Rygdea

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Rygdea
(リグディ, Rigudi?)
Biographical information
Affiliation	Sanctum
Occupation	Captain
Physical description
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Height	180 cm (5' 10")
Gameplay details
Type	Non-player character
Type	Non-player character
Behind the scenes information
Designer	Nao Ikeda
Japanese voice actor	Yasuyuki Kase
English voice actor	Josh Robert Thompson

Damn idealism! Ya feed it blood and it howls for more!

Rygdea

Rygdea is a non-player character in Final Fantasy XIII, who works for the Sanctum, the governing body of Cocoon. Rygdea is a captain working under the command of Cid Raines as his right-hand man for the Cavalry. He later becomes one of the secret founders of the Academy.

Datalog

Final Fantasy XIII

See also: Datalog (Final Fantasy XIII)/People

Rygdea is an officer in the Wide-area Response Brigade led by Cid Raines. Hidden behind his cowboy antics is a man of unwavering courage and integrity.

Disgusted by the deception of the Sanctum, he once thought to retire from the military, but was instead convinced by Raines to join the Cavalry. Finding that the brigadier general shared his ideals, Rygdea now works as his right-hand man in various operations designed to undermine the government's power.

Rygdea is an officer in the Wide-area Response Brigade formerly led by Cid Raines.

Disgusted by the deception of the Sanctum, he thought to retire from the military, but instead joined Raines and the Cavalry in their efforts to bring down the government. Rygdea followed the general without question, unaware of his superior's status as a servant of the Sanctum fal'Cie.

Raines has now replaced Barthandelus in the position of Primarch, leaving Rygdea to lead the Cavalry in a charge to topple the Sanctum and destroy Orphan.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

See also: Fragment/Quiz Mastery

Figures of Note

Captain Rygdea is a former Cocoon soldier. Following the catastrophe, he played a central role in running the provisional government.

Rygdea crushed the budding resurgence of the former administration by revealing the Sanctum's manipulation by the fal'Cie, and their subsequent slaughter of innocent civilians during the Purge.

He lent his support to the Academy scientists who sought to promote 'human independence,' and encouraged the shift in authority from the government to this new institute.

Profile

Appearance

Rygdea has shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit is a variation on the standard male Guardian Corps uniform: blues and silvers dominate in his case, and as opposed to most division uniforms, he has a white shape similar to a Christian cross on his stomach.

Personality

Rygdea is loyal to the Cavalry and their leader, Cid Raines. He wants to free the citizens of Cocoon from living under the fal'Cie's tyranny and is willing to do what is needed to make this happen, even support Pulse l'Cie and defy the Sanctum and the PSICOM. He is thus incensed when Cid seemingly changes course and Rygdea believes him to be a traitor to their cause. He is willing to lead the Cavalry in Cid's absence.

In Episode Zero -Promise-, it's mentioned that Rygdea joined the military academy, not because he wished to become a soldier, but because he wanted to fly an airship. When Rygdea tried to quit the army, Raines invited him to join the Cavalry and gave Rygdea a reason to stay in the arm as they shared the same ideals.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-

I always bet on the one who looks likeliest to win. I don’t fight if I don’t think I’m going to win.

Rygdea to Fang

Rygdea and several Cavalry troops capture the fugitive Fang the day after she returns to Bodhum from Euride Gorge. He takes Fang aboard the Lindblum to meet with Raines, after which Raines tells Rygdea to bring Fang to her room in the residential area of the airship. Rygdea warns her not to try anything since PSICOM—Cocoon's anti-Pulse army—has set up barricades around Bodhum. He tells Fang the Cavalry helped her by overwriting PSICOM's surveillance system and sending them false info so the Cavalry could capture her quietly.

When Fang asks why the Cavalry would help her if they are enemies, Rygdea answers that it's in their interest as they both have the same enemy. Fang is looking for her friend Vanille, and Rygdea suggests they make a deal: he searches for Vanille and in return she and Fang don't let themselves get captured by PSICOM. Fang agrees and Rygdea returns to Bodhum.

As he walks for the station to the shopping mall, Rygdea hears Lightning call out his name, recognizing her from a few days ago. He asks if she knows where teenagers like to hang out and gives Lightning a vague description of Vanille as an outgoing runaway who likes caring for animals. Lightning tells him there are pet shops in Bodhum, and tells him of a café by the beach where many young people hang out. Taking Lightning's advice, Rygdea visits the café. Seeing how everyone around him is acting without a care in the world, Rygdea notes PSICOM has covered up news of the Euride incident, and how only perceptive people like Lightning know something big has happened if PSICOM is moving in. As Lebreau fixes Rygdea something to eat, he describes Vanille to her. Lebreau says she will let him know if a girl matching his description comes by.

Rygdea takes one last look around the mall before returning to the Lindblum, where Fang is unsurprised to see him return empty-handed. She says Vanille might be near a forest or ocean for food. Rygdea is caught off guard when Fang asks why he is with Raines. Rygdea says Raines is an important Sanctum figure with many people's lives in his charge. Fang asks if Rygdea stays in the army because something about Raines appeals to him, but Rygdea doesn't answer at the risk of revealing too much. He calls himself a man who relies not on his feelings, but on whether or not something makes sense, and that he does not fight unless he is sure to win. He says Fang misread him, but Fang disagrees. Rygdea leaves Fang's room and hurries to the airship's bridge, as a moment ago PSICOM announced they are lifting the blockade around Euride.

