Void

Overview

Image Gallery

Void
Kanji	ボイド
Rōmaji	Boido
Debut
Manga	Episode 0F Guardians of Desire (4)
Anime	(1997 Anime) Episode 24 The Great Eclipse (2016 Anime) Episode 1 The Dragon Slayer
Movies	Golden Age Arc II The Battle for Doldrey
Portrayal
Japanese voice	Unshō Ishizuka (1997 Anime) Shinji Ogawa (Film) Takashi Inagaki (Berserk Musou)
English voice	Jon Avner (1997 anime, film)
Profile
Gender	Male
Age	216+ y/o
Hair color	None
Eye color	None
Species	God Hand Human (formerly)
Status	Alive
Affiliation	Idea of Evil God Hand
Occupation	God Hand member

Are you afraid? One such as yourself?! Of extraordinary beings such as us? Or perhaps of the future you will follow?
– Void

Void (ボイド, Boido^?) is a member of the God Hand, serving as a major antagonist in the Berserk series. He is instrumental in corrupting Griffith.

Appearance

Void features a partially denuded skull with a large exposed brain clothed in a long cloak with a high and pointed collar. When he stands, it would appear his cloak reaches the ground. His skull lacks its calvarium, and his thusly exposed brain is much larger than could be contained in a normal human skull. The skin of his intact skull is drawn tight to the bone. His nose is missing, and his lips and surrounding skin are retracted by fine hooks and wires. His eyelids are stitched shut. He usually keeps his hands and arms hidden underneath his cloak. His two slender arms prove inhumanly long enough to reach past his cloak. His hands each have six long slender fingers with long nails.

Personality

Void is very philosophical, far more than his demonic cohorts. His manner of speech is more formal and dated than the other members of the God Hand. His primary focus is on the flow of causality and its inevitability. The Skull Knight describes him as "preaching" the inevitability of causality.

Void always remains calm and collected, never showing emotion even when things do not go according to his plans or defy the "will of causality". He is also the most polite member of the God Hand, addressing the Band of the Falcon as honored guests rather than treating them as mere sacrifices like the other apostles during the Eclipse. Void, despite all of this, is shown to be incredibly manipulative. He uses memories from Griffith's past in order to convince him to not only sacrifice his men, who would care of his wounded self.

Abilities and Skills

Void has a number of supernatural powers.

Void using his spatial manipulation to block the Skull Knight's attack.

Spatial Manipulation: The first of these abilities is his semi-corporeal form, with conventional weapons passing through him, although he can be harmed by supernatural weapons like the Skull Knight's sword. To prevent this, Void can defend himself by bending space, once creating a spacial rift to redirect the Skull Knight's own attack back at him.

Astral Plane Manipulation: Void is capable of manipulating a person's consciousness, as shown when he and Ubik brought Griffith back into his past by showing him his memories.

Causality Manipulation: Void can see the design of Causality, but only to an extent that barely borders omniscience. This enables him to foresee almost any possibility and influence the course of events to ensure one possibility becomes a reality.

Void administering the Brand of Sacrifice.

Brand of Sacrifice: Void is the only member of the God Hand that's seen administering the Brand of Sacrifice, marking the soul of the inflicted with a brand that compels all manner of fell creature to kill them. This ability is usually used as a means to sire an Apostle from a tortured soul who has acquired a Beherit, the transformed being normally killing the branded person they have sacrificed to obtain this power.

Corporealization: He and the rest of the senior God Hand manifest rudimentary bodies from the restless spirits running amok in the city during Griffith's revival in the corporeal realm. Void and the rest of the God Hand manifest during the Great Roar of the Astral World.

Background

The dead of Gaiseric's kingdom with brands scarred on their decaying heads.

At some point in the distant past, Void came into being and made an enemy out of the Skull Knight. It can be assumed that as the centuries passed, acting in the Idea of Evil's interests, Void seduced countless humans into becoming apostles while recruiting those with Crimson Beherits into becoming members of the God Hand.

Story

Golden Age Arc

The God Hand influencing Griffith to become a member of the God Hand.

Void, alongside the other God Hand members, first make themselves known to Griffith while he is imprisoned in the Tower of Rebirth. Appearing in Griffith's vision, Void refers to Griffith as his "kinsman" and "king of longing," while telling him that they will soon meet at the appointed time and place: the upcoming Eclipse. Once the guest of honor and his sacrifices appear in the Interstice, the other God Hand reveal themselves and, after Ubik reminds the human of who he is, Void convinces Griffith into becoming a member of the God Hand by offering him ebony wings to ensure his dream for a kingdom. Griffith accepts and Void proceeds to brand all of the members of the Band of the Falcon present. After Griffith's transition into Femto is complete with the deaths of everyone but Guts and Casca, the Skull Knight intervenes and spirits them back to their reality after a brief clash with Void. While the other senior God Hand members ask him if he foresaw the turn of events, Void considers it to be nothing as the Age of Darkness that the Holy See scripture foretold has begun.

Black Swordsman Arc

File:Manga E0G God Hand Manifested.png

The God Hand summoned.

Two years after last seeing Guts, Void and the rest of the God Hand appear before him after he fatally wounds the Count and the apostle summons them to be given new life. Despite Griffith being occupied easily overpowering a revenge-driven Guts, Void reminds the neophyte that they have business with the Count first. After the Interstice linking the physical world and the Abyss subsides, the God Hand returns to their realm.

Conviction Arc

The God Hand appearing in Albion.

During the Incarnation Ceremony at Albion, Void and the rest of the senior God Hand members make themselves known to Guts when they manifest rudimentary bodies from the restless spirits running amok in the city. After an attempt to strike down Void, realizing he and the others are not fully in the physical realm, Guts decides to focus back on saving Casca from the mob who are intent on burning her at the stake. While the Incarnation Ceremony goes as planned with Griffith fully reconstituted, the process separates the senior God Hand members across different layers of the Astral World until the Great Roar of the Astral World.

Notes

Void's body.

• The Skull Knight seems to know about Void's views on causality.
• In the first anime adaptation of the series, Void serves as the series narrator. In the second adaptation, Unshō Ishizuka provides the narration again, but he's not credited for Void (played by Shinji Ogawa in the third film, and the series use the cast of the movies).
• Void is one of the few characters who has a new voice actor in the video game Berserk Musou.
• It is implied that Void will play a larger role in the future of Berserk. When asked about the ultimate goal of the God Hand in an interview Miura published for the Berserk Illustrations File, Miura stated that it was too early to reveal the goal of the God Hand, but gave a potential hint to speculate over: "The key word is Void".
• His officially licensed Figma action figure reveals that under the cloak his body consists only of his head and two long arms attached to a vertebral column. It is unknown whether this design is a canon one.
• Berserk Official Guidebook claims that Void is the leader of the God Hand.
• The Slug Count refers to him as "archangel" (in English) and "天使の長" (in Japanese).

References

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