#fear my old blood laurence

[paladinmochi123]

Kiss Your Homies Goodnight before The Hunt

Hunter of Vilebloods x Runaway Vileblood 🫣🫣🫣🫣

Lady Marigold and Alfred have an "Enemies to lovers, but still Enemies." relationship but they always sneak off to some secluded corner of Cathedral ward to talk, they can share "Oodles" of information for hours.

Art by: Me, Paladinmochi123

[vacakar0]

IT FINALLY HAPPENED. AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. WE'RE ON SPOTIFY.

Laurence, the first Vicar! Art by me!

I love the evil-sounding brass in that segment.

[synthwayve]

You guys will never guess what movie I rewatched today that also happens to have a vain blonde guy who staves off a beastly form brought about by his own hubris

Anyway my brainrot is so bad I just see this loser in everything now so. I bring you Laurence with Howl’s outfit(though I tried to make the jacket/colors resemble choir garb). I may be crazy.

[vector--xd]

In my dreams I look for your face, but I only found fangs and blood. The man has vanished, and the beast takes its place.

Laurence, were you ever real, or were you always that beast?

(My oc x Canon)

[fantomette22]

Laurence the scholar

Laurence the Vicar

[bornetoblood]

YES!!! Yes!!!

I think this fits really well with the idea that we walk in on Amelia literally just becoming the head of the Church (Cus of the “touch the altar skull engrave the adage on your flesh” note next to her boss room). Like we have no idea how many vicars Yharnam has gone through or how long the Church has even been around and I like that quite a lot. Like the exact length of time doesn’t matter it matters that it is a cycle!!!!

on the subject of amelia — it’s always vexed me that we know so little about her. no history, no background, she doesn’t even have a unique model! but it got me thinking that maybe that’s intentional. the church around her still clearly wields the highest authority in the land with a crop of devoted subjects singing its praises in the streets. however, the vicar — the highest church authority! — is an astonishingly minor character.

i have to wonder if her utter lack of impact on the world around her — punctuated by her explosion into beasthood — is meant to represent the decay of the church, not just morally, but in its fundamental structure. laurence haunts the narrative — but amelia does the opposite. no person or group mentions her by name or by title. for all intents and purposes, it seems that vicar amelia was nothing but a figurehead atop a hierarchy awash with blood-drunken parishioners at the bottom and the madmen of the choir and school of mensis near the top.

i think the void that the character of amelia leaves even before her beastly transformation is highly informative about the state that yharnam and the church find themself in: utter decay. perhaps once the church was an iron-fisted theocracy, but that infrastructure is rotting. the violence committed by the church in the state that our good hunter finds it is utterly arbitrary, and its people too poisoned by blood to care. i think the ultimate proof lies in the fact that killing amelia changes nothing at all: the church in their hubris has meddled in forces far greater than any one man, and now yharnam is paying for it through the nose.

[azrioael]

me when i'm in a not fearing the old blood competition and my competitor is laurence bloodborne himself

[sunkissedscribbles]

prejudiced - song list

I Wanna Be Yours - Arctic Monkeys Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood Daddy Issues - The Neighbourhood Arcade - Duncan Laurence Heather - Conan Gray Are You With Me - nilu Young And Beautiful - Lana Del Rey O Children - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby - Cigarettes After Sex Apocalypse - Cigarettes After Sex Reflections - The Neighbourhood Ride - Lana Del Rey High Enough - K.Flay War of Hearts - Ruelle Sunsetz - Cigarettes After Sex Cry - Cigarettes After Sex Heavenly - Cigarettes After Sex Softcore - The Neighbourhood Fade Into You - Mazzy Star Electric Love - BØRNS Space Song - Beach House Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys My Blood - Ellie Goulding Family Line - Conan Gray Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears 505 - Arctic Monkeys bad idea right? - Olivia Rodrigo Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? - Arctic Monkeys Meddle About - Chase Atlantic Sweet - Cigarettes After Sex Cupid's Chokehold/Breakfast in America - Gym Class Heroes Snap Out Of It - Arctic Monkeys The Night We Met - Lord Huron There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths I Know It's Over - The Smiths Back To The Old House - The Smiths Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths Well I Wonder - The Smiths Boys Don't Cry - The Cure In Between Days - The Cure Lovesong - The Cure My Kinda Lover - Billy Squier Waiting For The Flood - Love and Rockets All That Money Wants - The Psychedelic Furs What Difference Does It Make? - The Smiths Friday I'm In Love - The Cure Just Like Heaven - The Cure 10:15 Saturday Night - The Cure Too Young To Die - Agent Orange Too Sweet - Hozier Cry Baby - The Neighbourhood Pretty Boy - The Neighbourhood

