Throughout the millennia, Yevon religion became more and more influential. The clergy affirmed that Sin was born to punish humans for their use of machines and only when their past sins would be cleansed, he would go away. Save for the Al-Bhed tribe, no one dares to disagree with Yevon’s teaching, granting the church a complete dominance over the population.

Present-day Spira is very different from the one of the past. It is a pretty primitive and simple world, characterized by small villages, where people constantly live in fear of Sin.

Summoners are the only ones who can temporary stop Sin and bring a short period of peace. They have to embark on a pilgrimage across all Spira, praying to the fayths at temples in order to secure their help. At the end of this long journey, all summoners that arrive at the Ruins of Zanarkand are granted the Final Aeon, the only way to defeat Sin.

Yuna, Final Fantasy X‘s main character, is a summoner herself and, together with her guardians, she has to go on pilgrimage as well. Among her guardians is Tidus, a famous blitzball player. During a blitzball match his city, Zanarkand, was attacked by Sin and he was brought in a new world. Tidus is a complete stranger when he arrives at Besaid, he doesn’t know Yuna’s fate and she tries her best to keep it hidden.

Albeit it’s true that summoners can defeat Sin, it is also true that the Calm¹ won’t last forever. And the price to pay for defeating Sin is an high one. Lady Yunalesca² explains that the Final Aeon is created with the soul of one of the guardians and when it is summoned, the life of the summoner will also be taken. Moreover when Sin is defeated, the Final Aeon will be transformed into a new Sin.

At first Yuna was willing to die so as to give her people a period of peace, but she later realized that she didn’t want to sacrifice one of her guardians. Instead of doing what all the other summoners did in the past, Yuna and her group decided to stop Sin once and for all by gradually dismantling all the parts that composed Spira’s Spiral of Death.

Unfortunately when they succeeded, there wasn’t time for celebrating. It was discovered that Tidus, was nothing more than a dream of the fayths and once they awoke, the dream would end. After being freed, the fayths dispersed the aeons, Dream Zanarkand, and Tidus.

The story of Final Fantasy X ends with sad good-byes. Tidus had to leave, but his bond with Yuna never left.

1. A period of peace that follows Sin’s death. Since its creation, there have been five Calms on Spira. [↩]
2. Daughter of Yevon and the first to defeat Sin summoning her husband, Lord Zaon, as the Final Aeon [↩]