This article is about Terra-Xehanort. You may be looking for his original self, or his vessel. |
This heart belongs again to darkness. All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it. It grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart must return to the darkness whence it came.
Terra-Xehanort, also known simply as Xehanort, is Master Xehanort possessing Terra's body in order to acquire a new younger vessel for his heart. He is the complete self of Ansem and Xemnas, and Rank IX of the real Organization XIII.
Personality[]
This vessel with now act as my blade.
Upon his "birth" in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Terra-Xehanort appears to retain Master Xehanort's personality, including his knowledge of darkness, thus being a mere younger incarnation of the elderly Keyblade Master's ruthlessness and cunning. Shortly after Terra-Xehanort is defeated by the Lingering Will, and loses some of his memories, he ends up in Radiant Garden, and begins to question his existence upon meeting Aqua - by strangling her. By the time he is found by Braig, Dilan and Ansem the Wise, he has lost all of his memories entirely—except for the name "Xehanort".
As one of Ansem's apprentices, Xehanort appears to have had a very professional and no-nonsense attitude, shown by his determination in his studies. He appeared to be easily annoyed by Braig and was shown to be equally as interested in the darkness of hearts as his original incarnation, possibly because he had enough Darkness in his Heart from both his former lives to be tempted into conducting the experiments. Xehanort appeared frustrated when Ansem forbade him from continuing his studies and experiments, and ultimately disobeyed his master. Ansem the Wise later refers to Xehanort as "foolish" and that any world of his "would be an empire of ignorance". Some of his personality can be inferred by one of the interactions Xemnas had with Sora. When Sora asked Xemnas if he remembers having more emotions than just anger and hate when he was human Xemnas responds with "Unfortunately I don't." This could infer that Terra-Xehanort was an angry, hate filled man.
Upon being recreated, Terra-Xehanort retains his original personality he had when Master Xehanort first possessed Terra.
Physical Appearance[]
Terra-Xehanort's appearance is almost identical to Terra's, only with Xehanort's silver hair, darker skin, pointed ears, and golden eyes. Upon his recreation, Terra-Xehanort's ears are no longer pointed.
After becoming Ansem's apprentice, he wore a white lab coat with rather loose sleeves that is partway zipped down. The coat also has pockets roughly where his hips would be. He wears black boots, with a white/silver lining along the top and an indentation on the sides. Underneath his coat, he wears a grey vest overtop a white collar shirt, along with a purple ascot around his neck. In addition his eyes have turned brown, his 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.
For a brief time during Kingdom Hearts III, Terra-Xehanort donned a black coat instead of Terra's original outfit.
History[]
Birth by Sleep[]
In a bid to prolong his life and see what awaits him beyond the Keyblade War, a weakened Master Xehanort releases his heart with his Keyblade and sends it towards Terra, intending to take the youth's body as his own. Though Terra attempts to stop Xehanort by donning his Keyblade Armor, his attempt is futile; Xehanort's heart possesses him, converting the youth into his new vessel while his previous body fades from existence. The newly "born" Terra-Xehanort monologues to himself on the heart's fate to return to darkness, though as he attempts to leave the area, he is soon trapped within the Will's Cage. Turning to see Terra's armor animating itself as the Lingering Will, a confused Terra-Xehanort engages it in battle. However, he is soon defeated and rendered unconscious, leaving him to be caught up in the destruction of the unstable χ-blade, which ends up transporting him to Radiant Garden. During this time, Terra's heart begins to fight Xehanort's possession, causing Terra-Xehanort to become confused and disorientated by the conflicting hearts.
Being lead to Radiant Garden by Terra's voice, Aqua would discover the semi-amnesiac Terra-Xehanort in the town square. However, Xehanort is able to reassert control of his vessel and battles Aqua. After the climactic battle, Terra begins to get the upper hand in his internal conflict with Xehanort, forcing Terra-Xehanort to force Terra's heart out with his Keyblade and into the Dark Figure. However, this weakens Terra-Xehanort's mind further as he falls into a portal to the Realm of Darkness manifested behind him by the Dark Figure. Aqua dives in after him and sacrifices her armor and Keyblade to save Terra.
Sometime later, Xehanort's follower Braig brings Ansem the Wise and Dilan to Terra-Xehanort, the now amnesiac Keyblade wielder lies unconscious in the town square with no memory at all. Upon Ansem's request for his name, Terra-Xehanort weakly responds that his name is "Xehanort" before passing out. On Ansem's order, the amnesiac young man is taken back to the castle by Braig while Dilan takes Aqua's armor and Keyblade as per Braig's request.
Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts[]
Following the loss of his memories and now going by the name "Xehanort", Terra-Xehanort's supernatural abilities allowed him to become one of Ansem's apprentices alongside Braig. Though at first thinking the amnesia was an act, Braig intended to help his benefactor by aiding Xehanort in taking advantage of Ansem's research of darkness that lingered within the hearts of people.
