Questions for those hardcore FFX fans.

[Tavrobel]

That doesn't mean that Bevelle won, it could simply highlight Yu Yevon's desperation when he created Dream Zanarkand and Sin.

I was always under the impression Zanarkand won insofar as the infiltration of Yevon throughout Spira and the subsequent banning of "unsafe" machina by Yevon.

One could argue that it was the utter wholesomeness of the defeat that caused Yu Yevon to have to resort to mass suicide. They [Bevelle] could have won this particular war, but the emergence of Sin escalated the situation, and effectively turned it into a new one.

Unless you want to bring in FFX-2 into this, which makes the timeline a little clearer: Sin was the result of Yu Yevon's actions immediately after the war; it could not possibly have been that Zanarkand won. If he had done so during the war, Bevelle would not have been caught off guard and unable to counter. In this case, Vegnagun would've been employed, and based on his Machinedramon-sized cannon, Bevelle would have instantaneously started and won a war with everyone else on the planet, too.

Also, I think someone said DZ did not have machina. It did. The blitzball stadium is just one example. Just look around at the opening of the game in DZ and you will find plenty more.

This is also true. It is one of the common links between DZ and Spira that Tidus is able to relate to. I believe that he says something about it, but I would have to look through the script.

As for the Summons and the Fayth, it's possible they could have been summoned through more traditional means (like being randomly called out of thin air). However, I can accept that the Fayths could be entirely independent of the the religion, except that they are housed within the Temples. I'm sure they would have objected to being enshrined in such a way; even Yojimbo, the most mercenary-like Aeon, was stolen from a Temple.

But ultimately, any definitive link will remain in contention, because we simply don't know how deep the association lies, and the Ultimania doesn't help in this case. It could be a matter of freely offered service, they could have been duped by Yu Yevon, it could have been coercive (Yu Yevon or the Clergy), or they themselves are in cahoots with Yu Yevon before deciding after 1000 years "this is boring, I want to do something else." It could even be a combination of all four, and while the general idea was to help, they were kept in the dark about certain things.