Heart (Fabula Nova Crystallis)

:This article is about the actual concept of heart in the mythology of Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy. For the concept of soul, which was united with the concept of heart in the English localization in the Lightning Saga series, see: Soul (Fabula Nova Crystallis).
Hearts , also incorrectly localized as souls and spirits, are an integral part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy subseries. It is a more "specified" concept of a soul: whereas soul is the "essence of humanity", heart is the "essence of a person", giving a person their individuality. Gifted to humanity by the Goddess Etro, they act as a balancing force in the universe. Hearts are the means through which humans have the strength to challenge both the fal'Cie and the deities.
In the localized versions of the Final Fantasy XIII games, the distinction between "heart" and "soul" is blurred. In the English localization of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the term "spirit" is incorrectly used instead of "heart". In the localization of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the term "soul" is used for the concepts of both "heart" and "soul", and interchangeably with "heart". This has caused some confusion for players.
__TOC__
==Profile==
When humans were created by Lindzei from Etro's blood after her suicide, they were without a heart. After her death Etro moved on to Valhalla, and was entrusted with keeping the balance between the visible realm (the world of the living) and the unseen realm (the world of the dead) by the creator goddess Mwynn, who was soon consumed by a substance known as chaos.
Etro felt an affinity with humanity who are bound to follow her in death. As the humans pass on to the unseen realm, Etro gifts them with pieces of chaos, making them a key factor in sustaining the balance of the universe. The heart acts as a "warehouse" for the soul. When a human dies, their heart dies, mostly likely passing to the unseen realm where they rest forever. This state of holding chaos within physical bodies makes humans unique, as they are drawn to both the visible and unseen realms, while other beings are tied only to one world.
As stated in Final Fantasy XIII-2, people with abundant chaos in their hearts are sensitive to things others miss: they can hear the words of the seeress (prophecies). As stated in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the deity Bhunivelze, and likely his creations Pulse and Lindzei, cannot see hearts because of their links to chaos. Bhunivelze despises it, seeing chaos and the hearts residing within it as a polluting force. Despite this, he can manipulate a person's heart if they become unbalanced. The fal'Cie, and by extension the deities that created them, are said to have a type of physical heart that mimics emotions, but these are not true hearts.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy XIII-2===
When in the Augusta Tower 200 AF, Noel explains the difference between humans and duplicates to Serah. He says the the goddess gave humanity "hearts". When Lightning enters crystal stasis after her final battle with Caius, she takes Serah's heart and soul with her.
===Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII===
After Etro's death Chaos flooded the visible realm. Without a deity who would continue to give hearts to the souls to the now freed Chaos, the cycle of reincarnation was broken. As mankind can no longer reproduce, humanity is rendered biologically immortal.
After Lightning awoke from her crystal stasis, Bhunivelze removed Serah's soul from Lightning. Along with it, a part of Lightning's heart was also removed due to her having locked her heart away after her parents' death. Lightning's heart became connected with Serah's soul during her sleep, and Serah's soul merged with the lost part of Lightning's heart, manifesting as Lumina.
Chocolina is an example of a person whose heart houses someone else's soul: her heart has sealed away one of Dajh Katzroy's soul fragments: the fragment of a smile.
The main goal of the Order of Salvation is easing the burden on the hearts of the remaining population, since the memories of the souls of the dead are troubling them. According to the Order this is Bhunivelze's wish. This may originate from Bhunivelze's inability to see human hearts. Lightning meets a projection of the advocate for the souls of the dead, Cid Raines, who informs her about "bonds" which allow a person to use the limitless power of Chaos, but doing so requires a contact of a living person with the soul of a dead one.
On the final day, when Bhunivelze appears in the Luxerion Cathedral, he uses Hope's body as his "avatar". Before his battle with Lightning, he reveals he used Hope as a means of studying human hearts. The god begins to show emotions supposedly unknown to him prior to this, leading Lightning to realize Bhunivelze accidentally absorbed Hope's heart, and decides to use it to save humanity. The fake Serah Bhunivelze had created to keep Lightning acquiescent admits to Lightning she lacks Serah's heart. During the final battle, Lightning uses the bonds she made with Nova Chrysalia's people, and her link with the Chaos via Serah's soul, to unite humanity into a "sword" to strike down Bhunivelze.
==Other Fabula Nova Crystallis games==
In Final Fantasy Type-0, the substance phantoma is described as "souls", though it exhibits traits synonymous with both hearts and souls as seen in the Final Fantasy XIII series. Similar to how Lightning and Hope lost their senses of emotion in Lightning Returns due to their lost or fragmented hearts, the l'Cie in Type series display similar dulled emotional states after having "given away" their soul to a Crystal. In the Type series, people's hearts/souls seem to also retain some sense of lost memories of past spirals and people that have died though the Crystals are meant to purge them, Machina Kunagiri's soul remembering his fondness and protectiveness of Rem Tokimiya in every cycle, and Ace dreaming of Izana Kunagiri whom he cannot remember when awake. 
Final Fantasy Versus XIII was planned to be a part of the series at one point, but ended up being developed into Final Fantasy XV, which does not make a distinction between "hearts" and "souls", only using the latter term.
==Etymology==
==Notes==
===Annotations===
===Citations===
pt-br:Coração (Fabula Nova Crystallis)
Category:Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy
Category:Final Fantasy XIII-2
Category:Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Category:Final Fantasy Type-0
Category:Final Fantasy Agito