Your character arrived in Yharnam, from a faraway land,
Seeking a cure for some unnamed illness.
You sign a contract, take blood,
And become a hunter of the dream,
Tasked with ending the spreading scourge of beasts.
Like many hunters before you,
Your consciousness is now bound to the Hunter's Dream,
And you are able to project yourself into the waking world of Yharnam.
At the end of the game, the nameless Moon Presence descends.
This is a Great One.
An elder being that beckoned to the hunters and conceived the Hunter's Dream.
And you're here now, asking why?
Well, let me tell the story up until this point.
It all began in the tombs below Yharnam.
Once, what we now call Chalice Dungeons, contained an entire civilisation.
It consisted of the Pthumerians, and the Great Ones.
The Pthumerians were a humanoid race, but the Great Ones were far from it.
Each Great One is bizarre, unique,
And trying to pin down their motivations, as a species or individually, is fairly futile.
The only thing that's clear about them is this:
The Great Ones, like any other race, want to reproduce.
But for them, it's difficult.
Each Great One appears to be truly unique.
And since that makes mating impossible, they impregnate their subjects instead.
The Ring of Betrothal states that in the age of the Great Ones,
Certain Pthumerians were permitted to bear a special child.
This union was a blood contract,
A first reference to the blood of the Great Ones.
Most of these births failed.
But some didn't.
At some point, the Great Ones ascended.
We know this, because there are multiple references to some Great Ones being left behind.
The Great Ones moved on to the Nightmare Realm,
And the Pthumerians were left alone,
Destined to watch over the physical remains of the slumbering Great Ones.
In time, the Pthumerian civilisation fell to the plague of beasts.
Perhaps it was something in the blood.
Eventually, a group of Byrgenwerth scholars stumbled upon this place,
And the events of Bloodborne were set into motion.
The scholars discovered the Old Blood of the Great Ones,
A miraculous substance that made their dream of evolution a reality.
The School of Byrgenwerth was headed by Master Willem,
An ambitious, yet cautious man,
Willem desired to ascend to a higher plane of existence,
And believed that the knowledge of the Great Ones would lead him there.
On the other hand, one of Willem's associates, Laurence,
Believed that mankind could ascend through use of the Old Blood,
The blood of the Great Ones.
Laurence seems headstrong and rash,
Where Willem advised caution.
When we inspect the skull after defeating Vicar Amelia,
This is the conflict we see.
Laurence tells Willem he will always fear the Old Blood,
Yet he goes on to found the Healing Church,
A faith built upon the miraculous Old Blood.
Meanwhile, Willem remains behind, at Byrgenwerth,
And decides to pursue alternate methods to ascension.
Laurence and his Church were essential to the power in Yharnam,
Perhaps they even built the place.
Blood ministers doled out the miraculous healing blood to the populace,
And the city evolved to reflect that.
People came from far and wide, just like you did,
For the chance to be healed.
The Yharnamites whose doors you knock on are quite arrogant and proud,
And dislike outsiders.
However, after the Old Blood was introduced into the populace,
People began turning into beasts.
"You stop right there. Not an inch closer."
In response, the Church funded the Hunter's Workshop,
With Gehrman at its head.
Gehrman's methods defined beast hunting.
He abandoned the notion of armour, and dressed instead for speed, and agility.
With a firearm in one hand,
And adaptable melee weapon in the other,
The forces of the workshop became the city's primary defence against the beastly threat.
Perhaps the workshop was even a secret organization,
For item descriptions note that:
"They worked under the cover of night."
And the location of the workshop was certainly difficult to find.
In time, the Workshop would be abandoned in favor of the Black and White Church hunters.
Perhaps Gehrman's Workshop failed, in keeping the scourge a secret,
Perhaps the Church required a more intimidating approach.
Whatever the case, the hunters were fighting for something, and it wasn't just to keep the populace safe.
Turns out, the Hunter's Workshop was just one of three branches of the Church.
The others were the Choir,
and Mikolash's School of Mensis.
The Choir existed to continue the work that began at Byrgenwerth,
Namely, the pursuit of insight, by way of communion with the Great Ones.
The Choir's work eventually led them to an audience with Ebrietas,
A left behind Great One.
The School of Mensis was, as the name implies,
Devoted to research and to learning.
