Insight.04: The Multi-layered World of Dreams and Nightmares - Hunter's Dream, Nightmare of Mensis, Hunter's Nightmare

© Sony Interactive Entertainment, © FromSoftware

Introduction: The Metaphysical Cosmic Hierarchy and “Water” as a Bulwark Guarding Sleep

The “reality” or “Waking World” perceptible to human senses is nothing more than an extremely fragile membrane floating on the very surface of a vast, madness-inducing cosmos. Beneath our feet, where humanity blindly believed it had unraveled the world through the light of Victorian reason and scientific inquiry—particularly through the development of medicine and eugenics—yawns an abyss of unspeakable Cosmic Horror. The grotesque entities known as the Great Ones, who completely transcend human comprehension, reside in dimensions distinct from our own. Their consciousness and mental activities overlap with this world as realms of “dreams” and “nightmares” that defy physical laws.

This report is an exploration to unravel this madness-filled, multi-layered structure. A particularly crucial clue lies in the profound revelation inscribed in the Caryll Runes “Lake” and “Deep Sea”: “Great volumes of water serve as a bulwark guarding sleep, and an augur of the eldritch Truth.” The “water” mentioned in this text does not refer merely to the physical liquid H2O. It is a metaphysical medium—a boundary that could be called the amniotic fluid of the mind—separating different dimensions, distinct mental realms, and the fragile human consciousness from the overwhelming cosmic truth of the Great Ones.

To gain “eyes” (Insight) is, in essence, the very act of peering into the depths of this watery bulwark and directly confronting the cosmic truth settling at its bottom. However, should humanity’s insignificant intellect attempt to touch the truth of the Great Ones, its mind will sink into irreversible Frenzy, as if crushed by water pressure. Above Yharnam, or perhaps in its deepest depths, countless nightmares are layered upon one another, separated by the bulwark of water. Each layer encapsulates the will of a different Great One, the arrogance of the humans who sought to touch it, and a blood-stained history of original sin.

In this analysis, we will dissect this “multi-layered world of dreams and nightmares” spatially, temporally, and philosophically, bringing to light the causal relationships hidden within. The Hunter’s Dream, the Nightmare of Mensis, and the Hunter’s Nightmare are by no means the products of isolated hallucinations; rather, they mutually influence one another, forming a single, colossal “stratum of madness.”

1. The Hierarchical Structure of Nightmares: Settling Original Sin and the Heaven-Piercing Stratum of Madness

From various environmental evidence, explorers’ notes, and spatial connections, a clear fact is confirmed: the realms of dreams and nightmares are not scattered as parallel worlds, but are stacked vertically, accompanied by physical gravity and directionality. This multi-layered structure perfectly aligns with the Cthulhu Mythos cosmology, where diving deeper into the abyss brings one face-to-face with more primitive and primordial terrors. The lower realms are not overwritten by the higher nightmares; instead, each layer continues to stack as an absolute sediment.

By integrating the environmental placements explicitly shown in the game as “facts” and the “observations” derived from them, we present the cosmological and geological hierarchical structure of the nightmares below.

As this table illustrates, the higher the layer, the more strongly human active will (the maddening rituals by the School of Mensis) is reflected, presenting an artificial and distorted structure. Conversely, the further down one goes, the more inescapable past sins (the massacre at the Fishing Hamlet by Byrgenwerth) and historical dregs (the fate of Blood-drunk Hunters) settle as physical “rivers of blood.”

2. The Hunter’s Nightmare and the Fishing Hamlet: The Cosmos on the Dissection Table and the Eternal Curse Carved in Blood

The “Hunter’s Nightmare,” which constitutes the lowest depths of the nightmares, is an endless hell where Hunters, drunk on blood and captivated by the thrill of the hunt, repeat an eternal, unending slaughter. However, the true form of this realm’s depths—what could be called the “origin” of the nightmare—lies not in the blood-stained streets of Yharnam, but in the “Fishing Hamlet” concealed deep beyond the Astral Clocktower.

2.1 [Fact] The Wrath of Kos and the Endless Hunt

As a matter of fact, upon first stepping foot into the Hunter’s Nightmare, the cold, resentful voice of a woman echoes: “Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever, true.” This realm is not a space formed by the curse of Beasthood itself, but rather as a punishment for the sins committed by a specific group in the past.

The Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter states that a Blood-drunk Hunter is destined to be trapped in the nightmare, wandering eternally and engaging in an endless hunt. No Hunter can escape this fate. They vanish from the Waking World and are dragged into this unsanitary dimension reeking of blood.

