Rydia

Rydia, sometimes referred to as Rydia of Mist, is a playable character in Final Fantasy IV. She is a Summoner from the village of Mist, and her role in the story, from her introduction as a young child to her sudden change to an adult, has made her one of the most prominent characters in the game.

Appearance and Personality
Rydia is introduced as a seven-year old girl wearing a yellow skirt and a white cloak around her neck. In her sprites her clothes are blue, while it is black in Amano's artwork and dark green in her DS render. Following her return as a young woman from the Feymarch, Rydia wears a green outfit, knee-high golden heeled boots, and draperies adorned in stars. During The After Years, Rydia's vestige is a single-piece green outfit that rises from her thighs to her collar, baring her hips and upper torso.

The overseas releases of the game censored her artwork, which included a green skirt and covered the exposed areas of her body. Rydia's hair is green in all of her appearances, being shoulder-length in Final Fantasy IV and extending past her waist in The After Years. It is often complemented by a hair ornament which has varied in design.

At first, Rydia is devastated by her mother's death at the hands of Cecil and Kain, and unleashes her rage on them, despite their attempts to help her. It is only after Cecil comes to her defense on one occasion that Rydia chooses to bond with him as a new ally. As the story progresses, she matures, telling Edward to stop crying as she has chosen not to cry. Rydia overcomes her fear of fire brought on by Mist's destruction, after melting a blockade of ice at Mt. Hobs with the Fire spell. This act of strength is met with praise by the rest of the party.

After growing up in the Feymarch, Rydia apparently puts her past behind her in favor of stopping Golbez; Cecil questions why Rydia came to his aid in spite of what he did, but she tells him that Leviathan and Asura warned her there is a greater threat at hand. Rydia considers Asura and Leviathan her family, and even introduces them as her parents to Cuore. Rydia also feels rejected and saddened when the two refuse to let her live in the Feymarch with them.

Rydia's deep bond with her Eidolons is demonstrated throughout The After Years, where she pleads with the party to not hurt them when the Mysterious Girl takes control of them, and she is ultimately able to reach out to each of them and bring them to their senses. The citizens of Mist are very fond of Rydia and her mother, and the children miss her company when she is absent. The townspeople and children only have a fraction of Rydia's power, and pool it together to protect the Mist Dragon from the Maenad's mind control. This relationship between her and the villagers ultimately reunite her with her mother's dragon, who says she will never abandon them.

Final Fantasy IV


Rydia was born to one of the few remaining pure-blood Summoner families in Mist. Her mother was known to protect the remote village with the Eidolon Mist Dragon, isolated from the outside world but for the Mist Cave. However, one day, the Dark Knight Cecil and his best friend, Kain, are ordered by the King of Baron to deliver a ring to the Mist Village and slay the Mist Dragon barring their way. As a rule, whenever an Eidolon dies, its respective Summoner dies as well and thus, Rydia's mother dies.

The Carnelian Signet Cecil and Kain are to deliver releases Bombs all over the village, setting it on fire. Cecil and Kain find out the bad news about Rydia's mother and offer to take her to safety. However, Rydia overhears Cecil and Kain killed the Mist Dragon, and would not accept help. Instead, she summons Titan to cause a massive earthquake which causes a landslide in the eastern mountains, separating herself and Cecil from Kain.

Rydia is wounded in the earthquake, and Cecil takes her to the desert oasis of Kaipo to let her rest. Cecil tries to ask her for her name, but Rydia refuses to speak to him. That night, soldiers from Baron come to Kaipo in search of Cecil, and Cecil learns the King of Baron wants all Summoners eliminated, saying they are too dangerous to be left alive. Cecil fights off the soldiers and earns Rydia's trust, after which she introduces herself to him.

The next day, the two discover Cecil's childhood friend, Rosa, resting in Kaipo with Desert Fever, which can only be cured with a Sand Pearl. Along the way, Cecil and Rydia meet the Sage Tellah, who leads them to Damcyan. However, before their arrival, the Red Wings attacked Damcyan Castle and stole their Fire Crystal, the only survivor of the attack being Prince Edward Chris von Muir. After Tellah departs, Rydia and Cecil convince Edward to help find a Sand Pearl, for only members of Damcyan's royalty can enter the Antlion's Cave. Notably, Rydia boldly orders the cowardly prince to stop crying, for she has done the same. After Rosa recovers, she joins the party for their next destination, Fabul.

In order to reach the castle, the party must first climb Mt. Hobs, which is guarded by a wall of ice. Only Rydia would be able to melt it with Fire, but due to the trauma of witnessing fire burn down Mist, she refuses. It takes Rosa and Edward's encouragement, and the realization that more lives would be lost if they do not act fast, that Rydia is able to overcome her fear. At the summit, they help Yang, a monk from Fabul, fight off incoming monsters, and the party manages to reach Fabul Castle and warn the King that Golbez and the Red Wings will come for the Wind Crystal.

