Version 1.0 (12/23/03) Copyright 2003 Mario Laubacher
(Alastair)
Send comments, feedback, additions or corrections to
alastair412@yahoo.com, mentioning the FAQ's name in the
subject header.
contents
1. Introduction and legal notice 2. Version History 3. FFX Story Synopsis 4. Rough Spiran Timeline 5. Thematical Issues 5.1 Yevon, Yu Yevon and the Yevon Church 5.2 The nature of Sin 5.3 The nature of Dream Zanarkand 5.4 Anima and Final Aeons 5.5 Tidus and the "Real" Deal 5.6 Auron and the Japanese Warrior 5.7 Yu Yevon the Parasite and Unsent Shape Morphing 5.8 The RPG Plot Archetype and FFX 6. Credits and Thanks
The purpose of this guide is to collect and reply to a series of common questions (IOW, FAQs) regarding FFX' storyline. Obviously, the whole FAQ is SPOILER-HEAVY, so don't read it if you haven't finished FFX.
***IMPORTANT NOTE***
This FAQ is free of any spoilers for FFX-2. While some of the analysis done
for this present FAQ have been tested against X-2, it remains free of any
revelations made in X-2.
Also, concerning the notion of FFX / X-2 and VII to be related, the
explanation given by the story writers themselves cannot be reproduced here
without spoiling major X-2 elements. I encourage anyone wanting to understand
more about this link to play X-2 for themselves and seek the appropriate
knowledge in X-2-related places.
Obviously, the content of this FAQ is not just my own work. It relies heavily on the game script for one part, but also on yearlong discussions on the FFX storyline board, entertaining various theories and pushing them to absurd lengths sometimes. At this stage a particular tribute to Olivier Hague is necessary, owner of the Ultimania Guides who often and with relentless passion and sometimes patience, shares his knowledge with those among us who don't understand Japanese. Other major contributors are listed in the credit section.
This FAQ is copyrighted by Alastair (Mario Laubacher), and may not be published without my consent. If you wish to maintain a copy of this document on your site, please send me an e-mail at alastair412@yahoo.com. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display without written permission is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
The Final Fantasy series is copyrighted and trademarked by Square-Enix.
06/27/03 v0.1 First Draft. Timeline posted to message board. 06/30/03 v0.2 Draft version. 07/01/03 v0.3 Draft version. 07/08/03 v0.4 Second tentative submission, new sections added. 07/22/03 v0.5 Html version, published. 07/23/03 v0.51 Spellcheck and layout fixes. Thanks Triceborn Phoenix! 12/23/03 v1.0 Including a story synopsis.
FFX's story unfolds on two levels: the historical one, and the narrative one. From the historical perspective, 1000 years ago, Spira is a world ripe with conflict and hatred. Two city-states, the machina-heavy Bevelle and the summoner city of Zanarkand, are at each other's throats.
In a surprise attack, Bevelle takes the upper hand and vanquishes Zanarkand. The survivors gather under the guidance of Yevon, their leader, believed to be the most powerful summoner alive, and flee to the nearby Mt. Gagazet. There, having at last gained some respite from the pursuing forces of Bevelle, the people of Zanarkand decide on a drastic and definite course of action: refusing to admit the fall of their beloved city, they let themselves be turned into fayths, all gathered in a massive wall on Gagazet's slopes, to begin dreaming of a new, ideal Zanarkand, eternally holding alive the memory of its former glory.
Yevon, as the most powerful summoner, then starts drawing on this dream and summoning it into a huge aeon.
In order to protect himself while summoning, he gathers stray pyreflies around him with powerful gravity spells, forming a formidable armor which will soon become known as Sin.
In order not to get distracted from his summoning, Yevon "programs" a series
of guiding instincts into Sin: among them, to attack any larger human
settlement and to respond to aggression with overwhelming force. From that
point onwards, Sin will become a terror uniting Spira under a common fear.
Sin's first actions are to complete the destruction of the real Zanarkand, and
to demonstrate its strength by routing the pursuing Bevellian army.
On the eve of Zanarkand's destruction, Yunalesca, Yevon's own daughter, managed to escape the doomed city with her husband Zaon. While her immediate actions are not known, she eventually reaches Bevelle and crafts a deal with its leadership: in exchange for an immunity to Sin's rampage for Bevelle (and Luca?) and all people honouring the memory of her father, she will show a way to defeat Sin. After closing the deal, she and her husband travel to Zanarkand, where she turns Zaon into a particuliarly powerful fayth and defeats Sin for the first time.
