Final Fantasy XIV - G'raha Tia / Characters

Voiced by: Yūma Uchida (JP), Jonathan Bailey (EN), Loïc Guingand (FR), Marcus Off (DE)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/graha_tia.jpg

^{Click here for his appearance in Shadowbringers}

^{Click here for his appearance in Endwalker}

Race: Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te
Epithet: The Crystal Exarch
Discipline: Archer, All-Rounder (White Mage, Black Mage, Paladin)

"There are... things which we can ill afford to lose. And... I sensed from the first that I had a part to play in preserving them."

Hailing from Sharlayan, G'raha is a member of the Students of Baldesion. He initially accompanies the Warrior of Light on an expedition to the Crystal Tower in Mor Dhona, but it quickly becomes evident that he is more involved with the tower than he knows.

Due to G'raha being a major character in Shadowbringers and Endwalker, expect unmarked spoilers.

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#-F

Act of True Love: Be it platonic or romantic, he's utterly committed to the Warrior of Light, willing to sacrifice his own life to save the Warrior, along with the Scions and the First. Emet-Selch sadly, yet thankfully, undermines G'raha's efforts.
Affectionate Nickname: Much like how Matoya and Y'mithra call Y'shtola "Shtola" for short, Krile calls him "Raha" as a sign of affection between them as fellow Archons and members of the Students of Baldesion. In other languages such as Japanese and French, even the Warrior of Light calls him "Raha", reflected by certain dialogue options when they appear.
All for Nothing:
- Played with. Initially, the Exarch had hoped that his death would remove the anchor he provided to the Scions' souls, thereby releasing them from his summoning automatically and allowing them to return to the Source; as their bodies in the Source begin to lose their vitality, he suggests simply sacrificing himself as a last resort option to speed them home, to Alisaie's consternation and the group's overwhelming disagreement. Once his body completely crystallizes from overtaxation, the Scions still remain bound on the First — demonstrating that G'raha sacrificing himself would instead have stranded them permanently. The experimental spirit vessels he and Beq Lugg had devised after his original plan was derailed avoided that, but it was cutting it close.
- He maintains an air of mystery around the Scions and his other allies because he intends to pretend he's a villain who will steal away the power of the Lightwarden's Aether and leave the First to die so no one feels any grief at what's actually him sacrificing himself. All this does forment mistrust, partciularly with Y'shtola who can tell he's lying about something. When the time comes for his performance, no one buys it and even if they did he gets shot by Emet-Selch before he could go through with it anyway.
The Archmage:
- Implied to be a result of his connection to the Crystal Tower; he notes at one point during Shadowbringers that his power wanes with distance from the Tower, rendering him nearly defenseless as far out as Eulmore, and is shown to carry a battery for his spells even just to venture into Lakeland. Amongst the spells seen in his arsenal include Fire IV, Blizzard IV, Thunder IV, Medica II, Cure II, Benediction, Rescue, Cover, Break, Vanish, and some form of short distance mass-teleportation. He's also quite skilled with glamours and illusions, even sending an image of himself all the way to Eulmore to meet with Vauthry in his place, and he can use the Tower to peer across Norvrandt, open a portal for the Warrior of Light to travel back to the Source, or even shield the entire city from Sin Eater assaults. And then there's the matter of his calling of our heroes to the First, which completely confounds Emet-Selch and can be done from all the way out in the Tempest...
- Even ignoring his power under the effect of the Crystal Tower, he is implied to be one of the most powerful wizards alive due to a combination of having lived the length of multiple lives and likely being the only person aside from the Warrior of Light to have the soul density of 9 rejoined shards as opposed to the 8 everyone else has (due to having lived through a successful rejoining of the First in the Bad Future). Aside from Venat, he is the only ally the Warrior of Light has that can fill every single combat role, either being a offensive mage, a healing mage, or a tank wielding aether created weaponry.
Ascended Extra: He started as a supporting character in a single sidestory questline, and now five real-world years later he's become a member of the Scions. This may or may not be a result of just how popular he became with the fanbase in Shadowbringers.
Ascended Fanboy: Many of the Exarch's narrations highlight that he always wanted to stand alongside the heroes from the stories of his youth, and that his greatest wish was to venture alongside the Warrior of Light. After his revival on the Source, he is formally inducted into the Scions, companions of the Warrior of Light and widely acknowledged heroes of Eorzea. His existence as a fanboy is lampshaded when he tries to come up with excuses to be with the Warrior of Light after joining the Scions, only for an amused Y'shtola to tell him that it isn’t necessary to do so to be with his hero.
Badass Adorable: He's a very smart, highly competent, Endearingly Dorky, and hilariously short catboy. And he is adorable for it.
Badass Bookworm: As an ex-Student of Baldesion and an Archon besides, G'raha has made huge strides in his field as an Allagan researcher even before becoming the Exarch. His time on the First has since given him the abilty to cast high-tier Black Magic and White Magic as well as fight as a Paladin if needed. Upon your visit to Sharlayan, he also says he wants to browse the local book stall for "a few moments", but Krile gently chides him, knowing that he'd spend much longer if given the chance.
Bad Liar: As the Crystal Exarch, despite his age and experience dealing with the Crystarium populace, he is terrible at sidestepping or redirecting questions about himself should the WoL start pressing him for personal details.
- This is probably most notable during the scene where he feigns evil intentions for manipulating the Warrior of Light into absorbing the power of all of the Lightwardens so he could steal the power for himself, only for everyone to immediately see through the lie less than a minute later and realize he actually intended to sacrifice himself.
- This is hilariously carried over even when he no longer is the Exarch. In 5.4, G'raha argues to act as the point of contact with a merchant dealing in suspiciously cheap and high quality crystals because as the newest Scion he is the least likely to be recognised, but didn't think to create a cover story and promptly almost blows the operation through his stammering and glances at where the other Scions are hidden. Lampshaded by Alisaie, who mutters that she thought he'd be much better at lying given how he kept his past hidden from the people of the First for so long.
- In regards to the people of the Crystarium, none of them are fooled by any of his cover stories about himself, the Scions who keep popping up, or about the identity of the supposedly evasive and unseen legendary figure called the "Warrior of Darkness". They just so inherently trust him that they let him have his privacy and trust that everything he does is in their best interest, simply putting on their own more convincing act to pretend not to know. In fact, on numerous occasions, there are NPCs who reveal that the people have grown very astute at reading the Exarch's subtle body language despite his full bodied heavy clothing and hood, most likely due to multiple generations of them having grown up with him around as their leader. One guard admits to realizing someone important must have arrived just by the "excited spring in the Exarch's step" when he rushed to meet us at the very start of Shadowbringers.
Barrier Maiden: He is able to defend the Crystarium from sin eater attack through barriers made from the Crystal Tower's magic.
