historical fiction
Jun. 23rd, 2005 07:26 amAnyone who is interested in Spira's history should take a look at this timeline. (Thanks nidrig!) It's a translation from a Japanese game guide written by the creators of the game. I suppose you could consider it canon, or at the very least a supplement to canon. Which means that I can't really argue with it, but I do have a quibble.
By the way, my gentle readers should not assume that I've accepted everything in that timeline as canon for the stories I write, in part because I didn't know it existed when I started writing. I'm using the US version of the game as my source; if it's in the game guide but never explicitly mentioned in the game itself, I may not follow it exactly. If that makes the story AU, so be it.
My main complaint with the timeline is the idea that there have only been four High Summoners (five if you count Yunalesca). It just doesn't ring true for me -- it's not much of a spiral if it's only happened four times in a thousand years. I've been imagining Spira as a place where eight or nine years of peace are punctuated by a few years of terror, over and over again. It seems much more likely to me that the people would cling to the hope provided by the Yevonite religion in that case than if there had only been four years of Calm over the space of a millennium. It's true that there are only four High Summoner statues in each temple (although we never see that part of the temple in Bevelle, do we? So who knows what's in there) and that only four High Summoners are ever mentioned by name, but that makes sense even if there have been a hundred High Summoners -- after all, the Catholic Church has had hundreds of popes, but how many can the average person name? Not many, I'd bet.
Otherwise, though, I think it's a fascinating look at the history of Spira. It has such a rich backstory, no wonder it's inspired so many people to write about it. It's so weird to think that the next FF game is going to be in a completely new and different place.
By the way, my gentle readers should not assume that I've accepted everything in that timeline as canon for the stories I write, in part because I didn't know it existed when I started writing. I'm using the US version of the game as my source; if it's in the game guide but never explicitly mentioned in the game itself, I may not follow it exactly. If that makes the story AU, so be it.
My main complaint with the timeline is the idea that there have only been four High Summoners (five if you count Yunalesca). It just doesn't ring true for me -- it's not much of a spiral if it's only happened four times in a thousand years. I've been imagining Spira as a place where eight or nine years of peace are punctuated by a few years of terror, over and over again. It seems much more likely to me that the people would cling to the hope provided by the Yevonite religion in that case than if there had only been four years of Calm over the space of a millennium. It's true that there are only four High Summoner statues in each temple (although we never see that part of the temple in Bevelle, do we? So who knows what's in there) and that only four High Summoners are ever mentioned by name, but that makes sense even if there have been a hundred High Summoners -- after all, the Catholic Church has had hundreds of popes, but how many can the average person name? Not many, I'd bet.
Otherwise, though, I think it's a fascinating look at the history of Spira. It has such a rich backstory, no wonder it's inspired so many people to write about it. It's so weird to think that the next FF game is going to be in a completely new and different place.
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