by Mark Rosa
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>6 (98.9.18): A full entry for FF Tactics, plus a few more things form previous games. Probably the biggest find is the Carl Orff references in Sephiroth's theme.
5 (97.8.19): FFVII, the entire FF Legend series, and Bahamut Lagoon get full-sized entries for the first time, plus assorted tidbits from various other games. Also, there's a "Further Reading" section at the bottom for those of you who want even more. ^^;
4 (97.1.09): Lots more stuff about Seiken Densetsu 3 and FF3, and a whole bunch of other useful things. And a smaller graphic at the top, to cut down on loading time.
3 (Feb. '96): In this one, Andrew Vestal and I combined our two lists to form one big file. I rearranged and alphabetized some things so that the monsters, characters, items, etc. are kept together.
2.1 (95.10.13): A whole lot more stuff. Extra special thanks go out to Kate Malloy and Andrew Thompson for all their valuable info.
2.0 (95.9.22): More games are included, and more stuff sent in by all you alert readers out there...
1.1 (May '95): Just about the same as 1.0 except Phoenix is included.
1.0 (April '95): This is the first version. I only really dealt with FF2 and 3.
Also, just for reference, here's a list of the Japanese and American game titles:
I'll start out at the beginning with the FF series' first game...
The sword Excalibur of British legend makes its first of
several FF-series appearances here when you acquire Adamant
(something else that shows up a few times) and give it to the smith.
Excalibur was the sword that King Arthur pulled from the stone to prove
his worthiness as king. The ideas of knighthood and chivalry date back
to Arthur's time.
The Japanese sword Masamune: One explanation is that there was
a feudal lord named "Masamune Date" (Date (da-te) is the family name)
who ruled Rikuzen (area near Sendai) around the early 1600's. He lost
one of his eyes due to sickness in childhood, and he was nicknamed
"Dokuganryuu Masamune" (Masamune, the one eyed dragon). Another story
says that there was a blacksmith named "Masamune", and his sword was so
sharp that you could drive it into the ground in a lake, and leaves that
floated by would float around the Masamune due to its holy power.
Masamune is written like this in Japanese:
________ ,
| |--------|
|-- ------
| | --------
| | |
-------- / | \
Murasame: (This isn't actually in FF1, but I wanted to put it
with the Masamune) The characters are "town" (mura) and "rain" (ame).
Murasame is used to define a rain that rains in small area. (Sometimes
quick rain) Thus, it could mean Murasame can cause "quick blood rain".
(And in some stories, Murasame is cursed. Though the leaves floating
down the river will avoid the Masamune, they float right into the
Murasame and get split in two.)
Another weapon is the Rune Sword - runes were the letters used
by Icelanders and other Nordic people over 1000 years ago. They were
believed to have magical properties, and supposedly were invented by
Odin himself.
Bahamut: He's in all three of the US
Final Fantasy games, and FF5 as well. He's supposed to be a great dragon
of some kind, possibly the king of the dragons. But in another story,
the world is being held up by an angel standing on a ruby mountain. The
mountain lies on top of a bull (sometimes called Kujata, who's in FF7)
with four thousand of various body parts, which in turn stands on a fish
which swims through the darkness. And it turns out that Bahamut is the
fish that holds up the world!
Pirates: Some speculation... there are two types of enemies
that look like pirates in FF1... one is called "Pirate" (no surprise
there) and the other is "Kyzoku"... maybe the latter could be a
misspelling of the Japanese word "Kaizoku", which means pirate... has
anybody out there played the Japanese FF1 and can tell me that game's
names?
Giants (and Frost Giants): Enemies in FF1. The Frost Giants
come from Nordic mythology. The father of the Frost Giants was Ymir, and
with his cow Audumla he created the Aesir, and Odin (a really familiar
name if you like FF) is among them. (I'm skipping a large portion of
this story. For more info, check your local library ^_^)
The Cockatricemakes its first appearance here. Supposedly
they were deadly winged serpents from biblical times.
The Sphinx makes an appearance in FF1 for the first time.
(It's in FFMQ and FFA as well.) It had a lion's body, a woman's head
and shoulders, and eagle's wings. It would sit alongside a road and ask
travelers that came by a riddle and eat anyone who got it wrong. The
riddle: "What animal has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and
three legs in the evening?" You've probably heard the answer... a human
being!
The Four Fiends of FF1 all have mythological names. The idea
of four elements (earth, fire, air, and water) making up all matter in
the cosmos goes back to the ancient Greeks. But the Fiends' names
aren't all Greek. They're more obscure than most, and many game players
might miss them. So I've outlined them here...
Aegis Shield: You find this in the tower in the middle of the
desert. The Aegis was the breastplate of Zeus, and, later, Athena. The
word "aegis" means "protection". The Aegis Shield is in FF5j and FF3 as
well.
Gaia: The town in the northeast in this game; it can be
reached only with the airship. "Gaia" means Earth; she was the earth
goddess who married Uranus, god of the heavens. The word is best known
from James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis, which treats the Earth as a
self-sustaining organism. In the latest FF vocal CD, the main theme of
FF1 is called "Gaia" (and mentions Lovelock in the liner notes!). Also,
FF3 features Gaea Gear (an alternate spelling).
The Slab: You need the slab so that Dr. Unne can translate the
Lefeinish language. I think the Slab was inspired by the Rosetta Stone,
a stone slab found in 1799 by French soldiers near the town of Rashid
(known as Rosetta in French). It had a message written in Greek,
Egyptian hieroglyphics, and demotic (Egyptian cursive writing), and in
1828, Jean Champollion used it to translate the Egyptian language for
the first time. Update... three and a half years after writing
the preceding entry, I've found that in the original Japanese FF1, that
item is indeed called 'rozetta ishi', or the Rosetta Stone. So feel
free to omit 'I think' from the preceding paragraph. ^_^
The submarine Nautilus comes from Jules Verne's 19th century
science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
And from Square's first 16-bit Final Fantasy game,
Character Names: Rydia is supposedly named
after the legendary country of Lydia (the names are the same in
Japanese), which was the richest in the world in its day and the first
to use coins as money. They once had a king named Croesus, and he's the
one they're talking about in the (seldom-heard) expression "as rich as
Croesus".
I'd like to think Cecil was named after former Hanshin Tiger
Cecil Fielder (they're pronounced the same way), but this probably
can't be proven. There's a person in the Christian Bible named Cain,
similar to FF2's Kain.
Rosa's name just means 'rose'. (How could I forget to put
this in? :)
Cid's name was probably inspired by the Spanish story "El
Cid". The Tale of El Cid was one told by Spanish minstrels and bards
called juglares. It was a well known story throughout Spanish cities and
towns as it was told in town squares across the land; each bard had a
different interpretation for the tale. It is also believed that there
was an actual Cid de Castilla who took the kingdom of Valencia from
Moorish rule through certain artifacts that were found in Valencia.
Some people claim that they found his two mythical swords La Tizona and
La Colada which he used to slay actual Moorish kings. The whole story
was written down by Miguel de Cervantes and the music score was done by
Miklos Rosza. By the way, Cid is Final Fantasy's most-used character.
He's in FF2j, FF2US, FF5j, FF3, FF7, and FFT. Wow! ^^
Namingway and the tribe of Humingways probably got
their names from twentieth-century American writer Ernest Hemingway.
The Four Fiends in this game are all demons who show up in
Dante's Inferno. In the story, Dante and the Roman poet Virgil
make a journey through the nine circles of Hell. The book was written
around the beginning of the 14th century, and the story takes place on
Good Friday, 1300. Three of the Fiends' names are misspelled in the
American version...
One of Kain's strongest spears was called the Gungnir. This
was the name of Odin's spear in Norse mythology. The Gungnir was
supposed to have always pointed at the strongest member of an enemy
party, but obviously Kain could fight whomever he wished :) In FF5 and FF7, when you call Odin, he sometimes uses
this weapon.
The most powerful bow and arrows were called "Artemis";
Artemis is a goddess from Greek myths. She carried a bow and arrow and
was also the goddess of fertility. She was the sister of Apollo, and is
the subject of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World.
Another type of arrow was Medusa, named for the woman of Greek
legend who could turn people to stone by looking at them. She had
snakes for hair.
A third bow-arrow combination with a significant name is the Samurai.
Originally they were named for Yoichi Nagase, a famous figure in
Japanese history. It was probably changed because few Americans know
who he is. I'll save the longish story for the FFV section, since
that's where the bow has its name preserved intact.
Enemies:
Arachne: She was a woman who weaved things and was turned into
a spider by Athena when she lost a bet - thus she's a spider in this
game (and thus the English word "arachnid").
Remember Calbrena, Luca's dolls in the Underground? The name
is a shortened form of Calcabrina, another of the ten demons from
the Inferno.
Hydra was a legendary monster with multiple heads. It was said
that if you cut off one head, another would regenerate to take its
place.
King-Ryu and Ging-Ryu have names that are a bit
misleading... they should really be spelled 'Kin-Ryu' and 'Gin-Ryu'.
They mean (and you'll see why if you look at them) 'gold dragon' and
'silver dragon' in Japanese.
Leviathan: The Leviathan was a legendary sea monster, gigantic
in size, that would send ships to a watery doom. "Leviathan" is of
Hebrew origin.
Naga: A Naga is a long-tailed being from Indian legend (they
show up in FF1 also). The HugeNaga from the Sealed Cave is Naga
Rajah originally; it means 'King Naga' and comes from Sanskrit.
Ogopogo, the guardian of the Murasame in the lunar core, is
supopsedly a sea monster that inhabits a lake in Canada. I don't know
the details, though. (The word's a palindrome, too. ^^)
On the moon, you'll find Procyote and Juclyote; these are shortenings
of Prokaryote and Eukaryote. These things are extremely
simple one-celled life forms from which modern complex beings sprang.
Incidentally, if 'Procyote' were the correct spelling (it isn't, since
FF4j's katakana make the word clear), it could mean a being from the
star Procyon. After Sirius, Procyon is the second brightest star in the
sky.
Wyvern: The Wyvern guarded one of the really powerful weapons
in the Lunar Subterrane. A Wyvern is a breed of monster; half dragon and
half eagle. He's called Dark Bahamut in the import, and shows up on the
Lete River in FF3 also.
Miscellaneous:
The Tower of Babel: Well, this could be related to the Tower
of Babel. Supposedly humans were building a massive temple, so high that
it could reach heaven and the humans could then be on a level with God.
God then punished the humans by forcing the inhabitants of each level to
speak a different language, and thus nothing could be communicated and
the tower couldn't be completed. In fact, the words 'babel' and
'Babel' come from Aramaic. Golbez and the Four Fiends were using the
Tower to reach the moon in FF2, which parallels the humans' quest to
reach God.
Troia "Troia" is the Latin word for the city of Troy. The
site of the Trojan War, subject of Homer's Iliad, Troy is the
starting point for Ulysses' journeys in the Odyssey.
Chocobos make their first US appearance in this game... they
might have gotten their name from a chocolate candy which sold in
Japan a few years back (and is still popular). It was called
"Chocoballs" and had a picture of a bird on the front. But
unfortunately the bird looks nothing like the familiar yellow chocobo
that we all know and love... ^_^
In the original Japanese version, there's an item called Soma no
Shizuku, or Soma Drop. Soma is a fictional hallucinatory
drug used in Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World.
Rydia's call monsters:
Shiva is the god of destruction in Hinduism, and has multiple
hands and scary-looking tusks. Shiva is in the other two 16-bit FF
games as well.
