Xandel Carivus, hailing from Ord Cantrell, was a male Human. Born into a family of substantial wealth with longstanding connections to the Galactic Empire, Xandel, upon reaching adulthood, chose to serve the Imperial cause as a bureaucrat.
He contributed financially, along with several other high-ranking Imperials, to the endeavors of Carnor Jax. This funding ensured the premature demise of the clone bodies belonging to Emperor Palpatine. Subsequently, Jax seized the Emperor's throne, only to be later slain by Kir Kanos. Following these events, Nom Anor orchestrated circumstances that led to Xandel Carivus's election by the Interim Ruling Council as the Empire's new leader. Ultimately, Kanos apprehended Carivus and swiftly executed him for his involvement in the demise of Palpatine's clones.
Until Jagged Fel, Xandel was the final Imperial leader to lay claim to the title of Emperor.
Deep within Imperial territories, on the planet Ord Cantrell, resided Xandel Carivus, an arrogant bureaucrat born to a prosperous family. Upon the arrival of Nom Anor from Yuuzhan Vong space, he identified Carivus as the ideal individual to further his objectives of weakening the galaxy as a whole. Intimidating Carivus into submission, Anor advised Xandel to allocate a significant portion of his fortune to the cause of Carnor Jax. The funds provided by Carivus, along with contributions from other Imperial superiors, enabled Jax to bribe Emperor Palpatine's personal physician into sabotaging Palpatine's clones, resulting in the Emperor's premature death.
With Palpatine eliminated, Jax promptly moved to claim the throne, placing all those who had financed his scheme into the Interim Ruling Council, with himself at the helm. Now a leading figure within the Empire, Xandel chose to indulge in leisure, provoking the disdain of many council members. It was during this period, presumably under Anor's guidance, that he established his own private guard for personal security. However, merely months after Jax had established himself as the new Emperor, he was slain by Kir Kanos in a duel on Yinchorr. According to reports from Imperials at the time, the council was aware that Kanos had killed Jax for his role in the Emperor's death and had vowed to eliminate all those who had supported Jax's plan. This revelation threw the Council into disarray; few believed that a single individual could accomplish such a feat, but many feared their inability to retain power following Jax's demise. The council appointed Burr Nolyds as their leader and sought a temporary location to convene. At Nom Anor's urging, Carivus offered his estate as a temporary meeting place for the council.
Nom Anor recognized that the council held Carivus in contempt, viewing him as both an idiot and a coward. If he could convince them that the position of council head was perilous, they would likely appoint the most despised individual to the role. Employing an explosive bearing the crest of Kanos from his time as a Royal Guardsman, Anor assassinated Nolyds. Anor's scheme succeeded flawlessly—aware that the council's leader was now a target, Carivus was overwhelmingly elected as the Empire's new leader.
Carivus was under the impression that Anor intended to govern the Empire with his people replacing the council as the new leaders. However, Anor's true plan was far more sinister—he aimed to incite a civil conflict between Human and alien species within the Empire. To achieve this, Nom Anor murdered two more Human members of the council, Admiral Banjeer and General Immodet, to escalate tensions between the Human and alien members. One of the Human members of the council, Feena D'Asta, fearing for her own safety, called for a vote of no-confidence in Carivus following these assassinations. Although the vote failed miserably (no one else wanted to put themselves in any more danger than they already were), Carivus harbored a lasting resentment towards Feena.
Following these assassinations, and acting on Anor's instructions, Carivus arrested every nonhuman member of the council. However, Carivus also ordered the arrest of Feena D'Asta on his own initiative for her role in attempting to remove him from power. Days after expelling the nonhuman members from the council, an assassination attempt was made on Carivus. The attempt was thwarted, but Imperial troops discovered that a clone of Carivus had been among the assassins. Unbeknownst to Carivus, the Feena D'Asta he had arrested was a clone under the control of the criminal organization Black Sun. When he arrested her, Black Sun was unaware of the council's dealings and had planned to replace Carivus with a clone that they could then control.
After the assassination attempt, Carivus started to think that he was more important than Anor had initially made him believe. On his own initiative, Carivus disbanded the rest of the council and declared himself Emperor.
The dissolution of the Interim Council was completely against what Anor had planned. Instead of the aliens holding a grudge against the Humans, they blamed Carivus exclusively for the problems that had persisted. Carivus had inadvertently made himself the scapegoat for the misdealings of the Empire and had actually united the rest of the Empire against him.
Confronting Carivus, Anor expressed his outrage at Carivus's actions by informing him that his masters had devised new plans—plans that no longer included him. In his final statement, Anor warned Carivus that Kir Kanos was present in the building and was coming to kill him. Secretly, Anor had also poisoned Carivus as a contingency plan should Kanos fail in his mission.
Imprisoning Feena turned out to be Carivus's biggest mistake. Baron Ragez D'Asta, infuriated by Carivus's self-appointment as Emperor and the imprisonment of his daughter, arrived at Ord Cantrell to rescue Feena. Employing his entire fleet, Ragez broke through Carivus's defenses and demanded an immediate audience with Carivus. Secretly Kanos was within the Baron's landing party with the intention of killing Carivus, but with Nom Anor's warning, Carivus knew that Kanos was probably in the Baron's entourage. He ordered his personal Guards to kill everyone in the Baron's landing party. Trying to make a hasty retreat out of a back entrance, Carivus was caught by Kanos and quickly executed for his part in the death of Emperor Palpatine.