History Characters / BerserkAntagonists

* BeastOfBattle: The Kushans make frequent use of magically altered and/or -controlled animals called Pishacha as shock troops, scouts, and terror weapons. Elephants and crocodiles are given increased intelligence, including the ability to walk upright and carry weapons; tigers become horse-sized and gain MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily; whales are transformed into nightmarish elephant/fish monsters that sink ships with ease.

* TheMagocracy: While it may not have always been this way, with Ganishka in charge and Daiba as his right-hand wizard the empire is ruled by those with magical powers.

* MysticalIndia: Their whole theme is based on TheThemeParkVersion of India, or specifically the real life Indo-Persian Kushan Empire. They've got an [[ReligionOfEvil evil religion]] based on UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, yogis and gurus with supernatural powers, turbans, elephants, exotic weapons, the whole shebang.

* MeaningfulName: IRL, Silat is a type of martial art indigenous to Indonesia and Malaysia. The usage of the term is similar to Kung-fu in China, where it's actually a catch-all term that encompasses a large variety of styles. It's a fitting name for a person who fights with such exotic weapons and unorthodox styles.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Their grotesque builds, large sizes and identical appearances leave unclear whether they are simply very disfigured musclemen or downright mutants, which would not be weird given what both the Kushan Empire and the Bakiraka Clan have among their ranks.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Like the Tapasa, it's hard to tell whether they were regular humans or some kind of mutates. They have truly inhuman traits, like possible nyctalopia, absurd diving abilities and exceedingly bizarre body shapes and sizes.

* ChildHater: Has this reputation in Falconia; if children get near his barns, he punishes them by controlling their bodies through magic to work an entire day for him. However, it turns out he has a very good reason to keep them away, as [[spoiler:the barns contain garudas, which might perfectly kill and devour a meddling kid.]]

* DontYouDarePityMe: He is embarrassed by the knee injury he got from Guts and his partners, pretending he is has just achy joints.

* EvilOldFolks: This guy's not your nice grandpa, what with the tyranny and human sacrifice. [[spoiler:Not at first, anyway. He joins the good guys eventually.]]

* LevitatingLotusPosition: Practices yoga as a way of focusing his magical powers, and likes to float high in the air sitting both lotus and half lotus style while he lets his magical conjurations do the fighting.

* SquishyWizard: He relies entirely on his magic to fight. While he's visibly in great shape for his advanced age judging by his yoga poses, he is probably neither a trained physical fighter nor young enough to become one, and clearly wouldn't last a second against Guts or Serpico in a hand-to-hand battle.

* MakingASplash: Able to fire high-pressure water from their trunks.

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: As a child, his mother tried to murder him in favor of his brother, leading him to kill them both in paranoid, heartbroken rage. This paranoia continued well into adulthood when he killed his father and began a campaign of conquest because he was that terrified of betrayal and death. Soon his own son tried to assassinate him, and in despair, he summoned the Godhand, sacrificed his son, and became a demon king figuratively and literally.]] He's still a vile individual, but knowing this it's no ''wonder'' he grew up to be this way.

* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:He sacrificed his own son to become an Apostle]].

* SimSimSalabim: Their whole theme is based on TheThemeParkVersion of India, or specifically the real life Indo-Persian Kushan Empire. They've got an [[ReligionOfEvil evil religion]] based on UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, yogis and gurus with supernatural powers, turbans, elephants, exotic weapons, the whole shebang.

* EthnicMagician: A wizard from a SimSimSalabim empire.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: After the Millennium Falcon Arc, it seems that [[spoiler:Ganishka's body has now been transformed into the proverbial Tree of Life whose branches spread all over the world.]]

* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: Wants to TakeOverTheWorld, and will use any means, however awful, to this end.

Daiba (ダイバ ''Daiba'') is a Kushan sorcerer under the employ of Emperor Ganishka, and the one behind most of the Kushan military's sorcery. Extremely knowledgeable about the inner workings of the world, he knows much about Apostles and Behelits, going so far as to create the Reincarnator, a "man-made" Behelit of sorts that can make demon soldiers. [[spoiler: He is also responsible for giving Ganishka the Behelit that would turn him into an Apostle.]]

