‘Kingdom Hearts’ Guide Part 1: χ and The Book of Prophecies
Kingdom Hearts is one of the most intricate and carefully crafted franchises in video game and entertainment history. After years of waiting, in 2026 fans were finally granted a peek behind the curtain at the “Magic in the Making” and shown what’s in store for the future of the franchise. With two full trailers for Kingdom Hearts IV (slated release for late 2027), the upcoming release of the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] (where players will be able to experience the entire saga), and the long-rumored original anime TV series now greenlit for Disney Channel and Disney+, it’s an exciting time for fans.
As I delve into the history of the franchise here and in a series of articles to follow, I will recap the most important events from all the games and projects into a condensed guide to Kingdom Hearts. Whether you are a veteran wielder of the keyblade seeking to brush up on your lore or a newcomer seeking to take this first dive into the franchise, may this series be your guide to this incredible story.
What is Kingdom Hearts?
Kingdom Hearts is a collection of around 12 games (and 1 movie) that have been released over the last few decades, dating all the way back to 2002:
- Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
- Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories
- Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
- Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix
- Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded
- Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
- Kingdom Hearts χ/Unchained χ/ Union χ
- Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover
- Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A fragmentary passage
- Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re: Mind DLC
- Kingdom Hearts χ Dark Road
- Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
[Writer’s note: Don’t worry, we’ll cover the canceled game Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link as well in another article.]
These games revolve mainly around a trio of friends: Sora, Riku, and Kairi from a place called Destiny Islands. They often question what the world is like beyond the Destiny Islands and dream of other worlds and places they’d like to see. One fateful night, a storm of darkness invades the islands and separates the trio, embarking them on a destiny that would change their lives forever.
But while the story revolves around Sora, Kairi, and Riku, the origins of these games take place hundreds of years before the events of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. That is why this part of my Kingdom Hearts guide begins with the story of the Master of Masters, the Foretellers, the Unions, and how the battle between Light and Darkness came to be. That is the story many know as Kingdom Hearts χ.
Why so many titles? (χ / Unchained χ / Union χ / χ Back Cover)
Before we get started, I want to point out that all of these titles refer to just one story: the story of Kingdom Hearts χ (pronounced “key”). In 2013, Square Enix launched Kingdom Hearts χ as an exclusive PC browser title in Japan. Eventually, the game relaunched in 2015 as a mobile game called Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, later retitled Kingdom Hearts Union χ, which not only retells the events of Kingdom Hearts χ but also continues the story with new lore.
So, for the purposes of this guide, Kingdom Hearts χ, Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, and Kingdom Hearts Union χ are all (for purposes of simplicity) the same story. We’ll be referring to the first act as Kingdom Hearts χ, and the second act as Kingdom Hearts Union χ moving forward.
Now, what about χ Back Cover? Well, χ Back Cover isn’t really a game but rather a movie. It’s a collection of cutscenes set around the same time as the events of Kingdom Hearts χ, but from the perspective of the Foretellers (we’ll get to them in a moment).
χ Back Cover is currently available as part of the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue bundle and will be available on the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] as well. Unfortunately, the current service for the Kingdom Hearts χ games has already ended, and they can no longer be played officially. So the best way to learn the full story is to read guides like these or watch YouTube videos.
The core story of Kingdom Hearts has always been about the battle between light and darkness.
From time immemorial, the light and darkness have been at odds with each other. The battle took a drastic turn when the Darkness learned of a way to shed their physical forms. They were then able to corrupt the hearts of the beings of Light, effectively becoming immortal, but at the risk of losing their will. Of all the beings of Darkness who were able to shed their form, 13 retained their will, corrupting countless beings of Light as their pawns.
When we begin with Kingdom Hearts χ, we are already caught up in the war between these two polar opposites. And on the side of the Light is the enigmatic figure known as the Master of Masters. Just when all hope seemed lost in the battle against the Darkness due to the immortal forms of the thirteen Darknesses, the Master of Masters had developed a plan that would take “time and careful planning… so much that you couldn’t do it all in one lifetime or two.”
The universe of Kingdom Hearts is divided into three main planes of existence: the Realm of Light, the Realm of Darkness, and the Realm of In Between. For now, let’s just focus on the first location. The Realm of Light is a massive, interconnected dominion comprising half of the known Kingdom Hearts universe and nearly all possible worlds in the franchise (basically all the Disney franchise worlds).
The Master of Masters and Luxu
Within the Realm of Light is a place known as Daybreak Town. It is here that the Master of Masters resides, as well as where most of the lore story of χ takes place. In Daybreak Town, the Master of Masters would come to select six beings of Light to take on as his apprentices. Of these apprentices, five would go on to become the Foretellers, and one would be separate from the group: Luxu.
