The Fishing Hamlet is the final area in Bloodborne's The Old Hunters DLC. As difficult as the game is, and as difficult as the entire DLC is, the Fishing Hamlet is arguably the toughest area the players will have to go through. Those who will come to this area looking for a challenge will certainly find an abundance of it.
Aside from being perfectly atmospheric and challenging, the Fishing Hamlet level is also one of the game's best ones due to its intricate details and lore significance. The addition of this area in this game answers so many questions about the game's lore, but it also adds other questions.
10 The Shadow Over Innsmouth
It should go without saying that Bloodborne is, without a doubt, a bonafide Lovecraftian game. Talks of Great Ones, eldritch Truths, the terrifying unknown, so many themes in this game can be stemmed from H.P. Lovecraft's works. This level, however, is the game's most obvious nod to the works of the horror legend.
The Fishing Hamlet almost feels like an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short novel called The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The book tells the story of a small fishing village and its fish-like citizens who are later revealed to be worshipping a sea god. Place that story into Bloodborne and you have the back story of the Fishing Hamlet.
9 The Massacre
The Fishing Hamlet became targeted by the Healing Church when they found out a corpse of a Great One had washed up ashore in this area. The church wasted no time in going to the hamlet, and lo and behold, the corpse of a Great One was right there, as if waiting for them.
The church wanted to experiment on the residents of the hamlet, who have been intaking the parasites from the Great One corpse, thus transforming into fish-like creatures. This resulted in a terrible massacre where the hunters of the church essentially wiped out the residents of the Fishing Hamlet.
8 Kos' Curse Upon The Hunters
The aftermath of the Fishing Hamlet massacre was terrible. Almost everyone in the village was killed, save for a very select few. Those who survived grew to despise the hunters, the Healing Church, and Byrgenwerth for everything they did to the fishing village's populace.
It is believed that the Great Ones are sympathetic in nature. So, the residents of the village prayed to the Great Ones to curse the hunters and those who violated their peace. Kos, although deceased, has an everlasting mind that stays in the cosmic plane. She listened to the prayers of the victims, those who praised her beforehand. Thus, Hunter's Nightmare was created.
7 The Hunter Sign Over The Lantern
As if to portray the hunter's curse in plain view, the sign of the hunters can be seen above the first lantern in the Fishing Hamlet, in the form of a hanging deceased body. Not only were the citizens of Fishing Hamlet vengeful, but they were also very symbolic, it seems.
Symbolism like this isn't new in Bloodborne. It's something FromSoftware Games is particularly good at incorporating in their games. The hanging corpse arranged to look like the Hunter's sign atop a lantern is a very good symbolism of reminding a hunter of their previous crimes, while in a place they consider to be safe, of all places.
6 Lady Maria's Guilt
The massacre that happened in the Fishing Hamlet was orchestrated by the hunters of the Healing Church. One of those hunters was Lady Maria. During this time, Maria was already an established hunter, under the tutelage of Gehrman, the first hunter himself.
As a hunter, Lady Maria has undoubtedly gone through and seen a lot of terrible things in the past. This moment, however, proved to be too much for her to handle. After the events of the Fishing Hamlet massacre, she was so disgusted by her actions that she threw her weapon down a well, and forever left the hunter's guild. She also later took her own life. After doing so, the Hunter's Nightmare sucked her soul in, and she is forced to guard the hamlet against those who would attempt to uncover its secrets.
5 Corpses In Boats
One of the most incredible things about the Fishing Hamlet is its very atmospheric nature. The area is dark, terrifying, unsettling, and dangerous. The perfect setting for an area filled with enemies that are difficult to deal with, and the perfect foreground for a place with an incredibly tragic backstory.
One design detail FromSoftware added in this location is the boats scattered around the area. If you look closely at those boats, they seem to hold wrapped corpses in them. Whether this was done out of ritual, sacrifice, or a reminder of the massacre is unknown.
4 The Fishing Hamlet Priest
At the very beginning of the Fishing Hamlet area, you will encounter a priest who will constantly utter words of curses towards the hunters, sympathies for Kos and her orphan, and prayers to the Great One. The priest will continue to do this even if you attack him. He also won't fight back in any way.
The priest is also unkillable. Regardless of how many times you attack him, he will remain standing. Even if you push him over the lake's edge, if you look at him closely, he will continue to walk around where he lands.
3 Brador's Mission
Brador, the Church Assassin, is an NPC hunter who will consistently hunt you as you are going further and further down the Fishing Hamlet. Brador will invade you a total of four times, thrice in the Fishing Hamlet, and once outside his cell. If you decide to kill Brador in his cell instead of going further past the Lighthouse Hut lantern, Brador will stop hunting you.
Brador was an assassin for the Healing Church, and although his true self is locked away in a cell, he will use his phantoms to stop you from unraveling the secret of the church. Brador's main mission is to make sure you don't reach the Orphan of Kos, either to hide the secrets of the church or to keep the nightmare alive.
2 The Skulls
Aside from Laurence and the Healing Church, Master Willem and Byrgenwerth also had a hand in the destruction of the Fishing Hamlet. Master Willem's main goal was to understand the Great Ones in order to reach a higher level of understanding. He believed this could be attained through gaining more eyes. Master Willem took this belief rather literally.
Knowing that the inhabitants of the Fishing Hamlet were malformed due to being exposed to the power of a Great One, he had their heads cut off, their skulls opened, and scraped around to see if they had developed eyes on the inside.
1 The Orphan Of Kos
The Orphan of Kos is the DLC's final boss, and arguably the toughest boss fight in the entire game. It is interesting to note that the Orphan's sobbing sound during his introduction is the exact sound file as Gehrman's, in a lower-pitched tone. Upon defeat, the Doll will also note that Gehrman has started sleeping more peacefully for the first time in a long time.
Gehrman may have been the hunter who either killed Kos or the orphan itself in the real world, but that's merely speculation. The orphan's death will ultimately break the curse. The reason for this is also unclear, but it may be that killing the orphan in the nightmare world will allow him to be unbound and free to be at the cosmos once again, thus breaking the terrible curse shackled by suffering.