Guide to KHχ Part 1(Setting & Characters)

GensouR-1's explanation guide to KHχ games(contains wall of text spoilers obviously)
-What is KHχ?
Kingdom Hearts χ,stylized as Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] is a Kingdom Hearts game that is exclusive to PC browsers as the eighth game of the series,it is a (false flag) prequel that (seemingly) takes place in the Age of Fairytales and tells the story leading up to the Keyblade War and the founding of Scala ad Caelum.The closed beta test for Kingdom Hearts χ was held from March 22 to March 25, 2013. An open beta test started on July 8, 2013, and it concluded with the official launch of the game service on July 18, 2013.On May 12, 2015, it was announced that Kingdom Hearts χ had been remade for iOS and Android smartphones as Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ. It was released in Japan on September 3 of that same year with the Global(otherwise known as the NA version) released in October 2016.A tie-in movie that takes place within χ's events known as Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover was released in January 12 2017 as part of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.In April 2017,Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ was rebranded with the Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] content update,featuring multiplayer and a theater mode.
-How can i play it?
You can now only play Union χ[Cross] since Browser χ[chi] ended service in September 2016,just download it directly from Google Play if you want the NA version but if you want to play the Japanese version just download it from Apkpure or Qooapp since Google Play region locks the Japanese version.
-Setting:
The game takes place in Daybreak Town which is where the Master of Masters,his 6 apprentices & the main characters lives in,you seemingly go to Disney worlds that weren't supposed to exist yet to collect Lux from them,but it's revealed that you were actually going to simulations of future worlds acting as substitutes for the faraway worlds currently existing as nations in the complete World in the AoF created by the Book of Prophecies and no one actually left Daybreak town,the wasteland battleground that became the Keyblade Graveyard was also a part of Daybreak Town.Hints sown on the main plot of χ(namely Nightmare Chirithy's scenarios,which foreshadowed that Daybreak Town isn't what it seemed to be) and Uχ(that The World never fell to darkness despite being fragmented by the war) and the revelation that Daybreak Town became Scala Ad Caelum(which revealed that the real Daybreak Town never became a Sleeping World and the one in χ isn't the real thing) in KH3 implicates that the events of the game takes place in a dream recreation of Daybreak Town reenacting the events leading up to the founding of Scala ad Caelum using the information of Daybreak Town as a basis for its creation(think Blazblue where the "world" is just The Origin's dream created using Master Unit Amaterasu,the Black Beast used as a catalyst for the formation of the Embryo,Takamagahara's unwilling cooperation and information of the world destroyed by the Black Beast+Calamity Trigger's loops,except Nightmare Chirithy hints that instead of being reset back to the beginning,once the dream iteration reaches the end it will fall apart and a new dream is recreated by the χ equivalent of the Origin),the time period of when the current iteration began is unknown but by Browser χ's climax,it runs concurrently as the same time as KH3's climax which explains why Nightmare Chirithy is guiding Player to the truth of the world as the moment Xehanort's Keyblade War begins is the signal that Luxu's observation of Xehanort is almost complete and thus there's no need for the dreams to perpetuate to preserve the Foretellers in the dream world anymore.
-Characters:
-Player=Avatar character and the only playable character in KHχ,He/She starts off as a silent protagonist but developed their own character in the Dandelion trial against Ava,they're seemingly a participant of the Keyblade War who didn't join the Dandelions but browser χ's credits showed Ephemera and Skuld taking their place in the events of browser χ which indicates something isn't right with the nature of the Player's existence(the real Ephemera trying to wake them up by showing them a vision of KH3's climax and Nightmare Chirithy trying to guide them to the truth of the world indicates they're the one who is conjuring the dream).
Chirithy=A creature that was created by the Master of Masters and later revealed to be a Dream Eater created from an Archetype,just like all Dream Eaters they are split into 2 categories:
-Spirit:the Spirit version of Chirithy that assists their partners,their purpose is to oversee and assist the Union members's progress.while the Spirits supports the 5 Unions and though they are not subordinates to the Foretellers directly,they work together with them to drive back the darkness.while they have the abillity to devour dreams like all Spirits,for unknown reasons unlike their Nightmare counterparts they are not aware of their own nature as a Spirit Dream Eater(at the very least,Player's Chirithy doesn't know about their own nature).If the person their life is connected to is killed so will they as their lives are linked(which implies that Spirit Chirithy doesn't have the immortality Player's Nightmare Chirithy has,meaning that Player's current one is just the Chirithy of the current dream and that the Chirithy of the countless previous iterations all died because Player's connection to the previous dreams was continuously severed?).
