Sephirot/Fiend Connection Trivia

Hi everyone !

Since i am actually not so well educated on the whole FF universe, i wanted to ask the most knowledgeable of you about something.

For me Sephirot was always the bad guy from FFVII, so when i saw his appearance in FFXIV, i was quite confused. Then, after doing a bit of research, i found out that it was based on Doom/Fiend from FFVI. I also found out that Doom was originally named Sephirot (???) which made things even more confusing.

Could someone let me know if there is any proper connection between those two, or if SE just used the same name for two characters in their franchise ?

Thanks in advance !

There is no connection between the two. Sephirot is the original name of Fiend, as seen in the concept art. The villain on FFVII is named Sephiroth, not Sephirot.

The Sefirot is the Kabbalistic tree of life, depicted as a branching structure that encompasses the principles of the cosmos/divine power and law. So, the reference used in XIV about making Sephirot a tree god doesn't originate from anywhere in FF itself outside of him first appearing in VI as one of the gods of magic.

Sephirot, also known as 'The Fiend", is one of three powerful Eikons. The other two being 'The Goddess' Sophia, and 'The Demon' Zurvan. These entities in the world of FFVI were known as the Gods of Magic, and responsible for the creation of Espers (our version of primals), and the existence of all magic in the world.

I can see how it is easily confused with FFVII's main antagonist Sephiroth, but they are indeed two separate beings. With Kefka making an appearance, even though it isn't really him, the actual Sephiroth making it into the game is a possibility.

As has been mentioned, 'Sephirot' and 'Sephiroth' are two totally different characters/ideas. Sephirot was one of the Warring Triad/Gods of Balance in FFVI (in the original Ted Woosely SNES translation he was simply called 'Fiend', hence his subtitle), and has absolutely nothing to do with FFVII's infamous main antagonist, despite having a similar name taken from the Kabbalah (and even SE are aware of this and have joined in the fun at teasing the reference: the achievement for completing Sephirot's Extreme mode is 'Veni Veni Venias', referencing a line taken from One-Winged Angel, Sephiroth's famous final boss theme in FFVII. ;)).

But there is literally no direct connection between the two other than a shared etymology of the name.

I also can't help but feel that the line during Fiend that goes "Say my name! SEPHIROT!" With that hard T on the pronunciation is a jab at people confusing him for Sephiroth as well.

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Originally Posted by Limecat

The Sefirot is the Kabbalistic tree of life, depicted as a branching structure that encompasses the principles of the cosmos/divine power and law. So, the reference used in XIV about making Sephirot a tree god doesn't originate from anywhere in FF itself outside of him first appearing in VI as one of the gods of magic.

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Also possibly of interest, Sephirot's attack names are also references to Kabbalistic terminology. None of the terms in-game have much relation to the texts they drew from, but I'll admit that I was amused that they took the Tree of Life (which is called that because it's a tree diagram, not because there's any kind of actual tree involved) and made it an actual god of tree people.

To the OP, Both Sephirot and Sephiroth draw upon the Kabbalistic term for their names, but neither have anything to do with the Kabbalah, or each other. Japan just loves using terminology from "exotic" religions to make their fantasy creations seem like they have eldritch weight. Neon Genesis Evangelion is another great example of this phenomenon in practice.

After the brilliance of savage fights - ex Kefka going into god mode, I'm hoping Sephiroth and one winged angel finds its way into the game.

Actually they both originally shared the exact same name - セフィロス(Sephiroth/Sefirosu).
The Fiend's name is never really mentioned in FFVI though and is only known from the concept sketch, same with the other Triads. It is possible that due to that devs simply decided to reuse the name for the next game's villain.
The spelling change in FFXIV was probably done to avoid confusion with the more popular, but not original, bearer of the name.

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Originally Posted by Mirakumi

After the brilliance of savage fights - ex Kefka going into god mode, I'm hoping Sephiroth and one winged angel finds its way into the game.

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I believe it's a strong possibility as well, but it worries me a bit. Only because SE has milked the living crap out of VII, with Sephy making appearances in formats from prequels to anime. Meanwhile, Kefka who is arguably the most well developed and accomplished villain in the history of the franchise, got a few remakes and Dissidia. His story truly ends in VI and is not expanded upon canonically to my knowledge. It's very tough to accurately comment on which of these guys is SEs iconic villain if wanting to choose only one. Each has brought SE a phenomenal amount of success.

While I am quite certain there will be many Kefka lovers who would love the opportunity to take on Sephy in XIV, there will be some who go into rage mode as they finally have something with Kefka that Sephy does not. If it happens, grab your popcorn!

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Originally Posted by Satarn

The spelling change in FFXIV was probably done to avoid confusion with the more popular, but not original, bearer of the name.

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It was actually a bit more deliberate than that, especially when you look at the names for all three of them in historical terms, as all three bear a representation of religious ideologies that existed at around the 1st-2nd Century AD.

Sephirot represents the Kabbalah of Judaism just as Limecat stated, with many of the attacks named after the attributes of the Kabbalah.
Sophia represents Gnosticism, a religion based around knowledge and wisdom whose deity inspired the primal.
Zurvan represents a sect of Zoroastrianism, a religion with common themes of direct opposition (hence his fire and ice attacks and the line "good and evil, the war eternal").

Thanks to all of you for your answers. So i guess they just re-used the name then !

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Originally Posted by Sove92

There is no connection between the two. Sephirot is the original name of Fiend, as seen in the concept art. The villain on FFVII is named Sephiroth, not Sephirot.

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You're right, except that the original spelling in japanese was the same for both characters anyway (セフィロス). So they still made it confusing for no reason :p

Anyhow, i'm glad that i didn't miss anything lore-wise ! Although i think it could have been pretty cool if there was some kind of cross-universe connection between those two characters.