#third witch of hemwick

[katyahina]

Quick Caryll headcanons update!

Alright, a few months ago I've made a post where I doodled all Byrgenwerth scholars I could possibly think of, but I've decided to change my ideas a bit in the end! Basically, I turned one character into two! So here is the changed post with the full cast and quick rundown: ( x )

More detail on why the change under cut though!

Long ago, when I just gotten into Bloodborne, my first vision of the character Caryll was of a red haired man who also was an artist. Even in one of those stereotypical berets, all that. Then I learned Caryll was ungendered name, so I opened up to potential of female character instead (really love to have more of those). And it was also around that time when I figured the potential of Caryll as the inspiration for the statue with a stitch on her forehead we see just behind Memory Altar - as well as Witch of Hemwick! We find Runes Workshop tool on a tied up corpse in Hemwick that appears to have bled and surrounded by many paper sheets, that made me think of experimenting on him to find out how many runes can human brain memorize at once before it explodes. Turns out only four, and that's my justification for in lore how everyone knows to not hold more than four in mind at once.

So for a while she was one of the witches and sole person responcible for runes - both having deciphered language of Great Ones, and then having brain surgery to 'speed up' process of receiving inhuman information! That dramatically shortened her lifespan and thus Old Hunters (and Church's prospectors too) revered her as a great help for their grave robbing- errr, exploration of the Chalice Dungeons! Hence why same statues are in the dungeons too.

Later though I found out that in Japanese original, character Caryll has legitimately masculine name - Karel, variant of Charles. ( x ) I myself use japanese script a lot but it never occured to me to check kanji of names so that was... a late discovery. Now I check names and titles too and it only was useful (especially with proper name of Kos thing). That didn't sit very well with that super female figure martyr mother teresa something vibe of the statue I copied Caryll from, nor with witch idea... Yet it still made a lot of sense to connect Hemwick stuff to it.

So I was lost on what to do, and then I remembered the very old instant impression of the redhead artist man and... It finally made sense to me! So I guess I just... knew something before I KNEW it?

So yeah, now Runes are joint effort of two people! :) Caryll is an artist from Cainhurst that also drew all those portraits, and had enough archiological education and talent to figure out an alphabet of Great Ones that even others could be taught to envision their own personal runes (ie Ludwig and Adeline). He saw very big potential in it as such language is exempt of the flaws of human languages and errors in verbal communication! People could even communicate their OWN thoughts and feelings to someone else without misunderstandings or language barriers - like how League's rune allows Valtr to let others see HIS understanding of what evil is and who has it. He also was slightly biased because he was hardly eloquent at all, and only felt like he could express himself in visual art. x)

Meanwhile, the witch was more of the "inventor" person that found a way to utilize Runes and created tools and means for exchanging them very effectively between people, without any divine Insight by brain fluid needed! Possibly worked on combining runes with ancient bells to basically create Arcane version of cellphones x) By getting literal eyes in her brain, she was able to receive significant amount of information that Caryll was able to perceive and write down too! Within lore, being close to a person who is seeing a Rune could make you see it too. Since it killed the witch quick, she was honored as martyr in the workshop for her sacrifice for the progress.

I now call her Carolee, but funny enough? Runesmith is mistranslation as well, because in the original it is 'Transcriptor Karel'. So basically Caryll is, indeed, transcriptor, meanwhile Carolee is, indeed, runeSMITH. Because tools and stuff. Had it not been too hard to bounce between general english speaking fandom and people who dwell on Japanese original as much as I do, I'd just call them Caryll and Karel instead! But yeah although similar names situation happens (like Adella and Adeline), that'd just be too confusing, so I gave her just a name that is variant of Caryll (and not variant of Karel!) similar enough, to still have connection to her previous version!

SO yeah, thanks anyone who read this short story! xD It just feels right for me, besides I feel like it'd be just bad to waste that redhead artist who came to me like a muse over a translation mistake... Like, sorry guy, you can't exist because I didn't bother to check the names extra time? It is like he saught me to let him exist, and I want him to have this chance! :) Just personal creator's intuition bias, don't mind me.

[katyspersonal]

Will do a better doodle later, but now there is Two Of Them. The actual Caryll (the transcriptor) and the witch who invented the tool. Ironically they are drawn with objects of each other x)

(Karel is a proper translation ( x ) of name of the character Caryll)

[mysticmistral]

I needed a break from Bloodborne, so I took a break for a bit, and then fell hard and played it for over eight hours. So.

I have defeated Vicar Amelia, wasn’t too hard, first try

Bought a 10 buck PSN sub for this Cummm dungeon I heard so much because I could not buy enough Molotovs and endlessly killing the townsfolk rarely gave me one (THE PLACE GIVES YOU OVER 80K my god. I’m now sadly over leveled- or am I?) and of course PlayStation gives a week of free online play for Valentine’s Day :/

Killed a guy named Henryk to help Eileen (Bird Lady)

Died four times to the Witches of Hemwick because I had no idea the real opponent vanishes and does a stupid grab attack

Died ELEVEN TIMES to the Shadows of Yharnam because of their dumb fire moves and upper cuts, too quick to fire bullets while being too slow to avoid being hit by fireball and getting banged up on stuck in a rock or something

AND I WAS RIGHT ABOUT IOSEFKA, SHE IS MORALLY QUESTIONABLE! I knew it! I knew there wouldn’t be two safe places. Little red caped dude forever, I need to find more people to save cause all I have is a Granny going mad thinking I’m her child or something.

Killed Rom the Spider, and woke up in Cathedral Ward with some monster on the walls and the sky is now a mix of light colors and blues and reds, and the moon is red, and I always hear the cries of a baby, and to get there I faced yet another Threaded Cane enjoyer who killed me twice. Died to the spider four times and lost Henryk… RIP Henryk. Also killed the Wheelchair guy, his existence didn’t look like a pleasant one and got a rune out of it.

Followed the advice of a note and found a version of the hunters dream with a set of doll clothes, hair ornament that I gave my doll (she cried, I was happy she was happy), a second doll and oh ONE THIRD OF AN UMBILICAL CORD laying around

I don’t actually know what that is, but I’m not going to search it up.

And now, currently, I’m getting my crap handed to me by a hunter on crack who takes a big chunk of health every time he shoots me at Amelia’s boss arena and who injured Bird Lady. The man does the critical hit attack, and it hurts. And I’ve died six times.

76 deaths and I have no idea how close I am to ending the game.

Also old man found a new spot. Now 23 hours in apparently.

[big-golyat]

A thought on the Abyss Watchers boss fight:

Nearly every boss fight in the Soulsborne series are (mostly) intense affairs, what with the dark atmosphere, character designs, oppresive movesets, and the lore if you're into that kind of thing. I have a wide array of feelings towards these boss fights, ranging from "holy shit this is awesome" to "what the fuck, this is bullshit". Across all of these fights, these feelings start off fairly balanced but gravitate towards "holy shit, this is awesome" after I've beaten them.

However, after beating the Abyss Watchers, I still had a lot of "what the fuck" feelings, which is highly unusual. I'd like to talk about why that is.

The main component of fair and fun gameplay, I think, is a matter of interactions. How we can interact with the game, and how the game can interact with us. For Soulsborne boss fights, we interact with the boss by moving, rolling, attacking/casting spells, and healing. The boss interacts with us by moving and attacking/casting spells, with some other actions on a case-by-case basis (such as the Witch of Hemwick fight in Bloodborne). A large part of the fun of these fights is learning exactly how these bosses attack and move, so that we can react and perform our own moves/attacks/spells.

However, not all interactions have equal value. Dodging and healing may be crucial mechanics, but they won't win the fight. We need to be able to attack, or else the fight won't be winnable. A large part of what makes the Bell Gargoyles in DS1 so hard is finding an opening to attack in between the two of them. Dodging is easy to do in their arena; killing is not.

