Kahran Ramsus

Kahran Ramsus

At first glance, Kahran Ramsus has it all. He’s the commander of the Gebler army, the military branch of the Solaris Empire. He has power, respect, and authority. There’s just one problem.

He doesn’t take rejection very well.

The 1998 videogame Xenogears is infamous for the psychological conditions of its characters. Main protagonist Fei Fong Wong suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities). Ramsus harbors an inferiority complex: one that brings great tragedy to his story.

Ramsus’ inferiority issues stem from the failure of his own invulnerably-assumed strength. Ramsus was present at the destruction of Elru (a colony made famous for its red-haired destroyer). Witnessing firsthand how the later-titled Demon of Elru destroys Gears (the game’s giant robots) singlehandedly, Ramsus watches helplessly as the Demon routs his forces. Then he suffers a serious blow once the Demon summons his Gear and annihilates Elru. This is the first crack in Ramsus’ sanity. He sees his survival as a record of his failure, something that haunts him despite the confident persona he’s created for himself.

However, Ramsus’ fears of Elru are quickly overshadowed by his rivalry with Fei. While Fei’s fighting style (similar to the Demon’s) is the first nail in Ramsus’ psychological coffin, Fei’s name triggers a deeper resonance within Ramsus. From that point onward, Ramsus is obsessed with Fei. Just the mere mention of Fei’s name makes him rabid. He continually disobeys orders to go after Fei. Nothing else counts. It doesn’t matter if he was the pride of the prestigious Jugend academy. It doesn’t matter if he was an Element, the cream of the Jugend crop. All that matters to Ramsus is that Fei exists. As long as Fei’s around, Ramsus cannot be whole.

It’s towards the game’s end that Ramsus’ obsession comes to light. He is an artificial being. Officially he was created to be the clone of Emperor Cain, Solaris’ ancient ruler. Unofficially, he was meant to be an artificial Contact (a being who can make contact with God and receive his power). On the eve of his conception, Fei is discovered to be the true Contact. Thus, Ramsus no longer has use, and is discarded. It’s a slight that Ramsus never forgets.

The Xenogears characters have mental conditions that revolve around real-life concepts. Ramsus’ psychological condition is an echo of self-actualization, a theory of need fulfillment put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow’s theory constitutes a set of conditions that must be met for a person to become the best version of him/herself. Unfortunately for Ramsus, the person standing in the way of self-actualization is Fei. In order to complete himself, he must eliminate Fei.

Ramsus is the typical rags-to-riches character. He fought from the gutters of his birth and attained the highest honors of his society. Yet his rejection sowed seeds of helplessness, seeds that bloomed in the form of Fei’s existence. His spiraling tale of destruction is sad, but richly intricate for a videogame character.

Krelian

Krelian

500 years before the plot of the Xenogears videogame, the antagonistic nation Solaris is having trouble with their indoctrinated servants. The Lambs – as the Solarians call the earthbound population – are gathering under the Nisan religion, thanks to the efforts of Mother Sophia, the faction’s figurehead. Under Sophia’s tutelage, the Lambs are beginning to shrug off the influence of their Solarian masters. The course is clear. Sophia must be eliminated. Hence the beginning of the Shevat-Solarian War.

For some, Sophia’s death rallies the creation of the modern nations populating the Xenogears world. For Lacan, Sophia’s lover, her sacrifice leads him down a dark path of corruption and global destruction. But he is not the only one broken by Sophia’s death. There is another.

His name is Krelian.

Krelian is introduced as an agent of the Nimrod nation, sent to kill Sophia, whose growing popularity made her a legitimate threat to their sovereignty. Instead Krelian falls in love with Sophia. Her inspiration leads him down the road of science, a calling that Krelian would follow the rest of his life.

Then tragedy strikes. Sophia’s forces are betrayed by Shevat (exchanging Sophia for Solaris’ surrender and their ally/enemy Miang). With her comrades on the point of annihilation, Sophia sacrifices herself for her people’s safety. Krelian is crushed. He cannot believe a God that would allow Sophia to die so needlessly. Henceforth, Krelian vows to create a God in Sophia’s memory.

Over the next five hundred years, Krelian uses his scientific knowledge towards that goal. He secures dominion over Cain and the Gazel Ministry – Solaris’ ancient rulers – by giving them the nanotechnology-based immortality he mastered during his time with Shevat. Because he is the only one able to maintain that immortality, Krelian enslaves Cain and the Ministry, makes himself Solaris’ de facto leader, and establishes all the resources he needs in one fell swoop.

Krelian shows little regard to the people he manipulates or those standing in his way. He created the Wels, a prehistoric branch of humanity re-engineered through nanotechnology. The Wels’ purpose: their primal state makes them the most compatible with Deus’ (the sentient weapon/God revered by Solaris) organic structure.

Krelian is a master manipulator. He abandoned the artificially-created antagonist Kahran Ramsus upon learning the Contact – he who inherited God’s strength – was reborn as main protagonist Fei Fong Wong. Ramsus’ survival is unexpected, but even then Krelian incorporates him into a plan: He hints that Cain’s – from which Ramsus was cloned – death would give Ramsus the power he needs. Krelian wins again, securing an ally and gets rid of Cain, whose guilt made him an obstacle.

Krelian is straight out of a Greek tragedy. He wanted to spare humanity suffering by returning the universe to its natural state (to become one with God’s eternal love). But he slaughtered billions, manipulated thousands in doing so. It’s no excuse, but he is human. That’s what makes him such an incredible character.

Grahf

Every story needs a villain. Sometimes multiple villains. 1998 videogame Xenogears has no shortage of that. Out of all of them, none is more evil – and simultaneously complex – than the character Grahf.

