MISC. MONSTERS (FF3)
Those monsters from Final Fantasy III which just don't fit anywhere else...
Aeon -- Blue Wisp -- Bugbear -- Cursed Copper Coin -- Death Claw -- Death Needle -- Eater -- Flyer -- Gold Bear -- Goldore -- Gold Warrior -- Greatboros -- Guardian -- Iron Claw -- Jormungand -- Mage Flyer -- Needle Monkey -- Ouroboros -- Paralima -- Petit -- Petit Mage -- Pig Man -- Qumqum -- Red Wisp -- Roaming Gold Coin -- Ruinous Wave -- Sea Lion -- Thief Cusco
An aeon is a period of time so long that it can't be measured, and, in Gnostic philosophy, one of the attributes of God (such as "reason" and "truth"). Neither of these seem to fit the FF3 monster (although the latter fits FF10's aeons). Also, I've seen its name transliterated as "iron" and "ion". Thief Cusco is also a bit of a mystery - Lord Skylark has him on his untranslated name list as "Thief Guzco", although Kawaii Ryűkishi has suggested that it should be Thief Cusco, Cusco being a Peruvian city founded by the Incas.
In terms of appearence, both seem to be modelled around a statue of Laocoon (a Greek mythological figure who was said to be crushed to death by a snake). The statue shows the snake stretched across his body, wrapped around the right leg and left arm. There are some differences, but I'd say that there are enough similarities.
IMAGES: Ancient Greek statue of Laocoon
From Will o' the wisp, one of many names for the glowing balls that are now known to be ignited swamp gas. Most of the time, one name will have its own version of the legend - the "spunkies" of Scottish folklore are said to be the ghosts of babies who were never babtised; "Jack o' lantern" is a man who was denied entry to both Heaven and Hell, and wanders the Earth carrying a lantern made out of a turnip (the legend survives in Halloween celebrations), "corpse candles" hover over paths to indicate where a funeral procession will take place; and "foxfires" of China and Japan are associated with firey fox spirits and poltergeist phenomena. The Oriental variation would seem to be the closest to FF's aggressive wisps; Western versions claim their victims (if, indeed, they're after victims) by luring them into danger. As Will o' the wisps (the common plural, although "Wills o' the wisp" sounds more logical) form naturally over swamps, trying to catch them IS pretty dangerous.
IMAGE: Image from Le Veritable Dragon Rouge
The word "bugbear" is connected to "bogieman" and "bugaboo", only this variation - rooted in English folklore - takes the form of a bear. "Bugbear" has come to mean anything that causes unneccesary fear.
These absolutely smack of being taken from a folktale, but I don't have a clue which one.
Nope, sorry. Not sure what these things are. My guess is that they're original Square creations.
They're a monkey. With needles. That can cause death. Monkeys are cool.
IMAGE: A titi monkey
Well, the name seems self explanatory - just look at that mouth. Sticking my neck out, I'd say that it could be a reference to Ammit, the "Eater of the Dead" of Egyptian mythology. I'm basing this idea on my theory that one of Square's sources for FF3's monsters was Jorge Luis Borges 1957 Book of Imaginary Beings (it was originally in Spanish, but an English edition is available today, so it's possible that there is also a Japanese translation. Also, Borges had an affinity for Japan; just take a look at this). Both FF3 and Borges deal with abtu, acheron, anet, azrael, barometz, burak, carbuncle, catoblepas, cerberus, cronus, crocotta, garuda, griffin, haniel, haokah, humbaba, jinn, lemure, mandrake, mermecolion, peryton, remora, rukh, simurgh, scylla and orouboros (granted, some of these are so well-known that I'd be more surprised if there wasn't an overlap, but what are the chances of obscurities like haokah and humbaba overlapping?). Borges also lists the Eater of the Dead, and twice refers to it simply as "the Eater" (never as "Ammit").
That said, FF3's eater looks nothing like its Egyptian counterpart, which had the forequaters of a lion, the hindquaters of a hippo and the head of a crocodile, but that kind of artistic license is hardly unknown in FF.
I posted my theory on a message board, and it wasn't too popular:
Flying Mullet: "Well it's well-known fact that Square gets the names for a lot of its critters, item, weapons, armor, etc... from Norse, Greek and Roman mythology along with other religions such as Hinduism.
Black Mage: "humbaba is from the epic Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed humbaba, the guardian of the Great Cedar Forest, near Uruk.
