Emperor Ganishka in his human form
Emperor Ganishka is the head of the Kushan nation, a large nation-state most closely resembling real-world India. He is also an Apostle of the God Hand; however, he is the only known Apostle to fail to acknowledge Femto's over lordship as the fifth God Hand and Prince of Demons. His army combines a large number of conventional forces with numerous supernatural creatures (Daka, Pishacha) and magic-users and is currently engaged in a protracted war with Midland and its allied nations under the authority of the Papacy.
He employed his dark magic via his mist, which he can transform into. In this form, he showed no visible weaknesses and was able to hurl lightning at his enemies. However, Schierke figured out a weak spot in Ganishka's mist form (right between the eyes), where the astral core body is vulnerable to weapons with strong spiritual presence, such as Guts' Dragonslayer (due to countless slaughterings of evil beings during Guts' last two years journey). Griffith exploited another weakness he had in his mist-like form, that of how his body can simply be scattered by the wind. He has turned Wyndham into his demonic capital base and aimed to take down the Holy See stronghold of Vritanis to the west, before agreeing to a draw with Griffith for a final battle in Wyndham.
After being defeated by Griffith, he returned to his capital to preform a ritual involving absorbing the strength and lives of everyone nearby in order to "Transcend the Apostles." He believed this is necessary to beat Griffith, and the process was described as "An artificial Behelit", meaning it can be used to reincarnate as a being superior to what it formerly was. His new form is a massive monster as high as the sky, with hundreds of tentacles called "Shiva".
Sonia called him the "King of the Crows."
Silat described him as "The Emperor of Terror."
The circumstances of Ganishka's transformation into an Apostle are shown in chapter 303, through a flashback into his childhood, where it's revealed that his young brother was poisoned by his own mother, who later was killed, to ensure the throne to Ganishka. The king, later, lost his life in a trip, when he fell off his mount after being hit by a toxic dart. The throne then passed on to Ganishka, who took the decision that only fear could ensure his survival, but it prevented him of his duties as a father and husband. Years of conquest later, when he was in a feast for one of his victorious campaigns, his own son tried to kill him. Then, the Behelit acted and thus Ganishka was reborn as an Apostle
Emperor Ganishka is based on Kanishka, who was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, from 127 AD until 151 AD.
As of chapter 307 Ganishka is confirmed as being defeated/dead, apparently by a blow from Skull Knight's Sword of Resonance that was avoided/deflected by Griffith. The event causes his corpse to form a giant tree (described to be much like holy trees from many religious stories) from the base of which sprouts the mysterious new castle "Falconia," implied to be Griffith's new kingdom.
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