@@yourlocalpunkposer8107 I know this probably isn't true, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised at this point. There's only so much time one can selectively put off from completing (and unarguably so) their most famous work before unfortunately becoming dull to the idea of actually "doing" the work necessary to see it ultimately finished. Likewise, there's only so many years one can stand to wait for their favorite series to (finally) update before eventually becoming gradually apathetic towards the main author themselves - even more so when there's no stated reason as to why it is exactly the author/creator behind said series has just seemingly halted all of their work. Granted, I still love Berserk for what it is - though I'm a bit partial when it comes to Guts' earlier forays as the Black Swordsman rather than these most recent arcs. However, I refuse to hold any foolhardy (or indeed, extremely zealous) illusions that Kentaro Miura will ever bother to finish the truly unique tale of Berserk sometime within the near future (as his overall passion for the series itself has generally seemed to have dulled through the years, if his unnaturally long hiatuses are anything to go by, let alone release dates), if at all. Instead, it is far more likely that he will die before the end of Berserk can be seen, as so many others who have patiently waited for that well-desired triumphant or dark conclusion to inevitably come. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong (and hopefully so), but I sincerely doubt it.
Miura has said that he mixes and matches historical weapons, tactics, etc. to make up the world of Berserk. Some stuff is from the 1300s, some the 1500s, he goes for whats cool over what's historically accurate per se. So there is no way to "date" the world of Berserk. Still a cool video and some good stuff to think about though, great job.
He introduced the age of cannons just to give Guts a hand blaster. He expressed wanting to make a history manga but wanted more fantasy in his first attempt.
The Kushans are not Turkic, at all. They're Indian, 10,000% Indian Subcontinent. Their armor, their dress, unusual weapons, and use of Tigers and Elephants are all Indian. I know this is ahistorical as hell but there is literally no ties between them and the Ottomans beyond "They came from the east."
I highly doubt kentaro had all of this in mind when writing berserk , I think he just informed himself in some medieval warfare and how they actually were like and just wrote cultures and events based on history , the fact that there's a "100 year war" is just there because these long wars are important and remembered in our own world so we are influenced to write about long ass wars when we want to convey that some conflict in our story was important . In the same way the kushan are a mixture of various cultures of southern west asia but I doubt kentaro
dude kushans directly spoke hindi in the manga itself, and their religion and magic were distincly hindu as well, I don't know where you got the idea that they were inspired by ottomans
kushans were nomads of obscure origins, who ruled northern India (and Iran and central Asia). Hindi for them was learned, they were not hindi themselves. Why pointing it out? Ottomans have also origins in the steppes (altough much, much later).
@@fdumbass Well its one of those names with difficult translations. Happens with a lot of languajes based on characters. In my story books its Ganiska as you read it so,,,its complicated
Daiba, that water mage guy, also refers to Guts and Serpico as Kshatriyas, which was the warrior caste in India. I actually think it's a mix of the two, which isn't too out there since the Ottomans were loosely related to the Mughals, a Turkic tribe that invaded North India. The Kushan empire was an earlier empire that covered a similar area, and was founded by Buddhists from Central Asia, which were Indo-European. With all this in mind I'm pretty sure the Kushans in Berserk were supposed to be a mix of the Ottomans, the Mughals and the Indians. On the topic of Daiba, you remember Kundalini, too? That's a chakra you're supposed to activate with tantric practices. You know, yoga.
17:07 Guts was surrounded. For every apostle he felled, three more seemed to take its place. All was lost. Death and damnation seemed assured... THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!!!
I love Skull Knight being Charlemagne. It makes a lot more sense than him being the historical Gaiseric. The historical Gaiseric was more of a raider than a uniting king. Though I think Miura might have wanted Skull Knight to be a mix of the best qualities of both.
You should really consider making a series off of this. Taking manga/anime and finding their inspired source. I found this to be very interesting as a lover of history.
@@heathenpride7931 lmfao when Rome feel we entered the dark ages and it brought misery over the whole continent. It wasn't "great" at all, it certainly was inevitable but not something to celebrate. The earlier roman empire was a great nation with revolutionary science and culture just like the ancient greeks. Our modern society is an abomination of nature.
jonas jonas We went into the dark ages because of Christianity and the church forcing everyone but themselves to be uneducated, conducting “witch hunts” to eliminate everyone knowledgeable person not directly under their control, just like a dictator eliminating citizens with brains that didn’t fully devote themselves to the state. They then preceded to keep all that knowledge to themselves and sparsely use it to ensure they stayed in power. That Catholic mindset of domination came from Rome itself (hence Roman Catholic), which was a mainstay from the Roman Imperialist mindset. The Romans were deadset on crushing all threats to their empire and massacred scholars such as the Celtic Druids in Britannia and the Jewish Rabbis. They then forced the populace - now devoid of their societal brain - to adopt the Roman standard of living and belief system. The Romans were a fucking abomination against nature and I celebrate their demise. Fuck your “Great Nation”
I just always imagined that Berserk was set in medieval central europe, like eastern france, southern germany, and northern italy.. Guess I was correct?
The Franks came from _Franconia_ , in central Germany. Oh, and The Kushan Empire was a real thing. One of the Silk Road empires of Turania/central Asia.
Could be that in the Berserk world the Kushan Empire got their hands on some serious Mystic Mojo and conquered the Ottoman Empire and decided to follow the Ottoman's expansionist policy. As the Kushan's religion in Berserk seems to combine Arabic Paganism and Hinduism, and has very little of Islam in it. I think.
The Kushan's use of war elephants and strong Indian/Hindu aesthetics and terms also lends well to them not being based on the Islamic Ottoman Turks, though they do clearly share their role as the Great Scourge Of Christendom… or whatever the Holy See's faith is called in the world of Berserk.
Also backing up Lith and Roderick. From wiki, "Roderick's appearance appears to be based on the character of Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, and more specifically, the character's depiction in the 1978 anime adaptation of the same name - Takarajima. The two have similar facial features and both are experienced sea-faring men. Puck even references the resemblance while aboard the Seahorse, cementing that it is intentional."
Wallatoria sounds similar to Wallachia (Southern Romania). It would make sense since said country battled the Ottomans (Prince Vlad IV, or the impaler, being a specific example). Which would make Morgar Hungary since the two nations had an alliance together.
It would make sense if the placing of the nations are as this guy says. Also you have to assume the Kushan are Ottoman. It's stretching it a lot in my opinion.
There is another thread discussing the culture of the Kushan, but regardless of their inspiration, the Kushan invasion is definitely inspired by the Ottoman invasion.
Geiseric is supposed to be a gaul/celt warlord (like real life Vercingetoric), mixed with some carolingian elements. The illustrations are celtic warriors and oppidums (celt forts).
alhesiad that’s why in the 90s anime they had bagpipes in the soundtrack I think guts sword is based on the Scottish claymore I think that’s why it’s as big as it is I could be way off though also during the hundred year war the Scots were mercenaries that we’re fighting along side the french
There is one important piece of lore you have missed - Vritaniss is said to be ex-kushan holding, which looks more like Spain, especially Valencia. And the other one - obvious Indian vibe that Kushan Empire has. I myself imagine it being some sort of amalgamation between several eastern countries - Caliphate, Ottoman Empire, Persian Empire and different Indian states. Some kind of huge state that stretches from Indochina to Europe, enveloping whole India, Middle East, parts of Central Asia and parts of Europe. They sure engage in effective magical warfare and have an immortal demon-emperor to build such thing. That would lessen the problem of keeping political line straight through ages and keeping Empire's subjects in line. Something that real life empires would only imagine.
I think it would make a lot more sense for Wallatoria to be the equivalent to Wallachia (slightly east of Hungary), mainly because of the name. Wallachia also had quite a lot of history with the Ottomans, while Lithuania never even made contact with them I think. Edit: Now that I think about it, Morgar might be Moldavia or Hungary, since they're stated as "small nations" and Poland-Lithuania was absolutely massive in our timeline
I’m almost certain that morgar and wallatoria would be Moldavia and wallachia, both countries were in the far easy and were known for the hatred of the ottomans. One of the kings of Wallachia impaled so many people he’s what the dracula myth of is based on
go back and read history, they allied with the ottomans against the Catholics who would have butchered them during the inquisitions. Also Vlad the Impaler was ethnically Turkic too. They hated the catholics hell of a lot more then the Muslim Turks hence why they made their lands vassals of the Ottomans. The Ottomans didnt need to conquer those lands, their leaders submitted to the Turks voluntarily. BTW Orthodox Christians are known for their hatred of the Catholic christians. Likewise Catholics despise Orthodox Christians.
