Cid Aulstyne



Imperial Marshal Cid Aulstyne is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy Type-0. He is head of the government of the Militesi Empire situated in the capital city of Ingram.

While there have been Cid characters who have served as antagonists in Final Fantasy games before (such as Dr. Cid Bunansa from Final Fantasy XII and Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII), Aulstyne is the first Cid to be the main antagonist of a Final Fantasy game.

Appearance
Cid wears the Militesi officer's uniform of white colors representing the White Tiger Crystal, the nation's Crystal. He wears the officer's white hat, coat and cape, a red scarf, black gloves, trousers and knee-high boots. His face is gaunt and his hair and eyebrows are white. He brandishes a katana, although he is never seen wielding it in battle.

Personality
Despite appearing gruff and cynical, Cid tries to rally the imperial citizens to look to a more hopeful future. Though he appears power-hungry, seemingly having usurped the emperor and wanting to take over Orience, he sees this as a necessity and himself following a duty in doing it, seeing himself as strong enough to take on the task. Fiercely individualistic, Cid abhors being used by anyone, wanting to grant the same freedom of thought to all of mankind no matter the cost. An engineering and military genius, Cid carries out his objectives in a cold and calculating manner.

Story
High commander of the technologically advanced army of the Militesi Empire, Imperial Marshal Cid Aulstyne became the country's dictator after the mysterious disappearance of the Militesi emperor. After Cid discovered the truth of "everything about Orience is a part of gods' experiment", he resolved to take action to freeing humanity from the "slavery under the gods and Crystals." He rallies his populace to support his cause by declaring that the empire will become Agito, a savior foretold to appear during the end times, Tempus Finis, and lead Orience to a new future.

An engineering genius, Cid had devised a machine to subjugate the White Tiger Crystal to harness its power and enslave its l'Cie. Using his newfound power, Cid began his conquest of invading the other Crystal-States. He broke the Pax Codex by annihilating the Lorican Alliance with the Ultima Bomb, the empire's new weapon of mass destruction. Afterward, he had the nation's Black Tortoise Crystal salvaged from the ruins. Not having the means to deploy the bomb to the nations lying further away, Cid begins the imperial campaign with with fleets of magitek armor to obtain the Crystals.

He has the Militesi fleet to invade the Dominion of Rubrum from all sides while a squad under the White Tiger Secundus l'Cie Qun'mi Tru'e attacks Akademeia. Via the crystal jammer, a device Cid had invented to disable other nations' Crystals, the imperials render Rubrum vulnerable. Cid has his l'Cie directly the city while trying to force Chancellor Khalia Chival VI to comply and relinquish the Vermilion Bird Crystal, or the people still in the peristylium would be slaughtered. A group of cadets who would become known as Class Zero drives off Qun'mi and her forces as Rubrum fights back in the war that follows.

Cid has the White Tiger Crystal l'Cie support the Militesi troops. Some are uneasy about this, but Cid states that as long as they hold the Crystal hostage the l'Cie cannot defy him. In an unusual move, the other Crystals of Orience send their l'Cie to try and quell the war, the Vermilion Bird Crystal deploying Lord Zhuyu to face off against the Primus l'Cie of the White Tiger Crystal, Nimbus, at the battle over Togoreth Stronghold, and the Azure Dragon Crystal sending Queen Andoria to invoke the Fabula Pact to enact a ceasefire.

Cid finds the Crystals' attempts to hinder him amusing, but the Militesi war effort takes a step back when Class Zero destroys Brionac, the prototype magitek armor developed to deploy the Militesi ultimate weapon, the Ultima Bomb.

Queen Andoria is assassinated and the blame placed on Class Zero whose cadets had been given leave in the Militesi capital of Ingram during the ceasefire. Imperial forces ambush them in the Armada Hotel, but the cadets escape. The assassination had been orchestrated by Cid and the man who would succeed Andoria to the throne of Concordia. Cid helps the king usurp the queen and the monarchy's matriarchy to exploit his lust for power to gain access to the Azure Dragon Crystal that the new king relinquishes under imperial watch for its supposed safety. With the regicide blamed on the dominion the joint Militesi-Concordian forces begin their campaign to lay waste to Rubrum.

