Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault (not explicit) (Check the bottom of chapter for chapter summary if you want to skip the chapter).
Dorian's world was a lot different than Johann and Old Gehrman's. Due to pollution and a process called climate change much of the planet's environment had become toxic.
In the area where Sunny was living, there was a large air-filtration system that kept things easy for citizens.
But for the people on the Outskirts, they had no such privilege. Breathing in air that burned the lungs and poisoned the body. It was the suffering of these tens of millions of people that allowed for the rest of humanity to live comfortably.
Though it was on a much larger scale and far more brutal, it was not unlike what had happened in Yharnam.
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Gehrman obviously wasn't keen on this system, but due to his skill and luck he was able to exploit it in his past lives. And since he wasn't immediately suffering from it, he didn't have a drive to "set things right".
That being said, the fact that he could maintain this mindset meant that Dorian must not have been suffering from the brutal socioeconomic system either.
All of his life all he could remember was the cabin he lived in.
It was completely isolated, and it was surrounded by a vast wildlife that stretched on for kilometers. At least, it seemed too.
Dorian was not allowed to leave the house to explore further than what he could see from the window.
It might have seemed impossible to find such an isolated and random place, but the fact that there was wildlife actually made it very notable.
Such things were extraordinarily rare in the Waking World. So it wasn't hard for Gehrman to find out about "Protected Parks."
Places that fit the memories Dorian had.
They were places created to mimic the old nature of the natural world. Indeed, these were not pure havens of nature, none of those existed anymore. Instead, it was the affluent playing god by creating areas that appealed to a primal desire to be in the wild.
Since they could only be created by the exorbitantly rich, it wasn't difficult to track down where these Parks were located.
From the skies, Gehrman searched for a few days and nights until he finally found a place that sent him reeling in nostalgia.
These places were not supposed to have buildings on them, and everything he had seen so far indicated that there were absolutely no human structures in these parks. For some reason, this cabin was hidden.
Even from his high vantage point, he could not clearly make out the wooden home from above. Only after recognizing landmarks could he make the connection and pinpoint its location.
When he did, he folded in his wings and dropped.
In truth, he was not flying. He grew the wings with blood and he could make them feel like a part of his own body, but they were entirely unfamiliar.
Gehrman had resorted to flinging his body upward by manipulating the blood in his body. Then the large wings acted as a glider that allowed for easy air travel.
So when he got rid of the wings, he plummeted extremely fast.
At the last moment, he spread them out again, catching the wind and slightly slowing his landing. But he still hit the ground with a thunderous sound.
And then, before his eyes, was the cabin.
He shuddered and started to stalk towards the place.
As he did, memories came rushing back to him. Talking with Tokka and Aventine, reading books, and being with the beast.
The ugly thing was unbearable, just being in its presence sent shocks of revulsion through him. On top of that several restrictive and cruel emotions assaulted him. Shame, fear, and disgust clawed at him.
He stood before the unmarked wooden door.
On the inside there were two souls. One was in the living room, right behind the door. The other was in the attic. Both of them were simply normal humans.
But when Gehrman reached out his hand it was shaking. There was no way that he could call that thing a normal human.
He pressed his eyes shut tight.
He twisted the handle of the door. It was kept closed by three different locks. All of them shattered under his Ascended strength.
He pushed in the fragile wooden door and it was taken off its hinges.
Gehrman was methodical and quiet throughout all of this. He acted as if he was walking into his own house, not breaking into one.
A guttural sound of surprise echoed throughout the room.
Dorian flinched.
Gehrman flinched.
A loud creaking was heard and then the thing was standing.
He stood with an open mouth. A pale, bald head filled with wrinkles. Yellow teeth, and an unnaturally wide mouth. The thing was unpleasantly obese. It was not the kind of fat that one could get by accident, but instead one born of odious gluttony.
He wore blue overalls and nothing else.
His blotched skin fell out, revealing his horrible figure to the world.
Gehrman had planned to torture and kill him.
But at that moment he was frozen on the spot.
The beast also seemed terribly surprised. It blinked as if waking up from a dream.
"...Dorian?" It asked in a low, heaving voice.
