The large chair in the Grand Cathedral altar is reminiscent of the Throne of Saint Peter in the Vatican. The Throne is depicted in front of a massive sunburst, and it is notable for being supported by sunburst entirely, representing the holy spirit, and, I would assume, how it enabled and empowered the saints to their holiness and divinity. The Grand Cathedral chair is not touching the statue of the headless woman at all, and if she represents divinity, it's possible that it indicates that the healing church's experiments and methods will never result in transcendance. Since Lawrence's skull sits on the altar below, it could be taken a step further to say that the headless woman is pouring out water to wash away mortals from reaching godhood, akin to a ancient flood myth.
Thanks for such an insightful comment. I wish I'd known more about it before making the video, but it's a joy to have others contributing so we can all improve our collective understanding.
@@LastProtagonist Your videos are of amazing quality for a channel so small and reflect an amazing passion for this game and its lore. I get the sense you are the exact type of audience Miyazaki makes this art for.
@@LastProtagonist I'm glaf to contribute what insight I can. I didn't think of it until now, but the headless statue is similar to the Nike of Samothrace, which is another headless statue of a woman with wings.
I believe that the Throne of Saint Peter is a wonderful inspiration for the chair in the Grand Cathedral as Saint Peter is, canonically, the founder of the Christian Church, and he is considered by the Catholics to be the first of the Popes (a.k.a. the Vicars of God); so it's really fitting that the throne on top of the shrine of Laurence resembles the throne of the actual First Vicar.
I've always assumed the woman was pouring blood, as a divine gift. Its flow leads down toward Laurence, symbolizing the effect of such a "sacred" gift on mankind. Somehow it reminds me of the water of the Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro, which gets more and more impure as it flows downwards, only in Bloodborne it becomes "impure" when taken by mankind. Dunno.
I had the same thought. It's kind of neat how Old Hunters winds up explaining a detail I never even noticed in the main game. Beast Blood was a problem for Cainhurst as well, apparently, so much so that the entire knight order amputated themselves to avoid beasthood.
Interestingly Saint-Hubert was borned in Toulouse, which is part of the french region of Gascogne, see the obvious parallel with Father Gascoigne's name. This highlight the link between him and Father Gascoigne, who is said to be from a foreign land and is the only character with a french sounding name in the game. I think Gascoigne character and story is a reversal of that of Saint Hubert, unlike his real world counterpart he starts off as a clergyman then become a hunter which leads to his damnation.
Man these games are so fun to dissect because there is actually something of substance to piece together, an actual reasoning behind every placement and design
So, about the right leg stuff in Bloodborne: In the Old Hunter's DLC they say that in old times they believed that beasthood crawled up the right leg. As such, many gear sets feature brass to ward off beasthood on the right leg. There's an old superstition that states the right leg/foot is good, while the left is bad. One should rise from right side of the bed, and place their right foot on the ground first, in order to have a happy day. They should also enter and exit the home with the right foot first, otherwise they will be unhappy for the whole day. Those without right feet cannot be happy. In many old left and right body parts superstitions, the right side is said to be the good side. So the belief that Beasthood enters through the right side is akin to them believing that Beasthood directly takes over your good side. It is also the leg that you pump your blood vials into over the course of the whole game. Whether this is because they believe blood treatment would hold off beasthood better this way, or if it's just instinctual for Hunters, I can't say. Yet, when you lose your right leg, just as Gehrman did, this is perhaps symbolic of the fact that you no longer need blood. Or perhaps right leg amputation is literal, and in order to stop you from turning into a beast after being possessed by the Moon Presence, your right leg is taken.
Right vs Left goes back a long, long way in terms of superstition and myth. Hell, the Latin word for left is sinister. Just look at how we define that when we straight lift it for English.
Not sure if it's been mentioned before or not but another interesting "art reference" could be drawn from The Scream by Edvard Munch. The face of the figure is very similar to the faces of many of the Thumerian's, the Messengers, and some of the bosses throughout the game. Munch's inspirations for the work are pretty interesting if you want to read up on it a bit. It's a little much to put here, but could very much apply to Bloodborne's story and design, such as the blood red sky, the gaping figure. Some people associate the expression of insane awe of the figure encompassing many characters from Lovecraftian Lore when faced with cosmic truths beyond human comprehension.
Yes, very interesting! I'm running Chalices again & noticed that the Pthumerians who truly terrify me, the Labyrinth Madmen with their long black hair & gaping mouth, are v similar to the expression on the figure of The Scream. Truly terrifying indeed. Funny really, since I find The Little Ones, with a similar expression, v cute XD
When looking at the altar statue I think of the Lumenwood, the way there is no head but a tree is growing behind it. Possibly a connection between the experiments in the Cathedral performed on at least one Blood Saint.
Man i love the art design in fromsoft games are so detailed and well researched. I think there is also a possibility that the lounging figures could take inspiration from the ecstasy of st teresa statue. The sculpture depicts the saint in "spiritual ecstasy" at receiving a message from the christian god. so if bloodborne is going off of similar themes it could be that the healing church is experiencing some form of spiritual ecstasy because of the old blood (their form of enlightenment and otherworldly guidance.) Though instead they get turned into beasts after spiritual enlightenment instead of going into a heaven. Idk that's just my 2 cents
The one sculpture that always catch my attention is the one of a woman in the Hunter's Dream, also in the levels of the Chalice Dungeons and the doors they're locking, right before the boss room. I always thought it was similar to the Doll, but also the virgin Mary, and I never figured out what could it mean.
I always thought the vase dripping onto laurence’s skull was symbolising how the ‘heavenly’ is not so heavenly. It actually eroded laurance’s skull where people thought it enlightened him by ‘unlocking’ his mind but we put his beast form down as that was what truly is meant for the curious. And also how mercury poisoning happened during yesteryear because of the hat making process. It corroded skulls as does it serve as a battleground for Rom who kept back the madness. As for the tree I always assumed it was the old gods of yharnam and how simply they were and then all of a sudden the church pops up and takes over - much like Japanese history where Christianity took over the simplicity of Shintoism and also it has appeared again in DArk souls where efforts to remove a god were literal placement of the new were in front. How man forgets what used to be in his shortsightedness to recognise what is immediately in front of him. Fun fact: the alcoholic drink called Jaegermeister was inspired by the St Hubert hunt - some said he was a monk who in his madness tipped the spices and herbs on his shelves into a boiling pot and produced the beverage we know.
