Bloodborne Great Ones / Characters

Augurs of the so called "eldritch truth" which governs reality on a level higher than the known universe, Great Ones are a group of loosely-connected and powerful alien entities which are both objects of study and worship by Byrgenwerth and the groups formed in it. They are also the source of most of Yharnam's suffering, from the beastly scourge to the Hunter's Curse. While scholars have classifed them under the broad label of 'Great One,' each of them is individually unique and they often bear little immediate resemblance to one another. What they do have in common is Reality Warper abilities, such as to create worlds in dreams, as well as powers which seem like Functional Magic in practice rooted in the eldritch truths they know and use.

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Great Ones in general

Blue-and-Orange Morality: Ironically, these Great Ones are notable in their aversion of this trope. While some like Amygdala show unexplained aggression, others like Oedon, the Orphan of Kos and Mergo's Wet Nurse all show completely comprehensible goals and motives. The Kins such as Ebrietas and Rom (humans who transformed into entities very similar to Great Ones) avert this trope by default as they were formerly humans. Even more ironically, it's the humans who've stretched the "Mad" in Mad Science SO far beyond the norms that their goals are now almost completely incomprehensible.
Combo Platter Powers: Apart from vaguely defined Reality Warper abilities and general super strength/durability (even relative to their size), the powers of Great Ones don't seem to follow any logic understandable to humans. Amygdala can shoot plasma beams from its eyes and has portals on its hands. Ebrietas can fly, summon plasma balls from the cosmos against her enemies, surround herself with a blue field that hurts everything within it except her, and spew toxic fluids from her mouth. The Celestial Emissary can shift its size. Rom can summon small meteors and teleport. The Wet Nurse can cover the area in a purple mist and summon clones of herself. So on and so forth.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Played straight and zigzagged.
- Despite being immortal beings with incredible arcane power, many Great Ones encountered in Yharnam can be killed with little more than some bombs, late 19th century firearms, and a big chunk of steel swung really hard. The Old Hunters later reveal part of Yharnam's entire descent into madness began because Kos was killed by Byrgenwerth's Hunters.
- However, some of those are impossible to even be interacted with, much less harmed, without sufficient insight into eldritch truths (the laws by which the Great Ones operate under), and it is not made entirely clear if death is the same process to a Great One as it is to a human: see Not Quite Dead below.
Eldritch Abomination: All known Great Ones are grotesque alien beings who command strange powers based on truths beyond the physical universe.
Half-Human Hybrid: Due to each being a Single Specimen Species, the Great Ones can't reproduce as natural organisms do. However, they can somehow impregnate (or be impregnated by) humans, resulting in these. Mergo is one ("Half-Pthumerian Hybrid" given its mother), as is the Celestial Child of Arianna. It is likely the Orphan of Kos is one too, considering he's the most humanoid Great One seen.
Morality Kitchen Sink: Both the individual and collective morality and motives of the Great Ones are mysterious at first and can be interpreted differently depending on which Great One you're talking about or which individual you ask about them. Some are allegedly benign and only attack in self-defense, some will kill you on-sight, and one even connects the Good Hunter to the Hunter's Dream, making them immortal and sending them to end the plague caused by the humans and Great Ones of Yharnam... assuming it is not responsible for causing it.
Non-Malicious Monster: Zigzagged, some (in fact, most) Great Ones don't initially attack the Good Hunter unless they attack (or just approach them) first. Story-wise, while the Great Ones are bizarre, feared and destructive, they're often implied to be non-malicious and most of the damage they cause is a result of various human factions constantly trying to exploit their eldritch knowledge and mysterious blood. Of course, it doesn't mean they're harmless by any stretch; the goal of most Great Ones seems to be reproduction (or rather "finding a surrogate for their dead children"), and at least one of them is more than willing to rape humans to achieve that end. In addition, many instances which claim them to be harmless and "sympathetic in spirit" could also be interpreted as a case of an Unreliable Narrator.
Not Quite Dead:
- Being Eldritch Abominations, it is not made clear if the Great Ones can actually die in the same sense anything else does. While their physical forms in the Waking World (reality) can die and be killed (Mergo was stillborn, Hunters with sufficient Insight to interact with a Great One can potentially kill one), they seem to remain in various Dream realms; Mergo is cradled in the Nightmare of Mensis, and killing Ebrietas in the Altar of Despair doesn't stop anyone including the player Hunter from using Augur of Ebrietas to summon some of her tentacles, which heavily implies she is still alive somewhere in the Dreams as well. In fact, even after defeating Mergo's Wet Nurse and Mergo's voice goes silent indicating its demise in the Nightmare, Mergo can be heard again in the Chalice Dungeons and intervene in the fight against the Pthumerian Queen, though this might be the Timey-Wimey Ball nature of said location. The Old Hunters DLC further indicates this: Kos and her child are revealed to be slain in the Waking World of Fishing Hamlet long ago, but the Orphan of Kos's spirit still persists in the Hunter's Nightmare, and Kos is seemingly capable of answering her child's cries during its boss fight in the form of a lightning strike. Killing the Orphan also results in its shadow, "sweet child of Kos" quietly leaving to the eldritch sea in the Nightmare; which suggests killing Great Ones, even in their Dream realms, might not actually do them in. However, it is unclear whether or not this inability to die is something natural to all Great Ones, or if it's something to be attained on an individual level.
- Another way to interpret the above is that the Great Ones do actually die for good, but their 'echo' and 'dying wishes' (the Japanese name for Blood Echoes) linger in the Dream. Due to their arcane nature, they can be briefly recalled in the waking world in some ways; but they're not truly alive, more ghosts than anything else.
Obliviously Evil: Zigzagged. Some pieces of lore around Yharnam claim that they are "sympathetic" in nature and to an extent, the plague they caused was more of the result of the actions of their worshipers mishandling their blood and knowledge than any malice on their part. However, on the other hand, the plague was all so that they could bare children via human surrogates — casualties be damned — and anyone who learns their secrets or interacts with them risks being driven to madness.
Outliving One's Offspring: All Great Ones are doomed to lose their children and search for a Replacement Goldfish, if the descriptions of the Umbilical Cords are anything to go by. Whether this is something inherent to their alien biology, or just an eternal misfortune as a consequence of their power and existence, is unclear. Word of God states that a big inspiration for the Great Ones was the pseudo-scientific theory that the more evolved a living being is, the less they reproduce - which means that the Great Ones are simply too advanced to have children of their own, even if they want to.
Reality Warper: One common power observed in all Great Ones is to create dream worlds on alternate planes of existence, which can drag people or locations from the real world straight into it. At least some of them can also perform things akin to Functional Magic, and enable humans to do the same via arcane knowledge such as Caryll Runes, words of power they use.
Single Specimen Species: With the exception of Amygdala, of which there are many (assuming the Lesser Amygdalas lurking in Yharnam are indeed distinct Great Ones), no two Great Ones are alike, and they are similar only by the supposed Eldritch Truths they all learn and operate under.
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The powers of Great Ones are intimately linked to eldritch truths humans have yet to know the existence of, much less comprehend.
Walking Spoiler: Knowing their existence spoils the reveal that this Gothic Horror story is also a Cosmic Horror Story.
Was Once a Man: The Kin is a term specifically referring to humans (or a Human Subspecies, i.e. the ancient Pthumerian) who transform into inhuman beings due to the influence of eldritch truths, and some of them are powerful enough to be considered very similar to Great Ones. It is also implied at least some of the true Great Ones were formerly lesser, mortal beings (though not necessarily humans) before their ascensions.

