Bloodborne 178 Paleblood

The discovery of the ancient tombs below Yharnam launched a new era. Byrgenwerth was no longer a normal academy, which the youth sought to further their knowledge. Byrgenwerth became the pioneer of a new age. Brilliant scholars found the buried secrets of the Pthumerians. The technology the ancient civilization had far surpassed their own. Scholars couldn't understand what caused Pthumeru demise.

It was until they understood the nature of the ancient ruins, that they could form a solid theory. The remains of the eldritch truth, found deep within to tombs, brought the Great Ones under the light. The labyrinthine ruins under the city were called Tombs of the Gods, of the Old Ones. Those beings, of extraordinary natures, disappeared long ago. The tombs stood as a reminder of their existence, for all curious eyes to see.

The scholars theorized that the Great Ones never died, only lived in a transcendent realm. They have left the realm of mortals long ago, leaving mundane worries behind. The theory became obsession. Obsession turned to mania. Gehrman, the first hunter, was obsessed with the thought. He had seen and fought the abnormally strong Pthumerian elders in the ruins. The show of strength only served to increase his interest in the eldritch truth.

He had a brilliant mind, pioneering the way hunters fought today. He was behind the creation of the trick weapons. They were more effective, bloodier and deadlier against beast, whereas traditional weapons and armor could only do so much. The decaying iron armors and swords in the tombs of the Old Gods stand as a reminder of Gehrman's genius.

The man devoted himself to slaying abnormal creatures, drawing strength from them in the process. He developed his strength, agility and knowledge of the arcane through the countless fights and hunts he'd been through. His knowledge of the arcane even allowed him to come up with the art of quickening. A technique unique to the first hunter and his student that allowed to move at tremendous speed. They'd vanish in a cloud of gray smoke as they moved, rendering them almost invisible. Their speed increased tremendously as well.

The man shrouded in mystery was revered by all hunters. He was the strongest, the wisest and the most talented among them all. The first hunter got into an alliance with Laurence, the brightest student master Willem had ever taken under his wing. The young scholar devoted himself to studying the properties of the Old One's blood. Willem called it Old Blood. He always warned against its use.

Willem thought that the Great Ones had transcended this plane of existence. Not only were they not affected by time and decay, but they also possessed tremendous powers. Such powers that could not be comprehended by humans' primitive brain cannot be experimented with. Laurence believed that the blood of the Old Ones was the thing that granted the ancient civilization of Pthumeru knowledge beyond their expectations.

It was the missing link, between mankind and its ultimate evolution. Laurence didn't heed Willem's warning. He popularized the use of Old Blood. He took something that was not his. He then distributed it among people, healed their afflictions and gained fame. Fame spread and the Healing Church gained power. The blood that could cure all ailments was heard of all around the world. People rushed to the city of healing. The sacred blood of the Gods had been bestowed upon Laurence to bring humanity together.

The city's fame didn't last long. Beasts started manifesting during nights where the moon hung full above the sky. The hunters, led by Gehrman lent a hand and obliterated the threat. The Gods gave blood to Laurence, and gave power to hunters to repel the beasts that tried to take it from us. The blood's blessing, people worshipped it. They feared the hunters. They let the Healing Church take command, controlling the powerful hunters for them.

People felt safe and blessed. Yharnamites started hating outsiders. They called them impure at first, strengthening their right at having the Old Blood first. Then they blamed them for bringing the beasts over. They'd accuse them of mixing the blood of the chosen with impure blood. Only Yharnamites had the right to use it, no one else.

The hate towards foreigners only increased after the outbreak in Old Yharnam. Hunters had to burn the place down, barricading the way to the old city. People barricaded themselves in their homes at night, refusing to help anybody. Yharnamites had their own houses, they'd never leave the comfort of their homes to face danger on nights of the hunt.

The night Old Yharnam burned was the night everything changed for everyone in the city. A red moon appeared over the sky. A bad omen of hell hung over the night sky. Under that crimson moon two shapes danced, swords in hand, in a flowery field. The while flowers were painted red that night, Gehrman the first hunter fought and killed his dear friend and leader of the Healing Church.

A creature, one that can only span from one's twisted mind, floated above the sky. The night sky was suddenly painted bright orange. The nameless creature descended upon Gehrman. Its face was just a bone, with a hole shaped like a comma put upside down. Behind the strange thing it had for a face, long squid tentacles flowed in different patterns. They seemed to move on their own. The creature enveloped the first hunter with its bony hands. One hand could cover the hunter's entire body.

