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1%% Official Portrait Guidelines: Character portraits should either be in portrait orientation or perfectly square if possible, and in landscape format only if there is no alternative. Portrait oriented and square portraits should be exactly 300 pixels wide, while landscape portraits should be either 300 or 350 pixels wide in any case, the longer measurement of a portrait should not exceed 1.5 times that of the shorter measurement. The primary character portrait—the one that is displayed by default—should always be a drawing by Miura if available, even if it is not in color. However, as long as Miura is the artist, color is preferred over black-and-white. Portraits from other adaptations may be added in drop-down boxes. Portraits should be photoshopped to erase blemishes and correct levels, color balance, and contrast.
2
3[[WMG:[[center: [- ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' '''[[Characters/{{Berserk}} Main Character Index]]'''\
4[[Characters/BerserkGuts Guts]] | [[Characters/BerserkGriffithFemto Griffith / Femto]] | [[Characters/BerserkCasca Casca]] | [[Characters/BerserkGutsCompanions Guts's Companions]] | [[Characters/BerserkBandOfTheHawk Band of the Hawk]] | [[Characters/BerserkKingdomOfMidland Kingdom of Midland]] | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/BerserkGodhandAndApostles Godhand and Apostles]]) | [[Characters/BerserkOther Other Characters]] | [[Characters/BerserkVideoGames Video Games]]]]-]]]
5
6'''BEWARE OF UNMARKED SPOILERS!''' ''While we make an effort to cover some of the most important spoilers, we cannot guarantee that every potential spoiler will be hidden, or that those that are will be hidden consistently. Character bios in particular are likely to discuss late events in the manga. Lastly, some tropes are going to be spoilers because of their mere presence. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!''
7----
8This page is for antagonists in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' who don't belong on the [[Characters/BerserkGodhandAndApostles Godhand and Apostles page]].
9----
10[[foldercontrol]]
11
12
13
14!Guts' Youth
15[[folder:Gambino]]
16!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/NorioWakamoto (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Yasunobu Iwata (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Robert Krakovski (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/DaveBMitchell (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', as Russell Nash), Joaquín Gómez (Spanish, ''Anime/Berserk1997'')
17
18[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gambino.png]]
19[[caption-width-right:300:He'll be back to kicking that dog any minute now...]]
20
21-> ''"Listen, Guts. If you want to survive on the battlefield, get by with your own brain and skills. Don't depend on others. People will do despicable things for their own ambition, or to survive. That's what it boils down to on the battlefield. Those who blindly follow others out here just get chewed up, spat out, and killed. Take it as fatherly advice. Don't even trust your own father out here."''
22
23Gambino (ガンビーノ ''Ganbīno'') is Guts' adoptive father. He headed the mercenary band Guts grew up in before joining the original Band of the Hawks. Before finding Guts, Gambino's lover Sys (シス ''Shisu'') miscarried and he agreed to take Guts along since it seemed to be the only thing that prevented her from going mad with grief.
24
25Gambino then trained Guts and taught him swordsmanship. But while he was good at his job of teaching the boy how to fight, he had no love for Guts as a father and hated him enough to sell him as a child prostitute for three silver coins and allow Donovan, one of his men, to have his way with him. He would only get worse after losing his leg to a cannonball during a battle, ending his career on the battlefield, and causing him to [[TheAlcoholic take to drinking]] and to put the blame of everything on Guts. One night when massively drunk, Gambino came into Guts' tent one night and [[OffingTheOffspring tried to murder him]], telling him that Sys should never have picked up Guts from his dead mother. He admitted to having sold Guts to Donovan, and when asked why, he called Guts disgusting, blaming him for Sys's death and telling him that the one who killed her could not be raised to be loyal like a dog. Guts killed Gambino in self-defense and fled the mercenary camp to escape the wrath of the other mercenaries.
26
27The traumatic childhood Guts experienced scarred him for life and for that reason, Guts HatesBeingTouched and is generally mistrustful of strangers.
28
29----
30* AbusiveDad: During the eleven years that he was Guts' adoptive father, Gambino gave the boy beatings, cut him multiple times with a sharp sword, forced him to fight as a child soldier, sold him to be raped by a pedophile, and finally attempted to murder him, most of it while trying to claim that ''he''--Gambino--was the good one. His verbal and emotional abuse had a deeply scarring effect as well, since the last thing he ever told Guts was that he deserved to die and that everything was his fault.
31* AdaptationalHeroism: Downplayed in ''Anime/Berserk1997''. Since Donovan is AdaptedOut, Gambino's most despicable act of selling Guts to be raped never occurs. In addition, the cannon blast only breaks his leg this time around, meaning he wasn't permanently relying on Guts so when he does try to kill him his rage is focused more on Sys's death rather than his own self-pity over being crippled.
32* AssholeVictim: While Guts carries a sense of guilt for killing him even in self-defense, this is only because he's the only father Guts ever knew. From an objective standpoint Gambino never did anything but hurt and abuse people, and there would have been little reason to mourn his death even if it hadn't been a direct consequence of him trying to kill Guts.
33* BuryYourDisabled: Gambino was handicapped during a battle when his leg was blown off by a cannon. He wasn't killed off because he was disabled, but his disability probably did play a role in Guts being able to overpower him.
34* CareerEndingInjury: He has to retire as an active mercenary after a messy leg injury.
35* CynicalMentor: His page quote pretty much sums up the philosophy that he taught to Guts.
36* DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery: If anything, having his leg blown off just made Gambino hate Guts even ''more''.
37* DrowningMySorrows: Gambino tried to get away from his career-ending and humiliating condition through alcohol.
38* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite being an AbusiveDad and a ruthless mercenary, he ''did'' seem to genuinely love Sys. When he is recovering from his crippling leg injury he deliriously expresses regret for not being there with her on her death bed, and a large part of his hatred for Guts stems from the fact that he thinks Guts is responsible for Sys's death because he's a bad omen.
39* EveryoneHasStandards: Downplayed, and perhaps subverted. Gambino referred to the late Donovan as a "freak", showing that he viewed a 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.
40* EvilCripple: Gambino only got meaner after he lost his leg, taking his bitterness out on other people and especially Guts.
41* EvilIsPetty: He sold out his own adopted son to be raped by a pedophile mercenary, for ''3 silver coins'', not revealing his part in this to Guts until he decided to rub it in the boy's face just before trying to kill him. Why did he do it? Because Gambino blamed Sys's death by the plague on Guts's evil luck, and said he was sick of Guts following him around like a lonely puppy.
42* EvilMentor: He taught Guts how to fight and kill only because a good ChildSoldier brings more money than a bad one.
43* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Saw himself as the farmer and Guts as the viper, saying that Guts gave him nothing but evil for good after he took him in. This was never true; Guts had only ever tried to please Gambino despite the abuse he received. But Gambino's fellow mercenaries were quick to jump to the same conclusion when they found him dead by Guts's hand, calling Guts a murderer and saying Gambino should never have taken him in.
44* GoneHorriblyRight: Gambino put Guts through relentless combat training practically from the moment he could walk so he would be profitable to him as a mercenary. This explodes in his face when he eventually tries to kill Guts, since the eleven-year-old boy is already a better fighter than he ever was and kills Gambino in a desperate moment of self-defense.
45* HiddenDisdainReveal: Downplayed. Gambino seldom displayed any warmth towards Guts and was openly abusive to him, but he displayed a few scattered moments of appreciation and generosity that were enough to convince the boy that he might eventually earn his adoptive father's love. Then in a drunken fury, Gambino outright says he always hated Guts, blamed him for Sys' death, and sold him to Donovan for no other reason than because Guts disgusted him.
46* {{Hypocrite}}: While training Guts, Gambino has absolutely no qualms against hitting and slicing his six-year-old pupil. When Guts actually succeeds in grazing his cheek, however, he slashes Guts across the nose in a fit of rage.
47* {{Jerkass}}: Gambino was never nice to anybody, especially not to his adopted son or even to Sys, who was probably the only person he ever loved. Unfortunately, he only got meaner as the years went by, especially after he lost his leg.
48* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Initially seems like he might have some [[HiddenHeartOfGold redeeming qualities beneath his harsh demeanor]], but it's gradually revealed that he's exactly as cruel and vindictive as he appears to be.
49* KarmicDeath: The boy he abused and turned into a professional killer eventually goes on to kill him in an act of self-defense.
50* KickTheDog: Commits several memorable acts of cruelty against Guts, such as the incident where he cut Guts across the nose during sword practice. The worst might have been when he sold Guts to Donovan for three silver coins.
51* MasterSwordsman: Despite being a despicable father and a cruel teacher, Gambino knew his way around a blade and succeeded in making Guts into a cunning swordfighter. One highlight from the "Distant Days" flashback is his lesson on how to use every part of the sword to neutralize a fully plate-armored opponent.
52* MaternalDeathBlameTheChild: When he tries to murder Guts, Gambino says that Sys' death and the loss of his leg were caused by Gut's cursed luck and that he should have left him to die beneath his mother's corpse eleven years ago.
53* MinorInjuryOverreaction: When Gambino got cut across the cheek while training Guts with sharp swords, he got so pissed that he deliberately slashed Guts across his nose, incapacitating him for quite a while and giving him the first of the many scars that he would carry as an adult.
54* 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 in 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]].
55* OffingTheOffspring: Tried to kill his adoptive son while raging drunk, but he had trained the boy too well and instead was killed himself.
56* PetTheDog:
57** Shortly after the practice where he lost his temper and cut Guts on the nose, he gave Guts a seashell containing medicine to rub on his wound. Even if it was only to ease his guilty conscience, it was one of the only nice things that he ever did for Guts. At the end of his first night with Casca, during which she helped him work through his painful history with Gambino, Guts falls asleep while thinking about that childhood memory.
58** Another was when Gambino revealed in his sleep that he tried to come back to Sys when she was dying but arrived too late, showing that he really loved her after all and misses her terribly.
59* SatelliteFamilyMember: Gambino only appears in flashback to show what's like to grow with AbusiveParents and why Guts HatesBeingTouched.
60* SmallRoleBigImpact: He only appears for a couple of chapters, but his crappy parenting would shape Guts' 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.
61* 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.
62* UngratefulBastard: After he was crippled, Gambino was largely fed and cared for by Guts since he could no longer fight. Guts, in fact, did it with more eagerness for Gambino than Gambino ever did for Guts. Gambino didn't care. He was still abusive and eventually attempted to kill Guts, blaming him for everything. Having to rely on Guts was utterly humiliating for Gambino and likely further increased his anger and hate toward Guts.
63* WeHaveReserves: A favorite tactic of his on the battlefield was to send the rookies and fresh recruits in first to bait the enemy archers. [[AbusiveParents Including his adopted son]].
64* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: When he tries to murder Guts, Gambino says that Sys' death and the loss of his leg were caused by Gut's cursed luck and that he should have left him to die beneath his mother's corpse eleven years ago.
65[[/folder]]
66
67[[folder:Donovan]]
68!!! '''Voiced by:''' Tsukasa Hiraide (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Chris Jai Alex (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
69
70[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dono.png]]
71[[caption-width-right:300: [[SarcasmMode Not a creepy guy at all.]]]]
72
73-> ''"Quit strugglin'! I ain't here to eat ya. C'mon, relax and it'll all be over soon."''
74
75Donovan (ドノバン ''Donoban'') was a brutish and sadistic mercenary in Gambino's band to whom Gambino sold a nine-year-old Guts as a child prostitute for one night for three silver coins. Despite Guts' best efforts to fight the big man off, Donovan overpowered and raped him, resulting in serious issues later on in Guts' life. During the next battle, Guts took violent revenge upon him, shooting him with a crossbow before using his sword to finish him off.
76----
77* 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 confusing flashback.
78* AllGaysArePedophiles: The only male character besides Gennon in the Golden Age Arc guilty of raping pre-pubescent boys. Due to his [[FlatCharacter limited characterization]], it's questionable whether he's actually gay or [[SituationalSexuality if targeting young boys is just more convenient for him]].
79* AssholeVictim: As a child-rapist who is killed in an undignified way.
80* BaldOfEvil: He is a bald pedophile.
81* EtTuBrute: He seemed honestly shocked when Guts ambushed and killed him. Believe it or not, this is TruthInTelevision, as many real-life pedophiles never even comprehend how much misery their "games" cause.
82* FishEyes: His right eye always seems to be drifting off to the side. The reasons behind this are never elaborated, but it does serve to make him look even more unsettling and inhuman.
83* FlatCharacter: No time or effort is taken on elaborating his personality; his only importance in the story is that he was a bad man, and he left Guts with a permanent trauma.
84* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Implied; Gambino calls Donovan a "freak" during his confessing to selling Guts to the S.O.B. in the first place, indicating that while the latter was tolerated, nobody else in the band felt much at his death.
85* HateSink: Donovan is a mercenary and sadistic pedophile who rapes Guts, for a meager sum of three silver coins even, 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. In-universe, Gambino even referred to the man as a freak... albeit when he confessed to selling Guts in the first place.
86* PsychoForHire: Implied. We don't really know him long enough to learn about his motivations, but based on how he was cackling with glee while chopping down fleeing enemies, he just plain enjoys killing people.
87* RapeAndRevenge: After the rape, Guts took revenge on Donovan by killing him during a battle with UnfriendlyFire.
88* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: His rape of Guts, combined with a lack of any redeeming characterization, is meant to show that he is a totally evil human being who deserves his death at the hands of his victim.
89* ScaryBlackMan: Enjoys raping and murdering people and looks quite intimidating.
90* SparedByTheAdaptation: In ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc I'', the flashback has him raping Guts but leaves out the part where Guts killed him in revenge. While that doesn't necessarily mean that Guts didn't kill him off-screen, there is no evidence in the film itself that he died; for our purposes, he's like Schrodinger's cat who may or may not be dead.
91* UnfriendlyFire: In the next battle after he had raped Guts, Guts shoots him in the back with a crossbow and stabs him dead in a secluded spot of woodland where it will look like the enemy got him.
