Outside the Series
Contributor: Ava
The Black Mages were a rock band consisting of Nobou Uematsu (Electronic Organ; Composer for the majority of the Final Fantasy video game series), Kenichiro Fukui (Keyboardist; Composer for Final Fantasy XII), and Tsuyoshi Sekito (Composer for Brave Fencer Musashi and The Last Remnant). They were later joined by three other members: Keiji Kawamori, Michio Okamiya and Arata Hanyuda. The band was formed when they recognized a synergy of musical style and energy with each other through their collaborative work at Square.
The name "The Black Mages" was suggested by Square employee due to the connection with their mutual employer. The name allowed The Black Mages to utilized Final Fantasy soundtracks and perform at Final Fantasy concerts, such as Distant Worlds, eaernign them a quick fanbase by presenting a progressive variation of a song set to an audience which is already interested in the original songs.
The Kingdom Hearts video game series started with a crossover game using Disney characters and Square-Enix characters in 2002. It has since expanded to a notable spin-off series with a myraid of orginal charactrs and alternative storylines for the established characters.
One group of antagonists in the series are the Heartless, particularly the Shadow kinds, which are low to medium level minions fought by the protagonists, usually in large groups, like Power Rangers' Putty Men or Star Wars' Stormtroopers. They are living manifestations of the darkness in people's hearts. They act mindlessly and without emotion, only seeking to consume hearts. These fiends are attracted to people with power and can be controlled by powerful beings or higher level Heartless.
The Kingdom Hearts Heartless bare a slight physical resemblance to the Black Mages in Final Fantasy IX (FF9). Released two years earlier than Kingdom Hearts in 2000, the Black Mages in Final Fantasy IX were mass produced weapons of war generated by Queen Brahne of Alexandria. They are also seemingly mindless, being that they have no free will and passively obey orders. The existence of the Black Mages as artificially-created life forms is a point of philosophical contention in the game, especially since one of the main protagonists (Vivi) is a Black Mage who developed his own self-awareness.