BonfireHub

I post overly-detailed theories about some of my favorite games.

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My New Book

For anyone interested in Psychodramas with a minor hint of Lovecraftian intrigue, my debut novella Mesmer is live now! Being able to write and publish this book means the world to me, and hope you all are able to enjoy the experience as well!

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Elden Ring

Just stopping by say that I talked about Elden Ring on my Substack! Check it out here: 

https://justvickey.substack.com/p/a-deeply-surface-level-look-at-elden?utm_source=twitter

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Lil Announcement

Hey all, haven’t posted on here in a minute, and it’s not because I was hopelessly addicted to Genshin again (I swear!) A lot of things have happened over the course of a few months, and it’s caused me to not have the urge to post here. These things include: -Losing the urge to play many video games. While I still look over the lore of games, being unable to play them very often or for very long has made it harder to write about them. -I wrote a book! Currently I’m editing it, and I’m hoping to have it published later this year! More info will come about that in due time, but just know that after reading it, you’ll see that my love of the Eldritch and the unknown extends past more than just Bloodborne. -Life stuff (yaaaaaay!) I’m a full-time student with a part-time job, so a large chunk of my time is taken up by both of these. It doesn’t help that my degree is in a writing-related major, so 1000-1500 words per day just for class doesn’t leave me with much energy to transition to Tumblr to write. Now you might read all of that and think “yea, guess this guy’s dead, time to move on”, right? To that I respond... please don’t leave me, I’m oh so lonely. On a more serious note, I do plan to touch on some stuff on this blog later on in the year. Dead Cells got a brand new update that I want to tackle, and there’s so many more Bloodborne theories that have been sitting in my head. Until then, here’s a few things you can look forward to: - If you enjoy my writing style, then you’ll be pleased to know that am actually writing and working with a small team called Console Cinema. I write scripts for their Youtube videos, and eventually my articles will be posted on their website! Until the website is finished up, you can find all of the articles that will be posted here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/ccvickey -If you’re interested in checking out my book, keep an eye out for updates on this blog! -If you want to watch some really cool Youtube videos that I wrote the scripts for, check out the Console Cinema channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ConsoleCinema/videos -There’s a very big possibility that I’ll be posting short horror stories soon, so be on the lookout for those too (the location of those stories is TBD, but I’ll let you all know when I’ve settled on something) That about wraps things up, thank you all so much for supporting me, and I hope you’ll all continue to enjoy the stuff that I produce! Thank you again!

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Trusty Patches

So you may have noticed the title of my Tumblr, BonfireHub. I think it’s quite ironic that I have a title like that, yet I haven’t posted a single Dark Souls post. Today, I plan to change that!

What better character to start with than Patches, the lovable and totally not slimy thief that appears in almost every Dark Souls title (he even appeared in Demon Souls!) Usually, when a player encounters Patches, he’s actively carrying out a plan to get the player killed so he can loot their bodies. Once this fails, or you die and find him again, he’ll offer his apologies and ask that you spare his life. In exchange, he will become a merchant, as well as giving helpful tips… like mentioning the latest gossip about every other character that you know in the major hub of the game.

Now, while Patches appears in many of the Souls titles, I’ll be focusing on Trusty Patches, from the first Dark Souls. This is mostly because his character is the most developed in that game, and because I like him the most in this title. That’s right, I think Patches is a pretty cool guy and that he gets a terrible reputation just because he tries to kill you a few times.

Just a few times.

In reality, Patches is one of your better companions in the game, right behind people like Laurentius or Big Hat Logan. This is tied not only to the advice that he gives but to the likely reasons he tries to kill you, other than the obvious need to steal your stuff. To start, we’ll be looking into the four people that Patches points out and if his warnings were accurate.

Oi, have you met Petrus, that self-proclaimed cleric? Believe me this one, bruv... The man is scum. Don’t you be fooled by his claims to do good. They’re all the same, those rotten clerics.

Petrus of Thorolund is an NPC that will probably be one of the first people you meet in Dark Souls. He’ll greet you and he’s your gateway into the Way of White covenant. His questline is associated with Reah of Thorolund, and her traveling companions Vince and Nico. They embark on a journey into the Tomb of Giants, where they are all tricked by Patches into falling into the same pit that he later kicks you into. Why does he do this? Well, he hates clerics, after all.

Anyway, Petrus abandons Reah and escapes, appearing to show concern for his actions when you talk to him later. However, if you talk to him after you save Reah, his statements and actions change. He shows distaste for her being alive, and if you don’t talk to Reah after saving her, Petrus will kill her himself. You can confirm this by him dropping her talisman when he dies.

Oi, have you met Lautrec the Embraced? Believe me on this one, bruv... He’s completely mad. He wouldn’t think twice about cutting somebody down. So watch out for him, especially if you’ve humanity to spare.

I’m sure that anyone who’s played Dark Souls is fully aware of how Knight Lautrec screws you over. You save him from his cell near the Bell Gargoyle boss fight, and he rewards you with a Sunlight Medal, some kind words, and MURDERING YOUR FIRE KEEPER!

You must then chase him to Anor Londo and kill him there, where he will drop the Fire Keeper Soul needed to bring the mute Fire Keeper to life. Outside of this instance, you don’t interact with him as a character. His armor descriptions do hint at him being a bit love crazy, which would explain why he thought it was a good idea to cross you. He was wrong.

Here, have you met that sunbathing Solaire? Believe me on this one, bruv... He’s a complete idiot. But he happens to be an awfully strong idiot. Just nod your head and keep him on your side! Nyah hah hah hah!

