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Ganglion (Growth)
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Group as a whole
An intergalactic crime syndicate that enslaves entire species. They have no interest in enslaving humanity, though, only destroying them.
- Anti-Human Alliance: A group dedicated to mankind's annihilation. Though they will make exceptions for humans willing to betray the rest of their kind.
- Bad Boss: To the Orphe and Zaruboggan who were on the verge of being wiped out by them on Mira.
- Brainwashed: The Ganglion did this to the machines made of living metal on Mira after one of their scientists got lucky and broke through their programming. Making the floating two armed Oc-serv, ship-like Fal-swo, and gigantic Xe-dom into troops for their army. They also do this to numerous indigens using drugs.
- Cain and Abel: The Ganglion species' violent grudge against humanity is ultimately an interspecies sibling rivalry given that both species are descended from the Samaarians. The threat to the Ganglion stems from humans being the Samaarians' legitimate biological descendants, while the Ganglion were synthetic lifeforms designed with a weakness to their creators' DNA (which proves a threat to them biologically, if not politically as well).
- Dub Name Change: They are referred to as "Growth" in the Japanese version.
- Evil Plan: Exterminate humanity, find the Great One, and find the Samaar Federation homeland. Due to being stuck on Mira they have now included trying to find a way off the planet.
- Fantastic Racism: They despise humanity. They even view their war to exterminate them as a holy mission. It's later revealed to be a fear due to their leaders being artificial lifeforms that can be killed by human DNA and humans being their creators' biological descendants. Outside their crusade against humanity, they tend to treat non-combat-fit species as expendable Slave Races, and there seems to be a pecking order even among the combat-fit races and the Ganglion High Command.
- Join or Die: They force others to join their group with brute force under the threat of harm and death.
- Kryptonite Factor: The original Ganglion species, which at least Luxaar is a part of, was created with a fatal weakness to Samaarian DNA, and humans are descended from that species. Being exposed to it even in protoplasmic form can result in them getting melted down. This happens to be one of the reasons they are trying to annihilate humanity in the first place. This is possibly perceived by them as a case of Weaksauce Weakness, as the Ganglion high command doesn't share the reason they're afraid of humanity with the lower ranking members of the syndicate.
- N.G.O. Superpower: According to the Ma-non, the Ganglion are a mere "small crime syndicate" with cult trappings from the Samaar Federation. This crime syndicate has enlisted entire alien species as slaves or mercenaries, a fleet comparable (if not beyond) to the armies of Earth's largest nations, were working on a flight-capable Humongous Mecha that could easily devastate an entire city, and destroyed Earth.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: They are assumed to be this to the original Samaar Federation as a whole, as they are hellbent on exterminating the original Samaarians' genetic descendants just for being biological failsafes against them. This may also be why the Ma-Non derisively label them a crime syndicate.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: They are stated to be a crime syndicate, but their high commanders sometimes have the makings of religious fundamentalists when justifying their human extermination campaign. And they try to force some other races that have something of value to join under threat of death (but not all of the races that join seem to share their ideology).
- Servant Race: The original Ganglion were created to be this for the Samaarians. Luxaar has the DNA of the Great One in him.
- Social Darwinist: One moves up the rank in Ganglion through power alone. They treat all races that can't do this such as Orphe and Zaruboggan like crap.
- The Syndicate: According to the Ma-Non, they are a small criminal organization from the Samaar federation. By human comprehension, the Ma-Non idea of "small" is comparable to a developed nation or N.G.O. Superpower on Earth.
- Turned Against Their Masters: The original Ganglion were created to serve the Samaarians. The modern Ganglion are waging an open war of extermination against humanity, the Samaarians' descendants.
Luxaar
Grandmaster Luxaar
Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (Japanese), Darin De Paul (English)
The Grandmaster of the mysterious alien faction Ganglion (also known as Growth in the Japanese version) who aims to eliminate the human race.
- Bad Boss: He makes it clear to Jiarg that the Wrothians will suffer if he fails at his mission.
- Berserk Button: He hates to be called councilor, or any title except Grandmaster.Luxaar: It's Grandmaster, damn you!
- Big Bad: As the leader of the Ganglion.
- Body Horror: After being dissolved by the human DNA in the Lifehold's protoplasm, his memories live on in the chimera that Lao was also turned into (although it's unclear if his consciousness was one of those fighting for control over the body and if so, how much control he had compared to the other animals and Lao). His own face is also on the palm of the chimera's left hand.
- Death by Irony: All his anti-human bigotry and genocidal crusading is brought to an end when he falls into a vat of protoplasm including human DNA, and dissolves.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Speaks with a gruff voice.
