Cid Raines

[Cid Raines]

”my will is my strength.”

BASICS

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NAME
cid raines.

RACE

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human [ex-l’Cie]

GENDER[/font]
male.

TITLE[/font]
brokenpuppet; lord of the skies
[font=times][size=0][color=33a1c9]broken[/color][color=3cb371]puppet[/color];[/size][/font] [size=1][color=powderblue][i]lord of the skies[/i][/color][/size]

AGE[/font]
twenty-four.

HOME WORLD[/font]
cocoon.[/blockquote]

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PERSONAL

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PERSONAL APPEARANCE

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perhaps one of the taller humans, cid raines stands at the height of six foot six and a half inches, one hundred and ninety-nine centimetres. he has raven black hair styled in a tamed way so it ne’er gets in the way of his eyes, and it reaches the base of his neck. his eyes are thin and almost cat-like, taking the colour of phantom green, though in some lights they may seem a more golden colour. you might expect a tall man like raines to have a muscular build, and he does, however his build is more of a slim and agile frame with muscle.

the attire cid normally wears is his guardian corps uniform. the attire is quite extravagant in decor almost, though it’s nothing that will get in his way when fighting. there is a white cape half over his right side, extending to half-way down his calvers, and a blue-grey cape over the top of that, reaching above his waist. to complete his work attire raines wears white inch-heeled boots that come up to just below his knees, and a pair of white gloves. when not working, however, raines tends to wear a suit – composed of a shirt, trousers, and a jacket – and retains his white gloves and white boots, and he also wear a simple black tshirt and a pair of trousers, completely with a normal pair of black boots.

click.

PERSONALITY[/font]
cid raines is quite unlike other sanctum officers. he’s friendly, and more laidback than the others, though not too laidback so as to put himself at a disadvantage. he’s can be quite social however sometimes there will seem to be a dark cloud hanging above his head, and that will be when he’s moody or stressed, making him quite anti-social so he wouldn’t have to shout at anyone. he isn’t afraid to strike up conversation, and although open about his homosexuality raines isn’t too loud about it. it seems that he is a serious man however he can be quite informal. he isn’t fond of being alone, for it gets him thinking way too much, and he suffers from panic attacks, though the number of panic attacks he had when he was a child weren’t as much as when he was a l’Cie, or rather, a knight. he also isn’t fond of silence, preferring to play music in the background while working or tapping his fingers on the desk or something like that. cid raines is also a calm man, able to hide his anger and keep cool in various situations should he want to.

in the past it seemed that he was loyal to the sanctum, but under the surface he and his division of the guardian corps – the wide-area response brigade – plotted to topple the sanctum and overthrow the fal’Cie, handing the rule of cocoon over to its people. he never liked the idea of being a puppet manipulated in some grand scheme, and he vowed never to be a l’Cie/knight, but that vow was broken when his first attempt to overthrow the fal’Cie rule failed, and he became a pawn of the fal’Cie barthandelus. able to conceal his l’Cie status well by keeping his cool [though thinking that he was going utterly and wonderfully mad] he led the cavalry and pursued his focus. he however defied it, determined to set the l’Cie/knight party free of their focus and save cocoon from destruction. however, he was defeated, so he advised them to choose their own fate and not be a puppet. when he was revived and given a new focus – to serve as the new primarch and create conflict among cocoon – raines decided that enough was enough and felt it was time to break the strings that held him, so he willingly and bravely requested that rygdea shoot him. this showed that he was willing to die to keep the citizens of cocoon safe and that he was brave.

due to having been dead for a while, when he was brought back to life he immediately thought he was again a puppet of the sanctum, so he went a little mad inside. however, when he figured out that he had no mark of a knight on his hand, he immediately calmed. however, that madness is still there, and sometimes cid may act a little out of character, such as saying the oddest of things or rants about something, or act childish. he is very disorientated, both physically and mentally, and he is trying to return to his normal self as fast as he can, because, frankly, he doesn’t like feeling crazy, but sometimes he quite likes it, but he has no idea why. also, don’t show cid raines a spork. he hates them, but that’s another story.

