Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy



Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy is the collective name of a series of games made under the Final Fantasy XIII label by Square Enix. Made in the same vein as the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and the Ivalice Alliance collections, Fabula Nova Crystallis, which means "new tale of crystal" in Latin, is nevertheless based on various worlds and different characters, but each game will be "ultimately based on and expand upon a common mythos".

The connection between the Fabula Nova Crystallis games could be compared to the one that exists between games like Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V: different universes but roughly the same crystal mythos. Officially, they have been characterized as "different titles based on variations of the Final Fantasy XIII universe". The figure shown in the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy logo is one of the gods of the mythos, but when asked by Famitsu, Yoshinori Kitase would not reveal which one.

Titles
Each of the 'series' of games are being made by a different team of developers within Square Enix Product Development Division 1. All Lightning Saga games are being developed by the same team, as are Final Fantasy Type-0 and its prequel, Agito. For Final Fantasy XV, the developers have already been talking of the chance of sequels.

The games within Fabula Nova Crystallis are:
 * Final Fantasy XIII
 * Final Fantasy XIII-2
 * Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
 * Final Fantasy Type-0
 * Final Fantasy Agito
 * Final Fantasy XV

The trademark Final Fantasy Haeresis XIII was registered in the United States on May 1, 2006 but there have been no announcements of any plans to make a game of that title, and the trademark was abandoned on April 25, 2011.

A web novel, later made into a CD Drama, titled Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise- belongs to the Final Fantasy XIII expanded universe, while Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i- is a novella released with Final Fantasy XIII International Ultimate Hits in Japan, and acts as an epilogue to Final Fantasy XIII, covering direct events following the game's ending. Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before delves into the events that happen prior to Final Fantasy XIII-2, while Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After portrays events that happened after the game.

Square Enix registered a domain name for Final Fantasy XIII-3 on September 7, 2011. No development plans were announced and a representative of Square Enix noted the filing was to protect the Final Fantasy XIII IP and was not indicative of a new title.

The Lightning Saga
The Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary conference on September 1st 2012 held "Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga: New Developments Presentation", where Motomu Toriyama, Isamu Kamikokuryo and Yuji Abe detailed the next title in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, expanding and concluding the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.

The three games part of the Lightning Saga are Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Mythos
The Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos was revealed in a video shown at Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere event on January 18, 2011. The mythos is later reintroduced in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII through murals in the Dead Dunes.

In the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, the universe is divided in two coexisting realities– the Mortal World, the realm of the living, and the Unseen Realm, the realm of the dead. In the beginning, the god Bhunivelze had killed his mother, Mwynn, to take full control of the Mortal World and Mwynn was sent into the Unseen World. However, a troubled Bhunivelze believed that that Mwynn had placed a curse on the realm of the living so that it would one day be destroyed. Bhunivelze sought to destroy his mother once and for all to stop her curse, but was unable to reach the Unseen World without giving up control of the Mortal World. To find the entrance to the realm of the dead, Bhunivelze created the fal'Cie Pulse to search the world for the door to the Unseen World.

Bhunivelze then created the fal'Cie Etro to assist Pulse, only to discard her without any power when he saw that unknowingly created her in the likeness of Mwynn. Bhunivelze proceeds to create Lindzei to serve as his protector as he enters a deep crystal sleep under the door to the Unseen World was found.

When Pulse and Lindzei were given a task to fulfill by their creator, Etro became distressed over her lack of power and purpose in the world. Etro killed herself in a desperate act to receive Bhunivelze's notice and vanished from the Mortal World, her spilled blood used by Lindzei to create humanity. Ending up in the Unseen World, Etro discovered Mwynn being consumed by an energy known as chaos. With her last breath Mwynn tasked Etro with protecting the balance of the universe, for if the balance between the Visible and Unseen Worlds was to be disrupted, the universe itself would collapse. Ultimately, the curse that Bhunivelze sought to prevent is revealed to be nothing more then an eventuality of fate.

