Final Fantasy Evolution Theory

[-Demos-]

One of the things that I love about Final Fantasy, is that even thought all the games are separate histories, there are some key elements that appear in most of the games, and that makes it feels like a large interconnected universe.


I was replaying FF4 and came up with a interesting theory I would like to share here.


In FF4 there are two humanoid races in conflict, the humans, native to the blue planet, and the Lunarians native to a unnamed planet that was destroyed under unexplained circumstances, forcing its inhabitants to escape to space, in a giant spaceship shaped like a moon.


The protagonist of FF4 is Cecil Harvey a knight that late in the game discovers that he is half human and half Lunarian, now the fact that these two different species could interbreed and give birth to fertile offspring (Cecil himself has a son with a human woman in the sequel) proves that Humans and Lunarians have very similar DNA, my theory is that Lunarians are the step above humans in the evolutionary ladder.


Lunarians look pretty much identical to humans, the only notable characteristic in the Lunarians that we meet in FF4 and its sequel is the color of their hair (Both Cecil and is brother Theodore / Golbez have silver hair, Fusoya has pure white hair and Cecil's son Ceodore has blue hair) but they also have some special abilities, Lunarians are proficient in the use of magic, also Lunarians seem to have the ability to keep existing in spirit form even after their physical bodies are destroyed, we meet the spirit of Cecil's father Kluya early in FF4, and the final boss of the game is the spirit of an evil Lunarian named Zemus.


Now the Lunarians's plan in FF4 was to wait in their spaceship until humans had evolve to their level, then they could begin a peaceful merger of both species / civilizations, my theory is that by the time of Cecil's adventure the humans of the blue planet had already reached that point of evolution.


My reasons to believe this are:


There are several people in the world with high skill in the use of magic (Tellah, Palom & Porom, Rosa, Rydia) and many others that practice it to a lesser degree.


Some people have demonstrated the skill to keep exiting in spirit form even after death (Anna appears in spirit form to cheer prince Edward and Tellah appears in spirit form to give energy to the heroes in the final battle of the game).


But FF4 also has another humanoid race that appear in the mid point of the adventure, this race is the Dwarves, now from what I learned about these people in the course of the game, I concluded that they are the previous evolutionary step before humans. Dwarves originated in the underworld and thrived using the power of magma, eventually some Dwarves climbed to the surface and founded the first surface town, and eventually evolved to a more human appearance, in fact the FF4 sequel shows that Lucca, the Dwarf princess, looks very human like, the only notable differences is that her skin is a little darker and she is a little short and chubby.


But no all humanoid species were so fortunate, there are several humanoid creatures that became evolutionary "dead ends" and just get treated like "monsters" some examples are the Goblins, Ogres, Trolls, Gorgons and Lamias.


I think this evolutionary line applies to all the Final Fantasy games, just that with different names for the different races due to different cultures, for example in FF1 there is an ancient technologically advance race that invented the Airships, and in their town, they have the most powerful magic spells in the whole game, they are called the "Lufenian", and are very similar to the Lunarians of FF4, in FF7 the ancient, wise, magically gifted people of which Aerith descends are called the "Cetra", but functionally they are very similar to the Lunarians of FF4, just to name a couple.


I think this a very cool detail, and one of the core elements of a shared Final Fantasy Universe.

[Wolf Kanno]

Background info in FFIV actually states that Cecil's dad was on the Blue Planet trying to speed up the process of human civilization reaching the Lunarians level.It's hinted that airship technology for instance was inspired by Lunarian influence in background materials. We also know this because we know the Tower of Babel and the Giant are Lunarian tech. As for their genetic compatibility, it could be similar to the Jurians in Tenchi Muyo! and that humans on the Blue Planet are simply a colonial world by the Lunarians that hasn't had enough time to develop back to their level, meaning they have a common ancestry.

I'm not sure I would say the Lufenians are a different race as much as the name of a culture that vanished thanks to Tiamat's influence. The title to me never sounded much like ''new race'' as much as it sounded like the name of their culture and civilization like say the Assyrians or Babylonians in our own history. Square is really big on the idea of advanced civilizations getting knocked back to the stone age by their hubris and needing to crawl back to that level thousands of years later. I think FFIX and IV are the only entries to avoid this trope since all the cool ancient tech from the past is actually connected to alien influence.