Asura is also Indian; it was originally spelled "Ashur".
Ashur was the chief god of war and empire. He was always spoiling for a
fight, was very mischevious, and was constantly getting in trouble with
the other gods. Also, is the origin of the Japanese term "shuraba",
where everything is so chaotic that you can't tell what's going on
('shura' from Asura, and 'ba' = place). Cyan in FF3 has a sword called
"Ashura".
A Jinn is a mythical being who could be summoned to influence
mankind (also spelled "djinn"; actually, "djinni" is one and "djinn" is
plural).
Indra was the chief of the Vedic gods and controlled rain and
thunder. He flew through the sky on his solar chariot.
The Titans were giant beings, encountered by Ulysses on his
famous ten-year Odyssey returning home from the Trojan War. More on the
Odyssey later.
The weapon names aren't really significant but there is the Zeus
Glove, named for the Greek god Zeus (that's in FF1 also). Zeus is
the father of many of the other gods and reigned atop Mt. Olympus.
There's also Excalibur which I mentioned before...
This game is also known as Seiken Densetsu (Legend of the Holy Sword)
and is the prequel to Secret of Mana. This time, we've got some more
entries!
Glaive, which is the name of the empire and is French for
"sword".
Ammonite - a flat spiral fossilized cephalopod shell (thus all
the shells on the Ammonite Coast)
Julius - The last surviving member of the Vandole Empire,
Julius wished to use the power of the Mana Tree to revive the Empire.
Perhaps this is a reference to Julius Caesar?
Vandole - The name of the old Empire (and also the name of the
Emperor in Secret of Mana), it may be a corruption of the word "Vandal,"
the tribe of Germanic people who overran Gaul, Spain, and northern
Africa in the 4th and 5th centuries and sacked Rome in 455. This is
where the modern world "vandal" comes from.
Unicorn Water - Water purified by dipping a unicorn's horn
(alicorn) into it was believed to have healing properties. Thus the
Unicorn potion heals all status changes except Moogle (even though the
instruction booklet says it can).
Arthur Armor - no doubt a reference to King Arthur
Geta Shoes - Geta are a kind of Japanese sandal.
O-Bake - Japanese for 'ghost'. He's the easiest ghost-like
enemy.
Ryu-O - means "dragon king" in Japanese, and that's exactly
what he is.
Sei-Ryu - means "holy dragon" (or "blue dragon") in Japanese,
but he's actually a villain who banished Ryu-O.
Byak-Ko - means "white tiger" in Japanese.
Actually, the Four Fiends in this game (who also make an appearance as
the four elemental Guardians in Wild Arms, and the figures on the Four
Gods Set in FFTactics), are ancient Chinese gods. They're in the anime
Fushugi Yuugi (spelling?) as well.
Return Appearances: the Aegiz Shield (alternate spelling),
Ashura, Hermes Shoes (also in FF5), Kraken, Lich, Tiamat, and Leviathan
(all minor enemies).
Apollo - God of the sun and also of music (thus Apollon's Harp
in
FF5)
Isis - Egyptian goddess of fertility; wife and sister of
Osiris. (More on er in the Osiris entry.)
Neptune - The name of the undersea volcano, Neptune is the
Roman god of the sea.
Sleipnir - Odin's battle steed; in the game, an enemy you
fight with Odin. (There are several others who I can't remember, but
their names are mythologically significant as well - can anyone else
remember? Odin's Crows, or something like that.)
Valhalla - The place in Norse mythology where brave warriors
dwelt after death; Odin's realm both in mythology and in the game.
Venus - Roman goddess of love and beauty. (Also a minor enemy
in FFL3, and the Venus Shield and Venus Key are items in FFMystic
Quest.)
Repeat Appearances: Ashura
Arthur - The main hero. Three guesses as to who he's named
after, and the first two don't count. :)
Anubis - The jackal-headed Egyptian god of death.
Cronos - Since FFL3 is all about time travel, having a guy
named Cronos is rather appropriate.
Daimyo - A minor enemy, a daimyo is a warlord of ancient
Japan.
Echidna - A burrowing nocturnal hedgehog-like mammal (for
those who have played the Sonic games, this will be familiar).
Hecate Armor - Hecate was the Greek goddess of the underworld.
Loki - Norse god of mischief.
Masa - The name of the weaponsmith. He turns the cursed sword
"Muramas" into the really great wonderful supreme Masamune.
Dr. Pulcer and Dr. Quacer - Perhaps their names refer to
"pulsar" and "quasar"? And those terms are abbreviations for
'pulsating' and 'quasi-stellar' objects.
Romulus - One of the legendary founders of Rome, the Romulus
in this game actually looks more like Cereberus, the three-headed
guardian of the underworld.
Ronin - a masterless samurai.
Osiris, Set and Thoth - Three of the Egyptian
gods. Set was the evil brother of Osiris, the legendary god-king of
Egypt who brought the people out of barbarism. Since everyone loved
Osiris, Set was determined to kill him, and, with the aid of 72
accomplices, devised a plot to do him in. He fashioned a chest of
precious wood and promised to give it to whomever fit in it, and (since
it was made to fit Osiris) ended up giving it to his brother, whereupon
he and his accomplices sealed it shut and threw it into the Nile,
leaving Osiris to die. His wife and sister Isis was overwhelmed with
despair, but Thoth restored her courage and together they gathered the
parts of his body. They restored his body, making him the god of the
dead, but were unable to find his penis, which, by remaining at the
bottom of the Nile, gave the river its life-giving power. However, Set
was avenged by Osiris' son Horus, who defeated him and assumed the
throne of Egypt. Set was condemned to carry Osiris' body forever, and
Thoth collected the pieces of Horus' eye (which was mutilated in the
fight with Set) and restored it. Egyptian scribes, presided over by
Thoth, used the Horus-eye to designate fractions in their writing, and
the symbol became a good luck talisman.
Sol - means "sun".
Valkyrie - More Norse mythology, the Valkyries are maidens who
escorted brave warriors to Valhalla. (And are also the subject of some
operas! ^_^)
Repeat Appearances: Ashura, Chaos, Dullahan, Garuda, Hermes
Shoes, Kraken, Sei-Ryu, Thanos (alternate spelling).
FF Mystic Quest was designed for younger players, so maybe that's why
there aren't as many obscure references in this game.
Phoebe: Her name means "moon." She was one of the Titans in
Greek mythology.
Tristam: His name means sorrowful. In the Arthurian legends,
there is a knight named Tristan or Tristram, the nephew of King Mark
(hey, that's me) of Cornwall. Tristan fell in love with Mark's bride to
be, Isolde (Iseult) because of a love potion. This legendary romance is
the subject of an opera by the great Richard Wagner ("Tristan und
Isolde" in German). Also baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker's real
first name is "Tristram".
Kaeli: Kaeli Kreider was one of the producers at Squaresoft.
No myths here. ^_^
Pazuzu's Tower: There was a demon named Pazuzu in
Mesopotamian myths.
Libra Crest: Libra comes from Latin and refers to weight.
Thus the British pound is symbolized by "L" with a line drawn through
it, and the pound weight is abbreviated "lb." The scale is represented
in the constellation of Libra.
The Mobius Crest is in the design of a Mobius strip, which is
a one-sided object. To make one, take a strip of paper (or anything you
like; I suggest paper because it's easy to get a hold of ^^), give one
end a half twist, and tape it to the other end. Notice that you
can now trace a line around the whole thing without lifting your pencil
up... this is because it only has one side! It was discovered about two
hundred years ago by the German mathematician August Möbius, and
it's the symbol for infinity.
The enemy Stheno was one of the Gorgons of Greek myth. The
other two were Medusa (who's rather famous) and Euryale (who isn't).
The Gorgons were terrifying dragon-like creatures who could turn people
to stone just by looking at them.
Also, some of the towns are named for the "Four Elements" of Greek
science. For example, Windia, Fireburg, and Aquaria obviously relate to
wind, fire, and water.
Known as FF Gaiden - Seiken Densetsu 2 (FF side story - Legend of
Holy Sword) in Japan, this is part of the FF series but doesn't contain
as many interesting historical names as in the main games. Most names
are puns like "Mushboom", "LA Funk", and "Rabite". But there are a few
worth mentioning.
The Mana in the title refers to life force or power, and is
Polynesian in origin. There's another word, "manna"; the bread that
fell from the sky in the Bible, saving Moses and the Israelites from
starvation.
The main characters have names in the Japanese orginal, Seiken
Densetsu 2, and they're Randi (the boy), Purim (the
girl), and Popoi (the sprite). Purim is a Jewish festival
that commemorates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from destruction
under Xerxes I, as recorded in the book of Esther. A very important
holiday.
Neko, the cat who shows up everywhere to sell you stuff, is
just Japanese for "cat".
And here are the eight elemental sprites:
The king in the Gold City is named "Mammon"... supposedly
Mammon represents greed and lust for riches, which is certainly
appropriate for the gold city in SoM... Mammon sometimes is represented
as a tree. Incidentally, on "The Simpsons", Monty Burns' mansion is at
the corner of "Mammon" (which we just mentioned) and "Croesus" streets
(the rich king of Lydia; see Rydia's FF2 entry)
- 1001 Mammon Lane, I think :).
The Pure Land: In Buddhist mythology, the Pure Land was a
heaven-like place. Supposedly all the beings live in harmony there; just
the opposite of this game in which you're attacked by fearsome monsters.
Mandala, one of the towns, is a kind of Buddhist tapestry.
Also, there's a peak called Puncak Mandala (height: 4760 m) in the Moake
mountains.
Karon: This should actually be spelled "Charon" (pronounced
"karon"). In Greek legend, the dead travel down the river Styx on their
way to Hades, the underworld. Ulysses passed by here during the Odyssey.
The name of the boatman is Charon; thus he's the ferryman in the game,
to the Moon Palace where you get Luna (see below). Hades is also known
as Pluto, thus when it was discovered that the outermost planet Pluto
had a moon, it was given the appropriate name Charon.
Thanatos: Thanatos is the Greek word for "death". So it makes
sense that Thanatos wanted to inhabit the bodies of the living. And the
Greek personification of death was "Thantos" (only one 'a').
Jabberwocky: A poem by Lewis Carroll. Famous for the words
that Carroll decided to invent while writing it, like "brillig" and
"mimsy" :) The dragon in this poem was called the Jabberwock.
Kilroy: Kilroy may or may not be a real person. Around the
time of the First World War, a soldier in the U.S. Army went around
writing 'Kilroy was here!' in all kinds of weird places, just to prove
that he could get there first. (The army had a reputation for being
first in everything). So SoM's Kilroy might have been named for
him; I can't think of anybody else named Kilroy...
Boreal Face: This might be related to Boreas, the son of
Titans Astraeus and Eos. (Same for Borras in FF3.) "Boreal" also can
be used to mean "northern".
Garuda Buster (L. 8 Bow): The Garuda Bow is probably named
for Garuda, the bird that Vishnu rode on in Hindu legend. Garuda is the
king of all birds and supposedly can carry several gods without
impediment. Garuda represents good, and can sense evil in its vicinity.
Valkyrian (L. 8 Javelin): The Valkyries were Odin's messengers
(Odin again?). Wagner's famous music piece, "Ride of the Valkyries", is
about them coming down the mountain. It's heard in "Der Ring des
Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelung), which includes Siegfried from
FF3. More on him in the FF3 section.
