For a specimen of an inferior species, you seem to have some measure of good judgement... But you fail to realize the gap between your power and mine.
A Maenad, to Palom
Maenad (マイナス Mainasu) refers collectively to a group of villains from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. During most of the game there are only a few Maenad and their true identity is unknown, and they go by the name of Mysterious Girl (謎の少女, Nazo no Shojō). They resemble the Summoner Rydia, and share her power to summon Eidolons. Their power for most of the game remains unmatched until the climax. They can also use the powers of mind control to great effect, which allows them to call forth the Eidolons after turning them to stone. The Maenads have a very detached and cold personality, and have a habit of remarking how they find things "incomprehensible". However, they can sometimes be very candid and impolite, such as telling the party to get out of their face. They also often boast about their superiority and refer to others as inferior species.
Story
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Final Fantasy IV Interlude
The Maenad's resemblance to Rydia is explained in Interlude. At some point during Interlude, Rydia came upon the Crystal Chamber in the Sealed Cave, and the Creator's Dark Crystal was able to obtain information on Rydia and her powers, allowing her to be recreated into the Maenads. This is supposedly how the Creator was able to summon shadows of other bosses from the Final Fantasy series by using the Crystals.
This leaves Rydia unconscious, and the event is briefly foreshadowed in a dream Cecil has. When the party arrives in the Sealed Cave to rescue her, she behaves very strangely and gradually regains her Eidolons. The party takes her back to the airship, where they notice a strange light radiate from the Tower of Babil. When they get to the Cannon Control room, Rydia enters it and the party is attacked by three guards, who merge into a boss. After defeating it, Rydia is nowhere to be found. When they finally discover her, she attacks them and summons Bahamut. The real Rydia then enters the fight, and talks sense into Bahamut. When the party realizes the Rydia they had with them was not her, the impostor escapes. Somewhere, supposedly on the True Moon, the impostor informs an unknown entity that "the Eidolon project is complete."
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
A Maenad depicted in the opening FMV for The After Years in Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection.
A year after the defeat of Zeromus, a Maenad is sent to the Blue Planet in the guise of Rydia, fooling everyone save Edge as they are powerless against her until the real Rydia arrives and they defeat the Maenad as she fades completing her objective without her true identity revealed.
Seventeen years later, by the time of After Years, two Maenads first appear on the Red Moon before being defeated by both Golbez and Fusoya. Another is able to revive Zeromus and destroy the Crystal Palace. It then goes down to Earth and attacks Baron, defeating the Red Wings with a swarm of monsters. Using the power of Bahamut, the Maenad is able to beat King Cecil of Baron. Moving into the Feymarch, the Maenad also turns the entire Eidolon populace to stone, leaving Rydia unable to use her Summoner powers. Moving throughout the world, she is able to gather all eight Crystals, but also unifies the forces of good against her before she is defeated at Baron. They travel to the Moon to fight more Maenads. When the party finally encounters them here, one of them summons Bahamut again. Bahamut, however, comes to his senses after Leviathan and Asura reason with him. The Maenad attempts to cast Reflect, but Bahamut says she merely wastes her breath, and destroys her with Mega Flare. It is soon discovered that the Maenad is just one of many mass-produced beings, which continue to antagonize the group as they work their way toward The Creator, the true mastermind of all that has happened. Several Maenad later appear to battle The Creator as well, and they appear to destroy themselves and the being with a Meteor spell.
In the aftermath, one of the mass-produced Maenads, only a child, is taken in by Rydia and named Cuore. Template:Endspoilers
Battle
The Maenads are fought several times in the game under the name of the Mysterious Girl. When their true identity is revealed, they are random encounters in the last floors of the True Moon, and are fought in pairs.
Music
The Maenad's CG render for Complete Collection.
The Maenad's theme song is a recurring track in The After Years, and is called Mysterious Girl ~minus~ on the Final Fantasy IV & The After Years Sounds Plus album. It is one of the few new pieces of music not from the original Final Fantasy IV. It exudes a feeling of mystery, which is befitting of their unknown identity before the final tale. Aside from playing whenever a Maenad is present, it also plays on one of the lowest floors in the Depths of the True Moon. The theme is also remixed into Planetary Core, which plays on the floors prior to the Bottommost Depths.
The theme song's melody is also used for the Maenad's boss theme, The Dispossessed Eidolons ~Minudes~.
Etymology
In Greek mythology, the maenads were female nymphs who followed the god Dionysus, and were known to go into frenzies from losing self-control. The name maenad has also come to be associated with women both supernatural and historical that followed him.
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