The creature brought the hunter closer to its face until it stuck to him. The hunter observed the darkness inside the beast's skull. When it let go of him, Gehrman was a changed man. The moon hung over the sky. The endless hunt began.

Laurence didn't heed Willem's warning. He used the Old Blood that was bestowed upon an old being, older than the city of Yharnam itself. The use of the Old Blood on the person they were not destined for had its benefits. The blood could heal any sickness or injury. On the other hand, the blood had a hidden curse on it. The curse of Yharnam, as the Abhorrent Beast Surgit met put it.

The curse would turn any who indulges in absorbing the Old One's blood into a hideous beast. A person who has indulged in blood healing, drinking, or ministration has the Old blood inside them. They start, unknowingly, absorbing echoes from others as they fight them or take from their blood. The echoes, in turn, will require more blood. They'd want more blessing, to become stronger, deadlier and crazier.

The Moon Presence, or Flora as some would call it, helped the hunter Gehrman when he called for it. Great Ones are sympathetic in spirit and often answer when called upon. The Moon Presence had its own, unique way of dealing with the curse of the Old Blood. It created a dream world, where hunters could never die. They'd absorb echoes, then hand it to the Great One to feed upon.

Gehrman's beckoning of the Great One triggered an endless hunt, where hunters would constantly have to kill beasts to feed the Great One. In return, the Moon Presence would give them strength. The more echoes one hands, the better the reward. It was like a military system that awarded merit.

The first hunter became the Moon Presence's first slave. He'd teach hunters on the way of hunters. He trained them, taught them about trick weapons and everything echoes could do for them. Without his trusty companion, Gehrman had found solace in training the young ones.

The city of Yharnam fell to despair. Beasts roamed about and devoured as they pleased. That fateful night, the city was no more. Many others had succumbed to this curse, and like Yharnam, they were forgotten in the annals of history.

The city Gehrman had to protect existed on a different plane. It was dream of sorts, but an ordinary human dream. Scratch that, what are dreams?

Don't we feel everything and experience pain during a dream?

It might not be the same sensation, the same experience of pain we go through in the waking world. But it's the pain we remember through our own experiences. Our brain remembers the signals it sends when one suffers an injury. It can only reproduce it in a dream for us to feel it.

Dreams are worlds beyond human comprehension. Is it really our subconscious? Or do we travel through dimensions? Live someone else's life?

Perhaps it is our life, but in a parallel world.

Our consciousness travels through realms. What would happen if we lock it inside one specific realm? Wouldn't we live our own life, thinking it is reality?

The lines between reality and imagination get blurred.

What is reality? Isn't it what we believe and experience? It is subjective. We can only make our own conclusions and speculations about it. We exist in the world we believe exists.

We have a body when we dream. But is it ours?

Sometimes we can see ourselves in a mirror, sometimes we're addressed in a different name.

Flora beckoned the hunters to its own world, woven through their memories. It fed blood to the hunters, and asked them to give something in return. Humans became its pets, living in its own version of a glass bowl when one would keep a fish. One would do their best to recreate the sea for the fish, making them believe they still lived in their natural habitat. One would decorate the fish bowl with algae and face rocks with fake caves.

The hunters were stuck, with the hopes of reaching dawn. If one reached their objective and satisfied Flora, Gehrman would grant them the gift of seeing the day of light. They forget everything upon awakening from the nightmare of beasts and hunts, like one would forget a horrible dream they just had.

Gehrman taught the hunters but yearned for a companion. Laurence was lost, no sign of him after the defeat. Gehrman was unsure if his lifelong companion was beckoned by Flora or not. He stayed in his workshop, teaching and carving. Overtime, the sullen hunter created a beautiful doll. He wished to find the warmth Lady Maria has marked his life with. The doll was but an inanimate object. Despite his knowledge of the Arcane arts, Gehrman couldn't give life to the intricate doll.

He put her next to the workshop's back door, facing his student's grave. The grave he dug himself. His student, for whom he had immense affection, had borne the child of a Great One. Only people with specific bloodlines could actually carry the child of a Great One. Lady Maria was one of those. The child helped Gehrman and Laurence summon the Moon Presence.

They put the child on the altar of despair and wrenched out the Cord of the Eye from its fragile body, a bloody affair that pushed the crazed Lady Maria to despair. The child she bore was hideous. She couldn't believe she would one day give birth to such an abomination. The thought alone disturbed her. She was in the brink of madness when she saw her dear master slaughter the child in front of her eyes.

