Shiva



Shiva (シヴァ) is a frequently recurring summoned monster that usually takes the shape of a blue-skinned woman with clothing of the same color. Her signature attack, Diamond Dust (sometimes called Gem Dust), deals Ice-elemental damage.

Along with Ifrit and Bahamut, she is one of the only summons to appear in every main series game from Final Fantasy III through Final Fantasy XIII (although in Final Fantasy XII she appeared as an airship instead of a summon). She also appears in every main series side-story and sequel that features summons, with the only exceptions being Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- and Final Fantasy XIV.

Biography
Although enjoying regular appearances throughout the series, Shiva, like most of the popular summonable entities, has never been given any significant back story, being simply described as the "Ice Queen". She is, however, shown to have a lover named Shivar and a daughter named Shivan in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, although this is the only appearance that either of them have made in the entire series. In Final Fantasy XIII, Shiva is embodied in a pair of sisters called Nix and Stiria.

Shiva has occasionally been shown as one of the more "friendly" summonable entities, only requiring being fought to gain her services in a few Final Fantasy games, and she usually does not display malicious intent when doing so.

Physical Appearance
Shiva's basic physical characteristics are that of a willowy human female with pale skin and long, blue hair so to invoke an image of ice and cold. This image is reinforced in later summon sequences by the addition of arctic winds, freezing temperatures and large ice crystal formations.

Despite the cold, Shiva invariably wears only enough clothing to retain her modesty, along with boots and other minor aesthetic pieces. She carries no weapon, and implements her main Diamond Dust attack with arm gestures, a snap of the fingers, and/or force of will. Later games in the series allow Shiva to carry out physical attacks in the form of kicks and punches.

Final Fantasy III
The first Final Fantasy to introduce Shiva and the ability to summon. She can be acquired by purchase of the Level 2 Summon Magic spell Icen.


 * White summoning: Mesmerize - casts Sleep on all enemies.
 * Black summoning: Icy Stare - deals Ice damage to one enemy.
 * High summoning: Diamond Dust - deals Ice damage to all enemies.

Final Fantasy IV
Shiva appears as Rydia's summon after she rejoins the group in the Underworld. She is also a boss in Rydia's trial in the Lunar Ruins in the Advance release. She costs 30 MP to summon, has a power of 120, and attacks all enemies for ice-elemental damage. In the DS release the charge time to summon her is six seconds.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Shiva returns in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years as one of the Eidolons being controlled by the Mysterious Girl. She is first fought in Palom's chapter, then later can be faced in The Gathering chapter. The first time is a scripted battle, but the second time you fight Shiva until she stops attacking, at this time you must do the same if you want to recruit her, unless she will be killed. If you stop fighting, she will recognize Rydia and will be acquired as a summon. She costs 30 MP to summon.

Final Fantasy V

 * For the enemy page, see Shiva (Final Fantasy V).

The Summoner job class has ability to call Shiva. She can be found at the tower at Walse Castle. This was the first time in the series Shiva appeared as a boss. Along with her are three Ice Commanders who also must be defeated. Shiva costs 10 MP to summon and deals mediocre Ice damage to all enemies.

Final Fantasy VI
For the enemy page, see Shiva (Final Fantasy VI) See the Summon sequence here Shiva appears as an Esper, first encountered by the Returners in the Magitek Factory of Vector. After being drained of her power, Kefka disposes of her and Ifrit in a waste chute.

Believing they mean the two Espers harm, Ifrit attacks the party. Shiva soon senses Ramuh's power within them, and halts the battle. They then grant their abilities to the Returners. Shiva's Spell Power is 52, and she costs 27 MP to summon. She is unblockable. She teaches the following spells:


 * Blizzard x10
 * Blizzara x5
 * Osmose x4
 * Rasp x4
 * Cure x3

Final Fantasy VII

 * See the Summon sequence here

The Shiva Materia is obtained from Priscilla of lower Junon after Cloud and company defeat the boss, Bottomswell. She can then be assigned to a weapon or armor and called upon in combat. Shiva's spell power is equal to 1.5x the base magic damage.

