Final Fantasy Characters and Mythological References

I’m going to be taking a look at some of the Final Fantasy character names and attempting to connect them to mythological references. I know people have beaten this subject into the ground when it comes to summons found in Final Fantasy games, but I wanted to try and connect the actual characters to mythological beings.

Freya Crescent

One of the playable characters in Final Fantasy IX, she leaves quite a memorable impression on players because of the sadness surrounding her lost love. Wielding a spear, she is a powerful Dragon Knight from Burmecia. She comes onto the scene for the Festival of the Hunt and is extremely powerful at that point in the game.

Derived from the Norse Goddess Freyja, Freya is considered a more modern interpretation of the name Freyja. It’s suggested we get the name for the day Friday from Freyja. She is the Norse goddess of quite a few things – sexuality, love, beauty, war, fertility, and death, though she seems to be mostly known as a goddess of love. She experiences heartbreak when her husband Od goes missing, just like Freya from Final Fantasy IX. Quite a bit can be read up on Freya here and here.

Sephiroth

The main bad guy from Final Fantasy VII, he wields the powerful sword Masamune and attempts to kill everyone on the Planet, or Gaia, via Meteor to make his dear mother happy.

The name Sephiroth seems to come from the spheres found within the Tree of Life, which are considered to be the ten Sephirot. The Tree of Life comes from the Jewish practice of using religious mysticism to interpret the bible. The ten Sephirots basically created a map that the Kabbalah’s considered to be the map of creation, or the Tree of Life. Check out more about that here.

Kain Highwind

Seen as a child in Final Fantasy II, Kain becomes a main playable character in Final Fantasy IV! Kain is a powerful Dragoon and is extremely faithful to both his friends, Cecil and Rosa, as well as loyal in protecting the castle his father once protected.

This one could have multiple meanings, there is Cain, one of Adam and Eve’s sons who commits the very first murder, by killing his brother, Abel. More on that can be found via this link. It seems more likely that Kain was named after Kaineus or Caeneus. Caeneus was considered to be from Thessaly in Greek mythology, where the people called Lapiths resided. Lapiths were especially powerful and Caeneus was no different. Eventually he was disposed of by the centaurs, though not before he was known for his incredible strength. Caeneus can be read about here or in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which can be read online at Theoi.

Cait Sith

This catty character is seen in a few Final Fantasy games, he was a summon in Final Fantasy VI, a playable character in Final Fantasy VII, a monster in Final Fantasy IV, one of Lulu’s dolls in Final Fantasy X, and so forth.

Cait Sith seems to be carried over directly from Celtic mythologies Cat Sith – a fairy cat like creature with a big white spot on his chest, which are the same color patterns we see on Final Fantasy VII‘s playable character Cait Sith and on Final Fantasy VI‘s esper Cait Sith. Bad luck seemed to be associated with the Cat Sith found in mythology – he was even associated with stealing the souls from unburied bodies. If you would like to read more on Cat Sith, click this link, or if you want to read more on Cait Sith and his many appearances, click this one!

Kiros Seagill

A playable character in parts of Final Fantasy VIII, he wields sharp blades on both of his hands to slice apart his enemies. He is playable in the flashbacks with Laguna and Ward.

Alright, this one might be a bit of a stretch, but I was thinking of him as  Kairos or Caerus from Greek mythology. Kairos is another word for opportunity or a moment of opportunity, and in Greek mythology Kairos is just the personified form of opportunity that sprang forth from Zeus. He is depicted as having a lock of hair that hangs in front of his forehead, while the rest of his head is bald. This offers some resemblance between Kairos and Final Fantasy’s Kiros. Kairos is fast, just like Kiros, and Kairos is sometimes described as holding a razor, which also resembles Kiros’ weapon in game. For more information on Kairos, check here and here.