RADIANT GARDEN / HOLLOW BASTION

WE CAN'T BE FRIENDS IF YOU DON'T THINK THIS IS RAD

DISCLAIMER: All worlds will have differences from their canon Kingdom Hearts counterparts. This is because THIS AIN'T KINGDOM HEARTS IT'S JAMMER HEARTS.

Right.

HISTORY 

AS IT IS KNOWN TO REFUGEES FROM THE GARDEN'S DESTRUCTION

Nine years ago, Radiant Garden was a highly advanced world with a number of offworld colonies within its crystal sphere. Though travel in wildspace was quite new to the Garden, and while there was no way yet to get beyond the edge of the sphere (this was considered to be impossible at the time), the world itself was a near paradise. Radiant Garden had seamlessly fused magic and technology on a fundamental level. Magic was so commonplace and available to the populace that even most pesants could at least manage a few simple charms and cantrips to make life easier. Everyone had magical lighting in their homes, clean water, easy transportation, and unprecedented access to education.

As it used to be. Damn right that's a floating magitek castle
 suspended over a giant ocean!

Radiant Garden was a meritocracy in the truest sense. Though ruled by a king, rulership by hereditary had been abolished long ago. Instead, the most intelligent individual of any population was chosen, the one who had the most to offer to the Garden's people in terms of magiteknical progress.

The king during this era of prosperity was a relatively new one, King Ansem the Wise. Ansem was rather young for a king when he was crowned—he was only about thirty years old—but was well known for his theories and investigations into magic. At a young age, he had been instrumental in the development of spelljammer hulls for traveling within the crystal sphere of Radiant Garden. He had also overhauled the aqueducts feeding into the Garden to be 200% more efficient.

The traditions of Radiant Garden said that each King was to have five Apprentices drawn from among the best and brightest of Radiant Garden to serve him, to learn under his tutelage. This served two purposes: one, it was an unprecedented opportunity to learn under a great scientist, and two, it ensured that there would be at least five candidates for the crown who were already familiar with the other functions of government, beyond their abilities in the sciences. Ansem himself had been one of these very apprentices to the previous king.

Ansem reigned for nearly twenty years, twenty years during which he jumpstarted the technology of Radiant Garden to unprecedented heights. He began the first offworld colonies, and he ensured that the people of his world were safe, happy, and well-cared for.

It was not to last.

Nine years ago, the Darkness came. No one knows where it came from, or why, or how. Some do remember seeing Shadows before the end came, others remember disappearances, still others still weep about lost loved ones, but still, none know the source.

It took almost a year. First came the disappearances: people vanished off the street. At first, it was criminals from their cells, then it was the very few homeless, then servants... then, the shadows started appearing. They seemed unreal at first, but more and more of them came, enough that people knew they existed, and still there were the disappearances. Then, the meteor shower, which was seen across all worlds, not just in the capitol. Then, a King from another world came, and while he was just and kind, if very alien, his coming seemed to herald an end... especially since the King never addressed any of these concerns. The foreign King asked Ansem if he knew of the Shadows, and Ansem denied such knowledge, saying that he'd never even seen such a thing. The people still clung to faith in their king -- he'd never let them down before -- but unease swept through them like a tide.

And after. Arguably cooler
Absolutely less habitable

The last straw was the Princess. The granddaughter of the previous King, Princess was kept as a merely formal title, an archaic throwback to a forgotten age, but Princess she was nonetheless, a tiny child and a light to all the people of Radiant Garden. And she vanished as though she never was.

Then the sky split. Water reversed its flow. The earth was riven and from beneath the castle poured the Shadows.

In the first day alone, tens of thousands of lives were lost. On the second day, another offworld visitor appeared, a woman named Maleficient, claiming to be the Queen of the Unsleelie Sidhe, something nobody there had ever heard of. She claimed that Radiant Garden was no longer such a thing, it was now a Hollow Bastion, an empty shell, a place of Darkness, and that it was her own. Her ultimatum was this: that anyone who chose to remain would become part of her army, willingly or not.

People fled to the Colonies, but that did not save them. The very sphere around Radiant Garden cracked and shattered, letting the Phlogiston fill the space. A few lucky souls escaped by Spelljammer or through other, more mysterious methods, but the Garden itself was lost.

POPULATION

Hollow Bastion itself is home now only to Heartless and to Maleficent herself. Some stubborn individuals eke out an existence on the colonies, but it's a harsh life and plagued by Heartless. They probably won't last.

Humans are the main race that populated Radiant Garden. I NEED MOAR THOUGHTS about whether or not there were other races on the other worlds, but, RG: Mostly humans.

Refugees from Radiant Garden live mostly in Traverse Town now, and they were some of the first settlers. A few escaped to Twilight Town, where they live in secret, trying to forget their past lives and live in relative peace. Some scattered individuals can be found elsewhere.

INDUSTRY AND ARMS

Magical technology was quite common, though most of it was practical in nature. Water purifiers, magical lamps that never go out, these were fairly common, as were magic weapons. Radiant Garden had no guns, but crossbows, especially crossbows enchanted with unlimited ammunition, were quite common.

THE UNIVERSITY

As a meritocracy based on arcane knowledge and scientific learning, the University of Radiant Garden was its crown jewel. Before becoming Apprentices, most potential Kings attended this University. Wizards and Magitek Engineers (of whatever flavor you prefer) were some of the graduates of this university.

RELIGION

The people of Radiant Garden believed quite strongly in the Light, a universal force at the heart of all living beings, and also at the heart of worlds. All Radian clerics worship the Light.

The Light holds that all hearts are connected as one, and each heart is a fragment of this greater Light at the heart of all things. The planet itself has a Heart, and that Heart in turn is connected to this Light. Kindness, generosity, selflessness, and friendship are the paramount values of the Light, as is living in harmony with your surroundings and with others.

There is a small but growing cult of Radian clerics who have turned instead to the Darkness, the opposite force, saying that the Heartless are heralds of this new force in the world, and that it is the sign of a new era. They're evil crazy bastards and not to be trusted.

SOME NPCS

The only person who lives here on a permanent basis is Maleficent. Maybe she has some minions, I'll make those up later.

For other Radian NPCs, please see the Traverse Town section.