Chapter Eight: Micolash, the Blood Moon, the Dreamlands, and the Great Ones
"A hunter is a hunter, even in a dream. But, alas, not too fast! The nightmare swirls and churns unending!"
–Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
If there's anyone in Bloodborne that we can safely ascribe the quality of 'bad guy' to, it's probably Micolash. The Great Ones are too complex and too alien in their existence to ascribe moral values of 'good' or 'bad' to them; Willem very likely tried his hardest to prevent the events of Bloodborne from occurring in the first place; the Beasts are no longer thinking creatures; Yharnam is portrayed as being a tragic figure the victim of circumstances beyond her control; Annalise defied the Church and tried to steer her people into a new age of prosperity; Laurence and Gehrman's tried to control the Scourge; Ludwig tried to establish an organization that would protect the innocent; Eileen only kills Hunters who have succumbed to bloodlust; the Abhorrent Beast can't help the fact that he's been so horribly afflicted with the Scourge and his dialogue is almost heart-wrenching as you see how terrible his condition is; Maria genuinely cared for the patients of the Research Hall and was wracked with guilt at her actions in the Hamlet; Patches is mischievous but amicable; the False Iosefka is desperately trying to finish research which she believes will uplift and save humanity; Alfred simply wants to let Logarius rest in peace; Djura just wants to protect Old Yharnam; Gascoigne is slaying what he believes are monsters. Micolash on the other hand is batshit crazy, and he seems to be perfectly happy with that fact.
Micolash's existence seems to be, in itself, a laugh at the player by the developers. We've journeyed so far, faced so much, and struggled so painfully in our search for answers. When we finally encounter someone who could explain to us what the hell is going on, he's stark-raving mad. It's almost as if the developers are taunting us: "You're sure you want the answers? He knows the truth; look what good it did him." But before we get to Micolash's status as being Host of the Nightmare and the implications that holds, let's go back the beginning and take a look at Micolash and his School of Mensis.
For starters, I will use only information and evidence that can be found inside of the game. I will save my personal interpretations and beliefs for the end, so that you can make up your own mind about the evidence presented.
Everything started at Byrgenwerth. A group of Scholars discovered existence of the Great Ones and the incredible power of the Old Blood. This would lead to an inevitable separation as differences in ideology led to a group of the Byrgenwerth Scholars leaving the Academy to found the Healing Church. Micolash was one such scholar. In our fight against him we see Micolash wearing the tattered uniform of a Byrgenwerth Scholar. The description of the Student's Uniform reads: "Uniform of the students of Byrgenwerth, a bygone institute of learning. The Healing Church has its roots in Byrgenwerth, and naturally borrows heavily from its uniform design. The focus not on knowledge, or thought, but on pure pretension would surely bring Master Willem to despair, if only he knew."
In the early days of the Healing Church the group operated mostly in secret. Gehrman's Workshop would serve as a secret police force for the Church, while Micolash would found the School of Mensis, a new institution of learning for the Church to continue the research at Byrgenwerth. According to the Upper Cathedral Key: "The upper echelons of the Healing Church are formed by the School of Mensis, based in the Unseen Village, and the Choir occupying the Upper Cathedral Ward." This key is found in Yahar'gul on the corpse of an imprisoned Choir member. From their new, secret location in Yahar'gul, Micolash's new School of Mensis would be protected and hidden by the Healing Church. The Yahar'gul attire tells us: "The hunters of Yahar'gul answer to the village's founders, the School of Mensis. Hunters in name only, these kidnappers blend into the night wearing this attire." From their hidden conclave, servants of the School of Mensis would skulk out into the night and kidnap innocents to drag them back to Yahar'gul for their experiments. The PC Hunter can be one such kidnapped victim if they die to a Kidnapper, an enemy that first make their appearance after the death of the Bloodstarved Beast. The Hunter also encounters and fights two Yahar'gul hunters lurking outside of a home in the Cathedral Ward, possibly searching for more victims. It would seem, however, that the School of Mensis slowly drifted apart from the Healing Church. While Yharnamites venerate the Old Blood and pay homage to the Great Ones as being god-like figures, the citizens of Yahar'gul worship the Great Ones directly. Statues of the twisted figures line the streets and enormous Chapels are devoted to the worship of spider-like Great Ones.