Formless Oedon

A rune representing the inhuman name of Formless Oedon

Human or no, the oozing blood is a medium of the highest grade, and the essence of the formless Great One, Oedon. Both Oedon, and his inadvertent worshipers, surreptitiously seek the precious blood.

— description of the Caryll Rune, "Formless Oedon"

One of the Great Ones, Oedon is formless, possessing only a voice and using blood as a medium. He is worshipped by the Healing Church.

Blood Lust: The description for his rune states that Oedon and his "inadvertent worshipers" constantly seek the "precious blood".
Blood Magic: Oedon uses blood as a medium, which is how he impregnates Arianna, and possibly Iosefka and Yharnam as well.
Eldritch Abomination: He is one of the Great Ones, and is implied to be the source of the Healing Church's Blood Magic, seeing how it is referred to as his "essence". He lacks a physical body, existing only as a voice or a presence. He is also the only Great One to completely avert Lovecraft Lite, as he is never defeated, fought, or even perceived at all — even for the standards of the Great Ones, Oedon is particularly alien and detached from common human sense.
Expy: Of Yog Sothoth, being an all-powerful (or at least near-omnipotent) but unseen Eldritch Abomination who meddles in the affairs of mortals by impregnating human women with his half-Great One offspring, with apocalyptic consequences.
Greater-Scope Villain: As the patron god of the Healing Church, as well as the implied progenitor of Mergo, both the Scourge of Beasts and the Nightmare can be traced back to Oedon.
The Ghost: Just as his name, Oedon is formless and cannot be seen. Or from another point of view, he does have a form, but humans have not the Insight to properly see him.
- Oedon fits this trope in spirit as well. Out of the nine named Great Ones in the game, Oedon is the only one aside from Mergo that the Good Hunter never interacts with. The closest they get to having an impact on the game is that he most likely impregnated Arianna, and he may be Mergo's father.
Karma Houdini: While it's debatable if he is malicious or not, he did most likely cause the Scourge of Beasts. His formless nature renders him completely above consequences, however.
Lost in Translation: In English, its medium is stated to be 'oozing' blood, but in Japanese it's much more explicitly 'filthy' blood, which makes it very meaningful, as filthy blood is considered a massive source of kegare in Japanese shintoism, essentially meaning Oedon is the Great One that represents and communicates through corruption and filth.
Meaningful Name: Oedon is similar to — and possibly derived from — the word Oedipism, which is another word for enucleation. Many of the Healing Church members appear to be blind.
Motifs: Sound and Water. The Caryll Runes depict the voices of Oedon and the Great Ones as ripples in a lake or sea.
The One Guy: Oedon is the only Great One to be explicitly referred to with masculine pronouns, with the rest being female or of unknown sex. This takes on significance when you realize that he must be responsible for the Blood Moon pregnancies, since the all otherwise female or genderless Great Ones wouldn't be able to father a child.
Top God: His relation to the other Great Ones is unknown, but the Healing Church appears to worship him as this. He is also the only Great One to have a chapel dedicated to himself.
The Unfought: He is frequently mentioned, but seeing how he lacks a physical form, he is unable to be fought.
The Unpronounceable: Unlike most Great Ones in-universe, whose names can be pronounced (such as Amygdala and Ebrietas), Oedon's real name is not pronounceable; the closest pronunciation people can come up with is "Oedon".

Mergo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/medium_56.jpg

Mergo's crib

Every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate.

—description of Mergo's Umbilical Cord

A Great One summoned by the School of Mensis with one of the Cords of the Eye. Whether it is an infant Great One or not is unknown, but its Wet Nurse is encountered at the apex of its Loft.

Ambiguous Gender: There is no gendered pronoun for Mergo.
Eldritch Abomination: One of the Great Ones mentioned in the game's lore.
Enfant Terrible: If Mergo really is an infant Great One, then the entire nightmare appears to have been created just to cradle it. If Mergo isn't an infant Great One, then the Loft is used to house the special infants offered to it. That said, like most of the Great Ones, Mergo itself doesn't appear to possess much actual malice. It still destroys the School of Mensis by obliging their wish for knowledge, and the people who worship and protect it wreak plenty of havoc of their own accord. Again, if it really is an infant Great One.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: In as much as you could call a possibly infant Eldritch Abomination "bad", but you can periodically hear it cry as you attack Queen Yharnam in the Chalice Dungeons, and it will implicitly try to protect her by binding you in place if you do it too much. Of course, it could just be protecting itself.
Expy: Is likely one to the titular Horror from Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, being an invisible eldritch child that was fathered by the union of an eldritch god and a mortal woman. It fits even more if the father really is Formless Oedon, as he is even the setting's equivalent to Yog-Sothoth.
Goo-Goo-Godlike: Like most of the Great Ones, Mergo is incredibly powerful despite being stillborn. Again, if it really is an infant Great One.
Half-Human Hybrid: Implied to be the stillborn child of Queen Yharnam and one of the Great Ones. Which Great One isn't known, but most people think it's Oedon.
Let Them Die Happy: Playing the music box after killing Mergo's Wet Nurse causes her charge to laugh one last time.
My Skull Runneth Over: The Cord of the Eye retrieved from Mergo's Wet Nurse mentions that Mergo granted the School of Mensis the eldritch knowledge they coveted, but that "resulted in the stillbirth of their brains".
Nightmarish Nursery: At the top of Mergo's Loft is a circular open area styled like a nursery, complete with strollers, baby crying sounds, etc.
Unexplained Recovery: Maybe. Mergo is repeatedly associated with "stillborn" in the lore, but it's unknown as to whether Mergo is a full-grown Great One or an actual stillborn one.
The Unfought: If an infant Great One, then it's incapable of defending itself, although its Wet Nurse is more than happy to oblige. Although it does fight alongside Queen Yharnam during her boss fight. Mergo is the one to cast the binding ring to paralyze you and its cries are heard throughout the fight.
The Unseen: Though it physically appears in the game within a baby carriage, its actual form is never witnessed. Unless you count the Yharnam Stone you get from slaying the Pthumerian Queen.
The Voice: You never physically see Mergo, but it's associated with a baby's crying. If Mergo is the child of Oedon, who only exists as voice, it's likely Mergo can only ever manifest through voice as well.

Kos

^{Click here} to see its appearance. WARNING: SPOILERS

"Curse here, curse there. A curse for he, and she, why care. A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea, source of all greatness, all things that be."

