Cetra

[Pixel]

I demand answers. Where did they come from? Did humans evolve from them, or are they separate from humans.

If you can supply references, it'd be great. I need well informed answers.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

I always figured the Cetra were more of like, a group or a tribe than a race. Ilfana looks perfectly human (not that we get a good look at her pixely form), so I would wager they're just humans with strong spiritual powers. According to the FF Wiki, which I'm a member of, the Cetra that gave up their ability to talk to the Planet became normal humans, so that seems to be the only real difference between them - the ability to talk to the Planet and use its powers.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Didn't FFX-2 retcon the series so that Cetra migrated from Spira? Or am misremembering the chronology?

 

[A]

Aerith herself isn't pure Cetra. Ifalna was the last pure Ancient. But because of Aerith's mixed heritage, she was able to speak with the Planet. So while Aerith is human, she did gain some of the abilities of those of a Cetra.

Well, maybe this would help more:

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/698/698416p1.html

 

[namakemono]

I have been confused about the Cetra myself. I've always thought of them as something like, angels walking the earth or something.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Didn't FFX-2 retcon the series so that Cetra migrated from Spira? Or am misremembering the chronology?

No. The Cetra are 'native' to Gaia. It is the defendants of everyone else, IE- Not the cetra, who migrated from Spira.

If we are assuming that basic genetics applies, the two populations must have originated somewhere else originally, otherwise their capability to breed together and produce viable offspring would actually be MORE amazing than any other special power shown throughout the FF series.

Similarly, Espers must be human or have some power to 'become' human.

As for Cetra rearising, it's really not impossible. If it's a heritable trait, it's certainly spread well out into the population by 'lapsed' Cetra breeding with humans.

If this is the case, it would certainly explain Marlene's Prescience.

If not heritable, it's certainly a matter of reattaining the philosophy. This would certainly go a ways towards explaining Bugenhagen.

 

[Ⓐaron]

No. The Cetra are 'native' to Gaia. It is the descendants of everyone else, IE- Not the cetra, who migrated from Spira.

Oh, right

And yeah, the rest of your post makes sense

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

I know it's heavily implied but is there anything official that says FFVII is FFX's future or what have you?

 

[Frostwave]

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/197341/42137

There's an interview with Kitase and Nojima in these Ultimania Omega translations, under the section "Translations concerning the plot-related connection between FFVII and
FFX/X-2".

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

Ah there it is, I knew it was out there somewhere.

So it's kind of sad that these decedents of Shinra took over that planet. I wonder if this will come up again. Though to be perfectly honest I wish they hadn't given it all away. I mean I like some things to remain a mystery.

edit,
You know I'm just gonna say it. This is one thing I really hate about the Compilation and all the FFVII stuff in general. There's no more secrets, no more guessing, no more mystery. It's all "BOOM It's like this!" I hate that. That's why I don't read everything or look at everything. I like some mystery to my stories.

I mean they've covered every little thing. A few times on this forum I've said something I've always wondered about or whatever, but I'm corrected by someone who's read the 10th rendition of the FFVII Bible and in the book of Aerith it says this.

FFVII isn't ruined for me but it's one of the things that made me not as interested anymore. One of the things I liked about the game was it brought up so many things to think about and discuss, not to mention the many little tidbits hidden in the game. Well now you no longer have to look for those tidbits. You just play Crisis Core and you know everything that happened before hand. Wanna know every little detail about Lucrecia? Play DoC! I'm surprised they haven't announced the game in which Nanaki finds his mate, or what was Cloud like as a five year old? What happened to his dad anyway? They better get going on that! (if they haven't all ready)

I mean I always wondered what the connection between Spira and the FFVII world was, but now that I know, well ... there goes any and all discussion or thinking about that.

Now I apologize because I'm sure many of you will want me to shut my pie hole, but I needed to get that out of my system. Advent Children was fine but is all this other stuff really necessary? What's next? FFVII the Anime?

 

[Dashell]

I actually do agree with some of that. They did milk it far too much. But, actually screen shots of AC was what got me to play FFVII in the first place.

Yeah I don't think we need to know every little detail. Some stuff is better left a secret and some stuff I don't care about. I mean who the hell cares that Cloud didn't know what Cauliflower was?