Griffin Claw: A griffin was a beast, half eagle and half
lion. Both these animals had large claws.
Claymore: A Scottish sword. Supopsedly it's the one wielded
by the Highlander. Also, there's a team in the World League of American
Football called the Scottish Claymores.
Chakra Hand: A "chakra" is any one of the seven psychic
centers of the body representing passion, pleasure, majesty, love,
purity, inner sight, and thought. They occur wherever twelve lines of
force in the body meet. Derives from ancient Eastern philosophy.
Daedalus Lance (L. 8 Spear): Daedalus was an expert craftsman
and architect who built the labyrinth of Greek legend. After he
finished, King Minos locked him in a tower with his son Icarus. They
then tried to build wings and escape, but that part failed... As for the
Labyrinth, King Minos put the Minotaur (a horrible monster) in there to
kill wanderers, and when Theseus was imprisoned, Ariadne helped him to
get out... but that's another story.
... which we'll get to shortly, because the Minotaur appears in...
This game was never released in the US, but it's certainly as
interesting and fun as other Square games! If you've got FF5 and are
looking for an English translation, look here.. ^_^ There are plenty of
historical names here, though not nearly as many as in the more recent
FF3. I highly recommend this game, though you really need to read kana
(Japanese phonetic characters) at least, and hopefully some kanji, if
you want to make any progress. The mythological names have their usual
wide range of origins. A lot of names are repeated in FF4, 5, and 6.
Characters:
Gilgamesh: He was a legendary hero in Mesopotamian culture.
In the library of Nineveh, there exist 12 slabs on which are written the
exploits of Gilgamesh. The real Gilgamesh ruled Uruk in the 3d
millennium BC, and later his tale was embellished to the point where
Gilgamesh was a hero of legendary magnitude. Supposedly he was rather
harsh as king, and so the god Anu created a wild man named Enkidu
to stop him. However, Enkidu became the companion and servant of
Gilgamesh after the two men had a test of their strength. There are
many stories about the two of them; in one, they travel to defeat the
forest guardian Humbaba (a. k. a. Huwawa); in another, Gilgamesh rejects
a marriage propposal from Ishtar, the love goddess. Later Enkidu dies
and Gilgamesh learns the location of a plant that granted eternal youth
from Utnaphistim, survivor of the great flood. But a serpent steals it
and Gilgamesh dies. The epic ends with the spirit of Enkidu promising
to recover the objects that Ishtar gave to Gilgamesh. In FF5, Gilgamesh
has a partner named Enkidou; surely this is the Enkidu from
legend. Also, you can steal Genji equipment from Gilgamesh, so try to
get this if you can.
The Dark Mage Exdeath: This name just means "exceeding death".
In the game, Exdeath is trying to obtain the power of "mu" ("void") so
that he can rule the world.
Enemies:
Archaeo Eibis (Arukeo Eibisu): The boss of the Lonka ruins.
The study of ancient ruins is "archaeology", and an ibis is a kind of
bird. There's also "Sea Ibis" and "Tot Eibisu" which
could either mean "Death Ibis" ('Tod' (rhymes with boat) is German for
'death') or "Toth Ibis" (as in the Egyptian god who kept balance in the
world). Also "Jura Eibis" may be related to the Jurassic period
in history, which is in turn named for the Jura mountains in
Switzerland.
Byblos (Biburosu): You meet him in the Ancient Library. Makes
sense since his name is derived from the Greek for "book". The French,
German, and Russian words for "library" (and perhaps several others) are
all cognates, related to the Greek. FF5's Ancient Library is patterned
after the one in Alexandria, and the two most famous books there were
"Byblos" and "Almagest".
Catoblepas: A catoblepas is supposedly a being who lives in
the forests and can turn enemies to stone merely by glancing at them.
Well, this is just what he does in FF5. His attack is called "Akuma no
Hitomi" which means "Devil's Eye".
Farfarello, who shows up in the forest part of the Cleft of
Dimension, is another demon from Dante's Inferno. Some of the others
are the Four Fiends in FF2.
The Furies: In FF5 you meet the Furies in the Castle of
Dimension. The Furies were old crones sent by the gods to punish
people. Supposedly, they carried whips with thorns on them.
Gargoyles: Stone statues that are frequently seen near
entrances to buildings. They guard the entrances to the places where
the slabs are located. Some old European castles would have gargoyles
above the door to ward off evil spirits. Goyles and Red Goyles are in
FF1 also.
Halicarnassus: One of the bosses of the Cleft of Dimension.
The name probably comes from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which was
built in what is now Turkey around 350 BC. It was built for Carian king
Mausolus; thus the English word "mausoleum". Incidentally, this is
another Wonder of the Ancient World.
Mammon: A tree in the Great Forest of Muah. Mammon was a tree
that represented greed; it's also the name of the rich king in SoM. (see
SoM section)
Mind Flayer: One of the last enemies you meet.  I'm not sure which
mythology he's from, but supposedly Mind Flayer is one of those truly
evil beings who has no soul. Also known as "illithid".
The Minotaur: At the top of the Fork Tower, on the
"fighting-only" side, you fight Minotauros, a. k. a. Minotaur. He was
placed into the Labyrinth of Greek legend in order to stop travellers
from escaping.
Necrophobia: This just means "fear of death". (not 'fear of
the night' as I had before) You fight him in order to open up the last
save point before the final battle.
Wingraptor: You fight him at the top of the Wind Shrine (Kaze
no Shinden) just before getting the crystal chips; it's rather early on
in the game. A raptor is a bird of prey, and there's a dinosaur called
"velociraptor". "Raptor" was hardly a household word until Michael
Crichton popularized them in his book _Jurassic Park_ a few years ago.
Ziggurat Gigas: You fight him in the tower while trying to
break the barrier around Exdeath's castle. A ziggurat is a kind of
tower; it's also from Mesopotamian culture. I believe that they were
built by followers of Zoroaster.
Some more heavenly bodies from the solar system... Phobos
means "fear" and is guarding one of the slabs underground. It's also
one of the moons of Mars. Along with Phobos appears Triton,
who's king of the seas and one of Neptune's moons, as is Nereid.
Some weapons...
The Gungnir: In FF2 (US), when you
called Odin, either he would destroy the enemies completely or nothing
would happen. But in FF5, Odin has two different attack styles. One is
"Zantetsuken" (Iron Cutting Sword) which slices everyone up and the
other is Gungnir, which only damages one enemy. Gungnir is the name of
Odin's spear. Supposedly, the Gungnir always pointed at the strongest
member of the opposition but I'm not sure if this holds true in FF5.
Does anybody know?
Trident: A spear for the Dragoon. It's a large three-pronged
fork wielded by the sea god Poseidon.
Sasuke's Katana: Sasuke is a legendary ninja's name, Sarutobi
Sasuke.
Orichalcon: *Could* be related to "orichalcum", the legendary
alloy of Atlantis which was said to have special properties. In FF5,
Orihalcon is a knife; it's in Seiken Densetsu 3 too.
Main Gauche: This is French for "left hand". It's a knife
with some defense ability. But, since all the characters in FF5 are
ambidextrous, you can equip it in either hand.
Thor's Hammer: Also known as "Mjolnir", Thor's Hammer could
instantly kill any giant (they were the enemies of the gods, with whom
they battle at Ragnarok) and never missed. Thor could throw it at the
enemies and it would return to him, as it does in FF5. Also I've heard
that a lightning bolt is emitted from Mjolnir as it is thrown... this
would explain the "LIT2" magic cast by it in FF1.
Hermes' Shoes: Hermes comes from Greek mythology and wore
magical winged sandals which allowed him to fly. Hermes was also the god of
thieves and gamblers and could teleport and make himself invisible as
well as fly.
Yoichi's Bow: OK, for this one, let's pass
the mike to FF5 grand master Tat Nakao... [Tat: Maybe it was the name
of the person who shot the arrow at the battle of Genpei. I think it
was in "Ougi no Mato". Mato = Target, and Ougi = fan. The simple story
was that Genji was fighting against Heike at Seto Naikai (the Inland
Sea), and Heike was on the sea and Genji was on the shore (maybe it was
the other way around). Since the sun began to fall, the one on the sea
thought to have entertainment. They let one woman with one pole aboard
the small boat (and this pole had Ougi (fan) at the tip). She rowed the
boat near the shore and asked someone on the shore to shoot the fan.
And I think Yoichi was nominated to do so, and he did it. I *THINK*
this person was Yoichi, but I'm not sure.... It was 8th grade that I
learned this in school. (And I wasn't good at Kokugo)]
Some Egyptian stuff: In the game, there's a Pyramid just like
the ones that the ancient Egyptians built for their dead pharaohs. Also
there's a city named "Karnak" which is near the Ancient Library.
In Egypt, there was a real city named Karnak, and it might have been
near the city of Alexandria, home of the Great Library of Alexandria.
Sekhmet shows up in the Pyramid. She's a lion-headed goddess
sent by Ra to punish mankind for its sins. Part of the triad that
includes Bast (cat goddess) and Ra (the rather important sun god).
Other stuff:
Almagest: The name of Neo-Exdeath's special attack in the
final battle. About a thousand years ago, Ptolemy wrote a book about
astronomy, and when it was translated into Arabic, they called it the
Almagest ('al' is Arabic 'the', and 'magest' comes from Greek; the whole
thing means 'the greatest'). But it was hardly the greatest, since it
put Earth at the center of the solar system :) In fact, the original
edition was located in the Great Library of Alexandria, just like FF5's
Ancient Library.
The castle of Tycoon: Lenna's home. A tycoon is someone with a
lot of money. In fact, the English word "tycoon" comes from the
Japanese "taikun" (meaning prince), but in Japanese, that word isn't
spelled the same way as FF5's "Tycoon".
Adamant from FF1 is in this game as well. In fact Adamant is a
regular word; it's a synonym for "extremely hard". (that is, hard like a
diamond, not "difficult".)
Moogles made their first appearance in FF3j (where, strangely
enough, they spoke Jaanese normally), and in this game they begin saying
their famous "Kupo!" ^_^; In Japanese, they're called "Moguri", and
that comes from a combination of the Japanese words "mogura" (mole) and
"koumori" (bat).  :)
If you use the Chemist and mix items, certain combinations lead to
Samson Power, which, as you may be able to guess, gives the
recipient great strength. It's named for the biblical character who was
legendary for his muscle power. Samson, like Edgar and the Nordic gods
in FF3, is the subject of an opera -- Samson et Dalila, written
in 1869 by Camille Saint-Saens.
Some stuff from FF5 that I'm not sure of: Twin Tania and Karlabos...
can anyone identify these??
There are so many in this game. Most of the Espers, many of the
items, and a few of the enemies have historical/mythological
names. It seems that in FF3 the Square geniuses went out of their way to
impress us with mythological references. First, some enemies:
Actaneon is probably a variant spelling of "actinia", a kind
of sea anemone. It comes from the Greek for "ray".
Apokryphos is on the Floating Continent. Its name comes from
Greek for "hidden". This is the origin of the English word
"apocryphal", which means "almost certainly fictional".
Aquila is Spanish for 'eagle'. Also, Lobo is Spanish
for 'wolf'.
Cephaler comes from the same root as 'cephalopod' and is the
class of octopi and squids.
Dark Side: Shows up in the mines of Narshe. Maybe
this has something to do with "the Force" in the Star Wars movies; Darth
Vader is on the Dark Side.