92* WouldHurtAChild: Uses violence to restrain Guts before he rapes him, including a brutal kick and a NeckLift.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Bazuso]]
96!!! '''Voiced by:''' Ikuya Sawaki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Kendo Kobayashi (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' and ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''), Patrick Tansor (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/DaveBMitchell (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', as Russell Nash), Ramón Canals (Spanish, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
97
98[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baz.png]]
99[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bazuso_huh_250.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see him in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''.]]
100
101-> ''"No one's gonna get past me! Anyone who wants their head smashed in, step right up!"''
102
103Bazuso (バズソ ''Bazuso'') is one of the earliest named adversaries faced by a young Guts at the beginning of the Golden Age story arc. He's a rotund knight with an equally round helmet, which makes Guts call him a "teapot".
104
105He is supposedly invincible but Guts makes a quick business of him. Watching him get defeated by Guts is what made Griffith want Guts to join the band of the Hawks.
106
107----
108* AintTooProudToBeg: Swallows his pride and begs for mercy when Guts defeats him. It falls upon deaf ears.
109* BringIt: Dares anyone on the enemy side to challenge him.
110--> '''Bazuso:''' So?! Who wants to feel my legendary ax?!? COME ON!
111* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: None of the other mercenaries believed that Bazuso could be defeated, so when Guts manages it everyone is mighty impressed.
112* TheDreaded: All the other mercenaries in the siege know his fearsome reputation, and not a single one of them is brave enough to step forward and fight him except for Guts.
113* TheFaceless: We never do see what he looks like under that helmet. Not that it matters because Guts very quickly splits it in two.
114* EyeScream: When Guts slams his sword down on Bazuso's head, the force of the blow dislodges his right eye from his socket.
115* {{Foil}}: To Guts, believe it or not.
116** Both are stockier than you typical soldier and expertly-wield heavy weapons, although Bazuso is large and portly enough that his axe seems proportionately normal-sized while Guts' swords are clearly impractically oversized.
117** Bazuso is known throughout Midland as the 'Thirty-Man Slayer' and the 'Grey Knight'; Guts would later garner his own reputation as the 'Hundred Man Slayer' and the 'Black Swordsman.'
118** Both have an AnimalMotif -- Bazuso's is bears, being as strong and as fierce as one and having killed one himself with his bare hands (no pun intended); Guts' is wolves, given how he embodies the classic 'lone wolf' character and having once slain an entire pack himself.
119* GiantMook: He's a good head or two taller than the other mooks, and much heavier besides.
120* HeavilyArmoredMook: He's got some impressive full plate armor, although it [[ArmorIsUseless doesn't protect him]] from Guts' {{BFS}}.
121* KilledMidSentence: Was in the middle of begging for mercy when Guts sliced his head in two, a move that demonstrates Guts' lack of hesitation about killing.
122-->'''Bazuso:''' ''(raises his hand)'' No, wait... I yield to the better man. Please have... mercy on--! ''(Guts' sword is lodged in his head.)''
123* OneManArmy: Given how Guts earned his own title later on, Bazuso is presumably called the 'Thirty-Man Slayer' because he took on ''thirty men at once'' and won. They also say he killed a bear unarmed. While we do see enough of his skill and power to make the feat somewhat plausible, it doesn't do anything to save him from Guts.
124* RedBaron: Known as the "Grey Knight" for his grey armor, the "[[BearsAreBadNews Bear Slaughterer]]" for supposedly killing a bear with his bare hands, and the "Thirty-Man Slayer" for slaying thirty men.
125* StarterVillain: He is the first enemy of note that Guts fights after leaving Gambino's mercenary company. Certainly nothing compared to an apostle or some famous warriors such as Boscone, but he's way tougher than your average mook. He is also the first enemy fought by Guts in the first Golden Age movie.
126* StoutStrength: He's big, round, and strong enough to send men flying with his axe. Supposedly he killed a bear using his bare hands.
127* TheWorfEffect: Bazuso's entire purpose for his brief existence in the story. He is introduced as an unbeatable warrior and infamous manslayer, towering over his enemies in his impenetrable blood-stained armor as they [[TheDreaded cower before him]] and [[LivingLegend tell stories of his many feats]]. Despite all of this, Guts fearlessly dispatches him with little difficulty, effectively demonstrating his prestigious prowess even in youth.
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:The Viscount]]
131[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/viscount_slaying.jpg]]
132
133-> ''"Fight well, son! Now, there's no need to get too worked up. Slaying a man is the same as hunting. Just deal with him as you would some wild boar."''
134
135A nobleman with a loutish, violent son whom he is overly proud of, the Viscount (子爵 ''Shishaku'') is nothing if not a doting father. Guts ends up imprisoned by him in a story from before he met the Band of the Hawk. Believing that his son should get some practice before going into actual warfare, the Viscount places Guts in a dungeon cell and informs him that he will be dueling his son in a foot combat to the death--Guts' death that is. At first he enjoys the spectacle in the courtyard, but things do not go according to his plan.
136----
137
138* 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 possesses StoutStrength.
139* AffablyEvil: Despite being a bad guy, he's quite amiable and jolly. Even when Guts spits in the Viscount's face, he laughs off the insult and takes it as a good sign that his captive's still full of vigor.
140* BlueBlood: He is very rich and presumably of an old and noble bloodline.
141* DotingParent: He thinks 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"]].
142* EvenEvilHasStandards: Previously stopped his bloodthirsty son from killing a peasant just for fun, before giving his son a chance to fight and kill Guts (a captured enemy mercenary) instead.
143* PragmaticVillainy: The Viscount rubs medicine on Guts' wounds and tells his guards to stop hitting the prisoner because he needs Guts strong enough for the fight. Since he can't be too strong, however, he does not give him food or water and leaves him in a cold cell with only straw for bedding.
144* ARealManIsAKiller: He subscribes to this idea, and it's the reason he has arranged for his son to kill Guts as a warm-up for battle.
145* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:He totally freaks out when Guts puts out his son's eye and takes him hostage, and simply faints when his son gets hit with a crossbow bolt aimed at Guts.]]
146[[/folder]]
147
148!Tudor Empire
149[[folder:Common Tropes]]
150The Tudor Empire (チューダー帝国 ''Chuuda Teikoku'') is a powerful state within the Holy See territories to the East of Midland. They instigated the ongoing war with Midland a hundred years ago by invading its territory and capturing the fortress of Doldrey. They are able to field more heavy knight brigades than any other state. The Tudor Empire is also prominent in ''Literature/BerserkTheFlameDragonKnight'', which depicts its war of conquest against the Grand Duchy of Grant. In the Millennium Falcon Arc, Tudor sends forces to join the Holy Alliance against the Kushan Empire.
151----
152* AnimalMotifs: Like Midland, each of its military units is named after a color and some fearsome animal, which is often reflected in the decoration of their armor. There's the Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy Cavalry, Adon's Blue Whale Ultra Heavy Assault Annihilation Knight Corps, and Boscogn's Purple Rhino Knights. These animals are usually represented in their highly sculpted armor.
153* BlingOfWar: Tudor's knights are much enamored of exotically-shaped armor, ostrich-plumed helmets, colorful horse trappings, etc.
154* CorruptChurch: The Empire uses the mission of spreading the monotheistic religion of the Holy See to justify its conquest of the Grand Duchy of Grant, and forces "Conversion education" on captured youths.
155* TheEmpire: While Midland is a Kingdom whose king is just and whose people are good even if the nobles are rotten, Tudor is called an Empire and depicted as nothing but an oppressive, warmongering bad neighbor.
156* HellholePrison: Fort Chester is a site of indoctrination, torture, and death for captured Grantian youth.
157* LargeHamTitle: As the light novel's narration notes of the Amphibious Raid Wild Beast Knights, it's typical for groups of Tudor knights to sport an excessively embellished title.
158* 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''.
159* POWCamp: The aforementioned Fort Chester.
160* RapePillageAndBurn: Grunbeld has witnessed the Empire's frequent atrocities in Grant, including rape, torture, and massacres.
161* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: A clear sign of the Empire's evilness is that there are so many rapists in their army, from unnamed soldiers to Adon, Gennon, and Abecassis.
162* SuccessionCrisis: A sudden crisis over the succession of the throne ties up their forces, giving Midland's commanders and Griffith a window of opportunity to retake Doldrey.
163
164[[/folder]]
165
166[[folder:Adon Coborlwitz]]
167!!'''General Adon Coborlwitz (アドン ''Adon'')'''
168!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/TesshoGenda (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/RikiyaKoyama (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' and ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''), Creator/MikePollock (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997'' & ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Alfonso Vallés (Spanish, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
169
170[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gloriousidiot.jpg]]
171[[caption-width-right:300:Adon, a few moments before [[GeneralFailure his plans go to hell.]] ]]
172[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adon_woods_250.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see him in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''.]]
173
174
175-> ''"[[StayInTheKitchen The battlefield is a sacred ground of men]]! I, [[MilesGloriosus Adon]], head of the [[LargeHamTitle Blue Whale Ultra-Heavy Armored Fierce Assault Annihilation Knight Corps]][[note]][[AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload B.W.U.H.A.F.A.A.K.C]] for short[[/note]], shall teach you the folly of your frivolity in setting foot upon it!!"''
176
177Adon 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]].
178
179While 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 them 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]].
180
181
182----
183* 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.
184* AscendedExtra: He got a couple of extra appearances as a recurring minor antagonist in the 1997-98 anime.
185* CallingYourAttacks: He feels the need to do this when facing off against Guts, and all of his techniques have fancy names like "Rock-Cutting Whirlwind/Ganzan Senpuu" or "Furious Attack Thunderclap Burst/Ressha Jinrai". It... doesn't work too well.
186* ClingyComedyVillain: Gets easily defeated by the heroes each time but keeps surviving like a cockroach and coming back for more, especially in the 1997-98 anime where his role is expanded.
187* CombatPragmatist: A cowardly and villainous example who keeps a crossbow on his person for cheap shots, and isn't too proud to play dead or make a perfidious surrender.
188* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: [[spoiler: Adon is killed by the same person -- Casca -- in all interpretations of the Golden Age, but the methods on how Casca kills him is different.]]
189** [[spoiler: In the manga, Casca uses her sword to vault over Adon's head as he's charging. Then as he's turning to face her, she lands and cuts Adon a GlasgowGrin with a single sweep. The slice cuts into his skull and he falls dead almost silently.]]
190** [[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 afterward, it's implied that Casca cut clean through his head, and his brains spilled on the ground.]]
191** [[spoiler: In the second Golden Age movie, Casca manages to snatch a longsword from his belt and [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales him through the mouth with it]], killing him instantly.]]
192* DirtyCoward: Prefers to attack targets who are at a disadvantage, and when the tables turn he invariably uses dirty tricks or abandons his men in order to save his own life.
193* EstablishingCharacterMoment: His very first appearance shows him making an IncomingHam announcement stating his chauvinist principles and boasting of his power, but then Guts [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] him and he has to resort to shooting Guts while he's rescuing Casca. Already we know we're dealing with a LargeHam, StrawMisogynist, MilesGloriosus DirtyCoward.
194* 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]]. Though he at least got on the mercenaries who shrugged off Samson's death as [[AMillionIsAStatistic just another casualty.]]
195* EyepatchOfPower: At the battle of Doldrey he shows up wearing an eye patch, and indeed looks very dastardly and menacing, but the trope is subverted when he gets his ass handed to him [[CurbStompBattle even harder than before]] by Casca.
196* GlasgowGrin: [[spoiler:In the manga, Casca kills him by slicing through both his cheeks with her sword, cutting into his skull. This is a rare case where this is inflicted in the heat of battle rather than on a helpless victim]].
197* HateSink: While the Hundred Year War is strictly business from the point of view of the mercenary protagonists, and Tudor as a whole isn't really painted in a villainous light, Adon is such an [[{{Jerkass}} obnoxious]], [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] and [[StrawMisogynist misogynist]] individual, that it's easy to root for the Hawks and Midland's victory over the empire when he's the most recurring antagonist they have to face. Of course, he's not [[DepravedHomosexual Gennon]], but...
198* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: In the second Golden Age movie, Casca kills him this way by snatching a sword from his belt and stabbing him with it... right in his bragging mouth.]]
199--> '''Casca:''' [[spoiler: Chew on ''that,'' bastard.]]
200* IncomingHam: Adon is constitutionally unable to enter a scene without trumpeting the size of his ego:
201** Upon meeting Casca on the battlefield, he bellows the challenge quoted above at the top of his voice while twirling his trident above his head. The fact that he has such an outrageously long title for his knight division tells you what kind of braggart he is.
202** During the battle of Doldrey, when Casca is about to reach the castle's battlements, he reveals himself at the top of the stairs wearing [[ScaryImpracticalArmor elaborately villainous armor]] and exclaims, '''"Sha-sha-SHOCK!!! ADONNN!!!"''' Casca's annoyed expression seems to say, ''"Oh no, not ''[[GoldfishPoopGang this]]'' loser again."''
203* InsigniaRipOffRitual: General Boscogn doesn't literally rip his insignia off, but he sends a pretty clear message when he puts an ax an inch in front of Adon's face, calls him a disgrace for his incompetence and cowardice in the Hundred Man Fight fiasco, and revokes his command authority for the remainder of the war, all in the presence of his lackeys and within earshot of Governor Gennon.
204* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Adon gets his repeatedly provoked and richly deserved comeuppance when [[IWasBeatenByAGirl Casca]] viciously [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] and slays him in a very one-sided duel.]]
205* LargeHam: Loudly boasts about his purported combat prowess, and often overplays his antics to the point of looking outright buffoonish.
206* LaughablyEvil: One of the most hilarious villains in the series, although in his case we're definitely laughing ''at'' him, not with him.
207* LittleBigBrother: Adon is a large man, but still smaller than his humongous younger brother [[BigLittleBrother Samson]].
