Paladin on the Moon

[vovat]

After my post on lunar mythology last Saturday, I've been trying to think of other moon-related posts I can make. I went with balloons and rubber for my Oz posts, although maybe they can be tied in through Notta Bit More's song in The Cowardly Lion of Oz about the moon being a balloon held by the Sandman. L. Frank Baum actually used the Man in the Moon in at least two stories. Mother Goose in Prose includes an adaptation of the nursery rhyme about the Man in the Moon visiting Norwich and burning my mouth on cold pease porridge, with Baum offering an amusing explanation as to how such a thing would occur. Queen Zixi of Ix has the fairies of Burzee asking the Man in the Moon to decide on the recipient of their newly-made magic cloak, and if I remember correctly the film version (known as The Magic Cloak of Oz) shows him as simply a face in the moon. John R. Neill also added the Man in the Moon to his drawing of Mr. Tinker visiting the satellite.


Anyway, since Wednesday is often video game day here at Stratovania, I tried to think of video games that utilized the moon, and the one that immediately came to mind was Final Fantasy IV. This game takes place on a world with two moons, one of which was artificially constructed by the inhabitants of a planet between Mars and Jupiter when their old home blew up. (Yes, apparently the Final Fantasy solar system is basically the same as ours.) They became known as Lunarians, and spent their time sleeping inside the Lunar Palace. That is, until a Lunarian named KluYa decided he wanted to visit the Earth, where he introduced several new technologies, and married an Earth woman who bore him two sons. Late in the game, your characters, led by KluYa's son Cecil, find the Lunarian's old spaceship and fly it back to the moon, where the final battles of the game take place. While the main location there is the palace, with the main villain Zemus lurking far underneath it, the natural satellite is also the home of the dragon Bahamut, a mainstay of the series, whom Rydia can summon if the party beats him in battle. A village there is inhabited by the Humingway family, of which the infamous Namingway is a member. He somehow journeyed to Earth to enter the business of changing people's names, and he shows up in pretty much every town. I also feel that I should mention the Pink Puffs, elusive inhabitants of the Lunar Palace basement who will very occasionally give you a pink tail when defeated.