To escape this dreadful Hunter’s Dream, halt the source of the spreading scourge of beasts, lest the night carry on forever.

Sometimes it’s difficult to boil down a singular piece of a piece of art. The whole is what gives the thing its agency, and yet, when it comes to something as grand as a sprawling, living video game, many characters aren’t given their due.

One character that doesn’t get enough credit in Bloodborne- or most games for that matter- is the setting. The city. The world. In Bloodborne, the city of Yharnam introduces itself in cold and bizarre ways, constantly beckoning you forward with the scant hope of respite. There is no immediate safe place, no corner you can hide in that will place you in a better position- the Blood Hunt will not pass so easily.

But before we dig into the meat of the beast, let’s take a moment to recognize the architecture of Yharnam itself:characterized by Gothic and Victorian styling, game creator and designer Hidetaka Miyazaki indicated that he took inspiration from older parts of Romania and the Czech Republic to build the sprawling city. It certainly shows, with the city’s finials rising into the hazy sky, and tall, narrow windows peeking out from grand multi-leveled buildings. Every part of Yharnam connects, forever spiraling above and below your line of sight. It’s quite impressive the way areas connect in Bloodborne (and the Dark Souls games too, really it’s a Miyazaki thing in general)- you will venture so far out, only to open a gate that- voila!- leads back to the start.

It’s satisfying, really.

Unless you miss those shortcuts- for the love of Micolash, don’t miss the shortcuts.

A friend of mine made such an astute comment as we were playing a game together not so long ago: “they put all this work and detail into making these worlds and we just run right past them.”

But that is something I love about Bloodborne and FromSoft games in general: unless you know the way already, it’s against your best interest to blast through an area. It requires patience, caution, and a healthy dose of fear to survive. Yharnam is often unforgiving- nearly every corner holds another beast to be put down, a blind spot leaving you ripe for the sundering. That’s where the atmosphere comes in: Yharnam is dark and lonely, looming and imposing as it presses down on the hunter and their grim task. FromSoft does a fantastic job of making places feel alive- or dead, if that’s more appropriate (it usually is.) From the music to the color of the sky, the designers are careful about invoking feeling with their choices, subtleties that may go unnoticed for a time, before making the player realize the moon has changed, or an area is strangely void of enemies now, or that the once-glowing red incense burner of an NPC’s home is still burning, but they no longer answer your knocks…

That’s a bit of lore we should discuss here, I suppose: the incense, the hunt, and the entire purpose of your existence here in Yharnam. Again, it’s difficult to take this one little bit of A Thing and make it singular without explaining all the parts that make it unique. You are the hunter- awakening here to exterminate beasts that have been made by the tainted blood that once was thought to cure them. A vicious cycle plays out, and the hunters become the monsters, and new hunters must hunt. (Ten points if you wanted to say “a hoonter must hoont,” too.)

You, too, have been given the blood ministration, and are capable of (nay, inevitably?) becoming a beast. This night’s hunt is especially difficult and strange, and it happens to deal with a mensis ritual and the moon. Good luck figuring out the mystery! What is the moon’s significance on the hunt? Who is the moon?! I’ll do you one better: why is the moon?!

I’ll get to those questions in further lore breakdowns, else we’ll be here for days, and this breakdown is about the city. Now I feel it would be remiss to not discuss at least one important aspect of the city of Yharnam- its namesake, living(?) deep underground.

Okay, that is such a simplified version of what is happening with Yharnam, it’s difficult to not go down a million rabbit holes. Just know this: there is a woman, she is a queen, she is covered in the blood of birth and the cries heard ‘round the city are related to that. She is Yharnam. Being my favorite lore character of the game, she’ll get her own lore breakdown later on. It might already be written.

It’s definitely written.

I just couldn’t start with her. CONTINUITY AND STEPPING STONES ARE IMPORTANT.

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And there it is: the first transcription of the Bloodborne lore video! You can watch the video over on TikTok, and join me here for more lore in the future!