The Vermilion Bird Crystal fights back fiercely and has its Secundus l'Cie Lady Caetuna summon a Verboten Eidolon to annihilate the Militesi forces. Concordia capitulates and one by one Rubrum invades the imperial cities until storming the capital. Cid stays in the White Peristylium until an Ultima Bomb explodes in the atmosphere above the city and he realizes the empire's premier magitek pilot, Qator Bashtar, perished in the blast. He escapes and the dominion legionaries that take over the peristylium search for him to no avail.

Rubrum uniting Orience under the Vermilion Bird's banner starts Tempus Finis and the temple Pandæmonium rises from the sea, sending out Rursan Reavers to slaughter mankind. Recognizing the event from the legends foretold in the Nameless Tome, Cid has a White Tiger l'Cie take him to there to face the Rursan Judge and learns he is to become the one to destroy the world as part of its spiral. Faced with this revelation, refusing to be used as the gods' tool, Cid commits suicide. Regardless, his body is taken over by the Judge to become the Rursan Arbiter. As Class Zero fights their way to him, Cid, as the vessel of the Judge, puts them through several trials to deem their worth to become Agito.

As they face him, Cid belittles them for being unworthy upon completing his transformation into the Rursan Arbiter, killing Shinryu Celestia before stealing the twelve cadets' phantoma, combining them within himself in an attempt to fulfill his true Focus: to become Agito himself. The spirits of Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya bestow each member of Class Zero the strength to continue and release the phantoma from the Rursan Arbiter's body and absorb it at the cost of their lives leading to the Arbiter's certain defeat.

Gameplay


Cid is fought as the final boss in the form of the Rursan Arbiter.

Voice
Cid is voiced by Shuichiro Moriyama in the Japanese version and by Steven Jay Blum in the English version.

Etymology
Cid is a recurring name in the Final Fantasy series.

His surname could come from the combination of "old" and Stein, the German word for a rock.

Trivia

 * Final Fantasy Type-0 has many allusions to World War II. The scene where Cid Aulstyne gives a rallying speech to his troops before their invasion of Orience resembles Adolf Hitler's infamous yearly rallies given on the anniversary of him coming to power, and to his most notable of speeches made: his "Lebensraum" declaration and his war declaration on the United States.
 * Cid's brandishing of a katana draws its reference from the uniforms and standards of Japanese military commanders during WWII, as the carrying of katanas signified the loose appropriations of the more dominant aspects of Bushido and Japanese patriotism in the Empire of Japan, despite having relinquished many aspects of tradition in the Meiji era and having adopted modern weapons, such as guns and rifles.
 * Cid shaking hands with the King of Concordia resembles the event that Adolf Hitler meets Benito Mussolini for the first time on June 13, 1934 in the city of Venice.
 * His voice actor, Steven Blum, has also voiced characters of works themed in eras nearest or set in the era of World War II:
 * Makoto Shishio of Rurouni Kenshin, the Kyoto Arc antagonist (the embodiment of a future power ruling and violence driven Imperialist Japan)
 * William Joesph "BJ" Blaskowitz of Wolfenstein, series protagonist (US Special Agent of the Office of Secret Affairs sent to the German front)
 * Tank Dempsey of Call of Duty (specifically, its "Nazi Zombies" mode)


 * The way Cid kills himself is called , a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment originally reserved for the samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used either voluntarily to die with honor rather than fall into enemy hands, or as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. Cid's death refers to the former, as he kills himself to avoid being used by Gala.
 * Cid embodies the core concept of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series that emphasizes humans' free will and individuality in juxtaposition to divinity and fate, represented by the Crystals in Final Fantasy Type-0. Another theme in Fabula Nova Crystallis is to re-imagine the old Crystal tales. Many of the older Final Fantasy games had antagonists who wanted to steal the world's Crystals, being opposed by the fabled Warriors of Light, the heroes chosen by the Crystals to save the world. Cid takes the role of a classic Final Fantasy villain in wanting to conquer the Crystal-Nations' Crystals, but the trope is subverted in him doing this in an attempt to free Orience from what he deems living in slavery to the Crystals.