Hades Izanami

"I command you in the name of Izanami. Finish them!"

- Hades Izanami "I shall deliver death unto all of the living."

- Hades Izanami "Stop! I-I don't desire your salvation!"

- Hades Izanami's last words.

Hades Izanami is the goddess of death and one of the primary antagonists of the BlazBlue series alongside Yuuki Terumi and Relius Clover.

She uses Saya's body as her vessel and the one who Hazama and Relius answer to. Her goal is to reduce everything to nothing.

In Chrono Phantasma, she is the final boss of the story mode and using Take-Mikazuchi as her weapon while Izanami herself is an assist character. In Central Fiction, Izanami makes her debut as a playable character.

Origin
Izanami is a Drive manifestation of girl inside the Amaterasu unit. She possessed Saya as a vessel at some point before the start of Calamity Trigger.

Continuum Shift
While Ragna sacrificed his left arm to turn Mu-12 back into Noel in the end of Continuum Shift, Izanami damaged the Master Unit, Amaterasu to disable the time loop while nobody's looking, and took control of the Takamagahara System with assistance from Terumi and Phantom, thus granting herself the one wish she had always wanted: to prevent time from looping any longer and make the world the way she believes it should be: a "World of Death" where death is permanent, and when things end once, they shall end permanently.

Chronophantasma
In order to bring the Master Unit closer to them Izanami used the Takamagahara system to cause widespread Phenomenon Interventions all across Ikaruga. She also sends Tsubaki Yayoi to Ikaruga to deal with Ragna and his allies.

Izanami later reveals her plan to the world to create the True BlazBlue by summoning the Embryo and turning most humans in seithr in order to create a "World of Death" and resigns from being the Imperator of NOL, nominating Homura Amanohosaka as her successor.

After Relius opened all the Gates, Izanami summoned the Take-Mikazuchi to use it to destroy the Master Unit. However, weapon was brought down by the combined efforts of Ragna, Jin and Noel. Following Take-Mikazuchi's defeat and Terumi's death at the hands of Hakumen Izanami declares her alliance with Hazama and Relius Clover is now over since the "Banquet" has now ended, and that she will give them a "Good Death" for having served her.

Central Fiction
It is revealed that Saya is actually a doll made by Relius for Izanami to have a body and that Izanami is actually the physical Manifestation of the girl inside the Master Unit's drive who said girl is the real Noel.

Izanami was eventually absorbed by Noel after she had merged with Mu-12. In the aftermath of Ragna's sacrifice, she was currently imprisoned inside Noel's soul as both Noel and Lambda-11 were currently becoming the nuns of Celica's church. However, it was revealed that Izanami was waiting for her chance for revenge in the future.

Appearance
In Saya's body, she looks like a young woman with very long violet hair tied into a ponytail, and soulless red eyes. She wears a white and red Japanese-style outfit reminiscent of an empress, tied with a light blue sash, with a golden crown and a dark cape over her shoulders.

In Central Fiction, she does not battle in her normal priestess-styled regalia, but changes to a less restricting, more revealing outfit, with a giant, floating ring resembling a thunder god drum behind her called the Yasakani no Magatama.

Personality
Izanami is devoid of all emotion and extremely literal-minded. She is obsessed with making the world die and will stop at nothing to accomplish her goal.

The Goddess remarks that she can "feel" the strong attachment that the real Saya has towards Ragna. Throughout the game, she constantly mocks Ragna with Saya's voice in an extremely playful manner.

She is also shown to have little to no concern for her comrades, even to the point of offering Ragna Terumi's head in exchange for joining her side. However, she does view Relius in a kinder light; having frequent discussions with him about his motives, but the two share a certain dislike for Hazama and his (what they regard as) playful and enthusiastic attitude.

In Central Fiction, Izanami is shown to be rather similar to Nu-13 when around Ragna, though nowhere near as deranged as she is. This especially true at the end of Ragna's Arcade Mode in Nightmare Memory. The only difference is that Nu likes Ragna, while Izanami dislikes him.

However, Izanami shows signs of being frantic when Mu-12 successfully absorbs her due to Ragna's interference, which was a possibility she never expected due to her arrogant, dismissive, and contemptuous personality.

Trivia

 * She is named after Izanami no Mikoto, the goddess of death and creation in Japanese mythology, and the former wife of Izanagi no Mikoto.
 * The name Hades came from the Greek God of the underworld.
 * For reasons unknown, her Japanese voice was redubbed for the release of Continuum Shift Extend. This could have possibly happened because Kanako Kondō's performance sounded almost exactly like Noel and Mu, which would give away the Imperator's relation to them.
 * In The Wheel of Fortune Drama CD, Terumi brought an unconscious Saya to Relius just after he burned down the church, while Relius commented that her body will be useful for a "vessel", implying that her role at the end Continuum Shift 's true ending might be linked to possession, and not her actual consciousness. This is even foreshadowed by Rachel in her own bad ending, where she isn't surprised to see Saya at all, asking her if she has finally "awakened".
 * Given some cryptic comments made about her by Rachel and Takamagahara, it is possible that the entity possessing Saya is the first Boundary Interface, which gained a soul and the power of the Eye while in the Boundary and was subsequently sealed there. It's actually Izanami.
 * The Material Collection mentions that Saya has incredibly high Ars Armagus aptitudes, and the reason she was raised in the church was to hide her from Terumi. This may imply that Terumi already tried to capture her sometime in the past.
 * For reasons unknown, her Japanese voice was redubbed for the release of Extend, possibly because Kanako Kondo's performance sounded almost exactly like Noel and Mu; when Saya is revealed, she clearly looks older and her voice actor changed to keep them to be similiar and being Izanami's voice.
 * In an interview, Mori said that she might not appear in the arcade version of Chrono Phantasma, but rather for the home version instead, hinting that she may be a console exclusive character, similar to Mu-12 in Continuum Shift.
 * In Continuum Shift 's True Ending, Saya was actually dubious when she talked about Amaterasu. However, the English dub makes it easy to misunderstand that she destroyed the Unit.
 * Imperator Librarius or more specifially Izanami is BlazBlue 's counterpart of Ariels from Guilty Gear.
 * She shares a similar traits with her Persona counterpart, due to having a same red eyes and a collaboration between Atlus and Arc System Works.
 * Hades Izanami shares several similarities with Makuta Teridax from the BIONICLE universe:
 * Both are the main antagonists of their respective franchises,
 * both are Complete Monsters,
 * both are responsible for the bad events that occured in the main storyline,
 * both have red eyes and have a menacing tone,
 * both needed a host to possess in order to home their powers,
 * and both used the power of darkness.
 * It's hinted that she was the one behind Sechs due to him talking with someone whose silhouette was suspiciously similar to Izanami's. Sechs also wanted reduce all life to Seither, which further implies that Izanami was influencing him since she has the same goal.
 * In Continuum Shift 's True Ending, Hades Izanami was actually dubious when she talked about Amaterasu. However, the English dub makes it easy to misunderstand that she destroyed the Unit.
 * She has a strong resemblance to Saya Terumi not only in appearance, but personality.
 * She is the only character who is not super heavyweight type character like Iron Tager, to have no double jump. Instead, she gains a floating ability.
 * Hades Izanami was also considered as the Complete Monster just like Terumi and Relius due to her heinous acts that she commited throughout the series. Because of that, she was one of the darkest villains of the BlazBlue series.