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. You Have Been Warned!

This page is for the Godhand, their Apostles, and beings who have been created through the Apostles' powers. For other antagonists in Berserk, see the general antagonists page.

The Idea of Evil is a Walking Spoiler who originally appeared in chapter 83. This chapter and the Idea itself have both been omitted from collected printings of volume 13 at the request of the author, because he felt that introducing it at that point put constraints on the scope of the story and gave away too much of the plot too soon. All spoilers are unmarked in that folder to prevent a wall of white. Read at your own risk.

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The Godhand

Common Tropes

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/godhand_0.png

"'Everything is within the flow of causality." ^Pictured

Click ^here to see The Godhand as they were a thousand years ago.

"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will."

— Void

The Big Bad Duumvirate—or rather, Quintumvirate—of the story.

All of them used to be humans before becoming members of the Godhand and have been around for a long time, with the exception of their fifth and newest member Femto who is born in the Eclipse at the end of the Golden Age Arc. Their powers are of course god-like, and though they are not completely omniscient they are very close to it. All Apostles refer to them as their masters.

Each one stands for a negative aspect of reality, but none of them can actually appear in the mortal realm as they are. To do that they have to use the best material at hand, whether it happens to be rats or troll intestines, to create a temporary physical body. Femto is able to appear on Earth in the form of Griffith since he has reincarnated in a permanent physical body through the mock eclipse at the Tower of Conviction.

Since the mangaka, Kentaro Miura, was a huge sci-fi fan, the original four are named after classic sci-fi books, and even Femto is named after a scientific concept.

Achilles' Heel: The Skull Knight and Schierke find Guts' Dragonslayer to be one of the very few weapons capable of causing actual harm to the Godhand. Because Guts had gone off on his own to wage his own personal war against the Apostles for two whole years, the Dragonslayer has been soaked in so much demonic gore that it can directly hurt the Godhand's physical bodies—as proven when Guts impales Slan's avatar while in Qliphoth.
Angelic Abomination: While the Godhand functions as Demon Lords and Archdevils, they are also considered angels in-universe, and serve what amounts to God. They are vastly powerful and almost omniscient humanoid abominations with control over causality, and serve as the Big Bad Duumvirate of the setting. And like the lesser Apostles, they were humans who become demons through a Deal with the Devil.
Be Careful What You Wish For: They offer you the chance to become an immortal demon and live out the rest of your days in accordance to your desire, but when your life comes to an end you will be sent to Hell for sacrificing someone you loved for pleasure and salvation.
Big Bad Duumvirate: The five members of the Godhand are the sovereigns of demonkind and the main villains of the story. While they are in service to the Idea of Evil, the Idea is a Greater-Scope Villain, while the Godhand are directly responsible for the state the world of Berserk is in.
Card-Carrying Villain: They freely use the word "evil" to describe themselves, and appreciate evil for its own sake.
Celestial Paragons and Archangels: An exceptionally twisted take on this concept. Despite by all appearances being the opposite trope, they are referred to as angels, and are powerful beyond any other Apostle. The reason why they can be both is that they are "angels"… of the Idea of Evil, which appears to be the most powerful being in the setting.
The Corrupter: All of them exist solely to corrupt people by offering them a "better life" through evildoing and selfishness.
Corrupt the Cutie: Rosine, a little girl who was abused and believed becoming an elf would make her life better. She ends up realizing too late that not only it was a mistake but the Godhand didn't even make her a real elf.
Dark Is Evil: They wear black, identify themselves as demonic entities, and are more or less the cause of all the horrible stuff that occurs within the series.
Deal with the Devil: Much like Apostles, every member of Godhand is born by making one of these with the previous members and the Idea of Evil itself.
Deity of Human Origin: Going by the information from the Lost Episode, their power as gods ultimately derives from the collective unconscious of humanity. Though it may or may not be lying.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Godhand are the five most powerful demons in the Berserk universe, and are the masters of all the Apostles as well as the rulers of the Astral Realm.
Didn't See That Coming: In the third film, Advent, Guts manages to actually break his blade through Griffith's Deflector Shield. This simple act of defiance and sheer will absolutely stuns all the members of the Godhand, and Griffith himself is left utterly dumbfounded.
Devil, but No God: Played With, but eventually subverted. For a time, it appeared that while there were other powerful beings in the Astral Plane, the Godhand and their master, the Idea of Evil, had no counterpart in their role as malevolent supreme deities. Then The Four Kings of the World were introduced, showing that there could be powers close to or on par with the Godhand. The Idea of Evil still seems to be the only god around, but it throws much of their grandstanding into doubt.
Evil Wears Black: All of them wear black, although their "clothing" might actually be part of their bodies. Naturally, they're card-carrying villains.
Expy: The Godhand has much in common with the Cenobites of Hellraiser fame: extradimensional godlike beings who were once human, and are interested in turning humans into monsters. Like the Cenobites, they reside in a hellish otherworld until summoned by an Artifact of Doom. They are described as both Angels and Demons, and serve an abstract entity beyond mortal comprehension. To a limited degree, their designs and personalities evoke memories of the original four Cenobites as well; it's hard not to look at Ubik and see a little of the Butterball Cenobite, while Void is very much like Pinhead in personality and Chatterer in looks.
- 3/4 of the core God Hand correlate rather neatly to 3/4 of the Gods of Chaos from Warhammer. Disturbingly beautiful, hedonistic goddess of lust Slan parallels Slaanesh the Lord of Desire (and even has an extremely similar name), the bloated plague spreader Conrad is a rather less-disgusting equivalent to Nurgle, god of sickness and decay, and the cunning, manipulative Ubik fulfils a role akin to the Great Manipulator Tzeentch. However the stoic and intellectual Void has nothing in common with the unspeakably violent god of slaughter Khorne (neither does Femto), so it's not a perfect comparison.
Faux Affably Evil: Slan and Ubik sometimes mock their victims with insincere pleasantries. Slan, for instance, praises Guts while torturing him and sarcastically addresses the Skull Knight as "your majesty". The other members just skip the pretense and act with naked hostility.
Fisher Kingdom: When Griffith crosses over the astral and physical layers of the world, the Godhand are made manifest in separate corners of the Earth, their mere presence altering the landscapes and converting them into their own Eldritch Locations, each a reflection of their respective domains (i.e., Slan's domain is made of masses of headless female forms wrapped in each other in an almost orgiastic gathering).
Four Is Death: Before Griffith's induction, there were only four Godhand members and they were referred to as the "Four Guardian Angels."
From Bad to Worse: Their whole existence is spent invoking this trope for all of humanity. They are literally designed to make life for humans as miserable as possible. Taken to new heights as of Griffith's defeat of Ganishka, as they have all manifested themselves within the material plane, and will almost certainly cause more, more and more havoc amongst the populace.
Humanoid Abomination: The forms of their souls in the Astral Realm, while monstrous and demonic, still broadly resemble humans in face and body silhouette. When they manifest in the physical realm from the Incarnation Ceremony, they seem to take human form (as Griffith/Femto demonstrates) but they retain their demonic eyes and god-like powers.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: They may be demon-gods now, but they were once human and their current state as Eldritch Abominations is due to them literally giving up someone they truly cared about to the vortex of Hell. Furthermore the idea of Evilmay have been created directly by the collective subconscious of humanity demanding an answer for mankind's suffering, although your leige may very if its a relaiable narrator or not. Also unlike Apostles, it's not just one or two but a hundred of loved ones.
Hidden Agenda Villain: They don't make much of a secret of why they exist—to make human life miserable—but it is rather in the dark why they manipulate events in order to make very specific instances occur at extremely convenient points in time. The most obvious example of this is how they've welcomed Griffith into their brood only to have him reincarnate himself into the mortal world just two years later. Eventually, it is revealed that they needed Griffith to rend the different layers of reality together so that they can manifest themselves into the mortal world and cause more chaos and discord.
Invincible Villain: Because they can casually manipulate the flow of causality itself, they are practically untouchable and cannot be killed through conventional means. However, Guts' Dragonslayer has directly managed to harm Slan's physical manifestation, and several characters such as the Skull Knight and Schierke have speculated that the Dragonslayer has bathed itself in so much demonic blood that it is capable of harming any supernatural creature.
Meaningful Name: Behelits take their namesake from Beherit, which is the Syriac name for Satan in the Satanic Bible. Also, the term "Godhand" makes sense, especially if you consider the Idea of Evil canon. The Godhand aren't gods unto themselves, but in serving the Idea, collectively act as a metaphorical hand of God.
The Omniscient: Downplayed a bit in that they acknowledge themselves not to literally know everything. What they do have is the ability to observe the world and sense the currents of destiny to a degree where they can predict just about anything, so it's a big surprise when something happens that they didn't see coming.
Our Angels Are Different: Despite looking demonic they are referred to as angels. And this isn't inaccurate, as they can be seen as the angels to the Idea of Evil's God.
Our Demons Are Different: Quite different from the Apostles and much more powerful, even if they're created in much the same way.
Physical God: There's nothing better to describe a Godhand who has fully incarnated to the physical realm than this trope. Femto is even able to empower Midland with magic upon reincarnating. Eventually, once Griffith crosses the astral and physical layers of reality together, they play this trope straight—they are now currently residing in the mortal world, their respective Eldritch Locations having fully manifested into Midland from their awakening.
Pitiful Worms: They see all efforts in opposition to their own as utterly hopeless, and outright laugh at Guts' refusal to just lay down and die.
Power of the God Hand: It's even in their name. However, turns out they play this trope straight, as they represent the power of an evil God.
Powers That Be: They are the ones who are responsible for pulling the strings of causality upon the world, and thus the cause of so much of the utter misery that happens in that world.
Satanic Archetype: Each one of them seem to represent a different archetype or idea of the devil and demons throughout history. Ubik is a deal-maker that never lies but twists the truth to trick people into Faustian Bargains (plus manifests in Hieronymus Bosch's representation of Hell); Conrad is a spirit of death and disaster that causes plagues and rules over vermin; Slan is a being of forbidden and decadent pleasures that encourages humans to indulge in secret cannibalistic orgies; Femto is The Antichrist, while Void seems to represent a more philosophical or romantic interpretation of evil as a cosmic force, a part of fate or the inescapable nature of man.
Self-Constructed Being: Since they are not part of the physical plane, the Godhand do not have physical bodies, and must manifest themselves by possessing some material (e.g. Slan possessing troll guts in order to manifest in Qliphoth). Otherwise, they have the opportunity to gain a new physical body every 1,000 years during the Incarnation Ceremony (e.g. how Griffith re-entered the human world via his reincarnation during the mock Eclipse). It is implied that through Griffith's merging of the astral and physical layers of existence they now have physical bodies and are now fully capable of interacting with the mortal world.
Transhuman Abomination: Each of them was once a human being, save the Idea of Evil, which was spawned from the collective subconscious of all humanity.
Vicious Cycle: The Eclipse, which happens once every 216 years, marks the birth of a new Godhand. In Chapter 362, we see a flashback to the Skull Knight's last moments, during which a previous generation of the Godhand is seen, completely different from the current one with the exception of Void, who was present. Also, every 1,000 years, a member of the Godhand can reincarnate themselves into the mortal realm.
Villain of Another Story: Each member of the Godhand is implied to have gone through a Trauma Conga Line, similar to Griffith's, which led them down to where they are now. Void in particular is implied to have had past relations with the Skull Knight—the two of them are vicious rivals for an unknown reason.
Was Once a Man: Just like Apostles, all members of the Godhand were once human before they ascended to demonhood.
We Have Reserves: When Guts has defeated the Count, he summons them through his extreme fear and blood on his Behelit. When the Count begs for their help, they give a quick, cold rebuff. They are aware of Guts hunting the Apostles for the last two years and as far as they are concerned, Guts is just doing a drop in the bucket. They will not help him because they are all on the same side, as the Count puts it to them. The only way he can get their help is if he makes a human sacrifice like last time.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: Their main powers over reality.
The Worf Effect: When we first see Guts as the Black Swordsman, he is clearly characterized as a powerful and skilled warrior, one who can stand toe-to-toe against the demonic Apostles and win. When he's put up against the Godhand in any way, however, he's easily tossed aside like a ragdoll. It's to the point where none of the Godhand even bother trying to kill him. To them, he's so insignificant that they barely need to lift a finger to end his life.
You Can't Fight Fate: They have control over the fates and destinies of all men, allowing the currents of causality to flow in ways they deem acceptable in order to fulfill their agendas.

Void

**Void (ボイド, Boido)**

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (Japanese, Berserk (1997), Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, and Berserk (2016)), Shinji Ogawa (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Takashi Inagaki (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), John Avner (English, Berserk (1997) & Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Earl Boen (English, Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage), Jake Eberle (English, Berserk (2016)), César Lechiguero (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/void_300.jpg

The First of the Godhand.

"If fate is a principle beyond human comprehension which capriciously torments man, then it is karma that man confront fate by embracing sorcery."

The leader of the five, Void also seems to be the Skull Knight's Arch-Nemesis. He presides over every ritual involving the birth of a new Apostle, and is the one who places the cursed Brand on those slated to be sacrificed.

The most philosophical of the Godhand members, he's also the most cynical and scornful. He resembles a nightmarish version of the aliens from Mars Attacks! with his exposed, grotesquely oversized brain, his eyes sewn shut and his lips peeled back, displaying teeth and gums.

All-Encompassing Mantle: His floor-length black mantle completely envelops his body (or lack thereof), making him look powerful, mysterious, and in charge.
Arch-Enemy: The Skull Knight has the greatest personal hatred for him, and has made it the mission of his existence to foil his plans.
Big Bad Duumvirate: As the first Godhand and their leader, he ties with Griffith for the overall villain of the series given the Idea of Evil's lack of involvement in the main story.
Body Horror: Aside from his head and his face, an officially licensed Figma action figure of him finally revealed that his body consists of only one single large spine◊ that leads to a pelvis-like structure his head and arms are mounted on.
Cape Wings: His mantle is webbed like the wings of a bat. Unlike in Femto's case, it's unclear whether Void can or even needs to use them for propulsion.
Creepily Long Arms: Normally you can't see them due to his cloak, but his arms are long enough to stick out the bottom of his full-body coat and look creepily inhuman.
The Dragon: Turns out that even the first Godhand is just The Dragon to The Idea of Evil.
Evil Former Friend: Implied to have once been close to the Skull Knight before he turned into a Godhand and earned the former's enmity.
Evil Sounds Deep: In all live media and especially in Berserk (1997) he speaks in a deep, sinister voice.
Extra Digits: Has six fingers per hand.
Eye Scream: His eyes are stitched shut. Not that he seems to care.
Generation Xerox: The Skull Knight is to Void what Guts is to Griffith, essentially.
High Collar of Doom: His mantle includes a high, sinister collar.
Homage: Like all Godhand members, his name is a homage to a sci-fi book: in his case, Frank Herbert's Destination: Void.
It's Personal: The Skull Knight has a personal grudge against him, probably because of something from their past.
The Leader: Is the oldest of the Godhand and first among equals.
Meaningful Name: As his name suggests, he's the most cynical and dispassionate of the five.
My Brain Is Big: Has a giant, nightmarish exposed brain coming out of his head. It's not just for show, since he is the oldest, wisest, and most philosophical member of the Godhand as well as their leader.
Mysterious Past: While Femto's birth provides some basic clues as to how Slan, Ubik, and Conrad ascended. Void's status as the first member makes it unclear how his version of the Eclipse went down. A flashback showing him as the only recognizable member of a seeming previous iteration of the Godhand only raises further questions.
Narrator All Along: In Berserk (1997) he turns out to have been the owner of the voice delivering the "In this world" opening narration and the Next Episode Preview voiceovers.
Nigh-Invulnerability: It is almost impossible to hurt him since he can send any physical aggression right back at the opponent using his power over space.
Nightmare Face: Eeep! And the more you look at his face, the more you notice that, in addition to all his other "pleasant" features, he also got his nose cut off.
Nothing Personal: While the other four tend to mock and torment both the sacrifice and Apostle-to-be while conducting a ceremony, Void is never insulting towards the Godhand’s victims; instead just stating their suffering is the product of Causality’s flow.
The Older Immortal: Eldest member of the Godhand, and alongside the Skull Knight also the oldest being yet encountered in the manga. He is also the only member of the current Godhand who was also present in its previous incarnation.
The Philosopher: As you can tell from his opening and closing narrations, he loves to reflect upon abstract philosophical mysteries such as whether human nature is fundamentally evil, or to what extent a single man can defy his fate.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: He is the Godhand's leader, and barring maybe Femto he is also the most powerful.
Skull for a Head: His head is basically just a skull, albeit with the top removed and the brain exposed.
The Stoic: Unlike the rest of his cohorts, Void is unflappable and never displays sadistic amusement of any sort. His mutilated face doesn't give him much room for expression either.
Space Master: He deflects Skull Knight's sword by conjuring a distortion in space next to his head that leads behind the knight's back, forcing him to focus on blocking it with his shield.
Villain of Another Story: The Skull Knight and he appear to have some unfinished business that is merely hinted at and never fully explored.
You Can't Fight Fate: He states that he can't bring himself to believe that humans control their own fates, even with his time spent pondering on human nature.

Slan

**Slan (スラン, Suran)**

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese, Berserk (1997) and Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō), Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Suzanne Gilad (English, Berserk (1997), credited as C.L. Jones), Cindy Robinson (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc, credited as Simone Montgomery), Allegra Clark (English, Berserk (2016)), Pilar Morales (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slan_300_a.png

The Whore Princess.

Click ^here to see Slan in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc.

"Love, hate, pleasure, pain, life, death. Everything is here! The true nature of Man. The true nature of Evil."

A Vamp, Slan is lascivious and Too Kinky to Torture. Similar to a succubus demon and a sadomasochist, she is the most frequently seen of the Godhand after Griffith and takes particular pleasure in tormenting Guts personally. She also owns a splinter cult of worshippers under the moniker "The Goddess of Blazes."

She appears as a practically nude woman with snake-like ropy green hair, a corset with an attached choker, a pair of large bat-like wings, and the mandatory Femme Fatalons.

