#Since Rom hides the Mensis Scholars ritual

[va-va-vamp]

I headcanon that Mensis Scholar Damien was actually Runesmith Caryll’s little brother, and that he used to be a member of the Choir. (Hence his use of the Choir Bell)

However after witnessing the slow decline of Caryll’s health due to experimental surgeries performed by the Choir to magnify her natural connection to the Great Ones, Damian defected.

Unable to reconcile his own feelings with the group that exploited his sister to death.

[katyspersonal]

List Master Willem’s war crimes for the judge and jury, please!

Alright this is genuinely a good question! I'll start with a plain one:

1) Fishing Hamlet massacre is Willem's order

Sorry, Laurence only condoned two massacres, not three. xD We yet can see he did have a good teacher in more ways than one hfsdhffd And it is definitely not hard to guess what was the reasoning:

2) The OG grave-robber

Obscure lore because it is locked to an item most players never found as it's gathered through unlikely platformer. But yeah, he and his friends done it before Tomb Prospectors made it cool XD Furthermore, some Chalice Rituals materials are found within Byrgenwerth (Red Jelly, Pearl Slug).

Granted, since Gehrman and Maria are associated with Byrgenwerth and Old Hunter Vitus is a summon in the Dungeons, he could have rather used aid of the Old Hunters instead of terrorising leftovers of Pthumerian civilisation himself. Maybe what he and his friends did was simply checking! But in that case, bothering Pthumerians was still his order, similarly to Fishing Hamlet.

3) Something to do with the infants..

There are multiple fetuses found in Byrgenwerth, in two variants: a petrified one (a common sign of strong Arcane exposure) and a 'cursed' one (with horns and multiple tiny skulls):

This is a large room for speculation on whether they were somehow lab-grown, or kidnapped from the Dungeons... Or, maybe, they were forcibly conceived in test subjects? Commoners that live in the woods around Byrgenwerth, kidnapped Pthumerians, whatever. To "lighten" the mood, maybe volunteer scholars? In either case, something heavily unethical happened here. The reason MUST have been the Great Ones' infants umbilical cords:

We are fighting adolescent (?) version of OoK, whereas their real 'presence' that we sever to destroy the heart of the Nightmare is a much smaller form, so, very likely, OoK was stolen as an infant, from the womb of Kos, and his cord was retracted.

(Side note: it is not necessary that the cord Fauxsefka drops was stolen from Byrgenwerth, let alone that it was the cord of OoK specifically, since she only drops it after Bloodmoon. I think that either she got pregnant like Arianna, especially since she is a Vileblood too, or she was on her way to be reborn into a GO infant like Paleblood Hunter does in the New Beginnings ending! The latter is very possible since that ending is only accessible after eating 3 cords, so, after gaining a lot of Insight, which Fauxsefka does! Basically we don't know the fate of OoK's cord, but nonetheless it is likely that Willem still had it!)

4) Was Rom's fate his fault?

This is the potential one rather than apparent! There is a common assumption that he was experimenting on Rom, supported also by the fact that Byrgenwerth is the only place where Gardens of Eyes type of Kin are found (otherwise they're only found in generated Chalice Dungeons, so, "non canon" ones). Granted, there is a lot to talk about Amygdalae and Nightmare Apostles involvement with the 'Spiders', as well as Patches the Spider being in Byrgenwerth! Still:

Not an unreasonable assumption! Though it is up to interpretation whether Rom was forcibly experimented on, groomed by him to "agree" to it for greater good as Byrgenwerth is hardcore gatekeepers, volunteered herself, or did have that weird involvement with 'Spiders' and Willem simply utilised the (unwell) result by at least hiding it in the Lake. Another sidenote though is that by the game's events, Rom is THE person concealing Mensis Ritual, and Willem is the one to urge our Hunter to hunt her with his scepter!

(Backing this up because there might be people that didn't play BB yet since Sony hates fun and joy)

So I think whatever was his reason to hide her in the Moonside Lake was not Mensis Ritual; he did not see it coming back then, and now understands what has to be done to stop it! (Damn, this brings back memories, this issue was one of my very first loredigs...)

5) Willem secretly orchestrated the Choir?

