The Fishing Hamlet: Bloodborne's Hidden Village and the Hunters' Sin
The Fishing Hamlet is the drowned village at the end of The Old Hunters, where the corpse of the Great One Kos lies on the shore. It is the secret behind the Hunter's Nightmare. Here is what the game shows there, and how players read it.
The Fishing Hamlet is the half-drowned seaside village at the very end of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, hidden behind the Astral Clocktower in the Hunter's Nightmare. Its people have turned fish-like, the corpse of the Great One Kos lies on its beach, and it holds the old crime behind the Nightmare. Simon puts it bluntly as he dies: "This village is the true secret... It feeds this Hunter's Nightmare." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Getting there#
The hamlet is the last door in the Nightmare. The hunter climbs to the Astral Clocktower and fights Lady Maria, who warns before the duel: "A corpse, should be left well alone. Oh, I know very well how the secrets beckon so sweetly." Beyond her, the clock opens onto the village. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What the village shows#
The hamlet tells its story through its people. Fish-like villagers, giant fishmen and robed mages fill the huts and caves, and voices mutter from behind closed doors: "Mother is dead, her baby, taken." "Scales are suffering, the grief of Kos." "Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever, true." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The priest near the entrance is the clearest witness. He paces and mutters: "Byrgenwerth... Byrgenwerth... Blasphemous murderers... Blood-crazed fiends... Atonement for the wretches... By the wrath of Mother Kos... Mercy for the poor, wizened child." He calls for "the curse of blood upon them, and their children, and their children's children, for evermore." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
With the Milkweed rune equipped, he finally talks to the hunter and hands over the Accursed Brew. Its description is the hardest evidence of what happened: 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)
Kos on the shore#
Past the lighthouse, Kos lies on the sand. The Kos Parasite says "when the carcass of Kos washed up on the coast, its insides were teeming with tiny parasites unlike any found in humans." The Orphan of Kos waits beside its mother, and its trophy names it a Great One. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
After the Orphan dies its spirit lingers beside Kos. Once that is dispelled, the priest's words change: "Ah, sweet child of Kos returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea... Accepting of all that there is... And can be..." In the Hunter's Dream the Doll notices that Gehrman is sleeping peacefully for once. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
The hunters' sin#
The hamlet explains 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 after Brador hunts him down, asks: "So our forefathers sinned? We hunters cannot bear their weight forever... It isn't fair." (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Lady Maria is tied directly 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 sword is dropped by a giant fishman at the bottom of a well in the hamlet. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
What the game never confirms#
The full story of the raid is never shown. The common reading is that Byrgenwerth sent hunters to study the villagers' eyes, that Kos's child died or was cut from her, and that the curse, from Kos or her orphan, made the Hunter's Nightmare to punish them and every blood-drunk hunter after. Each step has evidence, but the game never lays it out. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
Whether Kos was already dead when she beached, who led the raid and whether Willem ordered it are all open. The timeline sets out where the raid most likely falls. The hamlet sits inside the Nightmare now, and how the real village came to be there is never explained. The full DLC story is in The Old Hunters story. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters; Bloodborne)
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Fishing Hamlet in Bloodborne?
- The final area of The Old Hunters, a seaside village inside the Hunter's Nightmare whose people have become fish-like. The Great One Kos lies dead on its beach, and her orphan is the last boss.
- How do you get to the Fishing Hamlet?
- Defeat Lady Maria in the Astral Clocktower. The way to the hamlet opens behind her.
- What happened at the Fishing Hamlet?
- Hunters from Byrgenwerth raided it. The game shows villagers' skulls "forcibly searched for eyes" and a priest cursing Byrgenwerth. Simon calls the village "the true secret" that feeds the Hunter's Nightmare.
- Who is the priest in the Fishing Hamlet?
- A fish-like man near the entrance who mutters curses on Byrgenwerth in the name of "Mother Kos". He can't be killed, and with the Milkweed rune equipped he gives the hunter the Accursed Brew.
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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