—Fishing Hamlet Priest

Kos, some say Kosm, is a Great One apparently capable of bestowing eldritch knowledge upon other beings, with unpredictable results. Kos is mentioned by Micolash and several item descriptions, but makes no appearance in the game, and appears to be unknown to the lower echelons of the Healing Church. She finally makes an full appearance in The Old Hunters DLC, albeit as a abandoned carcass.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Micolash's prayer implies that Kos raised the Vacuous Rom to godhood by "granting eyes". Master Willem wanted this to occur to himself, which resulted in the tragedies that enveloped Yharnam and the surrounding municipalities.
Beast with a Human Face: She has a human face that is partially visible under a "hood" of sagging flesh if you examine her washed-up carcass.
Dead All Along: Micolash and The Fishing Hamlet Priest are the only notable people who speak of her and invoke her name for different reasons, but since The Hunter never encounters her in the initial story, in addition to discovering other Great Ones acting in the shadows and hiding away from the rest of Yharnam, it would be an understandable reaction to assume the Kos was still active somewhere, too. The Old Hunters DLC however puts these theories to rest when visiting The Fishing Hamlet reveals that Kos has been long dead even before the beginning of The Hunter's adventure, with the official Word of God confirming that her death was at Byrgenwerth's hands during their invasion and subsequent slaughter of The Hamlet's residents.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: It's implied in the game and confirmed in the guide that Byrgenworth killed Kos.
Eyeless Face: Her physical form apparently has no eyes. They may be covered by that flap of skin on her face, but there's no way to check. Quite ironic given her followers' constant requests to "grant us eyes".
Eldritch Abomination: In the same vein as the rest of the Great Ones, but a benign one. The DLC reveals she resembled a white nudibranch with human arms and a bizarrely humanoid lower face. She apparently had compassion for the Fishing Hamlet residents who worshiped her, and they loved her in turn, but for some reason her presence caused them to transform into horrific Fish People.
Ethnic Goddess: She was the deity of the Fishing Hamlet.
Foreshadowing: Lady Maria says, "A corpse... should be left well alone." She was referring to Kos' corpse, now washed up on the beaches of the Fishing Hamlet.
Expy: Likely one to Mother Hydra of Lovecraft myth, an eldritch being associated with the ocean that was worshipped by a fishing village of fish-human hybrids.
The Ghost: In the main game. Aside from Micolash's prayer and a scant few item descriptions, next to nothing is known about Kos aside from vague implications. Even her actual name is disagreed upon in-universe. The Old Hunters expansion reveals that Kos is dead, leaving behind a host of strange parasites.
Good All Along: Maybe. It's harder to tell with The Great Ones as a whole, and it doesn't help that she has since died and deprived us of a chance to learn more first hand and interact with her, but there are just enough hints present to allow for different interpretations of her history and to determine whether or not they imply that Kos could not have been as good as she is made out to have been or if she actually was far more benevolent if not the nicest of all The Great Ones:
- On one hand is her status as the beloved "guardian deity" of The Fishing Hamlet and how the residents all invoke her name in gratitude for her presence, with Byrgenwerth's invasion and slaughter being seen as such an evil and unforgivable sin which caused Kos's followers to call upon her latent power to cast a curse on the scholars and all Hunters from then onward.
- However, Kos's influence as it would seem was also the cause of the transformations of The Fishing Hamlet's residents into aquatic hybrids and there's also the fact that she was responsible for having turned a human-turned-Kin into the Great One, now known as Rom the Vacuous Spider, which by all accounts seems to have been an evil thing to do.
- At the same time, others have considered Rom's position as being good and that her power is acting as a seal to prevent Byrgenwerth's ritual from taking place, something which if anything should've certainly benefitted a Great One like Kos.
- She also happens to look very regal and elegant for the standards of an eldritch cosmic being, and her appearance is leagues less sinister or intimidating as the other Great Ones' forms are.
Irony: Pun aside, she grants her followers knowledge in the form of "eyes" and yet has no eyes of her own. As mentioned above, they may be covered by the flap of skin on her face.
Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: Kos is implied to be the Great One most responsible for "granting eyes", a.k.a bestowing eldritch knowledge to those who beseech the gods for it.
Mama Bear: Near the end of the boss fight against the Orphan, the severely wounded creature will stop to scream in sorrow for a few seconds, at which point bolts of lightning will suddenly erupt from Kos' corpse and cover almost the entire stage, as if the Orphan's cry reached its dead mother and she's helping out from beyond the grave.
Missing Mom: The deceased mother of her single offspring, the Orphan of Kos, who crawled out of the womb of her desiccated corpse.
Monster Is a Mommy: In The Old Hunters DLC, Kos gives birth to a humanoid creature, making her an inversion to the human women impregnated by Oedon.
Posthumous Character: According to the Kos Parasite item's description, Kos is dead. You come across her body on a beach, where you fight her offspring.
Sins of Our Fathers: Both the Hunter's Nightmare and its related "Curse" were implied to be products of Kos, to punish the original Hunters of Byrgenwerth for killing both her and her unborn child (plus many residents of the Fishing Hamlet who worshiped her) for blood and eyes. This affects any Hunter who comes after. Though, the official guide (written in cooperation with From Software) states that it wasn't Kos's action, rather that of the villagers.
These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Kos's granted knowledge appears very hit-and-miss in regards to how it affects the one receiving it. Also, the only character who directly acknowledges Kos's existence in the vanilla game is Micolash, who is very much insane.
The Unfought: She is never encountered during the game, and is only mentioned a scant few times, despite apparently possessing significant power and a physical form. The Old Hunter DLC reveals that she actually died many years ago, having been killed during Byrgenwerth's invasion. You can find her dead body and fight her offspring who emerges out from underneath her.
Your Size May Vary: Kos's body notably appears slightly larger in the final cutscene of The Old Hunters, perhaps in a case of Gameplay Vs Story Segregation.
Walking Spoiler: It's hard to mention her without bringing up the Orphan of Kos, and their relations to both the Fishing Hamlet and Byrgenwerth.

Rom, the Vacuous Spider

The spider hides all manner of rituals, certain to reveal nothing, for true enlightenment need not be shared.

A large, larva-like being, once a mortal woman who was transformed into a Kin to the Great Ones. Referenced to in a handwritten scrawl found early in the game as the "Byrgenwerth Spider."

