Caius Ballad



Caius Ballad (カイアス・バラッド) is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XIII-2. He has engaged his fated rival Lightning in an endless battle on the shores of Valhalla, and he is an important figure in both Noel Kreiss's past and Serah Farron's future.

Caius is the immortal guardian of the timeline and the seeress, Paddra Nsu-Yeul. Having lived since before the War of Transgression, he originally protected Yeul and the timeline from any foreign threat. Because his efforts to change the future shorten the seeress's life, he now seeks to destroy the world to end her suffering by killing the goddess Etro.

In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII-2, Caius is voiced by Hiroshi Shirokuma, and in the English version, he is voiced by Liam O'Brien.

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 he wears a long, purple and black headband. Caius 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 on the hilt of Caius's sword is the eidolith capable of summoning Bahamut, which was a gift from the goddess Etro when he served as a l'Cie. Caius is capable of incarnate summoning, an action that allows 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 guardian 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
Born prior to the War of Transgression, Caius was a member of the Farseers, the oldest tribe on Gran Pulse. The Farseers were led by a seeress named Paddra Nsu-Yeul, who was gifted with the Eyes of Etro and thus was able to see changes in the timeline, also able to make prophecies of the future from these visions. Caius was made a l'Cie after killing Yeul's Guardian, after which he assumed the role. 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 sacrificed 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 to the seeress 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 until 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 out 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. As their immortal Guardian, Caius was to remember every prophecy made by the Yeuls, and he had to witness their deaths countless times.

The ability to have visions of the future eats away at the seeress's life until it eventually kills her; this is why the seeress always dies before reaching her twentieth 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 to find someone capable of destroying the Heart of Chaos within his chest and releasing him from his eternal curse.

Starting in 003 AF, Caius watches over Noel and Serah's progress alongside different incarnations 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 200 AF, Caius reveals himself to Noel and Serah during their visit to Oerba. Noel is shocked to meet Caius, as he mistakes this Caius for the one he once knew 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 prepares to deal the final blow before Yeul intervenes, saying that time has already been changed. Caius 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 the two of them to depart through.

Caius takes Yeul to Augusta Tower upon her request, and he allows her to 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 she 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 the flower Yeul had dropped and then picks up her body, shedding silent tears and saying that he will carry her pain in his heart. Caius then laments on how her life was short, just as all the other Yeuls he had known over the years' lives had been, and he carries away her body.

200 years later in the city of Academia, Noel and Serah are surrounded by countless Cie'th and then approached by Caius. The enigma reveals to them that they were killed in Augusta Tower after they learned of the "forbidden history," and because they are standing before him alive and well despite this, he accuses the two of them of being paradoxes. Noel finds Caius's behavior to be unlike him, after which Caius summons several Cie'th and leaves Noel and Serah to fight them. Noel and Serah pursue Caius throughout the city, eventually learning from a Yeul who perishes after an attack from an Undying that the Caius they had been chasing was not the real Caius and that he was never in the city to begin with.

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, Noel will able to destroy the Heart of Chaos inside of him and kill Etro. Without the goddess, the chaos of the Unseen World will break free and flow into the physical world, ceasing the flow of time and freeing Yeul.

Upon learning that Noel had managed to defeat a Behemoth on his own, Caius acknowledges that the boy is ready to become the one true Guardian and tells Noel that he must kill him just as Caius had once killed his own predecessor if the title of Guardian is to be passed on. 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 Etro's death. 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. While he cannot time travel, he sends messages to his past self from the Unseen Realm. Using the knowledge of foresight he has 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 to open so that the chaos of Valhalla can enter Gran Pulse. Caius is well aware that his creating paradoxes across the timeline shortens Yeul's life, but his plan is to destroy the world in a way that minimizes the adverse effects his time-changing has on her. When Serah and Noel solve the paradoxes they encounter, the possibilities of the future broaden, but at the same time Caius proceeds to cut them down. Because of Caius's desire to reduce the number of possibilities for the future to the point where only the world's inevitable destruction remains, he silently allows Serah and Noel to solve the paradoxes, as the world is still heading towards its doom. Caius knows that the world will end in 700 AF anyway, and he wants to ease Yeul's suffering by destroying the world before its time.