Not fully comprehending Mwynn's final request, Etro soon became lonely and developed an affection toward the humans. Etro placed a piece of chaos within each human being, which came to be known as the "heart". Pulse continued to craft the world as he saw fit, while Lindzei protected the world and crafted the floating paradise of Cocoon for the humans. One day, Pulse and Lindzei absconded from the world, never to be seen again. Many of the humans, in turn, worshiped – and some abhorred – these fal'Cie as gods. Etro, meanwhile, became known as the Goddess of Death who waited to greet each human as they passed through the door to the Unseen World and be eventually reborn in a cycle that supervises the amount of chaos between the two realms. As for Bhunivelze, he remains in his slumber until the end of time in where he would awake.

Musical Themes
"Fabula Nova Crystallis" is the sixteenth track of the Final Fantasy XIII: Original Soundtrack's fourth disc, and plays during the game's final cutscenes before the final battle. It is an arrangement of the game's main theme, "FINAL FANTASY XIII - The Promise". In Final Fantasy XIII-2 "Fabula Nova Crystallis" plays during the secret ending of "Requiem of the Goddess" downloadable content scenario.

An orchestral performance of "Fabula Nova Crystallis" with the lyrics of "Serah's Theme", conducted by Arnie Roth, performed by the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra and Frances Maya, is present on the third Distant Worlds album: Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy Returning Home. It was originally performed in Tokyo in November 2010. It is the eight track of the second disc.

Development
The Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos was written up in book form by Kazushige Nojima. Starting in April 2004, it took him approximately a year, and his work included input from Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama, Tetsuya Nomura and Hajime Tabata (all of whom went on to be involved with games set within the mythos). The mythos was deigned to be interpreted freely by the individual directors.

Fabula Nova Crystallis was first announced in 2006. The series was originally called Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII, but the name was shortened to Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy during the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere event on January 18, 2011. The "XIII" numeric was dropped because what was originally named Final Fantasy Agito XIII was renamed Final Fantasy Type-0.

A video of the Fabula Nova Crystallis lore was shown at the January 18th, 2011, Square Enix Conference. The video details the story of the many gods from the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series. The video was created by a team headed up by Yusuke Naora (art director of Final Fantasy Type-0). The text of the narration is arranged from Kazushige Nojima's mythos book. Yoshinori Kitase joked that the lore was written five years back and Nojima's book has been sealed away since, but they had to take it out just for the Premier event.

Etymology
Square Enix's page states that Fabula Nova Crystallis translates to "the new tale of the crystal". However, this is not quite accurate – the Latin word for crystal is "crystallus -i", which is second declension. Fabula Nova Crystalli would mean "the new tale of the crystal". As it stands, the title more closely indicates "the new tale to/by/with the crystals", as crystallis is a dative or ablative plural.

It is possible that 'crystallis' could still be in fact genitive singular, with the meaning, 'of the crystal'. Often in Latin literature the plural and singular forms of words are used interchangeably to rhetorical effect – one example of this is in the story of Scylla in Book 7 of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Allusions

 * Orphan indirectly refers to the series title with the line, "From shattered shards, a new crystal legend will arise".
 * The thirteenth Analect, obtained by defeating Vercingetorix in Mission 64, is called "Fabula Nova Crystallis".
 * There is a piece of music on the fourth disk of the Final Fantasy XIII: Original Soundtrack called "Fabula Nova Crystallis".
 * In Ruffian of the Dead Dunes there is a woman called "Crystal Legends Student" who relays info about the world's mythology when spoken to.
 * In Final Fantasy Type-0, one of the most ancient agreements in Orience is known as the "Fabula Conventions".

Trivia

 * The concepts of a world destined to end, a world divided between the mortal realm and an invisible world of the afterlife and a defeated goddess hiding in that invisible world are highly similar to the Japanese creation myth.