OOC - Character information
Note: This has been written before Birth by Sleep came out.
History
Xemnas is a Nobody, a literally nonexistent being shunned by both light and darkness. When the heart is lost, it’s darkness gives birth to at least a Heartless. But when a person had a strong heart, the body and soul that remain become a Nobody. A Nobody has no heart, and since they are rejected by both light and darkness as they lack the heart to contain either or both, they do not exist. Most Nobodies wish nothing more but to regain their missing heart, to be complete. Most of these nonexistent beings look rather deformed, but there are some that have managed to retain a human form. These humanoid Nobodies have formed an alliance; Organization XIII. Their goal is to collect as many hearts in order to complete Kingdom Hearts, the source of all hearts. When completed, they supposedly will be able to regain their hearts and return to be a complete being. Xemnas is the leader of Organization XIII.
Before Xemnas had become a Nobody, he had been a man named Xehanort. Found somewhere at Radiant Garden by Ansem the Wise, he became one of his six apprentices. The circumstances of both him winding up in that world and his past altogether are unknown at this point (though I suspect more info to be released in future games, specifically Birth By Sleep). It is implied he has a connection to the Keyblade War, though any details about his connection or the war itself remain unknown thus far. Anyway, at some point Ansem the Wise began experiments on the human heart. However, he grew concerned with the ethical side of his experiments and realized that he should not interfere with hearts. Therefore, he chose to abandon these experiments and expected his apprentices to do the same. I strongly believe the six apprentices had already been corrupted by the darkness at that point. Not only did they continue to do the experiments (and progressed to the point of being outright inhumane to their unfortunate test subjects) thus betraying their mentor, Xehanort also signed his reports with his findings with the name ‘Ansem’. When the real Ansem found out about this betrayal, he was overthrown and banished to a world of Nothingness where he became DiZ.
Xehanort changed his name to ‘Ansem’ and continued conducting horrible experiments on the heart. During these experiments he discovered the existence of shadowy creatures known as the Heartless – creatures without a heart. He could also create copies of them – known as ‘Emblems’. Not just that, he also discovered that worlds, too, had hearts and that Keyblade Wielders had the power to (un)lock hearts. Eventually, Xehanort cast away his heart and threw himself in Darkness to learn more about darkness, the human heart and Kingdom Hearts. The remaining five apprentices did the same.
The heartless born out of him became the first heartless to keep his original form. The soul and body of Ansem/Xehanort/whatshisname left behind became the Nobody Xemnas, and along with the other five apprentices they became the original six members of Organization XIII, which later grew to thirteen members (or fourteen, including Xion). Each member had a rank in order of joining, with Xemnas being number one and it’s leader. He’s the most powerful Nobody of this group.
As I’ve said earlier, Nobodies wish to be complete and to regain their heart. Xemnas was a little different; he wished to use Kingdom Hearts to obtain power and build a brand new world “one heart at a time” with himself as it’s ruler. He promised the members of the Organization that their heart would be returned to them, but to Xemnas they were nothing but mere pawns to further his own goals. He had his own hidden agenda during the course of the game(s), and used his subordinates to further his plans. All this can be linked back to Kingdom Hearts, and Xemnas seeking to complete it. It’s completion can be accomplished by the following: every time a Heartless is destroyed by the Keyblade, a captive heart will be released. These hearts join together and become Kingdom Hearts, the source of all hearts. But for more hearts to join Kingdom Hearts, there needed to be more Heartless. So other than just collecting hearts, the Organization created Heartless by manipulation and such and experimented on hearts and darkness behind the scenes.
Xemnas also had an additional goal, supposedly connected to his past. In the Room of Repose – which Xemnas would frequently visit – lay the remains of probably Aqua, one of the Keyblade Wielders in the Keyblade war – whom he addressed as “friend”. He sought the Room of Awakening, which is implied to contain another “friend”. It is implied to be hidden in Castle Oblivion, but it can be assumed Xemnas (or anyone else for that matter) has never found it. Anything related to this should be revealed in Birth By Sleep.
When Sora lost his heart in the original game, Xemnas soon found Roxas – Sora’s Nobody. It is then when Xemnas – still hooded - makes his first appearance to Sora in Hollow Bastion. He passes straight through Sora, prompting the boy to experience his memories in rapid succession which is a result of Xemnas taking some of them. Even after being asked who he is, Xemnas does not reveal his name, instead remarking how Sora looks like “him” and that the Keyblade wielder is “incomplete”. He begins to attack the young Keyblade Master, testing his power. Afterwards, he says they will meet again and disappears after saying he is ‘but a mere shell’.
