Zidane Tribal - FF9

"You don't need a reason to help people."

Zidane Tribal is the main protagonist mof Final Fantasy IX. He is a thief who works for the Tantalus Theatre Troupe. His Japanese name can be transcribed as "Jitan", "Zitan" or "Yitán" (his Spanish name) depending on what system of transcription one uses to transcribe the katakana, though the pronunciation obviously remains the same.

Story
It is revealed that Zidane began his life as an "Angel of Death" created by Garland. Long ago, the people of a planet named Terra realized that their world would soon collapse on itself and they would be destroyed. As they had done several times before, they planned to save their civilization through the assimilation of another planet, Gaia. The people of Terra left their physical bodies and locked their souls in containers to be watched over by Garland, who was given the task of removing the souls of Gaia's "cycle of souls" and replacing them with Terra's. To assist him in this endeavor, he gave a soul to a new Genome and named him Kuja. Kuja would be Garland's "Angel of Death", sent to Gaia to cause immense unrest and death. Kuja's will, however, was too much for Garland's tastes. A limit was placed on Kuja's life, and another improved Genome was created who would eventually replace him. This Genome was Zidane.

Kuja, infuriated by Garland's decision to create another, more powerful Genome, immediately deposits Zidane on Gaia. Young Zidane, completely unaware of his mission, ends up in Lindblum where he is raised by Baku as a member of the Tantalus band of thieves and only remembering one thing of his childhood years: a blue light.

Twelve years later, Tantalus arrives at Alexandria on a mission appointed by Lindblum's Regent Cid to kidnap Princess Garnet. Although the mission was a success the Prima Vista had suffered major damage during the escape and, eventually, crashed into the Evil Forest. After rescuing Garnet from a monster and escaping the forest Zidane, Steiner, Vivi and Garnet made to escape the Mist by going through the Ice Cavern.

Escaping the Mist they settled in the Village of Dali, and, upon discovering that Dali was making Black Mage soldiers and delivering them to Alexandria, the group commandeered a supply ship and fled to Lindblum.

Arriving in Lindblum it is revealed that a great many concerns have been arising surrounding Alexandria and its Queen. Taking advantage of a mission completed, Zidane opted to to participate in the Festival of the Hunt, reuniting with Freya while doing so. Zidane wins the Festival, earning hiself an award in 5000 gil, but, as the participants settle to a complimentary feast, a messenger from Burmecia enters with a report of an army of Black Mages attacking Burmecia, requesting aid the messenger dies soon after. Freya insisted on going and Zidane and the others agreed that they would go along as well. Also, despite their attempts to stop her, Garnet decided to go, with Steiner by her side. Garnet dosed all of the feast portions, except her own and Steiner's, with a sleeping weed given to her by Zidane and left for Alexandria with Steiner shortly thereafter.

Following after her, Zidane, Freya and Vivi encountered Quina while traveling through Qu's Marsh and arrived at Gizamaluke's Grotto just as it lay under siege from the Alexandrian Black Mages, commanded by Zorn and Thorn. Fighting through the monsters the group figured that Garnet and Steiner had gone through the South Gate to Alexandria. Making it to Bermecia, Zidane attempts to help Freya find her king while battling Alexandria's army and evacuating the castle's citizens. They instead discover Queen Brahne, Beatrix and Kuja in the royal palace. They overhear that the King had escaped to Cleyra and end up challenging Beatrix to a duel. They lose and are left for dead as the villains move to attack Cleyra.

When the heroes come to they leave immediately for Cleyra finding, upon arrival, that they were expected. While Freya leaves to meet with the king, Zidane and the rest explore the settlement and end up saving Prince Puck in the process. When the sandstorm fell, the settlement Cleyra came under attack from the Alexandrian army, and Zidane, with the timely arrival of Sir Fratley, held off attack after attack, bringing the survivors to the cathedral for sanctuary. Although they survived the attacks, Beatrix stole the sacred jewel that powers the sandstorm, and the battle was lost. Brahne appeared, summoning the Eidolon Odin, destroying Cleyra with one attack, completely decimating the settlement and everyone in it. Zidane and Co. barely escaped as they sought to follow Beatrix's army through their own teleport spells.

