A truly disgusting creature

The only thing less pleasant than looking at it is knowing it's looking at you.
Song used: Goblin Caves ambience - Elden Ring OST

[@ZullietheWitch]

The Mensis Scholars communed with the Great Ones and conveyed their desire to line their brains with eyes. The Great Ones may have slightly misunderstood.

[@nolanasd6092]

I mean, line a brain with eyes, turn into nothing but a brain and eyes. The great ones probably just misread it, I mean who hasn't taken someone's request for education and warped them into an unspeakable horror by mistake.

[@Connorthecatsdad]

I would give anything for that to be the actual text in-game

[@CornRecords972]

@@nolanasd6092 Quite literally college summed up

[@garbouwdeark9103]

Have we considered that the Great Ones might be Velka?

[@gdhuertas07]

“The Great Ones in the nightmare are sympathetic in spirit, and often answer when called upon.” No one ever said they’d be answers we liked.

[@realkingofantarctica]

The scariest thing about the Brain of Mensis in my opinion, was that after I killed it and the void went silent, I was half-worried a Four Kings health bar would show up.

[@kingcharlie5909]

For me, the scariest thing was that after I killed it and came back some time later, IT WAS STILL THERE

[@joshuareesor1756]

The Four Scholars; Just four different versions of Micolash, all talking simultaneously, running around in the abyssal darkness and spamming A Call Beyond at you.

[@kaz7886]

@@joshuareesor1756 Still better than the Four Kings.. that is if they don't add another grab attack. :(

[@thepotatomanhq]

Totally misread your comment as "Brian of Mensis"

[@tbhUSuckOo]

@@kaz7886 You can kill the Four Kings one by one before another shows up.. 1 2 3 roll 1 2 3 roll

[@jonathanfaber3291]

honestly my favourite part of the Brain is if you make contact with it, it gives you the "Moon" rune, which gives you more blood echoes upon *killing something*, implying that it's trying to communicate with you, asking you to euthanise it

[@chillworksdev4145]

Damn thats incredible theory!

[@Koj4]

damn, that makes a lot of sense

[@newsystembad]

That does make a lot of sense, it clearly doesn't want to be on this plane, after all. Also, lol, moon runes.

[@direthered1260]

Or seeking revenge. But the state its found in a mercy killing would also make sense

[@omardiegorodriguezcastillo3132]

@@newsystembad But what if "murder" it does not affect his core existence? And what it actually does is let it free of the Mensis Nightmare?

[@gdhuertas07]

I like how sympathetic the game makes the Great Ones. Even this blobby, disgusting mass of eyes elicits pity from me.

[@clinton4161]

I think the point is the Great Ones were not evil but it was the humans exploiting them who were.

[@pious83]

Ties into the Lovecraftian influences. Creatures that are beyond good and evil.

[@gdhuertas07]

@@clinton4161 The only Great One I think is actually evil is the Moon Presence. It’s the only one that invades your turf and attacks you first.

[@superxdish]

@@gdhuertas07 you attacked gherman who had a deal with her tho

[@gdhuertas07]

@@superxdish After he pulled out a scythe tho

[@TalkingVidya]

Brain: *Tortured, suffering and damage, just wants to die * Zullie: What a disgusting creature

[@paolohernandez9967]

It kind of reminds me to Lovecraft writing, though he described certain the gods and entities of his tales as supirior to humanity, he did not hesitate on describing such beings as grotesque and disgusting to human eyes. (PD: me encantan tus vídeos)

[@jjjjffff1293]

Nothing of what you statted are actually statted in game tho

[@dandydasyt4766]

@@jjjjffff1293 literally staked and hung like a chandelier, dropped off a tall ass tower and give you a rune where you get more blood echoes as you kill things?

[@unfortunatecircumstances8870]

@@jjjjffff1293 You don't have to state that it's ugly. Look at it.

[@RealKingCrabgonII]

I think it’s beautiful in its own way.

[@RootVegetabIe]

"Okay so we're going to turn in to these things called Great Ones." "Alright, I'm with you. And then what?" "...?" "Like what's the point?" "I'm expelling you from Byrgenwerth."

[@superbot6821]

Guy clearly had a lack of insight 🙄

[@deadmeme8011]

Pretty sure the point is to be an ageless, deific beast of obscene power. Kinda goes without saying, does it not?

[@RootVegetabIe]

@@deadmeme8011 It was a comment made for the sake of humor. It doesn't need any "WELL ACTUALLY" responses. Thanks.

[@eeyuup]

"we get to keep our sanity and intelligence, right?" "...Right?"

[@valdembergnobre2026]

@@eeyuup "Anakin and Padme meme detected!!!", good one bro

[@eglewether5523]

Design meeting: "I want this giant disgusting blob of eyes, flesh and madness, that drives people insane just by being near them, make it fit into those aesthetics of pile of corpses" ... "Now make it sad"

[@blazaybla22]

Gaping dragon redux

[@All4Randomness1]

And then they fucking NAILED it, which is even weirder.

[@vylbird8014]

"We keep trying, but all our designs just come out looking like caricatures of Donald Trump."

[@hipsterjustice]

sending me to absolute hell that this guy has HANDS

[@toprak3479]

seriously

[@serbero9]

And they have six fingers, yep

[@jumpofftheboat]

Same! I don't know how many times I went to make contact/kill. I never noticed the hands!

[@WasKeineAhnung]

@@serbero9 my dude is that a Set to Stun Bandlogo you got as a profile pic?

[@nightcross1030]

the placement obviously being misaligned with where he drops (and the missing chains and spikes) is what gave me the "head canon" that it crawled there before finally collapsing out of exhaustion and injury. so creepy. so awesome.

[@axios4702]

"Also there is floating texture panel here" Ah yes, thats the one weird thing in this place.

[@patchwurk6652]

Lol, honestly yeah. In Bloodborne, a glitchy floating texture probably would seem out of place amidst all the Croenenburg shit. Because it's Just an out of place texture. It'd be like just randomly stumbling on a floating picture of Mt. Rushmore for no reason in an Egyptian tomb. Not doing anything, just kinda... There. Breaking physics obviously and openly, yet not actually doing anything besides just "being wrong." That'd confuse the hell out of me anyway.