Xehanort offered to use himself in the experiments, the first attempt unlocking some of the memories relating to Xehanort as he and Braig manipulated Ansem the Wise and the other apprentices to go deeper into the research. To that end, they abducted countless people and locked them within the depths of the laboratory where they are subjected to the horrible experiments, with Xehanort and Braig using the experiments as a method of controlling the mind to force it to reject its sense of self. Around this time, Xehanort discovered a unique test subject named "Subject X", an amnesiac girl who, like Xehanort, had no memories of her past. Xehanort planned to use her in his experiments in unlocking lost memories through traversing the heart, though he kept thinking over his decision to use her, as he did not wish to lose a specimen as valuable as her.
One day however, Subject X mysteriously disappeared; her disappearance prompted Ansem the Wise to shut down their research and release their remaining subjects. Due to this act, Xehanort believed that Ansem the Wise had personally hid Subject X away from him, though he was unaware that it was in fact Braig who was responsible for Subject X's release. Nonetheless, Xehanort continued his experiments in secret, using himself once again as his own test subject in place of Subject X. However, his secret projects would eventually lead to the accidental mass creation of Heartless, christened by Xehanort, within the Realm of Light.
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 began to observe the behavior of the Heartless, using a machine to artificially create Emblem Heartless and having them increase their numbers with living things while stepping himself in darkness to control them. Despite Ansem learning of his actions and ordering a halt to the experiments, Xehanort continued and eventually found the heart to Radiant Garden by chance.
That act led to the collapse of the world's boundaries, which was seen in the form of a meteor shower. Soon after, King Mickey arrived on a Gummi Ship he constructed out of materials from the meteors to investigate the worlds due to recent events. It was while making an attempt to convince Ansem to let him test an experiment of his design, refused and ordered to forget everything he learn thus far in his research, that Xehanort relearned the Keyblade and Princesses of Heart. Suspecting Xehanort, feeling they met before, Mickey advised Ansem to check his lab's data. Upon checking, Ansem learned from his journal that Xehanort continued the research under his name.
Ansem ordered his apprentices to seal off the laboratory, only for Xehanort to eventually banish Ansem to the Realm of Darkness and had both 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 to Aqua's Keyblade Armor as if its owner was there in the room in hopes that he would regain more memories of his past. Around this time, as the Heartless begin to surge out of Radiant Garden, Xehanort restored the MCP and Sark to its OS.
Xehanort soon made the final pages of his report, which outlined his intentions as well as those of the Heartless: to seek Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort decided to use the Heartless' instincts to make his own plans to gain ultimate power, control, and knowledge.
Soon Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe. During this, Kairi was captured by Xehanort, after she was cornered by a group of Heartless. Xehanort told Kairi that their world was about to fall to the darkness, and that the only way to save it was for Kairi to assist him in an experiment. He told Kairi that he was under the suspicion that she was one of the Princesses of Heart, and as such, he was going to propel her off world to test any possible connection between the Keyblade wielders and the Princesses of Heart, and if the experiment is a success, Kairi's heart would resonate with a keyblade wielder's heart, which would lead Xehanort to that wielder's world. Just before Xehanort sent her on her way, he warned her that if the experiment fails and she ends up "somewhere on the other side", then she was to abandon her search.[1]
After returning to the lab and knocking out Ienzo and Even, Xehanort summons his Keyblade, then lunges it at Braig. While Braig is falling down, asking if he is truly Master Xehanort, Xehanort states that his name is "Ansem" before using the weapon on him.
After creating both Heartless and Nobodies from the apprentices, Xehanort followed suit and divided himself into two new beings: the Heartless that called himself Ansem and the Nobody known as Xemnas. With both components having the memories and personality traits of their original self, Ansem and Xemnas act on the goal to obtain Kingdom Hearts in their own way.
Kingdom Hearts II[]
While investigating Ansem the Wise's study within Hollow Bastion, Sora, Donald and Goofy find a portrait of Xehanort, believing him to be Ansem, as it was removed by Tifa to reveal the password to the DTD. After running into King Mickey, he reveals the truth of Ansem as a Heartless of an impostor yet could not remember his true name. Directly before the Battle of the 1000 Heartless, Mickey remembers Xehanort's name upon seeing his Nobody Xemnas. At The World That Never Was, Ansem the Wise mentioned Xehanort while insulting Xemnas, claiming him to be a foolish apprentice of a foolish man.
Dream Drop Distance[]
With the destruction of Ansem and Xemnas, both Terra and Master Xehanort were restored to their original forms prior to the creation of Terra-Xehanort. However, while Master Xehanort regained his heart, Terra did not due to its imprisonment within the Dark Figure, and thus was merely a hollow vessel with no heart. Using the oppourtinity to fill out more spots in the real Organization XIII, a version of Terra-Xehanort's heart is collected from the past by Xehanort and placed within Terra's present-day body, thus recreating Terra-Xehanort once again.[2]
After their revivals, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo and Lea search through Radiant Garden's lab for Xehanort, Braig and Isa. The portrait of Xehanort remained within Ansem the Wise's study.