208* MilesGloriosus: Presents himself boisterously as the winner of many battles but is quick to retreat when he meets an opponent strong enough to stand against him.
209* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
210** If he hadn't [[spoiler:let Casca's division inside the castle in order to ambush them]], Doldrey might not have fallen to the Hawks in the manga and the 1997-98 anime.
211** 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 had [[RelationshipSalvagingDisaster reconciled with each other]].
212* 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.
213* ProngsOfPoseidon: The trident is his weapon of choice, in keeping with his army's sea creature theme. At the Battle of Doldrey, he trades it for a ranseur.
214* RangedEmergencyWeapon: While he mainly uses his trident, he keeps a crossbow handy for cheap shots. Ironically he does more damage to Guts and Casca this way.
215* ReassignedToAntarctica: He was commanded by General Boscone to stay in the castle during the Battle of Doldrey so he wouldn't screw anything up any more than he already did. However, Adon's capacity for failure made even that a fiasco.
216* RunningGag: His bragging about the various "secret" battle techniques that have been passed down to him through the Corbolwitz family, in increments that keep getting bigger from 140 to 200, 700, and eventually 1,000 years. And how almost none of them actually do him any good. [[spoiler: The only one that actually helps him is the simple act of playing dead.]]
217* StayInTheKitchen: Constantly tells Casca that women are unfit for battle. [[spoiler: She eventually shows him up.]]
218* StrawMisogynist: A nasty misogynist who always brings up Casca's sex as a reason why she shouldn't be involved in a battle at all, but of course he gets proven wrong.
219* 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 groveling, but it distracts Casca enough for him to shoot her with a poisoned crossbow bolt that will quickly paralyze her.
220* TalkingIsAFreeAction: He acts as if this is true, but it bites him in the butt whenever he opens his mouth to boast to Casca or Guts about how awesome he is and [[CallingYourAttacks how each of his attacks was passed down through the Corbolwitz line for however many years]], as they use it as an opportunity to attack him when he's not paying attention.
221--> '''Adon (as Casca attacks him as he's talking):''' AT LEAST WAIT UNTIL I'M FINISHED SPEAKING!
222--> '''Casca:''' ''(points her sword at Adon's throat)'' How about shutting your mouth?!
223* ThisCannotBe: [[spoiler: His last words are laden with this as Casca prepare to land the fatal blow on him.]]
224--> '''Adon:''' [[spoiler: What...?! Impossible...!]]
225* ThreateningShark: When Casca's team secretly invades Doldrey under the main army's nose, he and his men ambush her, with him clad in elaborately embossed shark-themed armor. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, as he is of absolutely no threat to her.]]
226* VillainDecay: As far as the manga imagery goes, Adon's first appearance is actually pretty intimidating, as he kills a few of the Hawks and manages to get Casca in a vulnerable position. After his first defeat by Guts, well, [[ClingyComedyVillain the rest is history.]]
227* VillainExitStageLeft: He successfully escaped death in situations that he blatantly got himself and his men into, usually by playing dead.
228* 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.]]
229* WeHaveReserves: Sends wave after wave after wave of mercenaries (numbering about a hundred in total) on [[OneManArmy Guts]]. [[spoiler: There are no survivors except Adon himself.]]
230[[/folder]]
231
232[[folder:Samson Coborlwitz]]
233!!'''Samson Coborlwitz (サムソン, ''Samuson'')'''
234!!! '''Voiced by:''' Yutaka Aoyama (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Jeff Ward (English, ''Berserk 1997'')
235
236[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/samson_300.jpg]]
237[[caption-width-right:300: [[KilledMidSentence "Fas-"]]]]
238
239-> ''"Oraaah! Oudda da way!!"''
240
241Second-in-command of the Blue Whale Knights and Adon's BigLittleBrother, Samson is a hulking giant whose weapon is a massive flail.
242
243----
244* AdaptedOut: He was left out of ''The Golden Age Arc'' trilogy likely due to running time.
245* BigLittleBrother: Although younger than Adon and subservient to him in rank, Samson is by far the bigger and stronger of the two.
246* DumbMuscle: Seems limited to a two-syllable vocabulary, and relies on brute strength to crush his foes.
247* EpicFlail: His weapon is a spiked ball on a long chain, which he spins so fast that one can barely keep track of it. Adon boasts that Samson's iron ball can crush the skull of a water buffalo in one strike, and when Guts first deflects it the ricochet crushes the head of a hapless Tudor mercenary inside his helmet.
248* 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.
249* KilledMidSentence: When Guts shatters the ball of his flail and comes rushing toward him, he doesn't even have time to finish saying "fast" before Guts cleaves his head in two.
250* ShieldsAreUseless: Carries a stout shield for protection, with three wavy blades attached to it for good measure, but putting it up doesn't save him from Guts, who chops right through it.
251* SpikesOfVillainy: Wears spike-studded armor for extra intimidation.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:General Boscone/Boscogn]]
255!!! '''Voiced by:''' Ikuya Sawaki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/TakayukiSugo (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' and ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''), Richard Springle (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), T.J. Storm (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Santi Lorenz (Spanish, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
256
257[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boscog.png]]
258[[caption-width-right:300: The greatest warrior in Tudor.]]
259[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boscogn_close_helmet.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see him in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''.]]
260
261
262-> ''"I haven't the time to deal with the Governor's petty, vulgar tastes. I am no more than a man of arms, and my mission is simply to defeat the enemy!!"''
263
264The 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 defense 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.
265
266During the Battle of Doldrey, Boscone suspects from the start that Griffith is up to something. Noting that even a complete amateur wouldn't make the mistake of attacking with such a small number of troops on terrain where they can't retreat, and what's more divide his already small force in two with the leader at the front, he cannot understand what Griffith is planning right away, even though he still intends to fight against him full force.
267
268[[spoiler: In the meantime, Casca's cavalry rushes in the undefended entrance of the castle and fights the defenders inside. Boscone confronts Guts in a climactic duel in which he manages to unhorse the Hundred Man Slayer and sunder his weapon, but [[ThwartedCoupDeGrace just as Boscone is about to give the finishing blow,]] Nosferatu Zodd throws Guts a giant sword out of the blue with which Guts decapitates Boscone and his horse in one stroke. Without their general, and seeing that the castle has been taken, the Tudor forces scatter and are driven from the field.]]
269
270----
271* AdaptationalWimp: Not the biggest downgrade, but still noticeable: In the manga and 1997 anime, Guts only manages to defeat Boscone thanks to [[VillainousRescue Nosferatu Zodd throwing him a sword to replace his shattered one]]. In the Golden Age movies, Guts manage to defeat him without that help.
272* AnimalMotifs: Rhinos, naturally. Boscone however fits the more realistic portrayal of the animal as not nearly as aggressive or frenzied as media tends to make it out as. He also most certainly embodies that once rhinos ''do'' get hostile and gain momentum, there's little to nothing that can stop their charge.
273* AscendedExtra: He gets two more appearances in the 1997 anime prior to the assault on Doldery that both have him chew out Adon for his cowardliness and ineptitude.
274* BaldOfEvil: His shiny pate signifies that, while not pointlessly evil, he is a big scary person on the bad guy team.
275* BigOlEyebrows: Not only are his eyebrows huge, but they're also kind of shaped like batarangs. Appropriately, they make him look macho and serious.
276* ConsummateProfessional: He believes that a soldier should never let personal feelings impede their duties, and refuses to let Adon's irresponsible actions go unpunished. He is also frustrated with Gennon's tendency to let his own private whims dictate strategy.
277* CoolHelmet: His elaborate helmet is shaped like a cross between a rhinoceros and a triceratops.
278* DaChief: He revokes Adon's command privileges and reassigns him to the Garrison as punishment for his recklessness.
279* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: [[spoiler:When Guts beheads Boscone, Tudor's soldiers gawk in disbelief that the undefeated Boscone met his end. Afterward, Guts is hailed as a hero for defeating Tudor's strongest general.]]
280* TheDragon: Gennon is the ArcVillain, and Boscone his second-in-command. In order to topple Gennon, the heroes have to defeat Boscone first.
281* DragonInChief: Everyone knows that Boscone is the most formidable fighter and tactician in Doldrey, while Lord Gennon is clearly out of his depth. Even though he has no choice but to acquiesce when Gennon takes over personal command of the battle, [[spoiler: it is his death that crushes the morale of the army and wins the battle for the Hawks.]]
282* TheDreaded: The whole Midland army fears him as an unbeatable opponent, and even Guts gets scared while fighting him.
283* 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 ax 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.
284* EvenEvilHasStandards: While he doesn't have a problem following Gennon's orders, he is privately disgusted by Gennon's pederasty.
285* FourStarBadass: He is both the highest-ranking general and one of Tudor's strongest warriors.
286* GeniusBruiser: Colossal and mighty, he is also Tudor's military mastermind.
287* {{Homage}}: In keeping with Kentaro Miura's love of classic science fiction, his name is one to the evil civilization of Boskone from the {{Literature/Lensman}} novels.
288* MyCountryRightOrWrong: His loyalty to his country and his duty is what motivates him, and he merely obeys Gennon because despite his incompetence and loathsomeness he still represents that authority.
289* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Guts spectacularly decapitates both Boscone and his horse in one swing.]]
290* OneManArmy: During the Battle of Doldrey, Guts has to admit that fighting Boscone by himself feels worse than facing Adon's hundred mercs, and that there is a very real possibility that he will die this time.
291* OvershadowedByAwesome: Downplayed, as while he's most certainly badass by mortal standards, Guts admits that he's still nothing compared to Zodd. Ironically, it's Zodd who aids Guts in his defeat.
292* PunchClockVillain: There doesn't appear to be any fault in his personal moral character, and he is simply fighting for his country’s interests.
293* PurpleIsPowerful: He and his Purple Rhino Knights are Tudor's most powerful warriors.
294* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He’s the most skilled and esteemed general in Tudor, and is easily a match for [[OneManArmy Guts]]!
295* RhinoRampage: The theme of his armor and army.
296* SpellMyNameWithAnS: His name is variously spelled ''Boscone,'' ''Boscogn,'' or ''Boscogne''.
297* SpikesOfVillainy: His pauldrons and couters end in points much like the horns of a rhino.
298* ThisIsUnforgivable: He calls Adon's behavior in the 100 man fight inexcusable, and swings down his ax as if to kill Adon before stopping short and revoking his command authority.
299* TinTyrant: He's the chief antagonist in the battle and wears the heaviest, scariest-looking suit of armor in the Tudor forces. Justified because in a medieval battle that's what you'd expect the commander to be wearing.
300* WorthyOpponent: When he encounters Guts on the battlefield he is forced to admit that the rumors of his prowess might not have been far from the truth, and recognizes that he will be a worthy challenge.
301[[/folder]]
302
303[[folder:Lord Gennon]]
304!!! '''Voiced by:''' Shoji Oki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/KazukiYao (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Fred Velde (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/SteveKramer (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
305
306[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gennon.png]]
307[[caption-width-right:300:And you thought Donovan couldn't be outdone.]]
308
309-> ''"The White Hawk... To think that I would live to meet him by chance once more, what splendid fortune. That one night... even now I can't forget. He is fine wine, worth the value of his weight in gold, an intoxicating phantom. The burns of that night still do not heal. I ''swear'' I will have you once more, ''lover''."''
310
311Gennon (ゲノン ''Genon'') is an extremely wealthy high-ranking noble of the Tudor Empire. A homosexual and notorious pederast, he keeps many young male {{Sex Slave}}s. During the early days of the Band of the Hawk he hired them for a number of jobs, during which he developed a lust for Griffith that culminated when [[spoiler:Griffith agreed to sleep with him for a night in exchange for funds to support the growing Band]].
312
313Some 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 forever 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.
314
315[[spoiler: Griffith's plan all along was to use Gennon's predictability to lure the army away from Doldrey so that Casca's force could take it by storm, and after his armies are routed Gennon is killed by Griffith so that he cannot tell anyone of the night that Griffith sold his body to him.]]
316
317----
318* AdaptationalNiceGuy: ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' makes him less of a sexual predator. Rather than keeping clearly underage boys as {{Sex Slave}}s, he has a PaidHarem of attractive young men who seem to genuinely enjoy the life of luxury he offers them.
319* AdaptationDyeJob: While he has black hair in the manga and the 1997-98 anime, he's depicted as white-haired in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc II''.
320* AllGaysArePedophiles: Like most villainous gay characters in the story, he is only attracted to young boys and adolescents.
321* AntagonisticGovernor: Serves as the governor of Doldrey and is not only an enemy of the Band of the Hawk but is sexually depraved to boot.
322* AristocratsAreEvil: A very powerful, very malicious nobleman.
323* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: This is what he intends to do when he gets his hands on Griffith in the Battle of Doldrey, except he never gets the chance.
324* BaldOfEvil: Being bald and having a large beard are played for sinister unattractiveness.
325* BeardOfEvil: See above.
326* BlueBlood: He's high nobility and obscenely wealthy, which is probably what allows him to get away with things like bribery and pedophilia.
327* DepravedHomosexual: He keeps boys from nearby villages in sexual slavery, and hopes to capture Griffith and make him his by any means.
328* DirtyOldMan: Despite his advanced age his sexual appetite is insatiable. Unlike most examples, he is only attracted to little boys and is definitely villainous.
329* EvilOldFolks: An old man whose evil deeds only multiply with age.
330* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Griffith disposes of him by thrusting his sword through his eye.]]
331* GeneralFailure: No military credentials, but he insists on ignoring the instincts of his world famous general and orders a disorganized pursuit. Since he has both civilian and military authority this overlaps with PointyHairedBoss.
332* AGlassOfChianti: Sips lecherously from a wine goblet as he gives Boscone his orders.
333* HasAType: In ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc II'' he has a PaidHarem composed of young men who bear a remarkable resemblance to Griffith.
334* 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 spring installed on top of the fortress, and frolics there with large numbers of frisky, attractive young men.
335* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Griffith kills Gennon partly because he doesn't want him blabbing about their night together.]]
336* LoveMakesYouDumb: Due to his lustful feelings for Griffith, he does everything he can to prevent the Purple Rhinos from using their full might on the Hawks, going so far as to take command during the battle despite Boscone being a much more competent military leader. Griffith himself counted on this trope as part of his battle plan.
337* PaidHarem: ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' depicts him with what looks like one of these; While the manga portrays him with boys in their early teens or below who are obviously abused sex slaves, his companions in the movie are Griffith look-alikes in at least their late teens who seem to be enjoying (or at least pretending to enjoy) the life of luxury that Gennon offers them in exchange for their sexual favors. [[spoiler:They all end up dead by the time the battle's over.]]
338* PointyHairedBoss: As a governor, Gennon is as incompetent as he is evil. He would probably be an UpperClassTwit except for the fact that he has actual responsibilities, unfortunately for his underlings.
339* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: He promoted himself to the status of Supreme Commander of the front lines of Tudor through his financial assets - not that that means he actually knows what he's doing.
340* SerialRapist: Most of his servant boys have been raped by him so many times that they've become numb with resignation.
341* 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.
342* TinTyrant: He goes into battle wearing some fancy armor patterned after fashionable clothes, but this does him little good besides showing his vanity.
343* 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 of and didn't hesitate to take advantage of. When you think of it, that does come off as [[{{PetTheDog}} a little sad]]. [[{{NauseaFuel}} (but not too much)]]
344* IWantThemAlive: His number one order to Boscone is to capture Griffith alive since Griffith is his LustObject.
345[[/folder]]
346
347[[folder:General Gien]]
348!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/FumihikoTachiki (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Shingo Egami (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc''), Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas (English, ''Anime/Berserk1997''), Creator/SeanSchemmel (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
349
350[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manga_e1_black_ram_iron_lance.png]]
351[[caption-width-right:300:The Black Devils of Tudor in their final battle.]]
352
353-> ''"We will take the king's head in the name of the Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy Cavalry!!"''
354
355The General of the Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy 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.
356
357----
358* AnimalMotifs: His Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy Cavalry have helmets with curved horns, similar to bighorn sheep.
359* AttackAttackAttack: All we see of the Black Rams basically shows that this is their main strategy for dealing with Midland. For what it's worth, it seemed to be effective until the Band of the Hawk got involved...mainly Guts breaking formation and confronting the Rams all on his own, which results in Gien's death.
360* BadassBoast: His quote above would technically count considering he and the other Rams were easily decimating Midland's own soldiers. [[NegatedMomentOfAwesome But then]] [[OvershadowedByAwesome Guts]] came along...
361* DarkIsEvil: Wears black armor and fights on the side of Tudor, though we don't see enough of Gien himself to confirm anything on his personal character.
362* TheDreaded: To Midland, including the King himself, Gien and his men are "Tudor's Black Devils", but to the Band of the Hawk, [[TheWorfEffect they're nothing to write home about.]] Hell, Guts was able to kill Gien himself easily all on his own despite disobeying Griffith's orders to do so.
363* FlatCharacter: He and his army exist only to give Griffith and the Band of the Hawk a badass introduction to the King of Midland's army by cutting most of them down. The Hawks are formally admitted into the regular army soon afterward.
364* NamedByTheAdaptation: Gien only received a name in the first ''Golden Age'' film and it's only mentioned once by one of his men just after he's slain.
365* NoNameGiven: In both the manga and the 1997 anime.
366* OvershadowedByAwesome: The sad thing is that the Black Ram Iron Lance Heavy 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.
367* SingleStrokeBattle: Gien buys the farm from Guts this way. Several of his men soon follow with Griffith and the others handling the clean-up.
368* VillainousValour: Judging from what little we see of him, Gien appears courageous and steadfast while on the battlefield. It is a pity that it didn't prepare him for facing down [[OneManArmy Guts]].
369* TheWorfEffect: Has no problem mowing down Midland's army, but meets his match against Guts, who kills him first before getting to his men. Said men were soon after handed their asses by the rest of the Hawks.
370* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: Expresses disbelief when he sees Guts charging his army solo and vows to crush him utterly. [[OneManArmy It does not]] [[SingleStrokeBattle end well]] [[TheWorfEffect for the Black Ram general.]]
371[[/folder]]
372
373[[folder:General Abecassis]]
374A posthumous antagonist from ''Literature/BerserkTheFlameDragonKnight''.
375----------
376* CanonForeigner: Abecassis is original to the ''Flame Dragon Knight'' light novel, which wasn't written by Miura and serves to expand Grunbeld's backstory, which was never elaborated on in the manga.
377* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with feigned paternalistic concern to the captive children whom he brutalizes. His catchphrase whenever he's about to horribly punish somebody is "Oh no... now your teacher's sad."
378* HopeSpot: Invoked by him when he sets up Grunbeld, Edvard, and Sigurd's fight with the Tiger. He merely gives them wooden swords because he can't let them have a real chance of winning, but since it's no fun if they won't put up a struggle, he also leaves an enormous 200 pound warhammer in the arena to give them a false sense of hope. It would surely kill the tiger if anyone were able to actually swing it, but Abecassis knows that even Grunbeld isn't strong enough to do so. It'll be fun to see Grunbeld try and fail, he thinks. The problem is that Grunbeld actually pulls it off!
379* IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure: Grunbeld was the most disobedient and defiant of the children in Fort Chester for "Conversion Education," but Abecassis doesn't want to kill him because of what a splendid soldier he would make if converted. It would also be undesirable to make a martyr of him, as long as he could potentially be turned into a role model of submission for the other children. This still leaves the problem of how to punish him, especially because he stoically ignores any physical pain. Abecassis eventually wises up and takes Sigurd away to be gang-raped, refusing Grunbeld's pleas to spare her on the grounds that hurting his friend is the only punishment he will understand.
380* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Abecassis will kill or torture any Grant child who disrespects his authority in order to keep the others in line. He pays particular attention to Grunbeld since all the other children look up to him as a symbol of defiance.
381* NeckLift: When Sir Abecassis overhears a Grantian boy mutter "Shove your one god and your Emperor up your ass", he lifts the child into the air by his neck and snaps it.
382* PantheraAwesome: After four years Abecassis finally decides he needs to get rid of Grunbeld, so he brings in a man-eating Kushan tiger that's about nine feet long and over six hundred pounds. Bad news for Grunbeld and friends, but the resulting fight is awesome.
383* PosthumousCharacter: By the time the series began, Abecassis has been dead.
384[[/folder]]
385
386!Kushan Empire and Bakiraka Clan
387[[folder:Common Tropes]]
388
389[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kushan_empire_350.jpg]]
390[[caption-width-right:349:Evil Empire Incarnate.[[labelnote:note]][[SubvertedTrope At first.]][[/labelnote]]]]
391
392'''Tropes that the Bakiraka and Kushan have in common:'''
393* 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.
394* DecadentCourt: The royal court is full of backstabbing, and Ganishka was only able to become emperor by killing several of his own family members.
395* TheEmpire: An expansionist state with a huge military that takes over and enslaves other countries, it is ruled by an emperor who wants to TakeOverTheWorld.
396* FantasyCounterpartCulture: While their aesthetics are based on MysticalIndia, their geopolitical status is similar to the Ottoman Empire-a seemingly unbeatable conquering empire threatening the kingdoms based on [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy late medieval/early modern]] Europe, who have a state religion competing with the [[CrystalDragonJesus Holy See]]. The Daka are essentially demonic versions of the Janissaries-children of conquered peoples taken to be raised and employed as elite shock troops.
397* 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.
398* MadeASlave:
399** Slavery exists in the Kushan Empire, and it might not be too much to say that every person beneath the emperor is a slave in some fashion.
400** As Schierke finds out in Vritannis, the countries in the Holy Alliance also enslave Kushan people and treat them horribly. When Vritannis is designated as the capital of the alliance against the Kushan Empire, all the adult Kushan slaves in the city are hanged as a scapegoat and their children rounded up to be sold elsewhere.
401* 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 people with magical powers.
402* MillionMookMarch: The Kushan invade Midland and the neighboring countries with seemingly endless battalions of soldiers arranged in neat formation. The defenders of Virtannis despair at the display of force outside the walls, estimating there must be hundreds of thousands.
403* 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}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Yoga}} yogis]] and gurus with supernatural powers, turbans, elephants, exotic weapons, the whole shebang.
404* PunchClockVillain: While the leaders and officers are depicted as cruel, many of the rank and file foot soldiers are implied to be JustFollowingOrders or afraid of what their superiors will do to them if they don't obey.
405* RapePillageAndBurn: The Kushan are cruel and rapacious conquerors who take whatever they can use and destroy what they can't.
406* ReligionOfEvil: The religion the Kushan practice seems to involve a lot of PoweredByAForsakenChild and HumanSacrifice.
407* SlaveMooks:
408** The War Slaves are captured enemies of the empire forced to fight in the front line, lest they be killed by the troops behind them for trying to desert. They will either kill or be killed by their own countrymen, which the Kushan use to break the enemy's will to fight.
409** According to promotional info, Kushan magic seems to be based on using some spirits to enslave other spirits. The Kundalini used by Daiba certainly is seen explicitly controlling undines to exert its power over water.
410* ThisWasHisTrueForm: Whenever Daka or war beasts are killed, they revert to the human or animal forms they were created from by morning.
411* WeHaveReserves: Ganishka's military machine is based on sheer manpower, and his commanders will typically first send in the [[SlaveMooks War Slaves]] as CannonFodder before the regulars overwhelm the enemy with discipline and numbers. His regular soldiers are treated better than the War Slaves, but when push comes to shove he will sacrifice as many of them as he has to in order to win.
412[[/folder]]
413
414[[folder:Silat]]
415!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/YuuichiNakamura (Japanese, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''), Creator/JBBlanc (English, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', credited as "John White"), Creator/LexLang (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk2016''), Jordi Nogueras (Spanish, ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'')
416!!! '''Guidebook Stats:'''[[note]]As of Chapter of Elf Island[[/note]] Height: 182 cm (5 ft, 11 in); Weight: 75 kg (165 lb, 5 oz); Age: 25
417
418[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silat.jpg]]
419[[caption-width-right:300:Clich [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/silat_scarf_off_250.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see him in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'']]
420
421-> ''"Is it really a good thing to entrust oneself to what is beyond human comprehension?"''
422
423Silat (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.
424
425Silat reappears in the Conviction Arc where he is trying to capture Guts and Co right after the end of the mock Eclipse, but gets interrupted by the resurrection of Griffith and is forced to retreat. Upon reuniting with the Kushan army he gets berated for his inefficiency in stopping the growing influence of the new Band of the Hawk. He thus far has stayed in the background, [[MysteriousWatcher watching the events unfold without interfering]] and has been seen briefly chasing after Rakshas, with whom he has some bad history. Despite his position in the Kushan army, he is not especially loyal to Ganishka.
426
427At the onset of the FinalBattle between Griffith and Ganishka, he clearly questioned Griffith's legitimacy as a messiah and told his fellow Kushans who allied themselves to him that he despises those who blindly follow [[AGodAmI so-called demigods]].
428
429He reappears in Falconia, still mistrustful of Griffith,[[spoiler: and forms an unexpected alliance with the deserting Rickert, whom he saves from an assassination attempt from Rakshas. Learning that Rickert shares a dislike for the so-called Falcon of Light, he offers to spirit both Rickert and Erica away to [[HiddenElfVillage his home village hidden in the mountains]], in exchange for all the information Rickert knows about Griffith. Helped by the reformed Daiba, Silat and his bodyguards pull a spectacular IndyEscape from the pursuing Rakshas, with both Rickert and Erica in tow, as they all fly away from Falconia.]]
430
431His motives thus far, apart from returning his clan to its previous glory, are pretty unclear just like his allegiances, making him a WildCard.
432
433He has the appearance of a dark-skinned biseinen with long hair and is always accompanied by his grotesquely muscled bodyguards, the Tapasa.
434
435----
436* AdaptedOut: In the 1997-98 anime he is nowhere to be seen, probably because of the limited nature of the adaptation which could not account for how prominent he and the Kushan would be in later story arcs. For the tournament where Guts fought him in the manga, Guts instead fights the guy that Silat defeated before fighting him in the original version. His role in the night attack on the Hawks' camp where he almost kills Casca before Guts rescues her is given to an anonymous soldier. ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc III'' brings him back, leaving out the tournament and instead introducing him in the night attack so that he can potentially appear in future adaptations.
437* 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.
438* ArrowCatch: While being chewed out by a Kushan general for failing to complete his mission, Silat catches an arrow in flight just inches before it hits the guy's face. He makes it even more badass by saying in DramaticDeadpan, "There are more pressing issues."
439* BadassNormal: He has no supernatural powers, but years of dedicated practice have made him a highly skilled and deadly martial arts practitioner, rarely finding warriors who can match him, and looks cool while kicking ass. He expertly uses deadly exotic weapons that could easily decapitate their own wielder if used by the less trained, catches arrows in midair, and just has an air of smug confidence. After Guts defeats him, he becomes less cocky and works to become stronger. By the time he's re-introduced post-Eclipse, one of Griffith's top apostles, Rakshas, acknowledges Silat's improved abilities when they fight.
440* CallingYourAttacks: During his fight with Guts in the Hawks' camp, he yells "Suffer the dance of ten blades!" while twirling his urimis.
441* 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.
442* ConsummateProfessional: He takes his clan's profession very seriously, which is why he hates Rakshas' PsychoForHire attitude:
443-->''"Hedonist murderer. You may be God's gift to killing, but to be Bakiraka is to be lethal. Assassins administer death! They do not toy with it!"''
444* CoolMask: Silat usually wears a scarf over the lower part of his face, although he can frequently be seen without it.
445* CrazyPrepared: Judging by the variety of weapons he's carrying, Silat wants to be ready for anything.
