#chalice dungeons

[ijustreblogstuff-i-like]

Thank you for carrying me though the chalice dungeons and keeping me company

[fantomette22]

Also look who i found in the root chalice dungeons yesterday xD

The gang is all here!

(I only have half my life bar here that was the worst idea. All of this to be able to aceed all the possible glyph…)

[tombprospectors]

Greetings, my fellow explorers of the labyrinth! This is a blog dedicated to chalice dungeons from Bloodborne.

Here I will be posting about adventures in the dungeons, glyphs and findings, unique layouts, and, occasionally, writing. I'd also like to encourage you to share your stories and glyphs as well!

RULES OF SUBMISSION: [template here]

Use the Submit button for sharing glyphs, screenshots and stories from your own dives into the chalice dungeons.

Use the Ask button for requests for help with a chalice dungeon, questions for the mun, etc.

Anything not related to chalice dungeons will be deleted (exceptions can be made, for example, if it is related to Ludwig).

Any kind of negativity about the chalice dungeon mechanic, be it an ask or a submission, will be deleted, unless it's exceptionally funny. I will post it just to have a good chuckle about it. Be clever about your hate!

WHAT WILL BE POSTED:

Glyphs I find interesting.

Glyphs you find interesting.

Screenshots and gifs of chalice dungeons.

Art of chalice dungeons, their denizens and tomb prospectors.

Writing that involves chalice dungeons, meta and fic both. This includes tomb prospector ocs!

I, the mun, am not connected to r/tombprospectors or tomb prospectors discord.

[bobbyzombiegg]

hey labyrinth pilgrims are rare right? Cause I found one

[beesmygod]

im making this separate so that i can just link to it in the post im making. its too big of a sidebar to keep in. but its also too cool not to mention lol. i sure as shit didnt notice this until now.

---

i believe the beast-possessed soul was once a labyrinth ritekeeper turned by the scourge. my evidence is the similarity in height, the canon knowledge that clerics (in loran as well) transform into horned beasts, and the fire throwing ability they share that is otherwise unique to pthumerians.

but i have a very convincing final piece of evidence: the ritekeepers are actually holding a sage's wrist which is used to buff enemies around it (it does, as the item description says, invigorate the watchers). as a result, the arm that was holding the hand is much larger than the other after transformation.*

the point of this being: there ONE beast possessed soul outside of the chalice dungeons and he drops the beast rune (the titular possession). i believe the encounter with the beast possessed soul was the flashpoint for the first plot significant caryll rune, as "beast" is described as one of the first. the final line of the rune reads:

"The discovery of blood entailed the discovery of undesirable beasts."

if byrgenwerth followed the same or similar progression we do into the dungeons, they would have encountered him in the central pthumeru chalice after clearing the first layer of the pthumerian labyrinth.

---

*i recognize that having one big arm is a common motif in the game, but the other major example is the cleric beast and by extension, laurence (who is just a cleric beast on fire). however, the cleric transformation is a result of the described "failed implementation" of the "beast's embrace" rune, which is dropped by laurence.

[kaus-quietis]

Bloodborne Chalice Dungeons: The Co-Op Quest for Platinum || Photo Album Fragments 2/2 || with @echo-from-the-void

[the-mold-under-your-bed123]

So I’m playing the chalice dungeon in bloodborne and I don’t think they should have reused rom because you already fight her in the over world in a arena that had more space and I believe in the soulsborne creators to be a lot more creative, I get sometimes it works but not all the time but I feel like that it could have been different rather than fighting the same boss twice

[trappedinafantasy37]

"This boss is really tough. How do I get stronger?" "Go to the cum dungeon!"

[3scythes]

I’m laughing at this photo of the Bloodletting Beast on the Bloodborne Fextralife page because like

This is exactly what this asshole keeps doing to me. And you just have to sit there helpless while the dude smacks you around and then slams you into the ground.

[ijustreblogstuff-i-like]

Me listening to my unorganized Spotify playlist as I speed through the chalice dungeons

[darkmist111]

So something I think is insane that everyone just seems to be glossing over is Riptide can apparently right illusory holographic messages while in sword form! Which is like the coolest details ever and also totally works with Riptide!!! Like Riptide isn’t a pen that turn into a sword it’s a pen than changes form into a sword but it still a pen! That’s so awesome! Imagine Percy killing monsters and they wake up in Tartarus with Percy’s signature Riptide mark. Or what if he can alter magical contracts with it!

It’s also funny that after Chalice of the Gods and the Child Proof Cap incident Percy probably finally tried to figure out exactly how his weapon actually worked.

I’m a D&D nerd and Illusory script is a underrated spell and this just got my brain buzzing.

