Berserk - Slan (Suran): Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

“Berserk”, the masterpiece of mangaka Kentaro Miura, is not only one of the most notorious graphic works in Japan, but also one of the most macabre and explicit. The medieval setting is bathed in concepts inspired by classics of western horror literature as well as the most undignified events in human history.

In Berserk, it is difficult to define what is more abominable: whether it is the fictional and supernatural aspect contained in this dark fantasy or the elements of the culture of barbarism manifested in the thousands of illustrations that Miura created during his life, which often remind us bitterly of the genocides that humans are capable of and far worse things than the monsters and diabolical entities of mythology. Interestingly, Miura portrays his antagonists as beings whose genesis lies in all the negative thoughts and feelings, acts of cruelty practiced throughout history, which astrally (and later materially) served as a substrate for their rebirth as abominations through a conscious structure that the author called “Aku no aidea” (Idea of Evil), which in turn translates as the encompassing of everything that man negatively produces (physically, spiritually, emotionally).

“Suran”, better known as “Slan” in the West, is one of the five entities resulting from this craft of flesh and spirit promoted by the “Idea of Evil”. In this select group of abominations of immeasurable power, known as the "Hand of God", capable of altering reality in sporadic manifestations on the material plane, Suran is the only one with a female aspect (although gender is no longer something that is so important for creatures so plagued and which, anthropomorphically, are the symbol of the maximum expressions of this scourge).

Suran, like the others, was obviously inspired by Clive Barker's work “The Hellbound Heart”. The resemblance to the English writer's cenobites is not a mere coincidence, both from an aesthetic and mental point of view. The notions of pain, pleasure, good and evil of these “angels” (in quotation marks) were pathologically distorted following a conceptual line very similar to that of Barker. And I selected “Suran” for this podcast not by chance, but because it is the most accessible and developed by Miura after Griffith (or Femto, as it became known after its conversion by the Idea of Evil).

In general, the manifestations of the others were very rare and punctual throughout the manga, which gave them an aura of mystery and clarified very little about their individual motivations (although the collective objective has always been to abandon the astral world and fully manifest itself in the material world – a goal achieved by them, in fact, in the later volumes of Miura’s work).

Miura, now deceased, took little care to introduce the reader to the origins and past human lives of these creatures. That said, it is a fact that Suran, in particular, manifested herself enough times so that we could develop a concept about her. We know, for example, that she is someone much more present in the lives of humans than one might suppose. The world of Berserk is tragic, hopeless, unfair, cruel and such elements, from an anthropological point of view, lead a great mass of desperate people towards the worship of divine beings (a fact that Suran willingly takes advantage of, since it is precisely this expression of human feelings that gave rise to beings like her, as I mentioned earlier).

In what Berserk offers in terms of famine, war, and other scourges of life, Suran has known how to drain human energy and thoughtforms to her own advantage. The evil that men do to themselves was useful so that she could offer subterfuges of carnal pleasure, a rare thing for the legions of miserable people in the world of Berserk. The reader will notice that this female demon, unlike the other members of the Hand of God, purposely received a much more minimalist aesthetic treatment from Kentaro Miura. Unlike the others, her form was not made with the intention of generating repulsion, but attraction. The black leather used in her bodice is quite similar to Hellraiser's style, but while in the others it is seen in most of her build (as it is also in Clive Barker's cenobites), in Suran it is the opposite: the bodice is the only thing she actually uses, in which Miura, then, gives greater prominence to her female forms, such as breasts, buttocks and genitals. Suran's form is idealized, very similar to the succubus concept found in Western literature, a trait that is further reinforced by the chiropteran wings she possesses.

Ultimately, Suran is a profane symbol of lust in the same way as a traditional succubus, but with some quirks and behavioral nuances that, in some ways, make her distinct from a typical female demon. If Suran were compared to a succubus, she would undoubtedly be their goddess. While it is expected that seduction, deceit and manipulation would be its main devices, Suran's power and status is so absurd and beyond any human resistance that the creature no longer cares so much about these judgment-numbing strategies, which Ubik, another member of the Hand of God takes precedence.

