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Trolls (トロール Torōru?) are an Astral World race.[1] First seen near the Qliphoth domains in large numbers[2], they become a common sight in Fantasia.[3][4]

Appearance[]

Trolls are hairy, apelike humanoids with dark fur and faces that comprise elements of pigs and rodents. Their eyes are wide and bulging and their snouts thick and fleshy with several protrusions somewhat similar to feelers or sensors.[2] Trolls have a degree of intelligence, as shown by their ability and propensity to use man-made weapons.[2][5][6][7][8]

Profile[]

Like other Qliphoth inhabitants, trolls are ethereal life-forms with a dark od, born from humanity's mental world.[9] Trolls display a number of feelings, reacting with surprise[10][11][12][13][14][7], fear or amusement[15] to the events that unfold around them. Some display a lascivious behaviour, slobbering when facing the prospect of acquiring a sexual partner.[5] They also display a frenzied disposition at battle.[10][11][7][4] They are cannibalistic, eating their injured.[10][16] Similarly, they were seen eating the corpse of the ogre Guts defeated at Enoch Village.[14] Trolls also eat humans and livestock,[5][3] which they acquire after raids.[17][5] They seem to be able to reproduce using human women, with the latter dying when a litter of infant trolls claw their way out of the womb and eat the parent's flesh.[18]

They do appear to have some sort of system of leadership, seen when an armed, large troll steps forward in Qliphoth, to the exclusion of the others when they fail. This troll also shields himself with a smaller of their kin.[8] That said, trolls do not show much in terms of battle skills, charging head on as Guts cuts them down in droves.[11][16][19] Despite their sluggish looks, they are not as slow as it could seem.[2] They also are able to climb trees with ease.[20] Trolls rarely hunt alone, and tend to form packs.[20][5]

Story[]

Trolls

Trolls in the barn.

The first night of winter, a pack of trolls proceed to plague Enoch Village, eating the livestock while carrying off the women and children.[17] Eventually, a resident named Morgan seeks the aid of the witch Flora to rid his town of them, going to her residence alongside five other people.[20]

Elsewhere, as Guts and his party cross a forest, Casca's brand starts to bleed as a troll attempts to kidnap Casca and Farnese. As Isidro hits the troll with a stone, Puck senses the inhuman nature of the being. Isidro then remembers the words of a man that crossed paths with the Black Swordsman Party, warning them of the trolls. From a safe distance, an elf and a figure clad in odd clothes observe the scene.[2] As Isidro falls to the floor due to a miscalculation on his part, the figure throws berries at the elf and asks the boy to stay still. As Isidro looks around him at the figure's request, he notices they are surrounded by trolls on the top of the nearby trees. Soon after, the figure conducts a magic ritual, first shielding the group with a pentacle-shaped light and then scaring the trolls away by shooting hair aflame.[20] Once Guts' group resumes their trek across the forest, they come across a wounded Morgan, who lost the other ones to the trolls after an attack.[17] After a short fight against the golems that guard the witch's Mansion of the Spirit Tree, the group meet Flora, the witch Morgan had been looking for. The witch notes that, due to the astral nature of the trolls, they should not be seen by humans, and much less attack their homes.[1]

Ss1 3

Guts attacking the invading trolls.

The day later, trolls raid an Enoch Village barnyard and kill a man named Horace after one of them raped and abducted his sister Hannah while murdering her husband Ted.[5] Once at the village, Schierke assumes that the villagers will hold up at the village's church if the trolls attack.[21] When a huge pack of trolls arrive at the village, the young witch uses thought transference so that the Black Swordsman Party members take shelter there. On their way to the building, Serpico dispatches several of them after communing with the elemental beings that power the Sylph Sword.[6][22] Isidro attempts a similar feat, but is outnumbered and can only slow them down using several consecrated berries.[10] On their way to the church, Casca falls to the floor and trolls surround them. Though Farnese shields her and notices that the silver surcoats that were given to the two women do repel the beings, Serpico convenes in opening a path for escape. It is then that Guts faces the trolls, killing them with the Dragon Slayer.[10][11]