I know I'm coming almost a year late on this but, the equipment on those warriors in 6:40 isn't early medieval equipment. They are most likely supposed to be ancient Celts, looking at their Boar-Standards, and especially that high crested helm worn by the guy 2nd from the right, looks really similar to those worn by northern italic celtic tribes.
6:45 the horned helms, boar iconography, tunics, short swords and most especially the standards (carnyx horns) are all Iron Age Celtic. But the empire that lasts only as long as the king is a pretty good Charlemaign parallel.
Well done for the work you put in this video. Besides the Kushan being more of a mix between Ottomans and Moghols, which many comments already picked up, I don't see why all of your geographical choices make chronological sense but for Chuder and Midland being West and Middle Francia. This division immediately led to further fragmentation and it is only to the price of intense internal struggles with local leaders that the kings of Western Francia unified a country. They had no time to really fight with the remnants of Middle Francia that quickly integrated the Holy Roman Empire. All the other countries you identified cohabited more or less during the 15th and 16th centuries, which seems in line with many of Miura aesthetic choices. It looks to me that, for the sake of your narrative, Chuder and Midland would rather be identified as Habsburg Spain and late Capetian France. The rivalry between Francis I and Charles V that brought unprecedented continent conflicts where mercenaries, the Holy Seat, central Europe and the Ottoman Empire all played a role.
hon hon hon! But more seriously, I'm pretty sure Charlemagne spoke a Germanic tongue on a day to day basis (did the "French" language as we understand it today even exist back then?)
Actually Charlemagne spoke Latin ( vulgar latin that would go on to become french ) , franconian (old high german ) and a bit of greek . So really I think he was as much french and German...but since France formed earlier than germany I would say french anyway .
basicly charlemagne (or Karl der Große) was something like a french and german forefather country wise. At his time the concepts of french and german were only slowly beginning to form. Before him their wasnt realy anything remarkable of France or germany as we know it today. Just different tribes, some formerly occupied by rome, some not. But correct me if I'am wrong
At the time, there were a ton of languages that were widely spoken throughout France. The Occitan languages as well as some remenants of Celtic used to be spoken for a long time, but due to French becoming the standard language during the last few centuries, speakers of those languages are now quite rare. I seem to remember from somewhere that for quite a while during the High and/or Late Middle Ages, French was spoken by about one fifth of the population.
The ruins could be a leftover of a previous empire, like for example even today there are remnants of the Roman Empire and the Greek City States, like the Coliseum, the Parthenon, the Roman roads, etc.
Most of you probably know this already but Guts is based on a real German mercinary knight, Gotz von Berlichingen. He had his arm from the elbow down blown off by a canon and had a prosthetic made that had mechanisms so he could hold a sword or a quill. It was the most advanced prosthetic of the time. I believe he was alive around 1550.
Bo this is such a great video, I'm also a student and admirer of History and you are making a lot of sense, I can't stop nodding my head in approval, like, yep, yep this is correct, and this too, and this and that
Actually there was really an empire named kushan in India. It came after maurya empire and ruled a huge chunk Of north India and the most popular king was kanishka from whom ganishka is derived.
6:53 the equipement is clearly bronze age celtic (helmets directly inspired by arcgeological finds) . You can see the typical celtic carynx warhorn and an celtic Oppidium (fortified city) .
Although I find the thought of the Skull knight speaking with a French accent rather amusing, you have to consider that Charlemagne lived at a time way before modern France, thus the way he spoke would be drastically different than a modern french person and so would his accent. I mean, he was king of the Franks, not king of France. Even when I look at french texts from the late medieval period (I'm french by the way) it is incredibly different from modern french, to the point that it is practically gibberish to the average french person... And Charlemagne was 800 years before that, so you can imagine how different his speech would have been!
I wish berserk would get a live action adaptation like imagine a berserk with game of thrones budget it would be dope and probably get more people into the manga. Also lith would just be England and Wales because Scotland and Ireland were still independent during the 100 year war
Will be nice that you can do a video about where the arcs of Berserk could locate following your idea of this map... Or also from where are some main Apostles...
Geiser-Reich, eh? BTW Gaiseric/Geiseric/Genseric is actually a real person from history, look him up. He was the king of the Vandals and the Alans who established the Vandal kingdom in the 5th century, which also was a major trouble for the western roman empire.
It could be that Chuder/Tuder is actually both Western France and Great Britain, as the possible result of GB winning the Hundred years' war. Iith may be Norway, Iceland or Ireland.
6:40 The helmets (if you omit the horns which are romanticized like for the vikings) and the weird horses head (actually a windpipe called a carnyx) are typical from gaullish equipment in the times of the roman conquest :)
-In the Golden age arc, it is said that the baron in Dolrey castle is the commander of northern Chuda, so maybe Chuda is south of Midland ? - On the panel with Gaiseric, the warriors are clearly gauls, you can see some Carnyx and in the background it’s an Oppidum, it’s antic, not medieval. As you said, this Empire is 1000 years old and the architecture is roman/hellenic, so it’s more likely the roman Empire. - Like others said, Kushan are clearly hindi, but in the geopolitical setting they clearly take the role of the Ottomans.
I really have to disagree with this theory. First, the warriors shown in Gaiseric's period are in my opinion far more similar to those of keltic and early germanic warriors. Mainly based on the weapons they are using, and those poles adorned with heads (dont remember the name of those) The fortress in the back is also much more similar to an oppidum. But the main thing I have to disagree with the setting of Midland in the middle Francia, is because the ground zero for the explosion, which would have to be Wyndham's location, is nowhere near that location. If you draw a line between the fjords of Norway and the western cape of Asia Minor, the ground zero would be somewhere on that line. Which would put it somewhere closer to Prague, Bratislava, Vienna or even Warsaw or Krakow. There is also the fact that we have structures from Rome and Vatican located in Wyndham, and the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba is fused together with Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, one being from Spain, the other from Italy, in the palace of Vritannis. While trying to figure out the borders of the berserk universe is really fun, I think it is contra-productive to try and force it into specific historical borders.
I am pretty sure its something from Powerwolf, however i cannot really put my finger on which one exactly, hope it helps. Or maybe night witches from sabaton... idk Well after a little google-foo its "when the winged husars arrived" by Sabaton (unsurprisingly) - th-cam.com/video/75zmIj_4LFQ/w-d-xo.html
Gaiseric is pronounced GUY-ZER-RICK; it also happens to have been the name of the historical leader of the Vandals in the 5th Century AD, Gaiseric, who conquered Roman North Africa (most of modern day Morocco, Tunisia and the Libyan coastline) alongside his son, Huneric.
About what you said around 7:00 ... well, the men in the manga have carnyxes (the big boar headed trumpets) and are clearly attacking an oppidum (like Old Oswestry for example), so the action would take place somewhere between 400 BC and 0. One of them even has a villanovian helmet, which is from around 700 BC... also, some helmets seam to be Spangenhelms, which means they come from the early middle ages as you said. Considering this, I think Miura wanted to represent the whole pre-Gaiseric world in one picture, with elements from different contexts in antiquity. The point was not to represent an accurate scene but to evoke the pre-imperial world in just one picture. Also, Gaiseric is named after Geiseric, a Vandal king who has sacked Rome in 455 AD... maybe if berserk really take place in our world, it would just be a world where the roman empire never existed.
Farnese is the name of an influencial medieval Italian Family Magnifico is likely a reference to Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" De' Medici (Lawrence the Magnificent), famous lord of Florence Poliziano was a scholar at the court of Lorenzo Giorgio and Federico (the rest of the Vandimion family iirc) are two very common Italian names, well used already in medieval times
0:12 I remember seeing that shot and the Moon and going "wait, what? Space exists in this fantasy setting?! ...And the moon's relative position to Earth is still magical in nature?"
Fun fact: I am from Milan - Italy - which is included in your first Midland area. Milan literally means Midland. Also, "Farnese" was an actual house name to which many Dukes of Parma and Piacenza belonged. The name "De Vandimion" does not tell me anything, but it kinda sounds like it's from Venice, rather than Genoa. My argument being that it is not common for an Italian house name to end with a consonant, and it is usually related to very specific areas (Venice is one of these). Anyway, I loved your analysis.
Sinceramente "Vandimion" mi da più un vibe provenzano (Francia del Sud) e potrebbe benissimo essere legato ad Avignone che era un territorio papalino nel sud della Francia al confine con gli stati italiani. Il che spiegherebbe anche la devozione religiosa di Farnese dato che Avignone come già detto era un territorio del Papa ed è stato anche la sede del trono pontificio durante i conflitti con gli antipapi.
