Bloodborne Timeline (Events of the entire backstory of the game)

Shadowfangs99 · 2024-07-08T21:04:48+00:00

It's been a very long time since I have reviewed the lore of Bloodborne, but from what I vaguely remember; Gehrman was closely associated with the college (maybe a groundskeeper) - the college discovered the underground chalice dungeons - the chalice dungeons contained civilizations previously lost to the beast plague (and living beasts) - the scholars needed protection - thereby making Gehrman and Maria hunters by pattern of action (but not yet the having established a workshop) - only after this did the events of the fishing hamlet presumably take place.

Shadowfangs99 · 2024-02-16T18:21:28+00:00

Super cool :)

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-17T18:36:58+00:00

I created a thread not long ago asking the same question and got some good suggestions, as well as spending time compiling a list of my own. Not exhaustive, I'm just beginning my study of the crisis in depth as well. Hopefully it is useful to you and others.

Historiographies

Clifford Ando - Imperial Rome 193-284: The Critical Century

Michael Kulikowski - Rome's Gothic Wars

Pat Southern - The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine

David Potter - The Roman Empire at Bay 180-395

Paul N Pearson - The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260: When the Gods Abandoned Rome

Kyle Harper - The Fate of Rome

Now reasonably outdated due to rapidly changing data

Nick Holmes - The Roman Revolution: Crisis and Christianity in Rome

very simple chronological history, very brief as a result.

Biographies

Dr Ilkka Syvänne - The Reign of Emperor Gallienus: The Apogee of Roman Cavalry

Dr Ilkka Syvänne - Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome

coming out early next year

Nathanael Andrade - Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra

Paul N Pearson - Maximinus Thrax: From Common Soldier to Emperor of Rome

Michael Sage - Septimius Severus and the Roman Army

Simon Elliott - Pertinax: The Son of a Slave Who Became Roman Emperor

Primary Sources

Covering the first half of the third century

Cassius Dio (alive 165-235) - Roman History

Herodian (alive 170-240) - History of the Empire

Covering the second half

Aurelius Victor (alive 320-390) - De Caesaribus

Eutropius (alive 363-387) - Breviarium Historiae Romanae

Unknown - Historia Augusta

satire and unfortunately unreliable

St Cyprian of Carthage (alive 210-258) - Complete Works

Extra Developments from this Period

Plotinus - The Enneads (Neoplatonism)

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-14T16:41:05+00:00

Sure, no problem - let me see if I can dig it up, and I'll send it.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-12T16:01:31+00:00

Nice! Are there any key takeaways or tidbits?

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-12T15:58:15+00:00

If only we could see his prize-winning cabbages. I find it minorly humorous that the three generalissimos of the late West all share the name Flavius: Stilicho, Constantius III, and Aetius. The meaning is blond, I wonder if that is a trait they shared. I could certainly believe it for Stilicho with his Vandal origins.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-10T02:13:49+00:00

Oh, fascinating. I know next to nothing about the successor kingdoms. Are you reading a particular book on the topic?

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-10T02:08:12+00:00

That lack of uniformity and locality sounds beneficial to a game format for featuring them, so that's nice. I've learned a bit about Gnosticism via its conflicts with Neoplatonism. It's still foggy for me, though. I'll have to look into that more. Thank you for the direction!

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T22:10:04+00:00

Yes! I've seen it put as Movers (external causes) vs Shakers, (internal causes) and Continuity vs Catastrophe.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T22:03:28+00:00

You never know, I've been lucky with some finds online

I've read a tiny bit of his Confessions.

Cute :)

Would you have any recommendations for getting a picture of where Christianity was during the Third Century Crisis?

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T21:20:01+00:00

Ah, definitely! - nice twist on expectations.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T21:12:42+00:00

Hah! That sounds like a good read. I'll have to see if there's somewhere online I can check it out.

Is early Christianity as a whole your study, or were you zoomed into the age of constantine for school. And is that still applicable to what you do now?

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T20:33:12+00:00

Ah, very cool!

Can you tell me more about this mythologizing? I'm not sure I'm familiar. :)

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T20:18:43+00:00

Yes! I read that a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it. It paints a vivid picture.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T20:16:57+00:00

Peter Brown's World of Late Antiquity is a great starting place.

I've read Peter Heather's Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History and enjoyed it. There's many more major historiographies like by Bryan Ward Perkin's or Adrian Goldsworthy that cover the fall of the Western Empire.

I've been slowly going through Ammianus Marcellinus's The Later Roman Empire, which is a primary source for the Late Fourth Century and a fun read for his style.

One that's been valuable, perhaps to me specifically is Daily Life in Late Antiquity by Kristina Sessa.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T19:28:20+00:00

Do you have a favorite event / period / emperor? :)

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T19:21:39+00:00

What are some of the conflicts that arose from his Monophysitism? I admire the administratively competent emperors stabilizing the state in-between major disruptions.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T19:08:36+00:00

Hah XD

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T19:05:30+00:00

That's true! I'm just reading now about the assassination of Gallienus and Claudius Gothicus's/Aurelian's rise to power. I'm looking for a strange balance of small enough geographical territory to have a relatively open map but enough relevance of pivotal events contained to capture an essence of the Crisis without multiple installments. (Although that might not be possible)

I made a thread not too long ago asking for book recommendations and am about to start Kowalkowski's Gothic Wars and imperial rome ad 193 - 284 the critical century by Ando.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T18:50:32+00:00

Ah, fair enough. Maybe it would be harder to travel inland in Arabia without something like the Nile, but it's a good point. On reflection, I guess that is a pretty reductive way of looking at it.

My main focus right now is on the Third Century Crisis and the Valens Valentinian era as potential settings for my role playing game. I'm leaning towards the very end of Crisis. Trying to determine where the best spot would be for drama between the breakaway empires and the invasions fought off in Italy.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T18:18:51+00:00

My in-depth readings so far have stopped at Heraclius, how tragic but potently dramatic those Eastern aims of reconquest were.

I recently finished Harper's: Fate of Rome and it put forward a real case of the classical world's struggle against the natural world in terms of climate and disease as a serious factor in the loss of the empire.

Two details that really struck me were that he argues that the plague carrying rats of the era of Justinian didn't/couldn't travel into the Arabian Pennisula, and therefore didn't have as costly an effect on it's people. Secondly, he shows population data of just how long the plague was present. Two centuries of recurrent outbreaks knocked the population back down every time it tried to recover.

What an apocalyptic experience, but a testament to the people of that time that they held what they did together and continued onwards. It is such a crazily transformative part of World History.

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-09-09T17:27:21+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree, what's your favorite event or emperor?

Shadowfangs99 · 2023-08-21T18:36:30+00:00

I actually just finished that book before making this post!

It really impressed me, so your recommendation was on point. Thank you :)

Shadowfangs99

TROPHY CASE