Kingdom Hearts
Latter Ages
Part i "Prologue"
And that which moved within the Fallow world that lays beyond death, underneath the natural world, beyond its laws and natural strictures, saw the corruption and the perversion spread out before it. "Behold," it declared, "I will raise my hand against you and bring forth war, strife and great loss of life. This you will have brought upon yourself for I shall bind you with the chains your brothers forge." And so he sent his minions forth into the natural world and terrible works were wrought, as is written elsewhere. But the Kingdom Heart became aware of this evil and created the Keyblades, which had the power to occult or to manifest. Each of them chose a master as it would.
Some nine years past the Heartless burst forth back into living memory. It started in a dim cluster of worlds known as the Lidded Eye constellation, where science unrestrained by compassion broke the Divides separating worlds and let the shadows run riot. The stream of refugees from the bloodletting in the Lidded Eye alerted other worlds and other constellations to the coming danger. Despite their preparations, however, they could not hold the Heartless everywhere. The horror of worlds being enveloped in darkness was seen for the first time. Efforts were redoubled and the Heartless were halted for a year.
Technology and trade flourished for a time, fostered by the new discovery of gummi blocks and gummi ships, which they termed runners. The discovery that other worlds were out there, within reach, was society-shaking as people interacted with the unique cultures to be found around them. But there was also peril in the divides, as the space between the worlds was called. Heartless runners, oftentimes bizarre and birdlike, plied these divides as well and many explorers and traders met their ends. But the human condition lends itself to intrepid adventurers, profit makers and knowledge seekers. In those first two years, many bold men crisscrossed the divides and unwittingly laid the ground work for the pacts that would help defend life in the coming years.
In some constellations, such as the neighbouring Near Reaches or the Falconer, multi-world governments came into being as people banded together for protection and to explore the vast new frontier presented to them. These were mainly worlds that had long traditions of central governments. For them an inter-world government, with individual worlds becoming states in a union, was just a logical next step. The umbrella of protection this provided brought many worlds together.
However, in the worlds of the Lidded Eye, there was little tradition of central governments and the concept was usually deeply resisted. The world of Kingdom, a monarchy as the name suggested, was one of the few exceptions. Each world had its own way of governing (or not, as the case may be), usually simply matters like town councils, tribal elders, chambers of commerce and town halls, bodies with little coercive power. These had served well in peaceful times, but with the predations of the Heartless the situation had changed. Now there was a need to raise militias and runners and to train mystics and magi for war. Disparate towns and worlds, and their respective services and agencies, needed to be coordinated as well.
What sprang up to fill the gap was the concept of Port Authorities. Though methods of appointment and direction of the PA differed from world to world, the efforts of the first generation of adventurers created this system as a sort of interface between worlds, fostering coordination. The harrowing tales of refugees and the destruction of worlds convinced almost all of the need for everyone to work together against the Heartless. Theirs was always a loose coalition, but a very flexible one. A common system of officer ranks was established along with agreed protocols for sending expeditions to aid each other and clear out trouble spots.
After two years had passed the Heartless were renewed and went forth. The Free Humans, as they referred to themselves, defended their worlds desperately. They were horrified to find, however, that some people were lost to become powerful Heartless, overcome by their own fear, malice and hatred towards their fellows. They were the seedy, the over-emotional, the sadistic. Even so, they were brothers and sisters, and people were horrified to see them become potent enemies.
Before the third year had passed, an unexpected and terrible development manifested itself. Some human worlds had made pacts with the Heartless, whether out of their own desire for power or simply hoping to be out of the line of fire. Who they made these pacts with, or what they entailed, was unclear, but many mystics debated terrible theories. These Traitors, as the Free Humans quickly labeled them, integrated the Heartless into their own forces, forming hidden bases, warbands, and even invading hosts. Some of the larger groups, such as that headed by Maleficent, the Lady of the Tower, led all-out attacks on other worlds, especially those they saw as a threat. The mixture of Heartless fodder and violence combined with human guile was deadly and many worlds in many constellations were destroyed, their bounty carried off and their people scattered on the trade routes or on the streams of the Fallow to havens.
When a world was destroyed by the Heartless, darkness consumed it. It was taken from the natural world and into the layer that the mystics called the Fallow and the scientists called the Substrata. Across almost all worlds, it was already known of to some extent and usually featured in religious or spiritual lore or ceremony. It was this dimension that held the souls of those who had died and from which the souls of those who were born came from. The people who were stranded on a world that was destroyed were left in this spiritual place. Those that had strong Hearts were carried back into the natural world, cropping up again where the links between the natural world and the Fallow were strongest. The weaker Hearts, however, were lost in the Fallow, stranded amongst the dead.
