Post Colonialism In From Software’s Bloodborne: Father Gascoigne and Blood Ministration

Authors’ note: This Post is Part 2 in a 2 Part Series. Click here for Part 1.

Authors’ note: Due to the nature of Bloodborne lore, certain bits of information in this article may change over time to reflect a more accurate understanding of the games’ story and mythology. While I will always try my best to deliver the most accurate information as possible, due to the constant changing nature of theories around Bloodborne I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy all the time. I will however strive to make sure that the post-colonial analysis of this series remain equally valid even if some of the smaller details do change.

In the aging city of Yharnam, you – the player character – while fighting your way through the beast-filled streets, encounter a dimly lit house, a lantern has been set at the window looking out onto the street. You approach the window, perhaps you see the silhouetted figure of a little girl, whatever the case, you decide to interact with the occupant of the house, and are greeted with this piece of dialogue:

“Who are you? I don’t know your voice, but I know that smell. Are you a hunter? Could you please go look for my Mum? Daddy never came back from the hunt, and she went to find him, but now she’s gone too. I’m all alone and scared… Really? Oh thank you. My mum wears a red jeweled broach, it’s so big and beautiful. You won’t miss it! Oh I mustn’t forget. If you find my mum, give her this music box, it plays one of daddy’s favorite songs, and when daddy forgets us, we play it for him so he remembers. Mum’s so silly for running off without it.”

This interaction begins an important quest in the games initial story, taking you to the Tomb of Oedon in search of the little girl’s parents. If the player investigates the Music box, they will find two names faintly written on the inside “Viola and Gascoigne.” This will become an important clue shortly. Upon arriving at the Tomb, you discover a man, dressed in the garb of the Black Church Hunters, breathing heavily, splattered in blood, surrounded by the corpses of villagers which he proceeds to dismember.

As you approach, he looks up, breathes heavily and states: “Beasts all over the shop… You’ll be one of them, sooner or later…” immediately after these final lines, the man, known to the player via his health bar as “Father Gascoigne”, attacks and the player is forced to fight him to the death as he progressively transforms into a hideous werewolf-like beast.

Once the fight is over and Father Gascoigne has been killed, investigating the piles of bodies all over the cemetery will reveal a murdered woman wearing a bright red jewelled broach. It would appear that either Father Gascoigne has in his beast-fuelled insanity killed his wife Viola, or alternatively his stumbled upon her being killed by insane villagers and lost his mind and slaughtered everyone in sight.

Whatever the case, the player must return with the broach and break the bad news to the little girl, eventually prompting her to lose her own life as she tries to escape her home for a safer place to wait out the night.

When the player kills Father Gascoigne, they can purchase his attire from a shop in The Hunter’s Dream. Reading the description on the items we discover something else interesting about this character:

“Hunter attire worn by Father Gascoigne. Similar to Hunter garb created at the workshop; only these are tainted by a pungent beastly stench that eats away at Gascoigne. “Father” is a title used for clerics in a foreign land, and there is no such rank in the Healing Church.”

We learn a very important piece of information for the sake of this series on Post-Colonial interpretations of Bloodborne – Father Gascoigne is a foreigner. He is not a local of Yharnam, although he does work as a Black Church Hunter for the Healing Church.

This brings us to the second topic of discussion in this article – The Healing Church. In Bloodborne everything revolves around you guessed it – blood. In particular, Old Blood. Years before the game begins, early settlers of Yharnam discovered a great expanse of Labyrinths beneath the land. These Labyrinths were the only remnants of an ancient and powerful Civilization named Pthumeru. Upon exploring these tunnels, the settlers had some kind of an encounter with a “Great One” and returned to the surface with its blood for research. Their aim was to ascend humanity to the same level as these Great Ones, this shortly after caused a split between the settlers – those who believed knowledge was key to understanding the Great Ones formed the Byrgenwerth college to study the labyrinths, and those who believed that the blood brought back was the key, they left and formed The Healing Church in Yharnam City after discovering that the old blood could be transfused and cure almost any disease or sickness.

The Healing Church very quickly rose to power, becoming essentially untouchable. Although their experimentation with the Old Blood eventually leads to the plague of beasts that overwhelms Yharnam and the rest of the game world, its power as the (as far as we can see) white, male, religious elite, and its control over an incredibly important resource to the city is fascinating to consider here.