@@Old_Harry7 beh, a questo punto è decisamente più tedesco o, meglio, olandese. Comunque è molto più probabile che abbia fatto un mischione di "cose europee", quindi questi discorsi valgono fino a un certo punto. Interessante la teoria di Avignone, comunque. Non ci avevo pensato.
@@danilobondi3191 sicuramente il mischione è stato fatto però a discolpa di Miura e del resto del mondo in generale, bisogna dire che trattare di storia europea per un non-europeo è davvero difficile, soprattutto per quanto riguarda confini geografici e zone di influenza. Per quanto riguarda Avignone, personalmente ne sono convinto, il discorso calza perfettamente se si inquadra la religione e l'educazione di Farnese. Cosa ti fa pensare all'olandese per Vandiminion? Per memoria di orecchio mi suona molto francese ma non sono un esperto in materia.
@@Old_Harry7 no beh nemmeno io sono esperto, figuriamoci. Me lo fa pensare il fatto che van è il tipico prefisso (come il nostro de') tedesco/olandese. Ipotizzo che magari voleva essere van dimion e poi sia stato unito perché boh... Non essendo europeo appunto magari ha semplicemente scelto qualcosa che gli suonava bene. Poi appunto, è solo una sensazione. Se dovessi inventarmi io un cognome giapponese farei qualcosa che vagamente mi suona bene, mica mi metto a pensare alla zona nello specifico
I think you can't compare them because their work is too different. If we only speak about writing tho, i think Martin have the upper hand because he created a more complex world with a more restrictive media (book vs manga). Don't get me wrong, berserk is a real piece of art and it is really hard to find something as meticulously crafted but i think the world of Martin fall into this categroy. On the other hand i think Miura did a better job at exploring the motivations and psyche of his characters but since there is far less characters in berserk than Asoiaf it is also easier to do that. So i would say that if a comparison is to be made, it would probably fall flat shortly because both writers have their strenght and weaknesses in their method of storytelling. In the end it is more a matter of what you prefer than what is better and if you like berserk more than asoiaf, that's great. Ps : Sadly something both writers have in common is that they will probably never finish their stories
@@clementbeziat7198 but berserk is a mix of european history, hellraiser, devilman and tolkien.( miura inspired himsalef from all of them (except for tolkien idk about it))
@@burner1303 it seems I'm the only one who thinks George is a shit writer. Half of the shit he writes is useless world building or everyone dies at the end.
All the similarities between Berserk's world and the real world are quite evident, but I wouldn't say they're literally the same. It's just a matter of some heavy inspiration, like in Warhammer fantasy and Attack on Titan. Also, some people have already pointed this out but Morgar and Wallatoria most likely have more in common with Hungary than the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Morgar sounds like Magyarország which means Hungary in, well... Hungarian. And Wallatoria sounds similar to Wallachia which was a Hungarian vassal state in what is now Romania. Also, the Kushan empire is based more on a real ancient Indian state called...the Kushan empire. Ganishka is named after a Hindu deity called Ganesha, for example
In the 14th century most parts of mainland Greece were ruled by Catholic italian spanish, and French nobles like like The Accalio, the Gatelussi, the De Eurasia families. The area was known as the Morea, this is they had conflict with the Turks and sometimes fought with or even against the Byzantines. They also hired a lot of English, Spanish, Italian, and Gascon mercenaries.
The timeline of Berserk seems to take inspiration in late rennaisance and early modern period around 15th-early 17th century although the 2012 series of berserk depicts itself around the transitional period of armour, 14th century
I went to read the golden age arc and the arc after that. Seeing a skullnight as French and speaking in that nazle tone. It made it so weird and hilarious. "Our paths will cross again, Struggler." I can never read it normally again.
You should've mentioned how the Kushan used demon spawn from Midland women in their armies, which parallels to the Ottoman exploitation of the occupied Christian peoples by the Devshirme system
It seems like the architecture and some of the design of Gaiseric at least take inspiration from Alexander the Great, since Miura pulls some things from different time periods here. Great video!
A small addition to the identity of Skull Knight (and by identity I mean accent:) Charlemagne, while he was emperor of the francs, was a Karling. The Karling Dynasty actually comes from Karl Martell, who was Belgian. And anything I’ve searched of their actual ethnicity says they were of Germanic descent. So there go some other accents you can try if French isn’t to your taste!
On elf island we get more reference to real world agency in the form of warriors called "Veykhins" invading from the North... and matching armor and weaponry of course
Miura just took a bunch of real-world stuff and moved them around. Tudor is a British house, but they're more like France in Berserk. Midland is probably supposed to be Germany, since it's literally in the middle of Europe, Guts is likely partially inspired by real-life German Gotz von Berlichingen, and Gaiseric was a real German (Vandal) king; however, the Hundred Year War was moved to Midland from Britain and the two Gaiserics aren't much alike, you're right that Gaiseric bears a greater resemblance to Charlemagne. The Kushan Empire plays a role somewhat similar to the Ottoman Empire, but they're clearly Indian - in appearance, culture and even name, as the Kushan Empire was a real Indian empire. And I don't know if anyone's pointed this out, but Dark Horse may be accidentally or intentionally mistranslating names, or maybe Miura intends for the names to be spelled differently in English to obfuscate their origin, but the reason I say this is because "Iith" is clearly supposed to be Ys, a British city that was allegedly swallowed by the ocean and a lot of folk tales, as well as video games and music albums, have been inspired by it. Morgar and Wallatoria are, in my opinion, probably inspired by Moldavia and Wallachia (modern Romania) who fought the Ottomans together, controlled one another at various points and some scholars even confused one for the other. Finally, while I'm not going to say what Vritannis is based on geographically, its name is clearly Britannia. I don't say all of this to criticize the video by the way, just felt like emptying my head in a TH-cam comments section. :)
Well as it happens I was born in the old capital of Charlemagne (Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle) and because of its special kind of sulfuric groundwater the Romans settled here before Charlemagne. Even now everytime something is built in the ceneter of the city they find new roman structures or something related to them. If you do not believe me: in the picture used at 05:42 Charlemagne ( or in German: Karl der Große) is holding the Dom zu Aachen in his right hand. there are several myths around this cathedral. Fun fact: Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle seems to be pretty popular with asian tourists as there are always streams of asian tourists coming to the city in the summer or during the winter.
Addon: i just noticed that the "roman structures" you showed at 8:23 seem to look a lot like the Theater Aachen except the horse on the left of the person in the middle. But in front of the theater Aachen is the statue of a rider and in the original scene on the Theater Aachen there is a seemingly blank space where now the horse is.
I see Randel as fitting more of as the Netherlands of Berserk; gained independence from a greater empire though a fairly recent war(Dutch War of Independence from Spain), is a republic, and is basically a giant swamp. I also see one big issue with placing Valancia as Genoa, or any other Italian(or even just Mediterranean in general) city, is that that would mean that the Seahorse would have had to pass the Straights of Gibraltar to get to Skellig(unless the island in in the Mediterranian, which doesn't seem to fit with the vary Gaelic stylings of the Sea God's island), and it's implied that the Sea God's island is the only land the crew see during the voyage. this necessitates that this port be on the Atlantic coast.