[thebrightestlodge]

@nishihii Saw your tags (thank you SO much for the commentary!)

I have ....MANY DISJOINTED THOUGHTS on them ...considering there is absolutely nothing beyond Amelia's cutscene and suggestions based on Henriett's locations. I am going to be nice and put it under a read more so apologies for rambling. I'm the person who made that one flayed BSB in Old Yharnam my own OC at this point.

Thots on "Violently Ill and Tragically Catholic" and "Emotionally Distant Through Distrust of Anyone That's Not Her Person" (this jsut rambles into a chunk and I apologize as I realize this right after sdfgfgdg)

I mean, Amelia has three details, she's a Vicar left behind, she's clutching a pendant in the Grand Cathedral, and she's bowed and praying in front of Laurence's Skull. That's ...about it. So a lot of this is jsut my brain going "This is my interpretation to the point of 'my city now' "

Unknown what sort of special thing Amelia has to her, maybe it's a secret that never spreads to anyone beyond the upper echelons of the church, but she is chosen and groomed to serve as a high ranking member of the church. Sickly and paranoid and seemingly on the edge of a breakdown constantly, thinking gods are judging every move. Her illness came before the church, and people jsut deal with it coldly, but she's used ot it at this point. Not to say she is inept or withheld, she definitely has earned a place, her faith and her intelligence holding her up to the title of Vicar. She comes into the title in her early 20s, I like to imagine after the Halmet, so she knew Laurence before and after the descent to madness. Not any relation but she's being set up to take over whenever Laurence steps down/is indisposed/goes crazy goes stupid, so there's a decent connection. A soft intelligent man who wants to help slowly getting more frenzied and wild discovering what lays beyond blood and fluid, and the part unattached to the church wants her to leave, but her faith shackles her. As Vicars begin to disappear and beasts fill their halls, Amelia is slowly becoming more panicked and paranoid of her eventual hour of beasthood. Constantly check her mirrors and asking others to see if her pupils have started blistering, if her blood is now different, if the smoke is driving her away more than usual. She's never left the Ward so knows nothing of the world beyond who comes to prayers and what Henriett tells her as Amelia settles into another dreamless sleep ...

Henriett has even LESS lore, but a couple things I find interesting. She's the main and ONLY summon for Amelia, but she is an optional boss for Ludwig (and I've heard Laurence but can't get info for this bit). She also wields a Kirkhammer, a known church weapon, a repeating pistol, and torch

With the Ludwig and Kirkhammer, I always imagine Henriett as a former Tomb Prospecter, (the only other prospector we meet is Olek, who also uses the Kirkhammer, repeating pistol, and torch). She for some reason decides to cease descending into the dungeons, even if the great Church Hunter Ludwig insists on invites, seeing her as skilled at what she does. With her being a Church Beast summon, perhaps she's like Djura and discovers the true secrets of the church, and decides not to be involved in their schemes. The Hunters have no secrets, they're jsut former gilded heretics who wander in the honesty of their brutality. Somehow she's formed this very very close connection to the Vicar Amelia. For some reason, she sees it as her task to tend to Amelia, making sure she's comfortable and cared for, and able to handle herself when Henriett is not around. Perhaps her secret knowledge of the blood means she knows why Amelia fears beasthood. She and her friend have their contingency plan. It is spoken of as intimately as one shares a secret to a lover, but no one quite knows their association with one another, no one can tell if this is an inappropriate church connection.

