This is a list of terms from the games comprising the Kingdom Hearts series.

B

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Body

The body, one of three parts of a complete being, serves as the vessel for the heart and soul.

C

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Corridors of darkness

Corridors of darkness serve as pathways between the worlds; an individual with knowledge or will can use these corridors to transport themselves great distances without effort. The price is that it erodes the user's heart with darkness, though this does not affect those already consumed by darkness or those without hearts.

These corridors are often used unknowingly by individuals of worlds destroyed by the Heartless; they travel randomly to an in-between world.

D

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Darkness

Darkness is a primordial substance, contrasting with light; along with light, darkness composes everything. Nonetheless, it seeks to consume everything, mostly through the manifestation of Heartless.

It is said to have arisen from the hearts of people greedy for more of the comforting light. Darkness is closely associated with evil, but may be used for positive effect.

DTD

"Door To Darkness" (or DTD) is the name of the dataspace on Ansem's computer which he had placed all his files and works involving the Heartless, Hearts, and any other pertinent research he or his assistants had conducted. The original password to the DTD was the name of the seven Princesses of Heart, but when the MCP tried to access the DTD, Tron changed it to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

H

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Heart

The heart, one of three parts of a complete being, is described as being something which no one can fully understand. The source of all hearts is cited as Kingdom Hearts. It possesses the capacity for light and darkness and is what gives beings emotion. It also serves a function in memory storage, but the extent of this function is not clear. A heart that is overcome by darkness and separated from the body and soul becomes a Heartless; the defeat of a Heartless releases the heart within, which migrates back to Kingdom Hearts.

Heartless

Heartless are wayward hearts corrupted by darkness.

I

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In-between world

An in-between world is situated between the realms of light and darkness, and acts as a nexus point for corridors of darkness. Due to their nature as nexus points, individuals who have lost their world randomly travel the corridors and end up at one of the worlds.

K

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Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts (which lends its name to the series itself) is the source of all hearts; hearts are put in individuals, which then return back to Kingdom Hearts when individuals die or their Heartless are defeated.

Kingdom Hearts was believed by Xehanort's Heartless to contain supreme darkness, and sought for this darkness to cover all worlds. However, when he beckoned for Kingdom Hearts to grant him the "power of darkness", it revealed itself to contain light, and this light killed Xehanort's Heartless.

Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas, sought Kingdom Hearts for a different purpose. He was aware of the fact that Heartless defeated with the Keyblade gave up hearts that migrated to Kingdom Hearts, adding more energy to it. Xemnas sought to use this energy to become god-like and share it with fellow Nobodies. As it contained many hearts, it could be used to grant Nobodies their hearts back so they would become complete beings again; this was the goal of Organization XIII. To weaken Xemnas' plan, DiZ used a machine to attempt to "digitally seal away" Kingdom Hearts. The machine overloaded, as hearts proved to be incomprehensible; it explodes, but scatters many of the hearts in Kingdom Hearts in the process. Xemnas used the remnant energy to fight Sora and the party, but was defeated.

Keyblade

The Keyblade is Sora's primary weapon throughout the Kingdom Hearts series. Little is actually known about the Keyblade, except that it can open or close any lock and thus any door, including the Keyhole of a world, and that it chooses its master. A person chosen to wield a Keyblade can summon or dismiss it at any time, and they are the only person that can wield it; if held by another, the Keyblade will automatically return to its master's hand. Because of its power, there is a legend that says that the Keyblade has the power to either save the universe or to unleash chaos upon it.

The Keyblade is the only weapon that can release the hearts a Heartless has stolen. It is unknown what happens to the hearts if the Heartless is destroyed by any other means.

The Kingdom Key is the main form of Sora's Keyblade. It can be modified via keychains, each of which change its appearance and strengths. There are three Keyblades in the series: Sora's, the Keyblade of the realm of light; King Mickey's, the Keyblade of the realm of darkness, identical to Sora's but with inverted colors; and Riku's Way to the Dawn. In addition to these three, other Keyblades are seen: a Keyblade created from the hearts of six of the Princesses of Heart meant to "unlock" hearts; a "virtual" Keyblade used by Roxas in DiZ's virtual Twilight Town; two Keyblades used by Roxas; and an unnamed Keyblade given to Kairi by Riku. In most Drive Forms, Sora also equips a second Keyblade. The source of Kairi's, Roxas', and the Drive Forms' Keyblades is not explained.

Keyhole

A Keyhole is the passageway to a world's heart. An unlocked Keyhole allows Heartless to slowly consume the world; locking Keyholes prevents them from doing so.

L

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Light

Light is a type of energy or substance that forms half of the Kingdom Hearts universe and is closely associated with goodness.

N

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Nobody

A Nobody is the remaining body and soul of a being whose heart has become a Heartless. Nobodies are said to be highly intellegent and unpredictable, according to Yen Sid.

P

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Princess of Heart

The are a group of seven young women possessing pure hearts which contain no darkness within them. They are an important part of the first Kingdom Hearts game. They are Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty; Snow White, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Cinderella, from Cinderella; Jasmine from Aladdin; Alice, from Alice in Wonderland; Belle, from Beauty and the Beast; and Kairi, an original character. Most of the Princesses of Heart are recognizable princesses, or at least a prominent female leading character from classic Disney movies.

Kingdom Hearts

In Kingdom Hearts, Maleficent was abducting the seven Princesses of Heart in hopes to open the pathway that would lead to Kingdom Hearts. The protagonist of the game, Sora must save them and stop Maleficent.

Despite Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy's best efforts, Maleficent succeeds in capturing most of the princesses. Her plan does not go as planned when she attempts to capture the seventh princess, whom she initially believes is Wendy Darling, from Disney's Peter Pan. Wendy, while she is seemingly the one of the said princesses, does not have a pure enough heart. Maleficent later realizes the seventh is actually Kairi, a friend of Sora and Riku, and uses Riku to achieve her goal. In turn, Riku (through the influence of Xehanort's Heartless) creates a dark Keyblade from their captive hearts, with the ability to unlock hearts.

Kingdom Hearts II

In Kingdom Hearts II, the princesses do not play as big a role as in the first installment. Some of them make an appearance when Sora visits their worlds (most notably Belle and Jasmine). However, at Hollow Bastion, Sora and his friends realize the names of those princesses is the password needed to unlock Ansem's computer. They successfully use that password until Tron changes the password to be the names of Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

R

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Realm of darkness

The realm of darkness is the "dark" half of the Kingdom Hearts universe. The World That Never Was, and Kingdom Hearts itself, are located here.

Realm of light

The realm of light is the "light" half of the Kingdom Hearts universe. Most of the worlds and characters seen in the series exist in this realm.

Realm of nothingness

The realm of nothingness has no light or darkness in it, being "nothing". Ansem the Wise was banished here, and it is here that he formulates his revenge and adopts the name and appearance of DiZ.

S

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Soul

The soul, one of three parts of a complete being, is what gives life to the body; without it, the body is simply a corpse.

T

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Twilight

Twilight is the force lying between light and darkness. Nobodies exist as twilight beings.

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