Birth by Sleep
Terms and lore
The Land of Departure. Eraqus's home, where he trained Terra, Aqua and Ventus: a castle high in grassy mountains above running water, held in place by four golden chains that run to two pairs of twin peaks. Its great hall is gold, lit only by stained glass, with three thrones at the top. A path between small trees and thin waterfalls climbs to a summit where nobody ever went to do anything useful.
The Mark of Mastery. The examination that makes an apprentice a Keyblade Master. In Eraqus's words it is "a test of heart," not a competition, and both candidates may pass, or neither. Eraqus had meant to give Terra and Aqua the title without one. The formal test was Xehanort's suggestion, in a letter saying Terra was open to darkness, and Xehanort watched it. Aqua passed. Terra failed, for letting darkness show in his hand, and was told there was always next time.
The secret of the Land of Departure. What Eraqus told Aqua once she was a Master. Light and darkness exist in balance there, and there are those who would abuse such neutral ground, so the Masters before him devised a trick. If anything happened to him and the legion of darkness came to their door, she was to use his Keyblade, the Master's Defender, to lock the land away. From that day on, everyone who visited would be lost to oblivion, none able to solve the mystery, except her.
Castle Oblivion. What the Land of Departure became when Aqua found its Keyhole and locked it with the Master's Defender. It turned white and became a labyrinth, with no way through for anybody who did not already know what it had been. The throne room became a chamber where a boy sleeps. Ventus sleeps in the middle throne.
The inheritance rite. How the power to wield a Keyblade is passed on: the chosen person takes the Keyblade in hand, and that is all of it. The words that usually go with it are "In your hand, take this key. And so long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be made." Terra said them as a joke over the wooden Keyblade he gave Ventus. He said them in earnest, with more besides, to Riku on the beach, though he had never been named a Master. Kairi took hold of Aqua's Keyblade in fright, with no words at all, and it was enough. Aqua thought of doing the same for Sora, and did not.
The Lanes Between. The way between worlds, normally forbidden to Eraqus's students and unlocked for Terra and Aqua's errand. The dark there is kept off by armour, which comes out of a plate at the shoulder and closes over a wielder in a flash of light. The Keyblade comes down as something to ride: Terra's is built like a bike, Ven's is a board, and Aqua's is a bow with a platform she stands on. Worlds must keep their order: nobody is to be told that there are other worlds.
Corridors of darkness. Ways between worlds through the dark, which Xehanort and Vanitas use freely. Terra opened one in the middle of his Master's hall to get Ventus away, a thing he had been taught never to do, and it let Ven out on the islands.
The Unversed. Monsters turning up all over the worlds. Yen Sid sent the name, and called them fledgling emotions that had taken monster form. Vanitas gave Ventus the fuller account: they came into being when the two of them were split, the negativity taking shape as monsters. They are what Vanitas feels, and they answer to him, and however many are defeated, their negativity flows back into him. He loosed them to lure Ventus away from home and make him stronger, and to make the worlds bad enough that someone would be sent out into them.
The χ-blade. Not one of the Keyblades that everybody else carries. Xehanort named it by its letter: "A most ancient letter. Some say 'kye,' but the meaning is the same. Death. A letter that spells endings." It can be made one way only: pure light against pure darkness, the two halves Xehanort took apart in the wasteland, Ventus and Vanitas, clashing and then coming back together. Eraqus tried to destroy Ventus to stop it being made. When it was forged it came out wrong, two Keyblades crossed with the teeth turned outward, chipped, with pieces missing. Vanitas, wearing Ventus's body, said it would open a door leading to all worlds and start the Keyblade War again. After Ventus destroyed Vanitas inside his own heart, Aqua struck it, and it came apart and destroyed itself.
Kingdom Hearts. A great heart-shaped moon that rose in the sky over the wasteland while the fighting was still going on.
