The faces in the terrain of the Eclipse

As old as this subject must be, there may be another topic regarding it, but a search hasn't yielded anything.

What is the hypothesis on all the faces that seem to make up the terrain during the eclipse. There are thousands of smaller faces that tend to make up mounds or "hills' in the shape of bigger faces. The sky seems to be a gaseous version of this as well, made up of faces swirling together almost like a storm. From the wider shots, it seems like these two terrains are interconnected and roll into one another, which makes it even more otherworldly.

The faces aren't uniform either. While none have facial hair, their appearances are all distinct. Some even appear as skulls. And we see several instances of them reacting in an animate fashion as opposed to some form of 'architecture.'

What, if any, is the significance of these faces? Is it just a cool design that Miura had? Or does it somehow relate to the vortex of souls or some other aspect.

To me the Vortex seems to be a good candidate. These faces could represent the individual souls from the vortex. There are definite similarities. But there's no great evidence to support this other than some visual cues.

Another possibility is that they represent previous sacrifices during both apostle and occultation ceremonies. If so, this would indicate a lot of victims of the God Hand. Again, pure speculation.

Or this could just be a cool idea that Miura had that bears no further relevance in the plot.

What is the general consensus?
 

Metal_Bear_Rex

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I think you're over-thinking things, but it's an interesting similarity when you think about it.

The God Hand do reside in the nexus (where the vortex of souls is located) after all, and that's where all sacrificial ceremonies are performed.

I guess if you were to get really symbolic, you could view the faces and the terrain as the "funnel" of the vortex itself. You could also view the eclipsed moon as the "mouth" of the vortex, or even as the darker depths of the abyss where the IOE resides that the souls of the vortex funnel down to?

Now I'm over thinking things.

Or this could just be a cool idea that Miura had that bears no further relevance in the plot.

Most likely. It's just the place where the special Eclipse ceremonies for future God Hand are performed, with not further significance besides the events that happened there in the story.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
ApostleBob said:
What, if any, is the significance of these faces? Is it just a cool design that Miura had?

I don't think there's really any doubt that the prime reason for these faces making up the environment is that they're an awesome design. Visually it just looks amazing. Aside from that there's no given "reason" for them in the story itself, so the best we can do is rationalize their presence while keeping the above in mind.

ApostleBob said:
To me the Vortex seems to be a good candidate. These faces could represent the individual souls from the vortex.

Sure, that's what my first guess would be.

ApostleBob said:
Or this could just be a cool idea that Miura had that bears no further relevance in the plot.

Well this is most certainly the case.

Metal_Bear_Rex said:
The God Hand do reside in the nexus (where the vortex of souls is located) after all

There is no name for the place the God Hand used to reside in. Don't call it "the nexus".

Metal_Bear_Rex said:
and that's where all sacrificial ceremonies are performed.

Well that's clearly not where the Occultation ceremony (where a sacrifice did take place) happened.
 

Metal_Bear_Rex

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Aazealh said:
There is no name for the place the God Hand used to reside in. Don't call it "the nexus".

According to the sites diagram here: http://skullknight.net/encyclopedia/universe, The God Hand and the Vortex of Souls reside in the Vortex, while Eclipse and sacrificial ceremonies almost always happen in the Nexus. A mix-up on my part, sorry.

Well that's clearly not where the Occultation ceremony (where a sacrifice did take place) happened.
Well the Occultation ceremony is an exceptional case outside of the norm, no? It's fair to say all sacrificial ceremonies happen in the Nexus except for an Incarnation ceremony?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Metal_Bear_Rex said:
According to the sites diagram here: http://skullknight.net/encyclopedia/universe, The God Hand and the Vortex of Souls reside in the Vortex, while Eclipse and sacrificial ceremonies almost always happen in the Nexus. A mix-up on my part, sorry.
Well the Occultation ceremony is an exceptional case outside of the norm, no? It's fair to say all sacrificial ceremonies happen in the Nexus except for an Incarnation ceremony?
Yeah but the nexus isn't a real "place" so to speak. It's sort of a placeholder term—a fancy way to say "place where the worlds join."

Also, I made that in like, 2003 :ganishka:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Metal_Bear_Rex said:
According to the sites diagram here: http://skullknight.net/encyclopedia/universe, The God Hand and the Vortex of Souls reside in the Vortex, while Eclipse and sacrificial ceremonies almost always happen in the Nexus. A mix-up on my part, sorry.

That diagram is outdated and should not be referred to.

Metal_Bear_Rex said:
Well the Occultation ceremony is an exceptional case outside of the norm, no? It's fair to say all sacrificial ceremonies happen in the Nexus except for an Incarnation ceremony?

