background.

[forthelight]

BACKGROUND ( Due to his not having a name/not being able to remember it, I will often refer to him as "Warrior" seeing how he is referred to as Warrior of Light. ) I don't know if this is even still a thing anymore but if you've never played Dissidia or Dissidia 012, there will be SPOILERS in Warrior's background, so! The one thing that you, as the player learn and Warrior never does is this: he is not human, he is a manikin. So already we're off to a great start of a possible identity crisis happening at some point. But, let's keep going. To first understand just WHY and HOW Warrior came to be, we need a little bit of background information on just who created him. That person is Cid of the Lufaine, a rather bright scientist from Lufenia who is also the one responsible for creating the airships. War has always been a recurring theme throughout Final Fantasy and among humans to begin with and with the threat of neighboring countries being able to control summoned monsters and Omega (bad guy), the government of Onrac thought it was a swell idea to use a crystal from another world after stumbling upon a rift to another dimension to make weapons for themselves. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? They're basically the ones who created the first manikins. Now, manikins are basically puppets (or clones if you want) and the first ones were nothing but mindless with no sense of self or will. So, to make them better? Cid infused memories into them from the Lufenian in an attempt to give them that sense of self. Long story short for them? They pretty much all failed and couldn't take the memories for whatever reason. So, what do you do with failed experiments? Get rid of them naturally! But... there was ONE who seemed to create a personality for itself and Cid and his wife more or less adopted as their son because they ended up loving him and he them. No, not Warrior. Chaos. Nothing can go wrong with a name like that, right? But Chaos was taken away when he was older to be used as a weapon of war and as you can imagine that just didn't end well for anyone. Skipping ahead some, Cid and his wife basically refused to be a part of controlling Chaos, busted Chaos out of prison and went to make their escape. Cid's wife, sadly, was shot during their escape and Chaos was so enraged by what had happened to his "mother" that he tore an interdimensional rift which sucked in Cid, himself, and Cosmos, the other manikin created that had been molded after Cid's wife/her memories. Enter Shinryu, a dragon of immense power just chilling in this dimension (Garland is also there with his own story for how/why) for whatever reason and is the reason why this whole war between the now goddess of Harmony, Cosmos and now god of Discord, Chaos starts in Dissidia. Basically? Cid makes a deal with the dragon where Cosmos and Chaos will summon heroes and villains from other worlds to fight against each other for what seems to be forever and ever and he can feed off the memories of the fallen warriors on whatever side loses and grow stronger and stronger in exchange for being able to exist without his body. Why Shinryu needs to be so strong? Who knows. Cid eventually ends up trying to create a "perfect manikin" and even goes so far as to infuse his own memories into this one but, while successful in the whole not crystallizing on him, sadly, like the other ones, it seems to lack any sort of will which he assumes is due to an incomplete transfer of his memories. So? He tosses the manikin down into the battle to see what it does and this is where we learn that this manikin is the Warrior of Light. Phew! So, Warrior's here now. He is eventually found by Prishe, shining brightly (literally) all on his own with no memories or a name to go by and shortly after Garland makes an appearance who is a little baffled by the Warrior's appearance (ooooh does he know him maybe?) and threatens to take the Warrior back to Chaos. Worried for what may happen to the Warrior if he were to be taken to Chaos, Prishe isn't having any of that, fights off Garland and makes her escape with the Warrior, taking him to Cosmos where she imbues him with her power and makes him a Warrior of Cosmos. A rather pivotal moment for Warrior is when he discusses his lack of memories and a name to Prishe, claiming that he doesn't care if he can't remember anything and that so long as he's needed to fight, then he has a purpose. Prishe flat out tells him how wrong he is for thinking that and how emotions are so important to a person and that, rather than disregard them and who he could (potentially) be, he should embrace them and draw strength from them. That's when she decides to name him, which, sadly, we never learn just what that name is. Unfortunately, Warrior ends up losing Prishe in battle with Garland striking down Cosmos and causing the cycle to end. Even while fading, Prishe expresses how glad she is to have met the Warrior and that, despite her beginning to disappear, to please remember the name she gave him, not wanting him to forget just who he is and how important those emotions are to him. This is the last that we see of Prishe and, sadly, the Warrior has his memories wiped of the girl before he finds Cosmos in the next cycle. Warrior fights for Cosmos alongside the other heroes, dying over and over again and come the 12th cycle, that is when things change when a fellow warrior named Kain (Final Fantasy IV) lets Warrior in on how the cycles are working and they both agree that they can't win this 12th cycle with the manikins on the loose. Why not just fight off the hundreds of them? Because manikins have the ability to kill the warriors... permanently. Lovely. Kain and Warrior come to a decision to take out the other warriors of Cosmos so as to end this cycle and spare them permanent death at the hands of the manikins. Warrior and Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII) clash over this but eventually he wishes her and the others she takes with her luck when it's decided after a reveal from Laguna (Final Fantasy VIII) they'll go to close a rift within the world where manikins have been pouring in from and causing