Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - Garlond Ironworks

Final Fantasy XIV | Main Character Index
The Warrior of Light (Tank Classes | Ranged DPS Classes | Melee DPS Classes | Caster Classes | Healer Classes | Limited Jobs)
Scions of the Seventh Dawn
Nations of Hydaelyn: The Eorzean Alliance | Ishgard | Dragon Hordes | Othard and Hingashi | Sharlayan and Thavnair | Tural
Other Realms: The Void | The First | The World Unsundered (Pandæmonium) | Ultima Thule
Garlond Ironworks | Hildibrand Allies | Other Allies (Hydaelyn | G'raha Tia)
Antagonists: Ascians (Emet-Selch) | Garlean Empire (Gaius van Baelsar | Zenos yae Galvus | Bozjan Garleans)
Primals | Raid Antagonists (Omega | The Twelve) | Other Antagonists
Class and Job Questlines: Disciples of War (Tank | Melee | Ranged) | Disciples of Magic | Disciples of the Hand | Disciples of the Land
Races: Playable Races | Beast Tribes
Seasonal Event NPCs

"Freedom through Technology"

—The Garlond Ironworks motto

The company logo of Garlond Ironworks

A team of world-class magitek engineers led by Cid nan Garlond, (in)famous Garlean defector and the estranged son of Midas nan Garlond, the former chief magitek weapons engineer for the Garlean Empire. Their efforts are responsible for bringing knowledge of magitek and the threat it poses to Eorzea, as well as a massive jump in Eorzean airship technology. Their motto, "Freedom through Technology" demands that they oppose any use of technology toward the spread of tyranny, making them staunch allies of the Eorzean Alliance.

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Cid nan Garlond

Cid nan Garlond

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (JP), Grant George (EN, Los Angeles cast), Gwilym Lee (EN, London cast), Lionel Tua (FR), Achim Barrenstein (DE)

Race: Garlean
Discipline: Gladiator

"Technology should never be allowed to imprison people. That's a hard lesson I learned from watching Gaius... and my father."

Founder of Garlond Ironworks, Cid continues the grand Final Fantasy tradition of, well, the mechanically or scientifically minded Cids. He is an expatriate of the Garlean Empire who defected from their ranks after witnessing the destruction of Bozja Citadel from one of his father's experiments on Dalamud. A staunch ally to the Warrior of Light, he's always willing to lend a hand.

