Eiko Carol

Eiko Carol, known as Little Girl for the short period before a name is selected, is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. She hails from Madain Sari on the Outer Continent. She has a horn on her forehead and can summon eidolons.

Appearance
Eiko has green eyes, a small summoner's horn on her forehead, and blue hair cropped above her shoulders with a ribbon tied into a large bow on top. She wears a red turtleneck and pink bodysuit, loose yellow pants that gather at the ankles, a yellow chest plate connected to a belt around her waist as part of the ornament wings she wears on her back, purple socks and white ankle boots. In Trance, Eiko's horn lengthens and turns sky-blue. Her hair and sleeves turn light green; her bow, chest plate, pants, and boots become white; and her turtleneck and bodysuit change to soft purple. Eiko's ornament wings also grow in size.

Personality
Eiko is spunky and snobbish, yet desperately lonely, having lived alone in Madain Sari with only moogles as her friends for most of her life. She develops a crush on Zidane Tribal and goes as far as to write a love letter to him, but snaps out of it after a while as her infatuation has more to do with not wanting to be alone than grown-up feelings. Eiko knows the world is vast, but is afraid to leave what she knows out of uncertainty and reverence for a promise she had made to her grandfather to not leave Madain Sari until get sixteenth birthday. Meeting Zidane and his friends allows Eiko to connect with the outside world and sparks a longing in her to leave Madain Sari and meet new people.

Story


The village of Madain Sari was once a thriving town populated by summoners. The Terran airship Invincible destroyed the town for Garland to remove the possible threat of Gaia's eidolons, and most of the community perished. Eiko's parents and several brothers and sisters were some of the last survivors, and after her parents and siblings perished as well, Eiko was raised by her grandfather. When he died Eiko was left to live in Madain Sari with the company of moogles. One of them, Mog, always travels with her, and the two traded friendship ribbons. She and Mog frequently steal food from the dwarves' town of Conde Petie.

During a raid Eiko is caught and meets Zidane along with Vivi, Garnet, and Quina. Delighted at the prospect of having company, Eiko offers to take Zidane and his friends to Madain Sari where she cooks them a meal to impress Zidane. She senses Zidane is in love with Garnet, and tries her best to steal his heart in hopes he would stay with her. She accompanies Zidane and his friends to the Iifa Tree, which was sealed with the eidolon Carbuncle. She breaks the seal and Eiko, Zidane, and the others go to the bottom of the Iifa Tree and fight the Soulcage whose defeat clears up the Mist Continent of Mist.

Eiko takes Zidane back to Madain Sari when a moogle tells her the village's precious stone has been stolen. The thief turns out to be Lani, the bounty hunter working for Queen Brahne of Alexandria to steal back Garnet's pendant, really a shard of a powerful summoning gem. Lani exalts at having found a similar stone from Madain Sari and holds Eiko prisoner, but is betrayed by her accomplice Amarant Coral and forced to flee.

After Zidane and Amarant duel, Eiko tells Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi about the precious stone and how her grandfather told her to keep it safe and to not leave Madain Sari until she is sixteen. Eiko decides to accompany Zidane anyway, taking the stone with her and wearing it as an earring. The party returns to the Iifa Tree where they meet Kuja who battles Brahne's fleet. Eiko helps Garnet find another eidolon, Leviathan, the eidolon that had been sealed at the tree, so Garnet could summon it to help her mother. Garnet cannot save her and, in the wake of the queen's death, is crowned the queen herself. Thus the fragments of a summoning gem Brahne had collected earlier pass on to Garnet's possession.

A week later the party is back in Alexandria for Garnet's coronation. Having never been to a city before Eiko tours Alexandria Castle and meets Doctor Tot. She asks him to help her write a love letter for Zidane, but on the way out trips over a banister and gets her wing ornament stuck onto a chandelier. She meets Baku, and, unable to free herself, asks him to deliver the letter.

