List of The Neverending Story Characters - Xayide

Xayide (Xayíde in German) is one of the main villains of the story. She is an evil sorceress who appears later in the book after Bastian enters the world of Fantasia. Xayide lives in a castle shaped like a hand, called Horok, the Seeing Hand, so called because its multitude of windows appear like human eyes. Xayide's most striking physical feature are her heterochromatic red and green eyes. She has the ability to control anything empty, and thus she employs a number of guards which are effectively empty suits of iron plate armour.

While at her core Xayide is cold and calculating, she presents to Bastian a warm and worshipping exterior, which fools him easily. Her vain wishes are to replace the Childlike Empress as ruler of Fantastica and bring sharp order to the realm of fantasy. Realizing she cannot defeat Bastian by force, she uses him in an attempt to rule by proxy, convincing him to invade the Ivory Tower with the power of his wishes to become Childlike Emperor. After losing Bastian, she is trampled underfoot and crushed to death by her iron minions who resist her waning magic. The book's chapters follow an alphabetical order pattern of the first word, thus her name serves well for the difficult "X" word in Chapter 24, where she meets her demise.

Xayide is portrayed by actress and model Clarissa Burt in The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, which is loosely based upon the second half of the novel with key differences. In the adaption, Xayide's ability to control hollow things, such as her guards, is taken to another level: control of an entity similar to the Nothing called 'the Emptiness' which plagues Fantastica and threatens the Empress. She is faceless in her first appearance and puts on a face by applying a magic substance. Xayide is depicted in the movie very much akin to the book's description, cunning enough to manipulate Bastian into delusion, planning to usurp the Childlike Empress and bring order to Fantastica. In both media she gives Bastian the belt Ghemmal, which turns its wearer invisible and was intended for the same purpose: to spy on Atreyu. She meets her end in the movie when Bastian uses his last wish for her to have a heart, causing her to no longer be empty and cancel herself out.

In the miniseries Tales from the Neverending Story, Xayide is portrayed as the Childlike Empress' sister and is the main antagonist of the series.

In The Neverending Story cartoon, Xayide is the main antagonist of the series.