This is the second potential one. Yurie was strangely titled The Last Scholar, and considering her spot, I can only think of the implication of her returning in the walls of Byrgenwerth! There is a secret cave in the woods (most likely the one Fauxsefka invaded from) that allowed communication with Byrgenwerth, as well as White Church Set is found in the Woods! And furthermore, Gatekeeper that guards the entrance to the Woods on the way in Byrgenwerth uses the adage coined in by Willem as the password, and adopted by the Healing Church!

From the looks of it, the way to Byrgenwerth was not only declared to be a forbidden area, but even hidden from the "lower rank" Healing Church staff, as Alfred says gatekeeper would not open. That'd mean he doesn't know the adage, when Amelia must be. Choir and School of Mensis are higher echelons of the Healing Church, and as you can see, Yurie(Choir) is an NPC there, whereas Damian(Mensis) is a summon there! My interpretation here is that communication with Byrgenwerth remained, just that Healing Church made effort to hide it so the unsightly, as Simon put it, secrets of their origins REMAIN secrets.

(For lyrics: ( x )) The petrified spider found in Altar of Grief IS possibly Rom! That theory could be easily discarded at the first glance because the legs don't match, but they do, as you can see from the holes in her Lake form! Lyrics of Ebrietas' song also seem to refer to Mensis Ritual, as if she knows what has to be done to stop it when she cherished Rom for one reason or another and cries at her "grave".

Willem could have had connection with Ebrietas from the start. And, hell, he should have pulled the biggest "told you so" face when Laurence's Healing Church first took a big route around to try and mess with the Deep Sea, and only through so many failed experiments decided to seek the guidance of the Stars instead, and find the 'right' way to aspire for ascension:

Myazaki please stop tormenting me enough is enough sfhdhfd So, the way things likely happened: Willem was able to tell 'Stars' was the way to go even before meeting Ebrietas in person, Laurence separated from Byrgenwerth to try out Blood Ministration when Willem already warned him it was dangerous, then his Healing Church had attempts to dive into Deep Sea for the eyes (if Micolash and Rom somehow had nothing to do with it I am suing everyone fdhfhds), then turned out patients are doing better seeking Stars (Lumenflowers balcony) and it even happens besides their will (Living Failures), they find Ebrietas and reform Research Hall into Choir/Orphanage, they focus on Eyes when Laurence favours Blood and Hunt more, they remember what Willem told them from the start and seek him, eventually people like Yurie and Rom return to their roots for the lack of better term. As for Fauxsefka, either 1) she returned with Yurie but then changed her mind on being a lazy fence-sitter and rage-quit 2) she invaded Byrgenwerth later on, after 'Choir's ways differed from Willem', might have stolen a cord from there but we don't know 3) she never even invaded and her story goes separately, but she IS from Choir's era of 'differing from Willem', that Yurie didn't catch onto.

...what I am saying, is that for all we know, experiments on the orphans and maybe-grooming Rom into sacrificing herself were under his doing, behind Laurence's back, even. Too bad that Micolash in the end turned out to be more cunning than EVERYONE in this scheme, but still, Willem could have played not the last role here! Poor Laurence, so ambitious yet so very dim.

____________________________

So yeah... This might not seem like much, especially as part of this is speculation, but I think this paints the picture of 'mad researcher' character that appears in basically every Soulsborne game at least once x) Laurence and Micolash maybe have created the main mess of the story, but even if they never existed, with Willem, there would be a lot of unethical experiments, a lot of extermination of "less intelligent" species, and a lot of dead infants! He is guilty not as much for teaching Laurence and, likely, Micolash (the boys still had their agency), but for just being himself lol. ROFL at the guy ordering to kill a pregnant mother and her baby and their worshippers in order to learn how to stop being barbaric as human beings fdjhhfdsds

[katyahina]

Okay but why THE heck Byrgenwerth leads you to the Nightmare of Mensis?

So, you DO actually see Mergo's Loft (aka Nightmare of Mensis castle(s)) from Nightmare Frontier!

It is not surprising since both locations are accessed from Byrgenweth - Nightmare Frontier from the first floor and Nightmare of Mensis from the second one. Well, by Byrgenwerth I mean the Lecture building:

(Using retranslation document by Last Protagonist ( x )). Like, yes, we can confirm that Nightmare Frontier and Nightmare of Mensis are, indeed, the same location, only one is placed higher than the other in altitude. But this is still interesting that Byrgenwerth is stuck between "reality" and Nightmare, and in either case it leads to the Nightmare realm.