The Keyblade Graveyard. The badlands where dead Keyblades stand in the ground at the angles they fell, and nothing else lives. Xehanort's account of it: "On this barren soil, Keyblades of light and darkness were locked in combat, as a great Keyblade War raged." It is where he split Ventus in two, where the mirror sent Terra ("Where war was raged upon the fells"), where Vanitas called Ventus to "the one and only place to spawn the χ-blade," and where all three friends came together for the last time.
The Princesses of Heart. Hearts of pure light in the worlds, with not the slightest touch of darkness. Maleficent wants seven of them, which together would grant the power to rule all worlds, and the Keyblade is the way to take them. She told Terra he had taken Aurora's, and he believed her. The reader later overhears Xehanort say otherwise: a powerful light still lives in Terra, "people like him, they don't have the power to steal hearts."
Three teachings about darkness. Eraqus taught that darkness needs to be destroyed, and Aqua believed it. Xehanort told Terra the opposite: "Darkness cannot be destroyed. It can only be channeled," and that light and darkness are a balance that must be kept. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother gave Aqua a third answer: "Light and dark go hand in hand." Where darkness sits on a person, the thing to do is not to strike at it but to help the light already there.
The good luck charms. Made by Aqua the night before the examination, one for each of the three: star-shaped, stained glass in silver frames, each with the emblem of Mastery in the middle. Somewhere, she said, there is a tree with star-shaped fruit that stands for an unbreakable connection, and friends who carry charms shaped like it will always find their way back to each other. They are supposed to be made with seashells, so she put a spell on them to make up for it. Aqua's is blue with cyan at the tips, Terra's orange and yellow, Ven's light green with sea green at the tips. On the islands where Terra and Aqua met Sora and Riku, a crooked palm carries fruit shaped like stars.
The Star Shard. Mickey's way between worlds. In theory he has only to think of where he wants to go. In practice it goes off whenever it wants and puts him down wherever it likes, and he suspects it is reacting to something.
Moving a heart. At the Keyblade Graveyard, old and beaten, Xehanort put his Keyblade to his own chest, unlocked his heart and threw it into Terra: "Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger new one!" He had sworn he would survive to see what lay beyond the Keyblade War.
The armour in the wasteland. Terra threw off his armour to fight Xehanort. After Xehanort took his body, the empty armour stood up, carrying the last thing Terra had been thinking, that the other two had to be got out of this. It summoned its own Keyblade and beat the thing wearing Terra, but it could not get him back. It drove its Keyblade into the ground, said "Aqua, Ven. One day I will set this right," and stopped moving. When the light carried everyone else away, it went round the armour.
Radiant Garden. A city of trees, grass and flowers under a castle in pale colours, with walls where great fountains are set into the stone, and beyond them the sea and green mountains. The castle has guards at its doors, and the men who work inside it wear white coats. Its master is Ansem the Wise.
The secret ending and the Secret Episode. Birth by Sleep ends twice more. Its secret ending moves years ahead, to the Dark Margin and the islands; its Final Mix adds a short episode of Aqua in the realm of darkness. The terms below come from those.
The Dark Margin. The shore at the edge of the realm of darkness, where Aqua, after all her years of walking, met someone for the first time since she went under: a man in a black coat with the hood up, sitting and looking out at the cold light on the horizon.
The research inside the boy. What the man on the shore confessed to Aqua. His heart had once been clouded with vengeance, and he had done terrible things to a boy and his friends. While the boy slept his long sleep, he hid the results of his research inside him, hoping the boy might open the right door and save the people whose lives he had ruined.
Birth by sleep. The man's phrase for what so many are waiting for: "their new beginning, their birth by sleep. Even me, and even you."
Sora's name. The answer to Aqua's question. Before she said it, the name was spoken far from that shore, in scenes told like pictures of what had been: by Naminé, putting the last touches to a picture of a boy on a paopu tree in a white room of an old Twilight Town mansion; by Roxas and Xion on the clock tower, with Axel between them and ice cream in their hands; and by Ventus, opening his eyes in his chair in the Land of Departure, Terra at his side and a star falling overhead. Then Aqua, in tears, said it herself.