Then, upon defeating Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower—who took her own life in the Astral Clocktower and continued to seal the path to the depths even within the nightmare—the “Fishing Hamlet,” sinking in cold rain and a dark sea, reveals itself. The madness-ridden fish mutant (priest) wandering the entrance of the Fishing Hamlet mutters the clear words of a vengeful spirit as follows: “Byrgenwerth… blasphemous murderers… blood-crazed fiends… Atonement for the wretches… by the wrath of Mother Kos… Mercy for the poor, wizened child… Mercy, oh please… Lay the curse of blood upon them, and their children, and their children’s children, for evermore.” Furthermore, another inhabitant of the village states, “I don’t dream anymore. When I die, that’s it,” proving that this Fishing Hamlet has deviated from the normal views of life, death, and reincarnation, and is a space of despair completely fixed by the curse of a Great One.

Moreover, as an environmental fact, passing through the Astral Clocktower and peering into the sea of the Fishing Hamlet reveals the Hunter’s Nightmare (the cityscape of Yharnam) spreading beneath the water’s surface. Conversely, from the sky above the Yharnam cityscape, the corpses of snail women inhabiting the Fishing Hamlet occasionally fall. This conclusively determines that the Fishing Hamlet is physically and spatially located in the layer above the city of Yharnam.

2.2 [Observation] Victorian Madness and the Original Sin of Trampling Motherhood

The observation drawn from these facts is that a gruesome original sin was committed before the establishment of the Healing Church, during an era when the scholars of Byrgenwerth were still pursuing pure knowledge and Insight. Under the guidance of Provost Willem, a party including Gehrman, the First Hunter, and Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower visited the Fishing Hamlet to investigate the Great One “Kos” and her Orphan, who had washed ashore (or arrived) on the coast.

What unfolded here was a reenactment of the darkest and most barbaric aspects of Victorian anatomy and eugenics. In their desperate attempt to physically obtain the secrets of the unknown Great Ones—namely, the truth of the cosmos within (Eyes on the inside)—the scholars completely abandoned their humanity. It is believed that in order to seek Eyes on the inside of the skull, they cracked open the skulls of the Fishing Hamlet’s inhabitants and repeatedly conducted experiments using the extremely inhumane method of vivisection. Furthermore, blasphemous violence (dissection and usurpation) was inflicted upon the “Orphan,” the infant of the Great One.

In the context of “Cosmic Horror,” human intellect is tantamount to dust before the truth of the cosmos. However, the scholars of Byrgenwerth attempted to fathom the realm of the gods with their insignificant intellect, and as a result, this culminated in the most primitive and barbaric physical destruction. This was humanity’s greatest arrogance, adorned under the guise of the pursuit of knowledge.

The wrath of the mother Great One, Kos, was directed at these blasphemous murderers. The curse was unleashed using “blood” as its medium. The curse upon the “blood-crazed fiends” became a gravitational pull that dragged every Hunter who used the Old Blood into this nightmare. The reason Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower took her own life, threw her weapon into a well, and continued to risk her life to seal the path to the Fishing Hamlet even within the nightmare, was a gruesome atonement for the memories of this horrific sin she had committed, and an unbearable self-deception.

The bottomless river of blood spreading across the lowest layer of the Hunter’s Nightmare is literally the sediment of the victims’ blood they shed. The cityscape of Yharnam visible beneath the water’s surface of the Fishing Hamlet visually implies that the “civilization of deceit” known as Blood Ministration was already cursed from its foundation, and is destined to eventually sink into the madness at the bottom of the water. By defeating the Orphan of Kos and returning its black mist to the sea, the curse of the “Hunter’s Nightmare” finally ceases to function, but this does not mean the past sins have vanished; it merely severs one link in the chain of resentment.

3. The Nightmare Frontier and the Nightmare of Mensis: The Heavenly Tower at the End of Artificial Evolution

Existing as if layered above the Hunter’s Nightmare are the “Nightmare Frontier” and the “Nightmare of Mensis” towering even higher above it. These two realms are visually connected to each other; one can look down upon the Frontier from the Nightmare of Mensis, and simultaneously, from the cliffs of the Nightmare Frontier, the masts of the derelict ships in the Fishing Hamlet below can be seen through the thick fog.

3.1 [Fact] Micolash’s Frenzy and the Transformation of Space

The School of Mensis is a group of fanatical scholars within the Healing Church who independently attempted to commune with the Great Ones. They conducted the “Mensis Ritual” in Yahar’gul, Unseen Village, and as a result, only their minds were severed from their bodies and transitioned into the realm of the nightmare. In the Waking World, only the mummified corpses of the scholars, led by Micolash, Host of the Nightmare, remain.

In the deepest reaches of the “Nightmare of Mensis”—which they reached, or formed from their own maddening delusions and will—exists an infant Great One named “Mergo,” whose eerie cries echo throughout the entire realm and even across dimensional walls into the real Yharnam. Furthermore, midway through this realm sits an aberration known as the “Brain of Mensis,” resembling a mixture of a massive cluster of eyeballs and rotting flesh, chained in place and inflicting severe Frenzy upon anyone who approaches.

