The Religious Significance of Grandia

by Joshua Maciel

In the tradition that I've started for myself of thinking videogames to death, I decided to move on from Xenogears, which has lent me more headaches than I can even begin to fathom right now, to Grandia, which is much simpler and happier. Since Grandia is a much less text-heavy game than Xenogears, and has far fewer direct references to religious stuff, this is far more abstract than my last editorial -- so please just bear with me. For any of you that haven't beaten this game yet -- do yourself a favour, do NOT read this, it will spoil any little plot twists that you don't predict for yourself.

As all of us should know (since everyone reading this has played the game *ahem*), the story is basically one of a past civilization that failed, and a little boy named Justin trying to figure out what happened to it. Now, up until the middle of disk two, I was totally content in thinking that this was just a quaint little game about an adventure, basically that it was brain candy. I was wrong. I blame it all on Emperor Baal.

Now the major spoilers start, so any of you who haven't played the game, please stop reading. The game is too good to spoil for you. In the middle of disk two, we find out that Emperor Baal is trying to resurrect Gaia, this big plant/insect monster that represents all that is evil in the hearts of humans. We learn that Gaia was created back when people first learned how to steal and cheat and lie, and play dirty. We learn that he eats spirits, which turns people to stone. Finally, we learn that the same pattern of Gaia's resurrection through the evil of man, and then it's temporary slumber via sacrifice of two Icarians has been occurring throughout history.

Let me try to break this down piece by piece for you. First of all, let's talk about Emperor Baal. For those of you that don't know, the Baals were the names of Gods in the ancient Middle East, before 500 bce they're mentioned all over the place in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Yahweh (God) kept sending down prophets to tell the people that if they kept worshipping the Baals instead of Yahweh, he'd have to teach them a lesson. Now let's look at what Baal did in this story. He tried to resurrect this big evil petrifier-of-people to gain more power for himself. People followed him because he gave false promises of being able to bring peace and fellowship to the world. He lied.

So if Emperor Baal represents all the evil Gods that people aren't supposed to worship, who are they supposed to follow? Who represents Yahweh in this story? I think that title goes to the spirits. Note that there is never too much said about the spirits. They aren't really explained, they're just kind of represented as these glowing balls that look pretty as they float across the screen. However, Justin makes a speech after returning from the Spirit land, he says, "The Spirits never really abandoned us" (or something to that effect). In the Hebrew Bible, good old Yahweh never abandoned the people, even after sending them into Exile. He just needed them to find their faith (which they did). After following Baal in this game, the people get screwed by Gaia, but in return become unified, and again live with the Spirits. Sound similar? It should.

So we know who Baal represents, and what the Spirits are, but what about Gaia? Does anyone remember the story of Adam and Eve? They are given paradise to live in, when this wily little serpent comes along. The serpent says, "Eat the apple, trust me." And they do. Suddenly they get booted out of paradise because they ate the apple, and learned not only of good, but also of evil. In the story of the ancient Angelou civilization Liete tells to Justin, she says that because the people learned to steal and cheat, and do evil, the spirits left the world, and Gaia was created. In that sense, Gaia was created out of the evils in the world. He's more or less the New Testament Devil, stealing the spirits out of people and turning them to stone, then eating the spirits (sending them to Hell perhaps).

Now on to the book of Revelations. This is the last book in the New Testament, kind of creepy, speaking of this final war between good and evil, etc. There's a similar story in Norse Mythology, of Ragnarok, in which the Gods all fight, the world is destroyed, and then rebuilt again. Now the book of Revelations, as close as I can figure it, suggests that all the good people will live on as well. So I would guess that the Garden of Eden scenario would be recreated, and the pattern would begin again. What does this have to do with the game? Supposedly two twin Icarians appear every so often, to sacrifice themself to stop Gaia for the timebeing. With Gaia representing the Devil, that would make the Icarians, as representatives of the spirits, angels (and they have wings!).

There are a few issues that are left unanswered in my mind. The first is what exactly are the Moogay. At first I was thinking that they were the prophets, which makes sense to a certain degree. Guido tells Justin that the spirits have something special in store for him. Just as some of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the Moogay ran around telling the other people that something really bad was going to happen, and they'd better get their act together before they pay for it (the Rafanes and the other people in Zil Padon). After that disaster, as was the case with the later prophets, the Moogay were there to help the people in their time of need. The prophets offered religious support to answer why it happened, and to help the people regain their faith. However, at the same time, the Moogay are preaching predistination, that each person has one specific future, and that there is no way to change it. That was something the prophets did not preach -- predestination.

Another issue that doesn't really fit in with the whole analysis is that of Mullen and Leen, Feena and Justin. I half expected, after Mullen's whole long speech about Sin, and how the wings of an Icarian represented sin, etc. that someone would end up sacrificing themself to absolve all people of that sin. Well, it actually happened, Leen sacrifices herself to give time to Mullen, Feena, and Justin to let them realize that by working together, they can defeat Gaia, and therefore destroy that sin that the people have been living with, and start with a clean slate. Another comparison that can be made between Leen and Jesus is that Leen comes back to life at the end of the game. As was the way with Jesus, dying, and then coming back to life, Leen appears in a flash of light to be with Mullen. In addition, you have the fact that Leen is admired by all the Garlyle forces, as so many people looked up to Jesus.

Finally, there are a few things that I just have no thoughts about really. Who do the three cows in Laine represent? I would say the three wise men, but they didn't go to herald Justin's birth or anything. What about Gadwin? Or Sue? Or Milda? Who does Liete represent? Why did it look like Feena and Justin hit a mermaid and imapled her on the spikes on the front of Gadwin's boat, when they really just picked up someone floating in the water? And finally, why the heck did the game feel like it was supposed to end 5 hours before it did? After the first fight with Baal, I expected to be within an hour from the end of the game. Boy was I wrong! And what the heck is Puffy?! Anyway, if you have any answers, comments, or objections. If you have flames or praises, feel free to email me at

Joshua.Maciel@trincoll.edu.
Thanks for reading my ramblings (again).