Spira (Final Fantasy) - History

History

One thousand years before the events of Final Fantasy X, there was a great war—called the "Machina War"—between the cities of Zanarkand and Bevelle. Yevon, Zanarkand's ruler, could see that his city's summoners were no match for Bevelle's machina, but he was unwilling to allow his city to be swallowed up into the pages of history. He devised a plan to preserve Zanarkand's memory for all eternity, even if he could not save the city itself.

At Yevon's order, most of the surviving common citizens and summoners of Zanarkand gave up their lives to become fayth, whom Yevon would then use to conjure a summoned form of Zanarkand, using their memories as the basis for this massive summon. This summoned replica of the city was to be an ideal paradise, removed from conflict and those who would infringe upon this city's tranquility. This summoned version of the real Zanarkand is called "Dream Zanarkand" (夢のザナルカンド, Yume no Zanarukando?).

To accomplish this, Yevon manifested the city out at sea in an undisclosed location, far removed from the Spiran mainland and the warmongering Bevelle. As an added protective measure, Yevon created a gravity magic-forged armor. Using the gravity magic to surround himself with pyreflies, he led them to create an armor that would terrify all Spira: the monster known as "Sin" (『シン』, "Shin"?). However, not only was this armor designed to protect Dream Zanarkand, but he also "programmed" it to attack areas with high populations and advanced technology, thus bringing technological progress to a halt and keeping the people of the mainland from giving much thought to what may lie far out at sea.

Unfortunately for Yevon (now to be known as "Ebon-Ju", or "Yu Yevon" in English, meaning "the Curse of Yevon"), maintaining his summoned city and creating Sin was a greater strain on his human mind than even he—who was considered peerless amongst summoners—could handle. His humanity rapidly faded, and all that was left was the instincts to maintain the summoning (Dream Zanarkand), and to protect this summoning from other Spirans, by means of terrorising them enough to quash curiosity about what was out in the ocean, and by destroying all means they had of finding (even accidentally) or threatening Dream Zanarkand. Sin's first act as an instinctive beast, "programmed" to destroy advanced technology, was to decimate the original Zanarkand. Sin would then go on to bring dread to Spira's citizens for a millennium.

The teachings of Yevon—said to have been left by Yevon to his daughter, Lady Yunalesca—were implemented by Bevelle to maintain order. They did so by leading Spirans to believe that Spira may someday be free of Sin, should they atone for their "sins". In actuality, Yunalesca and Yevon are believed to have planned it this way from the start. Bevelle believed Sin to be an aeon summoned by Yevon as revenge for conquering Zanarkand's defenders. In a deal with Yunalesca to appease Yevon's wrath, she offered to provide them with a means to maintain order and hope for the common people—Yevon's teachings—in exchange for them ensuring that Yevon be praised and glorified. They agreed, and the temples of Yevon were born, teaching that machina were forbidden (another means of preventing advanced technology from revealing Dream Zanarkand's location), that Sin was a result of humanity's pride and use of machina in the first place, and that Sin could only be vanquished when humanity had attained purity and been cleansed of its past sins. Until then, it was said that only the ritual known as "the Final Summoning" would provide brief reprieves from Sin's terror, called the "Calm" (ナギ節, Nagisetsu?, lit. "calm time").

Calms would come when a summoner managed to complete the summoner's pilgrimage, obtaining their Final Aeon from the unsent spirit of Yunalesca in the ruins of Zanarkand. Yunalesca herself was the first high summoner, transforming her husband Zaon into a fayth, and using him as her Final Aeon to defeat Sin. The Final Summoning requires that the bond between the summoner and the individual who becomes a fayth for the Final Summoning be a powerful, personal bond, such as that between siblings, friends, or spouses. Only then would the bond between the Final Aeon and the summoner provide enough power to shatter Sin's armor. Unfortunately, the art of the Final Summoning only ensured that Sin would return, as Yu Yevon's spirit would emerge from the cracked armor of the defeated Sin, and possess the Final Aeon that had destroyed the monstrosity, using that Final Aeon as the core for a new Sin, beginning the cycle anew. The Final Aeon, now in the control of Yu Yevon, kills the no longer needed summoner. Yunalesca herself faced this fate, but her conviction to pass on the Final Summoning kept her in Spira as an unsent. After the defeat of Sin, the Calm would then follow, providing a brief period of respite from Sin's destruction while Yu Yevon created a new Sin around the Final Aeon he had possessed.

Thus it was for one thousand years: Sin would be defeated, the summoner who achieved the feat would die, and Sin would be born anew, then defeated and born anew, again and again, leaving destruction and sorrow in its wake all across Spira. This repetition of death was known as "the spiral of death". The spiral of death had repeated itself at least five times before the beginning of Final Fantasy X.