It is assumed that she managed to communicate with Yevon somehow and get him
to modify Sin's programming. However, at the moment Sin's shell got cracked,
Yevon took control of Zaon's aeon, forcefully severing the mental link
between Zaeon and Yunalesca, and thus instantly killing his daughter.
Bound by her promises towards both her father and Bevelle, Yunalesca remains
in Zanarkand as an unsent. With Sin's defeat, a short period of peace settles
on Spira. Unfortunately, within a couple of months, Yevon is able to
regenerate a new Sin using Zaon's aeon as a core, and Spira's plight begins
anew. The intermission during which Sin is being regenerated will further be
known as "Calm".
During the following decades, Bevelle's leadership slowly mutates into a
religious organization whose central figure is "Yevon", a god who has sent Sin
as a punishment for Spiran's faults and reliance on machina. While the nascent
church slowly establishes its hold over most of Spira, summoners from all
around gather and try to vanquish Sin, with little success. Finally, after
more than 400 years, a former Kilikan blitzball star, Ohalland, manages to
equal Yunalesca's feat and defeat Sin - only to bring about a much too short
Calm.
Ohalland, however, sets the measure of the accomplishment, and probably
finished the shaping of the pilgrimage as it is known in modern Spira. Given
the length of Sin's unchecked rampage, Ohalland is named, posthumously, "High
Summoner", a title which will further refer to all who have defeated Sin.
However, Ohalland suffers the same fate as Yunalesca: Yevon takes over his
guardian's aeon, severing the link between both of them and killing the High
Summoner in the process.
Another 3 centuries pass before Gandof becomes High Summoner and brings about
the 3rd Calm, and 200 years later, Lady Yocun becomes the first female
summoner to achieve this momentous task. Finally, a mere 10 years before
present times, Braska, an outcast summoner, brings about yet another Calm.
Thus we set the stage for FFX' events.
The modern Spira is quite different from the one which saw the Millenium War. Machina, once abundant, is shunned by Bevelle's edicts, and only the outcast race of the Al Bhed try to regain some of the lost knowledge.
From a probably relatively common kind of magical fighters, summoners have become a sort of special caste of their own: help and privileges are granted to them during their pilgrimage in exchange of their coming sacrifice against Sin.
The Yevon church dominates every aspect of Spiran life, spreading their teachings and pretending to be the benevolent rulers of a much diminished world - a world where virtually any kind of technological and social progress has been asleep for 1000 years.
Yet beneath the surface unity of Spiran mainland, distrust and old anger still
boils deep: one has to wonder if the various warring factions wouldn't have
blown each other to smithereens without Sin's dreadfully pacifying presence.
Only Blitzball truly unites the whole world around a common passion, the sport
which survived Sin's coming and which holds annual tournaments in Luca's
stadium, oddly left untouched by Sin's wrath.
This is where the narrative starts.
Tidus, a young star blitzball player of the Zanarkand Abes, plays on a match against the Zanarkand Duggles on the 10th anniversary of the disappearing of Jecht, his own father and another legendary Blitzball player himself. During the game, terror is unleashed on the city of Zanarkand: A giant thing appears in the sky, wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting city.
Fleeing the attack, Tidus meets Auron, his mentor, who identifies the enemy as Sin, and gives Tidus his father's sword to fight some fiends unleashed on the streets of Zanarkand by Sin. But a bit later on, after an odd monologue with Sin, Auron grabs Tidus and drags him into Sin's vortex.
Tidus regains consciousness near Baaj temple, where he is eventually rescued by Rikku and her Al Bhed tribe. After befriending her, Tidus learns, to his bewilderment, that Zanarkand has been destroyed by this same Sin 1000 years earlier. Another encounter with Sin lands Tidus on the beach of Besaid Island, where he meets Wakka and his team practicing something familiar: blitzball. After revealing that he is a player himself, Tidus agrees to help out the Besaid Aurochs (who have been on a 10-year losing streak) who, in turn, will bring him to Luca, hoping that a few of the annual tournament's spectators might recognize Tidus. Indeed, for some time, most people will believe Tidus' story of being from Zanarkand due to a hallucination because of proximity to Sin.