-----------

Amelia is alone when we fight her Henriett only a few blocks away. Perhaps she wants her last human memory to be when she and Henriett were close, and not her seeing claws grow from her finger beds and her friend swinging stone to break her apart. She asks Henriett to leave and only come back when the blood breaks. Henriett thinks much the same. The new Hunter invites her to duel with a beast in the Cathedral, the floors are cold and cruel and Henriett remembers when she used to warn Amelia about walking across them barefoot and catching an illness.

Ludwig is an afterthought. A man she respected, she's here to give him the dignity he deserves. She wants him to see what a church hunter has become, someone who can carry a task for others. She performs it well and even if he sees the Hunter isn't part of them, she is the one to tell him (be it truth or lie) that his dear spartans have always fought for their honour. She doesn't know The Harrowed but she respects him enough to leave him with the beast's head

(if the Laurence summon is true (I've never found her summon)), She's there for her own fury. Her closest confidante, the closest she's ever been to a person. She had to kill her with the kindest mercy one can bestow on a Hunt. Laurence birthed monsters, Laurence made her friend a slave to a cult born from amniotic anguish of an underworld. Henriett's kindness is going to make this murder as cruel as she feels it needs to be. She finds a bed in the Hunter Gaol afterwards and takes the first rest she has in years. When Henriett wakes up, she'll decide to bury Amelia's amulet in the Upper Ward.

[fareehaandspaniards]

Also really curious about how you see Ludwig!

Seems really like the perfect role model guy!

Perfect role model guy? Maybe xd

I haven’t thought much about his past, but I think that he is also a foreigner (as many other characters!), or rather his family is from other lands. He himself was born and raised in Yharnam, but his roots are southern.

Another doodle to show how exactly I see him (It's Laurence in the left and Edgar in the right, nevermind xD) :

What can be said for sure is that he is very cute!

A "father" for his soldiers (hunters), an excellent fighter, a strongman. An exemplary family man - in my headcanon he is married, and perfectly copes with the role of a father and husband. However, what he couldn't do is to be the "head" of the family - I think he is very shy and timid in private and in more intimate settings!

He's also a great knight! Like, a true knight (I mean not a medieval robber and feudal lord, but a really exemplary servant, master of the sword and sir in shining armor. I swear I read a legend about a knight with a magical, talking sword, (no, not Excalibur xd) It reminds me a lot of Ludwig, though I've forgotten the legend ;_;)

He has a lot of virtues, but his flaws.....

Stone-faced. Which made it hard for Laurence to get along with him at first. Ludwig is very closed and takes deeds rather than words. Laurence couldn’t understand his loyalty and endeavor to serve for some time, but when he got it – he started to fear that Ludwig will abandon the Church after discovering it’s dark secrets.

Ludwig is quite infantile inside - he loves strategy and tactics, but mostly uses it in games for children! And actually the one who got him talking and also befriended was Gehrman, who offered him to play a board game. Gehrman and Ludwig are good friends in my opinion and drinking buddies xd I just like to imagine them drinking a huge mugs of beer while Laurence sips juice through a straw from an exquisite glass. Both friends were a bit silly and eventually acquired enough local jokes that pissed Laurence off LOL

Ludwig had nightmares very often, and a restful sleep is a reward for him. Moon influence – thanks, Laurence.

He is Edgar's idol also! He dreamed of being like the perfect knight (but didn’t succeed xd). And I really like the headcanon that Ludwig picked up little Edgar on the street in his last sane year and gave him to the Orphanage on which the Choir was based. In my headcanons Edgar is stuck being 20 years old in a Nightmare, so I guess that's probably a pretty realistic course of events...? How did he survive his stay at the Orphanage, where children were "used" to communicate with the Great Ones? I-don't-know! xd I just like to think that way, haven't tried to seriously consider it.

