Fear the Old Blood. WIP

Name: Uriah Ihyll

Representative of: Yharnam

Gender: Male

Age:
Human- 28
Historical- ~1886 (No official records survived the scourge)

Brief personality:
When Uriah is in his normal form, he is an individualistic, hedonistic, and determined man. He gives off an aura of rugged adventure and is a rather skilled fighter. Almost nothing phases him anymore, tying in with his stoic and rock-hard mystique. He likes to partake in drinks, alcohol or, his favorite, blood. In line with his hedonism he is rather impulsive and cannot resist sharing the company of particularly beautiful people. He is also quite lonely because of the decay of his city leaving him with not many sane people who wish to talk to him. His pride and defensiveness are also through the roof, as he is a city the Healing Church gave so much power to but then destroyed, burned, and left to rot. This left him with a legend to protect, and any attacks on his city or person are taking very seriously. Uriah also is not very good at being kind, patient, or anything really sane or normal. Other than, perhaps, his sense of responsibility and determination. These are because of his honest love for his city and his citizens and his genuine want to try and fix things that are beyond his own powers to fix or comprehend.

In his beastly form, he is a babbling and violent man. He speaks and whispers things no one can understand and his blood lust reaches its peak as he has to fight back his urge to burn and destroy normal people. He grows this way as his blood-addled eyes and brain believe others not like him to really be the afflicted, and not himself. His strength in this form is doubled, but his dexterity and logical thinking are almost non-existent. There is one thing that will satiate his beastly form, and that is blood. Until he receives this release from this afflictive state of mind he is violently impulsive and animalistic in actions a voice. His eyes grow a brighter color and his voice deepens. He cannot help these moments of beasthood, for it is his cities ailment, it's curse, it's affliction. But these episodes usually rear their head when he has grown angry, someone has crossed him, or when certain lunar cycles let themselves be shown (specifically the lunar cycle of the Harvest/Blood Moon as this moon blurs the line between man and beast in his city).

Brief physical description:
In his normal form, Uriah stands the average 5'7. He is rather muscular due to his labor-intensive career, the bags under his eyes giving that away, but his attire swallows all hints of his form. Overall, a dull and muted brown reigns over his attire. That is, except, his eyes that glow s bright orange-tinted amber as they poke out from above his face covering and from under his torn tricorn hat with weather tails. His thick leather coat and short cape are meant to provide protection against a beast's sharp nails and elongated teeth. The toughened knee length boots on his body provide protection from the elements, very much like how his wrinkled gloves do, and give him an added stealth ability as they are not heavily soled and make no sound when he walks. In his over-the-shoulder bag he keeps vials of blood, viles of iridescent blue liquid, and a rugged dagger. His face covering is meant to protect his face and pale ash colored skin... as well as to hide his elongated canines and excessive hair on the side of his face as his regular lighter brown hair peaks out  of the top of this covering. Most times, Uriah can be found holding a muscat style gun or a folded saw with a long curved handle. Lastly, a notable portion of his body was badly burned in the fire of Old Yharnam. This left him with multi-colored scars on the right side of his body, but it is mostly covered, along with his various injuries from being a hunter, due to his protective clothing.

In his more beastly form he has no gloves, he has no bag, and his face covering is slipped down below his chin to only cover his neck. He grows to stand at a towering 6'5 and his body mass physically grows to resemble that of a hunched over Lycanthrope. His nails grow and toughen and and matted gray hair over takes his arms and legs as similarly colored ears poke out of his head under his hat. Uriah no longer is able to sneak around, his footsteps grow loud and he does not know the his own strength in this form. This has lead to many an accident before with the normal people of his city who have tried to interact with him when he is like this.

Brief history:
Long ago, in a time where is ethereal beings known as the Great Ones reigned, our story begins. These Great Ones were simply non-human creatures who achieved ascension. They elevated their minds to a higher plane of thought and existence. They left behind their physical world and traveled to the cosmos, their intact bodies resting beneath earth's surface in a place known as the Old Labyrinth. The Old Labyrinth was carved out by the Pthumerians who were made as servants to the Great Ones and guards of their bodies while they rested in the Old Labyrinth as their consciousness was elsewhere. Some Great Ones got left behind and abandoned in this great migration in the form of ascension, stranded on Earth. Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, was one of those left behind. But, in return, the Pthumerians were given immortality for their servitude. Over time, the Pthumerians created a government and a placehood, breaking their original purpose. They named their monarch and capital Pthumeru Ihyll.