Almighty Idiot: "Vacuous" is right in her name. Despite this, she is still strong enough to hold back Formless Oedon and kick your ass while she's at it.
Barely-Changed Dub Name: She's called "Roma" in the Japanese version.
Barrier Maiden: Bizarrely, it's implied that Rom might have been — intentionally or not — keeping Oedon's power at bay, as a note found in her temple mentions how the "Byrgenwerth spider" was keeping their lord from contacting them. Certainly, it was only after her defeat that the menacing Blood Moon rose. On the other hand, see The Masquerade.
Colony Drop: After her health is reduced to a certain amount, Rom starts raining magic meteors down on you.
Eldritch Abomination: Rom is a legitimate Great One according to the trophy you earn for killing her, but she also drops a Kin Coldblood as loot, implying she was also a Kin, likely one of the first ones you will encounter aside from a few stray Celestial Mobs. Although her moniker contains the word "spider", Rom more resembles a pillbug with a silverfish-like tail, and has a head resembling a chunk of pumice with eyes in the holes. Her spawn resemble actual spiders, but have the same sort of head she does.
Eldritch Location: Rom is fought on the surface of an otherworldly lake accessed by jumping from the Lake Byrgenwerth overlooks, similar to the aesthetic of the Dark Link fight from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Expy: Rom is very similar to Phalanx from Demon's Souls in that she is relatively weak and squishy herself but is surrounded by powerful minions who take very little damage against attacks from the front and must be attacked from the sides or back. However, unlike Phalanx, who has no attacks of her own and is utterly helpless once all of her minions are dead, Rom possesses several devastating magic attacks that can easily 1-shot you as well as a powerful thrash attack. Both of them were also women who were transformed into freakish monsters (although it's only implied in Rom's case).
Female Monster Surprise: Although the name Rom is rather masculine and might lead one to think of her as a male, Miyazaki referred to Rom with feminine pronouns in the game guide interview, confirming her as female. Also, the spiders that appear in the arena could very easily be interpreted as her progeny.
Flunky Boss: Rom herself won't even attack you, instead summoning a swarm of spiders to aid her, at least in her initial phase.
The Masquerade: It's implied that Rom was merely hiding the effects of the Great Ones rather than holding them back. Miyazaki stated that Rom's death "revealed the secret Mensis ritual" via the pale sky, and a note found in Yahar'gul states "Behold! A paleblood sky!" even before Rom is slain. Pair that with high Insight letting you see Amygdalas crawling around the Cathedral and hear the crying of both Mergo and Arianna's baby in the womb, again before Rom is slain, and it's indicated that all the post-Blood Moon things were always there, but most people couldn't see them. The effects do seemingly get worse after she dies, what with more people turning into beasts or going insane, but that could just have been due to the passage of time, especially since it's not like they happen immediately after she dies.^note
Meaningful Name: "Vacuous" is quite appropriate. Until attacked, Rom doesn't do anything. Even once in combat, she limits herself to flopping about, summoning spiders, and spamming the same few spells over and over. It's fair to say this name is referential to the fact that despite Rom's elevated status as a Great One, she seems able to do little with her actual power.
Non-Indicative Name: Despite being called a "Vacuous Spider", Rom is more reminiscent of a larva of some kind. Oddly however, her corpse in the Altar of Despair has much longer legs, giving it a more spider-like appearance.
Non-Malicious Monster: While she is potentially negatively affecting humanity just by existing, she seemingly has no malicious intent towards you or anybody else (remember, she's basically mindless). In fact, she won't even attack you until you initiate combat. Even after that, she spends the first half of the fight trying to run away. It's only in the second half, when you have slain several of her spawn and seriously wounded her, that she makes any attempt to defend herself.
Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water: Rom is fought in a misty realm with water as far as the eye can see. Given the relatively grounded-in-reality locations of the last few bosses, the surreality of the arena and the boss itself is the first sign that Bloodborne's Gothic Horror is turning into a Cosmic Horror Story.
Wham Shot: As one of the first bosses you'll encounter that are directly related to the Great Ones, witnessing Rom is designed to function as this. Indeed, the game is actually programmed so that the camera will always point straight down when falling through the lake, slowly rising to reveal this thing that up until then was completely unlike anything else you encountered in the game.
Was Once a Man: Micolash's dialog much later on indicates that Rom may once have been a human who was "granted eyes" by Kos (or Kosm, as some say). This is also indicated by her greyish blood, typical of Kin, and the fact that she drops a Kin Coldblood as loot.

Amygdala

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amy.jpg

"Oh Amygdala, oh Amygdala... Have mercy on the poor bastard..."

—Patches the Spider

An enormous, spider-like Great One who resides within The Nightmare Frontier. Several other versions, dubbed, "lesser," variations are present in the physical/waking world meanwhile, and they can be found clinging to the sides of various buildings. Rather than being just a single Great One, the term, "Amygdala," refers to the entire sub-group as a whole.

Achilles' Heel: For the boss fight, Amygdala's legs and tail are armored, but attacking its arms and especially its head will inflict the most damage. It seems to be aware of this, as it presents only a few opportunities for The Hunter to attack these parts, and these windows close more as the fight goes on.
An Arm and a Leg: After it loses most of its health, it will rip off two of its arms to use as clubs. The arms may possibly also still be alive as well, as they can still generate vortexes when the augmented slam attacks are used.
Attack Its Weak Point: Its head and its arms are vulnerable while its lower half is protected.
Ax-Crazy: If Amygdala being the only Great One boss to attack you without any clear cause wasn't enough of an indication, maybe there's the fact it rips off its own arms to beat you to death with them.
Body Horror: The body part looks at least somewhat normal, in eldritch-spider-monster terms, but the head looks like some kind of horrific melted brain. Its lesser avatars throughout the game sport masses of tentacles as well, and when it uses its Eye Beams, a dozen eyeballs will momentarily bulge out of its skull.
Call-Back: Not exactly the first time a boss mutilates itself to try and gain an advantage over you.
Early-Bird Cameo: Statues of it can be found in Yahar'gul and the Grand Cathedral, and lesser versions of it cling onto the sides of buildings all around Yharnam. Most of them just sit there looking creepy, but a few will try to snatch up you to inflict instant Frenzy damage, and one in Yahar'gul will fire its Eye Beams at you when you try to pass.
Eldritch Abomination: One of the Great Ones of course, the cosmic horrors who preside over Yharnam.
Extra Digits: It has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
Eye Beams: Multifaceted eye beams, accompanied by a short wave of delayed explosions.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Like all the Great Ones. You are minding your own business when you're suddenly pulled into an Eldritch Location, then a giant eye-laser firing spider-thing drops from the top of a tower and the game asks you to kill it.
- Even more than the other Great Ones, actually; unlike Ebrietas, Rom, Kos (some say Kosm), Formless Oedon, Mergo, and Mergo's Wet Nurse (and possibly the Moon Presence if it is actually a Great One), Amygdala has no actual relevance to or impact on the plot of the game, with no apparent motive, objective, or purpose (regardless of the fact that it's going to be the one you have the most run-ins with thanks to constant encounters with its lesser kin). It's suggested that it might have been responsible for Patches' transformation into a spider-man, but other than that it's just... there.
- The lesser avatars are even worse. Imagine spotting an item and innocently running up to grab it, only to suddenly be snatched up by a swirling vortex and given a glimpse of an enormous, betentacled, and apparently invisible monstrosity before it guts you with Frenzy and tosses you aside.
Grievous Harm with a Body: When its health gets low, it pulls off two of its arms to use as improvised bludgeons, greatly extending its attack range. ^note
Hive Queen: Or Hive King... The various other Amygdalas around Yharnam are referred to as "Lesser Amygdala," and Patches The Spider refers to Amygdala, when taking the opportunity to show reverence, in such a way that indicates a single being. With this in mind, it's possible the Amygdala whom The Hunter faces in The Nightmare Frontier as well as the Amygdala in the Chalice Dungeons are in fact, not only one in the same, but also the leader of lesser Amygdalas in Yharnam.
Invisible to Normals: Not counting Oedon (due to him lacking a physical form of some kind entirely) Amygdala and the Lesser Brood are the only Great Ones who are completely hidden from the naked eye. They can only be seen once The Hunter either acquires an Insight level of 40 or higher or if they defeat Rom and witness The Blood Moon rise.
Lean and Mean: As massive as it is, the damn thing is skinny.
Meaningful Name:
- The "Amygdala" is the part of the brain that deals with emotions like rage and fear, which players are going to be feeling a lot of when playing Bloodborne. Its Japanese name also translates to almond or tonsil. The item that lets the Lesser Amygdala grab you with minimal damage is the Tonsil Stone.
- The Spanish word for "tonsil?" "Amígdala."
Mighty Roar: It lets out quite an impressive one once it's lost a substantial amount of health early on
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: A total of seven arms; three on the left and four on the right.
Optional Boss: The creature does not need to be fought for any sort of story progression, just for the Ailing Loran Chalice.
Scratch Damage: Its legs and tail are heavily armored. While the armor can be broken if one keeps wailing on it, until then, you'll be lucky to deal double-digit damage.
Token Evil Teammate: All of the Great Ones are dangerous in their own ways, but Amygdala and its brood are notable for being the only ones who deliberately attack the Hunter of their own volition and for no immediate reason: Ebrietas, Rom and The Orphan of Kos initially don't fight back until you either attack them yourself or at least approach them, and The Wet Nurse acts in defense towards Mergo. Amygdala, on the other hand, declares war on The Hunter as soon as they approach Amygdala's residence in The Nightmare Frontier, and the lesser members take potshots at The Hunter with their lasers and reach down to grab them if they get too close.
Wham Shot: Even more so than Rom. If you gather enough Insight, you can see one crawling on Oedon Chapel, revealing that more is going on than some simple Beast Hunt.