Tsunami Bren: "that book, along with tolkien, D&D, etc allcome from various ancient mythologies"
I still stand by my theory. Firstly, it's more likely that Square used encyclopedias like this one in choosing monster names, rather then trawl through whole loads of general mythology books picking and choosing monsters so that a few mythology nuts like me could play "Where's Wally?", and a number of monsters (such as haniel) appear to have had mythical names given to them at random... like the names had been picked out of a book. Borges' book seems to be pretty well-known in the English speaking world, at least, so it's not just any mythology book; if it's "highly unlikely" that an FF3 team member should own it, then I'd like to see the books that he was more likely to have owned. The overlap is bigger than you might think; I looked through three other such monster encyclopedias, along with the Dungeons and Dragons monster manual, and, discounting well-known monsters such as cerberus, the only FF3 monsters to turn up were kelpie, humbaba, rukh, simurgh, peryton and mermecolion. The fact that both FF3 and Borges' book use characters like Haokah (hardly a poster boy for mythology) stands out even more.
IMAGE: Ancient Egyptian depiction of Anubis and Ammit
Well... they fly. And one of them flies and uses magic, making it a mage flyer. *nods*.
The gold bear and gold warrior appear alongside the gold eagle in Goldore's castle - the "gold" is just there for the theme. Goldore's name could be a combination of "gold" and "ore", or just "gold" with a random syllable that happens to mean something in English tacked on.
The ouroboros is a symbol that depicts a snake with its tail in its mouth; the word is Greek in origin, although variations on the basic design have appeared everywhere from Central America to Japan. Some major uses of the symbol include the emblem of the Theosophical Society (which depicts a number of symbols framed by an ouroboros, which, in turn, is topped with a crown) and Norse mythology's Jormungand.
Rather defeating the object, neither FF3's ouroboros nor its "spin-off", the greatboros, have their tails in their mouths. With their human heads, they're clearly based around Dungeons and Dragons' nagas.
IMAGE: The Theosophical Society's emblem
He guards the ragnarok sword. Ergo, he's a guardian. *nods*
(Note: because it's a machine, and so fits into a different category, I've given FF1's guardian a seperate entry. Didn't go into much more detail there, though =P)
According to Greek mythology, Jormungand is a giant serpent that circles Midgard, the home of mankind, biting its own tail. It was the son of the trickster god Loki and a giantess, and grew so rapidly that Odin was forced to throw it into the sea, where it will lie until Ragnarok, the Norse armageddon, when it will fatally poison Thor, who, in turn, will kill it before dying.
FF3's jormungands resemble crosses between eels and large tadpoles (such as those of the paradoxical frog). Judging by its pose and the presence of forelimbs, it was modelled around an illustration of Jormungand from the 1760 edition of the Prose Edda, linked to below.
IMAGE: 18th century illustration of Jormungand
Lord Skylark has this on his "untranslated name" list as "paralyma". I'm guessing that it's meant to be "paralima", the reference to the beanstalk-like tentacles and their bean-like bulges. "Paral" is, of course, from the monster's ability to cause paralysis.
IMAGE: A lima beanstalk
These composite rodents are named after the French word for "small". This is because you encounter them after shrinking to enter the Nept Shrine, along with wererats and lilliupts, which continue the "small" theme. The petit mages, however, are presumably a bit larger.
The above spelling is the one used by Lord Skylark (well, it DOES resemble a pig), although the ROM translated by Alex W. Jackson, Neill Corlett and SoM2Freak has it as "pyg man", a reference to pygmies, which would also fit, considering that the monster's a recolour of the lilliput.
Not sure about this one. Tekumel, a Middle-Eastern themed pencil-and-paper RPG has invisible spirits called "qumqums", but was created after FF3. Still, judging by the simialrity (FF3's qumqums appear to be spirits of some kind, as are Tekumel's), they have a common source. "Qumqum" is also a city in Sudan, and a type of bottle.
It's a wave that causes ruin.
A sea lion is a type of seal. FF3 depicts them with lions' heads as a Where's Wally-esque visual pun.
IMAGE: A sea lion
Back to...AEON, THIEF CUSCO
BLUE WISP, RED WISP
BUGBEAR
CURSED COPPER COIN, ROAMING GOLD COIN
DEATH CLAW, IRON CLAW
DEATH NEEDLE, NEEDLE MONKEY
EATER
So it's just coincidence that Square likes using ancient names for things and that another guy wrote a book about ancient things coming from these religions."
haokah is the Thunder god of the Sioux Indians.
I find it highly unlikely that Squaresoft used that particular book for any of the names, as most, if not all of the names in that book are taken from myths and legends of old."FLYER, MAGE FLYER
GOLD BEAR, GOLD WARRIOR, GOLDORE
GREATBOROS, OUROBOROS
GUARDIAN
JORMUNGAND
PARALIMA
PETIT, PETIT MAGE
PIG MAN
QUMQUM
RUINOUS WAVE
*looks around*
Another pointless entry. Ordinarilly, I'd plug my webcomics here, but just to make a change I'll plug someone else's.SEA LION
INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES
BY GAME
GROUPS
