Final Fantasy IX Enemy
Soulcage
ザ･ソウルケージ (Za . Sourukēji)
Statistics Level HP MP 26 9,765 862 Strength Defense Evade 14 22 4 Magic M. Defense M. Evade 14 10 5 Attack Spirit Speed 37 22 24 EXP AP Gil 0 9 3,800
Elemental affinities Fire Ice Thunder Water - - - - Wind Earth Holy Shadow - - - -
Status immunities Petrify Venom Silence Darkness Trouble - - - - - Zombie Death Confuse Berserk Stop - - - - - Poison Sleep Regen Haste Slow - - - - - Float Shell Protect Heat Freeze - - - - - Vanish Doom Mini Reflect Eat - - - - -
Location Iifa Tree Class Undead Steal Oak Staff, Magician's Cloak, Brigandine Item dropped Phoenix Pinion, Elixir Card dropped Antlion Abilities Shockwave, Fira, Mustard Bomb, Lv5 Death, Leaf Swirl, Fire Blades Eat N/A Status immunity Petrify, Zombie, Stop, Heat, Mini, Venom, Death, Poison, Freeze, Silence, Confuse, Regen, Vanish, Trouble, Berserk, Float, Doom Other information Use curative spells/items for an easy win.

"I have seen the end of my thousand-year life, and it is not now. You cannot stop me. It is futile to even try."

—Soulcage

The Soulcage is an entity in Final Fantasy IX. It is the source of the Mist which plagues Gaia, overseeing its dispersal over the Mist Continent from within the Iifa Tree. An undead being who has existed for nearly a thousand years, his visage is a mockery of a tree. He "cannot lie," leading to some revelations in the plot.

StoryEdit

Soulcage oversees the physical manifestation of the Iifa Tree and its functions, dispersing Mist over other continents to incense people to war with each other. When Zidane and his allies learn the Soulcage is the cause of the Mist, they kill it and, for a time, stop the dispersal of Mist over the world.

It is later revealed by Garland that the Soulcage the party destroyed was merely an illusion, or the "back door" of the true beast. Soulcage's goal was to halt the flow of souls in Gaia and replace them with the souls of Terra, eventually transforming Gaia into a new Terra when enough of Gaia's spirit energy was turned into Terran energy. The stagnant Gaian souls that could not be reincarnated turned into Mist as a byproduct of this process, and was used to spark war among the people of Gaia to increase the rate at which they died, thereby allowing the Terran souls to replace the Gaian souls faster.

BattleEdit

The Soulcage is fought as a boss in the Iifa Tree. He is undead and can use LV5 Death, that kills a party member whose level is divisble by five, and Mustard Bomb, which will cause the Heat status, causing instant death as soon as a party member tries to execute a command. He also uses Shockwave and Leaf Swirl, which hit the party for minor damage, and Fira.

If Fire magic is used on Soulcage, the foliage on his body will catch fire; this will cause him to increase in both aggressiveness and power, using a unique attack Fire Blades, which is an all-Fire attack that deals 600+ damage. This can be reversed by casting Blizzard magic on him.

StrategyEdit

Being undead, Soulcage is easily defeated with a Life spell, a Phoenix Down, or an Elixir. Phoenix Down will not kill him as it will reduce his HP to a mere digit. Either Life or Elixir can kill him instantly.

GalleryEdit

Concept artwork.

Concept artwork.

Concept artwork.

Leaf Swirl.

Shockwave.

Fire Blades.

EtymologyEdit

In the Spanish version of Final Fantasy IX, Soulcage was translated as "Onodrim". In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth universe, Onodrim is the name given by the Elves to the living trees that humanity called the Ents.

In Bahamut Lagoon, there is a boss with the same name and a similar appearance. It is likely that this boss, and its Final Fantasy IX counterpart, were named after Sting's album The Soul Cages, because the Bahamut Lagoon boss has a stronger palette swap named after The Police's song King of Pain.