Xayide

Evil-doer
Full Name	Xayide
Alias	The Emptiness Your Wickedness (by her servants) Your Vileness (by her servants) The Dark Princess (in the live-action series)
Origin	The Neverending Story
Occupation	Sorceress Queen of Horok Castle
Powers / Skills	Emptikinesis/control over everything empty Can drain substance from things and people Supreme mastery of dark magic Elementummancy/elemental magic Summoning elemental spirits Telekinesis Conjuration Protective aura Energy blasts Command over an army of monsters including the Giants High intelligence Manipulation
Hobby	None.
Goals	Overthrow the Childlike Empress. Turn Bastian Bux into her puppet-emperor to rule Fantasia through him. Void all stories and imagination to "order" them. (in the film) (all failed)
Crimes	Malefic/dark magic Tyranny Imprisonment of the Childlike Empress Devastation of Fantasia Grand theft memoria/memory theft Moral corruption of Bastian Bux Attempted usurpation Attempted global hegemony
Type of Villain	Dark Queen

“	You're outnumbered and outdone, Bastian! And you only have one wish left. So use what's left of your brain and wish to go home. That's where you belong.	„
	~ Xayide to Bastian Bux in the climax of The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter.

“	Now that was wishful thinking.	„
	~ Xayide in Tales from the Neverending Story.

Xayide (pronounced as "Zai-Ye-Dā"), the personification of The Emptiness, is an incredibly powerful evil witch who serves as a major antagonist in the 1979 German novel Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) and the 1990 fantasy film sequel The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, in which her role is vastly expanded. She also serves as the primary villainess of two spinoffs: the cartoon The Neverending Story: The Animated Adventures of Bastian Balthazar Bux and the live-action television miniseries Tales From the Neverending Story.

She was portrayed by Clarissa Burt in the 1990 film sequel, and Victoria Sanchez in the miniseries. She was voiced by Janet-Laine Green in the animated series.

Appearance

Xayide appears as a stunningly beautiful woman clad in wondrous, elaborate robes, albeit one somehow disquieting, hinting her true, uncanny nature.

In the novel, she is depicted as tall, with long, flowing, curly red hair and very pale skin, clad in red robes and depicted wearing a red cape with armoured, pointy shoulder pads. Her most striking physical feature are her heterochromatic red and green eyes.

The film shows Xayide very similar to her looks in the novel, though she first lacks a face and needs to apply a magical ointment on herself to make herself one. She has brown hair and her eyes are golden. While she is gorgeous, her rather rigid posture and features are a reminder of her otherworldly nature.

She first wears an elaborate red gown, jewellery and a sophisticated hairdo, but later changes for robes covered in diamond motifs with large, pointed shoulder pads, that start emerald-green but progressively darkens as her plan unfolds, until being pitch black in the climax.

In the cartoon, Xayide first appears sporting a featureless face showing what she sees like a screen, until she gives herself facial features with her magic, as a nod to the film.

She wears a forest green robe and hood reaching down her waist, and a lighter upper dress with pink trims on her shoulders and sleeves. She has fair skin and pink lipstick, but hides half her face under a black mask ending in a pink tiara shape, with yellow slits that can either be her eyes or cover them, narrowing and widening like real eyes and glowing following her mood.

In the mini-series, Xayide is tall and fair-skinned with dark brown hair, moving with eerie, twisting motions. She wears a black gown, red jewellery with a clawed ornament on each hand, and a tiara. In battle, she wears a plated battle-gown and an elaborate crown.

Nature

In the Novel

Xayide only looks human, being an unearthly, seemingly ageless entity ruling the Emptiness: all that exists without substance, either physically, spiritually or even metaphorically. It threatens to engulf all, leaving them outwardly intact, yet hollow, voided of essence, and barely existing, unable to fulfil their purpose.

