Dycedarg Beoulve

Dycedarg is the archetypical Machiavellian anti-hero of Final Fantasy Tactics, driven by his own desires and accomplishing them through any means necessary -- devious or otherwise. In doing so, but not particularly caring, he is the only Beoulve who dishonors his family name. Cold-hearted only through his pursuit of power, he is often misjudged by many players of the game as being a complete sociopath who has a natural proclivity to kill -- but, like the real-life person he can be compared to, Richard III of England, the way he achieves his goals overshadows the real person. To that end, it his unabashed goal to become king.

Controversy Over Father's Death
Dycedarg became the leader of the Hokuten Knights during his father Balbanes' illness (see below), though he later complied with the latter's wishes and stepped down in favor of his younger brother, the Arc Knight Zalbag. Both a skilled magician and fencer -- earning the title of Lune Knight -- he is also an excellent diplomat, helping negotiate the final treaties that ended the ruinous Fifty Years' War that Ivalice fought against the nation of Ordallia in the east.

The fact that Dycedarg murdered his father is clouded by alternate interpretations. Though not outrightly stated in the game, it could be that Dycedarg finished off Balbanes, his father, because he had been suffering from "the long illness" mentioned in his in-game bio -- thus being coldly merciful and self-serving at the same time. It could alternately argued, however, that "the long illness" was actually Dycedarg using Mosfungus poisoning over a long period of time -- if this scenario is correct, Dycedarg is made to look like the cold-blooded, patricidal megalomaniac that so many players of Final Fantasy Tactics believe him to be.

In this vein too, it could be said that his close friendship with Prince Larg is one of convenience; using Larg for his own ends, while the former remains completely unwitting to the other's machinations. At any rate, is certainly true that Dycedarg goes along with all of Larg's plans, including the kidnapping of Princess Ovelia -- as evidenced by the excellent in-game quote of, "Someone has learned of our plan, and is trying to stop us."

Role in the Destruction of the Death Corps
A few months before the kidnapping of the Princess, he is vexed, like all high-ranking Hokuten officials (Dycedarg himself is the leader of Gallione), with wishing to get rid of the anti-aristocratic, Mafia-like Death Corps, led by a renegade knight of exceptional skill, Wiegraf Folles, and his sister, Miluda. To accelerate the Death Corps' demise, Dycedarg pays a Death Corps fencer -- probably promising clemency along the way -- named Gustav Margueriff, to kidnap Marquis Elmdor, the leader of Limberry, and thus create an excuse to declare all-out war on the Death Corps, and in doing so, wiping them out for good. Zalbag, unaware of Dycedarg's plans, expresses confusion in a brief meeting with his youngest brother, Ramza, a Limberrian cadet named Algus, and Ramza's best friend Delita as to why the Death Corps would suddenly stoop to kidnapping.

Ramza, for his part, is spurred on by a cadet he and Delita rescue on the Mandalia Plains named Algus (mentioned previously) to rescue Marquis Elmdor, the latter's liege. Following clues from an interrogated Death Corps captain captured in Dorter Trade City (on the trail of a missing spy from Gallione), they trace the hostage Elmdor to a basement underneath the ruins of a desert settlement -- the famous "Cellar of the Sand Rat." There, Gustav is killed in a duel with Wiegraf, and the latter lets Elmdor free -- knowing full-well that Dycedarg's sacrificing of Elmdor was meant to destroy the Death Corps itself.

Dycedarg becomes furious at Ramza, obstentiably for disobeying his orders and leaving his assigned sentry-posting at Igros Castle, but more likely because his plot was foiled. Larg, making a timely entrance while Dycedarg is berating Ramza, mentions to Dycedarg after the latter leaves (on assignment to find an abandoned fisherman's fort off the coast of Gariland Magic City that has become a major Death Corps base) that both of them were once eager young cadets, like Ramza and Delita were. He also assures Dycedarg that Ramza might have ended up turning the tide against the Death Corps even more so -- which, it turns out, he most certainly did.

Shortly thereafter, in fact during the same time as Ramza's successful sack of the aforementioned Thieves' Fort, Golagros Lavine (a Death Corps knight) tries to assassinate Dycedarg but fails, and tries to kidnap his younger sister Alma before Zalbag intervenes. He succeeds, however, in kidnapping Alma's best friend (and, significantly, Delita's sister and only surviving relative) Teta, and while Dycedarg promises Delita that he will make every effort to find her, he allows Algus a free hand to kill both Teta and Golagros at the Battle of Fort Zeakden, in order to finally quash the Death Corps for good.