Thank you so much for these videos. I love them. One thing that's occurred to me. You mentioned the statue at the altar might be pouring blood. But it makes more sense to me that it's just water. She's pouring water down on Laurence's skull, and maybe implicitly pouring it on the church's congregation. Water associated with the Great Old Ones. Water like the nightmare ocean that's just above Yharnam's skyline. Perhaps this ties in with how Laurence's bestial form is on fire. The water poured down on him couldn't quench the flames. The divine inspiration from the cosmos couldn't stop his beastly idiocy from consuming him.
I think the reason the right leg is missing in so many “hunters” is a reference to the Old Hunter Trousers; which reads- “Old hunter trousers that protected countless hunters from the beasts in an older age. A widespread belief of the period was that "beast blood crept up the right leg," and this led to the double-wrapped belt.” It’s possible that all these people/places that hated beastly transformation resorted to amputating their right leg, as a way to prevent it. It appears that since Gehrman was an Old Hunter, and that the Cainhurst Knights were also missing their right legs, this belief has been around for a LONG time
As much as it makes sense for the old hunters, it doesn't make sense for the protagonist, so it is not full answer. Given that dlc is optional, Protagonist may lose their leg, not knowing that custom. So there also some other reason. Or at least, should be. Fromsoft has very advanced environmental storytelling and is very consistent on it's theme, but none of these are true "the rest" of storytelling. May be it's just a plothole, made conciously to remain consistent on the theme. Much like in DS1, Gwyn as a Hollow has a reason to fight you regardless of your choice, but you have no reason to fight him if you want the Fire to fade. Quite the opposite, Gwyn would be good guard to prevent other undead from kinding it, and he alone cannot do that again, so you have an actual good reason to NOT fight him and let him be. But it doesn't serve the theme as well, so you have to fight him everytime.
The lady with child is Annalise. Unfortunately, that storyline was completely cut out of the game. And about the peg leg, the answer is in the Old Hunter Garb description which says: A widespread belief of the period was that "beast blood crept up the right leg," and this led to the double-wrapped belt.
On the significance of the right leg, we inject to heal with blood vials there. You can see some of the armor ties off on the pants there. Maybe related
I’ve been watching a series called “An Agony of Effort” by Charred Thermos, and he actually found that Laurence’s position actually more looks like the statue ‘Cast From Nature,’ which is a cast of a dissected cadaver from the Victorian era. Give it a look, it is a criminally underrated series and he draws a lot of amazing conclusions
Me trying to explain to the girl im dating that bloodborne will always be the highest level of excitement in my life The girl: pretending to care wishing I had a job
As with many great trees and roots rising from the depths of Yharnam and the Chalice Dungeons I see the tree behind the big altar as another representation of the influence of the great ones as well as the ever-present culture and history of the Pthumerians that permeates the city. The further down you go the more pronounced they become until you get to Isz where they are literally glowing.
Particularly with the two examples Protagonist used in his video, namely the tree behind the altar in the Grand Cathedral and the tree in the Hunter's Dream, I can't help but think of Yggdrasil, the Norse World Tree. A symbol of connecting different planes of reality, a link between man and gods.
The suits of armour, to me, look like late 15th-early 16th century suits of armour, possibly built in a mix of Italian and Gothic traditions of armouring. I think its a little bit more Italian in inspiration due to the large pauldrons and lack of obvious fluting.The armour also has brass or possibly even gold along the edges, this is most visible on the horses. Such an armour would be expensive, so the abundance of them along that staircase may be a showcase of wealth. As for the missing right leg, it might have something to do with the infection supposedly creeping from the right leg, but I suspect theres more to it. Historically, armours tended to be lopsided, The left was typically more heavily protected then the right, because most people were right handed and would therefore attack you from the left side. I'm unaware of any real life examples that ditched plate on the right leg entirely, but its not like that leg will be entirely unprotected. They would wear mail, gambeson or both under that, with an arming sublet underneath. That is in-fact enough to stop most blows.Just a thought.
On cainhurst statues: The woman holding the baby: Queen Yharnam and Mergo Queen: Queen Yharnam Charlemagne: a testament to the dignified ways of the cainhurst nobles, and how they despised blood drunkness and beasts Nude woman: Moon Presence
been waiting for this episode, btw i believe the missing leg of the knight statues is a reference to how old hunters believed the beast plague "crept up the right leg", so they fastened buckles to their right thighs and even went as far as to amputate them
Well we know about the superstition with the right leg creeping up and what not. I don’t know if this has anything else to do with it, but the statue of the Amygdala at the Yahar’gul lamp has its right leg taken off, and it’s left arm taken off and extended with its right arm, the illusion it’s replacing it’s right leg back. But it also is the left arm the extends on a lot of the Yharnamites, same arm you get your blood ministered in as well.
They believe beasthood rises up the right leg. Many clothing sets in the game have a belt around the right thigh. People probably cut their right legs off to try to stop the transformation.
Amazing video!!! Loved all your knowledge on the statues lore. Thank you for all the insight. The right is also where we inject the blood vials, so it's where the cursed Yarnham blood enters the Blood. This would led up to the believe of the right leg being the cause of the beasthood, although the corruption of the man comes from the the various kinds of corrupted Bloods. A would like to point that the Kirkhammer rock have many inscriptions in it. It seems to be some holy text from the church, i suppose. Using Holy texts to beat the living crap of your prey makes me smile. Also the many items in the game that blind the main character and NPCs could mean: Fear of cosmic horror, avoid seeing, avoid the madnesses. Also the Amygdala takes the ones with blood drunken eyes, which led to people hidden their eyes and avoiding dissapering, like Gascoine or the guy that seals your blood contract in the first cutscene. A few people of the Healing church hide their eyes as a way to "seeing with the inside eyes", like the old NPC before Rom.