Before leaving for Luca, Tidus is introduced to Yuna, a young summoner starting her pilgrimage to defeat Sin, and her guardians. While travelling, Tidus learns that Jecht, his own father, was a guardian to Yuna's father, who died after beating Sin and bringing a short Calm a decade ago.
In Luca, Tidus finds Auron, who turns out to be none other than Braska's other
guardian. After winning the Blitzball tournament, both of them join Yuna's
pilgrimage as guardians - as the goal of the pilgrimage is to obtain the Final
Aeon in Zanarkand, Tidus hopes to find a way to return to "his" reality.
During their travels, the party will go through many ordeals, eventually
finding out several disturbing truths: That the Yevon church is built on a
lie, and that the Final Aeon is none other than one of the summoner's
guardian. They further find out that using a Final Aeon to defeat Sin only
brings a short Calm, as, after beating Sin, Yevon takes over the Final Aeon
to make a new Sin and killing the summoner in the process. This also means,
on a very personal level, that the current Sin is none other than Jecht,
Tidus' father. The final revelation is made to Tidus alone: that "his"
Zanarkand is not the one destroyed 1000 years ago but the Dream Zanarkand
summoned by Yevon, and hence that he is himself part of that Aeon.
Because of the fondness which grew between Tidus and Yuna, as well as the former's stubborn nature, when meeting Yunalesca at the end of the pilgrimage, the party decides to refuse to continue in the old Final Aeon scam, and to find a way to destroy Yevon directly. Using an airship salvaged by the Al Bhed, they attack Sin and enter its distorted interiors, to finally confront and defeat Yu Yevon himself.
Once this is accomplished, all aeons fade away. Similarly, as Yevon stops his summoning, Tidus loses his physical body and disappears. The game is concluded in a speech Yuna gives in Luca, and an odd scene after the credit rolls where you see Tidus underwater somewhere, swimming upwards.
For convenience's sake, year 0 is the year Zanarkand gets destroyed
| 0 | Zanarkand and Bevelle at war ("Millenium War"). Bevelle wins due to Machina power. Yunalesca flees with Zaon, her husband. Her father Yevon, the nominal ruler of Zanarkand and a powerful summoner, gathers the survivors on Mt. Gagazet and turns them into fayth. Summoning of Dream Zanarkand begins. Yevon creates Sin by accreting pyreflies with gravity spells. Sin routs the Bevelle army, destroys the remains of Zanarkand and begins his reign of terror. |
| 10-30 | During this time, Yunalesca is able to influence key people in Bevelle and helps creating the Yevon church. In exchange, she then leaves for the ruins of Zanarkand, and there, using Zaon as a fayth for the final summoning, defeats Sin for the first time. Yevon then takes over Zaon and makes him the core of the new Sin. Yunalesca is killed in the process. Her promises to the Bevelle clergy are strong enough to bind her to the world though - she remains unsent instead of turning into a fiend. |
| 20-40 | Yunalesca's Calm ends when Sin returns. |
| 30-399 | The pilgrimage is born. Countless summoners try to repeat the feat and vanquish Sin, but fail. During this time, the Yevon clergy expands into a full-fledged religion, feeding on the people's fear of Sin. The myth of atonement is probably born at that time already, and Blitzball becomes very important in Spira as the sole distraction from a bleak existence. |
| ~200 | Mi'Ihen forms the Crimson Blades, a corps intent on beating Sin by physical means. While they never achieve their goal, they apparently still manage to inflict sufficient damage to Sin from time to time so that he keeps away from Luca (and probably Bevelle too), which they protect. Initially rejected by the Yevon clergy, Mi'Ihen successfully pleads his cause and the corps is integrated as a church body, and renamed Crusaders. |
| ~300 | Omega, a former Yevon priest, goes rogue and gets exiled in what will eventually get called the Omega Ruins. |
| ~400 | The former Kilikan Bliztball Star turned summoner Ohalland completes his pilgrimage and vanquishes Sin, forfeiting his life. Probably due to the incredible length of time where Sin went undefeated, Ohalland is named, posthumously, High Summoner. The Calm unforunately lasts only a couple of years at best. Sin returns again, using Ohalland's Final Aeon as its core. |
| ~600 | Gandof defeats Sin at the Calm Lands, bringing about a new, yet much too short Calm. Sin returns within a decade, with a new core. |