While traveling throughout the Sleeping Worlds, Riku pointed out to Ansem how Xehanort lost his power to wield a Keyblade upon becoming a Heartless.
Terra-Xehanort himself appears alongside the other hooded members of the real Organization at Where Nothing Gathers. Following Master Xehanort's arrival, the elderly Keyblade Master boasted about making Terra his vessel and claimed that Terra now belonged to him. However, Master Xehanort's process of turning Sora into his final vessel is interrupted by the arrival of Lea, Donald and Goofy, forcing the incomplete Organization to withdraw.
Kingdom Hearts III[]
After the guardians of light defeat the massive swarm of Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed after arriving at the Keyblade Graveyard, Terra-Xehanort would confront them under the guise of Terra, although Aqua sees through his disguise and demands for him to let Terra go. After revealing his true status as a possessed Terra, Terra-Xehanort explains that it was the day they would fall, and that they would have their hearts torn from their bodies, though he reassures them that the χ-blade would still be forged. Summoning his Keyblade, Terra-Xehanort attacks the group, but is soon blasted away by Donald's Zettaflare, though not before Terra-Xehanort was able to wound Ventus and Lea during his attack. With the guardians weakened, a Demon Tide is summoned by the darknesses, which soon overpowers and destroys the guardians.
However, Sora is able to use the power of waking to rescue the rest of the guardians’ hearts and return to the Keyblade Graveyard prior to their defeat, ultimately creating a new timeline that co-exists with the timeline of their defeat. After encountering Terra-Xehanort once again, events play out as normal until Terra-Xehanort is about to attack the guardians, where he is instead swiftly intercepted by the Lingering Will thanks to Naminé reaching out to it while in The Final World. Bewildered by the armor's sudden appearance, Terra-Xehanort and the Lingering Will soon engage in a duel while the guardians fight off the surging Heartless.
Their duel soon brings them to the site of the real Organization's base in the badlands, where the Lingering Will proclaims that Terra-Xehanort must be removed from existence at all costs, as he remained a threat to Aqua and Ventus. As they continued their fight, Terra-Xehanort soon summons the Dark Figure, who grabs ahold of the Lingering Will by its helmet. Raising the Lingering Will into the air, Terra-Xehanort uses the Dark Figure to begin crushing the Lingering Will's helmet, though he is soon interrupted by a forming glow of light below him; from the light emerges a time-traveling Sora, who was seeking to revive Kairi after the conclusion of the Keyblade War.
Upon being mocked by Sora that he wasn't the only one who could travel through time, Terra-Xehanort soon fights the boy in a brief skirmish, though he soon uses the Dark Figure to subdue him. Preparing a finishing blow with his Keyblade, Terra-Xehanort is nearly successful in killing Sora, though the Lingering Will pushes Sora aside, causing it to instead take the fatal blow as it crumbles to pieces on the ground. With the Lingering Will dead, Terra-Xehanort explains to Sora that now that he has taken the forbidden path, he too must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice before engaging Sora in a real battle. Despite losing, Terra-Xehanort is able to one-up Sora by summoning the Dark Figure to once again subdue him. Mustering a surge of darkness, Terra-Xehanort consumes Sora into darkness.
Terra-Xehanort, now donning a black coat, soon rejoins his fellow Organization members as they confront the guardians at the crossroads of the Keyblade Graveyard, where Master Xehanort creates the Skein of Severance to serve as the battlegrounds for the Keyblade War. Regrouping with Vanitas after returning to his original outfit, Terra-Xehanort awaits the arrival of Aqua and Ventus, where the latter attempts to call out Terra from within their possessed friend.
After Vanitas interrupts their moment and reveals what he truly was, Terra-Xehanort explains to Ventus that if it was darkness he was seeking, then he has more than enough to go around. Upon hearing this, Aqua angrily summons her Keyblade and points it at him, telling Xehanort to stop using Terra for his games, though Terra-Xehanort merely calls her act of aggressiveness "shameful" due to her position as a Keyblade Master. Relenting, Aqua explains that they still have unfinished business as a result of her banishment to the Realm of Darkness, saying that with all her heart she seeks to cast Xehanort out of Terra forever before engaging him and Vanitas in battle with Ventus at her side.
As the fight continued, Terra-Xehanort and Vanitas gain the upperhand, though Sora soon arrives to back Aqua and Ventus, causing the scale of the battle to tip in the guardians' favor. Following Vanitas's defeat, Terra-Xehanort is also defeated as a spire of darkness emerges from him, causing him to collapse onto the ground. As it seemed Terra was beginning to retake control of his body, he soon lets out an agonizing scream as darkness surges from him, creating an entanglement of dark chains that imprisons Sora, Aqua and Ventus.
