white materia

So what exactly was the purpose of that small greeny white ball held on Aerith's head throughout disk one? Well, apparently, looks can be deceiving, for within this little ball held the power to change everything.

At the beginning of the game, we see that Aerith tells Cloud about how her White Materia is special - because it is good for absolutely nothing at all. Cloud just tells her that she doesn't know how to use if properly yet. Turns out it was passed down to her from her biological mother, Ifalna, who was a pure blooded Cetra.

At the exact moment of Aerith's death inside the Forgotten City, as we see her fall to the ground, this small sphere slips from it's place on her red ribbon, and lightly bounces down the stairs and into the water's depths. And it isn't until the second disk that you return to The Forgotten City with Bugenhagen and see the sphere once more.

It is found out the the Planet has a force within it that can be realesed when a prayer or a soul reaches it's core. This force is commonly known as Holy, the very thing that Aerith meant to pray for prior to her death. Since she was of the Ancient race, or Cetra, she was very close and in-tune with the Planet and it's core - a connection that any natural Cetra had, for they were the sacred race. As I said before, when you return to The Forgotten City, Bugenhagen (who is very knowledgeable with Planet life) says that the Materia glows a pale green - meaning that Aerith's prayer was beginning to reach the Planet, but Sephiroth was holding it back. For he possessed the Black Materia for quite some time - which yeilds the power to destroy the whole planet.

The power of Holy is intensely great - it's ultimate cleansing IS literally complete destruction of everyone on earth - not destruction of the Planet itself, only the things that are killing it. If there is evil to get rid of, then it is gone. So, Holy isn't necissarily a good thing for humans, but for the planet itself (though I'm not too sure of how aware Aerith was of this.) The Planet's purpose it to protect itself at all costs. So yeah, all of that power was contained in a rare little green sphere, neato eh?

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