Xehanort

Xehanort was a student of Ansem the Wise and is the main villain in the series. The exploits of his Heartless and his Nobody are the basis of conflict in the Kingdom Hearts series. His goals have always been to find Kingdom Hearts and use its' unlimited power for his own ends. He has made an appearance in every game in the series so far in some shape or form.

Ansem's Apprentice
Xehanort was found in the paradise world of Radiant Garden by Ansem the Wise, a respected sage and the ruler of the world. Xehanort possessed no memory of his life before this, but it is mentioned that he appeared when a Great Keyblade War ended. Ansem took Xehanort in and he became Ansem's foremost apprentice. Xehanort was described by Ansem as having abilities so remarkable that they could be considered supernatural.

Eventually, Ansem began to worry about the darkness that lingers within the hearts of others and sought a way to stop it before it consumed his people. Ansem, at the suggestion of Ienzo constructed a laboratory under his castle where he, Xehanort, and Ansem's five other assistants would conduct experiments on darkness. Xehanort, who Ansem now fully trusts as an apprentice and friend, offered to use himself in the experiments. Ansem also hoped to unlock Xehanort's memories in addition to uncovering a way to repress the darkness within hearts. Xehanort had other plans in mind though and decided to conduct his own experiments as he thought his master was too much of a coward to go any deeper into the research.

The Heartless
Xehanort and the other five apprentices began to carry out their own experiments. They abducted countless people and locked them within the depths of the laboratory where Xehanort then conducted horrible experiments on the subjects. After using many test subjects, one set of experiments led to the collapse of their hearts. The subjects then went into unrecoverable conditions and were locked up in the dungeon of the castle. Eventually, Xehanort checked on the subjects and saw that they transformed into creatures of darkness, which he named "The Heartless" as they lacked hearts. At this point, Xehanort had taken Ansem's name as his own and wrote his own report under this stolen name.

Xehanort then presented the heartless with living and non-living samples to which the heartless only responded to the living. Xehanort witnessed the heartless consume the living creatures and then multiply into more heartless. Xehanort deduced that the heartless seek the hearts of other things, which explains why they only react to living samples, in order to create more of their kind. After observing their behavior and their responses to living things, Xehanort took one of the heartless aside and observed its' behavior.

The heartless began to move throughout the castle until a door appeared which Xehanort was somehow able to open. Behind the door was a humongous mass of energy to which the heartless reacted immensely to. The opening of this door led to the collapse of the world's boundaries, which was seen in the form of a meteor shower. Xehanort eventually deduced that the door actually led to the heart of that world and that the opening of this door led to the collapse of the walls between worlds. This allowed inter-dimensional travel as all the walls between worlds were now broken and eventually a visitor showed up named King Mickey. He had constructed a gummi ship out of materials from the meteors and used it to visit many different places in search of answers of recent events. Xehanort and Mickey met and had huge discussions in which Xehanort learned of the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon that Mickey himself possessed.

There were also legends that told of seven princesses with pure hearts and how they have a connection to this Keyblade. The Keyblade can also be wielded by many and it seems there is one who will go on to seal on the doors to other worlds. Since this was not in Xehanort's interest, he sought a way to find this weapon. Mickey eventually met and befriended Ansem the wise and the two of them exchanged theories and ideas in his office about what the heartless are after. Ansem decided to cease the research when King Mickey told him of the immorally of what he was doing, however Ansem had no idea that Xehanort had went further then he himself even dared. Xehanort entered the office during their discussion, asking Ansem's permission to test an experiment. Ansem forbade Xehanort to conduct it and told him to forget everything he learned from the research.

Even though Ansem has no further urge to research the darkness, the experiments led by Xehanort continued including the creation of a machine that created artificial heartless. King Mickey suspected something odd about Xehanort and told Ansem to check his lab to see if everything was under control. Ansem did so and learned that Xehanort had taken his name as his own and wrote a detailed report. From the report, Ansem learned of the horrible torture inflicted on people by the inhumane experiments that Xehanort had done. Ansem ordered his apprentices to seal off the laboratory and cease their scheme for knowledge.