This one of the most interesting series on Bloodborne lore, it's making me falling in love with the game again. The comment section is also fantastic, great community.
Great video again. The only thing i would add is that the coffins might not represent laurence but contain the remains of higher ups in the church. Seeing as how many characters follow our equivalent of church titles like, father, vicar, etc. It wouldnt be a stretch to assume the coffins might contain an arch bishop or even bloodborne's version of a pope... makes you wonder who could be in there...
I remember playing bloodborne on launch and struggling through it cause of the loading times, but I picked it up again a few weeks ago and now I’m on my 3rd playthrough. Insane how well it’s aged, there’s so much to pick up on. Love this series, hope to see more 🙌
Another one in a streak of awesome videos man. Might as well chip in with a couple of things that occurred to me while watching, When you were showing the correlation between the Virgin and Christ in Catholicism, I though about how most if not all of the religious statues in the game exhibit this theme of being reincorporated into a figurative narrative, where the preeminence of the old ones superseded their old monotheistic beliefs of an unknowable god. As in, they felt as if audience with the old ones is "almost at their fingertips". That the old European religion, along with it's entire iconography, in their minds became a sort of a veil or a stepping stone, one that the followers must pass through in order to ascend towards the desired Devine enlightenment. An example of that would be the three clergymen statues that surround the medical table/alter with the beasts underneath. Both the churches cloth/attire and their carpentry/craftsmanship is what separates the men from the beasts bellow. Now, this in my opinion conveys on a symbolic level a rough guideline, that the church is to follow,. that consists of their belief that the traditions and virtues they implemented in in following their old faith, is what brought them , not only to their unique, historical position, at the edge to contact with the Devine, but also preserving the key ritual knowledge, needed to complete the journey . While the infrastructure they've built will (seemingly) keep them safe from the impending league of beasthood, another necessary part of the cult's ultimate path of ascension. So, that to me is a bit mind-blowing, to say the least. The other thing that I recalled is that some old Turkish folk I know would, for example, curse somebody by saying something akin to "rest upright", meaning that he'd wish upon the man to spend their rest in the afterlife in a sitting, or standing position, instead of traditionally lying. This clued me in this bespoken idea or a theme in the game, where the hunters and their kin are cursed to restless dreams, and thus also by extension death, as a form of punishment for their transgressions. An extension of this motif would be what in Ghernan' being in a wheelchair, While he is holding the proverbial wheels of the hunt, his authority is ultimately meaningless, as he is held bound by his captors, who likely wounded him in the first place. Well, I hope that at least some of this made any sense. Keep up the good work on these dope vids man, cheers.
I appreciate the effort put in here. I've watched a lot of Bloodborne lore before but never seen these parallels brought up before and it was laid out very well.
The theory I've heard is that chairs would have been too hard to identify in the environment, especially in those areas where there are already multiple abandoned chairs. But they could have just put the lamps next to the chairs to make them identifiable. The lamps really don't fit the concept of sleep and dreams as well as the chairs did....
This is so well done, I loved it!!! 🤩 Wonderful job. As far as additional possible references: in one of the coffins you showed, there were little circular “peepholes”. I think these could be like some coffins in certain Catholic churches that show the “incorruptible” remains of dead saints. Also, the “wheel” theme has a lot of religious meanings across the world. But the Logarius Wheel reminds me of the “Catherine wheel”: they supposedly tried to break St. Catherine over a wheel to torture her to death, and God kinda said “nah” and broke the wheel I think? 🤣 Potential fodder for future research, I suppose. Keep up the wonderful work! 😊
After facing the Headless Bloodletting Beast in the Chalice Dungeons, I always wondered if the headless angelic statue in the Grand Cathedral altar was a corruption or re-interpretation of that. . .
I believe the right leg being cut off has to do with old hunter tradition of beasthood creeping up your right leg, seen in the old hunters atire. Perhaps one would not need armor for their right leg as it would have been amputated already.
@last protagonist this series is great and shows how much Cainhurst has to do in the lore even if at first they look like they don't belong in the game. Another detail that is unrelated to art or Cainhurst is the orphan of Kos's crying right before his boss fight and Gherman's crying in the dream are identical. never got why.
Heya Last, i was curious what your opinions are on the origin of the beast plague? Your analysis is great for comparing ideas. I apologize if you've already covered the topic!
To a certain extent, it seems something inherent within man, yet it's exacerbated by Blood Echoes. I've got some more thoughts about that, but I'd like to save it for a future video. ;)
Something you might have missed in the symbolism from not looking into the Christian bits further than mentioning they are Christian: The Throne of Heaven is a symbol throughout Abrahamic lore. It was a seat upon which God would sit, found in the temples at the place where the icon of the divine would go in temples to other gods. Its a Throne, a chair as the centerpiece of a shrine or altar. And it could symbolize service to some higher power, as well as a sort of fisher king mythology throughout it. Perhaps the Healing Church's throne-sitting symbol is a perfected man, or some sort of Great One unnaturally close to us, enough that a chair that looks like a human could theoretically get use out of it is something appropriate for it. But either way, an empty throne either means that God is in the Heavens or a Rightful King is not Sitting Upon It.
In the context of the rest of the game, where the Healing Church appears to effectively be trying to bring mankind closer to the Great Ones, I think it could easily serve a symbol of the near-Great one version of mankind they wanted to create. The throne is for humanity whence they have become gods themselves.
Look at the environment, they have giant pure silver fountains, carriages decorated with gold accents, even the peasants wear nice fitting and refined clothes and leather jackets, in short yharnam was very rich, and just look at the architecture ! Everyone has an amazing looking house !
If you had the means to live in the city? You were definitely well to do. But as we can see there was a stark difference between life in the city and life in the suburbs. The city was definitely wealthy. But the wealth didn't trickle down much. Which you can gather was the case from the mean and conniving character most of the natives have.
