Final Fantasy X Remaster, 4: The Operation, Garm and Lamashtu.

 Welcome back to Spira my friends. When last we left, Wakka and Tidus led the Auroch's to tournament victory, only to have the stadium be invaded by a horde of fiends. The guardians fought hard, but the day was saved by Maester Seymour and his powerful aeon.

 

Seymour summons Anima.

  The guardians then prepared to continue the pilgrimage. Next, they were to travel down the Mi'hen highroad to the temple at Djose. Something was up however, there were a number of the warriors known as the Crusaders about, who were preparing for some sort of "operation" that they were a bit vague about. Along the road, the guardians encountered two of the Maesters: Seymour, and Kinoc.

 The Maesters were present to watch the "operation" which was a joint effort by the Crusaders and the Al-Bhed to use forbidden machines, or "machina" to destroy sin. The Maesters seemed to be up to something, Seymour saying simply "Pretend you don't see them," meaning the machina, which are against the tenants of Yevon. Kinoc, reunited with his old friend Auron, said to him "You know this will not work..." Wakka, ever devoted to the teachings, had a bit of a crisis of faith as he realized the Maesters of Yevon were willingly letting this operation proceed, even though it was against the precepts of their religion.

 

This Sinspawn escapes during the operation. It must be defeated by the guardians, and Seymour.

 Sin did come, releasing it's spawn onto the beachhead. The Crusader's charged, and the Al-Bhed's cannons shot. However, in the end, Sin seemed unharmed. The combatants were slaughtered almost whole-sale. Tidus, overcome with emotion at the sight of the destruction caused by Sin, possibly his father, gave chase, however futile it may have been. 

 Tidus awakened on the beach, after coming close to Sin. He sensed, what was perhaps, an impression of his father. He was Sin, and he wanted the destruction to stop.

 

In the aftermath, the beach is littered with the bodies of Crusaders.

 It's been a bit since I actually played through this part of the game, but I remember it being quite an emotional moment, and I'm not easily moved by video games. It's at this point that the story really starts to get intriguing, and never lets up until the end.

 There have been a couple of monsters I've encountered that had names that intrigued me, since I recognize them from other sources. One is garm, a dog creature. Here is the description from Encyclopedia Mythica, at www.pantheon.org: "The monstrous hound Garm guards the entrance to Helheim, the Norse realm of the dead. It has four eyes and a chest drenched with blood, and lives in Gnipa-cave." I have bookmarked the page, I have no doubt it will be quite handy. The garm monster in the game doesn't quite live up to this description, but it is an interesting reference non the less.

Artwork for Final Fantasy X's garm.

 One of the dragon type creatures in the game is named Lamashtu. This caught my eye as that is also the name of a demon goddess in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game world of Golarion. Not surprisingly, the name comes from mythology. The game's creature bears little resemblance to it's source, which is not rare for Final Fantasy. Usually the monster names are a mix of names such as this, and those that resemble their source, such as garm.

 On Lamashtu, from wikipedia: "In Mesopotamian mythology, Lamashtu was a female demon, monster, malevolent goddess or demigoddess who menaced women during childbirth and, if possible, kidnapped children while they were breastfeeding. She would gnaw on their bones and suck their blood, as well as being charged with a number of other evil deeds." Whether Final Fantasy X's Lamashtu does these things is not so much explored in the game.

A plaque depicting Lamashtu.

 In the carnage of Operation Mi'hen, it is becoming apparent that all is not as it seems with Yevon. How could they stand by and watch so many die for naught? How is it that the consciousness of Tidus's father lurks within the massive beast Sin? Join me again, for This Bard's Tales!