Bloodborne Timeline: From the Pthumerians to the Night of the Hunt

Bloodborne, FromSoftware's 2015 game for the PlayStation 4, never gives a single date. Its history lives in item descriptions, notes left on tables, and a few lines of dialogue, and the order of events has to be read from what each piece says came before or after. This timeline does that, era by era, oldest first. Where the game states the order, the entry says so. Where the order is a reasonable guess, the entry says that too. Everything happens in one setting, the city of Yharnam and the dreams and nightmares around it, and the main game and its expansion, The Old Hunters, end on the same night. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

How to read this timeline#

Bloodborne tells its history in fragments, so this page uses three kinds of entry. Some events are stated outright, for example that Laurence was the first vicar of the Healing Church. Some are placed by a clear chain, such as a garment description saying one group "later" became the basis for another. And some are placed by inference, where the game names an event but not when it happened. Inferred placements are flagged in the text. (Bloodborne)

The age of the Pthumerians (unknown antiquity)#

The oldest layer of the story sits underground. The game calls the Labyrinth beneath Yharnam "old", and every scrap of its history comes from the chalices used to open it. (Bloodborne)

• The Labyrinth: The Pthumerians, described as superhuman beings said to have gained the wisdom of the eldritch Truth, carved out the old Labyrinth. (Bloodborne)
• Guardians of the Great Ones: The earliest Pthumerians were humble guardians of the slumbering Great Ones. Their descendants later came to see themselves as rulers, and Pthumeru Ihyll became the title of both their monarch and their capital. (Bloodborne)
• The keepers: The oldest keepers, who minded the sleeping Great Ones, were preserved as ash in a ceremony of flame and gained eternal life. Their pointed hats are said to be a sign of companionship "forged in a certain sin", which the game never explains. (Bloodborne)
• Queen Yharnam: The Pthumerian monarch was traditionally a woman. One of them, Yharnam, is called the Blood Queen of the Old Labyrinth, and an heirloom of hers says she lies dead but her consciousness only sleeps. The city shares her name, but the game never says the city was named after her. (Bloodborne)
• Loran and Isz: Two other Labyrinth lands appear in chalice text. Loran was devoured by the sands, and the scourge of the beast is said to be the root of its fall. Isz, according to the Choir, lies in contact with the cosmos. When Loran fell relative to the other events is never stated. (Bloodborne)

Byrgenwerth (long before the hunt)#

Byrgenwerth was a college by a lake outside Yharnam, run by its provost, Master Willem. Almost every later group, from the Church to its two inner circles, traces back to it. The exact order of the events below is partly inferred. (Bloodborne)

• Into the Labyrinth: Byrgenwerth sent tomb prospectors into the old Labyrinth. Two of Willem's loyal servants went down, met the eldritch Truth and went mad, and stayed loyal anyway: one became the password gatekeeper, the other, Dores, a graveguard of the Forbidden Woods. (Bloodborne)
• Ebrietas: Byrgenwerth encountered a remnant of the eldritch Truth, the Great One Ebrietas. The game says this first meeting began an inquiry into the cosmos from within the old Labyrinth, and later led to the Choir. (Bloodborne)
• The Old Blood: Rune descriptions say the discovery of blood made the scholars' dream of evolution real, and that undesirable beasts came with it. Willem distrusted it. His adage, "Fear the old blood", survives as the password to Byrgenwerth's gate. Where exactly the Old Blood came from is never stated. The most common reading is that it was taken from the Great Ones found in the Labyrinth. (Bloodborne)
• Eyes: Willem had an epiphany that humans were "thinking on the basest of planes" and needed more eyes. He wanted to line his brain with eyes to raise his thoughts to the level of the Great Ones. A scholar's note in the Lecture Building agrees with him: "Evolution without courage will be the ruin of our race." (Bloodborne)
• Caryll: The runesmith Caryll, a student of Byrgenwerth, wrote down the inhuman speech of the Great Ones as Caryll Runes. Item text says Willem would have been proud of them because they rely on no blood at all. (Bloodborne)

