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I decided to make this post about FF franchise, well it may not be perfect or complete but I hope it helps for something.
Well, I see a lot of people using this scan to say that the FF multiverse is infinite, but to summarize the entire franchise there is only this is to have a very superficial view of cosmology, so I decided to make this post to explain and bring new information about the series, how to explain why there isn't just a multiverse, upper layers and a few concepts.
Physical Realm
This is where the game's universes exist, each one closed with its own laws and concepts and as such they never interfere with each other, it's important to know that because that's what defines why the games take place in different universes or multiverses, because this would contradict the game's own lore (with a few rare exceptions like FFX and VII).
• Crystal Chronicles Multiverse: I decided to start with this one because this is where this scan comes in, but before we get there we should see what is said before this scene to explain how the world of this game works, and for starters we can talk about magic first, magic in the game is the ability to exercise your will through the crystal, choose a possible future and make it real, that is, every time someone uses magic, the crystal selects one of the worlds for this magic to happen, because all possible futures are real and it exists inside the crystal, in counterpart with the crystal there is the moon, the moon is nothing more than all the evil purged from the world and banished to the cosmos, so through the power of the moon the villain Galdes obtained a power almost equivalent to that of the crystal, becoming a god and gaining power over all the infinite worlds of the game, all being real, Galdes tried to use that power to find a world where the twins Yuri and Chelinka were not together, but there was no single world for the twins. the brothers were not together, despite being infinite, Galdes then decides to erase the brothers from all worlds, but as explained by King Kolka the brothers' power over the crystal was greater than Galdes' and because of that they obtained power over all of infinite worlds and transcended them, because of that all these worlds, this multiverse, was all under the brothers' domain and they could do what they wanted with them, they used that power to link all futures and destinies to a single point where galdes could not could escape even by changing or creating worlds. I could end here and say that just the fact that the brothers don't exist in any other game in the series would be reason enough to consider them in multiverses apart, but I'll continue with the explanation, well, even the brothers exist in infinite worlds when they arrived in the world of dissidia they mention it was a world they had never seen before and they wouldn't even know if they could go home
And when the other characters were impressed with his ability to travel between worlds and asked if they could visit them, they answer no because their worlds are different and are not part of the possibilities that exist in the crystal and therefore it is considered an impossible world, or that is, they are worlds that are not part of those that exist in crystal chronicles, so it is impossible that the universes of other games are included in this quote.
• Type-0 Multiverse: This multiverse is a bit curious, it's all just an experiment created by Dr. Arecia, a Fal'Cie from Pulse (I'll talk about them later) there are infinite universes, all being variations of themselves, when the apocalypse arrives Agito (messiah) must appear in the world or not, if Agito doesn't appear the world is destroyed and the universes reset to start the cycle again, this process is known as Spiral, this process has happened over 600 million times, and according to Hajime Tabata, the creator of the world of Type-0 is Dr. Arecia, so there is no way for other games to take place in these universes because Arecia is its creator and they all exist within Spiral.
• FFXI Multiverse: In this all universes are variations of the same world, Vanadiel, having their own past, present and future, these worlds are contained within a realm known as the Walk of Echoes and can be accessed through the Cavernous maws, each of these worlds have their own crystal which are actually only a small fraction of Vanadiel's mother crystal, however even the characters having knowledge of these universes they still cite the universes of other games as arallel dimensions that they cannot even prove exist.
And this all leads us to Strange of Paradise which defines all these worlds as being dimensions, even though FFXI contains infinite universes it is mentioned to be just one dimension, in the same case with FFIII and XIV where each one also has its own collection of universes but they are just referred to as dimension, and these dimensions not only refer to location but also to time as FFX and FFVII are mentioned to be different dimensions despite being confirmed to take place in the same universe but in different times and planets, so we can conclude that in the franchise there are infinite dimensions and each dimension can contain an infinite number of realities and variations of themselves with their own rules and concepts.
Higher Dimensions
Maybe this is the part that most people don't know about, but the fact is that FF works with higher dimensions, and that's something that's been around since the first game (okay it was the remake actually), and since I mentioned the first game I'll start with himself, with Chaos to be more exact, Chaos is not exactly a character and its nature is more abstract than it seems, Chaos itself is a concept, a formless state where everything collides and denies all existence and this concept manages to manifest itself in the world if needs are met using a body as a vessel, and this explains why Chaos appears in several games or why Garland and Dissidia's Chaos are the same despite being different entities is because they both embody the same concept , Chaos itself is a being beyond space-time and being beyond time in FF is necessarily being from a higher dimension, and as explained by Chronos this higher dimension is to time in the same way that time is to the third dimension, the third dimension for a plane and the plane for a line, a world completely beyond comprehension, making a clear allusion to dimensional analogy, and as you can see in Mobius Final Fantasy the Chaos Card (FFI) is directly mentioned to be a being that transcends space-time, which also leads us to the FF1 remake, well it's not exactly a direct quote to Chaos but to Chronodia, although Chronodia is time it is also mentioned to transcend space-time, and not that it's not a contradiction that he is time and transcends time, because Chronodia is not the temporal dimension but the concept of time itself and that's why our Warrior of Light profile is with "conceptual attacks" for defeating Chronodia.