[@BigHailFan]

it's most likely a reference point for something. an object to tie some code to in the area. that or it's left over from when that would be the case. can't view the code so can't say if anything is tied to it.

[@shawndoslice]

Trying to find the brain in the darkness and it suddenly appearing in view will always be one of the most unsettling moments for me

[@PravusTheKid]

i didnt scream, but my hair raised and i tensed up really bad when i found it

[@cactuss33ds]

@@PravusTheKid true horror.

[@bluewarden]

Shaggy in your profile picture has the same exact expression anyone would have finding a giant, fleshy mass of rotten corpses and eyeballs staring at them in that pitch black abyss.

[@user-bw4jm1bv1i]

Yup. It felt master class.

[@thisWinglessAngel]

Bloodborne isn't my favorite fromsoft game, but this is my favorite moment out of all of them.

[@Marqrk]

The great ones in this game are all so interesting. In a way they’re like out-of-touch grandparents who are trying so hard to relate with the modern youth but they can’t quite get it right. They’re described as sympathetic and that they reply when called, but pretty much all of the examples we see of them responding to human’s attempts at contact end in horrible tragedy because the old ones either misinterpret what was asked of them or the humans don’t understand the full ramifications of what they’re asking for.

[@thesatelliteslickers907]

Or humanity just abuses them in horrible ways in their quest for power. Like kos and ebritas

[@4g3nt06]

I think a bit of both.

[@danieldickson8591]

I think we're dealing with two classes of lifeforms, humans and Great Ones, which fundamentally don't understand each other. We may all share a genuine desire to comprehend and communicate, but we're too alien, so the attempts produce horrific results. And yes, there are parties on both sides who want what they want and don't care about collateral damage.

[@LostCosmonauts]

Must've sucked to have to model this, what with all the frenzy build-up and all.

[@SeriousNewsNetwork]

Can't wait for your only way to play elden ring guide

[@NoNo-vy5ls]

No more dota content?

[@jamesedwin6699]

Good to see your're well, Mr Wright.

[@Valenet94]

I'm picturing a 3d artist sitting at their computer, surrounded by splatters of blood, constantly getting impaled but soldiering on.

[@TheDeem537]

@@SeriousNewsNetwork he’s still working on the bloodborne one

[@Spewa-em8cm]

Wandering around that dark void until suddenly coming across the brain is seriously one of the most unsettling moments in all of gaming.

[@bronzeoliniisnotfunny7885]

I was high-key freaking out when I saw the frenzy thing first coming up when I got to the Nightmare of Mensis. Then I saw that Brain & I nearly screeched.

[@SoulSin]

Extra bonus since Bloodborne doesn't actually have shields. You can't just rise your shield up and walk as you do on DKS. I wonder, does people press dash first or R1?

[@bigenemy000]

@@SoulSin oh its simple. We simply panic roll when we hear the minimum sound until we find something to lock on

[@joels5150]

I would have been too afraid to walk out of the cage if I wasn’t sure it couldn’t hurt me, and even then I turned back twice 😢

[@danieldickson8591]

@@joels5150 The fear from encountering the Brain is beyond that of physical danger. You feel in the presence of something that, by any standard of the world you know, should not exist.

[@stripedmilo]

It's interesting that almost every Great One is a victim. Despite being called Great and allegedly being more evolved/enlightened/powerful entities than humans, they're all kind of pitiful or damaged. The Brain is captured and rotting, Rom is "vacuous" and trapped in the lake, Ebrietas is seemingly in mourning (and also possibly trapped?), Oedon lost its physical form, Mergo is just the sound of a crying baby, and Kos died like a beached whale and had its baby stolen and experimented on... Plus, it's clearly stated that ALL Great Ones lose their children. They don't seem to be doing any better than humans do. The only Great Ones that don't seem to be suffering are the Amygdalas and the Moon Presence (although they do get murdered by the Hunter...). I kind of wonder if those 2 are supposed to be more villainous than the other Great Ones, and perhaps are aligned against them? Especially since the Moon Presence supports the Hunters, who did horrible things to Kos and the other Great Ones. Amygdala hangs around the ruins of the city of Yahargul, and is worshipped by Patches, whose dickery reaches beyond space, time, and game series.

[@serbian_knife_fight]

MP is probably a similar figure to Seath in Dark Souls, perhaps both are traitor figures to their respective race but really don’t see eye to eye with the race that they defected to, but instead of being outcasted like the humans did to Seath, the MP kinda fucks with the humans so the reverse

[@andyperez6105]

Hmmm so man vs gods, man wins? Bloodborne is dark indeed.

[@Lyoko1309]

@@andyperez6105 I think of this as progression of eldritch horror. Traditional Lovecraft style was focused on how humans don't matter, especially to the ineffable Great Ones. Bloodborne opts to say that even the Great Ones are not masters of the world, and are just as meaningless in the grand scheme.

[@seandavis9320]

Rom is not a true Great One, but Kin. She was a human evolved by Brygenwerth, however, she is not intelligent like a Great One. The "vacuous" in her name literally means retarded in Japanese.

[@tadhgmcinerney8654]

To be fair, a lot of the supposed Old Ones we face in the game aren't actual Great Ones, merely Kin (Great One adjacent, the halfway between us and them): The Brain is a broken and rotting Old One retrieved from the Nightmare, yes, but its suggested that its an amalgam of Mensis experiments and legitimate Old God bits. Its essentially being forcibly kept on life support by the church. Rom was a Byrgenwerth scholar that ascended to Kin via experimentation/ritual, but was left braindead by the process and is unable to even comprehend reality in their new form. As Sean Davis mentioned, the inclusion of "Vacuous" in her title suggests that, despite her newfound power, she's in a mental and physical vegetative state. She doesn't even directly attack you until the third phase of her boss fight. Ebrietas is Kin discovered by the Church in the Pthumerian Dungeons. She's supposedly an advanced form of Celestial Child (the weird foetus-slugs we see outside the Lumenflower Garden) used by the Church to 'communicate' with Great Ones. Amygdala, while Old Ones, seem to be sort of a pest when it comes to Celestial Entities. They show up when other, more powerful Great Ones are present (Oedon in the Cathedral Ward, The Brain in the Nightmare Frontier). A possible parasitic relationship? As for headcannon, the Kos, Some Say Kosm we see in the game isn't their true form. She exists in the immaterial, similar to Oedon. It could be why her body is uniquely humanoid with a womans face and hair - a form she determined was best suited for our reality. The corpse we find in the fishing hamlet is a sort of avatar that Kos, SSK uses to commune with the townsfolk, directly providing them with bountiful fishing hauls in exchange for reverence and worship. Its why she's able to put a curse on the hunters long after the death of her and her child, trapping them in a dream where they are forced to hunt forever.

