Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy


 * —Online description.

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 the 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.

Official
Listed in order of game release:
 * Final Fantasy XIII, released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (later released on Microsoft Windows through Steam and on iOS in Japan) is the thirteenth main Final Fantasy game and first title in the subseries. The game, following a group chosen to trigger an apocalyptic event to destroy their homeland, takes place across the world of Gran Pulse and the artificial planetoid of Cocoon.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0 (formerly Final Fantasy Agito XIII), originally released for the PlayStation Portable and later remastered and brought to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam. The story follows Class Zero, a group of elite students from the Dominion of Rubrum, as they fend off attacks from the Militesi Empire and become instrumental to the plans of those behind the war.
 * Final Fantasy XIII-2, the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, released for the same platforms as the original and again later digitally re-released on PC. It details the aftermath of Final Fantasy XIII, including how the events of the original game concluded. It ends on a cliffhanger, leading into the second sequel.
 * Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the second sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, released for the same platforms as the previous Final Fantasy XIII games and again later digitally released on PC. The story, set on the dying world of Nova Chrysalia, details the end of the Final Fantasy XIII storyline, tying up multiple loose threads.
 * Final Fantasy Agito, a companion game to Final Fantasy Type-0, released for Android and iOS, with a port for PlayStation Vita in development and has been announced for Windows 10. Using the same setting and many of the same characters as Final Fantasy Type-0, it plays out as an episodic story that repeats itself and alters depending on player votes.

Final Fantasy XV (formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII) started as one of the original entries in the subseries and was considered such into 2015, but its current connection to the subseries has been reduced to a thematic base upon which original lore has been based. The game follows a prince's quest for revenge after his country is invaded by an enemy power to gain control of the world's last crystal.

The three Final Fantasy XIII games and their accompanying media, with the release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, have been dubbed "the Lightning Saga", denoting their connection to the games' central character. The trademark Final Fantasy Haeresis XIII was registered in the United States on May 1, 2006 but there have been no announcements of plans to make a game of that title, and the trademark was abandoned on April 25, 2011.

Each of the "series" of games were made by a different team of developers within Square Enix. Lightning Saga games were developed by the same team headed by Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama who had worked on Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, while Final Fantasy Type-0 and its spin-off, Agito, were developed by the team behind Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, headed by Hajime Tabata.

Related

 * Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, a web novel, later made into a CD Drama, taking place in the weeks leading up to the events of Final Fantasy XIII.
 * Final Fantasy XIII Side Story: A Dreaming Cocoon Falls into the Dawn, a six-chapter novella included in the Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, taking place from the time of the discovery of the Pulse fal'Cie in Bodhum through the events of Final Fantasy XIII.
 * Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-, a novella released with Final Fantasy XIII International Ultimate Hits in Japan, which acts as an epilogue to Final Fantasy XIII, covering direct events following the game's ending.
 * Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before, a novella that delves into events between Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2, filling some of the second game's narrative gaps.
 * Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After, a second novella set during and after the events of Final Fantasy XIII-2, completing the story arcs begun in Fragments Before and filling in further narrative gaps revolving around some of the secondary characters.
 * Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Chronicle of Chaotic Era, a cancelled prequel novella to Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, detailing events that happened between that game and Final Fantasy XIII-2.
 * Final Fantasy XIII: Reminiscence -tracer of memories-, a ten-episode novella, originally released through Famitsu magazine and then through a dedicated online website, which acts as the expanded epilogue to the Final Fantasy XIII games, tying into the epilogue scene of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and incorporating material from Chronicle of Chaotic Era.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0 Manga, an adaptation of Final Fantasy Type-0 that covers Chapters 1-3, while adding details and new events.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0 Side Story: The Reaper of the Icy Blade: A prequel manga set around nine years before the events of Final Fantasy Type-0 that explores the story of Kurasame Susaya.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0: Change the World -The Answer-: A novel adaptation of Final Fantasy Type-0.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0: Change the World -The Penultimate Truth-: A novel adaptation of Final Fantasy Type-0 and a sequel to Final Fantasy Type-0: Change the World -The Answer-.

