Kingdom Hearts: The Unsung War

Kingdom Hearts: The Unsung War Trilogy is a fan-made RP sequel created by Razgriz 2K9. (under the name of Galm 1 as of September 20, 2010). Started on August 15, 2009, the trilogy takes place four years after the events of Kingdom Hearts II, and deals with the legacy of a brutal conflict that took place 15 years ago.

Overview
The Story Mode for Kingdom Hearts the Unsung War Trilogy is divided into three parts:

1. Kingdom Hearts: The Unsung War

2. Kingdom Hearts: Into the Dusk

3. Kingdom Hearts: The Journey Home

These three stories follow the progress of the titular Unsung War, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Raven Otsdarva. Raven takes command of the Army of the Realm of Light's Task Force 108. As the story begins, Raven is off doing odd jobs and protecting his home world, the Unity Islands, with his father, a war veteran by the name of Erieste, however, his father's disappearance by Garland and a surprise attack by the Heartless Empire, the RoL ally in the war 15 years ago drastically change the situation, and Raven and his newfound friends and allies are caught in the middle of it.

The Unsung War (Part 1)
The RP begins with Raven Otsdarva helping his father Erieste clear out some Heartless terrorizing the villagers in his home world, Unity Islands. The two split up with Erieste clearing Heartless in the beach while Raven went to fight Heartless in the forested area in the center of the island. Upon reaching a clearing, Raven stopped for a break, only to encounter the Fallen Swordsman, Garland.

After a duel which Raven could not keep up, Erieste appeared and told Raven to get help from other warriors. Raven complied and headed down to the beach, where he meets with Dr. Hal Otacon. With his help, they were able to dispatch some of the weaker Heartless. Raven however was caught off guard by stronger Heartless. Just as Raven was about to be hacked to death, he was saved by Luna Thermidor, who froze the Heartless solid. She came from Destiny Islands searching for Master Erieste.

Raven led Luna and Otacon to the clearing where his father was last seen. However, there was no one there; all that was seen was the Keychain of his father’s Keyblade. Because of this, Luna decided to take Hal and Raven instead.

On the way to Destiny Islands, Luna received a distress call that Radiant Garden was under attack by the Heartless horde, led personally by the Heartless Imperator, Dilan’s Heartless (and the Heartless version of Xaldin). Their goal was to destroy the flagship of AoL’s Radiant Garden Fleet, the Heavy Command Cruiser Kestrel.

Over the course of the battle, Raven proved himself to be good at moral support, telling soldiers to keep at fighting and that he’ll protect them. This led to a battle between Otacon, Luna and Raven against the Imperator. After a heated fight, which led to Raven activating his Drive Mode for the first time, they were able to force Dilan as well as the Heartless forces and Gummi Ships to retreat.

With the battle at Radiant Garden over, the three headed to Destiny Islands, where the gang met with the Base Commander, Reo Hamilton as well as Sora, Riku and Kairi. Unfortunately, the Heartless launched an immediate raid on Destiny Islands, led by Marluria (Marluxia’s Heartless).

This of course spurred Raven’s cause to protect his friends. Despite several civilians and warriors dying, the Keybladers were able to turn the tide of battle and repulse the Heartless assault, including Marluria’s death.

It was this battle that spurred the reason for Luna’s choice to make Raven as leader of the task force, at the time consisting of just herself and Otacon.

Three days after the raid, Reo ordered the new team to act as defenders on board the Kestrel as they made their way to Traverse Town in preparation to take back worlds already taken by the Heartless. It was there that they met the Commander of the AoL’s Radiant Garden Fleet, Captain Nicholas Anderson, who gave Raven advice on being a leader.

However while this is going on, Otacon was betreayed by a Heartless spy who alerted the presence of the RG Fleet’s position, to his master, The Arbiter known as Dagr Scinfaxi.

As a result, Scinfaxi’s forces attacked the RG Fleet with Small Gummi-Ship fighters as well as a Capital Ship of his own. Despite Raven’s best attempts, including killing the spy with a pistol, Scinfaxi got the last laugh, destroying two Kestrel-class Heavy Command Cruisers, the Buzzard and the Vulture.

With the RG Fleet severely weakened and Hal being split from the group to shadow Scinfaxi’s ship. Captain Anderson requested that they get assistance from the Army of Eastern Cloud, with that they headed to Eastern Cloud, a world near the closed gates of the former Lucid Empire.

It was there that Luna met and talked with Fuu Chao Rin, Princess of Eastern Cloud and an old friend of Luna. At the time, the King of Eastern Cloud was away on diplomatic business, leaving Chao to rule the home front.

