Freyja - Final Fantasy IX - PG13
They say that the world was created in fire and ice. Niflheim, before she was the brittle Shiva, locked arms with her mortal enemy Muspelheim Ifreet, and the God Plain they battled on burst into a blackened stretch of ice, solidified by molten breath. Yggdrasil, the world tree, toppled onto the mighty temple Asgard and killed Yrim Alexander, their mighty leader, and the other gods.
Nifilheim and Muspelheim, horrified by their actions, gathered their fellows’ remains and bound their souls into jewels, so that their powers would remain immortal. As penance, Muspelheim asked Nifilheim to strike him a fatal blow. From his wound bled his molten ichor, which Nifilheim bound into blood rubies. Then, Nifilheim gathered the gems and bestowed them her strength, and the weak spirits that came forth she called Eidolons.
They say that instead of ending her own life, Nifilheim forfeited her godhood but remained alive. She bound herself in a prison of ice in the mountains, coming out only when a mortal with the Phantom voice calls her back to the earth. It is for this reason that Shiva, the blue widow, is the weakest of the Eidolons. It is also the reason she is the most reviled.
Burmecian folklore suggests that the only good thing that came out of the ice witch was that that Yggdrasil did not, in fact, die. The mighty towers of Asgard split the tree in half, and from its remains sprung Cleyra, the good tree, and Iifa, the bad tree. Before Cleyra ever became bound by a sea of sand, it became the destination of holy pilgrimages throughout the world.
In Burmecia, Shiva is a hated name, a wicked curse. Freya remembers how the young boys used to push her around, screaming Dirty little Shiva, little bitch. Why don’t you just die! And she remembers kneeling before her open window and looking out to the eastern mountains and just wishing that she could be as lucky as Shiva was, that she could escape into the snow caps and be free. Alone.
But now those young boys have grown into strong men, men that lift their swords and rush towards the branches of Cleyra with warrior cries. But like Ifrit, they are cut down into fountains of blood, gurgling over the roots of a dying-dead-tree. Freya, blood on broken fingers, drops to her knees and cries.
Freya, this doesn’t end here. You can’t let it end here.
I know.
Cleyra might have been saved by Ice. Or at least, Ice could have saved Cleyra its dignity. The frozen silence of the dead was so much more merciful than the awful smoldering of the dying. And Cleyra was the good tree. The holy tree. Cleyra was supposed to root the Burmecian race in peace.
As Zidane drags her away by the elbow, leaving a trail of blood behind them, Freya closes her eyes and remembers how the world was created.
(His dying words, his final blow: you can’t let it end here.)
Burmecian mythology says that Shiva was a coward. She murdered her brothers and sisters and refused to repay the price. She got to live. But Freya knows it is all lies. And when she is the Last Survivor, telling her story to the orphans of the Cleyrian tragedy, she will tell them the truth.
--
“Why was Shiva the only one who got away, Nana?”
“Don’t be silly. She was the only one who didn’t.”
“Some say the world will end in fire.
Some say in Ice.”
-Robert Frost
Nifilheim and Muspelheim, horrified by their actions, gathered their fellows’ remains and bound their souls into jewels, so that their powers would remain immortal. As penance, Muspelheim asked Nifilheim to strike him a fatal blow. From his wound bled his molten ichor, which Nifilheim bound into blood rubies. Then, Nifilheim gathered the gems and bestowed them her strength, and the weak spirits that came forth she called Eidolons.
They say that instead of ending her own life, Nifilheim forfeited her godhood but remained alive. She bound herself in a prison of ice in the mountains, coming out only when a mortal with the Phantom voice calls her back to the earth. It is for this reason that Shiva, the blue widow, is the weakest of the Eidolons. It is also the reason she is the most reviled.
Burmecian folklore suggests that the only good thing that came out of the ice witch was that that Yggdrasil did not, in fact, die. The mighty towers of Asgard split the tree in half, and from its remains sprung Cleyra, the good tree, and Iifa, the bad tree. Before Cleyra ever became bound by a sea of sand, it became the destination of holy pilgrimages throughout the world.
In Burmecia, Shiva is a hated name, a wicked curse. Freya remembers how the young boys used to push her around, screaming Dirty little Shiva, little bitch. Why don’t you just die! And she remembers kneeling before her open window and looking out to the eastern mountains and just wishing that she could be as lucky as Shiva was, that she could escape into the snow caps and be free. Alone.
But now those young boys have grown into strong men, men that lift their swords and rush towards the branches of Cleyra with warrior cries. But like Ifrit, they are cut down into fountains of blood, gurgling over the roots of a dying-dead-tree. Freya, blood on broken fingers, drops to her knees and cries.
Freya, this doesn’t end here. You can’t let it end here.
I know.
Cleyra might have been saved by Ice. Or at least, Ice could have saved Cleyra its dignity. The frozen silence of the dead was so much more merciful than the awful smoldering of the dying. And Cleyra was the good tree. The holy tree. Cleyra was supposed to root the Burmecian race in peace.
As Zidane drags her away by the elbow, leaving a trail of blood behind them, Freya closes her eyes and remembers how the world was created.
(His dying words, his final blow: you can’t let it end here.)
Burmecian mythology says that Shiva was a coward. She murdered her brothers and sisters and refused to repay the price. She got to live. But Freya knows it is all lies. And when she is the Last Survivor, telling her story to the orphans of the Cleyrian tragedy, she will tell them the truth.
--
“Why was Shiva the only one who got away, Nana?”
“Don’t be silly. She was the only one who didn’t.”
“Some say the world will end in fire.
Some say in Ice.”
-Robert Frost