During the Siege of Fabul, Rydia and Rosa assist the healers, until Cecil, Edward, and Yang are finally cornered in the Crystal Chamber by Kain. The women rush to the scene, but Golbez promptly arrives, injuring the men, kidnapping Rosa, and ordering Kain to take the Wind Crystal with them. Rydia comes out of hiding to heal her allies, and the party plans their next course of action.

The party boards a ship provided by the King of Fabul and set sail towards Baron. But en route, the ship is attacked by Leviathan, the Lord of All Waters and the King of the Eidolons. Rydia is blown off the ship and falls into the ocean, and Yang dives in to save her. The attack separates the four, and the fates of Rydia, Edward, and Yang remain unknown. When Cecil reunites with Yang, Yang says Rydia was swallowed by Leviathan, and the group assumes she perished.

As it would turn out, Leviathan took Rydia to the Feymarch, the home of all Eidolons. Time moves faster in the Feymarch, so while Cecil and his allies were separated from Rydia for only a short period of time, years went past in the Feymarch, and, under Leviathan's watchful eye, Rydia grows into a young woman at an accelerated rate. She hones her skills as a Summoner and develops her powers with Black Magic, although at the cost of no longer casting White Magic. The Queen of the Eidolons, Asura, tells Rydia about the danger Golbez is placing the world in, and eventually Rydia decides to leave the Feymarch and return to Cecil to help him.

At this point, Cecil's party has traveled down to the Underworld in search of the Dark Crystals. When one is kept in the Dwarven Castle, Golbez arrives and proves to be much stronger than the party, especially when he summons a Shadow Dragon to defeat them. But before Cecil can be attacked, a Mist Dragon is summoned and defeats the Shadow Dragon. Rydia heals Cecil and rejoins the party in battle. After Golbez is seemingly defeated, Rydia explains her history and changed appearance, much to the relief of her friends. When Cecil questions why Rydia would still want to help him after his actions at Mist, she is quick not to dwell on the past, for as Asura told her, the danger put on the world is slowly rising, and that everyone must stand against it together.

However, as they leave, Golbez had just feigned his defeat to steal the Dwarves' Dark Crystal. King Giott then decides for the party to infiltrate the Tower of Babil and reclaim the seven Crystals in Golbez's possession. The plan is interrupted by constant enemy attacks, and Cecil, Kain, Rosa, and Rydia escape the Underworld through the sacrifices of Yang and Cid.

Back on the Overworld, the Enterprise is upgraded by Cid's assistants, which allows the party to explore Cave of Eblan, where the refugees of the land currently remain. However, further into the passage, the party encounters Edge, Eblan's prince, attempting to battle Rubicante. Edge fails miserably, and after the Archfiend departs, meets with the party. Edge is asked to fight alongside them, but the ninja stubbornly refuses, insisting he can work alone. Rydia then cries, frustrated that Tellah, Yang, and Cid have all fallen and does not want to lose another ally. Due to not wanting to see such a pretty girl cry, and after Rosa heals him, Edge quickly declares that they are all fast friends and joins the party.

They find their way back into the Tower of Babil beyond Cave of Eblan's end, but though they reach the Chamber holding the seven Crystals, they fall through a trapdoor and escape when a second airship, the Falcon, is discovered. Arriving back in the Underworld, the party reports to King Giott, who allows them to secure the last Dark Crystal in the Sealed Cave before Golbez can have a chance. While in the Underworld again, the party can choose to visit the Feymarch and challenge Asura and Leviathan to gain their help as summons for Rydia.

The eighth Crystal is obtained, but Kain slips back under Golbez's mind control and steals the Crystal and runs off. After an upgrade to the Falcon, the party is able to return to the Overworld and to Mysidia, where the Elder prays for something to help the party. Help comes in the form of the Lunar Whale, a magical ship providing transport between Earth and the Red Moon. Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, and Edge travel to the Moon and obtain the assistance of Fusoya, a Lunarian, when it is realized that the eight Crystals have summoned the Giant of Babil back on Earth. The Lair of the Father is also on the Moon, and there, the party may challenge Bahamut, the Hallowed Father of the Eidolons, and gain his power. The other characters' thoughts in the Nintendo DS release indicate Rydia is the first human ever to earn Bahamut's help.