Ganishka (ガニシュカ ''Ganishuka'') is a rogue Apostle, the only one refusing to submit to the Godhand. In his human form, he is an [[FatBastard overweight]], bearded, turban-wearing ruler whose mustache conceals an unusually wide mouth full of fangs. Extremely powerful, he began his campaign by holding Charlotte as his prisoner so he could marry her against her will and claim the crown of Midland since only a pureblood royal could contend for it. Ganishka then launched a genocidal war against Midland so that the Godhand would be forced to confront him.

Helped by his legions of {{Mooks}}, he has already personally fought Zodd and Guts in his Apostle form of a towering cloud of mist. [[spoiler:After failing to defeat Griffith in this form, he eventually resorted to changing himself into a gigantic tentacled monster (to the point of being too tall for anyone to see his face) made of demonic flesh known as Shiva and engaged the whole new Band of the Hawk and Midland's army in a massive FinalBattle, which results in his demise as he opens the breach that fuses the Astral and Natural worlds.]]

* HateSink: He repeatedly proves himself one of the most personally hateful characters in the story, between abusing Guts, putting him through TrainingFromHell, and even selling him to the pedophile Donovan for a cheap price. Gambino ends up dying when he drunkenly tries to murder his own son for [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild "killing" the only woman he loves]], which Guts had no control over and could not have prevented.

* BaldOfAwesome: They lack any hair in their bodies.

[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horror_manga_intro.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see them during [[spoiler: the Incarnation Ceremony]].]]

He is supposedly invincible but Guts makes a quick business of him. Watching him getting defeated by Guts is what made Griffith want Guts to join the band of the Hawks.

--> '''Bazuso:''' So?! Who wants to feel my legendary axe?!? COME ON!

The General of the Black Ram Heavy Iron Lance Cavalry. He leads his troops against Midland, causing high casualties that demoralize the king and his own generals. The Black Rams are intercepted by a disobedient Guts who charges Gien and his men head-on, with Gien being the first to be cut down.

* AnimalMotifs: His Black Ram Heavy Iron Lance Cavalry have helmets with curved horns, similar to bighorn sheep.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: The sad truth is that the Black Ram Heavy Lance Iron Cavalry are genuinely some of Tudor's finest knights. Compared to that of the Purple Rhino Knights as well as the Band of the Hawk, they never had much of a chance. Even [[MilesGloriosus Adon]] and his Blue Whale Knights had more resilience against the Hawks that lasted into the Battle of Doldery.

!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/FumihikoTachiki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Shingo Egami (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAge''), Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/SeanSchemmel (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAge'')

* EveryoneHasStandards: Downplayed, and perhaps subverted. Gambino referred to the late Donovan as a "freak", showing that he viewed that man’s desire to rape a young boy as sick and abnormal. Nevertheless, he must have at least tolerated Donovan’s sordid tastes during their association, and selling Guts to him was an intentional act of spiteful cruelty.

* AnAxeToGrind: Favors a heavy battleaxe, befitting his brutish and intimidating nature.

* DotingParent: He think his son is the best, most talented boy in the universe and cannot be convinced otherwise. As a result he has spoiled the boy and failed to curb his violent tendencies. This is Lampshaded when Guts calls him a "Dottard Daddy", which the Viscount mishears as [[DotingParent "Doting Daddy"]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: While he sees no problem in throwing away the life of a captured enemy soldier to his violent son, when his son attempted to murder a peasant, the Viscount is noted to have stepped in on the peasant's behalf.

The highest-ranking general in Tudor, and commander of the empire’s most powerful army, the Purple Rhino Knights, General Boscone (ボスコーン ''Bosukōn'') is both an expert battlefield commander and a OneManArmy in his own right. He leads the defence force at Doldrey, and is one of several reasons why the fortress remains impregnable. He is first seen confronting Adon about the fiasco in which he lost a hundred men to Guts, displaying his intolerance of irresponsibility and cowardice. Placed under the authority of Lord Gennon, Boscone treats the Governor with polite deference but is privately disgusted by Gennon's sexual tastes and frustrated by his master's ill-advised interference with strategy.

