"He who crafts the souls of the dead into unholy armor. An armor called Sin. Clad in it, Yu Yevon is invincible."

—Grand Maester Mika

Yu Yevon (エボン＝ジュ, Ebon-ju^?) / (ユ＝エボン, Yu-ebon^?) is the leader of Zanarkand, Lady Yunalesca's father, and the creator of Sin. He is the final boss of Final Fantasy X.

Yu Yevon is represented by the letter A in the Yevon script alphabet. This is the symbol that appears on its true body in the final battle. It appears in many places in Final Fantasy X, sometimes paired with the letter Z, the symbol of Sin, symbolizing the beginning and the end of things.

Appearance and PersonalityEdit

Yu Yevon has no dialogue in his single appearance, so his personality is unknown.

His appearance is also somewhat of a mystery, as he is never shown in human form. Yu Yevon appears as a bizarre, floating creature with hooks and a glowing emblem of Yevon for a face. The nature of this form is never explained, but there are many possibilities. It may be that transplanting his soul from each Sin to its successor may have diminished or destroyed his true physical form, leaving him in this parasitic, bug-like state. Yu Yevon also may have taken on this form intentionally, perhaps to facilitate his ability to possess aeons.

Another possibility is this form is actually his appearance as a fiend; this is unlikely though, as he retains his obsessive desire (and the ability) to summon Dream Zanarkand. He also appears shortly as a floating ball of light similar to a pyrefly to signify his ethereal form.

Despite being the main antagonist, Yu Yevon has less detail given about him than many of the side characters. The only information given about him comes from other sources, such as Bahamut's fayth, Yunalesca, and Grand Maester Mika. All that can be assumed is that he seemed to care more about Zanarkand's memory than the citizens of Zanarkand themselves.

Yu Yevon's role in the story is that of an impersonal antagonist. While Jecht and Seymour filled the roles of personal antagonists for Tidus and Yuna, Yu Yevon has no personal connection with any of the main characters. In some respects, he can be considered a tragic character as he is incapable of stopping what he is doing and his mind is so shattered he can't even die.

StoryEdit

"Yu Yevon was once a summoner, long ago. He was peerless. Yet now he lives for one purpose: only to summon. He is neither good, nor evil. He is awake, yet he dreams. But...maybe not forever."

—Fayth

One thousand years before the events of Final Fantasy X, Yu Yevon was the leader of Zanarkand and a powerful summoner, peerless in his might. Zanarkand was at war with Bevelle, a strong military power which used mechanical technology to build weapons (Zanarkand's machines were used solely to power the city). Unwilling to let Zanarkand die in defeat, Yu Yevon had all the surviving citizens turn themselves into fayth and began a massive group summoning of the city. In order to protect himself, he gathered a multitude of pyreflies and transformed them into an armor which became the creature, Sin.

Yu Yevon gave this creature a set of simple instructions: destroy any machina or settlement which grew larger than a small village in order to bring technical evolution to a halt, and retaliate to all hostility with extreme prejudice. However, the strain on summoning both Sin and maintaining his Dream Zanarkand proved too much and his humanity faded, and Sin was left as a force relying solely on instinct to comply with the instructions given to it upon creation. Sin's first act as such was to destroy the real Zanarkand. The armies of Bevelle saw this destruction and retreated, bringing the first news of the great monster.

According to the fayth who are continuously being used to summon Dream Zanarkand, Yu Yevon is neither good nor evil. His existence only has one purpose: to maintain Dream Zanarkand while protected by his armor known as Sin, which is why he is drawn to the Final Aeon when his former armor has been destroyed.

Shortly before creating Sin, Yu Yevon informed Yunalesca of his plan and gave her a means of calming the creature. Yunalesca passed this knowledge on to the leaders of Bevelle, thus beginning the teachings of Yevon and the endless spiral of death that surrounds Spira.

Every time a summoner destroyed Sin, the aeon used for the Final Summoning is possessed by Yu Yevon and used to rebuild Sin. Due to the absence of Sin's destructive abilities while Yu Yevon is rebuilding his armor, the period of time after its defeat is known as the Calm. Yu Yevon continued to use this process to renew Sin time and time again, with the Calm being the only motivation for new summoners to undertake the pilgrimage.

1000 years after Sin was born, Yuna and her guardians pierce Sin's armor and defeat Yu Yevon himself, thus banishing Sin for good and allowing the fayth to finally stop dreaming.

BattleEdit

Main article: Yu Yevon (Boss)

Yu Yevon is the final boss of Final Fantasy X. He is accompanied by two Yu Pagodas. He specializes in high level magic which is harmless due to the constant Auto-Life effect provided by the fayth. Yu Yevon lacks magic that disables party's possibility to act in a battle, like Petrify, to counter the Auto-Life.

TriviaEdit

• Every time Yu Yevon possesses one of Yuna's aeons during the end of the game, they take on the appearance of the Dark Aeons. This also suggests that Braska's Final Aeon looked different in terms of coloration before becoming Sin's core.
• The original plot draft for Final Fantasy X indicated that portraits of Yu Yevon were displayed in public places, but this was scrapped in the final version.