Tonberry Tales

"There is a story I know. It's about a people of two faces - a calm and reverent face, that of an ancient Summoner tribe, and a dark and murderous face, the face of an Inner Beast.  Many times I've heard this story, and every time it was different. The details shifted, different individuals dying at the hands of these people, or the methods of cruelty and murder changing with the passing ages."

"But in every telling of the story, there was a knife, and there was a lantern. And in every telling of the story, the lantern illuminated this dark face with a sickly light, and the knife cut away the calm face, casting it too into darkness."

Ammy jumps up on a stool and twirls in place, calling her lantern to one hand and calling up her knife to the other - this time taking a clearly ceremonial form - and swipes downward once before dismissing it again and lifting her lantern higher

"These people were the Tonberries. Today I bring a light to discarded tales with my lantern, and I cut away the hardened lies with the blade of my words. Today, I shall tell you the other half of their story, the tale of the Summoner's face."

Ammy begins to summon illusionary underwater effects for the room, populating it with varied marine life - and several pairs of glowing yellow eyes in the corners of the room. Ammy's speaking begins to be accompanied by bubbles.

"In ancient times, on a world far from our own, they were an aquatic people. Before the knife came the trident, with its three bladed points. And before the lantern came imitations of the anglerfish's glow."

Illusionary Aquaberries begin to slowly swim out of the corners of the room.

"They were followed by a shadow, a looming presence over them, and whoever swam to meet that presence at the water's surface disappeared, never to return. In time, they moved their civilization ashore and discovered it was merely a human boat, but by then they had crafted grandiose tales, legends of a god, a saviour and a guide to their people. And thus was born the Eidolon Ark, the first Eidolon of the Tonberry people."

Ammy pauses for a moment and steps down from her perch, pacing the stage. As she continues the next bit, the 'water' drains from the room, and images of Ark in various stages of development - a boat, an airship, a humanoid robot - appear in turn.

"Now, this story continues for a great many ages, and as the civilization of the Tonberries grew, so did their guardian and protector. It delivered them from sure catastrophe and extinction, and it formed the foundation for a society of Summoners that guarded the eternal legends of the land. But that is the tale of another world and not this one, and I am sure you all would rather hear the tales of this world instead. Ark did bring them over to our world, eventually, where they settled and discovered and worshipped new Eidolons within the volcano we call Mt. Gulug."

The illusions vanish, replaced by an interior view of Mt. Gulug and the Tonberry structures within, as Ammy would imagine they would have looked in their prime, with Tonberries scuttling all about.

"We call them mole people now, a testament to how surely and how deeply the knife cut that severed this half of their legend from the other. It is true, they are plagued by an inner beast, a darkness inside that calls them to murder. But they built a civilization upon taming this beast and working with it. Their knives are not to murder but to hunt for their families, and their lanterns lead not travelers astray but instead guide the souls of their dead as they pass on. Balance, a control and acceptance of their inner darkness, became the cornerstone of their Dark Sword arts."

Now a great looming eye opens up from the darkness of the cave ceiling, and blasts of energy begin to decimate large portions of the civilization below.

"This all ended the same way Madain Sari ended twenty years ago!" Ammy calls out over the din of her illusions. "The power of the Eidolons was too great for Garland to tolerate, a possible threat to his plans to destroy Gaia and assimilate it. And so he destroyed them, just as he destroyed those we knew as Summoners two decades past."

"Now," Ammy continues more quietly as her illusions settle into the ruins of the mountain today, "they are a ruined people, scattered and few. Among those who remain, many struggle to rein in their inner beasts, now that their civilization has passed. And others still retreat into the shadows, where they know they may not harm others. And so history turns and runs its course, and in time they become known as monsters, the boogeymen we tell children about to warn them of dangers of the night."

"But as the last of them fade, as reality disappears into myth and whispered legend, I believe the world deserves to remember the triumphs and legacy of a whole people and not merely the tragedies and sins of a few. So let my words be a knife - the steel that severs stagnant stories. And let my words be a lantern - the light that leads lustrous legends. And let us not forget, as we march into this everchanging world ripe with new fables, the sagas of the past."