[@arsenicsulfide7549]

Also notable that the brain is not just covered in corpses, but corpses of messengers. This trait is somewhat shared with the slugs in the Nightmare Frontier, which have a mass of messengers attached to their underbelly that is visible when they do their poison cloud attack. Kinda makes me wonder what's going on with the messengers, are they a food source for other eldritch creatures, or something like that?

[@stijnvanrijsbergen8255]

Aren't Winter Lanterns also made of messengers? And they also inflict frenzy just by looking at you. Coincidence? I THINK NOT

[@OrigamiPhoenix]

Last Protagonist in his Fear the Old Lore series covers this topics, I think in the one talking about blood echoes. In short, messengers are spirits of the dead or a form controlled by spirits of the dead.

[@michaelmannix1604]

The Plain Doll refers to them as the "fleeting will of the ancients" in her prayer. It's not unreasonable to think the Messengers are directly related to the Pthumerians, judging by their scarce, pallid frames. Though, perhaps they belonged to the elder race that acted as "humble guardians" of the Great Ones, before the Pthumerian monarchy was established. Concept art also shows them clinging to Moon Presence. If I had to guess, they're merely agents of the Great Ones with the goal of assisting the Hunters. As for why some Great Ones and enemies appear to be composed of dead Messengers, I imagine it's meant to denote a more dangerous revelation about the edritch Truth, and how some Great Ones possess an entirely different breed of knowledge...

[@Solaire_of_Astora13]

@@michaelmannix1604 If I had to guess, once they take a material form, the Great Ones might make use of the messengers to create themselves a body. They seem to take a little bit of here and there to build themselves anyway, would be waste not to use your literal slaves at that point. Also, the Messengers seem to be spirits. What kind of spirits, what their role is, what that says about the Pthumerian dungeons... that's another talk.

[@positivecontacts]

If you draw the connection that they are inspired stylistically by the spirit creatures from the anime Beserk then they serve the same function as interlocutors between the human and the realm of the god-hand/demons then they need less hard-coded explanation in Bloodborne than simple homage.

[@completelyoriginal404]

That texture pain is 100% a classic case of "if we delete it, it crashes the game, but we don't know why so just leave it there"

[@Flapjacks-tm8cf]

Ohh tf2 how I love you so

[@bigdaddysus8638]

@@Flapjacks-tm8cf you are not immune to propaganda or lies the coconut is made up

[@gabinoalejandrez2782]

​@@Flapjacks-tm8cfMaybe in an older game, but no, it's more likely due to an amateur game designer who didn't notice that someone had moved a texture upwards to remove it instead of deleting it outright.

[@Flapjacks-tm8cf]

@gabinoalejandrez2782 Listen, mate, I don't know what tf you're saying. I just wanted to laugh at the funny coconut

[@The_Story_Of_Us]

A curious thing is that the Brain is referred to in english lore as ”rotten” and that the school of Mensis had their brains stillborn, whereas the japanese version more specifically states twice that Mensis were given the Brain of Mensis in the nightmare (assumedly by Mergo) and that the brain of Mensis itself was a failure (which could explain why the brain causes Frenzy in anyone who sees it. The ”failure” thing could perhaps mean that the School of Mensis wanted some means of enlightenment by contacting the great ones, and so when they got audience with the great one Mergo, they accepted the brain from Mergo hoping it would lead to insight, but they were instead driven to madness by it. So in there you could make the connection that based on the ”Madmen toil surreptitiously to beckon the moon” this madness drove them to try and make contact with the Moon Presence by kidnapping people as human sacrifices, leading to the One Reborn.

[@ZannyAisling]

idk if it was ever *said* but its kinda structurally implied that the one reborn was a creation of the pthumerian bell-ringers that were summoned as byproduct of the mensis ritual, not created by mensis themselves. otherwise YEAHHHHH i love the idea that the Brain was discovered in the nightmare, or possibly what answered their “prayers” in the first place while they intended it to be another less…. unstable god(?) (given Micolash’s ravings they almost certainly meant to call Kos)

[@The_Story_Of_Us]

@@ZannyAisling I think there are several hints that One Reborn is made from human sacrifices. Yahar Gul is known for kidnapping people (both the Snatchers and Hunters of Yahar Gul do this) and it is led by the School of Mensis. Adella also says that she and many others were kidnapped but that they’d all been taken away and ever since then she’d heard moaning in the distance. And given that One Reborn is a sludgy mass of rotten, emaciated and flayed human bodies, that’s the best guess as to what became of those who were kidnapped and the School of Mensis seems very likely to be responsible.

[@Dunge0n]

I still like thinking it's the Rom-like remains of the Mensis scholars themselves. A sort of sort of twisted, rotten 'Collective Consciousness' of all the men who took part in the ritual, their fused brains more caged in undeath than they were in life. Damned to horrific experimentation from their fellows, as they did to innocent Yharnamites, and an empty immortality. Until the Hunter grants their prayer for death, which the 'Moon' seems to symbolize.

