Edea Kramer

Edea Kramer, also known as Sorceress Edea, is a character from Final Fantasy VIII. A mysterious woman appointed as ambassador to Galbadia, she acts as the primary antagonist of the first half of the game under the possession of Ultimecia. She is later revealed to be the wife of Cid Kramer, with whom she ran an orphanage on the Centra continent and eventually created SeeD and the Gardens.

Appearance and Personality
When first introduced, Edea is possessed by Ultimecia and is thus portrayed as a vain, power hungry, and remorseless sadist. All traces of her once kind and loving personality are purged from her character by Ultimecia's possession and replaced by an all-consuming desire for world domination.

But in actuality Edea is an extremely benign and gentle person. Although she has been under the stigma of being a Sorceress ever since the age of five, she has never resented the world for the prejudice it must have shown her - indeed, she spends her entire life devoted to helping others, focusing, of course, upon the children she cares for in her orphanage. With Cid by her side to keep her in control of her powers, she would never have shown a single violent streak throughout her life had Ultimecia not arrived and possessed her.

She clearly loves children, as all of the children from her orphanage (which include the entire cast of Final Fantasy VIII, except for Rinoa) remember her fondly and are completely unable to wrap their minds around the idea that their beloved Matron could ever do the evil deeds Sorceress Edea performs. Although Edea has never shown hatred for the rest of the world, she has shown a very strong dislike for her own powers. Edea does not like being a Sorceress, and she is more than happy to give up her powers in Esthar, although she probably feels guilty for having given them to Rinoa. Edea is very refined, sophisticated, and ladylike, traits which were particularly evident during her possession. Ultimecia used Edea's sophistication and great physical beauty to their optimum effect to beguile her enemies.

Story
When she was five years old, Edea received Sorceress Powers from an unknown Sorceress. She eventually married Cid, with Cid knowing full well she was a Sorceress. They led a happy life together and started an orphanage for the Sorceress War orphans on the Centra continent, with the orphans referring to her as "Matron." These orphaned children included, but were not limited to, Selphie, Irvine, Zell, Quistis, and Seifer. When Laguna Loire embarked on his search for Ellone, he visited the orphanage momentarily, questioning Edea on what she might know about how to enter Esthar. Later, nearing the Sorceress War's end, Squall, Laguna and Raine's child, would also be sent to Edea's orphanage by the people of Winhill after Raine's death. Ellone came to the orphanage during the same time as Squall, whom he called "sis".

A few years later, as Ultimecia traveled to the past and lay dying, Edea received Ultimecia's powers. After a short talk with a teenage Squall Leonhart, who had followed Ultimecia from the future, she and Cid began making plans to contain or eliminate her if and when she became controlled by her powers. These plans resulted in the creation of SeeD and the Gardens. Later on, after Ellone was being sought by Dr. Odine to complete his research on her, Edea created the White SeeD, a group of older orphans assigned to protect Ellone.

Soon Ultimecia took full control of Edea, using her body and name as a vessel to seize power across the planet. During a broadcast by President Deling, Seifer tried to assassinate the president of Galbadia. Edea/Ultimecia manipulates Seifer, and spirited him away with her. While possessed by Ultimecia, Edea's "shell" survived an assassination attempt by SeeD, killed President Deling, and took command of the Galbadian army afterward. Because of the failed assassination, she declared SeeD as an enemy and ordered missile attacks on Trabia and Balamb Gardens. While Balamb Garden flew out of the way, Trabia Garden was not as lucky. Later, forces from Galbadia, brought over by an invaded Galbadia Garden, attempted to invade Balamb Garden, with little success.

Shortly after, she fell in battle to the party at Galbadia Garden, and Ultimecia abandoned Edea's body to possess Rinoa Heartilly. Edea then regained control over her body and mind, explained what had happened to her, and later joined the party for a trip to Esthar in hopes of Dr. Odine potentially ridding her of her powers. After reaching Esthar, Edea discovered that she had already inadvertently relinquished her Sorceress Power to Rinoa, and was thus no longer able to use sorceress magic. With the burden of her power finally lifted, Edea went back to the now-ruined orphanage with her husband, where she would give shelter, advice, and background information to the party. Edea is later seen with her husband in Balamb Garden celebrating the victory over Ultimecia.

Sorceress Power
Edea first became a Sorceress at the age of five. Because her compatible element seems to be Ice (based on her draw lists and Limit Break) it would seem that the powers she first received focused on this element.

Having received powers from Ultimecia, whose powers seem to focus on space and time, Edea was also capable of great feats of magic including teleportation, phasing through solid objects, and giving life to inanimate objects.

Weapons
Edea's physical weapon is the "Blizzard Palm", in reference to her hand to hand ability. Physically extremely weak, the Blizzard Palm is further hampered by its inability to be upgraded. Her Limit Break, while powerful, is also fairly limited, as she only has one command and it only deals damage to one target. Unsurprisingly however, Edea has extremely potent Magic and Spirit scores, and also possesses extremely good compatibility with every GF in the game. However, she also has scarily low HP, Strength, and Vitality, and her Speed and Luck are none too great either. She is the epitome of the traditional Black Mage class - she excels at magic, but little else.

Limit Break
Ice Strike

0umnsrYqfXk The ultimate manifestation of Edea's Sorceress Power is her Limit Break, called Ice Strike. When activated, she summons several large icicles that are magically hurled at the target, dealing massive damage. Edea's Limit Break's strength is unaffected by Crisis Level and its attack power is 120.

This Limit Break is also seen at the end of Disk One, where she uses it on Squall with near-lethal effects.

It is interesting to note that Ice Strike is a subset of Edea's skills called "Sorcery". When the player pressed right to choose Edea's Limit Break, it shows up as "Sorcery" first, and once the command is selected the player then chooses Ice Strike from a second menu, like Quistis' "Blue Magic" or Seifer's "No Mercy". This may imply that at one time, there were other "Sorcery" attacks, but in the final product there is only Ice Strike.

As a Boss
Edea is fought twice in the game; the first time after the sorceress parade, and the second in Galbadia Garden. Before fighting Edea the first time, Squall faces off against his rival, Seifer, alone. After defeating him, Rinoa and Irvine arrive to help Squall, and Edea takes the stage. When confronting Edea for the second time, at Galbadia Garden, the party must again defeat Seifer before they can touch her. Fortunately, defeating Seifer is easy, as the party had just beat him minutes before. Defeating Edea is not.

Musical Themes
There are two themes accompanying Edea's presence. "SUCCESSION OF WITCHES" is the song that accompanies her when she is possessed by Ultimecia. It is most notably played when Edea/Ultimecia first encounters Seifer in Timber. The other theme is called, "Truth," which is played at Edea's Orphanage after the revelation of her possession.

Pocket Station Memorycard Icons
An icon sprite of Edea appears in the Pocket Station memorycard file manager.

Trivia

 * Edea is the only human character in the game to start with her own Triple Triad card.
 * The metallic half-circle holding Edea's cape is similar to the one worn by Wrexsoul in Final Fantasy VI.
 * Edea's character was actually designed before the characters of Final Fantasy VII were, and was intended by Nomura to emulate the style of Yoshitaka Amano. It was not until Final Fantasy VIII that Nomura found a way to use her.

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