The Fishing Hamlet and Kos (Byrgenwerth era, inferred)#

The Old Hunters reveals the crime at the root of the hunt. Its place in the order is inferred: the village priest curses Byrgenwerth by name, and the hunters involved were among the very first. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

• Kos washes ashore: The carcass of the Great One Kos washed up on the coast near a fishing village, its insides full of parasites unlike any found in humans. The villagers became fish-like, and still pray to "Mother Kos". (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• The raid: Hunters from Byrgenwerth attacked the Fishing Hamlet. A villager's skull, searched for eyes and covered in scratches, survives as a curse item. The priest calls them "blasphemous murderers" and "blood-crazed fiends". (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• The orphan: Kos had a child, the Orphan of Kos. The villagers mutter that the mother is dead and her baby taken. What exactly the hunters did to the child is never shown. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• The curse: The priest asks for the curse of blood to fall on the attackers, their children and their children's children for evermore. Simon later says the Hunter's Nightmare "sprouted from their very misdeeds". The game links the two through these lines, but never spells out how the curse works. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Maria's part: Lady Maria, one of Gehrman's first students, threw her sword, the Rakuyo, into a dark well "when she could stomach it no longer". The sword is found at the bottom of the hamlet's well, which places her there. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Rom: The Mensis leader Micolash prays to Kos to grant eyes "as you once did for the vacuous Rom". Rom, called the Byrgenwerth spider, is a Great One by the time of the game. The most common reading is that Rom was once a Byrgenwerth scholar given eyes by Kos. The game never says when. (Bloodborne)

The Moon Presence and the Hunter's Dream (inferred, around the same time)#

The workshop where every hunter wakes has a beginning, and it ties back to Byrgenwerth and Laurence. (Bloodborne)

• The Third Umbilical Cord: Every infant Great One has a "Cord of the Eye". One description says the Third Umbilical Cord brought about the encounter with the pale moon, which beckoned the hunters and conceived the Hunter's Dream. (Bloodborne)
• Laurence and his associates: A note in the Lecture Building names the Moon Presence as the nameless moon presence beckoned by Laurence and his associates, and calls it "Paleblood". A second note nearby reads "Three third cords". (Bloodborne)
• The first hunter: Gehrman, the first hunter, made the first hunter's garb from everyday clothing before the workshop existed. His Burial Blade defined every weapon the workshop made afterwards. He stayed bound to the Hunter's Dream as its adviser. (Bloodborne)
• The Doll: Someone made the Doll and its spare clothes with a love that "borderlines on mania". Maria's garb says she admired Gehrman, unaware of his "curious mania". The game never says outright that Gehrman made the Doll in Maria's image. That is the most common reading. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Who was there: Gehrman, asleep in the dream, calls out to Laurence and Master Willem to unshackle him. That puts all three together near the start. (Bloodborne)

The Healing Church rises (after the split)#

Laurence left Byrgenwerth and became the first vicar of the Healing Church. A vision seen at the Grand Cathedral shows Laurence bidding Willem farewell: Willem warns him to fear the old blood, and Laurence promises not to forget their adage. The events below follow that split. (Bloodborne)

• Blood ministration: The Church offered blood ministration, a common treatment in Yharnam, and the blood drew people from far away. Its nuns were chosen as vessels for blood and raised as Blood Saints. (Bloodborne)
• The workshop and Ludwig: The Healing Church workshop began with Ludwig, the first hunter of the Church, and moved away from Gehrman's methods to fight bigger beasts. Gehrman says the Church and its Blood Ministers were once the hunters' guardians, in Ludwig's time. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• The Research Hall: The Church kept a private research hall. Its early belief linked the Great Ones to the ocean, so cerebral patients drank water to hear the sea, and their heads swelled. Lady Maria cared for the patients from behind the Astral Clock. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Executioners and Cainhurst: Logarius led a band of executioners against the Vilebloods of Cainhurst, whose undead queen Annalise wants to bear the Child of Blood. Logarius then put on the old king's crown himself, to stop anyone uncovering Cainhurst's "vile secret". His executioners' garb later became the basis for all Church attire. (Bloodborne)
• The Choir: The Orphanage behind the Grand Cathedral trained orphans as thinkers for the Church and gave birth to the Choir, which later split from the main Church. The Great Isz Chalice, the first great chalice brought up since Byrgenwerth's time, gave the Choir an audience with Ebrietas. (Bloodborne)
• Mensis: The School of Mensis founded the Unseen Village, Yahar'gul. Item text names Mensis and the Choir as the two upper ranks of the Church. (Bloodborne)