The Celestial Emissary (boss)

A larger version of the standard Celestial Emissaries found in the Upper Cathedral Ward, implied to be the result of the Church's experiments to ascend their own to Great One status.

All There in the Manual: The achievement you get from killing it confirms that it's a true Great One.
Ambiguous Syntax: An emissary to the Celestials, or an emissary from the celestials?
Bait-and-Switch Boss: At first it appears to be the boss of the Upper Cathedral Ward area. However, after defeating it, you find out that you can break the glass behind it, revealing that it was merely guarding the true boss: Ebrietas.
Flunky Boss: It's fought alongside others of its kind.
Glass Cannon: Its laser attack is powerful enough that it can easily kill the player in one hit (even at higher levels), and it has a longer range than many players might expect. Despite this, its defense stats are among the lowest of the bosses, and it's very vulnerable to damage.
Humanoid Abomination: The only Great One besides the Orphan of Kos (who may or may not have ever taken the form we see him in) to be human-shaped, because it Was Once a Man.
Interface Spoiler: In the first phase of the fight, when it evades the player by hiding in a swarm of Celestial Minions that all look identical to it, the game's interface gives away which monster is the boss. When you lock onto it, a health bar doesn't appear (since the boss' health bar is always at the bottom of the screen).
King Mook: The Celestial Emissary boss is identical to the regular Celestial Emissaries until it takes enough damage. At that point, it becomes super-sized.
Make My Monster Grow: After depleting a certain amount of its health, the Celestial Emissary will super-size.
Mythology Gag: It's boss fight is similar to the Royal Rat Vanguard in Dark Souls 2, as a horde of identical-looking enemies but only one of them contributes to the boss health bar.
One-Winged Angel: The Celestial Emissary boss grows to giant size upon losing half its health.
Optional Boss: Only needs to be fought if you wish to fight Ebrietas, which is another optional boss.
Puzzle Boss: In the first part of the fight, the Celestial Emissary is identical to the Celestial Minions surrounding it, and hides from the player in the swarm; the first major challenge of the battle is just figuring out which one of the minions is the boss. The boss is the one that doesn't have a health bar above the target reticule, and it's the only one that doesn't initially attack the player.
Spotting the Thread: The Celestial Emissary starts out identical to the Celestial Minions surrounding it, forcing the player to pay close attention to figure out where it is. A health bar doesn't appear when you lock onto it (since it's a boss, its health bar is at the bottom of the screen). And since it initially relies on its minions to beat the player, it's the only monster that initially doesn't attack.
Was Once a Man: Implied to be a member of the Church before experiments and Great One contact 'ascended' it.

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bloodborneebrietas.jpg

"Oh, fair maiden, why is it that you weep?"

Beneath the Grand Cathedral, the Great One Ebrietas communes with the highest members of the Healing Church upon the Altar of Despair. She is the object of the Choir's worship.

Beam Spam: She has an ability that functions exactly like the Call Beyond item, but powered up so that it fires three times.
Blood Magic: Sprays a blood-like liquid at you, which can cause Frenzy.
Cult: Ebrietas is the Choir's primary subject of worship, the reason they were founded and likely the reason they are particularly loony even for Healing Church standards. The description for the Rosmarinus quoted above has them address Ebrietas as a "fair maiden".
Combat Tentacles: She has branched tentacles for arms and a pair of tentacles extending from her shoulders.
Dark Is Not Evil: One of the few Great Ones who does not attack the player on sight despite her menacing appearance, and she is willing to work with the Healing Church. However, it's likely that she was forced into the role.
Due to the Dead: Possibly. When you reach her, she appears to be mourning over Rom's corpse and won't begin the battle unless attacked. Given the Altar's ability to reverse the flow of time, she may actually be attempting to revive the spider Rom.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She's certainly worshiped as a god, and defeating her is no easy task.
Divine Assistance: She's willing to lend a helping hand... err... tentacle to those who possess an Augur of Ebrietas, which enables the wielder to partially summon her by opening a portal in front of their hand. Interestingly, even killing her doesn't stop the Hunter or any other enemy from using this tool, which helps emphasize her Eldritch Abomination vibes.
Eaten Alive: She has a very telegraphed grab which, if she even slightly touches you with her limbs, will see her lift you up to her mouth and begin chewing on you. At this point in the game, you should be able to break free at full health. If you run out of health before she stops, she will devour you alive.
Early-Bird Cameo: She appeared surprisingly early in the Project Beast trailer; she lived in the Grand Cathedral instead of the Altar of Despair.
Eldritch Abomination: She is one of the Great Ones who oversees the chaos of Yharnam and bestowed eldritch knowledge to the Healing Church, currently serving as the Choir's patron "deity".
Expy: While the game as a whole takes pretty liberal inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Ebrietas is the Great One whose visual design is most obviously based on ol' squid-face himself, resembling a hybrid of an octopus and a dragon. It's pretty fitting that the creative team reserved that iconic design for one of the most challenging bosses in the game. She might specifically be a reference to the more obscure Chtylla created by post-Lovecraft authors, the daughter of Chtulhu who, like Ebrietas, was kept secret by a cult and is critical to its plans.
Foreshadowing: There are no in-game notes lying around or any NPC that will suggest that she's in Yharnam or where she even is. The only two real hints that a player has are the Augur of Ebrietas, a Summon Magic medium found in the Research Hall that says she exists, and how every single Celestial Child in the Upper Cathedral Ward is staring at the Grand Cathedral, as if they're sensing her presence.
Hell Is That Noise: After hurting her sufficiently, she will start to emit piercing, borderline ultrasonic screeches that ring in your ears like a tinnitus, enough to make the family dog yelp with pain.
Last of Her Kind: Ebrietas is implied to be the last Great One who still fully exists in the Waking World, and doesn't operate on "transcendent planes of thought" like her fellows.
Living Macguffin: She is the source of Yharnam Blood in Yharnam.
Macross Missile Massacre: A Call Beyond arcane spell; she invented it.
The Man Behind the Man: The Vicar may be the highest-ranking official in the Healing Church, but Ebrietas is the source of its power.
Meaningful Name: "Ebrietas" is Latin for drunkenness or intoxication. It's also the name of a species of butterfly (which her silhouette vaguely resembles).
Mother of a Thousand Young: By the time the player's protagonist is conducting their hunt across Yharnam, every Kin (and indirectly, even Beast)-type enemy encountered can have the source of their transformation traced back to the Eldritch Knowledge and the Blood endowed by her onto the Byrgernwerth College and Healing Church, respectively. In the former reference, this is a trait she shares with DLC's Kos (who is also alluded to in the main game), who according to Micolash is directly responsible for some of the older Kin such as Rom.
Mythology Gag:
- Her model is reminiscent of Seath the Scaleless.
- Her characterization is also similar to the Ceaseless Discharge. She is content to ignore the player and focus instead on the remains of the dead until she is provoked.
Non-Malicious Monster: She is initially passive and only becomes hostile to the player after she has been attacked.
Not Quite Dead: Killing Ebrietas doesn't affect the usage of Augur of Ebrietas, which partially summons her tentacle, be it by other enemies or even the Hunter who killed her. This implies she still exists somewhere in the Dreamlands.
Optional Boss: At least as far as any story content goes. Ebrietas is completely optional and only needs to be killed if you wish to explore more difficult Chalice Dungeons.
Super Boss: Considered by many to be the hardest boss in the main game due to her hard hitting attacks (including A Call Beyond lasers that require precise dodge timing or a quick sprint, a devastating charge attack, frenzy buildup and arm swipes that also cause her to swipe with her tentacles to catch badly timed or directed quicksteps) and large HP pool with high resistances to many damage types. Her only competition in terms of base game difficulty are Logarius (another completely optional boss in an optional area) and Gehrman (the final boss) but unlike these two, Ebrietas doesn’t have a weakness to parrying that makes the fight easier once you’ve mastered that mechanic. However, she is completely optional, only needing to be killed to access certain Chalice Dungeons. She won’t even turn hostile unless you attack her.
Turns Red: Reaching the threshold described in Hell Is That Noise, Ebrietas will hunch over and project an aura around herself. It projects a piercing noise, and allows her to use her strongest attacks. She pays a price for it, as her health will deplete slowly from that point on.
Tragic Monster: Ebrietas has been abandoned by her fellow Great Ones, is unable to return to the cosmos she was birthed from, is 'worshipped' (but also essentially enslaved) by the Choir, and even they ultimately abandoned her at the bottom of the fittingly-named Altar of Despair and seemingly forgotten - by the time you encounter her, she's face down and grieving for Rom, the only other Great One available, who has been sacrificed for the sake of the Church's plans - in a game where the Great Ones run Blue-and-Orange Morality, Ebrietas expresses the very base and human emotion of crippling loneliness.
The Unfavorite: She's referred to in some flavor text as having been "abandoned", though it's ambiguous by whom.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As the source of most of the Choir's knowledge, she unwittingly advanced their mad attempts of transcendance, and all that followed.
Vagina Dentata: Her head looks like a massive vagina with writhing tentacle-like teeth.
Wave-Motion Gun: Her laser attack, which can easily one-shot you even at full health.

