The Incarnation Festival and the events with Gaiseric 1000 years ago

I already posted this idea on a youtube video about Skull Knight today, but since I remembered that I have an account here I've never used I thought I would share it with a more devoted section of the Berserk community.

In chapter 142 during the conviction arc, SK mentions the "festival" where "one who should exist in the divine domain is incarnated. Just once in a thousand years." This would line up fairly well with the events of the "Angels" they speak of 1000 years ago when they're rescuing Griffith. When the events of Femto's incarnation are coming close to fruition, Farnese mistakes the chaos as an earthquake (161); and when Guts encounters the shadows of the god hand, he remarks them as "four angels" (chapter 164)

I'm not sure if there's that much to gleam from this, it could be totally coincidental but I thought it was interesting to mention. It's possible that these events with Gaiseric 1000 years ago was the incarnation of a former member of the God Hand. SK also notes that the God Hand exist where "Negative human thoughts swirl in a large concentration." and when this concentration reaches a critical point is where this "festival" occurs (142). It would line up with these events from 1000 years ago, especially with the way Gaiseric treated his citizens it's highly likely they would have amassed a deep hatred of Gaiseric and his kingdom, leading to this critical point where a member of the God Hand is incarnated. It's possible this incarnated God Hand was killed by SK, maybe proving to him that changing the tide of causality is a difficult if not impossible task if killing an incarnated member of the God Hand seemed to change nothing. It's all speculation of course, but I thought it was worth noting.

Sorry if this is nothing new, I haven't seen any mention of it myself but I have to admit I haven't spent much time browsing through speculation and theories for Berserk.
 
It's possible this incarnated God Hand was killed by SK
This is highly unlikely. First, a 1000 years ago SK was Gaiseric (assuming this theory is true), so only a human. Which means he had far less power than now. And as we saw what happened when he tried to strike at Femto while being SK and having a sword that literally cuts through dimensions, it's hard to believe that Gaiseric could perform such a feat.

former member of the God Hand
This concept is a very common one among the Berserk community. I, personally, strongly disagree with the concept of there being God Hand members before these. This is because, to me, it waters down the significance and weight of what's happening right now. If this is something that happens every 1000 years, and somehow people managed to stop the God Hand before, then stopping them now isn't such a big deal. Which, from what we head from SK, Flora, Schierke, and other magic users is not true.

The way I see it is as follows. Void is the first ever God Hand member. There was no such things as God Hand members or apostles. Around a 1000 years ago when magic was wider accepted and worshiped, before the Holy Sea was a thing, Gaiseric ruled the lands. Void, being a human, opposed magic user and, perhaps, Gaiseric, instead believed in a God that's similar to the Idea of Evil. I think that Void's teaching eventually became the basis of the Holy Sea, but I digress. Somehow, Void managed to open a Dragon's Path and make a deal with the Idea of Evil to do something (not 100% sure, but I think it involves killing all astral being like the Four Cardinal Kings for some reason) in exchange for great power. He probably achieved this by sacrificing all his followers, whom we saw at the bottom of Tower of Rebirth (and the reason why they were not torn apart by apostles, is because there were none). This means that the prophecy was to choose a new member every 216 years until the fifth member is born, which triggered the events that we saw. This means that we're left with the final act of what all of this was started for by the Idea of Evil and Void around a 1000 years ago.

Now, as you can see, there are few unknowns that I didn't fill in, since I don't like completely baseless theories. And lastly, I believe that very soon in the story we're gonna get the backstory of Skull Knight, which will include Void's backstory as well. And if my theory is correct, this would be the time to reveal all of this, which will be the beginning of the end.
 
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Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Solkius!

In chapter 142 during the conviction arc

Individual issues of Berserk are called "episodes", just so you know. "Chapters" denote larger sections, like the chapter of the Lost Children, which forms the beginning of the Conviction arc. Berserk is one of only a few manga series that use this nomenclature.

SK mentions the "festival" where "one who should exist in the divine domain is incarnated. Just once in a thousand years." This would line up fairly well with the events of the "Angels" they speak of 1000 years ago when they're rescuing Griffith.

It's true that this mention of a "once in a thousand years event" immediately brings to mind the fall of Gaiseric's empire. I don't think it's a coincidence. Something tremendous did occur a thousand years ago. However there are many ways it could factor into the story, and I don't believe it means the exact same thing happened. One of the most obvious reasons for that is, like BerserkPrime said, the idea that there's a straightforward cycle and the God Hand is a throwaway group... well, it sucks. Berserk's story makes it clear we're witnessing pivotal times for the world, something unprecedented. If it's all been done before, the story becomes considerably weaker. But it also creates other problems, see below.

when Guts encounters the shadows of the god hand, he remarks them as "four angels"

They're called angels throughout the story, specifically "The Guardian Angels of Desire".

It would line up with these events from 1000 years ago, especially with the way Gaiseric treated his citizens it's highly likely they would have amassed a deep hatred of Gaiseric and his kingdom, leading to this critical point where a member of the God Hand is incarnated. It's possible this incarnated God Hand was killed by SK, maybe proving to him that changing the tide of causality is a difficult if not impossible task if killing an incarnated member of the God Hand seemed to change nothing.

The first thing I want to mention is that the story we hear about Gaiseric is an oral tale that's a thousand years old, and whose source we don't even know. The point being that we can't really put too much faith in its accuracy. Now moving on from that, let's think about what the God Hand is. It's composed of five members who each have their own goals and domains of expertise, but who work together as the "hand of god". They serve a higher being, seldom seen in the story, who we know as the Idea of Evil. We don't know what their grand plan is, but it's easy to tell they're working towards one.

What has happened to Berserk's world since the birth of Femto hasn't just been a matter of granting him his wish of having a kingdom. The world has been deeply transformed (Fantasia), and Griffith is ruthlessly transforming it again. Falconia's armies are wiping out astral creatures and transforming the land at breakneck speed. And we don't know what the other four members of the God Hand are doing yet, but we saw that they were brought into the world during the advent of Fantasia. Anyway, my point is that there's a clear plan being executed here.

Which brings me to: what was the previous God Hand trying to achieve? What was its plan? The world wasn't split yet at the time, so they at least would have not needed to take care of that. Also, how could Gaiseric defeat the previous member of the God Hand that was incarnated? What was that incarnation ceremony the mirror of? Had there been an Occultation ceremony a few years before as well? How did that tie in with the capital city? Where did the other members of the God Hand go (assuming there were more than one member at the time)? Why has the Skull Knight not been able to kill any other member of the God Hand since (that we know of)? All these questions matter and more.

Of course I don't have a definite answer myself, we'll have to wait for one from the story (shouldn't be long now). What it boils down to is you've got the right idea: the current events strangely mirror those that occurred a thousand years ago, that is for sure. But they do so in a twisted way. I don't expect it to be a rinse and repeat affair.

Sorry if this is nothing new, I haven't seen any mention of it myself but I have to admit I haven't spent much time browsing through speculation and theories for Berserk.

It's beyond not new, this stuff has been continuously discussed over the years ever since it was first featured in the story. There are probably over a hundred threads discussing it just on this forum.
I recently posted a theory myself about the God Hand's end goal which touches upon what I think is a likely scenario for the events that ended Gaiseric's reign. You can find it here if you're interested.
 
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