ITEMS[/font]

• ZEPHYR BROOCH – magical – a silver brooch crafted in the shape of an eagle, the zephyr brooch finds itself clipped onto cid’s uniform, on his chest area. when the item is used a soft sky blue glow will surround raines and stay there until the effects it gives fade. the glow is in fact a shield that will decrease physical damage by 10% and magic damage by 5%.
  

  has a duration of three posts.
  five post cooldown.

  
  
• PHONE – non-magical – used for general chatter or important messages, cid always carries his phone with him.
  
• THE LINDBLUM – non-magical – transportation fit for a protector, the lindblum is an airship of the guardian corps, making home to the cavalry division. this massive airship, although huge and heavy, finds speed and mobility, and attack power. it is a docking base for all other aircrafts in the fleet and base for the cavalry. while a primarch shouldn’t really head a division in the sanctum, cid insisted that he protect cocoon too, and use the lindblum as his flagship of sorts. he has also regained control over the cavalry, acting as a ‘brigadier general’ again though obviously in charge of the military over yaag rosch.
  

  max speed. 600 mph.
  attack power. two missiles.

HISTORY[/font]
italics are for forgotten memories!

cid’s childhood was an easy one, as he was born to an upperclass family in eden. both of his parents worked in PSICOM. his father was a lieutenant-colonel of PSICOM, and his mother worked in the weapons development department. due to being an only child, and his parents were at work all day, a ‘house keeper’ of sorts was hired to look after him. she soon left when raines reached an age when he was old enough to look after himself. twelve years old. cid hasn’t seen her since and he doesn’t remember her all too well.

he attended eden’s best school, to learn normal school things before he went off to military academy. he had the desire to follow in the footsteps of his parents, but he also had a fascination with airships. his mother was home more often than his father, so he asked her if there was a division in sanctum – whether it be PSICOM or guardian corps he didn’t mind – that had something to do with the skies. he then found out about the guardian corps’ wide-area response air force brigade, more commonly known as the cavalry. to be in the cavalry and help protect cocoon became his dream, but at the age of thirteen his school went to see various fal’Cie of cocoon, and raines soon began to realise that the sanctum were held on strings the fal’Cie controlled, so another of his dreams was to topple the sanctum and overthrow the fal’Cie, passing the rule of cocoon over to its people, however that would have to wait, seeing as he was only thirteen.

at the age of fourteen he returned home from school to find his mother, who would usually be at work at the time, standing outside with his father’s best friend, someone else in his division, and she was crying. curious about why she was crying – his mother was a strong woman and she didn’t often cry – he went over to her only to be pulled into a strong hug. cid then found out that his father had been killed on a mission he had been sent on, by a rogue behemoth. that left only cid and his mother in the family, but they were lucky seeing as they were quite upper class and his father [and mother] earned quite a lot of money from working in PSICOM.

he left school at sixteen to go to military academy, passing the entrance exam with ease. cid chose to specialise in airships, but training would also include basic fighting, basic espionage, basic weaponry, and all the like, and when he was eighteen he took the flight test to see how good he was. if he passed he would immediately be dispatched to the guardian corps, over to the cavalry. guess what? cid raines not only passed the test but he also beat the previous record, which had been held for almost fifteen years. he graduated soon after and was dispatched at eighteen over to the cavalry, and the lindblum.

though his rank within the sanctum was low when he was dispatched, he soon got a higher rank, and at the age of twenty-one he was the second in command of the cavalry, to his surprise and other peoples’ as well, but he welcomed the rank anyway. one step closer to toppling the sanctum, at least. during his time as second in command he met a man called rygdea, a soldier disgusted by the deception of the sanctum and about to retire. raines quickly seized the chance and told him of his plans, and he got rygdea to join the cavalry in their efforts to eventually bring down the government.

at the age of twenty-two the cavalry’s commander passed on and raines was soon made the leader of the cavalry. only a month afterwards raines took a small group of soldiers into edenhall, managing to get to the entrance of orphan’s cradle. however, the small team of soldiers behind him were turned to Cie’th and he was taken to a seemingly different dimension. the reason? he was being marked, and in front of him the man he knew as primarch galenth dysley transformed into the fal’Cie barthandelus, and raines was marked a l’Cie/knight, and his focus was shown to him in a vision, and it was to aid the l’Cie in the future in their focus to destroy cocoon. he was unwilling to have a part in the destruction of cocoon.

