Garnet Til Alexandros XVII

Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, alias Dagger and birth name Sarah, is the deuteragonist of Final Fantasy IX, and the heir of Alexandria in the 17th generation. Garnet notices a change in her mother, Queen Brahne, and seeks to escape Alexandria Castle.

Hiding her identity while traveling with Zidane, Garnet takes the alias Dagger, inspired by Zidane's weapon. Initially polite and soft-spoken, Garnet matures during her travels, eventually resolving to use her powers as a summoner to protect her kingdom.

Appearance
Garnet has long, dark brown hair in a low ponytail with a blue clip. After she cuts her hair it becomes chin-length. She has brown eyes and fair skin. Garnet's casual attire is a white bell-sleeved blouse under a skin-tight, sleeveless orange jumpsuit with corset lacing in the front and back and large white buckles on the thighs. She wears a pair of red leather gloves and red ankle boots, and a black choker and a large crystal suspended from a long silver pendant.

When escaping Alexandria Castle Garnet wears a short white cloak identical to the iconic White Mage robe, with a large hood, red triangles along the hood and waist, and red cuffs. Her formal attire is a long white strapless gown decorated with green leaves from chest to waist. She wears a gold hair ornament, detached sleeves, a silver crown embedded with green jewels, and a green jeweled necklace. When Garnet enters Trance, her hair turns blonde, her skin turns pink with white glyphs along her legs, and her outfit transforms into a white leotard with a low neckline and light green sleeves and boots.

Personality


Initially she is self-deprecating and blames herself for events beyond her control, and relies on others. Garnet states she wants the power to summon eidolons so she can better defend her kingdom and her companions. Through Zidane's influence, Garnet learns to act in a more commonplace way, and endeavors to "blend in." She changes her speech patterns from overly formal to more casual, and as Zidane teaches her more about the outside world, she falls in love with him. Garnet can be naive, perhaps due to her sheltered life within Alexandria; for example, she is shocked at some of the more unwholesome sights at Treno. Despite her sheltered upbringing, Garnet is quick-thinking and finds ways to outwit others to pursue her goals, and eventually matures into a more assertive individual.

Story
Garnet was called Sarah while she lived in Madain Sari as part of a summoner tribe. Like all summoners, she had a horn on her forehead. When Garnet was six she and her mother, Jane, escaped Madain Sari by boat when the Invincible attacked the town, but her mother was killed.

Garnet washed ashore in Alexandria where she was discovered by the king. She looked almost identical to Princess Garnet who had died not long before from illness, with the exception of the horn. The king ordered the horn removed and that she become a replacement princess. Garnet was raised as the Princess of Alexandria, having lost all memories of her early years. She was told she had always lived in Alexandria Castle and, believing it, thought Queen Brahne was her mother.

When she was seven years old, Doctor Tot became her tutor. Garnet took to literature, Lord Avon's I Want to be Your Canary being her favorite. When she was ten, Garnet met Cid Fabool IX, the regent of Lindblum, in the king's funeral.

When Garnet was 15 years old, she began to worry over a change in Queen Brahne and Tot stopped tutoring her. Garnet wanted to seek aid from her "uncle Cid," but knew her mother would not let her leave the castle alone. Her chance comes on her sixteenth birthday when the Tantalus Theater Troupe arrives in Alexandria to perform I Want to Be Your Canary.

Unbeknown to her, Cid has asked Tantalus to kidnap her. She goes along with the plan and joins with Tantalus as they escape Alexandria but amid the escape, Steiner — the captain of the Knights of Pluto — and the black mage Vivi, are taken along with her. The Tantalus Theater Ship is damaged by a Bomb and they crash-land into the Evil Forest where Steiner cooperates with the Tantalus kidnappers to save Garnet from the forest's monsters.

After escaping the Evil Forest Garnet struggles to hide her identity as the Princess of Alexandria. As a precautionary measure before entering the village of Dali, she adopts the alias of "Dagger", taking the name from Zidane's weapon. Upon entering the village Zidane tutors her in common speak, a task Garnet struggles with, often addressing the townspeople in an overly formal manner. Zidane and Garnet stumble upon a secret underground factory while looking for Vivi and discover Alexandria is manufacturing black mages, which greatly concerns Garnet.

The group hijacks the cargo ship delivering black mages to Alexandria, and while Zidane and the others battle Black Waltz 3, whom Queen Brahne had sent out to retrieve Garnet's royal pendant—really a fragment of a valuable summoning gem—Garnet takes the reins of the ship and steers it through the South Gate to Lindblum region.

Upon arriving in Lindblum Castle Garnet is eager to meet with her uncle, Regent Cid Fabool IX, insisting they discuss Queen Brahne's new ambitions. Zidane overhears Garnet singing ""Melodies of Life" from atop the castle, but when Zidane asks where she learned the song she cannot remember.

