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View Full Version : The History Of Spira (HUGE FREAKING SPOILERS!)



Queen Anthai
06-03-2005, 08:59 PM
Okay, I've played X and X-2, and I'm just trying to sort through Spira's history, because it's a wee bit confusing and I would like to be corrected if I'm missing anything or mistaken...

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1000 years before the events of X, there was a war in Spira involving machina and summoners (anyone know why, or remember between whom?). A songstress named Lenne was among the summoners fighting against the machina. Her lover Shuyin refused to see her lay down her life, so he stole the biggest, baddest weapon from the other side called Vegnagun and used it against them.

That didn't turn out well.

Shuyin and Lenne were caught in Bevelle and executed. Shuyin's anger and hatred at their deaths were so great that they created a kind of ghost of himself that would languish in the Den of Woe for a thousand years.

In the meantime, in order to fend off the machina users, Sin either appeared or was created (have the origins been accurately documented in either game?). Sin got out of control and laid waste to Zanarkand, and would have destroyed all of Spira had it not been for the summoner Yunalesca and her lover Zaon.

Zaon became Yunalesca's Final Aeon, who joined with her to destroy Sin. Unbeknownst to them, however, any aeon who destroyed Sin would become Sin, reborn after a Calm of ten years, because Yu Yevon (the "God" of Spira) lurked inside Sin and would possess any aeon to enter its Sin-self. Also, the summoner of the Final Aeon would die as a result of the Final Summoning.

For a millennium, the people of Spira would be tormented by Sin, and summoners had to sacrifice themselves in a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth to temporarily remove Sin from the world.

The Fayth, the spirits behind the power of the aeons, were obviously not pleased by their senseless destruction. They needed a way to defeat Yu Yevon itself, not just its armor of Sin.

So they fell into a dream, and their dreams created a memory of Zanarkand that was nonetheless somewhat real. People lived and breathed and were born and died in this Dream-Zanarkand.

Ten years before the events of FFX, a blitzball star named Jecht was training off the coast of his Dream-Zanarkand and encountered Sin, who also existed from time to time in this dreamworld (NOTE: anyone know how that would be possible?). Instead of destroying this dream, which it could not do, Sin acted as kind of a gateway between Dream-Zanarkand and present-day Spira. Jecht was sucked into Spira and encountered the High Summoner Braska and his guardian Auron.

Jecht pilgrimaged to the ruins of Zanarkand with Auron and Braska, and became a better man along the way, quitting his drinking habit and learning to love his estranged son, Tidus, whom he had left behind in Dream-Zanarkand. This culminated in Jecht becoming Braska's Final Aeon, sacrificing himself to become the new Sin in ten years. First, however, he extracted a promise from Auron to go to Dream-Zanarkand and watch over Tidus for him. Eventually, Auron was to bring Tidus to Spira so Tidus could find a way to truly destroy Sin once and for all.

Auron agreed, but was so enraged by the loss of his friends that he went to exact revenge on the spirit of Yunalesca, who turns guardians into the Final Aeon. Auron didn't stand a chance, and Yunalesca killed him. Auron refused to go quietly into the Farplane, and his sense of duty to his friend Jecht kept him on Spira and then on Dream-Zanarkand, where he kept watch over Tidus until the time came to bring him to Spira, as promised...

That's where FFX begins, so I don't think I need to recap any further, but so far as everyone can tell, is that fairly accurate?

ShivaBlizzard8
06-04-2005, 03:16 AM
Pretty much. The exact history of the creation of Sin by Yu Yevon is difficult to peice together, but this site does a pretty good job that might fill some holes in your story: http://faqs.ign.com/articles/432/432338p1.html

Squall of SeeD
06-04-2005, 04:30 AM
I'll correct the holes in your synopsis:


1000 years before the events of X, there was a war in Spira involving machina and summoners (anyone know why, or remember between whom?). A songstress named Lenne was among the summoners fighting against the machina. Her lover Shuyin refused to see her lay down her life, so he stole the biggest, baddest weapon from the other side called Vegnagun and used it against them.

The war was between Bevelle and Zanarkand. Bevelle had the advanced Machina of war and Zanarkand had Summoners as its defenders.

