Anankos

Anankos (ハイドラ, Hydra in the Japanese version) is the true main antagonist of Fire Emblem: Fates, revealed in the game's third route. He is voiced by the late Rokurō Naya in the Japanese version.

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Anankos was one of the few dragons to remain after the ancient dragon wars due to his inability to become a spirit like the other dragons. During the wars he bestowed gifts to mankind and his blood, empowering them as thanks for their aid. Anankos was a kind dragon who loved humanity, granting knowledge to them and becoming close friends with the king of Touma. However, over the years, he began to become tainted by bestial urges to destroy everything as his power continued to grow. As this was a recurring problem among the dragon race before they became spirits, Anankos taught the people of Touma a calming song based on the prophecy he foretold of his own madness and death that removed some of his power. Its usage had decreased over the years due to it eventually killing the singers generations after it was initially used, falling out of use by the time Anankos' urges became too strong. Its ability to calm him also waned over time.

After losing control and burning a forest, the people decided to kill him to end the danger. Faced with this aggression and his urges, Anankos began to hate humanity, despite still calling out for companionship. When the king of Touma came to explain the people's fear, Anankos had been unable to trust him, and killed the king. The act of killing his close friend caused Anankos's body and heart to split into two, with his original body containing his maddening and corrupt urges and some of his power and original heart taking the form of a human with his original kind persona. After the human Anankos fled over what had happened, the dragon Anankos then instated himself as the god-king of Touma and proceeded with his plan to exact revenge on the people.

Anankos has a number of powers to befit his title as a dragon god. He can alter the very land itself through Dragon's Vein and terraform an entire world and bestow this power to humans on a smaller level. He can grant eternal life and youth and perpetual descendants. He holds power over water and can wield light and darkness, raise the spirits of the dead to act as his soldiers, see into the future, travel through time, travel between worlds, look into the hearts of humans, possess them, and spawn wormholes/blackholes when some of his power is restored. While capable of all of this, the human Anankos states that they are unable to fully bring the dead back to life.

Fire Emblem: Fates
The dragon and king of the hidden Kingdom of Touma, he views humanity as little more than insects who deserve to die for refusing to worship him as their god and master. He is the true identity of Light, Dark, and Invisible Dragons. During the first two routes of the game, he poses as the sacred mystical dragons of both Nohr and Hoshido and controls Nohr in secret through King Garon, whose reanimated corpse was made into his familiar. He also resurrects Sumeragi and has him act as his agent as the Hooded Man that assassinates Mikoto with Ganglari, thus instigating the war between Hoshido and Nohr.

At the end of the Birthright route, he lends his dragon essence to the fake Garon to transform him into the Nohr dragon, this fails and fake Garon is destroyed in the process. In the Conquest route, he possesses Takumi's dead body in a final attempt to kill the Avatar's party, however this also fails and Anankos is forcefully driven out of Takumi's body, which is destroyed afterwards.

In the Invisible Kingdom route, his role is far larger, and it is finally revealed who and what he actually is. According to Azura, Anankos was originally slain by the king of Touma and forgotten, but his death did not prevent his spirit from continuing his goal. He eventually killed and usurped the previous king of Touma and slaughtered many residents there, leading a few of its people to flee such as Shenmei and Mikoto. His ultimate goal is the complete annihilation of the world because of his hatred of humans. It is revealed in the third route that he also resurrected Mikoto and Shenmei, sending them to kill the Avatar.