High dimensions are also mentioned in FFXIII, but before getting there we have to understand how its cosmology works, in the first game basically all the functions of the world are directed by Fal'Cie, it's a kind of gods created by the gods Pulse and Lindizei and that has the function of doing from administrative tasks to creation of the world, so the entire society of FFXIII is highly advanced, entertaining in the second game things are a little more different, since there are no Fal'Cie the humanity had to learn and develop itself all from scratch, is it confirming in interviews that all the technology of FFXIII-2 is sourced entirely from human hands, and what does that mean? Well science and technology developed by humans advanced in such a way that they could even manipulate the 4 dimensions of the universe or create beings with that dimensional structure, an example of this is the cryptic Captain which is a replica of the future of Lieutenant Amodar quoted directly like a 4D life form, or Atlas which is a humanoid machine capable of merging realities just by manifesting, but without a doubt the greatest human creation is the Proto Fal'Cie Adam which is a replica and an attempt to copy a Fal'Cie, Adam was able to manipulate all of space-time so that he could merge past and future and even create alternate timelines and realities in an instant, and it wasn't even Adam himself doing this but just copies created by Adam. Adam, this proves that even a copy of a Fal'Cie copy was capable of creating realities and manipulating 4D structures, and since I mentioned Fal'Cie I should remember that everything in the world was created and coordinated by them, and one of these tasks was to create the monsters and living beings on the planet by the Fal'Cie Titan, one of these monsters is Scrodingher, a being whose description of his items mentions him being a multidimensional life form, and this is not an inconsistency since that Fal'Cies are mentioned to be beings beyond human comprehension, even though human understanding allows them to create 4D beings and structures. Another Fal'Cie worth mentioning is Eden which Adam was inspired by, Eden uses as an Avatar in the world a building known as Edenhall that serves for various administrative tasks entertaining his true body is the entire dimension Orphan's Crandle where infinite functions occur and it is divided into several levels, the first being referred to as Tesseracts (4-dimensional hypercube), and the characters are not even even know if there is an end to this dimension.
In FFXI we also have something similar, but before getting there I need to first explain some concepts, in the lore of the game there are beings called "Avatars" that were created by the goddess Altana, they have that name because they are literally avatars inhabiting the physical world with only a fraction of their power because their true bodies exist on another plane of existence, these avatars are divine beings literally gods capable of creating entire worlds just to serve as a playground, create stories and narratives and be literally authors of these universes dictating laws and rules, among all the avatars one of the most powerful is Atomos, if the true body of the avatars are in another plane of existence the true body of atoms is this plane of existence itself, the whole dimension known as Walk of Echos is the body of atomos and If you remember what I said about Walk of Echos in the part I said about the FFXI multiverse you will know that this realm exists beyond the multiverse, all realities end there, but this is all nothing compared to Altana who exists on a higher plane of existence beyond space-time, neither beings capable of traveling between universes nor even the most powerful avatars are able to reach her domain, and from their perspective all of Vanadiel appears flat even to those who have just arrived at the Empyreal Paradox which is considered merely the gateway to the realm of the gods.
Now going to Opera omnia, there we are presented with a very interesting concept which is the coordinate dimensions, basically every character that arrives in that world has its own dimensional coordinate, this coordinate system shows exactly the position of each character in the space-time where whatever he is, not only that but also what they are plotting, however when entering the Torsion these coordinates lose their function simply because it becomes impossible to track something inside the Torsion with dimensional coordinates, an example of this is the Onion Knight who has the Xande's dimensional coordinates however because Xander entered Torsion the coordinates became useless and the knight didn't know what to do with them anymore, and that's not just because Xande fled to another dimension as characters can also open Torsions, the party I also had Kefka's coordinates but I didn't know exactly where he was inside the Torsion, it was necessary for Materia to put the dimensional coordinates in the portal for her led to Kefka, another example is Golbez who after fleeing to a torsion, Mog even though he could deduce someone's position through their coordinates didn't know where to find him, and what does all this mean? Well if dimensional coordinates is a system that determines an object's position within space and time through its 3 directions and momentum, then it can only mean that Torsion has no time and space, it is a plane beyond spacetime, which connects all worlds, even the one inside Torsion's world needed to leave that dimension in order to use coordinate dimensions.
And all these explanations lead us to what is perhaps the most well-known dimension in the franchise, the Rift, this dimension is connected to all eras and all realities and is known for characters to use to travel between the different worlds of the franchise, the biggest example of this is Gilgamesh who mentions being a Rift traveler and having traveled to different game worlds.
In FFXIII there is a common mistranslation which is to call the Rift The Void or The Void Beyond, but in the original Japanese we see that the two locations are spelled differently, while the original Void is spelled 無 (Mu) which literally means "nothing " and The Void Beyond is spelled =ときのはざま"spacetime Rift" or simply "Rift", an example of this is that both Omega and Gilgamesh are mentioned as Void travelers, when on all other occasions they are mentioned as Rift travelers.