Just as the Nothing comes from humanity's cynicism, apathy, and excessive materialism, the Emptiness comes from lack of interest, boredom and loss of imagination. Being an outside force opposed to the dreams and creativity from which comes the magical world of Fantasia, made of everything ever imagined by humans, it must be dealt with by a human full of those qualities.

Xayide rules her domain and armies from a creepy castle shaped like a hand called Horok, which is also known as the Seeing Hand, so called because of its multitude of windows appear like countless eyes. In the novel, Xayide controls Emptiness and seems to be its source, but what she is remains ambiguous, as the narration often states: "But that is another story and shall be told another time."

In the Film

The film explicitly describes Xayide as the personification of Emptiness, which is elevated as a threat to all of Fantasia, in the same way as the Nothing, and might be a remnant of its destruction undone by Bastian's wishes. The face she gives herself to mask her shallow nature could be seen as a symbol to the apparent normalcy of the unnatural, and the danger looking innocuous at first glance.

In the novel, Xayide was mortal and her magic could be broken, which ended up leading to her death, but in the film, she could only be destroyed by filling her void in every way. No longer being empty, she could no longer exist in the first place and all that she hollowed was given back substance.

In the Cartoon

Xayide first appears as faceless in the cartoon.

The cartoon makes little to no mention of the Emptiness, portraying Xayide as a rather standard evil witch, to the point of having herself and her servants addressing her as the Mistress of Evil.

In a way, this is truer to the novel, that emphasized her sorcery over Emptiness. Still, she must give herself a face again, and while mortal, when seemingly destroyed she manifests as a huge green cloud with her face who swears revenge, hinting that she is more than it appears.

In the Live-Action Series

In the live-action, Xayide is the sister of the Childlike Empress, who used to rule Fantasia with her, but soon coveted total power and was exiled to the Dark City by a Wizard. As always, she rules as a witch queen, her empty armours being called Dark Knights. She uses the Nothing to hollow people out, enabling her to transform them into brainwashed Drones. She intending to use it to void Fantasia of all beauty, spirit and creativity.

Powers and Abilities

Xayide is described as the greatest witch in Fantasia. And she is even more powerful in the adaptations, being doubtlessly the mightiest being in Fantasia outside of the Ivory Tower. She might even be equal to the Childlike Empress herself, as in the film she could keep her under home arrest, and spread the Emptiness over Fantasia, turning it into a lifeless, desolate land.

Her primary power is her complete control over what is empty, ranging from her minions (empty suits of armour in the novel, shallow giant monsters with pincers, and retractable buzzsaws or drills in the film), to people who lost their mind and purpose. In the film, she gradually drains substance from everyone and everything, leaving them as good as inexistant and spreading destruction over the land.

Xayide's sorcery is unrivalled. In the novel, her waning magic can void subjects and objects, or control empty things of all shapes for her to animate. In the film, she can travel through the centre of the world and reappear everywhere she wishes at the speed of darkness, stated to be faster than light. She sees and casts spells where she is not physically present, keeping tabs on the fleeing Bastian miles away and hurling a hand-shaped energy blast to seize him. She also owns several magical artefacts. However, she needs a machine made by her servant Tri-Face to steal the hero Bastian Bux's memories, while it was something happening on its own (of which she knew but had no power over) in the novel.

In the cartoon, she can perform telepathy and telekinesis, conjure what she wants, control the elements and the weather, summon spirits, among others. She can devise potions or artefacts, bewitch objects and cast all manners of spells or curses. Worse, she uses very powerful attack and defence magic.

Personality

In the Novel

Being empty, Xayide is totally emotionless, cold, distant and creepily expressionless. Though she can understand feelings flawlessly and perfectly imitate them. She is poised, dignified and always courteous, even when threatening, but not averse to sarcasm and disguising insults as praises. But to her core she is cruel, uncaring, and heartless in every sense of the word. She is consumed by her hunger for power, ironically as if to fill a void, but she never loses control, even when furious or threatening.

