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Palamecia, also known as Palakia in the unreleased English version on the Nintendo Entertainment System, is a brutal and war-hungry empire from Final Fantasy II, ruled by the dictatorial Emperor Mateus.
The Empire of Palamecia is located on a fertile haven surrounded by a mountainous, arid, desert. The Castle Palamecia is located on the mountain ranges nearby, which makes it a natural, impenetrable fortress. Just south of the castle and mountains lies the Coliseum used for competitions of various soldiers against monsters, as well as a makeshift prison. A little ways away from Palamecia itself is a refueling station for the Dreadnought.
Story
A story found in the Mysidian library in Dawn of Souls and later remakes, implies that Palamecia was a kingdom before becoming an empire. A previous king of Palamecia had challenged the world to see who could reach his daughter on a high floor of his castle. Many men tried but failed, until one man used a hot air balloon to reach her. The king was furious and attempted to seize him, but the man escaped into the skies with the king's daughter. The story is an adaptation of the traditional Rapunzel fairy tale.
At the time of Final Fantasy II the Emperor builds an unstoppable army by raising demons from the depths of Hell. He conquers the kingdoms of Deist and Kashuan and the army eventually reaches the kingdom of Fynn. Despite the people of Fynn's resistance, they are overrun due to Borghen's defection to the Empire. The fall of Fynn comes with heavy casualties on the Empire's hand, preventing them from conquering Altair and Gatrea.
The Emperor creates the weapons of his demise when taking over Fynn as four youths—Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon—are left for dead after being attacked by his Black Knights. While Firion, Maria and Guy are saved by the Wild Rose Rebellion and join it, Leon is captured and becomes the Emperor's right-hand-man as the Dark Knight.
While the rebels build their forces, the Empire constructs a giant airship, the Dreadnought, and with it the Empire crushes every town that gets in their way. They capture Princess Hilda and strike Cid and his airship. The Dreadnought is downed by the rebels, and the Empire must rethink its plans, though it still has one trump.
The Empire holds Princess Hilda as captive, and uses her as bait to lure the Wild Rose's attention to the Coliseum at Palamecia, where Hilda is the prize for the arena champion. The rebels rescue the princess nonetheless, with the help of Paul and Gordon.
While the rebels' key members seek out the ultimate magic spell, Ultima, the Emperor summons a Cyclone to attack the towns and kingdoms. The Emperor is killed by Firion's party and the last surviving Dragoon, Ricard Highwind.
The Dark Knight assumes the position of Emperor and Firion, Maria, Guy and Ricard travel to Castle Palamecia to stop him. As the party confronts the Dark Knight, the Emperor returns from Hell to unleash Hell onto the world, as he is no longer interested in ruling the Palamecian Empire. Ricard stays behind to stall the Emperor while a wyvern saves the other four, but the Dragoon is killed by the Emperor's new powers. Destroying Castle Palamecia, the Emperor raises the castle of Hell, Pandaemonium, to earth, destroying the Palamecian Empire in the process.
Territories
World Map.
At the height of its rule the Palamecian Empire commands the entire southern portion of the continent, with their rule extending as far as the city of Fynn. For the most part their rule went unopposed, although the Wild Rose Rebellion is a formidable threat. The Imperial capital is Castle Palamecia, located at an impregnable mountain range, with a Colosseum in close proximity and surrounded by forests and deserts. Bafsk, Kashuan, and Fynn are occupied by Imperial soldiers with the former being used as the place to build the Dreadnought. The Empire ultimately destroys Gatrea, Altair, Poft, and Paloom with the Cyclone, while the Dragoons at Deist were wiped out in a genocidal act via poisoning the water source on the island.
Structure
The Empire is ruled by Emperor Mateus, with Leon—upon being captured and brainwashed—presumably acting as the official next-in-line. Leon leads the attack via the Dreadnought on Paloom, Altair, Poft, and Gatrea. It is unclear what particular role in the hierarchy Borghen plays after he defects from Kasuadan and ensures its capture, although he is involved in the Empire's attempt to secure the Goddess's Bell at the Snow Cave (a mission implied to be a suicide mission), and plays a role in the development of the Dreadnought.