Batman Gambit: One that spans the length of Shadowbringers. He knew full well that the Warrior of Light would only be able to absorb the Lightwardens' aether, not safely contain it. So he let them gather up all the Lightwardens into themself, at which point he would jump in, take the Lightwardens from them, and hurl himself into the rift between worlds where the aether could harmlessly dissipate, killing him in the process. To avoid any sadness over his Heroic Sacrifice, he would pretend to be a black hearted villain stealing the aether for his own benefit. But for this to be plausible, he needed to obscure his identity and motives so this 'betrayal' wouldn't seem out of character. So he hid who he was and why he was trying to save the First but this meant when he started accidentally summoning other Scions instead of the Warrior, they had no reason to cooperate with him. He gets around this by taking Urianger into his confidence, sharing his story about the Bad Future he came from and having Urianger tell the others that was a vision he had, thus motivating the Scions and eventually the Warrior without giving away anything regarding his own identity. Ultimately this fails, as between the Exarch being a Nice Guy and Urianger's support of his plans, the Scions see through his supposed villainy almost instantly, and Emet-Selch intervenes before he can carry out the rest of the plan regardless.
Beyond the Impossible: While Time Travel existed as an element thanks to Alexander's powers and Louisoix's final acts, the former was a closed Stable Time Loop, and the latter sent the Warrior of Light five years into the future and otherwise only affected people's memories of them. The Exarch meanwhile managed full blown history-altering time travel combined with interdimensional summoning with heart and soul intact, with some help from the Garland Ironworks survivors in the Bad Future. Emet-Selch and Elidibus are baffled at the impossibility of it, as even the Ancients had never managed such a feat and the Ascians have to abandon mortal shells to even just hop realms — to which both of them attempt to kidnap or otherwise use some aspect of the Exarch to hijack such a power for their own ends.
Big Good: He leads the heroes' efforts to save the First in Shadowbringers, marshaling all of the resources of the Crystarium and pulling on every connections he's accrued over the past century to rid the world of the Lightwardens.
Body Backup Drive: His physical body completely crystallizes and dies on the First at the end of 5.3, however this allows his soul to travel back to his past self on the Source while within the Crystal Tower, allowing the two souls to merge and for G'raha to retain his memories, experiences, knowledge and personality.
Body Horror: A downplayed example, but as the Crystal Exarch, a large portion of his body crystallized in a process stated to be similar to necrosis— tissue death— and he had to infuse the crystallized tissue with aether just to be able to move.
Blatant Lies: While attempting to take the Lightwardens' aether into himself to spare the Warrior's life, the Exarch claims that he's only been using them to garner the power to travel through the rift in hopes of preventing the heroes from feeling bad about his impending doom. Given his countless previous acts of kindness, none of the Scions buy it for a second and Y'shtola calls him out on how nonsensical his alleged plan is.
Brought Down to Badass: The combination of losing 24/7 access to the Crystal Tower as a catalyst and now having an entirely flesh and blood body with actual biological needs has caused some shifts in his abilities. While he's still quite powerful he now only has a broken off fragment of the Crystal Tower on his staff to work with. He can still manage big spells just fine, but he notes that he'd forgotten just how hungry casting magic that powerful can make a person.
The Bus Came Back: After sealing himself away in the Crystal Tower, going completely unmentioned during Heavensward, and only being referred to at the last stage of the Eureka questline in Stormblood, he reappears in Shadowbringers and remains a major character going into Endwalker.
Cast from Calories: G'raha admits that he isn't used to using his own aether to power his spells. As a result, he's unprepared for the exhaustion and hunger that comes with chaining powerful and complex magic back-to-back.
Cast from Lifespan: As the Crystal Exarch, he turned his body to part crystal to prolong his lifespan — he doesn't age at all in the hundred years since his arrival on the First — but using too much of the Crystal Tower's power taxes him and hastens his death, turning more and more of his body into crystal. Eventually he abandons his Crystal Exarch body altogether when it completely crystallizes, merging his soul and memories with those of his younger self sealed in the Crystal Tower back during A Realm Reborn.
Character Tics: His ears and tail tend to twitch about when he's feeling nervous, anxious or embarrassed.
Chekhov's Skill:
- Although his days of governance are over, G'raha's experience in leading a nation proves essential in Endwalker.
  - He notices the shift in Sharlayan's policy regarding its acquisition of knowledge from merely acquiring it to benefit their fellow man to hoarding it while reading in the restricted sections of the Noumenon. He says that he would have never noticed this had were it not for his days as the Exarch.
  - When Radz-at-Han is thrown into a panic after a second outbreak of the blasphemies within the city leads to Ahewann's death, G'raha gathers himself and slams his staff down as he did as the Exarch, swiftly taking control of the situation and barking orders to minimize panic and ensure as many civilians get to safety as possible. His ability to keep calm in a crisis also helps him save a man on the brink of transforming into another beast by calmly and gently telling him to live for the people he lost.
- While snooping around Sharlayan, he picks up a levitation spell so he could browse the excessively tall shelves at the Noumenon as he is too short to reach the books on the top shelves otherwise. He later uses this same spell to save everyone from plummeting to their doom after the Tower of Zot is destroyed.
Comfort Food: Despite hating its disgusting taste, G'raha has a nostalgic fondness for archon loaf, as it's all he ate during many nights of study at the Studium. He's happy when Tataru has the Warrior bring some to the First in the post-story for Shadowbringers despite recoiling at the flavor.
Continuity Nod: G'raha's many years on the First means that he often slips in his old habits from speaking with the people there. Upon visiting Sharlayan's Agora markets for the first time in years, he wonders if there's anything worth "cracking [his] coinpurse" for, a nod to the traditions of Mord Souq that the Warrior experienced personally.
Cruel to Be Kind: When the Warrior of Light begins turning into a Sin Eater, he steps in and claims to have been using you to collect the power needed to traverse worlds and abandon the First to its doom, leeching the excess Light out of you for himself. Nobody buys this "betrayal", and it's almost immediately made clear he's aware this would kill him and is trying to make a guilt-free Heroic Sacrifice by riding the Crystal Tower into the Rift to die there.
Curtains Match the Window: Both his hair and eyes are red. Prior to waking his Allagan bloodline, his left eye was blue-green.
Determinator: He has endured one hundred and more years fighting off the end of the world in the First as well as the Source. All the while, he's waited patiently for the time to come to summon the Warrior of Light to the First, a plan that Urianger states is "an undertaking of scarce credible endurance". He can barely believe that the Exarch had kept it together for so long. In addition to this, before confessing the truth to Urianger, he's endured it all by himself, telling no one of the truth.
Didn't Think This Through:
- Part of his plan to pretend to betray the Warrior and 'steal' the accumulated Light Aether for his own ends involves staying as an enigmatic figure so they would consider such treachery plausible. He fails utterly at this, but even if he hadn't his recruiting Urianger to be his accomplice shoots it dead anyway. The Scions do react with surprise and alarm when the Exarch begins his 'betrayal' but Urianger intervening on his behalf quickly kills any suspicions. Urianger may be underhanded and deceptive at times, but he'd never be party to outright villainy and they all know it.
