Simon the Harrowed: the Blindfolded Hunter Who Exposed the Nightmare
Simon is the blindfolded Church hunter who guides the player through The Old Hunters. He wants the Hunter's Nightmare and its secrets dragged into the open, and he pays for it. Here is what he says, what his gear reveals, and how he dies.
Simon the Harrowed is a blindfolded Healing Church hunter who guides the player through Bloodborne's expansion, The Old Hunters. He is trapped in the Nightmare like everyone else, but he is still sane, and he wants its secrets exposed. He points the player first at Ludwig, then at Lady Maria, and finally dies in the Fishing Hamlet asking for the horror to end. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Who is Simon?#
His gear tells most of it. Simon's Bowblade was made by the Church workshop because "Church hunter Simon despised firearms". It is a curved blade that becomes a bow, and aside from a few close friends, Simon "was scoffed at for his choice of arms, for who would dare face the beasts with a measly bow?" (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
His title comes from the Harrowed set. The description says certain Church hunters hide their identities and "slip into the nooks and crannies of the city", watching for early signs of the scourge as a first line of defence. Then a darker line: "Or perhaps, when the time is ripe, they find signs of the scourge where there are none." It ends: "the corner beggar is not always who he seems." The game never says what Simon himself did in that role. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The set is found in a hut near the start of the Fishing Hamlet. How it got there, the game doesn't explain. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Simon's guidance through the Nightmare#
At their first meeting Simon spots a hunter who still has their sanity. "This is the Hunter's Nightmare, where hunters end up when drunk with blood." He tells the player to turn back, unless they have "something of an interest in nightmares". Say yes and he likens the player to the spirit of Byrgenwerth, then warns: "secrets are secrets for a reason." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
He turns up again after the fight with Ludwig. Simon calls him "a tragic figure" who "died with his ideals untarnished". If Simon finishes Ludwig's talking head, he hands over the Holy Moonlight Sword, "the blinding thread that led, and misled, that consummate hero." Then he says what he really thinks. Hunters are drawn to the Nightmare "because it sprouted from their very misdeeds", things some would rather keep secret, and it is "high time someone exposed the whole charade". (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
In the Research Hall, once the hunter lowers its stairways, Simon waits by the lamp. "Not a pretty sight, is it? The true face of the blood-worshiping, beast-purging Healing Church." Then the order: climb the Astral Clocktower and kill Lady Maria. "She hides the real secret." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
How Simon dies#
Past Maria's clocktower lies the Fishing Hamlet. The hunter finds Simon lying in a hut there, badly hurt. "I'm afraid, I've made a botch of things... I can hear the bell, now... The beast-hide assassin, he's after me... Again and again... It never ends." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
His last words name the hamlet: "This village is the true secret." It "feeds this Hunter's Nightmare", he says, and he begs the hunter to bring an end to the horror. Then the bitterness comes out. "So our forefathers sinned? We hunters cannot bear their weight forever... It isn't fair, it just isn't fair." He leaves his Bowblade and a key to the inner chamber of the cell below the Grand Cathedral. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
That key's text says the chamber "holds a lone madman" who wears a beast hide and rings a bell that makes no sound, and that "Unending death awaits those who can hear the soundless bell." Simon said he could hear the bell. Brador's Testimony describes Brador as a Healing Church assassin given that soundless bell "to ensure their secrets would be kept." The game lets these pieces sit side by side without saying "Brador killed Simon", but they fit closely. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Ending the Nightmare, as Simon asked, means facing the Orphan of Kos on the hamlet's shore. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What players read into Simon#
- Most players take Brador as Simon's killer. The beast hide, the bell and the key all line up, but the deed happens off screen. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
- His blindfold is often read as a refusal to see, or as a jab at the Church's hunger for eyes. The game gives no reason for it. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
- Some see the Harrowed garb's line about finding the scourge "where there are none" as a hint of guilt in Simon's past, which would explain his anger at secrets. That is a reading; the garb describes Church hunters in general. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The full expansion is covered in the Old Hunters story.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Simon in Bloodborne?
- Simon the Harrowed is a Healing Church hunter trapped in the Hunter's Nightmare in The Old Hunters. He guides the player towards the Nightmare's secrets and dies in the Fishing Hamlet.
- Who kills Simon the Harrowed?
- Simon says "the beast-hide assassin" is after him, which points to Brador, the Church assassin who wears a beast's hide. The killing itself is never shown.
- Why is Simon blindfolded?
- The game never says. Players connect it to the Church's talk of eyes and to his wish not to see, but it is unexplained.
- How do you get Simon's Bowblade?
- Simon leaves it when he dies at the end of his quest in the Fishing Hamlet. Killing him earlier also gives it, but cuts his story short.
Sources
- 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.
Followed from this entry
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Ludwig, the Holy Blade: the First Hunter of the Healing Church
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The Orphan of Kos is the final boss of The Old Hunters, a child of the Great One Kos found screaming beside its mother's corpse. Killing it ends the curse behind the Hunter's Nightmare. Here is what the game states and what players read into it.
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