Alexandria Castle

Alexandria Castle is a location in Final Fantasy IX. The castle is situated within the city of Alexandria and is the most prominent landmark of the area. It is the home of the royal family.

The castle is surrounded b a deep water moat and is reached from the town by a gondola. Alexandria Castle is an expansive palace, containing kitchens, libraries, and a special balcony from which royalty observe performances such as I Want to be Your Canary. Rising from its centre is a gargantuan crystalline sword. Compared to the modern machinery and engine-driven transport available in Lindblum, Alexandria's style is of medieval decorations, replete with spiral staircases and lofty stone towers. The castle is also connected to the ocean by a little underground waterway, where boats can come in.

The castle has a vast dungeon, containing many old defense mechanisms such as a hidden passage and revolving platforms. The deepest room of the catacombs contains links to both an ancient ritualistic room, and a connection to Gargan Roo.

Story
Tantalus Theater Troupe comes to Alexandria to perform I Want to be Your Canary for Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII's sixteenth birthday. As the princess and the queen, Brahne Raza Alexandros XVI, watch the play from the castle balcony, two members of Tantalus, Blank and Zidane, sneak into the castle in the aftermath of a sword fight that is part of the play. The two plan to kidnap the princess as per orders from Regent Cid Fabool IX of Lindblum, who wants to take Garnet away from her deranged mother. Unbeknownst to them Garnet plans to escape to Lindblum herself and puts her plan to motion to sneak aboard Tantalus's Theater Ship. She runs into Blank and Zidane in the castle hallway and runs off. The captain of the royal guard, the Knights of Pluto, Adelbert Steiner, pursues Blank and Zidane in his attempt to "save" the princess from them. When Garnet is caught by the two she asks them to kidnap her, and Zidane gladly takes up on her request. They escape the castle and get on-board the Theater Ship, and manage to escape to Evil Forest, but happen to take both Steiner and the young black mage Vivi with them.

Later on Garnet decides to come back to the castle to speak with her mother, after finding out that Alexandria is producing black mage soldiers in Dali. Brahne orders Garnet detained and Zorn and Thorn to extract her eidolons, while Steiner and Marcus, who accompanied Garnet's return to the castle, are thrown to the dungeon. Steiner and Marcus escape the dungeon and Marcus leaves for the Evil Forest, while Steiner meets up with Zidane, Freya and Vivi who have come to rescue Garnet. They make their way to the castle dungeons where they find Garnet in deep sleep from a sleeping spell, her eidolons having been extracted by Zorn and Thorn. They take Garnet's listless body with them and begin to escape the castle, but run into General Beatrix who fights and defeats them. When seeing Garnet's condition Beatrix finally realises the extent of the queen's insanity and vows to protect the princess. Beatrix wakes Garnet from her sleeping spell. Garnet, Zidane and Vivi escape the castle via a hidden underground passage known as the Gargan Roo, while Beatrix, Steiner and Freya stay behind to secure their escape. Queen Brahne uses the eidolons she extracted from Garnet to attack other nations on the Mist Continent and then travels to the Outer Continent where she is struck down by Kuja and Bahamut. After the queen's death Garnet is crowned the new queen and takes residence in Alexandria Castle. While the others travel to Treno to take part in the Treno card tournament, Alexandria is attacked by Kuja who summons Bahamut on the city while Garnet watches on in horror from the castle balcony. After giving out orders to the knights Garnet is left alone in the castle and begins to hear the summoner's call from the eidolon Alexander. Not knowing what it is, Garnet follows the voice she hears to the top of the castle where she is joined by Eiko Carol, a young summoner girl who joined the party on the Outer Continent. They join hands and summon Alexander, which emerges and shields the entire castle in angel wings, then proceeds to destroy Bahamut. At this point Garland arrives on the Invincible and destroys Alexander, shattering the crystal sword in the center of Alexandria Castle and leaving the castle in ruins.

Reconstruction work begins straight away, and by the end of the game when Tantalus returns to Alexandria to perform I Want to be Your Canary, it appears to have been restored to its former glory.