Final Fantasy XIII

Heya, Fang! Need a ride?

Rygdea

Rygdea and Fang capture Snow at Lake Bresha.

Rygdea appears with Fang in Lake Bresha, where his troops apprehend Snow Villiers and take Serah Farron's crystallized form onto their airship. Snow meets Cid Raines and learns of his wish to overthrow the fal'Cie. Later, Rygdea helps the l'Cie escape from Yaag Rosch's forces in Palumpolum and helps Lightning, Snow, Fang and Hope get onboard the Palamecia to rescue Sazh Katzroy and Vanille.

Rygdea executes Cid.

After Cid leaves the Cavalry and is appointed as the new Primarch, the Cavalry members see themselves as having been betrayed by their former leader. In reality, this has been orchestrated by Barthandelus to incite civil war within Cocoon. Rygdea takes Cavalry's leadership and leads them in rebellion against the Sanctum, ending up confronting the newly-made Primarch Raines. Raines, abandoning his dream as a "fal'Cie fancy", asks Rygdea to end his life. Reluctantly, Rygdea complies, then leads his forces against PSICOM in an all-out war on the Sanctum.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before

Humans are real greedy. Once they get something, they won’t ever part with it no matter the circumstances. Even if it was something they got under the table. That's how things are. The only people who will part with their vested interests are real saints or total idiots.

Rygdea

Rygdea survives the transformation of the Cavalry's majority into Cie'th and Cocoon's fall. In the six months after the Day of Ragnarok, he helps the surviving populace in Cocoon and on Gran Pulse rebuild. He is stationed in Palumpolum, which has become Cocoon's new capital and its main military base of operations.

Rygdea summons Hope's father, Bartholomew Estheim, to a secret meeting in the city concert hall. He shows him an ID card containing internal documents from the Sanctum made by the late Rosch, with his voice-over providing insight to what happened behind the scenes. The card shows the security footage from the day of the incident at Euride Gorge, depicting Fang and Vanille, the Pulse l'Cie responsible for the accident. Rygdea goes through the rest of the card's footage, which documents, from Rosch's perspective, the events leading up to the Siege of Eden. Rygdea comments on many aspects, including Raines defying his Focus and entering crystal stasis through his own will, and the irony of the god-like fal'Cie searching for a god themselves.

After he finishes showing the footage, Rygdea tells Bartholomew of how people have forgotten PSICOM's last act of heroism because of their pitted reputation, and that former members of the Sanctum pushing the blame for the Siege of Eden on them for their own profit. Rygdea reveals his plan of making the ID card's footage public along with other acquired inside information to expose the truth behind the Purge and everything else that led to Cocoon's fall, so the former Sanctum members will be held responsible. Rygdea reveals he wishes to create a society free of the fal'Cie, where the people think for themselves and live how they want.

By releasing Rosch's documents, Rygdea hopes to clear the reputations of the former Pulse l'Cie. He reveals he summoned Bartholomew to meet with him to ask him to join the new provisional government being formed. Bartholomew agrees, and wants to build a public research institute that will publicize its findings without interference from the government, and a higher education parallel to the institute. Rygdea publicizes the footage, flushing out the last of the Sanctum supporters.

Some time later, Rygdea meets up with Snow, who is on a journey to find the missing Lightning. He asks Snow to do him the favor of locating the remnants of the disbanded PSICOM division on Pulse to see whether or not they are holding a grudge for being chased out of Cocoon and planning an armed reprisal.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After

When Snow returns to Palumpolum, Rygdea meets up with him and receives his news. Snow departs on an airship, smuggling his fal'Cie companion Cactuar on board.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Rygdea is mentioned, but is never met in person by either Serah, Mog, or Noel Kreiss.

Spoilers end here.

Behind the scenes

Rygdea concept art.

Rygdea's character model is a head swap. His body model is that of a standard Sanctum soldier, and only his head has a unique model and texture. Nao Ikeda, who designed the Final Fantasy XIII support cast, thus only designed a face. The Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega reveals the development team wanted a character who wouldn't cost much as far as the polygon model or animation went, so Ikeda also drew a version with short hair. The person in charge of modeling chose the long-haired version out of enthusiasm for keeping with that design.

Rygdea was designed with a sky theme in mind, with sky blue eyes and his hair color influenced by the black kite, a type of bird. Rygdea's profile described him as both lax and courageous, so to keep with that image, Ikeda tried showing his chest and gave him a stubble.

In "Final Fantasy XIII: The Lost Report", the story of Final Fantasy XIII is being told from the view of Yaag Rosch and Rygdea.

Voice

His Japanese voice actor is Yasuyuki Kase and his English voice actor is Josh Robert Thompson.

Other appearances

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

Rygdea appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Gallery

Concept art.

16-bit sprite of Rygdea from Final Fantasy XIII online synopsis.

Rygdea in Cid's office.

Rygdea on the Lindblum.

Rygdea before the assault on the Palamecia.

Rygdea and the Cavalry confront Cid in the Primarch's office.

Rygdea leads the Cavalry into war against the Sanctum.