[@Proctor_Conley]

The Mensis Scholars offer Baby Mergo to a Unknown Great One during a ritual, which causes their Caged Minds to be Stillborn in the Dreamlands. These Stillborn Minds are found as the "Winter Lanterns" (worn like hats on Workshop Dolls, who sing softly & try to hug you) & as the "Brain of Mensis" (a true Great One lined with eyes, formed from the symbolic gestalt of Mensis Scholars, but rotten because the Scholars Caged their Minds). The entire situation is deeply ironic, in keeping with the themes, especially if you become a squid at the end & get carried around by the Workshop Doll. Mensis wanted to be a Great One with Insight, the Pthumerians wanted The One Reborn, & the Choir changed their form to explore the Catacomb Ruins of Loran. But you combined all three & was born again as a "Seafaring Sage", like Kos before you. All Great Ones were once human & yearn for a child, which explains why the Dear Hunter & Plain Doll are in Déraciné watching over the orphanage. Seems old Gherman found his worth in the waking world after all, ejected from the Hunters' Dream after so many decades. I'd bet he woke up young again, vaguely remembering a long nightmare of growing old waiting for things to change.

[@The_Story_Of_Us]

@@Proctor_Conley There is cause to believe that the english version is a translation error rather than actual lore, whuch would render the whole “rotten” and “stillbirth of their brains” thing as meaningless, the “stillbirth of their brains” thing already doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. just s a sentence in itself.

[@lupin2589]

What's especially fascinating about the brain is that if you manage to inspect the model like you did here without dropping it into the abyss you can get a really good look at it and realize that it's a massive Winter Lantern head. It has the eyes, the brain made of Messenger corpses, and even the tendrils that hang down the Winter Lantern backs along with the spooky arms they use to grab you. The lore implications that Mensis 'found' this thing, and the similarity of the Lanterns to the Doll (same clothes, hands) give some upsetting revelations as to what exactly the Doll is or can become. Most disturbingly, the Lanterns never try and directly hurt the player, they just hug you close and devour assumedly your blood, just like the Doll holds your hand and channels your blood echoes through herself. What exactly is going on here, and what exactly Frenzy even *is* remain as some of my favorite mysteries in Bloodborne.

[@gunnerbellow6703]

Good comment, I just wanted to say that I’m pretty sure Frenzy is something taken from H.P. Love crafts stories that inspired Bloodborne. basically human brains can’t process some things about Great Ones/Eldritch Truth so they go a bit insane when forced to process said information

[@theangrywig3905]

@@gunnerbellow6703 so you actually get overloaded with so much information you just explode?

[@abellinns4013]

@@theangrywig3905 The frenzy animation is your head gushing out blood. Like your brain exploding from the experience.

[@lupin2589]

@@gunnerbellow6703 Yeah Frenzy is clearly a reference to the whole "Your mind breaks" concept in Lovecraft. In Bloodborne though there is some specific lore to it that brings up a lot of questions. For example when you frenzy your blood crystalizes and basically tears you apart from the inside out. Those little spikes that appear on you as you're being frenzied aren't impaling you from the outside in, but rather the inside out, which is terrifying. The question remains though of what *exactly* causes your blood to do this, and what is actually happening to your character as you frenzy, as it seems to imply being overtaken by madness you can't contain.

[@twotwo108]

@@lupin2589 perhaps its due to blood echoes. A reddit lore post has pointed out how the higher tier coldbloods seem to contain microscopic creatures within it, maybe as your insight progresses, the blood echoes you consumed contains the creatures and cause the reaction that tears you inside out.

[@Tacoburito]

Zullie thank you for all the content you make, it's insane how you pump out so many videos about things we usually dont get to see!

[@bigjedimullet]

Seconding this! There are so many fascinating details hidden in these games that I wouldn’t have known or even thought about without these videos, and each one just makes me love the Soulsborne games more. Thanks Zullie!

[@i.m.22]

Absolutely! You do really a public Service with your content, thank you Very very much!

[@majeszczak]

About useless things*

[@brasilianoooo]

No cap

[@nietolala]

Before zully i used to think i knew these games

[@tythebaker]

Always figured this was planned to be a boss, the amount of health it has it weird compared to its lack of animation

[@jaxwarp8373]

Maybe a Mob Room boss? Its hanging up in the tower and you're figjting off hoards of Winter Lanterns below, and have to release the chains to send it plunging to it's doom

[@DropKickEddy]

@@jaxwarp8373 hoards of winter lanterns are you insane man

[@SIGNOR-G]

@@DropKickEddy *starts chanting menacingly*

[@XxEvilghostxX1]

Or maybe it was only to make you feel bad about yourself? I certainly did.

[@IrvingIV]

@@SIGNOR-G kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJ_XZHydiK2IoK8

[@linkfan160]

In a game full of horrific things, the most terrifying moment for me was when I went down into the black abyss and had to find it. I'll never forget the fear I felt when I was walking around that pitch black darkness and I saw that thing's huge eyes come into view.

[@blackenedwritings]

Absolutely. I love this kind of horror. Screw jumpscares. They are easy to do. It's this where ominous dread where the real terror begins.

[@thomashooper2451]

I always assumed The One Reborn was an earlier, cruder attempt at creating a physical vessel for a Great One to inhabit. We know at least a few of them exist without corporeal bodies such as Formless Oedon and Mergo. The Brain of Mensis, on the other hand, is a "success" only in the loosest sense of the word. They created an object/creature to be shackled and observed, but the simple act of observing it destroys the observer.

[@naoiwatani8402]

I do like to think it's the brain and eyes of every single other Mensis scholar that wasn't Micolash, combined and twisted into a single being. They asked Kos for eyes on the inside, she gave them just what they wanted. Not clear to me whether the misunderstanding was wilful or actually accidental.

[@jamesnankervis9215]

I've held a similar interpretation of the Mensis brain being the scholars of Mensis' final fate. The item description that says "... this resulted in the stillbirth of their brains." seems to align very well with this tortured "failed" Great One.

[@colorpg152]

the misunderstanding it that insight isn't actually eyes on the inside but if you look at the image of madman's knowledge you will notice a phantasm similar to what the protagonist becomes in ascension ending so they made a ridiculous wish and the wish was granted literally, they asked for eyes in their brains so they could ascend into great ones and got exactly that, the correct wish would have been make us into great ones while retaining our sanity or something like that

[@Dunge0n]

I just left a comment to the same effect. Kosmic.

[@LeedleLee457]

That's a cool idea. But sadly not the case based on what we know. Brain of Mensis is a "true Great One", that means it was born as a Great One. If Kos gave the scholars eyes and elevated them to the status of a Great One, it would be a Kin like Rom (who was once a Byrgenworth scholar).

