Eraqus

Master Eraqus

Eraqus (エラクゥス, Erakwusu), also known as Master Eraqus (マスター・エラクゥス, Masutā Erakwusu), is both a fictional character and tritagonist from the Kingdom Hearts series. He is a Keyblade Master and the master of Terra and Aqua, and he also serves as the second master of Ventus.

"Fear leads to obsession with power, and obsession beckons the Darkness."

—Master Eraqus to Terra.

Appearance & Biography

Voice actor: Mark Hamill (English), Makio Inoue (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Nit Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Biography

One of the true Keyblade Masters and also Terra, Aqua, and Ventus's teacher. He has a strong aversion to darkness, and believes it is the duty of every Keyblade Master to rid the world of it.

Though strict on the outside, he is not unkind, and loves his pupils like his own children.

Appearance

Master Eraqus, like his student, Terra, bears a distinct Japanese influence in his choice of clothing. He wears a white, red lined haori that has a hood, along with slightly shorter than normal, light-colored hakama. Underneath his haori, he wears a navy blue shirt with a large white X pattern on the front. He also has jagged scars over his right eye and left cheek inflicted by Master Xehanort, much like the wounds Braig received from Terra.

Keyblade Armor

Like his pupils, Eraqus wears pieces of armor, in his case gold and black armored boots and a dull blue-green section that covers his abdomen. This second piece of armor sports the same symbol worn by his students near the top. Eraqus's black hair is tied into a short, high topknot, with one bang falling off to the right side of his face. He also has a short, triangular soul patch and a mustache. Eraqus's Keyblade Armor greatly resembles samurai armor, fitting in with his Japanese theme.

• Hair Color: Black
• Skin Color: Not Known
• Eye Color: Gray
• Age: Not Known
• Birthday: Not Known
• Height: Not Known
• Weight: Not Known

Personality

Master Eraqus is a strong Keyblade master, caring for Terra, Ventus, and Aqua as his own children. Stern and willing to instruct, one major goal he has in life appears to be preserving peace throughout the worlds, as he rashly attacks Ventus when Eraqus discovers that through his dark half, Vanitas, Ventus can create the χ-blade, the weapon that sparked the Keyblade War and the means Master Xehanort intends to use to fulfill his goals. Unlike Master Xehanort, Eraqus has an open staunch and almost bigoted aversion to darkness, believing that it must be destroyed at all or any costs, and has at least partially ingrained these beliefs into his apprentices. In his final moments, he even becomes concerned that his actions against Ventus and Terra were due to some darkness having snuck into his heart.

Despite his sometimes cold actions toward his apprentices, he still cares deeply for them. He has Aqua follow anf look after Terra as he travels the worlds because he is concerned for him, apologizes to Ventus and appears deeply pained before he attempts to attacking to destroy the boy, and sheds a tear when he is forced to face off against Terra. Despite his relationship with Xehanort having been strained over the years, Eraqus seems to attempt to forgive his erstwhile friend, overlook his former friend's past actions to a degree, even welcoming him to help preside over the Mark of Mastery exam despite their last meeting ending in violence. Even after he and Xehanort have a fight that results in Eraqus being scarred, he still asks Xehanort to watch over the Mark of Mastery with him.

Following his apparent demise at Xehanort's hands, Eraqus's influence and strength settles within Terra in order to help him counter Xehanort's possession and hopefully regain his body.

Relationships

Friends/Allies

• Terra
• Ventus
• Aqua
• numerous Disney characters
  • Yen Sid

Enemies

• Xehanort
• Unversed
  • Vanitas

Powers and Abilities

Master Eraqus is very experienced with a Keyblade. When he attacks, he uses a combination of Keyblade melee and magic. If he uses magic, he uses light as his main form of offence. It often takes the form of a chain extending from the tip of his Keyblade.

Abilities

Master Eraqus appears as a boss against Terra after the Keyblade wielder rescues Ventus from an attempt by Eraqus to kill him, and Terra is forced to fight him. Eraqus is a skilled Keyblade Master and magic user who focuses on harnessing the power of light for his attacks. His light-based magic skills are some of the most advanced seen in the series so far.

During battle, Eraqus uses many quick lunging attacks, and is able to land many hits before the combo finisher. He also has several desperation attacks, each based on the light element.

