FFX1.3:
Summary: The alien ship arrives and Tar-Sec is appeased by the delivery of a large quantity of pirefly magic. In 10 years he will be back for more. The Bevelle 3 councilmen decide to create Yevon's Church to better control the people in Spira. Ties to FFX and FFX2 story are described
---- The harvesting operation starts
The Bevelle council members looked at Tar-Sec's ship at the loading dock. They had made it. Tar-Sec was satisfied with their joint performance and had spared them and the few that survived at Bevelle and Zanarkand
- "But don't think this is the last time I come here. I will need a new shipment soon" warned Tar-Sec
"But Spira's people, will need some time to recuperate from all this carnage. We can't just go killing all in Spira.." started the Maester protesting
"I know, I know… I'm no idiot. We can't thin the "herd" too much or it won't recuperate and our business is dead" answered Tar-Sec already counting the palaces he would buy with his share of the shipment profits.
"Sir. Herd ? Isn't that a callous way to talk about sentient beings ?" said the Maester
"You better get used to it. . Why do you think we needed to work with you savages ?" said Tar-Sec coldly
"Sir ?" asked the Maester
"We need someone with brains here to keep an eye on things and keep the herd healthy until our next harvest trip. You are it. Consider yourself and your council my farm hands." Said Tar-Sec laughing
"Please Sir.." pleaded the Maester
"And you better be grateful for it as I'm sure I can find another Spiran eager to betray his kin. Cursed backward planet of savages!" said Tar-Sec and spat on Bevelle's spotless floor
"Ah yes Sir, I see your point" said the Maester resigned. He had done the unthinkable already, how would one more insult from a monstrous human being as Tar-Sec matter anyway ?
"Well, you will have a break from me now as my scientists tell me your population will need at least 10 years to grow back to the current level. So relax and be merry but don't forget I'm coming in 10 years and I expect you to fill my ship's hull to the brim with h-fluid" said Tar-Sec and beamed himself out
The desolate Maester curses his destiny once again. Why didn't he follow his father's advice and kept on being a sailor ! The burdens of leading Bevelle through this troubled times were enough to drive a man insane! How on Spira would he manage to produce more h-pireflies for that madman Tar-Sec ? Even in 10 years it would be impossible! Sin was not around to kill! How would he be able to wake up the beast in 10 years and then make it stop again ? Tar-Sec's scientists had said that Spira needed at least 10 years to grow it's population back to "safe" levels but had said nothing about how Bevelle would get a traumatized population, brutalized by the violent war and by Sin to get back on it's feet, calm and hopeful enough to start growing their numbers again…
No one in Spira felt their normal self after their eventful year. Even him! The Maester had caught himself praising the Gods for Yu Yevon's monster Sin and all the killings it did, just because it helped him appease another monster, the murderous alien Tar-Sec ! Surely he was getting insane. Praising the Gods for Yu Yevon's mass murdering beast ? Now he didn't feel like praising anyone. How would he calm down the people in Spira long enough for them to grow the population and keep all of this secret ? He posed the question to his praetors
"We need something to keep Spira's people quiet and content" answered one of the praetors
"And low tech, lest they discover our scheme and use machina on us" said the other
"Good point" said the Maester..
"We need to find something fast because when Spirans lose hope they will be uncontrollable. A person without hope is very dangerous" said one of the praetors
"Agreed" said the others
"You know, in the end I was thanking the Gods for Yu Yevon's Sin. And for his daughter Yunalesca's sacrifice to stop Sin. That gave me an idea…." said the Maester and proceeded to describe how a religion could make Spirans calm and hopeful enough to grow their numbers again
"And we can make machina forbidden as part of the precepts. That will keep the rest of Spira away from weapons that would threaten us, and away from technology that allows them to detect Tar-Sec's ship!" said one of the praetors excited
"Precisely! But who or what can we make the "God" of this religion ?" asked the Maester puzzled
"You said it yourself: Yu Yevon! He may not deserve it but his daughter and her husband surely deserve to be sanctified after their immense sacrifice for Spira" said one of the praetors
After deliberating a bit more on the details of their new "Church of Yevon" the members of the Bevelle Council set up to eat a hearty meal. As always, the meal had many rare delicacies and had been prepared by the Maester's many attendants on a very luxurious table adorned with gold and jewels. Perhaps being the Maester wasn't so bad after all, the Maester thought and started eating contently, putting Sin's killings, Tar-Sec and the war out of his mind.