As an architectural fact, although the structures in the Nightmare of Mensis feature a Gothic style closely resembling the Healing Church and academies of the real world, their iron railings blend into the natural rock faces and stone walls as if they had always been there. Moreover, specific walls have been violently destroyed to create access to the interior, indicating that this nightmare was not “built from nothing,” but rather “forcibly mutated and formed by borrowing the power of Mergo, based on an already existing mental realm (such as the towers of Amygdala).“

3.2 [Observation] Eugenic Madness and the Torn Dimensional Bulwark

The Nightmare of Mensis is a realm born as a result of human arrogance reaching its absolute limit. As Micolash, Host of the Nightmare frantically cries out, “Ah, Kos, or some say Kosm… Do you hear our prayers? As you once did for the vacuous Rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes!”, they schemed to forcibly evolve (ascend) humanity to the dimension of the Great Ones by planting literal eyes (Insight) on the inside of their physical brains.

The massive Brain of Mensis is the ultimate product of this eugenic madness. It is presumed to be a failed attempt at the transcendent intellect they tried to artificially create, or the remains of human intellect that literally rotted and hypertrophied from coming into direct contact with the maddening thoughts of the Great Ones.

This madness completely deviates from the ethics of life and the laws of the cosmos. Exploiting the absolute law in Cosmic Horror that “every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate,” they attempted to draw in a more powerful Great One using the infant “Mergo”—dragged from the womb of Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen (or conceptually extracted)—as a medium.

The influence of this “Mensis Ritual” did not remain confined within the nightmare; it completely breached the bulwark of water, bringing catastrophic repercussions even to the Waking World. The Blood Moon (Paleblood Moon) rose in the sky of Yharnam, and the Great Ones, Amygdala—previously invisible due to the illusion (the bulwark of the lake) of Rom, the Vacuous Spider—appeared all over the city, plunging people into terror and causing the Scourge of the Beast to progress explosively. All of this was because the dimensional boundaries collapsed due to the Mensis Ritual.

The fact that the Nightmare Frontier is located directly beneath the Nightmare of Mensis, and that numerous Amygdala inhabit it, corroborates that this ritual used the realm of the Frontier as a “pathway” to draw the Great Ones into the real world. Furthermore, the poison swamps and desolate landscapes of the Frontier are highly likely the remnants of the nightmare of “Loran,” an ancient city once swallowed by the Scourge of the Beast and buried in sand. The scholars of the School of Mensis blindly followed the same path of madness, without heeding the past history of ruin (Loran and the Pthumerian Labyrinth). As a result of attempting to evolve themselves into beings equal to gods, they confined their own minds in a madness-filled prison of a nightmare from which they will never awaken.

4. The Hunter’s Dream and the Pale Moon: Surrogate Motherhood and the Eternal Miniature Garden

In this multi-layered and chaotic world of nightmares, the “Hunter’s Dream” occupies an extremely unique position, appearing semi-independent from the spatial hierarchical structure. Unlike other nightmares filled with bloodshed, poison swamps, and the screams of fanatics, this is an isolated space enveloped in silence, a strange tranquility, and melancholic beauty.

4.1 [Fact] Gehrman’s Contract and the Plain Doll’s Affection

As a matter of fact, the Hunter’s Dream is a space created in exact imitation of the “Abandoned Old Workshop” located in a corner of the real-world Yharnam. The de facto administrator of this realm is Gehrman, the First Hunter, but he does not reign over this dream of his own free will. He is trapped in this dream by a paranormal contract with a Great One known as the “Moon Presence” (or Paleblood).

The outsider (the protagonist) who visited Yharnam to cure the incurable disease known as the Scourge of the Beast, in exchange for receiving Blood Ministration, ends up forming a contract not as a formal Hunter of the Healing Church, but with this “Hunter’s Dream.” As a “Good Hunter,” the protagonist awakens at the altar of this dream even after death, engaging in an endless Hunt while traveling back and forth between the real Yharnam and the dream world. This immortality indicates that the Hunter is under the powerful protection (or binding) of the Moon Presence.

Additionally, the “Plain Doll” exists within the dream, and she plays the role of converting the Blood Echoes gathered by the protagonist into power (stats) to strengthen the Hunter. She looks exactly like the finely crafted, jointed doll left behind in the real Abandoned Old Workshop, and phenomena suggesting that the Hunter’s Dream faintly moves the doll in the Waking World (or vice versa) have also been confirmed.

4.2 [Observation] The Intentions of the Moon Presence and the Exploitation of Cosmic Solitude

Why does the Hunter’s Dream, unlike other nightmares, possess the peculiar law of rejecting death while maintaining its function as a safe haven? Hidden within are the deep philosophical themes of “the solitude of the Great Ones” and “surrogate motherhood (parenthood)” in Cosmic Horror.

