Insight.06: Laurence, the First Vicar - Founder of the Healing Church and the Greatest Sinner

Introduction: The Beast Skull Enshrined on the Grand Cathedral’s Altar and Victorian Madness

The ancient city of Yharnam, which prospered through Blood Ministration. In the deepest reaches of the “Grand Cathedral,” the headquarters of the Healing Church and the center of its faith and power, a bizarre and macabre relic is enshrined. It is a massive “beast skull,” grotesquely twisted and retaining no trace of a human skeletal structure. This hideous bone is the ultimate fate in the real world (Waking World) of Laurence, the First Vicar—the man who once brought miraculous healing to Yharnam and garnered absolute worship from its citizens.

In this article, we will unravel the full picture of the “causality and hidden sins” embodied by the figure of Laurence within an exceedingly grim world where Gothic horror and Cosmic Horror intersect. By strictly distinguishing between the “evident facts” extracted from the game’s environmental storytelling, cryptic item descriptions, and fragmented testimonies of those involved, and the “philosophical and historical speculations” logically derived from them, we will reconstruct the trajectory of madness he walked.

The advancement of medicine in 19th-century Victorian Europe caused the religious values that had long dominated the world to recede, endowing science and medicine with a new sanctity. The Healing Church founded by Laurence is an organization that perfectly symbolizes this historical backdrop. He packaged “medicine” as “religion” and dominated the masses. However, what they dabbled in was not mere medicine, but the realm of Cosmic Horror—the flesh and blood of the Great Ones, beings beyond human comprehension. How did this arrogant, eugenic experiment of attempting to pour cosmic power into the insignificant vessel of humanity give rise to such a catastrophic tragedy? The story of Laurence is an epic of the most gruesome karmic retribution faced by a human who trespassed into the domain of the gods.

1. The Schism at Byrgenwerth: Eyes (Insight) or Blood Ministration?

The origin of Laurence’s sins, and the dawn of all tragedies in Yharnam, was his rupture with Provost Willem at Byrgenwerth, an academy where the arcane was explored. When touching the beast skull on the altar of the Grand Cathedral, the final conversation between Laurence and Willem plays back as a vestige of past memories. This dialogue illustrates the decisive clash of two opposing evolutionary theories (ideologies) regarding how to approach the higher-dimensional beings known as the Great Ones and evolve humanity to the next dimension.

As a verifiable fact within the game, Provost Willem issued a stern warning: “Fear the old blood.” Yet, despite his words, “I will not forget our adage,” the young Laurence turned his back on his master and left the academy. Following this defection, the scholars of Byrgenwerth split into two factions.

What Willem advocated was spiritual and cosmic evolution through the acquisition of “Eyes (Insight).” It was an internal approach: by lining the brain with eyes without physical bodily changes, one could attune humanity’s lower-dimensional thinking to the truths of the cosmos.

In contrast, what Laurence believed in was the potential for physical and corporeal evolution using the Old Blood of the Great Ones discovered in the Pthumerian Labyrinth. He believed that by directly injecting this sacred blood into their own bodies, they could remake their very flesh into higher beings.

The table below compares and outlines the ideological and philosophical conflict between Byrgenwerth and the Healing Church, as well as the outcomes it brought about.

As an observation drawn from this parting of ways, it is evident that at the root of Laurence’s ideology lay an extremely anthropocentric arrogance (hubris)—the belief that his own intellect and reason could perfectly control the power (blood) of the Great Ones. In the context of Cosmic Horror, human science and medicine are tantamount to nothing before the abyss of the cosmos. However, as a typical intellectual obsessed with the “omnipotence of science” in the Victorian era, Laurence blindly believed he could trivialize or overcome the side effects of the Old Blood.

2. The Establishment of the Healing Church and the Usurpation of Blood: A Metaphor for Motherhood

After leaving Byrgenwerth, Laurence founded the Healing Church in the city of Yharnam and initiated Blood Ministration using the Old Blood. As a matter of fact, Yharnam’s Blood Ministration functioned as a panacea that cured all ailments, bringing immense wealth and prosperity to the city. Behind the scenes, however, lay a ruthless system that fundamentally trampled upon the dignity of life.