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• Always Someone Better: He was this to Nero in the past being a born nobleman, better machinist and more favored by Gaius.
• The Atoner: For once participating on Project Meteor.
• Badass Normal: Like other Garleans, Cid cannot use magic, but it doesn't stop him from kicking ass with his gunblade. He also survived the Eighth Umbral Calamity in the Exarch's future, which killed nearly all of the Scions and the Warrior of Light.
• Blue Blood: Cid comes from a very prestigious family in the Garlean Empire.
• Brutal Honesty: After the Warrior of Light destroys the Ruby Weapon, Cid inspects the wreckage to find the corpse of the pilot. Gaius, who was her foster father, asks if she at least died painlessly. Cid bluntly states that the process of fusing to the Ruby Weapon left her in horrible agony as she died.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Calls out his Parental Substitute Gaius for condoning Meteor and not using his power to stop Nael when he had the chance.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Nero accuses him of this when he tries to take responsibility for unleashing Omega on the world. Nero reminds him that they had no other choice at the time, and that ultimately they are scientists, not heroes; everything they do, while for the betterment of the world, carries an inherent risk, and there is no room for regret in their field.
• Cool Airship: The Enterprise. In Heavensward, it's upgraded to the Enterprise Excelsior, or just Excelsior for short.
• Defector from Decadence: After realizing the effects of Project Meteor, he defected from the Empire.
• Demoted to Extra: After appearing throughout Heavensward, Cid disappears for the entirety of the main Stormblood storyline, busy with looking for Omega. After the liberation of Ala Mhigo, he returns to the story having found Omega.
• Didn't Think This Through: He planned every step ahead to beat Omega for good. Once Omega is actually defeated, the pocket dimension starts to collapse and Cid admits that he didn't actually plan on what to do after it was beaten.
• Ditzy Genius: A downplayed example. While by no means incompetent in any way, he is noted (usually by Jessie) to be easily distracted, poorly organized, and forgetful.
• Early-Bird Cameo: You speak to "Marques" very early on during the chain of quests leading up to Ifrit, but unless you were to look directly up his hood to spot his trademark goggles you would never know it's him until much much later.
• Easy Amnesia:
  • He suffers this after the Calamity.
  • If you happen to be a 1.0 player, curing Cid's amnesia also cures him of the amnesia that Eorzea suffers from in regards to who you and the Warriors of Light are, meaning he's known all along that the adventurer traveling with him was a Warrior of Light. This causes a unique bit of dialogue during the ending once everyone else remembers you all at once. Raubahn calls him on not telling everyone before that.
    Raubahn: She speaks of...Strike me down! No wonder he/she seemed familiar! He's/She's one of the Warriors of Light! *Beat* What are you smirking at, Cid? You knew didn't you!?
    Cid: *Coyly* Oh, you mean our adventurer friend? Did I forget to mention he/she was one of the Warriors of Light? Saved Eorzea, you know. Twice.
• The Engineer: Airships and Magitek are his specialties. In fact he formed an engineering company in Eorzea; Garlond Ironworks.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While looking for information on Bismark, Alphinaud laments all he's learned of are the Vanu Vanu's skyfishing. Cid gets the inspiration to use Bismark's more basic instincts to "fish" for the god and fight him.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He is an expert magitek engineer and airship craftsman which put a giant target on his back when he betrayed the empire and created the Garlond Ironworks to help bring magitek to the people of Eorzea.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: When an ally helps in battle they are programmed to be able to cast Cure on you when your health gets low, but since Cid is Garlean and incapable of casting spells he will instead use Aguae Vitae items on you.
• Gunblade: Although he was never a soldier, Cid is more than capable of defending himself with a Garlean gunblade when necessary, but doesn't take to the field unless he has to.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. It seems like he never wears his goggles over his actual eyes... until you notice the third lens in the middle and remember Garleans' most famous physical feature.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: His goggles are unusual for having three lenses, letting them cover either his two main eyes or the Third Eye on his forehead.
• Hero of Another Story: After the defeat of the Ultima Weapon, Cid's participation in the main storyline becomes few and far between. He instead is heavily involved in the side storylines focused on the Crystal Tower, Alexander, Omega, and the Werlyt Weapons program.
• Ignorance Is Bliss: Perhaps owing to the trauma and Repressed Memories surrounding his relationship with his father, Cid seemed to ignore the possibility that Midas had been tempered by Bahamut. Gaius even brought it up during their conversation in the Praetorium, yet the revelation still seemed to surprise him when it was later confirmed by diving into his own memories.
• In the Hood: Wears this sort of outfit when in hiding from The Empire with Easy Amnesia in a graveyard.
• It's All My Fault: Cid blames himself for the Bozja Incident, since he couldn't convince his father to abandon the project that caused it. He's finally able to forgive himself after realizing that Midas had been tempered by Bahamut, which meant there was nothing Cid or anyone else could have done to dissuade him.
• Hunk: Cid's rugged handsomeness has been commented on by a few admirerers who mention they where expecting someone older and more homely. Gerolt even says that even he can see that Cid is a "fine glass of ale".
• Leitmotif: “Dreams Aloft”, which most prominently plays when Cid recovers from his amnesia.
• Magitek: A master engineer of the stuff only rivaled by his late father and Nero. He's also the one (along with Nero) who invented the magitek turret that the Machinist job uses.
• Memento MacGuffin: His goggles. When Biggs, Wedge, and he were fleeing the Garlean Empire to Eorzea, before the Calamity aboard the Enterprise, a mysterious figure, glowing with light appeared alongside the airship. In his/her hands, was that very pair of goggles, and were given to Cid, before nodding in approval to Cid, smiling, before suddenly vanishing as quickly as they appeared. With the power of Cid's Third Eye, and the Warrior of Light's power of the Echo, Cid realizes that the person he's carrying into battle to face Garuda, is the same person as the being of light that appeared to him so many years ago, the fog of his amnesia is gone, and for Legacy characters, the fact they're the same person he helped carry to battle against Nael Van Darnus during the Calamity is also remembered.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: He may spend most of his days as the world's preeminent airship engineer and the Ace Pilot of the Enterprise, but he's handy with a gunblade and not afraid to defend himself or others if necessary.
• Mystical White Hair: It's not entirely clear why the world's greatest magitek engineer has white hair, but it's not due to age - he's thirty-four, the same age as his rival Nero. It certainly makes him look suitably important and otherworldly, though.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the English version, he is voiced by Grant George, who had previously voiced the Warrior of Light in Dissidia Final Fantasy. The Warrior himself is stated to be a perfect manikin of another Cid, one from the city of the Lufane.
  • When suffering from Easy Amnesia, he takes on the name Marques, referencing Cid del Norte Marquez from Final Fantasy VI. At the same time, the brown cloak he wears evokes Cidolfus Orlandeau from Final Fantasy Tactics, referenced later when XIV's version of Orlandeau is mistaken for Cid Garlond.
  • His gunblade's design is far more akin to the style of Gunblades seen in Final Fantasy VIII than the standard Garlean model.
• Oblivious to Love: Throughout the Bozja questline, the only person unaware of Mikoto's rather obvious infatuation with Cid is Cid himself.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Shadowbringers, you learn that Cid survived the Eighth Umbral Calamity that killed the Warrior of Light, developed theories to travel through space & time while the world fell apart around him, and set in motion a centuries-long gambit to give the Warrior of Light an opportunity to stop the Calamity from ever happening.
• The One That Got Away: An odd example here, but Nero states that Cid's defection from the Empire only served to elevate his legendary status there, as they view him as this.
• Only Sane Man: For the Garlean Empire. When he saw what destruction the Lunar Transmitter would cause if used when its first test caused a fragment to be called down and devastate a Garlean city, he was absolutely horrified. When the Empire was still keen on using it as a "Final Solution" to the Primals, and Beast Tribes of Eorzea (the people of Eorzea being absolutely devastated by Dalamud's impact and thus easily conquered being considered an added bonus by all minus Gaius of the XIVth Legion), Cid knew the Empire had gone too far and fled to Eorzea to aid their technological advances and warn them.
• Out of Focus: Is completely absent in Shadowbringers. He only comes into important for the former in sidequests, primarily Bozja, and a very brief role in patch 5.4. He and the ironworks are also absent for most of Endwalker, until the very end where he shows up with everyone, Nero Alpha and Omega included, practically lampshading his absence to the player by asking if they really thought he'd miss the chance to work on a spaceship.
• Percussive Maintenance: After the fight with Bismark, Cid has this to say regarding the Enterprise:
  Cid: "I know you're eager to get after the Heavens' Ward, but considering what we just put the old girl through, I'd say she's due a little tender loving care. ...Now, where did I put my hammer?"
• Precious Photo: The locket he wears contains a childhood photograph of himself and his father, but due to his trauma surrounding the Bozja incident, he never opens it. Once the Save the Queen storyline concludes, he can finally bring himself to look at it again.
• Replacement Goldfish: Father Iliud saw him as one for his son.
• Repressed Memories: Diving into his memories in the 5.2 relic quest has him realize this about the Bozja Citadel incident: that his father, Midas nan Garlond, was the one who shot him when he tried to stop him from going through with the experiment, and that his father had been tempered by Bahamut.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Cid stands just a little over 5'7". While this puts him a little on the short side amongst Eorzeans, it is extremely short compared to his fellow Garleans, who are rarely below 6'; he's also the brightest among their kind.
• Shout-Out: His Airship is called the Enterprise a reference to the Cids of Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV which in turn is a reference to the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek fame. And then, towards the end of Heavensward, he upgrades, and renames the ship Enterprise Excelsior, or simply Excelsior for short, making it a double reference to Star Trek.
• Trash of the Titans: According to Omega, Cid "utilizes the floor as part of his unorthodox filing system" - which is to say, he leaves documents scattered throughout his office instead of keeping them on his desk or shelves.
• Third Eye: Like all pureblooded Garleans Cid was born with one, which he hides under his goggles.
• Workaholic: Cid is known to throw himself headfirst into any problem that presents itself to him, regardless of what else he's already got on his plate. It falls to assistants like Jessie to keep his priorities in line and keep him focused. During the Final Fantasy XV crossover, he was fully ready to handle the repairs to the Regalia himself until his workers forcibly took it off his hands and reminded him that he had more pressing matters to deal with.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: He lets out a very distressed one at the end of Stormblood when he learns that Jessie appointed Nero tol Scaeva to be his assistant.
  Cid: Oh. Oh no. Absolutely not. This is not happening.
  Nero: Nero tol Scaeva, eager to begin his first day as a loyal member of the Ironworks team! Looking forward to working with you, Garlond!
• Younger Than They Look: His white hair and beard may suggest otherwise, but Cid is only 34 years old, close to the same age as his rival Nero. Flashbacks to his youth show that, like several other prominent characters, he's always had naturally white locks.

