Palom

Palom is a playable character in Final Fantasy IV. He is a Black Mage from Mysidia, and trains together with his twin sister, Porom. Palom is a casual show-off, even to adults, and refers to himself as "The Mysidian Genius" or "Prodigy." This, combined with his inflated ego, causes him to get a little out of hand, leading to Porom having to settle him down, either using words or by smacking him on the head.

Final Fantasy IV
Palom and Porom first meet Cecil Harvey when he visits Mysidia after being attacked by Leviathan. The Elder asks if they will accompany Cecil and help him on his quest to become a Paladin. However, the Elder also orders them to spy on Cecil to make sure he stays true to his word. They accompany him to Mount Ordeals, where they meet Tellah the sage, who is searching for the legendary magic Meteor to defeat Golbez. Tellah agrees to help them as well. Palom uses his magic to extinguish some fire blocking the route up the mountain. When they reach the top of the mountain, however, they are attacked by Scarmiglione of Earth, one of Golbez's Elemental Archfiends, but they are able to defeat him twice. After this, they arrive at a room full of mirrors, where Cecil overcomes the Dark Knight and becomes a Paladin.

Cecil, Tellah, Palom, and Porom return to Mysidia, where the Elder congratulates them. It is here Palom and Porom reveal to Cecil they were spying him, but he tells them they were well within their rights. The Elder opens up the Devil's Road that leads to Baron to stop Golbez. Palom and Porom, who are finished with their mission, ask if they can help Cecil as well. While the Elder is reluctant at first, he agrees to let them do so.

In Baron, the party enters Baron Castle via the Ancient Waterway after finding Yang. They meet up with Baigan there, who offers to help Cecil. However, Palom and Porom smell a monster in the area, and point Baigan out as the monster. Cecil's party then fights Baigan, and Palom and Porom warn Cecil to tread lightly around Baron. Cecil then proceeds to meet the king, who reveals himself to be an impostor and is infact Cagnazzo, the Archfiend of Water. After defeating him, Cagnazzo has one last trick up his sleeve. When the party tries to escape, the walls begin to cave in. Palom and Porom then save Cecil's party by casting Break on themselves. Tellah tries to heal them, but to no avail, as they have turned into stone of their own will. This act of sacrifice further strengthens the party's resolve to stop Golbez.

Palom and Porom are later healed by the Elder, who takes them to the battle with the Giant of Babil. After the battle, they pray at the Prayer Dais in Mysidia for Cecil. In the ending, Palom cuts his magic classes to flirt with a girl about his role in the story, specifically, the time he extinguished the fire on Mount Ordeals. Porom finds him and yells at him. When she brings him before the Elder, the Elder scolds him and gives him extra homework.

Final Fantasy IV Interlude
Palom, along with Porom, are present at the celebration of Damcyan's reconstruction. Eventually, they join Cid and Cecil when they go to check on the strange occurrences at the Sealed Cave, where they find a seemingly amnesiac Rydia, who is revealed to be an imposter at the Tower of Babil until the real Rydia reunites with them.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years


Since Tellah's passing, Palom aspired to follow in his footsteps. He is fed up with the Mysidian Elder treating him like a child in spite of being almost an adult. This causes a rift between him and Porom as he intends to leave the rigid Mysidia to travel abroad and become a Great Sage himself. In a flashback during Porom's Tale, taking place shortly after the ending to Final Fantasy IV, Palom sails with Porom to Kaipo to travel around the world like Tellah. They visit Tellah and Anna's gravesites, where he wonders if Anna is what their mother would have been like if they knew her. In the Underground Lake, the twins encounter the Cooler Mammoth and defeat it, much to Palom's satisfaction.

Several years later, Porom schedules a visit to see Rydia with Palom. Palom asks if Rydia can take them to the Feymarch for his training as a Sage. Rydia obliges, but after speaking with Asura and Leviathan, she cannot permit them to pass. Along the way, Palom ignores Luca's attention.

At the start of Palom's tale, he takes an assignment from the Mysidian Elder to train Leonora as an Epopt at the Tower of Trials near Troia. Palom later discovers the Red Wings have begun stealing the Crystals again. After crossing through the castle of Troia's underground waterway, he flees with Leonora and the Earth Crystal to the Lodestone Cavern, where the Red Wings are made to discard their metal weapons. Within the cavern's Crystal Chamber, they are attacked by the Dark Elf's spirit. After it transforms into a dragon and gains the upper hand, the Dark Elf is suddenly destroyed by Shiva, who was summoned by the Mysterious Girl. Palom teleports Leonora away from them, and casts Break on both himself and the Crystal. Leonora goes against Palom's wishes and returns to his side before the Mysterious Girl decides to break the stone to recover the Crystal. Leonora heals Palom's petrification, and reveals to him she was the girl he was flirting with at Mysidia many years ago, as seen during the ending to Final Fantasy IV. While Palom acknowledges Leonora is not the best Epopt, he says she still passes with flying colors as his partner. They band together in an effort to defeat the Mysterious Girl, but are frozen before losing possession of the Crystal.

