Adel

This article is about the Final Fantasy VIII'' character. For the Final Fantasy Tactics A2 character, see Adelle.''

Sorceress Adel (アデル, Aderu) is a minor antagonist in Final Fantasy VIII. She is a Sorceress who was once the ruler of Esthar for an unknown period of time. Though Adel is always referred to as a "she", her physical form is very masculine with a muscular frame with thick shoulders. Adel is also at least four times the size of the average person.

Appearance & Personality
One look at Adel and her most notable physical trait is obvious; she is very masculine. Possessing a torso more akin to a well built male there have been many debates concerning her gender. Her red hair is tied into a long plait down her back, and her clothing consists of a headpiece, a black skirt with frock, arm bands, and a metallic structure, reminding one of an armor (although this piece of clothing is often confused as being part of the multiple black tattoos that adorn her torso and therefore creating the impression of her not wearing something to cover up her upper body). Her skin is pure white and her eyes are of a crimson color matching her hair.

On her back, a set of her tattoos work together as a mirror-image of her wings. In the fighting sequence, the tattoo disappears and is replaced by an actual set of wings. Apparently, this happens whenever Adel summons her immense powers and intends to use them.

Adel's personality is mostly ignored throughout Final Fantasy VIII. She is actually quite the rarity in that even when she is finally resurrected and fights the party while junctioned to Rinoa, she says nothing to the player. She is said to be cruel, brutal, avaricious, power-hungry, and utterly ruthless. She has no morals and no sympathies; she is the epitome of pure evil. None of her actions in the game show anything more than this.

Story
Sorceress Adel rose to power in the country of Esthar during the time period between the destruction of the Centra Empire and the advent of the Sorceress War. Precisely how she became the ruler of Esthar is unknown, although Selphie Tilmitt mentions similarities between the rise of Edea Kramer and Adel in her diary. It can be assumed that Adel cooperated with the former head of Esthar before taking his place forcefully. Few details are known about her rule, because it is rarely mentioned in Final Fantasy VIII. This is unsurprising, considering that in the end, Adel's own people rebelled against her, and to this day refuse to speak of her in more than hushed voices. Although Estharians have never elaborated on the enormity of the cruelties Adel had performed, it may be inferred that her atrocities were truly horrendous.

Before game's events and before the time of the game's main characters' birth, Adel began what was to be known as the Sorceress War, when she pitted the forces of Esthar against Galbadia. Her reasons for doing this were never specified, but taking over Galbadia was presumably the first step towards a plan for total world domination. Galbadia, however, created a snag in her plans; rather than having allowed her to take control, Galbadia fought back fiercely. Instead of being conquered, Galbadia expanded its own power and became a dominant nation in its own right.

During the war two last-minute advances gave hope that Esthar would eventually achieve victory. First, one of Esthar's scientists, a brilliant but unbalanced man named Dr. Odine, stumbled upon the secret of junctioning magic and powerful creatures called Guardian Forces for human use. Dubbed "Junctioning", it allowed the attached human to tap into the powers of the Guardian Force and allowed him or her to cast a form of magic called "para-magic." Although a far cry from the powers available to a Sorceress, Para-Magic was still far beyond the ken of normal beings. Had Adel managed to Junction every Esthar soldier to a Guardian Force before the end of the Sorceress War, it is doubtful whether Galbadia could have endured her onslaught.

Secondly, Adel discovered the Crystal Pillar, a large pillar which controlled the periodic Lunar Cry. In fact, it was this device which had prompted the Lunar Cry that destroyed the Centra Empire 80 years ago. Realizing the destructive power she could harness by using the Lunar Cry as a weapon, Adel ordered that a special compound known as the Lunatic Pandora be built around the Crystal Pillar. The Lunatic Pandora served two purposes: it made the Crystal Pillar mobile, allowing Adel to choose the precise location of each Lunar Cry, and it amplified the Pillar's frequency emanations, causing the Cries prompted by the Pillar from inside the Pandora to be even more destructive. It is possible that Adel planned to use the Lunatic Pandora as a Trojan Horse, giving it to Galbadia as a peace offering just in time for the Lunar Cry to cause the country's utter annihilation. At the same time, however, Adel was beginning to feel her age, and knew that her time was nearing its end. Since a Sorceress must pass on her power to another upon death before he or she can rest, Adel realized that she must find herself a successor. To facilitate this, Adel ordered the mass kidnapping of hundreds of young girls, planning to choose one with the most potential and raise her to become the next tyrant of Esthar. It is likely that Adel's plan to create a Sorceress dynasty caused despair amongst the people, who had hoped Adel's death would be the end to the oppressive Sorceress regime.