Nero tol Scaeva

Voiced by: Riki Kitazawa (JP), Ian Steele (EN, Los Angeles cast), John Heffernan (EN, London cast), Jochen Hägele (FR), Heiko Grauel (DE)

Race: Garlean
Epithet: Iron Nero

"As long as my ambition burns, I shall strive to seize it."

A commander of the XIVth Imperial Legion, and second-in-command to Gaius. Nero is an ambitious and intelligent technician who has won great praise for his contributions to Magitek research and weapons development. However, he is only concerned with accumulating personal fame and power, and carries a dark grudge against Cid.

Following the main story, Nero sets his eyes on a power source within the Crystal Tower equal to, if not surpassing, the Ultima Weapon. To achieve this, he joins the Warrior of Light and Cid's efforts to defeat the remnants of the Allagan Empire within, informing them that there is naught but a noose waiting for him back in Garlemald following the XIVth legion going rogue. Once the Syrcus Tower is cleared, he is sucked into the World of Darkness with Doga and Unei, and until the Warrior of Light arrives, battles the monsters within to keep Doga and Unei safe. Despite the Cloud of Darkness' defeat, Nero's darkness-tainted wounds cause the last of his strength to give out during the escape and tells the Warrior of Light to leave him behind. It is only because of Doga and Unei's heroic sacrifice that Nero gets a second wind, and even then Cid has to pull him though at the last possible second. After this, Nero buries the hatchet with Cid...at least somewhat.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Funnily enough the Wandering Minstrel's song treats him like a complete wuss in the savage versions of Exdeath and Kefka. Nero's dialogue in both of the fights is basically him freaking out that Exdeath and Kefka's powers have twisted the laws of reality, instead of the calm and collected mission control he was in the normal versions of the actual fights.
• Attack Drone: Summons a few of his magitek creations to attack you in his boss battle.
• Attention Whore: His main motivation for throwing in his lot with Gaius and reactivating Ultima Weapon was for the sole purpose of gaining Gaius' approval and recognition. This grew from his desire to be acknowledged for his own talents, but Nero was constantly overshadowed in the academy by Cid's genius even after Cid had defected driving Nero even further into jealousy. However by the time Stormblood rolls around Nero has managed to let go of his glory seeking ways, and acknowledges Cid's genius but still desires to overtake him.
• Armor-Piercing Question: He presents one in 3.56 to the Alliance, the Scions, and the Warrior of Light by asking them if they are just going to throw the Warrior of Light at the primal that Illberd summoned like they always do and hope for the best. The group is reluctant to agree with him and they listen to what his plans are for Omega Weapon.
• Bad Boss: Probably to contrast his own boss Gaius, Nero is wont to murder spies with minimal warning and threaten the nearest underling in proximity to clean up the mess.
• Badass Normal: Like other Garleans, he is incapable of wielding magic and wields Magitek weaponry to compensate.
• Cool Shades: He starts wearing a pair of sunglasses at the end of Stormblood when he decides to become a member of Garlond Ironworks.
• Custom Uniform: As a member of Garlond Ironworks, Nero wears the same fatigues as the rest of its staff, albeit with all of the blue parts on the uniform being replaced with his signature red color.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is very thick with this in 3.56 as he constantly mocks Cid, the Scions, and the Alliance for their methods and shortcomings.
• Determinator: Omega attacks him halfway through the Sigmascape raids in an attempt to provoke the Warrior of Light again. Nero avoids getting medical treatment and prevents Cid from noticing so that he can focus on figuring out Kefka's attack patterns, and only collapses after that fight is done.
• The Dragon: Nero is the second in command of the XIVth Legion, but he bitterly comments that he was a distant second choice for the position compared to Cid.
• The Engineer: He uses machines to help him fight his boss battle.
• Establishing Character Moment: Roots out and executes a spy where he stands, showing his intelligence and ruthlessness.
• The Evil Genius: He fulfills this role as well as The Dragon in the XIVth Legion.
• Foil: Is this to Cid, being nearly as intelligent but ambitious & pragmatic rather than idealistic & heroic. Becomes more pronounced when he shows a few heroic tendencies in the Crystal Tower but is still bent on profiting from the discoveries there. His pragmatism proves vital in Stormblood as he recommends several solutions Cid wouldn't have thought of, including using Omega to take out Shinryu and digging up his father's old research on Project Meteor to help kill Omega.
• Flunky Boss: He has more then a few robotic minions to help him do his dirty work in his boss fight.
• Friendly Rivalry: Eventually settles into this with Cid after they spend more time working together, particularly in the Omega storyline. In a cutscene following the fight with a copy of Midgardsormr, Cid admits that when they were students, Nero's successes pushed Cid to work harder himself.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Upon confronting him in the Praetorium, Nero reveals his frustration towards Cid always outshining him. Even after he defected from Garlemald, rather than being scorned as a traitor, Cid was revered as a legend while Nero, who stayed loyal, was overlooked in spite of his own achievements. In his words, Cid's existence has rendered his own worthless.
• Humble Pie: Downplayed considering it does nothing to his personality but in A Realm Reborn Nero seems to consider himself a capable warrior, or at least capable of killing the Warrior of Light in a 1-vs-4, his consequential defeat had him abandon the idea that he was in any way the the adventurer's equal in combat and from that point on focuses on his prowess as a scientist.
• The Gadfly: Delights in doing this to Cid since joining the Ironworks.
  Nero: "What terrible marvels can I trouble my old friend with next?"
• Gadgeteer Genius: He is famous for his advancement in Magitek research and weapons development, having designed his own weapon Mjolnir.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He is insanely envious of everything that Cid is.
• Gunblade: He has one in his first cutscene that he kills a spy with, but when you actually fight him properly later on, he's switched to a hammer. He switches back to the gunblade for the Crystal Tower story and continues using it afterwards until he completes his Iron Nero armor at which point he gets a new hammer.Keep in mind said hammers are also a garlean gun/melee weapon hybrid, a gunhammer if you will.
• Heel–Face Turn: Maybe. We think. He definitely acted in a heroic manner to keep Doga and Unei alive in the World of Darkness (almost getting crystallized in the process), and while he still has something of an axe to grind with Cid on the "overshadowing" front, at the end of WoD he seems to be forging his own path for finding that fame, that involves neither the Eorzean Alliance or the Empire. He notably gives up his little scanner, which was a trademark of his old armor...which ominously starts beeping again from the chasm he threw it into after he walks away...
