Sadu

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Yeah, and Commander Rorque is the embodiment of Greed. Or will be later on.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Well there are only seven instances of authority. So we'll need to decide on a final list of who the Princesses of Heart are, as those who hold the authority will be closely tied to those who are Princesses of Heart.

I think thus far we have confirmed...

Alice is a Princess of Heart, and the Queen of Hearts currently holds Royal Authority.

Anastasia is a Princess of Heart, and Dowager Empress Marie holds Royal Authority.

Lucian is a Prince of Heart, and Royal Authority is either held by his father, or it may have passed onto him when they met him on Destiny Island.

Mickey also holds Royal Authority, but is not close to any particular Princess of Heart. (Therefor, there is room for one Princess of Heart who doesn't have any sort of figure above them to hold Royal Authority). Unless we wanted to make someone like Daisy a Princess of Heart.

And Uther holds one more instance of Royal Authority.

So that leaves 2 more characters that can have Royal Authority.

Something to keep in mind is, not many people know about Royal Authority, and what it actually is, is essentially a complete mystery. That being said, it's not crazy to imagine someone like Maleficent who is sort of in the know about its existence, might try to seize it for herself, but have absolutely no way of actually knowing who has it... so she may assume any hero or leader in a given world would have it.

To put it one way, Royal Authority is not yet really central to the plot... at least, it won't be relevant until after KH1 is done.

But like I said, someone like Maleficent wouldn't know that nobody in Tarzan's world has it. (If they don't)

Also... we can easily do what the game did, and come the end of KH1, who the Princesses of Heart are can change. Not all, but some. And with them, the Royal Authority may change as well.

Especially if... well, I'll bring it up with Kindred.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Oh also one thing we talked about, not set in stone but it is the idea that each of the Princesses (and Prince) of Heart will be tied to a villain that represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins. For example, Mulan is a Princess of Heart, her nemesis is Shan Yu, the avatar of Wrath, and the Emperor holds Royal Authority in their world.

This all depends on who ends up being Princesses of Heart.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Yeah there is still a few details to work out here and there, some miscommunications to iron out but you all get the general plot here. Will respond more once I am free from work.

As to where the final confrontation happens, I dont think we decided yet.

I think a lot of this story will focus on what a heart is, what it means to have a heart, how you cant simply replace one because everything that makes you who you are is your heart. A Nobody is just the renains of a person who died, and has lost what makes them who they are, which is why they are disconnected from their past life and who they used to be. But at the same time, new hearts can be created by living life, creating new memories, experiencing emotions. But it is not an easy process once a heart is lost, unless they can reclaim their original heart.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

This is a post concerning everybody - A message written by me, but basically from both me and Kindred:

It has been brought up a few times that we should start introducing villains, or at least a villain, to sort of drive forward what our characters are doing, give them something to strive for.

I have been talking with @King Kindred since the start of the RP, about my character, about my future plans for characters, about story ideas... (And when I say 'have been talking with', I mean we have been coming up with ideas and whatnot basically since the RP started)... and we have basically together come up with what we intend to be the major, central plot going forward. Now we of course understand at this point, that we have done A LOT of brainstorming, planning, and world building, without involving anyone else in the discussion, to the point that others haven't yet had any input, let alone even told what's going on.

So that's what I'm doing here, so that everybody can hopefully take part in this, without it seeming like everybody is just being dragged into the storyline me and Kindred made with no regard to your own personal character stories you want to tell and progress.

There was also something brought up about how the plotlines of Kingdom Hearts in general tend to be way too convoluted, needlessly complicated, and even something like the villain's motives seem to change whenever the writers feel like it.

Because of that...

We have basically scrapped the main plotline of Kingdom Hearts entirely. This excludes Kingdom Hearts 1 for the most part, with a few details changed, and we're considering the current story to be in that KH1 timeframe. So, I am going to breakdown what we have planned for the storyline in each section:

Kingdom Hearts 1

This is naturally, where we are now. Not a lot has changed. The major things that have changed are the worlds we will visit (More freedom to go where we want), who the Princesses (And Prince) of Light are, and the most major change, the motives of the villain.

Our Villains for KH1 are Ansem and Maleficent. Naturally, there is room for other appearances, such as my own character who will be appearing from time to time, or for example @IAmTheIsland your mysterious hooded character, whatever you want/plan to do with them during this time.