Moreover, Xayide is immensely intelligent, calculating, devious and perceptive. Knowing that she cannot subdue Bastian by force, she feigns surrender to deal with him indirectly. She leads him where she want to and subtly sets the pace of the story until the very end. Much worse, she is a perfect manipulator, who knows full well how to feign concern and even friendship to gain his trust, playing on his doubts, fears and desires to lead his own adventure to manipulate him. She proves able to erode Bastian's trust in his friends and to corrupt him, bringing about his ambition and worst traits with words alone.

In the Adaptations

In the film, she wants to control each and every story ever written, voiding them of all the fantasy they were created from and gives them meaning. She claims to merely want to bring "order" in "the chaos of dreams" and boldly asks how it could be wrong, but there is little mystery that what she really want is to dictate her law and make everything there strictly functional, soulless and almost mechanical.

In the cartoon she is more cartoonishly evil, fitting villains in children-oriented media of the time. While as poised, polite, scheming and clever as in the novel, she is more arrogant and temperamental, often losing patience or getting angry, though she remains in control no matter what happens. She revels in her vileness, delights in gloating, taunting foes and lording over people, but loathes opposition.

In the mini-series, she is hinted to have loved her sister, but now bitterly hates her, resenting that she does not act as a ruler. She remains poised, aloof and scheming, but hides seething spite behind a creepily exaggerated congenial facade. She likes to taunt and gloat, but is scornful and prone to anger.

Role in the Novel

Xayide appears in the second part of the story, after the hero, the pudgy, misunderstood, insecure, ten-year-old dreamer Bastian Balthazar Bux enters the magical world of Fantasia after naming the Childlike Empress and dispelling the Nothing. He is given the AURYN talisman that can grant his wishes, and is tasked to use it to recreate Fantasia from scratch, as it was obliterated by the Nothing.

With each wish Bastian forgets what things were before and loses one memory of the real world. Having dreamt all his life of being the hero of his story like the green-skinned hero Atreyu, whose quest he read before entering Fantasia, he wishes to become beautiful, brave and skilled. He gains the Light Blade Sikanda and befriends Atreyu and the Luck Dragon Falkor (Fuchur in the original German).

While well-meaning if careless at first, Bastian's wishes have unforeseen consequences. And because deep down he craves recognition, he starts losing himself in his waning memories and his growing selfishness, something Xayide notices. After making up many adventures for himself and others, Bastian confronts the wicked witch in Horok Castle, who fails to subdue him and pretends to surrender.

Feigning fealty to gain Bastian's trust, while ordering his friends around when his back is turned, Xayide starts playing on his worst traits. She gives him the Invisibility Belt Ghemmal, knowing he will spy on his friends, and drive him away from them. Under her influence, Bastian rejects his friends and invades the Ivory Tower to crown himself the new Emperor of Fantasia instead of the Childlike Empress. Atreyu is forced to rise against Bastian and interrupt the ceremony, but is nearly killed in the resulting battle.

Chasing after Atreyu, Bastian falls down a chasm and ends up in the City of Lost Emperors, haunted by the former saviours of Fantasia who lost themselves, mindless and broken. Horrified, he vows to atone, giving up memories of his widowed father for the truly selfless wish to be capable of love, relinquishing AURYN to Atreyu. Having lost her puppet-king, Xayide does not even resist when her iron giants who resist her magic trample her to death, while Bastian finds the Waters of Life that restore him to normal. The boy can return home and reunite with his father, using the Waters to cure his mourning melancholy.

Film Appearance

In this sequel to the first film, which ends after the victory over the Nothing, Bastian has returned to the real world, likely for a few years. His life has improved, but he is still grieving for his mother and unable to connect with his loving but distant father.

After fear got the better of him in school, Bastian returns to the bookstore where the book leading to Fantasia is kept. He finds that books are voided of words and hears the Childlike Empress calling for his help, prompting him to return to Fantasia, arriving at the wondrous Silver City of Amarganth and being bestowed AURYN.