Sorry Solaire fans, but you need to hear this. Solaire is extremely stupid during Dark Souls, and that’s probably why his heart was so big and he won over the love of many Dark Souls players. Seriously, he was so blinded by his pursuit of the sun that he couldn’t tell the difference between a giant ball of energy and a brain-controlling parasite? That’s pretty bad, all things considered. If you save him from this fate, however, you are rewarded with a powerful summon during the final boss fight, so that’s a plus!

Here, have you met that backwood Shiva? Believe me on this one, bruv... The man is trouble. I can see it in his eyes. I just can. Hmph, no doubt about it. Watch him.

Last but not least, we have Shiva of the East. Now, Shiva is pretty nice to you while you know him. He offers good items, stays out of your way, and even considers you a friend.

The problem doesn’t lie in Shiva himself, but what he does and how you get on good terms with him. Shiva is a part of the Forest Hunter covenant, a covenant with the sole purpose of killing any invaders of Darkroot Garden. Also, he seems to take great pleasure in his work, showing very little remorse for what he does. So, besides having to fight multiple people in Darkroot Garden just to talk to this guy, but you’re also signing up to be friends with a psychopath. Yay?

As you can see, overall Patches was pretty accurate in his warnings to you. The question that’s probably on most people’s minds right now is “Okay and? Patches still tried to kill me!” That’s a very understandable concern, but his reasonings have to do with how the Undead in Dark Souls operate.

Once you are Undead, you will go Hollow. There’s no miracle cure, no way to reverse fate, nothing. Your fate as an Undead is to become one of the mindless zombies that you cut down on your adventures. The only way to avoid the inevitable for longer is through the offering of humanity to bonfires.

This is known to every Undead, including Patches. If you knew that every single companion you met would one day end up killing you, would you be inclined to trust people easily? Would you form alliances easily? Would you let someone watch your back at night when they have as much reason to kill you for your humanity as you do them? This is the mindset of Patches. He doesn’t want to become attached to people because he knows he will lose them one day, and he kills and steals because he doesn’t want to go Hollow himself (and also because fuck clerics.) 

When he tries to kill you and you keep coming back, you’re showing him you will not go Hollow anytime soon and that you won’t stab him in the back. This makes him want to trust you, allowing you to be unsteady friends with him and giving you pointers that you need to avoid dying. By giving Patches a chance, you’re showing someone who had the worst outlook on his future that not everyone in this new reality will turn on him, and that he CAN trust people.

I hope that this post will help people see Patches in a better light; he doesn’t seem to get enough credit as a character. I hope to look at other characters in the future, so please let me know about anyone that you would like to see here. Until next time!

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And now we’re finally wrapping up Dead Cells

Okay, no need for introductions here. You all know why you’re here, so let’s get into the good stuff!

(If you haven’t read the first part of this Dead Cells series of posts, please be sure to check it out here so you don’t get confused.)

We last left off with the Beheaded heading into the door that leads to the finale of Dead Cells. You’re taken up to the Astrolab, where you encounter… the Collector? As a big surprise to absolutely nobody, The Collector reveals that he is The Alchemist, former servant of The King, and in pursuit of a cure for the Malaise. He found this cure in the Panacea, a mystical cure-all that’s made using a very large amount of life energy. Luckily, he has plenty of life energy, since you’ve been supplying him with it from the very beginning of the game.

The Alchemist then creates the Panacea before taking a sip, becoming SWOL AS FUCK. While the Panacea seems to be effective, it came with the downside of driving the Alchemist mad with power. After asking The Beheaded to go back to the beginning and bring him more cells, The Alchemist teleports you to the Observatory, and your epic battle begins!

 This boss fight is a bit unique; usually, once you kill a boss, it’s a done deal. The Alchemist, however, is an asshole and will heal himself repeatedly when he’s at low health by drinking the Panacea, before warping you to a new map. This will repeat several times before you notice that the Alchemist drinks the Panacea again, but this time it harms him. You can knock the Panacea out of his hand and steal it, take a sip for a nice damage boost, and beat him once and for all.

You get to stomp out the Alchemist, quite literally, and now it’s just you and the Panacea. Your body begins to dissolve, and you accept that this island is doomed to fall to the Malaise due to you killing the only person capable of re-creating the Panacea, but at least you’ll be too dead to care about these alive-person problems... Except, you don’t die. You return to your little jelly form, and crawl to a nearby pipe as the credits roll, taking you back to the Prisoner’s Quarters once more.

Warning: If you’re not a fan of time traveling fuckery, TURN BACK NOW!

This nightmare never seems to end. As you prepare to go on ANOTHER run through the game, a portal opens behind you, and you’re whisked away to the Clock Tower. There, the Timekeeper intends to kill you here and now, to see if your absence in the timeline will help with the Malaise. However, a portal appears right as she kicks you, teleporting you to a timeline where you have yet to kill The King. I can only guess that this portal appeared due to the timeline itself becoming unstable, thanks to all the meddling from the Timekeeper.

The Beheaded is probably tired of all the teleporting at this point, but there’s a silver lining to this! You reach High Peak Castle AGAIN, and you fight the Hand of the King AGAIN, and you come face-to-face with The King…. AGAIN! This time, things are a bit different, however. You have a new ability now: the ability to detach your head from your body temporarily. With this new ability, you decide to take over your original body, becoming The King once more. You still don’t remember everything, but you DO know that this body feels really good and that you want to keep it. The body in question is already degrading, and there’s only one way to solve that; time to pay The Alchemist another visit!

