Good evening everybody! This is Aifos coming to you alive from Central Ihyll, but before we begin, this post was brought to you by Cainhurst Blood Drives! Are you a hunter, or Echo Fiend (which is just a hunter)? Well come on down to Hemwick Charnel Lane, and donate some Blood Dregs to a worthy cause! Hunter of Hunters? Half-beast? Or maybe Lumenwood, even? Don’t worry! We don’t discriminate here! All are welcome, as long as you have Blood Dregs to donate! Unless you’re an Executioner! Then you can go die in a hole! Cainhurst Blood Drives! Restoring Cainhurst’s glory one Blood Dreg at a time! Now, as you may recall a while ago, somebody, in particular; me, was asking for some Bloodborne lore channel recommendations. Thanks to everyone who gave some, by the by. The video above spawmed from that search, and this video got me thinking. It talks about how the Mensis Ritual we encounter is run not by Mensis, but the Pthumerian Bell Maidens. I’ve heard this before, but this time for dome reason set off a chain of thoughts that I will share with you now. Let’s first list everywhere where Pthumerians are located. 1. Chalice Dungeons. Various. 2. Cathedral Ward. Church Giants. 3. Forbidden Woods. Church Giants in the swamp leading to Iosefka’s Clinic. 4. Various. The Kidnappers. 5. Yahar Gul. The Bell Maidens. 6. Castle Cainhurst. Logarius. 7. Various. Queen Yharnam. 8. Nightmare of Mensis. Mergo. Number 6 is debatable, but he shares many traits of Pthumerians, so I’ll count it. Now, we’ll ignore Chalice Dungeons for now; they’re the place of origin. For the time being, let’s also ignore Yharnam, and Mergo. Now let’s look at their roles. Church Giants guard Cathedral Ward, and the swamp the Church experimented at. The Kidnappers snatch people for Mensis. The Bell Maidens are performing the Mensis Ritual, and Logarius is the head Executioner. Pretty much, every single one of those roles seems to be doing something for the Church. Guarding Cathedral Ward & the swamp they concocted Ashen Blood at, furthering Mensis’ ritual, or hunting the noble Cainhurst lineage. Most Pthumerians we see are also dressed in rags, suggesting poor treatment as well. It’s possible that the Kidnappers and/or Bell Maidens could be performing the ritual for their own means of course (like avenging Mergo for example), as they do kidnap a Blood Saint, but I would attribute that to the School of Mensis not really caring about the rest of the Church, evident by the imprisoned Choir member in Yahar’Gul. Now, let’s look at Mergo & Yharnam really quick. Yharnam was chained up, and probably had her baby stolen like Kos did (see the Yharnam Stone). This was most likely the Church that did this, so they evidently don’t care too much about Pthumerian well being (evident also by the raids in general). Of course, that only works if you agree with the “Chalice Dungeons are a representation of the past” theory. Mergo is either being used by the School of Mensis to call Kos, or Oedon is using the School to watch over Mergo, or something along those lines. Hard to say there. The first theory could further support this theory, but not so much the second. All in all, not a super well grounded theory, or anything, but rather a quick observation I made, that I thought I’d toss out there for discussion.