I also had some "what the fuck" feelings after the gargoyles, which leads me to believe the reason what I disliked the Abyss Watchers so much might be similar.

The Abyss Watcher's moves caused me to dodge and move far more often than attack, which already makes the fight somewhat tedious. His long reach and ability to dash across nearly half of the arena means that even running away to heal is difficult, since he can just interrupt your healing animation with a dash and slash. This isn't a problem by itself; it can still be a fun challenge, if we have some openings to attack.

The rest of the problem, I think, comes with the two other Abyss Watchers. Having two enemies who both like to overwhelm you with long, overbearing attacks means that while one has an opening, the other is covering that opening with his sword. Being able to deal damage is meaningless if I have to take that time to use lower-value actions like dodging, or swearing at my monitor as I watch another 10-second-long death animation.

(And yes, the point of the third one who attacks the other two is to help create opportunities for the player to act, but since he can also damage the player, he can cover openings entirely by accident.)

This also seems to apply to the Bell Gargoyles, who, despite having long recovery times for their moves, cover each other's openings with extremely far-reaching polearms and fire breath. It's also what makes Ornstein and Smough more fun than my other examples; they also like to attack constantly, but their differences in reach, moveset, and even movement speed make it easier to work out a strategy for beating them.

Now maybe I'm only having these problems because I favor melee combat. Perhaps using more magic would've made these fights easier, or more manageable. I also might be missing something vital about these fights, or have a suboptimal build, or need to just get good. But I honestly believe that in a series of games where the point is to kill challenging enemies, having extremely limited chances to kill them doesn't make for good gameplay. If I have to kill, and my enemies won't let me get close enough to hit them, I'm not having fun; I'm just being bullied.

I'm glad that I finally managed to beat the Abyss Watchers. I'm not glad at all that I had to do it.

[foxingpeculiar]

Bloodborne Diary:

The hardest part of FromSoft games isn't the enemies, or the bosses--it's when you have to fucking platform some shit. Take getting to the Abandoned Workshop. I died like 5 times trying to land on that tiny-ass platform before I finally got the right angle. It wouldn't have been worth it if one of the Umbilical Thirds wasn't in there, but you need that for the... well, not good, but ultimate, maybe, ending. (I don't know that I'd call any of the three endings "good," exactly. In the words of Marge Simpson, "It's an ending. That's enough.")

Hemwick Charnel Lane was fine, nothing too terrible in there and the Witches of Hemwick are the easiest boss in the game, so no biggie. Plus I got some Twin Bloodstone Shards to further upgrade my Saw Cleaver and the Rune Workshop Tool, so all in all, a pretty worthwhile little diversion.

Fuck Snatchers, though--those guys suck. I can beat them one-on-one, usually, but when they mob up in groups of two or more? Time to nope out of there. So I don't know if I did everything in Yahar'gul, but I got the Tonitrus and the Moon Rune, recruited Adella back to the chapel and beat Darkbeast Paarl. He gave me a bit of trouble actually, cos he's so hard to hit--I kept whiffing my attacks and then he'd stomp me, and I was running low on Blood Vials. So I did a bit of farming, went back and put the boot to his electric ass.

As far as errands, I did go back and get the Powder Keg Hunter's Badge, plus got Ariana and the Skeptical Man to the chapel (what a dick that guy is), and then went to Odeon Tomb and helped Eileen take out Henryk. So... doin' pretty good with all of that. I have specifically not gone back to Gascoigne's daughter cos I remember how that questline turns out if you do. If I just ignore her, she'll theoretically end up huddling in the house with her sister and they'll survive the night. Or at least, I can assume/pretend that.

So I guess next is advancing the night and heading off to the woods past Alfred. Whoo. Snakes.

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

I had trouble with the BSB the first time (because of the last third.....) but this time? Beat it on my first try, only needing one blood vial. I guess I have experience with it now.

Next I let myself get kidnapped so I could go to Yahar’gul, its always nice to hear Hail the Nightmare! I did it in the Choir garb, it felt appropriate to run around the home of Mensis like that... they uh.. don’t seem to get along. I must have also looked impressive to Adella dressed like that. Oh, and interestingly enough, despite my stupidly high insight, there were no Amygdalae to be found! They must show up later then...?

Paarl.... was also easy, especially after facing the Loran darkbeast, it staggers WAY easier (3 times!! I think I got Loran to stagger once...?) So I beat it on my first try, despite the Choir set probably not being ideal for the fight....

“The sky and the cosmos are one” is such a great quote... I say it a lot...

I don’t think I picked up the bloody bandages the first time...? It was... harder than Paarl just trying to make that jump, in a game where you have to run to do so....

Of course I had to stop by the old workshop, I love that place... There really only seems to be one grave there at all,  which further makes me think it could be Maria’s... the Japanese description does NOT specify the gender of the old hunter whose bone you find, so its possible

I bought another blood rock, then tried to see what would happen if I got up to 40 insight again while standing outside Oedon... but it turns out you have to refresh the area to see the Amygdala

The most important thing I did though was NOT MESS UP EILEEN’S QUEST!!!!! I played it extra safe and used poison knives on Henryk, and she took care of the rest, ahh, I’m so happy, I’ll be able to do it this time!!

Sped through Hemwick, it was pretty easy, and witches aren’t a bad boss, so I beat them on the first try as well (I hope something still is difficult...? I’ll be crying once I see how Orphan is on NG+ I’m sure)

Maybe I’ll try messing with sending people to Iosefka’s in another run, but for now I sent them all to Oedon, and chapel dweller talking about how he wants to be your friend is still the absolute sweetest thing, he’s so pure.....

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Cainhurst Castle

Forsaken Castle Cainhurst is an icy place, once brimming with life, now filled with ghosts and servants

While Castle Cainhurst is a later game area it is still possible to access it right after you get the Cainhurst Summons in Iosefka’s clinic to gain access to a stronger Blood Gem and some Bloodstone Chunks to boost your character further ahead in terms of progression.

To first get to Cainhurst Castle you need to go to Hemwick Charnel Lane via the lamp to Witch's Abode, from the Hemwick Charnel Lane lantern, or to walk there from the Grand Cathedral. There is a large black obelisk right before the hill where the Witch's Abode is located. A cutscene will play in which a stagecoach being drawn by two horses will appear and its door will open. Entering the stagecoach will play another cutscene where you will find yourself at the gates of Cainhurst Castle.

In Cainhurst Castle you will face.

Cain’s Servant: Found within the Castle. They have 3 variants. They can all be knocked down by blood damage(i.e. bullets)

Cleaner: Will only attack if provoked. Wields a cane

Blow-dart: There are two types of blow-darts. One is damaging while the other marks you and makes the Widows more aggressive. Found in the library

Knight: Wields a rapier. Attacks swiftly, are aggressive, and are evasive.  

Gargoyle: Found on the balconies and rooftops of Cainhurst Castle. They attack with their wings and with a grab attack. If you interrupt these gargoyles while they’re standing for an attack, it will knock them down and they will take more damage. They have a small chance to drop Bloodstone Chunks.

Bloodlicker: A dangerous enemy. Can’t be visceral attacked. Their stomach size indicates their physical resistance. Have attacks that can hit you from any direction except from their sides. 3 variants in the main game and 1 extra in the DLC

Bloated: literally unable to fight back due to its belly.

Hungry: most common one in Cainhurst Castle.

Starved: Similar to Hungry Bloodlickers but a bit more aggressive from what I’ve seen.