I don't think there's going to be anything else though... is there?

 

[namakemono]

Well, I actually did hear somewhere that ACC was the last for now. But in a few years? Who knows. I think as long as there are still fans hungry for more, the milking won't stop. XD

 

[Dark and Divine]

I'm surprised they haven't announced the game in which Nanaki finds his mate (...)

That kinda happened in Before Crisis.

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

Ha ha, did it really? I probably shouldn't even ask.

 

[Makoeyes987]

There were never any secrets to FFVII dude. Just shitty translation, fandom taking over for nearly 8 years, and people being so engrained in their own subjective conclusions that they thought it was fact and truth.

That's the biggest fandom lie of FFVII. That it had some "secret" that somehow is lost now. The only secrets are the fuck ups that the plot gave, the rumors of shit like reviving Aerith, and the "ambiguity" of humanity living or dying, which was never ambiguous. They lived, hence the children laughing in the end.

The "mysteries" we do still have, still exist. We still don't know anything about Sephiroth's childhood or birthday. We don't know everything (or anything) about the world before the discovery of mako energy. We don't know the specifics about the Cetra. The Promised Land is still an ambiguous concept. We don't know exactly who or what the Gi tribe were before they all died. We don't know where Jenova came from or what she is. We have no idea what the Masamune is. We have no clue as to who all belong to the Shinra bloodline, we don't know who Cloud's extended family is, we don't know Cid's family, we have no idea what the fucking rocket is in the church, or the F-16 in Bone Village, we have no clue as to what the conclusion of LOVELESS is...

I could go on and on. But no. The fucking Compilation hasn't "killed" the mystery. All they've done is continue the story. Unless you feel knowing absolutely nothing about the past history of the Turks and Zack is truly an offense to the works. Because the backstory of those two things is the only thing I can see as "ruining the mystery." There's nothing wrong with a story explaining itself and its storytelling. Hell, it makes it even MORE discussable and engaging not having to just take pot shots in the dark of a convoluted story's ambiguous and shitily translated plot. All people would be doing is riding on subjective wit and drawing no closer to the answer.

And I guess you missed the quote in the original FFVII where Bugenhagen said that Red XIII wasn't the last of his species and he'd find another if he just traveled the world. Again, that's not a "mystery." That's out of the source material.

 

[Pixel]

Ok, so I had another little search and found this

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cetra

The Cetra (セトラ, Setora), also known as "the Ancients" (古代種, Kodai-shu), are mentioned frequently in Final Fantasy VII, although few Ancients are actually depicted in the game. Those depicted are Ifalna, her daughter, Aerith Gainsborough, and the spiritual manifestation of another within the Temple of the Ancients. They look identical to regular humans, but are deeply spiritual in nature. According to Sephiroth, regular humans were Cetra who forsook their migratory nature to form permanent settlements millenia ago.

The migrations of the Cetra were a Planet-reverent pursuit of the fabled Promised Land, one conducted by traveling from one area to another and cultivating life as they went. The Cetra had the unique ability to commune with the Planet, an ability which regular humans lost once they gave up their close relationship with the Planet in favor of leisure and convenience. Cetra also had the ability to guide the flow of the Planet's spiritual energy, this being the means by which they were able to cultivate life on the Planet's surface.

They were on the planet long before the events of Final Fantasy VII and long served as its caretakers until their race was nearly reduced to extinction by the extraterrestrial entity known as "Jenova." Jenova arrived on the Planet some 2000 years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, crashlanding on the northern continent within a meteorite. The impact site was a massive crater that would come to be known in later times as "the Northern Crater," a wound to the Planet that would not be healed even by the time of the game's beginning.

What was already a bad situation became all the worse once Jenova emerged from its impact site and approached the Cetra settlements, gleaning their memories and emotions from their minds and adopting the forms of their dead relatives in order to get close to them. It was then that it released a virus upon the Cetra (in actuality, its own cellular material), a substance that drove the Cetra mad and caused them to transform into monsters. A small band of unchanged Cetra united and mounted on a final assault on the being they referred to as "the Calamity from the Sky," surprisingly managing to defeat it and seal its body in the Planet at Jenova's point of arrival, the Northern Crater. Jenova itself would later be excavated by Shinra Electric Power Company scientist Professor Gast and be mistakenly identified as a Cetra.