| ~900 | After almost 300 years of unopposed Sin Rampage, the former Crusader Yocun become the third High Summoner, bringing forth yet another much too short Calm. |
| 901 | Birth of Mika. |
| 950 | Mika becomes the Grand Maester, highest rank in the Yevon clergy. |
| 965 | Birth of Auron. |
| 972 | Birth of Seymour Guado |
| 975 | Birth of Kimahri |
| 976 | Birth of Wakka |
| 978 | Birth of Lulu. Probably death of Wakka's parents (he doesn't remember them, so they ought to have died between 976 and 979). |
| 980 | Under the influence of his mother, the extraordinarily talented young summoner Seymour undertakes the pilgrimage. Yunalesca turns the mother into the Final Aeon Anima, but Seymour, distressed by the whole affair, flees without fighting Sin. His fear and anguish gradually turn into resentment and anger, and he becomes obsessed with power, in part because Anima, as a Final Aeon, is much more powerful than any "regular" aeon on Spira. |
| 983 | Birth of Tidus in DZ. Birth of Yuna, probably at the old Al Bhed Home. Besaid attacked by Sin, death of Lulu's parents |
| 985 | Birth of Rikku |
| 989 | Auron, a young and promising warrior-monk, refuses to marry the high priest's daughter, and leaves the priesthood, to be eventually be supplanted by his friend Kinoc. He probably starts wandering until he meets the young Braska, a promising apprentice summoner despised by the clergy because he married an Al Bhed. He eventually becomes his guardian. |
| 990 | Jecht, a denizen of Dream Zanarkand, star player of the Zanarkand Abes, goes out to train at sea. He stumbles upon Sin who rests in the seas of dream, and accidentally gets transported out of Dream Zanarkand into the real world. Braksa and Auron start their pilgrimage, and pick up Jecht from a Spiran cell. Together they reach Zanarkand. Jecht, realizing at last that his Zanarkand was out of his reach, becomes the Final Aeon, but both he and Braska get Auron to promise he will take care of their offspring. Braska defeats Sin and forfeits his life. Jecht becomes the new Sin core. After the battle, Auron realizes that the whole pilgrimage deal is a scam, and flings himself at Yunalesca in a rage. He is mortally wounded. Clinging to whatever strength he has left, he manages to crawl back to Gagazet, where he meets Kimahri, yet another outcast, and manages to enroll him to take care of Yuna. That accomplished, he gathers his final strength and marches on until reaching Rhin's shop in the Calm Lands. Rin tries to help at the best of his abilities, but Auron dies during the night. Held by his unfulfilled promise to Jecht, he becomes an unsent and leaves. Kimahri goes to Bevelle and meets 7-year old Yuna. He brings her to Besaid, according to Braska's wishes. |
| 991 | Auron, realizing that even his "unlife" is in danger if he ever returns to Bevelle, spends a few more months wandering about Spira, staying away from civilization. He finally meets the regenerated Sin, which is pretty much still under Jecht's control. He gets transported to Dream Zanarkand and becomes a mentor and step-father of sorts to Tidus. |
| ~990-~992 | At some point, Lulu become guardian and escorts Ginnem on her pilgrimage. Ginnem unfortunately dies on her way out of the Sunken Cave. |
| 993 | O'Aka and Wantz' sister leaves on her pilgrimage, but fails and dies. She gets sent eventually. |
| 998 | Lulu and Wakka escort Zuke on his pilgrimage. Zuke quits in the Calm Lands to become a monk. |
| 999 | Chappu killed by Sin. Seymour Guado murders his father, Jyscal and is named maester for the Guado. |
| 1000 | Present day: FFX unfolds. Sin is defeated, and Spira enters the eternal Calm. |
When this is accomplished, Yevon begins summoning an idealized memory of Zanarkand, "the City which never sleeps".
In order to protect both himself and Dream Zanarkand, he gathers pyreflies around him with gravity spells and forms the first Sin - which then rampages through the Bevellian armies who were closing in on Mt. Gagazet and finishes ruining the original Zanarkand.
Prior to this, Yevon's daughter, Yunalesca, had fled with her husband Zaon. Over the next couple of years, as Sin rampages through Spira, Yunalesca approaches the Bevellian leadership and begins to negotiate a peculiar deal: Bevelle will pay tribute to the memory of Yevon. It is not entirely clear whether the cult and Yevon Church is established immediately or whether it evolves gradually over a century or more. It is also unclear whether that had all been planned by Yevon himself or whether Yunalesca was acting on the opportunity.