Arianna's child

The result of Formless Oedon impregnating the prostitute Arianna, this creature is born near the end of the game, following a very quick pregnancy brought on by the Blood Moon.

Can't Live Without You: Its life is somehow tied with Arianna's. If you kill either of them, the other dies.
Child by Rape: While no physical sex was involved, Arianna certainly didn't consent to getting impregnated by an Eldritch Abomination.
Death of a Child: A terrible, yet nevertheless present option one can undertake. Killing it grants you a Cord of the Eye, which is needed to access one of the endings. ^note
Non-Malicious Monster: Unlike the other Celestial Children that it shares a model with, it won't attack you. Instead it simply sits and stares at its mother.
Prop Recycling: It uses the exact same model as the other Celestial Children, even though it's a Half-Human Hybrid while the Celestial Children were all implied to have been human children who were experimented on.
Shoot the Dog: What killing it ultimately amounts to. It's technically harmless, and there are plenty of other Umbilical Cords for The Hunter to find, so there's no real reason to attack it.

Brain of Mensis

The immense brain that Mensis retrieved from the nightmare was indeed lined with eyes on the inside, but they were of an evil sort, and the brain itself was terribly rotten. But even still, it was a legitimate Great One, and left a relic. A living relic, at that, which is a precious thing indeed.

—description of the Living String

A Great One retrieved from the Nightmare by the School of Mensis. While some Great Ones are sympathetic in spirit, the Brain isn't.

Annoying Arrows: Its ranged attack manifests as huge black arrows that deal a trifling amount of damage but cause the afflicted's Frenzy to skyrocket. Fortunately, it can also affect enemies.
Anti-Villain: It's a dangerous, hideous Eldritch Abomination, but also the victim of cruel experiments from the School of Mensis, and it ceases to be hostile after you free it from its chains, potentially even rewarding you a rune if you demonstrate reverence to it via the Make Contact gesture.
Be Careful What You Wish For: If you subscribe to the interpretation that the Brain of Mensis is literally composed of the School's members, then they definitely got a brain lined with eyes...Too bad that they didn't get anything else, not even basic mobility.
Body Horror: Essentially a monstrous, malformed brain absolutely lined with dead Messengers and eyes.
Body of Bodies: Subtler than the One Reborn, but the Brain of Mensis is made up of countless humanoid bodies fused together into one entity - it's implied, though never outright stated, that the Brain of Mensis is formed by all the members of the School of Mensis that reached the Nightmare and achieved a form of flawed ascension.
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Using the "Make Contact" gesture in front of it for about 30 seconds has the creature gift you a very valuable rune. However, this does not stop you from immediately killing it afterward. Unless that's exactly what it wants you to do. The runes are stated to be the language of the Great Ones, and the one it gives you does increase the echoes you gain from killing things...
Disabled Deity: It's a genuine Great One, with all the knowledge and eldritch power that implies...but it's also horribly malformed and it completely lacks any way of moving on its own, even its huge hands are merely for show.
Eldritch Abomination: It's actually a Great One, and resembles a giant, misshapen brain lined with large eyes and a few beastly limbs sprouting out.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Covered in eyeballs of all sizes.
First Contact: The creature does not attack after it has been dropped into the pit, and performing the "Make Contact" gesture in front of it for about 30 seconds will get you the best version of the Moon rune.
Hero Killer: Note the many corpses in Hunter garb impaled by Frenzy spears leading up to the Brain's tower.
Hijacking Cthulhu: This Great One of great eldritch knowledge and arcane power, enough to make even hardened hunters go mad with its evil eyes is...used essentially as the Nightmare of Mensis' security system to keep intruders out. Of course, it's implied that the Brain is made up of School of Mensis members, but it's still not an enviable existance.
King Mook: Of the Winter Lanterns.
Mind Rape: Though it never attacks or even defends itself, its mere presence in the area causes Frenzy to skyrocket.
Non-Action Guy: Aside from its ability to cast Frenzy, it has no real combat capabilities. Notably, it's the only killable Great One (besides maybe Mergo) that isn't actually a boss fight, and as a result it doesn't have a screen-spanning health bar and fog wall. It still has about as many hit points as its brethren, though.
Nothing Is Scarier: You don't actually get a good look at it until you've already neutralized it as a threat. For most of the level, your only clue to the thing causing your frenzy to skyrocket will be a malevolent reddish light glowing in the windows of Mergo's Loft. Downplayed but still present in its later appearance; you take an elevator down to an empty black void, only to find this giant, mutilated shape looming up from the darkness, mutely staring at you with dozens of eyes. It's one of the parts of the game that most closely resembles an actual nightmare.
Token Evil Teammate: Implied by the Living String description, which says its eyes "were of an evil sort, and the brain itself was terribly rotten." Still, by the time we come face to face with it, it's basically helpless and just asking to be let free.
Unfriendly Fire: Indiscriminately kills everything that enters its line of sight outside of the Loft, including other monsters. This is implied to be self-defense against the School of Mensis trying to experiment on it, as it ceases trying to defend itself after it realizes you can kill it.
Zero-Effort Boss: It can cast Frenzy on you from one specific path... and that's about it. After you find a way around that path, your "fight" with the Brain consists of pulling a lever to drop it down a shaft, navigating down to the bottom of said shaft, and pounding it to death while it stares at you helplessly, unable (and possibly unwilling) to defend itself.

Mergo's Wet Nurse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4af38d3b60e27089d746d43554fa5db8.png

A large, eight-armed Great One residing at the top of Mergo's Loft, all that is visible of this creature is her great black robe. She's in possession of Mergo.