As Xehanort regains control, he prepares to finish off Aqua and Ventus, but they are unexpectedly saved by the Dark Figure, who breaks the chains and frees them. Shocked by this, Terra-Xehanort is swiftly subdued by the Dark Figure, who grabs him by the face before ripping off the bandages covering its own face. As the Dark Figure speaks, revealing itself to be a containment vessel for Terra's heart, Sora quickly blasts and stuns Terra-Xehanort from behind with his Keyblade, giving Terra's heart enough time to emerge from the Dark Figure and launch into Terra-Xehanort. In the process, the time-traveling heart of Terra-Xehanort is sent back to its rightful place in time, thus allowing Terra to finally regain control of his body. As a result, Terra-Xehanort becomes the seventh member of the real Organization to be eliminated.
Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind[]
One year after Master Xehanort’s defeat and Sora's disappearance, a data recreation of Terra-Xehanort, along with the rest of the real Organization XIII, is fought by a digital copy of Sora with the hopes of uncovering the real Sora's location from the encrypted data they possessed. After defeating all thirteen data recreations however, the results proved inconclusive.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory[]
A vision of Terra-Xehanort while he was still an apprentice to Ansem the Wise appears before Kairi in her dreams in The Final World, echoing his words he once told her before sending her away from Radiant Garden while explaining that his words were a clue as to where Sora could be found.
Abilities[]
Being a possessed version of Terra, Terra-Xehanort is a highly formidable and dangerous individual and has access to almost, if not, all of both Terra and Xehanort's abilities. He wields Master Xehanort's Keyblade, the Gazing Eye, with great skill and uses it to perform long powerful combo techniques like Ars Solum, a fast combo composed of multiple hits, with Terra-Xehanort being able to use the power of darkness to greatly enhance its speed, and several powerful desperation attacks. Terra-Xehanort is also powerful in using combative magic spells, able to use Terra's deep affinity for earth to perform Meteor, Rock Storm, and Quake as well, and is one of the few bosses that is able to heal with Curaga. Terra-Xehanort also possess superhuman strength, able to effortlessly lift Aqua off the ground by the neck with one hand, effortlessly knock out Ventus with a single blunt blow from his Keyblade, and easily break through Lea's block while also launching him with enough force to knock him out, and his durability and resilience are at enough levels to be able to take a blast from the Lingering Will's Ultima Cannon without any damage.
Terra-Xehanort can also call upon the Dark Figure, a Pureblood Heartless-like symbiote that floats behind him and serves as both his main source of offense and defense. Its great power also makes it capable of slamming opponents with physical blows, possessing targets, and firing dark energy projectiles. While his Heartless Ansem can also use the Dark Figure; its first chronological appearance is during Terra-Xehanort's battle with Aqua in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. In Kingdom Hearts III, Terra-Xehanort can alter the reality around the arena in his boss fight, causing thunder to rain down while the Dark Figure attacks before finally unleashing a tremendous amount of dark energy. He can also have the Dark Figure punch the ground to unleash spikes of darkness.
Weapon[]
After Master Xehanort possesses Terra towards the end of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Terra-Xehanort is able to wield Master Xehanort's Keyblade, the Gazing Eye. 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 Keyblade. It also contains two demonic blue eyes: one above the handle and the other one on the head, similar to the Soul Eater, Way to the Dawn and Void Gear.
Terra-Xehanort uses the weapon to perform long, powerful combo attacks, as well as use several powerful desperation attacks. After Terra-Xehanort lost his memories, he lost his ability to wield this weapon, but a flashback in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance revealed he regained the ability as an amnesiac sometime later, and he likely has regained his memories along with his ability to wield the Keyblade.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The first few sentences that Terra-Xehanort says after coming into existence are a nearly word-for-word quote of what Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless) says to Sora in the original Kingdom Hearts.
- In the Japanese version, Terra-Xehanort is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka, the son of Chikao Ōtsuka, the Japanese voice actor of Master Xehanort. Tetsuya Nomura cast Chikao for this particular reason.
- Terra-Xehanort is also known amongst the fans as "Terranort", the name being used to distinguish him from his original incarnation.
- Xehanort's two anagrams have been referenced in two separate ways:
- When Xemnas visits the Chamber of Repose, his password in the computer is "Another".
- In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, there is a secret boss named "No Heart".
- In Kingdom Hearts III, Terra-Xehanort's entry in Jiminy's Journal shows him wearing a Black Coat without the hood, despite never actually doing so in the game.
- Ironically, Terra-Xehanort was both "born" and "eliminated" in the Keyblade Graveyard during an attempt to open Kingdom Hearts.