Cyan Garamonde

Cyan Garamonde is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a Samurai and one of the finest and most noble soldiers of the kingdom of Doma. He is husband to Elaine, and father to Owain. His Japanese name is Cayenne Garamonde.

Character and Appearance
Cyan is a middle-aged warrior. He has long dark hair tied in a ponytail, and sports a short moustache. He is seen wearing blue body armor with a matching cape, and carries a katana by his side. Cyan is also the second-oldest playable character of the main cast, after Strago, though the Returner leader Banon, who joins as a temporary character, is several years older than Cyan.

Cyan has a distinguishable pseudo-Old English manner of speech, using archaic expressions such as "thou," "dost," "thy," referring to males with the title "Sir," and so forth. In the original Japanese, he speaks in a characteristic "samurai" manner, using the pronoun "sessha" and ending sentences with "de gozaru." This prompts Gau to nickname him Gozaru in the Japanese release, or "Mr. Thou" in the English games. Cyan writes the same way he speaks, and when reading a letter from him in the World of Ruin, the party instantly recognizes his handwriting. As a result of the Doma citizens' deaths, including his family, Cyan is plagued with survivor's guilt for much of the game, blaming himself for the Doma's fall and believing to have lost his honor. Due to the Doma kingdom's simple lifestyle, Cyan has an intense dislike of machines and has a great deal of trouble operating them, and he is also adverse to displays of affection. Over the course of the game, Cyan gradually overcomes his fear of machines. When he re-joins the party in the World of Ruin, the party can find several basic books about machines. If the player speaks to Cyan while onboard the Falcon, he can be seen staring at the engine, commenting that it is "an interesting apparatus."

Story


When players are first introduced to Cyan, the Empire is attacking his homeland of Doma. Cyan attends a strategy meeting, where he suggests killing off the commander, which he does so easily. Kefka Palazzo, who is in charge of the attack while General Leo Cristophe is away, has other plans: he dumps poison into the river that leads through Doma, killing almost everyone inside, including the King of Doma, and Cyan's wife and son, Elaine and Owain. The only survivors were Cyan himself and a single Doman scout. Gripped by sorrow which turns into rage, Cyan rushes into the Imperial Camp to get revenge, with the help of Sabin Rene Figaro and Shadow. Grateful for their help Cyan agrees to accompany them to Narshe. The threesome escape the base in Magitek Armor, which Cyan is reluctant to use.

In the forest, the threesome board the Phantom Train, and learn from the conductor that in order to get off, they have to make their way to the locomotive and shut it off. They succeed in stopping the train, but witness Elaine and Owain's spirits, along with the spirits of the victims of Doma Castle, board the train, which makes Cyan grieve the loss of his family. Despite this, he, along with Sabin and Shadow, head to Barren Falls, where Shadow leaves the party. Sabin and Cyan jump down the falls and float down the river towards the Veldt, where they are rescued by a wild child named Gau. Gau refuses to talk to them unless they feed him, so they go to the nearby hamlet of Mobliz and buy Dried Meat. They feed this to Gau, who agrees to show them his "shiny thing," a scuba-diving helmet, which can take them through the Serpent Trench to Nikeah. Despite Gau making fun of Cyan's archaic way of speaking, Cyan and Gau grow close as friends. From Nikeah they take a ferry to South Figaro where they can easily reach Narshe to join the Returners.

Cyan, Sabin, and Gau arrive just in time. Kefka is planning a raid on Narshe to get the frozen Esper. The three help Banon, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Edgar Roni Figaro, and Celes Chere defend Narshe and succeed, but after the battle, Terra reacts with the Esper and is turned into an Esper herself, flying away. A search party is sent to look for her and they manage to find her on top of the tallest tower in Zozo, where she is being cared for by Ramuh. Ramuh tells them they need to go to Vector and free the imprisoned Espers, one of them being Terra's father, Maduin. The group succeeds in recovering the Espers, and save Terra.

