Timeline, labeled as theory

Before the hunt: evidence and limits

• Pthumerian past: the Central Pthumeru Chalice describes Pthumerians as the builders of the old labyrinth. Great Pthumeru Ihyll describes a change from guardians of sleeping Great Ones to a people with a monarch. This establishes an internal development, not a dated reign list.
• Byrgenwerth discovery: Alfred says scholars found a holy medium in the tombs and links that discovery to the Healing Church and blood healing. This is an in-world historical account; it does not prove every later theory about the medium's identity.
• Willem and Laurence part: the Grand Cathedral skull memory shows Laurence leaving and Willem warning him about the old blood. The memory supports their disagreement; it does not show an exact founding date or a meeting of every later faction.
• Earlier hunters and the Dream: the Abandoned Old Workshop cord ties a pale-moon encounter to the conception of the Hunter's Dream. The physical workshop and Gehrman connect this to the old hunt, but the cord does not give a year or identify every participant.
• Old Yharnam burns before our arrival: Djura describes the district as already burned and abandoned. Do not turn the order in which the player visits Old Yharnam into the historical date of its destruction.
• The Choir's contact: Great Isz Chalice says it allowed an audience with Ebrietas; Augur of Ebrietas links inquiry in the old labyrinth to the Choir's establishment. These support a research history without fixing every stage against the Mensis timeline.
• Mensis and Mergo: the Wet Nurse cord links an audience with Mergo to the disastrous stillbirth of the scholars' brains. It establishes the connection, not that the ritual started only when the player killed Rom.

The hunter's night: main-path order

• Clinic and Central Yharnam: blood ministration opens the story; Father Gascoigne gates the route to Cathedral Ward. Cleric Beast is an optional branch, not a required first victory.
• Grand Cathedral: defeat Amelia, then inspect the skull. The memory provides the password for Forbidden Woods and advances the world to night; Amelia's death and inspecting the altar are separate actions.
• Forbidden Woods to Byrgenwerth: pass the Shadows of Yharnam, enter Byrgenwerth and reach Rom in Moonside Lake. Rom's defeat reveals the Blood Moon and changes Yahar'gul and several NPC quests.
• Yahar'gul to Mensis: defeat The One Reborn, inspect the seated mummy to reach Lecture Building 2F, then enter the Nightmare of Mensis. Defeat Micolash and climb to Mergo's Wet Nurse.
• The ending branch: return to the burning Hunter's Dream. Submitting to Gehrman ends the hunt; refusing leads to his fight. Consuming three cords before defeating him opens the Moon Presence confrontation instead of the ordinary replacement ending.

Where The Old Hunters fits

The DLC is a nightmare route entered during the hunt, not a dated flashback played in straightforward chronological order. Kos Parasite describes Kos's corpse reaching the coast; Accursed Brew records villagers' skulls being searched for eyes. Those are evidence of an earlier violation. The Orphan's final spirit scene resolves that nightmare, but does not establish a complete mortal-world date or prove that all nightmare events occur simultaneously.

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