Ebrietas and the Choir
First Contact
Ebrietas is first met by the player in a large ruined cave under the main cathedral of the Healing Church. She is seen sobbing or praying or sleeping: otherwise occupied, and pays little attention to your presence until she is hurt or generally attacked. This makes her one of the kindest, or least most involved Great Ones found throughout the game, and quite an outlier as well; she has had direct contact with the Healing Church and the Choir. In fact she almost seems trapped in her situation, locked away for safekeeping by the Church. But doesn't that seem quite contradictory?
The Healing Church has tried in vain over and over to contact or to reach physically/metaphysically a Great One, yet here one seems to be - and she is locked up and kept a secret until everything falls apart. Something needs to be understood at a base level about Ebrietas, and it might seem more obvious than you thought.
'The initial encounter marked the start of an inquiry into the cosmos from within the old labyrinth, and led to the establishment of the Choir.' - Augur of Ebrietas description
We have some more time nonsense to wade through first before reaching this understanding however; Bloodborne is more made in the vein of traditional Greek narrative instead of structured plot points, and because of this it does not follow time as an important marker for story progression. Ebrietas led to the creation of the Choir, right? As the quote says - but it also states that she was part of 'the eldritch truth' encountered in the first forays down the labyrinth made by Byrgenwerth. How can this be? The Healing Church wouldn't be a thing for decades (relatively) after this point let alone the Choir, and how did they manage to take and transport her to this 'new' Cathedral area built in her honour?
There is no answer to that, but at least we know that she was encountered in Great Isz, a subset dungeon accessed by deep exploration of ancient Pthumeru by the Byrgenwerth scholars. She most likely remained there being studied until the church took her out. A good thing from this realisation of time is that it explains excellently Willem's addiction to eyes, and his theory of cosmic ascension instead of using the old blood. I think that both the 'Holy Medium' and Ebrietas were found separately by Byrgenwerth, and that those two methods of 'higher existence' were the reason for so many factions to split off and attempt their own brand of god.
So while we can not explain what happened to her during the time she was known by Byrgenwerth and when the Choir is formed we at least gain a better understanding of their plight and knowledge, and it also explains why the Church researched so diligently the sea. This was because of not only Kos's appearance as a sea creature but the numerous sea-monster like appendages and environment-suited evolution that Ebrietas had. It was all really quite misleading.
The Choir, once it was formed and had Ebrietas under their lock and key, tried to copy her - and created the Celestial Emissary. But why did they only manage to create messengers (successful ones at that) and not some higher lifeform, if once again we understand that she is a great one, or the child of a great one: 'the cosmos'?
The answer is staring you right in the face.
The True Form of a 'God'
Ebrietas is, in fact, a Kin. We know this already, right? It's pretty obvious from how she looks and her gameplay elements - but have we thought on what that means? Kin are the halfway point, the visage of the 'cosmos' but not the residents. Not truly ascended, but with an understanding of what it really means. Most Kin in Bloodborne are man-made: Brainsuckers, Garden of Eyes, Celistial Emmissary (and its tiny friends) and Rom. The only Kin that wasn't made by man attempting ascension were possibly the Celestial Centipedes which are found in Pthumeru and Ebrietas, who is found in Great Isz. But no matter how they are created, the all function the same: they 'contact' the cosmos, or the dreamworlds as an extension, but can never fully embody them.
Ebrietas is, in essence, simply a Kin that naturally evolved in the labyrinth of Isz. She is named the 'left behind' great one, and there is evidence that she may have been made or molded by the great ones to ascend, but much like all of mankind's efforts it resulted in a failure. Ebrietas is also seen mourning Rom, another Kin who has similar powers and had been slain earlier.
The Choir created the Emissary because that is what they saw, that is what they set out to do; the Church did not revere Ebrietas so much as use her, for even back at Byrgenwerth they knew she was only an Augur, a worm hole to the greater plane. And the influence from studying her can be seen in every single faction within Yharnam, all attempts at accessing the Dream have all referenced what she embodies, and that is the exact purpose, and truth behind Ebrietas.
She is no god, she is an experiment, and much like Loran - a direct example of mankind's failures to come.
