47. Cid Garlond
Age: 34
Birthplace: Garlemald, Garlean Empire
Head of Garlond Ironworks, Cid is the firstborn son of former chief imperial engineer Midas nan Garlond. Following in his distinguished father's footsteps, the young Garlond embarked upon the path of science, which saw him attend the prestigious Magitek Academy and graduate with highest honors. When his father passed, he was nominated to replace him as chief engineer, but disillusioned with the Empire's use of technology for conquest, he made the decision to defect to Eorzea. In his adopted homeland, Cid came together with like-minded individuals to found the Ironworks, through which he provides technological support to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and their allies across the realm and beyond.
As a child, Cid revered his father and wanted nothing more than to emulate his brilliance, but cracks formed in their relationship when Midas became consumed with his work and began neglecting his family. Any hope that they might reconcile was dashed when the Meteor project, the senior Garlond's obsession, ended in catastrophic failure, resulting in the annihilation of Bozja Citadel and much of the surrounding city. Caught amidst the destruction, Midas was grievously wounded and passed away in despair shortly thereafter.
When the news reached him, Cid blamed himself. He and his father had spoken only the evening before the tragedy, and he could not help but feel he could have prevented it. In that last meeting, Cid had succeeded only in reaffirming the gulf between them. Had he persisted, perhaps he could have made his father see reason. But he did not, and chose instead to cut the encounter short and returned to the imperial capital. At the last, he admonished himself, it was not his father who had forsaken him, but him who had forsaken his father.
For fifteen years, the memory tormented Cid, a thorn in his breast that could not be extracted. But in the course of assisting the Bozjan Resistance, he came to learn the shocking truth of that fateful day. Through the power of the crystal focus to explore memories, it was revealed that the elder primal Bahamut, entrapped within the red moon Dalamud, had exploited Midas's lunar transmitter to take the engineer in his thrall. Subsequently, Midas advanced the Meteor project at a breakneck pace and ultimately brought about the citadel's destruction─all according to the fell being's design.
In revisiting that encounter with what he had come to know of tempering, Cid recognized the signs. His younger self, however, did not, and the trauma of having his father attempt to gun him down was such that he had subconsciously suppressed the event, replacing it with a false recollection. But now he accepts the memories, and takes comfort in remembering his father as the warm and caring man he once was─the selfsame man who smiles at him from the family portrait in his locket, which he found the courage to open again after fifteen long years.