Among the Great Ones, Oedon holds a unique position. His name marks both a church and its accompanying graveyard, making him a known quantity to Laurence and his followers as they began styling themselves clerics as much as researchers. With this Oedon Chapel at the key juncture between Old Yharnam, the burgeoning new Yharnam, and the hunter workshops, one might expect its namesake to be the chief god of the Healing Church’s pantheon. And yet, the chapel soon ended up supplanted by the Grand Cathedral, with other Great Ones becoming the focus of the blood ministers’ efforts. Oedon did have followers secretly operating out of the chapel, as evidenced by the note left in its archive. However, the very fact that it was a secret and that the chapel is now derelict shows how little currency has been given to the god over time. Why, when Oedon is evidently still active?

The spider of Byrgenwerth is hiding every ritual. Even our invisible master. How awful. My head won’t stop trembling.

As attested in the description to the third umbilical cord obtained from Arianna’s newborn, the deity shares arcane relations with the corrupted noble from Castle Cainhurst, seeking children like so many of his kind. For that reason, he has sought out someone of her blood quality to match his own, Oedon’s Writhe communicating that desire for the wriggles of enlightenment found in such ooze. Oedon himself is a god who transcends form, his essence — or “true quality” (本質) — defined as blood itself. Not even Flora, for all her power, lacks a definite form as a spirit of the cosmos. Oedon is effectively the most evolved of all Great Ones we encounter, not a star shining with radiance but the infinite abyss flowing in-between. So profound was his thinking, yet even embedded in the infinite expanse of the cosmic sea, this formless god still yearns for further evolution through lineage. And thus, he looks for a viable mother to carry his progeny, sharing that mission with those who can hear his voice through runes.

But despite exceptional transcendence, Oedon still bears limits as a Great One. It is only when bringing Arianna to the chapel that she becomes pregnant with child, and all of his worshipers are likewise connected to the building. For whatever reason, the god’s influence on earth is limited by area, and when Rom created the barrier hiding Yharnam from the cosmos, Oedon too was cut off from his followers. The note in the chapel archive details how the separation causes his servant’s brain to tremble, with the description to the Oedon Tomb Key revealing that the church lost popularity due to rumors of all its residents going insane. Clearly, obsession with their master left the clerics managing the facility beyond agitated when Byrgenwerth’s spider denied them contact even through ritual. This altogether paints Oedon as “blind” to the world from high up in the cosmos, no different from his ilk; if anything, the fact that he is just a disembodied voice complicates his interactions on earth all the more. He, more than any, needs human agents to execute his will outside his sphere of influence.

Key to the gate that blocks up the Odon Underground Graves.

The Odon Church lies at the center of Church Town, past these Underground Graves. But now it is an unpopular, derelict church. For rumor has it that residents of Odon all go insane.

This begs the question about the Great One’s freedom to operate from the confines of the chapel. What is it about the area that welcomes the deity’s presence? In all likelihood, it isn’t so much Oedon Chapel as it is the Tomb of Oedon. The many examples of gods responding to human prayers made at their graves affirms that the Great Ones’ old forms in eternal rest open a window to the earth still. So long as it is within the close vicinity of the body, the spirit can more easily communicate with the living. And as we can witness, an entire graveyard named for Oedon sits just beneath the church. Most notable towers the grave monument at the center, similar to Martyr Logarius’ memorial but with the wise man statue of Old Yharnam. Rather than a generic cleric of the Healing Church, the figure may represent a specific individual buried there, the first grave whom the others were erected around. In other words, Oedon’s influence over the chapel is possibly because he lies entombed beneath it.

Indeed, the astral clocktower in Old Yharnam demonstrates the blood ministers’ early attempts to commune with Great Ones. If their stargazing bore fruits, one among them might achieve enlightenment from the experience, like Rom with Kos. That person leaving his human body behind with signs of transcendence would be an exciting development in the group’s research. Combined with Ludwig’s handling of the failures, and the treaters had the justification to become clergy, holding up a god as proof of their revelation with Ludwig as a prophet. The body was then placed in a new cemetery separate from Yharnam’s elder gods, the accompanying church positioned to add a workshop for Ludwig alongside the old one. Add to that, this younger god’s name (オドン) resembles the English ode (オード) and ancient Greek odeon (オデオン) related to ceremonial music and poetry, including prayers like in Christian liturgies.Therefore, the spirit existing only in voice to communicate was probably himself part of this burgeoning Healing Church once upon a time — a traitor of Byrgenwerth, like Laurence.

Some might object to this notion, noting the Oedon runes we acquire in Pthumeru Ihyll and even Lower Pthumeru. However, the age of runes isn’t indicative of how long they have owned their name, as “Caryll” reminds. The Healing Church has been engineering Formless Oedon and Oedon’s Writhe in test subjects for quite a while, including Gascoigne’s daughter if we send the young girl to Iosefka’s Clinic to be experimented upon. Hers is the weakest of the Formless runes, likely owing to her far from nubile age as a woman. But just as her potential is uplifted thanks to her youth, many more ladies have developed partial understandings in their minds without a Great One to voice it, whether it be Blood Saints like Adella or the imposter Iosefka. The Oedon association is likely known only to his devotees, male or female; they are the ones storing such runes in the upper reaches of the chapel, away from prying eyes, after all. That church alone recognizes the Oedon connection.

