Randel
2009-01-26, 09:58 PM
I've gotten a sort of interesting idea in my head, mostly in response to the post about crossover campaigns.
Basically, assuming that Sora or other keyblade wielders are not present to stop the Heartless invaders, how would various worlds and factions stand up to them?
Assuming the Heartless invaders basically work like this (note that I might be reading too much into this):
1). Heartless travel between worlds via spaceships with faster-than-light travel. These ship qualify more like bioships than ones constructed with traditional manufacturing so in a space fight the Heartless ships would be very much weaker than most other ships they might run into (assuming that the civilization has space ships that can fight). However, the Heartless have the advantage that they can basically grow whole swarms of ships without needing any sort of infrastructure to make them. They are pretty much self-replicating assuming they have access to the hearts they corrupt.
2). Heartless regenerate from pretty much any damage they receive unless slain with a keyblade or some similar weapon designed to deal with them. From what I gather from the games, each Heartless is pretty much a congealed mass of shadow-stuff surrounding a captured heart. While the body can be destroyed, the corrupt heart will usually fall back into the realm of shadows and regrow the body after a period of time so that it can come back. The keyblade is used to free those hearts and send to the afterlife (ie Kingdom Hearts). This is possibly the one thing that makes Heartless so dangerous, they are effectivly zombies that can never truly be killed unless a hero comes by and kills them for good. Of course, there should be other non-keyblade methods of permanantly killing Heartless which some worlds would have access to. But those that don't may find themselves up against an enemy that simply can never be permanantly beaten.
3). Heartless can teleport. Basically, they hide in the realm of shadows and have enough of a view of the 'real world' that they can bypass most obstacles and appear next to their victims. There are things that can prevent this from working, noticeably the Cornerstone of Light used in Disney Castle... but most things used to repel evil spirits or undead should work against them, in addition to sci-fi technology used to prevent teleports. Though this advantage makes them deadly in highly populated areas since they can bypass walls and other barriers unless special defenses are used.
4). Heartless can destroy a planet by eating its heart, provided they can find the keyhole to it. This essentially makes them capable of destroying entire planets once they reach a certain mystical site on the world. The keyhole can be sealed with the right equipment (the keyblade was used in the games, but someone sufficiently advanced with magic or certain sciences might be able to seal it without a keyblade). If the inhabitants of that world can find out where that spot is then they pretty much have to defend it, seal it, or get ready to evacuate the planet.
5). Heartless spawned will generally have powers similar to those of the person whose hearts they captured, with stronger hearts resulting in stronger Heartless. They don't return as an exact copy of themself, but some of their abilities are retained. Likewise Heartless seem to be able to fuse or absorb equipment and such to themselves. So, if they beat you, they get your stuff.
6). Heartless will first team up with the most evil person on the world they intend to conquer and then turn on them once they are no longer useful. So, on any world they run into, the Heartless will basically try joining up with the bad guys and start hunting innocents and heros until the 'good guys' are gone, then kill the bad guys or just find the keyhole and destroy the world. This helps them by having at least some allies on the world not just uniting every nation and faction toward killing heartless. If multiple 'bad guys' exist on a planet, the Heartless would probably join all of them until they could take over.
7). When a person falls to the Heartless, there is a chance that a Nobody will be created as well. This happens more often with people with strong hearts, but it still means that there will always be more Heartless than Nobodies. Nobodies seem to just vanish into nothingness when slain so they don't regenerate like Heartless. However, Nobodies seem capable of retaining the originals intelligence and personality (albeit without a heart and maybe a bit insane) so there is the possibility that some powerful individuals on a world might get slain by Heartless and return as Nobodies to keep on fighting.
So, thats pretty much what the Heartless have going for them. They seek out worlds with intelligent life, team up with the meanest people on there that they can find, move through the shadows to attack people and eventually steal the hearts of every inhabitant and destroy the planet.
For the purpose of most fictional worlds, they would be treated as undead and creatures of darkness and evil. So they would probably be affected by whatever in-world weapons that would be used against such creatures.
So... how would the various world in fiction stand up against them?
