P
pav327
Guest
Hello everyone, I've been lurking here for quite some time, but decided to join only now!
Wanted to share a couple of theories about different things, some ideas have more basis that others.
So, I begin with Gaiseric. We know that he was able to battle and conquer a number of kingdoms, while wearing a skull helmet. Let's presume that the armor he actually fought in was not that fancy armor we saw in v10_p120, when Gaiseric's legend was told, but he Berserk Armor. Him having this armor seems like a fair justification for his legendary fighting ability. If he had the Berserk Armor that would make him to fight his own Beast of the Darkness, right? And for that reason he would need a mage or two (or more) to seal away the Beast. Let's presume among those mages were Void and Flora.
Next, we saw the bottom of the Tower of Rebirth in Wyndham with a lot of dead people from the Gaiseric's Capital. They're all have Brands in the same places, so they are the sacrifices, right? But none of them seems to be eaten or ripped apart, not initially (there was no feast ceremony as it was on Eclipse that we saw) nor in all this years by random spirits and apostles. We clearly see that they were mostly crushed to death, it looks nothing like Eclipse aftermath we saw in v14_p084-085. Sacrifices tend to attract evil spirits and with so many sacrifices in one place would make a huge mess every night, wouldn't it? So, the fact that this Brands does not attract evil spirits and everyone have them in the same places, making me think that those are not the genuine brands and there was a cult of the Idea of Evil in the Capital and they carved the brand themselves.
Gaiseric might have wanted to transcend into divine (demonic) being and to become what's Griffith is now (Absolute and ultimate leader of human and astral worlds) or to summon someone from the astral world to the human's world (SK already knew that it's possible to do once in a thousand years in v18_p201). And Void was the brains behind all the rituals and knowledge, he seems smart enough for this. We know that people are able to research and dive into astral/apostle matters on their own, because mages and witches exist and Daiba have created the Man-made Behelit. At the same time Flora maintained Gaiseric's sanity so he could continue to use Berserk Armor. She said something like "I want to believe the heart of a man still remains within you" to SK in v24_p142, which probably means that she knew him as a human. Flora knows for a fact that God Hand member were human once and all other stuff about the whole sacrificing ritual.
So, what if Void at some point digged deep enough to realize the nature of what Gaiseric is actually want to become or to do. And he opposes him, telling him that he should stop and he won't help him anymore. This makes Gaiseric mad and he sends Void to the St.Albion into the Tower of Conviction for tortures, while proceeding with his plans. And Void becomes that sage that Mozgus told about in v18_p109.
Here I should focus on what I think happened 1000 years ago with the Imperial Capital. A lot of people think that it was a result of the Sage's sacrifice, which made him into Void. But mathematically, logistically and in general it doesn't make much sense. Here's why. Each Eclipse happens about every 216 years. I we count the years here's what we get:
5th member of the God Hand (Femto) - 0
4th - -216
3rd - -432
2nd - 648
1st (probably Void) - -864
Event in the Gaiseric's Imperial Capital - -1080
So, the Event happened a couple hundreds years before Void became Void and we know for a fact the Sage existed at the same time as Gaiseric did. So if Sage is Void, he had to have access to a place like Skellig or Spirit House, because time flows differently there. This makes me think that Sage/Void was a mage when he was a human.
Logistically Sage was locked up in the Tower of Conviction, which is in st.Albion and The Imperial Capital was standing where the Tower of Rebirths is - in Wyndham. I don't think we know for sure how far apart they actually are, but we know that the place of the Eclipse is delimited from the human world by a big black funnel thing (as seen in v12_p226), it's not limitless and it's centre should be where the future apostle is located, not in a different city. Mages and witches on the other hand can have out of the body experience and travel distances as a luminous bodies. And also, I think it was mentioned that Eclipse happens at the same location each time, which is not in Wyndham. Though I don't remember where exactly it was said, so I might imagine things.
Other thing is it doesn't make much sense for Sage to sacrifice the Imperial Capital, it would mean it's his most precious thing. If anyone, it's Gaiseric who could've sacrifice the capital. But it doesn't seem like Gaiseric or SK was part of the God Hand or apostle - Brand of the sacrifice doesn't react to him at all.
So what destroyed the Capital? I think it was Sage/Void and he did it with magic to stop the Gaiseric with his cult of the Idea of Evil and whatever he intended to do. From the legend we know that it were lightnings and earthquakes that destroyed the Capital, which sound more like an actions of the Four Kings of the World rather than apostles. We know that they're powerful enough to do that, we only saw a glimpses of their power in the Enoch village and Vrittanis, and it was only a freshly graduated witch, imagine what a powerful mage could do. The angel that came down to the Sage might have been Sage's possesion by one of the elementals (as we saw with Shierke in v25_p140-141) or it could've been some other mage or witch that wanted to free him up (which Sage maybe sacrificed later to become Void). That angel actually might have been Flora, we saw that she could become a giant figure in a wall of fire. So I think the Sage (future Void) destroyed the Capital with magic to prevent something even more terrible from happening. And Gaiseric either fled or tried to actually fight the astral gods and got devoured by the Berserk Armor as a result.