Baku loses the letter and it falls into numerous hands, including those of Beatrix, Marcus, Blank, and Steiner, but never reaches its intended recipient. Steiner frees Eiko from the chandelier and escorts her out of the castle. The party visits Garnet, now the queen of Alexandria. As a sign of their bond as the world's final summoners, Garnet and Eiko share the fragments of the old summoning gem with both keeping two. After the audience Eiko is heartbroken when Zidane does not show up at the docks, even though the real reason is that Zidane never saw the letter.

The next day, Zidane travels to Treno to participate in a Tetra Master tournament. Eiko joins as well and spends some time telling Doctor Tot about Madain Sari. Mog tells her Alexandria is in danger and she summons Zidane to return there. They take Cid Fabool IX's Hilda Garde II, which is poorly designed due to Cid's mind not being the same as an oglop. While on the ship Eiko feels a sensation from atop Alexandria Castle, and flies to the roof to meet Garnet. They hold out the four jewels and summon Alexander who defeats Bahamut and forms a protective ring around Alexandria.

Kuja summons the Invincible to enslave Alexander, but Garland takes it over and destroys Alexander and Alexandria Castle. Zidane rescues Garnet and Eiko, though the latter is annoyed Zidane goes to Garnet first and that she is embracing him through her rescue. In Lindblum, Eiko discovers Garnet lost her voice due to the shock of witnessing Alexandria's obliteration. She stays with Steiner to take care of Garnet while Zidane and the others look for a way to transform Cid back into a human. They fail, turning Cid into a frog, and Eiko, Garnet, Steiner, Cid, and Quina join Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Amarant in search of Kuja.

They find him in his Desert Palace on the Outer Continent, and he traps everyone except Cid in prisons and threatened to kill them if Zidane does not bring him the Gulug Stone from Oeilvert. Zidane agrees but Kuja would not keep his promise. Cid saves the others, and Eiko leads the escape to Kuja's room for revenge (unless Zidane chose to take Eiko to Oeilvert, in which case another party member becomes the leader). They meet up with Zidane outside, and Zidane discovers Kuja has tricked him. The party enters his room, but Eiko is trapped outside and Zorn and Thorn abduct her.

Zidane and his friends follow Kuja's Hilda Garde I to Esto Gaza on the Lost Continent where they enter Mount Gulug and at its base discover Zorn and Thorn attempting to extract eidolons from Eiko even though she is too young to survive the ritual. Mog interferes and transforms into the eidolon Madeen, saving Eiko.

The jesters attack and Eiko fights them, using Madeen to annihilate the twins. The rest of the party arrives to confront Kuja, but he leaves and the jester twins' corpses transform into Meltigemini. After defeating Meltigemini, Eiko receives Mog's ribbon as a farewell gift.

When the party splits to simultaneously attack the four elemental shrines protecting the entrance to Terra, Eiko insists on teaming up with Garnet and uses the opportunity to ask her if she is in love with Zidane, with awkward results.

In Terra, a mysterious ancient world that exists on the inside of Gaia, Eiko explores until Zidane goes missing and the party teams up to find him. Eiko and Vivi are at Zidane's side when he awakes in Pandemonium, but in a depressive rage he calls them "stupid brats" and locks them in the room. Zidane comes to his senses and the reunited party witnesses Kuja enter Trance and kill Garland and decimate Terra, while the party returns to Gaia and finds it covered in Mist. The party travels to the beginning of all time in Crystal World to stop Kuja's evil schemes, and after returning they find the Iifa Tree writhing. Zidane chooses to stay in the collapsing Iifa Tree and save Kuja, while Eiko, showing concern for his safety, confesses her love for him before departing with the others.

Eiko is adopted by Cid and Hilda, becoming Lindblum's new princess. She is overjoyed at being a part of a family, going out of the way to calling her adoptive parents "Mother" and "Father." When Tantalus Theater Troupe returns to Alexandria to perform I Want To Be Your Canary for Queen Garnet Eiko is among the crowd to witness Zidane's return and reunion with Garnet.

Gameplay
Eiko is a White Mage, with a sub job as a Summoner. Her summons' attacks change depending on what add-on she has equipped. She is more of a supportive member of the party, although she learns the ultimate offensive White Magic spell late in the game.

