| Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep χ-blade | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Token |  | ||
| Japanese | χブレード | ||
| Rōmaji | χburēdo | ||
| Obtained | |||
| N/A | |||
- ""χ"... A most ancient letter. Some say "kye," but the meaning is the same. Death... A letter that spells endings."
- —Master Xehanort
The χ-blade is a legendary weapon introduced in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. It is the original after which all Keyblades are imperfectly modeled. Rather than being a man-made key to an artificial Kingdom Hearts, like the Keyblade of heart, it coexists with the true Kingdom Hearts itself, a perfect union of all hearts and worlds, and is the only thing that can summon its door. Xehanort's Report VII According to legend, the Keyblade War occurred because of the many souls who desired to take the χ-blade and Kingdom Hearts for themselves, and Master Xehanort later enacts his plots with the same goal in mind.
Story
Early history
Originally, the χ-blade was the counterpart of Kingdom Hearts, for which it acted as protector. The Master of Masters studied the χ-blade and learned to extract Keyblades from people's hearts as a result.[1] In the aftermath of the Keyblade War, a conflict over the Lux of the world, the χ-blade splintered into twenty pieces: seven fragments of pure light, which eventually become the seven princesses' hearts, and thirteen shards of darkness. It is unknown what became of the thirteen shards of darkness.
Between Kingdom Hearts χ and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
The χ-blade and the Keyblade War itself passed into legend in the generations after with the cause of the war itself being distorted by the legends as people came to believe that Keyblade wielders who sought to take the light of Kingdom Hearts for themselves and created "Keyblades" in the image of the χ-blade, and they clashed together in the legendary Keyblade War.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
- "This χ-blade will open a door—one that leads to all worlds! Then, Keyblade-bearing warriors will flock here from each and every one of them, to battle for the light within Kingdom Hearts! And just like the legend says, the Keyblade War will begin!"
- —Ventus-Vanitas
In the early stages of his quest to recreate the χ-blade, Xehanort did not want to go through the trouble of having seven light and thirteen darknesses clash and opted to find a more efficient method. He eventually discovered the χ-blade can also be created when a heart of pure light and a heart of pure darkness, both of equal strength, clashed together, which he noted on one of his reports.
After seeing that his pupil Ventus would be no use to him as a new vessel, Master Xehanort extracted the darkness from his apprentice's heart, creating Vanitas. Once assured that Ventus would survive, the elderly Keyblade Master planned to create the χ-blade by having Ventus clash with his dark half, once he could match Vanitas in strength.
Xehanort sets his plans in motion, and the χ-blade is created at the Keyblade Graveyard through Ventus-Vanitas's forced union. However, the legendary weapon itself is incomplete. Although it appeared complete in the real world, it took on a broken and incomplete form in Ventus's Dive to the Heart. Vanitas attempts to complete the fusion within their combined heart, but Ventus sacrifices himself to stop Vanitas. This causes the χ-blade to become unstable during Ventus-Vanitas's simultaneous fight with Aqua and Mickey Mouse, and it explodes in the physical world, while Ventus falls into a coma. The explosion was large enough to blow Mickey, Aqua, and Ventus away from the Keyblade Graveyard and into the Lanes Between.
After seeing this failure, Xehanort realized his method of creating the χ-blade was not the correct way to recreate the χ-blade and he eventually decided to go about it the proper way by manipulating Maleficent to find the Princesses of Heart while he prepared thirteen vessels of darkness by creating Organization XIII.
Between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II
Anticipating failure for his "reckless" attempt to create the χ-blade, Master Xehanort arranges for his ally, Braig, to assist his next incarnation, Terra-Xehanort.
After their experiments plunge Ansem the Wise's other apprentices into darkness and Terra-Xehanort does the same to Braig, he splits himself into the Heartless Ansem and the Nobody Xemnas. Ansem manipulates Maleficent into capturing the seven Princesses of Heart, while Xemnas founds Organization XIII with the intention of using its members as vessels for Xehanort's heart. Master Xehanort's fascination with the χ-blade influences Xemnas to name each of the members of the Organization with an anagram of their original name with the addition of an "X".[2] However, both plans are thwarted by Sora and his friends.
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Before sending Sora and Riku to undergo the Mark of Mastery exam, Yen Sid reveals the history of the χ-blade while also explaining Xehanort's past.
After his revival, Master Xehanort reveals to King Mickey and Riku that the actions of Ansem and Xemnas were to restore the legendary weapon by having the thirteen darknesses that are the vessels of Xehanort's heart clash with seven lights.
Although Sora had ruined the initial plan, Master Xehanort had anticipated interference and arranged for Ansem to go back in time and share his time-traveling ability with Young Xehanort, sending him to gather twelve incarnations of himself from across time to form a second Organization XIII. After failing to "recruit" Sora as the final Organization member, the gathered members return to their respective places in time, with the intention of meeting again in the future to recreate the χ-blade.
Kingdom Hearts III
Master Xehanort finally forges the χ-blade in the Keyblade Graveyard, after all clashes between the seven guardians of light and his thirteen seekers of darkness have taken place, the final clash being an enraged Sora attacking Xehanort himself after he kills Kairi. Xehanort's No Name turns into the χ-blade, which he uses to open Kingdom Hearts.
After his first defeat within Scala ad Caelum, Xehanort summons the χ-blade, trying to use its power, alongside Kingdom Hearts', to defeat Sora in a final battle. However, Sora manages to defeat the elderly Keyblade Master, who hands the χ-blade over to him after Eraqus's heart, housed within Terra, makes him see the error of his ways. Sora then uses the χ-blade to close Kingdom Hearts for good.
Design
The χ-blade appears to be made up of two crossing Kingdom Keys, with the teeth facing outward. It has a filigree that slightly resembles one on the Ultima Weapon, and the blade slightly resembles the Dream Sword.
The incomplete χ-blade's coloring is more red-orange than bluish-yellow, and the blade is slightly covered with an aura of darkness. It also has chips in the side of the blade, lacks a part of the filigree on one side, and part of the Kingdom Key's hilt is missing, making it look somehow broken or shattered.
The Keychain is a black and red heart that is similar to the Heartless symbol, only without the fleur-de-lis bottom and jagged cross, with two Kingdom Keys crossed over it. The chain starts out as two separate chains that form into one.The Keychain's two crossed Kingdom Keys is reminiscent of the symbol of the "Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven". Although it is not seen in this incarnation, it is especially significant that the Kingdom Key has a silver blade and gold hilt, and the Kingdom Key D has a gold blade and silver hilt, matching the keys on the symbol. When the χ-blade hits a target, the released symbols are gold and dark blue stars, symbolic of light and darkness.
Although χ-blade is pronounced "Keyblade", the letter "χ" is the letter chi from the Greek alphabet. This is why the name of the weapon is spelled "χ-blade", but, as Master Xehanort explains, can be pronounced "Kye-blade". Master Xehanort explains to Ventus, with a visual demonstration of the ancient letter "χ", that he is not referring to a Keyblade that Keyblade Wielders use. He continues to state that the letter itself carries a meaning of "death" and that it "spells endings".
Gallery
The incomplete χ-blade.
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Notes and references
- ^ Weekly Famitsu, pg. 198; Tetsuya Nomura: "The Master knows about its existence. Using the χ-blade as a model, he creates his own Keyblades. Well, by create I don’t mean that in the physical sense, such as forging and tempering them, I mean more along the lines of pulling one out from the depths of a heart." Translation via Saken and Goldpanner.
- ^ Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania: "Xemnas gives Organization members names with an X in them. This has something to do with Master Xehanort’s interest in the χ-blade."