I always felt like the implication that the rest of the Byrgenwerth is, in fact, stuck in the Nightmare (as in, Willem and the scholars could not meet each other anymore) had something to do with Rom! Rom appears to be a kind of a Nightmare Apostle - the 'spider' title suggests that (same as with Patches the Spider), and she is likewise a spider creature with a human head; only that her head is... less human now, it mutated with too many eyes. And if Patches' behaviour is of any indication, Nightmare Apostles are Amygdalae affiliates!

An Amygdala delivers you to the 1st floor of Lecture Building, and you fight one in Nightmare Frontier; meanwhile, Amygdalas are heavily associated with School of Mensis! But also, Micolash says this somewhere within his ramble:

'Sleep could' of course refer to like... sleeping... lol (a nightmare is a type of a dream), or to the sleep of the Great Ones that Pthumerians started to deify, or both. But in either case, the 'Lake' (like the 'Sea') is the boundary between humanity and Eldrich Truth. So, to no longer see the Sea means to... well, no longer see this boundary, I guess? As in, by now he is not stopped by it. Like he overcame that boundary so he now can contact the 'cosmos'!

(Heh... I just thought of something - funny enough, very often, at the first glance chaotic ramblings of a madman actually make surprising amount of sense and logic, once you know the context...)

Rom is in the lake and it is her presence there that conceals Mensis Ritual! Not stops it, that's important, only hides it. It is not clear within the timeline for how long Rom was important for Byrgenwerth, but it is very possible that Byrgenwerth might have been using her powers to be in 'enough' contact with the Nightmare realm for their research! They became an isolated institution after falling out with Healing Church, and whereas there are Slime Scholars in the Lecture Building itself, in the area of the 'real' world there are Gardens of Eyes who surprisingly look like they must be Kin of Amygdalae (not monsters/devotees like Nightmare Apostles).

So: what if for a while, thanks to Rom's powers, Byrgenwerth was able to go back and forth with the Nightmare realm to do their own research? Basically not only protecting the humanity, but also cleverly gatekeeping everything from the detractors and just naive, ambitious fools (remember that Choir and Mensis are higher echelons of the Healing Church)! And Micolash's mention of "no longer seeing the Lake" refers to him either tapping on that power or simply overcoming it! He might have deliberately done something to be connected with where Rom is, using her as a 'phone' to call Kos xD (since Rom can see everything, and is said to have been blessed by her!) But that meant to have 'access' to Byrgenwerth... And that included messing with its architecture, so Lecture Building could no longer be accessed from what remained of Byrgenwerth in the waking world - including Willem staying there and not being able to see his scholars anymore, who are now trapped between worlds.

Internal filenames of the locations suggest outright connection between the Lake that Rom guards and Lecture building:

My friend @val-of-the-north brought this up, and also correctly pointed out that 'Innermost' in internal files typically refers to the boss arenas (here is also Hemwick Mansion as an example) :

Also, you might be familiar with 'Rom, the upside-down fool' from Micolash's cut content dialogue ( ( x ), at the 0:40), right? This is also the case in Japanese voice acting of his cut lines! Upside-down will be 逆さま (sakasama), and here is Micolash's Japanese dialogue with both used and cut lines: ( x ). You can clearly hear 'sakasama no hakuchi Roma' from 2:41 to 2:45! ('hakuchi no kumo, Roma' is Rom's Japanese title, 'hakuchi' (白痴) means intellectually disabled, idiot, etc, and 'kumo' (蜘蛛) means spider).

(There is a document ( x ) that features Japanese text of Mico's cut dialogue AND transliteration AND a nuanced translation, done by a person that speaks Japanese if you are wondering from which dimension I am pulling these facts from. It is really helpful, and I still encourage everyone to refer to Japanese scripts in your loredigging, as they are actually canon and truthful to the game creators' intentions. In this case, canonical cut content, as oxymoronic as it sounds xD)

Again, mostly it points out to Micolash boasting about how not even Rom's barrier could stop him from accessing the Nightmare! But all in all, Lecture Hall appears to be a 'train station'... that he might have ruined, or turned to his favour. You can see the handcuffed victims in the chairs in Nightmare of Mensis too - a right sign of him having had victims before our Hunter finds him!

