Ark (summon)

Ark is an airship-like summon that first appeared in Final Fantasy IX. Although initially appearing as an airship with a dragon's head at the helm and a long blade out front, Ark can transform into a mecha; in this state, it can attack with an arsenal of explosive laser weaponry.

Final Fantasy IX
Ark appears to be an eidolon of Terran origins, guarding the Gulug Stone in Oeilvert, an ancient Terran archive, and a red moon features during its summoning. The pattern its lasers draw on the ground includes the that appears in many locations associated with the planet. As eidolons are born of people's collective imaginings, most often based on myths and legends as in the case with Gaia's eidolons, Ark may be based on the Terran memories of an ultimate Terran warship, as told in the Oeilvert records. Whether the Ark fought in Oeilvert and the one learned as an eidolon from the Pumice are the same being is ambiguous, as the Ark protecting the Gulug Stone never transforms.

Ark seems to be Terra's equivalent to Gaia's Alexander, their elements mirroring each other: Ark is Shadow-elemental, Alexander Holy-elemental; both are mechanical in nature, being feared as ancient weapons and summons, with Alexander being an immobile megalithic fortress, while Ark takes a form similar to an airship; they share the theme of Heaven and Earth, Ark being airborne and Alexander being earthbound; both represent their respective worlds of origin and their names relate to a theme of judgment and punishment, with Alexander known for his attack, Divine Judgment, while Ark's original attack name in Japanese was Dark Fate.

When equipping Dagger with a Pumice she can learn to summon Ark for 100 AP. The party can locate two Pumice Pieces, which can be forged into Pumice by Hades at his Synthesis Shop in Memoria. Pumice can also be received by beating Ozma, the most powerful enemy in the game.

When summoned, Ark departs from the red moon of Terra, and transforms. A hovering Ark targets the enemy with a laser glyph before firing a salvo of explosive lasers from its wings to scorch the battlefield, and finishes off by readying a larger laser whose impact can be seen from space. Its attack is called Eternal Darkness, which deals Shadow-elemental damage to all enemies.

Ark has the longest summon animation—the full attack is almost two minutes, and the short animation is longer than most summons' long animations. Ark's spell power is equal to 106 plus the total number of Lapis Lazulis in the party's inventory. (See Summon (Final Fantasy IX) for damage formulae.)

If Ark is added to Dagger's roster of summons since the beginning of the game via a cheating device, it would originally cost 320 MP to summon, before she has her eidolons extracted. Its normal cost is 80 MP.

Final Fantasy Legends: Toki no Suishō


Ark is a light-elemental summon. Due to its element being shifted to light, Ark's special attack is now Divine Fate, instead of Dark Fate like in his original appearance. Divine Fate inflicts light-elemental damage to all enemies. All versions of Ark go up to rank 5. Summoning Ark costs 2 points from the Consumption Gauge.

Depending on Ark's version type and rank, it can allow the user to use the following abilities:

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Ark appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game with a dark-elemental card depicting an artwork of it.

Triple Triad
Ark appears in the version available via Final Fantasy Portal App.

Etymology and symbolism
This may relate to the place where Ark is fought, Oeilvert, the archive of that is left of the Terran civilization after most of it was destroyed. If Ark is the manifestation of what is left of Terran memories housed in the archive, it would also befit its name.

Its origins of coming from invaders from another world, being an airship of an advanced degree of technology, and its Dark-elemental affinity, likely harkens to the Japanese Edo Period born concept of the and to outdated superstitions of how those of such ships were related to demons of local myth. How it is a robot, but described as "the beast from the dark", is also a wordplay on the suffix counter word -goki, where it is used to count machinery, but can also mean "strong demon" by homophone, and its name, as Aku-Gouki, can come to be read as "Evil Strong Demon".

Ark's summon attack is called Eternal Darkness in English, or Dark Fate in Japanese. The main theme of Final Fantasy IX is life and death, and the summon attack's name may relate to the latter.

Trivia

 * The Pumice item used to summon Ark in Final Fantasy IX is known as . In the original NES version of the original Final Fantasy this item was translated as "FLOATER", and was used to lift the ancient airship from the desert. This bond is strengthened by the fact that Ark takes the form of an airship.
 * Ark's transforming capabilities can be seen not only as a precursor to the transforming Eidolons in Final Fantasy XIII, but also an indirect reference to the Transformers franchise, which features a spaceship called the Ark.
 * Ark's design is a nod to the 1986 Square game , bearing heavy influence from the mecha SPEX-07 Blassty.
 * Ironically, had Kuja not sent Zidane to Oeilvert to claim the Gulug Stone, he might have found an eidolon to rival Alexander like his plan was.

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