Organization XIII

Background

Organization XIII is a fictional group of thirteen Nobodies created by Tetsuya Nomura, Daisuke Watanabe, and Kazushige Nojima and featured in Square Enix and Buena Vista Games' Playstation 2 role-playing game, Kingdom Hearts II. These fascinating characters are the true antagonists of Dämmerung. They were originally introduced in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix's secret ending video "Another Side, Another Story (deep dive)", where the Japanese was translated as "the Thirteenth Order", then as the Organization in the game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. They seek to discover the mysteries that lie within the heart and use the power of Kingdom Hearts to become complete humans. Their goal is unknown in Dämmerung. As Nobodies, they lack emotion and morality, unable to feel guilt and remorse for their actions. Most members mask their true nature by pretending to have emotions, deceiving both themselves and those they meet.

The first six members of Organization XIII are Nobodies of the apprentices of Ansem the Wise, who participated in his experiments with the heart. The assistants and Ansem built an underground facility in the Radiant Garden where they conducted experiments with the heart, using various test subjects. After speaking with an unknown source, Ansem saw the immorality of what he was doing and ceased his involvement. The assistants and their leader, Xehanort, did not share his moral compunction and continued their experiments. This eventually led to tragedy and the creation of Nobody versions of the assistants. The Nobody of Xehanort became the "Superior" and founded Organization XIII in order to learn about the secrets of the heart and to recover their hearts and become complete beings again.

Each member's name is an anagram of their original self's name with an X added as a mark of brotherhood. The origins and original names of members VII to XII are unknown.

Nobody

Nobodies are creatures without hearts. They are leftovers "born" in a realm between light and darkness, and exist as the body and soul of people who lost their hearts to darkness. As they lack hearts to possess light or darkness, they are shunned by both; they are nothing, but still exist. Unlike Heartless, Nobodies attack people with definite planning and feel the need to be complete (finding and reuniting their bodies with their lost hearts, but they will do anything to obtain any heart in order to end their feelings of incompleteness). The members of Organization XIII, being the most powerful Nobodies because of the strong hearts they had when they were "whole," kept human form while weaker ones assumed malformed, inhuman forms that are able to alter their physical shapes via contortions and stretches. Most of the members of the Organization tend to control one type of Nobody, usually suited to their fighting style.

Members

• The Superior
• No. 2
• No. 3
• Vexen
• Lexaeus
• Zexion
• No. 7
• Axel
• No. 9
• No. 10
• Marluxia
• Larxene
• No. 13