On Black Mages

THE BLACK MAGES

Kuja's creation of the Black Mages came as a complete surprise to Garland. As far as Garland knew, after his banishment of Kuja, Kuja was to continue his duties as an angel of death. Kuja had retreated to the Desert Palace, a Terran building that served as a perfect testing ground for further operations. And after a time, had studied himself to a degree that he was able to artifically replicate his own creation process by combining Mist, the elemental energies of Gaia, and the power of arcane arts. It was due to Kuja's own lack of understanding 'where babies came from' that the process produced eggs. Garland found the entire thing utterly laughable - he knew that in Gaia's environment they would eventually become self-aware, but they also seemed to cease functioning rather quick. Something Garland was prone to blame on Kuja's abandonment of scientific process for arcane replication. Still, the black mages were other than their much shorter lifespans, biologically identical to Genomes apart from their black hair. He found that curious, citing that as either a result of Gaian elements being used or literally being marked by the black magic used to create them. Kuja saw them as toys, and did not seem to dwell on it much when they stopped working after a year or so. Garland decided he wouldn't shatter Kuja's illusions just yet.