Caius Ballad



Caius Ballad (カイアス・バラッド) is the main antagonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is Lightning's fated rival, and is an important figure in both Noel's past and Serah's future.

Caius is the immortal guardian of the timeline and the seeress, Yeul. Having lived since before the War of Transgression, Caius originally protected Yeul and the timeline from any foreign threat, but later began to carry out an all-out war against the goddess Etro and anyone in his way to destroy the spacetime continuum. In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Hiroshi Shirokuma, and in the English version, he is voiced by Liam O'Brien.

In ancient times, Caius was a warrior who was famous for his countless victories over thousands of enemies, so he became known as 'Caius of the Ballads.' Despite his title, his true origins remained a mystery.

Appearance and Personality
Caius is a tall, slender, and muscular man with light bronze skin and purple eyes. He has long purple hair adorned with feathers and tribal beads, and wears a long, purple and black headband. He wears form-fitting black and purple armor that bears a resemblance to Bahamut with dark boots lined with white fur. It is said that the eye in the hilt of Caius's sword, Ragnarok, is the Eidolith capable of summoning Bahamut, and was a gift from Etro when he once served as a l'Cie. Caius is capable of incarnate summoning, enabling him to fuse with Bahamut and become Chaos Bahamut. In his alternate form, he appears as Bahamut does in Final Fantasy XIII, only with a darker color scheme.

Caius is an all-powerful warrior of equal strength to Lightning, able to fight on even terms with her. As the immortal overseer of the timeline, he has gained vast knowledge of every possible scenario and uses it to his advantage. He is described as a person with a calm personality, but he rarely displays his emotions, making it difficult for others to tell what his thoughts or intentions are, but he has an unwavering willpower. Noel describes Caius as being like "the calm before the storm", that Caius may appear to be silent until he sees a weakness in his enemies, and once he does, he will expose it without mercy. Once Caius's goals are revealed, he becomes more emotional and filled with rage in his conviction, as he is ultimately a man consumed and driven by sorrow and despair.

Story
Caius was originally a resident of Gran Pulse in the distant past, and a member of the oldest tribe on Pulse, the Farseers, a group of people lead by the seeress gifted with the Eyes of Etro that enabled her to see changes in the timeline, and thus make prophecies of the future. Caius was made a l'Cie after killing his predecessor to serve as Guardian to Yeul. One day, Caius was in a duel with a formidable fellow warrior of the Farseers. Overwhelmed by his opponent's strength and skill, Caius was continuously driven back until an enemy army invaded Paddra looking for the seeress, interrupting the duel before the final blow could be dealt. In Yeul's defense, Caius's opponent sacrificied himself to protect her. Believing he should have been the one to die, Caius chose to honor the fallen warrior by taking on his last name, 'Ballad.' To protect Yeul himself, Caius performed an incarnate summon to destroy the enemy forces, a skill that let him become one with his Eidolon, but would cost him his life. Etro was moved by Caius's dedication and freed Caius from his fate as a l'Cie and infused her heart, the Heart of Chaos, into his body, making him immortal so he could protect every incarnation of Yeul till the end of time. Although given as an act of benevolence, Caius would eventually see his immortality as a curse due to the madness he would have to endure.

The city of Paddra was destroyed in a civil war that broke due to the seeress's prophecy of its fall, and Yeul cast away her role as the leader of Paddra. The people who used to follow her would become nomads, but Caius was always by her side as her eternal Guardian. Whenever a Yeul would die, a new one would be born, and replace the old one as the seeress of the Farseer tribe; although the Yeuls are unique, they all have the same voice and appearance. During the ages working as the Yeuls' immortal Guardian, Caius's job was to remember every prophecy made by the seeress, and had to witness the death of countless Yeuls. The ability to have visions of the future eats away at the seeress's life, until it will eventually kill her; this is why the seeress always dies before reaching her 20th birthday. Having to witness Yeul's death over and over again begins to drive Caius mad, and he begins to wish for a way to release her from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. At the same time, Caius wishes for someone capable of destroying the Heart of Chaos within his chest, and releasing him from his eternal curse to be born.

From New Bodhum -003 AF- to Yaschas Massif -01X AF- and later the Sunleth Waterscape -300 AF-, Caius watches over Noel and Serah's progress alongside a different incarnation of Yeul. Noel and Serah are time travelers trying to find Lightning and prevent a bleak future, but every change in the timeline they make causes Yeul to witness the changes, thus shortening her lifespan. As a seeress, she is forbidden from influencing the timeline to save herself, and Caius, as her Guardian, follows suit.