Gehrman took a step back. He didn't mean to. He knew it was ridiculous to be afraid of a human. But every instinct stopped him in his tracks.
His body knew only to cower in fear of what stood before him.
"You look different," the beast said slowly. He started to walk forward, gaining more confidence after seeing the trembling boy before him. "You became an Awakened even though I told you not to. But you look…good…I think I'll forgive you…after punishing you."
The beast's pupils dilated as it took in its prey.
"Close your eyes, they look weird," he growled.
Gehrman was fully shaking, his entire body crawled with unbridled panic.
The beast now stood over him. Even though Gehrman had grown. He was still dwarfed by the thing in front of him.
"Are you ignoring my orders, boy?"
Gehrman's mouth opened, but no words came out. His eyelids flickered, his body trying its best to comply with the beast in front of him. His presence, his odor, his voice all forced Gehrman to break down.
He was on the verge of tears then.
Gehrman was about to cry when he heard a noise.
It was a small gasp.
The sound wasn't loud at all. In fact, Gehramn's enhanced senses were the only reason he heard it. The beast didn't even register it.
But Gehrman did.
He looked past the beast, in the doorway to another room stood a boy.
A mop of dark hair and big brown eyes peeked from behind the door frame. He was terribly small. If Gehrman had to guess, he wasn't even twelve years old.
The sight of the kid made Gehrman snap.
The beast was flung backward, his own blood in his arm pulling him away from Gehrman. He was pushed into a corner, the farthest place away from the boy.
Gehrman turned to the kid and looked at him with hollow eyes.
"Go upstairs. Don't come down until you count to 10,000."
The boy did not have a big reaction. He simply blinked and then did as he was told. Gehrman was sure that the child did not understand what was happening, but he knew an order when heard one.
The fact that Gehrman had used such a tone with the child disgusted him.
But it was the fastest way to keep him from seeing what happened next.
The beast groaned loudly.
"You-"
And then he couldn't talk.
Gehrman looked coldly at the thing as he forced the blood in the man to push in on his throat. Choking him. Confiscating his voice.
He showed no emotion as he let the beast breath before it passed out. He only let him take a shuddering breath in before closing his throat again.
The man started to scratch at his neck, but he soon forgot all about that as several holes suddenly appeared in him.
The blood in his veins poked itself through his own skin, causing it to leak out en masse. He quickly lost a gallon or two of blood. It was enough to make him pass out.
But Gehrman did not let him rest.
He took the fetid blood and spread it out, causing it to blanket the beast's entire body.
His face was one of dispassion, but an unseen aura of Madness poured out of him.
Agony, Frenzy and Obsession mixed to create a form of Hatred so powerful that it physically broke apart the beast.
The neurons in its brain frayed and died under the constant, overwhelmingly abhorrent stimuli.
And yet he didn't die.
He wouldn't die until Gehrman tortured the thing for much longer.
…
By the time the boy came down. He had counted to 100,000. It was dark out, and the lights were off.
Gehrman was kneeling in the living room. Motionless and empty.
The beast…was all around him.
Its form had been shredded and mangled beyond all recognition.
The air did not smell of the beast anymore. Instead, it was dominated by the overwhelming stench of blood.
It caused the boy's nostril to flare.
And that sound alerted Gehrman to his presence, shocking him out of his thoughtless trance.
The child froze as Gehrman's eyes turned to his own.
There was no emotion on either of their faces. And their body language betrayed no surprise, anger, or fear.
It was an entirely inhuman scene.
The two stared at each other in silence for a long while.
First it was a minute, then ten, then thirty.
Neither seemed willing to be the first to move or speak.
Eventually, it was an outside voice that broke the silence.
"Gehrman! Come out of the house immediately!"
The figure of the teenager surrounded by blood blinked slowly. The glowing rings of Madness in his eyes were dull and empty.
He looked away from the boy and slowly started walking toward the door.
His steps were silent, but indescribably heavy.
Despite the elimination of the beast, he still felt its weight pressing down on him.
Gehrman walked out under the night. Despite being far removed from the city, the pollution in the air still made it difficult to see more than a few stars. And the moon's visage was obscured by clouds.
