World

A World (ワールド) is a location that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series. Serving as the "levels" for the games, Sora and other characters are charged with visiting and protecting them through the course of the series. By defending the worlds from the Heartless, Nobodies, or other enemies, Sora keeps the Darkness from spreading and the worlds from being manipulated or destroyed.

Each world that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series has its own distinct look, and for the most part hold true to the movies and cartoons they are based off of. Often the plot of the game in that world will be based on its original source. Almost all worlds can be visited in the course of the game and are part of the playthrough; there are exceptions, though, since some places can be seen in cinematics but not actually accessed by Sora's party.

It should be noted in this context, that "world" is not as we know now, synonymous with "planet".

World characteristics
There are over twenty worlds that have appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series so far. Most of them are based on Disney's animated features and contain locations and characters from or inspired by the films. As a result, worlds are greatly varied in apperance, style, and nature, as their sources range from the oldest cartoons created by Disney to more current movies in the Disney canon. The oldest source is the 1928 cartoon "Steamboat Willie", used as a basis for Timeless River, while the most recent inspiration for a world from Disney's animated features is 1999's Tarzan, the source for Deep Jungle. In Kingdom Hearts II, two live-action films, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Tron served as the foundation for the worlds Port Royal and Space Paranoids.

In addition to the Disney-based worlds, eight worlds are exclusives that were created by game developers Square-Enix just for the Kingdom Hearts series. They are not part of the Disney film canon, nor Square-Enix's games canon, but do tend to be populated with Square-Enix characters, especially from the Final Fantasy series, as well as the occasional Disney character or original characters created just for Kingdom Hearts.

Some worlds have names that don't seem to accurately reflect what is found there. A famous example is Neverland in Kingdom Hearts; Sora and company get to go through Captain Hook's ship and fly around the Clock Tower, but never actually reach the island Neverland where Peter Pan and Tinker Bell live. To further confuse things, some worlds in Kingdom Hearts II contain what could almost be considered sublevels or second worlds within them, such as the Underworld at Olympus Coliseum or Christmas Town in Halloween Town.

Kingdom Hearts
In certain worlds, a character from that area will be available to fight, and can replace Donald or Goofy in the party. Kingdom Hearts had six such worlds with party members.


 * Deep Jungle's party member is Tarzan.
 * Agrabah's party member is Aladdin.
 * Halloween Town's party member is Jack Skellington.
 * Atlantica's party member is Ariel.
 * Neverland's party member is Peter Pan.
 * Hollow Bastion's party member is Beast.

Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II increased the number of worlds with party characters to nine, putting a party member in almost every Disney-based world. Three characters from Kingdom Hearts returned for battle: Aladdin, Jack Skellington, and Beast, although Beast was moved from Hollow Bastion to his own world. Ariel reappeared in Atlantica, but no longer as a party character, Peter Pan became a Summon, and Simba became a party member. Also the game added two party members with the same name as another; Jack Skellington and Jack Sparrow. This is rectified for gameplay that Sora refers to Jack Sparrow as Captain. To make the world-based party members more useful, special attacks were developed for each character that Sora could call on in the heat of battle. Kingdom Hearts II also included the first Final Fantasy party character, Auron, and allowed Sora to fight alongside his best friend, Riku.


 * The Land of Dragons's party member is Mulan.
 * Beast's Castle's party member is Beast.
 * Olympus Coliseum's party member is Auron.
 * Port Royal's party member is Jack Sparrow.
 * Halloween Town's party member is Jack Skellington.
 * Agrabah's party member is Aladdin.
 * Pride Lands' party member is Simba.
 * Space Paranoids' party member is Tron.
 * The World That Never Was' party member is Riku.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
According to scans, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep will continue to use party members residing in specific worlds. All that is known is that Experiment 626 will be the party member for the new world Deep Space.

Travel
Travel between the worlds is normally impossible. The worlds are all protected by dimensional barriers that prevent outsiders from entering for the most part. However, these barriers can be broken, resulting in a meteor shower in that world.

In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, Sora, Donald, and Goofy use the Gummi Ship to travel between worlds on the World Map, an event that serves as a mini-game between areas. Some worlds require certain special Gummi Blocks to access; for example, a special Navigation Gummi must be installed by Cid to unlock a second set of worlds in Kingdom Hearts. Once they reach them, the party can enter and then depart each world through its Save Points.

Three worlds can only be accessed by entering through other worlds and do not directly require use of a Gummi Ship:
 * 100 Acre Wood via Pooh's book in Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts) and Hollow Bastion (Kingdom Hearts II).
 * Timeless River via the Hall of the Cornerstone at Disney Castle.
 * Space Paranoids via Ansem's computer in Hollow Bastion.

It should be noted that in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, there are no Gummi Ships; the worlds Sora visits are recreations from his memories from the first game brought to life on each floor of Castle Oblivion.

There are three known ways to travel through the worlds:
 * Piloting a Gummi Ship; as Gummi Ships are composed of fragments of shattered barriers, they are capable of passing through them.
 * Utilizing the Corridors of Darkness; this is a faster means of travel than the Gummi Ships, but those who use them are at great risk of being destroyed by the darkness.
 * Teleportation; Merlin was able to teleport himself, Sora, Donald, and Goofy from Hollow Bastion to Disney Castle.

History
According to the story told by Kairi's grandmother in the Hollow Bastion's Library, long ago there was one single world, that was constantly bathed in the warmth of Light. When people began to fight over the Light within their world, Darkness appeared in their hearts, and the world was consumed. However, fragments of light remained within the hearts of children. From this light, children were able to rebuild the lost world. But darkness still existed, thats why the worlds are separate from each other, divided, waiting for the true light to return. (It should be noted that this story is considered to be a fairy-tale, and should not be considered an accurate account of history).

Prior to Kingdom Hearts, the worlds were surrounded by barriers, to prevent outside interference, making it impossible for different worlds to have contact. The arrival of the Heartless caused the barriers between the worlds to crumble and disappear, and some worlds were even consumed by the Heartless. Gummi Blocks are actually pieces of these broken barriers. The metaphysics of this prior to Kingdom Hearts is unknown, but will probably be revealed in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

It should be noted that: as the Keyblade master, Sora was originally told by Donald not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds, as doing so would negatively affect the natural order of the universe; however, he quickly realized that he had to interfere in order to protect the worlds and their inhabitants.