Abhorrent Admirer: She makes it quite clear that she finds Guts attractive every time they meet, mostly for his strength as a warrior. Needless to say, he doesn't reciprocate.
Bloody Bowels of Hell: When she manifests in the real world (not the Eclipse or weird dimensions) while in Qliphoth using troll intestines.
Combat Sadomasochist: Loves experiencing pain during battle as much as she does inflicting it.
Combat Tentacles: Uses her prehensile hair and giant tentacles made of troll intestines to attack Guts during her boss battle in Seima Senki no Sho.
The Corrupter: She tries to be this to Guts, suggesting he sacrifice his comrades and use his Behelit to obtain the power to kill Femto, and torturing him when he refuses in an attempt to break him.
Dark Action Girl: One of the few women who engage in battle. And the most evil.
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. The way she molests and forces herself on Guts in the Qliphoth isn't depicted as sexy, normal or acceptable in any way, but rather as another testimony of how utterly twisted and horrible she is.
Fan Disservice: When she manifests in Qlippoth, she is shaped like an extremely attractive woman but she used troll intestines to do so...
Femme Fatalons: Has them, but doesn't really need them as she is one of five Physical God Big Bads.
Forceful Kiss: She kisses Guts during their fight at Qliphoth.
Gorgeous Gorgon: With the shape of a beautiful woman, she's a lot more attractive than the more grotesque-looking three original male members of the God Hand. For bonus points, she resembles a Gorgon with her snake-like hair.
Homage: Her name comes from A.E. van Vogt's Slan, and her "hair" is made up of organic tendrils, much like the novel's titular beings.
Hot as Hell: An archdemon who personifies Lust, among other things.
I Have You Now, My Pretty: The rare Gender Flipped version. She took intense sexual pleasure in molesting, dominating, and torturing Guts while he stood helpless in her clutches during their encounter in the Qliphoth and made it all seem like they were having sex.
The Immodest Orgasm: When sufficiently wounded, she lets out a loud moan as if she is experiencing an orgasm.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Guts impales her with his sword during their fight at Qliphoth. She however is overjoyed by the pain he is causing her, and grabs Guts while he has her impaled and kisses him, calling him wonderful.
In Love with Your Carnage: Of all the Godhand, she is the one with the most personal interest in Guts, being quite enamored with the violence he is singularly capable of inflicting. Slan even suggests to Void while observing Guts fighting off the Apostles during the Eclipse that Guts would make for an ideal sixth member of the God Hand, but Void puts down this idea as it goes against the laws of causality.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Anyone able to withstand a point-blank thrust from Guts' BFS and a blast from his cannon arm owns the title.
Nightmare Fetishist: She loves receiving and inflicting pain, and sees rape as a beautiful act.
Of Corsets Sexy: Not only an underbust corset does she wear, but a NECK corset too. Amp the sadomasochist look to eleven!
Orgasmic Combat: When Guts impales her, this is the only effect it has.
Posthuman Nudism: She is always depicted as shamelessly nude aside from Giger-esque corset-like garb she wears that doesn't obscure her breasts, butt, or genitals, and which may very well actually be part of her body anyway. Not only is it also reflective of her disconnect from humanity, but it also emphasizes her raw sexuality and affiliation with lust, hedonism, and debauchery.
Red Baron: The Skull Knight calls her "Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea", though it is unclear if it is an official nickname or just an elaborate insult.
Sex Is Violence: A firm believer and enforcer of this. Her fascination with cruelty, her being a Combat Sadomasochist and her cult which mixes orgies and debased sexuality with human sacrifices and cannibalism all attest to this.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: She's literally almost naked except for an armor/scale-like corset and doesn't mind one bit. Unlike most examples, however, this one's definitely not a fun person to be around.
Showing Off the New Body: Seems to enjoy fondling her own breasts every time she is incarnated into a body.
Smurfette Principle: The only known female Godhand.
Stationary Boss: Stays put in one part of the arena during her Boss Battle in Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, preferring to let her wings and Combat Tentacles do all the work.
Statuesque Stunner: A goddess of Lust who stands at Guts' height (6+ feet) in her human form.
"Take That!" Kiss: When it seems like Guts has finally defeated her after impaling her, she just laughs and takes great pleasure in the pain he causes her before grabbing him and kissing him, calling him wonderful.
Tender Tears: In a very twisted way, she found beauty in the brutal rape of Casca at Femto's hands while Guts was forced to watch helplessly, describing the scene as "magnificent", so much so it brought her to tears.
Too Kinky to Torture: You can cut her to pieces, blow off half her torso or impale her with a giant steel slab, but the only thing you'll succeed in doing is giving her an orgasm.
The Vamp: She may appear beautiful and enticing but her only purpose is to doom any man she ensnares.
Villainesses Want Heroes: Subverted. She desires Guts as her personal sex toy but she has absolutely NO romantic interest in him.
We Will Meet Again: After Guts destroys her physical manifestation in the Qliphoth, her parting words are that he will see her again.

Ubik

**Ubik (ユービック, Yūbikku)**

Voiced by: Chafurin (Japanese, Berserk (1997), Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, & Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Kan Tanaka (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Greg Miller (English, Berserk (1997), credited as Christian Collingwood), Liam O'Brien (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Gabriel Pareja (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ubik_300.jpg

The one who speaks truth.

Click ^here to see Ubik in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc.

"When you sacrifice, you must cut yourself from Humanity..."

Ubik looks like a floating bluish face with atrophied tentacles. He is smaller than Conrad but pretty similar in appearance and stance.

Ubik's main role among the Godhand is to play Mr. Exposition in order to convince the applicant to accept their deal by delivering a breaking speech that puts them face-to-face with their past, their desires and their darkest deeds. Since he never lies, his speeches are often all the applicant needs to be pushed over the edge and accept to sell his soul and offer their loved ones as a sacrifice.

Bald of Evil: An evil bald guy, but that's easily the least scary-looking thing about him.
Break Them by Talking: He is a master at giving speeches that make his subject lose all hope, self-respect, and belief in their loved ones.
Cheshire Cat Grin: His constant expression is a frightening evil grin, except when he sees that Guts is breaking through Femto's telekinetic powers in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III, which was something he did not foresee.
Evil Brit: He has a British accent in the English versions of the 1997 anime adaptation and the Golden Age Arc film trilogy respectively.
Evil Genius: Relies more on his intelligence and cunning than on his strength or powers in contributing to the God Hand's designs.
Finger-Tenting: Not so much as Conrad, but often clasps his hands while floating. Subverted in its meaning, as while his intentions are deceptive, just like all the others of his kind, he only uses the truth to get to that end.
Homage:
- His name comes from Ubik by Philip K. Dick.
- He bears a strong resemblance to the Butterball Cenobite.
- When he invades the material world, he creates a gigantic Hieronymus Bosch painting - he is even seen sitting in the middle of the tree-man from the Hell panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Manipulative Bastard: Ubik doesn't lie outright, but he manipulates the truth by presenting the darkest moments of someone's life in order to make his victim despair, and come to the conclusion that they have no choice but to make the sacrifice.
Mind Rape: Invades his victims' memories and forces them to see the truth about themselves that they cannot bear to look at.
Mind Screw: Seems to be the embodiment of this. He already had shades of it with his Manipulative Bastard and mind rapist tendencies (see above), but when he manifests in the material world he turns the landscape into a Hieronymus Bosch painting, which is one of the most iconic picture-based Mind Screw.
Mister Exposition: As a result of his role, he often ends up explaining the backstory of whoever he's in the process of breaking.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He doles them out to prospective Apostles. To paraphrase what he says to Griffith: 'You condemned people to die and stained your hands with blood the moment you, a child in the streets, decided you wanted to get your own kingdom. Don't pretend you didn't know this was going to happen: you knew all along, and you're to blame. You climb to victory on top of the corpses of your followers. That's the way you've been all along. There's no saying sorry now, no turning back. You started this, and now you've got to see it through no matter what.'
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Compared to Conrad, who is even more of a Large Ham than he is, Ubik is more cerebral and ever-so-slightly more restrained.
Sinister Shades: His round, black eyes look like scary sunglasses.
Villains Never Lie: His breaking speeches are all the more devastating when the victim can't deny what he's saying, because they know it's true. That being said, however, he's not above cleverly manipulating the truth to present a distorted picture.
What You Are in the Dark: Invokes this during his breaking speeches, often exposing a person to some secret crime from their past. He'll tell them that even if they want to seem like a good person to other people and themselves, they have always been corrupt on the inside.

Conrad

**Conrad (コンラッド, Konraddo)**

Voiced by: Toku Nishio (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Sean Schemmel (English, Berserk (1997) & Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Alfonso Vallés (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conrad_in_300.jpg

The source of all pestilence.

"... so Causality can ruin your heart and possess your mind."

Conrad looks like a giant fat woodlouse with a puckered human face. He and Ubik are pretty similar in appearance and stance, but Conrad rarely speaks.

The least frequently seen of the Godhand, Conrad's concerns are spreading diseases, outbreaks, and pestilence in the mortal realm by using his plague-carrying rats and other vermin, which he can use to take a physical form in the real world.

Aerith and Bob: Compared to the exotic and alien-sounding names of the rest of the Godhand, his is pretty mundane.
Animal Motifs: Associated with rats, which are the medium he uses to spread the plague.
Bald of Evil: Another evil bald guy.
Beware the Quiet Ones: Conrad is content to stand in the background most of the time, but when he does speak he really makes it count. He's no less a monster than his brethren, and as a being with the power over plague and disease, he could potentially be the most deadly.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: His lower body is never clearly seen, but his general body shape, particularly his shell-like tunic, makes him look like a human/woodlouse hybrid. Some images suggest he has multiple insectoid legs.
Body Horror: His face is hideously swollen in a way that almost resembles an allergic reaction or disease. Appropriate since his specialty is disease and plague, but one wonders why he'd be content looking like that for all eternity.
Dishing Out Dirt: He seems to be the one who creates the hand tower during the Eclipse.
Eyes Always Shut: His keeps his eyes shut most of the time, and opens them only when he speaks, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Fat Bastard: His rotund character design evokes morbid obesity.
Finger-Tenting: Very much like Ubik, although more noticeably than him, Conrad has the Character Tic of keeping his hands in a Prayer Pose all the time. Averted in the gesture's connotations, as Conrad talks or emotes very little.
Flat Character: Because he's The Quiet One and lacks any facial expression Conrad shows the least personality among the Godhand. However, he's no less horrifying, as this is used to demonstrate his unfeeling commitment to their evil agenda.
Four-Fingered Hands: A rare example that is neither cartoony nor comical, but for one who spreads death on a wide scale via pestilence, it's very fitting.
Homage:
- His name comes from ... And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny.
- His appearance is also very similar to several H. R. Giger works, a trait the rest of the Godhand share much less obviously.
Large Ham: When Conrad finally does speak, he makes it count by being extremely loud and dramatic.
No Indoor Voice: The few lines he does speak are delivered quite loudly.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: He doesn't speak unless needed, and proves quite efficient with duties in the physical realm, namely creating a plague to drive refugees together for the unholy birthing ceremony.
Perpetual Expression: His face has a constant closed-eyed pout. He doesn't even move his mouth when talking.
Plague Master: Conrad's concern includes spreading diseases using his plague rats.
The Quiet One: Of all the Godhand Members, he speaks the least.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Despite his more conservative looks, Conrad is an even bigger ham that Ubik and more passionate.
Satellite Character: He doesn't have a very developed personality, and revolves around the other four Godhand members.
Tom the Dark Lord: Again, as mentioned in Aerith and Bob, his name is shockingly mundane for a member of the Godhand.

Femto

See Griffith's entry.

The Idea of Evil (All Spoilers Unmarked)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/idea_of_evil_300.jpg

"Do as you will, chosen one..."

The Idea of Evil is a character only glimpsed at the very end of episode 82. Its nature was originally revealed in episode 83, "God of the Abyss (2)", but Miura subsequently asked for this episode to be omitted from the publication of volume 13, effectively removing the exposition therein from the canon. It is the Greater-Scope Villain of Berserk and a Monster Progenitor that manipulates reality itself. It controls the world through Causality but no one, save for the Godhand themselves, is aware of its existence. The only possible exceptions are the witches Flora and Schierke, the former having vaguely alluded to something beyond the Godhand existing in the deepest part of the Astral Plane in volume 24. Kentaro Miura stated in 2009 that the reason the episode was left out of volume 13 was because he "wanted Berserk's world to be revealed just that far, not any more than that. The appearance of God in the manga conclusively determines its range. [He] thought that might limit the freedom of the story development. [Miura himself doesn't] know if the Idea of Evil will show up again in the manga or not". Despite techninally being decanonized, there has been no true retconning of its nature, and there are teases of something beyond the Abyss.

It is a huge monster created out of humanity's need for a reason for all their suffering. Its purpose is being responsible for the Berserk universe's awfulness and, to that end, it knows exactly what it has to do, which is offering the world what it desires in the person of a Dark Messiah: Griffith. It is the creator of all the five Godhand and they obey its order; "DO AS THOU WILT". It appears as a giant human heart living deep below the Abyss, where the Astral Plane merges with the World of Idea.

As Long as There Is Evil: Subverted. As its name implies, its existence is intrinsically linked to the existence of Evil in humanity's consciousness. However, it's not so much the embodiment of evil as it is the embodiment of man's 'DESIRE' for evil. Or rather, a reason for evil and suffering.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of humanity's desire for there to be a point to their suffering.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Especially now that the Astral Realm and the material realm have merged. The Idea isn't about making people happy; it's about being responsible for their suffering and thus giving them exactly what they wish for, regardless if it benefits the querent or not.
Because Destiny Says So: Because the Idea of Evil says so.
Card-Carrying Villain: The reason we know its name is because that's what it calls itself.
A Chat with Satan: It gives a pep-talk to all of those who will become members of the Godhand before they swear allegiance to it.
Cosmic Horror Story: It can do whatever it wants out of Reality. Although one could argue that the fact people live in a universe that runs on Clap Your Hands If You Believe is enough of one itself.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The whole reason why it exists. In fact, it's implied that the reason the Idea of Evil is as evil as it is because the Berserk world sucks so much that if people didn't believe there was a reason for their suffering then they wouldn't be able to go on. So they claim that it is evil which is the cause of suffering and since everyone believed that to be true, The Idea of Evil was created.
Deconstructed Character Archetype: Many works of fiction posit on rather negative interpretations of God—such as God Is Evil, God and Satan Are Both Jerks, and God Is Flawed. The Idea of Evil is essentially both an examination and a brutal evisceration of those tropes. Of course God Is Flawed—in this world, humans are what spawned it. If God and Satan Are Both Jerks, then they might as well be the same thing. If God Is Evil, then what else can it be, if people need it to be evil in order for there to be a reason for their own suffering? And ultimately—most important of all—the Idea of Evil is a deconstruction of the notion that God is meant to be an extension of the will of man; that God is meant to cater to man's needs and wants in order to truly be considered good, and that if God doesn't adhere to men's needs, then He must be evil, and contemptuous of humanity as a whole. But the Idea of Evil exists because humans need an answer for all their suffering, and it does ultimately serve humanity in that sense. By driving humans to the pits of despair, it in turn forces them to cast aside their own humanity in the pursuit of their own selfish desires.
Deal with the Devil: The Godhand were all instated by the Idea of Evil upon the Eclipse that happens every 216 years. If they accept the deal of the previous Godhands, the applicant gets to meet the story's Greater-Scope Villain and to hear its goals.
Deity of Human Origin: It even calls itself "the ungodly God born from Man".
Eldritch Abomination: Played Straight and Subverted. Despite its gruesome appearance and its otherworldly goals that even the Godhand don't completely fathom it's not an alien being older than man. Rather it is humanity's desire for there to be such a creature that made it appear.
Evil Is Visceral: It presents itself as a horribly deformed human heart, studded with eyes.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: There is no better way to describe this being's nature than its very name.
Foreshadowing: Although none of his nature is foreshadowed anywhere, the existence of a god-like being that rules over the Godhand has been foreshadowed several times. The very fact that the Godhand members came from humans, Slan's statement that the Godhand are not gods, and the fact that the Godhand are referred to as Five Angels, all point out to the existence of a God who created and rules over them.
God Is Evil: Inverted. It's more Evil Is God.
God of Evil: Not literally. People unwittingly worship it simply by wanting a cause for their suffering, but it has no formal cult.
Gone Horribly Right: People wanted there to be a rhyme and reason to their suffering. They got it, even though they don't know that the Idea even exists, nor that it's making their lives even more miserable.
Greater-Scope Villain: Higher than the whole of the Godhand, but has no direct interaction with Guts. In fact, it exists specifically to provide an ultimate reason for human suffering.
The Heartless: It was born from humanity's desire for a cause for their suffering. As long as humanity both exists and believes that all pain has a reason, it will live on.
Humans Are Flawed: Indirectly proven as a result of the Idea's mere existence. One could argue that Humans Are Bastards as a result of their desires literally spawn an entity that's Made of Evil, but that would ignore the fact that the Idea is merely a manifestation of humanity's simple wish to have an answer for all their suffering. The Idea of Evil wasn't born out of malice; it was born because the horror of the series' setting (what with the constant wars, rape, starvation, wanton murder, and bloodshed even without the presence of the Apostles) led humans to believe that the only answer to their suffering was that evil, as a concept, existed. They believed that such suffering couldn't be unless there was something causing it and by doing that, wished that something into existence.
Literal Genie: People collectively wished for their suffering to have a reason and purpose, and the Idea of Evil exists to provide that purpose. That this is not a truly conscious desire and makes their suffering worse is irrelevant; that is what humanity wants, so that is what the Idea must give it.
Loose Canon: As explained above, the Idea's sole appearance^* was excised from the volume it would have appeared in because it gave a lot away, but at the same time, it is still alluded to vaguely, suggesting that the Idea itself has not become an extracanonical character.
Made of Evil: Subverted. It is the incarnation of the human desire for a reason for suffering and evil.
Monster Progenitor: It is the creator of the Godhand and, through them, the creator of Apostles as well. It is hinted throughout the story that it also has a connection to Behelits. Whether or not it has a role in their creation and attribution is still unknown.
Orcus on His Throne: Doesn't act directly to stop Guts and his group, nor does it seem to really care about them at all. Justified in that the Idea's agenda is more concerned with humanity as a whole and logically wouldn't show any interest in anyone that isn't a direct threat to those goals.
Satanic Archetype: Played with. The Idea of Evil, despite its name, doesn't want to bring humanity to its doom by actively plotting against humans. It only gives people what they desire the most, especially if there's a chance for said desire to completely blow up in the person's face.
Shout-Out: Its generally rhomboid shape, beams of energy firing out from its arteries, and status as the Greater-Scope Villain empowering vaguely angelic demons associated with misery, pain, and excess bring to mind the Leviathan of Hellraiser fame.
Tulpa: A God created by humanity subconsciously wanting there to be a reason for their suffering.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Not the Idea itself; humanity as a whole wanted an answer for all the suffering present in their world, and in doing so unintentionally birthed a creature that would make the world even worse than it already had been.
Walking Spoiler: You can't know about it without purposely looking for the episode it happened in. And indeed, said episode explains just how the Berserk-verse works.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Possibly one of the most ridiculous examples of this trope in all of fiction. It simply wants to give people what they want, an explanation for their suffering and intends to accomplish this by being the cause of their suffering by initiating countless atrocities.
You Can't Fight Fate: Invoked and Subverted. On one hand, the Idea's will seems to always take form sooner or later through the laws of Causality. On the other hand, free will does seem to exist for the Idea... but it will just rearrange the events in order for the individual to take a route that will serve the Idea's goals no matter what.

Unidentified former members (All Spoilers Unmarked)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/previousgodhand.jpg

Four humanoid beings who manifest alongside Void in the Skull Knight's flashback in chapter 362. They seem to have been a previous iteration of the God Hand.

