Spira

[pedromvilar]

Edited some things, added a few bits, and organised the post about pyreflies a little bit better.

[Kappa]

<3333333333 /picks up these worldbuilding posts and snuggles them

[RoboticLIN]

I just want to fling a few things down here. Probably Pedro just hasn't gotten to it yet or I might have missed it somewhere. Of course, any of this can be slightly ignored if Pedro wants.

There are a few summoners going around at any one time. A summoner can be male or female. (Yuna meets two/three others during the journey.) You can have Summon-Fights with them for rewards. You can't summon the Aeon the other has summoned in round 1 during round 1, but can summon it in round 2 of the same fight even after the other summoner has his/hers KO'd atm.

Summoners walk along with Guardians, those who protect her in the meantime. (Yuna is a White Mage, the healer, quite squishy.) There's no real cap on the amount of Guardians a summoner picks, but Yuna does get teased/insulted/mentioned by one person for having seven (It was slightly insulting, but I can't remember how it was said. Sorry).

The Temples that form a Summoner's Pilgrimage are holy sites. Blitzball players pray at them for victory. The starting 'plot' is the Besaid Aurochs (their Blitzball Team) going off to the tourney, and journeying with Yuna along the way.

Summoners are treated, atleast in my opinion, kinda as 'important people be very polite and courteous and do not touch'. The validity of this claim is up in the air for each one. Blitzball Stars are your celebrities to swarm around and cheer about.

Blitzball may indeed be underwater tackle football with shooting via kicking, but it has still stolen my afternoons as a child. It's fun as hell. It's done with a sphere made of a shield you can pass through, that they then shoot water into to fill up into the stadium. It's done with machines.

Lulu and Wakka on the Al Bhed, are kinda... Varying degrees of racist. Lulu is distrustful closet-type, Wakka is very "You can't trust those people!". Al Bhed speak their own language, which in the game you can learn. Each 'dictionary' you find fixes a letter back into common speak, like translating E->G.

Tidus is an idiot. He also has no idea until the last third of the game that summoners die at the end. This might be an open knowledge that nobody really wants to discuss, but Tidus being from Zanarkand has no idea.

Yuna being half Al-Bhed is a secret of sorts. Lulu knows, and both conspire to not let Wakka know.

I have no idea who the frog people are. And I forget to remember if mentioned that the Cloister of Trials is 'forbidden to non-summoners or non-guardians'. The prayer room in the end is also summoner-only.

[RoboticLIN]

Of course my brain remembers things as I look back at it...

Ronso live up in the frozen mountain. They're honor. Also pretty interesting. Kimahri unfortunately gets made fun of by his old Ronso pals for having a broken horn.

I remember what them frogs are now. Not that important.

Blitzball players apparently can hold their breath so long that they can fall asleep underwater. This is purportedly what happened to Jecht in Zanarkand. The Blitzball players in your team (Tidus + Wakka, + Rikku has a re-breather-thing) are the ones that can only participate underwater. So yes, Blitzball players just hold their breath while exerting themselves and being tackled repeatedly. Their seasons also start with the tournament, and then do random matches whenever you feel like it at a save point. You can recruit a bunch of random arse people to fill out the Aurochs.

Al Bhed living on Bikanel is I think known, but their city location is a secret. (May have mentioned, but they kidnap summoners to try to 'save' them.)

Why does 'Rikku' want to correct to 'Kubrick'? I've also added like 20-30 words to the auto spellchecker while typing these two posts.

[pedromvilar]

Ultimania or some other guide says that Blitzball players actually learn to breathe underwater using ~pyreflies~, and also that the thing that holds the sphere of water where Blitzball is played together is also ~pyreflies~.

Is it any surprise I decided my supplemental worldbuilding would basically boil down to "everything is ~pyreflies~"?

[RoboticLIN]

Ultimania or some other guide says that Blitzball players actually learn to breathe underwater using ~pyreflies~, and also that the thing that holds the sphere of water where Blitzball is played together is also ~pyreflies~.

