Many believe at the end of Final Fantasy Tactics that Ramza, Alma, and all of his companions perished. This theory holds that what Olan and Balmafula saw were their ghosts or the two were hallucinating. I wholeheartedly disagree with this sentiment and hopefully after reading this page outlining how and why I came to this conclusion you too, dear reader, will at least understand where my sentiment is coming from.

First off let's backtrack the game's ending. Ramza, Alma, and Altima are aboard a wrecked airship in the graveyard of airships somewhere in the ruined city of Murond. When defeated, Altima calls for power, the camera zooms out and it seems that the airship they are all aboard explodes. Does it? Well, it is strongly implied although there is no actual boom with timbers flying everywhere. The scene cuts away too soon to tell for that could simply be technical reasons. No further comment is made on this sequence for the remainder of the ending.

So, there is an explosion, presumably, but the exact severity of it is unknown. Why it occured when Altima called for more power is a question for the ages.

In battle only the airship itself is shown but I think it's fairly safe to say it doesn't exist in a vacumn. Ramza is no wizard. Once he is transported to Murond by Rofel he walks his way to the graveyard as evidenced by the battles between Orbonne and the graveyard of airships. It stands to reason that there are a great many ruined airships (notice it says graveyard of airships, plural, in game). Ramza got there with only his own two feet so there has to be a land route connecting it to the rest of Murond.

What is all this getting at? Well it means that if the airship went kaboom Ramza and company would not have been blown into some void. Would they have been injured in such an explosion? Yes I believe they definitely would have been but I don't think it would have been lethal for points I shall soon come to (other than sheer Plot Armor). So, to summarize, there was an explosion caused by Altima and probably some injuries sustained from it but Ramza and his sister weren't thrown into a bottomless pit or an alternate dimension. Once the dust cleared they could very well pick themselves up and go about their merry little way.

Just because there was an explosion does not automatically mean everyone caught in the blast was killed. Remember that Delita survived an explosion and fire when Fort Zeakden blew up in chapter one. Hell Delita apparently walked away with barely a scratch on him. Dialogue later suggests that part of the blast was absorbed by Teta's body which contributed to his survival but I'm going to address in a later point why Ramza should have had even better protection.

Now I want to touch on the subject of whether Ramza was alone in his crusade into Murond. It is quite possible he was. Ramza is the only character ever shown in cutscenes during those last segments. If you dismiss unique characters in the game and then check the Story window that character's information will be updated to say that they were sent away. That said, we the players cannot be sure if some characters being turned away is canon or not.

Ramza knew his chasing after Vormav was extremely dangerous. By that point he had already confronted and slain four Lucavi - five if you count Elidibs. He saw his own brother Zalbag be abducted, get cursed and return as a zombie/vampire thing under the Lucavi's control. He saw Vormav and his associates summon demons, monsters, and undead. He witnessed Lucavi teleporting, opening dimensional gates, and engaging in wanton slaughter. I would not fault him if, before entering Orbonne, he talked with his group and told them that he was going after his sister and that any one who was unsure could walk away no questions asked.

As for Ramza being able to conduct all the fights himself well it's possible to go through the entire game with the hero alone. All it requires is planning and ingenuity. In game Ramza isn't dumb. He's ignorant and innocent at the beginning but manages to pull himself together and launch a personal crusade that will eventually eliminate the true threat to Ivalice. The general absence of special characters in cutscenes only reinforces my conviction that their aid isn't necessarily canon.

In short, it isn't necessary to come up with some elaborate reason to explain why extra characters survived because there is no guarantee they went to Muron in the first place. However, there is also no reason said characters wouldn't be covered by what I'm about to get to.

Resurrecting Lucavi

The act of creating a Lucavi from a human usually involves the human making a bargain with the Lucavi soul in a moment of desperation. The human already harmonizes with the Lucavi in mindset. All it takes is that act of acceptance for a new demon to be born in the world as the two merge into one new being.

Once the new Lucavi is born the holy stone enables them to transform between the human shell and their true form. However, it no longer provides them with the ability to regenerate from deadly injuries as evidenced by the numerous Lucavi slain by Ramza throughout the game. Thus Lucavi resurrection is only possible using the Holy Stones in a very specifc manner. This is not a slight against the Stones' power but only to clarify that their magic seems constrained by a nebulous and ill-defined ruleset. In other words they're Deus ex Machina McGuffins that operate as the plot requires them to.

Resurrecting Humans

• "You, too, grieve his death? Thank you..."

Alarmed, Ramza begins to speak thinking a new Lucavi is about to be born but instead a bright light shines from above and Malak is restored to life. This is another instance of the Holy Stones reacting to extreme emotional distress in their holder and serves to mark just how different Rafa and those fighting the Lucavi are from the Lucavi themselves. When Rafa is distressed it responds not to anger, resentment, and a bitter survival instinct but instead to loss and sorrow.

Freeing Possessed Humans

Well, okay, maybe not a human but a cute furry Moogle.

