FromSoftware games like the popular action RPG Bloodborne are usually incredibly light on features that hold players' hands and help them through situations, and as a result, they can be challenging as well as rewarding. Their narratives are conveyed in much the same way, with gamers encouraged to dig a little deeper and work out Bloodborne's wider story for themselves, but this can yield incredibly deep lore and amazing details hidden just below the surface that makes the work worth it.
Like most titles from the developer, Bloodborne is a story-heavy game drenched in darkness and tragedy, with only a small handful of lighter moments. It's a game that explores the pitfalls of pride, the dangers of an uncontrolled search for knowledge, and the problems that power usually brings, and that hardly makes its story a breezy experience. Unsurprisingly, many of the characters and subplots that players encounter during Bloodborne have their own air of sadness and misfortune, but maybe none more so than the backstory of the Red Jeweled Brooch and the fate of its owner.
Bloodborne's Red-Jeweled Brooch Quest
Bloodborne doesn't hold back when it comes to launching players into its world filled with gothic horrors and monsters of many different kinds, and the very first taste of Central Yharnam is a baptism of fire in all the best ways. There aren't many friendly faces for gamers to encounter, but there are some characters that they can converse with. One of them is a young girl that players can talk to as she shelters in her house, and she tasks gamers with finding her mother who has gone looking for her husband, a hunter himself who would often take part in the Hunt to kill the beasts that plague the city.
This quest revolves around tracking down the missing woman, who has a distinctive red brooch that will help the player identify her. It seems like this isn't the first time that the young girl's mother has had to go out looking for her husband after a long night of beast-slaying, and she would often brave the terrifying streets of Bloodborne's Yharnham armed with a music box to help remind her husband of his family and delay the bloodlust that threatened to consume him.
The Heartbreaking Story Behind The Bloodborne Quest
Players soon encounter Bloodborne's Father Gascoigne at the Tomb of Oedon, one of the game's more distinct characters and an early favorite with fans. The hunter has finally succumbed to the blood-drunkenness of the hunt and transforms into one of the very beasts he hunted. Gamers can use the music box given to them by the girl to temporarily stun Father Gascoigne during their battle, hinting at the fact that he is the girl's father, as the familiar tune was used by her mother to help bring him back to his senses and fight the effects of the blood.
The girl's father's tragic fate is sad enough, but there's another twist to the tale. Bloodborne players can find the corpse of a blond-haired woman on the roof of a nearby tomb after him. This turns out to be Viola, the girl's mother, and Father Gascoigne's wife, identified by the Red Jeweled Brooch lying beside her that is engraved with her name.
It seems that she managed to find her husband, but as she'd left the music box behind she was unable to reach him through the fog of his bloodlust. She was either killed by her husband-turned-beast, or by a Hunter Mob as some players theorize. Killing his wife or seeing her corpse seems to be the last straw for Father Gascoigne, and he gave in to his beastly side, leaving the young girl parentless.
Bloodborne is available on the PlayStation 4.