Once Roxas has been introduced into Organization XIII, Xemnas makes use of Roxas’ ability of the keyblade to release more hearts and to further complete his Kingdom Hearts. At the same time, he begins experimenting on what is called the Replica Project and created a clone of Sora using his memories. The result is Xion, who Xemnas hoped to use as an alternative in case Roxas/Sora proved to be useless for his plans. Xion would gradually develop Roxas’/Sora’s abilities and eventually absorb Roxas. Also, Xion’s existence would later delay Sora in getting his memories back (see later in the app, after the events of Castle Oblivion). Not only would Sora never be completed without Roxas (effectively eliminating a possible threat), Xion would be able to continue releasing hearts for Kingdom Hearts. Xion was placed into the care of Roxas while all of the other members were sent on missions to further their plans.
Eventually, Xemnas extends his plans towards Castle Oblivion. With the use of Naminé – Kairi’s “Nobody” who wields the power to manipulate the memories of Sora and those around him – he sends five members to experiment on memories. These five members were Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen, Zexion and Lexeaus. Marluxia was placed in charge of the project, and received orders to lure Sora to Castle Oblivion to use him for the experiments. Vexen, in the mean time, received orders to experiment on another replica from the Replica Project, which turns out to be Riku Replica. However, once the Dusks bring back news of Marluxia plotting to overthrow him, Xemnas sends Axel to neutralize the threat. This results in Axel being the only one coming back alive, Naminé escaping and Sora being put to sleep in order to regain his memories. Thus, the project at Castle Oblivion failed due to a couple of rebellious Nobodies. Also, the act of Sora being put to sleep placed Roxas in a temporary coma. However, he awakens and he and Xion continue collecting Hearts for the Organization.
But at one point, Roxas begins to weaken and it looks like Xion is the superior of the two. Xemnas decides they only need one of them. Though Xion proves to be superior thanks to Roxas’ weakening (which was due her absorbing his powers), he states he doesn’t really care which one remains. However, before any of that happens Xion leaves the Organization to return to Sora as her existence prevents him from awakening. Axel was sent to recapture her, and had managed to retrieve her. Xemnas reprograms Xion, which later prompts her into attacking Roxas (who has also left the Organization by then) and attempting to absorb him. This would prevent, along with Xion under their thumb, Sora from ever awakening. This all fails when Xion is absorbed by Roxas instead, and Xemnas discontinues the project. Roxas in turn gets captured by Riku and DiZ in order to complete Sora. Xemnas sends Axel to retrieve him and, if this fails, to destroy him. Both options fail, and Sora awakens.
At this point, Xemnas is pretty much left with using Sora as a means to complete Kingdom Hearts. Not long after Sora’s awakening the remaining Organization members – including Xemnas - reveal themselves to the boy on the world Hollow Bastion and taunt him. To make sure Sora would slaughter even more Heartless, various Organization members tried corrupting even more worlds. Along with that, the Organization pulled off an invasion of Heartless over at Hollow Bastion. These Heartless were defeated and their hearts were released to Kingdom Hearts. Xemnas reveals himself again, and is recognized by King Mickey to be the Nobody of Xehanort, whose Heartless had sought Kingdom Hearts and threw many worlds into darkness. He disappears before a battle ensues, however, though their plan of completing Kingdom Hearts is revealed by none other than Axel.
As the game progressed (and more and more members of Organization XIII had fallen with only Xemnas remaining), Kingdom Hearts finally nears completion. However, DiZ interfered with Xemnas’ plans as he tried to turn the giant moon into data with the use of some sort of machine. Xemnas confronts his former master and says that Ansem was the source of all Heartless because he started with the experiments. He also claims he had surpassed his former master, that he did things Ansem wouldn’t dare because he was restricted by a heart. Ansem, on the other hand, says they were both fools and that the Nobody has learned nothing and that he – and the world that he intends to built – are destined to fall. The machine Ansem tried to encode Kingdom Hearts with exploded, partly destroying Kingdom Hearts and resulting in many hearts raining down which become heartless. This hindered Xemnas’ plans – he had to start all over again.