* FourStarBadass: He is both the highest ranking general and one of Tudor's strongest warriors.

Some years later, Gennon manages to rise through bribery rather than merit to the position of Governor-general and Supreme Commander of the Tudor Army's Northern battlefront, placing him in charge of the defense of Doldrey and Boscone's Purple Rhino Knights. He is intrigued when spies inform him that the Band of the Hawk will be attacking Doldrey, and sees this as an opportunity to win the prize he has lusted for ever since their parting. Gennon orders Boscone to take Griffith alive, but during the battle, he fears that Boscone will disobey his orders and personally takes command.

* AntagonisticGovernor: Serves as the governor of Doldrey and is not only an enemy of the Band of the Hawk, but sexually depraved to boot.

* SmugSnake: He thinks that he's unassailable because he has a mighty fortress, a powerful army, and an enormous fortune, but he didn't earn any of these things himself, fails to make proper use of them and ends up losing them because of his inflated view of his abilities.

* UnwittingPawn: Doldrey was captured only because this moron honestly saw Griffith as the love of his life and he thought the feeling was mutual. Something Griffith was completely aware off and didn't hesitate to take advantage off. When you think of it, that does come off as [[{{PetTheDog}} a little sad]]. [[{{NauseaFuel}} (but not too much)]]

!!! '''Voiced by:''' Ikuya Sawaki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Kendo Kobayashi (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' and ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''), Patric Tansor (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/DaveBMitchell (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', as Russell Nash), Ramón Canals (Spanish, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')

Bazuso (バズソ ''Bazuso'') is one of the earliest named adversaries faced by a young Guts at the beginnings of the Golden Age story arc. He's a rotund knight with an equally round helmet, which makes Guts call him a "teapot".

* AdiposeRex: If not royalty he is at least high nobility, and is rather fat. Judging by his son it runs in the family, although the boy posesses StoutStrength.

* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: They're named after the House of Tudor, the ruling dynasty of England, Wales and Ireland from 1485 until 1603. The original Dark Horse translation of the manga renders their name as "Chuder", but it is updated to "Tudor" in ''The Flame Dragon Knight''.

** As crazy as it sounds, had Adon never pulled that dirty stunt on the cliff, and later brought 100 men to track and kill them, Guts and Casca might not have ever have [[RelationshipSalvagingDisaster reconciled with each other]].

* ThisCannotBe: [[spoiler: His last words are ladden with this as Casca prepare to land the fatal blow on him.]]

!!!Voiced by: Riki Kagami (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk2016''), Frank Todaro (English, ''Anime/Berserk2016'')

* AnimalMotifs: Sea creatures. At first it's whales; he's the leader of the Blue Whale Knights, and his armor and helm are all designed after whales. In his last battle with Casca, he wears shark-themed armor while his brother's armor is designed after an Angler Fish.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Implied when he watches Guts kill Samson. He looks [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone shocked and horrified]] as his brother falls dead from a crushing blow to the head, implying that he genuinely cared for Samson... [[DirtyCoward of course, not enough to actively do anything about it. Rather he just sends more men after Guts instead of going up to face Guts himself]]. Some brother...

* StrawMisogynist: A nasty misogynist who always brings up Casca's sex as a reason why she shouldn't be involved in battle at all, but of course he gets proven wrong.

* IWasBeatenByAGirl: [[spoiler: Adon had boasted that no mere woman could beat him in a fight, until he was utterly trashed in his final duel with Casca.]]

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: [[spoiler:When Guts beheads Boscone, Tudor's soldiers gawk in disbelief that the undefeated Boscone met his end. Afterwards, Guts is hailed as a hero for defeating Tudor's strongest general.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When we first see him, he calls Adon a disgrace for getting one hundred mercenaries and his own brother killed in pursuit of a personal grudge and coming back alone. He practically scares the pants off Adon with his axe and angrily reassigns him to Antarctica before apologizing to Gennon for making a scene. This establishes that he is both a scary guy and a consummate professional devoted to honor and discipline.