Someone in another planet (1) had once coined the concept of "the banality of evil", to represent how "banal", almost normal people who weren't themselves murdering monsters, could augment an evil monster's power, making sure the killings proceeded smoothly and efficiently. . Bevelle's Maester and his two praetors were a perfect example of it. Like the Bevelle Maester, some of those "banal" evil henchmen even regret the suffering they cause, but manage to keep on being evil's faithful servants in spite of the slight pang on their almost non-existing conscience…
Soon the 3 Bevelle councilmen started spreading the teachings of Yevon and building temples all over Spira. The main message behind the new Church was that Sin had come because of the war, the arrogance of both Bevelle and Zanarkand with their prideful ways, and the machina they used. Yevon, Lady Yunalesca's cherished father and teacher had lost his life trying to stop Sin but not before authoring a set of tenets for Spira to achieve atonement for the sins of their past, the prohibition to use machina one of the core ideas behind the tenets. The High Summoner who defeats Sin was another core image on Yevon's church traditions.
The religion created by the 3 Bevelle leaders makes sure that there are always eager candidates for Yunalesca to train. She does it every 10 years to keep Spira's hope alive, keeping her promise to her husband Zaeon who died to give Spira it's first calm.
And that is the Yevon church that Tidus finds in Spira, at Besaid's temple on the beginning of the game FFX…
--- FFX ties
Thanks to Spira's "Spiral of Death" Tar-Sec's alien ship gets it's load of Spira's riches every 10 years and the Bevelle Maester and his 2 praetors keep their posh palace at the bottom of Via Infinito. They never dared to reveal the secret of Tar-Sec's existence to anyone else so after a life of treachery all 3 remained as unsent ghosts in the bowels of Bevelle. Very few in Spira, even in Bevelle know of their existence: Yunalesca, the current Bevelle Maester and the Bevelle 3 ghostly unsent attendants may be the only ones who do…
This situation continues until at he end of the FFX game story Yuna and Tidus kill Yunalesca, Sin, Yu Yevon and Bevelle's top Maesters. Tidus, Yuna and the people in Spira think that they finally broke the cycle, that they finally put an end to Spira's Spiral of Death.
But although Tidus and Yuna put an end to Spira's Spiral of Death they did not get to the root what caused such a ghastly operation to start. Tidus, Yuna, Auron and their team had always thought that Yu Yevon's pride and Bevelle's greed were the whole reason behind all that carnage.
They have never heard of yet another twist in Bevelle's treachery to Spira: They have never heard about Tar-Sec's alien ship. Tar-Sec is long gone but he was quickly replaced by another ruthless alien smuggler, just as the Bevelle 3 had guessed long ago.
--- FFX2 ties
We learn in FFX2 that after Sin was defeated Trema forms a new Spira wide alliance, starting a large effort to find spheres from Spira's past. And then – one year before FFX2 starts, Trema suddenly disappeared with all the spheres his team retrieved. The FFX2 game shows Trema locked himself in Via Infinito. What could have he found out that would take him there ? Could Trema's sphere hunters have found sphere's with clues to the ship and the pirefly harvesting operation ? It is not that far fetched: It seems that the people from Bevelle have the habit of having a person tape their operations – a recorder – like Paine was for Nooj's Crimson Squad. And the 1,000 year old spheres of Shuyin in a cage show that the habit of recording has predated Sin. If you consider that other sphere hunters in FFX2 found spheres from 1,000 years ago, depicting High Summoner Lenne and her lover Shuyin, plus Bevelle's huge "planet killer" weapon Vegnagun, the possibility of Trema or someone else finding clues about the 3 Bevelle councilmen 1,000 year old treachery is plausible.
-- Footnote
(1)Hannah Arendt when describing Hitler's henchman Adolf Eichmann on planet Earth, 20th Century AD coined the term "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann's surprising similarities to a normal person's actions and morals. Eichmann had spent the entire WWII making sure the trains under his responsibility ran smoothly and efficiently. A "normal" efficient worker… But unlike a normal person, it seems Eichmann was never bothered by the fact that the trains "cargo" was comprised of people, being sent to their death in the concentration camps of Dachau, Auschwitz, etc.. The SOB was probably proud of the fact he could get more "loads" to Auschwitz thanks to his handiwork!
(2) The details of how / why I chose this particular plot line – aliens - to justify Spira's war and Sin's Spiral of Death are in on the first chapter of my fan fiction piece titled "FFX3 – A Possible Sequel for FFX and FFX2"