  • Furthered in Patch 3.56, which seems him reintroduced to the Main Story proper offering his considerable expertise to the task of awakening the Allagan Omega Weapon to the Eorzean Alliance in a bid to stop the new Primal; Shinryu. All throughout this endeavor, he never shows any signs of being anything other than genuinely helpful; if consistently condescending.
  • Reaches its logical conclusion during the end of Stormblood where he officially joins Garlond Ironworks in their hunt for Omega, and seems to be genuinely willing to help despite their mistrust of him. And at in the ending of the raid series, he refers to Cid as an old friend, though in the same thought as wondering what new marvels he can torment him with.
  • In the third Tales from the Shadows chapter, Nero is noted to be one of the few Garlond Ironworks employees who didn't resign from the Ironworks when Cid brings up the idea of researching Time Travel, and worked with Cid for decades on the project.
• Instant Armor: His Iron Nero armor simply materializes in a flash of light on top of his current apparel. A good close-up of this can be witnessed during the finale of Endwalker's role quests.
• Insufferable Genius:
  • Even if he does always come second to Cid Garlond, that still makes him one of Garlemald's foremost engineers (if not the most with the former's defection), with a particular expertise in the technology of ancient Allag. And he is not about to let anyone forget it.
  • In the Omega series, Cid's describes Nero's assistance as equally invaluable and insufferable. And Nero himself states that he is the reason they survived the Sigmascape, that the Warrior of Light was merely a minor pawn in their success, nevermind that the WoL had to do the actual heavy lifting.
  • Upon learning about the Bad Future where he and Cid laid the groundwork for their successors to invent time and dimensional travel by reverse-engineering Alexander's and Omega's abilities, Nero is quick to say that of course he did 90 percent of the work and that Cid only did a measly 10 percent. Cid is quick to retort that the 10 percent must have been the part that completely stumped Nero.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he always boasts about being better than Cid in every way, he does it for at least one reason. During the Omega storyline in Stormblood, he reminds Cid more than once that using his gadgets and inventions for the good of the realm can only get him so far and he'll have to push himself beyond his limits to reach his true potential and use that to achieve his goals. Cid can only take the statement in silence, unable to refute Nero's points.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Wields a gunhammer called Mjölnir.
• Obviously Not Fine: Cleverly subverted after Omega attacks him during the Sigmascape raids. He can't completely hide his injuries, but fortunately, Alpha's having filled the kettle with saltwater (and Nero having made coffee with it before he realized this) allows him to pretend he's just reacting badly to the drink.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While the “psychopathic” part fades as the story goes on, he was still a Bad Boss when working under Gaius and never expresses remorse for his crimes. His motivation for participating in the invasion was simply a petty grudge against Cid from their school days, and he displays a number of immature traits such as taking childlike glee in the activation of the Fantastic Nuke Omega and, as implied by the Clockwork Novus D minion and a few decor items, a fondness for making children’s toys.
• Pungeon Master: He lets out two groan-worthy puns during his boss fight.
  Nero: "I have taken the liberty of preparing an electrifying stage for you." " Meet one of my creations. You might find it a handful."
• The Rival: He considers Cid his in almost every aspect of his life.
• Rocket-Powered Weapon: This is the "gun" part of Nero's gunhammer—rather than firing projectiles, it has rockets that increase the power of a swing.
• Shock and Awe: He electrifies the floor around the battlefield to make the fight more interesting.
• Shout-Out: During the Omega storyline, Nero upgrades his armor to the "Iron Nero" Instant Armor, much in the same vein as Iron Man.
• Skewed Priorities: In the final Tale from the Storm, even as children, Nero's number one goal in life was to one-up Cid. So when a band of rebels infiltrate their school to kidnap Cid's father and Cid goes after them, Nero comes along to make sure Cid doesn't die. His reasoning? So Cid can see him win the upcoming invention contest. Cid is incredulous.
• Smug Snake: He tries to play his fellow generals and Cid, but no one is fooled. His inferiority complex towards Cid makes him all the more pitiful.
• Social Climber: His goals are obtaining glory and fame and of course outshining Cid. Even when he's the only living XIVth commanding officer marked for death by his home country, he still seeks the power of the ancient Allagans in the Crystal Tower storyline.
• The Spymaster: His duty in addition to Magitek research and engineering.
• The Starscream: He makes a telling comment about acquiring enough glory and power to surpass Gaius before his boss battle.
• Sunglasses at Night: In one of the game's more inexplicable yet hilarious moments, one of the post-credits scenes in Stormblood's 4.0 main storyline has Nero walk up to Cid wearing a pair of Cool Shades despite it not only being the middle of the night, but the middle of a thunderstorm. He then immediately proceeds with a theatrical Glasses Pull as he announces himself as the newest member of Cid's team, much to the man's dismay.
• Take My Hand!: Even after Doga and Unei sever Xande's contract with the Cloud of Darkness and purges the darkness from Nero's body, he can't quite make it to the portal...until Cid reaches out at the last second to pull him out.
• Third Eye: As a pureblooded Garlean.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Despite getting sick from the action, Nero does express some gratitude towards Alpha for trying to provide something to drink while he was working, noting that even though Alpha ended up using salt water, he at least appreciated the sentiment.
• Tin Tyrant: He's usually dressed in bright red armour and is a major part of the Garlean invasion.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After joining the Ironworks, he's much more cordial to everyone but Cid. This doesn't stop him from jeering or snarking at the player character or the others, but it's a far step from the proud Garlean commander he was introduced as. At one point, he even gives Wedge a genuine, at-face-value compliment when he shows his engineering prowess under duress.
• Unknown Rival: Cid had no idea Nero felt so overshadowed by him until he outright says it before his boss fight.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once defeated, the lights go out, leaving the room pitch black and giving Nero time to escape, making him the only member of the XIVth to survive the main story.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Inverted and averted. He upgrades his hammer and armour to more powerful versions for the Sigmascape scenarios, but him having done so is for your benefit, as he's an ally now.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Just prior to the fight against Exdeath, Nero relays information he dug up about the man, specifically that he's an evil tree that takes the form of a dark mage. Immediately after, Nero tells the Warrior of Light to ignore everything he just said.

