Xemnas

Xemnas (ゼムナス, Zemunasu), the "Superior of the In-Between" (狭間の指導者, Hazama no Shidōsha), is a fictional character and antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series created by Tetsuya Nomura. He is the (initial) leader of the Organization XIII.

He was Rank I within his organization, Rank III within the Xehanort's organization, and is the ruler of The World That Never Was. As the superior, Xemnas is the first member and founder of Organization XIII, with all other Nobodies under his control.

As the Nobody of Terra-Xehanort, and by extension Terra and Xehanort, Xemnas is an extremely powerful Nobody holding dominion over all other Nobodies in a vein similar to his Heartless counterpart Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

As the oldest of the Nobodies, Xemnas wields the power of nothingness, and channels this into his weapons, red blades of energy called Ethereal Blades, which extend from the palms of his hands. He commands the Sorcerer Nobodies.

He is able to manipulate Keyblade Wielders like Sora, Roxas, and Xion to use the Keyblade's power for himself. He also appears to be the most powerful, so much that even Marluxia would never dare to try and face him.

"Our plans have been dashed by you... far more times than I care to count. Now it ends. I will purge that light in you... with darkness!"
 * —Xemnas, to Lea.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Paul Peter (English), Norio Wakamoto (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Croatian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Filipino), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Ukrainian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Appearance
Like all the Organization members, Xemnas wears the standard black coat, gloves, and knee-length boots with silver trimming and high concave indentations in the top. He has orange eyes and tanned skin, much like his Heartless counterpart, though he later gains golden eyes to signify him harboring a piece of Xehanort's heart. Xemnas's hair is long, reaching to about mid-back, silver in color, and some of it falls over his shoulders. His hairstyle is reminiscent of Xehanort's hair, including his bangs, the color, and the length. It also shares traits with Terra's hair, including its layered, messy look and the spike on the top of his head.

Because Xemnas was born from the body of Terra, his overall appearance is identical to Terra's, save for the silver hair, orange eyes, and older appearance resultant from having Xehanort's soul.

While commanding the World of Nothingness, Xemnas dons armor adorned with dozens of Nobody symbols. The shoulder pad on his left shoulder, helmet, crown, boots, knees, and breastplate all sport these designs. His crown and shoulder pad are gold, while the rest of the armor is colored in light shades of blue and silver. He has two silver belts on his waist and what seem to be white feathers on his right shoulder in place of armor. Several cords crisscross in front of his torso, connecting to massive, oblong pieces of armor worn on each arm. Xemnas's faceplate is beak-like in structure and he wears clawed, metal gloves.

He also wears black pants underneath the armor. Perhaps the most striking features of this armor are the odd, pulsating growths sprouting from Xemnas's right shoulder and both arms. These growths appear organic and are a mixture of red, orange, yellow, and white. While the larger one on his shoulder seems to connect Xemnas to his dragon-like Nobody battleship, the other two on his arms just lie on the ground, seemingly serving no purpose. This armored form, referred to as the Armored Controller, bears a striking resemblance to No Heart.

In his final section of his battle with Sora and Riku, Xemnas's appearance is unchanged, save for his cloak. His black coat is now white and is covered with intricate black designs that resemble the Nobody sigil.


 * Hair Color: Silver
 * Skin Color: Tan
 * Eye Color: Golden Orange
 * Age: Not Known
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Being the founder of Organization XIII and apparently the oldest of Nobodies, Xemnas is truly emotionless—in every sense of the word—and does not even remember what it was like to have any feelings. He claimed that this allowed him to have a clear understanding of the heart, but, in reality, this had warped his mind into believing that only anger, hatred, and other negative emotions were what make up most of a heart.

His lack of emotion deprives him of remorse for his actions, as well as the loss of the other members of the Organization. The only thing he truly cared about was Kingdom Hearts and his desire for power, and even lamented it when it was damaged. However, on some occasions, he had appeared to value friendship, as he was shown to converse with the armor of Aqua in the Chamber of Repose, although, this is likely due to the influence of Terra, as he is, in a sense, Terra's Nobody.

