Anankos

"Why am I the one left to suffer? Why am I the one left to die? Why do humans flourish while I am buried here...ignored...forgotten? TELL ME WHY!"

- Anankos in Chapter 27 (Revelation)

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. Once revered as one of the First Dragons, his degeneration resulted in the obliteration of both Valla and almost all of its people.

In his dragon form, he is voiced by the late Rokurō Naya in the Japanese version. In his human form, he is voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki in the Japanese version and by Cam Clarke in the English version.

Profile
Anankos is one of the First Dragons and a part of the war between them. Anankos loved humanity and gave them longevity and knowledge. To a select few, he also gave them essence of his blood, allowing them to utilize the power of Dragon Veins, a trait that was passed down through the Vallite royal bloodline. Anankos became particularly close to the kingdom of Valla and started to live among them. However, his primal instincts as a dragon would slowly overtake him with time. Through the power of a song, Lost in Thoughts All Alone, his urges could be quelled. However, after many generations of kings, Ananakos' rage grew strong enough for him to burn down a forest. The people of Valla blamed him for it and resented him.

Unable to comprehend that the very people he had helped had shunned him, Anankos locked himself away in a mountain cave where his detest of humanity grew. The King of Valla and a few select people would make trips to his cave to express their belief in him. Unfortunately, he lost control of himself and killed the King of Valla. However, before he completely degenerated, he tore off a portion of his soul which took on a human appearance in a last bid to stop his rage. Anankos then began to form an invisible army consisting of many of his former Vallite subjects. He even began to resurrect the dead to strengthen his army. He also self-sired a daughter named Lilith to further his goals.

The human portion wandered with no memories of his past and soon met the Vallite queen's sister Mikoto. The two fell in love and eventually gave birth to a child. However, soon after the birth of his child, he recovered his memories and sent them away from the kingdom to spare them from the ruined kingdom. He made Mikoto promise to never tell their child of their father to spare them of burden of his past sins. With his newfound clarity, he had a vision of another world where many heroes felled a great dragon. He desired to seek help from the warriors of that world.

Hidden Truths
The backstory of Anankos' soul is shown through the two Hidden Truths Xenologues. Anankos transported himself to another world and arrived in Ylisse some time after the fall of Grima. He called out for anyone to help him, and the message was received by Owain, Inigo, and Severa. Bringing them to the Mila Tree, he asked for their help by coming to their world and the three agreed to. After defeating the Vallite forces sent by his dragon form, Anankos thanks the three for helping and offers to fulfill any request they desire. Initially, the three hoped that Anankos could resurrect their fallen parents and friends from their original timeline, however, Anankos could not fulfill that request. Instead they asked that the original world be beautiful once more and that their parents and friends would have proper graves, which Anankos followed through. Before bringing them to Valla, he hands them an orb that will allow them to move through space and time only once, allowing them to either return to the new future they came from originally or the new future of Awakening.

After bringing them to Valla, he is given time to explain to them of his story. He makes a request for them to head to Hoshido first to see Mikoto and help his child fulfill their destiny to assemble the five divine weapons to take down his dragon self. Before he can tell them of his child's name, Lilith appears under orders of Anankos' dragon self to stop him. Shocked by the news, she informs him that his child had been taken to Nohr. Owain, Inigo, and Severa attempt to attack Lilith, but are unable to do so. Anankos had a vision prior showing that the three would be defeated if they met a girl in Valla. Anankos offers to send them back home, but the three refuse and chooses to stay and fight. After they encourage him to believe in them, Anankos gives them the power to defeat Lilith and bestows onto them their new names Odin, Laslow, and Selena. After the battle, Lilith continues to summon more soldier to fight, but Anankos warps them straight to Nohr and tells them to become retainers for the Nohrian royal family in hopes of finding his child. Left alone to deal with Lilith, the young girl tries to kill Anankos' human avatar but finds herself unable to do so. Anankos tells Lilith that he really does love her despite just meeting her, but Lilith remains conflicted because his dragon form never expressed that same sentiment with her despite her efforts to please him. When she finally decides to abandon her attempt to murder his human avatar, Anankos senses his daughter's wavering and attempts to kill her. Sensing this, Anankos' avatar sacrifices himself, taking the hit in her place. As he slowly dies, he asks Lilith to smile for him as he speaks his final words, apologizing to Lilith, Mikoto, and his child. Back in the Vallite Castle, Anankos swears to start a war between Hoshido and Nohr and end the human race. However, a fragment of his human avatar speaks through him, expressing his belief that Selena, Odin, and Laslow will one day bring the Avatar to him and defeat him.

Fire Emblem Fates
By the events of Fates, Anankos has become completely insane, acting as the tyrant king of Valla and killing nearly everyone across the land. Those that survive he enslaves. In his mad lust to destroy humanity for abandoning him to his pain, he gains control of Nohr 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 Conquest route, he possesses Takumi's body in a final attempt to kill the Avatar's party, however this also fails and Anankos is forcefully driven out of Takumi, who truly dies shortly afterwards.