The scourge and Old Yharnam (long ago)#

The beasts came with the blood. The order of the next entries is stated or close to it. (Bloodborne)

• Ashen blood: A strange sickness, ashen blood, ravaged Old Yharnam long ago and eventually set off the scourge of beasts. (Bloodborne)
• The burning: A note left in Central Yharnam says the Church blocked the great bridge to the Cathedral Ward when the hunt began, as Old Yharnam burned that moonlit night. Charred hunter garb was made for the hunters who tracked down the beasts that survived the flames, and fire became a fixture of the hunt from then on. (Bloodborne)
• Djura: The old hunter Djura, who worked with the workshop heretics called the Powder Kegs, gave up his vows and stayed in the ruins to keep hunters away. (Bloodborne)
• Laurence the beast: The first vicar became the first cleric beast. His beast skull sits on the Grand Cathedral altar. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

The Hunter's Nightmare fills up (over many years)#

These events have no single date. They build up over the life of the Church, and The Old Hunters shows where they lead. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

• Blood-drunk hunters vanish: One day the hunters disappeared, and Yharnamites began to whisper of the hunters' sin. Hunters drunk with blood are taken by the Nightmare, to hunt forever. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Ludwig, Laurence and Maria: Ludwig, Laurence and Lady Maria all end up there. Laurence's human skull, its description says, exists only within the Nightmare. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• Church secrets: The Church kept an assassin, Brador, in a cell with a soundless bell to keep its secrets. His testimony item says he killed a compatriot who had become a cleric beast and wore its scalp. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

The Mensis ritual (shortly before the night)#

The last big event before the game begins is a ritual at Yahar'gul. Its timing is inferred from how much of it is still going on when the hunter arrives. (Bloodborne)

• Contacting Mergo: A Third Umbilical Cord gave Mensis an audience with the infant Great One Mergo, but "resulted in the stillbirth of their brains". The School's scholars, wearing iron cages on their heads, ended up trapped in the Nightmare of Mensis. (Bloodborne)
• The brain: Mensis pulled an immense brain out of the nightmare. It was lined with eyes, but rotten. (Bloodborne)
• Rom hides the ritual: Notes say the Byrgenwerth spider hides all manner of rituals. Rom lies in the lake at Byrgenwerth. (Bloodborne)

The night of the hunt (the game)#

Bloodborne and The Old Hunters both happen on this one night. Events below follow the order of the main story. (Bloodborne; Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)

• The transfusion: A traveller from abroad comes to Yharnam, signs a contract and receives a blood transfusion. A note beside the hunter tells them to seek paleblood, the first clue to what the night is about. (Bloodborne)
• Gascoigne and the Cathedral Ward: The hunter kills Father Gascoigne, who has turned into a beast, and later Vicar Amelia, Laurence's successor, at the Grand Cathedral. Touching Laurence's skull reveals Willem's adage. (Bloodborne)
• Byrgenwerth: The hunter finds Willem in his rocking chair and kills Rom. The moon turns red, and a note at Yahar'gul says the ritual secret is broken. (Bloodborne)
• The Hunter's Nightmare: After Amelia's death, a hunter can follow the Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter into the Nightmare and end the curse of Kos. See The Old Hunters story. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)
• The Nightmare of Mensis: The hunter kills Micolash and Mergo's Wet Nurse, and the Nightmare of Mensis is slain. The Doll says dawn will soon break. (Bloodborne)
• The end of the hunt: Gehrman offers release. What follows depends on the hunter's choice, covered in Bloodborne's endings explained. (Bloodborne)

Where the story stands#

Bloodborne ends at dawn, or at an endless night, depending on the ending. Nothing after it is canon. No sequel or follow-up has continued the story, so the latest point in the timeline is the hunter's last choice in the Hunter's Dream. For the plot in full, read Bloodborne's story explained. (Bloodborne)