Cid Aulstyne

Imperial Marshal Cid Aulstyne is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy Type-0. He is head of the government of Militesi Empire situated in the capital city of Ingram.
While there have been Cid characters who have served as antagonists in Final Fantasy games before (such as Dr. Cid from Final Fantasy XII and Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII), Aulstyne is the first Cid to be the main antagonist of a Final Fantasy game.
==Profile==
===Appearance===
Cid wears the Militesi officer's uniform of white colors representing the White Tiger, the nation's Crystal. He wears the officer's white hat, coat and cape, a red scarf, black gloves, trousers and knee-high boots. His face is gaunt and his hair and eyebrows are white. He brandishes a katana, although he is never seen wielding it in battle.
===Personality===
Despite appearing gruff and cynical, Cid tries to rally the imperial citizens to look to a more hopeful future. Though he appears power-hungry, seemingly having usurped the emperor and wanting to take over Orience, he sees this as a necessity and himself following a duty in doing it, considering himself as strong enough to take on the task. Fiercely individualistic, Cid abhors being used by anyone, wanting to grant the same freedom of thought to all of mankind no matter the cost. An engineering and military genius, Cid carries out his objectives in a cold and calculating manner.
==Story==
===Final Fantasy Type-0: Change the World -The Penultimate Truth-===
The novel depicts the events of the previous cycle of Orience that took place just before the final cycle depicted in the game. Cid became the leader of Milites ten years ago and has the imperial citizens' support for war as the nation is in a dire need of more land, the Militesi snow-covered terrain being unsuitable for food production. His true motive is to free mankind from the Crystals' hold.
After the Militesi army, led by the White Tiger Secundus l'Cie Qun'mi Tru'e, fails to secure the Vermilion Bird Crystal, Cid anticipates that Lorica and Concordia will bolster their defenses. Thus an experimental imperial weapon is deployed to annihilate Lorica altogether: the Ultima Bomb. General Qator Bashtar inherits Qun'mi's powers and status as l'Cie, and it is learned that the Dominion of Rubrum's previously killed Class Zero cadets have again been sighted on the battlefield. Qator captures some of the cadets during the Battle of the Big Bridge and Cid visits the captives to ask if they can truly be revived if killed. The cadets admit this is true, but refuse to divulge whose power this is. Cid decides to give the cadets more time to come up with the answer. He rebuffs one of the cadets' notion that his method of achieving true liberation for mankind is flawed because the war is killing countless people who will thus never see the new world free of the Crystals.
The Militesi army is wiped out by Rubrum's Verboten Eidolon, and Cid bunkers in a governmental building with Qator as his last line of defense. When Class Zero make past the crystal jammers and Qator, Cid laments how his mission of creating a peaceful world was futile as the Crystals' memory erasure makes it impossible for people to learn from the past. Rem Tokimiya declares that if the Crystals are the reason behind the endless war, they will destroy them. Cid feels his mission will be achieved even if Rubrum claims victory and commits suicide and Tempus Finis commences.
===Final Fantasy Type-0===
High commander of the technologically advanced army of the Militesi Empire, Imperial Marshal Cid Aulstyne became the country's dictator after the emperor mysteriously disappeared. He may have been guided in this task by a White Tiger l'Cie called Theo, whose l'Cie Stone posits he wants to serve the empire by "protecting our beacon of hope" after becoming "cognizant of the truth about this world." Theo believed he had found the man who could unite Orience under the banner of the White Tiger Crystal and left the future in his hands, entering crystal stasis.
After having seized the reins of military power, Cid began plotting a coup d'état, which he executed on Tempestamens XV, 832 RG. As the empire had the means to mass-produce magitek armors, the emperor had little actual influence over the government or the military, and only a handful of soldiers were willing to fight for him.
The coup d'état was carried out bloodlessly and Cid became the new head of state. He incarcerated the emperor, took control of the White Peristylium, and placed the White Tiger Crystal under his supervision, also taking control of the l'Cie who obey its Will. Cid resolves to free humanity from the "slavery under the Crystals" and rallies his populace to support his cause by declaring that the empire will become Agito, a savior foretold to appear during the end times, Tempus Finis, and lead Orience to a new future.
An engineering genius, Cid had devised a machine to subjugate the White Tiger Crystal to harness its power and enslave its l'Cie. Using his newfound power, Cid begins his conquest of invading the other Crystal-States in 842. He breaks the Pax Codex by deploying l'Cie to war, and has the Militesi fleet to invade the Dominion of Rubrum from all sides while a squad under the new White Tiger Secundus l'Cie Qun'mi Tru'e attacks Akademeia, the capital and magic academy of Rubrum where the Vermilion Peristylium is located.