Speculation derived from environmental storytelling and various item descriptions reveals the grotesque fact that the Healing Church used human women as “vessels” to cultivate and mass-produce the blood of the Great Ones. As represented by the prostitute Adella and Iosefka’s Imposter, certain women in Yharnam were chosen as “Blood Saints,” and special blood was extracted from their bodies.

In this work, “blood” often functions as a metaphor for “motherhood,” “menstruation,” and “childbirth.” There is a clear in-game fact that the Great Ones always lose their children and yearn for a surrogate. What the Healing Church did was to artificially mimic, manage, and exploit this cosmic system of motherhood and reproduction.

The organization Laurence built degraded women’s bodies into factories for producing miraculous blood, consuming the mystery of life as a mere “medical resource.” This usurpation of blood became the very breeding ground for the curse that would later engulf the entire city. The true nature of the Healing Church is the result of the madness of Victorian-era eugenics and patriarchal medical systems executed on the scale of Cosmic Horror.

3. The Tragedy of the Fishing Hamlet and Original Sin: Blasphemy Against the Child of a Great One

Why, then, was Laurence so captivated by the power of the Old Blood that he went as far as to construct such a maddening medical system? The decisive catalyst for this, and the site of the greatest “sin (original sin)” he committed, is the Fishing Hamlet, the final destination in the downloadable content The Old Hunters.

As an undeniable fact in the Fishing Hamlet, the corpse of the Great One Kos once washed ashore in this bleak seaside village. Within her womb rested a child (the Orphan of Kos). Then, the scholars of Byrgenwerth, including a young Laurence and Gehrman, raided this village, slaughtered the villagers, and cracked open their skulls to conduct exhaustive human experiments. Their objective was to close in on the secrets of the Great Ones and to plunder the “One Third of Umbilical Cord” supposedly possessed by the child of a Great One.

A villager wandering near the entrance of the Fishing Hamlet mutters the following delirium:

“The crying of a child, a curse upon the Blood-drunk Hunter”

“A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea”

“All of it is their doing, their sin”

What can be deduced from these lines and the village’s horrific state is the causal relationship: the gruesome dissection and blasphemy committed by Laurence and his cohorts against the child of a Great One (and its mother, Kos) spawned a Cosmic Horror-esque “curse.” The wrath of Mother Kos, or the despair of her child, became a dimensional curse that dragged those who slaughtered them, and all Blood-drunk Hunters tied to their bloodline, into the endless hell known as the Hunter’s Nightmare.

It is worth noting that Laurence, even after experiencing this tragedy, continued to promote Blood Ministration. Having witnessed the “overwhelming power of the Great Ones” and “physical bodily mutations” in the Fishing Hamlet, rather than being crushed by fear, his desire for that power only intensified. Based on the knowledge gained from dissecting the corpse of a god and carving up the flesh of its child, he established the Healing Church. This was a historical turning point demonstrating extreme arrogance, where humanity chose “exploitation” over “awe” in the face of unknown Cosmic Horror.

4. The Cleric Beast and Evolutionary Regression: The Truth Hidden in Caryll Runes

However, forced evolution through the Old Blood did not yield the sublime results Laurence had envisioned. In fact, the citizens of Yharnam who partook of the Old Blood eventually lost their reason and transformed into “beasts” with fur and claws. Various texts confirm that the Scourge of the Beast was not an external infectious disease, but the result of the beastly nature inherent in humans who received Blood Ministration being drawn out to its absolute limit.

What is crucial here is the Healing Church’s hidden truth: “Clerics of the church become the most hideous beasts.” Vicar Amelia and the Cleric Beast that appears on the bridge in Central Yharnam are prime examples, but Laurence himself, the founder and highest-ranking cleric of the Healing Church, could not escape this gruesome fate either. It is presumed that his mutated form was the first Cleric Beast in history.

The key to deciphering this ironic outcome lies in the meaning of the Caryll Rune “Beast” and the text of the Caryll Rune “Beast’s Embrace.” The Caryll Rune “Beast” indicates that the Scourge of the Beast is the manifestation of primal fears and urges lurking within the human psyche. Furthermore, “Beast’s Embrace” is a trace of experiments in which early high-ranking clerics of the church, centered around Laurence, willingly attempted to control and assimilate their beastly nature.