4:20 - Looks more like a heap of violence than a pike and shot, but okay. A line of crossbowmen isn't a 'pike and shot' btw. Gaiseric was the name of the vandal warlord who formed the vandal kingdom, which would sack rome in the 450s. That's probably just a cool name that Miura picked up, and Gaiseric was a 'mad lad', but his kingdom fell to the eastern romans in the 6th century (after he was long dead, of course). I don't really see any historical parallels, aside from surface level stuff. Eg. 100 years war is 100 years war in medieval history, and the great empire is like rome, and the early medieval stuff is resembling early medieval europe. Sure why not. This other stuff seems like a stretch. There's anachronistic stuff in berserk as well - like the dress the nobles wore in the 1997 anime was from the 18th century, and one of them even wore slacks (20th century). Soldiers seem to have strict military hierarchies, and officer rankings such as 'general' and 'captain', when historically they would have probably been termed 'marshal', and the non-officers given terms such as 'man at arms' or 'archer'. Feudal rankings weren't strict, since they were attached to the noble's title. A knight would be a knight in battle, a count would lead a levy appropriate with his fief, eg. Other ranks would be determined simply by what sort of weapon was brought to battle ("You have a bow? Alright you'll go with bow unit; but I don't know or trust you, so even though you might have leadership experience, I'm not making you a leader of anyone"). The constant jokes in the hbi2k abridged series about characters being unable to read makes plenty of sense, given the medieval reality. If people couldn't read, why would there be strict military hierarchies - such a thing suggests contracts and writ duties. Mercenary companies (if organized in the more strict fashion of the very late middle ages, so end of 15th century) might have captains, but many mercenary companies were disorganized. The swiss were well organized because their plan was to bring money back to their cities, and it became an export; same with 'condotierri' in italy. Roaming mercenary bands that were in it purely for themselves, likely wouldn't have been as organized; they would probably just tag along with the unit lead by a more trusted noble. When Guts joins the band of the hawk, it already has something like 500 men. This would only be possible in the chaos of war. Most nobles would intervene when bands got too large, but the chaos of war is a good enough explanation, as it could make it hard to enforce law and order. Even so, if a conflict lasts 100 years, there is going to be lulls, as there were in the real life 100 years war. During that time, law and order could re-establish itself, and kingdoms preferred to do this, since they needed to keep taxation flowing. No taxes, no kingdom, and war is over because kingdoms aren't there to make war anymore. I could see a 500 man band as being a temporary thing; it would be realistic to expect that Griffith had permanent members, while others simply tag along - although the anime suggested that everyone had followed Griffith for years, and that he's almost like a cult leader. This is unrealistic, given that the fortunes of war (money, food, politics, etc.) would inflate or deflate the band constantly from as much as 800 to as little as 30. When Griffith gets endorsed by the king though, I suppose it makes sense for him to lead 5000 men. This suggests that the kingdom of midland is very large, and it's capitol city probably has a population of hundreds of thousands like constantinople or baghdad in its hay day (though none of that is indicated, tmk). Mostly, I think Miura was working with what he was familiar with - japan in the same time period had a much higher population, and its armies were much larger. A leader with 500 men might have been a simple roaming band of mercenaries in japan and an army of say 50,000 was normal for a powerful daimyo fighting on one side at Sekigahara (the battle for control of all japan during its 200+ year 'civil war'), but in europe, 500 could be enough to conquer a castle and stake out a fief (assuming neither side had allies). In berserk, the heavy cavalry often pursue fleeing foes and victims - in real life, this would've been the light cavalry's job. Heavy cav get tired, due to big horses and armor. Another thing is the cannons look like they're from the 16th or 17th century. In the middle ages, cannons were more rudimentary - essentially just iron hoops that were somehow welded together. IIRC, produced in the same way as barrel hoops, hence the term 'gun barrel'. The barrel was often shorter and wider, more used for bombardment with a slower moving projectile (usually very heavy, so that gravity did most of the work), or for blasting a wall at very close range. Gun barrels tended to explode if there was any difficulty in the projectile leaving the barrel, so it was made with a lot of windage to reduce pressure, so that energy exited the barrel, and the thing didn't just explode. Eventually, better casting techniques were affordable, and gunners figured out what sort of barrels were needed to shoot with. By the 1500s, bronze was a pretty good material, since it allegedly let the gunner have a better idea of when it'd blow up (like seeing cracks show). Even as late as the 17th century, field guns still weren't too accurate. That's why infantry could still march in those big blocks of pike and shot. Guns blowing away cav at close range however, is understandable.
Kushan is way more to the east...in India. The one you call Kushan is the Ottoman Empire...and also a huge chunk of the continent to the west of the Black Sea is the territory of the three kingdoms Valahia, Transilvania and Moldova...currently known as Romania. There are lots of legends surrounding this area - a border between cultures and worlds, geographically marked by the Carpathian mountains and the Black Sea, ancient home of the Dacians.
I think Lith is Denmark or Scandinavia as a whole. They are the northern frontier of Europe and the island of Zealand Denmark is surrounded by water. They also colonized the British isles, Greenland, Iceland, and Vinland in Canada. Not to mention their colony in Scotland is Laithlund, sounds similar to Lith.
I think Wallatoria and Morgar are Wallachia and Moldavia, because they were more involved, smaller(Poland Lithuania are too big), they sound more similar and are closer to the Kushan.
“No...
It was too big to be called a loaf of bread
Too large, too rough, too European
It was indeed a baguette”
-My New Head Canon
baguettes are slim i would say a rustic pan
I’m crying lol
indeed, it was like a slab of fresh bread
At this point I just watch anything related to Berserk..Starving for a new Chapter:(
Miura won't make another chapter, he gave up on us and left us on a cliff hanger
@@yourlocalpunkposer8107 ur kidding me😵
Jun 31is the new chapter release date from what I've heard
Gray .v1 I hope so
@@yourlocalpunkposer8107 I know this probably isn't true, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised at this point. There's only so much time one can selectively put off from completing (and unarguably so) their most famous work before unfortunately becoming dull to the idea of actually "doing" the work necessary to see it ultimately finished. Likewise, there's only so many years one can stand to wait for their favorite series to (finally) update before eventually becoming gradually apathetic towards the main author themselves - even more so when there's no stated reason as to why it is exactly the author/creator behind said series has just seemingly halted all of their work.
Granted, I still love Berserk for what it is - though I'm a bit partial when it comes to Guts' earlier forays as the Black Swordsman rather than these most recent arcs. However, I refuse to hold any foolhardy (or indeed, extremely zealous) illusions that Kentaro Miura will ever bother to finish the truly unique tale of Berserk sometime within the near future (as his overall passion for the series itself has generally seemed to have dulled through the years, if his unnaturally long hiatuses are anything to go by, let alone release dates), if at all. Instead, it is far more likely that he will die before the end of Berserk can be seen, as so many others who have patiently waited for that well-desired triumphant or dark conclusion to inevitably come. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong (and hopefully so), but I sincerely doubt it.
Miura has said that he mixes and matches historical weapons, tactics, etc. to make up the world of Berserk. Some stuff is from the 1300s, some the 1500s, he goes for whats cool over what's historically accurate per se. So there is no way to "date" the world of Berserk. Still a cool video and some good stuff to think about though, great job.
He introduced the age of cannons just to give Guts a hand blaster. He expressed wanting to make a history manga but wanted more fantasy in his first attempt.
@@slyfrailzz cannon is a medieval weapon tho
@@dolsopolar I’m only describing it as Mr Miura did from an old interview. His timeline is super warped and interesting
Explains why armor is cut through like butter or shot through like paper
@@s_cky6872 especially considering how well designed the armors was
The Kushans are not Turkic, at all. They're Indian, 10,000% Indian Subcontinent. Their armor, their dress, unusual weapons, and use of Tigers and Elephants are all Indian. I know this is ahistorical as hell but there is literally no ties between them and the Ottomans beyond "They came from the east."
They came from the east and invade Europe. That's about the extent of their connection.
Plebeian+ I disagree they are a hybrid of the Ottomans and Indians.
I highly doubt kentaro had all of this in mind when writing berserk , I think he just informed himself in some medieval warfare and how they actually were like and just wrote cultures and events based on history , the fact that there's a "100 year war" is just there because these long wars are important and remembered in our own world so we are influenced to write about long ass wars when we want to convey that some conflict in our story was important .
In the same way the kushan are a mixture of various cultures of southern west asia but I doubt kentaro
Also how the hell do you invade from india to eastern Europe without your army being made up of mostly horse archers which the kusans aren't
9:49 literally the least Islamic aesthetics ever, would count as idolatry.
dude kushans directly spoke hindi in the manga itself, and their religion and magic were distincly hindu as well, I don't know where you got the idea that they were inspired by ottomans
Yeah, that's one I also don't agree on. I didn't get any Muslim vibes from them. More Hindu.
It only makes sense geographically. Europeans really had nothing to do with Hindus at the time.
Every video has that one moment that makes you go 'wtf', and this is it for this one.
kushans were nomads of obscure origins, who ruled northern India (and Iran and central Asia). Hindi for them was learned, they were not hindi themselves. Why pointing it out? Ottomans have also origins in the steppes (altough much, much later).
@Arusiek90 Its obviously chosen name for fictional amalgation of various middle eastern/indian empires.
Dude, the Kushan empire actually existed in India and their emperor was called Ganishka.
I think you might mean Kanishka
@@fdumbass Well its one of those names with difficult translations. Happens with a lot of languajes based on characters. In my story books its Ganiska as you read it so,,,its complicated
When translating from Japanese to English, G and K are often interchangeable, like L and R or B and V.
Daiba, that water mage guy, also refers to Guts and Serpico as Kshatriyas, which was the warrior caste in India. I actually think it's a mix of the two, which isn't too out there since the Ottomans were loosely related to the Mughals, a Turkic tribe that invaded North India. The Kushan empire was an earlier empire that covered a similar area, and was founded by Buddhists from Central Asia, which were Indo-European. With all this in mind I'm pretty sure the Kushans in Berserk were supposed to be a mix of the Ottomans, the Mughals and the Indians. On the topic of Daiba, you remember Kundalini, too? That's a chakra you're supposed to activate with tantric practices. You know, yoga.