Via the crystal jammer, a device Cid had invented to disable other nations' Crystals, the imperials render Rubrum vulnerable. Cid has his l'Cie attack the city while trying to force Chancellor Khalia Chival VI to comply and relinquish the Vermilion Bird Crystal, or the people still in the peristylium would be slaughtered. A group of Agito Cadets, who would become known as Class Zero, drives off Qun'mi and her forces as Rubrum retaliates in the war that follows.
The empire annihilates the Lorican Alliance with an Ultima Bomb, its new weapon of mass destruction whose power is enhanced by Qun'mi, who many speculate to have been in love with Cid. Cid has Lorica's Black Tortoise Crystal salvaged from the ruins. Not having the means to deploy the bomb to the nations lying further away, Cid begins the imperial campaign with fleets of magitek armor to obtain the Crystals. While General Qator Bashtar suspects future generations will view the empire's act as the start of Tempus Finis, Cid claims they will go down in history as the saviors of Orience and annihilating the Black Peristylium was the first step taken toward this goal.
Cid has the White Tiger Crystal l'Cie support the Militesi troops. Some are uneasy about this, but Cid states that as long as they hold the Crystal hostage the l'Cie cannot defy him. In an unusual move, the other Crystals of Orience send their l'Cie to try and quell the war, the Vermilion Bird Crystal deploying Lord Zhuyu to face off against the Primus l'Cie of the White Tiger Crystal, Nimbus, at the battle over Togoreth Stronghold, and the Azure Dragon Crystal sending Queen Andoria to invoke the Fabula Pact to enact a ceasefire. Cid finds the Crystals' attempts to hinder him amusing, but the Militesi war effort takes a step back when Class Zero destroys Brionac, the prototype magitek armor developed to deploy the Ultima Bomb.
Queen Andoria is assassinated and the blame is placed on Class Zero whose cadets had been given leave in the Militesi capital of Ingram during the ceasefire. Imperial forces ambush the cadets in Hotel Armada, but they escape. The assassination had been orchestrated by Cid and the man who would succeed Andoria to the throne of Concordia. Cid helps the king usurp the queen and the monarchy's matriarchy to exploit his lust for power to gain access to the Azure Dragon Crystal, which the new king relinquishes under imperial watch for its supposed safety. With the regicide blamed on the dominion, the joint Militesi-Concordian forces begin their campaign to lay waste to Rubrum.
The Vermilion Bird Crystal fights back and has its Secundus l'Cie Lady Caetuna summon a Verboten Eidolon to annihilate the Militesi forces. Concordia capitulates and one by one Rubrum invades the imperial cities until they storm the capital. Cid stays in the White Peristylium until an Ultima Bomb explodes in the atmosphere above the city, and he realizes the empire's premier magitek pilot, Qator Bashtar, perished in the blast. He escapes and the dominion legionaries that take over the peristylium search for him to no avail.
Rubrum uniting Orience under the Vermilion Bird's banner starts Tempus Finis. The temple Pandæmonium rises from the sea, sending out Rursan Reavers to slaughter mankind. Recognizing the event from the legends foretold in the Nameless Tome, Cid has Nimbus take him there to face the Rursan Judge, as only l'Cie are said to be able to set foot in the Land of Judgment.
Upon arriving at his destination Cid learns he is to become the one to destroy the world as part of its spiral: whenever Orience is destroyed in a Tempus Finis, it will be reborn and the chain of events restarted in the gods' effort to open the gate to the afterlife. Refusing to be used as the gods' tool, Cid commits suicide. Regardless, his body is branded by the deity-like being Gala to become the Rursan Arbiter, a unique demigod l'Cie with no will of its own. As the cadets of Class Zero fight their way to him, Cid, acting on Gala's will, puts them through several trials to deem their worth to become Agito, the soul the gods believe can open the gate.
As they face him, Cid belittles the cadets for being unworthy. He completes his transformation into the Rursan Arbiter and kills Shinryu Celestia. He steals the twelve cadets' phantoma, combining them within himself to fulfill his true Focus: to become Agito himself. The spirits of Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya bestow each member of Class Zero the strength to continue and release the phantoma from the Rursan Arbiter's body and absorb it at the cost of their lives leading to the Arbiter's certain defeat. Cid's body disintegrates into phantoma and disappears into the void. Cid's goal of freeing Orience is realized nevertheless, as Class Zero convinces Arecia Al-Rashia to break the spiral and the Crystals lose their power.
