Bloodborne is one of my favorite games ever and the Oedon Church Dweller is so wee and I love them so much. Sometimes when I have a stressful day, I just hang with the dweller. Better companion than the doll justsaying.
A couple days ago I was huffing bloodborne related copium while slightly over-caffeinated, as is my perogative, and I Connected some Things.
First off: Mohg, Lord of Blood. The item descriptions of his stuff imply that his Formless Mother is a) a Great One and b) the source of his blood powers.
Now, there's nothing that says anywhere that the Great Ones in Elden Ring are the same as Great Ones in Bloodborne.
However.
Who else do we know is a) the source of Magic Blood, b) Formless, and c) associated with bearing Accursed Children?
Oedon.
And iirc nothing in Bloodborne says Oedon CAN'T be a feminine/mother type entity. It's likely that Oedon is Mergo's sire and made Anneliese get pregnant but. A Formless Great One doesn't have to follow the rules of human biology.
And here's where I went off the rails:
A lot of sources suggest Oedon may have been based off of Yog-Sothoth. This is a thing you see floating around the internet from time to time and I certainly would believe that Miyazaki stuck a few nods to the Cthulhu Mythos here and there! He's done it before!
But here's the thing.
In the Dunwich Horror, Yog-Sothoth impregnates Lavinia Whateley, a human woman, who later gives birth to twins - one of whom hides his form as best he is able to and tries to live among humans until his death (after trying to steal an evil scary book but that's beside the point im trying to make)
(I'm compelled to make paranthetical tangents and the like. You understand.)
The other Whateley twin is an unseen monster who goes on a rampage after his brother is killed after having been hidden in a barn and farmhouse for 15 years. He dies trying to invoke his father and bring the Great Old Ones back.
Now.
Who else is a set of twins, one of whom tried to assimilate as best he could for as long as possible (and has a tail!), and the other either did not or could not?
Who else tried to start a new Era of the world in the name of a formless parent?
It's not 1:1, obviously, but I really really think Margott and Mohg are references to the Dunwich Horror and the Whateley twins. Which adds credence to my hypothesis that Mohg's Formless Mother and Oedon are one and the same, since they're both potentially based off of Yog-Sothoth.
“These hunts have everyone all locked up inside. Waiting for it to end... It always does, always has, y'know. Since forever. But it won't end very nicely, not this time. Even some folks hiding inside are going'bad. The screams of womenfolk, the stench of blood, the snarls of beasts... none of em's too uncommon now. Yharnam's done fer. I tell ya. But if you spot anyone with their wits about 'em... Tell'em about this here Oedon Chapel. They'll be safe here. The incense wards of the beasts.”
I was watching a lore video by Jerks Sans Frontieres on Oedon the other day. I should say before I start that I've never actually played BB, as I don't own a PS4, and am living vicariously through Lets Plays and lore videos until the holy day when the gods bless us with a PC version. If I get anything wrong here, please let me know in the comments.
So, I was watching a lore video about Oedon, where the discussion on the Chapel Dweller as a willing or unwilling servant of Oedon comes up.
Knowing how Oedon operates does bring some ambiguity in his dialogue, especially when he begins to apologise and blame himself when the survivors in the chapel begin to die. Is he apologising because he is aware on some level that he is a pawn of Oedon, or is it something else?
The video brings up the item description of the Oedon Tomb Key to cast doubt over the Chapel Dweller's free will:
"Only today the church is abandoned, and some say that the residents of Oedon have all gone mad."
The Chapel Dweller is a resident of Oedon, or at least since he moved into the chapel he has been. His nervous laughter does cast doubt on his sanity, but then more confident and level-headed NPCs of the game are also known to laugh compulsively. Everyone is on edge. The Chapel Dweller is not malicious, but the video does acknowledge this. Though he has no ill intent, he could still be more vulnerable to eldritch suggestion.
The vague 'some say' aspect to the line, however, makes me wonder. This is hearsay. Some say you can hear ghostly baby cries near some ruins near my house. Whether that's actually happening is another thing altogether. There is no way to confirm whether the Chapel Dweller is truly mad or not, and it is unfair to assume he is because of a nervous tic and hearsay, for reasons I'll get to in a bit.
His rune being in the Dweller's head may simply be his way of interacting with the outside world.