[bobbyzombiegg]

The player going through the story chalices mirrors the fishing hamlet massacre. Both are homes to a race of people altered by the great ones, in which they are invaded and massacred by an outside force seeking knowledge and power (Players seeking lore or loot), and end in a pregnant mother being torn from her child (3 third cord and the paperweight Yharnam gives you). Another thing I've noticed is that you could say repeat playthroughs are the player going "Blooddrunk" since, unlike the first playthrough, you're going through with a hitlist of bosses and not getting too involved in the story. (This is different for some people but most people I've seen do repeat playthroughs like this).

[lesbianholyspirit]

Grinding in elden ring: go shoot this bird so it walks off a cliff, or kill some sad frog looking guys

Grinding in bloodborne: cum dungeon

[disgustiphage]

nothing bad happened to her, she's totally fine actually

[undefeatablesin]

Watch out ya'll, Sin's sketching Bloodborne comics again! 💀

[bellepeppergirl]

The Pthumerians

The Pthumerians were/are an ancient race of humanoids who lived deep below ground in Pthumeru Ithyll, or the Chalice Dungeons. It is unclear if they always lived down there or if they merely moved down there and then evolved into their current form from one that looked more human, but what is known is that they were the servants of the Great Ones. Not just servants, but likely a slave race whose sole purpose was to care for the Great Ones and expand the Chalice Dungeons endlessly.

Regardless of whether or not the Pthumerians originated above or underground, descendants of them can be found in both orientations. It seems an ancient branch of Pthumerians, or perhaps several branches, eventually breached the surface and subsequently created Yharnam and Cainhurst. There could be other locations in the world of Bloodborne that were created by the Pthumerians as well, as we don't know just how far the tombs sprawl beneath the surface, and it is very likely that some of their descendants could have simply traveled to new locations as well.

The Executioners are said to be from a foreign land, and among their ranks are the likes of Martyr Logarius, who is notably very Pthumerian in appearance. This could mean that there are more Pthumerian-descended civilizations out there, or that Logarius was simply a member of the Healing Church, which also employs (or really seems to enslave) many of these people themselves, and Logarius was simply appointed by them to lead the Eexecutioners during their siege and genocide of Cainhurst.

I mentioned Logarius having a very Pthumerian appearance, but what does that mean exactly? Throughout the game, we can encounter many Pthumerians. Each of these individuals have incredibly pale skin, straight up alabaster in color in some cases, with sunken, black eyes and somewhat strange mouths. Build-wise, Pthumerians have a number of shapes they can take, with some being rather tiny and frail, but most of them seem to be quite large, with their height being anywhere from slightly taller than a hunter, to almost twice as tall, to being literal giants. The variations between these Pthumerians could indicate that there are different branches, something like humans having once had homo sapiens, neanderthal, and denisovans, but they could also simply just be prone to intense levels of diversity, or even be affected by arcane arts or the influence of the Great Ones they serve.

The arcane arts seem to be a very important thing to the Pthumerians, as the tombs they live in are full of items and alters for ritual. Not only that, but we can find many Pthumerian witches who will assault us with magic. The Bell Ringing Women, who also seem to be Pthumerian, can also summon enemies to attack us. I am inclined to believe that the enemies they summon are the spirits of the dead and that the Bell Ringing Women act as necromancers, though it is also possible that these enemies are from different realities as well, similar to how player invasions work. Another point towards necromancy however is the fact that, within the dungeons, we can find several Pthumerian giants who are labeled as being undead. They look far different from the living ones we see above ground and are often adorned with candles, making them look like walking ritual alters. We can also find the occasional ghost wandering the dark corridors of the tombs.

I mentioned earlier that the peoples of Yharnam and Cainhurst are descended from the Pthumerians, but how do we know that? Well, for Yharnamites, it is much more obvious. Yharnamites have a distinct look about them. It isn't quite the same as that of the Pthumerians, but it is still quite different than the average person, like the hunters we meet from foreign lands. Yharnamites are tall, lanky, with seemingly mismatched proportions. These traits could be chalked up to the affects of beasthood and the Old Blood, but it seems odd that characters seemingly unaffected by the plague, such as the old woman or distrustful man we can send to Oedon Chapel still have these characteristics. On top of that, the city of Yharnam itself is named after Yharnam, the Pthumerian Queen.

"Yharnam" has been posited to be a name passed down from queen to queen. I think this is likely true and that the name is a thing of power and ritual. When a Pthumerian woman becomes queen, she also becomes Yharnam. The city was thus eventually named after the Pthumerian queens, though its possible its people have forgotten the origin of the name, especially with the Healing Church's take over and the burning and abandonment of Old Yharnam - Old Yharnam having an aesthetic and culture that seems much more in line with those below ground than those of Central Yharnam and the Cathedral Ward.