We know pretty much for sure that Gaiseric is Skully. Skully said that he wore the Berserk Armor in the past (v28_p019). Shierke said that previous owner of this Armor was devoured by it (v27-p024). And we know that the previous owner was Gaiseric by the skull shaped helmet of the Armor when Guts first put it on. And if we look at v27-p024 (Shierke tells about the previous owner) we can see resemblance with the Skull Knight - same sword spikes near the hilt, cape and shape of the head and eyes. And we know for sure, that Gaiseric didn't actually die as a result, at least his soul doesn't. I think he lost all of his humanity (Guts now in the process of loosing it) and couldn't exist outside of the Berserk Armor anymore. So, to free him from the Armor and Beast of Darkness Flora took him to the Elfhelm (Shierke knew about the island from Flora, right?) to the Flowerstom King. The King was able to move Gaiseric soul from Berserk Armor to the Skull Knight Armor. That's why "he felt kinda like an elf" to Puck in v18_p216. In PS2 game he actually sounds very much like a voice speaking into a metal pipe. And also he got a whole soup of behelits in his chest, I don't think there's any person inside. Maybe being on the Skellig island is what Skully meant by saying he's no longer lives within the reason of time in v29_p019.
As for Skully's current intentions, in v29-p142 Roderick said that roses are the symbols of nobility and Skully has the rose as his symbol. Maybe he still want to become the king of the world instead of Griffith/Femto? Or maybe he has same dream as Griffith and he's wishing for his own perfect paradise castle and now he want to take it for himself? Maybe he didn't misjudged the effect of his behelit sword and he actually wanted to bring back his Capital? Falconia seems like a perfect reincarnation of the Gaiseric Capital. Because it appeared on top of Wyndham, which was build on top of Imperial Capital and Falconia has similar Ancient Greek and Roman architecture as we seen on the bottom of the Tower of Rebirth. Other thing is that Skully might have saved Guts numerous times not because he's a cool dude, but in order for him to fight the current king of the worlds - Griffith. Same is why he wasn't fast enough and allowed Femto to rape Casca and corrupt the child, because Fetus now is the only weak point Griffith has and it's unique to Guts and Casca. It's seems a bit far fetched, but then again, Skully followed Guts's life from his birth, he knew Guts was born from a corpse (v9_p019), so he might be able peek through time and actually plan such insane chain of events.
After the destruction of the Capital, Sage got to the another dimension similar where Skellig or Spirit Tree located, where time flows differently. While he was healing and restoring he researched even deeper into causality and fate and completely changed his mind and views. Or maybe he always was into fate and the reason for his conflict with Gaiseric was that Sage/Void thought that Gaiseric is not fated to be the king of the worlds that he wanted to be. That's how 216 years in human dimension passed and Sage got to his breakdown (maybe he realised that fate is premeditated and he has no power over anything no matter what he does) and he sacrifices his closest friend or pupil or, let's make it dramatic, his lover. And his sacrifice was Flora. In v24_p084 Guts feel the ache in his Brand and some weird unusual feeling when he was introduced to Flora and he assumes that she was branded too. This one page allows to speculate that it was the Sage/Void who sacrificed her and Gaiseric/Skully saved her (and maybe at that Eclipse he lost his body to the Armor).
Though the point of time when Gaiseric became Skull Knight is a bit unclear. Seems like he still used Berserk armor at least 300 years ago, since Zodd recognized the armor and knew that it belonged to Skully and that he suffered from it (v26_p202). So, Gaiseric might've got to the point of no return and lost his body relatively recently, maybe on the Eclipse 216 years ago. Though Zodd might have known Gaiseric's story as he is probably the legend among the apostles.
Oh, and by the way, Shierke might've actually been born before Guts was, right? We don't know how much time she spend with Flora, and now we know for sure that time can flow differently in Berserk, which means the fact that Flora didn't change in appearance at all in 50 years, might be not because she's a special kind of human of the Spirit Tree preserving her from getting older, but because of time there flows differently there as well. Which means Shierke might be objectively older than Guts, which is kind of funny. Wish to see her reaction when Guts call her "onee-san".
So, this how things seems to me at this point, feel free to point out if anything goes against the facts and events in the manga, or if you have anything to add, edit or build up on top of this.
The biggest mystery for me is where the hell does Skully got his awesome horse from and what is it's nature? It's pretty damn awesome horse.