Palom and Leonora are later rescued from Shiva by Rydia's party after Troia is defrosted, and are sent to the Falcon to recover. After the Mysterious Girl flees to the True Moon with the Crystals, they consequently join the party to put an end to the Creator's plans. In the True Moon's Subterrane, Palom eavesdrops on a conversation between Luca, Leonora and Porom. After Leonora admits she likes Palom, he remarks that women can be dangerous things. Following the defeat of the Creator, the party escape the True Moon. Palom is last seen in Mysidia with Porom, where the Elder grants them joint position as new leaders. Leonora visits them, who decides to abandon her Epopt position in order to spend more time with Palom to become a Sage.

Equipment and Stats
Palom is a Black Mage, and thus his stats are weighted toward magic. He can equip rods, daggers, bows, and arrows, as well as hats, tunics, hoods, and robes.

Final Fantasy IV
Palom can use Black Magic, and learns his spells at a faster rate than Rydia due to her focus on Summon magic. He learns every Black Magic spell in the game. In the DS release, he learns a few of his spells at different levels but still learns them faster than Rydia. Bluff boosts his Intelligence and thus the damage done by his Black Magic. In Final Fantasy IV Advance and The Complete Collection, the boost from Bluff stacks with several uses, increasing his Intelligence each time. In the DS release, Bluff only lasts a short time, typically for a turn or two. Palom can also use Twincast, which allows him and Porom to cast spells together. They can cast Pyroblast, Comet, and in the Game Boy Advance and PSP releases, they will cast Double Meteor if they are equipped with the Twin Stars.

The After Years
In The After Years, Palom retains his Black Magic and Bluff abilities. In a flashback he has Twincast, but during normal gameplay it is a Band ability learned in the True Moon's Subterrane. In the Depths, it is possible to teach Dualcast to Palom, Porom, or Leonora, but only one of them can learn it. Palom is the best Black Mage in the game in terms of pure spellcasting stats, being equal or better than Rydia and Leonora in most areas, the exceptions being their higher Spirit and Rydia's slightly higher speed. Compared to Golbez he lacks in HP, Strength and Stamina, but has significantly higher MP and Intelligence. Palom also learns his Black Magic faster than any of them.

Palom can use the following Band abilities:
 * A Little Black Magic: Palom (Black Magic) + Leonora (Black Magic)
 * Particle Bomb: Palom + Leonora (Event)
 * Twincast: Palom + Porom (Event)
 * Thunderstorm: Palom (Black Magic) + Rydia (Black Magic)
 * Makeshift Cannon: Palom (Black Magic) + Luca (Big Throw) + Ursula (Kick) + Ceodore (Attack) + Porom (White Magic)
 * Infinity: Palom (Black Magic) + Rydia (Black Magic) + Porom (White Magic) + Rosa (White Magic) + Leonora (White Magic)
 * Rapid Fire: Palom (Black Magic) + Ceodore (Attack) + Tsukinowa (Attack)
 * Tri-Disaster: Palom (Black Magic) + Rydia (Black Magic) + Leonora (Black Magic)
 * Break Breaker: Palom (Black Magic) + Porom (White Magic) + Cecil (Attack)
 * Palom in the Sky: Palom (Bluff) + Leonora (Black Magic) + Porom (White Magic) + Luca (Big Throw)
 * Ice Crush: Palom + Leonora + Luca (Event)

Although Thunderstorm can be peformed between Palom and Rydia during Porom's tale, it will not carry over and must be relearned during the Final Tale.

Musical Themes
Palom and Porom share a theme, which is simply called "Palom and Porom." An arrangement of the theme is found on the Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon album.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord
Palom can be summoned by Mira when purchased as downloadable content. He takes on his appearance from The After Years. Any number of copies of Palom can be summoned at once. He is the most powerful magic summon. His speed is Normal, and he takes up one slot when summoned. His ability is the Slow spell.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
A few cards depict Palom in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. One displays his SD art, while another features his CG render from the DS release.

Virtual World
Users in Square-Enix Members Virtual World community can make their character appear as Palom, as well as his sister Porom. However, his name is misspelled as "Parom."

Trivia

 * Palom and Porom make a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as tutors for the in-game manuals.
 * In Final Fantasy IX, a vendor in Lindblum is called "Polom's Action Figures". This could be a combination of both the twins' names, or an alternate romanization of Porom, since L and R are interchangeable in Japanese.
 * It is interesting to note that both Palom and Porom are seen wearing an identical amulet in their artwork, except that Palom's is red and Porom's is green. They still wear these in their art for The After Years.
 * In a developer's interview with Takashi Tokita about the The After Years, Tokita said that although he could not pick a favorite character, he was particularly fond of both Palom and Porom, with one of the reasons being that they have aged and evolved as characters since Final Fantasy IV.
 * Palom and Porom are the youngest playable Humans in the series.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII one of the major cities is named "Palumpolum", a reference to the twins.