The light was low, but Gehrman could see clearly.
The Transcendent known as Cor and two other Ascended stood waiting to greet him.
"What do you want?" Gehrman asked in a hollow voice.
After a beat of silence, Cor asked a question of his own.
"Which of you am I speaking to right now?"
Gehrman's face remained motionless, but a sliver of annoyance entered his voice and his being.
"What the hell are you talking about? You literally called out for me, who the hell else would I be?"
Cor seemed to falter a little at the deadpan response. He appeared to have expected something different.
"We found out who Dorian was, and who Aventine and Tokka were as well," Cor said. "Turns out they were all one person. An adopted child suffering from multiple personalities."
Gehrman glared at the man. He was in a very unpleasant mood and this whole conversation was not helping things.
"Let me ask again, what the hell are you talking about? I remember talking with those two clearly."
"Then what did they look like?"
Everyone remained perfectly still as Gehrman furrowed his brows. He opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out.
He grasped his forehead as he tried to think carefully about his two friends. They were the ones that kept him sane after the beast tortured him.
They talked him through those terrible times.
They…where had they come from?
He had lived in that isolated house. There was no one else around for several kilometers. But there were no other rooms set up for them. There were no other beds.
Did I…really make them up? Are those memories fake?
It felt like an impossibility. And yet, he had to face the facts that were currently being thrust in his face.
"Tell me, Gehrman. Are you really another soul, a true alien, or are you just another alternate personality?"
For one terrifying second he considered it.
Has anyone with Dorian's condition passed the First Nightmare before? It was an exceptionally rare thing to have, and though it did not cause a direct hindrance, the existence of multiple personalities in one person would invariably come with a slew of other mental issues.
What would happen if someone like that actually passed the trials of the Spell? Would it alter their being to fit those multiple personalities, making him a unique and special being?
…maybe it would.
But that was not what happened to Gehrman.
He could feel it in his soul.
There were countless examples that proved that Old Gehrman and Johann had truly existed. The most obvious of which being the fact that Paleblood was currently resting dormant in his Soul Sea.
Something like the [Contracted] Attribute would not be created by the Nightmare Spell, there was no doubt that there was a vast amount of tampering done to his being.
Maybe Dorian had multiple personalities, but that did not mean that Gehrman did.
It was not as if Aventine or Tokka had been overwritten by Old Gehrman and Johann. He did not hear their voices after all, only their memories.
"Even if this body had multiple personalities, it does not mean that I do. Everything I have told you is the truth. At most, my soul was attracted to Dorian because of his already fractured mind. There is nothing more to it."
The two Ascended looked at each other, sharing their concerns silently. Cor, on the other hand, simply looked straight ahead.
"We can't simply take your word-"
"Shut the hell up," Gehrman suddenly snapped.
The sharp anger cut through the air like an actual blade. Immediately all three warriors tensed and fell into battle stances.
"I've played your games, I've revealed all my secrets, and I've shown you countless acts of goodwill. I'm done with this," Gehrman's tired mind was suddenly boiling as the emotions he had kept in check overflowed. In his fragile mental state, it only took a little push to break his calm demeanor.
"You know what I am. Even if you don't believe where I came from or what I can do, you know that I am a Hunter. And as far as I can tell, you need me badly."
Cor bristled at the words, but he did not refute them.
"What is your point?" he asked.
"My point is that you can never fully trust me, you can never truly believe in me, we will never truly be allies," Gehrman snarled. A yellowish aura of Madness started to pour off him in waves. Though none of them could see it, Cor was able to picture in his mind the pain and chaos that exuded from the entity in front of him.
"But that doesn't matter. Because you are going to give me targets. You are going to send me to Gates and have me kill Nightmare Creatures. And I will kill them. I will slaughter tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of those abominations and offer their corpses to you on a platter. I will save millions of lives. And all you are going to do…" he paused, and concentrated all of his power into his words. Mustering the anguish and hate in his heart to engrave his words into their hearts.
"Is stay the fuck out of my way."
…
Saint Cor stood in a meeting room. Dozens of the highest Government officials, the most powerful mundane men in the world, all sat around a long oval table.