After beating and stomping in the Alchemist’s head once more, the Panacea seems to react to your body differently. It cures The King’s body of its degradation, and you feel like a new man…. blob… thing! The game cuts forward a bit in time, showing you relaxing on your throne and remembering the fun you had climbing out of the Prisoner’s Quarters. You’re then met by a familiar face; The Beheaded from this timeline! Yea turns out that he has been trying to get up to High Peak Castle this whole time as well. The two of you clash, and that’s the last thing you see before the credits roll once again.

Okay, so what the hell happened at the end there? Well Motion Twin, the creators of Dead Cells, decided to go with the “messing with time and space” angle for their story. Overall, I think this was a fine enough ending, although it leaves a lot up to the imagination of the player. Keep in mind, the entire reason I wanted to go over the story of Dead Cells was so that I could (finally!) go over some of the subtle hints that were dropped in the game, and hopefully try to make more sense of everything.

I’ll end things off here for now. Thank you to everyone that stuck with me during this extended storytime, and I hope to have you all back here when I go over more details relating to the characters and the island of Dead Cells. Until next time!

[vicar-dei]

So now we’re talking about Dead Cells

It’s so good to be back here, doing a piece for you all! Been a bit busy with some life stuff, but now I’m back and better than ever!

For this post, I’m finally going over Dead Cells, giving a brief overview of the story. There seemed to be quite a bit of attention on the last post, so that let me know that A LOT of people were also as confused about this story as I was. Without further ado, let’s dive into it!

The true origin of the Malaise is still a mystery to this day. The Alchemist, the trusted researcher of The King, guessed that the sap from the Slumbering Sanctuary could have contaminated the prison sewer system. 

What we know for certain is that the Malaise is bad news, leading to certain death for anyone who contracts it. This illness doesn’t stop there, however, causing the corpses to come back as big scary monsters. Needless to say, this was some really bad stuff. 

Citizens! Anyone behaving strangely or manifesting signs of illness must be reported to the local patrol promptly and without exception.

As time went on, The King grew frightened of the Malaise, that it would breach his castle walls. He had the sick and suspicious thrown into prison and bribed the guards to ensure that no one was ever released. 

Castaing, this is a direct order that must remain between you and me. Stop checking the prison entrances until further notice.

Anybody who spoke up against The King was swiftly executed. Anyone at all… even The King’s guard. The Giant, a towering man that stood watch over the gates of the castle, condemned The King’s methods of controlling the Malaise. He told The King that this path would lead the island to ruin. The King rewarded his insight with a spear to the chest and had his corpse imprisoned in the Prisoner’s Quarters.

While The Alchemist went off to find the cause of the Malaise, and The Hand of the King stayed by his Majesty’s side, The Timekeeper devised a way to keep out the infection. With the support of The King and his many “volunteers”(slaves, this man had slaves), The Timekeeper created the Clock Tower. This building was not only impressive in its design but also its function; The Timekeeper could use this tower to completely manipulate time. So she got to work, constantly turning back time to prevent the Malaise from completely overtaking the island they all inhabited. 

But even turning back time couldn’t stop the inevitable. The infection spread throughout the entire island, finally breaching High Peak Castle. All of The King’s men succumbed to the illness before finally even The King himself fell victim to the Malaise. 

Now in the present, you walk around as The Beheaded, trying to get to High Peak Castle to figure out what’s going on. Along the way, you’ll discover more lore, get new blueprints for cool shit, and be accompanied by a mysterious man known as The Collector. He’s kind of weird, but he provides you with new weapons and powers in exchange for cells. Best to just let him stick around.

 So, you go all the way up to High Peak, defeat The Hand of the King, then kill The King… AND THEN THAT FUCKER BLOWS UP IN YOUR FACE!

Luckily, you survive! At least, your small jelly form survives. You crawl into the Castle sewer system through a faucet, and the pipe leads you right back to the Prisoner’s Quarters where you first started.

Worry not though, for some interesting changes have occurred. The biggest change is the edition of Boss Stem Cells, a mechanic that I explained in my last post. The other big change that I didn’t mention was the absence of The Giant’s big-ass skeleton. The Giant is now an NPC and boss fight that you can access by going down an alternate route through the game. Going to this guy and talking to him reveals a pretty big revelation; you’re The King, the one who was a massive dick to his people and eventually got infected by the Malaise. HOW you ended up in this form is pretty much unknown, but what IS known is that you have no memory of ever doing any of those things while you were The King. You fight and beat The Giant, he calls you an asshole, and you make your way back to the Throne Room.

From here, the game has a very straightforward formula; progress to the Throne Room using your newly acquired boss cell, beat The Hand of the King, get a new boss cell. Rinse and repeat until you get your fourth boss cell. Once you acquire this, you want to make sure that you go and fight The Giant again.

After you fight and beat him this time, however, he will say that you fought him fairly and award you with the fifth and final boss cell. Why was this fight any different from the previous ones? Because fuck you, that’s why.

From this point, progression is more of the same. You’ll beat The Hand of the King with both the fourth and fifth boss stem cells, or you won’t because boss cell 5 (BC5) difficulty is ridiculously challenging. If you do beat him, you’ll be rewarded with…. nothing. At least, nothing immediately noticeable. If you walk a bit past the faucet that you would go into to start a new run, you’ll notice a door with 5 marks on it.

Each of these marks represents a boss cell, and to open the door you need the corresponding amount of boss cells that are shown. So, if you didn’t already notice that before on the various doors scattered around Dead Cells, then congratulations on finding out now! These doors usually reward you with extra money, cells, and sometimes even weapons. This door, however, leads you down the conclusion to the story of Dead Cells.

