Fabula Nova Crytallis Offical Mythology (Spoilerzzz!)

[Zargabaath]

During SE recent big conference revealing a lot of new things about the FNC games they made a video (in Japanese) about the official mythology of the FFXIII universe and to a larger extent FNC. The mythology reveals a lot, changes some conceptions that the player-base had, & probably reveals what the plot is going to be about in Final Fantasy XIII-2. I have two websites that have this mythology translated though I cannot 100% confirm that either is accurate.

1)Fabula Nova Crystallis Official Mythology

2)Fabula Nova Crystallis Official Mythology 2

I'll also share the link to the japanese video of the mythology here.

This does make the FNC setting more interesting though I had thought it a good premise (in FFXIII) just bad execution. Another thing I cannot confirm are some reports from the Ultimania Omega of Final Fantasy XIII. It is confirmed that it was Etro was restored the party from crystallization at the end of the game, however, as said in the official mythology Etro received no powers from Buniberzei. I do think she may have received some power from Muin when she found her [Muin] in the invisible world.

There was also, what I find, a huge translation error in Barthandelus' reasoning for trying to open the door to the other realm which we now know is the invisible realm: in the Japanese version Barthandelus was not trying to bring back the maker but to open the doors to find & destroy Muin as it says in the official mythology. Thus that would make sense as to the true purpose of the Arks as it said in the Analects that the Arks were there before Pulse was made and were built to fight something from the beyond. That something must have been referring to Muin.

Another interesting note is that Fal'Cie cannot brand L'Cie, that is the function of the gods, however, as we find out in the official mythology the "gods": Pulse, Etro, & Lindzei are just the first created Fal'Cie. So what I'm thinking is that only the higher Fal'Cie - Pulse & Lindzei - can brand L'Cie. The brand is the seal of the "god" & once the seal is applied they are a L'Cie to that Fal'Cie. Thus this means since the party was branded by a Pulse Fal'Cie that means it wasn't anima who branded them but Pulse himself, making me partially right in my topic End of Chapter 2. Where I state that huge thing with the bells was not Anima because the party was sent through another dimension and that in the course of the game no Fal'Cie -besides Barthandelus - had the ability to shapeshift which was apart of Barthandelus' specialty. This may prove that perhaps Anima was not working with Barthandelus - of course this could have been because of a mistranslation - and gave the party a focus to save Cocoon from Barthandelus/Orphan as their focus dream showed bits of the actual ending. Source. Though I have no way to confirm ximaus' translation of the material. The second page is where ximaus comes in.

Also, ximaus - from the gamefaqs link - says that Lindzei was known as the righteous god, the Sage, but called Lindzei a demon after what Barthandelus did; they, humans, had never seen Lindzei. Small side note in the first entry of the Analects, "Vanished Gods" - pluaral - the maker does not exist in the Japanese version of the game it was a term created in the English version. To which ximaus suggests that somebody in the translation process wanted to stay clear of "god(s)". I believe the Luminous God is Buniberzei, while the Stout God is Pulse, Sage God is Lindzei,, & Fool God Etro for she creating naught. I can't remember where I read where each "god" corresponded to in the first Analect.

It is interesting though in the official mythology that L'Cie were created before Etro made mankind. Makes me wonder what were L'Cie before humans? The beasts of the realm or were they lesser mechanical like beings than the "lesser Fal'Cie"?

Ximaus does go on to explain the true cause of the War of Transgression that took place 500 years ago and how Ragnarok saved Cocoon from falling by using the power of Etro. The proof he states is in the 13th entry in the analects which is fairly vague in the Japanese version and even more so in English. Ximaus seems to know japanese & what he says may prove insightful; I'm not a big fan of this game, in fact the story did disappoint me, but with what appears to be a bad job in translating in some parts the game's premise does appear to be getting richer. I can't believe though that it was 2010 when Final Fantasy XIII was released and somebody/SE was still uneasy about putting "gods" in the game; you'd think they would at least come up with a better term than just a singular noun when it was plural in japanese. New translators for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII please.

