Yevon

> Praise be to Yevon!
>
> A prevalent blessing of the Yevon faith

The people of Ozuma follow the teachings of **Yevon**. A practitioner of the Yevon faith is referred to as a **Yevonite**. The faith is named after **Yevon**, a summoner who lived in Kanarzand one thousand years ago.

Nearly all the peoples of Ozuma follow the teachings of Yevon, including the Ronshasa and the Waddo (converted during High Summoner Braska's Rest by Viscal Waddo and Kelk Ronshasa). The Bedore are an exception and are viewed as heretics by the theocracy for their use of machines, a practice forbidden by the church. It is unclear whether the Gungello follow Yevon's teachings.

Yevon draws inspiration from real-world religions, such as Shintoism (practices and temples), Buddhism (iconography and ritualistic disciplines), as well as Islam and Catholicism (pilgrimages, hierarchical structure, and doctrines). The teachings of Yevon give meaning to people's lives in the face of death and unavoidable fate.

## Profile

### Temples of Yevon

Temples of Yevon are found throughout Ozuma. At the heart of each temple lies a Chamber of the Fayth, a room that contains a fayth — a statue that houses a willingly-given human soul. Through the soul bonding to a summoner, mighty creatures called aeons may be made manifest.

There are five official temples of Yevon, each with their own fayth:

* Bavel – Home to the fayth of the draconic aeon Bahamut. Also the central temple of Yevon.
* Be-Sia – Home of the fayth of the winged aeon Valia.
* Ki Kila – Home of the fayth of the flame aeon Iferna.
* Digoza – Home of the fayth of the lightning aeon Luxia.
* Loch Molacalma – Home of the fayth of the ice aeon Shiza.

When summoners journey to defeat Sin, they arrive at the final temple, located in "the city at the end of the world":

* Kanarzand – At the Kanarzand Dome the summoner can acquire the Final Aeon.

### Administration and hierarchy

Although Yevon has roots over the whole of Ozuma, it doesn't officially have worldly authority, as governmental duties are left up to regional self-rule. However, the leaders of each area are backed by the temples. Yevon is funded by donations received from Yevonites. The temples aid the populace by using their finances in various ways, such as operating the shoopuf crossing service at Starflow, operating as places of worship to Yevonites, and training summoners.Control is carried out by four Maesters, called the "four Maesters of Yevon." At the top of the hierarchy is the position of the Grand Maester. At the beginning of the campaign, Grand Maester Iyo Micha has held the position for 50 years. Below the Grand Maester are three positions referred to as by the title of Maester, a station similar to that of a Cardinal in Catholicism, though one casually addresses a Maester as "Your Grace," a title reserved for bishops, instead of "Your Eminence," as is the custom regarding Cardinals. The three Maesters below the Grand Maester oversee the three ministries of civil affairs, military affairs, and temple affairs, and their duties include making laws and presiding over Yevon's High Court.

The current Minister of Civil Affairs is Kelk Ronshasa. He is in charge of the judiciary, treasury and general civil administration. The current Minister of Military Affairs is Haow Kinoc, who is in charge of the general military command and doubles as head of the Warrior Monks and oversees the Crusaders. The current Minister of Temple Affairs is Samir Waddo who maintains the temples' rituals and teachings and oversees the summoners. He has the authority to handle records of the sealed histories. High priests represent each temple across the world, but they have no voice in the temples' inner circle and only have control over their respective temples. In an exception to the rule, Maester Samir concurrently holds the post of high priest of Molacalma Temple and the current Minister of Temple Affairs. The next step down are the priests of Yevon whose job is to attend to the temples throughout the land. Many priests are summoners or former summoners. Priests tend to wear multicolored vestments of white, green, and orange.

Below the priests are summoners, a position similar to a cross between a priest and a *miko*. Summoners are charged with the greatest responsibility of all: to journey to Kanarzand, obtain the Final Aeon, and destroy Penance. Summoners also perform the Sending, a ritual that guides the souls of the dead to peace on the Afterworld. The title of High Summoner refers to summoners who have defeated Penance.

Lastly, Yevon has a number of acolytes, similar to deacons or nuns. They work throughout Ozuma performing various duties.

Officials of Yevon wear a band down the front of their robes with six glyphs. The six signs also appear on Yevon tapestries, the sleeves of male wedding suits, and the map of Ozuma.

### Arms of Yevon

Yevon has militant arms in addition to the summoners:

* Warrior Monks – Warrior Monks serve as protectors to the Maesters and the temples, seen primarily in the city of Bavel, similar to the Swiss Guard of the Catholic church. The temples' official position is that even those who oppose Yevon should not be harmed, but the Warrior Monks do crack down on those regarded as heretics.
* Guardians – The summoners' bodyguards who are not directly related to Yevon. A summoner chooses their guardians, and can choose non-Yevonites if they wish, though doing so is not only rare, but looked down upon, despite there being no rules explicitly forbidding it.
* The Crusaders – Formerly known as the Burgundy Blades, the Crusaders are a loosely-knit army that protects towns and temples from Penance. Unlike the guardians, Crusaders are directly related to Yevon. No non-Yevonite is permitted to serve as a Crusader, although there are unofficial chapters comprised of people who have been excommunicated.

### Practices

Prayer to Yevon is conducted with a gesticulation that starts with the hands out to either side before bringing them into the chest, as though holding a sphere, and bowing. This evolved from a bandersnatch ritual stance.