And while items descriptions state that Mensis was allied with the Healing Church,
In our adventures, it becomes clear that the school is responsible for most of the problems in this world.
In Bloodborne, it's difficult to point to a main antagonist,
But if I had to, I'd point to Mikolash,
Who is the head of the School of Mensis.
Somehow, Mikolash got his hands on the umbilical cord of a Great One.
These cords are very important.
For simplicity's sake, think of these umbilical cords
As powerful relics that enable contact with the Great Ones.
There are three of these umbilical cords in game.
And they are used by three of the main characters.
One cord was found by Mikolash, head of the School of Mensis.
One cord is held by Willem, back in Byrgenwerth.
And another cord went to Gehrman, of the Hunter's Worshop.
Mikolash used his cord to perform a great ritual.
It ripped a lecture hall of Mensis into the Nightmare Realm,
So that they could be granted audience with a being named Mergo.
It is believed that Mergo is the child of a Great One,
Birthed through Yharnam, the Pthumerian Queen.
There is little known about his power,
His origins of his significance,
So just know for now that Mensis wanted audience with Mergo,
But that this audience came at a great cost.
A note in the village reads:
"The Mensis ritual must be stopped
Lest we all become beasts."
Willem used his cord to, and I quote:
"Elevate his being and thoughts to those of a Great One
By lining his brain with eyes.
In the lake below him, we come across Rom, the Vacuous Spider.
Many descriptions in game tell us that this spider hides all manner of rituals.
In particular though, it seems that the spider is holding back the effets of the Mensis ritual.
When Rom is gone, a Blood Moon descends,
Blurring the line between beast and man.
After this event, we find the path to Yahar'gul open,
So our character can go through and silence the harrowing cries of Mergo, the infant Great One.
The third umbilical cord found its way into Gehrman's hands
After his Hunter's Workshop disbanded, Gehrman was alone and unimportant.
His only companion was this Doll, which he appears to have crafted with love and care.
Perhaps this Doll's creator had wished for such a friend,
Albeit, in vain.
His cord reads:
"The Great Ones that inhabit the Nightmare are sympathetic in spirit,
And often answer when called upon."
This third cord summons the Moon Presence,
A Great One which beckoned the hunters and conceived the Hunter's Dream.
Gehrman got what he wanted, a companion and a purpose, but he becomes a puppet,
Endlessly finding and guiding hunters through the Dream, and out into the world,
Assumedly under the influences and desires of the Moon Presence.
So, to recap, Mikolash, whose character is ever ambitious to ascend and become a Great One,
Used his cord to establish contact.
He sacrificed his School of Mensis, and brought the consequences of that contact upon the world.
Willem, ever cautious, used his cord and Rom to mask the effects of that ritual.
And Gehrman, lonely and lacking purpose, became a puppet to another Great One,
Named the Moon Presence.
He guides hunters through this Dream and out into a few select locations.
The Hunter's Dream ends, when you successfully hunt down Mergo,
And his Nightmare of Mensis, suggesting that Mensis was the root of the scourge of beasts,
And perhaps, that the Moon Presence wanted the child of another Great One dead.
When you silence Mergo, you return to the Workshop on fire,
The Dream's purpose is fulfilled.
You approach Gehrman, Host of this Hunter's Dream,
And he tells you that he has the power to free you.
If you choose this option, you are unbound from the Dream.
You lived through the Hunt, and saw the sun rise over Yharnam.
If you reject Gehrman, the Moon Presence decides it needs another host for its Dream,
You.
You become captivated by the Moon Presence,
And pledge to watch over the Hunter's Dream.
But there is a third option:
Ascension.
When the conditions are right for a Great One to be born,
The mother and child can be harvested for an umbilical cord.
But all Great Ones lose their children,
And yearn for a surrogate child instead, a replacement.
Mikolash, Willem, Gehrman, they all found umbilical cords somewhere in the past,
And used them for their own needs,
But ultimately, each of them was unsuccessful,
In the contact that they had with the Great Ones.
However, the notes of the Byrgenwerth scholars contain this information:
If you consume three cords, you can resist becoming the Moon Presence's captive.
Instead, you hunt the Moon Presence,
And afterwards, you become an infant Great One.
Living inside the Dream the Moon Presence conceived.
You managed to ascend, as no one else before you did.
And you will lift humanity into its next childhood.