#maybe born ones are eyeless but fallen ones are those badass with bright yellow eyes!

[katyahina]

What could deeper role of Wet Nurse be

There is some line about prayers Fishing Hamlet denizens are chanting that always seemed odd for me, as I did not know what sense to make out of it:

(You will see some unpolished direct wording from Last Protagonist's document ( x ) just in case so something doesn't get lost in translation!)

So it seems more like they're asking someone "who have no blood" to curse the hunters to avenge Kos and the baby, whoever it is. It made me think it must be someone at least equal in power, perhaps a Great One as well. Well, here is the thing:

Wet Nurse indeed is a Great One that doesn't bleed! Oedon could count as that too, but his true nature does manifest in the bloodspill as lore says, however I think it is important to pay attention at Wet Nurse's bird-ish nature, because:

Messengers are spirits of the dead so it is not too wild to assume that the sentiment means, for their souls to end in the Dream, away from the Hunt! "Birds" deliver them there, right...? But as the player progresses the Hunt, more messengers appear in the Dream, yet when we arrive in the Dream there are only so many messengers! So, logically, those gathered in previous Nights of the Hunt became Winter Lanterns now. To clean the space for next night, and well... to not let spirits of the dead rest.

Notice that Winter Lanterns are only found in the nightmare-hosting locations specifically AND they DO hum Mergo's Lullaby! So maybe Wet Nurse herself, or at least higher beings like her are responcible. Hearing the prayers of victims of the hunters to never let anyone rest in peace, and answering them because Great Ones often do.

(Kind of messed up how both heads of Winter Lanterns and Brain of Mensis are made of multiple bodies melted to look like a brain lined with eyes, like sinister foreshadowing of what Insight truly means... or perhaps mockery from Great Ones, for atrocities humans committed for eyes on the brain.)

Interestingly, both ingame weapons associated with killing people to free them from the Nightmare and the Hunt are made of some sort of cosmic material, 'meteorite' adaptation works too, but Wet Nurse herself is very grim reaper appearing. Maybe she interfered with a legitimately well-intended process of "burials", or maybe whatever power inspired Gehrman to create such weapons was deceit of the century!

I think it is entirely palatable she is doing it, she is all feathery, even her arms are. It is interesting how humanoid (pthumerian) she looks though, accessories and stance and sword/cloning skills similar to what Queen Yharnam uses, whereas being a Great One! She might have been an ascended Pthumerian, maybe even one blessed directly rather than those who struggle hard to ascend so she can do service!

(Some datamined names taken from this ( x ) page)

I talked more elaborate way about this theory in this ( x ) post but I think that Ebrietas (and other celestial children who are still... children) and Amygdalae carry strong parallel of angels vs demons in the lore! Basically, Amygdalae are evil, 'fallen' versions of celestial children. Nightmare Apostles appear to descend from Pthumerian culture so naturally that they reside in Nightmare of Mensis as well and not only dungeons, and if Patches is any indication they evolved through "forbidden" knowledge Amygdalae distribute (for sacrifices)! Spider people even travel between waking world and Nightmare with ease like Amygdalae!

Worth to mention that more literally internal name of Wet Nurse translates as 'Death and Darkness Univercity' or 'Death and Darkness graduatee' so maybe this "evil" knowledge is distrubuted by herself. Nurturing Mergo so the Nightmare is growing is just what she is doing right now.

However, previously I did not notice that by internal names Wet Nurse is from this "evil" side too! Besides whereas Queen Yharnam clearly wants Mergo to be free from torment, Shadows of Yharnam fight you - preventing you from reaching Byrgenwerth (so, to uncover the ritual) in waking world and preventing you from reaching Mergo in the Nightmare of Mensis! I had this headcanon that Wet Nurse losing her own child was result of being cursed by Moon Presence for 'betraying' her, so technically, she takes what IS her by holding Mergo hostage...

In any case, seems like literally every Pthumerian is more interested in nourishing the Nightmare than in poor baby's fate, except for his mother, even her servants (?) are against her interests. This is just sad.