- What got the Scions in trouble with the Sharlyans early in the Endwalker storyline is because is his use of a levitation spell. He admits that he was just too short to get the books he needed to get to, but getting a ladder would have raised too much suspicion... forgetting that such a spell would have done the same.
Discard and Draw: Regaining his flesh-and-blood body means that he no longer has access to the nearly infinite power reserves of the Crystal Tower, but is no longer bound to it to survive or at risk of turning to crystal. In addition, he's since given up the bow he had equipped when he first met the Warrior of Light, instead wielding Black Magic and White Magic with a chunk of the Crystal Tower as a focus as well as fighting like a Gladiator or a Paladin if needed.
Distressed Dude: When he attempts to free the Warrior of Light from their transformation into a Sin Eater, Emet-Selch shoots him in the back and carries him off to Amaurot in the Tempest. He manages to get free before the final confrontation with Hades, even summoning Warriors of Light from other Shards as backup for the battle.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Even after his true identity is revealed, all who know him on the First continue to refer to him as the Exarch. He continuously refers to himself by his epithet to separate himself from his former identity. However, after merging with his past self, he goes back to using his name.
Dramatic Unmask: The power emanating from the Warrior of Light after consuming Innocence blows off his hood, revealing him to be G'raha Tia.
Earn Your Happy Ending: His greatest wish is to go on adventures with his hero, the Warrior of Light. At the end of 5.3, he finally gets that wish by merging with his older self, the Crystal Exarch of the First, and becomes the newest member of the Scions. This is further emphasized by him becoming a Trust partner for the Shadowbringers dungeons.
Endearingly Dorky: Now that the burden of his duties as the Crystal Exarch are lifted he leans more heavily in this direction. He awkwardly stutters and fidgets his hands together when asked to join the Scions. He also fumbles with how to address his new co-workers and is relentlessly teased by Y'shtola for his idolization of the Warrior. It serves to highlight how good-natured he is towards his allies.
Energy Weapon: As a Paladin, G'raha's sword and shield resemble the Padjal versions of the weapons — hard light constructs of pure aether.
"Eureka!" Moment: Nero's talk of surpassing Allag unlocks his memory of the wish of the ancients - that the tower once again shine as a beacon to civilization, which would require civilization to have matched or surpassed Allag to use it properly.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The people of the Crystarium refer to him only by his title of "Crystal Exarch", and most of the 5.0 MSQ has him referred to only as such, even by the villains. This continues on after his identity is revealed, along with his name.
Exact Words: If the player has completed the Crystal Tower quests and asks the Exarch about G'raha Tia at the beginning of Shadowbringers, he says that "no such individual was residing in the tower when it passed into [his] care," which is entirely true — since he is G'raha Tia, he obviously wasn't already in the tower when he got there.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Downplayed. His prolonged absence from Sharlayan as a Student of Baldesion on top of spending a hundred years on the First means that his home country doesn't look exactly as he remembers it. He finds it fascinating to compare the present Sharlayan to how he remembers it, between little things like book stalls and the aetheryte plaza.
Fling a Light into the Future: Played with. He certainly tries, but it gets complicated.
- It turns out he's the last true descendant of the ancient Allagan royal bloodline, as within him is the blood of the last royal princess who survived the 4th Umbral Calamity, with the goal being that one day, he'd help restore the Crystal Tower into a beacon of hope for all people.
- Then exaggerated, when G'raha decides to fling himself into the future, by deciding to return the Crystal Tower to its slumbering state, and sealing himself and its occupants in it. As he is the last source of royal blood needed to unlock the tower, anyone hoping to open the tower would need to be sufficiently advanced to bypass that security mechanism, and thus in theory should be advanced enough to properly control the tower, and he will be inside to help guide them.
- And then inverted, once the survivors of the Eighth Umbral Calamity succeed in unsealing the Crystal Tower and awaken him in the process, as they had done so in order to send the Crystal Tower back in time to the First in order to stop the aforementioned Calamity. G'raha chooses to go with the Tower, but misses the mark by about a century - which in the long run was a good thing, as it allowed him to create the Crystarium, and becomes its leader, the Crystal Exarch.
- Then ultimately double-subverted at the end of the 5.3 MSQ: the Crystal Exarch dies, but leaves with the Warrior of Light/Darkness a spirit vessel containing his soul, memories, and crystalized blood. This allows the Warrior to unlock the Crystal Tower and merge the Exarch's soul with his younger self, awakening G'raha in the present and allowing him to join the Scions.
Foil:
- As the Exarch, he is Vauthry's opposite in almost every concievable way. The Exarch earned the respect of the people of the Crystarium through a century of leadership and boons provided from the Crystal Tower, offering sanctuary to anyone who is willing to contribute. He is a wise, just, and personable leader who would much rather consult the community before making any decisions that could affect their welfare. He also refuses to be called a "king" and hides his face inside concealing robes. By contrast, Vauthry attained his position through his innate ability to control the sin eaters, demanding others worship him as a king and a god lest he sicc the monsters after them. He's an Adipose Rex constantly drowning in decadence and a Psychopathic Manchild who sees everything he does as absolute and correct. While the Exarch is willing to wager everything, even his own life, for his people, Vauthry brainwashes his own citizens to act as living shields before fleeing to Mt. Gulg when Eulmore is overrun by the Scions.
- He's also foil to Emet-Selch. Both of them are old, wizened figures with great command over esoteric magicks who are/were the dutiful leaders of their peoples and lay out extensive, complicated gambits to save them. Even their outfits have similar red, black, white, and gold color palettes. But G'raha is brimming with hope for the future and seeks to change it even if it means potentially destroying the timeline he came from. Emet-Selch is nostalgic for the past and is willing to destroy the Source and its Thirteen Reflections with the Rejoining if it means restoring his "perfect world".
Foreshadowing: He subtly drops mentions of the Alexander and Omega Raids during his talk with Emet-Selch.
Fountain of Youth: From G'raha's perspective, his body after Rejoining with his past self has him feeling much younger and livelier than he did on the First as the Exarch. This, combined with his new Ascended Fanboy status, means that his former air of mysteriousness vanishes in favor of his Endearingly Dorky traits.
Fusion Dance: Played with. At the end of Shadowbringers, he becomes the combination of his self from the First as the Crystal Exarch, namely his soul and his memories, merged with his younger self on the Source. His Exarch personality seems to be the dominant one, but he remarks feeling much younger and more energetic than before, thanks to now inhabiting and fusing with his younger self. It's also noted that because his future self underwent an additional Rejoining from the Bad Future, his merged younger self seems to be aetherically stronger than expected.

