Xehanort

Xehanort is the main antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series, a former apprentice of Ansem the Wise, and is the complete being of "Ansem" and Xemnas. Xehanort is directly responsible for the creation of the Heartless, the Nobodies, Organization XIII, is the driving force behind most of the Disney villains, and sets in motion the events that make up most of the series. Xehanort has made an appearance in every game in the series so far in some shape or form and is expected to be in future titles.

Though Xehanort himself appears rarely, he is represented by various alter-egos, such as his Heartless "Ansem" in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, his Nobody Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and his former persona Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

Kingdom Hearts II
The former apprentice of Ansem the Wise.

Even after becoming a Heartless, Xehanort persisted in his research of the doors and the heart of all worlds - all in the name of "Ansem," of course.

Meanwhile, his Nobody Xemnas had taken leadership of Organization XIII.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
While Ventus and Aqua fight Vanitas, Terra is able to fight and defeat Master Xehanort, but Master Xehanort reveals that he wanted Terra to accept the darkness so that he may possess him to gain greater powers. Master Xehanort then uses his keyblade to transfer his heart to Terra's body, taking complete control and turning into a new incarnation of himself. However, Terra's soul migrated into his discarded armor, becoming the Lingering Sentiment, which defeats Xehanort and sends his body to Radiant Garden. Aqua sees Terra at Radiant Garden, not knowing he is possessed by Master Xehanort and approaches him. Xehanort then duels Aqua, summoning his Guardian to fight her as she defeated him on equal terms. The battle resumes until Terra temporarily regains control of his body and uses his Keyblade to lock his heart. This results in Xehanort being consumed by darkness and sent to the dark realm. In an effort to save Terra, Aqua jumps into the dark realm and uses her armor and keyblade to save Terra's body, leaving her stranded in the dark realm and Terra at Radiant Garden without a memory. Braig, Dilan, and Ansem the Wise find him, who introduces himself as Xehanort to which Braig smiles, knowing of Master Xehanort's plans for Terra beforehand.

Within Xehanort, Master Xehanort has much control over Terra now, even if the remains of Terra's consciousness are fighting Xehanort's hold. Xehanort tells him it does not matter as the seeds for his plans have already been planted as Braig tells the possessed Terra of the ideas he and Master Xehanort exchanged, eventually culminating in the creation of the Heartless. From that point Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo all joined Ansem as apprentices for the sake of continuing with Master Xehanort's original plans.

Ansem's Apprentice
Although he was confused about his past, Xehanort's quick learning and cunning made him the foremost apprentice of Ansem the Wise. 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 constructed a laboratory under his castle where he, Xehanort, and Ansem's five other assistants (Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo) 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 to go deeper into the research.

The Heartless
Xehanort and Braig convince the other apprentices to help them 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 apparently lacked hearts. At this point, Xehanort had taken Ansem the Wise'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; 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. Xehanort and his associates soon began to slowly accept the darkness, allowing them to have limited control over the Heartless.

They in turn began to look less and less humane, a factor that Ansem himself realized. When Ansem learned that his apprentices continued with the research, he called them together and ordered for them to cease their efforts immediately, all the while questioning what was happening to his loyal apprentices. Xehanort however saw his master as a fool who had no understanding of research and kept the research operating.

After observing the behavior of the Heartless 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. 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, a spacecraft capable of breaking through world boundaries, 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, as long as their hearts qualify, and it seems there is a legend of one Keyblade bearer who went on a journey of destiny to seal off 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 were after. Ansem decided to resist the urge to test their theories while expressing deep remorse for his actions.

However, Ansem had no idea that Xehanort had gone further than 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 had no further urge to research the darkness, the experiments led by Xehanort continued including the creation of a machine that created artificial Heartless, all of which were marked with an emblem created by Xehanort in order to differentiate them from the pure-bred Heartless. King Mickey suspected something odd about Xehanort and told Ansem to check his lab, collect all his data, and 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 Realm of Nothingness and ravaged the world with Heartless. The Heartless under the command of Xehanort began spreading to other worlds and destroyed numerous ones in their mad search for hearts. One side effect of the destruction of so many worlds was the creation of Traverse Town, made up of the remains of the ruined worlds and populated by the few survivors of those said worlds. Xehanort then ordered for the seal on the laboratory to be broken and that a room that he called the "Chamber of Repose" 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, which Xehanort used to help gain further recollection about his past.

Xehanort then abducted and 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 possess power comparable to that of a Princess of Heart, which is 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 those of 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 exist are 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, beings that are 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 as Nobodies. Radiant Garden was almost completely destroyed, save for the castle and the mutated waterways, which had several modifications done to it by Xehanort and the other apprentices, and most of its people were wiped out while some managed to escape to Traverse Town, such as Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid and Merlin.

