Story

Keyblades, Heartless, Kingdom Hearts — the basic vocabulary the series runs on. Where any of it came from in detail is in the article for the game that introduced it.

How it starts

Sora, Riku and Kairi live on Destiny Islands, and they have been building a raft to reach whatever lies beyond it.

The night before they leave, the island is taken by darkness along with the storm, and the three are separated. In the middle of it, a weapon shaped like a key — the Keyblade — appears in Sora's hand.

He comes to in a town he has never seen, where he meets Donald and Goofy, out looking for a king who has gone missing. Sora goes to find Riku and Kairi, they go to find their king, and they travel the worlds together.

KINGDOM HEARTS begins where those three meet.

The KeybladeIntroduced in: KINGDOM HEARTS

A weapon shaped like a key, able to open and close things that have to do with hearts.

It fights, but it also opens: keyholes leading to the hearts of worlds, and doors of several other kinds. What it is opening changes from game to game.

Sora is not the only person who carries one. Who inherited a Keyblade, and how, is answered a piece at a time across the later games.

HeartlessIntroduced in: KINGDOM HEARTS

What is left when a heart is lost to darkness — and what then goes looking for other hearts.

Darkness in a heart, given a shape. They go after the hearts of people and of worlds, and they turn up throughout the series, in every size from small and scuttling to enormous.

There are two kinds: Pureblood, which arise on their own, and Emblem, which were made and carry a mark saying so. Striking an Emblem Heartless with a Keyblade releases the heart it took.

NobodiesIntroduced in: Chain of Memories / KINGDOM HEARTS II

What grows out of the body and soul left behind when a heart is lost. They are said to have no feelings.

When someone with a strong heart becomes a Heartless, a body and a soul are left behind, and a Nobody is what grows out of that. It is the counterpart to a Heartless: two sides of the same event.

They are described as having no heart and no feelings, though the games show behaviour that description does not cover. Members of Organization XIII take a name made by adding an X to their human name and rearranging it — a convention of that group, not a rule about Nobodies in general.

UnversedIntroduced in: Birth by Sleep

Creatures born out of negative emotion, appearing in the Birth by Sleep era.

Creatures born out of negative emotion, and the main enemy of Birth by Sleep. Their origin is unlike a Heartless, which comes from darkness in a heart, or a Nobody, which is what that leaves behind.

Kingdom Hearts

Said to be the source of all hearts — though what the phrase points at changes between games.

It is the title of the series and it does not refer to one consistent object inside it. This is the single most confusing thing about the setting.

What is constant is the belief: characters hold that it is a gathering of hearts, and that reaching it confers enormous power. Someone tries to reach it, someone tries to stop them. That is the series' basic shape.

To keep it straight you need at least two senses of the phrase, which are the next two entries.

Kingdom Hearts of worldsIntroduced in: KINGDOM HEARTS

The one made from the hearts that worlds themselves have. This is the first game's version.

In this series worlds have hearts, not only people. Gather those and you arrive at this version of Kingdom Hearts.

Across KH1, Sora closes the keyhole in each world, keeping the Heartless from the heart inside it.

The great door at the end is not Kingdom Hearts itself; it is the door of darkness that leads to it.

Kingdom Hearts of heartsIntroduced in: KINGDOM HEARTS II

One built deliberately out of people's hearts. This is what KH2's antagonists are after.

The artificial one Organization XIII is assembling out of people's hearts.

Striking an Emblem Heartless with a Keyblade releases the heart it took, and the Organization is collecting what that releases.

The true Kingdom HeartsIntroduced in: Birth by Sleep / Dream Drop Distance

Not one that was manufactured — the one the oldest accounts describe, said to be opened by the χ-blade.

The one the oldest accounts say has always existed — described as the source of the light that fills the worlds, and said to appear when the χ-blade does.

The plan to forge the χ-blade again is to bring seven lights and thirteen darknesses into collision.

The Princesses of HeartIntroduced in: KINGDOM HEARTS

Seven people whose hearts are said to hold no darkness at all.

In KH1, a plan to gather their hearts and open a door is what drives the story.

The seven include both characters from Disney films and characters this series invented. Who they are is shown in-game.

Seven lights and thirteen darknessesIntroduced in: Dream Drop Distance

Seven guardians of light against thirteen seekers of darkness — the collision the Dark Seeker saga builds to.

The plan to bring them into collision and forge the χ-blade is what drives the conflict from Dream Drop Distance through KINGDOM HEARTS III.

Because the counts are fixed, who ends up on each side is itself the story.

The order events happen in, which differs from release order — and a single title can cover several periods. The gaps between entries are not years.

What to play in what order, recaps of each game, the questions still open, and what has actually been announced.