Dark Road
Terms and lore
The child of destiny. What the one who raised Xehanort told him he was, a hundred times over: a child who would come from the islands, who could feel what was in other people's hearts, and who could join his heart with another's and save the world from darkness. He could make nothing of it. "I don't get it."
The island. Where Xehanort grew up, with a few small bare islets round it, because darkness could not easily find him there. There was no one else on it but the one who raised him, and when they died he was alone.
The dreams. All his childhood Xehanort dreamed of children he had never met, who liked each other very much: a boy with curly silver hair, a boy in black with a hat, a skinny boy with pink hair, a quiet blond boy, a girl with dark hair, and one more who was like the one raising him. The one who raised him knew the dreams were true. The boy was dreaming a life they had lived before.
Corridors of darkness. Ways between worlds, made of dark. A man in a brown hood opened one in the sand to take Xehanort off the island, and the darkness in it began, very slowly, to get into his heart. The darkness in a corridor whispers, and armour only keeps most of it out. Years later, walking Ventus through one, Xehanort gave his own account: corridors are not meant for the living; feelings gather in them, and a heart that tries to take those feelings in will rot, which is why those who use them wear coats against it. He thinks a strong enough heart can bear it.
Scala ad Caelum. The city on the water where Keyblade wielders were trained under Master Odin: mountains made of white and gold buildings, a windmill turning on nearly every roof, and a star worked into the paving.
Lower and upper classmen. Odin's students. Xehanort joined six others as a lower classman: Eraqus, Vor, Hermod, Urd, Bragi and Baldr. Seven upper classmen went out to train for their Mark of Mastery and never returned: Hoder, Vidar, Vala, Vali, Heimdall, Sigrun and Helgi.
The Stairway to the Sky. The long stair in the city, with the water all round it, where Xehanort and Eraqus sat at the top and talked about everything.
Alba and Ater. A board game of white and black that Xehanort and Eraqus played constantly. Xehanort nearly always won. By the time he left the city, Eraqus's record against him was 107 wins, 323 losses and 7 draws.
The order of the worlds. After the Keyblade War the worlds were rebuilt, and time moves differently in each, depending on when it was restored. Wielders were not to meddle in a world's order. In some worlds darkness is the order, as it is under the queen who rules by rage, which is how Xehanort came to say that light being right and darkness wrong "just doesn't hold true."
"Darkness can hide anywhere. Even inside someone." A saying Xehanort and Eraqus once spoke at the same moment, without knowing where they had it from. For Xehanort it came from someone in a dream.
The mirror. A mirror in a frame ringed with the twelve signs, with a white mask in the glass, lit so that half of it is darker than the other. It answers any question truthfully. It told the class that each of the missing upper classmen was acting alone, and told Vor that if she stayed with her friends she would never grow.
The thirteen darknesses. Master Odin's account of true darkness, without form, the source of most of the darkness in the world. There were thirteen. The Lost Masters sealed seven of them inside themselves. Four more ended up caught in the Realm Between of a data world, and two may have died with the old world, though Odin could not be sure. A true darkness that has taken a vessel can be destroyed by destroying the vessel. Xehanort told Vanitas the same story years later, with one more line: "But one survived, it is said, and disguised itself as an ally of light." He suspects Vanitas never came out of Ventus's heart at all, but moved into it from somewhere else, and that Ventus, who appeared in his dreams as a young lad, did not meet him by chance.
Kingdom Hearts. The other way to defeat true darkness, which Odin did not trust: it needs seven true lights to summon, and it might purge every world along with the darkness. Baldr meant to give thirteen lights to the shadows to summon it, so that the world would be born again in darkness. Years later, Xehanort came to believe that summoning it was "the only way."
The darkness in Baldr. Not one of the ancient ones. By its own account it grew out of the darkness in everyone Baldr had known. All his life Baldr had felt what was in other hearts, light from Hoder and Eraqus and darkness from nearly everyone else, and the darkness gathered in him until it was his own.
Two kinds of people. Baldr's belief: those whose light is pure, and those with darkness in them, in whom it grows. He told Xehanort that the first would coldly condemn the second, and asked him to go and find the answers.
The black coat. Given to Xehanort by a Lost Master he met in a wasteland full of old Keyblades. It keeps darkness out of a corridor better than any armour. The same stranger called him "the singularity."
Thirteen lifetimes. Xehanort's conclusion that one lifetime is too short to rebuild the world. He would need thirteen. Then: "Scratch that. One more to explore the new world."
The Master's Defender and the No Name. The Keyblades given to Eraqus and Xehanort when they were made Keyblade Masters on the same day, eight years after Xehanort arrived. Eraqus, the true heir, received the Master's Defender. Xehanort received the No Name, so that the Lost Masters' resolve might pass to him along with it. It had hung on the classroom wall; Odin carried both Keyblades before them.
The graveyard. On the far side of the city, where eleven new graves went up after Baldr: among them Hermod, Urd, Bragi, Vor and Baldr.
The child of destiny, again. A year after the mirror's answer, Xehanort brought Ventus, whom he had trained that year, to Eraqus at the Land of Departure. He said he thought the boy might be the child of destiny, and that a boy like that deserved a true heir to light as his guide: "I stand too close to the darkness."