Sora and Xemnas fight one-on-one, a fight the Superior loses. Realizing he needs rage in order to defeat Sora, he enters what’s left of Kingdom Hearts. The heroes manage to defeat Xemnas yet again, but the Nobody manages to separate both Riku and Sora from the others and tries to turn the two boys against each other. After two more battles, Xemnas finally meets his own demise and fades into nothing.
Xemnas’ thirst for knowledge, his selfish desires and his misunderstanding of the heart eventually led to his downfall. He thought he needed rage and sorrow – both negative emotions (which he can’t even feel), but that wasn’t all what a heart was about to quote Sora in the game. It’s full of all kinds of feelings – both positive and negative. Ansem the Wise was right; Xemnas hadn’t learned anything about the human heart despite his efforts.
Taken from:
After he end of Kingdom Hearts 2, after he has met his own demise. This will make him aware that his plans to complete Kingdom Hearts have failed and that he has to start all over again, and possibly make him more open for other options to achieve his goals depending on what occurs during his stay in Landels.
Personality
As a Nobody, Xemnas doesn’t experience any emotions. But in large contrast to not having any emotions, he’s melodramatic, which is almost ridiculous in nature. He exaggerates emotions he doesn’t even feel (more often than not resulting in long-winded speeches), makes (dramatic) hand gestures when he speaks and his face is also very expressive. But this all appears to be an act, considering out of all the Nobodies, Xemnas is the emptiest and emotionless of all. He doesn’t even seem to remember having emotions, leaving him with a pretty twisted image of the heart; he thinks it exists of negative feelings.
Either way, his lack of emotions means there’s little that can penetrate his calm. Even when Kingdom Hearts was partly destroyed, something that took years to finish, his reaction was rather mild as he only stated he’d have to start all over again. But even so, Kingdom Hearts appears to be the only thing he truly cares about, and he tried quite the number of things to make it complete. He’s an ambitious individual, wishing to have power, and he does anything to make sure his goals are realized without feeling any remorse for them. People are mere tools for him to gain what he desires, and even his own subordinates are no exception. He lifted not even a finger when his subordinates dropped like flies, and the loss of one is a mere inconvenience at most. He also didn’t interact all that much with them. He’s apparently someone that prefers to work alone anyway, and he keeps a lot of secrets from his subordinates, making him somewhat of an enigma.
Though enigmatic, he sometimes leaves cryptic hints about his nature or sometimes even his plans. To give an example, when Roxas asked about Sora, Xemnas stated that Sora was the connection between him and Xion. And when Sora fought him (hooded) at Hollow Bastion, he stated he was but a mere shell. He is also not above mocking others, which he did to both Sora in Hollow Bastion and later on to Ansem the Wise.
Other than that, Xemnas is a manipulative and cunning individual who holds little sympathy for others. When still ‘Xehanort’, so to speak, he did horrible and inhumane experiments on people, betrayed his former master and a numerous other things all in the name of achieving power and knowledge. This trait definitely carried over to his Nobody. He manipulated the entire Organization to go and complete Kingdom Hearts for him, promising their hearts and their existence would be returned if Kingdom Hearts would be complete. In truth, he wished to use Kingdom Heart’s power for his own personal gain and built a brand new world with himself as it’s ruler. Finally, he manipulated Sora in collecting hearts for him.
With his manipulation skills comes intelligence; he was, after all, a scientist that experimented on the workings of the heart. He also has quite the capability to form plans, as he came up with quite the number of them for trying to complete Kingdom Hearts. This either means he had an impressive amount of backup plans lying around, calculating a fail margin within his previous plans thus making him crazy prepared, or he can easily adjust his plans to a given situation. This may also be a combination of both, but either way it makes him very adaptable to a change in a situation. I suppose his lack of emotions even help him in that regard.
Finally, Xemnas holds a good amount of authority. This probably comes with the fact that he can kick the asses of his subordinates with both hands tied on his back, but that still doesn’t take away that he can be intimidating. Those that betrayed him didn’t do so straight in his face, after all.
But despite his long exaggerated speeches about not having a heart, he does not despise the nothing or the power it provides in the slightest. No, he even wishes to gain even more power through completing Kingdom Hearts.
Physical Description
Xemnas is fairly tall and well built, somewhat muscled but not to the point it’s bulky. He has a tanned skin and orange/amber eyes. He has long silver hair that’s layered and spiky as what appears to be common with Nomura’s designs. There are a few bangs hanging in his face. His ears are also slightly pointed.