I always figured since pthumerian sounds like sumerian their downfall was through Zoroastrianism bloodborne equivalent and it eventually became the healing church and vilebloods like catholic and eastern orthodox. If that makes sense
Except orthodox and catholics don't hate their guts. The catholics even started the crusades to protect the orthodox. Both of them have problems with the followers of Luther's Shitpost / Protestantism
Theory: The depiction of Saint Hubert is meant to represent Ludwig. Mind you I have essentially no evidence for this, but I feel this is meant to be a nod to several things. As the timeline went forward and the Beast Plague became worse, the Hunters became drastically recontextualized. Going from a presumably secretive and small order of essentially elite assassins hiding the existence of beasthood, to a then post Old Yharnam incident order of "holy warriors" of a sort. Ludwig appears to be very well known to Yharnam in some manner, as he basically transformed the Hunters into what we see when we enter for the first time, a rag tag massive mob that purged the town of seemingly anything both beastlike and convenient to blame on it's problems. But why have the saintly depiction of Ludwig? I propose that Ludwig turning into a terrible beast caused the need to canonize him and create a story to explain his sudden disappearance from the public eye. He was a crusader of old made real and is described as having lead large open groups in nightly purges. Ludwig suddenly going poof would have been noticed basically instantly. So a cover story needed to be made. The story in question? No idea, but I can imagine it would be a sort of dark mirror to the actual Saint Hubert and the Healing Church would simply say something like "Ah through the holy power of the Blood he experienced a divine revelation during the Hunt and was elevated beyond our simple human selves! He is a Saint and living in enlightenment now." Or well, thats my two cents at least.
Will you ever do a video on Bloodborne and Shintoism? Loved the video, but the parallels to Catholicism felt a little off. I'm pretty sure the churches in Yharnam function more like shinto shrines and not like actual catholic churches. I got the feeling the symbolism, placement and meaning of the statues and altars makes more sense when viewed from a Shinto perspective.
Loving your lore videos! hank you for making them For anyone into the aesthetics of Bloodborne, do check out Blasphemous. Both games take big inspiration from Christian church, Blaspemous is more focused on the way Spain did it and it's religious history. Cheers!
It's notable that there is a story in the Bible where a lady has been menstruating for like more than a decade and is healed by touching the hem of his garment. So, her blood is related to death - its "Charnel" and she touches the heart hem or fringe of His cloth. Worth a thought!
The Mary and Jesus statue also has Mary with a crown, which symbolizes she reads Source magazine and used the term "Boo" in an affectionate manner. (That isn't her real hair)
Technically, those statues of Mary and Jesus are not them, but Anahita and Mithras, a cult religion that Constantine and ancient Rome worshipped the same time the church adopted Christianity. Mithraism is based on the image of the infant born to a virgin mother as the belief had existed since the time of Abraham and it's belief passed down and known among other peoples interacting with the Hebrew tribe. The first incarnation was from Babylon, Semiramis and Tammuz taking the place of the virgin and her child. All relates to sun worship, which is why the Roman Church changed the Sabbath long ago to the Most Venerable Day of the Sun of Sunday. I believe they also will skip one of the observance days (can't remember the name atm) if it falls on the Sabbath, so that it will fall on a Sunday just to avoid it. The Eucharist? Not sure. Far more pagan in origin than Christian, which is why it ties into being used in mythos and fantasy so well compared to Protestantism.
The large chair in the Grand Cathedral altar is reminiscent of the Throne of Saint Peter in the Vatican. The Throne is depicted in front of a massive sunburst, and it is notable for being supported by sunburst entirely, representing the holy spirit, and, I would assume, how it enabled and empowered the saints to their holiness and divinity. The Grand Cathedral chair is not touching the statue of the headless woman at all, and if she represents divinity, it's possible that it indicates that the healing church's experiments and methods will never result in transcendance. Since Lawrence's skull sits on the altar below, it could be taken a step further to say that the headless woman is pouring out water to wash away mortals from reaching godhood, akin to a ancient flood myth.
Thanks for such an insightful comment. I wish I'd known more about it before making the video, but it's a joy to have others contributing so we can all improve our collective understanding.
@@LastProtagonist Your videos are of amazing quality for a channel so small and reflect an amazing passion for this game and its lore. I get the sense you are the exact type of audience Miyazaki makes this art for.
@@LastProtagonist I'm glaf to contribute what insight I can. I didn't think of it until now, but the headless statue is similar to the Nike of Samothrace, which is another headless statue of a woman with wings.
I believe that the Throne of Saint Peter is a wonderful inspiration for the chair in the Grand Cathedral as Saint Peter is, canonically, the founder of the Christian Church, and he is considered by the Catholics to be the first of the Popes (a.k.a. the Vicars of God); so it's really fitting that the throne on top of the shrine of Laurence resembles the throne of the actual First Vicar.
I've always assumed the woman was pouring blood, as a divine gift. Its flow leads down toward Laurence, symbolizing the effect of such a "sacred" gift on mankind. Somehow it reminds me of the water of the Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro, which gets more and more impure as it flows downwards, only in Bloodborne it becomes "impure" when taken by mankind.
Dunno.
the right leg missing is mentioned in the game, beasthood creeps up the right leg
This 'un. In The Old Hunters, many of the outfits have a belt or something wrapped around the right leg to keep it from traveling.
I had the same thought. It's kind of neat how Old Hunters winds up explaining a detail I never even noticed in the main game. Beast Blood was a problem for Cainhurst as well, apparently, so much so that the entire knight order amputated themselves to avoid beasthood.
One interesting detail is that when you use blood vials you essentially inject it in the right leg.
@@WhiteStray true, didnt even think about that
@@DaughterOfFrankenste what makes you think they amputate themselves?
