Kingdom Hearts: Golden Days

Kingdom Hearts: Golden Days is a series of fan-made novels telling of the rise and fall of the Keyblade and its wielders, as well as the details of the Keyblade War, and the origins of Master Xehanort and Master Eraqus. The novels were released in Japan only, and were translated to both Japanese and English. The series sold very well for a fan-made series, selling over 250,0000 copies. The series contains various hints to help readers piece together the Kingdom Hearts Universe, and includes a vast array of well-described Disney worlds and characters, plus new Final Fantasy and original characters. The series is set around sixty years before Birth by Sleep.

Setting
The novels are set sixty years before the events of Birth by Sleep, in a time known as the 'Golden Days,' a time when the protectors of the worlds, Keybearers, were plentiful. They had their own organization determined to keep peace and order in the worlds. The worlds that were under the protection of the Keybearer Society were known as Locked Worlds, whereas worlds that were independant and did not require or desire protection were known as Open Worlds. While the Society did not deal with the politics of Locked Worlds, they always monitored them. Locked Worlds were peaceful places kept from harm, while Open Worlds were often constantly terrorized by something or other. Despite protecting many different worlds simoultaneously, the Society has always kept the existance of multiple worlds hidden, so each Locked World believes that they are the one and only world.

Despite the fact that there are many Keyblades in all kinds of shapes and sizes, people in these days referred to the Keyblade as one. There was truly only one Keyblade, and all the others were physical manifestations of it, all Keyblades only a part of this one blade. The only exceptions were Keyblades of Heart, which were artificially created from the hearts of men. Since they were artificially created, these Keyblades did not come from the all-powerful blade, and instead had seperate powers of their own. Proof of this is shown through the fact that they have no Keychain, the keychain being the symbol of the Keyblade.

The Keybearer Society trained young potential Keybearers to become warriors or masters in their own right, if they wished. In essence, the Society doubled as a sort of school. However, young Keybearers under training were not allowed to see their parents of family, or even their world anymore until they were old enough to keep the secret of the worlds.