Safi'jiiva is an Elder Dragon first introduced in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, serving as the base game's overarching antagonist. An adult form of Xeno'jiiva and the progenitor of its kind in the New World, Safi'jiiva no longer needs to feed on the bionenergy of Elder Dragons, being capable of absorbing it from the very earth. As such, Safi'jiiva rules over locales such as the Guiding Lands, moulding the very ecosystems to fit its designs and allow it to keep feeding on bioenergy.
Physiology[]
Unlike its juvenile form, Xeno'jiiva, Safi'jiiva is a big red dragon that no longer possesses an unearthly look. In addition to being red with some dark accents on numerous areas, including the horns, feet, spikes, and wing edges, its scales are now stiff and extremely resistant to damage unless tenderized. However, it has a brown underside and wing webbing. Except when it is absorbing energy or in its "Supercritical" condition, its bodily parts no longer shine. From its neck, many spikes extend down its back to the tip of its tail.
In contrast to its adolescent form, which has its arms extended and chest high off the ground, Safi'jiiva maintains its arms bent and chest near the ground. Despite being about the same size, with the former being slightly longer than the latter, this can create the appearance that Safi'jiiva is smaller than its younger counterpart.
Biography[]
It is revealed in World's expansion Iceborne that an adult version of a Xeno'jiva named Safi'jiva lives in a canyon far north of the New World. This mature form gained the terrifying ability of consuming the life-force of entire ecosystems. After discovering the red dragon and fighting a long and hard battle, the Fifth Fleet and the Hunters are able to slay Safi'jiva, but not before it's sheer amount of power signals two incredibly powerful Black Dragons to the New World: Alatreon and Fatalis.
Abilities[]
By being able to freely extract bioenergy from its environment, attract monsters in the same way that Xeno'jiiva attracts Elder Dragons, and even control ambient bioenergy on an ecosystem-wide scale, Safi'jiiva, the adult form of Xeno'jiiva, surpasses the bioenergy control of its juvenile form. Some people refer to it as a "perfect being" because of its capacity to alter and wipe out entire biomes and ecosystems to suit its requirements.
In battle, Safi'jiiva employs high-power energy assaults that are comparable to those of Xeno'jiiva but have far more strength and control. Among its many weapons are sweeping beams that may cover a large area, targeted lasers that flood the earth with explosive energy, and explosive bursts. Safi'jiiva will physically attack with all of its bodily parts due to its massive size, weight, and highly developed musculature. It may cause violent delayed eruptions by enhancing its blows with bioenergy.
Even for an Elder Dragon, its scales and hide are renowned for being abnormally resilient; in contrast to other monsters, which have weak points, its entire body will readily deflect assaults unless it has been weakened beforehand. Even more amazing is the fact that Safi’jiiva can use the bioenergy of its surroundings to boost and speed up its natural healing process when it is hurt. This enables it to mend wounds nearly immediately and re-harden tenderized body parts. If Safi'jiiva totally depletes a region's bioenergy, it will have to go for more elsewhere. Severe harm, on the other hand, can "knock out" its absorbed energy and drive it to restore it quickly.
Similar to Behemoth's Ecliptic Meteor, Safi'jiiva can launch a "ultimate attack" named the "Sapphire of the Emperor" if it is sufficiently enraged. In this attack, it takes flight, hovers, and breathes its flame onto the ground, sending forth waves of flame that blister the earth. After a while, it produces a concentrated ball of energy that resembles a blue star and violently explodes into a huge explosion of light that fills the entire region. Safi'jiiva will use it rarely unless it senses that it is about to die because of the energy necessary to use it, despite the fact that it is known to be an incredibly strong blast that can instantly kill any and all creatures caught within its range. Safi'jiiva's attacks create rock crags that hunters might hide behind to survive the Sapphire of the Emperor.
Safi'jiiva has the potential to enter a "Supercritical State" when strained. In this condition, its underside shines white in the spaces between the scales, and its wing webbing now has the constellation-like pattern that emerges when it is receiving energy. Its hide softens in this form, allowing weapons to harm it normally without the need to soften its body parts with Clutch Claw strikes, but it also becomes much more powerful and aggressive. During this state, its chest becomes a significant weak area.
Behavior[]
Safi'jiiva attacks with even more ruthlessness and aggression than its younger form, but it is noticeably more cunning and sophisticated in its attacks. It is also quickly hostile and savage towards anyone who approaches it. Without regard for its surroundings, it extracts energy from the surrounding area to ensure its survival and prosperity, hence posing a serious threat and likely eliminating any adjacent life after extended exposure. Even by Elder Dragon standards, its intelligence is reportedly extraordinary, being capable of engineering entire ecosystems to suit its needs and channel bioenergy to it at incredible rates.
Instead of using physical assaults, it prefers to use beam attacks to confront hunters from a distance. It is also smart enough to use some attacks to direct their movement. Safi'jiiva frequently identifies the biggest threat to itself and concentrates all of its energy on them, in contrast to Xeno'jiiva, which attacks without distinction.
Safi'jiiva is said to possess a rivalry with the Black Dragon Alatreon, with Alatreon's arrival in the Secluded Valley being implied to be in order to fight Safi'jiiva or destroy its young, a behaviour it has been recorded performing in recent years. So far, Safi'jiiva seems to be coming out on top of this global turf war as its young are rather abundant while Alatreon is extremely rare, but as the Black Dragon tends to make itself scarce when possible, it's likely that it may not be as outcompeted as it seems.
Trivia[]
- Safi'jiiva gets its name from safi (صافي), the Arabic word for "Pure", and jiva which according to Hinduism, is a living being or any kind of entity imbued with a life force.
- In the Wyverian language, Safi'jiiva's name means "Perfect Life".
- According to the developers, Safi'jiiva was created to be a counterpart/rival to Fatalis. This can be seen in its numerous attributes and design features:
- Both Safi'jiiva and Fatalis resemble basic European dragons, possibly indicating a similar power to each other.
- While Safi'jiiva is bright red in colour, Fatalis is a drab black.
- Safi'jiiva's stance is more mammalian, while Fatalis is frequently sprawled to the ground like a reptile.
- Safi'jiiva's bionenergy blasts are bright blue, while Fatalis's fire is often orange.
- Safi'jiiva was only discovered recently, while Fatalis has been known and feared for centuries via myths and legends.
- Safi'jiiva's role as an ecosystem manipulator is well documented, while Fatalis has no known role in the ecosystem whatsoever.
- Finally, the two dragons are said to represent fears that are polar opposites of each other: Safi'jiiva mirrors the destruction humans bring to the natural world from exploitation, while Fatalis represents the innate fear humans have of the wild and unknown.
- Safi-jiiva was voted 16th place in the Hunters' Choice for Top Monster during Monster Hunter's 20th Anniversary.
- Safi'jiiiva's battle theme; For the Emperor's Amusement was voted among the top 10 music themes in the Hunters' Choice: Top 10 Monster Themes - Monster Hunter 20th Anniversary.
- It's speculated that Safi'jiiva may be the dragon mentioned in the "Tale of the Five" story found in the Private Suite, being the dragon that "climbed far into the sky to become a star of sapphire blue, shining brightly above the island." This matches with its ability to fly, its ultimate attack, the "Sapphire of the Emperor", and the constellation-like patterns that appear on its wings when it’s in Critical Mode.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Monsters Others | ||