Yharnam

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Yharnam
Concept art
First appearance	Bloodborne (2015)
Created by	FromSoftware
Genre	Dark fantasy
In-universe information
Type	City
Ruler	Healing Church
Locations	Old Yharnam, Central Yharnam, Cathedral Ward, Upper Cathedral Ward

Yharnam is a fictional city that is the primary setting of Bloodborne, a 2015 video game developed by FromSoftware. Heavily featuring Gothic Revival architecture, the city was founded by and experienced rapid growth due to an organization known as the Healing Church. The Church, which discovered miraculous, occult blood in ancient catacombs beneath the city that could cure any illness, drew many people to Yharnam from across the land.^[1] It encouraged rampant xenophobia, with its residents, Yharnamites, resenting and mocking "outsiders". However, the use of the ancient blood had unintended consequences, as it began to indiscriminately transform those who possessed it into beasts, a plague that the Church attempted to suppress. Despite this, a phenomenon known as the Blood Moon brings about the city's downfall. When the player encounters Yharnam, most of its surviving inhabitants are either in hiding or already becoming beasts. Yharnam was praised by critics for its architectural and level design, as well as the subversion of classic Lovecraftian tropes in its lore and characters.