Summoners are obligated to perform the sending for the deceased. This is a ritual dance that sends the pyrelights of the deceased on their way to the Afterworld, preventing them from coalescing into fiends.Yevon uses a writing system seen in the temples and places associated with Bavel. Yevon's iconography is based on the Siddhaṃ script used in Shingon Buddhism, one of the biggest mainstream schools of Japanese Buddhism and one of the oldest. The letter A represents Yevon, and Z represents Penance. The sound of that 'A' is the meditative core for Shingon Buddhists and doubles as the glyph for Yevon as a whole.

## History

One thousand years ago a great war that became known as the Mahkina War was fought between the cities of Kanarzand and Bavel. Yevon, the peerless head summoner of Kanarzand, fled the metropolis near the end of this war, when the leaders of Kanarzand pledged to destroy all summoners and to unleash a deadly magical weapon upon Bavel and its citizens. However, at some point before this final assault, an enormous city-sized monster emerged from the sea, annihilated the entirety of Kanarzand, and began crossing the continent of Ozuma seeking out mahkina to destroy. The foot soldiers of Bavel first gazed upon this monster, now known as Penance, when they crossed Mount Gazaget on their way to Kanarzand. Yevon had a daughter, Lady Tashasca, on to whom he passed his teachings. Lady Tashasca was the first summoner to defeat Penance with Yevon's technique known as the Final Summoning alongside her husband and guardian, Zayon. The Final Summoning can destroy Penance due to the bond that unites the aeon and the summoner.

With Penance's defeat, a short period of peace settled on Ozuma, known as the First Rest. The survivors began reconstructing Ozuma, focusing on Bavel. However, to the shock of all Ozumians, within a few years Penance would emerge from the sea once more. The new Penance destroyed the remaining mahkina civilizations, and thus machines use began to fall out of favor.

The Final Summoning can defeat Penance for a time and give Ozuma hope, but unless the world embraces the teachings of Yevon and atones for its sins, Penance will never go away. In spite of the risk of attack due to Penance seeking out forms of technology to wipe out, the Bedore (then known as the "Al Bhed") continued to use mahkina, as they had worked in the factories that had produced weapons for the Mahkina War and were intimately familiar with their usage. After Yevon arose as the main religion across the land, many Bedore fled the mainland of Ozuma, and Yevon had a hand in changing their name from Al Bhed to Bedore. The contemporary Bedore thus view themselves as societal outcasts and a persecuted minority.

Over time Bavel set up temples throughout Ozuma placing a fayth in each one, in order for the summoners to follow in Tashasca's footsteps in defeating Penance. Some of the fayth originate from a time before Penance, but others were created by the temples themselves for the purpose of assisting summoners in the pilgrimage they undertake to mentally prepare for the Final Summoning. To govern these laws, Yevon came to be with four Maesters at the top, a high priest for each temple, and many other priests, monks, and nuns.

Fayth unceasingly sing a hymn that was reported to have been heard emanating from the fayth on Mount Gazaget at Penance's first public appearance — a hymn which later became known as the "Hymn of the Fayth". Yevonites throughout Ozuma sung the hymn in order to soothe the souls of the dead and assist the departure of the unsent. Usage of the hymn was incorporated into the teachings of Yevon thereafter and regarded as a holy song.

Although the temples' teachings had become widespread, 600 years passed with no one able to defeat Sin. During that time many doubted Yevon's teachings, the priest Alpha among them, who was executed for openly rebelling against the temples. Six hundred years after the temple was established a summoner named Thiodin defeated Penance, tearing the Rest Lands asunder, thus creating the Second Rest and becoming the first high summoner. Following Thiodin's success, doubts about the teachings of the temples subsided. As before, the Rest was short-lived - Penance emerged within several months and started its rampage anew. Thiodin was titled "high summoner" for his success, a title which would from then on be bestowed on those summoners who had defeated Penance. Statues of Thiodin were placed in Ozuma's temples and his story was told as an example of honor and sacrifice to be followed. A thousand years after Penance first appeared, it has been defeated a number of times but always returned.

## Symbolism

The Yevon Temple draws inspiration from many real-world religions, such as Shintoism (practices and temples), Buddhism (iconography and ritualistic disciplines), as well as Islam and Catholicism (pilgrimages, hierarchical structure and doctrines).

Yevon's teachings may be inspired by the Catholic Church, namely offering salvation through absolution via the religion's teachings. Yevon comprises of leaders known as Maesters, which include Samir Waddo, Haow Kinoc, and Kelk Ronshasa. These positions are comparable to the Catholic roles of cardinals, and Grand Maester Iyo Micha's wardrobe resembles the Pope's.

Another notable influence appears to be Jodo Buddhism, a branch centered on the doctrines and practice of Amitābha Buddha, whose founding story describes the monk Dharmākara ascending to Buddhahood and discovering the power to establish a *buddhakṣetra*, a realm beyond reality founded by a Buddha's own merits. Naming his world the Pure Land and becoming Amitābha Buddha, he vowed to make his world a paradise to which all peoples of his faith can enter and transcend into Buddhahood with ease to help the rest of the world.

Yevon also draws on Japanese Buddhism, which has religious concepts of *jiriki* ("self power") and *tariki* ("outside power"), said to be the powers that one may choose to follow to become enlightened and ultimately achieve Nirvana once set in a school's teachings.