Interestingly Saint-Hubert was borned in Toulouse, which is part of the french region of Gascogne, see the obvious parallel with Father Gascoigne's name. This highlight the link between him and Father Gascoigne, who is said to be from a foreign land and is the only character with a french sounding name in the game. I think Gascoigne character and story is a reversal of that of Saint Hubert, unlike his real world counterpart he starts off as a clergyman then become a hunter which leads to his damnation.
Man these games are so fun to dissect because there is actually something of substance to piece together, an actual reasoning behind every placement and design
So, about the right leg stuff in Bloodborne: In the Old Hunter's DLC they say that in old times they believed that beasthood crawled up the right leg. As such, many gear sets feature brass to ward off beasthood on the right leg.
There's an old superstition that states the right leg/foot is good, while the left is bad. One should rise from right side of the bed, and place their right foot on the ground first, in order to have a happy day. They should also enter and exit the home with the right foot first, otherwise they will be unhappy for the whole day. Those without right feet cannot be happy.
In many old left and right body parts superstitions, the right side is said to be the good side. So the belief that Beasthood enters through the right side is akin to them believing that Beasthood directly takes over your good side.
It is also the leg that you pump your blood vials into over the course of the whole game. Whether this is because they believe blood treatment would hold off beasthood better this way, or if it's just instinctual for Hunters, I can't say. Yet, when you lose your right leg, just as Gehrman did, this is perhaps symbolic of the fact that you no longer need blood.
Or perhaps right leg amputation is literal, and in order to stop you from turning into a beast after being possessed by the Moon Presence, your right leg is taken.
Right vs Left goes back a long, long way in terms of superstition and myth. Hell, the Latin word for left is sinister. Just look at how we define that when we straight lift it for English.
Gained so much insight from this. May you be granted many more eyes, Last Protagonist.
Not sure if it's been mentioned before or not but another interesting "art reference" could be drawn from The Scream by Edvard Munch. The face of the figure is very similar to the faces of many of the Thumerian's, the Messengers, and some of the bosses throughout the game. Munch's inspirations for the work are pretty interesting if you want to read up on it a bit. It's a little much to put here, but could very much apply to Bloodborne's story and design, such as the blood red sky, the gaping figure. Some people associate the expression of insane awe of the figure encompassing many characters from Lovecraftian Lore when faced with cosmic truths beyond human comprehension.
Yes, very interesting!
I'm running Chalices again & noticed that the Pthumerians who truly terrify me, the Labyrinth Madmen with their long black hair & gaping mouth, are v similar to the expression on the figure of The Scream. Truly terrifying indeed.
Funny really, since I find The Little Ones, with a similar expression, v cute XD
When looking at the altar statue I think of the Lumenwood, the way there is no head but a tree is growing behind it.
Possibly a connection between the experiments in the Cathedral performed on at least one Blood Saint.
Man i love the art design in fromsoft games are so detailed and well researched. I think there is also a possibility that the lounging figures could take inspiration from the ecstasy of st teresa statue. The sculpture depicts the saint in "spiritual ecstasy" at receiving a message from the christian god. so if bloodborne is going off of similar themes it could be that the healing church is experiencing some form of spiritual ecstasy because of the old blood (their form of enlightenment and otherworldly guidance.) Though instead they get turned into beasts after spiritual enlightenment instead of going into a heaven. Idk that's just my 2 cents
The one sculpture that always catch my attention is the one of a woman in the Hunter's Dream, also in the levels of the Chalice Dungeons and the doors they're locking, right before the boss room. I always thought it was similar to the Doll, but also the virgin Mary, and I never figured out what could it mean.
I always thought the vase dripping onto laurence’s skull was symbolising how the ‘heavenly’ is not so heavenly. It actually eroded laurance’s skull where people thought it enlightened him by ‘unlocking’ his mind but we put his beast form down as that was what truly is meant for the curious. And also how mercury poisoning happened during yesteryear because of the hat making process. It corroded skulls as does it serve as a battleground for Rom who kept back the madness.
As for the tree I always assumed it was the old gods of yharnam and how simply they were and then all of a sudden the church pops up and takes over - much like Japanese history where Christianity took over the simplicity of Shintoism and also it has appeared again in DArk souls where efforts to remove a god were literal placement of the new were in front. How man forgets what used to be in his shortsightedness to recognise what is immediately in front of him.
Fun fact: the alcoholic drink called Jaegermeister was inspired by the St Hubert hunt - some said he was a monk who in his madness tipped the spices and herbs on his shelves into a boiling pot and produced the beverage we know.
Thank you so much for these videos. I love them.
One thing that's occurred to me. You mentioned the statue at the altar might be pouring blood. But it makes more sense to me that it's just water. She's pouring water down on Laurence's skull, and maybe implicitly pouring it on the church's congregation. Water associated with the Great Old Ones. Water like the nightmare ocean that's just above Yharnam's skyline.
Perhaps this ties in with how Laurence's bestial form is on fire. The water poured down on him couldn't quench the flames. The divine inspiration from the cosmos couldn't stop his beastly idiocy from consuming him.
I think the reason the right leg is missing in so many “hunters” is a reference to the Old Hunter Trousers; which reads-
“Old hunter trousers that protected countless hunters from the beasts in an older age. A widespread belief of the period was that "beast blood crept up the right leg," and this led to the double-wrapped belt.”
It’s possible that all these people/places that hated beastly transformation resorted to amputating their right leg, as a way to prevent it. It appears that since Gehrman was an Old Hunter, and that the Cainhurst Knights were also missing their right legs, this belief has been around for a LONG time
The missing leg is missing cause they believed that this will stop the infection
As much as it makes sense for the old hunters, it doesn't make sense for the protagonist, so it is not full answer. Given that dlc is optional, Protagonist may lose their leg, not knowing that custom. So there also some other reason. Or at least, should be. Fromsoft has very advanced environmental storytelling and is very consistent on it's theme, but none of these are true "the rest" of storytelling. May be it's just a plothole, made conciously to remain consistent on the theme. Much like in DS1, Gwyn as a Hollow has a reason to fight you regardless of your choice, but you have no reason to fight him if you want the Fire to fade. Quite the opposite, Gwyn would be good guard to prevent other undead from kinding it, and he alone cannot do that again, so you have an actual good reason to NOT fight him and let him be. But it doesn't serve the theme as well, so you have to fight him everytime.