Ambiguous Situation: Absolutely nothing has been revealed about them yet, so most of which can be inferred is just speculative.
Animalistic Abomination: One of them resembles medieval artwork of lions.
Dark Is Evil: All of them have bizarre, creepy designs, as fitting primal villains.
Invincible Villain: Subverted. The fact that this previous Godhand don't seem to be present in the current age is the first implication that Godhand members can be defeated or die through some means.
Combat Tentacles: Tentacles are seen in the flashback, although it's unknown which being they belong to, if they belong to some of them in the first place.
The Corrupter: Implied to have corrupted the man that was Void.
Deity of Human Origin: Their existence implies that the Godhand is a cycle of humans ascending to members, getting killed and then being replaced.
Humanoid Abomination: To multiple degrees each.
Manly Facial Hair: The most distinguished of them sports an impressive, powerful beard-like structure.
Predecessor Villain: They are strongly implied to have played towards Void the same role Void and the three other current members played towards Femto.
Vagina Dentata: One of them has a definitely suggestive vertical mouth instead of a face.
Villain of Another Story: They seem to have been the original villains of the Skull Knight's own personal arc.

Behelits

"I sacrifice"

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He who possesses it shall conquer the world in exchange for his flesh and blood

Small ovoid talismans with scattered human facial features across their surfaces, Behelits are the means by which mortals can contact the Godhand. Typically inert and with the texture of a stone, a Behelit will activate when its owner is in the depths of their greatest despair, one from which even death cannot free them. Once active, the facial features on its surface will form into a face and it will cry out to the Godhand, who then give the mortal who summoned them the choice to become an Apostle.

Behelits themselves are quite rare and often considered signs of ill-omen, but even rarer are the Crimson Behelits. These blood red Behelits only appear to those whom causality has deemed will see a meteoric rise, only to have an equally calamitous fall. This Behelit will only activate when both this condition is met and during the advent of a once-every-216-year eclipse, and the mortal who bears it will be offered the opportunity to join the ranks of the Godhand itself.

So far there have been two Behelits that bear heavily on the story; the Crimson Behelit that came to Griffith which he used to summon the Godhand during the events of the Eclipse and let him ascend as their fifth member Femto, and the regular Behelit that Guts has been carrying with him since he killed its original owner, the Count.

Artifact of Doom: Being the invoker of the ritual that summons the Godhand automatically makes Behelits this, but they're actually a downplayed example; Behelits themselves don't appear to be actively harmful to mortals that carry them, and only reveal their true nature when activated by someone falling into despair in their presence.
Blood Magic: Possibly, as Griffith's Crimson Behelit didn't fully activate until after he tried to impale his throat on a piece of driftwood and the blood trickled down onto the Behelit in his hand.
Clingy McGuffin: For Crimson Behelits, at the least; after losing his during his year-long torture to the fumbling fingers of his torturer, Griffith was reunited with it serendipitously after crashing the wagon into the shallow pond that would become ground zero for the Eclipse.
Despair Event Horizon: Crossing this activates the Behelit, and it has to be a truly singular case in order to do so. The Count's was activated upon finding his wife engaged with a horrific sex cult, and Griffith's Crimson Behelit only activated after he'd lost his standing in Midland society, his best friend left the Band of the Hawk, and he was subjected to an entire year's worth of disfiguring and crippling torture, and even then Griffith tried to kill himself first.
Hell Is That Noise: A Behelit screams when it activates, and depending on the adaptation it can have this effect. In the 1997 anime it sounded like a low, droning howl of agony, while in the third Golden Age film it sounds more like a traditional scream run through a warbling electronic filter.
Rock Monster: Technically, as it is a stone which is also alive, sporadically reacting to its environment. Possibly subverted, as when Puck ties Guts' Behelit up to use it as a fishing bait, the thingie's "face" gets twisted by the ropes as if it was made of soft flesh rather than rock.
Tears of Blood: When a Behelit activates the facial features on its surface slide into place, its eyes pop open, and they start to gush blood.
You Kill It, You Bought It: According to the Skull Knight, the Count's Behelit has somehow transferred its ownership to Guts. Guts only got the thing by killing its previous owner, so it's possible that ownership of a standard Behelit operates on this trope.

Apostles

Common Tropes

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"I sacrifice."

"The wailing of your soul, which could never be eased by the gods of this world, opened up a portal to another dimension [...] And we promised you that we would make you into a supernatural being who would never know sorrow or despair. For a single phrase... in exchange for just one phrase!!"

—Ubik

Powerful demonic monsters who (mostly) obey the orders of the Godhand, Apostles are all former human beings who each once possessed one of the Artifacts of Doom known as Behelits. Upon reaching a Despair Event Horizon that activated their Behelit and summoned the Godhand to them, they made a Deal with the Devil to get an immortal body and the freedom to follow their depraved urges as long as they obey their masters. In exchange, they sacrificed the person dearest to them as an offering to be devoured, and are damned to eternity in the vortex of souls when they die. Every Apostle has two forms: a humanoid one that would let them pass as human if not for some clear deformity or Red Right Hand, and a completely monstrous One-Winged Angel form that they usually unleash when a fight gets serious.

Apostles come in many shapes, sizes, and strengths, and demonstrate a wide variety of supernatural abilities. What they have in common is that they are much tougher and stronger than normal humans, and seem to have indefinite lifespans unless they are killed. Most are sadistic predators who massacre and eat humans, and many are hideously ugly or even types of Eldritch Abomination. However, not all Apostles necessarily eat humans and the leaders of the new Band of the Hawk covered in Berserk: Band of the Hawk are scary but less ugly in their Apostle forms.

When they die their bodies revert to their original human form from before they became Apostles, and their souls are Dragged Off to Hell by the vengeful spirits of their victims.

A great legion of Apostles, including those listed here, participated in the massacre of the original Band of the Hawk during the Eclipse, as part of a ceremony inducting Griffith into the Godhand as their fifth member. This is what forms the impetus of Guts' unyielding rage towards the Godhand and all those who act in accordance to their will.

All for Nothing: Probably the worst part of becoming an Apostle: it doesn't fix anything. If anything, it just makes things worse for the would-be Apostle in question. Rosine and the Count still want to be loved. Zodd is extremely strong, but has been searching for a Worthy Opponent for centuries before he met Guts, as he was so powerful that almost no one stood a chance against him. Weald is crippled by his fear of death, the Egg regrets not having met someone like Mozgus while he was alive to help him and even Ganishka, for all his power, is constantly on the verge of a breakdown from sheer paranoia. Becoming a monster with the power to live out all your sickest and depraved desires is ultimately just a distraction from the misery that caused the subject to hit rock bottom in the first place, and it by no means ensures the newborn Apostle won’t hit it again (and given the Godhand's foreknowledge of causality, they already know it will happen).
Always Chaotic Evil: Played with. A key requirement to even becoming an Apostle involves throwing away your humanity to make gut-wrenching sacrifices of the ones you love all for a second-chance at overcoming one's own nadir moment.
Animorphism: Many Apostle forms are monstrous versions of existing animals. Wyald becomes a Gorilla, Rosine a Moth, the Count a slug, the Baron a Cobra, etc.
Arc Villain: Most of the major apostles feature as the main antagonist of a chapter or arc in the first half of the series. The Snake Baron was the main villain of the first episode The Black Swordsman, The Count of The Guardians of Desire, Rosine of Lost Children, and the Egg of the Perfect World of Birth Ceremony.
Attack Its Weak Point: Apostles are superhumanly durable regardless of where you hit them, but if you want to put them down and keep them down, going for their still-human bits is generally your best move. As a result, most Apostle battles involve finding this vulnerable area and inflicting the most serious damage you can on it.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Their deals with demons will lead them straight down to Hell, regardless of whatever goodness may remain deep in their hearts.
Beauty Equals Goodness: The nobler Apostles — particularly the more knightly members of the Neo Band of the Hawk — are notably much easier on the eyes than the more despicable ones. Contrast Locus and Irvine with the Count and Wyald. This even applies to their Apostle forms to some extent; a good example is Zodd and Wyald's human/default forms are actually fairly similar-looking, but their Apostle forms are night and day. Zodd's is a huge, classical-looking demon that is often drawn with a sort of majesty to it, while Wyald's is a massive, hideous ape with misshapen proportions and huge facial features covering its body.
The Cameo: Several Apostles that Guts has encountered in his time as the Black Swordsman can be seen during the events leading up to the Eclipse.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: Apostles were a major threat early in the series, with Guts needing to fight with everything he had to kill one, and there were points during his fights with the Snake Baron, the Snail Count, and Rosine where they could have killed him if not for outside interference or Evil Gloating. Now that all the Apostles in the world are serving Griffith, they've been demoted to Elite Mooks. Justified, since Guts has the Berserker Armor, which makes him much stronger and brings out his Superpowered Evil Side. A good downplaying of this is the events of the Eclipse, where hundreds of Apostles gather and absolutely massacre the Band of the Hawk, including most of its named members. Although Casca at least survives and Guts does put up a pretty admirable fight against the massive horde and kills several with broken or even improvised weapons, they still overwhelm him and give him probably the worst beating he's ever taken in the series, including taking one of his eyes and one of his hands.
Cruel and Unusual Death: By virtue of it taking so damn much to put them down. If you're an Apostle, and especially if you run into Guts, your end will be neither quick nor painless.
- Wyald gets castrated, slashed in multiple places and run through by Guts, loses his right eye, and is finally torn in two by an angry Nosferatu Zodd.
- The Snake Baron gets shot in half by Guts' arm cannon, who then tortures him by shooting his crippled form full of arrows, before leaving him to burn to death in the ruins of his rampage.
- The Slug Count first gets decapitated, then Guts has fun going all out on his still living head. When he summons the Godhand, he's mentally tortured by Ubik reminding him of his past, and finally has his soul dragged to the Vortex by his many victims.
- Rosine has Guts in her claws, before he shoots her in the thigh with his arm cannon and cleaves off both her right ear and arm. She barely survives the fall, but tries to fly home in a delusional state before crashing to the ground in a heap.
Deal with the Devil: Every Apostle is born by making one of these with the Godhand.
Despair Event Horizon: In order to become an Apostle, you have to have reached the lowest point of your life in order to activate that neato Behelit.
Dragged Off to Hell: This is what happens to any Apostle who dies in the series. It's the price you pay for dealing with demons.
Elite Mooks: Certain Apostles such as Zodd and Grunbeld are definitely stronger than others, and a majority are part of Griffith's new Band of the Hawk. En masse, they massacre the entire old Band of the Hawk, an Elite Army themselves. It's horrifying.
- Several Apostles can create these of their own, called "Pseudo-Apostles", which are often just as strong as Behelit-spawned ones. Just one of them can give Guts a brutal fight.
Evil Makes You Monstrous: Part of the package: take the Sacrifice, and be reborn as a demon. How monstrous their base form is varies from Apostle to Apostle, but even the more humanoid ones embody this after going One-Winged Angel.
Full-Frontal Assault: Their Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing, so they destroy their clothing when taking their demon form. Some of them, like Rosine or the Unnamed Female Apostle, go naked anyways in their human forms.
The Hedonist: The Apostles are given only one instruction by the Godhand: do as one pleases. Which bodes poorly for anyone in their wake.
Humanoid Abomination: Each one has a form that's generally more human-like in appearance, but there's often something very off about it.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: You become an Apostle by sacrificing someone you truly care about to the Godhand in your greatest moment of despair, in an effort to Never Be Hurt Again. Despite events playing out largely according to the Godhand's will in the grand scheme of things, you're ultimately the one to make the choice in the end. The fact that so many Apostles are seen throughout the series just hammers home how easy it is for human beings to cast aside their loved ones.
- On the flipside, there are a few things about the Apostles which posit that Humans Are Flawed, but ultimately are good by nature. To elaborate, living in the Berserk world sucks. It's a Dark Fantasy world that runs on Clap Your Hands If You Believe and Your Mind Makes It Real, so while not rampant until the Fantasia Arc, there are still horrible supernatural creatures around that prey on humanity, compounded by the general ignorance of the populace and the influence of a corrupt, zealous church. In spite of all this, as it's more or less stated that all the Apostles barring a few exceptions are gathered under Griffith, it is shown that there aren't that many Apostles when compared to the Earth's population. This in turn implies most people don't give into despair despite how hard their lives may be. The Apostles that are explored in depth are clearly outliers and not a typical sample of humanity as a whole, and even after their transformation are still capable of possessing conscience, honor, and nobility. Lastly, even the existence of the Idea of Evil proves humanity as a whole has an ingrained sense of right and wrong because if people didn't believe in good or evil or that there was no purpose to anything, then everybody would have either committed suicide or humanity as a race would be a bunch of amoral entities.
If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: A horrifyingly twisted example; if you want to become an Apostle, prove your mettle by sacrificing someone you love to demons.
I'm a Humanitarian: Many Apostles are not above chowing down on their former species.
Immortality: Largely implied to be The Ageless, but even then it's a bit blurry, such as the case of Zodd who is in From a Single Cell territory.
Implacable Man: Almost every Apostle, natural or pseudo, is a nigh-indestructible powerhouse who won't give up until the Black Swordsman is dead, which makes it twice as chilling that Griffith now commands a whole army of them.
Ironic Name: Western culture usually associates the word apostle with the followers of Jesus in the Bible. These Apostles follow inverted principles, however—serving a Satanic Archetype in Griffith as opposed to a Messianic Archetype, unless you're willing to count Griffith's status as a Dark Messiah.
It's All About Me: The Godhand visit recipients of Behelits in their greatest moment of despair, giving them an easy out by way of transforming them into demons, in turn hardening their hearts away from pain. A great many choose to become demons because it's quite easy to want a painless life in the face of torment and despair—even at the cost of your loved ones.
It's Personal: Guts bears a huge grudge against all of the Apostles for the events during the Eclipse.
The Juggernaut: Every Apostle is many times tougher than your average human, meaning that they are all quite hard to kill or even slow down.
Karma Houdini Warranty: It is certain that anyone who makes the deal to become an Apostle will be sent to Hell upon death, and be trapped forever in a vortex of souls where the very essence of their being gets stripped away. Thing is, Apostles are virtually immortal, and though they can be killed, doing so basically requires an army. And, if we're looking at specific cases, like Nosferatu Zodd, then perhaps not even that will be enough. Of course them meeting Guts usually drastically shortens their remaining lifespan and insures their death with not be pretty.
Kill the Ones You Love: You are required to sacrifice the soul of someone you truly care for to the Godhand in order to complete your transformation into an Apostle.
Moment of Weakness: When details about the Deal with the Devil are shown, not only was the future Apostle desperate to remove the pain but the loved one to be used as a sacrifice was likely the cause of this pain as well.
Morphic Resonance: Most Apostles have a few parts of them that are still clearly their human parts, usually their face, somewhere on their body. In many cases, this effectively results in an Apostle having two heads. Additionally, Apostles tend to show signs of their demonic form even when assuming a mostly human body.
Never Be Hurt Again: Invoked. Since the Behelits will appear to chosen people in their most desperate hour, it's only natural that most willingly sacrifice their loved ones in order to never succumb to physical and/or emotional vulnerability.
One-Winged Angel: When an Apostle wants to eat someone, horrify someone before eating them, or take the gloves off when their regular form isn't enough, they'll take on their true monstrous demonic form.
Our Demons Are Different: Every Apostle is different, owing to the fact that every one of them was once human and the circumstances surrounding their Despair Event Horizon are all different. They are not in the business of punishing sinners like many demons, but in doing whatever they please at the behest of the Godhand, their master. It is possible to kill them with physical weapons, but we wish you the best of luck on that.
Personality Powers: It's suggested that an Apostle's abilities are somewhat dependent on why they made the pact in the first place. This is noticeable with the Slug Count, who wanted to rid himself of the pain of loss and so became monstrously durable, and Rosine, who wanted to become an elf and assumed a highly elflike form, and especially the Egg of the Perfect World, who is little more than a receptacle for what he wanted.
Posthuman Nudism: Numerous Apostles found throughout the story are shown to abandon wearing clothes. It shows how separate from both humanity and civilization they've become as a result of their corruption from humans to demons. Though it also helps that whatever they're wearing will get destroyed whenever they decide to shift to their more monstrous forms.
Power Perversion Potential: Since the Apostles are given unimaginable demonic power, many lack moral scruples or inhibitions because they are largely unbound by societal consequences. After all, they are told to do as they wish, and it would be difficult to do whatever they wish if they had not the abilities to say, escape prison or evade the authorities.
Red Right Hand: Even in human form, they're clearly not entirely human; the Baron has fangs, Wyald looks like an ape, Rosine still has wings and long ears, Zodd is a ten-foot-tall demon thing that disguises himself as an eight-foot-tall ogre thing... the Count gets off easiest since he just gets fatter.
See You in Hell: Likely a literal case! Anyone who has "dealings with demons" is said to be trapped within the Vortex of Souls, AKA Hell. This includes those the Apostles sacrificed to become their demonic selves. And since Apostles also go to Hell when they die, they're basically having a reunion with old friends. A very, very horrifying reunion where your identity is stripped away and your soul's trapped in an undulating tornado of souls, forever and ever and ever...
Super-Empowering: Apostles are created through powers granted by the Godhand. A few Apostles also have the ability to transform others into demons like them.
Super-Strength: While the extent varies, and there are a few particularly notorious powerhouses, all Apostles are superhumanly strong, and get even stronger in their full demonic forms. In fact, being able to even approach Apostles in strength is part of what makes Guts so abnormal.
Super-Toughness: Another automatic Apostle superpower. There's a reason Guts lugs around the Dragonslayer - there aren't many smaller weapons that can significantly hurt an Apostle, let alone kill them.
Tragic Villain: Played with. As a requirement for getting the job, all apostles went through events horrible enough to make them sacrifice that which they loved most in order to attain power, but most of them are so horrible that they lose any possibility of sympathy from the audience. Played straight with a couple of them, however, such as Rosine and the Egg of the Perfect World.
This Was His True Form: Whenever an Apostle dies, in addition to their soul being Dragged Off to Hell, the body reverts to what he or she looked like when he or she was still human. This also applies to any Apostle spawns that they create, which has gotten Guts into trouble in the past.
Tin Man: The process to become an Apostle requires you to consign the soul of someone you genuinely care for to the gates of Hell—in turn hardening your heart to the suffering of others and utterly removing your humanity. At least, that's what the Godhand tells you. However, some Apostles such as The Count and Rosine have shown the ability to love specific people and feel regret for sacrificing their loved ones despite having supposedly gotten rid of all those feelings, making it seem like their capacity for mercy and compassion is not so much completely removed as it is forgotten or repressed.
Unishment: Zigzagged. It's made perfectly clear that any who willingly become an Apostle will be sentenced to Hell upon death. A grim fate, surely, but since Apostles are pretty much impervious to natural causes of death, and most conventional weapons barely even damage them, it's not hard to see why many of them aren't so worried about dying. Then they meet Guts, and suddenly things go very, very poorly for them.
Villainous Valor: Apostles in general are despicable abominations, but that doesn't mean they're lacking guts. Wyald, the Count, the Hound Apostle, Mozgus, Zondark, the Goat (Pseudos) and Rosine in particular take a ludicrous amount of punishment and still dish out just as much before Guts puts them down. Even when the Count is reduced to a helpless appendage, he still chooses to face the vortex of souls before sacrificing his daughter. The only one who completely averts this is the Snake Baron, who pathetically and hypocritically begs for his life the moment the Black Swordsman gets the upper hand.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Most Apostles, as well as their Spawn, have the power to swap between humanoid and monstrous forms. Oddly, the Godhand themselves never show this ability.
Was Once a Man: Every single Apostle was once human.