Grahf has immense power. He has a 60-foot tall Gear (giant robot). Most times he doesn’t need that. He’s able to take Gears apart with his bare hands. Grahf prefers imbuing minor antagonists with a portion of his own dark power: classic sign of villainy.

Grahf started life as Lacan, a painter commissioned to paint the portrait of Mother Sophia, the iconic leader of Nisan and figurehead of the Nisan religion. Lacan is in love with Sophia: he deliberately makes excuses (needing to mix more paint, etc.) to prolong the time they spend together. Lacan is certain that Sophia doesn’t return his feelings. But it turns out that Sophia loves Lacan because she doesn’t have to be Sophia the figurehead around him. She can simply be Elly the woman, unburdened by expectations and duty.

But then she dies. Elly’s Nisan faction is battling Solaris, a ruthless society determined to subrogate humanity to resurrect God. Broken over Elly’s sacrifice, Lacan searches for the legendary power of Zohar.

Here’s where it gets complicated: Lacan makes contact with the Wave Existence (the God of the Xenogears universe). Lacan is the reincarnation of Abel, the first human to make Contact with the Existence. Granted the Existence’s power, and upon learning the repetitive cycle he and Elly (the incarnation of Xenogears’ First Woman) are forced to repeat throughout the past ten thousand years, Lacan decides the only way to free humanity from their enslavement is complete destruction. He becomes Grahf, engineers a catastrophic disaster that nearly eradicates humanity.

Back to modern day. Grahf is a ghost, inhabiting people’s minds throughout the centuries. He wants the physical reincarnation of his body: Fei’s (the protagonist) body. Grahf pits Fei against aforementioned imbued antagonists in order to awaken his Existence-enhanced power and make him a more powerful vessel to eventually possess.

Grahf’s story is fleshed out during Fei’s awakening. Grahf found Fei as a child. The only obstacle? Khan, Fei’s father. Grahf bested Khan and was about to take Fei when the latter unleashed his innate power. His current body ruined, Grahf possessed Khan: someone to tide him over until Fei awakened.

It doesn’t end there. Lacan’s Contact with the Existence splits him in two. Grahf is the physical embodiment of Lacan’s desires, while the original Lacan continued reincarnating. While powerful, Grahf is incompatible with Fei’s Existence-awakened self. His final act: merging with Zohar to give Fei time to save Elly and defeat Deus (the weapon using human parts to resurrect God).

Sometimes villains are simple. Sometimes they are complex. Grahf is one of the most developed, tragic and human characters I’ve encountered. His story has grief, power, madness, a fall from grace, and much more. That alone should warrant the game a try.

Miang – Mother of Humanity

Miang

The Xenogears videogame is a grand opera, drawing influence from religion to Star Wars. No one is who they seem. Minor characters have hidden, diabolic agendas ill-fit their neutral standing. Those in power are actually pawns manipulated and thrown away when their usefulness comes to an abrupt – and deadly – end. It is a story worthy of the word Machiavellian (a fictional character whose subterfuge was legendary for its complexities). Of all the Xenogears characters, none are more devious than Miang.

Long ago, the interplanetary colony spaceship Eldrige was on route to an unknown star system. Their cargo: the ultimate planetary weapon Deus. Somewhere along the way Deus attempted to take over the ship. As a last ditch effort, the captain self-destructed the ship, plummeting Deus onto a nearby planet. Knowing the fall would be catastrophic, Deus began the first steps of a ten-thousand year plan for its revival. From the ship’s wreckage a single, purple-haired woman emerged: the mother of humanity. Her name was Miang.

From here on out, things get immensely complex.

Miang’s not so much a person than she’s a parasite. She inhabits the genetic code of all Xenogears women. Once the host body dies, Miang reawakens in a new vessel. This grants her the longevity required to mold humanity’s evolution into the perfect organic parts for Deus to ultimately absorb and revive itself.

Miang’s present in every stage of human civilization. The original Miang birthed Emperor Cain and the Gazel Ministry, the future leaders of Solaris (the stereotypical tyrannical nation). Miang heavily influenced the “divine right” philosophy behind Solaris’ subjugation of the earth-bound Lambs.

She next appears in the Zeboim civilization, whose decades of nuclear war made humanity infertile. At first hopeful by nano-scientist Kim Kasim, the Zeboim reincarnation of the Contact (the only one capable of destroying Deus, as well as an incarnation of protagonist Fei), Miang later engineers Zeboim’s destruction in order to start anew.

Five centuries later, Miang would take advantage of grief-stricken Lacan (another Contact incarnation) and manipulate him to become Grahf, who then retaliates by beginning a global cataclysm, granting Miang another chance to start over.

Miang spends several centuries searching for the Contact, but to no avail. Frustrated, she joins Solarian scientist Krelian to create an artificial Contact. However, Miang’s next incarnation is Karen Wong, Fei’s mother. Discarding the artificial Contact (revealed to be arch-rival Kahran Ramsus), Miang subjects Fei to numerous experiments to control the godly strength Fei inherited from Abel (the first Contact). These experiments ultimately create Id, Fei’s destructive persona.

Ultimately, Miang returns to her original form upon possessing Elly. With everything assembled for Deus’ revival, Miang boards Deus for space-travel, only to be defeated by Fei, freeing all women from her parasitic curse.

Miang is the perfect example of Machiavellianism. Hiding in the shadows, Miang pulls the strings of those who think themselves puppet-masters. Every person in power throughout Xenogears are ultimately her pawns. It’s scary, really. It’s what makes her such a rich character.