@@lukurd5923 Silat's weapons are indian.
Chakram
Katar
Urumi
17:07 Guts was surrounded. For every apostle he felled, three more seemed to take its place. All was lost. Death and damnation seemed assured...
THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!!!
COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE
COMING DOWN THEY TURNED THE TIDE
THEN SKULL KNIGHT ARRIVED
I love Skull Knight being Charlemagne. It makes a lot more sense than him being the historical Gaiseric. The historical Gaiseric was more of a raider than a uniting king. Though I think Miura might have wanted Skull Knight to be a mix of the best qualities of both.
Looking at his armor and the statues, and the story itself I always had a image of Alexander the great with him.
But Berserk Gaiseric did bad shit he got punished for, so it's not too hard to extrapolate that into the real raider king
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 smh, why you trust history ? I mean what if the story was a lie ?
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 twist the truth of berserk history
@@dadaeeaeeadada3301 Gaiseric doing bad shit he repented for as the Skull Knight makes sense from a character standpoint
You should really consider making a series off of this. Taking manga/anime and finding their inspired source. I found this to be very interesting as a lover of history.
True, but there's only a few mangas thats as interesting as berserk.
@@thecutenobushi5577 Please read Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, by Miyazaki Heyeo, san.
Also, if you find good/better theories in the comment section, maybe include them is some form
@@blvp2145 Hi, where can I read this manga online?
@@uglee6433 good question. I don't know. I really don't know.
4:46 Gaiseric was the king of the vandals in our timeline. He was one of the key players in the downfall of the Roman Empire.
Roman Empire existed only on paper by the time Vandals (and many others) came around. Its institutions and nobility completely rotten by then.
Lord Of Onions
Don’t. Rome was decadent corrupt and evil. An abomination of nature. It was a great event when it fell.
The roman empire fucked itself mostly largely because of their conversion to christianity.
@@heathenpride7931 lmfao when Rome feel we entered the dark ages and it brought misery over the whole continent. It wasn't "great" at all, it certainly was inevitable but not something to celebrate. The earlier roman empire was a great nation with revolutionary science and culture just like the ancient greeks. Our modern society is an abomination of nature.
jonas
jonas
We went into the dark ages because of Christianity and the church forcing everyone but themselves to be uneducated, conducting “witch hunts” to eliminate everyone knowledgeable person not directly under their control, just like a dictator eliminating citizens with brains that didn’t fully devote themselves to the state. They then preceded to keep all that knowledge to themselves and sparsely use it to ensure they stayed in power. That Catholic mindset of domination came from Rome itself (hence Roman Catholic), which was a mainstay from the Roman Imperialist mindset. The Romans were deadset on crushing all threats to their empire and massacred scholars such as the Celtic Druids in Britannia and the Jewish Rabbis. They then forced the populace - now devoid of their societal brain - to adopt the Roman standard of living and belief system. The Romans were a fucking abomination against nature and I celebrate their demise. Fuck your “Great Nation”
I just always imagined that Berserk was set in medieval central europe, like eastern france, southern germany, and northern italy.. Guess I was correct?
just sayn'
Götz von Berlichingen
The actual madlad mercenary who had a metal hand
Unlucky nations /
Nice use CKII soundtrack. Makes me want to play a Berserk mod for CKII.
Makes me want to switch to Primogeniture so I don't pull a Karling clusterfuck.
Shit man I'm literally just now Playing CKII while going through TH-cam's autoplay
I’ve been wanting to make one but don’t have a good understanding of coding
The water divide between Britain and France was also called the "Protestant Sea" and is called the holy sea in Berserk.
Do you mean the Channel?
"water divide" 😂
@@quintessence2183 Nigga you think I give a fuck about European waters?
The Franks came from _Franconia_ , in central Germany.
Oh, and The Kushan Empire was a real thing. One of the Silk Road empires of Turania/central Asia.
Could be that in the Berserk world the Kushan Empire got their hands on some serious Mystic Mojo and conquered the Ottoman Empire and decided to follow the Ottoman's expansionist policy. As the Kushan's religion in Berserk seems to combine Arabic Paganism and Hinduism, and has very little of Islam in it. I think.
The Kushan's use of war elephants and strong Indian/Hindu aesthetics and terms also lends well to them not being based on the Islamic Ottoman Turks, though they do clearly share their role as the Great Scourge Of Christendom… or whatever the Holy See's faith is called in the world of Berserk.
Sounds like Falconia
Franks are the forefathers of western Europeans.
@@jaskitstepkit7153 right, but the franks were a german tribe
Also backing up Lith and Roderick. From wiki, "Roderick's appearance appears to be based on the character of Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, and more specifically, the character's depiction in the 1978 anime adaptation of the same name - Takarajima. The two have similar facial features and both are experienced sea-faring men. Puck even references the resemblance while aboard the Seahorse, cementing that it is intentional."
Hold on now, Treasure Island has *an anime?*
@@sneedsfeedseed9905 Yes from 70s.
@@sneedsfeedseed9905 yes
Wallatoria sounds similar to Wallachia (Southern Romania). It would make sense since said country battled the Ottomans (Prince Vlad IV, or the impaler, being a specific example). Which would make Morgar Hungary since the two nations had an alliance together.
in EU4 as Poland, you can puppet Moldavia, perhaps Wallatoria is just Romania, in it entirely
That was my first thought too.
Small correction Vlad the Impaler was Vlad III. Vlad IV(the Monk) was the half brother of Vlad the Impaler.
It would make sense if the placing of the nations are as this guy says. Also you have to assume the Kushan are Ottoman. It's stretching it a lot in my opinion.
There is another thread discussing the culture of the Kushan, but regardless of their inspiration, the Kushan invasion is definitely inspired by the Ottoman invasion.
Proves that kentaro miura is a literal god
What up fellow ARMY!
Actually no
So that's why the boat ride took so long. We finally understand now.
At least there's some kind of justification for that length.
Since they encountered pirates it could be possible they went to America and then back to Europe
they took a boat ride from italy to iraland
Geiseric is supposed to be a gaul/celt warlord (like real life Vercingetoric), mixed with some carolingian elements. The illustrations are celtic warriors and oppidums (celt forts).
alhesiad that’s why in the 90s anime they had bagpipes in the soundtrack I think guts sword is based on the Scottish claymore I think that’s why it’s as big as it is I could be way off though also during the hundred year war the Scots were mercenaries that we’re fighting along side the french
the ruins look much more roman though
Isn’t he more of a frankish Charlemagne type, though?
There is one important piece of lore you have missed - Vritaniss is said to be ex-kushan holding, which looks more like Spain, especially Valencia.
And the other one - obvious Indian vibe that Kushan Empire has. I myself imagine it being some sort of amalgamation between several eastern countries - Caliphate, Ottoman Empire, Persian Empire and different Indian states. Some kind of huge state that stretches from Indochina to Europe, enveloping whole India, Middle East, parts of Central Asia and parts of Europe. They sure engage in effective magical warfare and have an immortal demon-emperor to build such thing. That would lessen the problem of keeping political line straight through ages and keeping Empire's subjects in line. Something that real life empires would only imagine.
I think it would make a lot more sense for Wallatoria to be the equivalent to Wallachia (slightly east of Hungary), mainly because of the name. Wallachia also had quite a lot of history with the Ottomans, while Lithuania never even made contact with them I think.
Edit: Now that I think about it, Morgar might be Moldavia or Hungary, since they're stated as "small nations" and Poland-Lithuania was absolutely massive in our timeline
Imagine Guts meeting Vlad Tepes O.O ...
@@stormbringer2840 Didn't he actually meet him in the pilot? He was an apostle I think
@@mateistoian726
Hmm was this one canon ? I always thought that it was a kind of a raw draft before the actual story.
@@stormbringer2840 It's not canon, but it's still a representation of Vlad Tepes as an apostle
@@mateistoian726
Fair enough .
I’m almost certain that morgar and wallatoria would be Moldavia and wallachia, both countries were in the far easy and were known for the hatred of the ottomans. One of the kings of Wallachia impaled so many people he’s what the dracula myth of is based on
go back and read history, they allied with the ottomans against the Catholics who would have butchered them during the inquisitions. Also Vlad the Impaler was ethnically Turkic too. They hated the catholics hell of a lot more then the Muslim Turks hence why they made their lands vassals of the Ottomans. The Ottomans didnt need to conquer those lands, their leaders submitted to the Turks voluntarily. BTW Orthodox Christians are known for their hatred of the Catholic christians. Likewise Catholics despise Orthodox Christians.
Berserk making history a little more fun
As if history isn't bloody enough...
Histiry is always fun
“Long story short: gavelkind succession is a bitch.”
