Noctluna

"May you two know happiness."

- Regis.

Noctluna is the het ship between Noctis Lucis Caelum and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret from the Final Fantasy fandom.

Pre-Final Fantasy XV
Lunafreya and her older brother Ravus were once royalty of Tenebrae and close allies with the royal family of Lucis. When Lunafreya was born, she was met by the High Messenger of the Astrals, Gentiana, who would tell her that she was ordained to work with Prince Noctis of Lucis to bring the light back to the world. Lunafreya and Noctis are childhood friends, and the memories they shared in the time they met are cherished by both.

As a child, Noctis went to Tenebrae with his father seeking the help of the healing magic of the Oracles, power that belongs to the female royalty of Tenebrae, after suffering injuries that left him wheelchair-bound. After meeting Lunafreya, she tells him about the prophecy that signals him as the "King of Light", and that as the next Oracle in line, she is to work alongside him to aid him in his quest. Noctis promises to do his duty and not disappoint her, to which she is touched. One day Luna gives Noctis a red-covered book with a pressed flower in it, so they could have a way to stay in contact with each other when it was time for Noctis and his father to leave Tenebrae, by having one of Luna's dogs, Umbra or Pryna, deliver the book back and forth between them after they read its resent message to one another before they leave a reply message in it. Gentiana was pleased to see that Noctis was becoming very close to Luna.

When Niflheim invaded Tenebrae, however, the two were separated for the next twelve years. Regis had tried to get both Noctis and Luna away from the chaos as they make their escape, but after Luna hears her brother cry out to her she decides to stay by Ravus's side in their homeland, while the two Lucians managed to avoid capture and return safely back to Lucis. Noctis didn't want to leave Luna behind and had tried to convince her to come with them as he called out her name, but Luna had made up her mind and could only watch as Regis takes his not fully recovered son to safety. The Lover's Notebook and Luna's magical dogs, however, did allow them to secretly stay in contact with each other over the years. Like they promised they would. A few of Noctis messages to Luna told her of his life in Lucis and the friends that he is close with, so she can know that he is doing fine.

Omen Trailer
The trailer starts with Noctis showing up on Lunafreya's room. The room is empty, with one of the armchairs knocked down and thundering clouds showing outside the windows. Noctis goes ahead on his journey alone, with only the ghostly figure of Lunafreya watching after him. He spots Pryna, one of Lunafreya's dogs, looking at him off road and in his attempt to turn around, crashes his car. He starts following Pryna, going through numerous hardships with Lunafreya appearing constantly mirroring his reflection, and Pryna leading him on the journey. In between, Lunafreya appears battling an unseen enemy, calling out for Noctis. Along the way Noctis starts losing his powers, becoming cornered by his enemies, and Pryna aids him by encouraging him and distracting the enemy. He runs to a seemingly dead Pryna, the scenario around him crumbling and reconstructing. In the background, Noctis' promise to not disappoint Lunafreya in his journey to save the world can be heard.

He appears in an unknown place surrounded by daemons and fire, looking confused, covered in blood and holding Lunafreya's trident. Flashbacks reveal that the dog he had been following wasn't Pryna, but a hairless, demonic-looking dog and that the one fighting and ultimately killing Lunafreya had been Noctis himself, delivering the final blow with her trident under a possessed appearance. Noctis screams in anguish and falls down to his knees, next to Lunafreya's body.

The trailer description states that it shows a possible scenario that must be avoided, implying that Noctis and Lunafreya must work together to save the world. At GDC 2017 it was revealed an official timeline listing the Omen trailer as an alternate timeline.

Final Fantasy XV
When Noctis turned twenty, Niflheim offered Lucis peace through the marriage between the Prince and Luna, an arranged marriage that would allow the two to be together again, but Regis could tell that something was up and sent Noctis and his friends away, making his son believe the wedding would happen in Altissia and that there is where he should be to meet up with Luna for it. Lunafreya was brought to Insomnia by the Empire to kill her with the attack they made to the city, but she managed to get away from the city with the task to give Noctis the Ring of the Lucii. Before Luna made her way back to Tenebrae, she makes sure that the Astrals outside her home kingdom lend Noctis their power. After Noctis learned what happened to his home kingdom and what Luna has been doing to help him in his task on her end, he became determined to ensure that he doesn't let her down as he continues to his journey to Altissia.

Noctis arrives to Altissia were there's news of Luna being held by the local government to protect her from the Empire, and he heads to speak to the First Secretary to ensure her safety. Luna gives a broadcasted speech to the public, with Noctis among the crowd. After her speech, their sights cross, and she nods his way before he nods back in acknowledgment, both smiling.