* DirtyOldMan: Despite his advanced age his sexual appetite is insatiable. Unlike most examples he is only attracted to little boys, and is definitely villainous.

* IWantThemAlive: His number one order to Boscone is to capture Griffith alive, since Griffith is his LustObject.

* BeastOfBattle: The Kushans make frequent use of magically altered and/or -controlled animals called Pishacha as shock troops, scouts, and terror weapons. Elephants and crocodiles are given increased intelligence, including the ability to walk upright and and carry weapons; tigers become horse-sized and gain MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily; whales are transformed into nightmarish elephant/fish monsters that sink ships with ease.

* InterserviceRivalry: The other elements of the Kushan army look down on the Bakiraka Clan, who were driven from the empire because they supported the deposed former ruling family, while Silat is determined not to give up the chance to capture Griffith and win back his clan's freedom. Locus explains to Mule that the Kushan are made of multiple factions brought together by force, and that their internal divisions can be exploited.

* FragileSpeedster: So speedy that [[spoiler: he survives Guts' sword strike by dropping his urumis, switching to his katars to block it, realizing they would break anyway and finally jumping away to dodge it.]] It all happens in less then a second. But tripping him is all it takes to defeat him, and he dodges a lot because he knows that he can't shrug off a direct hit.

* PlayingWithFire: The female uses a special inflammable dust that ignites at the slightest spark.

* TheDragon: Ganishka's second-in command, and probably second only to Ganishka in terms of power.

The demonic soldiers of Emperor Ganishka, created through forbidden sorcery that Daiba has spent his whole life perfecting. This involves fusing together multiple chained-up apostles into a "demon womb" filled with amniotic fluid that acts as a kind of reincarnation vessel or artificial Behelit. Captive pregnant women are lowered into the vessel, where their unborn babies become infused with evil and tear their way out of their mother's bodies. The monstrous babies are promptly collected in cages and raised to kill. Although they are shown to be inhumanly ferocious, their actual battlefield effectiveness is surprisingly abysmal.

* DemonicPossession: They have the ability to capture and reform several entities, from living beings like humans and animals (including a specificaly infamous horse), to trees and snow. The only cure for those possessed is a quick death.

* MurderIntoMalevolence: Many of the spirtis that attacked Albion were those that were either tortured by religious fanatics, sacrificed to cults, or suffered other grisly deaths.

* KingMook: The group encounters a troll war chief in the Qliphoth, who is significantly larger and tougher than its lesser bretheren, using one unlucky troll as a living shield. It gets taken down by Isidro with relative ease.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: He calls Adon's behavior in the 100 man fight inexcusable, and swings down his axe as if to kill Adon before stopping short and revoking his command authority.

!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/KoujiIshii (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk2016''), Creator/JamiesonPrice (English, ''Anime/Berserk2016'',credited as "Taylor Henry")

* BodyHorror: Judging for their looks, ''all'' of the skin in their bodies is heavily scarred to the extent of desfiguration. The kind of TrainingFromHell they must have endured is unimaginable.

* AdaptedOut: Both the 1997-98 anime and ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' cut them from their treatments of the Golden Age Arc. Apparently they couldn't spare the run time or animation budget.

* AlasPoorVillain: A cruel, psychotic despot though he was, his last thoughts end up being simply [[spoiler:reflecting on his life and wondering where his men went, because in his current state, he can no longer recognize them]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:Despite fearing his son his whole life, and despite said son having orchestrated his assasination, he still loved him... which was why he was the sacrifice through which Ganishka was reborn as an apostle]].

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: As a child, his mother tried to murder him in favor of his brother, leading him to kill them both in paranoid, heartbroken rage. This paranoia continued well into adulthood, when he killed his father and began a campaign of conquest because he was that terrified of betrayal and death. Soon his own son tried to assasinate him, and in despair he summoned the Godhand, sacrificed his son, and became a demon king figuratively and literally.]] He's still a vile individual, but knowing this it's no ''wonder'' he grew up to be this way.