@@rawen160 My comment was about the knight statues before the queen's chamber
@@rawen160 The meta-reason is that hunters stuck in wheelchairs can't go anywhere but the dream. They are stuck in their chairs.
The lady with child is Annalise. Unfortunately, that storyline was completely cut out of the game.
And about the peg leg, the answer is in the Old Hunter Garb description which says: A widespread belief of the period was that "beast blood crept
up the right leg," and this led to the double-wrapped belt.
On the significance of the right leg, we inject to heal with blood vials there. You can see some of the armor ties off on the pants there. Maybe related
The right leg thing is because beast hood supposedly starts at the right leg.
I’ve been watching a series called “An Agony of Effort” by Charred Thermos, and he actually found that Laurence’s position actually more looks like the statue ‘Cast From Nature,’ which is a cast of a dissected cadaver from the Victorian era. Give it a look, it is a criminally underrated series and he draws a lot of amazing conclusions
I always felt like central Yharnam was inspired by Paul Gustave Doré's prints of London during the mid 1800's.
what a good fucking day to have a new bloodborne lore video lets gooooo
A video about Miyazaki's inspirations that doesn't mention Berserk
[shocked pikachu]
my wife hated bloodborne, because it won't pause lol, but now she's like "cool". i take it as a win. thanks dude!
Well she can always go to the PlayStation hub/main menu. That pauses the game ;)
@@1Henrink No it doesn't? What are you taking about
Me trying to explain to the girl im dating that bloodborne will always be the highest level of excitement in my life
The girl: pretending to care wishing I had a job
As with many great trees and roots rising from the depths of Yharnam and the Chalice Dungeons I see the tree behind the big altar as another representation of the influence of the great ones as well as the ever-present culture and history of the Pthumerians that permeates the city. The further down you go the more pronounced they become until you get to Isz where they are literally glowing.
Particularly with the two examples Protagonist used in his video, namely the tree behind the altar in the Grand Cathedral and the tree in the Hunter's Dream, I can't help but think of Yggdrasil, the Norse World Tree. A symbol of connecting different planes of reality, a link between man and gods.
The suits of armour, to me, look like late 15th-early 16th century suits of armour, possibly built in a mix of Italian and Gothic traditions of armouring. I think its a little bit more Italian in inspiration due to the large pauldrons and lack of obvious fluting.The armour also has brass or possibly even gold along the edges, this is most visible on the horses. Such an armour would be expensive, so the abundance of them along that staircase may be a showcase of wealth.
As for the missing right leg, it might have something to do with the infection supposedly creeping from the right leg, but I suspect theres more to it. Historically, armours tended to be lopsided, The left was typically more heavily protected then the right, because most people were right handed and would therefore attack you from the left side. I'm unaware of any real life examples that ditched plate on the right leg entirely, but its not like that leg will be entirely unprotected. They would wear mail, gambeson or both under that, with an arming sublet underneath. That is in-fact enough to stop most blows.Just a thought.
This is a fine note, also if you don't mind me asking who is the chap in your profile picture ?
@@WhiteStray the guy in my profile picture is Horatio Nelson.
@@ciaranhappyentriepaw thank you
On cainhurst statues:
The woman holding the baby: Queen Yharnam and Mergo
Queen: Queen Yharnam
Charlemagne: a testament to the dignified ways of the cainhurst nobles, and how they despised blood drunkness and beasts
Nude woman: Moon Presence
been waiting for this episode, btw i believe the missing leg of the knight statues is a reference to how old hunters believed the beast plague "crept up the right leg", so they fastened buckles to their right thighs and even went as far as to amputate them
Finally, some good fucking -food- eyes
Great content as usual!
Your channels amazing too Sin, keeps this hunter's lore fix sated.
Excellent work!... I missed many of these symbolic recreations
Well we know about the superstition with the right leg creeping up and what not. I don’t know if this has anything else to do with it, but the statue of the Amygdala at the Yahar’gul lamp has its right leg taken off, and it’s left arm taken off and extended with its right arm, the illusion it’s replacing it’s right leg back. But it also is the left arm the extends on a lot of the Yharnamites, same arm you get your blood ministered in as well.
Beautiful job so far. Can't wait for the next one!
wasnt the amputation of the right leg a canon superstition? at least that's what is said in the Old hunter's trousers
Not necessarily amputation, but the old hunters set has a belt around the rigjt leg
They believe beasthood rises up the right leg.
Many clothing sets in the game have a belt around the right thigh.
People probably cut their right legs off to try to stop the transformation.
Yes, isn't this also how the tool, The Old Hunter's Bone, came into being? Gehrman's apprentice?
Amazing video!!! Loved all your knowledge on the statues lore. Thank you for all the insight.
The right is also where we inject the blood vials, so it's where the cursed Yarnham blood enters the Blood. This would led up to the believe of the right leg being the cause of the beasthood, although the corruption of the man comes from the the various kinds of corrupted Bloods.
A would like to point that the Kirkhammer rock have many inscriptions in it. It seems to be some holy text from the church, i suppose. Using Holy texts to beat the living crap of your prey makes me smile.
Also the many items in the game that blind the main character and NPCs could mean: Fear of cosmic horror, avoid seeing, avoid the madnesses. Also the Amygdala takes the ones with blood drunken eyes, which led to people hidden their eyes and avoiding dissapering, like Gascoine or the guy that seals your blood contract in the first cutscene. A few people of the Healing church hide their eyes as a way to "seeing with the inside eyes", like the old NPC before Rom.
This one of the most interesting series on Bloodborne lore, it's making me falling in love with the game again. The comment section is also fantastic, great community.
Great video again. The only thing i would add is that the coffins might not represent laurence but contain the remains of higher ups in the church. Seeing as how many characters follow our equivalent of church titles like, father, vicar, etc. It wouldnt be a stretch to assume the coffins might contain an arch bishop or even bloodborne's version of a pope... makes you wonder who could be in there...
