Maps of Berserk

[guuuuuuuuts]

Hey, interested in sharing, piecing together and exploring unofficial maps of Berserk? Please share links, critiques and ideas!

Asked in chat for decent maps and was sent this map, linked from Reddit. Here is the text thread with comments from Walter.

 

[Walter]

Well for this one, here's what I had to say 3 years ago when I first saw it:

• Midland's borders appear oddly cramped, with its capital squished right next to another country. You'd think its military footprint over 100 years would have expanded the natural borders around its capital a bit.
• Wyndham, the Tower of Rebirth, and Falconia should all occupy the same space, since they're in the same location.
• Doldrey should actually be in a commanding position that stifles troop movements elsewhere, but there's a huge opening just to the north of the mountain pass. Maybe I'm missing something, but its placement just doesn't strike me as decisive.
• For some reason, all the critical locations of the Conviction Arc and Guts' journeys in Millennium Falcon are clustered inside Midland. But there's really no reason for that.
• I call it Albion all the time for shorthand, but its full title is St. Albion Temple, a monastery located inside the Tower of Conviction, so I think either one of those titles should be on the map.
• Rickert says Albion is located about 3 days northeast of Godot's place, just before Guts heads there. I don't think there's any reason you can't add a mountain range in the south of Balden and place it there, right?
• The placement of the outlying kingdoms like Balden, Randel, Morgar and Wallatoria appears random. I guess they had to be placed somewhere?
• Ys (not Yis) is supposed to be an island nation, not joined with the continent. Roderick calls it "surrounded by ocean."

Of course, that's not a comprehensive list. But it exemplifies the problem with all fan made maps. Miura never made a map, and only rarely used concrete descriptions of where things were. Of the very few instances, we know that Skellig is in the western sea and we know that the place the eclipse occurred was at the western border of Midland. He was vague by design, so that locations wouldn't constrain his story decisions and so that one wouldn't NEED a map to follow the story well.

As a result, anyone trying to make a map immediately faces decisions that invite problems. So while I understand the desire to try to make a map with the limited information we have, in the end, if you can't rely on the locations, then is it useful at all...?

This question been brought up a few times over the years though:

2022: https://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?threads/decent-map-of-the-berserk-world.16268/
2012: https://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?threads/possible-berserk-world-map.13487/
2005: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?threads/map-of-midland.4545/

 

[guuuuuuuuts]

And here is the other Fantasia map from chat with a link to the reddit comments. I like how this one was a lot more water and spacing between the Kushan empire and Falconia. White outlined font is painful on my eyes, but an interesting take that includes the Bakiraka. The earlier map reminds me very much of LOTR.

 

[Aazealh]

These are basically fanciful fan fiction. I respect the effort but their authors don't seem to have paid enough attention to how each location is described in the story. Their takes also seem too rooted in Europe's modern nations and simultaneously not mindful enough of the real-world geography that inspired Miura's depiction of the world in volume 34. Of course, like Walter said, the fundamental problem is that Miura deliberately kept borders and locations vague, so any attempt will be flawed to some extent.

an interesting take that includes the Bakiraka

It's complete bullshit though...

I guess they placed the Bakiraka there because of episode 375? That's not at all how their situation is described in the manga. They don't have a homeland anymore. They've been living hidden in Western countries for centuries.

 

[Walter]

an interesting take that includes the Bakiraka.

To be clear, the Bakiraka's secret village would have been outside Kushan lands because they were exiled before Ganishka came to power. We know that the Bakiraka were hired as assassins by several countries on the continent though, and so it would make sense for it to be somewhere near Tudor and Midland.

 

[guuuuuuuuts]

their authors don't seem to have paid enough attention to how each location is described in the story

Totally. The maps interest me as a visual learner, especially since we cannot get a final answer. Thanks for the sentiments on what doesn't work or make sense. I'll take a broken map over no map.