Anyway, to those in the know, Yevon himself becomes known as "Yevon Ju", the Curse of Yevon (Yu Yevon in English). In exchange, Yunalesca goes to the ruins of Zanarkand, turns her husband into the first fayth for the Final Summoning, and defeats Sin, by melting its outer shell.
It is possible to imagine (but not directly supported by the game) that Yunalesca may have been able to communicate with Yevon before summoning the final aeon, and strike a deal with him, one which would include an immunity of Bevelle from Sin's offensive programming.
Regardless of whether such an exchange actually took place or not, Yevon takes over the aeon Zaon as a core to form Sin anew. The shock from this takeover kills Yunalesca. Bound by the deals she struck, she remains unsent in Zanarkand, capable, over time, to extend her reach considerably to manipulate fiends several miles from her location.
Regardless of how much initial planning was done between Yunalesca and Bevelle before she left, it stands to reason to assume that over the years, some guardians were able to return to the Church with the account of how the whole Final Summoning worked. I have personally no doubt that those survivors were quickly executed to avoid spreading any rumors of an endless cycle. In any case, Seymour at least would be able to tell the tale once he became a maester.
Over the centuries, the Yevon Church extended its influence over much of Spira, taking existing traditions and molding them into the Yevon canon. With the development of the pilgrimages, their hold on the various temples holding the fayths effectively lets them "hold the key to Spira's salvation", in the eyes of a terrified populace. This is of course also one reason, beyond any deal struck with Yunalesca, why Bevelle themselves prohibit usage of Machina and ostracize the Al Bhed: If people started to believe Sin could be defeated by means outside of the Church's control, Bevelle would loose a lot of influence.
Fact: Sin isn't summoned at all. Let's resort to the game script. After defeating Yunalesca:
Yunalesca
"Fool. There is no other way."
"Even if there was... Even if you did destroy Sin..."
"Yu Yevon the immortal would only _create_ Sin anew."
Highbridge event:
Rikku
"Wait, gramps! Who's Yu Yevon?"
Mika
"He who _crafts_ the souls of the dead into unholy armor."
"An armor called Sin."
"Clad in it, Yu Yevon is invincible."
Later, in the chamber of the Bahamut Fayth:
Fayth
"Yes."
"Even if you defeat Sin with the Final Summoning, Yu Yevon will live."
"Yu Yevon will join with the Final Aeon."
"He will _transform_ it into a new Sin."
Yuna
"Yu Yevon _merges_ with the aeon..."
Fayth
"Then, protected by this new Sin he has _created_,
Yu Yevon continues the summoning."
Not only do the above quotes cleary distinguish between creating and summoning, they also explicitly state that Yu Yevon is the creator, and that he's summoning something else (Dream Zanarkand, to be specific). The Ultimania Guides give the additional explanation that Sin is formed by gravity spells concentrating pyreflies around the core.
Another pet peeves of mine. Dream Zanarkand, "the city which never sleeps". But what is it? Its name is slightly misleading: Dream Zanarkand is one huge aeon. Its shape is being dreamt up collectively by the Mt. Gagazet fayth, and then summoned into reality by Yu Yevon. This immediately leads to new arguments, the essence of them being "hey, if it were summoned, you'd find it. You have an airship". Well, where it is located is explained neither in the game, nor in the Ultimania Guides. The latter however specify that it is indeed somewhere in Spira. Further, it could be out at sea beyond any Spiran ship's reach. It could be underwater, for all we know. Or in a cave, the artificial sun just being part of the summoning. It must not even remain at one static position.
Anyway, the game script clearly states that DZ is being summoned:
Mt. Gagazet:
Fayth
"The remaining summoners and the townspeople that survived the war..."
"They all became fayth--fayth for the summoning."
Tidus
"The summoning... You mean Sin?"
Fayth
"No. I mean this place."
"A Zanarkand that never sleeps."
Inside Sin:
Yuna
"The fayth said it's pointless to keep dreaming."
"The dream will disappear, he said."
"What did he mean?"
"And what is it that Yu Yevon is summoning from within Sin?" Tidus
"The dream of the fayth."
Lastly, let me be clear about one thing. Some people speculate that DZ is located in an alternate dimension or other plane or whatever. Nice theory, but there's absolutely nothing supporting it in the game. On the contrary, the game script makes it pretty clear that all summoning happens in Spira, and that the only other "plane" of sorts, the Farplane, is basically beyond their comprehension - let alone their capacity to interact under their own control.
