Final Fantasy metaphysics and why Lightning is in Eorzea

Members see less ads - sign up now for free and join the community!

  • This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn more.

Keriaku

Balamb Garden Freshman
Oct 26, 2013
30
11
32
#1
I wrote this originally for a Lore thread on the FFXIV forums, but thought I'd bring it here for some more discussion.


I'm gonna start with some framing for how I understand the Final Fantasy series. We know that crystals, or more generally 'magic', is an important basis for any single reality. To me, every Final Fantasy corresponds to a reality amidst the Void that has coalesced into a unique world, each with a unique form of how magic manifests and how reality holds together.



FF1-5 are generally simple, with physically manifest crystals being the lynch pins that hold reality together. Retrospectively, it could be said that Cosmos/Chaos are the gods that conceptually connect with the balance between these 'old' crystals and the Void. FF6 and 8 are more explicitly 'god created' worlds, though the gods are dormant (Goddess Statues, Hyde) and leave reality to be manipulated by its denizens (espers, sorceresses). FF7, 10 and 14 seem to have more general freeform basis to reality that work as a cohesive flow (Lifestream, Pyreflies, Aether).



Fabula Nova Crystallis (Tale of the New Crystal) is an evolution of past realities; the 'new' crystals. These realities have a more complex picture. There are gods manifesting across multiple realities, and each reality is an complex system relating dimensions, magic and denizens (Seen/Unseen world, Chaos/Spirit, and Fal'Cie/L'Cie). In these worlds, every person has 'chaos' inside them, which gives them the potential to use magic. This potential is actualized when a person becomes a L'Cie and I take the Crystariums to be each person's 'personal crystal'. It's stated that given enough chaos inside a person, anyone has the potential to 'see beyond reality', such as how the Farseers can view the timeline. I feel like a similar power is at work with Noctis and Stella in XV. Anyways, on to Lightning in Eorzea.....

I believe that Lightning gains access to Eorzea due to her time being crystallized. This is what she is referring to when she says she was 'sleeping'. It hasn't yet been clearly detailed what happens when people are crystallized, only the vague 'given eternal life', but I think the implications are pretty important if crystals form the basis of each reality.

As shown in a couple places, being crystallized seems to allows the consciousness of the person to go beyond their body, such as when Vanille and Fang are 'watching' and thinking about the other characters in Episode i after the ending of XIII. It also seems that a crystallized person can gain access to places 'beyond reality', atleast for a limited time, as when Fang and Vanille show up in the Void Beyond to save Serah from her dream in XIII-2.



I believe Lightning in particular is a special case, since not only is she crystallized, but she is crystallized in Valhalla, which is the closest known space to the 'Unseen World' and the Void. Whereas people crystallized in the regular world of Pulse may gain metaphysical access to that specifical reality (Pulse, The Void Beyond), perhaps being crystallized somewhere closer to the Void itself allows the person (Lightning) metaphysical access to other realities. Just as Etro called Lightning to Vahalla in the first place, perhaps Hydaelyn called Lightning to Eorzea from her eternal crystal sleep.

This also accounts for Lightning's comment on her endless battle. Just prior to being crystallized, Lightning had been fighting Caius in Valhalla for an indefinite, endless amount of time. After what feels like both a moment and an eternity, Lightning would appear in Eorzea and feel as if she never really stopped fighting.

It seems pretty clear to me that Lightning's appearance in Eorzea precedes her time in Lightning Returns. I wonder what she'll learn in her time here...
 
Likes: APZonerunner

Keriaku

Balamb Garden Freshman
Oct 26, 2013
30
11
32
#6
Lightning is in Eorzea because Toriyama and SE wanted. Period.
I guess it's more asking the question 'how', but 'why' always has a fictional and a meta-fictional answer, so....

The Interdimensional Rift connects the worlds not the Void.
I was under the impression that the Void and the Interdimensional Rift were pretty interchangeable terms. I know the Void is generally mentioned in relation to chaos and such, but it seems to me that it would makes sense the the place 'between realities' is gonna be a null space of sorts. I don't know if we'll ever get information on how worlds might connect, but it'd be interesting.
 
Likes: Sapientia