At least not until she finds a human with real potential to resist her, as with the protagonist Guts, which only makes her more interested and excited by him (in both senses). A demon is always a demon, and while Suran offers the extreme delight of the traditional succubus, the concept of her is infinitely more disturbing because of the powers granted her by the Idea of Evil. Among the poor, hungry and hopeless masses of Berserk, who seek in her cult the complete disinhibition of carnal pleasures (which can be seen, for example, in the orgies practiced by those who named her the “Goddess of Flame”), we can find concomitantly acts of cannibalism with absurd refinements of cruelty, made explicitly and worshiped with the same fervor.

It is in this sense that Kentaro Miura brings the traditional concept of the succubus closer to a facet closer to Hellraiser's cenobites: deception and manipulation, although they are also present elements, are not used by Suran with as much impetus as we see in Ubik. She, as the Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea, reveals that she is not merely the ultimate lust entity in the world of Berserk, but a perversely sadomasochistic lust. Like Clive Barker's cenobites, Suran's libido is manifested in extreme expressions of pain and pleasure and she literally orgasms with both, whether separately or together. Examples of this abound in the manga. During the Eclipse, Griffith's rape of Casca (before the eyes of a completely enraged Guts, cruelly forced to watch it all) brought Suran to tears (but not out of sadness, but satisfaction). Which is ghastly, evil and very frightening. Suran is ecstatic with Casca's pain, Griffith's pleasure and Guts' hatred, this set of elements in the same barbaric scene which she refers to as being "beautiful".

Another example could be seen during the events of the Qliphoth, where surprisingly Suran manifests again, molding his body with the guts of the trolls that had been torn apart by Guts. Since the Eclipse, Suran has developed an obsessive attraction to him, for the way he confronted the members of the Hand of God. Suran admires his stamina, his fortitude and especially the bestial hatred that the character has developed, which leads him to perform unthinkable feats for a normal human. It is precisely this hatred that gives its name to the manga.

Suran has a lustful fascination with Guts and this is the main reason for her appearances on a few occasions, thus making her the most present member of the Hand Of God in the material world after Griffith. Suran mocks Guts' persistence, his unshakable drive to destroy them all, especially Griffith. And among the most outstanding characteristics of the protagonist, the one that most interests Suran is precisely this unrestrained hatred, which made him capable of destroying several of the apostles of the Hand of God and reveals, at the same time, the enormous darkness that inhabits the character. Suran is increasingly attracted by this darkness, showing great pleasure in situations like the one that happened in the Qliphoth, where Guts pierces her with his gigantic sword and Suran demonstrates reaching a deep orgasm with it. If the reader hasn't noticed, there is a phallic symbology in the scene in question, sealed by the kiss that Suran, even impaled, gave Guts' lips in gratitude.

Berserk is a very interesting manga because it explains that its main antagonists, although they have a common goal, do not necessarily nurture a sense of self-preservation among themselves. Which, of course, makes Suran someone who doesn't give a shit if Griffith is directly affected by Guts. On the contrary: the character's lust and attraction for the black swordsman made her tempt him to accept a Behelit and transform into this disgusting thing that his apostles are. Hypothetically speaking, Suran gives the feeling that she would enjoy watching Guts eliminate Griffith in the same way she watched the manga's great villain and antagonist violate Casca. In theory, this is the essence of Suran, her sense of existence. What she elicits in humans, and at the same time her nourishment through their actions.

As a diabolical being who can conceive the entire design of causality (although she is not fully omniscient, as she could not foresee that Guts would survive the Eclipse), we can assume that Suran is certainly aware of much of the future events of Berserk. Which now, with Kentaro Miura dead, we'll never know. In any case, this almost omniscience decorated with all the adjectives described throughout my speech summarizes very well what kind of creature Suran is and some of the reasons why Kentaro Miura has placed so much emphasis on her throughout the work. Berserk was a manga completely unsuitable for minors in its first arcs and it is a fact that Miura made it much more accessible over the decades, perhaps due to the conquest of a large audience (which means the possibility of more sales). In any case, whatever he did with Suran and however he ended the (now forever unfinished) work, the unspeakable horrors and sensations elicited by her were immortalized in Japanese horror, in a way that, for many, it certainly must have been a traumatic experience. As much as the work was never kind, it could never have prepared the reader for the hell orchestrated by the harlot princess of the uterine sea and her cronies.

Corvid greetings!