- Fat Bastard: He's a pretty bulky guy and not particularly pleasant.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe. After hearing that his strongest forces can't overpower a human force-field, Luxaar starts dawning on a couple other realizations. For one: where did humans get the power to build such a powerful shield? Two: where did they get Skell technology? Three: why were they capable of interstellar flight in the first place?! It's because of Elma.
- Gonk: He looks like an oversized toad with a fat tail and vestigal membrane wings, his neck inflates and deflates as he talks, and his skin's texture looks like the folds of the brain's cerebral cortex. And he's not a pleasant guy, either.Doug: He's an ugly mother...
- Jerkass: An unpleasant individual who antagonizes nearly everyone around him with a few exceptions. As a result of his general attitude a number of his allies disobey or betray him.
- Knight Templar: As the leader of the Ganglion, he is adamant in considering humanity a cancer.
- Large Ham: It really shows when you finally face off against him piloting the Vita.
- Light Is Not Good: His name "Lux" is Latin for "light" and he's a dick.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Luxaar claims that he wishes to exterminate humans to protect the Ganglion species, who under the Earthlings might once again become slaves, or be wiped out entirely. However, while the biological threat humanity poses to them turns out to be genuine, this is undercut by his organization being a crime syndicate that actively enslaves or exterminates other species in the name of consolidating power. He and other Ganglion higher-ups are shown to have believed humans too primitive to be an immediate threat (as shown by him wondering how humanity even got the technology that helped them escape Earth's destruction) and generally treat them as lesser beings that deserve annihilation and that are unworthy of being the true descendants of the Samaarians.
- Pride: His most notable character trait. Luxaar is obsessed with status and titles, and repeatedly underestimates his enemies because he refuses to give humanity even the slightest measure of respect. He also refuses to accept that a primitive race are the legitimate descendants of the original Samaarians and that they are a genetic failsafe against his species.
- Rasputinian Death: He gets the Vita blown up around him but survives, stabbed in the back by Lao and then melted down by protoplasm containing human DNA due to being a member of the Ganglion species. Even then his memories live on in Lao's chimera form, before presumably dying for good with its death.
- Satanic Archetype: He has a few shades of this. Besides the fact that "Lux" comes from the same root as "Lucifer", he's a member of a Servant Race created by the universe's first inhabitants who is implied to have turned against them and actively seeks to annihilate their favored children, humanity. He also shares the fatal flaw of Pride.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: According to Ganglion legend, humanity is fated to be their downfall. Had Luxaar left humanity alone, they likely would have left him alone; by chasing them to the ends of the universe in an effort to prevent the prophecy, he winds up being killed by the very myth he feared.
- Smug Snake: He has many delusions of grandeur for himself and his organization, but he doesn't have as much control over his syndicate and his subordinates as he would like (some of the subordinates consist of oppressed races and impulsive psychopaths).
- Vague Age: His exact age is unknown.
- Villainous Breakdown: Goes through three of increasing magnitude.
- When Ga Jiarg chooses to defect at the end of Chapter 9, he is livid for the first time in the game.Luxaar: Ga Jiarg, you TRAITOR!
- When Ryyz steals the Zu Pharg he is absolutely furious, particularly because his subordinates keep acting without his authority.
- Finally, when mankind enters the Lifehold as he refuses to accept the prophecies of how such primitive lifeforms can be the death of the Ganglion.
- When Ga Jiarg chooses to defect at the end of Chapter 9, he is livid for the first time in the game.
Goetia
Goetia
Voiced by: Yoko Honna (Japanese), Rachel Robinson (English)
A female Ganglion executive dedicated to the cause of eradicating humanity.
- Combat Tentacles: Her head tentacles aren't just for show.
- Dominatrix: One special hologram display that can be shown off in the BLADE Barracks is called "Painful Existence," where a Zaruboggan is kneeling before Goetia while she has her foot on top to assert her dominance.
- Femme Fatalons: Her own hands are very claw-like.
- Light Is Not Good: In contrast to Goetia, the Almandal has a white/silver color scheme and energy claws of white light.
- Knight Templar: She believes the extermination of humanity to be a righteous and noble cause.
- Mini-Mecha: Has her own personal mech, the Almandal, which she uses in all of her encounters with the party past the first.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's decked out in revealing spandex, and the game makes it a note to emphasize it when she makes her debut.
- Pungeon Master: Likes to drop electric themed puns to go with her attacks.Goetia: Consider this your official discharge!