Locations
The guardhouse is the dressing room for the Knights of Pluto. A poster on the wall lists each knight's proficiency; memorizing the list comes to use when giving the knights their battle orders in disc 3. The room has a moogle to save the player's game.
 * Guardhouse

The castle balcony overlooks the city of Alexandria. This is where the monarch sits when watching plays performed by Tantalus. The player can obtain an item here from the queen in the beginning of the game if they speak to her as Steiner.
 * Balcony

The castle kitchen is occupied by many chefs, among them, Quina Quen, who can be spotted working in the kitchen near the beginning of the game.
 * Kitchen

The castle library holds one of the most ancient collections of books in the world, including an original Lord Avon script for I Want to be Your Canary. When she was young, Princess Garnet was schooled here by Doctor Tot. One of the books in the library is cursed, and summons the boss Tantarian.
 * Library

This is where visitors arriving from the town come to the castle, by crossing the water moat with a gondola operated by a castle guard. The Knights of Pluto patrol the courtyard.
 * Courtyard

Treasures
Disc 1
 * The queen gives an item if spoken to as Steiner, but the item received depends on the score the player attained in the sword fighting minigame (see below).

Disc 2
 * Ice Brand
 * Tent

Disc 3
 * Elixir (round up all Pluto Knights as Steiner)
 * Phoenix Down x2
 * Phoenix Pinion
 * While Garnet is giving orders to the Knights of Pluto in Disc 3, depending on the accuracy of orders an item is received (see below).

Obtaining an item from the queen
(Disc 1)
 * Ether
 * Elixir
 * Silk Shirt
 * Moonstone
 * ??? Gil

Only one of the above can be obtained. To get the Moonstone, Zidane and Blank must impress 100 Nobles during the swordfight scene. The gil varies depending on how well the fight went.

Rounding up the Knights of Pluto
Early in the game during the performance of I Want To Be Your Canary, the player has the option to find all the Knights of Pluto as Steiner. Locating them all and reporting to Brereicht in the left tower will earn an Elixir.


 * Blutzen, Pluto Knight II - The first super sleuth, was ambushed by Blank and Zidane and his armor was stolen
 * Kohel, Pluto Knight III - The second super sleuth, was ambushed by Blank and Zidane and his armor was stolen
 * Laudo, Pluto Knight IV - The Writer, found in the library
 * Dojebon, Pluto Knight V - The Artilleryman, a bit of a klutz, he runs straight into Steiner at one point
 * Brereicht, Pluto Knight VI - The knight who is exercising in the left tower, he knows all the knights and what they do best
 * Weimar, Pluto Knight VII - The knight who knows the names of all the girls in town. He also appears as a boss with Haagen and Steiner.
 * Haagen, Pluto Knight VIII - The Navigator, found dipping his feet in the canal in the courtyard. He also appears as a boss with Weimar and Steiner.
 * Mullenkedheim, Pluto Knight IX - The Cannonball expert, found hungry in the banquet hall
 * Unnamed Ninth Pluto Knight (Blank) - found near the right-hand gate

Tantarian
Tantarian is an optional boss found in Alexandria Castle's library by examining a book on a top shelf, but there are only two chances to fight it: during disc 2 when the party is rescuing Garnet, and on disc 3 when the party arrives to save Garnet and Eiko. If the player misses out on these two opportunities, Tantarian cannot be encountered again.

Stellazzio Coin
One Stellazzio coin is found in the castle; the Leo by the right wall, near the Neptune Statue, at the underground harbor. The player gets there by going through the side door of the west tower of Alexandria Castle.

Giving orders to the Knights of Pluto
When Bahamut attacks Alexandria on disc 3 Garnet gives orders to the Knights of Pluto. If the player assigns all the jobs correctly, they will receive Angel Earrings. Otherwise the reward is just either an Ether, Hi-Potion or Elixir.


 * Weimar and Haagen are more suited for the Protect the Townspeople task
 * Breireicht and Laudo should be the ones for the Contact Lindblum task
 * Blutzen and Kohel are the simple choices for the Gather Information task
 * Mullenkedheim and Dojebon have the skills needed for the Fire the cannons task

During Garnet's Rescue

 * Alexandrian Soldier X2
 * Alexandrian Soldier X3
 * Bandersnatch
 * Bandersnatch X2
 * Type C X3
 * Type C, Type B X2
 * Bandersnatch, Type C X2
 * Zorn and Thorn (boss)
 * Beatrix (boss)
 * Tantarian (boss)

Trivia

 * Alexandria Castle looks similar to Castle Cornelia from the original Final Fantasy, especially in Dissidia Final Fantasy.