In Dissidia it is mentioned that the Rift exists beyond the world and any world that touches its borders is doomed to disintegrate and disappear into nothingness as if it didn't even exist to begin with, there is no past, present or future in the Rift and it is mentioned several times to transcend space-time, and as I said earlier, to transcend space-time necessarily means being from a higher dimension, not even Chaos that is a being from a higher dimension is able to reach the Rift, we can see that even though Chaos can affect all ages it is endowed with infinite possible futures and all space-times still couldn't cause any influence on the Rift and for those who were there, same worlds with a different time flow did not influence the Rift because the Rift overcomes any form of space, time and stories, in Dissidia it is said that Chaos needed to increase its power to enter the Rift.
Within the Rift there are also several locations such as Serendipity and the Coliseum, all mentioned to exist beyond time, and another known location is the Historia Crux which is mentioned to be a surreal plane of reality that not even the mighty Fal'Cie are able to enter. We can see that even the realm of the gods in FFXI is connected to the Rift and could eventually destroy it completely if it continued to manifest there, and Torsion is another example of this, Gilgamesh manages to enter the world of Torsion through the Rift and in a certain part of the game the party even managing to open torsion cannot leave the isolated space created by Exdeath, however Gilgamesh manages to open the Rift within this sealed space showing that laws and rules do not apply to the Rift. Omega itself could create any spatial or temporal coordinates within the Rift and fill it with life, besides that all the universes and realms there seemed to be mere fiction and therefore could be replicated, Chaos itself an entity from a higher dimension was also considered fiction and therefore could be recreated.
Beyond the physical world
The Invisible World of Valhalla
Valhalla is the capital of the invisible world in FFXIII and was built by the goddess Etro, one of the creations of the God Bhunivelze, existing beyond all, it can be said that here is the ultimate limit of existence, it is said that the Rift itself is actually a simple shadow of Valhalla, something mentioned several times, Yeul mentions that the Rift exists as a shadow in the dark depths of the unseen world, this is where chaos resides so it is usually referred to as the "chaotic kingdom of Valhalla" but this chaos has nothing to do with the chaos we are used to, this chaos is not a being but a species of catastrophic and formless substance, it usually appears to be an ocean but it can also appear like fog or small crystals as chaos is formless and ever changing, and as you can imagine Valhalla is also mentioned exist beyond space-time, it is said that no one knows how long the temple of the goddess has been in Valhalla because in a world where this concept does not exist this question has no meaning, however unlike other places mentioned above, the invisible world demonstrates a superiority to dimensions at a completely abstract and profound level so that concepts are nothing more than trivial things that can be created or ignored, it is said that chaos/invisible world exists beyond any and all forms of concept of space and time and form, that it is also mentioned in Light's official level of FFXIII-2 when Lightning makes the distinction between Valhalla and the multiverse:
Looking back on each one of the things that happened, she came up with a common word: Time.She had walked at the shore without even the slightest hint of fatigue no matter how long she walked. She had also felt a disturbance in her physical perception of time. And, the memories of the future, failure of the general notion of "time" brought all of this into existence.From where did the moogle say he came to Valhalla? It was the "Void Beyond." Does that the place between the realm that possesses a general concept of time, the "Other Side" and the place that lacks a general concept of time, Valhalla?"Makes sense, I guess."After she whispered she realized how comical it was. This place goes against all convention, so what would try to make sense of anything accomplish? No, she had to do something like this to keep her wits about her dela and not become afraid. The fact that she had already lost her wits was a much more simple and explainable interpretation than going on about general notions of time. "(Pag 43)
At the same Light level we can see that Odin communicated with Lightning by creating concepts within her:
"She fell in, getting closer to Odin's chest and then slashed upward. But, Odin's movements were unexpectedly fast and Odin deflected her attack. In that moment, something entered her mind. Something that wasn't a voice and also differed from a vision .
To put it more distinctly, it was as if the concept itself was being imprinted in her brain without using words."
Chaos not only comprises the structure of the invisible world but also forms the essence of humans themselves, it is said that humans were created by the blood of Etro and that their souls were forged from the chaos of Valhalla (soul in this sense refers to the heart or the essence of humans as a being), as chaos is capable of originating concepts, the soul itself, the essence, ends up becoming an idea, the soul is eternal, never dying and never disappearing because chaos itself transcends the concepts of life and death, it is what defines existence and as long as one to remember and believe in her existence the person will exist, something confirmed even in Dissidia, however as soon as the soul is destroyed the idea itself also disappears from existence as if it never even existed to begin with, and as the soul is basically chaos in its essence so some descriptions about the soul serve as a basis for us to understand even more the nature of chaos, and we can say that chaos is basically the source of duality, it exists beyond the concepts of time, space, form, life and death, if we consider reality as a binary code where 1 means to exist and 0 not to exist then chaos would be a number that would mean both everything and nothing, beings with chaos in its waking state exist and not exist at the same time, inhabitants of the Invisible World need to use avatars to manifest in the physical world as in the case of the eidolons that are mentioned to be avatars in Mobius FF, Lightning in FFXIII-2 used an avatar or a "shadow" to appear in the physical world and talk to Sarah, in Mobius FF she also mentions that she is not truly there but using only a copy, the very version of Lightning that appears in the Coliseum is also just a copy and even though it is only one copy she was strong enough to fight Serah and Noel who were strong enough to defeat Omega, in FFXIV Omega had the power to easily destroy the entire Rift and erase it from existence, in FFXII-2 itself Omega is mentioned to have the power to obliterate the entire breadth of existence, yet this version of Serah and Noel had not even arrived in Valhalla yet and had little control over their inner chaos.