Many fans incorrectly believe that the Cetra are actually an alien race which migrates from Planet to Planet. This is due to translation issues and a failure to clarify the interchangability between "land" and "planet." In actuality, the game's script states through Aerith that the Cetra were born on the Planet of Final Fantasy VII, and that -- upon death -- they will return to the Promised Land. This is an allusion to the return to the Lifestream, it being the Promised Land of the Cetra. This concept is confirmed by the Maiden Who Travels the Planet novella in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide.

Ifalna was among the last known living Cetra. Her daughter Aerith was the very last. Because Sephiroth killed Aerith at the Forgotten City while she was praying for holy, the Cetra are now extinct.

Quite interesting

As for the FFX connection, meh.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Yeah, that's pretty much the jist of what the Cetra are.

And the Cetra have nothing to do with with the FFX connection. Which is rather a loose connection in and of itself and hardly effects the plot of FFVII at all.

The jist of the connection is that Spiran colonists landed on Gaia many years before the events of FFVII, and began to live and adapt to the planet. It's from their technology that the technology for Mako Reactors was developed. And the Shinra lineage is tied to those colonists.

 

[Munatik]

You know I'm just gonna say it. This is one thing I really hate about the Compilation and all the FFVII stuff in general. There's no more secrets, no more guessing, no more mystery. It's all "BOOM It's like this!" I hate that. That's why I don't read everything or look at everything. I like some mystery to my stories.

I think that it's a good thing that there isn't much mystery left as far as plot goes. The parts that are truly ambiguous and debatable should ideally be about the thematic elements of FFVII and not the plot, e.g. what happened in Nibelheim. If there are major questions about events in the plot, then that's just sloppy storytelling (or translation) and not part of any charm the story has.

In other words, plot holes big and small shouldn't be getting in the way of whatever themes and motifs we pull from the story. Everything that's needed is there in the game. Subjects like environmentalism and the way Cloud & co. each overcame their personal shortcomings can be substantiated and are what I find more interesting than discussing who exactly the ancient Cetra were beyond what's relevant to FFVII's point.

Despite saying all that, I don't find FFVII to be a perfectly presented story, but that again may be attributable to poor localization. For me it felt a bit loose in the seams, and I struggle coming up with what the game is really about, i.e. what idea was supposed to tie it all together. FFIX jumps to mind, because I think its story in comparison was much, much better told. Or maybe it just translated better, I'm not sure. Maybe someone can enlighten me. But I will say whatever they're backfilling with Crisis Core/DoC/etc certainly isn't doing FFVII any harm.

Also--and perhaps above all--these games and movies are meant for entertainment, and I certainly won't complain as much about story stuff as long as they're fun.

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

And I guess you missed the quote in the original FFVII where Bugenhagen said that Red XIII wasn't the last of his species and he'd find another if he just traveled the world. Again, that's not a "mystery." That's out of the source material.

I meant how he found her specifically though not that he did find her. It's obvious that he found her because of the ending

 

[Ryushikaze]

More like catching up with her again. He didn't know if she was still alive in FF7.

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

Also, haha, dunno why I was so pissy last night. I think I need to get moar sleep and spend less time on this forum.

 

[Dashell]

There were never any secrets to FFVII dude.

Could you please explain the background of Jenova in detail? Exactly where she came from, what her home planet was like and why she thinks she's such hot shit?

All though I guess that's not a secret. ... Maybe that'll be the next game. You get to play as Jenova and kill things... hell I might make that if Square doesn't.

Also, haha, dunno why I was so pissy last night. I think I need to get moar sleep and spend less time on this forum.

naawww

 

[Ryushikaze]

Quexy, read the rest of Mako's post. He admits we don't have all the answers. He's saying the vast majority of what people claim are mysteries killed by the compilation was stuff that was only 'mysterious' because of the shitty translation.

 

[Dashell]

I'm just giving him shit, I know what he meant.
And he's probably right, but I have to agree that some things like the connection to Spira... well we didn't need to know exactly what it was.

 

[Ⓐaron]

The connection to Spira wasn't fucking necessary in the first place.

That said I agree with Mako about most of the "mysteries" of FFVII being attributable to shitty localisation.