Outbreak of the Lion War
Three months later, Dycedarg hires a Dark Knight named Gaff Gafgarion to kidnap Ovelia and blame it on the Nanten, the rival knight-force of the Hokuten -- thus providing an excellent casus belli for the Hokuten to declare war and put Prince Orinas, supposed son of the late king of Ivalice, on the throne -- and so, of course, putting Dycedarg and Larg as the powers behind the new monarchy. Larg, as Prince Orinas' uncle (he is Queen Ruvelia's brother), would be appointed in such a case -- giving him immense power over the whole of Ivalice.

Dycedarg's animosity toward Ramza reaches a high point by this time, and he informs Gafgarion to kill Ramza if he happens to get the way. He makes this pronouncement over a glass of wine in his office, Gafgarion standing at attention -- characteristic of Dycedarg's usual cold-as-ice persona.

During the actual kidnapping, Agrias Oaks, a Holy Knight in charge of defending Ovelia, berates Lezales, the leader of the troop trying to perform the actual kidnapping -- "Prince Goltana is such an idiot -- does he want to start a war?!" Ironically enough, this is exactly what happens: the plot to kidnap Ovelia ends in disaster, and in fact backfires spectacularly. Goltana, leader of the petty principality of Zeltennia, on the Ordallian border, had in his service the kidnapper himself, Ramza's boyhood friend Delita, who takes Ovelia back to him. Shortly thereafter, King Omdoria dies.

Murder of Prince Larg
Larg marches the Hokuten on Lesalia, the imperial capital, and enthrones Orinas becoming Regent of Ivalice in the process. Goltana, however, his reputation so recently sullied by being framed for the kidnapping of the princess, also marches on Lesalia and, seeking to become a power behind the throne and clean up his image, enthrones Ovelia. This conflict is the starting point of the devestating "Lion War," so-called because of the two lions crests figuring on Larg and Goltana's respective coat-of-arms.

Delita, endearing himself to Prince Goltana by ratting out a treacherous minister in Goltana's council named Gelwan, recommends the Nanten march and capture the Queen Mother Ruvelia, and imprison her in the impregnable fortress of Bethla Garrison. The Nanten succeed -- only to have the Hokuten under Zalbag also march on Bethla, in order to liberate the Queen Mother and disrupt the Nanten enough to claim victory.

Both armies are debilitated by the spraying of Mosfungus poison by the disgraced engineer, Balk, and high atop a sentry tower overlooking the bloody battles below, Zalbag comes across Dycedarg and Larg. Much to his horror, Dycedarg, affecting his plan to remove Larg and move in on the Regency himself -- thus becoming that much closer to the Ivalian kingship -- stabs Larg in the stomach with a small dagger, which he instructs Zalbag to place in the hand of a dead Hokuten knight to make it look like the latter was a Nanten spy -- thus pinning the assassination as the Nanten's fault.

Larg, hacking up blood in his last moments, bitterly lashes out at Dycedarg for being a patricidal traitor -- in effect explicitly accusing that Dycedarg was personally responsible for Balbanes' death. Passing out from the Mosfungus toxin in his system, Dycedarg never leaves an explanation, much to the chagrin of the thunderstruck Zalbag.

One With Adramelk
Later, recovering from the mild Mosfungus poisoning, Dycedarg meets the Glabados Sect of the Murond Church's envoy, a mysterious and sinister knight named Rofel Wodring, to negotiate with the Hokuten. During the conversation -- which Zalbag overhears, to his horror -- Rofel cooly references to the fact that Dycedarg was skilled in poisons, and that Balbanes died with symptoms similar to Mosfungus poisoning. Dycedarg sits in uncomfortable silence, never revealing whether or not he committed patricide, as Rofel offers him the Capricorn Zodiac Stone as proof of the Church's good intentions.

Appalled, and not sure what to believe, Zalbag sets off to find the truth -- and is horrified to find mushrooms poking out his father's grave. A local chemist identifies the mushroom as Mosfungus, and Zalbag, distraught, sets out to avenge both Larg and his fathers death.

Dycedarg, Capricorn Stone in hand though unaware of its vile supernatural powers, fights Zalbag in a duel with Ramza eventually helping. Zalbag defeats him, but as he is dying, the Capricorn Stone takes over, transforming him into the Lucavi demon Adramelk. Adramelk then wipes out the Hokuten knights that were originally defending him and then kills Zalbag and attacks Ramza. Ramza prevails however, and with the destruction of Adramelk, Dycedarg also perishes.