Furthermore, the rituals of the School of Mensis seem to be either directly or indirectly responsible for the coming of the Blood Moon. But what is the Blood Moon?
Madmen toil surreptitiously in rituals to beckon the moon. Uncover their secrets.
–Note left by a dead Hunter
The Mensis ritual must be stopped, lest we all become beasts.
–Note left by a dead Hunter
When the red moon hangs low, the line between man and beast is blurred.
–Note found in Byrgenwerth Mansion
The red moon hangs low, and beasts rule the streets.
–Note left by Djura
Behold! A Paleblood sky!
–Unknown author.
The Player first encounters the Blood Moon after the death of Rom, the Vacuous Spider. The PC Hunter discovers Queen Yharnam at the bottom of the Moonside Lake, seemingly having appeared from nowhere. She weeps as she stares at the sky, and as the Hunter follows her gaze they see the overwhelming Blood Moon looming above them. After that, everything changes. This is the moment when Bloodborne goes from being a tale of Beasts and Blood to a tale of horrible, eldritch things that work behind the scenes. Or perhaps a better way to explain it would be that it was always a story of eldritch things, only we couldn't see them. Many players walk out of Oedon Chapel for the first time to the sound of a loud, hissing vacuum-like noise coming from behind them. They turn and stare at the peculiar wisp of air that seems to flow through the air. Some of them, as I did, walk closer to learn more. It is then that the Hunter is hoisted into the air by unseen forces, crushed to death and succumbing to Frenzy. If you're like me, you moved on with the hunt. You chalked it up to just another bullshit Miyazaki deathtrap. What killed you was an Amygdala, or at least what I will refer to as an Amygdala. It's not clear if the Amygdala that serves as the boss of the Nightmare Frontier is the Great One's name or is its species. However the Amygdalan Arm labels it as an "arm of a small Amygdala Great One", and the term Great One is too broad, and so I refer to these creatures as the Amygdalae. Once the Hunter slays Rom and the Blood Moon rises, the Amygdalae are no longer hidden; in fact it becomes painfully clear that they've been there all along.
And this brings us to The Dreamlands.
Many players, indeed I would say the majority of players, are naturally confused by the words Nightmare and Dream that repeat in Bloodborne. Most people haven't read the works of Lovecraft, from which the Bloodborne series takes its influence; even those who have read Lovecraft typically only read his later (and admittedly much better written) works such as Shadow over Innsmouth and the Call of Cthulhu. However towards the middle of Lovecraft's career we have what Lovecraft Scholars refer to as The Dream Cycle.
For Lovecraft, the act of dreaming was a method in which human beings could briefly transport their consciousness to an alternate dimension. The Dreamlands are not an illusion, they are a real place. The Dreamlands are a location just like Yharnam, Byrgenwerth, Cainhurst, or Yahar'gul. The mere fact that the player can take items from The Dreamlands and bring them back to the Waking World is proof that it's a place equally real. The Lead Elixir's description states: "Its recipe for this mysterious concoction is unknown, but some postulate that it materializes only within the most desperate nightmare."
There are four distinctly different locations in the Dreamlands that the PC Hunter travels to: The Nightmare Frontier, the Lecture Hall, the Hunter’s Nightmare, and the Hunter's Dream. The Hunter's Dream is the first place in the Dreamlands the Hunter travels to, and from here it is where they will travel to different parts of the game's world. The Lecture Hall is the next location the Hunter travels to. The Lecture Hall of Byrgenwerth has been somehow warped and transported into the Dreamlands. The Lecture Hall is connected to the Nightmare, which consists of both the Nightmare of Mensis and the Nightmare Frontier, and judging from the fact that a Church Giant is found in the upper levels it’s possible that the School of Mensis moved into the Nightmare Lecture Hall at some point in time. Notice that when the Hunter opens certain doors in The Lecture Hall and transports to The Nightmare, the same warping effects and particles occur as when the Hunter uses a lamp. The Dreamlands are a location that exists parallel to our own world. They have a landscape just like we do, only they play by slightly different rules. Teleportation is just another method of transportation in the Dreamlands. The Dreamlands exist directly parallel to our own Waking World. While the Waking World is the domain of humanity, the Dreamlands are the lands of the Great Ones. These two worlds exist like a reflection of one another.