so he returned to the cavalry, almost stunned by the fact that there was a brand of a knight upon his hand. however as the vision was one of the future, even barthandelus said so, raines had an amount of time to prepare. he concealed his status as a l’Cie easily as he continued leading the cavalry, them being unknown that they were under orders from the fal’Cie barthandelus.

a year later raines could feel a burning mark in his hand and he again saw his vision. he knew that it was time to start his focus. he saved oerba yun fang from being captured by PSICOM, one of the pulse l’Cie in his vision, after she returned to bodhum, apparently in search of her friend. he informed the huntress about the cavalry and their goals, and the fact that they weren’t in alliance with PSICOM really. she was reluctant to listen, stating that he probably only captured her to get information on gran pulse, which he did in fact want, however not to destroy it. the world below had always fascinated him. fang then said that she would be useless, due to being a ‘broken’ l’Cie due to her white brand, then she said that she was too busy to help him. raines told fang that he understood her, and even if she decided to help him or not, she had to stay onboard the lindblum.

two days after raines and the cavalry took fang onboard the lindblum, the brigadier general and the huntress meet again. he informed her that the airship has been sealed up to stop her from escaping. he then led her to a room and turned a device on, showing her a conversation a soldier recorded about the fal’Cie eden lifting the blockade from the euride gorge. he then looked the woman in the eye and told her to wait three more days, until the festival in bodhum, and she fortunately agreed to do so. when the time came for fang to be allowed off the airship raines let her off, giving her a wireless device to stay in touch with him and the cavalry, and a transfer weapon to get her weapon quickly.

later on it was then learned that a pulse fal’Cie had been found in the bodhum vestige, and so PSICOM sealed it off. raines informed fang that the sanctum planned to purge everyone in bodhum to pulse, and that they were beginning to load people onto trains bound for the hanging edge the day after. he told her that if the vanille girl was still in bodhum then she would be placed on the purge train with everyone else. rygdea then asked if cid was going to pick vanille up off the purge train, and he told fang that even if they stopped searching, she will still be surrounded by their enemies. fang called raines an enemy, which caused raines to growl ever so slightly at her and remind her that they wanted to bring down the sanctum. raines then tells her that he wanted the citizens of cocoon to live with control over their own lives, and not be puppets of the sanctum, not be tools of the fal’Cie. he then promised the pulsian woman that he will use all of his power to find vanille. fang then informed him that she promised to help him take down the sanctum, which caused a warm grin to be put on raines’s face that night.

two days later a man named snow villiers was captured by oerba yun fang and other cavalry soldiers. when raines introduced himself to the man, he gave him a friendly handshake, and he recognised the man as one of the l’Cie in his vision. he explained to him that the sanctum intends to hold a public execution of the l’Cie in order to stop the fear the public held. cid then revealed that he planned to overthrow the sanctum and the fal’Cie’s rule so he can hand control of cocoon over to the people. snow then agreed to help him track down the rest of the l’Cie, and some time later he dropped fang and snow off in palumpolum, where they rescue lightning and hope from a PSICOM assault lead by lieutenant-colonel yaag rosch. he then saved the party from the next assault, also arranging for a safe place for hope’s dad, bartholomew estheim, however he didn’t reappear immediately, at least until he was going to brief the l’Cie on what they were to do next. it didn’t take long and he and rygdea helped the crew infiltrate the sanctum skyfleet’s airship base, the palamecia, after learning that a man called sazh katzroy and the girl fang was looking for, vanille, were onboard.