As mentioned earlier, every Great One loses its child without exception, and yearns for a new child (or a surrogate). Kos unleashed an eternal curse because her Orphan was brutally murdered, and the School of Mensis succeeded in beckoning a Great One by using Mergo. Then, what did the Moon Presence seek when it created the “Hunter’s Dream” and imprisoned Gehrman, the First Hunter?

As the most plausible deduced answer, it is believed that the Moon Presence responded to Gehrman’s deep despair and solitude. Gehrman lost his beloved pupil Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (likely due to the tragedy at the Fishing Hamlet and her subsequent suicide) and harbored deep despair toward a world sinking into madness. He secluded himself in the Abandoned Old Workshop, created a doll bearing Maria’s likeness, and attempted to console his own obsession and sorrow. The Moon Presence fed upon Gehrman’s psychological dependence and sense of loss, confining him in this miniature garden as “its own pet” or a “surrogate child.” For the Moon Presence, Gehrman’s sorrow was the perfect substitute to fill its own cosmic solitude.

And the protagonists, newly guided to the Hunter’s Dream, also function as surrogate children for the Moon Presence, while simultaneously serving as pawns (hounds) to eliminate the schemes of other Great Ones. The objectives of the Great Ones are by no means monolithic; there is a possibility that they are in conflict with one another. The Moon Presence gives the Hunter the vague directive to “seek Paleblood,” and it is believed to be using the protagonist to strip away the concealment of Rom, the Vacuous Spider, thwart the Mensis Ritual, and eliminate Mergo, the child of another Great One.

In this structure, the Hunter’s Dream appears at first glance to be a haven liberated from death, but its true nature is nothing other than the womb (or cradle) of a Great One, the very source of Cosmic Horror. The fact that Hunters revive in the dream even after repeated deaths is not evidence that they are receiving a blessing, but rather proof that they are completely trapped and exploited by this colossal cosmic motherhood. The Hunters who formed a contract through Gehrman start with the personal goal of curing their disease, but before they know it, they become seekers of Cthulhu Mythos-esque madness, forced to carry out a proxy war for the Moon Presence.

Conclusion: Humanity’s Insignificant Struggle in Cosmic Horror and the Endless Sedimentation

As discussed thus far, the world of dreams and nightmares in Bloodborne is not merely the product of hallucinations, but a solid and absolute dimensional stratum stacked across the metaphysical bulwark of water. Starting from the Pthumerian Labyrinth at the deepest depths, passing through the Waking World of Yharnam, traversing the sea of blood in the Fishing Hamlet and the fog of the Nightmare Frontier, and reaching the maddening high tower of Mensis—this vertical structure embodies the very history of humanity’s arrogant “thirst for evolution,” reaching ever upward in search of intellect.

However, what is the reality of this? The more they look to the heavens to gain Insight and touch upon taboos, the more immense amounts of blood and sin settle beneath their feet. The blood from the massacre committed by the scholars of Byrgenwerth in the Fishing Hamlet never vanishes; it continues to flow at the bottom of the Hunter’s Nightmare, trapping Blood-drunk Hunters in an eternal, unending hell. The mental pavilion built by the scholars of the School of Mensis, far from bringing them closer to the gods, turned into a hell dominated by the hideous Brain of Mensis and madness-filled screams, bringing the ruinous Blood Moon even to the real world.

Human intellect is far too insignificant and fragile before the Cosmic Horror brought about by the Great Ones. Their attempts to unravel the mysteries of life through the fanaticism of Victorian eugenics and anatomy ultimately led to nothing more than confining their own minds in a prison of nightmares from which they can never return. Even though great volumes of water served as a bulwark to protect the fragile human mind, humans destroyed that bulwark with their own hands, directly confronted the eldritch truth crawling up from the abyss, and succumbed to Frenzy.

The protagonist, trapped in the Hunter’s Dream, also believes themselves to be a hero who hunts beasts and saves the world, while in reality, they are merely dancing in the palm of the will of a more powerful and incomprehensible Great One (the Moon Presence). The philosophy presented by the multi-layered world of nightmares is the cold fact that humanity’s inquiring mind seeking truth inherently harbors self-destructive violence, and that those who peer into the abyss of the cosmos are, without exception, swallowed by that abyss.

As a result of seeking blood and seeking eyes, the destination humanity reached was a multi-layered prison of an endless chain of tragedies. This is the inescapable original sin of Cosmic Horror that humanity, captivated by the madness known as Insight, must bear, and it is the proof of the absolute solitude of the cosmos. As we look down upon the masts of the derelict ships sinking at the bottom of the water, we must understand that we, too, are destined to settle into the depths of an unknown nightmare yet to come.