The main character of the game. Cecil is a dark knight of the Baron Empire, torn between his loyalty to his kingdom and feelings against having to commit atrocities against several nations. Eventually decides he's had enough and defects from Baron to try and stop them and later Golbez from gathering the Crystals. He and Golbez appear in the Dissidia Series as representatives for Final Fantasy IV and will be returning for the Spin-OffTheatrhythm Final Fantasy.
BFS: Just like most Final Fantasy heroes. Hard to tell in the 2D releases, but in the DS release, well...◊ Of course this is probably due to the Chibi art style because his official renders show him wielding swords of standard sizes.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: But it only became obvious after one, technology developed to the point that we could clearly see what he looks like, and two, the series became popular enough for Yoshitaka Amano's artwork for it to be gathered up into artbooks (as usual, happening later for the anglophone world than Japan).
To be technical, only the latter is his blood sibling, but Kain has been his friend since childhood. They were both adopted and raised by the same man.
How Do I Shot Web?: After the Paladin transformation, he's reset to level one, with the damage capability he had at the beginning of the game. (Fortunately, he gains levels extremely quickly.)
This is also alleviated quickly by the fact that Cecil's Mythgraven Blade/Sword of Legend works wonders against all of the unholy enemies on Mt. Ordeals.
Lawful Stupid: Averting this trope is actually a plot point for him, as he worries that he's becoming a tool of Baron without any morality in the beginning of the game. The decision to avert this is also what causes him to turn against his homeland.
Light is Good / Dark Is Not Evil: Before the king turned evil or, rather, before Cagnazzo began to impersonate him, it's very strongly implied that Dark Knight!Cecil was actually a just and noble warrior.
Stay in the Kitchen: He tells Rosa and Rydia (you know, the healer and the nuketastic spellcaster) to stay safe on earth but has no problem taking along Edge, who spends half his time in battle faceplanted. (Fortunately, they don't listen.)
"Cecil, Rosa. I cannot bring myself to face you both, not yet. I must test myself as you did, Cecil, at Mt. Ordeals. I will train until I've surpassed my father as a Dragoon. When that time comes, then I shall return to Baron."
Cecil's long-time friend and ally, and commander of Baron's Dragoons. Involved in a Love Triangle with Cecil and Rosa. He appeared in the sequel to Dissidia as one of the main characters to the new plot.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: That being said, he kept his feelings hidden beneath the surface in order to avoid hindering his friendship with Cecil and Rosa.
Love Makes You Evil: His unrequited love for Rosa and jealousy of Cecil was the main reason he was able to be turned to The Dark Side.
Love Redeems: Just as his love for Rosa turns him to The Dark Side, it is his love for Rosa that manages to redeem him in the end.
Murder the Hypotenuse: He tries it while serving Golbez. His "Lunar Trial" in GBA's bonus dungeon focuses entirely around this concept and Kain overcoming the temptation (or not, which causes a Non-Standard Game Over). In The After Years, his Enemy Without plans to do it, but the real Kain is able to stop him.
Breakout Character: One of the most famous Ensemble Darkhorses of the series. He got to be a central character in The After Yearsdue to his dark side being a major antagonist, and is one of the more plot-important characters in Dissidia 012. Even Tetsuya Nomura is a Kain fanboy and tried really hard to get him in the first Dissidia, looking at him for IV's representative villain at one point instead of Golbez.
Heel Face Revolving Door: The most common perception of him, though in truth he only is brainwashed twice, and he notably fights off another attempt at brainwashing without even letting the struggle show on his face.
And actually, some versions of the game reduce the number from two to one, with Golbez intentionally allowing him to briefly rejoin Cecil to steal the last Dark Crystal.
The Lancer: This is both his class name and his role within the story.
Magic Knight: Upon becoming a HolyDragoon in The After Years, although sprites◊ Dummied Out from the original game suggest that Kain would have had this ability all along.