Chaos is not limited to anything and exists in all times and places, if Lightning lost her battle against Caius and chaos was thrown into the physical world then all existence would be destroyed and only the Void would remain, an example of this is that he would destroy the universe of FFXIV if Lightning and the warrior of light didn't stop it, and this is not just a collaboration, Eorzea (world of FFXIV) is mentioned by Hope after Lightning receives a miqote costume, the same costume was given by Lightning after her farewell to Eorzea, I know you must be wondering why so existence was not destroyed when Lightning lost the fight and the explanation is given to us in guides where it is said that Lightning by sitting on Etro's throne she became a pillar of all creation because the world itself needed its divine existence to continue existing.
The Void
If the unseen world was the ultimate limit of existence then what comes after that is literally nothing, the nothingness, as this is how the Void is described in Japanes, the Void is the beginning and end of all things, the true nature of everything is nothing, Valhalla itself is said in guides to be just an intermediate world between the physical world and nothingness, the Void overcomes everything and has power over all creation, if universes are destroyed what remains is only the Void, if the Rift is erased there will only be the Void and if the chaos of Valhalla swallows all existence there will only be the Void, basically the Void serves as a background for the entire Final Fantasy multiverse, in FFXI it is revealed to us that the Cloud of Darkness is the Void itself, and I don't say a void but The Void with a capital "V", it is mentioned several times that Cloud of Darkness and Void are synonymous, in other games we can see that she refers to herself as Void including in Dissidia , in FFXIV she is referred to as the supreme ruler of the Void and her skin in Dissidia NT declares her to be the ruler of Void, CoD is not alive or dead she doesn't even "is", as she doesn't even exist to begin with. Prishe in Opera Omnia seems to know CoD as one of the villains of her world, and speaking in the world of FFXI there is a phenomenon called emptiness that creates a void in the crystals and in the interiors of the gods consuming them until nothing remains, even though Promathia has dominion over all darkness and that includes all evil concepts including death itself sees emptiness as the manifestation of absolute death, and yet CoD/Void is said not to be a "mere" emptiness but an entity that encompasses all the totality. The Cloud of Darkness transcends all concepts and all existence is nothing but a simple dream with universes and worlds being born and dying at every moment and existing inside her just like small specks floating inside in your clouds of nothingness, it is itself reason that the world exists and all existence needs her including the cycle gods, Shinryu and the crystals, all subjugated by her as weak, Exdeath himself had no power to face her.
answering some future questions:
Q: What tier would this all put?
A: Well with all the evidence we have, 1-C for chaos, Omega and Shinryu (both are Rift denizens and can destroy it like Omega did) and 1-A for Valhalla denizens and chaos controllers (FFXIII) like Lightning and company, and ultimately 1-A for the Void, Cloud of Darkness should have a new key with its true form (although no one scales with it).
Q: Should everyone who fought Omega or Shinryu have their own Tier?
A: No, since Shinryu and Omega originally exist inside the Rift and most likely their non-Rift versions are just Shinryu larvae and Omega drugs, so only characters who fought them inside the Rift would receive this classification like Serah and Bartz .
Q: If CoD appears to be so powerful why doesn't she show it? A: the answer is simple, just as Lightning and other Valhalla inhabitants use avatars to manifest in the physical world with CoD it is no different, every time she appears in some game she is said to be just a manifestation, her true being resides in the Void and its manifestations are like a force of nature that always changes according to the principles of the world, even Shinryu purifying its manifestation it is said that this is something totally trivial for those who control the power of nothing.
Q: Exdeath merged with Void does that mean he merged with CoD?
A: This never happened, at no point in the game is it mentioned that he merged with the Void not even in the Japanese version, he is just swallowed by the Void and mutates, not even his Neo Exdeath form is immune to the Void as he would be deleted together, i swear i will delete my account if anyone shows a scan or a single quote where it says that exdeath merged with the void.
Q: Exdeath says that the Crystal core of Darkness is a power greater than the Void.
A: Not exactly, Exdeath at that point in the game had no control over the Void so he needed a power to replace it at that moment, and even when the protagonists asked why Exdeath was after some other power in place of the Void, Exdeath replies that the Void is the ultimate power and no other is above it.
