Introductions
Once legendary heroes, these warriors now serve a different purpose using their new forms to take on the horrid groups following the will of evil that threaten this world.
Skull Knight, Foe of The Inhumans
And The Emperor, The Fallen Founder of Baldur’s Gate
Before We Begin…
There will be Baldur’s Gate 3 spoilers. In fact, The Emperor is a Spoiler. Baldur’s Gate is a canon piece of DND media and thus this will be using scaling from other parts of the verse where applicable. Skull Knight has some abilities that are somewhat speculative due to his vague nature as a character, therefore certain things may or may not be included based on evidence. This will also be assuming the presence of a full moon to Skull Knight’s advantage.
Background
Skull Knight
Name: Gaiseric
Age: ~1000
Height: ~200cm
Helped Griffith defeat the Wall of Flesh and bring the world into hard mode
Gay-seric? get it (haha)
The Emperor
Name: Balduran
Age: ~450
Height: ~180cm
Achievement Get: Mind Blown
Master Gaslighter
Balduran was first mentioned in 1968
Is actually a terrible person
Retconned to have been an Elf cause otherwise he’d be very dead
Intelligence / Experience / Skill
Skull Knight
Skull Knight is one of the greatest fighters in Berserk, being quick to pick up on any situation and quickly respond due to his nearly 1000 years of experience fighting inhumans. He has never been hit once on screen, usually deflecting barrages of attacks from multiple angles, even parkouring and doing flips while on horseback and blocking his own attack that was deflected at him through a portal. Has been stated to fight better than Nosferatu Zodd, a monster who has roamed battlefields for centuries seeking out strong opponents. Zodd is also comparable to Guts in combat skill, Guts being someone who has trained in combat since birth, taking down adults even as a child and later using this experience to fight against hellish monsters despite being born a normal human. Guts has also shown several impressive feats while badly injured, like winning against someone with no gaps in their armour while using a dull sword or taking down 100 men at once.
The Emperor
The Emperor is incomprehensibly smart, as a Mind Flayer he has decently higher intelligence than Beholders who are “considered so intelligent, it is compared to paranoia- for it is said that they have calculated the chances of any event, no matter how unlikely, and prepared an adequate plan for such a thing” and Illithid intelligence works on a scale beyond that of humans. He mentally dominated the Netherbrain which was capable of “calculating every possible move at once” and predicted exactly how the events of the game would play out, setting them in motion before the game started. The Netherbrain was also capable of outsmarting 3 separate gods who embodied entire concepts and would have near-absolute understandings of their domains, (death, murder, and tyranny) all 3 of which were related to the Netherbain's plan. The Emperor would have assimilated the Netherbrain's knowledge as well as the knowledge of 1000s of others upon the certain endings of the game and past Mind Flayer colonies have been capable of creating technology that can overwrite Multiverses.
Since The Emperor is obscenely smart, his spellcasting skill as an Intelligence caster is superb. He defeated Ansur, an Adult Gold Dragon that had attacked him in his sleep and who is far stronger than he was a fresh Mind Flayer, as well as holding up while outnumbered by Orpheus’s highly trained Githyanki Monks. He is comparable to the various companions in BG3 who were consistently punching above their weight class against characters like the immortal Ketheric Thorm, a legendary commander that was only previously defeated while vastly outnumbered and now possessed the power of The Death God Myrkul.
Equipment / Weapons
Skull Knight
Berserker Armor
Skull Knight’s spirit takes the form of a skeletal armour. Due to the words of Hanarr regarding Skull Knight’s current state, the armour we see him wear is likely another Berserker Armor or something similar. The armour removes the user’s ability to feel pain and fear, allowing them to fight completely unhindered at the cost of the user’s body. As the user is wounded, the armour bites into their body and forces their flesh and bone back together. It is said that the user of the Berserker armour can continue fighting until every bone in their body is broken and every drop of blood has been spilled, this likely wouldn't be a problem for Skull Knight due to him likely lacking a traditional organic body. The Berserker armour blocks out thought projections from entering the mind of its user, and during full moons can block out Schierke from reaching Guts’ mind, Schierke was able to do this despite the armour’s previous telepathy resistance.
Talisman
The Berserker Armor has a talisman built into it, this talisman blocks the effects of curses on the body like the brand of sacrifice that attracts evil spirits.
Sword of Actuation
A thorny sword Skull Knight carries into battle to fight the inhuman. When sticking it into his mouth, the sword takes on a red glow with several facial features spread throughout it like a Behelit. The main ability of the sword is to cleave through space itself (cutting at space would inherently be durability negation. He has also tried to use this ability offensively but it was against Griffith who used his own spatial manip to redirect it and make it hit Ganishka instead) and create portals to other dimensions, namely the Vortex of Souls. These portals will suck anyone near them up and leave them stranded within these worlds. The sword has also been seen delivering wounds to astral spirits. Although wounds to one’s astral self doesn't stop the process of healing completely, these wounds will always reopen unless the astral body is also healed.
Horse
Skull Knight is always seen riding an armoured horse into battle. This horse has supernatural abilities like running up walls and seemingly disappearing.