Unnamed Female Apostle

Voiced by: Mami Yamaguchi (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Lisa Ortiz (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/femaleapostle.jpg

Looks can be ^deceiving

"You fell into my trap, fool! This is your last taste of heaven before I send you to hell!"

The very first Apostle that Guts kills in the manga, the unnamed female Apostle appears as a beautiful naked blonde human woman who entices men to enter into her embrace before assuming her monstrous Apostle form and devouring them alive. During the Eclipse, she is the Apostle responsible for eating Corkus. When she tries the same thing with Guts in the very first scene of the manga when he's having sex with her, Guts sticks his Arm Cannon into her mouth before unceremoniously blowing her brains out the back of her head with one blast.

Beauty Equals Goodness: She lethally exploits this trope by using her human form to lure her victims into her clutches and then changing into her demonic form to eat them alive.
Boob-Based Gag: Her massive boobs are part of her alluring beauty, and as such, she can easily subject her victims to Marshmallow Hell.
Boom, Headshot!: Guts kills her by blowing her brains out the back of her head with his Arm Cannon.
Death by Irony: Hilariously enough, she dies in the same circumstances as her victims: she gets her head blasted off when having sex with Guts.
Demoted to Extra: Berserk (2016) removes her appearance at the beginning of the Black Swordsman Arc, where she had spoken lines and more importance in the manga, but she gets a non-speaking appearance in Episode 4's Eclipse flashback.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Many fans feel that Guts' having sex with her is out-of-character since he has numerous issues with intimacy and is otherwise incredibly faithful to Casca. In a Watsonian versus Doylist analysis, the Doylist explanation is that Miura had very little of Guts' backstory planned out in advance when he started writing and didn't come up with Casca and the Band of the Hawk until later on. At the same time, fans have tried to come up with various Watsonian explanations: Some suggest that he might have been influenced by the beginnings of his Beast of Darkness, while others say he pretended to fall into her trap in order to lower her guard. This may be why she was Demoted to Extra in adaptations.
Fan Disservice: Her true form is as hideous as her human form is alluring.
Flat Character: Easily receives the least characterization of anyone on this page, even the Snake Baron. Her only known trait is she's evil and lures men to their deaths. In fact, the quote above is her only line.
Foreshadowing: Her sole line about Guts tasting Heaven before getting sent to Hell takes a new meaning after learning the ultimate fate of those who bargain with the Godhand and those who are marked by the brand.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Inverted. She may have beautiful blonde hair, but given the fact that she's a demon, her heart is most certainly NOT made of metaphorical gold.
Hot as Hell: She is a demon who uses sex to lure men into her clutches.
Literal Maneater: A female monster who uses the sexual attractiveness of her humanoid form to lure in and eat male humans.
Marshmallow Hell: Whenever she tightly hugs one of her victims, she also sandwiches his head in between her massive boobs.
One-Hit Kill: A single shot to the head from Guts' Arm Cannon is all it takes to kill her.
One-Winged Angel: Once she has someone in her clutches, she transforms into what looks like a Xenomorph with boobs.
Out with a Bang: Most of her victims get eaten while having sex with her, but Guts manages to kill her instead.
Posthuman Nudism: She no doubt wore clothes during her lifetime as a human. By the time the story begins, she no longer wore clothes after becoming an apostle.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Even lower than the Baron on the demonic totem pole. She's practically a mook to Guts.
The Vamp: She looks like a beautiful woman and lures men into her clutches so she can eat them alive.
Xenomorph Xerox: Her One-Winged Angel form that eats men is basically a Xenomorph with boobs.
Your Head A-Splode: Guts blasts her head apart with a single shot from his Arm Cannon, killing her instantly.

The Snake Baron

Voiced by: Kan Tokumaru (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Hiroo Sasaki (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Lex Woutas (English, Berserk (1997)), Joaquín Gómez (Spanish, Berserk (1997))

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baron_6.png

Click ^here to see him Scaled Up.

Click ^here to see him in the 1997 anime.

"Gold... prisoners... I don't care about such things. All I wish to see are humans within a fiery apocalypse. Trying to escape. All I wish to hear is the sound of snapping bones crushed under the hooves of horses. I don't even need an excuse. None at all..."

The first Apostle introduced in Berserk (1997) and the second to be introduced in the manga, The Baron leads a wicked band of soldiers headquartered in Koka castle who oppress the population of the outlying city. The mayor pays him tribute in gold and sacrificial prisoners—including women and children—in exchange for restraining his men from attacking.

He makes no attempt to justify his actions, saying that he simply revels in death and destruction, and his backstory is never revealed. He wears snake-themed full plate armor when he goes rampaging, and his true Apostle form is that of a huge humanoid cobra with a human face inside its mouth.

He's the very first Apostle to mention that Guts is indeed a common foe to all Apostles.

Adapted Out: He was cut out of Berserk (2016) in the process of compressing the Black Swordsman Arc. Also, while in the manga he was seen by some lumberjacks in the woods before the Eclipse, the third Golden Age Arc movie replaces him in said scene with a gigantic version of the Unnamed Female Apostle.
Ax-Crazy: His rampages reveal him as nothing more than a violent sadist that gets a kick out of wanton massacres.
Battle Amongst the Flames: The Baron's evil rampage through the village turns into this when Guts shows up.
The Cameo: He appears twice in the Golden Age Arc, one time in a forest heading to the location of the Eclipse, the other time at the Eclipse as a background demon terrorizing the Band of the Hawk.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Receives it at Guts' hands after he gets cut in half. Guts questions him about the Godhand, but the Baron claims he doesn't know. In any case, Guts wanted to show him how his victims felt: helpless and in unbearable pain, but still afraid of death and desperately wanting to survive.
Dirty Coward: As long as he was convinced he was invulnerable, he killed and terrorized without fearing any consequences. When Guts proves to him that he can be killed, after all, he pleads for the mercy that he would never have granted to his victims. Guts doesn't give him any.
Eats Babies: Drinks the blood of a child impaled on his halberd during his rampage through the town, as if to show just how much of a monster he is.
Evil Brit: His voice for the 1997 anime's dub has a slight English accent. Lex Woutas appears to have based it on Jonathan Freeman's Jafar. Fitting for a demon whose true form is a cobra.
Evil Gloating: Before eating Guts, he simply cannot resist rubbing his superiority in Guts' face. This gives Guts exactly the chance he needed to unload his shiny Arm Cannon right in the Baron's face.
Fangs Are Evil: Obligatory for a snake villain.
Flat Character: His whole personality is that he is unapologetically sadistic and evil. As the very first real enemy Guts has in the manga, he sets the tone for demons to come in this series.
For the Evulz: He enjoys the suffering of humans and does not pretend to have any other reason for his actions.
I'm a Humanitarian: As a monster who dines on human flesh, he demands tribute from the lord mayor including cartloads of women and children to serve at his table.
Karmic Death: Guts blows him to pieces, tortures him, and leaves him to burn to death in the flames of his own evil rampage. The Apostle who loved the sound of his victims' screaming gives the same satisfaction to his own killer and dies shrieking in agony.
Lean and Mean: Tall, thin, and deeply malevolent.
Looks Like Orlok: Resembles the silent film vampire of yore, only he has more snake traits than vampire or rat traits.
Loves the Sound of Screaming: His quote tells you all you need to know about him.
Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Played darkly straight as he tells the mayor of Koka; money and food are strictly luxuries to him and he was going to burn the whole town down regardless if Guts had come around.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Falls victim to this at the hands of Guts. Guts intentionally made his death as drawn out and painful as possible, but if anyone ever deserved to die in such a way it was the Baron.
Pointy Ears: His pointy ears make him look inhuman and villainous.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Leads his men on a rampage through the town where they set the buildings on fire and slaughter people in the streets. He doesn't really care about loot, however; he just delights in the carnage.
Scaled Up: His One-Winged Angel form is that of a gigantic humanoid snake. In this shape, he comes close to killing the Black Swordsman, up until Guts unloads his cannon-arm right in his face at point-blank range.
Smug Snake: Quite literally, as his true form is also a giant snake. He did not consider Guts to be a real threat even though he was rumored to have killed multiple Apostles, and this overconfidence causes his downfall.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: As demons go, he's one of the weaker ones compared to some of Guts' other enemies.
Snakes Are Sinister: He's a snake apostle who is definitely evil and sinister.
Spikes of Villainy: His armor's gauntlets, knees, and elbows end in spikes as if he wasn't Obviously Evil enough already.
Starter Villain: The first major Apostle that Guts fights in the manga.
Tin Tyrant: Wears extravagantly evil full armor when he rides out, complete with villainous spikes and a cobra-shaped helmet that puts his face in shadow except for his terrifying eyes and fanged mouth.
Tail Slap: In snake form, he wrecks Guts with his powerful tail. His mistake was not finishing him right then.
Villainous Breakdown: Coupled with Villains Want Mercy; once Guts falls him to the ground and begins to torture him with his crossbow, he wretchedly wails in pain and begs for mercy.

The Slug Count

Voiced by: Seiji Kato (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Kouzou Douzaka (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Michael Sorich (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/count_67.jpg

The Count's human Form.

Click^here to see his Apostle form.

"Well, you're a formidable opponent. But you're still just a human."

The ruler of a county centered around a castle town and the father of Theresia, the Count (伯爵 Hakushaku) is the third Apostle to appear in the manga. In contrast to the barely introduced Female Apostle and the flatly depicted Baron of Koka Castle, he is a complex villain with a developed Backstory.

Once the benevolent ruler of his fief and a strong opponent to paganism, discovering his beloved wife wallowing in a pagan orgy made him completely lose it. As a result, he sold his soul to the Godhand and tore his wife apart in his first act as an Apostle. As a result of having become indebted to the Godhand, he has turned into an utter tyrant. Despite everything, he still cares for his daughter and keeps her sheltered in her room, bringing her gifts and trinkets as twisted expressions of his fatherly love.

He appears as a morbidly obese man as a human, and then as a giant slug as an Apostle. Chronologically, he first appears, along with Rosine, at the onset of the Eclipse and is responsible for the slaughter of the wounded camp of the original Hawks. His fight with Guts also introduces the Godhand for the first time in the manga and explains a lot about the way Apostles and the Godhand are interconnected.

Adipose Rex: A severely obese noble and Villainous Glutton. This one's mostly down to his transformation, though; before that point, he was still overweight, but at a pretty reasonable level.
Alas, Poor Villain: The first of multiple villains granted a humanizing send-off across the series. The Count dies ultimately refusing to sacrifice the one person he truly cares for, and is brutally Dragged Off to Hell while screaming.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Possibly before becoming an Apostle—depending on who you ask, but definitely after.
Asshole Victim: Messily killing his wife to secure his transformation into an Apostle would have been a horrendous thing to do, but her enjoyment in betraying him, crushing him to the point where he almost killed himself as well as ensuring that he would make the deal in the first place certainly dampens the pity felt for her demise.
Bald of Evil: One of his attributes, although he was totally bald even before he became an Apostle.
Church Militant: When he was a human he led crusades against pagans and heretics, which is why the discovery that his wife engaged in pagan orgies hit him so hard. He keeps up the pretense of piety
Combat Compliment: When Guts first approaches the Count on his throne, he senses the Count's appendage about to burst up from beneath the stairs and stabs it with the Dragon Slayer. The Count says, "Nicely Countered." In their fight, Guts manages to hit the Count's only weak point—his face—but it turns out to only be a graze, and he gets struck down in response. The Count tells Guts that his loss was inevitable because of the difference in their power, but that he's a first-rate warrior, and ought to die proudly knowing that at least he managed to inflict one blow.
Demoted to Extra: Gets his villain arc passed over in the part of Berserk (2016) where it would have happened, in the interest of spending as little screen time on the Black Swordsman Arc as possible. He still appears in a non-speaking role in flashbacks of the Eclipse.
Despair Event Horizon: The exact moment that he despaired was when he tried to kill his wife for betraying him but found he could not bring himself to do it, and saw her smile knowingly in triumph. His despair, however, activated his Behelit and summoned the Godhand. Thinking he had nothing to lose, he sold his soul to become an Apostle and messily devoured his wife.
Dragged Off to Hell: With the help of the victims whose lives he destroyed, including the vengeful spirit of Vargas himself.
Dramatically Missing the Point: When he first sacrificed his wife to become a Apostle, he assumed it was because she had betrayed his love and his religious views. It never occurred to him she could only be sacrificed because he (still) loved her. When he's required to sacrifice someone again to be saved from death and eternal damnation, he thought he could use Guts, but the Godhand clarify that enemies and heretics are non-factors; the sacrifice must be someone they care so deeply for that losing them is practically severing themselves from their humanity. Like his wife, and his daughter.
Early-Bird Cameo: He and Rosine were responsible for the slaughter of the Band of the Hawks' wounded camp that Rickert witnessed and barely escaped.
Establishing Character Moment: We first see him presiding over the execution of a young woman who tearfully protests her innocence, sitting on his throne enjoying the spectacle with a cup of wine. When asked by Dahl whether the number of executions might be excessive, he replies that he wants anyone suspicious arrested as a heretic and punished. This establishes him as a corrupt and greedy Evil Overlord who oppresses his subjects under the hypocritical excuse of religion and justice, and whose own minions are afraid of him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely loves his daughter, Theresia, which is his only saving grace.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His subjects call him "the Count" and his daughter calls him "Father". We never do learn his name.
Evil Makes You Ugly: As a human, he looked plain, as he wasn't pretty or ugly, but getting turned into an Apostle made it look like he died and now a demon is wearing his skin.
Evil Overlord: He becomes one after accepting the Godhand's offer.
Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He takes extreme measures to guard Theresia from the evils of the world, keeping her inside so that she won't be exposed to heretics or find out the truth about him and her mother.
Fat Bastard: His morbid obesity is a sign of his greed and depravity after his transformation. Before that, he was still fat but less so, and also more sympathetic.
Feudal Overlord: Since he pretty much rules the place, and neither the Pontiff nor any other authority has much jurisdiction there, he oppresses his subjects with impunity.
Fool for Love: Sometimes, you really can't help but feel sorry for this poor, sadistic asshole. He was a militant Knight Templar, but he truly did love his wife, and when he found out about her little "secret" his world understandably came crashing down. It even makes you wonder if she ever really loved him back.
A Glass of Chianti: He enjoys a cup of wine while watching a young woman's execution.
Hidden Depths: Your first impression of the Count gets an unexpected twist when he visits Theresia, showing that for all his monstrousness there is someone he cares about.
I'm a Humanitarian: He eats those unable to withstand his "experiments".
Hydra Problem: When Guts slices off one of his appendages, it immediately grows back; like Zondark, the only way to kill him is to cut off his human face.
"It's futile. No matter how many times you chop off my arms and legs! Each time you cut them off, my body becomes stronger! It grows bigger and bigger! A mere sword can't possibly destroy me!"
Hypocrite: During his reign of terror as an Apostle, he publicly claims to be conducting his executions for the sake of his people's safety and religious purity. While he once believed in this motivation a long time ago, he has since stopped caring about anything except his own pleasure in torture and cannibalism and is just as religiously deviant as the heretics since he sold his soul to the closest thing the Berserk verse has to the Devil.
Interrupted Suicide: He was about to fatally thrust his own sword into his throat when the Godhand appeared and offered to take away his despair.
I Was Quite a Looker: Heavily downplayed; he was still fairly fat and unattractive as a human, but he looked a lot better than he did after becoming an Apostle.
Kick the Dog: His entire screentime consists of him doing this with immense glee.
Karma Houdini: In both anime adaptations, due to the "Guardians of Desire" storyline being removed, he goes unpunished for having feasted on the Hawks before and during the Eclipse.
Knight Templar: He is implied to have been this before becoming an Apostle, as he often led hunts for pagans and heretics and believed he was doing the right thing. After his transformation, though he started torturing and killing for kicks, not even caring whether his victims were heretics or innocent.
Knight Templar Parent: And he becomes this after becoming an Apostle, partially to protect Theresia from the evils of the world, and partially to protect her from the Awful Truth.
Losing Your Head: Although he would have eventually died if left to his own devices, he manages to cling to life for quite a long time after Guts decapitates him, even retaining the ability to speak.
Mad Scientist: He used his subjects as guinea pigs for "experimentation".
Pet the Dog: Even as he continues to kill and devour his people, he earnestly wants to protect the safety and innocence of his daughter, and brings her Puck as a present to ease her loneliness. He eventually refuses to sacrifice his daughter in order to escape death, even though this means his eternal damnation.
Redemption Equals Death: Pretty literally, in his case. His decision to not sacrifice his daughter, his most selfless act since becoming an Apostle, was what caused him to be dragged off to Hell.
Super-Toughness: He's one of the most durable Apostles, and takes a lot of punishment before going down, even remaining conscious as a mangled head for a while. He suggests that he can both regenerate and Feel No Pain, as well. This makes sense, as his reason for becoming an Apostle was to rid himself of the pain of losing his wife.
A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Guts using her daughter to gain advantage over him was pretty mean, but then during the eclipse you see that the Count basically did the same to Guts with Pippin's dead body.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Before his transformation, he was overweight and unattractive, but had a famously beautiful wife. At least he was a lot less ugly and obese than after he became an Apostle, as Ubik mentioned.
What You Are in the Dark: If he sacrificed his daughter, he would survive and live to fight another day. He refuses to do it.

Wyald

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese, Berserk - Amazing Advance! Raging Mercenary Corps), Kunihiro Kawamoto (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk)

Wyald's "normal" form. Click ^here to see his apostle form.

Click ^here to see him in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk.

Click ^here to see his Apostle form in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk.

"Stand against me! We're gonna have FUN!!!"

Sent by the King of Midland after the Hawks after the Bakiraka fail to prevent Griffith's escape, the bestial Apostle Wyald (ワイアルド Waiarudo) looks like a cross between human and ape. Nothing is known of his past before he became the leader of the Black Dog Knights, the most savage and brutal force in Midland. They consist of murderers and rapists who have been banished from the land but spared on the condition that they fight for Midland's King.

Perverted, hedonistic, evil to the point of stupidity and a bit of a Leeroy Jenkins, his motto is "Make it fun, make it stimulating!" He rules over his troops through terror, threatening to kill anyone who doesn't charge blindly into the battle just like he does, regardless of the danger. Believing himself invincible, he is extremely surprised to find his match in Guts and the Band of the Hawk.

His Apostle form is that of an enormous three-eyed ape monster with a second larger mouth at the level of his shoulders. Ironically, his human form is that of a frail old man, as shown after Zodd comes personally to rip him in half in order to stop him from interfering with the imminence of the Eclipse.