Raven, finding that out from the guards, went to the marketplace where he met both Luna and Chao discussing their lives. Hal also made it to Eastern Cloud to tell the group of someone horrifying news. Scinfaxi attacked and captured Destiny Islands. With this news as well as the defeat of the RG Fleet, Chao decided to examine the situation further.

Otacon also brought additional bad news, Twilight Town was under attack. Raven, believing that he could save as many people in that world from destruction, brought Otacon, Luna and Chao to protect the survivors. In the battle, Raven and his team fought in a desperate bid to buy time for civilians to escape. It was then that Raven and gang engaged Scinfaxi in combat. True to the Arbiter’s nature, he was very powerful, having injured all four warriors. It was by a brave sacrifice that they were able to escape.

The four made their way to another Gummi Capital Ship, the Light Cruiser Arkbird. It was there that the four recovered. Hal revealed to Luna that the reason why he engaged in such reckless manner was because Scinfaxi kidnapped his mother during the last war, and he wanted to make him pay. Chao, seeing firsthand what the Heartless were capable of, left for Eastern Cloud to mobilize their forces for war.

The next day, the Arkbird flew to the lone world of Nomanisan Island (home to The Incredibles), there was a rocket delivering a Tactical Laser Cannon salvaged from the last war to be installed on the Arkbird. However, the Heartless caught wind of this and launched an attack to either capture or destroy the launch base. Because of this, Raven, Luna and Chao stubbornly and stiffly defended all of the entryways to prevent the Heartless from passing. After fierce fighting, the rocket launched. However, the commander of the invading force and Scinfaxi’s lieutenant, Zaharada, decided to just kill everyone on the world, and challenged Raven and Hal to a battle.

The fight however was broken up by Chao, who over the course of the defense, was possessed by the Phoenix spirit within her. In the battle between Phoenix Chao and Zaharada, Chao skewered the Heartless to death, but unable to control her power, turned against Raven, Hal and Luna. Luna used her magic, while Raven utilized his ability to transform his Keyblade into a Liquid Nitrogen Gun in an attempt to prevent Chao from getting more powerful. In the end, Chao was brought back to normal, but the base was completely destroyed.

With everyone recovering from the attack, Raven learned that Scinfaxi was going to attack his home world of Unity Islands, and began to despair that his friends are getting hurt and doubted himself as a good leader. But with the encouragement and training of Luna and Hal, Raven felt compelled to ensure that his world will not fall.

As soon as the Arkbird arrived at the islands, Raven, Luna, Chao (who was recovering from the Phoenix incident and was unconscious) and Hal headed groundside while the Arkbird held off the Heartless Fleet sent to engage it. On the ground, Raven and Hal headed down first to clear a place for Luna and Chao to land. While doing so, Hal encountered Scinfaxi and chased him to a cliff to engage in a duel. As soon as Raven finished, he went after Hal.

Hal tried to engage Scinfaxi, but Scinfaxi, being a powerful opponent that he was, severely wounded the Doctor and beat the guy to within an inch of his life. Raven, who witness the closing parts of the battle and enraged that the Arbiter did this to his friend, attacked Scinfaxi using his rage.

Meanwhile Luna was forced to hold off the Heartless until Chao awoke. With her help; they were able to clear off the Heartless forces. Luna proceeded to go and help Raven fight Scinfaxi, while Chao helped some soldiers capture a strategic position at the top of the cliff.

Despite the heightened attack, which managed to wound even the Arbiter, it proved to not be enough, and Raven was stabbed in the shoulder by Scinfaxi when Luna arrived. Raven’s determination to save his home kept him conscious and in the fight. Both Raven and Luna did all they could to defeat Scinfaxi, wounding the Arbiter further and tiring him out.

In the end, with Luna knocked out and losing blood and Raven once again about to die, Chao’s timely arrival helped change the tide of the battle. Raven used his knife to distract the Arbiter long enough for Chao to deal the killing blow. Unity Islands was saved, and the Heartless lost a decisive battle in the war.

Into the Dusk (Part 2)
It has been three weeks since the victory at Unity Islands. Reo Hamilton, the Commander of the Army of Light, saw the potential of Raven's team, nicknamed "The Four Wings of Unity Island" and decided to add more members to their team.

Because of this, Raven, Luna and Chao, the latter returning from a diplomatic mission in her home world, was dispatched to Olympus, their objective two fold, Raven was to participate in the 16th Annual Pegasus Cup Tournament, which would be used to increase the new unit, particularly their leader's, prestige, thus attracting new members. However, Hamilton was able to do so at the Unity Islands Base, through a red-haired monk by the name of Elaine Chevalier.