* VillainousUnderdog: Strangely, this is his relationship to Griffith, though to characters within the story, it seems like it's the opposite. On paper, Ganishka has thousands of demonically-enhanced monsters, hundreds of thousands of troops, and the resources of the world's largest nation, while also being one of the most powerful Apostles on the planet, while Griffith starts off with no evident abilities beyond his great charisma and only a few thousand soldiers at most. But Griffith has the flow of causality on his side, and therefore every time him and Ganishka come to blows, circumstances always turn out as good as possible for Griffith and as bad as possible for Ganishka--and while Ganishka is an Apostle, Griffith is an incarnation of the God Hand, and miles above him on every level. He is doomed by fate itself to only ever be an impressive foe for Griffith to vanquish, and the one time they properly face off, Ganishka quickly realizes he is ''utterly'' outclassed.

* BeardOfEvil: An evil sorcerer with an extra long beard.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even he, the guy who thought up the Reincarnator, protests the heinous method by which Ganishka intends to transcend apostlehood. He also pleads with Shiva-Ganishka to cease crushing the Kushan soldiers beneath his colossal new feet while marching across the battlefield, but the emperor's mind is so broken by his transformation that he can no longer hear or even recognise Daiba.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: He only wears simple pants, although in this case it is not for fanservice, given that he is a very, very old guy with all the looks of an ascetic lifestyle.

* CombatPragmatist: Uses the rocking motion of a boat to make Mule loose his footing, and twice tries to kill Isidro with concealed weapons.

* WorthyOpponent: He tries to treat Guts as one, but the latter isn't particularly impressed.

* AbusiveDad: During the eleven years that he was Guts' adoptive father, Gambino gave the boy beatings, cut him on the nose with a sword, forced him to fight as a child soldier, sold him to be raped by a pedophile, and finally attempted to murder him. His verbal and emotional abuse had a deeply scarring effect as well, since the last thing he ever told him was that he deserved to die and that everything was his fault.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Gambino put Guts trough relentless combat training practically from the moment he could walk so he would be profitable to him as a mercenary. When he eventually tries to kill Guts, it all explodes in his face since the twelve-year-old boy is already a far better fighter than he ever was and Guts kills him in a reflex action.

* MyGreatestFailure: Nope. Not kidding. Way at the beginning of the Golden Age arc, Sys was dying of tuberculosis with Guts at her side. The other women who were attending her were shocked and ashamed that Gambino went off to fight in a battle rather than be by Sys' side at her time of need. As Guts grew up, Gambino brushed off Sys' absence; however, Gambino later revealed in his delirious sleep that he ''did'' try to get back to Sys in time, but he was too late. It's safe to say that after this happened to Gambino, he began wallowing in guilt at not being able to get back to Sys before her death, and took out his feelings on the only person nearby: [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead his adopted son, Guts]]. [[DeconstructedTrope His misplaced hatred towards Guts would ultimately lead to his downfall]].

* SmallRoleBigImpact: He only appears for a couple of chapters, but his crappy parenting would shape Guts's personality for years to come and start a chain reaction that led up to the Eclipse. His constant abuse, lack of validation, and selling Guts for sex ensured that Guts had no self-esteem and an inability to trust and connect with other people. This would lead to Guts seeing himself as Griffith's inferior after he overheard Griffith talking about whom he considers his equal, and leaving the Band of the Hawk and Casca in pursuit of that dream because he didn't realize his place was with them all along. This leads to Griffith's breakdown and the first chain of events leading to the Eclipse. Once Guts lost all of his loved ones, he reverted back to how he was after he killed Gambino, except even more isolated and angry.
* TheSociopath: He's all of Guts' worst, most barbaric and sadistic traits rolled into one, minus anything remotely positive or redeemable, explaining where he got them from in the first place.

* SpikesOfVillainy: His pauldrons and counters end in points much like the horns of a rhino.

