Yoshitaka Amano artwork of Terra riding a Magitek Armor for Final Fantasy VI.
Magitek (魔導, Madō?, lit. Magic conduct), or magical technology, is a recurrent technological advancement in the Final Fantasy series. Though seemingly magical technology existed in earlier installments, the phenomenon being named "magitek" was introduced in Final Fantasy VI.
In Final Fantasy VI, magitek is the general term for technology powered by magic derived from espers by the Gestahlian Empire. In Final Fantasy XIV, Magitek refers to the Garlean Empire's ceruleum-fueled devices. In Final Fantasy XV, it is a technology used by the Niflheim Empire that involves the use of daemons. In Final Fantasy XVI, Magitek is ancient technology whose workings are a mystery to the current population. In Final Fantasy Type-0, the technology is a result of the White Tiger Crystal.
Depictions in the Final Fantasy series[]
Magitek revolves around the use of magic or similar energies to power up devices. Often, magitek is depicted as an antagonistically inclined technology, where its innovators tend to be empires eager to attempt to control natural, primal forces, such as magical power with a hardline scientific method. These forces display imperialistic ideas of conquest, including world supremacy, divine right, and supposed right of dominion over creation.
Though limited in scope due to its measure of control over magic in comparison to natural spellcasting, magitek appears to allow for machinery to surpass physical limitations and "focus" magic's capabilities to a specific effect, utilizing it without need of spellcasting ability. Though fantastical and wondrous due to its nature, magitek is often depicted mostly in warfare and to project influence of power over anything specifically civilian, innovative, and utilitarian. Most depictions of magitek in the Final Fantasy series are more akin to steampunk, industrypunk, or cyberpunk, where technology is something that has taken over the world in intrusive or rapidly advanced ways, and is either worked with by protagonists or rebelled against.
A common byproduct of magitek is the Magitek Armor, commonly large bipedal robots that can be piloted by humans.
Appearances[]
Final Fantasy VI[]
Magitek was invented by Cid Del Norte Marguez, an imperial engineer. Using an unknown process, Cid discovered a way to forcibly extract magic from espers and imbue machines and humans with the resulting energy. As the first experiment with Magitek, Cid infused Kefka Palazzo with magic, giving him great power but destroying his sanity.
Later experiments use a modified process, granting the subject magic but at a lower potency. This increased the usefulness of the process, and the empire began to produce machines that could use Magitek. This led to the construction of the Magitek Research Facility in the imperial capital Vector, where espers are drained of their powers and machines and humans are granted magical abilities.
The main use of Magitek is the empire's signature Magitek Armor, which can fire beams of magical energy. Magitek Knights, humans given the ability to use magic, also begin to appear in the empire's ranks with increasing frequency as the Magitek processes are developed. The animals around the continent of Vector become imbued with magic, possibly from the fallout from the Magitek Research Facility. With their armies using Magitek, the empire conquers the southern continent and attempts to push into the north, conquering Doma and Figaro.
After the Returners attack Vector, the Magitek Research Facility is damaged and the espers used to power the empire's experiments turn themselves into magicite. The Returners take the magicite, cutting off the empire's supply of Magitek power. Cid and Kefka learn that the magic taught by magicite is more potent than magic extracted through Magitek. Thus, the factory is dismantled and, with the war approaching its end, Magitek use is largely discontinued as Kefka and Gestahl opt to use magicite instead.
Following the cataclysm, the empire is destroyed, but many machinery and Magitek soldiers still linger at Kefka's Tower. They are more powerful than the empire's, likely due to Kefka's increased magical powers and ability to imbue others with magic.
Gameplay[]
Magitek is a command available when riding a Magitek Armor, replacing the Attack command and Gau's Rage command. Magitek abilities are magical and most are unblockable. Magitek is powerful and requires no MP to use, but the range of abilities is restricted for most characters.
Final Fantasy XIV[]
Artwork of an Imperial Vanguard Machina.