Fortunately for everyone, it was in her search for an heir that Adel made her fatal mistake. The girl she chose was Ellone, the adopted daughter of Laguna Loire and Raine. Ellone, with her unique ability to send another person's consciousness back in time, appealed to a Sorceress looking for gifted girls. However, when Laguna, a former Galbadian soldier with a big heart, discovered Ellone had been kidnapped, he stopped at nothing to rescue her. Had Adel chosen another girl, Esthar might still be ruled by her today. However, Adel, being used to getting precisely what she wanted, refused to give Ellone up. Although Laguna may have been able to successfully steal Ellone back, he realized Adel would follow them indefinitely. Laguna realized the only way to save Ellone was to get rid of Adel entirely, and he joined the resistance. Because of her magical might, a physical assault was out of the question; no human alive could have possibly fought her and won. Therefore, the resistance came up with an alternative solution: If Adel could not be killed, perhaps she could be contained.

To this end, Laguna enlisted the help of his friends Kiros and Ward, as well as the scientific knowledge of Dr. Odine. Although initially loyal to the Sorceress, Odine's ultimate desire was simply to be left to his research. When he saw the turn of the tide coming, he joined the resistance to build a special cryo-containment device which would effectively bind the Sorceress's powers and place her in suspended animation. The resistance placed the device inside a building that would later become known as the Sorceress Memorial. Taking control of the Lunatic Pandora, resistance fighters moved it to the Sorceress Memorial. When Adel came to investigate, resistance members told her they believed Ellone was inside, ripe for Adel's taking. Much to the resistance's delight, the Sorceress took the bait. Although it is possible that Adel realized the story was a trap even before she walked into the Memorial, Adel trusted that her incredible power was enough to protect her from anything which might be waiting. When Adel entered the building, she found a facsimile of Ellone resting within the container, Laguna following close behind. Before Adel could regain her bearings, Laguna had pushed her backward into the device and the container snapped shut, binding her in thin golden cords, freezing her almost instantaneously, and releasing a gelatinous cooling and buffering agent which would protect the frozen Adel from outside penetration, hopefully preventing any stimulus from ever awakening the evil Sorceress again. The container, appropriately dubbed Adel's Tomb, was launched into space and brought to rest in orbit around the moon. It wasn't without side effects, however; Adel's Tomb caused the worldwide radio interference, which rendered most wireless technology useless for the next 17 years.

Although peace and tranquility returned to Esthar, the battle for freedom was not over. Seventeen years later the Sorceress Ultimecia managed to possess Rinoa Heartilly and reach the Lunar Base, thus gaining access to Adel's Tomb. Rinoa managed to deactivate the trap, freeing Adel from her prison, as Seifer Almasy started a Lunar Cry from the Lunatic Pandora. As monsters traveled down from the moon, Adel's Tomb was caught up in the boiling morass and brought down with them. She entered the Lunatic Pandora and slowly began to regain consciousness. As she did so, Ultimecia left Rinoa's body and possessed Adel's, which was the original reason for forcing Rinoa to unleash the powerful Sorceress to begin with.

Adel's reviving form was taken aboard the Lunatic Pandora, while Squall Leonhart and his allies make their way on board. Seifer kidnaps Rinoa and presents her to the possessed Adel, who junctions Rinoa to increase her powers. However, because her powers were not fully restored, Adel lost the battle against the SeeDs and was forever destroyed. Upon Adel's defeat Ultimecia left her mind and Rinoa was freed. With no other options, Adel transferred her powers to Rinoa and died.

Battle


Adel is fought at the start of Disc 4 in the Lunatic Pandora. Rinoa has been junctioned onto the Sorceress, forcing the player to not only be mindful about their choice of attack, but also ensure that Rinoa stays alive as Adel drains her life force in order to restore her own.

Etymology
Adel, like many other names that have "Adel" in them, has a meaning related to "noble" (it is also the Dutch, German, Norwegian and Swedish word for noble.) - most likely referring to her high status as the ruler of Esthar. It is also a uni-sexual name that can be given to either males or females.

Trivia

 * In the French version of the game, Adel is described as a hermaphrodite, with characters using both pronouns, "he" and "she", when they talk about the sorceress.
 * According to the Debug Menu, the FMV of Adel junctioning herself to Rinoa was going to be on Disc 3, so it is likely that Adel was going to be the Final Boss of Disc 3 instead of Seifer, but her boss fight and FMV were moved to Disc 4 likely due to lack of space on Disc 3. This would have kept with the pattern of ending each disc with a Sorceress battle.
 * Adel only speaks three lines throughout the entire game: "What is going on?" "Where?" and "You thought I would fall for that trick?" - however, on Squall's first visit to the Timber TV Station, several repeating phrases are shown on the huge screen, including "IAMALIVE" (I am alive), "IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETABOUTME" (I will never let you forget about me), and "BRINGMEBACKTHERE" (Bring me back there). These are undoubtedly the words of Adel, whose tomb in space is the cause of the worldwide radio interference down on the planet.
 * Previous to Adel, Sorceresses seem to have an innate element or magic type they specialize in; in Edea's case its Ice, and in Ultimecia's case its Time and Space. Adel does not have such an obvious magic affinity, however, due to casting so many non-elemental spells, Adel may simply be affiliated in Energy and high damage, non-elemental spells in general, which may explain the reason as to why she appears so masculine.

Adell