Biggs and Wedge

Biggs and Wedge

Voiced by: Go Inoue (Biggs, JP), Antony Byrne (Biggs, EN), Kenn (Wedge, JP), Ryan Gage (Wedge, EN)

Race: Seawolf Roegadyn and Plainsfolk Lalafell
Discipline: Pugilist and Machinist

Cid's most trusted companions, when Cid defected from Garlemald these two deserters from the Imperial army defected with him and help him establish Garlond Ironworks, bringing the superior technology and airship design of Garlemald to Eorzea.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Wedge has a serious crush on Tataru and tries to show off to impress her, but there's no indication that she even notices his feelings.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: They're a Roegadyn and a Lalafell.
• Blush Sticker: Wedge's cheeks are a perpetual, brown blush.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Under heavy fire from a Garlean warship, Wedge is in a panic as he feels they're about to die. Having survived the encounter, he tries to claim he wasn't scared, only to notice a smell and claim someone spilled something down his trousers.
• Cuteness Proximity: Wedge is seriously prone to this with everything from the sweet toony chocobo Alpha to Allagan service nodes. He’s apparently unsuccessfully petitioned Biggs and Cid to get a puppy before.
• Cool Airship: The Tiny Bronco is an experimental airship they developed in the five years since the Calamity.
• The Engineer: Both of them are apprentices to Cid of course.
• Foil: Biggs is large, cantankerous, and brave, while Wedge is flighty, emotional, and easily startled. Despite this, they're Best Friends who complement one another.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The two of them together are just as able as Cid when it comes to working with magitek. On some occasions, they may even come up with an idea and implement it before Cid does, to his amusement and embarrassment for not coming up with it sooner.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Averted, as it's implied it's useful to them while flying an airship to keep the wind out of their eyes. Or while working on machinery to avoid a spark or sliver of metal to the eye. Hiding their eyes also helps conceal their true identities to protect their famillies back home.
• I Call It "Vera": Wedge has always wanted an imperial reaper to call his own. He lovingly describes how he'll care for "her" and name "her". When he does get it, he decides to call name his reaper "Maggie", short for "magitek armor". He also calls an Allagan device "Gilly" after its serial number, growing attached to it and begging the Warrior of Light to enter the remnants of an Allagan museum for the means to repair "her".
  Wedge: Oh, boy! I've always wanted my own reaper! I would wash her and wax her and name her and...
• Legacy Character: The usual Final Fantasy usage aside, the Twinning dungeon in Shadowbringers reveals that in the Bad Future, two other people took up the name "Biggs", with the third bearer becoming the 18th president of the Ironworks.
• Little Guy, Big Buddy: Biggs is a Sea Wolf and Wedge is one of the Plainsfolk.
• Magitek: They are engineers of the process.
• Meaningful Rename: In order to protect their families back home in Garlemald from the backlash of being connected to high ranking deserters, they took new names.
• Mini-Mecha: Wedge pilots a Magitek Armor to offset his otherwise Non-Action Guy status.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Biggs is an engineer first and foremost, but he has enough pugilist training to defend himself in a pinch, though mechanically he does nothing but auto-attack.
• Mythology Gag: Their airship is called the Tiny Bronco after Cid Highwind's plane.
• Non-Action Guy: Wedge is this without a suit of Magitek Armor to fight with.
• Odd Name Out: Neither of them use the naming conventions of their race because they use aliases.
• Percussive Maintenance: Wedge seems to be a proponent of his method; he wakes up the repaired Magitek Armor by smacking it with his hammer, and later manages to reactivate an ancient Allagan device in Azys Lla by punting it.
• Phrase Catcher: Whenever Wedge does something foolish, someone (usually Biggs or Cid) usually calls him a "fool of a Lalafell."
• Plot-Triggering Death: Wedge's death in the Bad Future is the catalyst for the Shadowbringers expansion, as it is the Despair Event Horizon that inspires the surviving members of the Ironworks to try to create an alternative past where the Eighth Umbral Calamity doesn't happen.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In the 2022 Little Ladies' event, the Warrior can convince Wedge to get on stage as a model for a fashion show being held for the holiday. Both options for his outfit have him take off his opaque goggles and work clothes and put on something more fashionable. Masked Rose will either be impressed by how sharp Wedge looks or gush over how cute he is.
• Secret Identity: The names Biggs and Wedge are actually aliases and their actual names are not known. This is due to the two of them having defected from The Empire and their families would be at risk if people found out who they really are.
• Ship Tease: Wedge has a big crush on Tataru.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: As is tradition, they are named after Luke Skywalker's fellow pilots.
• Those Two Guys: In the grand Final Fantasy tradition. They're rarely ever apart unless they're required to be, always doing their best work together.

