I hate myself. A lot. Because of this. I can come up with lots and lots of interesting ideas - or at least I think they're interesting - for fan AUs, but always get stuck with my own original universes. Makes no sense. So yeah.

This particular fan AU is a spin-off of Kingdom Hearts, duh, coz I'm in a nasty KH kick right now. Had to get this out of my head or it will haunt me forever. Almost have nothing to do with KH whatsoever, but the basic idea is almost the same.

his AU actually have 2 origins. I thought of one, then thought of the other, then mashed them together into one big mess.

The first one is a new idea. It stemmed off my sudden KH kick, combined with my current great interest in working on Pangaea. So as I waded through a load of Organization XIII fanart and fanfics, I thought that some of the relationship between the characters mirror the relationships between my main character cast. I thought it would be fun if I dressed up my cast as a fake Organization XIII, which I simply named Organization VIII as there's eight people in my cast and, well, VIII looks kinda like XIII. This isn't actually a serious project, so I didn't bother going into great details in designing them. I gave them Org XIII-style names, had them wear Org XIII cloaks, and have Org XIII-style weapons. Honestly, their weapons are really only modified versions of the original Org XIII weapons, tweaked to suit my characters' personalities and powers. I had a rough draft made and set that aside.

The second one is a revisited old idea. Being in a KH kick, I remembered of my one-and-only-but-not-really KH fanart from a long time ago. The KH-style Erik I did about 8 months ago or something. That was actually inspired by this person who goes around making Keyblades (a very important weapon in KH) for random non-KH characters. Now this one person posted a very interesting comment on that pic that got me thinking. And that's how this world came to be, and that's why it's called Phantom Hearts. As a namesake for the one who got this world going. Not that Erik will be an actual character in this AU. He's just the one who got everything started.

As far as I know, and I might be wrong, when a person's Heart is consumed by darkness, they become a Heartless. If they are strong-willed enough, they become a Nobody. Then that one person said that Erik will NEVER be consumed by darkness... Soo... I thought of making Erik a half-heartless half... not heartless. If that even makes any sense. Yeah. That is the birth of the creatures called the Hollows. Their heart isn't fully consumed by darkness.

Annd.. here's the whole deal:

Phantom Hearts because the "Heart" is nothing more but a shadow, hence a phantom. A person with a Phantom Heart is somebody who nearly-but-not-quite lost his/her heart. So it's that much gone that a Heartless is created, but there's just enough left for them to retain themselves. The "being" left behind when the Hollow is created and left are called Wraiths.

The "Heart" is what binds the body and soul. Phantom Hearts are those whose Heart are strongly connected to the Mind. So there's some kinda "defense" system against the Darkness. Their Conscience, i.e the bond between Heart and Mind, causes their Heart to shatter and lock itself before Darkness can fully claim it, hence making them only half-heartless. As only half of the Heart is consumed, a Hollow is created instead of a Nobody. They're even less of a being than a Nobody. The Memory and "shell" (body) goes to the Hollow. That's why Wraiths are called Wraiths. They're nothing more but spirits who only retains their form because of their Phantom Heart. And what is the Hollow Legion (previously Org VIII)? Special Hollows that are created because one of the 3 Spirits "died". The Mind, Heart, and Soul, the "3 Spirits" are very tightly connected. If Mind "dies", Heart "shut downs", Soul "withers", and vice versa. They still have their Hearts and everything, just that they're "dead" and more or less "doesn't count", so they're counted as Hollows. It's like a flashlight with a dying battery. The Hollows' personalities/emotions come from their Memories, just like the Nobodies. The Wraiths' personality come from their "Heart".

The Wraiths have this thing called the Heart key and the Hollows have something called Soul lock. They're things that came to be when the self separates. they are not exactly shaped like keys and locks. Their "default look" varies from animals to objects. It transforms into weapons at the user's will. The form of weapon changed according to their emotions. As Hollows have no emotions, their weapons only have two forms at the most. One default and one weapon form. Or only weapon form. In the end they will have to battle each other to become whole once more. Whoever wins "controls" the new self. Hollows are Dark-oriented, and Wraiths are Light-oriented.

As this is a sudden and unplanned AU that hit me out of the blue when I was sitting in a bus stop waiting for a bus, there's no plot, no story, and the Hollow Legion has no purpose. It's just a fun concept for artworks.