The Nightmare Frontier appears to be a reflection of the ravaged Pthumerian land of Loran, as evidenced by the fact that Silverbeasts wander the Frontier and that Amygdala drops the Ailing Loran Chalice. The Hunter’s Nightmare appears to be a reflection of the city of Yharnam itself. The Hunter's Dream is obviously Gehrman's abandoned Workshop. They are places so very similar to their locations in the Waking World, only slightly different.
Consider staring into the mirror, watching your reflection. You stare at it for an hour and, for the very briefest of moments, you see a figure standing behind you in your reflection. Whipping your head behind you, startled, you see that nothing is there. Looking back at your reflection, the figure is gone. What you've just seen is a tiny little rip in the veil that separates the two worlds, the Waking World and the Dreamlands. The figure is, of course, still standing behind you. It exists on a plane of reality parallel to your own, above yours. Maybe the figure was curious about you, wanted to learn more, and in showing interest made itself visible for just the slightest of moments.
"Behold! A Paleblood sky!" This message can be found prior to Rom's death, rather confusingly. If we look up at the sky, nothing is out of the ordinary. The message is still there, however, after Rom's death. Looking at the sky reveals the Blood Moon in all its splendor. Of course the message was there before, because the Blood Moon was always there, we just couldn't see it.
This is what insight allows us to do. With forty insight the Hunter will be able to see the Amygdalae in the Cathedral Ward even before the death of Rom. With fifty insight, the theme music of the Hunter's Dream will change to the theme that plays in the Hunter's Dream after Rom's death even before Rom's death. With sixty insight the Hunter will be able to hear the crying baby when standing next to Arianna, even before the death of Rom. There is a theme here. Insight allows us to glimpse into the realm parallel to our own and see what lies beyond humanity's perception. After the death of Rom, the veil that separates the worlds collapses completely. Insight is no longer necessary; the Blood Moon rises; the Amygdalae are visible; the crying baby is heard constantly. The citizens of Yharnam are driven insane once they are forcibly made to understand the depths of their reality. Simply looking upon the Great Ones is enough to drive someone insane, let alone the twisted knowledge that they lurked above you all your life, always watching you. But where does it fit together? How does Micolash beckon the Blood Moon? Why is he in the Nightmare? Why is he the Host?
What follows is purely my own interpretation and belief based on the evidence I have gathered. Do not consider any of this as solid fact. Instead, use it as my interpretation, so that you can gather your own beliefs.
The School of Mensis was founded to continue the study of the Great Ones began at Byrgenwerth. Micolash reported to Laurence and the Healing Church and in return they kept the existence of the School a secret. After the purge of Old Yharnam, secrecy was no longer necessary and the Choir was formed to study the Old Blood of the Great Ones and Ebrietas. Early on, Micolash and the Choir co-operated, as evidenced by the Augur of Ebrietas that Micolash wields. However Micolash's experiments and the rituals of the School of Mensis slowly grew more twisted. Micolash began to kidnap Hunters, likely to Ludwig’s displeasure. Even the corpse of a Choir member is found chained and imprisoned inside of Yahar'gul, suggesting that Micolash and the Mensis students were growing emboldened by their closing nearer to the Eldritch Truth. In response to this the Choir would send a man named Edgar to infiltrate the School of Mensis and discover what was going on, implying that the school had begun hiding their research from the Choir. We know very little about Edgar; he is found in the Nightmare of Mensis and wears a Student Uniform, wielding a Holy Blade and Rosmarinus. The Official Guide simply names him as Edgar, Choir Intelligence. Edgar traveled into the School of Mensis to find that the students now worshiped the Great Ones as literal gods, the Amygdalae in particular.