Cid refuses to take major action against Alexandria, and orders Garnet to remain in Lindblum for her safety. Garnet resolves to visit her mother and poisons the food of everyone except for herself and Steiner with sleeping weed. They leave for the South Gate where Steiner hides Garnet in a burlap sack to avoid detection, and she uses the nauseous odor of Gysahl Pickles to discourage others from opening the bag. At the summit station the pair meets Marcus on a quest to cure Blank who was petrified along with the Evil Forest. Garnet feels responsible for what happened, and wants to help, and they enter Treno together and infiltrate a scholar's mansion to find a Supersoft. The house turns out to be Doctor Tot's who is delighted to see Garnet again, and hands over the Supersoft willingly. He tells they can return to Alexandria Castle via the Gargan Roo.

They reach Alexandria but Garnet is betrayed by Queen Brahne who orders the jesters Zorn and Thorn to extract her eidolons. The summons Odin, Atomos and Bahamut are later used by the Queen and Kuja to decimate other kingdoms and steal parts of Alexander's summoning gem from the nations of the world.

Brahne orders the princess killed when she no longer deems her useful, but she is rescued by Zidane's party with General Beatrix's aid. The party escapes Alexandria via the Gargan Roo, and Garnet is conflicted over her mother's untrustworthiness and the eidolons within herself. When the party's Gargant crashes at Pinnacle Rocks Garnet meets the eidolon Ramuh. She casts aside her fear of the eidolons and Ramuh becomes the first eidolon she is likely to summon. The party decides to hunt down Kuja who is behind Brahne's manufacturing of black mages in Dali and incited the will in her to conquer Mist Continent, and leaves for the Outer Continent.

On the Outer Continent the party venture into Conde Petie where they discover only married couples may embark further toward the dwarves "sanctuary", the Iifa Tree. Garnet and Zidane partake in the ritual to gain passage to the Conde Petie Mountain Path. Garnet's roots in the summoning arts are explored when they meet Eiko Carol, the last survivor of the summoners' village, who leads them to the ruins of Madain Sari. Garnet discovers her true past and birthrights, and finds Eiko also knows the tune to "Melodies of Life." With Eiko's help they kill Soulcage at the bottom of the Iifa Tree and stop the flow of Mist.

Queen Brahne's attempts to dispatch Kuja, whom she no longer deems useful to her, with Bahamut. Her attempt backfires when Kuja takes control of the eidolon and leaves her for dead on the beach. Garnet comforts her adoptive mother while she dies on the shores of the Outer Continent apologizing for her deeds and asking Garnet for forgiveness. The party returns to Alexandria where Garnet is to become the new Queen. She is to remain in the castle while her friends depart.

The festivities surrounding her coronation are short-lived; Kuja returns to Alexandria with Bahamut who attacks the city. Garnet joins with Eiko to summon the eidolon Alexander, the protector of Alexandria, by bringing the fragments of its summoning gem together. Alexander defeats Bahamut, but Garland uses the Invincible to obliterate Alexander and much of Alexandria; the resulting shock renders Garnet mute as she is guilt-ridden for failing to protect her kingdom.

More determined than ever to hunt Kuja down the party follows him to his home at Desert Palace, but Kuja escapes. Afterwards Zidane finds Garnet in Alexandria, mourning at the grave of her adoptive mother. Garnet breaks her silence by telling Zidane she will fight for her kingdom. She takes Zidane's dagger and cuts off her ponytail, perhaps seeing this as a way of moving on with her life. Garnet resolves to carry on to pursue to Kuja with the others, and seeks to follow him to the alien planet of Terra where Kuja is said to hail from.

To open the path to Terra the party must activate four shrines and Garnet and Eiko venture to the shrine of water where Eiko hints that she knows Garnet has feelings for Zidane. After finding their way to Terra Garnet glimpses the Terran battleship Invincible and recovers some of her childhood memories from when the ship destroyed Madain Sari, passing out. While the others stay to look after her, Zidane wanders off alone and becomes distraught over discovering his role as the pawn for the ruler of Terra, Garland. His friends follow his trail to Pandemonium where Garnet helps him come to his senses by reminding him that he is not alone and that he has friends who want to protect him as he has protected them. Together they decide to stop Garland and Kuja's evil plans.

Later, the party may return to the ruins of Madain Sari to read the message on the Eidolon Wall and discover Garnet's birth name.

After Kuja and the embodiment of death Kuja's hatred of the world summons, Necron, are defeated, Zidane returns to Kuja's body in the collapsing Iifa Tree and goes missing. Garnet returns to Alexandria alone to rule, but cannot forget Zidane. Sometime later, Tantalus comes to Alexandria to perform I Want to be Your Canary in honor of the Queen. The actor supposed to be Marcus throws off his cloak at the play's climax, revealing himself to be Zidane. Garnet runs into the crowd, throws her crown aside, and leaps into Zidane's arms in tears. Garnet and Zidane embrace in front of the applauding spectators, and she asks him how he survived. Zidane responds he sang her song, but is corrected by Garnet saying that it's their song.