In Oerba -200 AF-, Caius reveals himself to Noel and Serah during their trip there. Noel is shocked to meet Caius as he mistakes Caius to be the same person from his time in 700 AF, although this is still in Caius's future. Revealing that Yeul had told him of their actions across time, believing them to have been the cause of the temporal anomalies that threaten the timeline, Caius states his intention to punish them. Telling a defiant Noel that he is not the man he once knew, Caius is about to deal the deathblow before Yeul intervenes, saying that time has already been changed. He kneels before her, asking if they can accept it, to which Yeul gives a silent nod. Caius tells her they should go in order to not see the future any further, opening a portal for them to depart through.

Caius takes Yeul to Augusta Tower upon her wish where he lets her meet with Noel and Serah in private and reveal his nature as her Guardian. Yeul helps Noel and Serah by giving them an artefact that opens a Time Gate to the Proto fal'Cie Adam, and tells them that they have the power to restore the timeline. Noel and Serah set out to change the future and the subsequent change in the timeline causes Yeul to have another vision, which kills her. Caius picks up her flower and then her body shedding silent tears, saying that he will carry her pain in his heart and laments on how her life was short, just like his memories of all the other Yeuls who had passed on, and carries away her body. Two-hundred years later in a future where Noel and Serah were killed in Augusta Tower, the Proto fal'Cie creates an imitation of Caius in Academia -400 AF- to pursue them, but the real Caius is nowhere to be seen.

By 700 AF, Caius is among the last remaining humans in the world and Noel is born in the Farseer tribe. Seeing that Noel is the one with the potential to free him from his curse, Caius takes the boy under his wing to serve as Yeul's protector. If everything goes according to Caius's plan, then Noel will able to destroy the Heart of Chaos inside of him and kill Etro. Without the goddess, the chaos of the Unseen World would become unrestrained and break through to the physical world, and time would cease to be, thus freeing Yeul. Upon learning that Noel had managed to defeat a Behemoth on his own, Caius acknowledges the boy to be ready and tells Noel that he must be killed in battle to pass the mantle of Guardian. Refusing to succeed him that way, Noel tells Caius about his plan of going on a journey with Yeul to find other people so that she will not be lonely anymore. Caius reprimands him, saying that it is a futile dream since they and Yeul are the only three people left in the world.

After revealing that his death and Etro's demise are the only way Yeul can be saved from her cursed fate, Noel's continued refusal to kill him forces Caius to drive Noel to the point where he has to fight. Defeating Noel, Caius sees that the boy is not strong enough kill him as he is now. Caius leaves for Valhalla after telling Noel that Yeul's feelings over his actions mean nothing to him, only that she will be free upon Caius killing Etro himself. With the Heart of Chaos, Caius is able to find his way to the Unseen Realm of Valhalla where Etro resides, this being the first time he leaves Yeul's side and abandons her as her Guardian.

From Valhalla, a realm without time or death, Caius is able to see every era and every possibility in the timeline. Using the knowledge of Yeul's foresight he obtained over the centuries, Caius creates a series of paradoxes to shape the timeline and create the right circumstances to execute his plan to force Etro's Gate open so that the chaos of Valhalla would gush forth into Gran Pulse. At the same time, he is trying to kill Etro herself as she sleeps in her shrine, but the goddess is being protected by Lightning, a warrior who was brought to Valhalla by a paradox and became Etro's champion. Back in the Dying World, the Yeul of that time dies in Noel's arms, and she passes on to Valhalla. Noel is left as the last human in the world, and he prays to Etro to give him the power of chaos so he can follow Caius to Valhalla.

Caius lays Yeul's lifeless body to rest in the waters off Valhalla's shore and she disperses into light. A saddened Caius asks if she never asked for this kind of eternity. He sees Yeul's implanted vision of Cocoon crashing into Gran Pulse and Etro's shrine. Enraged, he summons a swarm of Pantopoda and other Rift Beasts to challenge Lightning to a battle. His army is countered by her summoned army of monsters and Eidolons. Though he gets frozen by the Shiva sisters, Caius breaks free and grabs Nix, telling her to embrace the terror before throwing her into Stiria. As Caius sees Lightning riding Odin towards him, he conjures a barrage of comets to counterattack.

After she dodges his onslaught, he sends a blade of energy at her. Lightning deflects his attack and they meet face-to-face. Caius admits that he is impressed by her strength before they clash blades. Caius grabs Lightning's gunblade and aims it directly at the Heart of Chaos inside of him, which begins to glow. When Lightning backs away in shock, Caius uses Ragnarok to envelop himself in a dark cloud and transform into Chaos Bahamut before sending Lightning flying over Valhalla. She remounts Odin and they continue their duel as Chaos Bahamut gives chase along the beach and into the city. Lightning slashes him from behind but he promptly returns with a head-on surprise attack.

