BLOODBORNE - Who is the Player Character?

It’s been three years since I streamed Bloodborne on Twitch and played the game for the first time. It’s a game that doesn’t leave your mind once you’ve played it.

So I’ve been lore hunting and if you’ve been there - you can read this - if you haven’t then look into Bloodborne. Even if you never play a game in your life. Go into YouTube and find someone who plays it well. It’s worth your time.

Now it doesn’t leave your mind solely because of the cosmic horror monsters that dive into your soul and find a home there, but because there is so much in the game to delve into. Lore hunting in Bloodborne is a full-time job, I’m sure, and here I am – the mere amateur – wanting to pull at the strings that I only slightly tugged at during my gameplay.

If you were in my chat when I played the game (and I highly doubt this will find ANYONE who watched me play 3 years ago) you’ll remember that there was something about the player character and Lady Maria/The Doll that bugged me. At the time it was just a notion, a feeling that something was off in the general main lore-ideas that were going around and what (at least at the time) was supposed to be certain – lore cannon if you will.

Since then I have only played the game a little. I’ve gone through the first bosses from time to time but since I don’t really have the time to delve into it fully it’s been half-arsed. But I have on several occasions fallen into the rabbit hole that is YouTube Bloodborne Lore videos and I recently found a YouTube channel by the name of Charred Thermos (https://www.youtube.com/@charredthermos). The channel is dedicated to a medical theory of Bloodborne that the channel owner has and his insight is up there with the best of them – or better – definitely worthy of a Great One’s Wisdom.

If you are interested in Bloodborne Lore, even if you think you’ve exhausted the topic, I urge you to go watch his videos. They are insightful and informative not only about Bloodborne but also about medical history. I highly recommend it.

In devouring his videos I’ve started to think about Bloodborne again. I’ve played it a little when I have had the time, and the things that were tugging at my soul when I played the game before are still tugging.

The biggest question I have is still WHO IS THE PLAYER CHARACTER?

When I posed this question I got generic answers from my chat. “No one in particular”. “Just a hunter from far away that’s joining the hunt”. I even got a “does it matter?”

And I guess if you don’t care about lore, it really doesn’t, but to me it does.

Of course, I didn’t quite buy the explanations. I don’t think there is ever anything “just” about FromSoftware games. But the answer eluded me, and it still does, although I have come closer to having ideas/theories about it.

Another thing that always rubbed me the wrong way was the relationship between The Doll and Lady Maria and the two of them and Gehrman. We learn that Gehrman made the doll. We also know that Lady Maria was his apprentice, one of many and that the doll was made in her image.

When people found the Old Hunter Bone on a grave in the abandoned workshop the theory was that this was Lady Maria’s grave and that Gehrman had made the doll because of his “mania” regarding Lady Maria. And then the doll prays at Lady Maria’s headstone from time to time. It’s a strange, and a sad love story, isn’t it?

We DO know for a fact that The Doll and Lady Maria are connected, not only because they look very much alike (though they seem very different in character, except for the hints you get when wandering through the Clock Tower and talking to the patients there) but also because of the dolls reactions when Lady Maria has been slain.

It never made sense to me, however, that the doll would pray on Lady Maria’s headstone. Why would she? She has no reverence for the person she was created after? The woman she was made to replace? Instead, she loves her “creator”. She even say so:.

                “Hunters have told me about the Church, about the Gods and their love. But, do the Gods love their creations. I am a doll created by you humans, would you ever think to love me? Of course, I do love you, isn't that how you've made me?”

Gehrman we meet in the Hunter’s Dream is completely unattached to the doll however. There is nothing left of the “mania” he might have had for the thing (or maybe the doll isn’t at ALL what’s meant by the Mania comment?), made apparent when we read the doll’s clothing descriptions that says:

“A deep love for the doll can be surmised by the fine craftsmanship of this article, and the care with which it was kept.”

Does Gehrman strike you as a guy that keeps dolls clothing nice and tighty with a thread and needle?

If this is the same man that made her, he sure seems to have changed. But then again he is in a wheelchair stuck in a nightmare he has no way of getting out of. A puppet himself even, a puppet of the cosmic horror The Moon Presence, that hides within the dream.