I mentioned that in a kind of old post about alternative (and slightly outdated in some parts) take on Edgar's quest as a spy ( x ), but there is also a possibility that Micolash cut the connection between two parts of Byrgenwerth (waking world one and Nightmare one) specifically to not be found through Byrgenwerth by people like Yurie, Fauxsefka etc. The entrance to the part of Byrgenwerth where Rom resides now is additionally guarded by Shadows of Yharnam! Nightmare of Mensis is full of servants of Mergo and also Shadows of Yharnam, so he must have some sort of authority as the one who stole Mergo, right? So that could also have been his doing to send those Shadows over to even further prevent the risks of interrupting the ritual!

So yeah... I've gotten a bit carried away, but you see what I am trying to say! Funny how much, again, can sprout from only a minor clarification for the translation.

[madnessofmen]

The predominant headcanon I've seen for Rom is that she was formerly a student of the School Of Mensis or even Byrgenwerth, but I think she was actually a former Choir member. Evidence:

Master Willem points her out to you. If she were acting on his/the Byrgenwerth school's behalf, he would have no reason to do this. Additionally, revealing all the nonsense the Healing Church has been up to with the old blood would be exactly what he wants.

You can summon Mensis scholar Damien to fight Rom. If Rom were one of them, why would the SoM fight her? Her actions (hiding the effects of the Mensis ritual) must be contrary to what the SoM wants.

Not sure if this is a glitch, but a user reported that she doesn't target you with her arcane spells if you're wearing the Choir set. Instead, she only fires near you, even swerving the projectiles away from you if you run towards them. Perhaps she is worried about hurting a fellow Choir member?

There's not much to do at Byrgenworth since it closed, so the most reasonable explanation for Yurie's presence there is that she is either searching for notes that someone may have left behind or checking up on Rom.

Ebrietas can be found weeping/praying over Rom at the Altar of Despair. Presumably she was brought there by some Choir members. What their purpose was, however, is unclear. Some have speculated that Ebrietas is attempting to revive her because the altar can "turn back time". Perhaps they just wanted to have her corpse back to mourn her.

Given that the Moonside Lake is a pocket dimension/dream/nightmare below Yharnam, the the Rom we fight is merely a dream projection, and her "real" physical body must exist elsewhere. If this were the case, Rom’s body may have been on Choir grounds/at the altar the entire time. This would explain why the Rom at the altar appears older than the Rom at the lake, with the latter having much shorter legs. This also parallels Micolash, whose physical body mummified while his dream projection continued existing in the Nightmare of Mensis.

Micolash’s statement, “Ahh, Kos, or some say Kosm... Do you hear our prayers? As you once did for the vacuous Rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes,” is usually interpreted as Micolash having some sort of familiarity with Rom, but to me, it sounds more like salt about the fact that Kos favored Rom/the Choir over him/the SoM. Like, “You let that idiot ascend, so why won’t you net me ascend?”

[katyspersonal]

Okay aside from ibuprofen, I have a serious question for when you feel better—

How do you think Rom felt after she ascended? Do you think she gained any sort of higher perspective that allowed her to see what the others she had left behind were doing and to look back on her own life? Could she see Micolash? Caryll? Willem? Yurie? What did she think of all their goals and ends…most of all…why was she hiding the rituals? To save the world from Mico’s horror or to help him hide his sins out of some lingering sense of care? Was she even think much at all? I wanna hear your thoughts!!

Well hmmm 🤔 First things first, I always felt like Willem urging the hunter to go in the lake was a signal from him to hunt Rom, which I think would be counter-productive if Byrgenwerth's goal was TO conceal that specific ritual! My interpretation is that Rom was a volunteer to conceal the horrors of the cosmos prior to what Micolash did; as far as Byrgenwerth and Willem were concerned, she was their special asset to gatekeep the Eldrich Truth from those who are not ready to handle it, as well as the one concealing Byrgenwerth ITSELF! Argh, this is a slightly long theory to recite, so I will just link it here: ( x ). Byrgenwerth we see in "reality" is only a very small building, and the rest of it (Lecture Hall) is between Nightmare and the waking world! The true univercity used to be accessed through the lake like a portal! .....really, please, just check the linked theory ;-;

So yeah, that's the gist of it! Rom knows that if 'unprepared' people witness a cosmic horror - nothing good will come out of it, and also chooses to protect Byrgenwerth. She cared for humanity in general and the evolution, just like other best Byrgenwerth scholars! So, protect humanity, but also ensure the research to improve it continues.