Ambiguously Evil:
- While the morality of Great Ones is always difficult to decipher, the Wet Nurse even more so - she's implied to have essentially kidnapped Mergo and keeps the eldritch child prisoner, though it's left unknown if Mergo was offered to the Wet Nurse by the School of Mensis in exchange for eldritch knowledge, or if they're entirely separate events and the Wet Nurse is acting independently.
- Due to the ambiguous syntax, especially in Japanese, it's left unknown if the one who granted the School of Mensis its 'failed brain' was Mergo himself, or if the School made a Deal with the Devil with the Wet Nurse in exchange for being granted eyes. If it's the latter, then the Wet Nurse definitely kept her part of the bargain... by turning most of the students into the weak and stillborn Brain of Mensis.
Badass Longcoat: All that is visible of her is her large black robe, which is shredded enough to give the appearance of a longcoat.
Bedsheet Ghost: A weird mixture of this and Black Cloak. It doesn't seem to have a body beneath its robes.
Black Cloak: Making it look similar to the Shadows of Yharnam.
Body Horror: Hard to see due to her invisibility, but her arms are very twisted and her hood covers an elongated head.
Dual Wielding: Yeah... the Wet Nurse passed Dual Wielding two sets ago.
Easter Egg: Using the Tiny Music Box on it causes it to strafe as if dodging an attack.
Eldritch Abomination: Less apparent due to her invisibility, but the twisted shape of her arms and her very nature as a Great One would imply this.
Expy: Of Rakshas from Berserk, as an enigmatic demon made of empty robes that uses multiple blades, magical fog, and teleportation to attack.
Final Boss: If you accept Gehrman's offer at the end, she becomes this, as she'll be the last boss fought before the game's end in this route.
Foreshadowing: The Music Box of Gasgoigne's Daughter plays "Mergo's Lullaby" — in fact, standing outside of her window allows you to hear the entire tune...
The Grim Reaper: Seems to evoke this image, as a dark, cloaked figure armed with sickles. Her internal file name also happens to be "Lesser Demon of Death and Darkness", and she may be based on Senju Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, who was regarded as a psychopomp.
Mama Bear: Guards the children of the Great Ones with her life, with or without their approval.
Me's a Crowd: Begins summoning spectral copies that briefly materialize, attack you once, and then disappear.
Mythical Motifs: She is possibly based on the Yōkai ubume/ubumetori, which is said to be a nocturnal bird-like ghost woman that kidnaps people's babies, often due to having delivered a stillborn baby in life or dying during pregnancy. Mergo's birth mother, Queen Yharnam, can be found crying in Mergo's loft, and will bow down to the player if they slay Mergo's Wet Nurse, implying that the Great One stole Mergo directly from its mother's womb, much like an ubume- plus she also visually resembles a ghastly, eldritch crow.
- Another likely mythical source of inspiration is Senju Kannon/Thousand-Armed Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Mercy: Raigo/the Welcoming Approach is a motif in Buddhist art in which the Buddha, accompanied by Kannon and Seishi, descend from the Moon to deliver the departed into the Pure Land, much like how the Wet Nurse descends from the Moon above the Lunarium for Mergo. Back during the Edo period, when Christianity was banned in Japan, it also became common for secret Christians to keep statuettes of Kannon holding a baby in her arms in place of statues of Mary holding baby Jesus.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has eight arms, six of which wield huge sickles.
Ominous Fog: Her most dangerous attack has her cloak the whole arena in mist before multiple clones of her manifest and try to attack you from several different directions.
Our Angels Are Different: A winged, barely humanoid thing that serves Mergo, a stillborn god.
Self-Duplication: Can occasionally create a clone of herself that lasts for roughly half a minute.
Sinister Scythe: Fights with six sickles. The blades look suspiciously similar to Gehrman's schythe, the Burial Blade. Given that the Wet Nurse is internally named in the files as "Lesser Demon of Death and Darkness", the weapon of choice is likely thematic.
Small Role, Big Impact: Implied by the fact that the statue in the Grand Cathedral depicts a headless, winged, robed woman on high pouring a liquid down upon the altar and worshipping effigies below, as well as the fact that the Wet Nurse herself dons a large, bejeweled pendant which carries an uncanny resemblance to the "Communion" Rune. Her robes also look quite a lot like the robes of the Bell Ringes and the Shadows of Yharnam, implying that she might've been a significant Great One venerated among the Pthumerians.

The True Final Boss

Moon Presence/Flora

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moon_presence.png

"O Flora, of the moon, of the dream..."

The nameless moon presence beckoned by Laurence and his associates. Paleblood.

The true final boss. The Moon Presence is the entity presiding over the Hunter's Dream, using its power over the moon to manipulate hunter and beast alike.