* AdaptedOut: Left out of Guts' childhood in the 1997-98 anime, apparently sparing Guts from the rape that happened in the manga. ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc I'' puts him back in as Guts' rapist, albeit as part of a rather confused flashback.

Adon Corbolwitz is the big and bragging leader of the Tudor Empire's Blue Whale Knights. A StrawMisogynist who thinks that all women should StayInTheKitchen, he slanders Casca by calling her a whore who got her position by sleeping with Griffith and claims that he will teach her why women shouldn't be allowed on the battlefield. Adon makes much of his self-described military cunning and the "secret techniques" he claims have been passed down in his family for generations, but in reality he's a DirtyCoward and MilesGloriosus who doesn't live up to his boasts. Also a disaster as a leader and strategist, he's still somewhat dangerous to the protagonists if only because of his considerable brute strength and the fact that he lacks any sense of shame about stooping to the [[ISurrenderSuckers lowest of dirty tricks]].

While he manages to overwhelm Casca with his attacks because she is on her period and suffering from fatigue, Guts intervenes and serves him a humiliating defeat by cutting off a large part of his face and his right eye. Unfortunately at this moment Casca collapses from her exhaustion and Adon shoots Guts in the side while he's reaching to save her, sending both of the falling over a cliff into a river. When the two of them pull themselves together and try to rejoin the Hawks, Adon intercepts them in a forest and attacks with at least one hundred mercenaries and his own giant younger brother Samson in his vain attempts to kill them. Chastened after this incident and stripped of field command by General Boscone, he stands in Casca's way for the last time during the battle of Doldrey. [[spoiler:Being far the better fighter at her full strength, Casca defeats the slimy Adon once and for all and raises the Hawks' flag over the castle]].

** [[spoiler: In the 1997 Anime, Casca performs the same action, only she slices higher and bifurcates Adon's head horizontally, cutting a nice hairline under his eyes and above his nose. Adon stumbles backward screaming before falling flat on his back. Since it doesn't show Adon's head afterwards, it's implied that Casca cut clean through his head, and his brains spilled on the ground.]]

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: More notable in the anime where his recurring role lends him to comedic buffoonery. After two previous encounters ending with Adon screwing up and running away, he's able to unhorse Casca when he finally has a head to head confrontation with the Hawks. Even though Casca had a case of WorfHadTheFlu at the time, he also takes on a squadron of Hawks by himself and tears through them with ease. Adon may be a cowardly ButtMonkey but that doesn't mean he can't be a threat.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: He was commanded by General Boscone to stay in the castle during the Battle of Doldrey so he wouldn't screw anything up anymore than he already did. However, Adon's capacity for failure made even that a fiasco.

* ISurrenderSuckers: While fighting Casca inside the castle and finding himself outmatched, he suddenly kneels in front of Casca and begs to be spared. Casca and even Adon's own men are disgusted by this shameless grovelling, but it distracts Casca enough for him to shoot her with a poisoned crossbow bolt that will quickly paralyze her.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: His full plate armor is three times thicker than normal, and Adon claims that Samson could get buried by a rock slide without even being dented. Unfortunately his opponent happens to be Guts, against whom ArmorIsUseless.

The highest ranking general in Tudor, and commander of the empire’s most powerful army, the Purple Rhino Knights, General Boscone (ボスコーン ''Bosukōn'') is both an expert battlefield commander and a OneManArmy in his own right. He leads the defence force at Doldrey, and is one of several reasons why the fortress remains impregnable. He is first seen confronting Adon about the fiasco in which he lost a hundred men to Guts, displaying his intolerance of irresponsibility and cowardice. Placed under the authority of Lord Gennon, Boscone treats the Governor with polite deference but is privately disgusted by Gennon's sexual tastes and frustrated by his master's ill-advised interference with strategy.

* BigOlEyebrows: Not only are his eyebrows huge, they're kind of shaped like batarangs. Appropriately, they make him look macho and serious.

* SpikesOfVillainy: His pauldrons and couters end in points much like the horns of a rhino.