G-O

Gameplay and Story Integration: The "Break" spell could inflict Heavy, a debuff that greatly reduces the target's mobility. During the battle of Laxan Loft, the Exarch casts "Break" on Ran'jit to prevent him from leaping after the Scions In a Single Bound.
Gem Tissue: As the Exarch, his body seems to be partly made of the same aetherial crystal as the Crystal Tower. One can see that his entire right arm and a sizable part of his neck and face are all crystallized. The events of 5.3 cause it to spread. It technically ends up killing him, but he transfers his soul into Auracite at the last second, leaving his crystalized body standing by Emperor Xande's throne as a monument.
Goal in Life: Aside from saving the First, he lets out glimpses of this during a conversation with the Warrior of Light while in disguise. At the end of the day, his dream is to save the Warrior of Light, spend the rest of his life traveling together with them, and be by their side. A dream that, by 5.3, he gets, no strings attached, by becoming a Scion of the Seventh Dawn.
The Good King: Although he loathes to be called as such, he's the supreme authority of the Crystarium. He guided the people of Crystarium through a century of strife and struggle, helping them achieve their best selves and allowing them to not only survive the sin eater threat, but thrive. It's little wonder that he's universally beloved by the Crystarium as a wise, just, and kind leader.
Guest-Star Party Member: He joins as the Crystal Exarch for Holminster Switch and Grand Cosmos, both of which take place before the events of 5.3. After that point he loses the "Guest Star" part in becoming a proper Scion complete with becoming available to the trust system in all the MSQ Shadowbringers dungeons prior.
Happily Adopted: He was born to a family in Corvos whose ancestors descended from the servants of Allagan royalty. Through their bloodline was the "Allagan Eye" that marked Allagan royalty passed down. But due to a waning interest in keeping Allagan machinery and customs intact under Garlean rule, G'raha's parents entrusted him to Galuf Baldesion, who took a young G'raha to Sharlayan and had him become a Sharlayan citizen. G'raha is forever grateful for being taken in and having a chance to become an Archon, considering Sharlayan his home although he was not born in it.
Healing Hands: He is capable of using Cure, Cure II, Medica II, and Benediction as a healer unit.
Height Angst: He's the shortest possible height for a Miqo'te male. It doesn't come up in the story until Endwalker, where he has to pick up a levitation spell just to reach the top shelves of Sharlayan's libraries. He loudly and angrily complains about his height during a late-night dinner in the Warrior's room at the Baldesion Annex, wondering why Sharlayan's bookshelves are so damned tall.
Heroic Sacrifice: He's a very self-sacrificing guy, and attempts this on multiple occasions.
- He intended to do this by taking all the light the Warrior of Light had absorbed and going into the void. However, he's shot in the back by Emet-Selch before he can do this, and it ultimately ends up not being necessary.
- Defied in 5.1. He notes that he could just die to send the Scions home, but Alisaie literally smacks him in the face for even suggesting it, and the Scions refuse to let him die for their sake. As shown by the end of 5.3, even if he had died as intended, it would have been All for Nothing, as the Scions stay in the First until they can use soul crystals to return to the Source.
  Alisaie: I'm sick and tired of the Exarch's attempts at selfless sacrifice. If he suggests dying one more time, I swear I'm going to grant him his wish.
- Ends up pulling a non-lethal but extremely costly version in 5.3, when he overexerts himself in creating a route for the Scions to return home and battling Elidibus until he ends up destroying his physical body in the First. The end result is being completely turned into crystal. This requires him to perform a Split-Personality Merge with his past self in the Source using one of the same spirit vessels he made for the Scions.
- Eventually does it for real, as he is the second-to-last of the Scions to sacrifice his being and turn it into Dynamis so the Warrior of Light can pursue Meteion further in Ultima Thule. Fortunately, this one doesn't stick either.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: His humility verges into this repeatedly when speaking about himself. His laundry list of achievements — saving the Warrior of Light's life, being responsible for a centuries-long gambit to avert the Eighth Umbral Calamity, and developing a summoning spell to ferry someone across space and time that leaves even the Ascians in awe — G'raha doesn't believe he's worth more than a footnote in the annals of history. He's flattered should the Warrior tell him otherwise.
Hero-Worshipper: He idolizes the Warrior of Light, but he isn't content with having just one idol. When he meets Estinien for the first time, his eyes quite literally light up when he realizes that he's talking to another legend, which unnerves Estinien.
Humble Hero:
- Despite spending a century as the Big Good of the First and his tireless efforts to avert a Bad Future, G'raha gets fidgety when Alphinaud introduces him to Lyse in the most glowing terms. Krile notes that even with the Exarch's memories, G'raha's boyish insecurities remain.
- At the end of Shadowbringers, Urianger reminds him that "the offer remaineth open" for him to become a Scion of the Seventh Dawn, as the concensus among the Scions is unanimous that they want him in. G'raha fidgets and stammers over his words for a moment, unsure if he's worthy of the offer. The Warrior of Light can gently prod him about it or remain silent, but either way, he takes another moment to steady himself and accepts.
- In Endwalker, he rescues all the trapped occupants of the disintegrating Tower of Zot with a levitation spell, and later rallies the citizens and guards of Radz-at-Han into respectively fleeing from and fighting off the "blasphemies" spawned by the Final Days after the satrap was killed. Despite this, the most he hopes for is to be a footnote in the Warrior of Light's story.