Mythology Gag: Starting with the Dawn of Souls remake for Final Fantasy II, the boy that Richard Highwind (the series' first Dragoon and bearer of the surname Highwind) adopts is named Kain. This was brought full circle when remakes of IV had Kain mention that the name of his father (who died *
; i.e. Richard's Heroic Sacrifice against Emperor Mateus in II]]) was Richard (although it's highly unlikely due to age; Kain tells the 17-year-old Ceodore that he was about his age when he heard news of his father's death; the Kain seen in II is merely a child).
The Archer: Though she can use staves, she's much better when handling a bow and arrow. Once she gets her best equipment, she deals damage comparable to the front-row characters.
Generation Xerox: She wished to become a white mage and fight alongside her lover, much like her mother did. The only difference is that Mrs. Farrell's husband was a dragoon, and Cecil's a paladin...
Hot Mom: Widely known as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom in-game, and in the sequel at age 36, and with a son named Ceodore, she's just as attractive as she was in the original.
Informed Attractiveness: While by no means ugly, her reputation as a world famous beauty seems a bit of a stretch when the other female party members are also quite beautiful. YMMV of course on if they're more attractive than Rosa or not.
The Ingénue: She's pure of spirit, although she's not naive or stupid.
Pimped Out Cape: In the remake, her cape has a lace cape over it.
Pregnant Badass: In the original release of The After Years, Ceodore is 16. The After Years takes place 17 years after the original game, implying she was possibly already pregnant during the end-game. The Complete Collection re-release de-aged Ceodore to 15, but included the Interlude chapter where she's playable for part of the chapter and later explicitly states she's pregnant.
Silk Hiding Steel: A pure and loving healer /queen who dresses very well and kicks ass.
Stripperiffic: Though nowhere near as much as Rydia.
Badass Adorable: If you level her sufficiently, she can one-hit desert creatures with her little Ice Rod.
Big Damn Heroes: One of her iconic scenes is showing up as an adult (supposedly killed by a sea serpent a few weeks earlier at age 6), after everyone is about to die and kicking Golbez's ass. This was a guy who took a Meteor spell to the face and walked it off.
The Big Guy: A surprisingly non-shoehorned example. Rydia has the highest damage potential of any party member, with Bahamut easily hitting the 9999 damage cap.
Fits this in the team dynamic somewhat, as her adult version tends to be mature and centered as opposed to Cecil's brooding Hero, Rosa's Heart/Chick, Kain's stoic Lancer, and Edge's Smart Guy.
Deadpan Snarker: She shows signs of this as an adult in the original SNES translation, although that could be chalked up to the localization team's efforts to voice her "inner child" due to the Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Subsequent rereleases tend to focus on the "childlike innocence" angle in her dialogue.
Easily Forgiven: Forgiveness from Rydia was surprisingly fast.
Justified Trope: Rydia didn't forgive Cecil too quickly, but she was rational enough to realise that he felt remorseful for what he'd done after he saved her life after she attacked him and even continued to protect her from his own allies from Baron. The Plot-Relevant Age-Up also helped a lot — Cecil was surprised she still wanted to fight alongside him now that she could protect herself, but she pointed out there were more important things to consider than their own discomfort (and given she spent at least a decade there, it would've given her time to truly forgive). As for forgiving Kain, though ... well, maybe Leviathan explained things to her so her anger wouldn't fester?
Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Just look at her picture and count the fetishes based on appearance alone. Then factor in her her abilities and personality.
Glass Cannon: Her summons will blast your enemies into oblivion, but Rydia by far has the lowest health of any of the group. If not sufficiently leveled by the time you've reached Zeromus it's likely he'll have her face down on the floor half the time.
I Choose To Stay: The ending for the original game implies Rydia chose to stay in the Feymarch and live with Asura and Leviathan. The After Years turns this one-sided—Asura and Leviathan send her back to live in Mist because she's still a human, and despite growing up in the Feymarch; they thought it would be better for her to be with her own species.
Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Hand Waved by a time flow difference between the regular world and the Feymarch/Land of Summoned Beasts. While only a week or so passed for everyone else, a decade passed for her.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Rydia is unable to cast Fire, and is afraid to cast it at first because Cecil and Kain unknowingly destroyed her hometown with Bombs (the monster, not the explosive device).
You Kill It, You Bought It: All of her optional summons are acquired by defeating the monster in battle first, as their code of honor states not to answer the summons of a Summoner who hasn't proven him/herself worthy of controlling them.
Badass Cape/Scarf of Asskicking: It's hard to tell. Artwork from The After Years depicts Edge wearing Rubicante's cloak of flames as his own; you can later obtain it for Edge to wear.
Stepford Smiler: In the DS remake, specifically the Lunar Subterrane. Edge is as outwardly cocky as ever, but his inner thoughts are more or less utter terror about where he is and what they are doing.
A wise old sage who has mastered both the arts of White and Black Magic. He meets Cecil at the Underground Waterway north of Kaipo to help him find a cure for Rosa's desert fever.
Voiced by: Goro Naya (Japanese), Lee Everest (English)
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Storyline-wise, Tellah just doesn't have the strength to use Meteor without killing himself. Gameplay-wise, Tellah isn't able to cast Meteor due to it costing 99 MP, and he only has 90 max. The developers overlooked the idea that in some releases, players can use items on him to boost his max MP. Oops.
Senseless Sacrifice: His last stand against Golbez, the almighty Meteor spell, fails to kill him.
Not Senseless actually, considering that Tellah temporarily freed Kain from Golbez's mind control and wounded Golbez enough to save Rosa, who was rescued right before the killing contraption would have killed her.
Heartbroken Badass: The "badass" is debatable, but you can bet yer ass that Anna's death hit him hard. Her Rousing Speech to him did ease his pain a bit, but he's still mourning 17 years later.
Item Caddy: The Salve ability which originally just spread a potion to the entire party is buffed considerably in later versions to allow Edward to use items on the entire party provided you still have the stock.
The Medic: Edward can make an effective healer in the DS version and The After Years due to his Salve ability combined with the Economical Ring which doubles the effectiveness of items and he will often out-pacing a White Mage because items heal instantly. It makes him a bit of a Money Sink however.
Took a Level in Badass: The original versions of the game notwithstanding, both the GBA and DS remakes, as well as The After Years, have seen Edward discard his Joke Character status quite triumphantly (in the case of the latter, it's more evident in the story, but damn, Edward has balls of steel).
Easy Amnesia: Briefly suffers this after Leviathan's appearance and works as a Baron troop. He gets his memory back after the party beats him up a bit.
Combination Attack: Before anyone else was using Bands, Palom and Porom had Twincasting as their signature move, setting off a small number of hard-hitting attacks after a sizable delay. In The After Years, Twincasting is retconned into a Band during the twins' flashback. They actually lose the band as they grow up and apart, but regain it during the final chapter, stronger than ever.
Insufferable Genius: Palom in The After Years has let his Bratty Half-Pint tendencies mature into this, trading his hilarious boasts for a constant air of superiority. Now when he calls himself Mysidia's most accomplished Black Mage, it's entirely true, but he's no less infuriating for it.
The Mentor: Palom in The After Years. And a surprisingly good one. How many other Final Fantasy characters have explained so clearly to anyone how mages work?
Stealth Pun: Palom is a smart-alec and calls himself the "Mysidian Genius", while Porom is quiet, devout and loyal to the Elder and the Crystal. When it comes to their abilities, Black Magic grows stronger as the user gains Intelligence, while White Magic depends on Spirit.
Stripperific: Porom in The After Years wears a nearly see-through outfit and no real hint of underwear under it. In Japan, this is to represent her purity. Her outfit was modified to be less see-through for the American release.
Taken for Granite: They turn themselves to stone to save the rest of the party.
