Maduin (Final Fantasy VI)

Maduin is the father of Terra, an esper, and temporary playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is the guardian of the Land of Espers, overseeing the gateway between the esper realm and the realm of humans. During the course of the game the party acquires his magicite to learn spells from.

Appearance and Personality
Maduin is a humanoid esper with long sea-greenish-gray hair on his field sprite, though on his summon sprite it's grayish-violet, and both field and summon sprites depict him with his hair tied up in a ponytail. He also appears to have tuffs of fur the same color as his hair growing on his shoulders on both his summon and field sprite. He has a muscular figure, with his summon sprite depicting him with a grayish-tangelo skin tone, and his field sprite with very-light-gamboge skin. His summon sprite shows him with clawed fingers and digigrade legs with long talons on his toes. He wears a dark vermilion loincloth with a brilliant amber sash in his summon sprite, and wears a pendant that he gives to Madeline when they meet. On his field sprite his eyes are moderate indigo. His summon sprite resembles that of the Gigas from Final Fantasy V, and may be a heavily modified Gigas sprite.

Maduin's personality is not explored in depth. Unlike other espers, Maduin does not appear to harbor suspicion and fear of humans, accepting Madeline into the esper world and acting protective of her. While the espers suspect her of being a spy for the Gestahlian Empire, Maduin never does. He appears to be one of the higher-ranking espers in their society, being approached by other espers in concern when Madeline arrives, and being allowed to stay with her in the Elder's home. As with other espers, Maduin is shown to be patient and wise.

Story
Twenty years before the start of Final Fantasy VI, a human girl named Madeline crossed into the esper realm and was found by Maduin. When she recovers he gives her his pendant and tells her she is in the esper world. Madeline claims she fled the human world due to the people's greed and hate, but when Maduin tells her the espers believe that human and esper cannot co-exist, she agrees to return the next day. In the morning Maduin follows her to the gate and tells her she can stay if she wishes. When Madeline repeats the concern that their two races cannot co-exist, Maduin asks her how they can be sure unless they try. The two conceive a child, whom Maduin names Terra.

Two years later, the sealed gate opens again. This time Gestahl invades the esper realm with the Empire, and they set about capturing the espers. Maduin stays with Madeline as the Esper Elder prepares to sacrifice his life to sweep the Empire out of their realm and seal the gate. When the other espers accuse Madeline of leading the Empire to their realm, she grabs Terra and runs to the entrance. Maduin follows as the Elder's spell takes effect, sweeping Gestahl and his troops out of the gate. The collapsed Madeline tries to return with Maduin, but Terra flies from her grasp and out of the gate, and the two of them follow. Gestahl strikes down the weakened Madeline and takes Terra from her, while Maduin is one of several espers imprisoned by the Empire in the Magitek Research Facility.

When the Returners raid the facility 18 years later, Maduin and the other espers that have been drained of their power transform into magicite and grant the party their powers. In Zozo, Maduin's magicite reacts to Terra, awakening her memories of the esper realm and revealing her origins to the party. Maduin remains in the party's inventory for the rest of the game, able to be equipped by anyone as a magicite.

During the game's ending, Maduin fades from the world with the Warring Triad and Kefka gone, and magic vanishing from the world. He tells Terra she may fade away with the espers as well, but if the human side of her is strongly attached to something in the world, she may survive as a full human. Maduin's magicite vanishes in a puff of smoke and dust.

Abilities
Maduin's attack when summoned is called Chaos Wave, also known as Chaos Wing. It deals non-elemental magic damage to all opponents with a Spell Power of 55, and the attack is unblockable. Maduin costs 44 MP to summon.

Maduin teaches the spells Fira, Blizzara and Thundara at a rate of x3 each. He teaches Thundara faster than Ramuh, but Fira and Blizzara slower than Ifrit or Shiva. However, he has the advantage of teaching all three spells at once. His level up bonus is to increase the equipped character's Magic Power by 1.

Stats
Maduin from Terra's flashback has some raw stats, and a pair of Sprint Shoes permanently equipped on him. He has no battle commands, not even the basic Attack or Items command. The menu is disabled during the flashback sequence so the player cannot view his stats or equipped items.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
While Maduin does not appear in person, Terra's Level 100 exclusive weapon is named after him, being called "Maduin's Horn".

Trivia

 * The pendant Maduin gives to Madeline may have been passed to Terra, as the key item "Pendant" says it is worn by Terra and its origins are not revealed. In the SNES release Maduin claims the pendant protects the esper world, but he merely refers to it as a "charm from the esper world" in the Gameboy Advance release.