Chapter One: Byrgenwerth, Kos, and The Vacuous Spider

"Byrgenwerth is an old place of learning. And the tomb of the gods, carved out below Yharnam, should be familiar to every hunter. Well, once a group of young Byrgenwerth scholars discovered a holy medium deep within the tomb. This led to the founding of the Healing Church, and the establishment of blood healing. In this sense, everything sacred in Yharnam can be traced back to Byrgenwerth."

–Alfred, Vileblood Hunter

Everything begins at Byrgenwerth. An old institution of learning, Byrgenwerth was built in a peaceful, secluded area away from the neighboring city and close to a great lake. It is here that a group of individuals studied and explored the depths of human knowledge.

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.

There were many students at Byrgenwerth. There were, however certain individuals of note other than the students, figures of importance who formed the inner circle so to speak. While not all of them were scholars, for the purpose of this analysis I refer to this group of individuals as The Byrgenwerth Scholars, or The Scholars for short.

Those individuals who we can safely conclude were members of The Scholars consisted of Willem, Laurence, Micolash, and Carryl.

Master Willem was the head of the academy and a highly respected figure. All characters who refer to Willem specifically refer to Master Willem, indicating a deep respect for the figure even if they had differences in beliefs. There is also a reference found on the Rune Workshop Tool which refers to him as Provost Willem. A Provost is an administrator of an academic facility which supports placing Willem as the head of the academy and the leading figure. Master Willem's primary focus of study concerned the limits of human intelligence.

Laurence is a much more enigmatic figure, especially for a character so important. From the Beast skull in the Grand Cathedral, the PC Hunter witnesses a memory of an encounter between Laurence and Willem, in which Willem accuses the younger Laurence of betraying him. A note left on the Cathedral staircase reads: "Place your hand on the altar's sacred covering, and inscribe Master Laurence's adage upon your flesh." That Laurence would be revered so highly infers that he must have been a very significant figure in the Healing Church. It is well documented that the Healing Church has its roots in Byrgenwerth College. The Byrgenwerth Student Uniform states:

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.

Laurence’s title is that of the First Vicar, given to him both by the Human Skull of the Nightmare and in his boss fight, confirming this idea that Laurence was in fact one of the Church's founders, splitting from Byrgenwerth in an event that I will later describe as The Schism.

Micolash, the boss encountered in the Nightmare of Mensis, was another Scholar, as evidenced by the tattered Byrgenwerth uniform he wears during the PC Hunter's fight against him; Micolash also makes references to other parts of Byrgenwerth, which I will discuss later.

Caryll was a genius runesmith who, through unknown methods, could listen to the scratchings and utterings of the Great Ones. While she could not understand the inhuman words they spoke, she managed to etch them into visual symbols that could be identified. The Rune Workshop Tool describes Caryll as: "Runesmith Caryll, student of Byrgenwerth, transcribed the inhuman utterings of the Great Ones into what are now called Caryll Runes."

There are also two individuals whom we can believe to have been a member of The Scholars: Gehrman and Maria.

Gehrman was most assuredly an acquaintance of both Laurence and Willem. After the PC Hunter defeats Rom, The Vacuous Spider, they can find Gehrman whimpering in his sleep. "Oh, Laurence... Master Willem... Somebody help me…" Gehrman is also, as we know, the First Hunter. He founded the Workshop, located in a hidden section of the Upper Cathedral Ward, and presumably worked with the Church in its infancy. Judging from Gehrman’s combat proficiency and master craftsmanship he may have been a bodyguard for tomb excavations, a groundskeeper, or a handyman for the college at large.

Maria was Gehrmans’ greatest pupil, and judging from the fact that she takes over the Research Hall of the Healing Church it’s possible that she was a student at the College under Laurence. Regardless, her participation in the events which would take place at the Hamlet place her as a member of the Byrgenwerth Scholars prior to its schism.

We can now look at The Scholars, having explored each one individually, as a collective unit. Willem, Laurence, Micolash, Gehrman, Maria, and Carryl were individuals at the Byrgenwerth College, an institution dedicated to the furthering of knowledge and the exploration of the massive Labyrinth built underground. It was in this Labyrinth that the scholars made the discovery that put every event in Bloodborne into motion. Indeed, the entire history of Bloodborne can be traced to a single defining moment, in which The Scholars discovered something deep inside the ancient Pthumerian Crypts. The Executioner Alfred muses that "Once a group of young Byrgenwerth scholars discovered a holy medium deep within the tomb. This led to the founding of the Healing Church, and the establishment of blood healing." Deep inside the Labyrinth, the Scholars discovered the Old Blood. It is unclear exactly what was found, but in the upper level of the Byrgenwerth mansion we can find the Empty Phantasm Shell."Empty invertebrate shell that is said to be a familiar of a Great One. The Healing Church has discovered a great variety of invertebrates, or phantasms, as they are called." Whatever was found, it was proof of the existence of the Great Ones. It's possible that The Scholars discovered Ebrietas, the abandoned and left-behind Great One who would later commune with the Healing Church. They certainly discovered a source of the Old Blood, the tainted Blood of the Great Ones. Whether it was Ebrietas or something else is unclear.