The Childlike Empress tells him that she is kept prisoner by an eldritch force spreading over Fantasia and voiding its essence, destroying all around the Ivory Tower. A force that he must name. This is all the doing of Xayide, who is keeping tab on both Bastian and the Empress. Her servant Tri-Face has built a magic Memory Machine stealing one memory for each wish he makes, and she sends her other servant, the bird-man Nimbly to the Silver City, to gain his trust and push him to make wishes.

After Xayide sent her powerful Giants to the Silver City, Bastian reunites with Atreyu and Falkor, who lead him to the Horok Castle. It is protected by powerful energy beams disintegrating everything at contact. Bastian is caught in one, but Atreyu deflects it back at the castle using AURYN to destroy them.

Atreyu makes a diversion and is captured, while Bastian uses AURYN to sneak into Horok, saving his friend from a bottomless pit. They learn that the Giants are empty and Bastian names the threat Emptiness. They confront the wicked witch, who feigns surrender after some token resistance. She states to need to be at the Ivory Tower to free the Empress, so they order her to follow them there.

Xayide tempts Bastian under Atreyu's suspicious eye.

Outside of Horok, Falkor refuses to carry Xayide, who offers to travel in her luxurious Xobile coach, followed by a wary Atreyu on his steed Artax.

Playing the motherly figure that Bastian misses, Xayide gifts him Ghemmal the Invisibility Belt, in gratitude for sparing her. She pushes him to waste his wishes and to distrust his friends. Bastian refuses to heed Atreyu's proof that the Xobile is running in circles, then overhears Atreyu's and Falkor's concerns, mistaking them for a desire to take AURYN.

Atreyu later witnesses Nimbly watching a stolen memory of Bastian's mother's death. He tries to warn Bastian who refuses to listen and fights him, causing him to die in a fall, carried away by Falkor. Horrified, Bastian rushes back, sees the machine and flees on Artax’s back, while his father who has found the book and is reading his trials.

Knowing that he has only two wishes left, Xayide casts a spell to throw him down a river. Guided by Nimbly who had a change of heart, he returns to the Silver City, deserted and in ruins, and trades his mother's memory to resurrect Atreyu.

Bastian confronts Xayide and his fears.

Knowing that Bastian misses his father, Xayide appears and tell him to wish back home. Bastian feigns to comply, but not afraid anymore, he uses his last wish to give her a heart. No longer empty, Xayide sheds a tear of possible remorse and dies.

With Fantasia and Bastian's memories restored, the Childlike Empress appears to congratulate Bastian for saving her world again. Bastian next bids farewell to his friends and reunites with his father at last.

Cartoon Appearance

In this cartoon mixing aspects from the films and the novel, Xayide is constantly plotting to usurp the Childlike Empress, but Bastian keeps foiling her as he travels to Fantasia, being protected from her sorcery by AURYN. She is the greatest threat there is, with the possible exception of Gmork (here one with the Nothing), who appears much less often.

The Tears of Sadness

Xayide poisons the Fountains of Life and water in Fantasia with tears of the perpetually despairing Acharis, to turn into stone anyone who drinks water or looks at it. Bastian and the tree-man Bark Troll go to the gnome scientist Engywook and his wife the witch Urgl, who give them a potion. They confront Xayide, but drop the potion in the fountain as she hurls an explosive beam. This transforms the Acharis into the ever-laughing Schlamoofs and breaks the curse. (This also happens in the novel, albeit differently.) Pestered by the Schlamoofs, Xayide is forced to retreat.

The Purple Buffalo

Xayide's spirit swears revenge after her destruction.

Investigating the disappearance of the purple buffalos that his people need, Atreyu finds a giant flying ship owned by Xayide. She trapped them all in a crystal, planning to turn them into giant locusts that will devour all life in Fantasia.