-Nightmare:the Nightmare version of Chirithy whose existence was foreseen by the Master and can come to existence by a Union Member's usage of Guilt,they have the abillity to absorb bad dreams(the Black Jackets that showed up before the boss fight aren't actually real Heartless but bad dreams imitating their form) to access a more powerful form but it's unknown if all Dream Eaters have the abillity to do this or if it is just exclusive to Nightmare Chirithy.Unlike their Spirit counterpart they can kill their Players without dying and are aware of their true nature as a Nightmare.
Player's Nightmare Chirithy is a special case among Dream Eaters because as long as the dream recreation of Daybreak Town exists,they will continue to perpetually "revive" with the death and creation of every successive dream recreations,essentially making it immortal as long as the loop continues,it's intent on making sure Player stays on the path that will lead them to discover the truth of the dream world and presumably their true identity and is willing to force them into participating if they refuse to take part in the reenactment of the war which will lead them to the events that unfolded in Data Daybreak Town.
As of the climax of Browser χ,the connection between Nightmare Chirithy and Player is temporarily severed until the current iteration of Daybreak Town dies.Once a new dream is born again,the connection will be reestablished and Nightmare Chirithy will return(unlike what will normally happen the connection severing ≠ death in this case,it seems to be cutting the severed one off from the current dream until it reaches the end and dies after which a new one is born and the connection is reestablished,ergo it's more closer to temporary banishment than an actual death)
-The Lost Masters:Key characters of KHχ and are the core characters of the events leading up to the Keyblade War,All 6(?) of the apprentices have names(not their actual names as the apprentices current names are given to them by the Master)relating to the Seven Deadly Sins:
Master of Masters(God):
The missing clairvoyant Master of the 6 apprentices who created Chirithy,writer of the Book of Prophecies and the creator of the Keyblades using the χ-Blade as a basis for their creation.an easygoing person whose behaviour unpredictably goes from wacky to serious whenever he wants and gives nicknames to people in the JP version(Acedon for Aced and Iracchi for Ira for example),he's uninterested in averting the apocalypse(because changing the future takes too much work) but he lets the Foretellers try to save it,he gave tasks to his 6 apprentices and gave Luxu the No Name Keyblade and the X-Super box before disappearing,unlike his apprentices he's associated with the Abrahamic God instead of the 7 sins what with him being all-knowing,divine plan(BoP is the scenario program written by him up to the point Xehanort unlocks Kingdom Hearts),and giving ordeals to people.
Yozora secret ending in KH3 revealed he is currently in Shibuya(incidentally the same place where Sora got banished to after causing multiple singularities to rewrite events,meaning MoM got banished there because he did something similar(perhaps the creation of the Book of Prophecies,as the existence of the book is unnatural and was born from a Bootstrap Paradox) to what Sora did),but he's not imprisoned there as seen in the Re:Mind where he is seen conversing with Youngnort in the Keyblade Graveyard.
It's revealed that he participated in the original Keyblade War(the Keyblade War at the end of the AoF being the climax of the one he participated instead of being a separate war) and that he was the only relevant participant in the war on the side against the darkness.
Luxu(Lust):
The only one of the 6 who didn't receive a copy of the Book of Prophecies because a time paradox would happen if he knows the future he was going to observe,was given the task of the safeguarding of the XSuper box and observing the events of KHχ and passing on the No Name Keyblade to his apprentices so the Master can see the future which was guaranteed thanks to the existence of the Book,was described as a boring version of the Master(until he bodyjacked his final vessel in which he put up an personality act based on the Master's personality) in an interview and was the only one of the apprentices to realize the truth of the Lost Page and the traitor,after observing the 1st war to its conclusion he then went on to observe Data Daybreak Town where he found out that Strelitzia was replaced by Ventus but didn't intervene and instead passed on No Name to Blaine before going on to bodyjacking people to watch over his keyblade to ensure its cycle of bequeathing continues until the last recorded event of the Book of Prophecies:Xehanort's unlocking of Kingdom Hearts,his current and final vessel is that of Braig/Xigbar who he bodyjacked before BBS,initially he didn't fit his sin naming until his long vigil caused him to yearn for the Foretellers and an unknown person to return fitting for the sin of Lust.