Jessie Jaye

Race: Midlander Hyur
Discipline: Blacksmith

"Aright, let's see if I can't salvage this mess of a masterpiece."

The Deputy President of Garlond Ironworks. A Hyur from an imperial province, she dedicated her life to helping those who would escape the yoke of Garlemald's tyranny.

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• Ascended Extra: Jessie's first and for a long time only appearance was in a sidequest to unlock the cosmetic firing mechanism on the Magitek Armor mounts midway through A Realm Reborn. She finally turned up again in Stormblood as a prominent figure in the Red Mage and Omega storylines.
• Assassin Outclassin': In the level 60 Red Mage quest, Lambard had planned to assassinate her in order to shut down Garlond Ironworks and hamper Eorzea's rebellion against The Empire. She outsmarts him by having Arya act as a decoy double by dressing her up in the same Ironworks uniform. Arya and the Warrior of Light then spring the trap and swiftly bring Lambard and his assassins down.
• Cuteness Proximity: When she first meets Alpha she takes one look at him and begins a mixture of both fawning over him and pitching an idea for a product line based around him. She's ready to adopt him into the Ironworks family right then and there.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She is very adept with technology and fixes up the player's Magitek Armor, though she's appalled at the condition of the weaponry and blames the Warrior of Light for it (naturally, being a heroic mime, you don't get to defend yourself by telling her that Cid told you to do it). The Ironworks weapons and armor that can be purchased with Allagan tomestones of poetics? She designed them.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: As Cid is busy with other matters such as saving Eorzea and the Crystal Tower, she is the one who actually runs Garlond Ironworks. She's just a little bit bitter about this and blames the Warrior of Light.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jessie is grumpy in nearly every scene she is in and in her first appearance she is rather rude towards the Warrior of Light. She has pretty understandable reasons for both, though, and when push comes to shove, for all her grousing about Cid's unprofitable heroics, when Nero is put out of commission in the Omega quests she doesn't hesitate to volunteer her own aid. She does seriously care for every member of the Ironworks.
• Miser Advisor: Nearly every scene with her has her trying to market the Ironworks' products and/or complaining about how much Cid's ventures are costing the company. Admittedly, handling the day-to-day running of the company, its finances included, does seem to be her job.
• Number Two: To Cid.
• Perpetual Frowner: While she does smile, Jessie is most often in a bad mood due to Cid's actions that are not helping the company finances out. In the level 60 Red Mage quest where some assassins are lying in wait to kill her, she has Arya dress up as her and tells her to look like she will "bite someone's nose off" in order to capture her look perfectly.
• Shout-Out: She is named after a Final Fantasy VII character that has an association with Biggs and Wedge.
  • Her surname of Jaye also makes her one to Jessie J.
• Wrench Wench: The most prominent female member of Garlond Ironworks, she is a skilled magitek engineer.

Maggie

A reaper-class magitek armor originally belonging to the XIVth Legion. Garlond Ironworks captured it and retrofitted it with a mammet's core with the help of the adventurer that would become known as the Warrior of Light. Named "Maggie" by Wedge, the armor is essential to the heroes' plan to infiltrate Castrum Centri while disguised as imperial conscripts.

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• It Can Think: The Garlond Ironworks team replace Maggie's worn magitek core with a mammet's heart as a slapdash solution to get her running again. No one expected this to give Maggie the same sentience as a mammet, as she refuses to boot up until encouraged by Wedge. She's then moved to act when the heroes risk their lives to protect her from the Garlean forces who've come to scrap her to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Eorzean forces.
• The Power of Friendship: Maggie's desire to help the heroes is so profound that she forcibly boots herself back up even though she used enough power to burn out her core to force open a cermet blast door. She then races to the Warrior's side to rescue their party and Thancred from the collapsing Praetorium.
• Undying Loyalty: Maggie becomes forever loyal to Garlond Ironworks and the Warrior of Light for defending her from Garlean forces intending to scrap her. Even after the heroes are forced to abandon her while fleeing Castrum Centri, she boots up with joy and lets the Warrior pilot her at the Praetorium to blast their way through the enemies in their path.
• Uniformity Exception: She's largely identical to any other magitek reaper, the main differences being the Garlond Ironworks logo emblazoned on her side and blue Tron Lines unique to her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After the events of "The Ultimate Weapon", where she is obtained as a mount at the end of the quest, Maggie is never brought up by anyone in the story again despite being pivotal to the Warrior's escape from the collapsing Praetorium, outside of one optional sidequest to unlock her (now cosmetic) weapons systems.