Back in Narshe, the Elder decides to join with the Returners. An agreement is 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 is a success, and Emperor Gestahl appears to have surrendered. At a banquet, he asks Terra if she would try convince the Espers to negotiate peace. She and Locke go to Crescent Island to parley the Emperor's message. Cyan and the others are still skeptical of the Emperor, and decide to stay in Vector to make sure the Emperor wasn't lying. Cyan takes it personally to guard Kefka's cell. Edgar seduces one of the Emperor's maids into revealing the Emperor's true plan: he wants to lure out the Espers in hopes of capturing them. They fly to Thamasa to warn Terra and Locke, but are too late: Kefka has acquired more magicite and used it to revive the Warring Triad and turn the Land of Espers into the Floating Continent.

One year after the apocalypse, Cyan finds an anxious Lola in Maranda, who is worried her (dead) boyfriend is not writing her. Cyan makes home atop Mt. Zozo and sends letters to Lola in the stead of her boyfriend. He also begins studying machines, as well as other, unrelated topics, as evidenced by the books he keeps. When the rest of the party comes to Mt. Zozo and finds him, he decides to rejoin.

When Cyan returns to Doma and takes a rest there, he is haunted by the Three Dream Stooges: Laragorn, Curlax, and Moebius. The rest of the party members go inside his mind and help him clear his thoughts. They defeat Wrexsoul, a manifestation of Cyan's fear and anger. With a clear mind, Cyan learns the rest of the skills he needed to finish the journey.

In the ending, Cyan has to save Edgar by using a machine, something he is reluctant to do, due to his phobia.

Battle
As a Samurai, Cyan's stats are skewed in the physical department. He has high strength and defense, but low speed and magic. His weapons are limited to katana and the Zantetsuken, and he equips heavy armor and helmets, and all shields. His ability is Bushido, which lets Cyan open a secondary ATB bar to charge up and execute special attacks. Cyan learns new Bushido attacks as he levels up, but after completing his Dreamscape he automatically learns all the Bushido attacks. Cyan is also the character at the root of the "Psycho Cyan Bug," which involves, among other things, his Bushido. Cyan begins equipped with an Ashura, Buckler, Leather Cap and Leather Armor.

Development
Cyan's character stayed consistent during development, but parts of his story were supposed to interact with Angela, an extra character that was eventually cut from the game. She was a "big sister" archetype and had a take-charge, sultry attitude. She would often flirt with Cyan, who, considering his personality, would always overreact to her. It is unknown if she was an NPC or playable character, but she was probably planned to be playable as she had a whip as a weapon.

Cyan's Bushido skill names are pretty simple, but originally, they were supposed to have more dramatic names, such as Chou Baku Hiryuu Zan ("Super Explosive Flying Dragon Slice").

Musical Themes
Cyan's theme is reminiscent of the samurai of old, and is the background music for Doma Castle.

Cyan's leitmotif is the first character theme reprised in the Ending Theme. Indirectly, his theme is reprised in the ending theme of Dissidia Final Fantasy. It comprises of the ending themes of the first ten Final Fantasy games, and because Cyan's leitmotif is played first in the Ending Theme, his segment is picked to represent Final Fantasy VI.

Etymology
Despite being male, Cyan's Japanese name, Cayenne, is usually given to females, and is a French word meaning "hot" or "spicy", as well as the name of a pepper. Cyan is taken from the Greek kyanos, meaning "dark blue" or "lapis lazuli". Garamonde could be a form of the Old English surname Garamond, or "patron", or a reference to the typeface named after French typesetter Claude Garamond.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Cyan makes a small cameo in Dissidia 012 during the data install sequence. If the player repeatedly presses the L button during the install, Cyan will spin across the snowfield struggling to control a suit of Magitek Armor.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Cyan makes an appearance in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Trivia

 * An official piece of artwork for Final Fantasy VI depicts Cyan holding what looks to be a traditional Japanese.
 * Cyan's Desperation Attack, Tsubame Gaeshi, was a famous technique mastered by Sasaki Kojiro, a famed Japanese swordsman in the Sengoku period of feudal Japan. Kojiro was best known to have been slain by Miyamoto Musashi during a duel at the island of Funajima.
 * Cyan was Hironobu Sakaguchi's favorite character in Final Fantasy VI.