High Blade Xenocrates Character Analysis

The High Blade of MidMerica. He's a huge and imposing scythe who wears heavy gold robes. Citra notes that Xenocrates is full of contradictions: while his robes and his home—a simple cabin set atop the tallest building in Fulcrum City—seem ostentatious for a scythe, he also wears threadbare slippers and doesn't keep servants at home. She also can't decide if Xenocrates is sincere or calculating, as he appears to be both at once. Rowan learns later that Xenocrates isn't truly sympathetic to Scythe Goddard's cause, while Volta is surprised to learn that Xenocrates took Goddard on as an apprentice many years ago. In the novel's present, Xenocrates is being blackmailed by Goddard, as Goddard keeps Esme, Xenocrates's illegitimate and illegal daughter, as collateral. To keep her existence from getting out—and to keep her safe—Xenocrates doesn't challenge any of Goddard's questionable behavior and accuses Citra of murdering Scythe Faraday, though he later revokes the charges. While he initially seems to discount both Citra and Rowan, his dealings with them after Goddard's death and at Winter Conclave show him that he should take them seriously, and that he should specifically look out for Rowan, foreshadowing Rowan’s later role as an unordained scythe who gleans corrupt scythes.