- Sadist: When Elma demands her to explain why she's so hellbent on destroying the Lifehold and its pieces when she could easily just wait for the Lifehold to run out of power and all the Mimeosomes to shut down, Goetia says she prefers to have humanity's hope get crushed right in front of them as they die.
- Shock and Awe: Factors into all of her attacks, whether channeling pure electrical energy or using it to charge her hand-to-hand combat.
- Theme Naming: Named after the book Ars Goetia. Almandal takes it name from the latin version of the related occult book Ars Amadel.
- Vague Age: Her exact age is unknown.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She destroys two Lifehold Archive units, but achieves little else before she and her Skell are cut down.
- Wolverine Claws: Mirroring its pilot's Femme Fatalons, Almandal has Laser Blade-tipped fingers.
- Would Hurt a Child: A Prone NPC mentions that she slaughtered Prone children and elderly when they were fighting the Tree Clan.
Ryyz
Ryyz
Voiced by: Yuka Komatsu (Japanese), Eden Riegel (English)
A female Ganglion member who is close friends with Dagahn.
- Artificial Limbs: Her stilt-like lower legs seem to be prosthetic. The lack of symmetry in the legs (as well as alternate concept art depicting her with more human-like legs
) may indicate she either lost her original legs in an accident or had them amputated. - Ax-Crazy: She comes off as incredibly bloodthirsty and unstable even by the Ganglion's usual Knight Templar standards. When Team Elma first encounters her, she thinks about killing Lin first just because she was intimidated by Dagahn, but then prioritizes Elma when she makes it apparent that she's the leader. According to an Orphe, she is violent even to her own men.
- Bald of Evil: No hair and on her head (the tattoos on her head are easy to mistake for her wearing bandages) and she is interested in killing people like having Elma on her hit list.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: She shows a slight degree of this during the Battle of New LA, with her and Dagahn initially just watching the battle in the city from a distance while she mocks her own forces for getting defeated by humans. She only joins the battle (and temporarily makes things more difficult for BLADE) because Dagahn wants to join the fun, then reasoning that Luxaar would give them an earful for doing nothing.
- Cruel Mercy: Elma spares her and Dagahn after their first boss fight just to send her as a messenger back to the Ganglion that the loss of the Vita meant nothing to humanity and that they failed to wipe out New Los Angeles (i.e. her specific objective), effectively souring their supposed victory. Ryyz sees it as a humiliation.
- Deadpan Snarker: She displays a low-key and condescending demeanor when she decides to deal with an enemy she perceives to be of little danger, keyword being "perceive".
- The Dreaded: According to a random Wrothian, she and Dagahn were feared even amongst the elite ranks of the Ganglion.
- Evil Counterpart: To Celica. Both are elf-eared xeno women with giant male partners and have varying degrees of impulse. While Celica is usually gentle and pacifistic but willing to get herself dirty to protect herself and Rock, Ryyz is a psychopath that enjoys watching chaos and is generally unpleasant and condescending to even her own allies.
- Face Death with Dignity: When she and Dagahn are first defeated by Team Elma, she makes it clear that she'd "rather laugh [her] way to the grave". When Elma decides to spare her after reminding her that she failed her objective and tells her to "crawl back home", she perceives it as a humiliation.
- Foil: To Dagahn in several ways besides their fighting styles, genders and size differences. Ryyz is the thinker of the duo, but is shown to be childish and mentally unstable. Dagahn is a Book Dumb Blood Knight, but is more level-headed and knows when they are outmatched.
- Gravity Master: She likes using gravity-elemental attacks, one of the few enemies in the game to do so.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Ryyz prefers using ranged attacks and evasion boosts/Decoy Arts, while Dagahn would rather pummel his enemies into submission.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Platonic example, she's small compared to Dagahn.
- Humongous Mecha: The Zu Pharg is a giant ship that also doubles as a mobile mech depending on its Walker of Flight mode.
- Large Ham: She tends to shout a lot when either she's in battle or she starts throwing a fit.
- Military Maverick: She seems to have a high disregard for Luxaar. During the Battle of NLA, she simply sits on the sidelines until Dagahn gets bored and wants to fight. Then she takes a newly completed superweapon out to destroy NLA on her own volition (against Luxaar's better judgment) out of vengeance.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By taking the Zu Pharg out to destroy New LA out of vengeance for her previous defeat just after it was finished being built and getting it destroyed in the process, she indirectly wasted what could have potentially been Luxaar's ultimate weapon for destroying the Lifehold Core quickly, forcing him to take down the Lifehold's shield at a slower pace with relatively inferior weapons in the final chapter.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: Not only is she shown to be incredibly sadistic, she's also shown to throw out very childish insults towards both enemies and allies alike, throw tantrums when things start going wrong for her, and takes the Zu Pharg - a massive one-of-a-kind superweapon that had only just been finished - out to destroy New LA without Luxaar's authorization like she's taking a car out for a joyride.