Is it any surprise I decided my supplemental worldbuilding would basically boil down to "everything is ~pyreflies~"?

No surprise at all. *shrug* Never played through the HD version due to not really caring but I don't think they changed it in there. They left in growing up to be a Blitzball though.

[pedromvilar]

HD version doesn't change anything lore-wise to X, adds a few bits to X-2 compared to the non-International version

[pedromvilar]

I'm gonna start writing out what happens in canon, in pieces (because it's a gigantic game, won't do it all in one go).

Chapter 1: Zanarkand
Tidus, star player of the Blitzball team 'Zanarkand Abes,' is gonna play the final of the Jecht Memorial Cup. Ten years ago, Jecht, Tidus' father, disappeared, and this cup is being played on the anniversary. After the game starts, a very large thing appears from the water and attacks the city. It's pretty dramatic, the stadium's destroyed, there's a lot of reverse gravity shenanigans, it's pretty cool.

As he runs away, Tidus runs into Auron a.k.a. dramatic samurai dude. He tells Tidus to come with him, and runs after the big thing rather than away from it, explaining it's called "Sin" as he does. They find some monsters, Auron gives Tidus a sword and says it's "a gift from Jecht," they fight the monsters, then this bridge they're crossing is destroyed but starts slowly falling up because gravity's fucked up. The big thing gets out of its little water bubble while Tidus is hanging for his life from the bridge, Auron looks at Sin (who's hanging above them) and asks if it's sure, and at apparently no answer from it, helps pick Tidus up and then throws him into Sin (who opened a big shiny hole below itself for Tidus to be absorbed into).

Tidus finds himself in a weird subaquatic version of Zanarkand with lots of weird pretty lights, and hears his father, and sees him standing there in this platform, but when he swims there he seems himself as a kid, and passes out. Upon waking up, he finds himself amidst some ruins in the middle of the water, a rainless thunderstorm around, and a sunken building over there. He swims over there, finds a bridge into it, takes it, but it breaks under his weight and he falls into the water again, where he's attacked by another monster. He manages to flee into the dry part of the ruins. He finds flint and some dry herbs, lights himself a fire, and falls asleep.

He dreams he's in the boat he lived in, where Auron tells him off for losing the Blitzball game and a weird little kid tells him he cried.

He wakes up to his fire dying out, and while he's being annoyed at life for being terrible yet another monster appears and attacks him. He's fighting the monster, the monster just won't die, the door's blown up by some people with goggles. The leader of the group helps him fight the monster, then they hold him at gunpoint, they say a bunch of stuff in some weird language Tidus doesn't understand, and the girl punches him and knocks him out.

He wakes up on a boat, with two people guarding him. They say some more things and point a gun at him and he's all like "Okay." A door into the interior of the boat open and a shirtless tattooed guy in suspenders walks out with the girl that knocked Tidus out. The guy starts gesticulating something involving swimming, and after Tidus completely fails to understand him the girl tells Tidus he can stay if he makes himself useful in Tidus' language. He's surprised, but agrees to work.

The girl tells him they found some ancient ruins in the water below, which may have some power left that they can salvage. He and the blond girl dive into the water and get into said ruins. There does indeed still seem to be some power left in the ruins. They activate some stuf, are attacked by another monster (wow these are pretty common huh). After that, the ruins illuminate a lot of stuff, and in particular this thing whatever it is.

(Just before Tidus boards the boat again we see two goggled people talking to each other and the word 'airship' is used.)