While Caius's plans of creating paradoxes across the timeline are unraveling, he is simultaneously trying to kill Etro herself as she sleeps in her shrine. The goddess is being protected by Lightning, a warrior who was brought to Valhalla by a paradox and became Etro's champion. Unknown to both, the battle they wage in Valhalla is an endless loop, continuing for an eternity.

Back in the Dying World, the Yeul of 700 AF dies in Noel's arms, and she passes on to Valhalla. Noel believes he is 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. Caius's 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 Lightning dodges Caius's onslaught, he sends a blade of energy towards her. Lightning deflects his attack and they meet face-to-face. Caius admits that he is impressed by Lightning's strength before they cross swords. Caius grabs Lightning's gunblade and aims it directly at the Heart of Chaos inside of him, and it begins to glow. When Lightning backs away in shock, Caius transforms into Chaos Bahamut before sending Lightning flying over Valhalla. Lightning remounts Odin and she and Caius continue their duel as he chases her and Odin along the beach and into the city. Lightning slashes him from behind, but Caius promptly returns with a head-on surprise attack.

After Odin saves Lightning, Caius returns to his human form. He fires magic projectiles at Lightning, but she sends them back at him. Caius survives her attack and they continue to clash in a gravity field he creates with his power over chaos. At one point, Caius states that Lightning is a worthy opponent. Lightning 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. While they escape him for a time, Caius eventually finds Lightning and Noel and summons a meteor above Etro's shrine before transforming back into Chaos Bahamut to escape the impact. Lightning asks Noel to bring her sister, Serah, to Valhalla, and she sends him through a Time Gate to New Bodhum in 003 AF, where Noel and Serah will begin their quest to find Lightning and save the future as travelers through time.

Learning of Lightning's gambit, Caius takes advantage of Alyssa Zaidelle, whose extended life is a paradox, in Academia 4XX AF. Caius has Alyssa give a booby-trapped artefact to Noel and Serah, and when the two use the artefact to open a Time Gate, they get separated and each ends up somewhere within the Void Beyond. Caius goes after Noel first, stabbing him 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 to talk to Serah before personally engaging her in battle.

Caius admits he is impressed by Serah and reveals how Etro's interference with 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. Believing himself to finally be free from the time travelers' interference, Caius journeys to Academia 500 AF to proceed with the mass genocide of the new Cocoon's populace that will 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 to 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 Serah and Noel atop the airship, Caius strikes Serah down and preapres to kill her, but Noel comes to her rescue.

Caius remarks that Noel would have made a worthy Guardian because of his ability to protect his friends and says everything he ever did, he did for Yeul. 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, sending Caius flying and allowing Noel and Serah to strike him in a midair joint effort. Caius transforms into Chaos Bahamut and flies into a massive wormhole that opens in the sky. Serah and Noel jump in after him.

Noel and Serah descend into Valhalla, and they are caught in midair by Odin in Gestalt Mode. As the Eidolon carries them across the dark sky, Caius blasts them down and continues their battle fight on the beach, where he has the field advantage due to the surrounding chaos. Refusing to face defeat, Caius tells Serah and Noel that they cannot kill him. As Noel asks Caius why he believes causing mass-destruction will make Yeul happy, Caius asks which one he is referring to, since he has known and protected 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 to be reborn out of her own will and that she kept coming back in order to see Caius again. Caius does not listen, and he and his former pupil trade blows for a time before Noel manages to slash him vertically across the chest. Caius falls and uses the chaos of Valhalla to transform into Jet Bahamut. Jet Bahamut launches an immense ball of fire at Noel and Serah from above, sending them falling into a bottomless abyss beneath Valhalla's waves of chaos. The two are saved by Lightning, who sends them to the battlefield where the two must defeat Jet Bahamut, along with his supporters, Garnet Bahamut and Amber Bahamut.