- Revenge: Steals the Zu Pharg in order to get vengeance against Elma for sparing her.
- Sanity Slippage: She's always been unstable, but once she suffers a humiliation in the form of Elma pointing out that while the Ganglion succeeded in stealing the Vita, BLADE still won in defending New LA therefore making it Ryyz's loss, she completely loses it and takes the Zu Pharg - one of Ganglion's deadliest weapons - on a joyride to destroy New LA without Luxaar's authority.
- Smug Snake: She's incredibly arrogant and sees the idea of losing to humans in any way something to be ashamed of. However, she makes the mistake of underestimating humanity herself, and then throws temper tantrums after she's forced to eat her own words.
- Tattooed Crook: She sports a very big one on her scalp that wraps around it. She also happens to be part of a crime syndicate.
- Unusual Ears: Her ears are almost elf-like, possibly one of the reasons that Celica, a Qlurian, was mistaken for her at one point.
- Vague Age: Her exact age is unknown.
- Villainous Breakdown: When something is going wrong for her, she behaves irrationally, to the point that she's Suddenly Shouting and Dagahn has to keep her anchored in reality.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She's only present in two chapters before she and Dagahn are destroyed along with the Zu Pharg.
Dagahn
Dagahn
Voiced by: Takashi Nagasako (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)
A male Ganglion member who is close friends with Ryyz.
- BFS: Even though he usually attacks with his armored fists, he also fights with a massive energy blade, even for a being his size.
- Blood Knight: When New Los Angeles is invaded, he wants to partake in battle instead of watching.
- Book Dumb: Ryyz mentions that thinking isn't his strong suit and he's shown to be one of the few characters in the game to have very limited Skell system knowledge (which can be justified by him being roughly the size of the average Skell and thus unable to pilot them; that and the Skell he was co-piloting was a brand new model), but his later attitude shows he's smarter and wiser than he lets on in his initial fight.
- Evil Counterpart: To Rock. Both are giants partnered with human-sized xeno women and level-headed compared to their respective partners. While Rock was a former Ganglion bio-weapon that chose to become a pacifist and only fights to protect Celica, Dagahn is more eager to fight and is willing to kill anyone Ryyz tells him to.
- Foil: To Ryyz in several ways besides their fighting styles, genders and size differences. Ryyz is the thinker of the duo, but is shown to be childish and mentally unstable. Dagahn is a Book Dumb Blood Knight, but is more level-headed and knows when they are outmatched.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Dagahn would rather pummel his enemies into submission, while Ryyz prefers using ranged attacks and evasion boosts/Decoy Arts.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's huge compared to Ryyz. And by huge, we mean he's the size of a Skell.
- Hulk Speak: He does this in the English dub.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After the duo's first defeat at the hand's of Team Elma, Dagahn advises Ryyz against facing death with dignity, knowing that they've already lost. This experience is enough to make him cautious of Team Elma in their second encounter, even though that time, he and Ryyz were piloting the largest Skell the Ganglion have built.
- Only Sane Man: While he's not the brains of the duo, he's the more rational of the two and tries to give Ryyz advice when she underestimates humanity or isn't thinking clearly, despite Ryyz telling him not to think since "it isn't his strong suit".
- Playing with Fire: Many of his attacks are thermal-based.
- Powered Armor: He seems to have hydraulics in his legs that allow him to jump higher and concept art shows that he has smaller hands underneath his mechanized gauntlets.
- Underestimating Badassery: Defied when he and Ryyz are piloting the Zu Pharg and encounter Team Elma again in Sylvalum. When Ryyz overconfidently boasts that they are idiots for choosing to take their colossal war machine head-on, Dagahn worriedly warns her that she is getting in over her head since this is the same BLADE squad that beat them before. Unfortunately, she doesn't listen.Dagahn: Ryyz. Underestimating bad.
- Undying Loyalty: He follows Ryyz wherever she goes and works with her plans, even when he's worried that she's in over her head or losing her marbles. He also attempts to shield Ryyz with his bulk during the Zu Pharg's destruction.
- Vague Age: His exact age is unknown.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's only present in two chapters before he and Ryyz are destroyed with the Zu Pharg.
Fortun
Fortun
The "mother" of the Definians. Apparently an AI housed in a floating metal ball, she claims to have all the knowledge in the universe at her disposal, and sees all life-forms as lesser beings for her to enslave.