Bound Widow: Found throughout the inside of the Castle. They have 2 variants. Most of their danger comes from their numbers. They are all invisible until they’re approached

Knife: Most common variant. Will become more aggressive if you’re marked

Screamer: These only appear in one room. They cannot directly damage you but their screams are able to immobilize you for a few seconds.

Hateful Maggots: These enemies are found in a lower area of Cainhurst Castle. They are vulnerable to blunt damage but are very low to the ground.

From where you start off when first arriving in Cainhurst Castle you will need to first walk up the stairs leading to the gate of Castle. You will only need to wait for the gate to open as it will open on its own.

When the gate finally opens you will see a courtyard full of Bloodlickers roaming around and the Castle Cainhurst Lantern.

From the Lamp, you can see to the left the entry to the inside of Cainhurst Castle and to the right, a lower area filled with maggots. Next to the fountain, there are a few numbing mists on a corpse. When you’re just about to reach the stairs to the door, look back and see the bloated Bloodlicker and two starved Bloodlickers. They are feeding on 3 corpses: 2 of which have Frenzied Coldblood on them and one of which has 4 numbing mists on it. There are 4 more numbing mists to the right of the door off to the corner.

Down in the area with the many Hateful Maggots in it is a Radial Tempering Blood Gemstone. This particular Blood Gemstone adds a 9.5% physical attack boost and a +3.6% physical attack boost when near death. I advise running in to pick up the Gem then running out as the Maggots are too much trouble than they’re worth.

Walking up to the door will open it automatically. When you walk into the first area you can hear the cries of weeping women and the cleaners working their hardest to make sure the castle is clean. The crying is from the Bound Widows. The servants can drop blood vials so if you are running low on vials I recommend clearing out this lower area full of cleaners. There is one Madman’s Knowledge in the right side of this area and another one to the left. There is also a chest in the corner which has the Reiterpallasch, a Skill-scaling weapon that can fire bullets in its transformed mode.

Walk up the stairs and turn right. There are several Bound WIdows here and one Cleaning Servant. On a corpse near the Cleaning Servant is a single Bloodstone Chunk, the third tier or fortifying material.

Turning left, however, will lead you to where you’re supposed to go in order to advance. There are more Widows and another singular Cleaning Servant. You will also find a room which appears to be a dining room. A respectable amount of Widows are here, waiting to ambush you. There is a corpse in the center of this room which has 4 QS bullets and a chest on the right side of the room which has a Noble Dress.

Walk outside to the balcony and make a left. You’ll find yourself on the wall of Castle Cainhurst. If you’re particularly observant you can notice a Gargoyle perched on top of some ledges. You can find another Bloodstone Chunk here by walking straight ahead then making a left up some spiral stairs. There is a Gargoyle perched like a statue here so be careful. After killing off both Gargoyles head toward the doorway which has two torches lit by it. Be wary of an ambush by a Gargoyle, however. Inside is a corridor with a single Knight Servant in here. After you deal with him you have to go outside and either go back inside through another door or turn right to get 3/4s of an attire. The attire in question is the Executioner’s set but it doesn’t have the headpiece. You can get the headpiece by completing Alfred’s questline. It is guarded by two Gargoyles so either run back inside or face them head-on.

Inside there you’ll find yourself in a Library. Immediately to the left, there is a chest and an elevator shortcut back to the courtyard of Cainhurst Castle. Inside the chest is the Vileblood register. It is only useful in online mode as it is just a leaderboard of who PVPs successfully the most.

Back in the Library, there is a Blowdart Servant in here which marks you for the Widows to attack. When you’re marked the Widows will scream and start moving towards you much more aggressively.

There is also a chest at the right side of the library that has a gun in it called the Evelyn. It has higher bloodtinge scaling than the standard Hunter’s Pistol but it has less base damage than it. The chest is sealed off by tables but you can get to the chest by jumping over with the library stairs. You’ll have to run up the stairs that are close to the left of the Servant.

On the second floor, there are mainly Knight Servants and Blow-dart Servants. The Blow-dart Servants here only deal damage to you.

In the far left corner of this floor, there is another Bloodstone Chunk.

To advance you have to find the empty window pane that leads to the outside. You’ll have to drop down onto the balcony below. There is also a ledge that has 10 QS bullets that you can easily miss.

Going inside will lead you to another room filled with Bound Widows. There are also screamer variants of the Widows in here which paralyze you but deal no direct damage. There are two chests in this room. One of which has 3/4s of the Knight Set and the other chest has a Hunter Tool Called the Executioner’s Gloves. The Executioner’s Gloves cost 3 QS bullets and 20 arcane to use. They fire off 3 skulls which all deal arcane damage and are pretty good at staggering opponents. Go back outside and drop onto the ledge where you can spot the Gargoyle perched on top of a gargoyle statue. On your way to that Gargoyle, you’ll notice a spot in the wall where you can go back inside. The item that the Gargoyle is perched over is a Kin Coldblood which grants a ludicrous amount of blood echoes.

Back inside you’ll see a lever which you’ll have to pull to pull back a ladder which was disguised as a wall. You’ll have to climb up this ladder to advance. At the top of the ladder go up the small set of stairs and make a left. After a long bit of walking you’ll reach the corner of the room and if you look to the left you’ll see a Scurrying Beast. This particular one drops 2 Bloodstone Chunks when it is killed. Run back and open the chest you may have spotted while going around. It has a Droplet Warm Blood Gemstone. This droplet Gemstone increases bloodtinge scaling by a flat amount of 13.5.

Turn around and find the stairs that lead to the roof of the Castle. At the top, there is a Red-eyed Gargoyle here. It is essentially a stronger version of a Gargoyle. There are also 2 normal Gargoyles which will flap their way towards the roof so you’ll have to deal with the single one as soon as possible. There is also a corpse here which has the last piece of the Knight Set, the Knight’s Wig.

Now you’ll have to drop off to another piece of roof with fencing on it. Then you’ll have to drop to another rooftop. Then you’ll have to drop down again to a bridge like area. Do take care as it is possible to fall off the roof and die. You’ll also find a Kin Coldblood here as well. Climb up the ladder and move forward a bit until you find the corpse that has some Bold Hunter’s Marks on it. Then you’ll have to walk back up to where the arch with the two torches is. After some more walking, a cutscene will play and you’ll have to face the boss fight of Cainhurst Castle, Martyr Logarius

Martyr Logarius is a master spellcaster and an incredibly skilled fighter. He makes great use of both disciplines during his boss fight.

He has 2 phases

In phase 1 He will mainly attack with arcane spells, rarely throws out a melee attack, and will do his best to back away from you.

He has 4 types of spells in this phase.

A row of small skulls that have homing properties and hurt quite a bit

A larger skull which he will cast when you’re right in front of him

A larger skull which starts off as a small skull and explodes into a larger skull after he backs off

It will explode into a larger skull regardless of whether it looks like Logarius is making it explode

A large swirling mass of skulls which has a small homing property.

Phase 2 begins when he hits about 70% health.

At the start of phase 2, he will buff himself granting himself hyper-armor and will deflect any bullets you try to shoot at him

You can interrupt this buff by delivering a charged R2 to his back.

He won’t cast this buff again

As such you will need to do your best to keep his back away from a wall when he is almost at 70% health

During phase 2 Martyr Logarius will attack with mainly his scythe and his sword.

His sword is fast and quick but it doesn’t hit as hard as his scythe

His scythe is hard-hitting and slow but it isn’t as fast as the sword.

The scythe has more reach and is likely to hit you if you dodge too early

Martyr Logarius has two different plunging attacks. One which he goes straight up and hovers for a bit and plunges straight down on you with his scythe and another which he hovers for a bit and attacks with his scythe in a spin attack.