He stood before them and announced his plan to offer the man named Gehrman a unique authority that placed him above even other Ascended. He would be removed from the hierarchy of power and the chain of command. And in return he would slaughter 200 Nightmare Creatures a week.
Gehrman was given a Government communicator last week, and he was unleashed upon the powerful Gates that they were able to predict the appearance of.
…he single handedly killed entire armies of Nightmare Creatures and slew Tyrants with ease.
Video was taken of his actions. His unique attire made him seem more like a mythical figure than a man.
It had the intended effect.
All the mundane humans had seen the destruction wrought by creatures of the same Rank and Class. They had seen Saint Cor go against the same Nightmare Creatures and dispatch them with identical ease.
"All things considered, he may very well be on the level of Saints. He is the first person in history with a Divine Aspect. He is the only person with multiple Soul Cores. He has the highest ceiling of growth than anyone we have ever seen. And he is willing to part ways with the vast majority of his trophies. He only asks for the remains and Soul Shards of the Gate Guardian he kills. Additionally, he assured us that Contribution Points were unnecessary. He already possesses a wide array of frightening Memories, so there is no need for us to invest further in him."
To these people, the economic burden of such a person was just as important as their immeasurable talent.
In truth, the Government leaders had no idea how outclassed they were when compared to the Great Clans. They knew that they would lose in a fight between any one of the Clans, but they could not grasp the disparity between their power.
The thing that would make this proposal most appealing would be the fact that it was practically free. Or rather, it would be actively profitable, as Gehrman was willing to part ways with so much of his loot.
Cor had his reservations at first, but the conditions he put forth did a lot to assure him that this was the right move.
…in truth, he had nearly abandoned the idea after entering the cabin in Dovust Park. It was the most gruesome scene he had ever seen. Even Nightmare Creatures could not do what he did.
And yet, he understood it. That was because one of the employees who handled his file had left a note.
'Dissociative Personality Disorder can only form in victims of severe and repeated sexual assault as a child.'
…the man he tortured and murdered was the "Client" from the Psychological Report they found.
Arthur Dovust was the black sheep of the Dovust family. They were a corporate powerhouse, responsible for many innovations in Spelltech.
Arthur had been granted property in one of their "Protected Parks" as a way to keep him quiet and out of the public eye.
He had an extensive criminal record. And his activities were disgusting enough to get the entire family into serious trouble. So they kept him happy…and let him adopt young boys.
One of which was Dorian.
Cor did not blame him for removing such a stain from the earth. Not only that, but he had also helped free the child that was being assaulted at the time.
For this reason, the mention of Arthur Dovust never made it into his report. He only noted that he showed sadistic tendencies when met with extreme injustice and cruelty, but was able to hold civil conversation after a short amount of time.
In truth, Cor was still extremely frightened of the man.
As a Transcendent, he was confident in his ability to kill. But when he faced Gehrman that night, even with two other capable Ascended at his back, he felt that fighting him would only lead to certain death.
He tried to convey his reverence, wariness, and respect for Gehrman in this presentation.
In the end, no one was able to turn down the offer that man proposed.
It was signed into writing that day.
Gehrman was officially a member of the Government.
CHAPTER SUMMARY/TLDR:
Basically Dorain was SA'd by this guy who adopted him, this gave him Dissociative Personality Disorder. Gehrman goes to Dorian's original home, and has flashbacks/PTSD from seeing his abuser. But then snaps out of it after seeing another kid (who is Dorian's replacement victim). Gehrman then tortures and murders his abuser.
Afterwards, Saint Cor and two other nobodies confront him about his DID. After some soul searching, he realizes that Dorian did indeed have DID, but he himself doesn't. Old Gehrman and Johann are VERY real, they aren't imagined. However, it is likely that it was the DID that made Dorian such a suitable host.
Gehrman yells at Cor for being an asshole and he eventually tells him that he is going to Hunt for them and they are going to leave him alone. Cor draws up a plan and presents it to the Government higher ups and they approve, resulting in Gehrman officially being a Government employee (though he is not in the chain of command and therefore doesn't have to take orders).