The doll is heard praying at the headstone in the hunter’s dream. She prays to the Moon Presence (surely) “O flora, of the moon, of the dream,” she prays. And she begs for “the hunter” to be safe and for him/her to find a pleasant awakening.

We can assume that the hunter is the player character, but it doesn’t have to be. It can just as well be Gehrman she is praying for, because if anyone is caught by this nightmare it is him. You’ll even find him crying at one point, begging his “friends” to come safe him from the nightmare.

She is clearly devoted to the player character and since Gehrman is her creator either of those character being buried at the this grave makes much more sense to me than Lady Maria. Especially when we learn that Lady Maria spent her time in the clock tower and is a descendant of the Vilebloods, who have a queen that does not die.

The bone of the old hunter found at this grave could very well be Gehrman’s, couldn’t it? We see characters in Bloodborne in their various shapes and state throughout the different stages “reality” or “dreams.”. The hunter’s wake when they die and so who is to say this didn’t happen to Gehrman as well? He could be like Micolash, alive in the dream – dead out there (and we do not meet him other than in the hunter’s dream, do we?) Perhaps that’s why the workshop was abandoned? His death caused by whatever made the hunter’s dream a… “reality”? Causing him to be stuck there.

Plausible, I’d say.

But that doesn’t help us solve the question of WHO WE ARE, does it?

We get to choose a lot of different things when we create our character. We can be both male and female. We can change our look. And we have to decide between 9 different origins, which will have impact on our stats. These are interesting to look into, because there are obvious choices that relate to different aspects of the game – all having to do with our background, obviously. And since we have no memory of who we actually are these are the first hints we get. And coincidentally these also seem somewhat differently relatable towards what we want the character to be. Do we want to fight with a sword or use magic? What always stuck out to me was the one that tells you that you are the “sole survivor of a lost hamlet.” And while I’m sure the other descriptions have other connections to different places, none of them is as blatantly clear as this one. I’m also pretty certain that choosing one of these “origins” doesn’t exactly exclude all the others (though perhaps some?).

So, if we are the “sole” survivor of a hamlet, and if we agree that the hamlet has to be The Fishing Hamlet in the DLC then how are we the sole survivor? The people of The Hamlet were massacred by Gehrman, Lady Maria and perhaps others in their hunter’s group? Did we escape them? Essentially meaning that they are our sworn enemy, or so I would assume.

Or were we a part of the hunter’s group and they all died as the hamlet incident played out? Given that Lady Maria throws her sword in the well and protects the entrance to the hamlet (in the nightmare only?) it doesn’t appear to be the case.  

I saw it written somewhere that only four people use the technique connected with the Old Hunter’s Bone. Lady Maria, Gehrman, The Bloody Crow of Cainhurst (who incidentally has as scattered clothing and equipment as the player character is bound to have) and the Player Character. Coincidence? Hardly.

Brador, who we find in the prison just past the Underground Corpse Pile, is another interesting titbit in the hunt for the true identity of the Player Character. He is the only one who BLATANTLY recognizes us, and while I would assume that some other characters MAY recognize us even though they don’t say so directly, his words are worth exploring.

When we enter his cell at some point he says:

"Well, well, look who's here.

Welcome to my quarters. I've never entertained a guest before.

Are you going to kill me?

After all you've done, kill me, as if to right your wrongs?

[laughs]"

So, what we learn here is that this isn’t our first encounter with Brador. We also learn that he thinks we have done something wrong, something that we might think will be corrected by killing him (or kept secret?). He continues:

"What is it? Aren't you going to kill me?

Or perhaps, beg my forgiveness?

Well, leave off. What's done is done.

[laughs]"

So, we have done him wrong. Or we’ve done something wrong and he knows about it. Something that could require us to “beg for his forgiveness”. The bearer of secrets, a church assassin is described in this way: "A Church Assassin, who killed his compatriots and wore their beastly remains as attire, going into hiding in the deeper cells of The Hunter's Nightmare. The Church provided him with a single, soundless bell of death to ensure their secrets would be kept."