Maleficent is here and there aiding Ansem, but ultimately she is doing her own thing, with her own motives.

Ansem has been changed... now he is, just a straight up villain. There is no grander scheme going on here, he's not after Kingdom Hearts, he just straight up wants to open the doorways on every world, unleashing darkness to swallow everything.

So, the main plot of KH1 for this RP will remain largely unchanged. Our characters are to travel to different worlds, defeat the villains who have been empowered by darkness, and the heartless they are unleashing, and seal the keyholes to stop the worlds from being devoured by darkness.

As we pretty much unanimously decided, our characters will eventually reconvene at Olympus, where we will have some sort of tournament arc go on there. However, once the Olympus arc is over, we will enter the endgame of KH1. From this point forward, everybody should be united in one single group... at least, for the most part.

'Story Things' will happen, that will lead Alias and everybody that follows him to Camelot. There, the group will have their final (It's Kingdom Hearts, so you know what 'final' means) standoff with Maleficent.

More story things will happen, and the group will go directly from Camelot, to Ansem, and will face off against him, putting an end to his schemes for good.

This, will be the end of KH1, and will lead us going forward, into a full switch of gears. How we are going to do this, we'll figure that out when we get there. But for the time being, the plan is that after KH1, we are going to have an Organization XIII focused story, using for the most part, depending on people's plans, all new characters. So that brings us to the next part of the story...

Going to pause here and say, I know some might wonder 'Why Camelot'. I understand that, with my character being central to the plot, like that I already said a villain of my own making will be making appearances, and things like their world being so important to the main story, that it might seem like I am trying to take over the story, or make my character the main character.

That's simply not the case though. Me and Kindred have simply come up with a lot of ideas for a story, and we like what we've created, and, assuming everybody is on board, have decided it will be the first major storyline that deviates from the original Kingdom Hearts story. Once this story is over, anyone else is more than welcome to build their own major storyline for everybody to follow.

But keep this in mind: Just because there is a main central narrative, does not mean anyone should be dissuaded from pursuing their own character stories. I'm sure every one of you has plans for your characters, things you want to achieve with them, things you want to happen to them... the intention here isn't to say 'no you can't do that, we have a story already'. But rather, to give a central narrative from which people can build their own character stories around. Find ways to tie your characters, and the things you want to do with them, to the story we have prepared. We aren't taking over everyone's story. We are just setting the basis for what is actually happening in this world. Or... worlds.

Anyways, on to the first major deviation from the games story:

Organization XIII

Following the defeat of Ansem, the story will switch focus to Organization XIII, lead by old man Xehanort. Xehanort, for whatever reason, did not take part in Ansem's plots, did not support him or engage with our characters, though any members of the Organization were free to do as they pleased during that time. So previous appearances of Organization members is not off the table.

Xehanort has a new advisor, and through her, believes he has come to finally understand what he was missing in his plans to create a fresh start for all worlds. He has discovered the true purpose of the Princesses (And Prince) of Heart, as well as a further power he does not yet fully understand, but is sure is key to his success. This power is something that resides beyond the Princesses (And Prince) of Heart, but is often tied to them in some way. (For example, Ariel may be a Princess of Heart, while her father King Trident, holds this special power). The power, is called simply, Royal Authority, and Xehanort has an understanding that this is a power granted by Kingdom Hearts that allows powerful rulers of worlds to maintain the balance of Darkness in the universe. King Mickey, for example, is a wielder of Royal Authority.

HOWEVER. This is something that he is simply studying for the time being, and does not fully understand. And so, because he does not understand how he can claim these powers, nor how to use them, he has another more important immediate goal.

He is seeking a way to give Nobodies a heart. This is, after all, the reason the Organization members follow him, because he promised them he would give them hearts, to make them whole again. And so he has tasked his new advisor with researching this very thing, entrusting them the resources to make it happen, no matter the cost.

All in all, this version of Xehanort, is not a terrible person. Yes, he allowed the destruction of many worlds, but he truly believes that what he is doing will be worth it all in the end. He wants to use the power of Kingdom Hearts to do a hard reset on the universe, creating a new, singular world, bathed in light, free from the corruption of darkness, a paradise for all the lost souls past and present.

Because of this, he is fully intent on keeping his promise to give hearts to the Organization members. Will he succeed? Well, we'll just have to see, as this is where I am going to end the explanation of the plot, and we'll just have to see what happens.