No, it's not fair to say. First off, there's no "Nexus", like I told you. Second, only ceremonies where people become apostles happen in the God Hand's little Escherian pad as far as we know. That's the vast majority of all ceremonies where sacrifices occur, but it's still not all of them. So sure, you could say that all ceremonies occur there except those that don't, but I wouldn't call it good wording. And last, the Occultation ceremony (the Eclipse) is very different from the Incarnation ceremony (the mirrored Eclipse). The Occultation ceremony took place in an otherworldly location, whereas the Incarnation ceremony happened in the material world.
 

Metal_Bear_Rex

⊂( ̄(エ) ̄)⊃
Walter said:
Yeah but the nexus isn't a real "place" so to speak. It's sort of a placeholder term—a fancy way to say "place where the worlds join."

Also, I made that in like, 2003 :ganishka:

Well okay...but what's the point of including it in the encyclopedia if two of the admins are dismissing it's credibility?

Aazealh said:
No, it's not fair to say. First off, there's no "Nexus", like I told you. Second, only ceremonies where people become apostles happen in the God Hand's little Escherian pad as far as we know. That's the vast majority of all ceremonies where sacrifices occur, but it's still not all of them. So sure, you could say that all ceremonies occur there except those that don't, but I wouldn't call it good wording. And last, the Occultation ceremony (the Eclipse) is very different from the Incarnation ceremony (the mirrored Eclipse). The Occultation ceremony took place in an otherworldly location, whereas the Incarnation ceremony happened in the material world.

Thanks "Professor." I'm glad you could enlighten me. :schierke:

It wouldn't hurt to be less condescending to people just trying to discuss and learn about Berserk.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Metal_Bear_Rex said:
Thanks "Professor." I'm glad you could enlighten me. :schierke:

My pleasure! If you need extra help you can see me after class. :badbone:

Metal_Bear_Rex said:
It wouldn't hurt to be less condescending to people just trying to discuss and learn about Berserk.

It's fair to say I'm never condescending except when the situation calls for it. :casca:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Metal_Bear_Rex said:
Well okay...but what's the point of including it in the encyclopedia if two of the admins are dismissing it's credibility?
Because there's still valuable information in there. For example it pointed out how you were incorrect at first...

That fucking diagram... I guess I should include a disclaimer or something. I made it (in 2003) to help people understand VISUALLY how the worlds overlap. It's not gospel. It's just an imperfect visual representation of the way Flora and Schierke described the worlds.

Anyway, like I said in my post, the nexus is just a shorthand used for the place where worlds are joined in times when the God Hand perform ceremonies. It's not an official term. Hence the argument you're having with Aazealh.

The Encyclopedia is a huge piece of work that includes parts that are 10+ years old. I've wanted to update it for a few years now, but you know, it's quite a bit of thankless work. So far the only cheer squad to get me to fix things are you and Aazealh.
 

Metal_Bear_Rex

⊂( ̄(エ) ̄)⊃
Yeah you're right. It indeed helped me grasp the layers concept better once I looked at it, but I was just sort of struck dumb when I brought it up and you implied it wasn't credible and Aaz straight up said it was outdated. :???:

And an update would be really cool, but I don't want to make you feel like I'm goading you. In all honesty I learned a lot of what I know from lurking the forums and reading from the posts you, Aaz, and sometime Griffith make, as well as your podcasts.
 
Walter said:
The Encyclopedia is a huge piece of work that includes parts that are 10+ years old. I've wanted to update it for a few years now, but you know, it's quite a bit of thankless work. So far the only cheer squad to get me to fix things are you and Aazealh.

Count me in the cheer squad. I'd love to see parts of the encyclopedia updated, especially those that help illustrate the way the world of berserk works.

I've alway thought the forums were a great resource for well thought out analysis of berserk, but it sure would be nice to have things collected and organized all in one place. I understand if it's a bit too daunting though. Maybe a wiki?
 
Isn't there already one? I remember looking through a Berserk wiki somewhere, when i read the manga for the first time and didn't understand something
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Rendarg said:
Isn't there already one? I remember looking through a Berserk wiki somewhere, when i read the manga for the first time and didn't understand something

There are a few I think, none of which are trustworthy in the least.
 
Rendarg said:
Isn't there already one? I remember looking through a Berserk wiki somewhere, when i read the manga for the first time and didn't understand something

There are a few... and it's pretty all over the place as far as accuracy. It would be nice if they would separate the opinion and speculation from the in book canon, but unfortunately this doesn't happen.
 
That actually sounds like a good reason for you guys to make a wiki. The only trustworthy, just containing the hard facts, no speculations, all done by the worlds most renown historians of Berserk literature. It will be the crimson behelit of all Berserk wikis. Well, what do you think? Sounds good, doesn't it?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rendarg said:
That actually sounds like a good reason for you guys to make a wiki. The only trustworthy, just containing the hard facts, no speculations, all done by the worlds most renown historians of Berserk literature. It will be the crimson Beherit of all Berserk wikis. Well, what do you think? Sounds good, doesn't it?
Nope. I'd rather just do my own thing, and not involve the word "wiki." I also fundamentally hate the disjointed nature of most wikis.
 
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