446* DeadlyDisc: His chakram are small discs of metal sharpened on the outside, which he uses with deadly effectiveness. They also act as a PrecisionGuidedBoomerang and can be made to follow improbable trajectories.
447* EvenEvilHasStandards: Silat is pretty ruthless, but even he is appalled by Ganishka's use of forbidden and unnatural magic such as the Reincarnator. He also detests Rakshas, a former member of the Bakiraka clan, for treating killing like a sadistic game, saying that Bakiraka are supposed to have higher standards.
448* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: He seems to be one of the few characters to completely see through Griffith's charisma. Most people tend to be sucked in, especially after the founding of Falconia; even Rickert, who knew some of the truth, was almost convinced. Silat distrusted him from the start, and immediately sought out someone who could prove his suspicions, recognizing that Griffith wasn't human.
449* ExoticWeaponSupremacy: Downplayed. Most non-Kushan opponents unfamiliar with his weaponry are bewildered by their capabilities: he uses his katars to trap and break opponents' swords, and no one before Guts was able to avoid the blades of his urumis. They do have drawbacks, however, and once Guts figures out how they work he manages to counter them and beat Silat.
450* 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 than 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.
451* FunnyForeigner: Guts doesn't regard him as anything more than a foreign circus performer, which annoys Silat greatly.
452* {{Guyliner}}: He wears eyeliner despite being a male, adding to his androgynous appearance.
453* HandyFeet: Uses his toes to wield an extra blade in an attempt to catch Rakshas off guard.
454* HazyFeelTurn: He's no longer a truly antagonistic force in the story, sitting out the Kushan war after learning of his emperor's [[HumanoidAbomination true nature]] and eventually [[spoiler:aligning himself against Griffith]], but whether this puts him squarely on Guts' side isn't clear.
455* HiddenElfVillage: He apparently comes from one and [[spoiler:offers to escort both Rickert and Erica to this location so they can elude Griffith's troops looking to eliminate them.]]
456* HyperAwareness: Not much escapes his vision or hearing, and he detected the arrow he caught using his freakishly attuned senses.
457* IndyEscape: His RunForTheBorder with [[spoiler: Rickert and Erica]] from the pursuing [[spoiler: Rakshas]] is definitely one.
458* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: He has a lot of exotic and weird - but nonetheless cool - weapons that deem him a circus freak. Warriors from the Kushan empire and the Bakiraka especially are notorious for using these types of weapons.
459* 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 chakram fly in any trajectory he wants and still has 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, all because of RuleOfCool.
460* KnowWhenToFoldThem: Even though he's a proud guy who doesn't like to admit defeat, he knows when he's outmatched and has the sense to withdraw in order to gather more intelligence and try again later. This is demonstrated against Guts when he leaves as soon as he realizes that his techniques have been cracked and his forces are in disarray.
461* LargeHam: For a serious guy (and an assassin) he is surprisingly fond of grandstanding during battles, to the point that Guts calls him a "circus performer".
462-->'''Guts''': What are you up to?\
463'''Silat''': Your [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM!!]]
464* LogicalWeakness: Guts figures out that because the blades of Silat's urumis are flexible and being manipulated by centrifugal force, he can make them stall in the air by generating a sufficiently powerful gust of wind and immediately rush in before Silat can get them back into play.
465* MartialArtistsAreAlwaysBarefoot: Wore boots in his first appearance, but since his return during the war he goes around barefoot, even although he is still heavily clothed otherwise. He weaponizes it once by using his toes to wield a blade.
466* MeaningfulName: In real life, "UsefulNotes/{{Silat}}" is a type of martial art indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia and nearby countries. The usage of the term is similar to kung fu in China, being 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.
467* MusclesAreMeaningful: His ripped but lean musculature, very similar to that of Serpico, cements his status as a FragileSpeedster.
468* MysteriousWatcher: Spies on the various actors within the conflict without interfering and clearly waits for the right moment to act.
469* {{Naytheist}}: His own quote says it all. He may admit that there are things in this world that are beyond human comprehension but he highly questions entrusting oneself blindly to such entities.
470* PaperThinDisguise: Silat and the Tapasa try to keep a low profile in the city of [[spoiler:Falconia]] by wearing hooded cloaks, but the Tapasa's massive size and scary faces are enough to frighten a small girl while Silat's spiked helmet and face scarf stick out under the cloak like a sore thumb. It's even Lampshaded by those helping them how bad their disguises are for supposedly sneaky assassins.
471* PragmaticVillainy: Silat knows from experience that Guts is too powerful a warrior to fight, which is why he refuses to pursue or attack him unless it's absolutely necessary for his mission. He also decides to let the disguised refugees from Windham pass unharmed and sits out the final confrontation between Griffith and Ganishka, rationalizing that just he and his Tapasa can't deal with such a huge number of people anyway.
472* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Not literally but he is the last prince of a once prestigious mercenary clan and is a highly trained assassin who takes great pride in his mastery of killing his targets efficiently and is indeed very skilled at wielding his exotic weapons, decrying Midland's weapons as crude and imprecise and looking down on Rakshas for deriving pleasure from killing and death.
473* RazorFloss: His [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urumi urumis]] each have five very long, flexible blades that can slice off a man's skin "like an apple peel".
474* SheFu: A RareMaleExample of a usually female fight choreography trope who attacks in a dance-like fashion with kicks, backflips, and a focus on avoiding his enemy's hits. It doesn't make him any less of a badass, and from a female perspective you could even say it's played for a bit of {{Fanservice}}.
475* SpikesOfVillainy: Silat's later armor has spikes on the shoulders and helmet shaped like lightning bolts. He isn't as heinous as the other bad guys though; it just makes him look cool.
476* TokenGoodTeammate: "Good" might be a stretch, but while most Kushan characters of any significance are amoral at best and monstrous at worst, Silat is consistently fairly sympathetic. Even in his early appearances where he's an out-and-out antagonist, he clearly displays a lot of VillainousValor, and his general morality and code is by far the most fleshed out.
477* VillainousRescue: In episode 338 he saves [[spoiler:Rickert]] from being killed by [[spoiler:Rakshas]], apparently because he wants to find out what he knows.
478* WalkingArmory: Silat carries two katars, two urumis, several chakrams, and has concealed blades in his shoes. That's a lot of blades!
479* WarriorPrince: The last prince of the Bakiraka clan, Silat risks his life and leads his followers personally in battle.
480* WeaponTwirling: He intimidatingly twirls his chakram around his fingers before throwing them, and uses his urumis by swishing the blades in circles.
481* WeWait: His default strategy when faced with the GambitPileup going on around him is to bide his time while gathering more information.
482* WildCard: Silat only cares about preserving his clan and sees any alliance or service as a means to that end. He is wary of throwing his support behind any power that goes beyond human comprehension, and he might unexpectedly switch sides or cooperate with enemies if he has the right incentive.
483* WorthyOpponent: Silat gains serious respect for Guts after being beaten by him twice, openly acknowledging his skill with the sword and deciding that it's better not to push his luck against him. Some years later he admits that ever since then, he spent every waking moment trying to get better because of him.
484* 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.
485[[/folder]]
486
487[[folder:The Tapasa]]
488!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/KoujiIshii (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk2016''), Creator/JamiesonPrice (English, ''Anime/Berserk2016'', credited as "Taylor Henry")
489
490[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Silat.jpg]]
491[[caption-width-right:342:The Tapasa, gathered around their master]]
492
493Silat's loyal bodyguards, the Tapasa (ターパサ ''Tāpasa'') are four grotesquely muscled martial artists capable of destroying enemies with their bare hands. They look identical, except for each having a different symbol marked on their foreheads.
494----
495* AmbiguouslyHuman: Their grotesque builds, large sizes and identical appearances leave unclear whether they are simply very disfigured humans, humans mutated by magic, or even some kind of orc-like humanoids, nothing of which would be weird at all given what both the Kushan Empire and the Bakiraka Clan have among their ranks.
496* BareFistedMonk: A quartet of martial artists so strong that they use their bare fists and feet as their only weapons.
497* BareHandedBladeBlock: The Tapasa demonstrate the ability to catch flying blades between their palms when [[spoiler:Rakshas tries to kill Rickert by throwing Silat's chakram back at him]].
498* BodyHorror:
499** Judging for their looks, ''all'' of the skin in their bodies is heavily scarred to the extent of disfiguration. The kind of TrainingFromHell they must have endured is unimaginable.
500** Take another look at the picture above; you see those large lumps on their hands and knees, among other places? Those are ''callouses'', ones the size of a softball that are hard and durable enough to deflect swords and arrows and ''cave'' an armored soldier's skull in through his helmet.
501* TheBrute: They are the bodyguards of the Bakiraka leader, Silat in this case. Later become TheBigGuy.
502* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Their first and second knuckles are visibly enlarged, probably as a consequence of calcification due to extensive barehanded punching training, very much like the most hardcore UsefulNotes/{{Karate}} practitioners do in real life. Their other joints such as wrists, knees and elbows show similar conditioning, turning them from {{Bare Fisted Monk}}s into walking bludgeoning weapons.
503* TheComicallySerious: In battle, the Tapasa are very formidable and scary-looking. Off the clock, while trying (and failing) to blend in with their goofy smiles? Hilarious.
504* TheDividual: Identical, interchangeable, and never seen apart.
505* HermitGuru: The meaning of ''tapasa'' in Sanskrit. This is a particularly badass version, as real life tapasa were usually not warriors.
506* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: All the four look exactly the same, only with different forehead sigils, yet are never stated to be quadruplets or something alike.
507* LightningBruiser: The Tapasa are strong enough to crush men in full plate armor to death using their bare hands, yet agile enough to keep up with fast opponents. Rakshas says that they are surprisingly swift for their size.
508* MartialArtistsAreAlwaysBarefoot: Like their master, although with the addition that they don't even wear clothing beyond loincloths.
509* MeaningfulName: In real life, a tapasa is a practitioner of ''tapas'', which translates as ascetism or body mortification in ancient Indian religions. Seeing the marks left by those guys' hard training, it fits pretty well even although tapasa were only rarely warriors.
510* SatelliteCharacter: To Silat. They're his followers and an important aspect of his character, but they don't really have enough personality to stand alone and have not yet been seen without him.
511* StrongAndSkilled: They're strong enough that they're capable of crushing armor without the use of weapons at all, and fight with karate-like punches and kicks that generally destroy whatever's unfortunate enough to get hit by them.
512* SuperStrength: They're capable of crushing the helmets and skulls of armored soldiers with their punches, although having super tough callouses on their hands also probably helps.
513* WalkingShirtlessScene:
514* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: There were initially four of them, but only two appear with Silat since their introduction. Whether the missing two were killed in action or are away for some reason remains unknown.
515[[/folder]]
516
517[[folder:The Bakiraka Mercenaries]]
518
519[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bakiraka.png]]
520
521A squad of EliteMooks employed by the King of Midland, these deadly assassins belong to the exiled Bakiraka clan.
522
523After freeing Griffith from his cell, Guts and the infiltration team from the Band of the Hawk try to escape the Wyndham castle through its sewers with Princess Charlotte and her maid Anna in tow. They encounter the Bakiraka Mercenaries and have a hard time fighting them due to the ambient darkness that helps their enemies conceal their presence. Notably, Judeau gets to display his major strategic skills against them.
524
525All of them are dispatched by the Hawks during the battle, except for the female one who gets executed after bringing an injured Charlotte to the King and reporting the failure at stopping the Hawks from fleeing.
526----
527* 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.
528* AmbiguouslyHuman: Like the Tapasa, it's hard to tell whether they were regular humans or some kind of mutants. They have truly inhuman traits, like possible nyctalopia, absurd diving abilities and exceedingly bizarre body shapes and sizes.
529* BodyHorror: Less so than the Tapasa and other Kushan creatures, but the leader and their smallest member have really creepy bodies, one for being inhumanly lanky and the other for being smaller than a human head. Even the other two male members look a bit off.
530* TheBrute: The tallest one is indeed a very bulky man but, unlike most brutes, he uses long-ranged weapons instead of going head on against his foes.
531* BlowGun: The smallest uses a blow dart gun as his main weapon.
532* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Possibly. If they weren't mutated through sorcery, their body traits might have been accomplished through artificial bone deformation and lifetime training.
533* DarkActionGirl: While the female member doesn't fight physically like her teammates, she instead relies on her inflammable powder to do the job for her.
534* FemmeFatalons: The female one has long fingernails.
535* InnateNightVision: Possibly; none of them shows any difficulty at working skillfully without torches in a dark tunnel, which plays as an additional advantage against Guts's gang.
536* JavelinThrower: The big one throws javelins as his main weapon and aims very well, even in dimly lit places.
537* LeanAndMean: The group's leader is a lanky, emaciated man with extremely long limbs.
538* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Their female member is the only of the Bakiraka band that doesn't look weird to the point of inhumanity. For the rest, one is a fish-looking midget, another is literally a shoulder-sized person, the third is a brute with a neck worthy of Wrestling/BrockLesnar and the leader is an impossibly thin and lanky man.
539* NoodlePeople: Their leader. He's not only tall, but has pipe thin limbs.
540* PlayingWithFire: The female uses special inflammable dust that ignites at the slightest spark.
541* PoisonedWeapons: The tiny one uses a blowpipe with poisoned darts.
542* PragmaticVillainy: After accidentally shooting Charlotte with a poison dart aimed at Griffith, the leader calls for a truce, explaining that they own the antidote and that it would also cause them trouble if Charlotte were to die. Therefore, he offers to give the princess the antidote in exchange for letting them bring her back to her father.
543* ProngsOfPoseidon: The short, fat one uses a trident as his weapon.
544* PunchClockVillain: Implied. They strictly go after their targets; their leader tells Anna that she isn't part of this conflict and will be safe so long as she doesn't interfere.
