Casca

About Casca

Casca is the field commander of the Band of the Hawk in Berserk and the only woman in its ranks. She earned her place with a sword Griffith put in her hand as a girl, and she holds the Hawks together while Griffith dreams and Guts broods. Her slow, hard won bond with Guts is the emotional heart of the Golden Age. The Eclipse leaves her mind shattered, and restoring her becomes Guts's reason to keep travelling.

Appearance

Casca is a fit young woman with dark skin, short brown hair cut in a rough bob, and sharp brown eyes. She fights in light armour over a tunic, with a short sword at her hip and the Hawk surcoat over it, and she is usually the most composed person on any battlefield in the story. In the later story, after the Eclipse, her appearance changes painfully: her hair grows long and wild, she wears simple travelling clothes and an elf made cloak, and she carries herself like a frightened child rather than a commander, which is exactly the wound Guts is trying to heal.

Personality

Casca is disciplined, proud and sharper tongued than anyone in the Hawks. She worked twice as hard as the men around her to be taken seriously and she does not forgive sloppiness, especially Guts's. She is also more tender than she lets anyone see. She cries alone, sews, worries over the wounded and carries her devotion to Griffith like a duty she never questions until Guts questions it for her. Her tragedy lands so hard because the series first builds her as the strongest person in the room.

Background & Story

Casca was born to poor farmers and sold as a child to a nobleman, who tried to assault her on the road. Griffith, then a teenage mercenary, gave her a sword and told her to fight if she wanted to live. She joined his band that day and rose to command it, the only woman among the Hawks and the person who held them together in the field. She resented Guts when Griffith forced him into the band, then came to respect and finally love him. At the Eclipse she was branded and assaulted by Femto, and the trauma destroyed her mind. For years afterwards she travels under Guts's protection in a childlike state, until the journey to Elfhelm offers a way to bring her back.

Powers & Abilities

• Swordsmanship: Casca is one of the finest fighters in the Hawks, quick and technical, able to hold her own against elite knights and to cut through a battlefield to reach her men.
• Battlefield Command: She plans formations, reads a changing battle and keeps the Hawks fighting as one unit, the practical skill that turned Griffith's talent into victories.
• horsemanship and scouting: Like all Hawk officers she rides, scouts and skirmishes, and the series repeatedly trusts her with the missions that decide whether a battle happens at all.

Key Relationships

• Griffith: The boy who handed her a sword and gave her a life. She devotes herself to his dream completely, and his blindness to her feelings is one of the Golden Age's quiet sorrows.
• Guts: At first the reckless intruder who took Griffith's attention, then her equal, then the man she chooses. After the Eclipse, he becomes her protector on the road to Elfhelm.
• Judeau: Her fellow Hawk and close friend, who loves her quietly for years and never says it plainly. His loyalty to her lasts to his final moment.
• Farnese: Her travelling companion and, in the later story, something close to a student in care and patience. Farnese helps look after Casca on the road, which changes them both.

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