Wanted to share a couple of theories about different things, some ideas have more basis that others.
So, I begin with Gaiseric. We know that he was able to battle and conquer a number of kingdoms, while wearing a skull helmet. Let's presume that the armor he actually fought in was not that fancy armor we saw in v10_p120, when Gaiseric's legend was told, but he Berserk Armor. Him having this armor seems like a fair justification for his legendary fighting ability. If he had the Berserk Armor that would make him to fight his own Beast of the Darkness, right? And for that reason he would need a mage or two (or more) to seal away the Beast. Let's presume among those mages were Void and Flora.
Next, we saw the bottom of the Tower of Rebirth in Wyndham with a lot of dead people from the Gaiseric's Capital. They're all have Brands in the same places, so they are the sacrifices, right? But none of them seems to be eaten or ripped apart, not initially (there was no feast ceremony as it was on Eclipse that we saw) nor in all this years by random spirits and apostles. We clearly see that they were mostly crushed to death, it looks nothing like Eclipse aftermath we saw in v14_p084-085. Sacrifices tend to attract evil spirits and with so many sacrifices in one place would make a huge mess every night, wouldn't it? So, the fact that this Brands does not attract evil spirits and everyone have them in the same places, making me think that those are not the genuine brands and there was a cult of the Idea of Evil in the Capital and they carved the brand themselves.
Gaiseric might have wanted to transcend into divine (demonic) being and to become what's Griffith is now (Absolute and ultimate leader of human and astral worlds) or to summon someone from the astral world to the human's world (SK already knew that it's possible to do once in a thousand years in v18_p201). And Void was the brains behind all the rituals and knowledge, he seems smart enough for this. We know that people are able to research and dive into astral/apostle matters on their own, because mages and witches exist and Daiba have created the Man-made Behelit. At the same time Flora maintained Gaiseric's sanity so he could continue to use Berserk Armor. She said something like "I want to believe the heart of a man still remains within you" to SK in v24_p142, which probably means that she knew him as a human. Flora knows for a fact that God Hand member were human once and all other stuff about the whole sacrificing ritual.
So, what if Void at some point digged deep enough to realize the nature of what Gaiseric is actually want to become or to do. And he opposes him, telling him that he should stop and he won't help him anymore. This makes Gaiseric mad and he sends Void to the St.Albion into the Tower of Conviction for tortures, while proceeding with his plans. And Void becomes that sage that Mozgus told about in v18_p109.
Here I should focus on what I think happened 1000 years ago with the Imperial Capital. A lot of people think that it was a result of the Sage's sacrifice, which made him into Void. But mathematically, logistically and in general it doesn't make much sense. Here's why. Each Eclipse happens about every 216 years. I we count the years here's what we get:
5th member of the God Hand (Femto) - 0
4th - -216
3rd - -432
2nd - 648
1st (probably Void) - -864
Event in the Gaiseric's Imperial Capital - -1080
So, the Event happened a couple hundreds years before Void became Void and we know for a fact the Sage existed at the same time as Gaiseric did. So if Sage is Void, he had to have access to a place like Skellig or Spirit House, because time flows differently there. This makes me think that Sage/Void was a mage when he was a human.
Logistically Sage was locked up in the Tower of Conviction, which is in st.Albion and The Imperial Capital was standing where the Tower of Rebirths is - in Wyndham. I don't think we know for sure how far apart they actually are, but we know that the place of the Eclipse is delimited from the human world by a big black funnel thing (as seen in v12_p226), it's not limitless and it's centre should be where the future apostle is located, not in a different city. Mages and witches on the other hand can have out of the body experience and travel distances as a luminous bodies. And also, I think it was mentioned that Eclipse happens at the same location each time, which is not in Wyndham. Though I don't remember where exactly it was said, so I might imagine things.
Other thing is it doesn't make much sense for Sage to sacrifice the Imperial Capital, it would mean it's his most precious thing. If anyone, it's Gaiseric who could've sacrifice the capital. But it doesn't seem like Gaiseric or SK was part of the God Hand or apostle - Brand of the sacrifice doesn't react to him at all.
So what destroyed the Capital? I think it was Sage/Void and he did it with magic to stop the Gaiseric with his cult of the Idea of Evil and whatever he intended to do. From the legend we know that it were lightnings and earthquakes that destroyed the Capital, which sound more like an actions of the Four Kings of the World rather than apostles. We know that they're powerful enough to do that, we only saw a glimpses of their power in the Enoch village and Vrittanis, and it was only a freshly graduated witch, imagine what a powerful mage could do. The angel that came down to the Sage might have been Sage's possesion by one of the elementals (as we saw with Shierke in v25_p140-141) or it could've been some other mage or witch that wanted to free him up (which Sage maybe sacrificed later to become Void). That angel actually might have been Flora, we saw that she could become a giant figure in a wall of fire. So I think the Sage (future Void) destroyed the Capital with magic to prevent something even more terrible from happening. And Gaiseric either fled or tried to actually fight the astral gods and got devoured by the Berserk Armor as a result.