When Lunafreya starts the rite to wake up the Astral Leviathan, she defends Noctis' worth for the goddess' favor. Through Noctis' fight with the Astral, Ardyn wounds Lunafreya, mocking him for being unable to help his bride. As Noctis is heavily worn from the difficult battle and on the brink of being defeated, Luna makes and effort and summons weapons from past Kings, giving Noctis the power to levitate and allowing him a chance to win the battle. Noctis falls unconscious after defeating Leviathan and Luna holds him to protect him from the crashing waves. She summons the Astral Titan to aid them and continues to heal Noctis despite her wounds and after falling unconscious herself.

The two meet in a dream-like scape as children, where Luna explains this is their goodbye. Noctis rejects the idea, saying that it is not right and that he just wanted to save her. Now in her adult form, Lunafreya promises to always watch over Noctis through his hard times, sinking down into an ethereal, water-like abysm, with Noctis as an adult trying desperately to reach her without results. Luna hands him a Sylleblossom flower that disintegrates and transforms into the Ring of the Lucii once it reaches his hands, leaving him crying at her departure.

Once Noctis wakes up he learns he had been asleep for some days, and immediately asks for Luna. He finds she died through the rite and that Umbra left the notebook on the bed for him. Noctis finds the Ring of the Lucii on his hand just like in the dream and the last entry on the notebook has a pressed Sylleblossom on it. His tears fall on the pages of the Notebook, and Noctis cries for everything lost, mourning for several weeks.

Once Noctis is about to purge the darkness from the world, he thanks his friends, his father, and Luna, stating he loves them. After the credits, light returns to the world, with the theme of Final Fantasy playing in the background, mixed with the sound of wedding bells. Noctis and Luna appear sitting in the throne room, which is decorated with flowers and blue Sylleblossom petals. The two are wearing their wedding attires and tiny crystal shards flutter around them, giving the scene a mystic air. Noctis hands over to Luna a player-chosen picture, to which Luna smiles. Noctis gently takes her face and the two share a kiss, smiling at each other before falling to slumber on the throne seat, their figures melting into the games logo.

Episode Lunafreya
After waking up alone, Lunafreya travels through the dark, Daemon-infested Niflheim lands in the company of Sol, Aranea's stepdaughter, discovering she is ten years into the future and with a new power to absorb Daemons. Umbra appears before her and she tries to contact Noctis, but the dog refuses to deliver her message implying he can't be reached at the moment, thus Lunafreya starts to record all of her thoughts to Noctis so that he can read them later. Luna learns through the Astral Bahamut about Noctis’ destiny to sacrifice himself to defeat Ardyn, and ordains her to defeat Ardyn herself since he has become too strong for Noctis alone to defeat. Unsure she can achieve it, she agrees to try to save Noctis with her new power.

When Sol asks what Lunafreya truly wants for herself, she admits to wanting to live happily with Noctis. Before heading to Insomnia to defeat Ardyn, she leaves a final message for Noctis with Umbra. As she steps into the Throne room, Ardyn receives her saying “I’m afraid you’re out of luck. The person you want to see isn’t here.” meaning he knows about her feelings for Noctis.

A datamined dialogue from Episode Ardyn had the English dub say "I'm afraid you are out of luck, your Prince is in another castle", a line that makes reference to the Nintendo video game "Super Mario Bros", where the hero is trying to save the kingdom's princess.

Episode Noctis
Inside the crystal, Noctis wakes up and Bahamut shows him visions of the past through the crystal, where he sees Ardyn's murder of Luna. Knowing he did it to hurt Noctis himself, Noctis thinks of it as something unforgivable despite the good things Ardyn may have done in the past. He ponders on how if Ardyn had not been released from his imprisonment, he would have never been chosen to save the world nor would he had gone to Tenebrae and meet Luna after he was wounded by a Daemon as a child.

He sees Luna vanishing in Altissia's altar after healing him, and Ravus saying how the Oracle's duties continue even after dying. Noctis sees Luna making her first covenant with Shiva and her escape from Insomnia with the ring, realizing the hardships Luna was going through to support him while he enjoyed the outside world traveling with his friends. He understands Ravus' anger at him, feeling immature and ignorant while realizing how much of a child he had been, having been sheltered by others. Despite feeling scared of his destiny, he doesn't want to waste Luna's sacrifice, as he desired to save her more than anything, but now that that’s not possible he would like to preserve the world as proof that she lived.