[@Dunge0n]

@@LeedleLee457 The Good Hunter is supposed to be a 'True Great One' by the end, though.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

The more I learn about this game, the more I wish I hadn't.

[@alchemysaga3745]

Zullie is just giving us an immersive Bloodborn experience!

[@DragonaxFilms]

Careful, you might proc Frenzy.

[@river7874]

That's what happens when one lacks enough eyes on the inside.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

"He who hath great knowledge, hath great sorrow" -Socrates or Solomon or something, idk

[@TheDarkNinjaX9]

Can't handle the insight, just don't go plucking your eyes out shall we.

[@CassidyListon]

I know in-game it causes Frenzy from a distance, but the effect is even more potent up-close because descending down that elevator to confront it gave me Frenzy IRL. Couldn't stand it down there!

[@nosliwyelir]

That texture plane is probably a controller for something graphical in the room. It may even be the object they tied to the specific area you have to use the gesture in. Not sure why it wouldn't be on the monster but weirder things have been done in development before.

[@jonalen4217]

I assumed that an artist placed it there by accident, an errant click of the mouse. And didn't actually see it, on account of the room being all black. But I don't do any 3d art anymore, so IDK.

[@nosliwyelir]

@@jonalen4217 idk considering the time the game was made it's hard to say how or why it ended up there

[@omardiegorodriguezcastillo3132]

Ehhhmmm... An Elder God did it

[@BigHailFan]

exactly what i was thinking: a reference object.

[@PierceMD]

Man, I loved the brain and that area so much my first playthrough. The whole asthetic and environment of the game, really

[@popeyethe29th]

Not a fan of the area, but the brain is so unique, creepy and cook

[@sehajkaler9285]

Zulie: “Absolute ugly son of a b-“ Me: “They’re a homie who just wants to sit and chill” :( (If you were staked and hanged, you’d probably be screeching for the life of yourself too)

[@foresttaylor7850]

Mother Brain is terribly misunderstood. She only kills intruders with frenzy to spare them the pain of crawling through this level and its many torments. This is the only Great One that will respond to your gestures and just chill with you... truly, Mother Brain is the best Great One!

[@sehajkaler9285]

It’s probably just inflicting frenzy cause, you know, it’s being hanged by a whole bunch of stakes. The pain it’s going through is probably what’s emitting frenzy, the brain is otherwise chill, at least in my headcanon.

[@joonapukarinen1153]

@@sehajkaler9285 You might notice that the frenzy procs for the brain are stakes piercing through the player, so it might be projecting its pain to living creatures.

[@LashknifeTalon]

@@joonapukarinen1153 It IS the Nightmare of Mensis. A nightmare is something you experience with your brain...

[@bobobsen]

It's disturbing that you call a mad alien orgy of corpses a "she"

[@MrLeFluffy1]

@@joonapukarinen1153 WHOA WAIT. WHAT IF. WHAT IF... now, I've never played this game, but I've been reading all the discussions in the comments here because it's fascinating. And it's been mentioned that Great Ones often attempt to communicate in ways that end up either harming people or result in terrible misunderstandings, and not necessarily because that was their intention. And as you just said, the frenzy it inflicts when you get close enough to where it exists, is stakes through you, just like it is experiencing. What if it's just trying to warn you? Just trying to say "hey, if you come here, they'll string you up in chains and drive stakes into you. This is what will happen to you if you come here, so stay away". What if it's just trying to tell you to stay away or you'll be tortured, since that is what it knows about having gone there????

[@rhenevers5229]

Thanks to Bloodborne; I get incredibly disturbed whenever I see something with too many eyes. Never even knew I had that fear before. Thanks Miyazaki!

[@keeperoftheoldlords6067]

I want to see the pigs (boars) in Mergo's Loft!

[@denebkhast]

It sorta devoloped my liking for excessive amounts of eyes in creature designs after seeing ophanims and seraphims and this kinda stuff lol

[@alfie_met8136]

I’ve got the same fear too. Think it came from seeing in the back of peoples heads in games and their eyes were printed backwards if that makes sense

[@mr.stormhaven5733]

Me seeing the Brain: Damn, that's pretty spooky, that dark area is something else. Zullie pointing out the floating pane: EGADS Joking aside, walking into that darkness for the first time and just hearing the heartbeat before coming face to eye with the Brain was just so well done in this game.

[@Xey888]

I wanna know the deep pane lore

[@thabapu4721]

The intern who forgot to delete that pane : oh shit

[@Pinedal]

That pane really ties the room together

[@RamAurelius]

This is just one of those videos where seeing the title in a notification narrows down the subject matter by exactly zero. Stay classy Fromsoft.

[@stairmasternem]

Never realized that thing had hands. I always assumed it was composed of the entire school of Mensis outside mr host of the nightmare. Like maybe The One Reborn was their physical bodies recomposed and the brain was their minds trapped in a ball.

[@gladiusbladeofthenorth9939]

Its also good to point out that the hands are extremely similar to an amygdala,down to the 6 fingers

[@Connorthecatsdad]

Bloodborne has some of the greatest sound design of any game I've ever heard. I was queasy almost 100% of the time while I was playing it

[@julianadams3710]

Yeah the sound of the chains creaking as the Brain hung their made me want to hurry up and free it.

[@river7874]

Agreed, And the Score was absolutely phenomenal.

[@Connorthecatsdad]

@@river7874 Ludwig and Gehrman's themes? Talk about spoiled for choice

[@prosaic.7944]

Going through the cursed dungeons with headphones in the dark, you can feel the tension. Sound of ringing bells, footsteps of rats and spiders, a lady giggling... It's beautiful.

[@kingkuma4112]

@@Connorthecatsdad Maria and Gasgoine both have good theme music too (though ludwig will always be my favorite.)

[@Coletrain452]

It reminds me of a teratoma, which is a rare tumor that can grow different tissues like bone, hair, and teeth. Very weird, very icky, if you are squeamish id avoid looking at pictures

[@noaheichler7349]

Oh god why does the tumor have teeth why does it have teeth why

[@Coletrain452]

@@noaheichler7349 The Beauty of Nature! There's a lot of leeway with when and where things can go horribly wrong! Or maybe the Great Ones arent as fake as we thought...

