Official sources of Lore

[Iuri]

Hello all, I just joined the forums, but I've been a Final Fantasy fan for almost 20 years now(although I'm in no way what you would can "an expert"), I created this thread because I was hoping there would be knowledged Final Fantasy XIII fans out there that could help me with something.

Ever since I first played this game I've been in love with its mythos and lore, and now I finally decided that I want to collect, little by little, every official source that has any information regarding FFXIII lore besides the games, I want to have with me every piece of the puzzle so I can thoroughly enjoy the contents of this series I love so much whenever I want. Now in january I'm planning to import the three Ultimanias for FFXIII, and somewhere down the line I'm planning to buy the other four(for FFXIII-2 and LR:FFXIII), I also know there are some novellas about the series, so I wonder: How many novellas are there in total, also are all of them available in physical copies? Additionally, besides the Ultimanias and the novellas(and the games), are there any other official source of lore and mythos for the game?

Besides that I would like to ask too if you guys know of good non-official sites that have the informations regarding lore and mythos of FFXIII in just one place, like an encyclopaedia.

PS: By the way I don't expect the knowledge of Japanese to be a problem, I've been studying that language for two years and I expect that in another 2 year time I should be able to peruse those Ultimanias and novellas with the aid of a dictionary, until then I'm just going to collect them and enjoy the pictures(and here's when the English unofficial site for FFXIII mythos would come in handy).

 

[tiornys]

I wish I could help, but from reading your post I think you've already eclipsed my knowledge of official sources. I knew about the Ultimanias and I knew that some novellas existed, but I don't know any details about them. Most of my personal knowledge about the lore comes from this guide over on GameFAQs, which is supposed to be based on Ultimania lore.

 

[Gabranth]

I remember reading on Gamefaqs once upon a time that Orphan's first form is based upon the image of parents that an 'Orphan' never had. The second form is the birth of the 'Orphan' without their parents; in itself the true form -the wheel - is based on Sol which is a Roman Sun god. Barthandelus had an attack called Thanatos Laughter; if you've played any of the SMT games you'll recognise the name 'Thanatos', which is a personification of death in Greek mythology. Beyond that....I've no idea.