Zettai Ryouiki: Porom provides Grade A in The After Years.
Cid Pollendina
Cid is one of Cecil's closest friends, and a master engineer. While he has helped build the airships that make up the Baron Air Force, he hates seeing them being used for war.
Voiced by: Ichiro Nagai (Japanese), John Snyder (credited as Stephen Martello; English)
Badass Grandpa: Espescially in The After Years when he's 71 years old and actually has a grandson. Still doesn't stop him from grabbing his hammer and jumping back into the fight.
Gadgeteer Genius: Almost anyone named "Cid" in a Final Fantasy game will be good with tools to some extent. This guy is no exception.
Genius Bruiser: He's a genius when it comes to airships, building and designing them for a living, and can easily beat things to death with his hammer.
Gonk: Especially when compared to the rest of the male party members, who are outright Bishōnen.
Blatant Lies: In the SNES/GBA version, his advice when facing the CPU proves very useful when put into effect. In the DS version, if you value your sanity, do NOT listen to him this time around unless you want to be brutally creamed by the Attack Node's new attack which can turn into a Total Party Kill if not leveled enough.
Crutch Character: He'll fall down with two strong hits. His faint animation in the DS version literally vaporizes him into his clothes.
Expy: Fits the same character mold as Tellah, joining the party with all the spells in the game but with mediocre HP and too low MP to get a lot of usage out of his abilities.
Spell My Name with an S: Is it FuSoYa, Fusoya, or Fu-So-Ya? KluYa experiences a similar problem.
The Villains
Golbez/Theodor
A dark sorcerer who is believed to have taken over the kingdom of Baron from within. He seeks out the four Elemental Crystals in an effort to rule the world. ... supposedly. He plays a pivotal role in the plot of the Dissidia: Final Fantasy where he appears as the villain representing Final Fantasy IV.
Voiced by: Takeshi Kaga (Japanese), Peter Beckman (credited as Anthony Landor; English)
Badass: He takes Meteor to the face and shakes it off like it was nothing (all it does is break his mind control spell on Kain). In the original versions of IV, his defeat in the Dwarven Castle reduces him to no more than a single hand, and he comes back seconds later. Plus, if he too is bound by the fact that a summoner dies when their summon kicks the bucket, he doesn't succumb to the loss of his Shadow Dragon and survives for the entire game. Oh, and he's one awesome mage.
Crutch Character: In The After Years. When you first set out to the True Moon he's just shy of 3,000 HP and probably has at least an extra thousand health on everyone else and has Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga. This, in tandem with Taunt to draw enemy attacks, makes him an excellent meat shield and Black Mage. As well, many monsters on the moon are plain immune to lower-level magic, and Palom and Rydia won't learn those "-aga" spells until Level 41, making Golbez pretty much the only offensive spellcaster you have until you level them up another ten-fifteen levels.
Darth Vader Clone: His Dissidia art provides the current page image. Besides his appearance as seen in his DS render, he's a Badass Baritone and is Cecil's brother and is brainwashed by Zemus, the true Big Bad.
Depending on the Artist: His armor is either bright blue, dark blue or black, and the lining of his cape is either blue or red. In the Super NES release, his boss sprite had blue armor with a blue cape, but his player character sprite had brighter blue armor with a red cape. In his DS render seen above, he has black armor and a blue cape, but his in-game model has black armor and a red cape. His Dissidia adapts this by presenting his dark blue and black armor with the blue cape for his default outfit while his gold and black armor with a red cape is his alternate outfit.
Hidden Depths: A meta example, remakes of the original game and his appearances in Dissidia and The After Years have turned him into one of the more complex characters in the Final Fantasy IV universe, while in the game's original release he was little more than a generic Tin TyrantEvil Overlord. Even after his stint of Brainwashed and Crazy ended, he didn't show much personality besides hints of The Atoner in the original Super NES release.