[@CayenneGaramonde]

Afaik a teratoma is the result of spontaneous/accidental asexual reproduction, but since humans aren't capable of that the results end up...messy.

[@Coletrain452]

@@CayenneGaramonde So yeah kinda, its a cancerous cell which means its malfunctioning and is splitting and regrowing way more than it is supposed to, which just creates even more defective copies, and the teratoma is special because the cells that are cancerous have the ability to turn into any type of bodily tissue (pluripotent cells) which is why they can come with the weird hair, teeth, bone growths.

[@ScrawnyTreeDemon]

Another _relevant_ detail is that sometimes, just sometimes, they can grow eyes as well.

[@filippogrimaldi7228]

One week ago I dissected a cow eye in the school lab, and watching this video I just realized how accurate the eye was made

[@MoonPatch]

If it's a genuine Great One they fished out of the nightmare, one possible explanation for its resemblence to the Mensis experiments is being an inspiration rather than a product. I mean what better way to try to ascend into godhood than by imitating a genuine god? Not sure how well that holds up, I'm admittedly a little iffy on the details of Bloodborne lore.

[@dylanschmeichel2008]

I feel that perhaps the body of the brain is constructed but the consciousness is from the nightmare itself, similar to the one reborn in that the mensis scholars created bodies for formless great ones.

[@jackmclean4120]

DylanSchmeichel So they kinda forced it into a form?

[@joonapukarinen1153]

@@jackmclean4120 It really feels like it. None of the great ones we see have logical bodies. Their form might be determined by the people who are responsible for bringing them into human perception.

[@river7874]

@@joonapukarinen1153 That makes a lot of sense, especially considering the fact that even when Great Ones die, they still exist in some form out in the Cosmos(Some say Kosmos) despite their physical form no longer existing.

[@OneEyedCloud01]

@@joonapukarinen1153 Well, take a look at the Moon Presence and it's cut real world body in the chalice dungeons. It's possible that it could actually look like that for some reason

[@nijabigs8063]

You mentioned that you could not see the floating pane of textures in the void, but while replaying through BB around a month ago, I came across it and saved a clip of it and tried asking the subreddit what it was. I just uploaded it to my channel in case you wanted to see it in game.

[@BigHailFan]

it's most likely a reference point for something. an object to tie some code to in the area when loaded. that or it's left over from when that would be the case. can't view the code so can't say if anything is tied to it.

[@DevHunterEU]

I love this video, but it really weirds me out coming back to it and hearing the Elden Ring Catacombs music playing in the background. It's like a weird timeskip.

[@Moronist]

It's really unsettling. The first time I played on the Mensis level, the moment I saw the tower glow as I made line of sight contact, it fucked me up. I had nightmares about shit like this when I was a kid and I remember them clearly because of how scary they were. This game is just nothing short of a masterpiece still in my book and will always be.

[@KingZach284]

Think I speak for all of us when I say we appreciate all the work you do in finding hidden details and experimenting with the game's mechanic's and what not. Thank you kindly Zullie!

[@specialnewb9821]

I always wished there was more info about the One Reborn. It's name and circumstances seem significant... but maybe some of sacrificed bodies bodies became that, while the minds were uplifted into the rotten Brain.

[@blazaybla22]

I always kind of felt like the one reborn was more of just like “a cool idea” that one of the devs had than like an actual plot-piece boss like Micolash or Rom. Like sometimes with Fromsoft it’s hard to tell whether something was really designed to be the way it is for specific reasons, or it was just like something that they wanted to fit in the game somewhere or a reused asset or whatever, if that makes sense. I’m always interested in interpretations that suggest it’s something really intertwined with the broader narrative because in my mind it was just like “horror boss” that I never gave a lot of thought to in that respect (I played Bloodborne right after The Evil Within and the one reborn was the boss I thought would fit in either one)

[@catalinaplaza7909]

I really like the Brain of Mensis, despite it’s name is literally “no thoughts, only vibes”

[@BoratMyWife]

I just heard recently that Bloodborne was supposedly started as a sequel to Demon's Souls, which made me realize how similar this encounter is to the Heart of Latria

[@ZullietheWitch]

The rumor I'm aware of started from a misunderstanding. Someone found out about the "DS2" files in Bloodborne and (correctly) guessed they meant Demon's Souls 2, but weren't aware of the fact they were leftover from Dark Souls, specifically they were left over from the ancient test build of the game where it was just the single map that would eventually become the Painted World.

[@zachtalkssmack4470]

So I’m a massive HP lovecraft fan and this is soo lovecraftian Frenzy is what happens when you look at a being from another dimension that has a form that no human can possibly fathom in their mind. Basically it’s when your brain starts to go mad. So this creature might not even look like this, it might actually be the mind of the in game character going insane. This rotten brain mass is what the character mind seemed to piece together the best it can.

[@jakesteel90]

Yea always loved the even the grotesque body we see is all our mind can comprehend, it could look much more frightening

[@zachtalkssmack4470]

@@jakesteel90 Absolutely! also it could be a 5 dimensional creature and our brain fucks up like a glitch in the system. That’s why I love cosmic horror, got to use your imagination.

[@aidenmclaughlin1076]

Hey man, he’s trying his best ok?

[@zadokallenpiano]

bloodborn has an incredible mythology and the Lovecraft inspiration makes the work even more sublime in its horror

[@thelvadem5713]

Going down into the void and looking for the brain the first time, has to be my most terrifying experience with a game. I kept looking down, waiting for tentacles to arise from the abyss and swallow me whole. The human mind is capable of such horrifying thoughts...

[@pyametra]

Bloodborne has the best art direction of any game ever created. Masterpiece.

[@ruddycrock]

Thank you so much for this... I am a part of the unofficial Brain Of Mensis fan club and seeing it with a free camera like this from so many different angles is incredible... Also that ending with the debug menu open was mega aesthetic.

[@MsPeep]

The way it's impaled and stuck like that just seems so disturbing to me. The pulsating makes it seem like it's just suffering and in pain, it's really sad but also just scary.

