crookedkeys

[crookedkeys]

A not-so brief explanation

I’ll be switching over to this blog for the remainder of KHOC Week. I probably should have posted Nicoletta to this blog initially too, but whatever. So. For day two, some explanations are in order. Nicoletta is technically a Kingdom Hearts oc... once removed. Like, she’s a KH OC a few inches to the left. This is because I’ve never actually made an OC for the canon Kingdom Hearts universe. I’ve only made OCs for the Kingdom Hearts inspired tabletop rpg I’m currently running. In that game, I’ve made some pretty big changes to the lore and mechanics of the universe. An explanation for the Crooked Keys universe -- and a look at what’s up with Nicoletta -- under the cut! @khoc-week

In the beginning of all things, there was darkness, and from that darkness was born light. In the places where Light and Darkness mixed, there was born a world beyond reality, a world that would come to define reality. The perfect nexus of all creative potential, Kingdom Hearts. No one knows what exactly happened to Kingdom Hearts -- some believe the inhabitants of the world destroyed it through greed, others that the forces of either Light or Darkness overtook the world out of envy. Still more believe there was an outside calamity, some as-yet unknown force that set it’s eyes on Kingdom Hearts and the power it contained. However it happened, the world was splintered into pieces, set adrift in the void. From these pieces, new worlds were born. These are called Heart Worlds, ancient and primordial and powerful, they still remember a time when they were Kingdom Hearts. Outside of the Heart Worlds there are younger worlds, born on their own over the last few millennia, that were never a part of anything greater than themselves. Here’s the thing you need to understand about Crooked Keys: Places are alive. I mean that literally. Places that are old enough, or big enough, or important enough -- these locations have spirits and hearts and minds of their own, called Genius Loci. Worlds are sentient. They think, they react. They choose their Champions. In my game, the vast majority of worlds only have one Keyblade Wielder. That’s not to say there can only be one Wielder on a world at a time, but that the world itself can only make one Keyblade. The heart of the world becomes tied to the heart of it’s Champion. That champion can leave and travel and meet other champions and they can all adventure together, but a Genius Loci can only have one champion. Worlds without Champions can create Keychains, which they will give as gifts to the champions of other worlds in thanks for their help, but if a worthy champion is born on that world the keychain will vanish and become a proper Keyblade for the champion to use. The other important thing to know about the Crooked Keys universe is that Light does not equal Good and Darkness does not equal Bad. These are equal and apposing forces, and you need a balance of both to have a healthy and stable world. At it's best, Light is creative, optimistic, comfortable, and logical. At it's worst, Light is passive, apathetic, stifling, puritanical and controlling. Darkness can be passionate, empathetic, curious, plentiful and spontaneous, or it can be destructive, secretive, fanatical, uncontrollable and pessimistic. Each player character has an invisible stat that I keep track of, to see how much Light or how much Dark they have, based on their actions and decisions in-game. Obviously being consumed by Darkness makes a Heartless and a Nobody. Being consumed by Light makes a Shimmer and a Mirage. Nicoletta is an NPC enemy my players will have to try to reason with, or defeat. She’s worst kind of villain -- one who truly, genuinely believes she’s doing the right thing. One who is, on the whole, a good and caring person, brainwashed by the cult-like fanaticism of her world. See, Nox Aeterna is a Dark world, but centuries ago a shard of Kingdom Hearts, too small to properly become it’s own world, crashed onto the planet as a meteor. This meteor was Light, and over the years it’s taken root on the planet like a parasite, killing the Genius Loci of the actual world and taking control of the people. The reason Nox Aeterna has so many keyblade wielders is because they artificially create Genius Loci, and forcefully bind them to champions. Nicoletta, like every other Knight, believes these are evil spirits, summoned and held in check by the virtue of the Keyblade Wielders, so it’s okay that they’re bound and enslaved like that. My players haven’t yet learned what’s really going on with Nox Aeterna, but they seem to like Nicoletta an awful lot, and it’s going to be very fun to see them confront her when they realize the truth. UwU

#khocweek2021 #Kingdom Hearts #ttrpg #dnd #maybe I'll come back and draw something for this later today #a map maybe #I should do character sheets for my players that might be fun