Dullahan: The "boss" of Daryl's Tomb. Dullahan is from Irish
mythology, and is a headless spirit that wanders around Ireland, holding
his head under his arm and driving a black coach drawn by headless
horses! He knocks on people's doors, and hurls a bucket of blood in
their faces! As you can probably guess, a visit from Dullahan is
considered to be a portent of death.
Eland shows up not only on the Veldt in FF3, but on the "real"
veld in Africa. It's a big antelope with horns.
Fortis (in Kefka's tower) comes from Latin and means strength
or power.
Garm: In Nordic myths, Garm is a dog who is killed by Tyr at
Ragnarok.
Hidon: Now this name is interesting! It's the same in both
the Japanese and American games, but has two completely diferent
meanings. In the English version, Gungho says something about "as his
name implies," referring to the word 'hide' embeded in 'Hidon'. In the
Japanese version, however, 'Hidon' brings to mind the word 'hidoi',
which means 'terrible' or 'scary'. A nice coincidence!
Humpty, in the Figaro cave, probably comes from the poem,
"Humpty Dumpty". ^_-
Intangir's name probably comes from 'intangible'... he's
pretty hard to hit!
Io: A baddie in this game; also the name of Jupiter's volcanic
moon. Jupiter's four lovers included Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede
- they're immortalized as Jupiter's four largest moons. It should be
pronounced "EE-oh", but you also hear "EYE-oh".
Lethal Weapon: I don't know... maybe named for the movie
starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover? :)
Lunaris: Shows up on the gravel-like land near Albrook in the
World of Ruin. Means, approximately, "from the moon".
Nastidon is just a combination of "nasty" and "mastodon".
Osteosaur, who's in Daryl's tomb, comes from Greek for "bone
lizard".
Over Mind: You meet them in the Phantom Forest. The name was
probably inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's novel _Childhood's End_, in
which there's a great being that transcends physical bodies. Eventually
the human race is absorbed by the Overmind, and becomes one with it.
Pandora: Shows up inside Cyan's soul. In Greek mythology,
Pandora was the one who opened the box which released all the evils
inside it out into the world. (Yet one good thing remained: hope.)
Remember in FF3 when you first meet Banon and he tells a story like
this? He mistakenly says that a man opens the box.
Phunbaba: He is probably the very same 'Humbaba' from the
Gilgamesh story (in the FF5 section). They're spelled the same way in
Japanese; probably the translators had never heard of Humbaba and so
they arbitrarily picked the spelling 'Phunbaba'. And no, I don't know
if the Humbaba of legend attacked with 'Baba Breath' ^_^
Primordite means "ancient", like the English word
"primordial".
Prometheus: Though he's a rather insignificant enemy in FF3,
he was pretty important in Greek mythology. Supposedly Prometheus
created humans, and then stole fire from Mount Olympus in order to save
them from freezing. But Zeus didn't like this and Prometheus was
imprisoned. Later, though, Hercules frees him. Also if you've played CT,
this name might be familiar!
Scullion, in Kefka's Tower, is an Old English word which
refers to a maid or servant who washes dishes and things. A nice word
for one of Kefka's minions, but "real" scullions don't have lasers and
missiles, now do they?
Telstar: You fight Telstar in the imperial camp. Telstar was
the name of the satellite which broadcast programs across the entire
world beginning in 1961.
Templar: The Knights Templar came into existence in 1119, and
their symbol was a crown, with two crossed swords behind it. They were
dedicated to the protection of those in the crusades. Their order was
destroyed when King Philip the Fair had the Grand Master at the time
executed for refusing to disclose the location of the Templar's
treasuries and the identities of his members.
Tomb Thumb: Not really mythological, but the name comes from
"General" Tom Thumb, who was only about three feet tall. He joined P. T.
Barnum's exhibition in 1842 and went on tour in the U. S. and Europe
from 1844 to 1847. The "Tomb" part is of course a pun.
Whelk: A whelk is an extremely large sea snail. It can grow
to a size of 16 inches.
These next few are in the Japanese FF6...
Satan (in the cave that leads to Figaro in World of Ruin):
The Devil himself! But actually, Satan is a rather minor enemy in FF6j.
Al-Jabr (in Cayenne's dream): The English word 'algebra' is
derived from this word. It's the first word in the title "Al-jabr w'al
muqabalah" (did I spell that right?) which means roughly "taking away
and restoring"; referring to algebraic operations... so maybe al-Jabr
would refer to 'taking away', meaning that he takes your life away...
I'm not sure, though.
Aspidochelon is called Aspik in FF3. But that ruins
the name, since it comes from Greek "aspidion" (a small round shield)
and "chelon" (hard shell).
Vareole comes from "variola", which means smallpox.
Epiornis, aka Aepyornis, is a gigantic ostrich-like bird
found in a fossil state in Madagascar.
Goeteia is Greek for "witchcraft".
 In the
US, it's Cactrot, which would come from cactus and...??
Brachioreidos comes from Greek "brachys" (short) and "oura"
(tail). It's a crab-like creature, and our crabs are in the class
Brachyoura.
Invisible is a bad guy in Gogo's cave who (of all things)
turns himself invisible. Since this would be too obvious in English,
they changed his name to Covert.
The Dream Stooges are named Soño, Sueño,
and Reve. All three of these refer to sleeping and dreaming in
Spanish and French.
Plus a few more that sound sort of laughable in English, like
"Highway", "Death Penalty" (I think he's "Allo Ver" in FF3),
"Virginity", and "Doubt". :)
Miscellaneous...
The Veldt: A grassy plain with a few shrubs, usually found in
Africa, is called a veld or veldt. It's derived from the Dutch for
'field', and came into English by way of Afrikaans. For example, former
president Roosevelt's name means 'rose-field'.
Lagomorph: All of the non-winning combinations in Setzer's
"Slot" result in "Lagomorph"; a rabbit then runs onto the screen and
gives the characters some HP. Well, Lagomorphia is an order in biology
which contains rabbits. So it's just a fancy name for "rabbit".
Incidentally, in FF6j Lagomorph is called "Mysidian Rabbit", like the
city in FF2.
Main Characters:
Locke Cole: Could be named after John Locke, a philospher
whose beliefs were instrumental in shaping America's early history.
There's also the obvious pun on the word "lock" - you need him to unlock
the doors in Narshe - and in that vein, there's a company named "Cole"
that produces keys!
Setzer: OK, here's some more speculation. "Setzer" by itself
means "typesetter" (hardly a meaningful name). But the German expression
used when betting on numbers or horses is "setzen"! For example, "10
Mark auf Nummer 23 setzen" means "bet 10 Marks on number 23". So
"Setzer" could imply "the one who puts down the money -> "gambler";
though I've never heard the word "Setzer" used to mean "gambler".
Anyway, it's still nice-sounding even if it's a coincidence. It's my
single favorite character name in the entire FF series.
Terra: Her name means "earth". Could have something to do with
her being the link between the Earth and the Esper world...? But also,
there was a building named "Terra Firm" located just outside the Square
offices in Washington... maybe Ted Woolsey looked out the window and
thought, "Hmmm....?
Daryl - Her name means "well-loved." Appropriate for her
relationship with Setzer. Here are some more of the main characters'
name etymologies, thanks to Kate Malloy (so she's the "I" in the next
few entries).
Edgar Figaro - His name is of Teutonic origin. I've seen it
defined as either "wealthy gentleman" (he is a king) or "fortunate
spear" (the spear is his best weapon) There is also an opera called
"Edgar," so he's got a double operatic name. The famous opera "The
Marriage of Figaro" features music by Mozart.
Sabin - His name is of Italian origin. It comes from the
Sabine tribe. According to legend, the Roman settlers kidnapped all of
the Sabine women. (That part has nothing to do with Sabin.) The name is
more common in Europe in the feminine form, Sabine. His middle name,
Rene, means "reborn" and is also more common in the feminine form. Also
there was a biologist named Sabin, who was responsible for curing a
muscle virus. And Sabin's muscles look pretty tough, right?
Celes Chere - Celes's last name is French and means "dear."
Her first name could be related to "celestial", or heavenly, which would
be in contrast to Terra's "earth".
Gau - Back in the times of the Romans, France was known as
Gaul. There were tribes of wild men living in the north. They might have
been called Gaus, or Gauls.
Gogo - In the play "Waiting for Godot," there is a character
named Estragon, nicknamed Gogo.
Cyan Garamonde - "Monde" means "world" in French; I've no clue
about the "Gara" part. (It could be "train station" in French??) Also
there was a famous typesetter named Garamonde. The font named for him
is used in Apple's manuals. (that has nothing to do with Cyan, of course
:)
Elayne - Elaine was the "Lily Maiden" of Arthurian legend. She
was related to several important people (Lancelot, I think, was one) and
when she died, she was sent out to sea in a funeral barge. In fact, she
is the mother of Galahad in T. H. White's "The Once and Future King".
Owain - Uwain was one of Arthur's knights and a king in
the English legends. He was Gawain's brother and he ruled the kingdom
for a time.
Billy: In FF6j, Baram (from Shadow's dreams) is called
Billy. Since he's a train robber, maybe his name was inspired by Billy
the Kid, famous outlaw from the American Old West? Also Shadow's real
name is Clyde, like one half of the famous pair of outlaws
"Bonnie and Clyde". Also, in Bret Harte's story The Outcasts of
Poker Flat, there was a thief named Billy Setzer (!) who gets kicked
out of town.
Vicks and Wedge, the two soldiers from the Empire, are
characters in the famous 1977 George Lucas film "Star Wars". They're
pilots for the rebel alliance. But in actuality, Vicks should be
Biggs... supposedly copyright infringement prevented Biggs from
keeping his name. ^^;
Siegfried ('ziek-friet): Named for the hero of the legendary
German tale of the Ring of the Nibelung. (This was the story upon which
Richard Wagner based his opera, which contains many famous music pieces
including "The Ride of the Valkyries". Trust me, you've heard some of
these before.) Incidentally, Siegfried literally means "victory" (Sieg)
and "peace" (Friede).
Here are the origins of all 28 Espers (including Yura, who
doesn't really count ^^)... Esper itself is a made-up word, but it might
be related to "hope" (from French; 'a hope' is 'un espoir') or someone
who has extra-sensory perception (an ESP-er)...
Alexander: Might have been named either for the Russian czar
of the 1800s or the Macedonian conqueror of the 4th century BC.
Bahamut: Bahamut's either the mythical King of the Dragons or
a fish that holds up the world. See the "Bahamut"
entry in FF1 for the whole story.
Bismark: Could be named for the Prussian ruler of the late
1800s, Otto von Bismarck. There was a battleship named for him which
was sunk in 1941; this could be the inspiration for the effect of the
Bismarck Esper, "Sea Song".
Carbunkl: A carbuncle is a dark red gem resembling a garnet.
In an Arthurian legend, a knight was on a quest to retrieve three
things, and one was a carbuncle belonging to a princess. A carbuncle is
different from a ruby, so FF5 and FF6j's "Ruby Light" (name of
Carbuncle's attack) is technically incorrect.
Fenrir: Also known as the Fenris Wolf. In Nordic mythology,
the dwarves gave the gods a magical rope which they used to chain Fenrir
up in Asgard. Being the child of Loki, the Fenris Wolf was unchained at
Ragnarok to do battle with the gods. This is where Odin meets his doom;
Fenrir eats him.
Golem: Jewish mythology tells us that a golem is a creature
made out of mud and brought to life when a riteous person inscribes a
certain word on it. They are destroyed by rubbing out one of the
letters, making the word "fire" which dries mud and makes the golem fall
apart.
