Hollow Bastion

Hollow Bastion is a world from Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts coded, and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. In Kingdom Hearts II, the world was expanded into the town and other areas. It appears in a flashback to events from Kingdom Hearts experienced by Xion in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

Its name literally means "empty castle", reflecting that it is at one point devoid of any life in it except the Heartless.

It is not based on a Disney film, though it shows Disney influence as it is similar to the Beast's castle in Beauty & the Beast, and Maleficent's fortress from the Forbidden Mountain in Sleeping Beauty. This is supported by the presence of characters from both movies.

Hollow Bastion is a colossal castle that towers above the rest of its world, Radiant Garden, once being quite beautiful in appearance, but since then had one side extremely modified that had caused it to look twisted. It remained as such until repairs began prior to Kingdom Hearts II. At one point, it is the only remaining part of the city.

Because of this, the world itself is known as "Hollow Bastion" in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and most of Kingdom Hearts II. However, it regains its original name of Radiant Garden by the end of Kingdom Hearts II, when Tron used his powers to show what the world was like before its destruction.

Ansem the Wise is the former ruler of this world. The castle was taken over by Maleficent and she proclaimed herself ruler until her defeat in Kingdom Hearts. Since both of them are no longer in power, the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee seems to be in charge of the world.

History[]

Birth by Sleep[]

Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts[]

Hollow Bastion was once a glorious castle towering over the Radiant Garden and owned by a respectful king, Ansem the Wise. Much of the history of the castle is unknown, other than that Ansem ruled from it. However, eventually Ansem's apprentices led by Xehanort overthrew their former mentor, and furthered Ansem's original drives to include more mechanical components.

The result is a twisted bastion; half beautiful castle, half distorted factory. According to Leon, Maleficent invaded Hollow Bastion's world with her Heartless nine years before the events of Kingdom Hearts. Some residents managed to escape, many of whom end up in Traverse Town. However, the youngest known resident, Kairi, is sent into the oceans of the worlds by Xehanort and ended up in Destiny Islands due to Aqua's spell. During her reign in the castle as one of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness's minions, it is probable that Maleficent either created or remodeled the castle's keep, which has decorations and models of roses and her thorned plants.

Kingdom Hearts[]

Sora, Donald and Goofy arrive at Hollow Bastion in time to find Riku attacking another intruder, the Beast. Sora, Donald, and Goofy confront Riku, but he declares he is the Keyblade's true holder; it jumps into his possession, leaving Sora defenseless except for his toy sword. Shocked at this revelation, Sora collapses to the ground. Riku departs, and Donald and Goofy, having been ordered to follow the Keybearer, reluctantly follow him. The Beast staggers on despite his injuries, and Sora quickly gets over his shock to help him. The Beast reveals that he is looking for someone important to him, and refuses to depart without her. Sora, sympathizing, takes up his old wooden sword, and the two team up to enter the castle.

After traversing the castle waterways to unlock the main door, Sora and Beast enter Hollow Bastion. Beast witnesses an illusion of Belle transforming into a Heartless, and, enraged, jumps at the Heartless, with the doors slamming shut behind him. Riku, Donald, and Goofy appear soon after, where Riku orders Sora to give up, though Sora refuses to leave without Kairi. Sora informs Riku that while the darkness may destroy his body, it can't harm his heart, and Riku decides to test Sora's theory by firing a dark energy bolt at him. Sora, believing it to be the end, braces himself, but Goofy rushes in and blocks the blast with his shield.

After being questioned by Riku, Goofy swears that he will never betray King Mickey, but won't betray Sora after all that they have been through together, and asks Donald to apologize to the King for him; however, Donald also chooses his friendship with Sora over King Mickey's orders and rejoins Sora. Sora informs Riku that he doesn't need the Keyblade; his friends and heart are the only weapons he needs. Sora's strength of heart with his friends back by his side pulls the Keyblade away from Riku and back to him. After a fierce battle, Riku is defeated and flees. Beast rejoins the party after watching the encounter, observing that Sora's heart is what helped him win.

Riku is upset at losing the Keyblade, but encounters Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, who promises him that he can make Riku's heart stronger through darkness and allow him to regain possession of the Keyblade. Jealous and angry at Sora and shamed over his loss of control of the Keyblade, Riku succumbs to his pledge and powers, and becomes consumed by the darkness. In the meantime, Maleficent has attempted to use the gathered Princesses of Heart to open the Bastion's Keyhole. The Heartless-possessed Riku meets with her to check her progress, where Maleficent declares she will control and use the darkness for her own purposes; however, neither she nor Riku-Ansem can unlock the Keyhole without Kairi's missing heart.

