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I am fal'Cie. My name is Barthandelus; voice of the Sanctum, and Lord-Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie. Your kind feared the darkness, so we gave you light. You begged us for the Purge, and did it not come to pass? Now you spurn our counsel? You must learn your place!
Barthandelus looking down on the l'Cie while transforming.
Barthandelus (バルトアンデルス, Barutoanderusu?) [bɑɹ'tæn.dɪ.lɨs] is a powerful fal'Cie from Final Fantasy XIII. He is the self-proclaimed Lord-Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie, and the true form of the game's main antagonist. As Barthandelus is a Sanctum fal'Cie, he cannot harm Cocoon directly, and thus uses Pulse l'Cie as tools to exact his plan.
Datalog
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Barthandelus aboard the Palamecia.
This fal'Cie has long lived under the guise of Galenth Dysley, the Sanctum's supposedly human Primarch. Unbeknownst even to his closest aides, he has kept careful watch on the fugitive l'Cie through the eyes of his rukh, Menrva, forcing them to grow stronger while at times aiding secretly in their flight.
Barthandelus desires only that the l'Cie complete their Focus, which he explained to be transforming into the beast Ragnarok in order to destroy Orphan and all of Cocoon.
Appearance and Personality
Barthandelus's final form.
Barthandelus's form continuously changes. At first, Barthandelus appears as a towering, bronze being with gold lining, alien markings visible on his skin, and four face-masks grafted onto the sides of his head as adornments. He has a snake-like throat with gills. His eyes lack pupils and he has an eerie grin with sharp, dagger-like teeth. In a later appearance, Barthandelus becomes white-skinned with a new adornment.
Barthandelus is heartless and sinister, viewing humans as tools to achieve his ends and would not hesitate to exploit their weaknesses — and their strength — to his advantage. He mourns for the state of the world, expressing numerous times that Cocoon's people suffer and that the l'Cie are only prolonging that pain by choosing not to follow their Focus to destroy Orphan. Ultimately, he is a ruthless nihilist who wishes to see Cocoon destroyed so he and his fellow fal'Cie can be reunited with the Maker.
Story
Your destiny was my design.
Barthandelus
Barthandelus's ultimate goal is to destroy Cocoon, so the deaths of its citizens as "sacrifice" would call back the Maker, the god who created the world and long since departed.
War of Transgression
Almost seven centuries ago under the orders of his creator, Lindzei, to find Etro's Gate, Barthandelus devised a plan to use humans to find the door to the Unseen Realm. Using stolen Arks and Gran Pulse's resources, Barthandelus lured some of the residents of Gran Pulse to Cocoon with the promise of paradise while instilling fear and hatred in those who refused to leave their homeland. This sparked the wrath of the Pulse fal'Cie Anima with the people of Oerba declaring war on Cocoon. Barthandelus and the fal'Cie defended against the attack, appearing to be protecting Cocoon's residents.
When Ragnarok was summoned and cracked Cocoon's shell Etro intervened by placing Anima into a deep sleep and forcing Vanille and Fang, two Pulse l'Cie given the Focus to wipe out Cocoon as Ragnarok, into a premature crystal stasis. Seeing Ragnarok as the ideal means to destroy Cocoon, Barthandelus secretly brought the Pulse Vestige where Anima resided and the two l'Cie into Cocoon and placed it near the seaside town of Bodhum while he sourced raw materials from Gran Pulse to repair the damage to Cocoon's shell, and make more land for people to populate. Cocoon continued to grow into a human paradise, assisted by the Cocoon fal'Cie, while the people grew up under the impression the fal'Cie saved them from a Pulse invasion.
Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-
Barthandelus assumed the guise of Galenth Dysley and took the helm of Sanctum politics, waiting for the day Fang and Vanille would take up Ragnarok's mantle once more. Barthandelus awakens the sleeping Anima to revive Vanille and Fang from crystal stasis and after informing PSICOM of a Pulse invasion being underway, Barthandelus monitors Fang and Vanille as they wander Cocoon. Realizing the Pulse l'Cie are not going to complete their Focus, he turns his attention to the newly-branded l'Cie, Serah Farron, and uses her to put his plan back in motion, leading to the Purge.