With the discovery of the Old Blood and of the Great Ones, everything changed. Evolution became the goal; push the limits of humanity and become something greater. Ascend to the level of the Great Ones, push humanity into its next stage. A scribbled note found in the Nightmare Lecture Hall reads: "Master Willem was right. Evolution without courage will be the ruin of our race." However it quickly became apparent that some of The Scholars, and Laurence in particular, differed in their belief on how the evolution should be carried out. Carryl's Eye Rune states:"Eyes symbolize the truth Master Willem sought in his research. Disillusioned by the limits of human intellect. Master Willem looked to beings from higher planes for guidance, and sought to line his brain with eyes in order to elevate his thoughts." However, Carryl's Metamorphosis Runes state: "The discovery of blood made their dream of evolution a reality. Metamorphosis, and the excesses and deviation that followed, was only the beginning."

There are two different resources that the Player collects during their time in Bloodborne: Blood Echoes, and Insight. The Echoes is the method in which the PC Hunter gains power, while Insight is the method in which the PC Hunter gains knowledge. While some at Byrgenwerth believed that knowledge and understanding of the Great Ones and the higher planes of existence would lead to humanity's uplifting, others believed that it was through the imbibing and fusing with the Old Blood that would lead to humanity's ascension. This was a concept anathema to everything Willem stood for.

Fear the Old Blood

These two fundamentally opposed philosophies would lead to The Byrgenwerth Schism. But there’s another piece of the puzzle.

Upon entering the Fishing Hamlet in the Hunter’s Nightmare, the PC Hunter is greeted by a Fish Kin, muttering to himself. "Byrgenwerth… Byrgenwerth… Blood-crazed murderers. Blasphemous fiends." If the player is wearing the Milkweed Rune, the Kin will give them the Accursed Brew, a skull which states: "Skull of a local from the violated fishing village. The inside of the skull was forcibly searched for eyes, as evidenced by innumerable scratches and indentations." Whatever happened in the Fishing Hamlet must have had to do with Kos, the Great One found at the end of the area. Kos is apparently dead, and while the Hunter battles her Orphan, the Great One is long since past. Other than the mutterings of the Fish Kin, there is only one other reference to Kos, that of Micolash in his commune with the cosmos. "Ahh, Kos, or some say Kosm... Do you hear our prayers? As you once did for the vacuous Rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes."

Rom, as the PC Encounters, is a large creature who is found at the bottom of the Moonside Lake of Byrgenwerth. Rom's title is that of the Vacuous Spider, and is shown to be very relatively weak. Rom's only real strength comes from the Spider Kin she can spawn to defend herself. Other than that she is barely capable of defending herself either through carelessly hurling shards of energy, or thrashing wildly at her enemy.

When the player encounters Rom it is the defining moment in which the story of Bloodborne goes from a narrative of hunting Beasts, to a sudden understanding that we, the player, have barely even scratched the surface of a much, much darker truth. But Rom is not a fully developed Great One. Micolash, in his communing with the cosmos, mutters: "As you once did for the vacuous Rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes. Plant eyes on our brains, to cleanse our beastly idiocy." Rom was not always a Great One. Eyes planted on her brain to cleanse her idiocy, Rom ascended to become one.

Vacuous is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: Having or showing a lack of thought or intelligence; mindless. The word comes from the Latin vacuus meaning empty, along with the suffix -ous, meaning by the nature of.

Where does Rom come from? Who is she? What is her relation to the dead Great One, Kos?

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.

In Byrgenwerth, Master Willem and his students toiled away to excavate the Pthumerian Labyrinth underground, studying their Gods and exploring the depths of human intellect. The Byrgenwerth Scholars made two major breakthroughs in their study. Their first major discovery was the Old Blood, specifically the blood of a Great One. It’s possible that this Great One was Ebrietas, as in the Byrgenwerth Lecture Hall we can discover the Augur of Ebrietas, and we also find an Empty Phantasm Shell in the upper chamber of the Byrgenwerth Mansion.

