Thirteen Warlords of the Heartless Empire

The Thirteen Warlords of the Heartless Empire, or just simply the Thirteen Warlords but just as commonly the Thirteen Pillars, is an elite group of powerful members who have joined forces with the Heartless Empire, created by Xehanort Cheirismos after his ascension to Emperor. they were tasked in painting order to the Empire throughout the territories of the Malica Universe under its borders, and also as its elite force against their enemies to rival against the Keyblade Bearers and the Order of Ashla since its' creation following the end of the Worlds War, which itself saw the collapse of the United Galactic Federation and Terran Empire as well as the creation of the United Republics of Worlds (or in later centuries, United Commonwealths of Worlds). They obey directly from the Co-imperial rulers and closest rank above the Imperial Council itself as they be given their own military force to command and territories of their own for their loyalty.

It was what made them weary by other current members of the Axis of Empires of their power or even dare to oppose them during the events of the Malican War. While much of their military forces were sent to aid the Empire in their war with the Commonwealths, a significate portion of it was held back, not just to protect their own territories but also to prevent rival warlords from conquering their territories should they put all their forces on the frontlines. Its' this paranoia that also made cooperation between the warlords nearly impossible, at least on rare occasions to work together against a common threat.

The Warlords were eventually defeated nearing the end of the Malican War, which would lead to the instigation of a Civil war between the factions of the Heartless Empire.

History

Past

At some point after Xehanort Cheirismos and Maleficent realised the growing powers in their universe strengthening despite the sudden disappearance of the handful of keybladers, such as the Terran Empire and the Galactic Federation merged into the United Republic of Worlds, Xehanort decided to recruit powerful individuals with the Organization XIII now disbanded with few still loyal, creating the 13 Warlords of the Heartless Empire, or commonly known as the 13 Pillars to counter them. With other empires joining, their strongest warriors, mages and high ranked officers with potential would partition for the ranks in return for their loyalty to the Empire.

Key to the early Empire's rise, the warlords that would become the Thirteen were just some of the dozens of warlords that emerged in the chaos that was the post Worlds War Malica universe, and when Maleficent and Xehanort's Heartless, Ansem, recruited the most skilled and powerful mages and warriors to serve the Heartless Empire. In return for their loyalty, they would gain control over the military forces and influence within said empire, or try and create their own state. Among those, thirteen of them agreed and sworn loyalty, or at least fealty, to the co-monarchs of the new Heartless Empire, and help to forge its' territories it held before the war between it and the United Commonwealths decades later.

Sephiroth, was first among those to recieve position as Brain gave him the offer in return for him to gain greater strength and challenges to meet his limit, which wasn't easy but accepted it.

After creating the Heartless Empire, Maleficent kept her word and the Warlords all held considerable sway and influence over the empire as a whole, holding vast sums of territories under a fief with them all becoming quasi-kings and queens of their own dominion. However, this quickly became the sources of conflicts between the thirteen warlords, who all attempt to take territories from each other, as while they were loyal to the co-emperor-empress of the empire, that did not mean they held the same views towards the other warlords, or the Imperial Council as well.

Civil War

Over time, as each of the warlords were killed or defeated, the early stages of what would become the Heartless Civil War began to emerge within the former Warlords territories, not only would their rivals attempt to seize control as much territories as they could, so would Council members, and other Imperial nobles as well, which in turn sparked limited internal conflicts that eventually help lead to a violent civil war once the Empire was significantly weakened enough that allowed the various competing factions to begin openly fighting each other as well as attempting to seize control of the thrones of the Empire, which would only spelled the end of the Heartless Empire as a whole.

Although few that survived would continue to swear loyalty to Xehanort until they were ultimately defeated.

Warlords

Warlords of the Heartless Empire

N0	Name	Title	Gender	Species	Territories	Military size	Image
1	Elitras	Ghost of the Grey Storms	Male
2	Hester	Witch of the Dark Waters	Female	Elvaan
3	Garland	Black Knight of Cornelia	Male	Human
4	Kefka Pallazo	Mad God of Magic	Male	Human
5	Sephiroth	One Winged Angel	Male	Human-Unknown Alien hybrid
6	Exdeath	Void Warlock	Male	Tree
7	Ultimecia	Sorceress of Time	Female	Human
8
9	Azmodan		Male
10	Ishishsu Yijun-Seya		Female	Kitshuho
11	Raedwulf	Beast King	Male	Lupin
12	Iris Moonriver		Female	Dark Fae
13

Notes

• The concept idea of the Thirteen Warlords is based on the Seven Warlords of the Sea from One Piece while also keeping with the number 13 associated with Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series. And also similar to the Spriggan 12
  • They have allied themselves with the Heartless Empire, retain any territories and available resources claimed at their disposal in return to follow the Emperor/Empress' command.