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 Temple Ruins.

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, the troubled Bhunivelze believed 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 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.

Bhunivelze created the fal'Cie Etro to assist Pulse, only to discard her without giving her any powers when he saw he had unknowingly created her in the likeness of Mwynn. Bhunivelze finally created Lindzei to serve as his protector as he entered a deep crystal sleep until the door to the unseen realm was found.

While Pulse and Lindzei were given a task to fulfill by their creator, Etro became distressed over her lack of power and purpose. She killed herself to receive Bhunivelze's notice and vanished from the Mortal World, and her spilled blood was used by Lindzei to create humanity. Ending up in the unseen realm, 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 Mortal and unseen realms was to be disrupted, the universe itself would collapse. The curse Bhunivelze seeks to prevent is but an eventuality of fate.

Not fully comprehending Mwynn's final request, Etro became lonely and developed an affection toward the humans who were fated to follow her in death. Etro placed a piece of chaos within each human being as they passed through to the unseen realm, which came to be known as the "heart", stabilizing the influence of chaos.

Pulse continued to craft the world as he saw fit, while Lindzei protected the world. One day, Pulse and Lindzei absconded, never to be seen again. Many of the humans, in turn, worshiped—and some abhorred—these fal'Cie as gods. Etro became known as the Goddess of Death who waits to greet those who pass through the door to the Unseen World, eventually to be reborn in a new form. She supervises the cycle of reincarnation to keep the amount of chaos between the two realms in balance.

As for Bhunivelze, he remains in his slumber to awaken at the end of time.

Overarching concepts
As the games in Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series share a common mythos, they have common concepts albeit used with varying interpretations. Crystals are a common theme, representing souls, divinity and the origin of magic. This harkens back to the main Final Fantasy series where crystals have been a staple since the series' inception, but Fabula Nova Crystallis—as the name suggests—aims for new interpretations of the role of crystals in the series.

Musical themes
"Fabula Nova Crystallis" is the sixteenth track on the forth disc of the Final Fantasy XIII: Original Soundtrack, 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 "Lightning's Story: 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. A version is also included on Distant Worlds III: more music from Final Fantasy album.

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 announced in 2006, then 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 was arranged from Kazushige Nojima's mythos book. Yoshinori Kitase joked that the lore was written five years back and Nojima's book had been sealed away since, but they had to take it out just for the Premier event.

Officially, the Fabula Nova Crystallis games had been characterized as "different titles based on variations of the Final Fantasy XIII universe". Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy XV, has described the concept in this way:

The figure 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.

Themes
The general theme of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series is destiny predetermined by higher beings, and human choices whether to accept or rebel against their fate. The series pits humans against divine forces time after time. Despite the gods' power and frequently callous treatment of mankind, using people as mere tools toward their own goals, humans can prevail relying on the strength of their souls, a concept frequently alien to the deities.

The series re-imagines core Final Fantasy concepts in "modern" ways. Final Fantasy XIII explores the idea of becoming a "Warrior of Light" (l'Cie) chosen by the crystals to a supposedly divine mission, whereas Final Fantasy Type-0 wants to tell the story of nations powered by Crystals warring over said Crystals—a recurring story in the series.

The main overarching story theme explores the meaning of humans' free will when faced with destiny carved by the deities of the world. In Final Fantasy XIII Lightning and her companions struggle against the fal'Cie rule and the cruel fate of a l'Cie. In Final Fantasy XIII-2 Serah and her friends want to prevent the imminent fall of Cocoon and destruction of the timeline, which would kill millions. In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Lightning needs to save and guide as many souls to the new world as she can while the almighty god Bhunivelze is watching her every move.

In Final Fantasy Type-0 the people of Orience are trapped in a spiral by fate, and Class Zero must choose to either accept their roles as the pawns of the divine, or choose their own path.