Shield
He has a shield and it does shield things.
The Emperor
The Emperor’s Gear
The Emperor has a set of armour that makes him immune to being frightened as well as a sword that targets shapeshifters
Baldurans Gear
When he was Balduran, He carried a powerful Greatsword designed to annihilate large foes and allow him to grow far larger, He also wore a helmet that passively healed him as well as protecting him from critical hits and stuns
The Netherstones
These stones allow The Emperor to cast “Karsus’ Compulsion” a 9th-level Spell allowing him to mentally dominate the Nether Brain. An Elder Brain would be immune to spells like mind flayer domination, however was affected by the Netherstones’ power. However, The Nether Brain evolved becoming resistant to the effects of the stones and only upon a mind flayer casting Karsus’ Compulsion could be Dominated. In addition, the spell can create a portal into their mind and allow the Emperor to physically break several layers of mental domination resistance and force them to submit to his domination
The Astral Prism
An artifact The Emperor stole from Vlaakith. It contains a pocket dimension the Emperor can freely travel to and from as well as create a portal to/from. While in the dimension The Emperor is free from attack but has limited options for how he can interact with the outside world. His Telepathy is fully functioning, and far more excitingly he can cause the Prism to explode and fucking annihilate anyone in its blast radius.
Powers / Abilities
Skull Knight
Immortality
As the original struggler before Guts, Skull Knight exists as a spirit on the border between life and death fueled only by his own wrath against the Godhand. This thirst for vengeance has allowed him to seemingly roam the earth for thousands of years. Is also able to eat Behelits, cursed objects that act as totems to converge the mortal world and astral world.
Causality Awareness
Often delivers strange prophecies regarding events within the future, also showing knowledge of events within the past and future that he should have no way of knowing. Knows where causality will converge and locations where the Godhand will appear.
Acausality
As a survivor of an Eclipse, Skull Knight should exist within the interstice between worlds much like Guts, existing outside of the traditional flow of causality and logic of the world. He can also oppose the Godhand themselves despite their passive aura that causes those around them to obey their commands and can even induce fear and madness. The astral world also runs on a different flow of time to the physical world.
Supernatural Aura
Astral beings in Berserk, especially apostles, give off a strange feeling that makes their inhuman nature known to those around them. Without knowing his location, Guts felt Skull Knight’s presence and described it as similar to Zodd’s. Without even seeing him, Guts started sweating and felt like he'd die if he even moved.
Controlled Berserker State
As the armour’s creator implies, Skull Knight once mastered the Berserker Armor, likely using it in a similar way to Guts’ controlled Berserker state. In this state, the user gains the same benefits of the Berserker Armor without losing their mind to their inner darkness. When Guts saw Skull Knight’s memories within the Berserker Armor, his POV wasn't muddled like it traditionally is in a fully Berserker State.
The Emperor
Physiology
Since Balduran was an Elf before ceremorphosis this would give him complete immunity to any and all forms of sleep manipulation as Elves are physically incapable of sleeping. As a Mind Flayer, The Emperor has an innate resistance to Magic, allowing him to more consistently resist the effects of spells, (This doesn't mean these won’t work on him but it does mean they will be far less effective). Mind Flayers are also entirely incapable of feeling Positive emotions.
Mind Flayer Abilities
With Mind Flayer abilities The Emperor is capable of firing a charcuterie of mind blasts that can stun enemies and even heal himself, he can eat the brain of stunned or prone foes, teleport even between planes of reality, reduce all stats (STR, DEX, CON, WIS, INT, CHA) by 5 points.
Illithid Powers
Illithid Powers (full list here) allow him to do a variety of things like reduce the intelligence of foes by 1 each time he hits them, passively kill low-health enemies (Characters equal to Emp are killed at ~18%) , conjure black holes that damage and slow enemies, induce fear, transform into a displacer beast, use Pysonic Dominance which is just Counterspell but without the level restriction, and more.
Spellcasting
Through Spellcasting The Emperor can use Telekinesis to throw people and objects, fire bolts of Chain Lightning, and conjure Evard's Black Tentacles, manipulating the terrain and smothering those within.
Telepathy
The Emperor is a capable telepath, it is the only way he can can communicate. With his telepathy, he can read thoughts, emotions and memories which he uses to manipulate and strategize. Resistances to Mental attacks are inapplicable against The Emperor’s telepathy As he could completely ignore the typical resistance Tadpole bearers had against their thoughts and memories being gone through (Shown throughout act one when he’s disguised as well as when he invades the player's minds following their conversation with Raphael). He is also capable of reading thoughts and memories in an undetectable way, as he did through Act One. If anyone attempts to search his thoughts he can respond by flash-banging their minds with gruesome images which stops any attempts.
Dream Visitor
The “Dream Visitor” is an identity the Emperor assumes to manipulate people He composes this form from the target’s memories in order to create the most trustworthy character possible. He is also capable of summoning 4 of these visitors into the real world to fight. Each DV wields a formidable spear, possesses the ability to Mentally dominate foes and can cast the spell Command, which has the target perform a 1-word command that cannot cause harm to themselves directly.