In the philosophy of Cosmic Horror, human nature is not noble enough to accept cosmic truths. As a result of taking the blood of the Great Ones—a catalyst for cosmic evolution—into their bodies, the insignificant human mind could not withstand the overwhelming volume of information and power, and completely collapsed. And the body, its mind shattered, dramatically regressed (devolved) into the most primitive and violent “beast,” rather than evolving.

The culmination of the physical evolution Laurence believed in was not an approach to godhood, but hideous fur bursting through human skin and the roar of a beast. What did he think at the altar of the Grand Cathedral the moment he realized his own physical mutation (Beasthood)? The bitter truth that the “blood of salvation” he brought to Yharnam was the very root of the disease leading all citizens to ruin must have completely shattered his ego.

5. The Covenant with Gehrman and the Waiter for a Salvation That Will Never Come

Another colossal tragedy in Laurence’s story is his relationship with Gehrman, the First Hunter. Between these two, though not explicitly stated in the game, exists an extremely deep covenant and a desperate missed connection.

In the Hunter’s Dream, the solitary old hunter Gehrman, seated in his wheelchair, is occasionally seen tossing in deep sleep, muttering heartbreaking words. “Oh, Laurence… Master Willem… Somebody help me… Unshackle me please, anybody… I’ve had enough of this dream… The night blocks all sight… Oh, somebody, please…”

These fragments of Gehrman’s dialogue clearly demonstrate the fact that he strongly relies on and seeks salvation from Laurence (and Willem), and has been waiting for their help for an exceedingly long time. We will expand our speculation on the hidden meaning behind Gehrman’s actions and words.

The tragedy at the Fishing Hamlet, followed by the spread of the Scourge of the Beast. To bring the situation under control, Laurence and the early hunters were forced to maintain the system of the Night of the Hunt. In doing so, it is believed they made contact with the Great One known as the Moon Presence, creating the hyper-dimensional system of the Hunter’s Dream to employ hunters as immortal beings. However, a contract with a Great One required a price. Gehrman accepted being trapped in the dream dimension as the “overseer of the Hunter’s Dream (effectively a hostage).” At this time, it is natural to deduce that a covenant was forged between Laurence and Gehrman: Laurence would “resolve the situation in the real world (Yharnam) and absolutely find a way to free Gehrman from the shackles of the dream.” This is precisely why Gehrman pleads with Laurence in his sleep to “unshackle me.”

Yet, Laurence in the real world never fulfilled that promise. This is because he himself succumbed to the Scourge of the Beast and was slain as the first Cleric Beast. The skull left on the altar of the Grand Cathedral is the despairing proof that he perished long ago. Gehrman continues to wait eternally in an endless dream for a man who no longer exists in this world to come for him. One of Laurence’s greatest sins lies in the fact that, through the collapse of his arrogant plans, he eternally imprisoned his most trusted compatriot as a plaything for a god of Cosmic Horror (the Moon Presence).

6. The Two Skulls in the Hunter’s Nightmare: The Loss of Humanity

In the downloadable content The Old Hunters, the whereabouts of Laurence’s soul and the full scope of the punishment he endures are revealed. While a “beast skull” is enshrined in the Grand Cathedral in the real world, in the dimension of the Hunter’s Nightmare, the player obtains an item called “Laurence’s Skull.”

As a matter of fact, Laurence’s Skull obtained in the Hunter’s Nightmare is not that of a beast, but a “human skull.” Its item description notes that he became a beast and lost himself in the waking world, and that at the bottom of the nightmare, he searches for the memory of his lost humanity (the human skull).

This duality of the “beast bone in the real world” and the “human bone in the nightmare” is brilliant environmental storytelling that illustrates his soul being torn apart.

Upon reflection, Laurence in the nightmare cannot accept the fact that he has fallen to Beasthood; he crawls around blindly while burning in flames, believing that his human head (reason) must be lying around somewhere. For an intellectual who held intellect and reason supreme, believing he could even harness the power of the Great Ones, the reality that he is nothing more than a hideous beast without a shred of reason is a hell more terrifying than death. In the nightmare, unable to even realize that his humanity has long been lost, he continues to search eternally for a phantom that does not exist (the human skull).