In the Hood: The top half of the Exarch's head is hidden by his hood, keeping the player from seeing his hair and eyes, though the crystallization of his body reaches up his neck and scars part of his face. Before his true identity is revealed, eagle-eyed players may notice his nose is not part of any face available to player Hyur models, but instead to Miqo'te. It's another clue to his identity as G'raha Tia.
Jack of All Stats: He is classified as an "All-Rounder" as a Trust member, functioning as a Paladin, White Mage, or Black Mage depending on the role he takes, allowing him to fulfill any of the three roles as a Trust member.
Jumped at the Call: Despite his initial hemming and hawing at being allowed to join the Scions, he's overjoyed to be a part of them, even more so when his first mission has him journeying with the Warrior as he always hoped to. He's quick to volunteer whenever possible and even the thought of traversing Matoya's monster-infested workshop fills him with nothing but excitement.
Just the First Citizen:
- His epithet is a result of his refusal to be called a "king" despite earning himself unquestioned authority over the Crystarium. The people wound up calling him the Crystal Exarch for his ties to the Crystal Tower and his leadership.
- His status as a "Tia" is this as well. In Seeker society, Tia's are any males that aren't Nunh's and Nunh's are, among other things, males who rule over territory. Y'shtola mentions that his stint as the Exarch means G'raha could easily declare himself a Nunh but it's ultimately up to him if he wants to claim the title. Which, at present, he doesn't.
Knightly Sword and Shield: While taking up the tank role, he seems to create a sword and shield from aether akin to the Padjali weapons used in the Palace of the Dead, also reflecting his desire to become a storybook hero.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Despite being a hero in his own right who is overqualified to join the Scions, G'raha visibly struggles to contain his excitement when meeting Lyse for the first time and wracks his brain to figure out how to address her. He does the same when meeting Matoya, who tells him that he need not be so high-strung around her. Then there's the way his eyes light up when he meets Estinien.
Leitmotif: Eternal Wind, serving as his link to the Crystal Tower. A piano rendition is used for him in Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
Lethal Chef: In a conversation with Lyna, he recalls trying to bake a cake for her tenth nameday. He bashfully calls it a "hideous lump" that the people of the Crystarium were kind enough to cover in candles to hide his awful handiwork. However, he's at least able to make some tasty sandwiches, leaving a basket of them in the Warrior's room at the Pendants.
Let's Get Dangerous!: By the end of Shadowbringers, G'raha Tia is established as Endearingly Dorky with a wide-eyed adoration for heroes, the Warrior of Light especially. So it's easy to forget that he was once the de facto philosopher king of a city-state and the best hope for two worlds' survival for a hundred years. G'raha once again wears his Exarch face when Radz-at-Han descends into chaos during the Final Days. He takes charge of evacuation efforts with equal parts logic, composure, and compassion, leading many to safety after Ahewann, the satrap, is killed defending his countrymen..
Light 'em Up: When slotted into a party as a healer, G'raha will make extensive use of Glare and Holy to burn down enemies.
Magic Misfire: Every time he attempted to summon the Warrior of Light, his aim was off and he summoned one of the Scions instead. Even when he succeeds, the Warrior arrives a few malms from where the Exarch had intended them to. Since he doesn't know how to send the Scions back at first, his intent was for his Heroic Sacrifice to remove their anchor to the First and send them back.
Magic Staff:
- In Shadowbringers, he carries an Allagan scepter with him wherever he goes. It usually acts as a way for him to command the Crystal Tower's magicks, activating nearly any function with a tap on the ground. He can also use it more traditionally to cast spells.
- He later switches it out for a staff fashioned with a chunk of the Crystal Tower. This helps him focus his magicks and let him recapture some of his old magical might as the Exarch.
Martyr Without a Cause: Quite a few of his plans end with "and then I die, saving everyone else, and am mourned for a brief time before forgotten by history". The Scions note that before the Warrior of Darkness arrived in the First, this was apparently quite a common thing with him.
- Krile in particular notes that this has been a recurring trend with him even back before the WoL met him in Mor Dhona, and both Krile and Alisaie are quite tired of it.
- When he suggests more-or-less the same thing in the 5.1 MSQ, Alisaie literally slaps the Exarch in the face and tells him to cut it out. Especially since the Warrior of Darkness risked everything to bring the Exarch back from the brink in their battle against Emet-Selch, so G'raha doesn't get to just throw his life away after so much effort was taken to keep him around.
Master of All: Fighting alongside him shows he's mastered Black Magic of all elements up to rank IV, while he also throws out rank II Cures and Medicas like any White Mage without changing roles or fighting styles. He is capable of using the Rescue healer role action while simultaneously using the Cover ability for Paladins. He is also the first "All Rounder" Trust member, meaning that he's the first ally the Warrior of Light has fought along side capable of filling any role in combat. And considering that the second All Rounder to fight with the Warrior of Light is Venat, aka the woman who becomes Hydaelyn,, this says a lot about G'raha's power.