Trolls eventually find their way in[11] and are fended off by Serpico, Isidro, Morgan and several villagers. They also reach the upper part of the church, where Schierke was at alongside Ivalera, Casca and Farnese, who are protected by the silver surcoats[16] Once the young witch summons the Four Kings of the World, their light makes nearby trolls crumble. As Guts notes, they cannot enter it.[12] Shortly afterwards, an ogre appears along with a kelpie, making Guts and Serpico combat them respectively and leaving the rest of the trolls for Schierke to destroy, which she accomplishes by summoning a water spirit to flood the village.[23] While the trolls retreat, they drag Casca and Farnese (who had fallen into the water current) along with them.[24]

In order to retrieve them, Schierke follows the residual thoughts of the trolls leads Puck, Ivalera, Guts, Serpico, and Isidro across the astral border into Qliphoth, the region of darkness of the Astral World.[9] Waking up in the Qliphoth, Casca and Farnese are horrified by the beings living there, along with the sight of the kidnapped women being raped by the trolls, sometimes in a manner violent enough to kill them. When Hannah, the woman who was kidnapped earlier that day, crawls over begging for help, they can only watch as she is torn apart from the inside by many infantile trolls.[18] Farnese's shrieking alerts the trolls. After sensing they were seen as they tried to escape, Schierke manipulates the od of several of them. Despite being terrified, Farnese uses her silver dagger to protect Casca. Though the silver garments they wear protect Casca and Farnese from the trolls' touch, they do not bar the trolls from touching them with any weapon or instrument.[7] It is then that the rescue team finds the two women, only to see that more and more trolls appear en masse. Guts proceeds to deal with the trolls, with Isidro protecting the newly rescued Enoch women and children.[7]

Schierke and Isidro have trouble fending off the remaining trolls, but eventually deal with them thanks to the swift intervention of Skull Knight[9] and the Rotting Root Lord, having been summoned forth by Schierke.[25] Isidro takes down all armed trolls as well as what he assumes to be their leader.[8] Meanwhile, Guts, who has slain a large number of trolls himself, is set upon by Slan after she manifested through the slain beasts' intestines.[26] The God Hand member claims that the place can spew forth any number of such abominable spirits.[8] With the forced advent and passing of Slan, Skull Knight uses his sword, now coated in refined beherits, to reach for the other group and leave Qliphoth as it shuts.[25]

Trolls are seen harassing villages and humans in the aftermath of the Great Roar of the Astral World.[3] Rickert and Erica, who had left Godot's home once trolls appeared in the mountains,[27] protect a refugee caravan from a troll attack, soon to be helped by a group of soldiers that are identified by one of the caravan members as Band of the Falcon members.[4] Once the caravan and the soldiers arrive in Falconia, Jarif tells Laban that the medium delivered an oracle in which a troll pack would attack some refugees near the Eastern mountain pass.[27]

During their fight against the jötnar, several trolls are seen alongside their king.[15]

Gallery[]

This section requires expansion.

Notes[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 24, "Astral World"
  2. ^ a b c d e Berserk :: Volume 24, "Trolls"
  3. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 34, "Fantasia"
  4. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 37, "Covered Wagon"
  5. ^ a b c d e f Berserk :: Volume 24, "Enoch Village"
  6. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 24, "Troll Invasion"
  7. ^ a b c d e Berserk :: Volume 26, "Retribution"
  8. ^ a b c d Berserk :: Volume 26, "Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea"
  9. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 25, "Qliphoth"
  10. ^ a b c d e Berserk :: Volume 25, "Magic Sword"
  11. ^ a b c d e Berserk :: Volume 25, "Mirror of Sins"
  12. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 25, "Arcana of Invocation"
  13. ^ Berserk :: Volume 25, "Evil Horde (1)"
  14. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 25, "Evil Horde (2)"
  15. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 40, "Jötunn"
  16. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 25, "Magic"
  17. ^ a b c Berserk :: Volume 24, "Mansion of the Spirit Tree (1)"
  18. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 25, "Corruption"
  19. ^ Berserk :: Volume 26, "Salvation"
  20. ^ a b c d Berserk :: Volume 24, "Witch"
  21. ^ Berserk :: Volume 24, "Desires and Memories"
  22. ^ Berserk :: Volume 25, "Magic Sword"
  23. ^ Berserk :: Volume 25, "Torrent"
  24. ^ Berserk :: Volume 25, "Shaman"
  25. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 26, "Companions"
  26. ^ Berserk :: Volume 26, "Vicinity of Hell"
  27. ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 38, "Capital City of Humanity"

Appendices[]

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