She telekinetically knocks him out. Bastian sneaks into the ship with a magic powder given by the Buffalo Spirit, but cannot free the buffalos, and Xayide subdues him with gusts of wind. She send them with enslaved Fantasians forced to power the flying ship, but they escape and sabotage it.

Knowing they cannot free the buffalo, Bastian lets Xayide free and transform them, only now using the powder to turn them back to normal. The buffalos trample the ship and Xayide, but her spirit swears revenge.

Missing Memories

Xayide is enslaving the Snow Sprites to unearth the memories of the Childlike Empress from the Picture Mine where every Fantasians' memories are stored, for breaking them makes their subject vanish for real. Helped by the blind miner Yor, Bastian barges in as Xayide is about to blast the memories with fire, but she threatens to break the Empress' memories of him.

Faking a random attack, Bastian breaks all the memories of Xayide and her servants, vanishing them. But in the end, the Empress explains that sharing memories keep them alive, restoring all of her memories and their subjects, Xayide included.

Perilin

The ever-growing Night Forest Perilin is kept at bay at day by the fire lion Grograman, who scorches everything around into Goab, the Desert of Colours. But it is starting spreading, destroying everything on its wake. Having befriended Grograman due to the protection of AURYN, Bastian starts looking for him, discovering that Xayide has trapped him in a block of ice inside Horok Castle.

Bastian and Bark Troll storm Horok, but Xayide threatens to levitates the tree-man in the fire if they do not give her AURYN. Fortunately, Bastian's calls awoke Grograman who barges in, forcing the witch to protect herself in an energy sphere. Grograman destroys the forest, revealing that as in the book, he dies every night to let Perilin grow and resurrects every morning to keep balance intact.

A Friendship That Flames

Bastian and Bark Troll meet a blue ferret-man called Axin, helping him find the present that his people tasked him to bring to the Childlike Empress and lost. Axin leads them to Fire Mountain to find it. On their way, Axin starts getting on Bark Troll's nerves, who leaves in anger. In fact, it was a trap devised by Xayide to lead Bastian on a nest of fire-breathing snakes to be devoured. The boy only owes his life to Bark Troll, who defeats Axin with rotten eggs, leaving Xayide trapped by a rock avalanche.

The Three Feeling Stones

Xayide is seeking to unearth the three Feeling Stones, that regulate the emotions of every Fantasian. Despite Bastian's best efforts, they put the Joy Stone, the Love Stone and the Hope Stone in a bewitched safe, leaving all Fantasians unfeeling, unable to care for her take-over of the Ivory Tower. As Xayide orders the Imperial Court to tear down the tower, Bastian arrives feigning surrender and offering a toast for the new Empress laced with Urgl's love potion. Bewitched, Xayide retreats and offers the Feeling Stones to Bastian, who leaves them in the Ivory Tower, under the Childlike Empress' watch.

The Belt of Invisibility

The greedy Shadow Goblin finds the Belt of Invisibility Ghemmal, using it to steal valuables everywhere. Learning this, Bastian goes to Horok and demands a solution to Xayide, who tries in vain to steal AURYN before conjuring a feast for his visit, which he refuses. She offers a second belt, for only the invisible can see the invisible, knowing that no-one will see or hear him and hoping to blackmail him with it. As she can still hear him, he drives her crazy with chatter and songs, forcing her to release him.

End of Times

Watching over the Silver City of Amarganth, Xayide sees a storm sinking the magic Silver Clock into the acidic Lake of Tears, which starts eroding it. Horrified, she realizes that time will stop in Fantasia. She surrounds herself with a protective aura, but it uses all her power, preventing her from magically restoring the clock. Protected by AURYN and advised by the Three Great Thinkers to work with an enemy, Bastian finds an exhausted Xayide clinging for dear life over a chasm and saves her.

