Japan Anime

It is the year T.C. 4768, and mankind exists on distant planets and artificial colonies. Earth is seemingly gone; it has been erased from starmaps and renamed "Lost Jerusalem". The capital of all known space is Fifth Jerusalem, where the Galaxy Federation supposedly keeps watch over mankind.

For the past fourteen years, a mysterious enemy known as the Gnosis has attacked man's colonies seemingly indiscriminately. It is largely believed that the Gnosis were brought into the universe by a scientist named Joachim Mizrahi during the Miltian Conflict of T.C. 4753, but there is more to that story than the public really knows.
The Zohar, a central artifact and plot device in the Xenosaga series..
The Zohar, a central artifact and plot device in the Xenosaga series..

Since its discovery on Lost Jerusalem, an artifact known as the Zohar has been highly sought after, despite having caused the disappearance of Earth. Several factions—chiefly the underground Ormus society and the aforementioned Galaxy Federation—wish to harness its power. Both groups believe that the Zohar's significance is threefold; is a power source, the cause of the Gnosis crisis, and the key to U-DO, a being from a higher dimension. Thus, the two factions believe that the Zohar could be the key to the Gnosis destruction and a pathway to unlimited power. At the same time, the Kukai Foundation, an independent organization secretly founded by the autonomous Second Miltian government, also seeks to gather the Zohar and the Zohar Emulators while investigating the conspiracy surrounding them.

Since the age of Lost Jerusalem, many researchers have studied and attempted to control the Zohar. Among the results of this research was the development of several Zohar Emulators. However, the original Zohar's power still far eclipses the energy output of any known Emulator, despite the fact that one of the Emulators caused the disappearance of the planet Ariadne. More importantly, no Emulator is capable of the true function of the Zohar.

As a result, the Ormus society and the Galaxy Federation are obsessed with finding the original Zohar that was sealed away on Miltia at the end of the Miltian Conflict. However, the key to unlocking Miltia and the Original Zohar is contained within the Y-Data, which is hidden within the mind of a Realian called MOMO. In order to retrieve the Y-Data, Ormus hatches a plot against the Galaxy Federation and its allies by using a series of dummy organizations and insiders, as well as its military force, the U-TIC Organization and an enigmatic figure known as Albedo. In turn, the Galaxy Federation employs a cyborg named Ziggurat 8 to rescue MOMO and act as her bodyguard.

Meanwhile, Vector Industries, the largest corporation in existence and the primary arms manufacturer for the Galaxy Federation, is currently researching new ways to use nanotechnology to build an unstoppable anti-gnosis battle android, code-named KOS-MOS. This is quite unusual, since androids have been replaced for many years by artificial life-forms known as Realians. However, Vector Industries and their head of first R&D division, Shion Uzuki, have other ideas. Shion, a simple software researcher traveling on the starship Woglinde, becomes involved in a conspiracy not only to control the mysterious Gnosis and Original Zohar, but to reshape the destiny of all mankind.