Mako

'''This is not FF7 canon. Well, some of it is. Most of it is not. This is mostly me trying to keep my notes straight. Spoilers abound.'''

Mako is the life energy of the Planet. It is very much the “Force” of their world in that there is a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together, but it is not representative of “good” or “evil”. Think more like offense/defense or left/right. Mako circulates like blood through a body. Dark mako is made of the souls of the dead returning to the planet, Light mako is energy that is ready to be reborn as new life.

Light Mako
This is what everyone thinks of when they think of mako. It is a brilliant sea green in color and is said to feel warm when touched. When bathed in, or introduced via injection, it boosts the body’s natural abilities. It can also be used to accelerate healing or recovery. However, too much can overwhelm a person, resulting in “mako poisoning”. This is not actually poisoning so much as an overdose. It can take a long time for someone who has had too much mako exposure to recover. Symptoms include a semi-catatonic state, or even coma, and an otherwise limited ability to interact with the waking world. Light Mako is the active, or live energy of the planet. It wells up from the earth in mako springs or fountains when there is a high concentration of it. This is spirit energy ready to enter the cycle once again. It may be reborn as plant/animal/human life, or it may simply condense and crystallize into materia.

Dark Mako
There is only limited information on Dark, or “stagnant” mako, most of which can be found in the research reports of Dr. Grimoire Valentine and Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. Outside of these two scientific documents, the only other written records are the scattered fragments left behind by the Cetra. Due to his involvement with Jenova, many of Chaos’ shrines and sacred texts were destroyed before the Cetra became extinct, so there isn’t much to go on in terms of archaeology. Dark mako is life that has recently departed its mortal form. Unlike its Light counterpart, Dark mako it is said to be cool and whispery if touched. Many claim to have adverse reactions to it, especially if they’ve already been treated with Light mako. (Though it should be noted that most of these individuals had also previously been treated with Jenova and that probably affected their reaction.) Because it is composed of energy that is returning to the Planet, Dark mako springs and fountains are much rarer than Light mako springs. The guardians Chaos and Omega are associated with Dark mako, as is Hades and to some extent Alpha.

In Cetran Society
Both Dark and Light mako were seen as necessary to the cycle of life. There were two sites on the Planet where the streams of Dark and Light intersected: the Ancient City and Midgar. The Ancient City traditionally hosted the festivals associated with new life, and Midgar hosted those that had to do with death and entropy. Each aspect was equally important and had its own collection of holy persons. Traditionally, each sect was led by a high priest or priestess; usually one was male and the other female. It didn’t always work out this way, but by and large this was how it ended up. For no real reason, it seems that it was more common to have a male Dark priest and a female Light priestess. Sometimes the genders were reversed, but not often. The Priest and Priestess would enact various rituals throughout the year. These were generally feast days of some kind. There are a lot of similarities to Greek or Celtic traditions. For instance, the spring ritual involved the high priests symbolically marrying one another, which sometimes resulted in children. Also, when it was time for a new priest, the new one would kill the old one- with their full permission and consent. This involved less stabbing and more of a “last rights” type of ceremony where the old priest- who was often ill and elderly- was assisted by the new one in returning to the Planet. (Think Yuna and the other Summoners of Final Fantasy X.)