Hakushaku

The Count is cruel, authoritarian and consumed by hatred toward people he labels heretics. He uses religious persecution to justify torture, execution and his own appetite for human victims.

His behavior is not entirely devoid of human attachment. He remains fiercely protective of Theresia and tries to preserve her image of him as a father, even while hiding the atrocities committed throughout his castle.

That attachment exposes a contradiction in his transformation. The Count can inflict horrific suffering on strangers and former servants, yet his feelings for his daughter remain strong enough to interfere with the logic of sacrifice.

As an Apostle, the Count possesses enormous strength, durability and regenerative ability. His transformed body resembles a gigantic slug-like creature with a heavily distorted human face.

He can survive wounds that would instantly kill an ordinary human and use his huge body to crush or overwhelm opponents. His regeneration makes conventional attacks insufficient to defeat him permanently.

The Count also possesses a beherit, allowing contact with the God Hand when the conditions for activation are fulfilled.

The Count first appears chronologically among the Apostles surrounding the Eclipse, but his principal role occurs during the Black Swordsman Arc, when Guts enters his territory.

Vargas, the Count's former physician, gives Guts the beherit he stole from his master and explains the horrors committed within the castle.

Years earlier, the Count discovered his wife participating in a pagan ritual. In despair, he activated the beherit and sacrificed her, becoming an Apostle. He subsequently turned his rule into a campaign of torture and cannibalistic violence.

After Guts defeats him, the Count's beherit activates again and summons the God Hand. They offer him renewed life if he sacrifices Theresia. Unable to condemn his daughter, he refuses, and the souls of his victims drag him into the Abyss.

Theresia is the Count's daughter and the person he continues to love despite his transformation. His refusal to sacrifice her prevents him from receiving another restoration from the God Hand.

Vargas is the Count's former physician. The Count mutilates him and kills his family after Vargas discovers his Apostle nature, creating Vargas's obsession with revenge.

Guts becomes the Count's principal enemy during the Black Swordsman Arc and ultimately defeats his physical form.

Puck becomes involved through his association with Guts and friendship with Theresia.

Void, Slan, Ubik and Conrad appear when the Count's beherit activates and demand a new sacrifice in exchange for salvation.