The motivations of the Amygdalae are unknown. It's clear that the godlike beings could likely send Yharnam toppling to the ground if they wished. The weapons of mortals pale in comparison to the Great Ones. It's odd really, how they seem so idle and passive as they watch the humans walk by, sometimes reaching down in curiosity to grasp at one. Amygdalae only appear in places of worship. One is found wrapped around the Oedon Chapel, another in the abandoned Church that served as a gateway to Yahar'gul. The Amygdala the player fights is located in what appears to be a large cathedral, where the ancient Pthumerians likely worshiped the Great Ones. Consider the Moon rune's description: "A transcription of "moon," as spoken by the Great Ones inhabiting the nightmare. The Great Ones that inhabit the nightmare are sympathetic in spirit, and often answer when called upon." Perhaps that explains why the Amygdalae which live in the Nightmare congregate around places of worship. Maybe they listen to the hopes and prayers of human beings. In Yahar'gul however, the Amygdalae are everywhere.
As Micolash and the School of Mensis grew closer to the eldritch Truth, they attracted more and more of the Great Ones, like a flame attracting moths. Their final ritual, however, would be their undoing. Somehow Micolash came into possession of one of the Umbilical Cords of the Great Ones. Mergo's Umbilical Cord, to be specific. Here was all the evidence they needed, the Cord of a true Great One: Mergo, child of Yharnam and Oedon. With the results of their research and the Cord of the Eye at their disposal, Micolash and the Mensis students would attempt to ascend to the status of godhood just as Rom and Willem had done with the Orphan’s cord. Micolash would line his brain with eyes. The Cord's description: "Every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate. This Cord granted Mensis audience with Mergo, but resulted in the stillbirth of their brains." Mergo was dead. Indeed, Mergo had died in stillbirth millennia ago in ancient Pthumeru. It's not exactly clear what it would mean for a Great One to be dead, if they can even die in the first place. When the School of Mensis communed with the dead Great One, it was the end of Yahar'gul. The veil between worlds was ripped apart; Bell Ringers brought the dead to life; the citizens fleeing the carnage were frozen in stone, permanently affixed to the walls they so desperately tried to climb to freedom. The many caskets that lined the streets burst open, body parts coagulating together into masses of meat and bone that clung together and attacked the Kidnappers, murdering them.
Mensis was dragged into the Nightmare, ripped open. Micolash and all of his students were dead, but their consciousnesses were pulled down into the Nightmare. Very few would survive this transition, the only two we know of being Micolash and Edgar. Micolash was brought to the Dreamlands, specifically the Nightmare. Edgar likely survived due to the fact that he was not wearing a Mensis Cage and likely did not participate in the ritual, while Micolash is a bit of a special case. Micolash's corpse, still located in Yahar'gul, provided a gateway. Just as the many lamps around Yharnam provide gates to the Hunter's Dream, Micolash's corpse, the Host of the Nightmare, would provide a gateway to the Nightmare. The Nightmare, as we have discussed, appears to be a reflection of the Pthumerian City Loran. If that is the case, perhaps Loran was the place of Mergo's attempted birth. At the top of Mergo's Loft, the castle upon which the Hunter ascends, we find Queen Yharnam weeping. By following her gaze, we ascend to the top of the castle and there we fight Mergo's Wet Nurse. Historically, a Wet Nurse was typically a woman who would breastfeed an infant child if the mother, for whatever reason, was unable to. While fighting her, the Lullaby of Mergo, a haunting melody, plays throughout the area. Perhaps the Wet Nurse was a Great One summoned by Yharnam to care for her future child, or perhaps the Wet Nurse was created as some kind of manifestation of Mergo’s consciousness. Either way, the Wet Nurse is a fully formed Great One. She bleeds red just as the Amygdalae, the Orphan, and the Moon Presence do, instead of the clear fluid that the Kin bleed. She is the dominant force ruling over the Nightmare from atop Mergo's Loft, and something peculiar occurs upon slaying her. In the English version of Bloodborne, the blue text PREY SLAUGHTERED accompanies a victorious boss fight. In the Japanese version, it's the blue text YOU HUNTED. But in both versions, killing Mergo's Wet Nurse causes the red text NIGHTMARE SLAIN to appear on the screen. I was rather confused when I had first seen this. Consider Bloodborne's tagline: Hunt your Nightmares. Let's pause for a moment and look at the four fully-fledged Great Ones that the Hunter encounters: The Wet Nurse, Amygdala, the Orphan, and the Moon Presence. Of the four, Amygdala is the only one who does not grant the NIGHTMARE SLAIN message. The Wet Nurse, the Orphan, and the Moon Presence are the only three enemies in the game who make that message appear on screen.
