Garland will be the villain (as he is in Final Fantasy I) However, he will have a lot more power and will control all other bosses and mini-bosses, giving the characters and users incentive to beat him.

Final Design

Unlike the other characters, Garland was an exception for my need to design, as a pre-existing character within the series. He is the featured character on the game box art (and the banner of my website,) and as such, I decided to keep his original design for the fans of the original game. He also features as a boss in Final Fantasy Dissidia, a mash up game including characters from all games and as such, has been introduced with newer graphic capabilities, and therefore will already be a known character to Final Fantasy fans. Thus, I had to keep the original design to keep up the consistency of this existing character.

Backstory
Garland was born over 400 years ago to the start of the game. He was a prodigy as a child, excelling in the art of magic from a young age. However, he came to crave the attention, respect and power magic brought to him and continued growing his powers. He eventually reached the limit of what could be achieved at the time through normal means and sought to further his magical power by turning to the darkness. He learned through trickery and intimidation of the orbs and enlisted the help of the fiends. However, the orbs contained so much magical power that they would take a long time to destroy, and therefore, it would take a long time for Garland to reach his full power.

The fiends helped him to create a time portal in which he could travel 400 years into the future, where his power would be reaching maximum. Unluckily for him, Rudd, one of the original keepers of the orbs foresaw this and also sealed himself in time with his orb - and with the help of Rudd and luck, the descendants of the other guardians found themselves in possession of the orbs.


Beginning of Game
Garland starts out as a Knight in Coneria Castle. After building up a following of other Knights and soldiers, he orders a search for the orbs without the king's knowledge. Authorising arrests for possession of the orb, he manages to catch Storme as his soldiers spot her stealing the orb. His soldiers also manage to track down Myrren, whilst Rudd "accidentally" gets caught. Lockus is last, and attempts to deliver the orb to Garland, who arrests him immediately.

After the warriors break out of jail and reclaim their orbs, he orders his soldiers to fight them, barricading himself in Princess Sara's room in an attempt to hold her hostage. The party break in and rescue Sara, and he is imprisoned and sentenced for treason: execution.

Garland spends the next few chapters of the game lying dormant, having his followers and the fiends do most of his work - as most of them think he has been executed. He only appears again after Kraken has been defeated, as two of the fiends have died. He is amused by the warriors, surprised they have done so well - but of course, recognises Rudd and realises why.

He has confidence that they will not be able to defeat Tiamat, but is prepared to fight them nonetheless.



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