I finally got my grubby hands on a PS4, and so I got to play Bloodborne for the first time. It’s very good. I’m a huge fan of Fromsoft and the Souls series, and think all tabletop enthusiasts should play them. As of this article, the only real tweet I’ve ever made is about applying Dark Souls to tabletop games.

But I’m not here to talk dungeon design, or gameplay, or any of that. I’m here to talk about the setting. I’ve been thinking a lot about defamiliarization and its applications to my writing. My last post was, essentially, about defamiliarized technology. If you’re not familiar with the concept, read a few of these alien comics. Before you read on, it’s important to note that defamiliarizing a thing to make it sound weird or scary isn’t really a criticism of that thing, any more than “Moldy liquid extracted from a large animal that’s left out until it hardens” is a cogent criticism of cheese. It’s just interesting.

The Healing Church of Yharnam, a central piece of the Bloodborne setting, is pretty close to defamiliarized Catholicism. Obviously the aesthetic and naming conventions are ripped out wholesale. You fight a Vicar in a Cathedral, who says right before the fight, “Let us pray, let us wish… to partake in communion.” Communion, for those unaware, is the partaking of bread and wine, which through the miracle of transubstantiation, becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The communion referenced in Vicar Amelia’s dialogue, is similarly, the blood of the Ebritas, the daughter of the cosmos, though that church is slightly polytheistic.

Art by FromSoft

Art by… the guys who built Notre Dame?

This is obviously nowhere near to a spicy take. The references are very intentional. But, this inspired me to think of how real world religion could serve as an inspiration for horrific settings. Essentially, as soon as you remove the humanizing aspect of a god, the stories become deeply unsettling. Part of the trick, though, is never to rip wholesale. If you’ve just copied it one for one, you move from allusion to a thing to dialogue about that thing. The RPG table is not the best medium for specific theological debate, even if it is great for more general philosophical and theological themes. The difference between, “Doesn’t the concept of omniscience, in some ways, negate free will” and “Southern Baptists specifically, can eat it”.

The conceit then of Bloodborne, summed up, is something like, “Catholicism if God was a lovecraftian Great Old One”. I thought it might be interesting to list some things about various real world religions that are kinda horrifying, taken out of context. I’ve removed names, so it’s just the weird left. Hit up the comments if you think of any others, or if I misrepresented something.

Eat the flesh and drink the blood of their god

Their god is not human, but is capable of having hybrid children with humans.

Those children are still part of the god itself (like how two hands belong to one body, but are distinct)

Those children can perform powerful feats, including the resurrection of the dead, withering plant life with curses, and walking upon the water.

Are preparing for their god to destroy the earth, taking the loyal humans to the god’s domain, and leaving the rest to perish.

The god passes judgement on the dead, and eternally tortures those it finds wanting.

Their god visits wholesale destruction on areas full of sin, up to and including the entire planet

There is a class of beings the god uses as messengers and servitors.

These beings come in a variety of forms. Usually winged and in the shape of humans, but some stranger forms include Six winged humanoids. They use two to cover their eyes, and two to cover their feet, and two to fly. This variety can also appear as flaming serpents. Floating wheels, covered in eyes Four winged, four armed, with multiple faces of different creatures

Long tradition of interacting with knowledge of their god through questions rather than direct statements.

Gods are finite in power and humanlike, but not human

Little distinction between power and physical form. Poseidon is both a creature that rules the sea, and the sea itself.

Utterly unkillable. On one occasion, one was taken apart sinew by sinew, but once it was reassembled it was unharmed

Not human, but can and frequently do have children with humans

Can control what enormous crowds of people sense, and what emotions they feel.

Can transfigure humans into almost anything.

Feel human emotions, such as jealousy and rage, but have vastly more power to act on those emotions.

Have plans that last many human lifetimes (many of which are feuds with other gods), and use humans as tools to further those plans.

Demand tribute from humans, including animal sacrifice

Came into prominence after murdering or imprisoning their progenitors, a race of older and stranger gods, who in turn had overthrown their primordial forbearers.

Some are born like humans are, but they can create progeny from their flesh in other ways, such as bursting forth from each other’s bodies, or rising out of discarded body parts of other butchered gods.

Believe that existence is suffering (which in our horror-verse, it certainly is)

When you die, you are thrown back into the chaos of life, but with no memory of your past life.

Their goal is to detach from desire and experience ego-death

If they achieve perfect enlightenment, then they are freed from being born again, and cease existing.

When you die, you are born again with no memory of your past life

The more deeds you do in line with the god’s will, the better the circumstances of your rebirth, and vice versa.

If you go too low, you are born into a hellscape to serve a kind of term in proportion to your misdeeds, then returned to life. The reverse brings you into the god’s domain.

Even gods die when their merit from past lives runs out, returning them to mortal life.

All gods, animals, and humans share the same kind of soul. A god has been and will be a human and a beast.

Now how to use this? Well first it’s helpful to realize that almost all religions and myths out there are pretty wild, so don’t feel like you’ve made your fictional one too weird. But more directly, just replace the word god with Eldritch Great One and you’ve pretty much got your cosmic horror right there, like Bloodborne has. A fictional cult is pretty easy to build off of this stuff, especially if you mix and match. Making spiritual things (such as rebirth or heaven) more literal and physical, also helps. Or making the gods much, much less human.

Art by Chris Cold

The Hallowed Pits of Dhol’gar

The high priests of Dhol’gar preach a strict doctrine of behavior, promising enlightenment and transcendence for adherence. Chief among the demands is tribute: animals, treasure, books, all to be thrown into the pits in the holy city of Dhol’gar. Human sacrifice is officially condemned, but the gates to the holy grounds close at dusk, leaving only the priests behind.

The central artifact of the church is the House of Judgement, a great spiral shell, suspended over the central pit. Anyone is allowed to enter, and be reborn. Many criminals choose this path over the noose. Once one leaves the sight of the observers, into that spiral hall, they are never seen again. A family may be gifted a baby by a robed priest that night, or the priests may have a new animal in their pens. Rarely, a drop of starlight falls from the tip of the shell, falling into the abyss. A new god. More commonly, a blood red droplet falls. The condemned, sent to the gods for judgement.

There is a carefully guarded stairway down into the abyss. Priests go down to commune. The gods know much and will share with their loyal servants. The priests enter into a secret paradise, each one tailored to the god that greets them, and are met by a beautiful figure.

This is, of course, illusory. Things have crawled up from the pits, revealing its true nature. Escaped condemned, grotesque fattened beasts. Infants delivered by gods to the priests, gods returned to mortality when their term ends. And occasionally, a god itself. Few know what they look like, as what a mortal sees and senses is fully under their control. But scholars and priests have collected enough apocryphal accounts from the ruins of neighborhoods to know the truth.

The condemned are perhaps the only ones to see the truth with their eyes. The illusions hold no sway over them. They are delivered to the bottom of the pits, where the gods descend upon them. Both punishment and tribute.