It was my recent idea that what happened with Byrgenwerth was a very similar effect to creation of Hunter's Dream - Rom having sort of a "pact" with Ebrietas instead! Now, yeah, whether she REALIZES what she's doing is a question that torments me to this day! @_@"

The best explanation for Willem's gesture I can give is that he is aware of Mensis Ritual and wants it stopped, realizing how damning it is for humanity! Damian, the one from School of Mensis himself works with us to break Rom's concealment, too... Like I said before, insanity for "strong ones" and beasthood for "weak ones" could never be stopped by any means as long as ritual is ongoing! The note in the Hunter's Dream for us is my best clue for this headcanon:

The night of our Hunter ends when Mergo is silenced (aka ritual is stopped), so this would be the 'source'. Rom's barrier mitigates the severity of the ritual's effects, but doesn't stop it. Her barrier is penetrable for those who are "ready" (you start to see things like Amygdalae even through her concealment if you have enough Insight), but Mensis Ritual is special in how it still bears effect on people in Yharnam whether they are aware of it or not. One could completely avoid blood and eyes both, but as long as ritual is ongoing, sooner or later they WILL give into either beasthood or madness.. That is not very acceptable, right?

My version of Yurie becomes aware of what is happening, together with Fauxsefka, but agrees to let it happen. She thinks that keeping the ritual but also concealing it could cause a positive effect on humans by making their conscious evolve sooner or later.. So, what if some people become beasts instead of elevated as the cost? Can't help everyone! Fauxsefka thinks she is a callous bitch for that and bails. Laurence, I think, would be really proud of the way she thinks, on the other hand.. Willem, like I said, doesn't seem to agree with something so drastic! (Sadly, the only way to stop the ritual would be to first unveil it, which.. not everyone could survive. Like ripping the bandage.) But Rom is... still up for questioning.

Prior the spider form, Rom did believe in making people smarter through "deception". She witnessed the 'cursed', 'forbidden' knowledge beyond 'Stars and Moon' early and knew that Choir people would not listen. And she did hide Micolash's true antics at Mensis, trusting him to figure things out in his own way. And to do things that no one else would have the courage to do, herself included. I think it would be very bittersweet if even after her ascension, Rom still blindly trusted Micolash to figure everything out while she covers his back, even if now at more instinctive level. So, when Micolash decided to lock the Lecture Hall passageway to protect himself further (after Edgar betrayed the Choir for him), Rom just... let it happen. Helped, even! Placing herself in opposition against Willem. During her human life, she allowed Micolash to do a lot of awful things - with herself too, using her as a test subject, believing that she was "too stupid to decide such things" and Micolash always "knew better", so could that persist even now? That... deep trust, even in the most insane plan, not knowing that Micolash completely lost the objective.

But on the other hand, the idea of her being so completely lost within her own power that she doesn't even understand what happens (and when) is really appealing! That she just experiences and observes so many things, in so many timelines, on so many levels at once... well, until Hunter trying to kill her would make her focus on their specific universe and timeline. :') But yeah, complete transcendence + theme of a powerful "idiot god" that doesn't realize their power is really good. So, yeah, Rom doesn't leave the lake past the Mensis Ritual because of either blind faith in Micolash's plans or because she just... well, everywhere. She might not even notice with how many other things she's seeing. The motivation of milking the "use" of the ritual's effects I already gave to Yurie. 🤔

I just think the whole vibe of her being a genius that never credited herself properly fits her the best! She kept hearing that she was too dumb to decide for humanity or herself from the only family she had and just... agreed with it? Although she is aware that progress is impossible without sacrifice and very daring experiments, as soon as Mensis Ritual happens, Rom believes that "smarter people know what they're doing"... if she IS still aware of anything. Whatever Micolash is doing, he has good intentions and knows what is the price and the result, right...? RIIIIIIIGHT?? Yurie, Damian, Willem and Fauxsefka know Micolash is batshit, though.

