past

Before the events in the game, Terra was but an infant stolen from her home and brought up under a cruel system whose propagators used her purely for her powers.

Terra: I was raised in the esper world...

Madeline (Madonna), a human woman desiring to escape the human world, somehow finds her way into the espers' world during a storm. She collapses at the edge of the city and is found by one of the espers living there. The esper, Maduin, takes her in, and with the help of the other espers, nurses her back to health. When she awakens, Maduin comes to see her, and they immediately connect.

But Maduin knows that humans and espers cannot live together, and Madeline hesitantly suggests she'll leave the next day. Maduin tells her he'll get someone to travel to the exit with her. Not far away, the esper elder hears the entire exchange.

The next day, Maduin awakens to find that the human woman has already left. Outside his house awaits the elder, who tells him he's worried for the human's safety. Maduin goes after her, bumping into another esper on the way out, who notices he's distressed. At the very exit to their world, Maduin meets Madeline again, and tells her she doesn't have to leave if she doesn't want to.

Madeline stays. Before long, they have a child, one born of both esper and human blood. Maduin names her "Terra".

Maduin: "Terra." It's beautiful, isn't it?

But two years later, another storm occurs, this time bringing forth the Gestahl army lead my Gestahl himself. The elder realises that he must use a special power, one that has been passed down his bloodline, and his only. Being the last of his line, and knowing that the spell will do him in, the elder knows that the magic could not be undone. He looks to Madeline, but she tells both he and Maduin that she left the human world long ago, and all that she holds dear is in the esper world.

Despite her words, some of the other espers speak out against her, blaming her for the trouble at large. Overhearing them, Madeline runs out holding Terra in her arms, and Maduin goes after her. As Maduin reaches the exit, the elder stops him, warning him that he's already begun casting the magic and Maduin will be locked out. Maduin doesn't care, and goes after Madeline.

As the elder's seal begins to suck everyone out, Maduin sees Madeline collapsed at the exit. Just when he reaches her, the spell grabs the tiny bundle that is Terra and sweeps her out of the world. Moments later, Madeline and then Maduin are pulled out into the human world.

Maduin collapses, unconscious, while Madeline struggles to remain roused. Beside her, Gestahl awakens and sees the child with Madeline. Realising what Terra must be, he kills Madeline and steals her away.

In the mechanical depths of Gestahl's city, Terra is hooked up to a machine and at the mercy someone entirely insane. Kefka places the Slave Crown on her head, then sends her out onto the battle field. Within minutes, Terra has defeated endless soldiers.

Kefka: My sweet little magic user...Uwee-hee-hee!

Throughout her childhood, Terra had been brought up as a soldier and trained as a Magitek Knight. As her magical abilities naturally emerged, she increasingly became a powerful asset for Gestahl. Brainwashing paired with the will-restricting Slave Crown turned Terra into a remote creature completely at the whim of anyone in a position to command her. Coupled with her battling prowess and unsurpassed skill with magic, Terra became the ultimate killing machine.

Emperor Gestahl, standing at the height of his castle with his closest advisers and militants -- including a completely controlled Terra -- addresses the crowd below. He announces the return of magic, though lost for over a thousand years. He tells his army that they are chosen, and that the world is their's to take.

The first part of Gestahl's plan is to create the ultimate army of magically infused humans. In order to do that, he knew he must first collect as many espers as he could. Seeing as he was now locked out of the espers' home world, Gestahl hoped to find any espers that may have escaped or lived in the human world.

Certain information leads him to send out a small group to the summit of Narshe, a snowy, mountainous town. And thus the story begins.

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