Considering the Healing Church was founded by Laurence, he's the closest thing to a pope they had.
Amazing video! I've been playing Bloodborne for years and never noticed that dear relief in the Tomb of Oedon. I love your analysis!
I remember playing bloodborne on launch and struggling through it cause of the loading times, but I picked it up again a few weeks ago and now I’m on my 3rd playthrough. Insane how well it’s aged, there’s so much to pick up on. Love this series, hope to see more 🙌
Another one in a streak of awesome videos man. Might as well chip in with a couple of things that occurred to me while watching, When you were showing the correlation between the Virgin and Christ in Catholicism, I though about how most if not all of the religious statues in the game exhibit this theme of being reincorporated into a figurative narrative, where the preeminence of the old ones superseded their old monotheistic beliefs of an unknowable god. As in, they felt as if audience with the old ones is "almost at their fingertips". That the old European religion, along with it's entire iconography, in their minds became a sort of a veil or a stepping stone, one that the followers must pass through in order to ascend towards the desired Devine enlightenment. An example of that would be the three clergymen statues that surround the medical table/alter with the beasts underneath. Both the churches cloth/attire and their carpentry/craftsmanship is what separates the men from the beasts bellow. Now, this in my opinion conveys on a symbolic level a rough guideline, that the church is to follow,. that consists of their belief that the traditions and virtues they implemented in in following their old faith, is what brought them , not only to their unique, historical position, at the edge to contact with the Devine, but also preserving the key ritual knowledge, needed to complete the journey . While the infrastructure they've built will (seemingly) keep them safe from the impending league of beasthood, another necessary part of the cult's ultimate path of ascension.
So, that to me is a bit mind-blowing, to say the least. The other thing that I recalled is that some old Turkish folk I know would, for example, curse somebody by saying something akin to "rest upright", meaning that he'd wish upon the man to spend their rest in the afterlife in a sitting, or standing position, instead of traditionally lying. This clued me in this bespoken idea or a theme in the game, where the hunters and their kin are cursed to restless dreams, and thus also by extension death, as a form of punishment for their transgressions. An extension of this motif would be what in Ghernan' being in a wheelchair, While he is holding the proverbial wheels of the hunt, his authority is ultimately meaningless, as he is held bound by his captors, who likely wounded him in the first place.
Well, I hope that at least some of this made any sense. Keep up the good work on these dope vids man, cheers.
I appreciate the effort put in here. I've watched a lot of Bloodborne lore before but never seen these parallels brought up before and it was laid out very well.
It's a shame we didn't get the OG chairs instead of lamps. Unless I'm missing something it seems more appropriate than lanterns.
The theory I've heard is that chairs would have been too hard to identify in the environment, especially in those areas where there are already multiple abandoned chairs.
But they could have just put the lamps next to the chairs to make them identifiable. The lamps really don't fit the concept of sleep and dreams as well as the chairs did....
before chairs there were statues and corpses, so they changed it many times
Cloth physics.
you sir are killing it with the videos! Thank you and more bloodborne lore!
You can't fully enjoy this game unless you pay attention to your surrondings. Good video!
Man your channel is so good, I watched all your videos in 2 days
And I thought I knew as much as you can know about bloodborne. You got yourself a subscriber. Keep up the good content.
priceless analysis!
Early!
It's barely 1 minute in for me and I'm fearing the Old Lore already.
Can't wait for part 2 of this where maybe the more creepy art is looked at
Awesome video! There's so much to find out in this game, even to this day.
Excellent Analysis.
Great lore, love the work you put in! Make sure to make community posts so that you can drive up engagement on your channel!
Much love. Doing the good blood's work.
This Game, dude
Top quality. I always look forward to your videos.
Nice work, friendo.
The one-legged cavalry are cut enemies if I remember correctly.
You’re doing some great work, man
the Tree of Life, the Sefiroth or perhaps the Qlipoth seeing how everything in Bloodborne is fucked
Damn, that is so cool!! Thanks for the video!
Beautiful
There seems to be quite a large amount of posture variation between enemies which correlate with the odd postures of the various statues of Yharnam.
New protagonist video hell yeah!!!
Love the videos man and I hope you stay making bb vids for time to come
Very interesting thank you. Love all your lore videos.
This is so well done, I loved it!!! 🤩 Wonderful job.
As far as additional possible references: in one of the coffins you showed, there were little circular “peepholes”. I think these could be like some coffins in certain Catholic churches that show the “incorruptible” remains of dead saints.
Also, the “wheel” theme has a lot of religious meanings across the world. But the Logarius Wheel reminds me of the “Catherine wheel”: they supposedly tried to break St. Catherine over a wheel to torture her to death, and God kinda said “nah” and broke the wheel I think? 🤣 Potential fodder for future research, I suppose.
Keep up the wonderful work! 😊
kos, some say algorithm, grant this video eyes
After facing the Headless Bloodletting Beast in the Chalice Dungeons, I always wondered if the headless angelic statue in the Grand Cathedral altar was a corruption or re-interpretation of that. . .
I believe the right leg being cut off has to do with old hunter tradition of beasthood creeping up your right leg, seen in the old hunters atire. Perhaps one would not need armor for their right leg as it would have been amputated already.
@last protagonist this series is great and shows how much Cainhurst has to do in the lore even if at first they look like they don't belong in the game. Another detail that is unrelated to art or Cainhurst is the orphan of Kos's crying right before his boss fight and Gherman's crying in the dream are identical. never got why.
U spoil us with good content😎
my man
Bro you need more subs
Love your videos!
Heya Last, i was curious what your opinions are on the origin of the beast plague? Your analysis is great for comparing ideas. I apologize if you've already covered the topic!
To a certain extent, it seems something inherent within man, yet it's exacerbated by Blood Echoes. I've got some more thoughts about that, but I'd like to save it for a future video. ;)
haha sounds great thanks for the input
Ok but why is Cainhurst littered with these repeating statues
Great work again man!