Throughout most of the Invisible Kingdom route, Anankos possesses Gunter just like how he possessed Takumi in the Conquest Route. While under possession, "Gunter" tries to sabotage the party by leading them into ambushes or tries to halt their progress to the castle, even going so far as trying to kill the Avatar on the way towards Touma, but accidently killing Crimson instead. Towards the end of the game, Anankos finally fights the party in the throne room as Gunter. After beign defeated, he gets banished out of Gunter by Azura's singing and Gunter stabbing himself in the abdomen. The mad spirit finally returns to his own body, but only with half of his power and having a stone mask on his head. While the party seems overwhelmed by Anankos power, the Avatar's Yato gains the power of all the other legendary weapons carried by the royal brothers, transforming the sword into the Fire Emblem. With the Fire Emblem's devastating power, Anankos seems finally down for good, until Garon shows up and offers himself as a vessel for Anankos. Anankos however, consumes Garon to gain his Nohrian dragon blood. Anankos' mask shatters and he transforms into a grotesque dragon monster with an orb full of eyes inside its mouth. With Anankos having his full strength back, creates a black hole in the sky that slowly destroys parts of the land and turns the entire sky dark. Afterwards, Anankos flies back towards the castle and shatters the roof while clamping to the side of it, starting the final battle. After a long fight, Anankos' dragon body gets destroyed, leaving nothing but the orb which contains his inner madness. The orb is eventually beaten and explodes in a purple dust, killing Anankos for good and bringing peace back to all three kingdoms.

Invisible History
The human Anankos, in a desperate attempt to stop his dragon self, travels to the world of Fire Emblem: Awakening and makes his way to Ylisse, where he has a vision of warriors killing an immense dark dragon. He eventually makes his way to the Ylissean Castle and gets into contact with Owain, Severa and Inigo, three of the warriors from his vision. Anankos pleads for them to come to his world and save it from his true self, which went on a rampage and destroyed the kingdom along with killing the former king of Touma, the father of Mikoto and Shenmei. The three agree to help out Anankos, but not before being ambushed by the Invisible Army at the Mila Tree.

As they arrive in Touma, Anankos tells the whole tale of himself, which includes his relationship with Touma's heir, Mikoto, from which his child, the Avatar, was born. He asks the three to go to Hoshido and seek out Mikoto for help, while Owain offers to search for human Anankos' child, the Avatar. Before Anankos can say the name of his child, the four get attacked by Lilith, who claims to be Dragon Anankos' child, but is the human form of Anankos' discarded madness. Lilith also reveals that the Avatar is in Nohr, kidnapped by Garon for unknown reasons. After the fight, human Anankos sends "Odin", "Luna" and "Lazward" to Nohr Castle, and says that they need to earn the trust of king Garon, and become subordinates of Nohr. As Lilith is about to kill the human Anankos, she tells him that she was never loved or cared for by her dragon father, and breaks down when human Anankos sees her as his own child. The dragon Anankos overhears this and tries to get rid of Lilith by use of the Touma curse (whoever speaks of Touma outside of its own kingdom, will fade away like bubbles on water). The human Anankos sacrifices himself in her place by using all his life force to protect Lilith. The human Anankos apologizes to Lilith, to Mikoto and finally to the Avatar, before dying. Lilith apologizes to the dragon Anankos for betrayal, but wants nothing less than to be with her older sibling, the Avatar. Dragon Anankos tells her that no matter what path is taken, she will die, and so will the three warriors and the Avatar before breaking down in a maniacal laughter.

His heart takes control briefly to ask the four to come to him and end him, speaking one last time in his human voice.

Invisible Kingdom Chapter 27 - The Result of Buried Madness

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Invisible Kingdom Endgame - Invisible Dragon Anankos
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Etymology
Anankos may come from the ancient Greek word ἀνάγκη (ananke), meaning "destiny" or "fate". This could hint at both the title and the structure of the game, revolving around the Avatar's choice from which the three storylines begin. Even though it is less common, another meaning of the same word is "blood bond", which could refer to the relationship between the Avatar and Anankos.

In Greek mythology, Hydra is a serpent-like water monster which possessed many heads and for each one cut off it grew two more. It was slain by Heracles during the second of the Twelve Labours.

Trivia

 * Anankos' human form resembles Grima's from Awakening in terms of hood and unseen face.
 * Of the two symbols that are used to represent Anankos ingame, only Garon's dragon form resembles his Nohr symbol, while the Invisible Dragon symbol does not resemble his final forms. The Light Dragon symbol is unused.