Formless Oedon exists only in voice. But as the Great Ones voices are unintelligable to humans, he needs a human voice. Perhaps he lives in the Dweller's own voice. As Arianna is the only person to speak to the Dweller, Oedon is able to reach her through the Dweller's interactions with her. Followers of Oedon are said to be 'inadvertant'. How can the Dweller worship Oedon, or even know Oedon is there, if the Great One lives in his own voice?
As far as motives go, I think there is far too much emphasis on Oedon's influence on the Dweller's actions, and not enough discussion on the Chapel Dweller as a character. I think that the Chapel Dweller was a happy coincidence for Oedon. Oedon wanted someone who could willingly bring people into a place where he exists. The Chapel Dweller wanted the same thing, but for entirely different reasons.
If the Chapel Dweller had his own personal motive that just so happened to coincide with Oedon's goals, then the Great One didn't need to influence the Dweller nearly as much as some people say. The Chapel Dweller had personal baggage that compelled him to assist others, but you only get that information if things start to go horribly, horribly wrong.
The Chapel Dweller is no willing servant, that much is clear. He isn't afraid of what Oedon will do to him when the best candidate, Arianna, dies, and he isn't upset that all his efforts have been for nothing. He is distraught by the loss of life.
But he is also deeply depressed for another reason. After the survivors are all dead, he says:
"I only wanted to help... Just once in my life... They told me it would never work... My mum always told me, everybody kept telling me... I should've know, I should've..."
To me this line indicates that the Chapel Dweller moved to that spot of his own accord, and even more interestingly, that he had planned to make that chapel a safe haven before he even arrived. He mentions his mum shooting the idea down, of others in his community. The Narrow-minded Man speaks of the Dweller like he has seen him before in town, like he does with Arianna.
"There, the beggar sits, at the bottom of the bloody food chain...and then he's here, acting like he owns the place..."
(I admire the will of anyone who didn't clobber the old git after hearing this, seriously, fuck that guy.)
We can infer from this that the Dweller had once been part of the community of Yharnam, but looked down upon for his disability and regarded as a burden by everyone, even his own family, as he has unable to work. The Dweller is stated to be blind (by the Narrow-minded Man) and seems to be crippled, judging by the look of his legs (very reminiscent of the Albanaurics of Elden Ring) and the fact that he never moves from the spot the player finds him kneeling.
Unless we start going down the road that the Chapel Dweller was insane enough to create false memories, or vulnerable enough to accept a fake backstory fed to him by Oedon, I think it's safe to say that he's being honest here.
The Dweller spent his entire life feeling like a burden, unable to do anything for even his own mother. One day, with safe spaces so few and far between in Yharnam, he decided to leave the security of his community for the abandoned Oedon Chapel and wait for someone to visit.
"I've been waiting for one of your ilk."
"Please, no more... it's my fault, I know, so...help me, please..."
He apologises for the deaths in the chapel because he is used to accepting blame for things entirely out of his control (e.g.: his disability/disabilities, which were no fault of his own, but made him a figure of scorn, to the extent that his own mother told him that his plan would fail before he even tried).
He is used to failing, so when his well-intentioned plan to provide safety goes to pieces, he blames himself because, in his mind, if he had never ventured to the chapel and asked the Hunter for assistance, those people would still be alive somewhere.
Nevermind that they were just as, if not more vulnerable, out there, and that the deaths were entirely out of his control to prevent, that if the Hunter hadn't agreed to it the plan couldn't have worked at all, and that the Hunter has far, far greater power to decide the fate of those people than him, his first instinct is to pile all fault on himself. He is feeling guilty for ever wanting to be more than a burden and a bother.
The man doesn't even think himself worthy to be a friend, for Christ's sake! Only a lifetime of derision and abuse could have shredded his self-worth like that. Where is this man's mother? Let me at 'er!
Back to the topic, I believe that the Chapel Dweller was the perfect candidate for Oedon's purposes, not because the Dweller was mad, but because he was desperately lonely and wanted to feel needed. Oedon didn't actually need to do much, if any, influencing to make this happen. He simply used a happy coincidence to his advantage.
The Narrow-minded Man is wrong about everybody in that building, including the Chapel Dweller. Seriously, fuck that guy.