Ifrit: Originally spelled "Efreet". Efreeti are fire djinns
from the elemental plane of fire who lived in the City of Brass.
Jihad (Crusader in FF3US) - In the original FF6 this Esper was
called Jihad. Jihad means sort of like "crusade", thus the English name
"Crusader". Sometimed "Jihad" is translated as "holy war". The reason
the name was changed for the US version is probably that some Americans
think of the group Islamic Jihad when they hear the name. But in
reality, Jihad doesn't imply anything evil.
Kirin: Kirin is a province in northeasten China, and also the
name of a city in that province, a city on the Sungari River. This isn't
to be confused with the Japanese "kirin" (which means giraffe). Also
there's a being called a "qilin" in Chinese myths. It's an imaginary
creature that is part horse and part dragon. The male is called "Ki",
and the female is called "Rin". It is capable of flying, and sparks of
lightning shoot out from its hooves. Kirin live for 1000 years and are
considered good luck. Supposedly Genghis Khan was planning to invade
India when his scouts happened upon a green talking qilin; the qilin
convinced Khan to end his war plans. A famous legend surrounding
K'i-lin was that one came to a woman named Yen Chen-tsai and gave her a
jade tablet. On this tablet was a prophecy that she would become the
mother of a "throneless king." Yen Chen-tsai would have a son,
Confucius, who never ruled China, but accomplished quite a lot. Actually,
a "kirin" is different from a "quilin" and a "k'i-lin"; it's a messenger
from the gods, a small being about the size of a dog, but is has a mane of
fire.
Maduin: Originally spelled "Mael Duin." (but "Madin" in FF6j)
Mael Duin is a major hero of Irish Mythology. Son of Ailill, he was
raised by nuns after his father was killed by raiders. When told his
father's story, Mael Duin sets out with sixteen warriors to avenge his
death, and his subsquesent voyages have been called the "Irish Odyssey."
Odin: The number-one Norse god, the god of thunder, war,
wisdom, and honor. One of the three sons of Borr, he was the most noble
and is the father of some of the other Norse gods. Thus he can slice up
just about anybody as a callable monster in FF2 and as a Esper in FF3.
He also makes an appearance in FF5 as a call monster and has "Gungnir"
in addition to his usual slash attack. (See the Odin entry in the FF5
section.)
Palidor: Might refer to a paladin; a knight like Cecil from
FF2. It's called "Ke-tsuhari-" in FF6j... what the heck is that!?
"Kate's Hurry", maybe?? Someone help me on this one ^_^
Phantom: A phantom is a spirit or illusion. So it makes sense
that Phantom turns your party invisible.
Phoenix: The Esper in FF3 that Locke searches for in order to
bring his beloved Rachel back to life. The "Phoenix" was supposedly a
legendary bird that rose from the ashes of death every 500 years. Thus
the Phoenix Esper is related to the resurrection of dead characters.
Raiden: "Raiden" can mean "thunder" (rai, as in 'kaminari')
and "Lightning" (den, 'electricity') in Japanese, but in FF6j it's
"Raijin". Raijin is the god of thunder. But... Raijin can also mean
"fast-moving thunder", and that's how it's spelled in the FF series. (I
didn't think this name was *that* complicated...)
Ragnarok: "Ragnarok" refers to the end of the world in Nordic
myths. It's like the day of reckoning in which all are judged for their
actions. The gods knew that someday they would have to battle their
nemeses, the giants. Odin and many of the gods are killed (Odin is
eaten by Fenrir) and a new world rises from the old world's ashes. In
fact, in one version of the story it's Siegfried and Brunnhilde who
repopulate the world.
Here's how to pronounce "Ragnarök" in original Swedish, thanks to
Zimeon Lundstrom.
Oh my, difficult. Let me see... Swedish is rather like German I'd
say, but the German sounds are more hard. First of all, the Swedish "r"
might be difficult to pronounce, and I don't think i can describe it
here without the sound itself, so go for the english "r" for the time.
The first "a" is like the "u" in english "hung". The next "g" is an "ng"
sound, as in "hung". The next "na" is just like it's spelled, the "a"
sound is the same as the first "a". The "o" with two dots is a tricky
one. It's a bit like "ea" in "heard", but don't curl your tongue, just
let it lie still.  Hmmm... this
is impossible. The last "k" anyway, is just a normal "k". So it would
come out as "rungnareark", to come as close as possible without creating
sounds that don't exist in English... In fact, there should be two dots
on the "o" in Ragnarök.
Ramuh: Could be Rama, the hero of an epic Indian poem, the
Ramayana. He is handsome, brave, and a model individual. After many
trials and tribulations, he becomes king, and it is revealed that Rama
is actually the god Vishnu in human form.
Seraphim: Comes from the Latin for "angels" - makes sense
since the Seraphim Esper heals you when you use it. The graphic on the
screen when you use Seraphim makes even more sense.
Shiva: Shiva is a god from Indian myths which had multiple
heads and arms. Shiva was called "The Destroyer" and had lots of
powerful weapons. But in the mythology, Shiva has many other powers
besides the Ice attribute in Final Fantasy. A member of the triad that
includes Vishnu and Brahma.
Shoat: A shoat is a young hog weighing between 100 and 180
pounds. I don't know what this has to do with the game though. But in
FF6j, Shoat is Catoblepas. Look under "Catoblepas" in the FF5 section.
Siren: Well, here's another Odyssey influence. When Ulysses
and his men sail past the Sirens, their beautiful singing voices tempt
the men to their doom (thus the musical notes that float across the
screen). Ulysses escapes the deadly Sirens by inserting beeswax in his
men's ears so they can keep rowing and not hear the Sirens. He lashes
himself to the mast of his ship so he won't be able to leave the ship.
Starlet (Lakshmi): In FF6j, this Esper is called Lakshmi
(Rakushumi). Lakshmi is the goddess of good and bad fortune in Indian
mythology. She sat on a giant floating lotus watching people. When she
looked at you with one eye, it meant that you would have good luck, and
the other eye meant bad luck.
Stray: Probably refers to a stray cat, since the effect is
called "Cat Rain" and confuses the enemies (causing them to go astray, I
suppose). In the Japanese FF6, he's called "Cait Sith" (pronounced
something like "kett shih"; a figure from Welsh or Irish myth), and is a
main character in FF7!
Terrato: In FF6j he's Midgarsorm, also known as the Midgard
Serpent. (Yet another alias is Iormungandr, also spelled Jormungand.)
It is an offspring of Loki along with Fenrir. Living beneath the ocean,
it encircles the Earth and remains there, waiting for the final battle,
Ragnarok, where it will help destroy the gods. Supposedly the only
weapon capable of hurting Iormungandr is Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.
Tritoch: He's called Valigarmanda in FF6j. Could be related
to Vali, the Norse god of eternal light and also the world's greatest
archer. But otherwise I'm unsure... also, he teaches you Fire 3, Bolt
3, and Ice 3, which would explain the "tri-" part.
Unicorn: A unicorn is a mythical one-horned horse-like animal.
Unicorns are said to be good luck. The "Heal Horn" in FF3 is a
reference to a unicorn's single horn. (The Kirin is a kind of unicorn,
by the way.)
Yura: Just a nickname for "Yuri", a popular Russian male name.
I think that Yura is the only named Esper that you can't acquire; since
he doesn't die in the game.
ZoneSeek: I don't know how the name relates to the effects,
but Zone Seek teaches you Rasp and Shell, and casts Shell on your party
in battle. Maybe the Shell refers to seeking a "safe zone"...?
Some other characters...
The Evil Emperor Gestahl (gesh-'tahl): Well, this name sounds
a bit like "gestohlen" or "stahl", both of which mean "stole" in German.
(For grammar experts, "gestohlen" is in perfect tense. "Stahl" the noun
means steel.) In the original FF6j his name was "Gastra" - but
they changed it in FF3.
Kefka: Well, his name vaguely resembles that of German author
Franz Kafka. One of his works is entitled "Metamorphosis", and that's
the effect of the Ragnarok Esper - "Metamorph". That doesn't have
anything to do with Kefka though.
El Nino (el 'ni-nyo): One of Mog's dances (literally 'the boy'
in Spanish; the second n should have a ~ tilde on it). But it also
refers to a kind of current which creates tropical storms, which makes a
lot of sense since it's part of the Water Rondo.
The Lete River, also spelled "Lethe", is the river of oblivion
in Greek mythology. It's said that anyone who drinks from its waters
will forget their past.
Names that are most probably coincidences:
Gau = German "district".
Doma means "homes" in Russian (accent on the "ma") which would
be nice for a city, but Doma's a castle. However, Doma (accent on "do")
is Latin for house, so this may be more relevant.
Cyan is just a fancy word for light blue. (Though in FF6 he's
called "Cayenne" - a kind of pepper!)
Names of real people: Aside from Bismarck and Alexander mentioned
earlier, there's the great Italian writer Dante Alighieri, author
of the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and Paradiso, who appears as a bad guy
(his demonsof hell played major parts in FF2US); there's also a baddie
named "Schiller" - looks like the name of the great German
philosopher. Leonardo da Vinci is immortalized here in the name
of Relm's brush. And of course Larry, Curley, and Moe, the Three
Stooges, are in this game. (What am I doing? Mentioning the Stooges
in the same breath as mythological heroes...?)
And some equipment: (Most of these are thanks to Andrew Vestal.)
Atma Weapon: "Atman" is the Hindu word for the soul or eternal
essence. Since the strength of the weapon is determined by your
vitality, or essence, the name makes sense.
Cherub Down: A cherub is a winged celestial being in the
second order of angels. Cherub Down, which makes you float, would be
feathers from a cherub's wings. Cherubim are often seen together with
seraphim, like the Esper.
Coin Toss: Lets you throw coins, obviously. But originally it
was named "Heiji no Jitte" (Heiji's Cross) in FF6j. Heiji was a
fictional character who threw coins at his enemies, like Setzer.
Genji Equipment: In the 11th century, Murasaki Shikibu wrote
the Tale of Genji. (Remember Tat's story of the Seto Naikai battle in
the Yoichi's Bow entry, FF5 section?) The Genji
clan was famous for its battles with the Heike, another samurai clan.
In 1185, the Genji won a decisive battle with the Heike and almost
eradicated them completely.
Graedus: Could be derived from the Latin "gladius" which
means "sword". Incidentally, 'gladius' is the root word in 'gladiator'.
Kotetsu: A Japanese sword that is shorter than a Katana but is
longer than a Wakizashi. Its shorter length gives it more defensive
abilities than the Katana. It is sometimes called Naga-Wakizashi, which
means "long Wakizashi".
Minerva Armor: The Roman name for Athena, the Greek goddess of
war and wisdom.
Mithril equipment: A metal of legendary strength. The name
comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. There's also the
Roman soldiers' god "Mithras"; a name which was believed to be divine by
the Gnostics. In Greek numerology, the word has the value of 365... a
value shared by 'Agion Onoma' (Holy Name); thus its significance.
Tao Robe: Taoism is an Eastern philosophy based on the
teachings of Lao-Tzu in the 6th century B.C. In FF6j, it's called
"Doushi no Robe".
Zephyr Cape Zephyr was the gentle West Wind. The word
"zephyr" can also mean a gentle wind or breeze.
Not part of the Final Fantasy series, but very much in the Squaresoft
tradition. Not as many mythological things as FF3, but of course there
are many noteworthy items. Some items, like the Valkyrie and Kali Blade
have origins that are listed with other games.