The one which he jumps straight up is the harder to dodge of the two as it is highly likely he won’t be on your camera while he’s performing this attack and the other one only requires you to dodge toward him

He also has an attack where he plunges a spectral version of his sword into the ground which will cause a rain of swords to fly towards you.

You can lock onto the sword to shoot it with your firearm

It causes an explosion when it is cast.

You can destroy this sword to end the sword rain.

When he is defeated he drops the Crown of Illusions near the Lamp.

Equipping the Crown of Illusions and heading to where Logarius’ seat was will reveal that there was a hidden throne room there all along. Going inside will greet you with an NPC. Her name is Annalise, and she is the Queen of Vilebloods. She tells you to kneel in front of her throne and she will rebuke you if you do otherwise. Talking to her and swearing oath to the Vilebloods will unlock you a new covenant and will grant you the Cainhurst Badge, unlocking for purchase in the Shop.

Cainhurst armor Set

Chikage

The Chikage is the only weapon in the main game that scales with Bloodtinge in one of its forms

In transformed form its blade is coated in blood

It causes Rapid Poison to build up in its transformed form

It depletes your health slowly while it is transformed

Its R2 increases the health drain while charging.

Evelyn

Numbing Mist

Reiterpallasch

The Vileblood covenant rune, Corruption, grants +1 health regeneration when you are low on health. It also causes Blood Dregs to be dropped from non-respawning hunter enemies and from PVP.

In Annalise’s chamber, there is an item for you to pick up. It is the Unopened Summons. You can give this to Alfred to get the Wheel Hunter Badge. It unlocks

Gold Ardeo: headpiece of the Executioner set

Logarius Wheel

The only weapon in the main game which has an S scaling in strength when fully upgraded. 

Its transformed form deals a large amount of arcane damage 

Its transformed L2 buffs the arcane damage at the cost of health drain. 

You can press L2 up to 4 times with each press buffing the damage and the health drain.

If you decide to travel back to the Vileblood Queen’s Chamber you can find that Alfred has reduced Annalise to a pulp. Talking to him will grant you the roar gesture. You can also interact with Annalise’s flesh to get an item that you can use to resurrect Annalise.

If you return to Alfred’s original spot you will find that he has committed suicide and you can pick up the Radiance Rune-the Covenant Rune for Executioners-from his body. The Radiance Rune increases the effectiveness of blood vials by 2%.

One thing to note about the Corruption and Radiance runes is that players who have the Corruption Rune equipped cannot cooperate with those who have the Radiance Rune equipped and must do combat with them and vice versa.

This has been Castle Cainhurst and Alfred’s questline.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

ok uh. i finished bloodborne

as always, spoilers under cut with a little heads up, since it’s a game quite different from the others i write an ‘ok so i finished the game’ post. i’ll try to divide in little ‘categories’ this time around - main game, dlc and ending(s), also taking in consideration that through the entire game i wasn’t playing as a pre-enstablished character but as lance. most of my actions, choices and reactions are based on him.

there we go

MAIN GAME 

here ill talk about the whole game from iosefka’s clinic to the micolash’ boss fight since that’s what i did before shoving myself in the dlc and honestly? i think it’s the right way to do it. by the time you reach the attic you already have enough questions and answers that can be eventually answered in the dlc so. yeah.

might as well say it right away. after most of my life spent saying that final fantasy ix is my favorite game, bloodborne completely surpassed it. i already knew i was going to love it - both for the fact that fromsoftware creates absolute masterpieces and i love the gothic london aesthetic of the game - but i didn’t expect to love it so much.

the story is absolutely beautiful. i remember reading somewhere that bloodborne perfectly takes care of every single horror genre and frankly? absolutely yes. the upper cathedral ward and research lab parts gave me so much anguish, and i swear the sight of the brain of mensis legit made me nauseous. 

but not only anguish!!! o hno!!!!!!!! again, playing the whole game as a character as strongly emotional as Lance could be surely helped a lot, but i remember very well how sad ebrietas and gascoigne made me, how angry i was at fauxefka and the orphanage, how hopeless i felt in yahar’gul and how determined i was soon afterwards more in the ending part but. yeah.

about that, gascoigne? still the best first boss i’ve ever fought. 

except for a few bad examples (*COUGH*the witches*COUGH*most of the fuckers in the dungeons) the bosses are amazing and force you to learn and think quickly. i have reasons to believe they’re by far the best group of bosses in a soulsborne

HEY UH. I’M STILL ANGRY FOR EVERY SINGLE NPC???? im looking at YOU GILBERT and whoever wrote ‘thank you so much’ in front of his window during the red moon. same goes for many many others but the top 3 are iosefka, gilbert and gascoigne’s entire fucking family im still crying

also for some reason every single great one/kin fight made me super sad as well? i mean. i get ebrietas, but i remember feeling so guilty for the amygdala too? is it just me?

HEY DON’T MAKE ME START ON THE MUSIC I’M CURRENTLY CRYING OVER THAT ONE FINAL BOSS THEME YOU KNOW THE ONE

in the main game, i think the best battle is still with gascoigne, with one of the final bosses taking the second place and - surprise surprise - micolash as a third incredibly close to it. as for the worst, i mean. the witch of hemwick is so sad but not in a “im gonna cry” way. in a “well that was pointless” way.

...yeah i. really liked a lot more the battles with the humanoid bosses rather than the giant beasts. if we’re talking giant enemies most of the main game fights were good, of course, but nothing spectacular except for ebrietas.

cainhurst is the best place in the entire game. i loved everything about it, just with some :/ towards logarius. for some reason i enjoyed the battle just,,, more or less, so to speak. when we’re talking about the worst i don’t want to see the nightmare frontier ever again @fromsoftware please stop with the poison levels

about cainhurst? long live the palebloods. i still feel so bad for the end :°)  i’m just glad ebrietas helped out reviving the queen because whoops.

also the dungeons are bad and i dont even feel bad for not trying to fight the queen lmao i’m not doing that bullshit

DLC

entering the nightmare left me breathless. seeing the sun, after so much time left in the eternal night, was one of the most beautiful sights in the entire game - and so is the dawn at the end of the dlc. same went for recognizing where i was, and seeing all the old hunters going to brutally murder me. that was Nice(tm)

hey remember my top 3 of NPCs that hurt me the most? WELL SHOVE SIMON IN TOO because he didn’t deserve this bullshit. brador is really interesting but i’m not going to forgive him ever.

it’s hard to choose a favorite location here, even if, again. the sight of cathedral ward in the sunlight was beautiful. while i loved how much anguish and anger the fishing hamlet gave me, i can’t helpt to think it wasn’t exactly my favorite place. not like it’s bad, but especially the underground full of mages and giant overpowered sharks wasn’t the best.

all the bosses in the DLC were so great, except maybe for laurence. i love the character as much as every other boss here, they’re all such tragic characters, but i think that being one-shotted so many times isn’t exactly a good way to make a boss. i eventually went there with three other players and i’m so glad we managed to kick that guy’s butt :°>

ludwig and maria were GREAT bosses. the holy blade especially is by far absolutely the best ‘giant beast’ boss in the entire game, and the duel with maria filled me with so much respect for her - the same i gave gascoigne and to one of the final bosses, so to speak.

but by far the best boss in the DLC is the orphan of kos. of course i died way more times on him rather than anyone else (with,,, the exception of probably rom and amelia lmao) but i had to fight him alone. again thinking about the roleplay, managing to give him the last blow with a bullet was also so in-characteristically satisfying.

again, laurence’s theme made me incredibly emotional, thus making it one of my favorite themes in the entire game; but now i listened more carefully to the holy blade’s theme and i rarely listened to an OST as epic as this one. just,,, good job.

also living failures haha #relatable

ENDINGS

...ok first of all.

ok back to seriousness

i managed to the get the secret ending but i also discovered who can be each final boss depending on the ending. all you need to know is that i defeated each one of them in my first try

mergo’s wet nurse is pure aesthetic. i loved the design, i love how terrifying it is, i love the smiple music and all the implications that it brings - with the music being the same coming from gascoigne’s music box and iosefka’s blood found outside the attic, other than queen yharnam herseld being out there. gorgeous.