After the conclusion of the 2nd Keyblade War,he reclaimed No Name and awakened 4 of the Foretellers as Ava had completed her mission and thus exempt from the reunion.
His signature move as Xigbar is Ultima Shot.
Ira(Wrath):Leader of the Foretellers and Unicornis.Acts like a cool-headed person but is hinted to be wrathful person when pushed over the edge,he was the one who discovered that their copy of the original Book is missing a page and was given the task of being the leader of the Foretellers.His signature move is Horn Strike.
Ava(Greed):The youngest Foreteller,Leader of Vulpes and the founder of the Dandelions.has the biggest screentime of the 5 and the only one of the Foretellers who (mostly) did her task correctly.The most approachable Foreteller and a loyal student of the Master,she is loyal to his teachings and disagreed with Aced's idea of alliance as it was banned by the Master.Was the only Foreteller who learned the truth about the traitor and despaired because of it.Her task is to gather Keyblade Wielders regardless of affiliation(which fits with the sin of greed as she stole and hoarded the members of other unions for her task) to form the Dandelions to make sure the light is safeguarded in the era beyond the war.She was "rewarded" for her accomplishment by being excluded in the reunion between Luxu and the Foretellers for unknown reasons,Her Signature Move is Foxtrot.
It's revealed later that she attempted to defy destiny by giving Blaine(who was not the one meant to inherit the BoP) the BoP instead of the leader who was meant to inherit the BoP,thinking that if Blaine was given the BoP he would be able to change the future written in the BoP.
Aced(Sloth):Leader of the Ursus(dead last in rankings) Union and the hotheaded rebel of the 5,was given the task of Ira's support but after Ira brought up the idea that there is a traitor among them he decided to strike out(fitting for the sin of Sloth as he didn't do his job as intended and did his own thing instead) and disobeyed the ban of having an alliance which lead to him being injured and accused of being the traitor even though he insisted he isn't,was forgiven by Ira and became his support but after Gula escalated the Lux collecting he was driven over the edge by his mistrust of the other 4.His signature move is Bear Heavy Blow.
Gula(Gluttony):Leader of the Leopardos(3rd Place) Union,Ava's friend and the smartass of the 5,was given the Lost Page and the task to decipher its contents to reveal the identity of the traitor because of his abillity to process information,fitting for the sin of Gluttony.But failed to decipher it and was almost killed by an enraged Aced if it weren't for Ava's intervention,became desperate enough to save the world to the point he wants to summon Kingdom Hearts so the Master would come back and was responsible the escalation of Lux collecting which lead to the war.His Signature Move is Panther Claw
Invi(Envy):Leader of the Anguis(4th Place) Union,and the observer of the 5,was given the task of observing and mediating the Foretellers but failed to uphold order between the 5 because she kept reporting to Ira and fractured Aced's alliance with Gula,she is the first Foreteller to accept that the war is inevitable.Her Signature Move is Serpent Illusion.
-Union χ[Cross] Leaders:
Ephemera:Player's first "friend",2nd gen Union Leader and the first victim of SENA's horrible localization,knew the truth behind the false Disney Worlds through investigation of the worlds and was investigating the Book of Prophecies when we met him,his betrayal of his promise to the Player character to investigate the clock tower led him to meet Ava again in the tower and was recruited by her to the Dandelions and was given the task of being one of the 2nd gen Union Leaders,by process of elimination he's the one who Luxu hints got their heart fragmented during the Union Leaders's attempt to escape into the Worldline of the future and thus got his heart and body scattered throughout different worlds and time periods one piece of which arrived in the Graveyard after the events of BBS(because if the fragment arrived in BBS's time period,he would have assisted in the battle against Master Xehanort),this version of Ephemera(the real one,not the recreation of the dream) showed Player a vision of the second Keyblade War between the 7 Guardians and the 13 Seekers in an attempt to reveal the truth about the dream world but his effort is pointless as Nightmare Chirithy states that Player must find out the truth on his own and that external interference to reveal the truth won't work.Incidentally as it's hinted he was scattered throughout worlds including the Graveyard where the box is hidden,it's possible he has something to do with Maleficent's quest for the black box.