- Bad Boss: She cares little for the safety of her subjects, according to Erio.
- Face Death with Dignity: If you decide to kill her, she acknowledges that there's no use struggling further and calmly tells Erio to finish her off with her own hands.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: The Definians are absolutely bloodthirsty and insane due to her tyranny. During Definian Downfall, Erio wants to free her sisters by destroying Fortun's influence.
- Humiliation Conga: If Rook decides to spare her, she suffers one during the Definian Downfall questline and quests that follow it: first Professor B reprograms her to be more immature, allowing you to get the access codes off her with just some minor threats, then another quest involves her trying to pull off a small-scale coup against New LA but she fails miserably and if you choose to spare her afterwards, she gets dumped on top of BLADE Tower by one of the Definians, begging for someone to let her down.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When you confront her, she will insult you and demand that you take your disgusting hands off of her and treat her like royalty. If you actually do as she says, she will immediately become more amenable and polite and no longer put up a fight against you.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Unlike the Definians she rules over, Fortun is just a giant sphere.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Only if you decide to spare her in the Definian Downfall mission and have Professor B attempt to change her, which only makes her more immature. She will still rave about every other life being beneath her and vocalize her intent to destroy NLA, but in a less dignified and more childish manner, illustrated by her talking like a Valley Girl.
- Villain Respect: Fortun insults you if you walk up and speak to her and demands that you address her as royalty and your better. If you actually do this, she praises you for your manners and says you seem to be at least somewhat smart.
Black Knight
Black Knight
A mysterious figure who has some sort of connection with Lao.
- Black Knight: You bet.
- Expy: He resembles Voyager in-game and possibly the Knights like him are the equivalent of the Testaments. His design in the art book also shows that he somewhat resembles Grahf.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Artwork features him wielding a katana as does his Skell.
- In the Hood: Wears a black cloak.
- Last Episode, New Character: He makes a very late appearance, he only shows up on-screen in the epilogue.
- No Name Given: He is identified◊ only in an artbook called "Xenoblade X The Secret File - Art of Mira". The text draws attention to his feet, implying this is the character who approaches Lao.
- Sequel Hook: His nature, origins, and motivation remain a mystery to the very end of the game.
- Silent Antagonist: He doesn't speak during his time on-screen.
- The Voiceless: He doesn't speak to Lao.
Dadaan
Dadaan, the Strongest Prone
The strongest of all Prone. He was originally imprisoned because he was a bit much even for the Ganglion, but escaped during the confusion of the battle at the Lifehold Core.
- Berserk Button: Skells, apparently. You have ten seconds to get out and face him on-foot, or else.
- Blood Knight: Not an uncommon trait for a Prone, but Dadaan loves combat to the point that he laughs even as he loses.
- Chick Magnet: A pair of female Prone fawn over him, and he doesn't seem to mind it at all given the way he flexes for them.
- Die Laughing: The normal Prone death cry soundclip is replaced with the Prone laugh soundclip when he's defeated.
- Flunky Boss: Besides starting out with the two female Prone, after taking off about half of his health he'll call in a squad of his loyal fans to mob you.
- Savage Setpiece: Despite his violent reputation, he seems to be fairly apathetic to Earth aliens and will only fight if you attack him first. He even tells you to leave him alone and let him have his fun.
- Sequence Breaking: Using a Skell normally prompts him to smash it in one hit within ten seconds. However, a strong enough attack such as the Ares 90's Agashura Cannon is enough to kill him in one hit.
- Super Boss: He only appears after the end of the game, and at level 77 he's the most powerful Humanoid enemy in the game.
- World's Strongest Man: His title is not a lie.
Nahum
Nahum, the Red Hare
A Milsaadi woman overlooking the Bedrock Hold in Primordia. Notable for her superpowered Skell, Nardacyon.
- Mini-Mecha: Nardacyon, a custom Almandal-type Skell.
- Super Boss: Nahum herself is not particularly special besides being high-levelled for a Milsaadi, but Nardacyon, the Shadowless is the most powerful Mechanoid in the game at level 96.
Great One
Great One
The mysterious figure worshiped by Luxaar and a powerful force within the Ganglion. The Great One piloted the Vita during their battle on Earth before disappearing and ending up on Mira. Only the crashed Vita is found.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Their DNA is inside Luxaar and his reverence suggests he followed the Great One, making finding the Great One one of their objectives while on Mira.
- The Ghost: The Great One is mentioned a few times but the enigmatic figure never made a proper appearance on screen.