If the player's Materia inventory is full during the scene Priscilla is supposed to give the Materia to Cloud and the party, she leaves the Shiva Materia in her room for the player to pick it up later.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Shiva can be summoned in battle using the appropriate Materia.

Final Fantasy VIII
See the Summon sequence here Guardian Forces (GF) are the summonable creatures of Final Fantasy VIII, used by junctioning them to a character. The GF govern major stat growth, elemental/status offense and defense, and the commands a character may use during battle. Each GF has a preset list of abilities they can learn, but through the use of certain items, the GF can learn additional abilities and forget those that were previously learned.

Shiva is available as one of two default Guardian Forces assigned to protagonist Squall Leonhart at the start of the story. It is implied that she knows Ifrit, as he will comment on her if the player summons her in the battle against him. Shiva may be assigned to any party member throughout the game. If Squall attempts to exit Balamb Garden before accessing the tutorial where he obtains her, Quistis will present both Shiva and Quezacotl to him before reaching the World Map.

Shiva's attack, Diamond Dust, is an Ice-elemental attack that damages all enemies. Shiva's summon time is 12.9s, which, according to the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, allows the player to boost its damage to around 180% of normal damage using a regular PlayStation controller. Its damage is calculated as follows:


 * $$Damage = 62 * Level / 10 + 43 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (265 - TargetSpr) / 8 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * 43 / 256 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * Boost / 100 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (100 + SummonMagBonus) / 100 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (900 - ElemDef) / 100:$$

Elemental Defense starts at 800 (0%), 900 nullifies damage and 1000 absorbs it. If an enemy is shown to be weak against an element, its Elemental Defense is below 800. If damage becomes negative (due to high Elemental Defense), the target is healed by that amount.

Abilities
Abilities learned naturally by Shiva are listed below:

Final Fantasy IX
Shiva is an Eidolon that can only be summoned by Princess Garnet. Shiva is learned from Opal. According to notes left on the Eidolon Wall at Madain Sari, the summoners first discovered Shiva in the form of a small child. As years passed she eventually grew into her more familiar adult appearance. Her spell power is equal to 36 plus the total number of Opals in the party's inventory, and the cost of summoning her is 24 MP.

There is also early concept art of Shiva in a more childlike appearance, possibly representing how the Summoner tribe first discovered her.

Final Fantasy X

 * See the Summon and Overdrive sequence here

The Aeon Shiva is obtained after Yuna visits the Fayth in the Macalania Temple. Shiva's Fayth appears as a Macalanian priestess. She is unique in that Yuna can summon her before the player has named her, during the first fight against Seymour, in which she is called "????". Shiva also possesses the highest initial Agility and Evasion of her counterparts.

Summonable entities in Final Fantasy X can be controlled by the player, and have their own special attacks, spells, and Overdrives. Shiva's special attack is called Heavenly Strike, which does ice damage and delays the enemy's turn. Though she starts out knowing only ice magic, she can be taught any ability provided the player has enough items. Ice magic heals her.

After Lulu receives and charges her Celestial Weapon, Onion Knight, Shiva will be able to break the damage limit of 9,999 HP.

In the International and PAL versions of the game, Dark Shiva will appear as an exceptionally hard optional boss when the party attempts to re-enter Macalania Temple after escaping from Bevelle.

It should be noticed that Shiva is the only Aeon to bring aesthetic changes to Yuna by placing silk handkerchief on her staff.

Final Fantasy X-2
Shiva makes her return in Final Fantasy X-2 as a boss under Shuyin's control. She is fought in the Farplane, as the temple sank to the bottom of the lake shortly after Final Fantasy X.

Final Fantasy XI
Shiva appears in Final Fantasy XI as one of the 6 celestial avatars. She represents the ice element. The job class summoner can unlock the "spell" Shiva upon completion of the quest "Trial By Ice." Alternatively, a brave low-level summoner may go on the quest "Trial Size Trial By Ice" and defeat Shiva in a battle alone rather than in a group. She has the highest magic attack of the game's six celestial avatars thus far, making her merited blood pact "Heavenly Strike" a popular choice. Shiva is also the name of one of the game's servers.

