Monster: Ahriman

Ahriman: Recurring eye ball

Appearances: FFI, FFIII, FFIV, FFVI, FFVII, FFIX, FFX, FFXI, FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIV

 The Ahriman boss, FFXII

The Ahriman is ultimately from the Zoroastrian tradition. Ahriman also goes by the name Angra Mainyu (sound familiar from FFX-2?- more on him later as he has a couple of special companions)

It should be noted that in Final Fantasy's IV, VI, VII and IX this monster is known as Ahriman only in the Japanese versions of the game. In VI, IX and the PS1 version of IV the creature goes by the name 'Veteran', possibly referring to the creature's age. The SNES version of IV simply calls the creature 'Fatal Eye'. This was probably to keep to a naming convention, as the other pallet swaps for the monster are 'Float Eye' and 'Red Eye'. In VII the creature is simply mistranslated as 'Allemange'- a perplexing choice as that is French name for Germany. At least all the games seem to able to agree that Ahriman should stay a yellow floating eyeball (except for XII). See how fun translations can be?

Now that the confusion that is game translations is out of the way we can get on with who Ahriman actually is. Ahriman is the Middle Persian (c 300 BCE- 800 CE) name for Angra Mainyu who appears in Avestan- a language preserved in Zoroarstrian scripture. Ahriman represents chaos, wickedness and evil in general. His counterpart and equal (and sometimes brother) Ohrmazd represents order, balance and beauty. Ahriman presides over the deavas or demons. These two entities represent the duality of the universe that is important to Zoroastrian belief.

Among Ahriman's notable actions are his attempt to tempt the prophet Zoroaster with the power to rule the world. For good measure Ahriman sent some of his deavas to persuade Zoroaster. Unfortunately for Ahriman Zoroaster wanted nothing to do with that and put the deavas to flight. Ahriman also created the great serpent Azhi Dahaka.

For a more thorough catalogue of Ahirman/Angra Mainyu's appearances the Encyclopedia Iranica has a good entry here. 

The original Ahriman from FFIII