Disclaimer and such and such: Yunalesca, Yu Yevon, and all characters of Final Fantasy X are © the property of Squaresoft. I do not claim them as my own. This story is however, my intellectual property. So please don't steal it.

Intro: This story is my attempt to explain some of the unclear elements of the FFX backstory, such as why Yevon did what he did, why the Church of Yevon hates machine, the War between Bevelle and Zanarkand, what pyreflies are, etc. This is not an official backstory, just a constructed and novelized idea based on my interpretations of the game. Since we really don't find out all that much about Yevon, I decided to write this story. And here it is. Enjoy.

Final Fantasy X Gaiden: Quando Judex est Venturus

The fervor of true silence. A simple beauty, so easily dashed in the gears of conflict and death. But beautiful still, perhaps in spite of its fragility.

He stood on the great balcony of the Sacred Dome, watching. The world was burning to ashes around him. Reds and white-yellows of incandescent fire burst in the distance. It was deathly quiet. A hideous silence, one that represents the lack of human life going about its normal business. He saw it, felt it, and as a result, was dying inside, slowly and painfully.

He was a tall man, regal in his simple green meditation robe, yet terribly sad. He was by no means old nor did he look it; his face was the face of youth, yet his eyes said otherwise. His hair was a strange color, a silvery pale, yet not the pale of age, but, as it was said, touched by the hand of the God. Hanging in it and ending above his head to hang slightly downwards were the long ceremonial gyuukaku decorated with the engravings of holy words, beads, jewels, and with the letter Yae at their center. The ritual knife, never used, but proudly displayed for its intricate carving, hung noiselessly at his side. He was pale in visage, but his skin showed an otherworldly play of colors if one looked ever so closely. He had a stately face, soft at the sides and forehead, but tapering down to a slightly pointed chin. Eyes of a liquid golden color teared in sadness as he drew back from the scene below.

Stretching his hands outwards, he summoned the seigan, the seeing eye, and spread his gaze forth. The armies of machina rode on; great twisted creatures of artificial life; of steel and iron, burning everything. Chadokoro, the agricultural district, was long gone. Being the outmost section, and the most defenseless, it had been crushed quickly under the enemy offensive. Not that the city had really any defensive capabilities, it was a place of happiness and art, not war. Now their food supply was gone; the people were growing more and more anxious. The pleading of the people grew daily too much to bear; so he had retreated into his inner chambers to contemplate and pray.

"Ie ui nobo me no ren mi ri yoju yogo. Hasa te kana eku tamae." He chanted the Hymn softy. The words floated through the chamber, echoing mellifluously and then dying away. "Great Lord Ebon, preserve thy people and thy city. Give me the power to bring Your holy wrath down on the defilers of our children." He said.

He wondered if the God had heard his prayer. The Creator seemed strangely quiet these past years, ever since the Disaster. The fall of man, and his fate, was it? He hoped not. Drawing his voluminous green robes close to him, he walked to the center of the balcony and began the drawing of fate. Tracing the mandala, he completed the ritual incantation. Finally, he took a deep breath, and sang the Hymn once more. Then he drew the symbol Fheya in the air, and brought his hands together with a thundering boom.

"Tenrai-Ou Ixion! Incarnation of Thunder, I summon thee in the name of your Lord! Come forth!"

The sky flashed and tore itself apart. Myriad bolts of light burst forth and poured down upon him. He twisted, not in pain, but as adulation. He pulled the lightening within him, and then pushed it outward with every once of his being. The air in front of him began to undulate in a rhythm of coming power. The rift grew still for a moment, and from it rode a great horse, as large as a dragon. It was magnificent; white, blue, silver and grey playing through its skin as residual sparks of lightening rippled around it. It gave forth a cry of triumph and reared its golden horn.

He stepped back and let his body fall away, dissolving on the wind until only essence remained. Flowing forward, he melded into the Incarnation and became one with it: One mind, one voice, one force.

Let it begin!

The combined Incarnation roared in rage and jumped off the balcony towards the nearest war machina. Passing miles in leaps and bounds, it rode on driven by pure fury as lightening flashed though its body. The machina turned slightly as it saw the Incarnation coming. Its dead eyes looked straight at the coming whirlwind of fury. It seemed as though it was attempting to scan the Incarnation; or was it truly curious.? The thing never even bothered to move. It simply turned its triangular head back around, and brought its attention back to the task at hand. Within seconds, its irregular-cylinders of arms (of which there were four, with three long claws apiece) demolished yet another series of buildings.

The Incarnation roared again in anger as it drew ever closer. It finally closed the distance and put its head downwards in an attempt to skewer the machine. Bone met metal, and the Incarnation screeched in pain as it failed to even dent the creature. Slowly, the machina rotated its head back, focusing its three green eyes on its attacker. It swung its hand out, only to barely missed, but just so that it nicked the Incarnation's leg. It breathed heavily, and then the incarnation stood completely still. The machina brought its lower arms together and began a heavy motion down.

Suddenly, the horse came to life. Its eyes glowed slightly, and the smallest spark of light formed at the tip of its horn. The sky above growled, and then flashed. Three bolts of lightening drove down from the sky at a maddening pace and met at the Incarnation's horn. It formed a crackling ball, and then it reared up. The ball released itself and met the machina head on before it could move an inch. Lightening spread over the thing's carapace with frightening violence. It then dissipated without another sound. The machine didn't twitch; it simply stood frozen. Then, it fell forward with a thoroughly satisfying crash.

The Incarnation trembled, and then disappeared into a swarm of pyreflies. Within seconds, they were gone, leaving the great priest of Ebon laying unconscious amidst the rubble.