Another subject of frequent controversy arises when someone mentions that Anima is a Final Aeon. But, they say, Seymour summons it and doesn't die. Yuna summons it, and doesn't die. It can't be a final aeon!
Well, it is. Contrary to widespread belief, it is not the summoning of a Final Aeon which kills the summoner, it happens when Yu Yevon takes it over _after_ the fight.
Let's just go through how summoning works again:
- A fayth dreams up a shape
- A summoner visits a temple and establishes a mind link
with the fayth.
- When needed, the summoner activates this link and taps
into the dream. As is also evidenced by the sending, the
specific talent of a summoner is to control pyreflies,
either dispersing them (sending) or concentrating them into
a given shape (summoning), a shape provided by the fayth's
dream.
- The resulting physical entity is called an aeon.
- Whereas it is not entirely clear whether it is the
summoner or the fayth who controls the aeon, it is however
certain that once the summoning is going on, only the
summoner or heavy physical damage to the aeon may stop the
summoning. This is also the reason the fayth need an
external party to kill Yu Yevon in order for them to stop
dreaming DZ.
Now in the case of the Final Summoning, remember that Yunalesca (and Seymour, for that matter) insists the stronger the bond in life, the stronger the Final Aeon will be. During the course of the pilgrimage, whatever relationship the summoner has with his guardians is strengthened by the shared hardship and the need to defend each other's lives. So the mind link is incredibly stronger between summoner and final aeon than with just any "standard" fayth.
When the Final Aeon finishes melting Sin's shell away, Yu Yevon abandons the previous core and takes control over the Final Aeon. In order to do that, Yu Yevon needs to sever, forcefully, the link between the summoner and the final aeon. Whether this normally happens only on the mental side, or the Final Aeon physically strikes at the summoner is irrelevant. The end effect remains that the summoner gets killed in that process.
To get back to our original statement, then, Seymour can summon Anima, his own Final Aeon, against anything but Sin without risks. Yuna (and any other summoner) may safely summon Anima against anything, including Sin, because Anima is not _her_ Final Aeon.
Finally, after twenty years, it is quite possible Anima could be used by Seymour himself against Sin without him dying - he's become completely different from the person he was when undertaking the pilgrimage. But that's just idle speculation on my part :)
"Wait...this is a dream.
- Precisely.
- A dream? Are you crazy? I don't have ttiime to be dreaming now!
- You're wrong. It's not that you're dreeaaming. You are a dream. Both you and your father have been touched by Sin. You two are more than just dreams now. Maybe you are the dream that will end our dreaming at last."
The above is, of course, a slightly snipped version of the dialogue between Tidus and the Bevelle fayth. And the source of monthlong debates about Tidus' fate and the meaning of "becoming real by touching Sin".
First of let me immediately start with a caveat emptor: it stands to reason to assume that at least part of Tidus' fate is explained in FFX-2. I have stayed clear of any spoilers before playing it, but this stands to reason. Hence my apologies to all in the know: what follows may be wildly inaccurate. But remember the premise of this FAQ: It treats FFX as a standalone game. So please, if you know better, I'd still prefer you _not_ to send me spoilers and refrain from doing so on the FFX storyline boards. You'll call me a fool and gloat for a couple of months, until I myself know better.
Back to the topic at hand. The quote above actually gives a lot of information. The literal "became real by touching Sin" quote isn't provided during Tidus' dream on Mt. Gagazet, but can be found if you revisit Kilika Temple after the Highbridge event. Japanese speakers point out that the translation is inaccurate in that part, and indeed, it is at odds with what the Bahamut fayth tells you.
First of, the question on whether Tidus is the exact copy of an original Zanarkand dweller (possibly even one of Mt. Gagazet's fayth) cannot be answered in FFX. The Ultimania Guides are silent on this as well.
One thing is however noteworthy here: Tidus sees his mother in Guadosalam, just like any "normal" Spiran is able to see their late relatives. This means that for all practical purposes, DZ people are in fact quite similar to their real Spiran counterparts - insofar the pyreflies forming them also "remember" their shape, and to whom they had strong bonds as living beings.
Basically, a DZ dweller is formed of an "essence", the dream of the controlling fayth, and a "substance", his body entirely made of pyreflies. Exactly how much control over the essence the fayth have is unknown, but it probably works a bit like a "Sims" game, the fayth directing things, but the individual Sims having some sort of artificial intelligence of their own. In the Ultimania Guides, it is mentioned that Yu Yevon "resets" individual DZ inhabitants who start to question their one-city world, so there are both notions of partial independence and of external control.
