The World That Never Was (in Japanese: 決してなかった世界, Kesshite Nakatta Sekai) is a vast dark realm that is the ecumenopolitan "kingdom" of Organization XIII, as well as home to a seemingly endless horde of Heartless and Nobodies. The Heartless seem to spawn more here due to how close The World That Never Was is to the darkness of Kingdom Hearts. It is one of the many well-known locations featured in Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and it also made appearance in 2 mangas Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts II. Organization controls the world from the Castle That Never Was, a massive fortress that floats weightlessly over the expansive Dark City. Unlike the Heartless counterpart known as the End of the World, this world is more man-made in appearance to reflect the Nobodies' ability to think and plan rather than act on instinct like the Heartless. Sora and his friends with the help of Ansem the Wise and King Mickey Mouse, traversed this dangerous realm, entered the Castle and defeated Organization XIII and their leader "Lord" Xemnas on their turf.
This supernatural ecumenopolis has been likely to have been serving as the domain of Organization XIII as well as their own refuge since its creation alongside that of the Castle That Never Was, even after the founding of Castle Oblivion as a secondary base of operations. Meetings were held here and members would return here when done with their missions.
When the young warrior Roxas abandons Organization XIII's ranks, he wanders for a short time through the streets of the Dark City, possibly contemplating where to go to start his search for himself. Here, outside one of the many locked stores, he encounters Axel, who tries to stop him from leaving, warning him that the Organization themselves would hunt him down and destroy him for desertion. Roxas, stating that no one would miss him (even after his death), leaves Axel suddenly behind and moves along the streets to this dark world world's Memory's Skyscraper. Axel mutters that he would miss him, before Roxas vanishes into the shadows.
A few days later, the renegade Roxas returns to the city, hoping to engage Xemnas along with the other Organization XIII members, but instead he discovers multitudes of Heartless, sent to attack the Keyblade wielder while the Organization was not protecting him. Roxas fends off the hordes of Neoshadow Heartless, but realizes he is far outnumbered. It is then that he sees Riku, the heroic Keyblade master Sora's best friend, atop the Skyscraper. Roxas throws his Oblivion Keyblade to Riku during the fight. Using Roxas' said Keyblade, Riku helps him defeat all of the Neoshadows while Roxas used his another Keyblade weapon Oathkeeper.
But, as soon as the Heartless are vanquished, the two immediately turn on each other and fight. Roxas, having just lost Xion, is angry and hurt. He tells Riku he intends to free Kingdom Hearts and find the young woman Xion, to "get his life back." Riku tells him that by freeing Kingdom Hearts, the "last thing he'll get is his life back.". He comments on the fact that Roxas can barely even keep forever Xion's name, since everyone's memories of her, including Riku's, are already disappearing. Riku, knowing he needs Roxas in order for Sora to be awaken, tries to stop him from leaving, and the two duel. Roxas eventually defeats Riku. In order to subdue Roxas, Riku taps into the darkness in his heart, and uses this energy he was holding back to beat Roxas, resulting in his Riku-Ansem appearance, with the Heartless Guardian who resided within his heart. DiZ promptly arrives to find Riku-Ansem with his hood up, and the two take Roxas back to their secret base in the a bright and peaceful community called Twilight Town.
Kingdom Hearts is seen above the Castle That Never Was on Day 94 and gradually grew bigger and bigger until Day 357 as it shines it lunar radiance upon the vast land ruled by eternal night, when Roxas and Xion both abandoned Organization XIII.
Kingdom Hearts II
The World That Never Was including its Dark City as seen in the Kingdom Hearts II manga.
The World that Never Was remains under the complete control of Organization XIII, and although their numbers continued to deplete, they still held meetings in the Castle That Never Was that hovers over the moonlight shadowy world, and plotted a way to use the Keyblade for their own ends.
Eventually, Sora along with the court wizard Donald Duck and the head royal guard Goofy and the two's master King Mickey and his faithful dog Pluto arrived in the Dark City, with the help of the Organization's traitor, Axel. Making their way through the large amounts of Heartless, Sora, Donald, Goofy and King Mickey fought to the center of the city, Memory's Skyscraper. Here, Samurai Nobodies emerged from out of nowhere, and Roxas appeared to Sora, challenging him to a fight. The two disappeared from the scene and while Donald and Goofy fought off the Samurai Nobodies, Sora and Roxas dueled at the Station of Awakening.