Thanks for reading!
Ebrietas is first met by the player in a large ruined cave under the main cathedral of the Healing Church. She is seen sobbing or praying or sleeping: otherwise occupied, and pays little attention to your presence until she is hurt or generally attacked. This makes her one of the kindest, or least most involved Great Ones found throughout the game, and quite an outlier as well; she has had direct contact with the Healing Church and the Choir. In fact she almost seems trapped in her situation, locked away for safekeeping by the Church. But doesn't that seem quite contradictory?
The Healing Church has tried in vain over and over to contact or to reach physically/metaphysically a Great One, yet here one seems to be - and she is locked up and kept a secret until everything falls apart. Something needs to be understood at a base level about Ebrietas, and it might seem more obvious than you thought.
'The initial encounter marked the start of an inquiry into the cosmos from within the old labyrinth, and led to the establishment of the Choir.' - Augur of Ebrietas description
We have some more time nonsense to wade through first before reaching this understanding however; Bloodborne is more made in the vein of traditional Greek narrative instead of structured plot points, and because of this it does not follow time as an important marker for story progression. Ebrietas led to the creation of the Choir, right? As the quote says - but it also states that she was part of 'the eldritch truth' encountered in the first forays down the labyrinth made by Byrgenwerth. How can this be? The Healing Church wouldn't be a thing for decades (relatively) after this point let alone the Choir, and how did they manage to take and transport her to this 'new' Cathedral area built in her honour?
There is no answer to that, but at least we know that she was encountered in Great Isz, a subset dungeon accessed by deep exploration of ancient Pthumeru by the Byrgenwerth scholars. She most likely remained there being studied until the church took her out. A good thing from this realisation of time is that it explains excellently Willem's addiction to eyes, and his theory of cosmic ascension instead of using the old blood. I think that both the 'Holy Medium' and Ebrietas were found separately by Byrgenwerth, and that those two methods of 'higher existence' were the reason for so many factions to split off and attempt their own brand of god.
So while we can not explain what happened to her during the time she was known by Byrgenwerth and when the Choir is formed we at least gain a better understanding of their plight and knowledge, and it also explains why the Church researched so diligently the sea. This was because of not only Kos's appearance as a sea creature but the numerous sea-monster like appendages and environment-suited evolution that Ebrietas had. It was all really quite misleading.
The Choir, once it was formed and had Ebrietas under their lock and key, tried to copy her - and created the Celestial Emissary. But why did they only manage to create messengers (successful ones at that) and not some higher lifeform, if once again we understand that she is a great one, or the child of a great one: 'the cosmos'?
The answer is staring you right in the face.
The True Form of a 'God'
Ebrietas is, in fact, a Kin. We know this already, right? It's pretty obvious from how she looks and her gameplay elements - but have we thought on what that means? Kin are the halfway point, the visage of the 'cosmos' but not the residents. Not truly ascended, but with an understanding of what it really means. Most Kin in Bloodborne are man-made: Brainsuckers, Garden of Eyes, Celistial Emmissary (and its tiny friends) and Rom. The only Kin that wasn't made by man attempting ascension were possibly the Celestial Centipedes which are found in Pthumeru and Ebrietas, who is found in Great Isz. But no matter how they are created, the all function the same: they 'contact' the cosmos, or the dreamworlds as an extension, but can never fully embody them.
Ebrietas is, in essence, simply a Kin that naturally evolved in the labyrinth of Isz. She is named the 'left behind' great one, and there is evidence that she may have been made or molded by the great ones to ascend, but much like all of mankind's efforts it resulted in a failure. Ebrietas is also seen mourning Rom, another Kin who has similar powers and had been slain earlier.
The Choir created the Emissary because that is what they saw, that is what they set out to do; the Church did not revere Ebrietas so much as use her, for even back at Byrgenwerth they knew she was only an Augur, a worm hole to the greater plane. And the influence from studying her can be seen in every single faction within Yharnam, all attempts at accessing the Dream have all referenced what she embodies, and that is the exact purpose, and truth behind Ebrietas.
She is no god, she is an experiment, and much like Loran - a direct example of mankind's failures to come.
Thanks for reading!
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