The second great discovery was Kos. When I first played The Old Hunters DLC, my initial impression had been that it was the Byrgenwerth Scholars who had killed Kos. When I shared this theory, many people pointed to the description of the Kos Parasite, which states: "When the carcass of Kos washed up on the coast, its insides were teeming with tiny parasites, unlike any found in humans." The argument was that this gave evidence to the fact that Kos had actually been dead prior to the encounter with Byrgenwerth, having washed up on the coast of the Fishing Village. I was unsure about my conclusion, and couldn’t decide which theory was more accurate until I played through the DLC a second time, and encountered Maria. Her words, now that I had seen the entire picture, made much more sense.

A corpse... should be left well alone. Oh, I know very well. How the secrets beckon so sweetly.

When I first encountered Maria, I had naturally assumed she was talking about her own corpse. Now that I had seen what lay beyond her care, everything fell into place. As I wandered around the Fishing Hamlet, taking a look at its design and features, I came to a new conclusion. Look at how the Kin of the Hamlet throw their harpoons; how the Giants wield massive anchors; how the wrecks of mighty vessels line the coast. This isn’t some quaint fishing village, it’s a whaling town. Prior to the release of the DLC, many players had noted the strange masts sticking out of the water in the Nightmare Frontier. We can now see the origin of these vessels, the Hamlet. The villagers must have sighted the Great One Kos in the sea one day, rising up and taking arms to kill what they must have perceived as a monster. They hunted and killed her, losing many of their whaling ships in the process but inevitably returning home victorious, having sent the creature back to the sea. But one day, the corpse of the dead Great One washed ashore. When the villagers investigated the corpse they found it teeming with parasites, which soon infected and took over the minds and bodies of the villagers, transforming them into the Kin that we encounter them as.

Inevitably, word reached Byrgenwerth of the Dead God on the Hamlet. They sent two individuals to investigate the Hamlet: Gehrman and Maria. The announcement trailer featured Gehrman with his scythe extended, walking into the Hamlet, and we find Rakuyo, Maria’s weapon, in the Hamlet well. Gehrman, the First Hunter, traveled along with his greatest pupil Maria to the Hamlet and butchered the Kin. The skulls were split open in search of eyes, and the First Hunters carved a path towards the corpse of Kos. It is there that their greatest blasphemy was committed. The elevator to the Healing Church Research Hall depicts three statues hovering over a child, examining it. The central figure is clearly a depiction of Master Willem, featuring the same robes and hat as the Provost’s.

Gehrman and Maria discovered that the dead Kos had been pregnant, the unborn fetus still intact. A very important rule of Bloodborne’s world is that even if an individual dies in the Waking World, their consciousness may still remain in the Dreamlands. This is something that will come up time and time again, and is evidenced by the existence of Micolash’s corpse in the Waking World. The unborn, murdered Great One was brought back to the Byrgenwerth college and dissected in the name of science. What was retrieved was a Cord of the Eye, the Orphan’s umbilical cord.

And it was then that Master Willem, the greatest mind of Byrgenwerth, had an epiphany. Willem is quoted in the description of the Great One's Wisdom as having stated: "We are thinking on the basest of planes. What we need, are more eyes." The Eye is indeed the symbol representing not just Insight in the Player's HUD, but also the knowledge of the higher planes of existence and of the Great Ones.

The discovery of the Great Ones and the Old Blood split The Scholars into two opposing factions. One I have dubbed the Loyalists, led by Master Willem. The Loyalists believed in evolution through Eyes, the accumulation of insight that would let humanity ascend. This faction consisted of Willem and his students. The other faction, which I have dubbed the Radicals, was led by Laurence. The Radicals believed in evolution through Blood, the accumulation of power that would let humanity ascend. This faction consisted of Laurence, Micolash, Gehrman, and Maria. While there was never any violence between these two groups, the fundamental difference in philosophy led to them inevitably separating to go their own paths. While the Loyalists remained at Byrgenwerth, the Radicals founded the Healing Church in the pursuit of further spreading their knowledge of the Old Blood. This schism was not also purely among The Scholars, but also amongst the student populous, with many leaving along with the Radicals.

With the Healing Church founding and flourishing, Willem and the remaining Loyalists were no doubt concerned with the growing power and the threat they posed. The Loyalists were fully aware that the actions of the Healing Church in their use of the Old Blood would lead to the spread of the Scourge.

While the Healing Church spread throughout Yharnam, Willem and the remaining Loyalists got to work on their own research. This is where things get fuzzy, as there is very little information available on this crucial point in time. What we can see however, are the results of the Loyalists' research. If the PC Hunter encounters Iosefka, or rather, the imposter Iosefka, after the Blood Moon has risen, killing her will make her drop a Cord of the Eye, which states: Provost Willem sought the Cord in order to elevate his being and thoughts to those of a Great One, by lining his brain with eyes. The only choice, he knew, if man were to ever match Their greatness.