Characters and where they stand
Xehanort. Curious, restless and very sure of himself, and troubled early by the idea that darkness can hide inside someone without their knowing. He killed Baldr when he could have purged him, and kept to his room for a month afterwards. Given a black coat by a Lost Master, he went out into the worlds and came back convinced that nothing would keep the world from chaos unless he took charge of it himself, using darkness if he had to. He became a Keyblade Master alongside Eraqus and fought him a year later over summoning Kingdom Hearts. Fifty-four years after the upper classmen went missing he scarred Eraqus's face with darkness. Old, he went back to the mirror to ask whether the friends from his dreams had ever existed. Some are still alive, it told him, and one of them is in the Keyblade Graveyard. A year later he brought that one, Ventus, to Eraqus, apologised for the past, and left the boy there. In a corridor of the castle he told Vanitas he knew Vanitas had not been born from Ventus's heart.
Eraqus. Late to everything, funny on purpose, and the reason the class held together. Becoming a Master began as something his family expected of him. His dream is to hold to the light and shine for anyone who loses their way in the dark. Made a Master and the true heir, he raised his Keyblade against Xehanort "as a true friend." Years later he taught in the Land of Departure, and carries two scars from his oldest friend. When Xehanort came with Ventus and began to apologise, Eraqus stopped him: "There's no need. Your letter said enough. Water under the bridge."
The one in the blue hood. Raised Xehanort on the island, and believed he was the child of destiny, partly because he was dreaming a life they had lived before. They died when he was a young man.
The man in the brown hood. Came along the sand to Xehanort after the one in the blue hood died, called him "my waypoint," told him it was his destiny to see other worlds, and opened the corridor that took him away.
The Lost Master. A hooded figure in a black coat in the wasteland of Keyblades, who said he had once been a wielder, did not know what a Mark of Mastery was, gave Xehanort the coat, and asked him to look into people's hearts. He told Xehanort his name, and what he had been, and was gone.
Master Odin. The old Keyblade Master who taught the class. He brought Xehanort and Eraqus out of the corridor alive, held Baldr in golden chains, and grieved for every student he lost. He meant to stand down, with Xehanort and Eraqus replacing him, and arranged their examination early.
Vor. Small and fierce, the one who wandered off and found the mirror. She joined the upper classmen with Vidar. Baldr ran her through with darkness, and she was gone before Xehanort and Eraqus reached her.
Hermod and Urd. Hermod liked things in order; Urd wanted to see every world there was. Pulled into a corridor of darkness with Xehanort and Eraqus, both were killed there by a shadowy figure Urd took for a friend: Baldr.
Bragi. The quiet one. Counted among the dead and given a stone. In the Underworld he had faced Baldr without fear, and Baldr struck him down and left without making sure. A month later a figure in a black coat put back his hood in front of Bragi's stone, and the face was Bragi's. It was Luxu, annoyed that with his name on a gravestone he could no longer be Bragi. He had been looking for a chosen one and not found one, though he thought Xehanort might yet be useful.
Baldr. Able to feel the darkness in everyone's heart, until what he felt became his own. After watching his sister die, the darkness in him cut down Sigrun, Heimdall, Helgi, Hermod, Urd and Bragi, and after them Vor and three upper classmen, meaning to give thirteen lights to the shadows. Xehanort killed him.
Hoder. Baldr's sister, an upper classman. In the Enchanted Dominion she put herself between her brother and the sorceress Maleficent, and died. Her spirit, carried out of the Underworld in Xehanort's heart, reached her brother at the end, and faded in the fight that followed.
Vidar, Vala and Vali. Upper classmen who gave up the vow not to meddle, taking what each world held most precious in search of true light, because Vidar wanted revenge for the friends he had lost. Baldr's Heartless cut all three down in the tower.
Ventus. A year in Xehanort's care, his eyes open and nothing behind them, left at the Land of Departure with Eraqus. He screamed in another room while the two old friends talked.
Vanitas. Waiting in the castle corridor where he had no business to be, glad to be rid of Ventus. Xehanort warned him he was no match for his blade, and told him he did not believe Vanitas had been born from Ventus's heart. Vanitas asked what he knew, and would say nothing himself.
Questions
Who was the one in the blue hood, and how had they lived the life Xehanort dreams of?
Who was the man in the brown hood, and why did he call Xehanort his waypoint?
Who is the Lost Master in the black coat, and what did he want Xehanort to see?
Will Xehanort ever see his mother again?
What chosen one was Luxu looking for among Odin's students?
Which ancient darkness survived disguised as an ally of light?
Where did Vanitas come from, if not from Ventus's heart?
Fun facts
A class of Norse gods. Xehanort's teacher and every one of his fellow students except Eraqus is named for a figure from Norse mythology. Odin is the chief of the gods. Hermod is their messenger, Vor a goddess of wisdom, Urd one of the Norns who watch over the past, and Bragi a name tied to poetry. Vidar is known for avenging his father. In the myths, Baldr is the god of light, and his death at his brother Höðr's hand begins the chain of events that ends the world. Here, Hoder is his sister.
Project Xehanort. The game was first announced in January 2020 under the working title "Project Xehanort," with a guess-the-name campaign whose clue was "8 letters, 2 words." The real title was revealed a week later.
An ending that almost went missing. The game's servers shut down in 2021 before its story was finished. Square Enix promised the ending would come in an offline version, which was delayed more than once and finally released in August 2022.