Perhaps this should have its own thread but I'll include the Final Fantasy XIII Episode 1 novel that has been translated as well here. Episode 1 picks off from where the game left off and has Lightning trying to find a way to save/return Fang & Vanille back to normal. Lightning also gets a feeling that the fighting is not yet over and that perhaps some people survived all these years after the War of Transgression on Gran Pulse.

[Andromeda]

I'm glad to see there are finally translations for it. I watched the video and hoped that there would be a translation of it. It does start to explain some things. I'm going to need to replay the game again with this new perspective on the game. I don't think it will change everything, but it certain alters the truth behind events. I'm also going to need to re-read all of the datalog that pertains to these details. Since putting these two pieces together will explain things in the game.

Though it Etro was given no power how was she able to give human's chaos. Is it because they were created from her being and thus she had power over them as her own creative, but accident. She certainly had no power in creating fal'Cie or l'Cie. I guess it is possible, like you said that she picked up something from Muin before disappearing completely.

It is a little frustrating that SE left out a lot of these details from the game, which would have really colored things in a different light. Considering half of the game is instructed to nearly out right lie to the player, because Bart is manipulating the party into the needs of his plan. And even when you start getting pieces of the truth it is all too sketchy and vague to get the pieces together. Hopefully, XIII-2 adds in all of these details and provides the fleshing out of the Pulse/Cocoon world that they created.

Makes me wonder if that stands as the mythology of the games under Fabula Nova Crystallis, what that leaves in store of the story of Versus since it will be making us of that tale as well. They are going to open to interrupt things as they wish.

But the comments that I was reading about Etro being the Goddess of Death make more sense now. The Door of the Dead also has some meaning now as well from Versus, since that is spoken of in the tale as well. Perhaps Versus is going to use the mythology in a way that actually isn't so convoluted. ^^

[Alisbet]

Based on your theory, do you think that Dajh had a similar experience when he was branded as l'Cie? In a void before an otherworldly entity that subsequently brands him?

[Andromeda]

If only the original fal'Cie created have the power to create l'Cie, then yes Dajh would have gone through the same experience as the party. All of the other fal'Cie would have been just sending a request as it were to their boss to ask for a brand. Considering how freely they get handed out, it is likely that Pulse and Lindzei don't leave any consideration in their granting off brands, they just have an automated rubber stamp like system of. If a request is made then approve.

I spent too much of last night thinking about this. I did go back and look at the analects. I still need to review the last cutscenes and replay the game, but I'll get to those matters later. Given what we can take from Square as being the truth. The majority of the analects are either partially or complete lies. As players we end up accepting information granted to us as being truthful, especially when you find it in an encyclopedia type location. Why would the game designers want to lie to us in there? But I'm quite certain that they deliberately lied to us intentionally. They feed us false information because they were writing them from a human perspective that has no understanding of the large scale and grand system that the gods have actually put into place. All they can do is interpret what they can see and so that is the information that we're given.

I think the only information that we can trust as being accurate is the analects written by an unknown author, which have a completely different style to them compared to the others. Considering the information from the tale, those actually match up with each other quite well, mistranslations not withstanding of course.

Which has lead me to a theory that may be giving Square too much credit, but then again knowing Square I think it is totally possible. It is a little unconventional, but one can't really deny that the pervading theme of FFXIII is deceit. You are lied and manipulated at every quarter toward a singular purpose. So my theory goes that Square purposely made FFXIII under the theme of deceit, but not of just the characters, but of the player as well. They didn't want to tell the player the truth. I get the feeling that FFXIII-2 might have been planned from the beginning since it would make a lot of sense in my theory. The problem with lying to the player is that you eventually need to tell them the truth, but never really happened in FFXIII. You get pieces of it, but you never are given the full story, not like most FF games. So I think they had the sequel in mind for a while when they settled on deceit as the theme for XIII. Because that would mean that XIII-2 theme would be truth. XIII-2 will set straight all of the lies that they feed the player and characters. Because it is very clear from the world that they show and the pieces you get from the analects that they had a grander story going on that involved more than the lives of the party.