The Master of Masters gave Luxu “The Gazing Eye,” which was the Master’s own keyblade. Embedded in the keyblade was the master’s eye, which allowed him to gaze into the future and see the events to come, from which he would eventually be able to write in his Book of Prophecies.
Along with the keyblade, the Master of Masters also gave him a black box (which we still know nothing about). Luxu was instructed to take them and travel the world for generations, staying out of sight and not getting involved in the conflicts that would arise, to allow the natural course of events to take place.
Luxu would eventually pass the keyblade on to his own apprentice; from that apprentice it would go to a future apprentice, and so on, but Luxu would continue to watch over it until the keyblade fell into the hands of its intended wielder. Since this would take several generations, Luxu would have to shed his physical form and inhabit many vessels over the years, much like the Darkness does.
As Luxu completes his mission away from the eyes of his friends and the world, the Master of Masters was able to pierce into the future, observe the journey of his keyblade, and write The Book of Prophecies.
The Foretellers and their roles
Now, as mentioned earlier, aside from Luxu, the Master of Masters also trained five other beings of Light as his apprentices: Ira, Invi, Aced, Gula, and Ava. These five apprentices would become “The Foretellers.” Each Foreteller led one of five unions composed of young keyblade wielders whose mission was to defeat Heartless and collect Lux, essentially fragments of Light for their union. The wielders were all kids from Daybreak Town, including you, the Player, who could choose any of the wielders to follow.
The Master gave each Foreteller a copy of The Book of Prophecies, granting them knowledge of events that had yet to occur. All five books, however, ended the same way. A Keyblade War would come to pass. All the unions would face all-out war and perish. The final passage of the book said, “On that fated land, a great war shall transpire. Darkness will prevail, and the light expire.”
Sometime after Luxu disappeared to fulfill his role assigned to him by the Master, the Master met with each of the Foretellers privately and assigned them a separate role:
- Ira was appointed leader of the Foretellers and instructed to take the Master’s place should something ever happen to him.
- Invi was told to observe the other Foretellers, act as a mediator between them, and report her findings to Ira to maintain the balance.
- Aced was named to be Ira’s right-hand man when Ira takes over as the leader of the Foretellers. Although reluctant to support Ira, thinking he was more worthy of the role of leader, he agreed. The Master added that if Ira’s leadership is called into question and he cannot lead the Foretellers, then Aced may step forward as leader.
- Gula was secretly given the Lost Page, a page deliberately excluded from every other copy of the Book of Prophecies. The page mentioned that there was a traitor among the Foretellers: “the one who bears the sigil.” It described the traitor as “Imbalance observed, strength misplaced, a future filled with sorrow, words of truth misunderstood as they explore the secret of tomorrow.” Gula’s role was to identify and stop the traitor while trusting no one but himself.
- Ava was tasked with secretly recruiting exceptional wielders from every union. These chosen wielders, which would be known as the Dandelions, would avoid the Keyblade War and carry the Light into the world that came afterward. The Master also provided Ava with a list of five keyblade wielders she must gather as Dandelions to succeed the Foretellers as Union leaders following the Keyblade War. One of them is meant to receive a copy of the Book of Prophecies.
Although these assignments appeared intended to protect the Light, they were carefully designed to place the Foretellers in conflict. Ira’s authority threatened Aced’s ambitions. Aced’s power to replace Ira made him appear disloyal. Invi’s observations made the others see her as Ira’s spy. Gula’s secret possession of the Lost Page made him suspicious of everyone—and made everyone suspicious of him. Meanwhile, Ava was forced to conceal the Dandelions from her closest companions.
Despite knowing what was coming, the Foretellers were forbidden from forming alliances, sharing the details of their individual roles, or acting against the Master’s teachings. With this in mind, it would force the Foretellers to distrust one another and eventually compete, hoarding the light to prevent the traitor from securing the light to cause irreparable harm to others.
As the seeds of mistrust were planted and the roles were given, the Master of Masters mysteriously vanished from the world, leading the negative emotions to develop and fester in the hearts of the Foretellers. That distrust was precisely what the Master needed for his plan to be perfectly executed.
Act 1: The story of Kingdom Hearts χ
When you first start to play the game, the Player would join one of the unions from the five Foretellers, collect Lux, and travel to the various Disney worlds. However, during the story, you meet another Keyblade Wielder by the name of Ephemer, who started questioning how Daybreak Town and the Realm of Light actually worked.