...this said. maybe it’s because i just got away from the goddamned orphan, but the wet nurse was, by far, one of the easiest bosses in the entire game, second only to the celestial emissaries and the witches of hemwick.

literally everything was easily avoidable except for the attack where it duplicates - and that was probably the only part of the fight i fully enjoyed. considering that i’m the type who usually chugs way too many blood vials for my own good, i was left with 17 starting with 24 at the end of the fight. that says so much.

so yeah @who choose the first ending i’m sorry your final boss was dumb

OK I YELLED ENTERING THE DREAM AFTERWARDS,, even the doll had some fear in her voice, at least in the italian dub. i suffered,,

and while suffering i chugged three ubilical cords - one of which came from an infant born from arianna, that by the time he ended up murdering to end her suffering, considered a good friend - with descriptions that made lance understand quite easily that, once gehrman gave him the opportunity to forget, he wasn’t going to accept.

not when he created this mess.

ok ok, now. gehrman. i was talking before a final boss with a beautiful fight and ost, and that’s him. the gwyn of bloodborne. the battle i fought knowing well who i was dealing with, and therefore fully respected. i mean, bowing to him as it started and walking the entire time.

the dream’s garden is by far the best place i could ask for to battle someone as good as him. it was gascoigne and maria’s fight all over again, just that now i knew i couldn’t lose. i knew that lance was crying as well and that was silently saying goodbye to those he met and cared for during that eternal night, and that he wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon.

there’s... really nothing i can say about this fight. it’s absolutely magnificent. even now writing it down i’m still emotional,,,

and then, the moon’s presence. well... there’s not much to say. the battle went quickly - if at first lance had honour and was fighting with someone who betrayed him in his own eyes and yet knew he had to act respectful, in a real duel between hunters, this beast shouldn’t have mercy.

no hit and run, no walking, no bowing. it went down in a few minutes with nothing but anger. or maybe... with nothing but a wish to make things better for those resting in the waking world, in front of their long awaited dawn.

because i know that now lance will watch over them as a new god.

what else is there to say?

10/10. an absolutely beautiful game i’m surely going to replay soon - maybe, after finishing dark souls. i already prepared myself the new game+ for lance and a pair of other roleplay characters, one of which is micolash. yes im doing a micolash run. and a gascoigne’s probably.

so far, thank you, yharnam.

[lichbarry]

[ID: Three images

The first image is a reply from tumblr user stupidstupidratcreatures which reads “what could this mean”.

The second is a screenshot of a post from Twitter user @ ckunzelman which reads “Types of Souls Bosses: - guy in a room totally freaking out  - Stomp Jomperson - the gang is back together and they hate you - Bumpos Palace of Tricks - you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die”. 

The third is a tier list by tumblr user tsundere-bellwether which reads “guy in a room totally freaking out: Father Gascoigne, Blood Starved Beast, Vicar Amelia, Ludwig the Holy Blade, Orphan of Kos  Stomp Jomperson: Cleric Beast, Amygdala, Martyr Logarius, One Reborn  the gang is back together and they hate you: Shadow of Yharnam, Celestial Emissary, Living Failures Bumpos Palace of Tricks: Witch of Hemwick, The Vacuous Spider Rom, Micolash Host of the Nightmare you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die: Darkbeast Paarl, Ebrietas, Laurence the First Vicar, Lady Maria, Mergo’s Wet Nurse, Gehrman the First Hunter, Moon Presence”   /end ID] 

witches of hemwick is for sure the most Bumpo's House of Tricks fromsoft boss

[crimson-blossom-reborn]

Here is my review of the build based off Silver, when I do this things I take into account are. How fun it was. How close the battle was. How many healing items I used, (the more the better and will only be counting the ones on the victory battle) How many times I died, (the more the better.) How well the build/Style works. Style: Quick draw style, be aggressive but cautious, attack, but be ready to draw the pistol for a counter.

Bosses: Cleric Beast Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 4/20 The Cleric Beast was a decent fight, I had moderate fun with it, I relied more on getting health back by damaging it, so I was very aggressive, but I stayed cautious and made sure to dodge as well as attacking 6/10

Father Gascoigne. Deaths: 1 Healing items used: 9/20 The style came in handy throughoutthe entire battle, Gascoigne is a quick fighter with heavy damage, we had a fun fight in the first phase, jumping, dodging, countering. The second phase I stayed more cautious, with his increased range, but the thrill of the fight were still there. The third phase, he going werewolf and ultra aggressive on you, made me dodge and stay on my toes, attacking and countering correctly won me the battle 8/10 Blood starved beast Deaths: 0 Healing items used 2/20 The problem with this boss is, it's attacks are TOO telegraphed, the wind up are so long, that the quick draw style for Silver made quick work of it with successful staggers and critical attacks. 4/10 Amelia Vicar Deaths: 1 Healing items used: 5/20 Amelia suffers from the same flaw as the Blood Starved Beast. Attacks are TOO telegraphed and wind up, making them easy to dodge, though I had to use full aggression on her. 5/10 Hemwick witches. Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 0/20 This boss is just hide and seek the boss, walk in circles, find them kill them, they don't counter, they don't attack, only threat are their slow moving minions, who dies in one bullet, easy. 1/10 Shadows of Yharnam Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 14/20 Shadows of Yharnam is a 3v1 boss battle, it's always been on my 50/50 list of love, Silver in this shines a little, with the asshole spamming fireballs from a distance while two swordsman are on my ass, with a cautious approach, I played it smart and used the cover in the area for the fireballs, Silver quickdraw was useful in this one and it was a fairly long, but pretty good fight. 6/10 Rom the spider Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 11/20 I really really don't like this boss fight, all it does is cower away and summon his spider minions and while you deal with them, he sends meteors at you, he spams Area attacks when up close. I really dislike him. 1/10 Amygdala Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 10/20 Amygdala is a simple fight, but is a challenge of timing, I've always enjoyed her fights and Silver did do a good job here 6/10 The one Reborn Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 4 This boss was fun, I've always had fun with this one, kill the six maidens, then rush to it's lower body and go Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka and see who dies first. Not much else to say. 7/10 Megolish, host of the nightmare. Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 0/20 Megolish isn't a very hard fight, the only problem he poses is his ability to one shot you, so I went full aggression on him, stayed close to avoid his attacks. 3/10 Mergo's wet nurse Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 8/20 This boss is also simple, but can be dangerous if you get cocky, took caution and spaced her and watched her movements. Not much else to say. 4/10 Celestial Emissary. Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 0/20 This is a checkpoint boss, it's only purpose is giving you a checkpoint for the real boss. 0/10 Ebrietas daughter of the cosmos Deaths: 4 Healing items used: 3/20 Ebrietas is a very up close battle, her attacks are ranged and its best to stick up in her face, as her moves are more telegraphed there. Very aggressive battle, but once you stagger her, you stagger her again then down her for a critical. 7/10

Martyr Logarius

Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 12/20 He starts very ranged and very tough to get close to, but once he went melee, Silver's quick Draw style shines once again, it was a very back and forth battle. 8/10 Dark beast Paarl Deaths: 0 Healing items used: 7/20 This boss is piss easy, he's got four limbs that you can hurt to stagger him with rinse repeat victory. 4/10 Gehrman the first Hunter Deaths: 4 Healing items used: 10/20 I always favoured this battle because of the emotional impact it has, Gehrman is NOT insane, he hasn't lost his mind, YOU have, you want the blood echoes, you want to become stronger and level up, while all Gehrman want is to set you free. That's it, all he wants, is you to be free of the nightmare, even in combat it's still his intentions. But you kill him for greed. 10/10 and 5 bonus points Moon presence Death: 0 Healing items used: 5/10 This pussy comes down and does battle with you immediately after Gehrman is dead. But I'm so pumped with adrenaline that time is fucking slow motion, flawless dodges like nothing, only used healing items due to it's attack that damages you for all but 1 point of your hp. 2/BITCH FUCK OFF!