Rapture (from Bioshock): A sunken city formed on the foundation of Objectivism, self-reliance, and the opposition of charity and altuism. Since the society there was already destroyed by the use of genetic engineering, the Heartless would likely eat everyone for lunch. Sure, pretty much everyone there is a mutant armed to the teeth with nasty weapons and traps, but they don't have the power of love or sanity. Heartless wins.
Warhammer 40k Universe: Pretty much everyone in the universe is evil so the Heartless have a ball, however everyone in the universe is also armed to the teeth and fighting everyone else in the universe. The Heartless might pull a few victories and destroy a few planets, particularly against the Imperium and the Orks, but if they run into the Tyranids they will pretty much get stomped on (though they will regenerate) and the Eldar will probably find some way to permanently destroy them. Essentially, the Heartless will just be another bunch of world-eating incarnations of evil and get lost in the crowd. Tie.
Care-alot (the kingdom of the Care Bears): None of the Care Bears have any evil in their hearts, except possibly Grumpy Bear and he can blast stuff with lighting. If the Heartless show up they might be able to pick on small children but then the Care Bears will rainbow teleport in and Care Bear Stare them into oblivion. Care Bears win.
Any Dungeons and Dragons game: Heartless are pretty much a type of undead, so if the party is equipped to deal with that then the Heartless won't be too much of a problem. A few Forbiddance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/forbiddance.htm) spells should make plenty of safe zones for people to stay out of harms way. Players win, if they are prepared.
The Enterprise (from Star Trek Next Generation): Picard and his crew will have a heck of a fight. Sure the Heartless ships are about as durable as giant blobs of jello, but the Enterprise seems to only have one phaser bank on it so it can't really destroy a whole wave of them coming at them. A few Heartless will teleport on board and start eating redshirts. The fatalities from the invaders however will be only a fraction of those from exploding consoles and holodeck malfunctions (nobody knows what would happen if the Heartless entered the Holodeck, but we can be sure it will result in more dead crewmen.) The only hope the ship has is if Geordie overhears Riker discuss some odd event in his past where he got banned forever from some place. At that point Geordie and Data will get the idea to just teleport all the Heartless into space, which will solve all their problems until the. The Enterprise wins... sort of.
Basically, assuming that Sora or other keyblade wielders are not present to stop the Heartless invaders, how would various worlds and factions stand up to them?
Assuming the Heartless invaders basically work like this (note that I might be reading too much into this):
1). Heartless travel between worlds via spaceships with faster-than-light travel. These ship qualify more like bioships than ones constructed with traditional manufacturing so in a space fight the Heartless ships would be very much weaker than most other ships they might run into (assuming that the civilization has space ships that can fight). However, the Heartless have the advantage that they can basically grow whole swarms of ships without needing any sort of infrastructure to make them. They are pretty much self-replicating assuming they have access to the hearts they corrupt.
2). Heartless regenerate from pretty much any damage they receive unless slain with a keyblade or some similar weapon designed to deal with them. From what I gather from the games, each Heartless is pretty much a congealed mass of shadow-stuff surrounding a captured heart. While the body can be destroyed, the corrupt heart will usually fall back into the realm of shadows and regrow the body after a period of time so that it can come back. The keyblade is used to free those hearts and send to the afterlife (ie Kingdom Hearts). This is possibly the one thing that makes Heartless so dangerous, they are effectivly zombies that can never truly be killed unless a hero comes by and kills them for good. Of course, there should be other non-keyblade methods of permanantly killing Heartless which some worlds would have access to. But those that don't may find themselves up against an enemy that simply can never be permanantly beaten.
3). Heartless can teleport. Basically, they hide in the realm of shadows and have enough of a view of the 'real world' that they can bypass most obstacles and appear next to their victims. There are things that can prevent this from working, noticeably the Cornerstone of Light used in Disney Castle... but most things used to repel evil spirits or undead should work against them, in addition to sci-fi technology used to prevent teleports. Though this advantage makes them deadly in highly populated areas since they can bypass walls and other barriers unless special defenses are used.
