A collection of apocalyptic prophecies of unknown authorship stored at Akademeia since antiquity.
Dominion Quaestor, Meroe
The Nameless Tome (無名の書, Mumei no Sho?) is a book mentioned by various people in Final Fantasy Type-0. Its most recognizable text is the prophecy Ace recites in the opening. Nameless Tome is an anthology of anonymous letters sent to the four peristylia long ago. The book is said to talk about Agito and Tempus Finis.
Passages[]
Diva, the Divine Spirit[]
- Two lights cast their all-seeing eyes upon the spiral,
- Instructed of the great Will only to watch, never to interfere.
- The lights raise their voices in harmony, Diva of the heavens,
- Singing of the world's end, a long-forgotten fate.
The Nameless Tome 4:4[]
- Within the whirling wheel, nestled in the infinite spiral,
- Lie two sacred thrones.
- In one sits the divine spirit aligned with Lindzei,
- In the other sits the divine spirit aligned with Pulse.
- One seeks to stain the soil with blood
- And thrust open the gates to the realm unseen,
- The other nurtures souls,
- Hoping they will open the gate on the spirit's behalf.
- Bound by their covenant,
- Despite an infinitesimal probability of success,
- The two continue to challenge the limits of possibility
- Over and over, cycle after cycle,
- Until they fade from this world.
The Nameless Tome 4:11[]
- First Paragraph
- The first locus to be cast away belonged to age.
- Age is the fountain from which flows all of man's despair,
- The manifest mark of mortality.
- Though they could not sever it from the spiral,
- The divine spirits shunned age, deeming it unnecessary.
- They let out a sigh lasting for ages,
- And when the crumbling cliffs had finally eroded to naught,
- Age was finally alone,
- A pariah within the whirling wheel of percipience,
- Within every wheel.
- And like the crumbling cliffs,
- Age's heart began to wear away
- Until the day the soul of suffering appeared.
- Third Paragraph
- The third locus to be cast away belonged to suffering,
- An indispensable inevitability.
- Unless one understands, experiences, and expunges suffering,
- One can never attain sublimation.
- Yet the divine spirits did not desire to ascend.
- Thus, they deemed suffering unnecessary to the gods,
- For it was not sublimation but transformation that they sought.
- And so, within the eternally ephemeral spiral,
- Suffering came to know pain in all its forms.
- Then, in the abyss of despair, he found a girl
- Standing perched over an even more treacherous void.
- In that instant, he awoke to the reversal at the end of all pain.
- From that moment forth, suffering began thirsting for that inversion
- In whichever wheel he traversed.
The Nameless Tome 14:7[]
- Only the chosen may enter that land.
- The chosen will touch all creation, and obtain that which is truth.
- It is reason outside of reason—the reason of Agito.
- It is power—the authority of Agito.
- The sage proclaims:
- "In all things, there is meaning. In all things, mourning will end.
- Make your choice: will you choose reason, or the power of kings?"
- And unto him, I reply:
- "I will become Agito. I will sound the knell to shake all the world.
- When nine and nine meet nine, the depths of reason shall stir.
- When the seal of creation is broken, a voice like thunder shall sound,
- And thou shalt know—we have arrived."
The Nameless Tome: Final Verse[]
- The wheel whirls within the spiral,
- Its light growing ever radiant with every revolution.
- Yet when the small spiral collapses in upon itself,
- Its light fades, and as a wheel it begins whirling anew.
- Within the spiral emerged a single locus, so close yet invariably distant.
- In the flash of an eternity, one became ten and six, then ten and two,
- And the wheel began whirling once more.
- The first revealed the power of acceptance,
- The second, the power of kindness,
- The third, the power of knowledge,
- The fourth, the power of valor,
- The fifth, the power of innocence,
- The sixth, the power of tenacity,
- The seventh, the power of discernment,
- The eighth, the power of tranquility,
- The ninth, the power of action,
- The tenth, the power of ignorance,
- The eleventh, the power of wisdom,
- And the twelfth, the power of judgment.
- Cast away were the loci of fear, love, suffering, and age.
- Their souls elevated through the endless cycle of transmigration,
- Those who ascend these loci were chosen by the divine spirits:
- One wishing to open the gate with its own hand,
- One wishing to open the gate using the hand of another.
- The elevated souls shine more radiantly as the wheel continues whirling,
- But fragments break off from each locus with every revolution.
- When these shards are ten and two, the souls shall break forth from the wheel,
- Involuntarily moving toward the end,
- And the grand spiral shall collapse, sinking back to the percipient depths.
- Only then shall a new wheel begin to whirl.
- Yet at the edge of infinity, time overflowing is born of the spiral.
- Though the gate remains closed,
- Two loci who fell from the ten and two are granted human will of the divine.
- And the fallen shards rejoin the wheel in its revolution,
- Each one bearing the smile of Etro.
- One of the divine spirits accepts their return,
- Releases the loci and sets out on a new journey.
- The remaining radiance forges the wheel of creation and set it whirling anew.
- Is this wheel one of joy, or one of despair?
- Or perhaps...
Other appearances[]
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia[]
The event (later Lost Chapter) names for Final Fantasy Type-0 player characters are taken directly from the Nameless Tome. The names for Ace, Cater, Deuce, and Cinque's events were localized erroneously before being corrected in a quality of life update.
Behind the scenes[]
Class Zero's roles as the locus was added near the end of development cycle. The cadets had the roles and personalities decided, but the developers were unsure how to present the background. Near the end of development the team felt that adding the element of fate and the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology was a good idea and asked the scenario writers to squeeze it in.[1]
The Nameless Tome refers to the locus starting as one before it became ten and six. Director Hajime Tabata has said this phrase does not mean it was ever a single person, but rather the element required for Agito. Arecia Al-Rashia, in the course of attempting to create Agito, started to realize that the element she was seeking was something individuals hold and thus gathered children to complete the element to become Agito.[1]
At the rough draft stage Tiz and Joker were going to play a big role following the ending in the new world. However, at final stage of deciding the game's scale, the team decided to focus on the other 14. Tiz and Joker's role as parts of the chosen were left as part of the Nameless Tome to avoid their story "hanging in limbo". Arecia initially thought Tiz and Joker were needed for Agito, but later deemed otherwise and the two became her aides, able to retain their memories of past spirals.[1]
Whereas the Akashic Records tell of a prophecy, the summary of Orience's history for every cycle, the Nameless Tome tells myths and legends and was included to have the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology in the game. No one knows who wrote it and for what purpose, but Director Hajime Tabata has said Arecia was not the one who ordered for these books to be written.[1]
Throughout the story, it is implied that the "we" referred in the prophecy means Class Zero, or "the Sixteen". However at the beginning of the final chapter of the story, it seems as if the "we" refers to the invasion of the Rursan army.