Al Bhed

The Al Bhed are a faction of technologists in the role-playing games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. They are notable for their use of machina (prohibited by the games' dominant Yevon religion) and the Al Bhed language that they speak, and can be recognized by the green spiral pattern visible on the irises of their eyes. (closeup of )

The Al Bhed are the only ones to openly reject the teachings of Yevon, especially the ban on machina. For this reason they are often ostracized by the rest of the population, and have been the victims of attacks by Yevonites in the past. However, some Al Bhed have still managed to find acceptance, most notably Rin, who operates a chain of travel agencies throughout the world of Spira. They are even allowed to participate in the Yevon-sponsored Blitzball tournaments. Al Bhed also take a keen interest in the technological past of Spira, organising salvage operations and excavations of ancient technology.

"Al Bhed" is an ethnicity rather than a nation or other social group; the children of Al Bhed parents are automatically considered Al Bhed as well.

History
Long ago, the Al Bhed were scattered all over Spira following an attack by the followers of Yevon. Under the leadership of Cid, they regrouped on Bikanel Island and built a new city for themselves, called Home.

During the course of Final Fantasy X, the Al Bhed are involved in a plot to kidnap Summoners, ostensibly to protect them by preventing them from completing their pilgrimmage (it was later revealed that Summoners die in the process of calling forth the Final Aeon believed necessary to defeat Sin). Because of this, the Guado attack Home in order to rescue the captured Summoners, and destroy the city in the process. Amidst the chaos, a number of Al Bhed together with the player's party are able to flee Home using the airship that was discovered during the salvage operation shown early in the story.

After the defeat of Sin the Al Bhed expand their exploration of Bikanel Island.

Al Bhed language
The Al Bhed lauguage is a fictional language that, apart from the main protagonist who may learn it, is spoken only by the Al Bhed people themselves. Although it seems at first like a foreign language, it is actually a cipher, a system of transposing certain letters for others. It shares the same syntax and grammar of English.

Here is how to convert English to Al Bhed:

English: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Al Bhed: YPLTAVKREZGMSHUBXNCDIJFQOW

For example, "you" in English is rendered as "oui" in Al Bhed:


 * Y → O
 * O → U
 * U → I

Certain keywords are not translated into Al Bhed in the game. Most keywords are proper nouns, but some common nouns also are not translated, such as "fiend" ("Y fiend! Eh risyh teckieca!" / A fiend! In human disguise!), "magic" ("Ouin bnaleuic magic yht Aeons yna caymat" / Your precious magic and Aeons are sealed), and "airship".

In the game, Al Bhed words are differentiated from the common language of Spira by being printed in blue text (for non-translated words) or pink text (for translated words, represented here in bold). The player can learn the Al Bhed language by picking up items called Al Bhed Primers. Each Primer translates a single letter of the alphabet. This sometimes results in bizarre statements such as "Ouir breleuis magic yht Aeons yne seymet!". There are several Al Bhed to English translators available on the web including this one

Al Bhed in Japanese
The original Japanese version of the cipher uses the syllable-based kana system of writing where each symbol represents a combination of "consonant + vowel" (or simply a vowel). In general, each symbol is mapped to another with the same vowel, but a different consonant.

For example, "sa" maps to "ra", "se" maps to "he", and "na" maps to "ha". The word "sayōnara" (goodbye) is transformed from "sa-yo-u-na-ra" to "ra-mo-fu-ha-na".

As with English, proper nouns and game-specific concepts are not translated. Al Bhed is written in katakana.