The letter. The king's letter, which Sora sat with on the paopu tree until his mind was made up.
Kairi's lucky charm. Which she pressed into Sora's hand when he told her he had to go: "See you soon."
The column of darkness. High above the realm of darkness there is a great circle of light, like an opening. Aqua saw a column of darkness shoot out of it and away, and the light in her charm went dim. She followed it, and it led her to an overlook with a castle in the distance, in a world where she had once thanked a girl for teaching Terra to believe.
Dwellers of darkness. Aqua's name for the creatures of the realm of darkness. The great beast that followed her there was "no Unversed. Just a dweller of Darkness."
Characters and where they stand
Terra. Strong, earnest and proud, and desperate to prove himself after failing the Mark of Mastery. He trusts too readily. He took Maleficent's word that he had stolen Aurora's heart and went on believing it, and he took Xehanort's word that darkness could be channeled, then used it on the guard in the Outer Gardens and was shaken by what it did. Xehanort called him Master Terra. He passed the power to Riku without being a Master. To protect Ventus he fought Eraqus, and Xehanort killed Eraqus in front of him. At the Keyblade Graveyard he beat Xehanort by going further into darkness than ever before, and Xehanort took his body. Terra is now in two places: his will stands in the wasteland in his empty armour, and his heart is still inside his body, refusing to leave it, with Eraqus's heart standing between him and Xehanort.
Aqua. Dutiful, warm and certain, and the one who keeps her promises. She passed the Mark of Mastery and left with two errands, the second a private one from Eraqus: bring Terra home if the darkness proved too much for him. When Terra learned of it, he called it spying. She gave Kairi the power to wield a Keyblade without meaning to. After the fall she put Ventus in the middle throne, sealed the Land of Departure, and went after Terra. In the dark she threw his body back up toward the light and went down in his place with the Master's Defender. Terra's and Ven's Keyblades came to her there. She walks there still, and has promised Ventus she will come back one day to wake him. She followed a column of darkness out of the sky toward a castle she knew. On the Dark Margin a man in a hood told her the name of the boy who has kept saving the worlds: Sora, the little boy on the islands she once asked to keep Riku safe. She wept.
Ventus. Kind, eager and loyal, the youngest of the three, and tired of being treated like a kid. When Xehanort pulled Vanitas out of him, his heart was left in pieces; Xehanort left him on the islands to die, and the broken heart caught on the heart of a newborn there and held. He remembered nothing before the Land of Departure until he stood again in the badlands: a year as Xehanort's apprentice, and a purpose, the χ-blade. His own Master raised a Keyblade against him for it. He asked his friends to put an end to him, and refused to fight Vanitas until Vanitas threatened them. At the Keyblade Graveyard he was merged with Vanitas against his will, and inside his own heart he destroyed him. His heart went out of him. His body sleeps in the middle throne of the sealed castle. When a boy on the islands called out with his heart, Ventus's heart answered, and asked to stay. In the secret ending he opens his eyes in his chair in the Land of Departure, Terra beside him, as Sora's name is spoken.
Master Eraqus. Warm, principled, and convinced that darkness must be destroyed. He carries two jagged scars across his face. He loved Terra "like my own son," meant it when he called the errand a second chance, and quietly asked Aqua to bring him home if the darkness proved too much. He told Ventus he had always lived at the Land of Departure. When he learned what Xehanort wanted the boy for, he tried to destroy Ventus, and Terra fought him to protect his friend. On the floor of his own hall he blamed himself. Xehanort struck him down there, and he went into light in Terra's arms. Terra called him his father. His heart went with Terra, and stands between Terra and Xehanort.
