A Transcendent Death by StoneWolf18

A Transcendent Death
Seeing as I have to put Cainhurst aside for the time being, I wanted to touch upon a topic that took me awhile to really wrap my head around. It came about when I was staring at the picture of the Yharnam Stone and I felt that the idea that soon wound its way out of control was worth sharing. To summarize, I propose that upon death, Great Ones do not die but rather transcend to another realm, that being the nightmare plane they become the sustainer of.

Let me break down some of the evidence I have for such a claim in terms of the great ones we meet.

Mergo
Mergo is the child of Queen Yharnam and Oedon and is found in his loft in the nightmare of Mensis, that much is more or less widely accepted. What is also widely accepted is that Mergo is formless, and in part that is rather true. His voice is disembodied and heard everywhere after the blood moon rises, which makes it seem that he takes after his father. But just stating that he is formless outright doesn’t make sense because he does have, or rather had, a form.

The yharnam stone, if you look at it for long enough appears to have something embedded inside of it. And after looking on the wiki and then doing some research of my own, it shares extreme resemblance to a lithopedion. Which is simply a fetus that is calcified when the child dies late into pregnancy and it is no longer possible for the mother to absorb it back into herself. This description fits more than well, as the true Yharnam we meet in the chalice dungeon is clearly pregnant. Yet, now we need the reasoning for Mergo’s death, as a healthy fetus doesn’t just get turned into a giant rock randomly. Well… what do we get after defeating the Wet Nurse? Mergo’s umbilical cord. And where do you get umbilical cords? From the child’s mother.

With all that said, I believe that Yharnam had been found in the chalice dungeon and instead of killing her, whoever had found her instead just stole the umbilical cord attached to Mergo. This would clearly result in the child’s death and infuriating Yharnam to attack anyone else who enters her chambers. When Mensis got ahold of his cord, they were able to enter a nightmare which attached itself to Micolash as the host and with a now formless, omnipresent Mergo as the sustainer. He is dead in the waking world, but living transcendedto the likes of his father in the Nightmare of Mensis which he presides over.

As for Odeon, him being formless might be because he transcended like his child.

Rom
There is a lot of controversy centered around whether if  Rom is a Great One or not, and I believe she is for the sake of this theory. Moving past that, when we enter the Altar of Despair and defeat Ebrietas, on the actual altar in the back we see the corpse of a large spider. In other words, what many believe to be Rom’s corpse. At first I didn’t think much of it, nor did I think it was her seeing as there wasn’t much resemblance. But in terms of this theory, there’s a reason for me to toss my hat into the ‘oh look it’s Rom’ ring. Ignoring that the altar is clearly unfinished and unexplained (as it was used to resurrect Annalise, which that missing cutscene was rather disappointing) on top is a dead Rom, but when we got to Byrgenwerth and hop down into the moonside lake, there she is in all of her vacuous glory. She died and was shoved into a dreamscape much like Mergo.

As for why she would be considered mindless/stupid, I’ll save that for another document.

Ebrietas
There are two curious things about Ebrietas. The first is that she is referred to as the ‘left behind’ Great One, and that we fight her in the waking world. Now, I believe that she simply hasn’t died and transcended yet, hence being “left behind.” Part of me thinks that suicide isn’t an option to achieve this, which is why she decides to attack the hunter when he begins to harm her.

Celestial Emissary
This… is an interesting one. I think they are a different case than the last few which I can only explain by saying they are an artificial Great One created by the Choir. The began their experimentation with  the large head patients but then managed to perfect it to what we fight in the upper cathedral ward.

Amygdala
Amygdala are plentiful, hanging around buildings in Yahar'gul and Yharnam itself, although it is important to note that these creatures we see in the waking world are referred to as lesser amygdala. This gives a rather significant distinction between them and the Amygdala boss the hunter has the option fight in the nightmare frontier. That one is classified as a Great One, and I believe it has to do with this theory. Somehow a lesser Amygdala was able to die, and ascended itself into the nightmare frontier. I know I’m beginning to grasp at straws but just bear with me here.

Kos and her Orphan
We know that Kos and her Orphan were both killed by the hunters that raided the Fishing Hamlet. We see the Orphan, the host of the Hunter’s Nightmare, living here. Meaning it is possible that he ascended to the nightmare upon his death after the hunter’s had been cursed. Yet we also have to wonder what happened to Kos. Personally, I don’t support the idea of her becoming the Moon Presence. Doesn’t make sense to me. What does is the possibility of her having ascended to a different nightmare, or in other words, she isn’t dead.

Moon Presence
And finally the one we’ve been waiting for. The Moon Presence, when thinking of them in terms of this theory, had died somehow and ascended to the Hunter’s Dream. But that isn’t the thing I wanted to mention. It is clear that they are using the Hunter as a tool to kill other Great Ones. But this begs the question of their motive. Before this theory came about, I just thought they disliked the other Great Ones and the competition they brought around, so they wanted to get rid of them. And, that might still be the case, but I can’t help but wonder what is being achieved by this. Is the Moon Presence forcing them to ascend to another plane after the nightmare they inhabit? Are they reset to the waking world where they would have to be killed again? I’m not entirely sure, yet I am extremely curious.

Ending Thoughts
There isn’t much more I wanted to say here aside from offer this food for thought. Feedback is, as always, more than welcome as I love to develop and evolve theories that come to mind.