Let me warn you of something right now: I’m writing about a moving target. There is a very real chance that anything I write here will either be confirmed or completely useless once Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out. That said, you should also be familiar with the ideas or at least have played a significant portion – at least 30+ hours – of Final Fantasy XIII for any of this to make sense.

 

You are a divine being with a singular purpose. You do not age, cannot change and often rarely move from your position. What happens then if something threatens your task and you, being by yourself, cannot face it alone? Wouldn’t you seek out help? Draft people to your cause?

 

Welcome to Sympathy for the Devil, a series where I show that villains are not evil, just misunderstood. This time: fal’Cie of Final Fantasy XIII.

 

 

The mythology is going to get very dense very quickly, but stay with me.

 

At the beginning of the universe, there were two beings – the god Buniberzei and his mother Muin – and two areas: the visible realm (of life) and the invisible realm (of death). Wanting exclusive control over the visible realm, Buniberzei kills his mother and she passes to the invisible world.

 

Sometime later, Buniberzei comes to think that the visible world will one day end and that this result comes from some curse Muin delivered upon her death. He begins to seek out a doorway to the invisible realm and learns that only in giving up his control, through death, can he reach the other realm. Not liking this, he creates three fal’Cie to help him find another way: Lindzei, Etro and Pulse. Buniberzei then goes into a deep crystal sleep and leaves the single world to be ruled over by the three fal’Cie.

 

Etro, who was created in the accidental image of Muin, was not granted powers by Buniberzei like the other two due to her likeness to his mother. She soon commits suicide, being unable to change anything unlike Lindzei and Pulse. Her death scatters her power and creates humanity while Lindzei and Pulse begin to fight over how to find this doorway. They each begin to create other fal’Cie to take care of certain tasks as their own creator had done to them and each comes to a different conclusion.

 

Pulse begins to create numerous life forms which fight and breed with each other. Lindzei, in turn, takes on the role of protection of all life. Humanity, seeing all these new and often dangerous forms of life as a threat to themselves, petition Lindzei for protection. He creates Cocoon, a giant separate world in the sky above the planet, and asks humanity to join him there. 

 

Most take up this offer and, after they have been lifted away, he starts a systematic extermination of all other life on the surface of the planet. This leads to the War of Transgression and the events that start Final Fantasy XIII as fal’Cie from both sides, Pulse and now Cocoon, start drafting L’Cie, people given power by fal’Cie, into both sides of the war.

 

 

Fal’Cie, despite some providing control over systems like water purification and powering Cocoon itself, are seen as evil and possessing terrible power by the creatures and humans in Final Fantasy XIII. Their very ability to draft people to their cause, make them L’Cie and forced to find their Focus or become Cie'th, (undead monsters who retain their L’Cie powers), is seen as demonic. However, are they really that evil?

 

Most are just as confused about what to do with their lives as the humans are. Some, like Anima, help humanity on Gran Pulse, the label given to the planet by its inhabitants after Cocoon is created, while others, like Orphan, power Cocoon itself. Still others like Barthandelus seek out to get their makers, Lindzei or Pulse, attention to end their existences. They are not unlike small children who are given no real guidance but told to continue towards only one goal. 

 

If you had great power, were immortal and were often tasked with a singular duty, wouldn’t you too seek out people to help you and create L’Cie? Even Barthandelus, easily one of if not the primary antagonist of the game, is only trying to die by killing off all of humanity on Cocoon and all other life on Gran Pulse. He feels this will awaken Buniberzei by causing everything to shift toward the invisible realm of the dead. He just wants his “father” and sees genocide as the only option to get his attention.

 

 

The fal’Cie were created, given great power and for the most part left alone by their creator. Humanity comes about as an accident and the fal’Cie start to use them too. Is this wrong?

 

If you never knew pain or death, could you empathize with another lessor species who did? If you were immortal, how hard would it be for you to try to understand a mortal life? Wouldn’t you just keep going as you were told and draft people as needed? If all you had ever known is service, is to too much of a leap to expect that same thing from others?