Aerith and Bob: "Flora" sticks out quite a bit compared to the names of the other Great Ones.
Ambiguously Evil:
- The Moon Presence's true intentions are unknown, but its grand plan seems to involve using you as an Unwitting Pawn to kill the other Great Ones, and Mergo in particular. The closest thing to a hint we get is the description for the Umbilical Chord found in the Abandoned Workshop, which in the same paragraph where it details the Moon Presence's first meeting with the Hunters, notes: "every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate."^note The two sentences being put right next to each other could imply that it sees the keeper of the Hunter's Dream as its surrogate child (note how it seems to embrace the player in one of the endings)... or possibly that it sees humanity in general that way.
- The Japanese version of the note at the very beginning of the game says in no uncertain terms that Paleblood, and thus the Moon Presence, is the key to ending the Hunt - but whether that means that by killing it we have no longer need of a Hunt, or if by killing it we have destroyed one of the few things that empowered humanity in fighting back against the Beast Scourge and the Outer Gods, we'll likely never know for certain.
Ambiguous Situation: It's generally assumed to be a Great One, but the Japanese text also calls it a demon, and its exact nature is never clarified. Other Great One bosses are confirmed as such in the achievements, but since killing the Moon Presence immediately initiates the third ending, the trophy you get is for that instead of defeating the boss. It confirms you to be a Great One after the fight, but doesn't say anything about the Moon Presence.
Big Bad: Depending on whether the theory of it having ties to the origin of the Scourge is true or not.
Big Brother Is Watching: In the comics, which are admittedly of murky canonicity, Gehrman whispers to the Hunter that it's watching them everywhere they go, not just in the Hunter's Dream but out in Yharnam and its surrounding areas as well. He seems deeply concerned about it overhearing this conversation too...
Gehrman: Are you certain you may not prefer to simply go and kill a few beasts? It's what Hunters do... (Whispers) ''Its eyes are everywhere... its Presence... not only in this terrible Hunter's Dream... Go, before the Presence overhears us.
Big Good: If it isn't linked to the Scourge, then it is essentially this by default. The Moon Presence is what allows you to fight the Great Ones and stop the Beastly Scourge, via providing you a safe haven, infinite revives, and the ability to level up. Without it, you'd have died permanently about five minutes into the game, and the world would be doomed.
The Blank: It doesn't have a face, merely a hole in the center of its head, similar to the Giants from Dark Souls II. It's possible this is to visually show how disconnected the Moon Presence is from the narrative's focus on "Eyes".
The Chessmaster: Maybe. It seems to be responsible for the existence of the Hunt in the first place, set up by it as a counter against the intrusions of the Great Ones into the world, and it created the Hunter's Dream as part of its pact with Gehrman to give the Hunters a base from which they could grow powerful enough to strike at the Great Ones.
Combat Tentacles: It has a bunch of tentacles extending from its head, and multiple prehensile tails.
Confusion Fu: The speed of its movement, lanky design, and massive number of tendrils covering its frame make discerning just what the hell it's doing difficult in the middle of combat.
Deal with the Devil: It made one with Gehrman that led to the creation of the Hunter's Dream and the Hunt in general.
Dem Bones: Its ribs and vertebrae are completely exposed. Concept art of it with an intact torso and wings exists, meaning at some point its torso just got completely flayed for some unknown reason.
Dream Weaver: It resides in the Hunter's Dream, which it created.
Eldritch Abomination:
- It's strongly implied to be the entity responsible for the Hunter's Dream. Surprisingly, its trophy doesn't refer to it as a Great One, leaving exactly what it is an unanswered question. The enigmatic note in the upper floor of the Lecture Hall mentions the "nameless moon presence" and then says "Paleblood", indicating it is "paleblood" you were looking for.
- The Japanese translation is is a bit less ambiguous, as it is referred to as the Moon Demon. This only raises more questions, since if its name is taken at face value, it is the only demon in Bloodborne, and we have no idea where it came from at all other than deep underneath Yharnam.^note
Female Monster Surprise: Gehrman refers to the Moon Presence as a "she" in a cut piece of dialogue and uses the name "Flora" in reference to her, which is also used in-game by the Doll, suggesting that the creature is a female like the majority of the Great Ones.
First Contact: A note found on the second floor of the Lecture Building indicates that the Moon Presence was the entity Laurence and the other Byrgenwerth scholars first made contact with within the labyrinth beneath Yharnam.
Fluffy the Terrible: The horrifying Eldritch Abomination responsible for the nightmare the entire game has been set within is implied to have the decidedly non-threatening name Flora.
Gone Horribly Right: The Moon Presence created the Hunter's Dream in order to give Hunters a fighting chance against the curse. The Childhood's Beginning ending has this come back to bite it hard: one of the Hunters it empowered goes Off the Rails and ends up killing is and its emissary Gehrman, before usurping its power and potentially becoming a greater nightmare than Mergo ever was.
Hidden Villain: Until you kill Gehrman, the only hint of its existence is in the description of one of the umbilical cords and a note in the Lecture Hall, and it pretty much comes out of nowhere during the final cutscene to either kill or enslave you. We don't know if it's evil per se, but its actions in the lore, apparent motivation of killing the Great Ones, and overall appearance would definitely make it seem like a malicious force. The fact that Gehrman wants nothing more than to escape its influence also paints it in a sinister light.
Hoist by His Own Petard: If you kill it, it ends up dying at the hands of the very Hunter it used as a weapon against the Great Ones.
HP to One: Has an area-of-effect attack that does this. Thankfully, it doesn't knock you over and remains motionless for a good few seconds afterwards, making it easy to just get the health back with either blood vials or attacking the creature. If its health is halved, it inflicts Numbing Mist and prevents you from using blood vials. And if you are a co-operator and have less than 30% of your total health, it becomes a One-Hit Kill instead.
Hunter of Their Own Kind: The Moon Presence created the Hunter's dream and empowered the hunters so that they could stand against the Beasts and the Nightmare. The only goal that can be nailed down is that the Moon Presence wants Mergo dead, so it's entirely possible that it's fighting other Great Ones and using the player as a proxy.
Lightning Bruiser: It hits hard and fast with both its arms and its Combat Tentacles and is absurdly aggressive, able to cover the entire arena in a single leap.
The Man Behind the Man: To Gehrman.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike the rest of the Great Ones (besides the Brain of Mensis), the Moon Presence has no known name. The above-mentioned note even says "nameless moon presence" when talking about it. Years after the game is released, its actual name is implied to be Flora due to a rare piece of dialogue from the Doll, which is further supported by a discovered cut line of dialogue from Gehrman. Outside the game itself, Miyazaki also stated in an interview "Paleblood is another name for the monster that comes from the moon under certain conditions" — but adds how it is something which he wanted to be open to imagination.
Post-Final Boss: Oddly enough, it’s simultaneously this and the True Final Boss. Its fight is significantly easier than the fight against Gherman and occurs after accomplishing the main goal of the game (stopping the Mensis Ritual) and freeing Gherman.
Riddle for the Ages:
- Even compared to the rest of the game's backstory, there is very little known about what exactly the Moon Presence is and what it wants beyond apparently trying to kill all the other Great Ones (the only example of explicit Great One infighting in the game, although whether or not it even is a Great One is up for debate). Information about it is scarce, often hidden away in obscure portions of the game and tends to raise more questions than it answers. Word of God hints that it might be the "Paleblood" which the protagonist seeks... but, depending on the player's chosen interpretation, it might not be.
- It's unclear if every mention of the moon, of which there are many, are actually a reference to the Presence and it's machinations or not. Gehrman warns the player that "the Moon is close" and that tonight's hunt will be longer than usual, the madmen at the School of Mensis are working to beckon the Moon, and then there's the whole Ludwig situation with his strange affinity for the celestial body and his possession of the Holy Moonlight Sword. Is the prominence of the Moon representative of the creature's growing power? Does the blood moon represent Mensis attacking the Presence directly?
- Even after years of combing through more accurate Japanese-to-English translations, interviews, and analysis, only very few traits have been able to be concretely be said to apply to the Moon Presence:
  - It's the true identity of "Paleblood".
  - Its name, or at least the name given to it by humans, is Flora.
  - It's the 'nameless moon presence/moon demon' connected in some vague way with Laurence 'and his associates'.
  - Its contact with humanity gave rise to Hunters and the Hunter's Dream, apperently due to wanting to 'adopt them' (as per the Third Umbilical Cord description)
  - It has kept Gehrman bound within the dream far longer than he would have liked to, and is more than willing to get the Hunter to take his place should he die.
Squishy Wizard: It has an attack that casts your HP to One, and the cutscene introducing it shows that it can immediately incapacitate you no matter how powerful you may be at this stage. However, if you make yourself immune to that incapacitation ability by consuming three Great One Umbilical Chords, its physical strength (while significant) proves much less impressive. It's stronger than Amygdala, Rom, the Brain of Mensis, or (presumably) Kos, but it's got nothing on Mergo's Wet Nurse, the Orphan of Kos, Ebrietas, or Gehrman himself.
Summoning Ritual: Is described as having been "summoned" by Laurence and his cohorts, seemingly as part of a plan which Gehrman is also a part of, although the circumstances surrounding it are cryptic.
Token Good Teammate: The Moon Presence is less antagonistic than other Great Ones. Once beckoned, it created the Hunter's Dream and empowered the Hunters to give them a chance against the curse that had taken hold of Yharnam. It also doesn't seem to try mucking about in our world, content to stick to its own dimension. That is, if it even is a Great One. The name above its health bar in the Japanese version is "Moon Demon".
True Final Boss: Well hidden and the final boss in a sequence of 3 potential candidates.
Villainous Breakdown: During its battle with you, it seems to be both enraged and alarmed that it can't control you, and attacks as aggressively as possible to kill you for this.
Walking Spoiler: The mere fact that it exists is a pretty huge spoiler, and it casts a huge shadow over the game's lore when you know about it.

Characters / Bloodborne Great Ones

Moon Presence/Flora

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Characters / Bloodborne Great Ones

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Moon Presence/Flora

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