Gau

Gau is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a "Feral Child" due to his growing up on the Veldt.

Development Information
The developers acknowledge that Gau doesn't have much to do with the game's plot. He is just something of an extra character. Originally, the reunion with his father was supposed to take place in the World of Balance and was shorter. Sabin and Cyan were both involved with the reunion, so it was probably meant to occur during Sabin's split scenario after the Lethe River event.

Character and Appearance
Gau, in game, is a young teenager, with wild, celery green hair that's kept in a mullet, although his sprites depict him as a blonde. He walks with a bad posture - occasionally on all fours - and wears animal skins that he made himself, after years of living in the wild.

Being raised in the wild his whole life, Gau is very primitive. He speaks in broken English and often refers to himself in the third person, and in some situations calls out "gau!" even if the player doesn't name him this. Thus, "gau" is just one of many grunts Gau utters, and is not his actual given name, though it's how he's referred to by the party members. Gau has a keen interest in shiny objects, hoarding them in a cave on the Veldt, and is afraid of heights. He's one of the few party members with no character story tied to the central plot, and doesn't appear to have any true reason to join the party.

Story
Gau was born in a house north of the Veldt to a crazy old man. During Gau's birth, his mother died and as a result, his father went mad. He believed that Gau was a demon and threw him out on the Veldt. Later, he believed that it was all a dream and no longer remembers Gau or his wife.

One day, Sabin Rene Figaro and Cyan Garamonde washed ashore onto the Veldt. Gau saved them and ran away. The next time he encountered them, he demanded food. When Sabin and Cyan threw him Dried Meat, Gau started following them around. He immediately took a liking to, and grew really close to, Cyan (and the feeling was mutual) and began to make fun of his archaic speech, but he mistakenly attributed it to Sabin, calling him "Mr. Thou." However, he agreed to show them his treasure, which was used to travel through the Serpent Trench to Nikeah, where they took a ferry to South Figaro and eventually made their way to Narshe, where Cyan and Gau willingly joined the Returners.

The party arrived just in time, as Kefka was planning a raid on Narshe to get the frozen Esper. The three helped Banon, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Edgar Roni Figaro, and Celes Chere defend Narshe and succeeded, but after the battle, Terra reacted with the Esper for the second time. She was turned into an Esper and flew away. A search party was sent to look for her.

The party found Terra on top of the tallest tower in Zozo, where she was being cared for by Ramuh. Ramuh told them that they needed to go to Vector and free the imprisoned Espers. One of them was Terra's father Maduin. To get there, they had to meet up with Setzer Gabbiani, the infamous gambler. Setzer was not willing to help them, but Celes proposed a coin toss, which if she won, Setzer would offer help. Otherwise, Setzer and Celes would marry. A two-faced coin was used to guarantee that Celes would win. Setzer agreed to help anyway. The group went to Vector, succeeded in recovering the Espers, and saved Terra.

Back in Narshe, the Elder decided to join with the Returners. An agreement was 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 was a success, and Emperor Gestahl appeared to have surrendered. At a banquet, he asked Terra if she would try convince the Espers to negotiate peace. She and Locke would go to Crescent Island to parlay the Emperor's message. Gau and the others were still very skeptical of the Emperor, and decided to stay in Vector to make sure the Emperor wasn't lying. However, Edgar seduced one of the Emperor's maids into revealing the Emperor's true plan: he wanted to lure out the Espers in hopes of capturing them. They flew to Thamasa to warn Terra and Locke, but they were too late. Kefka had acquired more magicite and used it to revive the Statues and turn the Land of Espers into the Floating Continent.

One year after the apocalypse, Gau returned to the Veldt. He would rejoin the party, but only if a group of three approached him. Sabin took him to see his father, but in order to do so, Gau had to get a makeover. Sabin took him to Jidoor and dressed him up, with the armor salesman making rude comments that humourously angered Terra and Celes, and eventually when Locke made Gau wear a bandana just like his, Edgar commented that it would be hard to expect some class out of Locke, which infuriated him enough to beat up Edgar in the armor shop. (To see the full edition of the armor shop scene, make sure that Locke and Edgar are in you party, while Terra and Celes must be waiting in the Falcon.) When Gau met his father, his father didn't recognize him, and even mentions having a "dream" of throwing away a supposed demon child into Veldt, but complimented his "parents" for raising such a nice young man. Sabin became infuriated and threatened to beat up Gau's father, but Gau was just happy to find out that his father was still alive.

In the ending, Gau found several shortcuts out of Kefka's Tower.

Equipment and Stats
Gau's stats are all around very high, but this can be attributed to the randomness of the Rages he chooses (though keep in mind that he can use magic normally, so if you dislike the randomness of the rages, you can still harness his powerful stats). He can equip lightweight vests and hats, universal shields, and even a few helmets. However, he cannot equip any weapons without using the Merit Award except for the universal Imp Halberd. The weapon he uses is dependent upon his Rage.

Abilities
Gau's special ability is called Rage, and it replaces his Fight command. Rage allows him to select the abilities of a certain monster. Once Gau rages, he takes on the elemental and status properties of a monster, and uses either a physical attack or a special attack that is dependent on the actual monster, which is more often than not related to itself (though there are cases where the attack has very little correlation with the monster itself). The attacks are chosen at random, and the player loses control of Gau. Gau can only learn new Rages on the Veldt.

Gau does not have a Desperation Attack because he does not have a Fight command.

"Wind God Gau"
One popular setup involving Gau is the use of the Merit Award to give him a Tempest, which randomly casts Wind Slash, and uses a powerful Rage. The Wind Slash will make the effects of the Rage affect all enemies. This is often coupled with the four-attack power of the Offering to devastating effect, particularly with the Stray Cat rage. This trick only works in the SNES release, as the code was modified in all future releases to prohibit Gau from equipping the Merit Award.

Musical Themes
Gau has an eponymous theme, which is heard in the ending sequence. It was selected and re-arranged for both the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale albums.

Etymology
"Gau" is apparently a mispelling of "Gao", the japanese word for a growling noise.