Bloodborne: A Labor of Love(craft)
Oct. 3, 2015Bloodborne: A Labor of Love(craft)
You find yourself beneath a purple sky. The odd hue bears down like a weight, oddly oppressive. Massive, cyclopean buildings of hewn rock sprawl as far as the eye can see. Statues and carvings of creatures described mainly in the ravings of lunatics decorate the city, providing a pervasive reminder that the veil of reality has begun to thin.
An ancient woman in bedraggled clothing carries a ceremonial dagger. Through some eldritch ritual she beckons a man from one world to another for nefarious purpose.
As this macabre setting gnaws at your very core, it’s worsened only by the brief respites as you go back and forth between nightmare and the waking world. You begin to doubt if either world is real.
Everyone reading this:“Wait. Wait a minute Skare. Come on now. Aren’t I reading this onFextraLife? Y’know, the site that’s the go to source for all SoulsBorne info?”
Me:“Well…yeah.”
Everyone again:“I think we all know what happens inBloodborneat this point. Why are you bothering to write this?”
Me:“Bloodborne? Oh, ha ha. I see why you stopped me. But I wasn’t talking aboutBloodborneyet.”
No one, because you all saw the title:GASP
InDreams, the protagonist whose eyes you borrow for the trip (Walter Gilman) is an aspiring mathematician. He is (un)lucky enough to be studying at Miskatonic University, which is a place of higher learning that Lovecraft often came back to in his stories. Don’t worry. I’m not done with it either. At this University, Walter stumbles upon a book that holds a good many secrets of the horrors of the world, universe and what have you. This combination of science and the occult leads to what most people would refer to as “some crazy s***.” In a nutshell, and without TOO many spoilers, the dude stumbles on some funky geometry (I mean this literally, he actually uses geometry) that allows him to travel to another dimension where he hangs out with a witch that probably shoulda died awhile ago. Eventually he learns he’s being pulled back in against his will. There’s more than casual references to baby murder as well, in case you thought that Miyazaki had a monopoly on that withBloodborne.
The interplay between science and the occult was a reoccuring theme for Lovecraft and it’s no surprise that a game so strongly inspired by the man would make liberal use of it. From the combination of blood and bullets, to the core of the game’s plot, it all smacks of Lovecraft. What plot am I referring to? The idea of ancient and/or cosmic horrors coming to town as a result of scientific and occult machinations. I know that’s a lot for a one sentence summary, so I’ll just state again the idea of the marriage of science and the occult.
So let’s marry up some science and occult then! Some of you have seen me referenceThe Dunwich Horror. It starts off with mostly the occult. A cultist family doing culty things. Specifically, what is probably the last female in their line is impregnated by one of the biggest, baddest horrors of them all (we’ll come back to the horror soon enough). Why are the Cultersons (not their real name) trying to have the baby of a cosmic horror? Well this entity wants in on our plane of existence. A mortal woman bearing it’s child, combined with a few rituals, is meant to lead to a gate to allow it through. If that doesn’t sound familiar, I question if you’ve actually playedBloodborne.
She has a couple kids, one of whom is a hulking, invisible monstrosity. The other is a little less hulking, but still pretty hulking, and visible monstrosity that mostly passes off as human. He wears robes to hide tentacles (hmm…Gwyndolin?) and goes around researching what he needs to finish the rituals to bring daddy to Earth. Here’s a fun tangent. It’s interesting that of all the “normal” creatures we find inBloodborne, dogs seem to be prevalent. Almost like they’re there for something. Hunters use dogs to track prey. Perhaps that was the original intent. But also, other people use dogs as alarms and guardians. InThe Dunwich Horror, the twins of the evil entity are easily identified by dogs. Because, dogs HATE them. This is not the only instance in which Lovecraft used canines in such a way.
Fast forward to the end, when the visible son is dead (from a dog, thereby justifying the above picture in this article) and the invisible one is terrorizing a village a bit (like stomping on houses kinda terrorizing). A few Miskatonic U professors cobble together some rituals to stop the creature. They also cobble together a weapon to render it visible and most importantly, vulnerable to their aims. This weapon is in reality nothing more than a bug sprayer with a specially prepared mist/powder. It’s such a parallel toRosmarinusthat I sprayed the only invisible creature inBloodborneuntil I was out of ammo. That creature,Mergo’s Wet Nurseis most likely ALSO trying to complete a ritual to bring a Great One to their world and it’s pretty obvious it involved pregnancy with a Great One Baby Daddy. With that segue accomplished…
Some digging into word origins seems to suggest that “Mergo” is Latin for “Submerged.” That does not sound like a pleasant name for an unknown great one who wants to come visit. I’ll just throw out there that I don’t personally see evidence to suggest that we ever meet Mergo inBloodborne. My best plot guess is that Mensis (like the cults in Lovecraft’s work) and the Wet Nurse (like the Dunwich twins) are trying to open the gate for Mergo. InBloodborne, this “gate” appears to be the use of surrogates to cross over. We’re probably lucky we stopped that.
