KINGDOM HEARTS: THE ROAD TO OBLIVION
Story
Fifteen hundred years have now passed since Xehanort's final defeat and passing; it seemed to be the beginning of a new golden age, the Modern Era in the Imperial calendar. Many worlds have been discovered within the past seventy-five years, all by cartographers hired and contracted by the Senate during the previous reigns of the late Emperors Lucius the Elder and Servius Tullius. Many more worlds await to be discovered. With a first glance, one may seem to believe that things were turning out for the better....
Despite the defeat of Xehanort a millennia and a half ago, evil is still afoot in the worlds of the Realm of Light. It comes not in the form of darkness or shadow but in the radiance of a pure, stinging light. The Imperium of Light, founded in the aftermath of the Shadow War against Seuche and the Shadow Hand, had transformed into an authoritarian, militaristic regime by the reign of Emperor Servius Tullius.
Things had not improved but had gotten worse with Servius Tullius' assassination and the ascension of his nephew Lucius as Emperor. His first act as Emperor was granting himself a new title: that of Rex Mundi, King of the Worlds. With the assistance of his many allies in the Imperial government, he pushed Jundo, an ideology that advocated for the political and social transformation of the Imperium to what he and his supporters considered a perfect society: one of the most popular statutes formally advocated for the marginalization of the Nobodies and Heartless, both groups despised by most of society for eons, to the status of second-class citizens. In the fifth year of his rule over the Imperium, young Emperor Lucius began expanding the Imperium of Light's discriminatory policies towards these groups of people, forcing them to move out of their homes and live in several designated ghettos.
There was some protest amongst the Empire by all echelons of society, while not opposed to sending them off to live in the ghettos, they were against forcing them to wear special emblems on their clothing among the other things. Said protest was especially prominent amongst the Legion of Light, founded by Sora, Riku and King Mickey after Xehanort's defeat. Emperor Lucius II, unlike his predecessors, wanted the Blades gone: he saw them as a possible obstacle to his plans of total domination. He ordered the group to be forcibly disbanded, Legate Cnut and a select few were brought before the Emperor and publicly executed for defying against his will.
With the public execution, resistance to the new discriminatory had quieted down, except for the Heartless and Nobodies themselves. After all, why defy the Emperor when he was doing what seemed to be getting rid of the two most hated groups of creatures in society?
Civil disobedience towards these discriminatory laws continued, particularly amongst the residents of Twilight Town, a quiet, hilly neighborhood populated by an assortment of different races, including Nobodies and Heartless. Rumors were spread amongst the Twilight Town residents that Emperor Lucius, accompanied by his Immortals and a select few members of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee, was coming to the area to make sure that the Nobodies and Heartless, as well as any other trouble-makers, are to be deported into the designated ghettos in the Imperial home-world Erde, also known as the former Radiant Garden, where they would serve as a free source of slave labor for him.
Resistance by the locals is heavy. The locals have already stormed the local armory in Sunset Hill, stealing as many weapons, armor and magic for themselves. The local Imperial garrison, numbering one thousand men in total, stationed in the old Central Station, commanded by Emperor Lucius's younger brother, Prince Julius Vindex, was massacred by the mob of anti-Imperials. Surviving members of the recently disbanded Legion of Light are rumored to have traveled afar to lead the local civilians in forming an organized, armed resistance force to the arriving Imperials. Imperial intelligence agents have also managed to detect the significant presence of Aegyls, likely mercenaries from beyond the Imperium's borders out in the Frontier Regions. The leader of the local resistance is commanded by a young man named Rutilus.
In the unknown reaches of space, a great darkness looms. The surviving remnants of the Shadow Hand remains in hiding, watching the events as they unfold, hoping that one day that the chaos would result in their return. Their desires remained the same they were many centuries ago: to re-establish the tight grip that the Shadow Hand had over the worlds under the leadership of Mage Seuche. In the meantime, a new generation of Princesses of Hearts, seven maiden whose hearts are of pure light, devoid of darkness, are out there. It is said that if brought together, their hearts will summon the Final Keyhole, which leads to Kingdom Hearts.
