TEN YEARS BEFORE KINGDOM HEARTS
-There were many Keyblade Masters, and they fought great battles. When they were gone, a man without his memories was found in Radiant Gardens by the world’s ruler, Ansem the Wise. This man was Xehanort.
-Ansem the Wise found Xehanort close to death and nursed him back to health. Since then, Xehanort became one of six apprentices to Ansem the Wise. The other apprentices were known as Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus and Ienzo.
-Ansem noted that, since being restored, Xehanort remarkable intellectual curiosity readily absorbed his teachings, gaining him deep knowledge. Ansem remarked that he exhibited extraordinary talent, perhaps even superhuman.
-Ansem, as the ruler of Radiant Gardens, believed that he needed to solve the mystery of “darkness in the heart” for the sake of his world. He decided that he needed to probe and explore the depth of a person’s heart. Upon hearing this, Xehanort willingly offered himself as a test subject.
-Ansem intended to explore Xehanort’s heart with psychological tests, in order to see if he would be able to recall his forgotten past locked away within. One of Ansem’s apprentices, Even, also shared interest in Xehanort’s memories, but Ansem continued to remain unsure if Xehanort was the right test subject.
-Ansem’s original experiment on Xehanort spurred Xehanort to go further than Ansem ever dared. Xehanort and the other apprentices began to conduct experiments on their own without Ansem’s knowing.
-Spurred on by Ansem’s youngest apprentice, Ienzo, Ansem constructed a massive laboratory in the basement of his castle. It was in this laboratory that they collected large numbers of test subjects that they preformed dangerous experiments on into the “darkness of hearts”.
-These experiments caused the subjects’ hearts to collapse, even those of the most stalwart. Xehanort was astonished by the fragility of hearts, and since the subjects showed no sign of recovery, he confined them beneath the castle.
-Sometime later, Xehanort went below and was greeted by strange creatures that seemed born of darkness. He was puzzled, wondering what they were, if they were sentient, and if – perhaps – they were the shadows of those who lost their hearts to his experiments.
-Continuing to question what they were, and wondering if they were the people who had lost their hearts, incarnations of darkness or simply something completely beyond his own imagination, he surmised that even all of his knowledge provided no clear-cut answer. He knew one thing for certain, however, and that was the creatures were devoid of emotion.
-He decided that further studies could unlock the mysteries of the heart and was pleased there were no shortage of test subjects since the creatures were multiplying beneath the castle. He decided they needed a name, a name fit for those who lack hearts, and as such – the Heartless were born.
-Studying the Heartless more, Xehanort wound that they were born from those who had lost their hearts and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless became Heartless themselves, and while he lacked proof in these statements, he was confident in his hypothesis and decided to begin to study their behavioural properties. While they lacked emotion, they showed they had some intelligence.
-In order to study the behaviour of the Heartless, he picked out one for observation. It wiggled its antennae, and, as if sensing a target, headed deep within the castle. In the deepest part of the castle, it’s antennae began to vibrate as if searching for something, and suddenly, a strange door appeared. A door which Xehanort didn’t know existed. It had a large keyhole on it, and when it didn’t seem to be locked, he opened it. What was on the other side of the door mystified him – a powerful mass of energy. That night, he witnessed a great meteor shower in the sky, and questioned if it was connected to the door he opened.
-Xehanort believed that the massive core of energy beyond the door may be the Heartless’ ultimate goal. The Heartless fed on other people’s hearts, and yet they also strived for that energy core. Xehanort believed that what was behind the door must have also been a heart – the heart of the world. While lacking proof, Xehanort believed that he was certain that it was the heart of the world that he felt beyond the door. Knowing that the Heartless took hearts from living creatures but also from the planet itself, he wondered what the Heartless meant to do with the heart of the world.
-Xehanort began to study the material from the meteors that had raind down, finding it to be a material foreign to their world. It was elastic, and pieces combined with ease, but he could find no records that mentioned such a substance. Xehanort believed he had introduced the material to their world when he opened the door.
-Xehanort believed he needed to unravel the mysteries of both the motivations of the Heartless, and the ones still shrouding the heart. As a start, he created a machine that artificially created Heartless. The machine was the product of all of his research thus far, and by recreating the conditions that spawned the Heartless naturally, he was able to successfully create an artificial Heartless. He saw this as a great step forward to being able to create a heart from nothing. The artificial Heartless and the naturally made Heartless showed nearly identical traits, but for the purpose of the experiment they needed to remain separate. Xehanort decided the best way to do this was to mark the ones who had been artificially created. Since then, natural Heartless were known as Purebloods, and the artificial Heartless were known as Emblems.
-Ansem soon found out what his apprentices had been doing and not only ordered them to cease their studies, but to also destroy the results of their research so far. He questioned what had happened within the hearts of his beloved apprentices and wondered if, while pursuing the mysteries of darkness within their hearts, they strayed within its depths. Yet he remarked he remained the most foolish of them all, for having begun the experiments in the first place. This error threw him into despair.
-A visitor from another world appeared soon after, a king – King Mickey. Xehanort remarked that the King’s vessel was made of the mystery substance that had composed the meteors and said that the King referred to them as “Gummi Blocks”. While King Mickey and Ansem spoke animatedly for hours, sharing many stories, Xehanort listened in on the conversation. One of the stories that caught Xehanort’s interest was that of a legendary weapon – the Keyblade. King Mickey showed Ansem the Wise his Keyblade, and talked of how one legend said its wielder saved the world, while another said that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it.
-Mickey had been travelling with Uncle Scrooge in the Gummi Ship to many worlds before the Heartless showed up, in hopes of setting up an interplanetary transit system.
-As Ansem and Mickey continued to converse passionately, they deepened their friendship. Upon Mickey’s advice, Ansem decided to review the data obtained in his basement lab. That was when he discovered the “Ansem Reports”. Though they were written under his name, the only report he had written himself was the first one. Xehanort had gone on to write Reports two through nine, detailing their horrible experiments. Ansem ordered the apprentices to seal away the lab immediately.
-Xehanort surmised that the Heartless were born out of the darkness in people’s hearts and desire to return to a greater heart – the heart of the world. He said the Heartless come from people’s hearts, and as does the darkness. He questioned if the core of the world’s heart was the world of the Heartless and he planned to pursue the answer there and become all knowing. He believed his path was set, and that he needed to seek out both the Keyblade and the Princess of Heart, but stated that his body would be too frail for the journey and that he had planned to cast it off and plunge within the darkness.
NINE YEARS BEFORE KINGDOM HEARTS
-Xehanort had learned a lot in the past months being an apprentice to Ansem the Wise. He knew that, in opening a world’s heart, the barrier surrounding that world is broken down and this is seen as a meteor shower. Because of this, he was able to understand why Gummi Blocks had the ability to travel to other worlds. The cause of the walls around a world breaking down is the appearance of the Heartless, but both finding the door to the world’s heart and robbing the world of its heart takes time. If the door to the world’s heart had been closed by the Keyblade, it would be impossible to reach the world’s heart again, and, as such, Xehanort knew he needed to take action before the one with the Keyblade appeared.
-Assuming the Princesses and the Keyblade were related, Xehanort selected out a special girl. He didn’t know if this girl had powers similar to that of the Princesses, but due to it being an experiment, he could only hope that she would lead him to the place where the one holding the Keyblade was. He decided to send her off to the oceans of another world. This girl was Kairi.
-Having stolen Ansem’s name, Xehanort and the other apprentices passed through the door to the world’s heart and plunged into the darkness – ceasing to be Human.
-Kairi arrives on Destiny Islands the night of a meteor shower.
Spoiler