If she still has some lucidity - she can "see" people that she used to know, yes. She just would not think of them or miss them in the same way us normal humans do... Memories would be torn, like in a dream, she'd know of Yurie, Micolash or Caryll but not have lucid comprehension of becoming a bit too "enlightened" to interact with them normally. Most of her attempts to interact with someone would transcend the space and time, but also she'd be too incomprehencible in this way... Not even for the most Insightful people. It could come like a dream, or like sixth sense, and Rom would "envision" herself as still a human. Close person like Yurie or very smart person like Caryll would still guess that the strange 'feeling' must be Rom, just not able to grasp her. That'd be beyond their perception! Micolash, that lil shit, would think whatever he could perceive to be a sign from Kos, though. -_-" I think even Ebrietas would not be able to truly grasp Rom now, should she try to contact her via the 'astral projection'! Think of it as almost no one having enough Insight / Eyes Inside to see her like this... This is very lonely, like being a ghost. Rom has to be there physically to communicate! But she should NOT leave the darn Lake!!

Patches, who is also a 'spider', got split across the multiverse in a much more solid way, of course 🤔 Rom is simply Too Many Things to have a similar fate... becoming a person-per-universe is too little to contain her, at least yet. Great Ones are more complex than just bald lil shit who messed with something forbidden!

[katyahina]

So, some thoughts about Byrgenwerth philosophy and concealment of ritual and Eldritch Truth overall...

I am going to use excerpts from the re-translation document by LastProtagonist my friend gave to me (this one -> [x] ), but I kinda find it interesting that both fractions that are mentioned to take up some stuff from Byrgenwerth - Choir and School of Mensis - are also mentioned to have misinterpreted the initial ideas, to say the least:

(from the description of Blindfold Cap and student uniforms worn by Mensis scholars now, respectively)

So, I actually think that what really sets them apart as of now is what makes the difference between two fractions and the teachings of Master Willem is the way 'getting more eyes' concept is interpreted. So far, what could be gotten from the ingame lore about his teachings is:

(from description of Great One's Wisdom)

(from the description of the Umbilical Cord you get from killing Fauxsefka - official translation puts it as

"Provost Willem sought the Cord in order to elevate his being and thoughts to those of a Great One, by lining his brain with eyes. The only choice, he knew, if man were to ever match Their greatness."

which is actually not very divergent from direct re-translation from original - in both versions, there is an accent on leveling up with Great Ones, rather than becoming them)

(from the description of Eye rune, aka the rune Master Willem himself drops - which is also coincidentally a rune representing the voice of Ebrietas, because she is referred in-lore as abandoned Great One in descriptions of Augur of Ebrietas ("Invertebrates, which can be understood as the augurs of superior beings, or phantasms, are used as intermediaries to summon a portion of the abandoned superior being, Ebrietas") and Choir clothes that aren't Blindfold Cap ("Beside the abandoned superior being(s), (they) look up toward the sky, searching for a portent from the stars" - in the same document, in Eye rune description though, translator specifies that reference is still to singular Great One, Ebrietas, not multiple ones)

(that one note found in Lecture Hall:

original uses the word 情けない (nasakenai), which more accurately translates as 'miserable', 'pitiful', 'abject', tho halving the word (since part 'nai' refers to absence) gives result such as 'absence of compassion' or 'absence of dignity')

So basically, I can conclude that the initial philosophy of Master Willem was to learn more about the world rather than transcend the world. I am tempted to say that "getting insight and getting eyes on the inside are essentially not the same", with the former referring to understanding and the latter referring to turning in a Kin or whatever, but seems like the option of evolution is not excluded entirely - as long as you know what you're doing. Micolash for one refers to direct saying of Master Willem with "new ideas, of the higher plane" ("new thoughts, transcending dimensions" in retranslation) - whereas Willem says "we are thinking on the basest of planes, what we need, are more eyes" in English translation and "our plane of thought is too low, and so we need more eyes" in retranslation - using 次元 (jigen) to refer plane/dimension in both.

And regarding 'gaining the Insight' thing:

This is description of the Lunarium Key - an item you need to get to the balcony from which Willem himself urges you to jump in the lake where Rom is - possibly knowing that you will fight her?

This is a retranslation of the note found in Byrgenwerth: "The spider hides all manner of rituals, certain to reveal nothing, for true enlightenment need not be shared."

I think Willem (maybe, not even just Willem alone) had motivation to conceal Eldritch Truth from the mortals. There might have been enough other things to hurt people by merely being seen, such as Amygdalas or voices of Great Ones. Whether motivation to conceal Truth lays within the fact that Truth is, indeed, not for everyone (hence items like Madman's Knowledge and Great One's Wisdom exist - for some people, their brain turns into dust upon Insight!) or he also was upset with humans trying to stop being humans is up to interpretation, both work.

