Castle Oblivion
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Castle Oblivion (忘却の城 Bōkyaku no Shiro?) is a fictional castle in the video game Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. It serves as a fortified base for members of Organization XIII. Several members reside there, many with special rooms that cater to their interests (e.g., research labs, a fitness gym, a library). The lord of the castle is Marluxia, a lower ranked member of the Organization; all authoritative responsibilities have been given to him by the Superior. Marluxia led the traitorious movement to overthrow the Organization that was the main plot of Chain of Memories.
The castle is thirteen floors high with an additional twelve basement levels. Since Marluxia is able to manipulate and attack with flowers, particularly the rose, the entire castle is decorated with them in its white marble walls. It is never made clear whether Organization XIII built Castle Oblivion or if they found it and took it for their own use. Many oddities fill the castle, including:
- Cards. These cards control everything; they can be used to fight, open doors, change the structure of floors, etc.
- White rooms. These rooms mold and change shape easily to a person's memories, and can be manipulated through "Map Cards," while "World Cards" can shape entire floors.
- Strange crystals that can be used to save the player's progress.
- Strange orbs that can transport the user to any floor they've been to.
- Heartless, dark beings who steal hearts. An interesting point is that even though all the inhabitants and adversaries of Castle Oblivion, besides the real people (i.e. Sora, Organization XIII, etc.), are figments of Sora's memories, three new Heartless appear in Chain of Memories. (though they appeared in KH: Final Mix and KHII)
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[edit] Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Nearly the entire game of Chain of Memories takes place in the castle. Sora and his friend Riku, the protagonists of the game, ascend the castle as the story progresses, although they each have different experiences.
[edit] Sora's Story
Immediately after the events of Kingdom Hearts, Marluxia approaches Sora and leads him to the castle to commence his plan. Sora ascends the castle searching for something he may have lost; he believes this something may help him rescue his friend Riku from the World of Darkness. As he goes up floors, his memories start fading, but he also starts remembering things he forgot about a girl named Naminé. Although Sora and his friends Donald Duck, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket attribute this to the castle itself, they eventually learn that Naminé herself is responsible for the loss: she is a witch who replaced Sora's memories of his friend Kairi with those of herself. She used her power to create "worlds" made to mimic places he has been before; these worlds fill up the floors of Castle Oblivion. As Sora realizes the truth, he also realizes that he can't remember anything replaced; Naminé was far too efficient at her job. After she apologizes, Sora learns that she was manipulated by Marluxia into installing the false memories; until she personally met Sora, they had never known each other. Naminé promised to help Sora get his true memories back if they could reach the thirteenth floor; what is so special about this particular floor has not been clarified. At the top, Sora and Naminé find an odd, flower-like egg pod made of crystal. Naminé explains that if he sleeps in this, she will restore his memories back, but he will forget what happened in Castle Oblivion. It takes one year for this to take place, resulting in Sora being older in Kingdom Hearts II.
[edit] Riku's Story
Known as "Reverse/Rebirth". Riku follows a strange voice out of the World of Nothingness; it leads to the basement of Castle Oblivion. Receiving a card that takes him to Hollow Bastion, Riku finds and kills a memory of Maleficent. The voice happened to be Ansem, who plans on bringing Riku into darkness so he, Xehanort's Heartless/"Ansem", can control Riku again. As Riku ascends through the basements on his way to the ground floor, he clashes with several members of the Organization. Along the way, Naminé (with the appearance of Kairi) teaches Riku that his Darkness is his own, and he shouldn't be afraid to use it. At the second basement floor, he learns that "Ansem" was in fact DiZ, an enigmatic man who knows a lot about both Riku and the castle, but unfortunately is very vague about this knowledge. DiZ reveals to Riku that the real Xehanort's Heartless/"Ansem" lurks in his own heart, and gives him a card to draw him out. After using the card, Riku engages and defeats Xehanort's Heartless/"Ansem". He then leaves the castle with King Mickey, having decided to walk the road to the dawn, a path in-between light and darkness.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora does not return to Castle Oblivion after he awakens, and it is only mentioned rarely. It is shown in the opening FMV recap of the events in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as well as Roxas' and Sora's restoration sequence in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. Although Sora, Donald, and Goofy originally went to sleep in Castle Oblivion to regain their lost memories, DiZ persuaded Naminé to have them moved to the basement of his mansion in Twilight Town for safekeeping, since Organization XIII still had sway over Castle Oblivion. This would be a more secure spot for Sora and his friends to regain their memories.
The White Rooms (Naminé's Room and the room Sora slept in) in the mansion resemble a typical room from Castle Oblivion. If the player enters these rooms, the command window will change its shape to match Castle Oblivion.