Master Xehanort. Patient, courteous and always several moves ahead, and he talks about darkness as though correcting a small technical point. He split Ventus in two and left the boy with Eraqus, proposed the examination Terra failed, and steered Terra toward darkness at every turn, down to staging his own capture. He wanted the χ-blade and a younger body, and at the Keyblade Graveyard he took Terra's. In Radiant Garden, fighting Aqua, he turned his Keyblade on that body to burn Terra out of it, and lost his memory, all of it but his name. The young man gave that name, Xehanort, and was taken into the castle. Terra is still in there, and so is Eraqus. "You are just one of many roads that I might choose to take."
Vanitas. The darkness Xehanort pulled out of Ventus's heart, a boy in a mask, and under the mask gold eyes and blue-black hair. Sneering and cruel, he calls Xehanort Master and obeys him when it suits him. He commands the Unversed and feels what they feel. He goaded Ventus into leaving home, broke the wooden Keyblade in front of Aqua, and threatened to kill Terra and Aqua to make Ventus fight. At the Keyblade Graveyard, his body failing, he forced the merger and forged the χ-blade, broken. Inside Ventus's heart, Ventus destroyed him.
The guard with the guns. A guard from the castle in Radiant Garden, mocking and out for himself. He played the villain in a fight Xehanort arranged to push Terra into darkness, in exchange for a bargain he expects to be kept, and came out of it with a burn across his face and a patch over one eye. By the Keyblade Graveyard his remaining eye had gone gold, his ears pointed and his hair grey. He delayed Aqua there, and he was pleased to hear the young man in the square give the name Xehanort. He walks the castle beside that young man now. He asked him whether he was Terra, got no answer, and said he had his back either way.
Mickey. A king, and Yen Sid's apprentice, cheerful and brave, who left without telling his master when he learned the worlds were in trouble. He saved Ventus from Vanitas, fought beside Aqua in Radiant Garden and against the thing in Ven's body at the end, but his Star Shard kept pulling him away. He found Aqua and Ventus adrift and brought them to the tower, then laid his Star Shard and his Keyblade on Yen Sid's desk. Yen Sid gave one of them back, and smiled. He believes in Ven.
Yen Sid. A sorcerer in a tower who was once a Master and has doffed that mantle. Wise, and careful not to make assumptions. He sent word of the Unversed, told Terra to find Xehanort, sent Ventus after Mickey, and reads the stars: he told Aqua that Eraqus's star had gone out. He had hoped Xehanort's heart would no longer lead him astray. Ventus's heart, he told Aqua, sleeps between light and darkness, and needs someone who believes in him to find his way home.
Maleficent. She speaks gently and at length, and everything she says moves toward what she wants. She wants the seven hearts of pure light. She told Terra he had taken Aurora's, and told Ventus and Aqua the same about him. Someone has told her things ("all he spoke of was and will be true") and asked her to leave Ventus unharmed. At the top of her castle she became a dragon, and the prince with the sword finished her.
Kairi. About four, with light in her, chased through Radiant Garden until Aqua and Mickey stepped in. Frightened, she took hold of Aqua's Keyblade, and so received the power to wield one. Aqua put a spell on her charm: one day, when she is in trouble, the light within her will lead her to the light of another, someone to keep her safe. Her grandmother collected her and told an old story about a time when there was nothing but light. Years later, on the islands, she gave Sora her lucky charm when he told her he had to go: "See you soon."
Sora. Four, the younger of the two boys on the islands. When he was newborn, Ventus's broken heart caught on his and held. Aqua asked him to stay with Riku and keep him safe if Riku ever started down a dark path alone, and he said yes. At the end of a day he cried without knowing why, and called out with his heart. In a round place with his own face under his feet, a heart came down to him and asked if it could stay, and he told it that it could, until it was better. Years later, with the king's letter in his hand, he made up his mind to go: "They really need me. I have to go. I am who I am. Because of them." He set out carrying Kairi's charm.
