The Keyblade War narrative conflict has been a driving force of theKingdom Heartsseries' lore and story. The main antagonist, Xehanort, is obsessed with the legend; Details about what really happened are quite confusing, as its events happened long before the events of theKingdom Heartsseries. It’s not even mentioned in the first game, let alone a decent number of the other sequels, but still remains very important to the series' overarching story.
Details about the Keyblade War were first revealed inBirth by Sleep, however mostly, it was revealed inKingdom Hearts X. ManyKingdom Heartsfans playedBirth by Sleep, though not many may have playedKingdom Hearts Xsince it was a mobile game. Due to this, a lot of fans missed out on details about the Keyblade War.
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Kingdom Hearts: The Keyblade War Legend
The legend, asYen Sid and Xehanorttell it, is centered on Kingdom Hearts (the place, not the game). This special world was full of light and power that many people desired to control. These people created the first keyblades, all in service of the goal of creating a single powerful keyblade called the x-blade. Every keyblade is, to some degree, a failed version of the x-blade.
Sides were taken and opponents clashed over who got the real x-blade, which led to the Keyblade War. This war broke the x-blade into seven pieces of light and thirteen pieces of darkness. This broken blade also caused the world ofKingdom Hearts to disappear into darkness.
The remains of the Keyblade War lay in the Keyblade Graveyard. According to the legend, the hearts of children kept the darkness unleashed from destroying everything. However, this did cause worlds to be separated. What few keyblade wielders remained decided to becomes protectors of the worlds and to make sure such a tragedy does not happen again.
What Really Happened In The Keyblade War
What really happenedis revealed inKingdom Hearts X,which is more than a century beforeBirth by Sleephappens. In the early part of the war, there was a fight between light and darkness. Many people would turn into heartless and/or perish due to that darkness.
A keyblade wielder known as the Master of Masters took on many students and six apprentices to fight the darkness, and began to manipulate them into mistrusting and fighting amongst one another. Foretelling a future doom, this manipulation caused them to compete over the light needed to fight the darkness. This ultimately is what caused the Keyblade War to not end and how the x-blade broke into 20 pieces.
As for the purpose of the manipulation by the Master of Masters, that is still unknown. There are theories that he had an “ends define the means” justification and decided to end the war by letting the darkness win on purpose. It is possible that his character will beexplored in futureKingdom Heartsgames.
Xehanort’s Keyblade War Plan
This did not stop Xehanort, and he attempted creating an x-blade inBirth by Sleep. He did this by splitting Ventus' darkness from him and making the two fight. He believed a pure heart of light and one of pure darkness would make an x-blade if they fought. However, his plan did not work thanks toAqua’s intervention.Xehanort moved on to plan B: start another Keyblade War.
This plan meant 13 pieces of darkness and seven pieces of light had to fight where the original Keyblade War happened. This is why he created Organization 13 and attempted to kidnappedseven princesses of heart, all in preparation for a second Keyblade War.
The Second Keyblade War
The second Keyblade War comes to fruition inKingdom Hearts 3. Sora’s collection of friends and allies have a final battle against Organization 13, making Xehanort’s plan to have 13 pieces of darkness and seven pieces of light come true.
Through the fighting,Xehanort does get the x-blade,but is defeated by Sora. Sora locks away Kingdom Hearts with the x-blade and ends the second Keyblade War. The war is far smaller and short-lived than the one that took place about a century ago, but light does prevail in the end.Kingdom Hearts 3does mark the end of the “Dark Seeker Saga,” but the Master of Masters seems to have a grander plan in place for futureKingdom Heartsgames.