Personality
Throughout the series, from Birth by Sleep all the way up Kingdom Hearts II, Xehanort has shown to be a cold, calculating, violent and icy sociopath with no love or concern for anybody or anything other than himself. Given his past as a Keyblade master, it seems likely Xehanort was once an honorable and good man. However, his travels and pursuit of knowledge and power twisted him. Xehanort values power, control and knowledge above all else and has no compunctions with betraying others. Xehanort has betrayed and manipulated virtually everyone around him to further his goals: he betrays Ansem, conducts experiments on humans with no regard for their humanity or safety, and eventually gave in to the darkness in his heart to achieve power. Xehanort and his alter-egos believe that the source of all true power is darkness, and that all hearts are born from darkness. Xehanort's ultimate desire is the power of Kingdom Hearts, and to use it to conquer the universe.

Xehanort has either directly or indirectly been the cause of almost all the troubles the worlds have faced throughout the Kingdom Hearts series. The best demonstration of Xehanort's evil is his Heartless - Xehanort's Heartless appears to be the most powerful Heartless ever seen, a testiment to the darkness that Xehanort harbored when he gave into that darkness. His Nobody Xemnas is likewise the most powerful Nobody known. Master Xehanort is a master Keyblade user, and his only shown weakness was his mortality as he grew older. Even as an old man, Master Xehanort is incredibly powerful and is a match for the much younger Terra in battle, though Terra eventually prevails.

Xehanort's alter-egos share his beliefs, personality, and obsession with Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort's Heartless was willing to let darkness to flood the worlds so he could access Kingdom Hearts and acquire its power. He also manipulated Riku's negative feelings for Sora so he could possess Riku's body. Even when defeated by Sora, Xehanort's Heartless lingered in Riku's heart and attempted to control him until he was completely destroyed a full year after the initial possession. Xemnas created Xion to use as a slave, used her and Roxas to collect hearts so he could acquire the power of Kingdom Hearts, and ultimately planned for them to attempt to kill each other. Master Xehanort orchestrated Terra's descent, and created Vanitas to acquire the Χ-Blade, again wishing to use it to acquire the power of Kingdom Hearts. All of them are complete unsympathetic in their manipulation of others and show no remorse or regret for their actions. The only positive traits shown by any of Xehanort's forms are present in Xemnas, likely due to the influence of Terra. Even then, these traits are secondary to Xemnas's goal of conquest.

As of the end of Kingdom Hearts II, both Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas have been destroyed. Currently, it is unknown if Xehanort has truly been destroyed, or if he still exists in some shape or form. Given his shown persistence, multitude of forms and ability to endure through them, it is not entirely unlikely.

Appearance
As Terra's body was used in the creation, Xehanort originally wore a skintight, black, high-collared shirt, showing that he is rather muscular. Xehanorts's pants bear a distinct feudal Japanese style; his belt is tied like an obi-sash and he wears hakama (traditional samurai pants distinguished by the large pleats). His hakama are dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which are undone. The rest of the pants are tan with a small, lighter stripe of tan on the bottom hem. Xehanort wears a plain black wristband on his right arm, while his left arm is significantly more armored. He has amber-gold eyes and stark white hair and eyebrows. Xehanort's hair is worn long, with two bangs framing his face. His hair also sports three backward-facing spikes, one at the top of his head, and one on either side, just above his ears. His skin is also rather tan.

While in Radiant Garden, after losing his memories, Xehanort wore white labcoat with rather loose sleeves that is partway zipped down. The coat also has pockets roughly where Xehanort's hips would be. He wears black boots that are identical to those worn by his heartless and the members of Organization XIII, which a white/silver lining along the top and an indentation on the sides. Underneath his coat, Xehanort wears a grey vest overtop a white collar shirt, along with a purple tie-like strip of cloth he wears around his neck.

Weapon
After possessing Terra in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Xehanort is still able to wield Master Xehanort's Keyblade. The weapon has a spiky shaft, a gleaming eye found near the teeth, which look similar to a battle ax. It is black and silver in coloration, able to lock and unlock hearts, appearing similar to the Oblivion. Xehanort uses the weapon to perform long, powerful combo attacks. After Xehanort lost his memories, he lost his ability to wield this weapon.

In Kingdom Hearts and all installments after it, Xehanort calls upon a dark entity called "Guardian" to fight alongside him. The Guardian is a spirit-like Heartless created from Master Xehanort's heart that floats behind Xehanort as both his defense and offense. The Guardian can shield Xehanort from enemy attacks, slam opponents with physical blows, possess its targets, and fire projectiles of darkness energy. Xehanort's chronological first use of the ability against Aqua at the end of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

Trivia

 * If you remove the "X" in Xehanort's name and reassemble it, you can get the phrases/words "No Heart" and "Another". On a side note, when Xemnas visits the Chamber of Repose, his password in the computer is "another", hinting that Xehanort himself realized the anagrams in his name, typed along with the original names of the other apprentices that became Organization XIII's first six members.