As for the Cetra/Human deal, that's also been hinted that they are in fact the same race, it's just that the Cetra keep to the old ways and retain abilities that humanity eventually lost. Course it's a bit fudged in the story because the script still contains some info from earlier drafts where the Cetra are an evolved race and chances are this is the narrative that Shin-Ra itself believes but figures like Bugenhagen show that humanity can also re-learn how to communicate with the planet. Course there is the debate about the possibility that the Cetra are just Spirains from another world and this is a FFIV scenario where human like races just conveniently evolve everywhere but that's a whole other mess.

[-Demos-]

Thanks a lot for your answer Wolf Kanno.

In response I would like to elaborate about my theory a little more.

I believe that in that Final Fantasy Universe "Evolution" works in a different way, that the manner we see here in the real world, here evolution works by very gradual mutations and natural selection, this means that from a species to evolve into a different one, it takes thousands of generations, but in the Final Fantasy Universe the process is much more direct and a lot quicker, and that is thanks to "Mako".

I believe that in the Final Fantasy Universe, every life form contains certain amount of Mako, but humans have the ability to control Mako at will, this ability is what is usually known as "Magic", now the more intelligent and wise a person grows, the more powerful and refined their magic becomes, and when they reach certain level of magical power they ascend into a higher tier of "Evolution", this process is deliberate and is much faster that the random accumulative evolution of the real world.

The main difference, between baseline human species, and the ascended species, is that the ascended does not need a physical body to exist and interact with the world, Kluya is dead, yet he helps his son Cecil become a Paladin, Zemus becomes even stronger after is body is destroyed in battle, Aerith keeps helping Cloud after her death, (in both FF7 and Advent Children) I believe this ability to transcend death is a genetic evolution not a technological improvement, that is why I refer to them as a different species, not just the same species with a higher level of technology/culture.

I theorize that a lot of planets developed humans, but that is not by chance, in FF4 The After Years, the final boss of the game, calls himself "The Creator" and tells the heroes that his race deliberately sent "Crystals" to a lot of different planets, with the intention of creating many different human civilizations and study their progress, they did this because they basically destroyed their own planet and their own race, and they want to understand exactly what they did wrong.

This means that every game with "Crystals" is part of the same universe and another part of The Creator's experiment, this would also explain why most of the games have similar aspects, even when they take place in different worlds, I think it is because the "Crystals" are actually super computers made of nanotechnology, and they direct the evolution of life in each planet, all following the same preprogramed patterns, but the expression of these patters varies depending on the local conditions of each planet, that is the reason that most Final Fantasy Worlds had an "Ifrit", but while his basic concept is the same in every game "Magical Beast of Fire " is design and origins are different in each world.

[Wolf Kanno]

There are a some flaws in your theory.

Mako for one thing only really exists in FFVII and to a much lesser extent, FFX. Other entries featuring crystals don't feature anything like it. Likewise the nature of magic doesn't work the same in all of the entries. Specifically in the case of IV and VII, magic is an inherit ability withing FFIV whereas magic is almost impossible to use in VII without a Materia as a medium for the power.

Secondly, Anna was also able to appear after death to guide Edward. Likewise, the King of Baron also returns from the dead and even transforms himself into Odin to help the party. So I wouldn't agree that Kluya's power at Mt. Ordeals is necessarily unique to an ascended race. Likewise, I don't feel genetics would even be able to play a part in being able to return in a non-corporeal form as consciousness as we biologically know it ceases functioning once the body dies. This definitely falls more into a spiritual type of deal of which evolution would likely not play a role. A good example here is how in VII spiritual essence takes physical form in Mako which is naturally occurring but then you go to FFIX where the crystal is pure spiritual and magical in nature and souls literally have to be processed into a physical form such as Mist to extinguish them so the crystal of Gaia can be forcibly merged with Terra's crystal.

Another issue here is that so little is even known about Lunarians that we really don't know how much of their ability within the story is some natural trait of their kind and how much could be simply a result of their advanced civilization. They are long lived, but is it actually a natural long life or simply the race using their advanced technology or knowledge of magic to extend it? I mean FuSoYa and KluYa are brothers but their age gap by looks is pretty huge, so it could be likely that KluYa looks younger since he was in stasis for awhile before being released and going on his mission to educate humanity while FuSoYa lived his life out naturally as a guardian. Likewise, we really don't get a real taste of how Lunarian genetics come to play until TAY with Ceodore who can temporarily access his Lunarian blood to temporarily enhance all his abilities, even then, it's likely his natural high aptitude with magic really comes more from Rosa's bloodline since Cecil is a sub-par mage especially in comparison to his brother and Uncle who both seem evenly matched in the power department when it comes to magic.