*CK2Flashbacks intensify.*
"What's that he's carrying? Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was more like a large hunk of dough."
"...It's a baguette..."
So in other words, Berserk is Miura's heavily modded Crusader Kings 2 campaign.
I know I'm coming almost a year late on this but, the equipment on those warriors in 6:40 isn't early medieval equipment. They are most likely supposed to be ancient Celts, looking at their Boar-Standards, and especially that high crested helm worn by the guy 2nd from the right, looks really similar to those worn by northern italic celtic tribes.
6:45 the horned helms, boar iconography, tunics, short swords and most especially the standards (carnyx horns) are all Iron Age Celtic. But the empire that lasts only as long as the king is a pretty good Charlemaign parallel.
Well done for the work you put in this video.
Besides the Kushan being more of a mix between Ottomans and Moghols, which many comments already picked up, I don't see why all of your geographical choices make chronological sense but for Chuder and Midland being West and Middle Francia.
This division immediately led to further fragmentation and it is only to the price of intense internal struggles with local leaders that the kings of Western Francia unified a country. They had no time to really fight with the remnants of Middle Francia that quickly integrated the Holy Roman Empire.
All the other countries you identified cohabited more or less during the 15th and 16th centuries, which seems in line with many of Miura aesthetic choices. It looks to me that, for the sake of your narrative, Chuder and Midland would rather be identified as Habsburg Spain and late Capetian France. The rivalry between Francis I and Charles V that brought unprecedented continent conflicts where mercenaries, the Holy Seat, central Europe and the Ottoman Empire all played a role.
hon hon hon! But more seriously, I'm pretty sure Charlemagne spoke a Germanic tongue on a day to day basis (did the "French" language as we understand it today even exist back then?)
Actually Charlemagne spoke Latin ( vulgar latin that would go on to become french ) , franconian (old high german ) and a bit of greek . So really I think he was as much french and German...but since France formed earlier than germany I would say french anyway .
basicly charlemagne (or Karl der Große) was something like a french and german forefather country wise. At his time the concepts of french and german were only slowly beginning to form. Before him their wasnt realy anything remarkable of France or germany as we know it today. Just different tribes, some formerly occupied by rome, some not. But correct me if I'am wrong
At the time, there were a ton of languages that were widely spoken throughout France. The Occitan languages as well as some remenants of Celtic used to be spoken for a long time, but due to French becoming the standard language during the last few centuries, speakers of those languages are now quite rare. I seem to remember from somewhere that for quite a while during the High and/or Late Middle Ages, French was spoken by about one fifth of the population.
@@fdumbass Wasn't "French" as we understand it today only spoken in the capital until the 18th century?
@@calimerohnir3311 Something along those lines is probably true, but I can't claim that I know that much about the subject.
The ruins could be a leftover of a previous empire, like for example even today there are remnants of the Roman Empire and the Greek City States, like the Coliseum, the Parthenon, the Roman roads, etc.
Most of you probably know this already but Guts is based on a real German mercinary knight, Gotz von Berlichingen. He had his arm from the elbow down blown off by a canon and had a prosthetic made that had mechanisms so he could hold a sword or a quill. It was the most advanced prosthetic of the time. I believe he was alive around 1550.
No it’s just a coincidence
Bo this is such a great video, I'm also a student and admirer of History and you are making a lot of sense, I can't stop nodding my head in approval, like, yep, yep this is correct, and this too, and this and that
Much respect, but the kushan empire is heavily implied to be from India. A much better comparison would be the Mughal empire
I think the Mauryan empire is a better comparison as the mughal empire was Islamic.
Actually there was really an empire named kushan in India. It came after maurya empire and ruled a huge chunk Of north India and the most popular king was kanishka from whom ganishka is derived.
@@lordmurphy4344 Yes, but the armor and general timeperiod still fits way better.
Excellent work a major berserk fan like all other you have earned a subscriber.
6:53 the equipement is clearly bronze age celtic (helmets directly inspired by arcgeological finds) .
You can see the typical celtic carynx warhorn and an celtic Oppidium (fortified city) .
Although I find the thought of the Skull knight speaking with a French accent rather amusing, you have to consider that Charlemagne lived at a time way before modern France, thus the way he spoke would be drastically different than a modern french person and so would his accent. I mean, he was king of the Franks, not king of France. Even when I look at french texts from the late medieval period (I'm french by the way) it is incredibly different from modern french, to the point that it is practically gibberish to the average french person... And Charlemagne was 800 years before that, so you can imagine how different his speech would have been!
If you hadn't earned a like through your hard work and analysis, the Sabaton shout out sure earned you one.
I wish berserk would get a live action adaptation like imagine a berserk with game of thrones budget it would be dope and probably get more people into the manga.
Also lith would just be England and Wales because Scotland and Ireland were still independent during the 100 year war
Yes I agree, but who would play Griffith and who would play Guts?? 🤔
@@sannakarppinen4163 Adam Sandler for guts, and Steve Buschemi for Griffith
@@forsakenmyth8379 As long as Donovan is Danny Devito, I don't mind.
So Berserk is set in a game of Crusaders Kings 2?
Modded crusader kings 2
Will be nice that you can do a video about where the arcs of Berserk could locate following your idea of this map...
Or also from where are some main Apostles...
Imagine Guts asks skullknight a question that the community is dying to know, and he answers "Oui."
Geiser-Reich, eh? BTW Gaiseric/Geiseric/Genseric is actually a real person from history, look him up. He was the king of the Vandals and the Alans who established the Vandal kingdom in the 5th century, which also was a major trouble for the western roman empire.
He was the one person who sacked rome yeah .
@@stormbringer2840 Exactly.
@@seeker4it
I think he is a mix of the two . ( kind of like the kushans who were real people but ended taking the place of the ottoman empire )
He seemed to do a good amount of research so I was surprised he never stumbled upon that.
''Aïe am ze Fo ofe Ze inhumanse, Sacrebleu''
I always saw him more like Alexander the greath tho
Skull Knight with a French accent is just hilarious.
@@ChadKakashi Watta bout a Greek accent tho?
*me listening casually*
*Joakim comes busting down the door*
*"WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!"*
I'm pretty big on history, so the first thing I thought of during the Golden Age arc was the 100 Years' War in France. It all lined up too perfectly.
Idk what you'd call this get re wise but this is my new favorite kinda video.
It could be that Chuder/Tuder is actually both Western France and Great Britain, as the possible result of GB winning the Hundred years' war. Iith may be Norway, Iceland or Ireland.
My spine is a archway of pain laced with excitement *Cough* *Cough* Skull Knight
Very nice video, just a shame you didn't make a sort of Guts' journey recap on the map to make the map more realstic, maybe in another video?
Wait, wasn't it said that Chuder was to the east of Midlands? So it would make more sense for Chuder to be East Francia.
Silat and many other kushans are directly tied to India and Pakistan, plus the kushan empire existed irl
Holy shit man you trully dont miss any detail even the tainiest, i like that please keep doing videos on berserk
6:40 The helmets (if you omit the horns which are romanticized like for the vikings) and the weird horses head (actually a windpipe called a carnyx) are typical from gaullish equipment in the times of the roman conquest :)
-In the Golden age arc, it is said that the baron in Dolrey castle is the commander of northern Chuda, so maybe Chuda is south of Midland ?
- On the panel with Gaiseric, the warriors are clearly gauls, you can see some Carnyx and in the background it’s an Oppidum, it’s antic, not medieval. As you said, this Empire is 1000 years old and the architecture is roman/hellenic, so it’s more likely the roman Empire.
- Like others said, Kushan are clearly hindi, but in the geopolitical setting they clearly take the role of the Ottomans.
I really have to disagree with this theory.
First, the warriors shown in Gaiseric's period are in my opinion far more similar to those of keltic and early germanic warriors. Mainly based on the weapons they are using, and those poles adorned with heads (dont remember the name of those) The fortress in the back is also much more similar to an oppidum.
But the main thing I have to disagree with the setting of Midland in the middle Francia, is because the ground zero for the explosion, which would have to be Wyndham's location, is nowhere near that location. If you draw a line between the fjords of Norway and the western cape of Asia Minor, the ground zero would be somewhere on that line. Which would put it somewhere closer to Prague, Bratislava, Vienna or even Warsaw or Krakow.
There is also the fact that we have structures from Rome and Vatican located in Wyndham, and the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba is fused together with Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, one being from Spain, the other from Italy, in the palace of Vritannis.
While trying to figure out the borders of the berserk universe is really fun, I think it is contra-productive to try and force it into specific historical borders.
isn't Charlemagne germanic?
What music was used at 17:10 ?