Magitek refers to machina devices fueled by ceruleum. On the Source, the denizens of the Garlean Empire are the foremost users of magitek. The majority of Garlean citizens have a natural ineptitude for the workings of magic to the point of not being able to naturally manipulate aether whatsoever, and so to overcome this disadvantage developed magitek.
The technology is not widely used on the Eorzean region, but is slowly being adopted and seeing more widespread use thanks to Garlond Ironworks. A merging of Garlean magitek and Ul'dahn mine carts results in a web of iron causeways that spread across Thanalan, while the union of Ixali flight knowhow and Garlean magitek gave birth to the commercial flights of the Highwind Skyways.
Magitek Armor first saw military use during the great battle of Carteneau. Kobolds are increasingly making use of magitek devices—including ones surreptitiously "borrowed" from the Garleans and then modified with goblin ingenuity.
While some airships are fueled by ceruleum, they are not grouped under the label of magitek.
Final Fantasy XV[]
Magitek generator in an imperial base.
The empire employs magiteknology to produce various apparatus, among them the magitek infantry, magitek armor, airships, and magitek rifles wielded by the imperial infantry. Niflheim has been using magitek for centuries, appropriating the technology from the ancient civilization of Solheim. The technology was further developed by Verstael Besithia with help from Chancellor Izunia to power it with miasma manufactured in imperial facilities. The Wallbreaker Wave technology is used to block out the power of the Lucis dynasty, with exception of the Ring of the Lucii. Mass production of magiteknology requires enormous quantities of oil and coal, which the empire sought from Cartanica, a once-lively town rife with natural fuels.
Magitek Exosuit is an attire the player can wear that uses magiteknology to immunize the party against damage.
Final Fantasy XVI[]
The Fallen made use of magitek in their clockwork machines and airships. The Fallen civilization came to an end 1,500 years ago. Magitek was a highly advanced magical technology that even produced weapons nigh indistinguishable from living beings whose destructive power rivaled "the gods of legend". The early chroniclers labeled these living magitek creations the "Eikonoklastes".[1] Final Fantasy XVI Ultimania elaborates that powerful magic-users were needed to operate this magical technology.
In modern days, the "living clockwork machines" are known as echoes, and though commonly found in Fallen ruins and thus believed by the modern populace to be vestiges of their skybound civilization, were originally servants of Ultima.[2]
Final Fantasy Type-0[]
Magitek is the result of the C-Engine, technology that siphons power from the White Tiger Crystal. It was developed by Cid Aulstyne, an engineer in the imperial military. The empire premiered Crystal energy extraction technology, and developed the magitek armor. The imperial government installed high-output C-Engines throughout the state to extract energy from the Crystal that distributed the energy to smaller C-Engines, which then used that energy to generate power for the various imperial arms factories. As a result, magitek armor could be mass-produced.
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius[]
Magitek is a technology used by the Zoldaad Empire that it acquired via Emperor Sozhe's cooperation with Dr. Lazarov.
This section in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.Etymology[]
"Magitek" is a portmanteau of "magic" and "technology".
Within Japanese cultural concepts, western machinery introduced in the late 1800s stirred superstitions. Some even saw machines as supernatural contraptions of demons. Within Japanese language, the use of ma, or the onyomi of 魔, means not only "demon", but also refers to otherworldly power. The counter word -goki is used to count machinery and unit code names of a serial production, but is sometimes used in wordplay within Japanese literary fiction to showcase the closeness of machinery to demons, as through homonym it can come to mean "great/strong demon".
Its original Japanese name is pronounced madou (魔導) which directly translates it as magic or sorcery, though there are many ways to write magic in Japanese and its use of kanji is important to understand its deeper context. 導 (dou), meaning direction or conduct, shares the same pronunciation as is a composite kanji to 道 (road, way); 道 is used to as to emphasize and indicate a "way" or a life dedicated to a craft, profession, or even lifestyle, and has more spiritual and philosophical meaning, while 導 is more orientated towards the sciences, being "a way tested and followed by the test of time", having a more material and reductionist meaning to it.