He gets back on the boat, but the goggled people still don't let him go inside, so he stays on deck and waits. For a while. Complaining to himself about being hungry. Until eventually the girl shows up with food, which he eats so fast he chokes on it. He asks her her name, and she introduces as Rikku, and he's very happy she really does understand what he's saying. She explains she didn't get a chance to talk to him earlier because everyone thought he was a fiend. He asks her who they are, and she says, "We're Al Bhed. Can't you tell? Wait. You're not an Al Bhed-hater, are you?" He confesses ignorance of the Al Bhed, and says he's from Zanarkand. She asks him if he hit his head, he says they hit his head, she admits that's true and asks him if he remembers anything before that, and he tells her everything about Zanarkand and Sin's attack. Rikku says one's head gets "funny" when Sin is near because of its toxin, and explains that Sin destroyed Zanarkand a thousand years ago, and Tidus doesn't believe her. She suggests he should go to Luca because, since he plays Blitzball, he might find someone who knows him there, but he expresses confusion on what Luca is. She promises him to take him to Luca, then asks him to not tell anyone he's from Zanarkand because Yevon says it's a holy place and he might upset someone.

She leaves him on the deck with his thoughts, and he waits, thinking about everything that's happened and how he's apparently been taken to the future.

And then Sin attacks the boat.

And Tidus falls into the water and falls unconscious.

[pedromvilar]

Chapter 2: Besaid
Thankfully our hero is a Blitzball which means he has intrinsic magic that lets him breathe underwater so he doesn't die. Instead, he wakes up near an island, and is immediately hit in the head by, well, a Blitzball ball, accidentally shot by a few people practising on the beach. He does Star Player Of The Zanarkand Abes magic with the ball (not really magic, he's just really good at gaining momentum out of nowhere and shooting a ball) (well there actually is some magic involved) and shoots it back at them. When he reaches the beach, one of the technically-not-shirtless guys, Wakka, asks him if he can do that move one more time. He does, and Wakka says he's not an amateur, and asks who he plays for. Tidus, ever-so-helpfully, says "The Zanarkand Abes." The people on the beach start whispering to each other and Wakka asks him to repeat that, and he confesses having been near Sin and fibs about his head being foggy. Wakka says at least he's still alive, "Praise be to Yevon," doing a gesture Tidus knows as the good-luck gesture for Blitzball games.

Wakka introduces as Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, and invites Tidus to come with him back to the village for some food. He goes with, and on the way asks Wakka if it's really true Zanarkand was destroyed a thousand years in the past. He explains that a long time ago there were many big cities with machines to run them in Spira; people played all day and left all the work to machina. He gestures at the ruins around them and explains that one day Sin came and destroyed the machina cities, and opines that Sin's humanity's punishment for letting things get out of hand.

Tidus follows Wakka, who leads him to a road ending in a cliff and then pushes him down into the water. They swim along, and on the way Wakka asks him to join his team for the tournament in Luca, where someone's bound to recognise him, and Tidus humorlessly assents to this. He confesses that the Aurochs never won a game since he joined the team, ten years ago when he was thirteen, and that he quit last year after the tournament, and found a new job. But he says he couldn't stop thinking about the game, and that he wants to go out with a bang this year. He says his goal is to give his best, and that's enough to walk away happy, but Tidus says that's not good enough, and his goal should be Victory!

They continue on their way to the village and run into two people who tell them to be careful of fiends on the road. Wakka says they're Luzzu and Gatta, Crusaders, and that Tidus can find their lodge in the village to ask them what they are. They reach it, and Wakka asks Tidus if he knows the prayer. Tidus never prayed in his life, but the gesture is the same one he uses for luck so he knows it. He tells Tidus to go present himself to the temple summoner, and walks off.

Tidus goes talk to the Crusaders, who say they are sworn to battle Sin, having chapters throughout Spira and accepting any who wish to help. The hero Mi'ihen formed the Crusaders eight hundred years ago, when they were known as the Crimson Blades. Tidus is surprised they haven't beat Sin in eight hundred years, and they say they've steered Sin away from towns countless times, and that's all they can do, as no one's been able to defeat it. He asks whose job it is to defeat Sin if not theirs, and they are baffled by how bad the toxin is and tell him he should pray at the temple to recover his memories. He does, and once there realises just how different Spira is from Zanarkand. He examines a statue, and a priest tells him Lord Braska became high summoner ten years ago. He asks what a high summoner is, and when people gasp, explains he got too close to Sin's toxin, and the priest explains that summoners protect the people of Yevon by calling forth aeons, beings of great power and the blessing of Yevon.

