Warning: Massive spoilers ahead!
Thanks to everyone except Aldred who answered. Constructive responses are welcome, trolling is not. If the admins are reading this, feel free to darken any sections that give too much away.
Here are my takes on Terra and its people, and where I’ve gotten them from. Like I said before, a lot of this stuff is pretty obscure, and I had to connect the dots that the game gave, but here’s the lowdown on Terran society as I see it…
Terra was a world with blue alien trees and hillocks, along with large red mountains. The kind of architecture they favored had many bizarre-looking spires, buttresses, winding paths, balconies, and so forth. Triangle and eye motifs were very popular, and the designs of the cities are based in a circular manner, spreading out like Midgar did in FF7.
(If one looks closely at the projections you can see in Oeilvert, it seems that one is looking at a city with those same twisting spires standing in the midst of red mountains in one shot, and in the next we have a city that looks amazingly, to me anyway, like Midgar. Maybe that’s a veiled reference? I don’t know. Anyway, we see the eyes in Pandemonium, in the Meeting Hall in Bran Bal, and on the Invincible. The interior of Oeilvert and the buildings of Bran Bal offer contemporary Terran architecture.)
Masters of technology, the people of Terra constructed huge war machines, mastered genetic engineering, developed psionic powers, and created other miscellaneous devices such as teleportation pods and mind-control devices.
(Oeilvert has a brief section on the history of battleships in Terra, culminating in the development of the Invincible, which is currently in use. Their skills at genetic engineering can be seen with the Genomes and the Guardians of Terra, more of which we’ll se below. Garland talks to both Zidane and Kuja with telepathy, as do the disembodied souls in Oeilvert, and seems able to control all the monsters of Terra, such as the Silver Dragon, telepathically. Finally, if you go back into the room where Zidane is sitting after he learns the awful truth, right before the You’re Not Alone sequence, and go to the menu, the location is listed as “Mind Control”. Garland hooked Zidane up to the device to further scramble his mind after the revelations at the observatory.)
Regarding ethics and morals, the people of Terra were arrogant, cruel, and rather heartless. While not cruel in the same way as Kuja, they had no problem decimating ‘lower-life forms’ so they themselves could survive. Simply viewing themselves as the be-all and end-all of existence, it mattered nothing to them what happened to other people, as long as they survived.
(Garland is not the only Terran we meet in the game-I think the Guardians of Terra are themselves genetically modified Terran citizens. In Oeilvert in the disembodied souls’ speech, they talk about how after the initial resucitation failed, “subjects were selected…after four tremendous sacrifices” seems to suggest to me that the “four sacrifices” in question are the people who volunteered to undergo the transformation. The Fire Guard mentions how they are “filled with the power of Terra itself”, and how “we did not become guardians to chat with mere mortals”. The Wind Guard calls Vivi and Steiner “weaklings”, and the Earth Guard uses the term “lower life-forms”. If they really are citizens of Terra, then Terrans must be pretty nasty.)
(We should also note that Garland had no scruples about committing mass murder in Madain Sari or Alexandria to get the job done. The Terrans were willing to suppress the minds of the Genomes so they themselves could have bodies to inhabit, much like Brahne tried with the Black Mages-it’s no coincidence that Vivi compares himself to the Genomes. Heck, even Terra is trying to subsume Gaia so it can live and be in control. Mikoto also mentions how “Terra has always absorbed new planets to survive”, suggesting that they’ve drained the life out of planets before for sustenance, only this time it was a matter of life and death. Lastly, Garland makes reference to the “hubris” of the people of Terra. Perhaps, as you guys have suggested, the Terrans had finally exhausted their resources and the life of their planet, and instead of just absorbing other planets for sustenance and resources, they now had to assimilate one to restore their planet? Lastly, look at the place the Terrans went after their fall-Pandemonium. Check the FF Compendium name locations to see what that means.)
The myths of the people of Terra center around huge war engines of destruction, like the Ark-a monster that starts out as an airship, then transforms into a giant robotic thing that unleashes a huge blast of dark energy to destroy its opponents.
(This one is the diciest conclusion, and it’s impossible to make unless you first see all the extra murals on the Eidolon Wall. To make a long story short, the eidolons are spirits that take the forms of mythological creatures that humans and other races have-humans give eidolons their forms, so to speak. The last mural makes reference to another type of eidolon, seen near Esto Gaza. It mentions that no legend like this has ever been found in Gaia by the people of Madain Sari, so they conclude that other tribes must have their own legends.)
(Ark is an eidolon, but he’s also a monster found in the Terran “museum” of Oeilvert. He also has to be the eidolon seen near Esto Gaza-since the Shimmering Island, gateway to Terra, is there too. Connect that with the origins of eidolons as realized by the people of Madain Sari, and there you go.)
I fully realize some of these conclusions may seem ludicrous, but I feel they’re still all based on evidence from the game, so I’ll let others comment on and discuss them. If you disagree with any of this, post your own replies-this could make a fascinating discusion and change of pace from the usual Jenova/Sephiroth debates. 