Eiko has the lowest physical stats, but her initial stats will be the same as Marcus's when he leaves the party, meaning that if the player bothers to level up Marcus early on in the game, Eiko can potentially get the highest HP and MP of any character. This is known as the Marcus/Eiko Stat Bug.

Equipment
Eiko's equipment draw consists of female-exclusive equipment, mage robes, flutes, and rackets. When Eiko is equipped with a flute, her spellcasting sound effect is slightly different than the other characters'. As she appears to play the flute as her spellcasting animation, it appears she uses music to control her magic.

Support Abilities
Eiko learns abilities that enhance her skills as a White Mage and Summoner; Boost powers up her eidolons, and Concentrate her magic, and Half MP halves the MP cost of her spells and eidolons. Eiko is the only character to learn both MP+10% and MP+20%. Eiko is the first of the party to learn Auto-Regen. Her unique ability is Guardian Mog.

White Magic


Being the designated White Mage, Eiko's stock of White Magic is larger than Dagger's. She can use unique spells like Jewel, which extracts an Ore from an enemy, and Might, which increases a unit's attack power. She is the only main character who can use the powerful Holy spell (a temporary playable character, Beatrix can also use the spell). She lacks the Scan and Berserk spells found in Dagger's arsenal.

Eiko's Trance ability is Double White that allows Eiko to cast two spells in succession.

Eidolons
Eiko can summon four eidolons: Fenrir, Phoenix, Carbuncle, and Madeen. Equipping various add-ons allows her eidolons' abilities to change.

If Zidane and Dagger are in the party when Eiko summons an eidolon for the first time, they will exchange a dialogue mid-battle. Zidane will say "Dagger, was that an eidolon?", and Dagger will reply "I think so. Eiko can use magic too?" This resets everyone's turn regardless whether an action has been chosen or not.

Musical Themes
"Eiko's Theme" is a variation of "Melodies of Life" based on chord progressions (with no discernible melody) and set in the 6/8 time signature. A remix of the theme includes the song "Girl of Madain Sari," which plays while she wanders around Alexandria Castle at the beginning of disc 3, thinking of writing a love letter to Zidane.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call


Eiko appears as an unlockable character, and is unlocked by collecting Silver Crystal Shards.

She is a Defense and Support oriented character.

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

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Eiko is an ally and a summonable Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. She is depicted in her Final Fantasy IX outfit. Her EX ability is Carbuncle (Meteorite).

Ability Cards=


 * -|Legend Cards=

Final Fantasy Artniks
Eiko appears in Final Fantasy Artniks.

Final Fantasy All the Bravest


Eiko is an exclusive character only available from the Premium Character Shop as a random downloadable content, she summons Madeen during battle.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Eiko appears in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Eiko appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game and is represented in numerous Earth-elemental cards. She is depicted in a Final Fantasy IX FMV screenshot as well as her render and Yoshitaka Amano artwork, and her Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call appearance. The cards are Earth-elemental alluding to Eiko starting with Fenrir as her eidolon.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable
In Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable, she appears alongside Zidane. She may be summoned with chance cards "91" or "94" (The latter summons her and other two characters), she gives away suits if the player lands or passes by the space where she is. Healie (A Heal Slime from Dragon Quest) replaces her in later Itadaki Street Games.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special
In Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special, Eiko is one of the two Final Fantasy IX characters along with Vivi.

Lord of Vermillion Re:2
Eiko appears as a character in the sequel to Lord of Vermillion. She has the ability "W-White Magic", a reference to her Double White Trance.

Gunslinger Stratos 2
Eiko's costume was released on November 6, 2014.

Etymology
Hironobu Sakaguchi's wife's name is Eiko.

Trivia

 * If Zidane is not in the party, Eiko assumes the role of party leader. Most notably if she is not chosen to go to Oeilvert, she will lead the party in the Desert Palace. If Zidane is not in the party chosen to fight Necron, Eiko will give the speech before the battle.
 * Eiko's jewel is called the Memory Earring.
 * Eiko and Garnet are the only characters in the game with audible voices, as they are heard singing in cutscenes.