Total score of the main game. 82/100 

[maddiebiscuits]

Today on Bloodborne before/after my work shift I cleared

Old Yharnam (four tries on Blood-Starved Beast no summons, beat Djura off the tower first try, Old Yharnam hunter beat first try as well)

Hemwick Charnal Lane (won first try no summons on Witch of Hemwick but that’s a simple fight)

Cathedral Ward (won first try no summons on Vicar Amelia, won third try on the tonitrus Yahar'gul hunter and first try on the rifle spear Yahar'gul hunter)

Haven’t beat Darkbeast Paarl yet. Maybe tomorrow, have to farm more blood vials and continue Eileen’s questline and hopefully manage to get to the hidden workshop without always falling to my death.

[katyspersonal]

(More elaborate under cut)

It is really interesting to think of what might have been a particular reason, if any at all! Both putting one's special skill they've worked hard to master to a great use OR not having much under one's belt but finding the way with passion and open-mind offer for a compelling character! But Bloodborne is also full of various gods (or people) using others and who knows if the results are handy in some way? Caryll could've been chosen, or someone (Willem? Laurence? idk?) could have offered them. Like 'yeah it will shorten your lifespan by like 50 years but you will serve the humanity well!'. And knowing madness of Byrgenwerth scholars, Caryll could actually volunteer for something like this!

But also Hunter rune/mark has been shown to exist since Pthumerian civilizations AND Byrgenwerth used to be a place of studying history and archeology; Caryll might have rediscovered and improved lost knowledge for that matter! But also Runes Workshop Tool is found on Hemwick on some unfortunate normie hunter victim tied up and surrounded by many pages, and the statue behind Memory Altar (also found all over Chalice Dungeons) has a surgical stitch on the forehead and AAAAAAAA-

Personally my first thought about the character was a mix of things - an artist guy that also had synesthesia and partially deaf. Then I fell into a rabbit hole of Hemwick implications and had Caryll be the long-missing third head witch of Hemwick (there are at least three statues in the game implying the 'triad', and one IS in Hemwick Mansion!). ......then I found out as far as Japanese original is concerned Caryll has a male name (Karel) with that mother-teresa-looking-motherfucker statue also being a reused asset in dungeons- My current compromise is to have two characters - a scholar in Byrgenwerth that deciphered the alphabet, and the witch that found a way to burn it into a brain for hunters' aid! So why she is the one revered by Old Hunters and Church Prospectors, whereas Caryll is otherwise a hiding figure closer to Byrgenwerth.

And what are your stories about Caryll guys?

[katyspersonal]

The truth behind Caryll and Carolee

To be honest, I am still having some mixed feelings regarding splitting Caryll into two characters.

My very very first idea for Caryll was a mental image of red-haired painter guy. Like, all the way back when I just discovered Bloodborne. Then I've learned that Caryll was gender-neutral name and I instantly switched on red-haired girl instead because back then I felt like BB only had 3.5 female characters. And I like female characters.. Then I discovered the potential of the statue behind Memory Altar BEING Caryll, so I stuck with this version:

(Ignore the outdated Yurie/Julie jumpscare because I've learned she is a blonde only later) With Caryll's story was that she was the third one of main Witches of Hemwick, since Hemwick does have a statue of three but we only fight two witches always resurrecting one another, and the corpse from which we loot Rune Tool is just some rando Yharnam hunter tied to the chair and surrounded by papersheets (so, not a Byrgenwerth Scholar but a victim of unethical experiments (presumably to learn how many Runes a human brain can keep at once before it explodes))

Caryll was a witch that ended up sacrificing her lifespan by performing brain surgery on herself, in order to have literal eyes on the inside and thus speedrun invention of Runes Alphabet. Backed up by the fact that Hemwick Gravewomen have enlarged skulls with bandages over them, as if they took the practice of literal eyes in brain too! So, the statue honored her sacrifice, and this is why they're also placed in the explored paths in Chalice Dungeons

She was a very included character in the main Byrgenwerth's 6 (actually in which Damian didn't fit, the 6th member was Patches heheh), and Laurence was quite heartbroken because of what she did. She was his Gehrman before Gehrman was his Gehrman! :p

....the thing is, already far enough into her development, I've gotten extremely close with another person for variety of reasons, but that resulted in me merging my creative vision with his.

I am really not sure whether he asked for it or not, only that he also incorporated my headcanons into his picture (like my Rom) and that I was feeling strongly uncomfortable when he disapproved of my takes on lore and characters. We both have hit strange co-dependent bond creatively where for some time we were ruining each other's enjoyment in writing through how we felt the need to share everything! Emotional merging and inhuman proximity and all. But in the end he grew strong enough to no longer need me to like his stuff like he used to be and his influence became more "dominant" and I was the spineless one in this situation. A lot, and I mean a LOT of my creative drives were soured by his biases.

Not only he really disliked my version of Caryll over personal preferences and saying how "obsessing over a reused asset was dumb", not only he generally hated to acknowledge female characters beyond just "wives and mothers", not only he disliked her "ugly" face in general.... but also he was very excellent at translations and very autistic about names.. and, well, concluded that Caryll actually had a male name in the original, Karel. He provided enough evidence, and paired that with all the Occam's Razor stuff.

He really was inconsistent, too. He was very upset at Carylls (sometimes Izzys) who were nonbinary or female despite having male name upon look at Japanese original, but then really liked some foreigner's fanfic where Rom was male (author just never saw Miyazaki's interview)! He claimed he just was very canon accurate, yet both of these examples contradicted canon (according to his logic), but.. of course he liked one and hated another. He always saw male characters as characters and female characters as "mothers and wives lest they are just woke garbage" and I addressed that many times. 🙄

Had I known back then that Fromsoft already had precedents of very GNC names choices I'd not care! Had I known back then about Ciaran, female character with male name, the discourse would be over...? But back then I was obsessed over these things too. Especially I was bribed into agreeing because he finally resolved my confusion regarding Yurie. She is a blonde but everyone who learned about it deliberately drew her with dark hair since her name sounded Japanese. But when he revealed to me that her actual name is Julie, as well how most of the names in the cast were Hungarian, Polish or Czech but mistranslated into English variants, that was like, big. I was absolutely won over since even prior that localisation mistakes were frustrating me a LOT (most notably how localization team turned Gehrman into a creep when Japanese script didn't feature anything of a kind at all). Like.. that guy just proven me that he knew his shit, so his words regarding Bloodborne became a gospel for a while. I didn't think my unique ideas were worth anything, I based my entire self-worth in the fandom on "being accurate" and "uncovering secrets". Post about Gehrman, Maria and the Doll was how fandom started to like me, after all, however fleeting that good time was. My friends Crow and Fantomette didn't know about that guy but could see I was hurting and restricting myself creatively far too much. They somehow can feel that something is wrong even if you don't tell them anything. And they tried them hardest to nurture my "creative liberties" side.. but it was all futile.