Okay so this isn’t intentional, but I’m going to end things off here just because this post is getting waaaaay too long. I’ll be back soon with the conclusion though, I would hate to keep you all waiting. Until next time!

Update: Part 2 is up now, check it out here!

[vicar-dei]

The Brain of Mensis

OKAY, SO HEAR ME OUT! THE BRAIN OF MENSIS ISN’T A REAL GREAT ONE!

I swear there’s an explanation for this! The Great Ones of Bloodborne was so much fun to write and being able to do that much research about Bloodborne was fantastic. BUT NOW WE’RE BACK IN MY ELEMENT BABY, TIME TO GET BACK TO THE CRACKPOT THEORIES!!

So, while I was working on my last post, I had a veery simple concept; compare the Great Ones to their Lovecraftian equivalents. Things were pretty simple for all of them, except for the Brain of Mensis.  You find the Brain of Mensis in the Nightmare of Mensis (go fucking figure), as a completely optional NPC. That’s right, if you don’t go through a specific set of actions, you could completely miss this thing, and the plot of Bloodborne wouldn’t change AT ALL. Kind of odd for a Great One with the nickname of Mother Brain, don’t you think?

Okay, so time for some vague background regarding the Nightmare of Mensis, as there really isn’t much set in stone about it. The Scholars of Byergenwurth would study the Great Ones and the Old Blood for years, or at least what little information they had about the Great Ones (at the time, the only public knowledge of Great Ones was the Amygdala). At some point, a scholar by the name of Micolash and his cult of fellow students went out on a journey to commune with the Great Ones, namely the infant Great One, Mergo. They strapped these giant Mensis Cages to their heads as an “antenna”, giving them a better means of communication. For an outsider looking in, I’m sure this all just sounds like these Scholars of Mensis needed a trip to a psych ward, but there might’ve been a method to the madness because Mergo actually seemed to listen to their wishes. Mergo proceeded to plunge them all into the Nightmare of Mensis, a massive castle made in the image that Micolash most desired.

Okay, so returning to the Brain of Mensis. The Scholars found this thing in the Nightmare of Mensis once it was created, and dubbed it a “real Great One”, letting it serve as the watchdog of the Nightmare. It’s actually this Brain that will proc frenzy on you in the starting areas leading into the castle.

When I originally saw the Brain of Mensis, I will admit, I jumped the gun a bit. I had thought “alright, there’s NO WAY this optional mess of a creature was a Great One”, but the only problem was proving it. So, I dove into researching all of the tell-tell signs that differentiate a Great One from a Kin-type. For a small refresher, Kin are humans that were blessed by the Great Ones with a taste of their otherworldly powers. Anyways, the biggest sign that lets you know the difference is the blood color. Great Ones bleed red (like human blood but with some changes in color and particle effects), whereas Kin-types bleed a milky white substance. After spending almost 2 hours comparing videos and previous playthrough footage, I was confident in my findings (yes, I spent 2 hours watching and re-watching blood splatters in a fictional game about fighting eldritch horrors. Don’t judge me.):

See? Nice and normal red blood, meanwhile:

Kind of a murky white for Kin.

With this difference in mind, I rushed on over to the Brain of Mensis to whack it a few times. It would bleed white, it’d be proven to be a Kin-type, case closed!

Wait… okay, so it’s blood is red. Well, there goes that idea. OKAY, BUT I PROMISE YOU THAT THE BRAIN OF MENSIS IS AN IMPOSTER! It all comes down to the most important detail that From Software made sure we were aware of; The Brain of Mensis is rotting.

In the lore bites we are fed about the Scholars of Mensis, it is explicitly mentioned that when they tried to dissect that Brain of Mensis for its eyes, they found that the eyes were decayed and evil, even tho the Brain of Mensis is still very much alive. This is a detail that isn’t ever mentioned for ANY OTHER GREAT ONE, mostly because no other Great One has been dissected before, but that isn’t the point! The point is, why was this detail so important that From Software decided to include it, rather than other questions that needed to be answered? Well, other than Miyazaki loving to torture his fans just a bit further, that’s because this clue tells us that the Brain of Mensis is unable to sustain it’s own existence. Because it’s not a naturally created Great One.

This all makes sense, I promise you. Remember when I mentioned that the Nightmare of Mensis was made as Micolash desired? I can confirm that he controls how his Nightmare looked because of how Gehrman had his Hunter’s Dream crafted. When he prayed to the Moon Presence, he wanted some very simple things: he wanted his workshop so he could continue training his new Hunters, and he wanted his Doll to come to life. The Moon Presence accepted these terms (granted, with a surprise clause that made Gehrman regret his prayers) and created a Hunter’s Dream exactly as was desired, with stipulations to make sure that the Moon Presence got what it wanted as well. The same applied for the communication between Micolash and Mergo, Micolash wanted a castle where he could teach his students, as well as direct contact with Mergo. Mergo, as you might already know, is an invisible Great One, so he can’t exactly SHOW himself to Micolash. So he came up with a compromise; he would make an artificial Great One that would reflect everything that humans already thought Great Ones would represent; multiple eyes, massive brain, six fingered claws, and the capability to drive you insane if you look at them for too long.

This is a veeery specific description of what a Great One would look like, and for good reason. I had mentioned in my previous post that the only Great One that most people has seen were the Amygdala, the giant spider-like creatures that are seemingly everywhere around Yharnam. Ironically, this description fits the Amygdala to almost a T, and only seeing these for so long would vastly affect how Yharnamites and Scholars alike would think that a Great One would look.

