The Choir was made up of the highest-ranking members of the Healing Church inBloodborne. It was a group of intellectuals who were also researchers, doctors, clerics, explorers of ancient labyrinths, and hunters. Its headquarters were located on the upper floor of the Grand Cathedral.
As for the Byrgenwerth scholars and for the followers of the School of Mensis, other two institutions inBloodborne, the Choir’s goal was the ascension of mankind, through the understanding of the Extraordinary Truth of the Cosmos, proper to the Great Ones.
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Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
What distinguishes the Choir from the School of Mensis and Byrgenwerth is the method used for the ascension towards cosmic truths. This is because the choir explorers went deeper into the exploration of the Ancient Labyrinths, reaching the Isz area.
There they foundEbrietas, the Daughter of the Cosmos: a Great One abandoned by his fellows and not hostile towards human beings. Ebrietas, in fact, was transported to the dungeons of the Grand Cathedral, where she began a collaborative relationship with the scholars of the Choir.
Just like Mergo, Ebrietas was the surrogate daughter between a Great One and a Pthumerian woman. She was the source of the Old Blood that flooded the streets of Yharnam: thanks to the cooperation between Ebrietas and the Choir, the Healing Church was able to tap into the miraculous fluid.
The Choir’s Research Method
Direct contact with Ebrietas, on the other hand, had additional advantages. The Choir’s clerics gained extraordinary knowledge and skills, as well as the ability to perform arcane magic. There was an intuition among this exceptional knowledge: the use of water to reach the eyes of knowledge that Willem mentioned in Byrgenwerth. IfAncient Bloodinfusions enhance men’s physical abilities, an injection of liquid inside the skull could supply the brain of the eyes, granting men insight.
Insights as the main path to ascension were an intellectual debt owed by the Choir to Byrgenwerth, as well as the idea that humanity would have to abandon its earthly characteristics in order to evolve to a higher degree. Willem’s influence was also visible in the Choir’s headdress, which consisted of a blindfold that, by covering the eyes, limited the wearer’s earthly sight while increasing their inner awareness.
But what was the significance of water? Fans don’t know for sure, but can make some educated guesses. Great Ones and water have a connection.Romlived inside the Lake of the Moon, while Kos came from the sea. Some liquids most likely contained microscopic invertebrates: tiny snails with cosmic qualities, which had previously been discovered during the exploration of the Pthumerian labyrinths.
Furthermore, the Choir used the Lumenflowers, flowers that followed the lunar cycle, to communicate with the cosmos, so much so that they used an area of the Grand Cathedral to cultivate these plants. And, as fans know, the moon is in charge of the tides as well as being frequently associated with the presence of Great Ones such as Oedon and The Presence of the Moon.
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Research Hall and the Choir’s genesis
The first experiments of the Research Hall, chaired by Lady Maria many years before the birth of the Choir, arose from these intuitions. The method involved inconspicuous injections of liquid into the skulls ofYharnamresidents, a mixture of water and cerebral fluid that, according to the Research Hall’s theory, was the embryonic form of the internal eyes. These were experiments requested and approved by Master Willem at a time when Byrgenwerth’s doctrine was at its peak.
However, such research resulted in anomalies.The massive infusions of knowledgewere too much for the adult patients in the Research Hall. Their heads swelled out of proportion, they went insane, and they lost their sight. Only a small percentage of them were able to transform into something resembling the Great One. On the other hand, the Living Failures were creatures devoid of intellect and incapable of handling such vast amounts of information.
Celestial Emissary
With the Living Failures, the Research Hall project was ruined, and there was a schism between Byrgenwerth and the Healing Church, between Laurence and Master Willem, years later.Lady Maria’s accomplishments, however, were not all discarded. On the contrary, another dark conviction crept into the Choir: what if the Research Hall’s experiment failed because it was conducted on adults? What if human knowledge and the experience of earthly life had less of an impact on children’s minds?
As a result, the Choir researchers made the decision to establish the Orphanage. Formally, it had to appear to be a charitable initiative of the Healing Church: to provide refreshment to the many orphans of Yharnam who had been left without families due to the beast plague. However, following the path traced by the Research Hall was only an expedient.
The Choir’s intuition was correct, and their experiments actually worked. The children who received the Choir treatment ascended to a higher level of knowledge, transforming themselves into embryonic forms of theGreat One. On the other hand, one of them evolved into the Celestial Emissary: a semi-deity capable of allowing men to communicate with the Cosmos.
