Introduction to Bloodborne
When it comes to Science Fiction and video games, there are thousands of games that really grasp the meaning of science fiction and take it to another level. Games like Bioshock, Destiny, or Half-Life can be considered by some to have better stories than even some traditional written works. Bloodborne, however, is a special case. The story of Bloodborne is incredibly complex, and even to this day, people are still speculating and discussing its lore, 6 years after its release. A reddit user and writer known as Redgrave wrote an extensive analysis of Bloodborne that reflects the immense complexity of the video game and its relationship to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Redgrave writes, “There is no answer to Bloodborne‘s story. Bloodborne is a game that asks you what YOU think. It asks you what YOUR story is. What do YOU make of the unknown? This is my story. This is my Eldritch Truth” (Redgrave 4). Likewise, the following is part of my story of coming to understand Bloodborne‘s relationship to Science Fiction.
Your adventure begins in Yharnam, a city that is heavily inspired by the Victorian Era and its Gothic Architecture. You play as a Hunter and your goal is to slay beasts. However the deeper you go into Yharnam and the areas after Yharnam, the more you learn about the world’s secrets. Why are people transforming into beasts? Why are there aliens in the Forbidden Woods and how did Master Willem, a Byrgenwerth Scholar succeed in making a Great One?
It all began when some scholars discovered an ancient tomb deep beneath the school of Byrgenwerth. What they discovered down there was a horror beyond their comprehension. They discovered the Old Blood. Evidence of the existence of the Great Ones. Society as it was known to man was about to change. Humans could use the Blood to evolve as a species and rise to greater heights. However some believed that the Old Blood would only bring misfortune and tragedy. This led to the group of scholars to become divided between those who didn’t want to use the Old Blood, led by Master Willem and those who used it to its full extent led by Lawrence, who then went on to create the Healing Church. Master Willem warned Lawrence to “Fear the Old Blood” but Lawrence never listened. The Healing Church was established in the center of the Cathedral Ward, a town neighboring Yharnam. Yharnamites with all kinds of diseases heard about the healing properties of the Blood and travelled to the Healing Church to receive it. This only escalated further as people from even outside Yharnam wanted to receive the Blood. The Healing Church was dominating the world of Bloodborne until the scourge of the beasts began. The people of Yharnam were turning into beasts one after the other and so the “Hunt” was established. Hunters from the Healing Church ventured into Yharnam and killed anyone that was turned into a beast, some of them succumbing to the scourge and turning into beasts as well. You are an outsider who came to Yharnam to get treatment, but instead was forced to join the Hunt and discover its secrets as you progress your adventure. The story continues, but the details are not needed at the moment.
Is Bloodborne Science Fiction?
So can Bloodborne be considered Science Fiction? This question turned out to be more challenging than I first believed. Probably the biggest inspiration for Bloodborne was H.P. Lovecraft and his idea of Cosmic Horror, specifically the idea that the greatest fear of humans was fear of the unknown. He writes, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear, is fear of the unknown.” (Lovecraft par. 1). This applies to Bloodborne because of the existence of Insight and the Great Ones. Great Ones are essentially the same as the Great Old Ones in Lovecraft’s stories. Ancient godlike creatures that are beyond human comprehension. Insight is a secondary currency in Bloodborne, but what is important about it is that different amounts of Insight change the way the Hunter perceives the world around them. Your Insight increases as you progress through the game, and with it, you start to see things that were previously invisible. In the Cathedral Ward, an early game area, there is a certain spot that if you sit under it, you will be grabbed by an invisible being and instantly be killed. If you come back after gathering enough Insight, you will be able to see a giant spider-like creature called “Amygdala” dangling from the side of the building. That is what grabbed you, but you could not see it before. To put it shortly, what was before incomprehensible, becomes comprehensible through the use of Insight, although what you see makes you not want to have gained Insight in the first place.
The fishing hamlet is another clear inspiration from H.P Lovecraft’s work, namely, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” a story about a seaport, populated by people cursed into turning into fish people by a Deep One. The fishing Hamlet is the same thing, although speculated to be a whaling town thanks to the corpse of a whale-looking Great One on the shore of the hamlet. Speaking of which, the Great One dying, is the reason why people turned into fish, thanks to the Great One’s curse. The inspirations from Lovecraft’s works are clear but can we answer this question yet?
Lovecraft inspired most of the story for Bloodborne, but what about the scientific part?
This is where the research becomes tricky. Bloodborne establishes its own science by introducing the Old Blood. Before the Blood was discovered, people used the method of bloodletting to try and cure diseases. Bloodletting was a commonly used method of curing or preventing diseases during the Victorian Era, an Era that Bloodborne draws inspiration for its setting from. However after the Old Blood was discovered, the normal scientific methods of curing illnesses were halted and the Old Blood was the primary “medicine”. For a story to be considered Science Fiction, there needs to be a logical explanation for the science that is introduced in the story. Bloodborne has its elements of science when it comes to bloodletting and blood transfusion, however the Old Blood goes into the cosmic scale of things. We later discover that the Healing Church has been experimenting with the Blood of a left behind Great One called Ebrietas. Innocent humans are deliberately turned into Alien creatures or just lumps of flesh in an attempt to create an ascended being. There is science behind human experimentation, as it has happened in our world before as well, but there is no science behind the Old Blood. It is just fiction. Therefore just as stated before, whether Bloodborne is Science Fiction or not is up for debate.
Conclusion
So what about my own interpretation. I have said this many times and I will repeat it again. Bloodborne is very complex. It deals with issues regarding religion, psychology and myths. Bloodborne has created its own mythos, by including godlike incomprehensible creatures, that mess with our minds, and use the Healing Church as a form of Governing power over the people of Yharnam. I am not religious myself, but if there was definitive evidence that God is real, then Churches and other places of worship in general, would explode in power and influence over the decision making of the world as a whole.
So to conclude this research paper, I do not believe that Bloodborne can be considered Science Fiction. It leans more towards Fantasy. It comes very close to it but there is no “root” to the events that are happening in the game. It all stems from the discovery of the Old Blood which is a fictitious element.
Works Cited
Bloodborne. FromSoftware, Sony Entertainment Studios, 2015.
Lovecraft, H.P. “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” The H.P. Lovecraft Archive, www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx.
Redgrave. The Paleblood Hunt: A Bloodborne Analysis. Google Docs, 30 Nov. 2015, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JL5acskAT_2t062HILImBkV8eXAwaqOj611mSjK-vZ8/edit.