And about dissidia, it's hard to talk about because it's said that warriors are actually just summoned memories from other realms so powescalling with dissidia is unfeasible
Well, I see a lot of people using this scan to say that the FF multiverse is infinite, but to summarize the entire franchise there is only this is to have a very superficial view of cosmology, so I decided to make this post to explain and bring new information about the series, how to explain why there isn't just a multiverse, upper layers and a few concepts.
Physical Realm
This is where the game's universes exist, each one closed with its own laws and concepts and as such they never interfere with each other, it's important to know that because that's what defines why the games take place in different universes or multiverses, because this would contradict the game's own lore (with a few rare exceptions like FFX and VII).
• Crystal Chronicles Multiverse: I decided to start with this one because this is where this scan comes in, but before we get there we should see what is said before this scene to explain how the world of this game works, and for starters we can talk about magic first, magic in the game is the ability to exercise your will through the crystal, choose a possible future and make it real, that is, every time someone uses magic, the crystal selects one of the worlds for this magic to happen, because all possible futures are real and it exists inside the crystal, in counterpart with the crystal there is the moon, the moon is nothing more than all the evil purged from the world and banished to the cosmos, so through the power of the moon the villain Galdes obtained a power almost equivalent to that of the crystal, becoming a god and gaining power over all the infinite worlds of the game, all being real, Galdes tried to use that power to find a world where the twins Yuri and Chelinka were not together, but there was no single world for the twins. the brothers were not together, despite being infinite, Galdes then decides to erase the brothers from all worlds, but as explained by King Kolka the brothers' power over the crystal was greater than Galdes' and because of that they obtained power over all of infinite worlds and transcended them, because of that all these worlds, this multiverse, was all under the brothers' domain and they could do what they wanted with them, they used that power to link all futures and destinies to a single point where galdes could not could escape even by changing or creating worlds. I could end here and say that just the fact that the brothers don't exist in any other game in the series would be reason enough to consider them in multiverses apart, but I'll continue with the explanation, well, even the brothers exist in infinite worlds when they arrived in the world of dissidia they mention it was a world they had never seen before and they wouldn't even know if they could go home
And when the other characters were impressed with his ability to travel between worlds and asked if they could visit them, they answer no because their worlds are different and are not part of the possibilities that exist in the crystal and therefore it is considered an impossible world, or that is, they are worlds that are not part of those that exist in crystal chronicles, so it is impossible that the universes of other games are included in this quote.
• Type-0 Multiverse: This multiverse is a bit curious, it's all just an experiment created by Dr. Arecia, a Fal'Cie from Pulse (I'll talk about them later) there are infinite universes, all being variations of themselves, when the apocalypse arrives Agito (messiah) must appear in the world or not, if Agito doesn't appear the world is destroyed and the universes reset to start the cycle again, this process is known as Spiral, this process has happened over 600 million times, and according to Hajime Tabata, the creator of the world of Type-0 is Dr. Arecia, so there is no way for other games to take place in these universes because Arecia is its creator and they all exist within Spiral.
• FFXI Multiverse: In this all universes are variations of the same world, Vanadiel, having their own past, present and future, these worlds are contained within a realm known as the Walk of Echoes and can be accessed through the Cavernous maws, each of these worlds have their own crystal which are actually only a small fraction of Vanadiel's mother crystal, however even the characters having knowledge of these universes they still cite the universes of other games as arallel dimensions that they cannot even prove exist.
And this all leads us to Strange of Paradise which defines all these worlds as being dimensions, even though FFXI contains infinite universes it is mentioned to be just one dimension, in the same case with FFIII and XIV where each one also has its own collection of universes but they are just referred to as dimension, and these dimensions not only refer to location but also to time as FFX and FFVII are mentioned to be different dimensions despite being confirmed to take place in the same universe but in different times and planets, so we can conclude that in the franchise there are infinite dimensions and each dimension can contain an infinite number of realities and variations of themselves with their own rules and concepts.
Higher Dimensions
Maybe this is the part that most people don't know about, but the fact is that FF works with higher dimensions, and that's something that's been around since the first game (okay it was the remake actually), and since I mentioned the first game I'll start with himself, with Chaos to be more exact, Chaos is not exactly a character and its nature is more abstract than it seems, Chaos itself is a concept, a formless state where everything collides and denies all existence and this concept manages to manifest itself in the world if needs are met using a body as a vessel, and this explains why Chaos appears in several games or why Garland and Dissidia's Chaos are the same despite being different entities is because they both embody the same concept , Chaos itself is a being beyond space-time and being beyond time in FF is necessarily being from a higher dimension, and as explained by Chronos this higher dimension is to time in the same way that time is to the third dimension, the third dimension for a plane and the plane for a line, a world completely beyond comprehension, making a clear allusion to dimensional analogy, and as you can see in Mobius Final Fantasy the Chaos Card (FFI) is directly mentioned to be a being that transcends space-time, which also leads us to the FF1 remake, well it's not exactly a direct quote to Chaos but to Chronodia, although Chronodia is time it is also mentioned to transcend space-time, and not that it's not a contradiction that he is time and transcends time, because Chronodia is not the temporal dimension but the concept of time itself and that's why our Warrior of Light profile is with "conceptual attacks" for defeating Chronodia.