I also mentioned it before, but I think concealment of Elritch Truth by placing Rom in the lake happened even prior Mensis Ritual. Willem himself urges you to hunt Rom - which is strange for a person who wanted her to be in the lake to begin with! Besides, Mensis Ritual draws Red Moon close - yet nobody ingame makes a fuss about "oh heck guys there was a Red Moon recently, another one ever since Old Yharnam was burnt!", the best we have are a few notes regarding ritual. I think nobody really saw it coming. Again, whether School of Mensis were masterminds giving Willem a bright idea to hide Eldritch Truth from the shadows knowing what it will do, or they simply took advantage of the situation depends on what you want the (back)story to be, it is a free area as far as I can tell?

But there are a few more things I want to note, here's first:

Brain Fluid is an item you can only get from just-head patients of Research Hall, so the former part refers to the method you collect the item, that's all. However, things past 'became just a head' reveal some relevant lore - the second Brain Fluid you collect mentions how in the early days of Healing Church, Great Ones were linked to the Ocean and it is said that realizing Eldritch Truth begins with writhing. The third one mentions that the true nature of knowledge is to realize how much you don't know or some philosophical stuff like that. The first one in comparison feels a bit random, right? Like, cool, some siblings actually got satisfying results, good for them. Except...

I think that it is a legitimate hint implying that Rom was a patient of the Research Hall (or at least of experiments that triggered Research Hall to become a thing, perhaps, a patient zero that gave people the idea to try to encounter Elrditch Truth like... this). Since Micolash is also the only person ingame who refers to her by name, as well as gives the implication that what happened to her is relevant to Kos, as well as recognizes the fact that she was "given eyes" - I think the most likely possibility is that he was a brother experimenting on her (would not put that past his moral code to test his own sister, honestly). Like, not 100% confirmed, but I think is a possibility worth considering.

(Also it is interesting that she is similar to Nightmare Apostles, including Patches - spiders with human(pthumerian???) heads. According to an interview with Miyazaki, the lore for Patches in Bloodborne is that he "got enough knowledge to become a monster". Rom could count as a spider with human head - except 'human head' is now dysmorphed horribly, however, this type of body seems to be a legit result of exposure to Eldritch Truth!)

Here's second:

To be honest, the 'winged god, voice and terror' line makes me think of Wet Nurse, Oedon and Flora as Great Ones that descend when Red Moon hangs low (well... that DID happen after all), and seeing how Mensis Ritual was made because of theft of Mergo's cord (Queen Yharnam having blood on her belly in both Nightmare and Dungeons, what you grab from Wet Nurse, all that) I think that lyrics do refer to Mensis Ritual. Plus, the spider on the altar looks a lot like Rom - also it's hard to see through compression (I am sorry) but the spider on altar 1) has many candles put on it 2) is completely petrified - plants grow from the altar itself, but none grow from the corpse. Plus, Damian (co-optor who helps to defeat Rom aka reveal the ritual, despite being a Mensis Scholar himself) ALSO helps to fight Ebrietas.

It makes me think that Ebrietas was/is involved in the concealment of Eldritch Truth, though there are many ways to interpret how exactly. Why is she crying? Because she realizes that humans didn't really understand the meaning of gaining Insight and agrees with Insight concealment politics (remember, her voice is coincidentally a symbol of Willem's research, plus it is implied that her augurs were found by Byrgenwerth explorers even before she was found herself)? Because Rom was dear to her and she realizes what has to be done to reveal and stop the ritual? Because concealment of the future ritual was devised and it makes her upset?

There is also a fact that Rosmarinus, trademark left-hand weapon of Choir, has the 'fair maiden why is that you weep' aria, possibly implying that Ebrietas' sadness (or maybe, wish to comfort her sadness) was weaponized - and since she weeps at the altar of despair (altar of lamentation/grief more accurately translated), the implication might be that 'weeping' happened after Rom's "death". Honestly, one of the things I enjoy about Bloodborne is that no matter how many details you keep in mind - in the end, there is still freedom of interpretation remaining.

I have my personal theory on what went down, with Ebrietas and Rom being very close, and some people validating Willem's true philosophy in the end - including Yurie, making her functionally identical to Damian (a broken gear of her respective system), and Rom ending up still helping Micolash in the end by evil irony even if they went different ways, but like, there is a large space still? I just think these facts are good to keep in mind when trying to rationalize what happened!