The God Hand works in cycles

First and formeost, let me apologise; english is not my first language, so this will probably be full of gramathical horrors.
That said, let's go with the theory.

The nature of the God Hand is cyclic. We know that Void is, almost for sure, the first member of the God Hand as we know it. We also know that, every 216 years, there is an Eclipse Ceremony where the owner of the Crimson Beherit becomes a new member of the God Hand.

So, aproximately 1000 years ago, on the times of the emperor Gaiseric, the first member of the god hand ascended. We have the bodies underneath the tower on Wyndham, branded all of them. And we have the story of wise man and four angels.

Now, who are those angels? A theory suggests they may be the four elemental kings.

My theory: they were the members of a previous incarnation of the God Hand. Void was the fifth and last. With his ascension, the God Hand was complete, and something we don't know happened.

Maybe as a result of this something, or for another reason, all the members of that previous God Hand disappeared. Maybe their utility was over, maybe they trascended to something else, maybe they were killed, maybe they just dissolved as a part of the Idea. Only Void remained: the last one to ascend becoming the first of a new version of the God Hand.

Now the cycle is again at its end; Femto was the last, and a phenomenon of enormeous proportions has altered the world. Since it begun, we don't know where the other members of the God Hand are. ¿Are they also flesh and blood? What if, at the end of this cycle, they just never come back and Femto assumes the position Void used to held, ready to begin a new cycle for the next 1000 years, with Guts chasing him just as Skull Knight had been chasing Void.

In my opinion this theory explains mainly two things; first, who are the four angels. I may be missing something, but I always found it weird that the number and the therminology is so similar at the ones used to describe the God Hand; Angels of Darkness, the Angels of the Apostles. And there were also four, as four appeared before Griffith. And when the ritual finished, they were five; and that's why, maybe, there is some confusion on their number.

That also will explain how Void could become the first without a previous... group, at least equivalent to the God Hand, to guide his ascendancy. I don't think that the Idea of Evil just suddenly decided it wanted a God Hand just 1000 years ago; that, on historic therms, is a pretty short time and the Idea is probably as old as humanity.

I think Miura is pretty fond of concepts like cyclic history and classic mythology; and on some of these old mythes the concept of cycles is pretty common. This works pretty well too with the idea of predestination, because it pretty much already happened on previous cycles. It can also be the final purpose of the God Hand, to direct the events on each cycle until the last one arrives, the Hand is complete and an event happens.
 
Nyarla said:
First and formeost, let me apologise; english is not my first language, so this will probably be full of gramathical horrors.
That said, let's go with the theory.

The nature of the God Hand is cyclic. We know that Void is, almost for sure, the first member of the God Hand as we know it. We also know that, every 216 years, there is an Eclipse Ceremony where the owner of the Crimson Beherit becomes a new member of the God Hand.

So, aproximately 1000 years ago, on the times of the emperor Gaiseric, the first member of the god hand ascended. We have the bodies underneath the tower on Wyndham, branded all of them. And we have the story of wise man and four angels.

Now, who are those angels? A theory suggests they may be the four elemental kings.

My theory: they were the members of a previous incarnation of the God Hand. Void was the fifth and last. With his ascension, the God Hand was complete, and something we don't know happened.

Maybe as a result of this something, or for another reason, all the members of that previous God Hand disappeared. Maybe their utility was over, maybe they trascended to something else, maybe they were killed, maybe they just dissolved as a part of the Idea. Only Void remained: the last one to ascend becoming the first of a new version of the God Hand.

Now the cycle is again at its end; Femto was the last, and a phenomenon of enormeous proportions has altered the world. Since it begun, we don't know where the other members of the God Hand are. ¿Are they also flesh and blood? What if, at the end of this cycle, they just never come back and Femto assumes the position Void used to held, ready to begin a new cycle for the next 1000 years, with Guts chasing him just as Skull Knight had been chasing Void.

In my opinion this theory explains mainly two things; first, who are the four angels. I may be missing something, but I always found it weird that the number and the therminology is so similar at the ones used to describe the God Hand; Angels of Darkness, the Angels of the Apostles. And there were also four, as four appeared before Griffith. And when the ritual finished, they were five; and that's why, maybe, there is some confusion on their number.

That also will explain how Void could become the first without a previous... group, at least equivalent to the God Hand, to guide his ascendancy. I don't think that the Idea of Evil just suddenly decided it wanted a God Hand just 1000 years ago; that, on historic therms, is a pretty short time and the Idea is probably as old as humanity.

I think it's a lot simpler to assume that the four angels are simply the elemental kings and they were summoned by a magic user back then.

Also, I don't think the IoE is as old as humanity. I think it was formed gradually through eons as humanity developed, gained consciousness, and began to desire reasons for all the suffering they experienced. IMO something like the IoE would take a very long time to come to existence, let alone gain sentience and begin making God Hands.

I don't think it's very convincing to say that the God Hand are cyclical.

Btw your English is pretty good. :guts:
 
Well, I understand what you say and I'm agree with most of it.

Yes, it's much safer to assume that the four angels were the four elemental kings. But it seems a pretty big event to summon such creatures; and it happens more or less simultaneously with the first eclipse, that is, the first time we know for sure God Hand appeared?

My theory is a very convenient one, I know. But I think it works to explain some stuff. First, that of the nature of the four angels. I think it could be Miura purpousely misleading us to beleive it was the four Kings. It works to explain the origin of Void. I mean; if he was the first and no one was there for him, how he discovered the mechanics of the game? We have the branded corpses; how he decided to brand them as a sacrifice, and how did he know that this will be his way to ascend to near godhood? More important: how he could even brand anyone if he wasn't God Hand yet, because the sacrifice still didn't happened?
If Void became God Hand by other methods (AKA traveling to the depths of the abyss for example) then why the branding, why the sacrifice?

Without a previous God Hand it's harder to understand how could Have Void ascend.

Then, about the IoE. I think it may be too risky to say it has to be as old as humanity, I have to agree. But I still think it has to be as old as human civilization. Let's take our own world as an example. The first civilizations known where between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, about 8000 years ago. Some time later, Egypt. Then Greece. By the time analogue to Gaiseric empire, probably around our VI century, humanity had seen philosophers, kings, priests, scientists (or proto-scientists), warriors, merchants, peasants, slaves. It has suffered wars of all kind, torture, murder and each and every kinf of perversion. It had played every kind of conspiration, treachery possible. I don't see why it had to wait so long to fully develope the IoE so it only started to interfere or interactuate on a moment where it already had about 6000 years of history behind.
 

RaffoBaffo

Ex-Newser of the late Berserk Chronicles
Lawliet said:
I think it's a lot simpler to assume that the four angels are simply the elemental kings and they were summoned by a magic user back then.
That don't explain the branded bodies underneath the tower.

Anyway, I had the exact same conversation [where I supported this theory] with Walter, some time ago.
 
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