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Summon of the Month - May - Alexander
You may be wondering why it has taken me this long to continue with Summon of the Month. Well, my readers let me just forewarn you that there are to be some very big revelations this month, you’ll be rewarded for your patience. It has been well over a month since I last documented information about Summons, and in that time I’ve come to learn a lot. None of it is particularly good. I’ve gone from writing a feature, to running a race against time, and against a man so crazed and hell-bent on destruction.
In February I wrote about the mystical ‘Leviathan’ after following the journal entries of the mysterious Dr Rydrum who had been researching the creature. At the time I was not sure why. But after receiving what I later found out was a Diamond created by Shiva herself, and the helmet of Odin, I realised that Dr Rydrum is hunting these Summons down. Whether he has Leviathan or not… I’m not sure right now.
The only clue he left me in his journal for his next moves were the coordinates to a Church in the West. How much of an amateur does he think I am? I know which Summon he is hunting now. Alexander. Now it’s up to me to just stay one-step ahead.
In Final Fantasy, Alexander is a huge summon – resembling a large fortress. He looks like a robot, or sometimes even a wall. The one thing that always remains the same is his size and lack of any human qualities such a face. His ‘element’ is Holy, his attack being Divine Judgement, or sometimes Justice/Judgement. The most prominent appearance of Alexander is in Final Fantasy IX. He plays a central role in the storyline of the game. Kuja seeks the power of Alexander, but it is Eiko and Garnet who are able to summon him after piecing together the four fragments of his gem in order to protect Alexandria.
Alexander is shown to destroy Bahamut with relative ease, but it later defeated by The Invincible piloted by Garland. In Final Fantasy IX, Alexander is an enormous size – towering even over the Castle of Alexandria. He is shown here to have a set of white, feathered wings. These wings have biblical connotations written all over them.
With his ‘Holy’ powers, I wonder if Alexander is in fact an Angel. Or a messenger of a God, both the Bible and Qur’an allude to an idea that white wings symbolise a messenger of God like an Angel or even to God himself.
Quote:
Psalm 91:4 “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
Qur’an Chapter 35 (Al-Fatir), Verse 1 “All praise belongs to God, the maker of the heavens and the earth, who made the angels messengers with wings, two or three or four (pairs). He adds to creation as he pleases: for God has power over all things.”
Alexander's real roots however, are buried deep within Greek history. Have you ever heard of Alexander the Great? The stories state that Alexander was a Macedon King, tutored by famous philosopher Aristotle. His years as a commander awarded him over 20 cities which shared his name, including Egypt's Alexandria. Alexander the Great was in some ways a holy man – even his mother, Olympias, claimed him to be the Son of Zeus.
The Alexandria of Final Fantasy IX is protected by the great and powerful Alexander Eidolon within the storyline of the game, shielding the city with his wings of white feathers and blasts away his enemies with holy, divine judgement. He’s one powerful summon. Holy has a strong place in the world of Final Fantasy and is said to be the ultimate form of White Magic. It is a magic placed up in the top tiers of the magical hierarchy, sitting comfortable with Flare and Ultima. In Final Fantasy VII Holy is central to the plot, and is the only way of saving the planet from Meteor.
Alexander has played quite a small role in other games of the series being just a ‘summon’ and not having that big of a backstory, much like other summons. In Final Fantasy VIII Alexander is obtained from Edea. Much can be said about Alexander being drawn from Edea – the fact that she is a major antagonist for the first half of the game, and that she is a very powerful sorceress happens to insinuate that Alexander must be powerful too.
It isn’t really until Final Fantasy XIII that we see Alexander take on a whole new role. Like Odin and Shiva, the Alexander of Final Fantasy XIII is a controllable element of the battle with two modes: normal and gestalt. He boasts and array of holy-themed attacks like Purification, Brutal Sanction, and Divine Judgement. He is the Eidolon who appears to Hope, the youngest of the protagonists of Final Fantasy XIII.
Alexander is quite a mystery. There isn't too much in the way of Mythology for him - unlike Leviathan, Odin, and Shiva. He's just one big, powerful bad-ass that you wouldn't want to cross for fear of being smited by him shortly after. I have no idea what Dr Drydrum's plans are, all I know is that he's sending me pieces of the summons he's collected so far. I don't know if he's doing it for good or bad, but it's destructive. I have no choice but to follow his map and pursue this mystery summon.
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April 17th
The church that I ended up in was old and crumbling. But I went inside anyway. There was a fountain at the centre of the room. No water was in it, but a delicate and beautiful statue of an Angel had her hand reaching outwards, and in them she was holding a round, white crystal. I knew what it was, so without thinking I took it – and as I did I felt the ground beneath me rumble, and water began bursting from the statue, cracking the Angel into a broken mess of stones.
I gripped the Alexander stone and made a run for it and as I looked back I saw white feathers falling around the statue. Then I heard a roar. A beast erupted from under the fountain; huge shards of rock were thrown across the church in the blast. It was Leviathan. I ran as hard and fast as I could back towards the door, stopping to a halt as a marbled pillar crashed down in front of me and blocked off the door. I turned back around to see the open mouth of Leviathan about to devour me and in a vain attempt to protect myself I threw my hands up into the air, and something amazing happened.
The crystal in my hand started to glow and an iridescent light leaked out from in between my fingers and burn against the skin of my clenched palms. Two huge wings then wrapped themselves tightly around me, glowing from the inside too. I was bathed in a white light which felt warm against my skin, like the warmth you feel when you first wake on a morning and pull open your curtains to the pleasant waves of summer’s mid-morning sunlight. What felt like a monsoon beat down upon the wings until there was a sudden silence. The wings blasted away and I looked down in front of me into a puddle of murky water. My eyes were drawn to a bright, shimmering aqua blue crystal resting upon the broken off scales of Leviathan.
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So now my readers – I have obtained both Leviathan and Alexander. Dr Rydrum and I are even, we both have two summons. He may have Shiva and Odin, but I have Alexander and Leviathan, and I think I may be a step ahead of him now. I’m unsure of how these crystals work, and what it is they do. They are both the exact same size and shape, and differ only in colour.
I need you to help me figure out where to go next. I found this piece of paper amongst the Leviathan scales. I hope you can make sense of it for I can not...
And that's it for this Month! It's a been a long wait to reach this entry, so I hope you have enjoyed it and are satisfied enough to wait for next months entry! As usual I have got an interview with a user just as a little added extra!
For this piece, I contacted forum favourite Futan to share his thoughts on Alexander!
What is it about Alexander which sets him apart from other summons in the series?
Well, the most obvious thing is it's one of the few non-organic summons. Excluding XIII, where they all were robotic, most other summon designs are based off either creatures or humans. Off the top of my head, the only other one I can think of is Doomtrain from FFVIII. But I think the more interesting thing that sets it apart is that, unlike most other summons that are at least loosely based on mythological figures, Alexander appears to be a completely original creation of Square's. It's a testament of Square's true creative abilities.
Which is your favourite Alexander and why?
Easily the Alexander from FFXI. To my knowledge, it's the only Alexander you actually fight against. And it, at the time, was one of the most challenging storyline fights in the game. When my party finally did beat it, I think it took us 11 tries, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. The story behind it is also pretty interesting.
If you could change one thing about Alexander, what would you do and why?
I'd say his lack of mobility is a major strategic flaw but then again when you're an enormous robotic fortress enacting Divine Judgment on all who oppose you, I don't think you need to move much.