We know pretty much for sure that Gaiseric is Skully. Skully said that he wore the Berserk Armor in the past (v28_p019). Shierke said that previous owner of this Armor was devoured by it (v27-p024). And we know that the previous owner was Gaiseric by the skull shaped helmet of the Armor when Guts first put it on. And if we look at v27-p024 (Shierke tells about the previous owner) we can see resemblance with the Skull Knight - same sword spikes near the hilt, cape and shape of the head and eyes. And we know for sure, that Gaiseric didn't actually die as a result, at least his soul doesn't. I think he lost all of his humanity (Guts now in the process of loosing it) and couldn't exist outside of the Berserk Armor anymore. So, to free him from the Armor and Beast of Darkness Flora took him to the Elfhelm (Shierke knew about the island from Flora, right?) to the Flowerstom King. The King was able to move Gaiseric soul from Berserk Armor to the Skull Knight Armor. That's why "he felt kinda like an elf" to Puck in v18_p216. In PS2 game he actually sounds very much like a voice speaking into a metal pipe. And also he got a whole soup of behelits in his chest, I don't think there's any person inside. Maybe being on the Skellig island is what Skully meant by saying he's no longer lives within the reason of time in v29_p019.
As for Skully's current intentions, in v29-p142 Roderick said that roses are the symbols of nobility and Skully has the rose as his symbol. Maybe he still want to become the king of the world instead of Griffith/Femto? Or maybe he has same dream as Griffith and he's wishing for his own perfect paradise castle and now he want to take it for himself? Maybe he didn't misjudged the effect of his behelit sword and he actually wanted to bring back his Capital? Falconia seems like a perfect reincarnation of the Gaiseric Capital. Because it appeared on top of Wyndham, which was build on top of Imperial Capital and Falconia has similar Ancient Greek and Roman architecture as we seen on the bottom of the Tower of Rebirth. Other thing is that Skully might have saved Guts numerous times not because he's a cool dude, but in order for him to fight the current king of the worlds - Griffith. Same is why he wasn't fast enough and allowed Femto to rape Casca and corrupt the child, because Fetus now is the only weak point Griffith has and it's unique to Guts and Casca. It's seems a bit far fetched, but then again, Skully followed Guts's life from his birth, he knew Guts was born from a corpse (v9_p019), so he might be able peek through time and actually plan such insane chain of events.
After the destruction of the Capital, Sage got to the another dimension similar where Skellig or Spirit Tree located, where time flows differently. While he was healing and restoring he researched even deeper into causality and fate and completely changed his mind and views. Or maybe he always was into fate and the reason for his conflict with Gaiseric was that Sage/Void thought that Gaiseric is not fated to be the king of the worlds that he wanted to be. That's how 216 years in human dimension passed and Sage got to his breakdown (maybe he realised that fate is premeditated and he has no power over anything no matter what he does) and he sacrifices his closest friend or pupil or, let's make it dramatic, his lover. And his sacrifice was Flora. In v24_p084 Guts feel the ache in his Brand and some weird unusual feeling when he was introduced to Flora and he assumes that she was branded too. This one page allows to speculate that it was the Sage/Void who sacrificed her and Gaiseric/Skully saved her (and maybe at that Eclipse he lost his body to the Armor).
Though the point of time when Gaiseric became Skull Knight is a bit unclear. Seems like he still used Berserk armor at least 300 years ago, since Zodd recognized the armor and knew that it belonged to Skully and that he suffered from it (v26_p202). So, Gaiseric might've got to the point of no return and lost his body relatively recently, maybe on the Eclipse 216 years ago. Though Zodd might have known Gaiseric's story as he is probably the legend among the apostles.
Oh, and by the way, Shierke might've actually been born before Guts was, right? We don't know how much time she spend with Flora, and now we know for sure that time can flow differently in Berserk, which means the fact that Flora didn't change in appearance at all in 50 years, might be not because she's a special kind of human of the Spirit Tree preserving her from getting older, but because of time there flows differently there as well. Which means Shierke might be objectively older than Guts, which is kind of funny. Wish to see her reaction when Guts call her "onee-san".
So, this how things seems to me at this point, feel free to point out if anything goes against the facts and events in the manga, or if you have anything to add, edit or build up on top of this.
The biggest mystery for me is where the hell does Skully got his awesome horse from and what is it's nature? It's pretty damn awesome horse.