Behind The Names in Final Fantasy

Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut. If you’re a fan of the Final Fantasy series, you know who these 3 staple summonings are. They’ve been around since the Super Nintendo, but do you know where the name originated from? For the sake of time, I’m only touching on the most common ones.

SHIVA
In Final Fantasy, Shiva is the queen of all things cold. With her trademark special attack “Diamond Dust”, she can freeze any monster and shatter them with an unforgiving snap of her fingers. But in reality, Shiva has nothing to do with ice. In the Hindu faith, Shiva is considered the supreme god with many forms and depictions ranging from great healer to destroyer of all.

IFRIT (a.k.a. Efreet, Ifreet, Afrit, Afreet)
A short tempered Fire element creature, quick to burn anything to the ground with it’s “Hell Fire” attack! Ifrit derives from the Arabic word meaning fire djinn or genie. which makes a little more sense than Shiva when Square-Enix converted the flame caster into a flaming beast. Now it only begs the question: would Jafar had been considered an Efreet when he wished to become a genie?

BAHAMUT
The dragon king of Final Fantasy summons, Bahamut stands tall over most every other character in the game. It’s powerful “Mega Flare” deals a devastating blow to it’s enemy. But where does he come from? Interestingly enough, he’s not a dragon at all. In Arabic myth, Bahamut is actually a gigantic fish swimming in an endless sea. It carries six hells, earth, and seven heavens on it’s back.

LEVIATHAN
Leviathan was a serpent-like sea monster referred to by Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism, the Leviathan were a pair of great sea monsters, both male and female. God killed off the female out of fear because if it ever procreated, they would probably destroy the the world (or at least eat all the humans). Leviathan remained a giant sea monster in final fantasy, given the power of “Tidal Wave”.

GILGAMESH
Legend has it that Gilgamesh was demigod with superhuman strength who built a great city wall to keep intruders out. Aside from growing 4 more arms, Gilgamesh retained his super strength and is either a a powerful ally or an irritatingly strong enemy.