Another piece of evidence pointing to this would be the mere existence of the Moon Presence. This Great One is extremely different compared to his fellow overseers of the world. Five fingers, just a few sets of eyes, body covered in slimy, rope-like features, a bulky frame built for fighting with a smaller head. If anyone outside of Gehrman saw this thing, they would probably never believe it was a Great One. Why is this? Because all they’ve ever seen their entire lives were Amygdala, so they believe that all Great Ones will share these features.

Micolash was a victim of this perception as well. Mergo saw this, and so when they created the Nightmare of Mensis, they made the Brain of Mensis to stand-in as their visual body. A body that would look like it could be a Great One but looked slightly different compared to an Amygdala so that Micolash and his Scholars would be further convinced that this was, in fact, Mergo.

Well, that’s the post for now! I hope you all enjoyed that very all-over-the-place writing. I do want to close on a point that might be brought up, which is the fact that Micolash mentions Kos (or some say, Kosm) during your fight with him, implying that he has, indeed,, seen another Great One. Well, based on the Old Hunters DLC, it’s shown that Kos only dragged the Hunters that directly participated in her death, and the mutilation of the Fishing Hamlet residents, into the Hunter’s Nightmare. So, while the stories of Kos were able to reach Micolash, any actual evidence of what she looked like more than likely didn’t. His only concrete evidence of Kos’ existence is through Rom the spider, who was a normal person until she received the blessing of Kos, turning into (you fucking guessed it) a large-headed, multi-eyed being. All this did was further reinforce his perception of how Great Ones appeared. Anyways, thanks everyone for reading, and hope to catch your attention again next time!

[vicar-dei]

So we need to talk about Dead Cells

I’d like to start off by saying that I LOVE Dead Cells.

And not in the “I really really loved it and played when it first came out, and it’s a great memory” sort of way. I play every new expansion, I’ve done hundreds of runs, I’ve installed more mods for it than I have for any other game (yes, even Skyrim), and I go back to the game AT LEAST twice a month. Dead Cells really is a must-play for anybody that doesn’t know about it.

The formula for it is simple enough, you awaken in a prison with no real recollection of how you got there. Your goal is to traverse the mysterious island that you’re trapped on , slowly piecing together what happened to its residents and possibly escaping in the process. Everything for each stage is randomized, from the map layouts to the enemy spawns, even the LORE BITS are shuffled up, meaning there’s always something new to discover!

You might be wondering why I’m being a bit vague, rather than diving into my usual bullshit like I’ve done with Bloodborne or Hades. Well, I recently acquired my 5th Boss Cell in the game. You get one new Boss Cell for everytime you see a run through to the end, the Boss Cell acting as a way to enable another layer of New Game Plus. The 5th Cell is acquired in a suuuper secret way that totally doesn’t just involve killing one of the normal bosses again. Anyways, when I acquired the achievement for getting this Cell, I saw this:

ONLY 5 PERCENT???? How am I supposed to over-analyze this game and spread the love when so few people have actually reached the endgame? It’s a tragedy, I tell you!

So, rather than ruin a first experience for someone up-front, I decided I would ruin it for them AFTER giving them a fair notice. Once this post has been up for a long enough time (and I remember that I posted it), I’ll be doing a nice big explanation of the story of Dead Cells, based on the lore that I’ve been able to come across. My goal is to go over the characters, as some of them have backstories that would give Artorias of the Abyss a run for his money! Until then, I encourage you all to check out the game!

(Update: New post is up, check it out!!)

[vicar-dei]

The Great Ones of Bloodborne

Oh, it’s been 5 months already since my last long post? Yea, deciding to pick up Genshin Impact may not have been the best idea… BUT I HAVE RETURNED! I have an interesting concept that I’ve been mulling over, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you! Anyone who’s played Bloodborne knows about the Great Ones:

Big, slimy-looking creatures that reshape reality and make the player Hunter truly question their sanity. Well, here I wanted to look at the True Great Ones in Bloodborne and go over what they are, what could’ve inspired their creation, and of course any other crack-pot theories I could come up with. With all that being said, let’s get started, shall we?

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING: I will be looking into different aspects of Bloodborne, so the best bet for you if you haven’t played Bloodborne is to just…… play the damn game already! It’s a really good game!!

We will start with what the hell a Great One is, exactly. In simple terms, Great Ones are the closest thing that the Bloodborne universe has to gods. Beings of immense power, able to bend aspects of reality to their will. While humans worship them throughout history, the Great Ones seem to be equally as compassionate towards humanity, and frequently bless humans have proven their worth, turning them into the Kin. This is how the Celestial Emissary and Rom came into being.

On rare occasions, Great Ones will have children with humans, creating Celestial Children. The best example of a fully grown Celestial Child would be Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos.

Please note that in my introduction, I said I would be going over TRUE Great Ones, not the Kin or the Celestial Children. This includes the Amygdala, the Moon Presence, Kos (sometimes Kosm), and Oedon. My choice of Great Ones came down to “True” Great Ones bleeding a very bright red, and “Kin” Great Ones or Celestial Children bleeding a milky white.

At the top of the list is the Amygdala. Despite being regarded as a “lesser” Great One, this will more than likely be the Great One that the player Hunter will see first, and see the most. These things are over Yharnam, large hairy creatures with seven arms and six-fingered hands. It’s alluded to that the denizens of Yharnam have seen the Amygdala at one point or another, as there is even a statue of the creature in Yahar’gul, the Unseen Village. I believe that the Amygdala would actually go on to set the standard for how the masses perceived the Great Ones, as the only humans who have seen other Great Ones are the player Hunter, Gehrman (who has witnessed the Moon Presence) and his original team of Hunters (who dissected Kos), and the villagers of the Fishing Hamlet.

