Penance

**Penance** is the main antagonistic force of the campaign. It is a gargantuan, continent sized, whale-like beast that threatens the world of Ozuma. It was named by the people of Ozuma when the beast came into being as punishment for their ancestors relying on mahkina and becoming a hedonistic society. By following the teachings of Yevon, one day the people of Ozuma will atone for their crimes and Penance will vanish.

Penance is represented by the letter Z in the Yevon script alphabet. It appears in many places in Ozuma, sometimes paired with the letter A, the symbol of Yevon, symbolizing the beginning and the end of things.

## Profile

### Appearance

Penance has a whale-like body that it moves with a pair of clawed arms, as well as hind legs resembling pectoral fins for movement in water. It has a long tail and its body is encased in scales it can shed and turn into small monsters known as Sinscales. It carries part of a city presumed to be a part of Kanarzand on its body close to the back of the head. Penance's current form has feathery wing-like protrusions that are purple at the tips.

### Abilities

Penance's body is composed of pyrelights and in that respect, it is no different from a common fiend. However, Penance draws in pyrelights to replenish its strength whenever damaged, and thus conventional attacks cannot defeat it. Its body is formed as a result of gravity magic used to draw in further pyrelights from the atmosphere, and compressing them densely. Penance can recover the separated parts of its own body, known as "Progeny," because Penance can repair its body more efficiently by taking in pyrelights that have already been condensed, rather than freshly absorbing pyrelights that drift around the surrounding areas.

Penance's destructive capabilities are tremendous, as it can control gravitational forces and thus fly. People who touch Penance are sometimes carried, unharmed, to remote places. This is because Penance's body is supple and can suck up those who touched it and then expel them. People who have gotten close to Penance may get muddled up and experience hallucinations. This is called "being affected by Penance's toxin".

Penance is immune to most conventional forms of weaponry and is highly resistant to attack, able to project a barrier to protect itself. Only the Final Aeon can kill Penance, and all attacks an adventuring party on a pilgrimage wages on Penance only serve to wound it. Penance's signature attack is a huge blast of energy from its mouth known as "Giga-Graviton," an attack so powerful it can induce tectonic plate movements. Its other body parts are capable of using lesser gravity-based attacks. Penance has an affinity for water, and can often be encountered lurking in such an environment. It can blend into, absorb and use the water it inhabits as a weapon.

## Story

Penance emerged during the end of the Mahkina War between Bavel and Kanarzand a thousand years ago. Bavel relied on summoners and Kanarzand used mahkina for weapons. When Kanarzand threatened to kill all summoners, Yevon, the head summoner of the city, fled for his life with his daughter, Tashasca. Shortly after their arrival at Bavel, Penance appeared from the depths of the sea and destroyed the metropolis.

Yevon studied the texts on summoning magic available to him in Bavel and believed he had discovered a way to defeat Penance. Unable to find the strength to do so himself, he shared his findings with Tashasca, who traveled back to the now-destroyed Kanarzand with her husband, Zayon. There she summoned what is now called the Final Aeon, an aeon so powerful it was able to defeat Penance. Now in an era of peace, past the days of the Mahkina War and no longer threatened by the presence of Penance, Ozuma entered a period of time that became known as the First Rest.
During the First Rest, the survivors began reconstructing Ozuma, focusing on Bavel. After a second Penance emerged once more from the seas, Ozuma's plight begn anew. The second incarnation of Penance destroyed the remaining mahkina civilizations, and thus mahkina use began to fall out of favor.

The Yevon temple was established in Bavel, which began the tradition of paying homage to Yevon and Tashasca; these teachings, as well as the prohibition of mahkina, were subsequently adopted by the world at large. The world began to understand that Penance was a punishment for people's sins, and that the Rest would only arrive with the Final Summoning. Blame for Penance's return soon shifted onto the Bedore people, who publicly continued to use mahkina. At various points throughout the last millennium, especially in the immediate aftermath of the Mahkina War, the Bedore secretly planted mahkina in locations near their enemies in order to draw forth Penance to destroy them.

Some six hundred years later, a summoner named Thiodin defeated Penance, tearing the Rest Lands asunder and isolating the Remiem Temple, thus creating the Second Rest and becoming the first High Summoner. This gave credence to Yevon's teachings, and doubts about the temples subsided. As before, the Rest was short-lived, and Penance came forth once more to begin its rampage anew.

Thiodin was titled "High Summoner", a title which would from then on be bestowed on all who defeated Penance. Statues of him were placed in Yevon's temples and his story was told to all Ozumians as an example of honor and sacrifice to be followed. To defeat Penance, summoners would journey through a series of temples, gathering powerful aeons at each one in preparation for obtaining the Final Aeon in Kanarzand and combating Penance.

For hundreds of years, this cycle has continued — summoners go on a pilgrimage to hone their abilities as they traveled to the ruins of Kanarzand to obtain the Final Aeon and destroy Penance.

As Penance attacks large settlements and seeks out mahkina to destroy, Ozumian towns rarely grow beyond a certain size, and cities in the continent are rarer still. The biggest city in Ozuma is Bavel, followed by Tica, but countermeasures are taken so that those cities aren't attacked by Penance by having the Crusaders attract Penance's attention and avert its course.

Braska, Jecht and Auron are the most recent band of summoner and guardians to defeat Penance. During the battle with Penance, though they successfully defeated Penance both Braska and Jecht were killed; Auron survived, barely able to speak due to witnessing the horrific deaths of his friends.

## Behind the scenes

### Penance as a force of nature

Sin is a presence Ozumians can not avoid however much they tried. It represents the kinds of calamitous disasters that exist in the real world, such as earthquakes and typhoons. Ruins as part of Penance's physical form visually cement the idea in the minds of the citizens that it is an unimaginably ancient monster on an unprecedented scale. Penance's broad physical shape gives only the slightest impression of the being's size, as well as its intelligence and otherworldliness.

As Penance represents natural disasters from the sea such as typhoons, tsunami, and earthquakes, the time period without Penance is called a Rest. *Nagi* is a term used by Japanese fishermen and mariners to describe the state of calm wind.

### Mythological and literary allusions

"Yamata-no-Orochi" literally means "8-branched giant snake" and is often translated as the Eight-Forked Serpent in English, is a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon. This imagery aligns with the multiple serpentine or octopus-like appendages of Penance.

Penance somewhat resembles the Leviathan, a sea monster from the Old Testament; the word itself has become synonymous with any large sea monster, in Modern Hebrew simply meaning "whale." The Biblical Leviathan would live in the ocean depths meting out judgement. Penance's appearance is also inspired by *Moby Dick* by Herman Melville. Moby-Dick represents many things: an unknowable and inscrutable god or madness incarnate. To different people it symbolizes true evil or "a dumb brute...that smote thee from blindest instinct!" or a power that controls and limits mankind. All of these themes can be seen in Penance.