Ludwig conducted the massacre of Old Yharnam with true steadfastness. That's why people started call him "The Beast" - he never once showed compassion for people turning into beasts. The problem is that when he does something, he shows no doubt. All his doubts and worries were left in Laurence’s hands, and Vicar was in no hurry to clear his image in front of people or dissuade them.

The Moonlight, after the incident with Old Yharnam, had been the only source of meaning for him. The moon called, the moon comforted, the moon promised. Under its influence, Ludwig forgot everything that brought pain, just as he had forgotten his wife and son and daughter, who had died turning into beasts.

Ludwig had faith in Laurence. Ludwig also believed in healing blood. It had healed his wife, and he believed it was the future of Yharnam. Vicar asked him not to ask questions, promising to tell him one day WHAT the Church was doing, but he wasn’t able to fulfill a promise. Ludwig found out everything for himself later.

Djura admired him at first, but later joined those who called Ludwig "The Beast." He could understand everything, but he couldn't forgive him for following heartless orders.

Ludwig had been an inspiration to Damian(Me? Not to mention Damian? HAhahahaha) during his years of service as a Tomb Prosperctor. Although Damian considered this service "unholy" (the old belief that the dead should not be disturbed), Ludwig inspired him to keep going.

And! Also he was a good friend of Maria. She wasn’t as naive as Ludwig, because tried to discover secrets of Research Hall, but they both had sensitive hearts. He was a good man and she valued it during those hard times. Also how couldn’t Ludwig not appreciate Gehrman’s best apprentice? Young, talented, kind-hearted – Maria was another «knight». (I love so much female archetype of «knight». I have some examples from other games and OH MY GOD, AHksdhfksjhfiwhe General Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX plus Lady Maria is a duo of my heart…)

I used to call myself holyvicar shipper, but actually no… I like it, as much as other pairings, I can even feel it, especially if feelings are one-sided (Ludwig is in love), but Laurence really wants to feel the same, but simply can’t. Ludwig is too easy for him? I don’t know. Ludwig/Maria? Ludwig/Micolash (lol)??? I appreciate any fanart or fanfics but not really into these ships. So Ludwig is married in my world.

[pyro-madder]

So for the ask game, what about Gehrman and Laurence? :D

*already frothing at the mouth* sure thing ! :) gonna try to group them both at once

favorite thing about them :

- G : probably his fight. It looks like a movie ! The beautiful scenery, the mentor and student clashing their weapons in the same fighting style, and of course the MUSIC ! (if i lack sleep and focus too much on the way the voices go down on "misereTE" i WILL cry)

- L : also his fight ! Despite the difficulty it's one of my favorites. Beautiful music as well. I also adore the calm of his english dub, it's one of the few I really prefer over the french one !

least favorite thing about them :

- G : how little we get to actually speak to him. I understand it's on purpose (we're just another hunter, why would he try to bond with us if it's gonna end the same as with the dozens that came before us ?) but it still frustrates me ! X)

- L : hard to say. sometimes i fear i don't see him as terrible as he may have been, but "may" is the key word here - he's nuanced, how much good and bad there was is up to each's interpretation and I consider this question to be canon-only

favorite line :

- G : "The night, and the dream, were long..."

- L : "EEEAAAAAARRRRRRGGHHH !!!" (+ "Fear the Old Blood" because his voice combined with Willem's sounds beautiful + "Indeed, Gehrman - it won't be long" because ouch.)

brOTP : I accidentally created a Gehrman/Damian friendship by upgrading the latter as school staff rather than senior student. Think about it : Byrgenwerth's groundskeeper and archivist, each finding themselves babysitting looking after their half of the squad (Laurence + Maria // Micolash + Rom, with Caryll somewhere in the middle), and then meeting again in the Dream ! (dissolving emoji) Gehrman parrying Damian's questions about the Doll ! (emoji dissolves harder) and now they're both sad old men who forgot each other yippie

There's also Oto whom Gehrman knew prior to the Workshop's creation and offered a position in ! And then Izzy :) your friendly neighbourhood craftsmen. And Ludwig probably !

