Exdeath



Exdeath (エクスデス Ekusudesu), also known as X-Death or ExDeath, is the main antagonist and the final boss of Final Fantasy V. According to Ghido, Exdeath, despite his knightly appearance, was once, and still is, to an extent, a tree from the Great Forest of Moore.

Skills
In combat, Exdeath, being the incarnation of countless evil beings sealed inside the tree he once was, is stupendous in the area of spellcasting. Though he rarely ever uses it, he is also decent in close combat with his sword as well.

Exdeath is also able to overwhelm a mortal consciousness and replace it with his own. He displays this power with Garula, the queen of Karnak and King Tycoon, as well as a random human guard that activates the fire crystal.

Power
Exdeath seems to be able to destroy large areas with artificial disasters created by his extraordinary power (e.g. causing an earthquake to sink Ghido's Island, burning down the Great Forest of Moore). The extent of his power is displayed when it is mentioned that all Galuf and the others could do was seal him because "he kept going down, but wouldn't stay down." Also, he may have had limited power or influence over the Void even before obtaining it, as he shows when throwing his lieutenant Gilgamesh into the Interdimensional Rift.

Once Exdeath claims complete control over the Void, his power soars. He is now able to erase any part of existence with a thought, channeling the Void to engulf it and sending it into another random dimension. It is also a significant display of power when it is revealed that the only way the Light Warriors were able to defeat him was when his own power turned against him.

Appearance
Exdeath wears obnoxiously extravagant robes and armor, colored a sky blue. His helmet is topped with a two-ended plume, lined with mock "ears" and has a thin opening that would normally be used for sight. His shoulder pads are tree-like, decorated in jewels and an eye underneath each pauldron. His chestpiece flows into the helmet almost naturally, giving him a neckless appearance.

Just below his chestpiece he is clad in a robe that runs straight out of his cuirass. The garment is lined with needlessly spectacular designs, along with numerous magic orbs and a knife that serves an unknown purpose. He wears his greaves underneath this attire. Finally, Exdeath's armor is streamlined with a light blue cape.

Other than his armor, no visible features are present. The sheer terror of his armor seems to overwhelm his foes enough, without them seeing his face. In his tree form, Exdeath's torso and head are visible, but are lined dark blue and covered completely in a filthy bark-like substance. Below his normal body a demented, horrifying face stares brutally into the soul.

Soon after the Void begins to consume Exdeath's physical form, he combined with every single twisted, evil being that had been engulfed by the Void. These victims seem to include a skeletal figure, an atrocious demon-like being, a red dragon with a single horn, and a greyish-black humanoid with red horns, purple tattoos and a single eye on its forehead (rumored to be what Exdeath looks like beneath his armor). Other souls, such as a violet wolf, a serpentine beast, many unclothed women, and other indescribable monstrosities seem to cover this twisted manifestation of nothingness now known as Neo Exdeath.

Personality
Exdeath is a loud-mouthed, blaspheming ball of pure evil. Throughout the duration of the game, Exdeath treats Bartz and his party as mere pests in the way of his withstanding goal, and constantly swats them away without killing them, seeing no reason to dispose of such a mild threat. He may seem cocky, but that's only because he can be, since his power is practically unmatched. At the slaughter or failure of his servants Exdeath shows no real sense of empathy, which is why it takes Gilgamesh failing big time in order to finally push Exdeath over the limit enough to send him to the Rift.

Goal
Exdeath's ultimate goal is to withhold complete control over the infinite power of the Void, a sentient force that lives solely to consume all in its path. He proclaims that he wishes for control of all dimensions, which would cower over the power of the Void, but in the end, Exdeath exists as a nihilistic demon.

Biography
After the evil warlock-king Enuo was defeated and the Void was sealed away, humans turned to an alternative solution to purge the land of corruption and terror. The Great Forest of Moore provided a solitary prison for these malevolent souls to inhabit. Eventually many other monsters were drawn to the forest, and this place was easily the most dangerous place on Galuf's world. The souls eventually became so self-aware that they combined into one single essence. They found residence in a tree and breathed life into it, using it as means of transportation. Thus, the monster Exdeath was born.

Exdeath had a castle built upon one of the continents of the world and proceeded to lay siege upon all of the kingdoms in the world. The original Warriors of Dawn, Galuf, Xezat, Kelger and Dorgann followed Exdeath to an alternate dimension, where Exdeath was sealed and finally defeated. The Dawn Warriors needed to be sure that Exdeath would remain sealed forever, and needed someone to defend the seal. Dorgann volunteered, knowing that he would be forsaking his past by making sure that all of existence would remain undisturbed.

Dorgann eventually fell in love with a young woman named Stella, and the two eventually got married and had a son named Bartz. Five years after he was born Stella died, and not long after Dorgann passed away as well. Dorgann's dying wish was for his son to lead a normal life, and so he asked Bartz to travel the world, where he hoped nothing would harm his dear boy. So keeping his promise, Bartz became a wanderer, along with his best friend Boko, his pet chocobo.

Eventually Exdeath's dark influence caused the crystals to shatter one by one in a series of catastrophes, as he began to take control of denizens of the world to break them, including the Queen of Karnak and King Tycoon. His first in-game appearance was in the Ronka Ruins, after he was finally released from his seal when the Earth Crystal was shattered.

He then teleported himself back to his castle in Galuf's homeworld, to resume his reign of terror. Galuf and his grandaughter Krile returned as well to rally a counter-attack. The remaining Warriors of Light followed them, but were soon captured by one of Exdeath's minions soon after arriving, and he used them as hostages in order to keep Galuf from progressing any further in the siege against his castle. In response, Galuf made a daring prison break and the party fought their way way back across the Big Bridge, defeating Exdeath's lieutenant Gilgamesh, before his Barrier eventually activated, sending the Light Warriors hurling across the world.