In the Revelation route, his role is far larger, and it is finally revealed who and what he actually is. According to Azura, Anankos killed and usurped the previous king of Valla and slaughtered all of the residents there, except for her, the queen consort of the previous Valla King, Arete, and (unknown to her) Mikoto and her child, the Avatar. 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 Sumeragi, Arete, and Mikoto to kill the Avatar and their army.

Throughout most of the Revelation route, Anankos possesses Gunter, just like how he possessed Takumi in the Conquest route. While under possession, "Gunter" faithfully served the Avatar like the real Gunter would, but whenever the Avatar was alone, he would attack them in his invisible form, like his attempt to kill the Avatar on the way towards Valla, but was stopped by Scarlet at the cost of her life, or when he knocked out the Avatar when the group split up to explore the royal Valla castle. Towards the end of the game, Anankos finally fights the party in the throne room as Gunter. After being defeated, Anankos is banished from Gunter by Azura's singing and Gunter stabbing himself after the Avatar speaks with him. The mad spirit finally returns to his own body, but only with half of his power and having a stone mask on his head. During his dialogue, he demands to know why he alone should suffer, and that humans deserve to share his torment.

While the party was initially 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 was put on the defensive, and was forced to summon Garon who 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 more of his strength back, he created 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 heart. The orb is eventually beaten and explodes in a purple dust and water bubbles, killing Anankos for good and bringing peace back to all three kingdoms.

Heirs of Fate
Anankos makes an appearance in the Heirs of Fate DLC.

Unlike in the other routes, Anankos waited until the war between Hoshido and Nohr ended. When the parents of the children called them back from their Deeprealms, Anankos sent his forces to attack them, in the hopes that he could kill both the parents and the child to ensure that they would never inherit the divine weapons and become a threat to him in the future.

However, the childrens' parents sent them away during battle to protect them. Anankos, noticing that his plan had somewhat succeeded, sent them into Valla and cast an illusion spell on the children, so that the children would kill each other in battle as both groups of children viewed the others as mysterious enemies.

This theory is proven false in Heirs of Fate 6: Lost in the Waves; as Anankos reveals that he attacked other realms so that he could find a suitable place to create a new Valla which would not be tainted by human dominance. When Shigure confronts Anankos, Anankos believes him to be Cadros and explains to him his intentions. Shigure attempts to sing the complete Lost in Thoughts All Alone to stop Anankos; he tries to convince him to stop as he would be put in eternal suffering like Azura and that he is "not ready" for it.

Shigure is unable to fully sing the song as the other children teleport back into the room. Upset with "Cadros", he leaves and prepares to fight them, summoning a group of Vallites to aid him in battle, including the fathers of the children (excluding the Avatar). However, he is eventually defeated. There are two endings:
 * Ending A (Good Ending): Shigure sings Lost in Thoughts All Alone; however, because the other children gave their memories, Shigure is not subjected to eternal suffering for the rest of his life. Anankos thanks Shigure for saving him from his "nightmare" and prepares to leave, when Lilith arrives and accompanies him.
 * Ending B (Bad Ending): Same as the good ending, except Lilith does not arrive to accompany Anankos.

Personality
Anankos is portrayed as a ruthless dragon, seeing himself as no less than a god. Fully controlled by his draconic instincts, he loathes humanity and will stop at nothing to exterminate the human race. Although he is treated as the King of Valla, the Vallite people are no more than pawns whom he can freely control to bring his goals to fruition. Even Garon and his "daughter", Lilith, both of whom were steadfastly loyal to him, were nothing more than disposable pawns when the time was needed.

However, in the past, Anankos was a benevolent dragon who loved humanity. Unfortunately his draconic instincts eventually lead to his degeneration. Still, a fragment of him lived, keeping his original benevolent nature intact. Eventually falling in love with Mikoto proved to be the biggest change in his life as he became steadfastly protective of his family to send them away from harm long before the threat of his dragon form became apparent. Even after finding out the true nature of Lilith, he readily accepted his "daughter" and ultimately gave his life up to protect her. In the end, Anankos' love for his family were laid bare in his final breaths as the last things on his mind were Lilith, Mikoto, and his child. He apologizes a lot, with his child seemingly inheriting this.

Revelation Chapter 27 - Hear My Cry

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Xenologue 20 - Heirs of Fate 6: Lost in the Waves
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Help Description
One of the First Dragons, who has long since lost his once-formidable mind.

Pre-Battle Quote
"I am the forgotten god. The betrayed King. The buried dragon."

- Anankos's Pre-Battle Quote

Defeated

 * "Whyyyyy..."

Retreat/Defeated
"Curse you...vexing humans...Once again...you've..."

- Anankos's death quote in Chapter 27

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 Robin from Awakening in terms of a hood and unseen face.
 * In the final chapter of the Revelation route, Anankos has the highest HP out of any enemy in the series with 282 HP (61 HP for each arm, 80 HP for the head and 80 HP for the eye). In Lunatic mode, Anankos has 286 HP (63 HP for each arm, 80 Hp for the head and 80 HP for the eye)
 * Anankos' Dragon form shares his Japanese voice actor, the late Rokurō Naya, with Gunter, while his Human form share his Japanese voice actor, Nobunaga Shimazaki, with the male Avatar and Male Kana.