Meaningful Echo: The scene where he officially becomes a member of the Scions features him (as narrator) quoting himself from the end of the Shadowbringers launch patch, wherein he lamented how he always wanted to be a hero as a child but never could. Unlike last time, the speech here has a much more hopeful tone to it now that he's earned his happy ending.
Merger of Souls: Technically, this is what he is. He is the soul and memories of the Crystal Exarch having integrated and merged with the G'raha of the Source. It avoids Death of Personality or That Man Is Dead due to them merging together — he even notes they have no incongruous memories (as the Source's G'raha has no memories to conflict with Exarch's due to having been asleep since the end of the Crystal Tower arc), so he doesn't suffer any cognitive dissonance from this merger — while creating what is effectively a new person in spirit.
Mundane Utility: He uses a powerful levitation spell to keep lots of people from falling to their deaths at one point. When talking about it later, he admits he learned the spell so he could reach books on the tops of tall library shelves.
Mythology Gag: His story resembles that of Desch from Final Fantasy III, as an ally with amnesia who helps the party explore a mysterious tower, though the tower in question is the Crystal Tower instead of the Tower of Owen. He also is revealed to be the last descendant of an ancient race, and is the only one capable of repairing and controlling the tower in question; he then stays inside to keep it safe. The quests related to Heaven-On-High (another mysterious tower) would reveal that there was a character named Desch generations ago. He was the confidant of the last surviving member of the Allag royal family and infused with its blood, creating the family line that led to G'raha Tia.
The Needless: Downplayed. As the Crystal Exarch, he was largely sustained by the Crystal Tower and needed little sleep or food. He still had some of those needs, and would be frequently reminded by his companions to get some rest every once a blue moon. But his needs for food and sleep are both much lower than the average person. This remains true even after he becomes a Scion of the Seventh Dawn and shows up on the Source.
New Meat: Despite his monumental accomplishments as the Exarch, G'raha considers himself this as one of the newest members of the Scions. He struggles with whether or not to address them casually or formally while also deferring to their seniority. Alisaie notes that as his senior in the organization, it's up to her to help whip him into shape.
Nice Guy: Almost comically so; despite his obvious penchant for secrecy casting his end goals and methods into question, the player is constantly reminded of how kind the Exarch is, from being universally adored by the residents of the city he oversees, to raising an orphaned child on his own, to personally leaving sandwiches with a note of encouragement in the WoL's room to find when they return from their journey. He even tries to lie about his motivations for absorbing the light from the WoL at the last minute, claiming he planned to use it to escape the dying First from the beginning, in order to spare the WoL from feeling guilty about his death — a lie that's difficult for everyone to believe in part because he's just too dang nice.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Thancred finally looks at infiltrating Garlemald? He gets Called. Urianger and Y'shtola want to investigate and prevent the thinning of aether? Both of them get Called. The WoL and Alisaie try to drive Garlemald back from the Ghimlyt Dark permanently? Alisaie gets Called. The WoL is fighting Elidibus? They get called mid-fight and have to be bailed out. The Exarch's penchant for Magic Misfire and comically poor timing is so great, it almost looked like he was trying to doom the Source rather than save it. Sort of justified considering that none of the other Scions were meant to be Called, just the WoL and the case with them and Elidibus was an act of desperation, since if they had won against the Ascian the Empire would have just unleashed Black Rose outright.
- Also inverted, in that he has a tendency to make mistakes that turn out to make things better for everyone. He intended to take the Crystal Tower back to the time of the Rejoining but overshot by a century. But that gave him time to build the Crystarium a bastion of safety and base of operations for when the Rejoining actually came. He only wanted to Call the Warrior of Light and got the other Scions on accident but they proceeded to do much of the groundwork and other things to help the people of the First, like Thancred rescuing Ryne or Y'shtola saving the Night's Blessed.
Odd Friendship: All of the Scions are True Companions, but he and Alisaie are particularly friendly and often cover each other in battle, despite him being a gentle and soft-spoken scholar and her being a hotheaded Red Mage.
Older Than They Look: G'raha possesses a century's worth of memories from his time in the First. As such, his merged body is simultaneously his "new", "old" body, and "young" body. Estinien also notes that despite G'raha's perkiness and tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve, G'raha speaks with the experience of someone much older than he appears.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: No one will let him forget his dramatic introduction from back in the Crystal Tower storyline, even though he's horribly embarrassed by it at this point.
Warrior: What, no dramatic entrance? You've changed.
G'raha: Ugh, you remember that? In my defense, I was caught up in the moment. It isn't every day you meet an honest-to-gods hero, after all.
One-Steve Limit: Averted. He shares his name (Raha) and title (Tia) with H'raha Tia, the Big Bad of the Pugilist/Monk questline. The difference is that G'raha is from the G tribe of Sun Seeker Mi'qote, and H'raha is from the H tribe. The two men look nothing alike, though — G'raha has red hair with fair skin, while H'raha has white hair with tan skin.