Following the attack and destruction of the Giant of Babil, Fusoya reveals Cecil and Golbez's history, and that the true mastermind of this conflict is Zemus, a wicked Lunarian desiring Earth's destruction. Fusoya and Golbez depart to the Moon, and Kain returns to the party. Regrouped onboard the Lunar Whale, Cecil, Kain, and Edge resolve to defeat Zemus, but Cecil orders Rosa and Rydia to stay behind, for their own safety. Edge especially tells Rydia, "This is work for grown-ups", to which she storms off, offended. However, when the Lunar Whale arrives at the Moon, the women reveal that they managed to stay onboard, stating that they are just as important in battle. Rydia believes they are all fighting for a common cause, and that she is the only Summoner left. The party travels through the Lunar Subterrane and fight the final battle, resulting in the defeat of Zeromus.

After peace is brought to the world, Rydia returns to the Feymarch, where she is more comfortable as her home, and is one of many who attended Cecil and Rosa's wedding and coronation. When an Eidolon asks her why they differ in appearance from humans, she states what she had learned from Cecil, that it is one's inner character that matters the most.

Final Fantasy IV Interlude
After roughly a year since the defeat of Zeromus, Cecil has a dream foreshadowing the future, where Rydia is bathed in the Crystal's light at the Sealed Cave before falling unconscious. An unknown voice calls out, "Finally, it has a new form". Cecil awakens and leaves for the celebration of Damcyan Castle's reconstruction, while Rydia is granted Asura's permission at the Feymarch to visit the event, which she is not seen attending. After visiting Damcyan and taking a detour at Fabul, Cecil party's is sent to the Sealed Cave to inspect a swarm of monsters, where they find Rydia lying at the Crystal altar. Rydia comes around and says she cannot remember where she was, and starts to speak cryptically, telling Cecil's party that "they" were calling her.

As the party starts to wonder who she is referring to, they go to the Tower of Babil to investigate. When the party scales the tower, Rydia gradually recovers her Eidolons along the way. She then begins to act more strangely and enters the Cannon Control room, which the Deus Ex Machina emerges from to stop Cecil from reaching Rydia. After defeating it, Rydia is nowhere to be found inside the room, leaving the party to climb the tower further in hopes of finding her. When they reach the highest floor, they find Rydia and learn she is actually an impostor as she attacks them with her Eidolons. When Bahamut is summoned, the real Rydia arrives and talks sense into him before helping the party defeat her impostor. The impostor disappears without her true identity revealed.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years


Feeling that Rydia should be with her kind, Asura bars Rydia's re-entry to Feymarch so she would remain with her human friends. Seventeen years later, Rydia is busy helping rebuild the village of Mist, having been assisted by Cecil, Edward, Yang, and Edge on behalf of their kingdoms. A gravestone has been placed for her mother, which reads "Here lies the motherly summoner who protected our village". Rydia pays a visit to the Feymarch one day, only to find that all the Eidolons have been petrified.

Upon returning, she finds one of the Dark Crystals has been stolen and sets out with Luca into a cave to protect the remaining Crystal from the Mysterious Girl, who easily defeats them using Titan. The Mysterious Girl is later defeated by a man cloaked in black who rescues Rydia and Luca, taking them to the Tower of Babil and telling them the events are being repeated. On board the Falcon, Edge and the Eblan Four land on the ship and tell Rydia of the events that have happened recently, and Edge instantly recognizes the Man in Black as Golbez. Together they round up other party members to confront the Mysterious Girl.

It is later revealed that there are more than one Mysterious Girl, and even later revealed that they are called Maenads, mass produced by the true antagonist, the Creator. While traveling through the True Moon, the party encounters a harmless child Maenad who responded to Rydia, waiting for her command. After the Creator was defeated, the party tries to escape from the True Moon with the Creator in pursuit. In the end, all the Maenads sacrifice themselves to destroy the Creator. Back on Earth, Rydia cares for the child Maenad, naming her Cuore and training her as a Summoner.

Final Fantasy IV
As a Summoner, Rydia naturally has the ability to summon monsters. However, she can also use Black Magic. She learns every spell, up to and including Meteor, but she learns them later than Palom because of her emphasis on Summon Magic. As a child, she can also cast some basic White Magic. When she returns to the party as an adult, she has forgotten these spells.

In the Nintendo DS version, Rydia is able to learn more White Magic as a child, and learns her later Black Magic at different levels. Rydia also joins the party at Level 7, while she joins at only Level 1 in all other releases, and thus knows several spells already. When she is transformed back into a child during her Lunar Trial in the Advance release, she is able to cast her White Magic while retaining all her Black Magic. In all releases, Rydia learns her summons the same way.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Rydia can still use Black Magic and summon Eidolons, but at the beginning of her chapter Rydia's summon abilities are lost with the exception of four summons she can learn from enemy drops. In The Gathering, the player must defeat the Eidolons in battle around the world, re-acquiring them for Rydia to the summon with the exceptions of Leviathan, Asura and Bahamut.