Raven made it to the final round, where he was to take on a mysterious newcomer by the name of Orion Smith, nicknamed the "Silver Dragoon." The fight began and both combatants were fighting evenly, with none of them gaining an advantage. Unfortunately, the match was cut short when Heartless attacked a RoL-controlled world for the first time in three weeks. Although the attack was mainly confined into the Coliseum and the inner city, it was still hard fought, even with the timely appearances of returning friend Hal, Elaine (who recently arrived upon news of the attack) and newcomers Julias Herenias, Laleth Aires, Sanjia Tiamatsu and a mercenary named Desiree Kaufman.

With their combined help, and Orion's use of his summon, Zodiark, the battle was won, however it was not over yet. Hal chose to stay behind in the event of another, larger Heartless attack, but not without showing Raven and his newfound allies a Gummi Ship that he constructed in the three weeks of peace, a modified Stealth Corvette known as the Normandy.

With everyone on board, Task Force 108 returned to Unity Islands, where Raven reciecved their first mission. They were sent to investigate and patrol Deep Space, due to sighting of an unidentified ship in the area.

Upon arriving in the world of Deep Space, Raven and Luna split up the teams to investigate. Luna's team managed to find the unidentified gummi ship, being repaired by King Mickey himself. But this proved to be a trap as both parties were attacked by a Heartless group and their leaders facing their toughest challenge, Raven took on Orion in rematch, while Luna fought a moogle assassin by the name of Shadow Card. Each of the newer members showed their mettle in combat, defeating the Heartless unit, including former Organization XIII hardware in the form of Ring Tanks. Luna's fight would be tough, and while neither she nor Shadow recieved a victory, she was able to force her opponent to retreat. Orion however, was able to win his fight due to Raven's overconfidence and lack of situational awareness. He did however, let him live.

After the fight, it was revealed that Laleth was seperated from Luna's group. In fact she wandered off into Deep Space's Botanical Garden, where she met the enigmatic Tsuki. Luna's team backtracked her steps to try and find their missing comrade.

Raven's team however saw the lannding of a Realm of Light Ship, coming out of it was a squad from the Army of Light known as Task Force 8492, led by former Lucidian Imperial Knight, Ashley Heimroth. They were sent in to find the King, who still carried his distress beacon on his person. The group linked up and headed off to find the King.

Both Raven and Luna's teams were reunited at the Botanical Garden, and after a heartfelt question from Elaine, Task Force 108 recieved a call to meet with Reo Hamilton to be briefed on upcoming Operation Footprint, the Liberation of Destiny Islands.

Differences from Kingdom Hearts Canon
The Unsung War Trilogy introduces a Georgian Calendar styled system known as the Disney Calendar or DC. The Year system is different from that of the usual system in that the years are counted in DC, with year 1 DC being the year that Walt Disney was born in Real Life (January 1, 1901) The events of the Unsung War Trilogy (Parts 1-3) is set to take place from September 27 to December 31, 109 DC.

The Heartless depicted in the Trilogy is slightly different than those from the canon. While their goal, to shroud all of the worlds in darkness, has not changed, their behavior has. Many of the Heartless seen and depicted are shown to have some human characteristics, showing feelings of fear, anger, sadness and many other things. They also show signs of thought and society, the Heartless Empire is shown to be run as a Kratocratic Monarchy (Kratocracy meaning "Rule of the Strong"). Another factor about Heartless is the fact that they uses more tactical stylings instead of the Surprise and Rush tactics used as shown in the games. They seem to show some Small Scale Tactics and Doctrines not only consisting of Human Wave, but also of other known battle tactics.

Also of note is those known as "Dark Humans." These are people who have embraced the darkness, yet was strong enough to not become Heartless. This is notable in that they have Darker colored skin and Sulphuric Yellow Eyes. They aren't as common as Heartless in the Realm of Darkness, but they have taken both political and military positions in the Empire, one notable person being the Major working with The Phantom as a double agent for the "Valahia" Organiation.

Trivia

 * The Unsung War Trilogy was created by Razgriz 2K9 and Project Unsung as an idea to meld the story of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, with Kingdom Hearts Canon, hence the name of the title.
 * In addition to Kingdom Hearts and Ace Combat bein used as influences in the RP. The UW Trilogy is also influenced from Halo, Star Wars, Starcraft and Final Fantasy.

The RP & Related Articles (Final Fantasy Forums)
The Unsung War RP (Part 1)

The Unsung War Summary (Part 1)

Into The Dusk RP (Part 2) (currently ongoing)

TV Tropes
TV Tropes Profile Character List