Wind Shrine (Final Fantasy IX)

Wind Shrine
(風の祠, Kaze no Hokora?)
Background information
Type	Temple
Region	Gusty Valley, Forgotten Continent

My power is protected behind a tornado.

Message on the mural

The Wind Shrine is a shrine built to house the Wind Mirror in Final Fantasy IX, located on the Forgotten Continent in a valley filled with high winds. The party splits into four teams of two to tackle all four shrines simultaneously.

Steiner and Vivi head to the Wind Shrine, where they meet Tiamat, the Guardian of Wind. After they defeat the guardians of Terra, Steiner and Vivi release the Wind Seal, opening the Shimmering Island portal to another world. The surrounding skies of the shrine are in a constant state of hurricane force winds.

Enemies

The inside of the Wind Shrine only ever appears in cutscenes, though there are some hints in dummied content the Wind Guardian was once planned to be a boss. However, the world map outside on the Gusty Valley has random encounters. Ragtime Mouse may also appear inside forests. Though the below lists have enemies since "disc 1", in a normal playthrough the player can't come to this area until Zorn and Thorn take Zidane Tribal's party to the Forgotten Continent as part of the story.

	Enemies Frequency AP
Grassland	Disc 1–3: Armstrong 100% 2 Disc 4: Dracozombie 100% 3
Dirt (Day)	Disc 1–3: Catoblepas 50% 2 Armstrong 50% 2 Disc 4: Worm Hydra 35% 3 Hecteyes 30% 3 Mistodon 12% 2 Mistodon x2 18% 3 Cactuar x3 2.5% 3 Cactuar x4 2.5% 3
Dirt (Evening)	Disc 1–3: Catoblepas 35% 2 Armstrong 35% 2 Cactuar x3 15% 3 Cactuar x4 15% 3 Disc 4: Dracozombie 35% 2 Hecteyes 35% 2 Cactuar x3 15% 3 Cactuar x4 15% 3
Forest	Disc 1–3: Armstrong 50% 2 Zaghnol 50% 2 Disc 3: Disc 4: Malboro 40% 3 Dracozombie 30% 3 Hecteyes 30% 3
Mountain	Disc 1–3: Armstrong 50% 2 Catoblepas 50% 2 Disc 4: Dracozombie 50% 3 Hecteyes 50% 3

Behind the scenes

"Air Guardian" artwork.

The shrines refer to the elemental shrines from the early Final Fantasy series where crystals were housed.

Data hacking shows that there are many gaps in the numerical sequence of battle formations and monster IDs, showing that many battle formations and monsters were deleted prior to the final version. In addition to many more, three missing monster IDs appear around the "Earth Guardian", making one suspect that in the original version the player was to fight all four of the guardians instead of only one (in the final game, the other three are defeated via cut-scenes, including Wind Guardian/Tiamat). Design artwork for these other three guardians is known, as well as for deleted locations, which would probably have been where they were fought.

Gallery

Wind Shrine on the world map.

Wind Shrine.

See also

• Earth Shrine
• Water Shrine
• Fire Shrine