Adaptation Personality Change: Berserk and the Band of the Hawk removes his Serial Rapist trait (for what should be fairly obvious reasons) and plays up his hammy showboating and irreverent attitude, turning him into a Bloody Hilarious Fighting Clown.
Adapted Out: Was taken out and replaced with a generic human knight in Berserk (1997) who was given some of his lines about how Griffith was beyond crippled. The studio considered including him in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III, but ultimately they had to economize by leaving him out. He finally makes his big adaptation debut in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, as a playable character no less!
Animal Motifs:
- Wyald's negative characteristics are symbolized by his resemblance to an ape. He is inhumanly strong, sexually incontinent, and resembles a human enough to be seen as distinctly sub-human in behavior and morality.
- To a lesser extent, dogs. He wears the pelt of a dog atop his head, leads an Army of Thieves and Whores known as the Black Dog Knights, and his bloodlust and savagery are comparable to that of a rabid dog.
Army of Thieves and Whores: He leads the Black Dog Knights, a unit that exclusively recruits convicts who would otherwise be exiled, imprisoned or executed.
Asshole Victim: His utterly contemptible behavior and personality don't elicit much pity from anyone when Zodd unceremoniously dispatches him.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Successfully Invoked when he persuaded the King of Midland to make whichever convict proved himself the toughest the leader of the Black Dog Knights, winning the position by giving his opponent such a Cruel and Unusual Death that nobody else dared to challenge him. Also Deconstructed in that he has no qualification to lead besides being the strongest fighter, causing his men to die by using Leeroy Jenkins tactics and killing anyone who annoys him.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His One-Winged Angel form is a giant ape.
Ax-Crazy: He's a friggin' hedonist who kills and rapes 24/7 For the Evulz.
Bad Boss: Kills his own underlings on a regular basis to remind them who's boss, because he was in a bad mood, or just for the hell of it. He takes this trope to self-defeating extremes, and it's the reason why the Black Dog Knights are so evil. Wyald's minions fear their boss so much they prefer to throw themselves head first on Guts' sword, and it's clear that they would desert him if not for how he'd punish them if they tried.
Bare-Handed Blade Block: Gives Guts an Oh, Crap! moment by stopping his sword hand in mid-swing and almost crushing it with his grip. Downplayed in that he did this instead of grabbing the blade itself, but he makes up for it by using his teeth next. The last time he tries this doesn't go so well: When Guts ambushes him from the trees, Wyald stops the sword by taking it through his open palm, but the sword breaks in the middle so that Guts reaches his head and stabs him in the neck with what's left on the hilt.
Belly Mouth: His Apostle form has a giant second mouth at chest level, which he uses to devour a horse and rider at the same time. It also houses his hideous 'tongue'.
Blood Knight: Grins enthusiastically at the offer to take on the fabled White Hawk, and is practically licking his lips as he rides right through all the dangerous traps the Band puts in his path. Wyald in general loves his job because he can indulge his most hedonistic and barbaric impulses in the face of danger. Subverted when he starts actually losing to Guts, and his cowardice is shown. Unlike Zodd who loves a challenge and a tough opponent, it turns out he likes brutalizing innocents far more than actually being threatened.
The Brute: A huge, dimwitted, and incredibly strong henchman for the King of Midland who gets sent after the Hawks after the Bakiraka fail.
Calling Your Attacks: Shouts the names of his 'techniques' as he attacks, such as "WYAAAAALLD JUMP! WYAAAAALD BACKFIST!"
Card-Carrying Villain: He's evil and he LOOOOVES it.
Carry a Big Stick: Favours a crude club in both his forms - and by 'crude', we mean that he'll happily use uprooted trees as weapons.
Catchphrase: His motto as The Hedonist is "Excitement! Enjoyment!" He makes his men repeat it to indoctrinate them.
I Control My Minions Through...: Wyald controls his mooks through a combination of fear, sadism, and power. He became leader of the Black Dog Knights in the first place by killing the other guy who fought him for it in a gruesome and inexplicable manner, such that no one dared to challenge him afterward. This overlaps with Authority, since the King of Midland appointed him as their leader upon seeing that he was the strongest. Since then, Wyald's minions have obeyed even his most unreasonable orders for fear that he will kill them at the slightest excuse. He also appeals to their sadism by letting them rape and kill as much as they want, but they undoubtedly follow him mainly because he would kill them if they hesitated.
Dead Guy on Display: Not only does he rape and murder a young woman who helped the Hawks, but he also kills every one of the innocents with her, and then carries their naked dismembered bodies on poles into battle with the Hawks.
Death by Irony: Wyald spent his repulsive existence committing all manner of atrocity, being the absolute worst an Apostle could be and loving it... and yet he was killed in the end for trying to kill Griffith, who would go on to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk, ruin Guts and Casca's lives, and become an even worse threat to humanity than Wyald. Meaning in a sense, Wyald was done in for doing a good deed and nearly thwarting the Godhand's plan.
Dirty Coward: Despite unjustly killing countless people, and forcing his own subordinates to ride into battle without any concern for their own survival, he becomes terrified when faced with his own mortality and contemptibly grovels for his life before Zodd kills him.
Dragged Off to Hell: After Zodd rips his body apart, the ghastly arms of tormented spirits come out of the wound and drag him to his damnation in the vortex of souls.
Due to the Dead: The disgraceful way that Wyald and his men treat their victims' corpses is yet another sign of their villainy.
Dumb Muscle: Though super-strong and not a force to be taken lightly, Wyald certainly is one of the dumbest apostles on the scale. He substitutes brute force for skill, and never plans or thinks ahead.
Establishing Character Moment: Wyald is introduced having an orgy with dozens of women when a messenger brings the king of Midland's orders. As he gets to the end with the woman he's with, he chokes her until she's about to pass out and discards her when he's finished. This establishes him as a hedonist Psycho for Hire and sets the tone for the rest of his appearance.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Had, more specifically. While Wyald is beyond redemption by the time of his story, in order for him to have even become an Apostle, he had to have sacrificed a loved one to the Godhand. Although, given how bad he is in his story debut, he was probably never a nice person.
Evil Old Folks: Before becoming an apostle, Wyald was an old man. After Zodd kills him, he turns back to his original form, much to everyone's surprise.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: In Apostle form, his ape body has three extra-large eyes in unnatural places: One above his giant mouth and one on each of his giant shoulders.
Eye Scream: Guts cuts Wyald's ape body's middle eye with his sword, and then one of his real eyes with his dagger.
Faux Affably Evil: Has a tendency to sometimes talk friendly with certain people such as the Midland King, when it's clearly obvious he's nothing more than a depraved psychopath who's enjoying every moment of it. He even "apologizes" for roughing up Casca while preparing to rape her to death, and to Guts while attempting to hunt down and kill him.
Wyald: Bad. Bad. It's been 100 years since I've had to suffer such misery. I'm sorry I got so mad. Hey... Why don't you come out... I will kill you painlessly...
Fighting Clown: He's got a tendency to treat violence as a fun game in the manga, but it's generally played more for horror than comedy. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, on the other hand, plays him entirely for dark comedy - it gives him a ridiculously squeaky voice, amusing combat dialogue, and a devastating but absurd-looking arsenal of attacks, from smacking away enemies like baseballs to Crowd Surfing through the enemy army like a gigantic, gore-coated rockstar.
For the Evulz: His delight in wickedness just for the thrill of it is so Exaggerated that he qualifies for Stupid Evil. See that entry as well.
General Failure: Despite an excellent combat record in the war, it's made fairly clear that his only real tactic is "charge in, kill everything on the enemy side, kill anything on my side that tries to retreat." He's so stupidly powerful that he can win most battles solo, meaning that he actively exults in anything that makes the fight harder. His Black Dog Knights don't seem to do much besides "charge in to test the enemy" and "mop up whatever survived Wyald"; whenever he's not backing them up, the Band of the Hawk goes through them like a hot knife through butter, despite being severely understrength.
Gonk: Even compared to other apostles he is a very hideous man.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Throws his spear at Guts with the young woman he killed earlier still impaled on it.
Groin Attack: The deserving victim of a groin attack, both in the size of the organ attacked and the size of the weapon. Guts "takes his weapon away from him" in order to stop him from having his way with Casca and put an end to Wyald's raping days for good. It is satisfying to see him punished in a fashion appropriate to his crimes.
Guts: Don't go swinging that filthy thing over my head!
Half the Man He Used to Be: Before he can harm Griffith any further, Zodd rips Wyald's body in half on his horns. It's quite a gory mess.
Hate Sink: Wyald seems determined to be as big a repulsive monster as he can in his relatively small screen-time. He leads a band of mercenaries in raping, torturing, and murdering any unfortunate man, woman or child who crosses their paths For the Evulz. He also casually kills his men, either for questioning his orders, fleeing from battle, or simply to amuse himself. In addition, he's also a massive misogynist, raping any woman he comes across, and even claims that women "look best with nothing on" during his Attempted Rape of Casca.
The Hedonist: As evil and short-sighted as a hedonist can get. Not only does he pursue instant gratification for himself with no respect for the lives or happiness of others, but he even endangers his own survival with his reckless debauchery. His motto is "Make it fun, make it stimulating!"
Hidden Depths: Despite his stupidity and shortsightedness, Wyald does display a degree of dark wisdom lacking in other criminals in how he understands that one not only needs to be strong to lead an Army of Thieves and Whores, but charismatic. So he cultivates a charisma of terror to rally his men and keep them in line, starting by calculatingly killing the only other person to challenge him in a spectacularly inhuman way.
Hope Crusher: He loves inflicting fear and helplessness in his victims. He also demoralizes the Band of the Hawk. How? By stripping a paralyzed and mutilated Griffith of his bandages, proclaiming that he has no hope whatsoever of regaining his former glory. Although he was wrong about that...
Hypocrite: Criticizes his own men for not wanting to ride blindly into danger like him (despite how this is obviously a bad idea), but panics at the prospect of his own death. He also insults Griffith's Torturer by calling him a pervert. Rather funny seeing that coming from a depraved Serial Rapist.
I Have You Now, My Pretty: Captures Casca as a hostage while she's trying to defend an unconscious Guts, strips her clothes off, and gloats that he's going to have his way with her while the other Hawks watch helplessly. He's about to rape her with his horrifying penis-tongue when Guts wakes up just in time and pulls the most righteous cock-block in the series.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Killed Barbo, the only convict who was cocky enough to fight him for the leadership of the Black Dogs, by throwing him so hard that he ends up impaled on a church steeple when he comes back down. Ironically he himself meets a similar fate when Zodd gores him with his horns before ripping him in half.
Immortals Fear Death: Ironically for a guy who preaches living with no regard of death, Wyald is terrified when he's severely wounded and faced with his own mortality. In fact this is implied to be his motivation: he believes he lived a miserable, pointless life, and became an Apostle to start a new one of "Excitement and enjoyment". His true form being an old man, as revealed when he dies, implies he was trying to escape his imminent death.
Killer Gorilla: He looks rather like an ape even in his human form, and transforms into a giant, King Kong-sized gorilla in his Apostle form.
Kick the Dog: All the time and enjoys it immensely.
Large and in Charge: Through his stupid nature, he still imposes fear among his much smaller subordinates.
Laughably Evil: While what Wyald does isn't funny at all, his hammy excitable mannerisms and tendency to make small talk with people even after he's crushed a guy's head in front of them can be darkly humorous.
Leeroy Jenkins: Plan? What Plan? Even when he already knows there's a trap or ambush ahead, he won't consider any option besides charging right into it.
Magic Pants: Averted. When he transforms to his full size, he bursts out of his clothes and armor, sending them flying in all directions.
Meaningful Name: Wyald is wild. He has absolutely no inhibitions.
Moral Myopia: Wyald believes that the "do as you will" directive of Apostles means that he can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants, even to people who are supposed to be on his side. However, he's utterly horrified at Zodd turning that logic against him and claiming he can do whatever he wants to Wyald.
Now That's Using Your Teeth!: As if the sword catch wasn't enough, Wyald manages to stop Guts' huge sword by biting it, and then knocks out Guts' horse with a punch. Guts quips as soon as he frees himself, "What the hell do you eat with those teeth?"
Oh, Crap!:
- He has a very abrupt and karmic moment of panic when Guts pulls off the mother of all cockblocks on him to save Casca. The look on his face is hysterical.
- He also has two in such quick succession they count as one when he realizes that (A) Griffith does not have the Behelit on him, and so there is no way to summon the Godhand and save himself from the wounds Guts gave him and (B) Nosferatu Zodd has just landed right behind him, in FULL APOSTLE MODE, and he is not happy.
Older Than They Look: He at least looks to be in his 40s, for how little human he appears. His mortal form however appears to be an elderly man well past his prime, implying Wyald was about to die before his new life as an Apostle. Just how old is he?
Pelts of the Barbarian: Seemingly institutes this as the Black Dog Knights dress code, to reinforce just how barbaric and wild they are. They grow their hair long and wild, wearing little besides their cuirasses and the furs around their loins and shoulders. Wyald himself wears a great wolf pelt with the animal's face still on it over his head and shoulders, as well as black fur pelts lashed around his shins and forearms by leather thongs.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Wyald is a raging misogynist who views women as nothing more than fleshy bags of meat for his pleasure and after brutally murdering them places their corpses on pikes to parade around with his soldiers.
Primal Stance: Seeing that his apostle form is a mutant ape, it's only practical that Wyald's reborn human form has ape-like characteristics, including his posture and gait.
Psycho for Hire: He was once a psychotic prisoner who willingly let himself be captured to allow himself to work for the king. He's loyal to the King of Midland only because it gives him the chance to rape, torture, and kill people without being punished. Even his evil masters hold him in contempt for being so mad and unrestrained.
Psychopathic Manchild: Despite supposedly being hundreds of years old Wyald acts more like a really mean and rowdy 12 year old in the body of a hulking man-ape. He charges recklessly into atrocities because he thinks it's his right to "enjoy and excite", often hurls childish taunts at his enemies, and when caught by Zodd, whines like a little kid being disciplined by a parent.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Wyald and his Black Dog Knights' modus operandi whenever they encounter a settlement is to rape the women, kill every man, woman, and child, and stick their corpses on poles. It's a very effective way to Kick the Dog, and even the king's subjects suffered this treatment. This made them so infamous that the king had them exiled to the border.
Rasputinian Death: Because of his Super-Toughness, the heroes try just about every method of killing him until one finally works. They try to blow him along with the bridge using great kegs of gunpowder, and that doesn't work. They try to bury him under a rockslide of giant boulders, and that doesn't work. It ultimately takes Guts castrating him, stabbing out his eyes, and burying his sword in Wyald's neck to stop him, and even then he staggers to his feet one last time before Zodd gores him upon his horns and tears his body asunder.
Serial Rapist: Probably the most egregious rapist in the series, he raped dozens or even hundreds of women while serving the King of Midland. His motivation is a combination of misogyny, unrestrained lust, and sadistic pleasure.
Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being cut from most adaptations, Wyald has the honor of being the first Apostle Guts actually manages to hurt in battle. This would lead to Guts killing many more Apostles during the Eclipse and beyond, evolving into the implacable monster slayer we know and love today.
The Sociopath: A far more low-functioning example than Griffith and Emperor Ganishka, Wyald is extremely impulsive and is always pursuing instant gratification for himself with no respect for the lives or happiness of others, or even his own.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Wyald is one of the weakest Apostles, but the strongest enemy the Band of the Hawk faces pre-Eclipse. This shows the difference between men and monsters and also how Guts has evolved as a warrior.
Straw Misogynist: Thinks "all bitches should be naked" and generally acts as though the only reason women exist is to be raped. He's introduced raping and killing a large number of them.
Stupid Evil: Goes out of his way to commit evil deeds even when it makes no sense to do so, to the point of figuratively shooting himself in the foot. For instance, he and his men stop to rape and kill a peasant family, taking time out of their pursuit of Griffith, and he leaves himself vulnerable by trying to rape Casca in the middle of a fight with Guts. He also kills off his own men at an alarming pace, when keeping them alive might have enabled him to win.
Super-Strength: One of the archetypal Apostle powerhouses, ridiculously strong even by the standards of his demonic kin. He's introduced throwing a (considerably bigger) man so hard that he's impaled on a church steeple, despite his hands being manacled together, and likes to use entire trees like clubs.
This Was His True Form: Wyald's a notable case in that after Zodd bisects him, he reverts from his ape-like Apostle body into that of a frail old man, implying that he became an Apostle on his deathbed, and used his loved ones as his sacrifice.
Tiny-Headed Behemoth: In his apostle form, he's enormous... aside from his head, which is very puny in comparison.
Token Evil Teammate: He and the Black Dog Knights serve as this for the Midland army, being a band composed entirely of the kingdom's worst criminals who regularly Rape, Pillage, and Burn every settlement they come across.
Too Dumb to Live: On top of his general stupidity, he tries to murder Griffith, the one and only person he is absolutely not allowed to kill under any circumstances due to the Godhand's orders. This ends badly for him when Zodd shows up and kills him for his disobedience.
The Unfettered: He is completely driven by impulse and acts with no morals, reason, or common sense.
Unskilled, but Strong: As they swordfight, Guts determines that Wyald isn't even using any technique; it's just that his reflexes are so inhuman that he's still managing to match blows with Guts, a Master Swordsman. Moreover, even in his human form, he's much stronger than Guts, being able to tear down a tree with his bare hands.
Villains Want Mercy: When he's at Zodd's mercy for trying to kill Griffith, Wyald begs for his life, pointing out that he was just following the Godhand's law of "do as thou wilt." Zodd turns that logic against him by declaring that very law to be his reason to kill Wyald for endangering Griffith and rips him in half.
The Worf Effect: After a solid seven chapters of him stomping his way through the Band of the Hawk and Guts pulling out all the stops to bring him down, Zodd shows up and splits him open like a stale baguette while he begs for mercy. While Wyald was badly wounded at the time, his utter terror and inability to fight back suggests that even in top form, he wouldn't have stood a chance. This expresses that, while Apostles may be incredibly strong as a rule, Zodd is a powerhouse even by their standards.

The Keeper of the Hounds

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Berserk (2016)), Michael McConnohie (English, Berserk (2016))

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/keeper_2.png

Most folks lose their appetite when their guts are spilling out. Not this guy!

"I followed the scent of evil. My nose... is really good."

A minor Apostle who tracks Guts' scent over a long distance shortly after the Eclipse and finds him living with Godo, transforming into the form of a grossly obese bulldog as he attempts to devour the branded struggler.

In Berserk (2016) he is introduced in a context different from the manga and given an expanded backstory as the antagonist of episode 3, in which Guts discovers him in a deserted mansion while fleeing the Holy Iron Chain Knights with Farnese as his hostage. According to Serpico, the house was built by a certain Count Lansdown who governed Midland's Western outskirts and was inordinately fond of hounds and hunting. Back when he was merely a grotesque human, the Apostle took care of the master's hounds, but the master would beat him and look down upon him as ugly and inferior. The master's lovely and innocent daughter was the only one who showed him any kindness, and when he used a behelit to summon the God Hand in his moment of despair, she was his sacrifice. He ate his master and dressed up his lady's half-eaten remains as a trophy on the wall. By the time Farnese and Guts find him, he is living alone with the possessed hounds and has eaten many travelers and pilgrims. He tries to devour Guts in rage over the slaughter of his dogs and so that he can enjoy eating Farnese next, but Guts uses his cunning to exploit his obsession for his dead mistress and kills him after a fruitless interrogation.

