Gaia (Final Fantasy XIV)

Gaia is a non-player character in Final Fantasy XIV. She appears in the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers expansion as a main character for the Eden raid series storyline.
==History==
===Before Shadowbringers===
In her past life, she was the Ascian who bore the title of "Loghrif". She and her protector, Mitron, were originally tasked with preventing the Flood of Light on the First, before Emet-Selch instructed them to bring about a Rejoining. Although nearly successful in merging the First with with the Source, Loghrif was killed in a confrontation with the Warriors of Light, and, as Mitron was struck down by Ardbert, a Flood of Light nearly destroyed the world. 
Loghrif's spirit was reincarnated a century later as a girl born in Eulmore. A voice, whom Gaia dubbed a "faerie", contacted her telepathically, later revealed to be an incapacitated Mitron, erasing most of her memories while tasking her to free the Ascian from her sin eater form, Eden.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers===
Gaia made her presence known shortly after Ryne reactivated Eden. The Warrior of Darkness defeated her, and she lost consciousness once Mitron's hold on her waned. Thancred Waters took her into the Scions' custody to speak with her once she regained consciousness.
Gaia awoke and arrived in Mord Souq from Eulmore, along with Thancred carrying her luggage. She claimed to have grown up there, and yet not a single soul knew her, nor did she remember anything of note. She pushed away any connection with the Warrior's party outside of trying to press on to Eden where she hoped to discover more about herself and the darkness that possessed her. Upon wandering off on her own, Gaia was discovered to have great yet uncontrollable dark magic that spoke in her head, the voice that named her, Gaia having forgotten her own name.
The Warrior's party restored the aetherial elements to the Empty, but their discussions about Eden ended up frustrating Gaia and led her to march off. Ryne attempted to connect with her, desiring a friend her own age, but Gaia shut her out. The darkness within her eventually manifested and summoned a sin eater that the Warrior of Light protected her from. While trapped in the emptiness of her mind, Gaia lamented the isolation, and admitted she would welcome the party's presence now. Upon waking up, Ryne's relief at her recovery was not unwelcome, and Gaia slowly started to cooperate with the party more. When Ryne lost control of Shiva's powers in an attempt to restore the ice element to the Empty, Gaia dove in to save her. Afterward, she began to properly befriend Ryne, even spending time away from the Empty casually with her.
After the Scions returned to the Source following Elidibus's defeat, Gaia and Ryne grew closer. They planned holding a festival at the Crystarium to celebrate the First's renewal. They and the Warrior checked up on the Empty, only to find the greenery dried up with the crystal focus shifted to Light. Gaia proposed using Darkness to balance it out. Gaia and Ryne combined their powers with the Warrior's memories to create a primal version of the Cloud of Darkness, whose defeat shifted the focus into an iridescent scheme. At that moment Mitron, the one who had implanted the idea in Gaia's head, acquired the strength to project herself from Eden. Mitron formally introduced herself while revealing she became Eden when struck by Ardbert's Blade of Light.
When Gaia demanded why Mitron used her, as the Ascian claimed they knew each other, Mitron invited her to come into Eden and learn their true relationship. Once Gaia and Ryne arrived, Mitron used the aether to create a facsimile of the Shadowkeeper that Ardbert and his comrades defeated long ago to stir her memories as Loghrif. When that failed, Mitron exerted their power to stir Gaia's ambient darkness to reveal her identity as Loghrif reincarnated. The Ascian forced a fusion to transform them into an Ascian Prime, with Gaia resisting in presence of her friends even as the fusion restored her past life's memories. Mitron decided to completely erase Gaia's memories as to not lose Loghrif, intending to have Eden absorb Gaia. The Ascian used the aether to transform their Ascian Prime form into Eden's Promise, only to be killed while releasing an unconscious Gaia back into the Empty.
As Ryne and the Warrior attempted to revive her, Gaia was in her mindscape where she had a final conversation with the dying Mitron whose soul was freed from Eden to be reborn. She promised they would meet again and intended to record her memories into a diary for future generations. Gaia regained consciousness after remembering Ryne, and saw the Empty restored to its natural state. With her memories of Ryne and the others slowly returning, Gaia decided not to look into her past identity before Mitron found her, and instead focus on the future and helping others.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker===
After the Warrior and their allies defeated Zeromus in the Thirteenth and brought Zeromus's memoria crystal to Ryne so it could be used to restore balance to the First, Gaia entered the Ocular, looking for Ryne, who was supposed to meet her. Gaia teased the Warrior by pretending not to remember them. Ryne told her about Zeromus's crystal, and she agreed that with it they might restore the Empty, though she noted that the Warrior better not leave her out, as she believed that an Oracle of Darkness would be needed to handle that kind of Darkness.
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
Guest artist Tetsuya Nomura oversaw Gaia's character design. She is visually a direct contrast to Ryne, having waist-length dark wavy hair and heavy makeup, with large features such as bright blue eyes and larger lips. Her outfit is gothic-inspired with an all black ensemble featuring a form-fitting gown with large, baggy sleeves and platform heel boots. Gaia's animations are based on the viis race, despite being a hume. 
As the Voidwalker, Gaia wears an altered version of the Edengrace Armor of Fending colored a dark gray, silver, and has metallic blue accents. The armor is also missing the plume that the player version has and conceals her features to hide her identity. She wields an altered version of the Edengrace Greatsword that matches her armor.
In her original Ascian form as Loghrif, she appeared as a woman wearing the Shadowless Casting gear. As the Oracle of Darkness, she wears a feathered robe and armor on her legs, waist, and shoulders. She wears arm robes similar to Ascians along with gloves that have sharp fingers similar to Ascian overlords and has a metal halo behind her.
===Personality===
Gaia is initially impatient, unwilling to become emotionally invested in others and simply wanting to find the truth about herself. Her lack of knowledge of her past is a sore point to her, as she makes clear any time someone tries make her see other points of view. As time goes on, she is affected by Ryne's efforts to become closer to her, especially upon becoming exposed to the depths of emptiness brought on by the darkness affecting her. She warms up to Ryne, and while still putting on a face of being uptight, it is clear she is now valuing their close friendship.
==Gameplay==
Gaia, as the Voidwalker, is fought as the boss in the raid, as well as its Savage mode.
Gaia later appears during the raid during the finale of the fight to spur players on to aid her in the final phase to save her friend.
Gaia, as Loghrif, is fought again in the second half of . She is known as the Oracle of Darkness.
==Gallery==
FFXIV Gaia.png|Artwork by Tetsuya Nomura.
Gaia as Oracle of Darkness from FFXIV concept art.png|Concept art of Gaia as Oracle of Darkness by Hiroyuki Nagamine.
FFXIV Gaia in-game render.png
Oracle of darkness.jpg|Gaia, as the Oracle of Darkness in Eden's Promise: Eternity (Savage)
File:Gaia Voidwalker.png|Gaia as the Voidwalker.
==Etymology==
==Citations==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Hyur
es:Gaia (Final Fantasy XIV)