Skuld:Ephemera's ex-teammate and a Union Leader,a dream where Ephemera talked to her informed her about the Player and that the war is closing in and her encounter with them led to her joining the Dandelions.Didn't appear in Back Cover in the Dandelion gathering but that's probably because her 3D model isn't necessary and she didn't speak up at the meeting so there was no need for her to be shown or maybe it's because Back Cover takes place in an iteration before the current one where Skuld joined later because she didn't meet Player before the current iteration and she didn't show up because she didn't join the Dandelions yet(which means Player distorted the history),gets thrown into the Worldline of the future and ended up in Radiant Garden while also losing her memories and identity,she was given asylum by Ansem,became Subject X in Xehanort's experiments and befriended Lea and Isa during her captivity,shortly after she was rescued by Luxu and her current whereabouts are known only to him.
Ventus:One of Birth by Sleep's protagonists and a Union Leader,he was chosen to be Union Leader despite not being high on the rankings,the reason why he ended up in BBS's time period is because the Dandelions's escape attempt from the crumbling DDT somehow got botched, damaging his memories(Ven implies in KH3 he dreamt about his time back in his original time period but this was not enough to make him remember) and got him transported to the present era where Xehanort took him in.
It's later revealed that he's the false leader who replaced Strelitzia but instead of him being the murderer,he's the catalyst of her death because Darkness detected his desire for power in his heart and because they don't understand human values,empathy and love,they decided that the best way to fulfill his desire would be to kill Strelitzia and manipulated his memories so that he would think that he was chosen when in reality he was not so the one at fault for Strelitzia's death was mainly Ven because if he never had the desire for power,then Darkness would not have killed her.
It was confirmed by Nomura that the Ven back in the AoF is the same Ven from BBS.
Blaine:Union Leader and the person all but confirmed to be Eraqus's ancestor and the founder of Scala ad Caelum,along with Lauriam he's the one who made the Spirit pets for the Dandelions to speed up their mindwipe of the war and brainwashing,it's confirmed that he's the one Ava gave the BoP to and that his copy has MoM's note regarding the Union Leaders included in it which is used as a bookmark of the page transcribing the future of the Union Leaders.
It's revealed later that while he was meant to be a Union Leader,he was not the one meant to inherit the BoP as Ava wanted to change destiny by giving him the BoP instead which led to Ventus being revealed as the false leader.
Strelitzia:Deceased Keyblade wielder who was supposed to be a Union Leader,a lonely girl chosen to be a Union Leader who couldn't muster up the courage to befriend the Player but was murdered by someone who stole her rulebook,she is the younger sibling to Lauriam,she was killed by Darkness who was trying to help Ven fulfill his desire for power by giving her seat to him after killing her instead of her death being fixed in place,her body perished when she died but for some reason she appeared in Lauriam's dream as a hooded figure with a blackened scene so it appears being killed by "Darkness" did something to her existence instead of passing on.
Lauriam:Keyblade Wielder who is Organization XIII's Marluxia complete self,was the co-creator of the spirit pets along with Blaine(because he's not good at fetch quests) and indirectly contributed to Shift Pride's current state,currently he is trying to find Strelitzia who is his younger sister as he couldn't find her in the Data World simulation of Daybreak Town so he's currently investigating her whereabouts by checking the data register of the Dandelions and questioning Elrena,he found out from Elrena and her Chirithy that Strelitzia was tailing someone(Player) to invite them to the Dandelions and that Skuld entered the same warehouse Strelitzia died in,informed and was taken by Ephemera to the Player where he asks the latter to remember his sister(which will possibly come into play once Player stops dreaming and wakes up),he then proceeds to meet with Elrena again where he found out about the fragmented recording of Strelitzia(at that point Game Central Station got connected to DDT causing the glitches) in Gula's warehouse and that his sister knows about the inevitable Keyblade War,he later tailed Maleficent and Darkness to the sealed room and confronted the former.
