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:

[hider=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...[/hider]

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:

[hider=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.[/hider]

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.