Sora and friends manage to travel through the labyrinth of a castle to reach the chapel; there they meet with and confront Maleficent. Overconfident in her abilities and underestimating those of Sora's gang, she is soundly defeated. Escaping back to Riku for help, she is stabbed through the heart by his Keyblade of People's Hearts, made from the hearts of the six Princesses. It unlocks the darkest parts of her heart and allows her to transform into a large, powerful dragon; however, Sora's party defeat her again, and she is consumed and burned away by the darkness. Riku then appears and reveals that Maleficent is merely a pawn of the Heartless, unable to see the darkness swallowing her heart. He then departs and Sora and company travel to the Grand Hall, where the Keyhole and Princesses are located, to find and confront him.

There, Sora finds Kairi unconscious on the floor in front of the partially opened Keyhole. He tries to wake her, but Riku appears to tell Sora her heart is missing. Riku continues to tell Sora that Kairi is one of the princesses and that her heart is within him. Sora is able to realize that Riku is no longer in control of his own body. Riku knocks both Donald and Goofy back behind a preset barrier, and Kairi's heart reacts to the Keyblade of People's Hearts' power, causing Sora crippling pain. Xehanort's Heartless then attacks him, but Sora recovers and blocks the strike in time. After an intense battle over who would possess Kairi's heart, Sora emerges victorious.

Riku disappears, but the Keyhole begins reacting to the presence of Kairi's heart. Sora attempts to lock the Keyhole, but without Kairi's heart, it is not complete and cannot be sealed. Sora puts two and two together and realizes what he has to do; despite Donald and Goofy's desperate pleas, Sora stabs himself with the Keyblade of People's Hearts left in Riku's wake, releasing all of the princesses' hearts (including Kairi's) and completing the Keyhole, but Sora falls into darkness himself.

Kairi wakes just in time to see Sora disappear. As Kairi, Donald, and Goofy mourn the loss of Sora, Ansem, now in full possession of Riku's body and having shaped it into one resembling his original human self, reappears, declaring that Kairi's purpose is over, effectively deciding to kill her. Donald and Goofy bravely make a stand against Ansem, but both know that, without Sora, they may not be able to stop him. However, before Ansem can attack, Riku projects himself from his stolen body, manages to establish enough control to stop him in his tracks, and warns Kairi and the others that the Heartless called by Ansem will soon overrun the castle at which they heed and run to escape.

The three return to the entrance, and hesitate due to Kairi's reluctance to leave Sora and Riku behind; Goofy himself is still concerned about the Keyhole (apparently failing to realize that, without Sora and the Keyblade, the Keyhole cannot be stopped). An apparently non-hostile Heartless arrives; Donald shouts at it to get lost and whacks it over the head with his staff, but Kairi realizes that the Heartless is, in fact, Sora. At that moment, massive legions of Heartless attack, and swarm Kairi and Sora's Heartless, much to Donald and Goofy's horror. However, a brilliant flash of light blows the Heartless back, and in place of the Heartless, there is Sora, fully restored. Beast stays behind to hold off the Heartless and continue looking for Belle, and so the group departs Hollow Bastion.

Cid manages to find a way to allow them to return and seal the Keyhole. They return and help Beast reunite with the re-awakened Belle, and jump through the Keyhole to fight a Behemoth Heartless. After a conversation with Leon's group, who have returned to restore their home world, Sora seals the Keyhole at Hollow Bastion.

In the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix version, Sora also has his first encounter with Organization XIII in the chapel by way Xemnas, here known only as "Unknown". After some cryptic messages (such as stating that Sora is incomplete and looks just like "him"), Xemnas departs. It is revealed in Kingdom Hearts II that this battle takes place shortly after Xemnas recruited Roxas into the Organization, and he fought Sora to test his abilities.

Chain of Memories[]

In Sora's story, Hollow Bastion is also recreated as a figment of his memory. It is where the Beast, Belle, and Maleficent which were created from his memory are. Instead of Maleficent's plans for universal domination, she is focusing on stealing Belle's heart to enhance her dark magic. However, Belle keeps her heart safe by using cold words to deny her love for Beast. But when Maleficent tries to take Beast's heart instead because of the beauty of love shining from it, Belle takes the blast of magic meant for him and loses her heart, vanishing in the process. Sora and co face Maleficent in the Castle Chapel, where she reveals her plans in order to take Beast's heart as well. However, when Sora confront her, Maleficent scoffs him off and transforms into her Dragon from to get rid of him. After Maleficent is defeated, Belle's heart is freed and restores her. Belle and Beast rekindle their feelings after Belle explains why she was so cold.