!!! '''Voiced by:''' Shoji Oki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/KazukiYao (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Fred Velde (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997'', Episode 5), Rick Mann (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997'', Episodes 15-16), Creator/SteveKramer (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')

Some years later, Gennon manages to rise through bribery rather than merit to the position of Governor-general and Supreme Commander of the Tudor Army's Northern battlefront, placing him in charge of the defense of Doldrey and Boscone's Purple Rhino Knights. He is intrigued when spies inform him that the Band of the Hawk will be attacking Doldrey, and sees this as an opportunity to win the prize he has lusted for ever since their parting. Gennon orders Boscone to take Griffith alive, but during the battle he fears that Boscone will disobey his orders and personally takes command.

* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: This is what he intents to do when he gets his hands on Griffith in the Battle of Doldrey, except he never gets the chance.

* TheHedonist: What he cares about most is his own pleasure, and especially sex. This is emphasized more in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' where he has an enormous hot springs installed on top of the fortress, and frolics there with large numbers of frisky, attractive young men.

* BeastOfBattle: The Kushans make frequent use of magically-altered and/or -controlled animals called Pishacha as shock troops, scouts, and terror weapons. Elephants and crocodiles are given increased intelligence, including the ability to walk upright and and carry weapons; tigers become horse-sized and gain MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily; whales are transformed into nightmarish elephant/fish monsters that sink ships with ease.

Silat (シラット ''Shiratto'') is a proud WarriorPrince of the Bakiraka (バーキラカ ''Bākiraka'') clan first encountered by Guts as an opponent in a tournament during his one-year absence from the Band of the Hawk. Using his clan's martial arts techniques and an array of [[ExoticWeaponSupremacy exotic weapons]] he defeats all comers in the tournament, until he is bested by Guts. Soon after he is hired by Midland to lead an ambush on the outlawed Band of the Hawk, managing to put Casca in dire straights, but Guts intervenes and defeats him, forcing him to withdraw. For a while afterward he is not seen as part of the story.

* AgentPeacock: He uses graceful weapons such as his urumis, likes to perform and fights hand-to-hand in SheFu style. So yeah, he appears a tad fruity... but Silat is just another proof that judging a book by its cover is a ''very'' bad idea in the ''{{Manga/Berserk}}''-verse.

* CharacterDevelopment: In the Golden Age arc, Silat is initially a proud and spoiled exiled prince. He receives a wake-up call after being twice defeated by Guts and experiencing the dishonour of his house. Upon realizing the harshness of the world, he becomes more reserved, intelligent and cautious. He also trains to improve his abilities.

* ImplausibleFencingPowers: The tricks he is able to perform with his exotic weapons are way past what can be done in real life. He makes his chakra fly in any trajectory he wants and still have them come back to him like a PrecisionGuidedBoomerang, while claiming the ability to manipulate each of a total of ten urumi blades independently like CombatTentacles! How does he do it? Rule of cool, son. RuleOfCool.

* WouldHitAGirl: Tells Casca that wearing a sword means she's a warrior, and that he won't go easy on her just because she's a woman. Kind of a refreshing contrast to StrawMisogynist Adon Coborlwitz in that he doesn't assume that girls make inferior warriors, although it also means he would have chopped her head off without hesitation if Guts hadn't arrived.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: As accustomed for the Kushan.

Ganishka (ガニシュカ ''Ganishuka'') is a rogue Apostle, the only one refusing to submit to the Godhand. In his human form he is an [[FatBastard overweight]], bearded, turban-wearing ruler whose mustache conceals an unusually wide mouth full of fangs. Extremely powerful, he began his campaign by holding Charlotte as his prisoner so he could marry her against her will and claim the crown of Midland, since only a pureblood royal could contend for it. Ganishka then launched a genocidal war against Midland so that the Godhand would be forced to confront him.

* TheAssimilator: After [[spoiler: turning into his Shiva form, anyone he crushes underfoot reform into [[EldritchAbomination truly ghastly things]] that look like Ganishka’s face with tentacles]].
* ArchEnemy: Though his beef is with the Godhand in general, he considers Griffith/Femto to be his arch nemesis in particular because he is the greatest obstacle to his conquest of Midland, as well as the beacon around whom all the other Apostles in the world are gathering. His vow is to defile Griffith's perfect beauty.

