One thousand years ago, in the world of
Final Fantasy 3 (
Final Fantasy 6j), powerful magical beings called Espers wreaked bloody havoc on the world in the
War of the Magi. After this war, the Espers decided that they could not live in this world in peace with the humans, and they disappeared to the Esper World.
Present Day, Present Time:
It's now 1000 years later. The humans have learned to adapt and create machinery to replace the magic of the Espers. But all isn't right in the world. Kefka and Gestahl, in their desire for power, are searching for the Espers that they believe are left in this world. They plan to find them, and drain them of their power.
For this mission, they used Terra. Terra's mother Madonna, a human, had accidentally passed into the Esper World, and fell in love with Maduin, an Esper. They produced a half-Esper daughter, Terra. Soon after, Emperor Gestahl attacked the Esper World, trying to enslave the Espers to increase his own power. The Elder, however, sealed the entrance to the Esper World, but not without expelling Maduin, Madonna, and Terra.
Gestahl and Kefka raised Terra as a warrior, taking advantage of her magical abilities for their own use, since they reasoned that she could communicate with the Espers. They controlled her with a slave crown which rendered her incapable of conscious thought. They sent her to Narshe to find an Esper that was hidden in the mines there, and when she found it, it changed the course of the world's history.
Terra and the Esper connected briefly, and then she falls unconscious. Avis, a member of the anti-Empire group called the Returners, finds her, and she soon meets up with Locke. This is the beginning of the adventure.
As time goes on we learn more about the Espers. We hear from Ramuh that Kefka's process of magical extraction from the Espers isn't effective, that the only way to really transfer an Esper's magic is to kill it. When an Esper dies, its body becomes Magicite. The group gets 27 pieces of Magicite over the course of the game. Magicite does three things: it lets you learn magic from fighting battles, it increases certain stats as you advance your level, and it can be used to summon the dead Esper back to life for an attack. Listed below are the Magicite, the description of what they are, and the description of their attack when summoned.
- Ramuh - Old man, Lightning-elemental attack
- Kirin - Horse, Gradually recovers HP
- Siren - Siren, Silences enemies
- Stray - Cat, Confuses enemies
- Ifrit - Demon, Fire-elemental attack
- Shiva - Goddess, Ice-elemental attack
- Unicorn - Unicorn, Casts Remedy on the party
- Maduin - Young Man, Non-elemental attack
- Shoat - Pig, Petrifies enemies
- Phantom - Phantom, Makes the party invisible
- Carbunkle - Little blue critter, Casts Reflect on the party
- Bismark - Whale, Water-elemental attack
- Golem - Golem, Protects the party
- Zoneseek - Flying creature, Casts Shell on the party
- Sraphim - Angel, Recovers HP
- Palidor - Bird, Party members use a Jump attack
- Fenrir - Wolf, Makes multi. images of party
- Tritoch - Bird, Ice/Fire/Lightning 3-way attack
- Terrato - Snake, Earth-elemental attack
- Starlet - Beautiful woman, Recovers HP
- Alexandr - Giant machine, Mystic purity attack
- Phoenix - Phoenix, Recovers battle status
- Odin - Norse God, Slices through enemies
- Bahamut - Dragon king, Cuts through magic defenses
- Ragnarok - Great sword, Turns enemy into an Item
- Crusader - Three warriors, Attack harms you and the enemy
- Raiden - Stronger form of Odin, Slices through enemies
Kefka soon tricks Terra into opening the Sealed Gate to the Esper World, then he begins to slaughter the Espers one by one, becoming super powerful. He then uses the power of the Goddess Statues to create a floating continent that will be his home.
We then learn that the Goddess Statues were what created the Espers in the first place, and that their delicate balance kept the world in order, and that if they are destroyed, then so will the Espers. We are left to wonder what will happen to Terra for much of the game. The group confronts Kefka on the Floating Continent. Kefka betrays Gestahl, and uses the power of the statues to protect himself from Gestahl's magic. When Kefka kills Gestahl, he turns on Celes, but Shadow saves the day by pushing the statues around and boxing Kefka in. Unfortunately, this sent the world spinning into chaos, and the group is split up and the entire appearance of the world changes.
Kefka merges with the Goddess Statues and becomes a God himself, wreaking havoc on the poor people who survived the initial chaos, but the group ultimately prevails. As the power of the Espers fades from the world, Terra falls unconscious, and she reverts back to her human form, alive but now purely human. Thus the magic, and the Espers, are removed from the world forever.