So, he is not the innocent lamb himself, clearly, but he regrets his actions? And is he keen on keeping his and the church’s secrets? And who but Laurence, The First Vicar do we think about when it comes to the church? The Vicar who became a cleric beast.

Brador’s attire has a Testimony (headgear) that is partially described as being  “the scalp of a horrid Cleric Beast” indicating that Brador killed a compatriot. But Brador, being an assassin of the Church, hardly does so without being told to do so by a higher-ranking member of the Church.

Was he ordered to do so by Laurence? Or by someone else? Or was it Laurence he killed?

Another thing that makes the Player Character and the lore behind them so important is the fact that this is, essentially, all THEIR nightmare. We wake up searching for “paleblood” which means we already have more information than most people/hunter’s in Yharnam. What is the paleblood? There are two interpretations on what this could be. One is in connection to a ritual and Rom and the other is the Moon Presence itself. Either way – knowing about it would mean we are high ranking, and close to the epicenter of whatever caused the nightmare, at the epicenter of being the ONE stuck in the nightmare, like Gehrman, like Micolash, like Laurence and so on.  

Everything I’ve found so far suggest that the player character isn’t “just a hunter” but someone in particular, someone close to the reason why everything went awry, maybe even the reason for the nightmare itself.

I have theories as to who the player character can be, but I haven’t concluded which of these theories could be true. So the dig for the truth continues and as always there is so much to take from Bloodborne that there always seem to be more question at the end of each Lore searching session than there are answers. A testament to a fantastic game, there is nothing like it.

If we assume the doll is praying at Gehrman’s grave (and perhaps for Gehrman and not for us) then maybe we were simply one of Gehrman’s hunters. Brador does however say “Are you a hunter? Well, that’s very odd,” when he sees us indicating that we weren’t hunters before. So, if we weren’t a part of the hunters before, then who were we?

My best bet so far is Laurence.

The skull found underneath the elevator altar is human, the one that activates the lift. Laurence, The First Vicar is an optional boss. He is never shown in his human form, though we do hear his voice during the cutscene with Willem. We know he was a “he” but we also know that people take different forms in the nightmares and in the dreams as they wake up a new.  

His skull is another hint at a connection. It’s description reads:

“Skull of Laurence, first vicar of the Healing Church. In reality he became the first cleric beast, and his human skull only exists within the Nightmare.

The skull is a symbol of Laurence's past, and what he failed to protect. He is destined to seek his skull, but even if he found it, it could never restore his memories.”

 Memories? Like the ones the player character has lost? And what is it exactly Laurence failed to protect?

My dig for the identity of the Player Character continues and this search has raised so many question. What ACTUALLY happened in the Hamlet? Why do we have the option of being the sole survivor of a hamlet? What are the other options referring to? Was Kos already dead? And what is the Orphan? Who is Gehrman? And is the Gehrman we see in the dream, in the wheelchair, the same Gehrman that fights us, the same as the “First Hunter”? Or does he too get resurrected and therefore it’s his headstone in the dream and by the abandoned workshop? Or is it ours? If we go to NG+, depending on the ending we got, there can be a headstone in the dream that is ours from the previous playthrough.

So maybe it’s the player character’s headstone? An old hunter?

And what implications would that have?

And why do we need Insight to see The Doll in the dream at all? What else do we see when we gain insight?

The questions are endless and I’m sure that as I’ll keep digging through this rabbit hole I’ll continue to post irate updates on how that goes. In the meantime I’m happy to hear your ideas, and comments on my theories. And I’d be delighted to know if someone has deeper insight into the player character than I do.

I’m standing on the shoulders of a lot of Lore giants, scouring through too many videos and internet posts to name here but there is a lot of them out there and at this point I’ve probably seen most of them. So thanks to those who came before me and if you want me to point you in their direction let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to provide links.

Last but not least I will leave you with a few images. They are NOT from the game, but made by the Dream AI - a teaser as to what it might look like today. Not that I’m craving an update of it, but it’s still lovely to dream, isn’t it?