Iifa Tree and Genomes

THE IIFA TREE

The following is an in-depth explanation of the process:

The Iifa Tree is a massive construct extending entirely around the core of the planet. Diagram: http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130521072503/f__/finalfantasy/images/6/67/Gaia-terra-assimilation.jpg Planted after the failed fusion of Terra and Gaia, it is a few thousand years old, the cluster seen protruding from the ground near Madain Sari only being a small part of its root system. Garland notes that after giving it time to acclimate to the planet, he began blocking the cycle of souls to the crystal, causing a slow decline in the world. He later started cycling in Terran souls after creating the Soul Divider within the Iifa Tree. While the crystal continued to pour Gaian souls into its creatures, none could return to the crystal. Gaian souls would be filtered away, slowly, until none remained within the crystal. Then, the souls of Terra could begin to cycle. The filtering process is what made Mist, a byproduct of souls that naturally spawned creatures from instable emotions, negatively affected the minds of living creatures, and could cause 'ghosts' to appear and persist. Of course, the fastest way to speed up this process was to cause as much war and mayhem as possible, and thus he had the tree's roots dig deep into the Mist Continent to release Mist.

Once things had progressed to his liking, the plan was to simply bring his genomes to Gaia. Within the space Terra existed they were not touched by the Crystal, but once brought to Gaia they would be treated like any other living creature ready to be bequeathed a soul - like infants. They would apparently be accepted naturally into the planet's cycle and be given Terran souls. At this point, the merger of Terra and Gaia, though failed at first, could be considered a success. Direct insertion of souls into genomes was possible but not recommended - Kuja served as a prime example. Inserting a soul directly into an adult body produced a childlike creature capable of only base emotions that was capable of growing, and learning, but not maturing. Allowing a genome to grow from an infant state with a soul seemed to be the best way of producing a rational, healthy individual, followed by letting the planet take care of a soulless vessel naturally, and then followed by artificial insertion in an adult stage.

GENOMES

To say Garland created the genomes is a bit of a fallacy. Garland himself is the original Genome, created by the Terran civilization to carry out their will. Created tailless, unlike the Terrans - but much like the civilizations they had absorbed, he was treated wholly as an immortal servant and expected to carry out their will. Which he did, given safeguards to ensure that he was incapable of disobeying - he was modified to the point where he could barely be called a living thing any longer, but instead... 'android'. After a few thousand years, he no longer cared. He and the other genomes were originally created in tanks, much like the ones you saw when you visited Bran Bal. Purely scientific creations born of lipids, protein and DNA. Terran 'elements' were naturally incorporated by their own world - something their scientists neither observed at the time nor needed to keep track of. It was the failed fusion of Terra and Gaia that was the last straw, they put Garland in charge and, unable to sustain their population any longer, placed their souls in sleep.

Garland dedicated the rest of his time to creating the Iifa Tree and the Soul Divider in order to enact his plans. In the meantime, he experimented with the Genomes in order to produce the strongest, the smartest, the most easily-adapting organisms he could - sometimes letting his creations die out in order to start over. Sometimes this involved scheduling manual breeding - it was critical to produce healthy offspring if Terra's civilization was to survive. He placed around his research community (and eventually what was left of the world) bright blue lights shimmering with the light of Gaia's crystal and blue moon, which was painful for the Genomes, himself included, to look at, for the sake of adaptation. He tested synthetic medications to improve physical traits, improve the rate of soul reception, increased desirability, or mental sharpness. At one point he tested mechanical augmentation much like himself, but his subjects' bodies violently rejected this and proved unsuitable.

It was at this point that Garland created Kuja, inserting his soul directly in an adult stage, intentionally limiting his lifespan by programming his body to reject the life-giving energy of the Crystal. A test-run 'angel of death', he was intended to last exactly twenty five years. Garland soon learned that there were problems with Kuja, who without complex emotions could neither be reigned in properly nor be able to achieve Trance. Nine years later, Zidane was born as a child, but Kuja grew jealous, kidnapped Zidane, and dumped him somewhere on Gaia. For this, Garland banished Kuja from Terra, then created Mikoto.

It was Mikoto who would eventually take on responsibility for managing the Genomes as Garland temporarily turned his gaze towards Kuja's activities on Gaia.

As for what Garland planned post-merger? Well... He intended to mass-produce Genomes, establish multiple points of civilization across the world, and simply safeguard them as things began to sort themselves out.