Cie'th

Cie'th (シ骸) [siːθ] is a term from Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. It refers to one of the two states that fall to a l'Cie; specifically to those who failed to complete their Focus in time.

Datalog
''When a fal'Cie takes a human to be one of its l'Cie servants, that person is given a Focus to be completed. Should the l’Cie fail to fulfill this Focus before his or her brand advances to its final stage, that l'Cie becomes a Cie'th.''

''Mired in eternal sorrow and regret, and robbed of all free will, Cie'th are damned to wander the world unliving and undying, until their corrupted flesh at last can move no more. For Cie'th, there is no salvation.''

Appearance and Personality
The Cie'th are best recognized by their crystalized and deformed appearance. While most of them are humanoid, a few of them being more monstrous. They do have however a sort of hand/arm motif asociated to them, as most of their most notable protusions are or resemble overly deformed-mutated arms. With some of them having a pair of hands covering where their "eyes" should be.

The Cie'th are the remains of a former l'Cie and have no conciousness or reason at all. They move purely on instinct and are known to be hostile towards living beings, which makes them widely feared as they also can wield magic. This is specially true to The Undying, a group of Cie'th whose hatred towards their former Fal'Cie masters, has made them all the more dangerous.

Only when they turn into Cie'th Stones, they do seem to show some of their former human selves, mostly their regret of failing their Focus and asking somebody to complete them in their stead so they can rest finally in peace.

Profile
A l'Cie, when chosen by the fal'Cie, is marked with an incomplete Brand; a tattoo-like inscription, when given a Focus. This Brand completes itself over time, working as a timer for the l'Cie to complete their Focus. Should the l'Cie fail or the time runs out, the l'Cie loses all the humanity within them and crystals cover and twist their body. Their heart is sealed in endless despair, a fate far more torturous than death. This fate is also the reason why becoming a l'Cie is considered a curse.

It is said that the rate at which a l'Cie becomes a Cie'th depends on their psychological state. The more panicked and distressed a l'Cie is while completing their Focus, the faster they will turn into a Cie'th. Over the course of the game, Fang reveals that as time runs out, their l'Cie mark sprouts more and more arrows and eventually an eye, and when the eye is fully opened, they are transformed.

Most Cie'th have no emotions, intelligence, or goals, they just live trapped inside their crystallized bodies. They have long claws instead of hands, but they retain the facial features of their past selves. A pulsating red light in their chest keeps them alive.

The fal'Cie who created them also seem to influence the appearance that the Cie'th become. The Cie'th of Pulse fal'Cie have what appears to be black, rough crystals formed all over their body, while the Cie'th of Barthandelus have mostly smooth, white crystals formed along their body.

It is shown that fal'Cie can transform humans instantaneously into Cie'th by assigning them no Focus at all, as shown by the Cavalry soldiers all transforming into Sacrifice Cie'th on the way to Orphan's Cradle. After the Day of Ragnarok, the Cie'th become scarce over time until they are nothing more than a memory. However, in one future in the year -400AF-, the Proto fal'Cie Adam uses Cie'th as its enforcers to wipe out any opposition to it.

Cie'th Stones
It is possible for Cie'th to still complete their Focus, in which case they would still transform into crystals. Over the course of years, the energy of a Cie'th may dry out, in which case it would turn into a crystalline tombstone, unable to move about anymore, but gaining the ability to communicate and ask others to complete their Focus for them. These Cie'th Stones can be found in abundance throughout Gran Pulse.

The Undying
There is a very powerful group of Cie'th known as The Undying, who have a unique appearance compared to the random Cie'th the player encounters. These Cie'th defy the will of the fal'Cie that made them into l'Cie and are filled with hatred because of it. They have an intense hatred for everything that lives. Completing a mission which has one of these Cie'th as a mark normally allow the player to access a previously closed-off area, except for the first and last marks which initiate and finish the series respectively.

Shambling Cie'th

 * Fomoire (XIII-2)
 * Ghast
 * Ghoul
 * Malebranche (XIII-2)
 * Sacrifice
 * Strigoi
 * Taxim
 * Vampire



Winged Cie'th

 * Cocytus (XIII-2)
 * Chonchon
 * Edimmu (XIII)
 * Nelapsi
 * Penanggalan (XIII)
 * Pijavica (XIII)
 * Varcolaci (XIII)
 * Wight (XIII)



Unusual Cie'th

 * Ispusteke (XIII-2)
 * Raktavija (XIII)
 * Seeker
 * Vetala (XIII)



The Undying

 * Attacus (XIII)
 * Bituitus (XIII)
 * Geiseric (XIII, XIII-2)
 * Gorgyra (XIII-2)
 * Mithridates (XIII)
 * Numidia (XIII)
 * Raspatil (XIII-2)
 * Syphax (XIII)
 * Vercingetorix (XIII)
 * Wladislaus (XIII, XIII-2)
 * Yomi (XIII-2)
 * Zenobia
 * Vaballathus (XIII-2)

Trivia

 * Cie'th are one of very few genuses which cannot be recruited into the party via Paradigm Pack system in Final Fantasy XIII-2; others are bosses.

Cie'th