The Path to Destruction and Knowledge
Ansem's apprentices did as he instructed them but Xehanort eventually banished Ansem to the world of nothingness and ravaged the world with heartless. Xehanort then ordered for the seal to be broken and that a room that he called the "Room of Sleep" be constructed. Once done, Xehanort often went in and spoke as if there was someone else in the room. It is later revealed that the room housed the armor of a fallen Keyblade wielder although it is not known what the purpose of this was. Xehanort then sent Kairi, a resident of Radiant Garden, to the oceans of other worlds. The reason for this was because Xehanort thought Kairi had a connection to the Keyblade bearer, as she seemed to posses power comparable to that of a Princess of Heart which are rumored to posses a connection to the Keyblade. He hoped to use her to find the Keyblade master and prevent him from sealing off the doors to other worlds.

Xehanort made the final pages of his report, which outlined his intentions as well as the heartless. The heartless seek to consume the hearts of all living things. However, they not only seek human hearts, but the hearts of the worlds themselves. Their ultimate goal is to collect enough hearts to form the biggest heart of all, the heart in which all that is evolved from; Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort decided to use the Heartless' instincts to make his own plans. He would find Kingdom Hearts in order to gain ultimate power, control, and knowledge. Xehanort also learned that the creation of a heartless can also lead to the creation of another creature called a nobody. Nobodies are the left over bodies of those whose hearts have been stolen away. They transform into an inhuman state and do not truly exist as they lack a heart to make them truly live.

Xehanort and the others eventually gave themselves to the darkness to gain the ability to control all heartless and wield the powers of darkness. They lost their hearts in the process and they became powerful nobodies. However, Xehanort was the only one to have both a human Nobody and heartless, both possessing the memories prior to their creations. Since they possessed strong hearts, Xehanort and his followers were able to retain their human forms while nobodies. Radiant Garden was almost completely destroyed, savior the castle, and its' people were wiped out.

A Heartless and Nobody
Xehanort's nobody was called Xemnas who created The Organization, later called Organization XIII, with the other apprentices at its' core. They sought to become complete beings again and be whole. Xehanort's heartless, calling himself Ansem, remained a spirit seeking to plunge all that is in darkness. Both portions of Xehanort sought Kingdom Hearts in order to wield the power it possesses and unleash it into the universe.

Xehanort's Heartless' plans were to control other beings and use them to collect the princesses of heart and use them to open up the portal to Kingdom Hearts. At the same time, he would use the heartless to destroy entire worlds and collect the hearts to form Kingdom Hearts itself. Xemnas, the nobody of Xehanort, sought to find Kingdom Hearts by collecting human hearts. Leading Organization XIII, Xemnas controlled all nobodies and constructed a fortress that would serve as a base of operations; The Castle that Never Was. Organization XIII recruited other powerful nobodies in their plans to find Kingdom Hearts and use its' power to become complete beings again.

Ultimately, Xehanort's intentions are the source of all the chaos and evil sweeping across the universe in the Kingdom Hearts Series.

Past
Xehanort's past will play a large part in the series. His past is shrouded in mystery and only hinted at in certain scenes. He himself does not know his past, although it is hinted that his nobody, Xemnas, knows more details about his past than others are led to believe. What is known is that Xehanort was found after people with keyblades appeared and fought huge battles. When they were done, Xehanort was said to appear without a memory, savior the name Xehanort. The elderly bald man in the Birth by Sleep movie has been confirmed to have the name "Master Xehanort" and also wears similar clothes to Xehanort's heartless, hinting that this man had or has a connection to the present day Xehanort. The upcoming PSP game, "Birth by Sleep" is said to reveal the long and complex story of Xehanort's past.

Trivia
In the Japanese version, Xehanort was voiced by popular seiyuu Akio Ohtsuka, whose last involvement with Square Enix was to voice Judge Gabranth of Final Fantasy XII, while providing the japanese voice of Launchpad McQuake for DuckTales and Darkwing Duck. The English dub had Xehanort voiced by Richard Epcar, protrayed Undine in Drakengard and Achilles in Radiata Stories. This is the second time the two both voiced the same character, the first being Batou of the Ghost in the Shell series.