Eiko Carol

Eiko Carol, known as Little Girl for the short period before a name is selected, is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. She hails from Madain Sari on the Outer Continent. She has a horn in her forehead and is able to summon eidolons.

Appearance and Personality
Eiko has green eyes, a small summoner's horn on her forehead, and blue hair cropped slightly above her shoulders with a ribbon tied into a large bow on top. She wears a red turtleneck and pink bodysuit underneath loose yellow pants that gather at the ankles. She has a yellow chest plate connected to a belt around her waist as part of the ornament wings she wears on her back. Eiko wears purple socks and white ankle boots.

In Trance, Eiko's horn lengthens and turns sky-blue. Her hair and sleeves turn light green, her bow, chest plate, pants, and boots become white, and her turtleneck and bodysuit change to soft purple. Eiko's ornament wings grow in size.

Eiko's personality is spunky and snobbish, but she is also desperately lonely, having lived alone in Madain Sari with only moogles as her friends for most of her life. She develops a crush on Zidane Tribal and goes as far as to write a love letter to him, but she snaps out of it after a while, seeing that Zidane is in love with Princess Garnet.

Story


The village of Madain Sari was once a thriving town populated by summoners. The Invincible destroyed the town for Garland and Kuja to remove the possible threat of Gaia's eidolons and most of the community died out. Eiko's parents and several brothers and sisters were some of the survivors; however, they are almost never mentioned, and it is known that Eiko was raised by her grandfather. He died, and Eiko was left to live in Madain Sari with the company of moogles. One of them, Mog, always traveled with her, and the two traded friendship ribbons. She and Mog would frequently steal food from the dwarves' town of Conde Petie.

During one of these raids she is caught and meets Zidane, along with Vivi, Garnet, and Quina. Eiko offers to take Zidane and his friends back to Madain Sari, where she cooks them a meal to impress Zidane. She senses Zidane is in love with Garnet, and tries her best to steal his heart.

She accompanies Zidane and his friends to the Iifa Tree, which was sealed with the eidolon Carbuncle. She breaks the seal and Eiko, Zidane, and the others go through the Iifa Tree and fight the Soulcage, whose defeat clears up the Mist Continent of mist.

Eiko takes Zidane back to Madain Sari when a moogle tells her the village's precious stone has been stolen. The thief turns out to be Lani, the bounty hunter working for Queen Brahne of Alexandria to steal back Garnet's pendant. Lani holds Eiko prisoner, but is betrayed by her accomplice Amarant Coral and is forced to flee.

After Zidane and Amarant duel, Eiko tells Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi about the precious stone and how her grandfather told her to keep it safe and to never leave Madain Sari until she is sixteen. Eiko decides to go with Zidane anyway, taking the stone with her and wearing it as an earring.

The party returns to the Iifa Tree, where they meet Kuja who becomes involved in a battle with Brahne. Eiko helps Garnet find another eidolon, Leviathan, the eidolon that had been sealed at the tree, so Garnet could summon it to help her mother. Garnet cannot save her and, in the wake of the queen's death, is crowned the queen herself.

One week later, the party is back in Alexandria for Garnet's coronation. Having never been to a city as large as Alexandria, Eiko tours Alexandria Castle on her own where she meets Doctor Tot. She asks him to help her write a love letter for Zidane, but on the way out she trips over a banister and gets her wing ornament stuck onto a chandelier. She meets Baku, and, unable to free herself, asks him to deliver the letter.

Baku loses the letter and it falls into numerous hands, including those of Beatrix, Marcus, Blank, and Steiner. Steiner rescues Eiko and takes her down from the chandelier, and escorts her out of the castle. The party visits Garnet, now the queen of Alexandria, and after the audience Eiko is heartbroken when Zidane does not show up at the docks, even though the real reason is that Zidane never saw the letter.

The next day, Zidane travels to Treno to participate in a Tetra Master tournament. Eiko joins as well, and spends some time telling Doctor Tot about Madain Sari. Mog tells her Alexandria is in danger and she summons Zidane to return there. They take Cid Fabool IX's Hilda Garde II, which is poorly designed due to Cid's mind not being the same as an oglop. While on the ship, Eiko feels a sensation from the top of Alexandria Castle, and flies to the roof to meet Garnet. They hold out the four jewels and summon Alexander who defeats Bahamut and forms a protective ring around Alexandria.

Kuja summons the Invincible to take control of Alexander. Garland takes over the Invincible and uses it to destroy Alexander and the Alexandrian castle. Zidane arrives to rescue Garnet and Eiko, though the latter is annoyed Zidane goes to Garnet first and that she is embracing him through her rescue.

In Lindblum, Eiko discovers Garnet lost her voice due to Alexandria's obliteration. She stays with Steiner to take care of Garnet while Zidane and the others look for a way to transform Cid back into a human. They fail, turning Cid into a frog, and Eiko, Garnet, Steiner, Cid, and Quina join Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Amarant in search of Kuja. They find him in his Desert Palace on the Outer Continent, and he traps everyone except Cid in prisons and threatened to kill them if Zidane does not bring him the Gulug Stone from Oeilvert.

Zidane agrees but Kuja would not keep his promise. Cid saves the others, and Eiko leads the escape to Kuja's room for revenge (unless the player chose to take Eiko with Zidane to Oeilvert, in which case another party member becomes the leader). They meet up with Zidane outside, and Zidane finds out Kuja has tricked him. The party enters his room, but Eiko is trapped outside and Zorn and Thorn abduct her.