Assimilated from Orpheus
While he would have presumably picked up a variety of Monk abilities, the main perk of assimilating Gith Jesus is insane resistance to mental attacks, The Tadpoles provide a layer of resistance against Mind Manipulation shown by their complete immunity to Mind Flayer Domination but they are still vulnerable to the Nether Brain’s domination, something the power of Orpheus is capable of resisting for weeks to months on end.
Scaling
Skull Knight
AP and Durability
Skull Knight is one of the strongest characters within Berserk, having fought the inhumans for nearly a millennia. He can easily scale above Guts who’s defeated apostles and pseudo apostles like Mozgus, a character capable of vaporizing a piece of the tidal wave of darkness with the force of 119.07 tons of TNT. He has also heavily wounded and taken down Nosferatu Zodd on multiple occasions, Zodd being someone capable of surviving the storm generated by Ganishka. The durability required for this has been estimated from around 19.895 megatons - to 10.766 gigatons of TNT.
Speed
Skull Knight can easily blitz several characters, seemingly including a newly awakened Femto. This would easily place him above characters like Guts and Serpico who can dodge Ganishka’s lightning. Guts was also able to stab his sword into the ground before he got struck by lightning, moving at Mach 432 to do so.
The Emperor
AP and Durability
As a High-Level caster, The Emperor would easily scale to the spell Disintegrate which can vaporize a temple, requiring a force of 500 tons of TNT. As The Emperor cannot be fought until the last battle of the game, it is fair to say he scales to the game's main cast. Throughout BG3 the companions do battle with The Chosen of the Dead Three Ketheric, Gortash and Orin. A god's Chosen is stated to have power comparable to a Demigod. Demigods are far superior to something like Phanteons, which are capable of heating the core of worlds a feat that requires energy equal to 13.74 petatons of TNT.
Speed
As an end game character, The Emperor is vastly superior to a level 7 rouge. With the Evasion ability they get at level 7, they are capable of consistently dodging lightning, which moves at speeds of nearly Mach 1300. Considering this calc for the ability Evasion dodging light comes in at the speed of light, The Emperor should be able to move at around the speed of lightning.
Summary
Skull Knight
Advantages
More skilled and experienced
Counters & resists much of The Emperor’s kit, notably mental domination
Spacial Cut can negate The Emperor’s durability
Comparable Speed
Disadvantages
Far weaker
Fairly limited options
The Emperor
Advantages
Stronger
Far Smarter
Greater variety of attacks
AOE attacks are vastly effective with the stat gap
Comparable Speed
Disadvantages
No counter to Spacial Cut
Many Abilities are null
By JohnTM
Verdict
Argument For The Emperor (Triple)
This is fairly clear cut, The power gap is just too large for Skull Knight to hold his own, at the low end it’s still 5x which is still enough for Emperor to take it but once you get into some higher stuff you are looking at powers of 10. Even at the lower power gap Cull the Weak (which kills enemies with equal health to Emperor at 18%) effectively reduces SK’s health significantly due to how much weaker he is. Skull Knight has admittedly very impressive mental defence under a full moon, but still nowhere near enough to counter the obsceneness of Karsus’ compulsion which physically breaks layers of mental resistance and forces submission. There also just no way The Emperor’s plethora of AOE and ranged attacks aren’t going to overwhelm Skull Knight, mental blasts, Chain lightning, or even a black hole-type attack that lowers his speed allowing him to be pounded further by his attacks. while Spacial Cutting is absolutely a way Skull Knight can deal with Balduran, he’s going to have an incredibly hard time hitting him when he can teleport around, and create the dream visitors to split Skull’s attention. The Emperor is absolutely Intelligent enough to play around spacial cut and he could even just use Telekinesis to disarm Skull Knight and neuter him of his only win condition. Ultimately The Emperor’s raw power, offensive options, and intelligence let him win in the vast majority of cases.
Argument For Skull Knight (John)
Overall I think Skull Knight should take this more often than not, although there are some scenarios where Emperor wins Skull Knight should likely pull through due to his spatial slash. While Emperor can one-shot and has AOEs, Skull Knight could likely escape by making portals to another dimension or use them to ambush Emperor, while also using stuff like Precog. Skull Knight can also use these portals to suck up stuff like range attacks and AOEs and should have a skill advantage up close and experience taking down several opponents at once. His skill + Precog and space cut should let him win if he gets within range, which is possible if Skull Knight sneaks him the same way he did with Griffith. A ton of Emperor's haxes, mainly the mental ones, wouldn't work due to the Berserker armour having layered resistance to telepathy. Overall, Skull Knight's general skill, resistance, and versatility with the sword of actuation should let him clutch a win
Votes
Due to the collaborative nature of this blog, several 3rd parties read up to this point and were asked to vote on who they thought won. If you would be interested in voting on a future blog feel free to reach out.
The Emperor (6)
Triple, H, Bla5t3r, Skrrt, Gekuul, Jolley
Skull Knight (1)
John
The Winner Is The Emperor
“Judge all things in life but not in business, for morals and ethics do not balance the scales when the deal must be weighed up”
