Heartless: Difference between revisions

===Between ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' and ''Kingdom Hearts''===

Building on [[Ansem the Wise]]'s research into the nature of the heart, two of his apprentices, Xehanort and Master Xehanort's co-conspirator, [[Braig]], experimented on people's hearts without his knowledge, convincing Ansem's other apprentices, [[Dilan]], [[Even]], [[Aeleus]], and [[Ienzo]], to assist them.

===''Kingdom Hearts''===

Maleficent sends the Heartless to invade many worlds, to consume their hearts and search for the seven [[Princesses of Heart]]. Many of her allies use the Heartless to advance their own plans, in many cases to conquer their own worlds.

Sora eventually learns that the Heartless are being used by Maleficent to capture the seven Princesses of Heart and open the door to Kingdom Hearts, so that she and her allies can rule over all worlds. However, Ansem, possessing Riku's body, uses the [[Keyblade of heart]] to drown Maleficent in her own darkness and transform her into her dragon form. After she is destroyed by Sora, Ansem reveals that, like the other villains, she was being used by the Heartless.

Ansem challenges Sora in order to claim [[Kairi]]'s heart and complete the [[Final Keyhole]], but Sora defeats him. Sora then uses Ansem's Keyblade on himself, in order to free Kairi's heart and complete the Keyhole so it can be sealed. Although he succeeds, he loses his own heart and becomes a Shadow Heartless in the process. Kairi's light restores Sora to his human form, and he soon travels to the [[End of the World]] to stop Ansem from reaching Kingdom Hearts.

In order to stop an immeasurable wave of Heartless from emerging through the Door to Darkness, Sora closes and locks the door with the help of Riku and [[Mickey Mouse|Mickey]], who are stuck in the Realm of Darkness.

===''Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories''===

===''Kingdom Hearts II''===

After Sora awakens in [[Twilight Town]], he travels to the [[Mysterious Tower]], where he meets Pete, Maleficent's second in command, who is working to make an army of Heartless for Maleficent's use. After defeating his squad of Heartless, Sora realizes that the worlds are still in danger. He meets with the Tower's master, [[Yen Sid]], who explains Sora's new mission, telling him that although Sora and company prevented a catastrophic invasion of the [[Realm of Light]] by Heartless, there are still many Heartless throughout the worlds. Maleficent and Pete continue to use the Heartless in their attempts to conquer worlds, and as [[Axel]] reveals during the [[Battle of the 1000 Heartless]], Organization XIII is using Sora to release the hearts of every Heartless he destroys to create their own Kingdom Hearts.

==Design==

In general, Heartless are beastly creatures with yellow, beady eyes. Pureblood Heartless are the more primitive, using more chaotic fighting styles. They are ink-black in color and have antenna.     

==Nature==

Pureblood Heartless are natural Heartless, born from the darkness in people's hearts. They are more common in places that are close to or saturated in darkness. Upon their destruction, they simply disappear in puffs of darkness, without a heart leaving its body. While Purebloods have less variety, they are far more numerous in quantity and often attack in swarms.

Emblem Heartless, on the other hand, were originally created from a machine designed to reproduce the process of a heart being consumed by darkness. Once that machine was activated, most stolen hearts become Emblems, provided they contain darkness. They are more common on the worlds within the Realm of Light, and usually mimic the shape of creatures or objects within that world.

Heartless – Emblem or Pureblood – possess several key characteristics that define them as Heartless. Pureblood Heartless are generated naturally from the darkness within people's hearts. Heartless are born when a heart is consumed by the darkness within it, or when a Heartless steals the heart. They can also be drawn out by a dark being like [[Maleficent]] or a source of dark power like the [[Keyblade of heart]].<ref>'''''[[Kingdom Hearts Ultimania|Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania]]''''' "As Yen Sid says in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', the Heartless cannot be separated from the darkness in people's hearts, and have been around for a long time. Beings of darkness can draw out the darkness in the heart, so Master Xehanort could summon the Neoshadows with his own hands. In the same way, when Xehanort and Ansem the Wise's students begin to perform the first experiments on the darkness of the heart, artificial Heartless were created in large numbers."</ref> This process will occasionally also form [[Nobodies]], which are born from the body and soul left behind when the heart is lost. Being born from darkness, they are mindless and act on instinct; because of such, their only goal is stealing more hearts to turn into Heartless. But what they desire above all are the hearts of worlds, and thus they enter worlds in search of the way into the hearts of the worlds. When they consume these colossal hearts, the remains of the world form new worlds, such as [[Traverse Town]] and [[End of the World]].

At the same time, Heartless seek out the users of the Keyblade, since the Keyblade holds the power to lock and unlock hearts. If a Heartless is slain by a Keyblade, it will reunite with the body and soul it left behind, if it isn't currently a Nobody. In order to stop the users of the Keyblades, the Heartless use the Keyblade itself as a homing beacon, but ultimately desire to take the heart that commands it. Because of this, Keyblade wielders are under constant attack.

==The Heartless invasion==

{{Q|Your past endeavors did prevent an immense effusion of Heartless from the great darkness; make no mistake about that. However, the Heartless are darkness made real---and darkness lingers yet in every heart. The Heartless are fewer. But while darkness exists in a single heart, it will be difficult to eliminate them.|Yen Sid}}

While the Heartless were not researched with the intent of creating a fighting force, their very nature as manifestations of the destructive force of darkness made them naturally suited for conquering and destroying the various worlds. Their natural ability to travel to various worlds through the use of Corridors of Darkness makes it virtually impossible to fully defend a world from Heartless, and the method in which they are created and exist makes it practically impossible to cut them off at the source. Even fighting them once they appear is made difficult due to their immunity to standard weaponry.