Temple of the Ancients

The Temple of the Ancients is a location in Final Fantasy VII, as well as the final dungeon in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It is a pyramid temple built by the Cetra thousands of years ago to house the Black Materia, which is used to summon the Ultimate Magic, Meteor. Within the temple are a number of puzzles that one must solve to progress further and to ultimately obtain the Black Materia, and one can only enter the temple with the Keystone.
The temple is an unrevisitable dungeon visited only for one chapter of Final Fantasy VII. In it, Aerith Gainsborough and Cloud Strife's party come to visit the temple in order to secure the Black Materia so that Sephiroth cannot use it. The chapter also presents an opportunity to obtain rare items for completing the temple's many puzzles.
== History ==
=== Before Final Fantasy VII ===
The Temple of the Ancients was presumably built thousands of years ago during the time of the Cetra, who lived over 2,000 years prior to the events of Final Fantasy VII. The "Calamity from the Skies" dwindled their numbers, at which point the temple would have been abandoned. Though the temple could become one with the planet, it kept itself afloat through its strength of will.
=== Original continuity ===
As of 0007, during the time of Final Fantasy VII, the Temple of the Ancients was merely a legend and no one knew for certain that it existed. The Shinra Electric Power Company were aware of it, and in "A Sleeping Village Dreaming of Outer Space" during Final Fantasy VII, Cid Highwind overheard Rufus Shinra mention Sephiroth was heading that way..
The Keystone for the Temple of the Ancients was possessed by a weapon seller near Gongaga. The weapon seller sold it to Dio, believing the temple to be nothing more than a legend. In "Secret Date", Cloud Strife and his party obtained the Keystone from Dio, after being pointed. However, Cait Sith, a double-agent for Shinra, stole the Keystone and handed it to the Turks, but forced the party to keep him along by revealing he held Marlene Wallace captive.
Tseng, the leader of the Turks, then entered the temple, but was attacked by Sephiroth, who wounded Tseng and left him for dead. In "Within the Temple of the Ancients", Cloud's party found the temple surrounded by Sephiroth clones, and Aerith was able to communicate with the temple. The wounded Tseng gave Aerith and Cloud the Keystone, and the party found their way through until coming upon the room where the device to turn the temple into the Black Materia was kept. Inside, Sephiroth appeared in a ghostly form, telling the party about his plan to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor, and inflict an injury so deep to the planet the lifestream would concentrate its energy to heal it and he would merge with it to become a god. Sephiroth disappeared, but the encounter with Sephiroth triggered the Jenova cells inside Cloud to awaken him for the Reunion.
Aerith then deduced that the temple itself was the Black Materia, and that the temple shrinks every time a puzzle is solved until the Black Materia becomes usable. Because puzzles can only be solved while within the temple, anyone who did so would be crushed by the temple before it became usable, a mechanism design to prevent anyone obtaining the Black Materia. Though Cloud's party initially believed it to be safer to leave it as Sephiroth would not be able to take it this way, Cloud responded that Sephiroth would have enough clones that he would find someone to take it if they did not. To solve their dilemma, Cait Sith, who had a non-biological body, being controlled remotely by Reeve Tuesti, offered to solve the puzzles and shrink the temple so Cloud could take it, something Cloud reluctantly agreed to despite his trust for Cait Sith being shaken. Before Cait Sith bid farewell to the party, he read Aerith's fortune at her request, concluding she and Cloud were perfect for one another.
Cloud's party escaped the temple as it shrunk to the Black Materia. Another Cait Sith, calling himself Cait Sith Number 2, joined the party. Meanwhile, Cloud grabbed the Black Materia, but Sephiroth controlled Cloud through the triggered Jenova cells inside him, returns and takes control of him, forcing him to give up the materia and attack Aerith. Cloud's companion then knocked him unconscious. In a dream vision, Aerith tells Cloud she is going to the City of the Ancients to save the planet from Sephiroth. As Cloud came to in Gongaga, she had already left.
=== Remake continuity ===
The Turks used the keystone to manifest the temple in chapter 13, "Where Angels Fear to Tread", due to Rufus Shinra believing it to be the Cetra's fabled "promised land". The Turks and Shinra army headed in. Cloud and his friends arrived in their wake, and Aerith listened to the planet outside the temple, deeming that it was not the promised land though it was a holy place of her ancestors: the place where the Cetra had sealed the calamitous black materia the Gi tribe had made long ago.
Cloud, Aerith, and their friends explored the temple whose structure appeared to defy the laws of gravity. They got separated and fought a red dragon and the Turks and the Shinra forces, while Cloud became increasingly obsessed with finding the black materia due to Sephiroth's influence. After they each passed a personal trial (besides Cloud, who was trapped in an illusion to Sephiroth instead to fuel his madness), they opened the way to the deepest part of the temple where the black materia was supposedly being held. Cloud rushed to grab it but it triggered the temple's self-destruction mechanism, the others believing it was but a fake materia the Cetra had set as a trap.