After he awakens in Angelgard Noctis meets Umbra, who hands him Luna’s notebook with the message “I’m alive” as well as the records of her journey. Noctis promises to never lose anyone again like he once lost Luna and tells Umbra this time he will return the notebook himself. Luna’s last message reads “I’ll wait for you in the Citadel”. At the shore in Galdin he meets Sol who he already knows from Luna’s stories. Sol tells Noctis about Luna’s new calling to defeat Ardyn and he is surprised given that he has the ring and that’s supposed to be the only means to kill Ardyn. He grows concerned about Luna after learning her new power is to absorb Daemons, knowing that was the power that led Ardyn to his demise.

Noctis drops Sol at Hammerhead without waiting for his friends to arrive and heads to Insomnia where Luna is, fighting powerful enemies along the way. After failing to convince Ardyn to cooperate with her, Lunafreya confronts the Astral Ifrit and absorbs the starscourge from him and asks him to make a covenant with her. Noctis arrives after she is fallen unconscious and demands from Ardyn to know what he did to her. Ardyn replies she absorbed the scourge from Ifrit out her free will, making Lunafreya now a Daemon who starts attacking Noctis.

Noctis begs for Lunafreya to recognize him, but is interrupted by Bahamut, who says he now plans to use Lunafreya to destroy the world, coining her as the Daemon Queen. Lunafreya levitates and makes an attack that leaves Noctis unconscious. When he awakes, he sees that Lunafreya is at the top of a floating citadel, singing to gather the energy to summon Terraflare, and Noctis grows terrified of losing her again. With the aid of his friends, Noctis goes forward to save Lunafreya. Bahamut announces the power is complete and drains Lunafreya of her accumulated darkness, falling unconscious from the sky. Noctis manages to catch her and warp to safety.

Final Fantasy XV

 * Noctis is very secretive of the Lover's Notebook, not even letting Ignis know what's inside.
 * The first time we see Umbra deliver the notebook to Noctis in the game he can be seen with a smile on his face. Once Noctis gets self-aware he furtively looks around making sure his friends didn’t notice.
 * When Noctis sends Umbra back on his way to Lunafreya, Prompto asks what this was about. Noctis refuses to answer.
 * The first time Noctis gets the notebook back from Luna after the news of her death in the attack to Insomnia, he frantically flips through the pages to find her latest reply, reverently touching the page and bowing his head in relief.
 * Noctis becomes determined to ensure that their wedding, along with their shared happy ever after, does happen after he sees Lunafreya's displayed wedding dress in Tenebrae.
 * While looking at Lunafreya's dress, Gladiolus remarks that Noctis must make the wedding happen, to which Noctis answers "yeah" while looking at the dress.
 * Pictures taken with Ansel tools on the PC version of the game reveal he is smiling to the dress.
 * Noctis sheds a tear when Lunafreya gives her speech in Altissia.
 * After Lunafreya’s speech in Altissia, the two see each other over the crowd, smiling and nodding in acknowledgment.
 * In the Japanese dub of the farewell scene, Noctis says “All I wanted was to save you, even if it meant dying”. The last part is absent in the english dub.
 * Noctis takes off his gloves before he touches Lunafreya’s cheek in the after-credits scene.

Kingsglaive

 * Luna inquires about Noctis with Regis and he tells her that the prince has departed, Luna looks downfallen.
 * Regis offers to send her with Noctis, but she refuses, stating that going near Noctis would put him in danger, as the enemy would end up following her.
 * In the after-credits scene, Noctis is shown being teased by his friends over his engagement to Lunafreya as they drive to Altissia, where the wedding is going to be held.

Royal Edition
The Royal Edition of the game adds some new content, including scenes and dialogue:
 * Blue Sylleblossom petals flutter around Noctis and he turns around surprised to see a ghostly Lunafreya appear to help him get to the citadel, summoning the gods and destroying the magic barrier around it.
 * Lunafreya addresses Noctis as "my King", acknowledging his growth and maturity as well as her personal attachment to him.
 * After the summoning, the two stare at each other for a moment. Noctis reaches his hand towards her and Lunafreya does the same, walking towards him progressively faster before disappearing in a cloud of lights when they touch, leaving a single Sylleblossom petal in his hand.
 * On a random dialogue, Noctis mentions to Prompto: “Just remember: hold tight to the ones you love and don’t let go. Lose your grip and you lose ‘em for good…”

Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV

 * Some of the contents they exchange on the notebook can be seen: Noctis sends Lunafreya pictures about his daily life, like Ignis' pastries, a picture of him and Prompto after becoming friends and a sticker given to him by Iris as thanks for rescuing her. It also shows more text passages between Luna and Noct. You can see them while Luna turns the pages of the notebook and also on the opposite side of one of the pages shown.
 * On Lunafreya's letter to Prompto, Luna states Noctis doesn't have many friends, and that she would appreciate if he became one, showing she has an understanding of Noctis' private life.
 * After Noctis looks frantically around his table, Ignis points out he moved the red notebook while cleaning, to which Noctis flinches.
 * After the credits, Lunafreya and Noctis promise to see each other again.
 * When Noctis refuses to let Prompto meet Lunafreya, Prompto complains that Noctis is breaking his promise and "keeping her all to himself".