Alpha

Race: Chocobo(ish)

A small, cartoonish Chocobo created by Omega to help itself become stronger.

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• The Bait: Omega used him to lure heroes into its experiments. When Omega reveals this truth, Alpha doesn't take it well.
• Become a Real Boy: Alpha was a construct created by Omega as a test subject, later repurposed to lure unwitting people into its tests. Despite having the echo, the Warrior of Light cannot understand what Alpha is trying to say. Yet after Omega has been destroyed and Alpha prepares to leave to explore the world, he gives the Warrior of Light a final goodbye that they can understand completely. Cid speculates that by growing beyond the parameters that Omega set for him, Alpha has developed a soul, which allows the Warrior of Light to understand him now.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of the Omega storyline, Alpha gains a curiosity of the world and wishes to go off on an adventure on his own. Everyone agrees it's for the best and happily send him off while the audience gets to see him and his Omega toy explore the landscape of the Fringes.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Alpha's understands the Common Tongue of Hydaelyn just fine. But all of his attempts to communicate come out as a chocobo's kwehs. Even the Echo doesn't grant the Warrior of Light the ability to understand Alpha. Luckily, Midgardsormr is on hand to translate.
• Invisibility: The water he offers Cid winds up temporarily making him invisible. This gives Cid the idea of making him and the Warrior of Light invisible in order to approach the fleeing Omega.
• It's All My Fault: When he learns that he was created to only bait the Warrior of Light to Omega, he becomes depressed and makes sad chirping sounds as if to say he is to blame.
• Leitmotif: As with all Chocobos, Alpha gets the Chocobo theme, but his comes specifically from Chocobo Racing, namely its ending version.
• Making a Splash: One of his magic cards provides a steady supply of water, which he uses to fill the kettle while Biggs and Wedge are out of commission. Both time it's used, it comes with side effects; the first time, it's salt water (as a disgusted Nero discovers the hard way), while the second time, it makes the drinker invisible.
• Meaningful Name: Omega named gave Alpha his name because he was the absolute farthest away from his own power level among the beings in the rift (Alpha is the weakest and Omega is the most powerful).
• Nonstandard Character Design: Alpha sticks out like a sore thumb in the world of FFXIV, where the realistic chocobos are commonplace.
• Not So Harmless: In the Sigmascape, Alpha shows that despite being the weakest being in Omega's test, he's still a capable fighter, using magic cards to destroy a wave of monitors.
• Pet the Dog: He nuzzles Omega F's face after its defeat.
• Shout-Out: To the main character of the Chocobo spin-off games. His use of magic cards comes from said series as well. This did not go unnoticed as Chunsoft included Alpha as a bonus character in the Updated Re-release of Final Fantasy Fables Chocobo's Dungeon.
• Suddenly Voiced: When Alpha departs for his adventure, he thanks the Warrior of Light for looking after him. The Warrior of Light is puzzled since they couldn't hear Alpha talk before, but Cid theorizes that because Alpha's soul is complete, the Echo enabled the Warrior of Light to hear Alpha's voice.
  Alpha: Thank you, <player name>. I'm off to see the world!
• The Bus Came Back: Alpha and Omega(toy) reappear with the rest of the Ironworks near Endwalker's finale to help install the Lopporit's FTL drive onto the Ragnarok.
• Unwitting Pawn: Omega intentionally allowed Alpha to escape the Rift in order to draw the attention of the Warrior of Light.
• Walking the Earth: Much to the playerbase's delight, Alpha can be spotted in random locations throughout Eorzea after the completion of the raid, showing us he's more than capable of handling himself in the world.
• Walking Spoiler: Alpha's true purpose and what happens after is very spoilerific.

Lilja Sjasaris

Race: Viera

The newest addition to the Garlond Ironworks team during the events of Shadowbringers. Energetic and a bit unsure of herself, she's honored to meet the Warrior of Light and does everything in her power to help them in the battle to liberate Bozja from the IVth Legion.

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• Ascended Fangirl: She's admired Garlond Ironworks from afar thanks to its part in the liberation movements in the Far East. When Jessie reached out to her and offered her a place with them, she agreed immediately.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In the past, Lilja suffered from this due to both being aware of the Garlean Empire's atrocities but also how life for the common man was no better under the Dalmascan monarchy. The way Gabranth's promises of a truly free nation free from prejudice resonated with her also prevents her from directly taking up arms against him the way her fellow Dalmascans could. As such, she fled to Doma when Rabanastre was destroyed until she was scouted by Jessie to join the Ironworks.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She's starstruck by the Warrior of Light as well as having the opportunity to work as a part of Garlond Ironworks. As such, she considers lending the Warrior her vast technical expertise the least she can do compared to the Warrior's god-slaying feats of strength.
• Hero-Worshipper: Even before joining Garlond Ironworks, Lilja was inspired by tales of the Warrior of Light's heroics and their efforts to liberate the Far East from Garlean rule. She's ecstatic to meet them in-person at Rhalgr's Reach and quickly volunteers to help them however she can. She's aghast should the Warrior choose some of the more sarcastic responses, saying that while she knows they're joking, she doesn't want to think about whether they actually mean those things.
• Mission Control: She and Makoto act as your main contacts to the Bozjan Resistance while you're out in the field, tasking you with setting up nodes throughout the battlefield to better tap into the local aether currents to power vital equipment.
• Teen Genius: Her academic talents would have admitted her into the Magitek Academy had war not broken out between the Dalmascan Resistance and Garlean forces. Even at 19 years old, she's a skilled enough engineer to be recuited as part of Garlond Ironworks, a company of world-class engineers from around the world.
• Stepford Smiler: On the surface, Lilja is a cheery, optimistic woman with a zest for life. In truth, this is at least partially a facade she uses to hide her personal Conflicting Loyalty, for while she's well-aware of Garlemald's atrocities, she feels that life under the Dalmascan monarchy is no better for a lowborn citizen like her. Gabranth's promises of a purely meritocratic nation free of prejudice resonated with her more than any nation could. Only by focusing on being herself the way Cid and Jessie do while engrossed in their work can she quell her inner turmoil. But her cheery mask slips during tense situations, revealing a much more emotionally vulnerable and troubled young woman.
• Sunglasses at Night: In-game, she wears a pair of Cool Shades everywhere and never takes them off, even on the constantly dark and stormy battlefield of the Bozjan Southern Front. You only see her eyes as part of her field records entry in the Collections tab and late in the Save the Queen storyline when Cid prepares to sabotage the Dalriada.
• Wrench Wench: She's a Garlond Ironworks engineer and a cute and excitable Viera.