High dimensions are also mentioned in FFXIII, but before getting there we have to understand how its cosmology works, in the first game basically all the functions of the world are directed by Fal'Cie, it's a kind of gods created by the gods Pulse and Lindizei and that has the function of doing from administrative tasks to creation of the world, so the entire society of FFXIII is highly advanced, entertaining in the second game things are a little more different, since there are no Fal'Cie the humanity had to learn and develop itself all from scratch, is it confirming in interviews that all the technology of FFXIII-2 is sourced entirely from human hands, and what does that mean? Well science and technology developed by humans advanced in such a way that they could even manipulate the 4 dimensions of the universe or create beings with that dimensional structure, an example of this is the cryptic Captain which is a replica of the future of Lieutenant Amodar quoted directly like a 4D life form, or Atlas which is a humanoid machine capable of merging realities just by manifesting, but without a doubt the greatest human creation is the Proto Fal'Cie Adam which is a replica and an attempt to copy a Fal'Cie, Adam was able to manipulate all of space-time so that he could merge past and future and even create alternate timelines and realities in an instant, and it wasn't even Adam himself doing this but just copies created by Adam. Adam, this proves that even a copy of a Fal'Cie copy was capable of creating realities and manipulating 4D structures, and since I mentioned Fal'Cie I should remember that everything in the world was created and coordinated by them, and one of these tasks was to create the monsters and living beings on the planet by the Fal'Cie Titan, one of these monsters is Scrodingher, a being whose description of his items mentions him being a multidimensional life form, and this is not an inconsistency since that Fal'Cies are mentioned to be beings beyond human comprehension, even though human understanding allows them to create 4D beings and structures. Another Fal'Cie worth mentioning is Eden which Adam was inspired by, Eden uses as an Avatar in the world a building known as Edenhall that serves for various administrative tasks entertaining his true body is the entire dimension Orphan's Crandle where infinite functions occur and it is divided into several levels, the first being referred to as Tesseracts (4-dimensional hypercube), and the characters are not even even know if there is an end to this dimension.
In FFXI we also have something similar, but before getting there I need to first explain some concepts, in the lore of the game there are beings called "Avatars" that were created by the goddess Altana, they have that name because they are literally avatars inhabiting the physical world with only a fraction of their power because their true bodies exist on another plane of existence, these avatars are divine beings literally gods capable of creating entire worlds just to serve as a playground, create stories and narratives and be literally authors of these universes dictating laws and rules, among all the avatars one of the most powerful is Atomos, if the true body of the avatars are in another plane of existence the true body of atoms is this plane of existence itself, the whole dimension known as Walk of Echos is the body of atomos and If you remember what I said about Walk of Echos in the part I said about the FFXI multiverse you will know that this realm exists beyond the multiverse, all realities end there, but this is all nothing compared to Altana who exists on a higher plane of existence beyond space-time, neither beings capable of traveling between universes nor even the most powerful avatars are able to reach her domain, and from their perspective all of Vanadiel appears flat even to those who have just arrived at the Empyreal Paradox which is considered merely the gateway to the realm of the gods.
Now going to Opera omnia, there we are presented with a very interesting concept which is the coordinate dimensions, basically every character that arrives in that world has its own dimensional coordinate, this coordinate system shows exactly the position of each character in the space-time where whatever he is, not only that but also what they are plotting, however when entering the Torsion these coordinates lose their function simply because it becomes impossible to track something inside the Torsion with dimensional coordinates, an example of this is the Onion Knight who has the Xande's dimensional coordinates however because Xander entered Torsion the coordinates became useless and the knight didn't know what to do with them anymore, and that's not just because Xande fled to another dimension as characters can also open Torsions, the party I also had Kefka's coordinates but I didn't know exactly where he was inside the Torsion, it was necessary for Materia to put the dimensional coordinates in the portal for her led to Kefka, another example is Golbez who after fleeing to a torsion, Mog even though he could deduce someone's position through their coordinates didn't know where to find him, and what does all this mean? Well if dimensional coordinates is a system that determines an object's position within space and time through its 3 directions and momentum, then it can only mean that Torsion has no time and space, it is a plane beyond spacetime, which connects all worlds, even the one inside Torsion's world needed to leave that dimension in order to use coordinate dimensions.
And all these explanations lead us to what is perhaps the most well-known dimension in the franchise, the Rift, this dimension is connected to all eras and all realities and is known for characters to use to travel between the different worlds of the franchise, the biggest example of this is Gilgamesh who mentions being a Rift traveler and having traveled to different game worlds.
In FFXIII there is a common mistranslation which is to call the Rift The Void or The Void Beyond, but in the original Japanese we see that the two locations are spelled differently, while the original Void is spelled 無 (Mu) which literally means "nothing " and The Void Beyond is spelled =ときのはざま"spacetime Rift" or simply "Rift", an example of this is that both Omega and Gilgamesh are mentioned as Void travelers, when on all other occasions they are mentioned as Rift travelers.