Finally, the Crystal dynamic is played inconsistently within the games themselves, so it's highly unlikely one games hot take on the subject would really apply to all of them. I mean ignoring the fact a crystal plays a major plot point in every entry, just sticking to the numbered entries that have a four crystals schlick within the plot, the crystals don't function the same way.

FFI - There are four elemental crystals that control the very natural order of the world, their corruption at the cost of the Four Fiends and Chaos are killing the planet and restoring their power restores the world. The crystals are non-sentient. There is also a fifth crystal of darkness used by Chaos, it's role is not completely known but is implied to be tied with his power over time.

FFIII - Eight elemental crystals, four in the realm of light, and four from the realm of darkness. They are sentient and represent the natural order of the world and it's possible to freeze time and space by manipulating their influence. Causing an imbalance of the crystals by flooding either world with too much of the others influence summons the personification of nothingness itself, the Cloud of Darkness, who is trying to return the world back to nothing before the crystals created everything. The crystals have the power to bestow the knowledge of classes to people.

FFIV - Their are sixteen crystals. Eight from the Blue Planet and Eight from the Lunarian world. Though the surface crystals are named after the elements like prior games, their purpose or abilities are never really gone into. The most they do is help Golbez and Zemus activate the Giant of Babil. The Lunarian crystals are sentient. We later learn in The After Years that the crystals are simply recorders for the Creator that help it witness and watch evolution on thousands of worlds.

FFV - Eight Crystals, four on each of the worlds. They are back to being elemental in nature and directly controlling the natural world. Their destruction means the eventual death of the planet. The crystals are sentient, but by the point of the story we only really hear the voice of the Wind Crystal. Like FFIII, the crystals possess the memories of past heroes and can grant their power to a chosen person to access it but things like magic are still natural forces everyone possess. The crystals are all physically destroyed along with most of the world by the power of the Void. The four virtues of the main heroes revive the original four elemental crystals and they restore the world back to normal.

FFVII - There are four colored Huge Materia based on the elemental crystals. They are manufactured by Shinra as a means to defeat Meteor. They are not sentient and their destruction doesn't really change the fate of the planet one way or the other. There are four natural materia as well but they only grant special powers.

FFIX - There are four Crystals, they are actually just shards of the Planet's Crystal which is the source of all life and goes through it's own cycle of death and rebirth. They have great magical powers but are not sentient. The Planet's Crystal possesses the memory of all life it gas ever known and can open a gateway through time to the original crystal that created everything. Like the Crystals in III and V, their is a fifth power that is strongly associated with the Void that comes in conflict when the Crystal is threatened.

FFXI - There are five crystals, all shards of the original Mothercrystal that is the source of creation. The five smaller mothercrystals created the gods and are used as a power to hold back the Void/Emptiness.

There are certainly similar themes going on here dealing with the five Japanese elements at play but the crystals are often a source of creation on par with being physical gods since their disruption or destruction spells absolute destruction for existence. The sole exception is FFIV where they serve a new function from the retcon in TAY. So I can't really get behind the crystal theory at all.

As for the evolution idea, it plays too much lip service to one game's world rules despite none of the other games really following those rules including the game it's technically a distant sequel to. While the series certainly has a lot of thematic elements and even a few literal elements carried across the series, the titles are just too unique from each other for me to believe the games exist within the same universe or timeline. I mean the Dissidia series itself pretty much confirms the games take place in entirely different dimensions which justifies why the game world physics work differently between entries.

[-Demos-]

Thanks Wolf Kanno, that was a very well researched response, I understand that canonically the games are not really connected, one could even argue that Dissidia is its own self-contained parallel multiverse and that it has nothing to do with the original games from where the characters first appeared (For instance the representative of FF3 is the "Onion Knight" instead of one of the four named characters that took the role of warriors of light in the 3D remake).

