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What is it you fear? We, who are infinitely more powerful than you? Or perhaps it is the future, the path which you were destined to follow.
– Void
Void (ボイド Boido?) is a member of the God Hand and is the oldest of the group, serving as a major antagonist in the Berserk series.
A mysterious figure linked to Skull Knight's past, he is instrumental in corrupting Griffith.
Appearance
Void's cloak and body are distorted, with a high, pointed collar around his neck. His most prominent feature is his large, exposed brain. His eyes are stitched shut and his lips peeled back. Also, notably, he has incredibly long and slender arms which are kept hidden underneath his cloak. Void also has six fingers on each hand.
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, a testament to his superior age and wisdom. His primary focus is on the flow of causality and its inevitability. The Skull Knight describes him as "preaching" the inevitability of causality.
Void is always calm and collected, never showing emotion even when things don't 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 Hawk 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, but that his men would gladly accept this fate to further his own goals. He also uses Griffith's anger and jealousy towards Guts to his advantage, solidifying Guts as the sole obstacle in the path towards Griffith's potential future.
It can also be assumed that he coerced the other members of the God Hand preceding Griffith into making the same deal; sacrificing something they valued to become greater beings.
Abilities and Skills
Being the oldest and most powerful of the God Hand, 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 of Thorns. 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 to administer 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 Behelit, the transformed being normally killing the branded person they have sacrificed to obtain this power. It can be assumed that only Void can remove the Brand.
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 fully during the World Transformation, gaining a full-time physical presence.
History
Background
The dead of Gaiseric's kingdom with brands scarred on their decaying heads.
At some point in the distant past, apparently around the time that Gaiseric's kingdom was befell in disaster, 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 three with Crimson Behelits into members of the God Hand.
Golden Age Arc
The God Hand influencing Griffith to embrace his fate.
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 to accept his destiny by offering him ebony wings to ensure his dream for a kingdom. Griffith accepts and Void proceeds to brand all members of the Band of the Hawk present. After Griffith's transition into Femto is complete with the deaths of all 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
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 St. 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 World Transformation.
Trivia
- His name is borrowed from Frank Herbert's Template:W.
- In both anime adaptations of the series, Void serves as the series narrator.
The sage story.
- While the story of how he and the Skull Knight came to be is not fully known, Void is speculated to have become the first God Hand member to be created at the end of the reign of Gaiseric. As Mozgus told to Farnese and Serpico, St. Albion's Tower of Conviction served as a prison for a "sage" who proclaimed the king's sins to God who sent an angel to punish the king. This parallels the story told by Charlotte at the Tower of Rebirth about how Gaiseric's capital city was utterly destroyed by four or five angels and how skulls marked with the Brand of Sacrifice could be seen at the bottom of the Tower of Rebirth which is what remained of Gaiseric's city.
- If this is to be believed, with the Crimson Behelit only activating every 216 years, that would make Void at least 1,080 years old.
- If Void truly is the God Hand that ended Gaiseric's reign, then there is an error in Charlotte's story: she describes God sending five angels to stop Gaiseric (the final and soon-arriving number of God Hands), when Void would have been alone, as God Hands are only created once every 216 years.
- 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".
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