Adaptation Expansion: As the bio above indicates, he gets a greatly expanded role and backstory from the 2016 anime.
Animal Motifs: Resembles a jowly, obese bulldog with an under-bite and protruding fangs, though at first glance it's easy to mistake him for a pig. He took care of his master's hounds and had more sympathy for them than any person except for his masters' daughter.
Bald of Evil: He's got one or two hairs on his head, and is a hideous monster to boot.
Berserk Button: In the 2016 anime, besides hurting the hounds he loves, the one thing guaranteed to enrage him is someone else touching the preserved head of his mistress that he keeps as a trophy on the wall.
Call-Back: Rickert refers back to the Keeper of the Hounds in episode 340, telling Rakshas that he decided to prepare an ambush instead of fleeing because he's seen an Apostle track someone for leagues, and knows that such pursuit isn't easy to shake off.
Combat Tentacles: In the manga, when Guts disembowels him, he reveals that his intestines are fully prehensile, and uses them for this.
Composite Character: In the 2016 anime, in which neither the Snake Baron nor the Snail Count appears, he takes over aspects of their roles. As a formidable opponent whose Apostle backstory is revealed over the course of his plot he stands in for the Count, and he stands in for the Baron as a minor Apostle whom Guts interrogates and finishes off after establishing that he knows nothing useful about the Godhand.
Dumb Muscle: Speaks in a halting and inarticulate fashion, but is strong enough to smash through buildings and send Guts flying.
Fat Bastard: Probably the most obese apostle except for the Count, and just as evil.
Jabba Table Manners: Guts cracks a grim joke that he's got no table manners. Not only does he eat people, but he also does it messily.
Lecherous Licking: Lewdly licks Farnese's face with his tongue in the anime, saying that he loves the taste of a refined noblewoman.
Picky People Eater: Not that he's picky about which parts to eat, but he claims that some people are tastier than others. After eating Guts, he's looking forward to cleansing his palette with a noblewoman like Farnese.
Scarily Competent Tracker: He smells a branded sacrifice miles away, and follows the scent all the way to Guts' hiding place.
Super-Persistent Predator: Will hunt his prey for miles, and refuses to give up on trying to eat Guts even when the payoff in food is clearly outweighed by how much Guts is butchering his body. Then again, Apostles aren't exactly governed by the normal rules of biology.
This Is Unforgivable!: Declares Guts hurting his hounds to be unforgivable, saying that even the master of the house deserves to be fed to the dogs if he is cruel to them.
Villainous Glutton: Greedily gobbles up humans to feed his hunger.

Rosine

Rosine as she appears to Jill. Click ^here for her bug-eyed form, and ^here for her full transformation. Lastly, ^here are Rosine and Jill in happier times.

"It is a fairy tale. Yes. This is a fairy tale for children."

Rosine (ロシーヌ Roshīnu) is the youngest apostle introduced so far and the Arc Villain of the Lost Children chapter. Born to a village woman who was raped by a soldier, and thus possibly a Child by Rape, Rosine grew up abused and unhappy. As a result, she developed an obsession with the Changeling Fantasy of becoming an elf like the ones in the stories she loved, especially the tale of a boy named Peekaf who was ostracized for having pointed ears and red eyes. One night she ran away from home to search for elves in the Misty valley, and when her parents caught up to her, she sacrificed them to the God Hand and took the form of a human-sized elf with the wings and features of a butterfly.

Rosine used her new powers to create a sick version of her childhood fantasy, calling herself the queen of the elves and kidnapping children from her former village to turn into her servants. They frequently terrorize the people and their livestock, delighting in cruelty as if it were a game. If she has one shred of humanity left, it's her fondness for Jill, her childhood friend whom she tries to make one of her "elves".

Against Guts, she proves being a particularly tenacious opponent, so much indeed that Guts is too worn out to fight off the subsequent attack of the Holy Iron Chain Knights - which are regular humans - and ends up captured by Farnese. Rosine is then seen flying away, heavily wounded and delusional, before eventually falling to her death from the sky.

Abusive Parents: Her mom was weak and utterly incompetent. Her dad was an outright asshole. Both paid for it the hard way!
Adapted Out: The Lost Children arc is cut entirely from Berserk and the Band of the Hawk. While this is understandable given the content of the arc, it also creates Fridge Logic where, in order for Guts to be weak enough for the Holy Iron Chain Knights to capture, we're asked to believe the minor mooks being slaughtered by the droves are enough to cripple him.
Adult Hater: Rosine thinks that all grown-ups are rotten because of how her parents treated her and decided to create a paradise where she and Jill would never have to grow up.
Alas, Poor Villain: Her final moments has her realizing she feels hungry for the first time since she became an apostle, falling from the sky while wondering "what's for supper..."
Ambiguous Innocence: She and her elves commit great evils as if they were childrens' games, partly because they lack a grown-up understanding of the difference between right and wrong.
Ambiguously Bi: Her obsession with Jill borders on Single-Target Sexuality, but she flirts with Guts during their fight.
Anti-Villain: A horrifically murderous monster who became that way as a result of being completely emotionally distraught from horrific childhood trauma she desired to escape from.
The Baby of the Bunch: Excluding her Elf-fairy spawn, Rosine is the only known child Apostle. It's not shown how she interacts with adult Apostles, but she's seen alongside the Count slaughtering the Band Of The Hawk's camp, so there's probably no age discrimination.
Badass Adorable: Rosine is a cute perky girl who transforms into a lightning fast moth beast that gives Guts one of the toughest fights of his quest, and controls a legion of mutated insectoids.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted. Rosine and her elf children are drawn with both nipples and genitalia to indicate the fact that they're transformed humans rather than real elves like Puck, who is depicted like a Ken doll.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She sacrifices her mother and father in order to transform into an elf like she always dreamed of, but in the end, she realizes that she would have rather been a normal girl who was able to live happily with her parents.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Rosine has unusually thick eyebrows for a girl, which kind of suits her Tomboy personality.
Break the Cutie: As a child, she only wanted to be loved and have someplace she belonged, but the abuse from her father drove her off the deep end.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Rosine doesn't connect the dots between her crimes against the Band of the Hawk and Guts' vendetta against her, and when she asks who he is he doesn't even bother to answer:
Rosine: "What are... Who are you?! Why're you so--?!"
Guts: "You wouldn't remember. Every last human you scum snacked on playing your games. You wouldn't remember."
Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Yeah, she's a moth, but it can still be applied to Rosine's story, as she sacrificed her parents to the Godhand in order to be reborn into her dream life: a beautiful luna moth who is the queen over her elves. And then of course, she dies after realizing that she misinterpreted the existence of elves and regretted sacrificing her parents, and she dies in a more graceful manner than other Apostles have.
Can't Argue with Elves: Rosine takes this viewpoint, claiming that she and her elf children are superior to humans both morally and as a species. However, the story shows her to actually be a Hypocrite with Moral Myopia, especially considering she isn't even an elf.
Changeling Tale: Because she was abused and unloved, she escaped into a fantasy and convinced herself that she was an elf being raised by human parents and that her real home was in the misty valley. She was tragically wrong about this, but practiced it herself after becoming an Apostle by abducting the human children from her village and turning them into (rather than replacing them with) elves.
Child by Rape: Her mother was raped by a soldier when their home village was attacked, and it's highly possible that Rosine was conceived through this union, though nobody can say for sure. As a result, her legal father rejected and abused her.
Childhood Friends: She and Jill were inseparable playmates, and they still feel a special bond from having grown up together.
Crapsaccharine World: Rosine's Misty Valley is filled with flowers, fruits, chirping birds, elves playing by decapitating each other and skewering one another in the ass... Wait, what?
Cool Big Sis: Rosine was the older playmate who Jill looked up to, and even referred to her as "sister" ("Rosine-oneechan", in the Japanese original).
Corruption by a Minor: Not only does she corrupt other children into evildoing and an eternity to suffer in Hell, she also turned a bunch of adult men into bug creatures to protect the entrance to the Misty Valley.
Cute and Psycho: Apostle-Rosine looks pretty as a button, with a cheerful personality to match. She maintains this demeanor whilst openly engaging in "playful" cruelty, torture, and other sadistic pleasures.
Cute Is Evil: Despite her fairy-like appearance, she still radiates an ominous aura when in her elf-queen form. That impression disappears when she takes her "human" form - the ones with translucent wings.
Cute Monster Girl: Compared to most male apostles who are ugly and/or terrifying, Rosine is pretty attractive even though she's obviously not human.
Dark Action Girl: Thanks to her sacrifice, she’s gained unfathomable power for a little girl and manages to give Guts trouble, nearly killing him in the process.
Death Equals Redemption: When she's mortally wounded and there's no way of saving her, her personality seemingly reverts back to how she was before she became evil. She regrets having sacrificed her parents and tries to go home, only to crash and die.
Demoted to Extra: She is reduced to a cameo in the Apostle attack on the Hawk wounded camp in Berserk (1997). In Berserk: The Golden Age Arc said scene is cut out, but we get a glimpse of her in a swarm of flying Apostles.
Despair Event Horizon: Having finally had enough of her father's abuse, Rosine ran away from home to live with the elves in the Misty Valley, only to discover that there were no elves to be found, right in time for her parents to show up to drag her back home. Though her mother was relieved that she was safe and only wanted to take her home, her father was furious at her for having led them on a wild goose chase and struck Rosine before then attacking his wife, who intervened on Rosine's behalf. With her hopes and dreams of the elves shattered, and with her being yet again abused by her father in a place she had believed would be a sanctuary for her, Rosine crosses the Despair Event Horizon, at which point the Godhand offers to make all of her dreams come true, at a price.
Driven to Villainy: Make no mistake, Rosine as an Apostle does some pretty terrible things notwithstanding her love for Jill, but the unfair and traumatic circumstances that led her to become an Apostle in the first place were outside of her control.
Dying as Yourself: Upon dying, Rosine meets a true elf for the first time in the person of Puck, realizing that neither she nor her "children" are elves, that they never were and never will be. As she soars for the last time, she acts like a young girl again, wishing to return to being what she originally was, but her wounds are too serious and she eventually plummets from the sky to her death.
Ear Ache: Gut's final blow to Rosine results in her losing most of her left ear (and all of her left arm).
Early-Bird Cameo: She makes a brief appearance in the Golden Age arc among the apostles who massacre the Hawks' wounded camp before the volumes centering on her come up. Even in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc where this part is cut out, she is included in a scene where apostles are swarming in the sky and even dive-bombs the camera.
Enfante Terrible: She and her pseudo-elves qualify big time. One should remember that she's the one to have ordered Rickert's execution pre-Eclipse, which would have happened hadn't the Skull Knight pulled a Big Damn Heroes on her and the Count.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In her own twisted way, Rosine genuinely cared for Jill, and saves her from death several times. Unfortunately, Guts kiboshed any potential chance for a Heel–Face Turn by impaling her, rekindling her rage. Puck considers trying to heal her for Jill's sake, but her injuries by that point are too severe.
Face Death with Dignity: Once she's finally spent and Guts is about to finish her off with one last stroke of his sword, Rosine simply looks up at him with quiet acceptance.
The Fair Folk: Rosine and her children may look like Puck except for a certain sense of wrongness, but they're NOTHING like the true elves of the series, being wicked creatures who delight in torturing and killing humans.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Unlike Griffith, the Count, Mozgus, and Ganishka, high-profile figures before their transformations, Rosine was just a hapless little girl running away from home. Nonetheless, she's one of the most powerful Apostles Guts has faced at that point in the story.
Full-Frontal Assault: She fights completely naked, and with no Barbie Doll Anatomy in effect. Even in her One-Winged Angel form her chest is uncovered.
Gorgeous Gorgon: The terrifying monster dreaded by the villagers is actually a cute teenage girl. Of course, it's hard to appreciate her looks while she's trying to kill you.
Hair Substitute Feature: She has luna-moth-esque wings for her "hair", which look particularly hair-like in her more humanoid form.
Hair Wings: Her moth wings grow out of the back of her head and are actually her hair, which partially transforms back when she changes to her more human form in front of Jill.
Hypocrite: She hates adults and claims they corrupt children, but she owes her powers and allegiance to four adult demons and has no problem doing their dirty work with adult apostles like the Count. Conveniently, she never mentions this to Jill.
Kids Are Cruel: Exaggerated with her elf children, who think that gruesomely killing animals and humans is fun. They even dismember and rape each other.
Killer Rabbit: She looks like a cute green fairy with moth wings, antennae and a furry collar... but her forehead proboscis is actually a Whip Sword and the dust from her wings is highly poisonous.
Lecherous Licking: While Guts is clinging to her flying form with his arm impaled on her proboscis, she creepily licks his face while enjoying his suffering and remarking how it's like a romantic date in the starry sky.
Lightning Bruiser: In her Apostle form, she moves fast enough to create sonic booms and easily tossed Guts around while doing so.
Little Miss Badass: A villainous example, she's a young girl who's probably no older than 13 or 14 and whose main goal boils down to eternal childhood. She's also an Apostle who can transform into a huge moth monster, fly at supersonic speeds, and was actually winning her fight against Guts up until she got cocky and let her guard down, letting Guts destroy her air jet with his cannon. In fact, she's the reason why Guts was weakened enough for the Holy Iron Chain Knights to capture.
Macabre Moth Motif: Rosine's full apostle form, which contrasts with her more beautiful and delicate butterfly form, is that of a terrifying giant luna moth, with a lot of emphasis on the alien-like and insect traits of her body.
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Her mother conceived her after being raped when their home village was attacked by soldiers. Although it wasn't confirmed that Rosine was a Child by Rape, her father abused her because he doubted whether she was his own daughter.
Misanthrope Supreme: As an Apostle, she has completely rejected her humanity, mostly due to how much her human life sucked. Outside of Jill, she looks down on all humans, seeing them as vile, mean, and hateful; this goes double for adults. When Jill confronts her about the "elves" killing each other, Rosine shrugs them off as "playing human"; humans kill, rape, and torture each other all the time, why is so wrong for elves to do it.
Moral Myopia: Rosine thinks that she and her elves are superior to humans, so it's justified when they go slaughtering them by the dozens. When Guts shows up, starts splatting her minions, and eventually physically wounds her, she calls Guts a monster and declares undying revenge against him.
- Another good example is that she sees nothing wrong with her elves raping and killing each other, and when Jill is horrified by it, she justifies it by saying it's what humans do. The fact that her "elves" have fun by inflicting on each other the exact type of horror she built her "sanctuary" to get away from, and to save children from, seems lost on her.
Onee-sama: Rosine is this to Jill since Jill regarded her as more of an older sister since she was four years her senior.
Organic Technology: Her Apostle form is basically an organic jet fighter plane, with air compression replacing jet combustion engine.
Outdoorsy Gal: Rosine loved to go exploring in the woods from dawn till dusk, often taking Jill with her. In hindsight, Jill realizes she did it to avoid her home, where her parents were always fighting and she would be abused.
Pet the Dog: She saves Jill from being sliced in half by Guts (who was targeting Rosine) and later saves her again from a forest fire... also started by Guts (who was, again, trying to kill Rosine).
Pointy Ears: Has very elongated pointy ears as a result of her desire to turn into an elf.
Pretty Butterflies: Her basic Apostle form is that of a humanoid butterfly. This shape reflects her girlhood fascination with fairies, and her delicate wings make her beautiful in a way that few Apostles are. At the same time, she reflects the darker symbolism of butterflies, such as being poisonous and having characteristics of The Vamp.
The Runaway: One rainy night she ran away from home to escape from her father's abuse, telling Jill that she was going to join the elves in the misty valley.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Since becoming an Apostle, she eschewed clothing and has no modesty about appearing naked in front of humans.
Stepford Smiler: In her youth, Rosine always put on a cheerful face around Jill to convince both her friend and herself that she was happy despite her miserable home life.
Sugar Apocalypse: Guts set her cocoon-filled emergence grounds on fire, burning down the entire Misty Valley.
The Swarm: Rosine's flying elf children are small but dangerous because of their sheer numbers. They descend on the village like a swarm of insects and tear apart any living thing in their path.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jill recalls that as a human child, Rosine liked playing in the woods and streams like a boy would and liked to catch bugs and small animals, which she would proudly show to Jill. Jill was a girly girl in comparison, being freaked out by snakes and such and acting more feminine.
Tragic Villain: Rosine's backstory is tragic enough that it even gives Guts' childhood a run for its money. A possible Child by Rape, her father beat and abused her constantly, thinking she wasn't really his. Her mother was completely weak and pathetic, incapable of compensating or protecting her from the abuse. An outsider in her village, Jill was her only friend, and she used a Changeling Fantasy to deal with the trauma of her home life. Eventually, it gets too much, and she runs away from home to live with the elves from the stories she loves so much. She eventually discovers that there are no elves to be found, right in time for her parents to show up to drag her back home. She crosses the Despair Event Horizon, at which point the Godhand offers to make all of her dreams come true, at a price. Rosine may be a monster, but Miura makes extra sure to remind the reader that at heart, she's still a traumatized little girl who was pushed over the edge.
Troubling Unchildhood Behavior: Although she was in her early teens at most when she became and apostle and still looks very youthful, she is entertained by the slaughter her elf children inflict on the villagers and each other. When Guts enrages her, she becomes completely Ax-Crazy.
Villainous Breakdown: After Guts stabs her from behind while she's rescuing Jill, she acts increasingly desperate and crazed.
Villainous Crush: While she has Guts impaled in the sky, Rosine tauntingly calls the view of the moon romantic and says that he's quite handsome, and she can see how Jill might have fallen for him. She even lecherously licks and kisses his face before she intends to tear him apart, since she can't let him take Jill from her. It's definitely one-sided, as Guts feels nothing but rage and loathing for her.
We Can Rule Together: Offers this to poor Jill, who refuses. She then tries to make her one of her elves by force.
We Have Reserves:
- Although she called her Apostle Spawn elves her "children", when pushed by Guts, who was destroying her "paradise" with fire, Rosine was willing to dump the place and start over again hopefully with Jill, letting all of her elves die.
- This is also the essence of her reply when Jill points out that her "friends" so-called games are actually killing them. Rosine cheerfully replies that it's all OK, because all she needs to do is transform more kids, and she'll have new friends to play with.

The Egg of the Perfect World

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Derek Stephen Prince (English, Berserk (2016))

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/egg.jpg

The Egg in front of his "altar".

"But those threatened by the dark can by no means ever let go of a torch. All they can do is stare in blank surprise at their illuminated, disgustingly cruel selves and continue to suffer it."

