Kos (or Kosm): the Dead Great One of the Fishing Hamlet
Kos is the Great One whose corpse lies on the beach at the end of The Old Hunters. What was done to her body, and her child, is the sin behind the Hunter's Nightmare. This page sets out what the game says and what players have inferred.
Kos is the dead Great One lying on the shore of the Fishing Hamlet, the last area of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. The Kos Parasite item opens with the key line: "When the carcass of Kos washed up on the coast, its insides were teeming with tiny parasites unlike any found in humans." What scholars and hunters from Byrgenwerth did next is the hidden crime behind the Nightmare that traps the old hunters. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What the game says about Kos#
Kos is named before The Old Hunters existed. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare, opens his fight in the base game with a prayer: "Ah, Kos... Or some say, Kosm... Do you hear our prayers?" Later he adds: "As you once did for the Vacuous Rom... Grant us eyes, Grant us eyes!" (Bloodborne)
The Old Hunters shows her body. It lies on the beach past the hamlet, huge and pale, and the Kos Parasite says it was full of parasites when it washed up. The Brain Fluid item records why the Healing Church cared: "In the early days of the Healing Church, the Great Ones were linked to the ocean." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The violated village#
The hamlet's people speak for her. Mutterings drift from the huts: "Mother is dead, her baby, taken." And: "Scales are suffering, the grief of Kos." The Accursed Brew is the skull "of a local from the violated fishing village", whose inside "was forcibly searched for eyes, as evidenced by innumerable scratches and indentations." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The priest who wanders near the entrance names the guilty: "Byrgenwerth... Byrgenwerth... Blasphemous murderers... Blood-crazed fiends... By the wrath of Mother Kos... Mercy for the poor, wizened child." He calls for the curse: "Lay the curse of blood upon them, and their children, and their children's children, for evermore." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Lady Maria was part of it, or close to it. The Rakuyo says she "abandoned her beloved Rakuyo, casting it into a dark well, when she could stomach it no longer", and the blade is found down a well in the hamlet. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Kos and the Hunter's Nightmare#
The Old Hunter Garb says Yharnamites "began to whisper of the hunters' sin", and that hunters drunk with blood "would pass on to the Nightmare, every last one of them". Simon, dying in the Lighthouse Hut, makes the link: "This village is the true secret... It feeds this Hunter's Nightmare... So our forefathers sinned?" (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
When the hunter destroys the Orphan's lingering spirit, the priest changes his tune: "Ah, sweet child of Kos returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea... Accepting of all that there is." Back in the Dream, the Doll says she can hear Gehrman sleeping calmly for once. The full DLC plot is in The Old Hunters story. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Kos and the eyes#
Kos is tied to the eyes that Byrgenwerth chased. Micolash's prayers to Kos beg for eyes "as you once did for the Vacuous Rom", the spider that guards Byrgenwerth's lake. The usual reading is that Kos once granted Rom eyes on the inside. The Kos Parasite, the Orphan's drop, "is said to stimulate phantasms inhabiting a lumenwood", the Milkweed rune's word for those who feed phantasms and peer at the sky. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What the game never confirms#
The first open question is how Kos died. The text says only that her carcass washed up. Some players think she beached already dead; others think the hunters killed her. Nothing settles it. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The second is who laid the curse. The priest prays for it, and the common reading is that Kos, or her orphaned child, made the Hunter's Nightmare as punishment. The game shows the Nightmare tied to the hamlet but never says who made it. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The third is the hunting party. Maria is the only member the text points at. Gehrman, Laurence and Ludwig are often added to the list, but those are guesses from where each of them ended up. The timeline shows where the raid most likely falls. See the Great Ones for how Kos fits with the others. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Kos in Bloodborne?
- A Great One whose carcass washed up beside the Fishing Hamlet. The hamlet worshipped her as "Mother Kos", and her orphaned child is the final boss of The Old Hunters.
- Is it Kos or Kosm?
- Both. Micolash prays "Ah, Kos... Or some say, Kosm", and the game never says which is correct. The item text and the hamlet's priest use Kos.
- What did the hunters do to Kos?
- The game shows the aftermath rather than the act: the villagers slaughtered, their skulls searched for eyes, and Kos dead with her child taken from her. The priest blames Byrgenwerth and curses its hunters in Kos's name.
- Did Kos die before the hunters came?
- The game never says. The Kos Parasite only says her carcass washed up on the coast. Whether she was already dead or killed is one of the big open questions.
Sources
- GameBloodborne, FromSoftware, 2015
- GameBloodborne: The Old Hunters, FromSoftware, 2015 (expansion)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
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