==Gameplay==
Cid is fought as the final boss in the form of the Rursan Arbiter. Though the final boss, the battle is mainly cinematic as the player simply needs to harvest phantoma with each party member.
==Other appearances==
===Pictlogica Final Fantasy===
PictlogicaCidAulstyne.png|Cid's illustration.
PFF Marshal Cid.png|Cid's sprite.
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
Cid Aulstyne appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game as Dark- and Ice-elemental Forward cards.
Cid Type-0 card.jpg|Cid Aulstyne [4-106R] Chapter series card.
Cid Aulstyne 3-036H from FFTCG Opus.jpg|Cid Aulstyne [3-036H] Opus series card.
==Behind the scenes==
Final Fantasy Type-0 has many allusions to World War II. The scene where Cid Aulstyne gives a rallying speech to his troops before their invasion of Orience resembles Adolf Hitler's infamous yearly rallies given on the anniversary of him coming to power, and to his most notable of speeches made: his "Lebensraum" declaration and his war declaration on the United States.
Cid's brandishing of a katana hearkens to the uniforms and standards of Japanese military commanders during WWII. The carrying of katanas signified the loose appropriations of the more dominant aspects of Bushido and Japanese patriotism in the Empire of Japan, despite having relinquished many aspects of tradition in the Meiji era and having adopted modern weapons, such as guns and rifles.
Cid shaking hands with the King of Concordia resembles the event that Adolf Hitler meets Benito Mussolini for the first time on June 13, 1934 in the city of Venice.
The way Cid kills himself is comparable to seppuku, a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment originally reserved for the samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used either voluntarily to die with honor rather than fall into enemy hands, or as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. Cid's death refers to the former, as he kills himself to avoid being used by Gala.
Cid embodies the core concept of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series that emphasizes humans' free will and individuality in juxtaposition to divinity and fate, represented by the Crystals in Final Fantasy Type-0. Another theme in Fabula Nova Crystallis is to re-imagine the old Crystal tales. Many of the older Final Fantasy games had antagonists who wanted to steal the world's Crystals, being opposed by the fabled Warriors of Light, the heroes chosen by the Crystals to save the world. Cid takes the role of a classic Final Fantasy villain in wanting to conquer the Crystal-Nations' Crystals, but the trope is subverted in him doing this in an attempt to free Orience from what he deems living in slavery to the Crystals.
===Voice===
Cid is voiced by Shuichiro Moriyama in the Japanese version.
He is voiced by Steve Blum in the English version, who also voiced Vincent Valentine in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Arbiter of Time in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Ba'Gamnan in Final Fantasy XII, and Verstael Besithia in Final Fantasy XV.
==Gallery==
Type0cidart.PNG|Concept art by Roberto Ferrari.
CidSketch-fftype0.png|Artwork from Final Fantasy Type-0 Kōshiki Settei Shiryōshū Aku no Hishi.
CidIllustration-fftype0.png|Illustration from Final Fantasy Type-0 Kōshiki Settei Shiryōshū Aku no Hishi.
Cid-type0-psp-model.png|In-game model.
Cid_Speech.png|Cid Aulstyne.
Cid Aulstyne CG.PNG|Cid Aulstyne CG render.
Cid Aulstyne.jpg|Cid Aulstyne.
FFTYPE0 CID QATUR.jpg|Cid with Brigadier General Qator.
Agito-Cid.jpg|In a cutscene.
Agito H. Commander Cid.jpg|Artwork.
Cid's-Office-Type-0-HD.png|Cid and Bashtar in Ingram.
FFAgito Cid SS.png|Cid in Final Fantasy Agito.
ImperialHeadquarters-Cid'sRoomConcept-fftype0.png|Cid's office.
==Etymology==
Cid is a recurring name in the Final Fantasy series. 
His surname could come from the combination of "old" and Stein, the German word for a rock.
Within the Buddhist themes Final Fantasy Type-0 presents, Cid and the Militesi Empire hearkens to Nazi appropriation of Buddhist imagery and spirituality, specifically by the Thule Society, a pro-fascist and Aryanist secret society that supported the rise of the Nazi regime, with beliefs appropriated from teachings by theosophist Madame Helen Blavatsky who helped to spread awareness of Buddhist cosmology and workings in the early half of the 20th Century. Along with leading to appropriating the swastika as the Nazi Party's official symbol, Nazi fringe beliefs held that Hilter was the coming of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, and that Shambala was the "last" remnant of the "superhuman" Thule race from the North Pole that once ruled the world in the past.
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