A queen who reigned over the Pthumerians was named Yharnam, the same name is our city. The Pthumerians grew in power and in size. They could control certain elements around them and were stronger and larger than any human. This was a result of them unlocking the wisdom of the Eldritch Truth. Because of this break of contract though, turmoil erupted. The bodies of the Great Ones died in the turmoil, leaving their consciousness stuck in the Cosmos (or more well known as the 'Deam World'). All of them perished but Ebrietas. To chase this ascension, the Pthumerians started performing heinous blood rituals. The Queen, Yharnam, was found to have special blood and was chosen to become a surrogate of the Great Ones. Yharnam gave birth to Mergo, but she passed away while birthing the juvenile Great One. Even with her physical death, her consciousness still remained.

The age of the Pthumerians ended shortly after this. This paved way for the humans to became the next ruling race. It was only a matter of time before the Great Ones bodies, hidden rituals, and knowledge were found in the Labyrinth. Upon this discovery Provost Willem, an early scholar, founded the Research Institute of Byrgenwerth and dedicated his life to gaining an insight and knowledge on all things non-human. Willem believed he could reach ascension by lining his brain with eyes. Willem had two main servants, one named Dores and the other whose name has been since forgotten. These two were the first to discover the truth in the tombs known as the Old Labyrinth and went mad. This truth often resembles madness as those who go mad are merely thoughtful souls who failed to reach any conclusions. Madness, in this world, means enlightenment. The servants discovered the body of Queen Yharnam and gained enlightenment (a means to transcend the physical world). Kosm, a Great One, also granted another one of Willem's students, Rom, insight (or eyes) transforming him into a quasi-Great One.

Around this time, humans discovered the power that the blood of the Old Ones, the Great Ones, held. With this blood, and the left behind Pthumerian rituals, many believed a human could achieve ascension. An example of someone who would believe this was another one of Willem's students. His name was Laurence. Willem did not agree with Laurence and began teaching his students the sacred addage of "Fear the Old Blood" and started to hide the Pthumerian rituals and remnants of Queen Yharnam. Eventually Laurence and Micolash, another student of Willem's, left the Byrgenwerth Institute as they grew frustrated with Willem's disdain for ministration of the Old Blood.

These breakaways established the Healing Church. Micolash oversaw the School of Mensis and Laurence oversaw the Healing Church as a whole. Laurence and his followers believed blood ministration was the true way to achieve ascension. This belief grew rather out of hand as a religion was started to praise the Great Ones as Gods rather than mere ascended ones who came before them. Laurence and his Tomb Prospectors explored the Old Labyrinth on behalf of the Healing Church. During one of these trips to the Labyrinth the Great Isz Chalice was discovered. By wielding this chalice, one could have audience with Ebrietas. Because of its power, a sect of the healing Church emerged. This was an elite delegation known as the Choir. The Choir became both the highest-ranking clerics of the Healing Church and scholars who continued the work that began at Byrgenwerth. Together with the left behind Great One, they took to the skies, in search of astral signs that might lead them to the rediscovery of true greatness. Ebrietas' blood began to be used in the Healing Church's blood ministration as well.

Around this time in Yharnam, where the Healing Church was located, many citizens began to be afflicted with an unknown ailment. All the people of Yharnam knew about the sickness was that it was closely related to poisoning. The only cure the people had for such an ailment were little white tablets of antidote, but this was only a temporary fix for a permanent problem. With this the Healing Church introduced blood ministration as a potential cure for this ailment. The Healing Church preached that infusing ones blood with the Old One's blood would create a cure. The Healing Church actually had no intentions of healing the people, and may have even started the affliction in the first place. The Healing Chruch's single goal has always, and will always be, ascension.

But through this ministration of blood, something went horribly wrong. This quick and easy fix to ascension and affliction began to turn men into beasts, known as blood sickness. It was not only the Great Ones blood that was doing this, but the mixing of the blood with human blood, as something dark lies deep within mankind turning each reaction with the Old Blood into something beastly. All who take blood will transform into a beast, the time depends on the person's willpower to resist and to transcend the hunt. This Blood was presented as a cure for all ailments and afflictions, granting time to those who required it most. As consequence, many flocked to received the blood. The Healing Church kept these transformations under wraps, an unknown and disasterous secret, from the public. Blood begin to be used so greatly at the production of it began to outnumber alcohol as blood was more intoxicating.

