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The Oracle's canine companions Pryna and Umbra—female and male, respectively—serve as delivery dogs, relaying messages between Lunafreya and Noctis. Although they manifest themselves as a pair of white and black pups, they are in actuality Messengers boasting mystical powers of their own.
Loading screen description in Final Fantasy XV
Umbra is a dog who appears in Final Fantasy XV and its prequel, Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV. He is described as a "faithful servant," and belongs to Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. Though manifesting as a black spitz-type dog, Umbra and his white female counterpart Pryna are Messengers of the astrals to the Oracle. Umbra delivers messengers between Lunafreya and her childhood friend Prince Noctis by carrying the Lovers' Notebook between them.
Profile
Appearance
Umbra is a dark-colored dog that could be a cross between a Shiba Inu and an Alaskan Malamute. He has yellow eyes. When a puppy in Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV, he had black fur with white streaks across his muzzle and portions of his body, while in Final Fantasy XV he appears more dark brown and beige. He wears a blue rope around his neck and front legs that allows him to carry messages between Prince Noctis and Princess Lunafreya.
As a Messenger, Umbra is a magical creature. He can cross the world to deliver the message he carries and appears to not age.
Story
Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV
Umbra awakens from a nap and senses Pryna has returned.
Umbra awakens from a nap while in the care of Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. He runs outside, alerting Luna to the return of Pryna, a white puppy whom she had sent to see Noctis.
Final Fantasy XV
Umbra acts as an intermediate between Noctis and Luna, who write to each other in the small leather journal kept around the dog's neck.
Umbra, being so emotionally tied to the party, allows them to "relive" their adventures from the past after Noctis and his friends leave Lucis. At the hotel in Altissia, Noctis meets Gentiana who explains Umbra's powers that can send them back in time to the Lucis or, later, Altissia of the past. Umbra, at this point, resides in a small soldier's dormitory in the city of Insomnia.
Umbra at the Citadel when the sun rises.
After Noctis awakens from his ten-year sleep inside the Crystal, he is met by Umbra in Angelgard, who delivers a message from his friends to meet them at Hammerhead. Umbra stays by Noctis's side as he discovers the world trapped in perpetual darkness and daemons roaming the land. As they cross Leide together, Umbra alerts Noctis to an approaching truck, and they meet Talcott Hester who takes Noctis to Hammerhead. Umbra stays behind at the garage when Noctis reunites with his friends and they head for Insomnia to restore the light to the world.
Umbra awakes on the steps of the Citadel when the sun rises.
Gameplay
The player can select what type of message to send to Luna via Umbra, ranging from friendly, deep, and gruff messages.
Calling on Umbra in Altissia.
Starting at Chapter 10, Final Fantasy XV leaves the open world structure behind for a more linear progression toward the end of the story. At rest points, Umbra provides the option to return to Lucis and Altissia by revisiting memories of them, thereby retaining the open world gameplay. The player can continue engaging in sidequests, hunts, and any other activities they wish before returning to the present by calling on Umbra again. Since the player is revisiting the memories of Lucis and Altissia, if they travel back in Chapters 14 and 15, the four will regress to their appearance ten years ago.
Creation and development
Umbra was designed by Roberto Ferrari. Ferrari had designed characters that were cut from the final game, ninja-type characters similar to those who appear in Kingsglaive, but more Japanese. Umbra the dog was supposed to turn into one of them.[1]
Gallery
Etymology and symbolism
Umbra means "shadow" in Latin. Umbra and Pryna may allude to Geri and Freki from Norse mythology, two wolves that accompany the god Odin that are sometimes depicted as being light and dark-colored.
Umbra's counterpart is Pryna. Though Pryna's name doesn't mean "light" in juxtaposition to Umbra's name meaning shadow, she could be seen as representing it for her white color.
When Lunafreya dies Pryna is said to have died alongside her, while Umbra stays in the mortal world. This could allude to light disappearing from the world and leaving only shadow, as without Lunafreya Starscourge will overwhelm Eos.
Trivia
A Cosmogony illustration.
- A winged Gentiana and what appear to be winged Umbra and Pryna appear on an illustration on a Cosmogony book the young Noctis had in Tenebrae. The Cosmogony book the player can find in Taelpar Rest Area reveals that instead of appearing to mortals in physical bodies, the gods sent loyal servants to convey their divine will to the Oracle. These servants are known as Messengers.
- The dogs are characterized somewhat differently in the Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV anime, where they are both puppies. Noctis and Luna's childhood flashback in Final Fantasy XV that should take place before the dogs appeared as puppies in Brotherhood depicts them as seemingly fully grown.
References
- ↑ Artist Roberto Ferrari speaks about his designs in Final Fantasy XV (Accessed: UnknownError: See this for how to archive.) at NovaCrystallis
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