The Egg of the Perfect World (完璧な世界の卵 Kanpekina Sekai no Tamago)/Nameless Apostle is an Apostle shaped like a giant Behelit with tentacles, whose original form was a nameless outcast shunned for his appearance. After giving demonic powers to Father Mozgus and his mooks, he remained in the shadows of the Tower of Conviction for a long time and contemplated the pain humans were willing to inflict themselves in the name of God. His wish was to give birth to a perfect world. Which he eventually achieves by giving birth to Griffith, after devouring the deformed child of Guts and Casca who was lying in the debris of the Tower after using all of its energy to protect his mother from the ghosts. The Nameless Apostle did this as an act of pity for the dying child, and both he and the child died in the process. He conveys his story and purpose to Luca, a prostitute who will be the only one to know about his existence.

He is the only Apostle so far whose death has not been brutal (mainly due to Guts not killing him), and one of the rare sympathetic Apostles along with Rosine, Locus, and Irvine.

And I Must Scream: After he retreated into his hole, the people above turned it into a corpse pit and he was buried under rotting bodies. He could do nothing but cower in fear as he slowly suffocated.
Anti-Villain: Types II and III. He truly believes that his goal of being a vessel of change will bring a benevolent future.
The Collector of the Strange: What he calls his "garden" is actually the well-aligned decaying corpses of the tortured from the Tower of Conviction.
Combat Tentacles: From what little "offense" he's shown to be capable of, he tries using the many tentacles surrounding his body to attack the Skull Knight, who responds by slicing them all to ribbons in the blink of an eye.
Egg MacGuffin: An unusual case; while usually, this trope is a character discovering an egg and protecting it until it hatches, this character himself is the Egg, and has to keep himself alive until he can hatch the perfect world that he dreams of.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He was nothing as a human. He has no family, name or identity. He was just a hideously malformed human forced to live in squalor and scavenge for scraps. Then he became an Apostle, caused a lot of suffering for the refugees from the shadows, invoked a cataclysmic event that killed thousands, and set in motion the first major step to ushering in a new world order.
Go Out with a Smile: Upon hatching to give birth to Griffith, he's last seen smiling in contentment.
Greater-Scope Villain: For the Conviction Arc's Birth Ceremony chapter. Guts doesn't even encounter him in battle, but the Egg is responsible for the invocation of the mock-Eclipse—the events of which constantly get in Guts' way of saving Casca and serve as a reincarnation ceremony for Griffith's rebirth into the mortal plane.
The Grotesque: Born with a hideously deformed face, which caused normal folk to drive him away.
Holding Out for a Hero: His plan is essentially a twisted version of this. He became so sick of the world being so miserable that he decided the only way for it to be saved was to call to God to send them a savior. Once everyone in Albion is consumed by the monsters, they too begin wishing for God to save them, creating a concentration of negativity dense enough to incarnate one of the Godhand who are normally to diffused throughout the world to properly incarnate. God indeed answers their collective prayers for a savior, and Griffith reincarnates and begins spreading chaos in pursuit of his dream, much to the detriment of the world.
Loners Are Freaks: As a human, he used to lurk in a collective ossuary and got shooed off viciously for his hideous appearance the only time he showed up. He even wonders what his life might've been like if Mozgus had found him before his transformation.
Man Behind the Man: He is the man behind the Great Goat, Mozgus, and his Mooks gaining powers.
My Death Is Just the Beginning: Enacted a plan that he knew would end his existence, knowing it was necessary to give birth to his perfect world and reincarnate Griffith.
Mysterious Watcher: Lurks in the shadows watching events unfold, only interfering at specific points while showing himself as little as possible. He has an agenda of his own, which doesn't become clear until later.
Never Given a Name: Because he was cast out of human society, he never had a name or identity of his own.
Oh, Crap!: The moment he realizes how hopelessly outmatched he is against Skull Knight...
Tragic Villain: While most Apostles wholeheartedly embraced evil after their transformation no matter how good their intentions before, the Egg does not seem to be willfully cruel and causes death because it is necessary to his plan. He never had any choice but to become an Apostle since no one ever accepted him, and he thinks that perhaps if he had been found by Mozgus he would have turned out differently, but goes through with his destructive hatching because he thinks it's the only way to create his utopia.
Utopia Justifies the Means: In order to create a world where even wretched outcasts like him would be accepted, he is willing to break a few eggs. By which we mean envelop the refugee camp in flesh-devouring darkness and give birth to the incarnation of a supreme malevolent being.
Weak, but Skilled: Unlike most Apostles, he's physically unimpressive, never directly engages in combat, and can only run when the Skull Knight has him in his sights. But the Egg is capable of turning people into powerful pseudo-Apostles very quickly, and he manipulates things behind the scenes to bring his plan to fruition.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants a better world for everyone, but his method requires the sacrifice of tens of thousands of people.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He plays a mean game of speed chess. All of his actions were nudging people into the right place at the time in order to keep Guts and Casca at Albion long enough for the Incarnation Ceremony to proceed as planned.

The New Band of the Hawk

See the Band of the Hawk's entry.

Apostle Spawn

Common Tropes

"You too have already seen several of what humans would call "monsters"... No, "miracles." To be sure, there were those among them I was involved with, but all I did was grant them the power they desired."

—The Egg of the Perfect World

Many Apostles have the ability to taint other life with their demonic powers. Some have even been known to raise the dead. While the typical transformation process gives the entity more strength, other effects are also known. Like Apostles, any Apostle spawn will usually have separate humanoid and One-Winged Angel forms and revert to their original human forms when they die.

Captain Zondark

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zondarkbefore.png

Zondark's first appearance. Click ^here for his transformation.

"Kill... Kill!"

One of The Count's Elite Mooks, who was gravely injured after a fight with Guts and wanted to exact revenge. The Count agreed and gave him some of his powers... in a way you really don't want to know about.

When first shown, he is wearing full plate armor with a personalized mask visor complete with a detailed human nose, mouth, bone structure and eyes. His actual face is somewhat brutish and he has short, scraggly black hair. After becoming an Apostle-Spawn, his appearance alters to show sharp, demonic teeth and snake-like eyes... in addition to the multiple changes his body goes through as Guts damages him.

Guts might have taken much longer getting rid of him if Zondark hadn't told Guts how to destroy him.

Body Horror: At first is his arm◊ and later he goes to this Horrific Form.◊
Combat Tentacles: Grows two where his arms used to be.
The Dragon: To the Count. Before facing the Count, Guts has to defeat Zondark first.
Demonic Possession: How the Count gives him his powers, which include superhuman strength, being able to grow Combat Tentacles, and regenerating any damage unless his head is cut off.
Elite Mook: He was one of the Count's best soldiers.
Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: He is stupid enough to tell Guts the only way to kill him, which Guts immediately capitalizes on.
Giant Mook: Towers over the other guards.
Healing Factor: He pretty much becomes impossible to kill unless his head is cut off. Given soon after it became apparent to Guts that Zondark was impossible to kill by just blind attacking, Zondark stupidly revealing his weakness leads too... well, given he was fighting Guts, you can guess what happens.
Heavily Armored Mook: First appears wearing full armor with a visor hiding his face. After the Count transforms him he even switches to a different armor with more Spikes of Villainy but no helmet.
Implacable Man: A rare minor version of this. After he ends up absorbing the Count's Daemon parasite, he ends up obtaining regenerative powers and has to be fought two consecutive times before he's brought down.
Mook Lieutenant: More than a Mook, but he doesn't last long.
Mouth of Sauron: After possessing Zondark, the Count speaks to Guts through the slug sticking out of Zondark's head.
Off with His Head!: How his regenerative powers are stopped.
People Puppet: Once his possession progresses far enough, he basically stops existing as a person himself, and more as a second body the Count controls remotely.
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Zondark will keep regenerating until the Count's head is cut off and destroyed.
Sanity Slippage: His sanity goes flying out the window after his first defeat against Guts, becoming obsessed with revenge.
Starter Villain: Although tougher than usual.
Too Dumb to Live: In a moment of monumental genius, the otherwise-unkillable Zondark during his third fight with Guts ends with him conveniently explaining that he's impossible to kill unless his head is cut off. Given whom Zondark's fighting, Guts takes immediate advantage of that to put him down for good.
Guts: "Thanks for the tip."

Elves of Misty Valley

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/misty_valley.PNG

Click ^here for their insectoid form.

"Let's play, let's play!"

Pseudo-elves that dwell with Rosine in the heart of Misty Valley. Despite their innocent demeanor and resemblance to ordinary elves like Puck, their capacity for cruelty towards humans and each other hints at the sinister true nature of Misty Valley.

Ambiguous Innocence: They're capable of massacring humans and animals in great numbers, and won't hesitate to rape and kill each other as well. They don't understand that it's wrong to do so because as children, they're imitating adult behavior and Rosine herself doesn't discourage their actions.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted, the fact that they're anatomically correct, unlike Puck, is an early tipoff that they're not real elves like him.
Bee People: They look like elves, but with wasp-like eyes, antennae, and stingers, and they become even more wasp-like when they transform. The fact that they attack in a Zerg Rush like a massive swarm reinforces this.
Enfant Terrible: They treat everything they're doing as one big game, even if it's killing other people. Puck realizes from this that they aren't child-like; they're actual children who were kidnapped and transformed by Rosine to be her friends.
Tragic Monster: All of them were innocent children that Rosine kidnapped and transformed into mockeries of actual elves in order to indulge her Wish-Fulfillment that Misty Valley was inhabited by elves. None of them realize what they're doing is wrong, and after death their ghosts appear to Guts, looking for their parents.
We Have Reserves: Rosine doesn't care for them as she finds them to be disposable. Any time their numbers start dwindling, she goes out to kidnap more children and make "new friends."
Zerg Rush: For Apostle Spawn they happen to be pathetically weak, and are only a danger thanks to their sheer numbers.

Forest Guardians

"You who would hurt the children. You can't pass."

"The valley is guarded by some dependable grown-ups. They would never hurt children and they protect us with their lives from all who would hurt us. They're real grown-ups. Protectors of children. The forest guardians, you'd say."

— Rosine

Hapless adults Rosine transformed and enslaved to safeguard the Misty Valley from the outside world and all who would ruin her paradise.

Big Creepy-Crawlies: Their monster forms are all man-sized insects with some human features on their faces.
Brainwashed and Crazy: All of them were somehow controlled into obeying Rosine's orders.
Early-Bird Cameo: The mantis and rhino beetle guardians appeared alongside Rosine as she made her way to the Eclipse slaughtering some of the Band of the Hawk, two years before Guts would kill them and avenge his comrades.
Elite Mook: Two of the guardians in particular, the mantis and the rhino beetle, were former knights who know how to properly fight. They give Guts a much harder time than the rest of the guardians combined, thanks to their skills and teamwork.
Parental Substitute: Rosine sort of treats them as a Redeeming Replacement for the adults in her human life that made her life miserable, but otherwise keeps them far away from Misty Valley since she doesn't know what a healthy adult-child relationship looks like.
You Shall Not Pass!: They tell Guts that they won't let him into Misty Valley. Guts being Guts, makes it point to kill every single last one of them before moving on.

Bishop Mozgus

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Ray Chase (English, Berserk (2016))

Guidebook Stats (Human):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 222 cm (7 ft, 3 in); Weight: 145 kg (319 lb, 11 oz); Age: 42

Guidebook Stats (Apostle):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 280 cm (9 ft, 2 in); Weight: 299 kg (659 lb, 3 oz)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moz.jpg

Click ^here for his transformation.

"You fool, who rebels against God! You shall pay for this sin with your blood!!!"

Mozgus (モズグス Mozugusu) is a fanatically religious Knight Templar who hunts heretics on behalf of the Holy See's Inquisition. He is infamous for having no reason or mercy in his judgements and punishing accused sinners with horrific tortures and cruel forms of execution. Helping him to carry out his will is a group of physically deformed professional torturers, whom he rescued from lives of prejudice and abuse when they were young and who are consequently unwaveringly loyal to him. Through the influence of the egg-shaped Apostle he eventually becomes an Apostle Spawn with supernatural powers.

Guts meets Mozgus upon trying to retrieve Casca who had run away from the magical cave he had confined her in before going on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Believed to be "unnatural" due to her speech impairment, unwillingness to curse at other supposed heretics, and more importantly, her identification by various heretics as a witch, Mozgus had her tortured in the Tower of Conviction but her Fetus Terrible of a child summoned several ghosts to save his mother, draining itself out and convicting poor Casca of witchcraft in the bargain, for which she almost got burnt at the stake. Mozgus and his torturers died in the ensuing battle against Guts.

Appearing as a square-jawed hulking priest in white robes, he eventually gains the ability to transform himself into a stone angel.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed, at least. In Berserk (2016), his square facial features are noticeably less inhuman and exaggerated, so that the expressions he makes when he's in a good mood can look downright compassionate and reassuring compared to the constant sense of uncanny valley he evoked in the Manga. Even though his vein-popping angry expressions are also shown in the anime, they don't quite approach how foaming-at-the-mouth crazy they were in the original either.
All Crimes Are Equal: Mozgus does not acknowledge any difference in severity between criticizing the Church for not providing enough humanitarian aid and being a part of a demon-worshiping cult that practices cannibalism. As far as he's concerned, anyone who questions him is a heretic who must be tortured until they confess to heresy or put to death if they refuse.
Badass Preacher: An enormous, imposing priest who becomes an apostle spawn.
Bait the Dog: When he takes mercy on a woman with the starving baby and promises to get more aid for the refugees, it seems for a moment like maybe he has a compassionate side to him after all, but then he shows just how sick his sense of justice is when he escorts her into the torture chamber and tells her she still needs to pay for her blasphemy, even if she spoke it for the sake of her child. Afterward, Farnese finds her back among the refugees having lost her mind from the torture and carrying her dead baby in her arms.
Bald of Evil: He's got a bald head, and is Obliviously Evil.
Berserk Button: Mozgus is absolute in his faith to God and the Holy See. So he's quick to turn to violence when somebody has the audacity to say that God's wrath will come down upon him one day.
Berserker Tears: The killing of his henchmen causes him to weep in rage (see also Tears of Blood), promising to destroy Guts as a tribute to their memory.
Big "NO!": When Casca slips out of his grasp through Isidro's cleverness, Mozgus expresses his displeasure as only someone with antiquated linguistics can:
Mozgus: "THOU SHALT NOT!!"
Breath Weapon: The Egg of the Perfect World gives him the ability to incinerate demons by breathing fire from his mouth.
Bring It: Shouts "Come at me!" to the approaching blob monster that had just swallowed Casca, beckoning with his hand and standing his ground despite his followers begging him to withdraw.
Calling Your Attacks: Once he becomes an Apostle Spawn, he starts shouting the names of his attacks while he's pummeling Guts.
Mozgus: "GOD BREATH! GOD THOUSAND-FIST CANNON!"
Church Militant: Views his struggle against sin as a battle that must be waged with force, for which he employs his torturers and the Holy Iron Chain Knights.
Comically Missing the Point: He refers to the power of his scripture (book in his possession), and while doing so, there’s a very obvious massive chunk missing from it due to damage. This is an obvious allusion to how much of the scripture Mozgus ignored for his own personal ends, and the characters promptly lampshade it.
Death by Irony: Mozgus claims his book of scripture saved him by acting as a Pocket Protector (it didn't, but Mozgus is deluded), and when he becomes a stone angel he absorbs it into his chest to represent his confidence that his faith will make him invincible. However, Guts realizes that the hole he tore in the book earlier is the only weak point in Mozgus' impenetrable carapace, and Mozgus is defeated when Guts sets off bombs inside it, creating a gap into which he can thrust the Dragon Slayer.
Disproportionate Retribution: This is his calling card. He once burned down an entire village, killing all its women and children in the process, just because the inhabitants petitioned for relief from the Church's taxes during a famine.
Dragon-in-Chief: Despite the Egg being the orchestrator of the arc's events and the one who transformed him into a Spawn, Mozgus is the one who acts as the arc's actual main threat. He also seems to be unusually powerful for a Spawn, being stronger than many true Apostles, while the Egg seems to be an unusually weak combatant for an Apostle.
The Dreaded: Everyone knows him. If you want to live, make sure he never even notices you.
Due to the Dead: He vows to avenge his four fallen disciples and cries Tears of Blood for them.
Eating the Enemy: When Farnese brings out his manifestation from her dream — his head, which she had been using as a washboard — in Casca's mental world, it grows to an enormous size and begins eating the penis-monsters embodying Casca's memory of being raped.
Evil Versus Evil: He leads the Holy See in opposing the Great Goat and his cult, a depraved group who worships Slan of the Godhand and engages in all manner of unspeakable crimes, ranging from Human Sacrifice to eating babies. That said, he's ''hardly'' any better himself.
Feather Fingers: Exaggerated in his stone angel form: not only can his wingtips clench their feathers into fists as if they were fingers, but each of his wings' individual feathers can do this, which basically gives him dozens of fists with which to pummel Guts all at once. He doesn't particularly need them for grabbing things since he still has his human arms too; the wing fists are just for Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
Flowery Elizabethan English: In the Dark Horse English version his speech is based on what you might find in the King James Bible, with pronouncements like "Thou shalt not avert thine eyes!" Not always grammatical, but gives his words the appropriate gravity.
Gag Nose: It's square and flat. Serpico jokingly suggests it became that way because he repeatedly slams his face against the floor in ritualistic prayer. Interestingly, his nose isn't all that different from Azan's.
Game Face: Whenever he get angry or passionate, Mozgus' inhumanly smooth face becomes even more inhumanly wrinkled, the veins in his temples and cheeks bulge disgustingly out, and his eyes become unfocused and fish-eyed.
Gonk: Compared to most of the other characters in the manga, of whom even the caricatures are more or less exaggerations of naturalistic human faces, Mozgus has an inhumanly smooth, square face that looks like it was sculpted by someone making modern art. When he's calm, there isn't the slightest line or wrinkle on it, nor even any hint of the underlying muscles or bones you'd expect a human to have, creating a creepy uncanny valley effect even when he's smiling. When he's angry, on the other hand, his facial muscles become hyper-defined, his veins pop out, his eyes bulge, and his teeth flash, making him look like he's enraged himself to the point of having an aneurism. His unnatural form gets poked fun at much later when he makes a posthumous appearance in Farnese's dream, in which she uses his flattened head as a washboard to scrub her teammate's laundry and Guts's Berserker Armor gnaws on his scalp while she scrubs it.
Hellish Pupils: When Mozgus is turned into an Apostle spawn, both his irises and pupils become square-shaped. And when he changes to his final form, his eyes become these big inhuman orbs that are completely blank save for the veins running through them.
Hot-Blooded: Mozgus in his stone angel form can rival any mecha pilot's passion for battle, making him a notable villainous example. He even spits fire and bursts into flames when he dies.
Invocation: Upon transformation, he asks heaven to give him the supernatural power to destroy Guts:
Mozgus: "COME HITHER, GREAT STRENGTH! COME HITHER, SUPER POWER!"
Karmic Transformation: Although it's one he's completely unaware of. Mozgus is a fanatical god-fearing Bishop opposing a demon worshipping cult...who gets upgraded into a Pseudo-Apostle, something he thinks is a gift from god. Even more deliciously ironic, guess where Apostles go after death? It's not to be with God.
Knight Templar: Mozgus is convinced that his mission is just and righteous, and in fact the pagan cult lurking in Albion is just as wicked as he says. What makes him an unwitting villain is that he sees people who only want justice and help from the Church in a time of famine as heretics who are going against God's will, and applies the same horrific punishments no matter how small the 'crime'.
Large Ham: His facial expressions and oratory are exaggerated to the point of straddling the line between hilarious and horrifying.
Laughably Evil: Despite all the terrifying things he's responsible for, he's one of Berserk's few comic villains, an absurd-looking Large Ham with equally absurd mannerisms who the story pokes fun at on multiple occasions. It says a lot about him that while most enemies Guts has killed tend to be memorialized as fearsome, terrifying spectres, he shows up again in a bizarre dream sequence for Farnese as a stern but friendly piece of laundry equipment, which she takes with her into Casca's mental world and uses as a weapon against the phallic monsters embodying her memory of being raped by Femto.
Light Is Not Good: His status as a church militant and his apostle spawn form - he even describes it as "a gift from God"!
Mask of Sanity: A poorly maintained one at that. Mozgus tries to present himself as an approachable, deeply pious individual, but it only takes one look at him going on a temper tantrum to shatter the facade... and reveal the ghastly madman underneath.
Mighty Glacier: In human form, he is a solidly built person that can cave someone's head with a bible, but his penance ritual has ruined his knees so he can no longer run. While he briefly gets a speed upgrade from gaining wings, his ultimate form puts him back in this class, as he gains an impenetrable carapace of hardened feathers, plus enough punching power to smash apart stone battlements.
Mood-Swinger: He can swing from stern, to kindly, to frothing-at-the-mouth furious and back again within the span of a minute.
Non-Standard Character Design: Mozgus is just plain odd-looking in his human form, with unnaturally squarish features.
Now That's Using Your Teeth!: He manages to pull this trick on Guts. By biting the freaking Dragon Slayer!
Obliviously Evil: He honestly believes that his methods are for the good of his flock, which only makes him more determined to arrest and torture any who seem like heretics.
One-Winged Angel: When it becomes clear to him that he'll have to unleash his full might in order to beat down Guts, he takes on his final form resembling an angel covered with stone feathers.
Pet the Dog:
- Horrific as he is, he actually picked his followers from people who needed a second chance and told them that their deformities did not make them monsters, but rather meant that God created them with a special purpose. The scary thing is that he might have tortured them to death without hesitation if they refused to carry out his will. When he learns that his disciples have been killed in battle, he cries Tears of Blood and vows to avenge them.
- While he really isn't one to the human population in general, Mozgus is a Reasonable Authority Figure towards Farnese. He forgives her failures, praises her successes, and is happy to offer his (twisted) wisdom to her whenever she is in doubt.
Pocket Protector: While Mozgus is in winged human form, Guts thrusts him in the chest and thinks that he has killed him. However, Mozgus turns into a stone angel and produces his book of scripture with a large hole in it, crediting his faith with protecting him. The onlookers quickly point out how stupid this is — Gut's sword clearly went straight through the book, and the real reason he survived is his newly-sprouted stone armor.
Principles Zealot: Farnese comes to him while he's praying and admits her doubts about their mission, recognizing that their paranoid and brutal inquisition against heresy is hated by the people as well as the knights enforcing it and has so far failed to end the attacks on priests. In response to her asking if they are merely causing needless suffering instead of helping anybody, Mozgus tells her a parable with the lesson that since you cannot predict how your actions will be perceived by the people you are trying to help, you should not worry about it as long as your intentions are righteous. While he admits that he doesn't like to cause so much pain, he feels no guilt because it is in the name of God. Therefore, he urges her not to question God or the scriptures, but instead execute her task no matter what the consequences will be for herself or others. Unlike Farnese, who eventually realizes the error of her ways, he himself hangs onto his misguided principles until the very end.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Unleashes a torrent of punches against Guts in his stone angel form's "thousand-fist cannon" technique.
Red Baron: He is known and feared by the people as "Bloody Scripture Mozgus" for his fanatical use of torture and execution to punish heresy. His use of an iron-bound scripture book as a lethal bludgeon makes this fearsome name well deserved.
Taking You with Me: He planned to take Guts down with him after he was struck by a fatal blow, but Guts threw him off the tower before it could come to that.
Tears of Blood: After transforming and realizing that the four torturers he left to hold Guts off are dead, his grief and rage cause gushers of blood to shoot out of his tear ducts.
Tender Tears: An extremely twisted example that shows how warped his mind is. When he sends the mother of the malnourished baby to her torture he is moved to tears as he exclaims "You possess such courage!! I do so want you to overcome this trial provided by God!!"
Throw the Book at Them: The picture of him smashing some poor sap's head in with his iron-bound tome and screaming "HERETIC!!" has almost reached Memetic Mutation levels.
Torture Technician: Mozgus has set up an elaborate and ghastly torture chamber staffed with his trained experts to aid him in extracting confessions. What's worse is that he sincerely believes it's for his victims' own good!
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He's puritanical, brutal, and utterly lacking in mercy, but there's no insincerity in Mozgus; he genuinely believes he's carrying out the will of a righteous God in a world spilling over with sin and evil. He's capable of empathy and compassion, the backstory of how he gathered his disciples and gave them a purpose in life being a major Pet the Dog moment despite the work he put them to. He's also as much an enemy of demonkind as any mortal and uses his newfound powers – granted to him by an impartial apostle – to fight and destroy them.
You Are What You Hate: After becoming an apostle spawn, he transformed into exactly the sort of demonic agent he spent his life trying to fight against. Despite this, he never recognizes his status as such and interprets his new form as a gift from God.