545* QuirkyMinibossSquad: While these Bakiraka mercenaries don't last long enough to qualify as major antagonist characters, their varied body types and exotic fighting styles set them apart from the rest of the King's mooks. They work as a team to put Griffith's rescue team in a very tight spot, and the Hawks in turn have to use each member's unique talents to defeat the Bakiraka.
546* SoleSurvivor: The female is the only mercenary who survives battle with the Hawks, and reports the mission's outcome to the king. [[SubvertedTrope Who then executes her for exposing Charlotte to danger]].
547* SuperNotDrowningSkills: The short mercenary dives underwater and through narrow passages like a freaking fish, and he is not shown out of the water for a good few minutes. Whether he uses the same technique as Daiba or not is unknown.
548[[/folder]]
549
550[[folder:Emperor Ganishka]]
551!!! '''Voiced by:''' Creator/TesshoGenda (Japanese, ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk'')
552!!! '''Guidebook Stats:'''[[note]]As of Chapter of Elf Island[[/note]] Height: 180 cm (5 ft, 11 in); Weight: 90 kg (202 lb, 13 oz)
553
554[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ganiska.JPG]]
555[[caption-width-right:300:The Emperor dressed for battle.]]
556[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fog_8.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see his apostle form.]]
557[[caption-width-right:300:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ganishka_shiva_form.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see his [[spoiler: Shiva form]].]]
558
559-> ''"I am the King of Kings! In this world, I am the one absolute principle!"''
560
561Ganishka (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.
562----
563* AdiposeRex: He's a fat example of a monarch, of the FatBastard variety. However, he is also very broad of shoulders, implying that rather than fat, he is just a big man who has let himself go.
564* 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]].
565* AlmightyIdiot: [[spoiler:In his final form he has almost godly levels of power and is capable of truly horrifying amounts of destruction, but his ego has completely collapsed, and he can't even remember who or what he is. ]]
566* TheAssimilator: After [[spoiler: turning into his Shiva form, anyone he crushes underfoot reforms into [[EldritchAbomination truly ghastly things]] that look like Ganishka’s face with tentacles]].
567* 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.
568* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: After the Millennium Falcon Arc, Ganishka's body [[spoiler:transforms into the proverbial Tree of Life whose branches spread all over the world]].
569* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: [[spoiler: Attack of the 1,000 Foot Tentacle Apostle Emperor!]]
570* BeardOfEvil: Seriously evil facial hair. The enormous beard and mustache with upturned ends are wicked enough, but at least they hide his teeth.
571* BigBadWannabe: He's an EvilSorceror [[TheCaligula Caligula]] willing to wage war against the Godhand themselves all because he believes his status as the Emperor of the Kushan Empire supersedes their authority. Nevertheless, for all his power his astral form can easily be defeated by a single strike from the Dragonslayer ([[WeaksauceWeakness and the wind]]). Even when he [[spoiler:becomes a horrible AlmightyIdiot EldritchAbomination in his mad dash to get more power, Griffith easily defeats him with a ''touch''. Ultimately, all Ganishka did was further advance the Godhand's plans.]]
572* BishonenLine: He is the only Apostle whose demon form is a manifestation external to his body and not a physical mutation of the latter, which allows him to remain human-like while using it. Subverted in his [[spoiler:second form, in which he does mutate... a lot.]]
573* BlingOfWar: He wears some very ornate but still functional-looking armor when he goes to battle, with Oni-like faces adorning his pauldrons and metal rivets decorated with eyes all over the suit.
574* TheCaligula: He is pointlessly cruel, doing things such as feeding prisoners to crocodiles, and is prone to violent moods that make it dangerous for his subordinates to be around him. It's downplayed in that he conducts his Empire's wars ruthlessly but effectively, but even this qualifier goes out the window when he [[spoiler:turns into Shiva and stomps on his own army]].
575* CardCarryingVillain: Openly describes himself as a "demon king" and other variants of that.
576* DespairEventHorizon:
577** He reached his when [[spoiler:his own son, whom he secretly feared, orchestrated a coup d'état and attempted to have him assassinated during a banquet held in his honor. Dying, with his drink having been poisoned and repeatedly impaled with spears, his bleeding wounds combined with his despair activated his beherit, resulting in him sacrificing his son in exchange for being reborn as an apostle.]]
578** Undergoes a second one after being forced to kneel to Griffith.
579* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: He wants to TakeOverTheWorld, and will use any means, however awful, to this end.
580* DisappearsIntoLight: [[spoiler:Upon being given the CoupDeGrace by Femto, he dissolves into a dazzling breach in the fabric of reality.]]
581* TheDreaded: When he was human he waged wars because he wanted people to fear manyfold his own, and since he was a paranoid heir to the throne in a court full of traitors he had a lot of fear to give.
582* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: [[spoiler:When he succeeds in becoming all-powerful [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity at the cost of his sanity]], he loses all restraint and proceeds to flatten both Windham and his own armies.]]
583* EldritchAbomination: His inconceivably monstrous final form, [[spoiler: Shiva, is a many-tentacled giant that towers over Windham and has his face endlessly reproduced on all its surfaces.]]
584* TheEmperor: Has the title of Emperor and rules an [[TheEmpire expansionist empire]] that conquers and enslaves lesser nations.
585* EnemyMine: He offers this to Guts after realizing the Black Swordsman is as much Griffith's enemy as he is. Guts, while glad that the apostles aren't above infighting, declines in his usual way.
586* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:Despite fearing his son his whole life, and despite said son having orchestrated his assassination, he still loved him... which was why he was the sacrifice through which Ganishka was reborn as an apostle]].
587* EvilCounterpart: Ironically despite having no personal ties with him, he sort of mirrors Guts to the worst extreme. Both were betrayed by a parent who tried to kill them in childhood, and later someone who they trusted dearly, which ''really'' set them down a dark path. Like the Black Swordsman, Ganishka's brutal and savage demeanor stems from the trauma of these betrayals. He's also on a mission to destroy Griffith and the Godhand like Guts despite how impossible that seems, which he points out himself when they come face to face.
588* EvilOverlord: He rules his endless legions ruthlessly and cares nothing for them.
589* EvilSorcerer: He and Daiba, his elderly wizard general, are particularly profuse with Kushan black magic.
590* EvilerThanThou: Inverted. His goals are just as grisly as those of the Godhand, but he still believes his are better than theirs.
591* FatBastard: In addition to being fat, he is cruel, greedy, egomaniacal, and just plain evil.
592* FaustianRebellion: He feels the compulsion all Apostles have to obey the reincarnated Griffith, but resists it, plotting instead to rise up against his "god" and reign over whatever remains of the world as its demon king. However, it's ambiguous just how much of this rebellion was his own will and prerogative and to what extent he was manipulated; his public role as the Hawk of Light's vile antagonist, up to and including his own personal actions and decision-making, proved crucial to Griffith's master plan.
593* FreudianExcuse: His whole life has been nothing but betrayal, pain, and fear. As a child his mother openly detested him and favored his younger brother to the point of poisoning her firstborn. He survived to kill his brother which drove Mom to suicide. The continued to haunt him into his adulthood, where he survived by murdering all those who tried to manipulate him (or he feared would), eventually including his own father. Despite being distant from his family he still loved his son, which is why his DespairEventHorizon came when the prince tried to kill his father out of fear himself. Then he pissed away all his remaining humanity by sacrificing his son to the Godhand and becoming one of the worst Apostles ever. None of this justifies his depravity, but it at least explains how he got that way.
594* FriendlyFire: Frequently. He kills his own soldiers and war-beasts to power himself up, and crushes them like bugs (mistaking them for such, even) when his mind is frayed after becoming the towering "Shiva".
595* GameFace: He frequently lets his monstrous nature slip by exposing his MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily.
596* AGodAmI: Played with. Ganishka is fully aware that he isn't god, but at the same time, he believes that his position as Emperor of Kushan makes him superior to the "gods" like Griffith and the Godhand.
597* HateSink: [[TheCaligula Emperor Ganishka]] is the sadistic leader of the Kushan Empire, who commits depraved acts on a regular basis. While his goal is to challenge the similarly villainous Godhand, Ganishka is destructive and [[StupidEvil idiotic]] about the matter, permitting mass rape to spawn his demonic soldiers, the Daka, kidnapping Princess Charlotte in an attempt to rape her, and attempting unsuccessfully to kill everyone in Midland.
598* HumanoidAbomination: Even in his most monstrous form he retains a bipedal humanoid shape. Although this was also apparent in his normal form, where he looks almost perfectly human if one were to ignore his unnatural, animalistic eyes and the needle-like teeth hiding under his beard.
599* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Does this to Charlotte, noting that if her child is also his it will make holding Midland all the easier.
600* IntangibleMan: His mist Apostle form, given that it is composed of, well, mist.
601* IronicFear: His fears make up one of his largest character traits:
602** Despite being the totalitarian autocrat of the largest empire of all the world, he is consumed with a neverending paranoia that it can all be taken away. He is consistently worried about his own position and so [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex constantly asserts his dominance with acts of wanton cruelty and violence]].
603** His rebellion against the Godhand is driven by his innate nature as an Apostle to follow them. He rejects the hiearchy he is a part of, and this drives his RageAgainstTheHeavens. However, despite fighting to the bitter end, he is consumed with an immense fear of Griffith, as he slowly realizes his place in the totem pole of evil. When Griffith directly approaches him, Ganishka is forced on his knees in front of his entire army. It's like being forced to submit to a god after denying its existence for so long. This causes him to undergo a second DespairEventHorizon.
604* KickTheDog: His attempt to rape Charlotte; while he outright tells her it's so that she can bear his child and secure his rule over Midland, his inner monologue makes it clear he's really just seeking amusement.
605* LargeAndInCharge: Ganishka is both wide and tall. When you see him, you know he's the boss.
606* LogicalWeakness: Conventional attacks are useless against him when he turns into mist, but wind puts Ganishka in danger of dissipating, leaving him no choice but to revert to his humanoid form when it blows.
607* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Ganishka is the only Apostle yet whose monster form appears as a completely separated entity rather than a physical change of his own body.
608* OffingTheOffspring:
609** [[spoiler:He sacrificed his own son to become an Apostle]].
610** [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope He nearly ended up on the receiving end]] thanks to his mother. It's part of his FreudianExcuse.]]
611* OminousFog: Whenever this appears, you know Ganishka's up to no good. He can take the form of a giant humanoid mist cloud with lightning powers, and he can also sense anything that happens within his fog, making it very difficult to surprise him.
612* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:In an effort to defeat Griffith, he turns himself into a mountain-sized giant with numerous tentacles]].
613* ProperlyParanoid: In his backstory [[spoiler:he tried avoiding his wife and son because he feared betrayal due to his own upbringing. His DespairEventHorizon that made him activate the behelit was when his son tried to assassinate him at a banquet. Which the son did because he was also justifiably scared that his father saw him as a threat and would try to kill him.]]
614* PersonOfMassDestruction: Although he was quite capable of a truly nasty offensive when he could transform into a humanoid lightning storm, he goes over the line and beyond when he re-emerges as [[spoiler:Shiva. He smashes up Wyndham just by emerging from the Temple, squashes entire battalions of soldiers by ''accident'' and transforms their remains into horrible monsters, using his many mouths to spit full-blown firestorms onto the ground below (also by accident) and manages to create a thunderstorm ''just from his presence alone.'']]
615* RageAgainstTheHeavens: How he views his rebellion against Griffith and the Godhand.
616* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He is the emperor of the Kushan, and quite probably the single most powerful Apostle seen in the series, being more than a match for all of Griffith's new Band of the Hawk's strongest Apostles.
617* RedRightHand: He appears mostly human until you get a good look at [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily the large, toothy maw]] hidden within that beard.
618* RefusalOfTheCall: He is the only Apostle who stands up to Griffith and refuses his authority.
619* RoyallyScrewedUp: His backstory implies that backstabbing, madness, and paranoia run in the family. [[spoiler:As a youth, he was TheUnfavorite, and his mom tried to kill him so his half-brother would rule the Empire. In retaliation he stabbed his brother, causing her to commit suicide. His father was constantly terrified of being assassinated, and sure enough Ganishka arranged his father's ''accidental'' death riding an elephant.]]
620* ScaryTeeth: His mouth is adorned by a lovely set of shark-like teeth.
621* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler After his mother tried to poison him, he murdered his brother thereby driving her to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]]. He went on to kill his father by having an assassin shoot a dart at the elephant he was riding, causing the animal to go wild and kill him.]]
622* ShockAndAwe: He is capable of calling down bolts of lightning on his enemies.
623* SmarterThanYouLook: He's vile, cruel, looks a bit cartoonish, and is generally one of the most unpleasant people in the entire manga, but one would be gravely mistaken to ever call him stupid.
624* SorcerousOverlord: It is established that at least some of his powers are of sorcerous nature, and not just demonic abilities gained from his status as an Apostle.
625* SuperSmoke: The crux of his powers as an Apostle, but his final form is a thousand times more powerful indeed.
626* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Ganishka can be best described as a middle-eastern Father Mozgus. An extremely brutal, ObviouslyEvil tyrant who earns a terrifying reputation for his atrocities, is quite mentally unstable, and acts independently of and opposes the Godhand. Furthermore, he also kidnaps a female character for his twisted plan, transforms into a OneWingedAngel being resembling a deity out of hubris, tries vainly to convince Guts to see things his way during their fight, and in the end is ironically just a pawn to further Griffith's own agenda. To top things off, his right hand minion Daiba pulls a HeelFaceTurn after his defeat, just as Farnese did after Mozgus's.
627* TheUnfavorite: He was this to his mother, to murderous degrees. Said mother doted on his younger brother and thus poisoned him to ensure the latter would gain the throne. Not only did he survive, but he killed his brother, driving his mother to despair and suicide.
628* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:His attempts to rebel against the Godhand only brought their agenda to fruition. May also double as YouCantFightFate, since the Godhand have vast power over causality.]]
629* VillainousUnderdog: Strangely, this is his relationship to Griffith, although, 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, if not the most powerful Apostle 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 he 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.