The most common form of the blood sickness appears to be Lycanthropy: Humans slowly turning into wolves. Those in the early stages of the sickness have lengthened canine teeth, and grow more hair. As they progress, their arms and legs lengthen and the spine hunches over and the face begins to elongate. Eventually they grow fur and their body finishes the change into a full Lycanthrope. Along with the physical transformation comes a mental degradation: At first the victim assumes all people they don't know are hostile and they'll attack on sight. As the alterations progress, the victim becomes more and more savage and hostile, until it can only stand to be around others exactly like it as "regular" humans appear to be beasts through their own blood-addled eyes. Sometimes individuals react strangely to the blood; some become unique beasts, and it's rumored that infected Clerics of the Healing Church become the largest of the monsters when they succumbed to the madness. This is known as the scourge of beasts that spread through the nooks and crannies of Yharnam.

The blood sickness was endemic to Yharnam, requiring periodic hunts for those very far gone. The hunters are both respected and feared: They bring down the worst of the beasts, but are at risk of contamination themselves. These Hunters were known as Hunters of the workshop, the branch of the healing church that employed them. These trained Fighters served under the first Hunter Gerhman. This institution was a secret from the public, as the healing Church did not wish for the public to find out that the blood that they were giving to the public was causing this Scrooge of Beast. There was one slight problem with the hunters, though. Sometimes a hunter, overcome with bloodlust, would start to turn into a beastly thing themselves. To stop the spread of the Scourge in this way another sect of the Workshop was created known as the Hunter of Hunters. The Hunter of Hunters were also known as the Crows as they believed in sky burial and wore crow feather lined capes. These Hunters were a specifically trained part of the Workshop that had to have the constitution to work alongside fellow hunters and to turn on them when their bloodlust became too great. Both the hunters and the hunters of hunters worked under the cover of night. But, the hunters and the beastly Scourge could not stay a secret forever.

A more aggressive form of blood sickness begin to pop up in a place connected to Yharnam known as Old Yharnam. This ailment began to be known as Ashen blood. It was a more severe case of poisoning. This poison knew only one cure, the Old Blood. The Church poisoned the people, infecting them with Ashen blood as to gain power through their ministration of the cure. But, the scourge was not easily controlled. It quickly got out of hand and more beasts and complications popped up than what the Church could deal with. Because of this, the Healing Church ordered this sect of Yharnam to blocked off, from the rest of the city, and burnt to the ground. A special group of hunters, known as the Powder Kegs due to their fascination with extremely bulky and explosive weapons, were sent in to sweep the city and kill any survivors.

With this action, the Hunt became known to all. The Church feared an uprising amoung the people, blocking thr Great Bridge to the Cathedral Ward as it burned Old Yharnam to the ground. Gehrman's Workshop was then closed, as the need for secrecy was no more. The Hunters of the Workshop were disbanded, the Church sealed itself off from the world, and the Church Hunter Workshop was founded as a new and improved way to deal with the scourge of beasts. Ludwig was the Chief Hunter of the Healing Church, their garb was white and black. The Black Healing Church Hunters were elementary doctors who understood the importance of early prevention of the scourge, achieved by disposing of victims, and even potential victims, before the sickness manifested. Their black attire was synonymous with fear, and that peculiar Yharnam madness. The job of the Black Church Hunter was to squash all who had the sickness and all who might. This mentality and action struck fear into the hearts of the Yharnam citizens. The White Healing Church doctors were superior to the black preventive hunters, and specialist in experimentally backed blood ministration and in the scourge of the beasts. They believed that medicine was not a means of treatment but rather a method for research and there is some knowledge thar can only be obtained by exposing oneself to the sickness. Ludwig took a much more overt approach to beast hunting as, nightly, he would embark upon Central Yharnam, across the Great Bridge, to fight back against the beasts. But he was not alone as the population of Central Yharnam joined in the hunt as well. This move was simply to get the blame off the back of the healing Church and more onto the disease and the afflicted.

After many, many years of this trouble... eventually everything ran itself into the ground. When most are first introduced to Yharnam they do not see what it once was but instead the remnants that are now left. All that remains of Yharnam are the many townsfolk still too scared to open their doors after the hunters made their sweeps through the towns and those afflicted with ashen blood or other blood sicknesses walking through the center of town, parading their pitchforks, torches, guns, and many other weapons in the attempt to try and squash the affliction. But little do they know that it is too late. There is no more healing Church... There is no hope. The Healing Church has done Humanity in.

Religious affiliation: A believer in the Healing Church's blood ministration.

Any special powers or abilities: He has a beast form in which he has increased strength, stamina, and determination. He also is a rather skilled fighter with his Workshop tools in his normal form and he restores his sanity and health by drinking blood.

Color: AF0000