In Riku's Story, Hollow Bastion is recreated inside Castle Oblivion as a figment of his memory. It is the first world he enters, and is taunted by the mysterious voice about his past affinity for the power of Darkness and how he gave up his home for it. Riku's room is also seen for the first and only time. Upon checking the Castle Chapel, Riku is shocked/disgusted to see that a memory recreation of Maleficent is there, thinking she's the true one. However, the fake explains her true nature and taunts him about how he once clinged to her to sate his hunger for the Darkness. Riku then resolves to slay each representation of the Darkness from his memories as seeing how they embrace it only makes his destain for it grow. He then slays the fake Maleficent in her Dragon form, earning him the exit to Castle Oblivion's hallways.

In Re: Chain of Memories, a statue appears here in the Entrance Hall that is not present on the floor in Kingdom Hearts. Rather, it was on the second floor. This seems to be an animation/memory problem as it was only on that floor, very breifly, when it is knocked down by a Trinity Mark usage to gain a piece of the puzzle for the Lift Stop entrance inside it.

358/2 Days[]

During Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, when Roxas experiences a short sequence of Sora's memories, the Keyhole to Hollow Bastion can be seen as Sora releases his heart and his body dissipates.

Kingdom Hearts II[]

Sora and his companions visit Hollow Bastion during their journey. The city later came under siege by thousands of Heartless, leading to the Battle of 1000 Heartless.

Coded[]

Data-Sora explores Hollow Bastion in Episode 6 of Kingdom Hearts coded. At the end of his time in Agrabah, Data-Sora is ambushed by Maleficent, who destroys the Keyblade that Mickey wrote into the Datascape for him. Without his weapon, Data-Sora is unable to fight, so Mickey enters Hollow Bastion himself to go after Pete and Maleficent. Wanting to help Mickey, Data-Sora runs off towards Hollow Bastion by himself, even though he can't fight. Without the Keyblade, Data-Sora is unable to break the Bug Blox barring his path, but he manages to enter the main gates after evading a few traps in the waterway.

Once inside, Data-Sora is attacked by a horde of Heartless summoned by Pete, and is rescued by Goofy, who came to Hollow Bastion alongside Donald to help Data-Sora. After Goofy drives off Pete, he and Data-Sora find Donald, who got lost in the castle. For the remainder of their time in the castle, Goofy and Donald fight the Heartless on Data-Sora's behalf. The three then seek out the four pieces of the emblem locking the door in the Main Hall. Once through, Data-Sora, Donald, and Goofy climb the castle and confront Pete in the Chapel.

Pete traps Donald and Goofy with Blox, and Data-Sora manifests a new Keyblade from his own evolving heart in order to save them. Pete escapes through the Keyhole, and Data-Sora goes after him. After defeating Pete several times, Data-Sora is confronted by Data-Riku, who has been corrupted with bugs, courtesy of Pete, and is made to fight him. Chapter 6 ends with Data-Sora entering Data-Riku's personal Datascape in order to wipe out the bugs that Pete planted. Though successful, Data-Sora encounters Maleficent, whom he fights off in her dragon from after she went on about Darkness.

However, even though he was victorious a second time, Data-Sora soon learned that the Data incarnation of his Heartless had been swallowing the minds of the slain Datascape Heartless and was growing in strength until it took the form of a Darkside. Data-Sora tried to save Maleficent and Pete from the Heartless, but was unsuccessful. Data-Sora manages to defeat his Heartless once, but it only consumes more Heartless minds and turns into AntiSora. Data-Sora was evenly matched with his Heartless now, but manages to defeat it again.

However, it reverted back into its Darkside-like form and attacks again. Luckily, Mickey returned to the Datascape and uses his Keyblade to separate Sora's Heartless from the collective Heartless minds making up its giant form. Sora easily slays it and the Datascape begins to reboot to default settings. Surprisingly, Maleficent and Pete survive being attacked as was the rift in the data that Data-Riku rescued them from. Maleficent and Pete were then escorted out of the Datascape by Riku and the Data Worlds reset.