Zidane and his friends set out in search of Eiko and follow the Hilda Garde I to Esto Gaza on the Lost Continent, where they enter Mount Gulug and travel to the base, where they discover Zorn and Thorn extracting eidolons from Eiko. Mog interferes and transforms into the eidolon Madeen, saving Eiko.

The jesters attack and Eiko fights them, using Madeen to annihilate the twins. The rest of the party arrives to confront Kuja, but he leaves and the jester twins' corpses transform into Meltigemini. After defeating Meltigemini, Eiko receives Mog's ribbon as a farewell gift.

When the party splits up to simultaneously attack the four elemental shrines protecting the entrance to Terra, she insists on teaming up with Garnet and uses the opportunity to ask her if she is in love with Zidane, with awkward results.

In Terra, Eiko explores until Zidane goes missing and the party teams up to find him. Eiko and Vivi are at Zidane's side when he wakes up in Pandemonium, but in a depressive rage he calls them "stupid brats" and locks them in the room. At the end when Zidane chooses to stay in the collapsing Iifa Tree and save Kuja, Eiko, showing concern for Zidane's safety, confesses her love for him. Eiko is adopted by Cid and Hilda, becoming Lindblum's new princess. She is overjoyed at being a part of a family, going out of the way to calling her adoptive parents "Mother" and "Father".

Battle
Eiko is a White Mage, with a sub job as a Summoner. Her summons' attacks change depending on what add-on she has equipped. She is more of a supportive member of the party, although she learns the ultimate offensive White Magic spell late in the game.

Eiko has the lowest physical stats in the game. However, her initial stats will be exactly the same as Marcus's when he leaves the party meaning that if the player bothers to level up Marcus early on in the game, Eiko can potentially get the highest HP and MP of any character in the game. This is known as the Marcus/Eiko Stat Bug.

Equipment
Eiko's equipment draw consists of female-exclusive equipment, mage robes, flutes, and rackets.

When Eiko is equipped with a flute, her spellcasting sound effect is slightly different than the other characters'. As she appears to play the flute as her spellcasting animation, it appears she uses music to control her magic.

Abilities
Eiko learns abilities that enhance her skills as a White Mage and Summoner; Boost powers up her eidolons, and Concentrate her magic, and Half MP halves the MP cost of her spells and eidolons. Eiko is the only character to learn both MP+10% and MP+20%. Eiko is the first of the party to learn Auto-Regen. Her unique ability is Guardian Mog.

White Magic


Being the designated White Mage, Eiko's stock of White Magic is larger than Dagger's. She can use unique spells like Jewel, which extracts an Ore from an enemy, and Might, which increases a unit's attack power. She is the only main character who can use the powerful Holy spell (a temporary playable character, Beatrix can also use the spell). She lacks the Scan and Berserk spells found in Dagger's arsenal.

Eiko's Trance ability is Double White that allows Eiko to cast two spells in succession.

Eidolons
Eiko can summon four eidolons: Fenrir, Phoenix, Carbuncle, and Madeen. Equipping various add-ons allows her eidolons' abilities to change.

If Zidane and Dagger are in the party when Eiko summons an eidolon for the first time, they will exchange a dialogue mid-battle. Zidane will say "Dagger, was that an eidolon?", and Dagger will reply "I think so. Eiko can use magic too?" This resets everyone's turn regardless whether an action has been chosen or not.

Musical Themes
"Eiko's Theme" is a variation of "Melodies of Life" based entirely on chord progressions (with no discernible melody) and set in the 6/8 time signature. A remix of the theme includes the song "Girl of Madain Sari", which plays while she wanders around Alexandria Castle at the beginning of disc 3, thinking of writing a love letter to Zidane.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Eiko appears as a playable character and one of the representatives for Final Fantasy IX.

Pictlogica Final Fantasy
Eiko appears in Pictlogica Final Fantasy as a playable character.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Eiko is an ally and a summonable Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. She is depicted in her Final Fantasy IX outfit. Her EX ability is Carbuncle (Meteorite).

Final Fantasy Artniks
Eiko appears in Final Fantasy Artniks.

Final Fantasy All the Bravest


Eiko is an exclusive character only available from the Premium Character Shop as a random downloadable content, she summons Madeen during battle.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Eiko appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game and is represented in three Earth-elemental cards. She is depicted in a Final Fantasy IX FMV screenshot as well as her render and Yoshitaka Amano artwork.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable
In Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable, she appears alongside Zidane. She may be summoned with chance cards "91" or "94" (The latter summons her and other two characters), she gives away suits if the player lands or passes by the space where she is. Healie (A Heal Slime from Dragon Quest) replaces her in later Itadaki Street Games.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special
In Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special, Eiko is one of the two Final Fantasy IX characters along with Vivi.

Lord of Vermillion Re:2
Eiko appears as a character in the sequel to Lord of Vermillion. She has the ability "W-White Magic", a reference to her Double White Trance.

Etymology
"Eiko" is a common Japanese female name meaning "prosperous child". Hironobu Sakaguchi's wife's name is Eiko.

"Carol" designates a type of song or dance, and originates from the Ancient Greek word choraules ("one who accompanies a chorus on the flute").

Trivia

 * If Zidane is not in the party, then Eiko assumes the role of party leader. Most notably if she is not chosen to go to Oeilvert, she will be the one to lead the party in the Desert Palace. If Zidane is not in the party chosen to fight Necron, Eiko will give the speech before the battle.
 * Eiko's jewel is called the Memory Earring.