For Laurence, it's Micolash. Two sides of a coin through and through ! Whether they're working together, making out or strangling each other, there's no filter between them, from their meeting to their separation. World's worst dormmates ! <3

OTP : eachother + Maria for Gehrman and Ludwig for Laurence.

gehrence + ludrence* are a hard tie, following a similar dynamic due to the common denominator, but with their distinct flavor since they happen at two distinct points of the timeline. gehrmaria's a bit behind for now but as I've said earlier I'm hoping to bring it to the same level 😁 They're all so beautifully tragic, with a lot of tenderness but also a streak of unhealthy dependance, doomed through and through. basically i wasn't kidding when calling them the World's Worst Polycule(tm)

*i know the fandom has other shipnames but i don't want to use them for several petty reasons, sorry if anyone out there needs to add my names to their blacklist.

nOTP : for both, none that I know of.

random headcanon : let's talk families ! Wolves have been hunted to extinction in Yharnam's region by the time the story begins in Byrgenwerth, and the person who shot the last one is a relative of Gehrman (his dad probably). On Laurence's side, only his mother is "known" (air quotes because he's extremely discreet about her, like everything in his past). Even in their homeland, she stood out, nicknamed La zorra/The vixen, and that reputation extended to Laurence who looks a lot like her. Her death (unsure circumstances yet) was the final thing that drove him to leave his homeland after getting his licence.

unpopular opinion : for Gehrman it's obvious, for Laurence i have no idea. X) i'm a hermit so if discourse doesn't appear directly on my dash i'll have no clue about how is it over there...

song i associate with them :

Gehrman : Old and Wise by Alan Parsons' Project

Laurence : Found God in a Tomato by Psychedelic Prn Crumpets

favorite picture of them : too much choice ! their boss cutscene, lots of beautiful fanart (@/redzombie's portrait of laurence, @/pupspuppet's gehrmans, @/subzeroparade's gehrences, Raquel Cornejo's illustrated lore...) i'm also fond of the pattern in my own art where laurence does his thing and gehrman looks either confused or tired sdfghjklm

[paladinmochi123]

"I Don't care I paint the town Red."

Bloodborne oc ref sheet! Lady Marigold!

When they said "Seek Paleblood to 🏳��‍⚧️cend The Hunt." I don't entirely think this is what they meant.

Art by me, paladinmochi123

Feel free to interact or ask questions about her I love to talk about her 🥰

(Individual arts below the cut)

[garden-ghoul]

Happy Gushiwensday Shabbes! Tonight we have two weeks' worth of poem for you, the hefty "Changping Arrowhead Song" of Li He!

The artist's brush paints the Redwater sands in ash and powdered bone while the murky old blood in the soil seeds copper flowers. The gleaming gold white-feathered shafts are long eaten away by the rain and my search finds only broken wolf's teeth still standing upright in the ground. I search the field so long my horse is exhausted; I must ride the other east from the relay station, over rocky fields, to the old wall drowned under wormwood. The wind is ceaseless, the sun's warmth brief, and the stars are dull. Black flags of wet cloud hang in the air and render day night. Souls on one side, spirits on the other, wailing from mouths of wasted flesh--- I promise them an offering of fermented milk and roast mutton when I'm done. For now I search: a wild goose writhing with worms, blighted reeds and bamboo shoots. The wind rises to see off its visitor and my little fire gutters in fear. An ocean overflows my eyes. I search, and find a snapped-off arrowhead. The fractured point is crazed with red, that once cut clean through flesh. A child comes riding south along the old east wall of the city telling me to change my gold for a bamboo shaft.

Plenty of notes and original text under the cut.