[@mitrion301]

The Brain gives you the moon Rune, when you make contact to it. The Rune which gives you more Blood Echoes if you kill an enemy. It's quite clearly suffering and wants to be dead or atleast released from this body it's in.

[@shredasaur8857]

I very recently completed Bloodborne, and it's now hands down my favourite game of all time. This part in particular really gave me the creeps.

[@vorzsaknoemi6331]

This thing has HANDS? 6 years on and this game still finds ways to freak me out. Man, I remember my first time in the Choir, that creepy music..i was absolutely terrified with every step I took. Thank you Zullie for all the juicy content!

[@toasterlord3157]

the first time you see the light in the school of mensis, hear the noise, and see the frenzy build up is one of the best moments in the game for me. I was not expecting it at all and it gave me chills, wondering what was watching me and warning me not to approach (or maybe trying to spur me on to come closer). At first though I must admit, I thought whatever it was up there was being tortured, and it was trying to fight back. But the whole environment was one of the best in the game - i love atmospheric setup like that. I felt the same thing when i first approached Eleum Loyce and the blizzard rushes through and you hear Alsanna warn you to turn back and that "the Old Chaos hungers still" and all you can think is... what is the Old Chaos. What is going on in there?

[@lordberossus2545]

Nobody has yet mentioned that the Brain of Mensis in the files is translated to Rotten Great One, and that the hands on the Brain have two thumbs like the Amygdala, who's heads are also lined with eyes

[@OrigamiPhoenix]

The eye count between the Amygdala and the Brain of Mensis differs by two if I remember correctly, counts both in the 60s. Sadly I can't remember which video I saw this mentioned in.

[@thehungrylittlenihilist]

It shows the hubris of the Mensis scholars that when they found a Great One, they chained it up. Then tried to make new ones by just smashing bodies together. Even if they were successful with TOR, it's such a presumptuous way to go about it.

[@chillworksdev4145]

Yup!

[@wurmturm]

I feel like the Mensis scholars would have based their experiments off of the Brain rather than the Brain being made by them. Although I'm not very well-versed in the lore so I might be missing something

[@metalmonster9536]

Approaching the brain and the dying Great One slowly revealing itself in the dark was one of the most memorable experience in my BB playthrough.

[@RyuKaguya]

the fact that its passive in the pit makes me feel like it never really wanted to hurt anyone to begin with it was just in constant pain from..you know...the MASSIVE FUCKING SPIKES IN IT. when you commune with it it gives you something too almost like a thank you. You are welcome Brainy boi

[@JeanMarceaux]

The Brain of Mensis genuinely remains the one thing in Bloodborne that makes me tremble a bit. I think I've even gotten to Ebrietas's design and behavior, but the brain really nails that "Thing that should not be" feel.

[@donsancho6690]

This thing, along with most similar entities in Bloodborne, give the impression of a deep-sea fish that was suddenly fished out of the highly pressurized seafloor and taken to the surface, transfiguring it horribly, giving it a pained, twisted appearance. I feel like the Great Ones undergo a similar painful transfiguration when being forced to enter a lower plane of existence.

[@TheCalixGlitch]

So this ost is in Elden Ring as well it seems, no wonder it sounded so familiar.

[@Elvensen]

The music is the same as the music that plays when you stay in a catacomb in Elden Ring

[@saltedbird9307]

1:36 The Brain is already creepy on its own, but seeing all the details of how it descends through a black tunnel before vanishing into nothingness makes the whole thing feel even more unnerving.

[@KossolaxtheForesworn]

I think the abyssal pit is benefited by the walls being just black. something similar should have been done in the ds1 with the abyss in certain parts at least. because it doesnt matter what rock texture you use in the distance when no one can see it, and just adding pitch black texture without light reflection on some parts of the cave would definitely make it look larger than it is. it would have also meant the cave it self could have been a lot smaller than the one they used.

[@Mathren1]

I love how Miyazaki was like "I don't do gross designs" in Dark Souls 1 and then went on to make Bloodborne immediately after.

[@thesatelliteslickers907]

Well. It still has the vibe that was the point is DS1 Looking at them makes you feel sad. You pity them just as much as you revile them if not more

[@mikeyswift2010]

I knew I recognized the song used in this video from somewhere and it was driving me NUTS. Then, I just read the description in passing, simultaneously thinking about how I will never remember where it came from, and there it is! The Goblin Caves from Elden, OF COURSE!!!! Great vid btw. Loved it.

[@justhwsky]

I love that the great ones have very similar basic enemies in their areas that resemble them but also show that they’re botched or incomplete

[@justhwsky]

The basic enemies that is

[@_Rapture]

Zullie! Love your content! Also having recently played through Bloodborne for the first time, I wanted to say thank you for all you’ve done for the community regarding chalice dungeons and false depths. It’s still greatly appreciated all these years later!

[@isabeltheacegal3384]

That thing looks like a tumor Hey Zullie, I was wondering if you could make videos showing the faces of the different enemies in Bloodborne. All the different yharnamite hunters, with and without hats, church doctors and giants, the women in hemwick, etc. I want to see how each of them were affected by the beastly scourge. I also really wanted to see what the Snatcher/Kidnapped tattoos are, or the face of those witches that scoop your eyes out.

[@MrDigolokoBr]

I love your videos! Been binge-watching for a couple of days. Congrats!

[@syrupchugger421]

Another great video. They are all well made, fun, and informative. Keep up the great work!

[@elderfunghi7922]

I think this might not be a great one itself, but what’s left after ascending. Like the unused model of disfigured moonlight presence, it’s body left after a great one transcended normal realm

[@Kyrieru]

I feel like when I played the game, I just glossed over the design. Like "yeah, mass of flesh and eyes cool". Didn't even notice the bodies or the notion that it is a brain, which makes the design far more unique.

[@goldlight1322]

Plot twist: that lone texture pane is the true Great One in disguise.

[@splunkmastah4609]

I feel like It was made by the scholars, and they just Told everyone it was a legitimate great one. Though given how underwhelming the Moon Presence is, and how Kos was also killed by mortal hunters, I suppose it isn’t too far-fetched to think that Great Ones aren’t as great as their namesake.

