Raise (Final Fantasy XVI)

The magick that Ultima means to cast to raise his fallen brethren from their eternal slumber and remake the world. To cast it, he requires both an enormous amount of aether, drawn from the land over the centuries by his Mothercrystals, and a vessel strong enough to withstand its channeling—the entity known as Mythos.

"Ultima's Spell" Active Time Lore

Active Time Lore image for "New World".

Raise (レイズ, Reizu?) is the spell the Ultima collective wants to cast in Final Fantasy XVI once they get the suitable corporeal vessel in Mythos. Raise will revive the members of Ultima's race from their eternal slumber and summon a paradise into creation, restoring the planet into a new world (真あるべき世界, shin arubeki sekai?, lit. true ideal world) free from the Blight that almost ended Ultima's race. Only Ultima and his kin would have a place in this realm. Ultima believes this is the only way to stop the Blight and preserve his species. As magic is one's imagination made manifest, the kind of world Raise would create is not known beyond it being something Ultima would imagine. The "Hidden Truths" section of Origin's Active Time Lore entry posits that Ultima seeks to recreate the world "in his image".

Raise is the basic revival spell in the Final Fantasy series. Revival is not possible in Final Fantasy XVI, and even the Phoenix only has the power to restore bodily injuries, and so the Raise spell is not usable by the player.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Image for "Ultima's Spell" entry in Mysteries of the Realm.

Ultima would need untold quantities of aether to cast Raise, and a corporeal body strong enough to withstand it without petrifying. He put his plan into motion eons ago, by planting the seeds of magic into mankind, his creation, that would inhabit Valisthea and one day culminate in the birth of Mythos: a person able to host all Eikons and thus use all aetherial elements. To collect the aether needed for his spell, Ultima placed Mothercrystals across the land and had most of his kin become their hearts.

Ultima never manages to claim his vessel and cast the spell, for instead of Mythos, he only managed to birth a Logos, a person with power to match Ultima's own and a free will so strong Ultima could not strip it away. When Clive Rosfield gains the power of creation, he does not use it to cast "Raise" to create a new world, but to save the world they already have: Valisthea. Clive using the power to restore Joshua's bodily injuries posthumously may be another allusion to the spell Raise, though it does not revive him.

Whether Ultima would have succeeded in casting Raise had he been able to take Clive's body is unknown, as after using Ultima's power to destroy the wellspring of magic, Clive observes his body suffering from the crystals' curse and comments that the power was too great for Ultima's vessel after all.

Spoilers end here.

Behind the scenes

Ambition to create a new world is a recurring story element in the Final Fantasy series, typically associated with crystals and the Void. When villains covet this power, they tend to be stopped by the player party, but the Final Fantasy XIII saga is unique in that the creation of new worlds is witnessed by the player.

The series's recurring spell Raise serving as a plot device in the game's narrative mimics Holy and Meteor serving narrative purpose in Final Fantasy VII, as the ultimate white and black magic spells, respectively. The term "Raise" in-universe is believed to originate from the ancient Circle of Malius faith: "Many of the savior myths of the Valisthean tradition speak of the 'Raise'—the ascension of the faithful to paradise. Assuming these myths have their roots in the teachings of the Circle of Malius, one might assume that this feat is one and the same with the spell that Ultima requires his vessel to cast."