the raw influence of the Great Ones has on unprepared humanity. It's unclear whether "Beast" is a mutation or precursor; a question that reflects the chicken-and-egg relationship between Hunters and the Beasts they hunt.
Bloodborne wallet with the Hunter rune.
Made out of the natural vegetable tanned leather, symbol was carved and tooled.
Soon will be available in my Etsy shop - www.etsy.com/shop/lootboxleather
Does a set Password have no effect on the Sinister Bell?
I was trying to get a PvP with a friend before, but I accidentally invaded the world of another player, despite having the password set.
If not, then I guess we’ll try to co-op with myself as the Vileblood and him as the Executioner... We were hostile at one point during co-op, but he had Hunter Rune and I forgot to put on Impurity.
We tried again, but were allies... Doesn’t Eileen’s rune only work by random chance, from what I’ve read?
