Kuja
Kuja is a fictional character in the video game Final Fantasy IX. He is the primary antagonist of the game, who is supporting Queen Brahne's conquest of the planet Gaia by supplying her with highly advanced magical weapons.
Kuja is an accomplished mage, adapt at both black and white magic. With a great love of classical literature such as Lord Byron's "I Want To Be Your Canary", he carries himself with a great theatrical flair, often mimicking the behaviour of traditional stage villains. This does not detract from his debonair charm, which complements his supreme ego, massive self-interests, and overwhelming desire to be in control.
The Determined Soul
Kuja was a Genome created on the decaying planet Terra by the master of the planet, Garland. Unlike the other souless vessels of the Genome race, Kuja was a prototype of a special Genome designed to aid Garland in his plan to have Terra assimilate a healthy planet- Gaia- to prolong its own lifespan.
Given a soul by Garland, Kuja was appalled by the empty members of the Genome race, and refused to believe that he was one of them. He also abhored the fact that he was only built for one reason alone- his ego demanded that his life was worth more than that. His defiant nature was so intense that Garland considered discarding his failed prototype, but then decided to put Kuja to use after all. He granted Kuja the freedom he desired, but on one condition: that he disruptted the flow of souls on Gaia to speed up its assimilation by Terra.
Meanwhile, Garland finished the final version of his project: a Genome named Zidane Tribal. Once matured to full power, Zidane would be more powerful than Kuja, rendering the prototype obsolete. Kuja could not stand the thought of this, and so he kidnapped Zidane and threw him down to Gaia, where he was found by Baku, the leader of the rogue group Tatulas.
From then, Kuja vowed to plunge Gaia into war, thus creating an irregular influx of souls just like Garland wished. Not only would this prove to Garland that Zidane was the superfluous one, but his hated rival would be there to witness Kuja's superiority first-hand, and likely be destroyed in the resulting catastrophe.
The Black Mages
Kuja's first objective was to create powerful magical weapons that he could use to initate war on Gaia. By siphoning the Mist, a mysterious fog created from the stagnant souls of Gaia ejected by the Iifa Tree, he created the Black Mages: an army of soulless dolls who possessed incredibly destructive magical powers. Setting up an underground Black Mage production plant in Dali, he proceeds to find someone power-hungry enough to use his new weapons. He finds that person in recently-widowed Queen Brahne, the queen of Alexandria.
He tells her about four crystals that are hidden in Alexandria's neighbouring countries. When combined, they will form the Original Crystal Of Life: the object from which all life is born and kept in existence. With that power, Brahne would rule all of existence, a prospect that was too good for the Queen to resist.
With the Queen in his grasp, from behind the scenes Kuja set his sights on his real goal: the power lying within Queen Brahne's adopted daughter, Garnet. Once he had that power, he would prove that he wasn't just better than Zidane, but Garland himself. For Kuja knew that once Gaia was assimilated, Garland would take back his soul, and was determined to overthrow Garland before that happened.
The Eidolons
That power would be the eidolons, creatures with so much power that Garland attacked and destroyed the summoner village of Bran Bal to prevent them from being used against him. Kuja knew that Garnet was really a summoner, and had the power to summon eidolons locked within her, waiting for the day that her magical powers developed enough to use them. He convinced Brahne that these eidolons could benefit her in her conquest of the world, and she agreed to let him forcefully extract them from Garnet's body with the help of his subordinates, Zorn and Thorn.
With the eidolons, Brahne was unstoppable. Eventually she conquered the Mist Continent, and decided that she had no more use for Kuja. But Kuja was ready for her. When she summoned Bahumut, one of the most powerful eidolons, Kuja used his airship- the Invincible- to seize control of it, and command it to wipe out Brahne and the majority of the Alexandrian fleet.
Even with such a powerful eidolon under his command, Kuja was not satisfied. He wanted control of the most powerful eidolon in Gaia: Alexander, the guardian eidolon of Alexandria Castle. By commanding Bahumut to attack the weakened city of Alexandria, Kuja drew out Alexander and summoned Invincible to enslave it.