长平箭头歌

漆灰骨末丹水沙，凄凄古血生铜花。 白翎金竿雨中尽，直余三脊残狼牙。 我寻平原乘两马，驿东石田蒿坞下。 ���长日短星萧萧，黑旗云湿悬空夜。 左魂右魄啼肌瘦，酪瓶倒尽将羊炙。 虫栖雁病芦笋红，回风送客吹阴火。 访古丸澜收断镞，折锋赤璺曾刲肉。 南陌东城马上儿，劝我将金换簝竹。

This one was kind of a lot! As with a lot of Li He's work I prioritized atmosphere, and taking a little longer to finish it let me also do some stuff with nonliteral translations + consonance and mouthfeel. I also did some maybe slightly awkward stuff to ensure that I could get the word "search" in every pair of stanzas to kind of underline that the poet is here aaaaall day long. Here are my notes.

The artist's brush --- this first line has a LOT of words that suggest paint or pigment! 漆 paint 灰 ash or lime 末 powder 丹 cinnabar and 沙 powder again (sand in this case). To me it suggested mixing pigments on a palette, except the pigments are poison ash and bone dust.

Redwater --- it's just called the Cinnabar River (in Shanxi), but I thought "Redwater sands" sounded very nice.

broken wolf's teeth --- Li He goes into more detail about why they're like wolf's teeth; they're serrated! The literal line is a fairly dry description of arrowhead morphology.

drowned under wormwood --- it doesn't say "drowned under" it just says there's wormwood/mugwort growing there, but its habit seems drownsome and I'm goth.

and render day night --- arguably it just says "in the night air" but when I thought about it it didn't make a ton of sense that he would be looking for relics on the battlefield at night so I decided it's a very overcast day.

Souls... spirits --- 魂 is an immortal soul and 魄 is a mortal soul. I'm not an expert on the distinction but it sounds pretty gnarly on the ghost plane around here.

I promise them an offering --- it's not outright stated but heavily implied that this is a food offering for the emaciated dead who haven't received offerings in centuries because their bodies weren't recovered by family.

my little fire gutters in fear --- I'm not super sure about this one. It literally says 吹阴火 blow yin fire, and I don't know how to interpret "yin" here. Laurence had yin fire as "ghost fire" which is cool. I'm playing more in the space of yin as darkness or diminishing, but not in a way that's, like, grammatical.

An ocean overflows my eyes --- 丸澜 is a fun idiom for crying, consisting of 丸 round things [tears] and 澜 swelling water.

crazed with red --- this one puzzles me. We think it's more likely the arrowheads are bronze (maybe the 'copper flowers' mentioned above), not steel, so they wouldn't be rusting, and the red is ��� cracks, not just dried blood. Maybe blood that has the appearance of cracks? I chose a somewhat nonliteral word for this reason.

change my gold --- otherwise known as "buying." I think the reason he didn't just say "buy" was probably metrical, but I feel like the exchange is kind of striking and wanted to draw attention to it; it has something to say about tourism, the commodification of emotion. It's a pretty striking end for this poem wherein the poet has spent hours listlessly haunting the battlefield with the rest of the ghosts, weeping, and now a kid is trying to sell him souvenirs.

bamboo shaft --- there's some debate about the identity of the souvenirs: are they arrowshafts, or are they offering plates for temple sacrifices of meat? I chose to go with arrowshafts because it feels more... kitschy and pointless.

[katyspersonal]

Here's a lore ask: Why the hell are pyres still burning in Old Yharnam? It seems like the burning happened an extremely long time ago, with how everyone talks about it, and the fact that the ashen blood was started by the healing church seemingly before the choir came about. I'm pretty sure the Choir didn't have much to do with the research hall until Lady Maria's death since npcs and item descriptions comment that the research hall is the church's sins and not the choirs. We know that Yharnam and the Church have been around for a while considering that there have been generation's worth of Vicars. So point is, when the hell did the burning happen? Was Laurence even alive in that era?

It will be a 'collab' answer, because I showed your ask to @val-of-the-north when I received it, and before I could've even began to think about it, he suggested a solid idea! So, basically, you are asking about these:

This is what Val suggested:

I double-checked Old Yharnam myself in Bloodborne today, just in case, and... Yes, this is quite correct - these pyres are found as you open the sealed door and enter, and especially as you approach Church of the Good Chalice:

I will be fair, there is at least one pyre I remember that is somewhere midways... In fact, I think it was the only one so dislocated. In general though, Val is right, and I also think it is a solid idea that they double as funeral rites and as a warning for the beasts (to not go out) and for the hunters that would somehow sneak past Djura's rain of bullets (to not proceed)! Not out of realm of possibility that Blood-Starved Beast could've also been so aggressive that it would even attack other beasts, though.