When interviewed whether he and Marluxia are the same person,Nomura only replied that "Lauriam is Lauriam" which is explained by Nameless Star(Strelitzia) in KH3 as Marluxia being Lauriam so distorted she is unable to recognize him as the brother she knew.
Elrena:Keyblade Wielder who is Organization XIII's Larxene complete self,she used to be party members with Strelitzia but didn't interact with her much,Lauriam sought her out to find Strelitzia's whereabouts,some of her memories regarding the Keyblade War are already rewritten by the time Lauriam sought her out.in her investigation of the data recreation of the warehouse Strelitzia went in she discovered a fragmented recording of Strelitzia's death and informed Lauriam of this.
Unlike Lauriam and Skuld who had forgotten everything and their identity,it's ambiguous whether Elrena forgotten everything but she was drawn to something in Organization XIII and she joined it,leading her to become traitors-in-crime with Marluxia/Lauriam.
"Darkness":Mysterious character who informed the time travelling Maleficent in the data Enchanted Dominion that her scheme was already known to the Master of Masters and that she was imprisoned to make sure her knowledge of Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion that was left out from the book and the Data Worlds prepared by MoM never transcends time as Skuld and Ventus must never know they will arrive in Radiant Garden in the future(albeit arrived in different time periods),they later busted Maleficent out of Data Enchanted Dominion to Data Daybreak Town and gave her instructions to go to the clock tower to go to the real Daybreak Town to find the unfinished ark so she can go to her time period again.He also revealed to Maleficent a method of recreating her body by using a medium related to her and people's memories of her,reassuring her that she has insurance by revealing that her existence in the future is guaranteed by the BoP,even though they don't know all of its contents because they only cared about the parts related to them.
They later guided Maleficent to the place where the unfinished ark is sealed and helped her bypass the seal to enter the room,they also revealed that they knew where the ark was sealed in the clock tower because a "friend" of theirs(the Master of Masters) told them where the seal is located,after instructing Maleficent to use the pod in the reality they went back to use Ven as a vessel and emerged when he broke down,they then revealed that Ven is chosen as their vessel because he is the prophesized vessel written in the book and that they never had any personal intent nor orders from MoM to kill Strelitzia,she died because Darkness thinks that giving her seat to Ven would be the best way to satisfy his desire for power so they manipulated his memories into thinking he was chosen when in reality he was never chosen but was given the seat by Darkness after killing her to Lauriam's despair.
Re:Mind revealed that he's still using Ven as a host and drove off Sora from Ven's heart when he traveled to the past,as he's using Ven as a host there's an extremely high posibillity that he tampered with Vanitas's birth by giving him more power to turn him into a material to reforge the χ-Blade and as a Seeker of Darkness in case Xehanort's initial plan didn't work out,on another note as Vanagloria(Vanity) replaces Superbia in one version of the 7 sins,it indicates that Darkness's true identity is the dark half of MoM's 7th apprentice associated with Superbia(pride) while the other half(i.e Player?) is the one sealed in the Black Box who is conjuring the dream world where the Foretellers and possibly Strelitzia until they're summoned back to reality?
-Present Era characters:
Real Maleficent:KH1 Maleficent that time travelled to the time just after the Keyblade War after Riku-Ansem stabbed her with the Keyblade of Hearts,tried to undo her defeat and get the Seven Hearts but got screwed over by the Master never recreating Enchanted Dominion using the BoP and making a data version of Enchanted Dominion instead which locked her out of rewriting anything,she will play a part in the Union Leaders's attempt to escape into the future and learn of the existence of the black box causing the knowledge of its existence and appearance to be etched in her unconscious even after she consciously forgets it as a price for time travelling,causing her to seek it out when an unknown individual divulges it's existence to her sometime before KH3.
The reason why MoM and Darkness wanted to return her to her original time is to turn her into a medium that will allow the Union Leaders to jump forward to the future.
-Filler Disney Characters and Cloud+Sephiroth:Irrevelant to the main plot.