After Odin saves Lightning, Caius returns in his human form. He fires magic projectiles at her, but she sends them back at him. He survives her attack and they continue to clash blades in a gravity field he creates with his power over chaos. At one point, Caius remarks on Lightning being a worthy opponent. She eventually manages to take Caius down, and he gets buried under a pile of rubble. Noel falls from the sky of Valhalla through Etro's Gate, the goddess having answered his prayer. Lightning saves Noel as he falls and Caius emerges from the rubble as Chaos Bahamut and continues to engage her in an aerial dogfight over Valhalla. Caius eventually finds Lightning and Noel, and summons a meteor above Etro's temple before transforming to escape the impact. Lightning asks Noel to bring her sister, Serah, to Valhalla, and sends him through a gate to New Bodhum -003 AF-, where Noel and Serah will begin their quest to find Lightning and save the future as travelers through time.

Alyssa Zaidelle is a woman who is only alive due to the corrupted timeline. Caius uses this to manipulate her to his side and gives her a booby-trapped artefact in Academia -4XX AF-. When Noel and Serah use the artefact to open a time gate, they get sent to the Void Beyond, a place trapped outside of the timeline and a shadow of Valhalla. Serah and Noel are separated and Caius stabs the latter in the back to release Noel's chaos before placing him in a dream world where Noel relives his past. Caius creates an illusion of Yeul and talks to Serah in her guise before engaging her in battle. Caius admits he is impressed by her and reveals how Etro's actions altering the events of the Day of Ragnarok caused a time distortion that cut Yeul's life short. Revealing his goal to her, Caius impales Serah from behind, releasing her chaos as well as she enters her own dream world. Fearing no more intervention from the time travelers, Caius journeys to Academia -500 AF- to execute the mass genocide of the new Cocoon's populace to force Etro's Gate to open.

Serah and Noel manage to escape their respective dream worlds and pursue Caius to Academia -500 AF-. Caius transforms into Chaos Bahamut and swoops at them before flying off towards Hope Estheim's new Cocoon, but Serah and Noel catch up with him atop an airship piloted by Sazh Katzroy. Caius reverts to his human form, telling Serah that he is impressed by her determination to change the future regardless of her nature as a seeress like Yeul. After fighting her and Noel atop the airship, Caius strikes Serah down and is about to deliver the finishing blow before Noel steps in. Caius remarks that Noel would have made a worthy Guardian because of his ability to protect his friends and says everything he ever did is to protect Yeul's soul. Believing that the Yeuls being born only to die young is meaningless and cruel, Caius reaffirms that he will stop at nothing to free them even if reality itself must be destroyed to achieve it. Sazh flips the airship vertically, allowing Noel and Serah to strike Caius in a midair joint effort, sending him flying. Caius transforms into Chaos Bahamut and flies into the wormhole that opens in the sky and Serah and Noel jump in after him.

Caius, Serah and Noel arrive in Valhalla. Noel and Serah receive help from Odin, but Caius blasts them down and continues the fight on the beach where he has the field advantage with the surrounding chaos. Refusing to face defeat, Caius tells Serah and Noel that they cannot kill him now. As Noel asks Caius why he believes causing mass destruction will make Yeul happy, Caius asks which one since he has known many Yeuls throughout the countless years and each of them was her own person regardless of being a reincarnation of the same being. Noel attempts to convince Caius that Yeul continued being reborn out of her own will, and kept coming back in order to see Caius again. Caius does not listen and clashes blades with his former pupil before Noel manages to take him down. Caius uses the chaos to transform into the form of Jet Bahamut and fires an attack at Noel and Serah from above, sending them falling into a bottomless abyss. The two are saved by Lightning, who sends them to the battlefield where the two must defeat all three of Caius's incarnations as Bahamut.

Having lost the final battle, a weakened Caius returns in human form. He tells Noel that if it is his fault Yeul keeps being reborn, then he must be killed for her sake. When Noel refuses, Caius attempts to provoke him by claiming that he had killed Lightning and condemned her to an eternal slumber. He also says that since time does not flow in Valhalla, the "things that shall happen" in their future have "already been decided" in his past, and that he has therefore known exactly how their encounter will end, even before the battle began. When Noel still refuses to give in to his demands, Caius is impressed with the youth's value of life, yet finally manages to provoke him by attacking Serah. Noel disarms Caius and lunges at him with his sword. Though he stops himself at the last second, Caius says that in the act of changing time's path, some must die and some must live. Taking Noel's blade, Caius tells Noel to bear the burden of the eternal paradox before forcing it through his chest, destroying the Heart of Chaos. The chaos within the dying Caius's body erupts into the sky before he collapses and slowly fades away.