G-Warrior

An Allagan Ultima Warrior repurposed by Garlond Ironworks as a pilotable warmachina in The Sorrow Of Werlyt Questline. Its piloted by the Warrior Of Light to fight against the prototype Weapons.

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• Arm Cannon: One of its attacks, and also the only one that doesn't consume EP.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: As easy as it would be for it to use against each new Weapon the Garleans roll out, it's hard to repair when there's not much in the way of Allagan parts needed for maintenance. This is why it's not used against Emerald Weapon in 5.4.
• Barrier Warrior: Its Aegis skill allows it to summon a large, pyramid-shaped barrier that mitigates damage when used, however it constantly drains EP.
• Cast From Hitpoints: The Warrior Of Light can temporarily remove its Power Limiter to make it go faster and do more damage, though it strains it. In gameplay, this causes G-Warrior to constantly lose HP as long as the buff is active.
• David vs. Goliath: While huge by most races' standards, to the point you can even climb atop its shoulder or stand next to it for scale, it's puny compared to the Weapons.
• Expy: From its coloration to its name and even a pose it strikes before fighting the Sapphire Weapon, the G-Warrior is essentially FFXIV's answer to Gundam.
• Good Counterpart: To the myriad Allagan Weapons the Empire has used, complete with a lighter color scheme and more human-like means of attacking. It is, in fact, a modified version of a prototype Ultima Weapon that was previously fought as a boss in the hard mode Fractal Continuum.
• Heroic RRoD: The Pyrotic Booster deactivates G-Warrior’s power limiters, increasing its speed and firepower while also putting a constant drain on its HP.
• Humongous Mecha: It's a huge, humanoid-shaped mecha that can be piloted, and its main purpose is fighting other, even bigger mechas.
• Laser Blade: It can manifest a huge laser sword as its main method of attacking.
• Meaningful Rename: Circumstances change the final showdown with the Diamond Weapon into a rescue mission. With that in mind, after its upgrades, the G-Warrior is renamed the G-Savior.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: While piloting it, G-Warrior can't regenerate HP, and has EP (Energy Points) instead of MP, which also don't naturally regenerate but must be used to attack. Instead, G-Warrior has access to a cooldown ability that regenerates a good chunk of HP and EP at the same time.
• Shout-Out: It's basically the closest thing you can get to a Gundam in the world of Final Fantasy XIV.
  • Its Primary weapon is an Aetherial Saber, the equivalent to a Beam Saber.
  • Pyrotic Booster, the limiter release function, invokes Trans-Am mode from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, with similar power boosting effects and turning the mech red with an aura.
  • Aegis Field's pyramid design and defensive function is a lesser known feature of the RX-93 Nu Gundam's Fin Funnels.
  • Its original role as an ancient anti-primal combat machine is not at all dissimilar to Gundam Barbatos's role from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. It was even originally found in a broken state and later restored and improved with modern tech.
  • When it sorties into battle against the Sapphire Weapon, it strikes a pose very similar to the ZZ Gundam.
  • Just before it strikes the above pose, a light shines in its eye, reminiscent of the "Newtype flash" present throughout the UC Gundam series.
  • When upgraded for the battle against the Diamond Weapon, it is renamed the G-Saviour.
  • The G-Warrior MG is a tabletop statue based on the G-Warrior. While its descriptions speculates the "MG" stands for "Master Garlond", it's also the same abbreviation used by Bandai to designate their "Master Grade" line of plastic model kits, most of which are based on Gundam mobile suits.
  • Some characteristics borrow not just from Gundam but from Neon Genesis Evangelion for G-Warrior's cockpit (and the cockpits of the other Weapons, by extension): a seat suspended in a sphere that projects a 360 degree holographic view around the pilot, and two control levers is something utilized by the Nu Gundam, but which brings to mind the Entry Plugs from Neon Genesis Evangelion as well. In particular, the interface actually takes more cues from the original as well as interface used in Rebuild of Evangelion than it does from other Gundam series.^note Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn techincally has a similar cockpit design, but Evangelion is no doubt the inspiration considering its own allusions in the Weapon project.
• Stylistic Suck: Anyone speaking on the G-Warrior's viewscreens has their head appear perfectly still, with only their mouth moving and the occasional blink, and any changes in expression "snap" from one to the other just like in older-era video games like Star Fox.
• Wave-Motion Gun: "Ultima Buster", which has the G-Warrior put its hands together to charge up and fire a massive laser beam in the style of a Kamehame Hadoken. It is by far the G-Warrior's most powerful attack and can wipe out an entire row of Magitek Bits in one shot if you aim it right.