The theme of "beginning of the end" recurs in the context of setting the beginning of a new era. In Final Fantasy XIII Vanille speaks about the fateful thirteen days as "beginning of the end", but at the end she and her friend, Fang, sacrifice themselves to give humanity a new start of not depending on the fal'Cie. In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII the end of Nova Chrysalia gives birth to a new world, one without gods. In Final Fantasy Type-0, Cid Aulstyne claims his campaign of "beginning the end" is a "glimmer of hope", setting the path toward Tempus Finis, the end of the world.

The Lightning Saga
There are several prominent themes in Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. One of them is "family bonds" presented with various types of relationships: the bond between Lightning and Serah as sisters; the lovers' relationship between Serah and Snow; the father-son relationship between Sazh and Dajh and Bartholomew and Hope, respectively; the relationship between friends between Vanille and Fang and Serah and Noel, respectively; and the relationship of those bound to a servitude as with Caius Ballad and Paddra Nsu-Yeul.

Another theme is "the battle within" as told in the tagline of Final Fantasy XIII, as seen with Lightning and her friends struggling with their inner turmoil: Lightning's journey of shedding her cold persona and accepting her vulnerabilities, Serah's journey of coping with her past as a l'Cie and using that experience to shape the future, Fang and Vanille's journey of accepting their fate and atoning for their actions, Snow's journey of gaining Lightning's acceptance through their shared love for Serah, Hope's journey of looking beyond hate and revenge and creating a future for humanity to be free from fal'Cie rule, Sazh's journey of dealing with his perceived failures as a father, and Noel's journey of creating a future where people can thrive while dealing with his feelings of failure and helplessness in preventing disaster and unknowingly helping bring it about.

Each installment focuses on a different deity within the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos: Final Fantasy XIII focused on Pulse and Lindzei, Final Fantasy XIII-2 on Etro and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII on Bhunivelze.

Orience series
The most prominent theme in Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Agito is war and its effects on the world. The historical progression of a war and its influence on the younger generation is the main focus of the story.

Director Hajime Tabata has cited several underlying themes in the world and story of Final Fantasy Type-0. One revolves around death and its effects: a key aspect of the story is the memories of the dead being removed from the living by the Crystals. This scenario was created to make people feel their hatred of death. Others included the collision of four "fantasies" (the nations of Orience), a battle between magic and technology, and the two sides of the world (the mortal world and unseen realm). Another underlying theme is a cycle of Orience's death and rebirth and the effort to break that cycle.

An overarching theme in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series is that the deities of the world want to make use of humans, either as their "avatars" (by making them l'Cie), or by attempting to use their unique property, souls, for their own purposes. The theme of humanity versus divinity is highlighted in the game's final chapter where Class Zero is asked to become l'Cie. However, succumbing to the Crystal's Will spells disaster for Orience, as it appears that despite the Crystals' efforts one who gives one's soul to a Crystal to harness, cannot actually be Agito, the fabled savior of Orience. Thus Class Zero can only free the world if they exercise their inner strength as humans and turn down the offer to become l'Cie.

Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV was announced in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The "Versus XIII" name comes into play in juxtaposition to Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels that take place in fantastical worlds that are literally and culturally disconnected (Cocoon and Gran Pulse in Final Fantasy XIII; the different eras and timelines in Final Fantasy XIII-2, as well as the normal world and Valhalla; and Nova Chrysalia and the new world in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.). For "Versus XIII" Square wanted the world to be different from the original Final Fantasy XIII by presenting one whole, connected world. This theme has carried over to Final Fantasy XV in the form of a seamless open world. During its transition, XV became "disconnected" from the mythos: while it exists as a base, specific terminology was removed entirely, and its role was reduced to a low-key thematic connection around which original lore was created.

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 "crystallum -i", which is a second declension neuter noun. 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 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 in Final Fantasy XIII 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 in Final Fantasy XIII, 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 in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII 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 Pact".

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 similar to the Japanese creation myth.
 * 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 third installment to the Lightning Saga was later released named Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.