But it is a just a theory. Even if unplanned, I get more of this feeling that XIII-2 will be about truth and providing the answers that XIII did not. The true purpose of the fal'Cie and their endless searching for the Door will likely come out in XIII-2. Considering the tale, I could totally see some of the enemies that they face being the original l'Cie created by Pulse and Lindzei long before humans were made. And it even being that the Pulse fal'Cie finally end up finding the Door that they have been searching for. Which would mean triggering the purpose that Lindzei exists for and more than likely the chaos that invades. All of which will likely be lethal to the humans, who are left in the middle of a struggle of the gods. So they'll end up having to fight for their continued to survival against beings that don't care if they live or die.

It is quite clear from the analects even ones being false, that Pulse and Lindzei hold not interest in humans. They were an accident and so they end up making use of them. And have no problems consuming them to the point of extinction, which ended up happening to those on Pulse.

Considering it is likely that all of the fal'Cie in Cocoon existed for the sole purpose of protecting Buniberzei, it makes you wonder if his crystal form does not exist in Cocoon somewhere. Bart was likely created first being Lindzei followed by Orphan. The symbol of Buniberzei I could have sworn I saw somewhere in Cocoon while we played, but I can't remember. Which makes me wonder. I know there is apparent a translation dispute over the reasons that Bart did what he did. But if Bart was created by Lindzei, who was gift with the power to awaken Buniberzei when the time came. I wonder if Bart was not given such a purpose. With the way the Pulse fal'Cie look like they are still searching it seems unlikely they found what they need, but if they would they have signaled Bart to awaken Buniberzei and start the triggering of events that lead to XIII? I find it quite unlikely, but Bart's reasons seem to be in question. They were saying he just wanted to join the others. Which I think if he was given administrative control over the Lindzei fal'Cie, then it probably would be likely he had more intelligence and freedom than others that are more single minded in their purpose. So he could have just become exhausted and tired of his purpose and wanted it to end.

The interesting thing about the whole tale I've found is that they refer to the chaos and the invisible world. Something that comes up on early FF games and as well Dissidia, which plays on the early themes of FF games of a struggle between light and dark. One of the stories told in FFIII is that when too much darkness exists soldiers of light are ordained and when too much light exists soldiers of dark are ordained. So balance is maintained. Muin spoke of the balance of the two worlds and it is often referred to chaos. Seeing as they call it the New Crystal Tale, the similarities FNC has with past FF themes of light and dark doesn't seem that unusual. All of the elements that they grabbed are used throughout a lot of FF games. It almost seems like a culmination of all of the various plays on the light and dark tales that they have been created. They played continual homage to past games and even keep the same themes of crystals and chaos going. It is more like past FF games than initially represented.

Probably the biggest flaw XIII has is that it doesn't present itself to the player clearly enough as the developers intended I think. It's all guess work, but I think that they had a goal in mind, once they actually came down to it. But they failed on the proper execution due to how they sort of rushed things as they came to the closing. Their focus went to other things rather than presenting a clear story and world. All of the pieces were there, but they left too much to be open to interpretation that the player couldn't come to the correct conclusion.

This sounds like a big mess of thoughts. So sorry for the disorganization.

[Alisbet]

Continuing from my previous post, assuming that Dajh did have a similar experience to the party, that must have been very frightening for such small child unless there was some power of suggestion involved.

[Andromeda]

Well we never said the fal'Cie had any kindness or regard for human life. ^^; Oddly enough looking at how the kid was after the experience, it did not seem to be a negative impact on him. But he was also branded by Lindzei and not Pulse, perhaps Pulse is more invasive than Lindzei. Considering he isn't really a huge focus on screen time, it is hard to know if there were any negative after affects left on him.

[Angel of Iniquity]

Well, I wish I had knew about at least half of this while I played FF13, I had no Idea what a lindzei was or what the heck any war of transgression or whatever lol.
Would have made the game that much better