630* VillainRespect: Develops it for Guts, admiring his capacity for destruction. He then [[EnemyMine tries to recruit him]] against their mutual enemy, Griffith.
631* WeCanRuleTogether: Not necessarily "rule", but he tries recruiting Guts to his cause, knowing they have a common enemy in Griffith. Guts adamantly refuses, as he sees him as just as much of a monster as Griffith.
632* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: In order to empower himself against the Godhand, he [[spoiler:throws himself into the pit he used to create his army. He emerges far, ''far'' larger and more powerful, but his mind completely dissolves, causing him to forget who he is and begin crushing his own army underfoot.]]
633* YouHaveFailedMe: Subverted, he gives Daiba a zap and a lecture after his second-in-command loses to Guts, but leaves it at that and lets him retreat safely while he steps in to finish the job personally.
634* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Slits the throat of the assassin he hired to kill [[spoiler:his father]], because dead men tell no tales.
635[[/folder]]
636
637[[folder:Daiba]]
638!!! '''Guidebook Stats:'''[[note]]As of Chapter of Elf Island[[/note]] Height: 165 cm (5 ft, 5 in); Weight: 44 kg (97 lb)
639
640[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daiba_52.jpg]]
641[[caption-width-right:300:The highest among the Kushan sorcerers.]]
642
643-> ''"This system of magic differs from ours. Utterly intriguing, that is. I, Paramarisha Sen'an'i Daiba, Kushan Pishaca Gana leader, submit my own spells for the sake of ascertaining what incantations you savages can perform."''
644
645Daiba (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.
646----
647* AmbiguousSituation: A flashback shows Daiba was the person who gave Ganishka his behelit, thus leading to him becoming an Apostle. However, whether Daiba himself knew exactly what was he giving away and what did he expect to happen remain unknown.
648* BarefootSage: Mixed with MagicalBarefooter, given that he is both a spiritual teacher and an expert sorcerer. He adopts boots when becomes a barn worker in Falconia, but discards them again upon departing.
649* BeardOfEvil: An evil sorcerer with an extra-long beard.
650* TheBeastMaster: Most of his magic comes from the array of creatures, both normal and supernatural, he has at his command.
651* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: He takes a liking to Erika after she gives him a brace for his leg, as well as to Luca for her hospitality, to the point of [[spoiler:saving the former from Rakshas and giving the latter a pouch of valuable gems.]]
652* BlackEyesOfEvil: He has these ''very'' weird, almost completely pitch-black eyes, which are never explained nor commented on, and is ([[spoiler:initially]]) a powerful antagonist.
653* BlackMage: He is a sorcerer who specializes in combat-oriented magic. Possibly subverted, however, given that if he is really the creator of the Reincarnator and all the Kushan magic paraphernalia, he probably knows much more than simply offensive spells.
654* BringIt: Surprisingly for someone his age and mindset, he performs this gesture to Guts and his companions, urging them to throw everything they've got at him so he can judge how strong they are.
655* TheBusCameBack: He returns in Falconia arc, and is seen working in a horse stable.
656* CallToAgriculture: He uses his [[TheBeastmaster animal control talents]] to take care of a barn in Falconia, following Ganishka's destruction. Given that he later shows a hidden stash of diamonds, he probably took the job in order to remain unnoticed in the city.
657* ChildHater: Has this reputation in Falconia; if children get near his barns, he punishes them by magically controlling their bodies 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.]]
658* CommonTongue: Averted at first. When he speaks, neither Guts nor Serpico can understand his language, and it's only when he uses mind communication that they can. However, he seems to be able to communicate with Erica when he encounters her later on.
659* TheDragon: Ganishka's second-in-command, and probably second only to Ganishka in terms of power.
660* DragonTheirFeet: [[spoiler:Outlives his emperor, but his loyalty to Ganishka's cause dies with him. When he's next met, he's taking care of Falconia's stables.]]
661* DontYouDarePityMe: He is embarrassed by the knee injury he got from Guts and his partners, pretending he has just achy joints.
662* DubNameChange: The Spanish translation renames him as Deva, a Indian word related to but different from his name.
663* EnlightenedAntagonist: Ganishka calls him a ''sadhu'', which in real life means a spiritual ascetic, and Daiba certainly looks the part, with all the levitating yoga and emaciated looks.
664* EthnicMagician: A wizard from a MysticalIndia empire.
665* 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 recognize Daiba.
666* EvilOldFolks: This guy's not your nice grandpa, what with the tyranny, black magic and human sacrifice. [[spoiler:Not at first, anyway. He joins the good guys eventually.]]
667* EvilSorcerer: He controls the magic of a foreign and unholy nature, and is a very serious antagonist for the heroes in Vritannis.
668* GameBreakingInjury: The blasted knee he gets while fighting against Guts and company. He later muses to himself he would prefer just float around rather than walk on it.
669* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: His first appearance depicts him breathing out very thick clouds of smoke from a hookah.
670* GrumpyOldMan: When he's not out using his sorcery to further any sort of war effort, he comes across as a cantankerous elder with an annoyance towards disrespectful children.
671* HandSeals: He controls his magic by using hand gestures or ''mudra'', with the occasional incantation.
672* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Since taking a liking to Erica, he is helping Rickert and co. to escape from Falconia.]]
673* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Subverted. After the inevitable defeat of [[spoiler: Ganishka]], he appears relocated in Falconia as a lowly barnyard warden. However, he later reveals he had a whole bag full of diamonds, implying he got the job in order to keep a low profile after the war.
674* InTheHood: Uses one to hide in Falconia.
675* KarmaHoudini: Despite it being him that created the Man-Made-Behelit, which was used to corrupt the fetuses of raped women to mass-produce demon soldiers, as well as controlling the Pishacha that have butchered countless, he never actually faces much punishment, [[RetiredMonster being able to escape judgement as a simple farmer]]. The crimes related to the Man-Made-Behelit are also often attributed to Ganishka and not him.
676* LevitatingLotusPosition: Practices UsefulNotes/{{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.
677* MeaningfulName: ''Daiva'' is an ancient Indian religious term meaning "divine", sometimes applied to a worshipper of the gods, which goes along Daiba's role as a religious specialist with supernatural powers. It also means "fateful", which describes what his encounter with Daiba turned out for Ganishka.
678* NobleBirdOfPrey: Is frequently seen riding a garuda. [[spoiler:After he joins up with Rickert's group, it and a few others of its kind becomes their method of escape from Falconia.]]
679* OddFriendship: With [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Luca]], who treats him like a stubborn grandfather, and [[IntergenerationalFriendship Erica]], who gives him a leg brace.
680* PowersDoTheFighting: His fighting style is levitating around while sending his spells and creatures do the job.
681* SoleSurvivor: He's the only living thing present that Ganishka – [[AlmightyIdiot knowingly or not]] – spares during his transcendence ritual.
682* 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 serve as such, and clearly wouldn't last a second against Guts or Serpico in a hand-to-hand battle.
683* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Justified. When attacked by Serpico while riding his Kundalini, Daiba opts to retreat inside the large water snake, where he explicitly uses yoga to retain his breath for a long time without drowning. This is a real yogic practice named ''kumbhaka'', and unrealistic as it may sound, the prolonged time Daiba does here is actually achievable for a lifelong trained practitioner in real life (the world's record on holding the breath is currently a staggering 24 minutes).
684* TookALevelInKindness: He's still a crotchety old man, but he's hardly the remorseless EvilSorceror he was when he faced Guts.
685* ToothyIssue: He's missing a ''lot'' of teeth.
686* UndyingLoyalty: To Ganishka; [[spoiler:he only makes a turn for the better after his emperor's death.]]
687* 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.
688* WizardBeard: Has a long, fluffy white beard, and is a wizard to boot.
689[[/folder]]
690
691[[folder:The Daka]]
692
693[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daka.jpg]]
694[[caption-width-right:300:The Daka, with one upon a tiger Pishaca.]]
695
696The 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.
697----
698* ChestBurster: Once corrupted in the womb they violently burst out of the abdomen, killing their mothers in the process.
699* DoubleWeapon: The maduvu or maru, a real-life Southern Indian weapon made of two metal-tipped horns facing in opposite directions connected by two hand grips and sometimes fitted with a shield. This appropriately complements their own horns and emphasizes their beastly nature.
700* EliteMooks: Subverted. These things are sent in when human mooks fail to slow down Locus' lancers, but they fare little better.
701* HalfHumanHybrid: Monsters raised from unborn humans that were corrupted at birth.
702* HornedHumanoid: Their bald heads are covered in small horns.
703* MeaningfulName: ''Daka'' is a practitioner of transformative supernatural powers in Indian religions. In this case, they are human fetuses transformed into supernatural creatures. The female form, ''dakini'', refers to a kind of female demonesses in Hinduism.
704* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Daka have mouths full of bristling tusks and fangs, much like the monstrous tigers they sometimes ride.
705* OrderedToDie: 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.
706* OvershadowedByAwesome: They are probably a terrifying infantry - it's just that their only deployment in the series is against monsters no infantry has a true chance against.
707* TheWorfEffect: Although introduced as a step above the Empire's human soldiers, they still get mowed down in droves to show how strong Griffith's apostles and Gut's companions are while getting even fewer chances to show that they can be effective troops.
708[[/folder]]
709
710[[folder:Pishacha]]
711[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cocodrile.jpg]]
712[[caption-width-right:350:The Crocodile Pishacha]]
713[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pishacha_tiger.jpg]]
714[[caption-width-right:350:The Tiger Pishacha]]
715[[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pishacha_elephant_6.jpg]]
716[[caption-width-right:236:The Elephant Pishacha]]
717
718Dark magic familiars created from spiritually possessed animals to serve Ganishka. They are formed by taking an undead spirit and forcing it into an animal, mutating and twisting it into an evil being.
719----
720* BeastMan: The equivalent of a beast-man in this series.
721* CruelElephant: The Elephant Pishacha qualify, being large, lumbering and violent juggernauts.
722* DemonicPossession: A vital part of their creation.
723* KeyStoneArmy: They are still beasts, and the nature of the possession requires a Kushan caster to locally control their minds. Guts figured this out when after slaying several spellcasters, the army of crocodile Pishacha disperse, regressed back into wild things.
724* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: One of the main variants is a crocodile, transformed to walk on two legs and hold weapons.
725* OrderedToDie: 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.
726* PantheraAwesome: Another variant is an enhanced tiger, although for some reason they do not walk upright and wield weapons like the other types.
727* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: The tiger pishacha, despite being larger and more horrifying than regular tigers, manage to take advantage of darkness to slaughter several people in the banquet hall before being discovered.
728
729[[/folder]]
730
731[[folder:Makara]]
732[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/makara.jpg]]
733Whales that are influenced with spirits of Kushan war elephants. This causes the whales to manifest elephantine attributes like long trunks and tusks that, with their enormous size and strength, make them very difficult to kill.
734----
735* DemonicPossession: Like the Pishacha, these whales are possessed and mutated by undead spirits.
736* {{Makara}}: The makaras are among the strongest pishachas in the Kushan Army. They're created by infusing whales with the astral essence of war elephants, which makes them vicious and hybridizes them to have tentacle-like trunks, finned ears, and finned legs that allow them to go on land. On land, they aren't fast, but they are big, strong, and have a hide barely anything gets through. They also have a ranged attack in that they can spout a high-pressure stream of water from their trunks.
737* MakingASplash: Able to fire high-pressure water from their trunks.
738* MeaningfulName: Makara refers to a Hindu mythical aquatic creature who is often described as half land and half aquatic animal (usually an elephant and a giant fish), and often used as a steed for the gods. ''This'' Makara is a whale possessed and demonically transformed by elephant spirits.
739* MightyGlacier: When beached on land, they become much slower, but still retain their incredibly tough hide and immense physical strength.
740* MixAndMatchCritters: Compared to the Pishacha, who are more like humanoid animals in shape, Makaras are an incredibly bizarre mix of elephants and whales, with extra attributes that are most definitely ''not'' from any of those two.
741* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Just look at them.
742* SeaMonster: Daiba described them as superweapons capable of slaying ten warships by themselves.
743[[/folder]]
744
745[[folder:Kundalini]]
746[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kundalini.jpg]]
747[[caption-width-right:350:"Om Amriti, Hum Patha, Kundalini"]]
748A powerful astral serpent with control over the element of water. It is the strongest of Daiba's pishacha, who summons it to battle Guts at Vritannis's harbor.
749----
750* FightingAShadow: [[spoiler:The real Kundalini is a small physical snake that controls the far larger water form. Killing it causes the form to collapse.]]
751* MakingASplash: They are described as high-level water elementals, able to devastate armies and large structures with ease.
752* PhysicalGod: Invoked by Schierke, who claimed that the Kundalini could be on a level fitting for it to be called a god from a polytheistic standpoint.
753* SnakesAreSinister: Downplayed. It's definitely one of the most dangerous physical threats in the Kushan Empire, but there is no hint or sign showing it is hostile toward the protagonists out of any reason other than being summoned to do so.
754[[/folder]]
755
756
757!Millenium Falcon Arc: Chapter of Falconia
758[[folder:Captain Bonebeard]]
759!!!'''Voiced by:''' Riki Kagami (Japanese, ''Anime/Berserk2016''), Frank Todaro (English, ''Anime/Berserk2016'')
760
761[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bonebefore.jpg]]
762[[caption-width-right:300:Bonebeard as a human. Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boneafter.png][[/labelnote]] for him after his assimilation.]]
763
764-> ''"This is why I hate kids. They don't know their place when dealin' with adults."''
765
766Captain of the ''Captain Sharkrider'', Bonebeard (髭骸骨) was a pirate-turned-slave trader (turned pirate again) who attacked Schierke and Sonia before being driven off by Isidro. He reappears, having returned to piracy, and attacks Captain Roderick's ship only to have two of his three ships sunk and his flagship badly damaged. When the World Transformation occurs, Bonebeard and his crew are attacked by evil spirits and devoured by the Sea God, who transforms them into sentient tentacles. He retains his personality up until the Sea God awakens, and then he and his crew lose their humanoid forms and presumably perish alongside the Sea God.