TAY takes this further during his final moments with his former henchmen, the Elemental Archfiends. In particular, Scarmiglione notes that even though he was hideous, Golbez looked past that and invited him into his ranks, hinting that even while brainwashed, Golbez still held some goodness in his heart.
Magic Knight: In TAY, he arguably plays this straighter than any other cast member save for Ceodore. He has a huge equipment draw including most of the mage-type robes and rods along with the knight-type swords, shields, and heavy armor. He also learns more Black Magic than Cecil, Ceodore, or Kain learn White Magic, including Flare and Meteor, so Golbez is perfectly capable as an attacker or mage. The only disadvantage he has compared to other Black Mages like Rydia and Palom is that he doesn't learn the Standard Status Effect spells they do.
Master of None: Golbez is not as effective a physical fighter nor mage as the other more dedicated characters but his high HP and his taunt ability make him an effective tank as well making him one of the most versatile characters in the game.
Meaningful Name: Golbeza (his name in Japanese) is a mistranslation of Golubaeser (also known as the Golubac Fly), a type of black fly named for the town of Golubac in Serbia. According to folk tales, the venomous flies were born from the body of a decomposing dragon, mirroring Theodor's eventual fate. In the DS remake, Zemus takes the symbolism further by calling him an insect that was "birthed from womb of dragon's corpse", referring to both the Golubac Fly and the Mysidian Legend.
Ominous Pipe Organ: His Leitmotif, "Golbez, Clad in Dark(ness)". Notably, Golbez was the first villain to get his own, foreboding theme.
Purple Eyes: In the DS port of the original game and PSP port of The After Years. Other depictions show him with Green Eyes, but you could Hand Wave it as somehow being due to his armor, since the green eyes are never depicted when he isn't wearing it.
Redemption Equals Death: Possible outcome of the battle against the Dark Knight Cecil doppelganger. The Japanese novelization for TAY actually has Golbez dying during the Lunar Subterrane event.
Shoulders of Doom: You'll seriously wonder how he walks in those things.
A Sinister Clue: Like Kain, he's officially left-handed (thus, precedingSephiroth), but this tends to most come across as an Informed Ability due to his status as a mage. Also, his status as such wasn't revealed until The After Years.
Squishy Wizard: A most notable inversion on the "squishy" part, which probably comes from his armour. It says a lot about how durable he is gameplay-wise that the team needed Meteor to beat him. And even then, it doesn't work! He could qualify as a magical Lightning Bruiser if he was a bit quicker.
The Stoic: In The After Years, unless the topic of discussion is Cecil, the Crystals or the Mysterious Girl, don't expect much more than the very occasional off-hand comment. He doesn't even soften up when dealing with the Elemental Archfiends (his loyal [former] subordinates), deaths included!
Walking the Earth: More like Traveling the Galaxy—if he survives The After Years he heads out in the Lunar Whale to search for the Red Moon and FuSoYa.
Scarmiglione/Milon
A zombie warrior, and one of Golbez's four Elemental Archfiends. He is dispatched to Mt. Ordeals to prevent Cecil from completing his trial to become a Paladin.
Trick Boss: He ambushes your party from behind moments after you defeated his somewhat easy first boss form. Hope that you inverted your party formation and healed, because he's a lot tougher the second time around.
Elemental Archfiend of the Air, and the only female member of the group. She first appears in the Tower of Zot, backed up by her Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Magus Sisters.
Spin to Deflect Stuff: Her primary defense is wrapping herself in a tornado that renders all direct attacks null. Unfortunately, it doesn't protect her from attacks coming straight down, and you just joined up with a Dragoon who knows Jump.
(to Edge) "I respect men like you. Men with... courage. But you are a slave to your emotions, and so will never know true strength. Such is the curse of men."
Dr. Lugae
A scientist who answers directly to Rubicante. Turned Edge's parents, the King and Queen of Eblan, into zombies.