Formerly the young ruler of a small kingdom situated in the south of Vana'diel. Despite her young age, Shiva was a wise and highly competent ruler, loved by all her people, except a small fraction of the nobility. Those were faithful to Shiva's uncle, who had been regent when she first came to the throne. Scheming with the neighboring countries, Shiva's uncle finally managed to organize a coup. He seized the throne and banished Shiva to the frozen Northlands, reluctant to further provoke the anger of the population by executing her outright. However, the rulers with whom he had forged an alliance soon decided to take over the country.

In the chaos that followed, a regiment of soldiers, led by general Aeomatra, decided to go rescue their queen. They managed to find her, frozen solid in a block of ice. Unaccustomed to the harsh climate of the Northlands, they also died one by one, refusing to leave their unfortunate queen. Altana was moved by Shiva's plight and transformed her into the Celestial Avatar of Ice. Aeomatra is the name of the brightest, light blue-colored star of the Shiva constellation.



Final Fantasy XII
Although not appearing in the game as a summon, the blue-skinned figure bound to the Esper Mateus closely resembles Shiva. Fran's level 3 Quickening Shatterheart resembles Shiva's special attack Diamond Dust.

There is also an Imperial airship named Shiva.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings


Shiva is the rank 3 Water Ranged summon, and costs 20 affinity points to summon. Her normal attack, Triple Slap, deals water damage to one foe with three successive hits. Her special, Diamond Dust, deals heavy water damage to all enemies in range, and inflicts Stop.

She is one of the unique water types in that she is really an ice-type. Therefore, she is weak to fire instead of thunder. There are two other weaker Yarhi which are also named after Shiva, Shivan and Shivar, which are stated to be her child and lover respectively.

Final Fantasy XIII

 * See the Gestalt Mode And Summoning sequence here



In Final Fantasy XIII Snow Villiers' Eidolon is the Shiva Sisters, also referred to as the Twin Sisters of Shiva. The sisters are composed of Stiria (スティリア), the dark-skinned elder sister with a light patch around her right eye, and younger, lighter-skinned Nix (ニクス), who has a dark patch around one eye. Snow first faces the sisters as bosses at Lake Bresha, as a test to prove his strength to them.

While summoned, the sisters have their own separate ATB Gauge, but both will be dismissed if their shared SP Gauge falls to zero. This is compensated by Stiria not being able to be directly targeted. In normal mode, Stiria focuses on the Medic and Ravager roles, healing Snow and dealing ice-elemental damage to enemies. Nix focuses on a Commando role, although she does have one spell at her disposal. While Stiria cannot be targeted by enemies, she can still be damaged by Area of Effect attacks.

Snow's Gestalt Gauge increases by driving up enemy chain gauges and by defending against enemy attacks as a Sentinel. In Gestalt Mode, the Shiva Sisters transform into a motorcycle Snow can ride.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
The Shiva sisters have been seen in trailers, helping Lightning fight Caius. They possess different colorings from the original game, possibly suggesting they are an alternate form of Shiva, like Caius's Chaos Bahamut

Final Fantasy Type-0
Shiva will be summonable in the upcoming Final Fantasy Type-0. She has a more human appearance than in other installments, with white/pink skin and long grey-blue hair with straight bangs. She wears a bikini top, a micro-skirt and a g-string, as well as high heels with floating gears.

In-battle Shiva is a very quick character, and skates through the battlefield while striking her foes with ice spells.

Final Fantasy Tactics
The job class Summoner earns this ability over time. Her Glacial Shards attack is a large ice-elemental attack that spreads over a portion of the battlefield. Shiva costs 24 MP, has a speed of 25, and needs 200 JP to learn.

In the PlayStation version, when summoned, the summoner will sometimes say, "Wind, fade to silence and light, give us power! Shiva!"

