(sorry, i was called out for dinner)
>>/4953/
> FFXIII plot:
> Having been secluded from the outside world for ages, Cocoon's citizens have become paranoid of Gran Pulse. The Sanctum, Cocoon's government, led by the fal'Cie Eden and Primarch Galenth Dysley, proclaimed that any individuals suspected of coming in contact with anyone or anything from the lowerworld are to face exile from Cocoon.
> One day there was an incident at the Euride Gorge Energy Plant believed to have been caused by Pulse l'Cie. L'Cie are people made servants of the fal'Cie who branded them, compelled to carry out the Focus the deity gives them, as they will face cruel punishment for defying or failing it: becoming a mindless shambling monster known as a Cie'th.
> Fal'cie are basically mechanical/artificial gods that have functions which range from agriculture, war/battle, technology, etc.
> cocoon as the name implies is a literal spherical planetoid that floats in the sky while pulse is more less just the planet
> fal'cie were on pulse as well, the ones on cocoon wanted to sacrifice the people in it to summon Orphan and in turn summon the actual god who created all the fal'cie so they started orchestrating a lot of stuff in the background and foreground
> XIII-2's plot: begins when the fal'cie's plot was thwarted
> At the end of Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-, Lightning, who felt there was still something threatening the newly acquired peace, found herself dragged into the Historia Crux by a mysterious substance known as chaos due to the effects of the goddess Etro releasing her, Snow, Sazh, Hope, Serah, and Dajh from crystal stasis.
> as a result of Lightning being written out of history, many believe her to be either dead or crystallized with Vanille and Fang in the crystal pillar. Only her sister, Serah, remembers reuniting with her after Cocoon fell and knows she is still alive.
> Lightning awakens in Valhalla, a dark and empty world that exists between the mortal realm of the physical universe, and the formless unseen realm of the chaos. She enters Etro's temple. Seeing all of time from Valhalla, she looks into the future and receives a suit of armor, becoming the protector of the dying goddess, who had expended all her strength to stop the escaping chaos from seeping into the mortal realm. From that point on, Lightning engages many battles against a man who seeks to destroy Etro, named Caius Ballad.
> Within Etro's temple in Valhalla, Lightning looks out from the balcony and has a vision of a boy in the Historia Crux. Meanwhile, Caius lays the lifeless body of a girl named Yeul to rest in the ocean of chaos that surrounds Valhalla. He summons an army of Rift Beasts and challenges Lightning to battle, and she confronts Caius with her own army of summoned monsters and Eidolons. >During her and Caius's battle spanning across Valhalla, Lightning notices Etro's gate—the portal to the mortal realm—open over the temple, and sees a familiar figure fall from the sky. She recognizes it as the young man she had previously seen in a vision, Noel Kreiss.
> Summoning Bahamut, she saves him from his fall, but Caius returns as Chaos Bahamut to continue the fight. Lightning asks Noel to find her sister Serah and bring her to Valhalla. She summons a moogle named Mog for Noel to give to Serah, but Caius summons a meteor over Etro's temple. Summoning Odin, Lightning thrusts herself into the meteor's path as it crushes the temple. Noel leaps into a Time Gate to find Serah in the past.
> lightning more or less got made into a servant/knight of etro for a time
alright thats more than enough lore dumping, this is way more than i thought