Old Yharnam is home to many statues that are bestial in nature and, while other parts of Yharnam aren't exactly strangers to fucked up looking statues themselves, Old Yharnam's still feel much more in line with what we find underground; much more archaic and dark. On top of that, the most damning evidence is the Church of the Good Chalice, where we can find the first Pthumerian Chalice on an alter. We can also find ritual blood on a separate alter. These two findings offer a direct link to the tombs, and thus to the Pthumerians, and paint the other oddities of Old Yharnam under a much more suspicious and Pthumerian-themed light.

But what about Cainhurst? Cainhurst's connections aren't as clear cut, but I believe the clues are there. For starters, the people of Cainhurst, the Vilebloods, are even more Pthumerian in appearance than the Yharnamites are. The people were see have drastic changes in sizes, some being short and hunched over little goblin men, kind of like the Pthumerian leg witches we see in the tombs, while the ghosts of victims we see are rather tall. These ghosts are also incredibly pale like the Pthumerians, but they are also ghosts, so who knows which is the cause.

Queen Annalise, on the other hand, is not a ghost, yet still bears these traits. Her skin is pale and grey, and almost shiny. Now, Annalise being a queen who isn't named Yharnam could be a flaw in this theory, but the people of Cainhurst and the people of Yharnam are enemies, so it makes sense that they wouldn't keep the same name. On top of that, some have posited the idea of a Pthumerian civil war, as thousands of corpses and ancient sets of weapons and armor can be found underground. These could all be from explorers, but the sheer number of these corpses and items makes it seem unlikely that they are JUST from explorers, possibly indicating that the split between Cainhurst and Yharnam was a lot further back in time.

Other possible links to the Pthumerians are the fact that we can find gargoyles and blood lickers in Cainhurst. Now, blood lickers can be found in other places as well, such as in the Hunter's Nightmare, as the creatures are simply attracted to blood. Blood lickers very well could be some form of interdimensional beings who just seek out blood, since the ones we encounter in the Chalice Dungeons mainly come out when we kill an enemy via visceral attack, but the fact that in the base game, these were the only two places we could find them could still be a link.

The gargoyles on the other hand are not found in the DLC, nor anywhere else. They can only be found in the Chalice Dungeons and Cainhurst. The gargoyles are rather humanoid in nature, so it is possible that they themselves are another form of Pthumerian. Alternatively, they could be beasthood afflicted Pthumerians, as beasthood affects people in a number of ways and the people of the dungeons did commune with the Old Blood. These beasthood afflicted Pthumerians could have been subsequently used as guard dogs, seeing as they tend to wait in inconspicuous places to jump out and grab any intruder who passes by.

Another potential connection is the fact that, when we arrive at Cainhurst, the courtyard we first enter has a strange hole. A sloping path leads down into the ground but seems to dead end. I personally believe this is, or was, an entrance to the dungeons that has since been sealed off and possibly where the branch that would become the Vilebloods first ascended. We can find a similar location in Yharnam, that being a cave below Iosefka's Clinic and the Forbidden Woods that is full of poison water and Pthumerian Giants who do not seem to be under the control of the Healing Church. Notably, these two locations also features the annoying worm enemies, which can also be found within Loran Silverbeasts where killed. Loran Silverbeasts can be found within the dungeons, and within the nightmare, and could possibly link Loran to the Pthumerians as well.

It is also interesting to note the fact that the streets of Yharnam are filled with coffins. This very well could be due to the plague that is ravaging the city, but it could also be one of the few remaining remnants of Pthumerian culture that hasn't been fully abolished yet; that connection to death and necromancy. The School of Mensis in Yahar'Gul seems to use necromancy themselves, as we can find abominations like wolves made of corpses, or the Cramped Caskets that are sentient masses of limbs that are fused together and inhabiting, well, cramped caskets. Yahar'Gul is also where we fight the One Reborn, a failed attempt at creating a Great One, or a vessel for a Great One, who is also made up of corpses and aided by Bell Ringing women, who I already discussed the connections to necromancy and Pthumerians. Yahar'Gul is also where the Snatchers reside or bring victims to, Snatchers once again being very clearly Pthumerian in appearance and located within the dungeons.

So that was my random ramble about Pthumerians and the culture likely descended from them. I may have missed some aspect that I wished to talk about since I got carried away a few times, and maybe some of this stuff is pointless, already well known, or simply not cared about, but I enjoy rambling about Fromsoft lore, especially my precious baby, Bloodborne. To anyone who read this, thanks! Would love to hear any thoughts.