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
The Summoner job class learns the ability to summon her through the Snake Staff for 200 AP and costs 18 MP to cast. Unlike in her other appearances where she appears with a revealing outfit, this incarnation of Shiva is shown in full armor with only the bottom of her face revealed. Although Shiva wields a sword and shield she does not use them to attack. Instead, she holds the sword vertically above her head, and casts an ice spell.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Like in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Shiva appears once more with her dark blue armor and sword, although she does not use her sword to fight, but instead raises it to send a flurry of ice shards at the selected foes. The Summoner job can learn the "spell" Shiva through the Serpent Staff for 300 AP, and Shiva costs 16 MP to cast with a range of 4.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
When wearing the Mythic Beast Sallet and Mythic Beast Plate, a female Selkie resembles Shiva.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Shiva appears as a summon in Dissidia. When used, Shiva "freezes" the opponent's Bravery Points, preventing them from increasing. Like many summons in Dissidia, Shiva can be summoned in two distinct ways: automatically, which summons her immediately when the user is attacked by an HP attack and her Final Fantasy VIII artwork appears, and manually, where her Final Fantasy IV artwork appears. Shiva's auto version can be obtained in the third stage of the Destiny Odyssey II storyline, and the manual version can be obtained in the same odyssey's second stage.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Shiva's Final Fantasy X incarnation is summonable by Yuna in-battle to perform either Heavenly Strike or Diamond Dust.

Shiva also returns as a summonstone, with the same function as in Dissidia. Her auto version is now found in Chapter Six: Indiscernible Truth of Scenario 012. The manual version can be purchased from certain Moogle Shops for 30 KP.

Chocobo series
Shiva appears in Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, and Chocobo Racing. She appears also as cards in Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.

Final Fantasy: Unlimited
In the anime, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Shiva makes two appearances as a summon. The Soil Charge Triad (Soil is like the colored bullet of a Magun, used to summon creatures) needed to summon Shiva is:

Followed by saying: "Shine! Summoned Creature! Shiva!"
 * The cry of the dark spirit, Dark Green!
 * The one that does not forgive creation, Virgin White!
 * The one that freezes everything, Ice Blue!

In the English audio version, the Soil Charge Triad was changed to: Followed by saying: "Shine! I summon you! Shiva!"
 * The cry of a soul without light, Forest Green! (or Moss Green)
 * The soil that forbids the birth of life, Maiden White!
 * To freeze all things, Ice Blue!

At the second summoning Shiva seems to be destroyed by the Makenshi's brother, Madoushi, with a swipe of his sword.

Knights of the Crystals
Shiva is a monster summoned by the summoner Stein at the Ice Fortress. Defeating them both will reward the player with the Quest Achievement "Blizzard Master".

Itadaki Street series
Shiva has appeared in Itadaki Street Special and Itadaki Street Portable.

The World Ends With You


Shiva appears as a pin called Tin Pin Shiva in . Her psych calls up massive icicles from the ground, dealing considerable damage to the enemy.

Kingdom Hearts
While not making a physical appearance in the series, Shiva's trademark attack, Diamond Dust, appears as a usable command style for all three protagonists in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, by filling up the Command Gauge with Ice-type attacks. A Keyblade Sora can obtain in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories bears this name, and it is lastly the name of a Sleight and Limit Break Vexen from Organization XIII can use in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, respectively.

Blood of Bahamut
Shiva appears as one of the giant monsters in Blood of Bahamut.

Lord of Vermilion II
Shiva appears as a card in Lord of Vermilion II.

Dead Fantasy
Shiva is summoned by Yuna, along with all of the other aeons, in Dead Fantasy IV, but is ultimately defeated by Kasumi and her clones.

Etymology
Shiva shares her name with the Hindu god, (also spelled Śiva). The Hindi Shiva once saved the world by consuming poison, giving him/her blue skin around the area of the neck and throat. It should also be mentioned that Shiva is a god of duality, meaning Shiva is both male and female (though more often thought of as male), as well as god of life and death.

Also, in paintings Shiva was frequently mistaken for a woman due to his long hair and facial features. It is believed that he also periodically destroys the world, then recreates it. There is a possibility that the name was simply the Japanese way of pronouncing the word "Shiver", which is a possibility given her icy nature. Another possibility is the reference to the Slavic goddess, the goddess of love and fertility. This may explain why Shiva is portrayed as the ice goddess.