As for Shuyin, he was going to steal Vegnagun and use it against Bevelle, but Lenne stopped him from doing so. She didn't want him to kill anyone apparently. Subsequently, both of them were gunned down.



In the meantime, in order to fend off the machina users, Sin either appeared or was created (have the origins been accurately documented in either game?). Sin got out of control and laid waste to Zanarkand, and would have destroyed all of Spira had it not been for the summoner Yunalesca and her lover Zaon.

By the time Sin had come along, Zanarkand had basically conceded. Yu Yevon had the people of Zanarkand become the Fayth on Mt. Gagazet so that the Zanarkand they knew could be preserved forever. Their memories of Zanarkand were processed through their dreams, which he tapped into and gave form, creating Dream Zanarkand. Likewise, he created Sin from these dreams, only it was too much power for him to process and he lost control of Sin, even while he forced the Fayth to continue to dream, thus, he continued to summon Dream Zanarkand and Sin, and they couldn't turn it off.



Zaon became Yunalesca's Final Aeon, who joined with her to destroy Sin. Unbeknownst to them, however, any aeon who destroyed Sin would become Sin, reborn after a Calm of ten years, because Yu Yevon (the "God" of Spira) lurked inside Sin and would possess any aeon to enter its Sin-self.

The game never actually tells us how long a Calm lasts. It had just been 10 years since the last Calm began. That's all we know.



The Fayth, the spirits behind the power of the aeons, were obviously not pleased by their senseless destruction. They needed a way to defeat Yu Yevon itself, not just its armor of Sin.

So they fell into a dream, and their dreams created a memory of Zanarkand that was nonetheless somewhat real. People lived and breathed and were born and died in this Dream-Zanarkand.

As previously mentioned, it was Yu Yevon's idea that they dream, and he forced them to continue to do so once he lost control and became nothing more than an entity that lived for nothing but to summon.



Ten years before the events of FFX, a blitzball star named Jecht was training off the coast of his Dream-Zanarkand and encountered Sin, who also existed from time to time in this dreamworld (NOTE: anyone know how that would be possible?).

Both were made of the memories of the Fayth on Gagazet, so it would really only be like water flowing into water.



Instead of destroying this dream, which it could not do, Sin acted as kind of a gateway between Dream-Zanarkand and present-day Spira.

I just thought I should point out that time passes the same in both realms. It's been 1000 years in both places since Sin first came into existance. The two realms just lie in different places.


I'm going to check out that FAQ that ShivaBlizzard linked to and see if there's anything inaccurate about it. I trust very few FAQs from IGN, GameFAQs, or other places until I've examined them and confirmed their validity. ^^;

Queen Anthai
06-04-2005, 12:56 PM
Squall, that was AMAZINGLY helpful. I'd forgotten a great deal about Sin's actual origins, and I'd been under the impression that the Fayth were the ones who created Dream-Zanarkand as a way to stop Yu Yevon. I suppose that was a plausible enough theory, but it makes more sense that it was forced upon them by an out-of-control Yu Yevon. I'll definitely be doing some revising in the next couple of days - I've been wanting to put together a definitive "History of Spira" to send around to various websites, and you're definitely going to get credit for the assistance.

Oh, and yes, I know time passes in Zanarkand in synch with Spira. A lot of people get confused by that because Tidus only thinks he's been thrown 1000 years into the future. I probably should stick an addendum in there somewhere... "Sin acted as kind of a gateway between Dream-Zanarkand and Spira. Time flowed synchronously between the two worlds..." etc, etc.

Queen Anthai
06-04-2005, 12:57 PM
Oh, and I forgot - anyone know why Bevelle and Zanarkand went to war?

Squall of SeeD
06-04-2005, 06:17 PM
Oh, and I forgot - anyone know why Bevelle and Zanarkand went to war?

I don't think that was explained in-game, but I always got the impression that Bevelle was the aggressor since they completely outmatched Zanarkand. The Bahamut Fayth tells Tidus this:


Fayth
"A war between Zanarkand and Bevelle."
"Bevelle's machina assured their victory from the start. Spira had never seen such power."
"The summoners of Zanarkand didn't stand a chance."
"Zanarkand was doomed to oblivion."
"That's why we tried to save it--if only in a memory."


You're welcome, by the way. I was glad to help.