Alternatively, yes, it would also be pretty neat if beasts themselves would've set these pyres. Beast Patient type feels slightly closer to humanity (female one wears a cape, they can climb the ladders, all that). I just think Djura (and maybe his ally) doing this would be more likely, since these beasts fear fire! Perhaps, the pyres like this ARE the "blasphemous ways of Yharnam":

________________________

Okay, we are now at my part of the answer, which is about the timing of the events! You are right - that was the Healing Church, and also that it came before Choir. I will clarify though that it is even more evidential in lore; the Choir and its Orphanage evolved FROM the Research Hall:

You can ask for extra screenshots if you don't remember / can't access the game yourself right now / etc, but basically, not only that but also when we visit the Orphanage, we can see from the balcony more clearly that it is just Research Hall entrance from Hunter's Nightmare but without beds, we fight large Celestial Emissary in the same garden where more "cosmic" patients are in the Nightmare, Living Failures are visually implied to be early! Celestial Emissaries, etc... My quickest way to explain it is that creation of the Choir was the one final split between 'nerdy' Church (eyes) and 'normie' Church (blood healing), when previously they were doing whatever worked (for example, Adeline having been both Blood Saint and a patient of Church's attempts at obtaining eyes). But I side-tracked!

Basically, the burning of Old Yharnam happened a long time ago, and strongly implied to have happened at the very night when Hunter's Dream was conceived:

Set of the Charred Hunter is also notably worn by the NPCs named Djura's Ally and Djura's Apprentice:

(Using retranslation document by Last Protagonist just in case, as I always do ( x ))

Basically, somehow Laurence did the switch-and-bait with the cord the Church had to offer Laurence as host of the Dream, Old Yharnam was burnt and Powder Kegs were the ones doing it at the same time. It is not 100% stated, but I feel like mention of "that moon" would imply Bloodmoon/Paleblood, of course, since summoning Great One(s) with an infant (which Third Umbilical Cord entails, as we could see from Mergo) will trigger it:

Interestingly, it means that Rom's concealment did not exist during Laurence's ritual, but it already did during Mensis ritual. Use however you like!

And this is also why many people agree that Djura must have been the first Dreaming Hunter - someone able to be involved in burning of Old Yharnam, while not being able to die until the night ended... No wonder it would've broken his heart to go through all that...

I would say these piles are a much better example of what left of the people (beasts?) that burnt on that night:

Disturbingly enough, the anatomy in these piles is very much human, so those burned in Old Yharnam's tragedy were not only beasts themselves, but also simply people living there - perhaps, as "preventive" measure, with the Church believing they were infected too... ...or spreading that belief, to support the narrative about beasthood being transmitted like plague, and not though blood.

Don't quote me on that, but I prefer to also think that the beasthood tormening Old Yharnam was an honest mistake from Laurence / Healing Church!

You will notice that this beast appears to be crucified Blood-Starved Beast variant - an infamously venomous beast, otherwise found in Loran (the only other area where Beast Patients variant of the beasts is!) and Hintertombs (all-over highly poisonous pool). A smaller, non-boss variant is protected in Hunter's Nightmare by Djura's Apprentice... figures. And that altar you see over there? It is where you collect the first ritual blood you can reliably access in the game!

So, I feel like they did try to heal people with the "miraculous" blood, but... this particular blood was poisoned, causing illness Gilbert has, rather than average 'strong health boost but you should be careful now'. Again - not downvoting the idea that causing Ashen Blood was a planned action to MAKE people sick (and thus need blood healing), just prefer the idea of Laurence wanting it to be cool but taking L as usual lol.