the warriors to lose their battles. Remember those manikins that had been disposed of earlier? Surprise! It's them. Warrior remains behind on his own to protect Cosmos while Lightning, Kain, Tifa (Final Fantasy VII), Yuna (Final Fantasy X), Laguna, and Vaan (Final Fantasy XII) set out to close the rift. Despite being successful in closing the rift, Lightning and the others die shortly after, leaving Warrior to be the last hero barely standing to protect Cosmos. Having come to care for Warrior and the other heroes, Cosmos calls out to Warrior when his strength begins to waver from the never ending onslaught of manikins coming at him, realizing that he can't win against them with it just being himself. It's in that moment Cosmos uses the last of her strength to save him, killing herself in the process and leaving Warrior horrified at her sacrifice when it was his duty to protect her and not the other way around, falling unconscious after. Upon waking, Warrior finds himself surrounded by his fallen comrades and that's when Shinryu makes his appearance showing that, once again, they failed what with Cosmos being dead. Before the fallen warriors are taken to be revived yet again, Tifa, Laguna, Kain, Yuna, Vaan and Lightning begin to fade away, Shinryu being unable to revive them due to their deaths having been outside of the conflict between Chaos and Cosmos. Before she disappears for good, Lightning acknowledges Warrior and gives him a nod, letting him know that he can finally end this conflict in the next cycle with the rift now being closed and the remaining manikins having been killed by Cosmos. It's after she fades that Warrior collapses and is swept up by Shinryu to participate in the next cycle. And this is where DISSIDIA starts since all of that above was DISSIDIA 012. When Warrior wakes in the 13th cycle, he hears Cosmos calling out for him and finds her, weakened from the previous cycle. With a mission to find his crystal and put an end to this conflict, he sets off in search of it but is stopped by Garland who questions Warrior's resolve and the two fight, Warrior coming out as the winner. Garland throws an offhand remark about how Warrior will soon enough know the truth behind this war before he disappears and Warrior moves on to continue his journey. He ends up crossing paths with Cecil (Final Fantasy IV) and Tidus (Final Fantasy X) who tell Warrior that Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) is causing mayhem and eventually he comes across Firion (Final Fantasy II) who has gotten himself into some hot water with the silver-haired swordsman from VII. Warrior comes to Firion's aid and fights Sephiroth on his behalf, defeating the swordsman before he wanders off muttering that the fighting will never end and goes off to look for Cloud (Final Fantasy VII) because, you know, he's Sephiroth. Coming across Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII), more taunting is thrown at Warrior regarding his resolve and his desire to protect his comrades and Cosmos but, as always, the taunting falls on deaf ears and Warrior continues to press on his journey where he eventually comes across Squall (Final Fantasy VIII) who is traveling on his own. Warrior, concerned for his comrade, challenges him to a duel to ensure that he is capable of handling himself alone and, after Squall proves himself worthy, Warrior is satisfied with his strength and the trust he explains he has in his comrades. He leaves the lion to be then, claiming that Squall is never truly alone before he continues on his journey. Cosmos approaches Warrior on his journey and attempts to dissuade him from finishing it, caring for him and the other heroes and all around tired of these endless cycles. Rather than go along with what it is the one being he serves to protect wishes, he insists that he will continue on and end this conflict, even if hope may seem lost. It's his resolve and the faith that he has in his comrades and their own journeys that has Cosmos believing in Warrior and the other heroes, seeing how he has become the so-called "hero of heroes". Warrior ends up running into the Emperor (Final Fantasy II) and deals with more petty attempts regarding his resolve and why oh why do you continue to fight for these people? The Emperor tries to tempt Warrior with a fake crystal but Warrior sees through the ruse and destroys the crystal, claiming that their crystals are earned through their own strength and not handed over to them so easily by an enemy. Basically, don't try and play him, Emperor. Warrior slays the Emperor and he disappears which is then that Garland decides to pop out of the shadows and ask Warrior to come along with him to find out "the truth". Following Garland off to the Chaos shrine, he discovers that they're all locked in an endless cycle of war where they shall fight forever and ever and have nothing else outside of that. Basically? This is your destiny, Warrior, now fight me forever. Warrior isn't having any of that and swears that he will overcome this insanity and he fights Garland once again. Warrior defeats Garland and earns his crystal and Garland says he'll return again to which Warrior is probably all ugh and that's when the other heroes arrive with their own crystals having been acquired, all of them heading off to meet back up with Cosmos since the mission has been accomplished. Along the way, Bartz (Final Fantasy V) suggests the others try and come up with a name for Warrior after he explains that he can't remember anything of his home or even his name but Warrior declines the offer, claiming that while he can't remember who he is or where he's from, he can feel that he does have memories hidden deep within him and in those memories is a name that was once given to him by someone he cared for. They all arrive back to Cosmos but the goddess claims that it's too late and surprise, Chaos arrives, taking them all with him to his throne in a fiery plateau of holy crap, it's hot here. It's there that Chaos kills Cosmos and one by one, the heroes begin to disappear into darkness. And this is where Warrior's background shall end because... what? You want me to spoil the ending of Dissidia as well?