But I will put it this way... come the end of the Organization storyline, everybody's Nobody characters are going to have to make a very difficult decision about where, and with whom they stand.

So while there is much, much more specific things we have planned, including things well beyond the Organization XIII storyline, and the ultimate goal of this whole story, that's really all there is to it for now.

Kindred has given the go ahead on all of this (At least as far as I remember...) and much of it has been his own input as well. However, naturally, this is everybody's RP. We aren't exactly dictating to you all 'This is the story you are going to write, don't like it, then drop out'. We are open to suggestions, criticisms, and answering questions about it all.

I'm sure we both understand that it's a bit overdue on letting everyone in on our plans, but this has been something that has been being worked on, evolving and changing over months, with new ideas constantly coming in, and entire ideas being redone, to come up with what we think is the final version of the story we want to tell.

And all in all, we hope that everybody has a part to play in it that they will enjoy, while also being free enough to tell the stories about their own characters that they have intended to tell this whole time.

There are some details that need working out... and we'll try and work with anyone who already has plans for something that will need to somehow work around the main plot. And one example is uh... @Crimson Flame Me and Kindred discussed a sort of, major, kinda serious role for Lucian to play in the story down the line... and this time I don't mean going to wake Morgan up and then having his ear talked off for what feels like hours. What we have worked up kinda comes with the territory of playing a Prince of Heart, but I'm sure you knew from the beginning that choosing to play a Prince of Heart was going to end up making him very important to the story in some way. But we also figure you have your own plans so, we want to work with everybody on what those plans might be, without having to spoil everybody on everything that is going to happen, both in this story we have cooked up, and in your own stories. Otherwise there wouldn't be much point in telling it would there?

Also we're not trying to force it on you so, it's something to talk about rather than us saying 'This is what Lucian's role is going to be, the end'.

So yeah, bring up your questions, issues, and all that and me and Kindred will work with you all on this. But we wanted to create something that really drives the RP forward, and gives us all something to actually make this a GROUP RP, as I personally just have felt like we are dangerously close to everybody just splitting off on their own to basically do their own solo/1x1 RPs, at which point there wouldn't be much point to this being a group RP at all. I'm not saying anybody is doing that currently. Just that we want to give everybody a reason to engage with a central narrative, and we didn't want that to just be 'Kingdom Hearts but we have replaced Sora, Donald, and Goofy.'

Everybody is intended to be a main character in this story, so we want to work with you all to make that the case.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Time to set up a gem shopping list for crafting...

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Just want to bring up, what I recall from the games is that people aren't really supposed to know about worlds beyond their own, what with Donald always making a huge fuss over 'World Order', and why Sora always makes up excuses of 'not being from around here'.

So Jane just up and name dropping Olympus like it's the next town over feels a bit weird doesn't it? Not that it's necessarily a huge deal or a hard fix, I just imagine her saying they went 'to some colosseum or something' and since she's Jane, I imagine her thinking that Rome is a long way to talk about going willy nilly, since that'd likely be her idea of where the Colosseum is.

Tamashī no Samuraitachi

Akane

The Raijin Shogun

While people were still gathering, Akane couldn't help but notice the tension between Ren and Tsuki. She tilted her head at him while he was still looking over the images, asking in the language nobody could understand but Ren... and nobody seemed able to replicate either, "What happened? She is angrier than when I left. Angry... with you?" That seemed to be the case rather often, so it wasn't a difficult conclusion to come to, what with the both of them seeming so on edge.

Whatever his answer, she watched the others gather, those she knew less about. The first was the metal thing. It moved like a person, it spoke like a person, sometimes. Was it... human? She didn't always speak like a person. Was it maybe... no, it was another creation of man, a mixing of flesh and metal and... was there any flesh left in there? She wondered what would happen if she were to shock him with electricity... but she had been told not to do that... the exact words were 'In fact, you probably shouldn't stand too close to him at all'. Given that her body was almost always covered in a layer of unseen electricity, that was probably for the best, but still, not much fun...

Then came the ogre... Oni-Kind as she called her. She hated Oni... dumb creatures, always angry, like her, but unreasonably so. But this one was different, and at the very least, she saw the differences between Yokai and those whose bodies were corrupted by their essence. So her thoughts about 'dumb Oni' were often pushed aside, as she thought this one was not as dumb as an actual Oni, and in fact, was very reliable. She had been told to be nice... so she would be nice. It was easier, because it was not a real Oni. She did not know what respect was, but what she felt was somewhat like that. Even if every time she saw them, the thoughts that first came to mind were never endearing, she fortunately kept them to herself, and forgot them as quick as they came.