Eventually, Exdeath made an example of what happens to those who did not support his unknown cause when he sunk Ghido's island. It was revealed later by the sage that what Exdeath is seeking resides in the Great Forest of Moore, his original birthplace. When the warriors had broken the seals that binded what Exdeath sought, they found that they were truly the crystals, and they had just done Exdeath's dirty work. He then used the power of the crystals to torture the Warriors of Light, and after Krile failed to rescue them, Galuf finally resisted the power and took on Exdeath. Powered by hope, Galuf was seemingly unstoppable in the battle against Exdeath. This forced the warlock to retreat, but Galuf had died soon after and one of the crystals shattered, and after this Krile became a Light Warrior in his stead.

Exdeath was soon confronted at his castle, where he had taken the remaining crystals, and was apparently defeated. The crystals had shattered though, which resulted in the two worlds becoming merged. Exdeath resurfaced again, disguised as a splinter in Krile's hand. At Ghido's Cave (now once again above sea level), Exdeath revealed himself and his true goal: to control the Void, originally created by Enuo and in the process returning the world to a state of chaos. The Void had been sealed in the Interdimensional Rift when the worlds were split, but with the worlds recombined the Rift soon emerged over Castle Tycoon. Exdeath began to seize control of the Void, sending many parts of world into the Void as demonstration of its power. He also took command of the many demons of the Rift, promising to build for them a world of darkness with the Void.



Under Ghido's guidance, the party took the newly reformed Sealed Tome and used it to retrieve the Sealed Weapons of Castle Kuza, and the Light Warriors climbed into the Rift. By the time they reached Exdeath, he had finally mastered the Void and returned to his original form: a monstrous tree. His attempts to use the Void of them were thwarted, however, by the spirits of the Dawn Warriors who restrained the Void. After a heated battle, Exdeath himself was engulfed by the Void much to his distress. He transformed into Neo Exdeath: a being of hatred and nihility, desiring to erase all existence (including his own) for eternity. After a long final battle, the dark entity disappears forever. No one can be sure if Exdeath was truly destroyed after that occurrence. After all, Enuo was seemingly destroyed 1,000 years prior to the events of Final Fantasy V, and yet you fight his Void-consumed self in the Sealed Temple after you beat the game (this may simply be a non-canon easter egg, however, since Enuo is--according to the game's storyline--sealed within the tree that became Exdeath). Nevertheless, Exdeath is never seen nor heard from again...

Battle
Exdeath is fought three times in the course of Final Fantasy V.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Chaos summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate villains in an attempt to gain control of a number of Crystals, resulting in total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. Exdeath is one of these villains. He stands as the villain opposing Bartz Klauser.

His design seems virtually unchanged from his original artwork. His alternate costume gives him a shiny appearence, making him resemble the Exdeath's Soul enemy in the Sealed Castle.

Exdeath has been seen sparingly and has the dubious distinction of being the least seen villain thus far. In his thus-far few scenes, he battles Bartz at the Dimension Castle, declaring he will consume everything into the Void. He also stands beside Kefka Palazzo when the villains gather in the Chaos Shrine, but the two do not interact. In the story, Exdeath has a haughty attitude, but is self-conscious in his decision to appear as just another warrior of Chaos. He stands to stop the Warriors of Cosmos from obtaining the Crystals, and he remains a thorn in their side as he does so. He will be teaming up with Kuja, since evidently Bartz has allied himself with Zidane Tribal. Together, along with Kefka and Cloud of Darkness, they are a part of the destruction faction, who are completely loyal to Chaos and whose only goal is to destroy the world and possibly even all of existence. Exdeath seems to play an extremely vital role in Dissidia's storyline, as he makes numerous appearances in many of the heroes' travels. In Bartz' story, Exdeath is seen guarding the crystal from him, but Bartz is too fast for him, and he retrieves the crystal without too much trouble. The crystal is later revealed to have been a hoax, however, and Exdeath explains to Bartz and Squall Leonhart that he and Kuja had purposely allowed Bartz to retrieve the crystal so that he would give it to Zidane, thereby allowing Kuja to imprison him. He later encounters Exdeath again, and this time they engage in combat, through which Bartz is victorious. Exdeath retreats, and Bartz retrieves the crystal successfully. He is also fought as a boss in Cecil's story after accusing Golbez of treason.

Exdeath is described as being a user of the dark powers of the Void and is described as a "guard-and-counter" character. He appears to use the Reaper Sword attack, one of his trademark skills, along with Void themed attacks. Exdeath is very slow (though his ability to teleport makes up for this, at best), but his guard abilities and counter attacks are powerful - it has been speculated by the development team that if a player mastered his guard techniques, Exdeath would be virtually invincible. Exdeath's EX Mode is based on his tree form, and the name of his EX Burst is "The laws of the universe mean nothing!", in which the player is required to hold the circle button down until the bar goes down to 0. Once released, Exdeath will cast "Neo Almagest" if the bar was at 0, or the weaker "Grand Cross" if it was held down too long or released too early.

He is voiced by Tarou Ishida in the Japanese version.

Trivia

 * The Esper Exodus from Final Fantasy XII and Totema Exodus from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance share Exdeath's characteristics. The Esper Exodus resembles Exdeath's knightly form with tree like qualities, while the Totema pays homage to his tree form.

Exdeath