- Joined
- Jun 26, 2008
- Messages
- 9,413
- Location
- Νεφελοκοκκυγία
- Gil
- 3,746
- FFXIV
- Polyphemos Bromios
- FFXIV Server
- Moogle
- Free Company
- KupoCon
Prince Oberyn Martel mentioned this in Discord the other day, got me thinking, and he gave me his endorsement to go and make a thread about it.
The Yevon temples are often decorated with cult statues of the High Summoners who have defeated Sin in the past. This allows Yevon-worshipping Spirans a place to pray to particular High Summoners, to pay their respects and say thanks for the Calms they had provided in previous generations, and also to draw strength from these heroes for contemporary or personal problems (or incessant problems where Sin is concerned). It’s the equivalent of saints in Christianity (particularly Catholicism and Orthodoxy with how far they take it).
Yet these statues appear not to exist within the same timestream as everything else in Spira... In fact some statues might have time-travelled!
Remiem Temple in the Calm Lands (where the player messes about with a chocobo and can obtain the Magus Sisters) had been left in ruins since Lord Gandof’s battle with Sin approximately 400 years ago. This is the climactic battle which tore the earth asunder and created the Calm Lands in the first place.
But there are statues within this temple depicting High Summoners of later generations. We have Lord Ohalland and Lady Yocun and, most perplexing, Lord Braska (Yuna’s father). So in a temple which had been left derelict for 400 years we have a statue of a High Summoner who finished his pilgrimage and brought forth another Calm only a decade or so ago.
Lord Braska is here on the right at Remiem:
When the player is in Braska’s hometown of Besaid, despite local enthusiasm for idolising him, the statue of him there has not long been completed. His journey is still relatively fresh.
So are these statues here in abandoned temples because Yevon had prophesied the exact summoners who would be successful? Or was this just a mistake by developers which they didn’t expect anybody could pick up on?
If this was foresight, this would mean Yevon would know already who would eventually defeat Sin each time, therefore the death of thousands of summoners needlessly attempting doomed pilgrimages would be that much more wasteful and tragic. That said, these unfortunate summoners would be able to see the statues of all of the past and future successful summoners in the temples which they visit on their pilgrimages and so would surely notice that they themselves are not depicted and should surely be inclined to give up.
Alternatively, is somebody else installing statues in ruined temples? Do Yevon authorities secretly maintain the abandoned temples and insert the statues of Braska and co within them despite them falling out of use?
What do people think?
The Yevon temples are often decorated with cult statues of the High Summoners who have defeated Sin in the past. This allows Yevon-worshipping Spirans a place to pray to particular High Summoners, to pay their respects and say thanks for the Calms they had provided in previous generations, and also to draw strength from these heroes for contemporary or personal problems (or incessant problems where Sin is concerned). It’s the equivalent of saints in Christianity (particularly Catholicism and Orthodoxy with how far they take it).
Yet these statues appear not to exist within the same timestream as everything else in Spira... In fact some statues might have time-travelled!
Remiem Temple in the Calm Lands (where the player messes about with a chocobo and can obtain the Magus Sisters) had been left in ruins since Lord Gandof’s battle with Sin approximately 400 years ago. This is the climactic battle which tore the earth asunder and created the Calm Lands in the first place.
But there are statues within this temple depicting High Summoners of later generations. We have Lord Ohalland and Lady Yocun and, most perplexing, Lord Braska (Yuna’s father). So in a temple which had been left derelict for 400 years we have a statue of a High Summoner who finished his pilgrimage and brought forth another Calm only a decade or so ago.
Lord Braska is here on the right at Remiem:
When the player is in Braska’s hometown of Besaid, despite local enthusiasm for idolising him, the statue of him there has not long been completed. His journey is still relatively fresh.
So are these statues here in abandoned temples because Yevon had prophesied the exact summoners who would be successful? Or was this just a mistake by developers which they didn’t expect anybody could pick up on?
If this was foresight, this would mean Yevon would know already who would eventually defeat Sin each time, therefore the death of thousands of summoners needlessly attempting doomed pilgrimages would be that much more wasteful and tragic. That said, these unfortunate summoners would be able to see the statues of all of the past and future successful summoners in the temples which they visit on their pilgrimages and so would surely notice that they themselves are not depicted and should surely be inclined to give up.
Alternatively, is somebody else installing statues in ruined temples? Do Yevon authorities secretly maintain the abandoned temples and insert the statues of Braska and co within them despite them falling out of use?
What do people think?
I was looking something up before posting this and now I've got the dumb temple hymn in my head. 