Madness killed her. She lay on top of the bloodied sofa, motionless. The first hunter buried the woman. It is unknown why he had so much affection for the lady. Was it because of his genuine feelings towards her? Or was it because the first hunter wanted to use her bloodline to summon a Great One?

The woman carried her own curse with her. Kos wasn't done with the hunters and the healing church. Lady Maria lived her life, in another dimension, trying to atone for her sins. She became the caring mother, of the afflicted ones in the research hall. Her story will be fully unveiled when Surgit meets her again, in a different time, different circumstances.

Hunters thrived under Gehrman's command. They helped the healing church as was their old customs. The world functioned as it used to. It had to make the hunters believe in salvation, that the world they inhabited was the same as the one they left. But other hunters figure out the ruse. The school of Mensis, along with the Choir, kept digging deeper inside the Tombs of the Gods through Chalice rituals.

They eventually found a holy medium that allowed them direct contact with the eldritch truth. Those two movements defined the course Yharnam took next. Gehrman grew old and no longer cared for the hunters affairs. He only contemplated the moonlit sky from the garden in his backyard. Overtime, Gehrman learned to dream. Dream he did.

The hunter's dream was conceived, the old hunter lived there, hoping to die in the calmness of this place where only his workshop existed. His doll followed him, came to life but didn't fulfill the needs he thought she would. He desperately waited for Laurence, who he thought went to find a way to unshackle him from Flora's prison.

Flora soon discovered the hunter's world and crippled him. He was the most important piece of the puzzle. It had to keep him to keep Yharnam's image intact. He was the dream's host, with the Moon Presence eating away at his vitality. It was like a parasite. It couldn't live without the host, but relied on the host's vitality to feed on. It even invited other people to join the hunt, using the doll this time as a medium to consume people's echoes. An inanimate object wouldn't decay like humans. It had the potential to last longer.

Gehrman remained in the dream, unseen in the waking world. From his mind, the city of Yharnam existed. If a hunter rebelled, he'd be dealt with by the first hunter. They'd receive such a brutal death that the thought of rebellion would cease. And just in case they managed to kill the old man, the Moon Presence still had a strong grip on them.

No one could rebel against a Great One, not without great power to match theirs. The schools of thought that followed the Healing Church era analyzed Master Willem's words and warnings. They managed to transcend the hunt, each in their unique way.

Karla observed the atrocities Gehrman and Laurence committed. She was deeply shaken by the events. But before she could digest everything, the first hunter had found her. "Go back to whence you came from. Your time hasn't come yet."

She was sent back to the Yharnam she came from. The Great Ones had mastery not only over space, but over time as well. At least some of them did. Some could create worlds, other could manipulate time. Some existed only in sound, formless. The idea of form, bodies, exists in our minds because it is what we can see, what we can comprehend. We'd imagine a strange creature, hideous and terrifying. But the creature would still want to eat, have a mouth and sometimes all five senses. We imagine what we deal with. But what happens outside the boundaries our minds set for us? Life forms we never thought existed hid in the darkness. No one should beseech them. No one should look for them, lest they want to invite calamity over their world.

Gehrman beckoned the first hunter. Byrgenwerth was behind blood healing. Laurence and Gehrman invited the wrath of Kos upon them. They also beckoned a creature, whose powers was beyond them, to help them halt the scourge of beasts.

The result was a chaotic world, populated with nightmarish creatures. Master Willem was right. One couldn't transcend with the help of blood. It is only out of concern for mundane affairs that Laurence thought healing was the path to immortality. What people must do, in order to transcend the hunt, is to align their brains with eyes.

Gehrman figured this a tad too late. He left a scribbling to any future hunter: Seek Paleblood to transcend the hunt. Paleblood, Flora, the Moon Presence, the nameless Great Ones had too many names. But if one wanted get away from the nightmare of beasts, they'd have to deal with the source of the scourge.

Their blood is tainted with Yharnam's blood. Their minds twisted with the echoes. Only insight can keep one on the right track. Find the Cord of the Eye, consume it and align your brain with eyes. Only, the hunters and Willem never realized that they only had One third of the Cord. They needed to consume three Cords in order to have a chance against the Great One that imprisoned them. The school of Mensis, like Gehrman, realized this a tad too late.

They left a note warning the curious and cursed. If one manages to reach their nightmarish world, perhaps they'd find their way to salvation.
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*** "To escape this dreadful Hunter's Dream, halt the source of the spreading scourge of beasts, lest the night carry on forever." *** Note found in the hunter's dream, apparently carved onto the wooden floor.

Chapter end