Summoner (Final Fantasy)

File:Rydia ff4.gif

Rydia of Mist (Final Fantasy IV)

The Summoner (sometimes referred to in English localizations as Caller) is a magical character class (or "job") featured in Square Enix's Final Fantasy series of computer role-playing games.

Unlike their cousins the White Mages, Black Mages and Red Mages, Summoners do not use conventional spells. Instead they call upon entities of great power (whose name and source varies from game to game) to attack their enemies, protect their party or render other forms of aid. This type of magic is known within the series as summon magic.

In the first of these games, Final Fantasy III, an additional class called Conjurer was made available. Conjurers utilized the same magical spells as summoners, but to different effect: they were random. Either they did an attack to a single monster, or more commonly inflicted a status effect to all monsters or one's entire party depending on whether it was good or bad (e.g. haste one's entire party, paralyze all the monsters). Summons invoked by the regular summoner class, on the other hand, were generally offensive in nature, similar to traditional black magic. It was this latter type of summoning that would be dominant in later appearances of the summoner class.

In the mythology of Final Fantasy X, summoning plays a greater part in the story. Summoners perform an important role, both in guiding the spirits of the dead and in protecting the living from a recurring enemy. Summoners who succeed in forcing the enemy into remission, and who invariably sacrifice their lives in the process, are granted the title of "High Summoner" and are venerated by those they leave behind.

Further information: Spira (Final Fantasy X)

Throughout the series, links have often been made between summoners and forehead horns, often with little or no explanation. The relatively simple graphics of Final Fantasy III depicted summoners with a clear horn on their head, and in Final Fantasy Tactics, summoners are seen to wear a type of headband that has a horn attached to it. In Final Fantasy IX, Eiko Carol and Dagger, who hail from the summoner's village Madain Sari, both have horns, though the latter's was removed for aesthetic reasons. Even Yuna, summoner and protagonist of Final Fantasy X-2 who is otherwise hornless, is honoured with a statue that displays one; however in this case the statue is fashioned by the Ronso, non-summoners who themselves have horns and see them as symbols of power and honour.

In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where the Summoner class is limited to the Viera race, the explanation given is that the horn supposedly acts as an antenna of sorts to the gods (summoned creatures), allowing Summoners to interpret divine signals. It is also explained in Final Fantasy XI that the horn gets them "higher" than normal people and allows them to translate divine beings.