A Behelit is a small, oval object resembling an egg with a set of human facial features scattered randomly across its surface, giving the item a rather disconcerting appearance.
Description
Reference is often made in the story to the fact that the Behelit looks to be a living thing, and it emits a certain aura of unspecified dread. On occasion, it seems as though one of the Behelit's eyes opens and stares at the examiner, though this is usually quickly disregarded as merely an illusion. Perhaps notably, if comically, when Puck was carrying the Count's Behelit by one of its nostrils and its upper lip, the Behelit teared up out of discomfort.
Purpose and Usage
Behelits are the keys to open the gate between the human world and the bottom of the Abyss, where the God Hand reside. They belong to their destined owners and cannot be permanently lost or discarded until they have been used. When the destined person's desire to escape his current situation is great enough, the behelit will find its way to him or her, and call forth the God Hand to grant the wish with a fitting sacrifice. When this happens, the facial features of the behelit rearrange to form a face, crying blood and screaming. This is the primary means through which humans are transformed into Apostles.
Other Behelits
Griffith's Crimson Behelit, which he obtained from a fortune teller as a youth, was a rare and unique item as Zodd called it the 'Egg of the King'. It appears once every 216 years when the time of the Eclipse draws near, and rather than becoming an Apostle, the bearer of the Crimson Behelit is destined to become the next member of the God Hand. It is not known whether there were five different Crimson Behelits or whether the same came to each of the God Hand in turn.
Trivia
- The term may have been derived from "Beherit", the Syriac word for Satan.
- Ordinary Behelits are usually depicted as yellow, blue or green in color.
- One character became an Apostle and took the shape of a Behelit; he is known as the Egg-Shaped Apostle.
- In most cases, blood from the destined person spills onto the Behelit before its facial features become rearranged. The only known exceptions to this thus far are the Count in his first sacrifice and Guts in his journey into the Qliphoth
- It is unknown what happens to a human bearer of a Behelit who refuses to sacrifice anyone. The only character in the series thus far who has refused to sacrifice anyone was the Count, who refused to sacrifice his daughter Theresia to save his life and be reborn again after being critically wounded by Guts, and was forcibly taken by the dead and dragged into the Abyss like all Apostles that die in the series.
- The only known bearer of a Behelit who has not sacrificed a human attachment was the Egg-Shaped Apostle, who sacrificed his world in order to bring about a new age. Also, though a non-canonical case, in Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō, Charles is implied to have sacrificed his sister, though when he had made the sacrifice he did not know what he was sacrificing at the time and when Guts confronted him about the identity of his sacrifice, he was in denial.
- Behelits have a taste and texture not unlike the common potato. Those who eat one, however, are plagued by indigestion and malaise for the rest of their lives.
- Behelits apparently react to others of its kind as well as God Hand members. The Behelit in Guts' possession assembled its facial features upon being placed in close proximity with Slan in the Qliphoth, despite the fact that Guts would not have the desperation to call out God Hand, and vibrated, as though it was shuddering, in the presence of the Skull Knight's Sword of Resonance. Both a swarm of ghosts and Slan have suggested that Guts activate the Behelit and sacrifice somebody, implying that the Behelit in Guts' possession truly belonged to him and that the conditions were ripe for him to make a sacrifice.
- In episode 07-B of the anime Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, a Crimson Behelit-like figure can be seen.