What the "more than just dreams" means to me, is that upon entering Spira and getting involved with the events of the real world, both Tidus and Jecht developed a consciousness of their own, independent of the dream itself. Or, other words, their own "essence".
When Yu Yevon was defeated, the summoning stopped. In practice, Tidus had an immediate problem: his substance, his physical body, was dependent on the summoning to hold the pyreflies together. Contrary to Auron who is sent, he loses his pyreflies, but his translucent shape lingers for a while and hugs Yuna long enough for her to thank him. What this and the very final scene of Tidus swimming in the dream ocean promised to him by the Shiva fayth means, to me, is that basically, Tidus' essence remains in Spira (and not in the Farplane). The scene where he's swimming towards the surface _could_ then mean that after some time, he finally managed to find out how unsent keep their bodies together and imitate it. Some also speculate that he hears Yuna whistling at the sea and emerges once again, to answer her call. In any case, Square took quite some pains to indicate that FFX wouldn't be the end of Tidus. What I can't really resolve is the high-fiving scene after Tidus fades away - to me it's just an allegory put in there because it "looks cool". But your mileage may vary - to wit, Cw889's excellent own take on this: --- Concerning the high-five during the ending:
There's a little more to it than just looking "cool". The point was Tidus finally accepting who his father was and showing that he had in fact managed to achieve some measure of respect for him.
Remember in the opening blitzball FMV, where the two players high-five each other after a goal? That's what it is directly referencing.
Now about the "dreams that have been touched by reality" bit.
The idea is that when the dream of the fayth ends, there will be no memory recorded in either spheres or the actual minds of people of what happened in the dream Zanarkand. Once the dream ends, it's as though they never existed, because no one else was ever aware of the dream Zanarkand. No one who lived there will be remembered by the people of Spira. Except for Tidus and Jecht, who came into to contact with people who are actually part of a real society... meaning the history of what they did will be remembered and recorded in some manner or other. The fact that people knew who Jecht was when Tidus first arrives in the "real" Spira is proof that Jecht is "real" in so far that he will be remembered after the dream has ended.
Auron's a rônin. Who hasn't heard this piece of 'Net lore already? He is, because the rônin are masterless samurai, and he has his arm in his sleeve and keeps a jug of sake at his side. And that's what rônin do, right?
Nope. First off, the sake jug and arm in sleeve are not specific to rônin - they're behaviours you might find in the medieval Japanese warrior, regardless of rank or position. You'll also note that the arm-in-sleeve and sake jug were present in the various Jecht spheres, when Braska, his supposed "master", was still around.
It is undisputable that Auron was _modeled_ on the medieval Japanese warrior. But let's be clear here: Auron is a disgraced former warrior-monk turned guardian. Nothing else, and certainly not some kind of stereotyped vision we Westerners may have of rônin, knowledge we have at best acquired by watching the better brand of Anime or a Kurosawa flick.
Even the "masterless" part can be debated. Is the act of remaining faithful to a promise (beyond death itself!) made to a man dead for a decade typical of "masterless" behaviour? I don't think so. In fact, Auron still has a master, his memory of both Braska and Jecht, which is directing his whole course of actions.
What perhaps characterizes Auron the most, in fact, is his faultless adherence to a code of honour, which he holds much higher than many people around him. It is probably due to this code that he refused the hand of the High Priest's daughter. It is undoubtedly because of this code that he acted the way he did during the whole time period where we follow his story - this makes him, at first, "such a stiff" as Jecht calls him, and quite cynical later on, when he's seen through the whole spiral of death scheme.
And he is not only honour-bound to Jecht and Braska (and their offspring), his commitment goes much further - to the people of Spira as a whole. It is in a way particularly remarkable that Auron accompanies Yuna on her pilgrimage: you'll notice that, in a way, he just tags along. He's never the one to push people for looking for alternative solutions during the pilgrimage, despite knowing how it will end. In fact, he probably didn't believe in the possibility of alternative solutions at all for a long time. Yet he never even once tried to stop Yuna or spill the beans, on the contrary he pushes her forward, reminding her of her own duty: because despite all he knows, he's also able to understand just how much it means to Spira to get a second Calm not just in the same century but within one decade. It is only in the confrontation with Yunalesca that he glimpses a ray of hope and suddenly drives the team to battle.