He goes to Wakka's lodge and takes a nap to wait for lunch, dreaming of the day his father disappeared and of telling his mother he hated his father. He wakes up and, not seeing Wakka in the lodge, goes looking for him, and finds him at the temple arguing with the priest. Wakka says the apprentice summoner hasn't returned from the trial, and explains that summoners pray in a room beyond the Cloister of Trials to become real summoners. He says the summoner's been there for a day, and that it can sometimes be dangerous, but they can't help because there are already guardians in there, and it's forbidden. Tidus climbs the steps into the Cloister in spite of this, saying the summoner could die.

He solves the puzzles in the Cloister of Trials, and Wakka catches up to him, explaining that only summoners, apprentice summoners, and their guardians can enter, and says he's a guardian. He explains that summoners go on a pilgrimage to pray at every temple in Spira, and the guardians protect them. They reach the antechamber, where two people are waiting. The woman - Lulu - asks why they interrupted, and who Tidus was, but before they can answer the summoner comes out of the Chamber of the Fayth and announces her success, and Tidus is very surprised she's not some old geezer.

Tidus comes out of the temple, and everyone watches the summoner summon for the first time. That evening, Wakka introduces Tidus officially to the rest of the Besaid Aurochs, and Wakka gives them a pep talk. Tidus walks up to the summoner, and the people she's talking to call him a heathen and a bad man, and tell him to stay away from her. She stands up and goes talk to him, introducing herself as Yuna, and thanks him for his help. She asks him if he thinks she could become high summoner, he tells her he thinks so, and she's very happy. She tells him they'll be going on the same boat the following day, and she hopes he'll tell her everything about Zanarkand then.

He goes to bed, has weird dreams, wakes up in the middle of the night and hears a conversation between Lulu and Wakka outside, where Lulu says "he" does look like Chappu but Chappu is dead and Wakka should stop making excuses. When Wakka walks into the lodge, he explains to Tidus Chappu's his little brother, who was a Crusader and was killed by Sin last year. Wakka says he heard it the day of the tournament, and Tidus realises that's why they lost, and he explains he became a guardian to fight Sin and avenge Chappu. He promises to become a guardian full-time after the tournament, and Tidus thanks him for all the help.

The next day, Wakka gives Tidus Chappu's old sword. He says Yuna came to Besaid ten years ago, when the last Calm started, and that she was like a little sister to him and Lulu. She had the talent to become a summoner, and became one yesterday, so now Lulu says they should wait for her so they'll leave together. She leaves the temple carrying a box of gifts for the temples, but leaves it behind because "This isn't a vacation, Yuna." As they climb the hill high enough to see the village from a distance, Lulu tells Yuna to take her time, and Wakka tells Tidus they'll wait for her. Tidus is confused about what that was all about, and then watches Wakka, Lulu, and Yuna pray at a shrine, and they move on.

They continue walking away when the blue horned lion-person who was with Yuna at the temple suddenly attacks Tidus. Wakka asks him to cut it out, and Lulu explains he's Kimahri Ronso of the Ronso tribe, and has learnt the fiends' way of fighting. Wakka says he's one of Yuna's guardians, and she tells Tidus she doesn't really understand him but he's protected her since she was a child.

They go on to the beach, catch the boat, and leave the Isle of Besaid.

[RoboticLIN]

Minor note: When Tidus wakes up on Besaid and mentions the Zanarkand Abes, he mentions being near Sin and Wakka fills in the note about the poison and Tidus is 'uh well maybe'. When they reach the town, Wakka tells Tidus to tell people about the toxin for explanations (Lulu is major snark about this most the game) and to keep Zanarkand on the down-low, due to it's holy-site-ness.

Otherwise, accurate. 9.5/10