___________Story
Fifteen hundred years have now passed since Xehanort's final defeat and passing; it seemed to be the beginning of a new golden age, the Modern Era in the Imperial calendar. Many worlds have been discovered within the past seventy-five years, all by cartographers hired and contracted by the Senate during the previous reigns of the late Emperors Lucius the Elder and Servius Tullius. Many more worlds await to be discovered. With a first glance, one may seem to believe that things were turning out for the better....
Despite the defeat of Xehanort a millennia and a half ago, evil is still afoot in the worlds of the Realm of Light. It comes not in the form of darkness or shadow but in the radiance of a pure, stinging light. The Imperium of Light, founded in the aftermath of the Shadow War against Seuche and the Shadow Hand, had transformed into an authoritarian, militaristic regime by the reign of Emperor Servius Tullius.
Things had not improved but had gotten worse with Servius Tullius' assassination and the ascension of his nephew Lucius as Emperor. His first act as Emperor was granting himself a new title: that of Rex Mundi, King of the Worlds. With the assistance of his many allies in the Imperial government, he pushed Jundo, an ideology that advocated for the political and social transformation of the Imperium to what he and his supporters considered a perfect society: one of the most popular statutes formally advocated for the marginalization of the Nobodies and Heartless, both groups despised by most of society for eons, to the status of second-class citizens. In the fifth year of his rule over the Imperium, young Emperor Lucius began expanding the Imperium of Light's discriminatory policies towards these groups of people, forcing them to move out of their homes and live in several designated ghettos.
There was some protest amongst the Empire by all echelons of society, while not opposed to sending them off to live in the ghettos, they were against forcing them to wear special emblems on their clothing among the other things. Said protest was especially prominent amongst the Legion of Light, founded by Sora, Riku and King Mickey after Xehanort's defeat. Emperor Lucius II, unlike his predecessors, wanted the Blades gone: he saw them as a possible obstacle to his plans of total domination. He ordered the group to be forcibly disbanded, Legate Cnut and a select few were brought before the Emperor and publicly executed for defying against his will.
With the public execution, resistance to the new discriminatory had quieted down, except for the Heartless and Nobodies themselves. After all, why defy the Emperor when he was doing what seemed to be getting rid of the two most hated groups of creatures in society?
Civil disobedience towards these discriminatory laws continued, particularly amongst the residents of Twilight Town, a quiet, hilly neighborhood populated by an assortment of different races, including Nobodies and Heartless. Rumors were spread amongst the Twilight Town residents that Emperor Lucius, accompanied by his Immortals and a select few members of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee, was coming to the area to make sure that the Nobodies and Heartless, as well as any other trouble-makers, are to be deported into the designated ghettos in the Imperial home-world Erde, also known as the former Radiant Garden, where they would serve as a free source of slave labor for him.
Resistance by the locals is heavy. The locals have already stormed the local armory in Sunset Hill, stealing as many weapons, armor and magic for themselves. The local Imperial garrison, numbering one thousand men in total, stationed in the old Central Station, commanded by Emperor Lucius's younger brother, Prince Julius Vindex, was massacred by the mob of anti-Imperials. Surviving members of the recently disbanded Legion of Light are rumored to have traveled afar to lead the local civilians in forming an organized, armed resistance force to the arriving Imperials. Imperial intelligence agents have also managed to detect the significant presence of Aegyls, likely mercenaries from beyond the Imperium's borders out in the Frontier Regions. The leader of the local resistance is commanded by a young man named Rutilus.
In the unknown reaches of space, a great darkness looms. The surviving remnants of the Shadow Hand remains in hiding, watching the events as they unfold, hoping that one day that the chaos would result in their return. Their desires remained the same they were many centuries ago: to re-establish the tight grip that the Shadow Hand had over the worlds under the leadership of Mage Seuche. In the meantime, a new generation of Princesses of Hearts, seven maiden whose hearts are of pure light, devoid of darkness, are out there. It is said that if brought together, their hearts will summon the Final Keyhole, which leads to Kingdom Hearts.
