Cyan Garamonde

Cyan Garamonde is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a Samurai and one of the finest and most noble soldiers of the kingdom of Doma. He is husband to Elayne, and father to Owain. His Japanese name is Cayenne.

Appearance and Personality
Cyan is a middle-aged warrior with a long dark hair in a ponytail, and a short mustache. He wears blue armor in his pre-smartphone version in-game sprites, and brown armor in his Yoshitaka Amano artworks and in the smartphone port sprites. He has a matching cape and carries a katana. Cyan is the second-oldest permanently playable character of the main cast, after Strago.

Cyan has a distinguishable pseudo-Old English manner of speech, using archaic expressions such as "thou", "dost", "thy", and referring to males with the title "Sir". In the original Japanese he speaks in a characteristic "samurai" manner, using the pronoun sessha and ending sentences with de gozaru. This prompts Gau to nickname Sabin "Gozaru" in the Japanese release, or "Mr. Thou" in the English games. Cyan writes the same way he speaks, and when reading a letter from him in the World of Ruin, the party instantly recognizes his style.

Being the sole survivor of Doma Cyan is plagued with survivor's guilt, blaming himself for Doma's fall and believing to have lost his honor. He is adverse to displays of affection. Due to Doma's simple lifestyle, Cyan is technophobic and struggles operating machines, but overtime overcomes his fear and when he rejoins the party in the World of Ruin, the party can find several basic books about machines suggesting he has been trying to learn about them. If the player speaks to Cyan while onboard the Falcon, he will be staring at the engine, commenting it is "an interesting apparatus".

Story


The Empire attacks Doma and in a strategy meeting Cyan suggests killing off the commander, and carries out the plan alone. Kefka Palazzo, who is in charge of the Siege of Doma while General Leo Cristophe is away, has other plans: he dumps poison into the river that leads through Doma, killing almost everyone inside, including the King of Doma, and Cyan's wife and son, Elayne and Owain.

The only survivors are Cyan and a single Doman scout. Gripped by sorrow which turns into rage, Cyan rushes into the Imperial Camp to get revenge, with the help of Sabin and Shadow. Grateful for their help, Cyan agrees to accompany them to Narshe. The threesome escape the base in Magitek Armor, which Cyan is reluctant to use.

In a forest the trio board the Phantom Train, and learn from the conductor that to get off they must make their way to the locomotive and shut it off. They stop the train, but witness Elayne's and Owain's spirits, along with the spirits of the victims of Doma Castle, board the train, and Cyan grieves the loss of his family. Cyan, Sabin and Shadow head to Baren Falls where Shadow leaves the party. Sabin and Cyan jump down the falls and float down the river towards the Veldt, where they are rescued by a wild child named Gau.

Gau refuses to talk to them unless they feed him, so they visit the nearby hamlet of Mobliz and buy Dried Meat and give it to Gau. Gau shows them his "shiny thing," a scuba-diving helmet, which can take them through the Serpent Trench to Nikeah. Despite Gau making fun of Cyan's archaic way of speaking, Cyan and Gau grow close. From Nikeah they take a ferry to South Figaro where they can reach Narshe to join the Returners.

Cyan, Sabin, and Gau arrive when Kefka is planning a raid on Narshe to get the frozen esper. The three help Banon, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Edgar Roni Figaro, and Celes Chere defend Narshe in the Battle for the Frozen Esper but afterward Terra reacts with Valigarmanda and is turned into an esper herself, flying away. A search party is sent to look for her and they locate her atop the tallest tower in Zozo, where she is being cared for by Ramuh. Ramuh tells them they need to go to Vector and free the imprisoned espers, one of them being Terra's father, Maduin. The group recovers the espers, and save Terra.

The Elder of Narshe decides to join with the Returners. An agreement is made that Terra would contact the espers to attack Vector, after which a coalition of Returners and Narshe guards would storm from the north. The plan is a success, and Emperor Gestahl appears to have surrendered. At a banquet he asks Terra to convince the espers to negotiate peace and she and Locke go to Crescent Island to parley the Emperor's message.

