Summoner

> The summoners are practitioners of a sacred art, sworn to protect the people of Yevon. Only a chosen few become summoners, who call forth entities of greater power: the aeons. The aeons hear our prayers and come down to us. They are the blessing of Yevon.
>
> Monk in Be-Sia Temple.

In the world of Ozuma, the title of **summoner** is given to skilled magic users who have trained in the process of summoning powerful beings known as aeons. Summoners do this to defeat Penance, a powerful monster that periodically returns to devastate the world. Summoners also perform the sending, a dance ritual that sends the spirits of the dead to the Afterworld lest they become fiends. Summoners are trained by the temples of the Yevon faith, and the majority of populace views them as a beacon of hope for Ozuma.

## Characteristics

Summoners can be of any age. One becomes a summoner by training at a temple of Yevon in the arts of summoning, being referred to as apprentice summoners before completing their first trial. Summoners gain their aeons by praying to the fayth in the Chamber of the Fayth within each temple; if the summoner can develop a mental bond with the fayth, they become able to call forth the fayth's aeon form in battle. Acquiring an aeon is a fatiguing process, as the summoner must have a strong mental bond with the fayth to be able to call forth its aeon.

When the apprentice summoner is promoted to full-fledged summoner, they are to embark on a pilgrimage across Ozuma to pray in every temple of Yevon, gaining the allegiance of each temple's fayth, in preparation for their final destination of praying for the fayth of the Final Aeon, and use it to defeat Penance. During their journey, the summoner builds a close relationship with their aeons, and the stronger their mutual bond, the more powerful an aeon the summoner can call forth. Each summoner is implied to call their aeons by a name of their choosing. The summoner who defeats Penance is granted the title of High Summoner, who become revered by the followers of Yevon.

Another skill the temples impart is the ritual of the sending that dispatches the souls of the dead to the afterlife; summoners are called to perform such rituals after a person dies unexpectedly, or after great catastrophes.

Most summoners are human, dwarven, or elvish, though Waddo, Ronshasa, and others can become summoners and partake in the pilgrimage. For example, Samir is half-Waddo, and Tasha is half-Bedore. Allowing non-human summoners is a new practice, as Guado and Ronso tribes have both recently joined Yevon. The Waddo's nearest temple is the Molacalma Temple, but there is no close active temple to the Ronshasa's Mount Gazaget, only the abandoned Remiem Temple near to the vast Rest Lands at the foot of the mountain.

Summoners garner respect among society, others referring to them with honorifics lady or lord. Summoners dress in Yevonite clothing to show their association with the temples, and wield an ornate staff which they can use in battle and to call forth their aeons. Summoners are accompanied by bodyguards dubbed guardians; there is no limit how many guardians a summoner may employ, but they tend to be people close to them, such as family members or childhood friends. Summoners and their guardians can become something akin to celebrities in Ozuma, and Yevon uses them to keep up its favorable public image.

Two summoners are known to sometimes face each other in aeon duels to test their mettle and skill. In such skirmishes, the summoners cannot both pray to the same fayth to call forth the same aeon, though each incarnation of an aeon seems particular to that specific summoner.

## Known summoners

* Yevon
* Tashasca
* Thiodin
* Hollon
* Yonuc
* Lord Braska
* Samir Waddo
* Ginnem
* Belgemine
* Zuke
* Isaaru
* Dona
* Tasha

## Story

The process of summoning relies on the control of pyrelights — the life energy of Ozumaa — manifesting them into a corporeal form of the fayth's imagining. This is how aeons are all formed. After completing their initial trial, each summoner undertakes a pilgrimage to the Ozumian temples to gather aeons and develop their strength in body and mind. At the end of the pilgrimage the summoner receives the Final Aeon at Kanarzand Dome and is ready to fight Penance. A summoner who defeats Penance is granted the title of high summoner. High summoners are worshiped by the followers of the religion of Yevon.

The practice of summoning goes back to at least one thousand years to the days of Kanarzand, and thus precedes the faith of Yevon. Summoners used to live on Be-Sia Island during the time of the Mahkina War between Bavel and Kanarzand. Summoners were described as those with an enhanced sensitivity to pyrelights, trained to fight against Kanarzand, perhaps used to conjure magical weapons or creatures to aid in battle, while living a life of suppression regardless of their own desires. Summoners took on the name of a deity worshipped before Yevon became the main religion in Ozumaa, and once they died or became an unsent, they gave up that name, reverting to their original name with another succeeding the god's name.

The Yevon faith arose to give people hope after the Mahkina War and Penance's emergence. Penance had rampaging all across Ozuma, destroying every mahkina city, and thus a religion arose that abhorred the use of mahkina and spread the message of atonement as a means of freedom from the world's cursed state. Lady Tashasca, summoner Yevon's daughter, destroyed Penance with the Final Summoning, and although it returned after a time, the religion of Yevon was formed to revere the Final Summoning, hailing it as a means of vanquishing Penance. As long as Ozumians refuse to atone for their sins, Penance will always return.

Summoning became a practice promoted by Yevon, and the old summoning practices of adopting a name of a deity and creating one's own fayth for summoning faded. Fayth from before the Mahkina War were gathered and placed in Yevon's temples to train summoners, and new fayth were created specifically for this purpose. Summoners became revered among the faith as the beacon of hope, the only ones able to free Ozuma from Penance. To become a summoner, one must train meticulously under the care of the temples and only a few succeed in graduating into a full-fledged summoner.

Before the start of Tasha's pilgrimage at the time of the campaign, only five summoners in the past millenium have defeated Sin: Lady Tashasca, Lord Thiodin, Lord Hollon, Lady Yonuc, and Tasha's father, Lord Braska. Other prominent summoners during this time include Maester Samir, Sir Isaaru, Lady Dona, Lady Belgemine, Father Zuke, and Lady Ginnem.

## Origin

Summoners bear many conceptual similarities to the traditional Japanese *miko*. Traditionally, *miko* are female shrine maidens who offered numerous services in the past, including divination, prayers, and herbal medicine, which was, in that time period, considered magical. In desperate times when the shrines and temples were short of funds they would occasionally provide funding through prostitution. *Mikos* were called upon to perform ceremonial dances, some of which were meant to drive away evil spirits and protect the shrine. The idea of dancing to ward off evil spirits in particular could roughly be used to describe the sending.

The design of the summoners' staves is based on the Khakkhara, a staff used by practitioners of Buddhism.