As soon as I met General Xelphion in his quarters, I had been informed that my baby brother and a lot of the men garrisoned had been killed early on. I had always been taught by my tutors to offer forgiveness to my enemies, no matter what they do, but when I saw my brother’s body being carted off to Erde, I felt rage…..hatred, among an assortment of other emotions. I remembered this feeling. I felt it when me and my Mom were told that someone took my dad’s life. I remembered repressing them. I thought it was the best thing at the time, considering the person who killed him had managed to escape, was never caught by the authorities. I saw my brother and knew that deep down, his killer was out there, taking the lives of our men.
I would avenge him.
I would avenge everyone killed in this battle and make sure that these rebels would learn not to cross us.
- Emperor Lucius’ Journal.
Two days had passed since Emperor Lucius and several thousand reinforcements, had arrived onto the battlefield. Things had looked rather precarious when they first landed outside the abandoned Old Mansion and were welcomed by the General and his staff members. Hundreds of General Xelphion’s men had been killed, not to mention the Imperial garrison that were captured and killed by the anti-Imperial mobs early into the uprising. Thousands upon thousands more laid wounded from defending their position in the Tram Common against the revolutionaries who had them outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outgunned by a thirty to one margin.
The situation did indeed improve, if only a little bit, with the Emperor’s intervention. Morale was up amongst the soldiers with the arrival of Emperor Lucius Secondus, a man seen with much respect and favor by the Imperial military, and that helped a bit. Fresh food and supplies had arrived with the several dozen Gummi warships. And there was also the presence of reinforcements which helped too, particularly the Immortals, an elite group of soldiers and mages whose sworn duty was to accompany the Emperor at all times and when necessary, to defend the name of the Imperium of Light. The revolutionaries had a hard enough time fighting average soldiers but if they were to fight Immortals and the Emperor, they would surely lose or so they hoped for.
“Are these tunnels safe, my liege?” asked an Immortal, standing behind Emperor Lucius, as the latter opened Market Street’s door to the Underground Concourse.
“I’m not exactly sure. Let me check,” responded the young Emperor. He walked past the door and took a peek around, seeing nothing but darkness. “Hello? Hello! Is anyone home?” He questioned; him and the small group of men accompanying him stepped over a small puddle of water while doing so.
There was no response, just silence.
“Oh well, it looks like there is no one here,” Lucius noted. He continued walking, his men and women right behind him, seeing more puddles and rats running around. “Nope, nothing here. Let’s continue.”
“What are we even here for?” Another Imperial soldier, a Viera archer, asked. Lucius sighed and turned around.
“We’re trying to find the tunnel that can take us to the Tram Station where our intelligence agents on the ground believes the rebel leadership is hiding in. If we can find it, we can infiltrate the enemy camp, capture the rebel leaders and put an end to this little rebellion of theirs before anymore lives are put on the line. Does that answer your question, soldier?” Lucius answered. The Viera nodded, and the Emperor smiled: “Good then. Let’s proceed. We must not dally, General Xelphion is counting on…….woah!”
Emperor Lucius fell face with a loud thud first into a moderately deep pool of water. His soldiers gasped and began going down the stairway that led to the pool to save their leader. The spiky-haired man managed to swim to the platform and sat himself up, wiping his face with his sleeves and looked at his soldiers, preoccupied for their ruler’s safety. He was not bothered with getting hurt, he loved hanging around with his soldiers. It made him feel like he’s doing something, instead of sitting down in his throne, listening to the complaints of the commoners.
“Are you okay, my liege?” the soldiers asked. Lucius stood up and smiled.
“I am, just a little wet behind the ears,” he chuckled. “Let’s proceed on.”
They turned a corner and spotted ahead of them a ladder on the side, next to a small stream of flowing water. Lucius headed towards it and climbed up. He reached the top of the ladder and moved forward, stepping over more water. Lucius and his soldiers looked around. Like before, it seemed that there was no one around in the Concourse, no revolutionaries, nothing besides for sewer rats.
I wonder how the General and the others are holding up in ground level, the Emperor thought to himself as he stared at a small wooden door at the end of the corridor.
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