7. Eternal Hellfire and the Oldest Keepers: The Irony of a Sinner

The true form of Laurence that the player confronts at the altar of the Grand Cathedral, in the deepest reaches of the Hunter’s Nightmare. There, unlike a normal Cleric Beast, he spews eternal hellfire from his entire body, raising roars of agony as his own flesh and viscera burn. By unraveling the metaphorical meaning of this “flame,” the weight of the cosmic punishment he bears becomes clear.

In interpreting this flame, the existence of the “Keepers of the Old Lords” appearing in the Chalice Dungeons provides an extremely important suggestion. As a matter of fact, the descriptions of the Bone Ash Set and attire worn by the Keepers of the Old Lords state that the keepers who watch over the slumber of the Great Ones had their bodies and souls burned by hellfire, gaining a long life as ash. Furthermore, it is explicitly stated that the large, sharply pointed hats they wear are symbols of the old keepers, and at the same time, proof that they were “sinners of a sort.”

When comparing this fact with Laurence’s current state, a profound causal relationship emerges.

Laurence is the greatest “sinner” who touched the secrets of the Great Ones (Kos and the Moon Presence), blasphemed their child, and arrogantly exploited the power of blood. In the hyper-dimensional prison known as the Hunter’s Nightmare, created by the will of Kos, Laurence was not permitted to be simply released by death; instead, he was given the eternal punishment of “continuously burning in flames,” just like the Keepers of the Old Lords.

The table below shows the evolution of the symbolic meaning of “flame” in Yharnam.

Whereas the keepers “gained a long life as ash” through the flames, Laurence’s body will never turn to ash. His body continues to burn, scattering his own blood and flames while he screams in endless agony.

In Victorian Gothic literature, fire is frequently used as a bipolar metaphor for “purification” and “hellish torment.” In Yharnam, “fire” was used to purify the Scourge of the Beast (Molotov cocktails and the Hunter Torch), and hunters also heavily relied on fire to hunt beasts. The fact that Laurence is engulfed in flames is an extremely poignant and literary irony: his own soul is eternally burned by the very flames of the beast hunt (the power of purification) that he unleashed upon the city.

As the founder of the Healing Church, he sought to save people from illness and guide humanity to the next dimension. However, as a result, he fell to become the most hideous beast, reduced to a miserable monster searching for his own unattainable humanity while continuously burning in the hellfire. This is an ending that perfectly embodies “human powerlessness and karmic retribution” in Cosmic Horror.

Conclusion: The End of Blood-Drunk Arrogance, a Man Swallowed by Cosmic Horror

When looking back on the life of Laurence, the First Vicar, and the cursed legacy he left behind, what we see is not merely the failure story of a mad scientist. It is an elegant yet decadent tragedy in which the ruthless structure of Cthulhu Mythos-style Cosmic Horror and the theme of human “crime and punishment” in Gothic literature fuse at an exceedingly high level.

He may have possessed a certain sublime ideal in that he sought to save the people of Yharnam from illness and bring them prosperity. However, the means he employed for that purpose—blind faith in the Old Blood of the Great Ones and the atrocious blasphemy against the child of a god—were the absolute domain of Cosmic Horror, where humanity must never tread. Ignoring Provost Willem’s warning to “Fear the old blood,” the “arrogance (hubris)” that deluded him into thinking he could control cosmic truths with his own intellect and medical technology is the root of all evil and his greatest sin.

As a result, the Healing Church he built mutated countless citizens into hideous beasts, imprisoned his compatriot Gehrman—with whom he pursued the truth—in an eternal nightmare, and turned himself into an aberration burning in flames at the bottom of the nightmare.

The massive beast skull that still sits quietly on the altar of the Grand Cathedral. It is Yharnam’s greatest lesson and an indelible monument of original sin, telling the tale of how a human who tried to approach godhood fell to become the basest of beasts. Human reason, medicine, and organized religion are nothing more than a paper-thin illusion before the abyss of the cosmos and the wrath of the Great Ones. The fate of a man captivated by unknown blood and trespassing into the domain of the gods is simply to sink into the depths of endless frenzy and eternal hellfire.