Materia (Final Fantasy VII)

Materia are items in Final Fantasy VII. Materia allows a character to cast spells, Summons, use new commands, and have various other uses. Materia is crystallized Mako. Metaphysically, Materia calls upon the wisdom of the Ancients, Cetra, in order to manipulate nature itself. Sephiroth mentions that he and Hojo debated the nature of Materia in Cloud's story flashback in Kalm.

The ability in a piece of Materia comes to effect when placed in a slot in weapons or armor. Also, Command, Summon, and Magic Materia can be paired with Support Materia in order to gain synergies, through the use of linked slots in weapons and armor, that allow the character to add status effects and elemental damage to their weapons. The inverse is true for armor. In Crisis Core, it becomes possible to fuse Materia together with items. Why this is not possible in the original Final Fantasy VII is unexplained.

Types
There are 5 Types of materia, each with a different color.


 * Red - Summon Materia: Used to summon monsters to aid in battle.
 * Green - Magic Materia: Used to cast Magic spells, including Black, White, and status-inducing spells. Also affects Strength and Magic stats. Note that there are different shades of green denoting the types of magic in Crisis Core.
 * Yellow - Command Materia: Allows the use of extra commands in battle.
 * Blue - Support Materia: Can be linked to other Materia in order to enhance their effects.
 * Purple - Independent Materia: Various functions, including increasing stats and auto-abilities such as Cover.

Other Materia

 * There is a Black Materia in the game; however, this materia is unable to be used by the player. The Black Materia unleashes the Ultimate Destruction Magic, Meteor.
 * The White Materia, Holy, is also in the game, but again is unable to be used. Aeris has this materia hidden in her hair, and when she is killed, it falls into the water in the Forgotten Capital.
 * Enemy Skill Materia allows a character to learn attacks and spells only used by enemies, but only when the character is hit with the spell or attack while the Materia is equipped.
 * Master Materia is available for Command, Magic, and Summon Materia, and contains all of the Materia for that particular type.
 * In Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII there is also the "Protomateria." All that is known about it is that it keeps Chaos under Vincent Valentine's control, and that it was found and given to Vincent by Lucrecia Crescent.
 * In Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- there is a Summon materia which summons Zirconiade. It was implanted by Fuhito into Elfé's body, which allows her to have superhuman strength but is gradually consuming her.
 * In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- there is an incredibly enormous red Materia called "The Goddess Materia" which recides in the secret cave at Banora Village on top of the Goddess' statue. Genesis ends up using this Materia in order to transform himself into Genesis Avatar, and was rejected by the Goddess in his dream for using it selfishly for himself. It was also known as the "Gift of the Goddess".
 * In Final Fantasy Tactics, White Materia, Black Materia and Red Materia are artefacts that can be collected. Both are described with the following text:
 * ''These stones, developed by the ancient Saronians, are the result of experiments in storing knowledge within gems for later generations. They are said to enhance the abilities of the possessor.

Trivia

 * Although Red Materia is used for summoning in the original game and in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Kadaj uses a light blue Materia to summon Bahamut SIN in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
 * Also, Vincent uses Red Materia as his Fire Magic Materia in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, which would normally be dark green.
 * In Advent Children, Materia are shown as being several inches in diameter. In the original game, only Black and White Materia were so large.

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