In Dissidia it is mentioned that the Rift exists beyond the world and any world that touches its borders is doomed to disintegrate and disappear into nothingness as if it didn't even exist to begin with, there is no past, present or future in the Rift and it is mentioned several times to transcend space-time, and as I said earlier, to transcend space-time necessarily means being from a higher dimension, not even Chaos that is a being from a higher dimension is able to reach the Rift, we can see that even though Chaos can affect all ages it is endowed with infinite possible futures and all space-times still couldn't cause any influence on the Rift and for those who were there, same worlds with a different time flow did not influence the Rift because the Rift overcomes any form of space, time and stories, in Dissidia it is said that Chaos needed to increase its power to enter the Rift.
Within the Rift there are also several locations such as Serendipity and the Coliseum, all mentioned to exist beyond time, and another known location is the Historia Crux which is mentioned to be a surreal plane of reality that not even the mighty Fal'Cie are able to enter. We can see that even the realm of the gods in FFXI is connected to the Rift and could eventually destroy it completely if it continued to manifest there, and Torsion is another example of this, Gilgamesh manages to enter the world of Torsion through the Rift and in a certain part of the game the party even managing to open torsion cannot leave the isolated space created by Exdeath, however Gilgamesh manages to open the Rift within this sealed space showing that laws and rules do not apply to the Rift. Omega itself could create any spatial or temporal coordinates within the Rift and fill it with life, besides that all the universes and realms there seemed to be mere fiction and therefore could be replicated, Chaos itself an entity from a higher dimension was also considered fiction and therefore could be recreated.
Beyond the physical world
The Invisible World of Valhalla
Valhalla is the capital of the invisible world in FFXIII and was built by the goddess Etro, one of the creations of the God Bhunivelze, existing beyond all, it can be said that here is the ultimate limit of existence, it is said that the Rift itself is actually a simple shadow of Valhalla, something mentioned several times, Yeul mentions that the Rift exists as a shadow in the dark depths of the unseen world, this is where chaos resides so it is usually referred to as the "chaotic kingdom of Valhalla" but this chaos has nothing to do with the chaos we are used to, this chaos is not a being but a species of catastrophic and formless substance, it usually appears to be an ocean but it can also appear like fog or small crystals as chaos is formless and ever changing, and as you can imagine Valhalla is also mentioned exist beyond space-time, it is said that no one knows how long the temple of the goddess has been in Valhalla because in a world where this concept does not exist this question has no meaning, however unlike other places mentioned above, the invisible world demonstrates a superiority to dimensions at a completely abstract and profound level so that concepts are nothing more than trivial things that can be created or ignored, it is said that chaos/invisible world exists beyond any and all forms of concept of space and time and form, that it is also mentioned in Light's official level of FFXIII-2 when Lightning makes the distinction between Valhalla and the multiverse:
Looking back on each one of the things that happened, she came up with a common word: Time.She had walked at the shore without even the slightest hint of fatigue no matter how long she walked. She had also felt a disturbance in her physical perception of time. And, the memories of the future, failure of the general notion of "time" brought all of this into existence.From where did the moogle say he came to Valhalla? It was the "Void Beyond." Does that the place between the realm that possesses a general concept of time, the "Other Side" and the place that lacks a general concept of time, Valhalla?"Makes sense, I guess."After she whispered she realized how comical it was. This place goes against all convention, so what would try to make sense of anything accomplish? No, she had to do something like this to keep her wits about her dela and not become afraid. The fact that she had already lost her wits was a much more simple and explainable interpretation than going on about general notions of time. "(Pag 43)
At the same Light level we can see that Odin communicated with Lightning by creating concepts within her:
"She fell in, getting closer to Odin's chest and then slashed upward. But, Odin's movements were unexpectedly fast and Odin deflected her attack. In that moment, something entered her mind. Something that wasn't a voice and also differed from a vision .
To put it more distinctly, it was as if the concept itself was being imprinted in her brain without using words."
Chaos not only comprises the structure of the invisible world but also forms the essence of humans themselves, it is said that humans were created by the blood of Etro and that their souls were forged from the chaos of Valhalla (soul in this sense refers to the heart or the essence of humans as a being), as chaos is capable of originating concepts, the soul itself, the essence, ends up becoming an idea, the soul is eternal, never dying and never disappearing because chaos itself transcends the concepts of life and death, it is what defines existence and as long as one to remember and believe in her existence the person will exist, something confirmed even in Dissidia, however as soon as the soul is destroyed the idea itself also disappears from existence as if it never even existed to begin with, and as the soul is basically chaos in its essence so some descriptions about the soul serve as a basis for us to understand even more the nature of chaos, and we can say that chaos is basically the source of duality, it exists beyond the concepts of time, space, form, life and death, if we consider reality as a binary code where 1 means to exist and 0 not to exist then chaos would be a number that would mean both everything and nothing, beings with chaos in its waking state exist and not exist at the same time, inhabitants of the Invisible World need to use avatars to manifest in the physical world as in the case of the eidolons that are mentioned to be avatars in Mobius FF, Lightning in FFXIII-2 used an avatar or a "shadow" to appear in the physical world and talk to Sarah, in Mobius FF she also mentions that she is not truly there but using only a copy, the very version of Lightning that appears in the Coliseum is also just a copy and even though it is only one copy she was strong enough to fight Serah and Noel who were strong enough to defeat Omega, in FFXIV Omega had the power to easily destroy the entire Rift and erase it from existence, in FFXII-2 itself Omega is mentioned to have the power to obliterate the entire breadth of existence, yet this version of Serah and Noel had not even arrived in Valhalla yet and had little control over their inner chaos.