With all the other parallels I figured I’d save the best one for last, even though this one is more theoretical. Essentially, sinceBloodborne’splot is basically the same asThe Dunwich Horror, we can fathom a decent guess on a Mergo parallel. So then, how bad would it be to let Mergo in? Well if Miyazaki really was taking a page or twelve from Lovecraft…really, REALLY bad. The daddy in Dunwich is named “Yog-Sothoth.” His goal in the book is loosely described. Loosely in that his motivation and final destination is unknown.
Wait, what was that? Destination?
Yep. Yog-Sothoth’s intended plan is to, for some reason, pull Earth out of orbit. Kinda drag it around space for the hell of it I guess.
Speaking of the Wet Nurse (again). A pet peeve of mine in lore circles is the insistence that Oedon is invisible (and therefore often connected to the wet nurse). I’m not saying Oedon is NOT invisible, but there’s nothing to say it is either. Oedon is “formless.” There’s a big difference. The Wet Nurse is invisible. The cloak suggests she has a form though. Another example I assume most readers will know isPriscillafromDark Souls. She is ALSO invisible but retains her form. Again, it’s not that he can’t be both, there’s just nothing I’ve seen that suggests “invisible.”
The Colour Out of Spacethough? That thing IS formless. And visible. Yeah, we’re on to another Lovecraft story of course. This one is about a meteorite that crashes into some poor farmer’s land and does some wacky things. When the meteorite is broken open there’s a color that defies categorization/human perception. I believe it’s only described as a color “by analogy.” As it turns out, the “color” is a celestial being that drains the life of the nearby area and of course the farmer and his family. It also makes things subtly glow and helps things like trees start to come to life a little bit. Not quite an ent orjubokkosituation, but some voluntary movement like swaying. The crops and animals start to change. I think there’s a mutated pig in there somewhere. Then everything withers and dies. The people who were too close go mad before dying. So let’s see, a meterorite crashes down and releases a color that is a formless and fairly terrible thing. It infects the region and creates a few problems to say the least. Hmmm…
If there’s one thing I know, it’s that a meteorite fell to Yharnam. My excessively long piece on theBlade of Mercywas all about analyzing the siderite (likely mesosiderite) that fell to Yharnam. It must have been tampered with as well, since there’s at least two weapons that were made from this mysterious substance. So I’m not saying that Oedon is more like an abstract concept such as “color” than it is to a “creature,” but that idea certainly adds up in a lot of ways. Fun tangent alert; I ran a few ideas past Emergence before putting fingertips to keypad on this piece. He had mentioned that the intrusion of a meteorite into the world is like one big, cosmic impregnation. He gets the credit for that, and I had to add it here because it’s perfect with the rest of the plot.
The parallels to Lovecraft certainly don’t stop there. One of the greatest things about Lovecraft was his ability to write about any type of horror. There’s the usual occult and magic storylines. There’s science gone wrong. There’s giant monsters. There’s aliens. There’s things that require rituals and countermagic to defeat. There’s just big ol’ things that need a big ol’ whoopin’. Fun tangent alert #3; in one of the most famous shorts,The Call of Cthulhu, the titular character is defeated when the hero turns a ship around and rams the ship into Cthulhu’s face. Basically, just a big ol’ punch in the octopus/dragon face.
So it’s no surprise then thatBloodborneruns the full gamut. The Celestial Emissary and his crew seem out of place unless we look at the overall Lovecraft world. Why are there blue fungus dudes running around? Like, seriously. Why? Well maybeThe Whisperer In Darknessis why. In this story, a scholar starts digging into weird happenings in the hills and finds aliens. In the story they’re pink and have a couple other differences (like wings and more legs). But they’re described as more fungal than animal and have tentacles coming from their head which is described as “ellipsoid.” While not benevolent, they mostly stay out of mankind’s way by…wait for…hiding in the woods. Buuuut Skare…there’s aliens in the Upper Ward too. Well inWhisperer, while the aliens generally avoided mankind, they did have a deal going with cultists where they interacted for a common cause. You might even say that the cultists were able to “make contact.” Hilarious! Also, take that, imaginary skeptic from a few sentences ago. Now, back to the plot.
When the scholar gets too close to the truth the aliens elect to take care of him. The scholar becomes the “Whisperer in Darkness.” When the protagonist meets up with this scholar (after a long period of correspondence) he finds him unable to move from his chair. Barely able to speak he can muster only a whisper (naturally). He’s completely covered except for his hands and face and is in a room that’s mostly dark (naturally). In reality, his brain has been removed (vacuous?) and the shell is being controlled by the aliens. His brain is being held in a canister. The scholar is still alive somewhere and the canister allows for communication via some alien devices. The canisters are kinda like an MP3 player where the solid state memory is a dude’s brain and it has free will but is stuck in a canister which really sorta sucks for said dude…
I can assure you this is far from a complete list of parallels between Bloodborne and the Works of one Howard Phillips Lovecraft. From labyrinths under shifting sands, characters going mad the more “insight” they have and much more, it’s all there and sometimes a century or more older thanBloodborne.