And then there was the Ghost in the Shell. She could see it, smell it... there was a ghost in that one's body. The pathetic creature was controlled by it, and it would be a mercy to purge it from her... but her standing orders were simple, if not incredibly limiting. Be nice... and under no circumstances was she to attempt to purge the machine ghost, and again, do not stand too close to her.

Hmm, did that mean the other one was a machine with a human-ghost in it? How was she to understand these creatures of machine-flesh if she was not allowed to electrify them, just a little bit... such an act was prohibited. Unfair... cruel and unusual restrictions... if they could not withstand a little zap, what use were they to this cause?

No matter... Tsuki could keep her... haunted followers.

Tamashī no Samuraitachi

Akane

The Raijin Shogun

The knock on Akane's door echoed into an empty room. Ren no doubt had too much on his mind to remember that she had been sent out on a mission... five years of them monitoring every little thing she did, and finally, they had decided to send her off on her own without so much as a hint of monitoring. Letting her loose on a job all her own, with absolutely no idea how it would turn out. They had no idea of knowing if she would get the job done, if she would destroy the equipment she was sent to retrieve, if she would return at all in fact. Or worse... if letting her loose would result in another incident like what happened five years ago...

No news was good news. No major news about major engagements that would have anything to do with her. No news about any major massacres that would have any involvement with the job she was sent on. No news about major Jaeger deployments... And it wasn't as if she would have been taken out, not her. If she had, it would have been news, because she wasn't someone who could simply be... taken out. It would have been some sort of massive scene, and news would have been spread about a major conflict. It would have had to involve the Jaegers somehow and...

Nobody thought like that... nobody was being kept up at night wondering where she was. That was where her mind landed. That was how the world worked, wasn't it? You succeed, or you fail. You live, or you die. You come back, or you don't. If she failed, would there be... disappointment? If she never returned, what would they feel? What did this group feel for her, this collection of creatures who believed they could carve out something better from the filth that was this city... What was, disappointment? She almost forgot, that word, individuality... she couldn't speak it, she didn't know how. What did it mean... each of them thought, differently? This collection of souls, they were not one entity, they each were... different. Would any of them care if she didn't return? If she left to find her own way, would they care... would they prefer it? Would they be angry if she disappeared... Why would they be... angry? What... was disappointment? Why do these connections exist between them... do they exist between them and her? These invisible strings that bind them all together. Did she have strings?

There was no real process to the thoughts in her head. She stood high on a building, staring down over the city below. This jungle of concrete and steel. This... prison.

A click sounded from her armor, as electricity arced across the surface. She was fully recharged. Jumping from location to location took much of her energy. She had to stop from time to time. But it was time to go again. She looked down at the box she held by the handle, then on to the city, spotting the familiar structure, and with a flash that crackled across the sky, she disappeared.

---

As a thunderous bolt of lightning struck the roof of the building, its foundations shuttered and the lights in some rooms flickered. The common areas where people were gathering were reinforced enough that nobody would notice, but in other places that wasn't the case.

She let her thoughts get the better of her, she was thinking too much again... and she had expended every last bit of energy she had into a single jump, and all that energy came crashing down with her. Even as nearby pylons absorbed the electricity, it hadn't been designed for THAT much power, which caused the system to temporarily overload.

If nothing else, this was the surest sign that Akane was back... and was not in a good mood. Not she was alone in having a bad night. Her armor sparked slightly, before much the lights faded. She looked down at her hands, noting whatever electronics her armor had were overloaded and had shut down to prevent damage. The only thing left active was her ability to see through the helmet. As she walked to the elevator, stepping inside once the doors opened, she couldn't help but wonder what use was armor if it could not withstand her power.

The doors eventually opened, and she stepped into the briefing room... she had no idea what was going on... or that something was going on at all. She just had a box to deliver. Unfortunately, it was one box, of the expected two boxes. The good news, was that this one box likely accounted for about eighty percent of the value of what she had been sent to retrieve.

Only other issue was, her blade smelled of blood... which without a doubt, meant someone was dead. And more than likely? A lot of someones were dead.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@mattmanganon Used most of your part, just changed a few things here and there.