How do you go about doing research for videos like this (rather, where do you start)?
Something you might have missed in the symbolism from not looking into the Christian bits further than mentioning they are Christian:
The Throne of Heaven is a symbol throughout Abrahamic lore. It was a seat upon which God would sit, found in the temples at the place where the icon of the divine would go in temples to other gods. Its a Throne, a chair as the centerpiece of a shrine or altar. And it could symbolize service to some higher power, as well as a sort of fisher king mythology throughout it. Perhaps the Healing Church's throne-sitting symbol is a perfected man, or some sort of Great One unnaturally close to us, enough that a chair that looks like a human could theoretically get use out of it is something appropriate for it. But either way, an empty throne either means that God is in the Heavens or a Rightful King is not Sitting Upon It.
There's actually quite a lot I don't know, so I appreciate seeing these kinds of thoughtful comments!
@@LastProtagonist glad to give something thoughtful then, and its always fun when the esoterica knowledge pays off lol
In the context of the rest of the game, where the Healing Church appears to effectively be trying to bring mankind closer to the Great Ones, I think it could easily serve a symbol of the near-Great one version of mankind they wanted to create. The throne is for humanity whence they have become gods themselves.
So how rich was the healing church before Yarnam went to shit?
Look at the environment, they have giant pure silver fountains, carriages decorated with gold accents, even the peasants wear nice fitting and refined clothes and leather jackets, in short yharnam was very rich, and just look at the architecture ! Everyone has an amazing looking house !
If you had the means to live in the city? You were definitely well to do. But as we can see there was a stark difference between life in the city and life in the suburbs. The city was definitely wealthy. But the wealth didn't trickle down much. Which you can gather was the case from the mean and conniving character most of the natives have.
What's next ? A video about the vegetation in bloodborne?
I love it
I always figured since pthumerian sounds like sumerian their downfall was through Zoroastrianism bloodborne equivalent and it eventually became the healing church and vilebloods like catholic and eastern orthodox. If that makes sense
Except orthodox and catholics don't hate their guts. The catholics even started the crusades to protect the orthodox.
Both of them have problems with the followers of Luther's Shitpost / Protestantism
Theory: The depiction of Saint Hubert is meant to represent Ludwig. Mind you I have essentially no evidence for this, but I feel this is meant to be a nod to several things. As the timeline went forward and the Beast Plague became worse, the Hunters became drastically recontextualized. Going from a presumably secretive and small order of essentially elite assassins hiding the existence of beasthood, to a then post Old Yharnam incident order of "holy warriors" of a sort. Ludwig appears to be very well known to Yharnam in some manner, as he basically transformed the Hunters into what we see when we enter for the first time, a rag tag massive mob that purged the town of seemingly anything both beastlike and convenient to blame on it's problems.
But why have the saintly depiction of Ludwig? I propose that Ludwig turning into a terrible beast caused the need to canonize him and create a story to explain his sudden disappearance from the public eye. He was a crusader of old made real and is described as having lead large open groups in nightly purges. Ludwig suddenly going poof would have been noticed basically instantly. So a cover story needed to be made. The story in question? No idea, but I can imagine it would be a sort of dark mirror to the actual Saint Hubert and the Healing Church would simply say something like "Ah through the holy power of the Blood he experienced a divine revelation during the Hunt and was elevated beyond our simple human selves! He is a Saint and living in enlightenment now."
Or well, thats my two cents at least.
Will you ever do a video on Bloodborne and Shintoism? Loved the video, but the parallels to Catholicism felt a little off. I'm pretty sure the churches in Yharnam function more like shinto shrines and not like actual catholic churches. I got the feeling the symbolism, placement and meaning of the statues and altars makes more sense when viewed from a Shinto perspective.
I agree there are a lot of Shinto elements to the game. I'll definitely touch on the subject more in the future
👍
haha wow, what channel did I stumble upon.
Finally you didn't say "Erdin" have a +1 subscriber
Loving your lore videos! hank you for making them
For anyone into the aesthetics of Bloodborne, do check out Blasphemous. Both games take big inspiration from Christian church, Blaspemous is more focused on the way Spain did it and it's religious history.
Cheers!
Hello
First view and like :3
Yharnam is Albania
Yharnam = albania, cainhurst = romania, pthumeru = persia
really nice video man. Your intonation can be a bit irritating after a while, maybe try speaking a little less news-castery :)
You ain't no VaatVidiya cuz
Been waiting anxiously for more! Great stuff, man.
Bro thank you 🙏 bloodborne without a doubt my favorite game of all time
Ah, yes the old lore. Tis what this hunter needs, thank you kindly minister
Is the headless woman statue supposed to be headless? Maybe the head is somewhere, or maybe Laurence's head is representing her head or something.
It's notable that there is a story in the Bible where a lady has been menstruating for like more than a decade and is healed by touching the hem of his garment. So, her blood is related to death - its "Charnel" and she touches the heart hem or fringe of His cloth. Worth a thought!
The Mary and Jesus statue also has Mary with a crown, which symbolizes she reads Source magazine and used the term "Boo" in an affectionate manner. (That isn't her real hair)
Technically, those statues of Mary and Jesus are not them, but Anahita and Mithras, a cult religion that Constantine and ancient Rome worshipped the same time the church adopted Christianity. Mithraism is based on the image of the infant born to a virgin mother as the belief had existed since the time of Abraham and it's belief passed down and known among other peoples interacting with the Hebrew tribe. The first incarnation was from Babylon, Semiramis and Tammuz taking the place of the virgin and her child. All relates to sun worship, which is why the Roman Church changed the Sabbath long ago to the Most Venerable Day of the Sun of Sunday. I believe they also will skip one of the observance days (can't remember the name atm) if it falls on the Sabbath, so that it will fall on a Sunday just to avoid it. The Eucharist? Not sure. Far more pagan in origin than Christian, which is why it ties into being used in mythos and fantasy so well compared to Protestantism.