So I guess my point is that if you combine some important elements of the lore from the different games one could come to an overall theory of a theoretical "Final Fantasy Universe" were all the Final Fantasy planets exist and have a tangential relation, I personally like to try and imagine these connections, but I don't claim they are intentional, specially considering that the different games have been made years apart with the input of a lot different people, and with the explicit intention to be separated histories (except for the direct sequels like FFX-2 of course).

You bring a very interesting point about the nature of magic in the different games, that and the ability to persist after death, are in my opinion, the more interesting aspects of the lore, because, even in our world these matters are a point of debate, the current scientific consensus is that we are biological machines and once our brains stop, working that is it, we are gone forever, but basically all the religions of the world, and even some philosophical theories, base their existence in the belief of some "essence" that transcends death, an immortal soul that could move on to different plane of existence or be reincarnated in a different body, in a rather poetic way maybe that is our "Final Fantasy" the idea that we could overcome death.

About Final Fantasy 7 I think that Materia facilitates magic, but is not truly indispensable, many of the Limit Breaks look a lot like magic to me, for example Cid the character that literally said that he believes in science over magic can summon a spirit dragon as one of its limits, also in the games where some people can use magic and some can't, I think that is because humanity has a "Magic Gene" that is activated since birth in some people, but only awakes later in life for some others, for example Rydia can learn a lot of spells while being a child, but Cecil is unable to cast any spells until he becomes a paladin, also in FF8 a game where the fact that humans can't use magic is a plot point, (Only sorceress can, and people fear them because of it) most of the Limit Breaks also look like magic, and still, the characters can use those limits without any magic or GF's juctioned, in fact Selphie uses some spells that are not even attainable in the game by any other means like Full Cure, Wall, Rapture and the famous "The End".

Also about the differences of the Crystals, another plot point of FF4: TAY is that the Crystals can evolve, in fact "The Creator" was defeated because the eight Crystals from Earth and the eight Crystals from the Lunarian's "Moon" basically developed a conscience and decided to betray "The Creator" and side with humanity, so the differences between Crystals could be explained as different stages of evolution, but only if you like to entertain the theory of course.

Final note, I always thought that the Esper Magicites from FF6 and the Materia from FF7 were the precursors to the crystals, I mean in FF7 is stated that Materia forms naturally over thousands of years, but Shinra Inc. developed a way to manufacture artificial Materia within their reactors, maybe with some more technological advance they would have learned to manufacture Crystals.

[Wolf Kanno]

Thanks Wolf Kanno, that was a very well researched response, I understand that canonically the games are not really connected, one could even argue that Dissidia is its own self-contained parallel multiverse and that it has nothing to do with the original games from where the characters first appeared (For instance the representative of FF3 is the "Onion Knight" instead of one of the four named characters that took the role of warriors of light in the 3D remake).

So I guess my point is that if you combine some important elements of the lore from the different games one could come to an overall theory of a theoretical "Final Fantasy Universe" were all the Final Fantasy planets exist and have a tangential relation, I personally like to try and imagine these connections, but I don't claim they are intentional, specially considering that the different games have been made years apart with the input of a lot different people, and with the explicit intention to be separated histories (except for the direct sequels like FFX-2 of course).

Don't get me wrong, my purpose isn't to discourage people from making theories but to strengthen your arguments. While I do stand with the idea the game's are separate outside of a possible mutliverse scenario. I like poking holes into such theories to make the theorist come up with better answers. I'm not saying someone can't come up with a universal theory that connects every entry into the same universe, but said theory is going to have to be on point and I'll be here to find those weak spots. So I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm simply trying to point out flaws in the theory for the sake of discussion.

You bring a very interesting point about the nature of magic in the different games, that and the ability to persist after death, are in my opinion, the more interesting aspects of the lore, because, even in our world these matters are a point of debate, the current scientific consensus is that we are biological machines and once our brains stop, working that is it, we are gone forever, but basically all the religions of the world, and even some philosophical theories, base their existence in the belief of some "essence" that transcends death, an immortal soul that could move on to different plane of existence or be reincarnated in a different body, in a rather poetic way maybe that is our "Final Fantasy" the idea that we could overcome death.

I feel it's a safe bet to say that the concept of a spiritual soul exists within the FF universes since it's been shown so many times to be a thing. Whether a game maintains something close to the real world idea of the concept such as the Ivalice entries or tries for a pseudo-scientific approach like the Lifestream, I feel it's safe to say its a fixture in the inner workings of the various FF worlds. I think only FFI and VIII avoid the idea of souls or an afterlife.