That didn't help that whenever I was trying to discuss the character Caryll as a concept, not even a specific version, I used 'they' to include every interpretation including ours both, he stubbornly used 'he' back at me which just ruined the fun of those conversations. It made it feel more like two deer fighting with their antlers than exchanging headcanons! It is very hard to explain, it just felt like passive aggression towards my version (that he already disliked personally because he disliked my art style and what he disliked showed in how I draw aged women especially). Like, it felt like going deliberately out of his way to refuse inclusion of my version, who was a she, in discussion, let alone every potential version, and that ONLY his, or only male ones were fitting.

I think the tension culminated when he straight up snapped at me over how nobody listened to him that Karel was a male character, not "up to interpretation", and in that very conversation he unleashed the full extent of vitriol to how dumb my interpretation was. He was so mad at how popular nonbinary or female Carylls were (still are), and made it feel like I was part of the problem. I cried a lot because of that, but also I started to remember something from the very far back, when I just gotten into BB...

I remembered about my initial impression of Caryll, the red haired artist guy. And being convinced that the guy was ultimate authority over lore rightness with insane clairvoyant powers as I was, I questioned whether I had the "correct" idea from the start and then went astray creatively.

So, I separated the characters and finally gave the very first draft another chance at life! Now inventions of the Runes fell on two people: alphabet was invented by a person already affiliated with the nonverbal and artistic, and 'practical' part on how to burn them into mind exactly fell on the witch from the tribe that already excelled in weird surgeries! The only problem remained is that now it was very hard to find the room for 'Carolee', as I still wanted to keep her in Byrgenwerth but she had no much reasons to be there... Granted, even before that I headcanoned her as aunt of Simon and his twin brother, so the hook remained. Just that now including her in group shots became harder. There are central characters!

This new Caryll developed as a pretty great character too, very autistic and good friends with Patches (until Patches starts insulting Willem along with Laurence XD). And actually I was really happy for a while with the decision! The 'initial' Caryll had a little too much going on about her. Like you know how there is a type of DS1 fans that tie literally every important thing that happened in lore to Velka? Witch Caryll had a bit of the same problem XDDDD Now, each character had "reasonable" amount of connections and contributions, and there was a joy of letting a cut concept live again since red haired guy was my first vision! Besides, the artist boy Caryll fell more in line how Caryll was a scholar, when the witch Caryll was more professory and too old to be in the group with Micolash, Rom and Laurence! And the biggest joy of all: now that my Caryll, too, was a he, I could FINALLY discuss ideas and lore of Caryll with that guy! Without passive aggression!

The thing is.. I absolutely dread how this decision happened. I tried to cope very hard saying that I came up with it willingly and on my own, but in reality I just lost some sort of an unspoken antlers duel and I didn't want to admit how no matter what I was still just a looser that can't do shit without approval of their favourite person.

And yeah, I know what you are thinking. 'LMAO, SHE was the one who lacked the spine to resist the passive aggression and could not stand up against obvious bigotry, and now wants to play victim and get pity!' And, no. I don't want people to feel bad for me. It IS absolutely my fault that I could not stand my ground, that I shown no principles nor self-respect, and I am pretty sure that if he realised how much it effected me he'd be really upset over unintentionally shifting my creative freedom. Sure he'd also be less than thrilled to learn that me feeling "happy with a better decision" was cope. I had to put my joy on his approval.

I don't think he was in any way bad person with his preference, too. Like.. I've seen so many fans that saw a character without confirmed sexuality as a lesbian in a way where they were legitimately pissed at bi/straight/even aroace headcanons for her. To the point they'd make mxf shippers feel unsafe about posting. Why this should be different when a person sees a character without confirmed gender as a male? Two can play this game. It is one of the "dark" sides of autism you can "win" when the autistic traits wheel spins at your birth; getting so fixated on the version you like the most that you can't help but feel hostility towards different interpretations. It is on us to control it if it happened towards character/ship so to not hurt other fans, but there is nothing inherently evil about feeling this way to begin with. And.... his "hatred towards women" emanated from his own self-hatred, after all. He hated himself for "failing" to be a woman, he felt like being assigned female at birth was his sacred duty to grow up into a good proper wife and mother yet he "denied" it and God would hate him for it. He could not help being a man though, but hated everyone who got to be a cis woman yet "threw the blessing away". Fictional or real. Self-hatred can be a radioactive core that damages everything in a large radius, and I never had the patience and skill required to wade through it and put him into peace. I was a garbage friend who could only cry when his words hurt and call him out when his words were unfair. I hope he can find someone who is insensitive to his "humanity running wild". Deep down I could not be mad at anyone but myself, because I was weak and skilless and no match to him.

I just always think back on all this. And the gateway to so many memories, and much more, is just this red haired boy. Every time I acknowledge him, and 'Carolee', it all emerges from the depths, when I think I forgot.

.....what we were talking about? The creative decision on an obscure Bloodborne character? In general, it ended... well? I do think the decision to split the character was better writing, my friends like two characters take more, I've heard the 'yeah it WAS to the better' often! People seem to like splitting the character and think it is super creative take on how Runes were invented and became Hunter tools! I just.. hate how it had to come from such an unhappy place. Some creators are just very incompatible and it is important to remember to stay true to your own ideas no matter how tempting "merging" with another creator can be! (unless you and your friend are literally getting into a new interest together, like me and Val). He also was addicted to my approval at some point but grew past it, and I was the one who couldn't and thus kept making things harder for myself. Creatively, the red-haired guy is like a child I wanted to abort but got convinced into keeping fdsghfggfds Sorry there is absolutely no better way to put it LOL

But I still second-guess the decision. I sometimes wonder whether placing all Caryll lore on just the witch made absolute banger of a character and I've wasted the potential here, as two Carylls are kinda unremarkable each. Sometimes I wonder whether letting the artist boy return into ether and merging characters back into one, the witch, would be a significant step towards my healing from that EX friend. Removing the effect of his passive aggression and even some misogyny, as well as effect of my spineless attitude and lack of principles. Going back to what I truly like - obsessing over obscure female characters! At the same time, is not it good to carry some sort of "scar" to remind myself to never depend on someone's approval, especially when it is on weird terms? It is just a creative decision, yet it bothers me to no end... at the very least, I know that everyone likes the red haired guy anyways.

[katyspersonal]

Bloodborne seems to consistently use this motif - with two people being by the either side and one important person in the middle!

In the order - Old Yharnam (Church of Good Chalice), Hemwick mansion, Research Hall, dungeons (above the door) and Old Yharnam again but the big hall with crucified blood-starved beast there (appears to be ruined).

Guess this is important position for the rituals in lore! And in all but last one there is implied to be a patient/victim/whatever ritual is made on. Possible inspiration behind Communion symbol?

Interestingly, this one’s missing the third, ‘important’ figure. Aesthetic preference, or an intention to divert the attention from the central one for some reasons? Laurence is ‘vicar’, which is a person that replaces the pope/bishop while they are away, which is his status in both localisation and Japanese original name ( x ), so if Willem is considered the one and only pope - perhaps missing the central figure in Communion was to point out that vicar is not the “real” one. However odd gesture since Willem was to never lead again, Laurence must have appreciated him more than we’d think?

This last paragraph is just me speculating tho

[katyspersonal]

Time to count Bloodborne characters!

(Some might be slightly debatable, as depending on the interpretation two could be the same character or one character could be two separate or not exist, so headcanons warning!)