In all those little ways, Auron is a quite deep and complex character. What distinguishes him most are his loyalties and his code of honour. Those are definitely characteristics of the medieval Japanese warrior - but not of the rônin specifically. Give Square enough credit to have been able, for once, to craft a character a bit less shallow than our Western stereotypes allow for. FFX is, in my eyes, a real step forward in both world and character development compared to all other Square games I played, and we should not overlook that fact by simplifying what we see.
As a closing remark, let's just finally point out that the jug at Auron's side contains Nog, a Spiran alcoholic beverage, not sake. It's even written on it.
Why is Yu Yevon represented as a bug in the final battle? Why do Yunalesca and Seymour morph around while Auron doesn't?
While there are no direct explanations in the game, it is pretty safe to consider that Yu Yevon is basically an unsent. Within a couple of years, his human body withered and died, leaving him with a pyrefly simulacrum just like all the other unsents.
Yu Yevon, Yunalesca and Seymour all have something in common which Auron doesn't: They are all trained summoners. And a summoner's talent is to manipulate pyreflies - which is used both in the act of summoning as in its contrary, the Sending. An unsent is basically a strong mind, a powerful will holding together a body of pyreflies.
Auron, as a "normal" human before his death, holds his pyrefly shape together out of a lifelong habit, probably unconsciously. The only extent to which he seems able to control his appearance is the aging. He didn't even manage to get rid of his scar (though it obviously makes him "look cool":)
Unsent summoners, however, know how to do it. So the parasitic look of Yu Yevon might simply be due to the fact that he's exactly that: a leech on final aeons, and his shape just happens to be the most practical one for that task.
OK, in practice, this certainly isn't the case, but the designers chose this shape because it's most evocative of what Yu Yevon has become ;)
Did you notice? FFX quite remarkably attempts a small but significant breakaway from the mother of all RPG Plots: "Random Joe sets out on a personal quest, joins other random Joes and Janes, and finally ends up having to save the world".
Interestingly enough, FFX makes a few timid attempts to leave those beaten tracks.
Firstly, the character you play isn't actually the party's leader - that would be Yuna. You just happen to tag along and act as the narrator, but it's her pilgrimage, her guardians, and most importantly, it's her world.
This time around, your character first tags along because, like his father before him, he believes for much of the game that following Yuna's party will help him achieve his own personal goal - to return to "his" Zanarkand. When the situation finally changes and Tidus understands he's going to have to give up his personal quest, his actions aren't actually driving towards saving Spira - he couldn't care less. It's not "his" world. It doesn't feel like home at all. Tidus' only objective is to save Yuna - Saving Spira is only a side- effect. Whereas to the rest of the initial party, the objective is to save the world from day one, and they're fully expecting to give their lives to that task - all of them.
Of course, the relatively smart overlapping of Tidus' (the narrator and usual "random Joe") and Yuna's (the party lead) goal doesn't deviate much from the archetype. Still, if it is a sign of things to come, we might actually experience a maturing in RPG storyline writing for the next FF games. I'm crossing fingers.
This whole FAQ owes to a lot of contributors who have participated in long and often spirited debates on gamefaq.com's FFX storyline board mainly. Through the debating of ideas and confronting them with both the story transcript and the information contained in the Ultimania Guides, I have been able to settle my mind on the various topics presented herein. So my thanks go to all those people. A special mention here again to Olivier Hague's countless contributions, as well as Darkelios, Lionhearted One, Lindblum Resident, Tin Buk Tu, Sir Bahamut, Theoden, Cw889 and a whole lot of people whose names I have forgotten but whose arguments I still remember. Cheers to the folks on the gamefaqs FFX storyline board for reviewing the early drafts and commenting on those! If I left out your name, by all means send me an e-mail and shame me over my senility :) Minerva and Triceborn Phoenix deserve a special mention for actually directly inspiring me to start this thing.
This section would of course not be complete without me raising
my mug in appreciation for Thriceborn Phoenix, who went through the
pain of spell-checking this whole document. I tell you, if all you
native English speakers don't gag on every third line on my horrible
syntax, my typos and my grammatical mistakes, it is thanks to his dedication.
His website is at http://www.brokenpremise.tk/
Finally, thanks to the folks at Final Fantasy Worlds Apart who provided the transcript I'm using: http://ffwa.org/ff10/script-part1.html