Owing to the Palamecian Empire's militaristic views, it has a massive military, and is exceptionally brutal in its conquests. Various lesser-ranked officers lead the Empire's field skirmishes.
Ground army
Various armored soldiers make up the largest wing of the Empire's army. There are six known ranks of soldiers. Armored soldiers comprise most of the Empire's forces, and come in several individual ranks of power, including Soldier, Sergeant, Captain, and General. Soldiers, wearing yellow/bronze armor, are the standard footsoldier of the Empire. The Sergeants, wearing blue/purple/dark blue armor, are assigned to various missions that have some importance, like guarding mythril armor from the Wild Rose Rebellion. The Captains, identified by green armor, do guard duty at Fynn and the Dreadnought, the former presumably to rout out any Wild Rose Rebel soldiers. Finally, the Generals, wearing gray/blue/purple armor, are considered the cream of the crop of the Imperial forces, and as such are assigned to guard the Cyclone.
The fifth rank are the Black Knights, specialized soldiers who are nigh invincible in combat. The sixth rank is Mateus's personal guards, the Royal Guards, seen in the Cyclone where they guard and aid the Emperor when he fights Firion and his party.
Monsters
Because of the Emperor had sold his soul to summon hellspawn to aid in his campaign for world conquest, the Palamecian Empire has under its command various monsters and demons. Some of these, such as the Behemoth, are used to fight the Imperial soldiers in the Colosseum, while others, such as the Lamia Queen and Wood Golem, are used to directly aid the Empire (the latter of whom is summoned by Mateus when fighting Firion's party in the Cyclone).
Dreadnought
An immense armored airship, the Dreadnought is the ultimate weapon to the Empire, capable of severely damaging four cities before being required to refuel. It is weak to the Sunfire, which causes its engine to detonate.
Cyclone
The other superweapon accessed by the Palamecian Empire is a castle situated within a cyclone created by the Emperor himself. It is used to obliterate four towns before the Emperor dies at the hands of the Wild Rose Rebellion.
Other appearances
Final Fantasy XIV
One of the original servers was named Palamecia. It was merged into the Excalibur server along with the Karnak and Bodhum servers.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Palamecia is present as a room for customized characters of the Multiplayer Mode Online Lobby.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Palamecia.
Palamecia is featured in the background of the Final Fantasy II "Main Theme" Field Music Sequence.
Gallery
Etymology
An empire is a dominion composed of a multitude of nations that's ruled by one sovereign leader, generally an emperor, although some empires were ruled by kings.
Trivia
- One of the Sanctum Skyfleet's airships in Final Fantasy XIII is called Palamecia.
- In the Final Fantasy II novelization, Final Fantasy II Muma no Meikyū, it is stated Palamecia is cursed with demonic influences that corrupt its emperors. The demon, desiring to rule the world by human proxy, turns men into malicious masterminds by using everything at its disposal to pollute their thoughts with its malice. The demon originates from the beginning of the world when it became trapped within the indestructible "Stone of Iludia" and swore revenge. After ascending to the throne, Mateus exiles his mother, Airu, to the deserts of Palamecia, but she still spends her life trying to find a way to save him. During the novel, Airu and Minwu team up to find a crystal, which can purify the land. It ends up being too late to save Mateus, but it helps to bring peace to the world.
- Although not to the extent of the Gestahlian Empire in Final Fantasy VI, the Palamecian Empire shares some similarities to the Galactic Empire from Star Wars.
- If the player encounters Palamecian Soldiers, the latter will sometimes refer to the party as "Rebel Scum", which is the insult the Imperial Officer Renz uses against Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
- In the remakes, the cutscene where the party observes the Dreadnought pursuing and ultimately capturing Cid's Airship with Queen Hilda onboard resembles the opening scene for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
- Elements of Leon's characterization, such as his being a former member of the heroes before being brainwashed into the Emperor's service, his high rank and wearing black armor, having magical powers under the service of the Empire, being related to one of the heroes, and ultimately aiding his former friends in taking out the Emperor late in the game, are similar to Darth Vader from the original trilogy.