Mozgus' Disciples

Voiced by: Kenji Fukuda (The Bird), Daigo Fujimaki (The Angel Face), Riki Kagami (Both Twins), Shougo Nakamura (The Imp), Taaki Uchino (The Bubblehead) (Japanese, Berserk (2016)), Grant George (The Bird), Tony Oliver (The Imp) (English, Berserk (2016))

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mozdisciples_2.jpg

Clockwise from the top: Bishop Mozgus, The Angel Face, The Imp, The Bird, The Twins, and The Bubblehead.

"I do not enjoy this work. I am shunned, hated, and feared. Neither can I come to enjoy hurting people. I feel as if I really have become a monster."

— The Bird

Bishop Mozgus' personal bodyguards and disciples. All of them are deformed or suffer ailments that make them appear monstrous or affect their livelihood. Saved and given a purpose by Mozgus, they serve him loyally even though the Bird admits that he dislikes their dirty work.

Anti-Villain: The Bird, who dislikes his work, despite his devotion to Mozgus.
Beam Spam: The Bird unleashes a storm of sharp feathers against Guts after turning into an Apostle spawn.
The Brute: The Angel Face, a mass of muscles who fights using his strength. His name refers to his incongruously childlike face. Whether or not he has the mentality or IQ of one is never mentioned.
Cool Mask: All of them wear masks that make them look even more frightening and monstrous. The Bird's in particular stands out in that his is designed to look like a bird's head while also protecting him from sunlight and contagion.
Creepy Twins: To be expected for the Twins when they torture people for a living. It's not the case when they're seen playing with some crows, though.
Depraved Dwarf: This goes without saying for the Imp, though being a societal outcast due to his dwarfism is implicitly the reason he was driven to become a torturer in the first place. He's also not without standards.
Determinator: The Angel Face and the Bubblehead take the most damage but keep fighting Guts.
Even Evil Has Standards: The Imp criticizes Nina when she won't stick up for Casca. The Bird is also disgusted by the things he does, calling himself a monster.
Expressive Mask: The Bird's mask gets a lot more expressive... when it becomes his face briefly.
Eye Scream: The Imp tends to pluck out eyes with his pliers.
Face of a Thug: Inverted for The Angel Face. His body is grotesquely muscular, and he executes people for a living, yet he has an innocent-looking face.
Feather Flechettes: After their angel transformation, the Bird sends a blizzard of sharp-tipped quills from his wings flying into Guts' face. They don't penetrate the skin very much, but their real purpose is to momentarily distract and blind Guts so that the Bird can seize him with his catchpole.
Final Speech: The Bird's last words on behalf of all of them as he is the last one killed by Guts.
The Bird: "Dear Lord, I thank thee, that in the last moments of our lives burdened by grotesque form and harsh destiny, you saw fit to prepare for us a miracle such as this. And more than anything, for the miracle that we chanced to meet Father Mozgus".
Flight: They all gain wings and the ability to fly after being transformed into angels.
Fragile Speedster: The small one is incredibly swift but as frail as he looks.
The Grotesque: Played with. They're all Torture Technicians who have performed many cruel atrocities in life, but they never had any other choice because of how they were treated for their deformities.
I Am a Monster: Quoted above. Bird admits that perhaps he wouldn't be able to inflict such pain on people if he didn't already see himself as one.
Improbable Weapon User: All of them use what are more properly called tools or torture instruments rather than weapons. The Bird uses a catch pole, the Angel Face an iron-shod breaking wheel, the Twins a pair of two-man saws, the Imp two pairs of pliers, and Bubblehead a chain with spiked claws on the end.
Light Is Not Good: Like Mozgus, they take on the appearances of angels when transformed into Apostle spawn.
Lightning Bruiser: The Angel Face is quite agile for being so large.
No Name Given: They are only referred to by what they look like. We never learn their names, and perhaps some of them were abandoned by their parents before they even received one.
Off with His Head!: The Twins get their heads chopped off by Jerome after being stunned out of the sky by Puck.
One-Winged Angel: The Nameless Apostle grants them super-powered final forms just in time for their big showdown with Guts.
Pet the Dog: When the Twins are seen playing with some crows and Bird explains that he does not enjoy causing pain, the torturers are shown to have kindness and humanity hidden beneath their monstrous appearance and actions. They also wholeheartedly love their master and put their lives on the line to defend him.
Plague Doctor: The Bird has this design aesthetic. Bonus points for it serving a similar purpose to the old Plague Doctor garb, that is to protect from contagions.
Punch-Clock Villain: All of them, their defining trait in fact. They see themselves as monsters but they owe their lives to Mozgus.
Quirky Mini Boss Squad: A team of Elite Mooks who each have a unique strength or gimmick.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Imp calls out Nina on her cowardice twice, the second time being when she confesses about Casca's 'powers' after not even losing a fingernail.
Torture Technician: All of them have a lifetime of experience in inflicting pain and mutilation and do so on a continuous basis. It is not so much their job as the only thing they've ever known.
Undying Loyalty: Because Mozgus saved all of them from lives of being treated worse than animals, they would go to any lengths or sacrifice their lives for him.
Variable-Length Chain: The Bubblehead's weapon of choice is a chain with spiked claws at the end.
Winged Humanoid: They all acquire angel wings after being tainted by the Nameless Apostle.
You Shall Not Pass!: When Guts finally catches up to Mozgus, the torturers stay behind to defeat or at least delay Guts while Mozgus goes ahead with the Twins to burn Casca at the stake.

The Great Goat

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goatbefore.png

Click ^here for his transformation.

"Witch... consummate... become family."

— The Great Goat

The Great Goat is the leader of Slan's depraved cult near St. Albion. He's initially a tall human with a great goat mask on his head. His worshipers bring him Casca as a bride, believing her to be a witch, but Guts and Isidro rescue her just in time from an unholy mating ceremony. As he tries to escape from the Holy Iron Chain Knights, the Egg-Shaped Apostle stings him and turns him into an actual Goat-human monster. He dies in the ensuing battle with Guts, along with a good number of his cultists.

He bears resemblance to the demon Baphomet, whom the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping during their trial by King Philip IV of France in 1307-14.

Ambiguously Human: The goat head is apparently just an elaborate mask, but its wearer is still inhumanly lanky, and on top of it he has six fingers on each hand. Whether he is meant to be a malformed human or an entirely different kind of humanoid creature is unclear.
And Now You Must Marry Me: His plan for Casca.
Animal Motifs: The Goat, which is associated with satyrs, the cult of Bacchus, and untamed sexuality.
Bald of Evil: The one time we actually see what he looks like under that mask is after he's already lost his head. He's bald under there.
Black Speech: Part of the conversion ritual for his cult is to recite the words he speaks that defile God. In the manga, they're depicted as formless scribbles to display how unknowable the language is, and likely also how unpleasant it sounds.
Creepily Long Arms: Even before he's transformed into a monster, his arms are inhumanly long.
Cult: He runs one, which seems more focused on sex and cannibalism than any kind of ideal.
Disease by Any Other Name: His Creepily Long Arms may be a result of Marfan syndrome.
Eats Babies: His cult brews a tasty mixture containing human body parts, including babies. Understandably, Joachim freaked out when he discovered this.
Exotic Equipment: He has a snake penis, although the one of his human form is implied to be an hallucination.
Expy: Of Baphomet, as already mentioned. Also a case of Faux Symbolism.
Extra Digits: Six fingers on each hand.
Fan Disservice: The orgies that he presides over are anything BUT sexually appealing. Among other things, the worshippers eat babies during these celebrations. That's not even mentioning his snake penis...
Groin Attack: Gets this treatment during Guts's Big Damn Heroes moment, as his "snake" gets sliced right off.
Gruesome Goat: The leader of a depraved sex cult who uses a giant goat mask during religious ceremonies and is later turned into a monstrous, depraved goat-man.
Hellish Pupils: Has the creepy horizontal pupils of a goat.
Lean and Mean: One lanky and depraved bastard.
Lecherous Licking: Gives Casca a lewd lick with his extremely long tongue as he prepares to rape her.
Lightning Bruiser: There aren't many creatures in the Berserk-verse fast enough to dodge Guts' attacks. The Great Goat Head combines this with enough strength to land a blow that Guts himself says would have been fatal without his armour.
Male Frontal Nudity: His penis is like a living snake, and we get to see it uncensored and erect.
No Name Given: Just "the Great Goat".
Off with His Head!: This is how Guts sends him off after a furious battle.
Overly-Long Tongue: Which makes Lecherous Licking all the easier.
Rasputinian Death: He takes a lot of punishment before going down. First Guts cuts off both his arm and his penis, neither of which slows the Great Goat down. Then he takes a few quarrels to the chest and head. Then Guts tosses a bomb into the beast's face, horrifically disfiguring him, before finally cutting off the Goat's head.
Red Right Hand: Six fingers on both hands.
Religion of Evil: The cult that worships him is the sort that has drug-fueled sex orgies, flays the skin off priests, and consumes brew containing human babies. Mozgus may be a Knight Templar, but these guys are just as bad in their own way.
Snakes Are Sinister: The drugs used by his cult make it look like his penis is a snake, and it actually comes true post-transformation.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A horrific bestial Apostle who leads a group of similarly depraved followers and practices all manner of depraved acts? With an almost comically long serpentine dick who tries to have his way with Casca, and righteously gets his manhood revoked by Guts? This guy might as well have been named "Wyald 2.0"!
Villainous Crush: On Casca. He wants to marry her as soon as he hears of her, and even after becoming an apostle spawn he's hell-bent on "consummating" his "union" with her.
You No Take Candle: His transformation turns him inarticulate and animal-like, speaking in broken sentences:
Great Goat: Witch... Mingle with... Become family.

Characters / Berserk: Godhand and Apostles

The Godhand

**Void (ボイド, Boido)**

**Slan (スラン, Suran)**

**Ubik (ユービック, Yūbikku)**

**Conrad (コンラッド, Konraddo)**

Voiced by: Toku Nishio (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Sean Schemmel (English, Berserk (1997) & Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Alfonso Vallés (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Apostles

Voiced by: Mami Yamaguchi (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Lisa Ortiz (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Voiced by: Kan Tokumaru (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Hiroo Sasaki (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Lex Woutas (English, Berserk (1997)), Joaquín Gómez (Spanish, Berserk (1997))

Voiced by: Seiji Kato (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Kouzou Douzaka (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Michael Sorich (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese, Berserk - Amazing Advance! Raging Mercenary Corps), Kunihiro Kawamoto (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk)

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Berserk (2016)), Michael McConnohie (English, Berserk (2016))

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Derek Stephen Prince (English, Berserk (2016))

The New Band of the Hawk

Apostle Spawn

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Ray Chase (English, Berserk (2016))

Guidebook Stats (Human):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 222 cm (7 ft, 3 in); Weight: 145 kg (319 lb, 11 oz); Age: 42

Guidebook Stats (Apostle):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 280 cm (9 ft, 2 in); Weight: 299 kg (659 lb, 3 oz)

Voiced by: Kenji Fukuda (The Bird), Daigo Fujimaki (The Angel Face), Riki Kagami (Both Twins), Shougo Nakamura (The Imp), Taaki Uchino (The Bubblehead) (Japanese, Berserk (2016)), Grant George (The Bird), Tony Oliver (The Imp) (English, Berserk (2016))

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Characters / Berserk: Godhand and Apostles

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The Godhand

Void (ボイド, Boido)

Slan (スラン, Suran)

Ubik (ユービック, Yūbikku)

Conrad (コンラッド, Konraddo)

Voiced by: Toku Nishio (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Sean Schemmel (English, Berserk (1997) & Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Alfonso Vallés (Spanish, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Apostles

Voiced by: Mami Yamaguchi (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Lisa Ortiz (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Voiced by: Kan Tokumaru (Japanese, Berserk (1997)), Hiroo Sasaki (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Lex Woutas (English, Berserk (1997)), Joaquín Gómez (Spanish, Berserk (1997))

Voiced by: Seiji Kato (Japanese, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc), Kouzou Douzaka (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Michael Sorich (English, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc)

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese, Berserk - Amazing Advance! Raging Mercenary Corps), Kunihiro Kawamoto (Japanese, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk)

Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Berserk (2016)), Michael McConnohie (English, Berserk (2016))

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Derek Stephen Prince (English, Berserk (2016))

The New Band of the Hawk

Apostle Spawn

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese, Berserk (2016) and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk), Ray Chase (English, Berserk (2016))

Guidebook Stats (Human):note As of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 222 cm (7 ft, 3 in); Weight: 145 kg (319 lb, 11 oz); Age: 42

Guidebook Stats (Apostle):note As of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 280 cm (9 ft, 2 in); Weight: 299 kg (659 lb, 3 oz)

Voiced by: Kenji Fukuda (The Bird), Daigo Fujimaki (The Angel Face), Riki Kagami (Both Twins), Shougo Nakamura (The Imp), Taaki Uchino (The Bubblehead) (Japanese, Berserk (2016)), Grant George (The Bird), Tony Oliver (The Imp) (English, Berserk (2016))

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**Void (ボイド, Boido)**

**Slan (スラン, Suran)**

**Ubik (ユービック, Yūbikku)**

**Conrad (コンラッド, Konraddo)**

Guidebook Stats (Human):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 222 cm (7 ft, 3 in); Weight: 145 kg (319 lb, 11 oz); Age: 42

Guidebook Stats (Apostle):^noteAs of Chapter of Elf Island Height: 280 cm (9 ft, 2 in); Weight: 299 kg (659 lb, 3 oz)