Final Fantasy XIII
When a chain of events leads to Lightning, Sazh, Hope, and Snow being branded as Pulse l'Cie to destroy Cocoon, Barthandelus realizes his time has come. He marks the Cavalry leader, Cid Raines, as a l'Cie to help the Pulse l'Cie complete their Focus. Pulling strings from behind the curtains, he and the other Cocoon fal'Cie secretly guide the l'Cie towards their goal: by forcing them to fight Sanctum soldiers to strengthen them and ensuring they safely proceed through countless obstacles, namely escaping from the grips of PSICOM. After Sazh and Vanille are captured in Nautilus, Barthandelus spreads news of their impending public execution to lure the other four l'Cie to him.
Lightning's group rushes to the airship Palamecia to save their friends. In the airship's control room the group confronts Barthandelus in his human guise. Barthandelus taunts Fang for having forgotten her Focus, and tells the party their Focus is to become Ragnarok and fell Orphan, the fal'Cie that sustains Cocoon, and that Serah's true Focus was to gather them all up to be branded l'Cie. Barthandelus absorbs Menrva and reveals his fal'Cie form. He attacks the party and is seemingly defeated, but merely melts away and returns as Galenth Dysley, unscathed. Barthandelus gives the group an airship and sends them to the Fifth Ark resting beneath the Cocoon capital Eden to further strengthen their powers as l'Cie.
Barthandelus's second form in Oerba Village.
While inside the Ark, the party meets Cid Raines who reveals Barthandelus's ultimate goal to them while attempting to kill them to fight his Focus as a l'Cie. Eventually, using an old Pulsian airship to reach Gran Pulse, the group encounter Dysley in the ruins of Oerba when he assumed Serah's form to encourage them to fulfill their focus. Revealing that he made Cid the new Primarch to force him into setting up an alternate plan to destroy Orphan using the Cavalry, Barthandelus battles Lightning's group. Defeated again, he leaves behind Menrva in its airship form so the group may return to Cocoon should they wish to save its citizens.
Barthandelus assimilated into Orphan.
The party returns to Cocoon, entering Dysley when signs of Etro's Gate manifesting occur. Once they reach Edenhall at the heart of Eden, the party finds most of the Cavalry have turned into Cie'th. It turned out Barthandelus used the Cavalry as a ploy to get the l'Cie to enter Orphan's Cradle where Orphan resides. Waiting for them in the chamber Orphan is held, Dysley tries to manipulate the group by shattering illusions of the crystallized Serah and Dajh, the l'Cie refuse to fulfill their Focus. Barthandelus fights them to force their hand but is defeated and sinks into Orphan's pool, with Menrva following to activate Orphan. With Orphan born, Barthandelus's lifeless body is assimilated into a protective shell that Orphan speaks through before it is eventually shattered by the l'Cie.
Abilities
As a fal'Cie, Barthandelus possesses great magical powers, the most notable of which is the ability to shapeshift. As he is a fal'Cie, Barthandelus can brand l'Cie.
Barthandelus using Ultima.
During his first form, Barthandelus is nigh impossible to effectively harm unless his pauldrons are destroyed, and each of them have their own elemental affinities. His second form uses laser-like attacks and his magic arsenal abruptly changes to one with powerful status ailment-inflicting spells. In his third and final form, Barthandelus's powers change, utilizing powerful laser attacks and Ultima.
The true level of his power remains unknown, as he only fought the party to manipulate them into following his plan; not to defeat them. In his final fight, Barthandelus allows himself to be defeated so his lifeless body can be used by Orphan.
Battle
Barthandelus is fought three times, first on the bridge of the Palamecia, secondly at Oerba, and finally as the ante-penultimate boss in Orphan's Cradle.
Music
"Fighting Fate" is the boss theme against all three incarnations of Barthandelus. It references his intent to bring about Ragnarok, using the l'Cie as his tools, reciting a more than full version of it while assuming Serah's form. He adds, "Make of this day a brave epoch. Deliver the Divine, Ragnarok". In Latin, it is "Creo dies tempo fortis. Vindico divinum, Ragnarok".
Gallery
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Etymology
Dysley's true form, Barthandelus, is based on the Germanic literary shape-shifter Baldanders that is conceived by Hans Sachs from the Greek god Proteus as described in Homer's epic, The Odyssey. He is called Baldanders in the Italian, Spanish, and Japanese versions.
Trivia
- In Final Fantasy XIII-2, one of the possible names for chocobos when racing in Serendipity is "Barthandelus X".
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