Master of Masters

Story and background

An enigmatic Keyblade master who recorded selected futures through the Gazing Eye and assigned conflicting missions to his apprentices. His campaign against the thirteen primordial Darknesses influences the first Keyblade War and the Lost Master Arc.

Events and connections in the series

Long ago, the world was not the collection of isolated places that Sora would eventually travel between. In the age remembered as the age of fairy tales, light connected the world. Hearts contained light and darkness, but the conflict between them was already ancient. A boy who would become known only as the Master of Masters witnessed a war unlike the one fought by the Keyblade wielders we know. In that older struggle, Darkness was not merely a bad feeling, or an army of shadow creatures. It had a will of its own.

The beings called the thirteen Darknesses once possessed physical forms. They abandoned those forms to fight light more effectively. Without bodies, they could infiltrate hearts and spread, rather than stand on a battlefield and be struck down. But the decision had a price. Their individual identities risked dissolving unless they could find vessels strong enough to hold them. The Master of Masters came to understand a brutal rule: if these bodiless enemies could be contained in suitable hearts and forced into a vulnerable form, there might finally be a way to destroy them. His solution would shape almost everything that followed.

Later, while travelling between worlds, Xehanort encountered the Master of Masters. The mysterious teacher supplied a black coat that helped Xehanort move through darkness, and challenged him to look inside the hearts of people he met. Xehanort returned with a bleak assessment. Again and again he saw selfishness, fear, and the possibility of corruption. He came to believe that the worlds were flawed at their very roots. The Master listened, questioned him, and helped push him toward the path we now know as the Dark Seeker.

Historical context

The ancient Keyblade era is remembered through competing accounts of prophecy, the Foretellers and the Dandelions. Individual motivations matter because the Master of Masters assigns different responsibilities that the apprentices do not fully understand. The consequences reach far beyond the first Keyblade War.

Connected characters

More in the lore

Explore the complete chronology for the surrounding events, relationships and consequences across the games.