"I'll help. No machine can stump me!"

—Cid del Norte Marquez

Cid Del Norte Marquez (シド・デル・ノルテ・マルケズ, Shido Deru Norute Marukezu^?) is a non-playable character from Final Fantasy VI. He is the chief genetic engineer of the Gestahlian Empire who invented the Magitek process. Born in the fifth year of the nation of Vector, Cid is a member of the Marquez bloodline of patriotic scientists of the northern state of which became Vector in the war of fifty years before the game's beginning. His Japanese surname is alternately spelled as Del Norte Marguez or Marguz.

Aside from working in the Magitek Research Facility, Cid also grew in a greenhouse a veritable collection of exotic flowers, his favorite of which were roses. As Celes Chere grew, she would help him in the greenhouse, where Cid named his favorite flower after her and eventually gave it to her to adorn her quarters.

Appearance and personalityEdit

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StoryEdit

Cid invented the process of Magitek, which involves the extraction of magic from espers and the infusion of the power into humans. He used this ability to create the army that the Empire has been known for. His first guinea pig, Kefka Palazzo, underwent the process as a young man, and the rudimentary experiment caused him to become twisted, and Kefka quickly became unpopular. Cid refined the process and used it on a two-year-old child named Celes. The experiment was a success, and Cid raised Celes like his own daughter. Cid had always been against the war and resented his discoveries and inventions being used in it. Unknown to Emperor Gestahl, Cid had delayed his findings by at least a decade.

Cid did not figure out that the true secret of extracting magic from espers was to reduce them to magicite, their remains after they die. It took Locke Cole and several of the Returners to show him this secret. As a result, Cid decides to join the Returners and petition Gestahl to stop the war after helping Locke and his friends escape the Magitek Research Facility. He helps represent the Returners in a banquet with Gestahl and afterward, he follows Setzer Gabbiani to try to rebuild the Blackjack. His suggestion is to remove the Blackjack's entire casino so as to increase the speed, but Setzer does not want his help and so Cid leaves in a huff.

Gestahl only uses the peace offering as a set up for him to obtain more espers. He no longer needs Cid, so Cid joins the Returners. Kefka uses the powers he has obtained to defeat Gestahl and destroy the world. One year afterward, in the World of Ruin, Cid lives alone on the Solitary Island with Celes. Cid spends the year taking care of her, and he begins to get ill. Celes feeds him fish, and depending on the quality of the fish the player catches Cid either lives or dies. If he dies, Celes attempts suicide, and instead falls into the water and splashes on shore, still alive. When Locke's bandana comes floating by, her hope is renewed that the others might also still be alive. She finds a note left by Cid showing her the location of a raft he made to use to go search for other people. If he lives, Cid shows Celes the raft personally and lives through the rest of the game.

GalleryEdit

Yoshitaka Amano artwork.

Yoshitaka artwork.

Chibi artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.

Chibi artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.

Chibi artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.

EtymologyEdit

Cid's first name seems to be taken from Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar's title, El Cid Campeador. The word 'Cid 'derives from the Old Spanish loanword 'Çid', which comes from the dialectal Arabic word سيد sîdi or sayyid, which means "Lord" or "Master".

Continuing with the Spanish references, 'Del Norte Marquez' may be a reference to "Del Norte Márquez", which is a composite Spanish surname. "Del Norte" means "from the North" and "Márquez" means "Son of a Marquis", a noble Spanish last name. "Marquez" is also a French second-personal plural that refers to marking or writing something down, or to remember something by using a mark, which would fit as Cid is a scholar.

TriviaEdit

• Cid is 5'4" and 132 lb. He was born on May 27 and his blood type is B.