Now the namesake for the Amygdala comes from the part of the brain with the same name:

While modern science has discovered the possibility of different functions of the Amygdala, all that we care about is that it is regarded as the “fear center” of the brain. Not only is does it actively determine how humans react to frightening situations, but it also organizes the memories of fear so that the body can respond to similar situations faster. That’s right, Miyazaki (the creator of Bloodborne) took our fear processors and turned them into something that would make said fear processors go haywire.

But all of this is fairly surface level stuff, the Amygdala isn’t nearly as hard to understand as some of the other great ones. So, let’s go another layer further. In the Old Hunters DLC, the player Hunter is introduced to Kos, a Great One that had only been mentioned up to that point in small lore bits, and by the boss Micolash. You might remember him, the “Kos, or some say Kosm” guy? Throws wimpy punches, then proceeds to whip out magic that can one-shot you?

Regardless, Kos was worshipped by the villagers of the Fishing Hamlet, and in return for this worship Kos gifted them with bountiful fishing seasons. However, her cosmic tempering with the squid and fish caused alterations in the villagers, causing them to mutate into the enemies we see now. For reasons still unknown, Kos washed ashore in the Fishing Hamlet, and it was here that Hunters would not only dissect Kos in their search for eyes, but only dissect the villagers to discover the details of their transformation. The villagers left would pray to Kos to do something about these acts, causing Kos to trap everyone in the area, including the Hunters, in the Hunters’ Nightmare. These Hunters include Lady Maria, Laurence, and Ludwig, several unnamed Hunters trained under Gehrman, as well as several unnamed Scholars of Byrgenwerth. There’s speculation that Gehrman or possibly even Willem of the Byrgenwerth Scholars participated in the experimentation, but seeing as how neither had been trapped in the Hunters’ Nightmare, I would like to rule this out.

By the time the player Hunter gets to Kos, she gives birth to a child. The fight with the Orphan of Kos then begins, and… yea, this fight is just insane. For such a simply designed enemy, the dev team really went all-out in the “ridiculous mechanics bound to induce salt in anyone” department.

Now, in order to find some real-world connections, we have to do some connections with the grandaddy of mind-fuck horror himself, H.P. Lovecraft. He was so famous for his branch of horror that it was named after him, Lovecraftian horror. The inspiration for Kos and the Orphan comes from the Lovecraft novel The Shadow over Innsmouth. This story talks about an unnamed narrator who investigates the ruined seaport of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Before the events of the book, some of the residents had been detained in concentration camps by the U.S. Government, and one of their reefs had been torpedoed after being mistakenly labeled as Prohibition liquor raids in 1927. All the villagers that remain are part human, part fish abominations, after being forced into a contract with the Deep Ones, powerful fish-like humanoids with ties to Cthulhu.

Miyazaki may have taken some creative liberties when it came to some of the finer details about the Fishing Hamlet and Kos, but the framework is all there. Fishing port ravaged by outsiders who wanted to know more? Check. Part human, part fish creatures with a hatred for whoever doesn’t look like them? Check. Allusions to a being that's known for its large scale fuckery with the world? Big ass check.

Next up on our list, we have the Moon Presence, the secret final boss for Bloodborne. To reach this boss, you must gather 3 out of the potential 4 Umbilical Cords found throughout the game, and then choose to face off against Gehrman. The creator of the Hunter’s Dream, the Moon Presence was originally fulfilling the crazed wished of the First Hunter, who wanted life to be given to his Lady Maria lookalike, the Doll. In exchange for this gift, Gehrman was cursed with the fate of training new Hunters and tasking them with “ending the Dream”, the reality of the mission being to hunt down the infant Great One Mergo.

Now, I had to do some deep diving into the Lovecraftian Mythos to get the Moon Presence pinned down. I eventually settled on comparing him to Nyarlathotep, an Outer God and the blood-related son of Azathoth. I did this for a few reasons. The first being that Nyarlathoteps’ descriptions in novels have made artists give him physical traits that all, in one way or another, mirror those of the Moon Presence.

The second, and biggest reason, how Nyarlathotep goes about his affairs. In the Mythos, he is known to be the only Outer God to directly interact with and manipulate humans, as he wasn’t banished to the cosmos like the other Outer Gods (not to be confused with the Great Old Ones, beings such as Cthulhu). In addition, Nyarlethotep was a shapeshifter, known to frequently disguise himself as a human-like being dressed in dark clothing. Now, let’s compare that to the Moon Presence. It granted the wishes of a crazy old man in exchange for its mysterious agenda to be carried out, and while it doesn’t shapeshift, having several men in dark clothing acting as your “hands” in the mortal realm, doing your bidding, is a pretty nice replacement.

Last, and by no means least, we have the Great One known as Oedon. We actually never directly interact or even see Oedon, we can just see his presence throughout Bloodborne. It is said that he could be the creator of the Old Blood, or at least had some hand in its creation, as a gift to the people of Pthumeru. He is also said to have ascended to the highest plane of existence, hence why he was never given a physical form.

In order to find out the what could’ve been the inspiration for Oedon, I actually looked at his half-human, half-Great One child, Mergo. This is the child that you hear crying in the background while fighting Mergo’s Wet Nurse. The child’s cradle appears empty, however, suggesting that Mergo has the capability to turn invisible. This small detail actually makes Mergo share a common trait to the half-human, half-Outer God abomination found in Lovecraft’s’ novel The Dunwich Horror. 