* EnemyMine: He offers this to Guts after realising the Black Swordsman is as much Griffith's enemy as he is. Guts, while glad that the apostles aren't above infighting, declines.

* SmarterThanYouLook: He's vile, cruel, looks like a buffoon and is generally one of the most unpleasant people in the entire manga, but one would be gravely mistaken to ever call him stupid.

* BlackEyesOfEvil: He has these ''very'' weird, almost completely pitch black eyes, which are never explained, and is ([[spoiler:initially]]) a powerful antagonist.

* EvilSorcerer: He controls magic of a foreign and unholy nature, and is a very serious antagonist for the heroes in Vritannis.

* InTheHood: Uses one to hide himself in Falconia.

The demonic soldiers of Emperor Ganishka, created through a forbidden sorcery that Daiba has spent his whole life perfecting. This involves fusing together multiple chained-up apostles into a "demon womb" filled with amniotic fluid that acts as a kind of reincarnation vessel or artificial Behelit. Captive pregnant women are lowered into the vessel, where their unborn babies become infused with evil and tear their way out of their mother's bodies. The monstrous babies are promptly collected in cages and raised to kill. Although they are shown to be inhumanly ferocious, their actual battlefield effectiveness is surprisingly abysmal.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: They are probably a terrifying infantry - it's just that their only deployment in the series is against monsters no infantry has true chance against.

* SeaMonster: Daiba decsribed them as superweapons capable of slaying ten ships by themselves.

* GoldfishPoopGang: In just about any other story, he and his pirates ''probably'' would have come across as a more serious antagonist, but when he's up against [[BadassCrew Guts' crew]], who routinely deal with threats worse than him on a near daily basis, he's just an annoyance. Even after being assimilated by the Sea God, they still regard him as a joke.

* AnimalisticAbomination: It's a massive, hideous conglomeration of countless deep sea animals that's capable of possessing and assimilating all organic life.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[GhastlyGhost Malevolent undead]] created from those who died horrible, painful, and unsastified deaths. They now desire to take any form of flesh, regardless if it's still occupied.

Enigmatic but hostile beasts from the astral world.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted; unlike the ogres and trolls, the Kelpie does not originate from the Qliphoth, and the first one that attacked Enoch Village only did such as an opportunistic predator with no malice. In Elfheim, Isma manages to tame another one, and uses it to stop Isidro's antics.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Zigzagged; Gambino didn’t think twice about selling Guts to Donovan, but later passively refers to the bastard as a "freak" during his attempted murder of Guts, perhaps implying he loathed the concept of sexually exploiting children in general, but not enough to not give Guts (a perceived bad omen) over to a horrible fate, let alone feel guilt over it.

* MurderBySuicide: After Ganishka's defeat at Vritannis, Daiba orders the harashada to force both daka and pishacha to commit suicide so that they won’t fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

* MurderBySuicide: After Ganishka's defeat at Vritannis, Daiba orders the harashada to force both daka and pishacha to commit suicide so that they won’t fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

* HateSink: Donovan is a mercenary and sadistic pedophile who rapes Guts for a meager sum of three silver coins early in his life. This act traumatizes Guts for the rest of his life and nobody spares a glance when Guts kills him on the battlefield a mere day later.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: After Ganishka's defeat at Vritannis, Daiba ordered the harashada to force both daka and pishacha to commit suicide so that they didn't fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

* DrivenToSuicide: After Ganishka's defeat at Vritannis, Daiba ordered the harashada to force both daka and pishacha to commit suicide so that they didn't fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

* DrivenToSuicide: After Ganishka's defeat at Vritannis, Daiba ordered the harashada to force both daka and pishacha to commit suicide so that they didn't fall into the hands of the enemy alive.

[[folder:Jötunn]]

* EyeScream: Griffith does this to their warlord.