Chaos is not limited to anything and exists in all times and places, if Lightning lost her battle against Caius and chaos was thrown into the physical world then all existence would be destroyed and only the Void would remain, an example of this is that he would destroy the universe of FFXIV if Lightning and the warrior of light didn't stop it, and this is not just a collaboration, Eorzea (world of FFXIV) is mentioned by Hope after Lightning receives a miqote costume, the same costume was given by Lightning after her farewell to Eorzea, I know you must be wondering why so existence was not destroyed when Lightning lost the fight and the explanation is given to us in guides where it is said that Lightning by sitting on Etro's throne she became a pillar of all creation because the world itself needed its divine existence to continue existing.
The Void
If the unseen world was the ultimate limit of existence then what comes after that is literally nothing, the nothingness, as this is how the Void is described in Japanes, the Void is the beginning and end of all things, the true nature of everything is nothing, Valhalla itself is said in guides to be just an intermediate world between the physical world and nothingness, the Void overcomes everything and has power over all creation, if universes are destroyed what remains is only the Void, if the Rift is erased there will only be the Void and if the chaos of Valhalla swallows all existence there will only be the Void, basically the Void serves as a background for the entire Final Fantasy multiverse, in FFXI it is revealed to us that the Cloud of Darkness is the Void itself, and I don't say a void but The Void with a capital "V", it is mentioned several times that Cloud of Darkness and Void are synonymous, in other games we can see that she refers to herself as Void including in Dissidia , in FFXIV she is referred to as the supreme ruler of the Void and her skin in Dissidia NT declares her to be the ruler of Void, CoD is not alive or dead she doesn't even "is", as she doesn't even exist to begin with. Prishe in Opera Omnia seems to know CoD as one of the villains of her world, and speaking in the world of FFXI there is a phenomenon called emptiness that creates a void in the crystals and in the interiors of the gods consuming them until nothing remains, even though Promathia has dominion over all darkness and that includes all evil concepts including death itself sees emptiness as the manifestation of absolute death, and yet CoD/Void is said not to be a "mere" emptiness but an entity that encompasses all the totality. The Cloud of Darkness transcends all concepts and all existence is nothing but a simple dream with universes and worlds being born and dying at every moment and existing inside her just like small specks floating inside in your clouds of nothingness, it is itself reason that the world exists and all existence needs her including the cycle gods, Shinryu and the crystals, all subjugated by her as weak, Exdeath himself had no power to face her.
answering some future questions:
Q: What tier would this all put?
A: Well with all the evidence we have, 1-C for chaos, Omega and Shinryu (both are Rift denizens and can destroy it like Omega did) and 1-A for Valhalla denizens and chaos controllers (FFXIII) like Lightning and company, and ultimately 1-A for the Void, Cloud of Darkness should have a new key with its true form (although no one scales with it).
Q: Should everyone who fought Omega or Shinryu have their own Tier?
A: No, since Shinryu and Omega originally exist inside the Rift and most likely their non-Rift versions are just Shinryu larvae and Omega drugs, so only characters who fought them inside the Rift would receive this classification like Serah and Bartz .
Q: If CoD appears to be so powerful why doesn't she show it? A: the answer is simple, just as Lightning and other Valhalla inhabitants use avatars to manifest in the physical world with CoD it is no different, every time she appears in some game she is said to be just a manifestation, her true being resides in the Void and its manifestations are like a force of nature that always changes according to the principles of the world, even Shinryu purifying its manifestation it is said that this is something totally trivial for those who control the power of nothing.
Q: Exdeath merged with Void does that mean he merged with CoD?
A: This never happened, at no point in the game is it mentioned that he merged with the Void not even in the Japanese version, he is just swallowed by the Void and mutates, not even his Neo Exdeath form is immune to the Void as he would be deleted together, i swear i will delete my account if anyone shows a scan or a single quote where it says that exdeath merged with the void.
Q: Exdeath says that the Crystal core of Darkness is a power greater than the Void.
A: Not exactly, Exdeath at that point in the game had no control over the Void so he needed a power to replace it at that moment, and even when the protagonists asked why Exdeath was after some other power in place of the Void, Exdeath replies that the Void is the ultimate power and no other is above it.
And about dissidia, it's hard to talk about because it's said that warriors are actually just summoned memories from other realms so powescalling with dissidia is unfeasible
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