Band of the Falcon

The Band of the Falcon is a mercenary outfit assembled by Griffith to chase his dream of carving out a kingdom of his own. Feared on the battlefield as the Grim Reapers, the company plays a decisive part in the Hundred-Year War, most famously by recapturing the Tudor-held fortress of Doldrey and bringing the century of conflict to a close. In reward, the king knights them as the White Phoenix Knights and grants their commanders noble rank.

What began as a small pack of thieves gathered around the magnetic, tactically brilliant Griffith grew into a renowned fighting force. Its early core included the ex-miner Pippin, the former circus performer Judeau, the onetime thief leader Corkus, and later the village girl Casca. The band's reputation drew the King of Midland, who pressed them into the war against the Tudor Empire, and their triumph at Doldrey earned Griffith the title of White Phoenix General.

That standing collapsed quickly. After Guts defeated Griffith in a duel and then left, a despondent Griffith slept with Princess Charlotte, an act judged as treason that saw him imprisoned and tortured while the band was hunted into exile. Over a single year their numbers dwindled to a fraction under Casca's command, until Guts returned to restore morale and spur the raid on Wyndham. They pulled Griffith from the Tower of Rebirth only to find him broken and mute, and even after fending off Wyald and the Black Dog Knights, they could take no joy in the fall of their leader.

Griffith led the band, with Guts serving as raiders captain and Casca commanding a unit and standing in as leader during Griffith's captivity. Judeau, Pippin, Corkus, and Gaston round out its prominent figures, while Rickert, absent from the Eclipse, becomes one of the few survivors. During that ritual Griffith activated his Crimson Beherit and offered the assembled members to the God Hand so he could be reborn as Femto; nearly all were devoured, leaving only Guts, Casca, and Rickert alive and the band effectively disbanded. Rickert later raised the Hill of Swords to honor the fallen, and the legend of the original band endured strongly enough that Griffith's later army took the same name.