This puzzled me for a very, very long time until I came to a rather simple conclusion: Amygdala isn't dead. Even after killing the one in the Nightmare Frontier, the other Amygdalae still remain. The Hunter even kills another Amygdala in the Pthumerian Labyrinth. Perhaps the Amygdalae aren't individual members of a single species after all, but a single Great One. After all, Patches speaks to the Amygdala that grabs you in the Cathedral Ward as if it is Amygdala itself. I only had this revelation after refighting Mergo's Wet Nurse in NG+ and realizing that she appears to create a perfect clone of herself, using it to fight me. The Great Ones exist on a level far beyond our comprehension, who is to say they can't be in multiple places at once? In the depths of Great Isz the Hunter even fights Ebrietas for a second time, who appears to have been there all along. Whatever the mystery behind the Nightmare Slain message, slaying the Wet Nurse ends Mergo’s consciousness and puts the Mensis Rituals to an end.
However the ritual had not been an entire failure. The ascension had worked, more or less. A new Great One was born from the stillbirthed minds of the Mensis Students: the Brain of Mensis. The Living String tells us: "The immense brain that Mensis retrieved from the nightmare was indeed lined with eyes on the inside, but they were of an evil sort, and the brain itself was terrible rotten. But even still, it was a legitimate Great One, and left a relic. A living relic, at that, which is a precious thing indeed." The Brain of Mensis is a helpless Great One whose only real strength is the madness it causes by looking upon it. The Brain of Mensis is suspended in Mergo's Loft, acting as a living weapon that attacks oncomers. If the Hunter finds their way down to a lever accessible by fighting past the Winter Lanterns, they can release the chains on the Brain of Mensis and send it hurtling into the abyss. Working back down to the base of Mergo's Loft they will find a new elevator which brings them down to the fallen, helpless Great One.
It was kind of sad, really. When I first encountered the Brain of Mensis, twitching there, a mass of brain and eyes that watched me walking back and forth, I wasn't really sure what to do with it. Should I kill it? It certainly wasn't aggressive, it was simply lying there and clearly had no way of fighting back. I decided to do what had become a bit of a habit for me whenever I encountered something having to do with the Great Ones: I put on the Mensis Cage and performed the Make Contact gesture. The Mensis Cage is described as: "This hexagonal iron cage suggests their strange ways. The cage is a device that restrains the will of the self, allowing one to see the profane world for what it is.It also serves as an antenna that facilitates contact with the Great Ones of the dream.But to an observer, the iron cage appears to be precisely what delivered them to their harrowing nightmare."
I had learned early that the Doll would respond to gestures, leading me to believe there were others that would as well. Just like everyone else, I was hoping to find some kind of secret somewhere. So far, I had been thoroughly unsuccessful. No matter where I wore the Mensis Cage or to whom I performed Make Contact, nothing had happened. So I sat there, like an idiot I told myself, as my Hunter stood in front of the Brain of Mensis with his arms outstretched. I knew from experience that eventually the Hunter would change positions, and I had taken to waiting for that moment before moving on with whatever I was doing. To my complete and utter surprise, an item appeared in my inventory. It was a Moon Rune, the most powerful one I had encountered. "The Great Ones that inhabit the nightmare are sympathetic in spirit, and often answer when called upon." It was a moment that legitimately made me feel bad about this thing in front of me. I decided to kill it. Maybe the fact that it gave me a Moon Rune, a Rune that grants more Blood Echoes upon killing enemies, was some kind of cry for an end to its misery. I was rewarded with the Living String, an item I had been looking for idly for quite some time as it was needed to access Pthumeru Ihyll.
Later I would read online that the Mensis Cage was unnecessary, and one simply had to perform Make Contact. To my surprise I would read that nobody had discovered any use for the Mensis Cage whatsoever. Nothing? Really? Not a single secret unlocked with such an item that seems so obviously placed to unlock a secret? Maybe the Cage doesn't do anything at all. Maybe, in their madness, the delusions of the Mensis Students convinced them it worked even though it wasn't necessary. Their madness, after all, would deliver them to their harrowing nightmare.
Grant us eyes, grant us eyes. Plant eyes on our brains, to cleanse our beastly idiocy.
–Micolash, Host of the Nightmare