Pocket Edition
The mobile version of the game adds a few more dialogues that are not present in the console/PC version.


 * Noctis reveals he shares things like pictures, flowers, and stickers with Lunafreya through the Lovers' Notebook.
 * His "I send back stickers and stuff" line is vague about all the contents he is sending via the notebook. This is in line with Noctis being secretive about the notebook contents.
 * Dialogue confirms that Luna and Noct send the notebook back and forth more than is shown in the actual game.

FFXIV "A Nocturne for Heroes" Collaboration Event
In the event, Noctis arrives in Hydaelyn in the Regalia. Once there, he joins the Warrior of Light in a series of battles against Daemons and Magitek soldiers in an effort to get home. Lunafreya makes a cameo in the "A Nocturne for Heroes" event in the light portal that guides Noctis back to Eos. The Warrior of Light, Cid nan Garlond, and Kipih Jakkya see the female figure, and Kipih thinks aloud that she must be Noctis's fiancée.


 * Noctis explains he was on his way to meet someone before he landed on Eorzea. When questioned who, he turns flustered and shies away from answering, revealing after being pressured that it was his fiancee, Lunafreya.
 * Noctis mentions numerous times he has a promise to fulfill, making reference to the promise he made to Lunafreya as children.
 * Before crossing the portal to return back to his world, Lunafreya's figure appears on the portal, to which Noctis smiles and moves towards.

Children


In the “Dawn of the Future” Artbook it's shown they end up having two children in the novella's timeline: A girl and a boy, identical in appearance to the younger versions of Lunafreya and Noctis, respectively.

The children are not given any names, and the developer commentary underneath adds that their names are left up to the fans.

Quotes
"Let Luna know... I'm okay, and that she won't have to wait much longer - we'll be together soon."

- Noctis, FFXV chapter 7

"The ring is important, and so is Leviathan - but Luna comes first."

- Noctis, FFXV chapter 9

"When the world falls around you, and hope is lost, when you find yourself alone amid a lightless place, look to the distance. Know that I am there, and that I watch over you always. Farewell, Dear Noctis."

- Lunafreya, FFXV chapter 9

"I don't seek to guide him. Merely to stand beside him."

- Lunafreya on her role to Noctis, FFXV chapter 10

"Luna... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. Not even when you needed me most. There was so much you wanted to say. So much I wanted to say... And now I'll never have the chance. I'm so sorry..."

- Noctis, FFXV chapter 12

"Luna... You and I will be together again someday. I promise."

- Noctis, FFXV chapter 12

Behind the Scenes

 * At GDC 2017, Dan Inoue made reference to Lunafreya as “Noctis’ paramour.”
 * “I thought I had expended all of my creative energy on the main game’s soundtrack, but I managed to write and arrange a few more pieces. One such arrangement is “Moonlit Melodies,” the title track from the Piano Collections Final Fantasy XV album as well as the encore number from the accompanying concert. For this piece, I interpolated Luna’s theme into Noctis’s, using music to bring these two star-crossed lovers together once more. Please listen for it in the Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition!”-- Yoko Shimomura
 * Noctis’ English voice actor Ray Chase voiced a video collaboration with cosplayer Kelly Eden as Noctis and Lunafreya respectively, with the trend video-theme "Boyfriend narrates my make up tutorial".
 * “Noct and Luna are a great match for each other personality-wise. They are both patient, and earnest, and capable of dealing with great sorrow. They would be each other’s shield, and their love for each other would only grow with time.”-- Ray Chase.
 * At the “Noctis Gives Love Advice!” event with Ray Chase, someone called pretending to be Luna asking why Noctis doesn’t call her via phone. His response was: “Hey, Luna, it’s Noctis. Prince Noctis. Ahh, I’m so... I’m just shy, all right? I like talking through the sticker book because it gives me time to think about it. Well, a limited time of three options than I can send to you at a time. Look, Luna, I’m coming, all right? I’m coming to Altissia and I’m gonna listen to you speak and then totally not say anything to you and then we’re finally gonna meet... on a bridge or something. Anyway, I’ll talk to you later and I... I love you.”
 * Ray Chase got asked if he finds himself getting attached to the characters he’s interacted with as Noctis. “Absolutely. No, I’ve lived that. That’s why Luna means so much to me because she’s... I’ve lived that. That relationship was real.”
 * “And Noctis doesn’t flirt with anybody else - he doesn’t - he can’t do it, he doesn’t care. He just is so focused on his one true love.”-- Ray Chase interview he did with Sue Lightning.
 * When asked if he would have liked a secret meeting between Luna and Noctis in Altissia, Ray mentions the place with the painting from the Cursed Canvas side quest. “That’d be a fun thing, for like, around midnight Noct and Luna come in and do some kisses.”
 * Ray Chase coined “Dawn” as a name for Noctis’ and Luna’s daughter.
 * “Luna is Noct’s guiding light. Her existence is vital to his, and much of his development he owes to her. Luna’s appearance was designed to be pure and heroic, and her strength is apparent in her expressions and deeds.”-- Hajime Tabata (from the Final Fantasy XV Collector’s Edition Guidebook)
 * “Luna’s ascension to the role of Oracle early on gives her time to come to terms with her fate, unlike Noct who hasn’t yet made his peace. That relationship called for Luna to be older than Noct, and affected many design decisions.”-- Saori Itamuro (from the Final Fantasy XV Collector’s Edition Guidebook).

