EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I haven't finished the game yet but more or less know what happens. Something I've seen a lot of people fixate on is trying to define what is real and what is not real, and I can't say I agree to much of it, especially the belief that the entire game takes place within a nightmare or dream. Too much fixation on literal rather than metaphysical and the deliberate Lovecraftian abstract nature of the Great Ones.
From what I can gather, the Great Ones are multidimensional beings who, in typical Lovecraftian fashion, specialise in manifesting the psyche/mind as reality and exploring it. It's how they're most easily able to communicate with mortals, and vice versa. Dreams and nightmares are of great significance to the plot as perhaps these are the most direct and stable states of mind to cross the dimensional bridge and interact with them. This also ties into the game's setting, a sequence of moons across what is supposed to be one night, night being the time we dream sleep. This cycle is of special consideration as its when the Great Ones are breeding, as they have done so in the past.
The church/lab/whoever learned of the Great Ones and much of what you see in the game is their attempts to commune with them. Forcing people into and harnessing their nightmares/dreams as a platform for communication. And I mean, this seems to be a running theme: Mensis' nightmare was used to commune with Mergo, no doubt involved in some weird summoning ritual involving impregnating the Pthumeru Queen, a stillborn, and yeah. It seems very abstract, like there's a cost of the host, the dreamer, and maybe even the Great One involved to create this link. The Pthumeru Queen bows to you and disappears once you've destroyed the Wet Nurse, more or less disconnecting the Great Ones from that nightmare.
I kinda feel that's what the Hunters Dream is too. Gehrman is the (current) host and it's a place that keeps the night eternal, accessible only by Hunters who use it to grow stronger. 'Souls has always considered the game mechanic of respawning enemies and yourself, upgrading, the hub, etc as also part of the story and lore. Always an element of time almost standing still, cyclic events, like what you're experiencing now will go on forever, both as story and literal game, until you "beat" it.
From what I can gather, the Great Ones are multidimensional beings who, in typical Lovecraftian fashion, specialise in manifesting the psyche/mind as reality and exploring it. It's how they're most easily able to communicate with mortals, and vice versa. Dreams and nightmares are of great significance to the plot as perhaps these are the most direct and stable states of mind to cross the dimensional bridge and interact with them. This also ties into the game's setting, a sequence of moons across what is supposed to be one night, night being the time we dream sleep. This cycle is of special consideration as its when the Great Ones are breeding, as they have done so in the past.
The church/lab/whoever learned of the Great Ones and much of what you see in the game is their attempts to commune with them. Forcing people into and harnessing their nightmares/dreams as a platform for communication. And I mean, this seems to be a running theme: Mensis' nightmare was used to commune with Mergo, no doubt involved in some weird summoning ritual involving impregnating the Pthumeru Queen, a stillborn, and yeah. It seems very abstract, like there's a cost of the host, the dreamer, and maybe even the Great One involved to create this link. The Pthumeru Queen bows to you and disappears once you've destroyed the Wet Nurse, more or less disconnecting the Great Ones from that nightmare.
I kinda feel that's what the Hunters Dream is too. Gehrman is the (current) host and it's a place that keeps the night eternal, accessible only by Hunters who use it to grow stronger. 'Souls has always considered the game mechanic of respawning enemies and yourself, upgrading, the hub, etc as also part of the story and lore. Always an element of time almost standing still, cyclic events, like what you're experiencing now will go on forever, both as story and literal game, until you "beat" it.