Cyan and the others are skeptical of the Emperor and stay in Vector to ensure he wasn't lying, Cyan personally guarding Kefka's cell. Edgar seduces one of the Emperor's maids into revealing the his true plan: he wants to lure out the espers to capture them. They fly to Thamasa to warn Terra and Locke, but Kefka has already acquired more magicite and used it to revive the Warring Triad and turn the Land of Espers into the Floating Continent. When he disturbs the Triad's delicate balance the face of the world shifts, the party's airship is ripped apart, and the party is separated.

One year after the end of the world, Cyan finds an anxious Lola in Maranda, worrying her (dead) boyfriend is not writing her. Cyan makes his home atop Mt. Zozo and sends letters and hand-made silk flowers to Lola in the stead of her boyfriend. He begins studying machines. When the rest of the party finds him at Mt. Zozo he rejoins.

When Cyan returns to Doma and takes a rest there, he is haunted by the Three Dream Stooges: Laragorn, Curlax, and Moebius. The rest of the party go inside his mind and help him clear his thoughts. They defeat Wrexsoul, a manifestation of Cyan's fear and anger.

After Kefka has been felled and Kefka Tower is crumbling, Cyan saves Edgar by using a machine.

Battle
Cyan's stats are skewed in the physical department. He has high strength and defense, but low speed and the lowest magic in the party. His weapons are limited to katana and the Zantetsuken, and he equips heavy armor and helmets, and all shields. His ability is Bushido, which lets Cyan open a secondary ATB bar to charge up and execute special attacks.

Cyan learns new Bushido attacks as he levels up, but after completing his Dreamscape he automatically learns all the Bushido attacks. The "Psycho Cyan Bug" involves, among other things, his Bushido. Cyan begins equipped with an Ashura, Buckler, Leather Cap and Leather Armor.

Creation and Development
Cyan's character stayed consistent during development, but parts of his story were supposed to interact with Angela, an extra character that was eventually cut from the game. She was a "big sister" archetype and had a take-charge, sultry attitude. She would flirt with Cyan, who, considering his personality, would overreact. It is unknown if she was an NPC or playable character, but she was probably planned to be playable as she had a whip for a weapon.

Cyan's Bushido skill names are simple, but originally, they were to have more dramatic names, such as Chou Baku Hiryuu Zan ("Super Explosive Flying Dragon Slice").

Musical Themes
Cyan's theme is reminiscent of the samurai of old, and is the background music for Doma Castle.

Cyan's leitmotif is the first character theme reprised in the "Ending Theme". Indirectly, his theme is reprised in the ending theme of Dissidia Final Fantasy. It comprises of the ending themes of the first ten Final Fantasy games, and because Cyan's leitmotif is played first in the "Ending Theme", his segment is picked to represent Final Fantasy VI.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Cyan makes a small cameo during the Data Install sequence. If the player repeatedly presses during the install, Cyan will spin across the snowfield struggling to control a suit of Magitek Armor.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Cyan makes an appearance in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Etymology
Cyan's Japanese name, Cayenne, designates a type of chilli pepper. Cyan is taken from the Greek kyanos, meaning "dark blue" or "lapis lazuli". Garamonde could be a form of the Old English surname Garamond, or "patron", or a reference to the typeface named after French typesetter Claude Garamond.

Trivia

 * An official piece of artwork for Final Fantasy VI depicts Cyan holding what looks to be a traditional Japanese.
 * Cyan's Desperation Attack, Tsubame Gaeshi, was a famous technique mastered by Sasaki Kojirō, a famed Japanese swordsman in the Sengoku period of feudal Japan. Kojirō was best known to have been slain by Miyamoto Musashi during a duel at the island of Funajima.
 * Cyan was Hironobu Sakaguchi's favorite character in Final Fantasy VI.