FF1 PSP: Lufenian NPC Dialogue
Between Stranger of Paradise and Dissidia putting a spotlight on them, I figured it would be fun to fire up the PSP and see what the Lufenians of that version had to say.
We are the Lufenians, the descendants of the race that once lived among the clouds - the Sky People. You use a vessal you call an airship… It was built by one of our ancestors… a man by the name of Cid.
We have a legend that has been passed down through many generations. According to this legend, four hundred years after the fall of the civilization in the sky, Warriors bearing light will come forth to save our people. The Light Bearers! Then the legend is true!
Four hundred years ago, we had built a civilization of the highest order. Even beyond the skies we reached… but that is naught but history now.
The Sky People would pass on their memories from one generation to the next through rituals. But four hundred years is a very long time, and those memories have begun to fade.
This world is composed of four forces: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind. Of these, we showed greatest prowess with the power of wind. High in the sky, we set a castle afloat amidst an azure sea of stars.
The flying castle floats on a blue sea of stars beyond the sky.
Could the mechanical beings our ancestors created still function?
We fought a life-and-death struggle with Tiamat, the Fiend of Wind. But our power was not enough… To this day her lair remains in the castle in the sky - the Flying Fortress.
The Mirage Tower is our symbol.
Tiamat blocks the power of wind, the source of the Sky People's strength.
We placed our last hope in the five warriors we sent out… It's been said they fell victim to the curse of the Fiends and were turned into bats.
We came to believe there was another entity controlling the four Fiends. To ascertain its location, we sent out five warriors, but much time has passed since we heard from them. I hope no harm has befallen them…
The castle that floats high above the clouds was once the home of our ancestors. The Mirage Tower is the gateway to that castle.
There's some interesting stuff:
Cid of the Lufaine is mentioned. This was a retcon made in the GBA (or Wonderswan? not sure) version of the game due to FF1 otherwise lacking a Cid. Earlier versions simply mentioned that the Lufenians' ancestors built the ship. Dissidia would heavily expand on Cid of the Lufaine while Memory of Heroes would provide a different take.
Though that said, a bit of nuance was lost over time: The race of people that lived in the sky were simply known as "Sky People" while their descendants are the Lufenians. Dissidia and Stranger of Paradise would both drop this concept, using "Lufenians" for both implicitly. I've no idea what the Japanese versions say about this.
Some of the text mentioning the Flying Fortress is downright painful to read, since it's pretty clearly supposed to suggest that the Fortress was in space. Maybe space is blue in FF1?
The Memory transfer rituals mentioned here become a pivotal plot point in the Dissidia subseries. The method of making manikins with wills is to infuse them with memories. The memories of 10+ people result in Chaos, the god of discord. Cosmos was made from the memories of Cid's wife taken from Chaos, Cid's wife passes on her memories through those same rituals, Cid creates the Warrior of Light through this method, etc. Stranger of Paradise would thematically keep the link with Lufenians having to do with memories, but goes for simpler, technological dark crystals rather than any sort of ritual.
Another nuance difference: Earlier versions suggests that the Lufenias were 'blessed' with wind, while in this version they say that they 'showed greatest prowess' with it. Again, I have no idea what the Japanese says.
In general, Lufenia's ties with the Wind Crystal specifically seem to have been downplayed in other games. In Dissidia, the Floating Fortress' creation is implied due to the Levistone rather than the Wind Crystal (either that or they failed, a contrast with Stranger of Paradise which implies they succeeded). Stranger of Paradise doesn't even tie them specifically to the Wind Crystal: They created all four crystals and the Flying Fortress' significance is moreso to act as a warp network for Jack and his allies when they're trying to relight the crystals.