some time afterwards, raines decided that he had had enough, and decided to go against his focus. he got into the fifth ark, on his own accord, and he waited for the party. once they arrived snow went to go explain to everyone who cid was, however he was cut short by fang and asked why cid was here. a moment later lightning took her gunblade and attacked raines, calling him a traitor. he calmly blocked each of her blows, grabbing her by the arm and flipping her through the air, catching her blaze edge too. he watched his l’Cie mark for a moment before stating that he put the l’Cie on the path, because it was his focus. he told them he did his best to assist them, ‘as bid by the sanctum fal’Cie’. he told them of their journey, saying that the primarch galenth dysley, the fal’Cie barthandelus had been making them the tools of cocoon’s destruction. sazh asked why a cocoon fal’Cie was doing this, and raines said, “to restore the maker.” he went on to explain the story of the maker, remembering the research he had done in the sanctum’s most heavily guarded library, where most of the information of the l’Cie came, and he focused on the fal’Cie, and he found out about ‘hallowed pulse’, also known as the maker. eventually he threw lightning’s blaze edge back to her, answering hope’s question, responding to the girl that fang had been searching for. he had expected them to be noble, by saying that if by doing nothing they could save cocoon, then they would do so. snow’s voiced was heard, asking if his dream for rebuilding cocoon for the people was a lie. he responded with, “a shadow of a dream from when i was human. it was change i craved, and once i built the influence to make things happen there was change. i gained all the power i could hope for, but was a puppet with no will to wield it. it wasn’t the fal’Cie who changed... it was me.” his mark glowed through his glove and it made the area shine a greenish blue colour, and he went on to explain that he had lost hope, that he had “all but given up dreams of freedom.” he explained that seeing the l’Cie fight, it had brought back his dream of a future that cocoon could be ruled by its own people. he felt himself go a little mad inside, saying, “i too will challenge my fate.”

he used up all his remaining power in order to change into a Cie’th hybrid, stating that he will set the l’Cie free and end the fal’Cie’s plan to bring cocoon to an end.

when the l’Cie defeated him, he was losing the energy to stand. he fell to the floor, thinking that he was dying, but instead he was crystallising. he offer the l’Cie words of encouragement and advised them to choose their own fate, before he crystallised. he didn’t complete his focus. why did he crystallise? he created his own focus and completed it. the time he spent as a crystal was short, and he was soon woken up and summoned by barthandelus, with a new focus.

he had been revived so he could serve as the new primarch of cocoon, tasked with the focus of creating conflict among the people of cocoon. he was in a bit of a daze for the while he was primarch, because he was a l’Cie of barthandelus’s, he was only playing a role in barthandelus’s plan to lure the l’Cie party back to cocoon. due to being primarch, raines also had to resign from being the commander of the cavalry, appointing his right-hand man rygdea as their leader.

soon he made a speech before the grand prix race started. it wasn’t his first speech ever, but definitely his first one as primarch. when he finished the speech he retreated back to watch the race, however it was unfinished due to the l’Cie party finally returning to cocoon, crashing the race. soon after, chaos in eden ensued and raines retreated back to the primarch’s office, staying seated on the sofa because he knew that the cavalry were coming to him, but he didn’t know why. eventually they shot the PSICOM soldier/guard telling him that they needed to evacuate, and raines managed to keep his cool, however he again felt mad, exactly like when he used up his remaining strength to become a Cie’th hybrid. rygdea had casually strolled up to his side and asked him if this was the cocoon he had dreamed of. raines replied with a simple, “my dream is but a fal’Cie’s fancy now,” before adding, “end it.” on the end, signalling for rygdea to kill him. hesitation. then raines felt the gun’s bullet pierce his skull and he died, his soul immediately leaving for the land of the dead.

*PRESENT DAY* cid raines found himself in a bunch of ruins, as if he had just woken up from a long sleep. he felt extremely disorientated, unable to remember who he was, but over time, while he managed to get feeling back into his body, he managed to remember who he was. eventually he managed to stand up, wandering the place of zanarkand – though he did not know this – assuming it was a place upon gran pulse or even one of cocoon’s destroyed cities. while he was wandering, he found a brooch of sorts and something drew him to it, and he kept it with him, finding out it was a magical item of sorts. some time later, he collapsed on the floor feeling like reality was distorting, and he soon found himself on another world... whether it be his home world, gran pulse, or another continent, he isn’t sure.[/blockquote]

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ARBITERS

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ARBITER

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not available.