But why? Wasn’t Oedon’s ascension exactly what Laurence and associates were hoping for? Their own number acquired higher thinking beyond the “half-wit” trapped on this mortal coil. If the Byrgenwerth spider could make them kin, then surely the wisdom of a genuine cosmic entity could share the secrets to divinity. And yet, work with Oedon made no apparent progress, the formless Great One all but forgotten when the Grand Cathedral was finally built. How did Laurence end up bargaining for godhood with Flora if Oedon is just as desiring of an infant? Granted, that assumes that the voice in blood sought children at that point. Yearning for a legacy isn’t universal among Great Ones, only those met in dreams. Even then, there is no guarantee that such gods come to desire a bloodline immediately or at the same rate. Oedon was liable to be overcome with success, initially. He reached the end of evolution and was under no obligation to share his secret, accepting that any colleague could fathom his insight. What stopped him from ignoring those left behind and indulging the freedom of the cosmos?

Put simply, the traitor betrayed his own. Despite all the ceremony with his burial, Oedon didn’t respond to the Healing Church’s prayers. Countless failed experiments were buried in the hopes that he would finish their ascension, but none produced results — not even a single lumenflower. As time went on, they doubtless realized that his silence was deliberate. Oedon wouldn’t be the stepping stone from which all their research would accelerate; he was just another sleeping god. The researchers had plenty of knowledge about Great One corpses from their days with Willem, making Oedon worthless as a specimen to study. But the ascended researcher didn’t care. Later, as the magic of transcendence faded, the god wished to be left with more than higher thinking to his existence. But by then, Laurence and company were already gone, his forgotten grave left overgrown and listing. For that reason, he cultivated a secret cult, clerics of little note who don’t share this with the new factions competing at the top. Rom’s little stunt with Moonside Lake then drove them mad, leaving Oedon without agents save one.

The resident of Oedon Chapel seems to have been born blind, everyone including his mother always telling him that he was useless. The bigoted man even compares him to a cockroach in Japanese dialogue, believing that he couldn’t have had a decent life at his social standing. Certainly, not even Blood Saints pay the man much attention, meaning that he struggles to receive any charity with his disability. He also has no love for Yharnam, chuckling at the prospect of the city meeting its end. Because he is blind, his other senses are surprisingly sharp, able to hear the sounds of people in their homes throughout the city and ultimately smell the beast hunter on us despite all the burning incense around him. However, he is helpless when attacked and keeps his body low to the ground by nature — there is little crime that this hunchback could get away with. Even when he requests that we bring survivors to the chapel, he does nothing nefarious in the end. By all indications, he is just a beggar who has begun squatting inside the abandoned Oedon Chapel for safety on the night of our hunt.

Such a resident might be a damning indictment on the Cathedral Ward, draping itself in the appearance of benevolence and aid for their fellow man. Even so, the blind man has somehow survived until now, perhaps on scraps from Oedon’s followers. Killing him, we do loot a middling Formless Oedon rune, suggesting that the Great One has reached out to the beggar lingering in the area. For someone who cannot see, a voice of god saying anything might give hope to a miserably lowly existence. As we witness, the beggar wants to save survivors in spite of caring not for Yharnam. The reason, besides the feeling of doing a good deed in itself, is because he wants a friend to talk to. Just sharing a small conversation with Arianna — a work habit, to be sure — gets the man all giddy. Prostitute or not, a woman’s flirtations are foreign to him, so just helping keep him alive has been enough to convince him that there are good people worth saving, though his self-esteem remains rock bottom. Even then, helping others vicariously through us gives him the confidence to ask for our friendship come the dawn.

As heartwarming as this development might seem, there is an undercurrent of manipulation here. That Oedon spoke to the beggar puts his agency into doubt. Obviously, the Great One saw potential in this “useless” human to advance his plans. How so? From our position, we see a beggar with every reason to sit on the sidelines as Yharnam burns nonetheless feel compelled to save people, further feeling rewarded even when they continue treating him like background scenery. And when the one person with the blood Oedon needs arrives, he gets especially pleasured. He might be feeling useful, but the euphoria could be because it is to Oedon, not the citizens of Yharnam. True enough, the Japanese description of the Oedon runes mention his “unaware” adherent, not necessarily plural as the localization attests. The chapel note confirms that his mad followers were very much aware of their master, so the only person unaware of his revering should be the beggar advancing the deity’s plans after receiving contact.

Moreover… even I who asked you perchance, um, was a little useful. That’s a first in my life… Ohh, I am so happy… heehee! Heeheehee… hee..

Basically, the chapel dweller has been subtly influenced by Oedon since before the Old Yharnam Incident. Such mental nudging doesn’t necessarily take away his full agency; his feelings doubtless do come from a desire for friendship and belonging. But loneliness can only explain his behavior in part. The impetus for saving people comes from that inexplicable urge of the conscience, the voice whispering at the back of his head — and it just so happens to come from god. Everything after that was at least magnified because his good deeds aligned with his hidden master’s goals. Considering that the man is blind to Oedon’s touch as much as the rest of the world, perhaps the formless Great One only impressed his will on the beggar out of desperation with his limited pool of contacts. But when the others consciously captivated lost their minds without his voice, the one with a lingering whisper remained sane and ended up bringing the mother he needed within reach.

This was convenient for Oedon, since we happen to reveal the chapel to him again on that same night. With his sleeping body no longer blind to the world around it, the Great One in blood pounces immediately on the situation. And after successfully impregnating Arianna with his child, she soon gives birth in the sewers leading to the god’s tomb. After that, Oedon takes no further action before the night dawns; we are free to kill his offspring without consequence. Was the Great One not paying attention after sharing relations with the prostitute, or is he indifferent to the status of his legacy so long as he produces one? Perhaps his wrath is just forthcoming, Oedon plotting to curse the chapel grounds in lieu of the individual responsible for slaying his infant. In the end, a selfish god isn’t our concern. The baby Great One possesses a third umbilical cord for insight, so if the god wants to complain, he should first consider how he will just be trading one newborn for another.

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