Xayide grudgingly follows Bastian to the Silver City, where he provokes her into refusing to give up. She grants him a protective aura for him to dive in the acid and rewind the clock. As time restarts, she uses her last strength to levitate him to safety with the clock, and he saves him in turn from the storm. Puzzled by his saving his archenemy, Xayide teleports away, warning him that the truce ends here.

The Everlasting Night

Xayide steals Urgl's grimoire, but accidentally creates the sentient Night Breath that covers Fantasia with an everlasting night who plunges her in an unbreakable trance. As Bastian and Falkor are trying in vain to stop the Night Breath, even calling the Four Wind Giants, Urgl goes to Horok Castle, where Tri-Head and Nimbly try in vain to awake the witch. Urgl awakes Xayide, who refuses to dispel the Night Breath, but Urgl expected it and bewitched her with purple rabbit ears, forcing her to comply.

Mirror, Mirror

As Bastian is having fun in a cave full of deforming mirrors, he stumbles on a magical one devised by Xayide to bring an evil reflection of himself to life. The evil Bastian steals AURYN, enabling Xayide to trap the real one in the reflections of a mirror. Fortunately, Xayide's mirror accidentally created a good reflexion of her, who can only use good magic and manages to free him.

Xayide sends the evil Bastien put the Childlike Empress to slumber with a cursed gift. Shunned by all, Bastian and the good Xayide sneak in Horok Castle, tricking Xayide into vanishing his double. Her good double dispels her energy ball to save Bastian, deflects her sphere of destruction, and destroys her summoned elementals with rain and breeze. Xayide blasts her double with yellow bolts and Bastian with a shockwave before he takes AURYN, but her double tricks her into destroying the mirror with a death ray. As she vanishes, she thanks Bastian who escapes with AURYN and wakes the Empress with it.

The Dreaming Fields

Xayide plants a Nightmare Weed in the flowery Dreaming Fields, the source of Fantasians' every dream, covering them in purple thorns. Bastian finds that every dream came true, changing them all apparently for the best. Even Xayide has been reduced to three, powerless servant maids by Tri-Head who dreamt to be king. Alas, the realized dreams go overboard to the point of nightmarish consequences. Falkor guides Bastian to the Glass Tower to get Star Light, using it to destroy the Nightmare Thorns and return everyone to normal, including a very pissed Xayide who refuses to let Tri-Head sleep.

Live-Action Appearance

In the mini-series, Xayide rules the Dark City and is called the Dark Princess, trying to kill the Childlike Empress and usurp power in  Fantasia. Her character is composite with Gaya, the Princess of Darkness who rules the monster realm of Spook City and chained Gmork until he starved to death in the novel. Xayide has a grudge against the mysterious Wizard who banished her.

Her domain is a creepy city made of floating islands over a sea of lava, populated with monsters like her Praetorian Guard of empty Dark Knights, and hollowed Drones whom she playfully treats as her adoring subjects. Worse, she keeps the Nothing contained in a chest, always bringing it with her to create more Drones. Finally, Gmork, who exists in both worlds as in the novel, is her servant.

The Beginning

Bastian meets the bookseller Carl Conrad Correander and gains the Neverending Story book after visiting his dying mother in the hospital. He dreams about Fantasia and his mother, who knows about this world, encourages him to follow his dreams. As in the novel, he reads of Atreyu’s quest to save the Childlike Empress, here from Xayide, being bestowed AURYN.

Xayide sends Gmork both to track him down in Fantasia and to get rid of Bastian in the real world, shape-shifted as his substitute teacher Mr. Blank.

Gallery

Xayide depticted following the novel.

Xayide in the movie.

Xayide as seen in the animated series in the episode "The Tears of Sadness".

Xayide in the miniseries, portrayed by Victoria Sanchez.

Trivia

• Despite her name is pronounced as Zai-Yē-Dā on Google Translate, Xayide's name is actually heard as "Zai-Yē-Da" in both the live action films and the animated series.