Riku. Five, the older boy, who asked Terra whether he had come from the outside world, and wants to be strong to protect his friends. Terra passed him the power to wield a Keyblade with the whole of the rite, and Aqua saw at a glance that someone had. When Sora cried for no reason, it was Riku who told him someone far away must be hurting, and that he should open his heart and listen. Years later he already knew what the king's letter said, and came to see whether Sora's mind was made up.
Ansem the Wise. The master of the castle in Radiant Garden, kind to a stranger lying in his square. He asked the young man his name, heard "Xehanort," and had him carried to the castle. Some while later, out walking with the boy Ienzo, he watched that young man go by with the guard, and said nothing.
Even. One of the men in white coats at the castle, watchful and quiet. He and the others have raised the small orphan boy Ienzo, whom Ventus pulled out from among the Unversed. What he noticed about Ventus was a heart devoid of darkness, "stripped clean of it, at that."
Lea and Isa. Two boys in Radiant Garden. Lea, red-haired, picked a fight with Ventus, lost it, and declared them friends. "Got it memorized?" He wants everybody he meets to remember him: "Inside people's memories, I can live forever." Isa, blue-haired and dry, had heard it all before.
The man on the shore. Hooded, gentle, and ashamed, sitting on the Dark Margin for the second time and, as before, remembering nothing of who he is. He remembers enough to regret what his vengeance did to a boy and his friends, and to hope that boy can set it right.
Naminé, Roxas, Xion and Axel. Seen in the secret ending as if in pictures of what once was, each saying Sora's name: Naminé over her drawing of a boy on a paopu tree, and the three friends on the clock tower at sunset.
Questions
What did Eraqus mean to tell Aqua that a Master must always be conscious of?
Who is the "he" whose words Maleficent says are coming true?
What did Xehanort promise the guard with the guns?
What does Xehanort mean when he says Terra is just one of many roads he might take?
Can Terra ever take his body back?
What will the armour in the wasteland do to set this right?
Who sent Terra's and Ven's Keyblades to Aqua in the dark?
What was the column of darkness that dimmed Aqua's charm?
Who are all the people waiting for their birth by sleep, and can Sora open the right door for them?
Will Aqua find her way out of the dark, and will she ever meet Sora?
Will Ventus ever wake?
Fun facts
Who took Aurora's heart. Terra never learns the truth: he wakes, the heart is gone, and he takes Maleficent's word that he took it. Only the reader overhears Xehanort tell the guard otherwise. Tetsuya Nomura was asked directly in the Birth by Sleep Ultimania and answered, "It was Master Xehanort and Maleficent." His reasoning was that "Terra, who has light residing in his heart, is not a being of darkness and therefore didn't steal Aurora's heart." (Translation by krexia, as cited on khwiki.)
Earth, water and wind. Terra is Latin for earth, Aqua for water, and Ventus for wind.
Master Square. Eraqus is an anagram of Square, the company that made the game, just as Yen Sid is Disney spelled backwards. Nomura gave him the name while writing the original plot, then forgot what it meant, and nobody on the team could tell him until a producer remembered.
An empty name. Nomura wanted a name for Vanitas that meant empty, and found the Latin word for emptiness. He liked that it also looked like Ventus, and that its meaning, empty, is one of the meanings of the character used to write Sora's name.
Started on another console. Development began in June 2005 for the PlayStation 2. It was paused after six months and moved to the PlayStation Portable to take advantage of its multiplayer, and the game came out in Japan on January 9, 2010.
A true ending. The secret ending, which runs about thirteen minutes and was described as more of a "true ending" than a teaser for the next game.
Made in the game's own engine. Unlike the earlier secret endings, it was not pre-rendered. It uses the game's own graphics and full voice acting, and it was the first to end with the words "Reconnect. Kingdom Hearts."
A doorway to the dark. In Birth by Sleep Final Mix, the same scenes also serve as the introduction to a short playable episode following Aqua in the realm of darkness.