As revealed in the secret ending, "The Goddess is Dead", a revived Caius is found sitting on Etro's throne in the Void Beyond. Caius states that no matter where Noel and Serah's journey took them, the alternate timelines all converged and concluded with Etro's death, and that the two were unknowingly helping him achieve his goal. Telling Yeul that they are finally free of their respective curses, Caius stabs Ragnarok into the ground to have chaos commence the end of time. When Noel's sword destroyed the Heart of Chaos within him, the goddess was also killed, which allows for chaos to unleash onto the Mortal Realm and make Gran Pulse resemble Valhalla.

Creation and Development
Caius's clothing was designed by Yusuke Naora, who also designed Serah and Noel's clothing. His design was chosen after several designs from various members of the development team were drawn and compared to select the best one (similar to Mog). Naora stated that he was inspired by Yoshitaka Amano for the character's armor and accessories — Leon from Final Fantasy II in particular.

According to lead writer, Daisuke Watanabe, Caius is a unique villain in the Final Fantasy franchise due to his goal being to save Yeul, as opposed to trying to destroy the world, and how nothing will prevent him from reaching his objective. As a result, Caius doesn't necessarily appear as a "bad" person, and he was made to come across as a bewildering enemy to players.

Musical Themes
Caius has an eponymous leitmotif, titled "Caius's Theme", composed by Naoshi Mizuta. It is a dramatic and mellow orchestral piece with a Latin chorus that represents his godlike status, as well as a hidden tragic side to him. "Caius's Theme" had a hard time getting approval from the director of Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Mizuta rewrote the song four times. The director wanted to make the song into something that could surpass Sephiroth's theme "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII.

Two variants of his theme are "Chaotic Guardian" and "Heart of Chaos." His theme is also featured in "Promise to the Future", the final boss theme "Unseen Abyss", "Endless Paradox", and the "Closing Credits".

Lyrics

 * Dea Mortis, iuravi
 * Carissimam servaturum
 * Dea Mortis, servabo
 * Ut tempora recte ducam


 * Etsi cor in Chaos,
 * Aut Fortuna bella ferat
 * Occurram et obviam ibo.

Translation

 * Goddess of Death, I vowed
 * That I would protect the most dear one.
 * Goddess of Death, I will protect her,
 * As I lead time straight.


 * Even if there is a heart in Chaos,
 * Even if Fortune may bring wars,
 * I will resist and go to fight against it.

Battle
Even in his human form, Caius is capable of powerful magic and using chaos to suit his needs and assume the form of Chaos Bahamut, and later that of Jet Bahamut.

In his human form, Caius is fought by Serah and Noel five times: in Oerba 200 AF, the Void Beyond ??? AF, a Dying World 700 AF, Academia 500 AF, and Valhalla ??? AF.

As Chaos Bahamut, he is fought by Lightning in Valhalla in the prologue, and by Noel and Serah in Academia 500 AF.

With the Paradox Scope activated, defeating Caius in his respective encounters will trigger various paradox endings.

Etymology
Caius is an alternate spelling of Gaius, a common Roman given name. It was a praenomen of many famous Romans throughout history, including Julius Caesar, and through his line, Augustus Caesar and Caligula; Gaius Cassius Longinius, a leading conspirator in Julius Caesar's assassination; and Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, the famous historian.

His name also means "to be sorry" in Russian (Я каюсь), possibly a reference to how he feels apologetic for the fate of Yeul and wants to save her.

Also, the name Caius could be an direct or indirect reference to "chaos", for obvious reasons related to his persona and/or attacks.

His surname, Ballad, could come from the French world "ballade," which means either a little song, or a poetic form. A ballad is also characterized by describing unusual events; "divine" powers are frequently mentioned in them, which alludes to how Caius is a "god" in his own way due to how he obtained massive power and immortality.

Trivia

 * According to Dengeki PlayStation magazine, Caius is said to be the most powerful rival in the Final Fantasy series.
 * During one scene in Valhalla's shade, Caius and Serah are seen back to back, similar to a moment with him and Lightning in Valhalla, and his début appearance in the game's first trailer.
 * Caius shares his English voice actor, Liam O'Brien, with Red XIII from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Kain Highwind from the DS version of Final Fantasy IV as well as Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
 * Caius putting Yeul to rest in the lake in Valhalla in the start of Final Fantasy XIII-2 mirrors the scene where Cloud rests Aerith in the lake in Forgotten Capital in Final Fantasy VII.
 * Caius freezing time while fighting Serah is reminiscent of the fight between Squall and Ultimecia in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
 * In the Bestiary, Caius is listed under the section "Protector", rather than "Guardian".