Apparent:

1,2) Maria, Doll

3) Gehrman

4) Eileen

5) Djura

6) Laurence

7) Willem

8) Micolash

9) Ludwig

10) Simon

11) Brador

12) Valtr

13) Gascoigne

14) Viola

16) Henryk

17) Younger daughter

18) Older daughter

19) Younger Madaras twin

20) Older Madaras twin

21) Yamamura

22) Gratia

23) Amelia/Emilia

24) Doctor Iosefka

25) Imposter Iosefka

26) Yurie/Julie

27) Archibald

28) Izzy/Jiří

29) Caryll/Karel

30) Queen Annalise

31) Logarius

32) Alfred

33) Queen Yharnam

34) Edgar

35) Patches

36) Damian

37) King of Cainhurst

38) Rom

39) Ebrietas

40) Kos

41) Orphan of Kos

42) Mergo

43) Brain of Mensis (counting as one)

44) One Reborn (counting as one)

45) Flora (Moon Presence)

46) Oedon

47) Mergo’s Wet Nurse

48) Arianna

49) Adella

50) Chapel Dweller

51) Lonely old woman

52) Narrow-minded man

53) Suspicious beggar

54) Adeline

55) Arianna’s baby

56) The paleblood hunter

57) Cleric beast of the bridge

58) Paarl

59, 60) Yahar’gul hunters at the gate to the chapel

60, 61, 62) Yahar’gul hunters that ambush you after crashing lantern

63) Antal

64) Josef

65) Vitus

66) Olek

67) Gremia

68) Wallar

69) Queen Killer

70, 71) The girls at the Surgery Altar

72, 73) Hunters of Despair (I think Yharnam one is the same guy dead on the chair in Hemwick, so I will not count that one separately)

74) That black church guy in Research Hall

75-83) Nine non-hostile patients with the dialogue

84) Blood Minister at the starting cutscene

85) Forgotten Madman

86) Madman’s escort

87) Crow of Cainhurst

88) Djura’s ally

89) Djura’s apprentice

90) Bestial hunter (possibly former Oto Workshop owner???)

91) Gilbert

92, 93) Witches of Hemwick

94) Fishing Hamlet priest

95) Henriett

96) Yahar’gul hunter in underground cell

Obscure:

97) Evelyn (I think she is Annalise’s mother, aka redhead woman in the crown on one of the Cainhurst portraits)

98) First Hunter of Hunters

99) Door NPC that says ‘yayyy night of celebration!’ in low alley

100) Door NPC in Hemwick

101) Door NPC in the woods that complains about loud noise (lost in translation that she is more likely to listen to Mergo’s cry than us)

102) The ‘oh, you poor thing’ snobby NPC in central Yharnam

103) The ‘depths of depravity’ door NPC

104,105) Two door NPCs in the alley you find Arianna and boomer guy ay

106,107, 108) Two door NPCs in main street in Central Yharnam + whoever one of them says ‘not an inch closer’ to after nightfall

109,110,111) Remember the door close to the Grand Cathedral in which a woman screams ‘my precious baby’ and then at someone to stay away? Possibly her husband or whoever the third person was turned into beast and killed the baby

112, 113) Two remaining door NPCs that say ‘bless us with blood’

114) Lonely old woman’s husband; she starts mistaking us for her child, and if killed says ‘just like your father’. Also in cut content her son was Patches, so I did not count actual baby because I like the idea!

115, 116) Two Knights on Cainhurst portraits

117) Cainhurst portrait in red with a gold pendant and a necklace Church Servants wear (hc him as Laurence’s father)

118) Cainhurst portrait in heavy armour (this armour is often found in dungeons)

119) Old lady from Cainhurst portraits

* I did not count portraits of Bellringer and a noble woman in grey dress as I think they’re just Fauxsefka and Iosefka, but keep in mind they could be their own characters

120) Annalise’s aborted baby / cord from workshop

121, 122) Two bloodletting beasts

123, 124, 125) The family you find afflicted beggar eating

126) Dead Choir member in Yahar’gul

127) The petrified person you learn Make Contact from

128) Adella’s mentioned ‘friend’ (I hc they are the person you pick black church garb from)

129) Big Celestial emissary who is a boss and drops the Communion rune

130) Specific Amygdala that Patches was favouring

131) Chester (he is in Dark Souls but his dialogue, design and even style of fighting EASILY mean Miyazaki put reference for his incoming project that Bloodborne was and written him as someone who got there from Yharnam)

132) Fauxsefka’s baby

133) A celestial emissary corpse with a still-human arm

134, 135, 136) Choir members you pick the: choir set, blindfold cap, cosmic watcher eye badge from

137) Dead person in the woods you pick white church set from

138, 139) Two dead guys you pick Hunter sets from

140) A person you pick Blacksky Eye from

141) An actually one-eyed person that owned Iron Helmet before Valtr

142) Izzy’s admirer

143) Hostile Isz tomb prospector NPC in preset dungeons

144) The guy statue in Oedon Tomb is after (I believe he was a vessel for Oedon rather than that Oedon WAS this human before)

145) Cain (As in, ancient guy the name of Cainhurst roots from! As in how Yharnam is named after old Pthumerian queen.)

146) Ludwig’s horse (whereas I do not hc that he directly fused with it, I think he still had one, I will explain some time later)

147) A unique beast-possessed soul that doesn’t respawn, before the door in the lower alley

* I did not count a few corpses you pick full sets from, as I didn’t consider them ‘unique’ enough

Cut content:

148) Leo (his data is still in the files btw!)

149) Carla (a unique Keeper of the Old Lords)

150) Ashton (he was in Laurence’s place when Laurence was in Willem’s place during game’s development)

151) And old lady that would be in Iosefka’s clinic instead

152) Fauna the Great One Beast

153) Aragon (a name mentioned by huntsmen)

155) Brandon (Eileen’s set used to be called Brandon’s set, so I use this name for a Hunter of Hunters that came just before her)

156) Norbert

157) A Cainhurst knight with scythe and peg leg (stealing Gehrman’s style?)

* I did not count mentioned name Idola, as I think that’s Wet Nurse’s real name

* I did not count mentioned names Fort and Laura, as I think they’re names of the Bloodletting beasts we find

* I did not count mentioned name Louvan, as I think this is the guy from Oedon’s Tomb statue real name

* I did not count slug princess, as I think that was Kos when she was a mortal

Sooooo I counted 157 characters! Could be less or MORE depending on the headcanons and interpretations!

(UPDATE 11/13/22)

158) Specific Amygdala in Yahar'gul chapel

159) Madaras snake

160, 161, 162) Other constables, three corpses that you find pieces of set on

163) The beast Valtr and his friends chased

* I did not count the beast Yamamura chased, as I believe it was Izzy after he turned into a dragon-like beast and ended up devastating his homeland on his way

[katyspersonal]

Also, on topic of how Caryll was intended as unambiguously male character by devs ( x ) and Hemwick stuff. I think I found a way to solve the contradiction!

I still think Hemwick connection makes sense - we find Rune Tool IN Hemwick on the tied normie Yharnam Hunter guy surrounded by scattered papers (as if experimented on), game has theme of three people in the ritual (statue in Hemwick mansion, in Church of Good Chalice, Surgery Altar) but we only fight two witches as bosses, there is a woman statue behind Memory Altar that has either scar on her head or martyr 'crown'.

But what if? Caryll/Karel and the witch are different people? So there was that really smart scholar that created alphabet of the Great Ones, BUT the witch helped to find a way to employ runes! So, invented the tool itself and found out how to USE runes (through unethical experiment I guess...). After all in Japanese original Caryll is scribe/copier/descriptor/translator/etc, never anything close to 'runesmith'.

But naturally Hunters respect and remember the one that made a Hunter TOOL more than the scholar. Honestly this feels so likely. I just decide to stick with my idea of merging 'really smart translator scholar' and 'third witch that helped actually put runes IN brain' into one character, as this makes for a kinda complicated story and personality. But yeah, mystery solved? (No mystery is ever 100% solved in Soulsborne but you get me)

Though that'd be fun to imagine 'real' Caryll sometime haha; After all there is no moral obligation to choose one version and stick to it - fans are people that have fun, not cell a concrete interpretation as their 'brand' they dare not derive from lol xd