Let’s break it down.

True to form of colonial empires, the settlers arrive and appropriate both the literal and abstract resources of another culture. In Bloodborne this is obviously displayed through several ways. The first and most obvious is the use of the name “Yharnam” for their capital city. Yharnam being the name of one of the ancient Pthumerian Queens. Outside of this, we see the appropriation in of course, the use of the Old Blood for medicinal purposes – an activity originally indulged in by the Pthumerians, as well as the Church and the College’s continual raiding of the Labyrinths for artefacts of potential value.

More importantly however is how the Old Blood and Blood Ministration rose to such esteem that news of its power reached far off lands. From reading the description of The Pungent Blood Cocktail we discover that: “In Yharnam, they produce more blood than alcohol, as the former is more intoxicating.”

When conversing with Alfred, a noble Knight-like Church Hunter, he explains in regards to Blood Ministration: “As you know, the Healing Church is the fountainhead of blood healing. Well, I’m a simple hunter, quite unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the institution, but I have heard that the holy medium of blood healing is venerated in the main cathedral. And that councillors of the old church reside in the high stratum of the Cathedral ward. If you seek blood healing, and the church is willing, you should pay them a visit.”

What I want to make incredibly clear at this point is that Blood runs the economy of Bloodborne’s world. It is produced as alcohol due to its intoxicating and addictive nature, and the Healing Church whom act as the ruling authority of Yharnam venerate the blood to an incredibly high status. In Yharnam, everyone is using blood, whether it is to grant them strength on a hunt, or to heal an ailment, or simply just to get off, they’re all using it. You as the player character even purchase upgrades and items with Blood Echoes which essentially function as the game’s currency.

So what is it that happens when a resource of such economic and medical importance rises to such a high status within a colonial empire?

I’ll tell you. People try to immigrate to that country (or in this case city/empire) for the chance that they too can receive healing from the blood, or make money from the blood. And it is at this point that we return to Father Gascoigne. “Father” is a term for a cleric in a foreign land remember?

Father Gascoigne, an outsider, much like the player character has journeyed from a foreign land to Yharnam in search of Blood Ministration. Why he exactly needed it is unclear, many speculate that he was sick, potentially mentally ill, and came to Yharnam in search of healing.

If our experience as a player is anything to go by in Bloodborne, Gascoigne’s arrival in the city must have been quite uncomfortable. When passing doorways of homes still populated by coherent people, the player will hear the term “Wretched Outsider” fairly frequently as the xenophobia and racism of the people of Yharnam are on full display.

What must it have been like for Gascoigne as he first stepped foot in the city of Yharnam, with hopes and dreams for healing and well-being lying heavily on his shoulders? We can only speculate as the lore doesn’t appear to go that far back. Regardless, his story is a fascinating one, and one ripe for a post-colonial rewrite, as it offers a unique story line of an immigrant arriving in a “western” society, seeking better medical treatment, and eventually rising to work for the institution that provides said treatment.

Concluding our series here, let’s look at a brief overview of the topics we have touched on. We have established in Part 1, the inverted White Knight narrative, in which a sickly foreigner played by you, arrives in Yharnam as the only hope to save the European-esque colonial society from a horrific plague that they enacted upon themselves.

Mirroring the player’s story is the much more tragic one of a foreign man of God – Gascoigne, who also journeys to Yharnam, looking for the same medical miracle, and eventually becoming a hunter for the Church. However, his life is ended at the hands of the player after he potentially murders his wife and loses his mind, after which his child dies in search of safety from the night.

Both stories are permeated with this strange economical and medical resource – The Old Blood, culturally appropriated from Pthumeru society and used to establish white political and societal power, eventually creating an immigration vacuum of foreigners, and exasperating the xenophobic, racist underlining of the local people.

Bloodborne is a fascinating piece of storytelling for many reasons, its lore is rich, its tone and style fascinating. It functions brilliantly as a post-colonial rewrite of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, by turning the Outsider Archetype on its head through the use of foreign central characters, and also allows for a wide berth of interpretation as to backstories and the events that led up to the final story line in which the player begins.