I am pretty sure its something from Powerwolf, however i cannot really put my finger on which one exactly, hope it helps.
Or maybe night witches from sabaton... idk
Well after a little google-foo its "when the winged husars arrived" by Sabaton (unsurprisingly) - th-cam.com/video/75zmIj_4LFQ/w-d-xo.html
Gaiseric is pronounced GUY-ZER-RICK; it also happens to have been the name of the historical leader of the Vandals in the 5th Century AD, Gaiseric, who conquered Roman North Africa (most of modern day Morocco, Tunisia and the Libyan coastline) alongside his son, Huneric.
"Ga-ee-zer- RICK"
Gaiseric. Nice video.
I'm french and I approve this video.
About what you said around 7:00 ... well, the men in the manga have carnyxes (the big boar headed trumpets) and are clearly attacking an oppidum (like Old Oswestry for example), so the action would take place somewhere between 400 BC and 0. One of them even has a villanovian helmet, which is from around 700 BC... also, some helmets seam to be Spangenhelms, which means they come from the early middle ages as you said.
Considering this, I think Miura wanted to represent the whole pre-Gaiseric world in one picture, with elements from different contexts in antiquity. The point was not to represent an accurate scene but to evoke the pre-imperial world in just one picture. Also, Gaiseric is named after Geiseric, a Vandal king who has sacked Rome in 455 AD... maybe if berserk really take place in our world, it would just be a world where the roman empire never existed.
Berserk is in the future history repeats but always changes a bit, it's told in the anime
Vritannis is mostly Florence with a port, you can even see some famous buildings (like Palazzo Vecchio) in some panels
Farnese is the name of an influencial medieval Italian Family
Magnifico is likely a reference to Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" De' Medici (Lawrence the Magnificent), famous lord of Florence
Poliziano was a scholar at the court of Lorenzo
Giorgio and Federico (the rest of the Vandimion family iirc) are two very common Italian names, well used already in medieval times
The world of Berserk could be our world with altered history with some additional continents
Really good video man
I would love to hear skull Night say " La causalité me force à manger cette baguette !" X) (and also your video is amazing ;) )
For those that don't understand French this translates to: "A casualty caused by me forcing my manager to eat baguette."
@@rorygreenland3565 whoa its been i while since I say that XD thx btw dude !
@@rorygreenland3565 but they're many mistake but don't worries here's my translation : The causality force me to eat this baguette !
0:12 I remember seeing that shot and the Moon and going "wait, what? Space exists in this fantasy setting?! ...And the moon's relative position to Earth is still magical in nature?"
Fun fact: I am from Milan - Italy - which is included in your first Midland area. Milan literally means Midland.
Also, "Farnese" was an actual house name to which many Dukes of Parma and Piacenza belonged.
The name "De Vandimion" does not tell me anything, but it kinda sounds like it's from Venice, rather than Genoa. My argument being that it is not common for an Italian house name to end with a consonant, and it is usually related to very specific areas (Venice is one of these).
Anyway, I loved your analysis.
Sinceramente "Vandimion" mi da più un vibe provenzano (Francia del Sud) e potrebbe benissimo essere legato ad Avignone che era un territorio papalino nel sud della Francia al confine con gli stati italiani.
Il che spiegherebbe anche la devozione religiosa di Farnese dato che Avignone come già detto era un territorio del Papa ed è stato anche la sede del trono pontificio durante i conflitti con gli antipapi.
@@Old_Harry7 beh, a questo punto è decisamente più tedesco o, meglio, olandese. Comunque è molto più probabile che abbia fatto un mischione di "cose europee", quindi questi discorsi valgono fino a un certo punto.
Interessante la teoria di Avignone, comunque. Non ci avevo pensato.
@@danilobondi3191 sicuramente il mischione è stato fatto però a discolpa di Miura e del resto del mondo in generale, bisogna dire che trattare di storia europea per un non-europeo è davvero difficile, soprattutto per quanto riguarda confini geografici e zone di influenza.
Per quanto riguarda Avignone, personalmente ne sono convinto, il discorso calza perfettamente se si inquadra la religione e l'educazione di Farnese.
Cosa ti fa pensare all'olandese per Vandiminion? Per memoria di orecchio mi suona molto francese ma non sono un esperto in materia.
@@Old_Harry7 no beh nemmeno io sono esperto, figuriamoci. Me lo fa pensare il fatto che van è il tipico prefisso (come il nostro de') tedesco/olandese. Ipotizzo che magari voleva essere van dimion e poi sia stato unito perché boh... Non essendo europeo appunto magari ha semplicemente scelto qualcosa che gli suonava bene. Poi appunto, è solo una sensazione.
Se dovessi inventarmi io un cognome giapponese farei qualcosa che vagamente mi suona bene, mica mi metto a pensare alla zona nello specifico
This made me laugh hard :D. I'm from Poland and i didn't expected mention. Also u butcher name of Jadwiga so much :D it's amazing
I like the Crusader Kings 2 Music in the background :)
Berserkers were actual Nordic warriors
Norse or Germanic or Gaulic. Berserking is a practice widely spread across Europe. The word is unique to the northern Europeans. That's about it.
Kentaro Miura, is a much better writer then george rr martin. What do you guys think I would like to start the topic.
I think you can't compare them because their work is too different. If we only speak about writing tho, i think Martin have the upper hand because he created a more complex world with a more restrictive media (book vs manga). Don't get me wrong, berserk is a real piece of art and it is really hard to find something as meticulously crafted but i think the world of Martin fall into this categroy. On the other hand i think Miura did a better job at exploring the motivations and psyche of his characters but since there is far less characters in berserk than Asoiaf it is also easier to do that.
So i would say that if a comparison is to be made, it would probably fall flat shortly because both writers have their strenght and weaknesses in their method of storytelling. In the end it is more a matter of what you prefer than what is better and if you like berserk more than asoiaf, that's great.
Ps : Sadly something both writers have in common is that they will probably never finish their stories
@@clementbeziat7198 Thank you for the info I really enjoyed what you have to say.
Agreed, but Martin is still a great writer. To me, Miura is up there with a select few people like Alan Moore.
@@clementbeziat7198 but berserk is a mix of european history, hellraiser, devilman and tolkien.( miura inspired himsalef from all of them (except for tolkien idk about it))
@@burner1303 it seems I'm the only one who thinks George is a shit writer. Half of the shit he writes is useless world building or everyone dies at the end.
All the similarities between Berserk's world and the real world are quite evident, but I wouldn't say they're literally the same. It's just a matter of some heavy inspiration, like in Warhammer fantasy and Attack on Titan. Also, some people have already pointed this out but Morgar and Wallatoria most likely have more in common with Hungary than the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Morgar sounds like Magyarország which means Hungary in, well... Hungarian. And Wallatoria sounds similar to Wallachia which was a Hungarian vassal state in what is now Romania. Also, the Kushan empire is based more on a real ancient Indian state called...the Kushan empire. Ganishka is named after a Hindu deity called Ganesha, for example
In the 14th century most parts of mainland Greece were ruled by Catholic italian spanish, and French nobles like like The Accalio, the Gatelussi, the De Eurasia families. The area was known as the Morea, this is they had conflict with the Turks and sometimes fought with or even against the Byzantines. They also hired a lot of English, Spanish, Italian, and Gascon mercenaries.
I always figured Berserk in a northern Italian setting, seems fitting for parts of the story. Great vid!
Dude, this a great video, thank you so much
Remind Netflix Berserk is explicitly set in Europe when they decide to botch a race swapped live adaptation
i mean the name Midland just makes me believe most of the cast of Berserk are English, I mean, I live in the West MIDLANDS.
Kushan you say?
*Taiidan murder intensifies*
Bombing our (new) Homeworld?
"Subject did not survive interrogation."
This is pretty great. Thanks for your hard work.
The timeline of Berserk seems to take inspiration in late rennaisance and early modern period around 15th-early 17th century although the 2012 series of berserk depicts itself around the transitional period of armour, 14th century
I went to read the golden age arc and the arc after that.
Seeing a skullnight as French and speaking in that nazle tone. It made it so weird and hilarious.
"Our paths will cross again, Struggler."
I can never read it normally again.
Well thought out Sir.
You should've mentioned how the Kushan used demon spawn from Midland women in their armies, which parallels to the Ottoman exploitation of the occupied Christian peoples by the Devshirme system
It seems like the architecture and some of the design of Gaiseric at least take inspiration from Alexander the Great, since Miura pulls some things from different time periods here. Great video!
A small addition to the identity of Skull Knight (and by identity I mean accent:) Charlemagne, while he was emperor of the francs, was a Karling. The Karling Dynasty actually comes from Karl Martell, who was Belgian. And anything I’ve searched of their actual ethnicity says they were of Germanic descent. So there go some other accents you can try if French isn’t to your taste!