Five worlds received the lion's share of the refugees, becoming the hubs of the defence against the Heartless and those who would use them. Traverse, Kingdom, Exeter, Renaissance and Dulcimer each grew vastly with the weight of refugees. The concentration of these survivors, all of them strong of heart and full of a stern determination to stop the Heartless, meant that even as the Heartless made progress, they made their opposition stronger. It was a perverse calculus. Other worlds began shipping excess food to these worlds and in return, these five worlds mounted expedition after expedition to defend other worlds. For the next seven years, there was not a fortnight in which a citizen of each of these worlds, new or old, did not die in the line of battle.
Attacks on shippingwere constant, so they developed a convoy system. Where they had Foray Forces for combat expeditions, now also there were Transit Forces for each trade route. They built 'buoys', stationary fortified gummi waystations. These were crewed by volunteers or alternating shifts between the different mercenary firms, direct products of the fight against the Heartless. The firms worked to consolidate and train those men and women who wanted to dedicate their lives to the cause.
These were bloody times and in the inchoate society that existed in the beginning, those who seized the moment and provided examples to follow found themselves catapulted to great fame and equally great danger. King Mickey of Kingdom became a beacon of hope, as he led his people to shepherd other worlds. But newer heroes also arose, many of them refugees from the first outbreak, finding new reasons to live in taking the fight to the Heartless. Irvine and Zell of Exeter rose to great prominence in that beautiful city of technology, forging agreements where there had been none. In Renaissance, Quistis was a fixer, on the boards of the Port Authority and their Civic Council, making things work. Celes in turn led the world's warriors into the fray, earning great renown. Yuna, Rikku and Paine worked in Dulcimer, dealing with their PA and the citizen assembly. Yuna's persuasive voice and dedication led to her election as head strategoi, chairman of the Port Authority, whilst Rikku gathered information and Paine led raids and operations.
But the most famous, relentless and dedicated of those who had yet arisen were Aeris Gainsborough and Leon Loire of Traverse Town. From the very beginning they had recognised the danger and spearheaded the Port Authorities and the forays. They worked and lived together, so intertwined were their goals. Aeris was a Natural Mystic and created the massive wards that protected Traverse Town, the first of their kind. She harnessed the runner fleets of Traverse and quickly became noted as Traverse's most senior and qualified naval leader, their first Senior Commander. In a mirror of Aeris, Leon's martial prowess grew ever stronger, as did his strategic thinking. He became the first Senior Commander for ground operations, leading hundreds and even thousands of men and women to the defence of other worlds. In addition, they led most of the research into the nature of the Heartless and their long-term prospects.
In the course of their research, they uncovered knowledge of the Keyblade, said to lock the keyhole of a world and make it safe against the Heartless, preventing them from being able to destroy a world. It was also said to be a weapon of unparalleled power, fostering unnaturally quick growth and learning in its bearer. Ancient texts and references from the original team of scientists that worked on the Heartless and Gummis spoke of this, and of a mysterious agency known as Kingdom Hearts, which was said to have created these weapons long ago. And though they researched all the harder, they could find no clue as to its whereabouts, except that it would appear again when the need had arisen. And so they waited and waited, beginning to lose faith as one year spread into two, and two into four and so on until nine years had passed. Over the years, the bloodshed had been near-constant. Traitor groups rose and fell and worlds died under the Heartless, but the fight still ground on.
But then, over nine years after the Heartless were unleashed, the Keyblader surfaced. Leon, who was cautious by nature, tested him and saw potential in his heart. King Mickey, who also knew of the Keyblades and had even received one which, though very destructive to the Heartless, did not seem to affect keyholes at all, sent his Court Wizard and Court Knight to aid the new Keyblader. They were his two best friends and most trusted advisors. But despite their skeptical starts, Aeris and Leon, as well as their allies Yuffie, Locke, Xu and Nida, saw the potential as Sora immediately took the fight to the Heartless. For the first time in months, a High Shadow had been discovered in Traverse Town, but Sora was on the scene first. With Donald and Goofy, they launched into an attack together that would seal Aeris and Leon's faith in him.
One world lies beside another
And all hearts will know each other
Within every heart is darkness In every mind is cruelty
In that despair breathes the Heartless
The last clumsy blow finally imparted enough energy. The Heartless' grasp upon this mortal coil weakened and vanished. Sora stumbled back and heaved great breaths, keyblade scraping upon the ground. His companions likewise stumbled away from the radiant monolith that had been their foe. Wisps of energy ascended like smoke from a fire as the heart came free.
Head swimming with uncertainties and fatigue, Sora stumbled and fell. His last sight before darkness claimed him for a time was of the heart shaped apparition departing the enemy and disappearing into the night sky.
Feelings of elation suffused him and drowned out the cold of the cobblestones.
Victory
Honour
Splendour
And now … for Kairi…and Riku
Your hands are their hands; your thoughts are their thoughts. Horrors standing between your worlds. In death they live and hope they break. They have no name but that you grant.