Chrono: Means "time". Cronos was the leader of the Greek
Titans. "Chrono" is part of many time-related words like "chronology",
"chronometer", "chronicle", etc.
Lucca could be named for the Italian city which flourished in
the 15th century. It's the root word in many light-related terms in
European languages, like "lucent".
Ayla: In the book series "Clan of the Cave Bear" by Jean M.
Auel, there's a character named Ayla. She's from the prehistoric past,
but is semi-intelligent, just like CT's Ayla.
Kino: ('ki no) German for 'cinema', or stressed another way
("kinou"), Japanese for 'yesterday' - undoubtedly coincidence! Also,
the main character in John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" is named Kino.
Magus: Comes from Latin and means someone who uses magic.
Incidentally, Magus is immortalized in FF2 and 3 as well. At the top of
the Tower of Zot in FF2 you meet the "Magus 3", and FF3 has Strago Magus
(who lives in Thamasa, the town of magic) and the Magus Rod.
Janus: Magus' real name, from 12000 BC. The first
month is named for Janus, who was the Roman god of gates and doors.
Janus was a two-faced god; one face saw the past and the other saw the
future. Appropriate for Magus, who saw both in his extensive time
travels.
Prometheus: Robo's real name. Though Robo is a robot, created
by humans, he's named for the Greek god who stole fire to create humans.
There's an enemy in FF3 named "Prometheus" also.
Atropos is one of the three Fates in Greek mythology. Atropos
means "inflexible" and she severs the thread of life... which isn't
really appropriate for the robot in CT, but...
In Norstein Bekkler's lab, you meet Wedge, Vicks, and
Piette. Wedge and Vicks, who also show up in FF3, are rebel
pilots in the movie "Star Wars". And one of Darth Vader's assistants is
named "Admiral Piette". (Vicks should be Biggs, though.)
Cyrus: In the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great unified the
Persians and the Medes, and went on to conquer all of Babylon. Maybe
the CT character is named for him.
Melchior, Belthasar, and Gaspar: These are the
names of the three wise men in the Bible. Originally their names (in
CT) were Bosh, Hash, and Gash; they're nonsense words and don't have any
meaning.
Here are some decidedly non-mythological names:Ozzie comes
from Ozzy Osborne, Slash is from Guns 'N Roses, and Flea
is from Red Hot Chili Peppers. At least I think I've got them right
this time... ^_^
Remember in 12000 BC when the Nu writes, "The Mystery of Life,
Vol. 841, Ch. 26. All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the
truth! This is my belief! ...at least for now," in a book? This is the
actual origin of the word! In Greek lore, Nu is the primeval fluid with
which the world was created.
Terrasaur (one of the dinosaurs): This name is actually a
pun. "Terrasaur" looks like it would mean "earth lizard", but there are
also dinosaurs named "Gigasaur" and "Megasaur". So it's actually "tera"
meaning "1 trillion." Many dinosaurs, both real and imagined, appear in
Square games. Some real ones are: Tyrannosaurus Rex (FF1, 5j, 3),
Brontosaurus and Ceritops (should be Triceratops) (FF3), Black Tyrano,
Mesosaur, and Pterodactyl (CT); some fictional dinosaurs are Wingraptor
(FF5j), Gigasaur, and Megasaur from CT.
Pahoehoe (pa-ho-ay-ho-ay): This is a kind of soupy lava which
flows from volcanoes. Thus it has a volcano-like form.
The Mammon Machine: "Mammon" refers to the god of greed and
avarice. Appropriate for Queen Zeal. (not Schala; thanks for correcting
me, everybody! ^_^) Mammon appears as a tree in FF5 and as a person's
name in SoM. (see those games' entries too)
Giga Gaia: This time, I think Giga has its original meaning of
"gigantic" (rather than '1 billion'). Gaia means earth, so the whole
name means "Great Earth".
Barghest is a frightful goblin that portends misfortune. I'm
not sure which mythology it's from, though.
There's a skeleton'like enemy named Macabre; this comes from
the French word for death. You may know it from Camille Saint-Saens'
famous 1875 musical piece, 'Danse Macabre', in which Death plays his
violin in a graveyard at midnight; eventually dawn comes and he is
chased away.
Meso Mail: Probably refers to the Mesozoic Era, which ended
about 65 million years before the present time. Before that was the
Paleozoic; this era is the Cenozoic.
Town of Medina: In A. D. 622, Mohammed moved from Mecca to
Medina; this is known as the Hegira. The Islamic calendar begins with
this pilgrimage; in that calendar, this year is 1418.
Kajal, spelled Kajar in the American CT, was a real city in
the Middle East. I'm not sure if it still exists.
Some historical stuff... I don't think that the date 65
million BC was chosen arbitrarily. A while ago it was shown by Luis
Alvarez that a meteoric impact in the Yucatan peninsula around that time
may have been what triggered the global climate changes which caused the
dinosaurs to become extinct and indirectly paved the way for mankind to
rule the earth much later. And in CT, Lavos arrives in a meteor at
exactly that time! Of course, it was artistic license on the producers'
part to have human beings alive at that time. And having them speak
semi-intelligible English...
12000 B. C. is supposedly when Atlantis sank, which ties in perfectly
with the sinking of the kingdom of Zeal. There are several theories
about where Atlantis once was; one of them puts the great civilization
on the island of Thera.
Also, the "Day of Lavos" comes in 1999... and in the 15th
century, Michel de Nostredame, also known as Nostradamus, predicts the
end of the world to be in July of 1999. He wrote a quatrain that began
"In the year 1999 and 7 months... Mars shall reign at will." [Mars is
the war god in Roman mythology.]
Bahamut Lagoon is another of the untranslated Square games.
Though still an RPG, Bahamut diverges sharply from the FF series. It's
a strategy RPG and you don't have the freedom of movement and
non-linearity that you have in FF games. The plot, though, is just as
intense as in any game -- BL is possibly the most emotional of them all
-- and Square does a fine job with character development, especially
considering that there are thirty (!) of them. And, of course, there
are interesting names!
Don Juan, one of the main characters, appears in numerous
Spanish stories and operas as a seducer of women. He's true to form in
this game. ^_^
Anastasia and Ekaterina come from the Russian royal
family; they were deposed (and killed) during the 1917 revolution.
Frunze might be named for the city in Russia, and
Toulouse is a city in France.
There's a character whose name can be read either as the French word
Reve, which means 'dream', or the German Löwe (Lowe
with o-umlaut), which means 'lion'.
Melodia's name means 'melody' , of course, in Russian and
perhaps several other languages. There's a Russian music publishing
company with this name, and Clockwork Orange fans may recognize
it as the name of Alex's favorite music shop.
One of the Petit Devils is named Wagahai, which is an
archaic-sounding Japanese word for 'I'.
Taicho and Gunsou aren't really personal names, but
military ranks. Roughly equivanlent to calling someone 'Sergeant' or
'Captain'. Their home, Mahal means 'great' and may have been
inspired by the famous Taj Mahal in India.
Some of the enemies' names come from German (I'll assume that if you
can read this document, you can understand the over 90% that are English
^^;)... some make sense, some don't...
This game's magic includes Armageddon, meaning the apocalypse,
and Halley Gazer, a comet-like burst of energy... this refers to
the famous Halley's Comet, named for Edmund Halley. He was the first
person to determine the period of this, arguably the world's most famous
comet. It appears roughly every 75.9 years; the last appearance was in
1985-86 and the next will be in 2061.
Weapons: Pax Kahna, which is derived from Latin and means
'Kahna Peace'. It was probably inspired by the long peaceful period in
Roman history; 'Pax Romana'. Though it's anyone's guess why they'd name
a weapon for this; after all, weapons are for war.
Many of the dragons' names are repeated from other games... they're
Valitra, Leviathan, Garuda, Jormungand (an alternate name for FF6's
Midgardsorm), Hyperion, Bahamut, and Alexander.. The dragons
live in Altair, which is the name of a star. That word comes
from Arabic, as do many astronomical terms; the Arabs kept learning and
science alive during Europe's Dark Ages.
The airship (well, it's more like a flying fortress) is called
Fahrenheit, like the scientist who invented the temperature scale
that bears his name. One of the enemy ships is called Trafalgar,
which was the site of a famous British naval battle.
Most of the stuff in this game has already appeared elsewhere. But
there are some new things...
There was a weapon named Siegmund; Siegmund was the father of
Siegfried. Also Fenrir, the Valkyries, and many
other things from that saga appear in one form or another in SD3. And
items from past games such as Mjolnir (Thor's hammer),
Orichalcon, and a few others.
One of Riesz's high level magics is called Marduk. Marduk is
the creator of the world in Mesopotamian myths.
Also, in this game, there are seven weekdays and each one is related
to one of the elemental sprites. Most of them hinge on a knowledge of
Japanese, so I've summarized everything here:
Main Characters:
Cait Sith (pronounced, roughly, 'kett shih') is Irish. It
means 'fairy cat' in Gaelic. Supposedly, it's a kind of spirit that
brings good luck. Of course, they don't normally ride around on
moogles. ^^;
Sephiroth has a great origin! It's Hebrew for 'numbers' and
is directly related to Arabic 'sifra', French 'chiffre', German
'Ziffer', and English 'cipher'. (Sanskrit 'shunya' meaning 'void',
originally.) In Hebrew (among other alphabets), each letter has a
numerical value, and the art of adding the letters in a word or phrase
to get a certain value is called 'gematria'. In Hebrew, the word
Sephiroth has the value of 756; in Greek, 894. Can anyone find any
significance in these numbers? I was hoping to relate them to the safe
combination in the Shinra Mansion, but they don't seem to work. ^^;
Here are the ten important Sephiroth:
Some of the lyrics in Sephiroth's final theme, 'One Winged Angel',
come from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. "Estuans interius, ira
vehementi" (track 12 on most CDs), "Veni, veni, venias; ne me mori
facias" (track 21), and "Gloriosa... generosa..." (24) all show up
verbatim during the Sephiroth battle! The rhythm is entirely different
-- both pieces have a playful sound in Orff's composition as opposed to
the intensity of FFVII's final battle -- but those lines, and perhaps
several others, are the same. There are many other vocal arrangements
of FF themes that appear on separate CDs (sold in Japan only) which I
won't go into here, because there's already a fine web page devoted to
them. Go to Nora Stevens' Opera
House for more info.
Wedge and Biggs of Star Wars return in this game as
well.
Shinra goon Heidegger shares a name with an early 20th-century
German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. Coincidence, probably. Also,
Reno is a city in Nevada and Miss Scarlet is a character
in Clue, the board game and film starring Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd,
and others.
The Ancients' original name, Cetra, could come from the Latin
'cetera', meaning 'others'... the Cetra were the 'other' race of people
who originally populated the Earth.
The main city is named Midgar, just like Midgard in Norse
mythology. It means 'earth'. Cloud's hometown is Nibelheim,
which is the frozen hell. Another town is Costa del Sol, which
means 'sun coast'.
Another place is the Zango Valley, in the north. In the
original Japanese version, this was called 'sango' which simply means
'coral'.
Call Monsters include:
Knights of the Round. This refers to King Arthur's twelve
Knights of the Round Table. Two of them were Uwain and Lancelot.
Kujata is from the Bahamut legend. He's the bull with
numerous body parts that sits beneath the mountain, supporting the
world.
Hades, as you probably know, is another word for hell, or the
underworld.
