Chernabog

Chernabog (meaning "Black God" in Slavic) is the demonic denizen of Bald Mountain, and appears as a boss at the End of the World in Kingdom Hearts. He originally appeared in Disney's Fantasia, in the segment set to "Night on Bald Mountain".

The Japanese version of the game uses "Squirming Evil", the track used for most Disney Villain battles. However, in the American version of Kingdom Hearts, as well as in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the background music for the battle with Chernabog is an arrangement of "Night on Bald Mountain".

Story
On their way to confront Ansem, while fighting his legions of Heartless, Sora, Donald, and Goofy encounter the demon Chernabog. He wakes up and promptly attacks the trio, but is defeated after a grueling battle.

Design
Chernabog is a gigantic, muscular, humanoid demon. His skin is entirely colored black, and he is so large that Sora is roughly the size of his head. His head sports two curved horns, he has four fangs in his mouth, and his eyes are a glowing yellow. He has enormous, black, bat-like wings, and his wingspan is larger than he is tall. Chernabog is always seen trapped from the knees-down in a volcano.

Personality
Chernabog can easily be described as the most evil Disney villain in the series. Unlike other villains, Chernabog has no comical points. His very presence strikes fear in the hearts of others, and he'll attack without a moment's thought or warning.

Abilities
Chernabog has many frightening powers to fight if needed. His main ability is to control fire, like Hades, and uses it in various ways such as breathing fire or shooting fireballs from his hands. He can also cause the volcano he's in to erupt with tremendous force. He can also flap his huge wings to create a gale to blow opponents away. And, when in desperate need, summon six orbs of light to attack the trio.

Strategy
In this battle, Sora and party can fly around the area, similar to the battle with the Phantom and the World of Chaos.

Although his attacks are few, they are very upscale and dangerous to the health bar. The most powerful attack is when he looks as though he is bent over, apparently hurt, but then rises triumphantly, causing the volcano to erupt violently. This attack gets more powerful later in the battle. Another attack would be when he consistently breathes fire, either from left to right, or right to left. When he begins to lose health, he will use variants of Aero to knock the party far away from him, at which point he will send out beams of light similar to the ones Ansem casts from his World of Chaos form.

A good way to avoid the first one is to quickly fly away, and press to signal to Donald and Goofy to follow Sora, so that they will not perish either. The second can be avoided by simply flying behind his head, and merely waiting for him to stop breathing fire. Also, now would be a good time to attack from the back of his skull. The third cannot be avoided, but the fourth can be difficultly maneuvered past.

As Chernabog is fought while in flight, summons are not available to the party, which can be a serious hindrance. However Sora can get around this by landing on his shoulder or the summit of the mountain. Summoning Tinker Bell can be a tide turning advantage. Also, using Aeroga can help a great deal, as it helps decrease the damage dealt.

Origin
Chernabog is originally a Disney villain, from Walt Disney's Masterpiece, Fantasia, during the Night on Bald Mountain segment, in which he erupts from the mountain in a similar way to his game-counterpart. Chernabog is first seen when he awakes on top of Bald Mountain. It is Walpurgis Night and, using the powers of darkness, he raises ghosts, skeletons, demons, witches, harpies, goblins, and zombies from a nearby town and cemetery. He then summons fire and lava and makes the damned and the other creatures in his control dance and fly around, much to his delight, before he destroys them. In one part he picks up a patch of fire and transforms it into naked women, then into demonic animals, a fleet of imps and finally into fiery, blue satyrs. Ultimately, he drops them into the lava which seals their fiery doom. The horror of the demons, ghosts, skeletons, witches, harpies, and other evil creatures in Night on Bald Mountain comes to an abrupt end with the sound of the Angelus bell, which send Chernabog and his followers back into hiding, and the multiplane camera tracks away from Bald Mountain to reveal a line of faithful robed monks with lighted torches. The camera slowly follows them as they walk through the forest and ruins of a cathedral to the sounds of the "Ave Maria".The multiplane camera then finally tracks through the trees to reveal a sunrise as the film fades to its conclusion. His name is taken from Chernobog, a deity of Slavic mythology; the name being Slavic for "black god". While officially a pagan god, it should also be noted that Chernabog might have originally been intended to be Satan: when "Night on Bald Mountain" appeared on the original Wonderful World of Disney, Walt Disney referred to Chernabog as "Satan himself." The segment is a showcase for animator Bill Tytla, who gave the demon Chernabog a power and intensity rarely seen in Disney films.

Trivia

 * Chernabog is one of only eight enemies who do not have entries in Jiminy's Journal (the others being AntiSora, Bit Sniper, Cave of Wonders Guardian, Crank Tower, Glut, Shadow Sora, and World of Chaos).
 * Chernabog is the only Disney villain with no explained reason for fighting Sora. He is also one of the two Disney villains to not exploit the Heartless or the Unversed, the other being The Queen of Hearts.
 * In Traverse Town, one of the hotel rooms in the Second District has a picture that is set on Bald Mountain.