Master Xehanort

Overview

Xehanort is the main antagonist of the Dark Seeker Saga of the Kingdom Hearts series. He is a Keyblade Master obsessed with darkness and Kingdom Hearts. He is voiced by Leonard Nimoy.

Youth

Xehanort was born on Destiny Islands, and longed to visit other worlds. When approached by an older version of himself to join his new Organization XIII, the younger jumped at the chance. He was brought to the future and helped interfere in Sora and Riku’s Mark of Mastery exam. He along with the rest of the new Organization eventually captured Sora, planning to turn him into a thirteenth Xehanort to complete their new organization. However, Riku and Lea foiled their plans and Xehanort was returned to the past, losing his memories of the future in the process. He eventually returned to the future.

Some time after that, Xehanort along with Eraqus were apprentices to an unknown Keyblade Master. During this time the two appeared to be close. Xehanort was fascinated by a story told by their master about the Keyblade War.

The x-blade

Many years later, Xehanort and Eraqus both became keyblade master and took on apprentices of their own. Xehanort used his apprentice, Ventus, as an experiment attempting to create the x-blade which he thought could bring about Kingdom Hearts. To do this he divided Ventus’ heart into pure light and pure darkness, intending two have the two perfect opposites fight. However, while the dark half became complete person a Vanitas; the light Ventus became mostly unresponsive so he deemed his experiment a failure. He then left Ventus with Eraqus and his other apprentices Terra and Aqua.

Some time later, Xehanort realized his experiment was not a failure; sending Vanitas to fight Ventus who had regained his sense of self.

At some point during this period Xehanort was once again brought to the future to become another part of the new Organization XIII. When returned he lost his memories of the events.

A New Body

At the same time Vanitas was dealing with Ventus, Xehanort realized Terra has an abundance of darkness within him. He continuously manipulated Terra, tricking him into using his darkness more and more. Eventually, Terra had enough darkness within himself that Xehanort was able to force his heart into Terra’s younger more powerful body. Terra’s heart remained trapped inside his body, but his soul passed into his own Keyblade Armor. They fought, but Terra’s soul was not able to stop Xehanort.

Xehanort them traveled to Radient Garden, when he met with and fought Aqua. Aqua was also unable to defeat him, but as the battle went on Xehanort began being pulled into the Realm of Darkness. Believing he was still the Terra she knew, Aqua sacrificed herself to save him. She dove into the Realm of Darkness and pushed him out.

Sometime before Xehanort took over Terra’s body, Braig became partly Xehanort.

Apprentice to Ansem

The scientist Ansem the Wise and his five apprentices found Xehanort unconscious, having lost his memory due to recent events. They took him in as a sixth apprentice. As time went on, Ansem the Wise became concerned with his apprentices’ obsession with darkness. Eventually, he was cast out by his apprentices and Xehanort took the name of Ansem for himself. The apprentices experimented with darkness, creating the emblem heartless. They eventually ended up losing their hearts due to their experiments.

Because they lost their hearts, all of the apprentices hearts became Heartless and all of their bodies became Nobodies. Xehanort is the only known case of a Heartless retaining human form, however all of the apprentices had strong enough hearts that their Nobodies retained their human forms.

As Ansem: Seeker of Darkness

Xehanort’s Heartless kept the name Ansem, and began once again searching for a way to obtain Kingdom Hearts. He believed the Seven Princesses of Heart could open the door to Kingdom Hearts, and recruited Maleficent along with several other Disney villains to collect them for him. He also possessed a young boy named Riku, who had the ability to wield the keyblade and had much darkness within him. Another young keyblade wielder, Sora, was able to break Ansem’s control over Riku. Ansem was able to open the door to Kingdom Hearts but while he believed it to be darkness, it was in fact light and exposure to it destroyed him.

At some point during this period Ansem was brought to the future to become another part of the new Organization XIII. When returned he lost his memories of the events. He eventually returned to the future.

As Xemnas

Xehanort’s Nobody took the name of Xemnas, which is an anagram of Ansem with the included letter X. He and the rest of the apprentices’ Nobodies the formed Organization XIII. The others believed the purpose of the Organization was to regain hearts, but Xehanort’s true purpose behind it was to turn the other members into versions of himself. He did this believing that his original theory of a equal light and a darkness clashing would bring about the keyblade was on the right track, but he actually needed seven lights and thirteen darknesses. As time went on the Organization expanded, eventually being made up of twelve members.

During Ansem’s attempt to obtain Kingdom Hearts, Xemnas fought Sora to obtain data from him. Soon after this, Sora’s heart became a Heartless and his body became a Nobody. Sora’s heart was strong enough that his Nobody maintained human form, and Xemnas took him in as the Organization’s thirteenth member, naming him Roxas. He also used the data he collected from Sora to create a duplicate of him, naming her Xion. Throughout the next year the Organization used Roxas’ and Xion’s Keyblades to collect hearts from defeated heartless. By doing this they planned to create a facsimile Kingdom Hearts which they believed could restore their hearts.

Eventually, Xion and Roxas gave themselves up to restore Sora. However, the Organization’s plan continued to move forward as any Heartless defeated with Sora’s keyblade also contributed to their total. Eventually Sora was able to defeat all the other members of Organization XIII and with Riku’s help Xemnas himself.

At some point during this period Xemnas was brought to the future to become another part of the new Organization XIII. When returned he lost his memories of the events. He eventually returned to the future.

Back Together

It is known that once someone’s Heartless and Nobody are defeated, their original body will return. However, Xehanort as he appeared directly before losing his heart has not been seen since. At the confrontation during Sora and Riku’s Mark of Mastery exam, the elder Xehanort claimed the he along with the twelve other versions of him in the new Organization XIII would return, and Sora and his friends would need seven warriors of light to fight them.

At some point before the confrontation at the exam Isa became partly Xehanort.