In this novel, the creature, literally named the Dunwich Horror, was the child of the human Lavinia Whateley, and the Outer God Yog-Sothoth. After all of its mortal family either die or are murdered, the Dunwich Horror goes on a rampage, murdering farmer families and police officers until it is eventually killed by the “main” characters Armitage, Rice, and Morgan. Now, Yog-Sothoth is an omniscient being with no real physical form, only ever appearing to humans in the form of several glowing orbs or eyes. This Outer God is also frequently called by humans for rituals and forms of witchcraft. 

Oedon assisting in the creation of the Old Blood and having no physical form is already a direct comparison to Yog-Sothoth. However, there is a little theory that I have about Oedon. If Oedon appeared to the ancient Pthumerians in the same way as Yog-Sothoth, he would’ve done so in the form of floating eye-like orbs. This not only would help to explain humanity’s perception of the attainment of eyes as the path to enlightenment (the original perception at least, this perception would then be strengthened by the sight of the Amygdala), but this would also explain the origin of the design of the Caryll Rune Formless Oedon, several large circles atop several thick lines. This is all completely speculation of course, I could be completely wrong about it. Still, something to consider. 

Welp, that’s the list! People who are well-read on the Bloodborne universe may notice a lack of the Brain of Mensis on this list, a Great One found by Scholars in the Nightmare of Mensis, and was used as a guard dog of sorts for any intruders. Leaving the Brain out wasn’t an accident, I actually have an entirely different post in the workings explaining why I think that there’s more to the Brain of Mensis than meets the eye, and that it is not, in fact, a true Great One! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and that you have a wonderful day!

(Update: Hella late, but my Brain of Mensis analysis is available now! You can find it here.)

[vicar-dei]

Okay Genshin, I Forgive You Now

[vicar-dei]

Big Sad

All these characters

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall these characters

BUT I CAN’T GET ONE CAT GIRL

[vicar-dei]

Thank goodness that the well of Charon let’s you buy something that avoids flame wheel encounters. If it ever spawns...

magentacrystal59

So I keep hearing about this item all the time, but I’ve never seen it on any of my runs? Is there a specific prophecy that needs to be completed, or is my RNG just terrible? I’m not exactly a beginner to the game, here are my stats:

Hades, why do you hate me? Why can’t you look at me the way I look at Dionysus?

Also, I did a bit of research and found that this item doesn’t actually solve my chariot problems (yaaaaay), but gets rid of the tiny chariots in Elysium, the Flame Wheels. I’ve seen a lot of criticism revolving around the design of these things and how easy it is for them to damage you, but that’s not really my concern with them honestly. My biggest concern is why do I find them so effin cute?

They’re just so tiny, and they squeak when they explode! Honestly, these things can kill me as many times as they want, I won’t even be mad.

[vicar-dei]

I see and acknowledge your great shield, I hate them. I will also raise the butterfly orb as the second most annoying enemy. I can't see the butterflies they project and as I zoom around the map they get me every time.

a-sad-pun

Just as you stated, I see and acknowledge your Butterfly Orb! Fuck these guys, while I will say that I don’t hate them nearly as much as Greatshields or Chariots, they’re still pretty annoying. I don’t know if I’ve died to the normal variations of these, but they’ve definitely cost me some perfect runs with Pierced Butterfly. You wanna know what the worst instance of these enemies are?

WHEN THEY MADE IT A MINI BOSS.

Oh, you’ve been easing into Elysium, have you? Cool, now that you’re ready it’s time for you to fight an enemy with some of the hardest to see projectiles in the game, and continuously spawning souls that can become Greatswords, Greatspears, Greatbows, or Greatshields. Oh, AND THEY’RE ALL SHIELDED BTW. Good luck! 

 There is no sea vast enough that can hold the amount of salt I carry when this mini boss room spawns.

[vicar-dei]

Bloody Crow of Cainhurst

I had a lovely bout of writer’s block leading up to New Years (a weekly occurrence for me), so I decided to play some Bloodborne for inspiration. Perhaps a comparison of the creatures in Bloodborne and the Lovecraftian monsters they could’ve been inspired by? An analysis on the downfall of Father Gascoigne, one of your first encounters with a hunter that has been consumed by his own inner beast? Maybe a look into the mind of Gehrman, the First Hunter, and how the reality of him being one of the people that began this nightmare has taken a toll on him? Nah, today we’re talking about the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, personally my favorite fight in the game (although the other topics I mentioned might get expanded upon in a later post).

First, who is this suave gentleman? Well, there’s not much about him in-game unfortunately. All we really know from the main game is that he’s a Vileblood hunter that serves Annalise, Queen of the Vilebloods. Supposedly he’s gone mad with bloodlust, and Eileen the Crow has been tasked with taking him down. Things go south, however, and Eileen the Crow is badly injured, so the player Hunter (that’s you!) takes upon the task of silencing the Crow. As for any other information, it’s all purely speculation at this point.

Luckily, my main forte is speculation! Firstly, let’s just take a look at this bad boy:

 As you can see by this perfectly clear and crisp picture that totally isn’t just a rip from the Wiki, Bloody Crow is wearing all Cainhurst armor, all except the chestplate which is the Crowfeather Garb. Now, a very big question is “where the hell did he get this garb?” Well, with some hints given to us by Eileen we might be able to find out:

 Eileen is a Crow Hunter, a group that hunts other Hunters who have fallen to madness. So the prospect of her wanting to kill just another made hunter just seems like part of the job. However, Bloody Crow wearing the garb of a another Crow Hunter changes this statement. Crow Hunters have a tradition for recruiting new members, one of the biggest aspects being that it is done in complete secrecy. You don’t “seek out” the Crow Hunters, they seek you out and recruit you. This means it’s not that far fetched to say that Eileen and whoever recruited her had to become close, as they had to train her on how to be a Crow, while making sure she had what it takes to take the life of a fellow Hunter gone mad. Conversely, Eileen would be close to this person too, having to hunt along side them and have them as the only person whom understands the conflicting emotions Eileen would experience when it comes to the task of the Crow Hunters. So when Eileen says “it’s my score to settle”, it’s not just because Bloody Crow is another mark. Bloody Crow killed Eileen’s mentor, donning the Crowfeather Garb after the battle. This could very well be due to the nature of Bloody Crow himself, a hunter that collects trophies from whatever, and whoever, he kills (similar to the player Hunter). The main evidence I have for this being the reason is the gun that he uses, as well as his other utility items.