P-Y

Paper-Thin Disguise: Provided the player has already completed the Crystal Tower questline, they have the dialogue option to almost immediately recognize the Crystal Exarch as G'raha Tia, though he sidesteps any such accusations until the final act of Shadowbringers. Shortly after his reveal, Emet-Selch even comments on how obvious his identity was because, as pointed out in the aforementioned Crystal Tower raid, only a member of the royal Allagan bloodline can control the tower. So aside from Emet himself, the only remaining candidates are G'raha Tia and any hypothetical descendants of his.
Parental Substitute: He is pretty much Lyna's adoptive grandfather, having raised her ever since she lost her family as a young child.
Photographic Memory: He has a surprisingly keen memory, to the point that in 5.4 he's able to memorize the spell to cure tempering from at best a couple of seconds of looking at the simulated formula before Cid's makeshift computer overheats completely and shuts down.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He’s as short as a male Miqo'te can be so he's rather small compared to everyone else (excluding Lalafells or female Au Ra), but that doesn’t make his powers and skills any less impressive.
Plain Palate: But not by choice. Living in Sharlayan meant that G'raha followed its tenets of function over form, especially when it comes to food. This meant lots and lots of inexpensive, nutritious (and disgusting) food like archon loaf instead of splurging to buy any actually tasty food over at the Last Stand. He takes the opportunity to ditch this mentality for once during a late-night dinner in Endwalker, happily digging into a cheeseburger the size of his head.
Power Crystal: His new staff is made with a shard of the Crystal Tower which allows him to channel advanced magic much like he did with his crystalized body on the First, but doesn't allow him to use the Tower's energy as a power source. Like typical mages of the Source, he must use his own aether in order to cast, which exhausts him more than it did then.
The Power of the Sun: In a roundabout way. As the Crystal Exarch, most of his power was derived from channeling energy from the Crystal Tower. Given that the Crystal Tower is in essence a giant solar battery, the Exarch was effectively channeling the power of the sun. After going returning to the Source he has to go back to using his own aether.
Promoted to Playable: He is briefly playable in his battle with Alisaie against Lunar Ravana in the final quest of Shadowbringers. G'raha makes use of Fire IV and Blizzard IV while also packing Medica II and his signature Break.
Really Royalty Reveal: He is tied to the Allagan legacy, but being impervious to Cloud of Darkness' particle beam reveals he is a descendant of Allagan royalty. This gives him the authority to control the Crystal Tower and seal it.
Really 700 Years Old: Entire generations have come and gone since the Crystarium was made, but even the oldest claim that the Exarch looks exactly the same as he did way back when (save for the tips of his hair starting to turn gray from being so old). He's implied to already have been hundreds of years old by the time the Crystarium began, having been asleep since the Crystal Tower raid and awakened by Garlond Ironworks generations later. After awakening, he bound his life-force to the Crystal Tower so he could survive the trip through time and across worlds, which as a result means he doesn't age, but also means he can't spend too long away from the tower without weakening.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: He's a Nice Guy who's entirely on your side, but his two red eyes are a direct indicator of how dangerous he is to his enemies. They're a sign that his Allagan blood has fully awoken, giving him complete control over a magical power plant mighty enough to hop between dimensions, fight off entire armies of sin eaters, and chew up and spit out the disembodied mind of Zodiark Himself.
Red Is Heroic: His color palette is quite dominantly red, moreso than the other Scions. His fiery hair, eyes, and wardrobe all help him to stand out in a crowd.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: His hair and wardrobe are both red, and he's absolutely a sweet soul who just wants to be a hero.
Royal Blood: He's infused with the blood of Allagan royalty, giving him access to anything of Allagan origin. Though he makes use of his status in 5.4, it doesn't help crack open password-locked data.
Scarf of Asskicking: G'raha's new outfit after Shadowbringers includes a dark green scarf, mirroring the hood he wore as the Exarch.
Scatterbrained Senior: He is worried that Lyna thinks he's becoming one of these after he tried to open a letter with his salmon filet.
Secretly Dying: The crystals that compose half of his body on the First aren't inert - they are slowly overtaking his body, and every use of the Crystal Tower's power hastens the spread. Part of why he's so willing to perform a Heroic Sacrifice for the Warrior of Light is because he knows he doesn't have much time left. It's visibly worse in 5.3, and gets exaggerated when Elidibus steals control of the tower and kicks it into overdrive, which still takes its toll on the Exarch. It eventually gets bad enough that he's forced to abandon his physical body and undergo a Split-Personality Merge with his past self, even with no guarantee it would work.
Senseless Sacrifice: As the summoner of the Scions, his original plan to return them to the Source consisted of "die to remove their anchor to the First," an option he brings up again in 5.1 to Alisaie's annoyance. In 5.3, his body's destruction and being turned into crystal proves that said plan wouldn't have worked anyway.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: As the Exarch, he's from a Bad Future of the Source where the Eighth Umbral Calamity killed the Warrior of Light and caused massive upheaval. Disciples of Cid awakened him from the Crystal Tower and outfitted it with the means to travel between Shards (repurposing the portal to the World of Darkness in Xande's throne), through time (by building a replica of Alexander Prime as an engine), and space (by combining said replica with data of Omega due to its ability to travel within the Interdimensional Rift) and created The Tycoon in order to prevent the Calamity from occurring and save the Warrior of Light. He's fully aware that he and the Tower could both be erased from history if successful, but in the end both are able to remain.
Ship Tease: A lot of his interactions with the Warrior of Light, especially in the second half of Shadowbringers, are heavily dripping with romantic subtext.
Shock and Awe: His preferred spells while acting as a DPS unit in Trusts are Thunder II and Foul.
Shorter Means Smarter: He's the shortest possible height for a Miqo'te male and an extremely accomplished scholar.
Signature Attack: Carrying over from his appearance as the Exarch, Break. It's his go-to spell for disabling enemies and proves essential when he and Alisaie battle Lunar Ravana, as it is able to restrain Ravana's butterflies, stymieing the power of Bloody Fuller.
Single-Target Sexuality: It's made a point how the Warrior of Light is pretty much his most important person, and the subtext stays just as strong no matter what the Warrior's gender is.
Sixth Ranger: Introduced as a minor character for a single A Realm Reborn arc with a longtime dream to become a hero, he officially joins the Scions at the end of Shadowbringers.
Split-Personality Merge: Played with. He doesn't so much merge personalities as the past and future versions of himself at the end of Shadowbringers, using a soul crystal infused with his own blood. Considering his physical body was turned into crystal in the First, this was the only option to bring him back, and there was no guarantee it was even going to work. Lucky for G'raha, not only did it work, but it allowed him to get everything he ever wanted, no strings attached.
Superhuman Transfusion: He is not a direct descendant of the Allagan royal line. The last true royal, Princess Salina, magically transfused her most loyal servant with her blood and that servant was G'raha's ancestor (Desch).