4). Heartless can destroy a planet by eating its heart, provided they can find the keyhole to it. This essentially makes them capable of destroying entire planets once they reach a certain mystical site on the world. The keyhole can be sealed with the right equipment (the keyblade was used in the games, but someone sufficiently advanced with magic or certain sciences might be able to seal it without a keyblade). If the inhabitants of that world can find out where that spot is then they pretty much have to defend it, seal it, or get ready to evacuate the planet.
5). Heartless spawned will generally have powers similar to those of the person whose hearts they captured, with stronger hearts resulting in stronger Heartless. They don't return as an exact copy of themself, but some of their abilities are retained. Likewise Heartless seem to be able to fuse or absorb equipment and such to themselves. So, if they beat you, they get your stuff.
6). Heartless will first team up with the most evil person on the world they intend to conquer and then turn on them once they are no longer useful. So, on any world they run into, the Heartless will basically try joining up with the bad guys and start hunting innocents and heros until the 'good guys' are gone, then kill the bad guys or just find the keyhole and destroy the world. This helps them by having at least some allies on the world not just uniting every nation and faction toward killing heartless. If multiple 'bad guys' exist on a planet, the Heartless would probably join all of them until they could take over.
7). When a person falls to the Heartless, there is a chance that a Nobody will be created as well. This happens more often with people with strong hearts, but it still means that there will always be more Heartless than Nobodies. Nobodies seem to just vanish into nothingness when slain so they don't regenerate like Heartless. However, Nobodies seem capable of retaining the originals intelligence and personality (albeit without a heart and maybe a bit insane) so there is the possibility that some powerful individuals on a world might get slain by Heartless and return as Nobodies to keep on fighting.
So, thats pretty much what the Heartless have going for them. They seek out worlds with intelligent life, team up with the meanest people on there that they can find, move through the shadows to attack people and eventually steal the hearts of every inhabitant and destroy the planet.
For the purpose of most fictional worlds, they would be treated as undead and creatures of darkness and evil. So they would probably be affected by whatever in-world weapons that would be used against such creatures.
So... how would the various world in fiction stand up against them?
Rapture (from Bioshock): A sunken city formed on the foundation of Objectivism, self-reliance, and the opposition of charity and altuism. Since the society there was already destroyed by the use of genetic engineering, the Heartless would likely eat everyone for lunch. Sure, pretty much everyone there is a mutant armed to the teeth with nasty weapons and traps, but they don't have the power of love or sanity. Heartless wins.
Warhammer 40k Universe: Pretty much everyone in the universe is evil so the Heartless have a ball, however everyone in the universe is also armed to the teeth and fighting everyone else in the universe. The Heartless might pull a few victories and destroy a few planets, particularly against the Imperium and the Orks, but if they run into the Tyranids they will pretty much get stomped on (though they will regenerate) and the Eldar will probably find some way to permanently destroy them. Essentially, the Heartless will just be another bunch of world-eating incarnations of evil and get lost in the crowd. Tie.
Care-alot (the kingdom of the Care Bears): None of the Care Bears have any evil in their hearts, except possibly Grumpy Bear and he can blast stuff with lighting. If the Heartless show up they might be able to pick on small children but then the Care Bears will rainbow teleport in and Care Bear Stare them into oblivion. Care Bears win.
Any Dungeons and Dragons game: Heartless are pretty much a type of undead, so if the party is equipped to deal with that then the Heartless won't be too much of a problem. A few Forbiddance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/forbiddance.htm) spells should make plenty of safe zones for people to stay out of harms way. Players win, if they are prepared.
The Enterprise (from Star Trek Next Generation): Picard and his crew will have a heck of a fight. Sure the Heartless ships are about as durable as giant blobs of jello, but the Enterprise seems to only have one phaser bank on it so it can't really destroy a whole wave of them coming at them. A few Heartless will teleport on board and start eating redshirts. The fatalities from the invaders however will be only a fraction of those from exploding consoles and holodeck malfunctions (nobody knows what would happen if the Heartless entered the Holodeck, but we can be sure it will result in more dead crewmen.) The only hope the ship has is if Geordie overhears Riker discuss some odd event in his past where he got banned forever from some place. At that point Geordie and Data will get the idea to just teleport all the Heartless into space, which will solve all their problems until the. The Enterprise wins... sort of.