The Repeater Pistol is a devastating weapon in it’s own right, one who’s power gets cranked up to 11 when used by the Bloody Crow, but one thing it is not is a VileBlood weapon. Repeater pistols are used almost exclusively by the Hunters of the Church (and the player Hunter), which means that the only way for Bloody Crow to have received this weapon was from a previous victim. The same can be said about the Old Hunter Bone, a hunter tool that’s only ever found in the Abandoned Old Workshop, alluding to it only being used by Hunters who trained under Gehrman. This shows that Eileen’s mentor either wasn’t his first kill, or wasn’t his last kill, and both of those scenarios are equally as damning.

 Obviously there’s the possibility that the Bloody Crow isn’t actually VileBlood, and could actually have been Eileen’s mentor that’s gone mad, killing a VileBlood Hunter and donning his armor. I would say the biggest evidence against this is that with the exception of every piece of equipment I just talked about previously, everything Bloody Crow uses is exclusive to the VileBloods. Even his extremely lethal Chikage, or the primary consumable he uses, Numbing Mist, are things used only by Vileblood Hunters. If he really was another person, it’s a little strange to be using so many tools and weapons that you would be unfamiliar with unless you were a VileBlood. You know what isn’t complicated to use, however? A gun, simply point and shoot at what you want to be dead. Cloth armor, keeps you light on your feet and is especially useful when you’re on the run, and much better for longer journeys than a set of silver armor. This stuff can be used by anyone, even Bloody Crow.

Before I wrap this up, I did want to discuss one incredibly far-fetched theory. See, I believe that Bloody Crow hasn’t gone mad at all, and was perfectly sane during all of his murders. My only piece of evidence is his use of items during the encounter. Whenever a hunter goes insane in Bloodborne, it’s almost as-if they revert back to they’re most basic instincts of killing whatever is trying to harm them, and avoiding damage. This is true for pretty much every  hunter you fight that isn’t a boss. But watching Bloody Crow fight, he’s fairly calm during the entire fight. He utilizes the Hunter Bone in order avoid your attacks better, he occasionally throws Numbing Mist at you to ensure he can kill you. Hell, he even uses a Blood Vial during the fight because he’s very aware that he’s fighting a losing battle. Bloody Crow isn’t some mindless Hunter, he’s a cold and calculated killer who murdered other Hunters for his own benefit. He was killed by you, the player Hunter, and with him gone maybe Eileen’s mentor can rest a little easier (but probably not, because it’s Bloodborne and EVERYTHING is fucked).

That’s all I have for now! Obviously there’s the question of the motivation for all of his killings, but for that I find myself drawing a blank. Maybe he betrayed the Vilebloods, and set off on his own for.... reasons? Like I said, there isn’t much the game really gives us to work with. But hopefully someone will see this post and answer that question! I really do love the possibility of depth that comes with Bloody Crow, and I loved his encounter so much that to this day I still have my character using similar equipment to him (I use Gascoigne’s Garb instead of Crowfeather, because of the significance of using the garb of the first hunter I ever killed.) Credit goes to both Le_gris_No9 and Xuanhan Chen, who’s art I used to make this post pop! Check them both out!

Happy New Years Everyone!

[vicar-dei]

Elysium in Hades...

Right now I play alot of Hades. Like, I play ALOT of Hades. I really enjoy the game, and I’ve been trying to do a bunch of runs with different weapons. Obviously since I’m ass at the game, I try and fail to do these runs, so I mostly stick to using the bow and the fist weapons. Typically when I fail a run (other than dying to Hades), it’ll be because I died in Elysium.

Don’t get me wrong, Elysium is a nice place. I personally think it’s one of the most visually appealing stages in Hades, and that it has one of the best stage songs as well. On top of that, I really like the dynamic between Zagreus and the main bosses of that area (won’t do too much detail for anyone who doesn’t know). But, there is something I can’t forgive Elysium for. Well, two things actually, two very terrible things.

Fucking Greatshields

AND FUCKING CHARIOTS

Now, I’m well aware that I probably hate these enemies because I’m bad at fighting them. But I don’t care about all that, they suck! Large health pools, large amounts of damage, usually spawn in stupidly large groups making the nightmare even worse. Then you add over shields into the equation, so now you can’t even stun them out of attack animations. Everytime I see a stage that has BOTH, I quickly come to terms with the reality that I’m losing a death defiance on that level. I cannot repeat myself enough, fuck both of these enemies.

On that note, I will end this with a declaration of my unending love for Dionysus in Hades. Seriously, that man is just amazing.

Like, yes please, I will use the hell out of your boons.

[vicar-dei]

Tomb of Giants was fun.

Anyone else remade an entire character just because they couldn’t survive the Tomb of Giants?

[vicar-dei]

Requesting Rice

I love how so many games now are just saving me some work by adding there own version of the red laser eyes.

Young Miss, I require the rice