But Garland had caught onto Kuja's plan, and had taken the Invincible back. To prevent Alexander from being used against him, he used the Invincible to destroy it, and released Bahumut from Kuja's control. But Kuja managed to escape back to his secret base, closely pursued by Zidane and his party.
Once there, Zidane's party was captured by Kuja. Zidane was forced to retrieve the last jewel of the Original Crystal in exchange for his friends' lives. As soon as Zidane left, Kuja tried to kill his friends anyway by sending them plummeting down trapdoors to their deaths, but they were rescued by Regent Cid.
With a false vision of his captured friends, Kuja tricked Zidane into giving him the last crystal, completing the set. He also captured Eido, another summoner, and desperatly attempted to extract an eidolon more powerful than Alexander from her body, even if it killed the girl. But something interfered with the process: Eiko's best friend Mog, who went into Trance to defend Eiko, revealing herself as an eidolon.
Kuja was shocked that even a weak Moogle could use Trance to reach such an obscene level of power. With the eidolons out of his reach, Kuja had just found the power he needed to topple Garland once and for all.
To Trance, And The End
Following Zidane's party back to Terra, Kuja hijacked the Invincible and proceeded to the fuel room: a place filled with wretched souls sucked up during the Invincible attacks and used to power the machine. Kuja had figured out that it was an eruption of intense anger that induced Trance, and nowhere was more filled with concentrated hatred than the Invincible. Fusing with all of the souls, Kuja now had the power. All he needed was someone to activate it.
Showing up after Zidane defeated Garland, Kuja engaged Zidane in battle. He was eventually overpowered by Zidane and his friends, but this was all part of his plan. This stress transformed him into a being of supreme power: Trance Kuja. With one spell, he completely wiped out Zidane's party, and gloated about his newfound power, pushing Garland to his death. He finally had the power to rule all of Gaia and Terra, and prove to everyone that his life was not insignificant.
But his victory was to be short-lived. Garland's spirit revealed that since Kuja had always been planned to be replaced by Zidane, there was a deliberate time limit put on Kuja's life. Eventually, regardless of how much power Kuja had, he would expire just like the Black Mages he created. This revelation pushed Kuja over the edge. He couldn't handle his imminent destruction. He couldn't handle the idea that he would die without ever leaving his mark on the world. He couldn't handle the idea that in the end, he held no more authority over his final fate than any other creature.
In his rage, Trance Kuja used his new powers to destroy Terra, reducing the landscape to rubble. Going back to Gaia, he accelerated the soul-dividing process of the Iifa Tree, starting a chain reaction that would lead to the complete assimilation of Gaia by Terra. He then combined the four crystals that he possessed into the Original Crystal, and used its power to create Memoria, a city of memories.
There, at the heart of Memoria, he waited for Zidane, intending to defeat his rival once and for all. After that was done, he was going to smash the Original Crystal, and cause all existance to ceise so that life could not continue after his death. The two Genomes fought viciously, but Trance Kuja could not withstand the power of Zidane's party. On the verge of defeat, he unleashed a desperate Ultima spell designed to destroy everything- himself, Zidane, and the Original Crystal.
The destruction of the Crystal had a different effect than what Kuja had predicted: it unleashed Necron, a being whose only desire was the deletion of existence. From Kuja's actions, it had judged that all humanity desired destruction, and was there to grant their wish.
Having lost his Trance powers and pride to Zidane, and with his death iminate, Kuja finally realised that the purpose of life is to help, rather than destroy. With the last of his powers, he helped Zidane's party to fight Necron, and teleported them out of danger when the Iifa Tree violently began the assimilation of Terra. However, Zidane could not bear to leave his "brother" alone to die, and went back inside the rapidly-mutating Iifa Tree. Kuja died inside the Iifa Tree, spending his last few moments expressing his regret to Zidane for not realising the true purpose of life sooner.