The Research Hall: the Healing Church's Hidden Experiments
The Research Hall is the Healing Church's private research tower in The Old Hunters, full of patients whose heads swelled as they listened for the sea. Lady Maria was their caretaker. Here is what the game says went on there.
The Research Hall is the Healing Church's private research tower, found inside the Hunter's Nightmare in Bloodborne's expansion, The Old Hunters. Its patients drank water and listened for the sea in the hope of growing eyes inside their heads, and many of their heads swelled until little else was left. Lady Maria cared for them, and the tower leads up to her in the Astral Clocktower. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
How the hunter gets in#
The key is the Eye Pendant, taken from the burning beast on the altar of the Nightmare's Grand Cathedral. It "unlocks the surgery altar", and its text is clear about who belonged here: "Only chosen members of the Healing Church, or their lamentable patients can enter the research hall, using this eye." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The surgery altar is a lift. On its lower level lies Laurence's Skull, the human skull of Laurence, the first vicar, which "only exists within the Nightmare." Taking it back to the cathedral wakes the beast he became. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What the Church did to its patients#
The plainest account is on the Brain Fluid, extracted "from a patient whose head expanded until that was all that they were." It reads: "In the early days of the Healing Church, the Great Ones were linked to the ocean, and so the cerebral patients would imbibe water, and listen for the howl of the sea. Brain fluid writhed inside the head, the initial makings of internal eyes." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The Enlarged Head, a hollowed head of "a patient of the Cathedral", carries the same idea. Put it on and listen "for the sticky sound. Drip, drop. As water, seeping up from the depths". (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The patients still talk about water. One says "Listen close... and you, too, will hear... The sound of... water." Another asks whether anyone has seen her eyes, since she's "afraid I've dropped them in a puddle". Others plead to be killed or freed. Many have become hostile, and the Church's own wheelchair-bound huntsmen and servants still patrol the floors. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Not every patient was the same. Adeline, strapped to a chair, was originally one of the Blood Saints the Church treated to produce worthy blood, and hers "was one of the few cases that turned out favorably." She begs for Brain Fluid to hold on to "the sticky sound" that guides her. Bring it and she gives her blood. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The hall also holds the key to the cell below the Grand Cathedral, where hunters are held "so that things better left unseen, better left unknown, will decay quietly in the fallow darkness." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Lady Maria, caretaker of the patients#
The Astral Clocktower Key gives Maria's role: "The caretaker of the tower's numerous patients, known to them only as Lady Maria, made her home behind the giant star-interpreting clock." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The patients have not forgotten her. Adeline's first words are "Is that you, Lady Maria? No, you're someone else." Another begs Maria to take their hand: "Help me... Don't let me drown..." One who has stopped hearing anything simply says, "I have failed." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The Balcony Key shows her kindness, and its limits. Maria gave it to Adeline, hoping she "would find comfort in the faint breeze that carried the scent of flowers from the outside, but Adeline couldn't fathom her intentions." When Adeline is helped, she hands over a charm that Lady Maria gave her. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The Living Failures and the clocktower#
Above the hall lies the Lumenwood Garden. Its bosses, the Living Failures, are pale blue figures who throw arcane orbs and call down meteors. Their trophy names them "the failed attempts to become Great Ones". They drop the Astral Clocktower Key. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Simon waits by the hall's lamp once its stairways are lowered. "Not a pretty sight, is it? The true face of the blood-worshiping, beast-purging Healing Church." He tells the hunter to climb the clocktower and kill Maria, since "She hides the real secret." Beyond her lies the Fishing Hamlet. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What players read into the Research Hall#
- The Living Failures look like the Celestial Emissary and the small blue creatures of the Upper Cathedral Ward, home of the Choir. Many players see the Research Hall as an earlier stage of the work the Choir later carried on. The game never draws the line itself. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
- The focus on the sea and on growing internal eyes is often tied to the Fishing Hamlet, where hunters searched the villagers for eyes. The timing and the link are inference. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
- Most players believe Maria's care for the patients, set against what was done to them, is part of why she ended up guarding the clocktower as she did. Her own items never say so. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Research Hall in Bloodborne?
- The Healing Church's private research hall, found in the Hunter's Nightmare in The Old Hunters. Patients there drank water and listened for the sea in an attempt to grow eyes on the inside, and many of their heads swelled grotesquely.
- How do you get into the Research Hall?
- With the Eye Pendant, taken from the burning beast on the altar of the Nightmare's Grand Cathedral. It unlocks the surgery altar, a lift that leads down into the hall.
- What is Lady Maria's link to the Research Hall?
- The Astral Clocktower Key says she was the caretaker of the tower's patients, who knew her only as Lady Maria. Patients still beg for her, and Adeline mistakes the hunter for her.
- What are the Living Failures?
- The bosses fought in the Lumenwood Garden on the hall's roof. Their trophy calls them the failed attempts to become Great Ones.
Sources
- GameBloodborne: The Old Hunters, FromSoftware, 2015 (expansion)
- GameBloodborne, FromSoftware, 2015
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
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