More than Mind Control: In the DS remake/director's cut of Final Fantasy IV, it is heavily implied that the method he uses to brainwash Golbez and Kain was by finding any negative emotions inside of them (self-loathing and jealousy, respectively) and exploit it.
One-Winged Angel: He starts as a bald, blue floating guy, changes to an indistinct blue smoky ghost, to a massive, freakish crustacean insect... thing.
Puny Earthlings: He is the last of the radical sect of the Lunarian's who believed it was not worth waiting for the inferior humans to evolve to the same level of Lunarian's so they might coexist.
A knight in the service of King Baron. He is utterly devoted to the kingdom, even when Cecil is not, and remains so when it's revealed that the real King was killed and replaced with one of Golbez's servants.
Heel Face Mole: Your first clue that he's not on your side is the fact that your party is already full when he offers to join.
Locked Out of the Loop: The Hooded Man stops him from encountering Brainwashed Cecil in his story.
Magic Knight: Being the son of a White Mage and a Paladin, he has stronger White Magic than Cecil and Kain at the cost of not being quite as good (though still effective) a fighter.
Supporting Protagonist: Despite being The Hero of the sequel, he plays a much smaller role in the events concerning the Mysterious Girl and the Crystals than the other characters.
Expy: Of a certain other Gadgeteer Genius named Lucca. Though, this is a bit of an odd example, as Luca appeared in FFIV before Chrono Trigger existed, but had no personality or combat abilities until TAY.
All Your Colors Combined: Two of their Band abilities, "Wheel of Elements" where the four combine together, "Ultimate Art: Advent of Phoenix" where they all combine with Edge. The latter even comes with a chant. However, "Wheel of Elements" is thematically closer, since it actually consists of the four using their elemental powers in sequence, while "Advent of Phoenix" just uses fire.
Informed Attribute: Their individual personalities don't get a lot of time to shine through, as they individually receive equal focus in Edge's Tale which doesn't last long, and once Edge's Tale is complete they contribute little to the plot.
An Epopt in training. Recent events have convinced the Epopts of the need for their members to be able to defend themselves, and so she begins her black magic training under Palom...
The Red Mage: She can learn both White Magic and Black Magic, but does not learn every spell. She gains her spells at much higher levels than other characters; she gains Holy at level 70, the 3rd-tier elemental spells at levels 78, 80, and 82, and Flare at level 85.
Squishy Wizard: The squishiest—at Level 99 she's one of only three party members with less than 4,000 HP, and the other two are Calca and Brina. And then, if the random factor in HP gain doesn't like her, she can flat have the worst HP of all.
Took a Level in Badass: She stutters a lot and is respectful of Palom initially despite him being a Jerkass. Once he insults the Epopts though, she's had enough and tells him off, at which point for the rest of the game the stuttering stops. This event coincides with the completion of the Tower of Trials, and thus she begins to learn Black Magic as she levels up from now on.
Harley
Edward's assistant. She originally desired to be a scholar, but one day she heard his voice, and so abandoned her plans to become his secretary.
Joke Character: Unfortunately while Edward Took a Level in Badass, he passed his "usefulness" to his secretary. Piercing Sight gives an enemy a random elemental weakness and has a very low success rate, while Gil Toss is much weaker than in other entries in the series to the point that it's useless, even with the Money Spiders in the final areas giving you lots of cash for it. Her Band abilities are also horrible, with all but Feast of the Land taking up the turns of half your party or greater, two requiring specific equipment set-ups, and another having random effects. And even then, the party configurations required to use her Bands quite simply suck.
Awesome But Practical: Brina's Dance, which casts a random White Magic spell for no MP cost. Random Number God aside, most of the time you get Cure or Cura, which is pretty good considering that in Rydia's Tale your party has no White Mage and thus only Brina has any healing powers. If you're really lucky you can even get Haste and Curaja.
Killed Off for Real/Lost Forever/Guide Dang It: Unless you manage to obtain a Mythril Nut, Mythril Bolt, and Mythril Spring from a Quatro Puppet, Luca will be forced to scrap their bodies to repair the Falcon.