Taken for Granite: Invoking the Crystal Tower's full power to destroy Elidibus takes everything he has left, and he steps into the middle of courtyard before Xande's old throne before crystalizing completely. However, thanks to the soul crystal that he and Beq Lugg perfected before this happened, it means that "dead" and "gone" are not necessarily the same thing for him, and the Warrior of Darkness transfers what's left of his soul and his memories from the First into his past self to bring him back.
Tattoo as Character Type: He wears the same neck tattoo as some of the Scions, showing that he is a Sharlayan scholar like them. He's also the only non-Scion to sport the Eye of Sharlayan until he officially joins them.
Tender Tears: He nearly breaks into tears if the Warrior of Light chooses to call out his name when he tries to sacrifice himself to prevent them from turning into a Light Warden. He eventually does so if they call him by name in the ending of Shadowbringers.
That Man Is Dead: Downplayed and ultimately Subverted. If the player has completed the Crystal Tower questline and calls him G'raha Tia after completing the main story he hesitates for a moment and says that it's been so long that he's truly come to be the Crystal Exarch even if it was just an act at first. He goes on to admit that even still when the Warrior of Light calls him by name the young man he used to be stirs and he's hit by a wave of nostalgia topping it off by saying that even though they were an inspiration back then the Warrior of Light is somehow an even bigger inspiration now. However, he still sees himself as G'raha Tia despite the time that has passed, as he is able to merge his soul with his past self without issue at the end of the Shadowbringers story, showing that he never truly let go of who he was.
Time Master: He called the Warrior of Light through time and space to the First and he himself is a time traveler from a Bad Future. Later this leads to Emet-Selch kidnapping him because he has pioneered a magic that even he is incapable of and then for the finale he summons seven champions from across time and space to aid the Warrior of Light in challenging Hades for the final battle.
Took a Level in Badass: He's led the Crystarium for decades as a revered leader, has access to magics even the Ascians don't have, and can fight alongside the Warrior of Light as well as the Scions can. In A Realm Reborn, he was just an ambitious scholar with a special bloodline and no combat experience.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: While he wasn't exactly dour as the Crystal Exarch, shedding the burdens of commanding a nation and becoming an Ascended Fanboy by joining the Scions has made G'raha a much perkier person. He jumps at any opportunity he can to help and sprints off into the distance with the Warrior at the end of 5.3. Krile notes that she heard that G'raha is much more energetic now than he was as the Exarch, but she's surprised by how he seems even livelier than he was before his time in the Crystal Tower.
Tragic Time Traveler: As revealed in Shadowbringers, G'raha traveled through time in order to help the Warrior of Light avert the Bad Future where he came from, even with the very real knowledge that a Grandfather Paradox could ensue and erase him from existence.
Universally Beloved Leader: As the Crystal Exarch, he is universally adored by the people of the Crystarium, who at times are quite vocal about their adoration. At one point in the story, you're told to talk to the citizens to gather opinions and information on him, and while they do not know the enigmatic man personally, they care for him unconditionally because of his protection and kindness.
Unskilled, but Strong: Describes himself as such after the main story quest of Shadowbringers has run its course. He isn't technically as skilled or learned a mage as the scholarly Scions or a spellcasting Warrior of Light, but his connection to the Crystal Tower grants him access to magicks potent enough to make up the difference.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Narrowly avoided. His summonings of the Scions are poorly timed, pulling them away from what seem like incredibly important matters in the Source. Thankfully, their other allies manage to compensate for the absences. He very nearly kills the Warrior of Light, calling them when they are in the middle of a pitched battle which incapacitated them to the point they would have been killed had not Estinien intervened. Alisaie, summoned right before the battle, tore him a new asshole when she arrived in the First because he forced her to leave the Warrior to fight said battle alone.
Walking Spoiler: G'raha plays a fairly major role in the Crystal Tower storyline, and everything that involves him afterwards has big ramifications for the rest of the game's overall plot, including an entire expansion.
Weak, but Skilled: Returning to his body in the Source means he's no longer using the Dangerous Forbidden Technique that let him draw upon the immense power of the Crystal Tower, leaving him no stronger than the average rookie adventurer. On the plus side, he's still got all his decades of combat experience, even if he's still figuring out how to properly apply them. Furthermore, being in a younger body not shackled to the tower means he can use power that doesn't hurt himself to do so, while allowing him to actually fight away from the tower. That being said, the Boulder Brothers note that G'raha is still a very skilled fighter.
Workaholic: His duties as the Crystal Exarch conditioned G'raha to always be about important tasks and his connection to the Crystal Tower made him mostly The Needless. Even then he had his limits, but he would push himself in his efforts to help the First, the Scions, and the Warrior of Light above all. It's a Running Gag for people to pointedly remind G'raha to stop trying to save the world and get some rest once in a while.
The World Is Just Awesome: Having spent most of his days in Sharlayan and only having the chance to read up on Eorzea in passing during his time in the First, G'raha is stricken with wanderlust and is happy to finally travel to all the places he's heard about. He marvels at the sights wherever he goes. Even traversing highly dangerous areas like Matoya's dilipidated workshop fills him with wonder and excitement.
G'raha: Good heavens, is that magma rainbow-colored? Spectacular!
World's Strongest Man: Prior to the Warrior of Light and the Scions' arrival, he was this for the First, having kept the Crystarium safe for nearly a century until it became a bustling city. This is partly because of the bounties of the Crystal Tower, but also because he was from the Source's Bad Future and thus eight times rejoined, making his soul eight times denser than the sundered souls on the First. Even after returning to the Source, he and the Warrior of Light are the only two people in the world to be eight times rejoined, albeit its a smaller advantage to the rest of the Source's seven times.
You Can't Go Home Again: He reveals early on that while the Warrior of Light can simply teleport between worlds using Aetheryte, the Scions he summoned are trapped on the First and have since given up on finding a way back. After the battle with Hades, it's explained he intended for his death to release the Scions, and also shown that he can't return to the Source either, having bound himself to the Crystal Tower which is still sealed on the Source. Ultimately averted in 5.3 where he transfers his memories and souls to a portable crystal and then, with the help of the player character, merges himself with his past self on the Source and reawakens with both his old and new memories while waking up back on the Source in his younger body.

Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - G'raha Tia

Voiced by: Yūma Uchida (JP), Jonathan Bailey (EN), Loïc Guingand (FR), Marcus Off (DE)

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Characters / Final Fantasy XIV - G'raha Tia

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Voiced by: Yūma Uchida (JP), Jonathan Bailey (EN), Loïc Guingand (FR), Marcus Off (DE)

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