I have a pet theory that, rather than Déraciné being a stealth prequel to Bloodborne, the events of Bloodborne are a dream that Yuliya has when she is close to death. The children have handmade dolls of The Doll (given the name Fiona) doing the Make Contact gesture, and of something called a Seafaring Sage which resembles what you turn into in the Childhood's Beginning ending. Both items have descriptions that say they "guide people through bad dreams", which is obviously at least a passing reference to Bloodborne, but I think it works super well as a sort of inner world of Yulia, who is ambiguously human, ghost, or faerie depending on the timeline. This would explain the recurrence of similar but slightly altered names like Lorinc/Laurence, Herman/Gehrman, Nicholas/Micolash, The Headmaster/Master Willem, Marie/Maria, etc. Yuliya knows those people and a dream she had would incorporate what she's familiar with. The reason it's HER dream is that the Doll is dressed almost identically to her, the resemblance is striking. She's the oldest of the children and often their caretaker so it makes sense that she'd be in that role. And then the player character in Bloodborne is the Seafaring Sage, if the Childhood's Beginning ending is chosen.
Upon waking up, either Yuliya would have related this strange and horrible dream and the toys would have been made from her descriptions of the two heroes of her dream OR the toys already existed and were incorporated into the dream. But imo their item descriptions suggest the former.
The similarities in setting, and Déraciné being a bit more realistic, aligns with the notion that Bloodborne is a dream within Déraciné. It's maybe a long shot but I think it all checks out. I'm interested to hear what y'all think.
I have a pet theory that, rather than Déraciné being a stealth prequel to Bloodborne, the events of Bloodborne are a dream that Yuliya has when she is close to death. The children have handmade dolls of The Doll (given the name Fiona) doing the Make Contact gesture, and of something called a Seafaring Sage which resembles what you turn into in the Childhood's Beginning ending. Both items have descriptions that say they "guide people through bad dreams", which is obviously at least a passing reference to Bloodborne, but I think it works super well as a sort of inner world of Yulia, who is ambiguously human, ghost, or faerie depending on the timeline. This would explain the recurrence of similar but slightly altered names like Lorinc/Laurence, Herman/Gehrman, Nicholas/Micolash, The Headmaster/Master Willem, Marie/Maria, etc. Yuliya knows those people and a dream she had would incorporate what she's familiar with. The reason it's HER dream is that the Doll is dressed almost identically to her, the resemblance is striking. She's the oldest of the children and often their caretaker so it makes sense that she'd be in that role. And then the player character in Bloodborne is the Seafaring Sage, if the Childhood's Beginning ending is chosen.
Upon waking up, either Yuliya would have related this strange and horrible dream and the toys would have been made from her descriptions of the two heroes of her dream OR the toys already existed and were incorporated into the dream. But imo their item descriptions suggest the former.
The similarities in setting, and Déraciné being a bit more realistic, aligns with the notion that Bloodborne is a dream within Déraciné. It's maybe a long shot but I think it all checks out. I'm interested to hear what y'all think.