These three appear as bosses on the True Moon and will be made available for Rydia to summon if they are defeated while she is in the party. The Chocobo Eidolon can be reacquired from the Chocobo's Forest on an island west of Kaipo during The Gathering. Rydia's MP and Intelligence are high, but her HP is among the lowest in the game. Compared to the other Black Mage of the game, Palom, Rydia's stats are inferior in all areas except for Speed and Spirit.



Equipment List
Rydia is a Summoner, and thus her stats are heavily weighted in the magic department. As a child, she's able to equip rods, staves, bows, knives and whips. As an adult, she loses the ability to equip staves.

In the Nintendo DS version, she cannot equip bows anymore. Her armor is limited to universal equips and mage equips. In Final Fantasy IV Advance, equipping Rydia with the Mist Ring allows summoning the Mist Dragon to grant a Blink effect on the entire party.

Musical Themes
"Rydia" (少女リディア Shōjo Ridia lit. "Little Girl Rydia") is the eponymous theme of Rydia in Final Fantasy IV and The After Years. When unlocked in the fat chocobo's Music Box, Edward comments that it captures "her kind and gentle nature".

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord
A downloadable outfit, the "Mystic" costume, can change the main character Mira's appearance to be Rydia's design from The After Years.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Rydia makes a small cameo in her child form in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals. She exchanges information on Summoning and Summonstones with Edward.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Rydia appears again in Dissidia 012 as a tutor from the in-game manuals. As she did in Dissidia Final Fantasy, she explains Summoning and Summonstones, this time using her adult portrait and sharing her role with Edge.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Rydia will appear as a sub-character in Theatrhythm, to be bought from crystal fragments collected during the game.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Rydia is depicted on a few cards in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. One card features her SD child art, while the other features her adult DS CG render.

Lord of Vermilion II
Rydia appears as a card and summonable creature in the sequel to Lord of Vermilion, along with other characters from Final Fantasy IV as part of a special cross promotion. Her card is marked as Super Rare, and has an Attack and Defense of 35. Rydia's special ability is Hastega. An update of her card reappears in Lord of Vermilion Re:2, the second version of the game. In addition to this, a limited edition of Rydia as a child is also available.

Virtual World
Users in Square Enix Members Virtual World community can make their character appear as Rydia.

Etymology
"Rydia" could be a transliteration of Lydia, a much more common western name. Lydia refers to a region in western Anatolia, from which the common name is derived. Additionally, "Rydia" is also a name of Greek origin which means "rose petals on still water".

In the English localization of the Nintendo DS version, Rydia is [ˈɹɪ.di.ə.].

Trivia

 * Rydia is one of a few characters to undergo a permanent physical change during their respective game, with her sprite and menu portrait changing as well. Other characters to do this are Cecil, Kain, Garnet and Basch.
 * Rydia is the only Summoner to focus on Black Magic other than her Eidolons, as the Summoners after her (Garnet and Eiko of Final Fantasy IX and Yuna of Final Fantasy X) used White Magic.
 * The in Square's  series (directed by Takashi Tokita) features parodies of Final Fantasy IV characters, where some of the playable generals are named after them. Other character names include Kain and Edge.
 * There are some ambiguities regarding Rydia's age. It is specified in Final Fantasy IV time moves faster in the Feymarch. Rydia's aging is also made apparent in her change of speech and thought patterns. Therefore, only seven years have chronologically passed since Rydia was born, but due to the advanced passage of time in the Feymarch, she is physically and mentally an adult. Little has changed about her nearly identical appearance seventeen years later in The After Years, but as other characters of similar age have barely aged, it is unlikely there is a deep reason behind her appearance.
 * Young Rydia is depicted in the icon for Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS when the player opens the game on their menu. A tiny Bomb is seen beside her.
 * Young Rydia was featured on an attachable screen wipe in a promotional DS bundle designed by Hori.
 * When Cecil and Kain inadvertently destroy the village of Mist, Rydia summons Titan even though when the player gains her as a playable character, she can only summon Chocobo, in addition to Whyt in the DS remake. However, this may be due to her anger over Cecil and Kain's actions. This is further complicated when Rydia states in The After Years that she and Titan have been together since she was a child.
 * Many pieces of artwork featuring Rydia were altered to be less revealing in the American version, as was done with Porom and Ursula. Rydia's artwork received the most censorship, which added dark green cloth to cover most of her outfit. The opening movie for The Complete Collection incorporates this design.
 * Like Rosa, one of the etymologies for Rydia's name is a reference to flowers and roses.

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