This question been brought up a few times over the years though:

For some reason forum search wasn't turning them up... feel free to merge this into any of those threads. Cheers.

 

[TheItCrOw]

Regarding the first map: I'm flabbergasted that Midland is depicted as this small, cramped in territory. Even Balden looks bigger to me than Midland

 

[Goat]

Is the similarity with Europe totally fan-inspired or did Miura ever say Berserk's world kinda "reminds" Europe's shape?

 

[Aazealh]

Is the similarity with Europe totally fan-inspired or did Miura ever say Berserk's world kinda "reminds" Europe's shape?

It's based on what we see in volume 34 when Ganishka explodes and the great wave of the astral world covers the planet.

 

[ApostleBob]

I wonder if Miura ever had his own map of the world of Berserk for his reference or if he avoided it so that he had more freedom to create. Too bad Mori and crew are already taking liberties with geography. It seems like we won't ever really have anything official.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I wonder if Miura ever had his own map of the world of Berserk for his reference or if he avoided it so that he had more freedom to create. Too bad Mori and crew are already taking liberties with geography. It seems like we won't ever really have anything official.

I genuinely think he had a map, either sketched out or in his mind. I'm obviously no Miura, but I've written several P&P adventures, and I've always "[...] wisely started with a map" (Tokien), which is really helpful and never felt like it limited my flexibility; on the contrary, it inspired me. And I just made the necessary changes if I thought something was lacking or didn't like it. He could have always done the same to some extent, since he didn't release an official map.

Edit: Also see above:

Is the similarity with Europe totally fan-inspired or did Miura ever say Berserk's world kinda "reminds" Europe's shape?

It's based on what we see in volume 34 when Ganishka explodes and the great wave of the astral world covers the planet.

 

[SlyapBG]

I decided to give my hand a try at figuring out where borders and cities would be. I used Europe as a base, but I think it's basically impossible to determine, however it was sort of fun to do.

I thought Tudor would be something like the Angevin Empire or a mix between it and Cnut's realm. It immediately comes into conflict with the German sounding names of the villains, however. I thought the idea of it as a thalassocratic empire was cool.

It boggled the mind where to put Grant. Originally I had it pegged as Scotland, then as Wales, and finally as the Danish island of Zealand.

Ys is just Ireland. Or Anglo-Ireland, or Anglo-Norman Ireland, or something. Also I moved Isle of Man to the West of Ireland. EDIT: Now that I think about it, wouldn't have made more sense for it to be Iceland? Since it's surrounded by ocean.

Midland is something like an English France or that's the impression I got out of its culture and attitude. I thought it might have been based on the Frankish empire, so I thought the kingdom would be very large, but I didn't know how much. It's supposed to encompass Normandy, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, parts of Croatia and Slovenia (Frankish marches), and about half of Poland . I thought to include it, because on its territories was the homeland of the Eastern Germanics who are now extinct. My reasoning was that it would have been a central portion of Gaiseric's empire. I put Wyndham somewhere around Prague, but I have no idea where Doldrey, Koka, Enoch village, or where Godot's place might be.

Holy See territory is based on direct Papal States holdings from circa 1453 with some of Northern Italy as well. I chose that date, because that's when the Hundred Years war in Europe had ended. Albion based on the name and what's shown in ep. 135 I guess would have been in a mountainous area.

I had significant trouble with the Alliance of Paneria, which included Vritannis in its realm. At first I thought something like La Havre and its region in France, but then maybe it's Venice or Ragusa, or maybe the Hanseatic league. I settled with BENELUX countries. Even though they didn't exist in 1453...... I think Vritannis would be Rotterdam, then.

The Kushan empire is based on the First Persian empire.

The Duchies of Morgar and Wallatoria are somewhat based on Samuel's realm and Mircea the Elder's realm.

Because of its name, the Commonwealth of Randel is just Switzerland. I have no idea why I was so fixated on real-life equivalents.

Kingdom of Balden is whatever.