Gameplay
Dagger is primarily a Summoner with a secondary job as a White Mage. She acts as the party's healer for the beginning portion of the game before Eiko joins the party. She is placed in the back row by default. As a mage-type character, her physical capabilities are poor. She is first called "Garnet" in battle, but after changing her name she is called "Dagger" for the remainder of the game.

Stat-wise, she's only second to Vivi regarding Magic and MP, while being stronger physically and having more HP. Garnet has one of the best speed of all characters, coming just after Zidane and Amarant. At level 1 she has 70 HP, 46 MP, 14 Magic Stones, 23 Magic and 17 Vitality.

Equipment


Dagger uses rods and magical rackets as weapons. Rackets are long-range weapons allowing her to attack from the back row with normal damage, although due to her poor physical stats Dagger's physical attack is weak. She can equip jewels to learn new eidolons, and equips mage-type armor.

She starts with a Rod and Silk Shirt.

Support Abilities
Dagger's passive abilities enhance her capabilities as a mage and a healer. They include MP raising abilities; Healer, that lets her heal with her physical attacks; Chemist that doubles the potency of healing items; Reflect-Null that lets her spells pierce the Reflect status; Concentrate that boosts the power of spells; Half MP; and Boost, that guarantees the longer summoning of an eidolon, which is always more powerful than the short summon.

Her unique ability is Odin's Sword that assures that when Odin is summoned and the enemies are immune to Zantetsuken's instant death, they take damage.

White Magic
Dagger is the player party's first white mage, but her array comes second to Eiko's who joins later. Dagger can use some status magic and the basic curative and supportive spells. She learns Life, but not Full-Life; Panacea but not Esuna; and Protect, Shell and Reflect, but not Regen, Haste or Might. Her unique spells are Scan, Berserk and Confuse.

Eidolons
Compared to Eiko, Dagger has a wider array of eidolons, but in return, Eiko has more White Magic spells. Dagger's eidolon pool is more powerful since she can summon both Bahamut and Ark. Dagger can summon all eidolons up to Bahamut since the beginning of the game, but the spells require so much MP her level would need to be substantially higher than it is likely to be so early in the game. Later, when Dagger re-acquires the eidolons she lost, the MP cost for summoning them is divided by four. She knows Shiva, Ifrit, Atomos, Odin, and Bahamut when she first joins.

While Dagger is in Trance, her Summon command becomes Eidolon and the summoned eidolon reappears randomly after being called, as well as acting as a counter attack. As long as Dagger has some Trance bar remaining, the counter attack can last until the end of the battle, as it won't use MP. When Dagger uses the Eidolon command during Trance, there is a higher chance of getting a full summoning animation which will inflict more damage. The random summons thereafter, however, always have the short summon animation and thus are weaker. Dagger loses the ability to Trance during the time she is going through emotional turmoil, but recovers after she cuts her hair.

Musical Themes
"Garnet's Theme" first plays during her and Doctor Tot's flashback to her younger days. A variant of the theme plays when she cuts her hair. Additionally, the theme is interwoven into the main melody of "Melodies of Life", the theme of her romance with Zidane.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Garnet makes a cameo in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals, explaining equipment alongside Steiner.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy


Garnet appears in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy as a purchasable character in the iOS release.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Garnet returns as an unlockable character, and is unlocked by collecting White Crystal Shards.

She is a Defense and Support oriented character.

Pictlogica Final Fantasy
Garnet appears in Pictlogica Final Fantasy as a playable character.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Garnet is an ally and a summonable Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. She is depicted in her FFIX outfit and her Trance form. Her abilities are Eternal Darkness and Judgement Bolt. Her EX abilities are Atomos, Holy and Megaflare.

Ability Cards =


 * -|Legend Cards =

Final Fantasy Artniks
Garnet appears in Final Fantasy Artniks.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Garnet appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game with cards of the Aqua and Shine elements. In her Aqua cards she is depicted in a screenshot from a Final Fantasy IX FMV, in her official render and her Theatrhythm Final Fantasy artwork. In her Shine card she is depicted in her Yoshitaka Amano artwork.

Etymology
Garnet's birthday is in January.

Garnet's true name is Sarah, in a series' tradition where princesses have that name.

Trivia

 * Garnet is the only character, besides Zidane, who is controlled on the world map during a portion of the game.
 * Garnet's name was mistyped as "Princess Garnet Til Alexanderos 17th" on the now defunct PlayOnline section of the North American Squaresoft website.
 * In a cutscene of Dissidia Final Fantasy, Zidane briefly references Garnet when he talks with Firion, guessing the latter's purpose being to rescue his princess, after Firion says "The Wild Rose".
 * As one of the many references to earlier games in the series present in Final Fantasy IX, Garnet's real name "Sarah" alludes to Princess Sarah.
 * In the FMV where Eiko jumps from the Hilda Garde II to join Garnet and summon Alexander, Garnet's eyes are miscolored blue.
 * Garnet is referenced in Final Fantasy XIII-2 in the chocobo races as a possible name for a non-recruitable chocobo participating in the races may be called "Royal Summoner".
 * Garnet and Eiko are the only characters in the game with audible voices as they are heard singing in cutscenes.