Weapons

Main article: Master Keeper

Master Eraqus wields a rather basic Keyblade named "Master Keeper", which is grey in coloration. It has the appearance of an old fashioned skeleton key, and the teeth are shaped like an "E". Its Keychain is the Mark of Mastery symbol. He summons his Keyblade in a fashion similar to Terra, shrouded in a series of golden blocks.

Aqua uses the Master Keeper to seal Castle Oblivion at the end of Birth By Sleep. In a trailer for Kingdom Hearts III Sora is shown finding the Master Keeper on Destiny Islands.

History

Past

In the E3 2015 trailer for Kingdom Hearts III, a young Xehanort and Eraqus are playing chess, discussing about the Keyblade War. When Xehanort mentions the "Lost Masters" actually started the war, Eraqus feigns ignorance, and Xehanort remains unconvinced.

Where Xehanort muses on how on the land where the Keyblade War was fought, darkness will prevail and light expire, while Eraqus counters him by claiming that the light might surprise Xehanort and prevail, and Xehanort expresses interest in this possibility.

Before Birth by Sleep

After passing the Mark of Mastery exam his master placed him through, Eraqus became a Keyblade Master and was entrusted to safeguard the Land of Departure while his fellow apprentice made master, Xehanort, left to travel the worlds as a Seeker. When the two meet again, Eraqus learns of Xehanort's scheme to cause a second Keyblade War in order to recreate the χ-blade and attempted to fight his former friend to stop him from carrying out what would destroy everything. However, his attempt was futile as Xehanort quickly took him down and scarred his face. Years later, Eraqus obtains apprentices of his own, Terra and Aqua, before taking Ventus under his wing from a seemingly repentant Xehanort.

Synopsis

Kingdom Hearts

Birth by Sleep

Eraqus holds the Mark of Mastery exam for Terra and Aqua, with Ventus and Xehanort as witnesses. In the end, Eraqus names Aqua master while refusing to give Terra the mantle on the grounds that he is unable to control his darkness. Despite the formality, Eraqus confides to Terra that he has the potential to become a Keyblade Master. Little does Eraqus know that Xehanort had used his dark powers to tamper with the course of the Exam itself. Soon after, he conveys to Aqua the responsibilities that go with her status and what she is required to do if he died for any reason. With Xehanort no where to be seen, Eraqus sends Terra and Aqua to find him shortly after being contacted by Master Yen Sid about the spawning of the mysterious Unversed. Sensing a possible connection between the two events, Eraqus later instructs Aqua to look after Terra, as he fears his apprentice may be tempted by the darkness. However, after Terra departs, Aqua and Eraqus witness Ventus leaving as well, and he instructs Aqua to bring Ventus back.

Upon seeing Ventus later returning, Eraqus welcomes him back home with open arms, only to find the boy confused and enraged as he questions him about the χ-blade and his role in its creation. Eraqus, realizing that Xehanort never intended to give up his agenda and revealing to the boy his role in the plot, sees killing Ventus to be the only way to put Xehanort's plot to an end for good. However, Xehanort arranged Terra to arrive to save Ventus from Eraqus. Sensing that Terra has indeed descended into darkness, the youth refusing to let him kill Ventus, Eraqus is left with no choice but to eliminate them both. However, after throwing Ventus into a portal leading to the Destiny Islands, Terra mortally wounds Eraqus. In the end, Terra regretting fighting him while he sees that turning his Keyblade on his own apprentices was an error on judgement, Eraqus is impaled from behind by Xehanort and fades in Terra's arms.

Legacy

Avenging Eraqus's death was among Terra's primary motives for defeating Xehanort during the events in the Keyblade Graveyard. However, after Xehanort uses Terra's body as the first of his vessels, he learns that Eraqus entered Terra's heart and thus gave him the means to resist Xehanort.

See also

• Armor of the Master

Etymology

His name is an anagram of "Square", a reference to Square Enix, the developers of the Kingdom Hearts series. Tetsuya Nomura stated in the Ultimania that he had actually forgotten the basis of the name, and that the producer had to remind him that it was an anagram.

External links

• Master Eraqus Wikipedia
• Master Eraqus Kingdom Hearts Wiki
• Eraqus Kingdom Hearts Wiki, the Kingdom Hearts encyclopedia

Notes & Trivia

• Master Eraqus physically resembles Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series.
• Mark Hamill, Eraqus's English voice actor, was chosen specifically by Tetsuya Nomura for his role as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.