About Final Fantasy 7 I think that Materia facilitates magic, but is not truly indispensable, many of the Limit Breaks look a lot like magic to me, for example Cid the character that literally said that he believes in science over magic can summon a spirit dragon as one of its limits, also in the games where some people can use magic and some can't, I think that is because humanity has a "Magic Gene" that is activated since birth in some people, but only awakes later in life for some others, for example Rydia can learn a lot of spells while being a child, but Cecil is unable to cast any spells until he becomes a paladin, also in FF8 a game where the fact that humans can't use magic is a plot point, (Only sorceress can, and people fear them because of it) most of the Limit Breaks also look like magic, and still, the characters can use those limits without any magic or GF's juctioned, in fact Selphie uses some spells that are not even attainable in the game by any other means like Full Cure, Wall, Rapture and the famous "The End".

I disagree but that's simply because the Ultimania discusses how magic is the manipulation of the planet's energy to perform feats of wonder, whereas Limit breaks are more something channeled by the character themselves and is unique to them. The reason the party stops using Materia in AC is due to the revelation that using materia actually drains the planet. So I would say it's medium used to manipulate a finite resource whereas Limits are a situational exertion of power coming from the party. It may look like magic but the nature and source of the power are radically different according to in game text and background materials.

As for VIII, well that one does likely work with your theory. Desperation Attacks don't have much of an explanation in-game and other sources don't give much insight either. The bigger issue is witnessing human characters who don't have sorceress powers or GFs use magic like how regular Galbadian soldiers can cast Fire magic. So in the case of VIII, I would agree that humans have a very limited ability to use magic and desperation attacks are likely stemmed from that power, whereas sorceress' have the ability to use far more diverse and powerful magic. So it's likely a matter of scale.

In VI its implied that many of the special moves by characters likely comes from a third and unidentified power not connected to magic or simple physical technique.

Also about the differences of the Crystals, another plot point of FF4: TAY is that the Crystals can evolve, in fact "The Creator" was defeated because the eight Crystals from Earth and the eight Crystals from the Lunarian's "Moon" basically developed a conscience and decided to betray "The Creator" and side with humanity, so the differences between Crystals could be explained as different stages of evolution, but only if you like to entertain the theory of course.


Final note, I always thought that the Esper Magicites from FF6 and the Materia from FF7 were the precursors to the crystals, I mean in FF7 is stated that Materia forms naturally over thousands of years, but Shinra Inc. developed a way to manufacture artificial Materia within their reactors, maybe with some more technological advance they would have learned to manufacture Crystals.

As I mention, I think the bigger issue is that the crystals' influence varies a bit too wildly. In both III, V, IX, and a lesser extent FFI, the crystals are defined as being the literal source of reality opposed only by the Void. In IV and TAY, the disappearance of the crystals has no direct affect on the state of the world outside of the party being aware they are a strong power source. Its not like the others where their destruction or manipulation by dark forces is enough to end all life as we know it or affects both time and space, nor does it explain their connection to being an antithesis of the Void which always appears when the Source Crystals are destroyed or threatened. The issue is that Crystals are simply tools in games like II, IV, VI, VII, VIII, X, and XII. But in the other entries they are the equivalent to a Higher godlike power that creates everything. Your theory will need to figure out how to rectify this disparity. I don't feel evolution will work as a sufficient answer simply because you wind up with a chicken and egg scenario since it's difficult to explain how the crystals can be both a simple tool in one setting and the literal linchpins of reality in another, and yet also still be the same thing from a source perspective. It would be like arguing that our concept of god is indeed a objective entity that created our reality including us, and paradoxically a manifestation that only exists because of our collective imagination of such a being as humans, thus we created it.

An easier solution would be to argue that while crystals are indeed a universal power, there is a distinct difference from Source Crystals that maintain reality as opposed to finite crystals that may have great power, but are simply tools such as Magicite, Materia, or the crystals of IV. Thus Source Crystals exist within the games that don't feature them but are simply not brought up due to the ignorance of the inhabitants. The other solution that would allow you to keep the evolutionary theory of the crystals is that the entries that possess such Source Crystals are likely tertiary realities created when the previous universe likely experienced heat death except the crystals survived and used their evolved powers to recreate the world they know, though this still wouldn't explain their connection to the Void.