Blue Whale Knights

Every soldier in this corps rides to war, making it a purely mounted heavy cavalry whose horses wear full plate barding. Their armor leans into an aquatic theme fitting the whale in their name, ranging from blued gothic plate in the anime to plainer conquistador-style suits in the manga, with a few riders barely protected at all. Many wear helmets shaped like the gaping mouths of fish, the facial bars evoking baleen, and none are shown with mail beneath the plate. Their weapons vary from metal lances in the anime to halberds, axes, and spears across the manga.

As a heavy assault corps, the Blue Whale Knights are built for the crushing weight of an armored charge rather than finesse. General Adon Coborlwitz leads them, with his brother Samson serving as second-in-command, and their strength lies in mass and iron until a sharper opponent thins their ranks. By the time they defend Doldrey, earlier losses to the Falcon have already worn the corps down.

The knights first cross swords with the Band of the Falcon in an open battle during which Guts and Casca tumble off a cliff. Chasing the bounty Adon has placed on the pair, scouts comb the area, and by nightfall a mercenary company under Adon corners the two. Guts and Casca fight their way back to one another, and when Adon sends his brother Samson forward, Guts shields Casca and splits Samson's skull.

At Doldrey, Adon, who had feigned death to survive an earlier rescue, is stripped of his command by General Boscogn of the Purple Rhino Knights as punishment for his disgrace. Even demoted, he directs the depleted corps against Casca's infiltrating platoon inside the fortress, and their duel reveals that the unit had been posted there on his account. Once Casca kills Adon, she orders the watching soldiers to rout the remaining knights, and the fortress falls.