Alvin M. Keeling 
The choir was made up of the most prominent members of the Healing Church of transmitted by blood. They were a group of intellectuals who were also researchers, doctors, clerics, explorers of ancient labyrinths and hunters. Its seat was located on the upper floor of the Great Cathedral.
As for the scholars of Byrgenwerth and the followers of the School of Mensis, two other institutions of transmitted by bloodthe purpose of the Choir was the ascension of humanity, through the understanding of the Extraordinary Truth of the Cosmos, proper to the Great Beings.
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
What distinguishes the Choir of the School of Mensis and Byrgenwerth is the method used for the ascent towards cosmic truths. Indeed, the explorers of the choir have deepened the exploration of the ancient labyrinths, reaching the region of Isz.
There they found Ebrietas, the Daughter of the Cosmos: a Great Being abandoned by her fellows and not hostile towards human beings. Ebrietas, indeed, was transported to the dungeons of the Great Cathedral, where she began a collaborative relationship with the scholars of the Chorus.
Much like Mergo, Ebrietas was the surrogate daughter between a Great and a Pthumerian woman. She was the source of the Old Blood that flooded the streets of Yharnam: through cooperation between Ebrietas and the Chorus, the Church of Healing was able to tap into the miraculous fluid.
The Choir’s Research Method
Direct contact with Ebrietas, on the other hand, had additional advantages. The Choir priests have acquired extraordinary knowledge and skills, as well as the ability to practice arcane magic. There was an intuition among this exceptional knowledge: the use of water to reach the eyes of knowledge that Willem wrote about in Byrgenwerth. If the infusions of ancient blood improve the physical abilities of the men, an injection of liquid inside the skull could power the brains of the eyes, giving the men insight.
Ideas as the main route to ascension were an intellectual debt of the Choir to Byrgenwerth, as well as the idea that humanity should abandon its earthly characteristics in order to evolve to a higher degree. Willem’s influence was also visible in the choir headdress, which consisted of a headband that, by covering the eyes, limited the wearer’s earthly sight while increasing their inner awareness.
But what was the meaning of water? Fans don’t know for sure, but can make educated guesses. The Great Beings and water have a connection. Rom lived inside the Lake of the Moon, while Kos came from the sea. Some liquids presumably contained microscopic invertebrates: tiny snails with cosmic qualities, which had already been discovered during the exploration of the Pthumerian labyrinths.
Additionally, the Chorus used Lumenflowers, flowers that tracked the lunar cycle, to communicate with the cosmos, so much so that they used an area of the Great Cathedral to grow these plants. And, as fans know, the moon is responsible for the tides and is frequently associated with the presence of Greats like Oedon and The Presence of the Moon.
Research Hall and the genesis of the Choir
The first experiments in the Research Hall, chaired by Lady Maria many years before the birth of the Choir, were born of these intuitions. The method involved discrete injections of fluid into the skulls of Yharnam residents, a mixture of water and brain fluid which Research Hall theorized was the embryonic form of the inner eyes. These were experiments requested and approved by Master Willem at a time when the doctrine of Byrgenwerth was at its height.
However, this research resulted in anomalies. The massive infusions of knowledge were too much for the adult patients in the research room. Their heads swelled out of proportion, they went mad and they lost their sight. Only a small percentage of them were able to transform into anything resembling the Great. On the other hand, the Living Failures were mindless creatures unable to handle such large amounts of information.
Celestial Emissary
With the Living Failures, the Research Hall project was ruined, and there was a schism between Byrgenwerth and Healing Church, between Laurence and Master Willem, years later. Lady Maria’s achievements, however, were not all dismissed. Instead, another dark conviction crept into the Chorus: what if the Research Hall experiment failed because it was conducted on adults? What if human knowledge and earthly life experience had less impact on the minds of children?
As a result, the choir researchers made the decision to establish the orphanage. Formally, it was to appear as a charitable initiative of the Church of Healing: to provide refreshment to the many orphans of Yharnam who had been left without families due to the plague of beasts. However, following the path traced by the Research Hall was only an expedient.
The choir’s intuition was correct and their experiments actually worked. The children who received the choir treatment ascended to a higher level of knowledge, transforming into embryonic forms of the Great. On the other hand, one of them evolved to become the Celestial Emissary: a semi-divinity capable of allowing men to communicate with the Cosmos.
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