Villain's Vale

The Villain's Vale is an unreachable location from both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. It acts as a base of operations for Maleficent and her forces of darkness.

In the first game, it is covered in darkness, and anything more than a few feet away from the platform in the center of its main room cannot be seen. The outside of it is not seen at all until the sequel.

Kingdom Hearts
Villain's Vale first makes its appearance in a cutscene after Deep Jungle is locked. The Disney villians of Maleficent's group, most notably Jafar and Maleficent herself, discuss Clayton attracting the Heartless to the world, as well as Sora's quick finding of the first keyhole, and his ignorance toward their plan of using the Princesses of Heart to open the final keyhole.

It appears again after Genie is given to Sora as a Summon. This time, Maleficent, Hades, and Riku discuss Jafar's destruction at the hands of his own darkness. It is revealed that Riku was the one who kidnapped Princess Jasmine, and in return, Maleficent gives Riku command of Captain Hook and his ship to go retrieve Kairi.

Maleficent and Riku begin working straight out of the upper floors of Hollow Bastion after Hook's defeat in Neverland, and the place is not seen again.

Kingdom Hearts II
Villian's Vale appears again in Kingdom Hearts II, this time a little easier to see. After learning that Maleficent was killed, Pete showed up here, to see if it was true. He found an empty fortress, but was soon greeted by a Diablo and a resurrected Maleficent. She again begins to use it as a base of operations, even though now there are only two in her league.

Villain's Vale appears in several flashbacks (or rather, flashforwards) seen in Timeless River. As Maleficent treats Pete badly after his failure, the latter begins wishing he could return to the old days when he captained the Steamboat Willie. In response, the worlds gave Pete a doorway to his past to atone for his mistakes. He shows the door to Maleficent, who orders him to go to the past and destroy the Cornerstone of Light so that they may take control of Disney Castle in the present.

The fortress also acts as the driving force of most of Maleficent's actions during this game. After losing Hollow Bastion to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, she deems the crumbling fortress unworthy, and begins searching for a new, grander castle in which to rule, setting her sights on both Disney Castle and the Castle that Never Was. It can now be seen from the Bailey of Radiant Garden in the distance, and the Ravine Trail and following maps lead one closer to the fortress from the town. In Kingdom Hearts II, if the player uses the Reaction Command on the left balcony in the Bailey at the Radiant Garden, the resulting text says that he can see the "Villain's Vale, where Maleficent once resided." Another mention lie in Jiminy's Journal; in the story section, Jiminy states "In Villain's Vale the Heartless were swarming, as Nobodies darted about." The dark depths is very close to it, and gives a good view of the whole citadel. Both Xemnas and Sephiroth stand on the edge of the cliff, looking over the fortress at different points in the game.

Appearance
The Villain's Vale is a large fortress comprised of several spindly, crooked, golden-brown towers topped with black cone towers, also crooked and spindly. It resides over what appears to be the ruins of a tiny village of ramshackle stone buildings, and its facade is dominated by a giant Heartless emblem.

Inside, the only place ever seen is the meeting room. This room is seemingly empty, other that a circular platform that rises from the middle. Maleficent can apparently cast images onto this platform as some kind of projector. Until Sora locked it from within Timeless River, a door to the past also stood here. This room is directly underneath the Heartless emblem.

Trivia

 * Through a cheat device, the player can access an area called "Villain's Vale", which is the meeting place of Pete and Maleficent. This is the castle seen from the Dark Depths, as Diablo is seen flying to it to herald the arrival of Maleficent.