He realized the Disney worlds they visit aren’t physically connected to their own world at all. They are projected from the future through the power of The Book of Prophecies, because these worlds technically hadn’t existed at this point for the Players and the characters of Daybreak Town. So the light the unions were collecting was not light from Heartless, but rather the light of the world itself.
With this discovery, the Player and Ephemer decide to investigate the tower at the center of Daybreak Town. Except when the time comes to meet again, Ephemer never appears. Instead, another wielder named Skuld approaches, who tells the Player that Ephemer came to her in a dream and warned her that the Keyblade War was almost upon them and the world was about to end.
As the two enter the Daybreak Town Tower looking for answers, they fight Master Ava, who had disguised herself as Master Ira to test the Player and Skuld. From there, we learn what happened to Ephemer, and Ava reveals her plan to secretly gather exceptional Keyblade wielders from all unions into a separate group, which would become the Dandelions.
Ava chose Ephemer to be the leader of the Dandelions, and Ava invites the Player and Skuld to be a part of the Dandelions. Skuld accepts. However, the Player hesitates because they cannot bring themselves to abandon everyone else, knowing they are marching toward their deaths at the end of the Keyblade War.
The mystery of Strelitzia
In the days leading up to the First Keyblade War, tensions between the Unions became increasingly severe. The Foretellers were at each other’s throats while Ava continued to train the Dandelions and gave them a message of hope as they embarked on their journey to a new world away from the war.
One such Dandelion is Strelitzia. Ava selected her to become one of five Dandelions to succeed the Foretellers as Union Leaders following the events of the Keyblade War, alongside Ephemer as the leader. She hesitates but takes the book, which contains a collection of laws that the new Union Leaders must follow in this world, and resolves to tell the Player about the events to come.
While the Player never interacts with Strelitzia, she sees the Player as someone special and would consider them a friend. She tries to find the Player and warn them about what’s coming, but someone attacks her from behind and steals her book, and Strelitzia dies, never having told the Player about the impending doom of the world.
The first Keyblade War
A few days later, the Keyblade War finally begins. Thousands of keyblade wielders descend upon the battlefield. All five Foretellers are there, including Ava. The Player is on the battlefield as well, having chosen to stay behind. The Player faces off against most of the Foretellers, including Master Ava, who told them to search for the Dandelions and stray far away from battle.
One after another, wielders fall until the battlefield becomes covered in abandoned keyblades—a keyblade graveyard. Thousands of keyblade wielders have now fallen, as well as all the Foretellers. While we never see what happens to them (until much, much later), it is assumed, based on what the Master of Masters told Luxu, that the five Foretellers fell.
As the Light of Kingdom Hearts begins to appear above the battlefield, Ephemer and Skuld arrive at the very end to take the Player away into the new world. The old world ends, with Luxu and the Master of Masters’ Keyblade looking on.
The first step of the Master of Masters’ plan
When the Master of Masters disappeared from the world, the Foretellers began experiencing their negative emotions at an exponential rate, amplified by their mistrust of one another. With their negative emotions acting as a magnet to the forces of Darkness, five of the thirteen Darknesses who had shed their physical form would find it irresistible to inhabit the hearts of the Foretellers.
As the story progresses, those five formless Darknesses infiltrate the hearts of the Foretellers, which was the first step in the Master of Masters’ grand scheme from the beginning.
Because the Master of Masters trained these apprentices, he was sure that while they would harbor the negative emotions to draw the Darkness in. The Darknesses would be unable to take over their bodies because the Darkness could never extinguish the Foretellers’ lights. So they would be trapped inside their hearts.
When the Keyblade War came to pass, with the fall of the five Foretellers, so too would the five formless Darknesses in their hearts fall. As for the mysterious traitor? The traitor was never one of the Foretellers, but rather Luxu. He was the only one who would deviate from the Master’s strict instructions, which the Master also took into account as a way to ensure that the Darkness could never guess Luxu’s next move.
Moreover, the Master of Masters and Luxu would also have to harbor Darknesses of their own, trapping the strongest seven of the thirteen Darknesses in total, leaving six more Darknesses to deal with.
Now, with five Darknesses seemingly perished and two trapped within the Master’s heart and the heart of Luxu, that left only six Darknesses to deal with. Just as he orchestrated for the Foretellers to harbor the five Darknesses, the Master also orchestrated for one of the new Union Leaders of the new world to harbor one of the six remaining Darknesses.
More guides for the fantastic universe of Kingdom Hearts coming soon
Keep an eye out for Part 2 of my ongoing series about Kingdom Hearts coming soon! Part 2 focuses on Kingdom Hearts Union χ.
Also check out: Final Fantasy VII Story Primer