The third power doesn't appear until the end of the game. After Ultima/Altima revives in Alma's body as Ajora zie begins to speak, stops, then falls to the ground in pain. A light shines from the Holy Stone used in the ceremony and then the same type of light that revived Malak engulfs Ajora. Another light appears and Alma materializes as a separated being. She is weak but able to fight and seems aware of what Ultima/Altima intended to do with her body.

This is a function of the Holy Stone reacting to Alma's wish to be divided from the monster possessing her body and reunite with her brother. She is unique in the story in that, among the Lucavi, she never formed a pact. Her body was taken against her will while she's unconscious. This is another example of a Holy Stone reacting to strong human emotions.

(BTW, an interesting fact is that Almah in Hebrew refers to a young woman who has not yet started her own family and still lives under the protection of her birth relatives. This isn't directly relevant but interesting because Alma in FF Tactics basically fits that mold.)

"But raising people from the dead is possible via spells!"

This is a good rebuttal but one not supported by the game's story or mechanics. Lots of people die in game but none are raised by human magic. Let's look at how the game handles death in battle. Once a character reaches 0 hitpoints they fall to the ground and a timer starts. When the timer runs out that character either crystallizes or turns into a chest. Either way they are permanently dead and the transformation is a gameplay mechanic as much as it is a visual marker of death. So, falling down at 0 hitpoints can be logically said to be the point where the character falls unconscious and the timer represents how much time remains until they bleed to death. There are times when NPCs do not go into the timer when knocked out but those are exceptions driven by the plot and not the rule.

Thus when a character goes into the timer mode they are in a dying state and magic that appears to raise them from the dead is actually just healing them so they are no longer mortally wounded.

Again, to stress my point, once a character crystallizes or turns into a chest they are permanently dead. There is no magic in Ivalice save the Holy Stones that can bring them back and even then the player cannot access that power. Of the two resurrections in the game one, Malak, was by the power of the Holy Stones restoring his body to life and the other is an ancient horror body-jacking a living person. In fact, if raising the dead were possible via other means why wouldn't Altima's followers use that instead or a centuries long Xanatos Roulette? Why wouldn't Ivalice's rulers abuse this magic when thousands of their soldiers are fighting and dying on the battlefield?

So after considering all of that the question remains: If Ramza possesses so many Holy Stones at the end of the game why would it be impossible for he and Alma to survive the blast? I've already demonstrated exceptional Deus ex Machina-level powers. Just one of those stones could have teleported the two of them out of harm's way or shielded them from harm or healed them after they were injured. There is no conclusive evidence one way or another if Ramza was alone when he entered Murond so I don't see any point in arguing why none of the other characters is mentioned in the ending. Olan merely makes a passing reference to his adopted father with the line:

• Did my father die fighting heroically?

Orlandu had already been branded a traitor and had good reason not to reveal himself in Ivalice ever again. Maybe they all went on vacation to a nice tropical isle somewhere. It's simply impossible to know precisely what happened to them.

*This is Ivalice and adjoining lands. Murond Death City is off the southern coast because it sank into the sea centuries ago.*

There is a funeral for Alma during the ending and a mourner comments that Ramza will not be buried.

• "The youngest, Ramza, won't even be buried. Sad..."

The problem is that if they died in Death City Murond then how are their bodies in Ivalice? Death City Murond is only accessable via a magical portal in a subbasement of Orbonne Monastery and that entrance was destroyed by Rofel to trap Ramza in Murond. What, were their bodies flung through time and space and happened to land, intact enough to be identified, in Ivalice? That seems highly unlikely.

Body doubles are shown earlier in the game when Delita assassinates Goltana. He frames Orlandu for the murder of Goltana and then kills Orlandu's body double Grenados. This act permits the real Orlandu to walk freely while Ivalice at large thinks the Thunder God is dead. If Delita wanted to do the same thing for Ramza and Alma he was certainly in a position to do so. There is also the possibility of body duplication. Once again, Ramza is in possession of a group of extremely powerful magical artifacts whose limits are never defined and that have already done body duplication once when they split Alma and Ajora.

In the ending a mourner mentions that Ramza won't be buried because he's a heretic yet when Olan comes into the graveyard with Balmafula they lay flowers at the grave, which is said to be Alma's, and then Olan speaks addressing both of them.

• "I'm sorry I'm late... Alma, Ramza."

He refers specifically to Ramza about Delita.

• "Delita may be a good person as you said..."

Again, Ramza's body isn't even in the grave. It's not even shown in the graveyard and since he's considered a heretic his body would have been left to the vultures. Yes, I know that Olan is referring to Ramza in a metaphorical sense and doesn't think he's actually talking to Ramza right then and there. Talking like that at graves are a traditional way of doing that but if he was really so concerned why not personally bury the body of his friend? It's not like Olan displays much loyalty to Ivalician tradition or authority in the game. It could be done quietly with little fuss once Alma's funeral is over.