Having lost the final battle, a weakened Caius returns to his human form and falls to his hands and knees on Valhalla's shoreline. He tells Noel that if it is truly his fault that Yeul keeps being reborn, then he must be killed for her sake. When Noel refuses, Caius attempts to provoke him by claiming that he has 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 Noel stops himself from killing Caius 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. Ultimately, the two were unknowingly helping him achieve his goal. Telling Yeul that they are finally free of their respective curses and can begin anew in a world without the goddess Etro, Caius digs his sword into the ground, summoning chaos to commence the end of time. As a curious detail, Caius's eye is shown briefly glowing red in the secret ending; the same effect happened during his fight against Lightning in the game's intro when she came close to striking his Heart of Chaos.

When Noel's sword destroys the Heart of Chaos within Caius, the goddess Etro is also killed, which unleashes the chaos of Valhalla into the Mortal Realm and connects Gran Pulse and Valhalla together. Serah has her final vision through the Eyes of Etro and dies in Noel's arms.

In the downloadable scenario "Requiem of the Goddess", Lightning and Caius's final showdown is depicted. Yeul's spirit summons Caius to fight Lightning, and while she emerges victorious, she learns that Caius's plan cannot be stopped and that Serah has died. Lightning gets to say goodbye to Serah before she passes on and to preserve the memory of her sister for an eternity, Lightning transforms herself into an indestructible crystal, finally putting an end to her endless battle with Caius in Valhalla.

Creation and Development
Caius's armor was designed by Yusuke Naora, who also designed Serah and Noel's respective outfits. Naora's 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 look of Caius's armor and accessories—Leon from Final Fantasy II was particularly inspiring.

According to lead writer, Daisuke Watanabe, Caius is a unique villain in the Final Fantasy franchise due to his main objective being to save Yeul, as opposed to trying to destroy the world, and how nothing will prevent him from reaching his goal. 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" and composed by Naoshi Mizuta. It is a prominent theme in Final Fantasy XIII-2, it and its variations playing whenever Caius appears.

Battle
Even in his human form, Caius is capable of casting 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-, Dying World -700 AF-, Academia -500 AF-, and Valhalla -??? AF-.

As Chaos Bahamut, Caius 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 will trigger various paradox endings.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Caius appears in the Japan-exclusive Final Fantasy trading card game published by Square Enix.

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.

Caius's 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 a direct or indirect reference to "chaos", for obvious reasons related to his persona and/or attacks.

Caius's 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 scene featuring him and Lightning during their battle in Valhalla, and also similar to 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, Kain Highwind from the DS version of Final Fantasy IV and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, and Cu Chaspel from Ring of Fates.
 * Caius putting Yeul to rest in the ocean in Valhalla at the start of Final Fantasy XIII-2 mirrors the scene where Cloud rests Aerith in the lake in the 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".
 * Some people in Academia 4XX AF will claim that they've seen "a man in black armor and a girl with green eyes" on the city's outskirts, clearly referring to Caius and Yeul. A boy who claims this says that the man must be "a bad guy", as only "bad guys" wear black.
 * When asked if Hope knows Caius in a Live Trigger scene in the Yaschas Massif 01X AF, he recalls reading about a man with the name of Paddra Ballad-Caius.
 * If the three battles against Caius activated by the Paradox Scope are counted separately from the six times he is fought during the story and during the Requiem of the Goddess DLC, Caius now holds the distinction of being the most recurring boss in a single Final Fantasy game, with a grand total of nine battles. The number increases to thirteen if one counts the four battles against Chaos Bahamut and Jet Bahamut. The previous record-holder was Final Fantasy X-2's Ormi, with seven battles.
 * In the Requiem of the Goddess DLC, Caius is seen frequently changing between Commando, Ravager, and Medic roles. Interestingly, these are also Lightning's primary paradigm roles in Final Fantasy XIII.