#hunter's workshop

Thank you fextralife! ~♡No okay let’s be serious for a second and put aside my fangirl heart that craves for the damn romance and let’s look at the facts, shall we?

Let’s begin with the Hair Ornament and how the Doll reacts to it.

The item is described as “ordinary” and does look as such. This is not something fit for a woman of noble lineage like Maria is, is the sort of gift that a middle-class Yharnamite would give his fiancee. In fact, I would say that the Red Jewelled Brooch that Gascoigne gave to his wife looks way fancier and in line with what a Cainhurst noble would wear than the plain, ordinary hair ornament.

Giving little tokens of affection before the marriage was a no-no for Victorian lovebirds unless the couple openly expressed the intention to get married and both families agreed to the arrangement.

In Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Marianne Dashwood’s spontaneous behaviour is considered unorthodox and her (only rumoured!) clandestine engagement with John Willoughby is heavily frowned upon. One of her biggest ‘sins’ was to have sent John a bunch of letters and locks of her hair that the young man respectfully gives back to her before marrying another woman.

So, if we take for granted that Yharnam’s courtship customs are similar to those of the 19th century’s I think it’s safe to assume that if an unmarried man gave something as cute and personal as a hairpin to an unmarried woman he was clearly saying “hey babe I like you. But I haven’t the slightest idea of what I’m doing and I should’ve finish that “how to pick up fair maidens” book before doing anything on my own” :P

Of course, we can’t take Victorian society and expect Yharnam’s to be exactly the same because of all the obvious differences such as the clearly more prominent role of women in society, (Amelia is the highest authority of the Church, many hunters are women, Viola, though traditionally married, takes instant action to help her husband etc) but I still think it to be a good lens through which seeing the game’s world and it surely gives some extra credit to Gehrman’s conscious decision to hide his feelings from Maria.

Now, on the subject of Plain Doll, if we gave her the Hairpin she says this:

What… what is this? I-I can’t remember, not a thing, only… I feel… A yearning… something I’ve never felt before… What’s happening to me? Ahh… Tell me hunter, could this be joy? Ahh…

And as she speaks, they even took the time to actually animate her so that she would wipe her tears and gave us the Tear Stone:

Now, the dialogue itself is enough for me to say that Maria had feelings for Gehrman because there’s _no way_ that mere admiration and/or respect for the guy would make her surrogate, who only shares a few, blurred memories with her, cry tears of joy. But hey, we could say that since Plain Doll was “made” to love her creator her perception could be warped by what Gehrman wants her to feel towards him. So, let’s read what the lore has to say about this ;) let’s turn the Tear Stone into a Blood Gem!

Created from a shining silver doll tear, this blood gem is a quiet but unfaltering friend that continually restores HP, the life essence of a hunter. Perhaps the doll’s creator had wished for just such a friend, albeit in vain

BOOM! “Albeit in vain”… and here it is why I think Gehrman doesn’t talk to/doesn’t care about and is openly dismissive of the Doll. She is not the woman he used to know but a pale imitation. She doesn’t have Maria’s memories, she is nothing like the hunter that fought by his side, the strong and kind woman he secretly fell in love with. Before Moon Presence brought the Doll to life, Gehrman poured love and care into her creation that most likely happened after Maria’s passing. All item descriptions related to the Doll include this bit:

“A deep love for the doll can be surmised by the fine craftsmanship of this article, and the care with which it was kept.“ It borderlines on mania, and exudes a slight warmth.”

Which once again, reinforce my idea that my boi Gehrman cared for Maria not _just_ because she was hot. He doesn’t dress her up in revealing clothes nor does he keep her hunter attire while retaining elements of it such as the brooch and her boots. Maria killed herself after renouncing her life as a hunter, her conscience forever stained by what she and her teacher had done to the inhabitants of Fishing Hamlet. Dressing the doll in her hunter set would have been an even greater insult to her memory. Gehrman’s decision to dress her up in the seemly clothes of a respectable woman of the time is actually pretty tasteful if you ask me. May look strange and “unnecessary cute” to us modern-day players but that’s how women used to dress. Take a look at this picture of Mia Wasikowska’s in this movie adaptation of Jane Eyre. The reason why I pick this movie is its director, Cary Fukunaga who also directed the first season of the award-winning HBO series True Detective. (a show inspired by R.W Chambers and Lovecraft’s nihilism & cosmic dread.) This too is a pretty dark and spooky rendition of Charlotte Brontë’s classic.

But no more talking about Gehrman, let’s get back to Maria:

Among the first hunters, all students of Gehrman, was the lady hunter Maria. This was her hunter’s [cap/garb/gloves/trousers], crafted in Cainhurst. Maria is distantly related to the undead queen, but had great admiration for Gehrman, unaware of his curious mania.  [Maria’s Hunter Set]

This description tells us a lot of things, but most of them are irrelevant to the subject of this analysis. I could go on for hours pointing out the similarities of her set to the Knight’s and other Cainhurst fashion but let’s not do that. What matters here is that Maria, despite being of noble blood, had no social prejudice towards her mentor (and I would assume, any of her fellow hunters.) and, just like Gwyn’s firstborn, “had respect only for arms and nothing else” :P

I wouldn’t say that the reason why she was heartbroken was the fact that Gehrman never revealed his feelings to her (as mentioned in the ask) but that she idolized him and the cause of the Byrgenwerth Hunters as a whole and couldn’t bear the guilt once the college’s research pushed their actions too far. Like Ludwig who had an unshakable faith in the ways of the Healing Church, Maria had faith in and was possibly in love with Gehrman and couldn’t believe that the man she admired so deeply would blindly obey Byrgenwerth’s orders.

