Miasma (term)

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Red Giant manifesting from a pool of miasma in Final Fantasy XV.

Miasma (瘴気, Shouki?) is a recurring term in the Final Fantasy series, most common in the Crystal Chronicles series. It is usually depicted as a poisonous, gaseous substance that plagues the world and surrounds everything like air. Miasma is similar to Mist, a gaseous monster-creating substance found in Final Fantasy IX and the games taking place in Ivalice.

Appearances

Final Fantasy XV

Specimen emitting miasma.

Appellation of organisms infected by a mutant strain of Plasmodium malariae. Once introduced to a body, the photophobic parasites exert full control, rapidly distorting physiology and manipulating behavior so as to render their hosts' original forms virtually indiscernible while also dispersing a light-absorbing miasma.

Loading screen description "Daemons"

Miasma is the black mist emitted from lifeforms parasitized by a plasmodium that engenders a disease that has become known as the Starscourge. Niflheim uses miasma to power their magiteknology by growing parasitized clones in tanks to collect the miasma they emit for magitek cores. Sometimes powerful daemons are born at the imperial labs for this reason. The empire initially tried using miasma from captured daemons and from daemonified adults, but has found that miasma that lacks a sense of self emitted by specimens grown from infants is the most suitable.

Defeated daemons disperse into smoke or melt into the ground, which could be miasma. Daemons at times appear from "thin air", dropping down from the sky or rising from a pool of black smoke on the floor, likely manifesting from the miasma in the air and the ground itself. According to a loading screen in Final Fantasy XV: Comrades, miasma is light-absorbing, and thus lengthens the nights of Eos. Miasma is corrosive, as mines that become overrun by daemons become unfit for excavation. The imperial weapons empowered by magitek cores don't usually emit miasma unless destroyed, but in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV a Diamond Weapon appears entirely covered in smoke-like substance.

Ardyn Izunia, the incarnate of Starscourge, has the ability to exude miasma at will. He can transform into miasma to teleport and fly.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Miasma is poison and even the slightest contact harms a person, and prolonged contact can cause death. It is responsible for the appearance of the monsters. It is said that long ago there was no Miasma and no monsters. However, in Ring of Fates, which takes place before the spread of Miasma, monsters still exist. This is the same for My Life as a King where the Miasma is now gone, but monsters remain. Sometimes a random Yuke in My Life as a King will question this, and say that the "definition" of life forms people consider monsters will have to change.

The only way to keep the Miasma away is to remain inside the barrier of a crystal. The crystals' power is not endless, however, and every year need to be cleansed by Myrrh, which is collected by the Crystal Caravans.

Miasma is the eternal threat produced by the Meteor Parasite, brought to the world in a meteor that crashed into Mount Vellenge centuries ago. The gas brings pain and suffering to the world because Raem, who devours the memories of people, prefers these kinds of memories, and as a result has a somewhat symbiotic relationship with the parasite.

When the miasma began to spread over the land, the Carbuncles advised the inhabitants to live near the crystals, which emit a protective barrier warding off the Miasma. As a result, settlements sprouted wherever such a crystal rested.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates takes place before the Meteor Parasite arrived, thus before the spread of Miasma. In Alhanalem's collection of books, there is one book titled "CRYSTALS AND BIG BANG THEORY", which briefly reads, "As for the relationship between crystals and Miasma..." Not much is revealed by this quote, other than Miasma was known to exist before the Meteor Parasite's arrival. In certain dungeons there is a poisonous gas that fill rooms, similar to Miasma.

In the Crystal Temple, certain rooms are filled with the gas and can only be repelled by a Lilty's urn. When a Lilty's urn is placed on certain platform in these gas rooms, they create temporary sphere around the party that keeps the gas out just like the Crystal Chalice in the original game. The other dungeon filled with this gas is the River Belle, which is a remake of the River Belle Path from the original game.

In multiplayer mode, a Yuke who returns after the player clears a certain dungeon mentions that he seemed to wander into a separate world, filled with Miasma, where the only safety was in the crystals' light.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King takes place directly after the original game. The young King Leo is beginning to restore his kingdom after it had been destroyed by the Miasma.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

While the Yuke that resembles Lich from Ring of Fates attempts to tell a moral story to a mother Lilty and her daughter, she makes a story about a disease in the air that slowly killed off people near it. Eventually, the Lilties believe in the story, with the mother Lilty stating "We're going home straight this instant! And when we do, we'll brush our teeth and scrub our hands until they're pink!"

Bravely Default

The Miasma Woods connects the Harena and Florem Regions, and contains several portions of the ground that will poison whoever steps in it. Due to the skystone of the Eschalot being destroyed, the party is forced to travel to Florem through the woods. The awakening of the Wind Crystal allows the wind to pick up again, thinning the miasma and allowing the party passage.

Bravely Second: End Layer

A thick miasma prevents anyone from getting close to the Ba'al Crater.

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Etymology

[view · edit · purge]Early medical theories predating the discovery of microorganisms often associating foul air, called miasma, from crowded conditions or rotten objects as a cause of disease.

References

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