Questions To Get Your FFX Minds Thinking

[Gloc 9]

1. How Long We're Calms? Was it ever explicitly stated?

2. What do you think happened to the temples after Sin and Yu Yevon were gone? My guess, just used to honor great summoners. You think they may have torn them down?

3. If all aeons were necessary to complete the journey, why was Anima not needed even though Seymour summons it. I Understand Magus and Yojimbo were optional for gameplay challenges, but Anima is shown in an important scene during the blitzball tourney.

[leader of mortals]

1. Calms last 2 years

2. Temples were left as they were, they were not torn down. This is very clearly shown in FF X-2. The residents of Besaid, including Wakka, kept the temple in good condition. The temple in Kilika was used as the New Yevon base. The temple in Djose was used as the Machine Faction base. The temple in Macalania was destroyed and sunk to the bottom of the sea. The temple in Bevele was abandoned. The Zanarkand Ruins became a tourist attraction. Requiem Temple is not shown, presumed to be abandoned. The Cavern of the Fayth(Yojimbo's) was nearly turned into a tourist attraction, but the fiends in the cave detered efforts.

3. All aeons were not required to complete the journey. The game is not completely clear on this, but it is supposed to be that Aeons from other temples are only training for the Final Aeon, nothing more, but then the lift(where you fight the Spectral Keeper) implies that you need the aeons to operate it. Anima was not important to the story, Anima was only important to Seymour's Backstory, nothing more.

[Jiro]

I was under the assumption that the Calm lasts 10 years.

LoM's got it for your second question.

Anima was Seymour's mother, who became an aeon in order to protect Seymour from being harassed. The pilgrimage only requires journeying to Besaid, Kilika, Djose, Macalania and Bevelle. Then the summoner has proven their worth and command over aeons and can meet up with Yunalesca and get the final aeon.

[leader of mortals]

Actually, calm lasts 2 years, and the last calm, during the story, was 10 years ago, when Braska defeated Sin.

And another point to #3...

Anima, Yojimbo, and the Magus Sisters were recognized religiously, but not nationally.

[Jiro]

They only get two stinking years? I wouldn't have bothered xD

[Karifean]

I've also heard it's 10 years... how do you know, LoM, that it's 2 years?

[Formalhaut]

Better Than Nothing.

As Long As I Don't Die, Ill Savour Those Two Years.

Oh Yeah New Years Day Must Suck At The End Of The Second Year!

[leader of mortals]

It is not ten years, ten years is the time since Sin was last defeated, at the start of the game. This is explained throughout the game, and Sin was there in those years, also explained throughout the game. I can not remember where it tells you how long the calm is, but I am quite sure it does tell you, and that the time interval is in fact 2 years.

[Tavrobel]

1. How Long We're Calms? Was it ever explicitly stated?

2. What do you think happened to the temples after Sin and Yu Yevon were gone? My guess, just used to honor great summoners. You think they may have torn them down?

3. If all aeons were necessary to complete the journey, why was Anima not needed even though Seymour summons it. I Understand Magus and Yojimbo were optional for gameplay challenges, but Anima is shown in an important scene during the blitzball tourney.

No, they never were. Two years is incorrect: we don't know (based on lack of in-game evidence) of lengths between Calms (since you are asking for explicit evidence). They would simply last however long it took for Yu Yevon to craft his newly captured Aeon into another Sin.

10 years is the difference between when Braska defeated Sin, and the beginning of Yuna's journey. The Ultimania may clarify, but I do not recall such a statement being made anywhere. Two years is coincidentally, the amount of time that has passed since the end of Yuna's journey and the Eternal Calm video clip that comes with FFX International and the start of FFX-2.

In FFX-2, most of the Temples remain intact, whether it's because of continued religious reverence (old habits die hard), or practicality (the Machina Corps), or something else, is left to the interpretation of the player. Macalania collapses into the lake beneath due to Shiva no longer being present. The Calm Lands shrine is also inaccessible, along with Baaj. What is said to occur after is the realm of fan-fiction.

You don't need all of the Aeons. You only need to have journeyed long enough to grow powerful enough with the Aeon(s) and to have the proper experience. Seymour summons Anima because that is his own Final Aeon. Based on the "flashbacks" in Zanarkand when you get there, you can see a young Seymour complaining to his mother. What other reason would anyone have to be there, behind a mountain and a fall of fiends?

[G13]

Ha. I never even thought of that. I knew Seymour had gone on a pilgrimage but I didn't put two and two together. I thought it was just one of his own memories from when he passed through. Seems kinda young to be going on a pilgrimage.

[leader of mortals]

Two years is coincidentally, the amount of time that has passed since the end of Yuna's journey and the Eternal Calm video clip that comes with FFX International and the start of FFX-2.

Gah, fuck:p Well, I wasn't entirely wrong, I guess...

And also, Anima was not Seymours final Aeon, Seymours mother was accepted as a Fayth, different from the Fayth decided for the Final Aeon. If she were used as the Fayth for the final Aeon, she(her Fayth) would have disappeared after the Aeon was called, as it is implied in the game, and Yuna could not gain her as an Aeon. Also, the Fayth is at Baaj Temple, and I have no idea why, but that would mean it is not at Zanarkand.

[Karifean]

in the flashback in the ruins of zanarkand, seymour's mother says, that seymour should destroy [sin], so she was quite probably going to become a final aeon. i think normal aeons are merely final aeons that weren't used.

[leader of mortals]

in the flashback in the ruins of zanarkand, seymour's mother says, that seymour should destroy [sin], so she was quite probably going to become a final aeon. i think normal aeons are merely final aeons that weren't used.

