Al Bhed

Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eien no Daishō~[]

Over a thousand years ago, a race called the Bedohls lived in Spira. The Bedohls created machina, allowing the common man to do things that were previously only capable with magic, such as creating fire. Their inventions made people's lives easier, but the Bedohls were also regarded by the rest of Spira to be an inferior caste. This dislike of the Bedohls was orchestrated by the elites of society who could use magic, as machina had closed the gap between them and non-magic people. The Bevelle government used magic to affix a mark on each Bedohl's body: spiral-marked eyes, which will always identify them wherever they go. To keep them from intermingling with the rest of the population, they were forced to speak a different language. The people excused this as being for the Bedohls' own good.

The Bedohls' inventions were seen as the cause of the Machina War, but the leaders of the world could not get rid of them since they were the only ones who knew how to build and repair machina. Furthermore if Bedohls refused to build machina, they were killed. During the Machina War the leader of the Bedohls was a man named Alb. He was tasked by Bevelle with creating mechanical soldiers called "false Bedohls" to be used in the war. The development was not going as quickly as needed, and Alb, in his cowardice, sought to fool his own allies and used real human Bedohl fighters covered in yellow suits and gas masks, disguising them as machina.

After the Yevon religion was established, the Bedohls were blamed for Sin's emergence due to their role in the Machina War. They were executed in numbers, casting them out of society. The surviving Bedohls became known as the Al Bhed, a corrupted mesh of their original name and their leader's name.

Final Fantasy X[]

In the past, the Al Bhed society lived on Bikanel Island, whose most explored region is known as the Sanubia Desert. Sin destroyed their city, and the citizens scattered around Spira, often detested by the other races of the world. A millennium later, under Cid's leadership, the Al Bhed regrouped on Bikanel Island and built a new city called Home.

To further relations with the Al Bhed, the Yevonite Braska often traveled to Home. During one visit, he fell in love with Cid's sister, and the two eventually married. Due to choosing a 'heathen' Al Bhed for a wife, the Yevon clergy cast Braska out while Cid disowned his sister for marrying a Yevonite. The tension on both sides lessened after Yuna was born, and when she was four, her mother boarded a ship for Bikanel to repair her relationship with Cid. She died when Sin attacked her ship, starting Braska down the path of becoming a summoner.

Tidus arrives in Spira from Dream Zanarkand and camps out in the abandoned Baaj Temple. When a fiend attacks him, an Al Bhed salvage group led by Rikku comes to his rescue, startling him as he has never encountered an Al Bhed before. Only Rikku speaks the main Spiran language and acts as an interpreter. Tidus is allowed to come on board the Al Bhed's Salvage Ship, but he must assist the group in their salvage operation in exchange for their hospitality. Afterward, Sin attacks the ship and washes Tidus overboard. He wakes up in Besaid, where he joins Summoner Yuna's pilgrimage.

The Al Bhed kidnap summoners to prevent them from completing their pilgrimage. They do it to protect them, as performing the Final Summoning will kill the summoner. When Yuna and her guardians set out to complete her pilgrimage, the Al Bhed use machina in their three attempts to abduct her—the Oblitzerator in Luca, the Extractor on the Moonflow, and the Crawler on Lake Macalania—but fail every time. After failing to kidnap Yuna with the Extractor, Yuna's cousin Rikku joins her pilgrimage as her final guardian.

When Yuna gets lost in the Bikanel Desert, the Al Bhed find her and take her to Home. Under Maester Seymour's orders, the Guado attack Home, take Yuna away to Bevelle, and heavily damage the city. Amid the chaos, many Al Bhed flee onboard the airship discovered during the salvage operation Tidus participated in when he first arrived in Spira, and use its missiles to blow up Home. As they watch Home's destruction, the Al Bhed join in singing the "Hymn of the Fayth" in mourning.

Rikku is overjoyed when Yuna rejects the Final Summoning, and they find another way to defeat Sin: attacking it head-on with the Al Bhed's airship, the Fahrenheit.

Final Fantasy X-2[]

After the onset of the Eternal Calm, the Al Bhed expand their exploration of Bikanel Island. With the collapse of Yevon's teachings and the broader acceptance of machina, prejudice against the Al Bhed has eased, although not completely ended. The Al Bhed exercise their freedom by expanding upon the knowledge of machina and improving upon existing discoveries for innovation's sake, rather than only continue salvaging ancient machina.

The Al Bhed formed the Machine Faction, based in the abandoned Djose Temple. The group, led by Gippal, seeks to spread machina use throughout Spira and remove any past discontent by renaming "machina" as "machines". The faction is connected to the Al Bhed in Bikanel, enabling members and volunteers to excavate the desert.

Brother leads an Al Bhed sphere hunting group called the Gullwings, acting as their airship pilot. His friend, Buddy, acts as the navigator, using the Sphere Oscillo-finder to uncover leads for new treasures to salvage. The child prodigy, Shinra, develops the technology the Gullwings use, including the dressphere system the field operatives, Yuna, Rikku and Paine, use to help them in combat. During their quest to uncover ancient spheres, the group becomes entangled in Shuyin's plot to rouse an ancient machina with the power to destroy the world, as well as the factions' conflicts. The Al Bhed do their best to stay neutral, with the Machine Faction providing the other two parties—Youth League and New Yevon—with machina. When Gippal goes missing, the Machine Faction falls into disarray, and when he returns, he disbands the faction.

The Al Bhed excavate the Bikanel Desert for machina parts and try to build the ultimate robot in Djose, known as the Experiment. The ancient fiend, Angra Mainyu, hinders the excavation process, the nemesis of the cacti of the Cactuar Nation; an Al Bhed kid named Benzo is the only one who understands their language and works as the Gullwings' interpreter to help the cacti.

Three months after the Vegnagun crisis is over, the Machine Faction discovers Iutycyr Tower.