Summons

[arcanedude34]

How does one become a summon? I think it may happen something like this:

If a warrior is killed in combat, he is given one of two options - death or reincarnation. If he choses death, his soul goes to heaven or hell (depending on his lifestyle) while his body becomes home to a soul that was either banished from heaven/hell, or escaped death somehow, but lost it's body. This is how monsters are formed.

If, however, the dead soldier choses reincarnation, he/she will be given some tasks to complete. The tasks range from easy (e.g. reviving unconscious warriors) to difficult (e.g. preventing assassination attempts). Based on the level of difficulty and how easily the task was accomplished, one of two things may happen.

If they handled a small task with ease or a large task with some difficulty, they are morphed into summons (with abilities similar to that of the aforementioned task) and their powers are put into scrolls or, say, horns. Anyone who can weild the scrolls or just has the natural ability can summon these creatures at will.

If they struggle with even the smaller tasks, however, they are either returned into the earth in another body just being born (reincarnation) with a blank slate of memory and no special abilities, or, in rare cases, are placed back in the body the inhabited before departure regaining conciousness, with no recolection of the events that occured after death.

Well, that's my theory and I'd like to read yours.

[vorpal blade]

I always thought they were created by (or are) the Gods.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Different Final Fantasy's offer different explanations as to what Summons are. FF3 has some that are mystical monsters that you have to defeat. FF4's are either from a definate place (land of summoned monsters no less) or in the case of Bahamut the moon. FF5 follows a similar pattern to FF3, though again no real reason for their exsistance is given. FF6's are pretty obvious in that they're beings from another dimension, since most of the game revolves around them. FF7 just kinda skip over the point entirely. FF8's are GF's that are demonstrated to be physical beings that can be bound to another person. FF9's are again mystical monsters. FF10 gives the most interesting interpretation, in that they are people (SPOILER)who give up their lives, and the summons are a manifestation of their own souls.

All in all though, it's best not to question it.

[Timster]

I always thought it was different from one game to another too...

For FF7: they come from the materia which is kind of like a bi-product of mako which comes from the lifestream. Basically the lifestream is everything. So the summon materias are probably extra powerful parts of the lifestream, which have crystallized (sp?) into materia. (at least to my knowledge, but correct me if I'm wrong)

Anyway, besides from the FF7 interpretation I think Maxx Power covered it all