No, a final Aeon can only be Acquired once, and all other Aeeons are gained many times.

[Skyblade]

Actually, it might be possible for a Final Aeon to be acquired multiple times, if the circumstances were right. The limitations on the Final Aeons are as follows:

When the Final Aeon is summoned, it kills the summoner (thus Anima cannot be a Final Aeon, because Seymour survives summoning it and dies later).

After the summoner dies the Final Aeon does not vanish, it remains behind to be possessed by Yu Yevon. The fayth is constantly being used for a summoning (that summoning being Sin), so another summoner cannot call it again (the same Aeon cannot be called more than once at the same time).

[Jessweeee♪]

Well it seems to me like you can never call your Final Aeon more than once because either Sin kills you or the aeon does while being possessed by Yu-Yevon.

On the other hand, Seymour's mother does have her own temple.

[leader of mortals]

Well, I see two different possibilities...

1. The summoner, after summoning the Final Aeon, dies. The Final Aeon is then possessed by Yu Yevon, who works to recover Sin, and in the time it takes him to do this, there is a Calm.

2. The summoner may summon the final aeon as much as they want, and when the previous Final Aeon is killed, all of the Summoner's Aeons attack them(obviously shown in the game), and the Summoner dies this way. The Final Aeon was possesed by Yu Yevon, and so they live after the summoner dies. Yu Yevon works to recover Sin, and in this time there is a Calm.

I've always believed the latter, but I can easily see how both may be possible.

[Formalhaut]

All these talk of final aeons and aeons is hurting my brain!

[Karifean]

@LoM

yuna's aeons only attacked the party because Yu Yevon took control of them. as he does with the final aeon. the summoner simply dies when he summons the final aeon, it is never explained why. so i think the 1st possibility is correct.

what i think is that if a final aeon is not used, it will slowly lose its enormous power, become a normal aeon and is sealed into a stone statue. or yunalesca just has the ability to make people into normal fayth instead of final aeon fayth as well.

[auronlu]

1. The game never states how long Calms were. We know they were short, because SIn has returned within ten years.

The game gives us the following evidence:
-- At last year's tournament, Wakka got the news that Chappu was killed. After that, he signed up as guardian to Zuke. That means Sin was around a little over a year before gametime.
-- Also, Lulu went on a pilgrimage before Zuke's with Lady Ginnem. That had to have taken a few weeks to a few months.

So Braska's Calm lasted less than 9 years, but the game doesn't tell how much.

The Ultimania Guide, which is not canon but was written by game developers, adds the sad detail that Braska's Calm lasted ONLY A YEAR. :(

What with the previous Summoner being 100 years earlier, I don't know why anyone bothered!


2. See FFX-2. I don't like it, but it's canon: the temples were pretty well abandoned, although some pious old-fashioned Yevonites still came to worship in them, at least in Kilika and Besaid. That's typical of RL: people in less urban areas cling to older traditions longer.

3. As others have said, Anima is Seymour's Final Aeon.

Final Aeons are especially powerful because of the unique, personal bond between summoner and aeon: a bond of love that is between two individual souls.

Whereas regular aeons do not have a personal connection to a particular summoner. Their fayths reside in temples, and any good summoner can acquire them. But it makes sense that the spiritual connection is not as strong.

The problem with Anima is that, instead of using her to defeat Sin, as Seymour's mother told him to do, Seymour decided NOT to die, NOT to defeat Sin. He wanted to stick around until he found a way to CONTROL Sin -- as he was controlling Anima! He used Anima as a tool. She was impressive and terrifying, since she was stronger than a normal aeon.

Apparently, in order to keep her around, Seymour had to have her bound into a regular fayth statue. I'm not sure if this was done with normal Final Aeons. Probably, unless you created a fayth statue for it, as soon as you summoned a final aeon out of a guardian's body, the guardian's body died, so there was no physical place to store the aeon for later summons.* Snce Yu Yevon always took over a Final Summoning before it could be dismissed, it didn't matter -- it didn't need a fayth statue to anchor it.

However, Anima had one. Seymoure hid it in Baaj Island, where he and his mother had been exiled. Apparently there was an old, lost temple there -- at the beginning of the game Tidus swims through the flooded outer courtyard complete with summoner statues (Braska's isn't there), and the place where he makes fire looks like a typical temple Great Hall. So Seymour stashed his mother there.

Yuna was able to use Anima because Seymour's mother gave her permission to, but those were very unusual circumstances. I am guessing that is probably the first time in the history of Spira that one summoner acquired another summoner's Final Aeon.


The Ultimania Guide confirms that Anima was a Final Aeon and that Seymour smuggled its fayth statue to Baaj.

*I'm guessing that Jecht at game's end was technically unsent after his aeon was defeated. He doesn't stick around for more than a minute after his aeon is destroyed.

Why did a summoner always die during a Final Summoning?

We are never told, but it's pretty clear the Final Aeon is huge and dangerous and not very in-control. The battles between Sin and Final Aeons opened canyons and carved huge craters in the Calm Lands. It's easy to understand why no summoner close to such a conflict would survive. It is also possible, although canon doesn't state it, that Yu Yevon ordered the Final Aeon to kill the summoner, thus ensuring no one could give away his secret.


Leader of the illuminati -- I don't think all of a summoner's aeons normally showed up to the final battle. That was a special plan devised by Tidus, Yuna, and Bahamut's fayth. Bahamut asked Yuna to summon all her aeons, tricking Yu Yevon into jumping from one to another until they were all destroyed. That forced him out so they could fight him "unarmored". The fayth didn't come until Yuna called them. And normally, a summoner would not bother with that tedious procedure: a summoner would just call the Final Aeon that was supposed to win the battle.