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Great article Skare. I always enjoyed all the Lovecraft references in Bloodborne. The only other game where I enjoyed Lovecraftian themes was Final Fantay VII, if you pay attention to Jenova’s story she was a Lovecraftian entity.
As for the meteorite bringing over Great One genetic material, aside from being aLovecraft reference, it is an example of an actual Scientific theory called Panspermia.
I am also under the Impression the blood that makes a hunter a hunter is the blood of Queen Yarnham. Yarnham’s blood would be special since she would have had microchimerism from the Great One a baby she carried.
I think the Dregs failed to impregnate Annalise because she is too far away from Odeon’s Consciousness which lurks near the Chapel and tomb of Odeon. Cainhurst would have been too far, but Arianna a descendant of Cainhurst became pregnant abruptly once she sought refuge in the chapel.
Can’t wait to see what other Lore references the DLC brings.
I really like this write up Skarekrow. There’s a few things I could say and I do like the idea that Oedon is in fact inhabiting blood, but the rune mentions that both Oedon and his inadvertent worshipers surreptitiously seek the precious blood. Is the precious blood just blood in general and is the player is inadvertently worshiping Oedon by borrowing his power to generate QSB or is there a particular “precious” blood that they seek, Yarnham’s for example. Oedon runes allow one a certain control over blood, either being able to create more QSB from your own blood or to be able to create QSB from enemies countered with visceral attacks The rune also says he exists only in voice, so I agree he is not invisible but perhaps omnipresent or at least able to converge and speak to certain people from somewhere because he exists only in voice. The blood is most akin to a medium that he can manifest in, but whether it is any blood or just select ones again. Personally I think that Oedon’s inadvertent worshipers are the hunters as mentioned above since the blood dreg clearly looks like something inhabiting the blood and only in hunters. These dregs can supposedly impregnate Annalise (she hopes) which fits into the idea of Oedon wanting to sire a child.
As an aside, you say the only invisible enemy we encounter is Mergo’s Wet Nurse, but similarly, what about the Shadows of Yharnam? I think there are a lot of parallels to the SoY and MWN and MWN is almost like a more evolved version of the hooded, cloaked, armed humanoids. If MWN is a great one it is the only one who wields weapons as opposed to their own limbs (quite literally with Amygdala). I’m keen to whether anyone knows the origins of MWN.
Yeah it’s possible the fluid is embryonic and the meteorite is an interstellar womb. Perhaps the fluid nursed something else, something viral like that spread through the landscape spawning various progeny depending on what it was infused in.
Oedon being the blood is an idea that I’ve seen in the low section before and it’s one idea I really like. I can even refer that back to the story as the Color is described as a “globule” while in the meteorite. So even for Lovecraft the entity seems to have been like a fluid or liquid at some point, possibly for interspace travel.
The other way that the Oedon and blood connection can work is with him not necessarily being the blood but inhabiting the blood. Almost like a nearly omnipresent single entity or a viral collective that is of one will.
There’s a reference to inadvertent worship of Oedon which would make sense if there’s an entity that either is your blood or is inhabiting your blood and altering your behavior.
Worship could be either spilling blood or spreading the infection known as Oedon. I wanna say there’s a reference that connects it to Hunters as well, which might suggest a few things about the nature of Hunter blood ministration/infusion versus the standard one. We can surmise that blood vials for healing work for everyone, but the blood we get at the start is different as not everyone using vials becomes a hunter. Perhaps Oedon is part of the difference
Oedon as blood is a new theory to me and at first kick around I love it. I’m still piecing it all together myself though, so others can illuminate that one further and whether it holds water, or blood.
Excellent article! Huge fan of Lovecraft myself, and you nailed the connection between his work and Bloodborne.
One thought on Oedon while reading this: so we know from the Caryll Runes that Oedon is connected to the Blood. We know that a Great One descends to create a child. We know Annalise wanted Blood Dregs (which really do look like red sperm) to create a Child of Blood, and Blood Dregs are found primarily in the blood of echo fiends (i.e. Hunters). What if Oedon is formless not because he is invisible, but because he is a sentient being in diffuse, liquid form? Liquid has no true form, simply assuming the shape of whatever container it occupies. Oedon is the blood: he is formless, omnipresent, and it would explain how the blood links to the impregnation of women with the children of Great Ones. Through the consumption of blood, or the process of blood ministration, all the characters have Oedon literally in their bloodstream, and those with a certain quality (such as Arianna) find themselves impregnated by the Great One literally flowing in their veins.
I mean, it still defies all knowledge of the human reproductive system, but I’m pretty sure the Kirkhammer defies the laws of physics, and flintlock pistols weren’t semi-automatic, no matter if you named them after some woman you really liked.