[@chillworksdev4145]

That’d be hilariously petty of the Mensis scholars, which i love

[@ceral1871]

The lore calls it a great one and an evil one at that

[@mylesfrost335]

i like to think of it how are relationships are with snakes for example snakes have some intelligence but we are much bigger then them and are on another level of intelligence entirely we cant understand what a snake wants yet we have a base understanding and can even keep them as pets but most importantly some breeds can still kill you easily humans have an understanding of loads of things that a snake couldn't even begin ti comprehend like medince, the solar system, communication, tools, electricity, chemistry yetis still a snake is dangerous just like a hunter is still dangerous to a great one

[@metuos.3651]

Huh. There's a neat parallel here to that giant heart in Demon's Souls. I can't help but wonder if its intentional, or if there's a deeper connection, considering the nature of the Soulsborne worlds and their twisting dimensions.

[@vaelethun]

Knowing Miyazaki, it was probably him being self-referential, as From recycles *a lot*. But then again, Demon's had a lot of talk of Old Ones and the like, so maybe he wanted to hint that it was a similar world, if nothing else. I doubt they'd go as far as to link the two games any further than that, though.

[@shannons1443]

Whoa I had no idea this thing had hands! Thanks for the detailed looks at some of these models, the detail From put in is insane!

[@pingamalinga]

That brain crawls from where it drops.

[@OmicronX-1999]

I always assumed the Brain was the representation of the rest of the School of Mensis. You only ever see Micolash in the Nightmare after all, since he's the Host. The Brain might be the rest of them. One of the in game items, possibly one of the umbilical cords, says that the School of Mensis tried to line their brains with eyes, 'but it resulted in the stillbirth of their brains.' This is probably what that meant.

[@confitao]

Wait this is the same thing played at the catacombs in Elden Ring wtf.

[@shadbird8772]

The design still reminds me of the pseudo-behelit from Berserk. It is chained up, and looks like it was stitched together and pinned in place. I wonder if it had a similar purpose for the School of Mensis?

[@anamazingkobold1564]

Going back and watching this a year later is so interestingly odd. Even after several play throughs of Bloodborne I still find it’s lord, and your videos so enlightening and entertaining. I hope everything finds you well and your new content flourishes.

[@AgentStolas]

I once bothered to use the iron door to go see the brain up close, hanging in the cage. The sheer amount of frenzy build-up from standing right next to it is nearly enough to kill you instantly. It's a rare true lovecraftian moment where direct contact with an eldritch being drives one mad in an instant. That being said, I always wondered if it were actually possible to grab the blood rock while the brain is still there without dying!

[@marverickmercer1968]

To answer your question. Yes you can. I actually found out that the brain doesn't have vision on you when you go behind it. I kind of jumped down and grabbed the item and accepted my fate right there when suddenly I noticed Frenzy stopped building up.

[@lucasfarias8516]

I love your videos Zullie, specially when its abt Bloodborne. But the short format leaves me wanting so much more.

[@bullettime13]

I just saw this guy a couple days ago on my most recent playthrough. Thank you so much for covering it! I feel like I could spend all day trying to figure out the mystery behind the brain of Mensis.

[@snowmcsnow4732]

That texture pane is really intriguing, it has taken my sleep away for countless of nights.

[@hermitcard4494]

It's a shame we didn't get a Boss Fight with that thing in that darkness :( Imagine it lurking in the darkness, making noises while dragging around, attacking with tentacle arms from the darkness, then lighting comes out it's body when ot tries to frenzy the player with its arrows.

[@artorias3634]

Bruh I realized that this is the Same Soundtrack that plays in the Dungeons of Elden Ring 😂😂

[@artey6671]

I didn't even know you could visit the brain after that. I would have guessed letting it fall down was some strange garbage disposal.

[@MrGoodCat8]

I feel like that random floating pane is one of those things that accidentally ended up there and when they tried to remove it, it just fucked everything up for whatever reason. So it just got left.

[@zonkrt3463]

On the similarities between the Brain and the works of the Mensis scholars, my guess is it's either that the Brain is a product of the scholars (which means they succeeded in creating a Great One, so it's probably their greatest work), or the Brain is an inspiration for their work. They make things out of corpses because the successful specimen they have is made of corpses, that kind of thing.

[@DarkChibiWeebie]

Honestly when I first came across this it really sparked my interest in the cthulu mythos and how bloodborne had so much inspiration from it

[@Gary_a_normal_human_being]

As it’s laying there in the dark with broken arms I kinda feel sorry for it

[@dudenintendo605]

Hey Zullie, thanks so much for your work! Just amazing what you're doing, I did think that the final position is where it fell. That's such a good placing, because you see nothing down there...

[@Pie_Smacker]

Great Ones are super interesting. Existing physically and on a different plane of existence at the same time, so completely and utterly different from humans yet experiencing similar emotions and stuff, like anger with the Brain and their natural want for children, even their ability to show empathy for those lesser than them and trying to help. So alien and cool. Wish they could've explored more Lovecraftian ideas, like that one realm in the books where people just live alongside Great Ones and other eldrich stuff. Sorta like the nightmares just less prison-y

[@samfivedot]

The creepiest thing about the Brain of Mensis is that its eyes follow you

[@devinguy]

The Brain of Mensis is made of the corpses of MESSENGERS, specifically, and we can also see them on the bellies of the Crawler enemies in Nightmare Frontier.

[@adamstanger9539]

Knowing what little I know of coding, that texture pane is holding the nightmare together, and removing it will destroy the map.

[@Prophet_Isaiah]

Crazy that this song was reused as the dungeon music in Elden Ring...iconic really.

[@lewispooper3138]

You mean sad. Not only is that game 90% copy paste, it also copy pastes their other game

[@davidreljac1707]

@@lewispooper3138 We get it, you don't like the game. There's no need to announce to fucking everyone.

[@RedAngelXV]

@@lewispooper3138 Ah yes, but it’s even more sad how it somehow won game of the year even with these unforgivable flaws. Miyazaki you should be ashamed. You call this “world-building”? I call it self plagiarism. I don’t care if the games are all taking place in the same universe, they still shouldn’t have anything in common. Very disappointing. I’ll stick to MW2 and and Apex Legends, thank you very much.