Esper (Final Fantasy VI)

An Esper is a magical being from Final Fantasy VI. Espers act as the means through which Magic is learned in the game, and as the summons in the game.

History
Espers were created as a result of humans coming into contact with Magic and the three goddesses during the War of the Magi. Those who could not use Magic fought against the Espers, who could not control themselves. However, the goddesses eventually realized that they were doing wrong, and they decided to seal themselves away in the forms of Statues. They gave the Espers their free will back, and asked the Espers to protect them.

1000 Years Later
The Espers had lived in their world safe from human invasion. However, one day, a woman named Madonna stumbled upon the Esper world and fell in love with an Esper named Maduin, much to the dismay of the other Espers. They gave birth to a baby girl, and named her Terra.

Two years later, an army of humans, led by Gestahl, stumbled across the Esper world and captured many Espers, including Maudin and Terra. As a result, the Elder, who was one of the few decendents able to do so, formed a Sealed Gate around the entrance to the Esper world.

For the next sixteen years, Espers were being held in labs in the Imperial capital of Vector, and were the subject of horrible experiments conducted by Cid Del Norte Marquez, who experimented with extracting magic power from the Espers and infusing them into humans using the process of Magitek. His first experiment was done on a man named Kefka Palazzo. The experiment worked too well, as Kefka became twisted as a result. A more refined process was later invented and used on Celes Chere, who Cid raised as his daughter. However, the process was still being done improperly. The Espers had to be reduced to Magicite if their power was to be completely drained. This was discovered when Locke Cole, Celes, and two others tried to rescue the imprisoned Espers. As a result, Kefka began looking for ways to reopen the Sealed Gate, and used Terra and her friends to do it. Eventually, most of the Espers were turned to Magicite and put into Kefka's hands, and he used his new power to revive the Statues, slay the Emperor, and cause the apocalypse. After Kefka was defeated in the end, the remaining Espers died out, as they could not exist without the Statues, which were the source of Magic.