Cait Sith stalled the temple's destruction long enough for the others to escape outside while the Turks made their way back to Rufus's helicopter, Tseng gravely injured. Cait Sith began using a spare body he has prepared beforehand, as he was but an automaton, so he could still join the others. Cloud handed the "fake" materia to Sephiroth under the latter's influence, who claimed it was a key to where the real black materia was being held and opened a portal to seemingly another dimension. He tried to make Cloud attack Aerith, but Cloud resisted on the last second, though he still collapsed as he fell into Aerith's "dream world" instead.
== Geography ==
In the original Final Fantasy VII, the Temple of the Ancients is located in a jungle on island to the south on Gaia's eastern continent. In the remake continuity, it is instead located on the northern continent, near where the City of the Ancients is found.
The outside of the temple is similar in architecture to the Mesoamerican pyramids, namely the Yucatec Mayan pyramid of El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulkan). It also shares similarities with Mayan architecture generally in being located amidst a jungle and surrounded by walls, though its exterior is unique in its surrounding crater moat.
The inside of the temple is mostly supernatural, with puzzles found within. The altar at the top of the temple provides a means of entry to the first of these via a magic portal in the floor. The first is a labyrinth of white stone staircases and tunnels that resembles Relativity, a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. Another is a hollow room with a single stone bridge across and a pool of mako halfway along. Another puzzle room is a circular room resembling a large clock, where the clock hands are used to reach twelve other rooms around the temple, one of which is a tall room with tunnels across two levels below it and a gate to a mural room at the top.
The mural room is the heart of the temple, and contains another altar with a view of the temple. The room's walls are painted murals that vaguely resemble those seen in Maya civilization.
== Gameplay ==
The Temple of the Ancients is visited only for the chapter "Within the Temple of the Ancients", straight after "Secret Date", and is inaccessible before and after. It can only be entered with the Keystone, and temple lies on an island reached by the Tiny Bronco. Once the chapter is complete, the temple is replaced by a crater on the world map.
During the chapter, Aeris is a mandatory party member, and Cloud is mandatory as party leader. Completing the temple's number of puzzles throughout allows the player to unlock rare items, including Aeris' ultimate weapon, the Princess Guard.
== Musical themes ==
The theme of the Temple of the Ancients is the "Forested Temple."
A remixed version plays as Cloud and Tifa's dungeon theme in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. This version is also in Final Fantasy XV playable in the music player.
"Forested Temple" is included on the third disc of Final Fantasy VII Vinyl Limited Edition compilation album.
== Other appearances ==
=== Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade ===
=== Final Fantasy Record Keeper ===
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
== Behind the scenes ==
How summons came to be is never explained within the Final Fantasy VII series releases or media, except for some dummied lines from the original Final Fantasy VII explained by Sephiroth after obtaining the Bahamut Materia in the Temple of the Ancients. The majority of the lines of explanation were not translated for the English version of Final Fantasy VII and can only be found in the original Japanese version.
Sephiroth explains that during the times of the Ancients there were beings created by the planet that sealed their life energy in materia. It is suggested the creatures that protect the temple were created by the planet, and it could be assumed the Red Dragon turns itself into the Bahamut Materia upon defeat.
The spirits protecting the temple have forgotten how to speak, but in an earlier version, the spirit in the room where the player can first buy items from it spoke with an accent that sounded like it was from a rural Japanese area, saying "welcome" and "come again." It is also suggested Cid's Mop would have been obtainable from here, but in the final game it is dug up from Bone Village instead.
The clock puzzle was harder in the original Japanese version, as instead of moving the minute hand the player had to "leave it up to the guard" and choose whether to move time backwards or forwards, then choose how much time should pass/revert. The challenge lied in memorizing the time interval each option corresponded to, as they did not point out the exact amount of time that would move. If the player stands on the hour or minute hand when the second hand moves across the one Cloud is standing on, the player will fall down the hole. In the original Japanese version falling three times would give the ability to move time precisely. In all later released, including Final Fantasy VII International, this second method is activated by default rendering the more difficult puzzle unused in these versions.
== Gallery ==
Temple of the ancients entrance.png|Temple entrance.
Keystone device.png|Keystone device.
TimeGuardian-ffvii-center.png|The Time Guardian.
Temple of the ancients shrinking.png|Temple shrinking.
Temple of the ancients gone.png|Temple grounds after the Temple's destruction.
TotA Destroyed.png|Temple of the Ancients after its destruction.
TempleMini-ffvii-field.png|The field model of the miniature version of the temple.
Mini Temple of the Ancients.png|The miniature version of the temple as seen in the fourth disc of the International version.
== Citations ==
de:Tempel des Alten Volkes
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Category:Temples
Category:Ruins