Biggs and Wedge
Ascended Extra: They are the two soldiers who questioned Cecil about taking the Water Crystal from Mysidia at the beginning of the original game.
Crutch Characters. They don't even gain XP during Ceodore's initial dungeon.
Mythology Gag: Named after the recurring pair of characters in the series.
Villains
Mysterious Girl/Maenad
The apparent main villain of The After Years, she shows up to steal the crystals. It turns out that there are multiple Maenads, and they were gathering the Crystals to take back to their master, the Creator, who also created the crystals.
The Battle Didn't Count: It's possible to win the battles that the party is supposed to lose to her, but the same result happens each time anyway. And in the storyline even when someone does kill her, another Maenad just takes her place.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: Her main method of collecting Crystals? Use the Red Wings to do it. After all King Cecil is The Hero, so few realize what's really going on when Baron starts going to war again.
During the boss battle with her and Bahamut, players may be tempted to use Reflect. Too bad that just as the Mega Flare countdown hits 1, she uses Black Hole to remove all your status buffs. Oh Crap...
The Dog Bites Back: A band of them finish off the Creator when he goes haywire.
Easily Forgiven: Considering that it is at least hinted at that the Maenad possess a Hive Mind, yet neither Leviathan nor Asura are shown to resent the child Maenad in the ending in any way.
Emotionless Girl: Mostly, arrogance and contempt are there but that's about it.
Evil Counterpart: Greatly resembles Rydia, and in The Complete Collection is able to successfully pose as her for a time. Interlude reveals it's because the Creator made the Maenads in Rydia's image after gathering data on her through a Crystal.
Everyone Calls Her Mysterious Girl: Justified as there's no way of knowing her real name until the last five minutes of the game. And even then, 'Maenad' is just the name given to her race as a whole.
Redemption Equals Life: In the case of the one Maenad adopted by Rydia (Cuore), the only surviving member of her race.
Redemption Equals Death: In the case of the rest of the race. They go into near extinction by sacrificing themselves via attacking the Creator in order to allow the party to escape.
The Woman Behind the Monsters: She controls an army of monsters to take over Baron, and still uses them on occasion after switching over to relying on Baron's military instead.
The embodiment of Kain's repressed hatred and jealousy for Cecil, he wishes to act out Kain's buried desires to kill Cecil and claim Rosa for himself. Masquerades as the real Kain during The After Years until the Hooded Man reveals himself as the true Kain and dispatches him.
Ascended Extra: Only took part in a short sidequest exclusive to the Advance release, but was a major antagonist in The After Years.
Black Cloak: How he appears in Kain's Lunar Trial.
Climax Boss: The fight with him occurs immediately after The Reveal that the Hooded Man is Kain and this guy is an imposter.
Cutscene Power to the Max: He makes his introduction to Porom by slicing apart an entire pack of enemies in one hit. Immediately after this he joins the party, and said skill is nowhere to be found.
Pet the Dog: He's not totally evil, as evidenced when he rescues Porom and her party for no benefit to himself, and later tells some brainwashed guards to value their lives in spite of being controlled.
The real Big Bad of The After Years, he is the sole surviving member of an alien race that prospered itself into extinction. He designed the crystals and sent them to various planets to test their evolutionary processes, and eventually declared them all unworthy of existence. He does this to the world of Final Fantasy IV as well, setting the plot.
Clipped Wing Angel: The fights against him as the party escapes his lair, in which he hurts himself more than the party and several Maenads also attack him.
Also resembles the Anti-Spiral, being a god-like being from a failed race that decides to drop a moon on Earth because he decides they aren't worthy of evolution.
One-Winged Angel: As the battle against him progresses he turns into increasingly bizarre forms, with the last vaguely resembling Neo Exdeath from Final Fantasy V.
Shout Out: Several of the bosses in his lair are from other Final Fantasy games.