FOCUS[/font]
not available.

MARK[/font]
not available.[/blockquote]

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BATTLE

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WEAPONRY

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DDRAIG DDYRNFOLAU – translated as ‘dragon gauntlets’. the weapon that cid raines wields is in fact his white leather gloves. the leather is much tougher than the normal, as strong as metal, but it doesn’t ‘clang’ like a sword to steel. the ddraig ddyrnfolau are often kept on his person, in case he be attacked.

STOCKED ABILITIES[/font]
PHYSICAL DEFENSIVE BLACK MAGICK WHITE MAGICK TIME MAGICK GREEN MAGICK ARCANE MAGICK MISC.

-- PASSIVE

• LIFESIPHON – every time an attack lands successfully the attacker is healed for 10% of the damage inflicted. [15 LP]
  
• MOMENTUM – every time an attack lands successfully the attacker is granted an attack power boost of 10%. [15 LP]
  
• MERCILESS – upon being reduced to critical status, the user will do a quarter additional damage. [15 LP]
  
• AREA BARRIER – physical and magical defense is boosted by 50% and the rest of your party gains a 30% physical and magical defense boost. [15 LP]
  
• EMPOWERED GUARD – guard also triples physical and magical defenses. [15 LP]
  
• EVASION – reduces damage taken by 10%. [15 LP]
  
• COUNTER – doubles damage dealt after taking damage. [15 LP]
  

-- ACTIVE

• COUNTERATTACK – upon being attacked, the user will counter, dealing Adequate damage (1 post cooldown) [10 LP]
  
• EVADE & COUNTER – dodge a single physical based attack and counter, dealing adequate damage (1 post cooldown) [20 LP]
  
• RUIN – an attack that does moderate non elemental magickal damage to a single opponent. (2 post cooldown) [10 LP]
  
• RUINGA – an attack that does significant nonelemental magickal damage to a single target. (3 post cooldown) [20 LP]
  
• LAUNCH – launches the foe into the air and follows up with an attack that does normal damage to an opponent. (1 post cooldown) [10 LP]
  
• GUARD – the defense of the user is increased by half, however their strength is reduced by the same amount. lasts until it is deactivated by the user. (3 post cooldown) [15 LP]
  
• CURE – a basic healing spell that heals for an adequate amount of health. (1 post cooldown) [10 LP]
  
• HASTE – a simple spell that increases the attack speed of a single allied target, allowing for two actions every second turn, lasts 4 posts. (2 post cooldown) [20 LP]
  

BREAKING LIMIT[/font]
( THE SKY’S PRIDE )
not the true gift of the goddess, this breaking limit is sometimes known as ‘divine messenger’ so as to not confuse people with it being the actual gift. the limit break focuses on either attacking enemies with either magic or physical attacks, or buffing up genesis or his allies.
the skies are full of pride. the wind is free and will always be like that, and cid raines admires the skies and the wind for being free. he holds pride in being free, too. focusing on many different things, the sky’s pride breaking limit can be one to fear.

( SERAPHIC RAY )
confused at how he managed to keep this ability, due to not being a l’Cie anymore, cid raines can activate this ability at least three posts into a battle. three pairs of ghostly silver blue wings will appear on the man’s back while a light emanates from cid, signalling that he is charging his ability. during this time he may still attack [though the damage ‘launch’ does will deal 10% extra], but during this time damage to raines will increase by 10%. the light will last for three posts and aside from those changes nothing else changes, and with each post the light will glow brighter, and on the fourth post the area will turn white for a few moments, removing all of his enemy’s buffs, and his own, also granting raines bravery and haste. unlike last time seraphic ray can only deal moderate damage.

• three posts to charge. attacks on the fourth.
  
  • during the charge, launch does 10% extra damage, damage to cid will increase by 10%
  
  
• removes debuffs from cid, removes buffs from enemies, and grant cid haste and bravery for three posts.
  
• also deals moderate damage to all enemies.
  
• ten post cooldown.

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FACE CLAIM

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Final Fantasy XIII --- Cid Raines --- Cid Raines

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Awesome Job on this! Approved!