Unlike the other members of the Organization, Xemnas did not seem to want Kingdom Hearts for a true existence. Rather, much like his Heartless counterpart, he wanted it to use it to obtain power and remake the universe in his image. This concept was furthered as Xemnas thought that nothingness was the source of much power, and does not seem to despise it in the slightest. This goal stemmed from that of one of his two original personas, Master Xehanort, whom also desired to unlock Kingdom Hearts for the same purpose.

In other matters Xemnas spoke with calmness and deep authority, strangely similar to Master Eraqus. He had a tendency to be overly melodramatic, making long-winded speeches, exaggerating his false rage and sorrow with wide sweeping arm movements and hand gestures, like many villains. While ridiculous in nature, his exaggerations were representations of his lack of emotion. He was very intelligent, overall, and knew how to manipulate others, particularly Sora and his friends for his own needs.

Xemnas's personality seemed to share traits from both beings who composed his original persona, Master Xehanort and Terra. From the former he inherited his manipulative nature and the very ideas for the black coat and adding the letter "χ" to rename himself and his fellow Organization members. It is very hard to say how much he inherited from Terra, but there is at least the familiarity with Aqua's armor, to which he refers to as a "friend", and his strong desire to find his other "friend" in Castle Oblivion, as he has had Saïx and Axel search for the Chamber he sleeps in. Another example was when Roxas fell into a comatose state, saying: "So, sleep has taken you again".

After being defeated one last time, Xemnas, while lamenting he was bested again, finally regains his emotions and realizes that he misses his companions and that he took them for granted. Due to his newfound feelings of loneliness, Xemnas states that a heart is just about pain but when Sora says that pain is part of being human, Xemnas gives the boy a praising smile for being strong enough to live on.

Friends/Allies

 * Xehanort
 * Young Xehanort
 * Heartless
 * Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
 * Terra-Xehanort
 * Unversed
 * Vanitas
 * Dark Riku
 * Dream Eaters (Nightmares)
 * Organization XIII
 * Xigbar
 * Xaldin
 * Lexaeus
 * Zexion
 * Saïx
 * Luxord
 * Marluxia
 * Larxene

Neutral

 * Axel/Lea
 * Demyx
 * Vexen
 * Roxas
 * Xion

Enemies

 * Sora
 * Riku
 * Kairi
 * Terra
 * Aqua
 * Ventus
 * Naminé
 * Dream Eaters (Spirits)
 * King Mickey
 * Donald Duck
 * Goofy

A fragmentary passage
Xemnas is shown as the second transformation and the third incarnation after Young Xehanort and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

Prior to Kingdom Hearts
In the pursuit of knowledge, Xehanort, at the time calling himself "Ansem", willingly gave his heart to darkness, his resulting Heartless able to retain its selfhood for uncertain reasons, though it was believed by the true Ansem the Wise that this was due to Xehanort's willing abandonment of his heart. While Xehanort's Heartless took the name Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and traveled to the past to tell his original incarnation's past self of the plans in store, his Nobody remained in the present and took the name "Xemnas", as it was the anagram of Xehanort's stolen name "Ansem" with the Recusant's Sigil added. Xemnas soon formed Organization XIII with the Nobodies of the other apprentices, with the goal of creating their own Kingdom Hearts in order to complete themselves. In actuality however, Xemnas's true motive for the Organization was to prepare suitable vessels for Master Xehanort's heart to act as the thirteen dark pieces needed to reforge the χ-blade.

At some point Xemnas discovered that even though they had cast their hearts aside, the Nobodies of Organization XIII started to reform hearts of their own out of their memories and interests, thus making their roles as vessels problematic. Xemnas and Xigbar decided to lie to their fellow members who thought they were having feelings again, believing that when their Kingdom Hearts is completed it would not matter if they had hearts as they would be replaced with a version of Xehanort's heart anyway.

Etymology
Despite his original name being Xehanort, he uses an anagram of his mentor Ansem's name due to Xehanort stealing the name prior to discarding his heart and body.

Notes & Trivia

 * Xemnas' name, like other Nobodies, is an anagram of his original's name with the letter X; his is derived from the alias his human form took when he assumed the identity of his exiled mentor, Ansem.
 * The names of Xemnas' various Ethereal Blades seem to be references to iron-fisted leadership, most likely to represent his authority over the Organization.