Enemies: There really aren't too many... at least not from
mythology... but there are these few:
The Russian authors Gorky and Chekhov make appearances
in the pagoda in Wutai. They don't speak Russian, but their Japanese is
kind of weird. ^^;
You'll find Diablo in the frog forest late in the game; its
name means 'devil'.
And in a bizarre and purely coincidental mistranslation, "Allemagne"
(which really should be "Ahriman") is the French word for Germany.
The crashed Shinra plane, Gelnika, is probably a misspelling of
Guernica, the title of a painting by Picasso (I think). It's a
depiction of the Spanish Civil War. (I'm trying to remember that
painting from my art history class a year and a half ago... ^_^; Does
anyone know more about this?)
Most of the weapons have already appeared... but new ones include:
There are many Japanese characters that remain in the English
version, some of which are...
In Dio's Show Room at the Gold Saucer, there are some useless and
apparently meaningless artifacts on display. Two of them, though, could
be significant. One is the D-Type Equipment, which also shows up
in the anime Evangelion, and another is Klein's Pot. It's called
Klein no Tsubo in Japanese, which does literally mean Klein's Pot, but
could be referring to the Klein Bottle, which is a three-dimensional
analogue of the Mobius Strip (see FFMQ's entry for
how to make one). It's just the kind of fanciful object that would
show up in a showroom like Dio's, don't you think?
Lastly, the Party Hensei System (PHS) item shares initials with the
Personal Handiphone System, an kind of cellular phone in Japan. Thus
the cell-phone beep when you call your teammates. Japanese FFVII
players will get the joke right away, but it's too obscure over in the
U. S. ^_^;
Alma's name comes from Hebrew and means 'young woman'.
Beowulf, one of your companions, has the same name as the hero
from the ancient Anglo-Saxon legend. In the story, Beowulf kills
Grendel, a monster who's been preying on the people.
Wiglaf, called Wiegraf in the English version, is one of
Beowulf's 'thanes', or warriors, in the Beowulf saga.
The execution site where Ramza and Gaffgarionduel is called
Golgoralda... this may have come from Golgotha, the 'killing
field' where Christ was crucified.
Some items: The perfumes that can be worn by female characters
have French names. Sortilege means 'magic', Cherche means
'search for', and Chantage means 'blackmail.'
Two of the knives are named Iga and Kouga. These are
the names of two ninja clans from Japan. Another knife, Platina
Messer, just means platinum knife in German.
The Gokuu Rod is named for Son Gokuu, the hero of an ancient
Chinese tale. I don't know the plot of this story, but Son Gokuu is
also the name of one of the main characters in the popular manga and
anime series 'Dragon Ball' by Akira Toriyama.
The Perseus Bow is named for the archer in Greek mythology.
There's a sword named Save the Queen (Meriadole has it); this
is a line from the British song 'God Save the Queen.' I don't think
there's an actual sword with this name, though. Another possiblilty
(see below) is that it's another reference to what is surely the
producers' favorite band.
Armor: The Caesar Plate probably refers to the family that
ruled Rome around the time of the birth of Christ.
This game has a nod to Lucasfilm just like FF3, CT, and FF7... this
time Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones (well, Luke and
Indy) demonstrate battle techniques in the Tutorial! Other movie
references include two directors who show up as either enemies or
mercenary-shop allies, Robert Zemeckis of Back to the Future
fame, and Terry Gilliam, from 'The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen' and 'Brazil' (Hey, I liked those. ^_^).
Another subtle nod is hidden in Chapter 4's title, In the Name of Love, which came from a song by the band Queen. (The Japanese
chapter title, 'Ai ni subete o', means something like 'all for love'.)
Other Queen references are the title of the game Ogre Battle, its
subtitle March of the Black Queen, and Tactics Ogre subtitle 'Let
Us Cling Together'. All are Queen songs.
Aside from Golgoranda, the place names are fictional. But for some
reason, Midlight's Deep levels have English words for names even in
the import version. Two of them look like they're actually other words
spelled backward -- Nogias and Mlapan. In fact, in the
Japanese FFT Daizen strategy guide, Mlapan is alphabetized as if it were
'napalm' instead. Still, I've no idea what these names have to do with
the game (Vietnam War references? Valkyries could even refer to
that war if you consider that Wagner's music was played in the movie
Aocalypse Now...). Incidentally, the Deep Dungeon itself
comes from a previous Square game of the same name. It was one of their
first releases back in the 1980s, before Final Fantasy even existed.
Another thing Square likes to do is use variant spellings in
their games. For example, you've probably noticed the Lunar Subterrane
in FF2, Fenix Down, Gaea Gear, and Ziegfried in FF3, the Valkerye sword
in CT, among others. "Crono" is an alternate spelling too, but it's
probably used because the names in CT can only have up to 5 letters.
"Ziegfried" might be because in English it's a better phonetic
approximation to the real pronunciation.
And one last thing: German composer Richard Wagner's name has
popped up here and there (Siegfried, Odin, Tristam, etc.) and it's worth
mentioning that Square's wonderful habit of using music to advance the
plot of the story or giving each main character his or her own theme
dates back to Wagner's operas. He invented the "Leitmotiv" (pronounced
like English "light motif") which is sort of like what Square does with
their game music. For example, the Valkyries had a theme which was
played when they were the central characters just like, say, Shadow's
theme is heard when there's a plot twist involving him. Anyhow Square
uses the Leitmotiv rather effectively.
Further reading... There are lots of books which contain
either info directly related to FF stuff, or tangential things that you
might be interested in. This list here isn't in any particular order,
and is by no means complete! ^^;
Notes to contributors: I tried to stay as close as possible to your
exact words as I could in this file. I only paraphrased a little bit so
that everything sort of reads in the same voice (mine). So I may have
edited things just a bit, but not enough to change anything
substantially, I hope.
Credits (in chronological order; wow, there are a lot! Thanks!):
If I forgot anyone, please tell me and you'll be added!
Final Fantasy
would be the Kanji. (it's hard to write kanji in ASCII!)
Final Fantasy 3j
Final Fantasy 2
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legend
FF Legend 2
FF Legend 3
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
The Secret of Mana
Final Fantasy 5
Final Fantasy 3
Here's a short summary of Siegfried's story:
The god Wotan
(aka the very familiar Odin) wanted to reclaim the Ring of the
Nibelung and tried to use the hero Siegfried to do it. Siegfried's body
was invulnerable except for his shoulder blades, and he could talk to
animals. He was born and raised in a forest and proved his heroism by
killing Fafner, the evil dragon. The sword he used was made by a dwarf
named Regin, and the idea that dwarves make the best weapons (which
frequently pops up in these games) came from this mythology. But he
ends up getting killed and his beloved Brunnhilde kills herself in the
end. (That's in one version of the story; in another, he and Brunnhilde
survive Ragnarok and repopulate the world.)
Chrono Trigger
Bahamut Lagoon
Jubel-Bund = 'joy group'.
Jubel-Blitz = 'joy lightning'.
Lanze Ritter, a boss, means 'Lance Knight'.
Berge Kamerad = 'mountain comrade'.
Siegfried is the name of a cannon. (A cannon!? ^^;)
There's an boss named 'Iks-tset', which is the German pronunciation
for the letters XZ.
Karl Gustav, former king of Sweden, shows up here too.
And there are others...
Kügelblitz is German for 'ball lightning'.
Cassandra is the name of a woman from classical Greek times
who was supposedly given the ability to se the future. She decided to
use her gift to warn people of the disasters that were to befall them,
but no one believed her and thus the tragedies were never averted.
The Dreadnought, a sword in this game, comes from the name of
a British battleship developed around the turn of the century. England
figured that its new technology would give it an advantage over rivals
France and Germany, but unfortunately for them, Germany was able to not
only make its own Dreadnought but make them in greater numbers, thus
negating England's new-found power.
Armor: Maximilian was once archduke of Austria. Another man
of the same name was emperor of Mexico, 1832-1867.
Sleipnir is Odin's steed.
The Mach Vest could be named for Ernst Mach, a scientist who
worked with sound waves. The 'Mach ratings' used for comparing speeds
of airplanes to that of sound, as in Mach 1 = 330 m/s in air, are named
for him.
Imperator comes from the Latin for 'leader'.
Seiken Densetsu 3
Name
Element
Weekday
Day's Meaning (in Japanese)
Luna Moon Monday
Moon Salamando Fire Tuesday
Fire
Undine Water Wednesday
Water
Dryad Tree Thursday
Tree
Djin/Sylphid Wind Friday
Gold
Gnome Earth Saturday
Earth Mana Celebration --- Sunday
Sun Final Fantasy 7
(There are variations on these; this list is from 777 and the
Cabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley.)
The final enemy, Safer Sephiroth, should probably be Sepher
Sephiroth, which means 'the book of numbers' in Hebrew. (I'm not
sure if the Bible book has that exact name in Hebrew, though.) It isn't
exactly obvious where whoever named him was going with this, but maybe
it has something to do with all the little numbered black clones that
are skulking around in Nibelheim. One of his attacks is Pale
Horse, which probably refers to 'Death on a Pale Horse', a 1905 (?)
painting by Ryder.
Winchester, a type of gun. Vincent uses it.
Longinus is one of Cid's spears; changed to the utterly
colorless 'Spirit Lance' in the American version. It was the weapon
that pierced Christ's side after they took him down from the cross, and
also the name of the Roman centurion who used it. Supposedly, the holder
of this weapon would be granted immortality, and it has also been said
that Hitler was looking for this during World War II. It's also the
name of a Greek philosopher, but that's probably a coincidence. (It's
in Bahamut Lagoon as well.)
(In case you're thinking, 'How are Americans supposed to figure all
that stuff out!?" ... keep in mind that the ludicrous number of
English signs were all there in the original version. I guess
Japanese players had to have English dictionaries close at hand!
FF Tactics
Miscellaneous
And to the
people who have accessed this list since February 1996!


Concentrate on the central point in the grid without moving your gaze. Do you see any strong distortions in certain lines?
Yes
No


Problem: Friday the Thirteenth
Is Friday the 13th really an unusual event?
That is, does the 13th of the month land on a Friday less often than
on any other day of the week? To answer this question, write a program
that will compute the frequency that the 13th of each month lands on
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday over
a given period of N years. The time period to test will be from January
1, 1900 to December 31, 1900+N-1 for a given number of years, N. N is
positive and will not exceed 400.
Note that the start year is NINETEEN HUNDRED, not NINETEEN NINETY.
There are few facts you need to know before you can solve this problem:
- January 1, 1900 was on a Monday.
- Thirty days has September, April, June, and November, all the rest
have 31 except for February which has 28 except in leap years when it
has 29.
- Every year evenly divisible by 4 is a leap year (1992 = 4*498 so
1992 will be a leap year, but the year 1990 is not a leap year)
- The rule above does not hold for century years. Century years
divisible by 400 are leap years, all other are not. Thus, the century
years 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not leap years, but 2000 is a leap
year.
Do not use any built-in date functions in your computer language.
Don't just precompute the answers, either, please.
PROGRAM NAME: friday
INPUT FORMAT
One line with the integer N.
SAMPLE INPUT (file friday.in)
20
OUTPUT FORMAT
Seven space separated integers on one line. These integers represent
the number of times the 13th falls on Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, ..., Friday.