Reappearing aboard Brahne's ship, the Red Rose, they overhear Beatrix voicing her doubts about her queen. They also overhear Brahne's plans to execute Garnet, who lay captive in Alexandria. Using the teleportation magic again they arrived in Alexandria ahead of Brahne and, with Steiner and Marcus's help, defeated Zorn and Thorn and found Garnet's sleeping form. As Freya and a reformed Beatrix hold off the guards Zidane, Garnet and Vivi escaped through the underground tunnels, reappearing in Pinnacle Rocks they watched as Brahne invaded and destroyed Lindblum with the eidolon Atomos, only relenting when Lindblum surrendered. Sneaking into the city the group reunites with Cid and discuss their options. Deciding to go after the source of the problems, Kuja, they use a tunnel called Fossil Roo to cross continents from their own to the Outer Continent.

Encountering the Black Mage Village on their travels through the continent they stay for a while for Vivi, while Zidane tells Garnet about what he knows about his past and where he came from. The following day they learn of a possible place where Kuja resides, the Iifa Tree, along the way Zidane and Garnet are involved in a marriage ceremony and they meet Eiko, a girl who can summon Eidolons, and she joins the group.

Arriving at the Iifa Tree they find Kuja and Brahne fighting each other, and, while Brahne summons him, Kuja uses Bahamut to destroy Brahne's own fleet and kills her. Zidane and the rest return to Alexandria where Garnet is to become the new queen.

Zidane, however, begins to miss her and heads to Treno to participate in a card tournament. Eventually castle Alexandria comes under attack from Kuja but is warded off when Garnet and Eiko summon Alexander. Kuja attempts to take Alexander but is prevented from doing so when Garland interferes. Zidane saves Garnet as Garland destroys both Alexander and Alexandria. Zidane wakes up later in Lindblum where repairs are still being done, and, as the party discusses their next strategy, they learn that Garnet has lost her voice in response to the tragic events that have happened. The party decide to once again go after Kuja.

Finding him the group is captured and imprisoned, and Zidane is momentarily blackmailed into helping Kuja but later helps to free his friends and chase Kuja to the Lost Continent. There they run across a dead end, but eventually they make it to Terra, where Zidane meets Garland and learns of his true origin & nature. He attempts to fight Garland, only to have his Terran soul removed from his body. Zidane maintained his identity with anguish that everything he knew was a lie and his true purpose in life was to aid in Gaia's destruction. He ran off from his friends, until they came to his aid. It was from there, Zidane realized he did have a true purpose in life: protecting everyone he cares for.

While facing Garland one last time, however, Kuja reappears and uses them to ascend to Trance. He kills Garland but, after learning that he will indeed die soon, moves to destroy Terra along with everything in it. Zidane and Co. commandeer the Invincible just in time to evacuate Terra and reappear in Gaia. Summarizing that Kuja would soon destroy Gaia they made their way to the Iifa Tree to stop him but, upon his defeat, Zidane stayed behind to try to save him from dying and the tree consumed them both.

With the young hero thought dead time went by until, during another performance of "I want to be your Canary" by Tantalus in a rebuilt Alexandria, the character Marcus threw away his cloak to reveal himself as Zidane. Queen Garnet raced to his arms. The pair was thought to live happily ever after, till the end of their days.

Skills
Steal
Like the name suggests, the "Steal" ability allows players to steal items from an enemy. Some items can only be obtained by stealing, and sometimes, players only get one shot at stealing it. Steal can be augmented with the abilities Flee Gil, Steal Gil, Mug and Bandit. Also of note is that Zidane's Thievery skill is directly linked to the number of successful Steals he performs times half of his Speed rating. (i.e. if Zidane's speed is 28, he will need to steal successfully 715 times for Thievery to hit the maximum of 9999)

Skill
The "Skill" ability allows Zidane to use certain Skills in battle. When learning a skill, he also learns a Dyne attack (see further down), which can be used when in Trance. If equipping multiple items that teach you the same ability, the speed of which the ability is learned is multiplied by the amount of items. E.g. equipping Dagger and Germinas boots at the same time, teaches you the ability "Flee" at twice the speed, if trying to learn that ability.

Dyne
When in Trance, Zidane's "Skill" ability changes to Dyne. Dyne raises his physical attack power as well as having attacks that can damage all enemies. His Dyne and Skill abilities are connected, as he needs to learn a Skill to unlock the corresponding Dyne.