On elf island we get more reference to real world agency in the form of warriors called "Veykhins" invading from the North... and matching armor and weaponry of course
I made the mistakes of watching this video while playing crusader kings 2, and the music began overlapping.
Miura just took a bunch of real-world stuff and moved them around. Tudor is a British house, but they're more like France in Berserk. Midland is probably supposed to be Germany, since it's literally in the middle of Europe, Guts is likely partially inspired by real-life German Gotz von Berlichingen, and Gaiseric was a real German (Vandal) king; however, the Hundred Year War was moved to Midland from Britain and the two Gaiserics aren't much alike, you're right that Gaiseric bears a greater resemblance to Charlemagne. The Kushan Empire plays a role somewhat similar to the Ottoman Empire, but they're clearly Indian - in appearance, culture and even name, as the Kushan Empire was a real Indian empire. And I don't know if anyone's pointed this out, but Dark Horse may be accidentally or intentionally mistranslating names, or maybe Miura intends for the names to be spelled differently in English to obfuscate their origin, but the reason I say this is because "Iith" is clearly supposed to be Ys, a British city that was allegedly swallowed by the ocean and a lot of folk tales, as well as video games and music albums, have been inspired by it. Morgar and Wallatoria are, in my opinion, probably inspired by Moldavia and Wallachia (modern Romania) who fought the Ottomans together, controlled one another at various points and some scholars even confused one for the other. Finally, while I'm not going to say what Vritannis is based on geographically, its name is clearly Britannia.
I don't say all of this to criticize the video by the way, just felt like emptying my head in a TH-cam comments section. :)
Well as it happens I was born in the old capital of Charlemagne (Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle) and because of its special kind of sulfuric groundwater the Romans settled here before Charlemagne. Even now everytime something is built in the ceneter of the city they find new roman structures or something related to them.
If you do not believe me: in the picture used at 05:42 Charlemagne ( or in German: Karl der Große) is holding the Dom zu Aachen in his right hand. there are several myths around this cathedral.
Fun fact: Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle seems to be pretty popular with asian tourists as there are always streams of asian tourists coming to the city in the summer or during the winter.
Addon: i just noticed that the "roman structures" you showed at 8:23 seem to look a lot like the Theater Aachen except the horse on the left of the person in the middle. But in front of the theater Aachen is the statue of a rider and in the original scene on the Theater Aachen there is a seemingly blank space where now the horse is.
Love your knowledge of history.
Awesome vid, thanks for upload
Miura :
*Taking notes*
"Morgar and Wallatopia are small-"
>makes Morgar and Wallatopia fucking huge
I see Randel as fitting more of as the Netherlands of Berserk; gained independence from a greater empire though a fairly recent war(Dutch War of Independence from Spain), is a republic, and is basically a giant swamp.
I also see one big issue with placing Valancia as Genoa, or any other Italian(or even just Mediterranean in general) city, is that that would mean that the Seahorse would have had to pass the Straights of Gibraltar to get to Skellig(unless the island in in the Mediterranian, which doesn't seem to fit with the vary Gaelic stylings of the Sea God's island), and it's implied that the Sea God's island is the only land the crew see during the voyage. this necessitates that this port be on the Atlantic coast.
4:20 - Looks more like a heap of violence than a pike and shot, but okay. A line of crossbowmen isn't a 'pike and shot' btw.
Gaiseric was the name of the vandal warlord who formed the vandal kingdom, which would sack rome in the 450s. That's probably just a cool name that Miura picked up, and Gaiseric was a 'mad lad', but his kingdom fell to the eastern romans in the 6th century (after he was long dead, of course).
I don't really see any historical parallels, aside from surface level stuff. Eg. 100 years war is 100 years war in medieval history, and the great empire is like rome, and the early medieval stuff is resembling early medieval europe. Sure why not. This other stuff seems like a stretch.
There's anachronistic stuff in berserk as well - like the dress the nobles wore in the 1997 anime was from the 18th century, and one of them even wore slacks (20th century). Soldiers seem to have strict military hierarchies, and officer rankings such as 'general' and 'captain', when historically they would have probably been termed 'marshal', and the non-officers given terms such as 'man at arms' or 'archer'. Feudal rankings weren't strict, since they were attached to the noble's title. A knight would be a knight in battle, a count would lead a levy appropriate with his fief, eg. Other ranks would be determined simply by what sort of weapon was brought to battle ("You have a bow? Alright you'll go with bow unit; but I don't know or trust you, so even though you might have leadership experience, I'm not making you a leader of anyone"). The constant jokes in the hbi2k abridged series about characters being unable to read makes plenty of sense, given the medieval reality. If people couldn't read, why would there be strict military hierarchies - such a thing suggests contracts and writ duties.
Mercenary companies (if organized in the more strict fashion of the very late middle ages, so end of 15th century) might have captains, but many mercenary companies were disorganized. The swiss were well organized because their plan was to bring money back to their cities, and it became an export; same with 'condotierri' in italy. Roaming mercenary bands that were in it purely for themselves, likely wouldn't have been as organized; they would probably just tag along with the unit lead by a more trusted noble.
When Guts joins the band of the hawk, it already has something like 500 men. This would only be possible in the chaos of war. Most nobles would intervene when bands got too large, but the chaos of war is a good enough explanation, as it could make it hard to enforce law and order. Even so, if a conflict lasts 100 years, there is going to be lulls, as there were in the real life 100 years war. During that time, law and order could re-establish itself, and kingdoms preferred to do this, since they needed to keep taxation flowing. No taxes, no kingdom, and war is over because kingdoms aren't there to make war anymore. I could see a 500 man band as being a temporary thing; it would be realistic to expect that Griffith had permanent members, while others simply tag along - although the anime suggested that everyone had followed Griffith for years, and that he's almost like a cult leader. This is unrealistic, given that the fortunes of war (money, food, politics, etc.) would inflate or deflate the band constantly from as much as 800 to as little as 30. When Griffith gets endorsed by the king though, I suppose it makes sense for him to lead 5000 men. This suggests that the kingdom of midland is very large, and it's capitol city probably has a population of hundreds of thousands like constantinople or baghdad in its hay day (though none of that is indicated, tmk).
Mostly, I think Miura was working with what he was familiar with - japan in the same time period had a much higher population, and its armies were much larger. A leader with 500 men might have been a simple roaming band of mercenaries in japan and an army of say 50,000 was normal for a powerful daimyo fighting on one side at Sekigahara (the battle for control of all japan during its 200+ year 'civil war'), but in europe, 500 could be enough to conquer a castle and stake out a fief (assuming neither side had allies).
In berserk, the heavy cavalry often pursue fleeing foes and victims - in real life, this would've been the light cavalry's job. Heavy cav get tired, due to big horses and armor.
Another thing is the cannons look like they're from the 16th or 17th century. In the middle ages, cannons were more rudimentary - essentially just iron hoops that were somehow welded together. IIRC, produced in the same way as barrel hoops, hence the term 'gun barrel'. The barrel was often shorter and wider, more used for bombardment with a slower moving projectile (usually very heavy, so that gravity did most of the work), or for blasting a wall at very close range. Gun barrels tended to explode if there was any difficulty in the projectile leaving the barrel, so it was made with a lot of windage to reduce pressure, so that energy exited the barrel, and the thing didn't just explode.
Eventually, better casting techniques were affordable, and gunners figured out what sort of barrels were needed to shoot with. By the 1500s, bronze was a pretty good material, since it allegedly let the gunner have a better idea of when it'd blow up (like seeing cracks show). Even as late as the 17th century, field guns still weren't too accurate. That's why infantry could still march in those big blocks of pike and shot. Guns blowing away cav at close range however, is understandable.
so awesome
Kushan is way more to the east...in India. The one you call Kushan is the Ottoman Empire...and also a huge chunk of the continent to the west of the Black Sea is the territory of the three kingdoms Valahia, Transilvania and Moldova...currently known as Romania. There are lots of legends surrounding this area - a border between cultures and worlds, geographically marked by the Carpathian mountains and the Black Sea, ancient home of the Dacians.
Love your vid man
I think Lith is Denmark or Scandinavia as a whole. They are the northern frontier of Europe and the island of Zealand Denmark is surrounded by water. They also colonized the British isles, Greenland, Iceland, and Vinland in Canada. Not to mention their colony in Scotland is Laithlund, sounds similar to Lith.
I think Wallatoria and Morgar are Wallachia and Moldavia, because they were more involved, smaller(Poland Lithuania are too big), they sound more similar and are closer to the Kushan.