767----
768* ArmedLegs: Has a knife blade concealed in his peg leg, with which he attempts to surprise Isidro during their first sword fight.
769* BadBoss: He's quick to whack, or even bite, his subordinates if they annoy him even slightly. He'll also ditch his men if the ships they're on are too damaged to keep up with his.
770* ChildHater: Claims that he hates kids because they have no respect for their elders or the rules of adult society. He certainly WouldHurtAChild, and is first seen preparing to sell Kushan orphans into slavery.
771* CombatPragmatist: Uses the rocking motion of a boat to make Mule lose his footing, and twice tries to kill Isidro with concealed weapons.
772* CombatTentacles: He and his crew become them after being eaten by the Sea God.
773* DopeSlap: Rebukes his crew by biting their noses.
774* DressedToPlunder: As Puck notes, he ticks most of the boxes for stereotypical pirate clothes. All he's missing are a parrot and a hook.
775* EyepatchOfPower: It completes the pirate look, but just like Adon, all it really does is make him look scarier than he actually is.
776* 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.
777* HairTriggerTemper: It only takes the slightest questioning of his authority to make him angry.
778* HandicappedBadass: Is a surprisingly capable swordsman despite having a peg leg and using a crutch. He's even turned them into weapons!
779* HumanoidAbomination: After being assimilated by the Sea God, he becomes an extension of its body.
780* IAmAHumanitarian: After being assimilated by the Sea God, he remarks how he's looking forward to eating Guts and his friends.
781* LargeHam: Much like Adon Corbowitz, he's a loud, self-aggrandizing buffoon.
782* LegCannon: Also has a miniature crossbow hidden in his crutch, which he uses to fight with even after he becomes a tentacle and no longer needs it to walk.
783* ManBitesMan: Has a habit of biting his first mate's face when angry or panicking.
784* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: After losing his humanoid form.
785* MouthOfSauron: He speaks on behalf of the Sea God after he is assimilated.
786* {{Pirate}}: Given his appearance and manner of speaking, he is a perfectly stereotypical pirate, as pointed out by Sonia.
787* ResistanceIsFutile: After becoming a tentacle, he tends to gloat and prattle on about how the Seahorse's passengers should just give up and let the Sea God turn them into tentacles too.
788* RunningGag: He'll bite his crewmates, his first mate in particular, when he gets upset or to rebuke them.
789* SeadogBeard: Doubles as a BeardOfEvil.
790* SeadogPegleg: Just to complete the standard pirate look. In a realistic take on the trope, it's not a perfect replacement for his lost limb, and he still needs to use a crutch to get around. In a more RuleOfCool turn, he also keeps a blade hidden in it.
791* StopBeingStereotypical: He insists that his men call him "boss" or "boss man" instead of "captain," and hates being referred to as a pirate instead of a legitimate trader (of slaves). All this despite being the most stereotypical pirate of all.
792* TalkLikeAPirate: Downplayed in the official English translations. His speech is rough and uncouth, but not really all that piratey, save for a couple "Argghs" thrown in during moments of great stress. He only starts regularly talking like a pirate once he's been absorbed by the Sea God. Averted in the original Japanese, of course, where his speech patterns are more militant.
793* WeCanRuleTogether: Invites Isidro to join his crew after seeing potential in him, but insults him as an inexperienced brat when he refuses.
794* WorthyOpponent: He tries to treat Guts as one, but the latter isn't particularly impressed. He also knows Roderick's reputation as a badass sea captain and gives the noble some praise upon seeing his evasive tactics.
795[[/folder]]
796
797!Fantasia Arc: Chapter of Elf Island
798[[folder:The Sea God]]
799[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seagod.png]]
800[[caption-width-right:300:The Sea God in its lair.]]
801
802A [[EldritchAbomination very ancient and formidably powerful deity]] that was sealed away in a cave beneath Solitary Island by the Merrow. It remained dormant for a ''very'' long time, until Femto's wave of PureEnergy awakened it just as Guts and his team arrived on its island. Its "resurrection" is one of the first known effects of the fusion of the Astral and the Material World.
803
804A very tough opponent, Guts is beaten to an inch of his life while battling him and is eventually saved by the mermaids who help him defeat the Sea God and pull him out of its belly.
805----
806* AnimalisticAbomination: It's a massive, hideous conglomeration of countless deep-sea animals that's capable of possessing and assimilating all organic life.
807* TheAssimilator: Anyone it eats is transformed into a tentacle.
808* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: It's the size of a ''freaking island''!
809* BeardOfEvil: When the "beard" consists of thousands of CombatTentacles that are themselves horrifically twisted [[MixAndMatchCritters hybrids of sea creatures]], you ''know'' it's got to be malevolent.
810* BrownNote: Uses insanely loud sound waves to protect its heart, nearly pummeling Guts to death.
811* CombatTentacles: Its main form of attack. The combat tentacles of its combat tentacles have combat tentacles.
812* EldritchAbomination: It's an ancient supernatural entity that was once worshipped as a god, but was deemed so dangerous it had to be sealed away. Once it awakens, it's like a nautical version of Ganishka's Shiva form, and also proves that Guts' party is just as capable of taking out a world-level threat as Neo-Griffith. The eyes on its heart also make it somewhat similar to [[spoiler:the Idea of Evil]].
813* EyesDoNotBelongThere: There are eyes on its heart. This makes it look a lot like [[spoiler:the Idea of Evil]].
814* HiveMind: Its body houses a myriad of sea creatures that act as its immune system.
815* KrakenAndLeviathan: It's so big that its body constituted an entire island.
816* MixAndMatchCritters: The main body is effectively a giant mollusk with teeth. It has a "beard" of tentacles, all of which are in fact giant sea slugs. The slugs in turn spew out tentacles of their own which take the form of giant sea cucumbers, which in turn have their own lamprey-like tentacles formed from the Sea God's victims. And its innards are guarded by all manner of deep sea creatures that are under its command, if they're not a part of its body to begin with, including goblin sharks, lampreys, gulper eels, and hagfish.
817* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: A mouth that big needs a ''lot'' of teeth.
818* OhCrap: The Sea God's ''heart'' of all things makes this kind of expression when the eyes on it open wide in [[HorrifyingTheHorror sheer terror]] upon seeing Guts approach with his sword in hand.
819* SealedEvilInACan: It was sealed within the island by the merrows and was reawakened sometime after the LayeredWorld was merged.
820* SeaMonster: It's a sea monster that can easily eat ''other'' sea monsters, and is practically made up ''of'' sea monsters.
821* SwallowedWhole: Most of the ships it sank ended up that way so its belly looks like a shipwreck cemetery.
822* VillainOfAnotherStory: Apparently this thing has been terrorizing the sea for ages. Guts and company just happen to run into it, and decide to take it out before it causes more trouble for everybody. Notably, it's one of the few supernatural villains in Berserk that seems to have no connection to the Godhand or the Apostles.
823* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Its lamprey-like tentacles can take on humanoid form and retain elements of their old personalities.
824[[/folder]]
825
826!Unaffiliated Monsters
827[[folder:Accursed Spirits]]
828[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/serpico_surrounded_by_demons.png]]
829[[caption-width-right:350:Serpico surrounded by the restless dead]]
830[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horror_manga_intro.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see them during [[spoiler: the Incarnation Ceremony]].]]
831Restless damned souls trapped in the mortal world. They are among the creatures drawn to the Brand of Sacrifice, and come out only at night since they are rendered incorporeal in sunlight. They can possess a multitude of forms, for their greatest desire is to have a vessel of flesh and bone. However, they become marginally stronger and terrifying during the Incarnation Ceremony.
832----
833
834* AndIMustScream: These souls are created from those who died restless and tormented, clinging to life due to lingering regrets. Denied peace in death, they now prey on the living.
835* BodyOfBodies: Combined with BlobMonster, during the Incarnation Ceremony, the restless dead of Albion transform into a great semi-sentient pool of acidic blood, absorbing any poor human caught in the tide.
836* DemBones: In the second chapter of the Black Swordsman arc, Guts fought off an entire swarm of the undead taking on the vessels of dead warriors.
837* DemonicPossession: They have the ability to capture and reform several entities, from living beings like humans and animals (including a specifically infamous horse) to trees and snow. The only cure for those possessed is a quick death.
838* FleshEatingZombie: Even after possessing a human, they are commonly shown to prey on other humans, cannibalizing on those that were not yet possessed.
839* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[GhastlyGhost Malevolent undead]] created from those who died horrible, painful, and unsatisfied deaths. They now desire to take any form of flesh, regardless if it's still occupied.
840* MurderIntoMalevolence: Many of the spirits that attacked Albion were those that were either tortured by religious fanatics, sacrificed to cults, or suffered other grisly deaths.
841* UndeadAbomination: Comes really close to this at the ending of the Incarnation Ceremony, an amorphous mass of flesh and bones of countless living and dead people, with thousands of souls screaming and howling in agony as the mass devours more innocents.
842* TheUsualAdversaries: Whether possessing skeletons, animals, trees, fire, or even the snow itself, expect them to always go after Guts.
843* ZombieApocalypse: [[spoiler: During the climax of the Incarnation Ceremony, the refugee camp around the Tower of Conviction becomes nothing more than a feeding ground for the undead.]]
844[[/folder]]
845
846[[folder:Trolls]]
847[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/first_troll_4.jpg]]
848Malevolent creatures from the astral world. They are bitter, ravenous, and depraved creatures made from the dark thoughts of mankind.
849----
850
851* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Really divergent from most depictions of trolls.
852* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Mixed with LargeAndInCharge, they do appear to have some sort of system of leadership, if only a bare one, as the strongest and burliest troll in Qliphoth steps forward, to the exclusion of the others when they fail.
853* TheBusCameBack: After vanishing during the Holy Demon War between Griffith and Ganiskha, they reappear after the Roar of the Astral World, doing their thing of terrorizing villages and also being pets for the Jotnar King.
854* ChestBurster: When a human woman impregnated by a troll gives birth, it ends with half a dozen of the little freaks tearing out of her belly.
855* TheFairFolk: As well as FantasticVermin, kidnapping children and women, eating livestock, and being worse than a nuisance.
856* HolyBurnsEvil: Inverted; the trolls are only blocked from the church because of Schierke's magic, not the church by itself.
857* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: They make a habit of capturing babies, just to [[EatsBabies eat them]].
858* ManiacMonkeys: They are very much apelike in appearance.
859* KingMook: The group encounters a troll war chief in the Qliphoth, who is significantly larger and tougher than its lesser brethren, using one unlucky troll as a living shield. It gets taken down by Isidro with relative ease.
860* MarsNeedsWomen: In the [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong most sickening way possible]].
861* MadeOfEvil: They come from a layer of the Astral World called the Qliphoth, where they are spawned from the impure darkness born from nightmares and humanity's subconscious evil thoughts.
862* MonstrousCannibalism: They have the habit of eating their own injured.
863* MixAndMatchCritters: They look like wretched dog-monkey-rodents, with a bit of star-nosed mole in there.
864* RapePillageAndBurn: A lot of the first two, though not a lot of burning
865* SupernaturalRepellent: The silver garments Farnese and Casca wear prevent the trolls from raping them, although they can still touch them with their weapons and instruments.
866* ZergRush: They're not durable, strong, or even that smart, but they have numbers on their side, helped out by their lightining-fast breeding cycle.
867[[/folder]]
868
869[[folder:Ogres]]
870[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ogre_3.jpg]]
871Misshapen colossal monsters from the astral world. They too are made of the dark thoughts of mankind, but they are far bigger and stronger than the trolls.
872----
873
874* HealingFactor: Similar to Apostles like Zodd, they can reattach severed limbs and even heal disemboweling. It takes a severe blow to the head to finish them off.
875* ItCanThink: It was aware that it could not pass the magic barrier around the church Schierke casted, but it realized that solid things, like boulders and wooden poles, could pass through no problem.
876* MadeOfEvil: They, like trolls, come from the Qliphoth.
877* MightyGlacier: They are big, incredibly durable, and hit like a truck, but they are slow and easily telegraphed.
878* MixAndMatchCritters: They have attributes of pigs, bears, apes, and elephants. [[BreadMilkEggsSquick Oh, and their head is definitely shaped like a penis]].
879* OurOgresAreHungrier: Big, dumb, man-eating, strong, and having a phallic head.
880[[/folder]]
881
882[[folder:Kelpies]]
883[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kelpie_4.jpg]]
884Enigmatic, but hostile, beasts from the astral world.
885----
886
887* 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.
888* MakingASplash: The kelpie has mid-level water elemental abilities and can propel missiles or even drown an opponent by forcing water over their mouth. In the rain, a kelpie is especially dangerous. At one point, it forced its opponent, Serpico, back with beams of water and threw a shield made of water up, to deter his wind-propelled attacks.
889* MixAndMatchCritters: Looks like a hybrid between a frog and a horse
890[[/folder]]
891
892[[folder:Jötnar]]
893[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jtunn.jpg]]
894A race of man-eating giants that appear following the Great Roar of the Astral World.
895----
896* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They aren't shown to be anything other than brutish man-eaters.
897* BlackSpeech: Their language is utterly alien, represented by a dark scribble.
898* DecapitatedArmy: Griffith killing their leader turns it from a battle to a slaughter.
899* EyeScream: Griffith does this to their king.
900* OurGiantsAreBigger: They are around 40-50 feet tall, and serve no real role other than being another monster for Griffith to slay.
901* SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: Their king really likes wearing skulls.
902* VillainOfAnotherStory: They don't serve any other purpose other than showing how much the world has changed and antagonizing Griffith's new empire.
903* TheWorfEffect: Gets absolutely destroyed by Griffith's army.
904[[/folder]]

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