Now obviously Olan can't bury Ramza if Ramza isn't actually dead and hence there's no corpse to bury. Olan isn't aware that his friend is alive until Ramza rides by and I contend that was a deliberate act by Ramza to let Olan in on the trick. Olan was already privy to most of the truth. There being no body also helps explain, beyond Ramza's status as a heretic, why his supposed corpse won't be given a proper burial. No body? Well just say it was left to rot wherever and leave it at that. Who's going to go check? Nobody, besides a few select individuals that's who.

To hit one final point as far as Ivalice at large was concerned Alma was a tragic victim who had nothing to do with the war. Burying her symbolically ended the Beoulve line and laid to rest notions of their return in the future (well, at least without plenty of legal wrangling). With no more Beoulves and Larg, Goltana and Orlandu officially dead there was no one to lead either side of the civil war. The old order had been swept away. This meant that both armies had to submit to peace delegations which helped cement Delita's hold on power.

Point five is thus the ending video itself. It shows Ramza and Alma, very much alive, traveling to new lands off in the sunset. Presumably they are leaving Ivalice to start new lives elsewhere. Once again, if they're already dead riding off to distant lands is pretty pointless and they wouldn't be able to do that anyway because of that sticky problem of being dead.

"But that is only how Olan Durai sees them when he thinks of them riding off into the sunset!"

This would be applicable if Olan was narrating the whole time. It starts with some of his thoughts, which are general questions towards humanity although they do apply to Ramza as well.

"Where does one find good fortune? What possesses them to live for the present? What treasures do they leave behind?"

These questions are reinforced by showing them onscreen as Ramza and Alma ride downhill. If these two characters are deceased than asking them 'what possesses them to live for the present' is a pointless rhetorical question. The then narration shifts to Alazlam as he explains that Olan went on to write the Durai papers, was executed by the church for knowing too much, and after centuries those texts were rediscovered. Arguably you could say Alazlam was narrating from the beginning of the video and was just reading what Olan previously wrote. I hold that we, the players, are reading his book about the Lion War and have reached the final chapter were he quickly ties up the loose ends that he can. The game begins with Alazlam narrating some backstory and the game's premise explaining as much. It is what frames the game's core narrative.

If that is true then whatever fantasy of Ramza riding off into the sunset that Olan entertained is largely null. Alazlam is a historian¹. He has never met Ramza and has no obligation to give him a happy ending. In his line of work it is essential to differentiate between fact and fantasy even when it comes from your own ancestor and you have emotional reasons to accept it without question. If he believes that Ramza and Alma survived then I'm sure he's basing that off of more then just Olan's writings. Now, I must admit it is conceivable he might go to lengths to exonerate his ancestor but that seems so unnecessary and requires additional layers of explanation (and make it impossible to rely on anything in the story since it would make the plot itself an Unreliable Narrator) not to mention it would destroy his credibility should the ruse be discovered. Occam's Razor applies in this situation.

This brings me to a larger unanswered question about how Alazlam knows details that would only be privy to Ramza and Alma. The scene with Dycedarg and Gafgarion talking in Igros can be explained by saying that in his research he read letters and/or journals from one or both that recounted this. The scene in Murond where Rofel and Vormav murder the high priest can be explained if a priest overheard them talking and survived the massacre. But what about the scene in Riovanes where Alma comes upon the dying Izlude?

Alma certainly didn't have a chance to record this experience before her supposed death. Vormav wasn't going to leave a record of his gallavanting around murdering mortals en masse. Izlude died on the spot. There are no other witnesses. I contend this is strong evidence that Alma survived her brush with death in Murond and went on to record her life story. If this is true it also explains how Alazlam would know what transpired between Ramza and every one of the Zodiac demons.

Nothing in the game suggests that Alazlam is a wizard or conjuror of ancient spirits. It would be ludicrous to think that he learned what happened during the Lion War by summoning demons or whatnot and questioning them. That would be antithetical to the entire Zodiac Brave Story.

Now this does NOT answer all the questions about how some scenes are known to him. There is one in Limberry castle where Vormav and Elmdor are speaking privately that I haven't found a good explanation for. Is that game designer error where they fell "out of voice" for the sake of moving the game's plot along? It is entirely possible.

On one final point on this matter, remember that we as players cannot read the contents of the Germonik Scriptures. Instead we read only Ramza's thoughts and notes about the book. Why is that? Because Alazlam didn't have the Scriptures and had to rely on Ramza's account of it, that's why! Remember, Ramza gives the Scriptures to Rofel and doesn't get them back after the latter's death.

Final Fantasy Tactics is framed by the struggle of Alazlam Durai to clear his ancestor Olan's name and reveal the true history of the Lion War. At points Ramza himself provides narration.

• "I've taken my whole life for granted. When it came down to it, I dropped it all and ran."
  
  "Simon spoke of "an imaginary evil". But I sensed a scheme by someone other than the High Priest, after seeing the berserk power of the Holy Stones."
  
  "Having lost their leaders, the High Priest proposed a mediator for the armies. But, since they were both still strong, they refused. I headed for Limberry, looking for Alma..."

Alazlam got those quotes from somewhere. They are directly from Ramza.