“Go and kill those fishmen who did nothing wrong and aren’t bothering anyone. Oh, and be sure to rip that umbilical cord from the body of thad Great One that washed ashore.”

“Yep.” No question asked.

THAT’s why Maria felt betrayed. It hasn’t anything to do with Gehrman’s “mania”. In my headcanons Gehrman’s total obedience to Willem is motivated but there’s no solid proof in canon so let’s just say that Gehrman was an idiot who never questioned the orders from above :/

And now, let’s get to the final, FUNDAMENTAL point of this analysis: did Maria love Gehrman back?

Yes she did. Why else would anyone want to take a look at any picture one last time before killing themselves? To remember what they lost or could’ve had if things were different.

Why am I 100% sure that Gehrman is in that picture? Because in canon we don’t know the name of any other member of the Old Hunters. It’s just the two of them: Gehrman and Maria, the only ones with faces and backstory in a crowd of faceless, bloodthirsty mannequins.

"Well I've found myself in the wonderous if somewhat macabre city of Yarnuhm. To be honest I found it a rather strange invitation to be brought here by the healing church, but they've heard of my interest's as a collector and maker of weapons. Upon my arrival I was met by a gentleman from the church who immediately led me to their hunter's workshop and to make a long story short... I find myself in a most agreeable situation. I have been requested to make a few of what they call, 'Trick weapons' and to join them on a night of the hunt. Apparently on full moons there's an eruption of beast men who invade into the city and cause all sorts of trouble. It is one month till the next night of the hunt so that gives me around 30 days to create a few weapons. What excites me most about this is the Hunter's Workshop is renown amongst weapon enthusiasts such as myself because of their unusual and lethal designs. I've seen some of their weapons ranging from crude saws to more elegant blades so it would appear I have my work cut out for me. So the first thing I've done is gather up my weapons that I use in battle. A lightning enchanted Elven Curved sword, gift from my father. A flame enchanted earth breaking hammer. A dwarven shield that I found during my time building my barony and then finally a golden dueling blade that I aquired from the tomb of a long dead cyclops liche... I assure you that one is a very long story.

So I began to consider what I was up against and what might be of the most help. Apparently the beasts can either come in smaller more violent swarms, but also larger beasts have been known to appear as well. As such it would seem that a shield is in order. My dwarven shield is a large and impressive thing and with the fire arms in this city I had a thought, what would be more effective than bashing an opponent with a shield? A shield bash that also doubled as a barage of gun fire. As such I set about drilling small holes in a five by eight line on the shield, and placing small barrels with four barreled revolver cartridges to allow for up to four volley's of fire. I then proceeded to create a hammer and trigger and mechanism to prime and fire the rounds. I proceeded to test the shield on a series of targets and I'm pleased to say the initial volley was fully destructive. However when I pulled back the hammer the barrels did not prime. With all the barrels it has to pull on the steel wire wasn't able to take the strain and snapped. I might need to use multiple wires for each row but too many wires will make it hard to pull the hammer back. Unless I was able to find a stronger substance than metal. Perhaps yarnuhm has something that I can use to that affect.

Having decided upon the course of action I would take with the shield, next was the hammer and curved sword. Many of the trick weapons here either extended in length or in some cases took on an almost new form and function all together. With the hammer the pragmatic thing to do was to make its shaft adjustable. I have seen quite a few people do that with their axes here and it would seem that while simple, it would be the best adjustment. That way I can shift between one handed and two handed forms in the heat of battle. Creating a metal telescopic shaft was simplicity itself and as a result I found myself wanting to do something more... But what? It then dawned on me that if I could refine the hammer to have a piercing side to compliment the flat side, that could give me additional options in battle so I smelted down the head of the hammer and remade it into the desired shape. It swings rather well now and the spike side was able to smash in a steel helmet.

My elven sword was up next. Now I have seen some rather impressive things in my time, but I saw a few weapons that actually turned into bladed whips! what an excellent idea for my lightning blade! I'm still a bit dissapointed that again I'm not coming up with something more clever but then again perhaps something will come to me. After all...I have a month.

Finally my Golden Dueling Sword... For this weapon I have something truly special in mind. During my travels abroad I came across a method of forging a sword that can harness the power of the moon. In order to do so, I will need the light of the full moon which wont be here until the night of the hunt. But in the meantime I can bide my time. It's a long beautiful weapon but I wish to create a blade worthy of the beasts I shall be hunting later. As such I removed the jewels, the hilt and all other non metal components of the blade, and smelted the golden blade down into a large golden ingot. While I will not be able to forge it into a blade until the full moon, I can leave it exposed to the night sky to absorb light from the moon during its other phases.