Geography[]

Kingdom Hearts[]

Sora and the rest of the party enter Hollow Bastion at the Rising Falls, appropriately named as there are waterfalls that run up instead of down. Jumping on mystical floating rocks and ledges takes the party to the first of many magical platforms that are scattered throughout the castle. The platform takes Sora to the Castle Gates, the main entrance of Hollow Bastion which is made up of a set of balconies and lifts running outside the castle. From here, the party can travel down into the underground water system or enter the castle itself.

Going down the nearby platform or leaping off the edge of the balcony takes the party to Base Level, an area full of ledges, switches, and enemies. Successfully climbing to the balcony near the entrance earns extra treasures, while taking a nearby bubble carries them to the Waterway, where a series of gates, switches, and bubbles must be navigated to operate the castle gate controls. Off of the Waterway is a small room, the Dungeon.

Going in the doors at the other end of the Castle Gates area takes the party to the massive two-level Entrance Hall, where a large puzzle must be solved to continue up the castle by allowing access to the second half of the Castle Gates area. Going left takes the party to the Library, also the site of a large puzzle involving organizing misplaced books. Belle, Yuffie, Leon and Aerith can later be found here after the Hollow Bastion Keyhole is locked. Also accessible from the Library is the first of many entrances to the Lift Stop, a series of magic lifts separated by mystical barriers. The ceiling of the Lift Stop is decorated like the stained glass that characterizes the Station of Awakening.

Continuing up the castle by taking the lift on the other side of the Castle Gates area is the Great Crest, where the largest of the magic lifts is located. After a long and slow journey across the front of the bastion, the party is dropped on the other side, where they can take the Lift Stop to the next area, the High Tower, where the crest can be moved to create a way up to the upper levels of the castle. Through the Lift Stop at the opposite end of the High Tower is the entrance to the Castle Chapel, where the confrontations with Maleficent take place. Once passed, the area holding Hollow Bastion's Keyhole and the Princesses of Heart, the Grand Hall is open to confront Riku in. Beyond the Grand Hall, in a Heartless symbol-shaped portal, lie the Dark Depths where Sora and company fight Behemoth, and the Keyhole here is sealed.

In the End of the World's World Terminus, Sora is transported to an unseen section of what is supposedly Hollow Bastion. All that is there is a hallway that appears similar to the corridors near Ansem's study in Kingdom Hearts II. One end of the hall fades to darkness in the distance, leading back to the World Terminus. The other end has a giant Heartless emblem floating in it, not allowing passage. To the left of the entrance is a chamber with a strange apparatus and multiple holes of darkness. It has a large computer and several human-sized pods attached. This may be where Xehanort and his cohorts tore their hearts from their bodies and became Heartless.

Kingdom Hearts II[]

Access to the castle is very limited in Kingdom Hearts II. During the second trip to the world, the way to the castle is unlocked and leads to the Postern, the site of a save point and the base entrance to the bastion itself. Going inside, the party must navigate the twisting Corridors before reaching the end at Ansem's Study, where many of the mysteries surrounding Ansem are solved, but many more created. The Heartless Manufactory is where Xehanort had first created Emblem Heartless.

Despite promotional images and movies for Kingdom Hearts II depicting Sora, Donald, and Goofy in battle in the High Tower area of the castle as it appeared in Kingdom Hearts, the area is inaccessible in the second game.

Ansem's study and computer[]

Ansem's Study is the private study of Ansem the Wise in Hollow Bastion. The room contained a throne and desk, containers filled with hearts, and books. As leader of Radiant Garden, he used it to store his research on the heart. King Mickey and Ansem often talked in there. There is a portrait of Xehanort in the study, though it is unknown if Ansem or Xehanort put the painting up there. Behind the painting, it shows the password which are the Princesses of Heart. There is a secret passage in the wall that leads to Ansem's Computer.

Ansem's Computer is a complex computer system used by Ansem the Wise during his rule over Radiant Garden, and later used by his apprentices after his exile. It contains an elaborate network copied from ENCOM, containing the Space Paranoids world.

It once had information regarding Heartless, Nobodies, Organization XIII, and Ansem the Wise. However, when Sora, Donald, and Goofy tried to access information on it, the only data that was not corrupted (possibly by Xemnas) was a file regarding Ansem the Wise.

The computer continues to be used by Xemnas to access the Chamber of Repose. It allows access to the Heartless Manufacturer, and activates the laser that transports users to Space Paranoids. On the other side of the computer room is the small, but often missed Heartless Manufactory.

Behind the scenes[]

Hollow Bastion appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate via Sora's downloadable content.

Gallery[]