Fanon
Noctluna is the most popular het ship of the Final Fantasy XV saga, due to it being canon in the game and fans falling in love with the bond that the two share with one another while being apart, and their desire to be together again after their abrupt separation. This led to some fans being sad when Lunafreya was killed, but were glad that Noctis and Lunafreya were finally able to get married and be together forevermore in the afterlife, even though a few wish that the two had gotten a lot more interaction with each other in the game, and that they were given a chance to be together in life. Many fans relate to the love story of Noctis and Lunafreya, seeing it as a stand-in or a representation of long-distance relationships.

Common themes in fanfiction include canon divergence where Lunafreya lives, AUs where nobody dies and the two rule over Eos as King and Queen, and retellings of the time they expended together as children in Tenebrae.

On AO3, Noctluna is the most written ship for Lunafreya, and the fourth most written ship for Noctis. It is also the eighth-most written ship in the Final Fantasy XV tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Noctis/Lunafreya on FanFiction.Net
 * Noctis/Lunafreya on FanFiction.Net

DEVIANTART

TUMBLR

PIXIV
 * ノクルナ(Noctis/Luna) tag on Pixiv

EVENTS
 * Noctluna Week, August 29 – September 4, 2017 (Tumblr)
 * Lunoct Smut Weekend, July 27 – 29, 2018 (Tumblr | AO3)
 * Lunoct Week, February 25 – March 3, 2019 (Tumblr | Twitter | AO3)
 * LunoctCelebrationDays, August 30 – September 4, 2019 (Tumblr | Twitter | AO3)

Trivia

 * The red notebook they use to communicate when separated is shown to be named "Lovers' Notebook" once it is added to the inventory.
 * All of the options the player is given to answer Lunafreya through the notebook are positive, differentiated by their length and detail.
 * If the players choose the favorable notebook responses it will say "A notebook once used to keep in touch with Lunafreya. The last page is stained with tears." in the inventory.
 * The two have a consistent complementary thematic: Lunafreya's main color is white while Noctis' is black, her name means "moon" and his means "night sky", she is from the land of Tenebrae (darkness) while he hails from Lucis (light).
 * In the Japanese dub, Noctis addresses everyone with a blunt form of speech. This changes when he is addressing Lunafreya, his speech turning less brash while maintaining it's informal tone.
 * Noctis is the only one to call Lunafreya "Luna", a nickname he gave her as a kid after having trouble pronouncing her full name.
 * Despite the in-universe existence of technology like cellphones, Noctis and Lunafreya communicate through their red notebook all the years they are apart. This is because phones are limited to Insomnia, Noctis' birthplace.
 * In February 2018, Square Enix released a render of Noctis and Lunafreya taking a selfie in his car in celebration of Valentine's Day. Their Japanese twitter tag "#ノクルナ" became a trending topic that day on the website.
 * In Kingdom Hearts III, there is a fictional game trailer clip titled "Verum Rex", where is appears to be based on Final Fantasy Versus XIII, since the featured male protagonist, Yozora, looks a lot like a silver-haired version of Noctis, while the dark-haired woman resembles Stella Nox Fleuret, the earlier version of Lunafreya during the much earlier stages of FFXV's development.
 * Because of this, some view Yozora and the unnamed woman as Noctis and Lunafreya.

Variations

 * Promlunoct refers to the ship between Prompto Argentum, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret and Noctis Lucis Caelum