The World That Never Was

The World That Never Was is a world featured in Kingdom Hearts II. It is also the base of operations in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

The world of Organization XIII, it is home to a seemingly endless supply 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. The Organization controls the world from The Castle That Never Was, a massive fortress that floats weightlessly over the expansive Dark City.

Alley to Between
The Alley to Between (狭間につながる路地 Hazama ni Tsunagaru Roji?) 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 alley way connects to the main route that leads to the Castle That Never Was. There is the first Save Point of the world here.

Fragment Crossing
Fragment Crossing (断片を紡ぐ道 Danpen o Tsumugu Michi?, lit. "Fragment-Spinning Road") is 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 also had an encounter with Axel here.

Memory's Skyscraper
Memory's Skyscraper (記憶の摩天楼 Kioku no Matenrō?) is a tall building 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.

During his battle with Xemnas, Sora was pulled into an area that included Memory's Skyscraper, called Memory's Contortion, in a battle similar to the one Roxas and Riku had.

Brink of Despair
The Brink of Despair (絶望を望む断崖 Zetsubō o Nozomu Dangai?, lit. "Cliff Desiring Despair") seems to have been made 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.

Castle That Never Was
The Castle That Never Was is an enormous white castle that floats above the city, dominating its skyline. It is decorated all over with Nobody symbols.

The World of Nothing
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. After completely destroying the gigantic Nobody, Sora and Riku are left in The 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 despoisted 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 Castle that Never Was are visited in the real world. 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. Whether or not the locations he visits exist in the real world version of the world is not yet known.

Avenue to Dreams
The Avenue to Dreams is a 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.

Contorted City
The Contorted City 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.

Nightmarish Abyss
The Nightmarish Abyss features a large open plaza surrounded on three 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.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The World that Never Was has likely been the headquarters for Organization XIII since its creation. It remained so all the way through until Xemnas's death, even after the founding of Castle Oblivion as a secondary base. Meetings were held here, and members would return here when done with their missions. Up until the time of Sora 's arrival on this world, it was a safe-haven for Organization XIII.

When Roxas abandoned the Organization, he wandered for a short time through the streets of the Dark City, likely contemplating where to go to start his search for himself. Here, outside one of the many locked stores, Roxas met with Axel, who tried to stop him from leaving, warning him that the Organization would want him eliminated were he to leave. Roxas, stating that no one would miss him (were he to die), left a saddened Axel behind and moved along the streets to Memory's Skyscraper. Axel mutters that he would miss him, before Roxas disappeared into the darkness.

A few days later, Roxas returns to the city, hoping to engage Xemnas along with the other Organization XIII members, but instead he discovered multitudes of Heartless, sent to attack the Keyblade master while the Organization was not protecting him. Roxas fended off the hordes of Neoshadow Heartless, but realized he was too far outnumbered. It was then that he saw Riku atop the skyscraper. Using Roxas's Oblivion keyblade, Riku helped the Nobody defeat all the Heartless (Roxas used his Oathkeeper).

The two then turned on each other and dueled. Roxas eventually defeated Riku, who had not yet mastered himself or control of the Keyblade. Riku used the darkness in his heart as a last resort and unleashedAnsem, Seeker of Darkness, with his Guardian, to subdue Roxas. DiZ promptly arrived to find Riku-Ansem with his hood up, and the two took Roxas back to their secret base in Twilight Town.

Kingdom Hearts II
The World that Never Was continued to be used as a base of operations for the Organization throughout Kingdom Hearts II. Although their numbers continued to decrease, they still held meetings in the Castle that Never Was, and plotted for a way to use the Keyblade.

Eventually, Sora 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 appeared from 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, Sora and Roxas dueled on the Station of Awakening.

After Roxas is defeated, he tells Sora that he's a "good other." The group then continues on to the Castle that Never Was. They make their way through the many levels of the castle, meeting up with Riku and Kairi, and finishing off the remaining members of the Organization.

After meeting with Ansem the Wise on one of the upper floors of the castle, the latter sacrifices his life in an attempt to destroy Xemnas's Kingdom Hearts, the blast returning Riku to his original form. The party makes their way to the top floor and finally defeat Xemnas.

During the extensive final battle with "The Superior," much of the Dark City and the Castle That Never Was is destroyed. Chunks of building were ripped up and thrown at Sora and Riku, and the main tower collapsed off of the Castle.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
The World That Never Was ended up falling into the Realm of Sleep following the final battle with Xemnas. Set as the seventh world to awaken in this realm, Sora ends up trapped here instead of going home to the Realm of Light.

It is here Braig is revealed to have been revived and Young Xehanort puts Sora in an illusion to weaken his heart enough for his older self, Master Xehanort, to put a fragment of his own heart inside him. Young Xehanort shows Sora his past and reveals his true idenity at last. During the rest of the illusion, Sora meets Xion, Namine, Roxas, Terra and Aqua, making him feel more and more distraught when sorrowful memories arise. Following a battle with Xemnas, Sora falls into darkness, but Ven's keyblade armor protects his heart from being swallowed again. He is then taken to the Castle That Never Was.

Riku arrives in the castle and finds Sora trapped in an illusion, but is prevented from saving him by a Nightmare Dream Eater born of Sora's darkness. Once he defeats theDream Eater, Riku falls into darkness where "Ansem" tries getting him to work alongside him. Refusing the Heartless's help. Riku learns that he is actually in Sora's dreams, acting as a Spirit Dream Eater to rid him of Nightmares. Transported to the true dreaming worlds, Riku breaks into Where Nothing Gathers to save Sora, alongside Mickey.

However, following their defeat of Young Xehanort, Master Xehanort comes back to life and reveals that all their journeys though the last decade have been part of an elbaorate fail-safe plan he had to create the X-blade. Riku and Mickey are then pinned down by Ansem and Xemnas while Master Xehanort prepares to make Sora the final vessel for the thirteenth fragment of his heart. However, Lea, Donald and Goofy arrive, foiling his plans. Master Xehanort leaves with his new Organization, promising to that his thirteen selves will clash against the seven lights that defend the worlds; once this happens, the X-blade will be born and the Keyblade War will begin anew.