After Roxas is defeated in combat, he tells Sora that he is a "good other." The group then continued moving forward towards the Castle that Never Was. They made their way through the many levels of the castle, meeting up with Riku and their other best friend Kairi, and finishing off the remaining members of the Organization.
Sora and his friends then meets DiZ, who is actually Ansem the Wise, the true Ansem who is once beloved sage-king of the Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion world, as they arrived on one of the upper floors of the castle, and he reveals that he was going to use a machine to transform Kingdom Hearts into data, but because of the fact that hearts are unpredictable, Ansem's mechanism overloaded and exploded, sending him to the Realm of Darkness and also destroying many of his memories. The blast also destroyed the Riku-Ansem appearance, returning Riku to his original form. The party made their way to the top floor and finally defeated Xemnas.
During the extensive final battle with Xemnas, much of the Dark City and the Castle That Never Was was obliterated, leaving the World that Never Was in ruins.
Areas and Settings
Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The Alley to Between
Alley to Between (in Japanese: 狭間につながる路地 Hazama ni Tsunagaru Roji):
A darkened alleyway that hides a portal to Betwixt and Between. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey used this portal to get into the world, thanks to Axel's sacrifice. The alleyway connects to the main route that leads to the Castle That Never Was. The first Save Point of the world is here. The Castle That Never Was can also been seen clearly in the light of the Kingdom Hearts moon, shaded in purple.
The Fragment Crossing
Fragment Crossing (in Japanese: 断片を紡ぐ道 Danpen o Tsumugu Michi, lit. "Fragment-Spinning Road"):
A long series of winding streets that lead to Memory's Skyscraper. It is full of neon signs attached to vacant buildings as well as a power plant which seems to power some or all of the city. Many Shadow Heartless are here, but in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, they are eventually replaced with Nobodies. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey took this route on their way to the Castle That Never Was. Pluto, King Mickey Mouse's faithful pet dog, also had an encounter with Axel here.
The Memory's Skyscraper
Memory's Skyscraper (in Japanese: 記憶の摩天楼 Kioku no Matenrō):
A massive dark skyscraper in the World That Never Was. Located near the Castle That Never Was, the building kept watch over the residents of the Dark. On its front, it has a massive television screen that seems to flash images of memories of those nearby, although this feature is only visible in the FMV videos at the end of the first Kingdom Hearts game. A truck is visible flipped on its side in one corner of the area. Roxas was battling a legion of Neoshadows when Riku appeared at the top of the building, and after the two eliminated the Neoshadows, they began their duel.
After arriving at the World That Never Was, Sora was confronted by Roxas at Memory's Skyscraper, while two Samurai blocked Donald and Goofy. Sora and Roxas soon disappeared to the Station of Awakening, but Donald and Goofy claimed to not see Roxas.
The Brink of Despair
Brink of Despair (in Japanese: 絶望を望む断崖 Zetsubō o Nozomu Dangai, lit. "Cliff Desiring Despair"):
A huge, shimmering blue-green rock crater within the Dark City that seems to have been created by The Castle That Never Was which hovers above it. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey arrive here and access the castle via a path using the Keyblade. It has the second Save Point of this world.
The enormous white castle that floats above the city, dominating its skyline. It is decorated all over with the Nobody symbols. It serves as the Organization's base of operations and home; lesser Nobodies infest it as well. Some areas are not accessible unless using a Corridor of Darkness.
The World of Nothing
World of Nothing (in Japanese: 虚無の世界 Kyomu no Sekai):
After Xemnas's first defeat within Memory's Contortion, he flees into his Kingdom Hearts. However, a door appears that leads Sora and his friends within that Kingdom Hearts to an area named the "World of Nothing". The first area inside the door is The World of Nothing—End's Beginning, a passageway resembling the Dark City where skyscrapers suddenly erupt from the ground in order to repel Sora. A strange black-and-white tunnel leads from this room to a platform looking out on the gigantic Nobody that Xemnas is riding. From there, Sora can climb falling skyscraper to walkways surrounding the lower cannons of the Nobody, The World of Nothing—Twin Cannons. Once he destroys those, Sora swings his way up to the ship's Energy Core, which is kept in a room appropriately named The World of Nothing—Energy Core. After disabling the ship's energy core, he makes it up The World of Nothing—Xemnas's Throne Room, where Xemnas sits in his Keyblade Armor, enthroned atop the dragon Nobody's head in a chamber equipped with the weapons of the defeated Organization members.