In any case, Beast Patient is sure whatever happened with Old Yharnam dwellers, over whatever they had to imbibe. I think the rare Scourge Beasts found in Old Yharnam were hunters (likely Charred Hunters) that turned into beasts upon getting a bit TOO invested in the hunt, hahah... Including this unique Scourge Beast with red eyes, the one and only in the game that can deal poison of this type:

This is the only way I see why in the town infected by Ashen Blood (that becomes Beast Patients type) there are more 'normie' beasts. You could say they got..... burnt out at their job fdsjhfhsfhdfsd Not to mention an-okay number of Beast Patients, despite the town having been "cleansed", could simply imply that too much chaos happened, the Charred Hunters died, became beasts or ended up quitting like Djura and his allies did (many NPCs wearing Charred set are also currently in Loran and named 'Izzy's Follower' as NPCs). Basically, the quest only succeeded as much as it did, leaving enough Beast Patients to form sort of a "population". It is hard to tell whether Beast Patients can reproduce, though...

Other beasts associated with Ailing Loran, the Silverbeasts, drop the stillborn/miscarried/whatever infants, but we can't confirm whether Beast Patients are cursed and ill in the same way? I think it'd be really cute if beasts of Old Yharnam could still reproduce, with their babies being beasts already, and maybe lifespan shortened because of the condition; again, would work really good with Val's idea of some Beast Patients just dying on their own, from old age and/or being sick.

_________

Thank you for the ask!

[fromsoft-meowmeow]

Propaganda Below ☟☟☟

Rennala

"She's the most divorced woman ever <333 she doesn't even fight you it's her daughter bringing up an illusion because she's too busy being soggy on the floor"

"THATS MY WIFE!!! she's so so sopping wet and sad all the time. Queen of depression and floor sitting and being a milf."

Laurence

"Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVhWXWsC7o&ab_channel=MaryStark"

"He didn't fear the old blood and now we're in this mess. He's unhinged, he's gay, he's literally on fire. What's not to love."

"A very classical PLMM, in the “this character is a wretched monster whom you are absolving because he’s a wet little British boy” sense of the term.

[galaxirin]

13 for Maria, 19 for Laurence, and 44 for Ludwig?

OMGGG

Maria: I feel like the dumbest thing she’s ever done was the following.

Maria got tipsy after drinking a few bottles of beer in a local pub,, she gets teased and catcalled by some men who don’t recognise her and even taunt her into engaging in an arm wrestling challenge. She tries so hard to decline and to continue drinking but due to her getting tipsy she finally relents and they assume she’s just a weak citizen who coincidentally wears hunter’s garb

The church gets reports of a massacre in a bar and they assume the worst and think a beast got in but nope. It’s just Maria. She not only arm wrestled them but body slammed all of them to the floor. The next day she had no memories of what happened and when told of the events she ran off to sulk lmao

Laurence: I can see him having quite a bad habit of picking at his hair when extremely stressed, either pulling out strands or pushing it back multiple times while pacing around his room.

His friends (even Mico for some unknown reason) have urged him to maybe distract his hands with something else and Laurence does try!! He really does but he always goes back to his old habits and now he has a low key fear of going bald early especially with his forever baby face. He didn’t have to worry about it tho bc he doesn’t have hair as a beast 💀

Ludwig: my boy 🥹 he has many happy memories from his childhood. I hc him being the middle child of at least 7-8 siblings but grew up to be the tallest so he still is seen as everyone’s big brother,, he remembers having a huge picnic with his entire family and watching his younger sisters and brothers play nearby while he helps prepare everyone else’s meals with his older siblings and parents,,

As an adult though? I have a hc that the brooch on Laurence’s uniform is a blood gem and that the biggest blood gems are the most valuable and are commonly given as gifts to significant others,, I can see his happiest memories being him gifting a huge blood gem he found while exploring the dungeons to Laurence as some sort of proposal gift and cuddling for the rest of the night. He thinks of that memory whenever he’s afraid in hunts since it calms him down knowing someone is waiting for him to come back