Unknown adventures await.
Kingdom Hearts: Forgotten Worlds
is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic written by Sum Dum Nerd/NerdWithAKeyboard.The story follows Sora, Kairi, Donald Duck, and Goofy as they travel to distant, previously unvisited worlds to combat the ever-spreading Heartless. However, Yen Sid and King Mickey also discover that an ancient evil long thought defeated has returned, and threatens all worlds.
The story began in August 2019 and was completed in June 2022.
Kingdom Hearts: Forgotten Worlds contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ancient Evil: The Horned King, who was defeated by Yen Sid years prior, returns and is spreading the Heartless' reach.
- Artifact of Power: The Black Cauldron
- Crossover: As with the canon Kingdom Hearts games, Disney properties and Final Fantasy characters meet in the same story. This story takes it a step further by including Disney-themed worlds and characters that did not appear in the canon games.
- Hidden Villain: The ancient evil known as "The Master", later reveled to be the Horned King, commands a New Council of Villains and seeks the Black Cauldron, which will allow his evil schemes to unfold.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Lightning is a moody, distant young woman who shuns and belittles Sora and co. for bothering her and offering to fight alongside her. However, after they prove themselves by helping her defeat the Great Defiler, she softens her attitude towards them and offers to aid them on their quest, admitting that she had something bad happen to her to cause her poor attitude.
- Emperor Kuzco starts off selfish and rude, but over time it is revealed that he is kinder deep down than he cares to admit. By the end of the chapter, he lets his humility and kindness shine through, thanking everyone and even giving Sora a gift.
- Legion of Doom: After the fall of the first Council of Villains, the Horned King forms the New Council of Villains consisting of himself, Maleficent, Pete, Bill Cipher, Madame Leota, Dr. Faciller, and The White Witch.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Lightning's weapon of choice is her signature gunblade.
- Original Flavour: The fic does its best to emulate the mood, style, and feel of the canon games.
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: The fic is intended to work in the story of canon, and takes place between Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Lightning reveals that Dorgann Klauser was hiding a steel box, which had a powerful Light spell cast on it to keep something Dark inside. It is later revealed that the Darkness sealed away was the Horned King, who had been defeated by Yen Sid years prior and is the reason behind the growing Darkness.