The true World of Nothing.
After completely destroying the gigantic Nobody, Sora and Riku are left in the true World of Nothing, a nearly-empty void of shifting greys and whites where Xemnas makes his last attempt to destroy them. He fails, however, and the boys are deposited at the Dark Margin.
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, only Memory's Skyscraper, the Brink of Despair, and the real Castle That Never Was are visited in the realm between. Sora visits a dream of a dream of the World that Never Was, which appears more similar to the World of Nothing within Kingdom Hearts than the Dark City as it appears in Kingdom Hearts II, while Riku visits a dream of a dream of the Castle That Never Was. Whether or not the locations he visits exist in the real world version of the world is not yet known.
The Avenue to Dreams
Avenue to Dreams (in Japanese: 夢への道, Yume e no michi):
The large urban area beginning with an enclosed alley featuring a save point and a Moogle hologram. Up a long flight of stairs lays a piece of destroyed building, blocking the path into the city that must be scaled to advance. Beyond is an area of twisting alleys surrounded by skyscrapers that can be scaled with Flowmotion. Several buildings are adorned in blue stripes with a geometric pattern and when stood upon, they raise up, throwing Sora into the air. Another building has similar white stripes and can be destroyed by using a Reality Shift. Perhaps the most notable feature of this area is a stream of blue-green mist that falls from the roof of a massive tower extremely similar to Memory's Skyscraper and flows through the streets. Beyond this tower, the pavement is revealed to be floating and broken, away from the rest of the city and leads off into a more urban area.
The Contorted City
Contorted City (in Japanese: ねじ曲げ市, Nejimage ichi):
A distorted metropolis seems to emerge from a canyon of strange blue-green rock. Much of the architecture here is coated in blue-green mist, many buildings float of their own accord, attached to chunks of rock separate from the road, and several shake and swing. The blue markings appear again on the shaking section that is able to launch Sora skyward. Beyond several overturned buildings, a path of broken pavement and destroyed buildings forms an upward spiral. Neon strips and signs on the buildings can be traversed with Flowmotion. In several places, floating buildings marked with red symbols will hurtle toward Sora and must be destroyed with a Reality Shift or they will cause damage.
The Nightmarish Abyss
Nightmarish Abyss (in Japanese: 悪夢のアビス, Akumu no abisu):
The Nightmarish Abyss itself features a large open plaza surrounded on 3 sides by skyscrapers, with a crashed truck (identical to the one near Memory's Skyscraper) blocking access to a side-street. The fourth side drops off to an abyss that is spanned by floating skyscrapers laid on their sides, forming a mostly straight path between two cliff faces and leading toward what appears to be Memory's Skyscraper and the Castle that Never Was. Several neon strips appear here that can be traversed through Flowmotion, as in the Contorted City area.
Gallery
The World That Never Was
The World That Never Was
The World That Never Was
The Dark City
The Dark City
The Memory's Skyscraper
The Fragment Crossing
Alley to Between
The Brink of Despair
Avenue to Dreams
The Contorted City
The Nightmarish Abyss
Organization XIII
The Nobodies
Trivia
Interestingly, the boxart of Kingdom Hearts shows a scene with the younger versions of Kairi, Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy sitting on a skyscraper in a world, that bears an uncanny resemblance to the World That Never Was, including the Kingdom Hearts moon in the background, although this world never actually made appearance before Kingdom Hearts II. A CG version of this artwork was produced to promote Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, which later revealed the world to be Traverse Town. The letters "T-R-A-V" are clearly etched in the stone under Roxas and company.
It is sometimes referred to as the "Nobody World" and/or "World of Nobodies" by some Kingdom Hearts fans.
The World That Never Was cannot be accessed via the Gummi Ship until after you enter the world via the Simulated Twilight Town.
For some unknown reason, there is a massive, green crater-like pit (dubbed "Brink of Despair") below the Castle That Never Was.
Coinciding with the World That Never Was being the opposite of the End of the World, the World That Never Was seems more industrial while the End of the World appearing to be more naturalistic, which coincides with the fact that Nobodies rely on intelligence instead of instinct while Heartless are vice versa.
It is unknown if Young Xehanort's battle arena in Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance has any connection to this world, even though the arena has similarities to the Castle's designs.
The world's main castle looks a bit like the Radiant Garden's castle, with a bit of a change up, but they still look very similar.