SAMPLE OUTPUT (file friday.out)
36 33 34 33 35 35 34
The analysis
Training Gateway


Swedish meatballs
metadata
Created on 2020-12-03
Adapted from IKEA MEATBALLS AT HÖME - MEATBALLS by IKEA UK @ Twitter (2020-12-03)
Recipe should yield this much: 80 small meatballs.
Estimated time needed: At least 177 minutes. At most 179 minutes.
Ingredients
| 400 | g | beef mince | ||
| 400 | g | pork mince | ||
| 150 | g | onion | 150 g is about 1 medium sized onion. | |
| 100 | g | breadcrumbs | ||
| 85 | g | whole milk | Approximately 3.5 % fat. 1 tbsp is about 17 g. | |
| 50 | g | egg | 1 mid sized egg is about 50 g. | |
| 30 | ml | frying oil | 1 tbsp is about 15 ml. | |
| 15 | g | salt | 1 tsp is about 5 g. | |
| 7 | g | garlic | 7 g is about 1 clove of garlic | |
| 5 | g | pepper | Black. 1 tsp is about 2.5 g. |
Scaling
Timeline
Directions
⌛ Active time 1 minutes
- 150 g onion | 150 g is about 1 medium sized onion.
- 7 g garlic | 7 g is about 1 clove of garlic
Chop vegetables:
Finely chop the onion and garlic.
⌛ Active time 1 minutes
- 400 g beef mince
- 400 g pork mince
Combine minced meat:
Mix with your fingers and break up any lumps.
⌛ Active time 3 minutes
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- 50 g egg | 1 mid sized egg is about 50 g.
Add onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, and eggs and mix:
Mix the onion and garlic you previously chopped up in with the meat together with some breadcrumbs and the egg.
⌛ Active time 1 minutes
- 85 g whole milk | Approximately 3.5 % fat. 1 tbsp is about 17 g.
- 15 g salt | 1 tsp is about 5 g.
- 5 g pepper | Black. 1 tsp is about 2.5 g.
Add milk, salt, and pepper.:
Mix in the milk and generous amounts of salt and pepper.
⌛ Active time 5 minutes
Shape balls:
Shape the meat mixture into small round balls.
⌛ Active time 3 minutes | Passive time 120 minutes
Refridgerate balls:
Chill your balls in the refrigerator for 2 hours. This is so that they better retain their shape during frying. Because they'll be there for a while you'll probably want to cover them so that they don't soak up all that delicious refrigerator taste.
⌛ Active time 1 minutes
Pre-heat oven:
Pre-heat the oven to 160 ℃ convection or 180 ℃ conventional.
⌛ Active time 2 minutes
- 30 ml frying oil | 1 tbsp is about 15 ml.
Heat oil on medium heat:
Get out the frying pan and pre-heat some oil in it.
⌛ Active time 10 minutes
Fry meatballs:
Once the pan is hot, carefully add the meatballs and brown them on all sides.
⌛ Active time 2 minutes | Passive time 30 minutes
Bake fired balls:
Once the meatballs have been browned to your satisfaction, place them in a ovenproof dish and cover them. Put it in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes.


Calorie Watcher
Welcome to Calorie Watcher
Enter your gender, starting date, and weight.
I am a
Male
Female
My starting date is:
My weight is:
Lbs
My Height is:
Inches
NEXT


Long entry added events
Click me for console logs
Click me for console error
Click me for jsException logs
Click me to get an error with stacktrace


---
layout: index
---
I'm a writer and civic technologist currently based in Baltimore, MD, USA. I have a background in writing, community organizing, and software development with a focus on API design + strategy and healthcare interoperability. Throughout my career I have focused on open data, open standards, civic/social/public tech, and civic hacktivism.
I spend most of my day writing, researching, and community building for the Intergovernmental Software Collaborative at Georgetown University's Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, and part-time I also contribute to storytelling and community building work at the US Digital Service. I also write on topics at the intersection of tech, society, and public infrastructure on my blog, Civic Unrest. When away from keyboard, I can be found writing stories, reading, or hiking with my rambunctious pitbull, Osceola.
You can find me on Twitter as @switzerly or on Github as switzersc. You can find my government commits under the Github username switzersc-usds
As a faculty fellow on the Intergovernmental Software Collaborative project at the Beeck Center, I am building out an ecosystem of experience-informed research and resources to help communities and government teams do collaborative and open source tech better.
Civic Unrest is a blog focused on the intersection of technology and public infrastructure. It's a pretty broad topic, and I'm okay with that.
Justice40 is a whole-of-government initiative to address historic issues of environmental, economic, and climate injustice by redirecting 40% of federal benefits to overburdened and underserved communities. As part of my work at USDS, I served as the tech lead and engineering manager for the team building the Justice40 Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and fostered the open source community around this tool and related tech+data efforts to advance environmental justice causes. Now I still help out as an advisor and open source community manager.
Born out of a discovery sprint to identify problems with the COVID data pipeline from communities to federal government, PRIME's goal is to build modern, interoperable, pandemic-ready public health IT systems that are open source and modular. I was on the original discovery sprint and helped develop the roadmap and strategy for PRIME. I served as the tech lead for the Data Automation project, which aimed to improve the flow of hospitalization and capacity data as well as COVID test and case data from healthcare providers to local and state authorities.
Data at the Point of Care is an API that gets bulk Medicare claims data directly into the hands of providers so that they can make more informed decisions about their their patients' care. I joined this team as part of my work at USDS at CMS. 2019-2020.
APIs4DGov is a research project by the European Commission aiming to understand and evaluate best practices for APIs in digital government. Publication available for download here
Open Referral develops data standards and open source tools that make it easier to share, find and use information about health, human, and social services. I helped build data tooling and APIs for community implementations of Open Referral's Human Services Data and API Specifications, including working on open source Ruby tooling to support Frictionless Data's Data Package spec. 2019.
REST Fest is an international unconference series dedicated to giving people interested in REST, Hypermedia APIs, crafting web service APIs, or any related topics a chance to get together in an informal setting to share ideas, trade stories, and show examples of current work. I help organize and implement these events and expand them to new locations.
Note: REST Fest is going on a hiatus in 2020-21, though we may do some virtual community events.


You will first need to apply for access to the market to license alphas. Currently, funds will need at least $10M AUM or at least $5M AUM in order to qualify for licensing on AlphaStreams. You can apply for access through the Alpha Managment in the Organization tab.
We will need the following pieces of information for your application:


Tunisia's Ennahdha party to name parliament speaker
Announcement comes as the new Parliament convenes on Wednesday for first time.
Tunisia's Ennahdha party will nominate its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, as the speaker of the new Parliament, a party member said.
"The party has decided to nominate Rached Ghannouchi as parliament speaker," Abdulkarim Harouni, head of the party's advisory body, told a news conference in the capital, Tunis, on Sunday.
He said the council has reiterated the party's right to appoint the new prime minister.
The announcement came a few days after two sources within Ennahdha said the party may choose a candidate from outside its ranks to head the government. It previously decided one of its leaders should be prime minister because of the electoral mandate.
But that was not accepted by potential partners: Attayar with 22 seats, Achaab's Movement with 16 seats, and current Prime Minister Youssef Chahed's Tahya Tounes party with 14.
Only the conservative Karama coalition, with 21 seats, agreed.
Following victory in last month's parliamentary election, Ennahdha will be the biggest party but with only 52 of 217 seats, forcing it to compromise to form a cabinet.
The new Parliament is set to convene on Wednesday.


Testing¶
Every Castellan code submission is automatically tested against a number of gating jobs to prevent regressions. Castellan developers should have a habit of running tests locally to ensure the code works as intended before submission.
For your convenience we provide the ability to run all tests through
the tox
utility. If you are unfamiliar with tox please see
refer to the tox documentation for assistance.
Unit Tests¶
Currently, we provide tox environments for a variety of different Python
versions. By default all available test environments within the tox
configuration will execute when calling tox
. If you want to run an
independent version, you can do so with the following command:
# Executes tests on Python 2.7
$ tox -e py27
Note
Other available environments are py35, py34, pypy and pep8.
If you do not have the appropriate Python versions available, consider setting up PyEnv to install multiple versions of Python. See the documentation regarding Setting up a Barbican development environment for more information.
Functional Tests¶
Unlike running unit tests, the functional tests require Barbican and Keystone services to be running in order to execute. For more information on this please see Setting up a Barbican development environment and Using Keystone Middleware with Barbican
Castellan uses /etc/castellan/castellan-functional.conf
in order to
run functional tests. A sample file can be generated by running:
# Generate a sample configuration file
$ tox -e genconfig
castellan/etc/castellan/castellan-functional.conf.sample
is generated.
It must be renamed to castellan-functional.conf
and placed in
/etc/castellan
.
The file should look something like the following:
[DEFAULT]
[identity]
username = 'admin'
password = 'openstack'
project_name = 'admin'
auth_url = 'http://localhost:5000/v3'
Once you have the appropriate services running and configured you can execute the functional tests through tox.
# Execute Barbican Functional Tests
$ tox -e functional
By default, the functional tox job will use testr
to execute the
functional tests.
Debugging¶
In order to be able to debug code in Castellan, you must use the Python
Debugger. This can be done by adding import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
to set the breakpoint. Then run the following command to hit the breakpoint:
# hit the pdb breakpoint
$ tox -e debug
Once in the Python Debugger, you can use the commands as stated in the Debugger Commands section here: https://docs.python.org/2/library/pdb.html
Pep8 Check¶
Pep8 is a style guide for Python code. Castellan code should be have proper style before submission. In order to ensure that pep8 tests can be run through tox as follows:
# Checks python code style
$ tox -e pep8
Any comments on bad coding style will output to the terminal.


Contextual OSGi Configuration Diff Utility
This tool uses status-Configurations.txt and diff to display differences between config files in an easy to read format with configurable factory keys for comparing the dynamic pids.
Paste text from /system/console/status-Configurations.txt in each of the text fields. Click "Compare" to see the diff.
Similar config values are displayed in white.Changed config values are displayed in yellow. Newly added config values are displayed in Aqua. Deleted config values are displayed in light red.
Clear them by clicking "Clear"
After Compare. Filter the data using select box. More Details including video available at Blog post


USF-related transcription factor, HIV-TF1, stimulates transcription of human immunodeficiency virus-1.
Abstract
The transcription factor HIV-TF1, which binds to a region about 60 bp upstream from the enhancer of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), was purified from human B cells. HIV-TF1 had a molecular weight of 39, 000. Binding of HIV-TF1 to the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR) activated transcription from the HIV promoter in vitro. The HIV-TF1-binding site in HIV LTR was similar to the site recognized by upstream stimulatory factor (USF) in the adenovirus major late promoter. DNA-binding properties of HIV-TF1 suggested that HIV-TF1 might be identical or related to USF. Interestingly, treatment of purified HIV-TF1 by phosphatase greatly reduced its DNA-binding activity, suggesting that phosphorylation of HIV-TF1 was essential for DNA binding. The disruption of HIV-TF1-binding site induced a 60 % decrease in the level of transcription from the HIV promoter in vivo. These results suggest that HIV-TF1 is involved in transcriptional regulation of HIV-1.


What Data is in the “CLOUD” ?¶
Where¶
How¶
Notes¶
https://explorer.digitalearth.africa/ga_ls8c_gm_2_annual
AWS Registry¶
https://aws.amazon.com/earth/
More Portals and Buckets¶
look at the nasa catalogs and portals
Earth Explorer
Sentinel Hub
list from MacKenzie F - place in notes for now
find chris holmes talk on death of the portal