All Hallow on the Eve 2026 - Scariest Video Game Monsters - Ludwig the Accursed (Bloodborne)
"Ah, you were at my side all along... my true mentor... my guiding moonlight..."
Out of the previous three monstrosities that we've covered thus far, Ludwig (the Accursed) has to be the most pronounced and intricate semi-antagonist to a horror series that we've seen thus far. If you can image but for a moment in time, a video game capable of combining the pure duality of gothic-Victorian architecture, pre-industrial technology, and blissful Lovecraftian/cosmic horror all in one neat, terrifying, and exhilarating experience, then you have a game like Bloodborne.
Now think for a moment what lengths it must take to produce a convincing character who is neither evil nor good, whose original purpose was to elevate a culture from its predominant era and bring about a change, who's one goal was to emancipate a populus while also succumbing to disfiguring indulgence...
If I'm not making sense, that's because this game is super hard to explain. Just as it was for a noble who had taken up arms in the form of light, just to cascade into eternal darkness. This is the story of Ludwig, the Accursed (who will simply be called Ludwig for the remainder of this article).
Good hunter, have you seen the thread of light? Just a hair, a fleeting thing, yet I clung to it, steeped as I was in the stench of blood and beasts. I never wanted to know, what it really was. Really, I didn't.
Ludwig was the founder of what's known as the Healing Church in Bloodborne. The Healing Church (a very quick synopsis) was an organization that utilized the "blood of beasts" to heal unhealable afflictions and strengthen others who followed its order. It wasn't until later that the blood began to transform certain individuals into cosmic monstrosities and, as was the responsibility of the church that administered the blood, sought to dispose of those who had transformed under the blood's influence.
The blood that healed any ailment soon became an addiction to many, hence their transformations across the lands. Ludwig was one of the first of the Healing Church's disciples and soon gained renown for his courage and leadership during the battles that followed against the Vilebloods, and the transfigured entirely. He was a hero amongst men, who had discovered a fleeting light within the bloodshed and the dark. A light that soon absorbed itself amongst his sword, as it mentored him, providing focus and, ultimately, proving his worth as much as it proved its own.
Yet it was this light that would lead him astray...
Once known as the "Holy Blade", he wields the "Moonlight Greatsword" (a staple weapon in all Fromsoft video games and a legendary weapon) and continued to fight the beasts that plagued his lands. Though eventually he had lost his humanity by succumbing to the bloodlust that he so desperately fought against, becoming a monster himself. He keeps to the dark now, forming a river of blood full of corpses where other hunters (such as he once was) find and attempt to subdue him, only to fall to his Holy Blade.
When one battles Ludwig, he is trapped within his accursed and beastly form, lunging at the player like some ravenous stalker. Yet, when Ludwig finally finds himself within the light of his Holy Blade, he becomes more human again, if only for a moment. It's here that he fights like his former self, as a hunter, as a knight, as a defender of the people and that of the Healing Church.
His character closely resembles those from the Berserk manga series, a fallen hero who's been sworn to darkness, only to forget one's own humanity aside from a few circumstantial instances, who rages on and persists as an animal more than a man. It's a horrendous fate for any, especially a hero of old, someone who had once been renowned, now taken by the same plague that he once fought against...
Ludwig is Bloodborne's most tragic character.
Not protagonist, not antagonist, but at the very least a "character". A character who, much like our own while playing through the game, has a reason to fight yet, can still become a deformed beast through the tragedies, the violence, and the madness that breeds throughout the world of the game.
He had trained other hunters as "Spartans", warriors without fear who upheld their own strength. Yet, throughout his endless battles against denizens who were once his own kin, perhaps it was that thought of betrayal, or the countless bloodshed that had led him towards his own insanity and change...
Regardless, out of the prior three video game "monsters" mentioned this All Hallow on the Eve, Ludwig could take on all three at once and still emerge triumphant. Yes, even Nemesis wouldn't stand a chance against Ludwig. Afterall, a missile launcher is nothing compared to the famous Moonlight Greatsword.
All Hallow on the Eve 2026 - Scariest Video Game Monsters - Ludwig the Accursed (Bloodborne)
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