Heartless

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The are beings that are hearts corrupted by darkness and without a body or a soul, from the video game Kingdom Hearts series. They serve as most of the battles and challenges that the player must go through to complete the games. They come in a large variety of types, categorized by being Pureblood or Emblem. Emblem Heartless are artificially created and are labeled with a heart symbol. Pureblood Heartless are natural, inky black shadow creatures with bright yellow eyes. In contrast to the strongest Nobodies having human form, the stronger types of Heartless take on more monstrous forms. Though normally used by Xehanort's Heartless and Maleficent, the Heartless usually obey those with the will to control them as Saïx of Organization XIII shows. The Heartless' method of entering worlds is to use the corridors of darkness, an unpredictable pathway that interlinks many worlds.

Ansem Reports

The player gains a larger understanding of the Heartless by reading Ansem Reports, which were collected by Maleficient and spread to the other Disney villains in the alliance. The player can obtain the reports by defeating Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Ursula, Captain Hook, Hades, and Maleficent herself. After locking Hollow Bastion's keyhole, the player must then talk to Aerith in the Hollow Bastion library if the player wants to gain additional reports. In the Final Mix version of Kingdom Hearts, there are three additional reports, obtained from defeating the Enigmatic Man, Kurt Zisa, and Sephiroth. All three are bosses optional to the player. The first report was written by Ansem the Wise, now known as DiZ; the ones following were the works of Xehanort, who assumed the identity of "Ansem".

Failed experiments

The first Ansem Report details Ansem the Wise's desire to understand the darkness, specifically of the heart. There is an urgent tone to his notes, due to the looming darkness that will consume the Radiant Garden. Ansem the Wise seeks to learn about darkness in order to prevent this from occurring. In pursuit of this goal, Ansem performed experiments with darkness and the effects it had on people's hearts. He used his assistant Xehanort as a test subject, who sought to unlock the memories hidden in his heart. After that, Ansem decided to hold off his research, realizing the potential danger.

Xehanort took over the study and continued the experiment using people that the other assistants collected. All experiments caused the test subjects' hearts to collapse. Now in an unrecoverable condition, the people were confined to the lower levels of Hollow Bastion. After some time, Xehanort returned to the lower levels and saw "creatures that seemed born of darkness". Theorizing to their existence, Xehanort dubbed them the Heartless, as they were apparently devoid of hearts. After further experiments, it was discovered that they seek out hearts and consume them. They also showed intelligent behavior.

Strange door

Pulling a Heartless aside for behavioral observation, Xehanort was led by the Heartless to a door. The door had a large keyhole, but it was unlocked. Beyond it, he saw a large "mass of energy". As a result of Xehanort opening the door, the impassable walls between worlds was broken; this was seen as a meteor storm to the denizens of the worlds. Xehanort later realized that the mass of energy was desirable to the Heartless and concluded that it was the heart of the Radiant Garden. It is clear now that the Heartless seek to consume a great many things, including entire worlds.

Emblem Heartless

To further his research, Xehanort invented a machine that recreated the conditions of the natural, "Pureblood" creation of a Heartless; the test run was successful, producing a Heartless. To keep the two types distinct, he and his assistants branded the artificial Heartless with the "emblem" frequently seen in conjunction with Heartless in the games. In contrast to Pureblood Heartless dissolving into black mist upon death, the hearts that compose the Emblem Heartless are released once they are destroyed by the Keyblade. The hearts leaving from dying Emblem Heartless then wander back to Kingdom Hearts.

Meeting with another king

One day, King Mickey arrived to meet Ansem the Wise and the two soon conversed on many things with Ansem the Wise learning about the Keyblade. Mickey had suspicions about Xehanort, so he told Ansem the Wise to go to his research lab. There he found the Ansem Reports written by Xehanort.

Goal

In the tenth report, Xehanort reached the conclusion that Heartless are born out of the darkness in Humanity's hearts; they seek to consume the heart of worlds in an effort to either return to or consume the fundamental heart, Kingdom Hearts.

Non-Existent Ones

In the thirteenth and last report by Xehanort, he speculates about what happened to his body and soul after he discarded it. He comments that the body and soul of an individual exist in neither darkness nor light, thus sharing an in-between existence. The body and soul "leftovers" of Heartless are "born" in Twilight Town and called the "Non-Existent Ones", more commonly the "Nobodies".

 

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