When the PC Hunter first enters the Byrgenwerth Mansion, they encounter on the second floor an NPC Hunter named Yurie who appears to be a member of the Choir, the highest-ranking members of the Healing Church. Yurie wields A Call Beyond, the Choir's ultimate weapon, and wears the Blindfold Cap and the attire of a Choir member. This would show that the Choir returned to the ruins of Byrgenwerth from time to time in order to gather old research notes or artifacts. That the imposter Iosefka, who wields a weapon of the Choir, an Augur of Ebrietas, would be in possession of an artifact that once belonged to Master Willem can be explained as such. The Choir recovered this cord, the umbilical cord of the Orphan of Kos. Willem had used the Cord in order to further his research, delving deeper and deeper into the depths of human understanding. During this point in time, with intense research into the Great Ones being conducted at Byrgenwerth, the students were twisted and transformed into Gardens of Eyes for Willem’s research, bizarre Kin of the Cosmos who would wander the grounds. Only four individuals were left intact: Willem, Dores the Graveguard, the unnamed Doorman who would be entrusted with the password, and Rom. Whatever happened to Caryll is unclear. She may have left with Laurence. She may have been transformed along with the student body, or she may have left Byrgenwerth at an unspecified time to continue her research separately. However, thanks to Caryll's transcriptions of the inhuman uttering of the Great Ones, the Loyalists learned of the importance and the power held by great bodies of water. If we take a look at any of the Lake or Sea runes, we can find the description: "Great volumes of water serve as a bulwark guarding sleep, and an augur of the eldritch Truth. Overcome this hindrance, and seek what is yours." This even matches the game mechanics, in which runes representing Water provide defense and resistance.

The grand lake of mud, hidden now, from sight.

–Micolash

Master Willem's last, great ritual ascended Rom into that of a newly formed Great One. Placed at the bottom of the Moonside Lake, Rom's empty mind served as a shield for our physical plane, protected by the great body of water. It prevented the beckoning of the Moon Presence by Laurence's Healing Church. With his knowledge and understanding of the Great Ones, Willem was able to use the Orphan’s Cord to rebirth a new Great One and line her brain with eyes, using her as a living bulwark to seal away the Great Ones, the Nightmare, and the Blood Moon. But where did she come from?

We have already determined what the word vacuous means: empty, mindless. This can very easily be attributed to a simpleton, or to a braindead being. Rom, however, certainly does not seem to be braindead. While she is weak, she most certainly attempts to defend herself in the meager ways she has. In the interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki found in the Official Guide, Mizayaki was asked what his favorite boss was. His answer was Rom. But that in itself, while interesting, was not very striking. However the specifics of his response were… unexpected. "I really like her. There are some oddly cute aspects to her moves and modeling." There is another type being that is blank, empty. As John Locke writes, human beings are born Tabula Rasa, a blank slate, empty beings that are given shape by our experiences. A being that can be described as being cute, weak, helpless, and empty of thoughts, lacking of experience: an infant. From Miyazaki’s Interview:"In the world of Bloodborne, babies that are treated as "special" in one way or the other are offered as lures to the Great Ones. The Great Ones have all lost their children because of their positions, and as a result, they’re attracted to these ‘special’ babies. The babies are one way of calling them."

The Hunter can find a note in Yahar’gul left by a dead Hunter, which reads: "Nightmarish rituals crave a newborn. Find one, and silence its harrowing cry." The first instinct of the player is to associate this with the School of Mensis. They must be using some child to perform a ritual. But Micolash and his students are only following in the footsteps of Master Willem, trying to reproduce the success of the Loyalists of Byrgenwerth.

As you once did for the vacuous Rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes. Plant eyes on our brains, to cleanse our beastly idiocy.

Rom is not a Great One, in fact Bloodborne causes understandable confusion in that it refers to many different species, factions, and groups as belonging to the singular group The Great Ones. But the Kin, ascended mortals who bleed a clear Serum, are not fully fledged, complete and whole Great Ones like the Moon Presence, the Wet Nurse, or the Orphan. They are merely Kin of the Cosmos. Killing Rom does not drop a Great One Coldblood; killing Rom drops a Kin Coldblood. Rom, daughter of Willem, either literally or metaphorically, born from the fruits of his research and used to ascend. Look at the way she moves, desperately backing away from the Hunter, she seems almost infantile. Unlike the rest of the Kin that are encountered, Rom has no natural defense mechanisms other than her ability to manipulate energy. If you ask me, she doesn’t look like a spider at all… she looks like a caterpillar. The infant form of a butterfly, one that may have become beautiful.